SPN 4x02 and other things

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26 September 2008 @ 04:51 pm

Christopher and a friend are involved in some recess fantasy about being members of the Fett bounty-hunting family from Star Wars. Yes, Josh and Chris Fett. A few illustrations have come home, but now also the beginnings of a story, which starts off as,

Chapter 1: My employer is a Giant Slug.

Ahahahaha! You know, that's how I've always thought of Jabba the Hut too.

Today's cycling was littered with squirrels (god, I hate nut-gathering season-- all 3 types of squirrels are out running amok), and I think I need to start wearing Breathe Rite strips for awhile (season change). I hate my nose-- I am almost always congested, but since I don't have allergies the treatment is limited...

Posted my

kamikazeremix story over at fanfiction.net, in the hopes that more than 2 people will read it. BUT, and this is one of the things I hate about ff.net, I cannot figure out how to format a link to the original story that the story-parser does not destroy. Gah! I've been through the line-spacing battle many times, and I've given up on the "don't strip my underscores" battle. But that parser drives me nuts. :(

Brief thoughts on SPN 4x02, maybe 50-60% "yay":

So, if you read yesterday's post you probably know this is exactly where I did NOT want the show to go. The Apocalypse subplot has been done to death for me, and I tend to find it more cracktastic than "awesome" or "serious business." It's funny-- I've read it in a few SPN fics, and I've really liked it there, but I don't want to actually see it on the show. Maybe I think the Apocalypse should be a low-dialogue event. I don't know. All I can say is, I would like SPN canon to show some love for its characters more often and to torture them less.

Because I love them, and it tortures me as well to keep watching one form of Imminent Doom after another looming over the Sam and Dean storyline.

Also, speaking selfishly, it makes it much harder to write fanfic that isn't set in S1 or S2. You can always get the good angst out of S3 and beyond, but not so much the fun little adventures and such. There's always this pall of "There's no adventuring! Sam's-Doom/Dean's-Death/The-Friggin'-Apocalypse is coming. Now pay attention and get serious!"

I did very much love seeing Victor (yay!) again, and I really loved how happy Dean was to see Ron (until he realized that wasn't going to turn out well). Meg got in so many great digs at Dean, and twisted the knife (as it should have been twisted!) over the boys never trying to exorcise the demon that possessed her as their first plan of attack.

I loved Bobby's Panic Room (The Anti-Evil Silo)-- that was a creation of utter awesomeness! I loved the surprise introduction of a female hunter, whom we unfortunately lost immediately.

But I'm not loving the "God has plans for you" and "You'd better believe, or else" thing going on with Castiel. And the rest of the episode became a lot of repetitive flailing to me about half-way through. I expect better, especially after three seasons. The Anvils were falling so fast it was actually distancing me from the show. :0

In sum: I love the boys, I love Bobby, and I was seriously hoping Castiel was going to turn out to be a demon-in-disguise and not an actual angel, so this plot arc wouldn't drag on too long. Looks like that's not where things are headed. :(

Tags: cycling, my_kids, spn_post_ep, tv

15 comments | Say what you feel

15 comments —

( 15 comments — Say what you feel )

dotfic on September 27th, 2008 01:24 am (UTC)

Heh, yeah, I'm Apocalypse Weary. *shrug* It's not dampening my yay about season 4 but I can't take the plot seriously. Of course, I've never taken the plot of SPN very seriously. And the character stuff surrounding the apocalypse so far is oooh, yes.

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halfshellvenus on September 27th, 2008 01:40 am (UTC)

It's not dampening my yay about season 4 but I can't take the plot seriously. Of course, I've never taken the plot of SPN very seriously.
Actually, I'm with you on both counts.

I'm tired of the plot arc already, but in the main I don't want the boys to be tortured for the next two years. Or worse... be put in opposition to each other, which I can almost guarantee is an idea Kripke can't resist.

I'm more interested in the subplots of "What's Sammy been up to?" and "When will Dean find out?" and "So, what ARE Sam's powers anyway?" :D

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tsuki_no_bara on September 27th, 2008 04:18 am (UTC)

i'm actually glad castiel is really an angel and not a demon. there are enough demons, so an angel is kinda different. but i'm unenthused about the apocalypse and the breaking of the seals and all that. and man, setting up sam and dean on opposite sides just so they can battle each other seems so antithetical to the idea of the show. and you're totally right, the overarching plot is all doom and gloom and not even new and interesting doom and gloom.

bobby's still fabulous, tho - i loved his panic room - and all the ghosts were really good.

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halfshellvenus on September 27th, 2008 07:05 am (UTC)

the overarching plot is all doom and gloom and not even new and interesting doom and gloom.
The show has always been kind of "dark" in nature, but the relentlessness of the Big Angst is something else. I think Kripke likes that far more than his audience does. :(

I loved all the more that Bobby's panic room was a silo, of all things. We got a lot of detail on Bobby's environs this episode (that's a lot of dead cars), and I was semi-horrified at how much of his house has that blood-red wallpaper running through it. The place is practically a cave, and now that we know there aren't a lot of good memories there since the incident with the wife, you'd think he'd have tried to change the look of things. It's time for a makeover for that house. Just think of all the opportunities to hide Devil's Traps and stuff under fresh coats of paint. ;0

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shaitanah on September 27th, 2008 08:06 am (UTC)

I actually like Castiel himself, but the Apocalypse is a way overdone plot device. Everyone seems to think that if you have Apocalypse planned in your show/film/book/whatever, it makes it automatically cool))))
I liked Meg's accusations about not even trying to exorcise the demons out of other possessed people, but I'd hate it if Sam actually tried to exorcise Ruby))))

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halfshellvenus on September 27th, 2008 08:17 am (UTC)

Everyone seems to think that if you have Apocalypse planned in your show/film/book/whatever, it makes it automatically cool
I'm glad I'm not the only one who finds it way overdone. The fact that it's rarely done well actually makes the situation worse!

