#because it came from the mouth of god of spn

[sardonic-the-writer]

rant about Gabriel to me I need to understand him

im going to format this like you've never seen the show, just in case you haven't, so if you have just bare with me

gabriel is a bit of an enigma. for the first two and a half episodes he shows up in, he's not even known as gabriel. he's on screen as 'the trickster' and is masquerading as one. (tricksters in spn canon are powerful demigod creatures of myth that can alter reality how they want, normally using their powers to play deadly pranks on malicious humans in ironic ways. i.e mauling someone who tests products on animals via a sewer alligator)

the reason he's doing this as a self proclaimed "witness protection" method is because he's in hiding, pretending to be a trickster to hide from his family; which is heaven since he's the archangel gabriel. surprise surprise. this is revealed in the episode 'changing channels', (season four) which is i believe the best ranked episode on the entire show by the audience and one of my favorites. 'mystery spot' (season three) is another one he stars in (as rhe trickster, not gabriel. we still dont know that), and i think it's the second highest ranked. and 'tall tales' (season two) is the first one he shows up in which is also very highly ranked.

gabriel has a habit of faking his death a lot to escape responsibility, which he does in the episode 'hammer of the gods' (season five [?] i think) after being "stabbed" by lucifer so he doesn't have to really stick around and watch his family (lucifer and michael) fight. but we don't know that it was a fake out for nearly eight seasons. (there is an instance where he shows up again in season nine but that was a fake out and not the real him). in 'hammer of the gods' we also find out that gabriel really had gone all in with his so called witness protection while pretending to be a trickster; so much so that most of the mythological world/pretty much anyone but cas sam and dean knows him as the actual god of tricksters, loki, and not by his true name. later on when he comes back in season thirteen we find out that's because the real loki offered to share the same face with gabriel back when he first came to earth wayyyyyyy long ago to help him out. and when we meet loki later when gabriels trying to kill him for selling him off to one of the princes of hell asmodeus (i'll get into that) it's basically just the actor richard speight jr playing two roles at once. if that makes any sense. one of my favorite episodes, although i think that's just because i hadn't really seen gabriel in months and was over excited. i'll have to see if the hype holds up on my rewatch

but okay, for some backstory on the whole being sold thing, after gabriel faked his death in 'hammer of the gods', he ran off to some island to get in contact with loki and his kids (think fenrir. spn uses real mythological names and bloodlines as side plots sometimes) to go dark again. loki pretends to entertain the idea and let's gabriel play poker with hookers for a few days (gabe has also stared in a porno before and enjoys eating candy even though angels never get hungry. he's fun that way) before betraying him and basically selling him off as a slave to a prince of hell, who locks him away for hundered (thousands maybe?) of years, constantly draining his archangel grace just enough to not leave gabe powerless, but also enough to torture him horribly. it's awful, and all explained in the episode 'unfinished buisness' (season thirteen) which is all about him enacting revenge on loki and the tricksters kids. but the takeaway is that the first time we see gabe after season five, he's a completely different person. almost like a scared animal. if the animal has had its mouth sewn shut by a demon, that is.

anyways, sam and dean and cas help revert him back to his usual self, and he runs away from his problems for a few episodes, before finally confronting them and dying for real this time at the hands of an alertnate world version of his brother michael a few episodes later. the later seasons writing was so fucked up in my opinion, and the way gabriel died was done so wrong, but i think that's because im biased. frowns

my explination of him does no justice. he's a smug, silly, tricky, multi layered, funny son of a bitch that has fuck ass smile where his eyes crinkled at the corner and i. oughhh. i love him. urgh. yeah

[wetsocksinbed]

*whisper it* I didn’t like Sam or Dean by the end of Supernatural. Sam was just boring and Dean was just really mean and angry. I kept watching because I still liked Cas and Jack. The ending really annoyed me too. It was very poorly written and directed and I couldn’t believe neither Cas nor Jack were in it. I thought it really sucked. It was worse than the end of Game of Thrones, imo. Really disappointing. I wish they would retcon the whole last season (or even the last two seasons.) Or give Castiel and Jack a spin-off or something. Anything to take away the bad taste it left in my mouth. It’s still there, that bitterness, even nearly four years later. I thought all the characters and all the fans deserved a better ending than that. #SPN

I’m so glad other people feel the same way. I think that’s why Jensen created the Winchesters spinoff, because he felt like his character was incomplete. Hell, imagine playing a character for 15 years only to have them die like that. Especially since Dean has had such intense deaths, like the Hellhound, or Metatron, in the past, to the point where Dean would die through the series just to be able to talk to Death/Billie. So to have him die to a metal bar is just insulting. Especially when Jack, a literal god, could have easily snapped his fingers and brought him back. I mean, Jack brought Castiel back from the empty, a place more powerful than God or Amara, the oldest thing in existence, twice.

the only thing I liked about season 15 was that Jack came back tbh

Lucifer 🤝 Supernatural = having some of the worst last seasons known to mankind

[bladey404]

I've been rewatching spn. It's funny that my heart still hurt like hell whenever I saw cas died, even though I knew he would be resurrected soon. Because from dean's pov, (unlike us, he could not see the whole picture) he was there everytime witnessing cas died right in front of him, feared of the thought of losing him forever and consumed by the desperation that nothing he could do to fix it. And every single one of those heartbreaking moments was real as hell for dean.

And i wrote something based on the ending of S12E23, trying to empathize with dean.

👇🏻pls💚💙

Dean sat on his knees next to Cas's body, lost in thought, unable and unwilling to accept the reality of Cas's death. He looked up at the sky with a glimmer of hope in his heart and prayed over and over again for God to help him.

God didn't answer, and no one did. The only glimmer of hope he had was gone too. He was caught up in anger and irritated remorse which came over him like a huge wave, wrapping around him, drowning him, and making him lose his mind. He swung his fists up and clunked them into the hard boards over and over again with so much rage. He didn't know to stop, and the intense tingling sensation from the joints didn't make him stop, as if the pain was nothing to him.

Sam saw his red, swollen and bruised hands and asked what had happened, he just pulled at the corners of his mouth bitterly, but couldn't say anything.

Yes, he knew that he needed to pull himself together, to be strong enough to give Cas a decent send-off.

Slowly he scratched open the lid of the lighter and a flame swished out, giving off a warm yellow light in the darkness that surrounded him. It's about time, "goodbye Cas", he threw the lighter as hard as he could, as if he were saying goodbye to Cas with all his strength.

The roaring flames engulfed Cas and became one with him. The light from the burning firewood in front of him was so dazzling, but Dean was like being shrouded in darkness. His eyes were hollow and dark, without a trace of light, as if his soul had been extracted. And his body was nothing but a vessel, a true walking corpse.

[sevensoulmates]

I don’t have real coherent words after that Oliver interview so I need to hear yours. Because OH MY GOD

Vindication??? VINDICATION???? VIN~DIC~ATION???!!!!!!

Like we knew. We all knew. All the fans knew, and everyone working with the show knew. But the fact that they're actually talking about it? Being transparent about it? From Mr. PR Golden Boy's mouth to the masses? Mind-blowing.

To know for a fact that Bi Buck (and I'm assuming queer Eddie and queer Buddie) was talked about (again we KNEW but like now we know know, ya know)??? I mean Tim literally said years ago that all the discussions we have about buddie online are the discussions they have in the writer's room. The fact that they TRIED to give it us and were shut down. The fact that we still rallied behind them because we fucking. KNEW?!!?!?!

Like queer fans especially like....I'm not going to get into the history of queercoding/the Hayes Code, but anyone who's been around the block with queer media just knows that writers (not just 911 writers) have done their damndest over the years to give the audience queer characters while still trying to appease their homophobic bosses that control their livelihood and the life of their art in general.

It just fucking sucks that only now, when networks realize that openly queer media sells, that they're finally allowing writers and creators to finally tell their authentic stories.

911 is interesting. They're kinda like the elder Gen-Z/Young millennial cuspers. They started during a time when queer media was allowed some visibility but still had heavy sanctions placed upon it, and so they still dealt with homophobia and discrimination in underhanded and mostly invisible ways, and are living long enough to see the social transition into big profitable open queer media.

It's like...I've heard a lot of elder queer people question why some of their fellow elders are so "mad" that young queer people have it "easier" and can be more "open". The critique is "isn't that what we were all fighting for? So that younger people did not have to deal with what we dealt with?" The same goes for TV. I know a lot of people (like people who came from SPN or the MCU or Merlin or Rizzoli & Isles or Sherlock, etc) are seeing what's happening with 911 and they're experiencing this shock of like "we deserved this" and they did. But now they get to see the fruits of their labor come true for new(er) shows like 911 or RW&Rb or Heartstopper or Heartbreak High, or Interview with a Vampire or Good Omens or Umbrella Acadmey or Euphoria or Yellowjackets or the Haunting of Bly Manor, etc.

It's still a long battle, but occasionally, like now, we get to see these BIG wins, and it should be something to celebrate.

This, combined with the fact that we knew a queer Eddie storyline was also being discussed, tells me all I needed to know. And again, I already fucking knew.

Now all we gotta do is wait. We've already waited this long.

