#i ship them harder than destiel

[bd-wlf]

"Best friends

Ex friends till the end

Beter off as lovers

And Not the other way around"

ITS THEM ITS THEM I SWEAR!!!!!!

[deancasforcutie]

Months later and revelations Fox did limit 9-1-1 like CW did SPN and people seemingly split down the middle about which of that show's ships is endgame canon (not like it matters representation-wise because -once again!- queer is queer whether it's "the story you wanted" or not) this all bears repeating. Because the people with the world's dumbest most realityproof persecution complex against the very writers who fight for queer content will once again draw 1000 on bootlicking by defining that content's legitimacy by its corporate approval rather than develop any kind of meaningful praxis about The Motherfucking Fight and how it works, up to how "winning" the rigged game (Fuck You I've Got Mine™) is no way to beat it because the silenced voices you're siding with corporate censors against also deserved to speak and still do as much as the Survivors you're Biased toward just because their higher-winning gamble toward the same goal is what allows them to speak

One of many things that keep me up at night about the network fuckery: how many other shows are/would be subject to these same kinds of homophobic restrictions, but we would never know because they didn’t try to push back? How many other shows accused of queerbaiting were actually silenced?

[quietwings-fics]

why's every song about love (or drinking too much)

Rating: Teen And Up Audiences Archive Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply Fandom: Supernatural Ship: Gen (Castiel & Sam) (with minor Destiel) Additional Tags: One Shot, Drinking & Talking, Sad, Season/Series 05, Sam Winchester Needs a Hug, Castiel Needs a Hug (Supernatural), Unrequited Castiel/Dean Winchester, Castiel & Sam Winchester Friendship Wordcount: 876 Summary:

set in a vague s5-ish era. Sam and Cas talk about the whole 'unrequited love' thing.

He doesn’t question why Cas comes to him instead of trailing three feet behind his brother like usual. It’s not like he has anywhere else to go. It’s not like he has anyone else, now. Because of them. Sam can add that to the overflowing sack of shit he’ll feel guilty about for the rest of his life. Still, when Cas asks for a drink, he obliges. It won’t do much for an angel (or maybe it will. Cas keeps landing down in the mud with them and every week, it seems harder for his wings to lift him back out.) but he thinks that the ritual of it might be more important than the effects. Cas takes the sanctity of human rituals very seriously, no matter how mundane.

Sam’s got to know, though. What’s another dead cat to his curiosity, right?

“It’s Dean, right?” Castiel goes very still, dangerously still. His eyes lock on Sam, and there’s almost none of the wavering haze of alcohol in them. Castiel has to be more than half a dozen inches shorter than him, but in that moment, sitting across from him, Sam feels somehow dwarfed.

“How?” He says, and there’s thunder in that voice, and oh god, oh fuck, angel, he forgot that Cas was a fucking angel and that he should not be poking his emotions with a stick .

“It’s- Cas-” He stammers. He doesn’t know Castiel, he can’t trust him as much as he wants to. Castiel gave his life (for Dean) and he rebelled (for Dean) and he’ll help stop the Apocalypse (for Dean). But he’s still an unknown in so many ways.

It surprises him then, when Cas slumps over the table slightly, picks up his glass again, and downs it in one swallow. Gone is the presence that made him feel like a mouse in a hawk’s gaze, and it’s... It’s Cas. Little lost angel in a trenchcoat who threw away everything, who asks him to explain metaphors and references because he knows Dean can’t slow himself down enough to do it, who he texts for info about hunts as an excuse to make sure he’s okay.

“It is obvious, isn’t it?” He says glumly. Sam looks down, nods. Slowly, he reaches across the table. His hand lands a little awkwardly on Cas’s shoulder, and he jolts in slow motion, blinking and looking down at the contact. Sam pats him twice before retreating, feeling a burning flush of embarrassment spread over his cheeks. He’s... not good at comfort. Hell, he’s not even sure if Cas really wants a shoulder to cry on or if that would be an insult somehow.

“To just about everyone who sees you two, yeah.”

“But not to Dean.” The one person who would really matter. Sam sighs, holds out his hand for the glass. Cas passes it over reticently.

“Not to Dean.” He echoes.

“He’s impossible.”

“I know.”

“I love him.” Sam puts the glass down. Cas does not say things lightly, and he wishes he had anything to offer but an empty reassurance.

“I know, Cas.”

“It hurts.” Cas folds his hands under his chin like he could be praying. Sam wants someone to answer him. A miracle before Cas puts all of the faith he has left into the Winchesters and gets himself torn apart for it. “I don’t understand why it hurts, Sam. Love should not hurt.” There’s a rise of static on Sam’s skin to echo Cas’s agitation, making his hair stand on end.

“You’ve got to tell him,” Sam says. “We’re going to pull this off or we’re going to die trying or worse, but either way, you’ve got to say something, Cas, cause he won’t see it.” It’s too late, he thinks when Cas looks at him like he’s the one holding the knowledge of whole galaxies in him. When Cas looks at him like his words are something worth believing in. But Sam’s human and so is Dean, and just because they’ve learned the language of martyrdom doesn’t mean they’re fluent. “You could die for the sake of loving him, and he wouldn’t see it.” Cas’s expression closes off a little when he understands. What a family they’ve built here at the end of the world, with a tomb to hold them out of every word left unspoken.

And maybe Sam can’t fix everything with Dean. He fucked up good and twisted the knife on his way out and maybe there’s no way back from that, but Cas deserves better. If Sam can help him, he will, even if he’s got no idea how.

“You know him,” Sam opens his mouth to argue. He doesn’t. He doesn’t because if he did they wouldn’t be in this mess, but Castiel won’t have it. “You do, despite your failings. You are still his brother. What would he say, Sam, if he knew the magnitude of my devotion?”

Sam swallows.

“He’d be scared.” His answer reaches out with the weight of all he cannot explain. It takes hold of Cas without mercy, and his hands drop from their mock prayer.

“So am I.” And Sam can do nothing but pass him another glass, so that he knows that, at least, he is not alone.

(Enjoyed it? Any interaction is welcomed. You can even support me on Ko-Fi <3)

[robotlesbianjavert]

Ten headcanons about spinner please

well you asked so nicely. okay!

10) i think i've already mentioned this in the past and some fics but despite what you expect from someone with reptile associations he's not anymore affected by the cold than any other warm-blooded person. and he knows it's a silly thing to get sensitive about but well when people assume he gets a bit heated!! so to say!!

9) he first learned how to use a knife, and in particular knife throwing tricks, from his mom, who is most of the born and bred country rep in his family and grew up with very little else to do and really needed a cool party trick. between her and toga, knife-throwing is his only surefire way to bond with women.

8) who is the biggest bara rep in league of legends. idk mordekaiser looks promising. in any case spinner's first glimmer of realizing that he is gay was accidentally stumbling upon LoL bara doujinshi, on the internet. somehow the continuing fascination for bara did not translate to real life where he keeps going gaga for weird skinny weirdos with disappointing t&a (UNTIL shigaraki's ujiko-provided glow-up)

7) his backup plan for going to the city after seeing stain on tv if he failed to find and join the league of villains was just to hit all the clubs and get laid. but as a virgin and hikkikomori he was very nervous about this option and was kind of relieved that he could just join a terrorist group instead.

6) i used this one in a fic too lmao. as a kid his claws were filed down regularly so that other kids and the rest of the town didn't freak out and think he was gonna gut them. cuz they're evil. as part of the headcanon of it all he does have weird hang-ups and

5) backseat gamer. like, pathological. much like myself as a child watching my stepbrothers play zelda or conker's bad fur day, he will sit over shigaraki's shoulder (and anyone else's i guess but he's literally so under-socialized he doesn't know anyone else who plays videogames irl. sad!) and be like i wouldn't have done that. you're supposed to go over there. why aren't you using all these cheat codes that i know (they don't work). thankfully shigaraki is cool with this cuz he loves to argue. i actually consider this canon enough given that we have now seen spinner hanging over shigaraki's shoulder as he's playing games.

4) were a tumblr equivalent to exist in bnhaverse spinner would have an account and he would try to be crazy stealth and not have it associated to any other social accounts ever and he would be a hater on it and you could not pay him to commit voter fraud for something against his morals (shipping polls) (he would have voted destiel!! he knows he is cas-coded!!) but he would create so many dummy accounts manually by hand HIMSELF like a hard worker to influence results as much as he could. without paying people. or getting bots. he has a pure hater soul.

3) related to the above spinner is a constant hater online. people ask him what does he ever like and he just regurgitates whatever video essay he watched recently that had a nice thing to say. but his hater stances are 100% original. not to say that he never Likes something about anything but he's dogshit at expressing it.

2) part of his issues is that he was very unintentionally detached from any other of his heteromorph-related family that he could relate to (a lot of the family was probably located in cities) aside from whatever parents or siblings, which contributed further to his feelings of isolation from the community he grew up in, and his heteromorphic traits were just enough more apparent compared to the immediate family that he was more targeted by the community he grew up in. so he's both discriminated and marginalized by the community, and has a harder time finding solace in his family to cope.

1 ) i must once again stand by spinner's hybistrophilia. like really specifically his true fantasy is a cool suave older man who does a lot of serial killing and is willing to take spinner under his wing and say ah i see you have a lot of potential. but then he fell in love with shigaraki. that's how you know it's true love. i guess you can argue that shigaraki is an old soul.

[cacodaemonia]

20 Questions for Writers

Thanks so much for the tag, @lyntergalactic! :D I feel like I've done this before, but it must have been a whole ago. It looks fun! (also, I'm pasting just the questions at the bottom of the post if anyone wants to copy those)

1. How many works do you have on AO3? 247, though I'm not really sure what the ratio is for images versus fics... Okay, apparently, 97 of them are tagged with 'fanart' and have fewer than 100 words, so somewhere around 100 image-only works and 147 fics.