I'd hate it if Sam actually tried to exorcise Ruby
I'm really torn there, actually. Ruby is doing a lot of good for the world, which she could not do if he exorcised her. But on the other hand, if she damages that body too much (like the last one), then that's utterly wrong as well.

One of the things that's still unclear in the SPN canon (to me at least) is that it appears exorcizing demons only forces them to leave their current body. It doesn't permanently destroy the demon. Admittedly, some of the demons left the bodies before or without exorcism (and thus, were free to move about the cabin). But the others... haven't some of them returned? I'm unclear on this. It's true that, where the human involved is concerned, getting the demon out of the body IS extremely important.

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shaitanah on September 27th, 2008 08:26 am (UTC)

I agree! I'm not a huge believer in signs, but I definitely see a bad sign in the fact that everyone wants to include Apocalypse in their work)))

Well... they all hurt their hosts. Didn't Castiel say his body was a host too?

Yeah, I think the "Meg" demon once came back. Not to mention Ruby. I take it that exorcism only sends them back to hell, so if they're skilled enough to break out of it again, they can return. Btw, I've been wondering: maybe not all the hosts suffer as much as Meg did. Maybe it's all about resistance and will to fight back. I don't know about SPN canon, but I remember other stories where such problems were concerned, and sometimes the real mind just gives up and sort of turns off, so they don't feel anything...

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halfshellvenus on September 27th, 2008 08:12 pm (UTC)

And yeah, they're overwhelmed and whatnot, but eh. I will never understand the canon tendency to think making the boys stupider makes them more compelling.
I agree with this utterly. It's one of the reasons I didn't care for Ash so much in S2-- Ash was doing all the things Sam used to know how to do in S1! What, he got stupider suddenly?

And many fans are frustrated in taking Dean from a character who could turn a walkman into an EMF meter into a brawns-not-brains character. Really, how have they survived this long if they're that stupid? *grumps*

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astrothsknot on September 27th, 2008 12:26 pm (UTC)

I prefer the Dresden Files vision of the Apocalypse - it's state of hopelessness that makes it easier for evil to flourish.

I'm tired of Apocolypses being so serious - why can't they be fun? I'm fed up of doom and gloom ends of the world.

I'm going to have to watch Domga, I think.

Have you seen True Blood yet? I can't get enough of that.

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halfshellvenus on September 27th, 2008 08:23 pm (UTC)

Have you seen True Blood yet? I can't get enough of that.
It's on cable, which I don't have, so until a lot of people on my f-list squee about it, I'm usually not that aware of it.

Though the numbers are building. ;)

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serena64 on September 27th, 2008 02:26 pm (UTC)

It seems to me that God wants to pit Dean against Sam, but I reckon that Dean would have other ideas. After all, he didn't obey John (if you can't save him you have to kill him, which Dean made it patently clear he wasn't going to do). And I reckon Dean is less likely to obey God than John Winchester!

ps 3 types of squirrel??? I only know red and grey. What's the third?
pps my son is also permanently congested. Got any top tips?

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halfshellvenus on September 27th, 2008 08:31 pm (UTC)

And I reckon Dean is less likely to obey God than John Winchester!
Yes, me too! Especially since John was right there in front of him (no room for doubt), and the withholding of his love was a familiar and tangible thing.

I only know red and grey. What's the third?
The ground squirrel is the nemesis that runs under my bike tires all year round. They're tan and gray, kind of mottled-looking, with ratty tails (instead of the pretty, fluffy tails the red and gray squirrels have). They are ALWAYS a problem, but in the fall the other two varieties join them! :0

Re: congestion, I used to use a nasal spray that was non-addictive, but it wound up putting a hole in the cartilage in the back of my nose between the two sides (I didn't even know that was a possible side-effect!). Sudafed works a little (though only the true pseudoenephrine for me), and the OTC allergy pills actually work pretty well but I can only take them at bedtime because they make me sleep. Breathe Rites help too, but a person can't really walk around everywhere in public with one of those on!

Has your son been tested for allergies (such as, dust/mold/grasses/pollens)? Those four are almost always active to some degree, and permanent congestion is usually allergy-based.

Also, does he have a deviated septum perchance? That always adds trouble. I don't have that, but I'm missing cartilage on one side that would lift open the passage to the sinus, so it's very similar (and just about as unhelpful!)

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serena64 on September 29th, 2008 06:24 pm (UTC)

Thanks for all this.
My son obviously has some mild allergy thing. He can take OTC meds and they help, but I don't really want him on them permanently. We thought it was just hay fever, but summer is out the way and he's still as bad. He's probably allergic to dust, in which case, he's got no chance in our house!

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halfshellvenus on September 30th, 2008 02:19 am (UTC)

He's probably allergic to dust, in which case, he's got no chance in our house!
I'm never sure if it's really dust or dust mites people are really allergic to.

But there are steps you can take there too-- wash the bedding on hot and use bleach, vacuum often and damp-mop any wooden floors, and there are also special filters for home heating/AC systems that can filter out a lot of allergens. My husband has a problem with mold spores, so we use those filters!

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serena64 on September 30th, 2008 09:29 am (UTC)

Thank you. The trouble with all those things is they involve doing housew**k!

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