i go back and forth, and all i can definitively say is that candy is an easier read. meat isn't hard per se, but its so heavy and the later stuff with john and terezi, as well as kanaya's realization that she was duped was in my opinion really emotional. i actually just finished reading them for the first time and it felt stupid but alpha john dying made me pretty fucking sad after 11 years of reading all this bs. candy was lighter, as the name would imply, and had more internal plot movement, whereas lots of meat felt like oh god what is dirk going to do and eventually you realize oh this isn't going to even happen until HSBC. candy obviously doesn't end with a definitive conclusion but there are more arcs and self contained (appropriately) things going on that make it a bit easier to follow.