>>84230183Tavros and Gamzee are minor characters who were good friends and threw regular sexual innuendo at each other. It was a popular M/M crackship at the time, as is bound to be the case with this kind of dynamic.
Gamzee confessed his crush and Tavros didn't reciprocate. The fans went batshit with that reveal but it never came up again. After all, Tavros is a secondary character and Gamzee isn't a character at all.
So that was the end of it. Sure, you could say it was cringey and ruined the Tavros tag on AO3, but that's about it.
Dave and Karkat are major characters who were in the exact same situation. However, they actually started dating. Now, in itself, that's not bad. They clashed with each other in hilarious ways and had a sort of begrudging respect for each other, that's certainly a dynamic you can turn into a romance if it's executed well enough.
Problem is, they were both shells of their former selves when the pairing became canon. Karkat regressed into a complete wreck, Dave was incredibly passive until Collide. Their dynamic stopped being about funny conflict and became about giggling and cuddles (Vriskagram). Whether they kiss or fuck does not matter, their chemistry does - and it frankly became shitty and nonsensical. That ruins any interaction they could have, friendly or romantic.
On top of this, how do we know they're dating? Because other characters mention [how cute] they are together, and they act this weird OOC way around each other post-retcon.
We can't tell if it's ~true love~ or them bizarrely becoming open about their feelings; to say a dude resting his head on his dude friend's lap means they're gay is pretty homophobic if you ask me.
And then we got Karkat worrying about Dave and Dave coming out as gay, and a picnic (+ Jade "ruining endgame ships"), and that was it. Hussie dishonestly tip-toed around the pairing so hard people on tumblr complained about queerbaiting.
All in all, I'd say Davekat. Good dynamic, worst execution ever.
