#the meta sandbox we're in

[rearranging-deck-chairs]

"im all sonic and tardis and timelord, take that away... take away the toys. what am i?" & "you dont have a tardis, or a sonic" & "doesnt work when i do it" & "i played a game and let him in" & "this is not a game" & "you gambled and you lost" & "life's a gamble" & "games dont have a memory" & "is that not the game?" & "lucky at dice" & "tag, youre it"

youre like a kid sometimes

#a kid #'what am i?' a kid babe #did you listen to her #i know you do #takes years for it to sink in but you do listen to her #just gotta remember #at the right time #youre like a kid. sometimes. #i was just checking some 14 scenes for writing purposes and i remembered #how fucking fun this is gonna be #the meta sandbox we're in #its great

[splickedylit]

excerpting

Domestic Diplomacy II is turning out to be even more "splickedy gratuitously gets caught in the weeds of xenosociology and alien language barriers, the fic sequel" and tbh I'm not mad about it

--

“Oh, your moirail!” says Jade, and bounces upright, ignoring John’s wary little soft human cautionary hiss.  To your vague surprise, she’s apparently learned enough not to do the human holding-out-a-hand gesture they usually do when they’re introduced; she clasps her hands in front of her, nonexistent claws politely folded in, and ducks her head briefly forward and to one side, careful not to jab at him with her nonexistent horns. 

It's a pretty passable greeting—for a social equal, which is its own bizarre issue, considering he’s a highblood.  But relatively non-offensive, for a human, and fortunately for her she’s picked a highblood who isn’t likely to give a shit.  Gamzee laughs out loud and gives his own lazy-ass version of a greeting back, a vague twist of his wrists and dip of his head, condescending to use an equal’s greeting back at her.   When he says “Gamzee Makara,” there’s a hint of a threatening buzz to it, a testing you should know to respect me warning—you could have told him she’d show absolutely no sign of hearing it, which is exactly what happens.

“I’m Jade Harley!  I meet you,” Jade says, a carefully neutral statement-of-fact greeting—not fawning or hostile.  You don’t know if humans are out here just learning neutral address no matter what, or if this human particularly just doesn’t give a shit that your moirail’s a fuck-off mutant-huge highblood with horns that scrape the ceiling of the block—by the expectant way she looks up at Gamzee afterward, she wouldn’t give much of a shit either way.  Out of all of the humans, Jade Harley might actually win the prize for giving the least shits, no matter what Rose and Dave like to pretend.

“Yeah, I meet you too, motherfucker,” says Gamzee, looking incredibly amused, and glances down at you.  “She’s a rude-ass little motherfuckin’ toothful, huh?  I like her.”

“Of course you do,” you say, pained.  “Don’t take it personally, alright?  You’re not a highblood here, they don’t get highbloods.”

“Oh, best friend,” says Gamzee, and kisses your nugbone again, embarrassingly.  “I’m a highblood wherever the fuck I go.  It’s cool though.  Squishy-ass little motherfuckers won’t get any grief from me.”

“<Motherfucker>,” Jade repeats behind you, and switches back to English, in the bright, wide verbal tone you’re starting to learn means ‘smiling and happy’, weird interstitial ‘vowel’ breath-sounds further back in the throat through pulled-back mouth-corners.  “Hmm, <motherfucker>…  Oh, neat!  Is that dialect?  It sounds like, ahh, what’s that other word.  Kk—kkkht—  Uh, dammit.  You guys need to learn how to use vowels—  It sounds like <;brother>.”

“It is like,” you say, surprised despite yourself.  “&lt;Brother> is a troll, and <motherfucker> you put it all spots you want.  It’s a thing, it’s a troll, it’s a, tss, a doing-things word, it’s a name.  It’s bad, it’s good.  Any spot you want.  And he does want, for all those, all the time.”

