Supernatural (Anime)/YMMV

Everything About Fiction You Never Wanted to Know.

"This isn't Wall Street, this is Hell! We have a little something called integrity!"

  • Alas, Poor Scrappy: Bela.
  • Alternate Character Interpretation: The show thrives on this so much that sometimes it comes back to bite them on the ass.
    • Sam can be either saintly or smug.
    • Dean's martyrdom is portrayed as either saintly or as something unhealthy and damaging.
    • Dean's sluttiness can jump between funny and harmless or compulsive and slightly sad, or he's either a charming playboy or a womanizer.
    • Sam was either jealous of Gordon taking his brother/father/mother figure away from him, or genuinely concerned about Dean latching onto a replacement Daddy figure.
    • John Winchester comes off as either a man who is willing to sacrifice everything (including himself) for his family, or a callous bastard who emotionally abused his children in the pursuit of revenge.
    • It remains unclear whether Ruby truly cared about Sam or if she was just using him to raise Lucifer.
    • In 7.12 "Time After Time", Was Kronos an repentant monster who killed only to fuel his own powers, or was he genuinely tired of millennia of involuntary "Quantum-Leaping" through time and honestly believed his victims were necessary sacrifices so he could remain tethered to 1944 and be with the woman he loved?
  • And the Fandom Rejoiced: In the Season 4 finale, a demon in a Flash Back traps a group of nuns in a church, launching into an increasingly disturbing rant about his "father." He picks up a very big knife and flashes old Yellow Eyes, letting everyone know that just how Magnificent a Bastard he is.
  • Angst? What Angst?: "Skin".
  • Anvilicious:
    • The moral of "It's a Terrible Life": Working in an office is OMG EVIL! And anyone who would actually enjoy it must be a "douche!" And living on the road is good, noble and wonderful. (Basically stated by an angel at the end of the episode. Also the "douche" part was stated by Sam at the end of the episode, too).
      • By putting these words in the mouth of that angel though, the authors were able to dodge a lot of flak for it: After all, a douchebag said it, so the audience doesn't have to believe it.
    • Processed food makes you fat and stupid. Also, the food industry is run by monsters who doesn't see you as much more than cattle to be exploited.
      • Considering how much Sam and especially Dean emjoyed processed food and food in general in Seasons 1 - 6, it seems to be less Anvilicious and more just a smart plan by Dick Roman...everyone has to eat after all. As for companies being treated that way, it seems to be less the companies than the eternally hungry Leviathans possessing/pretending to be those in the companies.
  • Badass Decay: In Season 5, being cut off from Heaven, Castiel's power is nerfed. Being a regular character instead of a recurring, he begins to be used for more comical scenes.
    • Since he's a regular character now, he's not allowed to become too powerful. Though in the next season, Castiel is all angeled up again and promoted to Heavenly sheriff. Sure, he still says awkward funny stuff and can still be knocked around by Raphael, but he also crushes cars, goes through multiple warrior angels like butter, and holds Heaven together with practically nothing but duct tape. Still pretty Badass.
  • Broken Base: Why can't we just all get along?
    • The Psychology Club vs. Action, Monsters, and Rock Salt vs. The Hardy Boys with Hotties.
    • Sam!Girls vs. Dean!Girls vs. Bi!Bro. Castiel!girls are now starting to get into the mix as well.
      • In addition to arguing over who is the best/hottest character, the there also fans, at any given time, arguing over who the show shoves into the background and who takes up all the spotlight: Sam,[1] Dean, or Castiel?
    • Bastard!Daddy vs. Daddy Of The Year.
    • Monsters Of The Week vs. The Destiny/Self-Worth Arcs.
    • Seasons 1-3 vs. Seasons 4 & 5 vs. Seasons 6 & 7.
      • More broadly fought are the Showrunner Wars: Eric Kripke vs. Sera Gamble. With Jeremy Carver stepping up as the new showrunner, its bound to only get worse.
    • Dean/Castiel vs. Wincest.
  • Bro Yay: The writers themselves hung a MASSIVE lampshade on this in "The Monster At The End Of This Book," in what can be considered a Crowning Moment of Funny for some.

Dean: There's Sam girls and Dean girls. And what's a slash fan?
Sam: As in...Sam slash Dean. Together.
Dean: Like..."together" together?
Sam: Yeah.
Dean: ...They do know we're brothers, right?
Sam: It doesn't seem to matter.
Dean: Ah, come on. That's...that's just sick.

