#it was fun to on a meta level nudge and try for ew base story but don't let it bleed out

[myrfing]

(wakes up) also to be clear I don't think eden had to at all have commentary on gender or sexuality on a deeper level. this game isn't about that, they were willing to beat around the bush for yotsuyu even, the bar's low as helllll. but i guess I was at least hoping for a dedication to each character's personal meaning irrespective of what the fanbase wants after the fact. but instead of doing that they seem to pivot hugely toward making whatever will make a brief buzz with the fandom for coming off as progressive or confirming a popular headcanon or whatever & in doing so they go past just making meaningless References and shallow aesthetic renditions of potentially poignant concepts and dynamics and making what feels like deliberately sanitized kidzbop versions that are directly antithetical to the point of the things they seem to nod and wink at. and it's especially frustrating when they come CLOSE to fixing their feet on the ground and telling a good story but they bungle it because they seem to be afraid to say anything without seeing what the fanbase says first & then we end up with a whole lot of runaround nothing in our hands

#like...you're not gonna make everyone happy. go into it with feeling #it was fun to on a meta level nudge and try for ew base story but don't let it bleed out #like ryne's shiva segment being so...disappointing feels like it comes from being afraid from rocking the boat re: ysayle #even though its potential is insane for ryne to reckon with her past of trying to embody a symbol at cost to her life #through the eyes of someone who was her friend. and then tying that in itself to the What I Have to Be vs. Who I Am #and gaia who wants to learn who she is together with her. but it's like. There for 2sec and then it's not and now it's all about #her and mitron. LIKE GOD HELP ME #also my crazy opinion this is why the light dark switcharound for shb was ultimately weak as fuck beyond aesthetics. #oh and plus they did weird undress tit window fanservice bs with ryne. which completely kills any remaining touch on the subject at all.

[mittensmorgul]

Hey, mittens do you think John will meet Cas? in the photos Cas is away, not in the bunker! I will be so sad if they don't trade some words!

Hi there! I think my best reply here is gonna be a series of disclaimers:

1. I don’t like speculating on this sort of stuff, because it’s almost always entirely unfounded.

2. PR for this episode in particular is even less reliable than it is for “regular” episodes. This is The Very Special Episode of s14, for obvious reasons. This is the one they are going all out on with the PR, and have been all season. They are hyping this episode to the stratosphere, capitalizing on the fact that this is the 300th episode, which is a milestone that hardly any tv shows ever even HOPE to reach, and this lil show just keeps chugging along. The entire production crew is THRILLED to have achieved this incredible feat, you know? This is a huge reason to celebrate, for all of them. So, they are pushing the PR hard, hoping to entice new viewers, hoping to get the GA worked up and excited about watching this specific episode, and also hoping to lure back viewers that may have stopped watching over the last few years with A Very Special Episode, you know? All that PR, even more than usual, is directed toward THEM, and not toward the close-watching meta fandom viewers. Or even really toward the loyal viewing fandom folks, It is a PR STUNT in that respect, and for anyone who follows the show closely, it’s important to keep that in mind.

I mean, look at this list: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_longest-running_scripted_U.S._primetime_television_series 

Supernatural is now in the top 20 longest running US shows of all time, when sorted by number of seasons. 11 of the shows higher up the list aren’t even airing anymore, and if SPN is renewed for s15 (as most of us expect at this point), that will bump it up into the top 15 longest running shows of all time. When sorted by number of episodes, it’s 25th, and this is including several “outlier” shows that aired 100+ episodes per year, or even Gunsmoke that averaged 30+ episodes a year for 20 years... (and SPN will move into 24th place after 14.15 airs). So this is DEFINITELY something I totally support our guys milking for everything it’s worth, PR-wise, you know?

