Thought I'd comment here - picking up from the comment on the other post.
The thing I love most about all that you've written, is the amount of hope it's given me for the future of the show. It almost feels like there's real purpose and direction and even, dare I say, insight by Carver. I really hadn't thought deeper than "ok, Dean as a demon will be hot and give Jensen a chance to flex his acting chops and ooh... black eyes". But with this reading it's so God damn perfect and fitting that finally Dean's accumulation of "sins" have resulted in something meaningful. I also wonder if Dean's very nature has contributed to this - in terms of the guilt he carries and his refusal to repent (the most horrific line out of Dean's mouth this season was "And I'd do it again").
Dean "deserving" his demonic status is possibly problematic (in terms of fandom's acceptance of that) - but I really love it. It not only gives Dean a myth arc (that has been shouted from the roof tops by fandom), but it's also poetic and has real depth for his character arc and (as I have mentioned in many of my reactions this season) may help start to build this relationship into something much healthier than we've seen in, well, ages.
Thanks for the thinky!
(I may open a discussion on this (and Dean as an abuser) on my journal. How do you feel about me linking to your post/s?)
It almost feels like there's real purpose and direction and even, dare I say, insight by Carver.
I hope you can enjoy the show too!
For me this season, to an even greater extent than last season, has just been....I don't want to say vindication, because it's not like "I am right and other people are wrong, I WIN, HA!" but maybe...validation? In terms of, I have been seeing this stuff and either feeling alienated by fandom at large because it wasn't getting noticed, or just flat-out being told that I wasn't seeing what I thought I was seeing. So for things to move for this much time along what I found to have been a very predictable trajectory is reassuring to me. And I feel like Carver is very insightful, because he saw the patterns that I think a lot of people didn't (since it's highly unlikely he and I are having the exact same show-related hallucination and seeing something that truly isn't there).
I also wonder if Dean's very nature has contributed to this - in terms of the guilt he carries and his refusal to repent (the most horrific line out of Dean's mouth this season was "And I'd do it again").
Right. And this is so true to human nature. Dean has this tendency to a much greater extent than most people, but this is a psychological trap I think most people fall into at some point or another: they realize on some level that they're somewhere they don't want to be, and so they double down and keep digging themselves in deeper. Dean knew he screwed up, he's afraid to admit that he screwed up, and so he screws up worse and worse in the hopes that he can convince himself he didn't screw up at all, and that's what pushed him past the point of highly unlikely return.
it's also poetic and has real depth for his character arc and (as I have mentioned in many of my reactions this season) may help start to build this relationship into something much healthier than we've seen in, well, ages.
Yes! This is something that I think they mytharc of the whole show has represented. S8 had them trying to shut the Gates (repress and repress and try to pin all of their problems on some external target); S9 had the sky fall open; (an undeniable change in the world around them, one that wasn't the one they were expecting); now S10 is set up to be them actually seeing the problem at the heart of things, which is necessary if they're ever going to fix it.
(I may open a discussion on this (and Dean as an abuser) on my journal. How do you feel about me linking to your post/s?)
I'd be interested to hear your thoughts, and sure, link away. I will try not to be too combative in your comments, lol.
The thing I love most about all that you've written, is the amount of hope it's given me for the future of the show. It almost feels like there's real purpose and direction and even, dare I say, insight by Carver. I really hadn't thought deeper than "ok, Dean as a demon will be hot and give Jensen a chance to flex his acting chops and ooh... black eyes". But with this reading it's so God damn perfect and fitting that finally Dean's accumulation of "sins" have resulted in something meaningful. I also wonder if Dean's very nature has contributed to this - in terms of the guilt he carries and his refusal to repent (the most horrific line out of Dean's mouth this season was "And I'd do it again").
Dean "deserving" his demonic status is possibly problematic (in terms of fandom's acceptance of that) - but I really love it. It not only gives Dean a myth arc (that has been shouted from the roof tops by fandom), but it's also poetic and has real depth for his character arc and (as I have mentioned in many of my reactions this season) may help start to build this relationship into something much healthier than we've seen in, well, ages.
Thanks for the thinky!
(I may open a discussion on this (and Dean as an abuser) on my journal. How do you feel about me linking to your post/s?)
Reply
I hope you can enjoy the show too!
For me this season, to an even greater extent than last season, has just been....I don't want to say vindication, because it's not like "I am right and other people are wrong, I WIN, HA!" but maybe...validation? In terms of, I have been seeing this stuff and either feeling alienated by fandom at large because it wasn't getting noticed, or just flat-out being told that I wasn't seeing what I thought I was seeing. So for things to move for this much time along what I found to have been a very predictable trajectory is reassuring to me. And I feel like Carver is very insightful, because he saw the patterns that I think a lot of people didn't (since it's highly unlikely he and I are having the exact same show-related hallucination and seeing something that truly isn't there).
I also wonder if Dean's very nature has contributed to this - in terms of the guilt he carries and his refusal to repent (the most horrific line out of Dean's mouth this season was "And I'd do it again").
Right. And this is so true to human nature. Dean has this tendency to a much greater extent than most people, but this is a psychological trap I think most people fall into at some point or another: they realize on some level that they're somewhere they don't want to be, and so they double down and keep digging themselves in deeper. Dean knew he screwed up, he's afraid to admit that he screwed up, and so he screws up worse and worse in the hopes that he can convince himself he didn't screw up at all, and that's what pushed him past the point of highly unlikely return.
it's also poetic and has real depth for his character arc and (as I have mentioned in many of my reactions this season) may help start to build this relationship into something much healthier than we've seen in, well, ages.
Yes! This is something that I think they mytharc of the whole show has represented. S8 had them trying to shut the Gates (repress and repress and try to pin all of their problems on some external target); S9 had the sky fall open; (an undeniable change in the world around them, one that wasn't the one they were expecting); now S10 is set up to be them actually seeing the problem at the heart of things, which is necessary if they're ever going to fix it.
(I may open a discussion on this (and Dean as an abuser) on my journal. How do you feel about me linking to your post/s?)
I'd be interested to hear your thoughts, and sure, link away. I will try not to be too combative in your comments, lol.
Reply
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