Cas puts the "sub" in "homoerotic subtext"

[brightly_lit]

Ohhhhkay, let's just bring up a little something here: Dean tells Cas to unbutton his shirt? Has Dean ever unbuttoned his own shirt to go on a date? (Maybe a gold chain in the chest hair would add to the look ....) Does Dean really care so much about the amount of chest Cas may be showing? And ladies, do you rate the quality of your dates on how far his shirt is hanging open? (I have to say, the closer to his navel my date's shirt hung open, the closer I would be to kicking him to curb before even stepping out the door.) Does Dean really think Cas will have better luck getting laid if he shows a little skin?

Nah. That was just Dean getting Cas a little more naked while they're still alone in the car, in yet another Destiel bone (pun intended) thrown to the fans.

I've been watching the interactions closely, trying to figure out where all the steamy homoerotic vibes are coming from, and I've come to these conclusions:

1) Jarpad can make any scene steamy, no matter who he's acting with or what that person's relationship to him is supposed to be. The Christmas Cottage was pretty devoid of anything titillating, trust me on that, but the scene where he and his brother are talking in the dark in their room? Mmm .... (And I am NOT a Sam/Dean shipper.)

2) Jackles acts "affection" in a way that always comes off flirtatious. Always.




3) Misha's a troll and adores the subversion of the status quo/gender roles, so any opportunity to make a scene more uncomfortable/homoerotic/inappropriate, etc., and he's SO THERE.

1 + 2 + 3 = the most semi-intentionally subtextually homoerotic show on t.v.




I will confess that Cas's vulnerable, baffled expression is EXACTLY what I picture in top!Dean Dean/Cas scenes, so thanks for that, guys! Thumbs up, nice shipping fodder, great subtext, all that jazz. May this show always be all the crazy things that make it unlike any other show ever in the history of the world.


Some of you have left me AMAZING comments and/or very nice posts that mentioned me, and I will respond soon! And THANK YOU!!!

Comments

[toratio.livejournal.com]

On a slightly different topic - I'm going through the quotes (this ep is on tonight! YAY!) and Dean is mentioning his dates finish when he "runs out of ones".

… I think Cas needs to learn about human relationships from Sam. Just sayin'.

[brightly-lit.livejournal.com]

Yeeess, you are so right. I can't wait for you to see it! I'm betting you'll really like it.

[toratio.livejournal.com]

I'm really excited. I also want to see Crowley, because I love Crowley. And I love watching Crowley flirt with his Moose. You know where Dean says to Abbadon he doesn't know if they should fight or make out? That's Crowley and Sam.

[brightly-lit.livejournal.com]

hee ... I never thought of it that way, but you're so right. You will see more evidence of your rightness tonight.

[toratio.livejournal.com]

Also, that looks on Cas' face on the gif in the car - is Cas looking around like "right here? With people around?" ;-)

[brightly-lit.livejournal.com]

Isn't he?? Taken out of context, that's just about the most Destiel scene ever on the show. "Hey, baby, start gettin' undressed. You heard me." A couple of season ago, if you'd showed me this scene, I'd have thought you'd somehow cooked it up with a video doctoring program, but NOPE. It's the real show now.

[toratio.livejournal.com]

Heh. That's what I like about this show - it doesn't shy away from being incredibly sexy.

And it is incredibly sexy.

… what was my point again? Distracted by the sexy.

[brightly-lit.livejournal.com]

I was just reading an article about the "Destiel controversy," which baffles me and makes me sad. There are people who are quite angry that Destiel hasn't been explicitly made canon, whereas to me it's always seemed pretty clear that whatever bones the writers/actors may throw the fans, it's just a nudge nudge wink wink for fun, and they never had any intention of elevating it from subtext to text. Producers, etc. have taken a TON of flak for it, which I fear makes it less fun for them to create the show.

Ah, well. In any case, it's interesting to watch the evolution of such a close relationship between a show's creators and its fans, probably the closest relationship in the history of t.v. so far, though I figure t.v. is headed more that way in the future ....

[kalliel]

BAHAHA. I am just here to say WHAT IS THAT LOOK EVEN IN #2, DEAN. XDDD

[kalliel]

ALSO I don't even ship it but how desperately did I want Dean to give Castiel some of his clothes and What Not To Wear him, oh I did indeed want it desperately. For the purpose of "feels" I guess it would have had to have been the jacket Dean was wearing then, but that's not a very sexy date jacket, so I'm sure there were other vaguely more appropriate specimens in the trunk.

I JUST WANTED THE CLOTHES SHARING. CLARIFICATION, WANT. PRESENT-TENSE. XD

[brightly-lit.livejournal.com]

CLOTHES SHARING, OH YES INDEED. It would be so easy to What Not To Wear Cas. It would go like this: "What you're wearing? Don't ever wear that." But Misha, like any good model, could make a potato sack look like haute couture, so I AIN'T COMPLAININ'. Besides which, the bad clothes are so adorable on Cas ...

[kalliel]

God the bad clothes are so adorable on everyone. *______* I can't even deal, man. Why disrobe when you can wear layers upon layers of really ridiculous clothing. XD

(Unless of course you disrobe in a ridiculously sharp, fluid, gorgeous motion like Castiel in 9x03; then by all means, disrobe all you want!)

[brightly-lit.livejournal.com]

RIGHT??? I was looking for a gif to illustrate my point, and I was like, come on, man, you're making it too easy!

[cuddyclothes.livejournal.com]

Would it interest anyone to know that the writer of this episode is gay? If you look at his Twitter profile, he's out and proud. (Including a discussion of how hot Indiana Jones is.) Several of the writers are, and oh, do they know how to push our...uh...buttons.

