I really hoped Sam’s reason for hating Halloween would be more profound, but that’s my only quibble with the whole thing, really.
Like, part of what I really like about the serial killers vs. horror movies Sam/Dean divide is what it says about the two of them, Dean hiding in make believe, stories, because there’s something controllable to them and whimsical and distracting from reality, and Sam whose reality has always been monsters, and therefore finds human monsters whimsical because there’s nothing supernatural about them, and he wishes his life could be that simple.
I love meta diving on all of that, so it’s sad to get such an in depth exploration of Dean’s coping mechanisms with trauma and then get pawned off with an unguessable story about teenage humiliation (although I will admit that there’s something disarming and cute about that too, and not everything has to be exploring emotional depths of our characters, so I’ll still take it as a win.)
That’s partly why I was really happy Sam’s reason for hating Halloween was so… mundane. He really wanted to fit in with these kids, especially this girl he had a crush on. He was probably already hunting by sixth grade (age 12 or so), or just on the cusp of hunting more, and actually being trained to hunt. He’s probably faced down at least one real monster, and been assured by Dean and John that he’s just as badass a hunter as they are. But he wasn’t sure he wanted to be that badass hunter, rather than just another kid who fit in and had crushes and bobbed for apples at Halloween parties, where the only monsters were his friends in rubber masks.
So there he is, sixth grade Sam, living in Bismarck, North Dakota, trying to be Normal Kid Who Is Definitely 100% Normal, fitting in. And he literally… blows it. From nerves, trying to play Normal. For 11-12-year-old Sam, EVERYTHING was riding on his ability to Remain Cool, and he blew it.
And for an 11-year-old, who was probably only a few months past rejecting his Imaginary Friend Sully and deciding he was gonna go be a hunter, who was probably having Major Stress over that loss, and his too-grown-up-for-him choice to hunt, and having what he must’ve thought at the time was one last chance at Normalcy, he associated Halloween as that turning point, that literal change of seasons for him, where he probably thought he would never be normal, never be able to just have friends and go to parties and be a kid again…
I’m sure Jessica’s death two days after his last “normal” Halloween didn’t help matters, but that was not just an embarrassing incident for Sam when he was a kid. And in context with the comparison between Dean’s escapist hobbies delving into Fake Monsters, and Sam’s delving into Human Monsters, it’s an interesting glimpse at what makes Sam tick…
There are a lot of stereotypes about people with tattoos.
Many people equate tattoos with aggressiveness, even violence. Especially people who have multiple visible tattoos are often put into that box: the scary criminal or the angry low-life.
On the opposite side, there are the kinds of tattoos that are not seen as “scary” but rather as “cringe-worthy”. Cute designs or those that are/were really popular for a while (such as stars or the infinity symbol) are seen as a sign that you’re uneducated, tacky or, for some reason, “slutty”.
At first glance, those stereotypes have nothing to do with gender or sexuality and surely do cis straight people face them as well. And yet, I feel like sexism plays a role in them:
Aggresiveness is often seen as “masculine” (which is a horrible interpretation of masculinity but it’s sadly a common one) and therefore those kinds of tattoos that are perceived as aggressive are also seen as male. Cute and/or trendy designs are, on the other hand, seen as feminine.
Of course it makes no sense to slap a gender on art. But this unspoken “tattoo binary” (the angry tattooed man, the tacky tattooed woman) affects us lgbt+ people, too.
For example, a lesbian woman with many tattoos may be seen as the stereotypical “men-hating angry feminazi lesbian”. A trans boy who has flowers or stars on his skin may hear “Oh, you’re such a typical straight girl”.
If you have or want tattoos, I can’t protect you from people assuming the wrong things about you. But I want to tell you that it is your body and the art you decide to wear on it does not in any way decrease your value as a person or invalidates your identity.
With all my love,
Your Tumblr Mom
I was so nervous about my first tattoo cause it was big (ankle to knee) and not cutesy (a realistic octopus, dragon and tree) and I barely even told anyone about it and now it’s winter and there’s a whole bunch of people who won’t see it until next summer and I needed to hear this, thanks 😀
This the hardest nigga I ever seen this is true big dick energy
God got him
Wow
Found this short documentary from 2014 about him and his forest:
Soil erosion is still a problem but the authorities do not appear to be listening to Jadav’s suggestions on combating the issue, according to the programme. He would like to plant coconut trees because they grow extremely straight and help prevent erosion if planted densely enough. The fruit could also be sold for economic gain.
