They Silenced You - Tumblr Posts
I haven’t felt this alive in years
this fandom raised $60,000 in less than a week, I’m pretty sure we could do this
Can you imagine the chaos that would ensue if Misha or Jensen liked a they silenced you post now
y yo a ti
Well, only this show could continue to surprise us nearly a week after it finished. Anyway, here’s a fic with ~reciprocation~ and ~bisexual Dean~ in order to celebrate. Also, someone needs to buy the Spanish dubbing team something to say thanks. (778 words, read it here on AO3).
“I love you.”
Dean’s mouth opens and then closes again. His brain is still attempting to process the fact that Cas is going to die, but his heart is screaming at him to say something. ‘ This is your last chance!’ it warns him, and he makes a decision.
He has spent his entire life pretending not to be scared of things. Of the monster under his bed, of fires, of his dad, of the creatures he hunted, of losing his brother, of being alone. He will not back down from the one he has kept secret for the longest. He deserves to be proud of one thing, and if that is his goddamn sexuality, then that will be it.
“And I you, Cas.”
He isn’t sure why he phrases it like he is the protagonist in some kind of crappy Victorian romance novel, but he doesn’t even care, because the way Cas’ face lights up in surprise and hope breaks his heart. To know what could have been, to realise there was a future where they could have been together and be happy…
Dean started crying. Not just a few tears leaking out which he couldn’t control, but full, anguished sobs. He deserved to be happy for once. Cas deserved to be happy for once. But by the time they had pulled their heads out of their asses, it was too late.
Gentle arms surround him and hold him tight, carefully rocking him against a warm body. He squeezes Cas so tight that he is sure he would leave bruises, but he supposed that wouldn’t matter in a few minutes. He can hear the Empty arrive behind him, a disgusting squelching sound that signals the end.
With a final, deafening crash, the door bursts open and Billie steps towards them, her scythe already stretching out. Dean watches, peeking over Cas’ shoulders, as the inky black slime surrounds her. He shuts his eyes, burying his head in Cas’ familiar trench coat, neither of them willing to let go.
“I don’t want to lose you,” Dean whispers, so quiet that he is sure that no one can hear him, but Cas holds him tighter anyway.
“Goodbye, Dean.”
Dean refuses to let go - if it means he dies too, then so be it - but he feels every muscle in the angel tense up, and he knows it is time. The tears are flowing freely now, snot and saltwater raining onto the floor, each drip matched with the sound of his racing heartbeat. He waits for the inevitable loss.
Nothing happens.
Then, an eerie, disjointed voice says: “You won’t let me sleep, will you?”
“Never,” Cas responds fiercely, and Dean feels a flutter of hope in his chest.
“Then you shall be my problem no longer,” the sinister voice replies, and then the world goes inky black.
When Dean finally manages to come to, he is still firmly clinging to the trench coat. Cas is convulsing underneath him, making a horrible, distressed, distraught cry, so loud and filled with such grief and suffering that Dean has to let go in order to cover his ears.
‘This is it.’ he thinks. ‘This is how Cas is gonna die.”
Eventually, the noise stops, and Dean can hardly bring himself to look down, certain that he would be greeted with the body of the man he loves. Loved. Sobbing, he curls in on himself, his hands still covering his ears, slowly rocking back and forth.
Gingerly, a hand reaches out and grips his shoulder, neatly fitting over the handprint which had been burned into Dean’s skin all those years ago. When he speaks, his voice is raw and strangled, but somehow holds the same amount of conviction it always has. “It’s okay, Dean.”
Dean’s head snaps up, his hands wildly flailing for any part of Cas to hold onto, and his eyes scanning him desperately for any damage. “Wh-” Dean coughs and tries again, his throat hoarse. “What just happened?”
Cas frowns for a moment, a distant, grieving look on his face, before looking back at Dean as he leans forward, letting himself be pulled closer to the hunter. They end up in a weird position, Cas practically on top of Dean, who curls around him and holds him tightly.
“I think…” Cas begins, trailing off. “I think I’m human.”
Dean tries to process that statement for a full minute before giving up, letting his heart take over one more time. “Does that mean you’ll stay?”
Cas looks down at him, sees his broken, tearstained body and hears the desperation in his voice, and still answers with no pity in his voice. “Of course, Dean.”
Oh to be in the frantic board meeting that the network must be having now
In response to Misha’s tweet
First of all, I have two things to say, and if you stop reading immediately after that then I don’t care, but please:
Do not attack Misha, any of the other cast, or the writers.
We don’t (and probably never will) know why Misha posted that video - whether it be ordered by the network or not - but even if you are feeling angry or betrayed, there is no excuse for attacking anyone.
And do not be distracted from the real target!
The network desperately want us to direct all our anger at someone else so that our cause runs out of steam, fails to make any real difference, or can be labelled as ‘crazy fans sending hate mail’.
