#like how do they consistently get One guy SO wrong alkdhg

[floralovebot]

yknow honestly tt aqualad's characterization (in comparison to og garth) isn't even That bad. his entire look is awful but his personality definitely reminds me of like 90s peter davids teen garth yknow? a little snarky a little cocky but mostly like that underwater and mostly as a front to hide his insecurities. tt aqualad has a very similar personality, they just got rid of his insecurities so sometimes he feels off when you compare him to og garth. but it's really only because he's an occasional side character - obviously they're not going to get into his many mental tribulations alhdg

but he's still mostly the same. he still has a deep passion for protecting the ocean and doing so in a diplomatic manner. he still calls out roy for eating fish in front of him. he occasionally butts heads with people but he's not constantly being a violent asshole who refuses to listen to anyone. like. he's not the Best version of aqualad, but he's not the worst.

and personally, i think that's what makes later iterations of garth so egregious and annoying to me. it's not wrong to say that yj garth and rebirth garth were partially based on the success of tt aqualad, so them managing to get his personality wrong on multiple levels is,, very funny to me. like not only are they Not At All like og garth, they also fail to be like tt aqualad. tt aqualad wasn't super violent, or constantly fighting robin/bumblebee/cyborg/whoever was leading at the time, or super ultra confident and egotistic. like tt aqualad knows what he's capable of and that's it. and yes, that's definitely different from og garth, but it's also very different from some of the later garths being Extremely Violent and Cocky About It.