# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
Supernatural's bonkers series finale marked the end of an era of fandom

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
Thursday night saw the end of an era: the series finale of the CW's cult hit and longest-running show, Supernatural. After 15 seasons, over 300 episodes, and innumerable character deaths and revivals, the show that was synonymous with internet fandom culture finally let its demon-hunting brothers, Sam and Dean Winchester (Jared Padalecki and Jensen Ackles), drive the Impala into the sunset.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.readable_text
It's been a long ride for Sam and Dean Winchester as Supernatural's 15-year journey comes to an end. EW's been tagging along the whole way, from the series' first What to Watch mention in September of 2005 - it read: "Kinda like Buffy, only with boys. And without Giles." - to this digital cover marking the sixth time the series has graced an EW cover. Sam Highfill, who's been on the beat for nearly seven years, shares her thoughts on what sets the series apart.

If you've ever seen a promo or read a description for Supernatural, you know the show is about the paranormal. Heck, it's right there in the title. And yes, it is a series about two brothers who hunt monsters. It exists in a world where vampires are real, shapeshifters occasionally rob banks, and angels and demons walk the Earth. But the reason Supernatural is about to wrap up a record-setting 15-season run - it goes down as the longest-running genre show in the history of American broadcast television - has nothing to do with the fantastical elements of the show. At its core, Supernatural, ironically, is about humanity.

After their mother was murdered by a demon, Sam ( Jared Padalecki) and Dean Winchester ( Jensen Ackles) dedicated their lives to saving others from a similar fate. Like their father before them, they traveled the country in their 1967 Impala, and continued the family business of, as Dean put it in the series' second episode, "saving people, hunting things." In the moment when Dean says it, it's as if it's a simple fact. It's just what they do. But in actuality, it's a choice.

When Supernatural premiered on the WB in 2005, it certainly wasn't the network's first genre series. It walked in the footsteps of Buffy the Vampire Slayer, , and Smallville, among others. You could argue that the thing that set Supernatural apart from those shows is the brother dynamic, the chemistry between stars Jensen Ackles and Jared Padalecki, or even the on-the-road conceit, as each episode featured the brothers driving to a new town to save someone from something they didn't know existed. And those arguments would be correct. But what most distinctly set Supernatural apart from the series that came before was that the heroes in this incredibly complex, larger-than-life story were human.

In Charmed, the Halliwells were witches, gifted with the Power of Three. Buffy was a super-powered slayer who was quite literally destined to save the world from vampires. Clark Kent was, well, hopefully you know that one. But Sam and Dean Winchester? They're just two Midwestern guys who love classic rock, cheap beer, and who grew up with the regrettable first-hand knowledge that evil exists and decided to fight it, with nothing but Sam's research skills and a trunk full of weapons. Long after they avenged their mom's murder, the brothers decided they still wanted to risk their lives to help others, to make the world just a little safer. They believe, more than anything else, that the world is worth saving. And what a message that is to put on television right now.

In the years since Supernatural premiered, the world has experienced a number of devastating blows, from natural disasters like Hurricane Katrina and the earthquake in Haiti to seemingly endless school shootings, unprecedented political division, and don't even get me started on 2020. But for one hour every week, Supernatural fans have had somewhere to go, to watch Sam and Dean fight to save this place, no matter how troubled it might seem. Whether they were saving one person or millions, they gave it everything they had. In its final season, they fought for humanity even when its creator, God himself, thought it was worthless. As odd as it is to say about a show that's featured multiple apocalypses, Supernatural is a story of optimism, a story of hope.

After its first season and the shuttering of the WB, Supernatural survived the move to the CW. On a network that still needed to establish its own identity, it was a question of whether the Winchester boys would fit in. As the CW picked up shows like Gossip Girl and , Supernatural became, as creator Eric Kripke once put it, "the goth kid at the back of the class that no one really wanted to pay attention to." And without the intimidating gaze of the network, the show started to test its limits. Could it get away with a time-loop episode that saw Dean die more than 100 times in an hour? Could they film an episode like a ghost-hunting reality show, complete with handheld cameras? Could they create a black-and-white episode as an homage to old horror movies? The answer was yes to all of that, in more ways than one. Sure, the network and studio would allow it. But so would the story. That time-loop episode was really about Sam's fear of losing his brother. The reality show hour was about how love is powerful enough to pierce the veil of death. The black-and-white episode was about loneliness, and how even monsters can experience a very human emotion.

As the CW grew, it found massive success with superhero shows. In 2012, premiered - nabbing a prime time slot before Supernatural - and eight years later, the Arrowverse has expanded to include , , Legends of Tomorrow, Black Lightning, and . Suddenly, the Winchesters were surrounded by stories of people saving the world, so how could they stand out?

