Season 12, 1 and 2

So the new season of Supernatural started with that classic thing that they've done for most seasons where 'hey, Sam and Dean are not together and they're finding their way back'...and then we get a hug.
Except they forgot the hug.
Or they couldn't find an opportunity to hug.
That actually given the storyline seems like the most likely explanation. They maybe couldn't work it in so it looks natural. And I guess if we're factoring in the fact that they parted maybe a day or two before they were reunited, or was it two weeks?

How long was Sam in captivity?
Anyway, point is, it wasn't a year or four months or a year and a half or how long it usually is. It was 'days' in supernatural world time.
Of course for us it was four or five months and we bloody well wanted that hug.

In lieu of a hug though Andrew Dabb, if that's not possible, is some super super closeness.
Thanks.

I'm really loving the return of season 1-4 Sam fucking Winchester. I swear when he pretended to cut his throat and then was fighting Toni Bevel on the stairs....
DAaammmmnnnn.
I needed a minute.
Fuck.

Wild Animal!Sam needs his own community.
I don't know what's going on with Dean though. First of all, Everyone's beating his ass. Is it the bomb he was carrying? Did it weaken him? Or is he just tired, or in shock? Something's going on with Dean Winchester and I wanna know what.
Or, I don't know, bring my badass Dean back.
The power struggle that's gonna happen between Mary and Dean Winchester is something I am looking forward to. Dean is used to being the mommy, and here comes their real mommy. Alive and well and ready to be mama. Where does that leave Dean? He's not used to being looked after. And he's used to telling everyone what to do.
He's already been unable to tell Mary what to do so much so that he actually asked Cas for help.
Dude.
Cas.
or is it Cass?
The things people choose to argue about really bore me.
This season better address the fact that Sam has no Key of Solomon on his chest. Whatever is happening there needs to be rectified, IMMEDIATELY.
Why borrow trouble when you don't need to?
Get it done Sam.
Dean.
They have to get their mother a tattoo anyway; Sam can get one too.
Anyway, I'm still very excited for this season; enjoying myself thoroughly and refusing to buy into the negativity.

Is Dean Winchester Even Human?

Yeesss, I know you think I mean in the 'oh my God, he's so unbelievably hot' way but I don't. See I'm on season four of my pre-new-season-rewatch and Dean just resurrected. His old body, like he said, would look like a 'thriller video reject' so...
That means Castiel constructed a whole new body for him.
Right?
So if his body was reconstructed, is it even human anymore. Is he even Dean or is he Dean 2.0?

Dean Winchester hasn't really died since season four if you think about it. Sure there was that time he went to purgatory...and survived a whole year there. A whole year in purgatory. For a human? How likely does it seem? And sure end of season nine he 'died' but he really didn't. He just converted to a demon. And then Sam cured him.
So two times, his body got a redo.
Could that be why Amara couldn't eat his soul? Well his soul was still Dean (original version) it was just his body which was Dean 3.0?
Going back to season 4 for a minute; when Meg was telling Dean about her sister who died, who got lost because Meg was dead...it's like foreshadowing. Or a warning. Or just 'here's basically the plot for this season if only you knew.'

I saw something on Twitter last week that blew my mind. Jared and Jensen are on the EW cover right? Really cute pics were taken all around. Now some crazy person badly photoshopped a picture of Misha into the shot; I think he was supposed to cover just Jared but ended up just looking like it was floating above them like a huge red flag of embarrassment and psychosis. This wasn't all. Someone else had photoshopped Misha's face onto Jared's in their Easter pic when they went fishing....
I mean...how crazy exactly are you people?

What the Hell is QueerBaiting?

I'm not homophobic; in fact my brother went crazy on me one time because according to him, this live and let live attitude of mine was gonna make my son gay. And how would that make me feel.
The fact that I was like "pshh" was probably not the response he was waiting on. He's not a bad person; just operating from a place of fear.
That said.
Twitter is full of some crazy homos.
Yesterday there was a hashtag TRENDING WORLDWIDE about #JKRowlingIsOverParty. So I click on the link because JK is one of my all time favorites and I find that the issue is the fact that JK said Sirius isn't gay. Like people were legit incensed because Sirius Black is a straight man and JK said so.
Let's just pause for a moment and let that sink in.
I mean, if it was the other way around? If people were upset because a certain character was said to be gay? The outcry.
The scandal it would have caused.
The allegations of homophobia!
But what? Gay people are allowed to bully others because a character is straight?
Reminded me of the great #DeanWinchesterIsGay debate of 20everyseason. Never mind how many times he himself has said he doesn't swing that way...
NO!
Dean Winchester has to be gay or we won't watch!
I personally would prefer it so much more if you didn't watch. Just toddle off and try to ruin another show.

