#which is that Dean doesn't believe in hierarchy

[mintconditiondean]

Dear fanfic authors:

If I read one more fic where Dean calls Castiel "Cas" because he somehow thinks that "Castiel" is too long and complicated to pronounce, I'm going to scream

"Castiel" is not hard to pronounce. You know this; we all know this. Dean is not a buffoon. He can easily pronounce Cas's full name. He calls him "Cas" because he's a cutie pie who likes giving people nicknames, not because he thinks "Castiel" is too hard to say

Please take this to heart and think about what you've done

[scoobydoodean]

i gotta wonder why castiel, in claire's body, seemed to be hesitating to heal jimmy in "the rapture" episode. like he was saying "time to go to your real home in heaven" when jimmy was bleeding to death from a bullet wound. at this point castiel was like. freshly lobotomized so he might've just been being more ruthless in an attempt to manipulate jimmy into allowing castiel back in. but i always am a bit confused and was wondering if you had any thoughts

I think this very much has to do with "heaven's persuasion" as Cas calls it at the time. 4.20 "The Rapture" starts with Cas having learned that heaven will intentionally start the apocalypse and kill millions of humans in the process. He is so horrified by this that he decides to rebel. He enters Dean's dreams, but says even Dean's dreams aren't a safe enough place for him to reveal the secrets he's harboring, so he sends Dean to meet him at another location, and when Sam and Dean arrive there, the whole place is torn to bits. Cas fought multiple angels tooth and nail to avoid capture so he could tell Dean the truth—that the angels were going to start the apocalypse and let them all die. However, he was captured before he could pass on his knowledge and then he was brainwashed back into compliance with heaven's orders.

One of the things I think it's clear the higher ups told Castiel as part of the brainwashing process is that humans dying just means they go to heaven and live forever in peace where they are better off than on earth, so why even fight the apocalypse? Silly Castiel! There's no reason to fret! Humans dying is a good thing! It's a mercy killing! So when Cas returns at the end of 4.20, he is operating under this new worldview and the results are chilling.

CASTIEL Of course we keep our promises. Of course you have our gratitude. You served us well. Your work is done. It's time to go home now. Your real home. You'll rest forever in the fields of the Lord. Rest now, Jimmy. JIMMY No. Claire? CASTIEL She's with me now. She's chosen. It's in her blood, as it was in yours. JIMMY Please, Castiel. Me, just take me. Take me, please. CASTIEL I wanna make sure you understand. You won't die or age. If this last year was painful for you, picture a hundred, a thousand more like it. JIMMY It doesn't matter. You take me. Just take me. CASTIEL As you wish.

Cas acknowledges the suffering he's put Jimmy through and in his own way, is trying to show compassion in this moment, but his thought process is absolutely alien. He sees the compassionate choice toward his vessel as 1) letting him die instead of healing him (drink the Kool-Aid type shit) 2) possessing his little girl to "spare" him the suffering of possession. He doesn't really seem to understand why Jimmy would beg to be possessed again instead Claire. He's completely lost perspective on human connection to the point he can't grasp a parent putting their own child's well-being above their own no matter the personal cost. This is another function of heavenly brainwashing/the cult mentality. The angels have a hierarchy in which everything is (allegedly) for their father and they sacrifice for him, not the other way around. They, in turn, intend to slaughter humans in droves for their own peace because they see humans as beneath them in the hierarchy. Cas has been re-programmed to believe this is how things should be, so he absolutely cannot understand in that moment why possessing Claire instead of Jimmy is an absolutely horrifying proposition to her father and not a form of mercy in Jimmy's eyes at all. It doesn't compute with brainwashed!Cas's understanding of hierarchy.

We see Cas's brainwashing in regards to death and ascension into heaven as the ultimate mercy again—two episodes later in 4.22:

DEAN You know what's real? People, families -- that's real. And you're gonna watch them all burn? CASTIEL What is so worth saving? I see nothing but pain here. I see inside you. I see your guilt, your anger, confusion. In paradise, all is forgiven. You'll be at peace. Even with Sam.

Note that Cas clearly didn't feel this way before he got "sent back to Bible camp". He fought violently to reach Dean and tell him the truth before he was captured.

[throesofincreasingwonder]

Okay, so. I think that Dean is bisexual, obviously. This is pretty well-established (my opinion of it, not his sexuality which is obviously up for interpretation we respect gay Dean truthers here etc.). But I think it would be very funny if Dean Smith specifically was "gay" but in the way that Dean prime is "straight."

