#widower arc my beloved

[drulalovescas]

LITERAL GRIEVING HUSBAND

Literal heartbroken widower

[bloodydeanwinchester]

starting a reread of my favorite sobsicle fic and oh boy am i ready to be completely ruined again

i want to do with you (what spring does with cherry trees)

[wise-writer-girl]

The forget-me-not symbolism will always hit so hard

[loosethreadsofyoursoul]

while i will always love and appreciate the bisexual dean winchester agenda, i truly believe that if he was raised differently—or maybe if he grew up today instead—that boy would have been gay. like his love for women in a romantic/sexual context was always such a caricature and was continuously used as a symbol of masculinity that played against the roles assigned to him by his father growing up for the sake of suppressing any queerness he might exhibit. now whether that suppression was purposely written into his character or was a reaction to the character they had created, i’m not sure, but it’s there regardless.

i don’t mean to dismiss the love he felt for cassie or lisa, but particularly with lisa, i’m not sure he was ever in love with her, despite the fact that he did care for both her and ben. i get so frustrated watching the end of s5 because him going to her house and his perfect “apple pie life” being with her in suburbia genuinely came out of nowhere and i’ve never understood a) why it had to happen, and b) why it had to be lisa. but thinking about it in this sense, she was the closest thing he had in his life to everything he was raised to believe he should want by one john winchester, who lost his perfect wife, perfect family, perfect apple pie life and sent all of them down this path in the first place. so of course to dean, his happy ending would be with someone like lisa. but that’s the important part. someone like lisa, not lisa herself. he may have had love for her and he may have been able to picture a life with her, but it wasn’t necessarily because she was everything he wanted; she was a symbol of the things that tore his family apart and so to be with her felt like he was finally able to put some of it back together. and that makes me so sad for him because all of that is a result of the sense of responsibility ingrained in him growing up by john, not something he wanted for himself.

but back to his general attitude towards women, there was an excellent post that said he only acts like the typical womanizer he has a reputation for being around women deemed “stereotypical” by the misogynistic perspective. otherwise, he tends to take on a fairly brotherly role; he doesn’t tend to pursue any women he can “take seriously,” and is more intimidated or impressed by them than anything else. with the exception of cassie (which was pre-series and we never got full context for in the first place), he only ever pursued women with whom he would have a definitive ending—by that i mean women who he knows he’ll never see again or who would have a clearly defined role during the time they’re together that wouldn’t threaten the status quo. and yes these could also be the traits of a commitment-phobe or someone chronically on the move, but for one, sam doesn’t tend to do the same thing (see ruby, amelia, and eileen), and for two, given the things i mentioned already, it makes me consider it more of a result of him not actually being interested in women romantically.

his reaction to women when not purposely used as the butt of a joke or to perpetuate the “womanizer dean winchester” agenda is often so innately fraternal, caring in a way that doesn’t have any expectations behind it. and when there is a romantic context, so much of the relationship can be attributed to the way john raised him and the beliefs he has as a direct result; it’s never simply been built on the foundation of love.

every time he is dismissed as this macho het guy, it also dismisses so much of what makes him a wonderful character, and yes a lot of that is his queerness. so in a world where he didn’t grow up with roles and responsibilities that shaped him into someone he knew his dad hated and forced him to create this character for himself in order to survive? i think he would have been gay and he would have been okay with that.

[theyarebothgunshot]

i really am curious how the b*bros justified the widower arc. like. all the folks who firmly believe that dean only cares about sam and that the show is only about the brothers, how did they twist the reality that dean killed himself because the grief of losing cas and mary was too much for him to bear, even though sam was alive and kicking, to fit their needs? truly makes you wonder.

[emomeishibot]

First of all, I’m a proshipper; secondly, this post has no ships in it.

