[man on the street #6]

"he only did what the rest of us wish we could do" f/31/AZ/mom - don't define me by any of that though Music. Art. SPN. Destiel. Rooster Teeth. Space. Weather. Mental Health Awareness. Misc. Mostly misc.

[selinasdalton]

text posts: jesse custer (cassidy)

[jessecuster]

I’m thinking of making a preacher network? Would anyone be interested? I need people to geek out with over these episodes and I would love to find people who are preacher obsessed and want a lil preacher community! So like or reblog if you’d be interested and I will start the process.

[josephskeery]

[amberkinion-blog]

You are so very worth it baby

[eternalroommates]

God/Chuck in 11.20.

[beandump]

11.19 spoilers...

jesse and cesar were amazing characters who worked to influence overarching themes and others’ character development AND they are a canon queer couple who DID NOT DIE and thats AMAZING.

i found myself a lil bit disappointed (at first) about their physicality, or rather the lack thereof. they never rly SHOWED any indication of their relationship that was undeniably romantic other than words, and i was worried that the writers were doing that thing where theyre like ‘ok this bro is gay but we dont want him to LOOK gay or BE gay with ANOTHER gay well just SAY he is and be on our way and not have to put any thought into this representation or risk making homophobes uncomfortable.’

thats what i thought AT FIRST.

then I looked at what kind of physicality they DID show:

shoulder touches. brief, comforting, lil squeeze for love. look familiar?

well if jesse and cesar are an example of how they characterize romantic male/male relationships then sign me the fuck up

[awhiddles-blog]

bah I can’t handle these dweebs

[ofeons]

I don’t ship Destiel in the hopes of seeing two men fuck each other in the Impala.

I ship Destiel in the hopes of seeing two men confront their love for each other.

There’s a difference.

[the-art-of-nicole]

At last, the long awaited short film I spent an entire school year on xD Not much to say really! It was quite the experience..I had a lot of breakdowns, and I honestly couldn’t have done it without the people I listed in the credits. Without them, I probably wouldn’t have been able to finish it :’D But I did, somehow, and that’s all that matters. I’m happy with the turn out, and I did have a lot of fun working on it most of the time (: Enjoy guys!

[amberkinion-blog]

THIS IS SO CUTE I ACTUALLY TEARED UP

[sugdenstyles]

[all-things-canon]

The last game I played was Limbo, so I decided to do a crossover with it for the SPN art challenge.

Besides, Purgatory reminds me a bit of the Limbo style.

3 levels, and a bonus “Game Over” picture

[i-think-i-m-adorable]

[livebloggingmydescentintomadness]

[mishacolins]

(x)

[f-ckyeahfutbol]

Another round of debunking

There are people in this fandom that keep and keep spreading misinformation  that has no basis in reality which a lot of people seem to take for the truth just because it has been repeated often enough.

The series creator Eric Kripke has never called Dean Winchester straight. In a round table interview in Comic Con in 2013, in just one of many, he spoke of his thematic of unstated homoerotic subtext in his work, paralleling the brothers Sam and Dean to the characters Sebastian and Miles from his new show Revolution, which was the topic of the interview, and he called Sebastian and Miles straight guys. He did not call Dean Winchester a straight guy. At no point did he call Dean Winchester a straight guy. He has never called Dean Winchester a straight guy in any recorded interview in the last eleven years. Eric Kripke has, however, confessed on his own twitter account that he used Hellblazer, Good Omens, American Gods, and Sandman as his inspiration for The Pilot episode. These influences have something in common.

The two other show runners have never commented on Dean Winchester’s sexuality at all. Sera Gamble described the show as the epic lovestory of Sam and Dean.

It also falsely claimed that all the writers either think Dean Winchester is straight (which is naturally unverifiable but extremely unlikely), or that all the writers have in fact said that Dean Winchester is straight.

The only writer that is quoted on having described Dean Winchester as heterosexual is Ben Edlund – according to Jensen Ackles’ 2013 Jus in Bello convention appearance. This claim was made in reference to the same scene (8.13) that Ben Edlund himself, in his own words, describes on the DVD commentary of being a romantic comedy kind of fluster and that Dean and Aaron could come together, agreeing with the director Phil Scriggia that there’s potential for love in all places for him.

