#phan theory

[im-gonna-squeet]

theory: dan and phil have a secret child (teenager) who played dil and the goat demon

[simplydnp]

us after that video

[ingydar-phan]

Ok I do want to chime in on the convo but actually this is gonna be really long because I’ve been planning to make a huge post about this since the tour trailer came out. Like genuinely I messaged some people asking for tips on how to make a big conversation post weeks ago and then just never did it. So here goes I guess.

I am a firm believer they are going to hard launch soon. In some way shape or form. Before tour starts. That is a stance I have held ever since I watched pizza mukbang 2. And I have explanations.

My main points come from the coming out parallel surrounding Dans internalized homophobia and trauma responses and fear of rejection (more on that later), and also my hypothesized “3 stages” of the gaming channel revival.

I believe that when the gaming channel was revived, starting with the Heartthrob video, they entered stage 1: experimenting with audiences desire for a return to content. This was a phase they themselves discussed in Dans Birthday Stream and in Pizza Mukbang 2. The first few months were experimenting with what a new audience would look like and how much they were wanted, in what contexts, and what kind of content. I also think this wraps into the dynamic difference between Dan and Phil as people. Note, I love them both dearly and want nothing but the best for them both. It has been made clear that they did very different things during the hiatus, with Phil initiating the gaming channel comeback. Before Dan came out, he was under an immense feeling of guilt and pressure, even by his own mind. He had the option of leaving the internet forever, and he certainly considered it. Finish off the gaming channel, go on one last tour, and leave. Never having to adress anything again. But he didn’t do that. He came back. He came out. And he was greeted with the kindest, warmest, most accepting response. And he did work! He wrote a book! He went on a solo tour! And to echo both Dan himself and all of the community, he needed this. He needed this time of healing and this era of self discovery. He wouldn’t be who he is today without it, and I’m so proud of him.

But Phil? Oh Phil was just cruising along. That’s not at all to discredit any form of hardship Phil went through, but it certainly wasn’t the same. Phil was making content before Dan was, back in 2006. In uni, Phil was comfortable in his sexuality (or some form of queerness). But he waited. He waited to come out until Dan was ready. Because he’s a wonderful partner. He was happy continuing Amazingphil regardless of hiatus, of Dans needs, because he knew he didn’t have to pressure Dan into anything he didn’t want or wasn’t ready for. And then, presumably when Dan was ready, Phil proposed a gaming channel comeback. Just try it out, just see how it feels, low commitment. And what happened? Once again, they were showered with love and adoration and support and acceptance. Was the fandom different than how it used to be? Absolutely. But it was beautiful and loving. So that’s stage 1. Experimenting with content and viewership and re-entering the branding of Dan and Phil (Games).

Then, I believe after stage 1 came stage 2. Experimenting with audience reaction to Dan and Phil as a couple. I want to stake my claim here that everything they do is meticulously curated. Sure, Phil’s toe popping out of his sock wasn’t purposeful, but it was certainly handled intentionally. They’re extremely seasoned creators, and everything they do is for a reason. (That’s why I love rpf hehe). This, my “stage 2”, is when they were dipping their toes more into phan stuff. The orange heart. The “gay” community tab. Using the “ph-“ prefix THEMSELVES a lot more. Dab and Evan comparisons. This was the middle ground. How would people react? Would they turn away because it’s too much? Would they begin stalking and creeping all over again? Or would they accept these people for what they are. As much as people like to think Dan and Phil are just silly whimsical guys who are perfect no matter what they do (which is accurate as well tbf), they also know what they’re doing. They do these things on purpose to gauge audience reaction, to see how people feel about it. As others have said, what we see publicly is just a tiny sliver of their real life. Yea, even the domestic videos. It’s curated. And it’s wonderful. It’s so endearing they choose to share these things. Even in times of uncertainty. But that uncertainty was met with absolute acceptance.

Which is how we get into stage 3. I think “stage 3” started developing around the time of Dans Birthday Stream, but really actually started when the tour trailer was posted, and then all the videos after that (pizza mukbang, dressing each other, chained together, tiktoks, etc etc). So, very recently. But something shifted. Maybe it’s in the air, maybe it’s just me, maybe we all need to go outside. But something shifted. Dan and Phil, but especially Dan, saw how they were being accepted and took that as an affirmation. An affirmation that everything is going to be okay. They can commit now. They can go full on. Full hard launch.

I think everyone has a different definition of hard launch, and even I think it varies by context. But what I mean here is not necessarily them making some video called “Dan and Phil are romantically together” and staring at the camera with a gun to their head. It doesn’t, and shouldn’t, have to be that.

