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Oct. 3rd, 2008 10:09 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
liptonrm_backupWinging my way down to FGC for a weekend of awesome, but before that I had to stop by and talk about Show. Because it's Friday and everybody talks about Show on Friday.
Randomly: Dave was on TV this week and it's still my favorite political movie ever. Good times.
But Show is not good times! Okay, so it is good times to the extent that last night's episode was freaking awesome but not good times in the sense that OMG HOW SO FUCKED UP CAMPBELL-WINCHESTERS?!!!!!! That shot where Mary had just made the deal and the look on Dean's face and John's head in Mary's lap and OMG I CAN'T EVEN BE ANYWHERE NEAR COHERENT!!!!!
Speaking of, how much do I really, really want Mary!fic now? More than anything! And Grandpa Skinner!fic because awesome is so hereditary! Or, maybe even better yet, Grandma Skinner!fic! She was pretty dang hardcore herself. See, the family that hunts together gets ripped apart by evil just as easily as the family who doesn't, but the family that hunts together also totally kicks ass together!
Apparently there's some line from John's journal about how Mary kept journals by the bed? OMG, this totally means that she was hunting things while they were married! How awesome (and awesomely fucked up) is that! Plz to be providing me with fic, fandom.
BTW, John's totally a better person than me because I would've been on those suckers the first chance I got, just out of pure curiousity. Invasion of privacy? Pfft. ;-)
In the fresh light of day I am struck with the way that John was after he came home from Vietnam. Methinks he may have more serious psychological issues than he's letting on. He's all, la la la I believe in happily ever after, but how much is he putting into that belief? How much is he clasping to normalcy and Mary to save him from what's bubbling deep under the surface? And how much more will it such when it's all ripped away from him? Gah, Winchesters and Campbells. It's like they were made for each other. It hurts in a really freaking great way.
And OMG, how much do I love that John is the chick in this story?!!! He was totally the sacrifical lamb that set everything on its course! Which, you know, kinda flips around the normal hero origin story where it's the woman who plays the sacrifice. SPN is flipping around its own mythology and cliches, you guys! I kind of really love them for that. I love how last night was Mary's story and John was a background character, her bright hope for a better life. See! Show totally gets how we're all the heroes of our own stories! They can be wonderfully smart sometimes, even while dropping the requisite anvils left and right. Come on! It wouldn't be Show without an anvil drop or ten.
Ever since last week I'm really gigging on the different ways that Ruby and Castiel are leading Sam and Dean around by the nose. I have to dedicate an entire post to my unified theory of how demons are liars and angels are dicks. But today is not that day. Part of Castiel's whole thing last night was definitely finding the perfect way to point Dean Winchester in the direction he "should" go and then let him loose to do good's dirty work for them. Eeeehxcellent. And then there's Ruby who's been working Sam since the get-go. I had a crazy idea last night that maybe Ruby and Lilith are working together! Maybe it's all a vast plot to bring Sam into line! Maybe there wasn't some sort of internal demon war brewing but that's just what they wanted the Winchesters to believe! OMG, what was Azazel's End Game! Damn it, the one villain who actually read some of the Evil Overlord List and they're going to string us along with hints for months and OMG!
BTW, I'm still hoping that, even though Castiel said you can't change destiny, Show still comes down on the side of 'Predestination's crap' because, seriously, if everything's predestined then what's the freaking point? I'm hoping you can't change destiny in the sense that you can't change history. No matter what you do in the past things will still turn out pretty much the same way that they were supposed to. It's a very Connie Willis argument. She wrote some great books about time-travelling historians (Doomsday Book and To Say Nothing of the Dog) where it turned out that history buffered itself, in a sense, that all of the important things (both macro- and microcosmically) would happen no matter what sorts of interferences were run by idiots from the future. Hence the present is unchangeable but the future still could be through our own actions. So Dean couldn't change the past but nothing about the future is set in stone.
I have a feeling that next week is going to be All About Sam (not that this week wasn't, in a way, for an episode with a largely absent Jared, Sam seemed to always be there). Well, it'll be all about Sam just so long as Jensen isn't a dick and steals the last scene of the episode. Gotta get those sympathy tears under control, dude. ;-) I'm really hoping for some good, meaty, 'you were dead, Dean, and I did what I had to do to get by, so YOU DON'T GET TO JUDGE ME YOU HYPOCRITICAL JACKASS' from Sam. I think this season is going to be about Sam and Dean being pitted against each other by the various forces pulling their strings, but I also think that the culmination of this little morality play will be that the earth can only be saved by Sam&Dean choosing each other and humanity over the extremes that are battling for their souls.
It's like the Discovery Channel episode says, we have to love the whole world and all of its many awesomings (boom de yadda boom de yadda)! Take that the bright, hot light at the center of Good and the swirling, dark vortex at the center of Evil! We choose another road!
