Reaction: Supernatural 5.09 - with Picspam and Meta
This episode's recap is brought to you by the awesomeness that is Supernatural Season 5 available on Canadian iTunes, and not by the giant ball of suck that was the station feed for my region that kept glitching out. *shakes fist* As a result, a few less screencaps than last time, but these are logo-free! \o/
Also, this is late and long. Mainly because, as it turned out, I actually have an opinion on certain matters, and a few Things To Say. o.O
Contains profanity.
Spoiler and Theorizing Timeline
As of midnight November 11th, nothing! Absolutely nothing! No spoilers at all!! \o/
...aw crap.
-11/12 Couldn't sleep. Went recap-reading. Bad idea. A recap referenced the promo. THEY'RE GOING TO A CON!!?!!? *hyperventilates* Oh. My. God. I... I... hee! Well. This probably means Chuck's back! And more fandom hijinx and I don't even care how much wank this might trigger. CONVENTION!!! OMG!!!! Hee. I hope it's a general sci-fi one; Dean would have a blast. There's more general fan prescence in shows now. One of the CSI's had an episode set at a Not!Trek convention and made two of their regular tech people into Not!Trekkies. This could be awesome.
-11/12 Later. Title of episode. "The Real Ghostbusters" ...it's not a Ghostfacers convention, is it...? I could see their webisode thing getting a small, rabid and entirely batshit insane fanbase... Hm.
-11/12 Even later. TV listings. "Sam and Dean are tricked into attending a con by a fan." Oh dear. It is a Supernatural con. Oh my. Becky's been talking it seems and some people are believing her. This episode could be one solid fandom shout-out. Also some exposure of fandom warts to daylight. Also massive crack. It'll probably start off with an actual LARP. *nods* Ooo! And TWoP insertion! Will this be the episode they do nasty things to a character named Demian? Or Barnes? Although they already sort of did Barnes with Pamela.
Well, I dunno about you all, but I think I'm prepared to be mocked affectionately teased by Show again. (I'm also prepared to hide in the kitchen and die of embarrassment, but I'm flexible like that.)
Reaction, Picspam, Meta, Speculation and plot-hole patching for Supernatural 5.09 - "The Real Ghostbusters"
(On Vampire Diaries, everyone seems to be crying. Hunh. Weird.)
All right, disclaimer time. If you have any problem at all with someone having a positive reaction to this episode, or are not willing to accept that anyone could have a positive reaction to this episode, then this is not the review for you.
That said...
HA! AHHAHAHAHAHHAHAHAHAH!!! God that was awesome! XD
(Big text again to be readable)
-THEN! OMG Asylum? Seriously? Wow! *revels in the old school awesome* Hunted! The Colt! LARPing! The books! Chuck! Oh dear god, Becky. Hee!
-NOW! Um. Eeeek. Drama music. Pineview Hotel.
-IMPALAS!!! Is that all of the show Impalas?? WAS THERE A KAZ 2Y5 IN THERE!!!!?!?! Please??? [No. DAMMIT! Missed opportunity there. I do see Texas plate JS5 AK0, though. And D5R 2874 from.... dunno, not Texas.]
-Dean's reaction to all the Impalas is an even blend of 'Awesome' and 'WTF?'
-CHUCK! \o/ Looking soooo uncomfortable.
-Wow, they drove all night on a text from Chuck? Awwww. \o/
-"You've been thinking about me." *facepalm* Becky's... yeah.
-What's Becky doing in Chuck's pants??? o.O
-"I'm sorry. For everything." Heheheheeh.
-Fanboy has an amulet! \o/
(Not sure why though, unless Chuck's got really detailed descriptions or illustrations. Hm. Possible. Hardy Boys was illustrated. Hm. Also must see if I can source a better jacket for next Halloween. *makes notes*) Regardless, COSTUMES!!!! \o/ AND DEAN'S THE ONLY ONE WITHOUT AN AMULET! If someone criticizes Dean for costume inaccuracy, or directs him to the dealer's room where there's a table-full of pendants, bracelets, skull bracelets, etc, I may never ever stop laughing. XD
-Love that the guy in the Scarecrow costume gets both of them to do a mini-double-take. Well more than a double-take for Sam. Hee! Good costume too! *makes more notes*
-Oh crap. Speaking of which, DEALER'S ROOM!!! \o/ "GOT SALT?" T-SHIRT!!! That was on, um, thingy. The place, with the stuff! Dammit. Arg. [Cafepress! Gah. No brain tonight] GOTTA take a closer look at the stuff in there, see if any of it's fanmade stuff.
[Screencaps! I must say if they don't offer fake!Con merch somewhere online, I'll be a tad disappointed.
Now. Here's a question. Merchant has black eyes. Is he a fan wearing contacts, or is he a demon hiding in plain sight...? *ponders*
Girl!Bobby (or is she a Bobby!girl? *hums silly music*) is adorable! The beard's a little.... sculpted though.
That mullet is way too tidy.
Got Salt!
YED! (Is it a costume or... nevermind, YED's dead. Or is he??? *ponders more*)
So, no fanmade stuff that I noticed. Though if that Impala mug had had *rock music plays* on it, that would have kicked ass.]
-Hey, get that pentagram right way up! You're Supernatural fans, you should know the difference. Ah well.
-HEE!! CREDITS!! I see what you did there! XD
-"The Homoerotic Subtext of Supernatural." That panel title is directly from Winchestercon, innit? Sam and Dean's reaction?
-OMG. So. Many. Winchesters. o.O Kind of surprised there isn't a whoooole lot more plaid in evidence, but it's all under the outerwear. *nods*
-Given the number of attendees of course this is a Winchestercon/fan-run level con, not a Creation Con. Even in an AU Creation Con wouldn't do a con for a straight-up book fandom. Also, so very not a direct translation of a Supernatural con because look at how many guys there are! Seriously! Okay. Anyone who's been to an actual Supernatural convention reading this. How many guys do you see at them? Although Jared and Jensen have a lot to do with that... Hm. And I do see eleven possible girls besides Becky in there, plus two clowns of indeterminate gender. Still skewing male though. Hm.
-[Okay. Chuck writes books about two ghost-hunting brothers. The cover of the first one looked a bit like a romance novel, but aside from that, not so much for the rest of them. The plot-arcs and character arcs are the same, so there's still the emotional context... however, from what we've heard of his writing, Chuck's a bit pedestrian in his prose, and that's all there is to go on for the books. No acting, no faces, just Chuck's writing and the story itself. They're extremely small press books. Odds are, they were marketed to comic and game shops, given the strong LARPing presence at the con seen here, and the only other location they've encountered the books being a comic store. Gaming and comic-fandom traditionally skews very heavily male. Hunh. It actually makes quite a lot of sense for there to be so many guys there, especially if the LARP was one of the con's major advertising points. I can believe that the books would have a more male-shifted fanbase. I buy it. It makes sociological sense. *handwaves* And I'd still be a fan in either 'verse because I'm a book-reading pen-and-paper gamer. (She writes in her blog as she sits rewatching an episode, wearing a t-shirt from a gaming con of similar size to the one being depicted in show, while surrounded by enough books and RPG manuals to open a small store.) *nods*]
-Also I kind of think Show is a little terrified of portraying a room full of squeeing fangirls, given the fan reaction to Becky. Who is admittedly off her freaking nut in several ways. Which some of us are in some regards. *shrugs*
-Ha! Chuck drinking water. Which is of course the same brand as is used on set, no doubt. Label looks familiar.
-"Where did you come up with Sam and Dean in the first place?" Love that Kripke's creator credit shows up right after that question. They are having fun with the credit timing in this episode! \o/ [Also hee! Dueling head tilts.]
-Teleplay by Kripke. Story by Nancy Weiner who also did Monster at the End of this Book, didn't she? [Yep. She seems to be the go-to girl for fandom insertion... unless she's a pseudonym. Hm.]
-German guy! With hideously fake accent, but whatever. International contingent represent! \o/ Unfortunate that he's a prat who's only asking questions to hear himself talk and not actually wanting an answer. Which also happens. :-P
-Directed by James L. Conway [He also did the one with Paris Hilton and "It's a Terrible Life"]
-Sam ponders the bungee question.
-Face of imminent 'stop harshing my squee' smackdown. Hee!
-This kid is adorable! He looks like Ava's little brother or something! I want to ruffle his hair and feed him cookies! Also of note, Chuck must have spent some time detailing the Winchester wardrobe in books. Not only do they have the color schemes right, so far I don't think any of the ones in Winchester costumes have had less than three layers.
-Publishing the books again. Oh, crap. Yeah. Not a good idea. With the apocalypse on, having your every move published in handy pocket-sized editions is not tactically wise.
