#I know how possessive and sensitive people can be to Hunters treatment so I just want to preface that I’m not adding any more harm or abuse

[sarahfarinaillustration]

ok gotta be honest bc I couldn’t help myself I’ve actually added quite a bit of graphic body horror to what was supposed to be a sweet little fall huntlow fanfic

[infinitedeaths]

putting in this under a read more because its just me shouting into the void--its nothing serious, just some minor grumblings i have about some very specific AUs. especially for the dsmp.

okay i’ve been seeing a couple of star wars AUs start cropping up the past few months and Big Yikes all of yall Do Not Understand the Jedi at all.

i’m gonna firstly point yall to @/gffa here on tumblr: they have a HUGE resource about jedi culture and the order and how, hey, they actually DON’T deserve to be put through a genocide What The Fuck, People.

second of yall is a handful of nitpicks that i want. to correct.

Straight up, firstly, attachment by the Jedi’s definition is NOT the same thing as it is in the DSMP. Attachment as defined by the Jedi Order is a Possessive Relationship. An Obsessive, (abusive) one.

like idk how to put this other than: c!dream’s abusive relationship/treatment of c!tommy is what the Jedi define as an attachment. Not, for example, a close bond between people, like the clingy duo, or allium duo, or even the bench trio as a whole.

some of the jedi order’s main tenants are kindness, mindfulness, and compassion. kindness is self explanatory; mindfulness, so that one can be aware of their emotions and why they are feeling those emotions so they can resolve it without harm. compassion, because every person you meet is a Sentient, sapient being and Deserves to Be Treated As Such.

also, lmao, the thing everyone calls the ‘jedi code’? isn’t canon to the films. Nor is it actually canon for the majority of EITHER the legends EU or the disney EU. hell, its most often used as a fucking meditation mantra in disney eu??? that’s not a religious code/set of tenants.

furthermore: the majority of the films condemn NOT the jedi order but the inability of the senate of both the republic and the empire to Do Anything to Help People. literally the only thing we Ever See them Do in the movies is to Declare a Galactic War using Cloned People as their army.

an army that was, Actually, ordered by the Sith?? you know. Palpatine and Dooku. the Actual Bad Guys? the same army that they had implanted with chips that would supplant the wills of their hosts and worked diligently is ensure the jedi never found out about it? and when they finally did it was literally only Months before Episode 3.

(whoops moving on)

people will actively claim the jedi kidnap babies which is a) actively shown in canon to be untrue (there is literally an entire plot line about a bounty hunter who has to HYNOPTISE the parents to steal the babies) and b) they legit have a list of force sensitive kids. A whole Ass List that they Do not Use outside of going by and being like ‘hey do u wanna have your kid be a jedi? no? okay, well if u ever need any help we’ll send u some force baby manuals to help.’

that’s also not Getting Into the Fact that the order literally teaches their members about their home culture?? and gives them a choice to practice it if they want to? there are other force practices that some of the jedi are Also A Part of??

never mind the whole ass other force religions that the jedi Actively Protect or do not interfere with. the Only Reason the jedi fight the Sith is because?? the sith are constantly actively trying to conquer and subjugate the galaxy??

you guys ate up palaptine’s propaganda like anakin stabbed children and its Kinda Weird Actually.

jedi who leave the order are Actively celebrated until they, you know, reveal themselves to be a sith, DOOKU. because the order WANTS their members to think for themselves and if leaving is what’s good for that member, then you know what, that’s good! and healthy! and they’re happy for them!

....also, anyway, pls stop acting like the mandalorians are somehow morally superior than the jedi just because they throw the word family around more. seriously, yall are so Obsessed with the Nuclear Family that you’ll latch onto mandalorians but will reject jedi because they don’t have a Nuclear Family Dynamic.

which is SO weird coming from this fandom that was so intense on the idea of family dynamics that don’t adhere to the usual nuclear family thing, its such a Yikes from me. like m8 these kids get raised in clans of other kids and are taught to love and care for one another. to watch out for each other and to talk to an adult they trust if they think something is wrong.

these kids have the Entire Order looking out for them. How do you think those kids ended up in the council chamber, one of The Most Protected Rooms in the ENTIRE jedi temple during episode 3??

idk i just think its Weird that people will celebrate the mandalorians for adopting but shit on the jedi for....doing the same thing?? yall make no sense.

[demisexualnathanvuornos]

Natalie Dupree (Emily Rose) Harry’s Law 2x11 Gorilla My Dreams (2012) 2/ 2

Jugde Lucas Kirkland: Guardianship of a gorilla? Are you serious? 

Mike Horace: A gorilla she stole. 

Harry Korn: She did not steal him. He escaped from a local zoo, he ventured onto her property, perhaps intuitively, since he - 

Judge: Wait, wait, wait, wait, wait. You are? 

Horace: I’m Mike Horace, Your Honor. I represent the Cincinnati Presbyterian Good Fellows Zoo. 

Judge: That’s a lot of names. 

Horace: Well, my client owns this animal,  and I would ask - 

Harry: That presumes the animal is capable of being owned. I would ask Your Honor to afford the gorilla the status of personhood for the sake of this proceeding. 

Judge: I’m is this a joke? 

Harry: Your Honor, I’ve looked into this creature’s eyes. Apes are a lot less inhuman than we would like to think. Our DNA and theirs is 98% a match. The gorilla we’re talking about today uses an iPad. He knows sign language. He thinks. He reasons. He communicates. 

Judge: Counsel, counsel has any court in this country granted personhood status to an ape? 

Harry: No. But other countries have. And here at home, the great ape protection act was reintroduced to congress in 2011. The day is coming, Your Honor. There’s a qualitative shift happening in the way we view the animal world, especially when it comes to apes. 

Tommy Jefferson: Your Honor, I, too, looked into the eyes of this beast, and I felt a kinship. How about you hear from our client, Natalie Dupree, who’s been living with this beast for the last month. 

Horace: Ms. Dupree does not have any standing to assert - 

Harry: She has foundation. She studied primatology in college, she’s been the primary caretaker of this gorilla. If we’re to consider the best interest of the ape, which I would submit we should, Natalie is uniquely qualified to bear witness on that. 

Horace: This woman committed a theft. And and we’re to reward her by giving her a day in court? 

Harry: This isn’t about her. It’s about the ape. 

Judge: All right. Where is this animal now?  

Harry: At my client’s farm.  

Judge: That’s not gonna fly. I’m gonna hear from your witness, but in the meantime, the gorilla goes back to the zoo. That’s all.

*** Natalie Dupree: [signing and English] It’s just going to be for a short time, Wentworth. Okay? We’re going to get you out. But you need to go back, just for a short time. Okay? 

Tommy: [trying to sign at the same time] Everything will be okay. It’s gonna be okay. We’re gonna fight for you. We’re gonna fight. And everything’ll be okay.

***

Natalie: Well, I had just come home from work. I had some groceries in my hand, and I got this feeling, like I was being watched. And I looked over at the hedges and there were these big eyes sort of peering out at me. 

Tommy: Were you frightened? 

Natalie: Of course I was. There was a gorilla in the bushes. I was scared to death. 

Tommy: And then he came walking out at you? 

Natalie: Very tentatively. I could see that either he was afraid himself, or that he somehow was sensitive to my fear. That’s what I remember being struck by first, was his powers of perception, if not empathy. 

Tommy: So then what happened after he came out of the bushes?

