podfic, and SPN revisited

[rivkat]

rhea413 made a podfic of my short SV story Into the Woods! You can get it here. I love the idea of podfic but could never do it myself.

While everything’s on hiatus, I started rewatching SPN S2. In My Time of Dying: When he’s having his out of body experience (i.e., not with Sam), Dean knows an awful lot about reaper lore, and also mentions 72 virgins, an interesting cultural reference. Now, from a screenwriting perspective, this makes perfect sense: someone has to carry the narration stick, and the reaper pretending to be a civilian has to carry the stupid stick, so if Dean doesn’t know anything it’s just two people being confused, and that’s not quite so fun to watch. But again and again in other episodes Dean becomes an ignoramus about even hunting-related information around Sam. Again, bad writing can explain a lot: as between the two of them, Dean carries the stupid stick when exposition is required. But it’s so consistent that it also works as characterization: as part of the family dynamic, Dean carries the stupid stick, as well as others we can all list, because both he and Sam are comfortable that way. Not happy, just comfortable. And if it means that he gets lectured on stuff he already knows, Dean’s put up with worse for less.

Everybody Loves a Clown: Whiplash! Whose idea was it to start the next episode at a carnival, even a creepy carnival? Anyhow, only halfway through so far, but it was quite striking that the hunt began like this: (1) shot wherein Dean notices Jo’s ass; (2) shot wherein Sam notices Dean noticing; (3) shot wherein Sam notices the folder marked I AM A HUNT and asks about it. Sam also gets more excited about the hunt as Dean and Jo talk off in the corner, where Sam doesn’t overhear that Dean is actually uninterested in hooking up because he’s so depressed. I don’t think you have to be into Sam/Dean to see a connection: Sam doesn’t think that Dean ought to go off with Jo; Sam wants to keep an eye on Dean because he believes (and I have no reason to doubt him) that he’s better at judging Dean’s condition than anyone else; Sam is hurting too and doesn’t want to be left alone to deal with their father’s death. Sam is, it’s true, usually unthreatened by Dean’s pickups, but at times of stress, I have no trouble seeing him as highly possessive. Also, I miss Jo.