Supernatural's Destiel Reigns Supreme in Tumblr's Year in Review
The past two years has brought some monumental things, particularly within the realm of fandom and Internet culture. To an extent, nothing made the Internet explode quite like the final season of Supernatural, with fans having a wide array of reactions to the final episodes — and particularly to the dynamic between Dean Winchester (Jensen Ackles) and Castiel (Misha Collins). In early November of 2020, the Supernatural episode "Despair" saw Castiel declare his love for Dean, something that was later reciprocated in the eyes of many fans by the Spanish dub of the episode. The conversation around "Destiel" definitely ended 2020 with a bang — and on the microblogging platform Tumblr, that extended into the months beyond. On Wednesday, Tumblr debuted its annual "Year in Review" stats, chronicling the most popular things on the service for the past year. Destiel made its way to the top of the overall "Top Ships" list, with Supernatural and Destiel placing #2 and #3 on the wider "Top 21 of 2021" list, while Dean Winchester and Castiel placed #19 and #21.
You can check out the full list of "Top Ships", which includes other fan-favorites from The Falcon and the Winter Soldier, Supergirl, The Owl House, and even Hannibal, below!
- Destiel (Dean Winchester & Castiel, Supernatural, m/m)
- Lumity (Luz Noceda & Amity Blight, The Owl House , f/f)
- Sambucky (Sam Wilson & Bucky Barnes, the Marvel universe, m/m)
- Bakudeku (Bakugou Katsuki & Midoriya Izuku, Boku no Hero Academia, m/m)
- Dreamnotfound (Dreamwastaken & GeorgeNotFound, Streamers, m/m)
- Lokius (Loki Laufeyson & Mobius M. Mobius, Loki, m/m)
- Supercorp (Kara Danvers & Lena Luthor, Supergirl, f/f)
- Buddie (Evan Buckley & Edmundo Diaz, 9-1-1, m/m)
- Catradora (Catra & Adora, She-Ra and the Princesses of Power, f/f)
- Hannigram (Hannibal Lecter & Will Graham, Hannibal, m/m)
"Realizing that Destiel going canon [on Supernatural] happened on November 5th, so that was not accounted for in our data," former Tumblr Trends Expert Amanda Brennan told ComicBook.com last year. "So a part of me is like, 'Do I just redo the whole campaign?' But we will have a Destiel post to talk about the events of November 5th."
"I was online on my personal computer, scrolling through Tumblr, because that's what I do with my free time, and I saw this post, 'Destiel is canon', and I was like, 'Oh my God.' I texted my team, I was like, 'Everyone, get on your work computers. We have to go see what's going on,'" Brennan continued. "Looking at the data, looking at everything happening in the Tumblr ecosystem was wild. It just had this energy – no matter what fandom you were in, you were coming to Tumblr to see what was happening, because of all the election stuff and then all of the rumors that got caught up in it. The hashtag was #SuperPutinElection, as a call back to #SuperWhoLock. There are only so many nights on the internet that are like that, and I'm glad we had one of those this year."
What do you think of Tumblr's Top Ships of 2021 list? Share your thoughts with us in the comments below!
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