Natalie: Well, he kept walking forward. And from his body language, I could tell that, like I said earlier, that somehow he sensed I was afraid. And so he took my hand, ever so gently, and he caressed my palm, like what he did with you and Harry. And then then he signed “Hello”. I think I gasped. This was this was like straight out of a Disney movie. 

Tommy: So Ms. Dupree, where did you think this ape had come from? 

Natalie: I’d seen the reports on the news about the zoo escape, so I knew that his name was Wentworth, that he was very docile. 

Tommy: Now I understand you brought along some video. 

Natalie: Yeah, I did. Just a little footage, just to give you an idea.  

Tommy: I’m going to roll it, and then you can tell us what we’re seeing.  

Natalie: Okay. So I brought him an iPad ‘cause I’d read the chimpanzees and orangutans were using them. And that’s what he did to the first one. But then, a day later he’s doing puzzles and finger painting. 

Judge: Ms. Dupree, you haven’t manipulated this footage in any way? 

Natalie: Judge, orangutans are using these things to video chat with other orangutans in different zoos. Oh, he likes opera. 

Judge: How smart, in human terms, would you say he is? 

Natalie: I would say he’s the equivalent to a two or three-year-old child. Oh, and I I probably should’ve edited this out, but it gives you a sense. He wasn’t toilet trained at the zoo, by the way. He learned that in two days. People magazine. 

Horace: You have reason to think he’s been mistreated at the zoo? 

Natalie: Yes. Yes, he’s the only gorilla there. 

Horace: That’s mistreatment? 

Natalie: In the wild, gorillas lead extremely social lives. They have friends, they have family. They love, they laugh, and they’re active. In your zoo, he sits alone all day and does nothing. 

Horace: But he could never be set free. He doesn’t have the skill set to survive in the wild. 

Natalie: Yeah, but there are sanctuaries, there are other zoos where there’s other gorillas. At least he’d have some sort of social and emotional life. I’m sorry, but it’s cruel to stick him in isolated captivity in Cincinnati Presbyterian. 

Horace: Because he can use an iPad? 

Natalie: No, because it’s inhumane. He has an IQ of almost 90. 

Horace: But where do we draw the line? Dogs, especially service dogs, have displayed extraordinary intelligence. Should we grant them personhood status? What about ducks? I’ve been told ducks are smart. You lease your property out to shoot ducks, right? Isn’t that how you first met Ms. Korn, and Mr. Jefferson? 

Natalie: Look, I’m not an animal activist. I eat meat, I wear leather and yes, yes, I make a little money leasing my land out to duck hunters. But this case is about great apes. They’re different. 

Horace: We use apes for biomedical research. Are you against that? 

Natalie: 100%. 

Horace: Children dying of leukemia this research could cure them. But you say, no, better the ape be happy. 

Natalie: Mr. Horace, if you want to make the argument that sacrificing an ape is worth saving a child, then go on ahead, but that’s not what we’re talking about, are we? We’re talking about the cruel and abusive treatment of sticking an intelligent being in a zoo and charging people admission for entertainment. And last time I checked, that did not cure leukemia. 

Horace: But it’s an animal, you’ve come into this court asking the court to treat him as a person. Now if we actually do that, what do we say to the next guy out there who happens to love dolphins?

Mike Horace: Look, uh, my client, too, loves this animal. And not just because people pay admission to see him. But he is an animal. To somehow call him a person, even for the sake of a legal proceeding why? Because, uh, he’s pretty smart? A lot of animals are. Dolphins, dogs. Because it feels emotions? Well, so do elephants. Elephants will mourn the loss of family members for years. Like it or not, we do practice speciesism. We eat animals because they taste good. We kill them for clothing, sometimes vanity. We use them for medical testing. We whip their behinds coming down the home stretch. We coop them up, and we own them. We own them. Under the law, these animals are considered property, under the law, this animal is the property of the Cincinnati Presbyterian Good Fellows Zoo. It’s as simple as that.

Harry Korn: Well, I’m glad you called it for what it is: speciesism. ‘Cause that’s what it is. Following Mr. Horace’s logic suppose a being from another planet showed up, IQ of 300, had the wherewithal to reverse climate change and told really funny jokes. I mean, he’d get no rights here ‘cause he’s nonhuman? We could just throw him in a zoo and charge admission? I don’t think that’s what any of us want. And yet, under Mr. Horace’s argument, the law is the law. Your Honor, the law evolves as we learn. Always has. I understand there’s a slippery slope problem. Today it’s a gorilla; next it’s a dolphin. Soon people will be trying to stop me from shooting a lousy duck. Which I look forward to. I like shooting ducks. I don’t know where we draw the line here. But if we have a being of real intelligence, capable of showing compassion, one that possesses self-awareness, has language skills, a being that lives a social and emotional life, I have no problem drawing the line there. And as I said at the beginning, I’ve looked into this gorilla’s eyes. I challenge anybody here to do the same and not see something a little human. But in the end, it’s not about the ape’s humanity, is it? It’s about ours. How do we, as a species capable of feeling and crying and caring, how do we lock up another being that This ape laughs. He learns. He reasons. He plays jokes. He grieves. He worries. And right now, he’s worried sick about having to stay at the Cincinnati Presbyterian Good Fellows Zoo. Judge Lucas Kirkland: I certainly agree with you, Miss Korn. The law is evolving on this, and we’re seeing the legal rights of animals expanded by the day. But the problem with granting actual personhood status is: what’s the test? Can’t be IQ. As we’ve seen, certain animals have more intelligence than some humans. Emotion? Well, how do you measure that? Maybe it’s the empathy chip. But most of our successful CEOs are missing that one. This is why speciesism has always been very pragmatic, at least from a a legal standpoint. I completely support, even cheer, the continued expansion of legal rights for animals, especially when it comes to the great apes. But looking at where the law stands today, animals, even the great apes, are considered property. And the property in question belongs to the zoo. The motion for legal guardianship is denied.

***

Zoologist: He’s been a little grumpy today. 

Natalie: Tell me about it. 

Tommy: Hey, where’s that tiger I shot at? You got him here? 

Harry: Would you get over the stupid tiger. 

Natalie: Hey, Wenty? 

Zoologist: Oh, he can sulk with the best of them. 

Natalie: Oh, yeah, I’ve seen it. Hey, Wenty.[signing] Will you come over here, please? Hey, stop being childish. I want to talk to you for a second. 

Tommy: Show him your ass, Harry, that’ll get him over. 

Harry: Show him yours. 

Natalie: Hey, honey. Hey. [signing] We’re gonna try to get you out of the zoo, okay? We tried very hard, and we’re gonna still try. But you just you have to live here just a little bit longer. 

Harry: [signs same?, points towards Natalie] What she said. Do you think he knows we’re really trying? 

Natalie: Wenty? Wenty?[signing] We’re gonna get you out somehow. All right? We’ll we’ll get you out. 

Harry: What was that? 

Natalie: He, um. [signing] I miss you, too.[/signing] I really think we should go home. I don’t want him to see me cry. Bye, Wenty. [signing] We’ll be back. Okay? I’ll be back.

[seizasa-a]

These are Hard Times for Dreamers &&. Love Lost Believers (   ALL MUSES // HARRY POTTER AU   )

Below the read more is a summary of each muse’s role in this AU. Ages and occupations may change according to the plot of any threads written in this verse.

TOBIRAMA.

