#larry discourse

[luslastbreath]

I’m very late but one of my friends got an unsolicited hate essay in their asks and obviously I’m defending them and going to discuss some of these insane takes.

@todayisdeadinside

First off you seem to think by stating that you were once a fan it completely disregards all the hurtful comments you are about to say. Hate to break it to you buddy but that’s not how it works, currently or once being a fan of something does not give you the right to shit all over it, especially to current fans who didn’t ask for your opinion.

By saying that someone’s work that they put so much effort, time and heart into is one of the most disrespectful things someone can say, especially as most creatives hate the use of AI. The songs are all a piece of the boys’ soul and comparing them to an AI generator that doesn’t have any emotions completely disregards the feelings and life experiences of the boys. Most of 1D songs were written by Louis and Liam, though Louis focused more on lyrics while Liam focused more on melodies. Songs also don’t always have to be biographical which is why songs not written by Louis and Harry can’t still be considered a ‘Larry Song’, for example some songs by Ed Sheeran.

Harry and Louis definitely did stop interacting because of management, they didn’t let them travel together, sit next together and controlled them in so many more ways this was all to combat the rumours of Harry and Louis being together. These rumours didn’t start out of nowhere even if Harry and Louis weren’t actually a couple they certainly acted like it and played in to it with things like saying they’d marry each other and be each other’s Valentines, showing that they were clearly comfortable with the shipping. If they stopped being friends simply because of the Larry rumours than you’d have to question the strength of their friendship.

Yep, that sounds very plausible reading something online (a cesspool of lies and misinformation) and apparently everything you known about each other for 5 years flies out the window. Celebrities have to deal with rumours made up about them all the time they know not to believe things posted by some random stranger on the internet.

Harry and Louis haven’t been seen publicly together for a long time so of course people (even non-larries) are excited that they’re in the same place, just like when any of the other boys are. The idea of them being married doesn’t just stem from them being at Glastonbury together, it comes from years of flagging and observing how they interact. Them just being there isn’t the reason people believe that, they believe it because of the years of shared history.

The music industry is very oppressing when it comes to artists being able to come out and fully be themselves (Micah has an excellent post about this with some examples). The coloured shirts or symbolic outfits are a way for Harry and Louis to get around management and contracts and share who they are and their relationship.

Whatever music Liam chose to make is not a waste of his voice and it is incredibly disrespectful you say that they wasted it on something they were passionate about. It was a shift from 1D but most of the boys music is, it’s unfair that you are only coming at Liam for his choices because you personally don’t like the style of music.

What would you rather we call them? Type out their names every time we want to talk about them. I know you have the time, Mr. 900 words but most of us don’t. It’s not weird or infantilising at all, many grown men call their friends boys, ‘I’m going to the pub with the boys’ etc. There’s nothing wrong with it and is just a way to refer to the members of 1D.

Here’s the definition of queer baiting because clearly you need it: “the incorporation of apparently gay characters or same-sex relationships into a film, television show, etc. as a means of appealing to gay and bisexual audiences while maintaining ambiguity about the characters' sexuality.” Queer baiting can only be done in media not by a real person. In no way is Harry Styles teying to convince or trick his audience into thinking he’s part of the LGBTQ+ community he is simply wearing what he wants to wear, which for him defies traditional gender norms. By saying that he’s queer baiting is actually extremely homophobic because you’re saying ‘a straight person would never wear that so he must be gay’, putting everyone into boxes when the point of Harry’s clothing is to break out of these gendered clothing boxes made by society and to be himself. Harry’s outfits are not out of character for him in 1D days he had floral suits this is him just taking it a step further and being so comfortable in his skin that he can dress how he likes now and experiment with new styles.

Saying that we are babying him and then saying that he should stop smoking is the biggest contradiction so far. I have my own personal opinions about smoking but Louis is a grown man who can do what he wants. Furthermore, if you actually cared about Louis you would maybe mention the affects of his health not just his voice, his most marketable feature. You also have to remember that smoking can be an addiction, for all me know Louis may be struggling to quit, this is why when speaking about this topic if you really cared you’d handle it with more tact and empathy.

Before ending I’d like to say I strongly advise everyone against coming into Micah’s ask with the intention of hurting him in some way or another as you will be met with the same reception; Micah who can definetly stand up for himself and 3 friends who are not afraid to back him up and support him.

