Fred looks like a bloke in a mascot suit, which is what the typical mascot should look like. I'm comfortable with this because I can just remind myself that it's always just someone who came in that morning, put the suit on, and after the game they're going to take it off and go down the pub.
Mighty Red on the other hand doesn't feel like a man in a suit. The comic features, the car he drives about in, everything the Liverpool marketing department have done since his arrival has made me believe that he's an actual fish. A fish pretending to be the Liverbird, jumping around like some annoying little twat that knows he shouldn't be there but stays because he finds it funny being irritating. He knows that the Liverpool fans hate him, he knows that he's an insult to their history, he knows that Shankly and Paisley would happily take turns kicking in his big white teeth given the opportunity. But still, there he is every week at Anfield, with that big grin on his face. Revelling in the hate he has created.
Mighty Red is real. And he grows more powerful each day.