#splickedydrabbles #Homestuck #Domestic Diplomacy #me staring into the distance: what if 'motherfucker' and 'brother' are translated different but they're related words in alternian.... #what if 'brother' and 'sister' aren't different words theyre just translated in english based on gender but there's no distinction actually #it's all the word I tend to translate as 'kin'/'family'/'fam' lol but gendered by english-speakers for comprehension #what if alternian greetings have implicit settings for 'i'm hostile to you' and 'i'm trying to be non-offensive and polite' #and the lack of either is an implicit message of 'we're equals' which comes with its own social baggage RE: castes #what if I approached Homestuck as though it was implicitly a translated text ala JRR Tolkein's meta-narrative of Lord of the Rings #''Alternian wouldn't spell his name 'karkat vantas' of course but it's been anglicized for the audience with additional vowel sounds'' #'when his tone of voice is referenced in this line it of course actually refers to his engagement of his third subvocal chatterbox--'' #WHAT IF-- #I am frothing at the damn mouth I love fucking around in this sandbox so much I will make up ALL the societal/cultural indicators #this is the casual/semi-formal/court-formal code-switching in Save a Horse Ride a Dragon all over again lmao NO REGERTS

[angelsdean]

a lot of issues in the fandom stem from the fact that there are various different types of fans and viewers here. and we're all lumped together into this space and we cross paths but many of us are not doing the same things or engaging with the show and characters in the same way.

you have the people who do serious meta and analysis, who delve into canon and do frequent rewatches and are really familiar with the source material. then you have your more casual viewers, people who haven't rewatched much and their recollection is hazy. they forget details, fill things in with fanon. then there's the spn fandom-fandom people, people who aren't all that interested in the show, maybe haven't even seen it, they're just here for the fandom. maybe they read fics, but most of their knowledge of the characters comes secondhand. then there's people who don't even really LIKE the show (some of them are fandom-fandom people), who are just here for shitposts. some flavors of these fans also come with weird parasocial actor-hate that then bleeds into their perceptions of the characters. and of course then you have the different x-girl factions, the rabid deancrits who can't stand that most of the general audience and fans love dean. all these people, all in one place, all making posts abt the same show but coming from wildly different ways of experiencing the show and these characters.

so then you end up with people in headcanon land coming onto posts from the analyzing-canon people and arguing abt stuff that is Real To Them bc they're experiencing the show in a different way, maybe not even watching it. and they feel righteous that their headcanon / interpretation is correct, but the canon analysis people are gonna go "wtf is this nonsense? that never happened! those claims are unsupported. i'm not incorporating this headcanon into my beliefs about this character." and headcanon people get mad bc they're so married to this idea of the character they've created in their minds. and then we all go round and round arguing abt it.

like, people need to accept that their headcanon may not be shared by others. your interpretation is not my interpretation, especially if you made it up! i'm under no obligation to believe that.

people can play in their sandbox forever, headcanon what they like, but there's a real problem with some people going onto other people's posts / inboxes (usually when someone is discussing canon) to argue their headcanon, often in a negative way. and then these same people get mad when the person they went to with their argument responds negatively. and then there are some people who take things too far, who send threats and harassment to others for simply having a different opinion abt fictional characters. that's not a normal response to have. yet somehow it's the people responding to the hate / negativity they get that are called "bullies."

anyways, people need to accept that others are not living in their head, sharing their headcanons and we're all experiencing this show differently. some posts aren't for everyone. sometimes you can just scroll away when you disagree with something instead of making an addition or being negative abt the post in the tags. we're all here to have fun, at the end of the day.

#vic.txt #fandom

[snek-eyes]

Just wanted to say: There are no stupid questions! ♥ At least not ones asked in good faith. I've loved getting prompts from you guys, or when people've replied to my posts with their own continuations, they've all got me thinking about things I wouldn't have otherwise, or thinking deeper about something I might've said without really considering why. It's all worthwhile!

Also, while I've been trying to cut out using "I think/I feel" too much in my metas (because it feels like I'm apologizing what I'm presenting), that absolutely doesn't mean that whatever I'm saying is fact. It's all just my personal interpretation I'm adding to the general discussion, and alternate or additional takes are very welcome.

