Season 15, man.

[amberdreams]

The thing is – the Winchester brothers were ordinary.

Ordinary kids who were born and brought up into tragedy and learned to deal with it. Ordinary men who lived and died in extraordinary times, and were brought back, over and over, because they were expected to do extraordinary things.

Their pain was real. Their growth and hard-earned wisdom was real. They learned the hard way that they could only rely on each other, that just about every friend they made either betrayed them or died. Their losses were real, their grief was deep and lasting.

They are the heroes of their own story because they turned the ordinary into extraordinary, and because the cost is visible.

No writer should be able to turn around and take that away.

Comments

[harrigan.livejournal.com]

Exactly!!!!

(I have to confess, I turned it off before it was half-way over. I've never done that before.)

[septembers-coda.livejournal.com]

I'm not caught up! How are they taking that away, if you don't mind telling? I don't care at all about spoilers; I like them--they sometimes encourage me to watch sooner. :-)

[amberdreams.livejournal.com]

I don't know where to start.
This week's episode was marketed as a light hearted comedy one but it left a very bitter taste for me. Basically at the end of the last episode Chuck/God apparently took away the Winchester's hero status which meant (har har) suddenly Dean had cavities and was lactose intolerant while Sam kept tripping over things and caught a cold. The episode implied Sam's never had a cold before (stupid) and Dean's never been to the dentist (possible I suppose). But the worst thing about this was the message that came across loud and clear that any competence they'd previously had was Chuck's gift and because they'd been unrealistic heroes in Chuck's story.
If they'd kept it to some kind of bad luck curse like Bad Day at Bad Rock, it could have been amusing, but they didn't. So Sam failed to charm and a character called out his puppy dog eyes, Garth was the badass who saved them from being beaten to a pulp, there were monsters cage fighting each other who got literally blown up by Garth even though they hadn't actually killed any humans and Jensen got to do a black and white Fred Astaire dance as a supposed Dean dreams sequence.
I could go on and on, but it's just too depressing.

[septembers-coda.livejournal.com]

Ugh, sounds awful. :-P Like, truly terrible. Dabb-penned, you say? Yeah... he doesn't get it. People complain about Bucklemming, and I don't dig them either, but they don't do that kind of character assassination, and they're kind of good at the relationship stuff, actually.

I've only seen.... 4, I think? episodes of this season, not in order, but for the past couple of years they've really put canon in the blender, with no regard for what comes out, and Dabb is definitely the worst show runner IMO.

[amberdreams.livejournal.com]

I wasn't that bothered before but this season just seems to be getting worse and worse and in a way that is kind of insidious. The last two episodes have felt like the writers just grabbed a handful of tropes and fan service and threw it all up in the air to see where it would land. The fourth wall isn't merely cracked, they've torn it down completely and it's so uncomfortable I was seriously thinking after this morning's viewing that I'm not sure I can watch any more.

I feel like Supernatural has already died and I'm just watching a bunch of people poke the bloated corpse with an electric cattle prod to make its limbs twitch.

[septembers-coda.livejournal.com]

Yeeeeah... that's a vivid, terrible, and unfortunately very accurate way to describe it. :-( I felt that way last season, and much of the time since Season 12. The long slow death is torture! I did actually stop last season, and ended up catching up largely because they announced 15 was the end. I thought, maybe they'll pull out the stops and try to make the end really great. It's unfortunate that that seems impossible now. Sorry you're suffering with it!

As for THIS: the writers just grabbed a handful of tropes and fan service and threw it all up in the air to see where it would land. So well put, and I can actually see them doing that ON PURPOSE in the writer's room. I wouldn't be surprised to hear that they made an active decision to focus on fan service for the last season. Boooooo, Dabb, booooo.

[fanspired]

> I feel like Supernatural has already died and I'm just watching a bunch of people poke the bloated corpse with an electric cattle prod to make its limbs twitch.

GOOD metaphor!

[amberdreams.livejournal.com]

ha ha I thought so...

[anniespinkhouse.livejournal.com]

Unless there is going to be a reveal that it was a curse/petty god meddling then I feel like Dabb has utterly trashed the characters that many could identify with and in fact, the whole premise of the show. I never wanted superheroes, I don't watch shows about superheroes. I need a show that affirms that people can overcome their demons, the metaphorical monsters in the closet can be killed with grit and determination of an ordinary person.

[amberdreams.livejournal.com]

EXACTLY!
And even if they do 'reveal' a curse or meddling, I feel the damage has been done.

[borgmama1of5.livejournal.com]

I am feeling very disappointed. I don't think Dabb understands this show.

But Jensen tap-dancing? I would love to hear his story about having to do that!

