#i love every time spn starts trending on tumblr again

[locke-esque-monster]

In another informal installment of "I have real questions for Eric Kripke": The women love interests that stabilize the (arguably) lead men of their shows.

I've said before (maybe not on my Tumblr?) that Kripke tends to have a similar core male role in all shows I've seen him involved in thus far. It's a softer, younger brother type, whose both a stand-in for the audience, and by him "joining" the plot of the show is the game changer that gets the plot moving. This usually at some point leads to the character taking a turn to the dark side, where the trauma he endures leads him to do terrible things for revenge because it's the only way he feels safe, and in a way, powerful. This is arguably the lead characters of Sam Winchester (SPN) and Hughie Campbell (The Boys), and the major character of Sam Riordan (Gen V).

(Sidebar: I appreciate the attempt that Gen V made not to center the plot on a straight white male. Another Kripke show would have made Sam R. the lead. Narratively, Sam R.'s presence is what gets the plot moving, and in most respects he resembles Sam W. But his interruption of Marie and the other students arc as they try to settle in at college despite coming in with trauma by introducing a larger problem they can't avoid or ignore is the one way I'm describe him as the Dean W. role , while Marie is much closer to a Sam W.)

But that said, every single one of these men has a blonde (!) woman in their life trying to keep them stable. Without them they spiral. From Jessica telling Sam W. he'd crash and burn without her in the pilot (which he does in fact over the course of the Kripke seasons). To the more overt and long-lasting relationships of Annie and Hughie, to Emma and Sam R. All of them have sweet, innocent starts that are twisted over time, all by the inner darkness of the men. In an attempt to protect them and deal with their trauma they betray the woman they pretend to love, leaving her in the process. Sam W. is lying about hunting and ignoring his visions which gets Jessica killed, Hughie taking Temp V and going on a mission to kill Homelander despite Annie's objections to Soldier Boy and the drugs, and Sam killing the humans as revenge for the experimentation on him while verbally hitting Emma where it hurts in order to do that.

But as they say, twice is a coincidence, three times is a trend. And write what you know. The most telling thing about a writer is what things they keep coming back to, again and again. And the Sam(x2)/Hughies come off as a stand-in for Kripke in the story. So WTF is going on in Kripke's mind or personal history that he keeps coming back to this type of guy and the blonde women they love with this same dynamic.

[ppersonalsspace]

I am just really fucking mad, y'know?

The past couple months I've been doing a rewatch mostly while I'm working or cooking, separate from making my bf watch spn. I started my rewatch on S4, watching just the episodes with Cas, but when I got to S12, I watched every episode. Mostly because S12 is when I stopped watching it as it aired. I was not in love with the rock star Luci plot, and I had a lot going on and just kind of stopped. I didn't start watching again until 2022, so well after it ended and the ending/ Despair was already known to me.

I think the thing that kept me from getting back into it for so long was I was so burnt out on the mixed messages, gaslighting, and queerbaiting. Just. Over it. And then finding out how nothing paid off... It took me being mostly home with my infant for a year before I made an effort to catch up.

I've since found so much to love about those last few seasons. (and things to hate even harder)... but since this rewatch I've had plenty of time to ferally dig through Tumblr for all the destiel Easter eggs, watch Jackles try to make his own fixit fanfic, witness all the post finale canon events. So because I have been seeing so much more subtext this time around, and because today is the day I hit 15.18 again on the rewatch...

I'm just mad, man.

Maybe this dumb, campy ass, horror-themed soap opera would go away if the CW powers-that-be didn't annihilate the ending of a show that'd spent 15 YEARS developing complicated characters who evolved over time. By the end of the show, TFW changed in so many ways but also didn't. And so much of season 15 (not all) completely ignores the Sam and Dean and Cas of 2020.

One of the things that stands out so much to me, was the episode I am too lazy to look up, where Sam and Dean investigate the death of a childhood friend, it was Baba Yaga, there's childhood flashbacks. That young Dean was HORRIBLE to Sam. Awful. Told him he was too dumb to go to college. Dean Winchester did not say that shit to Sammy. That was insane.

And the way Dean treats Jack. They just gotta have the Dean/Sam headbutting and lying arc (which by this point is ridiculous) so Dean goes back to treating Jack like shit and saying horrible shit.

And after Despair? Dean is just... Fine. Normal. He gets one line where Jensen gets a chance to express Dean's grief. I hate it.

If they had just been loyal to the characters, all of them, spn wouldn't be trending in 2023. I want to punch something.

[billiewena]

“And here we were thinking that, you know, we were teaching you and all this time you were teaching us, about heart, about dedication, and about how gay love can pierce through the veil of death and save the day.”

- SPN 3x13 Ghostfacers

ONE YEAR SINCE NOV 5TH, 2020 as summed up by Supernatural

⤷ bonus

image id below:

[Image ID: screenshots of Supernatural with screenshots of various tweets and Tumblr posts.

1. Metatron saying, “He’s in love” regarding Castiel with a screen of a Tumblr post from “Is-destiel-canon-yet” confirming Destiel is canon.

2. Dean saying, “It turned out to be a gay thing” with screenshots of articles that say “Destiel Trends After Character Reveals He’s Gay and Then Dies” and a pride post for Castiel that says “Cas is proud of you and I’m proud of Cas.”

3. Kevin screaming, “What is happening?” over various memes from the night of November 5th including a screenshot of Destiel trending alongside Putin.

