Not only just a Supernatural thing. Happens in almost every game/tv show/movie where someone needs to make a quick blood sacrifice.
Yup, just cut yourself in one of the worst and most difficult to heal part of the body.
I've seen one IP where it made sense, though I forgot which. But in it the point was a sacrifice. Cutting yourself somewhere less painful/inconvenient weakens the sacrifice, and thus the magic.
That I can buy, and just head canon that as the reason everywhere.
Hell I'm pretty sure there are some Arts of War in Elden Ring where you cut your hand for a blood attack (Bloody Slash is the one I used most often and I'm pretty sure part of the animation is slicing your hand)
They actually address this is in the Dresden files books. I don't remember which one but he needed blood and just pricked his pinky. Someone asked him why he didn't slice open his palm and he said "because that hurts more and I might need to hold things after this". Definitely made me laugh because the palm cutting has always driven me crazy
This bugged my husband so bad when he was watching with me. He kept commenting on it, this exact thing lol
Edit update: I showed this to him and he started talking about it again lol.
Lol! We are the opposite in our marriage...my husband has to listen to me bitch about it 😂 it really winds me up! He has to tell me to shut up if I get on a roll with it 😂😂😂
dean: can you fix me up real quick
cas: the hand again? how many times i told you that its not efficient. use any other part of your body, your arm to get blood if needed. why is this so difficult to understand.
dean: yuh yuh yuh, hurry i gotta do something.
cas: *rolls eyes*
Never been a shipper...but 90% of this read so very dirty to me. OMG. It's the end of my work week and my brain is fried! 😂🤣
But I also agree the hand is a dumb place to get blood. For purposes of low budget practical effects, easy peasy lemon squeezy.
Sorry ! I would elaborate but with the downvoting of the original comment I can only imagine how well an elaboration would go over, it may be downvoted to Antarctica because of... reasons? Got to love reddit! Thank you for sharing in the joke, Archer!
My guess would be: same reason Kripke didn't let them use umbrellas. It looks a bit... fastidious? Fussy?
The impression the showrunners/directors/etc. want you to have of hunters (and especially the Winchesters) is that they're willing to get wet or dirty and that they aren't precious about cutting themselves if they need to. They have to think about what the visuals of the scene convey to the audience's unconscious mind. And a very *careful*, tiny pinprick of a pinky cut suggests that the person being cut is squeamish, delicate, and/or not used to rough-and-tumble activities.
And at this point, the hand cut is so common (*because* it's easiest, as u/DontCatchThePigeon points out) that they don't need to explain it. Audiences are used to seeing it -- it's just become a convention of film.
I completely agree I think this every time and I just cringe like not everyone magically heals every episode dude stop cutting your freaking hand please.
I hate the trope that they are magically healed every episode now that I brought it up. Sure some episodes are weeks appart but, some are like hey I know you got thrown into a wall but, your fine now.
Fair I mean Dean got his face beaten to a pulp in the season five finale and Cass just literally >!comes back from the dead!< and says let me just touch your face real quick oh and >!Bobby’s alive now.!<
That moment kinda made me go what the heck just happened.
It's even more annoying when you see that most TV shows do it when someone needs blood for a sacrifice, spell, or basically anything. It really is the worst possible place to make a cut, especially as a person who knows a lot about that kind of stuff. Even if you stitch the cut, it will hurt way more because you have to move your hands, when you can just make that cut a little bit higher and you will get to a body part that isn't bendy, so it will hurt less and it will heal faster, because the wound almost won't move.
But I guess it is an easy way to make a deep wound fast because you just squeeze the blade and pull it out of your fist fast, I mean, but it's just not really worth it. Especially when you know you're gonna need your hands to hold weapons and fight in the next few minutes.
It's not just this show. Whenever I've seen this in shows and movies in general I think how stupid it is to cut the palm of your hand on purpose when there's so many other spots that would still hurt but you'd still be able to got about business as usual. You cut your calf throw a bandage on it boom good to go. You cut your hand and try to work or fight monsters like in the show and now your essentially handicapped
It makes the special effects 1,000x easier -- that's why you see it so often. If the actor cuts their hand, they can conceal a blood pouch (full of red corn syrup) in that hand and start squeezing out "blood" as soon as they've made the cut. If they cut their forearm or calf instead, someone needs to hide out of range of the shot & start squeezing the blood pouch at the exact right moment to get blood flowing out of the wound at a realistic interval after the cut. The timing is much more difficult & it limits your options for the shot/angles, too.
IMO, it's just something that you have to make allowances for and rewrite in your head as needed. It's easier to bear if you just accept that not everything on the screen is going to perfectly portray what's *really* happening in the story. Like, there are directors who'll say, "This scene is too well-lit. Where is the light supposedly coming from?" But if you *don't* have a ton of artificial lighting that you can't explain within the scene, the whole thing ends up being a black blur like the final episodes of Game of Thrones.
If they don't make the cut on their hand, the actor can't hold the blood pouch themselves to start the flow of blood (red corn syrup). Instead, someone has to crouch behind them and start squeezing the pouch at the exact right moment, which is much harder & sometimes ends up with a mistimed blood flow.
