Dean/Castiel

Cas fails to understand personal space in 5.03 Free to Be You and Me

Destiel manip by irensupernatural

You know, we know what it is, what’s going on. We don’t talk about it. The actors don’t, Jensen and I don’t. But we’re all perfectly aware of how the relationship is, the writers are completely aware of how it’s being written. It may be unspoken but that doesn’t mean it’s not there or not true. – Misha Collins, Salute to Supernatural Chicago 2012, Meet and Greet

Dean/Castiel slash fans pair the characters Dean Winchester and Castiel in a romantic and/or sexual relationship. This pairing is most commonly referred to as Destiel.

From Castiel's first appearance in 4.01 Lazarus Rising, fandom saw the on-screen intensity between Dean Winchester and Castiel and took it further. It soon became a very popular pairing, with the first Dean/Castiel LiveJournal community appearing on 19th September 2008, the day after "Lazarus Rising" first aired. Its tagline is "Groped By An Angel". In November 2013 the community had 7116 members.

The first fics posted on Livejournal featuring Dean/Castiel were:

• Up From Perdition by vain-chan
• Lazarus Falling by rivkat

The pairing soon became an OTP and this has led to fierce shipping wars between Destiel fans and those for whom Sam/Dean or Wincest is their OTP.

See also Sam/Castiel or Sassy for information about Sam and Castiel.

Numerous jokes alluding to the bond between Castiel and Dean have been made on the show.

Dean: Don't normally see you off leash. Where's your boss? Uriel: Castiel? Oh he's, he's not here. You see he has this weakness, he likes you. – Dean and Uriel, 4.10 Heaven and Hell

Cas, not for nothing, but the last time someone looked at me like that...I got laid. – Dean Winchester, 5.18 Point of No Return

Sam: So what, you like him better, or something? Castiel: Dean and I do share a more profound bond. I wasn't going to mention it. – Sam and Castiel, 6.03 The Third Man

Sorry, you have me confused with the other angel. You know, the one in the dirty trench coat who's in love with you. – Balthazar, 6.17 My Heart Will Go On

Ask him, he was your boyfriend first! – Meg to Dean, 7.23 Survival of the Fittest

There are many visual moments that are taken as Destiel references. In 8.02 What's Up, Tiger Mommy?, when Dean finds Castiel in Purgatory he hugs him, and then strokes his scruffy beard (Source). Later when Castiel returns to Earth in 8.07 A Little Slice of Kevin, he shaves his beard and restores his suits and tie, and cleans his trenchcoat in the process. Fandom was amused that when he appears freshly scrubbed, Dean appears to shift uncomfortably in his seat, and press his hand over his crotch. Watch the "Boner alert" gif here.

In 9.22 Stairway to Heaven, Sam and Castiel think they have found a door to Heaven. When they enter they find a room decorated with kitsch party decorations and a sign from Metatron saying "Welcome to your own personal heaven, Castiel. Good luck finding the real one." At Jus In Bello Italy 2014, Jared reported that originally the writers had indicated that it was supposed to be "a bunch of pictures of Dean. ...I think the writers thought it was funny." He added "But we were like, ‘it IS funny, but we don’t want to give [the audience] the wrong idea that that’s what’s going on....but the idea was that Metatron was messing with Castiel. So we didn’t want to make the episode seem like it was hinting towards something. Because that would have ruined the show to make it about something it wasn’t about. So they just changed it to like a really kitschy, goofy, kind of thing."

There is a canonical deep friendship between the Winchesters, particularly Dean and Castiel. He has been referred to by the boys as family on numerous occasions, and by Dean as both brother and friend.

Sam: I don't understand. Dean: Me neither. Sam: I mean, shouldn't it be... Deastiel ? Dean: Really ? That's your issue with this ? Sam: (smirks) No, of course it's not my issue. You know... How about Sastiel ? Samstiel ? – Sam Winchester and Dean Winchester, 10.05 Fan Fiction

In the 200th episode 10.05 Fan Fiction, Destiel was mentioned. The girls playing Dean and Castiel in the musical are actually a couple, and Marie tells Dean that the play does "explore the nature of 'Destiel' in Act Two" and adds "You can't spell subtext without s-e-x." At this point Dean (or is it Jensen?) breaks the fourth wall and gives an annoyed look to the viewer. Sam is rather amused by it all and wonders about different ship names for both Dean and Castiel and himself and Cas. While Dean has said throughout the episode that he doesn't agree with Marie's interpretation of the Supernatural story, in his final rallying speech to the cast he reiterates his difference of opinion, but that the show is Marie's interpretation and that everyone should go out there and "kick it in the ass."