    • And then there's Becky, the world's biggest Wincest-writing fan who can't stop touching Sam.
    • Ash, in his own Heaven, stated that everyone has their own version of heaven, with "soulmates" being able to share one Heaven. Cut to shot of Dean and Sam.
    • And there's Zachariah's Lampshade explanation of Sam and Dean's relationship in "Point of No Return":

Zachariah: You know that Sam and Dean Winchester are psychotically, irrationally, erotically codependent on each other, right?

  • Complete Monster: The celestial bureaucrat Zachariah. He views humans as completely disposable and loves to "persuade" people into serving him by torturing their friends and family to death in front of them. He's as sadistic as Alastair, but thinks he's one of the good guys. You can't even really call him a Well-Intentioned Extremist; his intentions are anything but benign. His ultimate goal? The 'cleansing' of the world...and he doesn't even seem to care about a greater good. Only his own self-advancement.
    • Lilith. Her evil deeds include killing an entire police station to get to the Winchesters, laughing as her hellhounds rip apart Dean, eating babies, and possessing little girls and tormenting their families For the Evulz.
    • Alastair. A Torture Technician who really enjoys his job.
    • Azazel.
    • The leader of the Leviathans, Dick Roman. He wants to turn the entire world into a slaughterhouse by making humans into a stupid, easily controlled and never-ending food source. He also shot Bobby in the head, killing him, although Bobby came back as a ghost. He also has no problem eating Leviathans or forcing them to eat themselves when they fail. Also, his entire plan is hidden from the public by means of tainting fast food sources to making it look like the slaughterhouses being built are really hospitals, which will cure cancer among other things. To top that off, he also hates humans and demons in a manner similar to Lucifer and comes off as a cross between Faux Affably Evil and a Smug Snake.
  • Continuity Drift: In the first season, vampires were shown to require blood in much smaller amounts than in other shows and movies (it took weeks for an entire coven to drink enough blood to kill two people). This is very difficult to reconcile with later appearances (i.e., they were somehow unable to drink cow blood without slaughtering the cows, despite having a huge supply and being easily able to go from cow to cow?).
    • It should be noted the vamps draining the cows are really brimming with blood lust because, while they just need blood to survive, they want human blood. The slaughtering of the cows may be less consequential and more a brutalization for the sake of brutalization, just to work out some of that tension. Besides, John's journal says "victims are taken to the nest to be drained for days or weeks." It doesn't specify the number of victims and it doesn't give a specific amount of time.
  • Crowning Music of Awesome: Their use of Styx's "Renegade" at the end of "Nightshifter." Watch and fall in love.
    • Kansas' "Carry On Wayward Son" plays during every season finale recap, and is often synced to the action like some kind of officially-mandated fan music video.
      • For the season 2 recap, they used AC/DC's "Hell's Bells." Watch it here.
    • In "Bloodlust," they give a number to the car: AD/DC's "Back in Black" heralds the Impala's return to the road after her destruction in the Season 1 finale.
    • Dean blaring Def Leppard's "Rock of Ages" on the car stereo as he drives into the middle of Armageddon to get upside the face of the two most powerful beings in the universe short of God Almighty.
    • "O Death" by Jen Titus.
    • Smoke on the Water
  • Cult Classic: Definitely big, but only within a select number of people.
  • The Cutie: Dean, before the issues came through thick and fast.
    • Possibly subverted too, seeing as how whenever the boys act all cutesy and 'normal' (Sam in the beginning of Season Three was quipping loads but falling apart trying to save Dean, and in the comedy episodes "Hollywood Babylon"/"Folsom Prison Blues", fans thinking that Dean was somehow really off were proven right in "What Is And What Should Never Be" when it was revealed that he had only been getting worse and more suicidal), something is usually very wrong with them.
  • Die for Our Ship: Any female that gets near the boys is vilified by the show's Yaoi Fangirls.
    • Although Ellen and Pamela were typically very popular with female fans. One might wonder if many of the fangirls' chief problem was that most of the love interests are little more than Token Romances and are given few defining characteristics of their own. This is demonstrated by the sudden turnaround in attitudes to Ellen's daughter Jo, who was practically a Creator's Pet during her early appearances in Season 2, but after some serious displays of Badass in Season 5 and seemingly defying physics by turning down a night with Dean, became a much more popular and relatable character to female fans.
