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[blanketforcas]

still a bit of a missed opportunity to not have dean try to die with cas. he's trying to save him at first but as it starts to feel impossible he just stands there, holding onto cas with all his might until he feels him disappear, leaving him standing with his eyes closed cause he can't face reality yet

[pollsnatural]

Pick one of the one-off characters I think should've been promoted to recurring characters

Cassie, Dean's ex girlfriend from 1x13 "Route 666"

Mia, the shifter therapist from 13x04 "Big Empty"

Mari, the director of the Supernatural fan musical from 10x05 "Fan Fiction"

Wendy, Donna's lesbian niece from 13x09 "Breakdown"

Tamara, the hunter who lost her husband in 3x01 "The Magnificent Seven"

Deanna, Mary's mother from 4x03 "In the Beginning"

Jesse and Cesar, gay hunter couple from 11x19 "The Chitters"

Magda, the psychic girl from 12x04 "American Nightmare"

Clea, a witch, kinda Rowena's friens from 11x22 "We Happy Few"

Bobby John, the baby shapeshifter from 6x02 "Two and a Half Men"

George, somewhat friendly Levithan from 7x16 "Out with the Old"

None of them

Voting ended onAug 14

[sweetonsugden]

This is hilarious

[spnmetafromheaven]

Breakdown of the Cupid Scene from 08x23 “Sacrifice”

After rewatching “Sacrifice” for probably the fifth time, I can honestly say my favorite scene from the episode has to be in the bar where Dean and Cas are waiting for Cupid to arrive. I remember the first time I watched it, it didn’t hit me too deeply; a few laughs here and there and the pleasant surprise of queer representation where the audience is the least likely to expect it. The complexity of the scene, however, is subtly genius and I need to rant about it.

(Prepare for an excessive amount of overanalyzing and the use of image-stills below the cut)

Keep reading

[ineedcoffee42]

ah yes, a totally normal way to look at your straight best friend, because you have a 100% straight friendship, its so obvious that those two are really good friends, such a strong platonic bond, man 👍

[andromedahonks]

If I wanted that I’d just watch the show

[inacatastrophicmind]

For @wanderingcas

[pollsnatural]

Season 5 sucks, because the main conflict - the Apocalypse - is built upon the relationship between Michael and Lucifer, but we know literally nothing about it except for "they're just like salmondean basically". Like why would you parallel your main characters to your main antagonist if you had zero interest in exploring it in any way.

[lazarrusrising]

I don't know how to explain it coherently but Dean is an empathetic person who uses a pragmatic mask to try and convince himself that he is unaffected so he doesn't have a breakdown whereas Sam is a pragmatic person who uses an empathetic mask to force himself to be affected because he could easily just move on if needed and they're both trauma responses and it's also the reason why they fundamentally misunderstand each other all the time

[dotthings]

Literally I am too old for this shit.

Those of us who actually were in the early trenches of fandom and spn itself comprehend what a major hail Mary Cas’s confession is. We recognize the smashed ceiling. It is a Big Deal. Hellers stfu preaching like you know things and talking like you know what things were like when you clearly do not. Demeaning Cas’s confession, badgering and hating on Jensen, trashing Dean, that some hellers are doing, are not how we got the confession. Support for destiel mattered. This ongoing hatred only does harm.

Do not cite the deep magic at me!!! I was there when it was written!!!!

[scoobydoodean]

Hey, so, I’m listening to SPN then & now podcast. Last episode they review the last episode of season 7. They have Bob Singer on, and he’s talking about looking forward to season 8, and he mentions that they had a huge fight in the writers room about Benny. Basically one writer dug their heels in and insisted that Dean would never be friends with a vampire, that he would have killed him as soon as they escaped purgatory. The writer threw such a fit that Singer finally had to say “you know what, we’re doing this, you don’t want to write it, fine, write something else.”

