#you can't just switch off that part of you that's given up due to circumstances. oohhhhhhh no you have to unlearn that helplessness.

[alsojnpie]

today's repostober comes with a lot of words. because if i remember correctly i restrained myself from writing an essay at the time i made these. because look. all of the ut cast but especially papyrus belong in the harvest moon 64 world. i don't care if crossovers are cringe (are they? no don't answer because i really don't care). these are my two favorite video games and they go together like pb and j.

anyway first we have papyrus drinking water after water after water at the bar. this is an incredibly time consuming but free way to get unlimited energy to upgrade all your tools to the max on the first night. hypothetically. if you feel like spending. idk......20 hours or so of your life doing it......(he does) (sans does not). because not only is it free as in, costs no in game currency, time stands still inside the bar and in this game time IS MONEY. also "aren't you the healthy one?" is what the bartender says when you order the glass of water and I've only read it about one hundred million times in my life

a weird exploit exists at the horse races in which you can prepare to place an extravagant bet but withdraw it at the last moment. you pay nothing but the game considers the bet placed all the same. so you bet he will figure that out and take advantage of it!! seriously though, i just love the idea of the situation being a bit switched from the way it was in undertale. sans has a bit of a hard time finding his place in this weird surface world. (and yes i think he would stress about bills. what of it.) papyrus somehow finds his way into the hearts of every single person in the village. he is at the top of his game and everyone loves him!!!!!!!

[letterstothemidnightsociety]

And so we leave the warm and friendly bosom of the Ghostfacers and descend into the final three episodes of Supernatural season 3. And guys, it’s gonna be a lot of goodbyes.

Welp. We can't say they didn't warn us.

Goodbye Bela. Goodbye Katie Cassidy as Ruby. Goodbye Dean for like, a hot minute. But on the other hand, say hello to that Oh-right!-Sam-has-demon-powers story line!

I’ve mentioned it before and I’ll say it again - one of my fav lines in season 2 is in the finale. Right before he’s destroyed, Ol’ Yellow Eyes leans in to Dean and grumble whispers, “How certain are you that what you brought back, is 100%, pure, Sam?” And just like that, the whole Winchester dynamic that Dean (and we) thought was solid gets reeeeealllly shaky. By the time YED says this line, we’ve all watched sweet, cuddly Sammy cold-blooded murder a guy with a knife, so there’s definitely evidence that something is up. But that...never...quite pans out in season 3. Sam is still Sam. He’s soft and sincere and he’s got those big, open, puppy-dog eyes and he’s always willing to listen to both sides. Season 3 Sam doesn’t make a whole lot of adjustments. It’s possible that by pal-ing him up with Ruby, the writers were trying to say, ooo! He’s different now cuz he’s friends with demons! But that’s still V. On Brand Sam. Of course he’d be willing to listen. He fell in love (I guess?) with a werewolf. He made friends with a coven of Vampires. Given the right circumstances, Sam actually will ask questions first and shoot later.

See? Look at that Listening Face!

Now it’s not anyone’s fault entirely that this plot line never panned out. The Writer’s Strike really did a number on the season, and plotlines that could have been further developed had to get dropped due to the shortened episode count. I’ve been talking about the Writer’s Strike for like, well, the last 4 entries here, but if you’re old enough to remember the strike, you know it was a friggin’ big deal. It did a number on a lot of shows, changed the landscape of scripted and unscripted programming and probably changed the entire course of the rest of the SPN series as a whole. And honestly, with fewer episodes to develop some of the more complicated mythology stuff, it makes sense to simplify and switch gears to focus on Dean’s thing. That’s the important storyline. That’s the one that’s gotta pay off by the end of the season. But I still like to think about what could have been if we’d gotten the Slow Turning of Sam Winchester. It’s no secret Dean is my personal (problematic) fav and I think Ackles’ performance is a big part of why so many people love Dean/This Show. Not that Sam/Padalecki isn’t perfectly solid as a character/performer, but this season especially it occurs to me that there’s not a whole lot for Sam to work with. He’s still acting as the audience stand-in. He’s not someone we’re meant to humanize and analyze the way we do with Dean. He’s a blank slate we’re meant to embody. We’re him, riding in the front seat of the Impala, reading maps and putting clues together and singing along with Dean to the radio. How wild would it have been if we’d seen him slowly devolve into something less than human? And I’m not talking just the snarky brand of Evil(™) we see with a lot of the demon characters on this show. I mean something cold and remorseless and almost robotic - he’s not good, he’s not evil, he’s just focused on one thing at a time, and he’ll do whatever it takes to succeed, and that demon blood means he’s got the powers to do it. This season, that version of Sam is focused on saving Dean’s soul, but what about next season? Where could that Sam have gone?

Anyhoodle, that’s a storyline I’ve been thinkin’ about a lot cuz of Reasons. We’ll see how the whole Demon Powers thing plays out in later seasons, but my memory is that...it doesn’t? Stay tuned.

