Sam Winchester did not have anything resembling a good, normal or safe childhood.
I need people, especially Dean girls/boys/people, to understand that just because Dean was given responsibility to watch Sam and protect him, especially when John was away, does not mean he literally "raised" Sam. More importantly, Dean having to grow up too fast, does not negate the fact that Sam also had to grow up too fast. I’m not trying to argue that Dean had it easy while Sam had it hard growing up, I’m saying both Sam and Dean had shit childhoods. Yet, for some reason, a weirdly large chunk of fandom seems to think Sam was having a fab time while Dean was miserable, turning tricks to get him his lucky charms, and crying into his pillow every night because he wished he was at prom or something.
(In this episode alone, we see that John places too much responsibility on Dean. But we also see that Sam was also unhappy, in literal danger, and could have died. Nobody here is having a good time.)
Rant continues under the cut.
In the Pilot, Sam literally says, "we were raised like warriors." He says "we," not "you." Both Sam and Dean experienced Drill Sergeant John. People seem to have the impression that John was only hard on Dean, but he was doting on Sam. Or they seem to think John was drilling being a hunter, a soldier, into Dean's head, but had literally no role in Sam's life. Like, they think Dean was the go-between, who interceded for Sam so he never had to hunt or deal with John. But this is patently not the case.
First, we see that as young as like 9 (in Just My Imagination), Sam has already been training to hunt and does get the call to finally join John and Dean in the field (taking a bus solo to go meet them, after being left alone for days, btw). We learn that Dean learned to shoot when he was like 6, but he wasn’t joining John on hunts at that age. Sam and Dean probably started hunting at around the sane age, actually. Yes, Dean knew about hunting at a younger age than Sam and was tasked with looking out for Sam, but he’s wasn’t actively hunting from like age 4.
Also, we know that Sam and John were constantly fighting, a lot of the time because Sam didn’t want to be hunting or at least wanted reasons for why he was being ordered to do whatever. So, John very clearly is in his face when he’s around. He is also Sam's "drill Sargent," but unlike Dean, Sam just kept refusing to fall in line.
Finally, people forget that while growing up, Dean sided with John on matters of hunting. Even in Bugs, Dean is putting more of the blame on Sam for leaving than John, even though John told Sam that if he left, not to bother coming back. He gives Sam shit for having questioned John while growing up. Sam was very clearly raised to be a hunter just as much as Dean was, the difference is he bucked the control John tried to enforce. Dean could have made that choice, too. But he didn’t.
People also like to ignore the fact that, other than that blip in "Bad Boys" (which is a shitty episode, btw), Dean liked hunting. He thought he had it better, or at least was doing something more important than other kids his age, most of the time while growing up. John was his hero. He and John were a team together in a way that often excluded Sam. I’m not saying this was a good thing per se, but Dean mostly was okay with hunting while growing up, and it wasn’t until later that he really started to resent John and see how shitty it was that he raised Sam and Dean the way he did, to resent the pressure he put on Dean to watch over Sam.
Sam was essentially never happy while growing up. He had exactly zero years of comfortable family life. Even before he knew John was a hunter, and learned about monsters, Sam was unhappy. All he knew was moving from place to place, being stuck in shitty motel rooms all the time, having no friends, worrying about what would happen if their dad just didn’t find back one day. Sam knew next to nothing about his mom, the person they were on a revenge mission for, and when he tried to ask, Dean blew up at him. He grew up knowing that Dean and John knew something, and shared secrets, that he didn’t. And he also grew up feeling like something was wrong with him, feeling unclean.
I don't understand how people watch Supernatural and think Dean had it tough, but Sam had it easy. As if the fact that Sam somehow managed to stay in one school long enough to get a soccer trophy one time or participated in a couple school plays, meant he had this full and happy childhood. He was so lonely that he conjured up an imaginary friend, FFS.
Dean had downtime on occasion, too. He had time to go off on his own and fool around with girls. He went off on his own to get into trouble (like gambling away dinner money). And he had time to learn about fixing cars.
Both of them had moments that weren’t only hunting. But both were still hunters.
Anyway, this rant in no way means I think Sam had it worse than Dean, and Dean was just happy and unburdened growing up. I’m just so annoyed that people are so enamored with Dean and his "taking care of Sam," to the extent that he could as a kid, that this means Sam had it easy, or had anything resembling a decent childhood, or even had much of a childhood at all. I esspecially "love" the whole "Sam’s good traits are because Dean raised him" thing, when some of those good traits are certainly not ones he picked up from Dean.
Both Sam and Dean's lives have sucked most of the time, guys! Dean’s has sucked since he was almost 5, and Sam's has sucked since he was 6 moths old. Relating more to Dean should not render people incapable of understanding that Sam was raised by the same dad, was also pressured to hunt, and also had a shitty childhood.
Hope you don't mind me spamming you a bit. I appreciate your reviews and commentary! Other movies that came to mind which I enjoyed were Ready Or Not, The Invitation, Don't Breathe, Black Christmas, Last Night inSoho (technically this is a horror movie). And because it's popular, what are your thoughts on A Quiet Place?
