Exploring The Shipping In Supernatural

Shipping- When characters in a television show are put together a relationship and given a name that combines the two parties involved. Or what I like to say, what fans do when they have two characters they really love. Before I get into this, I want to let you all know that this article is an opinion piece in which I explore the shipping that occurs in the television show Supernatural. I will try to keep it clean and objective as I possibly can. As for the facts, it's information I picked up along the way. If you don't like your favorite ship being talked about in a certain way, feel free to stop reading and find some images on tumblr to look at. Thank you.

With any television show that is popular as Supernatural, there is always going to be fun following relationships or making their own pairing up from the characters. For Supernatural there is two very popular ships. There is Wincest (Winchester + Incest), which first appeared after the Pilot aired, and the term is applied to the brothers in a sexual, non-family like, relationship. The other is Destiel (Dean + Castiel), a recent ship that popped up around season 4 that focuses on the relationship between Castiel and Dean. Although I'm not a fan of either ships (I rather just watch the show), I think it's time we look into how each ship came to be. Or rather, how I think it happened, and why fans love it so much.

Wincest, the term fans apply to the deeper relationship between Sam and Dean Winchester. Wincest first appeared after the airing of Pilot as the first fanfiction hit the internet. It grew after as fans of the show began to ship the brothers together in a romantic way than a brotherly way. Thus spawning more fanfiction and fanart of Wincest. Supernatural it's self has become aware of this and had poked fun at it's self a couple of times during some episodes. Either it's people assuming they're gay (Bugs and Playthings), or pointing it out generally with the characters in The Monster At The End of This Book. This ship has a lot to do with the fact that Jared Padalecki and Jensen Ackles' on and off screen chemistry with each other. Because of this chemistry, Supernatural has been such a success, and such a ship exists.

The newest and other popular ship in Supernatural is Destiel which appeared around Season 4 with the appearance of Castiel. Destiel is a term that is applied to the "profound bond" that Dean and Castiel share with other and their relationship. In this ship, fans began putting Dean and Castiel in a sexual and deep relationship with each other. I don't know when it started exactly, but in recent years, the fans for this ship has grown exceptionally large. Perhaps even larger than Wincest. It has a large amount of images, gifs, fanfictions and more to it's name. If you go onto Supernatural tumblr, half the posts there are about Destiel. Similar to Wincest, I feel that the Supernatural writers have caught wind of this and have begun play on it a bit for laughs and give the fans, "feels". In addition to lines like, "Dean and I share I more profound", or "Cas get out of my ass!", Supernatural knows how to work it's fans most of the time. Destiel is however credit to the actors Misha Collins and Jensen Ackles, who let's face it can have chemistry with a rock. Another thing to take into account is the fact that the writer purposely write scenes between Dean and Castiel, since Jared, can't seem to stop pranking Misha. At conventions, the actors constantly tell stories of how Jared messes with Misha's shot and how it's wasting film. The writers have realized this, and began to indulge the fans of Destiel. So thats how I think it plays out anyways.

There is probably a bunch of ships in Supernatural I missed since there are just too many to list (fans are really creative). I personally don't ship anything in Supernatural, other than the normal brotherly relationship between the brothers. Once again this is all my opinion, and the knowledge I have gathered as I surfed the internet. If you want to read more about Wincest, Supernatural Super-Wiki has a page on it. As for Destiel, there is a whole tumblr dedicated to it.

Do you have a Supernatural ship? Or do you just watch television?