#in these years i had no idea that spn or sherlock even existed

[inevitably-johnlocked]

Fully Set-Up Johnlock Discord Server up for Adoption

@theshopislocal said:

Hiya :). I had a question for you, [...] Around this time last year, I got back into Sherlock fandom (series four kinda killed my interest for a long time, but I got recced a Sherlock fic that got me back into it). Since I left Sherlock fandom, I’d gotten into others (Spn, Harry Potter, etc), and joined a couple of discord servers that were super fun and very helpful.

So I started looking round for a Johnlock discord server, and found basically nothing. The ones that existed weren’t very well organized, or weren’t maintained well, etc.

So I put together a server myself. Set everything up, even coded a Mrs Hudson bot to help out around the place. A couple people I knew from other servers joined, and we had a nice time for about a week or so, before I realized that I’d expended all of my gumption on the making of the server.

Turns out that, while I’m good at the technical side of things, I’m not really mod material.

So I’ve got a kitted out server, with custom bots and emojis and a broad range of channels, and, not to pat myself on the back, but it’s a pretty nice server—and I have no idea what to do with it.

I was hoping you might know of someone who is still active enough/interested in the fandom to adopt the server from me? Someone who would actually advertise and get people to join? Someone interested in doing the mod stuff that it turns out I’m terrible at? I’d be happy to stay on as tech support, and the Mrs Hudson bot runs on a dedicated server that only costs me $2 a month, so I’m happy to maintain her as well.

You seem like someone in the know in the current fandom, so I thought I’d ask. If you can think of anyone or you want an invite link to the server, let me know. Although, fair warning, the server has very few members and is currently very quiet :/.

[...] The Snape/Harry server I’m in has all these events and fun stuff and I’m just.. not really able to do all that, but I feel like the Johnlock fandom deserves a nice community server like that, if that makes any sense?

Thanks for your time.

======

Hi Lovely!!

First off, sorry again for putting this aside for so long... I haven't been having the best couple weeks, LOL.

Secondly, as we discussed, I would LOVE to have my own discord server, but here's the thing: I am Lazy™, and I just don't have the energy to run one full time and ensure Mods and stuff are sorted out, especially since I do have a full-time job on top of very little free time and running this blog, LOL. I'm not gonna lie, I am a lazy bitch, hahaha.

AND as I mentioned, I'm happy to put the callout for anyone interested in taking over a Discord server :) From what I see so far, you put SO MUCH work into the server, and it's very very nice!! I truly hope that it gets picked up by someone, I'd be sad to see your hard work put aside.

If anyone is interested, please contact @theshopislocal and they can provide you with more details! 💜🖤

Please reblog if you can to put more eyes on this :) As I said, it's a BEAUTIFUL server, and I would love for someone to be able to take over moderation duties from Lovely!

[gejnialnie]

i wish id been on tumblr in like 2012s-early 2015s i feel like i missed on something very important

[captain-shippard]

Please stop saying Good Omens is queer baiting I fucking swear.

If you need two characters to kiss or fuck together on camera to accept that they are queer that’s your own limitations.

If two ace non-binaries in a platonic relationship make you feel queer baited maybe you should take a look back at your definition of queer.

I can’t believe you said Good Omens is trying to replicate a straighter SPN when you needed a Spanish dub and that one ally actor Twitter campaign to get a somewhat credible maybe confirmation of your two main characters loving each other in a romantic way after 11 seasons.

good omens was renewed over two years after its original premiere because amazon executives realized there’s a huge market for queerbaiting angels post supernatural

[chikabika]

So like. I was on tumblr in 2012. Earlier, even.

I watched Supernatural, and BBC Sherlock, and Teen Wolf. In fact, I finally gave SPN a shot after three tries because the way tumblr talked about Destiel had me thinking they were actually dating. I asked google "when does Dean's boyfriend show up" and google said "Castiel shows up in Season 4" and I was like, great, let's watch 8 seasons in 3 weeks.

I've watched plenty of other things, but I think SPN, Sherlock, and Teen Wolf are the most relevant, because I remember fan spaces, I remember shipping, and I remember how show runners, writers, and actors treated fans and shipper fans. Teen Wolf capitalized on the Sterek ship, used it to win awards. BBC Sherlock teased a queer romance in the text of the show and then derided fans for thinking there could be anything between Sherlock and John Watson (nevermind that that ship is even older than Kirk/Spock). I know I was deep in the sauce, but before I stopped watching Supernatural, it felt like, yeah, maybe, in the last episode, there could be a confession. Or something. And I guess there was a confession, but we all know how Supernatural ended.

As a queer person, it has felt like, as each year has passed, it'll be this year that queer stories get told in a major show. There have been incredible strides in children's media, and of course there are queer characters in other tv and movies.

But something about Our Flag Means Death just. I don't know, it was hitting the same beats that I have seen in stuff like the shows above, and because I have seen the potential for queer romance in them, and been disappointed, I couldn't quite trust it. I have seen the same looks between two men, the intimacy, that Stede and Ed share, and been told "oh, but they're just friends, you're reading too much into it." And yes, obligatory disclaimer that friendships can change your life and caring looks and intimacy between friends should and does exist. If you knew me in person you'd know I invest strongly in my friendships.

The point is that I have seen "friend" used to cover up or deny queer relationships. I mean damn, we've all seen it, in media and history and modern tabloids. "Kristen Stewart and gal pal spend day on friendly outing". THEY'RE GAY! Star Trek TOS came out in the 60s, when homosexuality was illegal. Of course they weren't going to say anything about a queer romance between the two. But there are plenty of lines about their friendship. Spock says "Jim when I feel friendship for you, I feel ashamed." They are close, they touch, there are long gazes and heart eyes and held hands.

These are all things I was seeing and hearing in Our Flag Means Death, and it is why I was on the edge of my seat, unsure, untrusting, despite being reasonably sure that the shipping on tumblr was not just people latching on to some great "subtext".

In BBC Sherlock, there are plenty of characters who assume or insinuate or straight out claim a romantic relationship between Sherlock and John Watson. In a straight romance, those would be signs that there is something going on, and any denial from the characters comes with a wink-wink, nudge-nudge. There is a scene in OFMD in which Stede is asked/accused of sleeping with Ed. I could see it for what it was supposed to be-introducing the idea of a sexual component to their relationship in Stede's mind, making him ask himself if that's what he wants-and still the spectre of Sherlock, and Supernatural hung over me.

Teen Wolf even had queer characters, it felt that much more possible for two characters whose sexuality hadn't been established at the beginning to realize they had feelings for someone of the same gender. OFMD does not state Stede or Ed's sexuality from the get-go, we do not learn about relationships they might have had with other men, until the scene I just mentioned. And of course I know about matelotage and how queer pirates were, but does a showrunner? Do they even care?

And yes. They do. And it is a balm on an old wound.

Older men, falling in love, surrounded by other queers. Wow.

I have to rewatch this show, because I had my heart guarded the whole time. When Fleetwood Mac came on and Ed reached out with his boot, this show reached through the screen and punched me in the heart. I felt that excitement and longing, and delighted when the music and camera treated the delicate vulnerable awkward kiss with the moment it deserved.

I just.

This show means a lot to me, for these reasons, and it's also just a good show.

[olderthannetfic]

Quite interesting what you expose about Queer baiting, I had thought that some media accidentally creates a fandom who is reading too much into it (some fandoms sometimes just cling to strays with their desperate need when there hardly is anything to read), but I seriously had my doubts about Supernatural and Sherlock. Mainly because it was kind of cruel on their parts when they eventually knew the kind of fandom they got as the years progressed. They went to conventions and they made exclusive fan interactions. I would think that the producer's, writers, directors and actors would take a least a bit of interest on the people who were the greatest contribution to their success.

Let's not kid ourselves, those numbers and sales of merchandise and the hype, can only be ignited and rallied by the really intense fans. Or at least that's what used to think. So of course it wouldn't be that much of a stretch of imagination that this "silly gay joke" was in fact a concealed slap in the face to the fans for wishing to see something they desired. Like spraying the fans with water like unruly cats needing to calm the duck down. I was a bit disappointed by Mark Gatiss, being gay and all, but of course, being gay doesn't automatically made you a political woke rebel with a discurse to change the world (I would know, being an old trans who wants nothing but to cisspass and live in the crowd irl)

I suppose that in the end, it's true that we are a meaningless number in the capitalistic industry of entreteiment, and that the old idea that the fandom has any kind of pull over their favorite shows is just a delusional idea.

But still, an unintentionally wrong doing, it's still a wrong doing. It means that representation still is a problem because the creators and powers that be, don't even acknowledge that people exist in the first place. They may be not evilly toying with us, but is worse when they don't even think we exist.

And when they do, like Netflix and most of his shows, it's just so poorly done for shock value and token representation that is often, just cringe worthy. Anyways, I would like your opinion on the bury your gays trope.

I mean, for while gays were dropping like flies on violent tv shows. Like dude, we are the new POC on a horror movie?. Gays died second lol. Example, the Chubby chick in The Walking Dead. Like literally seconds after saying she's a lesbian. She drops dead unexpectedly. And come on, even if its one of those "anyone can die type of show" that was... ridiculously dumb when they spend whole episodes bulling her story.

--

I agree that shows are bad at queer rep.

But I disagree that Sherlock was bad in this way. It did plenty of other things wrong (like Irene Adler), but it started out intending not to go for Johnlock, and it continued not to go for Johnlock.

I know that fans assumed TPTB were lying because they lied about other things, but they were still quite clear that canon Johnlock was not part of their plans.

Big media is often quite homophobic, but one point I want to drive home to fans is this:

Queer people who work in big media often have a different idea of representation than tumblr and ao3 types do.

Not always, but it's common. There is no reason Gatiss would necessarily want canon Johnlock or see it as a huge step forward for representation. Tumblr Sherlock fandom talked about it in terms that weren't really echoed by people outside of tumblr.

Looking at SPN, by the end, it only had a couple million viewers per episode. Sorting AO3 SPN fics by hits, the top one does have over a million hits, but the next few down have 400-500k. They quickly drop to the 200k hits range, and these are fics with multiple chapters where the same reader will have come back many times. The 2mil episode watchers are separate people watching the first run.

SPN has a particularly vociferous fandom and particularly shitty ratings, so yeah, some of the bigger fic is big enough you'd hope they'd care... But there are two things you're forgetting:

1. SPN had a fuckton of self-shipper fans and fans who just liked canon and did not care about fic. None of these fans wanted Destiel.

