Rizzoli/Isles

Rizzoli/Isles, also known by pairing name Rizzles, is the pairing of Detective Jane Rizzoli and Medical Examiner Maura Isles from the Rizzoli & Isles fandom. 
It is the juggernaut ship in the fandom, appearing in a majority of works on Archive of Our Own and FanFiction.Net, and prompting much discussion throughout the show's run about whether they were an endgame couple.
==Fandom==
Rizzoli/Isles gained a lot of popularity after the show aired and is considered to be "practically canon" by the fans due to their close relationship. 
Some of the same story-lines or beats that fans felt were commonplace in police procedural (or adjacent) shows with canonical het relationships — such as in Bones or Castle — seemed to be present in Rizzoli & Isles, leading to some fans believing that their presence was subtextual indication that the pairing would become canon. Subtext reviews of the show were common-place, during and after it aired.
In 2024, the pairing remains a popular, not just in the Rizzoli and Isles fandom, but in femslash fandom generally. As of April 2024, there are 7,300+ works with Rizzoli and Isles as the primary character on Fanfiction.net (not all of them have Rizzoli/Isles as a pairing as the pairings feature weren't added until 2013, however many of these works are Rizzles-focused) and 2,152 works in the Archive of Our Own tag for the pairing, with both sites having new works posted in 2024. The pairing's tag on social media platforms like Tumblr remains active. 
===Queerbaiting===
Rizzoli/Isles is a notorious examples of queerbaiting, and gained a reputation for such within femslash fandoms. Particularly notorious is the fourth promo that appeared for Season 2 of the show. In it Rizzoli and Isles go through a series of speed dates with men before realizing that the only person perfect for them is each other. In 2013, the showrunners and cast admitted they were guilty of queerbaiting in an interview with TVGuide. 
Reversatility noted in their piece "Femslash Fandoms and Queer-baiting: Another Perspective" that fans of the pairing felt a negative attitude shift from TPTB over time:
===Rizzlescon===
Rizzlescon was a fan-run convention centered around Rizzoli & Isles and the pairing Rizzoli/Isles. The con was slated to have many of the cast and crew from the show appear as guests, however all guests, bar Tess Gerritsen, canceled on short notice. The cancellation was thought to be due to the focus on Rizzoli/Isles as a pairing. 
== Common Tropes, Fanon and Headcanons ==
* Friends to Lovers - Many Rizzoli/Isles fanworks are closely canon-compatible, often building off of the pre-existing scenes, dialogue and events but simply going in a femslash direction rather than the direction the show ultimately ended in. As a result, their canonical friendship usually features strongly, growing into a romantic relationship through the works' events.
* Case Fic - Many fanworks also build on Rizzoli and Isles relationship over the course of a case, which could easily fit into the style of police procedural show that Rizzoli & Isles is.
* Alternate Universe - Other fan authors and artists take the characters of the show into very different universes and some of these are particularly popular or widely recommended, such as 'Calamity Jane Meets Dr Isles, Medicine Woman' (below).
==Notable Fanworks==
===Fanart===
* The Red String of Fate by CelticBotan
* Rizzoli and Isles by hkonako
* Meditation by fishglow
* Rizzoli n Isles_LBiFFs by hanukara
===Fanfiction===
* Calamity Jane Meets Dr Isles, Medicine Woman by JoBethMegAmy. my homegirls 
* Same Place, Different Time by coolbyrne 
* Penny In a Diamond Mine by deemn 
* Scientific Inquiry by botherd 
=== Fan vids ===
==== Song Vids ====
* Would You Go To Bed With Me? by soccerfureek
* True Love by Max Black
* She Keeps Me Warm by mnhooch
* Arms by cuttingtheonion
* Say You Love Me by XxHarryXxPotterxX
===Meta===
* Femslash Fandoms and Queer-baiting: Another Perspective
==Archives and Communities==
*Rizzolli/Isles works tagged at FFN
*Rizolli/Isles works tagged at AO3
* rizzoli and isles community on deviantart
===Tumblr===
* Rizzoli and Isles
* Rizzles Fanfic Rec Blog
* Feed for Rizzles fanfiction on AO3
== Further Information and Reading ==
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== References ==
Category:Femslash Pairings
Category:Rizzoli & Isles