Destielgate

Event
Event:	Destielgate, Destiel's (it's complicated) canonisation, SPNgate
Participants:	Destiel fandom, Supernatural fandom, Supernatural Cast and Crew (Misha Collins, Jensen Ackles etc)
Date(s):	5th November 2020-Present (Still ongoing)
Type:	Fandom Occurrence, Queerbaiting, Bury Your Gays
Fandom:	Supernatural
URL:
Click here for related articles on Fanlore.

This article documents a currently unfolding situation within the fannish realm. Content may change quickly, and the page structure itself may undergo major revision. New details are very welcome.

Destielgate is a name given to a series of events and occurrences in Supernatural fandom, beginning 5th November 2020 with the canonization of Destiel. This canonization was celebrated by some fans, but the unrequited love confession was controversial for other fans and led to renewed complaints of queerbaiting and homophobia. Destielgate extended past Supernatural's controversial final episode, with many fans referring to the event as Supernatural Season 16.

It marked a period of increased engagement by fans. Supernatural and Destiel trended regularly on social media and blogging platforms as fans shared updates, theories, memes and shitposts. There was a noticeable increase in the production of SPN and Destiel centric fanfiction and fanart - with more than 4000 Destiel fanfics posted on Ao3 between 6th November 2020 and January 2021.

5th November 2020

On this date, Season 15 Episode 18 made Destiel canon, with Cas proclaiming his (unrequited) love for Dean. This development produced an explosion of fan reaction on sites like Tumblr and Twitter. On the second day of vote counting in the US presidential election, and with the result of that election still uncertain, Supernatural and Destiel began to trend on social media and blogging sites around the world.

Many shippers were unhappy with the canonization as the series killed off Castiel immediately after his love confession. There was discourse and debate about this narrative, but there were also many memes that highlighted the Bury Your Gays trope by referencing gays going to superhell or turbohell. On November 5th and 6th, Destiel memes proliferated on Tumblr, often referencing current events and other SuperWhoLock fandoms. V for Vendetta was also referenced due to that fandom's connection to November the 5th.

It's also arguable whether this can be considered a true 'canonization' of the ship at all, due to the fact that the scene consists of one character confessing unrequited love and then immediately dying, as has been pointed out by many fans.

[maximilian-desoto:]
this is the first time in years that tumblr has felt organic. No I will not elaborate

[shepardcommander]
no one had a “memes for if putin resigns during supernatural canon gays during the us presidential election” folder prepped ahead of time

Fanart by Lantaniel on Tumblr joking that canonically queer characters like Charlie and Castiel are sent to the "queer character afterlife".

Destiel, Putin and Georgia

The airing of, and subsequent reaction to, 15x18 happened at the same time as the spreading of a false rumour involving the resignation of Putin. Because of this, memes and jokes spread around sites such as Tumblr, implying that the two were linked and that Putin was resigning either because he was a Destiel shipper who disliked the confession scene's handling, or because of homophobia, in that he disliked Destiel becoming canon. Many people appeared to find out about Putin's (false) resignation through these memes, which then lead to more memes.

The response also took place during the period of time in which the results of the 2020 United States presidential election were still up in the air, specifically around the results for the state of Georgia. This also lead to memes both relating these two things to Destiel, as well as the general absurdity of that night. Some fans used the tag SuperPutinElection to share posts and memes related to these events.

Turbohell

• yourfaveisgoingtosuperhell - Tumblr blog where folks can request characters that are 'going to Super Hell next for commiting gay crimes!'

Reaction Memes

Both fans and non-fans were quick to point out the contrast between the facial expressions of the two characters in the confession scene. Many memes drew attention to the difference between Castiel's emotional confession and Dean's less outwardly emotional response to it.

The Spanish Dub

On November 25, fans discovered that a Latin American Spanish dub of the show included Dean reciprocating in response to Castiel's confession, saying "(Y) Yo a ti, Cas" ("(And) I you, Cas"). This led to widespread confusion, celebration, and speculation among fans about edited dialogue and cut scenes in the episode, with many fans believing that the dub must have been based on an earlier version of the script or scene, which was later changed. The hashtags #TheySilencedYou and #TheySilencedThem began trending on Twitter, with outraged fans demanding that Dean's canonical bisexual identity (and the reciprocation of his love for Castiel) be acknowledged and not suppressed.

The Spanish dub was seen by some in SPN fandom as evidence of a conspiracy theory which was already gaining traction in fandom. This is a fan theory which asserts that the writers intended to make Destiel a fully canonical and requited pairing, but this decision was overturned with last minute script rewrites and cut scenes. This conspiracy theory is often referred to as Destielgate, and much fannish activity has been focused on finding evidence that Desitel was supposed to be endgame.

Fans also made a number of jokes and memes about the fact that Destiel was "only canon in Spanish", with the Tumblr is-destiel-canon-yet posting:

Is Destiel Canon Yet?

11/25/20: Sí.

Later that day, Misha Collins addressed the commentary on the Spanish dub, saying a "rogue translator" added their own incorrect dialogue, and that there was "no conspiracy within the network, staff, or cast of #SPN to minimize or erase representation from the narrative". This led to more confusion and frustration from many fans who felt as though Collins was minimising the extent to which Castiel's immediate death after confessing to Dean played into the Bury Your Gays trope, regardless of whether the Spanish dub was or wasn't official. Fans also expressed their scepticism that a professional dubber would be allowed to "go rogue" on the translation and have it aired with no-one objecting or noticing the discrepancy. Others, however, pointed out that "rogue" translators changing dialogue on their own was possible and has happened in the foreign dubbing of other American television shows. German fans of The Simpsons even created a website to document such instances in the German dubbing of their show.