      • And then she dies.
      • Jo's character is extremely Your Mileage May Vary as there are quite a few people who did like her from the start and do believe she has a lot of character in her appearances, not to Creator's Pet levels. The sudden turnaround may not be because they saw she had more character, but because she :dies in the very same episode this happens in. Parts of the fandom are literally this trope embodied.
    • The fans seem to be easing up a little though, because, as of season 6, we have Lisa, who the fanbase is starting to embrace the more episodes she appears in. Might have something to do with the fact that she's presented as a three-dimensional character that's fairly sensible and supports Dean being a hunter.
    • Also people found her easier to relate to when she chose her son over Dean after he shoved Ben. Her being liked status might change because of the same event.
      • It hasn't changed it; in fact, Lisa's telling Dean off and then breaking up with him after said incident has made her MORE popular.
    • Aaaand the tradition continues with Meg, after she takes Castiel's first kiss in Caged Heat. And he responds. It's the cause of the current fandom uproar.
  • Disposable Woman: Mary and Jess. In the very first episode! So basically, the show's entire plot was fueled by this trope.
  • Draco in Leather Pants: Many fans still believe Ruby actually loved Sam.
    • It's implied that she did, in some twisted way, hope that they could rule under Lucifer together. Doesn't make her much less of a Manipulative Bitch, though.
    • The fanbase tends to focus on Gabriel's humprous qualities and Heel Face Turn, ignoring the enormous body count that his "jokes" leave behind him.
  • Dry Docking: With the fans who aren't Wincesters. This is why Jo had such a backlash in Season 2 and had to be written out.
  • Ensemble Darkhorse: This might be the reason why the show took so long to kill Bobby, and why he stayed behind as a ghost afterwards. Then again, fans loved Hendricksen, and look what happened to him.
    • Castiel was only supposed to appear in six episodes in Season 4, but he made such a good impression on the fans that the show made him a regular for Season 5. The fact that he's extremely attractive probably doesn't do his popularity any harm, either. The actor that plays him, Misha Collins, got his own Day in The Limelight with the Season 4 episode "The Rapture", though not playing Castiel in most of it.
    • Death. Despite his very limited appearances, he has very devoted fans. Might have something to do with his promise to reap God.
    • To some extent, Dean can be considered this as well. Although he was always a major part of the show, the first two seasons have him seemingly only loosely tied to the mytharc and the hero of the story seems to be Sam. Then instead of Sam, the revenge driven brother, killing the YED, Dean does it. He moves from being mainly Sam's protector to having his own solid position in the mytharc by season 4, with motivations that are much more sympathetic than his brother's.
    • The demon Crowley has become this, especially after his involvement in episode 5x20. It probably helps that he's played by Mark Sheppard.
    • Gabriel is also this, having both a large number of fans (he even has his own Big Bang on Livejournal) and a lot of people who want to see him again even after he was Killed Off for Real by his brother.
    • Arguably Bela, the latter the subject of a petition to bring her back to the show, despite having been ripped apart by hellhounds.
    • Like Hendricksen there was also Gordon Walker.
  • Escapist Character: The titular "The Girl with the Dungeons and Dragons Tattoo", Charlie Bradbury, is a female geek (like much of the show's fandom) who is smart, pretty, capable, and juuust vulnerable and flawed enough to be likeable. She even gets picked up in Sam's big, strong arms over the course of the episode. Of course, she's a lesbian, so there's no chance she'll interfere with the Sam/Dean ship and be castigated by the fandom for it. It's almost as if they specifically designed her to make people demand a second appearance.
  • Evil Is Sexy: Meg and the Crossroad Demon.
    • Also, Lilith when she possessed a grown woman.
    • Whenever Sam is under the influence of the demon blood or possessed.
    • Ruby
    • Bela
    • Eve, the Mother of All
  • Fan Disservice: Quite a lot. Enjoying Dean taking his shirt off? He'll be taking off his skin next. Liking Demon!John pinning Dean to a wall and invading his personal space? Prepare for sobbing, begging, and an awful amount of blood.
    • Let's not forget the female example in "Sex and Violence." We've seen gross evil reflections before, but of an attractive woman, during sex?! Yeeowtch.
    • It got worse in "My Bloody Valentine." A couple begin making out, it gets really hot, and then she takes a bite out of him, he takes a bite out of her; they eventually eat each other to death.
