#the 'horror fans' on tumblr only focused on the shipping aspect rather than the horror. which like isnt anything exclusive to said franchise | Explore Tumblr Posts and Blogs

kylermalloy · 5 years

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SPN Questions Game!

1. When did you start watching Supernatural?

I binged it my freshman year of college, while season 10 was airing. I got caught up in time to start watching mid season! (I had no life. Still don’t.)

2. Who is your favorite in TFW?

Sam. Always Sam.

3. Who is your least favorite in TFW?

I guess Cas? If I have to choose? I don’t have anything against him, he just seems redundant lately.

4. Tag your top 5 Supernatural blogs.

I don’t even talk to five people...

@sealionfoam, @lovedsammy, @semirahrose, @lillysilverus, @to-the-lost-heroes

5. Who is your favorite character (not including TFW)?

If “TFW” just means TFW 1.0, then Jack. Besides him, Crowley. I miss Crowley.

6. Who is your favorite woman in Supernatural?

Rowena. She’s perfect.

7. John or Mary?

John. He’s more controversial. He always causes strong emotional reactions in me, but to this day I still can’t figure out if I like him or hate him. Mary I’m just kind of neutral about.

8. What were your first opinions of Sam, Dean, Cas, and Jack?

Loved them the minute I saw them! Seriously though, I felt for Sam and everything he was going through so hard. (And s1!Sam is...so cute.) I found Dean funny but not annoyingly so, and his serious moments were very touching. My first impression of Cas was pure awe, although that’s slowly drained away through the seasons.

Jack on the other hand...oh gosh. When he appeared in the last shot of season 12, I was So Done with him already. Cas was dead, Crowley was dead, and I was exhausted. Then, over the hiatus, I came to realize they were doing more of a blank-slate character rather than an evil-at-heart character, and I warmed more to the idea of him. By the season 13 premiere, I was enraptured by him and the way he reacted to the new world around him. And by the end of the first ep, he had my heart. (and still does!)

9. What’s your favorite season?

Season 5. The apocalypse storyline and the angst, and the way Sam and Dean are pitted against each other but still cling to each other is my jam. And SWAN SONG.

10. What’s your least favorite season?

Season 9. This is the season I went full bitterSam!girl. The POVs were so skewed in the Sam and Dean conflict. The distance between them made the whole season quite chilly—and made the finale seem forced. The angels-falling and Abaddon v. Crowley story arcs were a mess. The one-off episodes weren’t fun. I found Mark of Cain to be a boring, dead-end story. Human!Cas didn’t last nearly long enough to be interesting. Even Dean’s death didn’t resonate quite right with me. The only good, memorable thing from season 9 was the Sam/Cas hug.

11. Opinions on Destiel?

I don’t ship it. The fans who loudly insist it should—and will—be canon have driven me to the point of being annoyed by it. I’m extra-appreciative of the shippers who enjoy it regardless of canon.

12. Do you believe Supernatural queerbaits?

Hahahahahahahaha no. Whatever other flaws they may have, TPTB have been very clear about what they do and don’t intend to do regarding characters’ sexualities. Any claims of queerbaiting stem from scrutinizing a collection of subtle performance tics and a desperate confirmation bias. You want queerbaiting, head over to the Teen Wolf fandom.

13. Seasons 1-7 or 8-14?

1-7, no contest. There are fewer retcons, fewer dumb episodes, fewer superfluous side characters (and they were used more sparingly—therefore more enjoyably), and an overall tighter and emotionally genuine story.

That being said, there are some wonderful things from the latter seasons: Rowena, Jack, the rock-steady marriage of Sam and Dean from season 11 onward. (I despised the forced conflicts of seasons 8 and 9.)

14. Favorite villain (plot wise)?

Ruby. Azazel. Season 5 Lucifer. Why were these villains good? They had excellent interactions with Sam.

Ruby, in her own words, was awesome. She played Sam like a fiddle, and I love that. Azazel, in all his iterations, was an incredible mastermind disguised as an agent of chaos. And Lucifer (in season 5 only, mind you) was the epitome of quiet menace.

15. Do you think they should end the Lucifer plot line?

Yes, about two years ago.

16. Who do you think has gone through more trauma (Sam, Dean, or Cas)

I don’t like comparing trauma, because it deems some people’s suffering more valid than others’.

Objectively, Sam has gone through the most trauma (being caged for so long). But Dean has suffered too, in different ways.

17. What’s your favorite Supernatural episode?

Swan Song. Always Swan Song. I don’t wish the show had ended here, but it would have been a perfect finale.

