Per wiki policy, Spoilers Off applies here and all spoilers are unmarked. You Have Been Warned.
The original series may not have much of subtext (except perhaps to modern audiences who interpret differently the boys' closeness), but The Three Investigators is still about three boys with a very, very deep friendship. The German Extended release and its eager radio play cast who seems very willing to play into certain themes, it seems as though there is much context to be had, naturally. open/close all folders
Examples
Peter
- Due to some Adaptation Deviation, the radio play incarnation of Peter seems Ambiguously Gay. The main reason is because his girlfriend, Kelly, has been completely written out and their relationship is pretty much nonexistent. But as she still plays a role in the novels, Bob has taken over her lines and their dates is instead replaced with hangouts with Jeffery.
- Despite still canonically being in a relationship with Kelly in the novels, their relationship has become extremely turbulent in recent years and apparently has become unstable enough that they break up quite frequently. And the reason why is because Peter just liked being with Jupiter and Bob or his surfing buddies than he did with her. The novels has also called Kelly his "half-girlfriend".
- In the radio play version of Der finstere Rivale, Peter gives Jupiter a kiss in relief when he realizes that he hid the money to prevent it from being stolen. And much like the Bob kiss in Der verschollene Pilot, this kiss did not happen in the book.
- In Die Schwingen des Unheils, Peter is randomly kissed two times on each cheek by a guy in cupid costume, who steals a football from him with a heart on which he had gotten from a house they just visited. The mysterious cupid-man also says to him: "Omnia vincit amor" which means "love conquers all".
Peter and Bob
- The German Audio Adaptation of the Three Investigators is hugely popular in its own right, arguably even more so than the actual books. Due to its long running time (well over 30 years) the voice actors have developed sort of their own spin on the titular investigators and over the years it has deviated quite a bit from the original source material. All the while influence from the show started creeping into the newer books too, largely because the young authors of said books grew up with the show that is in turn based on the books they're now writing. Confused yet? So what does all this have to do with Ho Yay between them? Simple. These are
the two voice actors of Peter and Bob, in a live stage audio adaptation, of the Three Investigators in character. This is the tame version to boot—there is an outtake where 'Bob' outright dipped 'Peter' in a very passionate kiss and full body embrace. To put it in Andreas Fröhlich aka Bob's words : "I think Jens (Peter) finally expected tongue action that night." Cue curious editor asking if he (Jens) got it. No. But he did imply that he groped him.- Also in the radio play, Kelly has been written out and by now, their relationship seems practically nonexistent. Instead, all of Kelly's lines are given to Bob, with all the romantic subtext still intact.
- In Crimebusters, the two are constantly at odds with each other in a sort of Slap-Slap-Kiss sort of way. Both are mad at each other that they're spending time away from the group. While they aren't as genuinely annoyed as they are in Crimebusters in the German extended release, they both still tease each other, basically being modus operandi between snappy Peter and easily annoyed Bob, with Jupiter mostly giving a reaction akin to 'Get a Room! you two'.
- In German, Peter and Bob have pretty cute pet names for each other: Bob will sometimes call Peter, 'Peterchen' (the '-chen' suffix is used to make a noun feel 'cuter') and Peter has called Bob both 'Babara' and 'Bobelle'.
- Multiple time during the series, when staying in hotels there will be a disproportionate number of beds because they're three people, which leads to Peter and Bob sharing a hotel bed.
- Sometimes, when Jeffery is mentioned, Bob seems to get really jealous that Peter is hanging out with him. In fact, Peter and Bob tend to hangout with each other a lot and in many instances, they are doing something together in the beginning of the story, especially since Jupiter doesn't really like outdoorsy stuff.Peter: I had arranged to meet with Jeffery at the harbor café, and... I was already pretty late.Bob: (annoyed) Oh, what? With Jeffery? I knew it.- Skateboardfieber
- Since Jupiter tends to have more controlled Freak Outs because of his slight Tsundere tendencies, it does seem like when either Bob or Peter is in danger, the other one will seem extremely devastated.
- These two straight up kiss in the radio play of Der verschollene Pilot (The Missing Pilot) after Peter figures out the puzzle.Peter : ...get it?Bob : (excited) OF COURSE! Oh Pete, I could kiss you!Peter : (embarrassed) Ehrm....not...not here... (They go on explaining the puzzle)Jupiter: You solved it, Second!Bob : (slightly breathy) Can I kiss you now?Peter : Go ahead! *cue smoochie sounds*
- Another thing to note is that this kiss is completely absent in the novel. In that version, Bob still says the 'I could kiss you!' line, but Pete just answers with 'Uh, no thanks'. The scriptwriters intentionally made that change for the radio play. If that doesn't say Shipper on Set, then what will?
- In Der Geist des Goldgräbers when Bob gets knocked out, he wakes up with his head cradled on Peter's lap, which he describes as "soft and warm".
Peter and Jeffery
- To start things off, Jeffery is actually canonically gay, as André Marx has confirmed, and Peter really likes hanging out with him. He might not be as close with Jeffery as he is with Jupiter or Bob, but he likes Jeffery enough to include him in his will in Im Schatten des Giganten.
- Straight up intensified in the radio play, where Kelly was eventually written out completely and dates with Kelly have turned into hangouts with Jeffery. The best part is that Peter's dialogue is mostly unchanged leading to him being very excited to hang out with him.
- Another note from André Marx, he has alluded to the relationship in the fanbook: Die Welt der drei Fragezeichen.
- In the radio play version of Fußball-Phantom, Peter calls Jeffery instead of Kelly.
- In Die Zeitreisende, Jupiter and Peter have an exchange where Jupiter jokes about how he had thought that Peter was thinking that he was 'stealing Jeffery' from him.