In 2016, at EW's Popfest, the Supernatural crew took to the stage for their panel to be followed by the caped crowd from the Arrowverse. Ackles, knowing the lineup, joked that the superheroes were coming up next, but the real heroes were already here. And he wasn't wrong. As audiences fell in love with meta humans capable of flying, super-human speed, and laser vision, Supernatural remained a show about flannel-clad bros battling superhuman forces.

Sam and Dean Winchester saved the world more than once, and they did it with nothing but determination (and the help of some friends). In the series' penultimate episode, there's a moment where the pair find themselves in a fist fight with God. Let that sink in. As one would expect, God is pummeling them, breaking their bones, bloodying their faces with every devastating strike. But Sam and Dean don't lose. Why? Because they don't quit. They don't give up.

That's been the message of Supernatural all along: No matter how impossible your fight seems, no matter how massive your opponent - remember when Dean killed Hitler? - you can win so long as you don't quit. So long as you hold each other up. It's a message that's transcended the series, as the stars have launched charitable campaigns like Padalecki's Always Keep Fighting, which raised money for To Write Love on Her Arms, and other charities focused on mental health and suicide prevention. During his time on the show, Misha Collins, who played the brothers' winged ally Castiel, launched Random Acts, a nonprofit that, with the help of the Supernatural fandom has raised more than $5.3 million for various projects, including helping Syrian refugees, Rwandan farming communities, and so much more.

In ways big and small, the Supernatural fandom is actually helping to save the world. Because watching Supernatural is not about believing that Sam and Dean will literally come to the rescue. It's about believing their message: That we, as humans, are capable of facing down evil and saving ourselves. And that we, as humans, are worth saving.

It's also worth noting that the show's message works, in part, because the people involved in creating it are pretty great themselves. In 2016, when Supernatural won EW's fan-voted cover contest, I landed my first cover story. It meant traveling to Vancouver for a set visit. It meant having dinner with Jared and Jensen. It meant I was nervous. We sat down to dinner, and within 60 seconds, Jensen ordered tequila shots for the table, followed by Jared thanking me for flying up there because "this means a lot to us." Instantly, I realized that this interview wasn't a task that they were dreading. It was a celebration, and they were going to enjoy it. Nothing was more apparent to me during that meal than how much they love Supernatural. They'd pull up old scenes that they were proud of on their phones for all of us to watch. As Jared said to me, "Goddammit, if you're going to do something that makes a difference then it has to mean something to you." The other thing that became obvious as the guys talked about the show was that if you loved it too, you were family to them. Much like Sam and Dean, they see the good in people.

As the interview was winding down, and desserts were being ordered, I offered to turn off my tape recorder so that they could speak freely. (It's something you'll see a lot as a journalist, the way someone's body language changes when that red light isn't staring at them.) Jared reached out and stopped me. "We trust you," he said. And he had no reason to. But until they see bad in someone, they expect good.

That dinner took place at the start of the show's 12th season, and the actors talked about how much they still loved their jobs and wanting to wrap things up before that changed. Cut to September 2020, and their last day filming as Sam and Dean. After a five-month hiatus from their characters thanks to COVID-19, it was time for the show to do the one thing it'd never done: Say goodbye. "The feeling I had that day was more like pride, emotional pride," says Ackles of the final day of filming. "Like, look at what we've done. Look how far we've come, and look at these people who helped us build this incredible piece of art that we'll get to hang our hats on for the rest of our lives."

Padalecki recalls the emotional moment when he and Ackles crossed the border back into the United States from Vancouver, marking the reverse of the road trip they'd taken in season 1. "It was right during all the wildfires, so the sky was really weird," says Padalecki. "It felt like a Supernatural episode or something. We crossed the border together and it just felt like a pretty poignant meaningful full-circle [moment]."

Fans will see the series finale, which Padalecki has already deemed his favorite of all time, in a matter of days. With God's conclusion spelled out in episode 19, we know the installment will feature a more intimate look at the Winchester bros. "We wanted it to, in some ways, hearken back to where the show began, which was two guys on the road saving people, hunting things," co-showrunner Andrew Dabb says, with co-showrunner Robert Singer adding, "It's a very emotional episode. It's a personal story really about the boys."

But more than anything, it's the final story, which leaves us to wonder what the series' legacy will be. If you ask me, it's the reminder to see the good in humanity, and to fight for it. That message will transcend every clever twist, every epic stunt scene, and terrifying monster.