4. Chuck saying, “Are you kidding me? After all of that?” with a screenshot of the IMDB page for the series finale.

5. Bobby saying, “Should I say it in Spanish?” with screenshots of Dean recriprocating the confession in the Spanish dub with “Y Yo a Ti, Cas” and the shipping wiki page saying Destiel is semi-canon in English and canon in Spanish.

6. Castiel saying, “Interesting things are happening” over screenshots of Destiel trending yet again after a script leak and Adam Williams’ tweets saying “new galaxies would be born” when Dean and Cas kiss.

7. Dean saying, “Are any of us winning?” with screenshots from articles announcing the Winchester prequel and Jared & Jensen’s Twitter feud in response, including “The Supernatural Dudes are Fighting” and Jared’s “Et tu brute?” tweet.

8. Sam saying, “I thought you weren’t a fan” and Dean saying, “I’m not I’m not” with a screenshot of the origins of Stackednatural, a fan-run campaign to rewatch & discuss every Supernatural episode by order of release date.

9. Sam saying, “We appreciate the effort” and Dean saying, “Do we?” over a poster for Denver Con and an article saying, “The casual homophobia at Supernatural conventions just won’t die.”

10. Marie saying, “So, um, I wrote my own ending” over screenshots of Destiel hitting over 100K fics on AO3 (the first ship to do so) and Misha’s tweet celebrating it.

11. Castiel saying, “You asked what about all of this is real? We are” with screenshots of the fan-led DeanCas wedding trending on Twitter and the fan-led Trevor Project to raise money for LGBT kids in Castiel’s name.

12. Dean saying, “Hell of an anniversary” with the Tumblr staff tweet commemorating the one-year anniversary of November 5th.

Bonus: Castiel saying, “I have spent the past YEAR” with a screenshot of my own post count on this sideblog that I didn’t even start until after the finale aired (currently at 21,486 posts)

[quillquiver]

On SPN, Burying Your Gays, and Being Heard

I am shaking, I feel sick, I feel like I’m insane. And did I run a little wild with the theories? You bet. But you know what didn’t help? The botched clusterfuck that was this entire goddamn finale debacle. How was I supposed to believe anything they said in panels when M&G dialogue would leak saying the exact opposite? How was I supposed to grieve and move on when there was nothing from the cast and crew? Nobody said anything! And any info leaked just destabilized what we already knew or directly contradicted what we’d been told. In light of that, how was I supposed to trust anything anyone said? One rogue translator reciprocated the love confession and I was practically sold, because there were so many questions surrounding the English text that this was something good, something that logically fit, and something I wanted to hold onto. 

Because they hurt me. This is about so much more than one episode or a ship; for years queer fans have seen ourselves in these characters and been told that we were crazy. That we were reading too much into it. I’m not sure how people get upset and offended when a storyline that doesn’t exist... doesn’t exist! said Guy Bee (2013). And then, after all of that, they turned around and said magnanimously, you have your version, I have mine... and that’s okay. But it’s not okay. It’s not okay, because that doesn’t erase what came before - that doesn’t erase the baiting and the gaslighting, and that invalidates everything we felt in the time leading up to that episode. It gave them an open window for all the subtext that came after. It allowed them to brush us off.

And then we got Cas’s love confession. I watched that scene about 500 times. Added to the rest of the season - to the fandom avatar being presented as successful and intelligent, to arc being the death of the author - I felt seen. Really seen, by a show that made it its mission to erase me. I had been okay with Cas dying at first because I had been sure the romance arc would carry through. I had been convinced that after everything, there was no way they would give that to us and then take it away.

But they did, because this is Supernatural. To anyone saying this is not bury your gays, I implore you to read up on the Hays Code. This link is to an amazing queer history podcast and the episode that covers it. In short, the Hays Code was a legal document that came about in 20th Century Hollywood during the puritanical war on the American entertainment industry,  and it stipulated what was not allowed on screen. Not all of it was queer - there’s a whole section about kissing - but what the Code is most remembered for is that queerness was not allowed on screen. But queer people are resilient, and so they started testing the waters... and it turned out that you could in fact code queerness into a narrative, as long as it was subtextual, or as long as the queer character died/was punished, or both. The point is that the character is not allowed to live their truth openly. They are buried, either in the ground or punished in the narrative. The former is normally what we refer to these days, because the latter just doesn’t really happen anymore.

Until Supernatural. 

Castiel is immediately punished for speaking his truth - and please don’t tell me he leveraged that punishment and so he had agency. Literally the only thing that could make him happy was confessing his feelings, and so the Empty deal was directly related to this idea of queerness-as-punishment. That being said, Bobo wrote a beautiful scene. Cas’s confession was a love letter to queerness and coming out... but everything that came after buried him. Castiel may have ended the series alive but he was effectively written out of the last two episodes, and that means that he actually never really got to live his truth. He was silenced by the narrative - that is punishment. 

Dean is a whole other can of worms. Does one rogue translator confirm canon bi!Dean? Or do we have to read our own version of the text? The fact that we even have to ask these questions firmly places us in the realm of queerbaiting. Were the writers trying to get bi!Dean approved but were unable to? I have no idea, but queerbaiting requires proof that the writers encouraged a reading they had no intent of following through on, and we certainly don’t lack in evidence of that. Not from this writers room, but from those of previous eras. Did these writers try? They might have, but the funny thing about queerbaiting discourse is that there has never been a show to bait this long, and I’m making the call that even if you tried at the end, you baited me with half the ship and all the years that came before. 

