one day I’ll write a poast about how kripke accidentally wrote deancas as a romance because he doesn’t get that gay people exist
like, he really does not understand that if you use certain tropes for a m/f relationship and then also reuse them or use very similar ones for a m/m relationship the audience aren’t automatically going to read the latter as strictly platonic. you can’t assume the heterosexuality of the characters involved goes without saying. you can’t just parallel ruby’s intro with cas’ in their respective season premieres and expect us not to make connections. that’s not how shit works. people are gay, Eric! people are gay.
okay this blew up but the above is just the tip of the iceberg imo. what really got to me was the dean/anna sex scene in 4x10/Heaven & Hell - specifically what anna says to dean beforehand.
ANNA: I got to tell you something. You’re not gonna like it. DEAN: Okay. what? ANNA: About a week ago, I heard the angels talking… About you… What you did in Hell. Dean, I know. It wasn’t your fault. You should forgive yourself. DEAN: Anna, I don’t w-want to, uh… I don’t want to… I can’t talk about that. ANNA: I know. But when you can, you have people that want to help. You are not alone. That’s all I’m trying to say. ANNA kisses DEAN.
and then we get an excruciatingly passionless montage that made me feel like i was watching two pieces of ikea furniture mating. but anyway, how does kripke signal to the viewer that anna is a sympathetic character that understands dean on a ~deeper level than the other women he’s been with? he has anna reveal that she knows what happened to dean in hell - or rather what he did - and that she doesn’t judge him.
at this point, the audience doesn’t know that dean tortured souls in hell. 4x06/Yellow Fever has lilith hint that dean did a Bad Thing but never specifies exactly what. 4x08/Wishful Thinking has dean reluctantly admit that he remembers what happened in hell, but isn’t ready to confide in sam yet. 4x09/IKWYDLS has alastair suggest that he & dean were close in hell, but it isn’t until the end of 4x10 that we find out the truth: dean was tortured for 30 years before he broke and tortured for 10 years in turn.
so. anna tells dean she knows about the single worst thing he’s ever done, but still sees the potential for good in him. minutes later, she puts her hand directly on cas’ handprint.
and it’s like - remember who pulled dean out of hell? remember who literally witnessed the worst thing dean ever did with their infinite eyes and pulled him out of that situation? remember who reconstructed dean’s body free of scars then branded him with the handprint? because i know kripke does. but for some reason he decided to make it textual that 1) knowing but not judging about the Bad Thing and 2) *gestures at the handprint’s whole deal* are both things that foster intimacy & trust within the bounds of a heterosexual relationship and then expected us to just not put 2+2 together and read into the implications that has for the growing dean-cas bond he literally wrote into the show? even though 4x10 is ALSO the episode where uriel hits dean with the iconic “You see, he has this weakness: he likes you”?
and that’s before you even get into cas taking anna’s place in the narrative in the back half of s4! or everything about cas in 4x22/Lucifer Rising! i’ve said this before but cas’ s4 arc is essentially about a gay religious abuse survivor defying the will of his family because of his love for another man. and kripke did this entirely by accident. because he straight up does not get that gay/bi people exist. unparalleled media experience.
