InsaneJournal

I read recaps on TwoP but tend to stay off the forums these days. Every time I peek in, I remember why I stopped doing that. For example, the Anna thread in the SPN forums is dedicated mostly to trying to think up legitimate reasons for their instinctive hate of her based on the fact that she is a female character (who isn't a mother figure and is under 30 and playing someone who is sort of a love interest). The dislike appears to be based on 1) things which never actually happened and 2) a strange and persistent belief that SPN is a better quality show than it really is and that Julie McNiven is not a good enough actress to be allowed on it. Now, I think SPN is a better show than people who don't watch it think it is, but it's also not as great a show as it could have been or as good a show as the hardcore fans often think it is-people always get so *betrayed* when the seams show.

Anyway, it'd probably be a lot easier to get Kripke to give the show better female characters if female fans didn't keep hating on the ones that already exist (which prompts him to get rid of the girls or tear them to down please the fanbase). As many fans as there were protesting the Unfortunate Implications of S3, there were an equal number ranting and yelling about how adding a regular girl to the cast was going to "ruin the show".

And female characters are *certainly* held to different standards.

which has been brought up

Also, I really, really don't want to come off like Kripke and co. with their "the fangirls hate all the female characters on the show for no reason" rants, but I have to wonder, if Anna and Castiel's roles were reversed, if people wouldn't still hate Anna and love Cas. I'd imagine in that case, Anna would be perceived as this angel bitch who threatens to put Dean back in hell, chooses her orders over him and doesn't tell him everything about the seals, whereas Cas would be applauded as the tragic story of the beautiful angel who was so brave because he was willing to give up everything just to know what it's like to be human.

That is *exactly* what would happen. And everyone would stil choose to slash Dean and Castiel and find some excuse why Anna was miscast/isn’t a good enough actress/is obviously secretly evil/was written into the script to distract fans away from D/C, etc. Not that I have any problems with D/C- I *don’t* but when you're dealing with a character not known for his monogamy anyway, there's no reason to fight over him.

One person even said Anna was "manipulating" Dean. I don't see it that way but even if she was, *everyone* manipulates Dean! That's what S4 is all about-everyone using Dean for their own agendas. Unlike Ruby (I ain't sayin she's a gold digger but...) Anna's "agenda" in that ep was to a) stay alive and b)have a nice last night on earth if she wasn't going to make it. Burn her, burn her now! She didn't yet know exactly what was going on or who she was talking to.