Straight people get this privilege of being assumed straight without having to “come out”. They get this comfort of having relationships without having to scream it in everyone’s faces.

And I do indeed agree with what people mean when they say they have already hard launched. They’re husbands, soulmates, 4000 year old tortoises, “basically any other gay couple”, more than just romantic, yea. I get it. But people are fucking stupid. Non-queer people don’t understand nuance, and need everything handed to them on a silver platter. Dan and Phil are together. People who try to twist and turn to try and “prove” they’re anything but a committed romantic and sexual relationship are ignorant at best, but mainly using homophobic wishful thinking. However, there’s more to go. There’s a reason we’re all “terrified” for what is to come. Because everything, the past 15 years of all of our lives, of their life, is coming together. It’s genuinely beautiful.

So what do I mean by hard launch then? Well, I mean a lack of censorship (besides what’s reasonable. Though we’d all love to see them fuck on YouTube, I’m not sure that’s happening any time soon). I mean a lack of shame. A lack of hiding. And it’s already begun. That’s what I feel stage 3 to be and have been. In pizza mukbang 2, they say things such as “cheers dear”, which is intentional. The “gay uncles” and the “kneeing” is all intentional. It’s not just throwaway jokes, it’s them looking us in the eyes and saying “we see you”. I have a whole list of stage 3 things. The intentional Incohearant cards. The “my face hurts from smiling” comments. THE HANDS ON THE SHOULDER TO THE HAND ON THE KNEE. Them being so open about their secluded romantic holiday. The relentless Phil bottom jokes. The yaoi day tweet from the outfits video. The “who would jump for you like that dog jumped for that man” “you”. It’s all there. It’s all intentional. And I’m so grateful for it.

One of my mutuals who I talked about this with (not gonna name cuz idk if they want me to) talked about their theory that DNP have given barely any info about tour because it requires some form of hard launch to preface it. And honestly? I didn’t even realize that was a theory. I sort of already accepted that as fact. How open IS the door gonna be?

So yea, I hope this makes sense. Please feel free to respond with or send asks of any nuances or questions or theories you’d like to add. I don’t intend this to be shaming anyone who thinks differently. Even if I may vehemently disagree with someone in my head, I don’t think these people are evil or malicious or objectively bad or deserving of hate. These are just my thoughts. I’ll likely be adding more. Thanks for reading.

[fryday]

Everything We Know About The Phagenda

I needed a place to organise all the info we've gotten from DNP about what the hell they're cooking, so this is the place. I might have missed things, so please always check the original post for the most up to date version of contents as I might change or add things over time. Any questions, just shoot me an ask or something. Thank you and happy conjecturing!

I tried to arrange the info roughly chronologically in each category.

It's probably more than one thing

Dan mentioned some things coming "somewhat after and a little bit soon after"

Phil said, "We've got a few things in our mouth at the moment"

Definition of "agenda" suggests multiple things

Money stuff

Phil made his cactus club subscription more affordable in preparation for what he and Dan are doing next

Phil took a question about what they're cooking in his latest Q&A video. He said that something may or may not "happen in the next month", but did not answer the section asking if we should be saving up for it.

Those who RSVP'ed will "be notified first as soon as the news drops" -> presumably related to a limited quantity of items up for grabs, which is why I've included it in this section, but that's just my guess

Concept / Nature of the Thing(s)

Someone on Twitter said, "So the phlonde has been in the works for months if that was the main reason he let his hair grow out" and Dan replied with, "what else is he plotting"

Dan and Phil included a blurred out image of a text message in their video, which Dan called "the draft for something that is top secret".

SuperSeizer (one of Dan and Phil's editors) is in on what's happening (the other person in this interaction is their other editor Kris, who may also be involved, depending on how you read this interaction)

In his birthday livestream, Dan talked about how they revived the gaming channel not knowing what the response would be, and were shocked by the enthusiasm from their audience. "Because it seems like there's a thing here. [...] And we need to be like, celebrate the things, acknowledge the things. So, I guess we can say in the most vague way that we can that Dan and Phil have been cooking."

Dan posted his story with the words, "the time is nigh - want to know what dan and phil have been secretly cooking? / reply to this story with: RSVP / and we will send you a dm as soon as the truth is revealed"

Another definition of "agenda" is "the underlying intentions or motives of a particular person or group".

5 of the images in the TV screens have been identified as of right now: Phil's Video Blog, Hello Internet, Saying Goodbye Forever, Giving The People What They Want, and Something We Want to Tell You

Laylo, the website DNP are using for this announcement, is a platform that creators can use to release merch, tickets, or content.