So I was practically pushed into watching +Stranger Things by twitter,  +Jensen Ackles and +Jared Padalecki. I mean +BuzzFeed had a whole thread about how it changes your life and seriously this is the first series Jared has ever mentioned watching. And Jensen all like Danneel can't watch it unless I'm there....
After watching it I'm thinking Danneel was just trying to make her husband feel all manly and useful because seriously; not even a little bit scary, life changing or particularly mind blowing. I like Eleven; she brought the zuzgh to the series; but for some reason I kept expecting ET to show up. I'm old enough to have seen that when it came out, and whoever designed that universe definitely had that movie in mind. It's the last time I get peer pressured into watching anything though. I'm relying on myself from now on.

So I'm watching season two right? Crossroad Blues. And they're parked outside Lloyd's bar walking along the crossroad and Dean notices the flowers growing there. And HE stops and says "hey aren't those yarrow?" 

And they have this whole discussion about how Yarrow is used in rituals, especially summoning rituals.

Flashforward to season ten, 'About a Boy' when Sam finds yarrow behind the dumpster and he's all like 'Oh look, yarrow'...and Dean acts like he doesn't know what yarrow is or what it's used for...

Is it a continuity error?

Did Dean's memory get wiped when he became a demon?

Or is it his whole 'let Sam think he's the brains of this operation' thing that he has going on?

Thoughts?

Sam Fucking Winchester

I have come to realise through interactions on social media that Sam is quite the polarising character. I think that's mostly because people view +Jared Padalecki as this cuddly giant bear/baby known as Moose; and then there's Sam. And people tend to character bleed them into each other.
Sam is a bit of a sociopathic, amoral, borderline psychopathic blood addict. An honest description of him depicts a rather self centred, asshole who plays fast and loose with everyone who loves him especially his brother. It's a testament to brilliant writing and acting that even if all these things are true, we (the fans) still like Sam. The problem comes in when someone tries to deny that Sam is all these things by creating excuses for his behaviour. Like...he only got addicted to demon blood because yada yada yada.
I'll tell you why Sam got addicted to demon blood. It was because his moral compass was not around. See, on his own, Sam is a hot mess. But when he has Dean, he has a lightning rod on which to neutralise all his crazy and make him into the best version of himself. And the best version of himself is an extremely brave compassionate individual ready to go to the most extreme extremes for the people (person) he loves. He would really absolutely do anything for his brother. Anything.
But when he and his brother are separated and he is left to make his own choices; he tends to choose wrong. like100 % of the time.That's the level of their codependency.
When Dean is separated from Sam though, even though it is made to seem like he's the gung ho hunter and Sam is the reluctant one...well; Dean stops hunting when he Sam is dead/in hell. The first time Sam died, Dean was like fuck you Bobby, I'm out. The second time Sam died, Dean shacked up with Lisa. It's a weird thing considering the impression was that Sam was only hunting for Dean's sake. While I think Dean hunts so that he can keep Sam with him. Primarily.
Just watching Season 8 again, and thinking about the fact that Sam knows that Dean would never let him go. Would never let him die.
First of all, let me address something I read on tumblr about Sam 'justifying' his not looking for Dean because he lost his mind when Dean disappeared. I mean, of course he did. He had completely done this thing where he leans on Dean ever since he got his soul back. Like completely, holding nothing back. And then suddenly Dean's gone. Just. Like. That.
It wasn't hunter heroici which justified Sam. It was him offering to be the 'blood sacrifice' to close the gates of hell. It was him biting that bullet because he let Dean down and he knew it. It was him refusing to not die because he didn't want Dean to say, "You let me down again."
But here's the kicker.
Sam knows Dean.
He knows Dean would never just let him die. Just let him go. He knows that. That's why he asked him in Red Meat what he did when he thought Sam was dead. So knowing that; and having Dean tell him, if you do this you'll die. And him saying, "So?"
Well...
He knew that even if he went through with it, Dean would walk into hell if he had to to get him back. He would do whatever it took, to keep his brother. He knew this.
So what was that?
Mind games?
Sam being Sam?
Whatever it was; Sam knew it wasn't the end. And he got Dean to admit that he was the most important person in Dean's life.
win/win.
People complain that all these things make Sam look bad or whatever. But that's why we watch. We watch because this codependent, twisted up thing the brothers have fascinates all of us. That is the crux of the show. That's why we're all here. Because even with how super crazy they both are, they still manage to have this unconditional love for each other that just keeps surviving all of this...everything. If they were both vanilla little one dimensional politically correct black and white salvatorish brothers, we'd have stopped watching long ago.
So why not just enjoy it while it lasts and stop getting ulcers?

