my rambling thoughts on 2012 breakup theories
i donât get them. i truly donât.
in a post-coming-out world, some folks are begrudgingly admitting âokay...... maybe they were together in 2009â âsidebar, no maybe about it. dan was pretty fucking clear, end of fucking storyâ âbut they definitely broke up in 2012â and some people seem hung up on them getting back together somewhere around 2015 and some people even seem hung up on them BEING EXES TO THIS DAYđŠđŞ
not to #spon my own fic, but i feel itâs very clear during the dreaded 2012 era that âSomething had shattered, but it wasnât them that had.â
anything fans of breakup!2012 love to point toâ their distance on camera at the time, their insistence on being two different people and not a double act, the mutual friend cover up for how they met, the insistence that they live together only out of convenience because 1)money was tight and 2)living with a fellow youtuber is a business choice, the shift in their âchemistryâ and âfondnessâ for each other, the rise of âdan is so mean to phil :((â the steadily more aggravated response to constant bombardment of âare you GAY????â with ânope, totally straight thanks, itâs pussy for me!â â speaks so clearly to me as a shift not in dan and philâs relationship with each other, but a shift in dan and philâs relationship with the audience. they broke up with US. they later got back together with US!
itâs literally always been dan and phil vs the world.
iâm so infinatelty warm at the thought that dnp understand now that there is a not insignificant portion of the world, their fans and fellow queers, who arenât against them in that vsâ who are most definitely on their side.
everything that caused a rise of tension in the 2012 eraâ the aftermath of the Video leak, the move to London, getting regular work with the BBCâ are external forces. they have little and less to do with dnpâs relationship to each other and everything to do with dnpâs relationship to their audience.
they remained a unit throughout all the drudgery. and if they had put an end to their romantic relationship, why the hell would they bother doing that??!
iâm not here to convince you of anything if you disagree with me and sit stubbornly on your pet conspiracy. iâm just stating my interpretation of things as they seem clear and obvious to me. breakup!2012 theories are such a surface level reading of their closeted actions and i find it shocking that someone can look at dnpâs behavior over that era and see it as anything other than their loss of faith in their audience. a loss of faith in each other?? i very firmly believe the opposite, that as tough as that time was on them with the trauma of a public outing, undiagnosed and untreated mental illness, moving and career changes on a massive scale, they found strength in each other and their relationship.
and i believe that because weâve seen the results for years now: their joyous and loving relationship with each other and their repaired relationship with us the audience who have aged with them, shrunk and grown and altered.
hope literally any of this made sense đĽ°âď¸ as the title suggested, itâs a steam of conscious brain soup â¨
