A little bit of spooky for Halloween

A friend was showing me some stuff on her Pinterest the other day, and one thing in particular sparked my imagination. I get inspiration for story ideas from all over the place, and this one was too good to resist, so I had a bit of fun. Here's the inspiration:

Of course as soon as I saw this, my brain spun out a plotline for a quick oneshot, which I wrote up just in time for Halloween. So, if you're interested in a quick bit of Walmart horror, I invite you to check it out over here in Aisle 13.

Fall is finally here!

In honor of today being Halloween, here's some of the fall-related stuff that's happened this month.

First, the food - thank you, Facebook, for inspiring Trevor to make pumpkin cookies with cream cheese icing. Probably the most delicious thing I've eaten in quite a while (and I'm not going to think about how bad they probably are for me).

And we also baked up a batch of pumpkin seeds, which turned out really well. Those actually were a healthy snack, I'm pretty sure, and they tasted really good. (Radar also thought they were delicious - he would come up and beg for one every time I was eating them - I guess they're sort of like dog treats or something?)

Trevor also carved his first jack-o'-lantern (which is where the pumpkin seeds came from). I couldn't believe he'd reached the age of twenty-seven without ever carving a pumpkin, but that's remedied now. The end result was a very nice classic jack-o'-lantern, which is now gracing our front step.

In other autumnal news, some of the trees finally changed color over the last few days, so it's actually starting to look more like fall outside. Finally. And for the most part, the weather feels more like fall as well - I guess fall just starts in late October out here in Oklahoma. The two best things about finally having cooler weather? Hoodies and hot cups of tea, both of which are high up on my list of things that make me happy :)

And that's been our fall so far - there's a Reformation Day get-together (party!) tonight for church folks, and tentative plans for a bonfire/corn maze a couple weekends from now, so I guess fall really is just getting started here! (Maybe it'll stick around long enough for Trevor to decide to cook up some more delicious fall-inspired food...)

Shipping: My reactions - Only within fandom?

Recently, I've read a couple of articles on shipping, and they made me want to verbalize some of my own frustrations with some of the more prevalent opinions on shipping that are circulating among fandom. To keep the length manageable, this is going to wind up being a series of posts, with me addressing one or two opinions at a time.

I suppose I should begin by defining what shipping is, just in case there are people reading this who don't know. As best as I can explain it, shipping is believing that two characters should be romantically involved (whether or not they actually are together in their show/movie/etc). This couple is known as your ship. Also, for the most part, this term is only used when you are passionate about this couple being together. For example, I ship Peter and Olivia from Fringe (meaning I really, really care about what happens with them as a couple), but I wouldn't say that I ship Nick and Juliette from Grimm (even though they do make a good couple).

Alright, now that everyone knows what I mean when I talk about shipping, let's move on.

One of the popular opinions out there seems to go something like this: you can ship whatever you want, but shipping should stay solely within the domain of fandom. In other words, don't you dare let it be known to the writers/producers/actors/etc that you'd like to see Person X end up romantically involved with Person Y. (From what I've seen, this view is primarily held by non-shippers.)

There are a couple of aspects to this opinion that really bother me. First, why is it alright to advocate for the return of a popular character, or for a time-travel/musical/otherwise-quirky episode, but not for the development of a particular romantic relationship? In today's media culture, fans have more access to the creative team behind shows than ever before, and these sorts of requests often do bring about results, as long as it fits with where the show is headed. Fans can be heard, and studios can use that information to determine what would be best to maintain or boost their viewership. So why shouldn't I be allowed to politely make my preferences known? (Yes, there's a distinct difference being respectfully expressing your desires and sending hate mail/tweets/etc when you disagree with something. The first is always acceptable, while the second is never appropriate, but unfortunately the two tend to get lumped together when the topic of shipping comes up.)

