I love how the cast sits back and lets the fans call Carver out on his shit. Like They just turn around and sit back like “Yes, my children. Be free. Drag him the way I cannot because he controls my paycheck.”
I’m not even in this fandom, but this is still super satisfying.
I love love LOVE how people like this say “we have to go where the story takes us.” No. The story is not sentient. The story does not have a will. The story is an artificial construct CREATED BY YOU AND CONTROLLED BY YOU.
It is fine if you start writing something and YOU, THE WRITER, realize that you want to do something different, or focus on a different character, or the plot evolves in a way that does not line up with your initial outline. You can CHOOSE to go in a different direction or focus on a different thing, but when your audience points out that your CHOICES are problematic and distasteful, you don’t get to say “The story made us do it!”
No. You did it. You chose to do it, you wrote it, you approved it, you filmed it and you aired it. And good for the cast for letting him squirm.
What I think is interesting about this, though, is that whereas Bob Singer, when asked a variant of the same question, was utterly straight-faced and serious and seemed to believe what he was saying, Jeremy Carver is stammering, clearly lacking the same conviction. The bit about “there’s so many ways to answer that” feels like it comes with the implied rider “but I’m not allowed to discuss them”, and given that he word for word defaults to Singer’s earlier answer –
the “we go where the story takes us” bit – I can’t help feeling that what Carver’s saying here is the party line, not his actual opinion.
And let’s not forget, it was Singer’s wife, Eugenie Ross-Lemming, who cowrote Dark Dynasty. Carver and Singer are both EPs, but Singer’s been in the role for far longer than Carver, and I’d lay money he has seniority in terms of decision-making. Given how many of the cast members and writers were up in arms about Charlie’s death – and even here, you’ve got every main actor physically turning their backs on Carver, siding with the audience, to say nothing of how many of them came out on social media against it – I think it’s pretty clear that there was a creative schism about going through with it, and that while Singer and Bucklemming were demonstrably pro, pretty much everyone else, possibly including Carver, was against it.
Which doesn’t absolve Carter in the slightest for having signed off on it; the actors are totally justified in letting him flounder here. But I do think it’s relevant to note that Supernatural has a broken creative base as well as a broken base fandom, and that if Singer – who’s clearly got a hell of a lot of pull over the show, given how long he’s been running it – hadn’t been pushing for Charlie’s death, if he’d been neutral or against it, then things probably would’ve been very different. If Singer hadn’t pushed for it, I don’t imagine that Carver would’ve done it on his own. However he justified it to himself at the time, he clearly knows it was a bad call, but is constrained in what he can say about how it happened.
It’s also worth comparing Misha’s reaction here to his reaction when Bob Singer answered the same question at this year’s Jibcon. Here’s Misha’s face when Singer starts talking:
That is the face of a man who knows he’s about to hear some bullshit and isn’t allowed to offer a contradictory opinion. And, true to form, Misha stays quiet while Singer talks, looking by turns bored, angry, awkward and frustrated, rubbing his arm and staring off into the distance – and when he does finally speak, which only happens after Singer is applauded, he mentions that death is seldom permanent on Supernatural, implying that Charlie might come back, adding a quick ‘no offence’ to Singer.
But when Carver is asked the question here, the reaction of the actors is instantaneous and, once Mark Sheppard starts laughing, unanimous: they all turn away, they all laugh, Jared interrupts Carver, who can barely speak without stammering, and the vibe is totally different. Even though the actors are holding Carver accountable by leaving him to answer solo, their behaviour also makes it clear that they know he doesn’t believe his own answer; that this is something he deserves to have to suffer through, but which is still a joke, albeit a bad one.
tl;dr: Carver is flustered because he knows killing Charlie was a bad move, but still has to own his part in it, even though he regrets it and was likely pushed into it by Singer; Singer, by contrast, was unflustered answering the same question at Jibcon because he believed then and still believes now that it was the right call, and that the death wasn’t problematic.
Title: Third Wheel Rating: PG-13 (Bucky/Natasha/Steve. Stuckynat?) Summary: Steve is obsessed with Bucky and Natasha’s relationship. Bucky’s gonna find Steve his own date if it kills him. Natasha thinks Bucky is perhaps overlooking the obvious.
***
“Is it starting to become unsettling?” Bucky asked, pretending not to notice Steve watching them from across the room with a huge smile on his face.
“Starting?” Natasha replied, reaching out to adjust his tie.
“Well, Stevie and me, you know,” Bucky said, shrugging. “We always lived in each others’ back pockets. And it’s not like he ain’t used to being a third wheel, back when he was a little guy.”
“But?”
“I don’t think he ever liked one of my dates before,” Bucky admitted, sipping the probably-very-expensive drink in his hand. Stark galas were full of rich people that Bucky didn’t especially like, but he kept showing up because it was good publicity and also the booze and snacks were free and usually top-notch.
“Well, he knew me before,” Natasha pointed out.
“And you never tried to set him up with anyone like my dates were always doing,” Bucky agreed.