House: Slytherin Year/Age: Fifth/15-16 (Prefect) Familiar: White fennec fox Wand: Maple wood, unicorn hair core, 10 ¾", hard flexibility Patronus: Rat

Although they are commonly regarded as vermin or pests, rats have impressive traits that signify them as worthy opponents, including sociability, resourcefulness, and ambition. Despite their timidness, rats are known to be stubborn and full of devious ways. Thus, they should be treated with caution.

One of the few to break the mould Slytherin has crafted for itself throughout its history as a house of evildoers and ne’er-do-wells, Tobirama is a pillar of blind justice, though his drive and ambition leave little room to question his rightful Hogwarts house. He aspires to become an inventor of spells, determined to learn everything there is to learn about magic and how it works. Above even that, though, he longs to make a name for himself that stands alone from “Hashirama’s little brother”. He respects and, to a degree, admires his brother’s achievements in the wizarding world, but he’s never been one to settle for walking in the footsteps of someone else.

MADARA.

House: Ravenclaw Year/Age: Sixth/16-17 Familiar: Gyrfalcon Wand: Ebony wood, thestral tail hair core, 12", unbending flexibility Patronus: White stallion

Those with the white stallion patronus possess a strong sense of self. It is difficult to convince them to turn away from personal beliefs or change who they are. Strength and durability in character make the white stallion especially formidable compared to the conjurers of other horse type patronus. However, those who wield the white stallion can often be provocative and rub people up the way.

Madara is but a young wizard trying to find his path in life. He detests the supremacist ideology held by nearly all “purebloods”, largely because the Uchiha are a branch family of the Otsutsuki and are still treated as lesser to this day. Their distant Senju cousins don’t receive the same treatment due to their famous contributions to all of wizardkind in the form of both magical and legislative inventions and advancements. Both the Senju and Uchiha became branch families when their ancestors “tainted” the bloodline with muggle blood. Madara has resented the Otsutsuki for as long as he can remember and he dreams of one day absolving the Uchiha name by abolishing the widespread elitist pureblood propaganda that has plagued the wizarding world for centuries.

TETSUJIN.

House: Ravenclaw Age: 40 Familiar: Siamese Cat Wand: Ebony wood, dragon heartstring core, 11 ¼", rigid flexibility Patronus: Hyena

Often given a bad reputation, hyenas are cunning hunters and scavengers that know what they have to do to survive in the animal kingdom. They live and hunt in packs/clans and are very social animals. They often communicate with those in their clans by making a variety of noises, including the “laughter” they are so famous for. Hyenas are loyal, creative, and fierce.

Tetsujin was Ravenclaw’s poster boy of idle curiosity and devotion to his studies during his years at Hogwarts, so it was no surprise that he was Head Boy in his seventh year. He’d dabbled in such a wide array of magical genres that he didn’t have a clear idea of what he wanted to do until his last year of school. He’d known he wanted to work for the Ministry of Magic since the summer following his fifth year, but the specific position he wanted didn’t come to him for some time. Having achieved his latent desires, he now works as an Obliviator for the Ministry, though few know of this occupation. He doubles as Hogwarts’ professor of Ghoul Studies and only the Headmaster knows of his second job. He’s been assigned to keep an eye on the students should any issues with confidentiality arise.

JIRAIYA.

House: Gryffindor Age: 54 Familiar: Natterjack toad Wand: Silver Lime wood, phoenix feather core, 13 ¾", quite bendy flexibility Patronus: Badger

The recognizable mascot of Hufflepuff House, badgers represent determination. Badgers mostly keep to themselves but are aggressive when threatened. Connected to the earth, the badger is grounded and celebrates individuality. This creature’s stubbornness and instinct to protect make it a formidable enemy for Dementors!

In the glory of his youth, Jiraiya was fondly known as “the Bastard of Hufflepuff”, a title that began in mockery but became a moniker of great pride for its owner. It had been no secret that his muggle father was a deadbeat and that his witch mother had never wanted to give birth to him, but growing up an orphan only strengthened Jiraiya’s resolve to find his own family. He’s still very close friends with some of those from his Hogwarts house, as well as some from the others. He’d made a point of becoming everyone’s friend during his school years, and while he didn’t succeed by a long shot, he still made some everlasting connections that he wouldn’t trade for the world. Currently he’s an accomplished author of magical erotica and spends the rest of his time managing a small inn in Hogsmeade called Hiffle & Piffle Inn.

HINATA.

House: Hufflepuff Year/Age: Fifth/15-16 (Prefect) Familiar: Mini rex rabbit Wand: Cypress wood, dragon heartstring core, 10 ¼", quite bendy flexibility Patronus: Doe

As the Patronus of Severus Snape and Lily Potter, the doe is fiercely protective of its loved ones, as displayed through its caring and nurturing nature. The doe is also representative of gentleness yet strong determination, and with its high level of intuition and sensitivity, it battles life’s challenges with the utmost grace and vigilance.

As the heiress of the pureblooded Hyuga family, Hinata has been taught since birth to be graceful, dignified, and leaderly. She is decidedly none of those things due to a predisposition toward clumsiness and anxiety amoung other flaws. She’s just as disappointed in herself as her family is, though she hopes that by her seventh year at Hogwarts, she’ll have learned to become to woman they want her to be. At the same time, however, she secretly yearns for an escape from her life as little more than an heiress. She wants to explore herself and her possibilities beyond a duty to her family. She just needs a push in the right direction.

KAGAMI.

House: Hufflepuff Age: 23 Familiar: Ferret Wand: Maple wood, phoenix feather core, 10", pliant flexibility Patronus: Dolphin

Intelligence and sociability are among the main attributes of the dolphin. Also known for their playfulness and loyalty, dolphins live and work together in groups to aid the sick and injured and to defend each other from predators. Its incredible intelligence is put to good use in the form of solving complex problems and other such challenges. The dolphin does not enjoy dull, routine activities, so keeping busy with interesting tasks is a must!

Kagami actually hails from Mahotokoro in Japan and he is a professional Quidditch player for the Toyohashi Tengu. His team’s championships eventually led him to visit Hogwarts in England, where he giddily requested to wear the Sorting Hat out of pure curiosity as to what house he would be in. Once he was assigned Hufflepuff, he was offered a tour of the common rooms, which he gracefully accepted. He’s made similar requests all across the globe, ever so happy to see what the different magic schools were like on the inside. It was during his stay at Hogwarts for a scrimmage between one of their Quidditch teams and his that his wand broke and he had to order a new one from Ollivander. He’s quite fond of it and would say that it’s quite fond of him as well.

INDRA.

House: Slytherin Year/Age: Seventh/17-18 Familiar: Maine coon Wand: Pine wood, basilisk horn core, 12 ½", rigid flexibility Patronus: Dragon

One of the most powerful and formidable creatures of the magical world, dragons are ambitious and dominant. With the ability to breathe fire, they quickly assert themselves, garnering both fear and respect from those around them. They are unafraid to take risks and prefer to live by their own set of rules. They are quick to lead and do not back down from a challenge. Dragons are strong in their convictions and will stand for what they believe is right. Those with a dragon for a patronus are sure to be fierce fighters, and the Dementors better be ready for a challenge!

