SPN - Sacrifice
WHEW OKAY I AM CUT OFF. I'm really hoping to do a S8 writeup sometime during the summer but I just had to get so much vindication love out for this episode now so! The first part of this is about the broader season metaphor, the second part is about DA BRUDDERS, and the last part is about the angels. Split up by gifs, if you want to skip to anything.
The Wayward Son montage starts out with three shots from the roleplaying episodes: Hunteri Heroici, Moondor, the video game. And we get a few meta shout-outs, but as soon as they get direct, the strings start to show through and the metaphor shifts. Kevin references Aziz Anzari, a real person. It's no longer a story, viewed and understood from an outside perspective, but a real-time showdown between an unpredictable knight and a cornered king. It's a game, and they're the players. IOW: SHIT GOT SO REAL.
This season is so good on issues of choice and agency, of intent and character. What good does forcing Crowley to change do? It doesn't change him in terms of renouncing his wicked ways, though it might make him less dangerous and that's worth doing. And can Sam be making the ultimate sacrifice when he doesn't know that's what he's doing? What if he doesn't value his life all that much, what is he really giving up? Can Castiel's grace count as a sacrifice if it's ripped from him?
I touched on this last week, but it's something that was prevalent here: that freedom, as a concept, does not solely hinge on being a special snowflake who gets the opportunity to find some deity, shove a middle finger in its face, and shout "YOU'RE NOT MY REAL DAD!" Freedom is a thing we can choose, a thing we can actiely maximize (rather than "do we have it or don't we"), it is a thing we do for each other. It means knowing that you will be limited by some structure or whatever - often the worst thing you can do for your own agency is to tell yourself you are free when you are not, and the most effective way to control someone else is convince them that they're CHOOSING YOUR CHOICES.
smash cut to:
(x)Let's be clear: Sam does not have an active death wish. Sam does not want to re-make the world to his own specifications. Sam literally does not care whether he lives or dies, as long as he can stop feeling like he deserves Dean's contempt.
This little speech, though, was the GREATEST THING EVER TO GREAT:
Dean: Hold on, hold on! You seriously think that? Because none of it -- none of it -- is true. Listen, man, I know we've had our disagreements, okay? Hell, I know I've said some junk that set you back on your heels. But, Sammy...come on. I killed Benny to save you. I'm willing to let this bastard and all the sons of bitches that killed mom walk because of you. Don't you dare think that there is anything, past or present, that I would put in front of you! It has never been like that, ever! I need you to see that. I'm begging you. (Superwiki)
Not "you're not those things." Not "I shouldn't have said those things." Not "those are not reasons to kill yourself." Or - HEAVENS FORFEND - "I'm sorry." But "YOU didn't read my mind and know that when I said 'sit' I meant 'roll over,' GOD WTF IS WRONG WITH YOU?!" Sam is throwing his life away on the strength of Dean's belittling, and Dean seriously shoots back with "you're stupid, and how DARE you make me feel bad for the shitty way I've TREATED you?" And note all the things he doesn't say: he says he killed Benny but doesn't acknowledge that he had every intention of Benny coming back, he doesn't apologize, he admits to "saying things" but not to doing things. He's copping to the bare minimum he thinks will difuse the situation, and nothing else that Sam might seize on if and when this blows over.
We can try to excuse Dean all day by saying Sam chose his own choices, but Dean made choices too, actively manipulating his brother at every turn. The ticking clock, with constant references to the imminent climax. Encouraging his isolation; running him into the ground with exhaustion with "us against the world" distraction hunts. Telling him that he's weak. Digging in on his wussy reluctance to take the big risks. The implication that he doesn't love his dead loved ones enough. The guilt trips on how he clearly doesn't love his living loved ones enough. The mind games that got Sam into that church this season were EXACTLY the same ones Ruby used to get him to the alter to raise Lucifer. The only thing Dean didn't do was blood and sex, but even then, he doled out support and affection in exactly the same way - just enough to keep Sam going but not enough to give him the security to think things through, and keeping him as far as possible away from any other sources.
