A Hundred Billion Heavens

S*pernatural and The Winchesters blog • there may be spoilers • no hate or wank • repository of meta but maybe some bits and pieces of TV/film/writing stuff

[spn-lobby]

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how to: fanvids

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screencaps: @thebeautyofspn and these caps by @lazarrusrising

note: this is a permanent WIP and will continue to acquire more links

[angelsdean]

mary says she never wanted her kids to become hunters and i believe she had that lofty dream but. she was still secretly hunting after dean was born. she knew there was still danger out there and she couldn't ignore it, felt compelled to continue fighting it. no matter how hard she tried she couldn't completely walk away from that life or pretend that monsters weren't out there. so, how long before she caved to the fear and paranoia and took them on the road herself? like, had she survived azazel, i 10000% think she'd have taken them all into hiding while trying to take down azazel herself.

[noneofthisisok]

"History's greatest thinkers… with AI"

[sweetonsugden]

Ok, just so I have it straight - when the character of Ruby (Katie Cassidy) was initially introduced and she tells Dean that she needed his help to get Sam ready to fight on his own, she was already setting the plan in motion to have Sam release Lucifer since Dean was on his way to hell and breaking the first seal, right? I’m guessing the seal breaking wasn’t a certainty, but hell was banking on it?

[roundandroundthemulberry]

I love the backstory of this era, so I hope you don't mind if I chime in even if that isn't what prompted your supposition.

In-universe, it certainly looked that way. However, in real life, Eric Kripke had to be pragmatic. While the oft-repeated story about his five-season mythic arc is true, that target sat on the more optimistic end of the spectrum. Initially, he had to dial down his expectations and adjust as the show went along. He originally targeted a three-year arc, which was the industry norm back then; Jeremy Carver was later quoted as having the same target.

Wikipedia and The Futon Critic

Meanwhile, Sera Gamble operated on a two-year plan based on her contract. Andrew Dabb was the lucky one who didn't have to worry about cancellation. By Season 9, CW President Mark Pedowitz stated that Supernatural was virtually guaranteed a renewal as long as viewership stayed steady—and it did, consistently remaining in the network's top three.

From my understanding of the TV industry, when a new season premieres, a show typically has 12 or 13 episodes pitched to the studio, fully plotted, and ready to be filmed as production kicks off. If the network gives a "full-season order," the back half of the episodes goes through the same approval process later on. For Season 3, the 2007–2008 writers' strike disrupted that back-half order. They only had up to episode 12 locked in, which was originally supposed to be "Mystery Spot" before the episode order was switched (more on this below). "Ghostfacers," meanwhile, was written after the strike ended.

When the strike hit, Kripke pivoted. In my opinion, the tentpoles of the story stayed the same, but the pacing of the myth arc was stretched and padded. The core concept of Sam going dark to save Dean was always there, except the original plan was to save Dean before he went to Hell. Because Dean wasn't dragged downstairs in the original draft, the concept of breaking the 66 seals didn't exist yet. The strike robbed them of the narrative momentum needed to show Sam successfully saving his brother, so Kripke abandoned that route and let Dean go to Hell.

Collider

This pivot directly birthed Season 4's angel mythology and the Michael vs. Lucifer conflict. While Sam being Lucifer's vessel was always part of the master plan, the original endgame was simply brother vs. brother, with Dean forced to hunt down and kill a corrupted Sam.

Regarding the episode switch: "Jus in Bello" was originally meant to be episode 11, followed by "Mystery Spot." When the strike made the future uncertain, Kripke flipped the order so the show could end the strike-shortened season run on a high note. Personally, I love this change. The continuity works beautifully: seeing Dean die countless times in "Mystery Spot" leaves Sam hardened and callous. This directly feeds into his darker mindset in "Jus in Bello," where he focuses entirely on the big picture and is willing to sacrifice Nancy Fitzgerald to save the group.

tldr; So, to answer your question and hypothesis: yes, Ruby always intended to help Sam, but her goal was to lure him to the dark side so he could become Lucifer's vessel based on the first 12 episodes. The complex plotline of breaking the seals was simply added to the narrative later—briefly teased when Dean went to hell in the season finale. Ultimately, this works retroactively as both angels and demons wait with bated breath and with excitement for Dean to break the first seal in hell.