Known Parselmouth and heir apparent to a family of notoriously pureblooded Death Eaters, many Hogwarts students regard Indra as a Voldemort groupie, with respect to his wealthy status, of course. He has yet to make his stance clear on either his family’s affiliation with the Death Eaters or Voldemort himself, so it’s become a hot topic for gossip and rumours throughout the school. He shares an unnerving aura of stoicism and ruthlessness with his maine coon familiar, whose eyes follow everyone who dares come too close to his owner. Despite being a dead ringer for Slytherin’s reputation of villainy types, his goals and ambitions are a mystery. He largely keeps to himself and any rumour of his being seen willingly socializing are just that—rumours.

RYUZETSU.

House: Gryffindor Year/Age: Fifth/15-16 Familiar: Chinchilla Wand: Sycamore wood, unicorn hair core, 11 ½", unbending flexibility Patronus: Siberian cat

Siberian cats are perfect as patronuses. Fearless yet easygoing, they seem to always know when their humans need them for support or comfort. They can be quiet, with soft melodic purrs and chirps. While these may not be the cats to chase down a Dementor, they will stay with you, protecting and calming you until the Dementor fades away.

Having witnessed the death of her childhood best friend at a young age, Ryuzetsu has enjoyed, more or less, the company of thestrals for the majority of her life. She finds comfort in their presence as if they were remnants of Muku keeping an eye on her. Her mother and father head the family business of dragon keeping, a career she’s very much interested in taking up after graduating from Hogwarts. She’s always felt a certain kinship with dragons for their strength and ferocity, striving to become a strong and ferocious woman of her own.

[mmp667]

World Mental Health Day

World Mental Health Day is on October 10 and as our understanding of mental health grows, we grow along with it. Mental health has come a long way since the early nineties when the World Federation of Mental Health (WFMH) officially established the day. Our self-awareness and sensitivity towards it have changed things for the better. Our language surrounding mental health has improved as words like “crazy” and “lunatic” are used less flippantly and we come to better understand that they can be unintentionally hurtful and stigmatizing. While we’ve learned a lot, there’s still so much more we can do to evolve as a society.

HISTORY OF WORLD MENTAL HEALTH DAY

In 1992, the World Federation of Mental Health led by the deputy secretary general at the time, Richard Hunter, created World Mental Health Day. They didn’t have a precise objective other than to advocate for mental health as a whole. To say the least, it was an uphill climb to change a plethora of bad and dangerous habits that were making a difficult situation worse for people.

The world had a host of mental health issues that weren’t properly being treated. There were struggles to gain public funding for treatment in France, inhumane treatment in New Zealand, and an overall ignorance in regards to what mental health actually is. The WFMH knew that they needed to act on a global scale to solve a global crisis.

For the first three years, there was a two-hour telecast broadcast across the globe through the US information agency satellite. The studio was located in Tallahassee, Florida and it became a useful way to get their message of advocacy out to the world. They had participation from Chile, England, Australia, and Zambia, while Geneva, Atlanta and Mexico City pre-taped segments for the broadcast.

The first World Mental Health Day theme was “Improving the Quality of Mental Health Services throughout the World” in 1994. 27 countries sent feedback reports after the campaign and there were national campaigns in Australia and England. Continuing this momentum, WFMH Board members across the globe arranged events in accordance to the day, and its growing popularity among government departments, organizations, and civilians alike.

Starting in 1995 and continuing on, The Pan American Health Organization (PAHO) arranged the translation of the planning kit material into Spanish and French, Russian, Hindi, Japanese, and Chinese and Arabic. As the years passed, more countries got involved and consequently, so did civilians as the perception of mental health became more synonymous with human rights.

The themes for World Mental Health Day expanded along with the times. Women, children, health, work, trauma, suicide, and so much more became a part of the conversation and today, the average citizen is more knowledgeable in regards to mental health.

WORLD MENTAL HEALTH DAY TIMELINE

1996 - present

Awareness

As more themes are added, increased awareness of multiple aspects of mental health becomes more common on a global level.

1995

Global impact

An increase in international events took place that caused rise to more conferences about the subject and community celebrations.

1994

Name that theme

The first theme was created, "Improving the Quality of Mental Health Services throughout the World."

1992

The beginning

World Mental health Day was observed for the first time on October 10, 1992.

WORLD MENTAL HEALTH DAY FAQS

How do I comfort someone with mental illness?

Many people want to help, but don’t know how. Make it casual and ask to take someone that might be suffering out to lunch and simply let them know that you’re there for them.

What causes mental illness?

Multiple factors can contribute to mental health issues relating to your biology and external factors: psychological trauma, the early loss of a parent, and neglect are a few examples.

How do I know if I have mental health issues?

It’s important to consult a mental health professional if you have serious concerns. Some signs to look out for are changes in sleep or appetite, rapid or dramatic mood changes, withdrawal, drop in functioning, and problems thinking.

HOW TO OBSERVE WORLD MENTAL HEALTH DAY

Do Group Therapy in the Workplace

Register for a group therapy workshop at your place of work. This can allow you and your coworkers to express themselves in a safe environment. We tend to hold onto the idea that pushing through and carrying on is the best way, but issues can arise unexpectedly if they aren't properly dealt with.

Practice Self-Care

There are many changes you can make to your life that can continue beyond World Mental Health Day. Developing a regular sleep routine, adjusting your diet to healthier options, taking lunch breaks, and going on long walks are just some of the options. The point of self-care is to understand your specific needs. Find time to ask yourself what you want and go for it.

Follow The Theme

Each year there’s a new theme and even if it doesn’t directly involve your struggles, you can still learn from it. Spend some time and research the subject. Awareness extends beyond yourself and it could provide you with the proper tools to better understand others.

FIVE SURPRISING FACTS ABOUT WORLD MENTAL HEALTH DAY

Unholy spirit

It's believed in certain cultures that mental health problems are caused by spirit possession.

Global numbers

Globally, one in four people will need mental health care in their lives.

National numbers

More than 43 million Americans battle with mental health.

Youth depression

Depression among youth has risen from 5.9% to 8.2% since 2012.

Limitations

Most Americans lack access to proper healthcare treatment.

WHY WORLD MENTAL HEALTH DAY IS IMPORTANT

Identify the problem

The idea of the mind is an abstract concept and this day allows us to think about our thoughts. We’re evolving beyond outdated perceptions and releasing the stigma of mental health so that we can properly diagnose it and take care of ourselves. With the burden and fear removed from mental health issues, the battle becomes considerably easier.

Share your pain

This day reminds you that whatever you’re going through, you’re not alone. Too often we think that we’re the only ones facing a hard time. It’s uplifting to know that other people have gone through it and made it out the other end. It reminds you that you can overcome your own pain.

Proper treatment

As our understanding of mental health grows, so does our ability to seek proper treatment. With the right therapist and necessary medication, you can operate on a more efficient level. The more accepting we are and the more funding that’s put into research and mental healthcare the greater the global impact.

[words-writ-in-starlight]

So your rant on Supernatural? Also I fell in love with the story you're talking about and basically want to know more. Sorry.

My buddy, you have made An Error, but let’s do this shit.  To any SPN fans who have wound up herethrough Ye Olde Search Function, I encourage you to stop reading now.

I watched up to about halfway through Season Five before Idecided that I could Do It Better (I think this is the novel you’re talkingabout, anon, unless it’s Earth is where the trouble comes from), and draggedmyself up to about halfway through Season Seven before I packed it in and gaveup, resigned that the parts of the show I loved were about four to five seasonsdead.  So like that’s the information I’mworking on here.

