Dean is bi, a succinct look over the seasons
I’ve seen a few posts about how if/when we get Bi!Dean (and Destiel) some people are worried others may cry ‘fan service’ purely because they haven't noticed it as a continuous theme through the 12 years of the show so far. So I just wanted to compile a few snippets showing that it has been there all along, it’s not a complete list as I would have to literally spend weeks doing this as there is so much material, but here’s just a few to get started!
1x07: So, it’s season 1, everything is just ramping up so the subtext is very sub...
Dean rejects painting the college kid yet immediately picks up a skin mag (making it sexual), ignoring the actual mag whilst ogling the kid and noticing the point just above his ass that Sam missed? While Sam in an extremely NON sexual manner does the actual painting? Nice...
2x11: There is no way that scene in Playthings is not meant for the audience to notice and pick up on.
We are supposed to pick up on Sam’s totally accurate and straight faced response to this and how Dean reacts, precisely due to it’s accuracy:
Sam: “Well, you are kinda butch, they probably think you’re overcompensating”. Sam is totally straight faced as this is exactly what he thinks is the case as is taking the opportunity to let Dean know that he knows.
source: @shixpe. Meanwhile Dean’s face is like ‘shit... I’m that obvious?’
*TINK LOOKS INTO THE CAMERA*
Season 4: Intro Cas. Now for the ramping up... Dean not so subtly going from small moments of showing himself looking at a guy occasionally or projecting onto Sam “how gay are you?” but now literally licking his own lips, staring at Cas’ lips, comparing them to Thelma and Louise, using his “last day on earth” line on him, I mean, ALL the Cas related chemistry that I won't even go into here, but here’s a helpful post that has just a few examples of Cas-Dean chemistry over the years which is totally different to any other variation of Cas-Dean, because, that’s love not just lust.
6x09: The one when Dean specifically, not Dean and Sam, is associated with fairies.
Where they sexualised the fairies as naked ladies with nipples on show. Where it’s textually and clearly brought to the audiences attention in this same episode that most people associate fairies with queer men.
Where Dean probably “serviced” Oberon king of the fairies (an easy link to queer King Oberyn in GoT, who’s name Dean uses in 12x18 while Sam uses the very heterosexual Stark name).
Meanwhile Sam nicely and true to form, even soulless, stays resolutely heterosexual and bangs the hippie chick while throughout the whole episode in contrast to Dean is hitting on any woman that moves.
It’s not just that Dean is consistently associated with queer subtext but also how Sam is NOT that shows how purposefully this is done for Dean.
7x12: This episode follows multiple episodes with so much “Dean was is in love with Cas subtext” (Cas dying, the trenchcoat, Sam and Bobby’s reactions, Dean’s alcoholism and coping mechanisms coming out, 7x05: Dean projecting Cas’ betrayal and their subsequent lack of communication which led to Cas’ death onto the witch couple by getting them to communicate leading to their making out furiously... immediately followed by Sam trying to get Dean to talk to him about Cas, 7x09 “Cas, black goo...” etc etc etc...
We have not only blatant Dean-is-queer moments:
But also the whole episode centers around an immortal who dies because they were in love with a Human who couldn’t forgive them for lying...
Then from 8 onwards we have more Dean / Cas parallels with canon romantic couples: Jess/Sam, Mary/John, Cain/Colette, Don/Maggie, David/Violet, Dean/Cassie, Chronos/Lila, Cacao/Betsy, Jesse/Cesar, Jeffery/his demon, Sam/Amelia, Benny/Andrea, Prometheus/Hayley, Dean/Amara, Ishim/Lily, Gavin/Fiona, Corbin/Michelle...
Ok so this isn't a Destiel post, it’s a Dean is bi post, but you know, at this point they’re kind of interlinked, because Cas has a male body from season 9 onwards, that isn't his vessel, it’s him, so there you go, have that too.
You mean THESE triplets? The only twins/triplets in the bar? Where the guy behind looks like he's the additional triplet by his placement and his outfit being the exact in between of the who playing? The ones who Crowley was seen talking to again in the same episode?
Either way, even if for some reason it wasn’t these particular triplets, cos you know, triplets are super common, it’s still heavily implied (and referred to again throughout seasons 10,11 and 12) that Dean had some kind of sex with triplets and Crowley, who “rubbed off all over him”...
On top of that, sorry to be crude, but we also have these moments:
“...well, you could...” *insert Drowley meta here*.
Then, back to the less crude side, 10x16:
So.... Dean is sick of hiding behind his facade? Do you think maybe it’s time someone came along and helped him see that he no longer needs to hide behind this wall? For a whole two seasons subtext be based around showing that Dean is in love with Cas and also kinda doesn't mind pop music for example, is actually not quite the dude bro he makes himself our to be and has a facade up that stops him from showing it?
Insert Amara. Whose name literally means Love. The expositional character of Dean’s innermost feelings, the extension of which is Mary, who ultimately leads to these feelings coming out after having been addressed for these two seasons...
Where an all knowing love - monster taking on her appearance tells him:
“I can see inside your heart. Feel the love you feel. Except...it’s cloaked in shame”.
Where in the SAME EPISODE Dean tells Sam that he doesn't feel love for Amara. So who can this possibly be referring to? For whom might he feel love cloaked in SHAME based on the last 10 years of what he have learned about Dean? Where only two episodes before Dean is told by a “wise woman” (who in film always sees truth) that he is pining for someone. PINING, a term interchangeable with LONGING. With whom do we associate LONGING?
I mean honestly... like we need an exposition for what this is all about...
Meanwhile, if there were any issues with Dean feeling that Hunting and being queer are frowned upon they nicely insert an amazingly, fantastically, blatantly mirrored Dean/Jesse Cas/Cesar episode, even down to the brother focused story, the way Cesar and Dean click and interact so similarly to Dean/Cas and the shoulder patting being the most we actually see of them being romantic, I mean JEEZ:
And now if he needed to hammer it home even further:
I mean, I think he gets the picture... it’s nothing to be ashamed of now.
So now thanks to his own personal growth, all this and the extension of Amara, Mary, Dean has finally faced his past, his feelings and given his wall the metaphorical and literal heave - ho:
1. Dean is bisexual. Dean has always been bisexual, he was closeted for so long, but after all this time and thanks to his being in love with one guy in particular and Mary’s role in his self awareness and self acceptance arc, now is more or less the perfect moment to come out...
2. Dean met and over time went from lusting after to being deeply in love with Cas, who is now male, it is HIS body and he identifies with it as such, who has inconveniently right after this moment of final clarity for Dean, died what seemed to Dean to be a true and permanent Death while he screamed ‘noooo’, fell to his knees in shock and nicely paralleled two of the most doomed - romance canon couples in the show within 5 minutes (Jess and Sam and Cain and Colette).
Both sides of this have come to a climax at the end of season 12, I believe leading to things really happening now moving forwards... So this, when it all comes to the forefront is NOT fan service.
It has been there all along, at first subtly, then growing, finally becoming core to the main plot of the character and plot based storylines until this point.