{{{SPEC-PHOBES BEWARE}}}
-Oh. Oh hey. Wow. You know. If there was an apocalypse on, and there was a guy getting direct, detailed, accurate prophetic downloads, obviously what he writes is a source of intelligence in the strategic sense. For either side, but moreso for the demon/Lucifer side. What if this 'mystery Scandinavian backer' is a demon? Demons can't get at Chuck due to him having an Archangel as covering artillery, and all the things he's writing right now about exactly where Sam and Dean are are sitting on his hard drive, inaccessible (because I guess demons can't hack into it? Or maybe it's not a connected computer? Anyway). SO How to get at the intel? GET IT PUBLISHING AGAIN! Or don't even go through with the publishing end of things. Pose as a backer, drop some cash, get everything Chuck's written to date sent to a 'publisher' for 'proofreading and editing'. Bam. Instant intel on everything the Winchesters have done since Dean went to Hell. (Plus maybe a few of the unpublished 'missing adventures' that didn't make the first publication run.) Ooooo. *squiggles with the possibility*
{{{SPEC-PHOBE ALL CLEAR}}}
-Yellow-eyed cooler? *facepalm* WHAT THE HELL'S WRONG WITH DRINKING PURPLE NURPLES LIKE NORMAL FANS? Oh, wait, Tall Tales was not one of the books that got published. So, Yellow-Eyed Cooler. I'd say lemonade, vodka, club soda over crushed ice with... a slice of lemon and a slice of black olive as a garnish? Ech. Ah well. Mike's Hard Lemonade would work too. :-D
-Chuck is after Becky? Seriously? Ooookay... guess he liked the marzipan more than he said. Aw. I get it. Kripke loves us and wants us to love him back. Aw. Cute. [Really this whole fan-arc thing is like the squishy critter a little kid would pull out of a pocket to try to make friends. Some people run screaming, some people go 'aw, that's cute' while edging away, and some people go 'awesome!' They're all equally valid responses, but the intent of 'I think you're nifty' stays the same. I think anyway. More on that later.] *pats Kripke*
-(Dammit, feed glitch.)["Who gave you the rights to our lives?"/"An archangel." Heee!]
-Chuck does indeed need a source of income that will let him get overtaken by downloads of prophecy every so often, though, and those kind of jobs are rare. If taking a day off work due to plot-bunny ambush was acceptable, I think most of us would be thrilled, but in Chuck's case, it's a wee bit more intense. This would not be a problem, though, if Sam and Dean spent less time looking at obituaries in newspapers and more time looking at the sports scores and Lotto numbers. So Sam, Dean? This is totally your fault. *nods*
-You know, also, Chuck knows what's happening with the Apocalypse. He could get a massive advance on a several book deal and stall until the end of the world. Which of course won't end because Sam and Dean will figure a way out of it, but there's always an off chance. And after it's all resolved, the strategic value of Chuck's novels will be minimal. So win-win there, I think. :-D
-Oh crap. Screaming. Gotta be the LARP starting up, but of course, Sam and Dean have a knee-jerk reaction to screaming. Obviously they haven't been to many conventions in general. You hear screaming, you wait for context noise before charging in to save the day. Unless you're a security volunteer in which case you go charging in to get people to settle down or to save the day, whichever's required by the situation. I miss conventions. *sigh*)
-You know, even if Sam and Dean decided 'hell with it, we don't need to be here', they haven't had a chance to leave. First it's finding out what the heck's going on, then it's death glares at Chuck across a conference room, then it's talking to Chuck about his career choices, and now someone's screaming. Even if they wanted to leave, they haven't had the chance. Things keep popping up. (Also, the script says they're here for the episode, but whatever.)
-Also, they drove all night in a state of 'what the hell is up with our damn prophet and this life or death crap?' lather, so they're a quart low on sleep and a gallon high on coffee, and enforced stuck-in-a-car frustrated concern, plus the unexpected additional frustration of the text being faked and having to deal with the insanity of themselves being considered fictional by people dressed like them? They're probably itching for something to waste.
-Oh god. The LARPing. XD Although she is really selling the NPC. I'd game with her. *nods*
-Heee! Lookit all the Sam and Deans! Three Sams all in a row!
-Batshit or not, you cannot say Becky isn't enthusiastic.
-Letecia Gore. Heh hehehehe. GOOOOOOOORE! TWoP shoutout there? Ooo! I wonder if they'll have a Raoul!
-"Dad's Journal. Dear Sam and Dean. This hotel is haunted. Find the ghost and win a 50$ gift card from the Sizzler. Love Dad." ... BWAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!!! XD
-MASS FAKE FBI ATTACK!!!! ALL THE TIES ARE STRIPEY!!! *need screencap* [FBI and two CSI cards XD *waves hi at two of the approximately eleven female fans at the con who are not Becky*]
I have a sudden overpowering urge to make myself a fake ID. I feel incomplete somehow.
-Fake hotel guy giving the clues. Gaaaah. I've had GM's who give expository background as cheesily as this. And waaaay worse. This is why a good GM either re-writes the scenario flavor text in their own words or ditches the 'chunk of exposition' delivery format and plays Q and A. Although that's tricky to do en masse, so the LARP co-GM here gets a pass. Plus he is bringing some seriously awesome cheese. *handwave*
-The two speaking-part Sam-and-Dean's walk by doing lines from the start of 'Hunted' [which wasn't one of the published novels so it must have been bundled with Croatoan in a double-sized volume, otherwise they wouldn't know any of that so *handwaves*] "Dad said..." *thud* And I'm down for the count. *headdesk* Laughing. Can't breathe!
-See, there, the Winchesters were going to leave, but now they need a drink. Completely understandable.
-You know, the more I see of the interiors of this hotel, the more I'm sure I've actually been to a fan-run con there... Hm.
-CARDBOARD EMF!!! \o/ That's so damn cute! Aaaaaand now I want to build an EMF. Again. Wonder where that busted walkman got to... *headdesk*
-NERF GUN! \o/ Aw, it's the cute fan!Sammy from before. Being a bit of a dork here, but whatever.
-Yep, a real ghost in the LARP. Saw that coming.
-HOLY MOTHER OF CRAP!
Okay, that's from... uh... hey, that's from Season 4! Chuck's books didn't go that far! CONTINUITY ERROR!!! Bet it's deliberate! XD
-Entire room busted up. Dude. So many cons get a bad rap for stuff like that. Be more considerate when you're getting your ass kicked by a ghost. *scowls*
-And the fan (incidentally fake!Sam whumpage FTW! \o/ It's like a first season episode!) who was beat up by a ghost gets out because he knows he's out of his depth. Show says: fans are not idiots.
-(*randomly boggles at Smallville commercial, and not in a bad way, which in itself causes a secondary boggle*)
-(This sucks. My work day is harshing my squee during commercial breaks. Wah.)
-"Busy." 'Texting. It's important or I would stop.' Sorry. Dr. Horrible moment there.
-MacGyver jackets? Hunh. Never thought of them like that. Which, considering how intensely I fangirled MacGyver when I was in my early teens, surprises all hell out of me. o.O
-Ooo. Hey. Is it a Tulpa? A LARP-generated Tulpa? *glee* You'd think they'd know not to mess with the Tulpa symbol, but these yahoos don't seem to know which way up a pentagram goes. [Plus Hell House was not one of the published novels, so they wouldn't know about it anyway.]
-(Feed glitch!! Again!) ["I don't think that guy's a good enough actor to be acting." Hee!]
-"We don't like to publicize this to 'normal' people." *snerk* Missing out on some decent tourist cash there, Sparky.
-Oh crap, LARPers overhearing. Should have known though, they're the speaking Sam-n-Dean. Although that particular Dean needs to shave off the chin fuzz if he wants to carry off the costume better. *nods*
-(And while I'm thinking of it, *tosses another long-suffering plot-bunny* Sigh.)
-Cool. Old attic crap and flashlight-fu. And a ghost hunt! It really is like a first season ep, but with more crack! \o/
-Sam's looking very smishable in the dark. Of course we can't really see it, it being pitch black. [*adjusts a little, but it's pretty hopeless*]
-"Serves 'em right. I'm just sayin'" *nods* Dean's never had much patience for people who mess with stuff they don't understand and get themselves in crap. Like, say, the Ghostfacers.
-Hee! Fan!Sam squeeing over the kid's 'ghost makeup'. Hee!
-Guy doing Sam's voice! BWWHAHAHAAHHA!!! XD
-Oooo Handprint. OMG HANDPRINTS. GYAAAAAAAAHAHAHH! O.O Little kids' handprints in unexpected locations scare the crap out of me. Damn you Blair Witch Project! *shakes fist* Still, that's freaking awesome!
-I also love that the fans are following the evidence and finding clues before Sam and Dean are. Show says: fans are smart and capable investigators.
-[Sam keeps making faces in the dark. Or in single frames, like this.]
-"My mommy loves me." HOLY CRAP, IS THAT EXPOSED BRAIN????!!! O.O No, just skull. Gaaaaah. This kid is a gas mask away from being serious nightmare fodder.
-Oh dear god Becky. Well, her screen name is 'samlicker' something, isn't it? And given some of the con stories I've heard, the way she's behaving is pretty mild. *sighs*
-And Chuck has an actual crush on Becky. I still have no idea how that happened character-wise. Hm. *ponders* *pats Kripke again*
-Extra crispy!! \o/ Where was that used last? I'm sure it's been used between here and Faith.
-Fan!Sam-n-Dean's voices, jeez! These guys must go through a ton of throat lozenges when they're LARPing. XD
-"Well you're the Chuckles, Chuckles." Yes Dean, you do say things that lame sometimes. Even though you say them better.
-HAHAHAHAHHAHAHA OMG FAKE PINK AND YELLOW GUN!!!! HAHAHAHAHAHHAHAHAHAHHAH. Jeez! It's definitely a small con. The last several I went to (in the nineties), even obviously fake weapons were strictly prohibited, regardless of peace-bonding or day-glo coloration.
