#and I like the PARALLELS (yes again) like with the groke and him saying he doesnt have time for her right now that was POWERFUL

[mittensmorgul]

1/2 It's funny to me how Dean's bisexuality is like a puzzle piece. Individually, it's easy to say that each moment means nothing, and I feel that that happens a lot. But put all the pieces together? You got a pattern. A complete picture. I also like to play "would it be weird?" or "Is it unique?" As applied to dean and cas's interactions. Would it be weird for Dean to act this way to Sam or look at him that way? If yes, it might be more than brotherly love he feels for Cas.

2/2 Or, is this action unique to Cas or has Dean done this for/to/with his other friends? If not, again, you might need to ask yourself if what Dean feels for Cas is not what he feels for Sam or his friends.

YES. THIS. And it’s this pattern, this complete picture, that we’ve put together and tacked little shorthand notes to, like, “PIE VS CAKE” or “BI PLAID” or “GAY VEGETABLE WATER.” Because there is so much behind each of those shorthand notes that we’ve all discussed and analyzed and boiled down to these simple sounding concepts.

And I know this isn’t directly about your messages, and I promise to get to that, because I have yet another “test” to be applied to these situations that I find useful... but I gotta say this bit first. :)

This applies to SO MUCH meta analysis, and how we discuss and refer to VAST concepts that have been meta’d into the ground over the years. I’ve recently run into misunderstandings with folks discovering some of the old meta during the hellatus, when I’ve started tagging things with old meta tags again. Because *I* understand the shorthand, because I watched all these conversations happen in real-time over a period of years and have sort of internalized these concepts the same way we’ve internalized the bi!Dean shorthand concepts. So I’ve seen this happen in entirely unrelated bits of meta, so I know it’s not JUST an understanding of the bigger picture of Dean’s characterization. Which I found really fascinating, and it’s a good reminder that what I’ve accepted as unambiguous and stuck a bunch of weird shorthand labels on, others might have difficulty groking the much wider meaning behind.

Okay, that having been said... You’re absolutely right. Individual instances might be argued away, or rationalized out of context, or ignored as an anomaly, but the fact it keeps happening over and over and over again... at what point does it start to look like an exercise in futility to try and find alternate explanations for so much evidence? Yeah. :P

Would it be weird for Dean to make Sam a mixtape? Is it unique for Dean to openly discuss his feelings with Cas?

So in addition to “would it be weird” and “is it unique,” I’d like to offer, “How would it look if Cas was a woman?” Which is a horrifying proposition, but heteronormativity is a thing. For some people, this actually helps overcome it.

How would it look if Dean stared into a woman’s eyes like that? How would it look if Dean had been so single-minded worrying about a woman the way he worried about Cas in 12.20? How would it look if Dean had placed numerous phone calls and left numerous messages for a woman?

Or given a woman this look:

or this one:

or this one:

I mean... All three of those would make me feel HIGHLY uncomfortable if they were directed at Sam, so there’s your first test passed. :P

These reactions aren’t particularly unique, per se, but really, who else has Dean ever reacted to in even remotely similar ways?

I mean, example #1 up there kinda maybe looks a little bit like how he reacted to Lisa after she’d been possessed by a demon and been forced to stab herself. But it’s not an exact match. He was a little bit busy trying to keep her alive, trying to get Ben to help get them all out of there, and feeling guilty for having brought her into this mess by her association with him in the first place. So... I guess this one can also be filed under “is it unique,” because very. :P

Example #2 I’ve seen a parallel gif to Dean admiring a waitress in the opening scenes of 1.03. So I’m calling that one for “would it be weird,” even if it doesn’t fall under “is it unique.” But apply test #3, “what would it look like if Dean reacted to a woman that way,” and we have our answer:

DEAN: You know, Sam, we are allowed to have fun once in a while.DEAN points to WENDY walking away; she's wearing short shorts.DEAN: That's fun.[...]SAM rolls his eyes. WENDY walks by, distracting DEAN.

Yes, she distracted him into a move that’s essentially identical to the infamous boner scene. So tell me how it’s intended to convey something different when he’s reacting to Cas than when he’s reacting to Wendy?

Example #3 there, Dean’s seeing Cas for the first time in at least several weeks. Dean had stood outside staring at him through the window, debating whether or not (or maybe HOW) to approach Cas, and he eventually decided to try and surprise him. Meanwhile, Misha had been given the instruction to play this entire scene as “a jilted lover.” So, I mean... I don’t understand how what they’re portraying is in any way unclear. :P

The entire episode would’ve been creepy if Sam had been in Cas’s role. Like, horrifyingly creepy. So it definitely passes the “would it be weird” test. The “is it unique” goes pretty much without saying. But in this episode, if Cas had been replaced in this storyline with a woman, there would’ve been a sex scene where we got the fanfic gap.

And I said at the top of this post that I personally DETEST the “what would it look like if Dean did this with a woman” argument, but it does seem to put things into perspective for the recalcitrant heteronormatives.

And these are just three examples off the top of my head. Put in context of the entirety of their interactions, and yeah...

Oh, and since I mentioned Dean’s reactions at the beginning of 12.20, have a few bonus shots of Dean acting in ways that are unique over Cas:

Not to mention calling his mom just to talk because he’s “spun out” over some things (i.e. the thing he had tried to talk about with Sam, but Sam had nothing to offer him that helped... Dean literally called his mom to talk about his feelings over the whole Cas situation because he’s that worried... I mean...)

#dean winchester is bilingual #destiel #and yeah all these examples i used are ABOUT Cas #but i could've pulled examples about other dudes #we all just thought of a list of at least a dozen different dudes dean's interacted with over the years right? #i think the whole point of this post is that we no longer have to spell out the entire history of this every time we make a new post #pointing out yet another detail to add to the vast pile of details we've already assembled here :P #which only serves to make each successive round of 'but it could be platonic!' seem more and more ridiculous #sure out of context of all the other 'it could be platonic!' moments that one incident might not seem terribly significant #but it's not just that one incident... it's hundreds of them #you have to be living in a very very deep well of denial to think it's even remotely credible to explain away ALL of them #Anonymous