So I looked into it and the only S8 writers who didn’t write post-purgatory Benny scenes were Thompson, Glass, and Dabb. I don’t think it’s Thompson because of Charlie’s line “Did you break up with someone too?” from LARP and the real girl, like he understands this is a real relationship that Dean cares about. It could be Glass, but all I know about him is he was in an earlier episode of the podcast (to discuss his unfortunate dog episode) and seems pretty chill and humble. Also this was only his second season with the show. But Dabb/Loflin wrote an episode with a Benny flashback and then split up! And then Loflin writes Citizen Fang?! Is this what their fight was about?

Sorry this post would be better suited for my own blog if I had an active one. I just wanted to maybe get some other eyes on/opinions on my theory.

Ho ho ho! *Rubs hands together* I love the idea of an SPN writer telling on themselves that they never bothered to actually watch the fucking source material and learn that Dean risking his life to defend a vampire happens by fucking 2x03.

Okay so. I'm gonna try to do this carefully by process of elimination through all the season 8 writers.

Jeremy Carver - (8x01, 8x23) Easily eliminated from the running because he was the one doing the running. He was showrunner.

Ben Edlund - (8x05 Blood Brother, 8x13 Everybody Hates Hitler, 8x21 The Great Escapist) Another easy elimination based on "Blood Brother".

Bucklemming - (8x03 Heartache, 8x07 A Little Slice of Kevin, 8x15, 8x19 Taxi Driver) Ross-Lemming is Singer's wife, so he probably wouldn't just talk shit about her/her writing partner. Plus 8x19 contains Dean and Benny's emotional goodbye with Dean promising to bring Benny back, and telling Sam he buried Benny instead of burning his bones in the hopes he would come back someday. This attitude from Dean is fundamentally at odds with the position of the writer described.

Adam Glass - (8x06 Southern Comfort, 8x12 As Time Goes By, 8x18 Freaks and Geeks) 8x06 opens with Sam and Dean arguing about Benny, and Dean pointing out that they just let Kate the werewolf go with zero issues. 8x18 seems to eliminate Glass from the running completely, given Dean defends innocent vampires again in this episode.

Robbie Thompson - (8x04 Bitten, 8x11 LARP and the Real Girl, 8x17 Goodbye Stranger, 8x20 Pac Man Fever). I agree with you about the breakup line about Benny from 8x11. Additionally, in 8x04, Sam and Dean let Kate the Werewolf go and they're both in agreement on it from the beginning. Sam actually provides all the caveats to letting her go. Dean is barely paying attention, focused on Kate and her friends claiming he says "awesome" too much. Zero worries about Kate.

Jenny Klein - (8x10 Torn and Frayed) I debated on this one a little more, but ultimately, I doubt it was Klein for two reasons. First, because she only contributed 1 episode to season 8, and it was her fourth credit in the whole series (1 episode writer credit each for season 5, 6, and 7. I doubt she would dig her heels in in the writer's room (if she was even there for this) against Carver and Singer. Second, there is also another fight between Sam and Dean over Benny at the beginning of her episode, 8x10, which splits them up when Dean refuses to agree to cut ties with Benny after Sam issues an ultimatum. So despite Sam getting to pretend he's been so horribly wronged and that he did nothing wrong (which in itself just ends up reflecting poorly on him since he won't hear Dean out about Martin), I don't think it was Klein.

This leaves, as predicted, Dabb and Loflin by process of elimination.

Andrew Dabb - (8x02 w/Loflin, 8x08 Hunteri Heroici, 8x14 Trial and Error, 8x22 Clip Show)

Daniel Loflin - (8x02 w/Dabb, 8x09 Citizen Fang, 8x16 Remember The Titans)

Dabb and Loflin are also particualrly good candidates. In fact. I am 100% sure based on the story that this is about Dabb.

First, unlike Klein, Dabblin would be comfortable throwing their weight around, because they were credited as producers by this point.

Second, prior to season 8, one of their episodes was the infamous "7x03 The Girl Next Door". Maybe one of them felt they had constructed some sort of seminal work there (lmaooo) and felt that Benny's existence was somehow "undoing" that.

Third, and most importantly, Citizen Fang would have been an important episode for the season, because it temporarily splits the brothers up. The writers room would have wanted to assign this episode as soon as possible and had it being worked on. If Dabb and Loflin were assigned this episode or if, Loflin really wanted this episode and Dabb really really didn't because he fundamentally disagreed with the idea that Dean would protect a vampire and that that would put him at odds with Sam, then that would finally explain Dabblin's sudden split after four seasons of co-authorship, and Singer's particular wording "you don’t want to write it, fine, write something else".

