SPN Fan Content - "Chicago Con 2022, Part I" Reaction
Added 2022-07-30 17:20:50 +0000 UTC
Comments
Oh, I *deh-finitely* cheered when Ruby 2.0 bit it. (Seeing Dean striding toward her saying "I don't care" is my happy place.) "I've always felt like EVERYONE is fair game to die in this show, and everyone is therefore also fair game to come back at some point." ← I agree. The experience of watching a show/movie is very different from the experience of watching audience perception of a show/movie. *I'm not saying the following is what happened with SPN, to be very, very clear.* I wasn't there, and it would be near impossible to get a comprehensive picture of what was going on in show, in fandom, and in media at the time. I just get a bee in my bonnet when I see public perception simultaneously ignoring representation and aiming vitriol at lack of representation. Now, with full feminism in flow (by definition), I'm gonna go back to imagining Ruby getting stabbed. 😍
SKK
2022-08-19 16:52:15 +0000 UTCI agree with pretty much everything you've so intelligently laid out here, Shawn! I have to admit that I enjoyed Bela as a villain, and I wouldn't have minded if she had more time on screen, could have seen something spark between her and Dean. But I was far from heart-broken when she died. The character was just okay to me. It was the same for Ruby for me. I did NOT like the original Ruby, although I think that counts as some kind of fandom sacrilege! 😆 But I found her grating and annoying. Like Dean, I never really trusted her, and I only liked her a little more as the 2.0 version, 4x09 and 4x10 being the closest I ever got to liking her. So, when Dean killed her with Sam holding her there, I practically cheered. I've always felt like EVERYONE is fair game to die in this show, and everyone is therefore also fair game to come back at some point.
Linda Moore
2022-08-19 08:27:17 +0000 UTCThank you for putting up with my soapbox, @Hasnaa 😌💜
SKK
2022-08-02 02:03:25 +0000 UTCI loved bela so much
Hasnaa
2022-08-01 20:55:13 +0000 UTCChicago is one of my favorites of the 2021/2022 cons. Also, having just experienced it, Toronto is a good one, too. The panels I saw were interesting and I hope the acoustic moment during SNS will be included.
Sarai
2022-08-01 05:46:24 +0000 UTCGlad you enjoyed part 1. This was well over a month after Jared’s accident so he didn’t really talk about it. Yeah we have 3 parts of Chicago due to the great panels. There’ll be a lot of 2 parters coming over the next few months due to the amount of cons there are. I’ll try and do a Rich, Rob and Matt panel. But they’ve been so chaotic they’re harder to edit down to time! Although some of the panels may appear in a future request…
Sharon Owen
2022-07-31 16:10:29 +0000 UTCThanks so much, Vel, for the opportunity to clarify my point. You've added some very useful context. I don't mean to blame the fandom for whatever the reasons they didn't like the characters. Rather, I only mean to highlight the "overwhelming" impression that the online response presented to the powers that be, hence my only quoting Kripke. Whatever factions were in upheaval, he expresses here how the response was perceived, and I do think we, the viewing public, need to be aware of what we champion and what we decry, and the impressions such responses create, in order to better perpetuate the stories we want to see. I hope that makes a bit more sense. 😌
SKK
2022-07-31 06:59:44 +0000 UTCThere's SO much that I agree with you here on, SKK. However, there are a few things that I remember differently from being a casual fandom participant during those times. At least when it comes to the reasons some of the female characters weren't as welcomed or accepted as others have been, as portrayed by the media. It had less to do with romance (although there are groups who DID take issue with not wanting the show to become OTH) and was more or less because Bela was a non-hunter with less than 10 years experience in the SPN world who was constantly 3 steps ahead of the boys. Boys who had devoted their whole lives to training for the job. It didn't make sense to many of the viewers, myself included. Had more time and effort been given to fleshing out her character, things might have been different. But alas, we will never know. People also tend to gloss over the fact that we weren't necessarily supposed to like either one of them given the character themselves. But I have never heard people who absolutely hated Bela or Ruby. Or took it out on the actresses. I've only seen that happen with people in certain shipping factions. And mostly with Jared.
Vel
2022-07-31 04:48:33 +0000 UTCI'm going to soapbox here for just a quick sec -- from my perch of privilege in 2022 -- TL;DR #justiceforbella: I *loved* that character, yet all accounts indicate that she was met with such vitriol online that plans for her were truncated (yes, + writers' strike but still): "Bela and Ruby do seem to be the big controversies this season, don't they? I'll start with Ruby…. I knew from the beginning that [there] was going to be a lot of resistance to the character... our fans are very protective of the boys, they don't want the show to turn into One Tree Hill, they thought this was some network revamp, etc....but I always believed that if viewers gave Ruby a chance, they'd accept her as a formidable player.... As for Bela, I have to admit, I was fairly surprised by the seemingly negative fan reaction. Among the writers, Bela was a pleasure to write… we like how cool and unflappable she is under terrible pressure. She's strong, smart, resourceful. Bob, Sera, Ben, the other writers and I were all excited about her…we felt she added a unique, effervescent flavor…And Lauren is one of the finest, most highly trained actresses we've ever had…But the fans seem to be having a difficult time overcoming their initial resistance to the character."(https://www.tvguide.com/news/supernatural-burning-questions-39261) Kripke expounds in another interview: "I like to use the message boards as real time audience testing…when the on-line fans overwhelmingly love, or hate, something, we tend to pay attention to that." (https://www.thetvaddict.com/2007/09/28/thetvaddictcom-interview-supernatural-showrunner-eric-kripke/) I'm not being an apologist because, in an ideal world, a show, even one that wants to stay on the air and keep people employed, might take the artistic high road; however, I continuously bump against a throughline of blaming a show, movie, or movement for pivoting in response to "overwhelming" audience antipathy -- *while still aiming for artistic quality and creating three-dimensional characters.* That last part is very important → If we're going to be effective advocates for representation, we have to hold ourselves accountable and acknowledge when we fall short. When we rail against those that are doing what we want for not doing everything that we want all at once, we are shooting ourselves in the foot. (For example, criticizing female directors who acquire a modicum of success for not incorporating every single aspect of "the racially and sexually diverse female experience throughout history into today" into their first buzzy film.) Let's prioritize railing against assh@les, if at all possible. Eeesh. Sorry about that. 😬 On to other more positive things: apparently I'm a Pavlovian dog. Every time Kim Rhodes talks about neurodivergence, I literally leak from my eyeballs. She and Briana are a sheer delight, and I love them with my whole tattered heart.
SKK
2022-07-30 22:20:25 +0000 UTCI've been a big suite life of zack & cody fan, so I always double fangirl over Kim because of it.
BexFangirl
2022-07-30 20:28:32 +0000 UTC
