30 Days of Supernatural: Days Three and Four

[rogueslayer452]

Day 3 - Your favorite season

Season Four

THIS SEASON YOU GUYS. THIS SEASON. ♥

Seriously, from the premiere you knew this season was gonna rock it hardcore. It brought something new and different to the mythological arc of the show, upped the stakes with giving Dean Winchester his own storyline that was separate from his brother's but still both were intertwined in this bigger picture, and gave us new and fascinating characters to play around with (Castiel obviously, Uriel, Zachariah, Chuck, Pamela, etc). To me, it was just so well-constructed and developed in plotting out how to handle the entire season, complete with Kripke keeping the angels reveal under wraps until the premiere had aired, it was new and exciting and I was utterly thrilled by it. Surely it was darker and had more angst, and had the Winchesters at odds end and pitted against each other, but that's something that was a necessity for character growth, since their co-dependency is rather unhealthy anyway and they needed some space sooner or later. There was also much discussion and exploration of angels and Heaven and their involvement, the developments of characters like Castiel and their empathy and compassion for humanity and the roles angels in Heaven are playing at and the complexity of their species as a whole.

I consider the fourth season a great blessing because it had everything we needed in completing the story of what we've been learning over the last three seasons. The beginnings of what needs to happen to wrap everything up, so to speak. It was a serious but fascinating season, even the episode titles were bookends of each other ("Lazarus Rising" and "Lucifer Rising", and everything else in between was of the religious theme that brought me much giddiness, not gonna lie) Season four was also when I started to fully engage myself into the show and the fandom itself because of this magnificent shift. Had the show not gone in this direction, I don't know how long I would have stayed with it to be honest with you.

Did I also mention the brilliance of Castiel, our favorite nerdy angel of the Lord? I mean come on, I cannot imagine the show without him at this point. This season brought the amazingness of him and angelical lore, and the incredible friendship and profound bond between Dean and Castiel and their journeys together, therefore it forever has my heart. ♥ ♥ ♥

TL;DR VERSION: I LOVE SEASON FOUR BECAUSE IT ROCKED HARDCORE TO THE MAX, IT BROUGHT EVERYTHING I LOVE ABOUT A SHOW LIKE THIS TOGETHER IN ONE SEASON. MYSTERY, SUSPENSE, CHARACTER GROWTH AND INTRIGUING ARCS AND THE DARK COMPLEXITY OF CERTAIN SITUATIONS THAT WERE HAPPENING THAT ACTUALLY MADE SENSE WHEN LOOKING AT THE BIGGER PICTURE. THAT IS HOW YOU DO A SEASONAL ARC, DAMMIT. LEARN FROM YOUR SUCCESSES SHOW. SO, YEAH. THERE YA GO.


Day 4 - Your least favorite season

Season Six

This shouldn't come as a surprise to anyone, honestly. I have been displeased with this current season so far, hell even way before it premiered I had bad vibes about it since I hated the prospect of having a sixth season to begin with anyway.

Pinpointing the exact issue is rather difficult because it's a combination of many things, though I think at its core it is structurally disorganized. They have great themes and ideas like purgatory and the souls and the civil war in Heaven, but everything is just so scattered and all over the place, there's just no sense of direction whatsoever. There's far too many inconsistencies and characterization flaws and retconning and focusing on things that are irrelevant and aren't needed, that it gets to the point where it surpasses being ridiculous to just not really caring anymore, and that's disappointing. Even though the season isn't done yet and there's still some time to see if it'll redeem itself, it just is a huge letdown and disappointment altogether. I honestly believe that placing Sera Gamble in charge was a huge mistake. Making a sixth season in itself was a huge mistake, because they had something amazing going for them, something that could have ended last season, wrapped everything up in a nice little bow like they had originally wanted. But somewhere mid-S5 is where they lost that potential and started dragging their heels, and it's rather sad seeing it go down this path when it could have gone out with an apocalyptic bang.