2. Network tv series make money off of advertisements, and advertisers still usually strongly prefer young men to older people or women.

It does not matter if SPN's writers wanted to be less sexist as long as advertisers pressure shows to deliver the male viewer numbers they want. But even if they did want to cater to the female audience they ended up with, that audience is not united in wanting Destiel.

(I do not think the writers made any attempt to be less sexist, and I think it’s fine to call them on that, btw. I’m just saying this separate advertiser issue exists also.)

Look through Dean's tags on Wattpad: you'll find a sea of fanfic about Dean/OFC or Dean/Female reader. Those were also die-hard fans, and they did not ship m/m. They also kept SPN afloat with their money.

I too want live action longform genre fiction with a decent budget and canon m/m.

But it's simplistic to think that SPN was just ignoring their fans and clueless.

[mrfutureboy]

I would like to know when you started drawing and where your passion for fanart started 😊

Oh FUCK dude i did not see this i’m so fucking sorry this is so late 😭 damn you, tumblr, for not fucking notifying me!! Anyway buckle up this is gonna be much longer than you asked for <3

Honestly ive kinda been drawing all my life! I hope that doesnt sound dumb cuz obviously almost everyone drew pictures when they were kids, but i know that it’s been a consistent hobby for me since i was little. By the time i was in 3rd grade I was hoarding notebooks to draw in. Cuz that’s something fun about me: i had a real huge habit of drawing in things that werent sketchbooks. Through middle school and beyond I did buy/receive sketchbooks, but I started out with various kinds of notebooks. One I had from like 2nd grade was like a hardcover, stationary-type notebook that I drew cats in lol, and I have 2 velvet lisa frank notebooks from 3rd grade. In high school and college I had a really bad habit of drawing in the margins on my notes and on handouts the teacher/professor would give. Those classes where the prof just prints out all the notes beforehand and gives them to you to follow along? Oh man, I spent so many classes barely listening while I drew on them! I also used to draw on my physics homework and tests and sometimes I even got extra credit for them (thank you jeff :D). I actually have a folder of various drawings I’ve kept from that 8yr time period and a lot of them are on classwork 😂

Obviously, I’ve been doing a lot of digital art lately, which I’m sure is what u were more curious about rather than the shit about drawing on my homework. I got a surface pro as a graduation gift in 2016 bc prior to that i had a wacom tablet and a janky ass laptop, so the gift was kinda a 2-in-1: i can do schoolwork AND art easily! i like digital art a lot and honestly im still learning new things abt it every time i draw. I use Leonardo currently (i’ll skip that story) but I started out doing digital art on sketchfu WITHOUT the wacom tablet in maaaaybe 2012??? 2011??? does anyone on this site remember sketchfu? Honestly couldnt even tell u how i found that site hahah the internet was just full of wonders back in the day. RIP sketchfu. Once i got the tablet tho some time later i used sketchfu still (i think) but also gimp and krita i believe.

Oh i suppose I should mention that i took art all four years of highschool and also minored in it in college! So it’s something i did academically as well as for fun. I keep thinking about going to art school for realsies but idk. I’m already $$$ in debt from my first degree i dont feel like adding to that 😅😓

Ok now for the second part of your question: I’ve also pretty much always done fan art! Ive never really been one for OC’s, EXCEPT for the self-insert superhero double life “comics” i wrote about a poodle named Sassy when i was in third grade. And then the knock off “comics” i wrote at a later time which honestly it was weird that i did a knock off of my own thing rather than just adding them to the original or making it a spin off with at least one of the og characters. Cuz it wasnt a spin off!! But anyway there wasnt really much to any of these characters; i just needed vessels to get my weird ideas out.

So anyway yeah most of what ive ever drawn has been fan art or self portraits, because its just easier for me to take characters that already exist and bend them to my will (artistically). Well excluding art assignments in school i guess because i would usually have to draw something specific and therefore not something self indulgent. But yeah ive drawn for lots of fandoms like the earliest i remember is warrior cats. Then theres things like pokemon and warriors and random other books i read thru middle school (i used to read a LOT but now im practically illiterate); spn, sherlock, and marvel through high school; and then marvel and bttf thru the end of hs and beyond. Idk i also have always loved looking at other peoples fan art and so im like “shit i wanna do that too!”. Tho i will say marvel was my biggest fandom and the one i had the longest interest in, so that was probably where the passion REALLY came from cuz I was drawing marvel stuff for such a long time (tho not posting shdjsk u have to trust me), but ive been doing fan art forever :)

(Of course, a lot of the fan art i was making prior to recently was drawn in lined notebooks or on homework sheets or what have you, and I wasn’t posting really any of it, but i was still making it and a good chunk of it still exists. Oh i should also mention most of it was with pencils or ballpoint pens like i wasnt doing anything too fancy. There was some digital art in the highschool-college time frame but it also really wasnt…much. Honestly i barely posted any of it here but I know some of it’s on deviantart)

I cant pinpoint the exact time I started getting more “serious” about my art in general, but i know the first pandemic lockdown gave me more free time and i was less stressed about schoolwork so i just kinda had a good outlet. (Tho i will say that prior, I had been in a life drawing club for a short while, and i had also been working on a personal sketchbook project that had me pretty ~inspired~ to do art. Also i watched twin peaks around this time and it inspired a lot of Feelings and i was making funky collages and other art pieced that were sometimes related to that. Some of those are on deviantart)

Honestly I think the Big thing with my digital art was coincidentally getting back into BTTF the summer of the 35th anniversary bc the fandom here was THRIVING and i was like “oh shit wait i want to contribute!” But as i kept drawing i kept wanting to improve and that leads us to right now where im constantly trying new things (whether subtle or obvious) and challenging myself to do full body drawings with different poses, and doing screencap redraws and what have you for various reasons (backgrounds, proportions, pose, etc)

So yeah :) Basically I’ve been doing fan art forever (I didnt even get into all the mediums ive tried but that’s another conversation bc this is already so long and convoluted) and it’s kinda coincidental that ive suddenly really gotten back into it and have improved dramatically in such a short time. Thank you so much @rovermcfly for the ask and again im really sorry you had to wait so long for a response! Stupid tumblr

[minksmallow]

okay, so this is why show creators need to plan out the ENTIRE plot BEFORE they start filming the show — that way they can use effective parallels,, and have an ending that makes sense and isn’t just “yo guys, hot take but what if we did this thing spontaneously” as they go along with the story.

because obviously that never ends well. you know how many shows i’ve watched that have a bad ending because the writers didn’t plan out the entire story before writing the actual scripts? too many to count. for a contrasting example, think of harry potter or the good place. those series’ plots were clearly planned out before the show started airing. the creators knew what they were going to do. they started from the end, and had all the big plot points planned out, and THEN they created the minor points of the story. and you can tell that they did this, because that’s what good writing looks like. it’s easy to recognise, they had a plan from the beginning and they saw it through.

now for a contrasting example, think of sherlock and more relevantly, supernatural — which is what this post is about lmao. those shows were written as “this is the concept, and we’ll just reference said concept as we go along”. this is, pretty clearly imo, bad writing.

they didn’t know what they wanted to do. unlike the other two series, the writers of spn and bbc sherlock didnt know when they were going to end the show, or how they were going to end the show. these caused them to create random plot points which weren’t planned out properly because they weren’t written in a way that would progress the show and lead them to the end. in the case of sherlock, mofftiss could’ve followed along with ACD’s (the author of the original books) version of the story which made a bit of sense. to be fair, ACD didn’t care about his sherlock holmes series but at least he was somewhat consistent with his characters’ backstories :|

mofftiss created this idea that there was a big secret about sherlock’s trauma from the very beginning. however, we finally got to the point of learning the truth behind this big childhood trauma of sherlock’s, and in turn we expected the canonisation of johnlock, but when season 4 came around we got things that made no sense when considering the rest of the story.

now i’m not gonna lie, i haven’t watched supernatural yet, but i’ve got a pretty solid idea of how it works and what happened in the end. the fans were given a show about supernatural creatures, that’s pretty clear. however, this show had no timeline; no predetermined plot points and no predetermined end. this led to the show lasting for 15 seasons,,, 15 long years of waiting for a finale and the canonisation of a queerbaited ship. because there was no planning for the show, characters came and went, drama took place, but nothing was effectively leading towards the end. so now the writers decided to end the show. but how? alright, let’s give the fans what they’ve been asking for over the course of these 15 years. so they spontaneously write in a love confession. the keyword here is ‘spontaneous’. now what? homophobic writers have left themselves with a gay main character. okay, let’s kill him off. but he’s a big character, so let’s make it a big deal — let’s send him to superhell. NOW now what? we’ve killed off one of our main characters, so we can end the show. but how do we complete the stories of the other two (2) main characters? ehhh idk, let’s just give the one tetanus so that he dies, and the other can have a generic picket fence trophy wife happy ending. oh and the first dude can have his car in heaven, ✨ cuz he liked the car ✨, and also we don’t know how else to transition into the montage of the second dude’s happy life.

so what do the loyal fans of 15 years get out of this?

the writers are so homophobic that they’d rather send a car to heaven than a gay angel

the show ended the same way it would’ve ended if s1e1 didn’t take place

the most random ending i’ve ever heard of in my entire life,,, wtf tetanus?? WHERE DID TETANUS COME FROM?? that’s so random i hate it here 😻

their comfort characters are all dead and only 1 of them got a happy ending, and it wasn’t even satisfying because he wasn’t with his brother and/or his friend

for some, this show was one of the only things that gave them comfort and happiness. the real world loves to kick people in the ass, and now the fictional world doesn’t even have a happy ending.

this show has quite possibly turned into a trigger for a lot of people. a trigger that will now be discussed until the end of time as one of the worst endings in existence.

so in conclusion:

plan out the main plots of your story before you start writing it,

and plan out how these plots will lead to an ending that will be thoughtful and satisfying.

it doesn’t have to be happy if you don’t want it to be, but it has to be satisfying. that’s good writing.

[duhragonball]

‘21

Amidst all the popular hype for seeing the end of 2020, it didn’t hit me until about lunchtime what the real highlight is that I’ve been waiting for: For the first time since 1999, the year finally ends in “numberty-number” again.    It low-key irritated me that we had to call it “two thousand three” and I was relieved when “twenty-thirteen” caught on, but it still wasn’t right because it was too short, and now we’re back in the sweet spot, and I should be safely dead by 2100, so that’s one less thing I gotta deal with.

