Because This Gets Overlooked (ITP: My Fandom Will Salt And Burn Your Fandom. )

So,  I'm  a fan.

For eleven years,  I've followed a TV show called Supernatural.

And we just had the pleasure of watching the actresses Briana Buckmaster  and Kim Rhodes do a panel at the Minneapolis convention center.

So,  Briana responded to a fan question by saying that her character,  Sheriff Donna Hanscum, is a comic relief character.

Yeah,  that's true.

But that's not the whole story.

One of the conventional narratives in media and fiction,  a trope that gets overused in the wrong ways,  is the damsel in distress.

Supernatural is one of the shows that doesn't do that much, and they usually overturn it when they do.

But it's s huge thing,  that trope.

So Kim Rhodes and Briana Buckmaster play two of the characters Supernatural has used to smash that trope. And even though Briana's  character is usually played for laughs,  she has subtext.

Both Jodi Mills and Donna Hanscum have one major factor in common: when confronted with the existence of supernatural creatures, unlike most other non-hunter characters on the show,  they reacted with acceptance of the situation and assisted in containment.

Most people who found out monsters exist would not be that calm.  Or functional.

So here's the thing.  Donna's funny.

But the character is awesome.

She's girly.  She's Midwestern.  She's a bit flaky.

And she stepped up to the plate when confronted with evil.

I don't think "comic relief" does her justice.