Once again, many memes and jokes have been created in reference to the Spanish dub, both for the Supernatural fandom and for others.

Other Dubs

Rumors of other foreign dubs also having Dean reciprocate Castiel's confession soon surfaced. The most prominent of these was a recording of what was supposedly leaked footage of the Italian dub. The footage was later revealed to be fake and its creator explained in a Tumblr post why and how they created it.

• French Dub

Finale

General opinion of the finale appears to be have been mixed, with the majority of SPN fandom underwhelmed or disappointed. Regarding Destiel, the episode was criticised for Castiel having seemingly been forgotten about. Memes about how the car went to heaven, yet Castiel went to superhell arose.

Fans were also critical of the narrative choices made in the finale - namely Dean dying on a hunt and Sam giving up hunting to live a suburban life. Many fans pointed out that ending negated all their experiences and character growth in the 15 seasons of SPN, as both brothers would have made the same choices and suffered similar fates if Dean had not sought out his brother's help in season 1 episode 1. There was also criticism for the manner in which Dean died, and memes that he died of tetanus subsequently arose.

Fans were also critical of production in the finale episode. Old Sam's wig, and the vampires in clown masks were two points often ridiculed. There was an acknowledgement within fandom that the interruption to production caused by Covid-19 would have to result in changes to ensure all actors and staff were safe on set, but that didn't prevent fans from been disappointed by unresolved storylines and baffling narrative choices.

Mishapocalypse 2.0

The first Mishapocalypse took place on Tumblr on April Fools Day, 2013. On that day, SPN fans on social media switched their avatars to a particular photo of a grim-faced Misha Collins. In subsequent years, there were fans engaged in Mishapocalypse meme sharing on April Fools Day, but it was generally a much smaller event, with fewer fans taking part and fans outside SPN fandom unlikely to know it was happening.

In November and December 2020, efforts were made to revive Mishapocalypse. This culminated in Mishapocalypse 2.0 taking place, primarily on Tumblr, on 31st December 2020.

Destiel Wedding

Main article: Destiel Wedding

Memes

A wide variety of memes erupted following November 5th, many mocking the responses and facial expressions present in the confession scene. These include:

-A riff on the widely known Tumblr post "Do you love the color of the sky", with the large gradient image interspersed with various images corresponding to the events of November 5th. These include an electoral map of Nevada, photo-shopped pictures of Putin googling Destiel, screenshots of an article seemingly announcing a fifth season of Sherlock, characters from My Hero Academia following the confirmation of a long-suspected fandom belief, and a cropped picture of Castiel's face at the moment of his confession.

    "The whole thing is mildly disturbing. I've reblogged it three times." -Tumblr user @hairasuntouchedaspoartoftheamazon

-Fake footage of Castiel apparently going to "superhell", which is really just an edited clip from a Doctor Who episode with Castiel superimposed on top of it. A large number of people who had not actually seen the episode believed this to be real footage, causing widespread confusion.

[1]

    "just had to take a fucking second and close my eyes because i remembered that on the night of november 5th tumblr had convinced me, an outsider, that this was an actual gif of Castiel Supernatural being sent to mega fruit hell" - Tumblr user @4x01

Metafandom

Given the wide ranging impact the events of Destielgate had on sites like Tumblr and Twitter, a metafandom has arisen.

Other Fannish Activities

• Fan Activism:
  • The Castiel Project raised over $60,000 for The Trevor Project, using the tagline - You Deserve a Happy Ending.
• Fan Pilgrimages: During SPN's final season, there is evidence some fans sought out older Desiel fics to experience the beginning of this fandom as the series neared its end. (blink), the first Destiel fic on Ao3, saw renewed fannish engagement following the canonization of Destiel, and again following the series finale.

Example Fanworks

Other

• The great chronicles of season 16, a timeline of Destielgate events compiled by Tumblr user spn-season-16-chronicles. The archived link here is current as of 18 December 2020, with this tumblr regularly providing updated timelines.

Further Reading

• Supernatural actually made Destiel canon(ish): The realizing of the infamous ship sent fans into a 2012 time vortex, a Polygon article by Petrana Radulovic (Nov 6)
• 'Supernatural' fans are making 'Destiel' memes after the latest episode appears to confirm a long-awaited romance, an Insider article by Palmer Haasch (Nov 6)
• 2020 Said Gay Rights, SUPERNATURAL Said “Hold My Beer”, a Nerdist article by Shelly Jay (Nov 9)
• The Supernatural Finale Aired, And Tumblr Exploded, a video by YouTuber and former Supernatural fan Sarah Z which attempted to explain the events of Destielgate for a non-fannish audience (Nov 30)
• Supernatural and the Trap of Queer Tragedy, an article "Reflecting on queer storytelling, representation, and the cost of a failed escape" by Deidre T. (12 February 2021).

Archives & Links

• Destiel is Canon at Know Your Meme
• Dean/Castiel page at Super-Wiki includes a summary of Destielgate events