Supernatural began as the story of two guys who wanted to do some good, and will end as the story of two guys who did a whole lot of it. When Sam and Dean have worked their last case, ganked their last monster, and eaten their last piece of pie, they can rest easy knowing that, long after they have stopped hunting things, their message will still be saving people.
Original photography by Peggy Sirota for EW. Additional video production by Ethan Bellows and Faith Stafford.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
Celebrating the humanity of 'Supernatural' in its time of dying

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
It's been a long ride for Sam and Dean Winchester as Supernatural's 15-year journey comes to an end. EW's been tagging along the whole way, from the series' first What to Watch mention in September of 2005 - it read: "Kinda like Buffy, only with boys. And without Giles."

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
2020 Said Gay Rights, SUPERNATURAL Said “Hold My Beer” - Nerdist

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
In the third-to-last Supernatural episode, a major hope for the fan community seemingly came true...for a few seconds. Now the internet is debating.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.readable_text
"Supernatural" is one of the longest-running scripted primetime series in US TV history, ending its 15-year run on November 19, 2020.

The unlikely TV horror smash hit took off in the early 2010s, getting renewed for an additional 10 seasons after its originally planned season 5 ending.

The long-time success of "Supernatural" is thanks to its passionate online fandom, which rose to prominence on Tumblr and was notably powered by a young, LGBTQ fanbase.

Insider interviewed former and current "Supernatural" fans about the show's complex history with "queerbaiting" and LGBTQ representation.

This article contains spoilers for the last season of "Supernatural," but not the final episode.

Visit Insider's homepage for more stories.

"Supernatural" was never supposed to last this long.

After 15 years, the 15th longest-running scripted primetime series in US TV history is finally coming to an end. On November 19, the last episode of "Supernatural" airs on the CW, closing the book on a historic piece of horror television and internet fandom.

Initially, "Supernatural," a show about two brothers who roadtrip around the US and hunt monsters, was supposed to last for five seasons. Series creator Eric Kripke's vision for the show concluded in 2010.

But at the same time that Sam and Dean Winchester were concluding their season 5 narrative arcs, a massive online fandom for "Supernatural" was exploding in popularity on Tumblr, where a young, LGBTQ-heavy demographic was watching the "Superwholock" TV trio of "Supernatural" and the BBC shows "Sherlock" and "Doctor Who."

-bossbaby from bossbaby (@garfieldsgay) November 6, 2020

"If you go back to the early 2010s when 'Superwholock' was a thing, you could not go anywhere on Tumblr without touching a 'Supernatural,' 'Doctor Who,' or 'Sherlock' fan," Amanda Brennan, Tumblr's resident "Meme Librarian" said. "Supernatural" went on to be renewed for 10 more seasons.

At the heart of "Superwholock" fandom was "shipping," when fans pair two characters who may or may not actually be dating on the show (when they are, the ship is "canon").

The gay "Supernatural" ship "Destiel," which pairs Dean Winchester with the angel Castiel isn't just the most popular "Supernatural" ship, it's also one of the top 10 most popular ships on Tumblr to this day, according to the platform.

The "Supernatural" fandom's love of Destiel was no secret, and the showrunners embraced the fantasy. Misha Collins, the actor who plays Castiel, was originally intended to be in the show for three episodes. The overwhelming fan reaction to the character's friendship with Dean led to Collins becoming a main character, appearing as part of a trio with the Winchester brothers. But up until very recently, it seemed like the pairing would never happen onscreen.

With two episodes in the show left, "Supernatural" appeared to make Destiel canon on November 5. In the third-to-last episode, Castiel proclaims his love for Dean and promptly dies.

While Destiel shocked the internet (Brennan said the reaction on Tumblr was similarly explosive to the day "the dress" optical illusion was posted in 2015), it was too little, too late for many former queer "Supernatural" fans.

As the cult favorite show draws to a close, Insider spoke to current and former "Supernatural" fans about the series' complicated legacy with LGBTQ representation, and how it ultimately failed to give the young, queer audience that kept the show alive what it really wanted.

'Supernatural' has been accused of 'queerbaiting' for over a decade

For some queer "Supernatural" fans, the show eventually became unwatchable because of its willingness to tease a relationship between two men without ever following through.

"The queerbaiting just got ridiculous. You couldn't pretend they weren't doing it on purpose anymore. It wasn't 'Well, there's some subtext.' It was like 'Oh my god, this is never going to pay off and you're doing it to keep me here,'" former "Supernatural" fan Evan Tess Murray said.

"Queerbaiting" refers to media that hints at or makes it appear as though two characters are queer or in love without actually intending to follow through on their relationship or LGBTQ representation. Within the "Superwholock" fandom, both Destiel and "Johnlock," the ship for John Watson and Sherlock Holmes on BBC's "Sherlock," were widely considered queerbaiting.

