#anyways I'm gonna go write a story that's similar to supernatural but it has women and it's gay and better

[lunmelia]

Alright, I’ve had a good rant with my sister for the past half hour but I still got shit to say and I don’t wanna bother her too much, so here we go. Ignore this, I just want to write my thoughts down and get this shit out of my head and move on.

That finale... was fucking horrible. I think we all know that. I honestly did not expect to be as disappointed as I am. I expected a little bit of disappointment. I expected destiel not going fully canon, what I didn’t expect was THAT fast-paced, stale, not good at all ending. I honestly didn’t. For a show that went for 15 years, was pretty popular for a bit, I did not expect the ending to be that bad. Although I’m not that surprised. Think it just had a reputation for being a bad show, so it makes sense for it to wrap up in a bad way. But maybe I am still a bit surprised. I... really didn’t expect it to be so bad. 

I laughed through the entire thing. I was laughing while Dean was dying. I was laughing while Sam was doing his little sad rounds around the bunker. I was laughing when Dean went to heaven. I was laughing while Sam was dying. I laughed the whole way through. 

I should not have been laughing. 

For a finale for an entire show, it should not have made me laugh as much as it did. What it should’ve done was make me cry and make me feel satisfied. It did not do either of those. I just feel really fucking disappointed. 

That scene with “old Sam” sitting in the impala? A fucking joke. Are you fucking kiddingMEMSJKDHFKHASKGHSJKADGHK I MEAN COME ON! That was fucking hilarious! Man was in a cheap wig from party city, didn’t look like he’d aged a day and yet he was moving as if he was fucking 80??? WHAT THE FUFJCVJHDFHASHGASHGHS that was sooooo bad. so so so bad. 

At one point I started checking the time on my phone and asking the episode to “hurry up already I want this over and done with” but I still fucking watched and I should’ve just left when Dean got impaled. THAT’S HOW HE GOES?? DEAN WINCHESTER? THE RIGHTEOUS MAN?? DIES BY GETTING IMPALED BY A RUSTY METAL ROD?? I’M FUCKING CACKLING 

That whole finale was just comedy gold, it honestly was. 

Aside from that, why was this show bad? This show had no character development. It really didn’t. You know what the only character development I could see was? When Dean said “see that’s not who I am” when Chuck called him the ultimate killer, and even that was revoked when a week later Dean goes running in to decapitate a bunch of vamps. Granted they were kidnapping kids so the fuckers deserved it but still, from a writers point of view they should have included that whole case. (by the way another reason I was laughing during Dean’s death was because, what were the two boys doing?? were they just waiting outside this entire time? traumatized? or did some more vamps come along to kidnap them again and Dean’s death didn’t even fucking matter? What happened to the kids????) 

But there was no character development. Dean started as an alcoholic, hunt-obsessed, rage-filled, codependent man with an abusive father. Where was he in season 15? He drank himself into a black-out after Cas died, he died during a case, he was still raging the entire season, he stayed by his brother’s side and never had the opportunity to grow away from him, and his abusive father is with him in heaven. His horrible, self-destructive coping mechanisms were never addressed upfront, he never got help and he died before he got the chance. From my point of view, he died the exact same man the show started with. No character development for Dean. 

I can’t say that much about Sam because if I’m honest I don’t know him as well as I do Dean and Cas. Maybe someone who knows him better can talk more about his lack of character development. Or maybe he had more than Dean. But to me, same as Dean with the codependency. He stayed by Dean’s side after they were free. And what was the very first thing we learn about Sam at the beginning of the show? Right, that he wanted an independent life away from Dean. Away from hunting. Guess Dean had to die for that to become a reality. 

And Cas? God, Cas’ ending really pissed me off. I kind of don’t want to add personal feelings to this, but for the sake of explaining why I really hate Cas’ . ending, I might have to. As someone who in the past has had to sacrifice myself for the sake of others, Cas’ ending really sucked. I think Cas was my favourite character because I related to him, with the whole constantly sacrificing yourself for others but getting nothing back. And he died for Dean? A man who constantly abused him, mentally and physically? Because he loved Dean? Yeah, that whole thing screamed attached abuse victim to me. Cas started out serving Dean; rescuing him from hell, coming only when he called, dying for him, and how does his story end? Dying for Dean fucking Winchester, who could give nothing but pointless apologies back to him. Frankly, I don’t think Dean deserved to be loved by a celestial being who witnessed the creation of earth. I think the most character development Cas got was when he left the bunker earlier on in the season. And yet he still came back. So that character development was revoked. He should’ve stayed away, honestly. He died doing the same thing he’s always done throughout this show; serving Dean. 