Of course, the narrative leaves open the possibility of bi!Dean so if you do read the show that way, that means Dean also falls into the bury your gays category; if you read the show this way - which many of us do - the mere suggestion that Dean Winchester was bisexual was enough to punish him. And he was punished. We’ve all written extensively on this, but he was given a random death, on a case his father never finished. All that growth, all that time spent having him accept himself, love himself, that was all taken away. He died the way he always thought he would: as a tool, in service of his father, protecting his brother. He had always believed he’d been a body to throw on the sword and in the end that’s all he was. And when he gets to Heaven? He’s also silenced. He barely speaks in the episode except to monologue during his death, and that is 100% Sam-centric. He is scared. 

It was horrific to watch. I sobbed so hard my roommate was seriously concerned. 

I had been fully prepared for Supernatural to end disappointingly. I had figured everything would end with a huge heaven reunion because white, straight, cis-male S&F writers love the idea of death as a reward, but instead of being disappointed I felt like I had witnessed a slaughter. Every single one of the queer themes intrinsic to the show: found family, resilience, speaking your truth... were gone. And I know we’ve talked about this too, but it bears repeating, because in doing this, in writing the queerness out of its narrative, Supernatural effectively looked every one of us queer folx in the eye and said: you are not important. You don’t matter. All of that stuff that came before is all good and well, but what really matters at the end of all things is blood family. It’s two brothers in a car. Life sucks but at least we get to die and go to paradise - real paradise, that your angel buddy died for and then made for you and who we never hear from again.

I felt insane. I felt cheated. I felt humiliated. I felt devastated. I still feel all those things, but listen to me. You have been heard. Not by Misha Collins, who is a great guy, but doesn’t get it. Not by Jensen Ackles, who is a similarly great guy, but also just doesn’t understand. And not by anyone else who worked on this show. 

You know who heard you? Me. The people who follow me. The people who follow you. We saw each other, and heard each other, and we gave each other a leg up. We made memes. We wrote fic. We drew fanart. We made gifs. All for ourselves and all for each other. We broke Tumblr multiple times. We donated over $60,000 USD to multiple different causes. We got multiple hashtags trending at multiple different points, and today kept it up because we demanded answers and then we got them. There were at least 5 articles written about the show today. We made that happen. We made people listen. 

Supernatural didn’t deserve me, and it didn’t deserve you. It didn’t deserve Dean. It didn’t deserve Cas. It didn’t deserve Misha and Jensen. But this show ended with a bleak, awful message and we turned around and showed them that love is loud. So what about all of this is real?

We are.

[lulu-zodiac]

I posted 4,078 times in 2021

544 posts created (13%)

3534 posts reblogged (87%)

For every post I created, I reblogged 6.5 posts.

I added 4,583 tags in 2021

#destiel - 944 posts

#cockles - 824 posts

#misha collins - 569 posts

#q - 386 posts

#jensen ackles - 372 posts

#spn - 348 posts

#castiel - 341 posts

#supernatural - 283 posts

#my stuff - 260 posts

#asks - 256 posts

Longest Tag: 137 characters

#did i really just create a new ship tag on ao3 just because i couldn't get the idea of early seasons dean and pre-podcast jeremy meeting?

My Top Posts in 2021

#5

things misha collins, agent of chaos, has as really done:

- repeatedly used justin bieber as a means of flirting with his co star

- renewed his wedding vows dressed in drag, holding a bouquet of organic vegetables

- paid jared padalecki over a thousand dollars in coins after losing a bet

- found out about destiel by reading fanfic

- got arrested for a suspected bank robbery (he was actually just using the light on the roof of a bank to read his book. y’know. as you do)

- “what are they going to do, fire me?”

- tricked larry king into thinking the spn cast have regular orgies on set

- “accidentally” tweeted a link to an in-depth, cockles analysis tumblr post

- produced farts that caused a fellow plane passenger to pass out twice and require medical assistance

- asked amazon if they ship destiel or wincest

5822 notes • Posted 2021-03-13 18:16:44 GMT

#4

for anyone who needs a serotonin boost; jensen and misha making each other laugh

See the full post

6114 notes • Posted 2021-01-03 01:06:05 GMT

#3

12 months. 365 days. and WHAT a year it’s been. jensen’s deafening silence on the finale, a rogue spanish dub actor doing a better job of writing the script than literally anyone at the cw, misha “it was a homosexual declaration of love” collins, jackles letting slip he recorded the entire confession so he could watch him and misha together again and again whenever he wants, the increasingly messy jivorce, misha posting a photo of himself in jensen’s bed on the last day of pride month, destiel trending worldwide every time misha or jensen so much as breathe on twitter, misha using justin bieber to wish jensen happy birthday (again), jensen’s inexplicable decision to write a show about john fucking winchester, et tu brute, jensen calling misha “babe” live in front of thousands of people, misha publishing poems suggesting jensen has kissed him, confirmation that questions about destiel are being censored at cons, misha posting a celebratory tweet for destiel hitting 100k fanfics on ao3 in which he confirms he likes to top. i mean. just. what a fucking year.

