Au where at the end of the Promised Land, the cats want to have a religious war over Lister and Rimmer. Cat convinces them that they are married and so that other cats decide to worship them both,
Alisa U Zemlji Chuda
Aqua Utopia|海の底で記憶を紡ぐ

JBB: An Artblog!
DEAR READER
Game of Thrones Daily
No title available
No title available

izzy's playlists!
"I'm Dorothy Gale from Kansas"

pixel skylines
dirt enthusiast
Three Goblin Art
Sweet Seals For You, Always

Discoholic 🪩
Cosmic Funnies
occasionally subtle

tannertan36

PR's Tumblrdome
hello vonnie
🪼
seen from United States
seen from United States

seen from United States
seen from United States

seen from Singapore

seen from United States

seen from United States
seen from Russia

seen from United States
seen from United States
seen from United States
seen from United States

seen from United States

seen from United States

seen from United States

seen from Germany
seen from Colombia
seen from Netherlands

seen from Germany
seen from Malaysia
@thehappyastro
Au where at the end of the Promised Land, the cats want to have a religious war over Lister and Rimmer. Cat convinces them that they are married and so that other cats decide to worship them both,
It would have been cool to see a flashback scene from Lister's childhood, because we got one for Rimmer (the school one from The Beginning ep.) and seeing a slightly futuristic version of liverpool would have been cool. Or even just a flashback scene of him and his nan.
We were absolutely robbed of Lister flashbacks. Literally nothing between the baby scene in "Ouroboros" and 17 year old Lister in "Timeslides".
I have complained about this a lot in the past, but we get SO LITTLE INFO about Lister’s life before the show compared to Rimmer’s. 😡😡😡
The future in Red Dwarf is so funny and incredibly sad at the same time. In the 23rd century Lister and Rimmer service the vending machines because the robots have a better union. Those same vending machines have artificial intelligence and can demand equal rights and Liverpool still exists.
Then the accident comes, 3,000,000 years pass. All that is left of humanity is dead ships and ruins. Living in those ruins are the things we left behind. G.E.L.Fs (Genetically Engineered Life Forms) are all that remain along with the cat species and machines. We are gone, we had a stellar presence across the stars but thats all over.
Its a big empty universe and the only thing keeping the last human left sane is his asshole, slimy, neurotic bunkmate, the shallowest creature in the universe and a mechanical laundry man who is also the smartest one among them.
Its hilarious and so scary once you stop to think.
Series V Rimmer
This is intended as a way to collect some of the observations which I and many others have made about Rimmer in Series V on both LJ and Tumblr regarding how easily he can be read as struggling with his repressed homosexuality and attraction to Lister. If that isn’t your cup of tea, then don’t read.
I don’t claim to have come up with it all myself. If you recognise a particular point which you feel originated with you, link me and I’ll add the link to the post.
This isn’t really intended as serious meta. I’m not trying to convince people who disagree. It’s just a bit of fun.
If a quote is in bold, it’s my emphasis added.
Holoship
Ah yes, the episode in which Rimmer has sex with and falls in love with a beautiful woman - on the surface.
To me, the relationship comes across more as a previously polyamorous and unemotional woman developing feelings for a closeted gay man who’s so flattered by her attentions that he mistakes gratitude and affection for romantic love.
The deleted scene where she literally has to drag him to her bedroom is a good demonstration of this. Please note, I do think the sex was consensual, but Rimmer comes across as more “Oh, alright then”, when given some of his previous verbal references to sex, you might expect him to be a bit more enthusiastic.
And then there’s the scene where Nirvanah asks him why he doesn’t have regular sex twice a day like the crew of the Enlightenment. Rather than simply saying that he can’t have sex because he’s the only soft-light hologram on Red Dwarf or because all his crewmates are male, this is his response: “Well I mean some people – sad, lonely people – find that people just aren’t attracted to them in that kind of way.”
People. Not women.
The Inquisitor
Not much material here as this is a Lister and Kryten-centric episode, but we do still get this gem from alternate Rimmer:
RIMMER: Look, they come here with some cock-and-bull story, they’re chained together like Sidney Poitier and Tony Curtis – I say open the door to oblivion and kick ‘em through.
SECOND LISTER: Rimmer, no one’s killin’ no one, alright?
LISTER: Yeah, right!
RIMMER: Look, they’re from some freaky alternative dimension, they’ve come here to hijack this ship and do… oooh, weird things to us.
Come on, did anyone hear that line and think he meant anything other than anal probes? :p
Terrorform
In which Rimmer gets kidnapped and threatened with buggery by his own Self-Loathing Beast (voiced by Chris) and is saved by Lister telling him he loves him.
What? I’m describing the plot. :p
To be honest, this one is so self-evident to me that I’ll simply add some episode quotes:
DRUID: In accordance with the appetites of the Dark One, the vicious ruler of this domain, we, the hooded legions, proffer up this sacrifice to slake the vile depraved thirstings of the Unspeakable One.
Who turns out to be Rimmer’s Self-Loathing Beast i.e. himself.
