After that absolutely crazy episode last night, I received this anon ask on Tumblr:
Ok but supernatural is like super homophobic. (And so is the actor confessing lol). Liek. He literally gets sent to hell right after confessing. The show literally just said “if you are gay you will go to hell”
Hi there Nonni!
Well. This is an interesting point; one, however, I can’t agree with. See, here’s the thing. I get why people think Supernatural is “super homophobic”. I know many think so, that much becomes clear if you spend enough time on Tumblr, which is by the way one of the reasons I have been absent for so long from here.
Because here is the other thing: I don’t see it that way. I recognize there are certain issues, but having grown up the way I have, I have a different view on things. I don’t negate what many feel Supernatural is and does, and that it is sometimes, oftentimes, problematic for them. It’s just not how I see it.
Around seven years ago I received an anon regarding the Johnlock ship. Here I discussed whether popular media and the audience are ready to see such a canon ship between its two main (male) characters. A lot has happened since then; nevertheless it is still not an easy thing to realize on screen. We may be openminded here on Tumblr, and many others out there have since followed. But our society, and I’m talking about earth’s whole population, is still far from accepting homosexuality, or LGBTQ+ in general, as “normal”. If you want to blame anyone for that – don’t blame the people, or the writers. Blame the teachings especially of church(es) that have always and still condemn anything other than the heteronormative. Back in 2014 I said you don’t change the world overnight, and not even in a decade or two. But when I think back, I believe we have already come a long way, and we’ll soldier on, all of us who know that love is love, and who want everyone live their life the way they feel is best for them.
But back to Supernatural.
No matter what they do on the show, the cast and crew are well aware that there are probably millions of Destiel shippers in the whole world. We are what, 90-95% of the fandom? Okay, maybe a little less, but we certainly are the majority, that I am sure of.
I think we can also agree that the cast and crew, and mostly the writers, are also aware that this show is ending.
So there is this one thing that has been going around in my head since a few hours earlier (though being in Europe, it was the middle of the night and I decided to first get some sleep instead of writing something about it):
What if they stopped caring?
Up until now, when there were still episodes and seasons to come, they had to tread carefully. Supernatural may have a strong and massive fanbase around the world, but ratings are still decided in the US. And viewership there does not only consist of fans/shippers. Up until now they had to consider all viewers, what they could gain and what they could lose because of their writing decisions. It’s a fine line between enthralling someone and putting them off.
If they make Destiel truly canon by the end of the last episode, if they let Dean say it back, if they do even more (I’m not gonna say it out loud, I’m afraid I could jinx it ^^), there may be a small percentage of SPN fans who won’t be happy. Maybe. But most of us, of them, will rejoice, and a part of those who don’t ship Destiel will probably be indifferent to it, or be happy for the rest of us. Furthermore, the general audience and their opinion won’t matter anymore.
There are no more episodes. There is no drop in viewership to be feared. It’s a done deal. Show over. So why not do it? For TWELVE YEARS they have dropped hint after hint after hint. Some call it baiting. I call it regular ship tease you see on so many shows. Chuck knows I had to endure it so often, and some didn’t manage to give closure to shippers (of popular ships that had been teased for years as well, but couldn’t become canon for different reasons during the run of the show). And here I am talking about heterosexual ships.
So long story short, and to answer your question – a part of me really believes that they will give us closure. Let’s look at it this way: Cas has to sacrifice himself to make Dean realize that he loves him too. And not only realize, but also admit it. He has heard it now. Maybe he suspected it before, but hearing it makes it real. It’s out there.
Look at how Dean wasn’t even able to accept Sam’s call, despite their dire situation, despite Dean maybe had to know that something was up, that Sam needed help. But Dean couldn’t. One can argue it was because he didn’t know how to tell Sam Cas is gone, but let’s be real: We’ve seen Dean devastated before when he thought Cas was dead, seen him keep Cas’ coat in the Impala and so on. This time, he was incapable of doing anything. Their world is literally on the verge of ending, and all he could do was sit there.
While Cas’ speech and confession had me sobbing, seeing Dean sitting there as if paralyzed completely broke me. He hasn’t just lost his best friend; he has lost the one he loves. I believe a dam has been broken. I don’t know what they will make of it, but seriously — Cas said the three magic words, something I never expected to hear, so all bets are off now.
In all honesty though — for me it will already be enough if they bring Cas back and reunite him with Dean. Everything else is a cherry on top.
I have another thing for you, another perspective:
You say the writers made him openly gay and then sent him to hell as a result and punishment.
I say: they could have chosen anything as his true happiness. They could have come up with whatever. We all have known for a long time that Cas finding/recognizing his true happiness will send him back to the Empty; he was always on borrowed time, because it was clear that they would make use of that plot device.
So whatever they had chosen, it was only about Cas’ happiness. Could have been anything. But it isn’t. No, they decided to make Dean his happiness. The things he has learned thanks to Dean; the love he feels.
The Empty didn’t know what it would be. There was never a condition on what his happiness had to be about.
But the writers decided that there is only ONE thing that can be Cas’ real, true happiness. They gave us this. They could have found something else and we would be none the wiser, except that maybe we complained that it wasn’t Dean.
The writers have made a decision. They decided to finally make it canon.
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