So yes, this show had no character development, And that’s really fucking unsatisfying. Want to know what’s the most disappointing thing about all of this?

This show had... so much potential. 

It really did. First of all, the biggest one being Dean and Cas’ story. If their entire arc had been used in a romantic sense, it honestly would’ve been a great love story. Fuck it, doesn’t even have to been Dean and Cas, but just the story. A man literally rescued by an angel, an arc that goes from bitterness to tolerance to friends to lovers. The man teaching this angel free will, and the angel in return teaching this man to love himself as others love him. That... honestly would’ve been one of the greatest love stories of all time. But it got wasted on fucking Supernatural. So, if someone could write a brand new story that features a similar love arc, that’d be great.

The overall story of Supernatural, too, had so much potential. Two brothers, raised by an abusive father and no mum, both holding bitter feelings towards each other because one of them left. They reunite and learn that they have this big destiny. They say no to that destiny. They confront how they were raised and come to the conclusion that their father was indeed abusive and their lives are shit. They get help. They learn that family doesn’t end in blood. They find family in the friends they make. They confront their codependency with each other and learn to live separately, to not depend on each other so much. They defeat god. They get their happy ending, with their huge family that they made. They’re mentally healthy. That story would’ve been fucking epic, and satisfying. And yet, it got wasted on Supernatural. 

It just... it had so much potential. It could’ve been something great. And yet it had shitty writers and fucking cw as a network. 

So... all of that being said. Think I’m done. Tonight, I watched the first three episodes of The Boys and uhh... I’ll be dedicating my time to that show thank you very much. It’s fucking great you should give it a shot if you haven’t seen it. But uh yeah, that ending sucked ass but at the end of the day it’s a show and I’m moving on. 

OH WAIT ONE MORE THING. 

The award for the greatest, and honestly kinda impressive, queerbaiting goes to SUPERNATURAL!! OH MY FUCKING GOD. THIS SHOW QUEERBAITED THESE TWO CHARACTERS FOR 12 FUCKING SEASONS, LETS ONE OF THEM SAY “I LOVE YOU” DIRECTLY TO THE OTHER, AND ENDS IT THERE!!! NO “HE LOVES HIM BACK / HE DOESN’T” THEY JUST ENDED IT THERE!! THE GREATEST FUCKING QUEERBAITING OF ALL TIME, FOLKS! I CANNOT FUCKING BELIEVE IT. THEY LET HIM SAY IT! AND THEY STILL!! SOMEHOW FUKING QUEERBAITED US!! AND THEY LET ONE OF THEM SAY IT! BUT IT’S STILL QUEERBAITING!!! IT’S SO FUCKING- AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA

so anyways peace I’m fucking out

[ask-shakespearehigh]

Q&A post with the Mods!!!!

This is going to be a long one oh boy

How strict is the delineation of creative control vis-a-vis characters/plays between the mods? (@pedanticlecturer)

We generally have the plays split up along lines of “what we know”— we have a list at the very beginning of the blog. Sometimes we’ll draw the others’ characters (mostly me drawing some of Star’s…) but even then the final say on characterization is up to the “main” mod for that play — mod aster

what aster said -- mod star

What is your favorite play? What is your favorite character in terms of how they were written in the source material? (@pedanticlecturer)

I think my favorite play overall is Macbeth, just because I like the vibes (and the fact that I too could kill Macbeth), the fact that you don’t say it’s name in theatres, and the fact that it’s a play I did a full read through and analysis of in class. Favorite character? Puck from Midsummer. — mod aster

uhhhh,, hmm. ive always had a soft spot for midsummer since i saw it with aster esp bc of how fun the costumes were. of the comedies it has the largest potential to be the most visually pleasing bc of the concept of fairies,,,and im gay and dramatic so i love that. id die if i got to costume design for midsummer,,,or be in it,,,yeah. fav character. hmm. probably mercutio?? i recently saw a version of romeo and juliet where mercutio was played by a woman and oh my god it was amazing!!! not to mention mercutio’s portrayal in baz luhrmann's INCREDIBLE version of r n j!!! (I based my mercutio design on him) he just spends the entire time making dick jokes. love that. -- mod star

How do you answer asks so fast? I mean it's great but I'm impressed 😂 (Anon)

Personally, it’s a mix of: notifications on, quick drawing speed, and using the blog to avoid my class work — mod aster

aster is fast and (as you can see from all of my answers) im lazey -- mod star

Are there any elements/characters of the plays you're covering that you would have liked to work into this blog's plot, but couldn't due to the constraints of the setting or the synthetic nature of the blog? (@pedanticlecturer)

