airluxcasa

[spnintheyearofourlord]

Okay Dean “You know I am not much for prayin’ ‘cause in my book it’s the same as beggin’” and “I prayed to you, Cas, every night” Winchester, I see you.

[narrynukezankielover]

This scene in Fan Fiction is interesting because it’s when Dean finds out that people ship Cas and him together and they have a ship name for it. He’s not mad or pissed off he’s more curious about it. Even before he found out the two girls are girlfriends in real life he wasn’t mad or pissed off about Destiel. It’s more like he didn’t realize that all those moments between Cas and him were written in the Supernatural books (up to the end of season 5 anyways).

This shows that the writers and actors know about Destiel and Destiel fan fiction but it also shows that Dean is fine with it and so is Jensen (Jensen has said quite a few times especially this year that he is fine with Destiel).

This is hilarious. Sam is trying to figure out what Cas and Deans ship name should be and he knows that Dean is getting flustered by it. Dean tells Sam to shut up and Sam laughs. It’s the little brother making fun of the older brother for having a boyfriend kind of thing. I would have loved to have seen Cas in this ep. It would’ve been hilarious to watch Dean and Sam trying to explain shipping to Cas and explain ship names to Cas.

This scene is great Dean looks directly at the girl playing Cas and says to put as much text into that subtext. Again showing that he’s fine with Destiel. I have more thoughts on this ep but I’m going to keep them to myself because I think I’ll piss some people off if I say them.

This scene in Girls, Girls, Girls is kind of annoying. I don’t like Hannah because she can’t take a hint. Cas has told her soooo many times that he only likes her as a friend, she’s the one that told Cas not to lose it over one man, she heard the Metatron saying that Cas did everything for Dean and she knew that at the beginning of the season that Cas was sick yet he did everything he could to help Dean become human again. Here she tries to say that all her feelings for Cas weren’t actually her feelings that they were coming from the human she was possessing which I think she lied about. I think she didn’t want to be on earth anymore and it stead of embarrassing herself she came up with this excuse because when Cas was possessing Jimmy the feelings Cas has for Dean weren’t Jimmys feelings considering I don’t think Jimmy even likes Dean.

I’m just adding this in from Hibbing 911 because it’s another gay scene well it was 2 scenes. The cop guy was obviously flirting with Dean when he said it was cute for Dean to try and find a case there but then Dean knew the best way to get information out of the cop was to flirt so that’s what he did by sucking up to the cop but here the cop had just walked past Dean and Dean clearly looks at the guys ass.

I think this ep is called The Things We Left Behind. This scene makes me extremely happy. Cas told Claire that Jimmy is dead and in heaven because an arch angel killed him on a sub atomic level but he was brought back and that that body was specifically made for him. I absolutely love that Cas has his own body now. He’s not possessing Jimmy anymore. That that brain is his brain all his feelings are his feelings. I assumed after Cas was blown up in season 5 ep 1 (Chuck told Dean that Cas was blown up but they didn’t show it which is why I’m assuming they go with when Cas was blown up at the end of season 5) that Jimmy was dead but to hear Cas say it and to say that that body was made for him just made me extremely happy.

Another scene where Sam is there yet Cas is just talking to Dean. Cas called Dean and Sam to come help him yet he was looking directly at Dean when Cas said he needed Deans help. Then Sam came up with a plan for Dean and him to go to the group home to find Claire but Dean obviously wanted some alone time with Cas because he gave Sam the keys and told him Cas and him would stay there. Sounds like Dean wanted an unofficial date with Cas.

This is beyond cute. Cas gave Dean a compliment and Dean got flustered. Dean obviously wanted this to be his alone time with Cas because up until Cas asked Dean how he was they were talking about random stuff and flirting. I also love that they cant hide how sick they are from each other. At the end of season 9 when Cas told Dean he was fine Dean knew he was lying and then Cas told him the truth the same thing happens here. Cas asks Dean how he’s doing and Dean says he’s great and Cas said no you’re not. Cas knew Dean was lying and Dean asked him if he turns into a demon again for Cas to kill him which Dean knows Cas can’t kill him considering Cas couldn’t kill Dean when he was being mind controlled to kill Dean there’s no way in hell he’d be able to do it when he’s himself.

It looks like Sam was expecting Dean to tell Cas to let go of the guy but instead Dean is impressed and I think a little turned on.

[ananke-xiii]

One of the reasons why Nick's story in s14 doesn't work form me is because of the show's insistence to pigeonhole Lucifer as "the supreme agent of evil". Of course, this is considered true in our real world (lol), specifically Christian world, but in-universe it just... doesn't work? If we want to go full-on dichotomy (and S14 very much goes there) if Lucifer's evil, who's the primary agent of good? No one, exactly. Definitely not Heaven.

Because there are, like, TEN seasons of angels going total batshit crazy, I mean we know that angels=good isn't a view the show supports since Cas appears in "Lazarus Rising". And we know that ALL angels downright lie, manipulate and coerce humans to get their "consent". We also know that the main issue with "the devil's spawn" in s12 was not so much "the devil" but the fact that "a Nephilim came into being".

The problem is NOT that who'll later be Jack is Lucifer's son, the problem is that he's a Nephilim. Lucifer has weight in the discourse merely because he's an archangel, NOT because he's the primary agent of evil. The issue is that "grace+soul"=a fucking lot of power. And a fucking lot of power means a fucking lot of problems.

We also know that humans get severely depressed after a possession, they have to face many struggles and sometimes society alienates them (see: "Repo Man"). So the argument that Nick's psyche is damaged because Lucifer's so evil his influence's still there even after he's departed is just... weak? A random demon can possess a random Jeffrey and the damages on the human psyche are still IMMENSE. From the human perspective random demon or most powerful archangel in the world are the same thing: they can carry out the same violence, abuse and trauma.

I might be wrong but what I get from the season is that the "primary agent of good" is the soul. And this is ALSO not true? Because shit gets real when Jack starts losing it, sort of implying that without the soul, his luciferian grace will make him become evil or will make him do evil things ("the devil made me do it" mentality). But we literally have a character such as Castiel, Angel of the Lord and Maker of Huge Mistakes but also Not in Possess of a Human Soul who actively strives to do good things (and he fails miserably so maybe he's not a good example but HE IS JACK'S CHOSEN FATHER, it MUST mean something ffs).

I think, maybe, I don't find the shift from "Nephilim" to "Lucifer's son" compelling because Jack's real "problem" (if we want to call it so) is that he's half (arch)angel and half human. Like, being an angel is a fucking issue in this show because these creatures are a bit deranged okay? LOL. On the other hand, being human is ALSO a fucking issue because it 100% doesn't warrant inherent goodness. Humans can be deranged creatures, too, okay? :D Both species can definitely just make mistakes, do bad things wanting to do bad things or ending up doing bad things without intention to do so. Ultimately, Jack's dilemma is being Other, just like his chosen father and just like Kripke-era Sam.

I still stand by my idea that all angels are a little bit like Lucifer. And there are episodes such as "Of Gods and Monsters" that sort of confirm it. When Nick calls Cas out and tells him "Castiel, you’re just a stone cold body snatcher. You’re no different than Lucifer" he's exactly pointing out the hypocrisy. Hell, the whole episode seems to question the season's main theme because Michael is literally possessing Dean, he conned him, he tells him that he owns him, he's creating an army of monsters as they speak, he's brutally torturing them but the primary agent of evil is still little ol' Lucifer.

Although, truth be told, I didn't particularly feel the need to learn more about Nick (sorry Nick, I know you're there so that Mark Pellegrimo could stay on payroll, I don't hold it against you), I can't deny that it had great potential as a narrative choice (let's not even go into the Sam/Nick parallels). But, to me, it didn't deliver because the show's murky on where it stands: on paper it wants to show the fallacies of "black and white" thinking but it effectively supports the same "black and white" view of the world that it seeks to question.

[scoobydoodean]

omg i just finished your emma vs amy takes and the subsequent discourse about it (which was so refreshing to see btw!! love it when adults can be Adults and argue about the topic without insulting the other person) and I might get fried for this but that incident aside, do you have any other scene/episode in mind where sam reacts the same way or does the same thing?

(im sorry if this isn't your cup of tea for asks! your takes have been Enlightening)

You mean another situation where Sam shoots a person with supernatural abilities who hasn't shed blood and has a sympathetic backstory without giving them a chance? Not as overtly—Benny in season 8's "Citizen Fang" certainly comes to mind, but even Benny, Sam at least made a show of giving a chance by assigning Martin to keep tabs on him and make sure he didn't do anything wrong before trying to kill him. (Though whether there was conscious or subconscious sabotage involved when Sam chose Martin specifically—someone he knew to be mentally unstable—is certainly a good question given Sam had already made death threats about Benny before then.)

The fact that Sam's behavior in 7.13 "Slice Girls" is pretty unique is really what I want to point out about this episode in the first place—that Sam's actions in "Slice Girls" are inconsistent with his previous behavior and future behavior as far as "good" monster episodes. We can turn to examples such as:

1.14 where Sam insists they try and talk Max down instead of killing him, because Max's murders are a result of extensive abuse.