So of course the first thing Dean tells Sam to confess for is Ruby. March in there and tell GOD you're sorry for LETTING someone else treat you the way only I get to treat you. Sam, for all his intelligence and perceptiveness about witnesses and monsters and victims, is very susceptible to these games. I was going to say "in spite of his independence," but I'm pretty sure this is a big part of why he works so hard at that independence. Because this is what he thinks interactions with others are like, because he has never known anything else.
Sam bringing up Cas and Benny made me wince, but it was so great - not just because you don't have to say and do everything right to deserve not to be abused, but because it highlighted the wildly different standards they hold each other to. Dean's gone around talking Sam out of having friends, destroying Sam's means of contacting his friends, and MURDERING Sam's friends - and then has the GALL to look hurt at Sam confessing on his deathbed that he doesn't LOVE having Dean's parade of BETTER BROTHERS thrown in his face, like Sam's a bastard who is ungrateful for the scraps of affection he clearly doesn't deserve being mixed in with years of bullying. By the way, this is a thing abusive partners do. They flirt and cheat and flaunt other people in their partner's face, while being extremely (sometimes violently) jealous of everyone else in their partner's lives until the partner has no-one left and is dependent enough on the abuser that they'll let insecurities slip at some point and then it's all AHA, YOU'RE JEALOUS, DON'T TRY TO ~TAME ME.
I am pretty pleased about how things shook out at the end, in large part because that was not an ethical thing to do? Dean wasn't making a particularly clear argument that this is actually a bad idea that will probably make things worse, though it almost certainly was. It's just "well, I don't actually think you are the dirt beneath my feet!" and that's enough to convince Sam to stop trying to protect everyone in the world from demons. Based on the stuff Dean was emphasizing? No, Sam shouldn't have stopped the ritual. "Well, things are okay with my brother, so forget Hell!" is very solipsistic logic. But...that's what abuse does? It gives people tunnel vision. They can't see a way out for themselves, and they can't afford to think too much about others except to feel guilt and shame about themselves, because they are focused on pleasing their partner. It's probably for the best that the show lets us softpedal this as tactical - because if Metatron didn't tell them about this, there was plenty of other stuff he might not have been telling them - but I'm kind of impressed with how boldly that wasn't the primary reason.
This is probably a 'get it or don't' thing, but I am still ever so pleased with the choice to deconstrut the idea of penance. (I've been smelling Catholic all over Carver this season. HA!) Sam and Cas, they DO THIS to SHOW that they're SO SORRY. And it's the kind of thing that sounds good: don't just say/look/feel sorry, DO something! Only somehow, what they do is never enough; when their actions do not destroy them, the decide they must not be sorry enough, because their defining trait should be their guilt. Eventually self-destruction becomes the all-consuming goal, and they suck other people into the self-imposed implosion, which just becomes more fuel for the guilt. At some point, you've gotta ask: who's doing the punishment, and why are they so invested in punishing? You've gotta wonder - once you're purged, what's left? Sam convinced himself that the trials were purging him, that doing this would make him good enough. Except that necessitated finishing the trials, and thus dying. "Purification," Sam being ground down until he disintegrates. The only thing that would be good enough for Dean is Sam's death, only we know how that ends (the final scene is even shot on the rain with Sam hurt, recalling Dean's first deal). Peace when you are done, NOTHING. It will NEVER be good enough.
And that is a feature, not a bug. You are supposed to feel exactly shitty enough that you can be easily manipulated into whatever it is Dean wants you to do. And I mean, we've been back and forth about how intentionally Dean does this, but I think the episode pushed pretty hard for his accountability in that first scene, when he consciously breaks it out for Crowley's benefit.
Anyway, TL;DR everything that has been the blatant emphasis of this relationship all season LMFAO @ all the concern-trolling writer bashers.
On a happier Winchester-related note, I really want to see Kevin lash out at them and be too Keviny to do it properly. "Imma put their Sumerian mythological reference books in the fiction section, THAT'LL SHOW THOSE BITCH-ASS MOTHERFUCKERS."
(source)
ALL THE ANGELS! ALL THE APOCALYPTIC STRUCTURAL SHIFTS! ALL THE IDEOLOGICAL CONFLICTS AND IDENTITY CRISES! GIVE IT TO MEEEEEE, GIVE IT TO ME RIGHT NOW!
