My Fandom History

Photo courtesy of the amazing... tumblr.com

While I have been desperately trying to ween myself off of Supernatural (temporarily)... I made a MAJOR discovery: FANDOMS! Yes, Fandoms. The alternative to ending a pop culture addiction. From Glee to One Direction, Fandoms have unknowingly taken over the internet, and their home-base, Tumblr.

Tumblr is the most amazing website to a fangirl / fanboy.  It is FULL of gifs (for those of you who don't know what a gif is, it is like those little flip books that you had when you were a kid... except on the internet), pictures, fan fictions, and all other kinds of goodies to loose your self in. Now I bet your wondering what Tumblr has to do with Supernatural, well I'm getting there.

On the corner of Tumblr that I familiar myself with, Supernatural is an everyday occurrence, and if you don't know about it, there is either something wrong with you or you live a sad, sad life. My dashboard on Tumblr is literally full of Supernatural, and a few other fandoms, including The Avengers, Sherlock, and Doctor Who. These fandoms are what I'm hoping will grip me tight and raise me from perdition... to quote Castiel.

Thanks to Tumblr, I have been able to temporarily distract myself from my Supernatural heartbreak while also deepening sore wounds. By spending all free time looking at pictures good the good times, like when... well actually I can't think of an example of this, but just imagine Sam, Dean, Cass, and Bobby all happily alive in the Impala, and discovering the previously mentioned fandoms. Thanks to my god-given-gift, Netflix (I'm so grateful today!), I saw the first series of Sherlock, which might I add is pretty amazing. There are only three hour and a half long episodes on Netflix, and I have already connected with the characters and the plot with my fan-talons (that's what I'm calling them now). I saw the Avengers, and over summer, I'm planning of working on a new level of pale, called Doctor Who.

I'm actually even going to get together with some of my nerdiest friends and have "Nerd Parties" all summer. Starting with, of course, Star Wars, the origin of most fangirls/boys...

I even just know realized that the fan lifestyle runs in my blood. My father is a Star Wars fanboy, and he taught my sister and I, from birth the art of being a fan. I remember that when Star Wars episode three  came out, he woke up at midnight and saw the first showing, then took me out early from school to see it.

All my life there has always been something, whether it be the Jonas Brothers, puppies, or even Twilight. (Yes, I was a proud Twi-hard) My fan history now makes me realize why I get addicted to these things so easily. It is a part of me and my making. In ten years, if I'm still not obsessed with Supernatural, I know that there WILL be something else that has captured my attention, and I'm perfectly okay with that.

Last Friday Night

Farewell Bobby, Thank you for raising our boys. (The only thing that I can barley accept, Bobby is gone... but hopefully not forever)

While many people were out partying on Friday, I was sitting alone at my grandmothers’ house watching the Supernatural season finale. I know, forever alone, but I don’t care. I have had an EXTREMELY rough weekend. At exactly 8:00 pm, I isolated myself to my grandmothers den where I turned the television on. As I awaited the most dreaded thing in any fangirl’s life, I flipped channels between the non-fictional Ghost Adventures and the fictional cartoon Courage the Cowardly Dog. I felt it was best to prepare myself for the inevitable with some other supernatural hunters.

When I heard the clock sing the next hour I immediately switched to CW, where Nikita was ending. As I rolled my eyes at their credits, I dialed my best friend to quickly prepare each other for the worst hour of our lives. Then it happened.

We saw the beginning credits “The Road So Far.”  Without saying anything we both said "Show! ON! BYE!" then hung up.

What happened never was really hard on me emotionally, but I guess it would be funny for someone reading this, so I’ll add it anyway. The song “Carry On Wayward Son” by Kansas began and I burst into very loud, snotty tears. I heard my sister put the outside T.V. on mute listen for a bit then yell “SHUT UP ITS A TV SHOW, THEY AREN’T REAL PEOPLE!” (Great now I’m crying…)

Anyway, so I was watching this, and crying, and as the show is playing, for some reason, I decided to jot down little quotes and tell them to my BFF when we called during the commercials. That was probably the only time that I was actually laughing that day, which I will admit is sad, but I got some good ones, like, "Dude, on my car, he showed up naked, covered in bees." and my personal favorite, "Do we need a cat, I feel that we are one species short."

I honestly don't really want to write what did happen in this episode, because that would then mean that I have accepted it and I have not gone through enough therapy to deal with it. So if you want to find out, you are going to have to watch it on your own. If you want to see me cry, then you can ask me what happened or start singing "Carry On Wayward Son."  Just to let you know, I will hate you forever after that.

