(no subject)

[ninety6tears]

Just a few comments about SPN 6x12.



-First of all, JETHRO TULL IN MY SUPERNATURAL. I NEVER THOUGHT THAT WOULD HAPPEN.

-I thought they did well balancing the plot with the emotional stuff of Sam finally being back; they got down to business on a hunt right away but Dean did a whole lot of staring at Sam (Did you catch how Dean looked at him when the girl's sister said, "We don't even have a body to bury"?) With Sam figuring out everything that Dean was keeping from him it was nice to see for once that they're past their angsty mis-communications. But Sam. I loved how in the moment with Cas you could tell that he wasn't really confused as much as kind of remembering something he instinctively knew all along, and he immediately started tearing up, and I was like omg omg Sam SAMMEH.

-And speaking of Castiel, the attempt at hugging Sam was so goddamn cute I had to rewind it like five times. Awkward!Cas. And then he tries to play it cool like



SO MUCH LOVE.

-The consistent mockery of virginity is becoming a Thing on this show and it kinda needs to stop.
And could we not joke about rape?

-Dragons, who actually love gold. Oh, show.

-In conclusion, Sam and Dean, yay show, blah blah blah. I don't know if this Mama of Purgatory thing is going somewhere interesting, but no one does.

-Don't scratch that damn wall.

It is absolutely wonderful being able to watch this show in HD now.

Comments

[flowrs4ophelia.livejournal.com]

Dean spends this entire episode looking at Sam gushingly hehe.♥

How exactly does the show mock virginity? Is virginity serious serious business and a subject that should only be handled with utmost solemnity?

[ninety6tears.livejournal.com]

LMAO, if only Cas and Dean had been with him in a scene together. The "LOOK AT SAMMY" gushing mixed with Cas' blindingly earnest relief would have been almost too much.

It just...does, and no it's not, it's just an annoying stereotype. Not everyone who's never gotten laid is automatically an immature Promise ring Christian with a pink room and they've repeatedly implied this kind of thing in the show. I think if Dean ever met an asexual his head would explode. Just the fact that Sam would make the "But she's 22!" comment is eye-roll-inducing.

[flowrs4ophelia.livejournal.com]

I don't think they showed them as immature or in a judgmental light. For the sake of them actually being able to make a connection between the victims it was kind of necessary for them to be openly abstinent promise ring-bearing Christians who were all connected to the same church.

I mean, the first religious virgin girl there ever was in the show was Lori, and I thought she was presented as very intelligent with understandably conflicted feelings about being so overly judged. And the virgin in "Jus In Belo" was quiet and sweet and reserved but also very bravely offered to die for everyone, and I think it would be overlooking a lot to say she was just defined by that aspect and written as a sort of dull and simple church-goer. Sure, it still gets a little problematic and it's annoying that whenever it's a Thing that there are virgins involved they're women, but then again that's true to all the lore involving virgin sacrifices and stuff. If the show (honestly pretty accurately) acknowledges how someone at age 22 is pretty unlikely not to have had sex, I think it at least shows more of a non-judgmental "sexuality is normal and okay" attitude as opposed to "Everybody has sex, everybody likes sex, what are you talking about?"

[lorrainemarker.livejournal.com]

it's annoying that whenever it's a Thing that there are virgins involved they're women

I really wanted the episode to twist the trope, so the guy was the virgin and the dragon took him and abandoned the non-virginal girl.

[ninety6tears.livejournal.com]

It is nice that with Lori they manage to not mock people who are abstinent because of Christianity, but it's kind of a separate stereotype. The plot is kind of a situational mess, because they have to have some reason to know for sure, but they could have lost the pink walls and kept the diary entry and had the same result.
I wasn't bothered by Dean being dickish and invasive about it because he had to be, and the fact of virginity being something they need to know about becoming awkward as hell was just funny. But they definitely don't have to always be women. I just can't commend the show for a lack of slut-shaming when the attitudes seem to come more from the collective hetero-masculine id of the creators.

[flowrs4ophelia.livejournal.com]

The creators like Sera Gamble? (Not that that necessarily means anything except that it's not the exact same creative team it's always been, but I feel like you're judging this element of the episode based on what you've come to expect from the show based on previous seasons.)

Either way you're making it out to be almost like some kind of "virgin-shaming" instead and I just don't see it. The connection between the victims kind of revolves around the idea of them having promise rings being stolen, and the kind of girls who aren't just Christian virgins but are actually so serious about it they wear promise rings are generally going to be imagined as "nice girls" who don't exactly have Slipknot posters all over their rooms. It may not fit the personality of all women like that, but I guess I'm missing how that's an incredibly harmful cultural stereotype. The episode neither advocated or criticized living that way, it was just a detail in an investigation. I just didn't find the approach to the subject to be distasteful, when I had some concerns beforehand about how it might be handled when I heard about what this episode would be about.

Knowing this show's previous offenses, I just think it was done better than we might have expected, and I honestly think the show does sometimes have a decent portrayal of these things and has improved a little in the area, especially now that Dean is kind of more mature. He wasn't nearly as lewd in dealing with this case as I thought he might be.

[ninety6tears.livejournal.com]

The creators like everyone involved in telling the story, who are mostly/usually male, not just those credited as capital C creators.

I guess I'm missing how that's an incredibly harmful cultural stereotype. There are worse stereotypes, sure, but when people who just don't care about or think about fucking or are uncomfortable with fucking are being made to feel like there's a lot of pressure for them to be fucking because otherwise they're immature or naive or boring, it's yucky.

From my angle you can't just say "Well, in this episode it was this and this and this" because I'm talking about being annoyed with how they've ALWAYS handled the subject. It's just that it's a repeated thing they had a chance to be subversive with and they didn't go for it. *shrug* It's not that I would have expected different, just. Meh.