Ahem. Okay, it's out of my system.
So at first I rolled my eyes a bit when Metatron described God: "Like you'd expect. Larger than life. Gruff. Bit of a sexist, but fair," because ofc a "fair sexist" is an oxymoron. But: that's the story Cas expected to hear. It was a clue that he was lying, and operating on a perverse value system. And because we know Metatron was a liar, we're not really bound to anything else that went down this season, which is the smartest way to extend the arc. Most pressingly: did the completion of the angel trials cast every angel out of Heaven, or every angel onto Earth? Did Metatron spring Michael and Lucifer, too? (In support of this, Sam had that final episode of his mystical ailment after he gave up the trials and as Heaven cast out the angels, which suggests Metatron's spell had some connection to Hell, too, and we find out that Naomi knew the archangels which might matter.)
Cas falling didn't bother me even though I was almost certain it would. Because Cas doesn't fall. Cas doesn't decide to fall. Cas gets shoved out of an airplane. That doesn't glamorize renunciation of his difference as a choice. Cas was the sacrifice made by someone else. They may well spend next season trying to get his grace back into him.
Also I herein surrender the Destiel card I've been carrying around for a year and a half now. The big appeal in recent seasons has been specifically that Dean needed to be with someone he can't push around, and an isolated, depowered Cas is an even easier target than poor Stockholmed Sam, so. My new ships are Amelia/Sam/Cas and Dean/Self-Pity. I almost never get into canon ships, so that second one is big for me!
The last twist of the meta-themes of the season is the POV flip. What they've stumbled into with the demon tablet was actually going to do what SamnDean were about to do to Hell. What they did to the beings in Purgatory at the end of last season. How did those poor beastie-ghosts start faring once the leviathan came back? How would all the souls who've been dragged into the pit recently have experienced the influx of the old guard? We're about to find the fuck out.
HOLY SHIT, this is one hell of a show. Prayer circle for S9 starting off correctly: with Charlie busting into the Batcave yelling "WHAT THE FRAK, GUYS?!"
This entry was originally posted at http://pocochina.dreamwidth.org/297742.html. Leave a comment here, or there using OpenID.
The Wayward Son montage starts out with three shots from the roleplaying episodes: Hunteri Heroici, Moondor, the video game. And we get a few meta shout-outs, but as soon as they get direct, the strings start to show through and the metaphor shifts. Kevin references Aziz Anzari, a real person. It's no longer a story, viewed and understood from an outside perspective, but a real-time showdown between an unpredictable knight and a cornered king. It's a game, and they're the players. IOW: SHIT GOT SO REAL.
This season is so good on issues of choice and agency, of intent and character. What good does forcing Crowley to change do? It doesn't change him in terms of renouncing his wicked ways, though it might make him less dangerous and that's worth doing. And can Sam be making the ultimate sacrifice when he doesn't know that's what he's doing? What if he doesn't value his life all that much, what is he really giving up? Can Castiel's grace count as a sacrifice if it's ripped from him?
I touched on this last week, but it's something that was prevalent here: that freedom, as a concept, does not solely hinge on being a special snowflake who gets the opportunity to find some deity, shove a middle finger in its face, and shout "YOU'RE NOT MY REAL DAD!" Freedom is a thing we can choose, a thing we can actiely maximize (rather than "do we have it or don't we"), it is a thing we do for each other. It means knowing that you will be limited by some structure or whatever - often the worst thing you can do for your own agency is to tell yourself you are free when you are not, and the most effective way to control someone else is convince them that they're CHOOSING YOUR CHOICES.
smash cut to:
(x)Let's be clear: Sam does not have an active death wish. Sam does not want to re-make the world to his own specifications. Sam literally does not care whether he lives or dies, as long as he can stop feeling like he deserves Dean's contempt.