"There's already a lack of queer representation in media. We rarely see our stories told, and very rarely told well," Murray, 42, said. "We're all really hungry for it. We've been willing to read into teeny tiny amounts of subtext for decades, because that's all we got."

"Supernatural" fans shipped its main male characters in large part because the show was all about the deep emotional connection that the men shared. In order to keep the show's neverending road trip narrative moving for 15 years, none of the main characters were ever able to form long-lasting heterosexual relationships, and instead themes of love and sacrifice developed between Dean, Sam, and Castiel.

Before Castiel became a character in season 4, some "Supernatural" fans even shipped "Wincest," and the show fully acknowledged and had in-jokes about the sexual tension between the two brothers. Numerous "meta" episodes addressed both Wincest and Destiel, culminating in the show's 200th episode "Fan Fiction," which centers around a group of "Supernatural" fans creating a "Supernatural" musical. The actors who play Dean and Castiel are a couple, and the Winchesters react to the concept of Destiel on-screen.

"It almost read like they were making fun of the fans, saying 'You want this? Well you can't have it,'" 20-year-old "Supernatural" fan Sawyer Greene, who is Murray's son, said.

While it was understood there was a zero percent chance the show would ever seriously broach the topic of incest, Destiel snowballed in popularity largely because fans thought there was a chance it would become canon. But by the time it did, at least from Castiel's point of view, the show was basically over.

"Having a main character like Dean being bisexual, if they were going to do it and if they had done it earlier, they would have gotten huge props from the online community," Kodee Dahl, a decade-long Destiel shipper, told Insider. "It's really satisfying to see happen, but if it had happened earlier it would have been more meaningful for the community."

LGBTQ representation on 'Supernatural' has repeatedly ended in the 'Bury your gays' trope

Besides happening so late in the show, queer "Supernatural" fans also found fault in the realization of Destiel because of what happened next - Castiel died and literally went to hell.

"It was the fastest 'Bury your gays' we've ever seen," Murray said. "Bury your gays" is a literary trope where LGBTQ characters come out or find love only to die shortly afterward, and "Supernatural" has never successfully avoided it, to the disappointment of queer fans.

Long before Castiel died, "Supernatural" had a fan favorite named Charlie, a canon lesbian character. Shortly after Charlie's character arc led her into what seemed like a promising lesbian relationship, she died, and was later brought back to life in the show only for her and her partner to die again.

"I'll never fault someone for being hopeful and optimistic, but for me, when I look at what they did to Charlie in season 10, I'll never look to this show as an example of queer representation. There's no coming back from it," Bry Conte, a 22-year-old lesbian "Supernatural" fan said.

Conte was never a Destiel shipper, in part because she said she never viewed "Supernatural" as having the potential for queer representation. Rather, she and other former "Supernatural" fans drifted toward shows that do have explicit queer representation.

Brennan, Tumblr's "Meme Historian," pointed out that as Destiel and "Supernatural" have grown less popular on the platform in recent years, shows in the same genre but with actual queer characters have grown more popular, like "Wynonna Earp."

"I don't feel betrayed [by "Supernatural"] because I never had that expectation in the first place," Conte told Insider. "The queer characters we were given were treated terribly. Dean has some really homophobic lines in the earlier seasons. Even if Cas were to survive, even if he got a happy gay ending, it's still three episodes out of 320. That's not representation."

But Conte did praise "Supernatural" for characters like Sam Winchester, whose character she said resonated with her when she was closeted. "Lesbians love Sam Winchester," Conte, who has picked up "Supernatural" again during quarantine, said.

"There was something so nice about coming back to all these characters, but especially Sam after all these years," Conte said. "There was that familiarity of 'I know you. I know who you are.' I'm grateful to the show for that. For all its flaws, it's gotten me through this year."

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
'Supernatural's' queer fandom kept it alive for 15 years, but the show never gave them what they really wanted

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
"Supernatural" is one of the longest-running scripted primetime series in US TV history, ending its 15-year run on November 19, 2020. The unlikely TV horror smash hit took off in the early 2010s, getting renewed for an additional 10 seasons after its originally planned season 5 ending.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.readable_text
November 5th, 2020: the anniversary of Guy Fawkes' plot to blow up Parliament, votes still being counted in the U.S. presidential election, COVID-19 keeping the world in quarantine, tabloids spreading rumors that Vladimir Putin might step down. Yet amid the constant flood of tweets that week about global uncertainty, a dark horse entered the competition for Twitter's top trend. By midnight of November 5th, the number one trending topic in the U.S. wasn't any of these things, but instead one portmanteau word: "Destiel."

