Duo: You ride with me. I want to be with someone who's as talkative as I am for once.
Garrod: What?! And Tifa is with... Heero?!
Duo: Why? Are you jealous?
Garrod: Uh… Er…
Duo: Now don't you worry about that. Heero wouldn't know what a woman is even if she decked him in the face.

As much as I'd want to take credit for that witty conversation, this actually came from the SRWAG game (Banpresto has good writers ^^;;). Note: I may mention some parts of the said game in this essay, as this is the only time these two characters  ever interact with each other (well, maybe except for doujinshis or fanfictions). I hope I won't confuse anyone.

Anyway, back to the topic. I am frankly very sick and tired of topics that say Garrod is a Duo clone in the Gundam universe (there's Judo as well, but only Newtype Asylum pointed that out). Sure they are both very funny and interesting characters but I strongly disagree that Garrod was following Duo's shadow.

So let's start with their similarities: both Garrod and Duo led a harsh and difficult life. Both are orphans ever since they were very young. Both are cheerful…Duo as a mask (or comic relief because of GW's serious tone) and Garrod  for his own naïveté (but I don't think he's THAT naïve, or he wouldn't be able to survive alone for a long time). Both are street smart and would prefer a very low profile when mixing in the crowd, both have a great aim while using their guns, they both have lock picks hidden in their hair (behind the ear). They  both talk a lot in one scene and be deadly serious the next. They also  have their own powerful Gundams.

But I think that's where their similarity ends, as Garrod seemed to be less insane than Duo. While Duo goes around in his Gundam killing OZ soldiers as a lone guerilla, Garrod goes around as a normal Gundam pilot for the Freeden, finding ways to get closer to Tifa whom he developed a crush on since episode one. Duo is obsessed with death for some bizarre reason (thus calling himself Shinigami), and this could be traced in his Episode Zero.  For Garrod, Death is not a good friend of his. He spent 15 years in the After War world struggling to live where everyone else: his family, his friends, his village, had died. He will never concede to death, finding ways to keep ones he cared for, to live….at least for a longer period of time.

Perhaps that was why Garrod was greatly affected whenever he met a character who wants to die (Caris comes to mind: he was lying on the snow bleeding and Garrod yells at him for being an idiot and that dying will not undo the deaths of others) or was committing suicide (General Lee, Garrod openly wept for the old man. I don't blame him because Lee was a very likeable character). He sees nothing good about dying and death. Sure, he has his own share of kills but that was a battle for survival. His view on the subject is very different from Duo's, and this is probably the topic they will never agree with, if they ever meet that is (well technically they did meet in the game, but I digress).

God forbid if they do, these two are loud, sort-of obnoxious and very hyperactive kids. Can you imagine the chaos they can do if you actually stay in the same room with them?

Also Garrod freely expresses "anime faces"… sweatdrops, annoyed looks (especially to Kid), freaking out (his expression when Ennil said "You really want to know why I'm here?"… it's so priceless!) which lacked in Gundam Wing's characters.

Another difference is how they interact with their female counterparts. Garrod's attraction to Tifa had been obvious right from the start, and his feelings came into light when she was forcefully taken to space and when they were reunited. They even shared a kiss in the few last episodes. Duo's relationship with Hirde was well, a mystery for me, actually. It certainly never occurred to me that they were a couple. Even if they did live and work together. They remind me of a Garrod and Paula relationship more than anything else. But then that was only my opinion.

Basically I find Duo's preference of friends odd, as most of them he first met  require them to point a gun at his face (Heero and Hirde, for example), punch him on the stomach, or getting almost maimed by his soon-to-be comrades. Garrod, he'd been kicked and punched a lot, but it took a considerable amount of time for him to genuinely trust someone (heck, he didn't even trust Heero and Duo despite that they told him they were Quatre's comrades), apparently first impressions had a solid impact on him.  In many ways, Garrod was really a normal 15-year-old boy and Duo…well he's a really crazy guy (I meant that as a compliment) but that would be normal in GW standards ^_^ .

Anyway, that's my two cents in this matter!