#this has subheadings bc i got uni coursework back and that was the feedback

[riacte]

i never really paid attention to it but wow false and ren. they really do hover around each other huh. they r like bugs

Hiii anon thanks for the ask <3 I'll use this to talk about them and them in fanon because I have thoughts woooo (and I'm vibrating with excitement because I'm listening to the HC Grand Prix at the same time)

You said it exactly— like we all know they're buddies and stick together, but most of the times, we don't really notice it because it's just natural. Nondescript even. Like of course their pixels are next to each other in the background. Of course they're hanging out. It's not flashy or anything, they're just there.

[long and winding analysis that goes off in a Direction, will definitely not be maintagged, mentions of shipping and the fandom's worst enemy (comphet / heteronormativity)]

Pairing up

They're like those anime characters who are fully fleshed out individually, but for some reason, their screentime is tied together and they're always shown next to each other. That was actually my first impression of them back when I only watched Grian in HC6 lmao, every time Grian flew over the fantasy district he would casually go "that's False and Ren's bases" and my brain was like "hmm new names :) idk who they are but they stick together :)". Like you know when you're new to an unknown cast of people so you try to comprehend and memorise them as efficiently as possible? And so you start sorting the cast into duos / groups so it's easier to remember them? That was me trying to compartmentalize the hermits in HC6. Grian + Mumbo. Iskall + Stress. Scar + Cub. Joe + Cleo. ZIT. False + Ren.

It did not help that from Grian's POV, there was a part in the civil war arc when he collabed with False to prank Ren because they thought he'd pranked her and so my brain was like "weeewoooo I still don't know who False and Ren are but they continue stick together, and that's convenient for my internal sorting :)))". And that mutual association genuinely never stopped lmao (it only got worse).

Shared audiences?

I've talked about this on privtwt: False+Ren as a fanon duo (like duo Duo as in desert duo) is strangely niche even though they do stuff together all the time and they're both fairly popular on their own. And there is so much intermingling between their audiences— I know this is the case for all hermits' audiences, but it seems especially obvious between their audiences. I know in a stream Ren said he met up with False and they had a discussion like years ago about the two of them hosting a meet and greet with fans in a restaurant (that didn't happen) and internally I was like "yeah, that'll only work if they have a solidly integrated fanbase so no one feels left out in the restaurant WAIT. That's literally what's going on here".

Funny how when I was writing this, an anon sent an ask about Ren's chat basically being full of False emotes LOL. Integrated audience kinda real <3 like, even if you only watch one of them and don't actively watch the other, you still know and think of the other fondly.

Different styles? And sticking together

Actually outside of yayyy fun minigames, to me at least they have quite different styles + ways of presentation? Which feels slightly different from the above duos I mentioned? So I totally understand why people only main one of them and don’t watch the other (but still aware of the other obviously). In terms of taste and personal preference, I’ve been here long enough to know what loyal False mains generally like and what loyal Ren mains generally like. (Like, very verrrry generally.) Ren’s the dramatic roleplay storyteller and False is like, sneaky and shifty and has a wry sense of humour. They’re both funny and charming in different ways. I would say Iskall and Stress have similar presentations (“aha? AHA?”) even though they excel at different things. Cub and False are also similar to me— competent and cool people who are nonchalantly chaotic. And we all know Ren and Martyn’s instant chemistry and their similarities. It’s why a lot of Ren fans gravitated to Renchanting and Rendoc for their dramatics and flirting in the way some False fans gravitate to Fress and Falseren for the fun/mildly hysterical/teasing/sweet/pranking moments.

BUT

False and Ren bounce off each other well— it’s the playful tension and the sudden mutual whiny energy like “noooo don’t leave me🥺” but they start hitting each other 0.5 seconds later. And of course the mutual clinginess. I know people have made jokes about how they’re both smart and competent people individually but when they get together they suddenly become the silliest sillies and share one braincell <3 and I know people (read: mutuals in my DMs) have joked about Ren’s currently extremely obvious bias for her (it's as big as the BRR sign I swear 😭) and the usual “orbiting around each other group recordings”. Compared to other duos, they don’t get paired together bc of similar presentations / style. They get paired together because of the chemistry and they share so many moments lol.

Tldr: they make for entertaining on-screen interactions. It’s fun watching them rotate around each other and punch each other off things. And they do this so much that 1) everyone’s aware of it 2) everyone’s used to it.

