SPN Meta: The Road So Far...
I have recently been doing a SPN rewatch, as you do this time of year. Consequentially, I have been spewing SPN meta all over laulan via email (and after all that, she offered to beta this for me <333), so I figured I might as well do an actual post about it, seeing as how Rex Manning day is nigh upon us. Let's pretend for the moment that I haven't been away from the internet for the past six months. (Hi, I'm still alive!)
Anyway, these are my thoughts on SPN and some of the hows and whys of the story it's telling. These are my Pollyanna opinions (My intention with meta is almost always to make people feel more optimistic about things). Sorry if it gets a little rambling- I have a lot of feelings. YMMV, of course.
The Road So Far...
POV is an important thing to consider as far as SPN goes, and SPN has always been filtered primarily through Dean's POV. This isn't to say that it's primarily about Dean, but there's a bias towards him in that the audience is most often shown things from his perspective. Thus, S1 and S2 were All About Sam because Dean was All About Sam. That starts to change in the third season - Dean is way more self-focused than he has been in the past because of his crossroads deal. It's still a lot about Sam, because his primary objective is still keeping Sam safe, but Dean's issues start to creep out way more.
In S3, we also get more of a glimpse of how Sam is All About Dean, except that Dean is an unreliable narrator, especially on the subject of Sam. The audience has to work more to extrapolate Sam's motivations than they do for Dean, but the lengths he's willing to go to in order to save Dean speak to Sam's state of mind. Sam has been fundamentally shaped as a human being by his relationship with Dean-he is as much defined by it as Dean is defined by being Sam's big brother.
S4 shifts the story on a fundamental level, starting with Dean coming from Hell. He is feeling disconnected from EVERYTHING, and is in fact actively working to stay that way because of what he did while he was in Hell. He is feeling disconnected to Sam most especially, and because of that, Sam's POV is way more obscure than it has been in the previous seasons. His distrust of Sam, which has been there to some extent all along, colors Dean's perceptions to the extent that he can only see what Sam is doing without being able to wrap his mind around why.
Dean's been through A Journey now, and his issues have all been compounded. He is more self-focused than he has been before, which only serves to exacerbate his pre-existing issues and insecurities with John and with Sam. In the context of these issues, Dean is unable to accept the idea that Sam is in any way motivated by his love for Dean. It is all a betrayal in Dean's eyes, and he feels justified in his own actions and secret-keeping. Sam is not any less Dean-focused in S4 than he had been, but there's a more obvious disconnect between Sam and the audience because we're seeing Sam filtered through Dean.
Caveat here: S5 is such a gigantic delicious orgy of angst for me, I have a hard time dealing with it in a logical manner. In S5 they are clearly All About Each Other But Trying Desperately Not To Be, and I think there's way more of S3!Sam coming through in S5 - he so desperately wants to make things right and have Dean believe in him, and he is at a loss as to what to do when Dean doesn't. I think also in retrospect, it is very clear in S5 once Sam is away from Ruby's influence how much it really did affect him, and the audience's perception of him in S4. (More on that later). So S5 ended in this glorious epic way, where Sam and Dean connected again and were there for each other and saved the world AND I CAN'T BE LOGICAL ABOUT IT!! IT WAS GLORIOUS!!! ;_____;
Where I think S6 lost a lot of people is that not only is there a disconnect from Sam in his soulless state, there's a disconnect from Dean himself. It is incredibly difficult as an audience member to find the emotional point of connection starting out in S6, especially when the show has been historically chock-full of those moments. However, that emotional void serves as a really fantastic(ally bleak) picture of where our heroes are at that point. We start off with Dean going through the motions of having a normal life, but he doesn't care about any of it because Sam is gone (which isn't to say he didn't care about Ben and Lisa -I think he did and he was doing his best, but his mental space was still pretty crap).
As opposed to the previous seasons, we're not even getting angsty!Dean here, we're getting The-Reason-I-Fight-Is-Gone-But-I-Promised-Him-I'd-Keep-Going!Dean. Which is very in character, but it was harder for the audience to connect to because between him and robo!Sam, a good chunk of the season felt very anesthetized. But I think it was intentional that the season be disconcerting, considering it's a follow-up to the apocalypse. With the way S5 ended, the tone of the previous seasons wouldn't be appropriate. S6 served to highlight how wrong the post-apocalyptic world is.
A man's character is his fate...