-(Damn feed glitch!)[HA! I MISSED THAT DEAN PULLED OUT HIS ACTUAL GUN ON THE FIRST WATCHTHROUGH! XD]
-"We get to be Sam and Dean." Pft. Yeah, this will go well.
-Oh god. Bobby and... Rufus? Really? Ah, of course. Rufus showed up in one of the final books that got printed, so the impression of him is a lot bigger than it has been in series to date. Makes perfect sense. *nods* [Except it doesn't because that one wasn't one of the books, so there must have been a reference written in NRFTW that wasn't in the episode. *handwaves* Damn. Now I really want actual novelizations of the episodes. All with 'Carver Edlund as byline. That would so rock!]
-Oh god they're running lines from Asylum. In front of Sam and Dean. Hiding now. *pulls collar of t-shirt over head*
-Aw. Dean is Bobby. Awwwwwwww. *flails a wee bit*
-YAY DEAN FOR SNAPPING AND TELLING THEM OFF! \o/ Yes! Because that's exactly what a person would do in that situation! Imagine the worst bits of your life. Now imagine them published as fiction. Now imagine people acting out the worst bits of your life for fun because they think it's awesome. I'd be punching people. I admire Dean's restraint. Sam seems oddly less affected though.
-*giggles* Come on. Who doesn't bring shovels to a LARP where the main characters are known for digging up graves? It'd be lame if the 'grave' was a plastic beach bucket. If I ever ran a Supernatural LARP with a ghost plotline, I'd find a location with a hidden disused garden or something and you bet your ass there'd be actual digging. But I'm mean like that. :-)
-Oh come on. All of them stand around while only Dean digs? Only one person needs to hold the flashlight! Although I guess the two fans aren't quite into actually desecrating a possible grave, and Sam's there to stop them from running off in case they get too freaked, and decide to go for the cops or something. Yeah, that's it. *handwaves*
-When presented with evidence of true real world insanity (as far as their experience indicates) show says: fans do have a solid grip on reality and know where to draw the line. *nods* We may be adorable raving nutbags but we aren't so divorced from reality that we go "Yay, fun times!" when some random people we just met dig up actual graves we were thinking were fake.
-"Hunters aren't real!" Ooooo. Hi Reality Check! This reality check ain't bouncing. It's getting cashed big time! Right about.....
-(Feed glitch! AAAAAAUUUUUUUGGH!!!)[HI LETICIA! LETECIA! HOWEVER THE NAME IS SPELLED!]
-[Show says: again, fans know when to get the hell out of Dodge]
-[Ooo. Sam looks out cold! Ooo. Missed that the first time around, thank you feed glitch. *glares*]
-Yay for Fan!Dean going back for his buddy! \o/ Wait... did he call him Barnes??? ...hey... we haven't gotten these guys' real names yet have we...? *is suddenly suspicious of Show. And a liiitle bit giggly* [No luck on caps, sorry]
-Salt and burn! \o/ And a direct ghost attack on the fans, and a subsequent undeniable ghost flame-out. Oh crap, they can't wave that away as special effect now. And two more fans get made aware of part of the reality of the situation. Yay! See, I've been hoping, ever since they were incorporated that Chuck's fanbase would in some way be used, maybe as a distributed network of eyes-and-ears. I know it's not a common hope, but it'd be kind of neat. To me, anyway. *bounces*
-Heheh. The fanboy drinking scene is a direct parallel with Sam and Dean's earlier drinking scene. HEE!
-"We read the books." Suuuure. [Heheh. Not a close reading it seems.]
-"And screw you very much." Aw, damn. Poor Chuck. You keep pissing Dean off like that he might never adopt you. :-(
-OMG GHOST LOCKDOWN!!! YAY! \o/
-Oh god. Kid ghost.
Mom ghost was holding back bully-ghosts! Ghost layering FTW!!! \o/ Also, yay! Evil kiddie ghosts! It's always been my personal theory that kids' ghosts, or at least the ones inclined to go mean, are always nastier because they're more creative and hadn't developed an adult sense of mortality yet. Although these ones were nasty before they died too. Especially this one.
Holy anti-christ in training, Batman!
-GAAAAAAAAAAAAAAH!!! *hides behind couch*
-Hehehe. And Show kills the super-critical fan. Heeeee! Fair enough. We rip it to shreds every so often, turnabout is fair play. *nods* Plus the guy was a prat. An international visitor getting scalped at a convention about a horror series is either going to really hurt the book series, though. Or make it take off like wildfire. Eek. o.O
-Heee! Fandom filibuster, yes? This should be fun! \o/ Especially considering the hotel staff is rounded up too. Door-salting!!!
-[OMG!!! IN THE BACKGROUND AUDIO OF THE DOOR-SALTING!!! THERE'S A FEMALE FAN ASKING CHUCK ABOUT THE PORTRAYAL OF WITCHES AND HIM STUMBLING ALL OVER HIMSELF ABOUT IT!!! "Well, certainly there are a lot of really nice witches." Was the main bit I could make out. HEEE! Cool. Except Malleus Maleficarum wasn't one of the published books, but whatever. It was a more general question than a pointedly specific one. *handwaves*]
-Oh god. Chuck's updating them all on the mytharc now. Quicker than waiting the however long it'll take for the books to get to press, (if they do get to press), and rife with spoilers to spread around. Which means the in-series fanbase will be up-to-date on the apocalypse. (Except for the spoilerphobes. Hmmm.) Which means it's now even more likely there might be actual useful fan involvement at some point. Oh cool! *glee*
-[Really wishing I could make out everything Chuck's saying in the background, because he just said something about John, there.]
-"LARPing as cowboys and indians." Hee! Dean adapts. *rofl*
-(Okay, getting really PO'd at feed glitches here.)[She's not an actress, Dean, she's a LARPer. Not that the two are by any means mutually exclusive, but there is a distinction. And actually, she's not a player, she's an NPC, so she's more of a co-GM]
-JUST GIVE HER THE PUPPY DOG THING!!! \o/ Heeee!!! \o/
That's more of a bitchface, Sam. Try harder.
-"If all these people are seriously in trouble, we gotta do something." YEAH! Show says: when it comes down to it, fans are brave and helpful and can deal with real-world weird. Aw, thanks, Show! \o/
-"Because that's what Sam and Dean would do." Aw. Heroes. Awwwww. Dean gets told to his face that he and Sam are somebody's heroes. And blinks three times as he realizes what they're saying and it sinks in. Awwwwwwww! *smishes the fanboys*
-The Croatoan virus is not a venereal disease. Oh poor Chuck.
-"Trust me, this is gonna work." Who wouldn't trust that face?
-[Ahhh. While the kid ghosts are distracted and sort of buying it, the lockdown eases. COOL. And Sam was trying to get out and go with them to the cemetary, but... Okay. I got confused, I am clear now *nods*]
-Ringtone. Gaaaah! When getting on a stage, going in front of a camera, going on a covert op of any sort, or pretending to be a centuries-old ghost, TURN YOUR FRIGGING CELL PHONE OFF!!! Cellphones kill. *nods*
-"Run." Yay, Dean's channeling the Doctor! \o/
-LARPers are digging now. Yeah, not so easy to do when you haven't been digging up corpses most of your life. I love that there hasn't been any comments on the big guy's weight, or any implication that his capability of digging up a dead body is any different from the skinny guy's for this.
-"I'm gonna throw up."/"No you're not." Okay. I love fan!Dean. *smishes*
-(Dammit, dammit, dammit massive $@*^&$@^ feed glitch!)[Boys getting disarmed and whumped! Carver Edlund's filibuster getting personal.]
-Kind of surprised that the hotel staff hasn't tried to get out before then, but if all their guests are in the same room, what the hell.
-SIX MILLION DOLLAR MAN SOUND EFFECT AS CHUCK SWINGS THE MIKE STAND AT THE GHOST!!!!! \o/ BWHAHAHAHAHAHAHHA! XD [Cannot get decent screencap to save my freaking life here, dammit!]
-Oh wow. Core fanbase also now knows ghosts are real. Or Carver Edlund is a special effects god. Either way, that's gonna get around the fandom too. Although most of them probably didn't see too clearly over the crowd. Also probably a good thing Chuck wasn't that close to the ghost very long or Raphael'd be showing up and that would really take some explaining.
-"Salt this door!" Kind of shocked that half the audience wasn't up there with salt. Also, Chuck needs to yell more commands. Because that was freaking awesome.
-Hm. And now Becky's liking him. So. Fandom/Kripke? O.o I dunno. There's gotta be extra-series meta in there about the fans relation to Kripke and vice versa. (And no I don't mean that Kripke wants to screw us. Maybe screw with us, but that's different. :-P)
-Excellent precision nose alignment. *nods*
-Oh wow. The fanboys dug all the kids up and stuck them in a big pile. Wow. That takes some serious moxie for guys who thought all this was fiction only a few hours ago to drag around moldy old bones of children. Kudos, guys! o.O Show says: fans are competent and capable of acomplishing what they set out to do against insane odds.
-Ghost flame-outs! \o/ Wasn't someone saying not too long ago that ghosts didn't flame-out anymore? Well there you go. [Again, cannot get good cap, dammit!]
