#tbh i loved season 8 but only for purgatory benny/cas/dean

[bennyisjustafunkylildude]

guys you dont understand my love for Benny, I was just WAITING every episode after season 8 for him to come back, i just wanted my queer vampire pirate with a nice accent to come back AND HE NEVER DID AND I CANT GET OVER IT

[bi-lullaby]

I love talking about SPN with you! Tough challenge if you're up for it: rank all 15 seasons from your personal favorite to least favorite, no ties allowed :) Have fun!

Oh dear. What a predicament you’ve put me in!

1. 1 (solid choice, me thinks. The vibes are Unparalleled. Introduced me to the LOML, Dean. Their early dynamics? Figuring out who they are, who the other is, who their family is? ugh. My heart. Also super interesting MootW episodes, charismatic, the cinematography deserves it’s own spot in the list, we feel like the Winchesters: operating from a shadowed world that’s interwoven with ours but also separate)

2. 2 (still the same vibes of the first but also angrier? there’s findings and secrets and an overachieving trama of trauma and family and grief and deep wounds from the past and revenge and worry. love it)

3. 4 (It makes me angry, sad, happy, hopeful, devastated, all of that at once and then more. I feel it’s one of the most fundamental stories to the plot of everything that comes later and it sets what came before against a solid background of the whole angels/demons/apocalypse/vessels/fate narrative, sets up a lot of the lore, it’s just genuinely good and enjoyable. Great television.)

4. 5 (The world is ending and we have no hope to stop it and yet we will? ugh. Also the reconnection of the boys. Fighting so hard for a goal that seems impossible and finding their way back tot he other. I feel this is when Cas becomes more friend than ally, which is lovely. The longing, the grief, the guilt, the horror, the hopeless and yet that doesn’t take away their fight in the end. Also In the End and Dark Side of The Moon are just. Spectacular. This one gets me every time)

5. 3 (so much angst. so much uncertainty. The unknowns. I feel this one isn’t higher only bc I watched already knowing the outcome or most of it in a way, bc I knew Dean would be alive and well for years to come bc I started when spn was further along, but for fans who watched on time? must have been a punch to the stomach).

6. 8 (I hadn’t realized how much I loved season 8 until today lol, lots of annoyances and grievances but still I enjoy and analyze it to death. I love love love Purgatory, the dynamics of the Purgatory Trio, BENNY, Kevin as a bigger character, the animosity between Sam and Dean (srsly, I think all the fics I have written mention/deal with this issue bc I’m just fascinated by both their headspaces in this and how it impacts them going forward. The trials are interesting although I felt they were a bit mishandled, and of course the many fallouts from it.)

7. 9 (same initial comment as season 8 tbh. I feel like early seasons dean is hanging on by a thread to the very end of his rope (trauma, pain, grief, etc etc) but he is hanging in there, ya know? And he wants to fight and he knows his whys. then as the years go on and the losses pile on and the pains and the more and more he’s backed into impossible corners he loses the will to hang on and I think this season is the one where we see in look at that rope and go “and why the fuck am I holding on to this?” and it’s painful and heartbreaking but also makes you cheer him on and wish for him to fet through this. I like the Bunker being a more established home base for them. I enjoy Abbadon and Metraton as antagonists although I do feel they ended up… Underwhelming? Underexplored? And Dean’s is one of my ‘favorite’ deaths the boys had. It’s so impactful and poignant.

8. 12 (I almost put it lower but alas, so many Dean/Dean-Mary dynamics moments I could not. Not the biggest fan of the BMoL but I see where they were going. I think bringing Mary back was a move that could have gone horribly wrong and in a sense I feel like it maybe wasn’t the most thematically consistent? but it allowed for fun explorations of many characters. Also, Regarding Dean is off the charts good.)

9. 6 (ohh the drama. the fallout. the would’ves should’ves could’ves. I have a love-hate relationship with soulless!sam that tends more towards love but overall a great one. I miss Lisa, there, I said it. I loved them together. I wanted them to remain that way. I loved seeing Dean be turned into a vamp, also.)

10. 10 (not much to say. I adore MoC and all about it, but I do wish some things were better handled/had more impact/were more thought out/better shown etc. Overall, great idea, not my favorite execution).