Really, even “numberty hundred” rings true to me.    “Nineteen hundred” sounds like a year.    “Twenty-one-oh-six” sounds like a futur-y year, which is even cooler.   So did “Two thousand five”, until I was actually living in it, and it sounds even worse now that it was a long time ago and adults will talk about their childhood happening in that year.    Daniel Witwicky would be old enough to get married and grow a fancier beard than me.    That’s nuts.    My point is that, honestly, it’s the year 3000-3019 that I have to worry about, so if I ever decide to go vampire, those will be the years I hide in the ocean or force society to reset the calendar, whichever’s easier.  

I spent New Year’s Eve finishing Superliminal, which I bought on Steam after I watched Vegeta play it on YouTube.  It has a similar look and feel to the Stanley Parable, so if you liked one you’d probably enjoy the other, although Superliminal has a different theme.  I kept hoping I’d find some secret passage that I wasn’t supposed to take, and a narrator would scold me for finding the “Chickenbutt Ending”, but it doesn’t work that way.    Superliminal’s all about puzzles and awesome visuals, but it does have the same soothing design aesthetics as TSP.   Honestly, I enjoyed just wandering around in Stanley’s office, and Superliminal does the same thing with a hotel and several other settings.   It’s nice.

This got me thinking about how I kind of did everything there was to do in The Stanley Parable, and I sort of wished they would add new stuff to the game, but I’m not sure there would be much point to that.    I could play the older version, but it presents the same message, just with different assets.   The Boss’s Office would look different, but it’d be the same game.   And this got me thinking about various “secret chapters” in pop culture.  Secrets behind the cut.

I first heard about this idea in the 2000′s, when fans invented this notion that there was a secret chapter of Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix.    I read a website that tried to explain the concept, and of course it lauded J.K. Rowling with all this gushing praise for working an Easter egg into the book, a literary work of “well, magic.”  

That pretty well sums up my distaste for Harry Potter, by the way.    These days, JKR has thoroughly crapped all over her reputation and legacy, but in the 2000′s it felt like half the planet was in a mad rush to canonize her as a writing goddess, to the point where fans were congratulating her for writing secret chapters that didn’t actually exist.   The idea was based on lore from the books about Neville Longbottom’s parents.    They were patients in a mental hospital, and he’d go to visit them, and they would give him bubble gum wrappers, intended to demonstrate how far remove they’ve become from reality.   The secret chapter lies in those wrappers, which all read “Droobles Best Blowing Gum” or some such.    What if Neville’s parents were only pretending to be mentally ill, so as to throw off their enemies?   Naturally, they would want to stay in contact with their son, so the bubble gum wrappers would have to contain coded messages.    Said code involves unscrambling the letters on the wrappers to make new words, like “goblin” or “sword” or “Muggle” or “Dumbledore”.    The problem is that you can also use it to make other words like “booger” or “drool” or “booobbiess.”   Play with it enough, and you can make the code say anything you want it to say, which means it’s no code at all.   

But the idea was that the not-yet-published sixth HP book would reveal all of this gum wrapper nonsense, and Neville would decode the messages and discover all of his parents’ super-cool adventures.   I’m not sure why we needed a secret chapter if Book 6 was going to explain all of this anyway in several not-secret chapters, but that was the whole point.   Fans didn’t have Book 6 yet, and they were so desperate to read it that they started trying to extrapolate what would happen next based on “clues” from the previous five.    That’s like trying to figure out what Majin Buu looks like by watching the Androids Saga.   I guess some wiseguy would have guessed that he’d resemble #19, but that’d just be blind luck.  

And when you get down to it, this whole secret chapter business is really just a conspiracy.   This is literally how Qanon works.   Some anonymous jackass posted vague “hints” on an imageboard, and people went goofy trying to interpret them and figure out what would happen in the future.   They call it “research” because they spend a ton of time on this, but there’s no basis to any of it.    It took me a few minutes to figure out that you can spell “Muggle” with the words in “Drooble’s Best Blowing Gum”, but that’s not research and it doesn’t prove anything.   But all these guys keep looking for “Hilary Clinton goes to jail next week” and lo and behold that’s all they ever find.   

In the same vein, the gum wrapper thing was really a complaint disguised as a conspiracy, disguised as a “magical secret chapter”.   At least a few fans wanted to see more Neville in their Harry Potter books, they wanted Neville’s parents, or someone like them, to have cool spy adventures or whatever else.   The point is, they clearly weren’t getting what they wanted out of the printed works, but they didn’t want to turn against their Dear Beloved Author, so they started casting about for an alternative reality, one where J.K. Rowling wrote a cooler story and hid it in the pages of the one that actually went to press.    So instead of just saying “Hey, Order of the Phoenix was kind of a letdown, I hope there’s more ninjas in the next book,” they said “Rowling is a genius because I wanted ninjas and she’s definitely going to give them to me, I have the gum wrappers to prove it.”

The same thing happened all over again when the BBC Sherlock show took a turn for the nonsensical.    I don’t know from BBC Sherlock, but I watched the fascinating video critique by Hbomberguy, and it sounds like the show did tons of plot twists until it stopped making sense altogether in the fourth season.    If you skip to 1:09:00 in the video, you’ll hear about fan theories that suggested that season four was supposed to be crappy, as part of a secret meta-narrative plan that would be paid off in a secret, unannounced episode that would not only explain everything, but retroactively justify the crappy episodes that came before.    But it’s been a few years and it never came to pass, so I think we can call this myth busted. 

Most recently, I think we’ve all seen a lot of talk about the final season of Supernatural, where I guess Destiel sort of became canon but only one guy does the love confession and the other doesn’t respond.   But I guess he does say “I love you too”  in the Spanish dub, which means the English language version was edited for whatever reason.    It’s not exactly a secret episode, but the implication is that there’s more to this than what made it to the screen.    So the questions turn to what the screenplay said, what the writers and actors wanted to do, etc. etc.    My general impression is that SPN fans are a bit more used to crushing disappointment, so they’re not quite as delusional about this show being unquestionable genius, like Sherlock and Harry Potter.     Maybe this is an Anglophile thing?   Like, if you suck at something with a British accent, people will accept it more unconditionally?   

I had seen something on Twitter about how there should have been a secret Seinfeld episode in the 90′s.    Someone suggested it at the time, they tape a whole episode, then wait until 2020 to air it, because by then it would be worth a fortune.    But they didn’t do it, because it costs a lot of money to make a TV episode, and if you don’t air the show right away, you aren’t making that money back any time soon.    Yeah, you might recoup a fortune someday, but Seinfeld was making a ton of money then.    It exposes the fannish nature of the idea.    A fan would love to discover a cool secret chapter, but a content creator isn’t necessarily keen on making a cool thing and then hiding it where few people would find it.  

I thought about doing this myself recently.   Maybe Supernatural gave me the bug, but I thought “I’m writing this big-ass story, so what if I wrote me a secret chapter for it?   Wouldn’t that be cool?”     But no, it wouldn’t be cool, because it’d be the same work as writing a regular chapter, and the same stress I feel when I hold off on publishing it.    Except I’d just never publish it, I’d put it in some secret hole on the internet and hope that some superfan who might not even exist can decode whatever clues I leave.  

I mean, it’d be awesome if it got discovered and everyone loved it.    “Hey, I found this hidden chapter!   Mike’s done it again!”   And I could bask in the glory.   But what if no one finds it?  Then I just wasted my time, right?   I want people to read my work.   My monkey brain needs the sweet, sweet validation of those kudos and comments, folks.   Once I realized that, I understood why no one else would want to do a secret chapter either.    Easter eggs are one thing, but the bigger bonus features they put on DVDs were pretty easy to find, and with good reason.

I think that’s what made the Stanley Parable so appealing to play, because it teases you with the idea that you can “break” the game and find some extra content that you weren’t supposed to see, but as you go exploring all those hidden areas, it gradually becomes clear that this is just part of the game; you were meant to find all these things, and that’s why they were put here.      It’s hidden, but he secret aspect of it is just pretend.   

I suppose that what I like about games like TSP and Superliminal is the illusion of secrets more than the secrets themselves.    I like roaming through the hallways, having no idea what I might find ahead.    I kind of wish I could open all the doors, and not just the ones the game designers put stuff behind, but the reality is that there’s nothing on the other side.    I used a cheat code once  to explore the unused doors in TSP and it’s just a bright white field on the other side.   Interesting to look at, but not much of a reveal.   Honestly, the doors themselves are more appealing than anything that could lay behind them.  

And that’s probably what makes secrets so fun.   They could be almost anything, but once you open the present, the number of possibilities drops to one.   If they had ever made that Secret BBC Sherlock Episode, I doubt it would have lived up to expectations, but fans could amuse themselves by imagining what could have been in it.    In the end, though, things usually don’t justify the hype.  For every Undertaker debut at Survivor Series 1990, there’s a Gobbledygooker debut at Survivor Series 1990.   It’s impossible to manufacture a secret with a guaranteed payoff.   

[aroarolibrary]

Oh man so, first off: congrats to angel/dean shippers on getting your canon thing in spanish but secondly:

Man this whole thing that’s been happening with this show over the last few weeks has 100% reminded me that this show and Sherlock were the two fandoms that made be super romance repulsed because of all the internalized self-hate and trauma they caused me. Like. I was romance repulsed before but those fandoms?? Jacked it up to 100% for years in which I couldn’t interact with any romantic stories or fandoms at all.

Story time!!!

Tw for: self harm, self hatred, hypersexuality, mental health issues, child neglect.

So imagine you are me: a young person who has just graduated high school and, very suddently, went from being “single mother of your little sister” who you had essentially raised on your own for the last four years when she was 5 to 9 yo to “every day college kid that sees their sibling that they raised for the last four years maybe once a month.

Also imagine that, out of all of your high school friends, none of them are attending the same university as you and so. Well.

You’re feeling pretty lonely and depressed.

Now also imagine: you didn’t really have a chance to consume media I HS because: parent. In fact 90% of what you watched was kids cartoons for your sibling +bonus Inuyasha at 3am as a...Uh....treat.....(that’s the kind way of saying ‘setting an alarm at 3am to check to make sure the parents actually got home from wherever TF they vanished to nearly every night).

But hey! You are free now and can watch/read what you want between classes! Only, well, where to start? You go to a book store and find a Sherlock Holmes book and think “okay ya I’ve always wanted to read these!” And proceed to consume them in one week flat.

