ratherastory | Day 2: 30 Days of Supernatural

Day 02 - Your least favourite character

I've always liked what SPN does with its secondary characters (except possibly their tendency to kill them off in swathes). That being said, if I had to pick one, it would be the second incarnation of Ruby. I loved Ruby when she was played by Katie Cassidy, and as much as I wish Genevieve Cortese well in her life and endeavours and whatever, she just couldn't pull it off with the same skill.

Ruby #2 came off as whiny and vaguely spineless, and just lacked charisma. To the point where it was often difficult to believe that she could even hope to manipulate Sam. It was more a testament to how messed up Sam was than to her skills as liar and seductress.

There are a few female characters who got short-shrift, either because they were poorly-written or poorly-acted, and it was a bit of a toss-up as to who was going to end up in this space: Ruby, Bela or Cassie. I ended up going with Ruby because she stuck around, annoying me for an entire season. ;)

30 Days of Supernatural!
~~Day 01 - Your favourite character~~
~~Day 02 - Your least favourite character~~
Day 03 - Your favourite season
Day 04 - Your least favourite season
Day 05 - Your favourite episode
Day 06 - Your least favourite episode
Day 07 - Your favourite Dean crying scene
Day 08 - Your favourite Sam crying scene
Day 09 - Your favourite Dean death scene
Day 10 - Your favourite Sam/other death scene
Day 11 - Your favourite quote
Day 12 - Your favourite funny scene
Day 13 - A scene that makes you sad/cry
Day 14 - A scene that makes you happy
Day 15 - A scene that makes you angry
Day 16 - An episode that scared you
Day 17 - Your favourite SPN friendship
Day 18 - Your favourite SPN romance
Day 19 - Your favourite SPN song
Day 20 - Your favourite recap
Day 21 - Your favourite character entrance
Day 22 - Your favourite minor character
Day 23 - The character that is most like you
Day 24 - An episode you wish never happened
Day 25 - Something that you wish happened but didn’t
Day 26 - Your favourite SPN fanvid
Day 27 - Your favourite season intro episode
Day 28 - Your favourite season finale
Day 29 - Your favourite SPN fanfic
Day 30 - Anything SPN related

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

At least they knew they were making Sam unlikable. What I really find unforgivable was the way they kept putting changeling woobie self-righteous narcissist Dean in the place of the Dean I know and love, and then expecting me to dote on him (he reappeared in the middle bits of s5, but then at least they seemed to realize that he needed to have a getting-his-head-out-of-his-ass arc). There are tracts of s4 that did some quite cool things plotwise -- I loved otherwordly ambiguous Castiel, who was a more interesting if less likable character than one-liner partly human Cas, and the more politicky angels -- but there are also tracts of it that I think of as the adventures of the Unlikable Hulk and the Smear of ManPain.

In some ways I think the problem with Sam and Dean in s4 was that they didn't go dark enough with the rift. In my personal fanon, a part of Dean hated and resented Sam for not getting him out of the deal and hell, and a part of Sam hated Dean for putting him through a year of torture, going to hell (which certainly Sam must have registered as something Dean did to him as much as for him), and then making him a failure by emerging without Sam's help. A lot of Sam's state makes more sense if you posit that at some level he resented Dean for coming back, and hated himself for feeling that way. But they didn't develop the emotions between the brothers much at all, on Dean's side any more than Sam's. For a lot of s4 Dean just seemed indifferent to Sam (and they could have done some incredibly interesting, agonizing things by acknowledging a Dean who had gone to hell for Sam only to lose some of his ability feel anything for Sam in hell, which I think is part of what is going on with Dean, maybe even up through Famine and heaven). By resting so much of the plot on the relatively external forces of addiction and manipulation they left a lot of what should have been tortured and angsty just sort of shallow and inexplicable.

But that's what fic is for. I think there is a lot of really amazing fic potential in s4, I'm just never likely to write any of it because it is too dark for my schmoopy nature.

I have a whole nother (only slightly contradictory) set of thoughts on how Sam's character arc in s5 actually parallels his character arc in s4 more believably and interestingly than it seems at first glance, but that is for another time.

Agreed. I think they pulled their punches a lot with Sam and Dean in Season 4, and that it did both characters a disservice in terms of how they developed. Where there should have been growth there was a weird sort of stagnation, and it persisted well into Season 5, until the character development felt, well, forced.

