I was a bit worried the connections were too loose here for people to appreciate. Usually, I try to tighten up why the "wise" one uses specific things to "teach" their lesson. But something about this situation struck me as much more intrinsically real than anything tighter would be. Like Jim is actually talking to Dean, rather than trying to teach him.
And the idea that Jim would tell Dean that he thought it was unfair, too; and he had no idea why God let it happen ... I found that to be a far more empathy-based reaction for a man of God in such circumstances than the more typical "God works in mysterious ways" or "it isn't ours to know why God does what He does" which always makes me want to fucking SMACK someone for saying, because that doesn't lend comfort, it build resentment for a God perceived capriscious and uncaring of what His children feel.
I think Jim would be more real than this, admitting he can't understand it either, and trying to help Dean understand it's okay to be angry and confused and hurt ... but he still has choices to make, on whether he wants to turn those feelings to destruction or to healing.
All that to say I'm really glad the frog worked for you. I was trying to come up with something that wasn't a specific parallel to Dean, so the choice to spare it wouldn't be considered so much an obvious choice, but rather, one made by a child who, even furious and willing to destroy the inanimate, understands the difference between that and hurting a creature that is living, even if it isn't a particularly endearing creature, like a puppy or a kitten or something that would seem more "traumatic" if a child killed it for no reason other than because they could.
I think Jim would be more real than this, admitting he can't understand it either, and trying to help Dean understand it's okay to be angry and confused and hurt
I really love your take on Jim. His conversation with Meg suggests he wasn't just a platitude-spouting cleric. In that brief scene we have of him, he seems like he genuinely cared about people, and spent time seriously thinking about this stuff.
Sam and Dean's reaction to the news of Jim's death in Salvation was interesting. On my first viewing I thought they didn't put enough of a reaction in, after all, this man helped raise them and offered a safe haven. The boys barely seem to react, although they probably haven't spent time with him in years (Sam definitely not). But when I watched it again, it's all in the facial expressions, the faces told it all. Dean looks incredibly grim and Sam looks like he might be crying but trying to hide it; it's not a moment for tears, and there seems to be a lot of respect in it. At least, that's my take; the show really does need to do more on the reaction to this death, and Caleb's, perhaps in season two we'll get it.
I was a bit worried the connections were too loose here for people to appreciate. Usually, I try to tighten up why the "wise" one uses specific things to "teach" their lesson. But something about this situation struck me as much more intrinsically real than anything tighter would be. Like Jim is actually talking to Dean, rather than trying to teach him.
And the idea that Jim would tell Dean that he thought it was unfair, too; and he had no idea why God let it happen ... I found that to be a far more empathy-based reaction for a man of God in such circumstances than the more typical "God works in mysterious ways" or "it isn't ours to know why God does what He does" which always makes me want to fucking SMACK someone for saying, because that doesn't lend comfort, it build resentment for a God perceived capriscious and uncaring of what His children feel.
I think Jim would be more real than this, admitting he can't understand it either, and trying to help Dean understand it's okay to be angry and confused and hurt ... but he still has choices to make, on whether he wants to turn those feelings to destruction or to healing.
All that to say I'm really glad the frog worked for you. I was trying to come up with something that wasn't a specific parallel to Dean, so the choice to spare it wouldn't be considered so much an obvious choice, but rather, one made by a child who, even furious and willing to destroy the inanimate, understands the difference between that and hurting a creature that is living, even if it isn't a particularly endearing creature, like a puppy or a kitten or something that would seem more "traumatic" if a child killed it for no reason other than because they could.
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I really love your take on Jim. His conversation with Meg suggests he wasn't just a platitude-spouting cleric. In that brief scene we have of him, he seems like he genuinely cared about people, and spent time seriously thinking about this stuff.
Sam and Dean's reaction to the news of Jim's death in Salvation was interesting. On my first viewing I thought they didn't put enough of a reaction in, after all, this man helped raise them and offered a safe haven. The boys barely seem to react, although they probably haven't spent time with him in years (Sam definitely not). But when I watched it again, it's all in the facial expressions, the faces told it all. Dean looks incredibly grim and Sam looks like he might be crying but trying to hide it; it's not a moment for tears, and there seems to be a lot of respect in it. At least, that's my take; the show really does need to do more on the reaction to this death, and Caleb's, perhaps in season two we'll get it.
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