(no subject)
So I've been rereading American Gods, which I read years ago and loved but never actually can remember the plot of, and it's reminding me of something I love about Supernatural. Admittedly, I know the novel is listed as an influence on the show, and the connections are obvious, but I'm going to talk a little about mythology.
One of the things I love best about this show is what, exactly, Sam and Dean are fighting. Because as good as the boys are, the foundations of this show are what drew me in and hooked me hard. The little details - salt on the windows, salt and burn a body, silver bullet through the heart of a werewolf - are largely part of real world folklore, but they're unique in this world because of the way they're used. In folklore, these things are almost taken up in defense, and one of the very best things about this series for me is the fact that Sam and Dean have amassed an arsenal of knowledge that's just as effective as the weapons, and they're hunting. The things they know are so much more valuable than anything else. On this fundamental level, this show is about folklore, and it's about understanding the subtleties of it. There's a line in season three where Dean goes, "I take it we believe the legends?" and Sam replies, "When don't we?" and that hits it, right there. This show isn't just ghosts and vampires and things everybody has a decent grasp on. It's darker, more subtle, less glamorous at times, but that's the point, I think.
You have to know what's out there to hunt it, and this lifestyle is so ingrained for both of them that they know subtleties and tricks that most people could only dream of. Dean pulls up thought-constructs just as easily as he knows what a werewolf attack looks like, they know how to hunt a wendigo just as easily as how to put a spirit into the ground. The things they hunt aren't commonplace: they're a woven tapestry of things everyone believes in and things no one has heard of, and I think that although SPN is rarely gut-wrenchingly scary, there's a subtle point that the things that go bump in the night are a few thousand times more terrifying because they're unknown, not just in the idea that you can't see them but in the idea that what they are is a mystery. And part of the reason that Sam and Dean are so good at what they do is because they know.
Understanding something doesn't always make it less dangerous, but it does make it less frightening, and the element of control and protection that comes out of that knowledge is why they have the upper hand over the things they go after.
One of the things I love best about this show is what, exactly, Sam and Dean are fighting. Because as good as the boys are, the foundations of this show are what drew me in and hooked me hard. The little details - salt on the windows, salt and burn a body, silver bullet through the heart of a werewolf - are largely part of real world folklore, but they're unique in this world because of the way they're used. In folklore, these things are almost taken up in defense, and one of the very best things about this series for me is the fact that Sam and Dean have amassed an arsenal of knowledge that's just as effective as the weapons, and they're hunting. The things they know are so much more valuable than anything else. On this fundamental level, this show is about folklore, and it's about understanding the subtleties of it. There's a line in season three where Dean goes, "I take it we believe the legends?" and Sam replies, "When don't we?" and that hits it, right there. This show isn't just ghosts and vampires and things everybody has a decent grasp on. It's darker, more subtle, less glamorous at times, but that's the point, I think.
You have to know what's out there to hunt it, and this lifestyle is so ingrained for both of them that they know subtleties and tricks that most people could only dream of. Dean pulls up thought-constructs just as easily as he knows what a werewolf attack looks like, they know how to hunt a wendigo just as easily as how to put a spirit into the ground. The things they hunt aren't commonplace: they're a woven tapestry of things everyone believes in and things no one has heard of, and I think that although SPN is rarely gut-wrenchingly scary, there's a subtle point that the things that go bump in the night are a few thousand times more terrifying because they're unknown, not just in the idea that you can't see them but in the idea that what they are is a mystery. And part of the reason that Sam and Dean are so good at what they do is because they know.
Understanding something doesn't always make it less dangerous, but it does make it less frightening, and the element of control and protection that comes out of that knowledge is why they have the upper hand over the things they go after.