#betting on canon over fanon is playing with house money and that's that on that.

[utilitycaster]

Okay also it is very funny to me that people were like "how DARE Caleb have a story in which he becomes a teacher and falls in love and learns to embrace the life he never thought he deserved while Ludinus walks free, instead of destroying every last abuse of power in the Assembly" and it's now official that Caleb was like "bitch I can do both."

[margarittet]

Misha and Destiel 2018 AD - it’s not for pervs anymore

Let me tell you, when I woke up today and got a message from @tinkdw with the seacon video where Misha was talking about Destiel, I wasn’t sure I woke up properly. This was one of the surreal moments I often get in this fandom, where fiction and fandom and reality interract, and my brain not always can wrap itself around it.

First, here are some posts that sum up most of my feelings on the case.

HERE ( @bluestar86​ )

HERE (from @thedogsled and @magnificent-winged-beast )

HERE ( from @impostoradult )

Now I woke up, and I would also like to rant a bit. This is not against Misha, mind you. NOT AT ALL. It is more against the general condescending way in which people consider fandom, and fandom creations, and how people BTS seem not to understand Destiel in the same way we do.

VIDEO

GIFSET

During the panel, Misha treats Destiel as some kind of a dirty secret, a guilty pleasure that the fandom hides under their beds, something that their parents, partners, spouses don’t know about, and the reason why everyone was banned from discussing it during cons is the same reason why you don’t bring up your kinks during a Sunday dinner at your grandma’s house - it’s just uncomfortable for everyone involved (even though everyone around knows you enjoy a good old bedsharing fanfic now and then, WE JUST DON’T TALK ABOUT IT).

I have two problems with this assumption.

source

1. Fan fiction is not for perverts.

So, I come from a country that has a big problem with erotic writing. My country is a conservative one, and because of this my language only contains words for sexual acts that are either vulgar, medical, or childish. Some more kinky acts only have English names, with Polish endings added, and sex in general is not talked about even among female friends (I assume guys talk about it among themselves, and I sometimes talk about sex with my guy friends, but they are usually much more embarrased than I am, so I don’t know what to tell you).

To me, discovering fan fiction was like finding this special place where I can actually LEARN how one can talk about sex in a not-gross kind of way, and without feeling really, really awkward. It is not pornographic in a way I was used to. I was shocked to discover sex can be straightforward, clear, funny, exciting, and nothing to be ashamed of; that people have SO MANY things that turn them on; that there are so many different sexual orientations (thank you Tumblr); and that there are so many things I didn’t know about a a human body and sexual acts (and I am in no way a prude!). That stories full of sex can be actually interesting and fun to read, that talking about consent, condoms, safe sex, personal preference can be sexy as fuck, that communication during the act also makes a good story, that talking not only to your partner, but also to other people about sexuality and things you are not sure about is only good stuff. That sexual acts in the narrative can be something that turns you on, and not makes you cringe or yawn. That (even kinky) sex can be a normal, healthy part of a romantic narrative. That you are not a weirdo for being turned on (or not being turned on) by something. That as long as you don’t hurt anyone, all is fair game, and that communication is key to a great experience.

Fan fiction is also an amazing way of adding to the narrative, fixing the narrative, showing others what you want to see in the narrative. It’s a way for your favourite characters to fall in love again and again, in different ways, and I adore it so much. Fan fiction also helps me to see what key character traits fandom sees in a character, and which ones I agree and not agree with. It’s an integral part of the fan experience, and I will forever protect its right to be seen as such.

The amazing thing is that a lot of this fan fiction is written by women, and enjoyed by women. You would think that by now somebody would go, and look, and get it into their heads that women actually enjoy reading about sex, and not only about the S&M nonsense like Grey and Grey wannabes (the only type of erotica you can find in my country right now). You know why Grey is so popular? Because women actually want to have erotic stories written for them. It’s not our fault that mainstream media only feed us crappy stuff.

So no Misha, we are not perverts. We are people who have had to endure years of fictional sexual tention CREATED BY YOU, and needed to find a way to vent. As a byproduct, we learned a lot about sexuality, erotica and fiction, so we can only thank you for it.

2. Destiel is not just about porny fanon.

I am really wondering if he was willingly playing dumb here (most probably), or whether for him the story is…well, the story, and Destiel is just sexy porn fantasies based on the story. Maybe we are just having a problem with nomenclature? If so, I can let this one slide. If not, I need to rant about this a bit as well. One way or another, I don’t aim this one at Misha either, he couldn’t say anything substantial anyway (NDAs and stuff), but the whole idea as such.

I remember my own experience of preparing stories to be shown to the public. Some of the plays we did as amateurs had so many romantic pairings that we had problems keeping track.  What made the whole actor experience fun (and I do assume that the whole experience is fun for everyone on set of SPN) was making jokes about our characters and the relationships between them. I would say that MAYBE it is different when you are a pro, but then again we get the broomstick dick fondling stories with concerning regularity, so yeah… I will go out on a limb here, and say that this is not so different from the fun I had backstage with my troupes.

One thing that we couldn’t avoid was to treat our characters how we would treat our favourites from a book or a show - creating headcanons, talking about OTPs, making fun of who slept with whom, how this behavior is ridiculous and how she is stupid to have gone with him there, she should have known he was no good. Yeah, we identified with our characters, but we also thought about them, about their backstories, about their motivations etc. There is no way a group of people who have been creating a tv show for so many years, with an OTP that was so dividing in the fandom that it had to be banned from being mentioned at all, are not aware of the million romantic tropes in the scripts that THEY HAVE TO RECREATE ON SCREEN. They may brush them off, or avoid talking about them after the scenes are shot, but they are aware of them being there. If they tried to ignore them, I guaratee you they all have friends, relatives, or coworkers who give them shit for being romantic AF on screen. Unless of course Jensen and Misha terrorized everyone so much that everyone is scared of mentioning to them…yeah, I doubt it.

But I digress. My point is, Destiel is a gorgeous epic love story, but I have a feeling that even if people mention the romantic part to Jensen and Misha now and then, they may not be aware just HOW GORGEOUS it is. You know, if you stand too close to the painting you only see the little part you are focusing on at the moment, but to really appreciate the beauty of it, you need to step back and look at it as a whole. I am willing to bet my money on the fact that none of the main players have ever done that, and this is partly the reason for a lot of the wank. They may be aware it’s romantic writing, but they don’t see the flow of the Destiel story from its conception till now. They only focus on the episode at hand, and move on. As in “this episode has a romantic moment, and this little arc is romantic”, but they don’t see how it weaves smoothly into a nine year long narrative, and how beautiful it could be if it was made canon. I don’t blame them. It’s not their job - it’s s job for the directors, for the showrunner, for the writers.

It would be nice if we had a reasonably short summary of Destiel that is not porn, codas or AUs, a summary of the actual narrative as shown on screen over the years, so that Misha and whoever else could see what we see. That would be great.

I think they would be really surprised by what they created.