The man turned that barren land into a whole fucking forest by hand for them. Yet they show no interest in investing in its upkeep nor the desire for financial gain via the coconut industry. I just…🙄
Is it just me or have they not seemed this happy and satisfied since season…I don’t even know.
All I know is, this episode was special. Not because it actually was but because it was a throwback to the good old days.
Saving people, hunting things, the Winchester family business.
They haven’t smiled so genuinely and bantered and shared their feelings like this in forever it seems! And it just makes it even more certain in my mind that their happy place, their most happy place, is just the two of them driving in the Impala. That’s home.
@captainsteelandsunshine this wasnt the only good brotherly MOTW thyve had in a while but it was indeed very satisfying. They had some good ones last year but they always had sadness and doom hanging over them and it didnt make for a happy episode like this did. The last one I can think of that gave me this much satisfaction was s12 The Memory Remains (for MOTWs that is) when they carved their initials in the table. But even with that, they only beat the monster, thy didnt save the boys. This episode… NO ONE DIED!!! This week, though of course theres pending doom, they just looked like they felt like their old selves, and it was good. 💕😍
This was a study conducted by The Economist, results published in Jan 2018.
The study has five criteria: Whether elections are free and fair (“electoral process and pluralism”), governments have checks and balances (“functioning of government”), and whether citizens are included in politics (“political participation”), support their government (“political culture”), and enjoy freedom of expression (“civil liberties”).
According to these criteria, less than 5% of the world’s population lives in a “full democracy.“
I think it just would make a lot more sense if Sam hated Halloween because like he said, for them, it’s Halloween every day. And we get an understanding in the pilot that he hates it because of what happened to his mom and because of their monster life. That’s why I figured that put that little bit in there about hating Halloween in the first place. That’s essentially the first scene we get of Sam right after we watch Mary die and his life is altered. A random comment about hating Halloween doesn’t make sense unless it was about his history.
Halloween is fun for kids because of the fantasy involved and for Sam and Dean, there’s no fantasy of monsters. The monsters are real and have ruined their lives. And for Dean, we found out (although it’s what most of us knew all along) Dean likes the Halloween stuff because for once, the bad guys lose in that fantasy world. We got insight into Dean with that revelation. With Sam, we got a weird story about a crush. And I think it would have made a lot more sense, within the story if Sam hated Halloween because of the non-fantasy. Story-wise, it makes a lot more sense. Hating Halloween because you embarrassed yourself in front of your crush when you were a kid just doesn’t fit.
I’m probably going to regret replying to two metas on the same subject, but, here goes:
I can totally see how that would be traumatic! I once walked into the boys bathroom in middle school, and having grown up in a family without any males I couldn’t make heads or tails of why the “sinks looked so weird” and was totally mortified when a couple of boys walked in on me (even though I was in the stall and they never saw me) and I refused to ever wear the clothes I was wearing that day ever again.
That story about why Sam hates Halloween is stupid on a bunch if levels. Aside from the obvious ones, but if Sam had been that upset at a party and hid out in the woods, wouldn’t Dean have known about it THEN?
Yes I did find this part dumb.
Sam not liking Christmas made sense but the Halloween story was just silly.
That is what I was saying in another post. Even if Sam acted as if everything was alright on that night, his dislike would have shown the next year, and Dean isn’t a dense guy that he wouldn’t notice, neither is he an idiot that he wouldn’t have deduced what had happened. They could have left it out entirely, and still have had the BM.
Nah I liked it. Sam has always been a secret keeper and Dean doesnt figure all of them out now, why would he then? Besides, we all were ok with the reason Sam gave in S4, which probably worked with Dean all that time, even if they still went trick or treating, tho, Dean was already too old for it probably. Even though it was brought up when we first meet Sam, in 1×01 it was never treated like a big issue, like some big trauma led to it. So now we have a story to it, a quite traumatic yet human story, it didnt have to do with death or monsters or abandonment, and neither John nor Dean are to blame. Just another layer of Sam given to us as a bonus. Even normal life things gave Sam a hard time.
I can totally see how that would be traumatic! I once walked into the boys bathroom in middle school, and having grown up in a family without any males I couldn’t make heads or tails of why the “sinks looked so weird” and was totally mortified when a couple of boys walked in on me (even though I was in the stall and they never saw me) and I refused to ever wear the clothes I was wearing that day ever again.
Karate, SPN Demonic Octopus Guardian 