Though it may be unfamiliar to those with no experience in fandom spaces, to anyone who has ever used Tumblr or dabbled in fan fiction communities, this phrase is instantly recognizable. For those unacquainted, some explanation: "Destiel" is the fan created couple name for two of the main characters in the television show Supernatural , Dean Winchester (Jensen Ackles) and Castiel (Misha Collins).

Many people in fandoms delight in "shipping" characters-that is, imagining them in a romantic relationship even if they are not actually in one in their story. Shipping is often found in fan art, fan fiction, discussion, and tweets badgering the creators to make their favorite imagined couple real. The characters being 'shipped' are often same-sex pairings, as in the case of "Destiel." In Supernatural , Dean is a rugged, sarcastic hunter of demons who drives a Chevy Impala; Castiel is a trench coat wearing angel who is introduced rescuing Dean from the depths of hell. In fans' eyes, the stage was set for certain romance; shipping fans were hooked on their dynamic and began enthusiastically creating fan works featuring the two as a couple. Destiel became so popular that it was ubiquitous among fandom spaces, becoming the most frequently reblogged ship on Tumblr in 2014 (as reported by The Daily Dot ) and clocking a whopping 89,473 fan fictions hosted on Archive Of Our Own.

The fandom for Destiel was so vocal that the creators eventually got wind of it, both through social media and convention interactions ( Supernatural hosts several fan conventions each year across America for fans of the show). Misha Collins confirmed this at a 2013 convention when asked: "The producers and the actors don't really talk about it that much. I mean, it does come up occasionally. But I do think we all pay lip service to it."

For many seasons, the show has included many obvious winks at their shipping audience about the pairing-from villains mockingly referring to the two as "boyfriends," to actually mentioning "Destiel" in meta episodes where the characters discover their own fandom after a book series is published about their adventures.

But most shippers, especially for queer pairings, know by now not to expect too much; queer romance in media created by straight men, starring straight men. Queer relationships on prime time television are rare, even when fans make it clear how much they want them. As the show is on its 15 th season, many of the fans had given up hope entirely that their favorite 'ship' would ever actually happen in the show.

That all changed on this fateful November night. In its last season, mere episodes away from the finale, Castiel confessed to Dean, "I love you." For real this time-not just in someone's fan fiction.

The episode aired and the tweets poured in. Old fans, current fans, people who'd seen the ship peripherally on Tumblr in its heyday, and people who were just confused as to what a 'Destiel' was tweeted in droves. The name "Dean" was trending in conjunction with "Putin" as people made jokes that the latter's announced resignation and the latest Supernatural episode were being tweeted about with equal weight and importance (More jokes evolved as people admitted they found out about Putin's resignation through it being mentioned tangentially on tweets about Supernatural ).

As someone who follows Twitter content about fandoms as well as politics, my dashboard was as chaotic as I've ever seen it-setting a new record even by 2020 standards. Nevada's final ballots were being counted, inching the state towards blue, speculation was rolling in about Putin's health, the Bolivian president was attacked with a stick of dynamite, and through all of it Destiel had just become canonized and was holding the number one spot in global Twitter importance.

Memes were being created and videos or screenshots of the latest episode were being shared en masse. Yet while Destiel being made an official couple in the show was something fans had been waiting 15 seasons for, the event was not a wholly joyous one, and for many what should have been a spark of cheer in an otherwise terrifying news cycle was instead a familiar disappointment.

Fandom regulars familiar with the term "Destiel" are probably equally familiar with the phrase "bury your gays." An idiom that has been in rotation since the mid 70s, "bury your gays" refers to the trope that gay characters are likely to be killed off in their story, especially if they've just come out of the closet, finally confessed their love, or achieved a happy relationship. When a character is shown making a positive development in their sexuality and is then immediately killed off, it narratively links the two events, suggesting that death is a natural conclusion to their expression, possibly even retribution for it. It is a disturbingly prevalent trend in TV and film (especially among queer women characters), one that feels at best like an oblivious or insensitive writers' room choice, and at worst, a punitive promotion of negative stereotypes. One of the first instances of overt same-sex attraction shown on TV occured in the 1976 soap opera "Executive Suite" with a lesbian character. It was arguably also the first example of "bury your gays" when she was hit by a truck while chasing after her lover. Scholars and critics have noted that many of the earliest American depictions of gay or queer-coded characters on screen were negative, often shown as depraved villains whose deaths the audience were meant to cheer for. Even as gay representation cautiously grew more positive over time, gay couples were frequently depicted as tragically doomed-especially during the AIDS crisis, when gay characters dying from AIDS was so common it became an archetype in itself.