Parallels

So I've been rewatching...as one is wont to do during hellatus. And every time I do this, I am struck by new things; or old things strike me differently.
So I've just finished season six and seven and I think I've been living so long under the funk of season nine that I didn't realise there was a pattern. Season 1-3, Sam and Dean are super-close. So season 4, blood drinking and demon chicks come between them. They claw their way back to a semblance of before by season five's end, and then Sam jumps in the pit and loses his soul. Back to distance which is summarily obliterated by Sam getting his soul back. Half season six and season seven, they are again tighter than tight. So what does Jeremy Carver do? He stops Sam from looking for Dean in season 8. And this time, the supernatural creature who comes between them is Dean's friend Benny.
Why didn't Dean tell Sam about Benny from the jump?
Was it because he'd come to rely on Benny the way he'd used to rely on Sam?
Benny was his new Sam. And Dean knew what a possessive bastard Sam is. So he shut up about it.
Also I don't know why anyone hasn't commented on the fact that the whole 'Amelia' thing was shot in a way depicting a dream sequence; like Sam is the unreliable narrator, remembering things more idyllic than they actually were. And the whole 'Amelia finishes his sentences thing?' I mean really, she used to interrupt him and finish the sentence how she wanted. It was totally different in a way that contrasted sharply with Dean and Sam actually saying the same thing, at the same time.
It's strange. How Supernatural does this thing where they parallel the Sam/Dean relationship to married couples. It's not even subtle. It's like direct correlations.
Except for Benny. And Crowley.
In fact Crowley said it best.
"You're lying to Sam like he's your wife. That makes me your mistress."

Watching Season 4 and 5 After Season 11

Watching season four and five after seeing season eleven is kind of a trip. You see things differently. Like the fact that Chuck (god) led the Winchesters to him. He helped them as much as he could without blowing his cover. It's weird to watch Chuck being this pseudo helpless prophet type person when he's actually moving chess pieces on the board.

It also really increased my already considerable respect for +Eric Kripke . As a writer, I know its really hard to weave things to fit so well, so seamlessly. So well that six years later, you can sort of reprise what happened in a way that fits in today's story and it still fits perfectly. That's genius.
Also for some reason, I'm not mad at Sam this time. Every single time I watch season 4, I get mad at Sam for being such an idjit. But this time, I was able to see things from his perspective. To see that he didn't think of it as betrayal. He really felt like he was carrying his weight, doing something good; plus yeah. Addiction really does turn people into dicks. Seen that live.

Also with all the fandom ambivalence toward Ruby, I was watching her with a more critical eye, wondering if Katie Cassidy might have done it better? Her acting was definitely more subdued or subtle. But not necessarily worse I guess. I don't think Katie Cassidy Ruby would have been believable as Sam's lover. They didn't have that type of chemistry between them in season three.
Dean's despair also hit me in a more immediate way. I got why he wasn't affected by hunger. He was too full of despair. It's like five years of...shit just fell on him, especially when he saw that Sam wasn't cured of his demon blood addiction.

But watching it all, knowing that they do get to a better place makes it all less depressing. I do feel that there is still a lot of story that can be told; I just am afraid that before the stories are finished, +Jared Padalecki or +Jensen Ackles might get tired. I know Jared felt like he didn't want to reach season 12 at some point because he was missing his kids. And now they're contracts cover season 13. On the one hand, I want them to do what makes them happy. On the other hand...story!

Imma pray about this.
(to Chuck or God?)
(Shut up).

Sad, Maudlin Dean Post

So I've been watching season one and two this week and I noticed something I hadn't noticed before; when Dean is poisoned by the Djinn, he goes into this world where his mother is alive...but he disappoints everyone. He's not a good brother to Sam (but Sam still loves him), he's 'a drunk' who worries his mother and his girlfriend. His father is still dead. Everyone in his dream world is depicted to be better than him. He's still the screw up of the family. Also in his mind, if it wasn't for hunting, he and Sam wouldn't have anything in common. He'd go off and get married to Jess and live the yuppy life while Dean would have a blue collar existence.
It's the fathers. The parents who never give any validation. Who are very quick to tell you exactly how many ways you fucked up. Of course in Dean's case, his mother is dead. And all he has left of her is pie. His father is quick to say; "you disobeyed my orders." He repeats instructions several times and Dean takes it as maybe his dad thinks he's stupid. While Sam had teachers, and Zanna to tell him that he could make it as a student, as something other than a hunter; Dean had none of that. He just had his father treating him like a soldier.
Daddy's little blunt instrument.
And he does his best to shield his brother from all this. He does his best to be the buffer; to be the one to tell Sam - go for it. He intervenes on Sam's behalf. So that Sam doesn't have to only know about being a 'soldier'.
The worst part is that I really feel like they brought Mary Winchester back so that they could have another Winchester to kill.
Permanently.
I don't know how Dean is going to take that.
I feel so sad for him.
It's like he's a real person.