I don't mind one bit. These are fun questions, especially this one. Buckle up lmaoooo.
Ready or Not - I liked it, and it inspired the wedding dress in one of my darker stories.
The Invitation - Hell yes, love a dark dinner party movie. Won't spoil why.
Don't Breathe - Loved. So depraved. If you haven't seen it I won't spoil, but holy shit lol. Kink alert.
Black Christmas - Yes! Prefer the original by a mile, but enjoyed the Blumhouse take too.
Last Night in Soho - Need to see this, it's on my list.
A Quiet Place -Just my passionate opinion: I fear there is no movie I despise more. My disdain is well-known among irl friends. I'm about to go off.
Krasinski referring to his film as "elevated horror" put him on my bad side from the start. Really low to put down others to promote himself. Dismissing an entire diverse genre, disrespecting everyone who paved the way.
Krasinski gets (takes) far too much credit for things that have been done and done better, including the climax which mirrors The Descent Part 2, shot-for-shot. Don't Breathe is another example of the have-to-be-quiet premise.
Huge hit among non-horror fans who didn't know better and raved about its originality. Meanwhile gushing, "I'm not even into horror." Soo maybe they hadn't seen much? Especially lesser known movies. The horror tent is big enough for all, but he brought new fans into it while infusing them with his condescending attitude.
Far too many gratuitous close-ups of himself going 🤫. This man's ego, stg.
Some of us detected a strong whiff of right-wing energy. Pro-life in a risk everyone's lives for a fetus way. Pro-gun in a rural, white, get off my land way (btw I'm obsessed with John Wick. it's not the use of guns in this, it's the energy).
He bragged about how his wife was so unaffected by her most intense scene (childbirth) that after it she said, "Who's ready for lunch?" Why is that so good, John? Is your view as a director that actors should snap in and out of character and not be affected by their roles? If she needed to cry or rest, would he think less of her? Personally I admire people who feel. Also, harder to imagine paying a man the same compliment.
I have one nice thing to say, which is that it's nice to see deaf/hard-of-hearing representation, and it was the least they could do good to cast an actress from the community as his daughter.👍
If they committed to total silence instead of using a dramatic score, that would've been cool.
You can do your own take on an old concept and make it good. But to meanwhile put down everything else to distinguish/promote himself?? That ain't it.
Anyway, I still hate-watched the sequel (not nearly as bad) and may do the same with the prequel 🤪.
hey guys it’s 🌑 here like usual. just wanted to drop in and say that while i’ll still be modding this blog, i’m dropping chnt as a fandom entirely and i don’t think i’ll make much commentary or my own takes anymore
Only just properly catching up now with the distressing incident of lovely Luna's @pandoraslxna blog being reported & subsequently 'shadowbanned'. 😟😓 This has caused me quite some unease all day today. 😣 I'm incredibly saddened for Luna, and I am crossing my fingers and toes that no one else ever has to go through such an ordeal.
I first learned of it early this morning & it bothered me ALL DAY as to why on earth anyone would report the content of such a kind, encouraging, supportive, talented and creative blogger, who has done nothing but uplift & rally this Avatar fandom from day one. 💖
I was brought up with the mentality of 'live and let live'. If it's not hurting you or anyone else then, if it's not your cup of tea, not up your alley, or not your style/groove, then just let it be and let it go. Scroll on. Click elsewhere. Do not expand.
Now, many authors & content creators (if not all) on here are VERY DILIGENT & CLEAR with putting content warnings in the body of their posts, usually within the first or second paragraph. Content that is '18+ MDNI' is always explicitly stated/marked and/or separated by that 'add read more/keep reading' feature.
The fact that someone has felt offended, wronged and/or upset enough to report a harmless blog to Tumblr moderators, made me think WHY. What could possibly be their reason(s)? I guess that we'll never truly know this person's reasons unless they choose to share, but I was also very perturbed by the effect that their actions have so quickly and immediately had on poor Luna's beautiful blog.
So, I did some Tumblr homework. Now I'm no expert on using Tumblr. Some of my mooties will know I discovered this wonderful community quite late, only a few short months ago (much love to all of you folks 😘). But I stumbled across this article on Community Labels. It's a fantastic article actually that details exactly how these labels are supposed to function on Tumblr to enable creators to control what audience their content is available to and enables consumers to filter what content appears on their dashboards.
And then it hit me, that I've never used a Community Label... 😬
Despite always putting a written warning in my posts that require one, I've never actually used a community label. And it made me think, could this be why? Are we all at risk of being 'shadowbanned' if we aren't using these labels when we should be?
Sorry for the rant. If you're still with me, you deserve a blimmin' GOLD MEDAL. I'm tired and I think I need to go to bed. I'm just sad and upset at what's happened, and I don't want it to happen to anyone else. 😥
I thought about this for a while but especially Canadian Nationals made me think about it again...so here are some thoughts...or here is a rant
Can you believe that 5 years ago Team Canada won Olympic Team Gold? They had skaters in every field who fought individually for medals. And now????
