SPN 8x12
So I said that I was going to be hanging out on LJ more. Well, this is what you get...
OMG! SHOW!!!!!!!!! There you are! *tackle hug dog pile* I've missed you ALL THESE YEARS!
OK, so I'm a total nerd for time travel stuff (any of you remember me after "ItB"? OMG. Spaz.). And drama and secret stuff. And research stuff. And Sam and Dean stuff. So you get a time traveling episode about SAM AND DEAN and the Winchester freaking Legacy involving characters that hang out in a super secret club (with a club symbol and a club way of knocking on the door and club cloaks and club ceremonies) and do research and *know* stuff and then launch a new quest based on a mytharc revolving around finding all The Research and smart stuff hoarded somewhere that drags up lots of buried, deep-seated emotional familial drama and I'm a totally goner. It's like I'm in geek-girl nirvana with massive nerdy encyclopedias and a super fast internet connection and bottomless cups of froo-froo coffee drinks and free 24-hour babysitters.
That being said, wow, that was an old-fashioned, mytharc-heavy, history-rich chunk of chewy yum yum of an episode that really opens up a huge horizon of exciting possibilities. WHOO! \o/ And what I love about it is that it's 360 degrees in scope, meaning that it's not just opening up the SPN universe in the present and expanding it for the future, but it opens up huge possibilities about the past up to the present and could potentially mush them up together in a really cool way. From a fannish perspective that's massive as it sheds new light on years of established storytelling. WHOO! \o/ One of the major beefs I have with this season up to this point was the lacking sense of history, not just history in the sense of the story that has come before, but the current storylines in context of Sam and Dean's emotional history. Well, now I'll just go in the corner and happily eat my hat because we got both in spades! Whoo! \o/
As well, the rewriting/relearning of the Winchester past sheds new light onto who Sam and Dean could've been. It'll be interesting to see what they do with this information and how they re-examine themselves in this new context. And from a characterization perspective that's pretty cool. WHOO! \o/ I've always thought some of the most interesting and effective ways to open up new aspects of familiar characters are to use AUs and foils--variations of what this episode used (in my head AUs and time-traveling episodes are like fraternal twins, they're sooooo closely related in weird, confusing time travel theory of unchosen choices and what could've been blah blah blah *diarrhea of the mouth*)--instead of just putting the character through direct trials and revealing situations. They're sort of backdoor ways of getting at the meat of who someone is or more importantly--and something I think is easily overlooked in writing--who someone isn't. Because sometimes what's more defining isn't what a character will do or be or say or who they are, but what they're not willing to do or be or say or who they aren't. And in this context, who Sam and Dean aren't but could've been. Is anyone who writes fic getting all sorts of smart!bookworm!Sam = Men of Letters and kickass!hunter!Dean = Kickass Hunter vibes? *salivates*
Anyway, I think what I'm mostly excited about (and very much relieved by) is that it's as if Show literally got taken off of life support and someone swooped in and breathed in two huge lungfuls of fresh air. I know the simile is ridiculous, but that's really how it feels. These past couple of years SPN has felt stale to me and sadly like Show was dying this painfully overdue death but it didn't know it was dying so it just kept going like everything was great and fine, like it was in denial, while everyone else was screaming for it to go to the ER and save itself (argh with the disgusting similes *points at the clock that reads 1:50 am as an excuse*). :( So a new direction with the possibility of new world building and a new types of characters is much needed and something I'm excited for. I'm a little worried we're not going to get much following though in the way I'm hoping, but I'm cautiously optimistic and cheering on the writers in hopes that they're going to give us something substantial to chew on that simultaneously opens up SPN and pays tribute to its history. WHOO! \o/ Bring it.
OMG! SHOW!!!!!!!!! There you are! *tackle hug dog pile* I've missed you ALL THESE YEARS!
OK, so I'm a total nerd for time travel stuff (any of you remember me after "ItB"? OMG. Spaz.). And drama and secret stuff. And research stuff. And Sam and Dean stuff. So you get a time traveling episode about SAM AND DEAN and the Winchester freaking Legacy involving characters that hang out in a super secret club (with a club symbol and a club way of knocking on the door and club cloaks and club ceremonies) and do research and *know* stuff and then launch a new quest based on a mytharc revolving around finding all The Research and smart stuff hoarded somewhere that drags up lots of buried, deep-seated emotional familial drama and I'm a totally goner. It's like I'm in geek-girl nirvana with massive nerdy encyclopedias and a super fast internet connection and bottomless cups of froo-froo coffee drinks and free 24-hour babysitters.
That being said, wow, that was an old-fashioned, mytharc-heavy, history-rich chunk of chewy yum yum of an episode that really opens up a huge horizon of exciting possibilities. WHOO! \o/ And what I love about it is that it's 360 degrees in scope, meaning that it's not just opening up the SPN universe in the present and expanding it for the future, but it opens up huge possibilities about the past up to the present and could potentially mush them up together in a really cool way. From a fannish perspective that's massive as it sheds new light on years of established storytelling. WHOO! \o/ One of the major beefs I have with this season up to this point was the lacking sense of history, not just history in the sense of the story that has come before, but the current storylines in context of Sam and Dean's emotional history. Well, now I'll just go in the corner and happily eat my hat because we got both in spades! Whoo! \o/
As well, the rewriting/relearning of the Winchester past sheds new light onto who Sam and Dean could've been. It'll be interesting to see what they do with this information and how they re-examine themselves in this new context. And from a characterization perspective that's pretty cool. WHOO! \o/ I've always thought some of the most interesting and effective ways to open up new aspects of familiar characters are to use AUs and foils--variations of what this episode used (in my head AUs and time-traveling episodes are like fraternal twins, they're sooooo closely related in weird, confusing time travel theory of unchosen choices and what could've been blah blah blah *diarrhea of the mouth*)--instead of just putting the character through direct trials and revealing situations. They're sort of backdoor ways of getting at the meat of who someone is or more importantly--and something I think is easily overlooked in writing--who someone isn't. Because sometimes what's more defining isn't what a character will do or be or say or who they are, but what they're not willing to do or be or say or who they aren't. And in this context, who Sam and Dean aren't but could've been. Is anyone who writes fic getting all sorts of smart!bookworm!Sam = Men of Letters and kickass!hunter!Dean = Kickass Hunter vibes? *salivates*
Anyway, I think what I'm mostly excited about (and very much relieved by) is that it's as if Show literally got taken off of life support and someone swooped in and breathed in two huge lungfuls of fresh air. I know the simile is ridiculous, but that's really how it feels. These past couple of years SPN has felt stale to me and sadly like Show was dying this painfully overdue death but it didn't know it was dying so it just kept going like everything was great and fine, like it was in denial, while everyone else was screaming for it to go to the ER and save itself (argh with the disgusting similes *points at the clock that reads 1:50 am as an excuse*). :( So a new direction with the possibility of new world building and a new types of characters is much needed and something I'm excited for. I'm a little worried we're not going to get much following though in the way I'm hoping, but I'm cautiously optimistic and cheering on the writers in hopes that they're going to give us something substantial to chew on that simultaneously opens up SPN and pays tribute to its history. WHOO! \o/ Bring it.