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* StudioEpisode: The show did this twice over its run.
** Season 2's "[[Recap/SupernaturalS02E18HollywoodBabylon Hollywood Babylon]]" is a fairly standard episode, with Sam acting as a PA at the Warner Bros. Studio in Hollywood as the Winchesters investigate a haunting on set. It features [=McG=] as the director of the film, creating a CelebrityParadox, since [=McG=] is an executive producer on ''Supernatural''.
** Season 6's "[[Recap/SupernaturalS06E15TheFrenchMistake The French Mistake]]" is a more... unique version of this trope. It's a RefugeeFromTVLand plot, where Sam and Dean are catapulted into an AlternateUniverse where ''Supernatural'' is just a TV Show, and Sam and Dean are actors named Creator/JaredPadalecki and Creator/JensenAckles. Despite this, there's ''still'' a body count, with [[spoiler:Creator/MishaCollins and show creator Eric Kripke both being dead at the episode's end due to a demon from Sam and Dean's world tagging along]].

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This is Just For Fun and not a trope


* SuperWeight:
** Type 0: [[{{Muggles}} Normal people]].
** Type 1: [[BadassNormal Dean Winchester, Sam Winchester]], [[HunterOfMonsters hunters in general]], Men of Letters, Prophets of the Lord.
** Type 2: [[EmpoweredBadassNormal Sam Winchester (using his powers)]], Special Children in general, [[PlagueZombie Croatoans]], lesser witches, psychics, [[BrokenAngel angels without their Grace]], [[SoullessShell soulless humans]], [[spoiler:Dr. Visyak]], [[spoiler:[[EmpoweredBadassNormal Dean with the Mark of Cain]]]], [[HalfHumanHybrid Nephilim]], ghosts, black- and red-eyed demons, Reapers, vampires, werewolves, shapeshifters, [[GodsNeedPrayerBadly most]] [[PhysicalGod pagan gods]], most fairies, djinn, various other standard monsters.
** Type 3: Angels (lower-tier Celestials, including Cherubim), powerful witches, [[MonsterProgenitor Alphas]], [[RealityWarper Tricksters]], stronger pagan gods.
** Type 4: [[CouncilOfAngels Seraphim]] (second-tier Celestials), [[DemonLordsAndArchdevils Azazel, white-eyed demons, Knights of Hell]], [[HorsemenOfTheApocalypse War, Famine, Pestilence]], [[RealityWarper Jesse Turner]] (TheAntiChrist), Leviathans, [[MotherOfAThousandYoung Eve (the Mother of All Monsters)]], [[RealityWarper especially powerful psychics]].
** Type 5: [[CelestialParagonsAndArchangels Archangels]] (first-tier Celestials, including [[{{Satan}} Lucifer]]), [[spoiler:[[AGodAmI Castiel with the souls of Purgatory]]]].
** Type 6: [[TheGrimReaper Death]], The Darkness ,{{God}}[[note]]Both of which may be either Type 6 or Type 7 depending on the exact nature of their relations with Creation, the Natural Order, and death, which aren't very clear right now[[/note]].
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Crosswicking

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* SodaCandySplosion: A variation happens in "[[Recap/SupernaturalS05E06IBelieveTheChildrenAreOurFuture I Believe the Children Are Our Future]]". Two children get hospitalized with stomach ulcers, and they claim it was the result of them mixing Pop Rocks and cola. Sam and Dean discover that this is only made possible because Jesse Turner, a half-demon child who's destined to be molded into the Antichrist, lives in town, and his growing reality-warping powers are bringing all the old wives' tales he believes in to life.

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dewicking For Want Of A Nail, moved to What If, previous What If example was a very long ZCE


* WhatIf: At least two episodes ([[Recap/SupernaturalS02E20WhatIsAndWhatShouldNeverBe "What Is And What Should Never Be" (S02, E20)]] and [[Recap/SupernaturalS04E17ItsATerribleLife "It's A Terrible Life" (S04, E17)]]), but in [[Recap/SupernaturalS03E12JusInBello "Jus in Bello" (S03, E12)]], Agent Henriksen expresses regret at having accomplished so little in his life compared to Sam and Dean upon finding out that the two aren't psychotic Satan-worshiping murderers. [[spoiler:Too bad he bites it that same episode]].
-->'''Henriksen:''' My job is boring, it’s frustrating. You work three years for one break, and then maybe you can save few people. Maybe. That's the payoff. I've been busting my ass for 15 years to nail a handful of guys and all this while, there's something in the corner so big. So, yeah, sign me up for that big, frosty mug of wasting-my-damn-life.

