To paraphrase an exchange from Bob's Burgers: Is it a plot twist, or is it just lying?

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Last night, I watched the last two episodes for the second time (Bring 'em Back Alive and Funeralia) – which I don't always do this season, so that says something – and I'm not sure I'm any closer to feeling anything conclusive about this big ol' S13.

So I'll just make a few general observations, spinning into the last few episodes of the season.

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I wanted to dig into some Show meta stuff, and against my better judgment, created a tumblr for this purpose. Of course, I was immediately confronted with fandom friction, and it propelled me to ruminate upon how Sam and Dean were dumbed down in the WS "pilot". Read if you wish!

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...and I need another thing to do, but I've volunteered to write the odd article about Show for a site called SPNHunters. My motives are a little biased, I'll admit. I've noticed a distinct lack of quality attention paid to our boy Sam, from both fandom, show, and social media outlets. I could whinge about it endlessly, but I decided to put my money where my mouth is and write for a site that might have a wider reach, we shall see. Squeaky wheel gets the oil, right?

Here's my first stab at it: Six Fave Smart!Sam Moments.

I started with a little fluff to get the hang of the protocol. It's short and sweet. (Thank you to my twitter TL for helping me select said moments!)

In the future, I'd like to explore thinkier stuff that focuses on both Sam and Dean, and doesn't throw either of them under the bus ... something that I've noticed other SM writers about the show have a tough time doing. I love them both. Y'all know me as a Sam!girl, but I have nothing but understanding for Dean. And as much as we all hate to admit it, the characters are flawed, but the flaws are in part what makes them believable and fascinating. (I also think the show itself holds some responsibility for dropping the ball, technique-wise, but that's a discussion for another day.)

SO! In light of that, I'm collecting topics to explore in the future. Leave suggestions below! I might periodically host brainstorming sessions here on LJ, to help develop the articles. And if I don't end up using the article for SPNHunters? I'll post it here, for us to re-dissect and chew up and spit back out again. (Sounds tasty, eh?)

Looking forward to sparking more discussions, getting LJ up and running again, and writing so that my brain doesn't atrophy!

OH! And while we're at it, a lovely little Jared that was commissioned by the adorable sammichgirl! She printed it out and got Jared to sign it at NOLAcon, eeeee!

Okay, so I've been seeing, here and there, diatribes on the responsibility creators have when writing characters, that said characters need to be the sort of 'people' fans take inspiration from. And "how can you trust an actor's charity works if the show treats 'x' issue so irresponsibly"? I...just don't know. What sort of onus does a creator or performer have towards their audience to be inspirational? I know art does not exist in a vacuum and we never truly create simply for our own benefit (nor is anyone exempt from criticism), but I'm having trouble with the notion that we must curtail our expression or creativity because someone somewhere might not like it...that maybe it might not be a paragon of The Right Stuff.

Just having a little pondering spell on a Saturday morning...

I know we all have our corners of fandom. Not everyone's gonna get along, or feel the same way about the characters. And since the birth of fandom itself, there's been wars, shipping or otherwise. It's just the way it is, I guess.

But with the popularity of quick social media platforms, like twitter and tumblr, fandom friction seems to be spreading like wildfire. Hell, everything spreads faster these days because of the internet, and the way twitter and tumblr facilitates this doesn't help.

Okay, but that's not really what I want to yak about. There's come to be this very active part of fandom that focuses on calling out other fans or making mean fun of the 'other side.' A thriving 'us vs. them' war. (Thank goodness I don't see it much on LJ; it mostly confines itself to twitter and tumblr these days.) Now, I'll admit to poking fun myself, but I do it mostly privately. There IS a lot of ridiculous behavior in fandom, to be sure, and it's tough not to lampoon that every once in a while.

But when it comes to pointing fingers and laughing at opposing fans and ships, what winds up happening is NOT “empowering victims” (and I have many feelings about what it means to be a “victim” in fandom, but that's for another day), it's making it nigh impossible for people who might want to enjoy all ships or all characters to do so. Say you're a Cas!girl who mostly hangs with Destiellers, but you want to explore a little Sassy in your writing. Do you dare?! Will that put you in the crosshairs of militant Destiel fans? Or even worse, you want to write Cas with Meg. Not only are you betraying the ship, you're betraying 'diversity'. (Wincesters are frequently no better; Cas is often a hated character and they make no bones about that.)

