If you ship Phan…when/why did you start shipping it?

[oqua]

(If you don't ship Phan, that's totally fine! )

Basically, I wonder what "made you ship Phan," so to speak. Do you have a specific moment you can point to where you went, yes, I see it now, and I ship it. (Or even just "I believe they are/were in a relationship.") If so, I'd love to hear what it was!

Did you ship them before you even knew who they were? Were you initially agnostic or skeptical, and then something finally “convinced” you? Were you always open to the idea of Phan but not truly invested until something or other finally sealed the deal?

Or perhaps there wasn't a specific moment, but it was it more of a slow evolution of thought? I'd be curious to know if you remember your thought process!

Anyway, for me, I liked their chemistry together from the start, and pretty soon after I started watching them I learned about the Valentine's Day video and other "evidence" for their being together.

However, I didn't personally care or feel at all invested in the notion of "phan."

What finally humanized their relationship for me — made me go "awwww" and understand why people cared so much — was a comment on the Liveshow clip where Phil is ill and they sing "Toxic."

Here’s a screenshot of the comment:


Not sure why this comment spoke to me so much, but it did. I just thought it was so cute. And ever since then I’ve been phan af.



Romantic, platonic, whatever...I ship it. lol

[PolarFox]

For me, my first vid I have seen of them, I believe, was the Just Dance video from DAPG sometime in october 2015, when I was browsing youtube and clicked on them because one of my new friends liked them and told me how they live together and stuff... So I kind of got into watching them seeing them as boyfriends

Much to my surprise I then proceeded to watch around and found out they have separate channels and are not in fact confirmed to be together. But it did bug me, because they looked like they were together, at least to me from watching the few gaming vids/pinof.

So I then went down the rabbit hole to tumblr, from where I gathered some info, so I then proceeded even lower to the infamous phandirectory ( ) and of course google search for deleted vids (hail amazingfire project) and voldy, of course.

By that point I was phan af, so the next analysis step was the anti blogs. That brought me back up a bit, but some of those are laughable, maybe reaching even more than the "proofers" or the timeline.

So, craving more info and being puzzled I got to lurk the gg for even more info and some cool insights on the topic.
That is my shipping story, tbh Idk what was the moment I really started shipping it, but yeah. I ship it. I don't want to see them make out/come out though, my dream of this ship is just them being together and happy forever after, even as platonic bffls that just stay together because fuck society

[jiggly]

i got into d&p after accidentaly watching one of dinof's sketchy videos (good times) in 2014, reacting to teens react aka the cringefest was in recommended videos, then ditl in london, then tumblr tag. these were my first 3 deppy videos. mind you, i was (and still am) very into slash fiction so after seeing their interactions i immediately thought 'what are they to each other? are they just buddies? bros? are they something more?'.

but yes, it was the tumblr tag and their reaction to kissing art that made me put on my goggles. i was like 'they must have loads of shippers then, yes, sign me up' and of course i typed 'dan and phil' into tumblr search. it went downhill from there. thousands of hours spent on dinofvyou1 channel, finding vday video and that long ass commentary, timelines, reading pro-phan and phanti theories, lurking, being a creep etc. yall know what i mean.

it all sounds very cringey but this was the beginning and obviously my thoughts have been changing constantly.

the thing is, i don't really ship phan, i genuinely believe they are together.

[alittledizzy]

The GG thread got me. I googled Dan and Phil randomly in 2015 (after years of not liking them blah blah full story in the intro threads) to see what they were up to and GG/phan directory were two of the main links. I'm a sucker for a hidden conspiracy and when I caught on that there was more to the shipping for them than 'two rich straight white males breathe same air and fangirls pee themselves screaming gay' I was all over it trying to obsessively figure out the whole story. And then I did, and emotional attachment happened.

[mermaid blood]

if shipped means i assumed they were in a romantic relationship, then from the first video i ever saw of them. which was Amazing Dan, in late 2013/early 2014 (after seeing Dan in a few of Louise's vlogs).

i didn't realise they weren't a couple until i'd already watched all the Pinofs to date, the 2010 gaming videos i think, and around 5 or 6 radioshows on youtube (so like 12 hours)? the youtube comments just operate on phan being a reality, unless you happen to stumble upon a disagreement or someone saying 'proof!', which i hadn't. I searched for them to see if there was any further discussion about how long they'd been together and if either identified as gay, and it brought up Lav's tumblr blog.

i remember being palpably confused and disbelieving.

