#sorry y'all this is kind of noncon which was NOT the way I imagined it in my head at first

[astermacguffin]

Like. Obviously it's NOT for everyone and I totally get that, but I don't think people should really be throwing big value judgments about a fic AND the people who have read it if you haven't even read the fic yourself. (Yes I'm talking about WU.)

Sorry, I really just don't think the accusations of "romanticization" getting thrown about the fic holds to scrutiny when the fic itself takes its time to demonstrate how damaging the events are to all parties.

I've said this before and I'll say it again: the author even takes time to inform the reader ahead of time that the last chapter would NOT be on Dean & Cas' POV, but from an outside perspective. What that means is that this was a deliberate writer's decision.

The author wanted us NOT to end on the incredibly clouded judgment of our main characters and identify with their emotions/reasoning, but from people who can assess the situation from a distance. (There's also the implicit suggestion there that the reader should take the same emotional distance.)

If the last chapter ended on the main characters' perspective, then I guess it would perfectly read as a "happy ending" (and the accusations of romanticization would hold some weight) but it DIDN'T. Again and again, it reminds us of everything these characters have lost due to the events of the fic. It's a darkfic; it reads as a tragic horror, despite how deceptively hopeful the end was.

More elaborate discussion below the cut. (Spoiler warning for With Understanding. TW: Mentions of kidnapping, dubcon/noncon/rape. None of these tags are explicitly described. Minors DNI. Dead Dove: Do Not Eat)

We'll take on the accusations one by one.

1. "The fact that they still end up together at the end means it's romanticization."

Okay. But is it, really? Like, yeah it totally sucks but is it really a romanticization? Why, because they're happy (or as "happy" as one can be in their circumstances)?

I've already pointed out how the outside POV helps remind us the tragedy & horror of the situation, so let's look at this another way.

In the later parts of the final chapter, Cas' friends and colleagues from the BAU talk about if it's better to imagine Cas happy or not. Let's take this approach and look at the ending. Should we wish that Cas is happy with the person who kidnapped and raped him (by virtue of their unbalanced dynamic that invalidated Cas' verbal consent)?

Cas says it himself that he's happy, or at least, as happy as he can make himself be in his scenario. He's not being held against his will anymore, they're both mentally healthier than before, and their power dynamic is not skewed anymore. Despite everything that he's lost—his job, his brother, his normal life, his future—is it better to imagine him happy with Dean or not? To imagine them as genuinely in love, no matter how fucked up their circumstances are?

On the one hand, you want them to be happy. (Dear lord if they didn't suffer enough already.) But if their happiness is being together, do you even want to give them that happiness? Don't you just wanna keep them oceans apart?

The fic definitely doesn't offer clear-cut answers. In a way, it functions as some kind of thought experiment. You can grapple with that thorny question of happiness versus healthiness for as long as you want, but I think you can confidently say that it's NOT romanticization. The fic does NOT endorse their dynamic; it's a fiction that works as a mental exercise on how people might find happiness even in the most awful of fates given to them.

2. "The fic takes all their suffering lightly."

WU never fails to remind us how much Cas has been dealt with an extremely bad hand. The events of the fic are just cosmically unfair to Dean and Cas (the latter most especially).

That part where Morgan talks about fatherhood is SO painful, because Cas was never given a chance to become a father (which, knowing what we know now, is even more tragic). I believe this fic was written before Jack, but even then, it reminds you of how much Cas has lost because of Dean.

Also like. Literally none of it would've had to happen if the supernatural didn't exist (or at least if it was something that was public knowledge). It's soooo unfair. This pattern even continues even after Cas' escape:

Cas could have lived a happy and healthy life and would have never needed to see Dean ever again if it wasn't for that vampire case. (Even so, he wouldn't have needed to approach Dean specifically if there were more available & capable hunters out there.)

Cas wouldn't have needed to lie to Hotchner if they didn't need to keep the supernatural under wraps.

Cas wouldn't have needed to hide for murdering that witch and saving his friend if the supernatural was something he can report.

The fic is just a series of unfortunate circumstances that keep on pushing Cas to a corner and making him run out of choices.

The ultimate tragedy of this is that this horrible chain of events wouldn't have started in the first place if Dean didn't kidnap Cas. All the later circumstances are mostly out of their control, but it's THIS one that Dean had perfect control over.

Dean's therapist in prison even points this out: if he really just wanted to meet Cas, he could've looked for literally any other method that wouldn't involve him kidnapping Cas. Yes, it sucks that his brother is dead and he's wanted for being a hunter, but he could've acted differently. The moment he prioritized himself over Cas' pain is the moment it all started to go downhill.

The other interesting thing about WU is that it's a scarily functional character study. Like, WU Dean makes decisions that are only a few steps away from things that Canon Dean (especially from later seasons) would totally do as well.

Canon keeps on misdiagnosing Dean for anger issues, which is a symptom but not the root cause of his problems. The way that WU instead touches on his abandonment issues and control issues makes it an eerily convincing extension of Dean's behavior in canon.

3. "This being a soulmate fic adds to the romanticization."

I think the soulmate aspect of the fic actually makes it an excellent deconstruction of the concept, NOT a romanticization of the events of the fic. It prompts a perfectly captivating question for a story: "What if you and your soulmate meet in extremely fucked up circumstances?"

Again, I think the fic is best read as a horror-tragedy, which is why I find this aspect of the soulmate interpretation so compelling. Like, if you get to share an eternity in heaven with your soulmate the moment you meet them, then what happens if your soulmate ends up doing all these fucked up things to you?

Concluding remarks

Overall, this is just a fic. It's a destiel darkfic ffs, why are there people casting some heavy judgement to the people who read it? Can y'all like, take a chill pill. You people haven't even read it yet.