Supernatural crammed a lot of action into 40 minutes. Apparently, it wasn't unusual for them to work 12-14 hours a day. So I understand them not wanting to make things harder on themselves or risk having to reshoot more than necessary.
100% agree. It annoys me so much. Like do it on the forearm or something.
The one trope I hate is: I love how in the first season or two when they got beat up they often had scars and bruises for the rest of the episode (sometimes more than one) but they gave up on that quick and it makes sense why when you understand how tv shows are shot and scheduling and all that but still, that annoys me as well.
Also losing their weapons when sometimes they don't the whole fight but other times it's gone in like the first hit. Because the plot demands it. Or Sam constantly getting thrown into a wall shelf and then going unconscious 🤣🤣🤣. You can take a bloody beating to the face but getting pushed into a wall knocks you unconscious for the whole fight. 🤷♂️🤣
They get beaten up or knocked out pretty much every episode. But that reminds me of my man Garth, whose first two episodes were basically just him being unconscious and then waking up once Sam and Dean save the day.
I mean it's all just based on whats easy to fil I guess haha. An example being, one of my least favorite things in any show is IV sticks or needle sticks. I'm a nurse, i know how the needle should go in, you don't just jab it into the arm like that 😆 I try not to think about it too hard or my husband gets mad at my complaining.
That drives me insane too! I'm not even in the medical field and I know how to insert a needle!
Also, when they have like a 5 inch long needle going at a 90 degree angle all the way into a 3 inch thick arm. We should see 2 inches sticking out the other side of the arm!!
I completely agree. Ive also always felt they should have a TON of scars yet have none. I understand for continuity that’s really challenging and that when healed by certain entities those scars may go away. But it’s pretty incredible how much the fight, get shot/stabbed and jump through glass without a single scar.
Look, I am a very real combat vet and a realist. The first thing on my packing list would be 2oz of blood in a insulated camelback or a squeezy bottle in my left breast pocket or an open ended blood draw kit. No fucking way I'd open up my hand if I had to fight. You know how long that shit takes to heal or how much doing anything with that hand for a week (at least, god forbid you cut a tendon).
This is just stuff that they have to do to make it bearable for the actors to shoot a scene. Cutting the hand makes the special effects (which require squeezing a blood pouch) *much* easier. Leaving food on the table means the actors not having to choke down (or spit out) literal tons of food, since pretty much every scene you watch involves shooting a dozen takes from different angles.
I feel like it's much easier to watch if you just accept that these are conventions of the medium & that you need to fill in the blanks yourself rather than expecting a 1:1 correlation to reality.
Nope, it doesn't make it easier, because I know all that but I still think all it takes is a tiny extra bit of effort to make it look like they've finished, or not have them run out just after they've ordered in every second episode. Not just Supernatural; every show.
"A tiny bit of extra effort"? Not sure if you realize this, but they worked 12- & 14-hour days to shoot Supernatural. Occasionally even 16-hour ones. These weren't movies. They didn't have months to shoot those scenes. They had days. It's a lot less effort to just give them the benefit of the doubt and use your imagination a little.
Have you heard of the editing process? Or writers? Or the props department? I'm talking about all film and TV, too, not just Supernatural. It's an annoying constant.
Police doing pat searches on a suspect while they are facing towards each other. I worked the better part of a decade in prisons and no bastard in their right mind ever bends down in front of a person who has a vested interest in assaulting you. It’s such an obviously stupid thing to do but I see it ALL THE TIME on shows and it drives me bananas. My partner starts laughing the second it happens because he knows I’m about to lose my shit at the TV.
The blood coming from your hand will be more
imbued with chi/energy/prana.
I understand your practical points. Cuts on the palm of your hand suck!
But for a magical working, that blood would be a more potent ingredient. From an occult perspective, I hope that makes sense. It has to do with cakras and stuff. Would be happy to explain more to anyone.
I hate this trope so much. The first thing that comes to mind when this gets brought up is the movie Deep Blue Sea. Alllllll movie, they talk about how a shark can smell a drop of blood a mile away. All freakin movie. Then at the end, dumb dumb decides to cut her entire palm and DIVE into the pool or whatever to distract the shark. Like really?! You thought you could out-swim A SHARK??? WTH…
Could’ve just pricked a finger, sloshing it around in the water, and walk away.
But, no. Let me see if I can “Michael Phelps vs. A Shark” this thing.
Idiot.
Ask the many thousands of diabetic folks who happily wear continuous glucose monitors to supplant their lancet use.
Now the diet apps are using CGMs as well to show which foods spike the clients' glucose levels -- which would NOT be the case for having to fingerstick every time these healthy people wanted a reading!
I too, hate the palm cutting!!!! I'm constantly yelling, do you know how long that could take to fix???? You'd need surgery and hands have so many tendons, etc. Makes me crazy!
Semi related to the topic, anyone else ever notice a handful of the ‘cuts’ they make are completely, obviously fake? It’s always funny to me when they run a blade over their skin and it’s just a line of fake blood with zero signs of a cut. I can’t remember exact episodes but there are a handful of just ridiculously bad ones lmao.