I drew kuro characters as a 2000s Chinese drama costume sitcom 武林外传 My Own Swordsman (no idea why is it translate to this name, the direct translation should be Wulin Anecdotes) Why I did this crossover: it’s just hilarious for me!! To help you understand my casting read further. I was like I want to send these sketches for tumblr but you can’t get this crossover so I might as well introduce it to you. I mean you might be intrigued by the referenced show, who knows? 🤭

Let me give you an analogy if you are not familiar with Chinese Kong fu themes novels: this show is a comedy kong fu drama, and a western narrative analogy for it could be if you have a team of DND characters but they never leave the tavern but instead they are the staff trying to make the tavern successful and solve all the crazy problems in this chaotic world and become family members(I hope this works)

The male lead character is a former Robin-hood-like legend burglar but now settled down working as the waiter; the female lead is an unmarried widow who came all the way to her fiancé only to find him dead and left her his mischievous little sister to look after, so she wiped off her tears and decided to buy the inn and start her business as the landlady right there and then. As for the little niece, rumors are that she’d grow up to be a murderous fiend…! But they don’t know yet…

So I drew Sebastian, Madame Red and Ciel as these roles🤲

y’all couldn’t have known how adorable it is for me without growing up with the show… btw the show goes for a relationship for the waiter and landlady eventually in the show but I drew them as work partners and friends^^Regarding how Madame Red teased Sebastian canonically makes me laugh remembering those early kuro shenanigans 😂I always hoped Madame stayed longer with us in canon, she so lovely. Imagine her running a tavern is such fun, the vibe of this show is crazy… just look at them

There’s a reckless, chivalrous former swordswoman as waitress, another former constable girl who is amiable but has no dating luck as waitress as well. I casted Jane and Mey-Rin (I really want to see Jane join the Phantomhive manor(if possible after the Breton arc)??she slays and I want to see her working with Sebastian! Also Mey-Rin is both clumsier and deadlier than her character)

And more: a fusty, nerdy moderate scholar who sold the family inn to the now landlady and now working for her as an accountant, for which I casted Grelle (her butler persona when she’s undercover is really close to how this character usually is lol but she would definitely hate how nerdy this character is, as she is working for Madame Red again in this crossover)

For the hot-headed, ambitious yet bad cook who was a constable, I cast Bard (I might redo him because I wanted to fit Finny in but I run out of the inn staff; Bard and him could be the constable master and apprentice duo from the show; Diedrich could step up as chef)

The setting is a fictional ancient China so the kong fu element is very overdramatic; also, there's a lot of modern references to the 2000s. If you watch the show's op you'll get it) And it’s a nationally beloved show of my generation^^ I hope my explanation got you interested instead of confused😳but I love this crossover and hope my kuro ppl on tumblr enjoy it😌Such long explanations for them little sketches; Thank you for coming to my ted talk???

[dickgraysonsptsd]

(hey this is Barks 👋 this is my main)

Thought it would be fun to ask what your fav Nightwing adventures are :) they don't have to be 'good', just the ones you vibe with!

HI BARKS i love your art sooo much btw. thank you for saying they don't have to be "good" because what i would say while trying to look like i have good taste and what i would say for my actual faves/the ones that stick in my head the most is. different.

i'm keeping these specifically to dick-as-nightwing stories, so no robin or dickbats stuff! and i tried to go for self-contained single issues or short arcs where possible. and tried to minimize my nw '96 picks because otherwise this would genuinely all be nw '96 (my beloved). OKAY YAY LETS GO

🚨🚨LONG POST WARNING🚨🚨

batman: year three

i usually go for robin annual #4 (juvie) for my personal dick backstory rather than the one presented here, but there's so much to love about this arc and so much that sets up alpod and eventually nw '96!! bruce as a character defined by and constructed upon his grief (over his parents) and dick coming to try to intervene in a time of their mutual grief (over jason) that overlaps with an event related to DICK'S grief (over HIS parents) is such a great layered story!!

showcase '93 #11-12

just a fun little nightwing/robin team-up circa azbats era, written with tim as the narrator. we get a lot of tim fanboying over dick and an aside in #12 where dick is clearly rattled by how he left the titans (in the aftermath of his breakup with kory) + feeling adrift as nightwing (yum!). and this panel has really stuck with me:

dick won't treat the robins like kids in the sense of talking down to them or babying them, because he knows what that feels like (bad! like your grown-up doesn't trust you! like you aren't capable enough!) but he also knows, as the grown-up himself now, that they do have to be kids. they have to have childhoods. and they have to acknowledge their limitations and their capabilities as children, but without being treated like kids for it.. urghh it's so good!! it's so like him!! it's so consistent with how he interacts with damian in dickbats era!!