-Bungie! Hee! I'd imagine that'd be more trouble than it's worth, as weapons knocked out of their hands would come sproinging back at them and hit them. However, please note, they do give consideration to a fan suggestion.
-Cops everywhere, dead international fan, desecrated 19th century graves... yeah, the books are either toast or they'll go freaking ballistic. And everyone at the con is now up-to-date-ish. Although I suppose Sam and Dean could have gone out afterward and tidied everything up. Those fanboys are probably on some serious painkillers right now! After all that emergency grave-digging they probably feel like they've been beaten with a bag of hammers.
-*waves at two of the eleven-ish female fans at the convention who talking to the cop* Ooo. They locked everyone including the hotel staff into the conference room, and then later Fritz was found dead. Ooo. That's really not gonna look good.
-"You really saved our asses back there." Yes. Yes indeed. I'd like to point out that the fans just saved Sam and Dean. To that I say: "You're welcome, Kripke." :-D [More on that below.]
-OH CRAP, BARNES AND DAMIAN!!! \o/ HAHAHAHAHAHAHAH!!!
No Raoul though. Well, they both got a better deal out of it than the temp recapper whose name was sort of used for Lillith's chef last season, and therefore possessed, stole babies for Lillith to eat, was tortured, her human consciousness was allowed out to freak out and try to get at Sam, stuffed in a trunk, and then bled dry screaming by Ruby and Sam. They must have really liked that recapper. *nods*
-"Dean. The real Dean." And they laugh. Even though they know weird crap really is out there and spent most of the night digging up graves and torching kids' corpses, they can't believe Sam and Dean are real and standing in front of them. I don't know if I would either.
-Aw. The Fanboy Manifesto. "Our lives are boring and pointless, who wouldn't want to be awesome, wake up every morning and save the world and have a brother who would die for you?" Awwwwww. And that's the central draw in all escapist entertainment. Kind of weird when it's actually not fiction, but there you are. *nods*
-HEEE! Damien and Barnes are a couple! Demian over on TWOP will explode!!! For one, TWoP Barnes is a girl. For another, Barnes here looks a little... altered. Like.... gah. trying to place the expression. Ooo! Like that guy in 12 Monkeys! "Are you also divergent, friend?" (right at the end) These guys just don't have a couple vibe. More of an 'imminent psycho' vibe. It's the eyes and the slow head-tilt, which... oh crap. It's from the DVD extras. Jensen leaning on Jared at the end. You know what I mean. But oh well. *handwaves* Regardless, these two are frigging adorable.
-Hee! Chuck did something awesome and heroic and now Becky's dumping Sam. Hee! Monkey on the sun? What the hell did she say?? XD ["Like a monkey on the sun, it was too hot to live." *headdesk* *laughs for a solid minute* *chokes* Gahh! Okay. Yeah. BWAH!]
-"My yin to his proud yang." CHUCK'S PROUD YANG!! *dies of rofl* *headdesk* THE VIOLINS!!! OH GOD! [Still laughing!]
-"Yeah, go ahead and do the books."/"Really?"/"No, not really. We have guns and we'll find you." Heeee! \o/ *dying again, brb*
-What? Bella? What?? Hi random plothook. HOLD THE HELL ON!!! CROWLEY???? AS IN FRIGGING GOOD OMENS CROWLEY???? SERIOUSLY!!?!?!? OMFG YAY!!! I don't even mind the 'you never read the books/I don't remember/OMG what?' retcon there. CROWLEY!!! OOOO!!! I BET THAT'S MEG'S DEMON NAME!!! Or not, because she didn't really act like she had the Colt and... hm. Needs brain. Will brain later. Regardless, please, please, please let there be an Aziraphale! And QUEEN!! \o/ *flails*
-Ooo. Or maybe it's a plant by Gabriel? Or some other reality-bendery by Zachariah or the demons, or Meg, or whatever, and maybe it has been there all along but has been, I dunno, shadow-edited out of all readers' (and Chuck's) conscious awareness? Or maybe it wasn't there before and it is an actual, literal retroactive continuity adjustment by someone. Ooo. Reality gets bent so often in this show lately, anything's possible. Must ponder. *ponders*
-[HOLD THE FLAMING PHONE!!! "TIME IS ON MY SIDE" IS ONE OF THE UNPUBLISHED ONES!!! OH! OH! OMG. I get it. Chuck's let her read the unpublished books! Aha! This explains why neither of the boys or Castiel knew. Only two people have ever read the damn thing! And she has to explain Bela as 'British and a cat burglar' because neither 'Bad Day at Black Rock' or 'Red Sky at Morning' was published either! OMFG, IT MAKES PERFECT SENSE THAT NO ONE KNEW ABOUT THIS!!! \o/ And Becky's a little cuckoo so she doesn't remember that that's one of the unpublished ones when she chastises Sam for not reading the books (which they probably didn't read most of because they'd already lived it (and Chuck's writing's a little painful to read), which was a little short-sighted of them because they missed external scenes etc, but whatever) and Sam glares at Chuck for not telling them, but at the time when he wrote it, it was just something that was probably frustrating as hell because he couldn't stop writing even though he knew it wouldn't get published because the publisher only had one book left before closing down and that had to be NRFTW, so it was a fire-and-forget situation and it's been languishing on his hard drive until now and he didn't think twice about any of it when he let Becky read the unpublished books because he had a crush on her and IT MAKES TOTAL SENSE!!! PLOT-HOLE FIXED!! HARDLY ANY NEED FOR SPACKLE EVEN!!! \o/ *pants and looks a little wild-eyed* I'mma make myself a cup of tea now and try to stop cackling. Eeeeeheeeheeeheee!]
-Car leaning, with semi-smirk of 'maybe fans are okay.' [Hey, Dean's got a different watch. And no Skull Bracelet. When the hell did that happen and why was I not informed? *needs to go back through eps and find when that changed*]
-Chuck's Q and A!! It does take a long time for two newbies to dig a grave, and he can't give away the entire plot of everything. I do wonder if some of that was improv. It has an improv feel. "Maybe a couple scarves." Heee!
-Hee! Sam does blades, Dean does guns. That's going all the way back to the very start there. XD
-IT'S REALLY NOT JUMPING THE SHARK IF YOU NEVER COME BACK DOWN! \o/ HELL YEAH! *gleeeee* Man alive, I need that on an icon... as soon as it's safe for Australia. Because see, this show has been accused of jumping the shark every single time it does something new or something that doesn't fit some fans' established preconceptions of the show. Sam has psychic powers, 'All the children like you', Roadhouse, Bobby being a regular character, Tall Tales alien, Dean's deal, Ruby and Bella, Dean going to Hell, angels, they had a half-brother, Chuck the Prophet, the final seal breaking, fandom characters in-show, the boys are Vessels, the Trickster is Gabriel, etc. I guarantee that if you look, you will find fans on one forum or another saying Show has jumped the shark for each and every one of those developments. (Most likely TWoP, but that's the way they roll there.) Is it jumping the shark if you use that shark to springboard over a bigger shark? Maybe it's sharks all the way up in a giant shark-ladder? I don't know. Personally, I don't think it ever has, but that's the way I roll.
-And a look straight at the camera, just so we all know that that fourth wall is totally salted and burned. \o/
And one more thing...
Now. I feel the need to say something about the fandom arc. Your opinion may vary widely, and that's fine. That's your opinion. You are entitled to it and I'm not trying to argue anyone out of their opinion. Here's my opinion:
This show would never have gotten to five seasons without the fan support and Kripke knows it. The ratings it gets would sicken any other network, but it's still alive and kicking and winding its way through possibly its last season, as planned, because all of us adorable raving nutbags, all over the world, would not let it go. We write fic, we make vids, we draw pictures. We buy the DVD's and tie-ins. We tell our friends. We sit our friends down and make them watch. We dissect and critique every single minute detail on this show, and more than one person has written college-level essays on it.
This? All this fandom sub-arc stuff? It's all Kripke and Co's way of saying thanks. They see what we've done for the series, and they're acknowledging that. It's an awkward acknowledgment sometimes, and it exposes bits of fandom many would rather keep in the dark, but it's heartfelt. I'm guessing a lot of fans will be taking this episode as a slam. Personally I think it's no more a slam than a favorite uncle ruffling your hair and calling you 'shorty'. It's teasing, yes. But it's not mean-spirited, not to my eyes. This is their way of saying 'thank you, you wonderful and occasionally scary nutbags'.
And again, in this episode, the fans saved Sam and Dean. And again, "You're welcome, Kripke."
My goodness. Hi there soapbox. *kicks away*
As I said, my opinion. I'm not trying to argue anyone out of their opinions, just expressing my own.
NOW, onward. Canon fandom insertion and 'Aww, Kripke's trying to tell us he loves us with an adorable squashy toady-frog' aside, the sheer volume of crack episodes we're getting right now is making me a wee bit worried about the counterbalancing amount of soul-wrenching pain likely to be coming down the pipes.
Next episode is the last new one for a while. I'm thinking extremely painful cliffhanger, perhaps? Call it a hunch.
Have not seen promo. Avoiding promo entirely. I am not acknowledging even the existence of a promo.
