Rilly Show?

[roxy]

It was a pleasure seeing Kavan Smith on the show (Magnus). This was his second time; the first time he just walked into an ER and literally spilled his guts. I loved him so much and it stems from the time I took a one-time character he played on SV and wrote this whole thing where Whit and he were in a terrible relationship, and then I wrote him again as Lex's kidnapper...ah, the good old days, when our perversions were practically innocent!

As usual I have thoughts about the show but this time, I'll do more than write them up and delete them--I'm posting this short rant. Because GRRR!!

One of the problems I have with Show is that the writers seem to have no idea that on the whole, we're a pretty smart bunch who appreciate smart people and in fact, find smart people pretty darn sexy. I think we tend to view the boys through that lens. We imagine that after all these years in hunting, all the research—both Sam and Dean, thank you—they have to know at least a little about a lot of things. I think a lot of us have also incorporated fanon as canon without meaning to. our boys are competent, think quick on their feet and are both *smart*, no matter what they believe of themselves.

That's why the scene outside the invisible castle at the end really bothered me, so much that I was vocal in my outrage. How the fuck does Sam look at Baby and wonder what that language is scratched into her side? *ouch, poor girl!* Show writers, please stop making those guys ask stupid questions. If someone wrote a fic in which Sam said, "What language is that (that looks kind of like the stuff that was BLASTED INTO OUR RIBS WHICH WE KNEW WAS ENOCHIAN AT THAT TIME.)?" they'd be roundly snickered at. I would be silently judgey, because I'd consider it a cheap and OOC way to move the story along. I would be *most* judgey about the fact that it was not an entertaining way to move the story along.

I'm not sure why these kind of things bother me so much lately. Maybe because of the amount of fanfic I read, maybe because I've been following the show for a long time. But I'm putting that Stupid Questions Sam, Of All People, Has Asked right up there with "Metatron? You're saying a Transformer wrote that?"

If they're going to keep doing this, then they should start each episode with an additional title card, CONCUSSION, which would explain these sort of drifting stupidities they spout.

I swan, if it's true that Show folk are reading fanfiction, they're def reading the wrong stories.

Comments

[write-light.livejournal.com]

Throwing the newbies a bone? Most episodic shows will add tie backs that are not for the long term superfan. They could have given Dean the line but he was clearly preoccupied. Or better, have Sam just state it in an expository sentence. Or better, stick it in the "THEN" segment and hope people make the connection. But come to think of it, why do we care what language it was? Why not just "a message from Abaddon"?

[roxymissrose.livejournal.com]

I thought too thatvmaybe it was a way of explaining things to newer viewers, but we've got none years of info--find a better way. And every way you suggest is a better way!

[strgazr04.livejournal.com]

You are very right. Even Superwiki on Twitter pointed this out too I believe since Sam knew Enochian via the chant he had to repeat during the Trials. All Sam really needed to say instead was "Wait, isn't that Enochian?" and then let Crowley translate from there instead of making Sam sound like an idiot. Simple change of phrase. Ah well. I'll just add it to the list along with that Grand Canyon mix up and my note for the writers to BRING BACK THE AMULET ALREADY! *huffs*

[roxymissrose.livejournal.com]

Why can we not see how that should have gone but the people who get *paid* to write the show can't? And yes!! Bring back the dang amulet! That upset the heck out of me and I've been waiting for its reappearance sine then. I don't think they get their fanbase as much as they think they do.

[fanspired]

Ha! That's exactly what I said to my husband while we were watching the ep: "these people are reading way too much fanfiction, and NOT the good kind!" But, yeah, that really pissed me off that they had Sam needing to ask what language Enochian was. And then there was that scene earlier when Crowley was ponting out stuff they should have been able to figure out for themselves and calling them stupid. The show has been consistently characterising them as stupid compared to everyone around them and I have to conclude that the writers count on most of the viewership being too stupid to notice the fallacies and logical inconsistencies.

I did laugh after the episode where Crowley promised to search the ocean for the first blade when someone tweeted the writers "how can Crowley search the ocean when he's a demon and the ocean's made of salt water?" but a better question still is, why didn't they send Cas? Remember that scene in S6 when he was gone for two secs and Dean asked him "where did you search?" and he replied "everywhere" Cas could have got them as far as the horny cougar antiquities woman five and a half episodes sooner :P

[roxymissrose.livejournal.com]

I have to conclude that the writers count on most of the viewership being too stupid to notice the fallacies and logical inconsistencies.

If they spent five minutes at the wiki they'd know what we know. Most of us are the full description of fans--fanatic. I watch that show like it's the most important thing in the world because for those sixty minutes it is to me. I hate when they throw stupid stuff out to us. I hate when they crap all over their own canon. And I'm ever and always in awe that Jensen and Jared can sell every bit of it and make me want more! :D

[fanspired]

I think the writers just take it for granted that the real fans will keep watching regardless of the lazy writing : /

[dreamsofspike.livejournal.com]

Okay, so it wasn't just me :/ *sigh*

My immediate thought was, no way Sam doesn't recognize Enochian.

