#the inevitable supernatural tirade

[words-writ-in-starlight]

So your rant on Supernatural? Also I fell in love with the story you're talking about and basically want to know more. Sorry.

My buddy, you have made An Error, but let’s do this shit.  To any SPN fans who have wound up herethrough Ye Olde Search Function, I encourage you to stop reading now.

I watched up to about halfway through Season Five before Idecided that I could Do It Better (I think this is the novel you’re talkingabout, anon, unless it’s Earth is where the trouble comes from), and draggedmyself up to about halfway through Season Seven before I packed it in and gaveup, resigned that the parts of the show I loved were about four to five seasonsdead.  So like that’s the information I’mworking on here.

So, obviously, lots of people have lots of legitimatecomplaints about Supernatural,including treatment of queer characters, characters of color, and women, aswell as their fairly rampant history of queerbaiting.  And lots of people have covered this in morecompetent detail than I could ever manage, so like google “sexism in Supernatural” or something and you cando your own reading there.  Hell, if youwant to do it the lazy way, you can knock out two of the above with this onearticle in friendly, easy-to-read Buzzfeed format.  To the nominal credit of the people involved,I will add that the cast seems acutely aware of these problems and finds itdistasteful, HOWEVER the problems persist and therefore that credit is minimal.  Anyway. These things are covered much more thoroughly by many other people whoare far more cogent than I could hope to be, so I’m going to leave those alone.

Instead, my rant is mostly summed up as “YOU CALL THIS SHITSTORYTELLING.”

So there are four basic parts to this rant, or rather fourbasic flaws that form the fundamentally weak foundation of Supernatural as a narrative.

Failure to commit to a single cohesive narrativearc, also known as “SOME OF THAT AND SOME OF THAT AND SOME OF THAT AND SOME OFTHOSE” syndrome

The persistent and erroneous belief thatcharacter death = character development and narrative progression

Inability to commit to a major change ofparadigm, also known as out and out narrative cowardice, which I personallycall “flinching during Plot Roulette”

Total incapacity to put their characterizationwhere their script is regarding the Winchester brothers and the other major players

*cracks knuckles*

POINT THE FIRST

Right, so first it’s the story of Sam having strange powersand their dad being MIA, which segues pretty naturally into the story of Sampotentially being the Antichrist, and then there’s Dean’s sacrifice of his soul,which at very least holds up even ifit sort of acts like the previous plotline about their dad’s soul didn’t happen.  Upuntil this point, I was pretty comfy.  Ihad some complaints covered below, but I was copacetic.  Season Three is largely about getting rid ofthe contract on Dean’s soul.  Okay, seemslegit, you have a tangible problem with potentially serious consequences.  Now, having had not one but TWO seasons whichwere easily summed up with ‘so Sam is mebbe the Antichrist or at very leastAntichrist-adjacent,’ I made what I thought was a logical leap and went “well,gee, if I was mebbe at the very leastAntichrist-adjacent, I would leverage the fuck out of that to do somethingabout my apparently beloved brother’s soul.” Even when they didn’t go withthat (news flash: I wrote that novel mydamn self and amazingly it worked out 100x better, narratively speaking,because it’s fucking logical), I wasstill kind of like “gosh sure is a good thing they remembered that they spenttwo entire seasons building up to Sam mebbe being Antichrist-adjacent.”  And there’s the whole drama with Ruby which Ijust…am very uncomfortable with for a lot of reasons, not least of which isthat it’s a very thinly veiled endeavor to rehash the same ‘Sam being afraid oflosing touch with humanity’ plotline as Seasons One and Two but without havingto worry about really altering the paradigm, see Point The Third, and alsobecause it’s really intensely literal about the concept of having a femalecharacter exclusively as a prop for consumption.  And Castiel shows up and a thousand ships arelaunched, blah blah blah, and then after the end of Season Four…we never hearfrom Sam’s powers again for more than a couple lines.  

As of about Season Four, the focus of the show abandons Samand shifts tangibly onto Dean, who is now The Interesting Character because hehas Been Through Hell (literally). Furthermore, we are now given Dean’s POV on any quandry between him andSam, which is a personal complaint because I honestly just think it’ssloppy.  Season Four is mostly dealingwith angels being assholes, which is really not as original as SPN likes tothink (Good Omens did it first and Good Omens did it better, get out of myface), plus Dean being the Righteous Man and the question of the oncomingApocalypse (sure is interesting how we spent two seasons building up to Sambeing Antichrist-adjacent).  The Apocalypseis less oncoming and implied to be more ongoing by the end of Season Four.  So Lucifer escapes and Season Five is prettymuch About That, involving the fairly unhelpful description that Dean isMichael’s ‘sword’ and they’re the true vessels of Michael and Lucifer,culminating in Sam being locked in the Cage because presumably someone realizedthat, hey, we have two maincharacters and we must make them both Interesting Characters.  Season Six is 50% about finding Sam’s souland figuring out how he got out of the Cage (sure would be helpful if we’dspent two seasons building up to Sam having inhuman powers and beingAntichrist-adjacent) and 50% a wickedinexplicable plot about the Mother-of-All and some kind of fucking jigsawmonsters and…Alpha monsters?  But thatnever really gets explained in a pertinent way except that they needed to anteup because they beat the Devil at theend of Season Five.  Oh, and a bonus 50% of some bullshit withCastiel and Crowley and ~Scheming~.  Andthen Castiel gets possessed by Leviathans (?) from Purgatory, which he openedwith Crowley (??) who he then betrayed (???), and Castiel decides He’s God Nowand also dies (????), and somehow these metaphysical more-powerful-than-angelsbadder-than-Lucifer things are sensitive to fuckingBorax.  

And it was at this point that I stopped the show in themiddle of a fight scene like 1/3 through Season Seven and actually said outloud “Gosh it’s almost like you needsomeone who’s Antichrist-adjacent to help you out here” before turning off the TV. And then I stopped watching and got better taste in TV and blew throughwriting a 250K novel in 18 months of being a full-time student because I waspowered by pure bitter spite.

Now, here are the two major things that matter about thiswhole deal.  First of all, the firstplotline is the most reliably coherent, although some degree of cogence lastedup until about Season Five—we understand why Lucifer wants out of Hell, weunderstand to some extent why Dean and Sam matter on the cosmic scale, we getpretty bored of watching Castiel do heel-face and face-heel turns like he’s ona Lazy Susan but like logistically it all makes a reasonable degree of sense.  That being said, the whole plotline ofSeasons Four onward would make a lot moresense, would it not, if they remembered that they’d spent a good solid twoseasons and change (Season Three, intermittent, Season Four, major) designingan Antichrist-like character who is now the last survivor of that batch ofexperiments.  Then, instead of having Samand Dean just be Inexplicably Special, you have Dean (who can still be theRighteous Man!) acting as the foil for Sam being forced into increasingly darkchoices, and Sam who’s a viable candidate for Lucifer-puppet because he’s partdemon.  Or, alternatively, Sam whomaintains his stance as the gentler of the two despite his demon blood, which would add a lot more depth to Supernatural’s fanatical hardon for theAngelic Asshole trope.  Honestly Irewrote the entirety of this show one time, predicated on the assumption thatthey actually went with the idea of Sam as the Boy King, and I think it wouldbe much less haphazard.  (Basically: hey,what if Sam actually used his status to strong-arm Dean’s deal into beingdissolved, as it’s implied that he’s totally capable of doing that and totallywilling to sacrifice his own humanity for his brother, and then Heaven sentCastiel to kill Sam, which would add a fuckton of legitimacy to Castiel’s LazySusan and Dean’s antagonism.  But no. Instead there’s monsters whose only vulnerability is fucking Borax.)

Second, and far more critical, is the total failure tocommit to a single plotline.  Okay, Sam’sstatus as the possible Boy King is a major plot point for two seasons, not somuch for the third season (he literally…a demon straight up tells Sam that he could have an army if he took up hisposition and it never occurs to himthat he could use that to help Dean), more so in the fourth season, and then itnever comes up again.  Even when it is unarguably pertinent to thesituation—Lucifer!  Fucking Luciferpossesses Sam and drags him to Hell and he comes back soulless and yet none of the writers ever, not once, went “Gosh, maybe we should remember those seasonswe spent developing Sam into sort of the Antichrist?  Maybe including at least a minor nod to thator somehow wrapping up the plotline would help cohere our current trainwreck ofa plotline?”  Nope, it’s just left as aloose thread, flapping in the breeze with all the subtlety of a limp dick.  It’s like Supernaturalis actually a Frankenshow of two shows with the same characters but totallyunrelated plotlines—maybe when Lucifer escapes he shunts them all sideways intoan alternate universe and there’s another show somewhere with a Dean whosebrother has never been even a little bit demonic and died through normal huntershenanigans suddenly having to deal with Sam the possible Antichrist, andthat’s the show that an alternate me is still watching.

And this is an ongoing problem.  Sam’s powers are just the major point that Ialways latch onto, because, first, I always think the phenomenon of “well fuckme sideways I might be obligated to end the world and ain’t that a messy thing”is pretty great (I really, reallylike Hellboy), and second, IT’S FOURSEASONS OF WORK YOU CAN’T JUST ABANDON IT.  But seriously.  Just. Throw a dart, you’ll hit a loose end. Because Supernatural is theequivalent of that one fucker we all hate in sitcoms—you know, the guy who’sdating a great girl he totally doesn’t deserve, but he can’t ~commit~ sothere’s all this ongoing Drama™.  Exceptthat in Supernatural, not only canthey not commit, they accidentally defeated their biggest gun—the literal Devil—less than halfwaythrough their series!  Whoops!  Quick, someone call up Satan’s cousin twiceremoved who’s even worse and more evil than he is!  And sensitive to Borax!  

No, no, I’m kidding. We all know that Satan’s cousin twice removed, who’s even worse and moreevil than he is, is actually named Metatron.

Fuckin’ Supernatural.

POINT THE SECOND

I know this is going to come as a shock, but rampantcharacter death does not actuallyqualify as a legitimate way to progress your narrative or develop yourcharacters.  In order, the major players(nominally on the Winchesters’ side) who die or seem to die in the first fiveseasons are Sam’s girlfriend, John Winchester, Ash, Sam, Bela, Dean, (Deanseveral times in Mystery Spot), Ruby,Castiel, Jo, Ellen, Sam, Anna, Sam, Dean, Gabriel, Castiel, Bobby, and sort of Sam with the whole Cagething.  And those are just the peoplewith arcs that extend over more than a season (except for Sam’sgirlfriend).  It’s entirely possible,even probable, that I missed some.  Thatdoes not include the one- ortwo-episode characters whose deaths we’re supposed to observe as emotionallywringing, nor does it include the frankly vast numbers of civiliancasualties.  So, for the ease of reading,we’re going to divide ‘character death’ into ‘reversible character death,’which is largely the prerogative of the primary trio, and ‘permanent characterdeath,’ and we’re going to talk about why there are real problems with the way Supernatural treats both of them.

First of all, the problems with reversible character deathare obvious—there are no fucking stakes! Like, arguably the stakes are ‘the whole world,’ but obviously not (seePoint The Third), so practically speaking the stakes should be life or death, because the show tells you that the stakes are life or death.  Now, sometimes resurrection is an importantplot point, I get that, in my spite novel there is, in fact, aresurrection.  But here’s the thing.  Either you have to straight up establish arevolving door policy and change your stakes (example: the show Forever, where the point is that the MCis immortal and would very much like to not be immortal anymore), or you can only use that resurrection once.  You use it once, and you still get theemotional gut punch of “Oh God, they’re dead”and the flood of relief when it proves that they’re not dead after all.  You use it more than that, and the audiencebecomes complacent that, well, you won’t reallykill them.  By the time you’re on a levelwith Supernatural, it just…doesn’tmatter?  A major character dies, but youraudience has already hit compassion fatigue because of the death rate, whichI’m about to cover, so there’s not really any oomph to it.

The problems with permanent character death aresignificantly different.  Now, I myselfam a Happy Ending person (like…the world sucks …let me have my happy fiction),but even I recognize that a certain percentage of the characters in a story orshow like this one are basically just cannon fodder (it would be great if itwasn’t so consistently the women, POC, orLGBT folks, but whatever).  Theproblem is that it’s constant.  And not just “well that person’s a corpsebecause that’s what vampires do to people” or “some kid pissed off the localspirit and now they’re six feet under,” it would be totally fine and reasonableif that situation was an every episode thing (it…kind of is, that’s kind of thepoint).  But every few episodes, we’reexpected to get attached to a one-off character and then be deeply affectedwhen they die.  Take, say, Season Three:you have the hunters Isaac and Tamara in the first episode, Casey and FatherGil in the fourth episode (some flexibility as they’re demons, but we’resupposed to be shocked and horrified that Sam kills them both), Callie in thefifth episode, Gordon in the seventh episode (again, we’re supposed to behorrorstricken that Sam kills him, even though it’s clearly self-defense), all the civilians in the twelfthepisode, Corbett in the thirteenth episode, and finally Bela, who admittedlyhas had some nominal presence for a while. This does not include any Winchester trauma, which you’re always supposed to be deeply affectedby.  I’m sorry, but after a season or twoof being expected to work up that kind of emotional upset between five and tentimes over the course of thirteen to twenty episodes, your audience is going toburn out and start to lose emotional engagement.  

So, basic summary: the Anyone Can Die trope does not playwell with main characters who are on a Revolving Door of Death, because itmeans that minor characters don’t matter because Anyone Can Die, while majordamage or trauma to the main characters doesn’t matter either because they’reon a Revolving Door.  You can’t kill yourmain characters once (or more!) a season and expect people to still…worry aboutthem.

On a more strictly structural note, using character death asthe primary way to drive character development is just fucking lazy.  It’s just an indicator that the writers don’tactually know how to progress their character development in any other way,which is a major problem because, since they only develop the charactersthrough the deaths of others, they have to hit the Personality Reset buttonfairly regularly to make it look like things are actually happening to thepeople who are supposed to be developing. Which, in case you were curious, is why you feel that overwhelming senseof déjà vu when the Winchesters getinto a huge blowout fight about ‘don’t sacrifice yourself’ in about thethird-to-last episode, followed by one of them sneaking out to sacrificethemselves, followed by the other onebeing angry about it.  It’s the samegoddamn script, it’s just that Sam’s hair is probably longer and Dean isprobably scruffier.  Furthermore, thefixation on developing characters with the deaths of others means thatbasically every character is fair game but NO ONE’S DEATH HOLDS MEANING,because of the above, which means that SPN’s ‘character development’ turns intothis recursive self-congratulating circlejerk of killing someone, developingSam and Dean accordingly, and then somehow regressing them so that the writerscan do it over again and be proud of themselves for Such Dynamic Characters,Much Develop, So Change, Wow.