6235 notes • Posted 2021-11-05 00:15:12 GMT

#2

an addition to this post, as there is clearly so much more to unpack:

- in light of recent events, every j2 interaction from over the last year suddenly starts to hit different (e.g. the disastrous creation con panel)

- PR advisors inevitably descend, and j2 craft poorly written apologies that only highlight the growing rift between them

- an excess of bumpy road analogies appear on twitter

- the already strained mental health of the spn fandom starts to crack, with many people leaving for good

- jensen’s aunt goes rogue on twitter

- 24 hours on and spn tumblr is trying to reconcile genuine sympathy for jensen with the delirious highs evoked by the truly unprecedented levels of drama

- kripke tweets something that's probably meant to placate everyone but instead just further emphasises the rift between jensen and jared

- kripke hastily deletes his tweets and probably regrets every creating the cw show supernatural

- jared, without any sense of irony, implores people not to send hate on twitter. this receives an (understandably) mixed reception

- spn maintains its political reputation, as trump's former legal advisor comes out in support of jared

- somewhere in the us, a publishing intern is suddenly bombarded with lies about the author of an upcoming poetry collection, as, in an impressively horrible move, jared stans decide the way to solve everything is to send abuse about misha collins to his publisher

- non spn blogs start to become genuinely concerned by the fact half of tumblr is still a blazing furnace of destruction

- j2 stans continue to dig themselves even deeper into denial, claiming the entire twitter feud was simply a PR stunt

- misha collins makes a brief appearance as the voice of reason, and then sensibly sees himself out again

- some fans start to come round to the idea of the prequel, possibly because they've had time to consider, or possibly because, in comparison to the last 48 hours, nothing seems that bad

- just as things are starting to calm down a little, jensen uses the word "canon" in a tweet and the fandom implodes again (this time at the implication of destiel)

- jared notably still does not apologise for using shakespeare's words in vain against robbie thompson

- jensen causes yet another (admittedly, smaller) fandom meltdown by changing his twitter header

- "that's it... no more twitter today"

- despite the poorly crafted and unconvincing apologies, mainstream media won't shut up about the j2 fallout any more than tumblr will

- the schism between jared stans and hellers inevitably deepens

- somewhere in canada, jensen ackles probably has a breakdown

- misha collins does, as expected, post a nude video of himself to take the heat off jensen (*insert cockles joke here*)

- 72 hours on and peace finally seems on the horizon as, on the tumblr dash, compilations of misha collins in bathtubs start to outnumber twitter screenshots

- it seems like biden is okay (for now), but the real question is: has anyone checked on putin?

7875 notes • Posted 2021-06-27 14:40:27 GMT

#1

there’s just. there’s just so much to unpack here. I mean:

- jensen emphasising this is the FIRST story he wants to tell about the spn verse (read: the destiel spin off is coming)

- chaos machine's new pride icon

- misha joking the prequel needs a trench-coated angel, which, based on historical data, only means one thing: the prequel absolutely has a trench-coated angel in it (our favourite one with the rainbow wings and squinty eyes, to be specific)

- kripke causing multiple social media platforms to explode by liking said tweet

- jared hearing about the prequel for the first time on twitter at the same time as the rest of us

- misha absolutely not hearing about the prequel for the first time on twitter at the same time as the rest of us

- the entirety of tumblr and twitter trying to fathom why jensen decided to make a show about a character the whole spn fandom have spent fifteen years wanting to punch very hard in the face

- hot topics include: will john's shitty actions be ignored or explored? is the prequel really just a cover for a destiel spinoff?? or just an elaborate and expensive method of ensuring cas finally, in some universe, gets to smite john?

- rowena considered for the prequel but not sam

- it becomes clear danneel and jensen knew EXACTLY what they were doing when they named their production company "chaos machine"

- et tu brute, gutted, bummed

- the increasingly likely possibility that the french mistake and the mockumentary were actually prophetic visions (related: someone check on misha)

- bobo berens and kripke add more fuel to the twittersphere fire

- most of the fandom yelling "fight, fight, fight" at the cast of their favourite show six months after it ending

- a complete, collective tumblr meltdown as fires that have been brewing in opposing corners of the fandom for over a decade implode into either vindication or denial

- unprecedented scenes in fandom history as self-confessed ex-j2 stans quietly let themselves into the cockles trash dumpster

- the realisation that jensen has been plotting this for months (important questions: how long has he known? when they were filming the finale?? at the creation con panel? is this what was going on under all that sexy silence???)

- most of tumblr on tenterhooks simply from watching two middle aged men follow and unfollow each other on twitter

- the fact there are still conventions booked and j2 panels that are absolutely going to happen after all of this

- no one knows if biden is okay

12122 notes • Posted 2021-06-25 11:58:02 GMT

Get your Tumblr 2021 Year in Review →

[incarnateirony]

Wow. lol-jackles seriously thinks Jensen's less attractive, popular, well known, and talented than Jared. Jensen's never going to rise above being 3rd on the call sheet unless a producer like Jared designs a role playing to his (read: limited) acting skills. Everything Jensen (and Misha) do/have/say is crap. But it's the hellers and AAs who are jealous and MEEEAN to poor Jared. True MAGA hypocrite, ignoring facts and living in some alternate reality they've created in their minds

P much

I find literally none of them attractive personally because, you know, they’re men and all that.

But all it takes is one look at Jensen Ackles, even if you’re not personally attracted, to understand that he’s the more classically attractive of the lot. He meets every media standard of attractiveness, like some perfect shake and bake bag of classic attributes of male beauty. I don’t know what universe anybody lives in to pretend otherwise or like Jensen would have a harder time finding work from his looks.

Much less his acting. I’m sorry. Jensen Microexpressions Ackles vs Jared Macroexpressions Padalecki is not a contest. Not remotely. That’s not being “AA”. It’s literally observing the basic functions of their acting. 

Jensen doesn’t need to do shit like this

or this

He just doesn’t. Sam was equally over the top in 15.20. Again, he just was.

