Me infodumping about my headcanons of musical themes for the Eddsworld gang, specifically the ships!!
Get ready for me to go absolutely silly over TomMatt’s music because AGAHHAHhh I love them so much.
For context! This is based on my TomMatt Spotify playlist @starrixle helped out with!
Pictured above: Two gay guys, who are very stupid silly, take a selfie together, circa 2017. Original post!
First things first: This goes for all of my character playlists, but I always go by a certain genre, mood, and/or instrument I associate with each of them!
For example: I see Edd with a lot of songs from the mid to late-20th century! He loves artists such as The Smiths, Tears For Fears, and Beach Boys. Outside of that, he even loves a lot of Indie genres, like Mac DeMarco and Vacations. I generally describe his music taste to be very calm and easygoing like his personality, and a lot of guitar or keyboard songs, since those are the instruments I generally see him playing.
In this case, for Tom and Matt as individuals:
Matt’s songs are very lightweight, romantic, and daydreamy. A sort of echoey, floating feeling amidst the clouds. He’s the kind of guy who expresses his love upfront to the people he adores and cares about, and a good amount of his playlist has songs with the main theme being love and romance. Some of his songs can be rougher and louder, reflecting more of his love for rock when he was a teenager, but as he got older, he’s generally more lighthearted. I associate a lot of his songs with guitar since he’s the guitarist for The Creatures, and the guitar fit his personality a lot to me. :-] He has a good amount of Soul and R&B. His playlist has artists including Thee Sacred Souls, Common Saints, Steve Lacy, Ginger Root, Frank Ocean, and TV Girl.
Tom’s songs are generally heavier, rougher, louder, and harsher, with a lot of metal, rock, and grunge genres, though with the occasional ska, which shows more of his sillier side, and hip-hop and rap. Tom is usually very concealed and closed off when it comes to expressing his true emotions, but compared to his playlist, his music is very loud and outspoken; either it’s a weighed down feeling in your shoulders, or calmer and more relaxed, yet rough. I highly associate Tom with the bass (also a bassist for Creatures), and there are a good amount of bass-heavy songs in his playlist. I associate him with artists like Deftones, Whirr, Alice In Chains, Type O Negative, SOAD, ATCQ, MF DOOM, and Radiohead. (THANK YOU STAR for introducing me to Deftones and Whirr LOL)
Tom and Matt are almost opposites of each other, with Matt being more upfront and lighter, and Tom being concealed and heavier. And it’s clear that, yeah, evene though their personalities contrast each other, and their main music tastes are different, I still LOVE seeing how this works thematically, and specifically how they get along in the first place.
Tom and Matt together:
A TomMatt song I associate with this segment :) Listening to it right now as I’m typing this!
I associate a lot of what TomMatt is with harmony. This warm, soft embrace, quieter and calmer, but full of rhythm and energy. You feel like flying into space, and the guitar echoes and sustains throughout the air, flying skyhigh, but the bass settles it down, keeps it grounded to make sure it doesn’t fly too far away. They both play together, a melody of highs and lows, both intertwined into one.
Tom and Matt have kinda almost this harmonious relationship with each other, where one of them helps the other realize their own qualities that they never realized before, and helps one other realize things that the other loves about them. They love each other dearly, and as they’ve grown older, they’ve learned to love themselves.
Tom doesn’t open about his issues a lot and closes them off out of fear of burdening others. He insists he’s able to manage these issues on his own without anybody’s help. He doesn’t see himself as anything special, a nobody or “just another problem for someone to deal with.” Especially as he’s grown into his 20s and started taking on harmful coping habits, he’s constantly beaten himself up.
And you can imagine how Matt would react knowing all of this. He never saw Tom as a burden, a nobody, or a problem, but someone that he just genuinely loves to be around. He sees Tom as his whole entire world, and constantly expresses it multiple times, over and over again.
“You’re everything to me, Tom, and you mean so much to me. I just want you to remember that, okay? I love you.”