Runner up: Season three. While it had its fun moments, it was just a filler season that didn't match up to the atmosphere of the show at all.


Rest of the 30 Days of Supernatural Challenge.

Comments

[alanna-zero.livejournal.com]

This shouldn't come as a surprise to anyone, honestly.
LMAO sad but true.

[rogueslayer452.livejournal.com]

It's unfortunate how unsurprising and popular this opinion is regarding the sixth season.

[gwaevalarin.livejournal.com]

&hearts and agreement to everything you said about season 4. I just was a brilliant season, and that season (and parts of season 5) is where I go back to, whenever I need to remind myself why I love this show.

While season 6 is a disappointment in many ways, and there are too many stupid decisions and inconsistencies by now to just led it slide, I'm still going to defer my judgement until I've seen all of it. And then I'll decide if I accept it, or if, for me, Supernatural has ended with season 5

[rogueslayer452.livejournal.com]

Yeah. It's just, season four was incredible with its build up of mystery and suspense, you were excited and enthralled and on the edge of your seat wanting to know more. It was cleverly constructed that way, and I'm not sure if that was because of the writer's strike that led Kripke to do some thinking about how to advance or further the plot or what, but obviously this concept worked more than any other season, imo.

I'm going to wait and make a final judgment myself, however I still remain that this season just sucks because they keep on with the badfic fillers and not enough of proper structure of the mystery, if you know what I mean. Comparing S4 to S6 it's obvious which one is more superior.

[gwaevalarin.livejournal.com]

Comparing S4 to S6 it's obvious which one is more superior.
Won't argue with you there.

[rogueslayer452.livejournal.com]

In my mind, I mesh S1 and S2 together since it kind of combines the entire story of them dealing with family and finding out the mystery of Sam and defeating the Yellow-Eyed Demon, particularly since the S1 finale and S2 premiere were connected to each other and all. But I agree, S2 had plenty of Winchester goodness. I especially loved how we got to see Dean's coping mechanisms after his father's death and how he was dealing with protecting Sammy, which is very different from S1!Dean with him being more lighthearted and carefree. It was a great shift and change for his character, I think. ♥

I know shows, especially shows that go on for several seasons, hit some rough patches. But dammit you'd think this show would have upped themselves from straying away from that instead of heading into the trainwreck it has become now. :/

[mulder200.livejournal.com]

S4 was definitely the best season of the show which made watching S5 so disappointing. All that build up and the payoff was that?! Whatever!

Plus, the introduction of Castiel and his relationship with Dean? MAJOR PLUS!

This shouldn't come as a surprise to anyone, honestly.

LOL! Truer words have never been spoken! At this point, I just don't give shit anymore. I watched six eps. and felt bored to tears and eps. 6.10 with Cas kissing Meg? Ugh! No. Just No! I can only take so much.

They really should have just ended the show at S5 and spared us the clusterfuck that is S6.

[rogueslayer452.livejournal.com]

Yeah, the payoff was lousy and sloppy, and I knew midway through the fifth season that they were half-assing everything at that point anyway. Which is a shame, they had something incredible going for them during the fourth season, with the setup and mythology and everything coming together, it was perfect. It really made it seem like they were going for an all-out apocalyptic ending which I honestly would have preferred.

The season is just one clusterfucked trainwreck. :/ It's such a mess.

[epicycles.livejournal.com]

S4 was what got me into the show in the first place -- 4.01 is my pilot. :D And I haven't even watched S6 past 6.06...what does that tell you?

Shorter me: I AM IN TOTAL AGREEMENT

[rogueslayer452.livejournal.com]

I purposefully skip episodes of this season, what does that tell you? I know that should be bad but seriously, there are episodes I just cannot bother watching because I'm just not interested. I think I only legitimately have liked only two episodes this entire season.

[carameltrap.livejournal.com]

Every single thing you said about S4, YES. It's my favourite season as well and the best. From the opening episode which started with a bang to that cliffhanger end.