[oqua]

if shipped means i assumed they were in a romantic relationship, then from the first video i ever saw of them. which was Amazing Dan, in late 2013/early 2014 (after seeing Dan in a few of Louise's vlogs).

Yeah, I want everyone to interpret the topic however they want: ship as in "want them to be together," ship as in "support the relationship that you believe exists," or simply ship as in "believe they're in a relationship."

[akui]

I can't remember since when i started watching Deppy, but the first video was definitely one of the sims video, I didn't think much although i did think they were cute together (as friends), i didn't really think they are in a romantic relationship.

Because I am a slash shipper already, and I was just got off a fandom, it was 4 painful years, so i started shipping deppy lightheartedly as some sort of distressing/healing thing?

And one say I was watching a deppy video and there are tons of comments about hamster and the hat fic, i got curious and so i googled it.

Except i didn't really google it because as i was trying to type "dan and phil hat fic", my clumsy finger accidentally touched v instead of h, and google suggested me to search "dan and phil valentines video" instead.

And now, like everybody else, i ended up here, as a middle aged nose pervert.

[antigone]

Dan's "what not to do at the cinema" video was on the featured page so I watched it and then realised he was that kid from all of the gifs I'd seen on tumblr.. Consequently, I watched pretty much all of their videos and looked up what people thought about it all on tumblr and GG. I was already shipping them just from seeing their chemistry but all of the 'proof' people had found convinced me further

[Catallena]

I started watching them in 2012 (before Dan went berserk at mentions of Phan) and in the first months I saw Phan as more of a joke ship... like the new 'Cherimon' or whatever, but with more chemistry as seen in PINOF. At the time I was more interested in them as individuals though, so Phan wasn't really on my mind anyway. When some Tumblr blogs started spreading old screenshots from Twitter, Formspring, Dailybooth and eventually the VDay Video, a new world opened up to me. I shipped it hard.

Not long after that Dan started lashing out at people mentioning Phan, probably because all these new people came into the phandom and started questioning everything. Lots of Phan blogs got bullied into deleting and I honestly felt really guilty about shipping it, but at the same time I found Dan's reactions so suspicious that it only solidified my faith in the ship. Sorry Dan, you tried. You really did.

I'm now not sure where I stand on the phan shipping scale. Like, I definitely ship it. But my believe in whether the ship is real goes all over the place. Most of the time I'll be like 'they're definitely doing it' but then I also have phases where I'm like 'ok maybe not' and it's very frustrating. But it also keeps me interested. I do know I'm unable to believe that there was never more between them, even if only in the very beginning. Though in that case, we'll never know will we? They would never tell. It would mean that if they ended up with other people in the future, we'd be left wondering about those times.

[oqua]

And one say I was watching a deppy video and there are tons of comments about hamster and the hat fic, i got curious and so i googled it.

Except i didn't really google it because as i was trying to type "dan and phil hat fic", my clumsy finger accidentally touched v instead of h, and google suggested me to search "dan and phil valentines video" instead.

Amazing. It was fate.


Keep 'em coming, everyone!

[annetamiau]

I discovered Dan and Phil in May 2015 (I think). I was watching Rachel and Jun, Texan in Tokyo and Mimei because I'm interested in Japanese culture. Dan and Phil's DITL in Japan kept appearing in my recommendations, and eventually I ended up clicking it. I had never heard of them and I didn't even know what shipping meant. I am one of those people who just assumed they were a couple: the hotel room + the way they talked to each other in the video + the fact that they looked similar in the way many couples look similar. I guess the whole vibe of the video made me assume they were a couple. And I was really happy because I thought they were very sweet but without PDA, which I found kind of fresh (not that there is anything wrong with PDA anyway).

Then I watched the Festive DITL and I thought they such a cute couple. At some point I started reading comments (I don't remember what video I was watching, because I kept clicking recommended ones) and discovered they weren't a couple. I was shocked and decided to investigate. In the first week I found tumblr (I didn't even know tumblr existed), GG, the Phan directory, the timelines and the vday video. I still think they are a couple (most of the time, because every now and then I start having doubts). But my very first impression, without even knowing that shipping is a thing and that gay ships are so popular on Youtube, was that they were a couple.

I'm not even subscribed to them and their relationship is what I'm most invested in, but I've learnt a lot about Youtube culture and fandoms ever since I first clicked the DITL video almost a year ago. I've even learnt a lot about sexualities and I'm in my late 20s. And I've also improved my English, especially my listening skills, which makes me very happy

[daphenaxa]

basically I always thought there was something between them just watching their videos and the way they interact. I was, ok there is something there. Then vday video, phan timeline, phandirectory their old twitter/photobooth etc. interactions finished to convince me.
It's funny because I am in the category dan would hate as I do like phan edits etc. but more than I ship them for the kicks, I 100% believe they are together.