Crazy Fans... besides me of course!

This week I want to talk about fan fiction. There are a total of 60,919 stories based on Supernatural on fanfiction.net.  Personally, I have read about a dozen, mainly because I have better things to do with my time, but also because during the week I feel as if there is a little piece of me missing without my Winchesters.  Also, the situations that these crazy  writers come up with are hilarious!

In one story that I read, Dean and Castiel were in love.  Not only does that make me want to fall over laughing, but it truly shows what is on this fan fiction author's mind.  There are hundreds of stories like this one, so much that they decided to call them “Destiel” stories. The amount of these stories piled up so high that there are now dozens of communities that are just Destiel. The fans didn't even leave Sam alone! They coupled him up with Gabriel, an archangel who died in the episode “Hammer of the Gods”.  In these fan fiction stories, Gabriel is mysteriously brought back to life and tries to help Cas and Dean in their complicated relationship, but ends up with Sam in a way that is just as mysterious as his own resurrection.

Besides the crazy stories, that make you realize the reasoning behind the name "fan fiction," as there are actually some good stories that deal with the same themes that make you want to cry yourself to sleep at night; stories about family, love, trust, and friendship. These are the stories that actually attract people to the show and make them you realize why they are fans and why they every time “Carry on Wayward Son” is played by Kansas, or when they see a black 1967 Chevy Impala, or even salt.  But unless you are me on someone who writes fan fiction, you probably don't get it.....

  

Supernatural: The Anime Series Reactions

On Wednesday of last week,  I received Supernatural: The Anime Series.  I held in my excitement for the whole week waiting with anticipation until Saturday, when my best friends came over for Best Friends Day (yes that is a real holiday, just ask Google).  I was so excited for it that I decided that I was going to put a quick little post, because I was going to write about a different subject for this week (which will be posted next week). Now after actually watching the show I thought it would be fun and interesting to do a "before and after" reaction post about the show, since they differ so much.

BEFORE:

I want to share my utter excitement for what I received in the mail today:  Supernatural: The Anime Series!!!  God bless the Japanese and their need to animate everything!  First off, I would like to thank Netflix for bestowing this wonderful gift upon me, and second I would like to acknowledge that this will be the best Best Friends Day ever (4/14/12)!

AFTER:

I am so furious! As you see, I was very excited upon receiving this DVD, but now after watching more than half of it, I can't even... UGH! I do understand that it is a show based off of the original Supernatural, but they should have at least tried to get most of it right instead off just using the same characters in totally wrong settings!

First of all, Dean's voice is not even Jensen Ackles!  He is some guy named Andrew Farrar! Who is that? No offense to him but, I feel cheated.  It totally messes up the brother relationship between him and Sam.  I know it’s a little thing, but that plus the fact that they took away Dean's green eyes, I don't think my fragile heart can take that! (Insert dramatic music).

Second, in the first episode with Bobby, the boy’s father figure, I was overly displeased. The artists made him look like Danny Devito in a fedora! What is that!  Bobby is supposed to be a suicidal, paranoid, drunken redneck!  That is one of the character's most important features!  For God’s sake, his most famous line is "Idjits!" How can he say that if he sounds like a really cheap comedian?  The Japanese version of him didn't even know how to perform an exorcism!  That is supposed to be his specialty.  In his house, all over the rooms are spells and symbols to trap and summon everything, from demons to ghosts, and your telling me that this Bobby can’t even perform a simple exorcism?  That is messed up.

Third, in the original show, Sam and Dean are supposed to start hunting because they see the yellow-eyed demon kill their mother. In the anime series, they don't explain that, in fact the boys think that the yellow-eyed demon is the Devil.  


Lastly, a very important character, Meg Masters’s back-story is explained wrong. In the original show, she is just a normal college girl who gets possessed by a demon.  In the anime show, she is a terminally ill little girl whose mother trades both of their bodies to the yellow-eyed man so that Meg can be well again.  Not only is this extremely off but if she was possessed by another demon, wouldn't her name change?  For example, in the original show, the body that Castiel possessed was really named Jimmy Novak; shouldn't it work the same for demons?  Or do they just take the hosts name?


Even though I am outraged by the state of this particular show, my fandom for both Japanese anime and the original Supernatural continue to take the better of me, and I will continue watching Supernatural: The Anime Series and complete the rest of this terrible series, even if it kills me.