The other aspect that I find aggravating about the insistence that shipping should not extend beyond the boundaries of fandom is that it tends to nurture a culture of shame. Creating boundaries for where it's okay to let your shipper side show causes people to begin to feel uncomfortable about sharing their passion outside of those artificially erected barriers, which is not a healthy thing (this is especially true for non-traditional ships). If people are going to jump down your throat or mock you for expressing your passions outside of the relative anonymity and safety of the section of the fandom that shares those passions, then you start to hide that part of yourself, for fear of being hurt.

Again, I'm not saying that we should go around shoving our ship in other people's faces and tell them to ship it too, or else... Respect should play a key role in our interactions with others, whether those interactions are regarding shipping or something else entirely, and we should realize that others won't always share the same passions. So be proud, and be vocal about your ship, even among others don't ship it, but, in the same way that you wouldn't go on and on about your new truck to someone who is into ballet and could care less about cars, don't push it too far.

Okay, Rant #1 is over. Next time: Why can't you just be happy with a platonic relationship?

(In case anyone is interested, these are the articles that got me going on this: I Won't Go Down With This 'Ship, and Why I Ship (And Why It Shouldn't Matter). Both articles make some good points, and are worth reading, if only to better understand some of the points of view that are out there)

Fandom: A Brief Summary

Yesterday, I had a friend over who was working on an essay for one of her college classes. Her assignment was to write a definition essay, and we were tossing around possible topics when a topic came up that made me say to myself, "Self, I want to write an essay on that." The topic? Fandom.

So, after spending a bit of time yesterday and then finishing it up this morning, this is what I came up with. Keep in mind that this is not a comprehensive definition, so if you read this and feel like I left something out, I probably did (and I still ran 170 words over the word limit...).

Fandom: A Brief Summary

Being part of a fandom is a defining factor in many people's lives, so exploring what this actually means gives insight into how a large portion of the world functions. The term 'fandom' can cover a wide variety of activities, but those activities are always centered around a particular cultural phenomenon - generally a television show, movie, book, band, or celebrity. To understand fandom, it is best to look first at the general behavior that defines members of a fandom, and then to look at specific activities that are play a large role in most fandoms. Also, to make the terminology more simple, I will be talking primarily about television show fandoms, but the same principles apply to most others as well.

There is a distinct difference between merely identifying as a fan of a particular show and calling yourself a part of the fandom. Being a fan of the show simply means that you watch it and enjoy it, while actively identifying as a member of the fandom generally encompasses much more. In general, a member of a fandom will invest large amounts of time and energy in the culture surrounding their particular show, and will become emotionally connected to the fictional events and characters. This can play out in many different ways, but always involves some sort of connection with others who also self-identify as members of the same fandom.

More specifically, social media sites play a large role in this connection for many people. Sites such as Tumblr and Pinterest allow these people to interact with others by sharing photos, videos, and gifs among the fandom. Tumblr and Twitter also serve as platforms where people can liveblog/live tweet episodes, allowing them to interact with other members of the fandom in real time, sharing reactions and 'feels' as they occur. These sites form a major part of the foundation of modern-day fandom, allowing members to interact around the globe with others who share the same interests.

A second piece of this interaction comes through forums and fansites which allow for more in-depth discussion of episodes after they have aired. Here, people can read reviews and meta-analysis by others and then respond with their own perspectives on the issues raised in the show's canon (things that have been explicitly stated on the aired show). The dicussions here can often become very deep, and may require extensive knowledge of past events on the show. These sites also provide a way for people to discuss theories regarding where the show could possibly go in the future.

Another large piece of fandom revolves around fan-created works, generally in the forms of fanfiction and fanart. While comment forums, and, to some extent, sites such as Tumblr, are generally aimed at allowing members of the fandom to interact regarding canonical events, fan works allow these people to take pieces of canon and then create their own worlds. For some, the fan works stay close to the original canonical events, either portraying these events as they happened on the show, or filling in the blanks left between scenes and episodes. For others, fan works provide an opportunity to create what that person wishes would happen on the show, whether it's a romance that never was in canon, or a completely alternate universe altogether. These works can be shared with the fandom as a whole using a variety of sites, and more popular works can often become a point of reference for a large portion of the fandom.

