The ABCs of Destiel, TV's Most Apocalyptic Fandom Romance 

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The ABCs of Destiel, TV's Most Apocalyptic Fandom Romance

You can\'t keep a good romance down — even if said romance straddles the line between heaven and hell, show canon and fan fiction.

has thrown more than a few romances at its relentlessly loyal fan base in its nine seasons (and counting!), but no pairing has stuck more passionately than the one between Winchester brother Dean and his angel buddy Castiel. They gaze into each other\'s eyes, pepper their dialogue with impossible-to-miss double entendres, and share a connection not even death can part... Boys, we\'re so on to you. 

To celebrate one of the most "official" fandom ships in television history, we\'ve put together a handy primer for newbie shippers — alternatively, a course refresher for the advanced shipper.

When one half of a ship is heaven sent, we\'ve got to deal with it ASAP. Castiel is literally an angel from heaven. The human body he uses is just a "vessel" — but a willing one, at least. 

What\'s a typical day in the life of an angel? Apparently, stop evil, stall the apocalypse, and rescue the Winchester bros (when God commands it — and even when he doesn\'t.) 

Dean is your average run-of-the-mill demon hunter, but his humanity fascinates Castiel. The angel, in his attempt to understand humans, views all of them as "works of art." 

So how did Dean and Castiel meet? Well, Dean died (to save his brother Sam\'s life), spent forty years in hell, and then got rescued by Castiel.

Let\'s thank years of fandom for this rather inelegant — yet candidly descriptive — term. It\'s not like we need to describe what this is, right?

We\'re all for slow burns, but if you need a quick Destiel fix, the fandom is here for you! Thanks to the good writers of the internet, you can read about Dean and Castiel\'s relationship in sweet, touching, or very explicit detail. Your choice! (Check out a sampling here.)

September 19, 2008. A day that will go down in fandom infamy. The very first Dean/Castiel LiveJournal community launched, a day after Castiel\'s first episode, "Lazarus Rising."

Look, this relationship isn\'t all about hot dudes and the apocalypse, okay? Castiel and Dean open up to each other, which is great because sometimes Castiel is an angel with an identity crisis. "I\'m not a hammer, as you say," he told Dean. "I have questions. I have doubts."

Oh yeah, so Jimmy Novak is the human "vessel" Castiel uses. Apparently, Cas chose him because of his blood (and devotion), but we bet attractiveness was also a factor.

\'s creator. Unlike other show masterminds, Kripke occasionally seems to validate fandom or fan fiction by incorporating them into canon. (Hint: The fandom 

Even anti-Destiel shippers have to admit that Dean and Castiel like each other. They\'re friends, obviously — friends harboring feelings with intense underlying sexual tension, possibly. Probably?

Talk about marking your territory. When Castiel rescued/resurrected Dean, he left a hand print burn on Dean\'s left shoulder. Claimed. (Just kidding, kind of.)

When it came to giving the angel Uriel a nickname, Dean settled with the unpleasant moniker Junkless. As for Castiel? The sweetly affectionate Cas. Aw.

In between battling the supernaturally awful, Castiel shows Dean there\'s reason to be hopeful. He reassures his friend, "Good things 

Personal space is apparently not big with angels. This sometimes makes Dean uncomfortable.

Not a lot of relevant things start with Q, but Dean and Castiel are both results in Zimbio\'s Which \'Supernatural\' Character Are You? quiz! Think you know who you\'d get?

Okay, seriously, what has your significant other done for you lately? We bet nothing close to snatching you out of hell and returning you to the land of the living.

For the uninitiated, slash fiction involves a romantic or sexual relationship between two characters of the same sex. Destiel\'s one of the most popular, as are Johnlock (John Watson and Sherlock Holmes on 

) and Swan Queen (Emma Swan and Regina on 

The regular television world may not celebrate Destiel\'s brilliance — or even know 

is still on the air — but Destiel reigns supreme on Tumblr. 

The whole unequal thing worked for Bella and Edward — not that they\'re an excellent model. Cas is a powerful angel; Dean is a human who actually understands human things. Relationship gold!

All of our human vices are foreign to Castiel, which makes everything more fun. How does one learn to manage lust as an age-old angel? Apparently by "accidentally" watching porn. (Dean caught him.)

GIF win, right here. We would enter this GIF in a ship GIF-off — and it would 

Some couples just have that spark. Some gazes convey more than just friendship. Some ABC lists still don\'t know how to incorporate the letter X.

We love love, but we can\'t resist epic love. And what\'s more epic than the apocalypse, resurrections, leviathans, and demons? Not even literal evil can keep these two apart. 

The votes don\'t lie — Dean and Castiel beat out tons of couples to win the Zimbio TV Couples March Madness Challenge! Read all about it here!

Too often writers and actors tell us two characters are in love without doing a proper job of showing it. So yeah, maybe Castiel and Dean haven\'t (yet) explicitly voiced their romantic devotion, but they\'ve done a hell of a job of showing it.

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