      • Actually, if one likes zombie and vampire movies, it may be considered Fetish Fuel.
    • Oh, boy! Castiel finally removed his shirt. It's a shame he carved up his chest with a boxcutter beforehand.
      • And in episode one of season seven, he opens his shirt and checks himself out in a bathroom mirror But his bod is deforming at that point. It ain't pretty
  • Fan Dumb: This is one of the craziest fandoms ever. Here's a partial list.
  • Fan Nickname: Due to the parallel between the two sets of brothers, Television Without Pity have dubbed the Winchesters "The Hardy Boys." This was actually used in "A Very Supernatural Christmas" and "Abandon All Hope."
  • Fan Yay: There's a reason this show gets coverage on AfterElton.com
  • Fan Hate: If you tell people you're a fan of this show, they'll probably assume you're a Yaoi fangirl, or just batshit insane.
  • Flanderization: Dean going from very flirt-happy to being a man-whore extraordinaire.
    • And while he was never really seen as a good father anyway, John seems to be getting more despicable every time they mention him.
      • To be fair, Dean idolised him at the start, while now, mostly through retrospective memories, he's shown to be simply human.
  • Foe Yay: Bela and Dean ("When all this is over, we should really have angry sex"), Sam to Bela (in a single dream sequence) and, of course, Sam and Ruby. Most recently Meg and Castiel, even including a very hot kiss.
    • Lucifer seems to want to have this with Sam. Sam's not biting.
    • Special mention goes to Castiel and Meg. Their interactions go way past just implying sexual tension.
  • Fountain of Memes: Despite (or perhaps because of) his Spock Speak, almost every other line out of Castiel's mouth is meme gold.
  • Funny Aneurysm Moment: In the sixth ep of season one, Dean says Sam's alright for lying and the truth sucks. That never bit them on the ass later on.
  • Fridge Logic: "Skin" - How did the SWAT get there, again?
  • Growing the Beard: While Season One was really quite good, "Devil's Trap" (or perhaps its first half -- "Salvation") is widely believed to be the point when the show started to rock.
  • Het Is Ew: For some of the fans. This also extends to real life.
  • Hilarious in Hindsight: In the episode "Hammer of the Gods" has Odin, among other gods, as a cannibal. Then news that Sir Anthony "Hannibal Lectur" Hopkins is playing him in the film adaptation of Marvel Comics Thor.
  • Holy Shit Quotient: reaches stratospheric heights in the later seasons, although probably the largest contributors to this tally would be "Hammer of the Gods" and "Two Minutes To Midnight" which both consist mainly of very powerful beings trying to kill each other and Sam and Dean trying not to get caught in the cross-fire.
  • Ho Yay: Has its own page here. As well as the Sam/Dean mentioned above, they've been pushing Dean/Castiel as far as they can go. So far, Castiel gets in Dean's personal space, stares into his eyes, watches him sleep and can make him his bitch. Awesome.
    • And as of the fourth season finale, it's pretty clear Dean can make Castiel his bitch as well.
      • "I'm the one who gripped you tight and raised you from perdition."
      • "I killed two angels this week. Those are my brothers. I'm hunted, I rebelled, and I did it, all of it, for you. And you failed."
      • Hung a big 'ole lampshade on that one, too: In a recent episode, Dean turns around to find that Castiel has materialized about two inches from his face. His response is priceless: "Cas, we've talked about this - personal space?"
        • Which might have worked out better, had Dean not promised to rid Castiel of his virginity in that episode (taking him to a whorehouse, natch), only to get tossed out. Many Castiel/Dean fangirls have been able to read between the lines of what might have happened when they got back to their house.
          • And "Point of No Return" hasn't exactly helped the situation. Despite the seriously dark tone of the episode, there are also plenty of long(ing) looks between Dean and Castiel, not to mention the suggestive comments Dean kept making. Winking, telling Cas to blow him and saying that the last time someone gave him a similar look, he got laid? The fangirls could be heard squeeing for miles around.
            • That episode could be said to count as majorly Getting Crap Past the Radar—when asked, actor Misha Collins very seriously said that he doesn't think Standards & Practices bothers to watch the show anymore, since everyone who watches it are "sickos" anyway. Which is true.
              • In "The Third Man" Castiel tells Sam that he and Dean share a profound bond. He then says to Dean "I wasn't going to say anything."
                • Note: This is when Castiel comes within 60 seconds of Dean calling him, while Sam had been praying for a year. Of course, there's a current angel-related crisis on earth while there hadn't been before, but Sam was not happy.
          • By ep 6.17 all the angels can see it:

Balthazar (to Dean): You must have me confused with that other angel--the one with the dirty trenchcoat who's in love with you.

    • And as of "Two Minutes to Midnight," Bobby and Crowley. Granted, they made a deal, and all deals are sealed with a kiss, but then this exchange happened.

Bobby: Why did you take a picture?
Crowley: Why did you use tongue?

Balthazar (to Castiel): You might as well blow some coke and jump on the bed.

    • An 'incredibly disturbing example between Dean and the vamp that sired him in "Live Free or Twihard." Dean was very visibly squicked out as Boris was offering him "the inside tour."
  • Iron Woobie:
    • Pretty much any hunter on the show would qualify, since hunters are usually created when their normal lives are ripped apart by some supernatural monster. Rather than drown in despair and alcohol, they pack up their lives, hit the road and chase those monsters.
    • A case could be made for Crowley. Sure, he's a bad guy, but he also spent most of Season 5 alienated from his own kind and with a death sentence on his head that could just as easily have been delivered by the Winchesters as by the demons he betrayed. Yet he snarks on.
    • Castiel, especially in Season 5 when he's falling. But even after he's re-angelfied and accepted into Heaven, he finds that he has to become the figurehead for an incredibly personal civil war between his brothers, and he's more or less had to go it alone.
  • Jerkass Woobie:
    • Sam and Dean.
    • Gabriel. It's rather sad when you consider that, given how easily Castiel realized he was Gabriel, that he has probably never had any interaction with his family since he left them to avoid the fighting. He finally shows some loyalty (to humans) and is killed by Lucifer.
    • Bela Talbot. Despite being a selfish person, some fans feel sorry for her because of her backstory. She was sexually abused by her father as a young girl and made a deal to stop the abuse.
  • Launcher of a Thousand Ships: Dean. Let's see—he generates a disturbing amount of Ho Yay with any male he's in the room with, has enough Foe Yay with everyone from Meg to Lucifer that, if you don't have one of them bound in any scene they're in, it's tantamount to a crime against S&M, and every straight woman on the show (except his own mother and Ellen) will attempt to get him into bed at least once. The writers have NOT been helping recently, either!
  • Magnificent Bastard: Boy howdy, Azazel. Even after his death, he's still able to pull the strings to complete his master plan.
    • The Trickster/Gabriel fits this, too.
    • Crowley. As of "Family Matters," he is now officially one of the most magnificent bastards on this show. Not only can he play Xanatos Speed Chess like a master, he has done the one thing both the angels and demons have been trying to do since Season 1--get the Winchesters to do what he wants them to!
    • And later in the season, we find out that he's apparently also got Castiel working for him, and they faked his death.
    • Lucifer is charismatic, calm, and calculating. He knows how to use people's emotional pain and doubts against them and actually succeeded in gaining Sam as his vessel by season 5 finale.
  • Memetic Badass: Castiel and Dean.
  • Memetic Molester: Alastair.
  • Memetic Outfit: Castiel. The holy tax accountant suit, loosened tie and signature trench coat combo—work it, Cas.
    • In the episode where he became God, he went to a church and replaced the standard Christian stained-glass painting of God/Jesus with himself....in that same outfit. Man, Castiel must love that suit and jacket.
  • Memetic Sex God: Dean. Demons, humans, and angels find him irresistible. Sam. Castiel, too (Misha Collins).
  • Misaimed Fandom: For the last time, deals are never a good thing and Sam and Dean are not paragons of saintly virtue. Is that clear?
    • You forgot "Sam and Dean are not gay." And neither are Jensen and Jared. There is a remarkably vocal portion of the fanbase that believes that the actors are in love with each other, and the various very public, very heterosexual relationships they've had are a conspiracy by the show's marketing department, even to Die for Our Ship levels.
    • There was a big kerfluffle on LiveJournal when someone counted the number of times Dean used the word "bitch" in the first three seasons, and it turned out to be several times higher during season 3 than 1 or 2. Nevermind context, that he was often talking about a female demon, monster or thief, or that he often uses foul language when he doesn't like something, the largely-female fanbase immediately blamed the showrunners. Any suggestion that it was a character fault rather than the writers' was almost completely ignored.
      • Yes, because clearly feminist criticism is misaimed fandom, and it is unreasonable to criticize writers for fictional stories they wrote.
      • But it's like criticizing the showrunners for Dean and Sam lying to each other all the time. It's a character flaw that makes them more human. They're not doing it to be intentionally sexist. Never mind that, despite the fact that feminism is about establishing gender equality, they seem to have no problem with how often Dean insults or demeans male characters, only with how often he does so in regard to female characters.
    • Already some are saying that Dean being the vessel that Michael needs makes him too special snowflake while at the same time robbing him of agency. The whole point of bringing it up was so that he could reject it and continue to fight in the human way.
  • Moral Event Horizon: "The Girl Next Door". Dean kills Amy, a Kitsune who only had to kill to bring her son out of a sickness. A kitsune who stuck with thieves and drug dealers. And he showed absolutely NO regret. The sad thing is that it's entirely in character for him.
    • Following episodes show that he actually does feel very guilty about it. He's having nightmares about it (and various other things) and it's driving him to drink more than usual.
    • Castiel ends up crossing this in "The Man Who Knew Too Much" where, in short order, he breaks the wall in Sam's memory (which sends him into a coma), then kills Balthazar and finally absorbs all the souls of Purgatory, declaring himself the new God.
    • On a less world-encompassing scale: Becky drugging Sam into marrying her.
  • MST3K Mantra: Repeat after me; Sam and Dean are fictional characters. Dean is going to get out of Hell, Sam's not going to do something brain-dead like make a Deal with the Devil and they're both going to be fine. Eventually.
    • *glances upward* Well, the original writer got one part of it right. I suppose you could say Sam didn't make a deal either, but that was mainly because no demon WOULD deal with him.
    • Also, Sam and Dean (and Castiel) are not your fictional boyfriends. Yes, you can have crushes on them, but you do not own them. And Eric Kripke is not trying to offend your personal religious sensibilities.
    • Also, Wincest is never going to become canon.
  • Narm: The daughter of the pastor guy in the first season ep about the hook-handed man, her acting was.. pretty crappy. Also the Non-Demon!Meg's acting in the second ep of season 4 as well.
    • For a scene that seemed to be trying to be dramatic, Sam dying in Ava's vision in "Hunted" probably would have been a lot better if not for Sam's almost completely flat yell before the explosion. Dramatic scene instantly made hilarious.
    • Most things Dick Roman does during Series 7. Kinda ruins his being the whole Big Bad thing.
  • Narm Charm: "Changing Channels". The whole damn episode.
  • Nausea Fuel: Pestilence takes this to a whole new (literal) level in each of his rare appearances.
    • "Skin".
  • Nightmare Fuel: Tons.The show lives off this trope. From the many usages of the Creepy Child to the Monster Clown to Shifter!Dean tearing his skin off, it's in love with it.
    • Azazel's slaughter of the nuns.
    • None of the Horsemen are family friendly, but Famine is a very special case.
  • Older Than They Think: To most Christian viewers, and other Westerners The Devil's origin story probably sounds unique. It's actually taken directly from Islam.
  • Only the Creator Does It Right: Many fans blame current showrunner Sera Gamble for the show's current less-than-stellar state. Note that the original creator still has some input on the show.
  • Player Punch: Pretty much the whole of episode 20 in regard to Castiel/Jimmy.
    • Episode 5x20 in regard to Crowley (played by Mark Sheppard).
  • Rape as Drama: Slightly implied what happened to Sam while in Hell. The first time he has a hallucination of Lucifer, he greets him with "Hi Sam. Long time, no spooning." It's compounded further when he tells him "You're my bunkmate. My bitch. In every sense of the word." While it isn't outright stated, it wouldn't be that hard to believe given the long years of torture he went through. And this IS the devil we're talking about here. Crosses into Fridge Horror
    • More or less confirmed in Repo Man