They are amazing. The relationship between Sherlock and John reminds you of your and one of your best friends/honorary cousins that you haven’t seen in a while and it brings you comfort to read, but now you are out of stories so, you do what any person this day in ages does: you find fanfiction. Now, Sherlock wasn’t a thing at this point and so nearly all the fanfics were based on the books and, of those, 80-85% you gen. No romance at all. Just relaxing stories about friends and solving mysteries.

Then Sherlock happens and, don’t get me wrong, I was definitely a fan when the show started, but suddenly fanfiction was no longer mostly gen, it was shifting, becoming more and more shipping and romance related and it became harder and harder to find non-romantic stories.

Then a person I was living with suggested supernatural. “It’s a story about brothers and it focuses on them.” They said “very little romance. You would probably like it.”

And so I watched it and, they were right, I did. And ya, that one wasn’t exactly like the early Sherlock Holmes fandom, it had a lot of shipping from the get go, but I could also really easily find gen fics that focused on siblings and familial relationships and ignore the rest since there was a pretty even 50/50 split with a slight favor on the gen side.

(Keep in mind there is a LOT of other irl trauma going on in the BG of this story which I know I’ve talked about before. A lot of which is also feeding into the romance repulsion and my avoidance of romance in fandom spaces along with my “blossoming” hypersexuality)

Anyway, the familial relationship in spn was a comfort. At the point I moved from Sherlock to SPN I was in my second year on university and was doing a bit better mentally (in the “sadness” front at least) but I was still missing seeing my sister a lot and so SPN was a comfort in that sense. It was something to relax with that didn’t have romance or anything of the sort that, at that point, was only driving me further and further into hypersexuality (I was dating my first ‘official’ partner at that point and, while I can recognize it now looking back, romance in shows and movies made me feel inadequate as a partner. Like I was failing and not doing enough. Was not romantic enough. Was not showing affection enough. But physically I also couldn’t bring myself to do those things either. What I could do was sex. And, well, when that’s all you have to offer...)

ANYWAY: spn was the one show I knew of on TV that was low to no romance and that the fandom was also decently low on romance, instead focusing mostly on family and the brothers.

Cut forward a few years, I’m back into a depression, I’ve failed at a relationship again because all I can offer is sex and that’s really not enough for people that are looking for actual romance and:

And supernatural introduces an angel character to the show. It’s interesting but I’m pretty depressed and not really all that interested in the show anyway at this point-

But then the fandom happens and it’s like a flood. The romance pours in from all corners along with the absolute hate for anyone that doesn’t see anything romantic happening. It’s like watching a wild fire go through a fandom, what was once a fandom that mostly was just about siblings all of a sudden became all about this angel character and Dean. So much so that it over shadowed everything and any attempt to just enjoy the show as a gen thing or as a family-centric show became impossible.

It was also around this point that a lot of...idk what to call it really because it wasn’t exactly hate, it was like a “this is the only way to read/be in this fandom and if you aren’t we are going to harass you non-stop until you see things our way”. If you couldn’t see the romance between these two characters it was because you were homophobic. If you preferred gen it was because you were homophobic. If you focused on just the brothers and their relationship it was because you were homophobic. If you couldn’t see that Dean was better off in a romantic relationship then with his brother who he had an ‘unhealthy’ relationship with then you were homophobic.

(Keep in mind at this point I was out as bisexual and had attempted to date a woman at this point. I say attempted because, well, again: aromantic even if I didn’t know it then)

It was intense and, from the POV of an aromantic person struggling with being unable to understand even basic romance: it was traumatizing.

I tried to see it, to understand what these shippers were seeing that I couldn’t. Yes, I could see how Sam and Dean’s relationship could be viewed as unhealthy, but as someone who had lived a similar life to theirs as a kid, and to suddenly be bombarded with this idea that the “healthy” way to cope with that is a “romantic relationship” it was a lot. And by a lot I mean a death spiral.

There was...a lot of one night stands and sex and half-attempted relationships after that, in that desperate attempt to understand. There was also panic, nausea, fear that my own relationship with my sister was unhealthy. Was causing both of us harm. That the only way I could keep from hurting her further was to find a “healthy” romantic relationship instead because siblings aren’t meant to be close, not even those where one raised the other alone for years on end.

I had no context outside of fandom about what a healthy sibling relationship looked like and, hell, most TV shows at the time painted sibling relationships as antagonist 90% of the time and with them only interacting when necessary. My parents both had siblings but my dad talked to his maybe once a month and my mom faught with Hers a lot. I had never faught with my sister. We got along perfectly, mostly because from the ages on 13 - 18 I lived for her alone and so I was used to putting her first no matter what.

But this fandom, that had been a comfort for me for a while, suddenly said that was wrong. That instead romance was the way to go and I...

Well. I am conscious of myself enough now to know that I was purposely hurting myself. A lot. Punishing myself over and over and over again, not just because I couldn’t figure out how to “feel” romance like I was supposed to do but also because I was a terrible sibling. Because I had failed my sister some how and had ended up in an “unhealthy codependent” relationship with her since, if Sam and Dean’s relationship was like that according to fans, then obviously so was ours.

(God and don’t get me started on the spiral that the new Inuyasha Sequel put me into a few months ago. I’m STILL not out of that spiral yet. These last few months have not been good for the “romance isn’t important/is unnecessary” front)

I would like to say that I soon realized how terrible the fandom was for my mental health and that it was causing me to harm myself but that isn’t how this story ends. How it ends is that I Eventually I ended up not being able to watch SPN any more. Every episode was just another dagger in my side. Another failure to press my face into. Another series of interactions where I couldn’t see. Couldn’t understand. Another episode that would let to another desperate one night stand/attempt at understanding how this was better. Healthier. How this was how things were supposed to be. Another night of not talking to my family or friend and another few days of not talking to my sister because talking to her too much was wrong.

So ya. This story doesn’t end nicely. It just slowly fades to black. To a point where I hate myself so much that I can’t bring myself to interact with the fandom or internet at all. Where everything just kind of...goes away and vanished but where the trauma still exists. Where stories that start out about family and, suddenly, introduce love interests leave me nauseous and choked. Where my romance repulsion gets so strong that I can’t sleep because I just keep remembering my failures. The fact that it’s not healthy to focus or care about your family. That there must be romance. There must There must there must. Because with out it all other relationships are bad/wrong/unhealthy and you are bad/wrong/unhealthy for only having those.

Just the endless mantra. All night long.

Bad.

Wrong.

Unhealthy.

Bad.

Wrong.

Unhealthy.

Bad

Wrong.

Unhealthy.

Over and over and over again.

[frozen-delight]

Escalation of Commitment in Fandom

You know that feeling when you’re standing at a bus stop at the end of day, and the bus doesn’t come and yet you keep waiting, even though it’s already been fifteen minutes and you’d aready be almos home if you’d walked instead? That feeling that the bus has to arrive any minute now, even though you know that at rush hour all bets are off? That feeling that keeps you rooted to the spot, because you don’t want to admit that you made the wrong decision? That feeling that makes you invest even more time even though you’re already invested too much time in waiting as it is?

That feeling right there is what behavioural economics call Escalation of Commitment. It’s a useful concept to explain why people make irrational investment decisions, be it that they’re investing time, money, or any other resource known to mankind, to justify a previously made investment that hasn’t payed off. 

In fandom we invest time, love,and thought, to name just three. We spend a lot of time watching and re-watching our favourite shows, we write long analyses about them, and, above all, we are deeply invested in them on an emotional level. And the more committed we are, the more it hurts to leave that fandom behind, even if we haven’t been happy with the direction canon has taken for quite some time. 

(Of course, the paradox of being a fan is that you’re more likely to spot the flaws of the thing you love, but that discovering them also hurts you more than a casual consumer.)

Perhaps the strongest form of fannish commitment are endgame and tinhat theories. The level of wank in the Sherlock fandom surrounding TJLC certainly testifies to this, as does the fame of spn_gossip well outside of SPN fan circles. What distinguishes these types of fannish commitment is the ensuing level of escalation, i.e. the abjuration of all reason in favour of more and more convoluted conspiracy theories.

For instance, a lot of people watching the early seasons of SPN probably thought that Jared and Jensen looked hot together and had great chemistry. Quite a few fans could probably get behind the idea that the two of them were dating. But then they got married. And while a lot of fans then abandoned their previous tinhatting and stuck to writing fic about them, a small group interpreted these weddings as proof that they were secretly together. Because, you know, if they weren’t together, they’d have no need to be married to prove their heterosexuality. Jensen and Jared then added a couple of kids into the mix, probably causing yet more fans to jump the ship (pun intented!), while the remaining tinhatters only became more convinced that they were secretly involved.

What we can witness here is the evolution of a particular fannish reading practice that takes every new canon detail as a confirmation of the existing hypothesis even (and especially) if it openly contradicts it. What follows is a more and more vicious and violent attempt to bend reality to fit said hypothesis, including death threats sent to actors or producers and the bullying of other fans who dare to disagree. Anything rather than having to admit that the inital hypothesis might have been wrong.

In the case of endgame theories this type of escalation usually comes along with accusations of queerbaiting. Unfortunately, this drowns out the critcism of actual queerbaiting in favour of calling out what is essentially fans queerbaiting themselves. (Which is what fans truly want, so the remarkble conclusion of Britta Lundin’s remarkably awful novel Ship It.)

If one of the actors or writers comments on the strength of Dean and Cas’s frienship, this is proof that Destiel will become canon.

If one of the actors or writers states that there’s nothing going on between Dean and Cas, this is also proof that Destiel will become canon. Because it’s obviously a lie, meant to protect the secret.

If Dean and Cas share a scene, it’s proof of Destiel.

If Dean and Cas share less than ten minutes of screen time over the course of a whole season, it’s likewise proof of Destiel, because clearly the entire significance of the season rests in said absence.*

And, true to the nature of escalation of commitment, this type of reading the show only intensifies year after year. When I first entered fandom during season 9, people were already saying that Destiel would be canon any day now, writing long, long metas to prove their point. When S10 aired, people once again stated that there was no way Destiel wouldn’t become canon by the end of the season, only more intensely, insisting that the clues this season were even more significant than they’d been the previous one. Which is what led us to endgame Destiel meta for S14 stating that S9 was nothing compared to what’s going on now. The overall message being: That we were wrong in the past only enforces our present argument.