-------

P/S: On your rewatch, pay attention to episode 3.05 Bedtime Stories and 3.09 Malleus Maleficarum. Tammy, the demon witch, said the demon gunning for Sam was a "he." Eric retconned and changed the new leader to Lilith in 3.12 Jus in Bello, quoted in the above Collider article: "We just knew that there was a higher demon. And then, we decided to make her a woman because the first demon was a man. So, these things evolved."

In 3.09, Tammy said, "There's a new leader rising in the west, and he wants you dead."

Also in 3.05, the crossroad demon said to Sam, "I'm just a saleswoman. I got a boss like everybody... he holds the contract."

[bethmints]

HELLO IS ANYONE LISTENING

THE EPISODE 'REGARDING DEAN'

you know, the one that is regarding Dean and his life and his identity and his sense of self

YES, IT'S SET IN THIS TOWN CALLED EUREKA SPRINGS, ARKANSAS

colloquially known as

"The Bible Belt's LGBTQ oasis"

"The gay capital of the Ozarks"

"The gayest small town in America"

[blanketforcas]

oh i'm sure

[r2x2]

The Amnesty International report that JK Rowling is trying to censor through legal threats.

It can also be found on Google Drive here and on Bluesky here.

[cbarc]

Please save and share this info where possible. This report has since been removed by Amnesty International due to legal threats of libel from JK Rowling. This information is no longer easily accessible.

[foolondahill17]

Supernatural if it was directed by David Lynch

Tumblr nixed the quality so I might post this on YouTube eventually.

All clips, except for the opening credits of Lost Highway, taken from Supernatural.

David Lynch's #1 fan (my husband) approved.

Maybe I'll do Supernatural if it was directed by Wes Anderson next.

[fiercestpurpose]

There’s a quality that certain books/movies/TV shows have that leads me to say, “Yeah, I can see people making fanfiction of that.” It’s something to do, I think, with how tight the story is, how much feels open-ended or like it could be elaborated on.

Something like Breaking Bad, for example, has low squiggability (that’s what I’m calling this quality). It’s tightly written, the characters are consistent, there’s little left to interpolate or extrapolate. Obviously, people DO write fanfic of Breaking Bad, but it still has a low squiggability score. Whereas something like Supernatural has a high squiggability score. Fantasy and science fiction often have high squiggability scores. This suggests squiggability could also be related to worldbuilding and potential for people to borrow a premise or setting.

And sometimes you’ll read or watch something and you’ll say, “Ah, low squiggability,” and then you’ll open tumblr and find out that everyone else seem to think its squiggability was very high indeed.

[seraph5]

Then there will be shows that you'll be like the squiggability is off the charts on this one imma go look at what everyones cooking' and find crickets. Its like the dichotomomy of squiggability you know.

[elizabethrobertajones]

What does “plot accordion” mean?

You have talked a lot about your “three-year” arc for Supernatural, but The CW did just renew the show for season 11. Are you altering your plans now?

Carver: To be perfectly honest, I think that started to alter or change even last season when I realized we were probably going further. So basically the notion of that arc, some of it’s been accordioned out in certain moments, and other things have been dropped in. We spread our wings more knowing we have many more seasons.

(x)

Fair. I know last year you spoke of a multi-season arc for the show’s mythology. Has that plan changed at all?JC: No. When I spoke to the multi-season arc, it is like an accordion. There are elements we can stretch and contract as long as we’re always staying true to the brothers’ relationship; everything else is pliant. As long as everything feels fresh.RS: We’ve actually opened it up this year.JC: Yes. While still staying on that same track. And that was somewhat purposeful in saying that, well, maybe [season] 9 won’t be the last year, so we always need to leave that open.

(x)

IGN: Whew. I believe you’ve mentioned you had a 3 year arc planned as of Season 8. Is that still accurate? Where is Season 11 headed?