18. Do you like case episodes?

Yes! The show was built on them. I especially like when they highlight some aspect of Sam and Dean’s current struggles. (in a subtle way, though)

19. Who do you relate most to in TFW?

Sam. I love my awkward, fish-out-of-water son.

20. Why do you like Supernatural?

Hmm...one of the things I appreciate most about it is the lack of romantically focused plots. The main characters are heterosexual life partners with no intentions of entering romantic relationships with other people.

That’s the other thing—Sam and Dean are the ultimate leads. J2 are perfect onscreen together. Their chemistry is what makes every stupid storyline, every forced plot point manageable, because it always comes back to them and their psychotic, irrational, erotic codependency.

I guess I could also mention that my passion for SPN was waning by the time season 12 wound down. Jack was what revitalized my love for the show in season 13—and prompted me to join tumblr and fandom! So yeah, I love the little nougat boy a lot too.

21. If you could bring back one character and kill off another who would they be?

Bring back? Original Bobby. He wasn’t perfect, but he was an excellent exposition machine, and someone for Sam and Dean to talk to besides each other. And he had some truly fantastic one-liners.

Kill? Anyone and everyone played by Mark Pellegrino. I’m so sick of his irrelevant storylines. It’s as if Buckleming is trying to create a Venom-style spinoff about a dude and his serial-killing eldritch horror boyfriend. (I’m down for whatever it takes to get him off my show, tbh!)

If Lucifer does come back this season, I’ll accept it only if Sam gets to kill him this time.

Tagging @to-the-lost-heroes to do this

#supernatural #ask meme #sam winchester #dean winchester #sam&dean #jack!#tfw 2.0 #i spent way too long on this #lol #any of y’all can do this too #!