Sibling Love

"Sam's Patch Up Job" by Zinfer
http://zinfer.deviantart.com/

The one thing about Sam and Dean that will always melt my heart is how they are so willing to sacrifice themselves for each other. It truly shows how much they value family over anything else. Numerous times during the episodes of Supernatural that I have seen thus far, the brothers have given either their souls or their sanity to keep the other safe or alive. In my opinion, this brotherly bond is truly heart-warming and heart-breaking. 

In my last blog post, I mentioned the episode "Something Wicked," which showed how Dean basically raised Sam as a child because their father was almost never around to take care of them. Seeing how Dean stepped up and took care of Sam so that he could at least have a chance at a semi-normal life, made me realize how important it is to have a good and loving relationship with my little sister. To be honest, ever since that episode as well as several more with similar sibling themes, I have noticed that I have grown much closer to my baby sister, Tilly. Call it whatever you want, but there is just something about two grown brothers who are still in each others lives that made me realize that is what I wanted for Tilly and I in the future. 

I also love how all the villains in Supernatural say that family is the Winchesters' only "weakness." Even for family that they never knew they had such as their fathers love child, Adam, or their "adopted" families, Bobby, Ellen, and Jo, they have an attachment. I remember in the episode "Death's Door" how Bobby said "I adopted two boys, and they grew up great. They grew up heroes!" When I heard that, I instantly began to cry because of how true the statement was, because Sam and Dean were "his boys." He raised them, taught them how to play catch, hunt, everything that a NORMAL father would teach his sons.


The picture that I choose for this post also says a lot about the brothers' relationship. it symbolizes how they are always there to patch each other up after all the messes they get themselves into. In the description, the artist said "I love the brotherly relationship Sam and Dean have in the show and I love how they're always there to patch each other up after whatever crap they get themselves into." I totally agree with what she had to say. Between the little scratches and all of the major things, they will always be there for each other.

My Supernatural Obssesion

I have recently started to watch the AMAZING show Supernatural on Netflix. The show follows the extraordinarily abnormal adventures of brothers Sam and Dean, who  have been hunting monsters, demons, and other scary creatures that might be hiding under your bed or in your closet, ever since a yellow-eyed demon killed their mother when they were both kids.

Since I can't watch Supernatural all day or talk about it 24/7, creating and writing a blog about it seems to be the way to go, and it gives me credit for my high school journalism class.  Although this blog is for school, I am honestly excited to write about the show that, since Spring Break, has been obsessively on my mind. I honestly could care less if die-hard fans who have seen the show since it began in 2005 want to rant about how I could have just started watching it many years ago since it has been on television for so long.  So I am using this blog as a forum to vent and explain all of the emotions out that have been building up inside me because I haven't been able to talk about the show with others as much as I would like.  I never get the chance to just stop and talk about Supernatural with other fans because they tell me to 'shut up before I spoil one of the shows tantalizing secrets,' because I got them hooked on the show as well; or others who just look at me like I am crazy.

Personally, I can't even explain what has been happening to me ever since I began watching the show.  I find myself thinking incessantly about the plot lines and the varied characters in the show.  I'll go on to my computer to do homework or research,  and somehow I end up on fan-fiction reading stories based on Supernatural.  I was recently talking to one of my friends, the friend who got me into this Supernatural obsession in the first place, and she told me that these feelings are somewhat normal for fans of this show.  She told me that she finds herself in the middle of class just writing her Sam and Dean's names over and over again as she daydreams.  I personally have found my self drawing terrible pictures of the main characters on my notes and homework.

To be completely honest, I have even started to bawl my eyes out when watching certain episodes.  I cried when Dean died and went to Hell, even though he died for only four months and was back for the fifth season.  I even went ahead and downloaded "Carry On Wayward Son," the show's season finale song, less than five minutes after his death of Dean, still crying as I listened to the song on iTunes.  Even the smallest thing would have set me off.  One of the most emotional episodes was one that featured flashbacks of the boys during their childhood.  It portrayed how their father was not around a lot, and since their mom was dead, Dean had to take care of little Sammy.  When I saw that and how close the brothers were even before they grew up hunting, I went off the rockers.  I was ugly crying, shaking, the whole show!  All I wanted to do at the time was  just go to my little sister, Tilly, to hug her and cry to tell her that I would always be there for her.  Unfortunately for me, she had a friend over at the time, and since I didn't want to embarrass her by being an emotionally unstable weirdo sister, I attacked my poor dogs with hugs and tears instead. After Tilly's friend had left, I went and told her what happened and how emotional. Tilly laughed with demonic eyes..........