Carver: We do have an idea where it’s going in Season 11. To be perfectly honest, once we realized we were going even further along in the seasons, we stretched out certain things about that arc. We’ve left some things boiling on the stove which we’ll come back to, and we’ve introduced other storylines. So, in my mind, we’ve sort of accordioned that arc out a little bit to fill it in with much more story. And it’s actually taken us to some really exciting places, so it’s been fun.

(x)

TBQH it’s dangerously irresponsible to analyse Carver’s narrative structure without accounting for the accordion in the middle of it and it has been the cause of much wailing and gnashing of teeth while this was all airing, especially as Carver’s original comments on wanting a 3 act structure caused SO much positive meta speculating on endgame based on either season 8 itself being the 3 acts, or the 3 acts taking place over season 8 and the following season, or then season 8, 9 and 10 with increasingly diminishing returns on where that all plays out.

Considering the Mark of Cain is a random pitch Robbie threw in with no clue it would go so far, and not something that was an integral part of the 3 acts, 9B and all of season 10 are pretty much entirely filler for Dean’s character development in this structure; the post I reblogged last night from @postmodernmulticoloredcloak excellently pointing up some early set up to the questions that won’t get answered for 3 years and the rapid escalation of tablets and metatron etc does make me think the original structure was season 8 > ??? > Chuck vs Amara in some form or another, and with what form she would take and how she’d be brought into the story all up for grabs. 

It’s nice to be out of the woods, but it makes my bones feel old that people don’t know about Carver’s Plot Accordion any more considering we only left its dark shadow less than 2 years ago :P 

[lets-steal-an-archive]

The Darkness was not Part of the Plan :/

[elizabethrobertajones]

#if you put 11x17 as the showrunner swap#with carver working on frequency#and robbie writing 11x20 after he thought 11x16 was his last ep of the season#and curtis armstrong’s comments about the swap#having already happened when he was filming 11x20 and 11x21#the nyoooom end of s11 makes more sense#at least in a bts sort of way (via @justanotheridijiton)

[maswartz]

[fractally]

This has been my main argument against "AI" from the very beginning.

OpenAI scraped the entire web. All of which had been a labor of love from humans. Wikipedia is the backbone of a lot of LLMs, and that was volunteer human labor. They stole it and now they're selling it back to us.

And worse, they're trying to destroy the free sources that they stole from. It's destruction of human knowledge on an unprecedented scale. The burning of the library of Alexandria has nothing on this.

[derinthescarletpescatarian]

[destielrotsmybrain]

Please look at these horrifying dolls I found on AliExpress

[shallowseeker]

Not the symbol of Adam wanting Pizza (TM) and fishing around about Michael's Plans (TM) a la Dean with Cas in Swan Song

He REALLY wanna know if Michael is gonna go back to Heaven or stay with him.

Cause, you see... The minute Michael mentions: "I don't know much about any of this. You'll be my guide," it's almost this weird sense of excitement. injects itself into the scene... and pizza. Michael's already eating a burger, but they go OUT of their way to bring in... pizza.

Cause.

Adam hears THIS:

🍕🍕🍕🍕

Then the PIZZA LITERALLY ARRIVES. Adam says thank you and leans down to savor the aroma...

🍕🍕🍕🍕

Hilariously, though. He KEEPS his eyes down. Busies himself with fiddling. Averts his eyes as he asks Michael to FUCKING CLARIFY the Very Thing Michael just hinted at.

🍕🍕🍕🍕

OFC Michael gets big sad about his brothers, his dad gone, etc. "In so may ways, I'm alone..."

And Adam is sat over there like

Cool cool cool play it cool he is being sad DO NOT LOOK EXCITED POKER FACE P-P-P-POKER FACE!!!!

"Yeah, same here."

///

Adam and his slice of angelic meat-lovers pizza pie.

🍕🍕🍕🍕

EDIT:

Oh, my god. Now, he's staring around the diner smiling and eating his FUCKING CAKE.

More subtext:

On the heels of Sam being ANXIOUS about Dean encouraging shooting his shot, we get Adam surveying the parlor, and landing on a group of couples on a double date (again, not an accident, who these look a bit like):

...and then we PAN to a guy who APPEARS alone.

But Adam smiles a little bit here, because maybe, he thinks... Maybe he's okay if he looks like that to other people.