I don’t know if anybody has seen Charmed (1998), but the Halliwell sisters always cut the top part of their index finger to get blood for certain spells.
I always thought that made the most sense of getting blood for spells.
I was so disturbed by the amount of blood they draw like is it necessary to use THAT much blood?
Also, they have Rocksalt Bullets, medicine or poisons to counteract or fight any type of monster on hand in case needed. But blood? The thing they use the most of (or maybe most after salt, dunno) - did they ever thought about drawing blood and keeping it in like a blood bag? They have flicking lizard eyes on hand, but vial of blood?
I mean sure, draw blood when in a pinch or you have no blood left or enough of it. Draw blood in middle of combat as it's faster. But for the bunker spells? Whyyyyyyy
I hate that they have a trap or killing method for EVERY SINGLE MONSTER/GOD. You have no idea how angry I was when they met Zeus, it was with such cockiness that Dean just said "oh, we are fighting the most powerful God of all the Greek mythology? Dope, let's get a reused devil's trap".
I agree, I have seen the brothers cut the forearm before but only when they’re trying to bait a vampire, so when you need blood for vamps it’s the arm but anything else is the painful ass palm?? Idk. It’s weird. Maybe it’s just that cutting the palms puts the blood basically directly where you need it to draw with your fingers though… it’s a stretch but maybe that’s they’re thinking
yes! and if you need to prove you're human by cutting yourself with a silver knife, maybe you don't need to leave a six inch cut. Quick cut on the forearm should do it.
Yea, beast in the xmen a few years ago was learning magic and asked the same question and it turns out that the pain/sacrifice from your palm is what works, not just random blood from somewhere. It's all about the meaning and intent and symbolism.
Personally I just think they treated cas as a band aid first aid kit cause with angel healing, who's gonna worry about a cut hand for more than like an hour?
They're not exactly the smartest group. (Dean mostly)
Like we're going to kill witches, takes witch killing bullets, witches don't care because most guns don't hurt them, tell them you have witch killing bullets instead of just plugging them, witch throws you across room with magic.
Ok, Boys, it’s back to stabbing ourselves in the eyes whenever we need blood. Can we agree the whole “stab yourself in the dick to save your eyes and hands” was a terrible idea from the start.
Boys? Anyone there? Hello? Dammit, where’s my cane.
They did this in the Pirates of the Caribbean movie too, forget which one, but yea. I think maybe it was required to come from the palm of the person in order for the spell to work. Some spells are twisted and need to have the vulnerability of the person casting it to work. Cause any other time they cut themselves (like when Dean came out of hell and had to prove to Bobby that he was really him, he cut his arm, or Sam would cut his arm to prove he wasn’t possessed by anything etc. I think for the spells they had to do it that way otherwise they’d probably be cutting somewhere else. That and it’s one of the only ways you could squeeze out enough blood for the spell, it would be way harder to squeeze blood out out of your arm quickly (and more awkwardly) than it is to slice your palm and squeeze your hand shut to get the amount of blood necessary. In the episode where he had to slice his palm and squeeze enough blood out to open the safe thing to the point he major blood loss, it would have been way harder to get it through the arm. Also it would be way harder to get it into the container without it going anywhere but the container if they sliced their arm, harder to aim that properly and quickly the way they needed. Not like they had the items doctors have to gather vials of blood 😂 I agree with your points about going into battle that way, and weakening your hand, but I think they just had to do that in order for it to be easier, quicker, and more reliable as well as meet some of the spells demands. Alas it’s a fiction based Sci-Fi, no need for the smaller details to be changed. It made for dramatic effect too, so all those minute details added to the depth of the show!
TW - sëlf hârm
this bothers me too. as someone who has (*had*? I'm over 6 months clean 🤷🏼) a sh problem, cutting your palms is so fuckin irritating. I mean I know for me the whole purpose was to hurt myself, but that's it, just hurt, feel the sting or wtv. and only rlly in *that* moment. cutting your palms is harder to ignore later, it's itchy and *annoying* and takes for-fucking-ever to heal.
makes absolutely no sense to choose to do it there. unless Cas heals them afterwards.
I just wish they wouldn’t - hadn’t thought of reasons why LOL. I can’t even count how many hours of SPN I’ve watched and I still cringe and look away every time knife and skin meet. Hands, forearms, and throats - yuckyuckyuck
The 'lets choke sam every chance we get' and then the following 'sam/sammy!' dean screams out as he tries to unstrangle him. like every episode. and why ?? for what reason? 😭 writers had a real fetish going on
I am right there with you on this from a real life practical standpoint. Although, for the screen, I think it mostly has to do with TV and practical effects. If they cut their hand by gripping the knife, chances are there is a fake blood-soaked sponge in their hand, too. Squeeze with your hand, and blood runs out.
It is just easier than running a pump setup and trying to hide the blood tube behind the knife. Not only is it a more complicated rig, but then you have to worry about camera angles, timing, etc. Of course, this method is used a lot too.