Lucifer: That's what I'm talking about, Sam. Real interaction again — I miss that — the rapier wit; the wittier rape.

    • Implied heavily between Alistair and Dean too. The former mentions "poking and prodding" way too often.

Dean: They sliced and carved and tore at me in ways that you... until there was nothing left.

  • Relationship Writing Fumble: With all their touchy-feely clinginess and suicidal co-dependent devotion canon, even the creator of the show has admitted that he can see why the fangirls see homoerotic subtext in the brothers' relationship.
  • Rescued from the Scrappy Heap: Jo, in Season 5, when she Took a Level in Badass and made a Heroic Sacrifice.
  • The Scrappy: Lisa and Ben.
    • And Rich Bitch Bela Talbot.
    • Does anyone actually like Becky?
      • Yes! She's just so funny.
    • Dick Roman.
  • Seasonal Rot:
    • Season 3: Executive Meddling led to Bela and Ruby, the audience was always Anviliciously reminded that Dean only had one year to live, and the season premiere ("The Magnificent Seven") was too bright and shiny. Season 4 has been a grittier improvement, but Genevieve Cortese is generally reviled in her portrayal of Ruby throughout the fanbase, and many fans really miss Katie Cassidy. Fans that weren't nearly so loud when she was actually onscreen. Season 3 was also weakened by the Writer's Strike, which cut it down from 22 episodes to 16 - thus making the storylines of the last 4 episodes rushed and abandoning great ideas, like the return of Ellen Harvelle (it was pushed back to Season 5). It had good ideas with Bela and Ruby, but over-focusing on the two - over the brothers - led to fan derision and may have contributed to Bela being killed off.
    • Season 4 and Season 5, with their considerable retooling of the Myth Arc, heavy use of Christian mythology, and larger cast, are looked upon more favorably by newer fans, and generally less so by older ones. This turned out in favor of the newer fans, as Season 4 boosted the show's sagging ratings enough to ensure there would be a Season 5.
    • And now Season 6, with its "return to form" approach, may have pleased some older fans with its drastically pared-down cast and concentration on the Winchester brothers' newest trust issues, but turned off newer fans. The ratings aspire to be Season 3. To a good number of the fanbase, the meta episode "The French Mistake", where the Winchesters somehow stumble into the actual set of the show, proved that the writers were clutching at straws after abruptly abandoning the soulless-Sam plotline. It didn't help that the episode was right after a far too peppy "monster of the week" plot (not dissimilar to those that permeated earlier, less angsty seasons) and the introduction of a new, somewhat derivative Big Bad...after more than half the season was over.
    • While season 6 had its flaws, and definitely suffered the loss of the original show runners, season 7 has had Supernatural showing its age badly. Concurrent with Castiel's abrupt death, the Leviathans were pretty much pulled out of the show's continuity's ass, don't bring anything new to the table, and their plotline is going nowhere fast, resulting in a lot of filler episodes instead. The other monsters are barely menacing, Bobby dies, Crowley makes a scant few appearances before vanishing from the story, and the Dean/Sam drama has gotten so overplayed that half of the dialogue is about how overplayed it is. At this point, the chemistry between the show's leads is about all it has left.
      • As the season progressed, however, the Leviathans have gradually become much more terrifying and threating as their plans have progressed. Even though they really only want to eat every last thing alive, they have arguably become the most dangerous enemy to the world since Lucifer- if not moreso, as Leviathan boss Dick Roman has been able to start a ruthless corporate takeover of other businesses, and as of the Season 7 finale, appears to be finally be able to mass produce a chemical to be put in foods that will fatten and pacify people to the point they can harvest most of the population, as well as being able to kill Angels with ease. While arguably Knight Templar Lucifer may have only wanted to make a world ideal for angels, the Leviathans would kill and eat them also.
  • Selfish Evil: Bela's not outright malicious, but she doesn't give a damn who gets hurt, as long as she stays rich and comfortable. This comes back to bite her in the rear when she steals the Colt from Sam and Dean.
  • Serial Escalation: At a certain point, the show crossed the line from Refuge in Audacity to this. It's just hard to pin down when. Was it at the Season 4 finale, when Lucifer is released, Season 5 finale, when Lucifer and Michael the Archangel go against each other or the Season 6 finale, when Castiel declares himself God?
  • Ship Tease: Open to interpretation. Obviously not the sort of thing that can ever be canon, but oh, the protectiveness, the feelings, the double-entendres, the one always trying to get the other laid...
    • Your Mileage May Vary. Others can easily see a very dysfunctional parent/child relationship: Dean displays a lot of doting/overbearing parent tendencies (calling his brother the childish nickname "Sammy", making his decisions for him, insisting on hanging onto his memories of Sam as a child), and all of Sam's acts of rebelliousness are very similar to an otherwise good son itching go his own way.
    • The episode titled "Sex and Violence."
    • Throw in "dying for the other," and you could be conceivably be talking about either Sam/Dean or Dean/Castiel.
  • Squick: Some of the heavier gore is just too much for some to handle. Case in point: Sam's fingernail being pulled out in "A Very Supernatural Christmas?" Ew.