We might find that ludicrous, or we might not; we might believe or we might not. It’s all fine.

Except that what’s not fine is that a lot of very young and easily impressionable fans are being set up for a huge disappointment. 

If I spend forever waiting for a delayed bus, to come back to the introductory example, that’s my problem. However, if a manager of a multi-national enterprise decides to invest more resources into a project that’s proven to be a mistake, chances are that he’s not the one who’s ultimately going to pay the price for that. Just think of the financial crisis of 2007/2008 - the product of massive failures in executive and supervisory boards, yet the cost is being shouldered by the (future) taxpayer.

So I really wish that there was a bit more awareness in fandom of how endgame narrative theories can impact other fans. I’m not sure how often I’ve seen asks in the SPN tags where some poor fan pinned their entire hopes and happiness on their OTP becoming canon. Way too often. And while no fan’s meta is the root of another fan’s neurosis, we (as in: fandom as a whole) might consider a little more closely just how much we’re enabling other people’s escalation through our own.

*Needless to say, but I’m pointing it out all the same because this is Tumblr, the same logical fallacies colour the anti-shipping discourse within fandom. Shipping isn’t irrational per se, no matter what canon vs. fanon wankers would like us to believe. It’s a perfectly valid reading of canon - and canon as such isn’t accessible to us without some kind of interpretation.

[justanearth-boundmisfit]

destielette1 replied to your post “It's fucking hilarious how you don't even have to give a hint...”

I sent the comment too fast anyway i was saying that the show and the fandom are agonizing, that’s a fact , I don’t think they can save it now , not with these writers , and not with the main reasons that made the show go to its 15th (no matter what the incest shippers say) are being treated like shit and literally killed, and I’m talking about both Cas and destiel. 

We lost so many good people , so many excellent meta writers , like awed frog for example, people are fed up, thousands Shippers get fed up of their queer baiting and left the show, and it shows in the ratings. And the way the show been pandering to incest Shippers lately made things even uglier , I will always cherish Cas and Destiel no matter what , but I will not keep a good memory of Spn. I always said that a show success doesn’t lie in its longevity but in its ending , 

The shows that end badly are quickly forgotten , the main actors of these show often pay for the writers errors and they rarely find other significative roles again, just look at the actors of lost, this getting really long , I needed to someone who is not an hypocrite , thank you for trying to stay honest and don’t ever change , love you 🌹

I hope you don’t mind I put all your comments together because I think they are on point. And coming from you, and how much I know you love Destiel and Cas are incredible important right now. 

Under the cut the rest because it got long... as usual...

I agree almost completely in all that you say. And I say almost because I think when spn ends is not going to be forgotten or forgiven. It’s going to stay in the history of queerbaiting tv forever. It’s already happening even before the show ends, the only thing that maintains it like you say, it’s destiel and Cas, and I’m saying this not as a shipper or a Cas’ fan, it’s simple facts. We don’t have to search too hard for these facts either, destiel has been on lists with otps and canon ships on major sites for quite a while now, everybody knows that making a list with deancas is surely going to get thousands of clicks, the polls always have them for the same reason. The amount of fics, art, codas, metas, articles about them is incredible. And we are talking about a ship that is not canon, and that Dabb made sure to kill it dead. Imagine if things were different, just imagine. 

That’s why I say that spn is going to go infamous in that respect, is going to be up there with Sherlock, and the meltdown johnlock created is going to pale with the one we are going to have with spn. It’s going to be hard af to watch and I have been saying “please don’t listen or read meta bs that is is lying to you because is not healthy” like a parrot, because I KNOW some people are going to get hurt so so much. 

I’m glad that I can finally started to distance myself a little from the show and from the ship, it’s really liberating not to be so down or angry all the time. Or just waiting for my 3 minutes of Cas every now and then just to be disappointed again, I’m not letting tptb do that to me ever again. And yeah it’s fiction, but fiction can hurt you too, can turn into an obsession, and that’s what happened with spn on so many levels... Tptb play with that constantly, and worst of all they know VERY WELL what they are doing. Metas like to talk about how “everything is so well crafted in the writer’s room!” and that “everything has a reason to be” yeah the reason is to keep fans watching, buying merch, going to cons, and spending money. Sorry not sorry, but spn at this point is so clearly just all about the money tptb can get out of fandom. 

What is sad af, it’s the lost potential, spn could’ve been incredible, not only if destiel went canon, but if the writing wasn’t so shitty, repetitive and boring. Also metas likes to point out how “season 14 is all about characterization” lmao! If the 300th ep proved something is that they dgaf about characterization! They brought back John with a storyline that didn’t make sense AT ALL, it was pure fan service. They also like to point out how much the bros have expanded their family and “it’s not about only them anymore”. But again, the 300th proved them wrong, it’s all about blood family, it’s all about the bros (and I totally agree with you that we have so many wincest winks lately wtf). I have talked so many times why this is not going to change, that I feel the deja vu running through my veins. They have a formula, a formula that gave them 15 seasons, they are not going to change it, even if the ratings are down, they are stuck with their bs. Dabb’s era is the worst that I have seen, and I’m not afraid to say it. Even when I hated Gamble for so long, at least we had great eps now and then. But these last three years oh gods, they are so bad! They totally destroyed Cas and Dean, and deancas, and the myth arcs and lore were non-existent to them. Continuity? What’s that? And don’t make me talk about their obsession with abusive white males that they keep bringing back or giving a redemption arc too (ketch, john, nick/lucifer to name a few).  

Ugh... there’s so much more to REALLY analyze about spn, instead of writing about parallels and the light, and the wardrobe. But alas, I’m no meta, and I’m really tired of all their bs. What I feel the most is the lost of great bloggers, friends and fans, I terribly missed them. Nowadays we have to go around social media, esp twitter, being really careful about what you say, otherwise the horde of positivity police will bury you shouting “you’re a casonly! you’re bitter and that is as bad as being a bronly! you’re the dark side of the fandom!” And that’s why metas and their positivity policing are also responsible for destroying fandom. It shows in the amount of blogs that are deleted or changed by fans, it shows in the mess that fanfiction is right now, it shows in the wars that we have and how much the fandom is divided. We have to thank them for that imo, I have seen them in action, I have experienced their policing. But idgaf about what they say about me or my little blog. I’m not shutting up, they can all go fuck themselves because I’m not forgiving or forgetting how much they clapped when tptb killed Cas in season 12. And they call US the dark side of the fandom? Lmao!

Sorry it go this long. But I’m venting and ranting, well you know me at this point. And I want to really thank you for your last words, because I know that we have different opinions on certain matters but you always showed me so much respect... I really appreciate it like you have no idea, because it shows me that we can all exchange opinions or think different but also we can be decent with each other. For me you’re one of the greatest in this fandom. I have to thank spn, despite everything, that I could meet people like you. All the hugs, and love you too. 

[gammafish]

Fanfiction writer asks Thank you @saantha and @writerforthetylwythteg ! ^^ <3

Okay, Caroline first cause you sent this to me like a week ago :’D 1) How old were you when you first starting writing fanfiction? My answer is really similar to yours, I think? I started years and years ago, maybe when I was 15 or 16? But I didn’t even know what fanfiction was lol. But before that I was writing a long looong story, kiiinda origina but also kiiiinda with a character based on an existing character from a show ^^’ I first published an actual ‘proper’ fanfic on AO3 when I was 19.

12) Who is your favourite character to write for? Why? Surprise surprise, but my I love writing ‘dark’, tortured, angsty, and tormented characters, wow, who would have thought xD I wrote for a few fandoms and I guess I have a favourite in each? In SNK it’s Levi, in X-Men it was Charles, in BBC Sherlock it’s Moriarty, and in Black Butler it’s... well, both Ciel and Sebastian. But I’d say that out of all of those, at least recently, I’ve been enjoying writing Sebastian; I wrote over 25k words of a series recently entirely from his POV, as you know, and it was fantastic to write, that fic is my little baby, my little pride and joy :’D I remember you saying that the fic read like something I was born to write, and that that demon was my perfect muse and my dude, it sounds so right XD

13) Who is your least favourite character to write for? Why? Hmmmmmmmmmmm no one comes to mind, really? Logically progressing from the previous question, I’m not the biggest fan of writing overly-happy, bubbly characters XD But I don’t think I have one I actually dislike. If I really hate a character, I probably won’t include them in my fic, or as little as possible.

16) How did you come up with the idea for xxx?  (Guide Dog) Whump. I just wanted to write lots of whump xD And fear, and abuse, and recovery from these; describing the slow mental process of a character progressing from being scared of their own shadow to - through someone else’s kindness and patience - learn how to function again. I’ve wanted to try this for years and years, it’s been brewing in my head for so long, and I had so many plans and drafts, but somehow it just never took off until I came across SNK, and Eren’s story. And then of course it got a bit political, but honestly I’m kind of glad it took that kind of turn, I think it made it a more meaningful story than just an attempt at a feels-fest XD

21) Tell me about another writer(s) who you admire? What is it about them that you admire? Well, you know I obviously like your works because of how wonderfully fucked up they are, right up my street so :D In the SNK fandom, I love acidtowns who wrote Junkyard Dogs, and also julieofthwatertribe, and I’ve STILL got to read pinkheichou’s massive Ereri fic but people love it so I’m sure she’s good too x3 There are tons and tons of fics in that fandom that I love but these are the first few that come to mind. In BBC Sherlock fandom, Mad_Lori wrote this absolutely infamous ‘Alone on Water’ fic which is basically just a rollercoaster of angst and tears, it was amazing. SD_Ryan wrote amazing fics too, with Moran/Moriarty. I had a friend on deviantArt years ago, who wrote really good Rammstein fics too, she even wrote one for me!  And of course, in the SPN fandom, the top of the top of Destiel fics; Twist and Shout by gabriel and standbyme. It’s the highest-rated (in terms of kudos) Destiel fanfic on AO3, and I can absolutely understand why. The angst in this is just indescribable, I wasted like an entire tissue roll on my tears. And then there were two fics; ‘To high places by narrow roads’ by Fossarian, and ‘Carry On’, by TamrynEradani. I don’t remember the first one too well, but it had lots of angst and issues of slavery like in Guide Dog, so I loved it lots, but the second one, ohhh the second one. The writer described a dom/sub relationship in the most perfect, wholesome, realistic way I ever saw written anywhere. I need to reread it soon now actually, because it’s a feast for the soul, I’m not even kidding XD And then finally, Black Butler fandom; chromehoplite, gxlden both write awesome stuff (and they collaborate a lot too and the results are aMAZING and they grace this fandom with sooo much content :’3) Severus_Divides_into_H is also writing a fantastic multi-chaptered fic which is so beautifully sad, dark and gothic and full of feels, honestly you can clearly see I have a type, when it comes to fics :’D

33) What’s the biggest compliment you’ve gotten? I couldn’t choose a single one, I’m flattered whenever I get any kind of compliment :’) But I live and breathe for the moments when people tell me that my fic made them cry. And honestly you gave me some of the best compliments lol, I wanted to launch myself into space when you said that Ciel’s death from my fic affected you and that you randomly found yourself thinking of that scene the next day, because you’re not even in the fandom T__T <3 And I wanted to do the same thing when a few people told me before they would buy a physical copy of Guide Dog, like, people would pay money for what I wrote?? How possible, nat.exe has crashed, reboot now. And hahah, recently when I comment on some Black Butler fics, once or twice I got a response that the author was glad to get a comment from me because they read my fic and they liked it, and that just blows my mind because???? Someone recognised me??? how possible?? Reboot again

49) Can you remember the first fic you read? What was it about? Uuuuuum I think it was actually a Rammstein fic, based on the ‘Ich Will’ music video. Angst and death all around ;-; But again, at that stage I didn’t really know what fanfiction was lol. 

