#bi!link

I’ve watched the fan fic episode at least four times now, and I still almost die laughing. This time, I was able to focus a little more on the details, like the fact that Rhett has trouble looking Link in the eyes - or looking at him at all - while reading, while Link directs the best lines directly at Rhett. My absolute favourite moment is when he hisses at Rhett for eating his special peanut butter, but also, when he uses that perfect accusatory tone and confronts Rhett for f***ing him while he’s washing the pots.

Rhett was clearly more uncomfortable with his lines. When he’s reading the bit about nipping and sucking Link’s lips, he is focusing on the words, but trying his best to not think about the story - while Link goes on to comment that Rhett shouldn’t be nipping on his lips because of his herpes. He wouldn’t say that if he was trying to dissociate, but that would be his response if he was actually imagining the scene in his mind and accidentally blurring the lines of reality and fiction - that is, after all, one of the reasons why they decline all kinds of mouth connections in real life. But this is a fictional story, set in an alternate universe where men are able to get pregnant - does he even have herpes in that reality? Rhett is quick to point out that that is the least of their problems, when one of them is having a baby, and also mentions that he hasn’t really been following what is going on. He focuses on saying the words, but does his best to keep them away from his mind.

Another interesting little detail is that Link tries to calm Rhett down by saying: “We’re wrestling!” (instead of actually having sex) - which is the word Rhett used in that leftover Valentine’s candy episode when explaining the kids the loud noises coming from mommy and daddy’s bedroom the night before. In the world of GMM euphemisms, wrestling = having sex. Which again, gives an interesting perspective to the time when Rhett suggestively talked about the time when they went through a UFC phase.

Later in the same story, just before Rhett hands out his card in defeat for not being able to finish it, Link suggests that he should make Stevie read it, and continues to say: “You don’t have to do this if you don’t want to.” I think, in whatever meetings they had about this episode beforehand, Rhett probably wasn’t too thrilled about the idea, and Link feels a little guilty for making him go through with this. Because, still, Link isn’t nearly as uncomfortable as Rhett.

In the beginning, when they give the content warning, Link says, without this episode, he’d probably go through life without ever reading their fanfiction, and instead of talking for both of them - like they often do, saying we instead of I - he only speaks for himself. Does that mean that Rhett has read their fanfiction before - which is why he is so unwilling - or, was this episode partially Link’s idea, because he was a little curious?

Now, as every adult should know in 2020 (but many still don’t), labeling someone something when they haven’t put said label on themselves, isn’t very ethical. The only label Rhett and Link have ever used for themselves in terms of sexuality is straight - and unless they themselves find reason to relabel themselves, that is what they are. I personally, mainly because of the way I came to terms with my own labels at a later age, nowadays see sexuality as a spectrum. I’ve also tried to teach myself to, instead of assuming the norm is heterosexuality unless proven otherwise, think that unless proven otherwise, many people have the capability to be at least bi-curious.

Shipping aside, I kinda believe Link is bisexual. He may never have acted upon it in any way, he is in a happy marriage with a woman, and his friendship with Rhett is probably just the platonic friendship they say it is. None of these things really make it any less possible that he is bi. Bisexuality doesn’t mean you have to prove yourself by having sex with more than one gender. In the broadest definition, it just means that you are sexually attracted to more than one gender. The first (and only) person of that gender may come up later in life, and you may easily go through life for years without realizing this part about yourself - and the way modern society works, no-one will tell you, when you are hitting puberty, that there is an option that explains why you fancy girls, boys and/or something else. Most certainly, this was not something you’d learn growing up in a small, religious community, in the 90s.

Link has, either intentionally, or accidentally, been dropping all kinds of hints about some level of bicuriosity in the recent times, and he’s made a point about how he’s an ally of the LGBTQ community. It’s a cliché to say that the strong allies often turn out to be members of the community at some point, but it happens. It has taken me years to come to terms with my own identity, and now that Link has started therapy, I kinda think this is something he might end up thinking about. It doesn’t really need to change anything on the outside, but just coming out to yourself really makes life that much better.

I've developed a theory this mythical season involving Link. I know it's probably in part me projecting my own thoughts to others, but still...I certainly have been rocking a lot of blue-purple-pink outfits since I realized I was bi, and it has been so much fun theorizing about Link's choices of clothing. And of course, they did spray their tank of water into a bi flag.

Ever since R&L were guests on Pete Holmes' podcast and talked about how people in ancient Greece were bi, and Link sounded so fascinated by that mention, I've been thinking about how the assumption always is we are all straight, but if you give a chance to the possibility of someone being bisexual, things appear in a different light. Based on this theory, I made this little bi mood board starring Link. Can you see what I see?

I know everyone loves bi Rhett but my HC is that Link is bi, not Rhett, and he’s worried about people finding out.

So Rhett being an awesome BFF plays up to the whole “Rhett likes boys too” bit so that he can show Link “See... people don’t think less of me, its not so scary for people to know who you are”