The thing is, SPN is a character-driven story disguised as a genre show. While some of the plotlines may have fizzled, Sam and Dean have stayed true to the characters on a fundamental level, so the heart of the show is still there.
Take Sam in S4 for example. Sam's actions in S4 are very much in character, and very sympathetic when you think of them from his perspective. Sam clearly felt he didn't have a choice in the decisions he made. However, the audience is also dealing with the Dean filter, so Dean's bias and mistrust with regard to Sam shows very heavily. The interesting thing for me here is that there's a distinct difference in Sam being wrong from Dean's perspective, and Sam being wrong from the audience's perspective. That is to say, Dean is not right just because Sam is wrong.
The bulk of Sam's actions after Dean dies are motivated by grief and anger (in that order). He is devastated by Dean's death, and he is frustrated and angry beyond reason that he can't do anything about it. From the end of S3 on, Sam is very much shaped by having not been able to save Dean. So compared to the fear and desperation Sam had in Faith for example is completely different from the anger he shows in On the Head of a Pin, but they're both coming from the same place - Needing to save Dean.
In S4, Sam was doing as best he could in a situation where ALL his choices were shit, while having all of his weaknesses deftly exploited. And I don't think the argument that Ruby was OBVIOUSLY evil actually tracks. For one thing, she fooled Anna (and Dean, at least a few times) into thinking she was on their side. For another, she was there at the right moment in Sam's despair, and did everything she needed to do to get him to trust her. Ruby played a hell of a long con. That Sam in the depths of his despair over Dean trusted her is logical, and by the time Dean got back, Sam was already too far in it to step back from the edge (I mean, the poor guy is being manipulated by both Heaven and Hell. C'mon!).
Sam was wrong, but you can still see how and why he made each decision he did. You can also see why he wouldn't respond well to Dean's objections with the way he went about them. While Dean's responses are very true to who he's always been, they were 100% the wrong way to approach Sam at this point. Dean's issues with Sam keep him from being even remotely objective in dealing with him. His "I'm the oldest and I said so!" reasoning has been an issue between them since (and prior to) S1, and you can see how difficult a time he's had in S5 and S6 in trying to break those patterns of behavior and see Sam as an adult.
It's really easy to get upset/frustrated/angry when the character(s) you love make bad decisions or do awful things, but I actually think one of the most glorious things about the show is that they have shit choices ALL THE TIME. SPN is really emotionally messy - things do not get tied up into a neat little bow. They all make all kinds of mistakes and they muddle through as best they can and there are only ever variations of grey. People's views on John highlight that really well. Obviously John was not a great dad, but what choice did he really have? Sam and Dean would've been no safer had he re-married and raised them in the suburbs. Adam got royally screwed even though John let him be. There was no winning no matter what he did, and I think he was an incredibly sympathetic character, even though he did dick things.
This is true with Castiel as well. One of the fundamental things in his character arc is that he goes from being a soldier who doesn't question orders to really embracing free will and fighting against everything he's been taught. None of Castiel's choices have been good. He could either go with Heaven's plan and rock the Apocalypse, or he could rebel against Heaven and derail it. There was not ever any middle road there, and the show doesn't shy away from the fact that there are unintended negative consequences for the decisions he's made.
I know a lot of people are upset at the direction of his character, but I think it's actually a really logical path for him to take. He went from a heavenly peon who had a sense of purpose and faith to making his own decisions, to realizing he was operating in a universe where God is either dead or doesn't care and there is no meaning or purpose in anything. It makes more sense for him to go from one extreme to the other than for him to go from one extreme to a happy, logical middle ground. Castiel's faith took a fatal hit. Why not become God? Is he not the lesser of two evils in filling that void? (Good intentions and all that...(Heh. I said "filling that void")).
One of the big (and awesome) reoccurring themes for SPN has been that the Right Thing To Do isn't always clear. The characters constantly make wrong and selfish choices- they have all been jerks and hypocrites, and sometimes good people get caught up in the fallout. They've all done dick things, and they all have to live with the consequences of those actions. They've all made bad choices in the name of Doing The Right Thing, and sometimes, even when they've made the Right Choice, things still go to shit. And even with all of this, they can still be sympathetic characters.
SPN has never been about who is right, which I think can be really difficult for the audience to reconcile, especially when in so many other genre shows, you have a very clear idea of what is Right and Wrong. The heroes make good choices and the bad guys are justly dealt with. If necessary, the Hero of the story is willing to sacrifice their loved one(s) to save the world. SPN is not that show. Everybody's wrong and everything hurts. When all is said and done, that will keep me coming back every time.
