"Never again shall you thirst, for I am come to wet your mouth with wine and water, to quench your thirst with kisses. Words of Love from my own lips will serve as your oasis, and you shall never want for drink again."
[knocks on open door frame, wraps cardigan around waist] hey supernatural fandom, sweetie, are you doing alright? i’m seeing a lot of 5k+ posts on my dash that i don’t understand again, can i get you anything?
This is why no other show will EVER be Supernatural! Where else would you find a real-life Shakespearean public betrayal and fallout on Twitter where one co-star LITERALLY says “Et tu brute” ?????
can’t stop thinking about how even after being many degrees removed from its origins as an on the road homage supernatural mirrors this exact same experience
sam and dean both engage in casual homophobia in the front half of the show, but as time goes on sam kind of becomes normal about gay people, while dean stows away the weird defensive preoccupation with queerness he had early on and seems to replace it with trying very hard to forget gay people exist and quietly panicking every time he sees one
it bears repeating that the word “gay” shows up twelve (EDIT: thirteen. i think that’s all of them) times total on supernatural. half of those instances are said by dean, all season eight or earlier. he said it six times, which is six times more than any other character, and then after 8x13 he never said it again. it dropped out of his vocabulary entirely.
people are asking, so here’s the list:
1x12 FAITH The phrase “Openly Gay Teacher Wins Lawsuit” appears in a newspaper headline
2x11 PLAYTHINGS Dean: Of course, the most troubling question is why do these people assume we’re gay?
2x21 ALL HELL BREAKS LOOSEAndy, referencing his ability to telepathically beam images into people’s minds: This one guy I know – total dick, right? I used it on him: gay porn. All hours of the day.
3x13 GHOSTFACERS HARRY: Ed…You got to go be gay for that poor, dead intern. You got to send him into the light. and later, ED:
And here we were thinking that, you know, we were teaching you and all
this time you were teaching us, about heart, about dedication, and about
how gay love can pierce through the veil of death and save the day.
3x05 BEDTIME STORIES: Dean: Dude, could you be more gay?
5x03 FREE TO BE YOU AND ME:Dean: There are two things I know for certain. One, Bert and Ernie are gay. Two, you are not gonna die a virgin.
6x09 CLAP YOUR HANDS IF YOU BELIEVE: Dean: I don’t hate any size person, or any size… gay… guy. Sheriff: He’s not gay, as it happens.
8x01 WE NEED TO TALK ABOUT KEVIN:Kevin: You know I’m not gay, right?
8x13 EVERYBODY HATES HITLER: Dean: That’s weird. I thought I was being followed earlier. Turned out to be a gay thing. and later, Dean: [to Sam] Told you I was being followed. He was my gay thing. [to Aaron] It was really good. You really had me there. It was very smooth.
15x15 GIMME SHELTER:Pastor: Connor didn’t have to live in fear of who he was. A gay man who believed in a tolerant God.
Again, let me know if I missed any. This is from transcript trawling. As far as I can tell/remember, “lesbian” and “bisexual” never appear, and “homosexual” is said three times (6x09 and twice in 10x06). These words are always said by characters we’re meant to read as straight– canonically queer characters without fail sort of circle the drain about it (“we’re more than friends…” 5x09, “he’s not my type… because he’s not a girl” 7x20, “they couldn’t accept a lot of things…” 11x19) or don’t reference it at all, max banes being the clearest exception although he doesn’t use a specific word.
as i’ve posted about a bunch before, what disappearsor remains absentas spn startsto technically include more lgbt characters is where the homophobic attitudes embedded in spn are at their most articulate and their most complex. as queer characters become somewhat more present and sympathetic, ideas like same-sex marriage, same-sex parenting, and the abstract concept of gay identity become more fraught, not less. early spn is pretty comfortable with its casual homophobia, while late spn is deeply uncomfortable, conflicted, and hesitant about whether, how, and to what degree to embrace gay people in response to a changing cultural landscape, and we see this reflected in the ways that gay people are referenced (or not referenced) on screen.
but from a watsonian perspective like oh my god he just never said it again. he never said it again