#blessed be dabb

[mybrainproblems]

brain is just mii waiting room music as i consider where i've ended up in my supernatural fandom journey

[autisticandroids]

belated fic rec list, part three: *french mistake robert singer voice* season six

so! this is for day 1 of @spnficrecfest (you will notice that that was yesterday two days ago. uh huh). and i am compensating by creating FIVE SEPARATE ERA-SPECIFIC LISTS. this one is for season six fics, and a few from season seven. the season seven ones primarily deal with the aftermath of season six, is my justification. mainly destiel, with some other pairings or gen as well.

other lists: endverse // seasons four and five // season nine // dabb era

my fave s6 fics, in increasing order of length

he who has ears by catty_the_spy, .5k

godstiel finds a priestess. gen.

holy is the sound by anti_ela, 1k

daphne allen, after. daphne/emmanuel.

i can't remember to forget about the face of you by geckoholic, 1k

lisa in the aftermath of the mindwipe. deanlisa.

to be whole / to be holy by raelilac, 1k

meg character study during caged heat. she remembers her past. megstiel.

this is not a blessing by kijikun, 1k

studies on dean during the time of godstiel. destiel, mpreg.

through a mirror, dimly by electricskeptic, 1k, chose not to warn

gen. dean and meg in caged heat. thoughts about hell. where did that other dog come from. who is he.

deluge by electricskeptic, 1k

cas/rachel during the civil war. rachel explores free will.

walking on a string by swordfishtrombones, 2k

cas unwisely abandons the battlefield to be with dean for a day. he's losing anyway. destiel.

to lie with the devil by lowkey_existential_despair, 3k

crowley reflects on cas throughout their arrangement. crowstiel.

former things by aerilex, 3k

a cozy little destiel reconciliation, post-godstiel.

subvert by kayzo, 3k

a little study on godstiel. gen.

fractured link by trell, 5k

deancasmeg in the era of honey cas.

lifelines by thraced, 6k

the angel civil war, seen through the telephone. deancaslisa

a gift for the fallen by electricskeptic, 7k

dean and cas repairing their relationship during the angel civil war. destiel.

forks in the road by thraced, 7k, violence and mcd warnings

cas and dean walk through a nightmare together while cas is losing a war. destiel.

don't hang your head for me by sorrel, 8k

the braeden household between seasons five and six, narrated by lisa. gen.

all things by seraphwings, 8k

cas gets his own misery callously explained to him post-godstiel. destiel.

the starving faithfuls by planetarypluto, 9k

dean and godstiel meet in a church. destiel.

pretty big fish (orphaned fic), 11k

an unusually peaceful godstiel interlude. destiel.

if you ever get close to a human and human behavior (be ready to get confused) by bree_black, 25k

an extraordinarily charming aftermath of swan song, featuring human cas, ghost sam, and both of them orbiting around dean. destiel.

leaves of grass by trieduntrue, 43k, chose not to warn

a unique account of what it is like to be godstiel. destiel.

this nervous condition (anonymous fic), 44k, chose not to warn and dubcon

a bleak godstiel mpreg.

[antigonewinchester]

15x20

And we come to it... The End of Supernatural.

But we’ve got a double feature this time: because I watched 1x20 too. With 15x20 calling back to that ep so specifically, I thought I’d see what the finale looked like in its context.

There’s a lot of talk of how the early vs. later seasons differ visually in terms of lighting, cinematography, etc., but I was also struck in their difference in tone. There’s a sincerity to 1x20, not just in what’s happening but in how the writing takes itself & the situation seriously, while 15x20 is much lighter and humorous, verging into bathos at points. It’s exactly the same as the contemporary MCU/Disney blockbuster humor: never letting the tension build for too long and breaking it was jokes. Maybe I’m just a bit too earnest but this kind of humor rings really hollow to me. It often feels self-defensive, like the writer(s) are hyper aware of their audience & its reaction and so they make fun of themselves before the audience can make fun of them.

I’d forgotten The Twilight Zone reference early in 1x20; love that. All of the John - Sam - Dean family drama is so compelling -- Sam still hotheaded & angry, John caring but not willing to give up his authority, Dean the peacemaker in the middle of it all. (The rest under a cut because it got long.)

DEAN: What happens if you die? Dad, what happens if you die, and we coulda done something about it? You know I been thinking. I ...think maybe Sammy's right about this one. We should do this together. [SAM nods.] DEAN: We're stronger as a family, Dad. We just are. You know it. JOHN: We're running out of time. You do your job and you get out of the area. That's an order.

