iāve watched approximately 4 episodes of supernatural but when you live on tumblr for years you are always spn-adjacent. we have no choice but to absorb it by osmosis because itās just that massive. i feel like i know a lot about the show from fandom, and many of my fandom friends were in it at some point. i also work in entertainment media so iāve been tracking all the updates in its final year. and i have to say that even after years of disappointments from movies and tv, this one seems particularly egregious?Ā
hereās the thing. thereās so often a divide between the fever-dream of shipping and what we actually get in canon. and we know this. weāre not stupid, or gullible. people in fandom engage with the narrative on a level most critics could never dream.
even though many of us recognize that our beloved ships from giant properties wonāt go canon because they are embedded in giant global blockbusters created by megacorporations, in recent years there seems to also be a trend of bad endings that not only work to crush these ships but make for awful storytelling and act dismissive of their own canon. and Iām tired of it.
maybe steve/bucky would never happen, but steve abandoning his traumatized best friend that heād fought actual wars for in order to go back in time for a woman who moved on with her life without him? crap. star wars not even attempting finnpoe despite the actorsā encouragement, and giving poe a random half-assed love interest because, oh look, a girl? we can be angry about these things, and we can and should demand better and broader representation. if nothing else, at least tell a better story.
why spnās finale feels so unsettling to me as a non-fan is that even i came to believe the tide might be turning, just a little bit. fandom is more mainstream and recognized than ever. our ships and our transformative works are discussed in big media outlets. actors and creatives acknowledge fic and retweet fanart. actors and creatives acknowledge how vital it is for people to see themselves reflected and represented in media. and it seemed to me, as a sideline observer, that supernatural appreciated its fanbase and understood how important dean and castielās relationship was, and how beloved castiel was as a character on his own. to have him not appear in the last episode at all is unconscionable to me, and i have never seen him in an episode! this is how much impact the character had thatās filtered down.
i watched the reactions a few weeks ago of mixed euphoria and dismay after castielās love confession and subsequent disappearance into āsuper hell.ā that didnāt seem great, message-wise, but it was a step that felt significant, it meant a lot to many people, and it probably would not have happened without fandom and their tireless cheerleading and enthusiasm. it seemed like maybe they were really building to something.
and so even though i knew in my dead withered criticās heart of hearts that we wouldnāt be getting a destiel kiss, i thought that spn might be brave enough to give their fans a final giftāa thanks for everything. have dean and cas drive off in that damned car whose name i know because i live on tumblr. end with them smiling at each other. something. i know the pandemic came into play, but other actors appeared, and even castielās voice could have been literally phoned in.
instead, from the anger and pain and incredulous memes iām seeing from people across social media, it appears that what the show delivered was an ending so unfitting it was like a parody of an end. they threw the baby out with the bathwater. itās incredibly disappointing, and it feels cowardly to me. you donāt have to make a ship canon just to appease fandom. but your fans deserve a better story for their characters after fifteen years.Ā
spn was uniquely positioned because itās old as balls. most of the people still watching have seen it all and would have been up for anything good. the creatives could have done pretty much whatever they wanted. this isnāt a case of disney or international censors breathing down their neck. instead, they appear to have taken the easy way out of a lackluster finale written by folks who probably high-fived themselves for poignancy and half-assed twists and got paid more money than any of us will ever see for it. thatās boring, and itās passĆ©, and it didnāt have to be this way.
sometimes a property like she-ra can swoop in and save the day by delivering what fans want most. but she-ra was also made by people who came out of and understood fandom culture and just how much representation means to people. how much emotional investment and time and energy weāve put into characters and their lives. why they matter. and it should stand as an example of what to do next.
if thereās a takeaway for all of this, itās that we canāt and shouldnāt trust āmainstreamā productions to do anything that we want in terms of representation. even if theyāre uniquely positioned. even if they tease. even if they say they understand. even if they say theyāll do better next time. theyāll keep throwing pieces of bones, but they will almost always keep disappointing us. and theyāre not even creating good art along the way. i know a dozen spn fic writers who couldāve written a vastly better ending to the show and iām sure there are thousands.Ā
we need to create the stories we want to see. in fic and fanart and transformative works, yes, but also (and i say this to myself as well), write that book. write that script. draw your graphic novel. film a movie in your backyard tomorrow because it sounds like anything we produce right now will be more inspired and more important to each other than the scraps we get from distant studios who are only vaguely aware that weāre alive and buying their merchandise. and i want to buy your books, watch your scripts, frame your art. i want to be able to invest in the stories we want to see told.
i love what we make for each other, and we should keep doing that, more furiously than ever. and if you want to, if you dream of it, you should push to create on a broader scale. you already know that youāre a better creative than a lot of people who are generating the āhits.ā i canāt wait to see what you make. and fuck supernaturalās finale.