I always think Eddie not being portrayed as particularly booksmart/struggling with his grades and Richie being booksmart desperate for people not to know is always miles better than anything where Eddie is like really nerdy and booksmart with Richie being "cool" and needing Eddie to tutor him and correct him on stuff cause I genuinely think that this misses the core of the two and how they interact with each other and how they see each other
I don't reckon Eddie has ever seen himself as smart, with the sort mum he has and the control she had over him, I don't doubt being told to trust her over everything and being taught to ignore obvious signs that she was lying ended up affecting the way Eddie viewed his intelligence as well as his bravery.
He canonically never got particularly good grades, enough to pass but even though he never really thought of himself that way, it didn't matter cause he didn't need to be for his dream of working with vehicles and maybe in the future, trains and cars.
How is understanding the subtext of a poem gonna effect his ability to fix up a car, or drive a train or know where he's going?
I think him being someone that never thought he was particularly bright and maybe even trusting his mum when she told him he wasn't having a dream set on something he never needed to booksmart to do hits at the core of Eddie as a character, he only needs to be brave enough to try and pursue it. And he has bravery by the bucket load
Likewise, Richie is a very socially aware guy who often will not let himself be vulnerable out of fear of the all seeing eye of the public deeming him a disappointment or unworthy or of being a dangerous influence, so he works hard to keep their expectations low.
After all you can't really be a disappointment if no one expected any different of you?
Him fighting against his very obvious nerdy traits as a means of doing this while also having to relent to using said nerdy traits protect himself and prevent all of this from combating his very clear ambition and drive to do what he loves kinda sums him up.
The constant balancing act of being smart enough to solve your problems but knowing that if you do, it'll dump a whole new host of more invasive problems onto your head, so you choose to deal with the demons that have less questions at thanksgiving about when you're finally gonna bring a wife home.
And I think it also works for the Reddie dynamic. Eddie has an habit of placing his heart and trust into the hands of people he deems to know better than him, like his mother, like Bill and then eventually like Richie.
But unlike his mother, Richie doesn't use it to keep him and force him to stay or to trick him, he wants Eddie to make his own choices. He likes when Eddie is brave enough to tell him he disagrees or doesn't want to do something, and won't stifle his courage.
Unlike Bill, who does view Eddie as someone to look after and protect, like a little brother, Richie is reaches down from the pedestal Eddie's put him on and yanks him onto it with him, tells him to check out the view and asks him if he wants to see what'll happen to a coin if he drops it from that height.
And for Richie, Eddie expects him to be himself, to be proud of the things he's scared will make people alienate him, cause unlike a lot of people around Richie, Eddie is never encouraging or asking Richie to be someone else.
He's always amazed by his intelligence, loves when Richie actually shows it off, especially especially to be funny cause Eddie has always thought he was funny. He loves when Richie stops for a moment to be sincere or serious about something and isn't so scared that he has to hide behind jokes. Cause then it means when Richie is telling jokes, it's not in a bid to hide away, it's to shine a light on something truly hilarious
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