Lenore and her nest in SPN's seminal "monsters can be good" episode (2.03)

Sam thinking Andy is responsible for the killings in 2.05 but still waiting for proof before acting.

2.09 where Sam insists they not kill someone they think might be infected with Croatoan virus before he turns and tries to kill them because that doesn't give him a chance.

Two episodes where Sam faces off against Gordon because Gordon wants to kill him before Sam kills someone (2.10, 3.07)

2.17 where Sam and Dean search for a cure for Madison, who is not aware that she has been killing people.

4.04 Metamorphosis where Sam is the one who takes the initiative to research Rugarus, learns that they can survive without giving into their urges, and insist they go and talk to him about how his body is changing (lol) so he has the chance to fight the urge to kill and eat people.

5.06 where Sam and Dean oppose Cas who wants to kill Jesse, who is a child who is not aware that he has powers and is hurting people.

6.02 where Sam, even soulless, recognizes the innocence of a shifter baby.

Then we have Amy and Emma in 7.03 and 7.13 respectively.

8.04 where the brothers let Kate the Werewolf go because she was turned against her will and killed the man who turned her in self-defense.

8.09 Citizen Fang (already discussed)

I'm getting lazy but then we also have Magda and Jack Kline—both children with powers, one severely abused, the other the son of the devil with uncontrolled explosive powers that could end the world, both of whom Sam attempts to help work with their abilities.

Dean has a more structured series of personal "rules"—a litmus test we see from the very beginning—one Sam often follows as well, but I'm not sure Sam ever really fully grasps that Dean thinks this way.

Has this person hurt or killed anyone?

Was it on purpose or was it outside of their awareness?

If it wasn't on purpose, are they capable of learning to control their urges?

We see this code as early as 1.12 "Faith":

SAM Wait, what the hell are you talking about Dean, we can't kill Roy. DEAN Sam the guys playing God, he's deciding who lives and who dies. That's a monster in my book. SAM No. We're not going to kill a human being Dean. We do that we're no better than he is.

Dean applies the same reasoning in 1.14 with Max:

SAM These visions, this whole time -- I wasn't connecting to the Millers, I was connecting to Max! The thing is I don't get why, man. I guess -- because we're so alike? DEAN What are you talking about. The dude's nothing like you. SAM Well. We both have psychic abilities, we both... DEAN Both what? Sam, Max is a monster, he's already killed two people, now he's gunning for a third.

Despite the exact opposite being the typical fandom perception, early on we learn that Sam tends to define a monster by their features/abilities, while Dean defines a monster by their actions. We see the same with Amy—she is "a monster who killed four people" (7.07) . She isn't a monster because of what she is but because of what she did. This again—is also why Dean doesn't even consider killing her son right after her kid swears to kill him one day. We see Dean, in the rare cases where it comes up, is also perfectly fine with taking out human serial killers they stumble across (ex: Thin Man).

Sam will also kill a human serial killer at times (and murderous witches by 3.09), but he reserves the word "monster" to describe individuals with supernatural features/abilities... and I think the fact that Sam's definition of the term differs from Dean's is something neither brother ever fully realizes about the other, leading at several points to arguments where they are talking past each other and do not understand one another. Sam hears "monster" and thinks "Dean is talking about me", when Dean is operating under a completely different definition of the term that is based on the actions of a person.

When Sam is in a headspace where he is thinking of himself as one of those monsters, he shows increased or lessened sympathy in turns. For example, he assumes Andy's guilt in 2.05 because he is panicked about becoming evil himself and is comparing the two of them (but again—still waits for confirmation) but his sympathy for Max in 1.14 comes from the same comparison with himself. Sam completely misrepresents Amy in 7.03 as an addict who relapsed but more generally is "managing", as a way to compare her with himself... when Amy didn't feed on anyone herself and her actions have absolutely nothing to do with addiction or battling "monstrous urges".

I've been bitching and moaning a lot, but I will reemphasize that there is a more sympathetic reason that Sam shoots Emma—Sam and Dean are both crowding up to the diving board at the deep end of the pool in season 7. Dean's grieving and is drinking extremely heavily to cope and Sam is hallucinating. They are both unraveling at the seams. Neither of them is in a place where they trust the other's judgement because they both know themselves and each other to be unstable. So if we imagine a reality where Sam and Dean give Emma a chance, and it doesn't take, Sam assesses himself and Dean to be in no mental state to cope with a potential surprise attack. It's just that Sam also erroneously compares Amy and Emma when they are not the same, and by doing so, frames Dean wanting to spare Emma but killing Amy as hypocrisy (because they are both "monsters") when Dean's actions are perfectly consistent with his personal ethical code and his definition of a "monster"... and Sam's actions aren't.

[vendettasfanfictioning]

Sam-coded: Analyzing the parallels between Destiel and Sam's arcs with his love interests.

PART 1: JESSICA MOORE

FOREWORD & DISCLAIMER

With a fan community as enormous as Supernatural's, it is fair to assume that most, if not everything, stated here has already been pointed out or dissected multiple times before—especially considering the long span of time that the show has aired and the three years thereafter. The goal of this post is not to claim these ideas as my own but rather to compile and expand on them.

I also want to add that regarding Jessica, specifically, the canon facts about her are incredibly limited what with her only "real" appearance being at the Pilot episode (though she is referenced and alluded to in multiple episodes all throughout).

That said, she had a critical role in shaping Sam's goals, with emphasis on earlier seasons' Sam's development so it felt fitting to start this series off with her.

There are many instances that the fandom has pointed out cinematic parallels between Sam and Jessica & Dean and Castiel. In this post, I would be elaborating on all of the key points I have found, namely: 1. The scripted meeting, 2. Grieving a lover, and other random findings.

1. IN THE BEGINNING (WITH REGARDS TO GOD'S PLAN)

To start, both Sam/Jess and Dean/Cas were fated to meet to serve a higher narrative purpose.

Frankly, I think that is fucking beautiful, but not only that; it can be argued that, if we were to speculate that Sam met Jessica right after he ran away from Dean and John, then Jessica and Castiel did the same thing. They pulled their respective Winchester brother out of hell/a dark place. (That may just be me talking out of my ass, but it's such a poetic concept, isn't it?)

Most importantly though, both parties were doomed by the narrative, but in polar opposite ways.

(Screenshots taken from 5x20)

Sam was destined to love and then lose Jessica for two reasons: to start the story, and to make Sam go down the "dark" path i.e. adjacent to Lucifer, demon blood, evil. Their story was scripted from the get-go, even before Supernatural decided to go metatextual with God.

(Screenshots taken from 15x17)

On the other hand, Dean and Castiel were never meant to be anything more. God himself says that Castiel was supposed to continue obeying heaven, do what he was told, and it is one of (if not the one) that completely separated the Supernatural storyline from any of Chuck's other drafts.

(GIFs from 15x18 and 15x19)

Furthermore, Castiel's love for Dean and Dean's loss of him marks the end of the story and makes Dean defy the role that God made for him. Admittedly, it's a flawed parallel, as Dean has already moved on from being Michael's Sword and the Righteous Man. To that, I say it only further proves the point; their unscripted "profound bond" directly opposed God's word. It was what should have broken the cycle.

And still, both ended in tragedy. It's just that one was written to end that way and the other wrote itself.

2. THE WINCHESTER BROTHERS ON GRIEF

(GIFs are from 1x01 and 12x23)

This segment can't start any other way than with these iconic shots of the Winchesters holding their brother back from running towards the love of their life (as the lover, in question, dies/walks to their death). These shots are the very reason I started this whole analysis, and they speak for themselves.

Even their clothes are inverted here, because Sam and Dean are experiencing the exact same thing. The grief, pain, and helplessness that comes with losing a partner.

(While compiling these, I stumbled upon the eerie realization that the shots attached above and the ones below have swapped color palettes in a way? Granted, that may just be some editing thing. Technology and video quality aside though, you can't deny that the vibrance of the fire vs. the bleakness of Apocalypse World juxtapose aesthetically well with the shots below. Just another one of those, "is it intentional or did Supernatural just run out of options from the sheer breadth of it?")

(Screenshots taken from 1x05 and 8x07)

This parallel in particular is what makes me believe that Supernatural either has amazing writing or just a terrible retention for continuity and reflection. Because, again, Sam and Dean are going through the same damn thing here: guilt. Specifically, the guilt of their lover's death—how both had reasons to believe they could've prevented it.

Also, these are cinematically shot the same way: Jessica and Castiel by the road, a deadpan stare at the Impala as the brothers drive by, then disappearing from sight at a second glance. How else are we to take this other than Dean grieving a lover the same way Sam grieved for his girlfriend? Did they just forget this scene from 1x05 when they filmed 8x07? (Most likely, yeah, but that doesn't disprove its contribution to the narrative.)

