#rhink eb 341

[mythicalshipping]

EB Ep 341 Thoughts

I’ve seen a lot of discussion surrounding this episode so I decided I wanted to listen to it early; I usually catch it on YouTube on Sundays. 

I was glad to be able to read a variety of people’s opinions; everyone connects to content in a different way based on who they are and their life experience; different things will be more or less salient to different people, and I think that a multitude of perspectives makes for a richer fandom in general.

Below the cut is just my thoughts on the episode.

Disclaimer: As I don’t know Rhett and Link personally, my opinions are solely based on info they’ve put out into their content. As a fairly new fan, I’m also not as well-versed in their known lore as others might be lol.

I. First, I have put just a general summary of my overall thoughts. II. Next, I’ve included some screenshots from an episode they did for Jubilee called “Do Rhett and Link think the same?”, specifically, their responses to the statement, “There have been challenges that almost ended our friendship.” 

III. Lastly, I’ve included some quoted portions with accompanying timestamps as best as I could mark them to go along with the previous two sections.  I. Overall Thoughts Rhett - Rhett had been working on writing songs about his personal journey with deconstruction for years, and over time moved toward the idea of turning them into an album. - Rhett wanted to put out these songs as a serious personal project, to help those also going through deconstruction, music that he would have wanted to hear as he was going through his own process; as an Internet celebrity who is one half of a comedy duo, he was concerned that putting it out with the other half of said comedy duo would make people view the album as comedic, and the serious tone would be lost.  - Rhett didn’t think that Link and he would have anything to hash out about this because:  1. He would have been encouraging Link to pursue something like this if their positions were switched.  2. He doesn’t want to be a musician; he wants Mythical to be his main focus and doing this as a side project would not interfere with that.  3. If there was the potential for this side project to interfere with his work at Mythical, he would have had a conversation with Link earlier on.  TL;DR: Rhett is doing a solo project, but is not not going solo as a career move and doesn’t want to do so.  Link:  - Link’s initial reaction to Rhett doing a solo album was not a happy one because he was worried about what it would mean for them, professionally and personally, that it would mean a drastic change to their lives and relationship, due to his abandonment issues.  - Link would have preferred to have talked about Rhett’s solo album with him earlier on, but acknowledges that Rhett had legitimate reasons for going about this the way he did, and that Link’s desire to talk about things earlier is more about his own insecurities.  - Link and Rhett have had discussions about solo work before, notably with Rondstadt; that particular situation was messy and difficult to deal with but they learned a lot from it.  TL;DR: Link was afraid that Rhett doing a solo project meant he wanted to break apart from their established duo, but that is not the case.  Rhett & Link - Rhett pointed out that Link’s podcast with his Dad, that, while through Mythical, is still a solo project of sorts; Link agreed and also brought up his delving into DJing as being a similar side project.  - They do acknowledge in this episode how much of their lives together are focused on their work; however:  1. They both indirectly acknowledge how important their work at Mythical is to them and how much they want to continue it.  2. They have and continue to expand their work at Mythical to other creative endeavors besides just GMM; EB hasn’t been around nearly as long as GMM, they’re having their very first convention this Summer, and they’re doing their second GME come Fall. Plus, they are constantly coming out with new merch, GMM ideas, etc. all the time.  3. In even episodes of GMM just recently, it’s clear that they are involved in each other’s lives outside of work; they text each other when on vacations with their wives, they attend little rooftop get togethers, they go to parties at each other’s houses, etc.  4. They have admitted that the reason they don’t really do guests on EB anymore is because they have cultivated it to be their own little corner to share in each other’s lives, even though they are doing it in front of the world.  TL;DR They love each other, your honor. 

II. Jubilee episode: Do Rhett and Link think the same? - There have been challenges that have almost ended our friendship. 

As a child of divorce, Link has acknowledged that his current abandonment issues are largely tied to those experiences. But in this episode, I think he also demonstrates a wisdom gained from those experiences; caring deeply about another person in a relationship, while important and foundational, is not on it’s own enough to sustain a relationship. Work needs to be put into that relationship to maintain it, to help it thrive, to help it grow, and to make sure that breaking up doesn’t happen. 

