Dean/Castiel

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Cas fails to understand personal space in 5.03 Free to Be You and Me
Destiel manip by irensupernatural

You know, we know what it is, what’s going on. We don’t talk about it. The actors don’t, Jensen and I don’t. But we’re all perfectly aware of how the relationship is, the writers are completely aware of how it’s being written. It may be unspoken but that doesn’t mean it’s not there or not true.

– Misha Collins, Salute to Supernatural Chicago 2012, Meet and Greet


Dean/Castiel slash fans pair the characters Dean Winchester and Castiel in a romantic and/or sexual relationship. This pairing is most commonly referred to as Destiel.

From Castiel's first appearance in 4.01 Lazarus Rising, fandom saw the on-screen intensity between Dean Winchester and Castiel and took it further. It soon became a very popular pairing, with the first Dean/Castiel LiveJournal community appearing on 19th September 2008, the day after "Lazarus Rising" first aired. Its tagline is "Groped By An Angel". In November 2013 the community had 7116 members.

The first fics posted on Livejournal featuring Dean/Castiel were:

The pairing soon became an OTP and this has led to fierce shipping wars between Destiel fans and those for whom Sam/Dean or Wincest is their OTP.

See also Sam/Castiel or Sassy for information about Sam and Castiel.

Numerous jokes alluding to the bond between Castiel and Dean have been made on the show.

Dean: Don't normally see you off leash. Where's your boss?
Uriel: Castiel? Oh he's, he's not here. You see he has this weakness, he likes you.

– Dean and Uriel, 4.10 Heaven and Hell

Cas, not for nothing, but the last time someone looked at me like that...I got laid.

– Dean Winchester, 5.18 Point of No Return

Sam: So what, you like him better, or something?
Castiel: Dean and I do share a more profound bond. I wasn't going to mention it.

– Sam and Castiel, 6.03 The Third Man

Sorry, you have me confused with the other angel. You know, the one in the dirty trench coat who's in love with you.

– Balthazar, 6.17 My Heart Will Go On

Ask him, he was your boyfriend first!

– Meg to Dean, 7.23 Survival of the Fittest

There are visual moments that are taken as Destiel references. In 8.02 What's Up, Tiger Mommy?, when Dean finds Castiel in Purgatory he hugs him, and then strokes his scruffy beard (Source). Later when Castiel returns to Earth in 8.07 A Little Slice of Kevin, he shaves his beard and restores his suits and tie, and cleans his trenchcoat in the process. Fandom was amused that when he appears freshly scrubbed, Dean appears to shift uncomfortably in his seat, and press his hand over his crotch. Watch the "Boner alert" gif here.

There is a canonical deep friendship between the Winchesters, particularly Dean and Castiel. He has been referred to by the boys as family on numerous occasions, and by Dean as both brother and friend.

Castiel is usually written as topping when he’s being a powerful angel, or as a bottom when the fic focuses on his sexual inexperience, especially losing his virginity to Dean. For more on these roles see Top/Bottom.

Like all slash fictions, stories featuring Dean and Castiel in a relationship may cover any genre or kink including Future Fic, Pre-Series Fic, Crossover, Angst, Deathfic, Crack, Post-Apocalypse, Curtain Fic and Kid Fic. Hurt-Comfort especially involving whumped!Castiel and the appearance of the Magical Healing Cock are especially popular, as are and stories where Castiel discovers human emotions and sexual feelings for the first time. In AU fics, Castiel may be human rather than an angel.

Sometimes the union of Dean and Castiel in Fanfiction results in Mpreg or Eggpreg, as it can be seen as an inter-species union too.

Sam: I don't understand.

Dean: Me neither.
Sam: I mean, shouldn't it be... Deastiel ?
Dean: Really ? That's your issue with this ?

Sam: (smirks) No, of course it's not my issue. You know... How about Sastiel ? Samstiel ?

– Sam Winchester and Dean Winchester, 10.05 Fan Fiction

In the 200th episode 10.05 Fan Fiction, Destiel was mentioned. The girls playing Dean and Castiel in the musical are actually a couple, and Marie tells Dean that the play does "explore the nature of 'Destiel' in Act Two" and adds "You can't spell subtext without s-e-x." At this point Dean (or is it Jensen?) breaks the fourth wall and gives an annoyed look to the viewer. Sam is rather amused by it all and wonders about different ship names for both Dean and Castiel and himself and Cas. While Dean has said throughout the episode that he doesn't agree with Marie's interpretation of the Supernatural story, in his final rallying speech to the cast he reiterates his difference of opinion, but that the show is Marie's interpretation and that everyone should go out there and "kick it in the ass."

  • Destiel - a documentary exploring the appeal and power of the Destiel ship

Nuances in ship naming

The first online communities around the pairing carried the pairing name Dean/Castiel, as it took about a season for the ship name Destiel to universally accepted. In the early days, some fans also used Deastiel or Dastiel. Fans of the ship are sometimes called Destielers.

Overtime, as the shipping wars with Bronly fans intensified, pejoratives were used for the fans such as Destihellers. Fans opposed to the Destiel ship would often post hate on the Destiel tag on Tumblr, which lead some fans to post under the tag deancas instead. This lead to an increased uptake in the use of "DeanCas" as a ship name. DeanCas is also sometimes used to denote platonic, or at least non sexual, fanworks. See also brOTP.

