#<- cuz 2017 rebranding and stuff

[yonpote]

heres the cards im gonna do for the dnp tarot thing! this was 2017 readings for the future

[wolvertooth]

ok so. before the new issue comes out. everyone talks about creed being the obsessed one, but honestly? i think logan approached him first. him being an annoying bastard, creed secretly liking being around him but not wanting to admit it, then he slowly lets go and allows himself to be open to the idea of them being close, which then leads to creed slowly getting obsessed and attached cuz he...doesnt want to lose that relationship.

after years of war and immortality, not being able to make friends due to them potentially dying, heres a guy who can stick with him through it all. and he gets it.

thats why creed wants so bad to let go of the memories, bcuz it was the best thing he ever had. and it hurts that he isnt allowed to have it again. cuz logan used to want him.

and tho logan is convinced creed was always out to get him and doesnt remember the good parts (well, according to earlier canon he does a little, but this is percy canon. so. who knows.) the illusion bit in issue 46 shows theyre still in there somewhere.

but also these panels imply logan was the asshole in the relationship. at least near the end.

like, logan 100% has a superiority complex. its in his catchphrase. he'd never admit he was a dick. (tbf, he was also getting his brain wiped and literally didnt remember creed while they were still together). not to defend creed, hes also done some fucking heinous stuff over the years, but at least this comic acknowledges that logan isnt completely innocent either.

its not that they deserve better, they just both deserve eachother when theyre both better people. which is why weapon x 2017 WORKED, bcuz they both were basically the best versions of themselves. it took logan giving up the wolverine title + creed rebranding what it meant to be sabretooth for them to be able to be friends again.

something that i doubt will happen again in these comics.

[yonpote]

as someone who wasnt here at the time (was a fan from about 2011-2013) what exactly defines the "softlaunch era" pre-coming out that i hear you and others refer to?

you've come to the right place cuz this is the era when i truly became a Phannie... "gay softlaunch" is generally considered 2017-18, but to be more specific it was october 31, 2016-june 13, 2019!

before they came out this was also referred to as "post-baking universe" referencing the halloween 2016 monster pops video that had an (at the time) abnormal amount of raunchy humor and just general derangedness. nothing like it is today, but that point felt very significant and dan even brought it up in liveshows like yeah idk what happened there and when phil called a peach an ass in a gaming video dan said "we live in a post-baking universe" (i believe fans coined the term tho).

people have also called it the "glass closet era" which is a divisive name for a lot of people cuz "glass closet" can be seen as kind of a mean term and it implies like, stereotyping or speculating or the "we been knew" behavior dan had talked about in BIG. which i understand that feeling, but i don't think that's what was happening, because the way i see it was queer flagging. ways they could show a little bit who they really were without saying it just yet. they weren't Out out, but they were just like. openly talking about attraction to men and finding men hot and not calling it a Man Crush or anything. dan would bring up queerness more often in liveshows, which hes mentioned queer artists and stuff before but now it was also making jokes about like.. being in a gas leak man porn fantasy in his first livestream of 2017 LMAO. phil would make a lot more innuendos, which hes always done, but now he wasnt pretending like he didnt know what he was saying. dan started wearing a single hoop earring on his right ear. this is an old school form of queer flagging, in The Olden Days (im too lazy to look up when but like my 70-something year old history teacher knew about this) if a man had an earring on his left ear, he's straight, and if he had one on his right, he's gay. that one's pretty subtle if you don't know much about queer history and there were Great Debates over whether or not we should take it to mean he is gay, but personally i saw it as like. he was letting us know without needing to say the G word out loud just yet!

i think a really important part of this era was even outside of directly discussing queerness, they were both trying to become more authentic online and figuring out how to do that without compromising their own privacy. dan stopped straightening his hair and rebranded and opened up about his mental health. phil's authenticity journey seemed a bit slower and wasn't as overt or seemingly drastic as dan's was, but it was happening! he changed up his hair!!! which yes its kinda silly to talk abt dnp's hair but the emo fringe was Their Brand. phil in particular said that, the emo fringe was a comfort place but he was feeling like he was trapped in having it forever because it was Who He Was, so it was a huge deal for him! he opened up a little bit about his physical health, both of them were a bit more honest about all the stress and anxiety they were dealing with (the mukbang is a pretty good video where they talk about that and an interesting one to watch in retrospect) and their whole 2018 tour was themed around whether they should Give The People What They Want or do what they wanted to do.

god i talk too much ANYWAY then dan disappeared in 2019 and phil was manning the helm for a good five and a half months and then the Big Gay hit! the Hard Launch Era if you will :) and now i would say 2023-present is the Unhinged Era so i have no clue what the hell their next move is gonna be...