Tom doesn’t always express his happiness out loud, but being around Matt has helped him realize that “Hey, maybe there’s some good things about me that people love about me. Maybe shit isn’t all so bad.”
Sometimes, there’s moments where Tom slips back into that mindset. Sometimes, he doesn’t understand why Matt would love him for simply “being himself.” The things he hates about himself feel so much more amplified than the things people appreciate him for. Tom sees Matt, who loves every single part of him, and he asks Matt, “Why do you love me so much? Don’t I just stress you out more?”
“Well, you feel hurt, right? I can’t just leave you be when you feel hurt all on your own.”
“You should be spending time with else. Don’t put all of your energy just on me, man. Go with Edd or Tord, maybe they’ll make you happier.”
“But what if I want to spend time with you? You make me happier.”
“…
Do what you want.”
Sometimes, Tom never understands Matt. He sometimes accidentally says things that hurt her, and he sometimes stresses her out with his issues, so why would she want to spend more time with him? But you know, no matter what, he appreciates how much someone is willing to stick around and never give up on him.
Even Matt has her own shit. She can be really fun to be around and loves talking to other people as much as she can, but there’s times where being out overwhelms her. Whenever she’s out in public, her anxiety can skyrocket. She picks up on every little conversation others say around her, and she constantly thinks about what others feel about her. She can have a good day, but as soon as she feels like her surroundings overwhelm her, she shuts down.
Tom doesn’t always know how to help or what to say, since he isn’t someone who uses a lot of words to help others. But during those quiet moments, the best he knows what to do is take Matt into his arms, and embrace him, so so tightly.
“(Hugging Matt) …Had a bad day today?”
“…”
“Hey, hey… It’s okay. You don’t have to say anything. Just breathe.”
“Today could’ve been a good day.”
“It’s okay to have a bad day. We all get those sometimes.”
“I missed you a lot.”
“(Hugging her tighter) I missed you a lot, too.”
I love how well the guitar and bass work together, just like Tom and Matt together. A lot of their music I associate with Steve Lacy, BADBADNOTGOOD, Tyler the Creator, Childish Gambino, and Piero Piccioni. Some of the songs I’ll list below shows a lot of bass and guitar, and also some orchestra, which I associate with Matt. :)
Some by Steve Lacy was the very first song I thought about when I imagined what Tom and Matt's duo theme would sound like. A lot of Steve's discography is what I see being TomMatt's genres :-) Lots of bassline and very funky guitar tunes. Again, very lightweight and enthusiastic, but also relaxed and calm. I imagine them playing together in almost all of these kinda songs. <3
Some other songs I absolutely ABSOLUTELY love and associate with TomMatt:
I'll end off this post for now because I don't want to make it TOO long HAHAGAA But this is just a little insight to my TomMatt brain! This is solely based on just my headcanons and roleplays of them with the help of my partner. Been wanting to talk about my thought processes behind all my other Eddsworld playlists, so hope you enjoyed this super long one! GAHHA
I love talking about my design headcanons GAHAA here’s a stink!
I’m just embracing the fact that Matt can sometimes look like a stink. Yeah she has a beauty routine and takes it more seriously than the others, but sometimes she looks like she didn’t enough sleep and I love her BWAHAHA
I love giving her darker eye bags n facial hair. And sharp eyeliner and very creature-shaped eyes.
I was about to just not give Matt facial hair, but I loveddd how she looked with it. Very gender.
Normalize Tord being this musty rusty rat who stinks and does not shower and stays in his room for like 27 hours a day while having a shrimp back over his glaring white computer monitor and reads god awful hentai magazines.
What a fucking STINK. My god I cannot see my version of this man looking cute he’s just UGLY in the most endearing way possible. And in the most disrespectful way possible. I’m going to find every reason to bully Tord because he is so. I love him but I want to punch him into orbit. He’s becoming one of my favorites but at the same time I wish he EXPLODES!
Prime example here. I still like how my old art from early 2024 looked but I wish he looked less round. Now in 2025 he’s just. DEVIOUS. I love his design now.