Kripke’s idea of ‘family as everything’ is the foundation of this ep. It’s also obviously about healing the original family estrangement in Sam leaving and John rejecting him for it--John has to relearn how to “believe” in family again, which first starts to happen when Sam & Dean rush into save him, and then he saves Sam, using a bullet from the Colt to kill Luther holding Sam hostage, even though it means one less chance to get the YED. If, as SW analyzed, Dean takes on John’s narrative role in S4/5 with Sam, then Dean is in this narrative position thru the entire rest of the show. For ex, in Dabb’s seasons, so much of the writing focuses on Dean not “believing” in or resenting/rejecting family, which drives almost all the emotional conflict. And then cue Dean’s heartfelt deathbed speech in 15x20 about how much he loves Sam & thinks Sam is such an amazing guy, right? The ultimate “I believe in family & love you so much” speech. Dean’s speech even parallels what Sam’s son tell him as he’s dying, so framing Dean in a parental role to the end: (”SAM No. / DEAN (softly pleading): Look at me. Look at me. I need... I need... I need you to tell me that it's okay. I need you to tell me... Tell me it's okay. / SAM (through tears) Dean... it's okay. You can go now.” versus “DEAN II: Dad. It's okay. You can go now.”)

With the Colt, what stood out on this watch was how even though it’s a weapon that can “kill anything,” it’s not divine or blessed or anything like that; it was just a gun made by Samuel Colt for ordinary human hunters. Given how fantastical the show gets by the end, the Colt is grounded in a satisfying way. In order to fight creatures stronger than they are, people will make a tool that’ll allow them to overcome all that, just through sheer human ingenuity & stubbornness.

Jenny is the obvious throughline between these two eps, but there’s also John being integral to both (returning in 1x20, Sam & Dean figuring out the case thru his journal in 15x20) and both eps dealing with vampires. In 15x20, the situation is clearly meant to be a mirror reflection of Sam and Dean’s family tragedy: vampires invade a house, kill the father instead of the mother (but leaving her traumatized and unable to speak, literally & metaphorically) and steal the 2 kids away, but ending more happily with Sam & Dean saving the kids. There’s also again shades of sexual violence against children, in the vampires not just killing the kids but keeping them alive for years, both to feed and feed on them. If it’s more alluded to in 15x20, then it’s literal in 1x20, with vampires intertwined with sexual violence all over the ep: Kate & Luther making out / getting ready to have sex while Jenny watches, with Kate then turning Jenny by assaulting her with a kiss (complete w/ incestuous undertones in Luther then saying “Welcome home”); John looming over Kate and Luther like a creepy stalker when they all invade the vampires’s nest; Dean playing bait and drawing the vamps out, with Kate assaulting Dean very similarly to how she did Jenny. The ‘Dean playing bait’ scene was also interesting in that Dean is very much vulnerable (what if Kate had just gone for his neck?) while the masculine violence of the Winchesters is highlighted as well... John & Sam shooting Kate and the other vamp, John coming in with “sweetheart” to Kate when he confronts her, Dean taking Kate off in a bridal carry, a parody of the real thing. They’re both the hunted and hunters.

SAM (crying) Then don't leave me. Don't leave me. I can't do this alone. DEAN Yes, you can. SAM Well, I don't want to. DEAN Hey. I'm not leaving you. I'm gonna be with you... [DEAN is crying as he places his fist over SAM’S heart.] Right here... every day. ... DEAN Goodbye, Sam. Goodbye.

Telling that it was Jackles and Jarpad who added in those callbacks to Sam & Dean’s dialogue in the pilot, not Dabb. Good for them, tho.

I’m surprised I’ve never seen a comparison made between Dean’s death and Jack’s departure in 15x19! If Jack is a Christ figure, then Dean is a messiah figure, and those figures very often die; both Dean and Jack gave up a chance at a normal life to save the world & protect the people they love, Dean as a hunter & Jack as God; they both do the “I’ll still be with you, in your heart” gesture; it ends with both Jack and Dean saying goodbye, and they both then go onto to ascend to Heaven or a heavenly place. People talk about how Jack’s ending is messed up because he’s just a kid with too much responsibility put on his head, but the show idealizes / does the same thing with Dean, in how much it valorizes Dean’s protection of Sam. I think back to Jarpad’s quote talking about the finale that got people in a huff (“It was a success story — it was Dean’s success story,” Padalecki reflects on the “Supernatural” series finale. “This guy gave his life for years and years and years and ultimately gave his life to have his No. 1 on the planet live as normal a life as possible.”) but like? Doesn’t this attitude seem exactly how the show viewed Sam & Dean at this point?