The premise is also similar, damningly so, the only notable difference being the formatting, with season 1's monster-of-the-week almost-standalones and season 8's continuous, over-arcing conflict with hell and the tablets.

(Screenshots taken from 1x05 and 8x07)

At the very core, though, is Sam and Dean with their, "I could have—" statements. Sam had visions about Jessica dying, he could have warned her. Dean had Castiel right there at the portal to exit Purgatory, he could have pulled him out. It is that guilt they must carry around and that burden they must bear.

(Screenshots taken from 1x05 and 8x07)

They even give one another the same damn pep talk. Dean saw that Jessica's death was slowly killing Sam, the same way Sam saw that Dean's return from Purgatory without Castiel was tearing Dean apart.

(Screenshots taken from 1x05 and 8x07)

Lastly, here are the verbal acknowledgements of their grief. Because hey, who am I to try to explain subtext and nonverbatim connections.

2.1. TO BE JOHN WINCHESTER'S SON

In this segment, I would like to point out two of the instances that Sam and Dean accepted being compared to John Winchester, both in regards to losing Jessica and Castiel respectively.

(Screenshots taken from 1x20)

Again, this is what the story was all about. Sam and John could or at least find solidarity in this, as was intended for the plot. (They even mirror God and Lucifer here, which is an entirely different can of worms I am not opening today.)

Keep in mind, Sam's always hated how John raised them, but it is evident that he found some comfort with John given their undeniably specific situations.

(Screenshots taken from 13x04 I talked a little more about this arc here)

Sam openly calls Dean out on his John-esque behavior; an irony in itself given that the brothers have long since established that Sam was the one who resembled John the most whereas Dean was always, "yes, sir!" until the very end.

In this very same arc, there is a concerning increase Dean's alcohol consumption—and the use of alcohol as a coping mechanism in itself, rather than the leisurely treat it recurringly was in the show—which are telling signs for the headspace Dean was in.

They both lashed out in John Winchester ways they've internalized over the years growing up. Sam went down the path of self-destructive revenge-seeking, while Dean lashed out by rejecting being a father role to Jack, becoming the "drill sergeant," instead. These traits were what hurt them as children and were the crux of John's grief over Mary's murder. Round and round the cycle goes.

2.2. TO BE LUCIFER'S VICTIM

(GIFs from 5x03 (a) and (b))

Again, another iconic parallel considering Lucifer's go-to trick to getting what he wants was to pose as the person his victims want the most. Another example of this exact same scenario is when Lucifer appears to rock star Vince Vicente as his dead girlfriend (and Vince ended up saying yes.)

In the earlier seasons, the most obvious choice for Sam was of course Jessica, as Lucifer was desperate to get ahold of Sam as a vessel. That was narratively sound, right? Even though 5 seasons (so about 5 years in canon) have passed since Jessica died, Sam hadn't forgotten her and she remained his greatest weakness.

(GIFs from 15x19)

Then on the flip side, during a time the story's well past the Script and God's most definitely free-styling, Lucifer appears again—and it is on God's orders. The devil chose Dean's weakness (Castiel) to blindside him, so Dean ends up running on emotions instead of questioning it.

This happened right after the episode Castiel confessed, and before the episode that Should Not Be Named... That also speaks for itself, doesn't it? Insane, absolute insanity to me.

3. MISCELLANEOUS: SYMBOLISMS & OTHER COINCIDENCES

(Screenshots taken from 1x01 and 14x12)

This is where I might be reaching, but it's a small observation I noticed while bingeing the Pilot episode. Of course, at the time, production likely didn't even put much thought into Jessica's costume, but it's a funny thing to point out all the same. (I screamed a little about Cas' healer motifs here in comparison to Cesar/Jesse if you're interested.)

(Screenshots taken from 1x01 and 10x09)

They both have the same Look when their boyfriend is talking down on himself, I can't even make this shit up.

+ I'm so frickin' tired I cannot look for screenshots anymore but Jessica's cookies plus Castiel's "you don't understand, I need pie," moment in the convenience store resonate with me.

+ Might edit and add more to this later, for now I sleepge.

REFERENCES

1x01: Pilot 1x05: Bloody Mary 1x20: Dead Man's Blood 5x03: Free to be You and Me 5x20: The Devil You Know 8x07: A Little Slice of Kevin 10x09: The Things We Left Behind 12x23: All Along the Watchtower 13x04: The Big Empty 14x12: Prophet and Loss 15x17: Unity 15x18: Despair 15x19: Inherit the Earth

UP NEXT: SARAH BLAKE

[throwupgirl]

mo as my only dr supernatural phd i know. please give your insight on whether canon destiel ending (chaotic, beautiful, national holiday) is better than if they'd actually kissed on screen or at least let dean have a textual fling with a man. putting a plate of cheese out with a big smile

plate of cheese out for me? 🐭

ummm well this is kind of a hard question to answer. bc a lot of people seem to think the "canon destiel ending" was cas dying and going to "super hell" (does not exist. its called THE EMPTY and its a NEUTRAL ZONE where all angels and demons go when they die. and the empty looks like meg [hot] at the end).

however the actual ending in the finale, if taken at face value, is that cas is very much alive and somehow escaped the empty off screen. this isnt a conspiracy they out loud say it in the episode and dean just like smiles into the distance and cas never shows up in episode. so it is purposefully a destiel ambiguous ending.

i do not personally like the finale very much in the context of taking it at face value because its very rushed very badly made a lot of choices i dont understand (release the uriel cut. can anyone hear me). rating it on a scale of destiel on how much i like it as an ending for them specifically? id put it at a solid 6/10 because its very ambiguous and you can make up a continuation of it in your head and there's no sign of negativity/rejection on dean's end. cas is alive, we just didnt see him.

however there is a pretty strong theory by many fans that this ending is Fake (not in a TJLC way just in a 'i have an idea' way) and is actually the bad ending in disguise (known as the Chuck Won Theory) and this one is actually also pretty strongly backed up by the setup of season 15 as a whole and is much easier to explain and put together if youve actually watched season 15. personally its the interpretation of the ending ive gone with because it means i can make up a season 16 in my head and torment dean a little bit more and make an ending that makes more sense.

would it have been better if they had on screen gotten together and maybe kissed? also difficult question to answer due to the outside factors (COVID preventing certain scenes from happening/forcing them to do a lot of rewriting and reshoots) and the inside factors (would the CW writers do it right. personally i trust berens and yockey with my life but anyone else in that writers room id at least hesitate before handing them that). my answer is it would be nice because it wouldve made haters angrier and also ruined tv forever in a big way.

ALSO: to quote tumblr user maj casgirl if they made dean gay but not with cas id be on the news. also dean technically has previously had a textual fling with a man in season 10.

please watch supernaturallllll briar i need to talk abt it with youuuuu

[sageandred]

~My Last Minute, Heartbreak High Wishes for Season 2 ♡♤☆

the Bug Boys saw this on an artpiece, don't wanna take credit, or the asshole BoyFriends-Spider x Ant truly, the only Spider ship that makes sense 2 me; HH pIz say no to the het ship with a yt boy who bullies the ethnic protag Spider and Ant could be the bffs to lovers plagued by toxic masculinity pipeline I've set my mind on at this point. Each of them is gonna like the girl swapped version of the other; it's not over for me until HH officially crushes my dreams. Let their slowburn start at the end of the season, pleeaaaassse!

Still, I wanna see Ant and Harper play out. New of me, but I guess I have a love for a badass girl and a pathetic man.

I'd like to see Quinni have a girlfriend that's good for her with a significant main character at some point (I don't want them to just bring in a recurring character that doesn't have a storyline outside of being her gf). S/o to user for this specific scenario. The trailer shows a shot of Harper and Quinni partying together, which isn't abnormal seeing as they're friends, but it could happen.

I can't help but want Malakai and Amerie together. I just love them! I want Malakai to explore his sexuality, which it looks like is happening. Don't know what to make of Rowan, but I'm super intrigued by the concept of a triangle with ex lovers/fwb both liking the same guy

but I also want the show to explore Malakai's trauma, hinting at it in certain scenarios and letting him deal with it; I can't imagine how with the scenarios he's seemingly set in (Amerie/relationship things; Rowan/his sexuality; Harper), there isn't at least an undertone of his own individual exploration of his trauma and communicating deeper feelings that come up

I have no clue what Sasha's storyline will be, but I saw a clip of the cast talking about her redemption, and I'm interested to see where it goes.

So excited for Darren and Ca$h's storyline. I want to see how they navigate Darren's "hypersexuality" and Ca$h's asexuality and character exploration in both.

Some solo friendship dynamics like Ca$h & Amerie, Quinni & Malakai, Quinni & Ca$h, (Malakai & Ca$h would be interesting to see)

Doesn't have to be a ton, but I'd like to see the parents pop in every once in a while (I liked how they did in season 1- Quinni's dads at the beginning of her centric episode, Amerie's mom popping up every so often, Darren's dad). It should feel like they have parents and a life outside of the high school. And please give me more of Ca$h's grandma

[malicious-compliance-esq]

Okay, I have a (hopefully!) fun discussion question for you in line with the teaching tool I'm working on for my class: Do you think the show sets up Jamie Frasier and BJR as foils and, if so, does it do so effectively?