(PLEASE, NO SPOILERS OR REFERENCES TO SPOILERY MATERIAL IN COMMENTS! The definition of spoiler for this journal is located in left hand sidebar and includes references to promo material as spoilers. Theory and speculation based on aired episodes only.)
Also, this is late and long. Mainly because, as it turned out, I actually have an opinion on certain matters, and a few Things To Say. o.O
Contains profanity.
Spoiler and Theorizing Timeline
As of midnight November 11th, nothing! Absolutely nothing! No spoilers at all!! \o/
...aw crap.
-11/12 Couldn't sleep. Went recap-reading. Bad idea. A recap referenced the promo. THEY'RE GOING TO A CON!!?!!? *hyperventilates* Oh. My. God. I... I... hee! Well. This probably means Chuck's back! And more fandom hijinx and I don't even care how much wank this might trigger. CONVENTION!!! OMG!!!! Hee. I hope it's a general sci-fi one; Dean would have a blast. There's more general fan prescence in shows now. One of the CSI's had an episode set at a Not!Trek convention and made two of their regular tech people into Not!Trekkies. This could be awesome.
-11/12 Later. Title of episode. "The Real Ghostbusters" ...it's not a Ghostfacers convention, is it...? I could see their webisode thing getting a small, rabid and entirely batshit insane fanbase... Hm.
-11/12 Even later. TV listings. "Sam and Dean are tricked into attending a con by a fan." Oh dear. It is a Supernatural con. Oh my. Becky's been talking it seems and some people are believing her. This episode could be one solid fandom shout-out. Also some exposure of fandom warts to daylight. Also massive crack. It'll probably start off with an actual LARP. *nods* Ooo! And TWoP insertion! Will this be the episode they do nasty things to a character named Demian? Or Barnes? Although they already sort of did Barnes with Pamela.
Well, I dunno about you all, but I think I'm prepared to be mocked affectionately teased by Show again. (I'm also prepared to hide in the kitchen and die of embarrassment, but I'm flexible like that.)
Reaction, Picspam, Meta, Speculation and plot-hole patching for Supernatural 5.09 - "The Real Ghostbusters"
(On Vampire Diaries, everyone seems to be crying. Hunh. Weird.)
All right, disclaimer time. If you have any problem at all with someone having a positive reaction to this episode, or are not willing to accept that anyone could have a positive reaction to this episode, then this is not the review for you.
That said...
HA! AHHAHAHAHAHHAHAHAHAH!!! God that was awesome! XD
(Big text again to be readable)
-THEN! OMG Asylum? Seriously? Wow! *revels in the old school awesome* Hunted! The Colt! LARPing! The books! Chuck! Oh dear god, Becky. Hee!
-NOW! Um. Eeeek. Drama music. Pineview Hotel.
-IMPALAS!!! Is that all of the show Impalas?? WAS THERE A KAZ 2Y5 IN THERE!!!!?!?! Please??? [No. DAMMIT! Missed opportunity there. I do see Texas plate JS5 AK0, though. And D5R 2874 from.... dunno, not Texas.]
-Dean's reaction to all the Impalas is an even blend of 'Awesome' and 'WTF?'
-CHUCK! \o/ Looking soooo uncomfortable.
-Wow, they drove all night on a text from Chuck? Awwww. \o/
-"You've been thinking about me." *facepalm* Becky's... yeah.
-What's Becky doing in Chuck's pants??? o.O
-"I'm sorry. For everything." Heheheheeh.
-Fanboy has an amulet! \o/
(Not sure why though, unless Chuck's got really detailed descriptions or illustrations. Hm. Possible. Hardy Boys was illustrated. Hm. Also must see if I can source a better jacket for next Halloween. *makes notes*) Regardless, COSTUMES!!!! \o/ AND DEAN'S THE ONLY ONE WITHOUT AN AMULET! If someone criticizes Dean for costume inaccuracy, or directs him to the dealer's room where there's a table-full of pendants, bracelets, skull bracelets, etc, I may never ever stop laughing. XD
-Love that the guy in the Scarecrow costume gets both of them to do a mini-double-take. Well more than a double-take for Sam. Hee! Good costume too! *makes more notes*
-Oh crap. Speaking of which, DEALER'S ROOM!!! \o/ "GOT SALT?" T-SHIRT!!! That was on, um, thingy. The place, with the stuff! Dammit. Arg. [Cafepress! Gah. No brain tonight] GOTTA take a closer look at the stuff in there, see if any of it's fanmade stuff.
[Screencaps! I must say if they don't offer fake!Con merch somewhere online, I'll be a tad disappointed.
Now. Here's a question. Merchant has black eyes. Is he a fan wearing contacts, or is he a demon hiding in plain sight...? *ponders*
Girl!Bobby (or is she a Bobby!girl? *hums silly music*) is adorable! The beard's a little.... sculpted though.
That mullet is way too tidy.
Got Salt!
YED! (Is it a costume or... nevermind, YED's dead. Or is he??? *ponders more*)
So, no fanmade stuff that I noticed. Though if that Impala mug had had *rock music plays* on it, that would have kicked ass.]
-Hey, get that pentagram right way up! You're Supernatural fans, you should know the difference. Ah well.
-HEE!! CREDITS!! I see what you did there! XD
-"The Homoerotic Subtext of Supernatural." That panel title is directly from Winchestercon, innit? Sam and Dean's reaction?
-OMG. So. Many. Winchesters. o.O Kind of surprised there isn't a whoooole lot more plaid in evidence, but it's all under the outerwear. *nods*
-Given the number of attendees of course this is a Winchestercon/fan-run level con, not a Creation Con. Even in an AU Creation Con wouldn't do a con for a straight-up book fandom. Also, so very not a direct translation of a Supernatural con because look at how many guys there are! Seriously! Okay. Anyone who's been to an actual Supernatural convention reading this. How many guys do you see at them? Although Jared and Jensen have a lot to do with that... Hm. And I do see eleven possible girls besides Becky in there, plus two clowns of indeterminate gender. Still skewing male though. Hm.
-[Okay. Chuck writes books about two ghost-hunting brothers. The cover of the first one looked a bit like a romance novel, but aside from that, not so much for the rest of them. The plot-arcs and character arcs are the same, so there's still the emotional context... however, from what we've heard of his writing, Chuck's a bit pedestrian in his prose, and that's all there is to go on for the books. No acting, no faces, just Chuck's writing and the story itself. They're extremely small press books. Odds are, they were marketed to comic and game shops, given the strong LARPing presence at the con seen here, and the only other location they've encountered the books being a comic store. Gaming and comic-fandom traditionally skews very heavily male. Hunh. It actually makes quite a lot of sense for there to be so many guys there, especially if the LARP was one of the con's major advertising points. I can believe that the books would have a more male-shifted fanbase. I buy it. It makes sociological sense. *handwaves* And I'd still be a fan in either 'verse because I'm a book-reading pen-and-paper gamer. (She writes in her blog as she sits rewatching an episode, wearing a t-shirt from a gaming con of similar size to the one being depicted in show, while surrounded by enough books and RPG manuals to open a small store.) *nods*]
-Also I kind of think Show is a little terrified of portraying a room full of squeeing fangirls, given the fan reaction to Becky. Who is admittedly off her freaking nut in several ways. Which some of us are in some regards. *shrugs*
-Ha! Chuck drinking water. Which is of course the same brand as is used on set, no doubt. Label looks familiar.
-"Where did you come up with Sam and Dean in the first place?" Love that Kripke's creator credit shows up right after that question. They are having fun with the credit timing in this episode! \o/ [Also hee! Dueling head tilts.]
-Teleplay by Kripke. Story by Nancy Weiner who also did Monster at the End of this Book, didn't she? [Yep. She seems to be the go-to girl for fandom insertion... unless she's a pseudonym. Hm.]
-German guy! With hideously fake accent, but whatever. International contingent represent! \o/ Unfortunate that he's a prat who's only asking questions to hear himself talk and not actually wanting an answer. Which also happens. :-P
-Directed by James L. Conway [He also did the one with Paris Hilton and "It's a Terrible Life"]
-Sam ponders the bungee question.
-Face of imminent 'stop harshing my squee' smackdown. Hee!
-This kid is adorable! He looks like Ava's little brother or something! I want to ruffle his hair and feed him cookies! Also of note, Chuck must have spent some time detailing the Winchester wardrobe in books. Not only do they have the color schemes right, so far I don't think any of the ones in Winchester costumes have had less than three layers.
-Publishing the books again. Oh, crap. Yeah. Not a good idea. With the apocalypse on, having your every move published in handy pocket-sized editions is not tactically wise.
