#the main ship is destiel coded

[lesbian4horror]

To Spill the Blood of God

Hallow returns home to Devil’s Trap, after previously escaping a threat on her life, to put a stop to the Prophet.

[katstiel]

After just having finished Teen Wolf for the first time, I can't stop thinking about Sterek. I am just so fucking fascinated by the phenomenon of this ship.

What is fascinating about it, is that there is BARELY any textual support for the ship at all. These two characters pretty much stop interacting after 2 seasons. If I'm being honest, their chemistry isn't even anything that wild. Any overtly shippable moments between the two can be counted on one hand.

What is fascinating, is that I firmly believe this ship exists due to the meta-textual context surrounding the show. Imo there are 2 main parts to this:

1. Sterek is a perfect example of queerbaiting in the original sense of the word. Because despite not having seen the show at the time, I vividly remember the boat video circulating. If you don't know what boat video I am talking about, just search YouTube for 'Sterek boat'. It is probably the most insane marketing stunt I've seen for a show.

And, after looking into it, it seems that the creative forces behind the show actively encouraged fans to ship Sterek through Asks here on Tumblr and other social media posts.

If this marketing hadn't happened, I don't think Sterek would've ever been as big as it became.

2. Derek as a character has no real purpose in the plot of Teen Wolf, except in the 1st and maybe half of the 2nd season. He is there mainly for the gratuitous nudity and objectification. Tyler Hoechlin is shirtless in so many scenes that frankly, it's a little ridiculous. In most other YA shows from the same era, he would occupy the love interest role for the main character... Except, Teen wolf's main character is, unlike most other fantasy/ya shows at the time, a guy. More importantly, the male main character Scott's entire motivation in the first few seasons revolve around his own love interest, Allison. So obviously, Scott isn't available to pair Derek up with. That leaves Stiles. Stiles isn't technically the main character, but he is the closest after Scott.

Stiles is also queer-coded like crazy. I don't know how the fandom reacted to the S3 moment where he talks to a bisexual girl, but if I had been in the fandom at the time, I would have taken it as explicit confirmation that Stiles is bi. There is no other way to interpret that scene, and no other purpose for it to be in the show.

So we have a classic, hot love interest character with no obvious romantic partner, and a queer-coded, almost-main character. The logical result is Sterek.

So like. Without the marketing or the context of similar shows of that time, there really is no reason to ship Sterek other than a vague "their dynamic is fun" that could be equally applied to many other pairings on the show. Which, for the record, is a completely respectable reason to ship something, but it would never have resulted in one of the biggest ships on Ao3 (at one point, it was second to only Destiel) on its own.

I'm not even gonna apologize for how long this post turned out because if I could, I would write an entire academic research paper on how this ship came to be. It is genuinely a fascinating case.

[pigfartsviatardis]

Was discussing queerbaiting recently with a friend because we’re watching Once Upon A Time (trash, but shockingly well written trash in the first 3 seasons) and obs we both ship swan queen. I mean. Come on.

But we noticed that from the start of s3 onwards, there was noticeably less shippy stuff between these two. There’s still a bit here and there because a) lesbian mums and b) chemistryyyy… but it felt like the writers were intentionally backing off from that pairing and putting genuine effort into the male love interests for both characters.

You might think that becalming the swan queen ship would have annoyed or disappointed my friend and myself, the shippers. But tbh we both agreed that it was actually nice to see a writing team see a popular queer fandom ship, go ‘oh whoops that’s not endgame’, and actively NOT bait it.

Obviously everyone here is aware of the Golden Age Of Queerbaiting, the late 2000s/early 2010s; even if you’re too young to have actually battled through it, it’s deep tumblr lore. We all know the repeat and egregious offenders from that time - destiel, merthur, johnlock, whatever the main one was on teen wolf - and how gleefully these shows would dangle queer rep in front of our twitching little noses.

Recently, I’ve noticed a more insidious trend: the Male Friendship Scarcity Myth. The most glaring recent examples are nandermo (WWDITS) and jayvik (arcane), both of which were popular ships after the first season(s) of their shows aired and were subsequently given increased screen time and shippy scenes/storylines. In the case of nandermo, the romantic feelings (at least from Guillermo) were textual. Both pairings were given ambiguous endings where they were together, but not confirmed as, yknow, together.

And then both showrunners, after the shows ended, decided to step up to the mic and give a heartfelt little speech along the lines of ‘men are allowed to be friends without it being sexual, and it’s actually really important that we show this, because we need more representation of close platonic brotherly male friendship in media’.

Anyone who was around during the aforementioned Golden Age Of Queerbaiting, or in fact anyone who consumes popular media at all, knows that this is horseshit.

It’s only ever close platonic brotherly male friendship. Or at least, 95% of the time. Everywhere you look, from major fandom shows to mcu movies, platonic male relationships are often front and centre. That’s nearly always the canon. How often does a major mlm ship actually go canon??? Hardly ever. Even destiel didn’t; cas’s feelings were confirmed last minute, but the official canon dynamic between him and dean is still brotherly bffs.

Are these friendships often the subject of intense fandom shipping? Yes, as literally any close relationship between any two characters of any gender always will be. People like shipping! But the official canon, and the gospel truth held up by poorly disguised homophobes in fandom, is nearly always strictly platonic bros.

Anyway. All this to say, I’ve been disillusioned recently seeing this myth pop up in every comments section on any jayvik-related content, that we have a lack of male friendship in media (we don’t, we have a lack of male friendship that isn’t queer coded to super turbo gay hell and back in media). I was even more disillusioned seeing the exact same rhetoric being spewed by those involved with WWDITS, which is ironically a show jam packed full of close male friendships THAT INVOLVE CASUAL SEX. The call was truly coming from inside the coffin on that one.