11. 11 (again, love parts, don’t love others so much. I will say, in my “dean lets go of his rope” analogy, this one is where I think he’s slowly starting to climb out of the hole he’s fallen into and see “his whys” more clearly again).

12. 7 (idk why people seem to hate 7 so much? I can’t say it’s supper impacting but it has it’s positives. And Bobby’s death! It’s so impactful, it’s genuinely a mark of splitting eras in my mind.)

13. 14. (Michael!Dean my dearest of dears. You were not here for long enough. Makes me angry and a little bitter but also great moments).

14. 13 (if you put a gun to my head I can’t recall season 13 specifically? felt like a “bridge” season ig, and I just… Don’t enjoy Jack. I know many people do, and you do you, absolutely! But he just felt like a shoehorned in deus ex machina wrapped in Cas’s more cute mannerisms and I just never connected with him or really enjoyed him as part of the family or the themes that followed his appearance).

15. (will never accept, will never like, will never enjoy, the ending is responsible for 97% of the hate for the whole season but tbh the forced “ohh look we’re meeetaaaa! it’s the lasssst sssseassssonnn” in your face level of annoyance didn’t make it all that great either. No but srsly don’t even get me started on the ending. I could spend an hour just incoherently babbling and crying and still not get my dislike across correctly).

This was quite tough, really. Thanks for the brain teaser, dearie!

[coffeeteaitsallfine]

ok.... it’s Vampire Boyfriend, Live Free or TwiHard time

(disclaimer i dont actually really talk about S6x05 live free or twihard, it just sounded catchy)

No, Castiel is not the archetypical vampire boyfriend but he is a very Edward vampire boyfriend-- Seasons 6 - 8 in nice little arc. No, he is not lustful (just in subtext). S6-8 (& a lil before that) Cas is heavily the outcast. He is not impure traditionally (until he gets those leviathans!! sick ahaha sera!!!!!fightme) but he does have a crack in his chassis. Cas doesn’t think about sex the way humans do but it’s not really about that. Human feelings let alone feelings for humans are sinful (hellooo nephillims being abominations) they’re just “mud-monkeys.” To the angels, Castiel’s love for humans is worth giving him lobotomies over and over. Falling in love with one is the worst sin (“the very touch of you corrupts [Castiel]”). He is thus outcasted! (this was all written pre-s12 so go with it)

Now, in twilight the sex subtext isn’t subtext, it’s repressed because this is a good little Christian novel of course. Edward the vampire is constantly repressing his thirst and they’re only able to be together with ease once they’re on equal footing. I’ve reread it just this year. It’s repressed and not just in Eclipse when he won’t have sex with her. Bella CLEARLY has a sex dream and Edward knows about it but they don’t talk about it. Anyway, the text is the whole “I’m a killer bella” not blood drinking though. He is repressing that so it’s under control. NO no Edward is a danger magnet literally just crushing her with strength or luring other people to kill her. Castiel’s violence pre-s6 anyway is framed as holy and because heaven commanded it, but the slaughtering of angels for no good reason? unforgiveable. Cas doesn’t tempt dean in any lustful way but just the fact that he’s Gay and in love is already too obvious subtext as it is thanks to S4-5, bringing sex appeal or tempting imagery here would be too obvious or overdoing it i guess and works for us so it doen’t come off as predatory I don’t think. Meanwhile for the proxy Meg Castiel is the pizza man. (whereas s9′s answer to that is...nah he’s the babysitter apparently lol ? lets not read into it). Note as I’m editing: Eve literally eve is a character is S6? I forgot this but oh my god make it stop.

Then in S7 Cas is all “I deserved to die” because he killed a lot of angels and bad people as Godstiel (hello eddie boy’s serial killer murder streak if you didn’t pick up on this yet). Then, obviously, he is not even deserving of LOVE he’ll just hurt everything and everyone around and probably dean too. Cue the early S8 New Moon subplot culminating in fallen angels because we all know the third ingredient for the spell that would expel angels from societyheaven and lock the door behind them, was an angel falling love with a human. At the same time, his angel grace is taken away from him, making him a human no longer “pure” or without sin in the eyes of heaven like adam. the first to fall causing all the angels to fall with him.