{{{SPEC-PHOBES BEWARE}}}
-Oh. Oh hey. Wow. You know. If there was an apocalypse on, and there was a guy getting direct, detailed, accurate prophetic downloads, obviously what he writes is a source of intelligence in the strategic sense. For either side, but moreso for the demon/Lucifer side. What if this 'mystery Scandinavian backer' is a demon? Demons can't get at Chuck due to him having an Archangel as covering artillery, and all the things he's writing right now about exactly where Sam and Dean are are sitting on his hard drive, inaccessible (because I guess demons can't hack into it? Or maybe it's not a connected computer? Anyway). SO How to get at the intel? GET IT PUBLISHING AGAIN! Or don't even go through with the publishing end of things. Pose as a backer, drop some cash, get everything Chuck's written to date sent to a 'publisher' for 'proofreading and editing'. Bam. Instant intel on everything the Winchesters have done since Dean went to Hell. (Plus maybe a few of the unpublished 'missing adventures' that didn't make the first publication run.) Ooooo. *squiggles with the possibility*
{{{SPEC-PHOBE ALL CLEAR}}}
-Yellow-eyed cooler? *facepalm* WHAT THE HELL'S WRONG WITH DRINKING PURPLE NURPLES LIKE NORMAL FANS? Oh, wait, Tall Tales was not one of the books that got published. So, Yellow-Eyed Cooler. I'd say lemonade, vodka, club soda over crushed ice with... a slice of lemon and a slice of black olive as a garnish? Ech. Ah well. Mike's Hard Lemonade would work too. :-D
-Chuck is after Becky? Seriously? Ooookay... guess he liked the marzipan more than he said. Aw. I get it. Kripke loves us and wants us to love him back. Aw. Cute. [Really this whole fan-arc thing is like the squishy critter a little kid would pull out of a pocket to try to make friends. Some people run screaming, some people go 'aw, that's cute' while edging away, and some people go 'awesome!' They're all equally valid responses, but the intent of 'I think you're nifty' stays the same. I think anyway. More on that later.] *pats Kripke*
-(Dammit, feed glitch.)["Who gave you the rights to our lives?"/"An archangel." Heee!]
-Chuck does indeed need a source of income that will let him get overtaken by downloads of prophecy every so often, though, and those kind of jobs are rare. If taking a day off work due to plot-bunny ambush was acceptable, I think most of us would be thrilled, but in Chuck's case, it's a wee bit more intense. This would not be a problem, though, if Sam and Dean spent less time looking at obituaries in newspapers and more time looking at the sports scores and Lotto numbers. So Sam, Dean? This is totally your fault. *nods*
-You know, also, Chuck knows what's happening with the Apocalypse. He could get a massive advance on a several book deal and stall until the end of the world. Which of course won't end because Sam and Dean will figure a way out of it, but there's always an off chance. And after it's all resolved, the strategic value of Chuck's novels will be minimal. So win-win there, I think. :-D
-Oh crap. Screaming. Gotta be the LARP starting up, but of course, Sam and Dean have a knee-jerk reaction to screaming. Obviously they haven't been to many conventions in general. You hear screaming, you wait for context noise before charging in to save the day. Unless you're a security volunteer in which case you go charging in to get people to settle down or to save the day, whichever's required by the situation. I miss conventions. *sigh*)
-You know, even if Sam and Dean decided 'hell with it, we don't need to be here', they haven't had a chance to leave. First it's finding out what the heck's going on, then it's death glares at Chuck across a conference room, then it's talking to Chuck about his career choices, and now someone's screaming. Even if they wanted to leave, they haven't had the chance. Things keep popping up. (Also, the script says they're here for the episode, but whatever.)
-Also, they drove all night in a state of 'what the hell is up with our damn prophet and this life or death crap?' lather, so they're a quart low on sleep and a gallon high on coffee, and enforced stuck-in-a-car frustrated concern, plus the unexpected additional frustration of the text being faked and having to deal with the insanity of themselves being considered fictional by people dressed like them? They're probably itching for something to waste.
-Oh god. The LARPing. XD Although she is really selling the NPC. I'd game with her. *nods*
-Heee! Lookit all the Sam and Deans! Three Sams all in a row!
-Batshit or not, you cannot say Becky isn't enthusiastic.
-Letecia Gore. Heh hehehehe. GOOOOOOOORE! TWoP shoutout there? Ooo! I wonder if they'll have a Raoul!
-"Dad's Journal. Dear Sam and Dean. This hotel is haunted. Find the ghost and win a 50$ gift card from the Sizzler. Love Dad." ... BWAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!!! XD
-MASS FAKE FBI ATTACK!!!! ALL THE TIES ARE STRIPEY!!! *need screencap* [FBI and two CSI cards XD *waves hi at two of the approximately eleven female fans at the con who are not Becky*]
I have a sudden overpowering urge to make myself a fake ID. I feel incomplete somehow.
-Fake hotel guy giving the clues. Gaaaah. I've had GM's who give expository background as cheesily as this. And waaaay worse. This is why a good GM either re-writes the scenario flavor text in their own words or ditches the 'chunk of exposition' delivery format and plays Q and A. Although that's tricky to do en masse, so the LARP co-GM here gets a pass. Plus he is bringing some seriously awesome cheese. *handwave*
-The two speaking-part Sam-and-Dean's walk by doing lines from the start of 'Hunted' [which wasn't one of the published novels so it must have been bundled with Croatoan in a double-sized volume, otherwise they wouldn't know any of that so *handwaves*] "Dad said..." *thud* And I'm down for the count. *headdesk* Laughing. Can't breathe!
-See, there, the Winchesters were going to leave, but now they need a drink. Completely understandable.
-You know, the more I see of the interiors of this hotel, the more I'm sure I've actually been to a fan-run con there... Hm.
-CARDBOARD EMF!!! \o/ That's so damn cute! Aaaaaand now I want to build an EMF. Again. Wonder where that busted walkman got to... *headdesk*
-NERF GUN! \o/ Aw, it's the cute fan!Sammy from before. Being a bit of a dork here, but whatever.
-Yep, a real ghost in the LARP. Saw that coming.
-HOLY MOTHER OF CRAP!
Okay, that's from... uh... hey, that's from Season 4! Chuck's books didn't go that far! CONTINUITY ERROR!!! Bet it's deliberate! XD
-Entire room busted up. Dude. So many cons get a bad rap for stuff like that. Be more considerate when you're getting your ass kicked by a ghost. *scowls*
-And the fan (incidentally fake!Sam whumpage FTW! \o/ It's like a first season episode!) who was beat up by a ghost gets out because he knows he's out of his depth. Show says: fans are not idiots.
-(*randomly boggles at Smallville commercial, and not in a bad way, which in itself causes a secondary boggle*)
-(This sucks. My work day is harshing my squee during commercial breaks. Wah.)
-"Busy." 'Texting. It's important or I would stop.' Sorry. Dr. Horrible moment there.
-MacGyver jackets? Hunh. Never thought of them like that. Which, considering how intensely I fangirled MacGyver when I was in my early teens, surprises all hell out of me. o.O
-Ooo. Hey. Is it a Tulpa? A LARP-generated Tulpa? *glee* You'd think they'd know not to mess with the Tulpa symbol, but these yahoos don't seem to know which way up a pentagram goes. [Plus Hell House was not one of the published novels, so they wouldn't know about it anyway.]
-(Feed glitch!! Again!) ["I don't think that guy's a good enough actor to be acting." Hee!]
-"We don't like to publicize this to 'normal' people." *snerk* Missing out on some decent tourist cash there, Sparky.
-Oh crap, LARPers overhearing. Should have known though, they're the speaking Sam-n-Dean. Although that particular Dean needs to shave off the chin fuzz if he wants to carry off the costume better. *nods*
-(And while I'm thinking of it, *tosses another long-suffering plot-bunny* Sigh.)
-Cool. Old attic crap and flashlight-fu. And a ghost hunt! It really is like a first season ep, but with more crack! \o/
-Sam's looking very smishable in the dark. Of course we can't really see it, it being pitch black. [*adjusts a little, but it's pretty hopeless*]
-"Serves 'em right. I'm just sayin'" *nods* Dean's never had much patience for people who mess with stuff they don't understand and get themselves in crap. Like, say, the Ghostfacers.
-Hee! Fan!Sam squeeing over the kid's 'ghost makeup'. Hee!
-Guy doing Sam's voice! BWWHAHAHAAHHA!!! XD
-Oooo Handprint. OMG HANDPRINTS. GYAAAAAAAAHAHAHH! O.O Little kids' handprints in unexpected locations scare the crap out of me. Damn you Blair Witch Project! *shakes fist* Still, that's freaking awesome!
-I also love that the fans are following the evidence and finding clues before Sam and Dean are. Show says: fans are smart and capable investigators.
-[Sam keeps making faces in the dark. Or in single frames, like this.]
-"My mommy loves me." HOLY CRAP, IS THAT EXPOSED BRAIN????!!! O.O No, just skull. Gaaaaah. This kid is a gas mask away from being serious nightmare fodder.
-Oh dear god Becky. Well, her screen name is 'samlicker' something, isn't it? And given some of the con stories I've heard, the way she's behaving is pretty mild. *sighs*
-And Chuck has an actual crush on Becky. I still have no idea how that happened character-wise. Hm. *ponders* *pats Kripke again*
-Extra crispy!! \o/ Where was that used last? I'm sure it's been used between here and Faith.
-Fan!Sam-n-Dean's voices, jeez! These guys must go through a ton of throat lozenges when they're LARPing. XD
-"Well you're the Chuckles, Chuckles." Yes Dean, you do say things that lame sometimes. Even though you say them better.
-HAHAHAHAHHAHAHA OMG FAKE PINK AND YELLOW GUN!!!! HAHAHAHAHAHHAHAHAHAHHAH. Jeez! It's definitely a small con. The last several I went to (in the nineties), even obviously fake weapons were strictly prohibited, regardless of peace-bonding or day-glo coloration.