2. What's your total AO3 word count? 1,141,145; which includes a few collabs and fics for which I just contributed an image.

3. What fandoms do you write for? TCW exclusively 😅 Though I've done a handful of images for other things like Arcane, Dune, Trigun, The Expanse, House of the Dragon...

4. What are your top 5 fics by kudos? A bunch of my works with the most kudos are images, but if we're talking fics, then I think it's just some of my oldest ones...

That’s Not How It Happened (This Is How It Happened) - Fives arc fix-it and my first fic.

Orbital Decay - Codywan that I haven't edited since I posted it, so I can't vouch for the quality.

Modulation - Another one I haven't touched since I posted it, but it's an 'Echo gets rescued much earlier than in canon and he and Fives reunite' fix-it of sorts.

Will You Walk With Me? - Waxer's pov from the start of the war to the (fix-it) end, and it mostly focuses on his and Boil's friendship (Waxer & Boil or Waxer/Boil pre-relationship - take your pick). Even though this certainly isn't the best thing I've written, it's my baby. 🧡

Interference - Umbara fix-it featuring minor canon characters and some necessary OCs in the first chapter, then more major canon characters later.

More stuff below the cut, since this is a long list...

5. Do you respond to comments? Yes!

6. What is the fic you wrote with the angstiest ending? Probably You're Just Harder to See Than Most, which ends very sadly on its own, but it's part of a larger fix-it including Modulation above, so Fives and Echo get reunited.

7. What’s the fic you wrote with the happiest ending? Pfff like basically all of them, idk XD;

8. Do you get hate on fics? No, just on one sketch dump, where someone went through 6 chapters of spicy cloneshippy images and then decided they needed to complain about it being gross and immoral 🤣 It was hysterical kjlksahfg

9. Do you write smut? If so, what kind? Oh yes, I'm a certified smut goblin. Not really sure what the question means by 'what kind,' but I guess 'porn with feelings' is probably the AO3 tag that would most accurately describe all of the smut I've written XD

10. Do you write crossovers? Nope.

11. Have you ever had a fic stolen? Not that I know of.

12. Have you ever had a fic translated? Nope.

13. Have you ever co-written a fic before? Yes! :D

14. What’s your all time favorite ship? Hm, I suppose if we're defining that as like, "what ship have you intensely shipped for the longest amount of time," it would be destiel? I was veeeeeery into that ship for many years.

15. What’s a WIP you want to finish but doubt you ever will? I've had one wip sitting around for over a year, and for a while I was thinking I wasn't going to get back to it ever. But I made a little vibes playlist for it and had some help brainstorming, so I'm hopeful I can start tackling it again after I get some current stuff drafted.

16. What are your writing strengths? Starting something and working on it until it's finished.

17. What are your writing weaknesses? I have a lot of trouble generating ideas on my own.

18. Thoughts on writing dialogue in another language in fic? I think it's fine as long as it's either A. very short and clear from context or B. for some reason, the writer is intending to confuse the reader and obfuscate what was said. I know I've said it before, but I'm not gonna scroll to the bottom of a fic every few paragraphs to find the translations for whole phrases or sentences. If the amount of 'other language' starts making the dialogue difficult to follow, I'm just gonna nope out.

19. First fandom you wrote for? Technically, I wrote one thing for Gundam Wing back in like 2000, but I can't even remember what I did with it or what it was about, exactly. Other than that, TCW.

20. Favorite fic you’ve written? flsdlfg that's really difficult... idk man, if it's quality we're talking about rather than sentimentality, I'd say it's a toss-up between these three 😅:

My Heart's Red Muscle - Canon-divergent AU where Waxer is a cyborg.

Kinktober 2022 - Character studies/development through smut, where Waxer and Boil find a list of sexy things to try out, so it's kind of meta. It's from my main Open Skies AU, and I'm weirdly proud of this one XD;

We Could Breathe Underwater - Force-sensitive Waxer and Boil AU

Phew! Okay this took me like three sessions to answer, but it was fun :)

No-pressure tags: anyone who sees this and wants to do it, plus @lizardberries @elismor @bilbosmom-belladonna @valkeakuulas @petrifiedforests @marbled-polecat @writegowrite @sophronist @marbled-polecat @ivalane

20 Questions for Writers

1. How many works do you have on AO3?

2. What's your total AO3 word count?

3. What fandoms do you write for?

4. What are your top 5 fics by kudos?

5. Do you respond to comments?

6. What is the fic you wrote with the angstiest ending?

7. What’s the fic you wrote with the happiest ending?

8. Do you get hate on fics?

9. Do you write smut? If so, what kind?

10. Do you write crossovers?

11. Have you ever had a fic stolen?

12. Have you ever had a fic translated?

13. Have you ever co-written a fic before?

14. What’s your all time favorite ship?

15. What’s a WIP you want to finish but doubt you ever will?

16. What are your writing strengths?

17. What are your writing weaknesses?

18. Thoughts on writing dialogue in another language in fic?

19. First fandom you wrote for?

20. Favorite fic you’ve written?

[eisforeidolon]

I always see this phenomenon. Do you also find it strange that mentality also trickles down to the actor? Jensen gets treated the same way. Which to me brilliantly highlights how stans are unable to disengage from media and get back to reality. Jensen isn’t actually Dean. He’s not supposed to be dying for Jared. He’s not supposed to be catering to Misha. SPN actually isn’t real life…. To your point, the Misha/Cas stans are actually losing the small territory they thought they owned. There’s so much actual representation in media now that their wails and whines don’t carry any weight (not that they carried much to begin with) I’ve seen people outside of SPN fandom rail on destiel for being total bait and not even good bait.

@holding-out-for-hea

Addressing this in a new post because I go on a bit (as per usual).

I have always found fans who treat actors like they're fictional characters rather disturbing. Whether we're talking in the sense of seeing them as actually being their characters (it's a job, ffs) or in the sense of thinking the RPF fans write must be trufax (you don't know these guys, ffs). Or both! It is an indicator of someone who has problems separating fiction and reality and strikes me as just creepily dehumanizing at its core. To be clear, I'm not talking about fans who are genuinely joking around, but I feel like sometimes the line can get so easily blurred between joking and “joking” I personally prefer to avoid even that for the most part.

As to the latter, yeah, that's why I've always scoffed at the assertion SPN's legacy was going to ultimately be heller positive in any significant way.

The first problem is that to believe D/C was ever a thing (or going to be a thing) in the canon pretty fundamentally required a deep dive into the fandom for the ship. Even if you wanted to, it's a lot harder to take meta whose underlying thesis is predicated on the existence of totally real signposts about the obviously intended ending of the show seriously when the ending of the show has aired and was so hilariously Not That. It's a lot harder to fully immerse yourself in an echo chamber of true belief when there's no active and prolific new reinterpretation content to be surrounded by on a weekly basis. It's a lot easier to see how cynically bait-y and baseless Misha's statements about the canon and Castiel's final scene were, given the nothingburger that's actually there. At the heart of it, so much of the necessary credulity relies on there being an active community to bolster it with years of sunk cost investment and ready-made nonsensically elaborate conspiracies to explain why it was totally going to happen but didn't.

The second problem is the hellers remain hung up on insisting D/C was some kind of uniquely important cause that NEEDED to be canon because it was fundamentally more important than not only SPN's actual premise on the strength of platonic love, but better representation than any other show's potential LGBT+ romances … because reasons. Aside from the usual arguments why that's absurd, i.e. it's just their personal obsession speaking and they constantly insist their ship is "proved" through toxic stereotypes which actually underlines the opposite of what they intend? They have also really showed their asses by vocally and obnoxiously crying it's totally unfair and doesn't measure up to what SPN could totes have done if they weren't cowards when other media canonizes popular ships like with Good 0mens. As you say, the more time that passes the more common it's going to be to have genuine, well-written LGBT+ love stories incorporated into new canons to be contrasted against D/C fandom's 'two dudes who were never each other's first priority, often treated each other like shit, and explicitly stated their feelings were familial … but looked at each other + obvious jokes = the greatest love story (n)ever told and the writers owed me!'. Even to someone completely unfamiliar with SPN and therefore unaware they entirely queerbaited themselves despite the show's content? The longer ago the show ended the more irrelevant and unimportant to good representation the ship not being canonized becomes, when it wasn't particularly relevant to begin with. Sure they got some sympathy from the unaware about That Scene followed by an angel-free final two episodes (though a lot of the buzz was just memeing the scnee because it was That Cringe even sans context), but now? Why not go watch something else that actually has representation instead of whining about a show from 2005 that ended in 2020, after all? It's old news, if you hated it that much there's newer better LGBT+ content out there being made every day!

So yeah, not only is there no there there, especially in comparison to any real love story? But the most obnoxious shippers continuing to loudly make genuine real life issues and other canons' legitimate LGBT+ representation about their bestest realest most totally canonest ship ever D/C that they were also totally cheated out of? It can only become even more obviously ludicrous and self-serving - and it was pretty blatant to anyone with a modicum of discernment and familiarity with shipper behavior to begin with.

