Angel Economics: Cas preferences.
This is my brief take on what I want for Castiel in general and in season 6 given that some things have to be traded off for others.
In graph form.
Yeah. I swear it will make sense.
Castiel is a complex thing, and my opinions on Cas - what he is and should be - can at times look wishy washy...
I <333 that he was restored to angel-dom at the end of last year and is trying to take on some huge responsibilities in heaven. I love the implication that he's more powerful than ever and working towards heading the angelic host. I've wanted that storyline for him for a long time.
I also wouldn't have minded as much as I initially thought if he'd remained human and stayed with Dean. I could've loved it too.
I love it when Cas is awkwardly adorable in the vein of his talk with Dean in Lazarus Rising, when he's exhibiting that limitless willingness to help the boys, and I love moments like that beneficent, fond smile in The End after he saved Dean from the clutches of Zachariah. But I also love "You should show me some respect", ruthless kickass Cas, his brutal honesty, and the simmering, despairing rage of Point of No Return.
Though I always want more of the character :p I could possibly deal with less if the storyline were solid, the characterisation were solid, the relationships were solid, and if he ultimately played a significant role in the overarching mythology.
It's not that I'm easy to please - not at all, if you've read one of my longwinded rants which seem to often end up with "I Am Disappoint" or "I Expect to be Disappointed." It's just that more of one alternative will usually make up for lack of something else. I think you would have the same kinds of assessments, actually. Maybe even exactly the same. That's where these graphs come in...
With news that Cas in s6 is apparently going to be militant and unemotional and generally not as close to the boys (or at all, depending on who you're being spoiled by), I've been swinging back and forth. On one hand, if we're on the "all is not what it seems" bent, I think it could turn out awesome. But practically everything has the potential for awesomeness if you go out on enough fantastical tangents - as I'm unfortunately wont to do. My more instinctive reaction to hearing this stuff and the one that generally prevails is DAMMIT, NO. NOOOO. THEY HAD SOMETHING BEAUTIFUL HOW COULD YOU askdkfjl. And I really do mean that in a canon friendship way.
Whether that relationship really will be foregone what with the vastly different ways it's been framed by Misha, Sera and Ben is for another post; on the assumption that it will be downgraded and quashed into nothing, it would take a heck of a lot of our promised Badass Cas to make up for it (and even then, I would find it stupid, difficult to explain character-wise without making the parties look like jerkasses, and a waste of 2 years' character development if it were completely tossed out). I still have good hope that there's more to it than meets the eye, but back on topic...
So that's definitely one of the things I had in mind when I randomly started doodling these graphs to try and express how I see things. I might have given you the impression that this is a srs bsns post. Not really - there's definitely truth to it, but hopefully you'll just enjoy my take :p
HOW THIS WORKS
For the non-economically inclined...basically, the waves of curves represent utility/benefit. The curves themselves are "indifference curves", where I am indifferent between any points wherever they lie on Curve 1, where the points represent different combinations of quantities of the "goods" on the axis. As the axes move outwards from the origin, quantities increase. For example, I might be okay with less Cas friendshippiness if he was highly badass. At the same time, I would like mucho Cas friendshippiness with less badassery equally as much. But I would love more of all of these things even better!
I know, I know, let's pretend that this is at least slightly scientific...
There are several curves because the higher curves (or those in the direction of the arrows) represent higher benefit - I am indifferent between points on Curve 1 but I prefer Curve 2 over all of them - and Curve 3 over those, etc. And there are different shapes of curves depending on types of preference.
Eh, you'll see.
tl;dr
It always makes more sense with pics, so I'll just leave it there. If it's too small just click; it links to a better version ;)
Oh, and apologies to Edgeworth, Pareto and the other developers for misusing adapting their wonderful economic tools..
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In graph form.
Yeah. I swear it will make sense.
Castiel is a complex thing, and my opinions on Cas - what he is and should be - can at times look wishy washy...
I <333 that he was restored to angel-dom at the end of last year and is trying to take on some huge responsibilities in heaven. I love the implication that he's more powerful than ever and working towards heading the angelic host. I've wanted that storyline for him for a long time.
I also wouldn't have minded as much as I initially thought if he'd remained human and stayed with Dean. I could've loved it too.
I love it when Cas is awkwardly adorable in the vein of his talk with Dean in Lazarus Rising, when he's exhibiting that limitless willingness to help the boys, and I love moments like that beneficent, fond smile in The End after he saved Dean from the clutches of Zachariah. But I also love "You should show me some respect", ruthless kickass Cas, his brutal honesty, and the simmering, despairing rage of Point of No Return.
Though I always want more of the character :p I could possibly deal with less if the storyline were solid, the characterisation were solid, the relationships were solid, and if he ultimately played a significant role in the overarching mythology.
It's not that I'm easy to please - not at all, if you've read one of my longwinded rants which seem to often end up with "I Am Disappoint" or "I Expect to be Disappointed." It's just that more of one alternative will usually make up for lack of something else. I think you would have the same kinds of assessments, actually. Maybe even exactly the same. That's where these graphs come in...
With news that Cas in s6 is apparently going to be militant and unemotional and generally not as close to the boys (or at all, depending on who you're being spoiled by), I've been swinging back and forth. On one hand, if we're on the "all is not what it seems" bent, I think it could turn out awesome. But practically everything has the potential for awesomeness if you go out on enough fantastical tangents - as I'm unfortunately wont to do. My more instinctive reaction to hearing this stuff and the one that generally prevails is DAMMIT, NO. NOOOO. THEY HAD SOMETHING BEAUTIFUL HOW COULD YOU askdkfjl. And I really do mean that in a canon friendship way.
Whether that relationship really will be foregone what with the vastly different ways it's been framed by Misha, Sera and Ben is for another post; on the assumption that it will be downgraded and quashed into nothing, it would take a heck of a lot of our promised Badass Cas to make up for it (and even then, I would find it stupid, difficult to explain character-wise without making the parties look like jerkasses, and a waste of 2 years' character development if it were completely tossed out). I still have good hope that there's more to it than meets the eye, but back on topic...
So that's definitely one of the things I had in mind when I randomly started doodling these graphs to try and express how I see things. I might have given you the impression that this is a srs bsns post. Not really - there's definitely truth to it, but hopefully you'll just enjoy my take :p
HOW THIS WORKS
For the non-economically inclined...basically, the waves of curves represent utility/benefit. The curves themselves are "indifference curves", where I am indifferent between any points wherever they lie on Curve 1, where the points represent different combinations of quantities of the "goods" on the axis. As the axes move outwards from the origin, quantities increase. For example, I might be okay with less Cas friendshippiness if he was highly badass. At the same time, I would like mucho Cas friendshippiness with less badassery equally as much. But I would love more of all of these things even better!
I know, I know, let's pretend that this is at least slightly scientific...
There are several curves because the higher curves (or those in the direction of the arrows) represent higher benefit - I am indifferent between points on Curve 1 but I prefer Curve 2 over all of them - and Curve 3 over those, etc. And there are different shapes of curves depending on types of preference.
Eh, you'll see.
tl;dr
It always makes more sense with pics, so I'll just leave it there. If it's too small just click; it links to a better version ;)
Oh, and apologies to Edgeworth, Pareto and the other developers for misusing adapting their wonderful economic tools..
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