I just sat and watch S6. I have complains about it but I'll save it for after it ends but yeah, stupid filler episodes. This isn't anime where you need stupid filler episodes to fill up the season, show.

[rogueslayer452.livejournal.com]

It was just so well-done I cannot help but gush. Surely there were little things that I could have done without, certain episodes or characters, but I think as a whole it was perhaps he most perfectly constructed seasonal arc next to them defeating the YED in S2.

I just wish the show would take itself more seriously especially when dealing with serious seasonal arcs like an apocalypse or the universe being out of whack or even about each other. The one thing that irked me about S5 was how they weren't treating it like it was the end of the world, some episodes they were but others they were just dilly-dallying around.

[rogueslayer452.livejournal.com]

LATTER HALF OF S5 SUCKED BALLS. SEASON FOUR WAS PERFECTION, AND HALF OF SEASON FIVE WAS GREAT AS WELL.

But what is the purpose of this season? I seriously could not tell you.

WORD, JUST FUCKING WORD. I'm pretty much agreeing with all that you wrote in those paragraphs. lol I mean seriously though, they keep jumping all over the place that there's nothing solid to grasp onto. Everything's just scattered thus making me so disinterested, and you're so right. We didn't need an entire half of the first season to be about Sam's soullessness if all Dean needed to do was go to Death. I mean, had Dean actually been worried about his brother's soul he wouldn't have wasted all that time in between. There's no sense of urgency with this show, nothing is being taken seriously. Some episodes yeah, while others it's like "la-dee-da we're dealing with some irrelevant shit"

STOP WASTING OUR TIME SHOW AND GET TO THE POINT OTHERWISE ALL THIS WAS WORTH ABSOLUTELY NOTHING, KTHXBAI.

[rogueslayer452.livejournal.com]

Dean and Sam are just so OFF this season too, it's like... who are these characters? :\ I know Sam didn't have a soul and everything, but that wasn't even consistent in its characterization

I know what you mean. There's something that really confuses me which is their entire concept of the soul. Like, Sam doesn't have empathy but claims to have all his memories, so shouldn't he know certain information on how to act instead of acting like he's new to the concept? Or know things without acting on them first? It's so randomly inconsistent and it seems like they hardly know themselves on the basis of what the soul is. And ITA regarding Dean's behavior. It's just the motivations and behavior of characters this season is also puzzling and confusing and inconsistent.

And someone on tumblr brought this up: why didn't Sam use his demon blood powers? He should still have them, right? And if he has no soul then he definitely does not give a shit and would totally be using them. So why didn't he... I mean, besides the writers either not remembering or not wanting to have another detox thing going on. :/

SERIOUSLY. I AM ASKING THAT MYSELF. IS THE DEMON BLOOD/CORRUPTION STILL PART OF HIM? YOU'D THINK IT WOULD WITH EVERYTHING HE ABSORBED BEFORE FACING LUCIFER, AND EVEN AFTER YOU KNOW? ESP WITH HOW HE SUDDENLY RISEN IMMEDIATELY AFTER GETTING BACK ABOVE GROUND SOULLESS AND ALL. I JUST DON'T KNOW. THIS SHOW, STOP BEING INCONSISTENT AND NOT PAYING ATTENTION TO CONTINUITY AND HAVING SO MANY PLOT HOLES.

[rogueslayer452.livejournal.com]

Exactly. If he didn't care about anything why in the world would he care whether he gets his soul back? I just, yeah. This show doesn't know what it's doing about that. Or if they do it's not translating well on the screen at all, because I'm so completely lost on what they're trying to accomplish with this subplot or how it works in whatever they think this season is about.

I'll say this though: Joss Whedon did it better with the soul business. At least in my opinion, anyway.