there's also this bit of classic Dick Grayson Blaming Himself For Anyone Dying Ever And Craving Atonement For His Sins:

it's a very straightforward little story, but there's a lot of great characterization and tim+dick relationship stuff packed into it!

nightwing (1996) annual #1

dick goes undercover as the new groom of a suspected black widow! this issue reveals that BRUCE TRAINED HIM BY ASPHYXIATING HIM ON DOZENS OF TOXINS SO HE COULD "PROPERLY DIAGNOSE THE SYMPTOMS OF DISTINCT FORMS OF ASPHYXIATION" which is so kinky it makes me ill (positive):

it also has a scene where dick takes the suspect's son to the circus and they bond over both having dead dads, and later there's a moment after dick reveals to his "wife" that he was just there to investigate the murders when he seriously considers staying with her and the kid and like... give this man a baby NOWWWW!!!!!!

nightwing/huntress #1-4

this is such a classic devin grayson "everything in dick's life is ultimately about his relationship with bruce" storyline (she's right.) (don't check to see how much of this list is by devin grayson btw!!!) and i really like the art in it! i think huntress fans generally don't like this story so i'll reassess after i read more huntress :pensive: but for now i enjoyed it a lot--devin grayson's voice for dick is my favorite!

nightwing (1996) #86

dick gets shot in the arm, becomes manicwing, and alfred + babs force him to take time off to heal against his will (and deal with him climbing up the walls when forced to slow down). i love the entirety of the tarantula and blockbuster arc but this issue is a stand-out to me for being weirdly funny, involving multiple relationships in dick's life, and letting you see what happens when he CAN'T work, which reinforces why nightwing is so essential to him (which then plays into why he and babs break up soon after). this issue does a lot for this arc imo!

also featuring dick's burgeoning obsession with america's most wanted, which will flourish in outsiders (2003) when he goes full autistic hyperfixation and literally calls john walsh to guest star

titans (1999) #10-12

slade comes to the titans for help rescuing addie from the remnants of the hive organization. i love to see dick acting as team leader and i LOVE when there's pushback and conflict involved and i LOOOVE so much of the titans' history (and therefore dick's history) coming into play!! and most of all i love dick being relentlessly, devastatingly heroic at all costs:

yeah he ties himself to a falling bomb in an effort to disarm it in midair knowing that even if he succeeds he'll probably die. and he does it. successfully. madman.

batman: gotham knights #8-11

there is so much to screencap in this arc, it's insane. the iconic "complicated... sticky and hot..." scene, dick saying bruce can't be dead because dick would know if he were (which connects forward to bruce's "death" arc in such a painful way... he WASN'T dead!!! and you DIDN'T know!!! SO WHAT DOES THAT MEAN DICK, HUH??? DOES IT MEAN ANYTHING?? IS YOUR SOULBOND REAL OR IMAGINED?? IS YOUR RELATIONSHIP WITH HIM REAL OR IMAGINED?????), dick reciting the oath to amnesiac bruce, dick flinging himself off a building, tim and dick eating popcorn while they watch strange and batman fight, the buildup to murderer/fugitive... it's soooo good!!!

batman: gotham knights #14

JPV: Are the women safe? Dick, sarcastically: No. I let them get shot.

this is the dick writes a letter to bruce issue (you know the one), which would land it here anyway, but it's ALSO the dick has to work with jpv and is a huge cunt about it because he remains deeply jealous of jpv for somehow earning bruce's approval in a way dick didn't issue. god bless! we love him at his most petty and uptight!

battle for the cowl (2009) #1-3

people hate this event so much and for what!! this is a great comic for dick and his relationships with bruce's legacy and the other robin boys. and it has what i lowkey think is the most beautiful single page of nightwing art:

and then uhh yeah the entirety of nw '96. the whole thing.

[charcubed]

Listen, I normally don’t condone when people are like “you’re not going to Get It unless you watch the show” because it tends to be a gatekeeping method, but… I really need people to understand that they’re not going to grasp how meta The Winchesters is as the Dean hall of mirrors show unless they watch it lmao.