So, unexpectedly and somewhat depressingly, swan queen and OUAT have been a balm for the soul in the midst of all this. No queerbaiting (at least not where I’m up to), just good old fashioned straightwashing. At least it’s honest 🤷‍♀️

[aveteranofathousandpsychicwars]

Since (Tiktok is being banned and) we're all gonna die anyway, I have one more secret I'd (like to jump into tumblr with) share with you (in the hopes that I find like-minded individuals)

I don't understand people who think Buddie is ever going canon.

I understand why people ship them. I understand why people thought there was a chance. I acknowledge they could work as a really epic slow burn romance.

They're not going canon.

It's not even because of Tommy and Tevan. I'll be happy to argue with anyone about Tevan.

Buddie is still not going canon.

Are they the majority of the shippers in the online fandom? Absolutely. Most popular ship, hands down. Over thirty thousand fanworks on AO3 alone, something like a hundred thousand followers in the tag on Tumblr, they're a shipping juggernaut. But what people fail to understand is that online fandom is always, ALWAYS a minority of the audience. The average viewer is not making tumblr posts and writing fics and drawing art of their favorite TV show. It doesn't matter how much of a majority of the fandom Buddie has, it's a minority of the audience. We saw this EXACT. SAME. EFFECT. in the recent election. Democrats created a giant echo chamber that made a lot of us very, very confident, but we did not have the majority of the audience.

A hundred thousand followers of the Buddie tag on Tumblr. However many hundred thousand tweets on Twitter (I refuse to call it X and I refuse to get on it). Thirty thousand works on AO3.

6-8 MILLION people regularly tune into 911. I guarantee you, most of them do not know what shipping is, and even if they do, Buddie has not been presented as a potential romance for either Buck or Eddie. Every moment, every look, every action...joke all you want, there IS a heterosexual explanation. "You two have a beautiful son!" Oh my God, meant to be!

The majority of the audience was laughing at the joke of two dudes being assumed a couple and Buck's discombobulation.

The shooting (honestly, the only part where I think they MIGHT have done it). A gorgeous romantic scene where they finally realized how much they stood to lose. Most of the audience was sympathizing with Buck having to watch his best friend go down in the street. Military people were probably having band of brothers thoughts.

Because, Evan. THE definitive Buddie moment. At best, most of the audience was thinking how beautiful it was that Eddie considers Buck family.

Buddie is not going canon, and it's weird that you get so vicious over it to other fans instead of yelling at the show to stop ship baiting for views. Cause that's what they're doing. Marketing, media, social posts, interviews. It all reads the exact same as it ALWAYS does when a show wants the engagement and the clicks but doesn't want to piss off the general audience. You saw it with Destiel, you saw it with Sterek, you saw it with McDanno.

ABC cares about diversity and storytelling only insofar as it will make them money and I guaran-damn-tee you Disney is not going to let them give Eddie a coming out arc along with Buck. It was a HUGE risk for them to do it with Buck (speaking strictly from a business perspective...obviously I think there should be more queer characters on TV) and it only worked because Buck was always at least a little queer-coded.

I am not shitting on gay!Eddie headcanons or the ship itself. But the NASTINESS that has perpetuated itself in regards to Buddie is gross and tiresome. It's not going canon and honestly in the political climate that's about to engulf the US even further I'd be surprised if they ever let Buck seriously date a man again, let alone Eddie.

There was a really lovely mlm ship with a main character and people shit on it so hard that it has a real chance of making them think twice about ever giving Buck a male love interest again.

So congrats, I guess? Still never going canon.

[sky-is-the-limit]

I saw that someone broke the bucktommy situation down in spn terms and I want to expand on that a bit further so that hopefully you can understand how deeply frustrating this whole situation is for buddie shippers.

So not just did a third of the destiel girls jump ship, they immediately started actively hating and destiel and calling anyone who is still a destiel girlie delusional and denying any possibility that castiel is anything other than straight, and like a third of your favorite destiel blogs and fic writers just completely abanonded destiel and completely rebranded for this new ship and started writing only for them. like some of the most passionate destiel shippers immediately left simply because they got dean being bisexual and that's enough for them and they never actually cared about destiel or how queer coded castiel is, they just wanted to see dean kiss a man and as long as dean stays with this new man they are 100% certain to have that. so they cling to this nothing ship with this bland ass character and come at destiel shippers for actually wanting a ship with substance and history between characters who actually have chemistry. and now that the destiel shippers are pointing out hints that point towards castiel being gay and destiel being endgame the new shippers are completely denying any possibility of it and are proving that they never gave a shit about castiel as a character or his struggle as a clearly gay man. they just wanted dean to be bi and kiss a man.

oh and also a bunch of new people joined the fandom after bi dean became canon and they simply don't watch any of the previous seasons because they don't actually care about the show, and then they start speaking about dean and cas as characters as if they know them at all when they have clearly never seen most of the show.

like i cannot express enough how nothing of a ship bucktommy is. almost everything about them is either made up by tommy's actor in paid cameos, or just fanon. they had very few scenes this season, only had two very uninteresting kisses, their chemistry is just really lacking and the vibe is kind of off. and i'm not saying that you can't like a ship that is mostly fanon, i know people base ships off less than this and i genuinely don't care, but it's weird to then completely discount a ship that has been brewing for 6 seasons and pretend that the people who have been following that ship for years are just crazy.

The more yall explain it in spn terms, the more I get sucked into it and I'm not complaining.

Yeah, I understand the frustration because I know I wouldn't even be able to handle Dean, towards the end of spn, dating anyone other than Cas, especially after all they've been through.

