#is to me......like if spn was good it would know it was abt the failure to stop the cycles but it wants the heroes to be happy in the cycle

[tvxcue]

there's smth really interesting abt how much ppl like to talk abt dean and cas and destiel trying to "escape the narrative" when that's kind of sam's whole thing but because he does it in a way that contradicts dean and dean doesn't like, he's wrong for it. like at his core, he is constantly striving for safety away from the violent environment he grew up in but that doesn't mean he's seeking to better the world or even his family. he wants to leave. he constantly wants to leave, it's a reoccurring action of his. when he gets the opportunity, he leaves.

and like yeah the show's moral framework affects this bc it insists that embracing hunting is making the world better bc hunting makes everyone safer so that just makes sam's desire to escape worse by the show's standards bc not only is he trying to leave hunting, leaving hunting means he stops making the world better. but if we don't accept that, his desire to just get out is just not something that's fun to root for because domesticity and suburbia are something for other people, heroes shouldn't exist there, they should be doing something. and so people want him to either accept the show's (and dean's) perspective that hunting is the "better" or do something to change the structure of their family and hunting in general. and the thing is that he does try but because it's antithetical to the show's party line he's not actually allowed to do it and his attempts are framed as wrong, misguided, overbearing, etc. and dropped to get him back on dean's side, enabling and participating in the same violence as everyone else.

[toxicsamruby]

1/3 okay yeah i agree with you that we should think about it and dissect and criticize the racial themes in spn (in media in general OFC, which i assumed went without saying but i guess it doesn't bc not everyone thinks about race in media 24/7 like some do. like, to clarify, i didn't mean to imply we should /ever/ ignore it). I think the term that set me off is "engage," b/c if we're equating "engaging" with race to "engaging" with gender&sexuality, such that we look at it, we poke at and

2/3 expand it, and, yeah, remain critical of it but also *forgive it* (!), that just doesn't seem okay. there's literally no situation in which racism is ever acceptable or redeemable, in or out of supernatural context. it's just not, and i don't want to see it normalized the way homophobia or misogyny has been normalized in these conversations (from what I've seen). but you're definitely right that deconstructing and interrogating (which i thought was good word choice btw) in the mainstream is

3/3 something we have to push more for (which, sidenote, this community--meaning, this specific spn tumblr corner--is great place to start that in because--again, at least from what I've seen--i don't see a lot of people contributing monetarily to this franchise like traditional/mainstream fanbases, and i would be skeptical of white people that are aware of deep racism in a text and still choose to fund it).

i don’t think i ever implied that viewing and analyzing supernatural thru the lens of race would ever constitute forgiving it?? really what i meant to say w that post was that analysis of race and eugenics in supernatural is good bc it’s an extremely relevant microcosm of american attitudes about the Other and i think that that’s a really worthy and interesting discussion to have. whereas a lot of people treat criticism of racism in supernatural as like a chore or a checklist of characters/plot points to condemn when it’s something much deeper and more fleshed out than that, and the fact that a lot of white fans do approach criticism of racism in that way When at the same time they’re able to have such thoughtful and compassionate dialogues abt gender and sexuality re: white characters...its weird and it reduces conversations about racism to “discourse” when it should be an ongoing, active, and interesting conversation.

i also want to answer what you said in the last part of this ask, about monetary contributions to the franchise. first of all, this is absolutely a very traditional/mainstream fanbase, like basically Thee First traditional/mainstream fanbase, and the fact is that regardless of the (nevertheless substantial) monetary contributions of fans to the franchise, the primary currency that we’re all giving to supernatural right now is buzz. like all jokes aside i think we all need to come to terms w the fact that the confession and the finale were a calculated move on the cw’s part, not a great meta romance or a clumsy accident of bad writing. a group of professionals sat down and asked each other how they could maximize buzz for the conclusion of a show that, in many ways, has really failed in the last few years, and what they realized was that a concession to the shippers who kept their show alive AND a refusal to make their conservative action hero gay, in that combination, would do exactly that. and it worked! it’s the most shrewd marketing i’ve ever seen in my life! and it led to a revival of supernatural in pop culture. the publicity, the buzz, the social media presence, the impassioned arguing of fans online over what’s canon and what isn’t, all of this was the goal.

i know this was a tangent, but my point is this: the marketing strategy, at the end, wasn’t to convince everybody to collectively get up and buy merch and stream it legally, it was to generate as much viral content as they possibly could, and it worked. so right now what we’re all doing is cementing supernatural in pop culture history, which again was the goal. so at this point, just saying “well, we’re not contributing any money, at least” really isn’t enough. i truly think that it is important, on a macro level, that supernatural is established not as the greatest queerbait (or love story, whichever side of the aisle you fall on) in history but the biggest artistic failure television has ever produced. in its dna it’s racist and it’s homophobic and it’s misogynistic and to allow it to become this legendary fixture without the proper criticisms attached is (and has been) a horrible failure of (white) fan culture. making these in depth criticisms and ATTACHING those criticisms to all discussion of the show, making it impossible for anybody to be involved in the fanbase without being forced to seriously think about those criticisms, is the only thing that still-active fans can do to rectify that failure (aside from just allowing supernatural to fade into obscurity, which is obviously the first best option, but i think that ship has sailed at this point).