[brightly-lit.livejournal.com]

It interests me! Who else is gay? (I have a few guesses ....) Why a bunch of men are writing stuff the girls do love so very much is becoming clearer ...

[alexisjane.livejournal.com]

To me it was as simple as "Oh god, you can't go on a date wearing your work clothes, let's just try and make you look different" but that is the beauty of this show and the writers and the fandom!

There's something about it that's so open, that it can be transformed into something else and there's something for everyone!
I absolutely do not get all the shipping wars stuff...really...the thing about fictional space is there is enough for everyone, surely?
I'm a Dean/Sam girl but I'm more than happy to explore all the other ships and have definitely come to appreciate at little bit of angel once in a while (courtesy of sleepypercy : )

I think that making any of the ships canon will just take all the fun out of it. The writers do such a fab job of giving us all these little moments to fuel our fire. I don't know of any other show that does that. They wrote the frigging fandom into the show ffs!
Now you've pointed out the shirt thing, I'm totally happy to go with that, I think it's funny and makes sense, totally a Dean thing to do!
I'm definitely going to be looking out for any more Dean tries to undress Cas moments in the future : ) x

[morganlucas41.livejournal.com]

To me it was as simple as "Oh god, you can't go on a date wearing your work clothes, let's just try and make you look different" but that is the beauty of this show and the writers and the fandom!

Sorry to butt in here, but really? That's what you thought? When Dean said "Why don't you unbutton it a little," I thought that was a blatant Destiel reference. I guess everyone really does interpret it differently...

I don't mean any offense, just genuinely surprised at your interpretation. But it is interesting though.

[brightly-lit.livejournal.com]

I was relieved that you said this, because that was the most blatant Destiel subtext I've ever seen. I'm always amazed at how many different interpretations there can be to the same moment in the show.

[alexisjane.livejournal.com]

Oh Hun, no offence taken!
You're right though.

I know it sounds weird but when I see an ep for the first time, I'm totally in canon mode so it isn't often I'm thinking about any of shipping stuff at all. The story is the thing I'm most focused on but once I know what happens my mind is very happy to wander.
In fact, during 9:01 when Sam is trying to get rid of imaginary!Dean outside the cabin, I did think "just kiss him already" and instantly felt really bad about it!
For me, the show is what it is and in my mind any shipping or whatever happens off screen. Even in my fics I tend to differenciate between, for example, Sam getting annoyed with his brother but then two seconds later looking at Dean and wanting to rip his clothes off. Even this http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TUYnECca8LU didn't strike me as the dead give away it is until I saw it later! : )

I think it probably did make a difference that Destiel isn't my OTP. If it had been Dean saying it to Sam, my mind might have gone there (though more probably if Sam said it to Dean...not sure why that should be...weird brain!)
But as I said, the first time I see the show I'm caught up in the story (and hoping Dean stops Cas from going in as she clearly just wants a babysitter! Oh poor Cas!) All the filth comes later : )

It is seriously fascinating all the different ways the show can be interpreted which is one of the reasons I guess we love it so as there's always something to talk about and something to learn from other fans.
Makes me happy : ) x

[ladykorana.livejournal.com]

I have to say, I thought the same thing ( helping Cas not look so pathetic because Dean would be so proud if Cas got laid).

Dean/Cas never crossed my mind one bit, except to see the scene as evidence against Destiel, not for. Didn't see a hint of lust from Dean, IMHO. He seemed to be having fun playing matchmaker in Cas to get some from the girl, and it reminded me of him pushing Sam at Sarah in season 1. YMMV, obviously.

[brightly-lit.livejournal.com]

I will definitely be looking out for more moments like that, too! ;->

That's funny that you interpreted it like that; I thought the Destiel reference was so blatant! But I missed ALL the subtext my first time through the series. I see some other ships hinted at in the scripts, but Destiel seems to be the most obvious to me. (My favorite line: "Not for nothin', Cas, but the last time someone looked at me like that, I got laid." !!! I can't believe the things the writers get away with putting in the scripts sometimes ....)

And YES, I LOVE that they play with the fans in this way! Sometimes it feels like we're all writing the show together, fans and writers and actors and crew.

[alexisjane.livejournal.com]

I do think that it does really help that everything that comes out of Dean's mouth sounds filthy and Misha is just so good at playing Cas vulnerable but with the hardcore angel underneath, it so easy to see them looking like they've been up to something...but like I said in the other comment, only once I get my storyline fix!
I do love the "profound bond" bit too "I wasn't going to mention it" So sweet! x

[ladykorana.livejournal.com]

That's all I got from that date moment as well, for what it's worth. :)

[morganlucas41.livejournal.com]

Awesome post, and I totally agree! I've often wondered what makes SPN such a hotbed of slashy subtext, and I think you hit the nail on the head. Ditto to your thoughts about why Dean asked Cas to disrobe - I thought the same thing. Though, just to play devil's advocate, unbuttoning the shirt might have also seemed more casual - but the 1st button only, probably not 2.

Cas certainly has subby tendencies and those come into play here. I think Dean does, too, which makes the idea of sex between them...interesting, to say the least ;)

[brightly-lit.livejournal.com]

Oh, you girl after my own heart. In my Destiel fics, they switched places dom/sub for exactly these reasons.

the 1st button only, probably not 2.

Um, yeah. Plus, watching that gif, I think he's gets to 3 and looks like he's just gonna keep going! Which makes me unable to help picturing him ringing the doorbell with his shirt peeled open to his navel, '70s porn-style .... ;->