"Maybe I should get a little job... we're gonna have expenses, right?"

He's thinking about his future.

With Michael.

Adam has already told us he doesn't need to eat, but he's, uh. Wiggling his fingers nervously here as he talks about spending the last of his change.

He suggests maybe he'll be a bartender. (Yeah, his pizza and his cake bears some resemblance to Dean's roadhouse dream, interestingly enough.)

When Adam reiterates he can't go back to college with an archangel inside of him, it's an off-key parallel to Dean's words to Sam, his whole encouraging vibe of -> Maybe your life isn't gonna look like how you expected. Maybe happiness doesn't take the perfect white picket shape!

(BTW: Of course Adam could go back to college WITH Michael, but CRUCIALLY, the subtext here is that college is the thing to get to The Thing. It's the tool to set you up for achieving your dreams, and... well. Adam realizes he can skip straight to retirement with the thing he wants, no matter how it looks to other people.)

He smiles when he talks about the things he can't do with "Michael inside of him," because that's the thing that he truly wants.

As soon as Adam makes up his mind to embrace his future with Michael? Enter Lilith, in her warning yellow.

And she... she starts sampling Adam's cake.

Michael is STEELY and protective and resistant to Chuck... because he still has Adam. (When Adam is removed, he's more depressed and vulnerable ofc)

When she threatens him, she basically becomes a barrier between Michael and the cake (Adam).

He incinerates her for that:

EDIT 2: Can I also say I love the red wagon motif????

It's Michael giving up SOME control to Adam, it's very push-pull and learning. And like YEAH in childhood, red wagons are our fledging steps into independence. It's exploration! It's autobiographical! A wagon is a first vehicle. It's also about space, balance, and how objects fit together!!! IN THIS CASE, Adam is precious cargo in Michael's first wagon... but sigh. He winds up losing him anyway. :(((

After Michael murders Lillith, everyone is staring in horror. it's tremendously risky and rebellions. SOOOO OOC for the top military guy, and where do his eyes rest?

That's right. The Adam mirror. The future. Michael CHOSE that.

"Remember nothing," he says.

The pair couples turn back and smiles... And the queer couple turns to each other and smiles:

But LIKE SAM is NERVOUS, now MICHAEL IS NERVOUS.

He pushes the cake away.

Maybe he can't be happy, after all?

THIS IS what he means when he later says, "Since when do we get what we deserve." Like perhaps Adam too has realized... something will ALWAYS be coming for him and Michael.

This tiny, unhappy push of cake... THAT'S what it's all about.

EDIT 3:

Ah, yes. Michael in a foreign (god-) coded area, contemplating betraying God to keep the life he wants.

spn 15x08 via @spnscripthunt-inactive

[angelsdean]

i say things in tags and then i'm like no wait that should be a post. anyways,

whenever i'm reminded cas is wearing BOOTS at all times with his outfit, not dress shoes....like, he may LOOK like a suburban salesman but don't be fooled, he's a boots-on-the-ground soldier

[angelsdean]

#YES YES THEY'RE BLUNDSTONES TOO#fuckin gay ass workboot wearing tax accountant soldier angel#not sure why jimmy thought he needed boots like that but they sure came in handy for cas (via @vvaltiel)

ok so about that !! jimmy actually doesn't actually start out wearing those boots !!! it's a CAS choice. which is SO fascinating to me esp since he doesn't bother to change anything else about jimmy's outfit (minus the quiet removal of jimmy's wedding ring lol)

it's hard to see so i purposely over-sharpened this screencap but you can see when he walks into the barn in 4x01 the outlines of where he has laces on his shoes, unlike his boots.

i don't know exactly when cas made the change but, somewhere along the way he ditched jimmy's dress shoes for sturdy work boots!

[sweetonsugden]

He was definitely still wearing the dress shoes when they were fighting Alistair in the barn.