Robert Berens approves of fans thinking that Dean likes both dick and vag in French.

Robbie Thompson once tweeted “Destiel isn’t canon? ;)” and has since deleted the tweet.

Cathryn Humphris thought Nick the Siren was based on “Dean’s perfect mate”.

Adam Glass is of the opinion that you’re free to interpret the story as you damn well like.

That is all we know about the opinions of the writers even tangentially related to Dean Winchester’s sexuality. And this is only a small handful of writers. Not one of the writers currently writing for the show has ever called Dean Winchester straight, not once, not anywhere that can be verified.

In the interest of not falsely presenting the evidence, I will also add that the director Guy Norman Bee has stated on twitter that Destiel is not the story. He was, however, not commenting on Dean Winchester’s sexuality.

The only person that has claimed that Dean Winchester is not bisexual is Chad Kennedy, the director of current programming at Warner Brothers. His opinions, however, do not reflect those of the CW or the creators of Supernatural, as his twitter disclaimer was subsequently changed to state.

[livinginthequestion]

Reblogging for your viewing pleasure, because this is the first post I’ve seen with actual receipts. Dean’s orientation can be debated endlessly, legitimately, but the argument ‘he/she/they said he was straight!’ cannot be used if you want to be taken seriously. :)

[quillquiver]

REMINDER: in addition to being the most badass power couple to ever badass, Dean and Cas are both awkward, fumbling dorks who make lame jokes.

[arialerendeair]

Constructive Criticism Guide - Because Y’all Fucking Need It

“Constructive Criticism Welcome!” 

How often do readers see that on fics?  

Not as often as they probably should - because some authors are rightly afraid of it, mostly due to the fact that no one actually knows how to give constructive criticism.  

But Aria, you might say, there were things wrong with this fic!  And I liked things about it too, but the author might want to know what those wrong things were! 

You’re right.  They MIGHT want to know.  M I G H T 

This isn’t a high school english class.  If they aren’t actively inviting criticism, don’t fucking give it (and I’m not talking about spelling or grammar mistakes here).  I’m talking about criticism to their characterization of characters.  Or of the way a fic is written, or the POV of it’s in.  

If people don’t invite the criticism, don’t give it.  It’s that simple.  Some people don’t give a shit, and considering none of us are getting paid to write fanfiction, sometimes we don’t give a flying fart in space if our characterization is right.  We just wanna write the story.  (If Authors want it, they should actively advertise that fact.) Here’s an example of what is at the bottom of every single one of my AO3 fics: 

Excellent!  

Going back to your question!  “But Aria, there were things wrong with this fic! I liked things about it, but they wrote Dean completely wrong!  And they invite criticism, so I’m going to tell them they wrote Dean wrong!”  

No, you are going to stop right fucking there and think about that for a second. 

1. Dean Winchester is a very, very complicated character at BEST when it comes to writing him.  

2. The only person on the PLANET who could tell you that you are writing Dean wrong is….. WAIT.  THERE ISN’T ANYONE.  He’s a television character, and as such, is open to interpretation.  

3. This is not your story.  Maybe in YOUR story Dean doesn’t act that way. But it’s not your story.  So how would you know that Dean was written wrong?  Here’s a clue.  YOU CAN’T.  

4. Why the hell is it your job to tell the writer they did something YOU think is wrong?  Why not tell them what you liked instead? 

Now, let’s imagine that despite all of this, you still want to tell the author that YOU think they wrote Dean wrong.  (Even though it’s not your place to care, and this isn’t your story.)  Believe it or not, there is an APPROPRIATE way to offer this information to the author! 

Here’s how you offer constructive criticism to authors.  Believe it or not, I can sum it up in one sentence.  

YOU ASK QUESTIONS 

Understand?  No?  

Here’s how it works.  Let’s take the example of wanting to talk to the author about Dean’s characterization that I mentioned above.  You liked other stuff about the fic (let’s say you really liked the monster they picked, and their plot had some nice twists!), but you really want to tell them about Dean.  Here’s how I imagine you’d write the comment: 

“I really liked this fic, but I think Dean wasn’t very…Dean.  He didn’t act like himself at all!”  