I was waiting for PTSD-Dean, who came back all screwed up and resentful that his sacrifice was, essentially, for nothing. I was waiting for Sam to snap and finally cave to the knowledge that he was basically useless, that he couldn't save his brother before he went to hell, and couldn't get him out, either. Like you, I was waiting for the acknowledgment that Sam resented Dean for coming back, for being a living, breathing reminder of all his failures and weaknesses.

I've been edging closer and closer to writing Season 4 fic. I've dipped my toe in a couple of times, but that season makes me so damned sad that I can't bring myself to do it. Same with the last half of Season 5: I've written fic, but I haven't been able to bring myself to re-watch it.

See, I actually find the end of s5 cheering and endlessly writable, in a depressing kind of way. I mean, Dean came back! He was totally awesome Dean again! That was so exciting. And Sam got hit with being overtaken by demon blood again in 5.14 in front of Dean, Dean holding him guilty for basically everything in his life in 5.16 and then telling him outright in 5.18 that he was going to say Yes to Lucifer and that Dean was saying Yes to Michael so that he'd be on hand to kill Samifer, and Sam didn't get angry or break, he hoped against hope and got Dean back. That was actually an arc of character development that I found believable as well as wish-fulfilling, for both of them. Even if 5.22 left them in a horrible place, they also both won victories in it, and that is something that they almost never get. Dean maybe even more than Sam, because when has he ever been able to both love Sam and let him go? Either he loves him by clinging, or he lets him go by convincing himself he doesn't care. In some ways they did a neat flip thing: Sam's redemption really happened in 5.18, Dean's in 5.22.

Oh, agreed. I just can't re-watch the episodes between 5.12 and 5.18 right now. It just breaks my damned heart. :)

I will happily write fic about them, though!

And yes, I agree entirely that the arc at the end of season 5 was very fulfilling. I was simply hoping for it to be... maybe a bit less rushed.

I kind of agree with that too. It always bothered me a little in s4 that when Dean came back from hell, he wasn't more screwed up by it. SPN can be dark enough, but that needed to be much darker than it was. There was potentially a whole massively dark area of Dean's psyche that the writers could have exploited, but that storyline was generally pushed to the side. They touched on it, but didn't delve into it quite enough, in my opinion. There was so much there to use, but obviously they were focusing on other things.

Oh, lord. Login fail. Sorry!

Pretty much. It's odd. As much as I loved the season (and it made me wince and cringe and shout at the TV), the character development for both boys was a little lacking. It's as though all those awesome psychological aspects that we love were shoved a bit to the side in favour of Lilith and the angels and the demon blood. Not bad, per se, but it made me run around in search of fic that would fill that gap.

Tee hee. No worries. :)

That's exactly what it was. Obviously the writers were pushing toward the Apocalypse mytharc, but in doing so, they brushed over some seemingly important characterization. I spent a good chunk of season 4 waiting for/expecting the writers to address Dean's inner demons, and I was actually a little surprised when they didn't go back to those issues--at least not directly. As I mentioned earlier, there was just so much there that could have brought the storyline to another level entirely, but it never materialized. So essentially, that is a whole area of SPN that will always seem unfinished to me. Sure, they could still go back and revisit it, now that Sam has (at least potentially) also been to hell and back. It might be an interesting area of Winchester dualism: perhaps Dean will finally open up about his experiences in hell, with Sam going through the same thing. Somehow, though, I don't think that's the direction we're headed. I'll always be wanting for that... but again, that's what fanfic is for. :)

Thank goodness for fanfic, is all I can say. :)

I was waiting for PTSD-Dean, who came back all screwed up and resentful that his sacrifice was, essentially, for nothing. I was waiting for Sam to snap and finally cave to the knowledge that he was basically useless, that he couldn't save his brother before he went to hell, and couldn't get him out, either.

This, exactly. It is so irritating when certain aspects of a character only seem to crop up occasionally. It's like the writers have a moment where they suddenly remember that the character was supposed to be acting in a specific manner - Dean and his nightmares and PTSD, Sam and his anger. They only show up in those episodes where the characters are actually going to talk about them, but the rest of the time, nothing.

Day 2: 30 Days of Supernatural

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