[senashenta]

What No One Knows

Title: What No One Knows

Pairing: Lambden

Rating: Teen

Warnings: Language

Summary: Lambert is working a case in Pontiac and finds himself in a bar, as usual. He summons Aiden, this time on purpose, for the first time in a while, and the two of them talk about a few things they have been dancing around for some time.

Notes: More SPN AU. Haven't written in this AU in a long time! The world these lil fics take place in is like a mashup of Earth and The Continent, and the lore and monsters are a mix of SPN and The Witcher. I highly recommend you read my other fics, Crossroads and Call My Name, before this one, if you haven't already. They're both explicit though. Lambert and Aiden are my favorites in this AU, which is probably obvious. I have like three more short fics with them in this AU that I'm currently working on as well. Also a Geralt and Jaskier one. Yay new ADHD meds. (Can also be read HERE on AO3.)

WHAT NO ONE KNOWS By Senashenta

The little business card in his wallet—a literal Calling Card—was getting a bit beat up, but it still worked and that was what mattered. It was the only way Lambert had of calling Aiden, after all, aside from going to a crossroads somewhere and burying a box of tokens—and even then, he was just as likely to get another demon as he was to get Aiden. He didn’t want another demon.

This thing he had going on with Aiden was nearly a year strong at this point and still didn’t make any sense to him, why he continued calling to the demon or why Aiden kept coming when he did call—why they continued to fall into bed together on a regular basis, when Lambert was out on solo hunts and craving companionship.

There were other, probably better, definitely more moral, ways to seek company than hooking up with the literal spawn of Satan, but for some reason Lambert found himself turning to Aiden time and time again, despite all of that. And with him being a Witcher, it was all the more wrong.

But they just… fit. Somehow. In some way that Lambert couldn’t quite figure out and had stopped trying to figure out countless orgasms ago. He was wary by nature, but in this case, he wasn’t going to look a gift horse in the mouth. Because when it came down to it, Lambert was…

Lonely.

Sure, he had his brothers. He had Vesemir. He even had Jaskier, as irritating as the angel could be at times, but it just never seemed to be enough. And something about Aiden filled the void inside him, though he wasn’t sure why or how. He supposed the sex helped.

What he didn’t get was why Aiden was humoring him the way he was, always arriving in a timely manner when he called, appearing more than happy to be there, to spend time with him—to fuck him. Surely the demon had better (okay, worse, probably) things to do than entertain a lonesome or occasionally just bored—or horny—Witcher.

In any case, Lambert was in somewhat of a conundrum now because they had established a relationship of sorts—albeit a fucked up one—and he had to do everything in his power to hide it from his family. Because they would say he was being stupid (he knew that) and reckless (he was), and if they found out that Aiden was possessing the body of a former-Witcher? They would hunt him down and kill him just for that alone.

And Lambert didn’t want that. He liked Aiden. He—

Gods. Was he actually falling for a demon?

Lambert scoffed into his drink. He was currently seated in a corner booth of a run-down bar in Pontiac, into his second glass of whiskey and making his way toward a third. The case he was in town for, a rather nasty poltergeist, was proving to be difficult and it was… annoying. A poltergeist should be an easy hunt, not leave him chasing himself in circles the way this one was.

But this particular poltergeist had an especially mean streak, and he’d already lost someone to it. One of the members of the family who currently lived in the house, a little girl called Lily, and she didn’t deserve to die bloody. Not the way she did. Not at all. She was liable to become a ghost herself, all things considered.

And the only way to reliably get rid of the thing was to track down the former-person now-poltergeist’s bones, salt and burn them. He had already tried cleansing the house and failed miserably. The attempt had only riled the spirit up—gotten that little girl killed in the end. That was all on him, something he would have to carry from here on out. But he already had so many deaths on his conscience that one more was just one more. He could cope.

The problem now was that he couldn’t find the right graveyard to dig up the corpse. There were five cemeteries in Pontiac and the grave he was looking for didn’t appear to be in any of them. He had gone over all of them with a fine-toothed comb and nada.

So here Lambert was, drowning his sorrows with alcohol and thinking about the weirdest relationship in his life, when he really should have been out looking for the grave some more. Going over the graveyards again. Instead, he took another sip of his drink and pulled his wallet out of his pocket, then flipped it open and tugged the business card out of the very back slot.

He looked at it contemplatively before rubbing his thumb over the now-faded embossed lettering once, then twice. Then a third time just to be sure.

“What’s with the face, Lambs?” A familiar voice spoke up from across the booth only a few seconds later. “You look like someone ate your puppy.”

Lambert lifted his gaze toward where Aiden was now seated, eyes flitting over the demon’s form. He took another sip of his drink. “Bitch of a case, is all.”

“What have I told you about drinking alone?” Aiden asked with a little quirk of a smile, and raised a hand to call a waitress over, ordering himself a whiskey—and another one for Lambert, as well, since his was getting low. When she delivered them, he paid her with a twenty and told her to keep the change. She walked away smiling and Aiden turned his attention back to Lambert. “Much better.”

Lambert downed the last of his glass and pushed it aside, reaching for the glass Aiden had just ordered for him. “I told you not to call me that.”

“It’s a pet name.” Aiden chuckled, “considering what we’ve got going, I should be allowed.”

“And what have we ‘got going’, exactly?” Lambert asked around the rim of his glass, eyes sharp and calculating, studying Aiden’s every move, his every expression. He already knew them all by heart, but still. “No, really, Aiden. I’m curious, tell me.”

“Did you call me here just to pick a fight?” Aiden asked, tilting his head.

Lambert made an irritated noise and downed his new drink in one gulp, setting the glass down a little harder than was absolutely necessary. “No! I—I called you because…” He trailed off, glancing away. He had called Aiden because he was feeling lost and frustrated and something about the demon now seated in front of him always seemed to soothe those kinds of feelings away. “I’m having a shitty day and I just wanted to see you.” He muttered, instead of saying all that.

Aiden studied him for a moment before his expression shifted into something amused, almost fond in nature. “Tell me what’s wrong.”

“Fuckin’…” Lambert rubbed the heels of his palms against his eyes with a groan. “Poltergeist. Killed a kid on my watch. Godsdammit.” Dropping his arms back down, he averted his gaze and managed, “and having you around makes it better. So, I just. I called you.”

There was a long silence after that while Aiden just looked him over, eyeing Lambert over the edge of his glass. Then he set his drink down—much more gently than Lambert had been—and sighed, shaking his head. “Lambert, it was just one kid. I’m sure it could have been much worse. Poltergeists can be nasty sons of bitches.”

Lambert glared. “One kid still counts.” He hissed. Sometimes he forgot that Aiden was a demon, but times like this brought the realization back full force. “Don’t say shit like that to me again.”

Aiden held his hands up, palms out in a placating gesture. “Sorry.” And then, “I am… glad you called me, though, Lambs. It’s been a while. I was starting to think you were over me.”

A little snort at that, and a muttered, “hardly.”

Their last meet-up had been in Velen, nearly two months ago, when he’d been hunting down a basilisk and had to spend the night in the forest. Alone. And in Velen that was never a good idea. His brothers were too far away to call for backup, so he had called Aiden instead, and the demon had kept him company through the long night and into the next day. They hadn’t even fucked that time, they had just huddled around the fire, talking—or, sometimes, sitting in silence for a while—until Lambert had to crash for a couple of hours. He had been surprised but privately pleased to find Aiden still there when he woke up later, just kind of… watching over him.

But it was always him calling Aiden, not the other way around. Lambert wondered, briefly, if Aiden would contact him sometimes, if he had a way to. Probably not. He had his own wheelings and dealings to get on with, all over the country. Possibly all over the world, who really knew? He supposed he could just ask, if he was all that curious. Aiden would probably tell him.

Still frowning to himself, Lambert waved the waitress over to order another drink—it would be his fourth—and when it was delivered, his empty glass whisked away at the same time, Aiden gave him a surveying look before asking, “are you sure that’s a good idea, Wolf? How many have you had already?”

“Fuck off.” Lambert muttered, making Aiden sigh.

“I would,” The demon told him, “but lets’ not forget that you called me here.”

“Only because you never—” Lambert began before cutting himself off, turning his gaze to his drink.

“I never…?” Aiden’s eyes were on him, sharp gold, searching.

“You never bother calling on me.” The Witcher grit out finally, his own eyes flicking up to meet Aiden’s briefly before flitting away again, down to a water spot on the table. He couldn’t believe he’d actually just said that out loud. Gods, maybe he was drunk. He could usually hold his liquor better than this.

Across the table, Aiden’s expression shifted into something like surprise—and then a slow smile spread across his face. He pushed his own glass aside and slid himself around the booth until he was sitting right next to Lambert, then reached to rest a hand on the Witcher’s thigh, squeezing firmly. “And how do you propose I do that, hm? You don’t have a magic card like I do.”

“Cell phones exist!” Lambert growled, glaring into his drink. “It just seems like—this. Whatever it is. Is very one-sided.”

The hand on his thigh tightened down even more, just this side of painful as Aiden dug his nails in. “Trust me, Lambert, it’s anything but one-sided.” The demon told him, voice low, and leaned in to speak directly into his ear when he continued, “you apparently haven’t noticed, but you. Are. Mine.” This was followed by a playful bite on Lambert’s earlobe and, “why do you think no other demons have come near you in the last year? I’ve been chasing them off. Keeping you safe.”

