He's got the laser eyes!
OMG a post! About a season finale! That has only kind of recently finished airing, no less! Wonders: they never cease.
Although I'm afraid it's mostly going to be a rambling collection of thoughts about the broader arc and show and whatnot. My reaction to the finale upon its end was pretty much literally: LOL ILU SHOW :D:D. So there's that covered ( Read more... )
Although I'm afraid it's mostly going to be a rambling collection of thoughts about the broader arc and show and whatnot. My reaction to the finale upon its end was pretty much literally: LOL ILU SHOW :D:D. So there's that covered ( Read more... )
And all so intriguing!
Many of my friends seemed so shocked and surprised when Dean turned demon.... to me it seemed inevitable. I really like your point about how the year in Purgatory unbalanced Dean. I was really unsettled by it when it happened, and then it kind of faded back, but it was then that Dean really embraced becoming the blade.
There is also this problem:
Dean has been purged before. When Castiel found him in Hell, he was a fully fledged torturer and a demon in his own right, and Castiel restored him. So I think that Dean feels like he can do things like take the Mark and worry about it later. Unfortunately, the Mark seems to have a pretty strong influence on his thoughts and desires. Right now, despite his truer self, he may not want to be saved. Whereas previous seasons have often resolved the cliffhanger right away, this one has the potential to be farther reaching, for example if Dean chooses to hide his new demonic nature, or if he leaves and goes with Crowley.
My Boy King of Hell bent would love to see Sammy challenge Crowley for the throne of Hell, just to get Dean back. But that sounds like a fanfic and not actually show. :P
I really like your point about how Sammy's urge toward civilian life is in balance with Dean's acceptance of the Hunt. btw thanks for citing me :D
It's really true that that alignment has been in play since the very beginning and is still in play. I read an article once that insisted that Sam represents the viewer. So that question is always in the back of my mind -- who is the pov character in this show? As a Deangirl, for me it is Dean. But.... I have never felt further removed from Dean's character than I do right now. His moral compass is spinning like he's in the Bermuda Triangle.
So yeah, that balance between Living and Fighting is neatly summed up by the tensions between Sam and Dean, and made complicated in interesting by the ways they are invested in on one other's vocations. Basically the balance they're looking for is: Dean will live if Sam will agree to fight; Sam will fight if Dean will agree to live. Really nice brainwork. Thanks!
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... Huh. Is this really how fandom is reading it? Someone else was talking like this was the established understanding, although apart from that I have had about zero contact with fandom so I didn't know quite how widespread it was. I mean, the themes are the same, but at this point, I'm mostly expecting his black eyes to signify demonic influence/power working through him - to about the same extent that it did for Sam when his eyes went black when he killed Lilith. Not that he's full-blown "demon". I mean, I'm not expecting him to get the insta-cleanse Sam did, I agree he's likely going to have a long hard climb ahead of him, but for fandom to take it as signifying something as total as "Dean's a demon!" is a bit ... simple? Very black and white, anyway, especially for this show, which spends so much time exploring the wide swathes of grey between those poles. Although not surprising, really, because *fandom*. And I'm sure it's the kind of tizzy the writers were trying to create, hah, those devious wonderful bastards.
I guess differences of interpretation is at work, really, because I also never read him as coming back from Hell as fully-fledged torturer/demon, just that he had broken - ie, started irrevocably down the path, with no ability in himself in those circumstances to turn back, before Cas intervened. I mean, the pain, fear, remorse, guilt, etc - the feeling he wished he was no longer capable of - he showed in the way he regarded it signalled to me that he still had plenty of humanity left that Hell had yet to strip him of over hundreds more years before he would become an actual demon. I do agree about his recklessness having some basis on his experiences of survival over the last decade or so. Either way, he doesn't dwell in the "what ifs".
You're welcome for the cite, it's a fascinating area of thought that I really enjoy, and highly applicable to show! I just find I don't have the stomach to try to discuss it online very much, it's got too much identity politics attached to do so productively, unfortunately.
The pov character question is an interesting one! I personally think it's as simple as Sam being the "normal life" pov character and Dean being "the hunt" pov character, both bringing their valid pov to bear on The Fight. Which is why they can clash so deeply on worldview and values, and still both be (incompletely) in the right in the points they're making? It's probably also why Sam is seen as representing the average "normal life" viewer, bringing with him the civilian understanding into the alien war-motifed environment of the hunt, while Dean attracts the viewers who have internalised disenfranchisment from the normal. That their arcs completely unmoor them and force them to come to terms with the values of their worldviews is part of their coming-of-age journeys.
Anyway. Thanks for discussing! :)
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