Now this doesn’t quite work the same way for dean from dean’s perspective cause why would it. He’s not the Laura/Lucy to Castiel’s Carmilla/Dracula. (This makes Benny’s placement in Purgatory for the love triangle (literally) so in contrast like Benny IS this story’s Jacob) He’s not scandalized by the prospect of falling love. He’s got complicated emotions & thoughts is scared to for vulnerability reasons plus his own sexuality issues but I beg you to see that as separate and not over think it-- Twilight is very repressed, Dean is extremely repressed, poor Cas. But! Dean feels completely “pure” in purgatory & wants nothing more than to find the angel the entire time. He is Bella Swan thinking the killer/monster is an Angel (see: Twilight Ch. 23 “The Angel”), the only angel. All the other angels (vampires) are evil dicks but not my angel :) Mine is powerful, strong, psychic, and sexy. he’s beautiful and perfect and will never love me the way i love him unless we are the same species, equals if you will. 

Castiel is the vampire boyfriend, but not in the old, traditional way rather in the inevitably “modern” (2000s--early 2010s) take, where the vampire isn’t preying upon your sexual purity but the wholesome family ideal (ie lisa/ben, raking those leaves, the cookouts ah yes how american)....ehh yikes sera gamble? s6 reeks of homophobia thanks, thanks a lot. Except well, also, dean doesn’t really want that life not entirely. Neither did bella either tbh until the end but lets not get into that, except twilight is the “wholesome” ending, the opposite in every way to traditionally evil (lol ykwim...) vampires. The show eventually moves into a middle space, a synthesis of horror and home-- where it should’ve ended as we all know. Anyway, while writing this I remembered the beginning of Season 6, when the modern version of the vampire boyfriend arc kicks in, was also when they had the episode “Live Free or TwiHard.” Is this coincidence? probably, maybe, idk. I started this post just wanting to make casward parallels cause it sounded right and I’m a deancas/bellaedward truther for the Jokes, a Good Time, and the hot takes. 

except no, with Carver finishing up S8 (bookending the arc nicely with the two gay truckers being soulmates), Benny is the old world would be tragic vampire boyfriend and they couldn’t last! Sorry benny it’s been real. Castiel is the modern twilight vampire boyfriend, without predatory vibes and since religion is more of a plot device than a theme, less Mormonism and heteronormativity. Plus this reading is just sexy and cool and I like to have fun 

[s11e17]

seasons ranked by destiel content

yes i accept constructive criticism

season 13. i know season 15 has The Confession but nothing tops widower arc immediately followed by tombstone cowboy rp

season 6. the tension. the trust. the fact that destiel becomes a soap opera romance. S06E20 The Man Who Would Be King im

season 5. no offence but falling from grace specifically for dean winchester’s ass is something that can be so romantic. also S05E04 The End. need i say more??

season 15. obviously it had to be in the top half of the list because of The Confession, but there is a frankly tragic lack of dean/cas content in the first few episodes which takes us down a few pegs

season 8. purgatory flashbacks and dean going back for cas is like, so romantic. also S08E17 Goodbye Stranger??? however, this season cannot be in our top three because it is (obviously) primarily a dean/benny season. benny lafitte rights

season 12. castiel says “I love you” to dean’s face and then says “I love you all” to mary and sam. also the groundwork for dad!destiel is laid in this season. incredible i love these husbands

season 4. i’m not the hammer you think i am, dean. i would give anything not to have you do this, dean. the Eyesex™.

season 11. dean trying to reach out to cas when he’s possessed by lucifer? top tier content.

season 7. unfortunately the nature of reconciliation means that season 7 is not a sexy destiel season, and also i really only cared about hallucifer because i’m a sam girl when it comes to post-s5 spn

season 9. i put this down here because tbh I have very little recollection of this season, but it’s not the last because metatron says a very sexy bit about how castiel is in love with “humanity” and we all know what that means :eyes emoji:

season 10. castiel casually lounging in a robe asking after Dean in the premiere? iconic. however season 10 is my least favorite season, so it must go to the bottom of the list

[katsidhe]

Ranking Every SPN Midseason Premiere

15) 10.10 The Hunter Games. Wow, this one is real bad. Has not one, not two, but three subplots I either don’t care about or actively despise: Claire bonding with Cas (uh, he’s wearing her dad’s corpse), Rowena’s petty infighting with Crowley (bleh why), and Metatron smugly egging on Dean’s violence (why would he care?). This is deep in the slog of s10 episodes that go nowhere fast.

