Usually, I don't write additional notes for the things I write, I like to just leave it to the readers.

Since I rewrote a well-known film for The Empty Man, I thought it might interest people while I did it the way I did it. So, ready?



I hadn't planned to participate in reel_spn, until I saw Good Will Hunting on the list, and that nobody had taken it yet. Good Will Hunting has been one of my favourite films for many years and the moment I read the title in connection to Supernatural the image of Sam as Will popped into my head, angry and frustrated, and Dean turned into Chucky instantly, pushing Will to not waste his life.

I didn't want to turn it into crack, and I didn't want to be the Good Will Hunting thing to be a case. I wanted Sam and Dean to be Will and Chuckie, and somewhere along the line Bobby snug into my head as the part Robin Williams plays, the mentor who takes the guilt from Will and challenges Will to take life in his own hands.

So I found myself facing some problems: Sam isn't a mathematic genius, he doesn't pick fights in general, why should Bobby turn up and oh - what of Dean? Dean needed a storyline, too.

In the end, I decided to view the film as a prompt rather than something I had to copy bit by bit. I kept all the elements that define the film for me, sometimes in obvious ways and sometimes more subtly, and constructed a storyline around it that would work in the SPN verse.

Elements and thoughts of the movie I wanted to keep or address were: Will's frustration, his jobs that don't challenge him, his tendency to pick fights, the therapeutic talks with an older mentor, Will's change from an aggressive man into someone who finally figures out what he wants, guilt, the blackboard incident, and Chucky pushing Will to make something out of his life.

I needed Sam to be frustrated and angry with himself, I needed both of them to settle down and quit hunting so Sam could do the jobs at the college/construction site. Solution? I made Dean blind and Sam assume it's his fault, thus not only adding guilt and frustration to Sam but also more pressure. He's the one who's got to care for the two of them now, and it's hard - physically and mentally.

I'm pretty sure Bobby is the only one Sam would have talked to at that state, so enter Bobby, including the infamous "It's not your fault." moment. Sam isn't a genius, least of all a mathematical one, so I changed the task on the blackboard from mathematics to something connected to philology, and turned Sam into an expert rather than a genius.

In the movie, Will turns job offers down, accepts one in the end but then goes after Skylar. Since there is no Skylar in this story, I wanted to keep the idea behind it at least - Sam turns the job down, accepts it - but wants to major in something else.

Plotwise I think that worked out pretty well.

I hope I somehow kept the feel and spirit of the movie - if not, ... well, I did my best. :-) Writing it was certainly much fun, and Dean's POVs a real challenge.

Thank you all for reading :-)