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SPN: Shipping Sam and Dean
Feb. 21st, 2007 01:01 pmI've seen a couple posts on the flist lately about shipping which made me think about my newest fandom love, Supernatural, and my new favorite pairing. With Sam/Dean, I think I come closest to what most fannish people mean when they say they ship two characters. For me, SPN is all about Sam and Dean and their relationship to each other. Every other character (except the Dad) is largely extraneous and exists only (in my mind LOL) to reveal something further about that Sam/Dean relationship. I don't really want to read fic about the boys with anyone else (although I do enjoy gen fic in the fandom) and I hate it when they have love interests on the show. Like, crazy!hate it.
I think, though, that the reason I feel so strongly about Sam/Dean is the way the show is created. Sam and Dean are the only two characters with credits, because they're the only two characters guaranteed to be in any given episode. There are very, very few recurring characters and since the boys skip town from ep to ep, not enough time to get to know or care about most of the guest stars. (This is, of course, changing now that the boys are spending so much time at the Roadhouse.) I think the nature of the show fundamentally encourages shipping Sam/Dean in that way. I think that's why a lot of the SPN het fic I've seen is crossover fic--with BtVS, say, in which Faith's character has been given enough screentime on BtVS for readers to care why she and Dean might want to get it on.
I both like and am annoyed by the lack of other characters on the show. For fanfic purposes, I really enjoy having a large cast of characters to work with. I feel like because there's really only Sam and Dean (and to a lesser extent Ellen and Jo and Ash and Gordon and Bobby and their dad), unless I'm writing fic that's firmly situated in canon--here's what happened in between Episodes 3 and 4 that we didn't see or here's what Dean was thinking when Sam went all evil--I feel like it's difficult to come up with plot for a fic. I don't want to write--they go hiking and kill *another* Wendigo LOL. With Buffyverse fic, say, it's not difficult for me to think of plot that's outside the elisions of canon because there's so many well-fleshed out characters with their own backstories and futurestories, etc., to mine. I also feel like in SPN, a lot (not all) of the monsters they face have this sort of "a hunter almost never encounters this creature in his career and now that we have slain it, we shall ne'er encounter another again in all our days" feel to them. On Buffy, there's always another vamp to stake or trip to LA in which wacky hijinks can ensue. I feel like what I'm saying in this paragraph makes a shit ton of sense in my head and almost none as I write it. Anybody can tell me what I mean more clearly? LOL
I guess what I mean is that while I enjoy fic in which Sam and Dean are really the only characters, I wish the show allowed for fic in which they are two in a cast of characters that interacts regularly, because as it stands, you've gotta write a lot of OCs if you want them to interact with other people (and a lot of the guest stars feel like OCs to me in a way because you know nothing about them really).
But, because I am apparently possessed by Walt Whitman, I also adore that Supernatural is so insular. I feel like we really are getting to know Sam and Dean in a detailed and intimate way that's rarely accomplished on TV because screen time has to be parceled out among a variety of characters for most shows. Which means that I care about Sam and Dean much more (and cared much more quickly) than I expected.
I think, though, that the reason I feel so strongly about Sam/Dean is the way the show is created. Sam and Dean are the only two characters with credits, because they're the only two characters guaranteed to be in any given episode. There are very, very few recurring characters and since the boys skip town from ep to ep, not enough time to get to know or care about most of the guest stars. (This is, of course, changing now that the boys are spending so much time at the Roadhouse.) I think the nature of the show fundamentally encourages shipping Sam/Dean in that way. I think that's why a lot of the SPN het fic I've seen is crossover fic--with BtVS, say, in which Faith's character has been given enough screentime on BtVS for readers to care why she and Dean might want to get it on.
I both like and am annoyed by the lack of other characters on the show. For fanfic purposes, I really enjoy having a large cast of characters to work with. I feel like because there's really only Sam and Dean (and to a lesser extent Ellen and Jo and Ash and Gordon and Bobby and their dad), unless I'm writing fic that's firmly situated in canon--here's what happened in between Episodes 3 and 4 that we didn't see or here's what Dean was thinking when Sam went all evil--I feel like it's difficult to come up with plot for a fic. I don't want to write--they go hiking and kill *another* Wendigo LOL. With Buffyverse fic, say, it's not difficult for me to think of plot that's outside the elisions of canon because there's so many well-fleshed out characters with their own backstories and futurestories, etc., to mine. I also feel like in SPN, a lot (not all) of the monsters they face have this sort of "a hunter almost never encounters this creature in his career and now that we have slain it, we shall ne'er encounter another again in all our days" feel to them. On Buffy, there's always another vamp to stake or trip to LA in which wacky hijinks can ensue. I feel like what I'm saying in this paragraph makes a shit ton of sense in my head and almost none as I write it. Anybody can tell me what I mean more clearly? LOL
I guess what I mean is that while I enjoy fic in which Sam and Dean are really the only characters, I wish the show allowed for fic in which they are two in a cast of characters that interacts regularly, because as it stands, you've gotta write a lot of OCs if you want them to interact with other people (and a lot of the guest stars feel like OCs to me in a way because you know nothing about them really).
But, because I am apparently possessed by Walt Whitman, I also adore that Supernatural is so insular. I feel like we really are getting to know Sam and Dean in a detailed and intimate way that's rarely accomplished on TV because screen time has to be parceled out among a variety of characters for most shows. Which means that I care about Sam and Dean much more (and cared much more quickly) than I expected.