Lambert swallowed slightly, his own hand tightening around his glass just a bit. “But you never…” Trailing off, he hesitated before continuing; “you never seek me out. It’s always the other way around.”

“Because of the card thing,” Aiden explained again, “but I keep an eye on you, always. Or, as much as I can, anyway. I do have my own job to do, too. I have a quota, and if I don’t meet it there’s literal hell to pay. Plus, if anyone downstairs was to find out I was fucking a Witcher? Let’s just say you wouldn’t see me again. Ever. It’s a delicate balance, what we have going, Lambs. I’m sure it is for you, too.”

“…keeping you a secret from my family is a fucking nightmare.” A little huff of a sigh and Lambert released his glass and pushed it to arms’ length, then shifted, adjusting to face Aiden a bit more. “Maybe get a cell phone, Aiden. Then you could at least call me, sometimes.”

Aiden sat back slightly to look at him properly. His grip on Lambert’s thigh loosened slightly but he left his hand there anyway. “This is really important to you, isn’t it?”

“I didn’t think we would be this…” Lambert trailed off, eyes lifting up to meet Aiden’s properly. “It is. Important. For some reason—” Breaking off, he looked away again, frowning absently when Aiden squeezed his thigh reassuringly. “I don’t… understand why. But it is.”

There was a long silence, then, Lambert continuing to avoid Aiden’s gaze and Aiden just thinking, trying to come up with the right words. This was as close as they had gotten to talking about their feelings in the entire time they had known each other, and it was delicate territory. Usually they just got drunk, went back to Lambert’s motel room, and fucked. That was simple. This was the opposite of simple.

And as much as Aiden was a demon, and as much as their relationship had started out as a simple transaction—and then shifted into basic lust—he had grown to genuinely care for Lambert, deep in his dark, withered heart.

Demons weren’t known for their ability to care, their ability to love. Oh, they could love and crave material things, certainly, but people? Not so much. Aiden wasn’t sure why he was different from the rest of his kin. Maybe because his body had once belonged to a Witcher. But he was different. At least when it came to Lambert, anyway. He wanted to keep Lambert all to himself, hide him away somewhere safe, give him all the best things in life, all the things he, as a demon, could get his hands on.

He settled for chasing the other demons away from his Witcher and meeting up with him every now and then to fuck in dingy motel rooms.

“I understand why.” Aiden said finally. He brought one hand up to delicately stroke along Lambert’s stubbled jaw and smiled—a genuine smile, uncharacteristically gentle and soft. When Lambert finally looked at him again, Aiden ducked in to kiss him—again, just gently. “I feel the same way.” He murmured against Lambert’s lips.

Lambert stiffened, entire body locking up on those words, but when Aiden made to pull away, he suddenly surged into motion, grabbing hold of the front of Aiden’s jacket and yanking him closer again, diving in to kiss the demon firmly, all tongue and heat—desperate. Aiden made a delighted noise in the back of his throat and kissed back in kind for a long couple of moments before breaking away to grin against Lambert’s mouth and murmur, “let’s get out of here, Lambs.”

“Yeah,” Lambert agreed, just the slightest bit breathless and a grin on his own face, now, “definitely.”

[scripted-downfall]

One of the things that makes Sam's character arc so ironic is that the man's intense desire to be the Chosen One is at odds with his desire to be "good."

After all, the thing is: he is the Chosen One, exactly what he wants to be. (The original post that inspired this --- linked here --- detailed what I mean by this: half of his motivations are because he's certain that he's got some higher purpose for good no matter what signs there are to the contrary.) He takes issue with this fact only because he's the Chosen One for the wrong side, for Hell.

Honestly, for all he preaches that monsters aren't all bad and evil is a choice --- which I do believe are true statements, to be clear --- he only puts his money where his mouth is on that point when it's convenient for him. (Lenore? Madison? We have to give 'em another chance! Cas? Benny? Oh, come on, Dean, how dare you replace me with them!) Only rarely does he selflessly make the difficult choice to do the right thing.

Legitimately, all the things that Sam does wrong in the entire series are because of his choices (plus or minus some manipulations by external sources). I'm a Sam anti because of his choices. Problems arise because of his choices. (Please note: I'm not laying the blame for everything in the series at his feet. I'm not saying that all problems come from him. I'm saying that, more often than not, any problems that do stem from him have their roots in his choices. It's like squares and rectangles: not all of Sam's choices cause problems, but most of his problems stem from his choices.)

The demon powers are the primary example of this: those came from Hell, but they were not inherently bad. Andy used the powers with moderation and lived quite peacefully until Ava killed him; Jake probably would have been fine if he'd been left on his own and not had Azazel forcing him to develop the powers; etc. If Sam had just not used them --- or only used them in the earlier stages, without triggering the "switches that flip in your brain" --- nothing bad would have happened. But that would have meant that he wasn't given this higher calling. That would have taken away the pre-destined strength he felt he had every time he called post-Hell!Dean "weak." That would have meant that he had to ignore his powers. And because he didn't want to do that --- because he wanted that aggrandizing title --- Sam chose to a) disregard Dean's last wishes that he not use them, b) trust Ruby, and c) disregard the warnings of not just his brother, not just Ava/Jake, but also the entire host of Heaven that these powers were a bad thing.

This whole post was inspired by the tags of a reblog featuring a line about him "delusionally trying to believe he can for once be worth something good." And, while I take the point --- and am certainly not trying to be rude or anything on that front --- Sam is 100% capable of being something good.

The problem is that he's got these preconceived notion about what "good" is, and it's very rarely the actual right thing to do. In the earlier seasons, he trusts the Bible and automatically assumes angels are good. (Frankly, idk why; I tend to leave religion out of things, but it bears mentioning that "Old Testament" is more or less synonymous with violent wrath for a reason.) In s11, when he assumes that God is sending him visions, he automatically trusts that the content of the visions is "good" and "right" purely because it came from God and is "how things are meant to be"; once God actually shows up, he immediately starts fanboying over him even though I once again question that particular piece of wisdom. I'm fond of Chuck --- at least for now... I haven't seen past s12 yet, and I know s15 Chuck is... yeah. --- but his management in the SPN universe is... highly questionable even at that point.

The problem is: Being good (in the context of this show) doesn't fall in line with his belief that being good is predicated upon having some grandiose fate or magic powers, on being some op "I can kill you with my brain" savior. The show is written to make his storyline ironic, yes, because the seasons have "being good" as refusing use the magic powers (s4), resisting destiny (s5, s9, s15), staying true to the simplicity of normal hunting (s12), etc, and not embracing this, frankly, egocentric desire to be powerful.

Thus, I agree with the poster, and yet I feel that it's not an issue of him trying to prove that he can, for once, be something good; it's him trying to be good and fulfill his power-centric version of goodness. And it's because of this that I can't really find it heartbreaking. Because he's knowingly, consciously making poor choices in the name of power. In any other character, that'd be villain-coded, just saying.

And, of course, I fully admit that I don't like Sam. I don't like how he treats his brother. I don't like how he makes decisions. I don't like how he's favored by the writing, the plot, the finale, and even the characters. The writers, in essence, cast him as the main character, but his is not a story I've ever wanted to follow, all the way from episode one. I make no bones about the fact that I cannot identify with him, cannot justify many of his actions. But, while all this is true, I do think that I'm fair.

If anyone disagrees with any of this, I look forward to hearing polite, logical discourse. (If you cannot be pleasant while maintaining your passion, please DNI. I can go my way; you can go yours.)

[minalblood]

I figured if Meg, Drake and Nida are streaming an episode,ni may as well be in line and continue my rewatch so here we gooo, ep 5!

Akridaaa here yaay! I love those fuckers! And a lot about the Akrida this episode since we're finally getting to seeing them full on.

God, Dean speaking about pain and letting it out so it doesn't fuck you up hurts. And of course it's highly relevant to this ep, Mary of course once more being the Dean mirror.

Ok lets begin, cuz I've thoughts. We'll do this one chronological aka as the ep goes.

1stly this is the episode when I literally went "oh there you were, u fucker" cuz this episode is the one when John acts most like the version we're used to from spn. Interesting thing, when John's talking to Millie at the beginning of the episode and she asks him.how he is but in a way that he can easily let rest there and he is so in his head about what happened last ep that he preemptively reassure her he isn't affected by the Vietnam trauma which ofc means it is at the front of his mind. Also about that scene, Millie saying she wanted to take a pry bar to the motorcycle heavily echoes Dean taking a crowbar to Baby after John's death. I have many thoughts about Millie saying Mary is good for John like Betty was. Like what does she mean? Why does John need someone to keep him in check tho, because thats the implication there for me, we'll circle back to this cuz my opinion kind changes as the ep goes on.

Ada off the bat is the focus here.She ignored Carlos' mention about the demon after the last time when she was almost sadistically plucking leaves off. She wasn't really listening to the case detail as Mary was listing them. She didn't even really get involved in the discussion except to say they need to work this case and oooof it hurts to see because we ofc now know why shes acting as distracted and worried as she is.