This little speech, though, was the GREATEST THING EVER TO GREAT:
Dean: Hold on, hold on! You seriously think that? Because none of it -- none of it -- is true. Listen, man, I know we've had our disagreements, okay? Hell, I know I've said some junk that set you back on your heels. But, Sammy...come on. I killed Benny to save you. I'm willing to let this bastard and all the sons of bitches that killed mom walk because of you. Don't you dare think that there is anything, past or present, that I would put in front of you! It has never been like that, ever! I need you to see that. I'm begging you. (Superwiki)
Not "you're not those things." Not "I shouldn't have said those things." Not "those are not reasons to kill yourself." Or - HEAVENS FORFEND - "I'm sorry." But "YOU didn't read my mind and know that when I said 'sit' I meant 'roll over,' GOD WTF IS WRONG WITH YOU?!" Sam is throwing his life away on the strength of Dean's belittling, and Dean seriously shoots back with "you're stupid, and how DARE you make me feel bad for the shitty way I've TREATED you?" And note all the things he doesn't say: he says he killed Benny but doesn't acknowledge that he had every intention of Benny coming back, he doesn't apologize, he admits to "saying things" but not to doing things. He's copping to the bare minimum he thinks will difuse the situation, and nothing else that Sam might seize on if and when this blows over.
We can try to excuse Dean all day by saying Sam chose his own choices, but Dean made choices too, actively manipulating his brother at every turn. The ticking clock, with constant references to the imminent climax. Encouraging his isolation; running him into the ground with exhaustion with "us against the world" distraction hunts. Telling him that he's weak. Digging in on his wussy reluctance to take the big risks. The implication that he doesn't love his dead loved ones enough. The guilt trips on how he clearly doesn't love his living loved ones enough. The mind games that got Sam into that church this season were EXACTLY the same ones Ruby used to get him to the alter to raise Lucifer. The only thing Dean didn't do was blood and sex, but even then, he doled out support and affection in exactly the same way - just enough to keep Sam going but not enough to give him the security to think things through, and keeping him as far as possible away from any other sources.
So of course the first thing Dean tells Sam to confess for is Ruby. March in there and tell GOD you're sorry for LETTING someone else treat you the way only I get to treat you. Sam, for all his intelligence and perceptiveness about witnesses and monsters and victims, is very susceptible to these games. I was going to say "in spite of his independence," but I'm pretty sure this is a big part of why he works so hard at that independence. Because this is what he thinks interactions with others are like, because he has never known anything else.
Sam bringing up Cas and Benny made me wince, but it was so great - not just because you don't have to say and do everything right to deserve not to be abused, but because it highlighted the wildly different standards they hold each other to. Dean's gone around talking Sam out of having friends, destroying Sam's means of contacting his friends, and MURDERING Sam's friends - and then has the GALL to look hurt at Sam confessing on his deathbed that he doesn't LOVE having Dean's parade of BETTER BROTHERS thrown in his face, like Sam's a bastard who is ungrateful for the scraps of affection he clearly doesn't deserve being mixed in with years of bullying. By the way, this is a thing abusive partners do. They flirt and cheat and flaunt other people in their partner's face, while being extremely (sometimes violently) jealous of everyone else in their partner's lives until the partner has no-one left and is dependent enough on the abuser that they'll let insecurities slip at some point and then it's all AHA, YOU'RE JEALOUS, DON'T TRY TO ~TAME ME.
I am pretty pleased about how things shook out at the end, in large part because that was not an ethical thing to do? Dean wasn't making a particularly clear argument that this is actually a bad idea that will probably make things worse, though it almost certainly was. It's just "well, I don't actually think you are the dirt beneath my feet!" and that's enough to convince Sam to stop trying to protect everyone in the world from demons. Based on the stuff Dean was emphasizing? No, Sam shouldn't have stopped the ritual. "Well, things are okay with my brother, so forget Hell!" is very solipsistic logic. But...that's what abuse does? It gives people tunnel vision. They can't see a way out for themselves, and they can't afford to think too much about others except to feel guilt and shame about themselves, because they are focused on pleasing their partner. It's probably for the best that the show lets us softpedal this as tactical - because if Metatron didn't tell them about this, there was plenty of other stuff he might not have been telling them - but I'm kind of impressed with how boldly that wasn't the primary reason.
