The Myth of the Open Road

Okay, so I'm going to take a break from advertising (which might actually break me more successfully than writing a thesis on Marco Polo ever did) to bring out the Supernatural. Last night, while talking to una__sola about her thesis, tsukumogami, next month, next week, the presidential race, serial killers, M, and gang violence, I finally finished reading Catherine Tosenberger's "The epic love story of Sam and Dean": Supernatural, queer readings, and the romance of incestuous fan fiction. (If you're an academic, a Supernatural fan, have an interest in Romantic/Gothic/incest fiction, or ever wonder why those Supernatural fans are insane, it's worth a read.)

For the most part, I sat there and went, "Yes, yes, yes, this, this." Tosenberger manages to articulate what I think a lot of fans feel, but have trouble expressing. ( Here's Why )

However, in her notes, she brings up an issue,

"9. Unfortunately, especially for a series in which the heroes are gleefully queered Others, Supernatural does not have a good track record when dealing with more overt types of Otherness. Both openly gay characters have been killed off (although the second, Corbett in 3.13 "Ghostfacers," saved everyone by a heroic self-sacrifice). Black men fare even worse—of the five who have been on the show, only one has survived. The creators don't appear to know or care about the "dead minority" cliché, which has caused fans no small amount of frustration. And while the continual blockage of Sam and Dean's heterosexual relationships creates an intensely queer space, many fans express discomfort with the manner in which women are depicted on the show."

Okay. Yes. The show does kill off women and black people left and right. And I've seen a lot of complaints about this.

However. However.

I would like to point out that I think we have one recurring character and one semirecurring character who haven't been killed off. That brings the grand total of Characters Who Kripke Hasn't Killed Gruesomely up to... two. Sam and Dean have both died, rather gruesomely. Putting Mystery Spot (3.11), where Dean's death became practically slap-stick, aside, Dean was electrocuted in season one (1.12 Faith) and then torn apart by hell hounds at the end of season three (3.16 No Rest for the Wicked). Sam, of course, was stabbed to death at the end of season two (2.21 All Hell Breaks Loose: Part One) and we learn that his attacker severed his spinal cord (2.22 All Hell Breaks Loose: Part Two).

Do I think it's sad that the show cannot keep a character for more than one season? Of course I do, and I'm crossing my fingers that Bobby isn't magically killed off this season - his one season tenure is up, man, and I like him more than I like Sam or Dean. However, I don't think that the Supernatural folk are picking on black people or women and playing Star Trek's old Minority-in-a-Red-Shirt game. They kill EVERYONE. I mean, seriously. Not even Buffy killed this many people. But only Sam and Dean get to come back because they're Sam and Dean Winchester, full of demon blood and bad machismo.

The show started off by killing off women (hai Mary and Jess on the ceiling), but, to be fair, they also kill off all of the cool white guys. Ash and Andy? I adore both of them. Ash didn't deserve to die just for the sake of his mullet. Andy was adorable. But they both died rather brutally. As did John, another white man. And Pastor Jim. And Caleb. So, sure Gorden and Victor and Bela and Madison all died painfully. But damn it, I view this as apocalyptic literature, where, yeah, most of the people have to die. Look at it like a Shakespearean tragedy but complete with hints of incest and cockblocking.

(I don't necessarily count Ruby as a woman. 1) She's a demon which in this show, like vampires in Buffy, makes her Evil. 2) Ruby could be a male demon inhabiting a female meatsuit. But back to issue one, I do think that being Evil overrides being in a female body in how Dean (and Sam) treat her. She lived, she died, she burned in Hell, and her goal is to get Sam to lead the demon army as her personal Antichrist. Oh, and she doesn't care who she kills to get there. Yeah, I'm not Dean, I wasn't raised to hate and kill things like that, but if someone was trying to do that to my brother, I'd hate them outside of gender. And I am still not sure that we can unequivocally call a demon the gender of the body they happen to be inhabiting.)

All of this said, I honestly think that the only two people who have any chance of surviving through to the end of the show are Sam and Dean. And I really only give that a 50-50 chance. I really do think that the show is going to end with everyone we ever saw (except maybe Missouri Mosley) dead on the ground. And then Kripke's laugh will be an evil laugh.

What's that saying? It's not prejudice if you hate everyone equally? Maybe it's not incest just because you hate everyone but your brother.


I will leave you with that. I need to go find a baseball bat to kill a mouse with.

ETA: I want to call this meta, "Why Supernatural is like the Evil Dead." Because, dude, in the Evil Dead series, you're not supposed to care about anyone but Bruce Campbell. Just replace "Evil Dead" with "Supernatural" and "Bruce Campbell" with "Sam and Dean."

Title: The Sour for the Sweet
Rating: PG-15
Spoilers: Through Season 3
Summary: After Dean's death, Sam walks a knife's edge. He becomes what his brother hates, for his brother's sake.
Word Count: 7516
Notes: A companion piece to Closer to Comfort which should be read first. Thanks to everyone who encouraged me to write this as it was a pleasure. It is non-linear.

My sources include, but are in no way limited, Wikipedia, a variety of nationwide newspapers, AAA, the Egyptian Magical Papyri, Birth of the Middle Ages (Moss, 1935), epodunk.com, and coworkers and relatives. They were endlessly valuable.

( It started in Fairview and Pittsfield and Fremont and Idiot Creek and in a motel outside Clarksdale )