For many of the more popular fandoms, fandom interaction can also occur in person at conventions. Although many members of a fandom will never make it to a convention, for the highly devoted (and slightly more monied) members, this is an opportunity to engage with the fandom in a unique way. At a convention, people get the chance to meet other fans face to face, often finally meeting in person the people they've been interacting with for a long time online. Conventions also allow the fandom to interact with the people who create the show, giving people the opportunity to hear from the talent that makes the show they love.

So we can see that a fandom is a multifaceted community, allowing people to engage in social, intellectual, and creative expression based around a specific cultural phenomenon. As such, it can maintain its relevance even after the phenomenon has ended, because the community has already been formed and the social connections have already been put into place. For some, their fandoms will continue to be a large part of their life for the rest of their life, shaping them even long after the show or movie has ended.

Supernatural "I Think I'm Gonna Like It Here" review

After months of waiting, Hellatus (definition: a term used by the SPN fandom to refer to the hiatus) is finally over, and there's a new episode of Supernatural to talk about! Yes, I realize the premiere was a week ago now. Yes, I know that means this review is going up really, really late (beating the new episode by just a few hours). But my desire to write died a horrible, bloody death early last week (literally - I was working on a creepy story and I think I killed my muse along with my characters), and I only just got around to heading out to the crossroads to resurrect it...

So, here we go, on what will hopefully be the first of many positive reviews this season.

Supernatural Season 9, Episode 1 - I Think I'm Gonna Like It Here (season premiere)

Before I get into the minutia, I'd like to start by saying that for any season premiere of a show I really love, my expectations are generally extremely high. The anticipation has been building for months, I've seen every promo and preview clip, every interview, I've read all the spoilers I could get my hands on, and I've basically built my expectations to a point where it's practically impossible for the episode to actually meet them (I think that only happened once out of all the shows I've ever watched, with the premiere of Fringe's fifth season...) So I wasn't actually surprised when the episode wasn't everything I'd dreamed it would be, and was able to still really, really enjoy it for what it was.

Okay, time for the details.

First, "The Road So Far." What a great job encapsulating the entirety of season eight in one minute and forty seconds. Sometimes I feel like these lean too heavily towards just showing the best fights and such (which is still cool), but this one was really nicely done. It fit really well with the song that was used as well, and after having seen the episode a few times, I feel like the song worked nicely with the episode as a whole.

And then we're inside Sam's head (although we don't know that for sure at the start). This time through I had an interesting thought - Sam knows that the news is reporting meteor showers to explain the angels falling, which means at some level he is aware of the things he's hearing out in the real world. Which means that later on, at some level, he could very well have heard Dean and Ezekiel talking. I know Ezekiel wiped all the memories from the hospital at the end there, but what if Sam remembers? I don't actually think he will, but it hadn't occurred to me until now that if he does, he's not just going to be wondering why he was in the hospital, he's going to know what Dean and Ezekiel did. I hope I'm right and he doesn't remember, but it's still an interesting thought.

I'd also like to mention the way the camera keeps shifting slightly during the scenes in Sam's head, so that the angles feel off the whole time - it helps to sell the idea that this is a fluid environment, created solely by Sam himself. The way the later scenes are tinted also helps with this, as the world is lit by something that's not quite sunlight. It's a nice use of cinematography to allow us to visit yet another dimension, and it's also interesting to me that Sam's head now looks very different from Sam's head at the end of season six (more on that later).

Then the new title card literally made my jaw drop. I haven't really particularly liked any of the previous ones, although I did appreciate it when the title cards started to relate to the overarching theme of the season. And this year, the theme is fallen angels, and the title card is absolutely beautiful. Kudos to the VFX team.