[wikiangela]

20 Questions for fic Writers!

tagged by @spotsandsocks @jesuisici33 thank you 💖💖

1. How many works do you have on AO3?

81 so far, and always working on more haha

2. What’s your total AO3 word count?

481,097

3. What fandoms do you write for?

currently only 911, but I did write mcu and spn and if inspiration strikes might go back (kinda missing sambucky tbh, might need to write something for them soon haha)

4. What are your top 5 fics by kudos?

(four out of these are buddie, last one is my first ever sambucky fic that's still somehow up there lol) 1. For a holiday (and forevermore) 2. I can't love you any more (than I do now) 3. There’s no way that it’s not going there (with the way that we’re looking at each other) 4. I'd marry you with paper rings 5. "You should smile more"

5. Do you respond to comments? Why or why not?

I do! always love to thank everyone for reading, and appreciate that they took the time to comment <3

6. What is the fic you wrote with the angstiest ending?

generally angst is not particularly my thing, and there are always happy endings in mine lol - but around the lightning arc I wrote a few angsty-ish fics, and I guess these two might count? Fine and don't know what I'd do if your tomorrow never came

7. What’s the fic you wrote with the happiest ending?

like all of them have happy endings haha - but i'd say the holiday fic -For a holiday (and forevermore) - might be the happiest?? (or just satisfying after the slow burn and them being fake dating oblivious idiots haha)

8. Do you get hate on fics?

not really, I did get like two not so nice comments ever (one even very recently, and I'm in a place where it hit harder than the previous one lol but it's fine) but generally I don't, my comments are filled with love and I appreciate that so much <3

9. Do you write smut? If so, what kind?

I do now lmao - it's the very sappy kind with lots of feelings - other than that, I'm still trying out new stuff haha

10. Do you write crossovers? What’s the craziest one you’ve written?

I don't - there's one that I'm not sure if it counts but I did write a mcu with netflix marvel shows crossover bc I'm dying to see Jessica Jones interact with Bucky lol - nothing crazy tho, just them lowkey trauma bonding - but other than that, no, not really writing crossovers, idk, haven't tried any yet haha

11. Have you ever had a fic stolen?

don't think so

12. Have you ever had a fic translated?

nope

13. Have you ever co-written a fic before?

got two requests but their ideas were so not my thing, so no, I haven't idk if i'd be good at co-writing but if we vibe and the idea is good I won't say no to trying haha

14. What’s your all time favorite ship?

gotta say buddie, they took over my brain like no ship ever before

15. What’s a WIP you want to finish but doubt you ever will?

the 5+1 nicknames fic - something there is just not working and I want to rewrite the whole thing but can't get around to it - this and one other fic have been postponed since like january, don't know if I'll get back to them tho i want to :(

16. What are your writing strengths?

I think I'm pretty good with dialogue and feelings and in smut I'm good at making it soft and sweet but also hot and horny at the same time haha and usually can write characters so that they don't feel too ooc (I think? that's the feedback i often get, idk lol)

17. What are your writing weaknesses?

overusing the same words over and over again (but like, synonyms don't hit the same lol), probably way too many adverbs, and I'm not great with descriptions of characters or places etc and trying to work on that haha

18. Thoughts on writing dialogue in another language in fic?

feels awkward - a word here and there is fine, but whole conversations both in reading and writing feels awkward and out of place idk (I think I wrote a whole line in one fic and it's so bad haha)

19. First fandom you wrote for?

when it comes to shows, spn - destiel before that, unfortunately, was rpf and 1d but we don't talk about that

20. Favorite fic you’ve written?

it's between the possessive smut and the car smut tbh lol I love both so much (possessive maybe a bit more tho? just a tiny bit haha - but gonna link both here lol)

I could get lost in the feelings (just say that you belong to me)

baby, you drive me wild

___

no pressure tagging: @honestlydarkprincess @eddiebabygirldiaz @giddyupbuck @callaplums @forthewolves @eddiediaztho @arthursdent @911onabc @housewifebuck @loserdiaz @lover-of-mine @hoodie-buck @thewolvesof1998 @fortheloveofbuddie @watchyourbuck @disasterbuckdiaz @wildlife4life @hippolotamus and whoever else wants to do it <3

[tomyo]

Genuinely, the 2020 presidential election was one of the most stressful days I’ve ever experienced. I didn’t sleep for days and couldn’t go 2 minutes without checking the results. I live in a liberal state but the days leading up to the election brought out tons of trump flags on trucks and there was a group vigilantly waving MAGA flags for HOURS non stop outside the polling center because I went there and watched them and watched the appalling amount of people honking in support. Like a lot of people I had sent in my ballot already but there was an absolute panic about that because mail in boxes where being destroyed, set on fire, and stolen. During the red mirage I went hysterical and scared my mom from how unstable I was acting. Months later she told me I was right about it all and saw what was coming as we watched the insurrection live feed.

I say this one because I cannot express enough how relieved people felt by the news, within minutes of it being locked in that Trump lost my friends heard pots banging in the streets. I never was big in Supernatural but Destiel being canon was so joyous in part because it felt like the first time in months we could enjoy something again. On top of everything else, that summer had also been the George Floyd protests as well as a lot of people pushing back pretty hard on following social distancing.

Destiel is one of the few things I can remember from 2020 that didn’t deal with people’s livelihood and there was something wonderful about a classic tumblr fandom getting its goofy glory when we were the kind of space they saw as the problem. The rainbow haired SJWs they made fun of in 2016 got the most dry, unsalted ship win as Trump lost.

It feels like a lot of us intentionally blocked out how dark and traumatic that time was which I think is why it’s all the more important to remember to push even harder than last time because there’s the possibility Trumpers are going to be more aggressive this time and we don’t need even the possibility of him back in office.

People who try to analyze what happened on Tumblr on November 5th, 2020, often really overstate how much it was actually “about” Supernatural. As someone who has never been in the supernatural fandom ever but dID join in on the hysterical destielposting—it was really more about the stress of the pandemic and the 2020 presidential election.

The two biggest Youtubers I’ve seen try to dissect “what happened that November 5th” in video essays both weren’t American—- and I think that explains why they both tried to explain the hysteria primarily via analyzing the Supernatural fandom/the original show, rather than through the lens of the election. And while those videos are cool, valid, informational, and make lots of really well-considered interesting points— I can tell you that me and almost all my mutuals had literally no knowledge or interest in the fact that “oh supernatural had made nods at the ship in the past but the creators were adamant that I wouldn’t be canon” or etc etc etc etc. the first time I learned about any of that context was way later, watching videos where people claimed that fandom history context (that I did not know anything about) was the actual reason for the hysteria.

But the reality is that people latched on to the Destiel stuff because it was a piece of big useless inane zero-stakes fandom news in a time when we were desperately waiting for serious high stakes election news. We were latching onto a “positive “ piece of inane stupid fandom news in a time of great stress, with all the desperation of a drowning man who latches onto whatever piece of wood will keep him afloat.

The core of the hysteria was that Americans (who make up a huge chunk of tumblr’s userbase) were currently glued to their laptops watching the live presidential election vote counts come in. These vote counts were taking an extended amount of time due to the pandemic causing high numbers of mail-in ballots, resulting in a constant state of Election Day Stress for multiple days straight.

This was also during the height of the Pandemic. People had predicted Trump’s presidency would be bad; no one had predicted it would be this apocalyptically bad. No one had predicted pandemics and lockdowns and hospitals overflowing with bodybags. remember Trump spreading Covid lies and conspiracies?? There were so many Qanon conspiracies about democrats being Satanic child traffickers who had to be put to death, and coup threats were mounting from the right wing side. It seemed like this election was a choice between ‘centrist democrat’ and “apocalyptic right wing conspiracy theory authoritarianism,” in the midst of pandemic conditions that people feared would never ever improve— and it seemed like a close election.

Another major point was that Trump voters were more likely to be antimaskers/Covid deniers, while Biden voters were more likely to take the pandemic seriously— so Biden voters were more likely to send in mail-in ballots instead of risking the in-person voting crowds, which meant their ballots would take much longer to count. And so, in many state electoral vote counts, it would initially seem like Trump was very far in the lead— only for Biden to slooooowly build up an agonizingly small lead as the mail in ballots came in, and then defeat Trump at the very end.

So you’re just watching these news sites giving live election updates, refreshing the page every 2 minutes to see if you’re going to live under a spineless centrist democrat or a literal Qanon Dictatorship. And then you go on tumblr to distract yourself, and there’s more election posting, and more agonizing over the votes, and more stress and despair—-

And then it’s been days and we’re right at the crucial tipping point where it’s anyone’s game and the next few hours will determine whether Trump will win, so you need to keep your eye on the vote count, because the next hours will determine the future of the pandemic and your country and your plans for your entire life—

And then stupid Destiel becomes canon! And it becomes canon in the silliest way possible!

If Destiel had become canon at any other time, it would have been a big goofy tumblr celebration? But we wouldn’t have gotten the insane explosion of hysterical interaction.

The entire core of it was the contrast between the inane meaningless stupidity of fandom news vs the actual stressful election news you wanted to hear! It really is best conveyed in that meme where Castiel says “I love you” and Dean indifferently responds with a piece of important election news.

It’s about the contrast between the low-stakes inanity of fandom and the massive life-destroying stakes of a terrifying election. There really was no reason it had be Supernatural specifically, except that Supernatural was a thing everyone knew basic things about from dashboard osmosis— it could’ve been any other equally huge silly fandom ship news about a ship everyone *knew of* but might not necessarily be invested in (ex. Stucky becoming canon, Johnlock becoming canon, Kirk/Spock becoming more canon somehow, etc etc etc.)

I think it’s true that people who weren’t paying agonizingly close attention to the American election news got swept up in it, and that non American Supernatural fans also were extremely excited for purely fandom reasons — but the entire reason it blew up to an unprecedented degree was because of that core of stressed out terrified Americans glued to their computers watching election results and suddenly receiving stupid fandom news instead, and deciding to just hysterically parodically hyper-celebrate this absurd useless zero-stakes news.

I think it was also all elevated by the fact that, as I said before, this happened at the crucial “tipping point” of the election where the next few hours would determine the winner. The fact that Biden began to slowly develop a lead in the hours after made it feel, hysterically, as if the hours after Destiel became canon was somehow the turning point where he began to win; so celebrating Destiel felt like celebrating that slow turn towards victory.