"Bury your gays" has filtered into mainstream online discourse in recent years with the high number of lesbian character deaths that occured between 2016-2017, sparking debate among fans on social media (For more on the recent prevalence of "bury your gays," see Elizabeth Bridges's 2018 essay in The Journal of Fandom Studies, "A genealogy of queerbaiting: Legal codes, production codes, 'bury your gays' and 'The 100 mess'").

It's true that Castiel uttered the words "I love you" while looking at Dean, but the scene was not a joyful one. The love confession was unreciprocated by a very tight lipped Dean (some fans interpreted his facial expression to suggest he was barely repressing the urge to say a homophobic slur). It was also immediately followed by Castiel dying, sucked into a portal that sent him to hell.

While this episode was in fact written by a gay man, it was hardly a model example of queer representation. Though some tweeting about Destiel were celebrating the acknowledgement of their fan couple, many were incensed about the poor handling in line with the same "bury your gays" trope we've all come to know and hate. Castiel being sent immediately to hell only twists the knife on the problematic elements of the scene, as it hints at a recognizably Christian homophobic subtext (especially as he tells Dean right before sacrificing himself that "the one thing I want is something I know we can't have").

The creative team and cast of Supernatural have a history of disappointing its fandom with its treatment of even the suggestion of gay romance in the show. Whether it's for female fans who enjoy the subtext, or queer fans looking for representation, a considerable chunk of Supernatural 's audience watch the show primarily for the tidbits of interaction promoting their favorite queer ship and hoping for it to be at least acknowledged. The show's creators seem content to benefit from this group-these fans attend conventions every year, paying to see panels featuring the writers and actors-that fuels the show's popularity, but have rebuffed their vocal requests for these characters' friendship to evolve into something else.

Creators shouldn't have to be beholden to their fans, but because fandoms and creators have a closer relationship than ever before due to social media, the aversion to making characters openly queer feels more pointed.

At recent Supernatural conventions, guests were often told ahead of panels to not ask any questions related to shipping. When one fan in a New Jersey Q&A in 2013 even brought up the possibility of Dean being bisexual, Jensen Ackles responded with "don't ruin it for everybody now" and moved on without answering, sparking questions about whether he had some prejudices to work through.

It may be an exaggeration to accuse Supernatural of queerbaiting; fans were the ones to first read this subtext into the relationship between the characters. However, it's clear that with this half baked "coming out" scene, the writers are doing essentially what they've always done-acknowledging their fans who want this relationship just enough to keep the fandom hooked, but not so much that they might offend the sensibility of more heteronormative viewers.

Supernatural still has the finale. In a show that has often proven that anything is possible-including a Destiel love confession, apparently-there's still a chance Castiel could be revived from the dead and that he and Dean could live happily ever after and avoid falling into a disappointing cliché. But based on the history of the channel on which the show runs, it's not likely.

The CW has, in its recent history, another infamous case of burying its gays. On their show a romantic relationship between two of the female main characters was finally consummated in 2016, much to fans' delight, and then immediately ended when one of them was killed-accidentally, in arguably a meaningless way. The backlash after that episode was so massive that creators had to eventually address it, admitting that their reason for killing off the character was "to heighten the drama."

Obviously, not every gay character has to live to the end of the movie or show. But handling queer storylines without sensitivity not only frequently alienates the audience members in search of representation, but can also have a harmful impact when it communicates that gay characters are disposable, that there are no happy endings for queer people, or that the creators want the attention and shock value of showing a character to be gay but don't want to follow through on having to actually write and show a queer relationship in anything more than its earliest stages or tragic ending.

Either way, anyone who spent this week of November extremely online will remember it not only as one of exceptional Twitter chaos, but for its reminder of how much further we have to go in terms of queer representation. Regardless of whether fans were disappointed or excited about Castiel's love confession, Destiel will always live in fandom. Since the airing of this episode, more than 300 new fan fictions have already been added to the Archive Of Our Own tag for Dean/Castiel-most of them specifically addressing, rewriting, and providing alternate outcomes to the latest episode. Fandom has always been a place where queer subtext can become legitimized through fans' creative engagement with the text to 'fix' flawed representation, imagining new possibilities for characters-and by extension, imagining and articulating a desire for on screen queer romance that is be overt, fully realized, and not always ending in tragedy.

https://gcml.org/representation-of-lgbtq-characters-through-the-bury-your-gays-trope/ https://www.dailydot.com/parsec/supernatural-destiel-biggest-tumblr-ship/ https://www.dailydot.com/society/jensen-ackles-homophobia-supernatural-fandom/ https://twitter.com/edgeworthlez/status/1324592753875976192?s=20