And now we start with item one on the list of things in this episode that broke my heart. When Dean is told that Sam's life is in God's hands, he can't be satisfied with that. The brothers have always fought for each other, and Dean doesn't have faith in God. But he does have faith, and I found it really interesting that he actually goes to the hospital chapel to pray. Maybe he'd been calling out to Cas for hours and his last hope was that if he did it right, on his knees in a church, Cas would hear him and come. Whatever the reason, he wouldn't set foot in a chapel and kneel and pray unless that was the absolute last resort. He's run out of options, and the only thing he can do is cry out for help to a heaven that he doesn't believe in.

There's also a lot I could say about Dean's prayer to Cas. Every other time Cas has gone ahead on his own, ignoring Dean, and wound up screwing things up, Dean has had some pretty harsh things to say. Just look at the last time Cas came back after messing up - Dean wouldn't even talk to him, and basically told Cas that he couldn't be trusted. But this time, Dean doesn't necessarily assume the worst - "...whatever you did, or didn't, do..." - and he wants Cas there with him. He even goes so far as to say he needs him, which we all know is something he rarely admits about anyone. And maybe part of what he wants is for Cas to help heal Sam, but my personal opinion is that he's on the brink of losing his brother, and Cas is the only other family he has, so he needs to know that his angel is safe.

Random side note: Dean tells the angels that he's in Randolph, NY, and I'm assuming that's the closest hospital to the church they used. They captured Crowley at Bobby's old place, which is in Sioux Falls, SD, about 15 hours away. Could they seriously not find any holy ground closer than that? (I'm going to chalk that one up to a small slip in the writers' room and leave it at that, but it did make me go, "Huh?")

Moving on, we come to item number two on the aforementioned list - the fact that Dean is desperate enough to make a deal with the angels. He's done this before, made a terrible deal to save Sam's life, so it's not surprising, but it shows fully how desperate he is. He hates the angels, hates what they've done and how they've tried to use him, so to promise to owe one of them a favor - that's huge.

And right after that we hit item number three - in Sam's head, the part of Sam that wants to fight for him to live appears as Dean. It makes sense - Dean has always fought for Sam even when Sam wanted to give up. But after Sam admitting that his greatest fear is letting Dean down, to see Sam's subconscious casting Dean in the role of the person who fights for him, means that Sam really did take to heart Dean's words in the church. Somewhere inside, Sam knows that Dean will never give up on him, not ever, not even when he's dying.

Then we finally see Cas for the first time, and find out exactly where he fell to earth - turns out he's a very long ways from Sam and Dean. I'd forgotten that he would still be able to hear angel radio, and the chaotic voices that he's hearing serve to give us our first glimpse of how badly the angels are taking being cast down to earth.

I also appreciated the fact that Cas' first interaction with humanity as a human himself painted humanity in a positive light. I'm sure the old guy in the truck thought Cas was nutty, but I really loved that he took care of him anyway, giving him a ride and then some money. There's been a gifset of that circulating on tumblr, and somewhere along the line someone added the verse about showing hospitality to strangers, for some have entertained angels without knowing it, which I thought went well with it.

It actually stands as an interesting contrast to Cas' first interaction with the angels, where Hael tricks him, then tries to use him for her own ends, and eventually reveals to him exactly how much the angels hate him for playing a part in their fall. And from Dean's end, we know that the angels are actively hunting Cas down, wanting to make him pay. It's going to be an interesting year for him, I think, both in terms of adjusting to being human and figuring out how to survive in a world where he's powerless and being hunted.

Heart-breaking moment number four: "I would fly, but I don't have wings. Not anymore."

Back inside Sam's head, I was a little puzzled at first why Bobby would be appearing as the part of Sam that thought letting go was a good thing, but after thinking about it for a while, I came up with something that seems to make sense. Bobby himself tried to hold on after it was his time to go, and wound up turning into the very thing he'd hunted for years, so he knows a little something about the consequences of not letting go. So it sort of makes sense that Sam's subconscious would choose him to represent letting go when it's your time to die.