I guess what I'm suggesting is that maybe we shouldn't spend so much time focusing on one-upping and slamming each other or things we don't love. I'm in no way saying we can't discus parts of the show or characters we don't like, and of course we don't have to all get along—God forbid THAT ever happen, heh—but practicing empathy is almost a lost skill these days. If we did it more often and stopped the venomous in-fighting, there would absolutely be more cross-over between various camps. People wouldn't be afraid to branch out, for fear of not towing the company line and therefore being ostracized by their more zealous friends.

It's kinda unfortunate that I'm relegated to writing this on LJ, because like I said, LJ tends to see less of this brouhaha because most of it has drifted off to twitter and tumblr (Gee, I wonder why?) and it's easier to privatize and curate your flist here. But LJ is the best place for actual discussions, so here it be!

This post isn't meant to be pointing fingers at anyone in particular, but the phenomena in general. Feel free to ignore my boring ruminations or pipe up if it moves you! Just keep things respectful, and above all, empathetic. My goal here, actually, is to encourage folks to be MORE involved with the characters and fans they love, not less. :)

Hey, gang! I know I haven't been posting much lately; got a little distracted by modding events, other social platforms (I'm sorry, truly! I can't help it!) and a spot of surgery, but now that LJ has pulled its head out of its ass, I have something to explore.

I've been noticing this for a while, and turns out, I'm not the only one. I've heard this sentiment bouncing around other places too.

Does anyone else think the show has improved markedly in S11? I mean, does it feel more like Kripke era episodes? "Better" characterizations, dialog, continuity, scariness? And if so...WHY?

I'll spill my totally amateur theory: Bob Singer has backed away. Hell, even the episode this season that his wife and her writing partner penned wasn't as notoriously debatable as their work usually is. Across the board, the episodes have felt more gritty and American gothic than anything Carver has given us in Seasons 8, 9 and 10. There's even a consistency to the season so far that is so, SO nice! (IMHO, of course.)

So, what say y'all? Am I tripping balls, thinking wishfully, or just plain senile?

DISCUS! (And as per usual, please be respectful. I will turn off anonymous posting or friends-lock this if I have to, but I really don't want to.)

This might post might be a tad controversial, but I had a few thoughts (as I was loading the dishwasher and listening to the international news):

Is there such a thing as fandom profiling? I think there is.

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Huh! I guess I can call this my 2015 Fandom New Years Resolutions! (To which I will add: STOP PROCRASTINATING, SELF. SERIOUSLY.)

So, feel free to comment, discuss, disagree and digest. But I will indulge in point #4 if points #1, #2 and #3 aren't attempted, heh!

mangacat201 brought this up, in regards to my recent episode tag, This Could Be the Saddest Dusk, and it got me thinking:

What IS going on with the human souls and reapers and stuff right now? Is Heaven still locked up tight to new arrivals? Is Metatron's spell still active? Is the Veil getting over-populated by wayward souls? Are the reapers tapping their toes in boredom and annoyance? (Or are they just getting jobs as taxi drivers to kill the time?)

Let's hear it. What do we think, gang?

I suspect most of my flist has seen this cross their dash by now, and I'm jumping on board! I'm offering art to help out cillab42 o'er HERE! (I see someone has already found me, hee!)

You know, we fight a lot in fandom, we butt heads over ships and politics and social issues, can be merciless on the show itself, but this is something fandom really excels at: pitching in. Building up is so much more productive than tearing down. (Yeah, well, duh!) But I've really been chewing on this lately. We can't bully people into change, no matter how convincing or morally upstanding we think our argument is. It simply might not be their truth, and there just might be things we don't know about them. But we can always be kind. Hurts no one, and the old adage about catching more flies with honey than with vinegar? It works, kids.

So here's to honey.

Hellatus navel gazing, as it pertains to Show writing and fandom, under cut...

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What'd I miss? :D (No, seriously, I won't be able to comb back through everything; point me to the juicy stuff!)

