#2020 is over

[secretmellowblog]

People who try to analyze what happened on Tumblr on November 5th, 2020, often really overstate how much it was actually “about” Supernatural. As someone who has never been in the supernatural fandom ever but dID join in on the hysterical destielposting—it was really more about the stress of the pandemic and the 2020 presidential election.

The two biggest Youtubers I’ve seen try to dissect “what happened that November 5th” in video essays both weren’t American—- and I think that explains why they both tried to explain the hysteria primarily via analyzing the Supernatural fandom/the original show, rather than through the lens of the election. And while those videos are cool, valid, informational, and make lots of really well-considered interesting points— I can tell you that me and almost all my mutuals had literally no knowledge or interest in the fact that “oh supernatural had made nods at the ship in the past but the creators were adamant that I wouldn’t be canon” or etc etc etc etc. the first time I learned about any of that context was way later, watching videos where people claimed that fandom history context (that I did not know anything about) was the actual reason for the hysteria.

But the reality is that people latched on to the Destiel stuff because it was a piece of big useless inane zero-stakes fandom news in a time when we were desperately waiting for serious high stakes election news. We were latching onto a “positive “ piece of inane stupid fandom news in a time of great stress, with all the desperation of a drowning man who latches onto whatever piece of wood will keep him afloat.

The core of the hysteria was that Americans (who make up a huge chunk of tumblr’s userbase) were currently glued to their laptops watching the live presidential election vote counts come in. These vote counts were taking an extended amount of time due to the pandemic causing high numbers of mail-in ballots, resulting in a constant state of Election Day Stress for multiple days straight.

This was also during the height of the Pandemic. People had predicted Trump’s presidency would be bad; no one had predicted it would be this apocalyptically bad. No one had predicted pandemics and lockdowns and hospitals overflowing with bodybags. remember Trump spreading Covid lies and conspiracies?? There were so many Qanon conspiracies about democrats being Satanic child traffickers who had to be put to death, and coup threats were mounting from the right wing side. It seemed like this election was a choice between ‘centrist democrat’ and “apocalyptic right wing conspiracy theory authoritarianism,” in the midst of pandemic conditions that people feared would never ever improve— and it seemed like a close election.

Another major point was that Trump voters were more likely to be antimaskers/Covid deniers, while Biden voters were more likely to take the pandemic seriously— so Biden voters were more likely to send in mail-in ballots instead of risking the in-person voting crowds, which meant their ballots would take much longer to count. And so, in many state electoral vote counts, it would initially seem like Trump was very far in the lead— only for Biden to slooooowly build up an agonizingly small lead as the mail in ballots came in, and then defeat Trump at the very end.

So you’re just watching these news sites giving live election updates, refreshing the page every 2 minutes to see if you’re going to live under a spineless centrist democrat or a literal Qanon Dictatorship. And then you go on tumblr to distract yourself, and there’s more election posting, and more agonizing over the votes, and more stress and despair—-

And then it’s been days and we’re right at the crucial tipping point where it’s anyone’s game and the next few hours will determine whether Trump will win, so you need to keep your eye on the vote count, because the next hours will determine the future of the pandemic and your country and your plans for your entire life—

And then stupid Destiel becomes canon! And it becomes canon in the silliest way possible!

If Destiel had become canon at any other time, it would have been a big goofy tumblr celebration? But we wouldn’t have gotten the insane explosion of hysterical interaction.

The entire core of it was the contrast between the inane meaningless stupidity of fandom news vs the actual stressful election news you wanted to hear! It really is best conveyed in that meme where Castiel says “I love you” and Dean indifferently responds with a piece of important election news.

It’s about the contrast between the low-stakes inanity of fandom and the massive life-destroying stakes of a terrifying election. There really was no reason it had be Supernatural specifically, except that Supernatural was a thing everyone knew basic things about from dashboard osmosis— it could’ve been any other equally huge silly fandom ship news about a ship everyone *knew of* but might not necessarily be invested in (ex. Stucky becoming canon, Johnlock becoming canon, Kirk/Spock becoming more canon somehow, etc etc etc.)

I think it’s true that people who weren’t paying agonizingly close attention to the American election news got swept up in it, and that non American Supernatural fans also were extremely excited for purely fandom reasons — but the entire reason it blew up to an unprecedented degree was because of that core of stressed out terrified Americans glued to their computers watching election results and suddenly receiving stupid fandom news instead, and deciding to just hysterically parodically hyper-celebrate this absurd useless zero-stakes news.

I think it was also all elevated by the fact that, as I said before, this happened at the crucial “tipping point” of the election where the next few hours would determine the winner. The fact that Biden began to slowly develop a lead in the hours after made it feel, hysterically, as if the hours after Destiel became canon was somehow the turning point where he began to win; so celebrating Destiel felt like celebrating that slow turn towards victory.