And I feel like the reasons that character death =/=narrative progression should be pretty clear from the rest of this rant, butbasically if you’re killing someone to progress your plot, it needs to be asolveable death (emotional payoff is what makes walking away from a booksatisfying, such as catching a murderer) or a terrible tragedy that drives thecharacters to great acts or both.  Supernatural is basically a horror/fantasymurder mystery, so it would be fine if they stuck with that model, but theykeep trying to sell the deaths of any number of major players and many many minor players as this greatand terrible tragedy that’s pushing the Winchesters forward.  And like, I’m sorry, but if you commit withinthe first episode to a dead mother anda dead girlfriend and a missingpotentially dead father, you’ve already pretty well maxed out your terribletragedies.  Find a different motivator,or else it looks like your characters just leave huge amounts of collateraldamage and refuse to take responsibility. Or, alternatively, it looks like the individual deaths don’t matter toyour main characters, which is NOT going to help with making your audience giveeven a single fractional fuck.

TL;DR: Character death is a powerful tool that rapidly losesits weight and import if you overuse it, and can make your audiencedisinterested and emotionally detached if they’re expected to care every time.  Slow your motherfucking roll, stick to aMAXIMUM of one resurrection per character unless their immortality is anexplicitly discussed plot point (at which point their deaths need to not mattermuch anymore), and remember that you can progress your plot in literally anyother way before you go for a shock-value death.

POINT THE THIRD

Don’t be a little bitch in your writing.  Honestly it’s that simple.  I’m gonna get into it some more, but that’sthe gist of it.  If you already know whatI mean, great, skip to the next point, because the TL;DR is “don’t be aninfant.”

This is something that plenty of shows are guilty of(Merlin, anyone?), but SPN is terrifiedof actually changing the paradigm.  Theshow must always include a certainlist of things:

The Winchesters in the Impala, which, sure, I’llgrant you that

A home base, also totally reasonable

Monsters to fight, fair enough

A masquerade (meaning ‘civilians do not knowabout magic’), which should honestly have broken down after, like, Season Twowhen they accidentally release massive numbers of demons into the world

A world to have the show happening in, which isa problem since they started theApocalypse in Season Four

Now…listen.

It’s fine, even necessary, to have some fixed points in anarrative.  It offers a way to anchoryour characters against the ongoing changes that the plot demands.  That, however, is very different from beingtoo much of a coward to alter the paradigm of your story when the major driving force is a change ofparadigm.

The first major change of paradigm they cop out on is Sam’spowers.  If Sam was the Boy King, thishypothetically Antichrist-esque position in the cosmic dichotomy, that would radically alter the dynamic.  Sam would automatically be the most powerfulbeing in any given room unless he was in a room with a respectably high-rankedangel or demon, and he would certainly be able to go toe-to-toe with most oftheir targets on their own terms. Telekinesis is an exceptionally goodpower, guys, like, as powers go—even disregarding his position in thehierarchy, Sam would be pretty strong in his own right.  Which, I’d like to point out, can be a reallythrilling change to a narrative, because it means that you have this additionallayer of ‘well, how do we deal with the fact that Sam doesn’t like being this strong, how do we dealwith the way demons and monsters have started to view him as more us than them’ and would give a much more legitimate basis for the questionof humanity that they shoehorn in later with the Ruby plotline.  Buffyhas its flaws, but at least it frequently brings up ‘hey, Buffy might be ostensiblyhuman, but she operates on the level of her enemies more than on the level ofher allies’ as an issue that she thinks about. But they don’t do that in Supernatural,they bail completely on the Sam plotline because they panic about theimplications of having such a powerful character.  And then they bring in fucking Castiel likethat’s not exactly the same problemcloaked in ‘well, noninterference.’  Like, please, that ship has fucking sailed,choke down your anxiety and figure out how the rules of your powerful characterwork, and then let them be powerful. It’s gonna be okay.  Deepbreaths.  If you make an OP character,that’s fine, you just have toactually deal with it rather than having their powers be an asspull every timethe main characters are in Real Trouble (*angry sigh* Merlin).

The second one they balk at is the unveiling of thesupernatural world and oh my God it is constant.  But let’s deal with the biggest and mostimprobable of these here: Season GoddamnTwo, where they bust open the doors of Hell and unleash some thousands ofdemons into the world.  Like, is that asmany demons as it could be, in comparison to your six to seven billionhumans?  No.  But it’s still a huge population and is implied to be accompanied by a huge uptickin various other supernatural happenings and is furthermore really visible.  The Devil’s Trap is suggested to pass throughat least a couple towns and it’s a big flashy event, so like…sure, maybe peoplewrite it off as swamp gas or what have you, but sooner or later people who havehad demons exorcised or seen some vampire/werewolf/etc shenanigans and lived totell about it are going to start running into each other.  They start hearing people say “it’s likeshe’s a totally different person” and they take that seriously rather thanwriting it off.  They were maybe saved bya hunter who confirmed that the supernatural exists and they maybe tell thatperson that, hey, something like that happened to them, maybe they could cometake a look around.  Maybe they couldcall the person who helped them out.  Andyou end up with this fucking Ponzi scheme of The Great Truth, where each personwho’s in the know finds one or two more people who’ve seen evidence and brings them into the loop, and then they find one or two more people who’veseen evidence.  And for every personwho’s determined to call it bullshit or think they’re insane, you’re going toget one who saw that person turn intoa hairy monster and murder someone, or who waspossessed by a demon, or who witnessedblack smoke merge with their spouse and turn them into a killer.  So you get this whole rickety network ofamateurs who’ve…kind of learned the thing. And like any Ponzi scheme, sooner or later it collapses.

Basically the point is: there is a limit to the parts permillion of The Great Truth that can be present before that shit becomes commonknowledge.  Look at any availablegovernment conspiracy for confirmation. The more people you tell, the looser the rules of ‘secret’ become, so ifyou have a big flashy visible disaster that involves drastically increasing the number of uninitiated civilians who areaware of The Great Truth…you’d better be ready to deal with that.  What I’m saying here is that by Season Seven,you’ve not only had this whole demon situation for a while, and increased those numbers several times with variousdisasters, but you’ve also had at least one big flashy disaster in a city.  So the Winchesters should pretty much be ableto walk into a given town and wander into the church or the bar or somethingand go “So, I heard there’ve been some weird murders” and have at least oneperson come up to them later and be like “Yeah it’s a ghost here’s all theinformation but I have no idea how to get rid of them.”  And when the Winchesters go *gasp* “How do you know The Thing” theperson should look at them like a fucking moron and go “It literally rainedblood last year, everyone in this time zone knows The Thing and also it’sevident that the end is pretty seriously nigh, so get on that.”  Commit to your big flashy disasters, youcowards, or at least have the decency to make it an ongoing Sunnydale joke.

Far more crucial is the fact that they bail on the end ofthe world…let’s see.  End of Season Fouris when the Apocalypse properly gets underway, so they balk at the end ofSeason Five (Lucifer and the Cage), end of Season Six (Mother of All andPurgatory), and like minimum once bythe middle of Season Seven (Godstiel) as well as at the end of Season Seven (Leviathans, I am now past where I kept watching),end of Season Eight (Metatron, angel tablets, falling angels), presumably endof Season Nine from what I understand of the summaries online (some…war onHeaven nonsense), and based on the trend I’m guessing that Seasons Ten throughThirteen keep to the model, do youunderstand my point here.  Thesearen’t even all the near-Apocalypses that they avert.  Off the cuff, I can think of the Croatoanvirus (…twice?  Three times?), as well asthree out of four Horsemen within episodes of each other.  They’re probably averting the Very Seriousand Catastrophic End of Days two or three times a season by Season Five, and that number only goes up.  This is very similar to the character deaththing: quite simply, if the audience is expected to get that worked up multipletimes a season, and brace for thatkind of disaster multiple times a season,you are inevitably going to bore them.  Yourplot has to be intensely recursive sothat you can ‘reset’ and avoid a new Apocalypse the next season, which getsboring, because it feels like you’ve been there before, similar to how usingcharacter death to advance character development demands that you hit thePersonality Reset button on the regular.

Furthermore, repeating the same level of disaster over and over and OVER again means that it starts to lack emotional weight, and yourcharacters start to seem really, really stupid if they don’t start to treatthings accordingly.  One of the things Ithought of constantly during thelast, say, season and a half that I watched of Supernatural was a quote from Buffy,specifically from Riley who I usually very much dislike but who NAILED thisparticular thing.  “When I saw you stopthe world from, you know, ending, I just assumed that was a big week for you.It turns out I suddenly find myself needing to know the plural ofapocalypse.”  And that’s the running jokein Buffy!  That they literallydeal with an Apocalypse every few episodes, and they lampshade it, and thecharacters respond accordingly—Buffy and the Scooby gang start to act cavalier,almost unimpressed, about each new disaster. Like “well, we saved the world, I say we party.”  That’s a direct quote from Buffy (IN SEASON ONE NO LESS), and Supernatural could stand to take a pageout of their book with that one.  BySeason Seven, the Winchesters seem like they have somehow missed out on thelast decade of their own lives because they always act so shocked and horrifiedthat somehow someone could try to endthe world.  Like!  Yes, yes they could and yes they would,welcome to the party boys!  Please try toget in touch with your own history on this subject!

So the highlights here are: don’t be a fucking baby aboutyour writing.  If you’re writing toward abig paradigm shift, you need to recognize that you’re playing Plot RussianRoulette, and you have to pull the trigger. Change the paradigm of your narrative and deal with the fallout like afucking adult, you tepid fools, you limp-necked cowards, you ink-stainedwalnuts.

POINT THE FOURTH

Listen very carefully. Do you hear that?  It’s the soundof the Winchesters promising eternal brotherly devotion and saying things like“you’re my brother, man” and vowing to always have each other’s backs.  

Now wait a moment longer, and listen very carefully.  Do you hear that?  It’s the inevitablesound of the Winchesters stabbing each other in the back and/or throwing eachother to the wolves because they’re feeling pissy, and then getting a whole(static! See Point The Second!) “character arc” about how distraught they are.

All right, y’all, I don’t have siblings so maybe I’m wrong, but I do write a lot and I think I’m right, and you should probably put yourcharacterization where your script is. If your primary relationship that you expect people to care about isfraternal devotion, you should maybe nothave those people cheerfully feed each other into metaphoricalwoodchippers.  Like.  Okay, maybe you get ONE chance to have adramatic falling out.  ONE.  And then when they repair the relationship,they need to actually sort their shit out and not keep having the exact same dramatic falling out because thatshit gets boring and is a sign of lazy writing and—shocker!—lack of character development.  Next time they fight, it has to be aboutsomething demonstrably different, notjust the same issue with a new set of tits (c’mon y’all, this is Supernatural, it’s always a set oftits).

Let’s do a real fast recap. There’s a one episode plot in Season One about the two of them fallingout over the question of whether they should follow their father’s orders.  Dean spends a good percentage of Season Twotaking his guilt over their dad’s death out on Sam, but we’ll give a passbecause they explicitly acknowledge it and take steps to resolve theproblem.  A major plotline develops inSeason Two that hunters have started trying to kill Sam, and Dean reliably,consistently has his back.  Props.  Season Three is kind of a mess (if you have a big visible semi-Apocalypseyou should probably deal with it, see Point The Third), but whatever.  Pertinently, Dean’s big ongoing concern isthat Sam isn’t acting like himself, because he’s being much more ruthless(something Dean has consistently told him to do), while Sam’s ongoing concernis that Dean is being reckless (justified, he has a death sentence onhim).  Season Four is when things startto break down.  Castiel shows up and Deanresponds with aggression, Sam gets his rehashed ‘humanity’ plotline with Ruby,there are a lot of really incredibly poor decisions made and a lot of lies toldwith minimal regard for the trouble that’s gotten them into before (@Sam).  There’s a fight that includes Dean callingSam a monster, which has been canonically identified as the thing Sam is mostafraid of, and acting like this whole demon blood thing is a terribletremendous shock, despite the fact that Dean…knew and totally failed to reactin any way except to penalize Sam (for trying to save him!  Much like Dean sold his soul for Sam!  And got pissy about Sam being pissed offabout!).  Cue Lucifer.  Apocalypse, possession, Horsemen, etc, etc,more Lazy Susan Castiel, infighting about who should say yes to what in orderto save whom, whatever.  

And then Sam apparently dies in the Cage and Dean…goes offto get a nice white picket fence? Um…this is not consistent with the characterization of a dude who soldhis soul to resurrect Sam literally just three years ago.  Their falling out has never been intenseenough nor consistent enough to justify this. Even if you say that Dean’s honoring his brother’s final wishes by nottrying to resurrect Sam or anything, Dean should be drinking himself to deathor something similarly dramatic, because allthe drama in this show comes from the relationship between the Winchesterbrothers.  

Basically, here’s the problem: the show spends a lot of time and effort on telling youthat the Winchesters would die for each other. And while they do use that trope a lot (John dies for Dean, who dies forSam, who sacrifices his humanity for Dean, who risks his life for Sam, whojumps into the Cage for Dean…), they seem to have forgotten that, generally,you’re only willing to die for people who you actually like.  Like, peopleto whom you are genuinely emotionally attached,not just people who are your family because Blood Is Thicker or whateverbullshit you’re trying to pull there. And by Season Five, I’m just…not convinced the Winchester brothersactually like each other anymore.  Andthat never gets dealt with, they just expect you to believe that the Winchsterslove each other because the show says so,and listen, I hate the saying of ‘show, don’t tell’ as much as the nextperson who’s suffered through a college writing class, but honestly.  Supernaturalneeds to stop telling its viewers that Sam and Dean care about each other andactually…demonstrate that shit on a regular basis.  

Example: there’s the incident at some point where someoneplants a phone call on (I think) Sam’s phone, apparently from Dean, telling himthat he’s a monster and he should go do an incredibly stupid and dangerousthing because the world and Dean would be better off if he was dead.  Which Sam then believes and listens to.  This seems totally justified based on therelationship they’ve had for the past season. Pro tip, kids.  If your majordynamic includes two people who readily and easily believe that the other isliterally calling them an inhuman abomination and telling them they should justdie, that…that is not a Loving Affectionate and Devoted Familial Relationship.  And if you’re pitching it as one, A, you needsome therapy, probably urgently, and, B, your audience is only going to stickit out for so long before they give it up as a lost cause.