The s1 finale has gotten a lot of attention for obvious reasons and there’s a lot to pay attention to in there, but it’s also heavily informed by the extremely thematically unsubtle 12 episodes that precede it. The show is like… an Experience to a batshit degree lol. Its existence is literally dedicated to comprehensively unpacking and condemning the SPN finale as bad. Dean speaks directly to you and tells you why his “ending” sucked and shows you what he wants and deserves for his future. It’s not Dean’s story, but also it IS Dean’s story because he’s telling it.

And I mean, if you need more convincing: it’s also fun as hell with found family right out of the gate, and they made 3 out of the core 4 characters bisexual (I am not joking), and pretty much every episode there’s some kind of emotional healing or catharsis, and the music fucks, and there’s actual consistency from episode to episode in remembering or naming minor characters and specific details from prior plots. Which is all extremely cool in my opinion!

If you decide to watch the show, here’s my advice for the things to keep in mind that will help you effortlessly clock its layers:

1. Every main character takes a turn on the spinning wheel of Dean mirrors in the storylines depending on the episode. There is no rule like “Mary is always the Dean mirror.” Sometimes Mary is the Cas mirror when John is a Dean mirror, for example. And I do mean every character, not just the core 4! It’s incessant. You will get used to this.

2. Our beloved narrator is canonically bisexual. Knowing this fact is a prerequisite to understanding a couple of the queer stories. Once again: I am not joking.

3. Think about Destiel. Yeah 15x18 but also Purgatory, Mark of Cain, widower arc…

4. Think about Dean’s relationship with his parents.

5. And think about how Dean himself is a parent, and his relationship with Jack.

6. And, of course, think about Chuck. (This will not take much effort. Multiple antagonists are gods. Yes, really.)

It is very loud and very consistent. Come for all of the above; stay for how you will fall in love with the characters!

I simply think you will have a good time :) and then you will truly be able to Comprehend and go recreationally insane :)

[mybrainproblems]

[drulalovescas]

Dean screaming at Sam: now you might be able to forget about that BUT I CAN'T!!!!!!!! is absolutely insane actually. because what was the reason other than to show how Dean's grief over Cas is DIFFERENT from Sam's???? what was the reason other than to highlight that Sam might be able to forget about it - because he lost a friend. While Dean CAN'T forget about it because he lost the love of his li -- [gunshots]

[butch--dean]

there's only a shadow of me, in a matter of speaking: I'm dead

widower arc dean you break my heart!! why not watch his heart break set to sufjan stevens' john my beloved? :-)

[bloodydeanwinchester]

🩸Bloody Dean Every Episode🩸- 13x01 Lost and Found

[luulapants]

What is your honest opinion about tumblr darling: Supernatural?

My take is that it's 1) poorly written 2) misogynistic.

Oh ho ho, is it take off the gloves o'clock? Is that what time it is? Hell yeah, let's do this thing.

So first off, I think it's easy to make an argument for both of your takes, but I also think those takes are reductionist to the point of being meaningless.

I think it also depends on what it is that you want Supernatural to be in the first place. If you want it to be prestige television, well, that's not what it is. If you hold it up to the tight writing standards of a 10-episode drop-and-binge streaming series, it's not that either. It's a full-length weekly network fantasy drama, and by the standards of those types of shows, it's not bad. There's a lot of shit episodes, but there's a lot of shit X-Files and Buffy and Star Trek episodes, too, because that's the nature of that type of show. It had slumps and slogs, but none so bad that the show wasn't beloved and kept on air for 15 seasons, even in an era of TV where the 15-season TV show was rapidly going extinct. It's misogynistic because TV in 2005 was almost exclusively misogynistic and their attempts to outgrow it were hit-or-miss at best. At the end of the day, it was a show about a bunch of dudes.

But I'm honestly not fussed about whether it's "good" or not. That's not a useful metric unless you define the standards. What I do think Supernatural is, definitively, is really instructional on multiple elements of American media in its age:

The intermixing of fandom and production. There's a whole generation of TV shows, Supernatural probably one of the largest of these, that saw the emergence of a direct dialogue between TV writers and producers and their audiences. This manifested in different ways with different shows, but Supernatural was emblematic of the combative relationship that would become commonplace. The meta episodes that directly targeted or depicted or spoke to the fanbase - that was crazy, shows weren't doing that before! The fact that destiel became so popular in the fanbase and the fact that production felt like they had to textually address it within the show - bonkers!