But making people feel crazy for it, especially when one is canonically bi, is insane.

What I said on that as an outsider, is that it'd be cool for once to watch the writers/producers take the most loved/popular ship between two queer*coded characters and make it canon.

The dynamics are also different when it comes to a new character being introduced as a love interest and a main character that a large part of the fandom ships with the other main character.

Now I don't know much about Bucktommy as a ship as I've only watched their kiss scene but I understand the frustration of Buddie stans.

I'd lose my fucking marbles if Dean came out towards the end, only to end up with a newly introduced character and not Cas 😭 and as a Cas girl having to watch people shit on him and Destiel just because Dean came out, nah. People would riot outside the CW offices.

Anyway, I'll keep watching the random s6 episodes they show on tv and hopefully that will make me watch the entire thing!!

Yall are making me want to read Buddie fics, stop it before I open a new ao3 tab

[lordstormageddidnt]

Alfie's End of Year Rec List 2024

Out of 635,637 total words and 185 total works, this year, I wrote a whole 188k and 44 fics. I wrote for 9 different ships, including one that I did not think I would ever write until literally this month.

So, in order to celebrate that, I figured I would share my personal top five favorite fics that I wrote this year :)

Yeah you know what you were getting into.

One of the big personal surprises this year was actually how little Taylor Swift there was. Last year's graph showed that 62.2% of the fics published in 2023 had come from Taylor Swift songs, but this year, it was only 45.5%-- less than half. Other notable contributers include myself (18.2%), Orville Peck (13.6%), and German chemist Erich Huckel (2.3%, aka the aromantic Jack fic).

As a result-- and because I was running out of different colors to use on the ship graphs-- we have a new arrival on the album graph :D

This pie chart represents how many fics were pulled from each Taylor Swift album. It also includes other categories such as None (the title was written by me), Non-Album (a Taylor Swift song that doesn't belong to an album), Other (from a song written by a non-Taylor and non-Orville artist), and Other Media (title was taken from a quote in a show or book, etc.). Only about half of Taylor's albums ended up being represented on this graph, but it isn't surprising to me that her most recent album, The Tortured Poets Department (TTPD), contributed such a high percent (18.2%). In fact, it was the only Taylor Swift album that contributed a higher percent than Orville Peck.

Who knows? Maybe he'll take over the graphs completely next year.

This was a big year for crossovers. Of the 4 I've written, 3 of them came from this year. However, for the sake of the ship graphs, only the main ship was counted (i.e. only buddie for the 9-1-1/SPN crossover, only destiel for the SPN/House MD crossover, etc.). Obviously, destiel (Castiel/Dean Winchester from Supernatural) had the large majority of the total number of fics (66.7%) and the total word count (68.6%). This year was my first original ship (Greg/Tim from my SPN/Good Omens crossover), which is shown as a tiny grey sliver lmao. Solangelo was my second most written ship by sheer number, but despite only having published two Superbat fics, they were my third most written for ship (8.1% of my word count).

Here is how many fics I published per month, color-coded by ship. Destiel is in purple, obviously. January was both my most prolific and my most varied month, most likely because I was still posting gift fics from Ficmas 2023. Superbat joined the field literally this week; I posted the second one yesterday so it would qualify lmao. In terms of quantity of fics, I didn't write very many compared to past years (78 fics in 2023 and 58 in 2022), but the fics I did write were longer (~3k words per fic in 2023 vs ~4k words per fic in 2024).

Here is how my posted word count per month, shown in green for 2024, stacks up against past years. I didn't participate in any gift exchanges this year, which explains the lack of a December peak. Otherwise, I was pretty consistent with last year's word count, except for the huge drop in Feb and March. I'm graduating next year, so I will be curious to see how that changes my output.

Thanks for reading & I hope you enjoyed :D Happy New Year!

[sammyluvr]

HEY BABY IM SENDING IN MULTIPLE FOR THE CHARACTER ASK GAME :D

2, 8, 15, 21, and 24 for sammy

4, 12, 18, and 25 for spencer reid! or if not emily prentiss :))

(also fun fact ive never finished criminal minds LOL i got to the point where derek left and i stopped watching it, i should probably finish it though)

ughh i love you so much and i hope you have a good day!!

YAHOOO HEHEHEHE sorry this post is so very long LOL

character ask game !

SAMMY ! 2. favorite canon thing about this character? .... everything maybe ???? omg how do i choose i love everything about him uhhhhh . he's awkward and so so sweet <3 he learned sign language for eileen, he has beautiful hair, he's sassy, he's a gentle giant, he wants so badly to be good but doesn't think he is T_T and on and on and on and on because everything about him is my favorite

8. what's something the fandom does when it comes to this character that you despise? oh my fucking god do NOT get me started LMAO . blaming him for things he didn't do/couldn't control (usually because dean blames him for it). ignoring how queer coded he is / calling him the straightest character (often in a destiel context). just consistently and aggravatingly misinterpreting / misunderstanding his character and hating on him for their bad and unintelligent takes on him! i could go into lots of detail about that but i won't because then this will be a rant post that will make me so angry :D el oh el

15. what's your favorite ship for this character? (doesn't matter if it's canon or not.) i think samjess heh i'm basic but i'm a huge sucker for them. and definitely definitely saileen!

21. if you're a fic writer and have written for this character, what's your favorite thing to do when you're writing for this character? what's something you don't like? hehehe hmmm i don't have a singular favorite thing, but i love making him call reader "honey." i adore giving him softness and care and so much love and a goddamn break! in general i love writing hurt/comfort with him as well <3 and i love describing his emotions and exploring how i interpret his character through that. as for dislikes i'm not too sure hmm

24. What other character from another fandom of yours that reminds you of them? i haven't really watched much since i started spn so i haven't really been watching anything and been like omg! that person reminds me of sam! but i totally see the sam and spence parallels (super smart, autistic coded, younger brother vibes, tall, sweet and awkward etc)!