So, yeah. Is it Friday yet?
Anyway, these are my thoughts on SPN and some of the hows and whys of the story it's telling. These are my Pollyanna opinions (My intention with meta is almost always to make people feel more optimistic about things). Sorry if it gets a little rambling- I have a lot of feelings. YMMV, of course.
The Road So Far...
POV is an important thing to consider as far as SPN goes, and SPN has always been filtered primarily through Dean's POV. This isn't to say that it's primarily about Dean, but there's a bias towards him in that the audience is most often shown things from his perspective. Thus, S1 and S2 were All About Sam because Dean was All About Sam. That starts to change in the third season - Dean is way more self-focused than he has been in the past because of his crossroads deal. It's still a lot about Sam, because his primary objective is still keeping Sam safe, but Dean's issues start to creep out way more.
In S3, we also get more of a glimpse of how Sam is All About Dean, except that Dean is an unreliable narrator, especially on the subject of Sam. The audience has to work more to extrapolate Sam's motivations than they do for Dean, but the lengths he's willing to go to in order to save Dean speak to Sam's state of mind. Sam has been fundamentally shaped as a human being by his relationship with Dean-he is as much defined by it as Dean is defined by being Sam's big brother.
S4 shifts the story on a fundamental level, starting with Dean coming from Hell. He is feeling disconnected from EVERYTHING, and is in fact actively working to stay that way because of what he did while he was in Hell. He is feeling disconnected to Sam most especially, and because of that, Sam's POV is way more obscure than it has been in the previous seasons. His distrust of Sam, which has been there to some extent all along, colors Dean's perceptions to the extent that he can only see what Sam is doing without being able to wrap his mind around why.
Dean's been through A Journey now, and his issues have all been compounded. He is more self-focused than he has been before, which only serves to exacerbate his pre-existing issues and insecurities with John and with Sam. In the context of these issues, Dean is unable to accept the idea that Sam is in any way motivated by his love for Dean. It is all a betrayal in Dean's eyes, and he feels justified in his own actions and secret-keeping. Sam is not any less Dean-focused in S4 than he had been, but there's a more obvious disconnect between Sam and the audience because we're seeing Sam filtered through Dean.
Caveat here: S5 is such a gigantic delicious orgy of angst for me, I have a hard time dealing with it in a logical manner. In S5 they are clearly All About Each Other But Trying Desperately Not To Be, and I think there's way more of S3!Sam coming through in S5 - he so desperately wants to make things right and have Dean believe in him, and he is at a loss as to what to do when Dean doesn't. I think also in retrospect, it is very clear in S5 once Sam is away from Ruby's influence how much it really did affect him, and the audience's perception of him in S4. (More on that later). So S5 ended in this glorious epic way, where Sam and Dean connected again and were there for each other and saved the world AND I CAN'T BE LOGICAL ABOUT IT!! IT WAS GLORIOUS!!! ;_____;
Where I think S6 lost a lot of people is that not only is there a disconnect from Sam in his soulless state, there's a disconnect from Dean himself. It is incredibly difficult as an audience member to find the emotional point of connection starting out in S6, especially when the show has been historically chock-full of those moments. However, that emotional void serves as a really fantastic(ally bleak) picture of where our heroes are at that point. We start off with Dean going through the motions of having a normal life, but he doesn't care about any of it because Sam is gone (which isn't to say he didn't care about Ben and Lisa -I think he did and he was doing his best, but his mental space was still pretty crap).
As opposed to the previous seasons, we're not even getting angsty!Dean here, we're getting The-Reason-I-Fight-Is-Gone-But-I-Promised-Him-I'd-Keep-Going!Dean. Which is very in character, but it was harder for the audience to connect to because between him and robo!Sam, a good chunk of the season felt very anesthetized. But I think it was intentional that the season be disconcerting, considering it's a follow-up to the apocalypse. With the way S5 ended, the tone of the previous seasons wouldn't be appropriate. S6 served to highlight how wrong the post-apocalyptic world is.
A man's character is his fate...
The thing is, SPN is a character-driven story disguised as a genre show. While some of the plotlines may have fizzled, Sam and Dean have stayed true to the characters on a fundamental level, so the heart of the show is still there.
