Release the Kraken
A while back, Ben Edlund characterized Dean and Sam as heroes in the classical sense. That is they are more than human now, not gods quite, but even death seems to have no dominion over them. On a broader level, we know Joseph Campbell's Hero's Journey which describes the narrative of much mythology, also was the template for Supernatural:
A hero ventures forth from the world of common day into a region of supernatural wonder: fabulous forces are there encountered and a decisive victory is won: the hero comes back from this mysterious adventure with the power to bestow boons on his fellow man.
I think Season 8 may hark to Greek mythology for inspiration. Our heroes have been given trials - Sam to search for and rescue his brother, while battling the remaining leviathans. Dean must survive as series of supernatural monsters while in a hostile land.
Supernatural always has a mythological arc, alongside the more personal one, and I think perhaps the religious mythology of purgatory may inform the boy's emotional journey.
In Supernatural, purgatory has been presented as a giant cage (Welcome to Thunderdome!). But in some religious mythology, purgatory (or something similar) is a place where souls get a chance to be cleansed or punished before entering Heaven (or its equivalent).
I can't help but think it may be a place where both Cas may go through trials that allow him finally to return to a state of grace, and for the "punishment resurrections" to end.
Dean has long seen himself as a monster, and I can only think that placed in a place of monsters, he may connect with his humanity, his self, in a way that lets him find what is of value under what he currently thinks is 95% crap.
Sam is in his own personal purgatory, fighting what it is to be without Dean. Sam did save Dean along with the whole world, when he took Lucifer into the cage, but last time Dean was taken from him, Sam couldn't rescue him, couldn't prove that he is the man he thinks he needs to be, to be worthy of Dean's love.
Heroes.
A hero ventures forth from the world of common day into a region of supernatural wonder: fabulous forces are there encountered and a decisive victory is won: the hero comes back from this mysterious adventure with the power to bestow boons on his fellow man.
I think Season 8 may hark to Greek mythology for inspiration. Our heroes have been given trials - Sam to search for and rescue his brother, while battling the remaining leviathans. Dean must survive as series of supernatural monsters while in a hostile land.
Supernatural always has a mythological arc, alongside the more personal one, and I think perhaps the religious mythology of purgatory may inform the boy's emotional journey.
In Supernatural, purgatory has been presented as a giant cage (Welcome to Thunderdome!). But in some religious mythology, purgatory (or something similar) is a place where souls get a chance to be cleansed or punished before entering Heaven (or its equivalent).
I can't help but think it may be a place where both Cas may go through trials that allow him finally to return to a state of grace, and for the "punishment resurrections" to end.
Dean has long seen himself as a monster, and I can only think that placed in a place of monsters, he may connect with his humanity, his self, in a way that lets him find what is of value under what he currently thinks is 95% crap.
Sam is in his own personal purgatory, fighting what it is to be without Dean. Sam did save Dean along with the whole world, when he took Lucifer into the cage, but last time Dean was taken from him, Sam couldn't rescue him, couldn't prove that he is the man he thinks he needs to be, to be worthy of Dean's love.
Heroes.