#rainbow bears

[unirarhissa]

a drag path but it's harry and louis communicating via their tattoos and songs and the rainbow bears all throughout because they couldn't otherwise, and the fans understanding it

I DUG MY HEELS INTO THE GRAVEL AS EVIDENCE FOR YOU TO UNRAVEL

[skepticalarrie]

hello!! Larrie here. I'm doing a deep dive into RBB bc that was after I had stepped away from the 1d fandom trenches back in the day. Wow so much to learn. Im pretty convinced it was HL but what's the explanation for it appearing at the Baaba Maal concert on 1.24.16? I'm struggling to find resources addressing that & it appears Harry & Louis were both in LA on that date. if you have info help pls!

Hi, anon! From what I could find, there isn’t really a clear conclusion about appearance.

But the point of the rainbow bears wasn’t necessarily that they were physically in the same place as Harry and Louis, but more about the message behind them. There were definitely several moments and posts related to the bears that still feel only partially decoded by fans. I do think the appearance at the Baaba Maal concert could be one of those. The connection with Simon Cowell could potentially be there, though.

I’d look at it more in terms of context, because that’s the most important part when it comes to the bears. This happened during one of the most intense periods of the rbb timeline. January 24 was the week Freddie was born, and there was so much signaling happening around that time. After the Baaba Maal concert, the following rbb posts showed him going to Heathrow and traveling to the US, which led to the “coping with diarrhoea” post. Their twitter was deleted about a week later.

If you haven’t seen it yet, here’s a full rainbow bears timeline with all the appearances, posts, and details.

[hoovesandfloorpaws]

an ode to RBB and SBB 🧸🏳️‍🌈🧸

inspired by this beautiful post by @holyshit 🌈

i just rolled around in bed again yelling to myself out loud, because THIS ALL HAPPENED!!

So I want to talk about Rainbow Bondage Bear and Sugar Baby Bear (RBB and SBB) for a little bit. (link leads to a post of all pictures of them that had been posted to their twitter account @Rbbsbbofficial, before it was deactivated)

A timeline for RBB and SBB going up to Dec 12th, 2015 can be found here: Part 1 / Part 2 / Part 3 (i might add links here, because I'm sure a timeline post with screenshots exists here on Tumblr, too)

The second picture?? I had forgotten there weren’t just blue and green stickers with the daily emojis :) or :( on it, but also always TWO GIANT BLUE AND GREEN LIGHT BEAMS POINTED DIRECTLY AT THEM. like, you see how dark it is pre-show start. and those blue and green beams shine down there on those queens in the fur like the second coming of gay jesus - that was so iconic!

and then THIS happened???

and then the official RBB and SBB Twitter account tweeted this??

and then the number remained active for years!

PR-Louis: "Honestly, i'll tell u nao, hOnEsTlY! god's honest TrUth [...] no, honestly! i don't fink i've ever seen it in the.. in the flesh?" LMFAO Louis, love, if you say honestly 3 more times you might summon HIM:

but for real real -- i will never get over RBB and SBB and everything connected to it and this post is absolute emotional whiplash in the BEST way.

Harry and Louis (and everyone who helped them with it), y’all are legends for that. They knew we support them and they did ALL THAT and went those extra miles all the time to communicate back to us - to people who see them; understand the signs they send; who love them for who they are and support them through it all, in whichever small or bigger ways we can.

and I want to highlight, that sourcing all these different small props while almost constantly being on tour in different cities, countries, and continents took time and dedication. knowing tour life myself, the people who usually have the most (but still not much!) free time, are in fact the artists, not the crew. I want to make a point of this, because I saw some people back then saying Harry and Louis "wouldn't have time to do all this". They did.

In the entire context of Harry&Louis' relationship and within the inner workings of who and what One Direction was back then and still is - the queer legacy of RBB and SBB needs to be remembered.

The bears were so obviously something only between Harry&Louis and us. It was always clear who the bears wanted to communicate to. If you watch interviews of them being asked about them, you quickly realise -to this day-, they don't want to discuss them in this way.

Always ask yourself really why.

Always look for the things that are not being said; not being done.

Ask why the bears were clearly visible and there at so many shows and ALL of 1D completely ignored them, when they were so busy reading fan signs and picking up on writings on arms or flags in the crowd, making lighthearted jokes about it all, or Harry reading the "LARRY" on the arm of a fan and signalling his own arm to them like 'this, here!' and then giving multiple thumb ups? Harry and Louis (who were still very active on Twitter in 2014 and 2015) didn't Retweet or Like a single one of the bears' tweets, even though RBB and SBB were clearly linked to their shows, their locations, personal friends, live band members.

Most importantly, on Twitter and at shows, RBB and SBB were always referencing things that demonstrably exclusively tied to Harry&Louis' interests and personal lives. Sometimes even before it was made public.