The point of this whole thing is that you better be ready toput your money where your fucking mouth is, and keep your characterizationsconsistent with what you’re telling the audience.

ANYWAY.  

The ultimate TL;DR here is that Supernatural’s storytelling is approximately as competent as thenovel I wrote when I was eleven, which I have hidden in a deep dark hole neverto be seen or discussed ever again.  Less competent, even, because at least Icommitted to a single individual plotline and dealt with the fallout of majorchanges to the universe.  And it’sfucking tragic, because this was a show with some real potential buried underall the chaos.  If you ever want my fullrewrite, please do ask and I will tell you, but this is now over 6K words andon its tenth page, so I’m going to stop now.

Long story short?  Supernatural: What The Fuck.

#right so i've been formulating this for four years #sorry folks #you are the unfortunate casualties of my exasperation #sorry it took so long to answer this my dude this is a very lengthy answer though so i hope that makes up for it #i'm pretty annoyed #rant tag #i spend a lot of time thinking about what makes a story work and shocker it is not these things #these things are a problem #i can do a post about my actual rewrite if anyone's interested #starlight writes stuff #the inevitable supernatural tirade #the graveyard of shows with potential and terrible execution #anonymous #asked and answered

[fixaidea]

OH I HOPED YOU WOULD DO THAT ONE. I would please like to know about "Cruise Trip", "ExF _East", and I'm torn between "witch wwx" (which I suspect is more Discworld??? ^_^) and "dumb villain" (because I always enjoy your dumb villain stories), so maybe both of those? ^_^

Cruise trip

This is a supernatural mystery, that takes place on a cruise ship. It stars one of my all-time favourite OCs, Dr. Ali Rana and his boyfriend Anton Szalóky (who just unexpectedly inherited a large sum of money).

Here’s the prologue:

The thing about stories, is that sometimes it’s hard to pin down when exactly they started. Take this very story, for example: it would be easy to say it started in a busy port in New Orleans, but it wouldn’t be quite true. You could also claim it started in a courtroom, and even though it would be somewhat closer to the truth, it still wouldn’t be quite correct.

No. If you wanted to get to the bottom of it, you’d find that, despite having seemingly nothing to do with them at all, this story started with an army of Soviet tanks in 1956. It started with a failed revolution and a man called András Szalóky who seized his chance and, using the general mayhem snuck out under the Iron Curtain and escaped to the United States to seek a better life.

He found it, at least in terms of material comfort, if not so much in domestic happiness. In that, he was quite unlucky, as he managed to marry into the most unpleasant of families – the kind that tends to serve as the backdrop and subject of some quirky private detective, as someone inevitably ends up poisoned for their money. Mr. Szalóky escaped this fate, but the older he got, the more bitter he grew towards his new relatives. By the time he turned 80 his resentment was right off the scale.

He took certain measures. He consulted a lauded psychiatric professor who officially confirmed that he was, indeed, in full possession of all his faculties. He hired the quirky private detective himself, but this time mostly to trawl through Facebook and check birth certificates.

The certificate confirming his sanity and an e-mail containing the name and address of the nephew twice removed he never knew he had arrived the same day.

Mr. Szalóky smiled. He signed his newly constructed will and testament.

His only regret was not getting to see the faces his family would make.

ExF_East

Probably disappointingly this one is the more-or-less publised ‘Enjolras, Feuilly and the Great Roadtrip of 1832′ which still needs and epilogue, and so is technically unfinished.

witch WWX

...Is the working title of the technically still ongoing ‘Of Hats and Flutes’. Here’s an excerpt from a possible future chapter:

‘Here’s the thing though, and this is something I learned the hard way’ said Wei Wuxian ‘Presentation and reputation are double edged swords. See, when they send someone after you people took to calling Light-bringer Lord, that’s pretty impressive, right? You know you’re in it right up to your eyeballs. But since you know it, you have your guards up. No such thing when you’re facing down someone nicknamed Sweeper. And so you may not have the time to realise that you are in much, much bigger trouble.’

 Once it was just the two of them left, Nanny added a hefty shot of brandy to her tea and nudged Granny.

‘Wonder which way he meant that little tirade. Did Lu Tze mop the floor with him, or was he just an example and he wanted to say he’s better off known as a lil’ village witch, and not for what he really is?’

Granny peered over the rim of her cup.

‘Both, I reckon.’

dumb villain

Answered! But here’s another excerpt:

Xie Lian was meditating on his own, among the ruins on Taicang Mountain. Ever since his amnesia incident, both him and Hua Cheng were trying to come up with a way that would allow him to keep his cultivation base while freely enjoying his marriage. Finally Xie Lian had some promising theories, though none were solid enough to put into practice yet. It was high time he worked out something though, because once again, he found himself with no spiritual power.

#eirenical #fixa writes #fanfic woes

[consoleout]

Frozen Moment [Rinch fic]

Hey guys this is my first fic ever so I hope it’s not too awful! I do know it’s cheesy and a bit dramatic, but both are sort of on purpose. =) It’s 7:07 AM and I last slept over 24+ hrs ago, there might be some grammar issues! Have a great time!

It’s Rinch / John Reese x Harold Finch and I would tag it with PTSD/CPTSD, Flashbacks, Hurt & Comfort, First I Love You, and idk if this exists but Comfort Without (much) Plot. 

I hope this helps and thank you! If you read it please let me know what you think of it if you would be willing.

"I love you, John." Finch's voice was so sweet and calming as it settled into John's shattering mind.

Four words. Four words was all it took for John to fall apart like he was a newborn child with no emotional control. They'd been through so much - John hadn't known if he would live, Finch hadn't been entirely sure he himself would either, and even if it had been so long since the incident in question his brain was surging with the adrenaline as if he'd just stepped into it to do it a second time. Not that he wouldn't - John was always ready to lay his life down for Finch. It was an unavoidable and uncomfortable truth now, he might as well have aired it because his action (one he was sure he wouldn't still be here to question) was meant to be the end-all. The end-all to the fighting, both with the forces of evil that drawled from their lips unstoppingly in person, and the force of evil that drawled from its lips unstoppingly in his brain. 

End-all. No more problems if you weren't alive to have any. That was what John had been more than ready for; and now he'd lived, and he'd lived long enough that he'd tricked poor, dear Finch into believing that John was somehow deserving of anything other than abandonment and disdain from him. He mulled over that in the seconds that lasted longer than time would've permitted. Poor, dear Finch; he couldn't drop that word if he tried anymore. He was alive, and he didn't even know what to do with that. His mind was distracting him, pulling him away from what was on hand. He knew he was dissociating from the moment, but he couldn't focus his eyes, and he felt trapped in his head. He deserved to die. It echoed in his head, surrounded him tighter than Finch's words could reach in the precarious moment. He'd deserved to die before he met Finch, and Finch had been the one to see some purpose in him, and his fate hadn't changed because he still deserved to die even if he'd lived.

Pathetic, his mind quipped at him. It cut him like a knife and he felt his chest sear with a familiar pain. He was so good at hiding how he felt that it had become a dull ache until now. Never again was he supposed to hear the words Finch had said. He thought of friendships long lost and the lovers who he'd endangered. He thought of Jessica. He thought of Carter. He thought of Root. Countless deaths and countless backstabbings all within the fraction of a second's time. There were so many names that he thought of, and one was far too many for his liking already. If he replied now, if he was honest with himself, he'd inevitably put Finch into danger's path no matter what he said unless he lied. What if this was all some sick joke and Finch hated him, really truly hated his guts? What if this was life, painfully paying him back the karma he owed in one fell swoop? He figured that since he'd lived past a missile, he'd accrued significant karmic debt; not that he particularly believed in karma, but with the recent events it was hard not to consider the existence of a supernatural power. He could say it wasn't every day someone lived with what he'd endured, but it didn't pay justice to the miracle with the way people used that phrase.

As this occurred, Finch watched John flinch and freeze in place like a bambi. An expression John had made many times before - Finch was familiar with the expressions John made when he was met with one of his very rare triggers. They seemed to be connected to emotions and identity rather than physical touch or dangerous situations, Finch had noted previously. He was trembling, and it was all he could do to hold back from slipping into the same thought process himself. He didn't know if he could say it again if it went unanswered. Finch was about to gasp, feeling as if the world around him would fall---

Kara. The name seemed to stick like a glue inside of Reese's brain. It kept him from saying those words back, as much as he wanted to. That cursed, damned name kept him from doing anything at all, and it kept him trapped in the current Hell that was his brain. It felt like he would die again right here from the memories that were twining away like clockwork inside of him. He didn't feel real anymore, and everything had begun to have a dream-like feeling. Was he floating? He didn't know, but his own brain continued to usurp any and all possibilities to move and confirm that he was not. Who was John, really, if he was known to Finch as Reese? The name didn't hold the word love in its incarnation, and yet that was what the killer, the weapon John Reese, felt for the man Harold Finch. It was like a bad comedy except that he was living it, and that there was nothing that a crowd would ever laugh at if they saw Reese's journey through the eyes of John Reese.

John deserved to be rejected, so it was obvious he would be! Nobody ever had him back. Nobody, he'd never had anyone who did and stayed or lived. He wasn't allowed a happy ending. His family didn't have him, his ex-partners didn't have him, and even his own life didn't currently have him. His mind was on a vicious, programmed tirade to end this bubbling of hope that threatened to shatter his deer-in-headlights appearance. It, however, was rising and swelling inside of him the more that his mind drifted to Finch, and would leave the barest mist on the words Finch had just laid into the air with a relentless pursue.  

Love. What a precarious thing, John thought. Maybe he and Finch could be happy together if he would just find a little place to stay down, like a dog with its tail between its legs. It wasn't the most moral thing, but it was his chance. Or he could continue like this, say nothing, leave Finch hanging and protect him from the monster that was Reese and his burden of feelings- No! John replied back to the thought internally. Finch had promised not to lie to John. And now Finch was standing in front of him, alive, well enough, and telling him the words that John had wanted to hear for longer than he'd cared to count. Backing down and giving in to the thoughts would leave him alone and yearning for the rest of his presumably shortened life.

This was his opportunity. He couldn't calculate or plan what happened next, he needed to act right there in the moment. It felt impossible and every cell in his body fought against it, but John finally snapped out of it. Thirty seconds was all it took from him to be locked in Hell for what felt like an eternity's share in memories that he never asked for. He choked on his words, stammering as he reached a hand out feebly towards Finch. Longing, searching for a comfort that he had to be afforded to progress. "I, I- I-" was all he could manage, the lump in his throat and the locks on his legs robbing his reply from him.

Patience was what Finch thought of in this moment, stifling his gasp as John's hand reached out to him. It reached out only a small amount, but Finch took the gracious opportunity that John has provided to him to gingerly wrap his fingers around John's hand. It felt like Finch would shatter like glass; John was colder than ice. He was sure each digit would begin turning blue if John's flashbacks continued, and could only muster the strength to tighten his grip just slightly and whimper as he stared at him. This wasn't a field that Finch was familiar in assisting others with; social cues weren't his strong suite, and he'd never felt more useless than he did in the present.

John's desperate gaze pierced Harold deep in his soul, and something in Harold let itself loose. He wrapped his arms around John, embracing him in a protecting, sincere, loving hug. In any other situation that John would act this way, he would have been too scared of the reaction to follow even if he knew it wasn't one that John did on purpose. This time, it felt different. John was searching for his touch; no matter how scared of this entire display Harold was, it was nothing compared to the urge to hold John and comfort away his pain in the fleeting time they shared. Not after everything they'd been through, which was still a fresh ache to him.

John felt himself settle, his mind quieting the second that Harold had wrapped his arms around him. He felt at home in this embrace, and everything right now was too much, but somehow he still found himself craving the touch he was gifted. He wrapped his arms around Harold, hiding his head pathetically on the other man's shoulder as a weep racked his body. His hands settled on Harold's upper back and splayed out, touching as much of Harold's back that he could possibly get to. He closed their distance, in no state to argue about any of the semantics that such an embrace implied.

Harold stood there for a moment, just holding John in his arms and whispering "It's alright, you're right here, it's alright. oh, it's alright now," over and over. He could feel John's weight increasing on him and, to avoid causing either of them undue duress, he sank to the floor with John clinging to him for dear life. He didn't particularly mind, and his left hand raised to John's head to brush his beautiful hair while he stroked his back methodically, his grip gentle and lasting. He wanted it to be alright, willed it into existence as he repeated it over and over. He would make it alright through any means necesssary if John would be okay. If this meant sitting on the floor with John in his arms, then that was the current meaning of love. He could only hope the display wasn't making John even more uncomfortable.

John's sobbing slowly stopped as he was soothed. Although his breathing was still ragged and his mind was still swimming, he began to calm down in the embrace of Harold. After sitting there and being comforted for what felt like a lifetime, John mustered up the courage to reply. He'd break through this programming, John Reese was going to be a loving killer weapon from this day forward and everyone who disagreed with this sentiment could be damned. He steadied himself and turned his head, his words soft and wavering with anxiety as he replied,

"I love you too."

#rinch #finch x reese #reese x finch #poi #person of interest #fanfic #fic

[littlemisssquiggles]

RWBY Musings #50: Oscar’s Great and Powerful Semblance A Squiggle Meister’s Views on ThatKaitoDan’s RWBY Theory.

megashadowdragon asked “what are your thoughts www(.)youtube(.)com/watch?v=9YElXr5_Mqw”

Squiggles Answers:

Well first off, appreciative shout out to both @che1sea-xiao-long​ and @megashadowdragon​ for sharing this video with me.

I actually really, REALLY like ThatKaitoDan’s theory on Oscar’s possible semblance being sealing---the ability to permanently take away someone’s ability to use their semblance in combat.

I like Dan’s concept because I appreciated how he was able to connect it back to Princess Ozma---the Wizard of Oz character that many RWBY theorists have speculated Oscar to be influenced by. So that titbit I enjoyed the most about his theory commentary. If Oscar’s semblance does have a sealing kind of effect then I can anticipate it being what finally stops Hazel Rainart in his tracks, should he and Oscar have their inevitable rematch.

The last time our heroes faced off against this rampaging juggernaut, none of them were successful to stop him. Neither the combined efforts of everyone teaming up to combat him nor Weiss utilizing her summons amplified by Jaune’s semblance was enough to thwart Hazel. Hazel, with his own semblance that enables him to block out pain, is a nearly unstoppable villain which currently places him as a very unbeatable foe.

