could you elaborate further on your views of jeff and abed relationship in comparison to abed and troy?? (or if you want avoid any ~controversy~ it can just be jeff and abed lol)
i don’t really see both relationships as like in competition with each other. i see jeff and abed as more important than troy and abed in the sense that i see jeff and abed as the most important relationship in the show.
it’s not necessarily “better” than any other other relationship but it is the foundation on which all the other relationships are built on. sure jeff had the idea for the “study group” but abed was the one who actually formed the Study Group.
jeff had abed pegged (as much as anyone can, anyway) from the get-go. from the pilot even. which is, in part, due to them having similar backgrounds. they’re both kids from fractured families who found escapism through movies and tv (as referenced in 1x08).
eventually jeff developed his cynical unattached persona to protect himself from pain which lasted him a few good years and then he meets this kid who’s actually a lot like him even though he really doesn’t want that to be true and all his walls start coming down and the kid has brought all these other people with him and oop jeff winger’s heart is full to burst. (sidenote: jeff loves a lot. you see it so clearly along the show as his shields go down and his love for everyone goes up. he spent decades repressing his capacity to love only for that lid to burst open so violently that he just consumes himself in it.)
going back to the “comparison”, troy had to make an effort to get abed. jeff just got him, precisely because of those similarities between the two of them. i love how in 3x04 jeff is the only one who knows exactly what the indiana jones display is without having to be told. and that’s just one example.
troy and abed love each other very much and i’m not taking anything away or downplaying their connection, which is very special in its own way especially in comparison to the rest of the group. but there is a power imbalance, which is actually addressed in the show, in abed’s favour to troy’s detriment. it’s not malicious on abed’s part; feelings and emotion are not abed’s area of expertise (although he gets much better at it during the course of the show), but it still happens.
this leads to another point that my friend @akaclairetemple mentioned. troy enables abed, even when he shouldn’t. especially when he shouldn’t. jeff knows how to strike that balance between enabling and discipline (which it’s something abed needs) because jeff knows abed. because jeff sees himself in abed. (there’s actually an interesting contrast in the nature of jeff’s actions due to how he sees himself in abed and the nature of jeff’s actions due to how he sees himself in pierce, but that’s a whole other conversation.)
just think of contemporary american poultry. or critical film studies. or intro to recycled cinema.
or jeff’s reaction to learning abed is going to leave in emotional consequences of broadcast television. first he learns the woman he loves is leaving and he barely has time to register that before he hears that the kid he adores and who got him started in the path to self-discovery is leaving. they both started this journey of self-discovery at the same time and now abed’s leaving him behind. dude is devastated.
in summation.... or whatever.... i don’t reject or downplay troy and abed’s relationship at all, but i think jeff and abed’s relationship is more important simply because i think their relationship is the most important.
the study group originated with both of them. and you know what’s funny? jeff is the one with the speeches and the plans (thoughts and logic) and abed is the one with the movies and pop culture (feelings and emotion), but those are not their respective catalysts; those are the roles they fall into once their motivations kick into gear. jeff started the study group because he wanted into a girl’s pants (emotion); abed started it because it made sense to have other people from spanish class there (logic).
abed’s the head. jeff’s the heart.