14) 13.10 Wayward Sisters. Is it clear yet that I really don’t like Claire episodes? Sam and Dean roasting lizards is the only real moment of fun here. I liked Kaia, so I hated that she gets used as Claire’s insta-friend/retconned love interest in order to immediately fridge her for the backdoor pilot… so that Claire, who was orphaned young, can understand loss, I guess? Pointless and unimaginative. I also resent the deeply, deeply directionless magic spear/Alt!Kaia subplot that eats up, like, four other episodes in s14-15 and accomplishes exactly nothing.

13) 3.09 Malleus Maleficarum. I like this episode for the insight we get into Ruby’s backstory, and the frank conversation that she and Dean have about demons and his impending Hell tour. But other than that, there isn’t too much to recommend it.

12) 8.10 Torn and Frayed. The next several episodes are all good, and are difficult to sort. In 8.10, Sam and Dean choose each other over Amelia and Benny, in all-or-none ultimatums. I truly enjoy how miserable they both seem to find themselves about this, about how their relationship has grown more and more isolating when tbh it needn’t be. Naomi’s control of Cas in this episode fleshes out the chilling implications we got in The Rapture: Heaven is best when its dark AF.

11) 6.12 Like A Virgin. Monsters, dragons, and Eve: the reveal of Purgatory kicks off a brand new chapter of the show’s mythology. But more importantly, Sam is fully back now! Watching him navigate this brave new world while no one will tell him anything is fascinating and more than a little sad.

10) 4.11 Family Remains. Actually frightening! I like it when the show does the ~it was just humans~ twist. And this episode has great commentary on Dean’s emotional state after his reveal about Hell last time. It’s a good MOTW.

9) 15.10 Nihilism. Dean’s bar mindscape. It’s no Sam mindscape, but it’s definitely the most interesting thing that’s been done with Dean and possession. It’s kinda fascinating that Dean’s uncomplicated happy place exists in an underdog Americana limbo without either Cas or Sam. Also gives us, at last, a good take on Alt!Michael’s motivations—he’s hunting down God. Loses points because the idea of managing to lock Michael in Dean’s mind for any length of time is still extremely unlikely.

8) 1.11 Scarecrow. Meg’s iconic introduction, Dean and Sam’s first breakup; emotional clashing over Winchester family dynamics: what’s not to love?

7) 12.09 First Blood. We’ve got Sam and Dean coping with prison very differently, then using their deaths to escape, and an action sequence through the woods: it’s just real fun. Cas breaks their deal with Billie, which ends up having, uh, no consequences whatsoever. It’s a strong kickoff to a regrettably weak second half of s12.

6) 7.11 Adventures in Babysitting. A quiet, emotional breath after Bobby’s death: Sam and Dean are deep, deep in terrible misery. The potent psychological suffering of season 7 is a delight, and 7.11 doesn’t shy away from it. Plus, it’s got Sam volunteering to get bit in the neck, and a rare example of a Plucky Teen (tm) done right.

5) 15.09 The Trap. This is just a worse 11.10. But 11.10 is amazing, so that’s still a compliment: Chuck tries both torture and the promise of various bleak futures to get Sam to cave. Even if the various futures aren’t staged that well, there is so much stuff here that’s ripe for analysis: especially on the broader stage of s15, this episode is plain interesting.

4) 5.11 Sam, Interrupted. Sam and Dean in a psych ward! They’re dealing with the extreme stress and grief of season 5, and they’re doing it badly—this episode provides a great way for their respective coping mechanisms to be forcefully stripped away. In a delightful microcosm of the show, Sam confesses his anger and gets consequently wrestled down and tied down to a cot.

3) 2.10 Hunted. Gordon Walker, whose old-fashioned absolutism is only matched by his competence, is one of the most memorable early seasons antagonists, and for good reason. We also get Ava, the queen of season 2, who has taken it upon herself to warn Sam and save his life. Then Sam and Dean using code words to disarm Gordon’s trap, and the fallout from John’s final words: quality television.