...

SPENCER & EMILY ! (doing both because i adore em too much not to lol) 4. if you could put this character in any other media, be it a book, a movie, anything, what would you put them in? spence : huh i've never thought of this before uhhh i'd put him in a studio ghibli film! so he can be the sweet main character but end up with a lovely, poetic, simple life instead of being constantly traumatized by one thing or another LOL i just think he'd make the cutest studio ghibli love interest?? emily : anything with lesbians so she can kiss girls :D HAHAHA or i'd put them all in supernatural for a spn x cm crossover !!! i think that would be way too fun ugh. wanna see her as a vampire also.

12. what's a headcanon you have for this character? spence : he dislikes overhead lighting! it's the autism :] emily : she's lesbian but that's canon to me RAHHH um. that she prefers to listen to music in different languages and really likes finding obscure artists! (but still has her favorite emo grunge stuff that she listened to in middle/high school heh)

18. how about a relationship they have in canon with another character that you admire? spence : him and garcia!! i really really really adore their friendship so so very much <3 and him in luke in later seasons! emily : heh. jemily ??? lesbians ??? okay but i really love her and garcia as well i just love penny so so much

25. what was your first impression of this character? how about now?spence : thought he was very very cute and endearing! i still think that way, but i also love having a more informed and nuance view of him after so many seasons and developments to his character. emily : i thought she was really interesting! i was intrigued by her character and the way she was very forward and didn't back down when there was a misunderstanding about her transfer to the unit. love that she stood up for herself! and wow she's so pretty (didn't know i was gay yet) now it's just RAHHH LESBIANISMMM (i adore everything about her character and again, i just love knowing her better and seeing all sides of her)

[snoopy-natural]

snoopy-natural intro post 🤎

she/they •17• main blog is @snoopy-sapphic

hi! this is my supernatural side blog that I use more than my main. I have a long, complex, and strange history with the show and the fandom, but that’s a post for another time! here’s some info about how I may interact with spn tumblr on this account!

•sam-coded! I relate to early seasons sam a whole lot as a queer person and also as the youngest sibling. also a post for another time lmao. s1 sam my beloved <3 (dw I am not a jarpad defender)

•deancas/destiel! I was there on november 5th. it was one of the first queer ships I was exposed to and it’s still so interesting (and devastating) to me.

•tfw girl but I tend to lean towards sam and in the later seasons jack <3 it’s very close tho, they are all very near and dear to me

•I <3 eileen leahy

•spn women in general. sapphicnatural 4ever

•also transnatural! I <3 making every character queer

•I’m not too active on making original posts, I mostly just reblog whatever I want w/ commentary in tags haha. but on rare occasions I’ll shout into the void. also I like to reblog so much art. everyone is so talented!!!! maybe someday I’ll make my own :]

•I try to stay out of discourse bc it’s usually silly but sometimes I give my two cents

•I occasionally ethel cain post on here bc it just feels correct

•I’m having so much fun on the side of spn tumblr I’m on can’t believe I ever left

•also I am SO open to making mutuals+my ask box is always open <333

tags(wip) because this blog is so very unorganized: sapphicnatural (all rbs involving sapphicnatural stuff)

[marikn]

Let’s talk about Byler, shall we?

More specifically, I want to talk about my predictions for s5 based on various tidbits I’ve heard about the duffers and their inspiration, and trends in past media.

This is going to be pretty long but just stick with me, I promise it gets good.

(EDIT) This theory is not a happy one and has been upsetting people.

I talk exclusively about my doubts here. If anyone would like to see it, I can make another post about my byler hopes :)

Anyway can someone tell me how to insert a cut

1. Destiel syndrome

Byler reminds me an awful lot of destiel. I never finished watching supernatural, but I definitely heard about what they did in the finale, and I think it’s likely that byler would end up in a similar situation.

I fear making them obviously canon would result in a lot of controversy. I think it’s much more likely that we’d get a scene similar to destiel’s confession, where the “I love you” can be interpreted a couple different ways. 

Since Mike and Will often speak in a sort of code, I’m willing to bet Will’s confession will be encoded, and therefore entirely implicit (this ensures that the general audience can interpret it as Will talking about platonic or familial love instead), and Mike will be left stunned/speechless/unable to respond in some way before Will leaves, most likely to go straight to his death (like Castiel).

2. I don’t think we are going to get a byler kiss

As much as I would love to see it, I genuinely don’t think it will happen. There are a couple reasons as to why I think this, mainly having to do with the “bury your gays” trope.

I think Stranger Things has too wide of an audience for a kiss to happen, and I think the duffers know this. Typically, explicit romantic interactions in same-sex couples are avoided (unless the intended audience is the lgbtq community) because straight people don’t want to see that. No matter how beautifully a love story might be written, there are people who will claim they forced it for representation, people who will say it ruined the show, and people who will outright cover their eyes in disgust (I’m not exaggerating— I live with people who do this). It’s too much of a risk, especially with how popular the show has gotten.

All in all, there are too many “normal” people who watch st, and an on-screen queer kiss between two main characters would prompt too much backlash.

3. Star Wars parallels

The duffers have said they’ll be drawing inspiration for season 5 from Return of the Jedi. As it is, we can already see some parallels between the Star Wars characters and the stranger things characters (max in a coma/han in carbonite, el lifting nina/Luke lifting the ship). Assuming that Henry/Vecna/001 is meant to be Palpatine, I see two logical options for Darth Vader’s parallel. 