Goodness @lyledebeast you really cannot give me a better Ask than that!

Answering these questions comprehensively would take a very long time because there are so many different parallels drawn between the two characters across both versions of Outlander canon—the show itself and the novels that inspired it. Indeed, the establishment of Black Jack Randall and Jamie Fraser as foils happens early and consistently in both the TV adaptation and the book series.

So my short answers are: Yes, absolutely the show sets up Jamie and Black Jack as foils. And yes, I think it does so quite effectively!

As a refresher for readers, foils are characters established with intentional comparisons and contrasts to differentiate unique aspects of each persona. Protagonists and antagonists often get established as foils to elucidate one another’s positive and negative qualities. I would definitely say this happens consistently between Jamie and Randall in Outlander canon—and in both directions at that.

Although it would take quite a lot of words, even for me, to provide a comprehensive overview of all the specific things both the show and the books do to establish Black Jack and Jamie as foils for one another, I can give a concise overview of the foundational work each version of canon does to set up the continuous parallels drawn between the two characters. The original Ask addresses the show specifically, but I’d never miss an opportunity to encourage y’all to flex your reading muscles! So I’ll include additional details provided in the books for context that enhance the TV adaptation’s framing of Randall and Jamie as foils.

For my money, there’s no better illustration of the foil dynamic between the two men than the juxtaposition of the two main flogging incidents from Season 1 of the TV show and its equivalent content in Book 1 / Outlander in the novel series. First is the retrospectively narrated 1740 sequence set at Fort William, wherein Randall flayed the upper layers of skin clean off Jamie’s back with with a nine-tail whip. Second is the live-action 1743 sequence set at Castle Leoch after Claire Beauchamp gets rescued from Fort William, wherein Jamie beats her with a belt for disobeying him and thus putting himself and his clan in danger.

On the show the belt scene is played mostly for laughs, but we do get an edgy scene subsequently in which Claire menaces Jamie with a knife and tells him he’d better never raise a hand to her again unless he’d like to get dismembered. I enjoyed that scene quite a bit. Stick him with the pointy end and all that! That said, it’s missing a critical bit of intrigue from the books that further cements the foil dynamic between Randall and Jamie. Specifically: In the book version, Jamie explicitly tells Claire that he got a sexual charge out of beating her because of how angry she got and how feisty it made her.

If this sounds familiar, consider how Black Jack tries everything he possibly can to get emotional responses out of Jamie. Not just while raping him at Wentworth Prison, but also years before while flogging him at Fort William. His whole aim in whipping Jamie that second time was to get him to cave and have sex with him, having made a bizarrely earnest proposition the previous evening that got rejected after Jamie gave it some thought.

Rather a lot of thought, to wit. In both the show and the novels, Jamie notes that he ultimately turned Black Jack down because he didn’t want to let his dad down by ceding control to someone else. He doesn’t indicate being put off himself by the idea of having sex with another man. Likewise, he doesn’t think his dad would be disappointed in him for sleeping with a guy if he did that of his own volition. Randall seems fully cognizant in both versions of canon of Jamie feeling some conflicted attraction to him and enjoying winding him up. So he figures it’ll take more effort to persuade Jamie to his position.

I’ve explored this in my “Shaking in the Light” fic wherein Black Jack explains the Fort William incident to Mary in his own words. In both that “Dispatches from Fort Laggan” continuity and several of my other stories, Black Jack and Jamie discuss the flogging and each of their respective motivations in that interaction. All of this draws on the canonically established character traits of both Jamie (physically, as established by his own behavior at multiple timepoints including the beating he wholly unnecessarily jumps at the chance to take for Laoghaire MacKenzie) and Black Jack (emotionally, as established by the Duke of Sandringham’s comments about him) being gluttons for pain.

Perhaps the greatest irony here is that between Black Jack and Jamie, we only ever get evidence of one of them beating his wife—and it very much isn’t Randall. Confirmed later via Black Jack’s son Denys Randall in Book 9 / Go Tell the Bees That I Am Gone wherein Denys contrasts his mother Mary Hawkins’s memories of his father with her experiences of being married to his stepfather Robert Isaacs, who did beat her. Tracks absolutely with what we knew about Black Jack when he was still alive, mind. Whatever else one might say about him, he was always good to his family and cared about doing the best he could for them.

Then of course there’s Claire herself constantly fearing losing Jamie to Black Jack in both versions of canon. An understandable fear given how resoundingly obsessed Jamie remains with Randall even decades after his death! During early installments when Black Jack still lives, Jamie keeps deliberately goading him into snapping and doing violent things to him.

NB: It absolutely is not Jamie’s fault that Randall rapes him. Anyone who thinks the survivor of a rape is ever at fault for what happens, no matter what they did, can shut the entire fuck up.

However, in many other cases Jamie does go out of his way to antagonize Randall and goad him into fighting with him. The best example of this is the duel (actually multiple duels given the first one gets averted) to which Jamie challenges Randall in Season 2 and Book 2 / Dragonfly in Amber respectively. Definitely one cluster among several, though.

And Claire is far from the only person who notices this. Perhaps the best narration of these observations though comes from Dougal MacKenzie, whose disparaging comments about Jamie in Season 1 of the show are amplified to a damning degree by additional context from Book 1 in the novel series. When Dougal is giving Claire his own retrospective on the events at Fort William three years prior, Claire asks him why he’s telling her all this. He says he thought it might serve as an illustration of character. She thinks he’s only referring to Randall at first, but he clears up this misconception swiftly. He’s definitely referring to both men—and he isn’t wrong in the slightest.

Both the books and the show include a recurring theme of Black Jack and Jamie experiencing a lot of the same stuff emotionally but only one of them actually understanding the assignment of what’s going on between them. Nowhere is this more clear than in S1E15 “Wentworth Prison” on the TV series, wherein Randall sits down solemnly across from Jamie and asks him why he’d rather die than so much as talk to him.

The interaction that follows is about as close as Black Jack ever comes himself to saying the unsaid, which is fairly clear from both the show and the books. He’s trying persistently to get Jamie to understand that he understands what it’s like both to be pressured into sex and to feel ashamed of wanting something he knows will be destructive. The show makes it pretty clear that Randall himself is being coerced in all manner of ways, including sexually, by the Duke of Sandringham. I could probably write a full monograph on that dynamic alone! For now I’ll simply note that Black Jack’s explicit awareness of the similarity between himself and Jamie includes that particular dimension of shared experience.

Let’s not discount either that by this point Jamie and Black Jack have each saved each other’s life once already. Randall rescues Jamie from the gallows earlier in the episode looking like he’s about to shit a brick for almost not making it down to the Borders in time. And earlier in the season, in S1E09 “The Reckoning” just before he and Claire jump into the bay to escape, he leaves Black Jack unconscious on the floor of his office instead of slitting his throat. At this point Jamie doesn’t know that Claire has a vested interest in Black Jack remaining alive due to him being her 20th Century husband Frank Randall’s purportedly direct ancestor. He spares his life because he doesn’t want to kill him, and says as much later on.

We see this kind of parallelism a lot with the two of them. Including in Book 2 where we get an explicit retrospective from Black Jack about having “taken from him what he has taken from me” during the night at Wentworth Prison. Randall is both finding comfort in some of the only positive memories he has and trying to explain to Claire that Jamie actually does feel something for him—something particular that she can’t take away no matter how much of a hold she might have on him. Glorious bonuses abound in Book 1 as well given everything else we see from that night that didn’t make it into the TV adaptation. Including Randall sobbing copiously and telling Jamie he loves him, begging him to admit he loves him too.

Then there’s also a show bonus for that element of canon: the infamous “don’t stop” sequence from early in S2E02 “Not in Scotland Anymore” when Jamie is having one of his many dreams about Black Jack. TL;DR: A basic functional understanding of anal sex allows clear determination of which man is getting penetrated in that footage. Randall is eating it up and begging Jamie for more. Iconic. Also totally in character.

Again, every character-establishing moment we’ve gotten for Black Jack up to this point indicates clearly that he’s desperate for people to respond to him with passionate emotions. He’ll take what he can get obviously; if that means making someone furious with him or frightened of him he feels that’s better than nothing. But it’s not what he wants most. Jamie reflects this valuation of passion himself many times in both versions of canon, including but not remotely limited to the belt scene referenced above.

In the books it’s likewise strongly implied (before being confirmed later by Randall himself) that Jamie fucked him later in the night while they were both delirious and losing their minds in that dungeon cell at Wentworth. What he says to Claire in S1E16 “To Ransom a Man’s Soul” about Black Jack succeeding in making him realize things he wanted makes far more sense in light of this additional information from Book 2 and the show canon exchange between Claire and Black Jack at the tavern in Inverness where a grieving Randall is busily drinking himself into a stupor.

