Thread:Gumball2/@comment-30953185-20171226202550/@comment-4618045-20171229032517

I appreciate Clyde (and his friends) for what they represent. They can be seen as brother figures for Lincoln, who doesn’t have that in his family. And Clyde sees Lincoln as the sibling he lacks in his home life. It’s an admirable role these characters play for each other and I’m glad they have each other.

With that said, however, I personally don’t find Clyde (or any of the friends) interesting characters. At their best, they’re yes men that are only along for the ride. At their worst, they can be annoying or needlessly pathetic. While friends do need to share some similarities, Lincoln and his group of friends are so similar that I have a hard time remembering their names (let alone tell them apart). This applies to all of Lincoln’s friends (barring RA), but the problem for Clyde specifically is that the show decides to dedicate multiple episodes focusing on him and Lincoln.

I’m not a big fan of Clincoln McLoud episodes because I find them boring; Clyde, generally speaking, is not strong enough to carry an episode. A lot of the times, he’ll just help out Lincoln with what he’s doing rather than do something significant in his own right (he could have been entirely cut out of “Not A Loud” and the episode would have been unchanged). On the occasions when he does break off from Lincoln (such as in AARGH You For Real), I find it underwhelming. The only episode I can think of where I really like Clyde is “Baby Steps” and that’s because we see him face an aspect of his home life in a thorough way.

Clyde (and by extension the rest of Lincoln’s male friends) presents a gap between the ideal and reality. I’m happy for what he represents on the show (as a brother figure) and I see potential in that respect. You can make wonderful episodes that go deep into how each of them fulfill each other’s needs or one where they have a serious disagreement and how that affects them. But thus far, these avenues remain unpursued and he comes across more as an extension of Lincoln than a character in his own right. Unless the show has plans to act upon the fullest potential, Clyde has no place getting as much episodes as he does