Red, White & Royal Blue

Red, White & Royal Blue is M/M new adult romance novel and Casey McQuiston's first novel.
The novel follows British prince Henry Fox-Mountchristen-Windsor and Alex Claremont-Diaz, the son of the first female American President, as they gradually get over their animosity for each other and fall in love. 
Although the novel is an original work, its writing style and use of tropes generated much speculation that it might have been fanfiction with the serial numbers filed off. 
A small fandom sprang up around the novel's characters, generating many fanworks. 
A live action adaptation was announced in 2019Amazon Studios, Berlanti Productions Win Casey McQuiston Novel ‘Red White & Royal Blue’ at Deadline.com, April 10 2019; in October 2021, Matthew Lopez was announced as director.Tony Winner Matthew López to Make Directorial Debut With LGBTQ+ Romance ‘Red, White & Royal Blue’ (EXCLUSIVE) at Variety.com, Oct 1, 2021 The news prompted a renewal of interest in the fandom.
==Canon==
==Original Work or Fanfiction?==
When the synopsis for the book was released, people in fandom quickly began noting that many aspects of it were strongly reminiscent of fanfic and fanfic tropes. This was confirmed by readers of the book--for better or for worse!
This naturally led to questions of whether or not the book had originally been a fanfic that was pulled to publish and had the serial numbers filed off. 
In September 11, 2023, YouTuber name Jane Mulcahy published a hour long video, discussing about the rumor associate with this book. She also proposes that Casey McQuiston is also possibly be the same fanfic writer of carry it in my heart. Supporting the Social Network variant. Of how the grammar mostly match with the author's.Was Red White and Royal Blue originally Social Network fanfiction?, Oct 30, 2023
===Speculation===
After reading the synopsis, many mistook it for other popular fanfics that follow a character's romance with modern royalty, such as Modern Royal Family AUs which were common in Merlin fandom. Some specific works mentioned were Drastically Redefining Protocol and Anarchy in the UK (which had already been re-published with the serial numbers filed off).
For example: 
Others mentioned The Social Network, speculating that the author was a writer in the fandom: 
The conclusion that the writer came from a fannish background is also supported by the references to fandom in the book and McQuiston's positive interactions with fandom.
Still, most fans eventually agreed that if the book had been a fanfic, no one had seen it published online, and it had been changed enough that the fandom was not recognizable. 
This didn't stop the rumor about RW&RB being directly-repurposed fanfiction from resurfacing regularly.
==Tropes==
* Enemies to Lovers
* Epistolary
* Secret Relationship
* Coming Out (trope)
==Fandom==
===Shipping===
Alex/Henry, the canon ship, is unsurprisingly the juggernaut pairing with close to 1500 works as of Sept 2021. 
This was more than 14x the amount of works of the next two popular pairings: 
* June/Nora: 108 works, fewer still if limiting to works tagged f/f (67 works). 
* June/Nora/Percy: 80 works
==Example Fanworks==
===Fanfic===
* (baby) don't make me spell it out by extasiswings (Alex/Henry, 2019)
* tread softly (because you tread on my dreams) by helenblqckthorn (Alex/Henry, 2019)
* got our aces out (kings and queens) by extasiswings (June/Nora, June/Nora/Percy, 2019)
* My algebra equals you every time by PaulaLovelace (June/Nora/Percy, 2020)
===Podfic===
* (Podfic of) five times henry's competency turned alex on and the one time it turned him into a pile of romantic goo by flowerparrish and (Podfic) five times henry's competency turned alex on and the one time it turned him into a pile of romantic goo by greedy_dancer (Alex/Henry, 2020)
* (podfic) #waterlooletters by AirgiodSLV, Djapchan, epaulettes, Freitzeit, JinkyO, mahons_ondine, reena_jenkins and sisi_rambles (Alex/Henry, 2020)
* (Multivoice podfic) American Notes on British Baking by greedy_dancer, justaphage, marianas, mistbornhero, MouseK, peasina, rhytmia and semperfiona (Alex/Henry gen, 2021)
* A Prince in the Pâtisserie written by kiwiana with accompanying podfic by Amanita_Fierce (Crossover with The Pairing: Kit/Theo, Alex/Henry, 2024)
===Fanart===
* Alex Claremont-Diaz is not throwin’ away his shot by vkelleyart (Aug 2019)
* first prince presenting chaotic bisexual alex sitting on the grand piano and henry being all touchy-feely by peachesobviously (Aug 2021)
* Nora and June from RWRB, photo taken by the paparazzi by global-domination (Sept 2021)
===Fanvids===
* Red White & Royal Blue | Henry & Alex: "Loving him was Red" by Black Sophie (Sept 2020)
* Red, White & Royal Blue | Alex and Henry by monty (Sept 2020)
* Red White & Royal Blue | OFFICIAL FAN TRAILER 2020 by Fan Trailers MD (Nov 2020)
==Links & Resources==
* Red White & Royal Blue - Casey McQuiston works on AO3
* red white and royal blue, rwarb, and rwrb tags on Tumblr
==Resources== 
* Red White & Royal Blue works on AO3
* posts tagged rw&rb on Tumblr 
 
==References==
Category:Red, White & Royal Blue