One: Eddie.   This ties into the kas!eddie theory a bit, but Vader’s origin began with Anakin’s defeat. Obi-wan battled Anakin and left him for dead on a remote planet, and he would have died if not for Palpatine and the suit he’d made for him. Palpatine remade Anakin entirely and gave him an all new identity— which could be a possibility between 001 and Eddie, now that we know the numbers have the ability to revive (el reviving max’s body in the finale). 

Two: Will.    This is the more likely option. In Star Wars, Palpatine poisoned Anakin’s mind by using his own fear against him (Anakin was seeing visions of his wife Padme dying, and was desperately searching for a way to save her). Palpatine took Anakin’s weakness and applied the necessary manipulation to mold him into a tool.

Much like Anakin’s “death” at the hands of Obi-wan, we can assume that Will Byers “died” in 1983 when he disappeared. When he came back, his mind was compromised, which allowed the mindflayer to take control of him. Much like Anakin, Will would (in theory) be willing to do whatever it takes to keep his loved ones safe, which will lead to his downfall (villain arc not included).

If they were to parallel Will and Vader like this, they would turn Will onto the path of the tragic hero archetype. At the end of Return of the Jedi, Darth Vader turns on Palpatine in order to save Luke, sacrificing his own life in the process. Remember when I said Will would confess to Mike right before walking into his doom?

4. Every ending has a beginning

Will Byers is going to die.

This show started with Will, and it will end with Will. Most likely, he will sacrifice himself for the sake of his friends and family. Once he does, I can see us getting a shot of Mike holding his body (probably similar to Richie and Eddie from IT) and only then will we get a glimpse of how Mike really feels about Will.

Will’s sacrifice will either destroy Vecna, or give El the upper hand so that she can kill him herself (this is, after all, her unfinished business). However it plays out, I have low expectations of Will actually making it through. The duffers seems to have been foreshadowing this, too.

Will has never had a happy childhood. Even before the Upside Down, he had Lonnie and the bullies weighing him down. He’s been doomed since the start; all throughout the show, he can’t seem to catch a break. He alone is linked to the upside down— to Vecna. We even see the two of them heavily paralleled through Vecna’s backstory (being “sensitive” children, not getting along with other kids, drawing the mindflayer). He’s been put through so much, time and time again, and it all reads very similarly to Harry Potter’s “pig for slaughter” storyline. 

Like Harry with Voldemort, Will was marked and linked to Vencna when he was taken into the upside down. From then on, he’s been able to feel Vecna’s presence in his mind and in Hawkins whenever he’s active, the same way Harry can feel Voldemort’s presence through his scar. They have a permanent connection, whether they like it or not, and the only way to break it is for one of them to die. Obviously, since this is the final season, they will find a way to defeat Vecna. I will not be surprised, however, if that way requires Will to die somehow. 

Only this time, there won’t be a way for him to come back.

(insert genius and well-crafted conclusion here) Basically: it’s not looking good for byler. 

[lol-jackles]

ive been in all sorts of shipping fandoms from sterek to WangXian. And there are always a few persons who think the actors are secretly dating in real life or secretly lgbtq but the delusional hysteria in the destiel/cockles corner takes the cake. I just assumed that the majority of them are young and gullible but damn even back when I was 17 and shipping J2 I didn't actually BELIEVE they were together together. these idiots need to get off the internet for a year or two.

3 ingredients went into Destiel/Cockles' delusional hysteria:

The longevity of the show kept the hope up that this season will be the season their ship will become canon even right up to the finale (because bibros got their finale in 15x19)

During the show's record-breaking longevity Misha was feeding their hope that the ship can and will become canon

Kink shame over their fetish

It's the main reason why they can't stop crying over the finale two years later because they spend over a DECADE emotionally invested, not to mention the ungodly amount of money they spent that most of them couldn't afford to spend because they still need a "win" to show for all their DECADE worth of commitment.

Cockle ship happened because sane Destiel shippers knew they weren’t even getting Destiel subtext on the show (they don’t subscribe to “bi-color secret message bullshit) so they went after Cockles and trying to prove Jensen and Misha are friends/besties/lovers.  Because they noticed that non-shippers were siding with Wincest shippers because Jared and Jensen have a weird close friendship in real life.   That’s why they are so desperate to somehow prove Jensen/Misha’s friendship is real or even are secret lovers because then they can say they see Destiel because of their friendship/lovers, not because of the show that doesn’t give them text or subtext for their fetish ship.

From there Cockle tinhatters produced conspiracies like Catholic rabbits.  Here, let me show you how the Cockle tinhatters’ mind operates:

-For the one hour that Jensen was talking about Jared he was really talking about Misha because he looked down for 5 seconds and that is code for Misha because he has 5 letters in his name.

-Jensen uprooted and dragged his family halfway across the country to live less than a mile from Jared because he’s totally in love with Misha but instead he’s going to stalk Jared to cover up his feelings.

-Whenever Misha looks tired (which, to be honest is all the time), it means he’s missing Jensen.  When ever Misha strokes Jared’s hair (which, to be honest we all want to do), it means he’s thinking of Jensen.    

-A bug landed on Misha.  The bug was identified as Delusionex Hilarius and has blue and green stripes. Obvious case of color coding for Cockles.

[happyduckierevived]

*laughter and shuffling stack of imaginary papers that make up an imaginary essay concerning this subject

Yes, and no. Here is why:

Supernatural is very long. It ran from 2005��2020. The style, fashion, and writing of the earlier-mid seasons are definitely 2000s/early 2010s. So it can be dated or nostalgic depending on how you look at it.