Just got back from a ginormous industry convention (Illuxcon) for fantasy/scifi artists, and it was aMAZing. Super-inspiring. You guys? Always always be proud of your inclusion in the fandoms of genre creations. We rock. And we need to keep supporting each other and encouraging each other to create not just stuff for existing properties, but original worlds too. Writers, singers, and yes, artists. All of us. What a fucking boring place this world would be without it.

From de_nugis, by way of others...

Basically, you give someone an age and they fill out the meme for where they were and what they were doing. If you want to join in, comment and give me a ballpark figure for how old you are now, or a decade of your life for me to choose from, and I will select an age for you.

De_nugis gave me 33. I was worried I wouldn't remember anything because my brain is like a sieve, but she happened to pick the age at which I had my first child, so that year is BURNED into my memory. And other places.

I LIVED in Columbus, Ohio. Still do. I like Ohio. It's not spectacular or anything, but it's solid. The people are good and the cost of living is moderate. Sounds bland, I know, but you want bland when you're raising a family. I'll save the excitement for retirement. :D

I DROVE a Chevy Cavalier, red. The stupid thing was a criminal magnet. It was constantly getting broken into and once, even stolen. It was found two blocks away, the radio gone. Hmm. Did I say central Ohio was bland? It really isn't this dubious; I swear, it was just the car.

I WAS IN A RELATIONSHIP WITH my husband, and as I said early, expecting our first son (of an eventual three.) Still married to the old fart. It's not a perfect relationship, but what is? We have our ups and downs but we always talk. And usually, we solve the problems. We're not wealthy or thrilling, but we dig each other. It's good.

I FEARED ... hmmm. Well, very little. I wasn't afraid of childbirth (though in retrospect, I probably should've been. I had the flu, ran a 104° fever and ended up with an emergency c-section.) I wasn't afraid of being a parent; I knew I could do that. I guess I might've been a little afraid that my art career, such as it was at that point, was fading away. But I've always been an adapter; so life changes, oh well. You change with it. Of course art circled back around, but in a very different guise than what I would've expected back then. I had initially wanted to be a gallery artist, you know, an ar-teest. Now? Not so much. I love bringing scenes to life and and collaboration. Art can be so damned solitary.

I WORKED for a veterinary clinic at their front desk. Loved that job, actually. Never a dull moment. We were also an emergency hospital and specialized in exotics, so we saw everything. Sugar gliders, bobcats, chinchilla, our fair share of fight-scarred pitbulls, the local nuts that insisted upon keeping tigers, Labradors that ate fishing nets (complete with the hooks) and kittens so flea-infested they were more insect than cat. But it was a lovely group of people and we did so much good for pets and their families. Tough, emotionally, but ultimately rewarding. Would I do it again? Nah. Why do the same thing twice?

As a person in the creative industry, this hits me in my karma spot. The television show GLEE totally ripped off musician Jonathan Coulton's arrangement of 'Baby Got Back.' Yep, you heard me right. Baby. Got. Back.

Curious? For the full story, check out his site: http://www.jonathancoulton.com/2013/01/26/baby-got-back-glee-style/

But what's really awesome is what Coulton wants to do with the situation. He's not suing anyone, but he wants to raise awareness of plagiarism (and its impact on creatives), and raise money for two very worthy charities.

Feel free to reblog, babies. or even better, buy Coulton's Baby Got Back single and do some good. Let's step up for our artists and musicians!

Lately, I've noted a mass exodus from LJ. It hits me in my heart.

And not because I have this undying loyalty for LJ, or because SPN is losing its dazzle for some fans, but because I feel that maybe this big, weird world we call the internet was creating a new sort of friend. No, it's not the same thing as knowing someone face to face, but the internet has become a notable part of our socializing and networking these days, there's no denying that. And I've gotten to know some really talented and fantastic people through LJ and fandom events, so when they drop off the map, I mourn the loss.

SPN might've introduced me to folks, but I read them because they're excellent writers, or I look at their art because it's gorgeous and poignant.

Yeah, things evolve. Relationships ebb and flow. Can't be helped. Hrm. Yeah. So I guess I want to say thank you to the awesome people I've met through this strange ride. Real life may be interceding, as well it should, but you've made my on-line time a fun, educational, sometimes really moving place.

Y'all know who you are. :D (IF YOU'RE AROUND TO READ THIS! Heh...)