I think I'm getting overexcited. I need to conserve my squee for the weekend ahead. So, in conclusion: HAO SO AWSOME MARY CAMPBELL? and GRANDPA SKINNER FTW! Awesome is so entirely genetic, as is, apparently, selling your soul to a demon to save your family. But let's just focus on the awesome for the moment, okay?
And now, for your listening enjoyment, an oldie but a goodie. This song played in the diner while Dean and John were talking and was first played in the Pilot. Oh, the memories.
Allman Brothers Band - Ramblin' Man
Randomly: Dave was on TV this week and it's still my favorite political movie ever. Good times.
But Show is not good times! Okay, so it is good times to the extent that last night's episode was freaking awesome but not good times in the sense that OMG HOW SO FUCKED UP CAMPBELL-WINCHESTERS?!!!!!! That shot where Mary had just made the deal and the look on Dean's face and John's head in Mary's lap and OMG I CAN'T EVEN BE ANYWHERE NEAR COHERENT!!!!!
Speaking of, how much do I really, really want Mary!fic now? More than anything! And Grandpa Skinner!fic because awesome is so hereditary! Or, maybe even better yet, Grandma Skinner!fic! She was pretty dang hardcore herself. See, the family that hunts together gets ripped apart by evil just as easily as the family who doesn't, but the family that hunts together also totally kicks ass together!
Apparently there's some line from John's journal about how Mary kept journals by the bed? OMG, this totally means that she was hunting things while they were married! How awesome (and awesomely fucked up) is that! Plz to be providing me with fic, fandom.
BTW, John's totally a better person than me because I would've been on those suckers the first chance I got, just out of pure curiousity. Invasion of privacy? Pfft. ;-)
In the fresh light of day I am struck with the way that John was after he came home from Vietnam. Methinks he may have more serious psychological issues than he's letting on. He's all, la la la I believe in happily ever after, but how much is he putting into that belief? How much is he clasping to normalcy and Mary to save him from what's bubbling deep under the surface? And how much more will it such when it's all ripped away from him? Gah, Winchesters and Campbells. It's like they were made for each other. It hurts in a really freaking great way.
And OMG, how much do I love that John is the chick in this story?!!! He was totally the sacrifical lamb that set everything on its course! Which, you know, kinda flips around the normal hero origin story where it's the woman who plays the sacrifice. SPN is flipping around its own mythology and cliches, you guys! I kind of really love them for that. I love how last night was Mary's story and John was a background character, her bright hope for a better life. See! Show totally gets how we're all the heroes of our own stories! They can be wonderfully smart sometimes, even while dropping the requisite anvils left and right. Come on! It wouldn't be Show without an anvil drop or ten.
Ever since last week I'm really gigging on the different ways that Ruby and Castiel are leading Sam and Dean around by the nose. I have to dedicate an entire post to my unified theory of how demons are liars and angels are dicks. But today is not that day. Part of Castiel's whole thing last night was definitely finding the perfect way to point Dean Winchester in the direction he "should" go and then let him loose to do good's dirty work for them. Eeeehxcellent. And then there's Ruby who's been working Sam since the get-go. I had a crazy idea last night that maybe Ruby and Lilith are working together! Maybe it's all a vast plot to bring Sam into line! Maybe there wasn't some sort of internal demon war brewing but that's just what they wanted the Winchesters to believe! OMG, what was Azazel's End Game! Damn it, the one villain who actually read some of the Evil Overlord List and they're going to string us along with hints for months and OMG!
BTW, I'm still hoping that, even though Castiel said you can't change destiny, Show still comes down on the side of 'Predestination's crap' because, seriously, if everything's predestined then what's the freaking point? I'm hoping you can't change destiny in the sense that you can't change history. No matter what you do in the past things will still turn out pretty much the same way that they were supposed to. It's a very Connie Willis argument. She wrote some great books about time-travelling historians (Doomsday Book and To Say Nothing of the Dog) where it turned out that history buffered itself, in a sense, that all of the important things (both macro- and microcosmically) would happen no matter what sorts of interferences were run by idiots from the future. Hence the present is unchangeable but the future still could be through our own actions. So Dean couldn't change the past but nothing about the future is set in stone.
I have a feeling that next week is going to be All About Sam (not that this week wasn't, in a way, for an episode with a largely absent Jared, Sam seemed to always be there). Well, it'll be all about Sam just so long as Jensen isn't a dick and steals the last scene of the episode. Gotta get those sympathy tears under control, dude. ;-) I'm really hoping for some good, meaty, 'you were dead, Dean, and I did what I had to do to get by, so YOU DON'T GET TO JUDGE ME YOU HYPOCRITICAL JACKASS' from Sam. I think this season is going to be about Sam and Dean being pitted against each other by the various forces pulling their strings, but I also think that the culmination of this little morality play will be that the earth can only be saved by Sam&Dean choosing each other and humanity over the extremes that are battling for their souls.
It's like the Discovery Channel episode says, we have to love the whole world and all of its many awesomings (boom de yadda boom de yadda)! Take that the bright, hot light at the center of Good and the swirling, dark vortex at the center of Evil! We choose another road!