KATE HOCSHWENDER is an obsessive, a full time critic of reality, alleged vampire, occasional writer, self proclaimed sex symbol, and lover of the bizarre. They graduated from Bard College after writing their thesis on horror movies and have since worked as a photographer's assistant, model, writer, researcher, and Spirit Halloween sales associate. They currently live a semi-nocturnal lifestyle in Connecticut and have watched over 250 films during quarantine.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
Bury Your Destiels by Kate Hochswender - MAYDAY

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
November 5th, 2020: the anniversary of Guy Fawkes' plot to blow up Parliament, votes still being counted in the U.S. presidential election, COVID-19 keeping the world in quarantine, tabloids spreading rumors that Vladimir Putin might step down. Yet amid the constant flood of tweets that week about global uncertainty, a dark horse entered the competition for Twitter's top trend.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.readable_text
After 12 years Supernatural finally did it! Sort of. Kind of. OK, did you watch last night's Supernatural yet? If not, time to click away. We're talking "Despair."

In a scene ripped straight out of Joss Whedon's Buffy or , the (unrelated) angel Castiel (Misha Collins) admitted that his one true moment of happiness-his most pure and selfish and wonderful love-was for the demon hunter Dean (Jensen Ackles). Online, fans who had long since given up on the show swooned and screamed. All those eyes focused on Georgia and its slow shift blue turned to the CW, and on Twitter #DestielIsCanon quickly began trending above the results for a state election that could determine the next leader of one of the most powerful countries on earth.

But friend, the moment Castiel confessed his love to Dean was absolute utter bullshit. After years of baiting fans with long looks, gentle touches, and pithy asides, Supernatural finally made it canon like Eponine and Marius are canon, and then, much like Les Misérables, offed the confessor.

There's a reason "shipping" is usually associated with teens. To truly ship a pair of fictional characters requires an absolute passion that seems more common in the hormone-fueled years of adolescence, when every moment of drama is either world-ending or totally euphoric. Shipping consumes a person-turns them into a fanatic-not unlike the guy who strips off his clothes and paints himself green and yellow to attend a Packers game in the middle of winter. When you're in it, it's exhilarating-even when you leave a ship behind. Move on to another ship? Rredirect those energies to other activities? It can still bring you a measure of pleasure. I still sigh a little when someone sends me an old pic of Mulder and Scully or Janeway and Seven.

Few couples have engendered that kind of fanaticism like Dean and Castiel from Supernatural. Destiel (the couple's portmanteau) has inspired considerable drama online. It is currently the top ship on AO3 with 20,000 more stories than the second most popular pairing (Sherlock and Watson). Castiel is an angel commanded to save Dean from Hell and Dean is a self-loathing demon hunter who doesn't believe Castiel is an angel, let alone one who would pull him from perdition. Since season four of the show way back in 2008, fans have been saying these two characters are more than friends and should confess and recognize their romantic feelings for one another.

The show has disagreed and happily strung those fans along. In fandom this is called "queerbaiting" and while it's more common in femslash fandom-where the fans are themselves queer-it's an accusation frequently lobbed by fans at showrunners who tease same-sex relationships that never seem to go anywhere. Supernatural is loaded with references to Dean possibly being bisexual and has had no issue making jokes about everyone thinking Dean and Castiel were dating. Even TV Guide was calling out the show for queerbaiting, all the way back in 2014.

Pre- Glee, fandoms tolerated baiting and explored unexplored relationships in fiction and through alternative mediums. But with Glee, fans began regularly interacting with showrunners and even convinced them to make one-off joke relationships, like Britanna, canon. Since then many fandoms have become obsessed with the need for ships to be made canon. In the early 2010s, fandoms would wage wars to win Entertainment Weekly and Zimbio polls in the hopes of swaying showrunners.

Couples being made canon is treated the same way as the Packers winning a Super Bowl. There's cheering and shouting, and the only reason no one flips a car or sets a mailbox on fire is because fandom is typically very online. And last night, after 12 years of baiting, Supernatural made Destiel "canon." While most fans had long since cooled to the pairing and the show, they reacted the same way I did when that awful 2008 X-Files movie finally let Mulder and Scully smooch. There was a lot of joy online.

But to the very end of the relationship, the show was still a queerbaiting mess because, folks...Destiel is about as canon as a Trump second term.

