i posted this johnny/carl ramble on twitter and wanted to share it here
i think a large part of the reason why I ship johnny and carl is that carl very obviously has a big crush on johnny and i just rly want to see carl happy bc i relate to him in a lot of ways and see parts of myself in him even though hes just a silly stereotyped cartoon character
But in the fantasy world of my mind johnny wouldnt be mean to him like in the show
I think johnny likes being friends with carl but pretends not to to look "cool" so the first thing that would happen is johnny accepts he likes being friends with him and stops being an ass to him
In "Freudian Dip," johnny says hes afraid to love so when ppl try to get close he pushes them away, maybe that contributes to him being an asshole to carl ("love" doesnt have to just mean romantic) and maybe he would be nice to carl if he can work through that problem
im aware the writers did not put this much thought into this lol
Consider the following: When a frog reproduces, the male latches itself onto the back of the female and just waits there for what could be hours, days, or even weeks for the female to lay eggs