See, Dean Smith's whole thing isn't that he's Dean but free to be himself it's that he's Dean but trapped in an opposite but equally constricting set of gender norms; therefore, if Dean believes that he's straight because of internalized homo- and biphobia, I think Dean Smith is a Dean who realizes that he likes men but is still trapped within the heteromasculine hierarchy enough that he's an assimilationist. The biphobia does not go away, it just comes at him from a different angle.

I think Dean Smith likes corporate pride and publicly hates kink (privately he does have that one pair of fuzzy handcuffs but that's definitely as far as it goes) and doesn't acknowledge that he's bisexual because that would make him harder for people to classify and challenge heterosexual men's assumptions about their own sexuality and he does not want that. Dean Smith has a single subtly rainbow tie pin that he wears during pride month and he's very proud of it. Dean Smith is in a loveless long-term engagement with a similarly career-driven yuppie and he pushes down any passing attraction that he feels for women because that would make it harder to put himself into a little box and he needs the boxes.

He needs the boxes.

Do you understand me do you see my vision? Anyway Dean Smith turns back into Dean Winchester and he goes "what the fuck they made me gay" and does not examine that at all. The rest of the series continues exactly as written but he thinks the angels can make people gay and no one ever tells him that's not what happened.

His gay fiancé was named Craig btw.

[shallowseeker]

In some of your other meta you mention that sam is a workaholic to jack...i was wondering if you could expand on that or had some takes about jack running away from home? specifically during the beginning of season 14

Thank you for the ask. It's nice you've taken this idea and run with it. :-)

I've been sitting on this a few days, anon, and I'm a little tired right now, but I don't think Sam was horrible to Jack or anything when he was being a workaholic (Stranger in a Strange Land). I don't even think it was purely the workaholic-ism that led to Jack running away. Jack, precocious and frustrated, wanted to run away to prove himself.

When I talk about Sam being a workaholic, I think that's part of the larger SPN narrative, "Get so busy makin' a livin,' you forget to live." And cliché as that sounds, that's definitely the Western experience, you know? Hell, many of the recent millennial-and-forward workers can't even afford healthcare/security, much less kids. We're fast-headed toward company store setups and rent/land feudalism again, too.

ALTERNATE SAM: And this is hard to hear – performing at your best requires all of your mental energy. Every last drop. You see, it’s just not compatible with something like, uh… hobbies or, uh – or even having a family.

14x13

In the beginning of season 14, Sam DOES reach out to Jack and have a heart-to-heart. He's trying to be a group leader, a loyal brother, and a father. It's actually Cas who's run off to Detroit to meet with demons. Bobby and Mary are overseeing Jack, Sam is marshaling forces, and Cas, in typical Cas-style, has gone lone wolf. These aren't judgments, by the way. It's just, again, family crisis dynamics. (And, like it or not, when another family member is in crisis, it's normal for resources to divert to that family member's wellbeing. Multiple crises get a hierarchy of support, depending on the perceived severity of the struggle.)

[Jack is sitting on his bed. A knock comes from the door. It’s Sam. He opens the door.] SAM: Hey. JACK: Hey. SAM: I, uh... chatted with Bobby. [Sam sits on the bed.] SAM: He said you may have had a rough day today. JACK: It was fine. SAM: Okay. (pause) Jack, I know this must be so hard. Without your grace, without your powers, it's a lot, I'm sure. But you can get past this. I know you will. I have faith in you, Jack. And I believe in you.

14x01

///

I do talk a little bit in places about Sam ignoring Jack after Ouroboros, which is I *think* the take you're referring to? Sam starts going on hunt-after-hunt-after-hunt, and he runs everyone around him ragged. (He feels spun out and responsible for the deaths of the AU hunters.)

His grief manifests in such a way that he doesn't look up, and he puts pressure on Dean to jump when he says jump, not even allowing for rest. He's not thinking about what Jack's going through or what Dean might be going through post-Michael possession. He's got tunnel vision, and as the "youngest in the family," Sam is perhaps used to resources being diverted towards himself.

DEAN: We've just done three back-to-back Hunts. I need some rest. At least a night. We both do. SAM: Yeah, well I'm leaving in ten.

14x15

The pressure Dean feels is that, knowing Sam's mental state, Sam will be in danger alone. And Sam, like Dean in 14x03, is itching to get out on the hunt. Except Sam is doing this on multiple back-to-back hunts. He doesn't give an inch when Dean tries to create a healthy stop point.

