#mail pod

Always has, yep! The biggest example for me is when Lister contracts a mutated pneumonia strain and passes out in S1 and Rimmer is extremely concerned and frantic. He can’t get Lister to the medbay without assistance - he’s still a soft-light hologram, he doesn’t have a solid body yet - so he tries getting Cat to help multiple times to no avail, even after stressing that he can’t pick Lister up himself. Saving him is more important than anything else, which typical Cat disagrees with. Hell, Rimmer is worried that Lister might even die.

They haven’t met Kryten yet either. He has to resort to the Skutters helping him. Lister ends up with real, tangible hallucinations of his Confidence and his Paranoia and Rimmer has to keep urgently reminding Lister that he’s still sick, that he won’t be better until the hallucinations are gone. He even tries getting one of the Skutters to kill Paranoia to get rid of him.

The way Rimmer reacts to Lister’s illness, especially sprinting to get Cat’s help and his anger and frustration when Cat won’t budge, shows that Rimmer does already care. We know if he’d been able to touch, he’d have helped Lister without hesitation. My extra favourite detail is all these events happen AFTER they argue about Rimmer not knowing what love is at the start of the episode. Lister wakes up sick immediately following this scene, and he passes out until Holly calls for Rimmer to go and find him. Cue Rimmer unknowingly proving he does know what love is…

Well let’s see…

- Kryten’s alternate universe human counterpart offers to wait for Ace Rimmer (alternate Rimmer) naked and covered in taramasalata

- Rimmer’s “low self” manifests as him overtly gay, wearing leather and stockings, pierced, and saying he wants to have Lister

- Lister misses Rimmer so much that he dreams he returns and kisses him

- Lister tells Rimmer that they’re the sun and moon and together they make moonlight, this is because Rimmer is contemplating turning himself off and thinks nobody needs him

- When Ace comes aboard Red Dwarf, our Rimmer immediately accuses him of being gay and wanting to sleep with and marry Lister. Kryten points out that he’s commenting on Ace’s sexuality, presumably goes to remind him that they’re the same person so it would imply he’s also gay and interested in Lister, but doesn’t get to finish. Overall Rimmer comes across extremely insecure and jealous

Answer: quite? Very, even.

yes, very very often, even when he’s briefly turned into a chicken

(Not that there's anything wrong with headcanon-ing him as happily pansexual with a lot of knowledge of gay culture or anything, of course! I've just personally always seen him as not very comfortable with labeling feelings about guys that way.)

While I loooove exploring Very Rimmer™️ situations where he makes the first move (usually a variation of “we need to kiss for science” and I devour it every time) I think realistically it may be Lister. That’s not to say I think he’d get there much easier (this guy has some internalised homophobia too, look how he reacts to Krissy insinuating he’s gay in that one scene for example*) but I just think once he DID get there, he’d be more direct or open about it. 🙂‍↕️

*Sidenote: This is also why I don’t personally headcanon Lister as knowing he’s bi from the start or considering himself queer, even though I get why lots do headcanon this - he’s an enlightened 23rd century guy, he gives off such big bi energy. However, personally I don’t think he’s explored that or thought about it. I think he’s friendly with guys he knows without considering if it goes deeper than that, and once he does, he definitely has a big old panic and has to sort it out in his head. I think it takes time after that initial freakout - he sits with it, considers it, gets quiet and reflective until he comes to that conclusion and eventually accepts it. For me, this fits him much better.