missdeliadali replied to your post "It's SO wholesome how, when hugging Michael,...”

What a great analysis! Thank you! I couldn't agree more.

Aww, thank YOU (and everyone else who's commented on this post) for these kinds words. I truly do appreciate it so much.

It seems surreal that I wrote this post two years ago, and yet that whole night was so powerful that it still resonates even now. Reading back what I wrote, I think what comes to mind is a lot of the discourse I've seen from the anti-RPF crowd, particularly the sentiment "It's lowkey homophobic to say two men can't be close friends/flirty without being in a relationship with each other."

But to my mind, what's actually true is exactly the opposite. That it's lowkey homophobic to say two men can't be close friends and be in love. We often hear the refrain of "The person you're in love with should be your best friend," and aren't Michael and David best friends? Why, then, would it be such a bad thing for them to be in love?

I feel like so many younger fans in particular seem to think monogamy is the be-all, end-all, but that's not how love or relationships work. Attraction doesn't stop just because you're in a relationship or married to someone, or because you have kids with someone. And David in particular I feel like has shown he has the capacity to love more than one person at a time--different to, yet not less than how he loves Georgia. Georgia herself has supported and even encouraged the shipping of Michael and David (even calling Michael David's "other wife"). Michael and David themselves have had countless opportunities over the last four years to snuff out the fires of speculation...but they never have.* Not once.

There are so many terrible things in this world--war, famine, hatred, abuse, violence--but two best friends falling in love shouldn't be one of them...

*If anything, Michael has done the complete opposite, fanning the flames repeatedly while cackling maniacally...