#how is this queerbait? how is this the same as destiel or johnlock or whatever other tumblr ship

[youcannevertrustastark]

cant believe people are actually comparing the s2 ending of good omens to straight up queerbait… do you not have any media literacy?

[awed-frog]

Hey! Thought I'd ask you your opinion on this. I've seen some scary tinhatting from Destiel shippers recently. It reminds me of what happened to the Johnlock fandom. I'd love it to go canon, but am starting to see why people find this side of the fandom crazy. I've seen nastiness toward even other Destiel shippers bc they're so primed for negativity, making up all sorts of outlandish excuses for the writers, saying it will be canon even if it isn't. The backlash if it doesn't happen worries me.

It won’t happen. In my opinion, it stopped happening a long time ago, when TPTB realized lots of people weren’t finding it funny and outlandish at all. I think to them (or: to those who counted), it was supposed to have Chandler & Joey vibes. The classic Odd Couple trope - they fight like an old married couple and would die for each other, but of course they’re not gay. 

(Of course not.)

And I’m still convinced the big problem there was that Cas took over Anna’s story. For whatever reason, Anna didn’t work with Dean. Maybe Julie didn’t click with Jensen. Maybe TPTB got worried about fans hating the whole concept. So everything about her storyline was given to Cas, and instead of “Sam + sexy demon” and “Dean + sexy angel”, Dean got a hunting buddy. But the romantic tropes that had been written for Anna remained, and I think a lot of people - screenwriters, actors, crew - played them up for laughs. Some were even serious, I don’t know. I don’t really think so, to be honest. And when they realized their ‘joke’ had placed them at the top of every Google search for queerbaiting, they still took their sweet time to scale it back and kept the whole thing as ambiguous as possible, because Destiel shippers were spending a lot of time and money on the show and they didn’t want that to end.

That’s it.

It’s ugly, but that’s it.

People get a salary off these things, and people get rich. The only thing that matters is to keep people watching.

As for the Destiel fandom - yeah, some of them are nasty, and the reason I got out. It’s a human law or something: “Every group of people will sooner or later include idiots and bullies”. And I have no doubt that they’ll try to insist Destiel is canon, has gone canon, or was always canon until the bitter end. For some of them, it’s existential. I know how it is, because it was the same for me. Sometimes your life is so hard and shitty, you fall into a fandom or a character headfirst and you get lost. But that is no excuse for not seeing reality, or, much worse, hurting others. 

There is a very good chance Cas will be killed off tonight, and even if he doesn’t, I really don’t think Destiel will go canon. To me, Supernatural has already become one of those shows I can’t even rewatch anymore because the ending (and final seasons, plural) are so very disappointingly bad. But if Destiel makes you happy, don’t give it up. There will always be fics, and art, and a lot of great people in the fandom you can connect with. Just remember to pick whatever you enjoy and use the block and blacklisting buttons without remorse. 

Ultimately, every story is what it is; but the good news is, you’ll soon fall in love with a different one, and a different one after that. That’s what human animals are like: there is always a next story. It’s how our hearts and souls work.

[streetcornertwoam]

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