The tl,dr is that it’s so important to Remember the Fifth of November …..in preparation the inevitable hysteria that will happen in the presidential election on November 5th of next year. XD. Personally I’m rooting for Johnlock or Frodo/Sam to somehow become canon in the eleventh hour right before the democrats win

#November 5th #november 5 2020 #the fifth of november #just a random ramble #November 5th 2020 is such an important day to me #it really is a holiday #but it does confuse me when I see people analyzing it primarily as a supernatural thing #instead of a ‘hysteria over an election reaches a breaking point when inane zero stakes fandom news comes out and we all latch onto it’thing #but yeah!! #this is my personal essay out of love for the holiday

[hansoeii]

stede bunnet

#no thoughts just ed and his emotional support bunny #i felt like a genius coming up with stede bunnet this better make you laugh #because im still giggling over it #praying that his name is anything close to this because i need it #fun fact my bunny who sadly passed away in 2020 looked exactly like the one ed adopts and it made me cry a bit seeing that scene #her name was soe and I changed my username for her #she was the most prcious baby she got me through all the hardships #so I believe stede bunnet can do that for ed too #ofmd #ofmd 2 #our flag means death #our flag means death 2 #ofmd fanart #edward teach #taika waititi #blackbeard #ofmd 2 fanart #my art #digital art

[pangur-and-grim]

it’s hard to regain your passion after a burn out. I read someone describe not as re-lighting the old torch, but as crafting a new torch to light, and that is what it feels like! it’s work!

#I feel silly since the burnout happened in 2020 #it’s been almost half a decade! get over it! work harder!

[rubysevens]

anyway in the past week the irish government has voted down two motions which would have condemned the genocide in gaza.

i need everyone to stop lionising ireland as if its not also a european government with strong ties to the us. american weapons pass through shannon airport and will continue to, because yesterday the motion to stop that was voted down 83 to 50.

other governments have done much more but somehow people still act as though ireland is the ultimate palestinian ally and exempt from criticism on its handling of palestine bc it was once colonised, even though that past experience clearly isnt being taken into account by the irish government when creating policy.

i live here i know there’s a lot of public support and sympathy for palestine, which is great, but that isnt reflected in government, and i think ireland should be treated like other countries whose governments have done nothing.

#i mean i think theres also a discrepancy btwn the govt and the people on palestine bc there hasnt been a general election since early 2020 #before the last few rounds of aggression by israel brought it back into mainstream western discussion #but also theres a degree of privilege in ppl not having felt the need to think abt it in 2020 yk. palestinians have been thinking abt this #since 1948 #there’s also the fact that ideological support of palestine absolutely doesn’t equate to better treatment of muslims #i can promise you this country is still very islamophobic and racist no matter where you go #and i feel like that gets glossed over when ireland is treated as the ultimate ally of palestine when. realistically. it isnt #be quiet b #sorry this is like paragraphs but im becoming frustrated 👍 #ive seen other posts abt this im not the first to say it they were just unrebloggable. understandably

[amoebeau]

got back into fnaf real hard so i asked insta for some animatronics to draw.... need to practice again

#my 2020 era all over again #well. anyway. ^_^ #my art #fnaf #five nights at freddys #bonnie fnaf #toy bonnie #mangle fnaf #lefty fnaf #chica fnaf

[hayden-christensen]

hayden christensen coming back to star wars has been the absolute highlight of the past two years and it has been a pleasure and joy to watch him in two shows both with little screentime but incredible performances of every version of anakin skywalker/darth vader and get his well deserved flowers from the fandom…hayden IS and ALWAYS WILL BE anakin and no one else could have done it thank you thank you thank you

#star wars #anakin skywalker #darth vader #hayden christensen #kenobi #ahsoka #ahsoka s1 #ahsoka spoilers #sw cast #emotions are all over the place rn 😭😭😭 #it feels like the end of a chapter that started in 2020 😭😭😭 #(made this on my phone for twitter I have a gifset version of this post that looks so much better agshdhdh) #*text

[redkehlchen]

Oh gosh I drew these in like 2020...

This series was really fun and I just had to compile them in one post again!! óvò

#red does art #Portal #Portal 2 #Chell Portal #Wheatley #Glados #Doug Rattmann #Cave Johnson #caroline portal #You can also kinda see my art progress over the year... 2020 was the year where I learned to use more bright saturated colours.