That about covers the early foundations here. Of course a key difference between the two men—and indeed a central driver of both their dynamic as foils and their antagonism of one another—is the difference from one man to the other in acceptance of sexuality.

Although very aware and resentful of the stigma surrounding both bisexuality and sadomasochism, Black Jack accepts his sexuality enough to be fairly open about it in comparison to other canonical queer characters in the Outlander universe. He does this with a considerable amount of internalized self-loathing, sardonically referring to his “unnatural tastes” and noting he’s well aware of how people see him. But he doesn’t deny his sexuality or attempt to escape it.

Jamie, by contrast, never manages (at least so far) to square with his capacity for attraction to people of similar sex and gender. He remains haunted for decades on end by his constant dreams about Randall, a plotline developed much more in the books than on the show. But damned if the dreams we do see on the show—as described above—aren’t incredibly telling.

In the books Jamie’s dreams about Black Jack only get more sexual over time. He becomes consumed with the dreams to the point of rambling about them constantly to his wife and his sister, both of whom have also experienced Randall getting frisky with them unsolicited. At one point in both the show and the books, Jamie notes to Claire that Randall absolutely succeeded in making him realized he wanted sexual intimacy with men. Then there’s also his sexually and romantically charged friendship with Lord John Grey, who himself has always been open with Jamie about his feelings beyond the platonic. But he still never acts on it—at least so far, though that could change in Book 10 and/or the final season of the show which will cover that content.

For now, I’ll note that Jamie’s dreams also clearly delineate the dynamic of him and Black Jack being foils. And for a final bonus, consider the dream sequence from Book 6 / A Breath of Snow and Ashes suggesting Black Jack as a foil for himself when he shows up in mirror image on both sides of Jamie. That, dear readers, is another topic for another time!

[shirtlesssammy]

Dean Winchester's Multiverse Adventures

"Every notebook on this particular shelf tells a version of how you die. You specifically: heart attack, burned by a red-haired witch, stabbed by a ghoul in a graveyard, and on and on... But which one’s right? That depends on you, on the choices you make." Billie says this in Supernatural season 13, Advanced Thanatology. The books are impersonal portals into Dean's own personal multiverse.

When Mary Campbell talks to John about her experiences in the gateway between worlds, she tells him that she saw "everything - every possible version of myself." In the space between the worlds, she sees herself - her beginnings and endings, her triumphs and failures. First of all, it's pretty impressive that she's not insane after this. Mary's always been stronger than we gave her credit for. But the space between the worlds sounds shockingly personal.

In Supernatural, we got a multiverse which brought us back versions of long-dead characters, and we made our way to those worlds through god-level powers. Angels may have brought us there during the Kripke era (or it may have been Zachariah's illusion skillz?). Jack's impending birth split reality - ostensibly because he was so powerfully strong. However, I propose that there is no time and space when you're talking about god-powers. Jack became God and his heaven is apparently lousy with portals to other worlds. Jack became God and his birth was riddled with portals to other worlds. Is it the godhood, or a future story that will tell us exactly why he's the key to world traveling? When you're dealing with time and space, your ending exists alongside your beginning, after all. This is a rich area to explore! The void could be where the god-powers live - the special view into the multi-verse that let Chuck see it all.

Anyway, I digress. Dean Winchester's driving through Heaven. He's heavily traumatized. The man just died, after all. In doing so, he left Sammy behind to stumble through life on his own (abandoning Sam is its own kind of trauma). He lost his best friend in the most agonizing way. And I think the Dean we saw in the finale was terrified to meddle in those larger patterns of destiny - those cosmic forces that ripped so much of his selfhood from him. He's trying to find himself and who he should be (hello, job application), he's trying to convince himself that "what's dead should stay dead" (Cas sacrificed himself and they need to accept that and live their lives), and it all feels...terrible (beer bottles everywhere). Maybe because he's looking for something new once he gets to Heaven, maybe Chuck's obsession with Dean and his car gave them extra powers, maybe future!Dean gives himself those powers and we don't even know it yet...Dean finds those cracks in Heaven's armor that lets him slip through to other worlds.

It's one thing to think of Dean slipping blithely from world to world, with his view of his other selves a bit myopic. He could take a trip to Squirrel World, and a trip to Dean Smith Verse, and that one world where everyone's a mermaid. After all, he's only seeing a sampling of AUs, just like he did in Supernatural. Right??? But Mary says she saw every version of herself when she was in the space between the worlds. Think of what that must have been like for Dean! Just stepping into that void is enough to see everything. He doesn't even need to put a toe into another doorway to know himself more than anybody should. He knows himself more than he would from reading through Death's books because the void between the worlds also shows his lives. He's dead and therefore more tear-proof in the void. I propose that he saw it all and retained it too. And being Dean Winchester, he probably focused on the worst aspects of himself.

The Dean we see in the Winchesters finale carries a sorrow that I think can provide a rich well to explore in (hopefully) future Supernatural properties. I think it's important to understand that the Dean we see would have also experienced Mary's revelation: he must have seen every version of himself. His family history spiders out from there - Dean's heard his own story out of Chuck's mouth often enough to follow the threads. I think Dean saw all of his lives and wondered if he really was cursed, or broken. I think he mostly saw sorrow. There can be no peace - no pacification in Heaven - with that weighty burden.

Dean Winchester knows all about death. He's died over a hundred times and that was just in his OWN world. What Dean doesn't understand - the frontier he's so rarely pursued - is living. In future multiverse adventures (please, please, please) I think he's going to finally learn about that.

[autisticandroids]

one thing that makes me feel crazy is when people like. man this is about to sound like a "slash fans devalue male friendship" ass take which is not like. what i'm saying. but people like. they don't differentiate between ordinary care and romantic love. if that makes sense. like one thing i have noticed is that fanfictions and posts will kind of blur the line between dean caring about cas at all, or dean being closer to cas than sam is, and dean being in love with cas.

like, to me, the general vibes of evidence that dean is in love with cas goes as follows: 1) i think dean is gay, 2) i think dean essentially treats cas as a life partner, 3) it's clear to me that dean has some degree of repression and secrecy in his relationship to cas, and 4) there are certain specific behaviors that dean engages in with cas (touching him a lot, being obsessed with his sex life, etc.) that i think sexualize their relationship to some extent.

and each of these categories on their own doesn't really mean that dean is in love with cas. like, for an easy example, dean could be gay and simply not in love with his best friend. like just because dean and benny fucked raw against a tree in purgatory doesn't mean dean wants to get with cas.

the life partner thing is sticky specifically for dean because he's also treated sam that way in the past and i don't think dean is in love with his brother lol. like i think for a lot of people their experience of romantic love and their experience of having a life partner-esque relationship are like, the same thing? the venn diagram is a circle? but that's not dean's experience.

the repression is harder to handwave away, but i think you can reasonably argue that dean is repressed in all his affection because he has a masculinity complex about showing vulnerability.

and then there's the sexualized behaviors which like. honestly on their own they are indicative of at the very least a crush. come on man. there's only two things i know for certain etc.

i think these four pieces of evidence, taken together as a whole picture rather than individually, are evidence that dean is in love with cas. but i don't think any of them on their own is really proof of that except maybe number 4, but even then crushes are fleeting, they fade, dean making heart eyes in season five doesn't necessarily mean he was *in lurve* in season ten. like you need to look at all the evidence for a complete picture.

and it's notable that there's a lot of behavior i don't really put here at all. like i don't think a lot of the care dean shows cas can reasonably be argued to be evidence that dean is in love with cas, or like, i don't think dean's extreme jealousy and possessiveness is indicative of that either because he is also jealous and possessive of his family members (at least, sam and mary) and he would probably be possessive of anyone else he was super close to if there was anybody. the only person we've seen dean get that close to and not get jealous over is bobby, which is interesting but i think mostly comes down to the fact that dean sees bobby as an authority figure over him rather than the other way 'round.

(also a little off topic but i'm always saying this and it bears repeating: i also think dean is happy in their relationship as it is in the late seasons, at least 13/14/15, like i think that what he wants, he has. the positive things that would result from them making it official are 1) dean unpacking his own sexuality would be good for him in a variety of complex ways that mostly don't really directly touch on his relationship with cas and are more related to his own identity, 2) cas would be a LOT happier for a variety of obvious and not-so-obvious reasons that i won't enumerate here because they're not really relevant to the dean analysis i'm doing, and 2.5) with the relationship now named, dean would be forced to contemplate and think about his relationship with cas and what it consists of, instead of just using it as a building block of his life without really looking at it. anyway, don't get me wrong, dean would be very happy to be explicitly in a romantic relationship with cas. but he's also very happy in a platonic domestic partnership.)