The tl,dr is that it’s so important to Remember the Fifth of November …..in preparation the inevitable hysteria that will happen in the presidential election on November 5th of next year. XD. Personally I’m rooting for Johnlock or Frodo/Sam to somehow become canon in the eleventh hour right before the democrats win

[scripted-downfall]

Ahah! Fren you think you are gonna come to my blog on this, the day of my daughters middle school awards show (it actually was) and think your slick giving me so many numbers.

WELL I TAKE THIS CHALLENGE

And give you #15 and every odd number before it!

Welp. I don't know if this plan has backfired or not... on the one hand, lots to answer; on the other... lots to answer. (jk; this is awesome and I'm thriving :) Thanks, dear!) Also, congrats to your daughter!!!

However, you also, um. Forgot to tell me what ship/character/film/show/etc each number belonged with. So. Whoops. Now I'm going to heckle you in Discord until you give me the criteria for each. (The actual answers will all be mine, though, so.)

EDIT. In order, they are: Deckerstar, Thirteen Ghosts, Count of Monte Cristo, Supernatural, TenRose, Destiel, Whoever you hate more Max or Sam, GentleBeard

ANYWAY. (keep reading because someone sent me eight different numbers)

(Fandom Ask Music Game)

1. A song that reminds me of Deckerstar: Definitely "Wicked Game", no question. Every time I think of/hear that song, my brain replays the scene with breaking-down Luci playing it in his red robe thing in the penthouse after coming to the conclusion that he couldn't tell Chloe he loved her. It's the first thing that came to mind when I read this part of the ask, so, yeah, maybe there's a better answer, but this is my instinctive one.

3. A song I wish was in Thirteen Ghosts: Well, someone's making things difficult. I think I'll say "One" by Metallica. It's pretty pertinent to the ghosts and/or to Dennis (kinda one and the same, at some points), and it fits the vibes of the film, imo. Plus, I just love Metallica.

5. A song that I associate with The Count of Monte Cristo because of exactly one (1) applicable lyric: You know. This is way harder than you think. Because there's an entire CoMC musical that's now invading my head and not applicable as an answer. BUT. I guess I'll say "Macavity: The Mystery Cat". (aka, it's the first think I came up with and it works decently well, so!) The pertinent line: "And when you think he's half asleep, he's always wide awake." (and bonus points for "He's outwardly respectable/I know he cheats at cards.") It's very reminiscent of the way the Count looks aboveboard but is actually doing his best to take them all down,

7. A song the fandom constantly talks about fitting Supernatural perfectly but I just Don’t See It: (EDIT: I realized after I already wrote this that I turned "SPN" into "Destiel," but it's fineeee. tbf, the only songs I know people connect to the show --- Destiel or otherwise --- and don't agree with are Hozier songs and "Angel With a Shotgun"... which I only don't agree with because I'm a heathen and haven't heard them. SO. Destiel it is.) Anyway... "On My Own" from Les Miserables. I love this song so much, but it is not at all accurate for the show. (Note: Do I think that either Dean or Cas would have their perception be that it's accurate, yes. Do I think it's actually accurate, no. Does that make any sense?)

9. A song I wish didn’t remind me of TenRose but it does: I assume Doomsday doesn't count? Uh... Okay, got one. "We've Only Just Begun" by the Carpenters. And I confess freely that this is biased by my adoration of 1408 (the film; I didn't much care for the short story, tbh), but. That song is creepy af. it sounds soooo optimistic. And it's just got this edge of darkness. And if that's not 10Rose in a nutshell --- everything sounds bright and happy but you just know something's about to go wrong --- I don't know what is.

11. A song that makes me feel happy about Destiel: Back with the hard ones, I see. How am I supposed to be happy about a ship that practically definesssss tragedy? Like, "All Outta Love" makes me happy for its connection to them, but the context is tragic, so it's not my answer? And I have a bunch of applicable Hadestown songs, but those all hurt? I guess I'll say "Every Woman in the World". In addition to just fitting, it's also Air Supply --- so a connection to the aforementioned "All Outta Love" --- and has been used in both Slither (a family-favorite film) and a romantic comedy starring Jeffrey Dean Morgan (which was good enough that it overwhelmed my chronic dislike of rom-coms).

13. A song I associate with my least favorite character: They. Are. The same. People. Ma'am. But anyway... I guess I'll go with Sam because I have a good answer (and it's not actually anti!!!): "Walk in the Dark" by David Byrne. In my head, it's largely Azazel POV as he looks in on Sam as one of his "kids", but I still view it as a "Sam" song. If that makes any sense?

15. Top five songs I would add to a Gentlebeard playlist: Definitely "The Chain", for obvious reasons (if you've seen the show). "Ain't No Sunshine", definitely. "Promises in the Dark", too. "Jolene" for the ouch. And... "I Will Survive". Because that's basically what Ed's doing when he turns into the Kraken, and that hurts.

If you're noticing that these songs are largely in order by artist/band name, it's absolutely not because I started going through my playlist for inspiration. Not at all. Obviously.

Thanks for the ask, jezebel :)

[charlie-minion]

Could the same SPN finale make a little more sense with some additions/changes?

I’ve had the idea for this post stuck in my head for days now, but with every new conspiracy theory and every new eventuality in the fandom, it became difficult to cool down enough to write something less ship-related and more narrative-focused.

What Supernatural and non-SPN fans have to understand is that a lot of us have expressed disappointment and frustration after 15x20, not because of Destiel (that’s just one part of the whole problem), but because the finale doesn’t make sense. Everything was leading up to something beautifully crafted until the end of 15x19. Beyond that, it’s hard to understand what happened. The story rendered all the character growth irrelevant, invalidated the themes of free will and “family don’t end in blood”, regressed to the original brother codependency they spent 15 years trying to overcome, made a queer non-binary character in a male vessel and a deaf female character basically disposable, and kept the show’s reputation of queerbaiting and misogyny until its very last breath.

That’s not going out with a bang! At least not a positive one. We all were ready to mourn Supernatural, but we wanted to feel proud of its legacy, and somehow TPTB managed to tarnish that legacy in less than 45 minutes. What a way to ruin the other more than 13,600 minutes of story!

It doesn’t matter who is to blame (The CW, Robert Singer, Andrew Dabb). It doesn’t matter why it happened (homophobia, censorship, marketing for Walker, bad writing). What matters is that at the end of the day, the finale that aired is what we got and that’s going to hurt for a long time. It hurts even more when we realize that the same finale could have easily made more sense, even without being perfect.

That’s what I want to do in this post. I want to show you how things would have been less jarring (for the fandom), while still keeping the goal to please the general audience.

Before I begin rewriting 15x20, I have to mention that I talked to my conservative boomer sister about the finale. She hasn’t watched the second half of season 15 yet (she’s waiting for Netflix to have it), but she’s been watching the show for a long time (she introduced me to it 8 years ago). She’s the perfect example of a viewer from the general audience. Loves the show but doesn’t give a second thought to it and definitely isn’t paying attention to character development or themes. Doesn’t engage with fandom, actors, or any of the show’s social media. Pure GA! When I told her the series finale had aired, she asked me about it and I refused to give her spoilers. Because of that, she told me the ending SHE wanted. She said she would be happy with either of two possibilities: the boys retiring and finally living a normal life OR they going to heaven and finding peace at last. She saw Sam and Dean as a unit, which means: both retiring or both going to heaven. AND she saw Cas as part of that, too. She wasn’t so sure about Jack. And for her, we could use the “Eileen who?” and it wouldn’t be a joke. She didn’t remember her.

NOW IT’S TIME TO WRITE A NEW VERSION OF 15X20 (KEEPING 15X18 AND 15X19 EXACTLY THE SAME AS THEY AIRED). This will be a very long post:

The opening remains almost the same. No “Carry on my wayward son” to induce feels. Too soon and too predictable! (Reasoning: Everyone was expecting it to play right there, so it would bring more tears at the end)

In the opening, after the scene where Jack says “People won’t need to pray to me or sacrifice to me”, we also see the scene from 15x19 where he says “I won’t be hands on”. Then we see the rest of the opening as it was. (Reasoning: People needed to be reminded that Jack would NOT intervene and that’s why later on, he would NOT save Dean).

We get the same montage, but when Sam takes a break from his morning run, we see him reading a message on his phone. A simple: “Hey Sam, what’s new?” from Eileen. Sam smiles fondly and begins to type a response we don’t get to see. The next scene continues the same, Sam making breakfast. (Reasoning: A text was a very simple way to show that Eileen was alive and still in communication with Sam).

The montage slowly ends as Sam enters the library (not after he sits down). He seems to be talking on the phone but we only hear an “I’ll tell him. Bye”. As he walks towards the table, he tells Dean: “Charlie says hi. Mentioned something about Stevie’s perfect scrambled eggs we have to try.” Dean’s answer is “Awesome!” (Reasoning: Just ONE line was needed to unbury Charlie and her girlfriend. ONE LINE).

Sam sits down, opens his laptop and everything continues the same. The title card shows for the last time.

YOU SEE? In the first 4 minutes they could have acknowledged that THREE WOMEN were alive and safe: Eileen, Charlie and Stevie. It wasn’t hard! Don’t blame bad writing on Covid! Now let’s continue.

Sam and Dean arrive at the Pie Fest just the same. Dean goes to get some “damn pie” and Sam takes out his phone. He dials and when someone picks up, he says “Hey, Jody, how are ya?” We don’t hear the rest of the conversation. The scene moves to Dean coming with his 6 portions of pie. Dean sits down and Sam tells him, “Talked to Jody. The other hunters haven’t had much work lately.” “That’s good, isn’t it?”, Dean says. All we get from Sam is “Yeah.” So, Dean looks at him and asks “what’s wrong?” like it happened in the episode. (Reasoning: Again, a couple of lines to make sure the people that were killed in 15x18 are safe and remembered by the boys in 15x20. Why is this important? Because they’re family!)

