#asherlockstudy

[asherlockstudy]

Heads up, my askbox is open again. You may remember the reason I had shut it temporarily was that I was getting too many asks for GME and I had trouble sorting out what to answer and what to keep for my analysis. I have at this point watched the whole show (crazy speed, I know) and written about half of it. Please don’t send me GME asks until I am done with this!

[asherlockstudy]

I have many questions 😂😂😂 okay 1) were you always a rhink heavy page as far as analyzing their work or did that just come about along the way? 2) do you ever get any anons other than rhink? 3) do you get all these anons on the same day or do you break them down over several days?

1) I originally started as a BBC Sherlock meta blog! I have maintained my original username, theme, profile pic and all the meta archive is available in my blog’s menu. My metas for Sherlock remain my proudest work in this blogging website and I still completely ascribe to them. But eventually Sherlock ended, and mind you with an ending almost as horrific and plot-bombing as Game of Thrones, for example. Around that time (2016-2017) I started watching Rhett and Link and once Sherlock and GOT ended (for which I also wrote a couple metas) I then became a relatively chill Rhink / RandL blog or in general a mixed blog of everything I am a fan of. Once I watched their Spiritual Deconstruction, Hazel and the first scripted videos (in the time span of 2019-2022) and eventually formed the One Story theory I became a much more focused Rhink blog. But everything else I like and have written is always still available!

2) Given that my blog has not always had the same character over time, yes, I have received numerous asks about the variety of topics I am interested in. Since the last 2-3 years I mostly write about Rhink, 99% of the mail is about Rhink / RandL.

3) As you may have realised, I really break them down over several days 😂 However I do tend to receive them en masse and be a tad overwhelmed, which is why I break them down over several days

Fun fact (so to speak): I have two more secondary blogs. One is @rhinkreal and it is an archive of all Rhink moments I actually consider important (and not just jokes or moments open to interpretation). It is just an archive blog with reblogged posts. I do not make original posts there and I do not get or answer mail. But I think it’s quite helpful for a person interested in Rhink.

I also have another secondary blog which has nothing in common with these two blogs, it’s a blog about the history / culture / landscapes of my country and it is funnily enough at least six times more popular and successful than this blog lol

[asherlockstudy]

Hi!! New here, slowly making my way through your archives lol! So what was it that made you believe that Rhett and Link are currently in an active romantic/sexual relationship? What draws you to their relationship in particular--like, why is it so important to you? Have you had similar thoughts or opinions about other famous duos? I tend to take R and L at face value about their relationship; they've denied being attracted to each other or being sexual with each other. What makes you disagree?

Hi, I'll first start from the personal questions. I have talked about this in the past, I generally do not feel like I interact with "shipping" in the way most people do, at least not primarily.

This became long. It's literally an essay on me, omg sorry XD

My history with shipping:

In simple words, I have only ever had four fictional ships (two straight ones, two gay ones) and then the R&L one. When it comes to other real life duos and people, no, I have no other ship and finding someone to ship has never been a motivation to me in order to enjoy any content. BUT, there are two more pairs of famous people, about whom I strongly believe at least one member of each pair was enamoured with the other. I have made a post about one of these here. But I didn't actively ship them, especially because they felt like one sided situations and they were of course in relationships with other people.

I first joined Tumblr exclusively as a space to publish my theories about BBC Sherlock. Now, the thing is me being a Johnlock shipper (and a Sheriarty shipper) was not the motivation but rather the result of realising that the very plot was built on the suggestive nature of Sherlock's relationship with John and Moriarty. Seriously, the reason I joined was because I thought I had figured out how Sherlock faked his death in S2 (which was the big mystery of this show that has never been answered) and it was the figuring out of the "technical" part, so to speak, that really sealed it for me that the suppressed romantic dynamic between Sherlock and John, and Moriarty's jealousy, were the core of the story and the solution to the mystery rather than just a side piece that was used in order to spice things up. Because if it was just a side piece, a regular romantic storyline, I would have not cared. I would not have been shipping them. I won't talk about this more now but Sherlock suffered a Game of Thrones ending - a premature ending, despite one more season promised, a very cowardly last season and an end with a horrible inexplicable writing that resembled nothing of the previous seasons. At the time, it was a trauma for the majority of the fans. We never got any answers (except one nobody had asked or cared for). There are reasons to believe the plot was changed and rushed due to the breakdown between the protagonists...

Then another ship was Jaime Lannister x Brienne of Tarth in Game of Thrones. I enjoyed their interactions but it was only after I read the ASOIAF books and started exploring all the threads of prophecies and symbolisms that are pretty significant in the original story that, again, I thought Jaime and Brienne were pivotal to the story and would play a part in the fulfilment in these prophecies and thus had to end up together in order for the story to come full circle. I have written some theories about this too. In the ending of GoT Jaime and Brienne became canon, except then of course the screenwriters chose to ruin Jaime's story arc (as they did with literally every other character as well) and they had him go back to his sister and both die in a rockfall. The suicide of Game of Thrones is notorious in pop culture. So, the same thing happened to me twice! But the fact that the screenwriters did make Jaime x Brienne canon, even though in the end they shat on all prophecies and foreshadowings and plotlines of the books, shows that there is indeed something there that was correctly figured out and we would see more of it in the books if the author ever stopped procrastinating and completed them.

Both my straight ships became canon, after years and years, and with several people doubting them. I think my gay ships would too, if BBC Sherlock was not literally bombed in the end.

I say these things in order to show that shipping for me has never been the priority. I am not after ships, I am after a good story. I am after complex stories that invite deciphering. And if the story and the mystery are enthralling, then I also start enjoying the ship itself. But I don't consume much content and I don't write or read much fanfiction, I don't do the typical shipping stuff.

