From Ask Ausiello ...

[apocalypsos]

The italics are mine.

Question: As much as the female fans of Supernatural seem to hate the idea, I think that Bella and Ruby added a nice dynamic last season. Will the show's writers ever stand up to the fans and give at least one of the brothers and ongoing love interest? -- Jeff
Ausiello: Not if they value their life. And based on Eric Kripke's response to this question, I'm guessing they do. "The most dangerous job in Hollywood is to be the recurring female lead on Supernatural," Kripke laughs. "No, the formula in terms of romance that really has proven to work best for us is a girl in every port. Not that there’s not ongoing characters. But there are going to be recurring female characters threaded in and out of the story, and they will affect the storylines. But just to have them in sort of passive love interest roles is something that hasn’t really worked."

Oh, faaaaaabulous. I'm part of THAT fandom.

*headdesk*

(Not that I didn't know, but ... you know, past Kripke's lips, it sounds even worse.)

Comments

[kerri]

Huh, you really think so? I'd have said, judging by my flist, that a lot of the fans of SPN don't want recurring love interests - they seem to grow a love for them just when they know that they're going to be cut out, finally.

I mean, I do think that Kripke thinks that with Dean and Sam's lifestyle is too mobile to not have the 'girl in every port' thing, and I get that. But my impression of fandom is that there are far, far more many viewers who don't want females involved than just a vocal minority. Not just from my flist, either, but from the way that Kripke has talked about it.

[apocalypsos.livejournal.com]

Don't you find that depressing to even contemplate, though? I mean, fandom clamors for them to see Bobby again and loves it when they go see him, but if it's a recurring female of their own age range ... oh, no, it's impossible! They're always on the road! They never come back! It doesn't make any sense.

I really do think that it's a vocal minority. Sad to say, but people don't usually write to writers and show runners because they love a storyline, they usually write because of things they hate. Of course Kripke's probably hearing mostly complaints about women on the show. Can you remember the last time you wrote a letter to a company because you LIKED something?

[kerri]

Oh, it's definitely depressing... Like I said, I'm just going by the reactions of some of the people on my flist, and I do think that there's a lot of subtle resentment towards the women. I remember people being all irritated at the very idea of new women being introduced, and as the season progressed, there was a lot of hate.

I don't know, I could be wrong, and I'd love to think that I am. I know that there are some people on my flist who I love, because they were obviously upset over the lack of female leads. I'm just not sure that the rest of fandom - female fans of a show where the two leads are incredibly hot - is as intelligent and unbiased.

[hunterwithcause.livejournal.com]

I don't want to see Sam or Dean in a relationship. I really don't.

Not because it messes up my Wincest or because... actually, I don't know why non-Wincest people don't want to see Sam and Dean in a relationship.

I don't want there to be any romance because in my experience, it doesn't work. It sounds forced or doesn't make sense or any other number of reasons. It' very rare that I like romantic relationships between characters on TV or in a book.

So yeah, when it came out that their would be recurring female characters in s3 I was biting my nails and praying that I'd still like the show afterwards (because nothing gets me off a show faster than bad romance). I haven't seen s3 yet, but what I heard sounds pretty good. So here's to hoping.

Also, I like pretty much all the female characters that appeared in s1 and s2 (even Cassie) and wouldn't mind seeing them again. Even if they turn out to be romantic interests.

Yes, there are some bat-shit crazy people in fandom who'd rather kill all the female characters before one of them might maybe under circumstances be considered a love interest but those are a very small part. Quiet vocal, yes, but very small.

I do hope that Kripke and the others know this. I agree with that argument about writing letters when you hate something but still, given how well-liked Katie Cassidy and Lauren Cohen are now in fandom, surely the SN crew know that not everyone's that fanatic?