I guess what I'm trying to say is, at the end of the day we're all just messing around in the sandbox, and I want us to be having fun, so don't feel like you gotta stress around here :)

#vee replies

[distort-opia]

Every single week for years and years now I have to see another - Batman sucks why doesn't he just kill the Joker- hit post and I am exhausted. It is a tiring take. Really boring. With no new and fresh concepts, no deep dives, barely read comics where all of this is addressed. What continues to be the worst of it for me is a) treating Bruce like he is a fully mentally stable individual devoid of irrational, extreme, trauma induced behaviours and reasoning b) thinking Batman is supposed to be presented as an actual 100% good guy superhero and writers are somehow being stupid and not realising how this lowers his heroism. It always boils down to the very act of seeing Batman kill the psychotic murderer and then zero clue what happens around it, and where the character is then taken. What could be very interesting and impactful arc is reduced to the most basic level moral dilemma and flattened out characters. No psychological sides to it at all, just black and white ethics discussions and vibes.

Myeah, I know what you mean. I occasionally see those kinds of posts as well, even with my rather curated fandom experience. The most grating are indeed the ones that reflect a shallow comprehension of Batman -- why he doesn't kill, what kind of character he is, and what sort of world he lives in. There is a lack of understanding regarding why Batman operates the way he does, and a reductive puritanical approach that morally flattens the characters into versions of themselves devoid of nuance... But on the part of many people making these kinds of posts, I don't think there's any genuine interest in reading more comics, or delving into the complexities of this dilemma. They aren't interested in engaging with the source material on its own terms, or taking context into account.

Aggressive statements calling Batman's no-killing rule stupid, and saying that Batman should kill Joker, were more frequently "Edgy Redditor" takes back in the day; often coming from male fans who wanted Batman to basically become the Punisher. But on Tumblr, their popularity in recent years is rather owed to the rise of purity culture, and especially this kind of... performative moral stance-taking that keeps popping up in fandoms. It's easy to know next-to-nothing about Joker as a character, but still hate on him and churn out Post #20568 about how Batman should kill him. After all, he's abusive and toxic and he killed people, so he surely deserves to die. "I, a pure and deeply moral individual, hate the Joker and don't understand why Batman won't just kill him! Watch me righteously and publically denounce this sinner Problematic Character, and whoever does not follow in my stead must be a sinner Problematic person just like he is!" And then the people who wish to come across as righteous and denouncing this Horrible Bad Character too will provide these posts with attention, and round and round it goes. For this kind of fan, it doesn't really matter where killing Joker leaves Bruce psychologically, or if it makes sense for him to do it narratively. It's not about the characters at all, it's a moral statement -- that conflates real-world rules and morals with the ones of a fictional comic-book world, but that's another much bigger issue.

Also, I did mention it elsewhere, but I'll reiterate that the people who simply dislike Joker for different reasons and mind their own business are obviously excluded from this. People with critical thinking skills, who tag their anti posts and don't harass or spew hate towards other fans who enjoy Joker as a character, are following basic fandom etiquette -- the best thing we can do to keep fandom a peaceful and pleasant experience. No one owes anyone an explanation for why they like one thing and dislike another. We're all playing in a fictional sandbox, and I've seen great meta discussion on Batman's no-killing rule on here, with some insightful and interesting opinions; but this kind of fun debate can only happen if fans don't jump to bite each other's heads off when someone veers away from the dogma Accepted Popular Fandom Opinion.

Anyway, yeah, I do commiserate, Anon. Hope it helped to vent a bit! My advice is to do your best to curate your own little corner of fandom; minimize contact with the people that exhaust you as much as you can.

#asks #joker #fandom negativity #gonna start this tag since I've got a couple of asks in a similar vein that I'll get to in the following days #so anyone who doesn't want to see this kind of discussion can filter it #long post

[creacherkeeper]

What happened to erley??????

in universe, our druid that erley felt very devoted to (/had a big crush on) sacrificed herself to protect her people from erleys father and erley kind of. lost it. and agreed to travel with the party for a little while but when they realized the stakes were getting higher and it was likely they could die, they left letters for the party and ran away in the middle of the night to go hunt down their father and either kill him or die trying (me and my dm are going to record a 'bonus episode' once erley finds him so we can see how thats resolved)