The complexity of authorial intent in TV as a medium. Because there isn't a single guiding hand dictating everything that happens in a show, which has always been true, but I struggle to think of any show where conflict between parties within a show's production were so apparent to the audience. You have a show runner with a vision for a given season - which might contradict or be a giant 'fuck you' to the vision of the previous showrunner. You have writers who have their own ideas, the producers who censor the writers, the actors who come back complaining about their lines, the directors who are giving allusions to their own agenda through visuals. Everything around the widower arc speaks to a production war over what Dean and Castiel's relationship is, from the market research, to the script, to the way Ackles performed the funeral rites, to the Romeo + Juliet nod in the neon cross when they're reunited. This is a show that proves that Doylist arguments will always be incomplete when interpreting TV media, because what are the chances you'll get an interview with the lighting crew that decided to put that halo around them in that scene? Or find out who decided on that song? Or that costume?

Post-9/11 sociopolitics. I need to give a shout-out to @1x20 for opening my eyes to this wild element of early seasons Supernatural, but once you start looking for it in TV of this era, it's everywhere. The monsters are among us, they're coming after the nuclear family. There's elements of the crime procedural here, the dissolution of the private sphere because The Hero must dedicate all of himself to his crusade. Those politics evolve over the course of the show, but they continue to speak to a very particular niche of American paranoia. It's worth noting that Supernatural was remarkably bipartisan in its viewer base, and it skated an interesting line to do that.

American masculinity. I mean, we have to acknowledge that this is a show that was created by a guy who read On the Road but didn't pick up on any of the bisexual subtext. He essentially created a parody of masculinity in Dean that has had an absurd outsized impact on fandom culture and probably on broader media culture, too.

Anyway I think that's enough ramble for now and people who are more scholarly than myself can probably restate some of this stuff in way more intelligent ways.

[lesbianjackkline]

more in tags bc i ran out of room imao

supernatural was soooo sick for directly paralleling dean taking his grief for cas, out on jack, with john taking his grief for mary, out on sam and dean. like what the fuck was up with that??

[tobiasdrake]

The Hawkeye show is really odd. Since it adapts the run where Hawkeye is a "Down on his luck, gets no respect hero guy" and in the show he gets more respect than he's ever had in the MCU.

I can understand why they chose the Matt Fraction run of the comics to adapt. It's pretty much the most beloved that a Hawkeye series has ever been. Everyone loves the Matt Fraction run.

But it doesn't work with MCU Clint. That ship sailed when Joss made him a down-to-earth family man with a loving family who serves as the most normal, grounded, and responsible member of the team.

The Fraction arc is driven by Clint being a hapless twenty-something adrift in his own life despite being a talented and highly experienced Avenger. He lives alone in a shitty apartment being besieged by Tracksuits.

And they had to cut out so much to fit in the Ronin and Black Widow stuff. Like, I harped on this a lot in my liveblog, but we never even find out what the Tracksuits do that's so awful. They're just generic Crime Bros.

In the comic this is all based on, the Tracksuits are running a gentrification scheme. They're trying to force people out so they can buy up the neighborhood for cheap, and they've run into the problem that Clint's building is occupied by an Avenger immune to their threats or violence.

And that's complicated. Because even if they can overcome Clint, killing an Avenger invites a level of heat down on their operation that they aren't prepared to deal with. The Tracksuits might be able to kill Clint, but they don't want to provoke retaliation from Iron Man and Thor and the Hulk and such. Clint's friends are more dangerous than theirs.

It's a very messy situation that Clint and the Tracksuits find themselves in.

And we get none of that in the show.

[presidentdisastraofgallifrey]

Judging Doctor Who: Eleventh Doctor

Disclaimer: This is all in good fun and I don't take fandom serious

Good episodes I like

The Eleventh Hour - I hate the time cracks arc, but if you just focus on the plot itself the escaped shapeshifter prisoner thing is fun

The Beast Below - It's so sad!! And Liz 10 is hot and badass and a good person but not, which is my favorite type of lady

Victory of the Daleks - A delightfully classic dalek plot

Amy's Choice - Basically another au-type episode and it's fun. And also reveals the Doctor's deep self hatred!