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doctorwhonews · 7 years

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World Enough and Time

Latest Review: Starring Peter Capaldi, Pearl Mackie and Matt Lucas Guest starring Michelle Gomez and John Simm Written by Steven Moffat Directed by Rachel Talalay Executive-produced by Steven Moffat and Brian Minchin First broadcast on BBC1, Saturday June 24th, 6:45pm This review is based on a BBC preview and discusses major spoilers from the very beginning From its specially-shot 'A Time for Heroes' promo trailer onwards, Series Ten has raised the question of Bill's fate. And although Steven Moffat's writing is famed for reversing and undoing the loss of key characters, this episode has the feel of something truly irreversible. It's the bleakest and darkest that Doctor Who has been for quite some time, and hopefully it won't provoke audience complaints. But the Mondasian Cybermen are incredibly spooky and unsettling, thanks both to their authentic, old-school voices and the very visible remnants of their humanity. Moments such as a pre-Cyberman intoning "pain" over and over again seem a world away from stereotypical 'children's TV' (either that, or I need to adjust my sense of the stereotype). Bill's predicament is treated in a full-on stylized fantasy mode, though, as if to render it less shockingly 'realistic'. Of course, there was never going to be blood - Doctor Who has to make sure that it doesn't transgress BBC guidelines - but the impressively striking visual of Bill (and us, and the Doctor, and the camera) realising that there was gaping, empty space where flesh and blood should have been was a truly startling sequence. And this in an episode packed with reveals and surprises, right from the pre-titles. Seeing the Doctor fighting his regeneration suggests that this must be the beginning of a three-parter that will only properly conclude at Christmas. Yet featuring a flash-forward (if that's what it is) to the Doctor's moment of regeneration doesn't quite seem to fit with recent publicity discussions of the regen's "complication" this time round. There must be more to it, I would have thought. And the opening's impact also felt a touch reduced thanks to the game-playing of Lie of the Land earlier this series: is this just another tease and fakeout, or is it the real deal? Hopefully the latter, but in a provisional world of stories and simulations, doubts can linger. However, there's enough 'meta' and self-referential commentary on show to stock a supermarket shelf's worth of easter eggs; the Master seems passingly familiar with conventions of Doctor Who episode titling, for instance. He prefers 'Genesis of the Cybermen' to World Enough and Time, though is less familiar with the Big Finish story Spare Parts that this appears to supersede in canon. And Missy enjoys teasing her "disposables" (and the fan audience) with tales of the Doctor's "real name", resulting in the fourth wall at times appearing to have a ragged SFX hole punched right through it. Putting Missy and the Master together risks overloading the density of camp quippery, but sadly they share relatively little screen time during this outing. For an episode marked by the science of time dilation, there's an odd kind of temporal distortion going on throughout. In effect, 'time' has already passed much quicker in Doctor Who's hype and marketing than it does within the story: we already know that the Cybermen will show up, and that the Master is somehow behind proceedings. Consequently, World Enough and Time frequently feels like an episode striving to catch up with itself, yet remaining focused on almost pure delay (the emphasis on arriving elevators captures this perfectly well, along with the near freeze frames of Mr Razor's TV). This must surely count as one of Who's great set-up episodes. Even the Doctor gets in on the act, settling down to watch with a packet of crisps. Despite much grumbling about the recent (final?) series of Sherlock, one thing I thought it did extremely well was to mislead the audience into believing that a particular actor was actually a number of different characters. Prosthetics skill aside, the device is far less successful here. Depending on your facial recognition capabiities and knowledge of past Doctor Who, it may seem fairy obvious what trick is being pulled for the sake of a Masterful cliffhanger, and this aspect struck me as the least well achieved element of the episode. But given how hard-hitting the reveal of Cyber-Bill was, the Master's ornate scheming was always going to be left slightly in the shade, and it could be argued that its "dah-dah, it's me!" daffiness offered a lighter counterpoint to the terrifying narrative of Bill's situation. (As an aside, presumably part of the BBC's strategy behind live-streaming a Pearl Mackie Q&A right after this episode must be to reassure younger audiences that Pearl is fine in real life). And as a lead-in to episode 12, this multi-cliffhanger does its job perfectly. 'New' Doctor Who (though of course, it's not-so-new now) tends to be at its strongest when it intricately melds intimate moments of characterisation and emotion with epic science-fictional conceits. World Enough and Time displays this quality of 'intimate epic' by combining the vast Colony Ship with moments such as the Doctor and Bill discussing his history with Missy. This suffers slightly from the old 'show don't tell' maxim; a lot of the emotional weight behind the Doctor's fateful decision to test Missy's redemption/'goodness' relies on what we are told rather than what we're shown, and on how invested audiences are in the Doctor-Master/Missy backstory. Yes, the Doctor's hope was sharply delineated at the very end of last week's episode, but it still feels as if more emotional scene-setting would have been valuable for the Doctor-Missy storyline. As ever, though, Missy is a joy to behold, and her introductory sequence as she steps out of the TARDIS and shares her newly adopted name is simply brilliant. Michelle Gomez makes the absolute most of Moffat's zinging dialogue, whilst Missy's companions/pets look on, suitably aggravated. If the Master-Third Doctor era was marked by the 'UNIT family', then this moment in the show's history also carries a strong familial sense, and not just because Missy's continued presence echoes that of the Delgado Master. Bringing Rachel Talalay back behind the camera for another finale means reassembling a crack team, whilst Bill and Nardole have gelled extremely well across this series, with Capaldi's Doctor undoubtedly benefitting from Doctor-companion relationships designed to suit his characterisation. Talalay's direction makes the Mondasian Cybermen genuinely scary; the decision not to directly show Bill's partial conversion is also a sound one, as it ramps up the tension when we realise that a cyber chest-unit must have been installed, whilst the eventual 'full' Cyberman emerging from shadows is a memorably familiar sequence. Although the body horror that could have been pursued is dialled down somewhat, the partial conversions' monotone cries of anguish remain bleakly forceful. Who has rarely been this disturbing or this existentially raw. Thankfully, Talalay also has some fun with the time dilation (assuming this wasn't purely an editor's choice), as various sequences cut stylishly in and out of freeze frame. It is only the treatment of Mr. Razor that feels a little curious; he is featured so directly, even in relative close-up, that it's difficult not to discern the stunt being entertained, even though this kind of disguise has a well-established history in the programme. Presumably it was decided, directorially, that it didn't really matter when the penny dropped for audiences as they'd be waiting for the cliffhanger pay-off in any case. Given that the 'iconic poster image' for this episode so strongly echoes that from Day of the Doctor, next week's title seems equally likely to refer back to the "Gallifrey Falls" strand of Steven Moffat's overarching plot. Will we see more of the Doctor's regeneration... perhaps even a number of different possible new faces starting to coalesce as the twelfth Doctor progresses towards the thirteenth? This transition has been more of a tease than ever before, and no doubt the showrunner hasn't run out of tricks yet. Bring it, as the Doctor would say. http://reviews.doctorwhonews.net/2017/06/world_enough_and_time.html?utm_source=dlvr.it&utm_medium=tumblr

#Series 10/36; Twelfth Doctor; BBC; Television

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