.....but FREEDOM!!!!

[pocochina]

We talk a lot about the ability of fictional characters to make choices freely. This is good, of course, but sometimes these conversations trip up on the fact that there are a lot of types of/aspects to freedom, and therefore, a lot of ways to be constrained. So I want to talk about the connotations of some words and phrases related to choice and

Comments

[pocochina]

This is the thing, though. We can't say, for example, that "Sam doesn't have meaningful autonomy" and also "the number of morally bad actions for which Sam is culpable and the degree of that culpability have increased." Culpability requires meaningful autonomy. So I'd disagree that the characters' actions with regards to monsters* have actually become worse over time. I think that the viewers, through the characters, have gained a more nuanced understanding of when, if ever, they have that meaningful autonomy, and just how thorny the moral stakes are. I think the ability and willingness to examine those things, rather than simplistically say "this makes me feel like a good/bad person" makes them more capable of genuine morality, not less. Maybe it's less pretty, but that doesn't make it evil.

Like, "jus in bello" isn't some random conceptual ~darkness. It refers to the laws of war, and those are a real thing, only most people know them better as the Geneva Conventions.

*Obviously you cannot talk about Sam and Dean as holistic moral actors as a unit, given the shocking immorality of Dean's behavior toward Sam.