2) 9.10 Road Trip. Oh my god, what a horror show. This is an exemplary episode. Just incredible. Kinda unfair that it has to compete with 11.10, because it would take the gold by a mile in most other matchups. It’s got a fascinating character study of Gadreel, which also serves to inject interest into the s9 angel conflict; it’s the violent, hypocritical lengths to which Dean is willing to go; it’s got needles in Sam’s brain and a nauseating, horrific picture of possession; it’s got That Bridge Scene. The payoff for 9.01 begins to come due, in spades.

1) 11.10 Devil in the Details. Season 11 gets two D-tier ranks and two S-tier ranks; this is the duality of man. Do I even have to explain why I love 11.10 so much? It’s Sam and Lucifer in a room in Hell for an entire episode, nuff said. It gets better with every rewatch—there are so many great tiny moments, so much history. Lucifer’s combination salespitch/dressing-down is threatening and fascinating and mostly accurate; Sam’s rigid terror and courage and heartbreak and anger and resignation and determination are intoxicating. I want to watch them talk in a room forever.

[sortasirius]

“The Trap” and The Confession

Coming to you live from my coffin this evening: this episode ripped me apart in about ten thousand ways and I am grateful for it.

Oh boi oh boi is this L O N G.

Tbh, I’m going to gloss over a lot of the Chuck/Sam/Eileen stuff, let’s get to what we’re all here for: what in the FUCK that Destiel content was.

So, we all spec’ed a lot about the return of Purgatory, I specifically talked about what Purgatory meant for Dean and Cas’ relationship in season 8, and man oh man, Bobo Berens didn’t disappoint.

Let’s kick it off with, once they get inside Purgatory, Dean literally immediately wants to split up, and ngl, I kinda groaned internally, thinking that’s how we get the prayer or whatever, but my mans Cas is having NONE of it.

“Yeah we’ll also improve our odds of getting lost or killed.  Come on.”

And Dean???  Doesn’t even argue??  He’s just like ur right let’s go.  Ok king.

And when they catch that Leviathan, and the way Dean looks at Cas when Cas like force throws him into a tree.....like go adjust ur pants dude lmao.

I just felt, up until that scene, that Dean was teetering on the edge of saying something to Cas, like Cas is clearly still kinda mad and doesn’t want to talk but Dean does, he keeps looking at him and making little jokes and stuff...an idiot in love.

Also hey guys I will not, under any circumstances, accept that my man Benny is dead ok thanks for allowing me this sidenote.

“I know you’re sorry, Cas.  About Bel, about mom-”

“I was talking about Jack.  I already apologized to you, you just refuse to hear it.”

Woof.

“Sorry I brought it up. Maybe if you didn’t just up and leave us-”

“You didn’t give me a choice.  You couldn’t forgive me, and you couldn’t move on. You were too angry.  I left, but you didn’t stop me.”

At this point I believe that my jaw had literally hit the floor.  Because, I want y’all to think, NAME ME a similar scene, post a breakup like Dean and Cas had, that isn’t romantic?  Yeah, I couldn’t think of one either.

So Dean really tried it, huh?  Tried to make Cas’ leaving about Cas and not what Dean did?  Which we’ve seen so many times from him, but finally Cas is pushing back and refusing to accept that, refusing to rollover and just let Dean win the argument, he makes Dean think, makes him think about his anger, why he pushed Cas away.........can we give Berens the Nobel Peace Prize pls?

I do wanna say that Berens and Singer did a masterful job heightening the tension between scenes. Like the bleak future scenes that Sam was watching vs. Purgatory.  A really well done episode all around.

Cas gets taken by the Leviathan, trapped in an angel trap, Dean gets knocked out, and when he comes to he’s alone, the area and the shot almost a direct comparison of the first shot on season 4, when Cas pulled Dean out of hell.

And then there we were, my heart was literally racing, I had to stand up and get as close to my TV as I possibly could, but man, even though they warned us about the confession, good GOD.

Dean’s desperate, he’s breathing too hard, looking everywhere for Cas, screaming his name, and then he just collapses, he just breaks in half:

“Cas?  Cas I hope you can hear me.  That wherever you are, it’s not too late.  I shoulda stopped you.  You’re my best friend, but I just let you go, cause that was easier than admitting I was wrong.  I don’t know why I get so angry. I just know that- I know that it’s always been there, and when things go bad, it comes out.  And I, I can’t stop it.  No matter how bad I want to, I just can’t stop it.  And I, I forgive you, of course I forgive you.  I’m sorry it took me so long- I’m sorry it took me til now to say it.  Cas, I’m so sorry.  Man, I hope you can hear me.  I hope you can hear me.  Okay.”

