winchestersingerautorepair:

Have we talked enough about how the erasure of Dean’s queerness (and all that entailed) is the main reason the finale ended up being such a complete failure?

I really feel like we don’t talk about this enough; because the simple fact that this could have happened is testament to something really impressive.

Okay everyone, take a moment, let’s meditate on this. The story was so dependent on Dean’s queerness that its erasure caused the entire show to crash and burn. So much importance was placed in his bisexuality that it became foundational to the entire plot. This story was written, for seasons, to integrate a queer read of Dean, and an understanding of him as in love with Cas, with the very core of the story at large. That’s how powerful his identity was made.

For years, Dean Winchester was PURPOSEFULLY WRITTEN this way. Not only did this writing team construct a narrative that contributed to a queer interpretation of the character, they made a product of his identity – his love for Cas – so central to everything in the story that its removal caused the whole thing to crumble. That’s the level of commitment here. That’s how dedicated these creatives were to bi!Dean and Destiel – they didn’t pander, or half ass it, they literally made these two fundamentally intertwined concepts into complex, seasons-long well-rendered story arcs that tied the whole show together.

Sure, they didn’t get away with it. Sure, that effort made queerness the thread to be pulled that would unravel the rest of the story. Yes, they likely knew the risk, and knew that they were staking the failure or success of the entire franchise on whether or not the C/W would get cold feet, like it so often does. Having the story written the way it was, with so much value and importance placed in queer love, and then watching it be torn to shreds before our eyes was traumatic, and deeply hurtful. It could’ve been avoided. They writers could have taken the safe route. But I, for one, am glad they didn’t.

This was brave. Seeing it destroyed was so painful because the thing that had been made was so beautiful. It was brave, to take something as old and steeped in negative cultural history as S*pernatural, and transforming it into a platform where queer stories could be told with care. Of course it never reached the visibility of other on screen queer love stories, but creators have to adapt and work in the spaces they find themselves under the restrictions placed on them. Against the odds, something beautiful and well developed and deeply meaningful and queer was cultivated in this show.

What was done here was brave, and demonstrates a love for the story and a dedication to queer representation the likes of which I’ve never seen in a modern era – certainly not in this setting. This was unique; it was different from other cases of queer erasure and baiting, because what WAS accomplished was done so through clever storytelling, stellar writing, years of planning and laying groundwork, rebellion against restrictions, pushing the envelope, and demanding more.

This is a legacy I could not be more proud of. This is work that values me, that values us. We were made something remarkable, and I refuse to allow its having been stolen away last minute to harm the beauty of what we had before. I won’t let it be tainted. I will not forget, or undervalue the power of a story that made Dean’s bisexuality, and his love for a male presenting character, so essential that when it was stripped away, the heart of the show was stripped away with it. Just because this attempt failed doesn’t mean it didn’t mean anything – it doesn’t mean it didn’t have an impact. It was important. I see it still. I understand it.

I know what was tried here, and I know it didn’t work, and I’m still endlessly grateful to have had the privilege to watch it be attempted. It’s given me a mission, to ensure that the next time a team of creatives tries to tell our stories somewhere they weren’t welcome before, they won’t face the same roadblocks we did. Dean is bisexual. His identity is so powerful, its erasure took the rest of the story with it.

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