WARNING: SPOILERS BELOW! READ AT YOUR OWN RISK, IDJIT!
Okay, so for all that this episode was above and beyond upsetting to all of my feels ever, it was also really good. Remind me to shake Robbie Thompson’s hand if I ever meet him—he’s not written a crappy episode yet.
Pretty much everyone who has read fanfiction has an OTP—a One True Pairing that they ship harder than anything else. But what about the couples that are just awesome buds, and who you like together as friends but not romantically? Well the recently coined term ‘brotp’ is there for you. And since Valentine’s Day puts and unnecessary emphasis on being in a romantic relationship, I figured I’d take this post to give a shout-out to some of the awesomest platonic friendships out there.
WARNING: SPOILERS BELOW! READ AT YOUR OWN RISK, IDJIT!
Howdy, y’all! Saika here, filling in for Lady Geek Girl’s usual weekly Supernatural review.
This week’s episode was chock full of interesting stuff, both for plot-development reasons and for our boys’ characters. What happens when Henry Winchester, John’s father, jumps out of your closet? Well, apparently a hell of a lot of backstory falls out after him. Continue reading
Ever noticed how some fanfics write your favorite male characters as girls?
A gender bender, or genderbending, is when an author writes a character as the opposite of the gender that he or she is in canon—that is, the writer changes the character’s physical gender (not gender identity, although that could make for a fascinating fic as well). Relatively few stories use genderbending as a way of exploring transsexuality or the more complex issues of gender identity. Typically, as MadameAce has said in a previous post, genderbending is used to spice up existing romantic pairings between characters.
There are several reasons that authors normally use genderbending. The author might want to see more girls, due to either a lack of existing female characters or the existence of really poorly written female characters. Sometimes if the relationship in the story is (as fanfic tends to be) comprised of two guys, the author genderbends one of the characters so that the pair can more easily have children. But regrettably, in most fics, genderbending reads as a trope where guys (for the most part) are turned into girls and then there is a lot of sex, for reasons. The problem is, if you’re changing something as fundamentally definitive as a character’s physical sex, it shouldn’t be glossed over or used as a gimmick.
WARNING: SPOILERS BELOW! READ AT YOUR OWN RISK, IDJIT!
Well, Supernatural is back and so are my reviews. I’ll admit it I was excited for tonight’s episode. So far season eight has been excellent, but now the reviews are going to get harsher. Why?
Before the mid-season finale, I tend to give the show the benefit of the doubt. I assume that things I’m on the fence about will be fixed in the second half of the season. When things don’t appear to be headed in that direction I start to get pissed.
My current concern is Supernatural‘s female characters and the direction they’re headed.
Now here we are at the last and final installment of this little series. I looked at the accusations that Supernatural is sexist and racist, and now it’s time for the last question: is Supernatural homophobic?
Supernatural has been accused of being homophobic by fans and non-viewers alike. This is sometimes because of the actual portrayal of gay characters in the show, but sometimes because of fan pairings. Fans have also accused Supernatural of not being daring enough with certain characters’ sexualities when they have the opportunity to. So let’s take a look at homosexuality in Supernatural to figure this all out.
I’m sure our readers know that I am a big fan of Big Time Rush, but you may not know that I am also a fan of Supernatural. In fact, I was the one to tell Ladies Geek Girl and Saika about the show in the first place and encourage them to watch it, so…
I’m not very active in the SPN fandom anymore, though, because my work schedule makes it difficult to keep up with the show, which is why I don’t really post about it. (I am watching the anime version right now though, so expect a post or two about that once I finish the series) Back when the show started, however, I followed the fandom pretty closely through LiveJournal and forums (these were pre-tumblr days folks!) so I was very aware of the shipping and all that in the fandom. One of the things I noticed that irked me, which I’ve also noticed in the BTR fandom, was that any time Sam and Dean (or Jared and Jensen, for that matter) showed affection or concern for one another everyone jumped all over it as being proof that they were gay for each other.
Why does this bother me? Well, for one, I related strongly to the family dynamic in Supernatural. I saw myself in Sam so much and the relationships he had with Dean and John hit really close to home with my own relationships with my brother and father. It was wonderful to see them try, fail, try again, make headway, etc. in their relationships with one another and the strength of familial love between them reminded me of my own and gave me hope that no matter what troubles may exist in my own family we could get through them because we loved each other.
Then I went online and that love was turned from something purely familial into something lustful and I was made to feel uncomfortable and confused. Why did it seem no one could believe that these men loved each other as father and son, brother and brother? Why did any sign of affection have to be turned into something romantic or sexual? One of the phrases I saw thrown around a lot in the SPN fandom and even more so in the BTR fandom is “Straight guys don’t do that.”
And any time I see that phrase, or some variation thereof, I want to ask “Says who?”
WARNING: SPOILERS BELOW! READ AT YOUR OWN RISK, IDJIT!
It’s here! The midseason review of Supernatural! As midseason reviews go it was not as super awesome mega exciting as I prefer my midseason finales to be, but it was a good episode overall. It explores Dean’s relationship with Benny more and further delves into Sam’s relationship with Amelia.
So let’s take a quick look at “Citizen Fang” and then I’ll discuss how season eight has progressed, and what I hope will happen in the future.
WARNING: SPOILERS BELOW! READ AT YOUR OWN RISK, IDJIT!
Alright SPN fans, it’s time for another review and I have to say, I’m not as impressed with this episode.
This was an episode I thought I was really going to enjoy, what with the cartoon aspect, Cas becoming a hunter, and the various shenanigans that would doubtlessly ensue. This episode was still enjoyable and very funny, but out of all the episodes so far it’s the least well written.
Now, that is not to say it was bad, and so far season eight has been amazing—this is just the first episode where the writing is just okay instead of stellar.
Alright, ladies and gentlemen, it’s time to discuss whether or not Supernatural is sexist. I meant to have this written ages ago, but I have been having a hard time writing this particular post, because there are just so many factors to consider. Sexism is probably one of the most predominant criticisms of the show. Why? Because the women of Supernatural are often killed, portrayed as evil, or written off the show. Almost all of them are sexualized.
This is also because almost every female character on the show sleeps with either Dean or Sam, putting them squarely in the girlfriend category and thus, usually in the damsel-in-distress category. It’s true that the women Dean sleeps with have a higher survival rate, but they still tend to not do much and are often written off the show, though there are a few notable exceptions.
I used to think the survival rate of women on Supernatural was pretty low compared to the men, but one article has shown me that’s actually not the case. Gender Bias in Supernatural: The Cold Hard Stats goes through the meticulous effort to calculate how many women in the show have died, versus how many men in the show have died. Separate charts were used to show the difference between major and minor characters, and surprisingly more women survive then men.
Lady Geek Girl and Friends 