On Supernatural's Treatment of Pagan Religions

[jisatsu_ganbu]

(I'm so excited I get to break out the Holy Bacon Cheeseburger icon I may faint from all the glee! Macros to break up the thesis-like wall of text forthcoming.)

My friend Eric posted a message on Tiwtter recently that piqued my interests, both as rabid Supernatural fan and as a Pagan:

wwahammy: Just saw a Supernatural episode where non Judeo

Comments

[ext_266461]

I like Christian mythology as well; don't get my wrong. I think much of it is mysterious and beautiful even if I don't believe it. I also think the history of Christianity is fascinating, especially how certain beliefs became accepted while others were thrown out.

In fairness, I've never watched the show until today and I only saw half of this episode. All that said, I thought the dismissive treatment of non-Christian gods was totally out of line. The dialog was... shockingly insulting. I don't have a clue what I SHOULD expect from that show though. Maybe the treatment is normal for religions on the show, maybe some of the dialog was normal for the show I don't know. When I hear protagonists on a TV show casually degrading the deities that hundreds of millions of people still worship, I think its offensive. A "good guy" on TV referred to deities, many of which are still worshiped by primarily non-white people as "primitive screw heads." That's getting damn close to racist.

[jisatsu_ganbu]

Which character, though? I don't remember the dialogue specifically for this episode - it's been awhile since I've seen it. I'd expect the outburst from Dean (being frustrated) or Gabriel (because he's an antagonistic dickhead), but I can't remember who else was in the episode. I wouldn't classify Gabriel as a "good guy" either, so that might be where some of the confusion lies, too.

I suppose it's hard for you to tell me who said what because you don't watch it regularly. Maybe I'll dig up the episode tomorrow and re-watch it.

[jisatsu_ganbu]

I did a quick quote search and in this episode, Gabriel also refers to angels as "winged ass-monkeys". So ... there's that.

Also, here's the full text of what you're referencing:

Dean: All right you primitive screw heads, listen up.
Sam: Are you out of your mind?
Dean: I'm out of options.

It wasn't him so much denegrating them, as it was him trying to piss them off so they would help them fight Lucifer.

Which half of the episode did you see?

[ext_266461]

Last half.

I don't care the reasoning. Using the word "primitive" like that is totally out of line.