Supernatural is tv. It’s not a film, it’s not a contained limited series story. It is an ongoing thing that has lots of filler episodes (season 7 is kind of joked about as the filler season), different arcs, character development and un—development (for plot reasons), characters that come and go, etc. If you’re looking for a linear story with a satisfying beginning middle and end with little to no filler, Supernatural is not that. It’s got a sort of monster of the week structure that leads into a larger plot, but as the show progresses, the monster of the week and larger plot intersect less and less/often not at all. It’s a fun show, but it is not a full on epic. If you’re fine with that, and can accept that’s it’s a soap opera-esque show but with monsters—you’ll probably like watching most of Supernatural. (Watching a few seasons to finish with a good ending is also great way to enjoy the show.)

How women are written. It gets better in later seasons, but in the beginning it is a lot of one-episode female characters who are objectified and/or fit into tropes. It just feels weird. It’s not appalling or cancelable, considering the time. I don’t exactly remember the earlier parts of Supernatural where this was the most present—so forgive me if my language is wrong or if I am making over generalizations over a few scenes with multiple seasons. I am going off of memory for this, and Supernatural is long. Okay, back to the subject….Not all of the women on Supernatural are written poorly, and there are great characters that are female. A few 1 or 2 episode characters, a few characters who are temporarily in the main group, awesome side characters, a villain or two, etc.

4. The fandom is…interesting. The lines between actors and characters is blurred for some, and this leads to some very choice works. (Not trying to shame anyone—but personally, I can’t unsee some of these things and I really do not agree with them)

Okay partial Spoilers Beyond This Point—they aren’t plot specific, but if you wanted to go into Supernatural completely blind, this is your chance to go do that.

5. Destiel- In season 4, a character named Castiel appears. Yada, yada, yada, the rest of the show, yada, yada, subtle/not so subtle queerness, yada, yada, yada, him and one of the main characters are both queer coded. Based off different factors, it seems that the two characters share romantic feelings for each other. Then, in season 15, we get to that meme where it’s a guy saying “I love you” and then another guy staring at him with text inserted that informs people on tumblr about local events/news. That’s between Castiel and Dean, aka Destiel. Now, what’s important to understand is that Dean does not say it back to Castiel. He says “don’t do this” because Castiel is going to go sacrifice himself to save someone/something/the world, idk, etc. After this confession Castile dies, we never get verbal confirmation that Dean reciprocated those feelings and loved him back (I think. I haven’t gotten here in the show yet but I’m 99.99% sure). Nor do we ever get a kiss or any explicitly romantic things or statements within the show to tell us that they are gay for each other. Now I’m sure you’re wondering why this one queer-bating ship matters, but stay with me here. Destiel is a big part of this fandom. There’s all sorts of things about the Spanish dub (where Dean says I love you back to Cas before sacrifices himself—it was in the script), the actors of Dean and Cas and how they feel about Destiel, the actor for Dean not feeling like “I love you” was the best line for his character to say in that situation, people shipping the actors and characters as one (which is weird because the actors both have wives and children, I’m pretty sure), and probably more. But there are also people who just like this ship and are normal about it. Generally though, it’s a pretty messy part of the fandom. Some people hate Destiel with a burning passion, some people have lives, some people like it or love it as a ship, and others…go off the deep end.

6. Death. I’ll keep this final one short and sweet. Main characters (and sometimes others) die and come back to life all the time in Supernatural. It is joked about in the show, in the fandom, and who knows where else. Death sometimes is a one time thing, but for the main two characters (Dean and Sam—who you meet on the first episode) death is more of a temporary annoyance than an extremely serious, high buildup affair (of course there are exceptions to this, but the amount of time people die and come back in Supernatural is truly not something to be underestimated).

And that’s all I can think of. I personally like Supernatural and Destiel, so that is my bias. I think Supernatural can be something good to have on in the background, watch with a friend, or binge (it has its moments). There’s definitely some weird stuff in and around the show—but I would say most of it is pretty avoidable. There is also a huge fandom full of really talented people who make great art, fan fiction, point out beautiful shots from the show, and more.

Hope this helped!

feel like this is a good question to ask tumblr

but uhhh

is supernatural any good?

[casgirl]

god like. we’re never gonna get another gay character like cas ever again and we’re never gonna get a gay love story like destiel ever again. like queerbaiting isnt what it used to be and now it means like movies promising a gay character then it being some random background guy, like its not creating homoerotic moments and gay coding main characters who like HAVE nuance and ARE interesting. like even big ships today don’t pack nearly as big of a punch as like what everyone was doing in like 2008-2014. queerbait is a dying art.

[hellolimitless]

Why queerbaiting is happening in tv show

The term Queerbaiting blew up since the last decade. It’s replacing coded representation from the 20th century which was when laws were prohibiting lgbtq representation and productions could only gives hint at a potential same sex relationship. There are multiple definitions of queerbaiting but what I am talking about here is showing sexual ambiguity between two characters whether it’s flirting, some sort of attraction or other people mistaken them as a couple and never denied by the pairing but the couple never came to fruition. It’s not the same as shipping a non-canon pairing as basically every character can be shippable with other characters even with the ones they barely interacted with. It’s really the consistent interaction that look similar to how characters behave when they are attracted to someone.

Reason 1 : have the cake and eat it too

I also call it the Albus Dumbledore method which is basically trying to please lgbtq people and straight ally by giving something queer but not showing anything because of the risk of losing a conservative audience or receive backlash. One exemple we can give is with the character Dumbledore on the Harry Potter saga where nothing about his sexuality was hinted neither on the movies or the books and it’s the author that revealed it to fans after the last book was published in 2007. People let it pass for the Harry Potter saga as it was a different time but it received criticism when the crimes of Grindelwald showed only a former platonic relationship between Grindelwald and Dumbledore when the author during the press tour described their relationship as «  a passionate love affair ».