Well... I suppose you could argue that whomever got him out the cage (Crowley? although I still call MAJOR MAJOR bullshit on that), got him out sans-demon blood and his body was basically "new", like Dean's in 4x01. But yeah, that is also me trying to come up with any plausible explanation for things happening on the show. :\

Honestly, I thought the only being that could ever cleanse someone like that was an angel, and the only reason why Dean had been healed after being retrieved from Hell was because Castiel mended his soul and his body since I consider it to be tied into one not being separated for some reason, idk. I might have a theory that whoever did this (not Crowley, I don't believe he was that powerful enough to do that) then perhaps Balthazar? He seemed to know something wasn't right with Sam during 6.03 when referencing souls and he has been dealing with soul bargaining so, who knows.

Yeah. This season is all over the place I'm not entirely sure anymore. We can fanwank and theorize all we want, but it still won't make enough sense.

[rogueslayer452.livejournal.com]

CROWLEY AND BALTHAZAR IN CAHOOTS WITH EACH OTHER. I'D BE DOWN FOR THAT. IT WOULD SEEM LIKE SOMETHING THAT WOULD HAPPEN, BEING THE BUSINESS GUYS THAT THEY ARE AND ALL THAT. LOL

But yeah, the more we try to make sense of it canonically the more plot holes we find. :/ This isn't how one does a mystery, unless that mystery is to confuse us then idek.

I didn't before but then I thought about Harry Potter, and y'know, how house-elves can apparate and disapparate anywhere they want, basically? Regardless of the restrictions wizards/witches have? Yeah... maybe it's like that. :P

LOL OMG THAT IS BRILLIANT. DOBBY DID IT! XD

[beckytheelf.livejournal.com]

FUCK YEAH SEASON 444444444! *BREAKS OUT THE JAZZHANDS* ALSO, GOOD GOD, I HOPE WE NEVER GET TO THE AMOUNT OF FOURS I'VE GOT WRITTEN THERE SRY2SAY. Also my second favorite season ever was about half of Season 5. IDK I never really thought of S3 as filler: I thought it was super exciting possibly because my fierce, fine free bitch Ruby 1.0 was there. LOL.
As for S6...it's no secret that I want it gone too. LOL AT OUR LIVES. But srsly, it is such an awful clusterfuck of a season. I thought they were going back to the roots: the roots of what exactly? The days of S1 when everyone was still figuring out what to do with themselves? LOL.

[rogueslayer452.livejournal.com]

SEASON FOUR WAS PLAIN AWESOMENESS RIGHT THERE. And yeah, the first half of the fifth season had its moments and I was really excited for, until they left it all in a ditch and I don't know what happened. FFFFUUUUU SHOW.

KATIE CASSIDY WAS PRETTY MUCH THE HIGHLIGHT OF S3 TO BE HONEST! LOVE LOVE LOVE HER. ♥ THE ONE TRUE FIERCEST RUBY, FOR REALS.

MTE! WHAT ARE THESE ROOTS THEY ARE SPEAKING OF? WHAT "BACK TO BASICS" ARE THEY REFERRING TO? I SEE NOTHING OF THIS, AND REALLY IF IT'S FIGURING OUT ABOUT THEMSELVES SORRY WE'VE BEEN THERE, DONE THAT. WE SHOULD BE PROGRESSING NOT STEPPING BACKWARD. AND DO WE EVEN KNOW WHAT THIS SEASON IS ABOUT? BECAUSE I DON'T.

JUST MAKE IT ALL ABOUT THE ANGEL CIVIL WAR AND I'LL BE HAPPY, KTHX.

[rogueslayer452.livejournal.com]

BRAINTWINS Y/Y? ;)

AND YES, EXACTLY. THERE'S CHARACTERIZATION AWESOMENESS AND SEASONAL ARCS INTERTWINED WITH EACH OTHER, IT JUST FLOWED SMOOTHLY WITH THOSE SEASONS AND IT MADE YOU INTRIGUED WITH HOW THINGS WERE GONNA BE SOLVED AND WHATNOT. THEN IT ALL TURNED INTO A PILE OF "WTF?" AND SUCH A TRAINWRECK. THEY HARDLY KNOW WHERE THEY ARE ANYMORE AND IT SHOWS.