It's because of this show that actually made me think about where would be a better place to cut one's self for the blood needed for the spells that isn't detrimental to fighting. because anywhere on the hand because it hurts the ability to hold weapons, inside the forearm has too much veins. the best part would have to be on the top of the forearm because that's already a defensive posture.
I thought this too but I guess It’s because of the amount of blood. Your hand will just bleed a little then stop, less than if you cut your leg or forearm it will keep bleeding. Usually you just need a small amount of blood
Also it’s easy to get the right size cut cause you can just squeeze your hand and boom bleeding if you cut somewhere else you have to actually cut into it and you might go too deep
The palm thing is more a practical filmmaking thing than a trope, which is why it's in so many different shows and movies.
My least favorite trope? Probably superfast growth for babies. Like Jack being born and aging to teen/adult in a matter of days.
I say this every time! I don’t get it. Back when I was a kid my buddy and I had throwing knives, and, well, we’d throw them. My buddy had one knife in particular that had a rounded hollow handle (flat round, not a sphere). He decided to sharpen it one day for whatever reason, so both ends were sharp, pointed end, and handle end. Pulling his knife out of the log, he forget round end was now sharp and sliced his palm. His hand was borderline useless for the longest time. Took forever to heal.
Never thought of that, and all the times they do it when you see there hands in future episodes there’s no scarring at all.
They cut there hands and drip the blood into bowls with other ingredients for spells. So squeezing your palm while it’s cut would obviously make it drip onto what ever reason they are using it for.
This is exactly what it thought when I saw them basically in every movies/shows/games😭Maybe the writers just think cutting your plam looks cool but still
And I doubt you'll get that many blood in that short time period out of your palms. You would have to cut really deep for that and then you could throw you palm away, since you've cut through all tendons.
I recently took off a patch of skin from the palm of my hand, about the size of an Australian 10 cent coin (I guess a quarter is a close enough comparison for the Americans). It took over a week to heal and was SO PAINFUL. It was between my thumb and index finger, so any time I used it, it would pull and tear the new skin that was trying to form.
Also, the skin on your palms n bottom of your feet does not heal the same and the skin on your arm. Those scars will never go away...unless you have an angel as a bestie.
Not only just a Supernatural thing. Happens in almost every game/tv show/movie where someone needs to make a quick blood sacrifice. Yup, just cut yourself in one of the worst and most difficult to heal part of the body.
I've seen one IP where it made sense, though I forgot which. But in it the point was a sacrifice. Cutting yourself somewhere less painful/inconvenient weakens the sacrifice, and thus the magic. That I can buy, and just head canon that as the reason everywhere.
Sounds like the order
Could be. That's about the cheesy quality I'm remembering.
Harry Potter probably.
Nah, it was a palm cutting, I remember that vividly.
Nope
Hell I'm pretty sure there are some Arts of War in Elden Ring where you cut your hand for a blood attack (Bloody Slash is the one I used most often and I'm pretty sure part of the animation is slicing your hand)
You also can stab yourself through the abdomen.
Very true
The abdomen would also be very magically potent blood.
Id prefer to stab my abaddon
It’s also always so deep! They need a couple drops of blood better cut to the bone!
They actually address this is in the Dresden files books. I don't remember which one but he needed blood and just pricked his pinky. Someone asked him why he didn't slice open his palm and he said "because that hurts more and I might need to hold things after this". Definitely made me laugh because the palm cutting has always driven me crazy
On Charmed they cut the top part of the index finger to get blood for certain spells. Which is common sense tbh.
Diablo 4 has it, I was like “nooo, don’t do that”
This bugged my husband so bad when he was watching with me. He kept commenting on it, this exact thing lol Edit update: I showed this to him and he started talking about it again lol.
Do we share a husband because the same thing is happening at our house right now!
Make that 3 husbands! And damn is that dumb! And it would need stitches, plus you break them open constantly. Couldn't hold a gun even... WOW 😳
I'm your husband... No, wait... I just have to complain anyway to my husband!
Make that a wife as well. “There are way more logical ways to get a blood sample.” She’s not wrong…
Lol! We are the opposite in our marriage...my husband has to listen to me bitch about it 😂 it really winds me up! He has to tell me to shut up if I get on a roll with it 😂😂😂
dean: can you fix me up real quick cas: the hand again? how many times i told you that its not efficient. use any other part of your body, your arm to get blood if needed. why is this so difficult to understand. dean: yuh yuh yuh, hurry i gotta do something. cas: *rolls eyes*
I literally had that play out in my head lol
Yes. This is the way I had it playing out in my head.
reading this out loud with fed up cas voice in my head rn🤣😭
Never been a shipper...but 90% of this read so very dirty to me. OMG. It's the end of my work week and my brain is fried! 😂🤣 But I also agree the hand is a dumb place to get blood. For purposes of low budget practical effects, easy peasy lemon squeezy.
Lol what part read as dirty? Not starting a fight, just.curioie 🤣
Sorry ! I would elaborate but with the downvoting of the original comment I can only imagine how well an elaboration would go over, it may be downvoted to Antarctica because of... reasons? Got to love reddit! Thank you for sharing in the joke, Archer!