Reason 2 : Queer characters can never be the leads

Most of the pairing known for its queerbaiting are the leads of their respective show (Destiel, Sherlock and Watson, Merlin and Arthur and many more). When we look at all the canon gay couple, they are either recurring characters or main characters part of an ensemble full of straight. Unless the movie or the show is about the coming out story and center around the lgbtq experience (Love Simon/Victor, Pose, Alex Strangelove), the queer characters will always only be the sidekick on the side and the spotlight will be on the straight characters/couple. Of course they are some exceptions where the main is queer and the plot of the show has nothing to do with their sexuality (the politician and the magician) the problem is those shows are not mainstream as they are either on a small cable channel or not popular with the general public which can be the reason why they were able to put the main character as queer as they have a lesser reach to the audience.

Reason 3 : the refusal of the show/actors

The persistence of the fans always reach the ears of the showrunners/producers/actors and it always end in denial, saying how they never meant to hint at anything romantic and the pairing are going to stay platonic. It’s definitely a refusal from them to canonised the convoited pairing as ton of straight couple got put together when it was not in the plan but just fans liking the ship is enough to make them canon. Even Joey and Rachel of Friends got a storyline at the end of the show and they make little to no sense. It can be the higher up refusing because they already have enough lgbtq representation (and we all know that they have a certain limit while straight are unlimited) or the fear of losing viewers by introducing a new gay storyline. But something never talked about it’s the actors refusing to be paired in a gay relationship, we know from other actors playing queer roles that during the casting search the roles are detailed, the actors have to know it’s a gay character and have no problem with same sex intimacy. While fans demand might sometimes be approved by the creators, the actors has to accept the new relationship when they signed for a straight role and unfortunately there are still a lot of actors not wanting to play a gay role. My personal opinion but I suspect it’s what happened for Destiel and Buddy, the showrunners of supernatural literally said they took months to talk to Jensen ackles about the confession scene because they feared his reaction and said the scene could only go on if he gave his consent and nothing happened in this scene beside a man crying about an unrequited love and dying the next second. For buddy, we all know 9-1-1 is an lgbtq friendly show with multiple queer characters so yes it can be because there are enough lgbtq representation for them,like I said, but I think it’s coming from the actors and now that they are estranged to each other’s, it’s never going to happen.

But now let’s look like at what happen when a straight character become queer or a pairing shipped by fans become canon :

Eve and villanelle (killing Eve)

Actually they got criticised and accused of queerbaiting for the portrayal of the relationship during the two first seasons. But in season 3, they decided to make them kiss and the kiss got well received which show once again that there is nothing risky with having two leads being queer.Notice that they are the only couple from an American show in the list.

Christian and Oliver (Verbotene liebe)

The show verbotene liebe is a soap opera from 1995 to 2015. The character Oliver Sabel ( Purple shirt) was introduced in 1999 and left in 2002 and then came back in 2007. The character Christian Mann came in 2006 and was established as straight only paired with women while Oliver was Bi but more attracted to men. When Oliver came back, the head writer decided to pair the two together and this storyline proved to be a gold mine for the show as they received a huge international following with their cut on YouTube having millions of views and are considered a supercouple.

Aris and Temo ( El corazon nunca se equivoca/ Mi marido tiene mas familia)

The character Aris (middle) appeared in Mi marido tiene familia as a straight character and Temo (left) character came in the second season called Mi marido tiene mas familia, Temo was written as gay since his introduction but he was meant to be paired with Diego (right). The fans liked Aris and Temo better together as Temo had a crush on Aris that the pairing changed and what did they got : an extreme international attention, got noticed by Ricky Martin, became the first ever gay couple to have a telenovela, with 2 millions of viewers in average, won awards and had sold out concert.

It was proved multiple times that a gay couple brings attention to the show and not the contrary as certain Hollywood specialist want to make it believe. Shows has absolutely nothing to lose and in contrary, they gain recognition and help thousand of people all around the world with their representation. But unfortunately Queerbaiting do not stop and the disappointment of fans continue to be bigger.

[samisadeangirl]

THIS. If you have to use words like interpret, subtext, coding, off-screen, etc. in your justification, then what you're talking about is a headcanon. There's nothing wrong with that--we all have headcanons about various things--but it doesn't make your opinion a textual part of the show. Canon is purely what happens onscreen, i.e. what the characters actually say or do, and everything else is nothing more than fanon. Which again isn't a bad thing by any means--unless you start to confuse the two.

For example, it's canon that Dean is straight because onscreen he has said multiple times he's interested in women or not interested in men (as have Jensen, Kripke, and other cast/crew) and has only had romantic or sexual interactions with woman. Any "subtext"* or "interpretation" that he's bisexual is purely headcanon because it's not based on what is shown on the screen (and needs to be careful that it's not based on homophobic and toxic masculinity-based stereotypes).

It's also canon that Dean considers Castiel as no more than a friend or adoptive family since onscreen Dean treats Castiel at best no different than his other friends--he's sometimes happy to see Cas but doesn't seek out his company, he doesn't go to extreme measures to save Cas, and he mourns Cas' death(s) briefly before moving on--and at worse is dismissive and annoyed around Cas, insults him, and has no problem abandoning him in dangerous situations (usually to save SAM). Plus it's unavoidably canon that Dean ALWAYS puts Sam first before everyone else, including Castiel. Once again, any "subtext"* or "interpretation" that Dean is attracted to or in love with the angel is purely headcanon because it's not supported by what happens onscreen.