    • The teeth and maggot scenes in "Malleus Maleficarum." Damn witches, always spewing their bodily fluids everywhere. It's creepy. And downright unsanitary.
    • "My Bloody Valentine." Nuff said.
    • Also, the end of "Hammer of the Gods," when Pestilence spews mucus all over everything. Where's a barf bag when you need one?
    • "The Third Man". "I think I'm bleeding". ...Ick.
    • "Caged Heat". The room in which Dean is attacked by ghouls.
    • "Skin".
  • They Changed It, Now It Sucks: Varies by season, writer, intelligence of watcher, religious views, how many bashing of any religion ever you can take, how many heads you can stand to see explode, and how long you can stand wondering "where the hell is Jesus in all of this?!"
    • Especially if excessive shots of muscled men irritate/bore you easily. Or excessively busty women. Or viewing sex scenes on your T.V.
      • Or how many lectures EVERY frigging demon spurts out almost any ep they're in like a cliched supervillain.
  • Too Cool to Live: Ash, the Southern-Fried Genius with a Mullet, Hendrickson, and Pamela the Deadpan Snarker Blind Seer.
    • And Gordon Walker.
  • True Art Is Angsty: Granted, there's funny and there's Breather Episodes scattered here and there, but do you have any idea how depressing it is to sit through an episode like "What Is And What Should Never Be?" It's widely considered to be a truly fantastic episode yet it's forty minutes worth of pure pain. stare and deadpan expression.
  • True Neutral: Death, unless you really piss him off (generally by being rude to him, binding him, or declaring to be God and accidentally freeing some Eldritch Abomination).
  • Uncanny Valley: Castiel doesn't blink nearly enough, combined with his trademark thousand-yard stare and deadpan expression.
    • In "The End", Lucifer-possessed Sam doesn't quite seem to know how to work his face. It's one of the creepier bits of the show.
    • Death, like Castiel, rarely blinks.
  • Unfortunate Implications: Were averted in the first seasons of the show, and then things changed as the story delved deeper to focus on a single religious mythology exclusively (something, incidentally, that Kripke had earlier said wouldn't happen) and every belief other than Christianity comes off as Religion of Evil. Even given the angels' dickish behaviour, they pale in comparison to the portrayal of the other dieties in "Hammer Of The Gods", in which it is explicitly shown that all the non-Christian Gods eat people, without exception.
    • This is made doubly egregious in that they are all (minus Kali) killed by Lucifer in a matter of seconds. This might not be so bad for gods for which faith has fallen out of practice over the centuries, but many of the gods effortlessly massacred are stilled worshipped in large numbers today.
      • Christianity isn't exactly portrayed in the best light either. Angels use friggin' souls as fuel/food/steroids.
      • Could be that since we know that Gods Need Prayer Badly, the fact that most of them aren't worshipped anymore has meant they have had to resort to more drastic measures to survive or regain some semblance of power. Even in the first few series we had examples of Gods who were resorting to sacrifices for this very reason. Then again, maybe Sam is correct and they're pissed off about being forgotten.
    • Not to mention that most of the supporting characters who get killed off are either black men or female.
      • And the fact that you can count on one hand, with fingers left over, the number of female recurring characters who did not die in a fire or from a stab in the womb. That is quite literally true.
      • Not to mention that all of the black recurring characters - all of them - are dead. Gee, that's not unfortunate at all.
        • Wait, what recurring characters AREN'T dead? Everyone except Sam, Dean, Sheriff Mills, and Crowley is dead as of Season 7.
    • In "Playthings", the woman who owned the haunted hotel seems to be inflicting elder abuse on her own mother by just sticking her up in the single room far away from anyone (yes, it's more like a safety measure but what if she fell and couldn't get up?).
  • Unintentionally Sympathetic: It's pretty clear in his last episode that he's supposed to be viewed as some kind of total monster, but it's still difficult not to sympathize with him to some degree.
    • ...Who?
  • Villain Decay: The Leviathans got hit by this bad during Series 7. Really, the moment Dick Roman and his continuous Narm showed up, they went from terrifying abominations that could be in anyone, to bunch of stereotpical Bond Villains that were not so much threatening as just plain goofy.
  • Vocal Minority: We swear to God, guys, we're not all sexist and insane. We're just quieter than the ones who are.
  • Wangst:
    • Season 4's "It's a Terrible Life" had Zachariah call them, particularly Dean, on this sort of behavior, showing by means of an elaborate Fake Memories scheme that although things are bad for them, they still don't have reason to whinge about everything as they are wont to.
      • That was somewhat averted though, seeing as Zachariah in question is something of a Magnificent Bastard and was being a huge ass in that scene and making a lot of false claims about how Dean's pre-Hell life was actually full of candy and unicorns and not, you know, death, mayhem, emotional abuse, torture and general strife as well. The creators got to give certain fans what they wanted on one level, but by putting their words in that character's mouth, they weren't making a positive parallel.
  • What an Idiot!: Minor character Garth, a hunter we only hear on the phone with Bobby.