I think part of it is in the universe they built to shit down on Destiel, they had to shit down on Jensen’s micro work. They would rather imply, subdermally, that Jensen somehow underplayed Dean’s death in 15.20 than gave a solid (if directorially overdrawn) performance while Jared Manly Wail Dot Jpeged through it. Why? Because they also can’t recognize the same features of acting he applied in 15.18.

I swear to god it felt like they were acting two entirely different scenes with the energy in the comedically long 15.20 death.

Why? Because in both scenes, there was an I Love You with nothing back.

Given, they bro’ed the bro scene. Destiel fandom out here always “No Fear; Cas/Dean calling Each Other Brother: One Fear” and it was literally the bro scene that they crapped on by throwing “my baby brother” in when Destiel didn’t get that, despite all the other “When I first raised you out of hell/got you from school” “knowing you changed me/you didn’t take any of dad’s crap (so I learned not to)” and then they slapped the goddamn “my baby brother” on it and Sam also didn’t say it back and respectively, never ever has.

By bronly logic: Sam doesn’t love Dean, even as a brother. Unless of course, you only respect Manly Wail Dot Jpeg. And not all the nuance Jensen brings to his acting. (”No response; flat; underacted” etc.) -- understanding that would understand 15.18 instantly so can’t have that.

And that’s enduring even before 15.18. 

We won’t even talk about the fact that Jensen is currently out-trending Jared on every platform--be it imdb star rating for how often he’s searched, or google--while Jared’s constantly headlining articles on a new buzzy show and Jensen is.. shoveling snow? Posted a picture on instagram? Made a few statements several months ago? Has a production company with zero actual announcements or current products while Jared has one that’s actively attached to Walker? Has a show role for a show that’s going to air in 2022, that got announced half a year ago? IDK. Shrug emoji.

The same people currently don’t understand that 0.2 is a smaller number than 0.3 in the same year on the same timeslot on the same channel too. Nothing they say is grounded remotely in reality. The whole world is a conspiracy against Jarpad to them, and that’s why people talk about Chaos Machine and not Stick To Your Guns, I guess.

They’re in flat denial that this current show is--as someone on SR (the site they convinced themselves I somehow personally made in 2009 just to fuck with Walker in 2021 [which I don’t own]) put it-- in “Walker Try Not To Round Down To 0.1 In Your First Season Challenge” mode with its current ratings trajectory. Ebb and flow tells us it’s going to hover its current 0.21-0.23 for a bit but start draining on the back end and does genuinely risk dropping under 0.151 at this point. And I hate to break it to them again, but 0.1 is a smaller number than 0.3 still.

Flat-out: even beyond who’s more attractive, or who’s better as an actor, or who trends higher online: Jensen just chose his career path far more intelligently.

He courted multiple possible media suitors (WB, Disney, Amazon). He came out with a role on an Amazon show and an exclusive deal with the WB for a studio that can put his work anywhere from on the CW to HBO. He’s diversifying his recognition base and portfolio.

Jared chose a path that is plugging him back on the CW, and actually makes his popup studio in association with it wholly dependent on its parent companies, rather than being an independent operation contracted into exclusivity. If and when Jensen’s contract ends, if he doesn’t feel it’s fruitful, he can do whatever he wants with Chaos Machine, while having a strong bedrock of existing product and notoriety under it. Stick To Your Guns is a limited vessel and reliant on its current clout ladder. Jensen will be able to walk wherever he wants after this. Jared will not. Not as a producer. Not with a media company. He’ll be back to being an actor seeking casting that has some production experience. Which he should, by now, after being in acting for like 20 years. Maybe Stick To Your Guns will survive past and Pedowitz will order another series aimed for a similar demographic to also be on the CW. Because Stick To Your Guns isn’t going much of anywhere else. It even platforming Walker on HBOMax is a CBS-WB agreement for how they’re peddling product with the Netflix deal broken. It’s not gonna actively create content FOR HBO.

Add in Walker being on the CW, and being all but uncancellable as a CBS product on the CW, he’s tied in for at least 88 episodes or until catastrophic failure, whichever comes first. That means 4-5 seasons with its current episode format. That means Jared will have spent his entire professional life on the WB/CW, known as a “stupid teen network”--while, at worst, Jensen may produce content for that network while also handling things for HBO and other WB platforms and performing on other media throughout. 

Jensen and Jared both stayed true to SPN as a production--neither can be faulted for how much of their lives went into that and it’s generally an attribute. But one chose to step forward, out, and wider and the other just stepped laterally in the same space and that IS noticeable on a professional level. Again, that’s just reality. That’s going to be looked at by future media agencies. It just is. No amount of hollering on tumblr about the great AA conspiracy against Jarpad is gonna change that.

Jared has officially niched himself into a role where after this he’s pretty much gonna be forever cursed to play The Dad On That New Teen Show unless he does something DRASTIC after this. Period. Like end of story. That’s reality. Short of absolutely embarrassing collapse of Walker he’s not walking out of the show before he’s 43-44. Jensen was already shuffling contract work with his current clients at 41. And came out more independent for it. 

[mittensmorgul]

Note-taking anon again! :D

I am absolutely enjoying the show. It's a bit of a long winded story as to how i finally took the plunge: i knew spn existed, and at some point in 2019 i saw on tumblr that 15 was going to be its last season. Out of respect for the trailblazing it had done in fandom space, i resolved to check-in on the fandom every time it trended.