I think I'm getting overexcited. I need to conserve my squee for the weekend ahead. So, in conclusion: HAO SO AWSOME MARY CAMPBELL? and GRANDPA SKINNER FTW! Awesome is so entirely genetic, as is, apparently, selling your soul to a demon to save your family. But let's just focus on the awesome for the moment, okay?
And now, for your listening enjoyment, an oldie but a goodie. This song played in the diner while Dean and John were talking and was first played in the Pilot. Oh, the memories.
Allman Brothers Band - Ramblin' Man
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no subject
Date: 2008-10-06 12:05 am (UTC)This thrilled me as well. Of course, Mary ends up sacrificing herself in the end as well, of course, but what this backstory did is give her agency - obviously she knew based on the demon's comment and Dean's "don't get out of bed on Nov. 4" that if she did nothing she would likely live, but she was unwilling to sacrifice her child for her own safety. Which is a lot better story than 'she was just in the wrong place at the wrong time', imo.
no subject
Date: 2008-10-07 02:12 am (UTC)*Wonders whether she would be believed or not if she admitted to only reading up to 'what's the freaking point?' before deciding to type out a response that includes immediate thoughts and opinions of meta*
I kind of hope that next week is all about Sam. I missed him last week though I was very happy with peek into the past. Why is everyone I know a Dean groupie. Sammy needs some love too. (Ok, ok so I have a thing for the self-sacrificing Jesus characters...Sam, Angel, Leto Atredies...uh...Jesus?)
Anyway, back to topic:
I'm really hoping for some good, meaty, 'you were dead, Dean, and I did what I had to do to get by, so YOU DON'T GET TO JUDGE ME YOU HYPOCRITICAL JACKASS' from Sam.
God I hope so. That is the one thing that bothers me about the show. The fact that the boys can go through some really crazy shit and not bat an eye. I realize their realm of experience is a lot wider than anything I could come up with but that doesn't mean they are so jaded that nothing can affect them long term. We see in Mystery Spot how much Sam changes seeing Dean die over and over again (he quite literally cracks) and living through those months without Dean (his humanity is basically down the toilet, he kills Bobby for chis'sake!!) but then in the very next episode (yeah, I know they switched two of the eps.) there are no lasting effects. When Dean first emerges from his grave he is his normal self admittedly with a raspy voice. I get that he doesn't remember what it was like in Hell and so would not react to that but he does remember the Hell hounds ripping him apart and he does remember waking up in a grave, alone. Dean is a tough guy but that type of horror deserves a good O.O Oh my god. I was dead.
I have to admit, I did like the actors they chose for both Mary and John. I was surprised at how similar the actors looked to their older counterparts. Though I do think John (both in actions and looks) was a bit too clean cut.
Oh...! I really missed S1+2 music! I want to go back to that soundtrack please.
I think that's all right now. Hee hee hee. Think I wrote enough?
no subject
Date: 2008-10-11 06:37 pm (UTC)SPN can kind of suck at showing immediate reactions to emotional trauma, but I do think one of their strong points is how they portray the longterm effects. I think 4x04 did a good job of portraying how the past year has damaged both of the boys. I tend to consider 4x02 as the 'We're in shock so we're going to be in deep, deep denial about our pain' episode. Though, of course, I am very adept at the handwave. ;-)
It is true that everything felt a little pat in the season premiere, that emotional issues were glossed over too quickly but that's also a problem with episodic tv. They had to keep the episode going and get through all of that heavy story/plot/mytharc stuff. No wonder we all turn to fanfic to give us all of the things that tv can't.
The fact that you don't think I'm a Dean groupie really kind of made my day. I try really hard to be very balanced about the boys. I love them both dearly. Okay, it is true that my inner 12 year old writes 'Mrs. Dean Winchester' in hearts on her Trapper Keeper but that doesn't mean I don't love Sam a whole hell of a lot. I think if you see the show through the viewpoint of only one of the Winchesters you lose out on a lot of what makes SPN great.
I've had to deal with that same Dean tunnel vision with a couple RL friends and, as much as I love the guy, I always left those conversations feeling dissatisfied because Sam didn't get nearly as much consideration as he needed/deserved/merited. Sam needs love too!
They did do a good job with the young!Mary and John actors. Though I think that the fact that John was so clean-cut just makes his transformation into John fucking Winchester that much more heartbreaking. I was ambivalent about the clean-cut-ness but have in the interim become more open to it. And it kind of makes me hate that damn Yellow-eyed Demon even more, if that were at all possible.
Oh, Show, the things you do to my brain. Plz to never be stopping.
no subject
Date: 2008-10-11 06:49 pm (UTC)Yes, exactly. One of the things that makes me fall in love with this show over and over again is the fact that every character has its own story. Show isn't always the smartest game in town but it always knows how to treat its characters and give each one of them the importance they deserve, whether they're center stage or not.
They brought Mary into the plot and made SPN her story as much, if not more so, than it is her husband's or sons'. It's so intensely satisfying and I love them to bits.