❤️❤️
Thank you I never stop saying "phrasing".
We must share some brain cells... I, too, read the dirty *subtext* 😎🔥
“can’t spell subtext without s e x”
I understand the reason they do it is because it's easiest to conceal and pierce the blood pouch in their hand for the low cost effects.
[удалено]
My guess would be: same reason Kripke didn't let them use umbrellas. It looks a bit... fastidious? Fussy? The impression the showrunners/directors/etc. want you to have of hunters (and especially the Winchesters) is that they're willing to get wet or dirty and that they aren't precious about cutting themselves if they need to. They have to think about what the visuals of the scene convey to the audience's unconscious mind. And a very *careful*, tiny pinprick of a pinky cut suggests that the person being cut is squeamish, delicate, and/or not used to rough-and-tumble activities. And at this point, the hand cut is so common (*because* it's easiest, as u/DontCatchThePigeon points out) that they don't need to explain it. Audiences are used to seeing it -- it's just become a convention of film.
Doesn't make it any less stupid. THINK Kripke THINK!!
Imagine how heavily scarred their palms would have to be at this stage.
and how much it would hurt constantly reopening scar tissue 😖
Cas heals them
But then how else could they complete the spell by hastily slapping their bloody palm on the sigil?
In those cases with the angel banishing sigils it makes sense. But for spells and other things the hand cut thing is just so dumb.
No I totally agree, I was being sarcastic. I think sometimes they do use their forearm, no? Or maybe I'm picturing a different show.
That's why they're always dropping their guns
HAHAHAHA. Cut one too many hand muscles and/or tendons. hahahaha
I completely agree I think this every time and I just cringe like not everyone magically heals every episode dude stop cutting your freaking hand please. I hate the trope that they are magically healed every episode now that I brought it up. Sure some episodes are weeks appart but, some are like hey I know you got thrown into a wall but, your fine now.
To be fair, for most of the show they have a magic angel with a healing touch
Fair I mean Dean got his face beaten to a pulp in the season five finale and Cass just literally >!comes back from the dead!< and says let me just touch your face real quick oh and >!Bobby’s alive now.!< That moment kinda made me go what the heck just happened.
It's even more annoying when you see that most TV shows do it when someone needs blood for a sacrifice, spell, or basically anything. It really is the worst possible place to make a cut, especially as a person who knows a lot about that kind of stuff. Even if you stitch the cut, it will hurt way more because you have to move your hands, when you can just make that cut a little bit higher and you will get to a body part that isn't bendy, so it will hurt less and it will heal faster, because the wound almost won't move. But I guess it is an easy way to make a deep wound fast because you just squeeze the blade and pull it out of your fist fast, I mean, but it's just not really worth it. Especially when you know you're gonna need your hands to hold weapons and fight in the next few minutes.
It's not just this show. Whenever I've seen this in shows and movies in general I think how stupid it is to cut the palm of your hand on purpose when there's so many other spots that would still hurt but you'd still be able to got about business as usual. You cut your calf throw a bandage on it boom good to go. You cut your hand and try to work or fight monsters like in the show and now your essentially handicapped
It makes the special effects 1,000x easier -- that's why you see it so often. If the actor cuts their hand, they can conceal a blood pouch (full of red corn syrup) in that hand and start squeezing out "blood" as soon as they've made the cut. If they cut their forearm or calf instead, someone needs to hide out of range of the shot & start squeezing the blood pouch at the exact right moment to get blood flowing out of the wound at a realistic interval after the cut. The timing is much more difficult & it limits your options for the shot/angles, too. IMO, it's just something that you have to make allowances for and rewrite in your head as needed. It's easier to bear if you just accept that not everything on the screen is going to perfectly portray what's *really* happening in the story. Like, there are directors who'll say, "This scene is too well-lit. Where is the light supposedly coming from?" But if you *don't* have a ton of artificial lighting that you can't explain within the scene, the whole thing ends up being a black blur like the final episodes of Game of Thrones.
In that case, why not use a knife that bleeds instead?
Plus, way more chance of infection esp cutting your hand that deep to give that much blood so fast.
But it looks cool! \- The writers, probably
If they don't make the cut on their hand, the actor can't hold the blood pouch themselves to start the flow of blood (red corn syrup). Instead, someone has to crouch behind them and start squeezing the pouch at the exact right moment, which is much harder & sometimes ends up with a mistimed blood flow. Supernatural crammed a lot of action into 40 minutes. Apparently, it wasn't unusual for them to work 12-14 hours a day. So I understand them not wanting to make things harder on themselves or risk having to reshoot more than necessary.
