unbearable-bear:
if anyone can pull off conflicted badass demon that hates himself and wants to feel love but can’t, it is jensen ackles.
I am very ready for his season 10 performance.
the Bechdel test, the Ellen Willis test, ALL THE TESTS: or, a handy guide to feminist critiques of narrative
jennirl:
(reference for when i am trying to explain these to people and they are looking at me like “huh”):
- the Bechdel test: does the story have a) more than one women, b) who talk to each other, c) about something other than a man.
- the Ellen Willis test: if you flip the genders, does the story still make sense?
- the Sexy Lamp test (courtesy of Kelly Sue DeConnick): can you replace your female character with a sexy lamp and still have the story work? if yes, YOU ARE A HACK.
- the Mako Mori test: there is a) at least one female character, b) who gets her own narrative arc, c) that is not about supporting a man’s story.
- the Tauriel test (which i made up in response to The Hobbit 2 [which passes] and Skyfall [which fails]): a) there is a woman, b) WHO IS GOOD AT HER JOB.
and in justification of my recent TV obsessions, i would like to note that Scandal, The Vampire Diaries, Buffy, and Nikita (ALL HAIL MAGGIE Q) pass all of these tests with flying colors.
UPDATE: i just discovered the Finkbeiner test and it is FANTASTIC.
FURTHER UPDATE: these were noted by oranges8hands and are EXCELLENT and add some much-needed intersectionality:
The Deggans Rule: a) At least two POC characters in the main cast, b) in a show that’s not about race.
The Racial Bechdel Test (I first saw it laid out by Alaya Dawn Johnson): a) it has two POC in it, b) who talk to each other, c) about something other than a white person
and then I offered an amendment to the Bechdel test: d) both women have to be alive at the end
goodboydean:
I’m in love with the idea of Dean realizing he’s in love with Cas because of the most mundane things Castiel does.
Like maybe one day, Dean sees Castiel padding around the bunker in socks. Socks. And he realizes, “Dammit, I’m in love with this man.”
Or maybe it’s in the way Castiel scans over the newspaper in the mornings while he sips his coffee. And Dean just looks at him and thinks, “I am so fucking in love with you.”
And of course it could be over the way Castiel’s ties now hang straight and Dean realizes it bothers him, because it doesn’t look right, it doesn’t look like Cas. It’s also at that moment he realizes, “I love you so much my chest hurts with the weight of it.”
Or maybe it’s always having to remind Castiel not to leave his shoes where they can be tripped over, or the way the other guy watches T.V. with a furrowed brow, like he’s trying to understand the obscenities of daytime television. Or maybe it’s in the way Castiel is a complete grump in the mornings until he’s had a shower and at least two cups of coffee. Or perhaps it happens when Dean catches Castiel humming a Zep song while doing the dishes, hands and forearms covered in suds and blotched red from the hot water…
Or maybe it’s all of those things and one day everything comes to a head and Dean can’t stand being around the guy anymore because every time they’re in the same room together all Dean can concentrate on are Cas’ hands and his lips and hair and the way his voice is rougher after he’s just woke up, or the spaces he seems to fill in Dean’s life, spaces Dean never thought could be filled. And Dean realizes he’s either got to end their friendship here and now forever because it’s scary how much he wants to be more with Cas and he’s not sure the fallen angel can reciprocate that or he has tell Cas how he’s feeling. So he approaches Castiel with a pounding heart and an aching head because holy fuck he’s going to ask Castiel to leave, again, and he doesn’t want to, but it’s for both of their own good, right? But Dean finds him in the kitchen, seated at the table eating scrambled eggs for crying out loud, and then instead of talking Dean is bending down and brushing his lips against Castiel’s. Gently, like a whisper, and Castiel is staring up at Dean with the biggest, bluest eyes in the entire fucking universe and holy shit Dean loves him. He loves him. He loves him and there’s no way in hell Castiel is going anywhere ever again and while Dean is processing all of this Castiel is standing from the kitchen table and pulling Dean against him with two fists full of Dean’s sleep shirt and crushing their lips together in a kiss that says, “Me too.”