So, i sort of experienced s15 in a very filtered way. I was there for 'you asked what about this is real? We are' and experienced all of the freakouts, despite not knowing the context. I saw the trap's prayer scene and went ohshit is the fandom okay? Are people okay? The answer was no but people usually weren't okay ahah 😂

And i honestly forgot about the show bc it hadnt trended in so long, and then November 5th happened. And i went to check in on the fandom. And they were Not okay in the best way possible.

I resolved to actually watch the show bc i needed to know how we got there. After years of fan support for destiel i was like i have to know the truth.

Spn is not a show i would normally turn to. I'm not a horror fan--ive never seen a horror movie. This is the only horror i've ever watched. I'm also not in the target audience. But it was such a Concept that i just had to.

And its been so much fun.

Ive spent hours watching and meticulously notetaking. I dont think i'd've enjoyed the show as much if i wasn't doing my notes. It makes me pay attention to all the layers and nuance--intentional or otherwise. Spn loves to introduce a concept and then disappear into the night saying 'now we dont have time to unpack all of that' while im sat there reeling in the implications.

I originally wanted to watch for cas, but i found myself invested in sam and dean as well. I figured the first 3 seasons were going to be the hardest for me as there was no cas, but they were able to explore some fascinating smaller stories. Some personal favourites would be Hellhouse, Heart, Roadkill, What is and What should Never be, and Dream a little Dream of me. Sam and dean are compelling characters, and if you skip those seasons you really miss out on what makes them, them.

As well, ive fully accepted that the finale is not canon so i'm also able to enjoy the show that way too. I actually took notes on november 19th, watching the finale live, despite not knowing what was going on, and now that ive seen half the show, its kind of crazy to look back on.

Anyway, this is getting long!

I think i am grateful to have all of the context in place for me. It is significantly less stressful to know the entire time. It also gives validation for reading scenes in certain ways. (Not that validation is required, but it is nice) I don't think i would have been able to handle the bereavement from everywhere for simply perceiving what is clearly being told in the text. Now that ive seen half the show, i have a huge amount of respect for everyone who endured the journey.

OH gosh, I’m really happy for you! 

And thank you for watching the first three seasons! I hear of a lot of people who started at 4.01 because they were most interested in Cas as a character, and I think later seasons lose so much by not having seen the first three seasons of Sam and especially Dean’s growth up to that point.

I have to laugh at the notion of watching the series finale without having seen any of the show and feeling like you didn’t know what was going on, because lol I’ve been watching for a decade and *I* had no idea what was going on. So at least you were in the same headspace as we were for that one. :’D

I hope you continue enjoying it, and sharing your notes occasionally. :)

[beerecordings]

Oh . . . The fandom is shrinking? Aw that’s too bad, I didn’t know that ☹️

lol are you new

it’s not really shrinking in general cause the channel is growing. but this whole website is losing people generally and around here a lot of people have left for twitter, reddit, or just left after some of the insane drama. I’m just saying it’s smaller or quieter than it was before - and it’s still one of the most active fandoms i’ve been in :) (don’t tell spn but it’s also definitely still the most fun)

I don’t say it to be negative at all - in fact this is my PMA takeaway - and it doesn’t bother me much. I just think it’s important that people are aware and accept it because otherwise they tend to get stressed or doubt themselves when suddenly things are getting less notes than they were before. like i’ve seen people worried about less reblogs lately and i know some people had a really hard time when they saw people suddenly leaving the community after that huge hate fire a while ago. that’s perfectly valid and it is more important than ever to keep supporting each other’s content, but honestly the reason there’s less reblogs is because there’s just less of us around. nothing to stress about, just a more intimate community. every fandom has its ebbs and flows. wouldn’t be surprised if it got bigger again at some point, especially if Jack has a chance to make ego content sometime. tumblr is still number one place to be for all of us who really love talking about the egos if you ask me and i bet a lot of people would come here to check in if there was something like a Jackieboy vid. plus i’d die before going to reddit or twitter lolll

that’s all i want to talk about this, tho. i’m not even sure i should be replying cause I know some people hear the fandom on here is getting smaller and assume it’s a bad thing. don’t take me out of context with this post! we’re doing fine. personally i like that a lot of the people who were kind of problematic are gone, though I miss some friends and supporters and creators too. feels really chill around here lately cause even though there’s still hate, most of it comes from outside the community instead of watching people start attacking us or Jack from the inside. just not quite as huge as it was before, when we used to trend over glitches in an everyday vid hahaha. it’s best to just accept it for what it is, stick up for a couple important things, and do your own thing with the people you enjoy :) so don’t stress too much if your notes have gone down from what they were a few months ago. you’re still doing great and we appreciate you more than ever.

personally i still consider us a large and active community and really love sticking around <3

[quarkcore]

1-5 for the asks :)

1: Song of the year?

ok so i feel like theres so many contenders for this. This year has been strange for me, and right until i finished my degree, I didnt listen to much new music. I had a real focus on nostalgic faves. Because of that I have a hard time placing a specific favourite; its all just this long blur of old familiar tunes. If we go by my spotify, “Alone Again Or” by Love is my top song, and i cant deny that its absolute bop. If were going by what song i consider my fave right now, its “Lay This Body Down” by Sam Lee.  If i was gonna choose an absolute favourite new track, I think i would go with “Rack Of His” by Fiona Apple. Obviously, her new album is an absolute masterpiece, and thats the song that i just consistently enjoyed the most.

2: Album of the year?

