i agree with you about fanon being an elitist fantasy, and tbh i think part of the reason it ended up that way is because of cultural christianity. the fandom finds it intensely difficult to conceive of angels the way they are portrayed in canon - as violent oppressive monsters. this is why so much fanon is about cas as this selfless guardian archetype. it literally doesn’t matter how many times the show hammers in that the angels brainwash humans, torture them and toy with their lives, and are actively trying to bring about the apocalypse, the fandom is stuck on the pop culture idea of angels as pure and Good beings.
then you combine that with the classism. people are primed to see guys like dean in a certain way. so then you end up with this weird fantasy of a guy who is an repressed angry alcoholic slob being ‘saved’ by falling in love with this otherworldly being who is just so much Better than he is. i’ve been in this fandom since 2010 and even back in the day fanon always trended towards blaming dean for everything and making cas an innocent soft boi lol.
this isn’t really about fic, people can write whatever they want, but the meta and memes and shitposts all reflect that the fandom genuinely believes this stuff and hasn’t left that kind of thinking behind. it’s sad :/ you don’t have to post this if you don’t want btw, I just wanted to vent to someone ❤️
Hi. Hard agree to everything you're saying! And imma yap about it more.
I think you're so right about cultural Christianity contributing to the way people see the angels. There's so many times when the show itself is much harsher about the angels' cruelty but people simply don't pick up on those details?? For example, in s9 when Cas leads a bodysnatcher cult. It's full horror with even children being used as vessels and being killed. The entire s12 Cas Kelly Jack arc, etc. But people still think Dean is disproportionately angry sometimes?
Same goes for the way Jack is treated. Even Sam. Characters who display a level of religious thinking are treated differently to those who simply don't. It's so funny because Dean's atheism is literally integral to the supernatural show lmao.
The cultural biases is why people insist on saying shit like Gabriel is a very sympathetic character (absolutely insane to me. the show itself is actually very clear on never giving him any redeeming qualities lol). It's also why some people don't like to acknowledge Cas's canon interest in sex and women.
And the classism and racism is why they will violently hate a character like Gordon at the same time. (I wish they'd stop sob sob. He's literally even more victimized than Dean tbh and deserves so much more in analysis and fics etc).
Dean's relationship to alcohol, trauma, queerness, emotions, cleanliness (even his own personal hygiene and the way he smells), cooking, torture, violence, sexual traumas, his closeness with family, etc. is all colored by this bias.
So yeah. Fanon destiel can easily pretend to be a loving relationship while actually just being a story firmly rooted in these things. Spn itself may be interested in breaking down religious fundamentalism and stuff but if you're not there for that, you end up with a Cas who "did everything for Dean who's mistreating him and being ungrateful". Personally I think that's a creepy entitled way to approach a relationship and so I don't vibe with it at all.
Canon destiel is actually so fun. It's so unique. And they actually address so many issues that can crop up in a relationship between two people who come from such different backgrounds. (I am always saying DeanCas is like an intercaste marriage lol. Cas lived with the oppressor class for so long. Dean was literally only around the oppressed at all times). Barring the s15 divorce which had only dashed potential, canon destiel fuckssssss.
Also. Re: Dean being blamed for everything. Sigh. Idk man being in the fandom really just showed me how so few people understand parentification and it's nuances. They simply don't get it :///
They also don't know what to do with a working class man like Dean who's nothing like their biases. (He apologizes and talks and communicates and all that soooo much). So they just like to pretend like he has powers he simply doesn't. It's another sneaky classism thing To Me. So much shit goes down and you can blame the impoverished and least empowered victims and move on lol.
Thing is. Spn villains are such pros at using progressive sounding language to do some horrifying shit. It's genuinely phenomenal. Meg claiming demon racism after having SA'd so many main characters on screen right in front of us. Vampires being explicitly predatory and creepy and then turning around and claiming bigotry if they're hunted. I could go on. And certain people don't have the clarity to look at this and understand who's the real victim or harm doer. Sometimes people just think. Whoever uses "better" words is in the right. And it's so untrue. Spn is actually a great way to exercise your mental moral compass for real beyond surface level words and stuff. Lol. (Classism thing #202820).
And I'm not saying these issues are unique to fandom. These are biases in broader society that gets reflected in fandom too. Which is annoying anyways.
And that's my only thing when people do discourse about the writers and the show etc. Sometimes it's a deflection from actually examining their own biases and it's like. Why can't we do both.
So. Anyways. Sorry about the ramble. And feel free to vent at anytime XD