So, Lyn asked me to transfer our discussion about writers and their characterisation over to a thread of its own, since it's not really about S3 spoilers anymore .. and hey, I even opened it on an ironic quote from 'Hollywood Babylon', I hope you appreciate that.
For further reference I list all the (main) writers and their episodes first. SN went from 14 different writers in S1 to 7 writers in S2, mostly getting rid of one-shot writers in the process:
Eric Kripke:
S1 Pilot, Wendigo, Home, Shadow, Devil's Trap
S2 IMTOD, AHBL II
Raelle Tucker:
S1 (writing team with SG): DitW, Faith, Nightmare, Salvation
S2 CSPWDT, Hunted, Roadkill, WiaWSNB
Sera Gamble:
S1 see above with RT
S2 Bloodlust, Crossroad Blues, Houses Of The Holy, Heart, AHBL I
John Shiban:
S1 Skin, Hook Man, Scarecrow, Benders, DMB (with CH)
S2 ELAC, Croatoan, Tall Tales, Folsom Prison Blues
Ben Edlund:
S2 Simon Said, Nightshifter, Hollywood Babylon
Cathryn Humphris:
S1 DMB (with JS)
S2 Usual Suspects, BUABS
Matt Witten:
S2 No Exit, Playthings
Executive Story Editors in both seasons were Sera Gamble&Raelle Tucker, which I find important to mention since the story editor's function is to coordinate episodes and plotlines and to make sure that characters, places and story-elements are coherent and consistent with each other during the course of a season. I always praise SN for its character continuity and integrity as well as plot-continuity and I think we have to thank these two ladies for that.
As we can see, the episodes that are crucial to the seasonal plotlines, the mytharc or character development are usually written by Kripke, Gamble or Tucker, between the three of them half of the season is provided.
I don't find that very surprising. Since the functions of writer, creator, producers and story editors are all in those three hands, they are the most involved in the creative and production processes and have the best overview over characters and plotlines, guaranteeing the highest possible level of continuity and coherency. Judging from my own perspective these three wrote most of my favourite episodes in S1+S2, so I would say they were also plenty inspired! 
Naturally every SN episode that has Sam and Dean in it inevitably has characterisation of those two and all episodes are equal in regard to the fact that the characterisation in it is defining and valid (after all it's canon as soon as it appeared on screen), therefore we usually do our best to analyse their portrayal in each episode in terms of coherency and continuity in episode reviews.
Nonetheless there are episodes that are more focused on the characters as such (as opposed to focused on the MotW or mytharc), giving room for deeper exploration and/or development of the characters. I consider ?Faith' or ?WiaWSNB' or ?HotH' such episodes. I am not sure what exactly you allude to with ?Dean's long moony looks', but yeah, often it means that the characters actually talk about what they feel, they open up to each other and let the other one look into their emotional turmoil.
I actually didn't think that it was again necessary to emphasize that of course everything that we discuss here is based on our individual (and often differing) perceptions on who and what these characters are, I thought we were past that stage. 
Now, let me set this straight beforehand: I am a huge, huge fan of subtle references and underplayed, offhand insights into the characters emotional status, for example Dean's "Yeah, but I don't want to" in the Pilot or his offhand remark in ?Playthings' "I never really knew a home", his devastated reaction to Ronald's death in ?Nightshifter', the hitch in his voice when he says "That's my mom" in ?Dead in the Water' etc, I could go on with examples like these for pages, because our show is just THAT good with these kinds of references, it's what makes their characterisation so rich and allows us to find something love-worthy in every episode, no matter how much we like the MotW or not.
I am also a huge fan of scenes where the characters wear their hearts on the sleeve though, for example Dean's admission to wanting his family back together in ?Shadow', the phone call between the brothers in ?Scarecrow', the way he spills his guts to Sam at the end of CSPWDT, Croatoan, Hunted, AHBL etc. I love these scenes even if they are more ?flashy' than the aforementioned offhand scenes, because I do like to have clarification and closure in character exploration.
I love to puzzle the motivations and emotions together and trying to figure them out before they are outspoken, but I do appreciate that they are outspoken in the end, so we have something definitive to work with. For example I loved that we could figure out most of what drove Dean during 2.01-2.04 by paying attention to his behaviour, but I also adored that Dean in the end talked about it and gave everything that preceded that point a definition and clarification. The same goes for the big secret. It's one of the things I love about SN that it gives us the reactions first and the explanations later, making multiple-viewings such a joy, because hindsight makes us see the episodes in a sharper light.
I also think that to interpret and recognize the offhand and underplayed elements as what they are, we need to have the more open ones as well, to have something we can reference them to. For example: We can of course understand Dean's "Yeah, but I don't want to" from the Pilot, but it becomes more defined in Dean's "I want us to be a family again" in ?Shadow'. These scenes complement each other and at least for me, the latter admission gives the first statement an even more heartbreaking context. I don't like to only go on vagueness and allusions, I love concreteness as well.
Also, the characters need to have these scenes with each other, even if the viewer might not need it and it usually gives me the feeling of deep connection and trust between the brothers when they open up to each other. Yeah, and I am also a sap and a sucker for drama, I know that!
Personally I think that SN balances both elements very well. Naturally we had more of the latter in S2 since it was more character driven, but the show rarely neglects to give at least two or three instances in every episode, where these ?oprahesque' scenes are referenced more subtle and it's the entirety of both that gives me the biggest satisfaction.
Now, back to the writers: Episodes where things are outspoken or brought to a conclusion are usually written by Kripke, Gamble and Tucker and I think it needs good writers to make these work without becoming too corny or unbearably soapy. I know that you might disagree in this, Lyn, but I think they did a great job with being emotional without being gooey. Maybe I do have a higher tolerance towards these elements than you have, for example lots of people find the end scenes of ?CSPWDT' or ?Heart' overdone in terms of emotion and drama, while I find them just right and adequate to the gravity of the events that preceded these scenes.
So the question is, what makes me like the characterisation of one writer better than the other? That's a difficult question. First off, I guess I can't quite rule out the fact that I love emotional episodes and since Kripke, Tucker and Gamble usually write these, I am probably doomed to love their episodes by default more than others. The content of their episodes (crisis of faith (Faith, HotH), personal struggles (Shadow, CSPWDT, CRB), character identity/development (Heart, WiaWSNB)) often allows the focus to be directly (as opposed to via parallels or mirroring) on the exploration of the relationship between Sam and Dean or one the characters itself, which are the story elements that I prefer to all others. So that's a point in favour to those writers.
Secondly, the characterisation in itself in episodes from these writers matches my own interpretation of the characters the most. For example, I feel slightly uneasy with parts of the characterisation of Dean and Sam in ?Croatoan', where Dean comes off as overly violent and ruthless and Sam is overly irritating in his moral reprimands and attitude towards Dean. I never have this kind of uneasiness/irritation when I watch a Tucker or Kripke episode, I did have it once with a Gamble episode (Bloodlust) and I have it massively with ?Hollywood Babylon'. I do love about Tuckers characterisation of Dean that he is usually shown more vulnerable and open, she (and Kripke and Gamble as well) has a tendency to approach his feelings of loss, inadequacy, abandonment and self-esteem issues on many different levels and since this is an important part of what I see in Dean as well, I appreciate that.
Overall her writing emphasizes Dean's and Sam's complexity as characters for me more than others. Same goes for Kripke and Gamble, partly for Shiban (hey, the man wrote Skin, Scarecrow(!) and ELAC) and Humphris as well. Edlund and Witten just fall short in comparison. I do know, that my antipathy against Edlund is a result of my resentments that root in my AtS days and I only waited for him to make the wrong step so I could be all over him and he did that with HB for me. I have never felt so out of sync with the characters like in that episode, but we already had that discussion in length.
?Roadkill' was completely written from an outsider's perspective and I do find it believable that their behaviour and reactions to the ghost Molly come off as stereotypical for the uncomprehending outsider, just like Henrickson is absolutely unable to see anything but stereotypical serial killer material from the few ?facts' he gathered about them. I don't find it in any way irritating that their characterisation is different from the outside than it is from the inside. ?Hollywood Babylon' on the other hand was from the inside perspective and lacked character continuity and depth in the context of the season. I don't really want to recapture that discussion since I already laid out all my arguments about that in our HB debate. 
Done!