[cherry]

I started watching Dan in really early 2012 (I knew about Phil, but I just couldn't get into his videos at the time) and I was the definition of a casual fan to a T. So I knew nothing except for the videos Dan made. And that's it. I wasn't the type to read comments either, so shipping never really crossed my mind? I guess I thought it was a joking internet thing when I did come across it.

I sort of fell out of watching youtube later that same year, but was still subscribed. It wasn't until late 2014 when I started actively watching Dan again that I eventually found the gaming channel some time after, and dilmas (which is what really hooked me in). I wasn't interested in shipping until they were trending on tumblr (because of dilmas) that I started going through the tag and seeing the gifsets of all the little moments I had missed just watching the videos one time through. And of course the moments were cute and I started shipping it a little.

And, ok this is weird, but I googled fanfiction about them before I did any actual research as to why people think they're a couple? I don't know. I guess I wanted to see how popular it was to ship them based on how many stores they had on ao3??

Eventually I found all the blogs, and the old tweets, and the timeline, and The Video, etc.

So I do ship it, and most of the time I think they probably are together, but I try not to dwell on the are they/aren't they too much. I mean we'll know eventually (if they get that koi pond or if they go separate ways), it's just a matter of waiting. I'll be fine either way.

this post is a mess

[swofro]

I wish I can copy paste my answer from GigiHadid but I don't want to log in there anymore. Haha. So here goes.

I never ship them as 'I believe they are together' in the first place. I kinda ship them ironically like shipping Cherimon, if you know what I mean I found phandirectory quite early but I wasn't that invested to know about them that much back then, so I didn't even try to find the password for things.

I found voldy from a comment in an old video, watch it and went back to phandirectory for more informations and understand why people ship them.

At some point, I may have google things and stumble upon Dan's 2012 answer, and I kinda respect what he says until now. I love the idea of them being together but until they themselves declares that in their own term, I will stick to my ironic ship + bromance admiration because I don't feel like it is my business.

I'm still a though, and probably will continue to find videos funny / interesting unless they are dragon #spon.

[phamnotof]

I was hella skeptical for a long time, shipped it casually because I ship everything casually - but I saw a lot of comments about PHAN!!!!, so I went on ao3 because where there's a passionate fanbase, there's good fic & I don't need more than that.
And one fic I read had be googling for a video I'd never have known about othewise. As all of internet's best-kept secrets, it took about 2 minutes to find it. Googled Dan's response, mostly bought it, judged them hella hard for wanting to do something like that, stopped reading fanfic for a while... But then, I couldn't stop thinking about it, so I googled on and on asked around and really got into watching back all of their videos and concentrating on how they interact (before, I'd only watch YT when I was cooking or cleaning or something, not really focusing at all) -- and I clicked on The Festive Day In Life.
And I think that was it? Like that was definitely the first time I'd really considered it as an option, that I thought - damn. I also watched PJ casually and I actually remembered him posting a ?? video of a cash thingy titled "thank you, Dan and Phil" that had the cash box that Phil talked about buying for his friends and that was the first time I accidentally phan-proofed to myself, in the privacy of my bedroom. And I'm a horrible, horrible child who always needs to know everything and suddenly, I felt like there were things beneath the surface.
So I asked around some more, got sucked in my Tumblr and timelines and... Well, the rest is history.

[cucu]

I began watching Dan and Phil casually in 2012, yet didn't even follow them on social media or get into the phandom around late 2013, so I was very unaware of the 2012 - early 2013 phan denial period. My first impression of them is that they were genuinely just friends, although both of them definitely pinged as not-entirely-straight to me. Then I found the infamous Phan timeline, did some digging, etc... Eventually it was pretty clear to me that they were a couple, as so many things in the past and present just... don't entirely add up to me otherwise?

That may be a little narrow-minded, but I just can't fathom how some people can just explain away all of the stuff in the past and present it as "fanservice" when really, in around 2009-2010 there wasn't really much of a fanbase in the first place or a significant amount of "Phan" shippers. That's way I just can't see the v-day vid as being a prank, along with the fact that it seemed far too thoughtful and genuine and private to be a joke. I really don't think Phil is a good enough actor or they had amassed enough of a fanbase to pull something like that. The reaction from Dan just served my belief even further - why would he react in such a negative and defensive way if there wasn't a smidge of truth to the vid in the first place? You could just put it down to Dan being a borderline-homophobic asshole, however his current behaviour leads me to believe there was a much deeper reason behind it. I honestly think I will be a little shocked if there wasn't or isn't still something going on between those two.

