I had a feeling you might like Henry. :) He reminded me a lot of S3!Wesley because the Men of Letters/Hunters dichotomy was so similar to the Watcher/Slayer dynamic. The Brains dictate to the Brawn, using and needing their strength while also looking down on them and dismissing that they might have more to offer than just their right hooks. Henry reminded me of Wes trying to order Faith and Buffy around and eventually coming to realize that they were more than just tools.
They're totally Watchers! (Did you see the promos for next week? Sam seems to have taken Giles's librarian chic to the next level. <3) And yeah, I find Henry really refreshing, after eight seasons of privileging brawn over brains to this level. If they're ever going to do more than play weak defense against the monsters and demons, they desperately need to find that balance.
I did see the promo, although the librarian chic escaped my notice. I was mostly confused because the boys were in so little of it and there seemed to be...Nazis? And then golems? Next week's did not look particularly appealing to me, I have to say.
There are other thematic issues that make those two families counterparts. The brawler Campbells are also Lucifer's bloodline, inheritors of a tradition of free-thinking, which manifests both as Mary's and Sam's rebellions and the slightly more democratic hunter society. Michael's vessels, interested in the stability provided by ruthlessly-policed community norms, also established the "legacy" system Dean both embraces and disdains.
I LOVE IT and I love that this thematic tension is still around. The string of traits that the show conceptualizes as Michael's bloodline are at least compatible with the concept of legacy, family duty, staying and keeping everyone else in line. They might wonder if there's more, but there's not an inherent tension between the concept of predisposition and their particular predispositions. But the Lucifer line *wants* to define themselves; there's that great paradox of being...destined for individualism and free-thinking.
hee! Feel free, I was pleased with it my own self.
Dean finds it impossible to separate his own feelings on family issues from how other people might feel about it, I think. He's hurt by daddy issues, therefore anyone who causes those kinds of issues is a target for his anger. Not right, of course, but if Dean were calm and sensible all the time he wouldn't be nearly as interesting.
I wouldn't argue that he finds it impossible, based on incidents like the confrontation with Henry in the magic shop. He's capable of great insight, but you have to take someone hostage to get him to bother considering that other people have lives and experiences which are not about his ~endless pain. I really do find a lot of the reasons behind it interesting and pretty sympathetic, but it's not that he can't, it's that he won't.
(We all miss Cas! He should be back by now.)
CAS, BABYYYYY.
But I must disagree with you about the sexism of the 'gentlemen's club', though - they were about to initiate Josie Sands. I think the term "gentlemen's club" was
( ... )
I did a rewatch today and a parallel struck me: John's anger at Henry abandoning him, versus the reality of Henry coming to the future where he died saving Sam and Dean, who are John's sons. Dean's anger at Sam for abandoning him in Purgatory, and well, we don't really have an alternate view of that yet, but I'm wondering if that's still possible, given the whole idea of perceptions this season, and that we'll still find out that there was more to what Sam did or didn't do right after that lab exploded and before he ran into Riot and Amelia. Technically, Henry left one night and never came back, no explanation. And technically, Sam hurt Dean by not looking for him or trying to get him out of Purgatory. It just seems like we still need more on the Sam front here, even if it's really true that Sam made the choice to leave the hunting life behind and not obsess over getting Dean out of Purgatory, or undead, or something. A side effect of Sam's one year off is that Dean regained his love of hunting in Purgatory (until he doesn't
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I did a rewatch today and a parallel struck me: John's anger at Henry abandoning him, versus the reality of Henry coming to the future where he died saving Sam and Dean, who are John's sons. Dean's anger at Sam for abandoning him in Purgatory, and well, we don't really have an alternate view of that yet, but I'm wondering if that's still possible
That's a good catch. To be clear, I would defend Sam if he had just bailed: there was nothing he could have done, even if he wasn't at the end of his own rope, which he clearly was. But there's a fair amount of time - implied to be weeks, if not months - between the fight at SucraCorp and hitting the dog. I really don't think we have the whole story, any more than John heard the whole story about Henry.
demons mostly tell the truth, and they tell the truth to their own advantage. Angels are much more likely liars than demons.
Ooooh! I would like this even if it didn't support my theory! but it does, so. :)
technically, Sam hurt Dean by not looking for him or trying to get him out of
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I view Henry like Bobby in that regard. Why on earth not have Bobby teach Sam some of the more obscure research tricks and spells, when he's got so much of it everywhere in his house? I suppose it was more important to see him bonding with Dean as Dean's sub-daddy. Never mind Sam needing a sub-daddy, too. Because Dean's pain must always be greater than Sam's no matter what's just happened to Sam. Anyway, it seems like even when Sam has more in common with another character, they rarely interact with Sam personally anyway
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Why on earth not have Bobby teach Sam some of the more obscure research tricks and spells, when he's got so much of it everywhere in his house? I suppose it was more important to see him bonding with Dean as Dean's sub-daddy. Never mind Sam needing a sub-daddy, too. Yup. In-character for everyone involved: Sam is really good at getting people not to notice him, and used to having to fly under the radar to do for himself, while Dean is really good at drawing attention to his ~endless pain. Bobby doesn't feel like he has much of a place to interfere in the dynamic, and Dean is easier to get to know than Sam, and Bobby was really attached to his own role as the brains of the operation so it might not have occurred to him to appreciate and strengthen Sam's skill at that Watcher-esque stuff
( ... )
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I had a feeling you might like Henry. :) He reminded me a lot of S3!Wesley because the Men of Letters/Hunters dichotomy was so similar to the Watcher/Slayer dynamic. The Brains dictate to the Brawn, using and needing their strength while also looking down on them and dismissing that they might have more to offer than just their right hooks. Henry reminded me of Wes trying to order Faith and Buffy around and eventually coming to realize that they were more than just tools.
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heh, I love this show's irreverent crack, so I'm kind of looking forward to next week.
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THIS!!!!!!!!
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Dean finds it impossible to separate his own feelings on family issues from how other people might feel about it, I think. He's hurt by daddy issues, therefore anyone who causes those kinds of issues is a target for his anger. Not right, of course, but if Dean were calm and sensible all the time he wouldn't be nearly as interesting.
I wouldn't argue that he finds it impossible, based on incidents like the confrontation with Henry in the magic shop. He's capable of great insight, but you have to take someone hostage to get him to bother considering that other people have lives and experiences which are not about his ~endless pain. I really do find a lot of the reasons behind it interesting and pretty sympathetic, but it's not that he can't, it's that he won't.
(We all miss Cas! He should be back by now.)
CAS, BABYYYYY.
But I must disagree with you about the sexism of the 'gentlemen's club', though - they were about to initiate Josie Sands. I think the term "gentlemen's club" was ( ... )
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That's a good catch. To be clear, I would defend Sam if he had just bailed: there was nothing he could have done, even if he wasn't at the end of his own rope, which he clearly was. But there's a fair amount of time - implied to be weeks, if not months - between the fight at SucraCorp and hitting the dog. I really don't think we have the whole story, any more than John heard the whole story about Henry.
demons mostly tell the truth, and they tell the truth to their own advantage. Angels are much more likely liars than demons.
Ooooh! I would like this even if it didn't support my theory! but it does, so. :)
technically, Sam hurt Dean by not looking for him or trying to get him out of ( ... )
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