in the meta, tbh erley just wasnt fun to play anymore. we didnt know literally anything about this world or this game going into uncouth so their backstory was pretty vague to start and they didnt have a defined goal. the more my dm fleshed out the world and erleys father and family and we worked on their backstory, they just got ... very tragic, and very traumatized, and very sad, which can definitely be a lot of fun in the right game (bo is those things and i love playing him), but that paired with them not having a defined goal, and with the game being both very plot driven and very sandbox with almost no character exploration, just meant they wound up being depressing to play and more often than not they were in disagreements with the party that didnt always get satisfying resolutions. playing erley just started putting me in a bad headspace, and they werent a good character to explore this story and this plot with

so thats why i brought in maxwell, after asking my dm what classes he wanted to see people play (cleric and artificer were top of his list). maxwell is high energy, loves people, down to clown (npc and plot), sticks his foot in his mouth but will immediately apologize for it, is too curious for his own good, has fucking insane stats (boy is minmaxed to hell so ive already rolled many 25+s which is good because our dm is very harsh about rolls), actually has a good relationship with his god but also formal religious training so he can know a lot about the pantheon, and also has a special interest in dragons which is a big part of the campaign so he's using my autism&adhd traits so he gets a buff to rolls about dragons which means my dm gets to lore dump more. also he has a clearly defined goal and that goal forces him to travel and explore so he has a better reason for wanting to be with the party. (also maxwell coming in three games ago is the first time we've had revivify. we're level 11.)

basically i made maxwell in response to the things that weren't working about erley and it's going a lot better already. he's definitely a better fit for this specific game. i'll definitely miss erley (or at least erley's potential) but this just wasnt the game for them and at some point i just had to accept that. they'll always be special to me (they def played a role in transing my gender) but this is a collaborative storytelling game and they werent a good fit for this story and these players

#so thats the scoop <3 #uncouth company #erley tag #maxwell tag

[essektheylyss]

🍭💎📡 for the writer asks please? (don't feel like you have to do all of them either)

🍭why did you start writing?

I started writing because I read a lot as a child and I had a really cool third grade teacher! We had a period everyday where we had some amount of time to do a bunch of writing assignments, which were all different formats and genres and changed every month, and so long as you turned in that month's assignments at the end, you were free to use the time to write that or any other creative writing you wanted. (I was real disgruntled when the school implemented a banal essay-specific writing curriculum the next year, which was probably a contributing factor to why I dug my heels in and continued doing creative writing on my own, and only begrudgingly wrote essays until late high school/college when I got the freedom with them to enjoy them.)

💎why is writing important to you?

I think a lot of my thoughts for this one were answered here, so in an effort to not repeat myself, I will refer you to that! Tl;dr, writing is like... the overall formation of my worldview and how I engage with anything, so it's really important.

📡why is writing and sharing your writing important for fandom?

SOAPBOX TIME. To preface, I think fandom lurkers are great, and I think they are a vital part of the fandom ecosystem. This is not about that.

That being said, there has been a few trends in recent years in two opposite directions, first of fandom content being increasingly thought of as a commodity for consumption, and also a push to only make fandom content for oneself without worrying about engagement, and I think both of these are unhelpful!

I do think that making art for metrics alone is a losing battle—you should have a connection to what you're making! But everyone in fandom does, and I think that "to engage with the fandom conversation and other fans" is a perfectly valid and actually important reason to make creative fan work! Even when it comes to shitposting or, on the opposite end of the spectrum, more academically-leaning meta, I'm certainly posting more because I find it fun to contribute to the conversation and having discussions. I think fandom is in large part about that kind of discussion, even if the form that takes is everyone contributing to the dash by making their own posts with their own spin on the media.

(This is also why I personally really dislike fandom areas where everyone's working with the same headcanons and parameters, and stepping outside of that or even expressing a different headcanon will get you shunned at best. It takes the conversation and the creativity out of it! What is the point! Are you trying to make a fun little sandbox to hang in or a cult!)

But the thing is, as much as fandom on tumblr is a bit of a parallel play situation, where we're hanging with our mutuals reblogging our silly posts, all of those posts are made by someone, and those people are also in fandom. Every single post is made by someone in the fandom!

Which goes back to the commodification—there is, increasingly, even purely among fans, something of an artificial distinction between "content creators" and "consumers". And no one has to create something in order to be a part of fandom, but everything that is thought of as fandom is created by someone, down to shitposts and gifsets (which I include here as an example because they are so ubiquitous and take work and skill to put together, but I think are often seen less as someone's creative work and more as a commodity unattached to the op)—which I think is a lot of why the decrease in engagement can be so disheartening. Because if no one is sharing their own work, and people aren't then sharing other's work, then there is no fandom.