This is also why I dislike fanon ships, or whatever I perceive as fanon anyway. It's because in order for me to like a ship, it has to be supported by the plot. My interest is exclusively plot / story based. I cannot stress this enough. There are for example people who ship characters, although they know that these two explicitly are not interested in each other. Some ship characters that have never even met. This does not exist for me. It has to be part of the real story. In Sherlock it was blatantly the real story or the only possible answer to the mystery, the only possibility that explained everything. I don't know what shit went down between the protagonists but it is openly known that they have not been on good terms ever since before the filming of the last season and the screenwriters themselves chickened out.

Rhett and Link:

I stumbled onto Rhett and Link accidentally, at a time when eating was difficult (not an eating disorder but a very severe case of acid reflux and dysphagia that lasted more than a year), and I needed something lighthearted to watch as I was eating in order to forget myself. I saw a thumbnail from one of their classic videos, I watched it and it was exactly what I needed at the time, back in 2016. I was perfectly happy to watch two platonic best friends say and do silly stuff. It was all I wanted.

Even as the health problem improved slowly, I had grown to like this new routine and I have kept watching them for ALL these years. Nine years... MY GOD. In truth, in my normal state, I am not one for that type of lighthearted easy content. There are many days that I am tempted to skip GMM in order to watch bleak reports of everything that is shitty in my country, but in honour of that time Rhett and Link helped me out of a difficult situation, I kept watching and as years passed it's a little hard to be like "okay I am not watching again".

But there's also another reason. The same thing that happened to me those other times.

In the process of watching daily all those freaking years, I realised that these two people had a story. An uncommon story. Certainly an unusual story as real life stories go. A story with many parts told yet many parts hidden in a shadow. And as you perhaps understand by now... this is my weakness.

My first suspicions started from the first year actually. From an interview in 2016 when Link let it slip that "only blue eyes look at Rhett" and the interviewers were not professional journalists and they let the moment linger and you could see they thought what I thought, and what I thought was "Come on now, this is not how a platonic friend talks". Moreover, Rhett's reaction was one of understanding and panic, and not one of an oblivious straight friend. Therefore I pretty early realised something more was going on.

Over the years the conviction only grew stronger. In 2017-2019 I was getting more and more sure they are an item. In 2020-2022, I had realised that they explore a possibility to come out, especially Link. In 2023, it was the most shocking realisation for me, because this actually I did not expect. In 2023 I realised both that they were telling their story to the viewers through their scripted work but most importantly, and this is the shocking part, that they had first tried it............... in 2015. Which for the first time put in perspective for me how old this ongoing situation and the need to somehow in some way express it, had been.

After that, in 2023, a lot of things felt like they were falling in place, and so I developed and started writing the One Story theory. So it is a process that has taken almost 10 years. It's not that I woke up one day and said "I ship these two guys, they must be together and hell mend everyone else in their life".

As for what Rhett and Link mean for me? First of all, I don't project or feel represented through them because I cannot imagine a more different life experience from mine than Rhett and Link's. But, like I said, they helped me through the difficult time and they became a part of my daily life, and as such, I do care about the guys, right? However, I do not watch them through rose tinted fan glasses, I am often highly critical of them - more than most people here - I think they have fucked up epically and I do not follow all their content - in short, I am not an unconditional fan and shipper.

And whoever has followed this blog closely can testify that I don't even think they "should" come out. I think they should do what's best for them and their loved ones. The problem is that I believe they built a labyrinth around themselves and have been blocked in front of a dead end. In fact, I am pretty sure that whichever choice they make (stay in closet or come out) is going to be bad, just in different ways. That is very different from some certain people who misinterpret me as an "extreme" shipper who "wants them to be together" and all that shit.

I don't "want" them to be together. Not as much as they want it, at least ;)

In the end, I am into a good story and hightened perceptive skills more than shipping. 100%

[asherlockstudy]

So like I said in the last big post, I did make a One Story Rhink Masterlist for convenience. You can also access it from my blog's menu.

[asherlockstudy]

My whole personality in a picture

[asherlockstudy]

I need you to know I call you "Asher" in my head, because that's how I first read your screen name. I always think "I'm going to check and see if Asher's posted anything recently" or "I wonder what Asher thinks about this."

I kid you not, last year there was a surge of people realising just then that my username is a reference to Sherlock, and they had been calling me Asher Lock all that time 😂😂😂 so you’re not alone

The irony is that this was a 100% Sherlock blog until the show finished, and the design of the blog and the post menu is still full of it, I feel like I have raised several tumblr generations, where each knows me for something else and then it moves on but I am still here 😅

[asherlockstudy]

9 People You Want To Get To Know Better

Thanks for tagging me @bluntforceyearning

favourite colour: blue (all shades except light baby blue), yellow, black

currently reading: 24 Hours in Ancient Rome

currently watching: Good Omens 2

sweet, savory, or spicy?: savoury all the way. I like sweet too but I get satiated quickly. I never cared for pretty spicy.

currently working on: honestly the most valid answer to that would be that I am working on improving some chronic health issues. Oh and taking driving lessons!

Tagging:

@birdylion, @krystallika, @mpay22, @sugaroto, @leelaihardly and whoever else wants to do this. No pressure!

[asherlockstudy]

There are gonna be people who have multiple things to talk about or forget to say something and send multiple anons because of that *...guilty* but there are also just gunna be overlaps because of coincidence or similar time schedules or multiple people haveing things to say about something that has just happened.

Yeah... it's still funny though because often even when nothing has happened all mail comes within minutes lol. It certainly is often people who write their mail in multiple parts... and then also most people are probably from the US...