For years I watched this show without even knowing Destiel as a ship existed. I loved the characters, but wasn't part of the online fandom.
And now I am obsessed with getting the truth about what C*W cut/edited from the final episodes to an unhealthy degree.

Till ~ 2 years ago I didn't see Dean and Cas as anything else than *extremely* close friends, but to be fair I neither did with any of the cis-het couples, before they became canon.

It often surprised me when they kissed all of the sudden, unless it was explicitly said before or I made an effort to look out for signs of romance.

Maybe it's because I am autistic, maybe because I am asexual/demiromantic, but neither in real life nor fiction I ever picked up on romantic hints.
For years I was as oblivious to Deans love to Cas as Cas himself was.

When I heard about Destiel, at first I was surprised. But when I re-watched it, I looked out for foreshadowing/romantic implications. At first just for fun, but than I was baffled by the amount of parallels to cis-het couples I found. How couldn't I see that before?

There were some scenes that never really made sense to me, but after I read Dean as bi and in love with Cas they all of the sudden did. The confession to the priest and Deans talk with Sam afterwards for example.

I still wonder how long it would have took me to pick up on DeanCas, if I never have heard that there are people shipping them.
But season 15 was nothing but layers upon layers of hinting that Dean is bi and in love with Cas and Cas in love with Dean.

I wonder how anyone can watch Deans prayer thinking this isn't love.
If I, an autistic, asexual, demiromantic person, can see that Dean and Cas are in love, I don't understand how there are still people saying: "Dean is straight." and "It is brotherly love/up for interpretation."

That's why I don't get how they could just act like Cas confession never happend. They simply never let Dean react.
#TheySilencedYou

I might should specify something: It's not like I don't pick up on romantic/sexual hints at all, but I do have my difficulties, if it is too vague. The words said and implications made, need to be explicit enough. But, as anybody, I became better with time and experience.

However, I know and knew the pattern of making the main male and main female character end up in a romantic/sexual relationship. At some point I started to actually expect it. It didn't surprise me anylonger. It mostly annoyed me, if they did it without good foreshadowing.

I was surprised though, if a couple ended up together, that neither entirely fit into this usual pattern, nor had real foreshadowing.

For example a male main character and a female side character, although there was another female character, who was more important to the story and the couple didn't show real interest in each other before.

Unfortunately heterosexuality/romantic is shown as the "default" to such a degree, that everything else stays unnoticed. Same sex couples getting together, is not shown in mainstream movies and therefore something, casual viewers haven't memorized as a possibility to expect.

Looking back at the movies I watched growing up, opposite sex couples became canon even when the story lacked any build up, meanwhile same sex pairings could do the most romantic things for each over, but it never ended with them being together.

Unconsciously, I was conditioned into memorizing the pattern that romantic implications between same sex people aren't actually romantic at all.

It is difficult (for me at least) to see something you not only have NOT seen as a pattern before, but also have memorized to NOT expect.
I often compaire patterns I have seen before, with what I see at the moment, to understand feelings and emotional relationships people have.

That's maybe one of the reasons I didn't saw that D*ean and C*as were in love.
I was conditioned to not see it, and only was able to finally see what they felt for each other, after I made an effort to brake free from this.

This thread now took a totally different turn. However, my point stands, if I can unlearn this stiff thinking patterns and see beyond, others can too.
I totally don't get that there are people who watched C*as' confession and still say he is talking about brotherly love.