I’ve also seen people talk pretty cynically about Dean’s death and as much as I’m not a fan of Dean dying I also just cannot read it as cynically as some people do. Dean didn’t die because he “couldn’t live a normal life,” he died because the show set up the “Dean = chooses the hunting life, Sam = wants a normal life” framing back in S12, Dabb’s first season, which culminates here in Dabb’s last, with Dean dying on a hunt after saving 2 kids from something horrible, and Sam going on to live without Dean and having a ‘normal’ life, wife, a son, even if he deep down he longs to be with Dean again. If Dean most represents “the family” in the narrative, then of course he couldn’t get a wife and kid like Sam could; that would be Dean choosing to have another family over Sam, and that wouldn’t work with Dean’s narrative role. In S15 too, Dean’s death also fits thematically with the emphasis within the last season on making sacrifices and dying for what you love and the people you saved living on after that sacrifice. Ketch, Rowena, Cas, Jack (sort of), Dean, to name some major ones. There’s also that Sam dying & Dean living on would be a repeat of Swan Song, so I can see why they would’ve wanted to avoid that plot beat because they’d already done it once. If anything, I’d say Dean’s death echoes his one in 3x16: telling Sam to carry on without him, Sam being unable to prevent his death, but this time instead of going to Hell, Dean ends up in Heaven. And Dean gets narratively rewarded with the perfect, best Heaven ever! The one that is stated he deserves!! I just don’t see how that translates into the writers seeing Dean as not normal or having something wrong with him?

OKAY last few things: I actually like the regular “Carry On Wayward Son” and then the cover version, what can I say. Despite ppl saying Dean spent however many odd decades in Heaven waiting for Sam, it’s clearly implied he only waited a short time in Bobby saying “Time up here, it's... it's different,” which is calling back to Hell’s time dilation, Dean’s 40′s years, and his now only spending a few minutes separate from Sam in comparison. And while I 100% understand not liking the finale, it’s kind of fascinating to me that the finale basically framed it as a final, fantastic Happy Ending for Sam & Dean, they are at peace for all eternity, isn’t that so nice, and parts of the fandom somehow read it as a tragic or unhappy ending. It’s just... so clearly not. It is if you wanted to the story to end another way, but c’mon, the story wasn’t going to end another way. It ended as it started, the Epic Love Story of Sam & Dean.

[incarnateirony]

poor @dotthings

she's been watching Kung Fu, and realizing just how deeply I mean Beren's fingerprints were, and frankly still are, all over Supernatural in ways that weren't clear to credit any more than a seeming pile of authors with scattered production credits, even before his full on renegade run at the end with a well fitted team of rebels.

Yeah, when he wasn't sticky noting over Eugenie and Singer last second with Dabb's permission, it was actively conspiring with all the young writers. His philosophy is pervasive throughout. and regardless what anyone howls about credits right now, still are.

On paper that's a Yockey episode. But so are a lot of Yockey ideas. But you'll notice Yockey doesn't have to be on Kung Fu for it to be there.

ayyyyyyyyyyy now people are starting to figure out how this globe really spins, bless

[laughablelament]

The Dabb years of Supernatural were the Doggett-era X-Files meets Hollywood Squares, and I did not care for it.

But it's appropriate; because when The X-Files became intolerable, I mentally just ended it and put Mulder and Scully on a spaceship to happily ever after.

Bless Supernatural for that domestic montage/Heaven sequence. What a gift, a nice canon ending I can tack on after "Red Meat."

[regardingjenmish]

besides the straining buttons struggling to contain misha’s thiccness, y’know another great thing that pic revealed? the makeup artists on gotham knights haven’t caked on orange foundation like a certain other production did — what a blessing!

I just now saw this and lmfaooxjjdjsksoa. In fairness, I do think spn's problem wasn't as much make up as the later on production where Dabb turned up the saturation like he was an insta girl in 2012. But yes, i am very happy to see that they are letting Misha look his beautiful self on Gotham Knights.

