What do you think about the directing of 7x21? I know it's written and directed by the same person (and usually that should make it better quality, right?) but...I can't bring myself to watch many of Hester's scenes because it feels so lackluster. Like the way Inias runs up to her, grabs her arm and she punches him. I don't know, I find it more silly than anything (oh and Meg's scenes too, felt weak) XD

Oh, I never really noticed that at all. I mean I know they’re not particularly popular fan fic side characters (and you can practically date a fic by them remembering who Inias is to use him as a friend for Cas, not that his pickings have got much better since then :P) but they didn’t get a whole lot to do in the episode and Hester was basically there to shout at Cas exposition about how the angrier angels felt, so they never delved into how Cas had really known them before… Not like I would have expected a whole 12x10 flashback thing but I guess that is some context on HOW much more we can get to know the side angels :P I never really thought about their parts before because they kind of just happen. I never noticed any of the action being particularly weak, except for the way they used body doubles for Meg, which is completely and utterly forgivable, given *why* she was having issues with the stunts.

I generally think that despite the enormous number of side characters, the show almost always has great actors who try hard, and give it their all, and I always thought Hester was at least really good at the shouting at Cas part :P She always seemed suitably angry. So I’ve never really had a problem with her character. 

My only real critique of the directing I’ve ever thought of before is that the Sam and Cas reconciliation conversation which was SUPER IMPORTANT for the both of them was clearly written to be background noise to Meg sneaking out and they mute the conversation down and put her on screen so you can completely lose track of what Sam and Cas are saying to each other while they’re talking about Cas saving Sam and taking on his hell damage for himself. Obviously with Edlund writing and directing that really shows more intent, that that conversation was apparently never really considered to be the priority, and that kind of annoys me because Cas has so little good screen time in season 7 that deals directly with his emotional arcs it’s just disappointing to me that his one real conversation with Sam has this in the middle of it. I just completely lose the thread of their conversation because it’s interrupted and I can’t juggle it all >.>

But yeah, Meg and Hester are not really major parts of the episode compared to the Cas stuff and what HE says and does, and the Kevin stuff, and I thought that was all really beautifully done. Or the cuts back and forth between people when they’re opening the tablet and Cas wakes up and stuff. Or the “playing Sorry!” scene which is literally my favourite exchange on the show. I would never think a character with half a dozen lines could ruin the episode or make it feel bad overall if I didn’t really like them, when the rest of it is SO GOOD :P

once again asking, does ben edlund know he's got a little fanclub over here on tumblr.com

Haha it really was Edlund to the rescue in 6x22 right? Sera getting her hate on (she was very bro-centric) but Edlund was not about to let that fly. Thank Chuck he was as good as he was, not just in writing Cas and working with Misha but just storytelling in general. You FEEL the love and care for Cas in his writing. And there's a general weirdness and dark comedy running through his episodes that I love.

I don’t think Sera was hateful in any way - I think she just didn’t get or care about Cas a whole deal… I mean she let Edlund pitch 6x20 and take up valuable time to tell an episode which actually moved the plot on roughly five-ten minutes of plot content from the reveal at the end of 6x19 with the drama that could have happened, say if you only saw the Dean, Sam and Bobby POV stuff from the episode :P So she had to appreciate what others had to say about him, just not finding very much to say about him herself, or for it to occur to her that his side of the story was worth telling or could be made compelling or interesting.

There’s a quote from her which says Cas has no subtext and I think she generally just didn’t look too deeply into Cas and saw him just as playing piece on the board left over from the apocalypse arc - important to the plot in his own way, but emotionally expendable and not particularly worth any exploration beyond what he could do for the plot.

I mean, the indifference is sort of almost worse than hate, when it comes to satisfying storytelling (when I was writing rewatch notes for 7x21 vs 7x23 I talked for like 10 paragraphs per every line Cas said in one, and then vaguely summarised a scene with Cas in it in the other >.>) but I don’t think anything she did was intended to be cruel. 

Among all the people related to spn, I wanna see Ben Edlund's reaction to NHI the most. He has contributed greatly to our descent into meta madness despite no longer writing for spn. I blame him for all the wonderful meta ideas he came up with x)

Yeah, that would be a thing of glory. *sighs wistfully* He’s an inspiration to us all.

Father of Meta.