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.
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%