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Misha Collins apologizes to 'Supernatural' fans for defending ending that broke Destiel and killed only gay character

After ranting on Twitter about how irked he was about fans assuming there was a conspriacy surrounding Destiel, Collins apologized, saying he was going to 'listen for a change'

'Supernatural' is the gift that keeps on giving. Even a week after the show's grand series finale wrapped, fans have been buzzing nonstop with Twitter and Tumblr having become the hotspot of complaints and theories over Castiel's inevitable damnation. And Misha Collins — the pot of gold at the end of the rainbow, isn't making things any better.

While the entire fandom continues to mourn the end of the 15-year long show, there are two halves of the process. On one hand, they are thrilled that their favorite ship — Destiel, is finally canon with Cas admitting his feelings for Dean in his final moments in Episode 15x18. On the other hand, killing off the only expressed gay character on the show, just moments after he confessed his feelings, has come off as ragingly homophobic. This is not the ending fans wanted. This is not how they had wanted their ship to be canonized. And this is definitely not how Cas should have gone out.

A Spanish dubbed version of the episode, where Dean actually says "And I, you," back before Cas is swallowed by the Empty was the saving grace of the fandom which was calling Cas' death an elaborate homophobic conspiracy. True to his nature, Collins tried to reason with a defense on the show's behalf about the way his character's ending played out and in the early hours of November 26, went on a Twitter rant about why there could have been no ending more perfect than the one on the show. He would soon regret it though, as two hours after posting multiple tweets ranting about how 'irked' he was that fans weren't liking the ending, he was slammed so hard and so vehemently, he ending up apologizing.

Collins began his Twitter rant through a video, where he claimed his expression was his signature 'irked face'. His words pretty much followed what he tweeted as the caption for the video, writing: "I’m seeing a lot of commentary on the ending of #SPN & the recent Spanish dub & am disheartened to see there are a lot of misconceptions that are making many in our family feel unheard & unsupported, so I’m calling a #SPNFamily meeting to sort a few things out for the record." 

Collins followed the tweet up with more tweets that just repeated what he said in the video. He went on to write: "There was no conspiracy within the network, staff, or cast of #SPN to minimize or erase representation from the narrative & there was no alternate ending to 15.18. Dean was always too stunned in the moment to reply. (Apparently a rogue translator penned their own dialogue.) Also, in my opinion Cas doesn't play into the "bury your gays" trope. His declaration of love saves Dean, enabling Sam & Dean to save all of humanity. And Cas doesn’t die! He actually goes on to rebuild heaven! Was the show perfect? No. Could Cas’ departure have had more resonance in the final episodes? Sure. But I’m confident you guys can sort that part out as your writing, art, and imaginations play the story out past the last frames we filmed. I’m proud to have spent more than a decade of my life telling a story where good consistently triumphs over evil... And I’m especially proud that my character’s parting message was, 'expressing your true self, letting yourself love who you truly want to love, openly & honestly, can literally save the world… For in the end, good things do happen — & they’re worth fighting for.' I love you all."

Collins should have known the explosive aftermath of tweeting out this defense. He slammed a fandom that, let's be real, is pretty much known for how actively they ship Castiel being not straight. So the inevitable backlash was something everybody should have seen coming. Perhaps why two hours later, Collins decided to call it quits with defending the series finale, and add his apology to the thread of rant he had initially tweeted.

Responding to his tweets defending the ending, heaps of fans, while not directly blaming him, pointed out how their hurt went beyond Castiel coming out. "how do u think a character being confirmed as gay and then being sent to a place worse than hell comes across to an audience of gay people who was oftentimes traumatized by christianity even if he didnt stay permanently he was still sent to hell directly as a result of being gay" asked a fan.

"It's not about Cas' confession — that was empowering & validating. It's about what happened after — Cas' erasure from the basic fabric of the show, disregarding of what the show was 4 us (family don’t end with blood), the message you find peace in death only, etc. We don't blame U," explained another. Another took time to explain where they went wrong, noting: "Exactly! Even if Cas didn't have the "I love you" plot, if he wasn't in the finale it would be offensive simply due to the reversal of "family don't end with blood" and erasing such a critical character. The queer erasure just adds problems. Eileen's erasure is a problem too."

All of this prompted Collins to look at the issue in a whole light, as he tweeted: "I'm sorry if I spoke defensively. I naively thought Cas in 15.18 was going to feel validating. But this isn't about me. I'm going to shut up and listen for a change. If it's not too much to ask, please tell me what we could have done better," read Collins' final tweet on the post.