So, obviously, lots of people have lots of legitimatecomplaints about Supernatural,including treatment of queer characters, characters of color, and women, aswell as their fairly rampant history of queerbaiting.  And lots of people have covered this in morecompetent detail than I could ever manage, so like google “sexism in Supernatural” or something and you cando your own reading there.  Hell, if youwant to do it the lazy way, you can knock out two of the above with this onearticle in friendly, easy-to-read Buzzfeed format.  To the nominal credit of the people involved,I will add that the cast seems acutely aware of these problems and finds itdistasteful, HOWEVER the problems persist and therefore that credit is minimal.  Anyway. These things are covered much more thoroughly by many other people whoare far more cogent than I could hope to be, so I’m going to leave those alone.

Instead, my rant is mostly summed up as “YOU CALL THIS SHITSTORYTELLING.”

So there are four basic parts to this rant, or rather fourbasic flaws that form the fundamentally weak foundation of Supernatural as a narrative.

Failure to commit to a single cohesive narrativearc, also known as “SOME OF THAT AND SOME OF THAT AND SOME OF THAT AND SOME OFTHOSE” syndrome

The persistent and erroneous belief thatcharacter death = character development and narrative progression

Inability to commit to a major change ofparadigm, also known as out and out narrative cowardice, which I personallycall “flinching during Plot Roulette”

Total incapacity to put their characterizationwhere their script is regarding the Winchester brothers and the other major players

*cracks knuckles*

POINT THE FIRST

Right, so first it’s the story of Sam having strange powersand their dad being MIA, which segues pretty naturally into the story of Sampotentially being the Antichrist, and then there’s Dean’s sacrifice of his soul,which at very least holds up even ifit sort of acts like the previous plotline about their dad’s soul didn’t happen.  Upuntil this point, I was pretty comfy.  Ihad some complaints covered below, but I was copacetic.  Season Three is largely about getting rid ofthe contract on Dean’s soul.  Okay, seemslegit, you have a tangible problem with potentially serious consequences.  Now, having had not one but TWO seasons whichwere easily summed up with ‘so Sam is mebbe the Antichrist or at very leastAntichrist-adjacent,’ I made what I thought was a logical leap and went “well,gee, if I was mebbe at the very leastAntichrist-adjacent, I would leverage the fuck out of that to do somethingabout my apparently beloved brother’s soul.” Even when they didn’t go withthat (news flash: I wrote that novel mydamn self and amazingly it worked out 100x better, narratively speaking,because it’s fucking logical), I wasstill kind of like “gosh sure is a good thing they remembered that they spenttwo entire seasons building up to Sam mebbe being Antichrist-adjacent.”  And there’s the whole drama with Ruby which Ijust…am very uncomfortable with for a lot of reasons, not least of which isthat it’s a very thinly veiled endeavor to rehash the same ‘Sam being afraid oflosing touch with humanity’ plotline as Seasons One and Two but without havingto worry about really altering the paradigm, see Point The Third, and alsobecause it’s really intensely literal about the concept of having a femalecharacter exclusively as a prop for consumption.  And Castiel shows up and a thousand ships arelaunched, blah blah blah, and then after the end of Season Four…we never hearfrom Sam’s powers again for more than a couple lines.  

As of about Season Four, the focus of the show abandons Samand shifts tangibly onto Dean, who is now The Interesting Character because hehas Been Through Hell (literally). Furthermore, we are now given Dean’s POV on any quandry between him andSam, which is a personal complaint because I honestly just think it’ssloppy.  Season Four is mostly dealingwith angels being assholes, which is really not as original as SPN likes tothink (Good Omens did it first and Good Omens did it better, get out of myface), plus Dean being the Righteous Man and the question of the oncomingApocalypse (sure is interesting how we spent two seasons building up to Sambeing Antichrist-adjacent).  The Apocalypseis less oncoming and implied to be more ongoing by the end of Season Four.  So Lucifer escapes and Season Five is prettymuch About That, involving the fairly unhelpful description that Dean isMichael’s ‘sword’ and they’re the true vessels of Michael and Lucifer,culminating in Sam being locked in the Cage because presumably someone realizedthat, hey, we have two maincharacters and we must make them both Interesting Characters.  Season Six is 50% about finding Sam’s souland figuring out how he got out of the Cage (sure would be helpful if we’dspent two seasons building up to Sam having inhuman powers and beingAntichrist-adjacent) and 50% a wickedinexplicable plot about the Mother-of-All and some kind of fucking jigsawmonsters and…Alpha monsters?  But thatnever really gets explained in a pertinent way except that they needed to anteup because they beat the Devil at theend of Season Five.  Oh, and a bonus 50% of some bullshit withCastiel and Crowley and ~Scheming~.  Andthen Castiel gets possessed by Leviathans (?) from Purgatory, which he openedwith Crowley (??) who he then betrayed (???), and Castiel decides He’s God Nowand also dies (????), and somehow these metaphysical more-powerful-than-angelsbadder-than-Lucifer things are sensitive to fuckingBorax.  

And it was at this point that I stopped the show in themiddle of a fight scene like 1/3 through Season Seven and actually said outloud “Gosh it’s almost like you needsomeone who’s Antichrist-adjacent to help you out here” before turning off the TV. And then I stopped watching and got better taste in TV and blew throughwriting a 250K novel in 18 months of being a full-time student because I waspowered by pure bitter spite.

Now, here are the two major things that matter about thiswhole deal.  First of all, the firstplotline is the most reliably coherent, although some degree of cogence lastedup until about Season Five—we understand why Lucifer wants out of Hell, weunderstand to some extent why Dean and Sam matter on the cosmic scale, we getpretty bored of watching Castiel do heel-face and face-heel turns like he’s ona Lazy Susan but like logistically it all makes a reasonable degree of sense.  That being said, the whole plotline ofSeasons Four onward would make a lot moresense, would it not, if they remembered that they’d spent a good solid twoseasons and change (Season Three, intermittent, Season Four, major) designingan Antichrist-like character who is now the last survivor of that batch ofexperiments.  Then, instead of having Samand Dean just be Inexplicably Special, you have Dean (who can still be theRighteous Man!) acting as the foil for Sam being forced into increasingly darkchoices, and Sam who’s a viable candidate for Lucifer-puppet because he’s partdemon.  Or, alternatively, Sam whomaintains his stance as the gentler of the two despite his demon blood, which would add a lot more depth to Supernatural’s fanatical hardon for theAngelic Asshole trope.  Honestly Irewrote the entirety of this show one time, predicated on the assumption thatthey actually went with the idea of Sam as the Boy King, and I think it wouldbe much less haphazard.  (Basically: hey,what if Sam actually used his status to strong-arm Dean’s deal into beingdissolved, as it’s implied that he’s totally capable of doing that and totallywilling to sacrifice his own humanity for his brother, and then Heaven sentCastiel to kill Sam, which would add a fuckton of legitimacy to Castiel’s LazySusan and Dean’s antagonism.  But no. Instead there’s monsters whose only vulnerability is fucking Borax.)

