#y'all know how i feel about gamble but death's door gets it VERY right in terms of cycles of abuse fathers sons choosing love etc

[monstermoviedean]

question. if we dropped sera gamble into dabb era and had her run the dean + jack relationship arc. would it be better?

[serpentinebrutality]

Deal

  One deal.

  She had a deal with them. One simple deal! But no, Billy had to go ahead and try to play cops and robbers!

  Jiahao was in the saloon when she heard it. She had been having a bad feeling that whole day, ever since the deputy and the marshal had not shown up to try and get her after the previous night's robbery. It was suspicious and it left the outlaw on her toes. Then, when she was halfway done with a glass of whiskey, she heard it.

  "Hey, Red, anybody told ya Billy got Roberts and Bell tied up?"

  Surely they expected her to be happy. Every single criminal in Texas knew the two lawmen's main target was the woman terrorizing city after city, draining bank after bank. Yet, she kept slipping between their fingers. Sometimes it was a knot that became undone. Others, it was her shameless flirting with the prude marshal. There was even once when Bell's horse mistook her ropes for food and chewed on them. Everyone in the saloon expected her to throw her head back, laugh and head over to Billy to congratulate him before finally getting the West rid of those two.

  They did not expect the frown. The grit of her teeth. The speed with which she rose from her seat, leaving behind her glass of whiskey in the process. They had never seen her leave behind a good glass of whiskey. The saloon's noise died down, from chatter and laughter to dead silence. Jiahao's steps were the only noise the crowd could hear and, if they were close enough, they could maybe listen to the hissing breaths that passed through the gritted teeth.

  The Viper's Venom's doors were left swinging when the woman marched through them. After swiftly getting on her horse and wordlessly prompting it to move, she headed straight to Billy's hideout, which was an abandoned wood cabin where he and his buddies drank and gambled. If it was abandoned or they had just murdered the previous owner, she did not know. All she knew was when she got there, the door was open as if he expected her to show up.

  Oh, the nerve.

  Two men she had seen with Billy before saw her and, apparently, recognized her since they smiled. It didn't last long, though. Her sharp glare slapped confusion and worry on their faces. From the doorstep, she could hear Billy's rambling, his form covering most of what was in front of him, but she could make out there were two tied up men sitting on the floor. Adrien or Dutch, she didn't really know which, probably noticed her, because Billy immediately turned to face her. His arms spread open, the goofiest, widest smirk on his face as he began to walk towards her.

  "Red! You ain't gonna guess what I d-!"

  Billy never got to finish the sentence. Her right fist came crashing with his nose and, despite his height and how much heavier he was, the criminal fell on the floor, bleeding and groaning in pain. The outlaw was convinced she heard the lawmen wince. Just as Billy's men drew their guns, Jiahao drew hers, pointing right at the bearded man's head.

  "Ah, ah, ah!" She rose her left index as a warning, her tone playful despite the iciness of her usually warm brown eyes. "Ah wouldn't do that if Ah were you, gents. Ya see," the sound of her cocking her revolver cut the silence during her pause, "it'd be a shame to put a bullet in y'all's boss."

  "Vaq! Ya came to save us!" Adrien's french-accented voice made itself known, a cute stupid grin on his face. "Darlin', you didn't have to!"

  That was the only moment she allowed herself to smile.

  "What the fuck, Red?!" Billy sputtered while holding his bloody nose.

  "What the fuck, Red?” Her frown immediately returned, “I should be the one askin’, what the fuck, Billy?!" The end of her revolver pressed against the middle of his forehead and she heard him gulp. "One deal. One fuckin' deal, Billy Brown! But you just had t' go an' ignore it, yuh horse cock-suckin' fuck! What part of 'Do not try an’ capture the marshal and the deputy without my permission', my darlin', do yuh NOT understand?"

  Billy rose his hands, his bloody hands from trying to stop the bleeding. Ugh, that looked ugly. She probably broke it with that punch.

  "I thought you'd appreciate it! On God, Red!"

