Supernatural
| Name: | Supernatural |
| Abbreviation(s): | SPN, occassionally SN |
| Creator: | Eric Kripke, Robert Singer, Sera Gamble |
| Date(s): | 2005- |
| Medium: | Television series |
| Country of Origin: | USA |
| External Links: | Supernatural on imdb |
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Subpages for Supernatural: Click here for other articles related to this fandom on Fanlore. | |
Supernatural is an hour long drama that follows the nomadic lives of Sam Winchester and his brother Dean Winchester as they travel the United States in their black 1967 Chevy Impala, hunting down and vanquishing supernatural foes like ghosts, demons, and other mythical creatures. The Winchesters were raised into the hunting lifestyle by their father, John (Jeffrey Dean Morgan), who began a path of vengeance to find the demon responsible for his wife's death in 1983.
Each episode of Supernatural has a monster of the week theme with a self-contained plot, as well as an annual narrative arc that deals with the repercussions of the Winchester's demon hunting lifestyle.
Supernatural was created by Eric Kripke, who wanted to cross American Folk Tales with traditional horror. [1]
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The Supernatural Fandom
On LiveJournal
The Supernatural fandom has a large and active presence on LiveJournal, including a daily newsletter [2] and many communities [3] dedicated to discussing the show or celebrating certain characters, pairings, or other aspects.
On Fanfiction.net
It also has an active presence on fanfiction.net, with a large number of stories archived as well as many story community listings for organizing and reccing stories, and SPN discussion forums.[4]
Supernatural Wiki
Many members of fandom contribute to the comprehensive Supernatural Wiki.
Slash, RPF and "Wincest"
Due perhaps in part to the tight focus of the show on the Winchester brothers, they themselves are the fandom's main pairing. This incestuous pairing is commonly known as Wincest, and has occasioned some controversy both within and without the fandom. Some stories and writers portray the relationship dynamic as fundamentally unhealthy and explore the dysfunctional aspects, while others portray their relationship as a more traditional romance, or as some combination of the two.
The actors who play Sam and Dean also make up the main pairing of Supernatural Real Person Fiction, called J2, or the smooshname Padackles for the names Jared Padalecki and Jensen Ackles. CWRPS features actors from Supernatural interacting with those from other CW Network shows such as Smallville, One Tree Hill and Veronica Mars.
Perhaps because there are comparatively few other pairings to choose from, and the choice between a main pairing based on incest or RPF is one that many people prefer not to make, Supernatural has a large gen community. An average of about 40% of the fanfiction listed in the newsletter every day is gen.[5] However, there is also a healthy het community focusing mainly on canon pairings such as John/Mary and Sam/Jess, OFCs, and crossover pairings.
However, the focus on Wincest and J2 as the almost only slash pairings shifted during the run of the forth season (2008/09), which introduced Castiel (played by Misha Collins), an angel who saves Dean. Dean/Castiel has become more and more popular, while RPS fans started writing stories about Jared/Misha, Jensen/Misha and threesome fics.
Conventions
Controversy
What controversy hasn't there been in this fandom? Sexism and racism in the source text and the fandom have inspired several imbroglios, especially during Season 3. At the start of season three, some fans felt that the show's tone had shifted, becoming disconcertingly misognynistic; the season-by-season Bitch Watch [6] was an attempt to shore up this assertion by citing the sudden prevalence of sexist slurs in the source.
Supernatural fans have also been known to fight over whether the actors on the show are stupid, cocaine-addicted, would look better with a few additional pounds, or are paragons of virtue, often resulting in wank, such as the aftermath of Jensenvention and PETJA.
A vid about Supernatural fandom, its joys and controversies, was made by counteragent in 2008: Still Alive.
Supernatural in Fanfiction/Fanzines
Fan Fiction (Should the fanfiction section redirect to gen, Wincest and J2 pages, because the fandoms are so different? Or should all the tropes/genres be listed here?).
All should be listed since they all are parts of the SPN fandom and this is the main overview where people can start learning about the fandom. But there is a lot more that needs to be added in this section about SPN fan fiction than just listing the gen/slash/rps types: how quickly the fan fiction community grew, what tropes are common, major fan fiction communities (both on LJ and elsewhere) and fan fic challenges (big bangs etc). Who are the influential or controversial fan writers--Morgandawn 07:14, 10 March 2010 (UTC)
Fanzines Most Supernatural fan fiction is online. However, a small quantity of fanzines continue to be produced, mainly of the gen variety. In addition to traditional fanzines, Supernatural has also created a thriving amount of doujinshi 'fan produced comics' in both English and Japanese. The bulk of these fanworks contain Wincest with a small smattering of J2 (or RPS). A complete list of Supernatural fanzines and doujinshi can be found at Supernatural/Fanzines.
Art
Communities for art include supernaturalart and spn_fanart.
- The ABCs of Demon Hunting by Gnatkip: the "Supernaturalphabet"
- Alters #6: Supernatural by vito-excalibur: What if Sam and Dean were black?
- Supernopoly; a SPN version of Monopoly by Reveria: link to art.
- TBA
Vids
Supernatural is a fandom with a lot of vids, many focus on the relationship between the two brothers and more often than not angst is a major element. It was a big vidding fandom from the first; there were four Supernatural vids, all made by major vidders, in the 2006 premieres show at Vividcon the year it premiered: Morgan Dawn's God Says Nothing Back, Ghost Song by Greensilver, Evening on The Ground by Lithiumdoll, and Seems Like A Long Time by Barkley. Unfortunately, because there was limited footage at that time, these vids featured many of the same shots: a woman on fire on the ceiling, a car with one broken headlight, a woman in a nurse's outfit, etc. The nuances of these excellent vids were therefore missed by the baffled moderators of that year's Vid Review, Luminosity and Speranza, neither of whom had seen the show at that point and who consequently gave them short shrift. (Luminosity later went on to make some of the most famous vids in the fandom.)
Some of the more popular vids are known for their creative approach to visualize certain themes and ideas. Luminosity's The Fifth Circle for example merges SPN with non-SPN footage to give a better impression of hell and the use of effects is quite stunning.
Other vids are meta commentary on the canon, fanon or fandom of the show. The vid Women's Work drew attention to the simultaneous sexualization of, and aggression towards, women in the source text while Still Alive uses images of women from the show to represent fandom/fen and attempts to provide an overview of Supernatural fandom with a focus on Season Three.
- Bricks by Luminosity
- Fall of Man by Obsessive24
- Grrrindhouse by Danegen
- Ode to a Bitchface by Monkie
- Channel Hopping by ash; link here
References
- ↑ Reference needed
- ↑ SPN Newsletter[1]
- ↑ SPN Directory[2]
- ↑ Over 18,500 SPN stories are archived as of 10 November 2008, also 121 SPN ff.net story communities and 73 Discussion Forums. (Accessed 10 November 2008)
- ↑ [3].
- ↑ Compiled by Trollprincess on May 19-19, 2008, in three posts: Season 1, Season 2, Season 3