The heroes were fortunate enough that the arrival of the Mistral authorities and the announcement of Cinder’s fall was what caused Hazel to retreat with Emerald and Mercury. If the battle had been allowed to continue, I don’t think they would’ve fared well.

Though Oz did make mention of Hazel having a ‘limit’ to his semblance, this still makes him dangerous because if Hazel can take being empowered by two shards of dust crystals into his body, then how much can he take? What exactly is Hazel’s limit?

I’m curious to know just how many dust crystals Hazel can take before he completely overloads himself on power. And even if he does combust from all the energy within the crystals, I don’t think a still rampaging and unstable Hazel Rainart will be any less a threat against our heroes.

Here’s what I think. I think in a rematch, Hazel will use so much dust that he’ll literally risk killing himself in the process. He’ll lose control and put his life at death’s doorstep. I think it’s in a moment like that where Oscar possessing a power that can seal or perhaps nullify another’s semblance would be a powerful asset. It’s what I think could be a very key factor in finally stopping Hazel.

Picture a crazed Hazel transforming himself into a human dust golem, no longer able to control the power being emitting from the embedded dust in his body. It’s in this moment where Oscar gets a crazy idea to climb on top of Hazel’s back.

Removing both of his gloves so that he can have better physical contact, Oscar uses the full extent of his semblance on Hazel; nullifying his abilities. This tactic works as it slows Hazel’s movements. With his pain resistance switched off a la Oscar Pine, Hazel begins to thrash around, now wreathing from the excruciating pain with Oscar holding on for dear life but still managing to keep the giant man neutralized.

This will later allow for the other heroes to quickly remove the dust shards from Hazel, ending his tirade. I figured this would’ve been how they defeated Hazel during the Haven Battle but no, the most we got was Nora Valkyrie going all supercharged on him and whaling him through the front door. This still by the way, didn’t stop Hazel either.

As I said already, the next time the heroes go up against Hazel, I doubt they’ll be able to stop him like last time. Not to mention that I figured a rematch with Hazel would be the best opportunity for Oscar to unlock his semblance in the heat of battle. The events of V4-V5 already set up Hazel being a sort of arch nemesis to both Oscar and Ozpin so if I had to predict a perfect time for our veteran farm boy turned wizard incarnate to awaken his own hidden power, it would be then. But this is just my assumption.

If Oscar can disable Hazel’s semblance then he can finally stop the juggernaut.

In Dan’s theory video, he referenced the scene from V1 C6 where Pyrhha used some of her aura to unlock Jaune’s. Another lovely tie in since I don’t hear folks often talk about that scene.

Speaking of which, there’s something I’d like to point out about that particular moment. As Pyrhha unlocked Jaune’s aura, she recited something:

“…For it in passing that we achieve immortality, through this we become a paragon of virtue and glory to rise above us, infinite in distance and unbound by death. I release your soul and by my shoulder, protect thee...”

I made note of this in my RWBY Recap of Volume 1. In my notes, I asked myself if it was absolutely necessary for Pyrhha to recite this whenever using her aura to unlock another’s. Almost like a little spell or ritual incantation of some sort. I’m curious about this since it was never mentioned or brought up again. We haven’t even seen another character use this technique after Pyrhha.

I call attention to this quote because its words make me wonder something.

Pyrhha said ‘For it is in passing that we achieve immortality, through this we become a paragon of virtue and glory to rise above us, infinite in distance and unbound by death…’---why does this line somehow make me feel like Pyrhha is somehow still alive. Not physically but like…perhaps spiritually.

If Remnant is a world where super powered human beings, monsters, immortal beings and magic exist as part of the norm then surely supernatural beings such as ghosts and spirts are plausible things too, right? It shouldn’t be too farfetched if there are spirits who roam Remnant, right? 

I can’t shake this inkling of a feeling that after she died, because of her virtuous nature and her willingness to sacrifice herself for the sake of protecting her school and loved ones, that Pyrhha basically cheated death and returned as this sentinel spirit that now guards Beacon including the Vault of the Fall Maiden.

Ozpin mentioned back in V5 that he made things very difficult to find the Vault of the Fall Maiden. So my idea is that the Vault of the Fall Maiden is probably constructed like some kind of labyrinth with many hidden rooms and equally hidden traps and puzzles. 

I sincerely hope that Fall’s Vault is more fortified because what disappointed me about the Spring Maiden’s Vault was that it wasn’t as reinforced as I expected it to be.Another point is that Oz chose Pyrhha as a candidate to become the next Fall Maiden, right? Imagine how interesting it would be if Pyrhha’s Spirit went on to become some kind of Guardian of the Vault or Beacon Academy. 

I don’t care if her physical body got turned to ash. May Pyrhha’s spirit return as an eternal hero, still continuing to protect her school from beyond the freaking grave, dagnabbit? A squiggle meister can only dream.  

Anyways, back to talking about Oscar. Although I really do like Dan’s idea, I’m still standing by my own theory about Oscar having a mind semblance. While Dan’s theory connected to Oscar’s character influence, I based my idea more so on Oscar’s personality or…at least my interpretation of what little glimpses of it we saw last season.

As you guys know, V5 C5 was my all-time favourite episode of the last season purely for the scene between Oscar and Ruby. I love how Oscar was able to get Ruby to finally open up about how she truly felt regarding everything she’s been through since V3. Oscar has only known Ruby for a couple of weeks during that time and already he was able to do more for her than what any other character has done in just one scene.

Not to mention that he even attempted to do the same with Hazel by trying to reason with him during their fight.

That whole impression of connecting to others---understanding the way they think and feel and ultimately helping them come to their senses and thus assist them from within--- I figured these traits could be adapted into a strong mental semblance where Oscar is able to connect to other’s via their mind---seeing their memories, reading their thoughts and thus understanding them from an empathic point of view that wouldn’t require much physical effort. It’d be a supportive power as Dan mentioned in his video.

I based that purely on his current predicament being connected to Ozpin and forced to share a mind space with him while also considering Oscar’s inclination to want to reach out and understand others; be it ally or foe.

Not as fleshed out as Dan’s but…I really do like the idea of Oscar’s power having something to do with his mind. After all, the mind is a fragile thing and it represents the uncharted inner corridors of one’s very being.

Can you imagine a character having power over that especially if they’re a hero?

I also dig this concept because it also provides the threat of Oscar being able to possible control; manipulate someone’s thoughts and/or possibly destroying their mind. 

I just have this thought of Oscar letting his emotions get the better of him and becoming so furious that he uses his mental semblance to stop someone and the results leaves the person either brain dead, brain damaged or at least mentally unstable. 

For all the Young Justice fans in the FNDM community, remember how in Invasion, Miss Martian turned Aqualad into a vegetable after becoming angry and overdoing it with her telepathy powers on him? That’s how I figured it would be for Oscar.

We rarely talk about the dark implications a powerful semblance can have on a victim.

While Dan sees Oscar being like Eraserhead from My Hero Academia, I was more leaning towards a Professor Xavier from X-Men kind of power for Oscar. 

In a way, I think both can work really well cause they tie into Oscar as a character. As a matter of fact, I’d like to take both Dan’s idea and my own and combine the two together.

Theory Fusion Activate!

Oz mentioned that one’s semblance can grow and evolve, right?

So what if…Oscar’s semblance is Nullification. He unlocks the ability to disable one from using their semblance for a period of time depending on his aura levels. In the beginning, he’s only able to use this power by making physical contact with said person but in time, with more training, his ability evolves to the point where he’s able to nullify another' with his mind. While doing this places a bit of mental strain on Oscar’s part, the mental nullification proves more effective than the physical version.

Not sure how much this makes sense in the context of Ruby but it can work. It takes the best parts of both mine and Dan’s ideas and merge them to form something plausible for Oscar to have.  

My reasoning behind wanting Oscar to possess a mind or mental-based semblance is because at the moment, Emerald Sustrai is the only mental-based semblance user in the cast and she’s with the villains.

I wanted another mental-semblance user on the side of the heroes in order to counter Emerald.

Let’s say, Emerald is fighting Oscar and tries to use her illusions on him. But because Oscar’s power is Nullification, his semblance makes him completely immune to Emerald’s tactics so he’s able to negate her illusions. That’d be awesome.

Or even better, imagine Oscar’s Nullification growing to the point where he’s able to just activate his semblance by merely looking at his opponents. So anyone who dares step within close proximity of his line of vision gets their semblance rendered useless against Oscar. The only limit to that is at first Oscar is only able to nullify one person at a time but again, with more practice and training, he can grow till his range of ability could expand to more than one person depending on his mental strength.

To make sense of how Oscar is able to do that, let’s return to my theory of his semblance being mental or becoming mental-based in time so his Nullification evolves from requiring physical contact to just a stronger mental focus. So Oscar would need to become stronger mentally to help enhance his semblance which fits into his character. This could lend to Ren providing Oscar with some mentorship in meditation and focus.

The final form would be the sealing---permanently stopping a person from using their semblance for good. As Dan already mentioned, the series pointed out that aura can be used to unlock someone’s aura and training one’s aura is what leads to them eventually unlocking their semblance, correct?

So if semblance is awakened by aura and aura can be used to awaken aura. Then what would happen should someone learn to use aura to permanently disable someone’s aura so that they can’t use their semblance?

Aura is a term in RWBY that still eludes me a bit. Aura has been described as the manifestation of the soul. So…if someone were to seal off another’s aura…couldn’t that potentially kill a person if used incorrectly? Just asking. 

If Oscar does gain that kind of power in the end, then I’d imagine that it’d be a tactic Oscar would only resort to as last alternative because of the dangerous consequences of using it; not just on the victim but on Oscar himself.

Dan referred to Oscar’s sealing power being like Energy bending in Avatar the Last Airbender.

Wasn’t one of the drawbacks of energy bending that the user could be corrupted by the essence of the person who’s bending they were taking away? 

I can’t recall where it was said but I think I remember the lion turtle mentioning that to Aang when they first met. I…think? Correct me if I’m wrong here guys. 

But let’s say…Oscar does gain the whole sealing power as part of the final form in his Nullification Semblance. I only like the Sealing aspect of Oscar’s semblance as a last resort because I imagine a power like that could be very unsafe to use freehand.  The dangers of such a power are that one, this technique could run the risk of killing the victim since we are messing with aura---meaning one’s very soul, here. 

Not to mention that it places the user---Oscar at risk as well. Finally two, this technique would require a lot of aura on Oscar’s part or at least I’d imagine so. Like a lot especially to account for the victim resisting against the sealing process. 

After all, Pyrhha used some of her aura to awaken Jaune’s right?  So let’s say each time Oscar uses his semblance to nullify an opponent’s semblance, the effort to maintain this feat requires aura so the longer he maintains the nullification process, the more aura he drains from himself.

Somehow I’m visualizing Oscar’s nullification powers like chains that bind his enemies with an analog timer ticking down to how much longer Oscar can restrain his victim. A little exaggerated but you get the idea. 

So if sealing becomes a power for Oscar to have, it’s something that could help win a fight but can also potentially kill Oscar. I know it takes away the light-hearted ease of use of Dan’s original point but…this squiggle meister thinks a power like that would come with risks. After all, with great power comes great responsibility.  

But that’s just me. The more I think and elaborate on this, the more I’m really digging the concept of it. 

ThatKaitoDan is a genius for coming up with this theory for Oscar’s semblance. 

I doubt he’ll ever read my Tumblr post response to his theory but I would’ve loved to have heard his feedback on my add-ons to his theory. I’d love to hear his thoughts on my thoughts. 

He really is onto to something awesome and his idea for Oscar’s semblance is now one of my favourites apart from my own and the combination of our two theories. 

So if I had to pick which powers I can see Oscar having, it’s either a mental based power (like telepathy) or sealing or nullification---the grand combination of the two as I described in this post. That’s this squiggle meister’s thoughts on that. 

ThatKaitoDan’s Oscar’s Great and Power Semblance: RWBY Theory 

More Squiggles’ RWBY Content

~LittleMissSquiggles (2018) 

#megashadowdragon #oscar pine #rwby theories #rwby volume 6 #thatkaitodan #squiggles answers: rwby #rwby musings

[agj1990]

Monsters are Scared Of Us

Summary: Three-year-old Evy learns the truth about monsters. 

Evy clung to Dean, crying and holding onto him so tightly that it was nearly impossible to tell where Evy ended and Dean began. He tried his hardest to comfort her, to make her stop crying, because the thought of her still crying when Sam got back made Dean cringe. There was no way to really hide from Sam what had happened that day, but Dean was hoping that having Evy calm and happy when Sam got back would make him less likely to explode.

“It’s okay, kiddo. Calm down and we can talk about this.” Dean said kindly, bouncing Evy up and down slightly.

“Want. Sammy!” Evy said.

           Evy banged her little fist against Dean’s back to punctuate what she was saying. Dean sighed. Evy was crying so hard she couldn’t even get a word out before crying again. And Sam was only a few minutes away. There was no way that Dean would get her calmed down enough before Sam got home. The only person who could really do that was, unfortunately, Sam. So Dean wrapped his protective arms around his little sister, bracing himself for the inevitable fight that night. A few minutes of close cuddling later, the front door of the small house opened, and Dean took a deep breath.

“Hey, guys.” Sammy’s familiar voice said. “Cricket, are you okay? What are you still doing up?”

“Sammy!”

Evy finally realized that Sam was home. She jumped off of Dean’s lap and ran to Sam, still crying. Concerned, Sam picked her up and carried her to the bed. He tried to examine Evy for signs of an injury, but she held to him even more tightly than she had Dean.

“Cricket, what’s wrong?” Sam asked. Evy just squeezed him tighter, so Sam looked to Dean. “What happened?”

Dean sighed, closed his eyes, and told Sam. “Dad told her where you were this last week.”

Sam looked confused. “Told her…”

“The truth.” Dean said. “Dad told her the truth. About everything.”            Sam’s eyes practically popped out of his head. Evy was still crying and holding on to him, so Sam held her a bit tighter. He shushed her gently before turning back to Dean.

“Dad did what?” Sam asked, his eyes narrowing.

Crap. Dean thought. Sam’s voice was low. Low and dangerous. Just like their father’s when he was really pissed off. Before Dean had a chance to answer Sam, though, Sam turned his attention to Evy.

“Cricket. Honey, come on. Listen to me.”

Evy sat back slightly. Her breath was still coming in hitches, and tears were still falling, but Evy was basically silent. Dean was amazed. He’d been trying to get Evy to be calm for the last hour, and Sam had gotten her to listen in under ten seconds. Dean watched them closely. Sam brushed her hair back from her face, smiling at her; Evy relaxed a little more, and Sam waited almost sixty full, agonizing seconds, until her breathing evened out a little more, before speaking.