So uh.  Yeah.

Listen, I know I’m not the only one that thought this, but damn, damn if that wasn’t the most double sided speech ever.  Sure, it’s an apology, he’s sorry that he pushed Cas away, but....what else?

We talk to much about how Dean projects this macho, masculine persona, when we all know he’s a big nerd who loves comic books, bad scary movies, cucumber water, and Taylor Swift.  He isn’t, he’s never been the macho man he so desperately wanted to be, and to me, that prayer wasn’t only an apology for pushing Cas away, it was an apology for not being able to see, until now, what was right in front of his eyes.  That he loses it every time Cas is gone, that he was willing to spend a year in Purgatory looking for Cas the first time, that he would do anything, cross any line, go down any road, for Cas. 

“I’m sorry it took me so long-”

He cuts himself off there, but the unsaid words hang in the air “I’m sorry it took me so long to realize how I feel about you.”

This scene is just so fucking painful, Dean never cries like this, he never loses it like this, but this confession, this declaration to Cas, it drags all of these pent up emotions, all that shit that he feels for Cas that he has tried, for literal years, to tamp down, comes out all at once.

I’ve said for a long time that Dean gets angry and takes things out on Cas because he’s angry about how he feels about Cas, and pushing Cas away is easier than accepting just how deep his feels run for Cas, but he told Sam that he felt “pure” in Purgatory once, and I feel like he almost just....couldn’t lie, if that makes sense.

And, just like every other time in Purgatory, Cas doesn’t show up, and Dean pulls himself together and does what he’s always done in Purgatory: he keeps looking for the angel.

When they find each other, sweet baby Cas curled up by a tree.  That hug, the way that Dean grips Cas like he’s clinging to a liferaft.  Lay me to rest.

“Okay Cas, I need to say something.”

“You don’t have to say it.  I heard your prayer.”

This snippet is so little and awkward and they’re looking at each other like people look at their crushes and I’m just really really really soft okay?

And then, for our grand finale, the Sam/Eileen scene:

“You should stay.”

“I wish I could.  After what happened, I don’t know what’s real anymore.”

(Insert the sweetest goddamn Saileen kiss in the world)

“I know that was real.”

So........lets compare to 15x02:

“I’ll tel you what we do know: nothing about our lives is real.  Everything that we’ve lost, everything that we are is because of Chuck.  So, maybe you can stick your heard back in the sand, maybe you can pretend that we actually had a choice.  I can’t.”

“Dean.  You asked what about all of this is real.  We are.”

Yo.  Are these writers serious?  An absolutely direct damn parallel between Cas/Dean and Eileen/Sam and Sam and Eileen KISS?  Ok guys, I’ll see myself out.

Bobo Berens has been one of my favorite writers for a long time.  He knows how to make an episode flow, make it gutwrenching, funny, scary, romantic, all at the same time.

I answered an ask right after 15x02, when someone asked my why I didn’t want Buckner/Leming to get credit for canon DeanCas, and I stand by what I said: Bobo has always been one of the writers that understand them the best.  He gets what they are: best friends that turned into something more, something so much more that Dean, in my opinion, doesn’t even have to say it out loud for it to be as incredibly obvious as it was.  Berens is one of the people that deserves the credit for where Dean and Cas are today, that we even have to argue about what makes canon canon. 

I spend so much time with this show, with these characters, that sometimes I feel like I need to take a step back and just fucking appreciate that this scene, this incredibly beautiful episode would never, in a million years, have happened without this showrunning team.  Andrew Dabb and Bobo Berens are creating this literally masterful final season.  I mean what I say when I say that each episode is better than the last, because they ARE, and Dean and Cas are right there, at the forefront, every time.

Dean Winchester’s growth into who he is is, in my opinion, one of the greatest character arcs in TV.  He is NOT who he was in season 1, in season 4, in season 10.  He’s grown so much, he’s so much more willing to be himself, to love what he loves openly, and that scene, that heartbroken, tearful confession where ten words said a thousand is even more than I could have ever asked for.

