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Article by Sylvia Bond
Sylvia Bond is a ten-year technical writing veteran with too many degrees under her belt to count. She lives in Colorado, but does not ski, preferring instead to spend her money and time at the annual Great American Beer Festival, taking road trips across the United States, and reading historical fiction from the comfort of her fluffy green arm chair. She has been involved in fandom since 1993 and been writing fanfic since approximately 1993. What she finds most amazing about fandom (besides the open heartedness of fans and the sheer amount of creativity) is how visible fandom has become. "In my day," she says, "we had to hide behind P.O. boxes to get fanfic. But nowadays, people wear t-shirts that shout their affiliation and share their shiny toys on the internet." It's a wonderful world. 109 Comments
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I'm the founding editor of Pink Raygun and a proud Deangirl (just sayin'). I don't usually post in this thread because SPN gets me worked up to the point where all I'm able to do is screw my face up and stutter, "POOPY!" But, Dean has a permanent place in my TV Boyfriend Petting Zoo.
There is room for all fandoms around here, SPN or otherwise.
"But, Dean has a permanent place in my TV Boyfriend Petting Zoo. "
Aw, that's good to hear, AlphaGirl! :-)
I love this sites articles and reviews, and usually I'm okay with the Sam bias here. I pretty much expect to find a lot of Dean criticism from the regular people who comment here, and I understand Sylvia prefers Sam/Jared over Dean/Jensen and again, that's fine. But I just feel like bashing Jensen is being encouraged here now, and I'm sorry, but that's just not cool to me. You certainly don't have to love or even like Jensen, but I don't know why people can't praise Jared without resorting to knocking Jensen as an actor. I mean, no matter how much people criticize Jensen here, it's not going to make me think any less of Jensen as an actor. So, I don't see the point? Jared is wonderful as Sam and Jensen is wonderful as Dean, IMO.
But again, I know this is primarily a Sam/Jared girl site, so I expect praise for Jared and none for Jensen. But it just seems it's a whole lot of Dean hate, and now Jensen is being thrown to the wolves as well (probably because so many Sam girls hate Castiel and resent the Dean/Castiel storyline, so might as well bash Jensen too, I guess?). It's just become unpleasant, in my opinion. Oh well. Thanks.
Well I have to say that "But, Dean has a permanent place in my TV Boyfriend Petting Zoo. "
Aw, that's good to hear, AlphaGirl! :-)
I love this site's articles and reviews, and usually I'm okay with the Sam bias here. I pretty much expect to find a lot of Dean criticism from the regular people who comment here, and I understand Sylvia prefers Sam/Jared over Dean/Jensen and again, that's fine. But I just feel like bashing Jensen is being encouraged here now, and I'm sorry, but that's just not cool to me. You certainly don't have to love or even like Jensen, but I don't know why people can't praise Jared without resorting to knocking Jensen as an actor. I mean, no matter how much people criticize Jensen here, it's not going to make me think any less of Jensen as an actor. So, I don't see the point? Jared is wonderful as Sam and Jensen is wonderful as Dean, IMO.
But again, I know this is primarily a Sam/Jared girl site, so I expect praise for Jared and none for Jensen. But it just seems it's a whole lot of Dean hate, and now Jensen is being thrown to the wolves as well (probably because so many Sam girls hate Castiel and resent the Dean/Castiel storyline, so might as well bash Jensen too, I guess?). It's just become unpleasant, in my opinion. Oh well. Thanks.
I think you'd be happier if you either quit reading the comments here, or hung out somewhere else entirely. Might I suggest that you'd be happier over at Television Without Pity? It's pretty much all Dean, all the time over there.
I see comments here aimed at Jensen that I don't care for, I agree. I see comments here aimed at Jared that I don't care for. But what I come here for, first and foremost is to read Sylvia's reviews, and to discuss the episode with other people. That's the whole point in coming HERE instead of going to one of the other sites that offer reviews and/or episode discussion.
(Yes, this comment was edited, because I changed my mind about what I wanted to say, and how I wanted to say it. Being snide with someone solely because they're being snide first is no justification.)
If some fans commented that Dean was out of character, and others felt that Ackles acting was a bit off this week, still others commented that Ackles did an-above-and-beyond sophisticated and subtle job (as he always does) presenting Dean denying his feelings. We have all kinds of opinions this time around, from all kinds of fans – and they are all at complete and total liberty to call it as they see it. Which they do, and for which I am very glad.
All Samfans and Deanfans are free to comment here about the script, the pacing, the acting, to squee, and dither, and discuss, and yes, critique when warranted. However, critiquing isn't bashing, but perhaps you were unable to see the difference.
I think that the posters here are incredibly intelligent and passionate about Show, and don't tend to critique just to be mean or sassy. What you're reading here is real, honest feedback. No one was bashing Ackles that I could tell, merely, they were making observations that were completely reasonable. Should you find yourself uncomfortable with this kind of genuine feedback, however, you are of course, free to find what you are looking for elsewhere.