Bobby: I don't know Garth, I've never heard of vampires doing that...drop a dime to the FBI, let them handle it.
Bobby hangs up, a different phone rings
Bobby: Agent Wallace.
Beat
Bobby: No, Garth, not me FBI, the real FBI!

    • We finally meet Garth in a Season 7 episode, and it seems he really is that stupid in person.
  • What the Hell, Hero?: Dean killing Amy.
  • The Woobie: The show's like a Woobie breeding ground but Sam and Dean are the woobiest of all.
    • Castiel arguably out-Woobies Dean and Sam, if only because unlike the Winchesters, he doesn't seem to have any sibling support when he goes through his troubles in Seasons 5 and 6.
  • Woobie, Destroyer of Worlds: The villain of "Hollywood Babylon". All he wanted was to make a gritty, real ghost story flick but McG was making it into a generic summer blockbuster.

Walter: I was making a work of art, and he was replacing it with cleavage and fart jokes

    • As of "The Man Who Knew Too Much" it looked like Castiel was heading down this road for Season 7, but absorbing all of Purgatory and hosting then releasing Leviathans changed that.
    • Lucifer. Inverted. He acts like this, and his excuse that he was cast out of Heaven simply for speaking his mind might have more than a grain of truth to it. However, it's clear as time goes on that he's very much an arrogant sociopath, and there are plenty of hints that he always regarded everything that was not angel as lower than dirt, and he's free to do whatever he wants to them.
  1. ↑ who, admittedly, was objectively a lot more important to the story for the first two seasons
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