Lata took Ada knowing her djinn lore as a ... birds of a feather thing aka Ada being interesting in the lore as she herself is and is so pleased about it. I wonder what she thought about it after finding out about Tony and Ali.

God Tony's entrence is pretty fucking great tho, jeesus. I also love that we start it off on the usual set up for monsters that spn perfected aka the monster of the week doesnt show their face til late in the episode cuz theyre the threat, the danger, the thing we're not supposed to relate to or get close to whereas the victim and the brothers (in spn) are introduced to us with full shot of their face because we're meant to care about them, to associate them immediately with a person and be invested in them, be close to them. So Tony being shot as just his legs as he runs until the moment he sees Ada is absolutely gorgeous to me. It goes from this distant, dangerous thing to someone important to one of our main charaters in the span of seconds. In seconds he becomes someone we're emotionally invested in (even if just curiosity about why Ada has her reaction) only to then really hit home once she says who he is, her son.

I also love that Lata's question about Ada being a djinn is said completely without judgement, just Lata trying to recontextualize what she know about Ada to herself, including the earlier knowledge about djinn lore. And this non judgemental attitude is relfected by Carlos and Mary as well. They're curious, confused, shocked, but not hostile to Ada. They just want to understand. But John is a dif creature here. From the moment Ada memtions who Tony is, John is pissed. He's absolutely furious throughout Ada's story, completely cruel in his reaction and absolutely oblivious about how he comes across for all of it, or willfully ignorant if I'm not feeling charitable. And this after he was a dick to Mary earlier about the motorcycle, but that by contrasr was just a foot in mouth thing That, while yes, dickish, wasnt harmful ultimately. And in both he had no clue how he came across. In the 1st scene, Mary let him know, in the second, because it was so striking that Mary Carlos and Lata chose instead to remove him from Ada's presence as quickly as possible without any chastisement because they knew Ada safety was more important than John being made aware of his behaviour (be it even just the emotional side here, since I don't think they would ever think hed do anything really). And it's this scene that makes it clear beyond any reasonable doubt to me, thay yea, this is def John Winchester and he is just a few degrees off of spn!john and could easily become him.

But the other interesting part here is that it's him having this reaction, the newbie here, the one who's joined this fight without any personal stake really. Like Henry doesn't count since the trauma of losing Henry is an old one that is wrapped more in Henry's abandonment than the actual supernatural world, whereas everybody else has lost people they loved as a direct result of monsters. But they're still empathetic to Ada and understand her choice so much easier than John who just doesn't get it or even try. Because he's already written monsters off as the Enemy thus the evil to his good.Like I said about the previous episode, John views it all in stark Black and White colors.

And now we have the Millie/Ada/John/Dean parallel. Aka the parent afraid of/for their child to the point they end up hurting them. Now importantly, Millie is parallel more clearly with John as parent here, specifically his controlling behaviour towards his kids, Dean most of all Id say and using that fear/worry as an excuse for his shitty behaviour. While Ada is both Dean and John. Leaning more toward Dean, who ultimately did realise that the behaviour was wrong and tried to fix things in much the same way Ada gives Tony the choice to help, to reestablish connection, Dean extends the same to Jack. John never fully does this, he dies still balancing between saving his son vs killing him. And then there is the treating your child based off of seeing him as another person. This one is big too, because Millie and Ada treated their sons as tho punishing them for their fathers, but important distinction, Ada tried not to allow her fear to taint Tony, it was him walking into her nightmare that led to their break. Millie does treat John like this, deliberately. She constantly compares John to Henry and we have to assume this is a behaviour that's been present during John's childhood too because of how prevalent it is.

So we already have all the daddy issues before the main emotional break of the episode is even introduced. And it all paves the way for the John/Samuel parallel's and as such the Dean/Mary parallels once we enter Mary's mind.

And it's important too that it's John talking to Mary that cools John down and it's the comparison to themselves that has him actually willing to relate to Ada's experience.

God I still hate the Saint Miguel reference, especially after the previous episode.

Another important thing about Ada/Dean is they both acknowledge their failings and then choose to do better, whereas Millie is a bit of an inbetween, she's changing as I've said, but is just figuring it out still, she's not really there yet, but she's asking about how to do it which is very important. It means she's willing to put in the work to do better. I also love that Ada immediately believes Tony but so does Carlos, even without the evidence.

Small thing I appreciated about the talk the gang has about the Akrida is Carlos picking up the file and clearly trying to put stuff together themselves.

I love everyone but John's reactions to Ada. So so much. I also love the following your heart advice Ada gives Mary, it reminds me of Mildred (my beloved) giving the same advice to Dean.

God Carlos' lies are awful, how have they been a hunter so long ans still.are this shit at lying. I love them.

I adore the Akrida design as well, i fucking love those bugs soo much.

Aaaand Mary got stung. And Carlos making a joke to difuse the worry is soo soo good and his advice to Ada to just tell Tony the truth is brilliant. As is Ada's talk to him. I LOVE her making sure she refers to Tony as his own person rather than who he is in relation to her, it's her ackowledging his personahood and also her not pushing him and making it clear she knows he likely will still leave and wont force him.to stay, it is such such good communication.

John being signled out makes perfect sense to me here tbh, bacuse outta everyone there, John has been the one to push Mary even when she's been at her most stubborn, he's the one whose been challenging her since they met as she does him. They know Mary can just tune them.out because she's done it before (in this show even) but John has always broken through to her.

John saying you cant fight ur trauma but you can face it, is chef's kiss after last ep. It shows he has been thinking, has been trying to do better even if it's not shown to us. To some degree he knows what he needs to do. I dont even mind thay he's a bit too harsh initially in trying to convince Mary to face her worst memory, bacause it is a time crunch, there's time to process it properly after, once Mary is alive to do it. And he give her the space and understanding she needs once she's going through it, he doesnt make it about himself. So we have not just Mary afecting him like Millie says in the beginning, but he afects her too. This is why they can work together.

But goood I hate the Campbell's just as much as I hate spn!John. For the same reasons, and I still think they were better parents then John, bacause Mary at least had more stability than Dean and Sam did, because she had a stable home. But yea, Mary's tragedy in spn is def partly the fact that her kids had to live what she did, and she has no idea just how similar it was, not really.

John giving Mary the reassurence that shes right to want to leave once shes done hunting is also very very good.

And I gotta say I love the bonding between Ada and Tony at the end, open ended but full of potential and i love lata and tony so so much! And also also, carlos once more pulling that vital vital background work to finally find out about Roxy.

This episode is so chock-full of intergenerational trauma (not that thats surprising, but rather the way it gets highlighted here). There is so so much to talk about and I can't even get all of it out but yeah, heres ep 5. Do i have more thoughts about it? Always. But so far here we leave it

[drsilverfish]

The Winchesters: Back to the Garden?

Is this, SPNWin 1x02 Teach the Children Well.

really heading for this? SPN 4x03 In the Beginning

The tone and colour palette of The Winchesters, which is Scooby-Doo in golden sepia is, thus far, significantly removed from the dark palette and profound horror of early Supernatural. 

This is partly because the CW wants its programmes to be advertising friendly for its youth demographic and it has ideas about what that looks like. We know that Supernatural was an anomaly, and that the network told SPN to move away from its early (gorgeous) darker cinematography,.

But, the story-telling horror remained. And that horror was driven significantly by the struggle with fate. 

If we are in Universe One (the SPN universe) then we already know John and Mary’s fates.

As Lucifer said in 5x04 The End: “Whatever you do, you will always end up... here. No matter what choices you make, whatever details you alter, *we* will always end up... here.”

But that would be hopeless, right? To simply be heading to SPN 4x03 In the Beginning, when Cas takes Dean back in time, but Dean is unable to prevent the events that lead to Mary, desperate on the road at night, kissing her own father Samuel on the mouth  (possessed by Azazel), to seal the demon deal that damns Sam to become Lucifer’s vessel, while John Winchester’s lifeless body  lies between them...

This story, The Winchesters, doesn’t feel like a dark-character-arc story, a fall-from-grace story, about how Mary ended up dead and John ended up neglecting their kids.

Robbie Thompson wrote SPN 10x11 There’s No Place Like Home and the colour palette of Oz (an Alternative Universe) really reminds me of The Winchesters:

I’m guessing many SPN fans are missing the traumatic text of SPN.

I’m missing it too, and The Winchesters feels... confusing.... for that reason.

Trauma can be addictive, after all.

Is The Winchesters intended to be a redemptive text, a healing text, by contrast?

I mean, like Sam and Dean, The Winchesters Scoobies are carrying trauma. John is suffering from Vietnam War PTSD, given he saw his friend Murph get blown up. Mary has been traumatised by her childhood as a hunter, and the death of her beloved cousin Maggie on a hunt. Lata is estranged from her family and has lied to her friends that her parents are dead. Carlos’ family (parents and brother) were killed by a ghoul, which is how he got into hunting. Ada has already been traumatised by demon possession and seems to be going a bit dark with her bonsai tree as demon trap. 

But somehow, they’re... reaching out to each other, supporting each other, talking about their feelings?!?!?!