• Destiel - a documentary exploring the appeal and power of the Destiel ship

Nuances in ship naming

The first online communities around the pairing carried the pairing name Dean/Castiel, as it took about a season for the ship name Destiel to universally accepted. In the early days, some fans also used Deastiel or Dastiel. Fans of the ship are sometimes called Destielers.

Overtime, as the shipping wars with Bronly fans intensified, pejoratives were used for the fans such as Destihellers. Fans opposed to the Destiel ship would often post hate on the Destiel tag on Tumblr, which lead some fans to post under the tag deancas instead. This lead to an increased uptake in the use of "DeanCas" as a ship name. DeanCas is also sometimes used to denote platonic, or at least non sexual, fanworks. See also brOTP.

Fans who strongly believed the ship should be canonical as a form of queer representation, were often accused of fetishising queer relationships, and in response they sought to emphasize that they were interested in the whole relationship and not only the sexual aspects. Some of these fans use "DeanCas" as a preference. However many fans see this as reinforcing the opposition to Destiel and making it synonymous only with porn.

Fanfic

Castiel is usually written as topping when he’s being a powerful angel, or as a bottom when the fic focuses on his sexual inexperience, especially losing his virginity to Dean. For more on these roles see Top/Bottom.

Like all slash fictions, stories featuring Dean and Castiel in a relationship may cover any genre or kink including Future Fic, Pre-Series Fic, Crossover, Angst, Deathfic, Crack, Post-Apocalypse, Curtain Fic and Kid Fic. Hurt-Comfort especially involving whumped!Castiel and the appearance of the Magical Healing Cock are especially popular, as are and stories where Castiel discovers human emotions and sexual feelings for the first time. In AU fics, Castiel may be human rather than an angel.

Sometimes the union of Dean and Castiel in Fanfiction results in Mpreg or Eggpreg, as it can be seen as an inter-species union too. On Archive Of Our Own the fic tag is Destiel redirects to Castiel/Dean Winchester, however the tag destiel is often also used with a modifier eg kinky Destiel, domestic Destiel, fluffy Destiel.

• Destiel Fanfics A blog dedicated to collecting, reviewing, and organising destiel fanfiction.
• deancastiel LJ comm for Dean/Castiel fic
• newsletter for Dean/Castiel fanworks on LJ
• Redemption Road - a fanfic/art project creatign a cirtual Supernatural season focussing on Destiel
• Park Bench Anthology - a Dean/Castiel fic anthology
• Dean-Cas Radio a podbook community
• Secret Angel Fic Exchange held in 2009
• Dean Castiel Secret Santa Fic Exchange
• Dean/Castiel fics tagged through the Supernatural Fic Link Archive
• Collection of quotes by Misha about fanfic by strangepicturesofmishacollins

Destiel outside the Show

In 2018, Hot Topic marketed a Destiel tee

But I don’t like the characterization of teasing around Destiel or around any kind of homoerotic subtext that might appear around the brothers or whatever as queer baiting. I think that that’s really unfair. Because I don’t think that – well, first of all that’s sort of a new and strange term to me, but I don’t think that’s what’s going on. I also don’t think that same kind of aspersion would be cast toward someone who is teasing a heterosexual relationship, like the tension that builds between two male and female series regular characters on any given show that’s never consummated. I understand where they’re coming from, but I don’t think it’s a fair characterization either. – Misha Collins, Source

Misha Collins mentioned fanfic and Dean/Castiel slash at several conventions. At the Salute to Supernatural Vancouver 2009, he said he'd heard about "Dean/Castiel/Pie fic". At Collectormania London 2009, he said he'd read some slash fanfic but "stopped at the part where Cas choked... on someone's cock."

Salute to Supernatural Vancouver 2010: Jensen was asked about fan videos depicting Dean and Castiel as lovers, to which he responded with: "Sorry man, not what the show's about."

Salute to Supernatural Toronto 2011: When asked what had happened to Castiel's trench coat, Jared mimed Dean smelling and rubbing it all over himself. Jensen said, "He used it as a pillow — or as kindling. One of the two."

