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DISCLAIMER: I know, I know, I mention Sam twice, but I still love him and don’t think he’s a bad character even though I ship destiel.
Let me just say, first of all, Destiel is definitely never going to become canon, which is pretty much the worst thing ever. Jensen absolutely hates it and Misha (sorta Jared) is probably on of the only people amongst the writers and cast that ships it. The writer say it’s comepletly platonic but include things like Dean keeping Cas’s trenchcoat and bringing it from car to car after Cas drowned in the lake (and they originally wrote Dean saying “Part of me always knew you’d come back.” but kept it out), the whole “I need you” scene (which, may I remind you, was originally I LOVE YOU) from 8x17 Goodbye Stranger, Cas saying I love you to Dean then saying it to everyone else, basically all of 5x03 Free To Be You and Me (some things in that episode include Dean having more fun with Cas then he’s had in years, Cas not understanding personal space, Dean fixing Cas’s tie which is really cute, “There are two things I know for sure. One, Bert and Ernie are gay. Two, you are not gonna die a virgin, not on my watch”), and plenty of other things I could write down if I thought about it longer.
Now, I’m not saying it’s legitimately one of the most popular ships of the century, but that’s what I’m saying. It was the biggest ship on tumblr in 2014 and I believe it still is the biggest on ao3, if not the second. At this point, the writers have just put so much subtext into Dean and Cas’s so called “brotherly” relationship that now they basically have two desicions. 1. Act on all of their choices and make Destiel canon, or 2. Kill one of them off for good. All of us know they’ll pick the horrible third option which is to keep denying it and writing in more things.
Anyways, enough about this. Let’s move on to Dean and Cas themselves. Most of the fandom can agree that Dean is probably bi. There’s been subtext everywhere, particularly memorable in 8x03 Everybody Hates Hitler, the scene with Aaron in the bar. Dean is known for bottling up his feelings and keeping things to himself, so why wouldn’t he with this? But it’s been going on for 10 YEARS LIKE WHAT??? The first ever scene they ever had together, 4x01 Lazarus Rising, there was somehow chemistry. Dean stabbed Cas and it still happened. They became much better friends, though, in season 5, with help of the fore mentioned 5x03 Free To Be You and Me. And we also have the glorious scene where Dean tells Cas “Don’t ever change.” and they way they look at each other is just so beautiful. They still weren’t close enough for Dean to react too much when Cas died in 5x22 Swan Song, but their relationship was built upon even more in season 6.
Season 6 was actually pretty Castiel heavy, which could’ve had something to do with this. Dean trusts Cas a lot by now, and while Bobby and Sam suspect Cas of working with Crowley, Dean believes that he would never betray them like that. Unfortunately, Cas did, but he seems way sadder about Deans lack of trust in him (after Cas “reveals” what he’s been doing) than he did in season 4, providing an outlook as to how they grew closer in a couple years.
By this point, Dean is grief stricken after Cas died in the lake, keeping his trenchcoat, having nightmares, and resorting to alcoholism. When Cas reappears with a wife, Dean looked reallly sad about it, and it super frustrated with Crazy!Cas at the end of the season. Also, we get Dean saying “I’d rather have you, cursed or not.” soooo yeah. Dean and Cas still work together to kill Dick, and both to go Purgaytory (and no I didn’t spell it wrong hehe).
After Cas disappears and Dean finds him, d’awwwwww the hug is so cute, and Benny looks so awkward in the background. Something else that we see happen in purgatory is Dean telling Cas, “Cas, buddy, I need you. I’m not leaving here without you.” Welllllll, Dean did leave without Cas. But! Cas returns and Dean probably definitely got a boner when Cas got “cleaned up.” And he remembers it as Cas not being able to hold on, but Cas actually let go. Dean chose to remember it like this for a reason. Also in whatever episode this is revealed in, Dean says “I don’t have to feel like crap for failing you, just like I fail every other God-foresaken thing I care about!” Thennnnn, there’s 8x17, Goodbye Stranger. Honestly, the whole thing speaks for itself. “We need you. I need you.” cut to cas breaking loose of Naomi’s control. Whaaaaaat? Why did that happen? According to writers, it wasn’t because of Dean. Yeahhhh, sure I bet it wasn’t. ALSO, Naomi making Cas kill thousands of Dean to prepare him for killing the real one, which he couldn’t even do.
Anyways, we can basically skip over all of season 9 because Cas was more of a plot device then a character, but there are two things I’d like to point out. One, Cas dying in 9x03 I’m No Angel. Awwwww the voice cracks when Dean is saying Cas and him being so sad ;-; also, just brokenly holding Cas’s head in his hands… Then whispering “come on, come on, come on.” As Ezekiel/Gadreel heals him again.
I guess this just about sums it all up, and I could write more if I wanted to, but I’m getting tired and honestly I can’t think anymore. Thanks for coming to my TED talk!
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