Moving on, we come back to Dean, who's even more desperate, and seems to be thinking about dealing with Crowley for Sam's life, at least until he's interrupted by an angry angel who plans to use him to get to Cas. The angels should really understand that threatening Dean to get him to give up Cas is really not going to work. Dean would happily die for his family, and Cas is a part of that. So it's a good thing Ezekiel shows up then. Having his first act be to save Dean helps to cement his good guy status, and having Cas vouch for him later on is also good. I hope Ezekiel really does turn out to be one of the few good angels, but we shall see, I guess.

I'm not going to say much about Hael in this review. She pretty much just served to let us see that Cas is once again wanting to clean up the mess he made, and then to show that he can't possibly succeed in that because the angels want his head. She wasn't particularly well acted, and came across as a very flat character (in fact, every time I rewatch the episode I like her performance even less), so I'm glad that she won't be making a reappearance.

Switching back to Sam, I'd like to talk about how far he has come. I mentioned earlier that the world he creates inside his head this time is so much different from the one in season six. That one was dark and gritty, with the colors bleached out somewhat - not the subconscious of someone who is at peace with who they are. This time, it finally is. And rather than fighting tooth and nail to escape and live, Sam is finally content with what he's done with his life. And he (as Bobby) tells himself (as Sam) that - "You've saved the world, son. How many people can say that? How many people can say that they have left this godforsaken hunk of dirt that much a better place? What you call dyin', I call leavin' a legacy." Sam even pictures Death as being honored to reap him, because he deserves that respect.

Sam really is ready to let go this time, and even though part of him wants to keep fighting, and believes there's something worth fighting for, he finally realizes that he's really already achieved what he was meant to. He fought all his life to do the right thing, to save the world, to atone for the wrong he had done, and he got there. And he's finally able to die in peace, so long as he knows that it will be final, that Dean can't get hurt again trying to save him. Sam has come a long way, and part of me wishes he could have finally had that peace, rather than letting Dean basically guilt him into coming back. (I realize that for the purposes of the show, Sam had to live, but that doesn't change what I wish would have happened here.)

Okay, this is getting really, really long. I'm going to skip more sections from here on out, and just hit the points that I really think are worthwhile.

First, Dean actually puts Cas' safety ahead of his own needs. Over the seasons, Dean has consistently asked Cas to put himself in danger to help Dean, but now he puts a premium on Cas' safety. Maybe it's because Cas is human now, and is more fragile, but he hasn't hesitated before to ask Cas to die for him, so it's an interesting development. We'll see what happens from there, I guess.

Also, we have Cas' insistence that even though he's lost his grace, he's still one of the angels, and will never stop being one of them. He's trying desperately to cling to what he has already lost, and that makes the scene in the laundromat that much more heartbreaking. Because there, he finally has to accept his new humanity, and leave behind his old identity. He has to eat and drink now, and has to choose between his trenchcoat (which has always served as a symbol of his angelic identity) or the water he needs to survive, the water that he refused to accept at the beginning of the episode because angels don't have to drink. He's lost his identity, and needs to figure out now who he is apart from being an angel. It should be an interesting journey.

And then we come to the part of the episode that set off all my "this is wrong" alarms. Whether Dean was actually in Sam's head tricking him into saying yes to Ezekiel, or he just let Ezekiel masquerade as him in order to get Sam to say yes, it was a huge breach of trust. It was wrong, through and through - it doesn't matter that Dean was doing it to save Sam - Sam didn't want to be saved, and it was Dean who wasn't willing to let him go peacefully. There's going to be huge amounts of fallout from this when it comes out eventually, and in my opinion, Dean was in the wrong here, and very much so. The trust between the brothers has been smashed and repaired so many times now, and this was one of the very worst actions Dean could possibly have taken. As Dean himself said so long ago, "What's dead should stay dead," and he should have let Sam go.

Okay, rant over. And I think the review probably is as well, since that's about all I have to say.

New episode tonight - I can't wait! And maybe I'll review that one a little sooner :)

(title card from supernaturalwiki.com, screencaps from screencapped.net)