Vincent and the Doctor - Yes everyone likes this one. But it is impressive. It manages to be both heartbreaking and have scenes of him fighting an invisible creature!

The Lodger - fun and silly, a nice breather

A Christmas Carol - very clever and sweet, wonderful use of time travel. And there's flying fish that like singing!

The Curse of the Black Spot - A nice monster of the week with no real monster! And historical pirates became space pirates!

The Rebel Flesh/The Almost People - yes I hate this arc too, but the self-contained plot here is actually a fun who gets to be a person one

The Girl Who Waited - I think this is the only episode where Amy has enough character for be to like her. Plus it's another (horrifying) what if story!

The God Complex - Creepy and fun. I loved seeing all the fears, and the mystery was interesting

Closing Time - A fun and silly enough adventure that I don't mind the cybermen

The Doctor, the Widow, and the Wardrobe - Sweet and magical, and I liked that the adult got to go on the Narnia adventure

Asylum of the Daleks - Good dalek episode, good (first?) use of the dead humanoid dalek slaves, excellent heartbreaking reveal that their new friend is no longer human, and I love the daleks all just forgetting him

The Snowmen - Very nice creepy but silly monsters, and at this point the Clara mystery was intriguing

Rings of Akhaten - SO all around beautiful, and I also love the inclusion of a rare multi-alien gathering. There should be more of those

The Crimson Horror - Vastra my beloved! And also this was an interesting mystery, and the Doctor isn't even in most of it, but I just love too many aspects to name! It's very good!

The Day of the Doctor - Do I necessarily love this answer to the Time War? No. Do I understand it? Yes, because at this point they were stuck with it and this gives them an opening for Gallifrey to still exist (they squandered it but that's beside the point). Besides, the episode itself is great fun (the Doctor never gets along with himself!)

Bad episodes I like

The Time of Angels/Flesh and Stone - Yeah further lore made the angels less interesting, and the story didn't make sense. But I enjoyed it! And River is there!

Night Terrors - THIS story would have been perfect if they hadn't made the logic circular (all this is happening because the kid is scared he'll get sent away, but they only discussed that because of these problems). But it's still fun

Hide - I'm sorry, the Doctor does not consult random ghost hunting psychics. However. The answer of a time traveler moving wrong through time was great fun

Good episodes I don't like

The Vampires of Venice - pretty typically goofy, but I didn't enjoy it that much. Maybe because of Amy and Rory

The Hungry Earth/Cold Blood - Again, it's fine but I was kind of bored. And wish if they were going to bring back Silurians they'd let them stay

The Doctor's Wife - well written and all, but I found it uninteresting

A Town Called Mercy - Absolutely nothing wrong with it, but I don't have much interest in the wild west

The Bells of Saint John - It was fine, and as a monster of the week actually fun, but I didn't love it as Clara's intro

Cold War - This falls under the genre of running around a small trapped ship that I just don't like

Bad episodes I don't like

The Pandorica Opens/The Big Bang - What the hell was this?? Everything about it was convoluted, poorly executed, and uninteresting

The Impossible Astronaut/The Day of the Moon - I actually like the Silence, but the plot itself is just so convoluted and bad

A Good Man Goes to War - No. Just no to everything about this.

Let's Kill Hitler - The robot ship thing is fun and there's like one funny joke, but the rest of it is so terrible

The Wedding of River Song - All of time happening at once is kind of fun, but not enough to make up for (1) the ridiculous to begin with plot, (2) the way they absolutely cheat in a way that should not work, and (3) the implication that they never REALLY got married

Dinosaurs on a Spaceship - Just feels like a bunch of different things randomly thrown together

Journey to the Center of the TARDIS - A little too nonsensical for me

Nightmare in Silver - Both too busy and also boring

The Name of the Doctor - A disappointing answer to an actually compelling mystery

The Time of the Doctor - Disappointing use of Gallifrey, and really no reason he should be able to physically age