This is probably a 'get it or don't' thing, but I am still ever so pleased with the choice to deconstrut the idea of penance. (I've been smelling Catholic all over Carver this season. HA!) Sam and Cas, they DO THIS to SHOW that they're SO SORRY. And it's the kind of thing that sounds good: don't just say/look/feel sorry, DO something! Only somehow, what they do is never enough; when their actions do not destroy them, the decide they must not be sorry enough, because their defining trait should be their guilt. Eventually self-destruction becomes the all-consuming goal, and they suck other people into the self-imposed implosion, which just becomes more fuel for the guilt. At some point, you've gotta ask: who's doing the punishment, and why are they so invested in punishing? You've gotta wonder - once you're purged, what's left? Sam convinced himself that the trials were purging him, that doing this would make him good enough. Except that necessitated finishing the trials, and thus dying. "Purification," Sam being ground down until he disintegrates. The only thing that would be good enough for Dean is Sam's death, only we know how that ends (the final scene is even shot on the rain with Sam hurt, recalling Dean's first deal). Peace when you are done, NOTHING. It will NEVER be good enough.
And that is a feature, not a bug. You are supposed to feel exactly shitty enough that you can be easily manipulated into whatever it is Dean wants you to do. And I mean, we've been back and forth about how intentionally Dean does this, but I think the episode pushed pretty hard for his accountability in that first scene, when he consciously breaks it out for Crowley's benefit.
Anyway, TL;DR everything that has been the blatant emphasis of this relationship all season LMFAO @ all the concern-trolling writer bashers.
On a happier Winchester-related note, I really want to see Kevin lash out at them and be too Keviny to do it properly. "Imma put their Sumerian mythological reference books in the fiction section, THAT'LL SHOW THOSE BITCH-ASS MOTHERFUCKERS."
(source)
ALL THE ANGELS! ALL THE APOCALYPTIC STRUCTURAL SHIFTS! ALL THE IDEOLOGICAL CONFLICTS AND IDENTITY CRISES! GIVE IT TO MEEEEEE, GIVE IT TO ME RIGHT NOW!
Ahem. Okay, it's out of my system.
So at first I rolled my eyes a bit when Metatron described God: "Like you'd expect. Larger than life. Gruff. Bit of a sexist, but fair," because ofc a "fair sexist" is an oxymoron. But: that's the story Cas expected to hear. It was a clue that he was lying, and operating on a perverse value system. And because we know Metatron was a liar, we're not really bound to anything else that went down this season, which is the smartest way to extend the arc. Most pressingly: did the completion of the angel trials cast every angel out of Heaven, or every angel onto Earth? Did Metatron spring Michael and Lucifer, too? (In support of this, Sam had that final episode of his mystical ailment after he gave up the trials and as Heaven cast out the angels, which suggests Metatron's spell had some connection to Hell, too, and we find out that Naomi knew the archangels which might matter.)
Cas falling didn't bother me even though I was almost certain it would. Because Cas doesn't fall. Cas doesn't decide to fall. Cas gets shoved out of an airplane. That doesn't glamorize renunciation of his difference as a choice. Cas was the sacrifice made by someone else. They may well spend next season trying to get his grace back into him.
Also I herein surrender the Destiel card I've been carrying around for a year and a half now. The big appeal in recent seasons has been specifically that Dean needed to be with someone he can't push around, and an isolated, depowered Cas is an even easier target than poor Stockholmed Sam, so. My new ships are Amelia/Sam/Cas and Dean/Self-Pity. I almost never get into canon ships, so that second one is big for me!
The last twist of the meta-themes of the season is the POV flip. What they've stumbled into with the demon tablet was actually going to do what SamnDean were about to do to Hell. What they did to the beings in Purgatory at the end of last season. How did those poor beastie-ghosts start faring once the leviathan came back? How would all the souls who've been dragged into the pit recently have experienced the influx of the old guard? We're about to find the fuck out.
HOLY SHIT, this is one hell of a show. Prayer circle for S9 starting off correctly: with Charlie busting into the Batcave yelling "WHAT THE FRAK, GUYS?!"
This entry was originally posted at http://pocochina.dreamwidth.org/297742.html. Leave a comment here, or there using OpenID.