#while rhett is ranting about rhink shippers

[jula483]

for the rhink shippers

[asherlockstudy]

Were there any specific reasons for the rhink shipper exodus/shrinkage? I did notice that too, like whenever I come across older r&l posts/blogs, the community did look much larger and thriving

There was no comparison, honestly. We had definitely one of the largest YouTuber fandoms here. I am not sure how exactly it happened but I think the last straw for most people was a GMM episode in which they had to compliment each other and Rhett could not do it very easily, so then he went into a full rage spiral, blaming shippers for having certain expectations by them like waiting for them to say sweet stuff or kiss. He said this is never gonna happen. But it was a very odd rant frankly, because the compliments were not supposed to be obligatorily romantic. Rhett totally dug his hole on his own there. So at this point many people felt attacked and many accused them of queerbaiting and they generally felt very drained for being so invested and yet essentially getting called delusional or problematic in the end. Many had also started growing weary of their content anyway because of the overwhelming food-centrism.

I guess the reason I didn’t feel as attacked is because I understand how pressed Rhett must feel, ESPECIALLY if there is truth in people’s speculations, so I can understand why he would become erratic and angry if we try to unveil something that he perhaps still tries to hide.

The queerbaiting, I actually don’t think it is queerbaiting even though it certainly looks like it. I think what it truly is instead is “hiding in plain view”. This is a strategy to make something so obvious and treat it with ease and fun, that people will assume that if it were true, you wouldn’t be so damn obvious about it, so they believe you are joking (or queerbaiting) while you actually aren’t.