Eric Kripke:
S1 Pilot, Wendigo, Home, Shadow, Devil's Trap
S2 IMTOD, AHBL II
Raelle Tucker:
S1 (writing team with SG): DitW, Faith, Nightmare, Salvation
S2 CSPWDT, Hunted, Roadkill, WiaWSNB
Sera Gamble:
S1 see above with RT
S2 Bloodlust, Crossroad Blues, Houses Of The Holy, Heart, AHBL I
John Shiban:
S1 Skin, Hook Man, Scarecrow, Benders, DMB (with CH)
S2 ELAC, Croatoan, Tall Tales, Folsom Prison Blues
Ben Edlund:
S2 Simon Said, Nightshifter, Hollywood Babylon
Cathryn Humphris:
S1 DMB (with JS)
S2 Usual Suspects, BUABS
Matt Witten:
S2 No Exit, Playthings
Executive Story Editors in both seasons were Sera Gamble&Raelle Tucker, which I find important to mention since the story editor's function is to coordinate episodes and plotlines and to make sure that characters, places and story-elements are coherent and consistent with each other during the course of a season. I always praise SN for its character continuity and integrity as well as plot-continuity and I think we have to thank these two ladies for that.
As we can see, the episodes that are crucial to the seasonal plotlines, the mytharc or character development are usually written by Kripke, Gamble or Tucker, between the three of them half of the season is provided.
Originally posted by Ehlwyen