Second, and far more critical, is the total failure tocommit to a single plotline.  Okay, Sam’sstatus as the possible Boy King is a major plot point for two seasons, not somuch for the third season (he literally…a demon straight up tells Sam that he could have an army if he took up hisposition and it never occurs to himthat he could use that to help Dean), more so in the fourth season, and then itnever comes up again.  Even when it is unarguably pertinent to thesituation—Lucifer!  Fucking Luciferpossesses Sam and drags him to Hell and he comes back soulless and yet none of the writers ever, not once, went “Gosh, maybe we should remember those seasonswe spent developing Sam into sort of the Antichrist?  Maybe including at least a minor nod to thator somehow wrapping up the plotline would help cohere our current trainwreck ofa plotline?”  Nope, it’s just left as aloose thread, flapping in the breeze with all the subtlety of a limp dick.  It’s like Supernaturalis actually a Frankenshow of two shows with the same characters but totallyunrelated plotlines—maybe when Lucifer escapes he shunts them all sideways intoan alternate universe and there’s another show somewhere with a Dean whosebrother has never been even a little bit demonic and died through normal huntershenanigans suddenly having to deal with Sam the possible Antichrist, andthat’s the show that an alternate me is still watching.

And this is an ongoing problem.  Sam’s powers are just the major point that Ialways latch onto, because, first, I always think the phenomenon of “well fuckme sideways I might be obligated to end the world and ain’t that a messy thing”is pretty great (I really, reallylike Hellboy), and second, IT’S FOURSEASONS OF WORK YOU CAN’T JUST ABANDON IT.  But seriously.  Just. Throw a dart, you’ll hit a loose end. Because Supernatural is theequivalent of that one fucker we all hate in sitcoms—you know, the guy who’sdating a great girl he totally doesn’t deserve, but he can’t ~commit~ sothere’s all this ongoing Drama™.  Exceptthat in Supernatural, not only canthey not commit, they accidentally defeated their biggest gun—the literal Devil—less than halfwaythrough their series!  Whoops!  Quick, someone call up Satan’s cousin twiceremoved who’s even worse and more evil than he is!  And sensitive to Borax!  

No, no, I’m kidding. We all know that Satan’s cousin twice removed, who’s even worse and moreevil than he is, is actually named Metatron.

Fuckin’ Supernatural.

POINT THE SECOND

I know this is going to come as a shock, but rampantcharacter death does not actuallyqualify as a legitimate way to progress your narrative or develop yourcharacters.  In order, the major players(nominally on the Winchesters’ side) who die or seem to die in the first fiveseasons are Sam’s girlfriend, John Winchester, Ash, Sam, Bela, Dean, (Deanseveral times in Mystery Spot), Ruby,Castiel, Jo, Ellen, Sam, Anna, Sam, Dean, Gabriel, Castiel, Bobby, and sort of Sam with the whole Cagething.  And those are just the peoplewith arcs that extend over more than a season (except for Sam’sgirlfriend).  It’s entirely possible,even probable, that I missed some.  Thatdoes not include the one- ortwo-episode characters whose deaths we’re supposed to observe as emotionallywringing, nor does it include the frankly vast numbers of civiliancasualties.  So, for the ease of reading,we’re going to divide ‘character death’ into ‘reversible character death,’which is largely the prerogative of the primary trio, and ‘permanent characterdeath,’ and we’re going to talk about why there are real problems with the way Supernatural treats both of them.

First of all, the problems with reversible character deathare obvious—there are no fucking stakes! Like, arguably the stakes are ‘the whole world,’ but obviously not (seePoint The Third), so practically speaking the stakes should be life or death, because the show tells you that the stakes are life or death.  Now, sometimes resurrection is an importantplot point, I get that, in my spite novel there is, in fact, aresurrection.  But here’s the thing.  Either you have to straight up establish arevolving door policy and change your stakes (example: the show Forever, where the point is that the MCis immortal and would very much like to not be immortal anymore), or you can only use that resurrection once.  You use it once, and you still get theemotional gut punch of “Oh God, they’re dead”and the flood of relief when it proves that they’re not dead after all.  You use it more than that, and the audiencebecomes complacent that, well, you won’t reallykill them.  By the time you’re on a levelwith Supernatural, it just…doesn’tmatter?  A major character dies, but youraudience has already hit compassion fatigue because of the death rate, whichI’m about to cover, so there’s not really any oomph to it.

The problems with permanent character death aresignificantly different.  Now, I myselfam a Happy Ending person (like…the world sucks …let me have my happy fiction),but even I recognize that a certain percentage of the characters in a story orshow like this one are basically just cannon fodder (it would be great if itwasn’t so consistently the women, POC, orLGBT folks, but whatever).  Theproblem is that it’s constant.  And not just “well that person’s a corpsebecause that’s what vampires do to people” or “some kid pissed off the localspirit and now they’re six feet under,” it would be totally fine and reasonableif that situation was an every episode thing (it…kind of is, that’s kind of thepoint).  But every few episodes, we’reexpected to get attached to a one-off character and then be deeply affectedwhen they die.  Take, say, Season Three:you have the hunters Isaac and Tamara in the first episode, Casey and FatherGil in the fourth episode (some flexibility as they’re demons, but we’resupposed to be shocked and horrified that Sam kills them both), Callie in thefifth episode, Gordon in the seventh episode (again, we’re supposed to behorrorstricken that Sam kills him, even though it’s clearly self-defense), all the civilians in the twelfthepisode, Corbett in the thirteenth episode, and finally Bela, who admittedlyhas had some nominal presence for a while. This does not include any Winchester trauma, which you’re always supposed to be deeply affectedby.  I’m sorry, but after a season or twoof being expected to work up that kind of emotional upset between five and tentimes over the course of thirteen to twenty episodes, your audience is going toburn out and start to lose emotional engagement.  

So, basic summary: the Anyone Can Die trope does not playwell with main characters who are on a Revolving Door of Death, because itmeans that minor characters don’t matter because Anyone Can Die, while majordamage or trauma to the main characters doesn’t matter either because they’reon a Revolving Door.  You can’t kill yourmain characters once (or more!) a season and expect people to still…worry aboutthem.

On a more strictly structural note, using character death asthe primary way to drive character development is just fucking lazy.  It’s just an indicator that the writers don’tactually know how to progress their character development in any other way,which is a major problem because, since they only develop the charactersthrough the deaths of others, they have to hit the Personality Reset buttonfairly regularly to make it look like things are actually happening to thepeople who are supposed to be developing. Which, in case you were curious, is why you feel that overwhelming senseof déjà vu when the Winchesters getinto a huge blowout fight about ‘don’t sacrifice yourself’ in about thethird-to-last episode, followed by one of them sneaking out to sacrificethemselves, followed by the other onebeing angry about it.  It’s the samegoddamn script, it’s just that Sam’s hair is probably longer and Dean isprobably scruffier.  Furthermore, thefixation on developing characters with the deaths of others means thatbasically every character is fair game but NO ONE’S DEATH HOLDS MEANING,because of the above, which means that SPN’s ‘character development’ turns intothis recursive self-congratulating circlejerk of killing someone, developingSam and Dean accordingly, and then somehow regressing them so that the writerscan do it over again and be proud of themselves for Such Dynamic Characters,Much Develop, So Change, Wow.

And I feel like the reasons that character death =/=narrative progression should be pretty clear from the rest of this rant, butbasically if you’re killing someone to progress your plot, it needs to be asolveable death (emotional payoff is what makes walking away from a booksatisfying, such as catching a murderer) or a terrible tragedy that drives thecharacters to great acts or both.  Supernatural is basically a horror/fantasymurder mystery, so it would be fine if they stuck with that model, but theykeep trying to sell the deaths of any number of major players and many many minor players as this greatand terrible tragedy that’s pushing the Winchesters forward.  And like, I’m sorry, but if you commit withinthe first episode to a dead mother anda dead girlfriend and a missingpotentially dead father, you’ve already pretty well maxed out your terribletragedies.  Find a different motivator,or else it looks like your characters just leave huge amounts of collateraldamage and refuse to take responsibility. Or, alternatively, it looks like the individual deaths don’t matter toyour main characters, which is NOT going to help with making your audience giveeven a single fractional fuck.

