The #TomGreg shippers are on high alert now that the 'Disgusting Brothers' are both single
- People picked up on a courtship vibe between Tom and Greg on "Succession" starting in season one.
- What was once a niche subgroup among a smaller HBO series' fanbase has now blossomed into more.
Warning: Spoilers ahead for season four, episode one of "Succession."
Now that Tom and Shiv are moving ahead with a divorce, and Greg is happily seated on the New York City dating carousel, "Succession" fans who have long been shipping #TomGreg are getting a ton of validation as the attention shines on the male duo. There have never been more incredible fan edits and memes among the show's fandom, and we're all the better for it.
As we already explored in this breakdown of season four's premiere episode, "The Munsters," creator Jesse Armstrong has been open about the "homoerotic" vibes that have been emitting from Tom and Greg since the very first season when the two newest members of the Roy inner circle met in a baseball field.
In the years since Tom and Greg were first paired up in "Succession," the two often-doofy men have gone out to dinner together for intimate adventures, swapped sex stories and hit the bars together, and traded on each other's most dangerous corporate secrets.
Now Tom and Greg are one of the only relationships in the show that fans agree is both totally absurd and fully rooted in the characters' warped understandings of love and power dynamics.
In TikToker @GavinintheRaw's skit video about the contrast between internet affection for the Roy children and the reality of their character's horrible actions, the kicker shows that everyone is on board with Tom and Greg being stand-ins for "gay soulmates."
Elsewhere on TikTok or Twitter or YouTube, the #TomGreg fans are editing their scenes together with perfect romantic crescendos with songs like Taylor Swift's "Cruel Summer."
In the below example, the climactic moment of tormented love in Swift's song is accompanied by the season two scene of Tom whipping full water bottles at Greg because he tried to "break up with him."
"This is more culturally significant than Quentin Tarantino's filmography," reads a top-liked comment on the video.
Another top comment, this one written about three years ago, acknowledges how early this YouTuber was to the #TomGreg vibes: "Look away this is too brave and ahead of its time, the world truly isn't ready for the power this video contains."
Even other fandom accounts are getting on board, like the Twitter account dedicated to AMC's "Mad Men" using a meme to reference Tom and Greg's new nickname in "Succession": The Disgusting Brothers.
The TikTok conversations and in-joke videos about the couple range from how Tom and Greg are an "anchor, not a ship" or how the heartbreaking end of Shiv and Tom's marriage makes it so #TomGreg "can finally happen." Few of these "Succession"-obsessed internet fans are actually thinking that the older ATN executive and his younger, more naïve mentor are an actual good match.
It's simply that the show's writing team (as well as actors Nicholas Braun and Matthew Macfadyen) have done an excellent job of slowing building up the unaddressed sexual tension between the two men.
Whether they actually ever kiss or profess a romantic feeling for one another is almost beside the point — we have plenty of evidence of their emotional intimacy and loyalty to one another already laid out.
Now it's a matter of how far "Succession" will take things before the series comes to an end.
The final season of HBO's "Succession" continues Sunday nights at 9 p.m. ET. For more on the drama, read Insider's rankings of Daddy Roy's weekly favorites here.