#also anon tysm!!!! you're so nice and thank you for being so considerate and nuanced in your wording

[ialwaysknewyouwerepunk]

Hi! Sorry in advance that this is a bit of a long question! I’m fairly new to Larry (I fell down the rabbit hole a few months ago and am now hopelessly invested), but I’ve been reading everything I can to piece the story together myself. A lot of the established Larries I’ve seen have been pretty staunch to their belief that HL have been together beginning to end, but when I listen to the solo albums (Walls especially), I can’t help but feel there is a pretty conspicuous theme of splitting apart

and coming back together again: there’s “should’ve never let you go,” “I cut you off,” “I know you said that you'd give me another chance… mentally you were already out the door,” “I *was* better with you,” and “the day you walked away and took the higher ground,” from Walls, and also lines like “I know that you're tryna be friends” in Fine Line. These lines feel to me like they imply not just a rough patch, but an actual split. Not only that, but there is the video of Harry saying he wrote Two Ghosts “the first time he broke up with me” (unless this has been debunked and I totally missed it?) I’ve read your lyric analyses (which are incredible by the way, and I may have had a small emotional breakdown the other night while reading them — ESNY hits hard), and while it seems like you agree that these lyrics may allude to some kind of break happening, I’m really curious about what might have happened (and when it may have happened, if there was a breakup). To be clear, I firmly believe they are together now and whether or not they broke up doesn’t impact how I feel about them or their relationship, but I really don’t want to be the person that romanticizes their relationship and I *especially* don’t want to be the person that glosses over things just because they are painful or I don’t understand them, and the fact that a breakup really doesn’t fit in the timeline despite the above just keeps nudging me in the brain (hopefully that makes sense?). I’m really sorry if you’ve answered this question before and I didn’t see it or if I’m misinterpreting your analysis!! And thank you for all of the work you've put into your blog!

hello, kind anon! yeah this is one of those subjects that divides the fandom, ig, which is probably why you're having trouble finding answers. some ppl are adamant that they never broke up, others think they were apart for years, and yeah, i mean, we know nothing for sure, so either of those options could be true.

as is very clear from my blog, i love to base a lot of my convictions i have of them on their music. the stuff they themselves have written and put out, which contains so much truth maybe under a few veils of symbolism but we can work through those can't we. to give a quick answer to your question: i really don't have a firm idea of when a split might have happened.

and then i'll let myself loose a little and speculate, based on my obsessive reading of their music, some timelines here and there and my constant mulling over of anything they have ever done. their music, and then especially hs1, tells the story of a deep-rooted relationship suddenly going through changes in a way that has its members lose their footing (to put it super bluntly). my general idea about this is that they started having issues as soon as 1d ended, bc of the abrupt context shift, and them suddenly being forced to find a way through daily life without that dependence on the band's schedule. i don't mean their relationship was held together by the band, but i suspect that at some point they might have feared that. they lost sight of who they were supposed to be and it fucked with their brains. bad.

hs1 definitely mentions distance and separation, "you" being shut off, not calling, etc. so, to set my time frame super wide bc i genuinely don't have an idea, i'd say their main issues were very very active during the writing process of hs1 (which started pretty much after 1d). i do believe that h and l were in contact on and off throughout their break(s), though. their songs mention them taking time apart, and h waiting for l to be open, but there is always that baseline of being in touch, thinking about each other, loving one another okok ella don't get sappy yet save it for the end. and i also believe louis was there in jamaica for a brief period of time, while harry was making hs1. i don't mean everything was fixed by then, but they were def v happy at that point in time.

throughout the years, i think more of these ups and downs have happened, until hs1 finally got its reply in walls. louis took a while - and ofc walls was also written over the course of many years so i'm seeing this time frame very wide too - to come out into the hallway. hs1 has harry realising, slowly, what's wrong, and figuring out he needs to work on himself in order for the relationship to work, just like "you" has to. and he's just also sad about being lonely ofc, waiting for the other to come around. and then in walls, louis tells the story of an internal struggle he had to overcome to finally see what was in front of him, to finally be able to apologize and love properly. fine line, in my mind, fits in after this timeline, especially bc louis has made it clear that so much of walls was written long before its release, and simply bc the storyline makes most sense to me that harry is recounting their life after overcoming those major personal and relationship issues. by this i don't mean all of their problems are solved ofc bc in fine line there's still struggle but it's more on a personal level for harry and yk what i mean.

sooooo what's my conclusion. my view is that they struggled a LOT after 1d until hs1, then struggled some more but started talking, started working shit out properly, and during their semi-simultaneous polishing of fine line and walls, they reached that point where they could convincingly say they made it. fine line is just so full of gleeful, sappy love and walls is full of confidence and faith in their foundation as well as their future. bc hs1 still had that foundation, which we can hear the loudest in sweet creature - meaning they never gave up on each other - but in fine line the ecstasy of that love thriving is sung from the rooftops. and walls tells that entire story, to be honest. the struggle, the tenderness, the limitless dedication.

i hope this is.... somewhat of an okay answer that stills the mill of your mind trying to figure it out. i know this isn't really a straightforward answer, but i don't have one for myself either, and i've found i don't want one either. bc at the end of the day it doesn't matter, yk! they always loved each other, no matter what, and now they made it