I wanted to make everyone gay but unfortunately due to plot constraints we have to have some hets but that wont stop me from making it lgbt as possible. -- mod star

I did want to make The Tempest more of a central play, but it just didn’t translate well. Similarly, other supernatural elements like the witches in Macbeth. This isn’t so much a constraint mentioned, but my own time/energy means that I want to show the Macbeth backstory, in a specific format, but I can’t right now— mod aster

Is there a hierarchy of import when it comes to each play's individualized impact on shakespeare high's general arc? If so, what plays are crucial to the foundation of the story? Which ones did you do mostly for shits and giggles? (@pedanticlecturer)

This is phrased like an ACT question and i might not answer it right so sorry in advance but: mod aster and i only selected a few plays for each of us to do given we dont know all of shakespeare’s works, but we tend to put more emphasis on the the more well known. But it also comes down to 1. How much we have plotted out for each play and 2. What the followers ask about most. Our two most popular are hamlet and macbeth bc people are familiar w those but around march caesar always becomes relevant again. I didnt even have designs for some of the characters until someone asked about them. -- mod star

I would say the same as star— it generally comes down to what people ask about. I will say that the overall plot is sort of separated into “has happened” and “is happening”. Like, the human potion of Midsummer, Julius Caesar, and Macbeth are all in the “aftermath” portion, while Twelfth Night, Hamlet, and Romeo and Juliet, among others, are happening. We’re trying to incorporate as much as we can, and I don’t think any of them were really put in without some thought.— mod aster

What personal significance does shakespeare hold in ur guys' lives? (@pedanticlecturer)

I go to a theater school rn and so ive dealt w shakespeare (although not all of them) it also helps that i was in loves labours lost last year as moth and that i read hamlet and r n j. Theres also a theater in my state that always does One Big Shakespeare per season and they always do them super well!!! My love for shakespeare probably started w seeing midsummer at that theater w mod aster!!! So. Theater kid rights!! -- mod star

To be honest, I got back into Shakespeare Because of the blog. I’ve been friends with some people that got really Pretentious about Shakespeare, and it kinda put me off of it. I did have a book of abridged plays (the plays’ plots written out in prose, basically) that I read as a kid, which is what got me into not only the plots of a lot of the plays, but also the idea of having them illustrated. And, same as star, the theater in state does the One Big Shakespeare— and they tend to do some really cool things with the costumes, setting them in diff time periods. I haven’t been able to see any lately since I’ve moved, but they still slap. — mod aster

🥰😘💙🥰🥰💜💟🥰I 😍💗💚😍😍LOVE🖤🖤 YALL ♥️♥️🧡💛💚💝❣️💕💘💖💗💓💞💝❤️💛💜 okay now i have a question i swear— how long have the two of you been doing art??? and what were your first shakespeare plays??? (@hellaghosts)

Uhh i started drawing when i was like idk 12 and i have the giant boxes of sketchbooks to prove it!!! I moved to digital art at abt 14-15 but mostly stayed traditional until this yr when i got a Neat New Tablet so some of my sketchbooks are sitting abandoned rip. My first shakespeare was either romeo and juliet or midsummer nights dream and i love both of them v much!!! I have a very old piece of art that i did for r n j for my freshman class assignment on it and it hasnt aged well alsdjfjafd circa 2016 i think??? -- mod star

Oh man. I started drawing when I was about 10, but it was Bad. I don’t think I got much into drawing again until I was about 14? Sometime around the end of middle school/beginning of high school. I would say I started getting into drawing as more than doodling/coloring edits sometime around 2015-16? I would draw on my iPad with my finger, then I got a tablet for my computer, and now I pretty much stick to my iPad with an Apple Pencil. My first Shakespeare play was….. uh…… probably Midsummer???? I have No idea. We would go to plays when I was little, so I honestly don’t remember if I saw others before. It may have been Romeo and Juliet— I had that book where it was the original and the “modernized” with the little dog that explained things— which, if you know it makes sense, but if you don’t is probably a bonkers answer. — mod aster

Do you think this blog has like? An overarching thesis (be it b/c intentionally or simply b/c ur own take on the world has bled thru to the point where u believe it’s central to the piece at this point)? (@pedanticlecturer)

Not gonna lie, I had to read that like three times AND dm you to figure out what you were asking from us and all I have is “be gay, respect women, write your own happy endings”. — mod aster

This blog started with an ides of march shitpost and you think we have enough brain energy to write a whole thesis? I projected feelings of found family onto my half of the blog but idk if that counts. Be gay do crime 420 69 -- mod star

