#everything about the overarching plot in s15 is *laden* with intent

[mybrainproblems]

i just think that we should recognize that outside of the nepotism hires, pretty much every writer on spn was at worst competent and that occasionally some of them even reached for the transcendental. (and honestly even the nepotism hires had some flashes of brilliance tho mostly on a dialogue or scene basis rather than episode or plot basis.)

at least for me, the points where spn memorably has egg on its face and is at its worst is when it's being racist or sexist. like i can suspend disbelief on the occasional plot hole or jump, moments where characters are a bit ooc to move the plot along. but the unforgivable stuff to me are episodes like there will be blood or man's best friend with benefits or the bad place. the treatment of characters like bela and jo in early seasons, the way it waffles on monsters and whether they are universally evil. the way spn frames hunters positively in light of american exceptionalism and libertarianism.

like just. idk. saying spn is poorly written and only the fans get it just feels weird. i believe in death of the author, i believe in the power of transformative fiction... but whether you're writing meta or fic or shitposts, you're still playing in someone else's sandbox. and if it was a crappy sandbox, you wouldn't enjoy playing in it. (not to mention the lack of media literacy where ppl call every single callback just reusing plot lines rather than them being, yanno, narrative parallels.) there are absolutely points where they were reusing and retreading things and it tended to be with beloved characters like crowley where they kinda dead-ended but wanted to keep him around as a more central character without having much for him to do.

there are absolutely points where there is bad writing or they reach for something that is more complex than a cw show is really allowed to be without losing its core audience and then they can't follow through. but all in all? there's a hell of a lot more good than bad.