“What exactly did daddy tell you?” Sam asked.

“That you were gone fighting monsters.” Evy explained sadly. “That that’s what he and Dean do when they’re gone.”

Sam closed his eyes for a second, holding his anger back to avoid scaring Evy further. When he opened them, Evy was still watching him, waiting on him to explain. Sam smiled again, and Dean was amazed when Evy smiled back.

“Cricket, listen to me. I know what daddy told you was scary. And it is true.” Evy’s eyes immediately filled with more tears. “Shh. Don’t cry,  baby. I’m okay. Daddy’s okay. Dean’s okay. I promise we’ll talk about this. But not right now. It’s way past your bedtime, and you’re exhausted. We’ll talk about it in the morning. Okay?”

Evy yawned. “Will you stay with me till I go to sleep?” she asked.

“Yes.” Sam said. “I’ll hold you until you go to sleep. And I’ll be right here when you wake up tomorrow.”

“Promise?” Evy asked.

“Promise.” Sam said. “I’ve got you, honey. Always.”

           Dean walked out into the living room, relieved that Sam had finally calmed Evy down. He was surprised to find that John had come back home at some point in the last two hours. He had left right after telling Evy about the supernatural, as always leaving his boys to deal with the fear and her tears. He didn’t say anything to John about Evy. The truth was that he was afraid to, and he knew Sam would have plenty to say for the both of them. He asked John a couple of questions about the hunt, before there was a knock at the door. John, not expecting anyone to come, drew his gun and went to the door cautiously. He was so concerned with the unexpected visitor that he didn’t notice Dean smiling. Dean waited a moment and listened. The house was so small that he could hear Sam’s voice drifting out through the bedroom. He was singing to Evy. The next sounds were the ones he was looking for. The front door opened, John started to say something. Then, the one sound that Dean had been waiting for. A loud crack and a familiar gruff, angry voice, followed by John hitting the floor.

“You selfish son of a bitch!”

           Dean pumped his fist in the air before John came back in the kitchen. The complete, honest truth, which would never, ever come out to John, was that Dean had called Bobby hoping for the exact reaction he had just gotten. He had wanted to do it himself when Evy had come to him crying earlier that night, but his own sense of duty towards his father kept him from doing so. He didn’t care if he got in trouble for calling Bobby, he just wanted to make sure John felt it. John and Bobby walked back inside, John rubbing the side of his face.

“Dean, did you….” John started to ask.

“Don’t even think about it.” Bobby said. “Dean isn’t to blame for this. You are.”

John sighed. He honestly didn’t know what he’d been thinking when he told Evy the truth. She had been pestering him all afternoon about Sam. She’d asked him over and over when he was coming home. The point of sending Sam on the hunt and staying home with Evy had been to spend some time with her. But Evy had spent three days being sad and moping, wanting “my Sammy” to come back.

But if he was completely, totally honest with himself, John realized he had told her out of jealousy. He was jealous of Sam’s close relationship with Evy, even though it was his fault it had happened in the first place. So, after being asked for the fiftieth time when Sam was coming home, John had picked up Evy, sat her on his knee, and told her the truth about what it was he and Dean, and now Sam, were doing. He had rationalized it at the time by saying that she needed to know the truth. But he knew that wasn’t it. He felt like a crap father attempting to sabotage his daughter’s relationship with his son. But in the end, that hadn’t happened. As soon as he’d told Evy the truth, she had burst into tears and run to her room. She’d spent the rest of the afternoon crying and begging for Sammy.

“What were you thinking, John?” Bobby asked.

John realized he’d screwed up. “I wasn’t.” he said.

“Why?” Bobby asked. “Why would you tell her, John?”

“Because she needed to know…” John started.

“Tell him the truth, dad.” Dean cut in.

           John looked at Dean, quite annoyed. Dean swallowed hard, wanting to wither under his father’s gaze, but he held his ground. Bobby watched the two of them closely. He knew perfectly well why Dean had called him. The only thing that really scared Dean was standing up to John. So Bobby did what Dean was wanting him too.

“Tell me the truth about what?”

John bit his bottom lip and said nothing.

Bobby turned to Dean. “Tell me the truth about what?”

Dean looked away from his dad, unable to talk if he looked at him. “Dad sent Sam on a hunt last week.”

If possible, Bobby’s eyes grew even wider. “By himself?”

Dean nodded. “By himself.” “He’s fourteen!” Bobby said, turning to John. “What the hell are you trying to do, make all your kids grow up before they grow up?” “Evy got sick.” Dean continued, not giving his dad a chance to respond. “Right before Sam left. Sam offered to stay with her, but Dad said no. After Sam left, Dad and me tried to take care of her, but…”

“But she wanted Sam.” Bobby guessed. Dean nodded, and Bobby continued his verbal tirade against John. “So you send Sam away when Baitfish isn’t not feeling good, she cries for him, and you lose your patience.” When John said nothing, Bobby knew he was on the right track. Shaking his head in disbelief, Bobby turned to Dean. “Where is she now?”

“Sam’s trying to put her to sleep.” Dean said.

Bobby nodded. “So once again, Sam’s trying to clean up your mess. But this time you created a hell of a one for him to clean up.”

John finally tried to defend himself. “I thought she needed to know. I thought she’d be able to handle it…”

“You thought a three-year-old would be able to handle you telling her that monsters were real?” Bobby replied. “How stupid are you?”

           John said nothing. He couldn’t. Bobby was right. He hadn’t told Evy the truth out of some selfless motivation to help her understand the world better. He’d done it to try and loosen her intense connection to Sammy. But that had blown up in his face. Evy was now closer to Sam than ever, and he didn’t know if he’d ever get to have a close relationship with her. No one said anything for at least a couple minutes. There really wasn’t anything to say. Finally, almost an hour after getting home, Sam walked into the kitchen, in a daze.

“She all right?” Bobby asked immediately.

“She’s asleep.” Sam said, walking over next to Bobby. “Finally.”

           Sam ran his hands through his hair and looked down towards the floor. He didn’t want to look at his father, because he was afraid if he did he’d do or say something that he was at least supposed to regret. John made the first attempt to break the thick ice.

“Sam, I’m sorry.” He said.

Sam could tell his father was sincere, but right now that didn’t matter. “Dad…” Sam said, trying to keep his tone under control. If he got a lecture right about his attitude, he was afraid he really would snap. “I’m not mad.” He said calmly. He finally looked up into his father’s face.

John was surprised, to say the least. “You’re not?”

Sam shook his head. “Nope. I’m hurt.” John looked to Dean and Bobby, but neither betrayed any surprise at Sam’s confession. Sam continued. “Dad, every time you and Dean are gone, I do everything I can to make Evy feel safe. I make sure she knows that you love her, and that you care about her, and that you, me, and Dean will always be there to protect her.”

“Sam, I appreciate what you do for her…” John started to say.

Sam cut him off. “It doesn’t feel like you do, Dad. Because you couldn’t do it for me for a few days.” John wanted to respond, but couldn’t. Sam took advantage of his father’s guilt. “She cried herself to sleep, Dad. Mostly because she’s scared to death that something’s going to happen to one of us.”

Before John could respond, a small voice came from the doorway. “Sammy.”

           Everyone jumped; no one had heard Evy get up or come in. But there she stood, red puffy eyes looking out at all them, Squish clutched tight to her chest. Sam sighed and crouched down, placing his elbows on his knees and opening his arms. Evy walked over to him. Sam put his arms around her middle but didn’t pick her up yet.

“What’s wrong?” he asked gently, and just loud enough for everyone to hear.

“I can’t seep.” Evy said, leaning against him heavily and rubbing her eyes. “’M scared.”

“Gee, I wonder why.” Bobby muttered.

John chose to ignore the comment. “Little one…”

A tired and hurt Sam finally snapped at his father. “I’ve got her, dad.” Turning back to Evy, he faked a smile and asked her quietly, “You want to go look at the stars?”

“Yes, please.” She answered sweetly.

“Okay. Let’s go, Cricket.”

           Sam picked up Evy and carried her out of the kitchen towards the living room. On the way, he grabbed a small box of Kleenex sitting on the kitchen table. Dean followed them, leaving John and Bobby in the kitchen, arguing quietly. Sam sat at the end of the couch, pulling one of the large removable cushions over so he could prop himself up. He pulled Evy up onto the couch with him. She sat in the space between his legs and the back of the couch, looking out the window. Tears started falling again. Sam reached a hand over and scratched her back, and Evy clutched Squish tightly to her chest.

“Talk to me.” Sam said gently, wiping tears away from her eyes with one of the Kleenex he had brought over.

           There was a snapping sound behind them, but both Sam and Evy ignored it. Evy laid down against the same cushion Sam was propping himself up on. Sam waited patiently for Evy to say something. He felt her still shaking a little, and stroked her hair to try and calm her. Eventually Evy turned around to face Sam.

“I’m scared.” She repeated pitifully.

“Scared of what?” Sam asked patiently.

Evy sniffed. “I don’t want anything to happen to any of you.”

Sam nodded. “I know, sweetie. I don’t want that to happen, either. But listen to me, okay? Daddy knows what he’s doing. Dean knows what he’s doing. So do I.” Evy curled up closer to Sam, who hugged her before continuing.

“But…” Evy said, and Sam could see the wheels turning in her little brain. She looked up at him before continuing, searching his face for answers. “If monsters are real, they can get you. They can get me.”

           Sam was instantly transported back to having this same conversation with Dean years earlier. He’d been much older, but Sam had had the exact same question. Sam decided to tell Evy the same thing that Dean had told him.

“No. As long as I’m around, you’ll be okay.” Sam said.

“Promise?” Evy asked.

“Yes, my sweet girl.” Sam said, smiling. Moments like this, when he had to comfort Evy, made him realize exactly how much he loved her. “I promise.”

“I promise too.”

           Evy and Sam jumped, but it was just Dean. He had brought a blanket to them, and wrapped it over Sam. Sam made sure Evy was covered and warm, then turned to thank Dean. Dean leaned over to talk to Evy.

“I promise too, baby girl.” Dean assured her. “Sam and I, Dad too, love you more than anything else in the world. Bobby loves you just as much. All of us are gonna protect you. I know you’re scared of the monsters we fight, but I have a secret for you. Want to hear it?”

“Yeah.” Evy whispered. “What is it?”

Dean whispered too, and was relieved when Evy smiled back at him. “The monsters are scared of us.”

“Really?” Evy said, amazed.

“Really, kiddo.” Dean said. “Feel better?”

Sam was relieved when Evy nodded. He rubbed her head and kissed her again.

“Good night, kiddo. I love you.” Dean said.

“Love you too, Deanie.”

           Dean kissed Evy’s forehead, and left to head to bed. Evy snuggled back against Sam, and laid her head on his chest. Sam wished her goodnight. He thought about picking her up and taking her back to bed. When she didn’t answer him after telling her goodnight, he looked down and smiled again. Evy was already asleep. Sam sighed; he knew he’d be sleeping tonight right where he was. Sam kissed her again, and turned slightly to get a bit more comfortable.

“I’ve got you, Cricket. I’ve got you. Sleep tight, sweetie pie.”

           Sam turned over and went to sleep himself, holding on to Evy tightly. A few minutes later, John walked in. He had wanted to talk to Evy before she went to sleep, but now she was fast asleep in Sam’s arms. Waking her up right now would only make her grumpy. John watched Evy and Sammy for a minute. It hurt his heart that Sam and Evy had that kind of a close relationship, and they didn’t. And he had entirely screwed up any chances he had now to develop one. John walked over and tucked Evy in again, watching her for a moment before going to bed.

“I’m sorry, little one. I’m so sorry.”

[veliseraptor]

oldnewsisgoodnews replied to your post: people who act like tony stark has somehow been...

^^ I hate when writers refuse to let characters be wrong and/or have even their negative traits get bent into positives (e.g. “got anger issues? Who cares - you always end up being right whenever you go on a tirade, anyway” kinda stuff). Honestly makes characters really unlikeable for me.

#same

like...let your characters make mistakes and do things wrong and have those mistakes be acknowledged because god, fuck, if someone cannot ever do anything wrong...

this is the problem I had with dean in supernatural - even when stuff he did was actively harmful inevitably all his decisions ended up being right and it drove me fuckin crazy.

narrative favoritism is a bitch, man

#oldnewsisgoodnews #conversating

[ao3feed-crowley]

The Good Witch and the Bad Witch

read it on the AO3 at https://ift.tt/3iuLXPA

by ThorinBilbo

The tablet could only tell Sam and Dean so much. There was to be a Good Witch, a witch who uses her powers for the good of mankind, a woman of tranquility and humility. A woman who excretes kindness and prosperity. Opposite her was the Bad Witch, a witch who appears arrogant, narcissistic, and oozes superiority and power. These two witches happened to be Fergus Macleod's twin daughters that his wife managed to escape with, causing him to spiral into an already inevitable tirade of complete and utter horrid actions. These two witches, twin sisters, family, were destined to eventually brawl, to end the other one and eventually have one reign as the Supreme Witch. And, as a sucker for such power, Rowena decides to truly enable this prophecy into reality by bringing the girls back from the dead.

Words: 1389, Chapters: 1/?, Language: English

Fandoms: Supernatural

Rating: General Audiences

Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence

Categories: F/F, F/M, M/M, Multi

Characters: Sam Winchester, Dean Winchester, Castiel, Castiel Novak, Rowena MacLeod, Crowley, Fergus MacLeod, Charlie Bradbury, Kevin Tran

Relationships: Dean Winchester/Original Female Character(s), Sam Winchester/Original Female Character(s)

Additional Tags: good and bad

read it on the AO3 at https://ift.tt/3iuLXPA

#IFTTT #ao3feed #fanfic #Crowley

[ao3feed-castiel]

The Good Witch and the Bad Witch

read it on the AO3 at https://ift.tt/3iuLXPA

by ThorinBilbo

The tablet could only tell Sam and Dean so much. There was to be a Good Witch, a witch who uses her powers for the good of mankind, a woman of tranquility and humility. A woman who excretes kindness and prosperity. Opposite her was the Bad Witch, a witch who appears arrogant, narcissistic, and oozes superiority and power. These two witches happened to be Fergus Macleod's twin daughters that his wife managed to escape with, causing him to spiral into an already inevitable tirade of complete and utter horrid actions. These two witches, twin sisters, family, were destined to eventually brawl, to end the other one and eventually have one reign as the Supreme Witch. And, as a sucker for such power, Rowena decides to truly enable this prophecy into reality by bringing the girls back from the dead.