RBB and SBB were an enigma that conveyed a powerful message. And they were one of the most fun and sweetest ways for Harry&Louis to communicate with us. I'm really grateful for their existence.

It should remain their personal choice to address them. I personally don't ever need to hear Harry and Louis publicly explain them to the world.

The people who know, know.

We know. 🧸🏳️‍🌈🧸

[landhinlove]

HELLO??

[neverhome333]

Honestly, I could probably move on if I could just come up with a non Larry explanation for the bears…and the tattoos…and the November 2014 timeline…and the video diaries… and well shit there are too many things… but I am tired of the gaslighting. I take breaks, but at some point that may not be enough. We are all choosing to be here, but man it can be painful. I’m trying to focus on the music, but it’s difficult. I enjoy interacting with people I’ve met along the way. The thing is, I’m not convinced they are still together, and while I hope they are, that is not why I became a fan. I go back and forth on what I believe everyday now. They would still be closeted even if they are not together, and I believe that is a possibility. Sorry if that makes people upset. Closeting and the industry is the enemy here. I allow for many possibilities. I don’t know how antis can genuinely look at the evidence and say without a doubt that nothing ever occurred between these two guys. I just wish the version we were seeing publicly of Louis was different right now. I also wish he was taking better care of himself and his voice. I worry about his memory problems. I actually have personal experience with how trauma can affect your memory. It also led to my being a workaholic who then ignored health problems till I could not anymore. I truly hope he talks to a therapist. I honestly think anybody who experiences his level of fame should. I’m scared Louis is either in too deep and won’t ever get out of the industry’s clutches or has sold his soul away to get this new round of promo. I hope it is just the culmination of years of hard work, but I’m not sure the industry works that way. I really do think Harry’s extended absence is somehow connected but I have too many thoughts on this to narrow it down. Sorry for the rant. Please ignore the typos and the grammatical mistakes. In fact, please ignore this whole rant. I’m going to do in-real-life things right now.

[marlodramatic]

rbb & sbb

[ssfoc]

Hi do you think Larry was also a publicity stunt before it get out of hand. I'm new fan and seems like you are here for so long to observe everything that happened. Harry's been using a gay/straight persona to play with people's fantasy post 1d and seems like he wants to keep larries around to support him. Despite Louis's hard opinion oon larries, he stays silent, can't he just dismiss larries and help Louis from harrassment from them. I don't understand this man. He's just very stupid in interviews.....

Hi,

I don’t think they really had to do much to encourage Larries after 2013; the fanbase took off on its own. In 2013-14, Larrie gifs on Tumblr would get thousands of notes overnight.

I’ve posted before about how the idea of Larry was pushed to the fore in 2015 to sell Made In The AM. It was a corporate push, but Harry and Louis participated.

Was there ever anything romantic between those two men? I believe so.

Regardless, by 2015, Larries were a majority of the One Direction fanbase (especially after Zayn left), and Sony counted on 1D fans to support Harry’s solo launch. Aside from the very expensive, all-out media blitz to market Harry Styles as the Alex Turner-Prince-Mick Jagger-David Bowie-Freddie Mercury of his generation, Sony (and Harry) had to get Larries onboard.

That meant that Harry had to keep his competition in check, but also maintain a façade of friendship and even romance.

Harry himself didn’t have to do very much other than wear certain pieces of clothing, choose certain songs to cover (Still the One, Hopelessly Devoted). His team scoured AO3 fanfiction to feed Larry back to an audience with purchasing power (e.g. the Eroda campaign). The fanbase interpreted all of these marketing tactics as Easter eggs and secret clues.

After 2019, Harry’s popularity expanded beyond One Direction fans. There was less need to refer to Larry, although larrybaiting is always good for sales (of Pleasing, albums, etc.) because 1D fans are loyal, and because 1D fans can’t reconcile themselves to being played.

Louis, however, didn’t release his first album until 2020, and to this day, the majority of his fans are Larries. Unfortunately, Louis missed the window to tour in 2020 because of the pandemic. Cue the blossoming of Larrie conspiracists, bored at home, reading fanfiction and imagining an ongoing romance between two men who were no longer in contact. His team has also been incredibly unimaginative in marketing Louis except as a former One Direction member, not exactly an image most indie fans warm up to.

This is a very brief summary.

[cantquitu]

"Can you believe GROWN ADULTS still believe that shit? "

Um yes actually I can. Knowing the power of human mind, the idea that bears were used to subtly signal messages is not that hard to believe.

If it was up to you lot, you guys would even refute Einstein's space time continuum theory cause "has anyone seen space and time?? Wym space-time is a continuum which can't be perceived but is the basis of reality? If it can't perceived by my senses that means it's fake obviously"

You can't perceive it, it's a you problem. Keep it to yourself.

"the idea that bears were used to subtly signal messages is not that hard to believe"