RIMMER: This Master character – and I acknowledge that I may not want to know the full answer to this one – but why does he want me oily in particular? Obviously, whatever he has in mind is facilitated by my being slippery and pliant, yes?
RIMMER: Why’re you all looking at me like that? Like, as if this is all my fault? Have you any idea what kind of day I’ve had? I’ve been kidnapped, stripped, oiled, menaced, manacled, licked, nibbled, chained, tortured, humiliated, and I nearly had a knobbly thing the size and shape of a Mexican agave cactus jammed up where only customs men dare to probe.
CAT: Don’t you know what this place is?
RIMMER: Yes, it’s a hell hole. It’s a nightmare. It’s a stinking infested pit of putridness.
LISTER: Rimmer, it’s _your mind_.
Quarantine
The main thing which stands out to me here is the gingham outfit. I stress that I do realise that a penchant for female drag and being a gay man are not the same thing at all.
However, it seems to me to be exactly the kind of stereotype which young Rimmer would have picked up in the 1950s type environment of Io and therefore which his subconscious might project onto himself once the holovirus takes over.
And if it’s simply a symptom of the holovirus, why was Dr Lanstrom dressed in fairly nondescript clothing?
Demons And Angels
Oh God, where do I start? :p
Actually, with the Highs. As @allsortsofsmeg put it elsewhere, they were all shown to be flowery and romantic, but High Lister and High Rimmer are alone when they make this declaration to each other, which serves no obvious plot purpose:
HIGH LISTER: Have I told thee today how much I love thee, brother? How much my heart glimmers like a newborn star when I gaze upon thine beauteous countenance?
HIGH RIMMER: Thy love refreshes and cleanses me like a babbling mountain stream, brother.
And then, of course, we have Low Rimmer, who isn’t just LGBT-coded, he’s canonically LGBT.
LISTER: Holy smeg!
LOW RIMMER: Hello, my pretty.
LISTER: What do you want with me?
LOW RIMMER: I want to hurt you.
LISTER: Why?
LOW RIMMER: Because I’m not a very nice person.
LOW RIMMER produces an iridescent blue whip-like object, and lashes
LISTER with it. LISTER clutches at his head where the lash struck him.
LISTER: A holo-whip!
LOW RIMMER: I’m going to lash you to within an inch of your life. And then I’m going to have you.
Honestly, if anyone has an explanation for this which isn’t that he’s a deeply closeted man whose repressed desire and love for Lister are manifesting in these two “worst” and “best” versions of himself, then let’s hear it.
(And don’t come at me with “It’s a sitcom, they just thought it would be funny” because frankly, what’s funny about it?)
Back To Reality
The major indication here, as many have pointed out, is the fact that when Rimmer thinks he has a more successful half-brother in the hallucination, he’s driven to attempt suicide.
Hello? Regular Rimmer has three more successful brothers and has never shown any suicidal tendencies outside of this episode.
If, on the other hand, his repressed desire for Lister is now even more taboo because he thinks they’re brothers, that is a fresh blow to his psyche which could credibly lead to despair.
The final scene of “Back To Reality” is a quiet, subdued affair as the relieved crew prepare to blast off in Starbug and Rimmer looks the calmest that he has for the whole of Series V, as though his temporary relief at not being related to the man he loves has given him peace for the time being.
It won’t last, of course, because he’s Rimmer.
Feel free to add your own contributions in the comments. :)
SO many good points here, but I really want to draw attention to this bit:
And then there’s the scene where Nirvanah asks him why he doesn’t have regular sex twice a day like the crew of the Enlightenment. Rather than simply saying that he can’t have sex because he’s the only soft-light hologram on Red Dwarf or because all his crewmates are male, this is his response: “Well I mean some people – sad, lonely people – find that people just aren’t attracted to them in that kind of way.”
People. Not women.
You know, in all the times I have waxed poetic about the slashiness of this show, I don’t think that particular line has ever jumped out at me, but… holy crap. They could have EASILY had Rimmer bringing up the all-male crew, and shown being disgusted at the very notion that he would have sex with any of them: “Sleep with Lister? I’d sooner hump an Indian buffet!” Instead, they give him THAT line.
Hot damn. This show is so gay.
Self-indulgently reblogging another post which recently reappeared in my notes. :)
Just rewatched Demons and Angels, and I can never not be fascinated by Rimmer’s low self and the insight it gives into his (predictably) messed-up psyche.
“These are our higher selves. They are the people we could have become if all the negative aspects of our characters were removed.”
Kryten says this about their higher selves, and we’re shown the opposite is true for the low selves: they’re the people they could have become with the positives removed.
So why is Rimmer violent, sadistic, kinky, and open about wanting Lister sexually? He manifests as stereotypes - the leather, piercings, whips and chains, stockings, fishnets, the feathers and spikes. He’s lewd and revealing, overt and even a little camp. Deep down, Rimmer views all those things as negatives of his personality - defects, desires to be repressed. This is who he could be if he didn’t push it all sensibly and respectably down. This is part of him, explicitly, canonically. He exists, with a H that can’t even go on straight.
