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cujoySo, lets begin this discussion of Larry vs. Elounor with some song lyrics:
My hands,
Your hands
Tied up
Like two ships.
Drifting
Weightless.
Waves try to break it.
I'd do anything to save it.
Why is it so hard to say it?
***
I'm sorry if I say, "I need you."
But I don't care,
I'm not scared of love.
'Cause when I'm not with you I'm weaker.
Is that so wrong?
Is it so wrong
That you make me strong?
My hands,
Your hands
Tied up
Like two ships.
Drifting
Weightless.
Waves try to break it.
I'd do anything to save it.
Why is it so hard to say it?
***
I'm sorry if I say, "I need you."
But I don't care,
I'm not scared of love.
'Cause when I'm not with you I'm weaker.
Is that so wrong?
Is it so wrong
That you make me strong?
(Lyrics from STRONG, AKA the Larry Song)
***The above lyrics are from the song Strong which appeared on 1D's third Album, Midnight Memories, which came out in November 2013. Louis Tomlinson along with Liam Payne are listed among the songwriters. Strong immediately became a part of the Larry conspiracy theory "narrative" as soon as the album came out. The Larries convinced themselves that the nautical imagery in the song (ie two ships) could be equated to nautical tattoos that both Harry and Louis happen to have. There is much more on the significance of these nautical tattoos and song lyrics below.
And of course the last stanza's reference to a love that isn't "wrong", but makes them "strong" plays deeply into the Larrie Narrative of oppressed, forcibly closeted boyband members desperately yearning for their freedom, and desperately communicating through indirect means to their loyal fans. This is all part and parcel of the Tinhatting playbook.
****
So let's get into the "Narratives" of Larry and Elounor, one a fan concoction, and the other a reality.
As I have said, Larry is the elephant in the room for 1D shipping, and because of it's size and the obsession of it's adherents - it drives all the Ship Wars. The oldest, and probably most important of these ship wars is Larry vs. Elounor.
Full disclosure, I'm not a Larry expert. And researching Larry turns out to be a bitch. I just wanted to piece together a simple timeline showing what happened and when, which I thought should be an easy enough task. However, even though there are enumerable resources available on Tumblr and YouTube, these masterposts and proof videos tend to be extremely detailed and filled with minutia down to the level of who glanced longingly at whom during any given day of any given year between 2010 and the present. I'm not kidding. Some of these Masterposts are enormous, but cover only a single month. There can be 20 pages just talking about the damn tattoos. LOL So, anyway, I did the best I could. I'm sure most LS would find this summary lacking.
***
To cut to the chase, the Larry ship, circa August 2014 is hanging on four pillars.
1. Tattoos
2. Song lyrics
3. Miscellaneous "secret messages" from Harry, Louis, the other boys, family members, other celebrities, and random people on social media. This includes various porn sites and blind gossip items.
4. The handy Management Conspiracy Theory which is crucial to tie it all together to form their "Narrative".
***
So here is the tale of how we got here... the Larry "Narrative" vs. the intertwined Elounor Reality (2010 - 2014 Plus a 2018 addendum)
happens to have a 1. The Larry origin myth - Harry and Louis met in a bathroom at the X-Factor Bootcamp in July of 2010. The legend is that their first words to one another were "Oops", and "Hi" and that it was mutual love from the start. This entire "storyline" is deeply incorporated into the Larrie's mythology. It should be noted, it is based entirely on FANFICTION, and there is no actual proof that Harry and Louis actually met this way. But this myth is embedded so deeply now that many Larries probably don't even realize that it's a myth rather than a true story. Also, please note that they are basing it on tattoos. In this case, Harry happens to have a "Hi" tattoo, and Louis has an "Oops" tattoo. As I have said tattoos are incredibly important clues that Larry, Ziam and Zerrie shippers use to build their mythology. They classify it as evidence.
2. Larries place great significance on the moment that the band was formed. Harry and Louis immediately engaged in a big, cute hug. Larries believe Larry love was evident from the start. Of course in actuality, they all were hugging each other.