Okay, now I’m gonna go into a little bit more depth, but they were the most important points to get out of the way.
Before all these shenanigans started, I was writing a paper on queerbaiting and the trope of ‘bury your gays’ using Supernatural as the main example. Then, we got the last three episodes, and I’m pretty sure people are getting sick of me talking about this, but I have been doing my research. I’m just going to go through all the important points of Misha’s video, and deconstruct it a bit.
Okay, first of all, we have the announcement that there ‘never was an alternate ending of 15x18′ but there was a ‘rouge translator’. I know absolutely nothing of how shows are dubbed or translated, but I do think this is one of the funniest things said in a while, because it is either an elaborate cover up OR someone actually did probably sacrifice their job so we could get requited Destiel. Someone buy that translator a drink. Maybe this is true, maybe it isn’t, but I think that people were more suggesting that scenes/lines had been edited out, rather than an entire alternate ending.
Then, Misha says that he is ‘proud’ of Cas’ ending, because it was ‘intentionally inclusive’. Misha absolutely should be proud of Cas’ confession scene, because that is genuinely some of the best acting I have seen in a long time and - as an actor - he really got to prove his skill and ability in arguably one of the most moving scenes in the show. To have Cas come out as queer was amazing, but in my opinion it was not inclusive, because Cas was not included in the ending.
Misha goes on to say that Cas’ confession was ‘done of his own volition with full knowledge of the consequences of his actions’, and this is where I think I start to see the problem. Misha is talking about the scene from the point of view of someone in the Supernatural universe, rather than a scene which has an audience. If no one had been watching that, if it was a real thing that happened, then yes. Castiel’s ‘declaration of love’ was beautiful and he chose self-sacrifice to save his love, and there is nothing ‘insidious’ about it, just a moving and bittersweet end to a phenomenal character. But the problem is that people were watching it. People who loved these characters, people who had been roped in by the possibility of queer representation for years, people who got that representation, only to have it ripped away from them only thirty seconds later.
The definition for the trope ‘bury your gays’ is the ‘presentation of deaths of LGBT characters where these characters are nominally able to be viewed as more expendable than their heterosexual counterparts’. In other words, queer characters are more likely to be killed off, because the writers/ show runners/ network/ audience see them as more expendable. Cas’ death is a prime example of this, and although I know he is mentioned as being out of the Empty in 15x20, he was still more expendable than Dean and Sam, and certainly expendable enough - even though he has been a main character for years - to not appear in the finale at all, other than two very brief mentions of him. Just like Charlie’s death was bury your gays - a lesbian whose death barely served the plot at all, other than to give Dean and Sam some angsty scenes.
Misha ends by saying ‘I wish we could just take a moment to celebrate the good of this show’ and I only have one problem with this. This show (as far as I am aware) has done nothing good. What good has been done has been almost entirely the fans. A prime example of this is The Castiel Project (along with every other fundraiser started after the finale) because the fans have raised over $50,000 dollars for an LGBT charity out of pure spite. Most of hated the finale, and yet we have managed to channel that anger into amazing things.
Let’s do one last amazing thing as a family. Let’s burn the network down.
We're all joking about Jensen's silence being sexy but the c*w probably took him out with a sniper so he couldn't release the video
Supernatural had the opportunity to do something great. To send a message of love and validation to a whole community. Not only to the part of the community that liked their show, but to all of us. But instead they decided to pander to the people, who never had to question their representation.
I support #TheySilencedYou, #TheySilencedThem and #TheyWillNeverSilenceUs and I'm in awe of all of you. And I feel like your message goes beyond this particular TV show and the CW.
It's about protesting a pattern of disrespect towards otherness in Mainstream Media. It's about demanding meaningful, unmistakably queer representation, that enables discourse and furthers understanding in a heterogenic Audience. It's about asking Networks to not only hire diverse staff but to also give them the freedom to tell their stories the way they want to. It's about telling creators to own up to the inherent messages they leave us with in the end.
And that's inspiring and should be celebrated.
Stories matter.
well since the world is in flames rn i did the one thing I promised myself id never do and drew spn fanart
✨Perfection✨
Supernatural had the opportunity to do something great. To send a message of love and validation to a whole community. Not only to the part of the community that liked their show, but to all of us. But instead they decided to pander to the people, who never had to fight for their representation.
I support #TheySilencedYou, #TheySilencedThem and #TheyWillNeverSilenceUs and I'm in awe of all of you. Of your eloquence, passion, coordination and decisiveness. And I feel like your message goes beyond this particular TV show and the CW.
It's about protesting a pattern of disrespect towards otherness in Mainstream Media. It's about demanding meaningful, unmistakably queer representation, that enables discourse and furthers understanding in a heterogenic Audience. It's about asking Networks to not only hire diverse staff but to also give them the freedom to tell their stories the way they want to. It's about telling creators to own up to the inherent messages they leave us with in the end.
And that's inspiring and should be celebrated.
Stories matter.