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* WhatIf: At least two episodes ([[Recap/SupernaturalS02E20WhatIsAndWhatShouldNeverBe WhatIf:
**
"What Is And and What Should Never Be" (S02, E20)]] involves a DyingDream LotusEaterMachine where Dean imagines a world where Mary never died and [[Recap/SupernaturalS04E17ItsATerribleLife "It's A Terrible Life" (S04, E17)]]), but in [[Recap/SupernaturalS03E12JusInBello "Jus in Bello" (S03, E12)]], Agent Henriksen expresses regret at having accomplished he and Sam grew up as normal people. Everything seems perfect except that he and Sam lack their characteristic bond due to not growing up so little in close, and Dean's SelfDeprecation portrays him as a deadbeat sleaze who lies and steals from his life compared own family.
** "My Heart Will Go On" involves an alternate timeline where the Titanic never sunk, the ramifications of which cause the Impala
to Sam be swapped out for a Mustang, Ellen to survive Season 5, and Dean upon finding out that the two aren't psychotic Satan-worshiping murderers. [[spoiler:Too bad he bites it that same episode]].
-->'''Henriksen:''' My job is boring, it’s frustrating. You work three years for one break, and then maybe you can save few people. Maybe. That's the payoff. I've been busting my ass for 15 years
to nail a handful of guys and all this while, there's something in the corner so big. So, yeah, sign me up for that big, frosty mug of wasting-my-damn-life.win at rock-paper-scissors.
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Crosswicking.

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* SnowballingThreat:
** "[[Recap/SupernaturalS04E07ItsTheGreatPumpkinSamWinchester It's the Great Pumpkin, Sam Winchester]]": It's said that [[SpiritOfHalloween Samhain]] possess the unique ability to summon and control all manner of supernatural beings, and the longer he is free the more dangerous monster he is able draw to his presence. This is a big part of his potential threat that must be averted.
** Amara, the BigBad of Season 11 and TheAntiGod, starts off the season as little more than a soul-devouring, telekinetic child after her essence possesses a human baby upon being freed from her [[SealedEvilInACan can]], but she grows increasingly powerful as her vessel rapidly grows to adulthood. By the mid-season finale, she as a grown woman can telekinetically overpower and obliterate multiple demons and angels without difficulty. By Episode 18, she can curb-stomp [[{{Satan}} Lucifer]] (one of the setting's older and more powerful entities, [[spoiler:who was empowered by a Hand of God at the time to boot]]), ''after'' she's been set back for several episodes by sustaining the angelic equivalent of a nuclear barrage and has only just recovered. [[spoiler:In the last several episodes, Amara begins infecting entire towns with a Rabid-creating and ultimately deadly mist which, despite the main protagonists' efforts, ultimately requires literal intervention from God himself to stop it, and she makes it clear that she's now on her way to erasing all the contents of the universe]].
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Black Sheep cleanup, removing misuse and ZCE


* TragicHero: Anyone who isn't evil. The two main characters' flaws are different flavors of desperation (Sam's obsession and Dean's devotion). Or maybe the same flavor -- desperation for approval from an [[ParentalAbandonment absent father]] -- given different focuses based on [[BlackSheep their]] [[BigBrotherInstinct roles]] in the [[PromotionToParent family]].

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* TragicHero: Anyone who isn't evil. The two main characters' flaws are different flavors of desperation (Sam's obsession and Dean's devotion). Or maybe the same flavor -- desperation for approval from an [[ParentalAbandonment absent father]] -- given different focuses based on [[BlackSheep their]] their [[BigBrotherInstinct roles]] in the [[PromotionToParent family]].



* TykeBomb: Dean and Sam were both trained as hunters from a young age. While this ParentalNeglect and [[TheSpartanWay training]] was part of demonic plans to [[CorruptTheCutie groom]] [[TheHeart generally nice]] [[BlackSheep Sam]] into becoming a powerful AntiChrist, Daddy Winchester seems to have worked [[WellDoneSonGuy Dean]] harder, having him shooting at the age of 6.