[caralara]

Do you think the fandom, more exactly the larry fandom, is destined to be wrong , because of All the fics this fandom reads and can't go back to reality

I mean you read those fics and your view of those two change, you know, and yet you can't go and find the right impression they want to get across for their own because you see them in this light of finding love in each other forever

I don't know if that makes much sense, but so many things if seen are expectation people have for harry and louis but in real life they aren't true or will never be true

Hi anon!

This is actually something important to talk about imo, it is one of the reasons why I dislike manips so much. I do think there’s some truth to the fact that if you feed yourself the same thing over and over you will eventually believe it is the truth no matter if it actually is the reality or not. It’s why it peeves me so much that hldaily is cutting out all and any stunt content, e.g. in Louis‘ interview or meet & greet quotes, they just skip the freddie parts which creates the illusion that Louis doesn’t talk about freddie at all which is simply not the reality. And I get why they do that, bc the stunts are so upsetting to many.

If you’re confronted with something that challenges your view of reality constantly it is incredibly exhausting - but I think it is very important to face it, at least every now and then. It’s why I don’t shy away from the stunt content and do entertain theories and ideas that do not support The Larry Narrative™️ - which I think makes me, overall, a lot more relaxed. I might not agree on all the headcanons and cutesy little Larry fandom „truths“ as a result of that, but I feel like that gives me a much more nuanced grasp of the situation.

And yet - revisiting facts and looking at the big picture regularly and earnestly entertaining the possibility that they are not together, I still arrive again and again at the conclusion that they love each other, deeply, and that the public narrative we see is not aligning with their actions and what they consistently show they stand for. Everything else is just life. Are they together right this second the way the They Never Broke Up Front likes to preach? I’m not so sure about that. But I do know they are the love of their lives. Nothing else makes sense, and even more so, everything makes perfect sense when you look at it that way.

So yeah. This got long but I think you raised an important topic, and I do encourage everyone to not be scared to have their views challenged - if they change based on the facts you come to see, isn’t that better? To be believing something more aligned to reality instead of living in a fantasy world? And on the other hand, if it just confirms what you’ve been believing, isn’t that great, too? It makes the belief more solid, more deep rooted. It’s a win-win situation.

[ialwaysknewyouwerepunk]

Ellaaaa omg I really love your brain haha I'd love for you to the an analysis on just a little bit of your heart 💓

okay first of all thank you for reading the analyses it really really means a lot second of all STOP saying shit about my brain bc soon enough my head will get so big my brain will just roll around in there like a ball in a roulette game

alright, on to this trickster of a song, which seems simple and straightforward at first, but has some strange connotations here and there. in general, i don’t think there’s a lot to the lyrics themselves (as in, this isn’t fine line yk) but the interpretation is where it’s at 

[Verse 1] I don't ever ask you where you've been And I don't feel the need to know who you're with

an "I" and a "you"

trust; no possessive jealousy - bc the "I" simply isn't like that (but let's be real, this is harry) ⟶ doesn't feel entitled to it (low self-esteem), can't express his jealousy in this context

I can't even think straight

he really did that huh

common theme in harry's (and louis's) lyrics: their love making them lose their mind

But I can tell that you were just with her

"her": third person entered the chat, and it's a girl *gasps*

"I" has accepted the presence of this other person as a reality, seems like there's nothing they can do to change that

[Pre-Chorus] And I'll still be a fool I'm a fool for you

fool: again, love making him dumb, blind - bc the only thing that matters is "you" so they'll endure anything

[Chorus] Just a little bit of your heart Just a little bit of your heart is all I want Just a little bit of your heart Just a little bit is all I'm asking for

"I" is willing to share his person, if it means they'll get to have just a bit of their heart

this echoes my policeman so heavily i'm sorry but it's so present in my mind i can't stop making these links: tom asks patrick if he can share him at the start of their relationship, meaning if they can be together while tom gets married to a woman, to which patrick consents, because then he’ll at least have some of him

[Verse 2] I don't ever tell you how I really feel 'Cause I can't find the words to say what I mean

common theme: lack of communication, miscommunication (sott, sweet creature, two ghosts, mmith, falling, tbsl)

why can't you say what you really feel? what's so hard about saying, "hey, i have all these feelings for you but i don't want to share you"?

⟶ perhaps it's a more complicated situation than that. perhaps the "you" doesn't have a choice. perhaps "you" and "I" are stuck, controlled by others

And nothing's ever easy, that's what they say

who is "they"? - general, meaning everyone, or people who have experienced life/love

or, people around them, people who know their situation

why wouldn't their love just be easy? why are people telling them that it isn't?