At Comic Con 2012, a fan asked Jensen and Misha what they thought of Destiel. Jensen, thinking the fan said "Deathsteel," asked the panel what it meant:

Ben Edlund: That's some weird shit.
Jensen: Is this something that you created, Ben?
Ben: You don't want any part of that.
Jim Beaver: It's... extreme bromance.
Ben: There's a lot of pictures of Dean in an angelic embrace - and that's being kind of gentle with it.
Misha: Oh that, love that. I mean (pointing to Jensen) you've got pictures like that of us, in an embrace, all over your bedroom.
Ben: Oh there's a van with that airbrushed on the side.
Jensen: Oh yeah it's my conversion van. It's just a nice airbrush on a pillow in the back, there's not much room. Oh and a wolf howling at the moon. It's cool, you'll like it.

Stands Destiel shirt launched during Pride month in June 2019. A portion of proceeds went to the ACLU

As with Wincest, this pairing has been recognized in broader fandom — beyond fanfic authors and readers — including discussions on After Elton. In May 2011, Dean and Castiel won "TV's most romantic couple," beating out Kurt and Blaine from Glee in an online poll run by Spoiler TV. In September 2012, After Elton ran the reader-voted Ultimate Slash Madness Tourney, the final contestants were Destiel and Sterek (aka Derek and Stiles from MTV's Teen Wolf) and the competition was fierce. Misha himself even got in on encouraging the voting, tweeting:

"This homonormative poll makes me sick! No one could seriously think that those Teen Wolf jerks are gayer than us."

At a fan meet and greet at Salute To Supernatural Chicago 2012 Misha said about Dean and Cas' love for each other, "You know, we know what it is, what’s going on. We don’t talk about it. The actors don’t, Jensen and I don’t. But we’re all perfectly aware of how the relationship is, the writers are completely aware of how it’s being written. It may be unspoken but that doesn’t mean it’s not there or not true."

Misha also delights in teasing (or even trolling!) fandom about Destiel. In September 2013, he "posted a video of him "shipping Destiel which consisted of him posting a type of sausage labelled "Diestiel."

In October 2013, WB Exec Chad Kennedy was tweeting with fans, and mentioned that there was no intention of having Dean and Castiel in a relationship, nor had it been pitched to him. Fan outrage in repsonse led Chad to later delete his Twitter. Director Guy Bee added fuel to the fire stating he couldn't see why fans were upset about something that didn't exist. This caused a lot of distress, and a fan tweeted a letter about how they felt to Misha. After getting informed of the context, Misha later simply tweeted: You're not crazy.

At Jus In Bello Italy 2014, Jensen talked about Dean and Castiel's relationship, remarking that he and Misha "don't play it like that" and that fans have been reading too much into the relationship. Watch it here.

At Salute to Supernatural Jacksonville 2017, a fan asked Jensen in the Gold panel, why, if Dean could have a crush "Dr Sexy M.D.", yet Destiel and his (Dean's) bisexuality weren't canon. In response, Jensen said "Destiel doesn't exist." Watch it here.

AtJus in Bello Italy 2019 Misha noted a fan wearing a "Destiel is real" t-shirt. As the crowd applauded, Jensen encouraged them and said "Destiel is real" followed by "It's real? Where is it real?" while Misha interjected "Don't get in a fight with them!" This exchange was variously taken as Jensen a) supporting Destiel and b) denouncing Destiel.

In June 2019, Stands launched a collection for Pride which included a rainbow design saying love, a bracelet charm for the character Charlie, a rainbow pride charm and a Destiel t-shirt. The Destiel shirt showed a cannon (aka canon) with rainbow coloured feathers shooting out of it. The accompanying text read "You’ve been patient and subtle about your desires for years, so we’re taking this matter into our own hands and making Destiel cannon! We’re not sure why you’re so into civil war re-enactments, but we have a feeling the Destiel Cannon shirt will be your OTP (one tee, perfect). It’s emblazoned with a cannon designed in the bluest blue to ever blue and sparkling green, so it’s sure to be right up your alley...The fabulous rainbow feathers are proof that the cannon will go off (but never prematurely)."

Queer Baiting

Many Destiel fans have been passionate in wanting the relationship to become canon. Some argue that the Show's failure to have a same-sex relationship between Dean and Castiel is indicative of the paucity of representation of non-heterosexual relationships on television, and accuse the Show of queer-baiting. This term refers to the concept that a TV show may intentionally imply a homo-erotic tension between two characters with no intention of thematically being queer, purely to attract or satisfy viewers, particularly queer ones.

