I saw your tags on my dnp 1984 comic!!! I’m so glad people are reading into this, that is what every artist wants 🥹 It is said in 1984 that gay partnerships are just as much- no more, no less- criminal than any kind of romantic partnership. So technically a man and a woman having a sexual relationship out of wedlock with no intention of having children (like Winston and Julia) is no better than two men having a sexual relationship.
It would probably be easier for them in some ways, like you said it would probably be easier to pass off as friendship, though any sort of romance or intimacy (or discussion of rebellious topics) would have to be hidden in the way Julia and Winston canonically hide it. Of course 1984 was written in 1948 when gay couples weren’t exactly embraced by society but if we think about 1984 as a separate universe than dnp wouldn’t have as much internalized homophobia as they would have an internalized aversion to romance itself (perhaps assuming that they were born a little later into the Party’s regime and they grew up with the idea that all romance is evil)
I don’t remember if there is a character in 1984 that goes by a nickname but I think it would be super cute for dnp to give each other the nicknames of Dan and Phil as they get closer :)
Oh that would be interesting to consider, then, where there’s less homophobia but instead a view of romance and sex as something forbidden. (Although, would the sexual relationship be harder, considering that they might need lube, something that I think would be difficult to access? But also easier, no risk of accidental pregnancy. (It always confuses me in apocalypse movies when a straight couple just decides to have sex. I think it’s just that I’m ace maybe, but risking pregnancy just seems like a bad idea if they’re already struggling to feed themselves, plus babies also aren’t exactly quiet or low maintenance. Not that this really has anything to do with a Dan and Phil and 1984 crossover, I suppose.) Accidental pregnancy might be worse, actually. How would they hide that? Doesn’t Winston have a wife still, because they can’t divorce?) Instead of internalized/general homophobia, still having to hide the relationship but even more carefully, and very limited time to see each other would certainly change how the relationship progresses. Slower, because they talk less, but at the same time faster, because they’re really the only person to be close and honest with, especially after years of loneliness, plus with the risk they’re definitely squeezing all they can into the limited time they get. Still, it might be easier in the long run to excuse some minor closeness, but based on the comic, they seem pretty obvious and would have to avoid each other where they’re being watched, otherwise they’d get figured out pretty quick, so it might not really have too much of an overall impact.
But how would being in 1984 affect their personalities? Neither Winston nor Julia seemed to be cheerful, a result of the setting, so it would definitely affect their characters. But would they both agree with the sentiment that they are already dead? Living like that has to kill so much about someone, especially if they have very few memories of before. (Would that be better or worse? Memories provide comfort but remind you of what you’ve lost.) Their jobs too, I don’t recall Julia’s, but Winston’s was like newspaper propaganda, which, if Phil has an English degree, something with words would make sense, so probably something along those lines? (No YouTube though, and just very limited things in general. Wearing the same thing and living in a dull and uncustomized apartment, etc. I think I read the graphic novel at some point, and it was mostly colourless, which I liked, but it only made the world that much more depressing. I think the movie had a little more colour?) I think too, at first I’m pretty sure Winston was suspicious of Julia, but with Dan and Phil, I could also see them both crushing from afar before Dan slips Phil the note. (I may be misremembering, but I think some of the hatred came from her being a young woman, someone he considered highly susceptible to the propaganda, and also her being part of an anti-sex league?)
I think the idea of them calling each other nicknames is sweet, and I like the idea of it in this au. Something to connect them, something private and special, and would also make for a good thing to add to the ending, depending on how it goes. Either they could keep the nicknames, show that the love remains, or drop them and kind of further show the distance. (I’m a sucker for when the use of names/nicknames have meaning, it’s always so interesting how it’s done.)
Speaking of the ending, though, would be extremely interesting to consider. In the book, I believe they end up loving Big Brother and no longer having any love left for each other, something which made sense for the book. If I recall, in the movie they still said they loved each other, (although it’s been a few years and the only place I can find mentioning the movie ending is Wikipedia) which although a more hopeful ending, in my mind defeats the purpose of the book. (Apparently, there was an older movie in which they both got shot, which, although I believe that ending was disliked, is still an interesting possibility.) It’s Dan and Phil, so I automatically want them to get a happy ending, but it’s also 1984, which doesn’t have a happy ending, so how do those two blend? The original ending, but they keep the nicknames maybe, and keep the love they have even if they can’t be together or see each other? But losing the nicknames would also be very interesting to show the shift in dynamic, even if it is a sadder ending, it is maybe more realistic.