Branding? (Or the lack of it)

Last I checked, their tag has 46 fics on Ao3 and 16 of those fics are from me (I love being spiders georg). As with every pair that's not the juggernaut pair, realistically the actual number of fics that actually focus on them is less than what we see. And you know how sometimes for the "niche" pairs, there's more ship fic than platonic fic? (Actually I think for most pairs, there's more ship fic than platonic fic.) That's also not it, they don't even have 20 ship fics. Like clearly, the current fanon interest in them is not ship motivated versus *gestures to whatever is happening in the general shipping chaos post 2021*.

What I concluded is that they lack the kind of branding that for example Convex possesses. I think it's kind of because... they're an ubiquitous constant throughout the years. They don't need a storyline or a named group to tie themselves together. No matter what they're doing, no matter what characters they're playing, no matter which servers they're on— they just kind of stay in each other's orbits. But they don't play it up or anything like hashtag SHIPrendoc or Renskall or whatever. They don't even have a proper fanon name ffs (outside of fairy pirate grotto or whatever in HC6).

(Although imo this is likely to avoid comphet irl shipping because God forbid a man and a woman are friends :))))) heteronormative irl shipping / truthing was an annoyance for years (pre the HC6 boom). But strangely enough, modern anti hermitshippers on Twitter rarely bring up the real problem of truthing in public comments and instead target people making Scarian fanart in a small corner or whatever. When many cases of Compulsory Heterosexuality literally exist in YouTube comments. But I digress.)

Ren and False are just there, pranking each other and basing together and playing five million minigames and being casually supportive of each other. Like, their biggest shared "storyline" that left a strong impression on fans / converted fans was probably MCC9. We all still talk about it today the way Ren and Martyn still talk about 3L Renchanting. And MCC9 was in 2020 when they'd already done a lot of stuff together prior to that (eg. literally being neighbours in HC6).

And the thing is, they do collab semi-frequently. In like every Hermitcraft season. In recent memory, we've got the Blue River Raceway of course, but we also get those pranks and minigames and random silly interactions like Ren breaking into False's eagle and False pranking him at her elytra race. It doesn't need to be big and theatrical in classic Ren fashion (I remember the Renbob / Falsewell storyline in HC6; her nonchalance and confusion was so funny in contrast to Renbob's hippie demeanor).

And I kind of like the way they've kind of (?? or not???) escaped from the intense duo-ification from the fandom. Okay, to be fair, I know I am the worst offender of the duo-ification of them (with my desperate do not separate agenda), and maybe I've had a negative effect on the fandom, so feel free to throw me off my soap box. I remember how hermitblr as a collective suddenly lost it when they split in MCC17. We took them for granted, we all got to used to them being together, we got used to seeing them in the background, and then suddenly they’re not??

So we’re all kind of aware of them. But it’s not a terribly big thing…. until it is.

It's the same on the M/CC Reddit. Everyone knows they're iconic. But nobody makes a post about how we need more False and Ren duo interactions because they already interact a lot. It's just a natural constant. They don't really need a spotlight because they're just... here doing funky cute friendship stuff.

But if they ever, for some reason, become a mainstream duo on twt in its mainstream duo way with some [insert random noun] duo name, I will be so 🫠😒🔥💥🔥💥. But I literally cannot see this happening unless they team with Grian / Grian adjacent people in Life series. But even then I think they’re kinda exempt because everyone’s so used to them lol. It’s not like a shiny new uwu duo. It’s like how Stresskall is just Stresskall. Or Jleo.

(Actually, speaking of Stresskall, the entire Stress-Iskall-Ren-False group would make for an interesting fanon discussion bc it’s essentially made out of very solid and fan favourite duos. But not now. Team FRIS my absolute beloved though.)

Also, thinking about the ensemble HC fics I've read and how they're just casually kind of chilling in the background. Ren is usually paired with Doc (both platonic / romantic) but False is usually somehow mentioned in a passing comment. Same with False who's usually with the Hermitgals in ensemble fics, but there's also passing comments about her hanging out with Ren. Again, it's just a natural part of the background. Trivia that's sprinkled in between.

And that's why I think I'm so 🥺🥺🥺🥺 because it doesn't need to be big and grand... it's all the little moments <3 they have such a fun and playful dynamic and all the love for minigames <3

I don’t know if this is comprehensible or I’m just going crazy and overthinking things no one thinks about. But writing this was fun at least <3 If at least one person gets maybe 30% of this post (whatever it is), I'll be happy haha.

Post sponsored by the three people who liked my tweet from months ago 🥹