Words: 1389, Chapters: 1/?, Language: English

Fandoms: Supernatural

Rating: General Audiences

Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence

Categories: F/F, F/M, M/M, Multi

Characters: Sam Winchester, Dean Winchester, Castiel, Castiel Novak, Rowena MacLeod, Crowley, Fergus MacLeod, Charlie Bradbury, Kevin Tran

Relationships: Dean Winchester/Original Female Character(s), Sam Winchester/Original Female Character(s)

Additional Tags: good and bad

read it on the AO3 at https://ift.tt/3iuLXPA

#IFTTT #cas #castiel #spn #supernatural #ao3feed

[lodelss]

Samuel Ashworth| Longreads | September 2019 | 13 minutes (3,389 words)

  Senators Ted Cruz (R-TX) and Marco Rubio (R-FL) are nestled in one another’s arms, sweat glistening on their muscled chests. They kiss softly and tenderly. It’s the middle of the night in a hotel somewhere on the campaign trail, and they are in love.

“So, if you were an animal, which would you be?” asks Ted.

“Let me think,” says Marco. “A manatee.”

Welcome, friends, to the glorious world of congressional fan fiction. If you’ve always associated fan fiction with the kind of people who hand-sew their own Star Trek jumpsuits, think again. Since going online in the late ’90s, fan fiction — a fan-created spinoff (sometimes way, way off) of an already-existing pop culture presence — has exploded. Its protagonists range from fictional, like Han Solo, to real, like Ariana Grande or members of the British Parliament. Published stories, which can range from a few hundred words to a few hundred thousand, number in the tens of millions, and boast an immense readership. The genre also remains one of the few resolutely not-for-profit corners of the internet: Since the work often involves trademarked intellectual property, fair use rules forbid fanfic authors from making money off their writing, unless they change all recognizable details, as E.L. James did with her BDSM Twilight fanfic story, Fifty Shades of Grey. Stories about congress fall under the penumbra of “Real-person fiction,” which isn’t bound by copyright laws in the same way.

For as long as people have been telling stories, people have been telling stories about those stories. It’s a basic human impulse: The Greeks wrote fan fiction about the Trojan War; the Chinese wrote it during the Ming Dynasty; the Spaniards wrote it about Don Quixote; the Victorians about Sherlock Holmes. Typically, we date its modern iteration from the late ’60s, when Star Trek fans began to circulate mimeographed zines full of their own adventures aboard the USS Enterprise. It was the punctuating backslash in “Spock/Kirk” that created the genre for stories which literalize unspoken sexual tension between same-sex characters: slashfic.

While not all fan fiction is erotic or romantic, a lot of it is. Pop culture mega-properties like Harry Potter or the TV show Supernatural have the biggest constituencies, but niche fandoms abound (for example, there is even one — mercifully chaste — story devoted to my favorite podcast, NPR’s Pop Culture Happy Hour). One growing niche is political fan fiction; the influential fanfic site Archive of Our Own (AO3), with more than 2 million users, has a thousand stories dealing with 21st-century American politicians alone.

Fanfic is inherently delightfully goofy, but it’s also worth taking seriously. Fandom has become one of the driving forces of American pop culture. When provoked, fans can rescue a TV show like Brooklyn 99 or One Day at a Time from cancellation, or they can kill a project in its infancy, as numerous young adult novelists have found. Even though fan fiction is necessarily noncommercial, the world of fandom is an economic behemoth, and with economic power, inevitably, comes political power — whether it’s wanted or not.

Most political fanfic features world leaders: AO3 features dozens of erotic romances between Emmanuel Macron and Justin Trudeau, or David Cameron and a rotating harem of male British MPs, while the past two years have seen a proliferation of meme-ready “Trump/Shrek” slashfic. Sample line: “Donald Trump was building a wall. No, not to keep out the Mexicans. He built it around his heart, to keep anyone from getting there and breaking it like Shrek did.”

But since the 2016 election, as American political engagement has boomed — the 2018 midterms had the highest voter turnout percentage for any midterm in 104 years — fan fiction scholars have noted a spike in stories featuring the U.S. Congress. What makes this boomlet strange is that at its core, fan fiction “is about genuinely liking a person,” says Dr. Amber Davisson, coauthor of Politics for the Love of Fandom: Fan-Based Citizenship in a Digital World. And historically, well, not many people like Congress. As of August of this year, the institution’s average Gallup approval rating was 17 percent — somehow an improvement over the first half of this decade.

And yet, the more I spoke to authors, the more congressional fan fiction began to make perfect sense as a response to our high-strung political moment. To Ehren Hatten, a prolific fanfic author living in Austin, Texas, people gravitate to fanfic because it’s “writing something you want to see.” During the Obama administration, Hatten wrote a series of stories modeled on the “Hetalia” universe — a Japanese webcomic turned manga and anime series featuring nations personified as broadly stereotypical characters (France, for instance, hits on every woman who crosses his path). In her tale, the embodiment of America storms onto the floor of Congress and delivers a scorching tirade against the Affordable Care Act, which he calls an unconstitutional attack on the “will of the people.” The law, he warns direly, will bring about another Civil War — and a justified one at that.

Even though fan fiction is necessarily noncommercial, the world of fandom is an economic behemoth, and with economic power, inevitably, comes political power — whether it’s wanted or not.

“I was trying to point out how wrong and out of touch Congress has been for years,” Hatten told me. What she wrote was mostly “a way for me to get ideas out of my head,” but at the same time, she was annoyed by other Hetalia-based fan works “that would portray things like America being a superfan of Obama.” In the climax of her story, America triumphantly punches Obama in the face.

Similarly, Amanda Savitt, an ACA supporter, said writing fan fiction “made me feel like I had a little bit of control.” In her story, Steve Rogers is divorced from his role as Captain America’s alter ego and is now a young diabetic art student. (This is typical of the “alternate universe” genre of fanfic, which takes characters from one world and reimagines them in another, often with completely different characteristics. One such story features Rand Paul as a high school goth tormented by/in love with rich bully Donald Trump.) Afraid the Republican Party will kill the ACA and take away his access to health care, Steve and his best friend Bucky Barnes decide to marry so Steve can secure health insurance. Eventually, Steve and Bucky attend a town hall led by a Paul Ryan–esque figure. Steve delivers a scorching tirade against the repeal of the ACA. In the climax of her story, Steve triumphantly punches the Paul Ryan–esque figure in the face.

For many political fanfic writers, this catharsis is the main point of the exercise — to blow off steam. While William Wordsworth defined poetry as “the spontaneous overflow of emotion recollected in tranquility,” fan fiction omits the tranquility part, which may explain the sheer ferocity of a lot of the eroticism. One author in Alaska who wrote a story about Mitch McConnell (R-KY) having intense and almost feral sex with Paul Ryan (R-WI 1) after failing to repeal Obamacare told me they banged the whole thing in an hour when they were feeling ground-down and angry.

***

Somewhere in Washington, rain is pouring outside as a young person curls up under a blanket with their girlfriend, Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-NY 14). Suddenly, a blackout ripples across the city, plunging them into darkness.

“Don’t be afraid,” she whispers. “I’m here.”

Yet for all the rage that has soaked into our political rhetoric lately, stories wherein characters physically attack politicians are rarer than you might think. Instead, most congressional fan fiction, even the really out-there stuff, is all about the romance. In one story, Senator Kamala Harris (D-CA) and House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-CA 12) get intimate after a spirited game of one-on-one basketball. In another, Paul Ryan and former Rep. Aaron Schock (R-IL 18) long for each other from across the House floor. The exception to this rule is Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, whose stories, so far, are loving but pointedly nonsexual. This has much to do with the fact that fanfic authors are overwhelmingly female, making sites like AO3 something of a refuge from the male gaze. “When the media reports on AOC and ‘girlifies her,’” Davisson explains, “they’re diminishing her. … [Her fans] care about her as a person.”

All of which brings us to Rubio and Cruz nuzzling, flushed with the thrill of new love and discussing their spirit animals. There are no fewer than 24 separate stories under the “Crubio” tag on AO3, but one of the first, “Fifty Shades of Red,” was written in 2016 by two high schoolers, who asked, not unreasonably, to remain anonymous in this article.

“Fifty Shades of Red” runs over 15,000 words long and chronicles a sweet but relentlessly raunchy (a phrase that could capture fan fiction at its core) senatorial affair, culminating in the two men admitting their love on a debate stage. They then exit stage right to apologize to their wives — who, in a classically Shakespearean twist, have also fallen in love with each other. “Our first taste of politics was Trump,” said one of the young writers, who collectively published the story under the nom de fan MikeRotch. “So it was kind of fun to turn the shitshow that was that election and make it into something more funny, and try to imagine that there’s something else inside these men aside from terrible policies and homophobia.”

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Both writers describe themselves as left-leaning and queer, and their story began as a dare during a sleepover. “We were just spiteful,” they said, but as they kept going, something unexpected happened. They became profoundly attached to their characters — Cruz as the gruff, masculine daddy, and Rubio as the besotted, timid younger man. A narrative which began as pure raunch turned into Cruz tenderly reading his favorite W.S. Merwin poem to Rubio, and Rubio confessing that “every day, I wake up questioning everything. Who I am. Who I want to be. Who I should be.” Their farce evolved into a real romance, fueled by an empathy that the authors never expected to feel for two men representing everything they loathed. That empathy stayed with them even after the story was written, and many of the other writers who wrote their own Crubio slashfic preserved it in their stories, too. On March 15, 2016, when Marco Rubio dropped out of the race for the GOP nomination, one of the MikeRotch authors called the other, crying.

Fan fiction is no different from any other kind of fiction: Empathy is its fuel, its AllSpark, its galvanic jolt. Without the writer’s willingness to probe the motivations of each character, good or evil, the story will not go. The plot will sit there, limp as wet cereal, and convince no one. This is why so much overtly political fiction is lousy: Instead of empathizing, the writer sets out to convince and condemn. The story groans under its own seriousness. But resonating fan fiction revels in humanizing its villains — there are 33,995 works on AO3 wherein Harry Potter hooks up with his nemesis Draco Malfoy. “I think there are a few reasons for that,” Savitt told me, “one of which is the fact that in popular media, unfortunately, villains tend to be queer-coded.” Just look at Disney: Ursula from The Little Mermaid was deliberately patterned on the immortal drag queen Divine. In Sleeping Beauty, Maleficent’s magical powers are just an outlet for her overflowing top energy. Male villains from Jafar to Hades to Scar (the Jeremy Irons version, not Chiwetel Ejiofor’s butch performance) are heavy-lidded, louche, effete. In fan fiction, authors have the power to overwrite that coding, to rethink the knee-jerk contempt we’re supposed to feel for these characters and depict them instead with an empathy the source material rarely affords.

This empathy makes congressional fan fiction remarkable in a political reality so divided that empathy isn’t just rare, it’s almost impossible. According to “The Perception Gap,” a 2019 study from the nonprofit group More In Common, the more politically engaged an American citizen is, the more likely they are to be wildly misinformed about the other side. Democrats flail around trying to divine the humors of the Trump voters, and Republicans believe that half of all Democrats are ashamed to be American.

Fan fiction is no different from any other kind of fiction: Empathy is its fuel, its AllSpark, its galvanic jolt.

Fanfic authors, on the other hand, tend to delve into objective research about characters and their worlds. Most stories about congresspeople feature direct quotes from speeches (in “Fifty Shades of Red” Cruz makes Rubio read one of his speeches while they have sex — something the authors spent “an embarrassing amount of time” researching), nuanced conversations about policy, and often, strikingly honest presentations of the villains’ arguments. In Ehren Hatten’s stories, Democrats assail America’s embodiment with real talking points (uninsured people “drain the system when they end up in the emergency room”). America has his answers ready, of course, but Hatten’s congresspeople are far from straw men. “I’ve been called a bigot and a racist more times than I really thought possible,” Hatten told me. “However, I still feel humans in general want to remember that the people they disagree with are still human and not some creature from the black lagoon. At least that’s my hope.”

That hope — the hope that maybe some of it isn’t fictional — is what drives people to write stories about Congress. Authors who write humanizing stories about politicians “are hoping in some sense that they are that human,” says Anne Jamison, an assistant professor of English at the University of Utah. If you can imagine a world where all Mitch McConnell needs is the love of a good man, or one where Susan Collins has a backbone, then you can convince yourself that maybe, just maybe, it could be true.

***

On the senate floor, senators are voting on whether or not to end the filibuster for Supreme Court nominees. Dean Heller (R-NV) weeps in the strong embrace of Mark Warner (D-VA), torn between his desire for moderation and his fear of a primary challenge.

“Be brave!” Warner urges him. Heller sniffles into a handkerchief.

Ten years ago, it might have seemed ludicrous to think that people would be penning heroic epics about members of the U.S. Congress. But troubled times are fertile soil for heroes. In Bertolt Brecht’s play The Life of Galileo, Galileo says, “Unhappy is the land that needs a hero.” Judging by our recent cultural diet, we live in an unhappy land. In the movies, heroes flourish: The Avengers, Star Wars, The Fast and the Furious. These blockbusting franchises depend upon the absolute, indisputable goodness of the hero’s quest (and, in the case of The Fast and the Furious franchise, the limitless redeemability of villains). Meanwhile, we’re living in the new golden age of television, which derives its popular and intellectual voltage from daring us to fall in love with charismatic antiheroes: Game of Thrones, Fleabag, Breaking Bad, Mad Men, Succession. The West Wing is dead, long live Veep.

In our fiercely divided time, the politicians we agree with aren’t just leaders, they’re held up as saviors. It’s not enough to just support them; we want to love them. We’re fans of them. This distinction is crucial: “Fandom is perverse,” says Davisson. “I mean that in the best possible way. Fandom is about love, and love is seldom a rational thing.” Rather, love is blind, jealous, obsessive. What it really wants is more — more access, more story, more flesh, more time. More content.

As Davisson points out, “we’re very aware that everything we’re seeing is being produced. A lot of [fan fiction] is about wanting to see behind the curtain. [People] want to see that these politicians that they see on TV have real passion — something genuine.” It is this perceived sense of genuineness which gives us permission to trust — and therefore permission to love. And increasingly, the savviest politicians — like movie studios and TV networks — are learning how to operate the levers of that love.