The conversation about Sam’s sad face happens the same. Sam is the one that mentions Cas and Jack. (Reasoning: Because this episode was so Sam-centered, it’s obvious he was the protagonist in the finale. If we see him communicating with Eileen, Charlie, and Jody, then it’s NORMAL, even expected of him to be the one to bring up Cas and Jack). Without these additions, it’s harder for people to understand that most of the finale was NOT from Dean’s POV but from Sam’s.

Dean’s “if we don’t keep living, then all that sacrifice is gonna be for nothing” stays the same. (Reasoning: I believe it’s necessary that the show sticks to the importance of “letting go” and “what is dead should stay dead” for the first time ever because the message is “even when you lose someone you love, you can still find some form of happiness and keep living, for you and for them, because that’s what they would have wanted”. Bringing someone back means “I can’t live without you”, and that’s just more codependency. It’s how the demon deals began in the Winchester family –Mary being the first one to do it. This would explain why Dean didn’t ask Jack to bring Cas back, as he asked Chuck. He understood Jack was NOT going to interfere anymore and accepted it. Besides, when Cas saved Dean from hell, Dean thought he didn’t deserve to be saved. This time that Cas saved him, Dean finally feels worthy enough to accept that YES, HE DESERVED TO BE SAVED ALL ALONG, just as much as he deserved to be loved by that angel of the Lord. In this scene, Dean also says that the pain is not gonna go away, which means that from HIS PERPECTIVE, it still hurts that Cas is not there. The problem is that the finale is not showing his POV but Sam’s.  

Sam pies Dean on the face just the same. (Reasoning: That part was just to avoid ending the scene on a sad note).

Everything related to the case happens exactly the same. (Reasoning: At this point, people don’t really care about the MoTW, they care about Sam and Dean).

NOTE 1: The case is important to show that even when the Winchesters are finally free of Chuck’s influence, they CHOOSE to keep hunting. It isn’t something they do out of revenge or because it is their destiny anymore. Maybe they were forced into the life at first, but they’ve learned to find joy in saving people. Being hunters is who they are. However, the fact that a job application was shown on Dean’s desk is also important because it means he was willing to explore what else was there for him besides hunting. Maybe he could find a balance? Maybe he was thinking it was time to quit? We will never know! The thing is that Sam only finds out about it when he goes into Dean’s room after his brother is dead, so maybe that’s when it hits him that Dean wanted to explore his options, and Sam starts to think it’s time for him to do the same.  

NOTE 2: I believe the masks the vampires are wearing is something we can blame on covid. If they had their faces covered, it was easier to use people from the SPN crew for some scenes, instead of using more actors unnecessarily.

NOTE 3: When Sam and Dean arrive at the barn, we get 3 visuals to remember Cas in the same scene (those are for the fandom, not for the general audience): a) the barn, obviously; b) the bag that resembles Cas’ trenchcoat so much that many people thought that’s what it was; and c) two feathers hanging on Dean’s right when he opens the trunk.

The scene with the throwing star happens the same. (Reasoning: The episode is still told from Sam’s point of view, so it makes sense that he fondly sees his brother as a man child).

Jenny the vampire? Uhhh… I mean, it’s not the best piece of writing I’ve ever seen, but it’s not the worst, so okay. That stays the same. (Reasoning: There is none, but she’s not what really ruined the finale, so whatever!)

Dean still dies impaled on a rebar. (Reasoning: OK. HERE ME OUT!!! I hate as much as everyone else that Dean is killed. I think it’s lazy writing, but that’s what we got and I can’t change that in this re-write, so if killing Dean is what we have to work around, then, memes aside, death by rebar is better and here’s why. There’s no one to blame for Dean’s death: no Chuck (the boys were willingly hunting even after Chuck was defeated), no vampires (they were all killed and were no real threat, so it was impossible for Sam to begin a quest for revenge against all vampires. What was Sam going to blame? A rebar? Can you kill it? Hunt it? NO. It was an ordinary death, a stupid accident. Just like any person can die at any moment by slipping on a banana peel. Is it a good death? No, but it’s good to know he doesn’t die trying to save Sam or Cas, because Dean Winchester is NOT willing to give up his life in exchange for anyone else’s anymore.

Sam takes out his phone and says he’ll call for help, but his phone is more visible to the audience. He dials and it’s almost to his ear when Dean stops him and Sam hesitantly hangs up. (Reasoning: People have complained that Sam didn’t call an ambulance, but actually he tried to. It’s just that people missed that part, maybe?)

After Sam puts his phone back in his pocket and says “OK” to Dean, he adds, “I’ll pray to Jack”. Dean’s immediate answer is: “No hands on, remember?” “But Dean”, Sam says, and Dean interrupts him with “OK listen to me” and tells Sam what to do with the kids they rescued. (Reasoning: Jack is God now and how come Sam didn’t remember? The viewers remembered, so it was necessary to include a line that ruled the option out and that showed Dean didn’t want Jack to intervene. The rest was fine).

The lines “You knew it was always gonna end like this for me. It was supposed to end like this, right?” disappear completely from Dean’s monologue. (Reasoning: This is the most problematic part of Dean’s dying speech. He fought God and earned free will, he is no longer controlled by fate or destiny. Accepting that he is supposed to die on a hunt regresses his character development and denies his desire to keep living. This was a total mistake and should be removed).

Instead, if going to heaven is the ending TPTB wanted to give Dean, at least he should say something more empowering. Sam tells him that both of them are going to take the kids somewhere safe. Dean answers and the scene follows like this: “No. Sammy, we made our choice, didn’t we?”, he smiles with difficulty. “We were free to write our own story and we did. We decided to keep saving people, hunting things. Because it’s what we love despite the risks.” (Reasoning: If Dean’s going to die it doesn’t have to feel like it was always meant to be that way. He should die knowing that he exerted his free will until his last breath).

The rest of the dialogue between Sam and Dean happens almost the same. Except that instead of Dean saying “‘cause when it all came down to it, it was always you and me. It’s always been you and me”, he says “’cause when it all came down to it, we’ve always had each other’s backs. Always.” And instead of Sam saying “Don’t leave me”, he says “I still can try to save you.” (Reasoning: It sounds way less codependent without diminishing the importance of their love and support for each other).

Besides, let’s change Dean’s “I’m not leaving you” for “You don’t have to be alone. You’ve still got family.” The rest stays the same word by word. (Reasoning: Dean reminds Sam that “family don’t end in blood” and there are still lots of people out there who love Sam and will be with him).

“I love you so much, my baby brother” stays exactly the same. (Reasoning: Dean always had trouble to express the big L word. I always believed and said many times that before Dean could say “I love you” to Cas or any other character, he had to say it to Sam. So, this is important as part of Dean speaking his truth).

The last part when Dean insists Sam tell him that it’s okay stays the same. (Reasoning: It’s the final moment when the codependency cycle breaks. No more running in circles).

The forehead touch between them stays the same. (Reasoning: I think I would do something similar if my sister were dying. I know there are w*ncest shippers out there, but it shouldn’t matter because the moment feels appropriate for that kind of goodbye). 

See? There are changes but not too many. That’s why I’ve been saying that it was easier to get it right, yet they still managed to screw it up.

The second montage stays the same. (Reasoning: Life goes on, but of course Sam has to mourn).

The call about a case in Austin remains the same. (Reasoning: It’s the only part of the episode where someone from the found family is mentioned, so I think that Donna’s name is perfect in that moment. However, without the other additions I’ve made in this re-write, that off-hand mention feels too little. Its purpose was to tell the viewers that if Donna was alive, so were the others, but the way the episode was executed gave us an isolated Sam, incapable of having friends and a family without Dean).  

After 30 minutes of Sam’s POV, let’s finally see the last bit of Dean’s POV that we’ll ever get.

Dean arrives in Heaven and Bobby receives him. All their conversation stays almost the same, except that after mentioning Rufus and before saying “and your mom and dad…”, Bobby adds an “Ellen and Jo let me borrow their place”. (Reasoning: If you’re gonna put the man outside the Harvelle’s place, at least mention them for Jack’s sake!).

Besides, after Bobby tells Dean that Sam will be along and that time in heaven is different, Dean gives a small smile and says, “Well, there’s no rush. I want him to have a long, happy life.” Bobby answers with: “I would expect nothing less from you, boy” and tells him he got everything he could ever want, etc., just like it happened in the episode, and finishes by asking “What are you gonna do now, Dean?” (Reasoning: It’s important we know for sure that Dean is NOT codependent anymore and that he doesn’t expect to have a miserable afterlife just because his brother is not there yet).

Instead of saying “I think I’ll go for a drive” Dean says, “I think I know what I want” and walks towards baby. Bobby still tells him to have fun. (Reasoning: “Know what I want” is ambiguous enough to help us introduce the last piece of the puzzle, the one thing Dean’s wanted for many seasons and has never been able to express).

 The biggest change is coming:

Dean gets on the Impala and has a moment of silence while he contemplates the wheel. He begins to pray: “Hey, Cas, you got your ears on? I hear you’ve been busy working on this updated Heaven with Jack. You were right about him, Cas. You had faith in him and he saved us all. You could always see the best in everyone, even when they couldn’t see it themselves. Even when I couldn’t see it myself. There’s so much I want to tell you. Maybe you can visit sometime. I hope prayer’s still a thing up here.” (Reasoning: Dean’s side of the confession was unaddressed and that was terrible writing. If there was no way to get him to speak his truth textually, at least take him as close to it as possible).

