don't you know the kind of man I am
I am very punchy, so this just a bunch of stuff that's crossed my mind in relation to SPN this season, and last night in particular.
Before I start throwing stuff at the wall to see what sticks, I should note that a lot of the stuff I recall about Michael and Lucifer is hazy and is not based on biblical sources but literary ones - Milton and Gaiman (and Mike Carey), mostly. *snerk* Also, I was raised Catholic, so there may be things in other traditions I'm unaware of, so take it all with a grain of salt.
+ Sam and Dean bargaining with the angels to save the town = Abraham bargaining with God to save Sodom and Gomorrah, which is certainly the reference Uriel is making when he says this wouldn't be the first town he's leveled
+ God tested Abraham's faith by asking him to sacrifice his son Isaac; Abraham was willing to do it (prefiguring God's willingness to sacrifice his own son to save the world) and the fact that he proved faithful even to that extreme was what saved Isaac. Dean's already been told he has to save Sam, or he'll have to kill him (and this season's twist on that, he has to save/stop Sam or the angels will kill him), and we know he can't do it.
+ As I mentioned in last night's post, Sam covers his and Dean's faces with the blood of the sacrifice to hide from Samhain, which made me think of the Israelites in Exodus anointing their lintels with lamb's blood so that the angel of death would pass over during the plague of the death of the firstborn.
+ Dean is the good son, the 'hammer', daddy's blunt little instrument, the one who follows orders without question, until he starts to have doubts. Explicitly paralleled with Castiel here. (in most traditions, angels, unlike humans, do not have free will.)
+ Sam, otoh, (the sharp object) never took orders without question, and did, in fact, get tossed out of the family for disobedience. Just like Lucifer, who refused to bow down before humanity (hence Uriel's bigotry skirting the line of blasphemy), whose pride caused him to fall. What sin is Sam confronted with - and choked by - in Magnificent Seven? Pride. (There's also Samael, who is another fallen angel, an angel of death, sometimes equated with Lucifer.)
I find it interesting that the angels appear to know lots of stuff about both Winchesters, yet can't seem to modify their approach to Sam into something that might, you know, work, rather than coming over all heavy-handed and paternalistic, which they should know never seemed to get John very far with him.
+ Dean's sort of been associated with Michael the archangel (in Houses of the Holy). Michael is the one who drives Lucifer out of heaven (he thrashes him pretty soundly, actually), he's the leader of heaven's army, etc. He also - and I think this may be a Catholic thing - leads deceased souls into heaven to be weighed/judged (ala Ma'at in Egyptian mythology, I guess), so he's a psychopomp. (And now I want to write a story about how what Dean and Sam do - laying to rest the unquiet dead - in some ways puts them in a similar role - see Molly in Roadkill, especially)
+ Brotherly pairs in the bible who may have relevance/resonance to the Winchesters include Cain and Abel, Isaac and Ishmael, and Jacob and Esau. (I have a feeling you could also argue a case for Sam and Dean as Mary and Martha from the New Testament, but I am too brain-fried to do it right now). On a different level, you can look at Michael and Lucifer as brothers before the fall, who then faced off in the war in heaven (I am not exactly sure, but I think Michael took over some of Lucifer's heavenly duties after Lucifer fell)
And I didn't even go into Azazel or Sam's possible status as an antichrist. Heh.
I am sure I am forgetting things, but that's the stuff that's swirling in my head as I try to stay awake for one more hour before I can go home.
***
Before I start throwing stuff at the wall to see what sticks, I should note that a lot of the stuff I recall about Michael and Lucifer is hazy and is not based on biblical sources but literary ones - Milton and Gaiman (and Mike Carey), mostly. *snerk* Also, I was raised Catholic, so there may be things in other traditions I'm unaware of, so take it all with a grain of salt.
+ Sam and Dean bargaining with the angels to save the town = Abraham bargaining with God to save Sodom and Gomorrah, which is certainly the reference Uriel is making when he says this wouldn't be the first town he's leveled
+ God tested Abraham's faith by asking him to sacrifice his son Isaac; Abraham was willing to do it (prefiguring God's willingness to sacrifice his own son to save the world) and the fact that he proved faithful even to that extreme was what saved Isaac. Dean's already been told he has to save Sam, or he'll have to kill him (and this season's twist on that, he has to save/stop Sam or the angels will kill him), and we know he can't do it.
+ As I mentioned in last night's post, Sam covers his and Dean's faces with the blood of the sacrifice to hide from Samhain, which made me think of the Israelites in Exodus anointing their lintels with lamb's blood so that the angel of death would pass over during the plague of the death of the firstborn.
+ Dean is the good son, the 'hammer', daddy's blunt little instrument, the one who follows orders without question, until he starts to have doubts. Explicitly paralleled with Castiel here. (in most traditions, angels, unlike humans, do not have free will.)
+ Sam, otoh, (the sharp object) never took orders without question, and did, in fact, get tossed out of the family for disobedience. Just like Lucifer, who refused to bow down before humanity (hence Uriel's bigotry skirting the line of blasphemy), whose pride caused him to fall. What sin is Sam confronted with - and choked by - in Magnificent Seven? Pride. (There's also Samael, who is another fallen angel, an angel of death, sometimes equated with Lucifer.)
I find it interesting that the angels appear to know lots of stuff about both Winchesters, yet can't seem to modify their approach to Sam into something that might, you know, work, rather than coming over all heavy-handed and paternalistic, which they should know never seemed to get John very far with him.
+ Dean's sort of been associated with Michael the archangel (in Houses of the Holy). Michael is the one who drives Lucifer out of heaven (he thrashes him pretty soundly, actually), he's the leader of heaven's army, etc. He also - and I think this may be a Catholic thing - leads deceased souls into heaven to be weighed/judged (ala Ma'at in Egyptian mythology, I guess), so he's a psychopomp. (And now I want to write a story about how what Dean and Sam do - laying to rest the unquiet dead - in some ways puts them in a similar role - see Molly in Roadkill, especially)
+ Brotherly pairs in the bible who may have relevance/resonance to the Winchesters include Cain and Abel, Isaac and Ishmael, and Jacob and Esau. (I have a feeling you could also argue a case for Sam and Dean as Mary and Martha from the New Testament, but I am too brain-fried to do it right now). On a different level, you can look at Michael and Lucifer as brothers before the fall, who then faced off in the war in heaven (I am not exactly sure, but I think Michael took over some of Lucifer's heavenly duties after Lucifer fell)
And I didn't even go into Azazel or Sam's possible status as an antichrist. Heh.
I am sure I am forgetting things, but that's the stuff that's swirling in my head as I try to stay awake for one more hour before I can go home.
***