SADLY, I ALSO AGREE. SEEING CASTIEL GET CHARACTER ASSASSINATED IS PAINFUL AND I LOVE HIM TOO MUCH TO SEE HIM GET MISTREATED. :(

[rogueslayer452.livejournal.com]

OH NO, GO RIGHT AHEAD AND RANT BB. I PRETTY MUCH AGREE WITH EVERYTHING YOU HAVE WRITTEN. *HUGS YOU*

I WOULD HAVE LIKED THE IDEA OF HAVING CASTIEL BECOMING SOMEWHAT HUMAN AND HAVING TO DEAL WITH IT. BEFORE WHEN IT LOOKED LIKE THAT WOULD HAVE HAPPENED I DIDN'T LIKE IT, BUT MOSTLY I WAS THINKING THE WORST OF HOW THEY WERE TO HANDLE IT. BUT I THINK IT WOULD HAVE MADE HIM MORE COMPLEX WITH COPING AND FIGURING OUT ALTERNATIVE WAYS OF DOING THINGS. WHICH I FOUND S5!CASTIEL AWESOME AND MORE BADASS WHEN BEING RESOURCEFUL. ALSO ITA ABOUT HIM NEEDING TO BITCHSLAP OR WALL!SLAM DEAN AGAIN THIS SEASON BECAUSE DEAN IS REALLY ACTING LIKE AN ASSHOLE. I HOPE WE CAN GET

AS FAR AS I'M CONCERNED, THAT WHOLE 6.10 NONSENSE NEVER EXISTED. CASTIEL IS ASEXUAL AND WILL REMAIN THAT WAY -- ALONG WITH HIS ~PROFOUND BOND~ WITH DEAN, OF COURSE.

I ALSO AGREE THOUGH, WHY CAN'T THERE BE NEUTRALIZED CHARACTERS WHERE THEY JUST DON'T WANT/NEED ANY KIND OF SEXUAL GRATIFICATION WHATSOEVER? I PREFER THE INNOCENCE RATHER THAT BUTCHERING CHARACTERIZATION JUST FOR THE SHITS AND GIGGLES. JUST SAYING.

TO SUMMARIZE, I HATE WHEN MY FAVE CHARACTERS GET DESTROYED.

IT'S SOMETHING I HAVE SEEN IN MY OTHER FANDOMS I'VE HAD BEFORE AND I HATE IT. ABSOLUTELY HATE IT WHEN THEY COMPLETELY DESTROYED AND BUTCHER MY FAVORITE CHARACTERS. :( :( :(

[rogueslayer452.livejournal.com]

THE SHOW DID ADDRESS HOW SELFISH DEAN (AND SAM RESPECTIVELY) WERE BEING, HOWEVER ARE THEY PLANNING ON ACTUALLY DEALING WITH IT? I KNOW OLD HABITS ARE HARD TO BREAK, BUT IS SHOWING PROGRESSION AND APPRECIATION FOR ALL CASTIEL HAD DONE REALLY THAT HARD TO DO? JUST A SIMPLE CONVERSATION AND PERHAPS AN APOLOGY WOULD BE NICE, KTHX.

GOD YES. I TOTALLY AGREE ABOUT HIS INNOCENCE BALANCING OUT HIS BAMFERY AND THAT BEING THE REASON WHY WE LOVE HIM SO DEARLY. I LOVE HIM BEING SO BADASS WHILE BEING SOCIALLY AWKWARD, IT'S ADORABLE. MESSING THAT UP IS SUCH BLASPHEMY EVEN IF JUST FOR SHITS AND GIGGLES. IT'S CHARACTER BASTARDIZATION AND ASSASSINATION, TBH. JUST, NO. KEEP HIM JUST THE WAY HE IS PLEASE.