  Her eyes narrowed for a moment.

  "Tell yer men to not shoot an' I won't put a bullet in that thick skull a' yers."  

  With a gesture, Billy commanded his gang to lower their guns. Jiahao waited for them to do so before delivering a kick to the other criminal's side.

  "There's no need for violenc--!" The blond marshal finally spoke but was very quickly interrupted by his partner.

  "Oh, Red, darlin', he beat me near to death! You better show him what for!"

  Another kick, then she finally put away her revolver. Seemed like she wouldn't need to use it. She then offered her hand to help Billy up, which he took. He got off the floor with a groan and she quickly handed him over to one of his men.

  "Piss off, all y'all. An' see if next time you listen to what I fuckin' tell ya to don't do."

 There was a collective nod before one by one, they left the cabin, leaving the outlaw alone with the deputy and the marshal. Of course, Adrien was the one to break the silence.

  "Red, darlin'? You wanna take these ropes off us, doll?"

  Jiahao turned her gaze away from the open door and scoffed, her usual smirk creeping on top of her lips. Her hands settled on her waist, hips cocked to the side as she analyzed the lawmen's situation.

  "I’unno. Ya know, I quite like the tied up look on y'all for a change." She shrugged, stepping closer before kneeling by them. Laughter nearly left her when both men stared at her with widened eyes. "But if yuh insist, I'll get these off."

  Slender fingers easily undid the knots that held Dutch and Adrien quite tightly, the relieving feeling of not having rope pressing into their skin anymore making both let out a small sigh of relief. Her arms came to rest around both men's shoulders, her smirk widening just the slightest bit.

  "What would y'all do without me, uh?"

  Dutch frowned, but didn't give her the satisfaction of pulling her arm away.

  "We could've had gotten out of this without your help, ma'am."

  A pause. Adrien tilted his head.

  "Marshal, they were fifteen and they took our guns."

  The glare the blond gave the deputy made Jiahao snort.

  "Yeah, sure y'all would have been fine. I jus’...don't appreciate when people don't listen to me."

  She let go of them, rising to her feet. They followed right after, though a little wobbly from asleep legs and feet. While she waited by the door, both lawmen retrieved their weapons, which were kindly left behind by Billy and his men.

  "What...was that about them not getting to capture us without your permission?" Dutch arched an eyebrow, watching as the on-the-run criminal shrugged.

  "Nothin' to worry that pretty lil' head of yers about, Bell. Ya two should go, ya know, find yer horses and stuff."

  "What is stopping us from arresting you right now, darlin'?" Adrien mimicked her grin, drawing a snort from her.

  "Wouldn't that be rude? I just saved y'all's asses! Least ya can do is let me go this time, don't cha think?"

  The two men looked at each other. Dutch seemed reluctant about it, but Adrien had already taken his decision.

  "Sounds reasonable!" And with that, he began walking towards the door. Upon noticing the marshal wasn't doing so, he went back to grasp his wrist and drag him out. "See ya next time, darlin'! Maybe we will be savin' your cute butt!"

  "I'm not saving her rump..." They heard Dutch mutter as he went through the door with Adrien. Out of politeness, they avoided pointing out the fact he never shot her in sight was sort of saving her rump.

  "I'd like to see y'all do that for a change!" She spoke, a little loudly since they were getting farther and farther, before she let out a laugh as she shook her head. In her hand, she held both of their wallets. "Bunch a' idjits."

[elizabethrobertajones]

Hello Lizzy. Is it true that Sera Gamble had intended to kill Castiel off from the beginning of season 6? I heard that his death in season 7 was meant to be permanent, but I didn't know that Gamble had planned it from the beginning of her tenure as showrunner. Is that true? (P.S. Nice to meet you.)