The initial wave of people who RSVP'ed got their confirmation emails from news@mail.danandphiltour.com with the reply email being dh@danielhowell.com. It was then changed; now the emails come from news@laylo.danandphilshop.com with the reply email being danandphilshopweb@gmail.com.

Dan and Phil would have been aware that they were using the tour email at first, as they would have had to manually enter it themselves. (Thanks @dnpbeats for the investigative work!)

They included a 3-second teaser clip at the end of the Sims fashion makeover episode.

[nebulaedaniel]

remember how in literally april this year we thought holding hands would be the worst thing they did

[freckliedan]

if they're both out, then why bother hiding their relationship / stuff like sharing a room and going on couple holidays? surely all of their fans know that they're together so i don't get the point of buying a home with 2 bedrooms and having a fake apartments? sorry very confused very casual fan here

hi!!! i am always so happy to share information, so ty for asking me about it! i'm going to take these questions piece by piece ^_^

if they're out why bother hiding: most of the examples of them taking serious steps to hide their relationship are from before they came out! they have been together since 2009, but dan wasn't even out to his family until 2019, shortly before he came out publicly.

why not come out sooner than that? i'll try to be brief and avoid rehashing dan's entire coming out video (which is worth watching). several reasons: he was severely bullied from early childhood onward for being gay—from before he even had the chance to consider if he was actually gay. his dad was homophobic to the point dan seems to have removed him from his life completely, & he was raised by religious grandparents so unsure of the reception there.

and significantly: he and phil were outed by a youtube glitch that leaked an extremely personal video in 2011 that leaked again on a broader scale about a year later. being outed was a part of the bullying dan had experienced so this was retraumatizing but on a bigger scale.

they had had SOME level of plausable deniability regarding their relationship before the leak, but hadn't been very actively closeting themselves before that point? and then the leak happened around when they were blowing up in popularity/around when youtube was becoming a viable career, so they were already grappling with sudden fame & a lot of other things happening in their lives at the time.

dan was 20 and phil was 24 the first time that video leaked; they were 21 and 25 and living in an apartment they couldn't afford on their own hoping the bbc would hire them (they did) the second time it did. it makes sense that they came down hard & firmly closeted themselves, especially dan, especially with what he's shared of his personal experiences.

2012-13 was the peak closet, but by 2015 they were already being more open—that's the first couple's trip they went on again after active closeting started. they've just become more and more open from there, but the peak closet era was so definitive that the public perception of them as not a couple WILL NOT SHIFT until they directly express that they are a couple.

they ARE out to fans as a couple, and imo have been since before they came out individually. they've said things along the lines of "we know you know" multiple times.

why not be definitive about their relationship status when they came out? it would've overshadowed them coming out as individuals and they didn't want that. it will be MASSIVE news when they hard launch their relationship. they went ambiguous with it on purpose in 2019 and succeeded.

so. to circle back to your questions.

why bother hiding their relationship? they haven't really since coming out. they've been living freely and being open about that in whatever ways are comfortable to them. they took some time out of the public eye for a while and i'm glad they got to have that so they could explore what happiness looks like without feeling the need to perform. but it was also something that was intentionally temporary!

at this point in time when they call each other friends or roommates etc they're fully doing a bit. like. it's funny! and it's funny at our expense which makes it even funnier—it's their turn to put us through some shit, you know? & the joke is more on people who AREN'T familiar with them than anyone else at this point. it's nice being in on things with them.

why hide sharing a bedroom? they haven't really since moving into their forever home! they have a bedroom and a guest room and there's a murphy bed in phil's filming space/personal office.

phil at some point made a comment that the murphy bed is for if they have two guests over at the same time—something that will only really read as "they share a bedroom" to people keeping track of rooms in their house.

i don't think that they share a bed they sleep in 100% of the time. which is like, normal and healthy? being able to sleep in a different bed when you want/need is NICE i've known so many people who keep seperate rooms in committed relationships and if i was rich enough i'd love having two bedrooms with beds in them in my relationship. even if we'd mostly sleep in the same place.

i also think having multiple beds means dan and phil can have freak sex in one and be lazy about clean up bc they have other beds so that's. a plus for them too.

but like. yeah. i think it's less that they're hiding that they share a bedroom and more that they share a bedroom but have better boundaries with their audience at this point—there stopped being video liveshows after they came out and they'd stopped doing liveshows from their actual bedroom when they moved in to the separate apartment situation.

+ the separate apartment situation was ONLY ever meant to be short term, & was a solution to the situation before that, when every room was in videos and it permanently felt like they were living in sets.

why hide couple holidays? they haven't since before coming out! they also go on a lot of double dates.

no sorries on the confusion and thank you for the chance to infodump!