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* TykeBomb: Dean and Sam were both trained as hunters from a young age. While this ParentalNeglect and [[TheSpartanWay training]] was part of demonic plans to [[CorruptTheCutie groom]] [[TheHeart groom generally nice]] [[BlackSheep nice Sam]] into becoming a powerful AntiChrist, Daddy Winchester seems to have worked [[WellDoneSonGuy Dean]] harder, having him shooting at the age of 6.
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** [[{{Satan}} Lucifer]] himself exhibits all seven of these vices over the course of the series. He forms a sexual relationship with [[BrotherSisterIncest the angel Sister Jo/Anael]] so that he can feed on her grace consensually (Lust), he serial kills his own kind for a while so that he can eat their grace whole in order to replenish his own (Gluttony), he tries to take over Heaven or the universe when he can't get his family's attention (Greed), he's disinterested in God's duties when he actually succeeds in taking God's former throne (Sloth), he goes on homicidal or ''omnicidal'' rampages when he doesn't get his own way (Wrath), he above all hates humanity for replacing him as God's favorite child (Envy), and he's pathologically all but incapable of admitting he was in the wrong (Pride).
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* SevenDeadlySins:
** The MonsterOfTheWeek in the Season 3 premiere is a group of seven demons who have special powers that enable them to compel humans toward one of the seven cardinal vices to the point of literal self-destruction -- the Envy demon drives a woman to beat another woman to death over a pair of shoes, the Sloth demon causes a whole family to sit on their couch and starve to death without even putting in the effort to approach a stocked fridge meters away, and the Gluttony demon drives a hunter to fatally down the contents of a nearby bottle of bleach, with the other demons' powers remaining unseen. The demons' personalities, and implicitly the people that they've possessed, also reflect their vices: Envy has possessed a man who was envious of his neighbor's flashier car and he tends to remark on how he wishes he had this or that, Wrath has possessed a scary-looking guy and acts aggressively, Pride has possessed a visibly well-off guy and he acts like a totally haughty SmugSnake, Lust has possessed an attractive young woman and she acts perverted and sultry, and Sloth has possessed a morbidly obese man.
**
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* SympatheticVillainDespicableVillain:
** In the long haul, the archangels Michael and Lucifer, whose conflict was key to the overarching story of the show's first five seasons, become Sympathetic and Despicable Villains respectively: although Michael was only fractionally, if at all, better than Lucifer in the duo's original characterizations, in later seasons where both their characters (particularly Lucifer's) have become more exaggerated, Michael's moral high-ground over Lucifer has increased by default. By the show's final season, [[spoiler:Michael is an EvilRedeemedInACan who has formed a genuine friendship with the human host that he once derided as a mere tool, he retains in full force his original FreudianExcuse of having severe daddy issues on account of God's shoddy parenting which drive all of Michael's worst actions in desperate efforts to be a good son, and he would much rather keep his head low and stay out of trouble. Lucifer on the other hand has shed every sympathetic quality that he once possessed by this point in the show, showing himself to be a cruel, sociopathic monster who now wants to kill everything in existence out of nothing but spite and rage.]]
** [[spoiler:For Season 13, the above roles are reversed between Lucifer, and Michael's EvilDoppelganger from the AlternateUniverse called Apocalypse World. For most of the season, Lucifer is somewhat humanized by his efforts to reach out to and bond with his half-human son Jack, and by how lost and pitiful he spends a good chunk of the season being; whereas the alternate Michael is a barbaric, monstrous, genocidal warlord who turned his native world into a horrific hellhole, gleefully tortured and slaughtered his own archangel brothers, and aspires to be a MultiversalConqueror, with the extent of his evil and barbarism appearing to shock even Lucifer. Somewhat {{subverted}} in the SeasonFinale, when Lucifer reacts to Jack rejecting him by attempting to force Jack and the latter's adoptive family to kill each other and intending to dismantle the entire universe, all as a massive and morbid hissy-fit, which forces Dean to strike up an EnemyMine with the alternate Michael.]]
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Added to increase traffic to a page needing love

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* SlidingScaleOfDivineIntervention: the show mixes it up through all 15 Seasons.
** In Seasons 1-3, Demons exist and {{Hell}} exists but there's no direct evidence of a God existing, though Sam Winchester prays and believes there is one. His brother Dean, however, rejects the notion of a God which would allow all the terrible things he's seen. Pagan gods do exist, but they are portrayed as monsters who feed off of belief.
** Seasons 4-5 confirm the existence of [[OurAngelsAreDifferent angels]] who claim to be working for God. Lower-tier angels believe this is the case and operate on faith, but the higher-level ones believe God is dead or missing. The Winchester brothers learn God is not dead and has intervened on their behalf, but doesn't care to do more. The Season 5 finale heavily implied that a prophet character was, in fact, God walking among humans.
** Seasons 6-15 confirm that the prophet Chuck is God and introduces beings as powerful as him, such as Amara his sister, and The Empty, a cosmic entity that embodies nothing. Nephalim, angel/human hybrids, are also portrayed as powerful as God and one defeats Chuck to become the new God, more benevolent God in the final season.
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Stockholm Syndrome is a disambiguation