What’s the nature/rough dynamic of ur relationship? How do y’all know each other? (@pedanticlecturer)

Met mod aster when i was like 4 and even tho we didnt live close we became like, best friends although the Best part didnt start until we were like 13-ish and eventually we talked like non stop (about anime and homestuck. Yknow. 13 year old kid things) and we didnt see each other a lot bc of Distance and now its even worse bc aster is in colleg.,e but we consider each other siblings regardless of family bc we’re adopted into our own respective families so that bled over into our friendship and it would feel weird calling him anything other than my brother now. We’ve seen each other at our best and worst and if you really want a good insight on what we’re like as siblings watch griffin and justin mcelroy’s overview video of catlateral damage wherein i am griffin and he is the long suffering justin. -- mod star

Star is basically my long distance sibling and functionally the only cousin I recognize bc like their parents are basically an aunt and uncle and like our dads look enough alike that we’ve both accidentally gotten the wrong dad for a hug or similar so like. Anyways yeah Star is the Griffin to my Justin, complete with our absent middle brother who we love dearly— mod aster

Dubiously relevant q but what kind of music do y’all listen to when u do art (if that is indeed a habit either of u partake in) (@pedanticlecturer)

It can depend on the piece? I was working on some (unrelated) oc prints that were song-focused, and for those I just listened to said song on loop. Sometimes I have playlists. Sometimes I’ll just be in a Mood and throw a song on loop. But a lot of time for the blog, I’ll listen to The Adventure Zone for the billionth time, because I have Too Much Attention. I’ve also, on request from Star, linked the most recent “loop song”.— mod aster

I tend to obsess over the same like 3 songs every few weeks so those get listened to on repeat but it also depends on the tone of what im drawing or who im drawing i might genre switch bc of that. If im drawing ophelia i stick to lana del rey and if im drawing hamlet its the neighborhood, horatio is sufjan stevens etc. i have categorized,. Most of the characters i draw into different songs/genres/energies of music but not like i ever follow that. Sometimes i just pull up a really long nonsense video and forget to draw. Essentially: ¯\_(ツ)_/¯ -- mod star

How’d y’all come up with ur pseudonyms? (@pedanticlecturer)

I love space so much and my main blog is starryeydsailor space gay rights!! Im also tiny and full of energy and bright so basically i;m star -- mod star

Uhhhh i was like “hey i want to do uhhhhhh flower?” And then I google searched flower names until I found one I liked —- mod aster

How did you end up deciding the rough timeline of events in canon? (@pedanticlecturer)

It’s mostly determined by like. How we choose per story? If that makes sense. Like, we just take story by story, and decide “is it happening, has it happened, and when?” And then we fit them together in relation to each other just by dint of. All existing at once. Like, I knew I wanted Macbeth to be in aftermath, because like, even though there’s no murder, the way I’ve translated it to the AU is still kinda heavy, and it’s something that I don’t know that I could do properly if it were happening right now. Also, it’s more interesting IMO to have them at different times. Tl;dr we wing it per story and slot them together— mod aster (mod star agrees I just can word better, in theory)

If you could tell the story of shakespeare high in a different format than an ask blog, would you? Obviously y'all are making very good use of the format, but would you want to write this as a animated series or like? a comic book? or is the form inseparable from the story? (@pedanticlecturer)

I kinda wanted to do a webcomic or maybe to plot develop through like, animatics but the element of surprise comes from the asks we get and really makes us think so the blog is a good start. We didnt think we’d get this far -- mod star

Pretty much what Star said— there are certain elements where it’d be neat to do as a comic or as an animatic. Like, the fantasy dream is like, an anthology webcomic of each story, where you can like, see other characters in the background and stuff. But to be honest, we develop a lot by what we’re asked— there was a post about developing worldbuilding by being asked questions and then pretending you’ve thought about the answer, and it’s not far off. Personally, it’s hard to just lay out a story, because I have a whole WORLD and what’s relevant? What are people interested in? It’s by getting questions that I can then focus in on an area to develop. And yeah, we Super didn’t think we’d get this far lmao — mod aster

Any headcanons about your characters that you don't think will ever come up on the blog through asks or plot posts? (@pedanticlecturer)

I could make a whole separate post for this!!!!! Mostly its voice headcanons (and by mostly i mean like 1 or 2) or relationship hcs!!!! -- mod star

Honestly same. I don’t think I have voice headcanons for mine, though I bet I could find some. I’ve got a bunch of miscellaneous headcanons that just kinda float around, but like they’re scattered, too numerous for this post, and also not always things I’m sure are canon yet.— mod aster