Heya :D 

Yeah, it seems like they were planning to kill him at least for a while, although who knows how long for exactly, and if fan reaction has any actual bearing on it :P It could be stuff people were saying about season 6 or things they decided there that changed their minds as much as the reaction to the Cas-less first half of season 7 - they work about 6 months behind whatever’s airing.

https://justanotheridijiton.tumblr.com/post/127690482979/pr-is-not-showrunning-cas-and-season-7

There’s another post in Mel’s Sera Gamble tag I scrolled past on the way to finding that which has her saying some pretty gloomily negative things about writing Cas, about how he has “no subtext” - she has a fair amount of compliments for how he was brought back committed to PR chatter, but idk how thrilled she was about it especially as she probably knew she was the outgoing showrunner by the time she was doing PR for the end of season 7. She sounds like she really didn’t like writing him and tbh when I had a look at her Cas episodes, well…

4.02 Are You There, God? It’s Me, Dean Winchester

Cas pops up for a 1 minute chat at the end

4.09 I Know What You Did Last Summer

Cas bursts in the door at the last minute in an antagonistic role

4.21 When the Levee Breaks

Cas is currently reprogrammed by heaven and antagonistic; pops up for a chat with Dean, a scene with Anna, and frees Sam

5.02 Good God, Y'All

Pops in for 5 minutes at the start and leaves

5.13 The Song Remains the Same

Shows up at the start, does the spell & time travel, off-screen & unconscious the rest of the episode

5.21 Two Minutes to Midnight

“I caught a bus” crowning moment of awesome, good conversation with Dean at the start, fades out to just follow Sam on their “act of domestic terrorism” as a supporting friend

6.21 Let It Bleed

Pops in to chat a few times in a firmly antagonistic role though at least very emotional and heart-broken; mostly off-screen, ends the episode as the most antagonistic and cold we’ve seen Cas aside from actually breaking Sam’s wall next episode

7.01 Meet the New Boss

Obviously the spill-over problem of Godstiel; spends a lot of time away from the Winchesters being God, highly antagonistic conversation with Death, Sam brings Cas back, brief but miserable emotional reconciliation for a short time; suddenly Leviathans and Cas is the vessel for the antagonists

7.17 The Born-Again Identity

Cas spends most of the episode as Emmanuel & with a Meg buffer between him and Dean; good moment with the trenchcoat and remembering him, and Dean’s reactions in general, saves Sam and is left behind with Meg

7.23 Survival of the Fittest

Pops in at random at the start, hangs around at the background, at great and exhausted length Dean goes and reconciles with Cas and off they go to get Dick and go to Purgatory 

Of all those episodes, even the ones that centre on Cas aren’t, like, CAS episodes in the way Edlund was churning them out in the same time if you actually look at how much he has to do. He’s either around in the background, a messenger or device to move the plot around, or he’s antagonistic or unhelpful and there’s a pretty even balance of big moments with him and Sam as there are to Dean. 7x17 is pretty much the only one I’d call a Big Destiel Episode, and even that has a ton of terms and conditions and just some amazing moments; Dean and Cas interact as Dean and Cas for like 2 conversations at the end and one of them is all about what to do about Sam. It’s even funnier to think the seasons pretty much sum that up: in season 6 Cas is around in the background and then turns out to be the antagonist, like one half of her episodes, in season 7 he pops up in the beginning, dies, and then shows up at the end again for a bit like the others. :P 

I genuinely feel like she disliked writing Cas, didn’t understand him very well or want to delve into his character to get to know him better, and tbh as a writer since season 1, she probably was right along with Kripke on the no angels thing back in the early days. Since she wrote Faith and Houses of the Holy I think she had a pretty big stake in no angels, or once they were there, using them at arms length, while other writers fell in love with Cas’s characterisation and wanted to develop it more and more and turned him into the sort of character who could hold his own through an episode. 

I mean I don’t think she’s awful and I really like her writing and think she gets a pretty bum rap around fandom for the Cas thing. Just, that clearly wasn’t her preference and if she had no interest in Cas and saw him as disposable or whatever and had no interest in keeping him around just because… I can understand it, even if I obviously disagree and think he became the heart of the show as soon as he showed up :P