III. Quotes from EB 341

01:09:57 Rhett: Neither of us has had something where it's just like "I have to get this into the world." This is the first thing that came along. To me, it doesn't feel like a threat to what we have. If anything, it feels like - because it's not a replacement for anything we're doing. In some ways it feels like it's another facet to the Rhett side of Rhett and Link. 01:10:23 Link: "Yeah I think that there was - so it was the - was this a - threat to the business strategy of what we're doing. But then there's another part that's like, "If I bring this up, will Link perceive it as a threat to our creative partnership?" Or, more. Or our friendship. I don't know." 01:10:54 Rhett: Well, and again, while it wasn't calculated, if you're asking me like, "Well, we're gonna have to have a really long conversation about this that's going to -'' I mean, I didn't think this, but I may have been thinking this subconsciously. It's just like, okay. If we have a conversation about this at a really early stage, it may really just get bogged down. You know? Because now, in my mind, it went from being this thing that was gaining momentum...It's so difficult to get things to happen, to bring things into the world. We know that right? And when I subconsciously perceived that there might be a conversation or some point that becomes a point of impasse. I'm like "I don't wanna have that. I don't wanna do that. Like, let's let this actually begin to become something and then we can have a conversation about it versus having a conversation about it a year ago, you know." Not that we didn't talk about it, not that you didn't know about it, but it wasn't like "hey, let's sit down and really hash this thing out." 'Cause in some ways, the other part of my brain was thinking "there's nothing to hash out." Like, I'm doing this thing, if you were doing this thing, I'd be like "that's awesome. That's cool man. Do it." Now, if suddenly we can't do something we wanna do 'cause you're doing this, then we can have a conversation but if that's not the case, just keep going. You know, if it's making you a better, more fulfilled person than that makes you a better, more fulfilled comedy partner, business partner, and friend, if you're pursuing your passion, doing something that is bringing you joy in life...Anything that's healthy for me is healthy for us and vice versa; anything that's healthy for you is healthy for us.`` 01:12:49 Link: "Yeah, I mean when I hear that I'm like "is that true?" There has to be an exception to that rule, right? It's like, that just can't be it. Could that just be true across the board?...You know, my preference would have been to talk about it earlier, but, again, I think this is more about me than it is about you...Yeah, it's like, if I hear you're makin' an EP or doing this thing the first thing I'm gonna think is - The first thing I did think was not, "I'm so excited for you. I want to celebrate this." It's like, "what does this mean for us?" And it taps into some insecurity...I don't wanna overblow this whole abandonment issue thing, but, it's there, right?...That's part of my process...We had had conversations about this related to other stuff. So actually, this project didn't bring this to a head as much as like...my response to this project, this album of yours, was shaped by the experience we had on Rondstadt...The genesis of that project was messy....We had to work through it." 01:15:07 Rhett: When we were first approached about that, the ask was, "Would Rhett play Rondstadt?"...We both audition for roles that if we were - we'll never get, we'll never get one. But if we do it kind of for fun and maybe one would come and be like "oh Link's gonna be on this show or Link's gonna make a guest appearance and he's not going in as "Rhett & Link" he's going in as "Link" and vice versa, so that's been a conversation, but that was being brought into Mythical as a Mythical Project...but the ask was for Rhett to play Rondstadt, so, how do we make this a Rhett and Link thing? And that became the conversation as opposed to, "Oh it's gonna be a Mythical thing that Rhett is doing." 01:16:00 Link: And then the way that it became a conversation was just not smooth...We talked about it and we learned that we would have done things differently...I just feel like that gives context to this because I feel like, by moving through that, and growing through that, we were able to articulate our desires. Like, you were able to articulate some of your desires for...Do we have to do every single thing together? You know, we started having conversations about this. I think there's a whole other podcast in here, I'm just gonna allude to it...And then I'm bringing to the table...very early on, we made this choice that we weren't - everything we're gonna do we're gonna do together. So it's like, okay, now, are we revisiting that? And what does that mean? And how far does that go? Well it turns out...it's not that drastic. It's just that, because of my make up and what I'm bringing to the table, it's scarier for me. And me giving off that energy, I think when it comes around to this project, I mean, you're probably gonna have this sense that I'm gonna be more concerned about it than excited, first. But, we benefited from going through, you know, getting on the same page on the Rondstadt project, getting on the same page about just our approach to things at Mythical...I guess the point I'm making right now is that, we really had a series of good conversations that got us more on the same page, you know the mantra of saying "when in doubt, talk it out" is something that we really benefited from. So when, and ironically, a lot of you doing the songwriting stuff was happening in parallel to all this but when it came to a point of you were ready to talk about it, then I was in a much better place to receive it. And that was even without the benefit of the entire backstory that you just shared, of just like, the personal process of it...But, not seeing it as a threat to what we're doing, is something that I can say to the 98th degree, that I can. And that's saying a lot.`` 01:18:55 Rhett: This is not me saying that I wanna go and be a full-time musician...I'm not touring...I'm not saying I'll never play these songs for someone, for a crowd...The intention isn't like "now, I'm a musician and that's what I do." It's more like "hey has always been very much a hobby of mine and it'll be cool to have this ongoing thing"...It's something that I can responsibly fit into my schedule and not drop the ball on what we're doing here...This isn't like, I'm going to pursue a career as a musician"...I was already a musician and now I'm releasing some music that is just mine.