TL;DR: Character death is a powerful tool that rapidly losesits weight and import if you overuse it, and can make your audiencedisinterested and emotionally detached if they’re expected to care every time.  Slow your motherfucking roll, stick to aMAXIMUM of one resurrection per character unless their immortality is anexplicitly discussed plot point (at which point their deaths need to not mattermuch anymore), and remember that you can progress your plot in literally anyother way before you go for a shock-value death.

POINT THE THIRD

Don’t be a little bitch in your writing.  Honestly it’s that simple.  I’m gonna get into it some more, but that’sthe gist of it.  If you already know whatI mean, great, skip to the next point, because the TL;DR is “don’t be aninfant.”

This is something that plenty of shows are guilty of(Merlin, anyone?), but SPN is terrifiedof actually changing the paradigm.  Theshow must always include a certainlist of things:

The Winchesters in the Impala, which, sure, I’llgrant you that

A home base, also totally reasonable

Monsters to fight, fair enough

A masquerade (meaning ‘civilians do not knowabout magic’), which should honestly have broken down after, like, Season Twowhen they accidentally release massive numbers of demons into the world

A world to have the show happening in, which isa problem since they started theApocalypse in Season Four

Now…listen.

It’s fine, even necessary, to have some fixed points in anarrative.  It offers a way to anchoryour characters against the ongoing changes that the plot demands.  That, however, is very different from beingtoo much of a coward to alter the paradigm of your story when the major driving force is a change ofparadigm.

The first major change of paradigm they cop out on is Sam’spowers.  If Sam was the Boy King, thishypothetically Antichrist-esque position in the cosmic dichotomy, that would radically alter the dynamic.  Sam would automatically be the most powerfulbeing in any given room unless he was in a room with a respectably high-rankedangel or demon, and he would certainly be able to go toe-to-toe with most oftheir targets on their own terms. Telekinesis is an exceptionally goodpower, guys, like, as powers go—even disregarding his position in thehierarchy, Sam would be pretty strong in his own right.  Which, I’d like to point out, can be a reallythrilling change to a narrative, because it means that you have this additionallayer of ‘well, how do we deal with the fact that Sam doesn’t like being this strong, how do we dealwith the way demons and monsters have started to view him as more us than them’ and would give a much more legitimate basis for the questionof humanity that they shoehorn in later with the Ruby plotline.  Buffyhas its flaws, but at least it frequently brings up ‘hey, Buffy might be ostensiblyhuman, but she operates on the level of her enemies more than on the level ofher allies’ as an issue that she thinks about. But they don’t do that in Supernatural,they bail completely on the Sam plotline because they panic about theimplications of having such a powerful character.  And then they bring in fucking Castiel likethat’s not exactly the same problemcloaked in ‘well, noninterference.’  Like, please, that ship has fucking sailed,choke down your anxiety and figure out how the rules of your powerful characterwork, and then let them be powerful. It’s gonna be okay.  Deepbreaths.  If you make an OP character,that’s fine, you just have toactually deal with it rather than having their powers be an asspull every timethe main characters are in Real Trouble (*angry sigh* Merlin).

The second one they balk at is the unveiling of thesupernatural world and oh my God it is constant.  But let’s deal with the biggest and mostimprobable of these here: Season GoddamnTwo, where they bust open the doors of Hell and unleash some thousands ofdemons into the world.  Like, is that asmany demons as it could be, in comparison to your six to seven billionhumans?  No.  But it’s still a huge population and is implied to be accompanied by a huge uptickin various other supernatural happenings and is furthermore really visible.  The Devil’s Trap is suggested to pass throughat least a couple towns and it’s a big flashy event, so like…sure, maybe peoplewrite it off as swamp gas or what have you, but sooner or later people who havehad demons exorcised or seen some vampire/werewolf/etc shenanigans and lived totell about it are going to start running into each other.  They start hearing people say “it’s likeshe’s a totally different person” and they take that seriously rather thanwriting it off.  They were maybe saved bya hunter who confirmed that the supernatural exists and they maybe tell thatperson that, hey, something like that happened to them, maybe they could cometake a look around.  Maybe they couldcall the person who helped them out.  Andyou end up with this fucking Ponzi scheme of The Great Truth, where each personwho’s in the know finds one or two more people who’ve seen evidence and brings them into the loop, and then they find one or two more people who’veseen evidence.  And for every personwho’s determined to call it bullshit or think they’re insane, you’re going toget one who saw that person turn intoa hairy monster and murder someone, or who waspossessed by a demon, or who witnessedblack smoke merge with their spouse and turn them into a killer.  So you get this whole rickety network ofamateurs who’ve…kind of learned the thing. And like any Ponzi scheme, sooner or later it collapses.

Basically the point is: there is a limit to the parts permillion of The Great Truth that can be present before that shit becomes commonknowledge.  Look at any availablegovernment conspiracy for confirmation. The more people you tell, the looser the rules of ‘secret’ become, so ifyou have a big flashy visible disaster that involves drastically increasing the number of uninitiated civilians who areaware of The Great Truth…you’d better be ready to deal with that.  What I’m saying here is that by Season Seven,you’ve not only had this whole demon situation for a while, and increased those numbers several times with variousdisasters, but you’ve also had at least one big flashy disaster in a city.  So the Winchesters should pretty much be ableto walk into a given town and wander into the church or the bar or somethingand go “So, I heard there’ve been some weird murders” and have at least oneperson come up to them later and be like “Yeah it’s a ghost here’s all theinformation but I have no idea how to get rid of them.”  And when the Winchesters go *gasp* “How do you know The Thing” theperson should look at them like a fucking moron and go “It literally rainedblood last year, everyone in this time zone knows The Thing and also it’sevident that the end is pretty seriously nigh, so get on that.”  Commit to your big flashy disasters, youcowards, or at least have the decency to make it an ongoing Sunnydale joke.

Far more crucial is the fact that they bail on the end ofthe world…let’s see.  End of Season Fouris when the Apocalypse properly gets underway, so they balk at the end ofSeason Five (Lucifer and the Cage), end of Season Six (Mother of All andPurgatory), and like minimum once bythe middle of Season Seven (Godstiel) as well as at the end of Season Seven (Leviathans, I am now past where I kept watching),end of Season Eight (Metatron, angel tablets, falling angels), presumably endof Season Nine from what I understand of the summaries online (some…war onHeaven nonsense), and based on the trend I’m guessing that Seasons Ten throughThirteen keep to the model, do youunderstand my point here.  Thesearen’t even all the near-Apocalypses that they avert.  Off the cuff, I can think of the Croatoanvirus (…twice?  Three times?), as well asthree out of four Horsemen within episodes of each other.  They’re probably averting the Very Seriousand Catastrophic End of Days two or three times a season by Season Five, and that number only goes up.  This is very similar to the character deaththing: quite simply, if the audience is expected to get that worked up multipletimes a season, and brace for thatkind of disaster multiple times a season,you are inevitably going to bore them.  Yourplot has to be intensely recursive sothat you can ‘reset’ and avoid a new Apocalypse the next season, which getsboring, because it feels like you’ve been there before, similar to how usingcharacter death to advance character development demands that you hit thePersonality Reset button on the regular.