[amberdreams.livejournal.com]

There are so many ways they could have made that a good episode and they failed so completely. Jensen tap dancing was awesome - if that was all him I'm very impressed as I had no idea he could dance like that - but shoving it into an episode like that? It made no sense, it wasn't Dean-like, it didn't fit anywhere in the narrative and threw me completely out of the moment.

I don't think Dabb understands this show. I agree 100% and would add I don't think he understands his audience either. I am so glad the show is ending - maybe if they do a reboot in the future they will be able to repair some of the damage Dabb & co have caused.

[borgmama1of5.livejournal.com]

It was all Jensen--he talked at a recent con about 'learning to dance' but wouldn't say more. I hope someone asks him about it at the next con!

[amberdreams.livejournal.com]

Damn him and his perfection! Yes, I hope so too!

[mangacat201.livejournal.com]

I'm... I don't even know, reeling is probably best to describe it, from viewing this episode. I thought was a great concept for the boys to have some 'normal people problems' in their lives, not because we were to assume they never had any before, but because WE as the audience don't normally get to see them as the narrative in terms of being a VEHICLE usually doesn't have time for it.
But to so thoroughly deconstruct all the boys abilities and their accomplishments in one single episode is... jarring. I mean, I never thought there could be such a thing as too much meta in the Show, but I'm beginning to feel that where they're taking this 'author of the universe is the villian' in a completely wrong direction (again, terrific in concept and mindbogglingly becoming more awful with every bit more of the execution as basically EVERY single season premise since five I guess) . I don't even know. I loved the step routine too as a gimmick and kudos to Jensen for learning all that, but it was like watching part of the gagreel or something in the middle of the show.
I don't even know. I think I have to stop thinking about this ep, because I'll revew myself into a tizzy over it. I will watch the show to the very end and I know they sometimes overextend the silliness a little bit, only to snap back in the drama with the full force of the awesome, but seriously, I'm just not confident about the talent in the writer's room having the necessary chops to make it happen.
I think I need fix it fic, if anybody has some, I'll be lapping it up. Please.

[amberdreams.livejournal.com]

This so much this. We are going to need a Fix It SEASON let alone a fic or two.

[yohkobennington.livejournal.com]

Im not caught up with the new post -break episodes, so I'm just going to say one thing: I'm glad this is the last season.
Not because I wouldn't love to have SPN forever, but because I knew crap like this would happen the longer it stays on air. At this point they are just destroying everything that has been build. I'm just watching as to finish something I started, not because I've any interest on what these writers are doing to this show for seasons now. Once SPN is over, I will pretend this season ( and some others) never happened 🤷‍♀️

[amberdreams.livejournal.com]

That's what I'll be doing too - I feel obliged to watch to the (bitter) end but I doubt I'll be watching any of this season again. Our little discord group are planning to rewrite (and illustrate) our own ending and I'm much more confident in them as writers than I am in Dabb and co!!

[fanspired]

Please link me when you do

[amberdreams.livejournal.com]

I reckon we'll be posting everywhere - I hope it comes off. There are some talented writers & artists lined up - like quickreaver and monicawoe.

[fanspired]

The premise of this season is actively tearing down everything the fans have invested in for years. I don't know if it's just insensitivity or actually malicious. I suppose the majority of the audience don't care and it's just entertaining for them, but it seems to me that the writers care least about the people who've cared the most and the longest.

[amberdreams.livejournal.com]

It really feels like that, doesn't it? I think these writers believe they are being terribly clever, when in fact all they are being is terrible.

[fanspired]

Indeed.

[lira-chimera.livejournal.com]

Agree. :(

[zara-zee.livejournal.com]

Yeah. Just watched. I've decided that Sam and Dean as we have previously seen them are normal and awesome and that what Chuck did here was to...negatively effect them in some way. Like, not that he'd powered them up previously; that was all them; but that he'd powered them down now. Some mental gymnastics, I know, but it was the only way I could make this palatable.

[amberdreams.livejournal.com]

Yeah, in hindsight I should have jumped to that conclusion but I got the negative message first and then it got reinforced to buggery and back and I was DONE.

I'm going to try and think my way through to something else and stick to that regardless of what Dabb tries to do, the inept bastard.

[lira-chimera.livejournal.com]

"...the writers just grabbed a handful of tropes and fan service and threw it all up in the air to see where it would land." And they did a SUPER SHITTY JOB of this, too!

Whew. This was a very hard episode to watch. :(

[amberdreams.livejournal.com]

It really was. And I'm not really one to over analyse or get into meta-ing episodes, so it really threw me that I felt so strongly about it!

[fireheart13.livejournal.com]

exactly