In the meantime, we’ve got “Long Distance Call”, an episode full of the kind of Dean-Centric Emotional Trauma that I fell in love with this show for. Is it just me or does this episode feel like a recap? Like, if you’re just tuning in now, you’re gonna get a lot of background on our brothers’ and their family dynamics, plus a renewed interest in Dean’s soul drama oh and also a regular-type-case to wrap it all up in. It’s like the show is reminding it’s audience what the show is about like we haven't been following along for 58 episodes already. Maybe it’s just because last episode was a completely different format and they wanted to reassure viewers that the show wasn’t actually changing anything about itself in any significant way. Maybe it’s just because we’re at the end of a season, and moreover, a season that had a surprise hiatus half way through filming so no really, maybe they did need to refresh viewers on a lot of backstory. Isn’t it weird streaming shows that were meant to be watched week to week?

The big fallout from “Long Distance Call” is that Dean realizes that he can’t expect some surprise miracle answer to all his problems to drop right into his lap. He’s gonna have to save his life/soul his own damn self.

I have two things to say to this - 1) uhhh, dude? You’re a Winchester. When has that ever happened EVER in your life? EVER? And 2) Uhhhh DUDE? YOU HAVE A BROTHER AND A SURROGATE FATHER NAMED BOBBY SINGER, SINCE WHEN DO YOU HAVE TO DO ANYTHING ALONE? In unsurprising news, I find this revelation infuriating.

Ok moving on to “Time is On My Side” and like...I could talk about how wild it is that the villain (played by veteran Hollywood Villain Billy Drago) is not magic at all but in fact, just very good at Weird Science. I could also talk for like, three days about Rufus Turner and his Johnny Walker Blue (played by veteran Hollywood Man About Town, Steven Williams). Instead, though, let’s talk about Bela.

Hello? 2008? Stop doing this to your female characters.

Bela, I will miss you SO much. Because this episode makes it VERY clear that Bella is gone for good. And also that the writers did NOT ship Dean and Bela, no sir, no we did not introduce this character to be a love interest, what are you even talking about? Dean is ruthless with her. He gives more credit to (and feels more remorse over) the demon that Sam kills way back in “Sin City” than he gives to Bela. To be fair, Dean is basically a caged animal staring down the barrel at this point in the season, so you could argue his behavior has more to do with desperation than real anger. But considering the long hiatus and the reworked back half of the season, it’s hard not to connect Dean’s attitude with the writers’ reaction to fan backlash over both Bela and Ruby. It’s almost like they’re telling all the Bela-haters out there “don’t worry, we heard you loud and clear, and yes, Bela’s going away and she’s going away for good.” To make up for it, they show us, the audience, a tragic and understandable backstory for why Bela’s on Team Demon but Dean never finds out any of that. I mean, cool motive, still murder, but they were definitely trying hard to end any Dean/Bela vibes still floating around in the canon. I guess when you’re coming back from a writer’s strike and your show is still on shaky ground, ratings-wise, you make a point to give your fans what they want. But also, fans are idiots sometimes and way back in 2008 we didn’t know anything.

2008, please also stop doing this to your female characters too.

And Dean’s got a similar attitude towards Ruby next episode. Ok, so he’s never been a Ruby Fan, but “Malleus Maleficarum” implied he’d at least come to some kind of mutual understanding with her. I’d even call it a real connection. Now he’s calling her “the Ms. Universe of lying skanks,” and hoo boy. On the one hand that comes off as unnecessarily harsh. On the other hand, that is a terrible burn, like, wow, I guess they can’t all be winners buddy, but sheesh. Is your heart even in that one?

Rolling right along into the finale finale and we finally meet Lilith! Lilith who is both a supreme evil power and also a small child and that’s just the sort of packaging I’d except from the SPN writers at this point you sick bastards!

Yeah, this feels real on brand for some reason.

I’m gonna take a moment to point out that the end of season 3 gives us this trio of women who could be...interesting? I’m probably stretching it a bit if I try to make an argument for a Fates/Triple Goddess/Maiden-Mother-Crone setup. (I mean, who’s who in this scenario?It’s a real reach.) I’ll give this to SPN - they introduced three morally complicated women this season and if nothing else, they were fun to watch. Do they count as recurring characters if the 2 out of 3 that live to season 4 get recast?

To round out this season, the Winchesters lose again. That’s 3 for 3 for anyone who’s keeping track.

That's rough, buddy.

The thing is? Dean...brings this one on himself. Seasons 1 and 2 Winchester have their hearts (and souls) invested in plans that fall apart at the end. They tried their hardest, but they just weren’t good/strong/smart/powerful/etc enough. This season, it feels less like a lack of ability and more like an overabundance of decisionmaking. Season 2 Dean makes the decision to trade his soul for Sam. Early season 3 Dean makes the decision to Not Care and wallow in self destruction. End of season 3 Dean makes the decision to stand on the moral high ground and not make any more deals that could end up with him worse off than he was before. That last one is not a judgement call, it’s just pointing out that there was a way out he could have taken and he chose not to. Dean is, and probably always will be, his own worst enemy.