Particularly given the 60s and 70s soundtrack, I’m really hearing Joni Mitchell’s Woodstock:

“I came upon a child of God He was walking along the road And I asked him where are you going And this he told me I'm going on down to Yasgur's farm * I'm going to join in a rock 'n' roll band I'm going to camp out on the land I'm going to try an' get my soul free We are stardust We are golden And we've got to get ourselves Back to the garden Then can I walk beside you I have come here to lose the smog And I feel to be a cog in something turning Well maybe it is just the time of year Or maybe it's the time of man I don't know who I am But you know life is for learning We are stardust We are golden And we've got to get ourselves Back to the garden By the time we got to Woodstock We were half a million strong And everywhere there was song and celebration And I dreamed I saw the bombers Riding shotgun in the sky And they were turning into butterflies Above our nation We are stardust Billion year old carbon We are golden Caught in the devil's bargain And we've got to get ourselves back to the garden”

Some kind of return to Paradise (but not the fakery of Heaven) guided by Holy Ghost narrator Dean?

To a place where “Everything was beautiful and nothing hurt”? (Slaughterhouse 5 - Vonnegut).

I can sense that the SPN fandom is a bit muted about The Winchesters and there’s some not-great news about its survival coming out of the CW already:

https://deadline.com/2022/11/the-winchesters-amp-walker-independence-no-back-orders-cw-cutbacks-season-2-canceled-renewed-1235159619/

A shame, because there’s something really intriguing about a redemptive after-vision for Supernatatural from Robbie, Jensen and Daneel, with a Vonnegut twist - the promise of healing for the traumatised and I’d like to find out where the story is going.

[incarnateirony]

i think 2po forgets that there's actually a fair amount of quiet, unknown fans that attend cons regularly and even m&gs *gasp* but we don't shout about it or leak stuff.... and we know that he's just trying to sound like he has info when really, he's just like any other fan digging in sandboxes and trying to make a jigsaw out of the scraps they find there. there's 20 people in these things, just because he's loud and has loud sources, and hangs around in loud circles, doesn't mean the other fans sitting in those chairs are statues. we listen, we take note, we go back to our quiet little lives and have to watch BNFs run their mouths like they've been chosen as a direct conduit between the gods (actors) and the insects (fans). but actually, they're no different than those of us who are having a nice time in our spn bubble while we point at him and go "...the fuck is he talking about?"

lots of love from a m&g attendee that is tired of seeing him talk shit when he wasn't in the fucking room. he's also the most blatant anti in disguise i've ever seen. p.s. the whole reason i follow you is because of a m&g. do you know who i don't follow for the same reason? 2po. hopefully this helps some people that still think 2po is legit "ITK."

Lemme guess, it's the one I busted him lying on. You don't have to confirm it, but yeah. We knew he had been lying and spinning M&Gs for years for the same reason you just said. Nobody could pin him down on it. 20 people in the room and yeah, a lot hear how he's lying and everyone's been trapped on pinning him down on it. Because the SECOND I pulled the truth out he went WE'RE REPORTING IT. Huh. So you admit it's real then. Too bad your friend was drunk with an open container violating the NDA in row A of the theater within 5 minutes. That sucks for you. Very loud ranting. And the threats for hellers daring to heller in a cockles M&G were just a nice touch of frosting on the shit cake.

And it's so funny bc if you look at his sources--he thought he was being slick when he blatantly described Gayle and Suzanne--they're still. just fans. It's fans sourcing fans sourcing fans, and those bloated fans think they're Someone and they're getting furiouser and furiouser and coming at me harder and harder. Like, no, it doesn't matter that you invested millions in Jared and Mantra, Suzanne, he isn't running the show. Probably why yall flipped shit. Their corner is drying up, Jared's M&Gs aren't even selling out anymore at bottom price, even selling J2 only adds like +100 to Jensen's value. They're realizing only a few people wanna work with him anymore, he doesn't hang out with people from the old lot anymore, and no, he wasn't included in the prequel organization, and their brains are fucking melting.

Also why they hate the origin of it. Because then. Well. Let's just say when Jared exploded I was like

our bad ig. Whatever. So like. Yeah. At least it's good to know other congoers are aware. I got a few reports today too of certain fans like "oh my god I met them you're right they're incredibly fucking obnoxious and think they're part of the cast", and really, that's what drives 2po's "ITK" shit. Fans feeding fans feeding fans feeding fans. Even Wiki is just a glorified fan, and the way she reeled back when 2po got her burned a few times tells me she's starting to realize that real quick.

And somehow this fandom had a stroke and forgot my warnings about coffeerunners like her that get elevated into first media roles not grokking their limitations and babbling to equally unqualified idiots, they forgot Manchin/Market Testing, they let that "fake script" shit get out of hand on purpose, and so on. What it boiled down to was she was salty I found a newer script than she was given access to, because she was hired in feb but given an old draft, which shows her content is screened, and I think she really did NOT like that reality.

It came from lack of understanding that like. Scripts are released the way they are to root out leakers just like her. Like TPTB knows now. She's never gonna get anything of worth now. She's just there as a rubber stamp hire to go LOOK OUR CANON WILL BE FINE WE HAVE THE WIKI when, realistically, as she isn't trained or studied for the job, her underqualification lets them get away with A LOT MORE SHIT so they get to giggle and flee and pat her on the head for a good job.

Like i said. the spnscripthunt server is a condensed form of the worst fans in all lanes. Antis, bitters, J2 tinhats, misha haters, manipulators, grifters, and active liars basically form the base, but they use the appeal of shiny scripts to radiate their garbage out through the people they manipulate into giving them free gold tickets.

[neon-in-the-night-time]

i am forever thinking about a Julie and the Phantoms X Supernatural crossover that is specifically focused on spnwin where rose and victoria are carlos cervantez's nieces and john had something to do with carlos's death and sam and dean indirectly had something to do with rose's death and so julie haaaaaaates them and also reggie is secretly sam and dean's brother and sam sees a video of the band playing and he's like uhhhhhhh dean you wanna look at this and theyre like oh my god why is our dead brother playing in this "hologram" band and they don't recognize the connection to their family and julie so theyre like "she must be a witch" so they show up at julie's house and they're like "this is the fbi" and she's like "bitch try again i know a winchester when i see one" and they're like "what's going on... why does she know us" and she's like "your dad is the reason my great-uncle died" ala ellen and jo and they're like "we dont even know you" and she's like "well my family is all hunters and i promise you my ghosts aren't vengeful spirits... i don't think theyre even normal ghosts. rock salt and silver didn't even work on them. i tried" and they go into the studio where we learn that rose was actually a witch! and she learned from ada and all the plants in the garage are demons like in that one episode of the winchesters to like. figure out what's up with caleb because julie reveals that the other day julie and nick danforth-evans were assigned to do a school project together and they went to the studio to work on it but nick got stuck on the carpet (they had a devils trap drawn underneath it) and like the purple smoke came out of his mouth revealing caleb and theyre like omg so he's a demon and they join forces with victoria and ray (who obviously monster-hunted with rose back in the day) and they like. hunt down caleb and we learn that rose died the same way mary did and julie watched just like sam did so julie has the magic powers too and together she and sam send caleb to the empty and they do like. the soul for a soul hting to get cas back and dean's like "i always loved you back dont leave me again" and at some point julie digs out the monster club jackets that they said they were gonna make in spnwin but we NEVER ACTUALLY SAW but i know theyre real and hers is a hand-me-down from her mom who got it from her tio carlos and it says cervantez on the back and rose bedazzled it. anyways could you tell ive been thinking about this a lot? id write it but i lowkey hate writing... also there's like very little intersection between the jatp and spn fandoms and even less who actually watched the prequel

[mattzerella-sticks]

Not to post about the Supernatural finale again but I find it hilarious that we've gone through so many different attempts of watching them trying to salvage and explain away what did air when in truth the finale was bad and there is no defending it and that's what we want to hear and also I'm glad that that what they tried to make the end of the story is very much not the actual end of the story.

[castielcommunism]

You are so right for your opinions on people being anti Mary. Interacting with those kind of people always leaves a bad taste in my mouth because I get reminded of those early female spn fans and their unique brand of misogyny. It gets even funnier when they try to explain themselves like noooo I hate Mary because DeAn wAs mEaN tO CaStIeL aFtEr sHe dIeD. Well have you considered the fact that Dean is a bitch (and I’m saying this as someone who’s very Dean coded) and he is responsible for his own shitty actions and how unfairly he treated Cas during that time. I agree that Mary as a character had a lot of potential when she came back and a lot of it was wasted but really this is supernatural so it’s not that surprising. So yeah if you actively hate her then I don’t trust you.

my mary apologia is at (sitting in court on trial for murder) “wow. god forbid women do anything” levels so even if every bad faith thing people said about her was true I would still be like ok well she was correct and her dick is huge and her shitty stupid fail children should suck it up <3

and like it IS misogyny that informs most people’s “mary critical” takes but it’s also very much terminal deangirlism. I haven’t scoured every weird corner of spnblr so maybe there anti-mary deancrits (idk how sam stans feel about her on the whole but I haven’t seen anything outlandish from them before), but the most common I’ve seen are the dean goggles crowd. every character in supernatural is then read as either Friends of Dean Winchester or Enemies of Dean Winchester (there are no other categories), but the friend/enemy distinction is largely based on whether or not someone is 120% polite and nice to him at all times.

