#supernatural meta
So, thing is…. I have not watched the episode. I just was spoilered on the explore page on youtube when looking up news and there it was. Thank you so much algorithm for ruining the only episode in 4 years that I actually would have liked to watch unspoilered. That’s off the table now of course…. That said. I will watch it later in full. So take all of this with a shitton of salt, because my opinion is basically based only on Dean’s death scene and Sam’s life montage and the ending in Heaven of them meeting again without any in between so I might miss some vital infos – and yeah maybe I should have waited to post after I have seen the full episode first, then again, it doesn’t really matter, my opinion doesn’t matter, as I have not been involved with fandom or tumblr in ages, but maybe my impression can help someone somewhere to feel a bit better about this ending.
So, with that said. And I guess this will be a surprise to most people, these little ten minutes of episode to me delivered more emotion – though the hair and make up on Jared as Aging!Sam was just awful lol so I am ignoring all that – than all of the past 4 years combined.
Is the ending dissatisfying? I can see how people think that. I have to say, I look at it more objectively since I am not involved in fandom etc. anymore. But imo and I really would not have ever expected to say that about an episode written by Dabb. Imo this ending does make sense. I see a lot of posts going around saying that this ending doesn’t make sense, because of the season long arc of the death of the author and fight for free will and that it is the badly written ending Chuck would have penned. And I kind of think no, it isn’t. It’s just that many people treated the past seasons or watched them with rose coloured glasses.
I have expressed in a single post last week why I have issues with Dabb’s era and people’s appraisal of him, because they excused all the bad writing with that only having been „Chuck’s bad writing“ and therefore Dabb and Co were so extremely clever and amazing and soooooo meta. Which yeah, no Dabb was no genius and neither was a Berens. It was objectively bad and lazy writing. This ending however imo actually makes sense – and people only hate it because they did not get what they wanted. Did I get what I wanted from this ending? Not by a long shot – for one: Dean would have deserved more. Much could have been done better, but from the quality or rather extreme lack thereof since Dabb took over, this ending is more than I ever would have expected possible.
So let me get into the meat of it and why I think that way. I can see why it is frustrating to accept this ending, because it feels like all of what they went through was for nothing, because it was never „truly them“ - and I guess that was Jensen’s biggest issue with that ending – and that Dean dies so quickly after just having been free(d). You see, if you operate with the death of the author and celebrating that fact, because it means true free will for the Winchesters then this ending simply – as dissatisfying as it may feel for the character who just achieved freedom – is a fitting one and indeed does not negate character development made (which arguably was influenced by Chuck and never real), but rather showcases it.
Dean dieing on a hunt, in a mundane fashion, due to a rusty nail many say is a disgrace, because it should have been an epic fighting scene or whatever. Why though? We had that countless times. We know Dean is a skilled fighter. He did many Big bads in. Why would it need one more for the final episode? Especially when considering all those times before Chuck has been pulling the strings (this is much more why I think they never should have introduced God in that way and go this route, because that in fact destroys all of the past – which again is why I think Jensen struggled with the ending). Again, I understand people’s discomfort, but I actually think Dean dieing on a hunt, in a mundane fashion, due to a rusty nail is a „good“ (as good as it can get with Dabb & Co) ending. Why? Because it all was entirely Dean. No Chuck. No big story. It was Dean. It was Dean writing his own story. Holding the pen. And That is all I ever wanted (would I have wanted it for him to be able to do it longer, hell yes, but even getting Dean’s joy of being free just for one day imo is worth it and worth more than a lifetime as a puppet for a cruel God). Dean died while doing what he believed in, what he loved doing, with his brother by his side and them both on the same page and not butting heads, he was there out of his own free will, he was not supercharged by an special weapon and he was most of all not indestructable because he was a plaything of God. He died, because he was/is free. Because that is what happens when life happens. And life is tragic. That’s what this is. A tragic death. A tragic death of a wonderful human being. And that’s always what I loved dean for: his humanity and his flaws.
