War of the Nerds.

So, you probably know by now, I like to get my geek on (zomg, Schuh near my new store has wonderwoman converse! Just, you know, on the geek subject) and I love talking writing and debating theories and shit ... just got a mostly-awesome-but-somewhat-slightly-shitty review on my third chapter of Sammy Who. I replied through a review on the story, since they're not a member of the site. I think I went a little overboard.

First off, they brought up the time frame of the story, and I was like 'totally mentioned it was season six on page one dude, do you see any Leviathans?' but I hopefully didn't sound so arsey as I replied. I mentioned that I thought I had mentioned it, but yes, their brilliant deductions were correct and it was season six (I didn't say brilliant deductions. Thought it, didn't say it).

Then, in the middle, they said "one last thing" which it wasn't, but I let that slide. But then they went into this whole thing about using ' and " to denote speech and how I was using an apostrophe in the wrong context, when I should be using quotation marks. I said yes, if one of the characters was quoting another, I would use quotation marks, but in my experience, most books rely on the singular to denote direct speech. Bitch, please. Again, was a bit nicer than I'm being right now.

And then they said something nice about how I was portraying the characters, but I think a lot of it must have gone over their head. Cue a mother-fucking huge Supernatural rant. Supernatural 101. Supernatural for Dummies. Caffrin, you may correct me on any and all errors, unless we have different perceptions. Then we can totally discuss different theories like the raging geeks we are.

So, to me, Supernatural has, and has always had, multiple layers. On the surface, it's a series where every week, the Winchester brothers (Sam and Dean) go and fight a different monster. They're cool and calm and rational. They beat ghouls, wendigos, ghosts, demons, chupacabra (sorry for the spelling on that one) all within 40 minutes. They will slaughter the fear of any horror movie for you. They tackle myths and legends and there is so much awesome folklore.

On another level, they get really into theology. The story starts with a demon feeding Sam blood, because Sam is a psychic baby and the blood enhances his abilities. They both end up in heaven and in hell. Dean is saved by an angel, they get into the notion of the apocalypse and the four horsemen, the war between Michael and Lucifer, the fights in heaven, the power plays in hell, the roles of humans in the grand scheme of things, the location of God, the Leviathans and the horrors of purgatory ... I love this sort of thing. It's almost like a televised version of Paradise Lost, if Paradise Lost included the Winchester brothers and a fuck load of blood and salt.

Another level (there's more!) is this almost satirical element to the whole thing. There is so much humour, and concept for breaking the fourth wall ... they have an episode called Changing Channels, were Dean and Sam end up in TV episodes and have to play their parts on the shows to get out of them. There's an episode called The Mystery Spot which is a little like Groundhog Day, except it's always Tuesday, and Sam has to watch Dean die. The French Mistake, they were zapped into an alternate reality by Balthazar where they looked remarkably like the actors Jared Padalecki and Jensen Ackles who act in the TV show Supernatural (my favourite line? "I'm a painted whore!" and yes, correct use of quotation marks!) ... these are some of my favourite episodes too, because you can tell they went to town and had fun with it. But within the standard "monster a week" episodes (as Jensen puts it) there's humour too. Like, they were in prison in season four, and a demon took over someone's body, and he shot the local sheriff. The demon left the body, and the person, coming to terms with what's just happened, says in a daze "I shot the sheriff?" and you see Dean fighting not to laugh, and you know what I'm going to say already. There's this pause and it's like he went 'fuck it, say it, you'll die if you don't.' "But you didn't shoot the deputy." And I wet myself. They parody themselves too, there are books and conventions and rabid fans, there are idiots online called Ghostfacers who think they can do exorcisms ... they mention Dean and Sam slash, for God's sake! ("Do they know we're brothers?" "Yes, and they don't care.")

There's also the whole idea of their relationship with each other. I love this part so much too, because they're typical guys in so many ways, but in other ways, they've always been all that each other has ever known. Before Dean gets dragged into hell, during season 3, they have a Christmas, and it's like, their first ever Christmas. They give each other porn, beer, and gas for the car. There's something so real but so emotional in something as basic as that for me. But their relationship is so deep, so intricate ... Sam looks up to Dean a lot, I think. He knows how intuitive his brother is and how confident Dean is in his own decisions, and although Sam would like to believe he's just as confident, I don't think he is. Whereas for Dean, he's always looked out for Sam and will always look out for Sam and there could be literal hell on earth, Lucifer could rule all, and Dean wouldn't care so long as Sam was okay. Dean sold his soul for Sam to be okay. And he has to watch as his little brother goes through so much shit and try to keep it together for Sam and ... I just think their relationship is so beautiful.

So okay, my fanfic, I want to explore the idea of what Dean would do for Sam if he had no idea who Sam was. At the same time, I wanted to explore the idea of what Sam would do if he had no choice but to use his demon-enhanced psychic abilities. Like, he's addicted to the power that demon blood can give him, but Dean hates him using the powers - he's forced Sam into "rehab" (a demonic bomb shelter) more than once. So I'm exploring that, and this reviewer is like 'but Dean hates those powers, why would Sam use them?' ... dude, he's an addict, he's been in rehab, the guy is going to be battling the temptation versus being sober, not worrying about what his sober brother thinks. Just ... did she not see the scene where Sam loses control and starts sucking down demon like a vampire would? Do these people watch? For more than just banging one out over Jared and Jensen and Misha (don't recommend it, you'd be happily going along and then someone gets dismembered or something ... TMI? I'd just really worry about what you're into if you were into that!)

*sigh* I need me some more Supernatural. Why is there still 11 days until the season 8 boxset?

**edit** God, this person! Apparently, they checked their bookshelves to prove I was wrong, and can I give a detailed list of books I've read that support my theory? Bitch, I'm not the anonymous poster, I clearly have fuck-all to prove. They also said they skim read anyway, but somehow that's my deal?