[Bridge]

I know I'm not your only, but at least I'm one

I heard a little love is better than none

"I" accepts the reality of the situation, even though it makes them feel like a fool. but they're sticking around because they're in love

"I" knows they're one of the people in "you"s life, so that is something established

again with the "they say"/"i heard": people telling "I" to settle, be happy with what they have because it's already a lot/more than most people have don't touch me i'm sad

(x)

INTERPRETATION

we all know, of course, that ariana grande sings this song and that harry has never brought out a recorded version. interesting with this, is that the pronouns all stay the same when harry or ariana perform it. harry wrote it this way, since there are no records of ariana altering the lyrics. he once said, on stage, that he wrote it and “gave it” to her. so, whether this song was written about “you” being a woman or a man, the sexualities involved aren’t hetero. if harry’s singing to a woman, she’s involved with a “her”, and if harry’s singing to a man, well, that’s gay too, obviously. and yk, even if ariana ever changed the pronouns to match her sexuality, harry performing it like that is still very gay. a cishet male dead set on not making his sexuality ambiguous would maybe not have made that choice, or would have simply stuck to the pronouns originally written by him. these are all hypotheticals, obviously, because harry did of course write “her” and always intended to.

now so how does this make sense? 

i think it’s pretty telling that he chose this song to perform during hslot. it’s a time where he also decided to cover girl crush, which certainly lines up in terms of sentiment and general queerness, coming from harry. with girl crush harry wishes he were in the body of a woman so the man involved with her would love him just as much. there’s the same kind of resignation to the whole situation, like the “I” has accepted they can’t change anything. 

just a little bit of your heart deals with this grief of not having all of their lover to themselves. especially, in harry’s case, involving stunts. this is not about the one harry loves, louis, actually being involved with other people. this is about louis publicly having to pretend that harry doesn’t mean as much to him as he does, which simply is their reality. harry can’t have his lover all to himself and has to settle with what he can get, which is anything the gp can’t see and all the songs they write for each other and the cross-referencing in mvs and. harry tweeting lyrics to 1950 isn’t random -- it’s that same grief that queer people have of having a relationship but not being able to show it publicly. which, for harry, would make it whole. because she can go around with his man in public without a problem. 

harry isn’t angry at louis, though, but he is hurt by the situation, and can’t come up with a way to tell him because there’s not a lot louis can do. louis is equally stuck, so harry will resort to not telling him how he really feels about it all. (apart from writing this song, of course.) it’s the sad, down and out harry, with his low self-esteem coming in hard, that wrote this song. 

the unassertive tone of the song confirms, to me, how it was their daily life and was somewhat accepted by them, albeit with the questioning undertone of “it’s what they say, what do i know... but is this really how it’s supposed to be?” because Harry knows that a little love is not something they should settle for, especially since their love can’t be contained like that. the sadness of not being with his loved one all the time is mixed with that sadness of working in an industry, living in a world, where their love is not (widely) accepted. 

it’s important to not, though, that this song was written in 2014, and their context is a lot different now. h and l are obviously still involved in stunts, but harry has definitely found a way to be less sad about that part of their relationship. the hiatus has definitely taken the elounor pressure off of them for the most part, and the press doesn’t constantly stick a mic under their noses to ask them about their “love life” in each other’s presence. (which, however often you go through that, probably still stings, especially on tougher days.) harry clearly had to work through a lot of that sadness during the hs1 era, but i think covering shania twain’s still the one says enough. we’ll never know what they went through, but they clearly went through hard times - together and individually - and had to work hard to make it to the other side. their music today, then, is very much proof of their relationship standing strong.

[forzafinally]

that l*rries tweet about lauren’s video making them stronger is...weird isn’t even the right word here?...scary...it’s actually scary. like imaging being so disconnected from reality that you couldn’t see the harm that the experience caused lauren and instead choose to twist lauren’s words to say that what she said means you should go to another level of stalking and analyzation and harassment...like that’s literally something that no normal person could ever do. like i’m genuinely scared of what is going through l*rrie’s heads because that tweet is genuinely terrifying to me.

Louis literally tweeted that he's straight and said that shipping was disrespectful to Eleanor and people still didn't un-larry. It's genuinely scary

[caralara]

What do you mean by an unconventional relationship between Harry and Louis? I guess I missed you talking about this.

I have always imagined them as life partners, committed to each other and clearly in love. And I don’t think it means conventional because they have job commitments - they are famous- and most importantly, their lives are nothing like ours. Add in their closeted and it gets complicated quickly.

I know that they must be there for each other when it counts, they share their lives in a way that works for them, and they seem happy together.

Thinking of your interpretation of the Greatest - that’s how I see it too.

