#destiel target audience

[deancaslover]

My gishwhes books! Yes it was called Gishwhes before. I participated from 2015 to 2017 but I had to leave because I had no money, these books were a gift from my gishwhes friends, I couldn't afford them myself.

[wellwatersurprise]

dean gets pranked 4k no censors

based on that trend which crawled out of the dreaded clock app that wouldn’t leave my head

[as per the usual, click for better quality]

here’s the unseparated version of the first page. if that interests you.

[flowers-in-the-basement]

okay okay this is not what I usually post but I NEED to get there so out there or else I will go insane :(

One of my friends (they are a full grown adult btw, they don't get excuses) headcannons Dean as transmasc okay, cool. OR SO I THOUGHT because they think that when cas pulled Dean out of hell he was removed with a amab body. Because that's what his soul looks like???

That feels vaguely shallow to me?? That they assume that all trans men would rather be cis?? It's so weird and they do NOT get it.

[femslashspuffy]

I've been having a strange week with my grandparents in town

[bi4bisamjess]

freak fem!dean is real and she can and will hurt you and also scream in your face fuck gosh yeah and she’s loud

[malewife-cas]

ugh i love supernatural (i hate it)

[queermania]

It is not enough for me to watch your spn Bastille amv. I want to crumple it up and shove it in my mouth. I want to consume it.

sprinkle some rosemary on it. it'll help bring out the other flavors.

[mean-vampyre]

Man next to me in the bus is watching 4x10

[castielssuperhell]

scrolling through my own blog and thinking "i am the funniest person alive"

[worldsokayestdragon]

me explaining to my mom that sometimes characters are gay and the writers just don't know it, but I know, because I know them better than the writers ever will

[youve-always-had-me-cas]

Supernatural 11x23 - Alpha and Omega // Area 11 - Cassandra (pt II)

[orionsangel86]

There is something about proudly proclaiming a show "tumblrista catnip" that makes me emotional.

Something about how for years tumblrinas were ridiculed by show creators.

Something about Supernatural having a meta episode set at a convention with all the weirdo fans that made the main characters uncomfortable. Something something about Becky and the message that fangirls are gross and obsessive.

Something about Sherlock and the way fans were portrayed as crazy obsessive nutjobs for trying to figure out how he faked his death.

Something about creators mocking fandoms, dismissing them as freaks. Something about queer people not being welcome to engage in their creations because "why do you have to make everything gay?"

Something about the malicious culture of queerbaiting throughout the 2000s/2010s, followed by Bury Your Gays tropes across the media landscape because hell, you should be grateful we even gave you queer characters to begin with - and everyone dies in our show! You ain't special!

Something about Destiel questions being banned from conventions...

And then...

Something instead about Good Omens, and letting the story adapt naturally, embracing the fanbase and leaning into the fanservice.

Something about Our Flag Means Death, and the genuine outpouring of love and affection between cast, crew, and fandom that culminated in an explosion of fanworks that were never once mocked or deemed gross or wrong.

Something about Sandman, and staunchly digging in their heels on the queerness of it all, refusing to give in to the homophobes and instead avidly mocking THEM on social media rather than us.

Something about the writers hearing about fandoms favourite ships and excitedly stating that YES! We DID lean into that because it happened naturally and made sense.

Something about a firefighter coming out as bisexual after 7 seasons...

So yeah, something about a new high quality show made FOR US. By creators that love US. Respect US, and WANT our love.

Something about US FINALLY being a target audience for the best shows being made on TV now.

Tumblrista catnip. Creators saying "we made this for you. You are important. Your voices have been heard."

It just... all got a bit overwhelming for a moment there.

[transgendercastiel]

uh yeah I have a target audience it’s called freaks and misfits. And community mutuals willing to scroll through 1282637 destiel posts a day

[mildlyfunctional]

It took over two years, but I finally finished watching the entirety of Supernatural. I took a week to process some thoughts before foisting them upon Tumblrland, so here we go!

I did not expect to like it. Specifically the ending.

The original reason this Supernatural rewatch began was to see Castiel's confession in context. I wanted to see what drove Tumblr's primary form of newscasting, what got the Supernatural fandom back from the depths of superhell, and thrust the bury your gays queerbaiting discussion to the forefront of every YouTube video essay—and to potentially seek justice for my first ever gay ship, good ol' Destiel. It is for this reason that I wholeheartly did not expect leave 15 seasons of this fucking show feeling content.

This was a hard task. I wanted to stop so badly. I don't think I could tell you a single season I liked the plot of. HOWEVER, it did teach a valuable lesson: if you're looking for good representation in Supernatural, you're looking in the wrong place. This applies to even to show's representations of itself.

Supernatural should have ended 11 seasons before it did, and yet, much like nearly every character in the show, it just keeps on coming. Season 12 nearly did me in, but oh? Season 13-15? It was worth it to get to the seasons where the target demographic was literally anyone who would watch the show. The main plot? Nope. The filler? Yes. I loved so many episodes from these seasons! Scoobynatural, Advanced Thanatology, Tombstone, The Scorpion and the Frog, Various & Sundry Villains, Optimism, Peace of Mind, Atomic Monsters, Golden Time, Last Call, The Heroes' Journey, The Gamblers, Last Holiday.

