Heading out to case the promise land

It is that time of year when Remix things happen. To which end, if you haven't already seen it and are interested in participating, you might want to check out this post, for discussion of qualifying fandoms and whatnot.

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Even though this is the most frightening SPN time ever (yes, more frightening than that terrible time in S5), I bravely watched again yesterday.

I am seriously very nervous about all this awesomeness. It's like they heard what I wanted in S6 (soullessness aside) and are actually delivering. Boys! Saving people! Hunting things! An arc that isn't all-consuming and over which they have no control! Sam and Dean talking about things and trying to protect each other and still respecting each other's choices. Bantering and teasing! I don't know what to do with it.

I admittedly do not love that Sam has a whole lot more guilt to deal with--I figure if you go to hell to make up for what you did before, you should be exempt from guilt for a little while--but I really like that this is Sam's story, and that the focus is on him and his feelings. And I also like that he got hurt in Friday's ep because he was determined to stay and do the right thing. He was for real and for serious and for true Sam of old. (And he told Dean he needed him! Just like in Hunted! And Dean was helpless to refuse him!)

I am not even almost bothered by the ending. I mean, maybe I'll regret that, but I just can't see anything majorly bad coming of it. It's too early. There's 9 eps of the season left; he's not spending that time dead/incapacitated/irreparably broken. He just isn't. Plus, I'm reliably informed he's walking and talking in the previews for next week, so... I figure all those people foretelling his death are not accounting for the power of having a Dean to make it better. And hug him. *nod*

And as I said in comments today, I kind of like that they've had him remember so soon after he got back. It's what I like about this season, because things are happening. They didn't draw out Sam not knowing last week; they didn't draw out Sam being wrong and Dean not knowing why before that, and they didn't even really draw out Sam getting his soul back, once Dean had decided it was going to happen. We had two seasons of not talking and not trusting, and taking a step forward to take 3 back. This is very refreshing.

My only concern, truly, is that I've seen this show before. I can't escape the suspicion that they are going to break my heart all over again, and this time it will be so much worse, because they have given me hope. The fuckers.

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I am still way behind in White Collar, but I am also still loving it. Not just Neal and Peter and Mozzie, but everyone. They're all a team, and they've managed to populate it with a cast of really believably awesome characters. I am almost tempted to spend the next week writing so I can qualify with it for remix. That would be totally doable, right?

And in A Song of Ice and Fire news IT IS TERRIBLE! TERRIBLE! What! I haven't finished the fourth yet, because I have stopped spending every spare second reading it. Because, as I might have mentioned...TERRIBLE!

I mean, I'm still enjoying it, but there are all these characters now I find I don't care about, and no Tyrion. I still kind of love Jaime, but I am in no doubt that there's some horrific fate waiting just around the corner, as there is for everyone else. When I stopped last, Brienne was having her face eaten. I mean, really now. It's probably just as well the series will probably never be finished. I'm almost sure everyone but Sansa would be dead by the end.