And I don’t see/read it as Dean only finding happiness or true free will in death, though I understand why you could read it that way, absolutely. But imo seeing it that way only cuts things short. Dean was able to let go, he was able to say goodbye to Sam (now his whole speech about him being weaker than Sam etc., that part was enraging and unnescessary, but for the sake of the much despised „bigger picture“ I will ignore it here, because that part I have big issues with). That means he did „overcome“ his „always be there for Sammy“ and giving himself up in the process of doing that (and again yes, that he was only to overcome this when dieing makes this part pretty problematic, very much so – but then again, I don’t expect well crafted story from Dabb, so…). Every single time before (when God was still in the picture) the Winchesters did something bad to undo „death“, etc. whether that was what they would have done if God was not in the picture is up for debate, but in any case here Sam and Dean met one another on eye level. Sam let Dean go and he lived with the grief (yeah, the irony of Dabb trying to replicate „Swan Song“ with roles reversed just in a spectacularly worse way is not lost on me, believe me), but he kept going, didn’t go to extremes to reverse it. He lived with it. Because that’s how life happens. Most of the time it’s not fair. And it’s not what we deserve. But we „carry on“. And we keep writing our story. However a tragic one it might be. But at least it’s ours. We are the paper. We are the pen. And not a bit of spilled ink in Death’s or God’s book. And I happen to think that is as good as it gets…
Alright, those are my two cents on an episode that I haven’t seen lol. I am sure once I see it, there will be a lot of things I will probably dislike about it, but just from the small but probably big bits of the episode, these are my two cents. Don’t get up in arms over it. I am not here to fight. Have never been. And I sure won’t start now that I probably will never log back into this account. :)
So, weirdly enough last weeks episode actually made me think about SPN in terms of meta again - and that hasn’t happened in a looooooong time - so I thought I’d leave it here. Even though I am pretty certain this is not by a long shot what Dabb and Co. have in mind because it would be way too positive and IMO wouldn’t fit with how Jensen struggled with the ending.
That said, last weeks episode was actually the first episode in years that I enjoyed because it was at least semi-cleverly written. Anyway, thing that I kept thinking about is Chuck’s line about how he can see the ending and it just being a gravestone saying “Winchester”. And well, if there is one thing that Chuck has shown in last weeks episode it is that a) that he can’t let go, b) that he has no clue what the audience wants (because they outgrew his writing and his style and his ideas) and c) he doesn’t know the Winchesters at all (he has shown that plenty of times before in S11 as well already).
Point being, he doesn’t know them, they outgrew him, took on a life of their own that doesn’t correspond with his way of seeing and writing them. Now, and like I said this is entirely too optimistic, but I think Chuck seeing a gravestone with the word “Winchester” etched into it might be the furthest thing from something to be scared of, because as I think one could read it, we aren’t talking about the death of the author here - or well, we actually kind of do, because it represents his death at the same time - but it’s the death of his characters, his version of Sam and Dean. And that version has nothing to do with the actual Sam and Dean as we know.
What I mean is: that Death that Chuck may see as Sam and Dean’s actual death may be possibly rather be read as the Winchesters final victory and being free, meaning not their death but the death of Chuck’s version of them. How did we say all those years ago when I metaed regularly? Death isn’t and ending but a transition? I don’t remember exactly but you get the gist of it…
By killing his version of Sam and Dean - that don’t really correspond with the actual Sam and Dean as people but are only characters - he may ultimately free the Winchester for good. But anyway, there’d be stepping stones to take in between and how to get there and like I said, it’s highly unlikely to go that way. But alas it was fun to spec a bit again. :)
imagine being a beat cop researching the disappearance of some random washed alcoholic writer named Charles Shurley and you do a cursory run of the prints from his house and The Fucking Winchester Brothers pop up …… who have been dead for ten years or whatever….and you run their usual aliases in town and they were spotted at a hotel in town a few years back….and Mr. Shurley’s home insurance provider reported that he claimed a violent home invasion and all his stuff got trashed the same time the winchesters were in town…. FBI gets involved…… it becomes national news!
Then the supernatural book fandom connects some dots….because les be real! Lots of the fans were 8 when the books came out! And they realize they’ve been not only shipping characters but also serial killing freaks….
AND THEN one of them goes well who is Castiel then….and forty five minutes on Twitter later it turns out JAMES NOVAK IS A REAL MISSING PERSON.
CAN YOU FUCKING IMAGINEEEEEEEE
controversial opinion maybe, but i think the fact that the spn writers absolutely did not understand queer people or autistic people is precisely what makes dean as a bi man and cas as an autistic man so appealing and interesting. because they literally did not mean to put it in there, it just sorta happened, and isn’t that just the way life works? if they’d tried to make cas autistic it would have seemed artificial and would probably have ended up being really bad representation. but the fact that they didn’t mean to give cas autistic traits means that dean–as well as other characters, get to love those traits (staring, being literal, infodumping, etc) because they’re what makes cas who he is. if they’d tried too hard they would have ended up making it weird. same with dean’s queerness, dean ended up being queer on accident, which makes it so believable. imagine if the cw had tried to write a bi man, in 2005. that would have been a shitshow of problematic and unrealistic representation. so i’m not saying that they were right not to try, i’m not excusing queerbaiting or nonexistent canon queer and nd rep, i’m just saying that joke’s on them bc by not realising queer and autistic people existed they ended up creating some of the most authentic queer and autistic characters i’ve personally ever seen on my tv.