And I know this question is about writing in particular, but I also consider meta as "writing." I consider shitposts as "writing" even if they take a lot less time than a whole fic. Writing and sharing your writing is incredibly valuable to fandom because it is the foundation upon which we're all participating in community, but I think this is a discussion that can't be limited to only one artform, because in this case it's more about community than the creative work itself.

#thank you for the questions! #I started answering this first today and the last question ended up so long that I kept having to draft it and come back lol #so hopefully it is coherent lol #megs is writing #ask games

[a-stitch-in-time-and-space]

random ramble here about some things I've definitely said before, but it feels important to me that queerness in science fiction contains context, on narrative level and/or a meta level

that is, something could be written in a queer way that isn't narratively set in the same universe/species/culture/generally far away enough from this world and this history that language and identity and civil rights movements don't look the same, but the writer playing in that sandbox does exist in this world with this history and language and these identities and movements and the more that the writer is aware of that, the better the writing is, because those stories and themes are created using our language and philosophies

anything that doesn't acknowledge that will most likely read more like a queer theory for dummies

or something could take place in a future (or a past, or some other place) that is connected very deliberately to who we are, and I've found that very often that kind of narrative stops dead at creating those links with queerness, possibly in order to give a sense of Utopian "we're so far past that mattering" that's meant to be affirming

but in the meta sense it does matter -- it matters that a world has been created in which, perhaps, coming out is still a thing, or there are still only two queer characters for every ten cisgender heterosexual character (and that's a gracious estimate) or even that the existence of queerness is still something that needs to be confirmed, whereas cisgender heterosexuality is a default, or even that "cisgender heterosexuality" is a thing and there hasn't been any imagining done about how our words might evolve (or if the choice is made to use modern day terminology -- fair enough, but that might open up some new questions)

what happens when a writer/creator says "we're so far past that mattering" is that the actual queerness -- cultural, political queerness, is smoothed over into something palatable and conformist, and that... isn't queer

#science fiction #queer narrative #queer fiction #queer science fiction #yes im posting this on my star trek blog #no im not calling out star trek here it's just that star trek is the scifi i talk the most about #and probably where most of the scifi nerds i know hang out #and i think it's worth thinking about for star trek as well -- are we able to write cultural narrative queerness #in a way that connects to who we are? science fiction is about who we are after all #this might sound really difficult but i think even just acknowledging (if the story takes place in this kinda world) #that things look different now to what they looked like before #establishes a link between the now and the hypothetical future #(or past or parallel universe or what have you) #the world far removed is a slightly different kettle of fish but i think about left hand of darkness discussing gender and sex #even acknowledging differences in cultural binaries... it's so Neat

[chrismerle]

4, 9, 10!

(le meme)

How many WIPs do you have right now?

uh ... if we limit that to just fanfic and just fanfics that have already been started, then:

Thin Slicing, previously mentioned P5 NG+ fic

A fluff fic about Joker having a motorcycle and giving the other Phantom Thieves rides, direct sequel to my fic about him giving piggy-back rides

You're Lucky You Made It, that one FFXV AU fic that gets updated like once every three to five years

The whole Hazbin Hotel 'Bonding' series, which I am counting as one WIP 'cause they're all in one document with a very goofy name

Aftermath, my Helluva Boss fic about Blitz being a messy bitch and Fizz putting up with him while pretending he is not also a messy bitch

an In Space With Markiplier fic that's gonna be real fuckin' weird and possibly real fuckin' meta, but for the moment is only like three pages long. I named my captain Fitzroy.

I think that's all of them, so 6

Do you write every day? If you wrote today, share a sentence of what you’ve written!

lately, yes, because Hazbin Hotel is the friendliest sandbox I've ever played in, but that's very much not a normal thing.

here's a bit of the next Bonding fic:

'Crymini turns to squint at Mrs. Mayberry. “Why do you sound like you think it’d be my fault if that happens?”