[10yearsofdnp]

what is the december anniversary theory? i was really confused when they said december in the show

you've come to the right place, friend! the december anniversary theory basically says that dan and phil consider their official anniversary as a couple to be in december, specifically the first week of december since that was when dan spent an entire week at phil's house in 2009 and they were both extremely sappy that week (x) (x) (x) (x) (x) (x) (x) (x) (x) and for the rest of the month (x) (x) (x) (x) (x) (x) (x).

my personal theory behind this is that throughout october and november 2009, they were still feeling each other out and experimenting with other people since they weren't sure if they'd even work out as a couple. also it's important to note that dan was in the process of breaking up with his high school girlfriend when he met phil. and even though it seems like he wasn't very attached to her by then, that's still a tricky situation to go through, especially as an 18 year old. so my guess is that dan and his ex broke up around the end of october, right after he met phil. and after that, dan took some time to experiment with the old school youtuber crowd while he and phil slowly started chatting more and building the connection dan talks about in basically i'm gay. i'm guessing that dan and phil officially became exclusive when dan bought the train tickets to spend a week with phil, since that's quite a commitment. either then or when he arrived in manchester for the week or somewhere between then.

and THEN phil blew us all out of the water yesterday at the first terrible influence show when he said "it'll be 15 years of dan and phil in december." verrrrry interesting that he said december instead of october and didn't backtrack! also some very astute phannies have pointed out that they have that entire week off of touring this year, sooooo...!

btw, if you scroll through the y:2009 tag on this blog, you'll see all their posts from 2009, starting with the end of december! so if you want the full picture of their relationship timeline, i'd highly recommend starting there! have fuuuun! ☺️❤️

i personally love this theory since i feel like it explains so much about their early relationship, plus there was a definite shift in their interactions around the end of november/beginning of december 2009. it gives me hope that things could work out for us and our crushes too, you know?

[dangenderenvy]

the announcement is that dan and phil are going to have lesbian sex

[amid-fandoms]

love how when asked about the pillows, dan just said “two.” and phil went full princess and the pea on us

[bottomsonlybar]

i honestly just can't see how they're gonna be able to do this video without either hard launching OR going full no homo again like?? how are they gonna be vague about fucking PHAN CONSPIRACY THEORIES??? unless they only do the super crazy ones like idk phil's secret wife i just don't understand how they're gonna go about this

[betaphannie]

could you explain the Vegas lore maybe? i know that san was gonna do a video, and got super drunk, and did film it, like he promised the vid and never posted it. i’ve also watched the vegas younow live show. but it seems like there’s more with the mention of money in the post??

ok so. you seem to know the basic background so i'll be quick with that part. basically. dan and phil go to vegas for dan's 21st birthday. like you said they film a vlog there and get super drunk. dan says hey guys we filmed this epic vlog i just gotta edit it and it will be amazeballs.

well. time goes by. no vegas video. the phandom being the phandom, they ask questions. where's the vegas video? dan says do not worry. for it will be edited and posted ~soon~. there was just a LOT of footage to go through and so it would be a lot of work.

does he ever post it? no. therefore, the phandom concludes, there must be a reason. a secret secret reason they don't want to upload it. a rumor that dnp got married in vegas arises because what else would the phandom theorize about. perhaps they were even caught KISSING in vegas. whores!

eventually dnp say that they lost the footage and the vegas video will never grace our screens. however the true story finds itself in the great piece of literature that is The Amazing Book is not on Fire. Essentially, they say that what really happened in vegas was that phil was so good at the slots and made so much money that they were kidnapped by the mafia and had to make a daring escape involving dan attacking the tough guys with taekwondo and phil stealing and driving them away in a helicopter. they also somehow ended up in area 51 on the way out.

obv that's not what actually happened but somehow i wouldn't be surprised if it did.

will we ever find the secret video where dan and phil get married in vegas? the world will never know. but we do know that phil fucking kills it on a slot machine.

[simplydnp]

can you plz explain the iceland theory and how it originated

i'll do my best! (and @goldenpinof might have to fill in some blanks for me)

the driving theory is iceland wedding (which, all of our best theories are wedding theories aren't they)

the last show for WAD was supposed to be in iceland, and pj, sophie, and phil were all supposed to be there. they were also planning on spending some time there after the show 'exploring'.

dan was very, very disappointed about the cancelation of that show in particular. based off of his communication at the time, it 1 didn't seem like his idea to cancel it, and 2 came across like he found out when we did.

being that the plan was to be the 4 of them, and that dan vowed he would be there some day... it just seemed Very important.

