Destiel vs. SuleMio Tumblr Top Ships Bracket

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Overview

The Destiel vs. SuleMio Tumblr Top Ships Bracket or Castiel x Dean vs. Suletta Mercury x Miorine Rembran refers to memes and discourse surrounding a viral Tumblr poll asking users to vote for their top ship between the Destiel slash pairing, which is Castiel x Dean from Supernatural and the SuleMio pairing, which is Suletta Mercury x Miorine Rembran from Mobile Suit Gundam: The Witch from Mercury. The poll was made in May 2024 and, after 60,000 votes, came out with SuleMio on top. The results of the poll sparked notable backlash on Tumblr, as the Destiel ship is arguably one of the most popular and well-known on the platform, inspiring memes and discourse about the results of the poll.

Background

On May 12th, 2024, Tumblr^[1] user ao3topshipsbracket made a week-long poll for the finals round of their "Tumblr Top Ships Bracket," placing the Destiel slash pairing against the SuleMio pairing. In three days, the poll gained over 60,000 votes, with 65 percent of the votes cast for SuleMio (shown below). The poll gained over 17,000 notes in the same span of time.

Developments

The results of the poll garnered significant backlash from some on Tumblr and social media, largely due to the intense presence and importance of the Destiel ship on Tumblr, with many expressing shock over its loss. The ao3topshipsbracket Tumblr^[2]^[3] page answered several questions from Tumblr users about the poll results that week (shown below).

Online Reactions

The results of the poll inspired memes, debates and discourse on both Tumblr and X / Twitter surrounding the Destiel and SuleMio ship pairings, with some finding it shocking and unacceptable that Destiel, arguably a more popular pairing on Tumblr, could lose to SuleMio.

For example, on May 12th, 2024, Tumblr^[4] user anesidoraa made a long-form post describing the SuleMio pairing and its popularity to explain why they deserve to win (shown below, left, click to expand). On May 13th, X^[5] user @AdraCat posted a screenshot of the poll results, writing, "I can’t wait for Sulemio to be the new president of tumblr," garnering over 2,100 likes in two days (shown below, right).

Also on May 13th, Tumblr^[6] user averyintrovertedfangirl made a post defending the Destiel ship pairing, writing, "as much as you might hate it, this site was built on Supernatural […] Supernatural and Destiel still get talked about and trend over three goddamn years after the show actually ended. It was our heritage, it is THE ship of all time. You can't argue with me on that. I'm not saying you can't like your own show more, but NOTHING will ever come close to Destiel. It isn't a question of who you like more, but if you're asking who deserves to win, it's no fucking contest" (shown below, click to expand).

The post was shared by X^[7] user @OrehCursor that day, writing, "Holy 'They are NOT taking it well' Batman!" garnering over 3,000 likes in two days.

On May 14th, Tumblr^[8] user ultrawomanisa made a post suggesting that Destiel "laid the groundwork" for SuleMio to exist, writing, "What destiel did for the LGBTQ community helped laid the groundwork for shows like 'the Witch from Mercury' to have openly gay characters and the fact that Destiel made it to the finals shows how popular Destiel still is." Tumblr^[9] user yakapin responded:

why should I give destiel credit for “laying groundwork for shows like the witch from mercury to have openly gay characters” when gundam preceded destiel and spn by years and the creator of gundam is grateful for the fujoshis for keeping it alive during it’s heydays. why exactly should I do that when witch from mercury and sulemio’s history isn’t destiel or anything from spn but can be traced to media like revolutionary girl utena which, again surprise surprise, preceded destiel and spn by years. can you explain to me the logic here?

The posts were shared by X^[10] user @gwenstacying later that day, writing, "girl they’re trying to claim Destiel is responsible for Sulemio existing on tumblr," garnering over 2,600 likes in a day (individual posts shown below).

The poll also inspired a significant number of memes on Tumblr referencing the poll results, including memes celebrating the SuleMio ship pairing's victory (examples shown below).