Happy TG!

[desertport]

Thanksgiving at my sister's was very nice. The food came out great, and we spent the day watching the entire original Star Wars trilogy, plus the first few eps of Firefly. That is how you do it, all I gotta say

Comments

[marinarusalka]

I think Ruby's ole in the mytharc is "aspiring kingmaker." She doesn't appear to be a powerful or influential demon -- whenever we see her interacting with other demons, they mainly tend to sneer at her and smack her around. If Hell was a megacorporation, she'd be the mail room clerk. She wants to move up, but she can't do it herself, so she's pinned her hopes on Sam. If Sam takes over Hell, chances are he'll treat Ruby nicely and allow her to have some influence, which will make her way better off than she was before.

I also think you're severely underestimating Ruby's effect on Sam's powers. She didn't just tell him he could develop them -- she showed him how, and got him to do it. Sam had always been terrified of his powers and refused to develop them or take ownership of them. Before Ruby took a hand, the most he managed in three years was one accidentally-shifted credenza and a lot of constipated looks whenever a vision hit. Now he's killing demons with his brain. I say go Sam, and go Ruby!

So yeah, I love Ruby and her storyline. I have a great liking for stories about people manipulating events behind the scenes, especially when it's the weak manipulating the strong, which appears to be the case with her. (I'm keeping my fingers crossed in the hope that eventually she'll end up double-crossing everybody. Of course the Winchesters will have to best her in the end, but it would be great if the writers went there first.)

[desertport]

I like your explanation of Ruby, although your mail room clerk analogy has me imagining her in the lead role in "How to Make It in Business Without Really Trying" and wondering whether Katie Cassidy knows how to sing. *g* Seriously, though, yes. Aspiring kingmaker works great for her, and seen through that lens, her role in the mytharc is pretty important. I also take your point about her effect on Sam's powers.

My main qualm, really, isn't so much with Ruby as with the pacing of the storytelling and the underuse of her and other characters. From my point of view, the writers are building up to something involving Ruby, and in the meantime they've involved her in episodes where she's not strictly needed, and they're not capitalizing on the opportunities that creates (for instance, the conflict she engenders between Sam and Dean). I'd like to love Ruby's storyline, but I don't think I'll be able to until it's all played out, because that may be the only point where I can really make an informed judgment on who she is and what her motivations are. (And for all I know, that may not happen before the last ep of the series.) So for me, I guess, the sustained mystery about her is another off-putting factor, and I feel that better storytelling might have mitigated that.

(And thanks for the counterarguments!)