[catch]

I’m having trouble recalling exactly what I thought of their chemistry at first because I just can't unsee it now. It’s the little things in their interactions that combined together gives me a different vibe than other platonic best friends. But something must have stood out to me from the start (think it was a pinof) because I fell into reading all the comments, followed by a lot of googling leading to the Phandirectory and such.

At this stage I was in a haze of strangely strong feelings of excitement, like ”oh wow, are they really..? damnit this is great, hook me up with more please.. ah yeah, just a few more pieces of information... ” (I miss those days) and so I found GG, and the old threads were what actually sealed it for me, too. Some sorces may or may not be as reliable as I felt they were upon that first read, but on the whole their history speaks pretty clear to me. As does the fact that they’re still going as strong as ever.

This is a bit off-topic, but since some of you are touching on the shipping Phan vs. believing in Phan with some good points.

Personally I do both, but kinda want to separate the two although my reasoning for this is flawed. The shipping is (apart from a way to keep believing in love lol) entertainment in the form of funny discussions and creative speculations that the mystery inspires. Same goes for fics, art or fanvids. But I don’t want it to actually become personal or feature real leaked information.. which is of course hypocritcal since my 'believing in Phan' stems from exactly that stuff. But that was the old threads, I was.. young. I wasn't. I like to think I'm believing much more casually though, like if I’m put on the spot then yeah I think they're together, but their friendship/whatever definition they have is still so beautiful that how could that not be enough (for me as a viewer I mean).

[manged]

Honestly, my guy.... I just have this weird obsession for stalkingshipping white dudes in secret relationships. It's basically a hobby of mine at this point. It doesn't really go deeper than that.

[Rusty]

I introduced myself on the introductions section of the forum, but I do more lurking than I like...

Anyway, I feel strange using the words "shipping" for assuming two people are together and think they're great together, but I think like Anonymousse mentioned, I started "shipping" them when I saw a lot of their quirks and just aura about them reminded me of myself and my significant other as well and that's what drew me closer in kind of thinking they could be together. Then when I showed them to my fiancée, she thought right away that they were romantically involved and that made me more curiouser and that's how I got on the Dam and Phil GG to find out if my suspensions were true. A lot of things lean me towards them being together, but I'm always willing to hear everyone's opinion about their one of a kind relationship.

[cbgb]

I love reading these stories and here goes mine I guess

Up until a year ago I used Youtube to watch tutorials or music videos or recipes and I had no idea of the whole culture with internet stars and fandoms. Then during spring 2015 I was going through a rough period and found that beauty videos relaxed me, so I went through a lot of them -especially Bethany Mota's and Zoe's. From there I somehow ended watching Troye and Tyler. I stumbled upon the collab between Dan and Tyler and thought Dan was a gay friend of Tyler (lol) but didn't investigate further.

I watched the other collab they did, and phan videos kept coming up, I clicked on one to see what the fuss was about and remember being really confused and promptly forgot about it. Some time later I happened to watch Connor and Joey's punk edit video and in the comment section loads of people kept saying how much better Dan and Phil video was, so out of curiosity I clicked on it and from there I binged on their videos. From what I saw I assumed they were a couple, so color me surprised when I googled them and discovered everything (phandirectory, vday vid, gg thread). From there I was past the point of no return, truly and well hooked. Today I believe they are together (given everything, I think this is the most reasonable explanation to everything, but I still retain a small amount of uncertainty). I don't know if I "ship" them, (what does that even entail, anyhow?) I just know that I love their relationship and chemistry.

[awkwardfox]

Long time lurker... I started watching dinof around 2012-2013. Back then I only knew Phil as the quirky friend who pops up in Dan's videos every now and then. I started sensing there is something flirty (?) going on between them when I went back and rewatch the early dinof and amazingdan but I never really bother finding out. Plus I was not actively following them on twitter and tumblr and completely missed out on the whole drama of voldy and Dan's reaction.

It was only last year when i was browsing for something on the internet and found gg and phan directory. I personally have not watched voldy but I am 80% convinced they are together. (The 20% uncertaince is because they themselves did not confirm it)

I have to also add that I have never ship anyone before.

