in a room full of people...

*** a December Timeline believer, and a NY Commitment believer ( iyky ) ***sometimes i write fics, think pieces, a lot of times it's just VibesTM and nonsense *** HR - Hudcon - bookworm *** she/her - old as balls ***

This is a bit of an extensive sort of analysis / yap / opinion about the “friendship”, or more like, the lack of it. Most of it is just expanding on stuff already discussed with other hudcon homies and my close circle who aren’t fans at all, and I’m just organizing some of my own thoughts and my takes. Mostly because I still don’t understand the movements made by both of them, and their teams to be honest, when it comes to what they call a “best friend” connection. Disclaimer: I’m trying to avoid my hudcon truther thoughts in this for a little bit, and also not considering the very clear PR choices from their team. This is more an exercise in looking at it from a non-truther perspective.

Season 1 Promo Tornado.

I think we can all agree that the season 1 promo run was kind of insane, and a lot, in a good way. Crave really invested a lot of time and effort into the social media side of it, right from the start the cast was doing tiktok trends and the boys were doing a LOT of short vids, and youtube videos. Overall this was a good way to showcase their personality and connection, and to create buzz. I’m sure some interviews were pre-planned, but after the first two episodes were released things really snowballed a little. I have a feeling that the demand got very high, very fast, resulting in some non-agreed sections like TeenVogue and Buzzfeed, the podcasts etc. This was great to establish the friendship for the fans, and to grow the fanbase through regular media. It worked swimmingly, and it has been enough to set up their connection in a “very close and awesome co-stars” state. Regular and new fans got all that they could want or need from this promo run, and more.

Weaving the narrative web.

In my opinion, after the show finished airing, it would have been quite easy to keep the friendship narrative going without too much hassle, right? They were already doing things separately, and aligning their schedules:  different late night shows, separate appearances, separate events and brands, even events where they were expected to be they are not arriving together and so forth. In January Hudson did the infamous interview with Wonderland and discussed his professional boundaries and relationship with Connor, stating: "We want to be different artists. We don't want to be the Olsen twins. We want to be Connor and Hudson, with different filmographies and different deals. As much as we love each other, our friendship doesn't need to be public." Very fair to want that, and extremely fair to want to be in control of your image and career. But… this was a bit weird statement to make, at that point in time, in my opinion. They were already doing that, and the simple solution to accomplish that is to, well, keep up the narrative. Professionally speaking they were already handling it quite well, as far as people and the media could see: do your own photoshoots, establish your own very distinct brand on social media, pick projects that are nothing like HR. This comment feels a bit redundant, in the sense that he wanted to drill it into people’s heads that they are individuals. But, the fans were very aware of that in January, there always was a division between Shane fans and Ilya fans, and Connor fans and Hudson fans, since the beginning, and the GP even more so, since they were not swimming in excessive content generated by fans. So why make a statement like that?

Then this part “our friendship doesn't need to be public." That is honestly another strange thing to point out / say out loud, at that point in time. Why was it needed? Nobody would expect or demand the friendship to be public at all. And if they were unsure how to handle a high profile friendship, they only needed to look at Matt Damon and Ben Affleck. Very, in fact, extremely close, also in a non-toxic masculine way, maybe even closer considering they are childhood friends. Shot to fame together, entered Hollywood together in a big way, and developed their own distinctly established careers without ever being considered a “package deal” or “attached to the hip”.  They always spoke highly of each other in interviews, at times very soul-mate vibes, but eventually, after the initial 2 years of whirl wind fame post Good Will Hunting had died down, they went their separate ways professionally. Their friendship is deep and undeniable however, and till this day they are sometimes caught having lunch or coffee, their interactions remain that of besties, and it’s a relationship that is not very public at all, but still visible. From a general public perspective, and from their individual fan’s perspective, their friendship is clear and deep, never overly in anyone’s face, but solidified in a way that makes sense to most people. It seems a lot of celebrities, especially high-profile ones, even those that are very private and protective about their personal lives, manage to navigate friendships in a way that still makes them obvious to the outside world. So why this need to keep the friendship so extremely private?

One could argue that the HR fandom is too rabid and too terrible for their own good, and that’s why both Connor and Hudson pulled back from sharing too much. And one would be correct: the fandom as a whole has evolved into a chaotic and unsafe environment for all involved, and frankly it doesn’t deserve the access it had to them at the beginning of the series. However, keeping everything so secretive is breeding more discourse instead of helping the “friendship” narrative. Friends get lunch or dinner sometimes or are seen together having a coffee or a walk. Not doing these things, and scampering and almost desperately avoiding any visible interactions raises eyebrows and has people question things. It even feeds into the narrative some solo fans hold that they don’t in fact like each other all that much, so it hurts the “brand” of the show in a sense as well. From a PR point of view, the friendship narrative is not being handled carefully or reasonably at all.

So, now what?

The non-truther part of me thinks that if they want to keep this narrative up something must change in the way the guys interact with each other. Protecting each other’s privacy is wonderful, and it’s admirable they are so careful with each other. But the easiest and calmest approach, and honestly a way to settle quite a bit of fandom unrest, is to let them move in a careful and controlled way. I don’t see how small, mundane things like being spotted together for lunch or dinner when they are visiting each other would do any harm.  

The truther part of me agrees with some of the ( far better written ) opinion pieces of our people here in the fandom, that the way they move and interact now is very much looking like the handling of a secretive relationship. And if they don’t want that narrative to become stronger, it would still, again, make more sense to do the above. Move like there is nothing going on, act normal, stop with the secrecy, don’t bring attention to it. But somehow, that is not what they are choosing to do…

Events Watchlist ( June - July )

H: Rancid ( premiere )

Kelowna Independent Film Festival

17 June

Balenciaga

PHC Week

08 July

Bvlgari

No public events scheduled for summer

C: April X ( premiere )

Raindance Film Festival

17 June

Connor’s sci-fi thriller April X was selected to open this major European festival, so high probability he’ll attend?

YSL

PMF Week

23 June

Tiffany & Co

No public events scheduled for summer

Dsquared2 - June 19th (in Milan)

YSL - June 23rd (PFW)

Yohji Yamamoto - June 25th (PFW)

Balenciaga - July 8th (PFW) (thank you @this-daydream-is-dangerous-13 ♥️)

Armani - July 6th to 9th (PFW Haute Couture) July 7th - update