“Honey, if the reason there’s no dinner is because you harass the cook into leaving, then I’m sorry, but that is your fault.”'

Is there a fic that got a different response than you were expecting?

I mean, I didn't expect my Hazbin stuff to get ANY response, but every single one has multiple comments and one of them got fanart (no, I'm never letting that go), so

I expected them to get attention from my, like, three friends who have also watched the show, and possibly from my bestie who I tend to drag into my bullshit and vice versa (we're mutually 'I don't go here, but I'm glad you're having fun')

#ask #meme #auncyen

[the-starryknight]

hi hi! sorry if this isn't allowed but do you have tips on how to make friends with popular people in drarry tumblr/insta/a03?

Hi anon! I get it. It's hard finding your way into fandom, especially in the beginning when you might feel on the outside. We all want to feel a part of this community, and it's difficult to know how to do that.

Firstly, I'd like to push back on you for this idea of making friends with "popular" people. I know it can seem like some folks are super "popular" but the reality is we're all just people, playing around in the same sandbox. Approaching it as "I want to make friends with popular people" will only get you frustration. Popularity is subjective and endlessly changing, and most importantly, popularity doesn't tell you anything about your connection with someone. I can't help you make friends with "popular" people.

Instead, start with: "I want to make friends."

The best way to make friends anywhere (or so I've found) is to pick somewhere and keep showing up. If that's on Tumblr, or Instagram, or Ao3, or Discord, be present, however you can be.

Ok, Starry, sure, be present. What does that mean?

Read fics. Look at art. Listen to podfics. Try your hand at making something, if you feel like it! And then... Engage with the makers! Leave comments, make recommendation posts, reblog with nice things in the tags or in the comments. Participate in fests.

If you're a writer, you could start with something small, like @drarrymicrofic. Or join a fest! I follow @hpfests for info about them. You could open your askbox for prompts too to get people to come with ideas.

If you're a reader, you could try to read something new and leave comments for the author, send an ask to your favourite author about what you liked, or a question about the meta behind it. Make a fic banner! Write a rec post! Anyone can be a reccer.

And if you're an artist, try an art challenge. Post your art to Ao3 as well as Tumblr. Share WIPs. Ask other artists for tips. Open art prompts.

And if you're not sure where you fit yet... All I can say is try something! I like fic-binding. Some other folks do podfics. Or write recs. Or reading and leaving kudos, or making bookmark collections on ao3, or, or or... There are so many beautiful ways to share in this sandbox.

In the meantime, you could try the Drarry Discord (18+). Send asks when folks put up ask games on Tumblr. Be kind, and that kindness will come back to you.

Most importantly, just be here. Friendship will come as you put the work into it, community doesn't appear overnight. Good luck, and see you around the sandbox 💛

#asked and answered #anon

[mittensmorgul]

Do you know of any instances in canon history where Dean's intuition has turned out to be wrong in a major way? Because it seems like we're going to start to see some answers to the "he was brainwashed" question since Jack flapped off and Dean still doesn't trust him.

Hrrrrm. This is a really difficult question, because like the Winchester Hunting Mindset, it’s not this black and white.

Like obviously of course he has and hasn’t, but extenuating circumstances. Context matters. Shades of grey, etc. etc.

Even all during s6 he fought against what his intuition was telling him about Cas, because he so wanted to believe in Cas. I mean, that’s a huge part of why he couldn’t forgive himself, or get over what Cas had done even by 7.17. He blamed himself for not pushing harder for answers, or maybe even for taking that whole year off with Lisa and trying to play normal

But aside from emotional overriding of what he’s got that bad feeling about, I can’t think of a single instance of his intuition being flat-out wrong.

