Here’s the thing about being in a cartoon. It tends to make you act…cartoonish. Like, traits are exaggerated for comedic effect. If anything, Dean flirting with Daphne (who is a literal cartoon of a woman) makes his performance of heterosexuality seem ridiculous and over-exaggerated. Or, I should say, reveals it as ridiculous and over-exaggerated. If Dean hitting on a girl is totally in keeping with a cartoon that means it’s not the full extent of who he is. Cartoon Dean is goofy with his crush. Regular Dean is…something else.
I would truly love if they used a freaking Scooby Doo crossover to do significant emotional exposition that they’re somehow not able to do in their regular universe. It would be so great. It could work too. You know how in “Hunter Heroici” the cartoon dude’s heart burst out of his chest with love/desire? I doubt that would happen, but I think it’s possible we’ll get Dean playing matchmaker to Fred and Daphne (he’s a fan after all! he’s gotta have his ships!). And maybe one of them tries to play matchmaker in return. “Is there anyone special for you, Dean?” “What? <gulp> um, uh, no. I’m, uh, I’m single. Yeah. That’s what I am.” <cartoon blush spreads over face> <possible knowing look from Sam> <possible incredulous look from someone else> <Cas stares off into space unaware that this conversation is about him>
Not that Dean isn’t crushing on Daphne. We are in a Dr. Sexy situation here! Who among us would NOT choose to flirt with and/or act goofy with our TV crush. <side eyes entire fandom> I am encouraged by the fact that Dean emerges wearing both plaid and an ascot that maybe he’s crushing on Fred too. (Ascots are inherently bisexual. It’s a fact. Look it up.) Either way, Dean, my dude, you CAN wear both! (And maybe ditch those awful plaid recliners of brotherly loneliness and forever singlehood. Ew. Get a sofa.)
I would also take emotional exposition in the form of a conversation in the live action portion along the lines of “You know it’s not like that in real life, right Cas? You’re not some goofy sidekick.” Could be a prompt to clarify to Cas what he actually is to Dean (not a hammer or weapon) but important for himself.
Tl; dr - the Daphne thing is meaningless. If anything, it will work like the love spell in 13x12 to make Dean’s attraction to a woman (again, an actual caricature of a woman) seem ridiculous. In contrast to…. <fill in the blank. or should I say The Big Empty.>
Shout-out to @naruhearts, with whom I was chatting while I wrote this so elements of our conversation definitely made it in here. 😘
100% agree.
I just watched the episode of Scooby Doo that this is supposed to be based on. I LOVED Scooby Doo as a kid. Much like Dean, I grew up watching it with my little brother. It holds a very sentimental place in my heart.
But man, I kinda forgot how cheesy and ridiculous, exaggerated, and over-the-top everything is. I rolled my eyes I don’t know how many times. A door just opened behind Scooby’s bathtub and he slid down a tunnel. Shaggy and Scooby just piloted a washing machine powered by a fan through the sky. This is slapstick, cheap gags, and physical comedy for kids. It’s a cartoon, and anything Dean does in this episode is going to be equally ridiculous and extremely performative. But I am HERE for the light it can potentially shed on their “real” lives and Dean’s genuine feelings.
… Including that bit about Cas as their sidekick (dog?). That’s mighty interesting.
Like I said in Tink’s post—yeah, Daphne’s literally a drawing (yep @7faerielights). He’s a caricature in a fictionalized reality that’s contradictory to the 3-dimensional (subtextual-not-really-subtextual) truths of actual reality, and it’s as if they’re reducing Dean’s amped-up heterosexuality to just that…a 1-dimensional, super performative, flat and silly cartoon character who has no footing IRL but instead serves as exposition—negative spaces threading together what’s not being said and shown.
And HELL yeah, I want “Cas, man…you ain’t a doggy sidekick. You’re family. (My family)” as much as the next person. Strike down that expendability!! *buzzes*
I want him to flirt with Daphne AND Fred; not this one sided BS. They’re cartoons, it’s harmless. But if he’s gonna hit on the one, hit on them both.
In fact, I’d love it if Fred hit on Dean and we get the dopey, “I can’t believe a guy is hitting on me,” Aaron Bass callback/exposition.