[ao3feed-destiel-02]

The Werepire's Happily Ever After

read it on AO3 at https://ift.tt/8NjCtfv by Emblue_Sparks Dean plus his nearest and dearest in Heaven gather for a blessed werepire event. Words: 819, Chapters: 1/1, Language: English Fandoms: Supernatural (TV 2005) Rating: Teen And Up Audiences Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply Categories: F/F, M/M Characters: Dean Winchester, Garth Fitzgerald IV, Benny Lafitte, Castiel (Supernatural), Sam Winchester, Eileen Leahy, Bobby Singer (Supernatural), Rufus Turner, Charlie Bradbury, Stevie (Supernatural: The Rupture), Donna Hanscum, Jody Mills, Claire Novak, Kaia Nieves Relationships: Garth Fitzgerald IV/Benny Lafitte, Castiel/Dean Winchester, Eileen Leahy/Sam Winchester, Bobby Singer/Rufus Turner, Apocalypseverse Charlie Bradbury/Stevie (Supernatural: The Rupture), Donna Hanscum/Jody Mills, Kaia Nieves/Claire Novak Additional Tags: Post-Season/Series Finale, Benny didn't die because I say so and FUCK ANDREW DABB, Werepire wedding in heaven read it on AO3 at https://ift.tt/8NjCtfv

[jeffmagnumoffical]

god bless andrew dabb for giving us road trip

[enochianribs]

No I'm sorry besties I do genuinely dislike the vibes and general plot and writing and aesthetic of the dabb era. I'm sorry. I tried to like it but I hate it so much. I love certain parts of it and smaller character based plotlines ig but as a whole? S7 did stupid fun better. I said what I said.

[suncaptor]

I think that if the writers like. remembered the reason why Dean was so fucking terrified and controlling and abusive towards Sam (and yes in ways that are absolutely not justified) in season four were to do with his absolute terror that Sam would end up in Hell like him like. that's why he 180ed on "I would kill any hunter that looked at Sam wrong" to "Sam should die human." He was traumatised from unimaginable torture and refused to let the same fate land on Sam. Which is why his whole letting Sam have autonomy was allowing Sam to damn himself in Swan Song... they were essentially the same situations to Dean as then in Lucifer Rising, except he knew there was no choice he could take on himself because saying yes to Heaven was already proven to be catastrophic. And like within the framework of post Hell seasons for Dean this stays very apparent, but later on it's like they switch his perception outside of that as if they were analysing past events without the actual context of what Dean was going through.

[caswlw]

as someone who straight up didn’t acknowledge the actors or the goings on of the bts and panels and everything until this year bc of the filming halt i can’t help but be happy i did

like i didn’t start watching spn until s12 was airing (to be fair. i was like 13 so) and i didn’t even have a tumblr i just lurked two different spn blogs (shoutout to @tinkdw and @bluestar86 lol) after every episode came out until i started getting sucked into spn tumblr when s15 began airing and it just breaks my heart to hear all of u who did watch the creators and everyone working on the show absolutely bash [redacted] for years like,, the vindication now has to be like whiplash knowing that so many of the writers and actors on the show actively liked ykw and the loudest voices were just so yikes about it

[mybrainproblems]

I guess I just don't particularly understand how Berens remains so popular (or at least gets way less criticism vs buckleming) when he's responsible for the creation of Kaia's character and brought back Missouri only to kill her off. Both of these happened in twenty seventeen ffs. This wasn't the 00s! Which, to be clear, this would not have been okay in the 00s either but there was a lot more awareness around the treatment of bipoc characters by the late 10s.

Does the confession mean that much to the fandom that we continue to largely gloss this over?

Please note: I'm not letting everyone else in the writers room off the hook (Dabb & Singer in particular as co-showrunners) since jfc someone should have caught it. But I do think Berens had more independence with creating Kaia's character & story since she would have been on Wayward which he was set to be showrunner on. And tbh I think Wayward getting nixed was a blessing in disguise. If it went ahead in its original incarnation I highly doubt we'd be talking about it the same way. Also? Bringing back Missouri in Wayward as some sort of magical spirit guide to Patience? Get all the way fucked, buddy.

