On different ways of perceiving SPN
I find it very interesting how people perceive one and the same show completely differently. Of course, there are Sam girls, and Cas girls, and Dean girls. Bi-bro girls. And also “destiellers”. It’s quite obvious that the views of these different groups will be different.
What I find even more interesting, however, is that even within one and the same group opinions on the show, or on different seasons of the show, or writers, or showrunners, will be hugely different.
I wonder what it is that’s accountable for these differences within one group.
I’ll use me as an example: (Dean girl; most definitely subjective opinion below.)
I enjoyed the first, let’s say four and a half seasons. As soon as they used Adam as Michael and sidelined Dean from his own “destiny” I hated the rest of the season, culminating in hating “Swan Song” with a vengeance.
Seasons six and seven had good individual episodes, but the relative season arcs sucked and were boring. Woobie Sam squicked me to the extreme. I found JP’s acting in these seasons horrible, and (maybe I oversensitized myself) ever since then all I can see when I look at Sam is bad acting. Cringeworthily bad acting.
With Sera gone, the show runner was no longer a self confessed Sam fan, and I felt things pick up immediately. I was never of the opinion that there was a strong mutual bond between the brothers, but that, on the contrary, their relationship always tended to be on very thin ice. (In season 11 we saw the brothers’ relationship build itself up again, so that now it’s better than before, but still on shaky legs.) This was brilliantly handled by actually showing the tension between them. Sam doing the Trials was a huge let-down at first, but honestly? That storyline was crap, so in retrospection I’m actually glad that Dean didn’t get to do the Trials.
Seasons 9 through 11 were in my eyes predominantly Dean centric seasons. He took the Mark. He was sacrificed as a distraction for Metatron by Sam, Cas and Gadreel. He became a demon (too short-lived, but “Fan Fiction” needed to be made as 200th episode, what can you do? *sighs*). Once human he still had the Mark and that was the focus. It all culminated in season 11 of course, when he had the bond with Amara which - to me - is what “Alpha and Omega” refers to: Dean was the beginning and the end as far as Amara’s existence on Earth and her struggle with Chuck is concerned.
So these are the reasons why I was very happy with Carver’s time as showrunner. Of course, I could always have had MORE Dean, and more focus on Dean, and (way way) less Sam. Or (especially) Cas. But: sadly, it’s not the Dean show, so they do have to give others stuff to do as well. More’s the pity.
Would any of you guys like to share your experiences maybe? For science :)