Not Fetch The Boltcutters, surprisingly. For the place I was in, I personally found it just a bit too much to take in. I had a pretty massive shift towards pop, which FTBC just..... isnt. I needed comfort, familiarity, something i didnt need to analyse. With that in mind, The Mountain Goats’ The Jordan Lake Sessions is becoming a real late game favourite for me. I have started listening to stuff that challenges me a bit more again, but i still crave old favourites, and TJLS has packed a lot of old favourites onto one album, while also filling the gap that the lack of live music venues created in my life. Listening to TMG live is a really special experience for me and to have something replicate that, even imperfectly, really meant a lot to me.

3: Favorite musical artist / group you started listening to this year?

There isnt an immediate standout for me, so I’m just gonna list a few good contenders. Rina Sawayama, who id technically listened to before, but never to the same extent is an obvious choice, Noname (who id also technically listened to before) is another. Id also listened to the Kinks before, but got into them after watching a part of the umbrella academy and rewatching hot fuzz (they feature on both soundtracks). Ive really been enjoying Dorian Electra, and 100 Gecs became a new favourite in abt the same time period. yet again im limited by how little new music ive listened to lghdkfgj.

4: Movie of the year?

FINALLY ONE I CAN DO!!!!! ITS PARASITE ITS 100% PARASITE!!! nothing has worked its way into my brain in the same way, I’ve watched it 3 times and every single time i went fucking ballistic. i dont think theres anything i can say thats not already been said better, but the single bit that hits me the most is the one where the Kim family’s sub-basement has flooded and the father tells his son “You know what kind of plan never fails? No plan. No plan at all. You know why? Because life cannot be planned. Look around you. Did you think these people made a plan to sleep in the sports hall with you? But here we are now, sleeping together on the floor. So, there's no need for a plan. You can't go wrong with no plans. We don't need to make a plan for anything. It doesn't matter what will happen next. Even if the country gets destroyed or sold out, nobody cares. Got it?” because GOD how fucking real is that. every fucking day im thinking about parasite.

5: TV show of the year?

SPN’s Destiel but only for the bants.

Nah, kidding. its still deep space nine for me right now, but red dwarf is also a contender. both are rewatches (continuing the trend for the year glhfgkj). If you havent watched red dwarf, its a sci-fi sitcom, focussing on Lister and Rimmer, the two lowest ranking people on the ship red dwarf. Along with the Cat (exactly what it sounds like) and Holly, the ships’ AI, they on a quest to return home to earth. If you are a big fan of star trek, and want something extremely funny, and which in many ways critiques utopian sci fi (imo) you cant go wrong. Red Dwarf’s vision of the future is that its more or less the same as now, and thats mined both for comedic purposes, and for more serious plot lines. I first watched it when i was around 10 years old, and going back and rewatching only reinforced my belief that its one of the greatest shows of all time. It has a lot to say abt the british class system, and abt the capabilities of the peopel at the very bottom of society, in my opinion. It also unfortunately has a lot of homophobia and misogyny. The way i personally cope with that is by not watching the only season with an actual human woman (yes, really), and by taking all the  gay jokes to their logical conclusion, and actually headcanoning multiple characters as lgbt. its my show now and i can do what i want.

if youre here, then i assume you know what ds9 is like and why its good.

edit: A) what did tumblr DO to this post, B) i forgot joanna newsom!!! its bc shes not on spotify rip. DEFINITELY a new fave and contender for new fave artist.

[duelingdestiny]

☠ ♥ ♦ ♢ ✮☄ ☯ ☀ ☁ ☂ ☢ ☣ ❀ ✧❥ ❦ ❧ ✖ ♒❣

☠ What does someone have to do for an instant unfollow from you?

Start public shit on my dash. I literally cannot handle it. I don’t want to be involved. I don’t want to see it. I’ve been a part of it before. I’ve screwed up and started it myself before, and at this time in my life I’m avoiding it like the plague.

 ♥What's the WORST thing that has happened to you rp wise?

Oh my god. Uhhhhh. Wow so okay the thing I actually regret rp wise is losing one of my favorite partners due to something really stupid that could have been handled WAY better on both sides but it’s really helped me to handle things better as a person. Still, I regret losing that person as an RP partner, and I probably always will. 

♦ What was a mildly annoying thing that has happened to you rp wise?

I mean the really big thing that messes with me is because of character bleed. When people just leave Atem. It really messes him up. Or when any relationship he’s in just ends. It’s like he has no closure and it messes with me to have to deal with his pining ass. 

♢ Has anyone ever tried to steal your blog? Your headcanons? Icons? All that jazz

In short Yes. I’ve been around possibly the longest at the point and I’ve seen a lot of my hcs migrate to other Yami/Atem blogs, but it doesn’t bother me. I’m flattered, besides most of them aren’t so far fetched that people couldn’t come up with them on their own. I will however flip shit over my icons Masaya90 made them for me as a commission and I will absolutely fight someone over them, but you know how I feel about stolen art anyways

✮ Have you managed to stay away from drama?

AHAHAHAHAHAHA. I’m sorry give me a moment. Honestly yes. Other than the drama I have caused for myself in the past? All and all I am very careful about who I interact with. I just don’t deal with it. I ignore the “discourse” and just do what I’m here to do. That’s all I can do. 

☄ Have you ever been in the middle of drama?

Yes. I have been in the middle. And I’ve handled being in the middle badly, and I’ve tried my best to rectify my mistakes which is all anyone can do. I’ve made amends to the people I feel like I needed to make amends to and as a general rule I just ignore drama altogether now. 

☯ Have you ever tried to bring peace to a situation?

