summer_skin | This empty bedroom won't make anything right

Am I the ONLY one who saw the big 'ole target stamped on Henderickson's forehead? I called it last year! When I call something that's going to happen I figured it would have been waaaaaaaaay more obvious to other people. And last night's episode was just setting him up to fall. It's what happens. The Winchesters are a curse, okay? Next to no one around them stays alive. The people they save from week to week are given passes because they're innocent victims and have no part in the mytharc of the plot. But everyone else around them who's been involved in the whole demon thing? A TARGET.

We've seen this since season 1 when Meg went after Caleb and Pastor Jim, with the Ash and the Roadhouse in season 2. It's just what happens. It's like what the baddie in Serenity said: "If your quarry goes to ground, leave no ground to go to." It's no different here.

I've also been having issues within myself over the rising criticism of there being misogyny and now racism in the show. To be totally and perfectly honest I've never noticed any of it until people started making noise about it.

To be more honest, I don't care, either. While some people have been posting huge metas about it, pointing out what was wrong with this episode or that episode (like 3.09) I was sitting back feeling TOTALLY inadequate because I DON'T SEE IT. I STILL feel that way. I've been feeling like I'm less of a fan or a woman because I enjoy the show for the show.

Do I think people are seeing nonexistent spots? No, not at all. I totally think they're right and there have been instances where women have been portrayed in a less than flattering light on the show. I've even mentioned before about how the victim of the week is most generally a woman and even I have recognized how stereotypical that is. But you know what? I don't care.

I don't see Dean calling a witch a 'bitch', even repeatedly, anything more than trying to find a word to describe the creature she is/was. I don't see Ben in 302 saying, "only grownups send bitches" to mean a slur against women. I see 'bitch' as a term that's evolved to describe any number of things/people now. I don't equate bitch with a woman pretty much at all anymore because it DEPENDS ON CONTEXT. It's just a term for me now. CAN it be used as a derogatory term? Of course. But the way I hear a lot of people using it now on TV or in RL I doubt that anyone thinks of a female in their mind or is actually referring to one when they say it. Am I explaining myself well at all here?

There was also some rumbles of discontentment earlier in the season during 'Red Sky at Morning' when Sam and Dean were both being objectified by women. I'm starting to get whiplash here. If you have a problem with people being objectified period, that's fine, but the majority of this fandom does it to Jared and Jensen and Sam and Dean on a daily basis. I'm getting so confuuuuused.

I love this show. I love the boys. I love that the show has this huge mytharc thing going for it that sucks me in. If there's an episode about the mytharc I'm SO there with bells on. I love it and everything about it, trying to connect the pieces, etc. There are elements of the show I take issue with at times, whether it be a character's writing or a clunky scene or how things played out but it's not something that I let affect how much I love the show.

I've also seen some people complaining that the show has changed this season and that it's not the same as it was in seasons 1 and 2. My answer to that is, well duh. It's season 3! The boys aren't in the same places they were in seasons 1 and 2. Things HAVE to change. The show is turning more toward mytharc centred episodes all the time and less one-shots. The strike doesn't help that, either. The boys have been through A LOT OF SHIT. Sam's died, Dean's died a BUNCH of times, Dean's soul is going to be kaput in a few months, Sam's either wanted to be a demon king or dead by another opposing demon ruler, there's a war coming (or they're already in the thick of it, depending how you look at it) Sam's dealing with his mom's involvement with the whole shebang (which is something I have an issue with because it hasn't been focused on AT ALL since it was revealed at the beginning of the season), etc, etc.

The boys in seasons 1 and 2 were totally footloose and fancy free compared to how they are now. Things that happened in both of those seasons have led season 3, to the boys being the people they are now. You can't want a show to continue and the plot to progress if you want the characters to stay who they were in seasons past.

The bottom line is that I love the show, warts and all. I don't want to start picking it apart because that's when I start to NOT like it anymore and I'm not ready to do that. I doubt I'll ever see what other people do but I don't want to force myself into trying to, especially when I feel VERY inadequate when I don't get it the way other people do and, at times, feel almost guilty for NOT getting it. I want to love this show as long as I can.

This was written over the course of the day and I wasn't sure if I was going to post it, because I'm a wiener, but then I saw someone from my flist post about it and

veronamay and I can feel like I'm not crazy for not seeing what other people are. ~~I am going to post this flocked, for now, though just because I don't know if I want to open this up publically, at least not yet.~~ Unflocked it. What the hell.