[billiewena]

3, 12, 23, 24

OKAY I HAD TIME TO THINK ABOUT THESE (thanks you for making this ask game BTW!)

3. What's a scene that you think is underrated?

- 4x19: Adam's funeral and the comment about Sam becoming John (which he takes as a compliment when Dean clearly doesn't). This ep is probably the closest they get to discussing their Daddy issues tbh.

- 8x08: Sam & Cas in the cartoon world, where Sam gives the speech about not running away from problems anymore that motivates Cas to do the same (feel like it gets ignored over the Deancas scenes)

- 8x19 Dean meeting Naomi. THE most twisted villain, the amount of damage she did caused with "I admire your loyalty, I only wish he felt the same"

- 12x10 ending w/ Dean & Sam tell Castiel how much they appreciate him! I love the bickering in this ep but am such a hoe for them just TALKING OUT their issues.

12. Rank the eras and opinions on it (1-5/6-7/8-11/12-15)?

Before I go into it my season-by-season rank is 4, 5, 8, 1, 2, 3, 12 11, 13, 9, 15, 6, 7, 14, 10

1. 1-5: TIGHTLY written, every ep and conflict felt like they mattered and would pay off (and usually did), character and family dynamic development that always felt grounded/realistic. Cons are the misgoyny, racism and homophobia (def don't miss the only female characters being Innocent Mom, Evil Skank or Girl With Knife) but that's the 2000s baby

2. 12-S15: Love the overall tone and the show expanding to include more hunters, allies, universes, etc. Sadly these seasons would introduce the most INTERESTING and COMPELLING concepts...only to do little to nothing with them. Wayward Sisters, Empty, Banes twins, Witch!Sam, apocalypse hunters, death of the author, and (obvs) Dean/Cas. Even Jack! All his relationships were more tell than show, never fully developed on-screen. ESPECIALLY him and Cas! They have 2-3 whole scenes together in S13. Jack's born, but Cas is dead. Cas returns, but Jack leaves. They find Jack, but Cas was kidnapped and then Jack gets trapped. The show just kept following Dean and Sam from crisis to crisis with little room to breathe. The era is so cool in theory and a great playground for fanon, but...ugh.

3. 8-11: Some of THE dumbest writing decisions happen this era, usually to cause manpain or brother drama. But Carver did reign things in a bit with more overarching plots and storylines again, especially in S8 and S11. The trials! Rowena and Crowley! Re-introduction of Chuck! Purgatory! Cas and Claire! Jody and Donna! Sam's "God" visions! The Baby episode! Also nostalgic because this was when I finally got internet access and joined the fandom.

4. 6-7: Besides having a few of my fave eps (Death's Door, Man Who Would Be King, etc.) mostly unmemorable and all over the place. Like, you can TELL they didn't have any idea what to so once they ended the Kripke arc and threw anything and everything at the wall to see what stuck. Resurrected grandpa? Sure! Cas is evil now? Cool! Ancient monsters that can be killed by cleaning supplies? Why not? Wait, we need Dean and Sam drama...right, let's make up a childhood friend Sam has never mentioned for Dean to kill! And give Dean a Reneesmee monster daughter for Sam to kill! We're so good at writing!

23. What are some lores/world building that you love from Post s5?

- The morality of monsters and bad guys. We got redeemed vampires (Benny), witches (Rowena), demons (Crowley), werewolves (Garth), nephilims (Jack), etc. The MOWs are inconsistent but SO GOOD when they take this route. One of my faves is the Shapeshifter in 13x04 who becomes a Grief Counselor to use her abilities to help people

- Purgatory! Love the vibes, the every-man-for-himself energy, how harsh it feels

- The Trials! These crazy stakes! Prophets! Sealing the gates of hell! Angels falling!

- Apocalyse World! Again, the VIBES! Michael vs. Lucifer is supposed feel so world-ending. So to see a world DEVASTATED by their war? Insane! And Apocalypse!Michael was a cool villain, very strategic and focused, knowing what alliances to make and how to make the situation work in his favor

24. What are some lores/world building that you love from s1-5?

- The angels: so cool before they got nerf'd. Perfect soldiers, orders from above, varying levels of cynical, too powerful to be seen by eyes, SMITING! I miss the smiting.

- THE SEALS! I wish we saw more of them but the creativity! The stakes! And Lilith being the final seal remains one of THE best twists!