The only discipline that works fairly well is ice dance with Gilley/Poirier, Fournier-Beaudry/Sorensen and Marjorie Lajoie/Zachary Lagha (they also have some junior teams who do well) BUT Gilles/Poirier and Fourier-Beaudry/Sorensen are past 30 years old and won't be there for much longer (at most until 2026 Olympics and that's stretching very far) but at least there is some future...but in all other disciplines???? HELP
Women skating is kind of dead. One women for Team Canada at Worlds and Madeline Schizas is the only Canadian female single skater that has some technical content to keep up with the middle of the field. (She may be able to place Top 10 at Worlds but only bc the field is smaller in general) and also sorry to say that Madeline has basically never two good skates.
Pairs is dead as well. They have 3 spots for Worlds but all 3 spots are occupied by ppl who have little experience internationally and are a far cry from the technical content you would need to fight for top spots in an already weak field. (Pairs is kind of dead atm in general with the field being extremely weak in technical content)
With Keegan gone (I watched Canadian men free skate and Keegan made me cry because I will miss him dearly...😭😭😭) Canadian men skating is actually kinda lost or also almost dead...sorry but as much as I like the male Canadian single skaters none of them is even slightly consistent - NONE (Keegan wasn't the most consistent either but at least he didn't implode completely and still had superior technical content to most Canadian men skaters) I mean I don't expect skaters to have clean skates all the time but can I at least expect them to not fall apart completely at every competition? There are ofc inconsistency issues from skaters in every federation (and show me one male skater except maybe NC who consistently delivered) but it's not simply making some mistakes, it's close to disaster every time.
Especially the case of Roman Sadovsky is maddening - like how can such a talented skater always implode in one of his segments in competition? One disaster can happen, but at each and every competition? No way. Something is fundamentally going wrong. And his teams "longterm" (he's not 18, he is 23 years old!) plan is not working. You cannot continue like everything is fine and not change a thing about it when you produce the same bad competitions all over again. It's not his basics being bad, it's just mentally it's not working at all. Lots of ppl after Nats said that he should change coaches and that could be one solution BUT I also think there is more to it than a new team could solve. We can't look behind closed doors and I don't want to assume bad things about his environment or coaches - honestly it doesn't mean a change of coach would mean better results, it's not that easy - BUT something has to change...Romsky seems to be on a stand still and isn't moving forward in any way neither technically (his 3A is not stable at all and his technical content basically is the same for a few years now) nor mentally (you would assume a skater with his age and experience would make progress in keeping up with nerves). And pretending that those things are part of a plan? Who are you kidding? Yourself? (really love Romsky's skating but I am not even sorry for saying this as it's sadly true)
BUT also honestly Romsky isn't the only one with a consistency problem...Stephen Gogolev, Corey Circelli, Conrad Orzel, Wesley Chui...it's all the same (they are younger than Romsky but that's all that is different)
Why am I so hung up on the men? Because there is talent, there are the technical abilities to compete for medals, but the reality is that men skating isn't more successful or less worrying than Pairs or Women Canadian skating.
I really wonder with Romsky in particular but with Canadian skating in general if there is not a systematic issue behind it all.
Like how is such a politically strong skating nation with lots of well established coaching teams not able to reproduce their former successes in the slightest???
What happened???
Not enough financial support for the skaters for enough training ice time? I think I read that they have to finance everything on their own until they have international success but you can't get to international competitions without being able to afford to concentrate on your sport fulltime to learn the technical level to go . But is this really the issue for those who are already competing internationally?
Is the financial situation the reason Canadian skaters hardly train abroad in foreign countries? But would that help?
Do they not have a good support system from their federation? Imo they have supported and relied on their "old" batch of winning champions for far too long that they forgot to develop the younger generations. (I love the old champs Virtue/Moir & Patrick Chan btw) If there was one talented junior skater they kind of put too much pressure and ambition onto them they couldn't hold up too instead of giving them space to grow into their careers. Nam Nguyen and Stephen Gogolev both couldn't produce much success after turning senior, both struggling mentally, technically and with consistency. The latter still has a chance while the former retired with no Olympics experience and the last really good result being in 2015. (Romsky was also one of those very talented juniors but I don't think he was hyped to the extent of Nam and Stephen) Like how can a federation screw up their young talents so much?
We don't know what all of the issues are - I only named what is sort of told and known - just this has to change...whoever is in charge of solving these problems I hope they interfere....
This current Canadian team is weak and the downward spiral is continuing and it's sad and seems unnecessary...
Can anyone help? I struggle with getting jealous a lot, and it's sorta upsetting. I want to be able to hang out with other people and my partner but sometimes my head gets clouded and all I can think about is wanting alone time with my partner, but at the same time I really don't care that they are hanging out. I don't know I'm sorta upset with myself because I feel like this isn't fair for my partners