Even in smaller ways, he’s typically right about the case stuff and Sam’s the doubter, but you specifically asked for if he’s been wrong in “a major way,” so I’m going to try and focus on The Big Issues. But again, the only instance I can think of right off the top of my head where he was stubbornly and blatantly wrong about a case was in 12.04– when he was absolutely convinced it was the social services lady who was a witch. Again, waves hello at Davy Perez, for absolutely nailing Dean’s immediate personal trauma and underscoring so many of his personal issues involving Mary’s fresh abandonment, his lifetime of likely run-ins with Family Services and well-meaning social workers, his parentification of Sam, his problematic relationship with John and the responsibility to hide the truth about their lives and protect Sam at all costs… which played right into the case they were working and colored his personal reactions. But again, extenuating circumstances…

Because of his personal issues with Mary and abandonment and the fact the social worker was openly admittedly a witch. Dean also got a very different impression of the family than Sam did (literally, he only had half the information to make his judgment on). He saw the father and son, the “happy families” side of the story where everything was presented to be done by their own choice, for positive family-bonding reasons in the wake of a personal tragedy. Meanwhile, Sam was in the house getting the skeevy third-person retelling of a first-person story by the mother, making it clear to us, who saw both sides of the story, that something was Definitely Fishy in that house. Meanwhile, all Dean could see after that encounter was that Sam had a bizarrely antagonistic reaction to a conversation he could only assume was nearly identical to the one he’d had outside.

This stark division, the reminder that they’d both had an entirely different experience in their respective interviews and thus come away with entirely different theories about the case, is highlighted as soon as they leave. Rather than sharing the reasons for their vastly different impressions and trying to figure out WHY they were given two entirely different impressions of this family, they each stubbornly stick to their guns. That was the entire POINT of this episode, on a meta level. And this lack of communication and understanding of the other’s entirely different experience and viewpoint and insight, Sam’s entirely unprepared for the entire family to be “in on the secret” and Dean’s bowled over to discover the social worker was nothing like she’d appeared to be on the surface.

And as soon as he saw the other side of the story, he instantly figured it out

So that’s the one glaring exception to Dean’s instinct, and it essentially works as an “exception that proves the rule,” because of the meta nature of the reasons he was “wrong” about the social worker.

That brings me to Dean’s role in the overarching narrative of the entire series. He’s the emotional POV for the audience. We’re supposed to ride along with him and even when he’s wrong he’s right. I know this bothers some people, and for some this is a major reason that they just don’t like Dean as a character. But most of the time, he’s the barometer for how the audience is supposed to react and feel and interpret the entire narrative.

We know Dean lies professionally, and is therefore an unreliable narrator, but we’re also given to understand that we’re still supposed to be “on his side” because he’s our emotional POV.

Whether he’s 100% right about Jack puppeting Cas or not doesn’t matter to me, so much as Dean’s reading of it being presented as the correct reading. Whether Jack meant to or not or whatever… (and we have ample evidence that most of what happens with his power is not something he does consciously, but that doesn’t mean he’s not subconsciously doing this stuff anyway), Dean’s read was the presented “main” reading and the events seemed to match it.

But I would argue Dean’s less right than 100%, but not more than 50% wrong. (the 50% being powers vs Jack himself doing it, i.e. the bit he’s partly “wrong” about is his assumption of any sort of intent on Jack’s behalf) and there will be a REASON he is wrong if he is which would necessarily justify his reading.

The fact that DEAN believed in the sock-puppeting, and the fact that JACK believes that it was a possibility, is what’s led directly to Jack’s current dilemma

Now that Cas is back, and he and Dean can finally (as he said in 12.23) “work through our crap,” theoretically he’ll be able to talk with Cas about all of that and try to understand Cas’s motives between 12.19 and 12.23. Unfortunately, Cas is also not objectively placed to talk about it, since it happened TO him and his emotional attachment to Jack /now/ is again a separate thing.

I fully believe he would have formed those same bonds with Kelly and unborn Jack in BETTER circumstances. Even if he’d gone back to the bunker with Sam and Dean as he’d already consented to do before the events at the sandbox. Arguably, it would’ve been a much safer and secure place for Jack to have been born, and for Dean and Sam to have come to understand the larger circumstances at play here.

As it is, Jack or his powers just made it happen for sure. Because of Dean’s stated concern that Cas wasn’t under his own control there, it renders anything Cas would have to say about it moot, because we can’t trust his objectivity. Because of Dean’s stated pov opinion on it.

