more author's notes
I’m not very good at putting down my thoughts in an orderly way, so this’ll probably be a bit random. I’m mostly just listing the random references I make in the fic and then accidentally rambling on about things.
The title for the story comes from a love song, kind of obvious I guess. It’s a kind of a roundabout way of trying to say that the story is supposed to be about Gabriel going from being your typical angel to actually caring about Earth. So it’s like Gabe/Earth or Gabe/Humanity? Okay, now I have all the wrong kind of images in my head. Hmmm? Love does get mentioned a whole lot in a story that’s basically gen.
"The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock" is one of the first poems I actually enjoyed reading and then by some strange coincidence I think it ended up being the first poem I ever heard my favourite lit teacher read (and I always liked his interpretations), so it’s sort of stuck in my mind. Also there was the horror of having to try to give an opinion on it to the whole class, which was less fun. Really, isn’t it enough that read it and it made feel things? Do you have to analyze the poem to bits, it’s not like we’ll ever know what the poet really meant. (Okay, sometimes thinking about the meanings does enhance the enjoyment of the reading.) I just happened to re-read the poem and the fic wasn’t what supposed to come out of that, but somehow that’s what happened. I guess the lines from the poem are some sort of inspiration.
I don’t even know what I think about the fic, but there was a bit thought to it at least. I do regret that I didn’t manage to stick in anything about Mystery Spot, I meant to (as much as I meant to write any of it) but it just didn’t work out. There’s quite a bit of speculation on my part based largely on the show and whatever random bits of popular ideas about angels and religion I happen to have in my head. (Really, Supernatural has made me regret I never paid more attention to Bible Study, back when I was forced to do it. I mean I passed with a decent grade and everything, but in the exam when there was some question about the Book of Revelation I distinctly remember writing that John might just have been eating the wrong kind of mushrooms, which makes me think I didn‘t really care that much.)
One day Gabriel stops being an Archangel. Alright, obviously I know that he still is one. It’s pretty clear he still has his grace and all of those archangel powers. I mean obviously angel is what he is (as in species), but it’s not who is anymore (I guess that would equate to like a title, job description?). He leaves Heaven so he can’t be an angel anymore and has to become something else. I never really thought it out in any greater detail than that, because every time I try to I just confuse myself with about a dozen different and contradictory theories.
Time. Okay, by everything they’ve said on the show archangels seem to have a pretty special kind of relationship with time. It’s like they don’t quite exist in it, at least not like we do. So when Gabriel says he knows what will happen he might very well really know and still things don’t play out exactly like everyone expects. But yeah again, I’m not sure how that would work. It does seem like heaven is trying force things to happen the way they’ve seen it, so how much of that is predestination (or whatever you’d want to call it) and how much is heaven trying to force things to happen the way they think is meant to happen I really don’t know. It doesn’t really matter though, because Gabriel believes that he knows how things will play out.
On Earth as it is in Heaven is a reference to Gabriel‘s words in Changing Channels, he pretty much repeats the same sentiment here (brother killing brother and all that). It also happens to be a direct quote from Matthew 6:10 (and the Lord’s Prayer).
But his Father’s thoughts are not his thoughts and Father’s way truly is not Gabriel’s way is pretty much straight from the Bible, except for the fact that I went ahead and ignored what the Bible was actually saying and just made it sound like I wanted it to (who cares about actual context, right?). The actual quote is “For my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways, saith the Lord.” (Isaiah 55:8)
Gabriel killing giants is all from the Book of Enoch, which someone randomly decided wasn’t good enough to get into the actual Bible. The giants would be the Nephilim and I guess there are different interpretations on what they are, but popularly they would be the offspring of angels and humans. Most mythologies have some sort of giants in them and not all of them are actually huge and the Nephilim might actually be like normal sized (again a question of interpretation). Because obviously Gabriel isn’t a giant. According to Norse mythology Loki is the son of giants (and had two brothers) and yeah, obviously a different set of giants than we’re talking about, but hey it’s Supernatural. Pretend it works. Obviously I ignore the part where I really don‘t think Loki really fits in at all in the language that the Book of Enoch is written in. Then again no ones never really figured out the etymology of Loki and that’s good enough for me to not feel too bad about it.
That dream part about wildfire and lightning and leaves, is from speculation about Loki’s birth being a nature myth. You know, since his dad’s name might mean lightning and his mom would be the leaves and obviously Loki’s name might mean wildfire. (Also Loki might be derived from words that mean “close” or “air” or pretty much anything, so who knows.)
I pretty much expect most people to know who Odin is (hey, he appeared on the show). Basically the chief god in Norse mythology (of course it’s all complicated and he’s the god of a whole lot of stuff), which happens to be the same mythology that Loki comes from so I’d think Gabriel had to hang out around there for some time. Destruction and Death are references to Kali and Hel respectively (who actually share quite a few characteristics). I’m not necessarily implying that the two are related in any way, that’s up to anyone to interpret any way they want. But of course Kali’s relationship to Gabriel come from the show and in Norse mythology Hel is in charge of Hel (the place where dead guys go) and the daughter of Loki. I’m not completely sure why I stuck in Hermes, but he is a trickster god and a messenger for the gods among other things, so at least he and Gabe have things in common. And you might as well go with Greek if you’re going for the male/male thing. Okay, it really was sort of random. I just wanted a longer paragraph.
When I mention the whole of creation trembling I sort of just assume it sounds slightly biblical, but really I got it from Diablo, which I myself have never really played (“all of Creation shall tremble before the burning standards of Hell”). I just find this randomly amusing.
Towards the end of the fic there’s very direct tie ins with actual episodes, except they’re not really in completely chronological order. I mean first there’s the part where Gabriel dies and then there’s a completely made up saving of Castiel. Now try to make sense of that. Of course it works chronologically; Gabriel could go do that after Castiel banishes himself in 5.18 well in time before 5.19. I just chose to write it out of sequence. I’m not sure it works. I don’t really know, maybe I just didn’t want to end the fic with Gabriel dying.
I realise now that I never mention Sam by name and Dean gets mentioned enough to make Gabriel sound like he has a slight case of hero worship. I’ve just written two Dean/Gabriel stories, so I’m blaming it on that and my damned aversion to Sam in general, which I’m really doing my best to get over (and it’s obviously still a work in progress). Also I meant to write another Dean/Gabriel fic and when I started this particular fic came out instead.
In conclusion: I don’t really think I like this fic. It’s not all that good.