The Day That #Destiel Died
Or: Of Queerbaiting And Representation
Obviously, this text has a lot of spoilers!
During last summer’s lockdown, I picked up the best worst guilty pleasure anyone can imagine. Binge-watching all 15 seasons of Supernatural in a short time. While this actually helped me developing my dissertation about binge-watching during Corona, it also took up a lot of my free time. After a rough start, I fell in love with the Winchesters’ story about brotherhood and fighting for the ones you love. Like many members of the #SPNFamily before me.
I must admit: Especially the first seasons are filled with misogyny, male toxicity, and women just as plot-driver. But that is supposedly why the TV series is so popular amongst women and members of the LGBTQIA+ community. Dean & Sam Winchester are represented as over-the-top manly, even satirically. Additionally, they will show A LOT of emotional struggles in the 15 years of the show’s airing.
One of the most emotional scenes happens in the 18th episode of season 15.
Angel Castiel, who’s played by actor and my soon-to-be adoptive father Misha Collins, sacrifices himself for Dean by holding an emotional goodbye speech in which he declares his love for the older Winchester. Because of a pact, he made with the Void to be resurrected in exchange for his life on the happiest moment in his existence, Castiel was absorbed into the empty.
Castiel tells Dean that he loves him!
For almost 11 years, the Supernatural fanbase had been hoping for this moment to happen. They’ve been shipping Castiel x Dean Winchester as #Destiel since the angel first appeared on the screen.
Whilst Misha Collins explains that he believes that the relationship between his character and Dean has been made officially canon, many fans have a different opinion.
They think that Castiel only showed him the same sort of brotherly love that has been existing between the two Winchester boys. Therefore, an immense backlash occurred online in which many fans turned their back on the two remaining episodes.
After Castiel’s final appearance he was never brought up again. Dean, Sam and Jack — basically Castiel’s adoptive son — saved the earth from God in episode 19. In the final episode, Dean just died on a business-as-usual hunt, and Sam carried on with his life until he grew older. Instead of a happy reunion between Cas and Dean in heaven, we only saw the latter driving around in his car. The last shot sees Dean, Sam, and Bob Singer sitting together in heaven. No Cas.
However, it is important to note that both interpretations of the Castiel / Dean relationship are controversial.
First, if they solely share a friendship bond, you could make a statement for Queerbaiting. Queerbaiting has often been used to attract audiences from the LGBTQIA+ community, ignoring self-created hints from the paratextual world like interviews to promote the TV series. Simplified, a homoerotic relationship between two same-sex characters had been hinted at until it’s revealed that they are actually heterosexual. Like everyone else on the TV show. Imagine investing a lot of your time and passion on a show, which could finally represent your marginalised group only to be disappointed yet again. Writers and networks don’t want to upset their white male audiences too much…
On the other side, making #Destiel canon and then immediately killing Castiel off for good is called Bury Your Gays. It’s about the fact that LGBTQIA+ characters are more likely to be killed in TV series. At first, gay characters were portrayed as mere side characters or villains. Nowadays, while queer characters have been given a more positive and important role, they are often killed as shock-moment shortly after they came out. In both ways, the killing of those characters can be interpreted as presenting queerness as something punishable.
It is not about killing a non-hetero character in general, because everyone can die. But it is strange that if there is a single LGBTQIA+ character in the story, they always first to die (as seen with Charlie in Supernatural as well). So, Castiel came out and was immediately pushed into the darkness.
Supernatural has always been a love-hate relationship for me. An awesome journey, likeable characters, and the sexy British accents of Rowena and Crowley were sometimes overshadowed by the cringe-worthy masculinity in the show. Although, I do not regret watching the TV series.
But it is time to respectfully represent women AND LGBTQIA+ people in TV and movies.