The fact is: Castiel did confess his love for Dean. Unequivocally. He admitted that he'd made a deal with the Shadow, a sentient being existing in place predating all the domains of God, and that he'd get to live on Earth until he felt a moment of pure happiness (just like Angel and his soul), at which point his millennia-long watch would end. In the course of confessing his love to Dean, he had that moment, and the Shadow then dragged him back into that emptiness akin to hell.

So. Yeah. The gay guy got dragged to hell for confessing his love.

As Castiel wept while he confessed and was pulled away, Dean was stoic and seemed resigned, or almost angrily embarrassed by the confession. He did not confess any feelings in return. He did not admit he ever had or would feel that way. Or even say thank you. He just watched stoically as his best friend confessed love and died. Which, honestly, if I was a straight no-homo dude, is probably how I would react too.

Things could change. There are two episodes left and Dean very well could get tanked on a couple of brewskies and admit he really wanted to hug wrestle an angel in a trench coat. But the last guy who admitted he loved another dude got dragged to hell. So I wouldn't count on it.

Correction 5:15 PM ET - This story originally suggested Destiel is the pairing that alpha/beta/omega wolfporn began with. It is with the sincerest apologies that we must remove that reference. A/B/O wolfporn did begin with Supernatural, but with the pairing J2, which is the ship name for the actors who play the brothers' Winchester. Again we are so sorry for this error and will endeavor to do better in the future.
For more, make sure you're following us on our Instagram @.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
After 12 years Supernatural finally did it! Sort of. Kind of. OK, did you watch last night's Supernatural yet? If not, time to click away. We're talking "Despair." In a scene ripped straight out of Joss Whedon's Buffy or , the (unrelated) angel Castiel (Misha Collins) admitted that his one true moment of happiness-his most pure and selfish and wonderful love-was for the demon hunter Dean (Jensen Ackles).

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
Opinion | Destiel is canon yet fans are still upset - The Daily Illini

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
If you have ever watched Supernatural, you know who Dean Winchester and Castiel are. And if you have ever delved into the Supernatural fandom on Twitter or Tumblr, you have heard of the term “Destiel.” Destiel is the ship name for Dean and Castiel, meaning fans think they exhibit signs of liking eac…

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.readable_text
After 15 seasons and many long years of pining, filthy fanfiction, and debating fellow stans, Supernatural finally made Destiel canon.

Destiel is, of course, the pairing of Dean Winchester and Castiel the angel. They have long (like, really long) been a fan favorite ship, one that was even teased and hinted at multiple times throughout Supernatural's run. But it's also been controversial, with many, many debates on places like Tumblr about the true intentions of the show's writers.

The teasing has also often been called queerbaiting - a term that means dropping little bits of queerness for LGBTQ fans, but never fully committing so as not to upset anyone else.

Now, as the show nears its series finale on Nov. 15, it has given fans what they wanted. Well, sort of.

On Thursday's episode, Castiel tearfully declared his love for Dean in a scene that was a true punch to the gut for Destiel lovers.

"Ever since I pulled you out of hell, knowing you has changed me. Because you cared, I cared. I cared about you, I cared about Sam, I cared about Jack. But I cared about the whole world because of you. You changed me, Dean," Castiel tells Dean.

Then, when Dean asks why it sounds like Castiel is saying goodbye, Castiel says, "Because it is. I love you. Goodbye, Dean."

Then he's pulled into a sort of hell-but-worse dimension and dies, leaving Dean sobbing on the floor.

But as much as this was a declaration of love, many people are thoroughly unsatisfied.

First, there's the fact that Dean didn't react to Castiel's declaration, making the whole thing very one-sided, and very typical of Dean's very straight brand of masculinity.

Also upsetting is that Castiel was immediately killed after his confession, in a stunning example of the " bury your gays" trope.

Of all the gay ships to ship, this one has been pretty disappointing.

But no matter how you feel about it, you can't deny there's a certain Tumblr-circa-2012 vibe right now.

And the moment really was a big deal for anyone deep in the fandom.

And frankly a lot to handle on an already intense night.

I mean, 2020, amirite?

And then, to make this all even more bizarre, people started making jokes about Destiel and a report that Vladimir Putin would be stepping down. ( The Kremlin has refuted that report.)

It's just weird. Everything is weird.

Supernatural has two episodes to go, including a two-hour finale, so there's still a chance for the show to redeem itself. But, you know, don't hold your breath.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
Destiel (Sort Of) Became Canon And "Supernatural" Fans Are Shaking

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
After 15 seasons and many long years of pining, filthy fanfiction, and debating fellow stans, Supernatural finally made Destiel canon. Destiel is, of course, the pairing of Dean Winchester and Castiel the angel. They have long (like, really long) been a fan favorite ship, one that was even teased and hinted at multiple times throughout Supernatural's run.