#THE ONLY THING THAT'S EVER CONSISITENT IS SAM AND DEAN 4VA

[ywhiterain]

reading Destiel meta on my breaks

Reading about how Dean/Cas is totally canon/going to be canon has been a hobby of mine for years. Not so much because I want it (I don’t, #teamsassy) or to laugh at it (well sometimes, when I stumble on the wildest shippy theories, but no ship is immune to that). But more so to take a peak at this wildly different show these people are watching.

This isn’t shade. Cas->Dean has always been there on some level. Cas even ended up taking up the spot planned for Anna, who was a Dean love interest, lol. Castiel’s character was created for Dean’s plot/arc and that makes it really easy to create a shippy dynamic.

I’m not buying that it’s been a well crafted love story since season four. No. It’s more like an accident. And that’s fine. Organic and unplanned storytelling gave us the objectively best canon het in the world, Bulma/Vegeta from Dragonball.

But here’s the thing. Dean/Cas, as portrayed in fanon, is like, opposite planet. Dean/Cas as an epic love story spanning fifteen/eleven years is incredibly silly. Well, for mutual Dean/Cas. From Cas’ side, my reaction to his confession was ‘yes, seems legit.’ Once, I was planning an epic spn fic and I’d had Cas -> Dean as, like, there in it. Despite not really caring/liking their relationship much because um. It’s there. The only thing the confession did for me was make it even more undeniable imo. 

The story that so much of fandom wants isn’t happening. Because the beating heart of this show is Sam and Dean. I don’t say this as a shipper, I’ve been off that train for awhile. My ideal ending is Sam walking away from Dean and getting a dog and never talking to him again.

But that’s not the story being told. In season five, we were told Sam and Dean’s bloodline has been curated for centuries so that they’d be born as brothers who could carry archangels to kill each other during the apocalypse and. Yeah. That sounds right. Not so much that I think it’s something the writers were planning from day one but like. The theme. The idea. That Sam and Dean have a relationship that’s epic, world destroy, and world saving. Yeah. That’s what this story has been about from day one. Go ahead and make it literal.

The ending note for Dean’s character isn’t going to be him embracing Cas and finding an identity outside of being a hunter who hates himself or whatever. No, his ending is going to be tied to Sam.

This isn’t to say that it’s impossible for canon mutual Destiel. I find it plausible that Cas will return in the series finale. Hell, maybe they’ll have an ambiguous ending so that shippers can write their Dean/Cas fic until the end of time, as God herself intended.

But the last real emotional beat is going to be between Sam and Dean.

Think back to the end of season five. Chuck as proxy for the writers trying to poop out an ending with them having no plausible clue they’d still have a decade of storytelling left to go. Here was the plot to save the day: Sam lets Lucifer in and jumps into hell to save the world.

Here’s what it was about: Dean putting aside the core aspect of his identity in order let Sam sacrifice himself. It was Dean, in spite of all the bad blood between him and Sam, putting his faith in Sam. Sam makes the plan and Dean backs it. Against the odds, against everything Dean wants, against history and destiny and everything in between, Dean gives up his little brother for the greater good. He gives up his brother to let Sam find redemption on his own terms.

For the actual finale, they could take a step forward. Instead of losing Sam so completely, Dean like... let someone else into his heart and creates a healthy life and future with Cas or whatever. The problem with that is that the last shot of season five wasn’t Sam’s sacrifice, it was Sam coming back from hell outside Dean/Lisa/Ben household.

And I’ll bet you anything the series is going to end on a note similar to this. They’re going to share a heaven and be together forever. And I say this as someone who Does Not Want That.

Interpreting a text (or in this case a tv show) allows for a lot of different analysis. You might reasonably disagree with me on what the season five finale meant. But the facts of the matter, Sam sacrificed himself with Dean’s okay and somehow ending up out of hell. That’s not in dispute. That’s what happened.

And I can almost guarantee that the series finale will be the same. It’ll be about Sam and Dean. That’s the text. Where the wiggle room will come from is interpreting what that last plot point means for Sam and Dean, their relationship, and the narrative as a whole. 

I am not saying this from a position of, like, high knowledge. It’s just basic understanding of the text in the most fundamental of ways. It’s about Sam and Dean, it’ll always be about Sam and Dean. Everything else is second fiddle to their love story.

Dean/Cas, on the off chance it’s undeniable canon. Even if Dean’s reaction to Cas coming back to life is to stick his tongue down Cas’ mouth or putting a ring on it... the final beats of the story are going to be about Sam and Dean. Any interpretation that ignores the very basic building block of this story (the relationship between Sam and Dean) is just gonna miss the mark.

And I just am ?????? 

There’s a good chance the last final beat of the show for Cas is his confession. Two episodes before the finale. Because he’s a secondary character and his story can easily wrap up before getting to the true ending of Sam and Dean: literal soul mates.