Yeah, this is on you pal.

In the Year of Our Streaming Service of Choice, 2021, it is interesting revisiting this shortened season. I don’t remember it feeling rushed the first time I watched it, but I’m also pretty sure I watched the entire season in like, a week(...end?) so pacing had no meaning. Now that the average season of “television” is way shorter than it was back in 2008, the rushing on this season is pretty obvious. I think as a whole, it does still work, but we’ve got way better examples of shows with even shorter seasons that roll out smoother and more concise. Where SPN shines is in that balance between one-offs and season-arc episodes. Short seasons go hand in hand with tighter storytelling and less wandering/one-off eps. With a shorter season, SPN could have succeeded by adjusting Fun:Drama episode balance according to their usual ratio. Unfortunately for them, they started writing season 3 unaware that their episode order was about to get cut by roughly 25%.

Onwards to Season 4!

[marveltaughtmetoread]

At this point, Jordan is the reason all her relationships broke down and the show treats her like she is okay or even good for this

She cheated on Scott the day he choose to switch hospitals to be closer to her and then emotionally cheated on him like a few days later

She broke it off with TC because she was ready and willing to settle down and have a child with him but not to get married??? Should it not be the other way round

She broke it off with Sam because she was bored? I don't know, she just seemed to be having fun and then he wanted an actual relationship but she could have continued to just have fun because his version of an actual relationship was treating her to dinner

In all of these she is the one to break it off

In any other show, this would be labelled as having commitment issues and be something acknowledged by other characters but nope, not in this show

Like, with Scott she is 100% the bad guy, she cheated on him. I get that TC had a part in that (being the one to initiate the kiss) and I get that it was TC's breakdown that led to the emotional cheating, but she was already hesitant before that happened, she kissed TC back and she searched for him when he was having the breakdown, knowing Scott didn't like how close they were

To be a good person in this situation, all she had to do was tell Scott she wasn't ready, before he signed on with the hospital, end the kiss with TC, go 'I have to help TC right now because he is my family but you are still my boyfriend' and basically just not treat Scott like second best to her ex

Sam, there isn't a reason given, she just breaks it off, it is implied that it's because she lost her baby over a year ago and this is essentially just a rebound, and it's heavily suggested that she just wants to date around, all good reasons to end a relationship, in theory

But at this point Jordan has shown a tendency to commit to relationships before she is actually emotionally ready to commit to them, stringing the guy along, she does with Sam by being clearly hesitant to commit to the relationship but refusing to bring up to him that she just wants something casual

So this is just part of her overall pattern, rather than something new due to specific circumstances, the show wants you to think it is different from her other relationships, but it fits so neatly into her already demonstrated commitment issues that you can't ignore it, much as I would love to

With TC, yeah there were good reasons not to be together in season one but season two starts with TC having overcome them, so they are actually in a decent place to have a relationship, sure they didn't plan to have kids but when Jordan realised she was pregnant she wanted to have this kid with him knowing what he was like and then broke up with him when he proposed after the kid stopped being a factor

But all the women in the show side with Jordan over not getting together with TC, essentially telling him he is not good enough and one point in particular stands out as bull, that TC went to Afghanistan whilst Jordan was pregnant, so of course Jordan was in the right, but Jordan gave him permission, she made it clear she didn't like it but she actively encouraged him to go and explicitly told him to do so but all the women in the show (to make Jordan look like the better person) are like 'yeah no you were wrong for doing that',

How is TC in the wrong for thinking he had Jordan's permission to go after she gave it to him, of course she had a right to be scared about him, of course she had a right to want him to stay but after giving her explicit consent she has no right to tell TC he was wrong for having gone because she didn't want him to go when she could have asked him to stay and told him to go, TC is the victim here, Jordan retracted her words after the breakup so it looks like TC is in the wrong, but TC was right to believe he had her permission because he did

And the issue of TC being a reckless adrenaline junkie so Jordan not wanting to commit is a good one, but she has known him for the better part of a decade at this point, she knows what he is like, it is honestly a bigger issue when you are planning to have kids with the man (because he could leave you as a single parent, with all the responsibility of raising a child on your own) than it is when you just want to be together, it's understandable that she is not okay with him risking his life, regularly but she already knew this??

Once again she committed to a guy, without being able to follow through emotionally, leading the guy to have expectations about their relationship she couldn't fulfill

Jordan has major commitment issues which have effectively sunk all her relationships but TC is the one villainised, the problem in their relationship, Scott is presented as overreacting and an ass when he ignores Jordan during their shift because she broke his heart and broke up with him after he move to a different city for her, and Sam is just presented as an overeager puppy too spirited for the mature Jordan

Jordan is the reason her relationship didn't work out, but the show doesn't want to acknowledge that nor work on the issue

Obviously this is bad writing in service of Jordan and TC's on and off relationship but it is annoying writing