<--Larry at the Formation...3.Larry's supposed anniversary is supposedly Feb 2 based on clues they found on Harry and Louis' social media.
<--- Early Larry4. Eleanor Calder was introduced as Louis' girlfriend in Sept. 2011. And from that moment on she became a lightning rod for Larry shipper's attacks in an endless effort to disprove the validity of Elounor. These attacks continue to this day. Eleanor is derided as a hired "beard" brought on by management to insulate Louis from gay rumors. (Keep in mind, Eleanor is not a celebrity. Until just a few months ago, she was an ordinary college student, except that she happened to be dating a member of One Direction. She is currently 22 years old, as is Louis.)
XXXX
5. Oct. 2, 2011 Louis tweets one of his most famous tweets to Harry. Larry Shippers believe that the purpose of the tweet was to reassure Harry of his love, despite the full scale "bearding" which was now in progress with Eleanor. (i.e. this is a "secret message".)
6. Despite the existence of Elounor, the year 2012 was the Larry's Prime Time. The rumors persist for the entire year, even as Louis and Eleanor continue to make frequent appearances together both on tour and in England.
<-- typical 2012 Larry
<-- They really were quite shippy
<--Meanwhile Louis and Elounor became famous for their Starbucks dates. And LS still insist that they don't hold hands properly. Sigh.
<-- One of their most famous dates was at the 2012 Olympics.7. On Sept 16, 2012, Louis unleashed his other most famous tweet, known as The Bullshit Tweet, shown below. Larry shippers do not take this as a denial of Larry, and they blame Management for forcing Louis to do it. (Of course they do...) More specifically, they believe that Management controls the boys Twitter accounts and sometimes sends out "straight" sounding tweets to make sure everyone knows how straight the boys are. Basically, if a tweet makes a boy sound straight, and/or NOT GAY, LS will say MM! did it.
<--- The Bullshit 1.0 Tweet8. In 2013, a noticeable change came over Larry. Their interactions fell off dramatically, starting around the time of the Bullshit Tweet. The close interactions evaporated. They became stiff and awkward during their shows.
<-- This is about the best they can do for 2013 Larry pictures. They usually aren't even seated together.There are dueling explanation for this. ES believe that Louis had become particularly fed up with the whole Larry thing, and that it had taken a toll on his large family and on his relationship with El. Louis has seven younger siblings, the oldest of whom is 16. There were some incidents in which his younger sisters were harassed by Larry Shippers on social media. It should be noted that during these incidents, the girls have always stood by Eleanor. LS shippers do not take the Tomlinson girls' denials as true. They believe that the entire family, including children as young as eight years old are "under contract" with MM! who requires them to cover up the truth of Larry. LS believe that Larry behavior has changed because MM! has enforced a LOCK DOWN on Harry and Louis.
<-- Look what popped up on Tumblr just yesterday. God bless Tumblr.9. Elounor continued Starbucks dates pretty much throughout 2013.
10. In 2014, the Larry trend of being very distant from each other continues even stronger. In fact, Harry now spends most of his free time living in Los Angeles, where he owns a house. Louis continues to live in London and Doncaster, England.
On stage they continue their non-interaction:
11. On the 2014 Elounor front, sightings have also become rare. In fact, Louis and Eleanor were hardly seen together for most of this year. And Eleanor, who was initially very active on social media, including with fans, has grown largely silent. However, she has been pictured quite often with members of Louis' family. (Elounor appearances did increase this summer, especially after Louis' involvement in the infamous Weed Scandal. (I wrote a whole thing about that. It was fun.)
<-- El hanging with the Tomlinson girls at Louis' football match earlier this year.***
So that brings us current. There is virtually NO LARRY, either on stage or in real life. Harry and Louis seem to be spending their free time on separate continents. Eleanor has virtually disappeared from social media, and doesn't engage with the fans. (And I wouldn't either if I were her.)
Now, remember those four pillars I noted above? This is how Larry continues to thrive...