Take Sam in S4 for example. Sam's actions in S4 are very much in character, and very sympathetic when you think of them from his perspective. Sam clearly felt he didn't have a choice in the decisions he made. However, the audience is also dealing with the Dean filter, so Dean's bias and mistrust with regard to Sam shows very heavily. The interesting thing for me here is that there's a distinct difference in Sam being wrong from Dean's perspective, and Sam being wrong from the audience's perspective. That is to say, Dean is not right just because Sam is wrong.
The bulk of Sam's actions after Dean dies are motivated by grief and anger (in that order). He is devastated by Dean's death, and he is frustrated and angry beyond reason that he can't do anything about it. From the end of S3 on, Sam is very much shaped by having not been able to save Dean. So compared to the fear and desperation Sam had in Faith for example is completely different from the anger he shows in On the Head of a Pin, but they're both coming from the same place - Needing to save Dean.
In S4, Sam was doing as best he could in a situation where ALL his choices were shit, while having all of his weaknesses deftly exploited. And I don't think the argument that Ruby was OBVIOUSLY evil actually tracks. For one thing, she fooled Anna (and Dean, at least a few times) into thinking she was on their side. For another, she was there at the right moment in Sam's despair, and did everything she needed to do to get him to trust her. Ruby played a hell of a long con. That Sam in the depths of his despair over Dean trusted her is logical, and by the time Dean got back, Sam was already too far in it to step back from the edge (I mean, the poor guy is being manipulated by both Heaven and Hell. C'mon!).
Sam was wrong, but you can still see how and why he made each decision he did. You can also see why he wouldn't respond well to Dean's objections with the way he went about them. While Dean's responses are very true to who he's always been, they were 100% the wrong way to approach Sam at this point. Dean's issues with Sam keep him from being even remotely objective in dealing with him. His "I'm the oldest and I said so!" reasoning has been an issue between them since (and prior to) S1, and you can see how difficult a time he's had in S5 and S6 in trying to break those patterns of behavior and see Sam as an adult.
It's really easy to get upset/frustrated/angry when the character(s) you love make bad decisions or do awful things, but I actually think one of the most glorious things about the show is that they have shit choices ALL THE TIME. SPN is really emotionally messy - things do not get tied up into a neat little bow. They all make all kinds of mistakes and they muddle through as best they can and there are only ever variations of grey. People's views on John highlight that really well. Obviously John was not a great dad, but what choice did he really have? Sam and Dean would've been no safer had he re-married and raised them in the suburbs. Adam got royally screwed even though John let him be. There was no winning no matter what he did, and I think he was an incredibly sympathetic character, even though he did dick things.
This is true with Castiel as well. One of the fundamental things in his character arc is that he goes from being a soldier who doesn't question orders to really embracing free will and fighting against everything he's been taught. None of Castiel's choices have been good. He could either go with Heaven's plan and rock the Apocalypse, or he could rebel against Heaven and derail it. There was not ever any middle road there, and the show doesn't shy away from the fact that there are unintended negative consequences for the decisions he's made.
I know a lot of people are upset at the direction of his character, but I think it's actually a really logical path for him to take. He went from a heavenly peon who had a sense of purpose and faith to making his own decisions, to realizing he was operating in a universe where God is either dead or doesn't care and there is no meaning or purpose in anything. It makes more sense for him to go from one extreme to the other than for him to go from one extreme to a happy, logical middle ground. Castiel's faith took a fatal hit. Why not become God? Is he not the lesser of two evils in filling that void? (Good intentions and all that...(Heh. I said "filling that void")).
One of the big (and awesome) reoccurring themes for SPN has been that the Right Thing To Do isn't always clear. The characters constantly make wrong and selfish choices- they have all been jerks and hypocrites, and sometimes good people get caught up in the fallout. They've all done dick things, and they all have to live with the consequences of those actions. They've all made bad choices in the name of Doing The Right Thing, and sometimes, even when they've made the Right Choice, things still go to shit. And even with all of this, they can still be sympathetic characters.
SPN has never been about who is right, which I think can be really difficult for the audience to reconcile, especially when in so many other genre shows, you have a very clear idea of what is Right and Wrong. The heroes make good choices and the bad guys are justly dealt with. If necessary, the Hero of the story is willing to sacrifice their loved one(s) to save the world. SPN is not that show. Everybody's wrong and everything hurts. When all is said and done, that will keep me coming back every time.
So, yeah. Is it Friday yet?