3. Because we know that PR is not showrunning, and can manage our expectations accordingly, we need to be aware that these sorts of PR photos generally give us vague-to-unhelpful glimpses at a couple of specific scenes, and not actual useful spoilers of the Big Plot Moments, you know? I mean, remember the PR photo set from 14.11? Sam and Dean with a box, Dean standing by the Impala holding a gun:

http://mittensmorgul.tumblr.com/post/182279163210/jensenackles-daily-damaged-goods-original

That was everything important that happened in the episode, right? even when you toss in these additional photos of Mary apparently grocery shopping, murdering pumpkins, and Nick being creepy:

http://mittensmorgul.tumblr.com/post/182017479745/justanotheridijiton-supernatural-damaged

or even less helpful, the photos for 14.10:

http://mittensmorgul.tumblr.com/post/181813279785/sammyhale-supernatural-episode-14x10-nihilism

Where, without explanation, we have Michael chained up in the Bunker. I mean, we had no information yet to understand that scene at all, and yet I remember a number of disappointed speculation posts that clearly the writers had no idea what they were doing because they didn’t even care about their own story’s continuity if they were just “forgetting” the scenario we were left with at the end of 14.09. And just... WHY WOULD PEOPLE JUST ASSUME THIS FROM A COLLECTION OF DELIBERATELY VAGUE PROMO PHOTOS?!

Sorry, *deep breaths mittens you can do this*. I’m just... tired. I’m 100% here for any and all wild speculation, because it CAN be fun to engage in it. As long as that speculation is understood to have no basis in reality, you know? I mean, I wrote crack fic/speculation for 14.12 based on the end of 14.11 and the 20 second promo video, and it’s HILARIOUS. But do I expect that’s how 14.12 will actually go: http://mittensmorgul.tumblr.com/post/182333868540/complete-crack-spec-based-on-the-promo-for-1412

I mean, over the last few weeks since we got the EW Cover Spread stuff (all included in my spn 300 tag here: http://mittensmorgul.tumblr.com/tagged/spn-300), I’ve seen people upset that it seems we aren’t getting the “how the townspeople of Lebanon see the Winchesters” episode we thought we’d been promised, because none of that stuff was included in the promo photo sets. And I mean... no? Even in the deliberately vague PR interviews, we know that there will be some scenes in the town of Lebanon. And heck, the episode is TITLED “Lebanon,” which speaks volumes about what the episode might be focusing on, you know?

But who is this EW article primarily for? For luring in fans of JDM who may never have seen Supernatural, and hoping to draw in a much larger audience than usual. For fans who may have stopped watching SPN a while back and would be intrigued about this strange return of John Winchester enough to tune in. While yes, us fans who follow the show and the fandom closely aren’t going to be getting huge spoilers from this info, nor from these photo shoots. Yeah, we have Sam, Dean, and Cas covers, but I actually saw that some people were upset that Cas wasn’t included in the “Winchester Family Portrait” cover, and just... no. Okay? Cas got HIS OWN COVER. John did not. I mean, on a meta-level, this is doubly hilarious because JDM wasn’t even there in person when they shot the Jensen-Jared-Sam portion of the photo. He’s literally photoshopped in after the fact. So... I’m taking that as my humorous wink-wink-nudge-nudge on that.

So... all that said, I am *personally* sticking to my standard policy of “heck this might be a fun episode!” and not trying to pre-convince myself to hate it via wild, baseless speculation.

Sorry if some of this comes across as bitter, but I am tired. I’m tired of folks speculating on stuff and working themselves up into a lather before episodes even air.

I am INCREDIBLY EXCITED for this episode, and would honestly prefer not to guess what we may or may not expect from it.

That said, I would not personally be disappointed if Cas and John don’t even meet in this episode. They’ve never “met” before in canon, even in the two episodes where Cas transported Dean to the past specifically to interact with young!John. I’m honestly more interested in what the show is going to use this apparently “past version” of Cas for. I am far more interested in the comparisons they’ll invite us to draw about how far Cas has come, and how this might affect him going forward. I am far less interested in what a “first meeting” between Cas and an “alternate version” of John might look like, you know?

From everything I’ve heard about this episode, from all the PR, it seems like the episode is going to be reaching into the past in search of a smidgen of closure and catharsis for all of the characters as individuals. And I am totally here for that.

Any further speculation I’m just gonna sit on my hands for. I get people enjoy engaging in it, but I find it’s far too easy to slip into negativity which gets carried through into the actual episode, regardless of if the speculation just set the bar far higher than the show ever intended, or so low that folks simply refuse to reach up for where the bar actually is. I’m not interested in poisoning the well two weeks before the episode even airs.

#fandom problems #pr is not showrunning #yet another reminder on why i don't speculate on stuff like this #spn 14.13 #can't we please just have one nice thing for once #Anonymous