SPN Fandom Pushes Back

[caitri]

Fans are of course rejecting the writers' reality and substituting their own. (Rhetorical question: Why are so many show endings just bad and lazy these days? Honestly endings aren't THAT hard FFS.) They are also doing charity work: The Castiel Project is donating to The Trevor Project and Dean Winchester is Love is donating to NAMI. So far they have collectively raised over $40k in 24 hours.

ETA: The Sam Winchester Project is for emergency assistance for college youth.

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The thing I think that really got me about the ending is how fucking depressing it was on a show that has actually engaged with dealing with depression. Over the years the characters have dealt with nonfunctional and suicidal depression, as well as just constantly wrangling with despair and hopelessness. The episode started with the characters aimless in their "new Normal", moved onto what really felt like Dean *choosing* to die and Sam *choosing* to let him, and then while Dean is puttering around in Heaven Sam is going through the motions for decades. Now, they say that Covid presented problems with shooting the finale, which I believe, but FFS there are ways around that: They could have shown video calls with other characters checking on Sam, they could have done sound effects and offscreen reaction shots to give the impression of character interaction. By not choosing to do that, they basically had two characters give into depression, which, as someone with her share of mental issues, is a fucking punch to the gut.

Anyway. There's loads of fix-it fics and video edits to, well, fix things. Fandom is always ours, and not theirs. So.

Comments

[anutty1]

Cait, why was it SOOOOO bad? Why did it not have ANY thematic payoff? Why did they deny Dean his deserved 'content enough' ending? Why did we find out Jack retrieved Cas from the Empty by a throwaway line from Bobby? Why was Sam's old man wig so bad? Just, why?

[caitri]

So they were saying Covid but it also sounds like more to it. This article has a fascinating tidbit:

“Yeah, so, during the hiatus between season 14 and 15, Jared and I went out to L.A. and sat down in the writers’ room, which I think is the first time we’ve ever done that,” Jensen said. “It wasn’t like a brainstorming session. It was, like, ‘This is what we have, take it or leave it.’ And I just walked out of there kind of uneasy. I don’t know if it was just the fact that I just heard the ending of a show that had been going for 15 years and I’m just too close to it to really accept a finality to it.”

I belatedly remembered that in spring/summer 2019 lots of noises were made about how the cast would have input into the show's final arcs. Google didn't pick up much though because there's so many new articles coming out right now. But either 1) the cast did have more heft on this and so their leaving the writers to hang like this is a dick move, or 2) the cast THOUGHT they would have more power than they did, which seems backwards. And on the other, other hand apparently that final special removed Cas's "I love you" and J2 had to keep saying "Cas is the third brother" so like, there's some power plays going on...

[anutty1]

I am astounded that Jensen and Jared wouldn't have more say in Sam and Dean's final arcs; I am also surprised they hadn't been to the writing room in 15 years; sounds like some disconnect there. I do not want to be that fan who is whining because they didn't get what they wanted, but 15X19 had a much more satisfying ending to the story, so I think I'm just going to think of that as the ending moving forward.

[caitri]

You are not alone, even though 15x19 had its share of "bwuh?!" moments. Also have you seen the latest about the "rogue translator" of the Mexican dub of 15x18??