Cas and Dean ARE juggling Sam and Jack's struggles. They're even checking in about Rowena.

CAS: Oh. Thought you, uh, were gonna sleep until the cows dragged you home. DEAN: That's not the -- Never mind. I was putting some gear away, and Rowena called. CAS: How is she? DEAN: Not great. She's coping. But, uh, you know, at least she's not dead. How's the kid? CAS: Well, he says he's good, but What about Sam? He says he's good. DEAN: I think they're both full of crap.

14x15

It's interesting to me that Rowena calls Dean this time, because Dean is the one who know what she's going through about Michael. Sam is her usual go-to, but he's wrapped up in his own grief.

[ballet-symphonie]

I want your opinion on something. I watched the video that Claudia Dean made, talking about why she left the ROH and I don't know how to feel about. In some words, she said that she left the company because she wasn't promoted, after being there for 3 years. It seems really odd to me. Of course, I wasn't there, I don't known if she was stronger than the other dancers that were promoted, but it doesn't seem very reasonable to me to retire (continuing)

because she wasn't promoted after 3 years. Especially, when we talk about ROH, which is one of the largest companies in the world, and everyone there is amazing. I think that for the specific company, 3 years is nothing. Maybe she had overrated herself, or... I don't know. Your opinion?

I don't watch her channel very often but I will say that ballet is a very brutal profession, but no one has it harder than the corps de ballet. There is a big transition to make from going from the top of the school, being the 'it girl' chosen for big roles in school performances/galas, to standing in the back of the corps with so many other dancers. It's a big adjustment, physically and mentally. And especially in big companies like the ROH, it's not like there are just 2 or 3 people ahead of you, there's likely 50 or 60 due to company hierarchy.

Company life is much more independent, the teachers aren't constantly hounding you about your technique, there's way less individual attention given (individual rehearsals are obviously different but new company members don't get many of those). If you're not self-motivated, then you'll crash and burn once you're in a company. And 3 years is plenty of time to get promoted, especially when the company seems invested in a particular dancer.

It's hard, she clearly feels that she was doing everything right, she said she was taking every class fully, covering a ton of roles, dancing soloist and principal parts, and thriving with lots of last-minute debuts when the company would throw her in. It's a ton of work, and I think she felt like she did all she could do, dedicated herself to the best of her ability and it still wasn't enough. It's easy to get burnout in this situation when you feel like there's nothing more you can do. When you're putting in that kind of quality work and the company is utilizing your skills to that extent, you should be compensated/rewarded appropriately.

Of course, I don't exactly know the state of the company at the time or if she is being overzealous with her explanations but I choose to believe that she's being honest. And I respect her a lot, ballet can become really all-encompassing but there is so much more to life than pointe shoes and dancing on a stage. Family, your complete health, what you genuinely want to be doing with your life, all of this matters more than ballet. It's not easy to walk away, especially on your own terms and she clearly made the right decision for herself, both on a personal level and a professional level. It takes a lot of strength to unapologetically follow your intuition like that.

[go-diane-winchester]

A Generational study of Misha's wackydoodle fanbase.

This was the first post I ever did, on my blog.  The post did very well, and that was because the hellers were reblogging and adding their own captions to the post, and other dumber hellers were leaving a like.  So essentially they were creating traffic for my post without realizing it.  Because their nasty fingerprints are all over this post, I want to repost an edited version with updated information and less typos.  I remembered this post because of this interesting comment.

''In Twitter, in their own words, they have from 2 up 10 accounts. A lot of free time, I assume. I barely have time to enter tumblr xD''

Immediately, the Profound Bonds census came to mind.  I remember seeing a prominent amount of children.  And on one page, there was only one 37 year old.  I was surprised.  I wish I could use a screenshot of that page, but the hellers deleted the entire census.  I wonder why.  The above comment and the census, is the reason I am reposting an amended version of this. 

Enjoy!

Impassioned fans can be very annoying.  Like any fanatic, [in the words of Spike Milligan] they don't enjoy their favorite art.  They suffer from it.  However, most of the time, you find a way to chill with them, and you will be able to have a conversation about something or the other.  You might even share their enthusiasm, unless they start behaving creepily and nauseating you.  The hellers are the latter breed of freak.  They are the creepiest, most nauseating but most mobilized and active part of this fandom, because they have a hierarchy that operates their entire system.  There are influencers and drones.  Seeing an influencers will give you the impression that hellers are a group of grown women, however, that is not the case.  Only the influencer are older.  The drones are young.  Sometimes painfully young.

