Brother, we need to talk!
You’re dazzlingly correct. You’re perhaps the most-correct anyone could be about Stan and Kyle and I love you for it.
Canon Style would be huge positive commentary on the shifting dynamic of LGBT+ acceptance in young people. Like- imagining what it’d be like to watch Stan Marsh grapple with queer identity in such an overt (and with M+T, I’m sure it’d be sympathetic) way...I can’t even describe how validating that would’ve felt to my teenage self in high school. I would’ve wept. I would’ve been inconsolable for weeks. It would’ve changed my brain chemistry in a fundamental way.
From a storytelling perspective, I get why we're calling it delusional. I just don't think it is...I mean, it's such an obvious concept and one that the writers have known that fans latched onto (there's Style fanfic as old as I am), so I'm sure they've considered doing something with it multiple times.
But, it is a risk- it's one that, weighing how much I want Stan and Kyle to kiss vs how much I’d like to keep getting South Park episodes in the future...I’d still want them to take...
South Park is an episodic show. That’s what gives it longevity- what makes it evergreen. It’s incredibly difficult to make changes to the main characters without them becoming a serialization plot points, and putting two of the main characters in a situation that potentially develops into them dating is a massive change.
The show’s handled serialization well because they avoid major overt changes to the main characters. They mostly just carry over background changes to background characters and sometimes make jokes about older episodes. The few characterization points that come up consistently about the main four exist more like love letters to the devoted fans that would notice them- and less like required knowledge built into the Lore of the show. When I consider the two most heavily-serialized characters: Randy and Mr. Garrison, it makes me increasingly-frustrated any time character-altering plot points get added to the main four (Tegridy Farms doesn’t exist in the South Park of my heart, and the Cartmans getting their house back was like breathing again). The thing that made season 26 so great (in my opinion) is how much it honored the episodic format that South Park needs to survive.
That’s not to say serialization would be a bad thing. Growth is what makes fans invested in characters and you only get that with serialization. But, the format of South Park as commentary on the most ridiculous, most-batshit and often-irritating aspects of society means that the plotlines that get carried through multiple episodes often develop in ways that just aren’t satisfying if you enjoy the existing dynamic of the characters and the archetypes they represent. South Park has its cake and gets to eat it too by introducing growth in cycles that maintain those archetypes while slowly incorporating new aspects that are easy to digest if someone didn’t see where that aspect originated (casual viewers don’t need to know that Tegridy Farms started as a dig against vaping or follow every step of Randy’s mid-life crisis to accept that he’s a weed farmer now).
As much as I love Style conceptually, as a plot point, it’d be uniquely difficult to maintain without hurting the core dynamic of the show. Childhood friends going through often-adult situations is the premise of South Park, and Stan and Kyle’s relationship is the glue that holds the main four together in that regard. Everything that keeps viewers invested in the show hinges on Stan and Kyle being in each others’ lives, and any time the show’s played with splitting them up, it has to reset things because of that.
Kyle summed it up perfectly in the Post Covid Special: “You lose everything when you lose this friendship.” He isn’t just talking about himself, he’s talking about the entire show. Everything relies on their friendship.
So- we exist in an equilibrium. We’ve seen what happens when the show disrupts it in the negative and breaks Stan and Kyle up. We haven’t seen what happens if they tip them in the positive and push the characters’ friendship into romance. There’d be a totally different set of plot points that would come out of that dynamic.
The question is really- how long would the writers want to play with those plot points?
Realistically, I could see them doing it and getting a lot of really good content out of it. It’d be a fun arc and I have full-faith that Matt and Trey and the team would nail it without pulling any punches. Having feelings for your best friend and being messy and complicated about it is a huge part of a lot of the LGBT+ experience for a lot of kids.
But, again- because of the episodic format South Park needs, once they’re done with that plot, they’d need to find a way back to equilibrium or find a satisfying way to tie off the show with an ending that does keep Style together. As I’m sure people are pointing out, because Stan and Kyle are Matt and Trey’s insert characters, the latter is unlikely. That doesn’t mean the former is impossible.
They have a couple options:
Kyle does not return Stan’s feelings and they never get together (agree. stupid idea. send them to the contraptions)
They try dating, suck at it, and break up (also bad and unrealistic. the way they get along as friends, they’d get along as a couple with fun and realistic challenges- plus, breaking them up after an overall bad relationship would probably result in people taking sides on whose fault their breakup was which is never a good idea for the creators’ enjoyment of writing these characters. best not to vilify your own self-inserts to the most-involved factions of your fandom.)
They try dating, are good together, but break up anyway with a mutual desire to be friends instead (at least for now).
Three is a really good option, and I’d kill to see it. Not only nailing the representation LGBT+ kids crave, but also doing it in a way that emphasizes the boys’ friendship without making it subordinate to a romantic dynamic. I could see a lot of ways the characters could decide that they would rather be friends while leaving it open and obvious that the feelings are still there. Maybe they decide they're not mature enough to be in a serious relationship like that yet, maybe they don't like the change in how everyone treats hanging out with them when they're a couple, maybe they feel an added pressure to be romantic with each other that neither of them enjoys or knows how to avoid. There are tons of good reasons friends might like each other but not want to date. Putting Stan and Kyle's relationship in that category resets the episodic format for the show to continue in its status quo with the added benefit of leaving the characters open for shipping fans to play with the ideas about how they might get together in the future. Plus- I don’t think this dynamic’s been done a lot in media, especially not with a same-sex couple, so it’d be groundbreaking to see it with the main characters of South Park.
So yeah- I know we're all counting it out as unlikely. But I really think they should take the risk!
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