involved in any extraordinary adventures the other main characters on the show customarily experience. In the season 12 (2008) episodes "Pandemic" and "Pandemic 2: The Startling", Craig repeatedly castigates the main characters' propensity for engaging in schemes that catastrophically backfire upon them. He also complains that they just seem to blindly accept that these things happen to them. He decides that he will no longer participate in such schemes, and walks away from the one in which they find themselves in the latter episode. However, by taking this action he fulfills an ancient prophecy, by stepping on a mysterious platform that allows him to defeat the giant guinea pig monster responsible for that story line's conflict. He concludes from this that just because there are things in life that cannot be controlled does not mean that one should accept them without protest. Despite his dislike of the main characters, particularly Cartman, he is often depicted as one of the boys who repeatedly join Cartman in his many schemes, at times serving as a right-hand man. According to the creators of South Park, Craig's best friend is his classmate Tolkien Black. He is also close friends with Clyde Donovan, Jimmy Valmer and Kenny McCormick. Relationship with Tweek In the Season 19 episode "Tweek x Craig", female students of Asian backgrounds started drawing homoerotic "yaoi" images of Craig and his classmate Tweek Tweak, depicting them as lovers (an acknowledgement of a trend popular among real-life South Park fans of creating fanart depicting the pair as a couple, several examples of which are featured in the episode). Immediately, the two try to repudiate the rumors about them prompted by this. They eventually resolve to stage a public "break-up" to end the rumors. Though Tweek fears he cannot do this believably, Craig encourages him that he indeed can. However, Tweek goes too far by claiming that Craig is a manipulative cheater, which has the effect of ruining Craig's reputation with girls. Tweek later reveals that Craig's encouragement gave him the confidence to believe in himself. Following the father-to-son talk between him and his father about how "you can't fight being gay", the two boys have been in a relationship. In later episodes, such as the season 21 episode "Put It Down" and the video game The Fractured But Whole, they are shown to have become sincere romantic partners and identify as gay. Reception On