I can’t remember who said this but a lot of people don’t understand why they like the things they like, and I think that’s also true about stuff people dislike. which is why I respect people who are honest about where they’re coming from and say yeah I just hate this character because they’re mean to a character I like. but most of the time you get people doing eleventh dimensional mental gymnastics to insist actually no mary is HORRIBLE because blah blah blah.

and I’m not immune to this either like I have defended stupid positions before and will do so again, but I think it would be beneficial if people admitted that sometimes they don’t have a big brain reason for disliking a character. being a simple hater is fine! that’s a noble position! just be honest about it. it’s very freeing

[myaimistrue]

written for @spnwomenweek day one! the prompt was favorite character/skills. this is technically both, though my favorite spn women rotates on an hourly basis.

you can also read this on ao3!

Mary’s pregnant again. 

The baby isn’t an accident. She has reminded herself of this over and over again, that babies are never accidents when the mother is still so young and the family is still so small, when the parents are so obviously in love. In her circumstances, an unplanned child is just that—unplanned, but still welcome. An unexpected gift.

That knowledge doesn’t stop the uneasiness Mary’s felt within her since she saw those two little lines on the pregnancy test.

At the very least, John and Dean are happy about it. John, in fact, was over the moon when Mary told him that very day she found out, right when he came home from work. She isn’t sure what she’d been expecting, but it wasn’t the way he laughed warmly, gathering her up in his arms and pulling her close.

“Another son,” he’d whispered in her ear. “God, Mary, we could have another son.”

Irritation had prickled along her skin. “It could be a girl.”

And instead of snapping back, instead of allowing that comment to devolve into an argument, John ignored it. Maybe hadn’t heard her, or maybe he was just too happy to be angry with his wife. He’d only squeezed her tighter, like she was some precious, gentle thing, and Mary had stood there in his arms, trying to relax into his touch.

They’d waited until she was further along to tell Dean. He’d looked at them both so solemnly, so seriously, as they explained that he would have a little brother or sister one day very soon. That Dean would get to be a big brother.

“You’ll have a new friend to play with,” John had said. Mary had loved him with a sudden fierceness at that moment, the way he looked at their son like he was the center of his entire world. Like he’d never doubted this decision they’d made to become parents. “Are you excited?”

Dean’s little face had split into the most wonderful smile, then. He’d had a million questions, half of them making almost no sense, and Mary had pulled him up into her lap. The three of them had sat there on the couch together for a long time, chatting and laughing and playing. It had been perfect. It had been so perfect.

Now, Mary’s standing in the kitchen. Idly, she wonders what to make for dinner tonight. She could do chicken, but they just had chicken a few days ago. Spaghetti, maybe? But John always makes little needling comments about how her sauce never tastes right, and she’s not interested in picking a fight today, not after the blow-out they’d had last night. 

Their arguments have always been explosive, but in the past year, they’ve gotten worse. John spends at least one night a month at a friend’s house, and sometimes, Mary thinks he won’t come back. But he always does. She’s never sure if she’s relieved or disappointed about that.

Last night, the fight was loud enough that it had woken Dean up. He stood in the doorway of their bedroom, tears in his eyes and blanket dragging behind him, and that sight had sucked all of their anger right out of the room. John and Mary put him back to bed together, and afterward, it had been quiet. There were no apologies, but there were kisses, there were soft hands and warm mouths. Mary’s alright with that—at this point, it’s the best she can hope for.

So, no to the spaghetti. She digs around the kitchen for ideas, but comes up with nothing but a pre-made lasagna in the freezer. John doesn’t like things that aren’t home-cooked, but he can never tell the difference between what she made and what Stouffer’s made. She’s not angry with him at the moment, but there’s still a feeling of satisfaction as she takes the lasagna out to defrost. A twisted sense of victory that he doesn’t even know he just lost a fight.

The baby kicks, because Mary is far enough along now that she can feel the child growing inside her. It fills her with a strange kind of dull panic, almost like claustrophobia. She loves this baby already, of course she does, loves it as intensely and whole-heartedly as she loves Dean. But when she lets herself think forward into the future, another four years ahead when her new child will be Dean’s age and Dean will be eight years old, when Mary thinks about how John will still be working at the shop and she will still be at home all day, when she thinks about her life unfolding in four year chunks ahead of her, she wants nothing more than escape it.

It’s sick, Mary knows that, to miss what she so desperately left behind. She hates the part of herself that yearns for her old life. But that part of her lingers anyway, when she sees a knife glint a certain way as she washes dishes, when she chases Dean around in the backyard, when she reads a story about a suspicious and unsolved murder. Those skills she has, the knowledge in her mind—it makes her think, sometimes, that there is no future where she doesn’t return to hunting.

There are just some things you can’t escape. Some habits are so ground-in they never leave you, and some skills are so innate you don’t realize you have them until you use them. And the person you really are, that true self, she waits you out and strikes when you least expect her to.

Something’s lurking, Mary thinks suddenly, and it grips tight at her throat. Something is lurking inside of her, something she can’t control.

The baby kicks again, a grounding force, and abruptly she turns to the oven, pushing the buttons to pre-heat it with shaking hands. Unbidden, a memory rises to the surface in her mind. A night by the side of the road, a yellow-eyed thing in her father. Without meaning to, she settles one hand on the bump of her stomach. Mary closes her eyes.

[scripted-downfall]

The Archangel Gabriel, in triplicate and nothing alike

I find it absolutely hilarious how all these different writers seized upon the Bible and angels and all the mythos entailed as a well from which to draw plots and characters — I’m thinking especially of Supernatural, Good Omens, Lucifer, etc — with such amazing variations in the same characters across the shows (for example, GOmens Michael is nothing like SPN Michael is nothing like Lucifer Michael, and so on and so forth) but they all 100% came to the conclusion that, whoever Gabriel was going to be, they absolutely weren’t gonna be who they were supposed to be in biblical canon.

Like, you’ve got the Bible, in which Gabriel is the one to appear to Mary and tell her that she’s gonna have Jesus, and he’s all archangelic and Be not afraid and You’ve been chosen by God, and that’s just how it is…

And then you have Supernatural who decided that Obviously, this angel, the Messenger of God, was gonna be the definition of scruffy hair and debauchery, who spends his days eating all the sweets he can magic and rewriting the definition of immaculate conception with a little less immaculate… Who, when trying to think of a safe hiding place, decides that the Very Obvious black Impala belonging to the people he was kinda allied with that was sitting right outside the building was absolutely the best place… Who passes important, life-or-death, End-of-the-World messages through pornos that feature the line I have the kielbasa you ordered… Who would probably convey the baby message in a conversation that went along the lines of Hey, Mary, wassup… How’s it feel to be preggers, huh?  Oh, wait, you didn’t know?  Damn.  That’s rough.  Whoops. with a Tootsie Roll pop hanging out of his mouth.  (No one knew what that strange candy-like thing was, or how he got a hold of it, but things made a lot more sense when they were invented in the 1900s.)

But then you’ve got GOmens Gabriel who’s staid and proper and how dare you consume gross matter with this matter-of-fact this is how things are gonna be and you’re gonna accept it or else.  The guy who only likes Earth for clothing and shouts Very Loudly about his desire to (“secretively”) buy pornography because he thinks it’s Very Inconspicuous.  The guy who — at least if you trust deleted scenes, which I absolutely do — was fooled by Crowley talking to a dress mannequin about How Very Cunning his demonic wiles were and how Aziraphale had thwarted all of them.  (And that baby conversation probably went along the lines of, So.  Mary.  Long time, right?  Listen… You’re gonna have a baby.  Very important, big stuff.  So.  You should be honored.  Congrats from Up There. complete with flashing violet eyes and that clasped-hand thing he always does that manages to be very pretentious and definitely patronizing.)

And then there’s Lucifer Gabriel, who is basically just the gossipiest gossip ever to gossip, who dances when her enemies (Lucifer and his allies) start the incredibly awkward, horribly embarrassing flash-mob-without-music to Can’t Touch This.  Who spams the celestial email accounts with every little thing she comes across and quotes Avengers movies with a divine li’l twist.  Who can keep secrets all she likes (looks askance at her role with Azrael’s dagger) but just… you know… chooses not to.  (And who absolutely told literally everybody that Mary was gonna be pregnant until the last person to learn that Mary was gonna be pregnant was Mary herself, until she was absolutely looking at the strange rambling angel hovering in front of her like she’s absolutely bonkers because she’s just saying stuff like, Hey, Mary, you’re gonna have a kid and it’s gonna be bitchin’.  Peace! before fluttering away again.)

It’s just… With all the differences across these shows, the only thing consistent about Gabriel is that their character is wildly inconsistent, and that is peak humor.

[fucktheroyals]

You know after reading and reading and reading peoples theories and the meta from before the spn finale aired and the meta writers reactions to the finale I think I have a theory of my own. We don't have any answers tho, so this is pure speculation. If you wanna add something to support or discredit any of this that's cool but there's too many things floating around. Know I dont have proof for this conclusion at all. A lot of what I say is just guesses based on previous facts.

