Some interesting Rimmer “headcanons” from a Tumblr page

[tombow]

The Nav Zone — Some rimmer headcanons under the cut Bc I was… (tumblr.com)

1. Rimmer is autistic and you can pry this out of my cold dead hands. Main ways he stims are his salutes and biting his knuckles. Huge parts of why he was bullied and treated poorly by his family come from the fact that he always has had issues sociallizing in the “”””normal”””” way and has related learning issues. Very obsessed with being punctual and following social rules that he doesn’t quite understand, a lot of his self esteem issues come from the fact that he knows he’s doing the right thing per social conventions but he’s doing it wrong?? Why is it wrong when he does his version of it, he’s trying his best?? Projecting onto a fictional character time: is very much the way he is in the show because he was able to repress a lot of the things that made him ‘obvious’ and now just appears to be an incredibly socially awkward/weird person as opposed to someone who just communicates differently. Likes repetitive, involved, logic and planning related type things (war strategy, board games, schedule and list making, engineering related stuff). Zero actual interest in Astronav type stuff but feels obligated to be good at it and has it drilled into his brain that it was the only way he was going to amount to something so he forces himself to try to be good at it, but that’s part of the reason he’s so crap at it. So used to being bullied that he feels like he needs to be above other people to protect himself because he’s so used to abuse of power being pointed at him.

2. Gay. that’s it, just gay. He knows it, he doesn’t deny internally as much as he did as a child. He’s absolutely absorbed so much homophobia from his family that he goes to great lengths to cover it up, but he isn’t unaware of it or so repressed that he’s convinced himself he’s not. All of the talk about women and porn and all that shit is a very elaborate and paranoid cover. He literally owns straight porn so when lister digs through his shit he thinks he’s found rimmers real porn and stops looking. Keeps gay porn stashed in some ridiculous hiding spot. Tells himself he’s verse but he’s really just a kind of dominant/pushy bottom. Did actually have sex with Yvonne because that was a gross and dodgy situation (on both ends but falls on rimmer because he was in control of his faculties) she was not fully aware of the situation but he was not the one who initiated it and essentially went along with it out of a lack of self respect and awareness for what was going to come of it (which makes him shitty because rimmer is still a scummy, miserable person). In his teen years and early twenties he thought maybe he could really ‘cure’ himself of it some way but everything he tried wasn’t worth it in the end and he just decided to never speak of it.

3: what made Ace different. Repeating a grade comes off like a joke when it’s explained that is why Ace is who he is. Really when he repeated that grade he was put into a remedial type class that tended to gather the kids with learning disabilities, bad home lives, trauma, etc (all the things that tend to make it harder for a child to suceed) and he was given new tools that boosted his confidence in being able to learn and socialize, maybe never got a proper diagnoses but just the proof that he could learn and do well if he approaches things in a different way was a huge game changer. Still had a lot of deep seated homophobia from his family and trauma from being treated differently from his brothers but it was easier to cope. Ace is still gay and the whole saving the damsel in distress and riding off into the sunset shit comes from following socializing as set rules instead of something involving nuance, follows the trope of a hero because if he’s going to go around saving worlds he’s going to do it the ‘right’ way, which is part why he has such an over the top ‘action hero’ stereotype vibe. Ace wishes that more of the rimmers he met were willing to listen to him because he just wants to drop a truth bomb and open of their potential. Ace still has a lot of unsorted issues, they just tend to be more internal than immediately obvious.

4: Relationship with Lister: incredibly, ridiculously angry and embarrassed when he realizes lister is attractive. Will never admit it but when Lister is first teaching Kryten how to break his programming he’s sad that no one ever taught him how to break out of his ‘programming’. His want to be friends with Lister is something he struggles with (early seasons especially) because he craves Listers respect but the only way Rimmer knows how to get respect is by outranking someone. Comes out to lister when he’s drunk. Lister has casually mentioned men in ways that he mentions women (but never directly says he’s attracted to men, so it just becomes a paranoid obsession in Rimmers mind, is he into guys or is rimmer just reading into it to much?) and brings up a story that is blatantly about a guy he’s dated (but rimmer still isn’t quite sure because it’s not a 100% straight forward statement) and Rimmer comments on his jealousy of lister being so open minded and nonchalant about men. Lister puts the pieces together from there and makes a point to try to make the environment of the ship more welcoming, still takes rimmer ages to fully come out. (Lister is the biggest bi on the ship and isn’t fully in the closet, he just doesn’t talk about it explicitly, people who know how lister communicates pick up on it, but most people just think he’s a friendly guy)