See Meta Essays for further discussion on characters' sexuality

Definition and history of Queer Baiting on Fanlore

• Dear "Slash" Fandom by effingdeixis [thequixoticbedhead] on Fanlore (May 2013)
• Romano, Aja. 2013. How One Question Triggered a Supernatural Meltdown. The Daily Dot, May 6; archive link
• On Queerbaiting and Misha's Comments at NJCon by t-eyla (June 2013)
• Supernatural and Queer Love: Destiel, Queer Baiting, and Homophobia by thescarletwoman (July 2013); archive link
• Veronika K. 2013. "Supernatural -- 9.07 -- Dean and Castiel's Reunion and Queer-Baiting." SpoilerTV, September 20. archive link
• Baker-Whitelaw, Gavia. 2013. Did Supernatural Just Give Fans the Queer Romance They've Been Hoping For? The Daily Dot, October 15; archive link
• Chau, Osric. 2013. Twitlonger, 23 October, http://www.twitlonger.com/show/n_1rqa58i
• Romano, Aja. 2013. WB executive deletes Twitter account after angering 'Supernatural' fans. The Daily Dot, October 24; archive link
• Regarding Chad Kennedy by The Fandom (de)Bunker (October 2013); archive link
• Cruz, Eliel. 2014. Fans take Supernatural to task for "Queer Baiting." Advocate, July 17. archive link
• Destiel: One of the Most Effective Queerbaits in TV History by snuggydeamon (June 2014); archive link
• Gennis, Sadie. 2014. "Supernatural Has a Queerbaiting Problem That Needs to Stop." TV Guide, November 17. archive link
• "Mirror, mirror, on the wall..." by neven-ebrez (January 2015); archive link
• Aparicio, Rachel. 2015. Supernatural Needs to Pull the Trigger on Destiel or Castiel (And They Need to Do It Now). The Daily Fandom, March 20; archive link
  • Limiting a character to being one half of a ship is really fucking gross by pathsofpassion, destieldrabblesdaily (March 2015); archive link
  • Making Cas the Scapegoat of Destiel is Reductive (Untitled) by anon, bittercasgirl (March 2015); archive link
• Supernatural + Polysemy (Untitled) by rainbofiction, f-ckyeahfutbol, fireintheimpala, impostoradult (March 2015); archive link
• Kelly, Geneva. 2015. Fans vs fiction: Queerbaiting in "Supernatural"? Biscuit, March 6; archive link
• Campbell, Anna. 2016. Queerbaited: Homoeroticism & Homophobia in Supernatural in the Age of the Internet. Medium, February 20; archive link
• Queerbaiting and the blame ping-pong ball by chili-legilimens (March 2019); archive link
• Hale, Lyra. 2020. Queerly Not Straight: We Need to Talk About #Destiel. Fangirlish, January 21; archive link

Meta and Ship Manifestos

2009

• Because God Commanded It: Dean/Castiel by vichan (February 2009); archive link, page 1, archive link, page 2, reposted by k-vichan on her tumblr (April 2017), archive link
• Commentary from July 2016 by mittensmorgul, k-vichan, flyingfish; archive link
• Dean and Castiel meta and picspam thing, with some stuff about denial by dotfic (September 2009); archive link

2010

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2011

• Meta on Castiel in 6x21 and 6x22: you fight and fight for this family by dotfic (May 2011); archive link
• Why Cas is Dean's perfect match by missyjack (May 2011); archive link
• SPN meta: The Lack of Unconditional Love by vasiliki (June 2011); archive link

2012

• The secret relationship theory by pinkandsatiny (April 2012); archive link
• Why are their scenes shot in such a romantic manner? by dirtyovercoats (June 2012); archive link
• making it up as we go: a dean/cas manifesto by dirtyovercoats (August 2012); archive link
• Why I Ship Dean/Castiel–After Swearing to God I Wouldn't by alexanrapelaez (August 2012); archive link
• Dean and Cas Purgatory reunion by lurea (October 2012); archive link
• Supernatural and Queer(ed) Canon by rootsunknown (November 2012); archive link
• Destiel & pro-canon Destiel shipping meta masterpost by silvenhorror (December 2012); archive link
• 5:04 Future!Dean and Cas are Lovers and the Whole Camp Knows It by lurea (October 2012)
  • part one; archive link
  • part two; archive link
  • part three; archive link
  • part four; archive link