-(Damn feed glitch!)[HA! I MISSED THAT DEAN PULLED OUT HIS ACTUAL GUN ON THE FIRST WATCHTHROUGH! XD]
-"We get to be Sam and Dean." Pft. Yeah, this will go well.
-Oh god. Bobby and... Rufus? Really? Ah, of course. Rufus showed up in one of the final books that got printed, so the impression of him is a lot bigger than it has been in series to date. Makes perfect sense. *nods* [Except it doesn't because that one wasn't one of the books, so there must have been a reference written in NRFTW that wasn't in the episode. *handwaves* Damn. Now I really want actual novelizations of the episodes. All with 'Carver Edlund as byline. That would so rock!]
-Oh god they're running lines from Asylum. In front of Sam and Dean. Hiding now. *pulls collar of t-shirt over head*
-Aw. Dean is Bobby. Awwwwwwww. *flails a wee bit*
-YAY DEAN FOR SNAPPING AND TELLING THEM OFF! \o/ Yes! Because that's exactly what a person would do in that situation! Imagine the worst bits of your life. Now imagine them published as fiction. Now imagine people acting out the worst bits of your life for fun because they think it's awesome. I'd be punching people. I admire Dean's restraint. Sam seems oddly less affected though.
-*giggles* Come on. Who doesn't bring shovels to a LARP where the main characters are known for digging up graves? It'd be lame if the 'grave' was a plastic beach bucket. If I ever ran a Supernatural LARP with a ghost plotline, I'd find a location with a hidden disused garden or something and you bet your ass there'd be actual digging. But I'm mean like that. :-)
-Oh come on. All of them stand around while only Dean digs? Only one person needs to hold the flashlight! Although I guess the two fans aren't quite into actually desecrating a possible grave, and Sam's there to stop them from running off in case they get too freaked, and decide to go for the cops or something. Yeah, that's it. *handwaves*
-When presented with evidence of true real world insanity (as far as their experience indicates) show says: fans do have a solid grip on reality and know where to draw the line. *nods* We may be adorable raving nutbags but we aren't so divorced from reality that we go "Yay, fun times!" when some random people we just met dig up actual graves we were thinking were fake.
-"Hunters aren't real!" Ooooo. Hi Reality Check! This reality check ain't bouncing. It's getting cashed big time! Right about.....
-(Feed glitch! AAAAAAUUUUUUUGGH!!!)[HI LETICIA! LETECIA! HOWEVER THE NAME IS SPELLED!]
-[Show says: again, fans know when to get the hell out of Dodge]
-[Ooo. Sam looks out cold! Ooo. Missed that the first time around, thank you feed glitch. *glares*]
-Yay for Fan!Dean going back for his buddy! \o/ Wait... did he call him Barnes??? ...hey... we haven't gotten these guys' real names yet have we...? *is suddenly suspicious of Show. And a liiitle bit giggly* [No luck on caps, sorry]
-Salt and burn! \o/ And a direct ghost attack on the fans, and a subsequent undeniable ghost flame-out. Oh crap, they can't wave that away as special effect now. And two more fans get made aware of part of the reality of the situation. Yay! See, I've been hoping, ever since they were incorporated that Chuck's fanbase would in some way be used, maybe as a distributed network of eyes-and-ears. I know it's not a common hope, but it'd be kind of neat. To me, anyway. *bounces*
-Heheh. The fanboy drinking scene is a direct parallel with Sam and Dean's earlier drinking scene. HEE!
-"We read the books." Suuuure. [Heheh. Not a close reading it seems.]
-"And screw you very much." Aw, damn. Poor Chuck. You keep pissing Dean off like that he might never adopt you. :-(
-OMG GHOST LOCKDOWN!!! YAY! \o/
-Oh god. Kid ghost.
Mom ghost was holding back bully-ghosts! Ghost layering FTW!!! \o/ Also, yay! Evil kiddie ghosts! It's always been my personal theory that kids' ghosts, or at least the ones inclined to go mean, are always nastier because they're more creative and hadn't developed an adult sense of mortality yet. Although these ones were nasty before they died too. Especially this one.
Holy anti-christ in training, Batman!
-GAAAAAAAAAAAAAAH!!! *hides behind couch*
-Hehehe. And Show kills the super-critical fan. Heeeee! Fair enough. We rip it to shreds every so often, turnabout is fair play. *nods* Plus the guy was a prat. An international visitor getting scalped at a convention about a horror series is either going to really hurt the book series, though. Or make it take off like wildfire. Eek. o.O
-Heee! Fandom filibuster, yes? This should be fun! \o/ Especially considering the hotel staff is rounded up too. Door-salting!!!
-[OMG!!! IN THE BACKGROUND AUDIO OF THE DOOR-SALTING!!! THERE'S A FEMALE FAN ASKING CHUCK ABOUT THE PORTRAYAL OF WITCHES AND HIM STUMBLING ALL OVER HIMSELF ABOUT IT!!! "Well, certainly there are a lot of really nice witches." Was the main bit I could make out. HEEE! Cool. Except Malleus Maleficarum wasn't one of the published books, but whatever. It was a more general question than a pointedly specific one. *handwaves*]
-Oh god. Chuck's updating them all on the mytharc now. Quicker than waiting the however long it'll take for the books to get to press, (if they do get to press), and rife with spoilers to spread around. Which means the in-series fanbase will be up-to-date on the apocalypse. (Except for the spoilerphobes. Hmmm.) Which means it's now even more likely there might be actual useful fan involvement at some point. Oh cool! *glee*
-[Really wishing I could make out everything Chuck's saying in the background, because he just said something about John, there.]
-"LARPing as cowboys and indians." Hee! Dean adapts. *rofl*
-(Okay, getting really PO'd at feed glitches here.)[She's not an actress, Dean, she's a LARPer. Not that the two are by any means mutually exclusive, but there is a distinction. And actually, she's not a player, she's an NPC, so she's more of a co-GM]
-JUST GIVE HER THE PUPPY DOG THING!!! \o/ Heeee!!! \o/
That's more of a bitchface, Sam. Try harder.
-"If all these people are seriously in trouble, we gotta do something." YEAH! Show says: when it comes down to it, fans are brave and helpful and can deal with real-world weird. Aw, thanks, Show! \o/
-"Because that's what Sam and Dean would do." Aw. Heroes. Awwwww. Dean gets told to his face that he and Sam are somebody's heroes. And blinks three times as he realizes what they're saying and it sinks in. Awwwwwwww! *smishes the fanboys*
-The Croatoan virus is not a venereal disease. Oh poor Chuck.
-"Trust me, this is gonna work." Who wouldn't trust that face?
-[Ahhh. While the kid ghosts are distracted and sort of buying it, the lockdown eases. COOL. And Sam was trying to get out and go with them to the cemetary, but... Okay. I got confused, I am clear now *nods*]
-Ringtone. Gaaaah! When getting on a stage, going in front of a camera, going on a covert op of any sort, or pretending to be a centuries-old ghost, TURN YOUR FRIGGING CELL PHONE OFF!!! Cellphones kill. *nods*
-"Run." Yay, Dean's channeling the Doctor! \o/
-LARPers are digging now. Yeah, not so easy to do when you haven't been digging up corpses most of your life. I love that there hasn't been any comments on the big guy's weight, or any implication that his capability of digging up a dead body is any different from the skinny guy's for this.
-"I'm gonna throw up."/"No you're not." Okay. I love fan!Dean. *smishes*
-(Dammit, dammit, dammit massive $@*^&$@^ feed glitch!)[Boys getting disarmed and whumped! Carver Edlund's filibuster getting personal.]
-Kind of surprised that the hotel staff hasn't tried to get out before then, but if all their guests are in the same room, what the hell.
-SIX MILLION DOLLAR MAN SOUND EFFECT AS CHUCK SWINGS THE MIKE STAND AT THE GHOST!!!!! \o/ BWHAHAHAHAHAHAHHA! XD [Cannot get decent screencap to save my freaking life here, dammit!]
-Oh wow. Core fanbase also now knows ghosts are real. Or Carver Edlund is a special effects god. Either way, that's gonna get around the fandom too. Although most of them probably didn't see too clearly over the crowd. Also probably a good thing Chuck wasn't that close to the ghost very long or Raphael'd be showing up and that would really take some explaining.
-"Salt this door!" Kind of shocked that half the audience wasn't up there with salt. Also, Chuck needs to yell more commands. Because that was freaking awesome.
-Hm. And now Becky's liking him. So. Fandom/Kripke? O.o I dunno. There's gotta be extra-series meta in there about the fans relation to Kripke and vice versa. (And no I don't mean that Kripke wants to screw us. Maybe screw with us, but that's different. :-P)
-Excellent precision nose alignment. *nods*
-Oh wow. The fanboys dug all the kids up and stuck them in a big pile. Wow. That takes some serious moxie for guys who thought all this was fiction only a few hours ago to drag around moldy old bones of children. Kudos, guys! o.O Show says: fans are competent and capable of acomplishing what they set out to do against insane odds.
-Ghost flame-outs! \o/ Wasn't someone saying not too long ago that ghosts didn't flame-out anymore? Well there you go. [Again, cannot get good cap, dammit!]
-Bungie! Hee! I'd imagine that'd be more trouble than it's worth, as weapons knocked out of their hands would come sproinging back at them and hit them. However, please note, they do give consideration to a fan suggestion.