Bahaha I hope you enjoyed your novel, my GOD that took me so long XD

And hóhóhó Jázu thank you for asking too ( ͡◉ ͜ʖ ͡◉) <3

8) Where do you take your inspiration from? Uuuuugh that’s a tough one. Maybe overall just some messed up movies or books or other fics, and when I’m actually writing, it’s usually some dark or sad gothic music, or whatever else fits lol ^^ But I don’t write THAT much, so I don’t need a constant IV with inspiration, I suppose ^^’

18) Do you have any abandoned WIP’s? What made you abandon them? Yeeeeesss ^^’‘‘ Guilty as charged lol. I have at least one abandoned WIP in the BBC Sherlock fandom, X-men fandom, and supernatural fandom (in the last one, I remember it was some heavy angst - what a surprise - destiel wip that I actually tried to find a few days ago, but couldn’t which made me very sad lol cause I wanted to read over it :( ). I guess I abandoned them because there was no solid plot, and I only started writing them because I wanted to write some quick whump, or some feels, but didn’t have the determination to write a whole story around it XD

25) Have you ever cried whilst writing a story? ABSOLUTELY, with the amount of angst I try to squeeze in everywhere, I take it as a personal offense and lack of skills if I can’t make at least * myself * cry x’D Although, I’m writing this long multichaptered fic for Attack on Titan that I think I mentioned to you, and its close to 200k words, and there’s lots of angst, but it hasn’t made me cry as much as writing this other for, Black Butler, which is only 24k words. I cried for at least half of it lol, maybe because it’s much closer to canon, and the canon itself is so tragic and has me upset whenever I think about it ;__;

HOH ALRIGHT that’s me done, I think this actually took me around an hour to do XD But thank you guys, that was fun :3c <3

[orionsangel86]

1) Hey Saz, this is the person from Tink's long-ass 5-parter ask. This is going to be even longer. I'm on anon because of shyness above all things but I am willing to message you off anon if you want me to do so! I saw what you wrote about that ask and I agree.... to the most point. All the 'characteristics' of Destiel that differenciate it from other ships that you listed were actually applicable to some the ships I was talking about, especially Johnlock. -->

--> 2)The other ships, yes, you may be right, but for Johnlock I felt even more wronged intellectually when it crashed to the ground than I think I'll feel if the same thing happens to Destiel. I'm going to sound like a Johnlock shipping troll, but I'm not, I ran away from the mess of a fandom it became post-season 4. So bear with me. I really can't explain what my experience was at the time if you aren't familiar with tjlc and what the pre-season 4 sherlock fandom was like. -->

-->3)But let me assure you that it was extremely alike the spn/destiel fandom right now. I want to point out the similarities of the fandom and the ship but that would basically mean me explaining why Johnlock should have been canon, and I don't think you are here for that. So let me just point out a few things. By the end of the honest-to-god fanfic-y 3rd season, the GA were taking notice of it as well, to the point where, yes, the show is being called the worst queerbait ever even to this day.

--> 4)It frankly deserves it. And it was 2017.... we thought it was due fucking time. Guess it wasn't. When looking ay bibro blogs I can't help but be reminded of Johnlock antis. At least when that was a thing, you know, because you can't be an anti of something when it turns out you were right. We made fun of them, because how the fuck can you see jealousy at weddings, literally killing for the other the day they meet, -->

--> 5) having something secret to say that they can't bring themselves to say even after the other's death, being broken over the other's death TWO YEARS LATER AND ON THE DAY YOU FUCKING PROPOSE TO YOUR GF, prefering the other over your string of girlfriends, counting the texts a woman sent the other, COMING BACK TO LIFE AFTER LITERALLY FLATLINING BECAUSE THE OTHER IS IN DANGER, and, you know, constantly making both of them have shitty relationships and be unsatisfied romantically.... -->

.... and read it all as platonic? The show literally falls apart if you take away Johnlock... sounds familiar. You know, one of the writers for Sherlock is gay. So I believed in him, after all gay writers won't queerbait, how could they? (turns out they could.)......But I digress. I won't blame you if you just glossed over what I ranted above. Actually some of the reasons I'm still holding out hope for Destiel is 1) How atrocious the last season of Sherlock was, worst than Supernatral at its worst. 2) The sense that everything is coming full circle in this season(which we didn't get, btw, in even the last season of Sherlock). 3) Misha fucking Collins. And you know, although i heatedly ranted above in response to your response, I did it only because I wanted to justify what I spent near three years on. I didn't want to leave you thinking that a ship like this didn't exist before, because in my opinion, it did. So sorry. I was being spiteful.About the 'Greatest Love Stoty Ever Told', which was in fact the big fandom tagline for Johnlock as well....... I think I'll wait and see. If it is endgame, then I agree that it really is the greatest love story ever told. And I also agree that the show seems to be going that way

Hi Nonny, 

So this is all in relation to this post and I think that the easiest way to answer this is to say to anyone still doubting, including nonny, to just read the various replies and reblogs on that post, because the answers are perfect. 

Also nonny I know we have spoken in private already and you said that you were feeling better after reading the responses on that post as well so I won’t go into too much depth here, but I still wanted to post your asks in case there are still people out there feeling the way you do.

This is going to be my opinion on the matter, which, of course, is just that. There are many many people out there who were greatly upset by Sherlock and I feel for you all. Its not fair what happened and what that show put you through. Your feelings and your views on the matter are 100% valid and real and nothing that I say here is trying to contradict that. You saw a love story between those characters. That interpretation, like any interpretation of a text, is real and never let anyone say you were wrong. Johnlock still exists within the text of that show, just because it didn’t end with a kiss or a love confession doesn’t mean that it isn’t a valid reading. 

I started watching Sherlock before I ever got into Supernatural. When it came out in 2010 I LOVED it. My film student lizard brain picked up on the Johnlock subtext pretty much straight away and aside from some very brief thoughts of “ooh that would be a different spin on it” I didn’t pay much more attention. I continued to watch Sherlock second season in 2012 and again I noticed the subtext, but at this point recognised that it was all done for humorous purposes. I never thought they would go there. I didn’t “ship” it because I didn’t even know what “shipping��� was at the time let alone thought John and Sherlock were more than friends who happen to get mistaken for a couple. That was the gag. It was what made my very typically straight male young brother giggle like an idiot because apparently being mistaken for gay was funny. (It’s not. I hate those jokes. They don’t work outside a Carry On film and I don’t even like Carry On films).

When season 3 came out in Jan 2014 I side eyed the series because I had had enough of the gay jokes. I thought it was getting weird and could see that there was a beautiful bond between the characters that imo was being twisted for cheap laughs. I pondered on whether this Sherlock was in fact in the closet, Were they trying to tell us that he was secretly gay? I didn’t get it because it was never clear enough to me that this was the case and yet they continued to play around with the concept whilst the character of John is off with his fiance. My brother continued to find the whole thing hilarious. It was never taken seriously. My musings on Sherlocks sexuality were pushed aside because it seemed clear to me that the writers were not taking it seriously.

Then over the summer of 2014 I binge watched 9 seasons of SPN. I struggled with seasons 1 and 2, made it through 3, watched 4 and fell in love with an Angel of the Lord. It took me 10 episodes to figure out Cas was gay. It took me a further 2 seasons of umming and ahhing in my own head to conclude that yes,  Dean was definitely Bisexual. It took until 6x20 to realise that this was legit something in the text and not my imagination. It took until season 8 for me to believe 100% that they were going there. (I wavered a bit on that belief in seasons 9 and 10 but season 11 pulled me back and I haven’t looked back since.)

In the early seasons, 4, 5 and 6, I recognised the patterns used between Dean and Cas were the same used in Sherlock. I re-watched Sherlock at some point in 2015 and remember thinking damn yeah they really were shoving the subtext in our faces a bit. But I still didn’t ship it, even though I was 100% shipping destiel at that point. I again pondered Sherlock’s sexuality, had a brief thought of “I’d like to see that take on the story” but again discarded any thought that it would actually be textual in a show that imo seemed adamant in keeping it all about the humour. If they weren’t going to take this characters sexuality seriously, then the story was never going to seriously be explored. 

See if Destiel had always remained the way it was in seasons 4, 5 and 6, then I wouldn’t have any belief that it was going canon. I would probably still ship it (the sexual tension in season 4 was insane) but the idea that it would go canon would have always been a pipe dream. So many shows use the queer subtext as a source of humour. So many shows tease their characters as queer and use homoeroticism for titillation. It delights my idiot brother to no end. I hate it. I think it desperately needs to stop. I have never ever watched an episode of Sherlock and thought that it was doing anything other than just that. (I didn’t particularly like the 4th season though because nothing made any bloody sense and I think they kind of butchered the characterisations - I did say this would all be my opinion though so please don’t take offence).