Cas’s innate goodness and kindness vs his issues with protecting people/being a guardian angel/wanting a win all would lead him to care for Jack, and to feel responsible for caring for Jack, even if Jack’s powers hadn’t become a mitigating factor. I mean that’s why Kelly “picked him” to be Jack’s guardian in the first place. She (or Jack’s power) could plainly see Cas’s “goodness” in direct contrast to Dagon’s “badness.” He was even wavering about his orders to kill Kelly and Jack a few times IN 12x19, but he got pushed over the edge hard. This was not a gentle nudge or a moment of genuine character realization.

In the span of one glowy-golden-eyed sock puppeting (and that part is NOT up for debate, Jack’s power literally took Cas’s hand and used him to destroy Dagon), he went from “Jack must die and go to heaven before he’s born” to “Jack must be born with all his power at all costs” with no logic in between. We didn’t see his process on screen, and "he’s powerful enough to make me zap a knight of hell" is not good enough reasoning.

This was arguably the first instance of Jack’s power trying to do something good (killing Dagon) while having drastically unanticipated consequences (Joshua’s death, Dean being injured, the Colt being destroyed, and Cas abandoning his stated mission to take Kelly to Heaven so that Jack could be born with all his power). His power had already resurrected Kelly and thereby saved Jack, and that had caused cosmic alarm bells to ring in Heaven, providing the homing beacon Kelvin used to locate Kelly in the first place.

If anything it should be more concerning that he has that much power before he’s ever born. That firmly demonstrated his self-defensive instinct that we’ve seen trigger his power repeatedly since he’s been born.

After his power ~does the thing~ he doesn’t even seem to understand that he’d done anything. Like waking Cas up in the empty. Or the fact that his power resurrected Kelly when she’d killed herself, and yet he has no concept that he probably could’ve resurrected the guard he’d accidentally killed in 13.06 in the same way. Jack still is in a stage where he has to WANT to do things and I think understanding the guard is dead was too final to realize he COULD bring him back.

He seems to just ~do stuff~ with his power, not realizing it, and then later once he realizes he CAN, he attempts to do it deliberately– like the whole “throw people around” thing he seems to have perfected so he can do it without killing the rest of TFW at the end of the episode. I mean, the previous time he’d pulled that trick led to the circumstances he was terrified would happen ~without him intending harm~ but being unable to stop it from happening anyway. And yet he still did the Force Throw thing.

Then again, his INTENT when he was throwing that power at Dave the Ghoul was to kill/maim/injure… but he clearly has a lower setting on it and wasn’t afraid to use it on Sam, Dean, and Cas before flapping off, immediately after stating his reasoning for leaving being his desire NOT to hurt them…

He’s so highly conflicted about his OWN relationship with his powers that HE HIMSELF thinks of them as a tool and not inherently a part of himself. Right now his powers are literally acting like the man behind the curtain, and everything Dean’s witnessed with his own eyes has confirmed his initial impression that Jack’s powers are Not Trustworthy.

Over the course of the first six episodes of the season, Dean’s gotten to know Jack //the human person// outside of his powers, and seen what he was struggling with, his self-loathing and self-doubt and fear and confusion, and knowing that Jack’s powers may have set up the circumstances that led to Cas dying but also led directly to Cas coming back… well, that proved Jack’s intent was good, but still doesn’t clear up the whole “my power does what it wants and damn the consequences” issue that brought them to this point in the first place.

It’s rather a moot point if it ever really had been true or not before 13.04, but Dean’s BELIEF that it was true influenced Jack’s belief about whether or not it was true, which led directly to Jack “calling out” for Cas in the Empty… sort of proving the mechanism by which his power acts without his conscious control, and extends a TERRIFYING amount of influence into realms were even God has no power to act. And he does it all without it even registering to him. So in that respect, yeah, Dean’s 100% right.

He’s right because that’s the function of his POV within the narrative itself. And again, I know that has the potential to piss people off, and it’s kind of a hard fact to swallow sometimes, but unless the narrative explicitly proves Dean’s intuition wrong, we’re supposed to trust Dean’s assertions. And so far I’ve seen nothing to contradict this one.

#spn 13.06 #spn 12.19 #Anonymous #jack nougat winchester #seriously though why doesn't everyone just trust dean's gut instincts it's like he's got an uncanny magical gift here... #the special agony of brainwashing #feeling a wee bit rightfully terrified of the Incredible Nougat Power #dean is the center of the universe