Off-Topic += Update and Supernatural 7x03 Reaction Post

[blue_bells]

An update in bullet point form:

- My sister and I've found a new place to move to and we sign the lease this week (whoo!), but this means I'll be largely MIA as we pack up the house;

- Happy to report that cashay is alive and apparently having a ball down south working hard with All of the Animals, good on you!

- I've been plotting with my artist bellatemple this past week for spn_reversebang and it's been incredible fun. She is such a resource and an enthusiastic partner in crime, I can't believe everyone's supposed to start posting their work in only a month's time! Hope everyone's going well with their stories, I'm really excited to see what people come up with!

- I wrote some more for xmenbigbang this weekend with the combined forces of "Run the World (Girls)" and "Apocalypse, Please" on auto-loop (this big bang playlist is terrible, it's so good, it also features mash-ups of Britney and Muse, EMF and En Vogue. So terrible. 8D). I still laugh every time Beyoncé sings "F you, pay me!" and Matt Bellamy's piano is just dramatic enough to lead me down the garden path. I have been reading so much XFC fic recently oscillating between anything featuring the Brotherhood's three ladies or Hank, Alex, and Sean. What a shame we still need sleep.

- After years of working in an office, I'm still terrible at ironing clothes. If I wasn't such a fan of suits, ye gads.... I can't even say ironing is so boring because it's the way I catch up on TV, but my iron fist could use some work. And with this, I segue into the recount of Supernatural 7x03:

Firstly, Bobby. Thank dog for you, Bobby, who is writing you this season? Power to them! Please don't ever stop because he's gathered his morale again and I really do believe that Dean would drive himself off a pier without him. Plus, someone needs to keep bumping Dean out of his doomsayer preachings because I can't reach through the television to do it myself.

Secondly, Jewel! What a lovely surprise (because I tend not to read spoilers) to have you featured as a 'kitsune'. Shame they couldn't ground your character with any sort of Japanese folklore or hints in the character design / nature as to the origin of your kind, but it's nice when the show acknowledges there's a wider supernatural world out there.

Thirdly, I love young!Sam. There's something infinitely more badass about kids kicking ass because you'd like to think they shouldn't need those skills yet, so even though I know it's Sam Winchester stepping up to protect the D.I.D. beside the library, it's still a surprise when he lays people flat. I love kids coming into their own and being accomplished, so adorable. I love that they used the same actor.

Fourthly, the issue of contention among most people: was it in character for Dean to go behind Sam's back (again) and kill the kitsune after saying, "Okay, Sam, I trust you, we'll leave her alone"?

Well, I'm going to take the cheater's way out and link to bellatemple's reaction post, because we were on the same page (and there is a hilarious, cute comic regarding the last scenes that you need to see), but here is the crux of why I still believe it was in character for Dean:

"Dean kills her not because she's evil, he kills her because she represents a hope that he believes he no longer has. Both he and Sam have tried getting out of the hunting game, and trying only screwed them both over even further."

After railing against hunters who wanted to put Sam down and angels who insisted that they couldn't fight their pre-determined nature (or a very specific destiny) through season five and coping with the fall-out of season six, Dean has become a tragedy. It's not about whether or not he was right and Amy Pond (nice reference, Show) would one day kill again to save her son. He's lost the belief that people can choose to be good. He doesn't hold it for himself, so he believes it must be true of others. Dean is becoming that tragically righteous voice that he fought against for so long, the hope that, although Sam was a 'freak', Dean could help his brother beat the beast in his blood.

I really expected him to kill mini!Kitsune, too. That would have cemented his logic: the kid hadn't killed yet, but he would one day due to his inescapable nature. This makes me think this act of mercy was Dean's last gasp of hope. Sadly, Dean probably just guaranteed the kid would become a killer one day (at least) for revenge against Dean himself.

I understand why he did it. Unfortunately, it smothered any current inclination to write (Lucifer/)Sam/Dean.

So, back to spn_reversebang and xmenbigbang, then? :D

Comments

[ladyknightanka.livejournal.com]

Yay, I'm so happy about most of this! First and foremost, you and your sister getting a new apartment is wonderful! I'm glad it didn't take too strenuous a hunt! And your SPNRBB artist seems amazing! I saw that comic on the reaction you linked; so hilariously adorable, while still being a bit sad. I know you two awesome ladies will have a union to laud and I will keep hoping that the muses are kind to you for the duration of these projects (and afterward). ♥

Also, can I say how happy I am that you're happy with the show? I am, too! I agree with all of the points you mentioned, particularly over whether Dean was in character. I could easily see him killing Amy. To be honest, though, I see Dean as more self-righteous than truly righteous, but his flaws are part of what makes his character alluring and the fact that fans are divided over what he did means that Show didn't try to paint him as a saint - at least not overtly.

Let's ignore the naysayers and enjoy Sera's serendipitous winning streak, shall we? :D

[http://users.livejournal.com/_bluebells/]

Thanks, sweetheart, I'm getting really excited about the new place, it's going to be awesome. 8D

And yes, my SPNRBB artist and I are having fun so far, but I really need to make time to write the fic in-between packing, which is proving really tricky atm. No less than you writing SBB around waxing Spanish and creative magic, I'm sure! I hope the muses are kind to you, too, you're so close to the finishing line! Keep up the steam, it's not far now!

I'm really enjoying this season so far, I'm looking forward to it every week once more. Dean is a double standards self-righteous character, but that's his tragedy because he bears the sense that that's not the person he wants to be. Dean is not a saint. That's a significant part of his allure, as you said, he's the down in the dirt brawler who'll do anything for his family. Sometimes that makes him take morally dubious means, but if we understand why he's doing it, we can accept it without needing to like it. Some will admire him for it. Some won't.

I just want him to moo a little less for a change. Keep shaking him, Bobby.

Let's ignore the naysayers and enjoy Sera's serendipitous winning streak, shall we? :D

While it lasts -- ahem!

[ladyknightanka.livejournal.com]

Oh, the parties you will host. They will be magnificent! XDD

Let's hope our days will come. I really just need a weekend with no assignments to jump the last hurdle of SBB, but I am getting a couple extra hours next week, because my creative writing class was canceled, so I'll still manage...but very slowly. I'm sure when the whirlwind of moving excitement dies down, you can work your magic, too. 8D

It's as Chuck said, the fans are always going to bitch, but I'll appreciate it...while it lasts. XDD I was actually going to add that, too, but wanted to appear falsely optimistic. In reality, I've watched every one of these episodes thinking, well, we're definitely going to screw up next week. I like being proven wrong, though. XD

And I agree about Dean's mooing! My sister and I joke that this season isn't about Sam's PTSD so much as Dean's angst over Sam's PTSD. XDD