Destiel Is Canon

About

Destiel Is Canon refers to Supernatural character Castiel confessing "I love you" to Dean Winchester in season 15 of the show, confirming a long-running ship within the show's fandom. The news rocked the fandom, but it also spread on Twitter alongside news Vladimir Putin may be considering resignation and the ongoing vote tallying in the 2020 United States Presidential Election, leading to a flurry of memes combining the three events.

Origin

On November 5th, 2020, in episode 18 of season 15 of Supernatural, Castiel tells Dean he loves him before being sucked into a portal bringing him to hell. It is unclear if this was meant in a homosexual manner.

Spread

After the moment, Supernatural fans old and new expressed their surprise and tiredness at what appeared to be a lukewarm nod to the Destiel ship, with some arguing that the plausible deniability of homosexual feelings amounted to queerbating. Twitter user @charlubby^[1] tweeted, "korrasami walked so bubbline could jog and rupphire could run and destiel could crawl backwards off of a cliff," comparing the ship to other popular confirmed ships, gaining over 150 retweets and 850 likes (shown below, left). Tumblr user nyx-vibes^[2] posted, "Congrats to supernatural for 12 years of queerbaiting and then ending it in the fastest bury your gays speedrun ever seen as well as doing it in the most homophobic way possible," gaining over 4,000 notes.

Others remarked on how the revelation made them nostalgic for early 2010s Tumblr, when the Destiel ship was a much more present issue for them. Twitter user @kuiperphantasia^[3] posted a meme comparing 2012 and 2020, gaining over 2,000 retweets and 10,000 likes (shown below, left). User @morecheeesepls^[4] posted a Marriage Story meme about the news, gaining over 40 retweets and 300 likes (shown below, right).

Vladimir Putin Resignation Connection

Much of the reaction to the episode was conflated with various news events, particularly rumors of Vladimir Putin resigning and the ongoing 2020 United States Presidential Election vote tallying. User @EsssekTheLysss^[5] posted a Chris Fleming meme about discovering the news about Putin, gaining over 70 retweets and 250 likes (shown below, left). User @SarahChdry^[6] posted a Pepe Silvia meme about the ongoing events, gaining over 1,400 retweets and 7,000 likes (shown below, right).

Various Examples

Search Interest

External References