Management Conspiracy
The fact that Harry and Louis are now the only pair of the five band mates who do not interact on stage is very interesting. Ziam interacts a lot on stage, sometimes blatantly flirtatious. There is also a ton of Narry. But any given 1D concert will probably have Niam, Lilo, Lirry, Ziall, Zarry, Nouis and Zouis too! The whole modus operendi of this band is to flirt with the audience and with each other. (They have to do something because they sure don't dance.)
So, Ironically, this lack of interaction is now one of LS's chief arguments supporting Larry reality. Especially in contrast to Ziam. They believe that Larry was locked down because it is real, but Ziam was not locked down because it isn't. Such is the magic of the Management Conpiracy Theory. Up is Down. Left is Right. Bad is Good.
Tattoos
The second major pillar supporting Larry in the current environment is... Tattoos.
Since 2013 Harry and Louis have been accumulating tattoos which LS claim are matching. I'd probably miss some if I try to run through them all, so I'll just present this fanart, from Tumblr. (I'm sure there are plenty others that are missing here.)
You'll see the "oops and "hi" appears. And that there are several nautical themed tattoos as well.
Which brings up the third pillar that LS uses to support their ship...
Song Lyrics
Quick example of that from the first stanza of Strong (The Larry Song quoted above):
My hands,
Your hands
Tied up
Like two ships.
Harry has a tattoo of two hands tied together, and another one of a ship. Louis has a compass. Harry has an anchor. Louis has a rope... etc. So, the tattoos and song lyrics work together to create one big SECRET MESSAGE for those in the know...
LS have claimed several songs on the most recent album as Larry Songs. Strong and Happily are the two obvious. They also originally claimed You & I, but Ziam have solid claim to that one now for reasons that will be revealed next section.
I would also be remiss to not mention a song from the Take Me Home album: They Don't Know About Us (Such a tantalizing title...)
Here is the chorus:
They don’t know about the things we do
They don’t know about the "I love you"’s
But I bet you if they only knew (they don't know)
They would just be jealous of us,
They don’t know about the up all nights
They don’t know I've waited all my life
Just to find a love that feels this right
Baby they don’t know about, they don’t know about us
They don’t know about the "I love you"’s
But I bet you if they only knew (they don't know)
They would just be jealous of us,
They don’t know about the up all nights
They don’t know I've waited all my life
Just to find a love that feels this right
Baby they don’t know about, they don’t know about us
Interestingly, this song has never been performed in concert, despite it's popularity. LS believe that MANAGEMENT forbids the boys to sing this in concert because it hits to close too home. They also believe that Harry and Louis wrote the song even though they did not. Neither Harry Styles nor Louis Tomlinson has a song writing credit for this song. But time and time again, LS repeat that Larry wrote the song... (Girls, the writing credits are right there on the album. No Louis. No Harry. They didn't write it...)
Secret Messages
Everything actually comes down to secret messages. The songs, the tattoos, even the lack of interaction is all a big message reassuring the True Believers that Larry is Real. Every single tweet is hyper analyzed for Larry messages. Its' all pretty whack.
One last example:
Louis in an "OOPS" sweatshirt. Now don't you tell me these boys don't know where their bread is buttered...
Pssst... Larry and Ziam fans buy records and perfume and cookies and stuff... ;)
***
Damn, this ended up as convoluted as some of those Tumblr Master Posts. LOL. Larry isn't an easy subject at all. Next one will be easier if only because Ziam is more fun, at least for me. ::ducking:: So I've decided to move the discussion of recent events to the Girlfriends section which is part 5.
Final Disclaimer:
To be fair, I will say that it is possible that Louis and Eleanor's three year relationship has been an elaborate ruse. I don't know, and I acknowledge that the practice of having fake girlfriends to cover gay celebrities does exist.
However, as I said in my initial post, I don't personally feel it's right to assume that Louis is lying, just because you want him to be in love with his bandmate. I'll give Louis the benefit if the doubt, and if it turns out that he's lying, that will be on him, not me. LS will have to deal with that too, though they no doubt will pin it all on MM! LOL.