Cass's confession made me absolutely bawl my eyes out for the remaining episodes of Supernatural (I was a blubbering little ball, throwing in a good few mutterings about Our Flag Means Death along the way) However, in the end, it just felt right that it should end this way. Not in terms of good queer representation, not in terms of my love of Destiel, but this is what the characters each needed.

Death means nothing on Supernatural because of the ways characters need each other to keep going. Cass telling Dean how he feels means he can let go. Dean getting permission from Sam to stop fighting death means he can let go. Sam living out a full life away from hunting means he can let go. All the characters have what they need so we as an audience can let go.

As much as I will still very much struggle to sit through the main plot points of Supernatural, the characters will always have a place in my heart. They just couldn't die, couldn't fully fit the original format of the show, and just kept finding family (and trauma) in literally everything. I'm glad they're resting well.

I final note I absolutely had to include: DEAN IS SO BISEXUAL THE ENTIRE SHOW! I somehow thought "oh maybe we've been exaggerating this". No, no. I—I... I have problems now. Problems that can only be resolved with getting back into the Supernatural fandom.

Thank you for a wild ride Supernatural. Destiel forever

[midnightsilver]

What is a Bang?🤔😄

➡️ Never done a bang before but curious about joining in?

Here’s everything you need to know about what a bang is and how they work.

⭐️ Bangs are creative fandom events run by fans for fans, and they are based around a theme: a favourite character, pairing, setting or concept. So there is a bang that is for works all about Crowley, or works centred around wincest or destiel, works with a horror twist can include any spn character, or works in an historical setting, or works inspired by classic movies or song lyrics. The list goes on. There are many different flavours of bangs to choose from.

⭐️ There are 2 main types of bang. Regular and Reverse. In a regular Bang authors sign up to write a story around the advertised theme and they are given a deadline by which they must complete a good chunk of their story. Once the deadline arrives and they are about 80% completed writing (variable depending on the bang) authors submit a synopsis of their story to the bang moderators. This is an overview of the plot, any warnings and the story rating. All the story summaries are then displayed anonymously to the artists who signed up to the bang. It’s anonymous so that artists will choose a story just based on a plot or ideas that interest them, not on who the writer is. On Claims Day the artists submit a list of their top 3 (or 5 etc depending on the bang) choices. The moderators pair up the artists with an author on a first come first served basis, by order of their top choice. This process is repeated (and maybe opened to public claims from artists not already signed up to the bang) until every author in the bang has been assigned an artist who is interested in their story. After that the artist and the author pair are given a posting date and they work together to create art for the story. Some authors still have more writing to do and might take creative input from their artist as they start talking over what art is to be drawn for the story. Some authors are finished writing by claims and it’s more a case of giving the artist the draft and waiting for a picture. It’s up to individual pairs how much collaboration they want to do and how much back and forth they have. So if you are looking to make new friends this can be a great way to meet people but if you are more of an introvert that’s okay too, you can just write or draw and keep your partner advised of your progress. On posting day the author and the artist both post their works and links to their partners works. The bang moderators also post adverts for the works on the bang page.

➡️ The benefit of a bang for an author is that they get free art 😄. The artist might get collaborative input but it’s not guaranteed, but they do get to read a new story about a favourite topic before anyone else 😁. And both benefit from each partner advertising the others work come posting day. Plus the event organiser should also do extensive advertising for each artwork and fic submitted. Bangs often have followings of readers who enjoy the bang theme will check out several of the works from the event - so by being in a bang you have a ready made target audience for your works 😄.

➡️ Cons of being in a bang: you need to work to a deadline. For some people this is good motivation, for others it’s just added pressure. You can withdraw from a bang if an irl issue comes up but you need to keep your bang partner and the moderators informed, not just ghost. The other con is that you need to work with a partner which might not be easy if you are an introvert, but mostly in a bang you are working with people who enjoy the same topic as you do, so while it’s still a bit of a lottery who you end up paired with it’s likely that you at least have some things in common. The moderators are also there to help if you aren’t getting on with your partner. They can find Pinch Hitters to step in and take over if someone has to drop out for any reason. And finally the other hard part of a bang is that even if you get all your work done early you still have to wait for your assigned posting date! No instant gratification here unfortunately, but on the plus side there will be plenty of other bang followers who are also eagerly awaiting your posting date! 😁

⭐️ So thats bangs! 😄 and I mentioned that there are also Reverse Bangs out there. In those the artists start off by drawing a picture for the theme of the bang. The artist adds a short synopsis of the idea that led to their art, plus any personal do-not-want’s that they have and the artwork is displayed anonymously in a claims gallery. Then on claims day the authors choose a picture to write a story for by submitting their top choices on a first come first served basis. The moderators pair up the artists and authors that way. Then both partners post their works on the given posting day, same as in a regular bang. Many of the bangs out there alternate between doing regular bangs then reverse bangs, so it’s up to you which style of bang you wanna try.

➡️ if you haven’t tried a bang before I’d definitely advise every creative person to give it a go. Bangs are for all levels of writers and artists and are a good way to get more involved in fandom with likeminded people.

Resources for finding a bang for you:

⭐️⭐️ The Events and Challenges page in the Spn Fanart Community - this is aimed at artists but gives links to bang pages that authors can follow for next time if the author deadline has already passed,

⭐️⭐️ The Spn Bang Calendar - a calendar view display of many upcoming bangs

⭐️⭐️ The Big Bang Blog Project - @thebigbangblogproject is a multifandom page that promotes all sorts of various bangs, events and creative challenges.