-Cops everywhere, dead international fan, desecrated 19th century graves... yeah, the books are either toast or they'll go freaking ballistic. And everyone at the con is now up-to-date-ish. Although I suppose Sam and Dean could have gone out afterward and tidied everything up. Those fanboys are probably on some serious painkillers right now! After all that emergency grave-digging they probably feel like they've been beaten with a bag of hammers.
-*waves at two of the eleven-ish female fans at the convention who talking to the cop* Ooo. They locked everyone including the hotel staff into the conference room, and then later Fritz was found dead. Ooo. That's really not gonna look good.
-"You really saved our asses back there." Yes. Yes indeed. I'd like to point out that the fans just saved Sam and Dean. To that I say: "You're welcome, Kripke." :-D [More on that below.]
-OH CRAP, BARNES AND DAMIAN!!! \o/ HAHAHAHAHAHAHAH!!!
No Raoul though. Well, they both got a better deal out of it than the temp recapper whose name was sort of used for Lillith's chef last season, and therefore possessed, stole babies for Lillith to eat, was tortured, her human consciousness was allowed out to freak out and try to get at Sam, stuffed in a trunk, and then bled dry screaming by Ruby and Sam. They must have really liked that recapper. *nods*
-"Dean. The real Dean." And they laugh. Even though they know weird crap really is out there and spent most of the night digging up graves and torching kids' corpses, they can't believe Sam and Dean are real and standing in front of them. I don't know if I would either.
-Aw. The Fanboy Manifesto. "Our lives are boring and pointless, who wouldn't want to be awesome, wake up every morning and save the world and have a brother who would die for you?" Awwwwww. And that's the central draw in all escapist entertainment. Kind of weird when it's actually not fiction, but there you are. *nods*
-HEEE! Damien and Barnes are a couple! Demian over on TWOP will explode!!! For one, TWoP Barnes is a girl. For another, Barnes here looks a little... altered. Like.... gah. trying to place the expression. Ooo! Like that guy in 12 Monkeys! "Are you also divergent, friend?" (right at the end) These guys just don't have a couple vibe. More of an 'imminent psycho' vibe. It's the eyes and the slow head-tilt, which... oh crap. It's from the DVD extras. Jensen leaning on Jared at the end. You know what I mean. But oh well. *handwaves* Regardless, these two are frigging adorable.
-Hee! Chuck did something awesome and heroic and now Becky's dumping Sam. Hee! Monkey on the sun? What the hell did she say?? XD ["Like a monkey on the sun, it was too hot to live." *headdesk* *laughs for a solid minute* *chokes* Gahh! Okay. Yeah. BWAH!]
-"My yin to his proud yang." CHUCK'S PROUD YANG!! *dies of rofl* *headdesk* THE VIOLINS!!! OH GOD! [Still laughing!]
-"Yeah, go ahead and do the books."/"Really?"/"No, not really. We have guns and we'll find you." Heeee! \o/ *dying again, brb*
-What? Bella? What?? Hi random plothook. HOLD THE HELL ON!!! CROWLEY???? AS IN FRIGGING GOOD OMENS CROWLEY???? SERIOUSLY!!?!?!? OMFG YAY!!! I don't even mind the 'you never read the books/I don't remember/OMG what?' retcon there. CROWLEY!!! OOOO!!! I BET THAT'S MEG'S DEMON NAME!!! Or not, because she didn't really act like she had the Colt and... hm. Needs brain. Will brain later. Regardless, please, please, please let there be an Aziraphale! And QUEEN!! \o/ *flails*
-Ooo. Or maybe it's a plant by Gabriel? Or some other reality-bendery by Zachariah or the demons, or Meg, or whatever, and maybe it has been there all along but has been, I dunno, shadow-edited out of all readers' (and Chuck's) conscious awareness? Or maybe it wasn't there before and it is an actual, literal retroactive continuity adjustment by someone. Ooo. Reality gets bent so often in this show lately, anything's possible. Must ponder. *ponders*
-[HOLD THE FLAMING PHONE!!! "TIME IS ON MY SIDE" IS ONE OF THE UNPUBLISHED ONES!!! OH! OH! OMG. I get it. Chuck's let her read the unpublished books! Aha! This explains why neither of the boys or Castiel knew. Only two people have ever read the damn thing! And she has to explain Bela as 'British and a cat burglar' because neither 'Bad Day at Black Rock' or 'Red Sky at Morning' was published either! OMFG, IT MAKES PERFECT SENSE THAT NO ONE KNEW ABOUT THIS!!! \o/ And Becky's a little cuckoo so she doesn't remember that that's one of the unpublished ones when she chastises Sam for not reading the books (which they probably didn't read most of because they'd already lived it (and Chuck's writing's a little painful to read), which was a little short-sighted of them because they missed external scenes etc, but whatever) and Sam glares at Chuck for not telling them, but at the time when he wrote it, it was just something that was probably frustrating as hell because he couldn't stop writing even though he knew it wouldn't get published because the publisher only had one book left before closing down and that had to be NRFTW, so it was a fire-and-forget situation and it's been languishing on his hard drive until now and he didn't think twice about any of it when he let Becky read the unpublished books because he had a crush on her and IT MAKES TOTAL SENSE!!! PLOT-HOLE FIXED!! HARDLY ANY NEED FOR SPACKLE EVEN!!! \o/ *pants and looks a little wild-eyed* I'mma make myself a cup of tea now and try to stop cackling. Eeeeeheeeheeeheee!]
-Car leaning, with semi-smirk of 'maybe fans are okay.' [Hey, Dean's got a different watch. And no Skull Bracelet. When the hell did that happen and why was I not informed? *needs to go back through eps and find when that changed*]
-Chuck's Q and A!! It does take a long time for two newbies to dig a grave, and he can't give away the entire plot of everything. I do wonder if some of that was improv. It has an improv feel. "Maybe a couple scarves." Heee!
-Hee! Sam does blades, Dean does guns. That's going all the way back to the very start there. XD
-IT'S REALLY NOT JUMPING THE SHARK IF YOU NEVER COME BACK DOWN! \o/ HELL YEAH! *gleeeee* Man alive, I need that on an icon... as soon as it's safe for Australia. Because see, this show has been accused of jumping the shark every single time it does something new or something that doesn't fit some fans' established preconceptions of the show. Sam has psychic powers, 'All the children like you', Roadhouse, Bobby being a regular character, Tall Tales alien, Dean's deal, Ruby and Bella, Dean going to Hell, angels, they had a half-brother, Chuck the Prophet, the final seal breaking, fandom characters in-show, the boys are Vessels, the Trickster is Gabriel, etc. I guarantee that if you look, you will find fans on one forum or another saying Show has jumped the shark for each and every one of those developments. (Most likely TWoP, but that's the way they roll there.) Is it jumping the shark if you use that shark to springboard over a bigger shark? Maybe it's sharks all the way up in a giant shark-ladder? I don't know. Personally, I don't think it ever has, but that's the way I roll.
-And a look straight at the camera, just so we all know that that fourth wall is totally salted and burned. \o/
And one more thing...
Now. I feel the need to say something about the fandom arc. Your opinion may vary widely, and that's fine. That's your opinion. You are entitled to it and I'm not trying to argue anyone out of their opinion. Here's my opinion:
This show would never have gotten to five seasons without the fan support and Kripke knows it. The ratings it gets would sicken any other network, but it's still alive and kicking and winding its way through possibly its last season, as planned, because all of us adorable raving nutbags, all over the world, would not let it go. We write fic, we make vids, we draw pictures. We buy the DVD's and tie-ins. We tell our friends. We sit our friends down and make them watch. We dissect and critique every single minute detail on this show, and more than one person has written college-level essays on it.
This? All this fandom sub-arc stuff? It's all Kripke and Co's way of saying thanks. They see what we've done for the series, and they're acknowledging that. It's an awkward acknowledgment sometimes, and it exposes bits of fandom many would rather keep in the dark, but it's heartfelt. I'm guessing a lot of fans will be taking this episode as a slam. Personally I think it's no more a slam than a favorite uncle ruffling your hair and calling you 'shorty'. It's teasing, yes. But it's not mean-spirited, not to my eyes. This is their way of saying 'thank you, you wonderful and occasionally scary nutbags'.
And again, in this episode, the fans saved Sam and Dean. And again, "You're welcome, Kripke."
My goodness. Hi there soapbox. *kicks away*
As I said, my opinion. I'm not trying to argue anyone out of their opinions, just expressing my own.
NOW, onward. Canon fandom insertion and 'Aww, Kripke's trying to tell us he loves us with an adorable squashy toady-frog' aside, the sheer volume of crack episodes we're getting right now is making me a wee bit worried about the counterbalancing amount of soul-wrenching pain likely to be coming down the pipes.
Next episode is the last new one for a while. I'm thinking extremely painful cliffhanger, perhaps? Call it a hunch.
Have not seen promo. Avoiding promo entirely. I am not acknowledging even the existence of a promo.
(PLEASE, NO SPOILERS OR REFERENCES TO SPOILERY MATERIAL IN COMMENTS! The definition of spoiler for this journal is located in left hand sidebar and includes references to promo material as spoilers. Theory and speculation based on aired episodes only.)