Much of Donald Trump’s appeal as a politician is the way he offers completely transparent, un-stage-managed access to his inner thoughts. Being a fan of Trump is probably delightful, even addictive. At all hours of the day — or in the dead of night — his fans have access to his unfiltered inner monologue, stripped not only of the political calculus with which virtually every other politician speaks, but of any inhibition or caution whatsoever. In essence, Trump is a fountain of glittering content; he is pure fan service. He is the triumph of quantity over quality. And his fans are hammered drunk with love.

Few politicians have understood popular love better than Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, whose Instagram feed offers fans an unprecedented level of access to a politician’s personal life. From her first days in Washington, she has created a self-produced reality show. She brings followers (that word is significant here) into the madcap world of a freshman congresswoman. She takes them on trips up to her roof garden where she asks for advice on how to harvest her spinach plants, and she offers long, thoughtful reflections about shifting from a bartender’s salary to a congresswoman’s (she can now afford oat milk). She is perhaps the most relatable politician in the country. In addition to the tender, puppy-love-like stories about her on AO3, there is also a comic book, Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez and the Freshman Force. The cover features her in a gleaming suffragette-white pantsuit, standing astride the prone form of a red elephant, holding her phone in one hand and beckoning the reader to join her with the other. “New party,” she says, “who dis?”

The politicians we agree with aren’t just leaders, they’re held up as saviors. It’s not enough to just support them; we want to love them. We’re fans of them.

Drawing an equivalence between AOC and Trump is common to the point of cliché, and to do so ignores a crucial distinction between them: the nature of their fandoms. Fandom, at its best, is what patriotism should look like — loyal, welcoming, but not infinitely forgiving. Good fandom, according to Ashley Hinck, an assistant professor at Xavier University, “will hold you accountable.” But at its worst, fandom looks like patriotism at its most toxic: hostile to outsiders, utterly entitled, deaf to criticism. And increasingly, it’s getting harder to tell the difference.

On any given day in America, the president might signal-boost a doctored video of Nancy Pelosi. Theories floated on Fox News find their way into White House policy. Tweets intended as parody are accepted as legitimate. An echo chamber of commentators swiftly warp political developments whose audience does not care if they are accurate, so long as they are angry. In this world, the fear that fictional narratives — even those meant as jokes — can overwhelm the actual facts is well-founded. But for better or for worse, we are in an age of political fandom, and there’s no going back.

“We’ve entered a world in which fan identities matter,” says Hinck. “And if we underestimate fandom — and the importance of fan identities — it’s dangerous.” According to Hinck, the old demographics are outdated. The political world populated by easily targeted union members and soccer moms and Rockefeller Republicans is gone, and it is not coming back. The internet has broken the old molds of identity, and now we are gluing the shards back together into shapes that fit us better. “People are looking for new sources of belonging,” says Hinck. “People are members of these fan communities in the millions. These are huge voting blocs.”

“That’s true,” agrees Amber Davisson, but she points out that “the day you organize fandom, you destroy it. Creative work exists at the margins because they’re exploring the thing we don’t want to talk about. Fans need to exist at the margin because they need to push the rest of us. There will always be people pushing at the edges. And sometimes people pushing at the edges win.”

* * *

Samuel Ashworth is a regular contributor to the Washington Post Magazine, and his fiction, essays, and criticism have appeared in Hazlitt, Eater, NYLON, Barrelhouse, Catapult, the Times Literary Supplement, and the Rumpus. He is currently working on a novel about the life and death of a chef, told through his autopsy.

Editor: Katie Kosma Fact-Checker: Samantha Schuyler Copyeditor: Jacob Z. Gross

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[words-writ-in-starlight]

you know what also pissed me off about supernatural, though? the inability to commit to their own worldbuilding. even while clinging to a static paradigm, where The Masquerade is in full effect, they couldn't be consistent about what sort of underground magic communities do and don't exist. I know this can be blamed on multiple writers and all, but it drives me up the wall. f.ex. witches are All Evil and tend to work alone, until that episode with the familiars when you find a bunch of nice(r)

witches who go to witchbars and hardly ever poison each other’s drinks, oh and also familiars are athing. a while later spike and cordelia are witches who’ve had a tempestuousrelationship for… centuries I think, aka witches can live for a really longtime, so there’s no way the bigger/older ones don't all know each other. thereought to be SOME sort of witch ‘society’, even if it’s just loosecommunication. but no, after this you never hear of witches ever again, muchless familiars or witch

bars. then you’ve gotBela, who caters to rich people who know magical artifacts exist, but there’sno exploration of what that could MEAN – if Bela can hold down a job, thenenough of the country’s elite own and exploit magic stuff that it could –SHOULD – have at least some effect on US politics, as in who gets power.there’s never a whisper of that, but okay, this isn’t exactly the winchesterboys’ social scene. but failing that, some of these magic-obsessed rich peopleshould turn up for a

few episodes, eitherhaunted or else guilty of inflicting a monster-of-the-week on someone. heck,one of them could be a recurring vaguely-helpful character that the boys stopby and menace a bit whenever they need access to some excessively obscureartifact. you already mentioned the mess of all those Alpha Monsters who werepowerful and unkillable and stuff, and had their own dread agendas withpotentially far-reaching consequences for their respective species, and thenjust… vanished. I don’t

even remember how. andthen there’s the hunter community, which is the most inconsistent of all. firstit’s just these two and their dad, and then they start finding out their dad’sold friends were all actually hunters or oracles or whatever. so far so good;these are just Mysteries Of Our Father’s Past, and valid character/plotdevelopment stuff. but there’s Bobby, who Knows Everyone, and Ellen, whose barevery hunter in the country frequents sooner or later, and this means huntersknow each

other, know about eachother, they have a network of communication and they share intel, gossip, tradesecrets. but the moment the bar blows up there’s just no network, noconnection, nothing at all binding hunters together, even though Bobby stillknows everyone and Ellen and Jo are still around and plenty able to found a newbar if they wanted to, or at least keep in touch with at least half of thepeople who used to swing by their bar. oh and also the demons! they talk aboutcomplex politics

happening in Hell, theyhave some sort of prophesied demon queen who takes the body of a young girl andhas glowing white eyes (I don’t even remember what happened to her), they havedemon religion and spirituality to the point where Lucifer is basically DemonJesus – I’m pretty sure this is explicitly stated, Lucifer is to the demonswhat Jesus is to really devout Christians, semi-mythical status and prophesiedsecond coming and everything – and the show makes an effort to flesh out itsdemonic

characters, give thempersonality and desires and drives, and it shows distinct differences in howdifferent demons feel about humanity, and about what they do, and all that. yetdespite all this, the only demon we meet who doesn’t immediately try to murderthe boys is Ruby. no one tries to bargain honestly with the boys, no one butCrowley tries to aim the boys at their own enemies, no one begs for mercy orlies about repentance. nothing. can you imagine if those demons who told Sam totake up

his antichrist mantleand lead a demon army decided that, since their Chosen One was unwilling, theyought to convince him? what if a bunch of demons had started discreetly tailingthe boys, showing up sometimes to rescue them from really bad fights or offerup dead monsters like housecats offering dead birds? ‘hey chosen one, we caughtyou this demon who’s high up in Crowley’s hierarchy, do you want to torture himfor information yourself or do you want us to do it?’ they solemnly swear that

that they’ve stoppedkilling humans, they keep quietly growing in number, and they always scrambefore the boys are conscious enough to kill them properly. sam and dean havemany arguments about whether they were REALLY too concussed to stab theirlatest demonic rescuer and get absurdly angsty and argumentative about it. Iknow my rant has gotten pretty thoroughly disorganized and this is moving backinto must-have-a-static-paradigm territory, but I am a little bitter.

THIS IS ALSO SUCH A GOOD POINT there is just so much to be bitter about with this show, like, good god, you’d think that sooner or later they’d run out of basic narrative rules to fuck up.

Speaking of rules, I think this is a manifestation of one of Supernatural’s wider problems, which is that they just DO NOT SEEM TO UNDERSTAND THE RULES OF THEIR OWN UNIVERSE.  Like, all they’ve REALLY nailed down is that demons can be exorcised, but anything that isn’t a demon is pretty much at the mercy of the plot for A) how powerful it is, B) how hard to kill it is, and C) how ‘human’ it’s considered.  Like, everything from werewolves to wendigos are stated to be at least PART human, but basically their ‘humanness’ and subsequently the amount of sympathy accorded to them is predicated on how benign (or how attractive) they look in their human form.  The magic of this universe is wildly unpredictable--the Winchesters sometimes do/dabble in magic themselves, but we never really learn how magic works.  Does it require a focus?  Does it require badly-pronounced Latin?  Is it an expression of the user’s willpower?  Is it similar to what demons do (implied when All Witches Are Wicked for the first few seasons) or not?  Does it require natural talent or can anyone learn it?  THERE ARE SO MANY QUESTIONS THAT ARE TOTALLY IGNORED.  THEN there’s the question of societies in this supernatural underworld.  Like, I think I’ve expressed in my John Wick comments how much I like functional underworld societies with rules and systems, but honestly it’s CRITICALLY necessary if you’re doing what SPN does and having the society Matter.  I cringe every time I think about how clumsy and slapdash the hunting community was in Supernatural, because it had SO MUCH POTENTIAL, don’t talk to me about it, I made it work better when I wrote my spite novel.  I’m sure I can think of fifty million more incomplete universe rules, but I can honestly feel my blood pressure rising right now so I’m going to stop.

OH MY GOD GUYS, please, if you’re a writer, let me beg you right now in person to figure out the rules of your universe and then commit.  Here are some pointers.

Magic should work in a conceptually similar way to gravity: its rules should be consistent and should be able to be broadly extrapolated from the general effect, and if you’re going to BREAK those rules you’ve got to have a damn fine reason.  

The sliding scale of ‘humannness’ should...slide less, to be completely honest, work your shit the fuck out EARLY or make working your shit the fuck out a plot point (please see Stormdancer for a good example).  

If you’re dealing with questions of what makes someone human (@SPN FOR LIKE FOUR FUCKING SEASONS) then you should actively question like “Hey, my dude, can we morally kill this person for something they have no control over” unless your character took the trait ‘Callous’ somewhere in their history (which is also fine).

If you have an underworld society--or any society tbh???--WORK YOUR SHIT OUT.  How do they work together (ex: hunters pretending to be ‘the boss’ when someone calls the number on that fake business card)?  How do they support each other (ex: safehouses? maybe? this is never discussed in SPN? and I hate it?)?  What are the things people differ on (ex: whether or not to murder the Winchesters, which, like, I know you’re supposed to be against that because they’re the protagonists, but by the time I bailed I def wanted someone to shoot them)?  Is there an assumption of free exchange of favors or is there a strict financial/bargaining system?   How much does one person vouching for another matter in the community?  ANSWER SOME BASIC QUESTIONS FFS

Finally, most crucially, for the love of all that is good, Pick A Plot.  One plot.  It can have subplots (example: an overarching plot broken up by smaller missions, a la your average TV show) or multiple acts (as in a play, where you’ve got a couple major pieces that assemble into the main plot, like Much Ado where you’ve got (roughly) the matchmaking, the wedding, the vengeance, and the resolution), but it should be One Plot and you need to tie up those motherfucking loose ends.

This has been “Hey look turns out that 6K later I have Even More Complaints about Supernatural” with Moran.

#the inevitable supernatural tirade #the graveyard of shows with potential and terrible execution #also i'm into your plot rewrite finx #i'm real into it #it's very similar to my plot rewrite #honestly can we all just agree that this show would be 1000x more interesting if sam had an army #like #please #just let me have a show where someone gets told they're the antichrist and responds with #'cool cool that's the worst thing that's ever happened to me' #'but i'll just take this army of demons off your hands and use it to get my stuff done' #or alternately #'cool cool so turns out i've been pseudo adopted/stalked by ten thousand demons' #'and i can make use of that or just trail them behind me like a toy on a string but they're pretty serious about it' #I'M BITTER #aethersea #asked and answered

[words-writ-in-starlight]

The thing about SPN is that all of its characters have such good potential, y'know? Like the Sam's Boy King of Hell thing you mentioned. And the Antichrist. And all the other characters whose potential was wasted so the show could revert back to it's lazy formula. I'm just really bothered about this. Idk man it pisses me off.

ANOTHER THING ABOUT THE WASTED POTENTIAL. AMARA. THE DARKNESS. PRE-BIBLICAL. GOD"S SISTER. THE BE ALL END ALL OF VILLIANS. Her plotline was so crap????? Season 13 confirmed and that was the best they could give us? I truly believe if they had played their cards right they could have created an amazing story arc that would've kept people engaged and saved the show from itself.

I’m just so much enjoying that people actually agree with me.  Because you’re right!  The characters by and large have a lot of potential!  The dynamics have the potential to be really interesting!  AND YET.

Fuckin’ Supernatural, seriously.

#the inevitable supernatural tirade #the graveyard of shows with potential and terrible execution #tbqh i think their hole is too deep #no matter how good the amara plotline was #they were pretty much screwed #because like HERE IS THE THING #people would have to wade through all the seasons between when they jumped the shark in s5 #ALL THE WAY to when amara shows up which is idek when #like #it might just be me #but i do not have the focus for that even at all #even if i just ran it background while i did other stuff i'd go insane #like hard nope #anonymous #asked and answered

[words-writ-in-starlight]

All right, @notsumma it won’t let me reply directly to your reply on the SPN Tirade because this website is CONSTANTLY in need of a white knight (I love X-Kit guys) and is currently acting up with that function, so here we go:

so assuming that by s7 the show you liked was 4 years dead, that lines up with Eric Kripke's opinion. you know, the creator of the show. he wanted to stop at the end of s3, but the network was like 'nah, we're making  money.' then at the end of s5 he didn't reup his contract, so everything from s6 on is just high-production-value fanfiction.

THIS EXPLAINS SO MUCH, the first three seasons are good fun--it ain’t Shakespeare, but I knew what I was getting into--and even up to five...sort of hung together, at the very least, and then it goes OFF THE GODDAMN RAILS, wow, this answers so many questions.  And also, like, basically I was right?  It’s basically two totally different Frankenshows with the same characters and premise loosely divided by the whole Lucifer situation.

