Destiel: What happens with the non-shippers?
I like your question, you know. I don’t usually sit and try to see things the way non-shippers do it, but I have mentioned casual viewers a couple of times (and whenever I say “casual viewers”, I’m thinking about “non-shippers”). The only time I tried to give my opinion about it was in the mid-season finale. In this post, I analyzed the montage and pointed out the four things the show wanted the casual viewers, the normal audience (the non-shippers) to see. Three things were definitely related to information provided in previous episodes that was followed-up in the mid-season finale. But the fourth thing was Dean’s prayer to Cas and his “please, man, I need you here.” Shippers don’t need reminders. Non-shippers do. This is what I wrote in my post:
“Objectively, can you tell me why point number 4 is relevant to this season? Does it have anything to do with the angels or with the Sam/Ezekiel situation? Does the audience need to be reminded of Cas’ character? Because I think that Cas’ character was pretty much covered in point 2 along with Metatron’s. The only reasonable explanation is that the audience needs to be reminded of how important Cas is… to the story? NOPE. TO DEAN.”
Non-shippers at this point know that Dean cares about Cas, and they saw in Road Trip and in First Born how much Cas cares about Dean too. Non-shippers probably thought this was still No Homo because Cas slept with April and Dean slept with Suzy. Non-shippers probably didn’t see anything of what we’ve seen. Non-shippers don’t take the time to analyze the narrative. Non-shippers probably don’t see the parallels we see (Cas/Colette, Cas/Robin for example). Non-shippers probably don’t even see the love tropes. OR MAYBE THEY DO! The fact that they don’t ship Destiel doesn’t mean they can’t do it in the future or that they have lived under a rock with no television whatsoever. But let’s be honest, when people see two guys, they don’t automatically ship them together. I didn’t. I was NEVER a shipper. No TV show had ever made me ship a female/male couple (let alone a male/male one). I began to ship Destiel when I started to identify romantic love tropes used for the relationship between Dean and Cas. Romantic love tropes that I’d seen used in other shows and in movies. I was not part of the fandom at all. I had no Twitter and no Tumblr. I didn’t even know what “shipping” was and I freaked out when I started to think these two men might have feelings for each other, so that’s how I started to go online to see if out there somewhere saw what I was seeing or if I was being delusional. Guess what? I found a HUGE community of Destiel shippers and that’s how I joined the fandom and my online experience began. I started to ship Destiel in season 5, but I never hoped for canon because the show was very far from it. I saw the beginnings of what I considered Eros love, but not the possibility of a relationship.
Then season 8 happened. The subtext somehow got heavier and many casual viewers started to SEE what we had identified a long time before. But of course, there were (and are) still A LOT of people who thought (and still think) that Dean and Cas love each other like family. I don’t think the non-shippers question the love Dean and Cas have for each other anymore. But I’m sure they see it as “brothers”, “best friends”, etc. A big NO HOMO. Even with the “what broke the connection” question. I bet casual viewers answered “YOU”, but many of them still thought that it was because Dean and Cas represent pure familial love, the best friendship ever. Therefore, they DIDN’T/DON’T SEE ANY OF THE OTHER THINGS WE SHIPPERS HAVE SEEN.
Season 9 happened. And though both Dean and Cas have slept with women, though both have spent most of the time apart, the subtext has gotten heavier. The scene in 9x06 when Dean was looking at Cas from afar? That was romantic! (But I admit the audience might have just decided to ignore that or thought that Dean simply felt guilty for kicking Cas out of the bunker). The little reminders that Dean and Cas have something special have been there throughout the whole season. (But I admit the audience might have just thought “Dean and Cas are bestest friends, that’s normal). But what has been IMO the turning point? Metatron’s line in 9x22!! “His weakness has been revealed. HE’S IN LOVE… (pause)…. With humanity.” The non-shippers are NOT stupid. Maybe they NEVER considered the possibility of Dean and Cas loving each other THAT WAY. But… that line must have caused some people to start thinking. Most of them will remember that twice in that episode it was made clear that Cas gave up everything FOR ONE GUY. Not exactly for humanity. So they will replace humanity with “DEAN” and they will have “He’s in love with Dean.” Why didn’t Metatron just say, “His weakness has been revealed. HE LOVES HUMANITY”? BECAUSE THE PURPOSE WAS TO TELL CASUAL VIEWERS, “HEY… ROMANTIC LOVE IS A POSSIBILITY, YOU KNOW?”
I’m gonna quote something I wrote for my 9x09 review:
“When Ezekiel took over Sam and asked Dean what he was going to do about Cas (at this point we don’t know he’s not really Ezekiel), Dean tried to stand up for Cas. That entire scene may not mean much for us (shippers) because we are expecting so much more, but it means something to casual viewers. Remember point 4 in the montage? Cas is important to Dean! Some casual viewers need to have that clear. This feels like that math class where you have understood how to solve the problems and you feel the class is tedious because you are having more of the same. But the rest of the class is still lost. The teacher explains and explains and explains and you’re just sick of hearing the same explanations but you don’t really stop to think that not everybody learns as fast as you. The teacher cannot move on if you’re the only one who understands. What about the others? If the teacher goes too fast, the others in the class will blame him for the stress he’s causing them and will say that he’s mediocre for not taking the time to develop the contents the way he’s supposed to. It’s hard to be a fast learner but it’s necessary to be patient. It’s not your class anyway, and you still need the teacher to explain the rest of the contents. You’ll just have to wait.”
I think season 9 has been precisely like this. It’s not been for shippers because we expect a lot more (we have been expecting canon, for instance). It’s been for the non-shippers who are way behind us. It’s been for them to open their eyes to the “romantic love” possibility. Canon Destiel can’t happen if the whole class isn’t on the same page. Of course, for Destiel to be canon we need “something bigger”. We need something more explicit, but as I said in my post for 9x22:
“Are we going to see that “something bigger” in the season finale? “DO YOU BELIEVE IN MIRACLES?” Maybe we do, but we can’t be sure. Of course we cannot expect something good from the season finale because this is the part of the story where everything turns uglier, messier and scarier than it already is. However, even if we don’t get the “something bigger” now, we know that it’s still on the table. SOMEONE HAS BEEN LISTENING.”
This just makes me excited for what’s in store for season 10 (no matter how painful the season finale turns out to be). Did my answer to your question turn out OK? I hope so! :)
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