I have. Sometimes I succeed, others I have failed miserably. I’ll tell you this. I will generally always try to bring peace to things. I don’t like being at odds with anyone. It’s too much work and I’m too lazy to hold a grudge. 

☀ What's your rp pet peeve?

Oh this is a tie, between people just putting Atem in a situation he would NEVER be in, in a starter (without discussing it with me prior) or people who don’t cut their posts and use mobile as an excuse. I am on mobile some times and I just make a new post and mention my rp partner in it so we don’t clog the dash. It’s not rocket surgery. 

☁ Have you ever forgiven a partner when you shouldn't have?

I don’t think so mainly because if two people can work through something I think they should. I used to not think that but I’ve learned a lot and some times people just fuck up you know? So no. I don’t think I’ve ever forgiven someone when I shouldn’t have because everyone deserves another chance. 

☂ Have you ever been forgiven when you knew you shouldn't have been?

Again, see post above

☢ What fads/trends are you so over?

CONTAINER BLOGS!!!!!!!!! Seriously, I have fucking unfollowed people for this shit. I understand that you want your blog to be pretty, but holy shit. Just font that’s a size 7 and I have to blow up the page like 9 times in order to read anything and most of them have the practically non existent scroll bar and AUTO PLAY fucking terrifies me. Like just please know every time I have to go on your blog and music starts out of no where you are giving me a HEART ATTACK. Just I know you think it looks pretty but before you decide on the things like that go on your blog and look at it. USE it. User friendly is a REALLY important thing guys. 

☣ Have you ever rp'd with someone you knew for a fact was abusive but tried to give them a chance/to make up your own opinion on the roleplayer? Did they change or did you understand what people were talking about?

Due to past personal experiences I like to make up my own mind about people. Honestly the best relationship came from that. Making up my own mind. A lot of really good friendships have come from that so yes, I always try to give people a chance no matter what I’ve heard, because what you hear is probably only half of the truth to being with. 

❀ What has made you completely lose your chill?

People being shitty to others on the dash publicly. And yes before anyone points a finger, I have been in on that once and it was an awful stupid idea. It doesn’t help anything. It literally doesn’t. Tearing someone up in public makes you look like a giant asshole. We have Inboxes and IM systems and a plethora of other social media so if you have an issue with someone you can talk to them like they are a person and explain your grievance and if it’s THAT big of a deal just unfollow them and block them if you need to, but there’s no reason to be Captain Asshole on the dash. No one really wants to see it and it makes everyone’s experience really uncomfortable so bottom line? Just don’t call people out publicly. 

✧ Do you agree with reblog karma or is it forced interaction?

I’m up in the air with this. I have WAY too many followers and it’s extremely frustrating to reblog a meme get 30 reblogs off said meme and get literally not one thing in my inbox from said meme. But I remind myself timezones, and maybe people don’t feel like that will work for our muses but here’s the really easy thing that you can do if that’s the case. REBLOG FROM THE SOURCE. Then people don’t get the hit that basically looks like “I don’t WANT to interact with you.” and it makes everyones lives a little better. But I REALLY support sending memes in. I have days where I will just make a post that is MEME HOUR which is if you post a meme as long as I think Atem would be down, I will send you in an ask for it. It’s really fun and it makes up for the times when I’m not on to spam peoples assboxes. 

❥ Has someone ever ruined an FC or character for you? 

Honestly someone has ruined every character for me at one time or another lol but FC I’ve got a good one. Now it wasn’t from RP but Gina Torres who is one of the prettiest people imho was RUINED for me by the show Angel. Because (SPOILER ALERT) She’s a giant pile of maggots okay? And she’s in some of my fave shows: Firely, Any Day Now, Suits. But I cannot unsee her face on Angel. She just shows up in shit and I scream. She popped up on Criminal Minds once and I just shut it off. She’s in Hannibal and I REALLY want to watch that. DAMMIT. 

❦ Has someone been jealous of you? 

Maybe, but I wouldn’t know why...I mean I’m just me. Oh! Maybe when I go to cons and meet awesome people? I’d be jealous of me then too. 

❧ Have you ever been jealous of anyone? 

Yes. There are people I get jealous of. People who get more interaction, people who are here all the time, people who are in a better time zone. So yeah, happens. 

✖ How has Tumblr RP changed since you started?

Like I said before, I think I have been here longer than most in this fandom at least the rp side and HOO BOY, things have changed a lot. Remember when we had to tag a post on the side? Remember when Missing E was the extension we all had? No? That’s because I’ve been here forever. Before this I was in the SPN fandom. So yeah. I feel like I’ve stuck around a lot longer than a lot of people. What kills me is that things have changed but not really improved? When are we going to be able to lock a post so people’s art can’t be stolen? When are we going to be able to delete a post and all clones of that post are deleted as well so someone who made a mistake 6 years ago and LEARNED from it doesn’t have to wake up with hate in their inbox every morning? 

♒ Thoughts on the fandom you're currently rping in?

I actually really love both the fandoms I’m in right now, though both have some issues. Voltron is fucking unhinged about some shit I won’t get into because no one really cares in this fandom but HOO BOY I’m glad we don’t have that here because we literally have the same thing going on here. HA! I just thought of that. But yeah age gaps man. Just fuck everything about it. Okay done ranting about this before I get my first hate mail

❣ How salty are you feeling right now?

Ask Sophie she’s had to listen to me rant for the last hour about everything on this list. I just screamed about the SPN fandom confusing reality with porn for 20 minutes and then the Josh Keaton thing with his kids so yeah, pretty fucking salty that people can’t just get the fuck along.