We listen to a flutter of wings and a “Hello, Dean” from the back seat. We don’t see Cas, but the camera shows us Dean’s cocky smile and he says “Took you long enough.” He turns around slowly. End of scene. (Reasoning: The flutter of wings confirms that angels have their wings back and ties that loose end. The final “hello, Dean” was highly anticipated and it made sense. If Misha couldn’t be there to film, for whatever reason, or if the problem was the kind of conversation Dean and Cas would have, then don’t show it, but leave the door open. Let us know that the two characters were reunited and will talk, but whatever Dean has to say is so private that it’s not for us to hear, only for Cas.  

We finally hear “Carry on my wayward son” and get a montage that begins with Sam playing with his kid. Then we see Dean driving, super happy, and Sam living his life to the fullest. We still get Sam’s Blurry Wife, BUT… we see pictures of Eileen in the living room (not just of John, Mary, Sam, and Dean). We also see photos of Jody, Donna, Charlie, and AU!Bobby. (Reasoning: FAMILY DON’T END IN BLOOD).

The scene where Sam is wearing the party wig and looks miserable inside the Impala is cut and nobody talks about it ever again because it never existed. We get a scene of Sam teaching his son how to fix the car instead. (Reasoning: First of all, don’t give Sam a life where years later he’s still in pain. Second of all, the fucking wig was a crime).

Sam’s dying scene stays the same. The only thing is that his son signs a couple of phrases to him before actually speaking. (Reasoning: More confirmation that Dean Jr. is Eileen’s son).

We hear the final “Evanescence-like Carry on my wayward son”. Again we see the photos and there’s family other than the Winchesters there. (Reasoning: Obvious at this point).

The rest is exactly the same. The show began with two brothers and it’s okay if the last scene is with the two brothers reunited in Heaven. At this point, the other parts of the story are acceptable enough for us to feel happy that they get to see each other again after years of a happy (after)life.

Now look me in the eye and tell me this was too hard to execute. I still think that bad writing is a thing we can’t deny here, adding to the possible meddling of the Network. Maybe Dabb wanted us to hate the finale because he couldn’t get away with what he truly wanted. If that was his intention, then kudos to him. He and The CW really gave us a finale that only 30% of the fandom liked.

I hope you guys have enjoyed this and it helps to give you some peace of mind. In my heart, this was the finale we got. It wasn’t perfect, but it didn’t drop the ball either.

[destielficarchive]

Welcome to the Destiel Fic Archive Project

Destiel, as a ship, is thirteen years old, and those years have seen vast changes in the nature of fandom and the way people share their works. They've also seen a constant stream of people entering and leaving the fandom, bringing their creativity with them, contributing their knowledge and skill to one of the richest ship fandoms on the entire internet. There are currently 94,000 works tagged Destiel on Archive of Our Own, and the ship was years old before AO3 was founded, so it's safe to say that in the past thirteen years more than 100,000 works have been created featuring our beloved Dean and Castiel. And while we still have many, many fics, countless works from the past have been deleted, or effectively "lost" by other means. This is tragic (well, aside from the ones that have been made into original fic and published, that's awesome) and work attrition continues to this day, with the most recent, public, high-profile deletion being apokteino’s decision to eliminate their account on New Year’s Eve of 2020.

The Fic Archive Project seeks to find, preserve, and archive as wide a range of Destiel works as possible, with an emphasis on: 

Older, harder-to-find stories that have never been posted on AO3, and 

Works that have been deleted from AO3, LJ, FF.net, or any other platform. 

I (hi, I’m @unforth and this is my pet project) founded this project in 2018 as a spin off from the Destiel Favs Survey I administer yearly. I downloaded all works that received a vote, and tracked down any that had been deleted. That collection forms the core of the Archive, but over the years it has grown well beyond that. I now have a repository of nearly 15,000 Destiel works, and it grows all the time. Up to now, I’ve kept this project largely private; the only place it’s been available to the fandom is on the Profound Bond Discord server. However, in light of apokteino’s deletion, I’ve realized most people don’t know this is something I do, and don’t know that if they’re looking for a deleted fic, they can contact me. As such, I decided it was time to make a side-blog dedicated to the Archive, to help publicize it, grow it, and disseminate its contents.

I've created a spreadsheet to help navigate this collection, which you can access here: https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1SWRvyj4DIAGGfo04_ba8LaDsJmlIfSxb2fn9TtqnlYM/edit?usp=sharing

Please be aware this is a living document so while I've done my best to keep it neat and organized and suitable for public viewing, I can't promise everything will always be in ship-shape when you view it. The first sheet of the linked workbook, "About This Workbook," contains extensive information about how the Archive is organized, decisions I've made on what and how to collect works, my personal to-do list, and numerous ways that anyone accessing the collection can help. If you’re interested in helping, or if you have copies of any of the works on my “lost fic” spreadsheet, please get in touch with me!

Feel free to drop this Tumblr an ask if you’re looking for something, or DM me for things that are available. 

If you want a file, you must be willing to contact me off anon, as I will not be putting any files up for general distribution. The entire collection is backed up on g-drive but I do intend to open access to it - currently myself and cryptomoon (who has been beyond helpful throughout this and offered me server space) are the only two people who can access the actual archive. I send files by Discord message and/or e-mail. 

Please note 

if you are the author or know the author of a work that I’m currently distributing, and you know they’d rather things NOT be distributed, or have any other information that would help me better moderate this collection, please let me know.

if a work is marked as “Not for Distribution” I will not distribute it under any circumstances so do not ask.

Thanks for reading, welcome to the archive project, and I look forward to helping people find the fics they’re looking for!

[youchangedmedestiel]

I haven't been tagged but whatever I tag myself because I want to play too, so let's go:

20 Questions for Writers

1. How many works do you have on AO3? 26

2. What's your total AO3 word count? 48,108

3. What fandoms do you write for? Just Supernatural. Let's face it, just Destiel. Except for one fic that is mostly about Dean, but Sam is there too.

4. What are your top 5 fics by kudos? Never going to apologize for saving you, Inspiring Fanfiction, Thanked as deserved, Warm and soft skin, Quit being cute!

5. Do you respond to comments? Of course I do. Every single one of them. Because those makes me so happy that I need to thank people for this.

6. What is the fic you wrote with the angstiest ending? I love happy endings so that's hard. But it would be There is nothing stupid about you and me, because of what happens in canon or more like never happens.

7. What’s the fic you wrote with the happiest ending? Who knew it would be harder than the previous question. I'd say it's Thanked as deserved.

8. Do you get hate on fics? I never had hate on fics, I really hope I never will.

9. Do you write smut? If so, what kind? Yeah, I do. I never thought I would but I can't deny it anymore. I'm still shy about it and I always write smut with context. It's really hard to write, to describe and especially when there is two men involved in the smut, pronouns are a nightmare. What kind? Destiel smut, does that count as a kind? Let's say it does.

10. Do you write crossovers? Np, I don't feel the need to write fanfiction like I do with Destiel for other fandoms.

11. Have you ever had a fic stolen? No, not that I'm aware of at least.

12. Have you ever had a fic translated? No but I wouldn't be against it.

13. Have you ever co-written a fic before? No, writing is still really new to me, I don't know how I could make this work. It's very personal I guess.

14. What’s your all time favorite ship? I think you're going to fall head over heels with this information but it's Destiel. Yeah, I know, big news.

15. What’s a WIP you want to finish but doubt you ever will? My looong fic idea about an alternate season 9 where Cas stays human, because I LOVE human$Cas, but they still have to deal with all the plots that happen in this season: the angels, Metatron, Crowley and Abaddon (also Kevin stays alive in my fic). I really hope I could finish it one day though.

16. What are your writing strengths? Hard one. I'd say inspiration. Sometimes it comes to me without me controlling the thing actually. I also like to think I write them true to themselves in canon, well at least I try.

17. What are your writing weaknesses? I have a lot. Like I said before, I'm really new to writing. But I'd say writing the general atmosphere, the vibes. Sometimes I read fanfic and I want to write as good as those writers. I guess it takes time to improve.

18. Thoughts on writing dialogue in another language in fic? Why not, I'm not against it.

19. First fandom you wrote for? No news here either. It's Supernatural.

20. Favorite fic you’ve written? Hard one again. I'd say Light touches, because that one just came to me as I saw the gif. I feels like I didn't write it, my hands did. That feeling was amazing. Plus it's soft and I love softness.

I loved answering this, though nobody tagged me. I'm an independent woman after all, so I took the liberty to do it, just because I wanted to. Now, let's tag:

@piscesapplelady35 @sasanka-27 hard to find writers among my mutuals but feel free to participate like I did. Also I'm trying something here, @xylodemon you are my favorite writer, I'd love to know your answers about those questions. Plus, when I answered question 17 I was referring to your writing.

Tagged by @mercurialkitty. Thanks! This was fun :-)

20 Questions for Writers

1. How many works do you have on AO3? 59

2. What's your total AO3 word count? 645,479

3. What fandoms do you write for? Just Supernatural. I have the brainworms and they are in the shape of Thee One and Only Castiel.

4. What are your top 5 fics by kudos?

stay, In Just Saying It, Non Solum, Still Waters Run Deep, Sleeping Together

5. Do you respond to comments? Most of them. I do get kind of overwhelmed (with love and joy) if someone comments on all the chapters as they read, so I'll often reply to their final comment. And if the comments are rude, I ignore them (doesn't happen often, but it has).

6. What is the fic you wrote with the angstiest ending? Thee fic that started it all: Empty Spaces. A bold choice for my first posting, lol. At least I wrote a sequel? :-P

7. What’s the fic you wrote with the happiest ending? Probably Something Blue. I wrapped that up with a bow. As a commenter wrote, "Holy happy ending, Batman!!!!!"

