30 Days of SPN - Day 18
Gee, let me think.
Day 18 - Your favourite SPN romance
Hm, I don’t know - John and Mary maybe?
Oh - but then there’s Dean and the Impala. And Crowley and Crowley’s ego. I’d say Sam and Jess with somewhat more seriousness, but I don’t think I really understand their relationship as a relationship rather than as a plot-mandated motivator. I mean, I just don’t know enough about her, or saw anything more than ordinary in their particular relationship that intrigues me, even though it matters to me because of what it meant to Sam.
So, as much as I do enjoy those variously epic romances (and they are legitimately epic in their own ways, and I do enjoy them), I will make this easy on myself and stick with John and Mary. John’s love and loss of Mary just resonates through SPN so strongly, and I can’t resist that, as you have noticed if you read my first post for this meme. And Mary’s love and loss has seeped retroactively back through the story, as we learn more about her own tragedy.
I love how Show implies depth and fullness in their world and key relationships, often without going too much into it. Again, people go on about anvils, but there’s a hell of a lot of subtlety and subtext going on in this story. Often I think they just throw anvils to distract and disorient the fanbase and sit back to see what happens.
So, anyway. John and Mary. Even if the matchmakers of heaven ensured John and Mary ended up together in spite of mutual loathing, I refuse to believe that Show - so much about will and choice - considers it that simple. Heaven may have cleared the roadblocks and given the initial prompt of infatuation, but that’s not all that goes into a committed family, a marriage that’s lasted ten years, and a love that captures and drives a man twenty years after his wife has passed away.
Yes, I know it was also John’s own stubbornness and need for vengeance. What drove him was darkness and love mixed. But that darkness doesn’t diminish the strength of the love; it only steers the power of it badly.
The love they shared was REAL. Whatever its beginnings, they built it and sustained it together, and ended up sacrificing far more than they ever understood for it. After all, they both sacrificed their sons to it, even if they didn't realise it until much later. It’s not the perfect romance; it’s flawed and fascinating and, in understated ways, held the desperation and intensity of love snatched in the face of impermanence and war. And it literally determined boys and Show and the story. Ergo, my favourite.
Day 18 - Your favourite SPN romance
Hm, I don’t know - John and Mary maybe?
Oh - but then there’s Dean and the Impala. And Crowley and Crowley’s ego. I’d say Sam and Jess with somewhat more seriousness, but I don’t think I really understand their relationship as a relationship rather than as a plot-mandated motivator. I mean, I just don’t know enough about her, or saw anything more than ordinary in their particular relationship that intrigues me, even though it matters to me because of what it meant to Sam.
So, as much as I do enjoy those variously epic romances (and they are legitimately epic in their own ways, and I do enjoy them), I will make this easy on myself and stick with John and Mary. John’s love and loss of Mary just resonates through SPN so strongly, and I can’t resist that, as you have noticed if you read my first post for this meme. And Mary’s love and loss has seeped retroactively back through the story, as we learn more about her own tragedy.
I love how Show implies depth and fullness in their world and key relationships, often without going too much into it. Again, people go on about anvils, but there’s a hell of a lot of subtlety and subtext going on in this story. Often I think they just throw anvils to distract and disorient the fanbase and sit back to see what happens.
So, anyway. John and Mary. Even if the matchmakers of heaven ensured John and Mary ended up together in spite of mutual loathing, I refuse to believe that Show - so much about will and choice - considers it that simple. Heaven may have cleared the roadblocks and given the initial prompt of infatuation, but that’s not all that goes into a committed family, a marriage that’s lasted ten years, and a love that captures and drives a man twenty years after his wife has passed away.
Yes, I know it was also John’s own stubbornness and need for vengeance. What drove him was darkness and love mixed. But that darkness doesn’t diminish the strength of the love; it only steers the power of it badly.
The love they shared was REAL. Whatever its beginnings, they built it and sustained it together, and ended up sacrificing far more than they ever understood for it. After all, they both sacrificed their sons to it, even if they didn't realise it until much later. It’s not the perfect romance; it’s flawed and fascinating and, in understated ways, held the desperation and intensity of love snatched in the face of impermanence and war. And it literally determined boys and Show and the story. Ergo, my favourite.