Sadism (a.k.a. “Upping the Stakes”): The Heart of Every Drama

[bowtrunckle]

I’ve had a primitive incarnation of this meta, which was supposed to be the twin of this meta, festering on my hard drive for years.  Because we’re encroaching on the end of yet another season, I thought it would be fun to dust it off and finish it.  The original premise (from early S3 … doh!) was about upping the stakes in fiction and how SPN does

Comments

[bowtrunckle]

the plot & motivation tigers were gorgeous!

Thank you! That was a fun meta to write. It's always interesting to look at past meta and if any predictions held through subsequent seasons. I think that the small amount of predictive stuff in there was vague enough (and wasn't too surprising) that it held up through subsequent seasons.

by use of sacrificial gambit

Yes, wonderful point about the Winchester gambit! It's ironic that even though the Winchesters purport to love each other so much that they'll do "anything" (including sacrifice themselves to "save" the other), they fail to realize the how much they're hurting the ones they're trying to save by their leaving them (dying).

Your mention of Mary sacrificing unborn Sam to save John in 4x03 just made me realize that that could possibly be seen by Sam as a great betrayal. Not only was virtually motherless and doesn't have any of his own memories of Mary, his mother essentially bartered his life away. O_o Talk about self-worth issues.

Sam finally moves from being the bartered object then the intended object to taking his place as the active subject for the first time in his family history.

You sum up the the hero's journey. :) And how appropriate is it that the youngest Winchester, the one that was always protected (even though he didn't want to be), is the last to be allowed to step up. I guess I'm not counting Adam as he's a half Winchester.

Moreover, I think this is exactly why the past number of seasons the writers haven't let Sam succeed at the tasks that matter (S3: saving Dean) or took his successes and turned them into something disastrous (S4: killing Lilith, releasing Lucifer). They needed to bring him to his lowest point, showing him to be largely ineffectual or not allowing him to be the driver of his own destiny, so the ONE time Sam will succeed will be significant and meaningful and we can all say, "Finally!"

To stop Lucifer and Michael from meeting before the previous objectives are met.

No kidding! I was just thinking about this exact issue. Now that Michael is in Adam (apparently as of 5x21), there's no reason that we know of that's preventing him from going after Lucifer at any moment and totally circumventing Sam and Dean. The only reasonable explanations I have are: 1) Michael hasn't yet found Lucifer and 2) there's some disadvantage to being in the temporary vessel and taking on the opponent in one's true vessel would afford a better chance at winning, thus Lucifer and Michael are both trying to wait out Sam and Dean on the chance one of them will say, "Yes."

My reply is so long I have to split it into two! To be continued...