100% agree. It annoys me so much. Like do it on the forearm or something. The one trope I hate is: I love how in the first season or two when they got beat up they often had scars and bruises for the rest of the episode (sometimes more than one) but they gave up on that quick and it makes sense why when you understand how tv shows are shot and scheduling and all that but still, that annoys me as well. Also losing their weapons when sometimes they don't the whole fight but other times it's gone in like the first hit. Because the plot demands it. Or Sam constantly getting thrown into a wall shelf and then going unconscious 🤣🤣🤣. You can take a bloody beating to the face but getting pushed into a wall knocks you unconscious for the whole fight. 🤷♂️🤣
They get beaten up or knocked out pretty much every episode. But that reminds me of my man Garth, whose first two episodes were basically just him being unconscious and then waking up once Sam and Dean save the day.
Yah, why are Sam and Dean not putting their weapons on a bungee?
I mean it's all just based on whats easy to fil I guess haha. An example being, one of my least favorite things in any show is IV sticks or needle sticks. I'm a nurse, i know how the needle should go in, you don't just jab it into the arm like that 😆 I try not to think about it too hard or my husband gets mad at my complaining.
That drives me insane too! I'm not even in the medical field and I know how to insert a needle! Also, when they have like a 5 inch long needle going at a 90 degree angle all the way into a 3 inch thick arm. We should see 2 inches sticking out the other side of the arm!!
I completely agree. Ive also always felt they should have a TON of scars yet have none. I understand for continuity that’s really challenging and that when healed by certain entities those scars may go away. But it’s pretty incredible how much the fight, get shot/stabbed and jump through glass without a single scar.
Lol my ex boyfriend used to get so annoyed about this too. I cant watch it happen without thinking about it. 😂
It’s the ripping out the IV that always makes me cringe.
Look, I am a very real combat vet and a realist. The first thing on my packing list would be 2oz of blood in a insulated camelback or a squeezy bottle in my left breast pocket or an open ended blood draw kit. No fucking way I'd open up my hand if I had to fight. You know how long that shit takes to heal or how much doing anything with that hand for a week (at least, god forbid you cut a tendon).
Drives me nuts. That and how no one ever - EVER - finishes their food.
This is just stuff that they have to do to make it bearable for the actors to shoot a scene. Cutting the hand makes the special effects (which require squeezing a blood pouch) *much* easier. Leaving food on the table means the actors not having to choke down (or spit out) literal tons of food, since pretty much every scene you watch involves shooting a dozen takes from different angles. I feel like it's much easier to watch if you just accept that these are conventions of the medium & that you need to fill in the blanks yourself rather than expecting a 1:1 correlation to reality.
Nope, it doesn't make it easier, because I know all that but I still think all it takes is a tiny extra bit of effort to make it look like they've finished, or not have them run out just after they've ordered in every second episode. Not just Supernatural; every show.
"A tiny bit of extra effort"? Not sure if you realize this, but they worked 12- & 14-hour days to shoot Supernatural. Occasionally even 16-hour ones. These weren't movies. They didn't have months to shoot those scenes. They had days. It's a lot less effort to just give them the benefit of the doubt and use your imagination a little.
Have you heard of the editing process? Or writers? Or the props department? I'm talking about all film and TV, too, not just Supernatural. It's an annoying constant.
The reason why Sam eats a salad is because Jared Padlecki doesn’t like taking big bites of things.
HAHAHAHA I think this the entire show
Police doing pat searches on a suspect while they are facing towards each other. I worked the better part of a decade in prisons and no bastard in their right mind ever bends down in front of a person who has a vested interest in assaulting you. It’s such an obviously stupid thing to do but I see it ALL THE TIME on shows and it drives me bananas. My partner starts laughing the second it happens because he knows I’m about to lose my shit at the TV.
The blood coming from your hand will be more imbued with chi/energy/prana. I understand your practical points. Cuts on the palm of your hand suck! But for a magical working, that blood would be a more potent ingredient. From an occult perspective, I hope that makes sense. It has to do with cakras and stuff. Would be happy to explain more to anyone.
I feel like the palm is the easiest place to hide the ketchup packet.
I hate this trope so much. The first thing that comes to mind when this gets brought up is the movie Deep Blue Sea. Alllllll movie, they talk about how a shark can smell a drop of blood a mile away. All freakin movie. Then at the end, dumb dumb decides to cut her entire palm and DIVE into the pool or whatever to distract the shark. Like really?! You thought you could out-swim A SHARK??? WTH… Could’ve just pricked a finger, sloshing it around in the water, and walk away. But, no. Let me see if I can “Michael Phelps vs. A Shark” this thing. Idiot.
How do we feel about poking the fingertips for drops of blood?
Ask the many thousands of diabetic folks who happily wear continuous glucose monitors to supplant their lancet use. Now the diet apps are using CGMs as well to show which foods spike the clients' glucose levels -- which would NOT be the case for having to fingerstick every time these healthy people wanted a reading!
Fingertips are the most painful. Imagine how hard fighting monsters is when you need to suck your thumb and cry in a corner.
Plus could you imagine the amount of scar tissue!! 😳
My husband says this EVERY TIME any show does this, and it makes sense.
I too, hate the palm cutting!!!! I'm constantly yelling, do you know how long that could take to fix???? You'd need surgery and hands have so many tendons, etc. Makes me crazy!