You say that the show falls apart if you take away the romantic love story and make it platonic. I guess if I was to watch it again I could try to consider that reading, but my own experience watching seasons 1-3 is certainly not from a romantic view point and it all made sense to me. Season 4 didn’t make sense at all, and by the time that was on I was deep in destiel fandom and frequently writing meta, so I DID see the romantic reading in the text and yet still didn’t understand the story. (Again, I stress this is my opinion and is in no way trying to invalidate your own). However, with Destiel, the last three and a bit seasons narratively don’t work without it. I have tried to watch them and ignore every romantic moment, or hint at a romantic love between them, and in doing so, it confuses the fucking plot. I need to sit down and catalogue all the ways seasons 10 to 13 don’t work without destiel to evidence this but it would be a pretty epic job because there are ALOT. 

I understand that you feel that Johnlock and Destiel are similar ships, but my opinion is that they drastically diverted course from each other when SPN went into its eighth season. Since then, there has been nothing quite like destiel in terms of build up and story structure - unless you start comparing it to the straight ships.

Where we are right now, destiel is deeply ingrained into the narrative of the show, and it is never used as a gag. It is never poked fun of in a way that reduces Dean and Cas’s relationship. Something that I believe Sherlock did right up until its last episode. I also 100% believe that the SPN creators and cast have a much greater respect and love for their fans than the Sherlock writers and cast ever did. (I’m not much of a fan of Bendydick Cucumberpatch and I have never been comfortable with Steve Moffat... dunno why the guy just gives me the creeps (then again so does Bob Singer)). They have been so positive towards Destiel recently that I am constantly stunned whenever new media or PR comes out. I am also of the belief that someone as wonderful as Misha Collins who is a champion for the LGBT community and cares deeply about making the world a better place would never ever involve himself in something that if it didn’t happen, would be considered the biggest queerbait in TV history. Breaking the hearts and severely angering millions of fans all over the world. Misha is a very smart man. He knows exactly how much this means to us and what it will do to us if it doesn’t happen. He doesn’t exactly look worried though. He doesn’t ever look like he is guilty over encouraging this ship? He looks like a fucker who knows whats up and can’t wait til we finally get to be in on the joke so he can tweet about it 24/7.

If destiel doesn’t happen, then Misha, of all people.... well... I’d have to rethink my entire opinion of him... the idea is so unfathomable for me, so impossible, it hurts my head to even consider. Did you ever feel this way about BC or Martin Freeman? 

I just can’t believe that the people behind SPN would do that to us, but the people behind Sherlock? Well it didn’t exactly surprise me when it didn’t go canon. The BBC isn’t exactly known for being progressive. It’s known for playing it safe. If Sherlock was on Channel 4 I reckon they would have gone there. The Channel 4 execs probably would have encouraged it from the start. They would have considered it ‘edgy’. 

I know that the CW isn’t exactly the most progressive network either, but its a young network, with a younger demo compared to the grumpy old pensioners who sit and watch BBC every night and complain that their tax payer money shouldn’t be going towards anything other than gardening shows and Eastenders. Soooo I think that has something to do with it too. The CW has a greater chance of pulling something like this off. 

I’m so so sorry that Sherlock burned you. But don’t give up hope on destiel just yet, the factors are all currently in our favour. No two ships are alike, and in my opinion, Destiel is the motherfucking Symphony of the Seas compared to all others. It’s bigger, better, and hopefully, due for launch in Spring 2018.

[punkascas]

Fic Author Interview

tagged by: the wonderfully talented and incredibly sweet @amirosebooks  ❤

tagging: @iggyw @tenoko1 @casolantern @schmerzerling @amazinmango @serricoj @rainbofiction @coffeeandcas @topaz-eyes @angelofthemoor @culumacilinte @coplins

im going to do this from the slightly broader perspective of creative writing in general (since i write fic but i also write scripts and things for my job). also this is v long. sorry.

What inspires your work most? (The show it is based on, the actor who portrays a certain character, maybe the character itself…? It could even be an experience.) so generally my inspiration is (in order): (a) my own life experiences, (b) some kind of commentary i want to make about the source material or about fiction or fandom in general, and (c) the characters themselves and the aspects i love in them, especially trying to find ways to play with the duality of their personalities, the good aspects and the negative ones.  i’ve known for a long time that what drives me to create is that i want to make other people feel less alone. you know those times to read something or there’s a line someone says, and you’re like, yes, yes, that’s me; no one’s ever gotten that before or at least never put it so perfectly into words, whatever that experience/feeling might be. i want to give people that moment with anything i create. there’s also a lot of things that i’ve experienced in my life that come up relatively often in fiction, or at least in fic, and a lot of it usually is off-putting to me. it never resonates. it’s melodramatic or simply inaccurate, and i think is often written by someone who doesn’t have the lived experience to pull from. so i always want to add my voice to the pile and benefit from my own experiences to make those kinds of tropes and situations more realistic and relatable -- to me, but hopefully also to others.  like generally every character backstory or character arc i write in fic is something pulled from my own life. like it’s probably twisted or adapted somewhat, because i’m not into being autobiographical. but as an example, in faith healer, this bit: Memory degrades with time. Maybe as a child he knew that somehow. He knew that there would be a second, slower death across time, as she became more of idea than person, and so he clung onto specific moments as a talisman for Mom: I had a mom once; this was my mommy. He remembers her hands best. The way her skin was thin and dry, but her fingers strong, and the way they'd close around his hands. The way she would press in love and good luck and humility when he misbehaved with a squeeze to his chubby, too small hands. Second best he remembers her laugh, the way her mouth moved around a smile, the warmth in it, tinged with embarrassment whenever someone startled it out from her. The rest of the memories are vague, more like facts he can read out of a mental police blotter than lived experience. She used to wear some kind of fleece robe in the winter, thick and pilled, creating a soft cushion between her breasts for his head to rest when he sat in her lap for a story. He thinks the robe was red. She used to bake things from scratch and used to let him pretend to help. On Sundays she did laundry, down in the basement. He followed her once, asking when Dad would come back, and she paused on the landing, basket of clothes cocked on her hip, and wouldn't go any further until he went back upstairs. The basement, she said, was too dangerous for him, dark and damp. She wanted him to be safe. She always cut the crust off his sandwiches. that is my experience of my grandmother’s death. when she died i knew i would forget over time the specific details of her, so i picked a couple to remind myself of daily so i’d never forget them. and that was her hands and her laugh. and i do have that memory of her doing the laundry and standing on the landing to the basement asking her where my dad was and when he’d be back (he was on an 18 month voyage to africa - my dad is a sailor). and she did always cut the crusts off my sandwiches for me.  (and btw i can’t ever re-read that passage with crying.)

What is your favorite fandom to write for? i mean, usually whatever my main fandom is at the time? which right now is spn. i did also enjoy writing potc fic and RDJ films sherlock holmes. i like writing characters who have a very strong but also very biased or unusual perspective on the world. they make for good unreliable narrators, which is something i love doing.

Which perspective do you prefer writing in? (First-person, third-person) always, always, always third-person limited is my go-to. i only write in first-person if the original source material is written that way (like ACD Sherlock Holmes) and i want to do a pastiche of that style. 

Do you prefer writing reader fics or OCs? no. full stop. (okay, one caveat: i do like kidfic, but i am also SUPER PICKY about reading it bc im always looking for some accurate representations of parenthood and what it’s like to have a child. like kids are hard??? they’re hard and they make you worry and they drive you crazy and they have their own, weird, stubborn, fascinating views on life and the world. they’re not perfect angel children who exist only to be cute or ridiculously amazing mary sue geniuses. so yeah a well done kidfic where the kid is an OC i will read.)

Do you prefer writing longer works or one shots? given that every single WIP i have right now are fucking, horrible, lengthy novels,i want to say i prefer writing one-shots. i want TO BE ABLE to write one-shots. i used to do???? but yeah, i guess i really do enjoy plotting and world-building, which lends itself to creating monster plot bunnies instead of short stories or quick scenes. 

Do you take requests? i do! do i ever actually get around to writing those requests is another question. but absolutely. send me prompts. ask for timestamps. if it speaks to me, and especially if it’s something i think i can write in less than 1000 words, i’ll most likely give it a go. 

Do you enjoy getting random Asks? yes! always! i try to respond at least with in 72 hours. but yes please COME TALK TO ME ANYTIME.

What inspires the names for OCs (or extra character names) in your works? Do you pick them from real life or just select them at random? A mix? so with fic, i never really write OCs, or if i do, they’re p much a red shirt or like extra #243 or smth and therefore don’t have names. if a character has spoken dialogue or no on-screen dialogue but some impact on the plot, i’ll try to “cast” that part with a character from the source material. for example, in the family business (which i realise isn’t posted yet), there’s some issues with a rival gang that need resolving. i cast the head of the rival gang as a well-known character from spn that has generally served a rival or an enemy to the boys on the show. i like doing that bc i like the parallels it draws, especially when working with an AU, and the ability to explore characters and dynamics from a slightly (or not slightly at all but in fact completely divergent) angle. i follow the philosophy that part of the real cathartic nature of AUs and part of why we write them is the ability to offer commentary on the source material. that a good AU should offer commentary on the source material. they're both metatexts and paratexts simultaneously. the one caveat to this, again, is kidfic, because i like and i do write it (i’ve just never finished any of those fics enough to publish them). and then i try to name kids in the way i think their parents would name them. i try to put myself in the character’s headspace and try to figure out what name(s) would appeal to them. and if we talk about work, and the scripts i write, i mean all of that is basically OCs. so far every script i’ve written while employed by my current firm, i always stick in at least one instance of one of my dogs’ names. i also will make subtle film or tv references. like the script i just wrote, there were three characters, and the first character had already been named harold by our content lead. so i named the other two perry and harmony as a reference to kiss kiss bang bang. i’ve done all the clones from orphan black as OC names. i’ve done members of radiohead.  if one of the scripts im writing already has a theme built into it for a specific pop culture reference (like yesterday one of the scripts i wrote was using yoda speech and star wars analogies as part of its marketing and engagement strategies) so i’ll name characters in line with that pop culture motif (so the star wars themed script has luke and ben and daisy and carrie as characters). 

If your story(ies) have OCs, are their appearances based on real people or celebrities? If so, who? as mentioned above, i rarely include OCs and if i do, they’re unimportant stand-ins. so i never give much thought to how they look. offspring in kidfic i do think about how they look. if the actors who play the main characters have children, i’ll start there. like for dean and cas, i always look at jj and west and maison and try to figure out what a kid with some of those combined physical features might look like. i’ll also look at photos of the actors from when they were kids or teenagers and try to decide if these two people had a kid, what features would that kid inherit.  for work, casting people depends on client expectations and design direction and budget, so it’s a different ballgame. 