[ahundredbillionheavens]

Angels and their clothing are so strange and interesting: I think Cas re-moulded the dress shoes into boots with his grace, maybe unconsciously - the same way he turned his purgatory outfit into a trench coat and suit when he was 'cleaning up' in a motel room in s8, and less spectacularly 'healed' sam's clothing in 15.01

[probablyasocialecologist]

“Musk talks about Mars as a lifeboat for humanity, which is among the very stupidest things that someone could say,” says Adam Becker, an astrophysicist and author of the book More Everything Forever, which outlines the messianic, sci-fi fantasies of the tech oligarchs. “There are so many reasons why it’s such a bad idea, and this is not about, ‘Oh, we’ll never have the technology to live on Mars.’ That’s not what I’m saying. What I’m saying is that Earth is always going to be a better option no matter what happens to Earth. Like, we could get hit with an asteroid the size of the one that killed off the dinosaurs, and Earth would still be more habitable. We could explode every single nuclear weapon, and Earth would still be more habitable. We could have the worst-case scenario for climate change, and Earth would still be more habitable. Any cursory examination of any of the facts about Mars makes it very clear.”

What You’ve Suspected Is True: Billionaires Are Not Like Us

[wire-smith]

I really like sci-fi stories where people have to go off and terraform a planet, or figure out how to rebuild civilization after some disaster, or ideally both. "The last ark-ship leaving Earth right before it becomes uninhabitable" sort of deal. But lately I've been coming around to this same idea, that it will always be more practical to try to save Earth than to try to start over elsewhere.

I was reading one story where the apocalypse was impossibly-rising oceans. Like, water is appearing from *waves hand* the Earth's crust or something, and literally all dry surface land on Earth is going to become underwater in X years. Part of the story was about a giant research project to invent FTL to send a few hundred humans to a nearby star which might have a habitable planet. You know what they were hoping to find? A planet with liquid water. Their plan was to descend from their starship and restart civilization using just the tools they brought with them, on a world with no life and no breathable air and the wrong gravity and the wrong temperate and the wrong sunlight and the wrong day-night cycle, just because it had liquid water. You know where else has liquid water? The flooded Earth you just abandoned. Instead of researching starship technology, you could have spent that time loading up all the same civilization-restarter tools into boats.

And this is really true of any futuristic apocalypse scenario. If you can terraform Mars to have a thick oxygen atmosphere, why not just do that to Earth? Even if you smash an ice comet into Earth and destroy basically everything, Earth will still be more habitable than Mars! It'll still have roughly the right atmospheric pressure, and magnetic field, and heat balance, and it'll still have whatever life the comet didn't kill... Same with a starshade to cool Venus. Same with excavating asteroids into city-stations. Same with abandoning Sol System entirely and heading to another star. If an ark-ship arrived in a new star system and found Earth-but-choked-by-climate-change, the crew would be ecstatic. They would never have thought to get that lucky. So why bother with the trip? Just stay and fix the damn Earth.

[deanwasalwaysbi]

Yellow Draft, 9 Months after the initial draft: "Carlyle Twins"

By Filming:

Dean Accidentally a Whole Baseball Team.

Tell me again. ... Why Does the camera focus on Castiel's reaction to Dean's sexual escapades, Robert Singer? What was the point if not that they are a couple for that conversation?

mmhmm... Whatever you say.

13x16 Scoobynatural Script - Yellow Draft from @spnscripthunt (x)

[deanwasalwaysbi]

Same energy.

[deanwasalwaysbi]

So. ... So Jeremy Adams and Jim Krieg are fully hellers, huh?

Original song written for the episode (x):

Your friends think I'm no good for you. Of course that's what they'd say. While they're home alone at night. We go out to play.

I can be a little devil, baby. You're an angel from above. Sha-na-na-na-na-na, baby. It's a supernatural love.

Your parents and your teachers say. I'm not good enough for you. But they don't know how crazy I am. Crazy about you.

I can be a little devil, baby. You're an angel from above. Sha-na-na-na-na-na, baby. It's a supernatural love.

[beardedmrbean]

Scientists invented a fake disease. AI told people it was real: Nature.com

I'm a bit frightened for the time when someone less ethical than the person that did this decides to repeat the experiment but leave out the part where they come in later and announce that it was fake and people wind up diagnosed with the fake condition and all kinds of wacky hi jinks ensues.