It took the CW all of one day after that information broke in the manner that it did to have Misha Collins, Castiel’s actor, make a series of Tweets about “how that wasn’t really how the scene was supposed to go down” (Dean Winchester reciprocating Castiel’s love for him), actually having the nerve — and for the record, I blame the CW for this now, not Misha himself — to try and blame “rogue translators” for this when it was, to the best of my knowledge, two languages that this occurred in. It happened in Portuguese and Spanish. I did some more research on the matter beyond what I had already picked up, and translation is more of an art than some people realize. There are quality checks along the way. Dubbing is almost always done in the native language in question so that the characters speak in a language that they will be understood by their intended participants in, and the subtitles reflect this. There would have had to have been a whole lot of “rogue translators” (insert me rolling my eyes here) for this to have actually occurred, let alone made it to television, and not become a big thing in the countries that it aired in other than praise for it ending the decade-long queerbaiting that had been going on in the show with something more substantial.

This has strengthened my resolve not to re-watch any episodes of Supernatural after I watch the ones remaining that I have not watched, and I will not be watching any more of the CW’s shows after this. The hashtag “they silenced you” and “they silenced them” was, at least at the start, primarily about this, but then it came to encapsulate so much more — that Supernatural killed off every LBGT and minority character that came onto the show more quickly than they did… characters who were not. As I’ve stated in previous entries, the hope is in the fandom at this point, and the “Supernatural family”. It’s definitely not in the actual show…

I just wanted to post this up here because it describes the process better than I tried to.

When a movie or television show, but especially something more “fluid” like a television show, is available for air in countries that do not speak English (this is how it goes on here, so I can only attest to this being my home country), the original script has to be sent to those in the other country who are in charge of generating subtitles in advance of that episode airing in that country. This is done so that they have plenty of time to generate accurate subtitles. And like I’ve said, it is usually the original script, barring anything catastrophically major that has to be changed before the episode or medium actually airs. But why is this relevant, you may ask? Of all things, to Supernatural? A lot of you may like the answer to this question…

In the original script of the episode where character Castiel confesses his love for Dean Winchester before being swallowed up by The Empty, Dean Winchester says that he loves Castiel back. However, the original script was changed in America from “I love you too, Cas,” to “Don’t do this, Cas”. We as fans and viewers are just now beginning to see that this change occurred by the subtitles that the show has in Latin America, comparing them to what was actually said on-screen here in the States. Actor Jensen Ackles even stated himself that there were changes to the “confession scene”, so we have an actor that was actually involved in this show and in this scene confirming this, and he did so at around the time that the episode originally aired in America. And furthermore, in the Portuguese subtitles, Dean is said to be saying “me too” (as in, “I love you too”) as he is sobbing beside the wall in the bunker that Castiel pushed him toward to get him away from The Empty before he could do something dangerous or reckless to try to protect him from his fate. Those who have watched the episode more than once, or a handful of times, think that Dean saying anything other than sobbing was intentionally cut (as in, the end part of that segment was intentionally shortened), but not after the original script had it in there, or why would Portugual air subtitles referencing it?

Both of them were silenced, even if — surprisingly — American CW did actually let Castiel say “I love you”.

This does not surprise me at all. Why can’t we have queer leads in prominent television shows? Why not?