Dabb did say that Dean has strong opinions on these two characters specifically. And then Dean is wearing Fred’s ascot at, what I assume is, the end of the episode when they’re live action again?! 🤔
✨ *carolling voice* o, haaalf-way through Jan’ry, @almaasi gave to you: a Dean/Cas fic of smut and cute fluuuff ✨
Barbershop Duetis a 22k porn-with-fluffy-plot Christmas/New Year fic, featuring barber!Cas, shaving kink, cuddling, Dean’s INEVITABLE BISEXUAL CRISIS!!! – and a big happy family gathering, with Claire Novak as the surprise guest of honour ♥
read this fic to obtain one (1) belated Christmas wish
My understanding is that even in the LGBT+ community the bi/pan sexual “label” is a grey area so it’s not people making purposeful choices that hes NOT pansexual, it’s just that most people say he is bisexual, it doesn’t mean he could not be pansexual though at all, it’s just terminology IMO and the fact that in canon we have seen him seem interested in both men and women, hence bisexuality. Dean also often represents duality specifically, so bisexuality as a term is a good fit to describe him. Honestly I’m not the best person to ask this and it’s not a black and white question or answer :)
In-story: age, mostly. As someone born in 1979, he’s more likely to align himself with a term that is older and was way more widespread when Dean would be a teenager and a young adult.
Extradiegetically: many instances of Dean being framed with the letters ‘bi’ behind him (on the top of my mind just from season 1 ‘bi liar’ from billiards, the ‘bi’ in Hibbing, etc), ‘a state of bi’ board in 7x07, etc.
Ultimately, in my understanding, whether a person attracted to multiple genders chooses to identity as bisexual or pansexual is a personal choice. Yes you can define them differently on paper but in practice individuals’ experiences are hardly categorizable in clean definitions, especially when it comes to concepts that are so similar. Both (lol) terms are valid and whatever reasons someone might pick one or the other for are also valid. Bisexual has a longer and more intense history, someone might want to align themselves with it, someone might want not to, etc. Someone who is genderfluid or agender might see no basis for a ‘genders like yours and unlike yours’ definition… and so on.
Pansexual is not the new better word that substitutes bisexual, nor pansexual is a new fancy word that has no use because bisexual is already there. Whether one or the other is more appropriate for you, that’s for you to evaluate. For a fictional character, I’d trust the hints we’re given, plus the fact that it makes more sense for someone like Dean to adhere to a terminology popular during his formative years.
Ah yes thanks @deaneatscake, of course the colors of the bi flag appear every now and then around Dean…
Oh yeah duh! I am just so used to it I totally forgot to mention that the word “bi” is something that keeps coming up around Dean and the flag of course too and sometimes just pink and blue as the duality aspect.
I mean… Sam is just not framed with these colours, it’s only Dean and it’s very consistent. Meanwhile his whole story is about going through a whole self acceptance and “I was brought up to believe in black and white but now I’ve learned and am teaching others that life is more grey and not binary” story so…
Dammit I was searching for this for this post, I forgot I’d reblogged it from @mittensmorgul.
Dean may as well have stared into the camera at this point.
(this is also in early season 7′s deep Cas mourning period and the word Grace is added here too for extra pizazz).
Amara also uses the word Bliss when trying to get Dean to give in to her, later revealing (because she’s a massive expositional tool for Dean’s character) that “something stops you from having it all”. Ie. Dean has a facade up and holds things back, come on audience, you must have noticed by now, we have literally had whole episodes about this!
As early on as the end of 1x01′s yeah go Sam, I’ll be fine I don’t like being around other people I’m such a cool dude bro loner, not, then deeper with 1x03 where he loves and is great with kids though Sam thinks this is OOC, 1x04′s scared of flying, 1x09′s Dean crying on the phone to his dad, 1x06 as the epitome of “facade Dean exposition” - all in early season 1, purposefully to establish this to the core - that Dean has a facade of being the dude bro loner hunter but underneath there is so much more, things that come up little by little over time, some of which Sam knows of course but not all, he’s often taken off guard and surprised. This then develops throughout the whole freaking whole show until the magical 12x11′s here’s who Dean really is when he doesn’t remember to put up the facade, and it’s still going because it’s such a huge core plot point, it just keeps building and building until endgame where we will truly understand who Dean is because he will finally let the whole facade go because he finally accepts himself wholly and accepts that he doesn’t need the facade.
In 12x05 Dean literally uses the words Sublimation - that’s kinda my thing out loud for Chuck’s sake.
Yeah, nothing to see here ;)
I honestly don’t know what planet people are on who believe in facade Dean, it’s literally been pointed out to be a facade since the PILOT. It’s like believing Harry Potter is nothing special because Vernon Dursley said so.