[pregstiel]

there should've been a s15/general dabb era episode where we learn that jess has started haunting the building where she died (this is literally the era that brought back mary i want to see it deconstruct "sam's blank slate girlfriend dies to kick off his journey").

highlights:

- sam going back to stanford accomplishes a few purposes - he can be triggered to discuss jess (a lot of the episode is focused on these flashbacks/recountings as they try to solve the case), giving the audience a feel for her character, he can learn how his friends/peers/mentors are doing now, he can learn how HE is viewed (because you know "guy's who girlfriend died in a fire then disappeared then became wanted by the fbi" is a commonly discussed stanford tale), and he can reflect on how he's changed since then (depending on the writer, this would also let them take finale jabs - think "it was a good car")

- scene early on where sam's posing as an fbi agent talking to jess's parents trying to get information about the haunting, and they tell him they think her boyfriend, who had a sketchy past and skipped town afterwards, set the fire. one of her parents looks sam in the eye when they say that sam winchester killed their daughter while sam can only nod. he agrees.

(it's been 15 years since, i think people in the episode can be excused for not recognizing sam. possibly the show would simply weasel out of it by sam insisting on coming and getting rowena to cast a glamor on him as a disguise - this could also serve as comic relief early on)

- dean goes back to stanford! talk about stanford era dean on my television screen! bastards!

- saileen growth! even years later, jess is still a ghost in sam's life - and her relationship to sam was radically different from his relationship to eileen. i want to see the deconstruction of the dead sainted figure vs. the living flawed human! i want to see eileen supporting him when he's lost someone so tragically (and possibly being able to relate to losing a partner like this? for $10 cw network please expand on eileen's backstory). i want to watch sam confide in her, and watch this bring them closer together!

- while i doubt eileen would have much conflict about how different these relationships are, i do think seeing her confront the original "killed by sam winchester's dick" character would be interesting! sam deals with a lot of guilt over these deaths - how does eileen handle that? how does she handle her own worries that being close to sam will get her killed (again)? does she feel guilt over the fact that she was resurrecting but jess is now a ghost - the exact same situation she was in? yet again, eileen was placed in a situation where she was the only survivor - i want to see her struggle with it!

- jess never really learned about the supernatural, she died confused and afraid, with no idea what was happening. she isn't tied to an object, but her need to have the question of why? answered keeps her trapped in the veil. to stop her (she has been hurting people, possibly replicating her own murder in an attempt to understand what happened) the climax would be sam confessing to jess who he is and what exactly attacked her that night, along with telling her she was avenged, but still frantically apologizing. i don't know if she would absolve him or even care that vengeance had been cared out - but either way, she would finally be able to rest

- episode ends with eileen taking sam to a place he mentioned loving in college, and she jokingly remarks that the food isn't as good as he remembers. they make a new memory there, and it's the first time we see sam happy since the stanford case kicked off - but he seems lighter, knowing jess is at peace.

[ederteylegc]

finished despair and since i wont be watching ep. 19 or 20 this means its over! 

[crancisfrozier]

CAN WE TALK ABOUT THE EMPTY TELLING CAS HE KNOWS WHO HE LOVES AND WHAT HE FEARS PLEASE CAUSE THAT SHIT HAS ME FUCKED UP

[ao3feed-destiel-02]

The Werepire's Happily Ever After

The Werepire's Happily Ever After https://ift.tt/PwiLqFI by Emblue_Sparks Dean plus his nearest and dearest in Heaven gather for a blessed werepire event. Words: 819, Chapters: 1/1, Language: English Fandoms: Supernatural (TV 2005) Rating: Teen And Up Audiences Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply Categories: F/F, M/M Characters: Dean Winchester, Garth Fitzgerald IV, Benny Lafitte, Castiel (Supernatural), Sam Winchester, Eileen Leahy, Bobby Singer (Supernatural), Rufus Turner, Charlie Bradbury, Stevie (Supernatural: The Rupture), Donna Hanscum, Jody Mills, Claire Novak, Kaia Nieves Relationships: Garth Fitzgerald IV/Benny Lafitte, Castiel/Dean Winchester, Eileen Leahy/Sam Winchester, Bobby Singer/Rufus Turner, Apocalypseverse Charlie Bradbury/Stevie (Supernatural: The Rupture), Donna Hanscum/Jody Mills, Kaia Nieves/Claire Novak Additional Tags: Post-Season/Series Finale, Benny didn't die because I say so and FUCK ANDREW DABB, Werepire wedding in heaven via AO3 works tagged 'Castiel/Dean Winchester' https://ift.tt/KEB0Gn7 May 18, 2024 at 03:25AM