And while we're at it, no way Sam stage-whispers to Dean "Hey, LET'S KILL CROWLEY NOW!" while Crowley's standing well within earshot a few yards away. Even if Crowley HADN'T been able to hear him, it'd be pretty clear what the topic of discussion was just from the way the boys were behaving. :/

Not that I WANTED to see Crowley killed. I didn't.

In fact, I was more than a little pissed with the way the boys treated him this episode. :P *sigh* I'm pretty firmly convinced that he would not have double-crossed them this time if he hadn't heard them planning to double-cross HIM. :/


ETA: Just thought of something, though - while it's weak writing, it's kinda similar to what they used to do in early episodes, like having the boys discuss something that would have been common knowledge to both of them. Hex bags, for example. Or something similarly simple and obvious. "Hey, aren't those used by witches to cast curses, Sam?" "Why yes, Dean, I believe they are" LOL

Obvious exposition for the sake of the audience, awkwardly placed in the mouths of characters who have known this crap since they were 8 years old :P *sigh*

[roxymissrose.livejournal.com]

Obvious exposition for the sake of the audience, awkwardly placed in the mouths of characters who have known this crap since they were 8 years old :P *sigh*

It's not that they do it, it's that they do it so badly, lol! Can't the guys tell the writers, "Look, we've seen the fans and there's really not many thirteen year olds out there. It's all women of a certain age and *koff* outlook."

And they don't like being treated like idiots. ;D

[firesign10.livejournal.com]

PREACH IT!! :-)

[roxymissrose.livejournal.com]

SPREADING THE WORD, SISTER!

:D

[gingersnap1224.livejournal.com]

As many times as they have come across Enochian in the past few years, you would think Sam would have brushed up on it a little. You know, ask where the bathroom is, be able to order in a restaurant, that sort of thing.

I hate it when the writers make them stupid. Did they forget that Sam went to Stanford and got 1 jillion on his LSAT.

[roxymissrose.livejournal.com]

You know, ask where the bathroom is, be able to order in a restaurant, that sort of thing.

*FALLS DOWN LAUGHING*

Now we have to create "Enochian for Travelers"

[tabaqui]

HOMG, bb, that rant was *delightful*! You need to rant more often.

I agree - i detest it when the writers forget that the boys are *smart*, damnit, and have a lot of fucking knowledge about a lot of stuff, particularly, at this point, fucking Enochian! Sheesh.

*pat pat pat*
There, there. We have our fanfic to console ourselves.

[roxymissrose.livejournal.com]

Heh--thanks, beloved. That scene just drop-kicked me over the edge. They've been steadily making our boys look like doofuses (doofusi?) and I'm done with that.

It's time to cobble together a 'smart boys' rec. *nods*

[tabaqui]

Yis, it's annoying sometimes, isn't it?

SMART BOIS. Please. :)

In Show's defense

[(Anonymous)]

Has it ever been established that Enochian is a language with an alphabet or syllabary as opposed to being pictographic or ideographic? Because if it's ideographic, it's entirely possible for someone intelligent not to recognize unknown symbols as the same language they've seen. Also, it could have different written forms for angels and demons, or upper and lower case could look very different (like Greek), or Abbadon's people could just have crappy handwriting.

I'd blame the Metatron thing on damage from the trials, but I can't remember when that episode fell in the season.

--Jessica

[jackien1968.livejournal.com]

Hi, Jessica. I don't recall its mention in Show, but Show didn't invent Enochian. I checked Wikipedia just now, Enochian has a 21-character alphabet, and was either invented or received from angels in 1583 to 1584.

During the Trials we saw Sam reading a spell in Enochian off a scrap of paper in Enochian letters, not an English transliteration, and Dean had been prepared to read it off that too. The SuperWiki has analysis of a lot of the Enochian words and phrases that have appeared in Show.

The idea that demons either write it with a different alphabet or have bizarre handwriting is intriguing and very plausible; I like it a lot. Scratching letters into car paint probably distorts their shape anyway? Hopefully fans with way better visual skills than mine will examine screen caps and figure out if the letters were indeed unrecognizable or hard-to-recognize.

The Metatron/Megatron thing was in 7.21 where the Boys first encounter one of the Tablets, so more than a year before the Trials.

Roxy, amen to that. And what's up with werewolf sheriffs, heck even bad humans with tasers, getting the drop on our Boys! I was ok w/ the werewolf thing 'cause Dean threw a silver knife into the dicktard's heart from 20 feet away w/o batting an eye, but getting thisclose to dead over a taser was so not our smart, competent Boys. Grrr.

<33
Jackie

[roxymissrose.livejournal.com]

wow! And there you have it! Thanks Jackie! :) ♥

Re: In Show's defense

[roxymissrose.livejournal.com]

I'm definitively going with the different forms for angels and demons, thank you very much! :D Yes, it was a demon form of it written by a demon with real crappy handwriting.

See? My friends are brilliant. ;)

Re: In Show's defense

[(Anonymous)]

Glad to help!

--Jessica