How long have you been writing fanfiction? i think the first fic i published was in 2002 or 2003. so 15 years i guess??? how has it been 15 years dude. 

[asexualcas]

Ok now 21-66 😇

you suckanswers under the cutbecauseshockinglythis is long as fuckblame caitlin

21: What’s your opinion on Destiel?so many issues could be solved if those idiots just *clenches fist* kissed but i also love how they’ve developed over the last eight years to be family and love and trust each other as brothers so i love it even as is

22: Did you like the first or second Ruby better?i liked the way gen played ruby better than how the first one did (idk her name), she was so much more cunning so i gotta go second

23: Who’s your favorite demon?the one that one time who possessed a teenage girl and clearly had some unresolved issues with her crushalternate answer here 

24: Do you read smutty fanfiction?i don’t tend to read the 2k oneshots but if there’s smut in a long fic i dont mind it

25: Do you think Destiel will become canon in season 9? (Regardless of whether you want it to or not)the magic 8 ball says no

26: Have you ever had a dream about Supernatural/the characters/the actors? If so, can you describe what you remember?answered here

27: Which episode is the scariest to you? (Horror-movie type scary)the benders

28: What’s your opinion on Sabriel?i don’t see it in the show and i have no idea how the fandom came up with it but i love seeing art and reading it in fan fic

29: Do you think End!verse will happen? If so, are you looking forward to it?i think it should happen because that would be a fucking awesome way to end the show but i don’t think it will unfortunately 

30: Do you have any friends off of the Internet that watch Supernatural?yes actually! they’re casual watchers but i can talk to them about plot lines sometimes (mostly i just text people i met online tbh)

31: Do any of your family members watch Supernatural?hahahhhahahahahHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAH no

32: What’s an unpopular opinion or headcanon you have?i cant think of any that are “unpopular”???? most of mine are univerally accepted truths… like cas is kind of a grump when it comes to accepting help even though he likes having people he can count on, sam likes salad because it distances him further from the hunting life where he grew up on gas station food, dean was abused by john, etc.

33: Do you like AU fanfics?yesssSSSSS honestly more than i like canon fics… 

34: Have you ever written/started writing a fanfic?answered here

35: What’s your opinion on Samifer?they’re one of the few ships i hate with a burning passion (the other being wincest)

36: If you have an OTP, at what point did you start shipping it?i’m praying okay?prayer is a sign of faiththough i did think that one scene in bobby’s kitchen was Pretty Fucking Gay like that was some softcore porno shit right there

37: Do you think Sam should have completed the demon trials?yeah because dean would have figured out a way to get him back and no more demons!!!!!

38: Which director/writer is or was your favorite/least favorite?i don’t know directors as well as writers so:favorite is robbieleast favorite is bucklemming (shocking, i know)

39: Which actor would you most like to meet in real life?well,,,,,,, misha,,,,,,,,, but i’ve already met him twice and according to karson we’re homies so idk if that countsin all honesty, jensen because then i will have met all 4 of the leads

40: If you could be any character on the show, would you want to? If so, whom? If not, why?fuck no, i don’t want to be in any of their situations

41: Do you prefer cake or pie?pie, the frosting on cake can be a little much sometimes

42: What is your opinion on Sastiel?yES 

43: Have you ever made a Supernatural reference out loud and received strange looks from some of the people surrounding you?

44: Have you ever cried over a non-OTP ship from the show?

i don’t think i’ve cried over a ship before………… i mean the crypt scene(s) got me but that was mostly bc of cas being in a Not Good situation and the, ya know, broken “we’re family. we need you. i need you”- okay yeah i lied i’ve cried over a ship but not a non-otp

45: What is your favorite moment from any of the gag reels?answered here

46: Superwholock?i watch supernatural and sherlock but could never really get into dr who… and i’m really only involved in the spn fandom, i’m a casual sherlock viewer

47: What is/was your favorite Sam hair length?answered here

48: What’s an unpopular ship you have?team free will x happinessit seems to be unpopular in the writers room at least

49: What’s your opinion on Wincestiel?in a team free will, brothers till the end way? fuck yes absolutely. in a poly relationship way? no just cause of the incest i’m sorry i can’t agree with that50: Can you dig Elvis?fuck you

51: Do you listen to Carry On Wayward Son even when you’re not just watching a finale?yeah………. it reminds me of cons and karaoke so i get really Extra fucked up when i listen to it

52: What’s your opinion on Zachariah?asshole who was following orders

53: Do you think Adam will ever get out of the cage? (not as Michael)i don’t think the writers remember he even exists so imma go no

54: Do you think Sam should have completed the trials?answered in question 37

55: How long would you survive as a hunter?i’d like to think i’d be okay but realistically i’d do one case and die a horrible death

56: What’s your opinion on Calthazar?good friends but i don’t see them romantically

57: Do you have a Netflix account? If so, what’s your username and password? Wait a second, just the first part.i’d die without it

58: Have you ever participated in GISHWHES?for the third time this year!!!

59: What movies/shows have you watched because of (or by coincidence) Jared, Jensen, or Misha?i watched gilmore girls for jared, that one episode of timeless for misha (fuck you @ kripke), and i watched every scene of 24 that misha was in (and er and ringer shhhhhhh its fine) and need to find stonehenge apocalypse cause that looks horrible and i need to see all of it

60: If you could change just one thing about the series, what would it be?cas would be treated better

61: If you were at a Con, what would be a question you would ask?(can be any of the actors)i want to ask so many things…….. i would probably ask misha if he consiously plays cas as ace when he’s faced with sexual situations and i would ask j2 how they come up with designs for the campaign shirts like yana, love, and akf

62: Why did you start watching Supernatural?to fit in with my friends because they all loved it and i now realize they all highkey kinda suck but it introduced me to people that i love and the person who saved my life so,,,,,,, can’t complain too much

63: What’s your opinion on Sam/Crowley?i don’t get it personally but if you ship it go for it

64: What’s your biggest fear for season 9?that they’re gonna try a spin off and it’s gonna suck ass oh wait

65: What’s your favorite (or at least a memorable) pop culture reference that has been made on the show?dumbledork

66: Just a random confession you have regarding the show/Asker makes up their own question.answered here

[duhragonball]

Obligatory Destiel 2020 Post

Look, I barely know what goes on anymore, but I have one pressing question: Why did the guy get sent to super mega hell?   Like what even is that?    Do they actually call it that on the show?   

Destro: Careful, buddy.   Until we seal that portal, anyone who confesses their true love will get sent to hell, but not just the regular kind!   This would be like a super mega hell, that makes the normal hell look fairly okay by comparison.

Ariel: I don’t care, Destro.   The only one I’ve ever loved is yooouuuuuuuuuuuuuuuu...

I mean, I know that’s how these urban fantasy things work, they all gotta be flip with the magical lore, but this sounds like having a character in a drama write a check for “one zillion dollars” and they actually show the letter ‘z’ on the check.

This reminds me of the same gripe I have with the overuse of “gods” in fantasy stories.    Dragon Ball Super really leaned into that nonsense, but you see it everywhere nowadays.    People will talk about how the Avengers and the Justice League are gods who have fought literal gods.   Meanwhile both teams heavily feature regular-ass dudes who shoot arrows and climb ropes.   They have gods on their rosters, but usually the writers spend most of their time trying to make them look as vulnerable as possible so the guy with the arrows doesn’t look completely useless.    Then they’ll run out and defeat an evil god, who’s usually just a large mean man whose divinity is only shown in that he’s strong enough to beat up the Incredible Hulk.

To a point, I get it.   It makes the characters sound impressive and important.    And not every god has to be an omnipotent, omniscient being.   Sometimes it can just be an immortal dude who runs fast, or a guy who can beat up the Incredible Hulk and not much else.    But they always try to have it both ways.   They use the word “god” specifically to evoke the idea of an all-powerful being, but then they just end up being not all-powerful, which diminishes the term.   

This is one major reason I hated the Zamasu arc, because this is a guy who got beat up by Goku in his first appearance, and then he spent the rest of the story crowing about how important gods are. Even the other gods in the story are like “Wow, this guy’s really got it wrong, everyone knows we suck.”   So how the hell did Zamasu get this idea of a fire-and-brimstone All-Father in the first place?   In his world, there’s no such thing, and he knows it.    But in our world, the concept does exist, so he’s playing into that imagery to make himself look more compelling as a villain.   Then Trunks cuts him in half like it’s no big deal, so what does that make him?   It’s dumb is what it is.   One of these years they’ll make Dragon Ball Super II, and introduce the Grand Mega Ultra Supreme Zeno, and everyone will tell Goku that he’s the real top god, and all the other gods are just dumb jerks.  

Same problem I have with “hell”.   If you’re going to have a hell that’s even worse than hell, wouldn’t you just call that place hell and call the lesser hell something else?    Hell Junior.    I Can’t Believe It’s Not Hell.    Practice Hell.  

Regarding the queerbaiting aspect of it, I’m reminded of this clip I found on YouTube where Quagmire from Family Guy beats up Brian from Family Guy.    On the show Family Guy.   I enjoyed it, mostly because I had watched another clip of Quagmire being pissed off at Brian and this seemed like a good payoff.    Mostly I just enjoy watching cartoon characters beat each other up.   But then I found out the larger context of the episode, and it’s this transphobic shitshow, but the truly galling part was when I looked up the episode on Wikipedia, and there were quotes from Seth McFarlane about the negative reaction, and he seemed genuinely surprised that the LBGT+ community found it offensive.   Like, he seriously thought they would love it or something.   So it doesn’t shock me much that the people who write Supernatural were aware enough of the shippers to cater to them, but tone deaf enough to completely botch the execution and expect a pat on the back for it.  Same shit, different decade, basically.

And maybe these two issues tie together somehow.    The disconnect seems to be that a lot of these showrunners only see “gay” or “trans” as gimmicks, like “super mega hell” or “god-but-we-don’t-have-the-budget-for-that”.   So they’ll use it when it suits their purposes, or just to get some attention, but they’ll never stop and think about these as identities instead of labels. 

I dunno, I’m just thinking out loud here.  Mostly, I kind of want someone to tell me that “super mega hell” is a gross exaggeration and the real concept is a lot less sensational, but I’m pretty sure that’s not how SPN rolls.    I’m still trying to figure out why BBC Sherlock had Moriarty kill himself in the first season, and if tumblr has taught me one thing, it’s that all these moonspeak shows all eat the same stupid pills.