First off, I’m going to speak for every writer here for a second (this is my opinion, but I’ve yet to meet a writer that likes this phrase, so….): 

“I really liked this fic, but…” - *AHEM* THIS SHOULD NEVER BE WRITTEN.  EVER.  EVER.  

It’s the fanfic equivalent of saying “I don’t mean to be rude, but…” or “I’m not racist, but…”  

DO YOU UNDERSTAND WHY THAT PHRASE IS BAD NOW?  It insults the author, the fic, and their writing.  And frankly, saying that you liked the fic in a general sense is not enough to excuse yourself for writing more insulting shit afterward.  Which is exactly what you proceeded to do.  

Okay, let’s go on to the rest of your comment.  “I think Dean wasn’t very…Dean. He didn’t act like himself at all!” 

So, I have a severe problem with how VAGUE this comment is (and I get stuff like this regularly), because if you’re looking to help the writer, specifics are KEY.  Okay, so outside of that, how is this supposed to help the author?  How are they supposed to improve based on your comment?  Are they somehow supposed to realize that the right way to write Dean by osmosis?  The point of constructive criticism is to help someone GET BETTER.  You are doing nothing but tear them apart.  

You really want to help someone get better?  You ask them questions about the story.  About their choices.  Understand WHY they wrote something they way they did.  Maybe they made a mistake, maybe they didn’t, but it’s their fic, it’s their choice, and you, as the reader offering constructive feedback, should ask questions to understand their intent! 

Here’s how your feedback SHOULD have looked: 

“I really liked this fic! I enjoyed the monster that you picked and that you had a bunch of plot twists and turns as they did their research!  I wasn’t expecting the ending at all, and I thought you did a really good job with it.  Was Dean doing all of the research because he lost a bet with Sam?” 

You list the positives.  You call out what you liked about the fic in SPECIFIC so the author will keep doing those good things.  Then you ask the question about characterization (because normally Sam does the research) in a way that promotes conversation about the choice.  This opens up a CONVERSATION with the author that will allow you to discuss the choice in greater detail.  

THAT IS HOW IT BLOODY WORKS.  ASK.  QUESTIONS.  

But Aria, you might say.  I don’t leave comments like that!  

Fair enough, but a lot of people do.  I’ve gotten two almost exactly like that in the past five days.  One of which, after a 127k fic, asked a single sentence question of why people prefer a certain character topping.  THAT’S IT.  

Hilariously, I don’t prefer that character topping, and told the commenter as much.  But do you know how disheartening that is?  To put that much effort into a story and then…get that sentence?  If I didn’t have as much writing experience under my belt as I do, that could turn me off writing for a while. 

I wrote this rant because that DOES happen to people - and the person I once was. People get turned off of writing because of comments like that.  I know I used to.  All the time.  It isn’t our place as readers to DO that to a writer.

Authors are told to have a thick skin.  While this is true, and that’s fine?  Readers need to learn how to give criticism without fucking insulting someone and their time and effort.  Y’all aren’t professional editors and publishers.  There’s only a certain level of critique I expect of something that I do for free, outside of a full time job.  Remember that.  None of us get paid to do this, and we aren’t in English class.  

So I’m going to put this out here.  Authors?  You get a comment like that?  You have a comment that makes you feel bad about what you wrote?  Or insecure? You come to me.  Sometimes readers need to be taught how to comment properly, and I am more than happy to throw salt, shade and some sass at anyone who thinks insulting your time and effort is okay.  Okay? 

tl;dr (for those of you that want a quick two sentence summary):

Constructive Criticism does not mean giving a list of complaints, it means that you should ask questions to understand why an author made a choice.  It was THEIR choice to make, and you can only understand it, and maybe help them see an alternative choice could have been made.  MAYBE.  

Got it? 

[celestialsonata7]

Church + Blue Team // “Buddy”

[cinderfell]

GET SOME REST. NOT JUST FOR YOU, BUT FOR THE PEOPLE YOU CARE ABOUT.