Aeryn13

It's actually a toss up for me if this or the Series Finale is worse to me. Maybe the latter at this point. There was never really a chance I would change my mind into liking the Season 5 Finale because I viscerally hated it at the time. With a good show ending, I would have just ignored it and never rewatched, though. Now it is more like Game of Thrones or the 100, where I don't rewatch anything, period.

The problem with streaming is the buisness model. The old network model had a TV station running ads and the more popular the (re)-runs the better the money, so good residuals. Streamers, especially Netflix, pretty much solely make their money from their subscribers. Which doesn`t even cover the operating costs of the whole service in most cases. So not only is it impossible to say a subscriber subscribed for x show but what if they only stream 2 episodes of a given show? Or 10 minutes of an episode of one show? How to calculate what percentage of their monthly subscription fee will go to x show as residuals? They will all go bankrupt within a short time if they had to pay residuals. That`s IMO why the current studios and the writers/actors make no headway. You have the "old-fashioned" studios and the streaming studios who want, need and can provide totally different things. Yet they would need to agree to one rule for all to make a deal.

It`s a thin line. They can if they promote nothing of their work. Which at Comic Con would have been difficult because that`s less of a fan convention these days than a super-promo tool.

Buisness related, likely. But to a Con in the midst of a strike? If he wanted to be done as an actor, that would have been the way to go.

In what capacity? As an actor it would be quite difficult to go during the strike.

When I clicked on the link to the THR article, this passage was in it: "Actor Josh Hopkins has replaced the character who was played by Jensen Ackles, who departed the project due to a scheduling conflict." No idea if they mean just for some pick-up shoots or wholesale. I'm way more intrigued by the scheduling conflict.

I have no idea how the rights situation works out in this case. It`s one thing to licence existing products from another studio/company, another to do it yourself. The Winchesters was on amazon to buy pretty early on but of course noone ever really knows how shows do on streamers. What I`m baffled by is CW Nexstar not having made announcements already. I figured they would barely wait until the Seasons finished and then drop axes left and right. I mean they did for Stargirl. I don`t realistically see a future on the CW as is so maybe if Warner does continue to produce it then via a licencing/cost-sharing deal with amazon? Such things are not uncommon, the new Star Trek stuff was half-financed via Netflix, half by Paramount.

The SPN fandom is/was like any big fandom ever. It was kinda cute and positive (before it went too big) when it was a fledgling fandom in Season 1, maybe early Season 2. And then it grew and turned into an absolute dumpster fire and stayed that way. I have never seen a fandom not take that trajectory once it grew beyond a certain point. The "it`s a big family" is always a pipe dream. So at this point I just ignore it.

I don`t know they pulled those musical rights off, they are quite expensive. Overall I would grad the show positively. No, I didn`t think it was a slash-bam hit and the first Season of SPN was IMO better by a good margin. Then again, I think the first Season of SPN is one of three really good Seasons of this show. And honestly, the writing of TV shows in the 2000s/2010s, especially on the CW, was just more a dozen times more appealing to me than the writing of the 2020s. Watch first Season Flash and now Flash, it used to be charmingly campy, now it`s stupidly goofy. Something changed for TV shows IMO and it`s why I largely moved on to a different entertainment industry. And I won`t lie and say fixing Dean`s terribly lacking legacy via a little side mystery and a few scenes in the Finale here wasn`t a big appeal for me. There was almost no chance it wouldn`t have been. So the plotting of the Winchesters did have its iffy point. The Akrida was a good concept but lacking in execution - kinda like the Leviathans. Too much daytime shots when I would have wanted more atmospheric night time shots (makes it creepier), even though I liked some creative new MOTW. But I guess that was a directing/budget issue. But I will say the characters on the Winchesters did win me over. Carlos would have totally been a "shtick" in many other shows today and I never felt he was that here. He had his eccentricities but that he wasn`t defined by "shtick", he was a competent hunter and a person and that is what he should be. Lata was a rather loveable noob. John was a different kind of hunting noob in that he naturally already came with combat experience. And Mary, I feel, had the most difficult role of them. She was so Dean-coded in the show and the writing comes with its own pitfalls. I don`t feel the actress is bad but she isn`t Jensen`s calibre and Jensen smoothed out a lot of Dean edges in the mothership. Dean on paper and Dean in the show are worlds apart. I would be totally open to watch more adventures with this cast. Sure, they are "just" an AU which may lessen the investment but in this particular case it also helps with the resentments. I don`t have that much of a big problem with John even and how he turned out, even though the final episode in SPN was a big meh but SPN!Mary and how she ultimately came back? Boils blood. So I can like any version better than that one. And if that was the final word on it (which realistically it well could be), then I`m still glad I got it and have a fond look at it.