This all came together in my head when I realized how much this finale REEKS of the original producers and who the show was originally for. It REEKS of Robert Singer. Like if the execs started saying they didn't want it, Robert Singer was the one pushing that the story was about the brothers. That kinda thing.

Then, I was thinking of the problems in this episode and it struck me these are all of Supernatural biggest issues and to be honest all of it feels completely deliberate.

Take the sexism for example, Supernatural in it's later seasons largely out grew this, we have Jody, Rowena, Donna, Charlie, Mary, Claire (and even a wayward sisters pilot with MORE women/girls) all making regular appearances. They're mainly good characters and mostly aren't there to hurt our boys. Rowena, of course, is the one outlier being very about herself but it's clear she still cares for them, I mean its part of her development. But they're all real, with character flaws just like everyone else. (And we have Death too and she was POC 😭 THANK GOD)

Now look at the earlier half of Spn, we have Ellen and Jo, who's appearances were far in between. There's Bela in season 3, recurring for quite a bit (5 eps), but she is a character that is only there for herself, definitely not found family (unlike Ellen & Jo), and she's got more episodes in season 3 than Ellen and Jo in season 2 who aren't seen again til season 5. The "fans" send in hate mail after hate mail to try to get these characters off, and eventually they are. Then there's Ruby who's character stayed for a whole two seasons and was a largely recurring character. Why does she get to say so long? She's a plot device. She's supposed to be there to betray Sam. She has to stay (plus Jared obviously likes her). But she's not just a character the writers like writing about. Same with Lilith. Obviously not as recurring but still a plot device. Did they get hate mail tho? You can bet on it. Why? because tHeY'rE gOnNa PuSh ThE bOyS (Dean and Sam) aPaRt ThE sHoW iS aBoUt ThE bOyS oNlY. Without even thinking about the hate mail, just notice how large the difference is from how women are seen in the earlier seasons to the later seasons. Misha got tons of hate mail too for being a character that could split up the boys (probably only being allowed to say because he a man, thanks sexist producers and execs).

Only after Castiel was killed off and then Castiel fans successfully (thank you guys) got him back on the show did the hate mail largely simmer, which means female character's were allowed to stay! Which has lead us to a show with a good amount of female characters. But can you imagine having to kill characters off time and time again because people keep complaining that the show is "only about the boys." Fun times really.

So now we get to this final and we see sexism. But it wasn't just the plain old regular sexism you find in the earlier days of spn. Because now, there ARE women to talk about, talk to. But this episode was DESOLATE women wise, unless they were used for plot (which is also sexist!). Small scenes, they're barely there. Women gets her tongue cut out. Random women from s1 gets killed. Sam doesn't SPEAK of Eileen. Nothing. No mention of any female characters from the boys mouths unless they were from/in this episode itself. That's WIERD. I know we've all said it. But that goes beyond forgetting about characters. I mean its SAM'S GIRLFRIEND for Christ's sake. There is NO REASON they couldn't have said Eileen's name. Notice how Sam's wife is just... faceless. This is literally an age old sexist trope. Like... one of the things about bringing Mary back to life for s12+ is that it takes this trope... of basically a generic mother, and gives her life and feelings, whether you like them or not, they're real feelings. They said Mary isn't just a mom she's a person. Mary's existence in the later half of spn is to fix this kind of female tropes that fall upon her character, to not let these her stay a 2 dimensional character. They said we should know she's more than just the mom who tried to save her kid. Do that is the exact opposite of Sam getting a nameless, faceless wife. The sexism of the old spn wasn't just brought back, it was completely amplified. It wasn't just accidental or some exec "fixing" the story it was DELIBRATE. Whoever wrote that, didn't do ALL OF THAT by accident. Because an exec or a producer who doesn't see the flaws in old supernatural isn't going to write it that deliberately.

Let's bring it back to s10 when Charlie was killed (singer was mainly to blame). Dead in the bathtub, age old classic of burying ur gays. If you were here you know people never let Supernatural live that down. THEY KNOW what bury ur gays means. Hell, Robbie Thompson left because of Charlie's death and you think the writers don't know what it means? I mean both Bobo Berens (especially) and Steve Yockey's careers are centered around LGBT+ storytelling and you think they don't know? They know. They know.

And Dean wasn't just apart of the bury your gays trope, it is so far BEYOND that. Dean being killed on a rusty nail/screw, the tongues ripped out, things that seemed to be meant for other people. Jensen's acting in the last two episodes was giving us "DEAN RECIPROCATES" but no one ever actually saying it. I think it's clear that Dean was killed for being Bi. They didn't address it for a reason, they just silenced him. His narrative was supposed to be about letting him be HIM for the first time, to say what his feelings are instead of having them miscommunicated, and instead of doing that, they just silenced him. And the more we look at this scene the more horrific it gets. The more it's a complete slap in the face and it's supposed to be. Some guy who knows nothing about the LGBT can't write a scene this horrific.

Some guy who knows nothing about Dean couldn't write a scene that deconstructs all of Dean's character development and gives Dean his worst nightmare. I MEAN DEAN WANTED TO LIVE HIS LIFE! THEY DIDNT HIDE THAT JOB APPLICATION (or whatever job related thing that was) IN THERE FOR SHITS AND GIGGLES THEY WANT YOU TO KNOW THIS IS THE ABSOLUTE WORST SITUATION. Dean isn't Barney from HIMYM. If you watched HIMYM then you'll know Barney went from being a stereotypical ladies man and treating women terribly to being in love with a women and treating her right and working hard for it. The last episode of HIMYM (why its so bad) Barney's character development is thrown out and he's back to being a stereotypical ladies man. You don't need to know Barney's character very much to do that.

To kill Dean during a hunt his father never finished, to not have anyone at his funeral, to have Dean die young like his life didn't matter. Those are Dean's worst fears and you'd only truly know that if you watched the gin episode in s3, where they are basically laid out for you. You HAVE to know Dean's character to tear him apart like this.

This episode took all the core elements of the show and did a complete 180° the name of the episode itself is "Carry on" and Dean and Sam very much did not carry on. Sam grieving his entire life so that he good get to heaven and see Dean again. Dean being ready to live his life, despite the enormous pitfalls and learning to love himself only to be killed. "Family don't end with blood." Um.... it did in that episode either literally with Dean's death or you know BECAUSE NONE OF THEIR FOUND FAMILY WAS THERE. Not Jack, Not Cas, Not Eileen, Not Donna, Not Charlie, Not Jody, Not Claire... on and on we go. No one was there, nobody was even mentioned. Dean's funeral, no one even called that we know of. It was just Sam and Dean. Sam and Dean. And Bobby. Don't forget Bobby. But yeah Sam and Dean.

That's what the show is about right, the brothers.

Except it's not anymore. It hasn't been for years.

Cas not being there was deafening but it brought us to a major point. Becky. Becky's telling us about the terrible ending.

And many of us are wondering why would they literally tell us this is the worst ending and then... make it the ending.

Now before we move on, it very apparent many of you think Dabb doesn't ship Deancas. And Dabb doesn't care about the characters.

Say what you will about any plot holes in his writing, the point he is VERY GOOD at writing the characters, and giving us good ones.

Why do we know Dabb ships Deancas? (ill say when its cowrote, other wise its not) cowrote ep 8.02 - purgatory "I prayed to you, Cas, every night" "Cas, Buddy, I need you." "I have a price on my head, and I've been trying to stay one step ahead of them, to – to keep them away from you." 8.08 Hunteri Heroici - Cas helps them hunt! 😊❤ Dean & Cas have a serious convo about why Cas doesn't want to see/go to heaven. 8.22 Dean's mad at Cas. Sam's explanation of why Dean should be easy on Cas: "It's Cas." Dean then points out how he'd knife anybody else if they did what Cas did. 9.10 - Cas comforts Dean when Dean can't take seeing Sam (Gadreel) being tortured anymore. Also tons of Cas. 9.20 (bloodlines) - Canonical couple parallel "I was there, where were you" 9.22 The angels make Cas choose between them and killing Dean and he "gave up an entire army for one guy" 10.09 Claire's reintroduction. Cas heavy ep. DeanCas date. 10.22 THE PRISONER - u know the ep where Dean beats the shit out of Cas but loves him enough to not kill him.

We COULD keep going but I think I've made my point. If Robert Singer is the guy that is like "the show is about Sam and Dean only" Andrew Dabb is the DeanCas shipper. And you could even say a Cas stan.

Notice! How in s13 for SEVEN episodes we have a story that revolves around Dean's grief about losing Cas. Notice! How often the stories in all these seasons have a focus on their relationship. THAT is Andrew Dabb. If it weren't for him doing that, we wouldn't be able to easily say after Dean's lack of a response to Cas' confession, that Dean reciprocates.

To me, when I was (binge) watching s12 for the first time, I thought damn this is really got a lot of DeanCas. So I went to look at who was in charge, who was writing. I saw Andrew Dabb, associated him with Deancas episodes, saw all the new writers, Bobo, and then I saw that Yockey is known for same sex stories and it clicked. Dabb assembled a team to give us Destiel. THAT WAS IN SEASON 12!!!!!!!!

The amount of people saying he's homophobic flabbergast me. Open your eyes! That isn't what's going on.