(Hopefully this makes sense and isn’t too repetitive, I just think the idea of these mixing would be very interesting.)
cut for the poor soul who scrolled upon this
I can confirm a few things about the original 1984 story: Winston does technically still have a wife but they haven't seen each other in years and she was not plot-relevant. Winston did hate Julia at first because he assumes young women were the most fervent supporters of the party. (lowkey misogyny but it was 1948 I guess it's to be expected.) I don't remember Julia's job either but they did work in the same building and saw each other at mealtimes.
the basic idea for the au is that somehow Dan Howell and Phil Lester end up where Julia and Winston were at the start of the 1984 book. where they go from there diverges based solely off of the fact that they are not Julia and Winston but Dan and Phil. they have different beliefs and values.
the comic was made mostly so that phannies who also like 1984 can recognize the scene and think "oh that's a cool idea!" but thinking about it more, it really is an interesting au to consider. how it plays out significantly depends on if the story keeps Orwell's very pessimistic message or if it goes for something more romantic. I am a sucker for a happy ending, but the reason I love 1984 is because of how it is unafraid it is to end on such a dark theme. I have only read the original novel, and, yeah, by the end of it, Julia and Winston have been successfully brainwashed by the party. they truly have no love for each other. their final act was, as they were being tortured in room 101, to demand that the other should instead be subjected to the torture to save themselves. and, in that moment, they believed it and truly wished for it. out of pure, selfish instinct to live. and that was what convinced the party that they loved big brother and that it was safe for them to be freed.
I'll get back to the ending, but before I do, it is important to answer one question: is Dan and Phil's love stronger than Julia and Winston's? I think the answer is, quite obviously, absolutely. when I read 1984, I always felt that Julia and Winston had little to no chemistry. basically, he hated her, she confessed her love to him, suddenly he realizes he hated her for no reason, they sex, they talk about how the party is bad, they fundamentally disagree on certain subjects, they sex, they get caught, they betray each other. maybe I'm just asexual but that seems like an extremely shallow relationship to me and I believe it is one of 1984's fatal flaws.
that is certainly not the case for Dan and Phil. fine, they're lovers, phan is real, whatever, but they're also best friends. companions through life. like, actual soulmates. in every universe. and no matter how their spark would certainly be dimmed by the world of 1984, that bond- neither platonic nor romantic, but a secret third thing- is still there, strong as ever. I imagine that Phil would never hate Dan and would instead love him from afar. they would eat lunch together for the first time and discuss nothing of importance. they would meet in the woods and discuss things of importance. they would have sex. they would be in love. they would call each other by nicknames. they would be best friends for the party and soulmates for each other... much like in the real world.
when they get caught- in the lore accurate way or perhaps just in the night, by the thought police, for being too close to each other, whether platonic or romantic- they would succumb to the brainwashing. they would get brought into room 101. and from here, there are three possible, vastly different endings.
the first is that is plays out exactly how it does in 1984. in a selfish moment, they throw the other under the bus, and they mean it. their love is gone. the party wins. they love big brother. they meet up one last time, and only refer to each other as "Daniel" and "Philip." this ending would be shocking, considering the theme of soulmates throughout the rest of the story, and perhaps a light theme of "love conquers all." (this wasn't in my synopsis but if I were to actually write this I would definitely include that as a theme, unless I were planning for this ending in which case I would leave it out.) I don't like this ending.
the second is that, in room 101, the torture kills them. they do not betray one another. they die in that room. I like this ending better, especially if they were super super established as soulmates. the point of the decision to betray your lover is that it is in a moment of pure selfishness. you don't care about them. your love is gone. if Dan and Phil were shown to be true soulmates, it would be implied that in those crucial moments that it is impossible for them to sacrifice the other in selfishness because they are intertwined. to sacrifice themselves WOULD be to sacrifice the other because they are each other’s other half. it’s a lot more metaphorical and a lot more romantic, but I quite like it.
the third is that they do sacrifice each other, but they don’t mean it. this one requires them to realize what it is the party wants ahead of time. they allow themselves to be taken to room 101 and they allow the torture to start, all in the knowledge that what the party wants is for them to give up their love. so they do. and it is enough to convince the party. they are let free. eventually they meet up. they are both completely intellectually brainwashed by the party, but not emotionally. they still love each other. (and they still hate big brother.) but they realize it is too dangerous to be together now that they’ve convinced the party that they’ve been emotionally brainwashed. they meet up one last time. they call each other by their nicknames. and they part ways. in theory, i like this one for its balance of romance and tragedy, but it makes very little logical sense to me. it would require a whole lot of foresight from dnp after their minds have already been very, very damaged only to completely give up on what is clearly the main reason you even want to be set free. not to mention that the torturers are very good at knowing when a person is lying.
overall, it is very difficult to preserve both the original themes of 1984 and the theme of "Dan and Phil are soulmates" without making the party significantly less powerful. and that kind of ruins the whole point. so, yeah, choose your preferred ending. the romantic one where they both die or the lore-accurate one where they betray each other.