2013

• 5:04 End!Verse Characterization - Dean and Cas (January 2013); archive link
• dean/cas, queerness, and continuity by rootsunknown (January 2013; archive link
• Artemis: The Perfect Dean/Cas Parallel by twistedsardonic (February 2013); archive link
• The Supernatural Lover: Fairy Tale Archetypes and Destiel by outpastthemoat (March 2013); archive link
• Let’s Talk About Music: Goodbye Stranger by spn-rants (March 2013); archive link
• 8x18: Dean’s “Feelings” Conversation And the Audience Getting Some Explicit Answers by spn-rants (March 2013); archive link
• An Argument in Tropes – A Destiel Meta (Part One) (Part 2) by octoswan (April 2013); archive link 1, archive link 2
• Casual Viewers noticing Destiel by silvenhorror (April 2013)
  • (Part I | archive link I) **(Part II | archive link II)
  • (Part III) | archive link III)
  • (Part IV | archive link IV)
• The Great Season 7 Rewatch by flutiebear (Sepember 2012 - April 2013)
  • (Part 1) (Part 2) (Part 3) (Part 4) (Part 5) (Part 6) (Part 6.5) (Part 7) (Part 8.1) (Part 8.2) (Part 8.3) (Part 8.4) (Part 8 coda) (Part 9)
  • Author's note, April 2014: For many reasons, I am no longer in the Supernatural fandom, and I will never finish this meta series. While I leave the GS7R up for posterity's sake (and because I worked too hard on it to take it down), you probably shouldn't bother following me for more SPN meta, because it won't be coming. Ever.
• Supernatural and the Love Narrative: A Non-Shipper’s Perspective on Destiel by sarasarai (April 2013)
  • (Part 1) (Part 2) (Part 3) (Part 4) (Part 5) (Part 6) **Special "Clip Show" Edition (May 2013)
  • Author's note: This meta was written prior to season 9, which has in my opinion quite clearly and distinctly moved the relationship back to platonic.
• Season 8 had so many Human/Supernatural relationship parallels for Dean and Cas by mischievous-mouse (May 2013); archive link
• On the Nature of the Profound Bond by defilerwyrm (June 2013); archive link
• The Romance Narrative v. The Bromance Narrative: When slash ships transcend crack ships by heaven-is-my-hell (June 2013); archive link
• The Meaning Behind the Laundromat Song by charlie-minion (October 2013); archive link
• The Laundromat Song (Follow-up) by charlie-minion (October 2013); archive link
• Regarding Chad Kennedy by The Fandom (de)Bunker (October 2013); archive link

2014

• Extended Cain & Dean Parallels by pondlifeforme (January 2014); archive link
• Parallels - Dean/Cain, Sam/Abel & Castiel/Collette by queernatural (January 2014); archive link
• Destiel between Hiatuses, or A Look At What These Four Episodes Have Been Telling Us And Why We Can Be Very Optimistic Right Now by proxy-1 (February 2014); archive link
• Bedroom Meta: Setting the Scene for Dean's Romantic Endgame by thevioletcaptain (February 2014); archive link
• Season 9: How it has established that Dean Winchester’s endgame includes a love interest, and what that means for Dean and Cas by crossroadscastiel (March 2014); archive link
• Canon Queer: Deconstructing Destiel Theory by honestbrooklyndirt (March 2014); archive link
• The Weight of the World Is Love by thevioletcaptain (April 2014); archive link; mirror link
• Narrative Negative Space: How What’s Not There Says as Much as What Is by s-cornelius (April 2014); archive link
• When Structure Informs Subtext Or, why I think Destiel is going to happen (and it's not just because of actor chemistry) by deathbycoldopen (April 2014); archive link
• The Divine Reviews Collection by neven-ebrez (Oct 2013 - Aug 2014); archive link
• The Rule of Three in "Heaven Can't Wait" by obsessionisaperfume (September 2014); archive link
• Summary of Destiel + POV by elizabethrobertajones (November 2014); archive link (updated September 2017, archive link)
• “The Charlie Kaufman Of It All”: The Relevance for Canon Destiel of Robbie Thompson’s References to Kaufman’s "Adaptation" by filleretive (December 2014); archive link

