Originally posted March 2 2013 on Tumblr. The scene in “Everybody Hates Hitler” in which Aaron reveals the use to which he put the pages of the Golem book is fascinating in its potential parallels to one of this season’s themes—the personhood of monsters. The monster as a person with rights of self-determination, who can …
Monthly Archive: May 2015
May 27
Naomi, the Angels, and Free Will
Originally published January 20 2013 on Tumblr. I’m not sure if I loved “Torn and Frayed” (there were some things that really bothered me about it) but it has given me a lot to think about in terms of what Naomi and the angels are doing and why they might be doing it. These are some …
May 27
SPN, Evolution, and Hael’s Grand Canyon
Originally published October 10 2013 on Tumblr. There’s a place. I built it when I was last here – many years ago. A grand canyon. –Hael, “I Think I’m Gonna Like it Here” This line bothered me because SPN had previously done a pretty good job of creating a world where religion/mythology coexists with science and …
May 27
Sam in Season 8: Progression, Not Regression
Originally published April 16 2013 on Tumblr. Sam deciding that he wants out of the hunting life, that he wants to finish college an essentially return to what he was doing when Dean came to get him at Stanford all those years ago, is absolutely not character regression. It’s not pushing a reset button. It …
May 27
Some Thoughts on the Queerbaiting Question
I have a number of problems with the entire concept of queerbaiting and the way it has become the issue of queer media activism. And no, I don’t mean the supposed practice; I mean labeling every representation of queerness (queerness broadly defined) as ‘queerbaiting’ and wrong unless it meets an ever-narrowing standard of identity-representation. (Given that I’ve …
May 26
Still an Angel: Castiel May Be Human-ish, But He’s Not Human
Originally published October 17 2013 on Tumblr. Castiel is still an angel. A fallen, degraced, dewinged angel, but still an angel. He is human-like (mortal, feels hunger and pain, and so on) but not human. He retains some angelic abilities which are apparently not grace-dependent. He can still tune in to “angel radio.” There are probably other …
May 26
Writers Aren’t Machines
Originally published May 31 2014 on Tumblr. Addition published October 6 2014 on Tumblr. “[They] aren’t machines for [us] to program and reprogram. That wasn’t what this was meant to be.” Thinking about fandom attitudes towards (show) writers–how some fans seem to view them not as artists or storymakers but as machines who should mechanically …
May 26
“He Was My Gay Thing”: Representations of Queer Experience
Originally published March 6 2013 on Tumblr. The scene between Aaron and Dean in the pub was an interesting one, to say the least, and my view on it seems to be a bit different than most of what I’ve seen. A lot of the meta written about this focuses on what it potentially suggests …
May 26
Meg, Her Cause, and Her Unicorn
Originally published March 21 2013 on Tumblr. Some musing about Meg and her character development from Season 5 onward, in light of “Goodbye Stranger.” I love Meg. But I have never seen her character arc as redemption; or evil becoming good. And I don’t think she was weakened. I think her story has always been …
May 26
Stop Calling it Worship
The dismissal of positivity as “deification” and “worship” is disgusting. There’s a poisonous underlying idea that anyone who thinks something is good, who has a positive interpretation of someone’s work, is just a mindless zombie. It’s the idea that positivity is irrational and emotional–the sign of an inability to think clearly–while negativity is rational, inherently …