I think that their love is definitely stronger than Julia’s and Winston’s. From how their relationship was portrayed, I always kind of assumed it was a relationship of convenience, built upon a mutual dislike from the party as opposed to a love of each other. (Then again, I’ve been told I’m bad at reading emotions.) I would like to think that in this au, Phil would have been crushing on Dan from afar, as you said, which would give the relationship a stronger foundation from the get-go. (I mean, in the beginning I think Winston says that the sex they had was a political act, and he also states that she had become a physical necessity, something he felt a right to, as well as admitting that his attraction to her had grown over time as opposed to being pre-existing. Generally, I don’t think a relationship can be particularly strong if one partner feels entitled to the other’s body.) If, from the beginning, both loved and respected each other, I doubt it would have been so easy for them to betray each other. I also do think, as you said, that they are truly best friends. (And maybe it’s the aromantic in me, but I feel that that aspect is super important to a romantic relationship? Your partner should be someone you feel safe with, someone you love, someone you trust, someone who you can communicate with and come to understand and accept.) To me, Winston and Julia’s relationship seemed fairly skin deep. But as Dan and Phil have said, they both fell into it hard and fast, and we’ve seen them interact over many years, and they seem to understand each other so well, and they have chemistry in a way that I didn’t see with Julia and Winston. They care for each other, not just what the other represents or allows for them. I do also wonder, if Winston and Julia had not been caught, would their relationship have survived? Like, we know DnP were in the closet under the public eye for some 16ish years, right? And while it can’t have been easy, their relationship survived and is extremely strong. From this, we can assume that they’d be more resilient to things that the characters had to experience in 1984. Winston and Julia, I really don’t think would have survived for so long in a relationship, nor do I think it would have happened had they existed in a setting outside of 1984. (Even rereading the third part of the book, I can find Winston saying that he loves Julia, but it was a known fact rather than something he felt, which is rather telling.) It seems very unlikely that both couples would have the same reaction, if it came down to having to make that choice.
Considering the ending of the book is extremely interesting. I absolutely adore happy endings, and very rarely ever choose to read sad ones, unless they’re both compelling, and fitting for the narrative. However, I do think sometimes authors can be afraid of harsh endings and plots, which is completely fair, but still sometimes a dark ending can be well done. The problem, to me, is if the ending seems cheap or pointless. I enjoy a specific author’s thrillers, but they always have unnecessarily dark endings, and so I’m expecting them, they don’t cause any reaction. I think one of the books has the mc surviving and finally escaping the island, with the perpetrators caught, only for one of them to escape and jump into the sea, pulling her in. At that point, it feels like it’s a dark endjng for the sake of a dark ending. What I like specifically about 1984 is that the ending feels logical, and it has a purpose. The party is supposed to be all-powerful, and it is. Winston is broken, as is Julia. It feels realistic, like something that would actually happen in that scenario, with that relationship, with those characters. However, DnP are not Winston and Julia, and the purpose of this AU isn’t meant to be a cautionary tale, so I think that for them, it makes sense to have a different ending.
While I wasn’t a huge fan of them dying in resistance to the party because I don’t think the party would let them off the hook that easily (not when brainwashing would further break them, as well as be a further warning and a more decisive victory over them), I think that them dying for each other, refusing to sell each other out in room 101 makes for a much better potential ending. (I can think of several people in my life I’d sooner die than send off to their own death, I don’t see why that wouldn’t happen in a strong relationship, plus we already know that their relationship exists outside of the bounds of 1984, and you don’t usually end up in a 16-year relationship just because it’s easy, especially not under such scrutiny.) Although, would it count as a happy ending? Maybe bittersweet, I think, but it makes more sense for them as characters, considering their connection is deeper than hating the party. I just can’t imagine ever selling out someone you truly love. (Again, could just be me, but to be fair, when looking at history one could probably find countless examples of similar, selfless actions that put the doer in harm’s way but result in saving others.) I do think the ending of both dying can be considered romantic in a way that betraying each other is certainly not. (I mean, isn’t Romeo and Juliet like one of the most well known romance books? Star-crossed lovers is a fairly popular romance trope. I also think that while maybe not a healthy way to think, there is something romantic about not being able to really live without the other, or someone else being the other half of your soul. Not that I particularly believe in soulmates, but something about the idea of a red string connecting you to your other half is a beautiful idea.) I do also just think that it makes a more compelling ending, allowing characters we feel attached to keep their dignity and love for each other, even in death.