The idea of Benny causing them to split as a writing team because Dabb refused to be party to Citizen Fang is fascinating.

Nothing about Citizen Fang shows confusion or handwringing regarding Dean's moral position on Benny. His attitude is extremely consistent. Loflin seems extremely certain of how Dean feels about Benny and the ethics of protecting him and shows him justifying his position without compromise.

[seenthisepisode]

warner bros meeting: lets repeat once again. dean and cas are NOT and WILL not ever!!!! be gay for each other!!!! cas CAN confess his love but there has to be enough room to interpret it as ambiguously platonic and also he drops dead immediately after that. period. case closed. misha collins is definitely bisexual tho

[tremorinmyfingertips]

[littlespndetails]

None of the pieces of wood that Dean shaves off land in the trash can he has placed in front of him.

[lulu-zodiac]

what made you start believing in cockles?

okay, so watching jensen’s pupils dilate while acting a super intimate, charged scene with misha was probably the first moment where I was really like OH.

but the longer answer? honestly just the way jensen looks at misha. like, everything about it. it’s so open and expressive and full of complexity, and there’s just so much love in it, so much longing. jensen doesn’t look at ANYONE the way he looks at misha. there’s this openness, a kind of unguardedness that misha seems to elicit in him that seems to be totally unique to their dynamic. I find this really interesting, because jensen is clearly someone who keeps himself in check and is careful with what he shows the public, but all of this composure or self-consciousness just completely goes out the window when he’s around misha which is very telling. 

I mean, look at this (and this is just the tip of the iceberg). It’s like he completely forgets everything else except him and Misha:  

for the people who say, “okay yeah, but that’s just because they’re close friends and they feel comfortable around each other”: I don’t disagree. it’s clear they’re close friends and feel incredibly comfortable in each other’s presence. but I don’t think that’s all it is. take the way J2 interact, for example. we know that jensen loves jared from the bottom of his heart, but he just doesn’t look at jared the way he looks at misha. of course he looks at him with love and affection and amusement, but it’s just different.

compare these:

or these??

there is no doubting the affection and amusement in the way jensen looks at jared, but for me there’s something almost older-brotherly about it?? there’s an exasperated sort of “this human is ridiculous and I love him” about it, but there’s no tension to it. no kind of frisson. It’s easy, comfortable, full of warmth. but with misha? there’s just this electricity, this giddiness. that’s hard to put into words but that everyone around them picks up on. it’s so powerful and obvious that it’s literally the whole reason destiel was born into existence. although we can see how comfortable jensen is with misha from the way he just totally relaxes into being himself in misha’s presence, he also seems more hyped up than he does around jared, if that makes sense? like, there’s just always that giddiness to it that I talked about earlier, like he’s running on some kind of high.

LOOK at him:

RIDICULOUS. utterly ridiculous behaviour. 

I have this theory that when you’re around someone you really, really like, you live in the present in a way you don’t normally do. most of the time, you go around and yes you’re kind of in the present but you’re also thinking about that conversation you had with your flatmate last night or what you need to get at the supermarket later. often you’re looking forward to something in the future, mentally preparing yourself for other stuff. but I think that when you’re around someone you feel something so strong for, all of that shit just fades away and you just exist in their company. because there’s nowhere else you’d rather be, nowhere else you feel more comfortable. and so you don’t need to think, you just are. I feel it’s the best way I can describe the way jensen seems to exist around misha (it’s especially visible at cons, I think). around misha, jensen just is, and there’s something so beautifully uncomplicated about the connection they have.

so yeah, to sum up this ridiculously long answer that literally no one asked for, the way jensen looks at misha is absolutely what sold me on cockles. it speaks louder than any words could. 

[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."

[pollsnatural]

Wait a minute. If Rich and jackles came up with a bloody handprint on the spot when they were filming the scene, then why is it mentioned in the script? I don't understand.

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