I think you laid out my rough understanding of unconventional right there, anon! I guess I mean unconventional as in they had to make a lot of compromises if they wanted to be with each other in the situation they found themselves in and decided they wanted that, still. I mean you cannot negate their profound love for each other - it speaks through everything they say, write and do. And to me it also seems like they’ve decided the other one is it for life. and yet, with all of that in mind, life can have other plans and all of that can make a relationship unconventional (as in not seeing each other several weeks at a time, not being able to or needing to be there for every single milestone of your partner’s career, just to make a few). I find it funny that people immediately jump on the word unconventional and equate it with sexually non-exclusive because I’ve never uttered a word about that, and frankly didn’t even think along those lines when I was writing it earlier. I have too little insight to know how they deal with their sex lives, and it’s also deeply personal, so I’m not gonna be able to have a formed opinion on that. On whatever route they decide on as a couple though, all I know is: good for them. They seem content, as far as one can tell. So yeah. But the prejudice in this fandom is really something.

[ialwaysknewyouwerepunk]

Hey💋

I love your lyric analysis. Thanks so much for your hardwork. Since you've been already interpreting their songs, Do you think they ever broke up? I mean through their songs?

hey!! thanks so much, i appreciate that you like the analyses <3 my view on the matter is that they did have a break of some sort at some point, yeah! somewhere after 1d i think they had a tough time regaining balance and had to go out looking for themselves in order to make their relationship flourish again. this is just me basing my view purely on their lyrics. there's heartbreak in hs1, of a kind that still contains immense amounts of love and hope (or a firm belief) in a happy ending, which i think can only be caused by a deep struggle. change, grief, stress, existential dread... i mean that their internal struggles caused the relationship problems, i think. self-doubt, especially if your identity is so intertwined with a s/o you've had from such a young age, then naturally has an effect on your relationship. and i think walls offers a reply to hs1, making the stories of break/make-up match, imo. struggling to put into words what's wrong, finding each other again, apologizing, giving another chance. i don't think they were ever completely out of each other's lives, but yeah, i think they put in a lot of work to get through a rough patch or two. obviously, i don't know anything for sure, but this is what i'm getting from their songs, which i think is their most honest form of communicating with fans, and even the purest form of putting their own stories into words. especially since it's such an overarching theme and storyline in both of their work makes me convinced they actually did struggle, beat the odds and eventually made it, you know? i also don't think this version of events is sad or disappointing, because it's a story of perseverance and victory, of them choosing for each other again and again despite how hard it might be. because of love or whatever

[forzafinally]

When DH came out he talked about how harmful it was to have people constantly speculating about his relationship with Phil? Larries take-away? 'We're right to keep harassing Harry and Louis about their relationship because people lie. Not, 'even if H and L are together they have their reasons for hiding which are none of our business & we should leave them alone' but 'this proves we're right to keep pressurizing these guys to fulfill our fantasies and come out' cos that's all that matter to them

Exactly. Phan, Tronner, Larry you see the same thing repeat time and time again. And especially with Larry it's really ugly because Louis has a son and the hate Briana gets is unreal. Eleanor too. I really don't think Larries think of H and L as real people anymore. They are just characters to them and that's really sad.

[caralara]

Hi! Ooms fan back. I was reading all your anons and I think I may give another point of view.

Thinking they broke up because Louis wasn't effusive about the winning while he was in that bar? I'd never expect it being surrounded by people, tbh. Just deciding to go to a Grammy stream event? I think it's interesting enough.

About them not being in the same party? Well, work is work and that's what those parties are about. Celebrating and networking and being seen. I think them being together would put the spotlight on them as a pair (either as rivals or a couple depending on what you believe) instead of Harry's success and Louis's own work.

Unless I've missed something in the last 2 days, as far as we know they've been in the same cities for weeks and spent time together.

I mean, Niall was around LA a few days ago and I wouldn't be surprised at all if we find out in a few months that they met. Same thing with Louis.

Perhaps this is me not understanding the issue, but I can't think why suddenly people is so worried about a break-up.

Thanks for always being open to debating! :)

I agree with everything you said ooms-anon! Except for the not understanding part - I get it. I feel like it comes in waves and waves and a lot of people have spoken about feeling a shift in their view of them. I think it is really scary for some people to entertain the possibility of them having a non-conventional relationship, and it leads them to doubt it all then. It might also have something to do with how much we've been exposed to Harry Styles™ and how the gp views him the last couple weeks and that's always tough on people who know him so differently. I think that shakes up a lot as well.

Thank you for your contribution!!