Fluffy White Feathers and Divine Eyes: Hunters and the Absentee Higher Power

[bowtrunckle]

Meta-ish blabber lurks below the cut.

Wow, it’s been a long time since I’ve posted meta. First I want to say that

Comments

[yasminke]

That was very interesting, and I'll be passing it on to a friend who is pondering the exact topic.

Just one and a half nits: Samuel, the Angel of Death ... .

Nah: Samuel was the prophet who anointed the first kings of Israel. You meant Samael, who is often referred to as the Angel of Death (although Jewish tradition has more than one).

[bowtrunckle]

Gah. Typos will be the end of me. Thank you for pointing this out. Will fix. :)

[yasminke]

Thought I better handle it before Samael himself entered into the discussion; he's very touchy about such confusions.

[bowtrunckle]

I'd hate to be on the receiving end of Sam wrath.

I LOVE your icon. If you don't mind me asking, where did you get it?

[lemmealone]

I do love how Kripke has deliberately driven home the ultimate isolation for hunters (and by extension highlighting the unique importance of the Winchester brothers' relationship). They are isolated from family (often due to violent death), society (because of percieved criminal and antisocial behaviour), to a large extent from each other (because of paranoia and the fact that for the most part they aren't terribly nice people) and, as we see driven home again and again, they are isolated from the ultimate expression of what they're supposedly fighting for - the Judeo-Christian embodiment of Good

[lemmealone]

of the two charcters who have expressed overt Faith, one is dead from his own blessed weapon and the other is creepy nuts and also dead.

*facepalm*

'Good' characters, I mean. And three of them, since God didn't show up for Layla, either.

[bowtrunckle]

I see from a subsequent comment that you recc'ed this meta. Thank you! *glee*

[bowtrunckle]

the ultimate isolation for hunters

Yes, excellent point. :) This is a meta-worthy topic for sure! It's interesting to me because the isolation, which is a result of their chosen hunter lifestyle, is mostly self-imposed. Isolation from the deceased can't be helped (heh ... OK it's SPN so maybe I can but life/death deals with demons don't seem to be a regular thing), but how one deals with a loved one's death is a choice (i.e. cut yourself off and go hunter rogue or open up and heal with the help of friends/family). Hunting seems to push people to the fringes of society, but note that Bobby has a legit day job and home base location, presumably he'd have non-hunting aquaintances. Also Steve Wendell had a pretty nice and permanent-looking house. William Harvell also seemed to have a foot in the regular society door as he had Ellen (a non-hunter) and Jo to hold down the fort and keep him grounded. It seems that John, Sam, and Dean might tend to linger on isolated-wanderlust side of the hunting spectrum. But anyway, I totally

[blackcat333_99]

Well done - very thought-provoking analysis.

I wonder where Dean falls in this division of believers, belief and faith vs. sociopathy. He's the one hunter who is a self-proclaimed skeptic, at best "he'd like to believe", and yet he is the only person we have seen question the morality of some of the actions taken by hunters, himself included (Devil's Trap and Bloodlust).

[blackcat333_99]

Oops! And that's what I get for posting in a hurry. I should clarify that Dean has questioned the morality of the hunter's code/agenda, and it's an interesting breakdown/contrast to the other hunters professing a zealous faith in their actions. I.e. in Bloodlust ("What if we killed things that didn't deserve killing?"), Hunted (Dean questions Gordon's killing people who 1) did nothing evil - yet, (Scott), and 2) an innocent girl, in order to get to the possessing demon. Which then harkens back to Devil's Trap, when Dean questions his own willingness to kill the demon attacking his brother and in the process an innocent man who had no control over being possessed. Which pushes us to Croatoan, when Sam says "we're supposed to struggle with this, that's the point"; a time when Sam was questions his brother's actions as being out of line with his belief system of protecting and saving innocents, rather than blowing people away on a "possibly evil" pretext a'la Gordon. "You don't act like yourself, anymore." Gordon would have

[bowtrunckle]

What a juicy comment! :) Thank for reading.

I wonder where Dean falls in this division of believers, belief and faith vs. sociopathy.

Hmm. It's hard to say because Dean's beliefs seem to evolve. He definitely didn't want to believe in a higher power in S2 "HotH", but, as you pointed out, this shifted somewhere between then and "Sin City". I'm not sure where Dean-o would fit in. *puzzles* I guess to include Dean it would have to be an adjustable designation? ;p

[pie_andcoffee]

thanks so much for writing and sharing. this stuff has been going round and round in my head for months, and i haven't had time to write anything about it to try to set it all straight in my mind. now i don't have to!! you did a great job with it, thanks for sharing!

recc'd by lemmealone.

[bowtrunckle]

I'm glad that this might've saved you the trouble of writing your thoughts out. :) I'm sure a lot of people have been turning these ideas over in their heads; it's certainly an interesting and bottomless topic. I'd love to read other people's take on this.

Thanks so much for your kind words and leaving your comment!

[bowtrunckle]

Yes, I'm familiar with the no-brain feeling (mostly having to do with sleep deprivation). :(

The bit about the Winchesters as counterpointed against the solitary nature of other hunters especially sparked at me

Excellent. Sam and Dean do seem to be the exception to most hunting "rules". I think the contrast they provide just underscores how special their relationship is. I would love to see another pair of hunting siblings show up just to compare and contrast, but I highly doubt that would ever happen as Kripke probably wants to keep the sibling dynamic exclusive property of Sam and Dean.

Although I can't think of a specific meta discussing this, it just seem to be such a huge, juicy topic that I can't believe someone hasn't already bent their brain around this.

Thank you for your compliments and leaving your thoughts despite being ill.