5. Clothes and presentation. This ones more for fun because I would love to see how rimmer would dress himself if he could get past more of his trauma. Shorts and cropped pants and tailored pants are a big one. If there wasn’t such a stigma on how gay men dress and style themselves he would be less afraid to wear something a little less baggy. Actually loves color (the uniform change from the khakis to the red, blues, and greens he wears later in the show is just absolutely fantastic. Not an accessory person, would rather just have a smooth, sleek look with well fit clothes and a pop of colors on neutrals. I think the cross dressing in the show doesn’t necessarily/purposefully come from a malicious place but is definitely a sign of the times, outdated ideas of humor and a lack of understanding of gender non conforming. Rimmer wouldn’t be opposed (well if he could get past his trauma (which is why we only see this trait in low rimmer or when he has the holo virus)) to dressing up in “””female”””” clothes, especially not the odd accessory or sexy outfit if it were a kink thing but has an overall more masculine sense of style. In a perfect reality where he was nurtured and encouraged I feel like he would identify and present in a more fluid way, but the cannon rimmer isn’t really capable of recognizing and expressing himself like that.

6: Sexual/romantic History. Oh boy. rimmer has been on dates with women, mainly to keep up apperences and make it look like he’s trying to be successful with women. Has no idea what good flirting sounds like because all the times someone has genuinely flirted with him he’s explained it away be convincing himself they’re just overly friendly or are trying to make fun of him (or he just doesn’t pick up on it). When he flirts it’s either completely over the top obvious garbage because he’s trying to get his point across or it’s vague small comments that really aren’t flirting because he’s attempting nuance or feels like he’s being to out in the open. Has had maybe one or two sexual encounters with men, always on shore leave as far from where the ship has docked as possible and always working to cover his tracks the entire time. By the time the stasis leak happens his sexual encounters with men had never reached penatration and really just amounted to some head and fooling around that he felt conflicted (but happy) about afterwards.

Topic

[RunawayTrain]

1. I did actually grapple with this because I related so hard to some aspects of his character.  But at the same time he’s actually not a very nice man in many ways, and I don’t want that ascribed to autism (obviously the two things can be separate and coexist, but fandom can have a tendency to use one aspect of a character to explain everything else about them even if it’s not entirely relevant).

I never did reach a conclusion.

[Dave]

I think that for the items in that list that revolve around Rimmer being gay, if you want to make that argument convincingly then you really need to address more of the evidence in the show that points to the contrary. Not just McGruder but his also love story/enjoyment of sex with Nirvanah Crane, desire to sleep with women in Series VIII, the fact that his Parallel Universe counterpart is also heterosexual, etc.

Otherwise you’re not so much headcanoning aspects of an existing character so much as creating a new variant of the character in your own mind, a version that contradicts a lot of what the show tells us.

[Frank Smeghammer]

Perhaps autistic, willing to chew on that as a debate but leaning towards no just because its just not a good thing to do to Autistic people to attribute all the cartoonishly arrogant and neurotic people in fiction to Autism

Gay, no. Definitely not. Expressly stated otherwise in the show. If you really want to do this, I think it’s bad form to give him a cover for the ridiculous way he treats women. He’s a straight man and a misogynist

[tombow]

could he be bisexual though. Feels like now I’ve read it on tumblr it feels right.

[Dave]

Perhaps autistic, willing to chew on that as a debate but leaning towards no just because its just not a good thing to do to Autistic people to attribute all the cartoonishly arrogant and neurotic people in fiction to Autism

‘No’ is my gut reaction too, although I don’t necessarily frame this take as a negative thing – it might be good for someone with autism to see and recognise behaviour and characteristics on screen that reflect the way autism affects them, whether or not it’s something that the creators intended.

[Dave]

could he be bisexual though. Feels like now I’ve read it on tumblr it feels right.

I don’t know, some people also seem to see Rimmer as asexual, I think there might be a fair bit of reading-in happening with some of these takes rather than them being based on anything the show suggests.

[Rudolph]

A lot of this reads like wishful thinking for the purposes of fanfiction.

[International Debris]

If it’s actually possible to do a serious psychological analysis of an inconsistently written, contradictory character then I’d agree that he’s definitely neurodivergent, probably somewhere on the autistic spectrum, but that it’s compounded by parental abuse and being forced into a regimented lifestyle that heavily over-emphasise potentially autistic traits. I would say that the revision timetable stuff is a much clearer example than most of those outlined in the Tumblr post, because it’s an example of how he behaves when left to his own devices – hyper-focused on something he’s unusually passionate about, to the detriment of his initial goals – as opposed to the organised, punctual, rule-based thinking which was clearly forced onto him as a way of trying to gain love and attention from a cold, distant father. Telegraph poles, holidays in the diesel decks, that side of him definitely feels like he’s written as an autistic character. 

The real problem is that you can apply it to almost all awkward / weird / confrontational characters in sitcoms, because these characters are usually based on observing the difficulties neurodivergent people have in social situations, and then exaggerating them to make grotesque characters. So it’d be fairer to say that he’s inspired by autistic traits rather than he is autistic.