Rimmer lumps his repressed homosexuality in with the other perversions until they’re all one and the same, his attraction to Lister at an even level to wanting to hurt him. Indistinguishable. He whips Lister whilst voicing his plan to have him; the attraction itself is a violent thought and hypothetical act. His queerness is his deep, festering corruption.
And it’s no doubt a symptom of his upbringing and environment with abusive parents and Io’s general attitude, but it’s still so sad that Rimmer views himself as so wrong. His low self is just an amalgamation of all his internalised homophobia aimed squarely at himself.
Lines in Red Dwarf that make me want to gnaw furniture because they trailed off or got interrupted:
"You're right, I don't like you. I don't like what you stand for. But for some weird reason... Oh, I don't know. What is the point? Everything always goes wrong for me."
"Two babies? How do I get two babies...?"
"I assume, sir, you are making fatuous references to his sexuality. If I may just point out-"
What did you mean by that, Rob Grant and Doug Naylor? Why did you choose to cut off those conversations where you did? Why did you include them in the first place? Genuinely, what the fuck?
AU where the boys stay with Legion and so now his full-time goal is trying to get Rimmer and Lister together
I still think the bunkroom conversation in Thanks For the Memory, when Rimmer is telling Lister he only ever wanted to love and to have been loved, is another attempt at confessing his feelings.
He's drunk and vulnerable enough to admit that focusing solely on his career was a mistake, and that Lister was actually right all along, before singing his sad little version of Someone To Watch Over Me (a song from Oh, Kay! about falling for someone who only seems to have eyes for somebody else).
Throughout, Rimmer is playing the pronoun game. Lister talks about Rimmer meeting the right girl, Rimmer never corrects him, but speaks only in gender neutral terms about his potential love interests.
Everything about it just screams repressed guy testing the waters while his inhibitions are lowered.
red dwarf show vs novels is crazy because you watch the show and you're like 'wow this is really funny! some of these sci-fi concepts are really cool though, i wish they were explored more' and then you read the novels and its like oh.
"He's taking the smeg!" "Who is?" "Queeg. Look what he's given me for dinner. A pea on toast."
"One pea! I tell ya, I'm that 🤏 far from cracking!"
attempts to cut the pea with a knife
"..." "I've lost me pea! Oh that's it! I've cracked!"
As much as I love s3-onwards of red dwarf, s1 & 2 do such a great job at showing the quiet devastating loneliness of their situation. Plus it all feels very atmospheric w/ the observation dome scenes in s2
Red Dwarf: my series rankings
i gave it a lot of thought (bearing in mind my rimmer/lister ship goggles) and here goes...
Series 2 - no notes pure perfection
Series 1 - immaculate. Rimmer at his bitchiest this series too. <3
Series 3 - OMMMMMMM. OMMMMMMM. also Lister and Rimmer feel really pally and soft together this series.
Series 5 - Terrorform. enough said. Mr Flibble is very cross.
Series 4 - solid series. love Justice and DNA especially.
The Promised Land - MOONLIGHT. MOONLIGHT. JUST KISS.
Series 6 - personally a bit overrated to me. I missed Red Dwarf and Holly too much. but i do enjoy Out of Time for that dramatic ending.
Series 11 - Love Krysis! Top tier ep.
Series 12 - M-Corp and Skipper are the stand outs <3
Series 10- young Rimmer in 'the Beginning' is perfection though??
Back to Earth - enjoyed parts of this, but the lack of laugh track made me uncomfortable
Series 7 - i appreciate they were attempting something different. didn't work for me though.
Series 8 -loathe it.
do you agree? disagree? am i weird for not liking series 6 as much as everyone else seems to lol
obsessed with rimmer's hands on hips and crouchy pose here
So...I just saw the Terrorformer episode of Red Dwarf. I knew about That One Scene of Rimmer held captive. What I really want to talk about is how the newly risen ghosts of his self-esteem are dressed as pink-clad musketeers. When he faces the physical manifestation of self-loathing, he is stripped and bound, oiled up and very vulnerable. When he regains the slightest bit of confidence and self-worth, those manifestation are dressed up in unapologetically frilly period costumes. They aren't emasculated by it or anything less than a invigorated by the affection that made them manifest. I know Rimmer's desperate attempts to be seen as macho are played for laughs but damn, it really illustrates just what a vice grip toxic masculinity has on him, particularly the kind that his family promoted. It seeps into everything else.
their bunk room scenes in series 2 are everything <3
I love that Rimmer being dead really affects him in the early series.
Rimmer is someone who never lived his life when he was alive. He disappointed both himself and his family, and is unable to do anything about it except reflect on it until Lister dies. He was the worst person to be brought back as a hologram in that regard
I also love the (unintentional) metaphor of Rimmer being gay through being a hologram. The idea of him hating a part of himself that he is unable to change, as well as holograms being oppressed (more clearly seen in the novels). I wish there was more emphasis on Rimmer coming to accept that he's dead, but oh well
I guess they thought Rimmer bringing up that he's dead every 10 seconds got annoying, which is a shame because him being dead is such an integral part of his character. As much as I love hard-light Rimmer, if I was given the chance to reboot Red Dwarf, I'd have him be soft-light for the vast majority of it
Technically Red Dwarf is a work place comedy and I love that