Furthermore, repeating the same level of disaster over and over and OVER again means that it starts to lack emotional weight, and yourcharacters start to seem really, really stupid if they don’t start to treatthings accordingly.  One of the things Ithought of constantly during thelast, say, season and a half that I watched of Supernatural was a quote from Buffy,specifically from Riley who I usually very much dislike but who NAILED thisparticular thing.  “When I saw you stopthe world from, you know, ending, I just assumed that was a big week for you.It turns out I suddenly find myself needing to know the plural ofapocalypse.”  And that’s the running jokein Buffy!  That they literallydeal with an Apocalypse every few episodes, and they lampshade it, and thecharacters respond accordingly—Buffy and the Scooby gang start to act cavalier,almost unimpressed, about each new disaster. Like “well, we saved the world, I say we party.”  That’s a direct quote from Buffy (IN SEASON ONE NO LESS), and Supernatural could stand to take a pageout of their book with that one.  BySeason Seven, the Winchesters seem like they have somehow missed out on thelast decade of their own lives because they always act so shocked and horrifiedthat somehow someone could try to endthe world.  Like!  Yes, yes they could and yes they would,welcome to the party boys!  Please try toget in touch with your own history on this subject!

So the highlights here are: don’t be a fucking baby aboutyour writing.  If you’re writing toward abig paradigm shift, you need to recognize that you’re playing Plot RussianRoulette, and you have to pull the trigger. Change the paradigm of your narrative and deal with the fallout like afucking adult, you tepid fools, you limp-necked cowards, you ink-stainedwalnuts.

POINT THE FOURTH

Listen very carefully. Do you hear that?  It’s the soundof the Winchesters promising eternal brotherly devotion and saying things like“you’re my brother, man” and vowing to always have each other’s backs.  

Now wait a moment longer, and listen very carefully.  Do you hear that?  It’s the inevitablesound of the Winchesters stabbing each other in the back and/or throwing eachother to the wolves because they’re feeling pissy, and then getting a whole(static! See Point The Second!) “character arc” about how distraught they are.

All right, y’all, I don’t have siblings so maybe I’m wrong, but I do write a lot and I think I’m right, and you should probably put yourcharacterization where your script is. If your primary relationship that you expect people to care about isfraternal devotion, you should maybe nothave those people cheerfully feed each other into metaphoricalwoodchippers.  Like.  Okay, maybe you get ONE chance to have adramatic falling out.  ONE.  And then when they repair the relationship,they need to actually sort their shit out and not keep having the exact same dramatic falling out because thatshit gets boring and is a sign of lazy writing and—shocker!—lack of character development.  Next time they fight, it has to be aboutsomething demonstrably different, notjust the same issue with a new set of tits (c’mon y’all, this is Supernatural, it’s always a set oftits).

Let’s do a real fast recap. There’s a one episode plot in Season One about the two of them fallingout over the question of whether they should follow their father’s orders.  Dean spends a good percentage of Season Twotaking his guilt over their dad’s death out on Sam, but we’ll give a passbecause they explicitly acknowledge it and take steps to resolve theproblem.  A major plotline develops inSeason Two that hunters have started trying to kill Sam, and Dean reliably,consistently has his back.  Props.  Season Three is kind of a mess (if you have a big visible semi-Apocalypseyou should probably deal with it, see Point The Third), but whatever.  Pertinently, Dean’s big ongoing concern isthat Sam isn’t acting like himself, because he’s being much more ruthless(something Dean has consistently told him to do), while Sam’s ongoing concernis that Dean is being reckless (justified, he has a death sentence onhim).  Season Four is when things startto break down.  Castiel shows up and Deanresponds with aggression, Sam gets his rehashed ‘humanity’ plotline with Ruby,there are a lot of really incredibly poor decisions made and a lot of lies toldwith minimal regard for the trouble that’s gotten them into before (@Sam).  There’s a fight that includes Dean callingSam a monster, which has been canonically identified as the thing Sam is mostafraid of, and acting like this whole demon blood thing is a terribletremendous shock, despite the fact that Dean…knew and totally failed to reactin any way except to penalize Sam (for trying to save him!  Much like Dean sold his soul for Sam!  And got pissy about Sam being pissed offabout!).  Cue Lucifer.  Apocalypse, possession, Horsemen, etc, etc,more Lazy Susan Castiel, infighting about who should say yes to what in orderto save whom, whatever.  

And then Sam apparently dies in the Cage and Dean…goes offto get a nice white picket fence? Um…this is not consistent with the characterization of a dude who soldhis soul to resurrect Sam literally just three years ago.  Their falling out has never been intenseenough nor consistent enough to justify this. Even if you say that Dean’s honoring his brother’s final wishes by nottrying to resurrect Sam or anything, Dean should be drinking himself to deathor something similarly dramatic, because allthe drama in this show comes from the relationship between the Winchesterbrothers.  

Basically, here’s the problem: the show spends a lot of time and effort on telling youthat the Winchesters would die for each other. And while they do use that trope a lot (John dies for Dean, who dies forSam, who sacrifices his humanity for Dean, who risks his life for Sam, whojumps into the Cage for Dean…), they seem to have forgotten that, generally,you’re only willing to die for people who you actually like.  Like, peopleto whom you are genuinely emotionally attached,not just people who are your family because Blood Is Thicker or whateverbullshit you’re trying to pull there. And by Season Five, I’m just…not convinced the Winchester brothersactually like each other anymore.  Andthat never gets dealt with, they just expect you to believe that the Winchsterslove each other because the show says so,and listen, I hate the saying of ‘show, don’t tell’ as much as the nextperson who’s suffered through a college writing class, but honestly.  Supernaturalneeds to stop telling its viewers that Sam and Dean care about each other andactually…demonstrate that shit on a regular basis.  

Example: there’s the incident at some point where someoneplants a phone call on (I think) Sam’s phone, apparently from Dean, telling himthat he’s a monster and he should go do an incredibly stupid and dangerousthing because the world and Dean would be better off if he was dead.  Which Sam then believes and listens to.  This seems totally justified based on therelationship they’ve had for the past season. Pro tip, kids.  If your majordynamic includes two people who readily and easily believe that the other isliterally calling them an inhuman abomination and telling them they should justdie, that…that is not a Loving Affectionate and Devoted Familial Relationship.  And if you’re pitching it as one, A, you needsome therapy, probably urgently, and, B, your audience is only going to stickit out for so long before they give it up as a lost cause.

The point of this whole thing is that you better be ready toput your money where your fucking mouth is, and keep your characterizationsconsistent with what you’re telling the audience.

ANYWAY.  

The ultimate TL;DR here is that Supernatural’s storytelling is approximately as competent as thenovel I wrote when I was eleven, which I have hidden in a deep dark hole neverto be seen or discussed ever again.  Less competent, even, because at least Icommitted to a single individual plotline and dealt with the fallout of majorchanges to the universe.  And it’sfucking tragic, because this was a show with some real potential buried underall the chaos.  If you ever want my fullrewrite, please do ask and I will tell you, but this is now over 6K words andon its tenth page, so I’m going to stop now.

Long story short?  Supernatural: What The Fuck.