8. Do you get hate on fics? Mmmmm, not sure I'd call it hate but I did have a commenter who wasn't happy with the direction The Angel went in. Thankfully, they figured out the fic wasn't to their tastes and decided to leave halfway through.

9. Do you write smut? If so, what kind? Yeah. It's fun to write but, whew, very difficult to edit, lol. As for what kind... somewhat-idealized- romantic-everyone-has-a-good-time-and-feels-their-feelings kind of smut, I think. Most of the time... Murder the World was a lot more angsty.

10. Do you write crossovers? Nah. I don't really have the fic bug for other fandoms.

11. Have you ever had a fic stolen? Not that I'm aware of.

12. Have you ever had a fic translated? Yup! A couple in Russian and one in Chinese.

13. Have you ever co-written a fic before? No. I don't know if I'd be able to. I don't think I'd be a very good partner :-P. I don't even like a beta to look at my stuff 'till the draft is done and I read it though a couple times.

14. What’s your all time favorite ship? It's the DeanCas of it all.

15. What’s a WIP you want to finish but doubt you ever will? The Path of the Righteous Man (my reverse verse fic) is like, my white whale. I keep going back to it and never adding a single word. The block is strong on that one.

16. What are your writing strengths? Introspection and action. Both are sooooo fun.

17. What are your writing weaknesses? Dialogue. UGH. Dialogue. How do people talk? Hell if I know.

18. Thoughts on writing dialogue in another language in fic? Sure. My monolingual ass won't, though.

19. First fandom you wrote for? Posted? SPN. Written on loose leaf paper as a tiny child, which has been lost to the ages (thank goodness)? Final Fantasy VII.

20. Favorite fic you’ve written? This is a mean, mean question. I cannot chose one! I cannot! So have a selection (answer subject to change in 30 seconds):

stay for being my fix it that allowed me to continue enjoying the show after that fiasco of an ending.

The Angel for being the fantasy epic I always wanted to write.

insi(de an)d outside for being some of my strongest writing.

Still Waters Run Deep for being my first bang and also because I have prints of the art reafre made and that still blows my mind.

Something Blue because it took me on a very personal journey (and also I just posted it so it's fresh in my mind).

I *could* probably post most of my fic, honesty. I like my stuff. I wrote them for me, after all.

Tagging: @angelcasendgame @hornystiel @wormstacheangel @bloodydeanwinchester if you so chose to participate!

[mishacollinsthighsss]

"Sam, what do you want?"

Cas stared at Sam, unsure why the younger brother wanted to talk to him so badly, but now seemed to struggle to get a single word out.

"Listen man, there's- there's things you should know about. It's about..."

Sam trailed of with a sigh and sat down in one of the chairs in the library, so Cas did the same.

"About what?"

He got more and more confused by the second, but he could sense that Sam was really nervous, almost scared, so he tried not to be too impatient.

"It's about Dean."

"What about Dean? Is he- did he get in trouble again when I was gone?"

Sam sighed again, even deeper this time, but shook his head.

"No, that's not- have you noticed anything different about him since you're back?"

Cas furrowed his brows and lowered his gaze to the table, trying to think of anything, but there was nothing, at least not something he'd noticed.

"No, not really. Well, he eats even more, but other than that-"

"Yeah, he eats more because he was starving the last few weeks?"

"Starving?"

Cas tried to keep up with Sam, but it got harder and harder.

"Yeah. He- you know how he is, when someone dies, he always blames himself-"

"It's not his fault. I told you to go, both of you. I thought I could handle it."

"I know Cas, but that's not the point."

Sam brushed his hair behind his ear, and just then Cas noticed that he was shaking a little.

"What is it, then?"

"If you'd stop to interrupt me-"

"If you'd just say what you want to say-"

"Okay, okay, stop. This isn't going anywhere that way."

Cas looked up again, his eyebrows still knitted together, but as soon as his eyes met Sam's, he could see the worry in them, so he closed his mouth and made a gesture for Sam to continue.

"Listen, this wasn't the first time. I mean, it was the first time it was that bad, but... whenever you die, Dean's- he's different. He doesn't eat, drinks whenever he can get his hands on some booze, he doesn't sleep, has nightmares. He's a mess without you, dude."

That definitely wasn't what Cas was expecting, and even though it was good to hear that he was important to Dean, his heart felt heavy because Dean suffered because of him.

"That's normal when you're grieving Sam, you should-"

"No, no its not. Not like that. When- when Charlie died, or Kevin, or even dad... it's different with you."

"Oh."

"Yeah."

Sam took another deep breath, before he locked eyes with Cas, a determined expression on his face.

"Do you love him?"

Cas was taken aback for a second, because of everything Sam could've asked, he definitely wasn't expecting that.

"Of course, you know I love you both-"

"No. No, no, not like that. Are you- are you in love with Dean?"

Cas sucked in a sharp breath, his heart racing. He knew that Sam asked because he didn't know, how could he, Cas tried to hide it as good as he could. He thought about lying for a second, but why should he?

"Yes."

His voice was quiet, almost a whisper, and he couldn't hold Sam's gaze anymore. His eyes fell closed and he had to lower his head once again, because he could feel his cheeks burning.

"Good."

"Good?"

"Yeah."

When Cas looked up again, a small smile appeared on his lips, but the angel couldn't quite figure out what was going on inside the younger brother's head.

"Why?" he asked after a long moment of silence, afraid of the answer, but he was too curious not to ask.

"Because I- I think he loves you too."

Even though his grace was protecting the vessel, Cas could've sworn that in this moment, he was close to a heart attack, but he quickly shook his head.

"No, that's not- he... he doesn't like men, Sam. It's normal that he's grieving me, he said it a few times, I'm like a brother to him-"

"Oh, and you believe everything that comes out of his mouth without any doubt?"

Sam raised an eyebrow, challenging, and Cas quickly shook his head.

"No, of course not, but he- he made it clear that he isn't interested in me that way."

"Goddamnit Cas, do you have any idea what I have to deal with when you're gone?"

"No, I don't know if you've noticed, but I was dead."

The angel's voice was quiet, but he couldn't stop it from shaking completely, so he hoped Sam didn't hear it.

"He's- he's not Dean anymore when you're gone, man. He's just- just an empty shell. God he- he wanted to die, Cas. You've seen him grieving, and when you're gone- that's a whole new level."

Sam looked stressed now, almost desperate, but Cas didn't allow himself to think about it, not even for a second, so he just shook his head stubbornly.

"You two are fucking killing me! Just go and kiss Dean and you'll see."

"Wait- what?"

Both their heads snapped around when all of a sudden, Dean appeared in the library, still wearing his pajama, a cup of fresh coffee in his hand.

"You heard that right, could you two just kiss? Do you have any fucking idea how frustrating it is to see you dance around each other, both of you obviously totally smitten, but neither of you has the balls to make a fucking move?"

Cas stared at Sam with wide eyes as he stood up and stomped out of the room, leaving Dean and Cas alone there.

"You uh- is he- I mean does he-"

"Yes. I'm sorry Dean, I know you don't feel that way and it was inappropriate for Sam to-"

"So you- you love me. Like... in love with me? The whole chick-flick stuff?"

Dean's voice came closer, but Cas was too afraid to look at him, so he stubbornly stared at the table.

"Uh...y-yes."

The angel could practically feel Dean's eyes on him, so he lifted his hand and rubbed his neck, in an attempt to lessen the feeling, but it just got stronger with every second.

"Huh."

"Huh?"

"Thought angels couldn't feel that way."

"Well, we aren't supposed to."

"But you do?"

"Yes."

"Great."

"What?"

"I said great."

"Oh."

"So... you gonna make a move now, or what?"

Dean's voice was close to Cas' ear now, and when he looked up, there noses were touching all of a sudden. Dean's eyes were shining and even though Cas wanted to bring some space between them, he couldn't stop staring. His heart hammered in his chest by now, and he knew he could use his grace to calm it down, but for some reason, he didn't want to.

"Because, y'know, me too. The same thing, I mean. Me too."

"You- you mean you...?"

"Yeah."

Both of them were just whispering, but they could hear each other perfectly, could feel their breaths on their lips, even. For the first time in his existence, Cas felt like he wasn't able to think, wasn't even able to breathe. He hesitated for another second, but then leaned forward to close the gap between their lips. A quiet whimper escaped him when he felt Dean's lips for the first time, followed by a sigh. He'd kissed people before, but not like that. He'd never felt the way he felt for Dean, which made it so much more special to him.

He could hear a distant noise, but before he was able to pull away, two warm hands were on his cheeks and pulled him even closer. Their kiss was messy, almost clumsy because of Cas' lack of experience, but neither of them broke it. After what felt like hours and no time at all, Cas could feel Dean sitting down on his lap, so he hesitantly wrapped his arms around the other man's waist. Apparently, that was a good move, because he could feel Dean smiling.

Dean was sighing quietly too now, so Cas used the chance to deepen it even more. His hands were shaking and he could actually feel his blood rushing through his veins, which made him chuckle just a little.

They didn't know how long they were sitting there like that, just kissing and touching each other, when suddenly, Sam cleared his throat from the other end of the room.

"You guys done soon? Because I found a case."

Dean was the one who pulled away first, a smile on his lips and his eyes shining with happiness, something Cas could stare at forever. His cheeks were flushed and the angel knew that he probably looked exactly the same, but he still turned his head to look at Sam, who was trying to hide a grin.

"If you ever do something like that again Sammy, I'm gonna kill you myself. And I'll make sure that you'll stay dead."

Dean's words were harsh, but there was no heat behind them. Cas tightened his grip around Dean's waist and buried his face at his neck, not ready to let go yet, which made the other man laugh quietly.