- The Trickster! I love Gabe as an archangel too, but do miss him messing with the Winchesters to teach 'em a lesson

- Special Children! All of these powerful lonely people who've been weird all their life, thrown into a hunger games where they either kill or survive! So crazy.

SPN Ask Game

[awed-frog]

SPN ‘This or That’ Tag Game

I was tagged by @babygirl06301, and I’m tagging my newest followers so we can get to know each other better! So if you like tag games, please let me know what you think, @fruking-awesome, @angelofthelore, @enuzv, @amiraegypt and @superwholockiannogitsune! 🤠

1. ARCHANGELS or PRINCES OF HELL?

The princes of Hell were sort of cool, but I’ve got all this mental mythology about archangels, so I feel much more involved with them. Plus, Gabriel.

2. DEAN IN WILD WEST CLOTHES or DEAN IN 1940s CLOTHES?

3. THE BUNKER or BOBBY’S HOUSE?

I love the Bunker, but I’m definitely not a fan of living underground - people 👏 need 👏 windows.

4. SHERIFF JODY or SHERIFF DONNA?

Both are equally awesome!

5. SOULLESS!SAM or GADREEL!SAM?

*whispers* I never liked that Gadreel thing all that much.

6. MEG or RUBY?

How can anyone even ask that?

7. CASTIEL + CLAIRE or CASTIEL + JACK?

Okay, this is getting ridiculous now.

8. KEVIN or CHARLIE?

A hard choice, but Charlie was us, right? She was supposed to be us, and goddammit.

9. SHAPESHIFTER!DEAN, LEVIATHAN!CAS, or LUCIFER!SAM?

I’m picking Samifer only because it’s been *checks watch* eight years and I’m still waiting for a conclusion to that story.

10. SEASON 5 or SEASON 12?

No question.

11. PURGATORY or THE EMPTY?

I said, No question.

12. THE MACLEOD FAMILY or THE HARVELLE FAMILY?

I’d probably give half a liver to see Ellen and Jo in the AU!world of doom, so.

13. LISA BRAEDEN or AMELIA RICHARDSON?

I’m still not sure she was real, but Amelia - yeah. I’m going with the less tragic option here, because there’s only so much I can bear.

14. RUBY’S KNIFE or AN ANGEL BLADE?

Let’s be serious.

15. CROWLEY AS A VILLAIN or CROWLEY AS A FRENEMY?

Duh.

16. “IT’S A TERRIBLE LIFE” or “WHAT IS AND WHAT SHOULD NEVER BE”?

Still not over that, tbh.

17. SAM’S BITCHFACE or DEAN’S BITCHFACE?

Both are equally adorable, but I’m a Dean girl. There. I said it.

18. “SON OF A BITCH!,” “HELLO, DEAN,” or “SO, GET THIS…”?

*incoherent squealing*

19. THE WINCHESTER INITIALS IN THE IMPALA or IN THE BUNKER?

That Bunker thing always felt a bit forced to me, and not nearly as relevant as the other one.

20. JACK KLINE or JACK WINCHESTER?

I’m guessing you know my stance on this.

21. THE MOVIE REFERENCES or THE META REFERENCES?

Love them.

22. BILLIE or TESSA?

Yay Ms Death!

23. THE BOBBY/ELLEN SHIP or THE BOBBY/CROWLEY SHIP?

Gaaaaah.

24. DEVIL’S TRAPS or HOLY FIRE TRAPS?

They’re both amazing, but if we’re talking ~aesthetics, no contest.

25. BRING BACK BENNY or BRING BACK EILEEN?

NOPE, YOU CAN’T MAKE ME CHOOSE AND SHUT UP.

26. PSYCHICS or WITCHES?

Witches are gross. Unsanitary.

27. ANNA or HANNAH?

Why is everyone I love on this show dead? Jesus.

28. METATRON WAS REDEEMED or METATRON IS STILL A DOUCHE?

I don’t know, tbh. I don’t think about Metatron a whole lot.

29. LUCIFER’S FINGER SNAP OF DEATH or CASTIEL SMITING DEMONS?

*fans self*

30. “FAMILY DON’T END WITH BLOOD” or “I’M PROUD OF US”?

A hard choice, but, yeah. And again, why does everyone die? Dafuq?