Fans who strongly believed the ship should be canonical as a form of queer representation, were often accused of fetishising queer relationships, and in response they sought to emphasize that they were interested in the whole relationship and not only the sexual aspects. Some of these fans use "deancas" as a preference. However many fans see this as reinforcing the opposition to Destiel and making it synonymous only with porn.

On Archive Of Our Own the fic tag is Destiel redirects to Castiel/Dean Winchester, however the tag destiel is often also used with a modifier eg kinky Destiel, domestic Destiel, fluffy Destiel.

Destiel outside the Show

But I don’t like the characterization of teasing around Destiel or around any kind of homoerotic subtext that might appear around the brothers or whatever as queer baiting. I think that that’s really unfair. Because I don’t think that – well, first of all that’s sort of a new and strange term to me, but I don’t think that’s what’s going on. I also don’t think that same kind of aspersion would be cast toward someone who is teasing a heterosexual relationship, like the tension that builds between two male and female series regular characters on any given show that’s never consummated. I understand where they’re coming from, but I don’t think it’s a fair characterization either.

– Misha Collins, Source

Misha Collins mentioned fanfic and Dean/Castiel slash at several conventions. At the Salute to Supernatural Vancouver 2009, he said he'd heard about "Dean/Castiel/Pie fic". At Collectormania London 2009, he said he'd read some slash fanfic but "stopped at the part where Cas choked... on someone's cock."

Salute to Supernatural Vancouver 2010: Jensen was asked about fan videos depicting Dean and Castiel as lovers, to which he responded with: "Sorry man, not what the show's about."

Salute to Supernatural Toronto 2011: When asked what had happened to Castiel's trench coat, Jared mimed Dean smelling and rubbing it all over himself. Jensen said, "He used it as a pillow — or as kindling. One of the two."

At Comic Con 2012, a fan asked Jensen and Misha what they thought of Destiel. Jensen, thinking the fan said "Deathsteel," asked the panel what it meant:

Ben Edlund: That's some weird shit.
Jensen: Is this something that you created, Ben?
Ben: You don't want any part of that.
Jim Beaver: It's... extreme bromance.
Ben: There's a lot of pictures of Dean in an angelic embrace - and that's being kind of gentle with it.
Misha: Oh that, love that. I mean (pointing to Jensen) you've got pictures like that of us, in an embrace, all over your bedroom.
Ben: Oh there's a van with that airbrushed on the side.
Jensen: Oh yeah it's my conversion van. It's just a nice airbrush on a pillow in the back, there's not much room. Oh and a wolf howling at the moon. It's cool, you'll like it.

As with Wincest, this pairing has been recognized in broader fandom — beyond fanfic authors and readers — including discussions on After Elton. In May 2011, Dean and Castiel won "TV's most romantic couple," beating out Kurt and Blaine from Glee in an online poll run by Spoiler TV. In September 2012, After Elton ran the reader-voted Ultimate Slash Madness Tourney, the final contestants were Destiel and Sterek (aka Derek and Stiles from MTV's Teen Wolf) and the competition was fierce. Misha himself even got in on encouraging the voting, tweeting:

"This homonormative poll makes me sick! No one could seriously think that those Teen Wolf jerks are gayer than us."

At a fan meet and greet at Salute To Supernatural Chicago 2012 Misha said about Dean and Cas' love for each other, "You know, we know what it is, what’s going on. We don’t talk about it. The actors don’t, Jensen and I don’t. But we’re all perfectly aware of how the relationship is, the writers are completely aware of how it’s being written. It may be unspoken but that doesn’t mean it’s not there or not true."

Misha also delights in teasing (or even trolling!) fandom about Destiel. In September 2013, he "posted a video of him "shipping Destiel which consisted of him posting a type of sausage labelled "Diestiel."

In October 2013, WB Exec Chad Kennedy was tweeting with fans, and mentioned that there was no intention of having Dean and Castiel in a relationship, nor had it been pitched to him. Fan outrage in repsonse led Chad to later delete his Twitter. Director Guy Bee added fuel to the fire stating he couldn't see why fans were upset about something that didn't exist. This caused a lot of distress, and a fan tweeted a letter about how they felt to Misha. After getting informed of the context, Misha later simply tweeted: You're not crazy.

At Jus In Bello Italy 2014, Jensen talked about Dean and Castiel's relationship, remarking that he and Misha "don't play it like that" and that fans have been reading too much into the relationship. Watch it here.

At Salute to Supernatural Jacksonville 2017, a fan asked Jensen in the Gold panel, why, if Dean could have a crush "Dr Sexy M.D.", yet Destiel and his (Dean's) bisexuality weren't canon. In response, Jensen said "Destiel doesn't exist." Watch it here.

Queer Baiting

Many Destiel fans have been passionate in wanting the relationship to become canon. Some argue that the Show's failure to have a same-sex relationship between Dean and Castiel is indicative of the paucity of representation of non-heterosexual relationships on television, and accuse the Show of queer-baiting. This term refers to the concept that a TV show may intentionally imply a homo-erotic tension between two characters with no intention of thematically being queer, purely to attract or satisfy viewers, particularly queer ones.

See Meta Essays for further discussion on characters' sexuality

External links

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