(also re: the abandonment issues objection: personally i think dean has fewer abandonment issues as the show goes on and sam and cas stop leaving/trying to (for evidence, see the divorce arc: dean is extremely confident that cas won't leave, so he feels comfortable taking out his anger and pain on cas, and is then shocked when this drives cas away), and i don't really think getting into a relationship would either increase or decrease his level of abandonment issues anyway.)

anyway the thing is that this is all motivated by a fanfic i saw that assumed that it would be logical for sam not to differentiate between "dean and cas' relationship is close and intense, and certainly dean has more of a right to cas' time than i do by dint of how close our different relationships to cas are" and "dean and cas are In Love." when it's like... no. i think that from, say, sam's point of view, from what sam has seen, it's perfectly logical to simply think dean and cas are extremely close.

(personally imo if sam knows dean is in love with cas it's because sam already suspects that dean is gay from the evidence he has from other situations (e.g. the siren, the way dean acted with benny), and because he has that information, he can then put two and two together wrt. dean and cas' extreme closeness. like just the closeness isn't enough.)

and then i started thinking about another fic i read which wove the concept of dean and cas being in love into the homeless cas arc in a way that made me feel like the author was failing to differentiate between dean being in love with cas and showing him basic care. like in fact i think that dean was both in love with cas in season nine and a phenomenally shitty friend and person to him during that time, both are true.

anyway the point of this essay is elusive to me it's a collection of thoughts that don't quite fit together in a way i can verbalize but essentially it's... i don't know. people inject too much romance (and too many ideas about romance) into destiel even though destiel is a romantic relationship? that's not right but it's part of it. there's not only one way to interpret most of dean's actions even though overall they paint a specific picture? that's also not it even though it's in there. people can be important to each other without being in love, and person a being important to person b is not good evidence that person b is in love with person a? that's closer to what i was going for.

anyway the thing is i do think dean is in love with cas and that this is the most accurate reading of the text but i don't think it's obvious and it's definitely not obvious to anyone but the audience because only the audience has all the evidence from which this conclusion can be drawn.

[quietwingsinthesky]

8 and 16 for the choose violence ask

8. Common fandom opinion that everyone is wrong about.

That Dean would return Cas’s love confession

Okay no actually you know what. I’m gonna talk about that. Maybe it’s just me being deep in Aro!Dean land, but I’m not seeing it. I’m not seeing at any point in the show where Dean loved Castiel. And I’ve been looking, I swear, but I’m. There’s no destiel on my screen. There is a lot more sastiel than I remember but there’s no destiel happening on my screen! There IS a lot of Castiel clearly having Problems and Issues and Angst about dean, and. Zero doubt here there that that angel wants to fuck him. But I honestly can’t imagine any happy ending for dean that revolves solely or even mostly around a romantic attachment. That man is hardwired for family being the most important thing to him, and I love that. Aro!Dean wins again.

Other notable things include: headcanoning Sam as not queer/trans because he’s too boring. Talked about that. Weird fucking opinion to have. That Gabriel is not exactly as fucked up as the other archangels, especially when presenting sabriel as the Good Sam Ship as opposed to samifer. My dudes, did we not watch mystery spot, do the reading. Also. Also. Not acknowledging the really clear character degradation of Lucifer in the later seasons/attributing later seasons stuff to how he acts in s5, just a personal gripe because whatever, people can read him however they want, but I really feel like on a meta level you gotta talk about how these are Two Different Characters who just happen to have been jammed into the same character. Okay. I think that’s it.

16. You can’t understand why people like this thing (characterization, trope, headcanon, etc.)

I do not like coffee shops AUs. Actually, it’s more that im Extremely picky about AUs that aren’t canon divergence, and will drop them immediately the minute I feel like I’m no longer reading about the characters I like and am instead reading about Generic Guys who say funny quips and then kiss. Which is not a coffee shop au specific problem but the frequency with which that kind of au attracts that writing means I have kind of been turned off from ever reading them again.

if you are writing Sam into your coffee shop au and at some point he does not drop some insane backstory about the time he was kidnapped and forced to fight to the death with a bunch of other college kids, you have failed at writing this au and I am banishing you to the shadow realm /j

The other thing that I do not understand at all, and this extends into a problem with canon, I’m well aware, is how happily people will accept the idea that Castiel is rebellious/different from other angels because he was just Made Wrong. he’s too Broken to be like a real angel. that all the other angels are mindless drones and Castiel is the one good one who could learn about free will, usually justified with it being that “his love for dean is what makes him special”, but even outside of destiel circles, this kind of thing gets very annoying lmao.

And it’s just. That’s wrong. The show might have decided post-s8 that it believed this about Castiel but it’s False and Bad. I’m gesturing wildly at Uriel and Anna and Gabriel and Lucifer and Balthazar and Michael and shit what’s that one angel doing pinball I love them, them too, and Castiel is not special!!! He should not be special!!! All angels have the capacity for free will, they are living under a terrifying system of suppression that has stripped them of their ability to use it and has taught them that when an angel does something they disagree with, killing them is a mercy! (See: the implications of that one angel healer in s9 + Uriel and Cas being sent to kill Anna for falling in s4)

CASTIEL IS NOT SPECIAL. STOP SAYING HE IS SPECIAL. THE CRACK IN THE CHASSIS LINE IS BAD TO HOLD UP AS EVIDENCE OF HIM BEING UNIQUELY FLAWED.

ahem. sorry. i like the supernatural angels. i think making castiel into some separate special being who is the only one capable of rebelling and feeling love and etc does a massive disservice to the heaven storylines and angels as a whole. i think the show’s choice to never have another major angel character who wasn’t killed off quickly/made “too evil” to redeem was a bad decision and contributes to this view of cas as Different and The Good One.

[mlobsters]

supernatural s13e23 let the good times roll (w. andrew dabb)

well, carry on my wayward son has lost pretty all of its emotional punch that it once had for me back in the early seasons.

the moment we see sam in front of the corkboard and "the ice caps are melting" i felt like i was going to combust. what is this nonsense. our-earth 101 catching them up to speed even though we're just here to regroup and arm up before a showdown with michael? and how long was the apocalypse apocalypsing over there? longer than it would have without the boys to stop it in 2010 or whatever? mortifying. i fast forwarded. i don't need the spn cliffs notes on awful things here too

you want to hear some nonsense? i was sort of looking forward to yesterday's episode. i don't know why. well, it disabused me of that notion right quick.

why are we on some rando werewolf hunt

man mary is beautiful. and sure, she and bobby get umbrellas

MARY So what are you gonna do now? BOBBY Honestly, I got no clue. Everyone seems to be settling in okay in town. Ketch is out doing Ketch things. Rowena and Charlie are road tripping it through the Southwest.

i get that it's for production reasons they're not gonna have the whole cast around but hokay.

BOBBY Anyways...without an archangel, it's not like we can go back home. And I'm not sure I'd want to.

all right then. obviously, shit's gonna happen with lucifer and michael though right. don't have a lot of episodes left (lol) and i know michael gets all up in there at some point

DEAN Hey, you remember...remember when you asked if we could stop it? All the evil in the world? SAM Yeah. DEAN If we could...really change things? Well, maybe with Jack, we can. SAM Maybe you're right. But then what will we do? DEAN Mm. Yeah. This. (Dean holds a beer he has been carrying and Sam looks down at his) A whole lot of this. But on a beach somewhere, you know? Can you imagine? You, me, Cass, toes in the sand, couple of them little umbrella drinks. Matching Hawaiian shirts, obviously. Some hula girls. SAM (scoffing) You talking about retiring? You? DEAN If I knew the world was safe? Hell, yeah. And you know why? 'Cause we freaking earned it, man. SAM (holding up his beer) I'll drink to that. DEAN Yeah. Hell, yeah.

being optimistic is surely a sign for everything to turn to absolute shit. is cas gonna wear the trench over the hawaiian shirt? he's awfully commited to that look

tired of myself talking about this show.

DEAN Jack? Hey. Hey, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa. Easy. You're just having a bad dream. JACK Sorry. DEAN It's okay. You don't have to apologize. I have 'em, too. All the time. JACK You do? DEAN Sure. JACK You, um... What do you see? DEAN Well, depends. Mostly... mostly people I couldn't save.

thanks for saying that i guess, pretty sure he's only gonna talk to someone that's zoned as a kid about it. but without specifics of course

DEAN Jack... it's not about being strong. I mean...Look, I don't know what you saw over there, and I don't know what you went through. I know it was bad. But I also know that you came out the other side because you are strong. But even when we're strong, man, things are gonna happen. We're gonna make mistakes. Nobody's perfect. Right? But we can get better. Every day, we can get better. So whatever you're dealing with, you know, whatever...whatever comes at us, we'll figure out a way to deal with it, together. You're family, kid, and we look after our own.

needed some Quality Dad Bonding time between jack and dean, i guess now that he's not convinced he's gonna go evil and blow up the world. also always slightly amused that jack's actor, alexander calvert, is 27 at this point

didn't take long for lucifer to show up

jack flitting off to basically kill this guy with no proof of wrongdoing, like. it's such a weird character because he's an adult, i think in world he's supposed be i dunno, late teens? and he's got a very childlike view of events. it's like infantilizing except that he is basically a baby with extremely limited life experince so?? i dunno. doesn't really work for me on the regular

in a way i wish pellegrino had a different role so i could like the character he's playing. i want to believe this thing with jack because he's just so good at being sincere and horrible. like, some fucking random play at getting jack on his side is making me cry??? because the idea of starting over and him actually leaving everyone alone is just so... i wish.