[kooshka]

I honestly thought that they were boyfriends when I discovered them... I watched them casually and there was such a strong chemistry between them, it didn't even occur to me them they'd be just friends (idk the vids I watched just were so domestic-y, like the baking vids and DITLs).

When I found out that they're "not together", I just went like buuulllshiiit and started to dig deeper. It was reading the evidence collected in tumblr archives and GG that made so invested in them, I'm convinced that they were together at least at some point in the beginning, and them being in denial/secretive about it has made me ship them even more. If they had stated that they had a thing but are not together anymore, I'd probably just let go. I also haven't seen the voldy vid because I don't want to, but I've read the transcript to see if there's a chance it actually was a prank, and I think it was 100% real.

[DryCereal]

When I found out that they're "not together", I just went like buuulllshiiit and started to dig deeper.

Yup, my exact reaction too.

I first found them on the Sunday night r1 show, then via YTers react, then searched for "dan and phil", saw all the baking videos and PINOF/AD and "collabs" and "moments" - and I'm supposed to believe they're just best friends who've been living and working and travelling around events and visiting with each other's families together with no sign of an S.O. for either of them in all that time? Mmmmhmmmmm... yeah, sure. Totally.
Fuuuuuuuuuuuuuck ooooooooooooooooff.

Yes, I watched about the first 30 secs of "that which must not be named" after having read what seems like an accurate transcript. And I felt so uncomfortable watching it, (and having never seen Phil acting that convincingly before or since!) it pretty much got me to the 99% convinced stage I'm at.

Even after all that though, my overriding opinion is still that "if they're happy, (whatever the nature of their relationship actually is) then I'm happy for them. And long may it last, and they be happy with it."

NGL though, if they keep up the bff-ness and one of them gets married/engaged/outed with a different partner I'm going to need some explanations...! I should read more Phantiproof...!

[albion]

Honestly, my guy.... I just have this weird obsession for stalkingshipping white dudes in secret relationships. It's basically a hobby of mine at this point. It doesn't really go deeper than that.

manged u and i both
i actually got a tumblr ask once saying
"so you like dan and phil, peter and carl AND alex and miles... guess you got a type for british boys with ambiguos relationships"
and i was like OK HOW DARE YOU kinkshame me ON MY OWN BLOG.

so tbh, when i found out the shipper fanbase was big i just dived head-in first like 'yup, i know what this is about, i am prepared to witness the case, please bring on the allegations and pleadings"
i think i read both timelines, watched the vday video, read lav's blog and phanantiproof all in the same day, like i was looking for resources for an essay and i concluded it was ship worth supporting and that was around early 2014, though i had known about them for years.

but as i am with most of my ships, i dont really care if they are together romantically or not. idk how to explain it really, but recalling one of my ships, Carl was once asked if he loved Peter and he said he wouldn't use the world Love for peter because love was ephemeral and what he had with Peter was much more stronger than just "romantic love". Also Peter says Carl's his soulmate. Like the concept that they could be platonic but still be the most important person in eachother's lives is enough for me. so idk.

[boredtears]

This is such a long story I'm sorry
I found Dan's vids via one of Charlie's at the beginning of 2013, when I was still in high school.
Back then my exposure to people shipping RPF and youtubers was seeing people in Charlie's comments shipping cherimon, which was so obviously not real that I was kind of like "what is it with these delusional people that ship every pair of guys that live together". I think one of the first Dan vids I saw was "I will go down with this ship" which was basically confirmation bias for my opinion (at the time) on yt shipping (I even remember thinking "wow he's so chilled about the fact that people ship him and Phil ) I only watched pinofs 3&4 because I found them cringe (so no 1&2 cuteness), and then basically just casually watched him and Phil's individual vids from then on (no live shows, radio shows, SAP, nothing with much interaction between them).

Then yeahh 2014 rolled around and their content started to merge and there were more and more vids on their main channels (didn't sub to gaming channel) with the two of them acting more casual around one another. I started to get this faint kind of feeling that I was missing something, on the outside of an inside joke I guess. Pinof 6 & the bloopers really intensified that feeling. Also I started to wonder what I would think their sexualities were, from a more objective gut-feeling perspective as opposed to the vids I'd first seen (2012 Dan), and realised that they didn't read as straight to me at all.

Then I saw the festive ditl while I was on holiday and kind of smiled the whole way through and made a mental note to check what the basis to all the rumours was when I got home. So at the beginning of February 2015 I got bored and remembered to look it all up and.........the rest is history really