#the inevitable supernatural tirade #rant tag #the graveyard of shows with potential and terrible execution #this is actually so gratifying to know #i feel like i've been validated #replies #notsumma

[words-writ-in-starlight]

notsumma replied to your post: I hope you don't mind if I rant a bit, but I'm...

okay so I’m totally with y'all that spn sucks, but that’s not gonna stop me from watching season 13. I’ve sunk 12 years of my life into this show, i will see it through

And I want you to know that I admire the fuck out of that bloody-minded stubbornness.  *fist bump*

#notsumma #replies #the inevitable supernatural tirade #the graveyard of shows with potential and terrible execution

[words-writ-in-starlight]

I hope you don't mind if I rant a bit, but I'm just re reading the SPN rant and I'm remebering how mad I am about this show??? Because I used to really like it, and up to Season 5 I had issues but I dealt with it because y'know it was good overall. But then like as the seasons kept on going I was left in a permanent state of "wtf" I actually made it 5 episodes 1/?

of Season 8 before I was like... what am I doing so I bingewatched a bunch of crime shows. But then Season 11 started airing and I still had "kept up" with SPN because of "nostalgia" or wtfever and I heard they were introducing "The Darkness" the "biggest bad ever, pre-creation, sister of GOD" and I'm like eh, but then the fandom was coming up with all these theories and 2/?

I'll give it a try and then I heard they had Season 13 confirmed so I was like hey, it's going to be 3 season arc! Hey, maybe it'll turn out alright! I started mid way through the season so when I started watching it was pretty obvous they'd already set Amara/the Darkness as Dean's love interest but I was like... well if it was Sam she's be dead but since it's with Dean 3/?

hey might create a heartrenching arc about sibling? (How naive I was..) And as the season went on I kept cringing but Season 13 confirmed! EVEN BIGGER BAD THAN ALL THE OTHER BAD! GOD REAPPEARENCE! It's going to turn out all right! And then they literally had the most STUPIDEST ENDING EVER 4/?

SPOILER: IT WAS LITERALLY I'M SORRY I WAS OS MEAN TO YOU BRO

THEN MOTHER OF ALL PLOT TWISTS (SPOILER) THEY BRING BACK MARY! SO GET READY FOR SEASON 12 WINCHESTER ANGST + MUM AND MOST PROBABLY AN EVEN BIGGERER BADDAERER BAD!!!! *inhales* It was at this point I switched off the t.v and screamed into my pillow 6/?

I'm just very frustrated about SPN and all the wasted potential with Amara/ the Darkness. THEY HAD SEASON 13 CONFIRMED. Idk why I sent you all of this, your rant just awoke the beast in me I guess. I'm just going to leave with all of this *gestures toward previous asks* and run away. Sorry 7/7

HONEY never ever apologize for bitching about Supernatural with me, I am here for you to get it the FUCK off your chest.  I am the most sympathetic ear.  Amazingly, my epic rant was a mere fragment of my complaints.  SO ANY TIME YOU NEED TO BITCH, I AM HERE FOR IT.

That being said, damn, anon, you stuck it out way longer than I did.  And wow, I have done some googling and I just.  I just give up.  I don’t understand the plot.  I am confused.  I tried to fucking figure out the Amara thing, I Wiki’d, I IMDB’d, but it’s incomprehensible.  And then fucking Mary gets resurrected?  Goddamn, I’m just glad I got out when I did tbh.

@SPN producers, let it end.

#the inevitable supernatural tirade #the graveyard of shows with potential and terrible execution #LET IT DIE #i hope this is the new thing #people sending me shit to complain about spn #please let this be the new thing #anonymous #asked and answered

[words-writ-in-starlight]

Please tell me all about your complaints with BBC Merlin, bc I too have Many Complaints (ft. Miscommunication and Secrets Are Good For Drama to a Maximum of One Season and Certainly Not Five; Morgana is a Terrified and Oppressed Woman Who Is Made Evil for Being Terrified and Oppressed and Does Not Deserve It, Much Like All Mages; and Everyone Has A Serious Case of Forgetting Their Character Growth when The Plot Requires.

*deep breath*

Honestly I think my ultimate complaint about Merlin is that it suffers from an absolutely crippling case of narrative cowardice, which is a concept you might recall from my Inevitable Tirade About SPN.  Basically: if you open your show with a large portion of it predicated on a conceit that has to be drastically altered in order to accomplish the ultimate goal of the plot (in the case of Merlin, switching from uther’s Camelot to Arthur’s Camelot), you can’t be a shit about it and you have to actually goddamn do it.  CHANGE YOUR PARADIGM, YOU LIMP NOODLES.

No, I’m dead serious, all their problems basically boil down to a critical inability to change the paradigm.  Let’s do an experiment to prove it.

Merlin’s magic, obviously.

Two things here.

First, Merlin hiding his magic.  At the beginning, Merlin can’t tell anyone about his magic on pain of death, because Uther.  This implicitly sets up the eventual transition into Arthur’s Camelot as a shift into a ‘safe’ Camelot for magic users in general and Merlin in particular, because we all know a little bit about Arthuriana and we know that Merlin becomes Arthur’s trusted adviser, magic and all.  So in order to accomplish that transition, what ‘should’ happen (by ‘should’ I mean, ‘the thing that makes intuitive sense to someone waiting for the plot to advance’) is that Merlin’s presence and involvement in Arthur’s life gradually makes Arthur more comfortable with magic, until finally a crisis forces a reveal in which Merlin comes clean and puts Arthur in the position of deciding once and for all where he stands.  Plot and precedent in every other Arthurian legend requires that Arthur decides, at the very least, that Merlin is not evil and that consequently magic can be used for good.  This would by virtue of necessity put Arthur and Merlin against Uther, and moreover mean that it would be the two of them scheming together in order to save the kingdom every couple weeks, which would be an excellent way to develop their relationship and progress toward Arthur’s Camelot.  Instead, by trying to uphold the ‘secrecy’ conceit, the plot is forced to relapse to Square One every couple of episodes, and therefore when Arthur’s Camelot does come ‘round, it’s not safe for Merlin to come clean, Merlin still doesn’t really trust Arthur, Arthur’s playing checkers on a board where the other side is playing chess, and We The People feel pretty fucking cheated.

Second, Merlin’s magic in general.  FRIENDS.  COMRADES.  IF YOU ARE GOING TO GO TO GREAT LENGTHS TO SET SOMEONE UP AS THE MOST POWERFUL MAGE IN HISTORY, I WANT TO SEE THEM BE THE MOST POWERFUL MAGE IN HISTORY.  Honestly by about season 3 there’s no point to Merlin being worried about coming clean, because we’re told repeatedly that he’s powerful enough to not worry about being burned at the stake or whatever.  According to what we’re told, Merlin should have the raw power to walk into Uther’s courtroom and announce “Hello, all, I am a warlock and I dare you to mess with me” and then go back to his business.  But since we never see him actually carry that out–y’all he fucking killed Nimueh with lightning, why didn’t we see that again?–Merlin’s power level is mostly an Informed Attribute, which leaves the viewer frustrated and confused by a lot of the tension the show sets up regarding threats to Merlin’s life.  We see Merlin demonstrate multiple times that it would be almost impossible to execute him by traditional methods, and yet we’re still supposed to agree that it’s too dangerous.  Like.  Listen, my friends.  Here is a pro tip.  It’s actually not a narrative-ending problem to have a ludicrously OP character (which is what Merlin would be if the writers were consistent with his abilities), but you have to acknowledge that they develop a whole different set of obstacles than someone who isn’t ludicrously OP.  It just takes some creative thinking.

Morgana!

Morgana is horribly mistreated by the narrative and I’m not gonna question you there, but moreover, a lot of the problems with her magic plotline are, again, about a fear of changing the paradigm.  So, like, okay, let’s all agree that it would make infinitely more narrative sense for Morgana to go to Arthur, her foster brother and trusted friend, in distress and tell him that she thinks she can do magic, which Arthur would tell his servant Merlin.  The two of them recommend that Morgana keep it under wraps, and maybe that’s how Arthur starts to come around on the magic thing, rather than Merlin’s influence.  Sure, super chill.  Instead of just doing an about-face on the whole loyalty thing because…what…she’s not the heir?  (It’s been A Minute since I put myself through this show.)  Instead of that whole mess, maybe Morgana comes to Merlin when Uther is wounded and begs him to help her find a way to heal him, because surely, surely, if his beloved ward (and daughter) uses magic for something so pure and innocently good as healing the king, it can’t be evil.  When that inevitably backfires, Uther banishes Morgana from Camelot, and Arthur tells her to go because it’s safer.  Morgana, betrayed by Uther and perceiving herself to be abandoned by Arthur and Merlin, turns on Camelot in a rage and allies with her sister Morgause.  This plotline gives Morgana more agency, avoids the rather unsavory “madness leads to murder” overtones, minimizes the predatory vibe of Morgause’s plotline, and actually contributes to developing Merlin and Arthur as leaders and characters alike.

The problem, of course, is that this plotline hinges on Arthur’s character not being a static piece of shit that would honestly fracture under even the most minimal paradigm shift.  So instead, Morgana draws the short straw for a sudden face-heel turn so that there can be a motivation to enforce Arthur’s hatred of magic and Merlin’s fear of telling the truth, and then she disappears for half a season only to show up again crazy and homicidal, which…honestly there’s not a lot of emotional punch there.  At no point in time did I sympathize with Morgana because, update, I do not believe that fratricide and patricide are legitimate responses to her situation in the show.  But since they presented it as a problem that should have been sympathetic, I was mostly just angry rather than disinterested.

Merlin and Arthur’s friendship!

Honestly this should be pretty blindingly obvious, but Merlin and Arthur…I actually don’t super care for their relationship, because there are so few occasions when Arthur counterbalances his constant insults and judgement with the kind of do-or-die loyalty Merlin shows him.  And like on the one hand it’s clearly meant to be largely in good humor, but there are plenty of times when it’s Clearly Not.  But the worst part is that I can’t even hold it against Arthur because Merlin is not telling him the truth, which in turn I can’t hold against Merlin because Arthur is pretty much a narrow-minded magic-hating prick, which never changes because Merlin isn’t telling him the truth, because Arthur has never given him reason to think he’d stand by Merlin against Uther, and so on down the line.

And you expect me to believe that relationship develops into something strong enough to build a kingdom on?  To build a legend on?  I think the hell not.  In order to develop that relationship into something that feels as last-gasp-devoted as the show tells you it should, someone’s paradigm has to shift and it basically has to be Arthur because See Above and, again, the showmakers are fucking cowards.

Arthur’s personality AS A WHOLE

Once again: I am existentially exhausted by the whole Arthur Is A Dick thing.  And I don’t blame Merlin for starting it, but it’s definitely a peak concentration of the whole phenomenon, and I fucking hate it.  I eventually stuck it out and watched three seasons and change and I did genuinely enjoy a lot of things, but I attempted the first episode three times and had to stop because I was so fucking aggravated with Arthur’s character.  And basically, in order for him to move firmly out of Spoiled Rich Prick With Issues into Competent Merciful Leader With Tragic Backstory That Panned Out Well In The End, he needs to acknowledge in-narrative that he’s been, A, contributing to the persecution of magic users and that’s something he’ll never truly be clean of, and, B, he’s been not only mocking but actively penalizing Merlin for what Arthur does not realize is saving the country.  Basically, it would require Arthur to grow up, not just in his status as king but in and of himself as an individual, in his relationships as well as in his throne, become more than a war hero with more courage than is healthy.  It would require Arthur to spit out an apology that sounded like an apology, and start trusting Merlin’s word as an adviser rather than a conveniently intelligent servant.

And like.  That paradigm shift would probably have made the showrunners shit their pants on the spot.

If you, like me, couldn’t move past these issues but still want(ed) to enjoy the characters and universe, I have a solution for you!  Here is the most magnificent series rewrite I have ever seen in my life, and as far as I am concerned the One True Merlin Canon.  The link is to the Season 3 rewrite, which is where it goes hard AU and solves a lot of problems. 

In conclusion: fuck this noise, everyone go watch Legend of the Sword instead, @Guy Ritchie please make at least one sequel.

#the inevitable merlin tirade #the graveyard of shows with potential and terrible execution #god i just...i took this one really personally guys #like way more personally than supernatural believe it or not #arthuriana is CLOSE TO MY GODDAMN HEART #but yeah no i've thought about it a lot and unlike spn where their issues were Numerous And Invasive #to the point where the show was almost unsalvageable past oh say season 3? maybe 5 if i'm VERY generous #merlin's problems almost entirely boil down to this one issue: the inability to take the leap and change the paradigm #MERLIN IS A FUNDAMENTALLY GREAT CONCEPT #LIKE #I WAS S O READY TO LOVE THIS SHOW GUYS HONESTLY THE DISAPPOINTMENT WAS CRUSHING #i stopped watching when i couldn't take it anymore and i was depressed for weeks #because there is so! much! potential! #GOD #anyway i need to think about something else now because i'm so ticked off about this show #i'm gonna go write a fic where the librarians are camelot reborn so stay tuned for that #oh also i started watching discovery last night and HEAR ME OUT HERE #michael/saru yes or yes #and obviously space science boyfriends #and like speaking as a Science Queer(TM) i can confirm that we are The Worst #and spit out terrible science jokes when confronted with attractive people #like the whole 'the frontal cortex isn't that important' was like SAME DUDE i've made some Bad Jokes to hot people #like someday i really will blurt out some bullshit about conjugated ring systems and chemical perfection to a pretty girl in a bar probably #anyway here's wonderwall #idiot teenagers with a queue #necer0s #asked and answered

[ao3feed-castiel]

The Good Witch and the Bad Witch

read it on the AO3 at https://ift.tt/3iuLXPA

by ThorinBilbo

The tablet could only tell Sam and Dean so much. There was to be a Good Witch, a witch who uses her powers for the good of mankind, a woman of tranquility and humility. A woman who excretes kindness and prosperity. Opposite her was the Bad Witch, a witch who appears arrogant, narcissistic, and oozes superiority and power. These two witches happened to be Fergus Macleod's twin daughters that his wife managed to escape with, causing him to spiral into an already inevitable tirade of complete and utter horrid actions. These two witches, twin sisters, family, were destined to eventually brawl, to end the other one and eventually have one reign as the Supreme Witch. And, as a sucker for such power, Rowena decides to truly enable this prophecy into reality by bringing the girls back from the dead.

Words: 1389, Chapters: 1/?, Language: English

Fandoms: Supernatural

Rating: General Audiences

Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence

Categories: F/F, F/M, M/M, Multi

Characters: Sam Winchester, Dean Winchester, Castiel, Castiel Novak, Rowena MacLeod, Crowley, Fergus MacLeod, Charlie Bradbury, Kevin Tran

Relationships: Dean Winchester/Original Female Character(s), Sam Winchester/Original Female Character(s)

Additional Tags: good and bad

read it on the AO3 at https://ift.tt/3iuLXPA

#IFTTT #castiel #cas #spn #supernatural #ao3feed