Imagine making a show and trying to right all the wrongs of Supernatural. Imagine trying to write the greatest love story ever told and you have the entire season planned out for it to end off beautifully, it may possibly be your greatest achievement when it's done and then boom. someone comes in and tells you you aren't allowed to make Dean bi or make destiel endgame, after he was most probably already given the go ahead.

Sure. You could imply he's bi or into cas still in a way. Still make nice-ish ending. just give everyone what the kinda want.

Or you could scrap the last season, nothing close to a canonical bisexual Dean Winchester or Deancas endgame in site. People can be done with it be happy with the show, continue to live their lives in ignorance as to how close they were to Canon destiel.

OR you can lead everyone to the very closest you can get them to what you were aiming for and then show everyone the ugly truth and reality. Light it all on fire. Burn the show to the ground in your wake. Try your darnedest to making these people's (the people saying no) pockets suffer. Show us, the audience, what happened. Show us what this show really is.

I've seen people talk about the ending being changed during covid but I dont think that happened. I think what happened was Dabb already had this season planned out before it even started. Obviously the details were wobbly but it was all lead up to this ending. Destiel endgame, Canon Bisexual Dean, whatever it was. They were ready to write the greatest love story ever told and then someone shut it down.

Imagine the pain that must have caused them to be told no when they already said yes. They must have been so excited to give this to us.

I think someone (some producers) told him what this show is "really" about. The brothers. Can you imagine, after being told no, some kinda bullshit like this is said to you: "Why aren't you bringing it back to the brothers, Andrew? that's what the shows about. What with all this homosexual stuff, you know the audience won't like that. Not really." Imagine the original producers pushing this kind of view on you. "You know when we started it was Sam and Dean. It should end with Sam and Dean." That kinda sounds like someone huh? huh.

So why give us a nice acceptable finale, when you can take every problem Supernatural's had either up front or behind the scenes and create a finale so incredibly bad that people don't want to watch it anymore.

Someone made a good point about how Sam was originally supposed to be the main focus (this isn't to put any hate on Sam or Jared). Dean and Sam are the main characters but Sam was supposed to be the focus and for Dean to have become the focus, must have annoyed the producers because... well here we are. They wouldn't listen to Jensen. The producers liked this ending. Jensen's opinion didn't matter to them.

In some ways, if this is really what happened, it can be seen as childish from Dabb. To hurt all of us like that. Yes, he's hurting the producers, the execs, the cw. But to hurt us? Yeah it stings.

But in other ways, if this is really what happened, this is Dabb showing us the muck and gunk under the shiny surface. The hate for Misha. The hidden hate for Jensen. The underlying sexism. The underlying homophobia. The people REALLY in charge don't care about us, they just want our money. He needed to open our eyes and free us, at least free the people that he was writing for. The people he sees that care about this show.

This is the ending the powers that be wanted and its a big fuck you for a reason. I dont think this is Dabb spitting in our faces for loving this show, I think this is him trying to get revenge for us.

But from here, you can see it how u want it. If this is really what happened, I'm not in charge of your emotions, if you wanna be mad be mad if you wanna be grateful be grateful. And you don't have to believe me either I said this is speculation.

Also, as for all of the rumors like there being shots to the confession scene that we didn't see, which Jensen himself implied, I think that might have been a last ditch effort to canonized DeanCas but obviously it was cut. Like the name change was pretty clear. As for Misha possibly having shot some stuff for 20 I dont know what to tell you. If it's true I dont know where the blame would lie.

I do think however, that if all this was the case, the writers were prepared to become villians here. I mean they told us the writers were villians with Chuck right? So. Who knows what went down so they could give us such a vile ending. It could've been the producers or the writers, who truly knows. I do think tho that people we "trust" did some pretty shitty things to push the narrative in certain directions so now one would see this as the actual ending that was coming.

So again do with my SPECULATION what you will. This was in no way meant to put Dabb on a pedestal or anything. Just meant to give a bit of perspective.

(Also Jensen didn't unfollow Dabb recently he was already unfollowed for years)

[cathrrrine]

The Devil's In The Details

Originally from my AO3

SPN X MCU - Steve Rogers x Winchester!Reader

© Cover by Marveled.

Chapter 1 - Elevator Doors

“Well, I don’t think it works that way Tony.” You laughed, standing in front of the quinjet as you waited for the others to disembark.

“You owe me a favour, you know.” He scoffed playfully. “Maybe he’ll convince you.” His gaze shifted to a figure behind you.

“Who-“

“Mommy!” The little voice you recognised all too well surprised you. When you turned around to see the owner of the voice looking up to you with the biggest smile you’ve ever seen, you couldn’t help but reciprocate the act.

“Hey, bud!” You grinned, picking your little boy up from where he stood. You carried him on your hip, with your arms wrapped around him lovingly.

Tony smirked, patting you on the back in a friendly way and ruffling the little boy’s hair before he left to find Pepper, knowing you’ve forgotten all about your conversation with him earlier.

“Where’s your daddy?”

“He’s right here.” The man you loved walked just seconds after your son did. “Hey, mama.”

“Hey, Cap.” You leaned over to kiss him. You had just gotten home from a mission. It wasn’t unusual for you to be greeted by your small family almost immediately after you came back. It was the same for your boyfriend, Steve Rogers.

“How are you?” Steve asked, his blue eyes meeting yours.

“Fine. I’m unscratched if that’s what you’re asking. And the mission went well too.” You walked alongside him as you carried your son. The three of you made your way outside the hangar, Steve knowing you well enough to know you were on the hunt for some food.

“Did momma catch some bad guys today?” Your three year old son, James, asked. He wasn’t that exposed to what your job entailed, but you and Steve had give him a small idea of it. You figured he was too young to know that his parents were basically killers, so you resorted to telling him, quote and unquote, that you caught bad guys for a living. It wasn’t a lie, technically.

“Yes, my little pumpkin.” You kissed his nose. “Momma caught a lo-o-o-t of bad guys.” You said, dragging the word ‘lot’, which made him giggle.

Minutes later you were sat in the kitchen, munching on a cookie with a glass of iced tea in your hand as you watched Steve cook for you. He was more of the chef in your relationship, the last time you tried to make anything other than breakfast, it didn’t end so well. Ever since then, he made lunch and dinner while you handled breakfast. That is, whenever the both of you had time to sit down and eat together.

“There you go.” He set the plate down in front of you, a big goofy smile plastered across his face.

“Oh, Steve. This is why I love you.” You almost moaned at the sight of food in front of you, the delicious smell filling your nostrils and exciting your taste buds.

“Really? You love me for my cooking and not for my gorgeous blue eyes?” He mocked, “Or maybe my handsome face?”

“Nope. Just your cooking.” You said albeit a little distractedly as you chowed down on your meal.

“Damn. Not even my abs?”

“I guess I can make an exception.” You shrugged, playing along.

“Harsh. Did you hear that James? Your mom only loves daddy for my cooking.”

“But I love your cooking too daddy.” James looked to him innocently with wide eyes.

“Really?” Steve pretended to be shocked, putting a hand over his mouth. “Oh wow! Thank you James!“

It made both of them laugh, and your chest swelled with warmth and love just by looking at them. Not once have you taken this for granted, everyday you woke up praising whatever God that made it possible for you to live a life this great. Sure, it had it’s ups and downs, but with your family in front of you...everything in the world seemed right.

You would die for your son and for your boyfriend. Though the both of you had been living like a married couple, you weren’t actually one. You had the conversation with him, and he knew you weren’t ready for that kind of title yet. Even though it didn’t make sense, because you were committed to him and this life. You only had eyes for him and only him...but something about the word ‘marriage’ and ‘husband and wife’ opened up a pocket of fear inside of you.

But that didn’t matter, at least for now. The sound of Steve and James laughing and giggling like idiots brought you out of your thoughts.

Nothing could ruin how perfect this is right now, you thought.

But little did you know.

——

“Alright, let me hop in the shower and get changed into something less...nasty.” You said to Steve, motioning to your uniform catsuit.

“I wouldn’t say nasty is the right word for it.” He winked.

“Careful, Rogers. You could get me pregnant again with that look in the blink of an eye.”

“It’s not so bad. I wouldn’t mind another one, look at him, he’s so cute.” He cooed at the fast-asleep James.

“Don’t wake him up.” You whispered, reaching over to tuck the little boy’s hair out of his face.

The both of you were walking towards the elevator, with your son fast asleep in Steve’s arms. After you ate, you and Steve talked for a while as you loaded the dishes and cleaned the kitchen. Apparently, his giggle fit with his dad was enough to tire him out. Your little boy fell asleep in his chair before he made it to his bed.

“Miss L/N.” FRIDAY’s voice echoed through the room. You weren’t so scared it would wake James up, he was used to the A.I. Plus, he was a heavy sleeper.

“Yes, FRIDAY?”

“There two young men here to see you.”

You shared a look with Steve, confusion painted all over your faces.

“Who is it?” You asked her, but it was too late. Before she could answer, the elevator doors opened right in front of you and revealed the two people you’d least expect to see today, or ever for that matter.

“Y/N, are those your...” Steve trailed off, watching you as you made wordless eye contact with your long lost brothers.

“Sam. Dean.”

“Y/N. We need to talk to you.”