* StockholmSyndrome: In [[Recap/SupernaturalS07E22ThereWillBeBlood "There Will Be Blood" (S07, E22)]], there's Emily, who has come to see the Alpha Vampire as her "daddy".
-->'''Dean:''' Wow, you win a trophy in StockholmSyndrome!
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* SpecialOccasionsAreMagic: As revealed in "[[Recap/SupernaturalS04E07ItsTheGreatPumpkinSamWinchester It's The Great Pumpkin, Sam Winchester]]" that quite fittingly it's only possible to summon [[DemonLordsAndArchDevils Samhain]], the [[SpiritOfHalloween ancient demon who inspired Halloween]] through three human sacrifices, one each day with the final upon the last day of the harvest namely Halloween.
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** The British Men of Letters seem to be top-notch and organized, boasting of how they've kept England monster-free for centuries. However, it turns out the reason is because they see ''all'' monsters as deserving death. They wiped out a werewolf clan that had done no harm to anyone and when an innocent teenager was bitten, had her killed in her hospital bed before she turned. They soon become so convinced they're right that they decide to wipe out all American hunters as being part of the problem.

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** Subverted. The British Men of Letters seem to be top-notch and organized, boasting of how they've kept England monster-free for centuries. However, it turns out the reason is because they see ''all'' monsters as deserving death. They wiped out a werewolf clan that had done no harm to anyone and when an innocent teenager was bitten, had her killed in her hospital bed before she turned. They soon become so convinced they're right that they decide to wipe out all American hunters as being part of the problem.
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--->'''[[WellIntentionedExtremist Walter]]:''' I was making [[DoingItForTheArt a work of art]], and he was replacing it with [[FanService cleavage]] and [[ToiletHumor fart jokes]].

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--->'''[[WellIntentionedExtremist Walter]]:''' I was making [[DoingItForTheArt a work of art]], art, and he was replacing it with [[FanService cleavage]] and [[ToiletHumor fart jokes]].

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* SpeciesSpecificAfterlife: Only human souls go to Heaven or Hell. Monsters (vampires, wendigos, etc) go to Purgatory when killed. Angels and demons who are killed go to the Empty.



* SpeciesSpecificAfterlife: Only human souls go to Heaven or Hell. Monsters (vampires, wendigos, etc) go to Purgatory when killed. Angels and demons who are killed go to the Empty.

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* SpeciesSpecificAfterlife: Only human souls go SpoofyDoo: ''Supernatural'' had long been compared to Heaven or Hell. Monsters (vampires, wendigos, etc) go to Purgatory when killed. Angels Scooby-Doo, as its protagonists drove around in a CoolCar chasing ghosts and demons who are killed go to solving mysteries. This culminated in a full-on crossover episode called "[[Recap/SupernaturalS13E16ScoobyNatural ScoobyNatural]]" with Sam, Dean and Castiel getting plunged into the Empty.animated world of Scooby-Doo and solving a mystery with the gang. Unfortunately, the Supernatural gang brought the violent reality of their world into the animated one, causing trauma for the animated characters.
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added team mercy vs team murder

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* TeamMercyVsTeamMurder: The series loves this trope.
** In Season 2, Sam falls in love with Madison who [[spoiler: turns out to be a werewolf when the brothers know that there's no cure, so they need to kill everyone infected. But Sam talks Dean into researching a cure so they can save her, except the cure fails and Sam has to put her down anyway.]]
** In Season 4, Sam discovers he can use his powers to exorcise demons without killing the host. Dean is skeptical given that his powers are demonic in origins and prefers just killing the host and the demon with his knife. This causes season-long strife between the brothers.
** In Season 5, the Winchesters find a little boy who is the anti-Christ and has incredible and dangerous power. They are horrified that Castiel wants to kill the boy, but Castiel argues that a mild bout of anger from the boy could destroy the entire world so it is necessary.
** Later, the Winchesters and Castiel agree they can't allow Lucifer's son to come into the world, so they will kill the child's kind-hearted mother before he is born. Except "the child" wins Castiel over and he escapes with the mother, planning on adopting and raising the child. But when Castiel is killed following the child's birth, Dean wants to kill the child while Sam wants to at least find and talk to the boy.
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** As his time runs out in Season 3, Dean starts to be able to see Demon's true faces and hellhounds.

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** As his time runs out in Season 3, Dean starts to be able to see Demon's demons' true faces and hellhounds.

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