my rambling thoughts on 2012 breakup theories
i don’t get them. i truly don’t.
in a post-coming-out world, some folks are begrudgingly admitting “okay...... maybe they were together in 2009” —sidebar, no maybe about it. dan was pretty fucking clear, end of fucking story— “but they definitely broke up in 2012” and some people seem hung up on them getting back together somewhere around 2015 and some people even seem hung up on them BEING EXES TO THIS DAY😩🔪
not to #spon my own fic, but i feel it’s very clear during the dreaded 2012 era that “Something had shattered, but it wasn’t them that had.”
anything fans of breakup!2012 love to point to— their distance on camera at the time, their insistence on being two different people and not a double act, the mutual friend cover up for how they met, the insistence that they live together only out of convenience because 1)money was tight and 2)living with a fellow youtuber is a business choice, the shift in their “chemistry” and “fondness” for each other, the rise of “dan is so mean to phil :((” the steadily more aggravated response to constant bombardment of “are you GAY????” with “nope, totally straight thanks, it’s pussy for me!” — speaks so clearly to me as a shift not in dan and phil’s relationship with each other, but a shift in dan and phil’s relationship with the audience. they broke up with US. they later got back together with US!
it’s literally always been dan and phil vs the world.
i’m so infinatelty warm at the thought that dnp understand now that there is a not insignificant portion of the world, their fans and fellow queers, who aren’t against them in that vs— who are most definitely on their side.
everything that caused a rise of tension in the 2012 era— the aftermath of the Video leak, the move to London, getting regular work with the BBC— are external forces. they have little and less to do with dnp’s relationship to each other and everything to do with dnp’s relationship to their audience.
they remained a unit throughout all the drudgery. and if they had put an end to their romantic relationship, why the hell would they bother doing that??!
i’m not here to convince you of anything if you disagree with me and sit stubbornly on your pet conspiracy. i’m just stating my interpretation of things as they seem clear and obvious to me. breakup!2012 theories are such a surface level reading of their closeted actions and i find it shocking that someone can look at dnp’s behavior over that era and see it as anything other than their loss of faith in their audience. a loss of faith in each other?? i very firmly believe the opposite, that as tough as that time was on them with the trauma of a public outing, undiagnosed and untreated mental illness, moving and career changes on a massive scale, they found strength in each other and their relationship.
and i believe that because we’ve seen the results for years now: their joyous and loving relationship with each other and their repaired relationship with us the audience who have aged with them, shrunk and grown and altered.
hope literally any of this made sense 🥰✌️ as the title suggested, it’s a steam of conscious brain soup ✨