Originally posted by Ehlwyen
Nonetheless there are episodes that are more focused on the characters as such (as opposed to focused on the MotW or mytharc), giving room for deeper exploration and/or development of the characters. I consider ?Faith' or ?WiaWSNB' or ?HotH' such episodes. I am not sure what exactly you allude to with ?Dean's long moony looks', but yeah, often it means that the characters actually talk about what they feel, they open up to each other and let the other one look into their emotional turmoil.
Originally posted by Ehlwyen

Now, let me set this straight beforehand: I am a huge, huge fan of subtle references and underplayed, offhand insights into the characters emotional status, for example Dean's "Yeah, but I don't want to" in the Pilot or his offhand remark in ?Playthings' "I never really knew a home", his devastated reaction to Ronald's death in ?Nightshifter', the hitch in his voice when he says "That's my mom" in ?Dead in the Water' etc, I could go on with examples like these for pages, because our show is just THAT good with these kinds of references, it's what makes their characterisation so rich and allows us to find something love-worthy in every episode, no matter how much we like the MotW or not.
I am also a huge fan of scenes where the characters wear their hearts on the sleeve though, for example Dean's admission to wanting his family back together in ?Shadow', the phone call between the brothers in ?Scarecrow', the way he spills his guts to Sam at the end of CSPWDT, Croatoan, Hunted, AHBL etc. I love these scenes even if they are more ?flashy' than the aforementioned offhand scenes, because I do like to have clarification and closure in character exploration.
I love to puzzle the motivations and emotions together and trying to figure them out before they are outspoken, but I do appreciate that they are outspoken in the end, so we have something definitive to work with. For example I loved that we could figure out most of what drove Dean during 2.01-2.04 by paying attention to his behaviour, but I also adored that Dean in the end talked about it and gave everything that preceded that point a definition and clarification. The same goes for the big secret. It's one of the things I love about SN that it gives us the reactions first and the explanations later, making multiple-viewings such a joy, because hindsight makes us see the episodes in a sharper light.
I also think that to interpret and recognize the offhand and underplayed elements as what they are, we need to have the more open ones as well, to have something we can reference them to. For example: We can of course understand Dean's "Yeah, but I don't want to" from the Pilot, but it becomes more defined in Dean's "I want us to be a family again" in ?Shadow'. These scenes complement each other and at least for me, the latter admission gives the first statement an even more heartbreaking context. I don't like to only go on vagueness and allusions, I love concreteness as well.
Also, the characters need to have these scenes with each other, even if the viewer might not need it and it usually gives me the feeling of deep connection and trust between the brothers when they open up to each other. Yeah, and I am also a sap and a sucker for drama, I know that!

Now, back to the writers: Episodes where things are outspoken or brought to a conclusion are usually written by Kripke, Gamble and Tucker and I think it needs good writers to make these work without becoming too corny or unbearably soapy. I know that you might disagree in this, Lyn, but I think they did a great job with being emotional without being gooey. Maybe I do have a higher tolerance towards these elements than you have, for example lots of people find the end scenes of ?CSPWDT' or ?Heart' overdone in terms of emotion and drama, while I find them just right and adequate to the gravity of the events that preceded these scenes.
So the question is, what makes me like the characterisation of one writer better than the other? That's a difficult question. First off, I guess I can't quite rule out the fact that I love emotional episodes and since Kripke, Tucker and Gamble usually write these, I am probably doomed to love their episodes by default more than others. The content of their episodes (crisis of faith (Faith, HotH), personal struggles (Shadow, CSPWDT, CRB), character identity/development (Heart, WiaWSNB)) often allows the focus to be directly (as opposed to via parallels or mirroring) on the exploration of the relationship between Sam and Dean or one the characters itself, which are the story elements that I prefer to all others. So that's a point in favour to those writers.
Secondly, the characterisation in itself in episodes from these writers matches my own interpretation of the characters the most. For example, I feel slightly uneasy with parts of the characterisation of Dean and Sam in ?Croatoan', where Dean comes off as overly violent and ruthless and Sam is overly irritating in his moral reprimands and attitude towards Dean. I never have this kind of uneasiness/irritation when I watch a Tucker or Kripke episode, I did have it once with a Gamble episode (Bloodlust) and I have it massively with ?Hollywood Babylon'. I do love about Tuckers characterisation of Dean that he is usually shown more vulnerable and open, she (and Kripke and Gamble as well) has a tendency to approach his feelings of loss, inadequacy, abandonment and self-esteem issues on many different levels and since this is an important part of what I see in Dean as well, I appreciate that.
Overall her writing emphasizes Dean's and Sam's complexity as characters for me more than others. Same goes for Kripke and Gamble, partly for Shiban (hey, the man wrote Skin, Scarecrow(!) and ELAC) and Humphris as well. Edlund and Witten just fall short in comparison. I do know, that my antipathy against Edlund is a result of my resentments that root in my AtS days and I only waited for him to make the wrong step so I could be all over him and he did that with HB for me. I have never felt so out of sync with the characters like in that episode, but we already had that discussion in length.

Originally posted by Ehlwyen

Originally posted by Ehlwyen

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