Comparatively, the original ending felt much more fitting for Winston and Julia, characters I had no deep attachment to, characters who I never really got to see thrive, and seeing what 1984 was meant to represent. With their relationship and what we know of their characters, them betraying each other doesn’t really come as a surprise. (Side note: I wonder if they have multiple room 101s. Winston is mentioned having heard whispers about it in prison, so the name could be a fear thing. Having only one room seems extremely inefficient, unless there were so few prisoners of the party. However, Winston is (I think) middle-aged or somewhere in that realm, and he has a few memories of what it was like prior to the party, so they can’t have been around all that long. There still must be a fair amount of hope.) While it’s a possible ending for a DnP 1984 AU, I don’t know if it would truly be satisfying, and I think when it comes to fan content like fanart and fanfiction and AUs, I think that the point is more to show love for pieces of media or characters as opposed to keeping the original themes, so the original ending probably makes less sense for this. Plus, I don’t know if I can envision DnP betraying each other, considering that we’ve established that their relationship is significantly stronger. (And maybe it’s just me, but I think that as characters, I would definitely see them viewing death as the kinder option as opposed to becoming hollow. I honestly don’t know how anyone survived 1984, a life like that would have to be absolutely miserable. I think at one point, Winston wishes for a razor before saying he’s unsure if he’d use it, which he’s already in prison atp, so maybe just different views on life.)
I also do think, for them sacrificing each other but keeping their love would make some sense for them. In terms of figuring out what the party wants from them, it is fairly logical to realize that the issue is the love they have for each other, something that gives them will and reason to defy the party outside of their own life. I think that too, the party weaponizes people, right, with things the hate moment (or whatever it was called?), where everyone kind of succumbs to it. I read that as a ‘look at what humans can so easily become,’ and doing that removes hope. Showing people who used to hate the party who now adore it serves as a warning for others, ‘look what happens to you if you stand up against the party, you lose yourself.’ So logically, I think that them expecting something like this could definitely make a lot of sense, and in doing so, surely they would discuss what they would do, as I would think that they communicate with each other fairly well. Convincing the party that they’ve been brainwashing is extremely unlikely to be easy, but assuming the part expects it to work on them, as it has in the past, might be possible for them to accomplish this. I do think that in this ending, it might make sense for them to meet up one final time before parting, and then having them calling each other by their nicknames, ones that no one else would really call them, only to separate would be both romantic and tragic. However, I also don’t quite know if they would see much of a point of living, miserable and apart and remembering so clearly what they’re missing out on, as well as being under extra scrutiny by the party and not only having to worry for themself but the other as well. (It seems likely that they would be separated at work, not allowed really any interaction, in which case they might be left wondering how the other is doing. Surely that would crush them.) I could see this ending possibly cumulating in suicide from one or both of them, if they would be able to under the party’s watchful eye, but it makes less sense to me than the second ending, as well as just being sadder, having their last memories of each other being tainted by torture and betrayal, which even if false, still must be extremely difficult to live with. (Or die with, I suppose.) Or, if they live, they live in misery, with somewhat comforting feelings and memories, which would eventually become too painful to bear.
Trying to imagine another potential ending in which they manage to hide better doesn’t really fit either. While they managed to hide their relationship for years, there was speculation, something that the party would likely be acting on. In addition, they had privacy inside their own house/apartment. Big Brother was everywhere, including inside their own houses. They would be meeting pretty rarely, for only short moments of time. At some point, they would get cocky, or desperate, or greedy, or whatever else, but they would want more. (Fair enough, I can’t imagine being able to be content with so little time together, not for a relationship as big as theirs.) And while logically they would know that more is impossible, eventually the logic wouldn’t be enough, and they’d be caught anyway, which would take us back to one of the three other endings.
Considering all of this, though, I don’t think I could really say that there is a correct ending, or that only one isn’t worth considering. All are extremely interesting in their own ways, and I think that they all have potential. I guess it really depends on whether one focuses more on the DnP of it all or the aspects of 1984, but I feel like regardless of the ending, it makes for such an interesting idea.
(My apologies for the large blocks of text. Tumblr is not allowing me to fix it without deleting all of it.)
Further minor addition, I swear there’s a Muse song related to 1984, right? I think it’s Resistance?? (I mean doesn’t it name drop the thought police at some point?) Not that the song is particularly important, but I feel compelled to mention that I think the song is a good fit for the AU. (Is this even worth mentioning? Probably not but it’s been stuck in my head today, as has this AU.)
Feels interesting for Julia and Winston, though, considering that to me, it seems quite likely that Winston did not truly love Julia as Julia, moreso loved her as a political act and lust. I just don’t see a word in which you describe your feelings about someone you truly love as a fact you know as opposed to something you feel. (Or is this something I just don’t get?)
And while I fear that analyzing songs isn’t my strong suit, the song just… reminds me of DnP in general? (+ They both mentioned liking Muse, so I feel like that makes it more fitting.) Having to keep their love a secret, being terrified of being found out, but then also with the idea of love being a resistance, and maybe while love as a whole isn’t illegal, queer love still is in a lot of places, as well as the idea of them hiding their relationship even among lots of speculation while managing to still keep it so strong is definitely extremely resilient. Also just them being each other’s comfort and safe space when it could definitely feel like the whole world was against them.