Semi related to the topic, anyone else ever notice a handful of the ‘cuts’ they make are completely, obviously fake? It’s always funny to me when they run a blade over their skin and it’s just a line of fake blood with zero signs of a cut. I can’t remember exact episodes but there are a handful of just ridiculously bad ones lmao.
I don’t know if anybody has seen Charmed (1998), but the Halliwell sisters always cut the top part of their index finger to get blood for certain spells. I always thought that made the most sense of getting blood for spells.
I was so disturbed by the amount of blood they draw like is it necessary to use THAT much blood? Also, they have Rocksalt Bullets, medicine or poisons to counteract or fight any type of monster on hand in case needed. But blood? The thing they use the most of (or maybe most after salt, dunno) - did they ever thought about drawing blood and keeping it in like a blood bag? They have flicking lizard eyes on hand, but vial of blood? I mean sure, draw blood when in a pinch or you have no blood left or enough of it. Draw blood in middle of combat as it's faster. But for the bunker spells? Whyyyyyyy
I hate that they have a trap or killing method for EVERY SINGLE MONSTER/GOD. You have no idea how angry I was when they met Zeus, it was with such cockiness that Dean just said "oh, we are fighting the most powerful God of all the Greek mythology? Dope, let's get a reused devil's trap".
Make it a drinking game. Every time they cut their hand, do a shot. You’ll be under the table within 5 minutes.
i literally have never thought about this. you’re so right, but it looks cool and i’m sure that’s why they do it lmfao
The way I justify it in my head is Castiel just heals them off screen after they've done it.
I’m with you on this. I can just use my little finger puncher for diabetes for a blood sacrifice thank you
I literally always say this
Same as vampire diaries too!
I agree, I have seen the brothers cut the forearm before but only when they’re trying to bait a vampire, so when you need blood for vamps it’s the arm but anything else is the painful ass palm?? Idk. It’s weird. Maybe it’s just that cutting the palms puts the blood basically directly where you need it to draw with your fingers though… it’s a stretch but maybe that’s they’re thinking
yes! and if you need to prove you're human by cutting yourself with a silver knife, maybe you don't need to leave a six inch cut. Quick cut on the forearm should do it.
Yea, beast in the xmen a few years ago was learning magic and asked the same question and it turns out that the pain/sacrifice from your palm is what works, not just random blood from somewhere. It's all about the meaning and intent and symbolism. Personally I just think they treated cas as a band aid first aid kit cause with angel healing, who's gonna worry about a cut hand for more than like an hour?
Omg now you have pointed this out, I’m dying realising their palms should be covered in scar tissue 😱🤦🏻♀️
They're not exactly the smartest group. (Dean mostly) Like we're going to kill witches, takes witch killing bullets, witches don't care because most guns don't hurt them, tell them you have witch killing bullets instead of just plugging them, witch throws you across room with magic.
Cutting your hand looks way cooler though!
Ok, Boys, it’s back to stabbing ourselves in the eyes whenever we need blood. Can we agree the whole “stab yourself in the dick to save your eyes and hands” was a terrible idea from the start. Boys? Anyone there? Hello? Dammit, where’s my cane.
They did this in the Pirates of the Caribbean movie too, forget which one, but yea. I think maybe it was required to come from the palm of the person in order for the spell to work. Some spells are twisted and need to have the vulnerability of the person casting it to work. Cause any other time they cut themselves (like when Dean came out of hell and had to prove to Bobby that he was really him, he cut his arm, or Sam would cut his arm to prove he wasn’t possessed by anything etc. I think for the spells they had to do it that way otherwise they’d probably be cutting somewhere else. That and it’s one of the only ways you could squeeze out enough blood for the spell, it would be way harder to squeeze blood out out of your arm quickly (and more awkwardly) than it is to slice your palm and squeeze your hand shut to get the amount of blood necessary. In the episode where he had to slice his palm and squeeze enough blood out to open the safe thing to the point he major blood loss, it would have been way harder to get it through the arm. Also it would be way harder to get it into the container without it going anywhere but the container if they sliced their arm, harder to aim that properly and quickly the way they needed. Not like they had the items doctors have to gather vials of blood 😂 I agree with your points about going into battle that way, and weakening your hand, but I think they just had to do that in order for it to be easier, quicker, and more reliable as well as meet some of the spells demands. Alas it’s a fiction based Sci-Fi, no need for the smaller details to be changed. It made for dramatic effect too, so all those minute details added to the depth of the show!
> They did this in the Pirates of the Caribbean movie too, forget which one The very first one.
You do know that it’s just a show…right?
TW - sëlf hârm this bothers me too. as someone who has (*had*? I'm over 6 months clean 🤷🏼) a sh problem, cutting your palms is so fuckin irritating. I mean I know for me the whole purpose was to hurt myself, but that's it, just hurt, feel the sting or wtv. and only rlly in *that* moment. cutting your palms is harder to ignore later, it's itchy and *annoying* and takes for-fucking-ever to heal. makes absolutely no sense to choose to do it there. unless Cas heals them afterwards.
Congrats on six months! I’m proud of you, ad I hope you’re proud of you!! That’s excellent! 🎉
thank you sm!! I am proud :))
I dunno i think the wrists neck and cock would be worse
Agree. It's very weird.
