Aithne

Wow, super happy for JA - the good news keeps coming. If Rust had worked out, that would've been a solid role in a movie, regular on two TV shows, AND successfully getting his pilot picked up to series. Not to mention the other irons he's got in the fire (ie the DC project). I think he's really setting himself up for a nice post-SPN career here.

Or Dean's the mechanic - he woke up with no memory of who he was, and he's built a nice little life working in the local garage. All he knows of his past is that he has a unique set of skills. Skills that make him a nightmare for things that go bump in the night.

Oddly enough, JA was acting with Travis Fimmel in Rust before it got suspended. Two Vikings connections there.

This would be a very clever explanation! I like it.

Wait, how do we know about alternate timelines? I totally agree, it would be amaaaazing if this ended either changing the ending or causing that timeline to splinter off and this one to continue on with Dean alive and well, saving people and hunting things, and growing into the retirement he should've had.

My husband and I love Lagertha and Montana, so we gave this one a whirl in S1. It was... mediocre, haha. Still, it was fun enough that we watched the whole thing, but have been too busy to catch this season. Gonna have to tune in for the finale - JA is looking good!

Aaaand, we've got a series order! Looking forward to seeing what JA and Thompson can do with this premise!

I used to think they'd probably try to do something, but then they killed Dean off at 40ish and followed him and Sam all the way to the literal afterlife. So... yeah. I no longer think that's in the cards.

I've never understood any "you're not a proper fan" stuff or why anyone would care about someone saying it to them. What value is there in achieving a standard of fannishness? To me, I like something or I don't. There's no virtue or vice or achievements involved. I guess what I'm saying is, if I were you, I wouldn't let anything like that affect your life. This is a spinoff pilot for a potential TV show. There are much bigger fish to fry in the world than whether you think it's gonna be good, or what someone else thinks of whether you think it's gonna be good.

Still rereading old fic, and wished I could find that great Cassie/Dean fic, but I couldn't remember what it was called or who wrote it. Started googling remembered usernames and happened on it almost immediately (and in the process, saw some other usernames I hadn't remembered, and I'm gonna have to remind myself of their fics tomorrow when it's not 1:30 in the morning on a work night). Lacuna, by innie_darling. What a lovely, dreamy fic. If you haven't read it before, look it up. It made me love Rt 666, in retrospect.

I was just discussing individualism vs collectivism in another forum and brought up this ep. It occurred to me while I was writing that the scene of Dean at John's grave is almost definitely an allusion to Jesus in the Garden of Gethsemane. For those who haven't read it, Gethsemane is Jesus's last moment as a free man before he goes to be sacrificed for humanity. He goes to talk to God (his absent father) privately and asks if it's possible to avoid having to do what he's about to do. He comes to the conclusion that it isn't, submits to his father's will, and goes out to die. Dean does a similar thing here - he asks why he and his family are the ones who need to give up their happiness, he acknowledges that he knows his father would say his life is nothing in comparison to all the people he saved, and ultimately acquiesces to returning to his life of sacrifice (and, though he doesn't know it yet, the biggest sacrifice he's been asked to make yet, two episodes later). Just an interesting comparison that I don't think I caught the first time, but I'm almost positive that it was intentional.

Between this and the shot from JA's insta, I get the impression this is going to be a very pretty, atmospheric show.

Yeah, it's the "played by other people" thing that's the sticking point. I don't mind as much for John and Mary as I would for Dean and Sam, because I don't feel like I have a major headcanon about who they are at these ages. For Bobby and Rufus, I feel like their appeal is 80% because they're crotchety old men. Young Bobby and Rufus probably wouldn't do it for me.

Being totally honest with you here, there aren't that many stories I'm interested in. I would've followed Dean into his later years - how he transitioned from active hunting to mentoring or whatever he ended up doing. But aside from that and my Stanford years impossible dream spinoff, I don't think there's much I would've wanted to watch. None of the side characters are enough to sustain a show imo. Sam's kid? Nah. A totally recasted Weechesters series? Nah. Mary and John with Dean narrating is as close as they can get to the actual family I care about, within the confines of what they did in the main show.

Oh, very interesting!

Could Millie could be the mechanic he was referring to?

Of course the interest would be minimal if this was another Dabb pilot. Imo he ran the original show into the ground - I'll never check out another project of his again.

I mean, I'm not either. That's why it was moronic to kill both of the leads off in the finale. I'm not interested in the hunter world, I'm not into Samuel Colt, I don't need a side character spinoff. Know the prequel I *really* want? Dean and John, the Stanford years, done with JA and JDM deepfakes. It won't happen, but I'd be there with bells on. Because at the end of the day, this family is what hooked me on this show. Their tragedy, and how they found meaning in it, and those endless Midwest roads with small towns and monsters lurking. Is this a perfect idea for a spinoff, to me? Eh. I care waaaaay more about Dean than I care about either of his parents. But I care waaaaay more about his parents than I care about most other characters on this show. So of the possible spinoff ideas, it's one of the few I'm actually gonna give a try to.

I've seen the prequel described as a cash grab by JA from some folks on other forums, and it always makes me laugh. This guy loves the Winchester family. I think he's the closest thing to a fanboy of his own character and fictional family that I've ever seen from an actor.

He's gotten massive, wtf. Didn't he say he'd lost all his Soldier Boy muscles? Dude looks like a pro wrestler. It's not easy to build or maintain that mass, so this has got me wondering if he's going back for S4 or if there's something else in the works.

I would've loved that episode to have had flashbacks. We never got any of the days between the Stanford fight and the Pilot - would've loved to see Dean and Cassie's romance.

Canon was dead in the water as soon as we found out God and the angels had been mindwiping, resurrecting, and just generally screwing around with memories and timelines. Did I prefer the concrete feel of the early seasons, before the powers that be decided to get all meta about the fact that we were watching a story? Sure. But like it or not, that show has been more than ten years gone. This show is doing nothing to "canon" that hasn't been done already.

That was the story. With Chuck meddling in the Winchester story so heavily, I think it's probably gonna be the case that John did know as a young man and his memories (or the entire reality) were tampered with to facilitate the story Chuck wanted to tell.

It's weird to me to have faces so different from Amy's and Matt's, but at the same time, Dylan Everett taught me not to worry about a physical match so much as acting chops. So I'm ready to see what these two can do!

Trailer looks amaaazing. Love Frenchie and Kimiko dancing even if it looks like it's probably a dream sequence, love seeing Homelander looking bruised and shaken (who did that to him?! Ryan? Maeve? Suped-up Butcher? It's about time somebody did!), CC and SB look badass, and Butcher vomiting on Hughie with "Is this entertaining?!" in the background made me cackle. This is gonna be an awesome season.