[hexedwithluck]

2021 Angewomon twt log 😇

#oh my god i went insane over her on twitter when the 2020 reboot was airing #i ended up really not liking the reboot in the end but i still love angie so much... #literally my first exposure to a girlboss when i was a baby. she was suchhhhh a gamechanger in my life #digimon #digimon adventure #angewomon #エンジェウーモン #my art

[segernatural]

sure it was a perfect storm of a pressure cooker but i promise destiel was about destiel

#like 2020 was all building towards something. the isolation the pandemic the general uncertainty of day to day life #toss in the heated election and counting process. sure it *couldve* been anything else. but it *wasnt*. #it was destiel. that night there were even other rumours circulating about other shows. another show even had a huge reveal! #but the most widespread and known was destiel because of course it was! because thats what everyone was losing their mind over! #look at the statistics chart of a history of destiel interest over time! i promise the destiel interest is about destiel! #were people all equally invested? no! were some people memeing? yes! but by and large nov 5th became a juggernaut bc of destiel #as someone who literally was refreshing for election news and developed mania from seeing destiel go canon. it was about destiel #sure the intersection of destiel and election results was fun. but i posted way more destiel than election stuff. cause it was about destie #anyway. idk why im on a soapbox #char speaks #destielputinelection #destiel

[writeouswriter]

No, I didn't forget about those WIPs, time just moves differently for me. For you, it's been years; for me, it's just been a few seconds, maybe a minute

#writing #writeblr #having a crisis over the fact i introduced one wip in 2020 when i could almost swear it was last year #writer things #writing humour #writing humor #but painful you know #time isn't real #all the days have blended together #it is eternally 2012 #aaaaaahhhhhhhhhh

[froggiethelesbian]

How we feeling this Tumbler Putin-Destiel-election anniversary?

#bringing back the greatest thing I ever saw #spn #supernatural #destiel #november 5th #november 5 2020 #what about other folk #mha #bnha #don’t act like we MANGA SPOILERS weren’t exploding over the Dabi is Touya Todoroki reveal

[kodasea]

Heels up

#kodasea #own art #own character #art #character art #artists on tumblr #2020 art #cold case crew #lawrence #i still really like these despite being over 3 years old #probably was where my current style started to click into place

[saviorpilled]

generation loss being submitted for an emmy is fucking WILD to me. RANBOOLIVE IS NINTEEN FUCKING YEARS OLD AND COULD POTENTIONALLY RECIEVE AN EMMY AWARD FOR A SILLY LITTLE HORROR PROJECT HE STARTED DEVELOPING BACK IN 2021. DO U KNOW HOW INSANE THIS IS?? /POS

#bowieposting #genloss #generation loss #having been a fan of theirs since 2020 is so wild like #ive been here since day ONE of its development #not to be parasocial but im genuinely so emotional over this its insane. they are such an inspiration to me dawg ranboo is so incredible #ranboolive u deserve the world

[upon-the-snow]

but I love you

[ID: A detailed digital painting of the Eighth Doctor and Charley Pollard in the audio Scherzo, drawing against a stark white background. The Doctor is wearing a green coat over a vest and tan pants, Charley is wearing a striped long-sleeved shirt under dark overalls. They are holding hands, standing apart, and looking at eachother with worry. End ID.]

#Scherzo #eighth doctor #Charley pollard #big finish #doctor who #Doctor who art #My art #eight x charley #Procreate #I’ve been crying over scherzo since 2020 #And drawing this was so cathartic! #I hope this looks ok I’m slightly nervous about it lmao #dr who #the doctor #big finish art #Charleight #Quality is scuffed cause the image was to big #artists on tumblr #credit to @rjalker for the image id #thank you! #8th doctor

[umbrvx]

orv doodles because i finally finished it recently

#omniscient reader's viewpoint #orv #kim dokja #yoo joonghyuk #han sooyoung #i started this book in like 2020 but i kept taking long breaks til i decided to just start over #and then i read the whole thing front to back in like a few weeks #i want to draw stuff for it soo bad!!! but ill leave it til after i catch up w some comms #also im not 100 percent these r how ill draw these guys yet bc im not sure how sold i am but ill figure something out if i draw them enough #until then. hi

[smeltbracket]

old tervo sketches i never posted sorry i was like feverishly pacing around all day

#solar opposites #tervo #meant to do another full drawing today but im too crazy to do anything #they make all my organs fail simultaneously #mr darcyyy #i dont think i will ever be the same after s4 #tervo this season was so…like i said dont get me started or we’ll be here all night #theyve been my otp since 2020 and if you told me back then their relationship would come THIS far i’d burst into flame #they're fucking Canon canon like. fully solidified couple.. #War Is Over #watching them this season made me so happy and insane i felt like i was being torn apart by wolves but in a good and full of love way #This Tervo Shit Gets Serious. Be Ready To Die Behind It