Misha Collins

From his first appearance, the character of the angel Castiel—and, by extension, Misha Collins, the actor who portrays him—has been a favorite among many fans of the CW’s [very] long-running series, Supernatural. The character’s popularity is due in part to Castiel’s intimate, awkward friendship with Dean Winchester, one of the show’s leads. Although the series does not [overtly] present their relationship as romantic, fans have made this slash pairing—often referred to as “Destiel”—the focus of intense creative production, something that Collins has acknowledged with open amusement at fan conventions and in interviews. However, this acknowledgement took a critical turn in May 2014 with the debut of TSA America, a series of three short satiric films co-written by Collins and his wife, Vicki Vantoch. In one of these shorts, titled “Just Relax,” Collins plays a TSA agent who gives a private security screening to an aggressively heterosexual, plaid-wearing Texan who bears a striking resemblance to Dean Winchester. [SLIDE] Through lingering touches and sensual glances, the screening quickly morphs into what the Texan [incorrectly] interprets as a scene of [gay porn worthy] seduction. An examination of “Just Relax,” along with its initial reception, suggests that Collins’ relationship with some of his fans can be understood in terms of a mutual seduction: that is, as an ongoing circulation of interpretation, creation, and practice that’s sustained by what Catherine Zuromskis calls the “infinite postponement of climax” around the Destiel narrative (12). Such a circulation, or ecology, acts as a “game in continuous movement” wherein questions about the interpretation of Dean and Castiel’s relationship within the Supernatural canon always remain unresolved (Baudriallard 22). As a media text, then, this paper will argue that “Just Relax” can be read as a piece of fannish production, one that constitutes a contribution to ongoing fan conversation about the series’ portrayal of Castiel and Dean. Ultimately, I’ll suggest that “Just Relax” illustrates the productive potential of the increasingly fuzzy lines between what Lyotard calls the “addressor” and the “addressee” in fan/creative relations by embodying Baudriallard’s notion that “to be seduced is to challenge the other to be seduced in turn” (22).

slides: https://drive.google.com/file/d/0BxtsZ9d-JR7nc21jLTlnX25JclE/view

This multimedia essay can be found here: https://storify.com/HarlotStorifys/encomium-on-the-overlord

As a new fan of the CW's paranormal series Supernatural, I paid little attention to actor Misha Collins outside the omnipresent trenchcoat of his character, Castiel—until a kairotic question from a fellow conference panelist pointed me in the direction of Collins' Twitter feed. I was struck by Collins’ 140-character shots of performative trolling, Tweets that sang to me in shades, gleeful rhetorical waves, of the sophists, particularly because of the actor's interest in, and unique definition of, social change.

Building on that sophistic seed, I argue here that Collins' construction of a megalomaniacal Twitter persona known as the Overlord has afforded him a particular kind of disruptive ethos, one he's used to persuade his fans to regard both "normalcy" as a social problem and acts of art and public performance as effective means of addressing that ill. Ultimately, I suggest that listening carefully to how Collins' fan community defines, enacts, and understands "social change"—rather than measuring their rhetoric against a fixed understanding of what such change can and should look like—may allow those of us outside of this community, and others like it, to add to our understanding of the "new ways of thinking about citizenship and collaboration" at work within the many, varied, and beautiful spaces of fandom (Jenkins 257).