"Noted. Anyway, there's this case..."

*****

So, it's 3 in the morning, it's still 26° Celsius outside and I already forgot half of what I wrote. I'm also too exhausted to read over it now, so if there are any mistakes, my apologies 😅

Also I didn't make a tag list now, but I'm gonna tag the people who asked anyway. If you want to get tagged too in future fics, please let me know, and also let me know if you wanna get tagged for destiel, cockles, or both 😊

💙💙💙

@green-blue-heller @sam--ships--it

[venhedish]

In light of a certain wincest-adjacent blocklist making the rounds and some friends of mine getting smacked with the purity hammer, I have things to say for anyone who would like to listen!

In my experience, antis are more concerned with the rush they get from being angry and feeling morally superior than they are with actually engaging critically with us, the text, or themselves to understand why they feel the way they feel.

This is not actually about the incest thing and it never has been. Incest in the SPN fandom is being used as a dog-whistle to draw a dividing line between us and them, and it’s that shitty black-and-white thinking that tons of young people are falling victim to because it’s wrapped up with a bow that presents a neat little package: incest bad. We can all agree on that, can’t we? But what’s so insidious is that this new-Victorian purity movement is only cloaked in a signifier of moral purity. What it actually is is a giant, authoritarian flag waving in the air, inviting the anti-intellectual to join together behind a concept that sounds righteous on the surface but is actually being used to bully, harass, and harm people who are often already marginalized out of their own communities.

One thing to look out for in particular that absolutely fascinates me is the way language is used as an exclusionary, self-selective force that reinforces these boundaries. Go to any one of the big heller/anti-wincest blogs and look at the way they talk to each other. To be clear, almost all groups will eventually start developing a shorthand that makes them easily identifiable to each other, but sometimes I’ll check out that side of tumblr and legitimately feel like we’re speaking two different languages.

This is a really common thing that happens with political and religious movements and it’s happening here for similar reasons! If you’re on the fringes of fandom and you like destiel and you join tumblr or twitter or wherever these communities are active and you do a search for your ship, you’ll find some blogs that seem really cool and have interesting stuff to say, but they’re full of in-jokes and weird terms and meme language. And because you want to fit in—to understand the community you’re joining—you dive deeper, you search back through history and pick up pieces here and there until you finally get it. And by that point, you’ve basically indoctrinated yourself. You’re doing their work for them, essentially.

This kind of thing is done on purpose for two reasons: it helps to signify that people using this language have passed a litmus test that proves this person is one of us, and it makes it harder for the outsider to engage with you on even footing. I mean, this sounds fucking ridiculous, but how the fuck is an intellectually honest person supposed to engage critically with someone who attacks them by calling them J*red-kin??? (I just made that up but I can 100% imagine a heller using it as an insult). I’m not saying this is done on purpose in the SPN fandom. I mean, maybe a little by people who are shit-stirring on purpose, but this kind of thing just happens and it’s very hard to catch on to. We’re all guilty of it. Language is crazy flexible and always shifting and we flex and shift with it as popular phrases come and go.

Look, all I’m saying is that if you actually think about the response to wincest from the heller community, you realize how flimsy their platform really is. Reading and writing about fictional brothers fictionally fucking each other harms no one, and anyone with a brain who actually cares knows this! That’s why the anti-wincest crowd isn’t citing articles or research about the dangers of portraying incest in fiction – because they don’t exist! We can, of course, talk about the impact that uneven power dynamics in real life incestuous relationships have on victims of such abuse, how most people who are sexually abused are abused by a family member, how to be aware of grooming techniques and watch out for red flags that point towards abusive behavior. But we don’t! Because that’s 👏 not 👏 what 👏 it’s 👏 about 👏

Instead, it’s just an overflowing bandwagon jammed full of empty ideas and a lot of people getting hurt because of it. Innocent – let me say it again: INNOCENT people who are exploring sexuality, trauma, relationship dynamics, and just plain old having a good time minding their own business in an ethically safe and victimless way are being threatened and harassed and told to die. Wonder which one is actually more damaging and morally bankrupt. 🤔

Anyway, imagine a world where the purity police got their way. There’d basically be no safe literature left. Nabokov? Cancelled. Rushdie? Salinger? Ginsberg? All cancelled. Imagine antis whole-cloth discarding hundreds of years of religious tradition because of all the shit the gods got up to! This is the same line of thinking that made a generation of moms believe that violent video games led to real-world violence. Fiction has never, ever, been meant to only tell pure stories. The whole world of literature would be narrowed down to, like, a couple cautionary tales and picture books if anti culture could somehow actually reach the inevitable praxis of its desire. 

Taboos have always been sexy. It’s okay to explore them through the medium of fiction. It’s literally the safest, most ethically responsible thing you can do. Please, please don’t let a functionally illiterate hive-mind convince you otherwise!

For an amazing resource to learn more about anti culture and how troubling it is, check out @freedom-of-fanfic. It’s an awesome blog to browse if you’re even a tiny bit interested in this kind of thing!

[dotthings]

The real conspiracy here is how tumblr fandom could watch as spn pulls off what other popular slash ships didn’t, and still concludes that Destiel shippers are conspiracy theorists, after we already were extrapolating from the source text that Dean and Cas are in love, season after season after season of extensive, rich and complex development of that relationship, on screen, that is objectively more substantive than how much development has been given to other very famous ships (fyi: I ship some of them myself, this is not a knock against those ships, they just work very differently within their respective canons) and subtext that moved into textual content, in plot and dialogue, that became harder and harder to wave down to platonic in intent. Where canon finally grabbed a bullhorn after 12 seasons of subtext turning very slowly increasingly into text and several agonizing seasons of increasingly evident purposeful slow burn, and officially declared Cas is in love with Dean. But then if we notice that Dean’s side of things has already similarly been shown, with ample canon receipts, and have reasonable basis to think maybe we’re getting that loud matching confirmation, we’re still regarded as out of our minds, just a bunch of wild-eyed shippers with our murder walls covered in string. When it’s basic common sense to know how this works in Hollywood, the way media works, the decisions corporations make, where it’s not all up the writers. And the air has been cleared on any doubts as to where the writing team stands--in case anyone still thinks they’re mocking Destiel fans or don’t take the ship seriously, or there was zero intent.

One of the best things about this is that Destiel fandom for the most part no longer has any fucks to give. We’ve gone feral. Yes, we’re a bunch of wild-eyed shippers, the clown noses have fused to our skin, and whatever happens in the series finale, we already know Dean is in love with Cas, we saw how he took those stairs two at a time in 15.19, we already know Cas is in love with Dean, as Cas made one of the 3 greatest ship manifesto speeches I have heard in the past few years. 

I’m just reading some of the discourse on shipper conspiracy theories, and the mistakes of other fandoms shaded onto Destiel, and I’m laughing. We literally had a penultimate episode that was framed to be a false ending and in such a way to potentially package the series with LGBT content scrubbed if needed for some markets (with parts of Cas’s 15.18 speech edited down), while everywhere else gets the full story. It was an ending, even if for many fans it’s ringing false and it isn’t nearly done resolving the emotional arcs and many of us caught onto the metatextual intent. And here we are with the supervillain defeated, but one more episode to go, and tumblr discourse is acting like 15.19 was the series finale of SPN and Destiel shippers are conspiracy-theorizing up an imaginary ep 15.20. Except 15.20 is still to air. 

[colorisbyshe]

Glee is one of those shows that even if you didn't watch it/were part of the fandom it still affected you (negatively) like you said wrt to shit representation and corporate diversity. Only other show I think did something similar would prob be bbc's Sh3rlock? I'm sure it was a thing before, but it def popularised the idea of shipping not just for fun but for a ship to become canon, and it popularised the braindead essays that made a dumb show seem smarter than what it was (also: nbc's Hannibal)

I don't think BBC Sherlock actually had the impact on shipping culture. A lot of concurrent "ships" had extreme conspiratorial tones to them as well.

BBC Sherlock was a symptom, not the disease. Well, it was a disease, too, but I think the culture around it wasn't like... particularly different, at least that the beginning.

And looking at the timeline of when things started to get... batshit (I think around season 3), there were other conspiracies in completely unrelted fandoms going around.

See: the chart that was "gay shit teen fangirls clocked."

Dan and phil, larry, johnlock, destiel... it was all the same time period.

And honestly... it was happening prior to that.

In 2007, I spent like... every day of my 14 year old life going on the romance subforms of the naruto forum on mangafox and i argued, using "evidence" i compiled on how sasunaru could be canon.

Not, "why shipping sasunaru is fun" but like... how sasunaru could win. I had a photobucket of every single sasunaru moment organized in order. I had "evidence" of shounen manga with gay kisses in them to prove that shounen and gayness weren't mutually exclusive. (Mostly, I just pointed to one series existing but looking back it wasn't even gay anad I hadn't even watched it. Actually, I just googled it, it MIGHT hae been gay but also... it was age gap so... that's nice).

The Johnlock Conspiracy did the whole "oh, there's something PROFOUDNLY wrong with you" type of shit harder than most of us ever did. I will confess to that... certainly.

But like... weren't there conspiracies about LOTR aactors being gay lovers back when LOTR movies were being released? Back when the word "tinhat" was used. That's over a decade on whatever the fuck was going on there.

BBC Sherlock brought nothing new to the table, it was part of a larger wave of intentional gaybaiting + gay shaming that was just reacting to social media making it easier for batshit shippers to harass/influence/appeal to content creators. The gaybait + gay shame combo was their way of fucking with the fans.

It was a rancid feedback loop of tinhats want johnlock to be gay --> creators throw in content to make the tinhats more rabid -> tinhats get more rabid -> creators throw in content to mock the tinhats -> tinhats want johnlock to be gay

And so on and so forth