Jack is still a naive tool. "I wanted no meddling so mankind would be free to make its own choices." What choices could they make once they were all destroyed by Chuck`s final booby trap, you yokel? That is the exact kind of situation an actual benevolent God should step in. Well, since the guy can`t be counted on, the multiverse has a Dean instead. I`m happy to get something meaningful for him one last time. And that he may have given this world`s version of his family a shot of freedom and happiness. He clearly enjoyed that. Even though he clearly also didn`t enjoy his going back to heaven. Read the room, Jack, there is no "peace when you are done" because Dean doesn`t feel done and doesn`t want that kind of peace at the moment. Now I still think the ending of SPN was super-badly done as in how the story was done and executed but it does recontextualize Dean`s part somewhat in terms of personal and professional legacy. Beats the hell out of the uselessly driving around. And hey, if he did it once, it opens the possibility of doing it again.

The licensing money goes to the production studio, though. Back when the CW was owned by Warner and CBS respectively, that was no problem, using the CW as a content farm. Nexstar wouldn`t see a single dime of the licensing money with other streamers. That is why they are radically shifting their programming, they only make money via old-fashioned advertisement and live watching. That is a dying buisness model but alas.

Considering Dean and fixing his story is hardly the core of the Series and the focus of the story and likely dealt with only with a little pay-off in episode 13, the show so far proves that is not the case. Managing a little addendum on Dean`s story would just be a nice little frosting on the cake but not the cake. But considering side, any of them would hardly have a leg to stand on. Someone like Dabb certainly doesn`t have when it comes to stroking their own ego.

If Dean gets another ending, that in itself overwrites the Finale. Lets say it keeps Dean`s stupid death, the terrible words he is made to say and the bad wig as well as the heaven reunion as the end point, if you give Dean an adventure in between that happens to happen kinda as a mystery in the Winchesters, it is still overwriting things because that very clearly wasn`t implied to have happened. Especially if you have a time-loop-y Dean live out his years in yesteryore. Granted, I wouldn`t give a rat`s ass who loved that episode if I hated it and got a chance of a do-over. Now maybe it all shakes out differently anyway. But it already has been addressed in interviews that Dean-in-the-past is not just an easter egg but a mystery to be resolved in ep 13. And apparently by handing John the letter, he kickstarted something, i.e. some changes in the timeline at the very least. So a reset at the end? Or something in between?

Oh, I think there is a perfectly good chance Cas appears. He would be the easiest "answer" to how Dean might have gotten out of heaven and back in time if that is what it is. And I`m sure they would have a nice, warm-hearted scene together but shippers convincing themselves again it will be the lovey-dovey confession of the ages - without any hints as to why that would happen - reminds me of not just SPN but so many other shows where "it will surely happen" before it never happened scenarios. Sherlock, Merlin, Teen Wolf, Supergirl and apparently Destiel. Sam is also a possibility if they really tease "continuation" of SPN here. Unless it isn`t after Dean`s death but at another point in the timeline. But if so, you need to wipe Dean`s memories, too, because obviously at various points he didn`t know yet his mother was a hunter, the MOL were a thing etc. After his death is the "easiest" choice regarding his character with the current storyline. But then you would have either call back to the heaven reunion and go "well, they were bored and went back- somehow" or retcon the SPN ending with the bad wig and the rusty nail and everything. Which I`m all for.

And then bitch and moan when something that noone gave them the slightest indication would happen and is extremely unlikely to happen will not happen? Some things just never change. I doubt any big cameos will happen before episode 13. And then it`s a matter of availability as all actors filmed something else at the time.