Understanding slash is one of the things that allowed me to understand why these people are so subservient towards Misha, and why they never question him.  There are other factors like his cult leader behavior, however, there is a particular group that he targets and he uses social media to do it.  Slash is almost a century old.  And each generation behaved in a specific way, regarding slash fiction.  The earlier generations were very covert.  It may have had something to do with modesty.  It may also have had something to do with “outsiders ruining our  fun”.  As far as Supernatural is concerned,  three generations of slash fans are represented. 

I am using the word generation here, from a marketing demographic perspectives, because this seems like the most sensible way to categorize slash fans.  Believe me, I am fully aware I am over simplifying this.  I am trying to write a short blog.  In no way, am I throwing shade at your generation.  I just like mine the most. lol!!!

There are three major generations in this fandom, that indulge in slash fiction:

Generation X:  These are slash fans born between 1965 and 1979.

Generation Y aka Millenials:  These are slash fans born between 1980 and 1994. 

Generation Z aka Centennials:  These are slash fans born after 1994. 

Generation X is that last generation of classic slashers.  This is a covert group that doesn’t like to share its artworks and works of fiction with outsiders.  If they remained underground and secret forever, they wouldn’t mind.  And if that mindset remained, nobody would even know that slash fiction exists.  As a member of this generation, I wish that things had stayed this way, but understand that society changes.  Its evitable.  Gen Xers usually don’t ship just one pair because it would seem a little foolhardy to pin all your slashy happiness on one pair that you put together.  There are plenty of pretty fish in the sea and we tend to mix 'n match.  There may be pairings we will like more than others, but generally speaking, we don't have issues with working through a cast like a buffet and enjoying different pairings. 

Younger generations of J2 fans were influenced by this generation's writings and therefore share the same opinions.  If there are any destiel shippers in this group, three suppositions are likely.  First, they are either, hidden away from social media and don't know about this death threat drama, and they don't have any frenzied love for destiel where it blinds them.  Misha is not influencing them via social media either.  They have a life and destiel is just their pass time.  Or, they are influencers who are older and therefore that sway the minds of younger people.  I theorize, however, that most of the destiel shippers in this generation deserted the ship and moved on.

The Y generation or millenial brought two changes to slash fiction.  From a western standpoint, this generation started to become inclusive and politically correct, making their work LGBT oriented rather than hetero/bi female oriented to the detriment of the artform.  The greatest irony is that mpreg [the last remnance of femininity] was born at the tail end of this generation.  My previous theory about this group was wrong.  I thought they were a quiet group.  But no.  All the Lua Jame's, Janelle's and Exorcising Emily's are coming this group.  This means that the influencers, the first users of social media in other words, are from this generation.  Perhaps, the normal non-criminal thinking, nice destiel shippers come from this generation too. 

Generation Z or centennials are the youngest generation, making them the least experienced, with the least filter.  They don’t think before they speak, but boy do they have a lot to say.  They tend to use social justice and politics to push the validity of their ship.  They are like junkies when it comes to their ship and Misha Collins is the only dealer they have.  They look for other dealers which is why they tend to ask all and sundry, what their opinion is with regard to destiel. 

They based their opinion of that person, on how that person responds to destiel.  Its like a pothead who only likes people who say that smoking pot is ok.  And if that person is indifferent to destiel, they will collectively attack that individual.  The only reason is because they are young.  Its only when I looked at their census, that I realized that many of them are as young as 13.  So most of them are children.  In Misha's heller army, these kids are the soldiers, bashing Jensen and Jared online and voting for Misha to win an award.  Lets hope their taste chances as they grow. 

Misha and his influencer, have convinced these people that what they feel is true, and because they are still young, they don't know any better.  Even a non heller might feel insulted by this analysis of an entire generation but believe me.  I am not critiquing you.  I am merely pointing out that your brain doesn't fully develop until you hit 40.  You are not a child, I concur.  But you are not a complete adult.  Get to my age, look back at life, and realize how many times circumstances forced you to change your opinion about various subjects.   I wager that about ten years from now, the hellers will look back at their behavior and cringe.  They don't know any better and the adults around them are not teaching them to do the right thing.