AlphaGirl is right, there is room for all, SPN or otherwise. But with that comes the need to play well with others. Which everyone here does, regardless of personal opinion, and, indeed, sometimes in spite of it.
Yeah it's not exactly a Dean/Jensen friendly place anymore but thats to be expected when the reviews are written by a Samgirl pandering to other Samgirls, it's just unfortunate that in reading the review with the comments it creates a false impression that the majority do not don't care about Dean's storyline and on top of that think Jensen's a bad actor all because the fans who visit this site are as biased as the reviewer.
Anyone maligning Padalecki's or Ackles' acting abilities will officially have to shut up after the episode that airs after Free to Be You and Me (the five-years-into-the-future episode).
Holy crap – Ackles plays two versions of himself on screen and at the same time. Through the subtlest changes in the way he moved and emoted, at no point was their confusion as to which Dean was on screen – now that is some serious acting.
Similarly, Padalecki played both himself, and himself hosting Lucifer – and as Lucifer, his affect was so not-Sam (while never going over the top), that there can be no doubt Padalecki has the acting ability to do any role he wants.
Even the actor playing Cas was amazing at playing two different versions of himself. Great jobs all around.
I don't understand why these comments keep appearing, nor where they're coming from. And frankly, I'm not exactly crying into my beer for all of the fans that feel compelled to come in here solely to post their disdain for the fact that there's more than one opinion being expressed here. People are allowed to dislike Dean. They're allowed to dislike Jensen. As long as they express those opinions in a respectful, non-bashing way, you're just going to have to live with it. If you want to rebut a particular comment, why don't you do that, instead of posting solely to complain? I must say it comes across very poorly.
Sylvia is allowed to like one character more than the other, and if you've read her reviews, which I suspect you haven't actually done, at least not very many, you'd see that though she has a preference, she tries very hard to write balanced reviews, and has even managed to pull that off when the episodes themselves were out of balance. I'm tired of all the people coming on here and looking down on her, and her writing, solely because you don't like that she doesn't share your preference. There are tons, and tons of sites out there that worship the ground that Dean and Jensen each walk on. If that's what you want to read, why don't you go hang out there and allow us to continue our discussion in peace?
I don't understand why these comments keep appearing, nor where they're coming from. And frankly, I'm not exactly crying into my beer for all of the fans that feel compelled to come in here solely to post their disdain for the fact that there's more than one opinion being expressed here. People are allowed to dislike Dean. They're allowed to dislike Jensen. As long as they express those opinions in a respectful, non-bashing way, you're just going to have to live with it. If you want to rebut a particular comment, why don't you do that, instead of posting solely to complain? I must say it comes across very poorly.
Sylvia is allowed to like one character more than the other, and if you've read her reviews, which I suspect you haven't actually done, at least not very many, you'd see that though she has a preference, she tries very hard to write balanced reviews, and has even managed to pull that off when the episodes themselves were out of balance. I'm tired of all the people coming on here and looking down on her, and her writing, solely because you don't like that she doesn't share your preference. There are tons, and tons of sites out there that worship the ground that Dean and Jensen each walk on, to an unreasonable extent in some cases. If that's what you want to read, why don't you go hang out there and allow us to continue our discussion in peace?
I am a Deangirl but do not find anything biased about Sylvia's reviews. Yes, she comments she'd like to see more Sam in some episodes – if I was reviewing there are episodes where I'd say the same thing about seeing more Dean.
What I haven't seen is her putting down Dean to build up Sam. She doesn't do that. In fact, unlike many reviewers (unbiased, Sam biased and Dean biased alike), Sylvia was able to see behind Dean's spoken words to his real feelings. This means to me she is watching and reviewing the show in as unbiased a manner as is possible for any fan who has a preference.
And by that, I don't mean a preference that impacts her analysis of the episode and the character. Her preference for Sam comes out in the extra comments about how fine Sam he is looking, etc.
I may not be a Samgirl but my goodness Jared did look good in this (better than last season when I felt he was too bulked up). He looked even better in one of the photos from a cut scene (reminiscent to the towel scene in Hell House).
I have read truly biased reviews (some Sam and some Dean). I can say that the reviews here are not in that category. And only a few comments are totally biased. Most of the parties commenting on Sylvia's reviews are reasonable even with their complaints. It is a shame you are considering foregoing these reviews because you are having difficulty seeing the difference between attacks on the characters and complaints about the characterization.
This Deangirl intends to keep coming here every Tuesday for one of the better reviews of the show. I also find myself commenting here, which is unusual for me. I'm usually a lurker but the discussions and remarks here have drawn me out. And I'm not afraid to comment either (on some truly Sam-biased review sites I am afraid) because most of the comments show the parties making them are reasonable adults discussing a show they love.