MARY Sam, even if we find Lucifer, how we gonna stop him?

did they lose their archangel blade over in au world?

MAGGIE Does it matter? Kinda seems like you have bigger, you know, Satan-y problems. SAM Yeah, but -- but we're -- we're dealing with those. Mostly.

the little muttered "mostly" did get a chuckle out of me

CASTIEL Yeah, angel radio is nothing but static, which is disturbing.

i mean there's only what, 9 angels left anyway lol

laughing at this ridiculous slow float downstairs while they shoot at him, knowing nothing is going to do anything

well. that big reveal of lucifer is actually evil to jack thing, well played by pellegrino as i'd expect. did not expect him flashing out of there with jack and sammy in tow.

DEAN No. What if...what if you had your sword?

well. i wondered what on earth could get dean to say yes.

LUCIFER Wow, Daddy Sammy coming to the rescue. But your little Jackie, the nougat-loving boy that you had before, he's killed people. He's got lots of blood on his hands. SAM (standing) I don't care. He's family.

i mean, so has sam and the rest of their family so?? not exactly a convincing argument :p

DEAN (to Castiel) Lucifer has Sam. He has Jack. Cass, I don't have a choice! DEAN (To Michael) If we do this, it's a one-time deal. I'm in charge. You're the engine, but I'm behind the wheel. Understand?

i'm sure that'll work out fine

mmmk.

convenient that michael and lucifer brought the archangel blades with them so we can have a little showdown

lol reminds me of the matrix training with morpheus fight but cheesier. and we're just gonna have a fist fight in the air. oy

are they actually committing to killing lucifer? his character was more than done but sad to see pellegrino leave, but glad that plotline is over finally

SAM You did it. DEAN No. No, we did it. We did it.

and dean immediately hunches over in pain and it's like s8e23 all over again

and now michael has his special sword vessel and he broke the deal and they can't go killing him while he's wearing dean, right. wonder how long that's gonna drag on in the next season. i haven't seen a lot of gifs of michael!dean so lol i figure it can't be that long??

[ananke-xiii]

As much as it pains me to say it (because of my visceral dislike of the BMoL storyline), “The Raid” is a good episode. So far in the season the BMoL hasn’t succeeded in recruiting any American hunter but Mary Winchester. We’re mid-season now, it’s time for The One where the BMoL seduce Sam and Dean. And Mary is the key. And Sam picks a side. And he’s wrong, of course. (in a cruel twist of fate, I’m starting to suspect I should be “grateful” to SPN writers for writing a main character who’s always so blatantly wrong. Like, without Sam (and Cas) consistently screwing things up we would have no plot and therefore no SPN, so thank you??? I guess???). Anyway, let’s see what this seduction is about.

Quick note before I continue: as per classic SPN, the ones that die.die.die are women and black people. This episode is, sadly, no exception. Billie, Benjamin, The Vampire Alpha, the “Death Siren” music producer + other extras. I mean, come.the fuck.on. Ugh.

“I’m not just a mom”.

Mary is this episode’s (well, obvs primarily this season’s) keystone. She came clean to Sam and Dean about her involvement with the BMoL in “Family Feud” and now she’s facing the consequences of her actions. Her sons (well, mostly Dean) throws her out of the bunker. Dean is pissed, Sam is… how is Sam?

Sam: Look I-I am pissed and – and frustrated and confused, too. But we've frozen her out for days.

Firstly, let me say that the use of the verb “to freeze” in relation to Mary The Fridged-Unfridged-Refridged-Character-Of-All-Time is… hilarious, not gonna lie.

Secondly, Sam is pissed, too, okay? But he’s not THAT pissed. He wants to hear her out. This is big because, so far in the season, Sam hasn’t exactly showed a propensity towards communicating with Mary. She wanted space, he gave her space. She didn’t text him, he didn’t text her. So why is Sam suddenly so interested in Mary? I think it has to do with the fact that she has clearly stated that she’s their mother but she’s not just a mom. I’ve talked about how Sam is subconsciously very VERY VERY pissed at Mary, specifically at her role as his mother. Sam is known to be able to easily compartmentalize events, things, people, feelings into what he can handle and what he can’t. He can’t handle his mother right now but he thinks he can handle Mary.

Dean calls bullshit on his excuse:

Dean: She lied to us, Sam. Sam: I know. Dean: For months. Sam: I know, but it's Mom! I mean, whatever she was doing, she must've had a good reason. Dean: A good reason? A good reason for working with those ass clowns? Sam: Look, I hear you, all right? But – but at the end of the day, she's family. We owe it to her to at least –

In “Lily Sunders has Some Regrets” Sam says something similar about Kelly and Jack: “at the end of the day it’s a mom and her kid”. I mean, this starts to sound like a mantra he tells himself in order to avoid sorting out his feelings. Of course, she had her good reasons, but can Sam accept those reasons for what they are while disagreeing with his mother and being pissed at her for making wrong decisions? Spoiler alert: Sam cannot. So, at the end of the day what can he do? He can play neutral and, again, Dean calls bullshit:

Dean: And this whole peacemaker shtick that you've been running, first with Cas, now with Mom, it's getting old, man. Sam: What's that supposed to mean? Dean: You're always playing the middle, Sam. For once, why don't you pick a side?

(And, again, it’s just hilarious that Dean’s saying this, Mr-Pick-A-Bloody-Side, lol, Bob Berens knows his references)(also, wait so is it Sam who’s stuck in the middle with them (ep12, Sam: “Mom... what the hell did you get us into”)? Oh-oh, yeah guys, Sam is very VERY VERY pissed at Mary)

Picking a side.

If it wasn’t clear, Mary is not a saint, okay? And the previous episode did show us a mother, Rowena, being cunning and evil and getting her revenge. You don’t mess with mothers in this show, cause they are not “just moms”. So Mary plays her “Sam we need to meet. It’s urgent” card and boom, Sam is baited. She didn’t send the same message to Dean, we have two clear shots of her text chats with both her sons. Mary is smart. The only good thing Ketch has ever said in the whole of SPN is that they [the BMoL] didn’t need Sam and Dean because they already had the best Winchester, i.e. Mary. He was not wrong.

So now the brothers are split and the seduction game can begin.

In order to seduce the brothers, Mick and Ketch must find out either what they want or what they need. To be fair, Ketch is better at this than Mick, Mick so completely lucks out in this episode, like he literally cannot believe that, in the end, he’s the one who’s succeeded in attracting Sam (he really, really needs to send a fruit basket to Mary for this). What do Sam and Dean want? Well, good question, let’s skip it for now. So what do they need?

Let’s start with Dean cause it’s easier and he literally tells us. He needs to hit something. Now. Oh, and he also needs drinks, plural. But, he hasn’t been able to find a case and he’s alone in the bunker with no alcohol around. (so reminiscent of s11 Crowley drinking alone vs Dean and Cas on a fake beer run, Berens did study). The magic can begin: knock knock who’s there? It’s jolly good pal Ketch with a bottle of great scotch, a nest of 10 vamps to kill and a lot of fun toys to play with. This is the perfect recipe for Dean but Ketch still fails at seducing him and we’ll see in a moment why.

On the other hand we have Sam, what does Sam need? To be honest with you, I don’t really know. Like, textually, Mary tells him three times that “he needed to know” and she successfully baits him and is able to give him her sales pitch so I guess she was right, that’s what Sam needed. And knowledge is a huge part of who Sam is, this episode in particular shows us how his knowledge is far superior than any other hunter and how it’s the only thing that saves them (well, that saves only Sam, Mary, Mick and the Hunter King of Baton Rouge ‘cause the rest of the BMoL is dead). The show is ambivalent in this regard, sometimes I think Sam wants out, sometimes I think he wants to keep hunting but in a different way, sometimes I think he’s more or less fine with his life… I mean, really, I don’t know. But the show ended with Sam getting out of the life so I must presume that Dabb’s endgame was exactly that.

Anyway, let’s go back to the seduction thing. Mick, by pure chance, manages to seduce Sam with the illusion of organization and method. Sam wants to be a part of it because he thinks they’re changing the world which is ridiculous because the audience has literally just watched how unorganized and unprepared the BMoL are. And I’m not talking about the vampire attack against the base, but we see Ketch going on a hunt certain of his intel but when he arrives at the supposedly vamp-infested motel he finds only one of them. So I think that, all in all, even if I don’t know what Sam needs I think I know what he wants and he wants power (the knowledge he has, the power he wants). He sees the results: the Alpha is dead, doesn’t matter how bad the night was, he sees it as an opportunity and he wants in.