Likewise, it's canon that Castiel loves Dean because he said so onscreen. However, "interpreting" that love as romantic is only a headcanon because his speech in 15.18 Despair only references familial and altruistic love, and his actions onscreen over the course of 12 seasons show that Cas is only attracted to women (when he feels attraction at all) and that his relationship with Dean is at most platonic and is often antagonistic--Cas too only seeks Dean out when one of them needs help and is often impatient and annoyed with him, and he's repeatedly lied to, gas-lit, threatened, abandoned, assaulted, and betrayed Dean.

Like what OP wrote above, this is not meant to say that you shouldn't ship Destiel or depict Dean as bi in fan content (regardless of ship) or whatever else. If interpreting subtext to create these headcanons makes you happy, then you do you, Boo. Just keep in mind that these fantasies are simply that, and don't let yourself get worked up or worse attack other fans, cast, or crew over them.

*Before anyone tries to argue, subtext on TV shows, movies, etc. does NOT work the way certain shippers desperately want it to. Subtext is meant to support the main narrative of the show and is meant to be obvious enough that the general audience can notice and understand. A good example of actual subtext is a flashback to Sam and Dean's childhood that parallels or reveals something about what's happening in the present. However, subtext is NOT meant to tell an entirely separate story from the main narrative or meant be so "subtle" that only a small number of obsessed fans see it. Thus for example, no show ever would present a character as straight in the main narrative but use "subtext" to claim the character is actually queer--once again, that's purely fanon.

Anti-destiel Wank (sorry but I have to)

If you hardcore ship Destiel, please just scroll on by. Please.

Ok, I’m gonna get myself in trouble, I’m sure, but I gotta get this off my chest…

Keep reading

[dotthings]

I’d understand people yelling about “bury your gays” if that happened in the series finale but there are 2 eps left to go on SPN, Cas has already gone to The Empty and come back twice, all the main characters have died and came back multiple times, the author of 15.18 already wrote 2 major parallel precedents of what is Cas’s likely next trajectory is (maybe an overlap of points in Rowena’s arc and Kaia’s both). Cas didn’t go out passively or just to make Dean suffer, he went to The Empty by his own choice, fulfilling his own arc, it wasn’t a stray bullet, and the story isn’t over and his story isn’t over. Until the final credits roll of SPN I think it’s sensible to hold off judging until then. Also people removing 15.18 from all context to hurl vitriol, or concern trolling, some of whom don’t even go here, don’t know the show at all, some of whom are very bitter shippers with a grudge against the show, and some of whom are outright anti-destiel from spn fandom with a years long hate fixation against an LGBT ship that just went out of closet fully confirmed canon after years of subtext and queer coding, need to check themselves. 

[inthememetime]

Do they text? Gandalf + The Company (and bonus Dís & Tauriel)

Thorin: Yes, but only when he's in a happy or normal mood. When upset, he calls or it's complete silence. He prefers texting to calling in general.

Dwalin: No. In fact, every time someone texts him, he just calls them or physically goes out to find them and talk face to face.

Oin: Yes, he does. He didn't when texting first came out, but due to his hearing loss, he finds it really useful.

Gloin: He is in 5 group chats right now, and spamming all of them with pictures of his children's sporting events, family vacations, and baby pictures.

Bifur: Not really. He uses a Nokia flip phone from the 90s. When he does text, he amazes literally everyone by how fast he can do it on that little thing.

Bofur: Yes, but there are so many autocorrect mistakes that nobody can understand him half the time.

Bombur: He thinks texting is too impersonal, and prefers to call or meet face to face. He will happily make an exception for sending pictures of food.

Balin: Yes. Especially when dealing with work, because he's a fan of CYA, and texts are, legally speaking, written and can be used in a court of law. Everyone is always surprised due to his age.

Dori: V e r y s l o w l y. W I t h l o t s o f e r e r s. C a n y o u j u s t c a l l m e ?

Ori: Yes! He loves to text because he's a little quiet and shy over the phone or face to face.

Nori: No, and he doesn't for the same reason Balin does. The only times he texts are answering texts from Ori or when he needs an alibi.

Fíli: All the time. To friends, family, pretty girls, pretty boys, pretty people in general. He's also the main one Thorin calls over to translate Bofur's autocorrects. He also texts people back to back one word by word until they respond if he feels like being a jerk.

Kíli: Yes, and outside of family, it tends to be strange conversations. Fíli is pretty sure dinosaurs are code for something in his and Tauriel's convos, but he is a paleontology major and she's a biology major, so maybe not? And why is he talking about ships and cannons so much? Thorin does not ask him to translate txt spch because once, Kíli told him LOL meant Lots of Love, and then he got a lot of angry calls from relatives when his grandfather finally kicked the bucket passed away.

(Dinosaurs are not code, but ice cream flavors are! He doesn't even eat ice cream, he's lactose intolerant.)

Tauriel: Pretty much exclusively to Dís, Kíli, Fíli, or Legolas. And she is a Forensic Pathology major, thank you very much Fíli! 50% of her convos are school or fic and fanart related with Kíli, the other half is for everyone else. She likes to send him pictures of half completed fanart and make him guess what it will be.

Bilbo: Usually, yeah. He's bad about getting distracted and forgetting he had a text though thanks to ADHD, so it's best to call him if you need something ASAP.

Gandalf: This man has to keep up with so many people. He's in 12 group chats, regrets all of them, and yet still asks for gossip.

Dís: Yes. She is also the only one who does understand Kíli's texts about ships and canons. They have a long running bet on how many Destiel, Johnlock, Tasertricks, and Matt/Foggy references they can make before anyone picks up on it.

This is also the reason Kíli has two AO3 accounts. He posts the cute, family friendly ones on the account his mom know about, and his...less family friendly ones on the other.