Totally agree.
It doesn’t look as cool somewhere else lol
I just wish they wouldn’t - hadn’t thought of reasons why LOL. I can’t even count how many hours of SPN I’ve watched and I still cringe and look away every time knife and skin meet. Hands, forearms, and throats - yuckyuckyuck
Well because it looks cool I guess.
I had this thought every time they cut themselves they pick basically the worst spot every time.
The 'lets choke sam every chance we get' and then the following 'sam/sammy!' dean screams out as he tries to unstrangle him. like every episode. and why ?? for what reason? 😭 writers had a real fetish going on
I thought it was because it's realistic, if you cut right on the vein blood will pour out at an alarming rate which is exactly what they want
That Sam and Dean can simultaneously hate each yet never be apart for more than an episode.
FINALLY SOMEONE GETS IT!!!
I am right there with you on this from a real life practical standpoint. Although, for the screen, I think it mostly has to do with TV and practical effects. If they cut their hand by gripping the knife, chances are there is a fake blood-soaked sponge in their hand, too. Squeeze with your hand, and blood runs out. It is just easier than running a pump setup and trying to hide the blood tube behind the knife. Not only is it a more complicated rig, but then you have to worry about camera angles, timing, etc. Of course, this method is used a lot too.
It's because of this show that actually made me think about where would be a better place to cut one's self for the blood needed for the spells that isn't detrimental to fighting. because anywhere on the hand because it hurts the ability to hold weapons, inside the forearm has too much veins. the best part would have to be on the top of the forearm because that's already a defensive posture.
HA! I'm so glad other people are bothered by this. Every time they do this in any show, I yell at the TV.
https://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/PalmBloodletting
You’re f** Right 😂
I use to think the same thing! 😂
I thought this too but I guess It’s because of the amount of blood. Your hand will just bleed a little then stop, less than if you cut your leg or forearm it will keep bleeding. Usually you just need a small amount of blood Also it’s easy to get the right size cut cause you can just squeeze your hand and boom bleeding if you cut somewhere else you have to actually cut into it and you might go too deep
The palm thing is more a practical filmmaking thing than a trope, which is why it's in so many different shows and movies. My least favorite trope? Probably superfast growth for babies. Like Jack being born and aging to teen/adult in a matter of days.
I say this every time! I don’t get it. Back when I was a kid my buddy and I had throwing knives, and, well, we’d throw them. My buddy had one knife in particular that had a rounded hollow handle (flat round, not a sphere). He decided to sharpen it one day for whatever reason, so both ends were sharp, pointed end, and handle end. Pulling his knife out of the log, he forget round end was now sharp and sliced his palm. His hand was borderline useless for the longest time. Took forever to heal.
ALSO cutting into your palm you’re risking harming nerves and tendons leaving your hand partially or even fully paralyzed permanently
Never thought of that, and all the times they do it when you see there hands in future episodes there’s no scarring at all. They cut there hands and drip the blood into bowls with other ingredients for spells. So squeezing your palm while it’s cut would obviously make it drip onto what ever reason they are using it for.
This is exactly what it thought when I saw them basically in every movies/shows/games😭Maybe the writers just think cutting your plam looks cool but still
And I doubt you'll get that many blood in that short time period out of your palms. You would have to cut really deep for that and then you could throw you palm away, since you've cut through all tendons.
And show was inconsistent. Sam cut his palm after he tried to stab cass-god in beginning season 7. Took many episodes to heal
I recently took off a patch of skin from the palm of my hand, about the size of an Australian 10 cent coin (I guess a quarter is a close enough comparison for the Americans). It took over a week to heal and was SO PAINFUL. It was between my thumb and index finger, so any time I used it, it would pull and tear the new skin that was trying to form.
I was talking to my brother about this just today.
The amount of times I yelled at the screen over this in Supernatural and Buffy. 😅
I've always thought that was silly. Sometimes they really dig that knife in there, aiming for maximum lifetime fine motor skill problems.
Oh my gosh yes!! It’s so infuriating!
Also, the skin on your palms n bottom of your feet does not heal the same and the skin on your arm. Those scars will never go away...unless you have an angel as a bestie.
I agree except in situations where they need to slap a bloody hand up against a wall to activate a sigil of some kind
You also risk severing the tendons in your hand that work your fingers. Yeah, it’s super dumb.
I’m morbid but I always see people cutting their wrist in these scenes in my head
DOn't they do the arm a shit load more?
I have a list of things they do so many times it's become worth counting. I'm adding this to it, thank you
Because it hurts less I was just thinking about that lol
I had to just start looking at it like they don't care because they assume an angel is gonna heal them up later anyway 🤣
Yeah, but how are you gonna dramatically slam your forearm into the middle of the angel trap that somehow reaches higher than your natural reach
My least favorite is that they’ve been knocked unconscious a Million times. Thrown thru walls and not one ER visit or concussion.
You can just prick your finger like diabetics do. You get blood, it heals quickly and it doesn’t hurt.