2015

• Queerness, Tropes & Proof Of Love: Why Destiel Is Canon by fozmeadows (April 2015); archive link
• The Three Day Deancasversary by mittensmorgul (September 2015)
• Destiel is canon by Anloquen (December 2015)

2016

• Anonymous asked: Hello! 'all the episode did in general was tick yet another (possibly the last) item off of the long list of 'obstacles in the way of actual canon Destiel' can I ask what you meant by that, and what the other boxes are or were? thank you! by destieldrabblesdaily (April 2016); archive link
• SPN 11x23: They think they’re family by charlie-minion (June 2016); archive link

2017

• Dean. Made Cas. A fucking mixtape. by k-vichan (April 2017); archive link
• I'm throwing something in the pile of "romantic tropes/couples Destiel parallels." by trisscar368 (January 2017); archive link
• Why the SPN mixtape scene from 12x19 is screenwriting gold, and should be taught to the next generations of screenwriters everywhere - analysis by margarittet (May 2017); archive link
• Deans top 13 Zepp TRA XX by deanandcastrash, neven-ebrez (June 2017, August 2017); archive link
• It’s never too late to start over again by k-vichan (November 2017); archive link

2018

• Singular vs Plural “You” by charlie-minion (January 2018); archive link
• Dean And Cas Are In Love “A hopefully one day conclusive study of these assholes, hopefully told as briefly as I can. Written for the people in the fandom who care but sometimes need a pick me up on this, and not written to prove a point to anyone who doesn’t already care. <3″ by lizbobjones (January 2018 --)
• seeing subtext by elizabethrobertajones (April 2018); archive link
• Meta Monday: Supernatural - Castiel/Dean by fangirlunderground (April 2018); archive link
• This Is the Song That Never Ends by sisabet (July 2018)
• Dean and Cas and their issues... by mittensmorgul, "A collection of as much of my meta on Castiel, Dean, and their relationship as I can possibly cram onto AO3 before tumblr implodes." (December 2018)
• Slash and Canon: Do you ever just think about how much slash (and femslash) fandom has changed the last ~10 years? by comradegrantaire (December 2018); archive link

2019

• Destiel - The Intimacy of Touch and Holding Hands by bluestar86 (December 2019); archive link
• Understanding the Closet in Narrative - Healing Hands/ Holding Hands in 15x08 Our Father Who Aren't in Heaven by drsilverfish (December 2019); archive link

2020

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Further Reading

• Hartinger, Brent. 2009. Ask the Flying Monkey! (Dean and Castiel's chemistry discussed). AfterElton, October 19; archive link
• BuddyTV. 2010. Love Is All Around: Best TV Relationships of 2010; archive link
• The Adam Harris. 2011. TV Romance Competition - The winner announced: Dean and Castiel in Supernatural. SpoilerTV, May 24; archive link
• Zap2it. 2013. Most Crushworthy 'Ship Tumblr Sails: Dean and Castiel, February 27; archive link
• Ayers, Dennis. 2013. And the 2013 Ultimate Slash Madness Winner Is… The Backlot, August 18; archive link
• Igarashi, Hayley. 2014. The ABCs of Destiel, TV's Most Apocalyptic Fandom Romance? Zimbio, March 24; archive link
• Slattery, Jill. 2014. Dean and Castiel win Zimbios Top TV Couple Competition. Zimbio, March 28; archive link
• Tumblr ranked Destiel as the most reblogged ship of 2014
• Romano, Aja. 2014. 'Supernatural' pairing takes the crown as Tumblr's most popular ship. The Daily Dot, December 3; archive link
• Mainstream Media Destiel Exposure 2014-2015 by clusterjam (April 2015, last updated December 2015); archive link
• Murphy, Shaunna. 2015. Here's Why Destiel is Your Best TV Couple of the Year: It's Canon. MTV News, January 8; archive link
• Steiner, Amanda Michelle. 2015. Supernatural: Jensen Ackles and Misha Collins on a boat after Teen Choice Best Chemistry win. Entertainment Weekly, August 17; archive link
• Mainstream Media Destiel Exposure 2016 by clusterjam (January 2016, last updated December 2016); archive link
• Mainstream Media Destiel Exposure 2017 by clusterjam (February 2017, last updated December 2017); archive link
• Tannenbaum, Emily. 2018. The Definitive Ranking of the Best TV Ships of 2018? Cosmopolitan, November 19; archive link
• Stands Destiel Tee and note to #SPNFamily by Shirts (June 2019)