Mick thought they had failed to “attract the, uh, top shelf of American Hunters. Like you” but he actually managed to work well with Sam, they worked in sync to kill the Alpha and that’s not something that goes unnoticed. A connection has been made between the two and Sam picks a side.

On the other hand Ketch’s seduction fails. Dean and Ketch don’t work well together, they’re not on the same page. Ketch reminds Dean that he’s a killer (“You’re a killer, Dean Winchester”, the same line Rowena uttered in “Regarding Dean”) and that they share the same “inclinations” but he’s wrong. What drives Dean is not a crazy impulse to kill but it’s family.

Dean: (to Mary) When I thought something might've happened to you, nothing else mattered. Mary: Dean, the things I said – Dean: No, Mom, you were... It's not your job to make my lunch and kiss me good night. It's – We're adults. You're gonna make your own choices, even if I don't like 'em. Even if I really, really don't like 'em. That's just something I'm gonna have to get used to. Okay, Mom?Mary: Yeah.

(I really really wanna ask: whose job is it to make you lunch and kiss you good night, Dean? 'Cause I know you've given that a thought and you might have an answer, share with the class, maybe?)

And just like that, even if this was an episode where Sam and Mary finally have some screen-time together and manage to somehow connect, we are once again reminded that Dean is the only one who’s putting in the work to establish a relationship with her and who’s willing to sort out his feelings about their frankly messed-up situation. Dean is growing up a lot, being in your late thirties changes your perspective on life, man. Ain’t nobody got time for bullshit anymore.

To the way things are supposed to be.

I love when Sam delivers his little manipulative speech and people fall for it. every.time. He’s that bitch, after all. So one thing is sure now: although Sam has picked the wrong side, he’s aware that they cannot go back to how things were, how things were supposed to be. This will be incorrect as far as the BMoL storyline is concerned (voice of the narrator: things will go back as they were, hunters and vampires, cops and robbers, a fair fight), but it’s correct in terms of Sam’s relationship with Mary: it’s a small step compared to Dean’s emotional growth this season, but Sam is also (slowly) starting to realize that they are indeed adults, Mary is indeed not just a mom and, more importantly, he doesn’t want to go back, he wants to change the world (voice of the narrator: or so he thinks, poor Sammy).

So yeah, good episode. The Mick/Sam-Ketch/Dean parallels worked really well (Ketch invading the bunker and Sam infiltrating the BMoL’s base is visually cool), the family theme smoothly underpins every dialogue, every character has changed (to varying degree) by the end of the episode and the acting was solid. Cool.

[dont-end-with-blood]

I'm working my way through my first watch of the series and I'm coming to the end of Season 6. Specifically, I'm on episode 20 'The Man Who Would Be King.'

(Please don't give me any major spoilers, this is my first watch of the show and I have tried so hard to avoid spoilers like a plague from Pestilence himself.)

I had no choice but to stop watching to write this theory out. I think Cas is in love with Dean. Moreover, I think everyone knows.

So, here are my reasons for my theory:

1) Throughout season 6, characters that talk about the boys to Castiel often mention or draw reference to his 'weakness' or 'sentiment'. If there is anything this show has taught me, it's that sentiment and love, while not a weakness in isolation, can be used as a weak point.

2) Crowley. In Episode 20, there are so many references and mentions of the boys, specifically Dean. "I can smell the impala on your trenchcoat."

3) Rachel. When Cas' lieutenant greets the boys in Cas' stead, she begins to berate them of their treatment of Cas. It's almost like she's a close friend who can see who Cas' heart belongs to and wants nothing more than to hurt Dean, should he take advantage of Cas.

All of this, for me, points to two very clear things. Number one, Cas is in love with Dean Winchester. Number two, anyone who gets close to Cas, that isn't Dean, seems to know.

I just wanted to know if anyone else agreed with me, saw it too, or after reading this realises it 😊

[kmze]

When stefan said 'I'll get Elena out of my life & get my own life back"(4×18),itfelt like he was yearning to be detached from the triangle BS and when asked specifically about this scene,Paul said he wanted Stefan to have a story of his own outside of MF because he felt Stefan worked better when he was not with the gang.Then he could return & see where his relationship stood with Damon & Elena.I think the writers should have gone with this.I mean yes at this point PW didn't know how far they were gonna go with DE and Plec was still talking about SC on open-ended terms.But I think Paul was probably the only cast member who had some say about his storyline.Early s6 jerk Stefan was probably all Paul's idea and he even admitted mechanic stefan was his pitch.A season's arc or half a season's arc as Special Guest Star on The Originals would have been great for him.At the beginning of tvd s5,even Candice was interested in crossing over.Although I wonder in that case if anyone would have stayed back to watch tvd. lol. (1/2)

2/2) I also think,if tvd was indeed commissioned to be a six season show then the decision to continue beyond s6 without Elena was on the producers,network and the actors who renewed their contract because all of them wanted the show to live even after Nina didn't change her mind.But then they continued to cater to the elena fandoms and actively sabotaged the last two seasons.They had the choice & opportunity to end the show on a high note instead of that ridiculous mess:the brothers sacrificing,elena becoming a doctor and maybe a flash forward of Caroline and Bonnie sitting on a beach at St. Tropez freed from all MF nonsense.

Well the actors all had six season contracts when they signed on, then after six seasons the actors decide if they want to renew or not. Nina didn't want to renew and the others wanted to stay on, I mean the show is not just Nina it's not even just the actors and producers there's hundreds of people who work on the crew, writing staff, production staff etc. All those people are not millionaires like Nina and shouldn't lose their jobs because she wanted to explore other things. I also think people give Paul too much credit for the schtick he does acting like he doesn't care about the show and doesn't remember anything at these cons because it's like whatever man. He's the first one signed up for these conventions and he's got a bourbon line based on the relationship he built with Ian on the show and being brothers so I don't know why people buy his "woe is me" act. While S7 is a mess it's not my least favorite season (that honor goes to S5) and the second half of that season was entertaining, I enjoyed it a lot more on rewatch. I mean from a SC perspective they got tons of great stuff I just think people care way too much about SV and CA since both were just filler props. And S8 was great for SC especially the first half, why would I not want to have two proposals, a wedding, I love you forevers and all the domestic stuff. For Bonnie as well even if I don't really care for BE that's a great ship for Bonnie and she deserved to have that love story.

[samanddeanwerehere]

Ladner Harbour Park, Delta

Ladner Harbour Park, and more specifically the playground in the park, would be on any shortlist of the most recognizable SPN locations in the series.

The park is located across the Fraser River from the village of Ladner, which was itself used extensively for filming over the years.

Like several of the recent locations in the repeat locations series, the park's first appearance was in 1x03 Dead in the Water, where the boys run into Andrea and Lucas.

The park then took a nine year vacation and didn't appear again until 9x23 Do You Believe in Miracles? when it became the first playground entrance to Heaven.

If you go to the park hoping to enter Heaven via this sandbox, you're likely to be disappointed as the sandbox was a set piece added by production.

The playground is particularly notable for being one of the few locations that appeared multiple times on the show as the same location. The boys don't retrace their steps much but Cas did return to the entrance to Heaven five more times. First in 10x02 Reichenbach.

Then again in 10x10 The Hunter Games. Note that except for the sandbox, the playground equipment is part of the park, making this an excellent spot for reenactment pictures/video.

Back again in 10x17 Inside Man. (Cas' leap here is a particularly good one for reenactment.)

We take a little break for Season 11, and when we return the park is doing double duty in 12x15 Somewhere Between Heaven and Earth and we get to see of some of the park beyond the playground. A section not far from the playground was home to the campsite where the unfortunate boyfriend is attacked by a hellhound.

This picnic shelter where the boys meet up with the cops is between the playground and the spot used for the campsite.

And it's the same spot seen near the end after the hellhound is dealt with.

Turn around and you'll see a familiar sign at the entrance to one of the trails - the actual sign says Swenson Walk but the sign posts are the same.

Down that path where Crowley is headed you'll find the trail where Dean and Crowley went hellhound hunting.

And of course, back at the playground, Cas is headed to Heaven once again.

The final appearance of the park was in 12x19 The Future. But wait, you say, the playground entrance to Heaven appears in Season 13 and 14 too. You would be right, but they used Willard Park in Burnaby for those seasons (reportedly the production was not welcome back to this park after this episode).

If you are visiting the park now, there is a little spring horse right in the spot where the sandbox was placed so be careful not to land on it when making your journey to Heaven. The last time I was there I also saw a beautiful owl so potential for good bird watching in addition to location hunting.

While you are out at the park, be sure to check out the nearby Ladner Slough Bridge on McNeely's Way, which featured in a previous post on repeat locations. And the Ladner Harbour Authority Pier which was also used in 10x02 - it's just past the entrance to the park or accessible from the park trails.

Coming up next in repeat locations is the next set of driving footage on 68th St in Delta.