So Misha’s primary fanbase are a bunch of children, who are spread around the globe, and who don't affect of the ratings, have generally no money of their own so they cant buy seats for his panel or photo-ops or raise a decent amount for anything he is auctioning.  They couldn't attend Indycon so it flopped.  Not that he has that many fans to start with.  And they don’t recognize that Misha is trolling them with destiel, because they are too young to understand. 

Misha has the dumbest cult following ever, because he attached him to Jensen and Dean.  And Jensen doesn't even spend anytime with Misha outside of work.  So the shippy calling card Misha waves will catch fire in his hands.  He is also attracting children and they will grow up to eventually change their mind and taste in men.  The influencers are likely to stick with him, unless they get bored with the lack of Jensen and move on.  So consequently, Misha and his hellers wont benefit each other in the long run. 

I have a feeling there may still be typos.  Excuse them, please.

[smorgasbordofobsessions]

liveblog: yugioh! gx s101-107

ep101

ATEM!

i literally choked when i heard atem's voice god my fake boyfriend is great

i've watched maybe a handful of episodes of gx? but i don't even know any of the characters names, minus jaden's, of course

okay so there's a proper duel monsters school (and community college) and a prep school? hm okay

the summary for the serios said this is set "Several years" after the ending of the original

a PhD in dueling?????

this crowler dude is ugly

what does chaz have against jaden? literally never saw him before

but kuriboh's defeat not affecting life points isn't obscure knowledge? if this is set after the original then we know of kuriboh's special ability

oh so polymerization IS fusion summoning, so it's not anything new or requires anything new

so jaden won nice

ep102-3

academy island reminds me of duelist kingdom

hm so jaden's one of those "looks on the bright side" characters

so the school is divided into three houses named after the egyptian gods but somehow slifer is at the bottom of the hierarchy

it's actually fundamentally wrong for a school to treat their students so disdainfully but okay

so the duel between chaz and jaden got interrupted because of campus security - since dueling off hours is against the rules

crowley is treating the slifers badly and JADEN!!! told him to his face in front of the whole class "you really shouldn't go and make fun of us slifers like that. i mean, i'm a slifer and i beat you, so when you make fun of us, you're really making fun of yourself"

how doyou even recover!! from a fucking child! and student! telling you that

the head of the slifer dorm is definitely one of those people who plays it cool but notices everything around them

on a serious note: if there's ever a school administrator who is very purposefully trying to sabotage you, report that to the school (and maybe the police) so create a record of harassment because that shit is illegal and discriminatory

"a good mood? that really doesn't sound like cyrus"

a gba sp!!

jaden is dueling alexis because alexis is holding cyrus captive due to a misunderstanding of a fake love letter

jaden won his duel against alexis

also i'm sorry but if the girls set them up then the girls are still culpable for creating the situation that could have caused the boys to get expelled which would mean that they get, at the least, some sort of administrative reprimand

ep104

a full armada delivering rare cards

cyrus is praying to slifer and has a bandana with monster reborn cards in them

it's honestly painful to look at crowley he's so ugly

"i may flunk now and then, but i never fail"

"you know, you look better all covered up"

chaz is right

hm so the dean of the school MUST know that crowler is shady but keeps him on board for some reason

jaden got promoted to ra dorm but is still gonna stay in the slifer dorms

cyrus is never letting go of jaden again

ep105

baby!jaden was cute

imagine you're a "dark" duelist and duel people to send them to the shadow realm and some dude hires you to scare a child

it's a bit funny when you think of it but with the regularity of how often characters draw the same card, you would think that their decks are never shuffled

the millennium puzzle!!

oh? no explanation about how the magic card "pot of greed" allows you to draw two cards from your deck?

ep106

jaden believes that the shadow game was really just a hypnosis schtick - and he was right haha

oh there really was a shadow game

jade won, of course, so alexis is saved

ep107

why is the "disciplinary action squad" an actual security force

campus arrest??

"an anonymous letter confirmed it" and you're gonna believe an anonymous letter?

jaden and cyrus have to duel to stay in school

jaden and cyrus are gonna have a practice duel against each other so they can figure out how to duel together

i love how from literally turn one people call the duel like wait for the duel to progress maybe??

cyrus needs so real fucking confidence boosting

oh god they DID explain pot of greed!

"i'm not good enough to play a card this strong" it's a fuking fusion card???? not like we're talking about the god cards

"that was a good duel" no it wasn't