“Sure, let’s roll with that idea,” Natasha said smoothly, thinking of the dozen-odd women and handful of men she’d tried to get Steve to go out with, once upon a time. The circle of people she would actually allow to date Steve had contracted drastically after the fall of SHIELD, it was true.
“Hey,” Tony Stark said, as he passed. “Is there a reason Steve is staring at the two of you with stars in his eyes from across the room?”
“Any closer and even he knows it’d be creepy,” Natasha replied.
“Fair enough,” Stark said, and wandered on.
“We gotta do something about it,” Bucky said. “It’s not healthy, all this vicarious living.”
“For him or for you?”
“Both?” Bucky rubbed the back of his head and cast a covert glance at Steve, who was beaming. “We need to find him someone.”
Natasha kissed him gently and said, “That’s an excellent idea. I leave it in your hands.”
***
A month later, Natasha congratulated herself on providing weeks of really excellent super-soldier themed entertainment, while Bucky paced back and forth in the living room and ranted.
“This wasn’t this hard when it was the girls who were picky!” he said, throwing his hands in the air. “I mean at least when he was little he was less choosy!”
“Are you sure about that? Steve doesn’t strike me as a man to let desperation get in the way of self-righteousness,” she said, needling him with a grin.
“No, you’re probably right, but – twelve dates! Twenty-seven if you count the speed dating!”
The speed-dating had been glorious. Steve had gotten fourteen offers out of fifteen possible while being more awkward than Natasha believed he could be. He’d kept the sheet of phone numbers like a prized scorecard and hadn’t called a single one.
“I asked him if he liked boys,” Bucky said darkly. “Do you have any idea what having that conversation is like when you’re both from the Depression?”
“I wish you’d waited so I could have seen it,” she complained.
“I think it’s the first time either of us said the word ‘bisexual’ out loud. It was like a farce.”
“But at least now you know his potential dating pool is wider,” she said.
“I don’t think that’s true at all, he’s just as picky about men,” Bucky said morosely, dropping down onto the sofa next to her. She pulled his head over onto her shoulder and petted his hair, pleased that the new conditioner she’d slipped into his shower was making it really soft.
“Well, maybe we should narrow our criteria. Figure out what he really wants in a date,” she said.
“I tried that with JARVIS. He built a whole profile, put out a couple of options. Steve said no to some and didn’t want a second date with the rest.”
“Anyone on the list you didn’t set him up with?”
“Well, JARVIS suggested you. And me. But obviously…” Bucky sighed. “I mean obviously he does like us, just, together.”
Natasha hummed thoughtfully.
“Why the noise?” Bucky asked her with a suspicious look.
“Well, he does like you and me,” she said.
“We’re his friends, of course he does.”
“And he likes us together.”
Bucky grinned and kissed her. “We make a striking couple.”
“Maybe we’d make a striking triple.”
The kiss stopped, awkwardly.
“You think…you and me and him?” he asked, voice slightly strangled.
“I like him. You like him. He likes us, and we know he’s a good kisser.”
“Yeah, but – wait,” Bucky straightened. “How do you know he’s a good kisser?”
“I kissed him,” she said. “Before your time. How do you?”
“Well, we had to practice on someone when we were fourteen and horny,” Bucky said, then blinked. “You really think…?”
“Can it go any worse than the last month did?” she asked.
“I guess not,” Bucky said thoughtfully. “And at least then he’d be standing next to us looking all goofy instead of across the room.” He looked at her. “You’d be okay with that?”
“How shall I hide my sorrow at being catered to by two of the hottest men on the continent,” she said in a monotone. “It will take effort, surely.”
“We always did best when we were sharin’,” Bucky mused. “Okay, well. If you’re game, so’m I. You wanna ask him now or wait until we’ve, you know, done some courting? Take him to dinner a few times first? Maybe we should ease him into it.”
“Do you want to spend another month coaxing him into romance?” she asked.
“Please, God, no.”
“Then there’s no time like the present,” Natasha said. “JARVIS, where’s Steve?”
“Captain Rogers has just finished swimming,” JARVIS said. “If you hurry, Agent Romanoff, you may catch him in the shower.”
***
Two hours later, naked and still smelling faintly of chlorine, Steve lay between them, closed his eyes blissfully, and said “Finally.”
“Finally?” Natasha asked, drowsily curled around his right side, head on one magnificent pectoral.
“I thought I was gonna have to say something myself,” Steve said. “Neither’a you were taking the hint.”
“The hint,” Bucky repeated darkly.
“I spent literally all my time telling you how happy I was spending time with you two,” Steve said. “I couldn’t’ve made it any plainer without being indecent. And you’ve always been better about being indecent than me.”
“You let me spend a month setting you up with people – ‘cause you didn’t want to be indecent?” Bucky asked.
“Well, that and it was fun to watch you go berserk,” Steve admitted.
Natasha laughed, wrapping a leg around his thigh. Bucky sighed, rolled over, pulled the pillow out from under his head, and then savagely attempted to beat Steve to death with it.
*damn it fine but I will not see it opening weekend it’ll be WEEKS later after another movie is crowned the #1 Movie in America okay?? Fuck you marvel*
kototyph 