I’ll never understand the desire people have to make straight characters gay. I’m bi and there aren’t exactly swathes of role model characters in TV for me to look up to or relate to on that front, but I’d rather accept that that’s a problematic aspect of reality rather than seek out hidden queer characters where they don’t exist. Rimmer has never shown any romantic or sexual interest in men, but he also isn’t defined by homophobia in a way that could clumsily suggest repressed homosexuality. He’s a character who has shown sexual desire towards women, has enjoyed sex with women, has fallen in love with a woman, and has a female counterpart who has the same attitudes towards men. 

[tombow]

the “Lister being bi” stuff there is headscratcher for me, trying to remember any “Lister hot for men” moments they could mean.

[RunawayTrain]

I don’t know, some people also seem to see Rimmer as asexual, I think there might be a fair bit of reading-in happening with some of these takes rather than them being based on anything the show suggests.

I could see him being on the ace spectrum, with his misogynistic remarks and values based on societal expectations rather than primary sexual attraction (remember asexuality is about sexual attraction, but aces on various parts of the spectrum can enjoy sex and romance and can appreciate when people are aesthetically pleasing.  Being demi or grey also means those aces can experience sexual attraction in certain circumstances but generally less than the allosexual population). 

But again the inconsistencies make it hard to put any coherent case together and I really don’t care enough either way.  (And like with being autistic, he’d be terrible representation if he were asexual.)

[Flap Jack]

I’m on board with the Rimmer as autistic theory, I think. It’s important that it isn’t “this explains why he’s a cunt”, but a character can be both things without there being a causal link. But if Rimmer has traits that read as autistic, then who’s to say he isn’t? For canon you’d want it to be deliberate and for an autistic actor to play him, but for a fan theory it’s fine.

Rimmer as gay is just a no, though. Holoship alone is enough contradiction, unless you apply an incredibly contrarian interpretation where Rimmer sacrifices his dream job for his very good platonic friend Nirvanah. Rimmer as bi is more plausible, but I don’t think there’s any real evidence for it. Extending it to Ace is also weird, because the whole idea of Ace is that he’s Rimmer’s best self – so Rimmer’s best self is closeted in the 23rd century? I’m not buying that. Rimmer is homophobic towards Ace (as well as, uh, St. Francis of Assisi), but that doesn’t mean he actually is gay.

Lister as bi? I mean, he did dream about kissing Rimmer – and his comment about not being attracted to Cat regardless of gender in The Promised Land could be interpreted to mean he’s capable of being attracted to men – but if so then we’re definitely talking closeted or pre-realisation. A bisexual who “isn’t fully in the closet but just doesn’t talk about it explicitly” would not freak out when hearing that a parallel universe version of them was gay.

[International Debris]

Yeah, if Lister felt he was bi, he would have absolutely admitted it in Duct Soup.

[Podey]

the “Lister being bi” stuff there is headscratcher for me, trying to remember any “Lister hot for men” moments they could mean.

[Future Producer of Series IX – aaaaany day now]

I think tombow was being flippant, Podey.

[Podey]

That was intended with equal flippancy, no worries.

[Jonathan Capps]

I think everybody’s being flippant, except me. So just take everything I say at face value, ok?

[Frank Smeghammer]

[Moonlight]

I’m autistic and Rimmer’s Risk story is absolutely that.

[Starbugger]

Extending it to Ace is also weird, because the whole idea of Ace is that he’s Rimmer’s best self – so Rimmer’s best self is closeted in the 23rd century? I’m not buying that.

Indeed. I feel like, if Ace were gay, he’d be open about it, and yet he explicitly says he’s strictly butter-side up.

[Dave]

[Frank Smeghammer]

[RunawayTrain]

Ha, a completely unrelated post elsewhere took me onto Tumblr, and I came across a headcanon that not only is Rimmer queer (of course – it seems that’s fanon across the whole of Tumblr), but he is also ninbinary, culminating with Mighty Light being when he accepts himself for who he is, all sparkly and flashing lights and styled hair.
Which is a really weird way to uphold toxic masculinity, saying a character’s not actually male if they don’t fully conform to rigid gender expectations.

[Rudolph]

If Rimmer is transgender in any way, I suppose it does open up a whole new interpretation to his “there’s no rush, Holly” when he acquires Kochanski’s boob in Balance of Power.

[Dave]

[RunawayTrain]

Brilliant.  Might be just me, but fabulous 

[Unrumble]

Brilliant.  Might be just me, but fabulous 

[Rudolph]

[Moonlight]

I always felt like the “Rimmer is gay” stuff was always wishful projection but the “Rimmer is autistic” stuff has never not rang true to me. He made a fucking slideshow of the diesel decks and doesn’t seem to realize this will bore everyone to death because he’s personally fascinated by it. The man is a walking corkboard of hyperfixations.

[tombow]

nice one Rudolph

[Rudolph]

Thanks, it’s what I did yesterday evening instead of looking for a job like I should be.

[Moonlight]

Jobs are for pussies.

[Author]

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