#much better than my emphatic question marks of bafflement and frustration

[curioussubjects]

Char, I'm cosigning this whole post!

I have nothing to add except a couple points on perspective:

How often do we see a m/m pairing be used to bolster an m/f one? Because that's what The Winchesters is doing when it parallels John and Mary so heavily with destiel. Yes it works to further validate destiel, but destiel doesn't need further validation except as a fuck you to censorship.

Do I need to remind/inform folks about the state of queer affairs in these here United States because there's 6 justices on SCOTUS chomping at the bit to allow religions exemptions for discrimination against queer people as well as overturning marriage equality. There's all sorts of queerphobic fuckery out there, so unfortunately we're still watching the censored show on the rancid network. I suggest we all accept that as the current state of affairs and watch how the plot of The Winchesters opens up and blooms in front of us because this show took the subversive notes from Supernatural and ran with them to a much softer and healing place.

I wasn't expecting this when the announcement for the prequel dropped either! But am I ever so glad to have given it a chance. The Winchesters is giving me content I didn't even know I needed and some I only ever imagined getting (ahembijohn). And more than that: the show hasn't given me any reason not to trust it. In fact, it's been consistently delivering.

So I ask again the same question Char posed: what are you guys so wary of??

and yes please stop playing yourselves about overt destiel happening in this prequel we're already getting the destiel content it's within its premise to deliver. there's nothing in the show suggesting that that's something that's gonna happen on our screens so just. let's all clown responsibly idk.

Okay... committing the extreme sin of actually acknowledging discourse and salt, but fuck it, I would like to say this.

Bitching about how Dean and Cas didn’t get to kiss, especially in an industry where m/f couples are able to kiss after only 7 episodes: valid and understandable and correct, we live in a heteronormative society of double standards for media

Bitching that John and Mary “get to kiss already” when Dean and Cas didn’t: you are not seeing the forest because of the trees

The former point is part of what this show is fucking saying, precisely through the very effective, unsubtle, and repeated Destiel parallels. Part of the reason the show exists AT ALL is to convey that very concept.

Like... if you don’t get this show is deliberately commentating on and critiquing the ending of SPN, then you’re not understanding it!!! Or perhaps–whether or not you're watching it (🙄)–you're doggedly approaching the existence of this show with unfounded wariness in bad faith!!!

I get that people were wary when the show was announced, because I too was not immune to being concerned. I shitposted with the best of them. But now? We're seven episodes in. We've seen that this show is very loud and consistent with its themes, motifs, and veritable verbal bricks that Dean Winchester himself beautifully lobs at our heads to make sure there can be no confusion about some of the key takeaways and lessons. He's leading all of us to water and some of you are actively refusing to drink it.

This show isn't being shy about what it is. It takes a special kind of jaded to look at such content that’s speaking to you, vindicating you, and essentially say “this is probably mean and designed to hurt me for reasons I don’t know yet.” It's very evident to me that being angry at the Supernatural franchise is now a sport, and some people are trying to win it, when in reality that is simply loser behavior.

And my thing is that people will lob around words like bait or clowning or being wary, or whatever the fuck, and I'm like... what are people wary OF? Literally what! WHAT is the expectation here, whether good or bad? Some people are bitching as if they're afraid of getting burnt but like ??? how? What is the fear here!! There is none!!!

Are we afraid that John and Mary, as Dean and Cas parallels, are gonna die? Sorry, we know how that goes! Are we taking this as promise Dean and Cas will show up on screen together in episode 13? Well, whoever is implying that or believing that with sincerity is playing themselves because there is no earthly logical reason to expect that at this juncture.

If everyone could just pay attention to the text of a show on its own merit then maybe we’d have world peace. This show is promising nothing specific in any sense–other than surprises and music and Carlos being fabulously reliably bi–and therefore there is no "bait" (for the love of God) and there are no "hopes" to have that could then be dashed. It’s the most low stakes watch ever. Either we get pleasantly surprised by various things or WE KNOW THE TRAGIC END. Every week is just a fun little gift, to be taken on an episode-by-episode basis!

So it's the journey that matters, not the destination, and it also turns out that that journey has been designed to be filled with unexpected depths. They did NOT have to make this the ever-spinning wheel of Dean mirrors show with new reflections every episode! They did NOT have to provide gleeful parallels to Destiel to repeatedly emphasize how romantic Destiel was from start to finish throughout their story! THEY CHOSE TO DO THAT. And it’s like some people can't conceptualize all of these parallels and all of the mirroring can be on purpose, and to a purpose, while also... [checks notes] not promising explicit Destiel content. (Because why would you think that it is?)

It’s almost like the team involved with this especially Robbie Thompson have something to say, like Dean, and are saying it via the avenue available to them. This show is validating us around constraints and having fun along the way. But perhaps the prerequisite to understanding that–and not approaching any of this in bad faith–is knowing and acknowledging the fact that those constraints exist at all. In other words: if you're a person who still blames "the writers" for the fact that Dean and Cas did not kiss, for example, then the forest you are missing is the heteronormative society that media exists in and the censorship that limits it.

The m/f couples get to kiss when sometimes the m/m couples don't get to not because the writers are mean but often because the people who limit the writers are. This show is playing into that, taking John and Mary through some of Dean and Cas' greatest hits–and I suspect it will continue to do so after the kiss, obviously–in order to say If this is romance, then so is Destiel, in case you somehow missed Cas' confession or doubt the love is reciprocal. If John and Mary get to kiss, so should Dean and Cas. And that, amongst other reasons, is why it's so much fun.

You're not pointing out a fault in the show by clocking that. Dare I say you're fucking using the show the way it's meant to be used, and calling bullshit on SPN's ending the way it wants you–in every capacity–to call bullshit on it. Which is why Dean is narrating at all.

Plus, as Robbie Thompson helpfully says in this interview:

When we first got together in the writers room, it was obviously top of mind when you’re dealing with a show that’s a love story. At what point do you want to really show them take that leap? We always knew we were going to have a winter break or midseason finale of some kind, and it felt like from a dramatic standpoint, that was very quickly on the board as it felt like the right place to put it.

And then it was a question of, “Why this moment?” To your point, obviously, life-or-death moments have a tendency to exacerbate things… The fallout of that kiss is something that we’re going to play for the rest of this first season. You have those moments where you’re swept up in the moment, and it’s like, “OK, here we go.” And then it’s like, “Oh, wait, the world didn’t end. OK. Now what do we do?”

Or, to put it simply:

The romantic moment that happens while the characters are trapped in a room while a threat bangs against the door should not be positioned as the end of a love story. Because there's more story to tell.

Anyone who’s actively repeatedly bitter about this show's existence (whether they’re watching it or not) is choosing to give themselves a bad time at this point. There’s no legitimate reason at this stage to be bitter about what this show is doing. If you wanted the show to suck, then I regret to inform you that ship has sailed because it is indeed quite good. And perhaps... if you are determined to be cynical or bitter about it in the corners of the internet or on the posts where people are enjoying it... you could consider Not Doing That.