#mail pod

[arnoldlister]

would you say rimmer always cared about lister or did it only happen later seasons?

Always has, yep! The biggest example for me is when Lister contracts a mutated pneumonia strain and passes out in S1 and Rimmer is extremely concerned and frantic. He can’t get Lister to the medbay without assistance - he’s still a soft-light hologram, he doesn’t have a solid body yet - so he tries getting Cat to help multiple times to no avail, even after stressing that he can’t pick Lister up himself. Saving him is more important than anything else, which typical Cat disagrees with. Hell, Rimmer is worried that Lister might even die.

They haven’t met Kryten yet either. He has to resort to the Skutters helping him. Lister ends up with real, tangible hallucinations of his Confidence and his Paranoia and Rimmer has to keep urgently reminding Lister that he’s still sick, that he won’t be better until the hallucinations are gone. He even tries getting one of the Skutters to kill Paranoia to get rid of him.

The way Rimmer reacts to Lister’s illness, especially sprinting to get Cat’s help and his anger and frustration when Cat won’t budge, shows that Rimmer does already care. We know if he’d been able to touch, he’d have helped Lister without hesitation. My extra favourite detail is all these events happen AFTER they argue about Rimmer not knowing what love is at the start of the episode. Lister wakes up sick immediately following this scene, and he passes out until Holly calls for Rimmer to go and find him. Cue Rimmer unknowingly proving he does know what love is…

Rimmer’s care definitely deepens as the show goes on but we glimpse it early-on and I love Confidence & Paranoia for that. It’s also followed by Me2 which has whole other moments I love with these two.

[arnoldlister]

How gay is red dwarf?

Well let’s see…

- Kryten’s alternate universe human counterpart offers to wait for Ace Rimmer (alternate Rimmer) naked and covered in taramasalata

- Rimmer’s “low self” manifests as him overtly gay, wearing leather and stockings, pierced, and saying he wants to have Lister

- Lister misses Rimmer so much that he dreams he returns and kisses him

- Lister tells Rimmer that they’re the sun and moon and together they make moonlight, this is because Rimmer is contemplating turning himself off and thinks nobody needs him

- When Ace comes aboard Red Dwarf, our Rimmer immediately accuses him of being gay and wanting to sleep with and marry Lister. Kryten points out that he’s commenting on Ace’s sexuality, presumably goes to remind him that they’re the same person so it would imply he’s also gay and interested in Lister, but doesn’t get to finish. Overall Rimmer comes across extremely insecure and jealous

Answer: quite? Very, even.

Never watched Red Dwarf? Ask me about it!

[arnoldlister]

does rimmer actually call lister “listy”?

yes, very very often, even when he’s briefly turned into a chicken

[arnoldlister]

Woooo, someone else who doesn't think Lister has his sexuality totally hammered out! 🥂

(Not that there's anything wrong with headcanon-ing him as happily pansexual with a lot of knowledge of gay culture or anything, of course! I've just personally always seen him as not very comfortable with labeling feelings about guys that way.)

My thoughts exactly! There’s def an alternate dimension Lister that has a lovely queer time in his youth, kissing his bandmates and fooling around etc etc. But I read Canon Lister as someone who, as you say, isn’t initially comfortable with it. He’s definitely not comfortable even thinking a different version of him is gay, so yeah my dude has got some shit to work through just like Rimmer. Room in the closet for both of them to bust out of it eventually lol

[arnoldlister]

Also I don't know much about rimster but do you think either of them would do crosswords?

ohhh absolutely, lister loves to do those little quizzes you get in magazines so i can see him doing crosswords and stuff as well. i imagine them in their bunkroom, lister shouting out a clue from the top bunk and rimmer offering up completely incorrect answers from the bottom bunk. OR rimmer being the one struggling on a number and lister casually walking past and saying the answer to rimmer’s immense irritation lmao

[arnoldlister]

I’m sorry, homo erotic.. arguments? I love living vicariously through your blog and learning about these two. I’m taking notes

Lister makes air kisses at him when Rimmer gets angry one time, blows cigarette smoke in his face on at least two separate occasions and always makes a show of it, wears Rimmer’s work shirts, and gets VERY up in his face to promise Rimmer he’ll pass an exam purely so he can out-rank him (on a ship where the entire crew is dead btw) <3

[arnoldlister]

Who do you think made the first move romantically, Lister or Rimmer?

While I loooove exploring Very Rimmer™️ situations where he makes the first move (usually a variation of “we need to kiss for science” and I devour it every time) I think realistically it may be Lister. That’s not to say I think he’d get there much easier (this guy has some internalised homophobia too, look how he reacts to Krissy insinuating he’s gay in that one scene for example*) but I just think once he DID get there, he’d be more direct or open about it. 🙂‍↕️

*Sidenote: This is also why I don’t personally headcanon Lister as knowing he’s bi from the start or considering himself queer, even though I get why lots do headcanon this - he’s an enlightened 23rd century guy, he gives off such big bi energy. However, personally I don’t think he’s explored that or thought about it. I think he’s friendly with guys he knows without considering if it goes deeper than that, and once he does, he definitely has a big old panic and has to sort it out in his head. I think it takes time after that initial freakout - he sits with it, considers it, gets quiet and reflective until he comes to that conclusion and eventually accepts it. For me, this fits him much better.

Thanks for asking! <3

[arnoldlister]

I didn’t realise the Rimmer guy wasn’t human/alive until I saw the gif of him flickering away 🤣

Asks by people who have only seen RD via my blog (and other things floating around apparently?) continue to be my favs, this is so fucking funny. 😭 Yeah Rimmer is human, specifically he’s from a human settlement on Io. He died and got reinstated as a hologram to keep Lister sane. It works sometimes!