I loved that revelation in The Game! Just all those little things you see in the entire series, like when they're racing toy cars in an abandoned hallway (I forget which ep that is, early season 5?). They genuinely like each other and like to hang out and geek out with each other.

The Shrine will always break my heart. But the fact that Rodney loses everything, everything except John's name, seems really telling. They really are best friends, and you're right -- sometimes, the writers seem to forget that. I guess that's what happens when there's a bunch of writers with different agendas? And they really did change things to give the maximum emotion, such as the idea of Carson being Rodney's best friend came up on the Sunday ep, just when he died to give Rodney even more guilt. Not cool.