[dnpbeats]

laylo, email domains, and danandphiltour.com

okay so i've been trying to think of why dan and phil would even use the tour email in the first place (assuming they knew we'd see it), regardless of if the project is a tour or not! so i've been looking into how laylo works and if dan and phil were the ones who picked the email domain, if they knew we'd see it, etc.—the answer is yes, they did. they had to manually enter the domain they wanted the emails to be sent from, as well as the email that replies are received at. all of my information comes from this page on laylo's website, including the video :)

disclaimer: i'm not an expert on this stuff! i'm just making educated guesses based on the information available to me. if somebody has firsthand experience with this and i'm dead wrong, please feel free to let me know. also i'm not trying to sway people one way or another if they're announcing a tour or not—just presenting info on how laylo works and a possible reason for why they started with certain emails and then switched to others

for the sake of clarity: original emails were sent from "news@mail.danandphiltour.com" and the reply email was "dh@danielhowell.com." after a bit (a couple of hours maybe) the emails were switched. currently they get sent from "news@laylo.danandphilshop.com" and the reply email is "danandphilshopweb@gmail.com"

okay, so, long story short: when dan and phil (or whoever they had doing this for them/helping them) set up their laylo account, the email page looked like this:

they would have been prompted to send emails from whatever domain they chose, meaning when they entered danandphiltour.com, they did it fully knowing that people would see the emails sent from it. if it is a tour that they don't want spoiled, or if it isn't a tour at all, why would they even pick this domain to send emails from?

my best guess is that it's because danandphilshop.com is hosted through shopify, and danandphiltour.com is just a webpage hosted by cloudflare (as far as i can tell the dnptour website itself is just an html/css page). if you watch the video from laylo, they talk about how certain domain providers have special tricks you have to do when editing the DNS settings. the example given in the video is squarespace, and they have a few more domain providers listed where issues can come up. while shopify isn't one of the ones listed, it's a similar type of host to squarespace. it's not hard to imagine that there are similar (but not identical) tricks to changing DNS settings for shopify. for comparison, squarespace's page on DNS settings is pretty similar to shopify's. in a world where it's difficult to get the custom domain working with shopify, it would make sense if they tried to use other domains they own that weren't hooked up to shopify—namely, danandphiltour.com

(note that the method for editing DNS settings on cloudflare seems to be pretty similar to the other two listed above. the reason why i'm guessing that clouldflare might be more straightforward than shopify is because shopify is a whole platform with a lot going on in the backend (similar to squarespace), whereas cloudflare is just hosting the domain. but again this is just me guessing!)

so yeah, that's my guess as to why they chose to use dnptour as the email knowing people would see it! as to why they changed it, who knows. maybe for whatever reason they wanted to use dnpshop and just couldn't get it working in time, maybe it was because people were getting the wrong idea with the tour email, maybe it was because people were getting the right idea with the tour email! but i think the reason they used it in the first place is probably just that they were having trouble with the dnpshop domain and were like fuck it let's try dnptour and that went more smoothly :)

as to why the reply to email was originally dan's email and then it switched to the random-ass dnpshop gmail—no guesses on that, if anyone has any thoughts lmk 😂

[danandfuckingjonlmao]

can a brave soul with a m&g ticket PLEASE tell dan that the word monochrome means one colour and not achromatic colours (white, black, and grey). please. i’m begging you.

[ahappydnp]

what was the 'week in march' thing 8 years ago?

omg peak phandom theories vs reality truly adsfsgjk

march 14th 2017- dan says he's had a challenging week and said to remind him to tell us about "that week in march" in 5 months (29:21)

march 21st 2017- the infamous liveshow where dan seemed off/got a little too personal (we now know he was going through rough withdrawals from his antidepressants) he says he's been irrationally sleepy and made a face when he says "well i do know why" (54:05)

august 8th 2017- chat says talk about the week in march (as it had been five months) and dan says to wait another 2 months (4:28)

october 10th 2017- world mental health day, the day before dan posted "daniel and depression". someone in the chat asks about that week in march and dan says he'll be able to explain it more tomorrow (22:59)

october 11th 2017- dan posts daniel and depression

october 17th 2017- dan says "that week in march" was when he forgot to renew his antidepressants and just decided to stop them altogether by himself and was really really sick for a week (9:34)

january 14th 2018- "that week in march" gets a shoutout in the top dan memes of 2017 because of all the phandom theories that got built up (3:35) except he tells you you'll have to wait until further in the video to find out so you can learn some patience. he reveals it at (21:21)

[readthephible]

can we talk about this. please