OH, I FEEL YOU. EVEN THOUGH I'VE SEEN THIS HAPPEN MANY TIMES IT STILL HURTS. PARTICULARLY WITH LONGER-RUNNING SHOWS THEY TEND TO LOSE SIGHT ON MANY THINGS, WHY I DON'T KNOW. WHICH IS WHY THE SHOW SHOULD HAVE ENDED LAST SEASON (WITH BETTER HANDLING ON THE OUTCOME OF EVERYTHING) AND I DON'T UNDERSTAND WHY THEY FELT THE NEED TO EXPAND THE SHOW WHEN THERE HAD ALREADY BEEN A FIVE-YEAR PLAN. IDGI

SAM AND DEAN SHOULD HAVE DIED TOGETHER. AND CAS COULD HAVE TAKEN THEM UPSTAIRS.

D'AWWWW, I THINK THAT WOULD BE A PERFECT ENDING TO BE HONEST. BITTERSWEET, BUT A GREAT WAY OF GOING OUT. ♥ ♥ ♥

[rogueslayer452.livejournal.com]

ALSO, IT REALLY PISSES ME OFF THAT THERE WAS ONLY A .05 SECOND SCENE WITH BOBBY FOR CAS "DEALING" WITH BEING HUMAN. YEAH, OKAY, LIKE SUDDENLY BEING A DIFFERENT SPECIES WOULDN'T BE OVERWHELMING AS FUCK AND SHOULDN'T REQUIRE MORE THAN THAT. YEAH. OKAY THEN.

I ALSO FEEL CHEATED BECAUSE WE ONLY HAD LIKE WHAT, TWO EPISODES WITH CASTIEL DEALING WITH BEING SOMETHING-CLOSE-TO-HUMAN WHEN THEY COULD HAVE DONE SO MUCH MORE WITH IT. AT FIRST I ADMIT TO NOT WANTING THAT TO HAPPEN, BUT LOOKING BACK IT REALLY WOULD HAVE BEEN FASCINATING TO SEE HOW HE COPED WITH NOT BEING ABLE TO DO THE THINGS HE USED TO DO BEFORE. THERE WERE SO MANY POSSIBILITIES TO HEAD IN THAT DIRECTION. IT PISSES ME OFF THEY HARDLY EXPLORED THOSE OPTIONS, OR POSSIBLY DONE IT EARLIER SO THEY COULD. ESP IF THEY WEREN'T GONNA DEAL WITH CASTIEL'S MISSION TO FIND GOD AS THEY HAD PROMISED. (THAT STILL PISSES ME OFF, A WASTED OPPORTUNITY RIGHT THERE).

ALSO. 6X10 DID NOT EXIST. AND IF IT DID. ...THAT WASN'T CAS. THAT WAS A FUCKING SHAPESHIFTER LALALA I CAN'T HEAR YOU.

OUT OF SIGHT, OUT OF MIND.

[rogueslayer452.livejournal.com]

THEY PROVED TO REALLY RUSH EVERYTHING AT THE END OF S5. WHY I DON'T KNOW OR UNDERSTAND, EVEN IF WITH THE SIXTH SEASON THEY COULD HAVE HANDLED THINGS WAY BETTER THAN THEY DID. UGGGHHH. :/

[rogueslayer452.livejournal.com]

YET, THEY SEEM TO BE USING THE WORST TROPES. SERA NEEDS TO GET OF FANFICTION.NET AND ONTO LIVEJOURNAL/TUMBLR.

FUCKING WOOOORRRRDDDD, BB.

I MEAN I HAVE SEEN SO MUCH AMAZING CONCEPTS FROM FANDOM THAT CAN ACTUALLY WORK WITH THE CONTINUITY OF THE SHOW ITSELF. I EVEN STAND BY THE OPINION THAT THERE ARE BETTER WRITERS IN FANDOM THAN THERE ARE ON THE SHOW. SERA GAMBLE JUST FAIIILLLSSS SO HARD.

ALSO, DOES THIS SHOW HAVE A SERIES BIBLE? IT HARDLY SEEMS SO WITH BEING SO INCONSISTENT ALL THE TIME. :/