SPN 4x08-4x16: of angels (and demons)
I have less to say about the angels because they're new and not always around and also I have held off new episodes for DAYS and OMG, I NEED TO KNOW MORE.
It really helps the show to have expanded the scope of the world and the scope of the main plot. I liked the Winchester Brothers Traveling Circus fine, but those episodes which add a few other recurring characters into the mix - particularly Anna and Ruby! - they're the ones that pop, so the big myth-arc requiring it does wonders for the show as a whole.
Mostly, I didn't expect to be treated to my favorite thing, which is big cosmic political power struggles. I didn't have much expectation of the show, beside the emotional drama of the main characters in a straightforward good-versus-evil power structure. But, episodes 10 and 16 make clear, there are at least two major factions on each side. Sam's whole "let's you and him fight!" plan looks poised to play out again in a big way soon.
Down below, I haven't noticed any indication that Lilith is working with Lucifer. Lilith seems to be using demon minions to get to the seals; Lucifer is working on prying sensitively-placed angels toward himself for his own ends. Lilith's faction wanted Dean in hell; the archangels, Lucifer presumably included, wanted him out. I assume Lucifer's the real Big Bad and looking for the apocalypse as well, because, Lucifer, but he seems as likely to be a competitor for Lilith as a co-conspirator, subordinate, or boss.
Meanwhile, there's what seems to be some sort of massive power vacuum on heaven's side. I like that the God-question is open for now, both in terms of the existence of a deity and the nature of that deity - are the loyalists right to think that their father loves them? are the rebels right that he loves the humans too much more? or is he just a sadistic fiddler who likes making all of creation dance?
And what to make of the rebels? There must be some agreement among the four archangels - I'm using the term "archangel" for the four angels who have seen the face of God out of convenience but I don't know if that's apt - that Lucifer's faction at least has a point, or they wouldn't all be in line with the treasonous orders. So then there's (maybe) God, who's cut off from the angels, some of whom are splintering off from the hivemind and have no way to affiliate with God.
But Anna seems to be stepping forward for the other falling angels to rally around. WHERE HAS SHE BEEN ALL THIS TIME, I love the hell out of this girl. Maybe there's a God, maybe not. But there's still me. Anna is angel-powerful, but with the sense of self and connection to her own conscience she wanted so badly to develop as a human. It's Anna, not Ruby, who's the strongest mirror for Sam's arc - someone who made a choice to become something new in pursuit of knowledge and personal fulfillment. And she fell exactly like humankind, didn't she? Seeking knowledge. HAHA, show, your subtle tree imagery is not lost on this Grade 8 CCD graduate.
All of which makes Anna awfully attractive to dear Cas, who's simultaneously a three hundred pound bouncer and a little lost lamb. He's got no idea who he is or where he fits in, or if he does at all.
DEAN: You're some heartless sons of bitches, you know that?
CAS: As a matter of fact, we are. And?
As far as "lines that would rope me right in if I wasn't there already" go, that's a pretty good one. Because it's supposed to be true, Cas thinks. He wants it to be true. But there's the paradox - if you can want not to feel, you're feeling; if you acknowledge the validity of questions, you're no longer entirely certain. He's seen the goodness of Anna and the power of Sam and the treachery of Uriah, and nothing of the Lord but His absence, and there's no going back from that.
But to get to "what is a Castiel," there's the question of what is an angel. My working hypothesis is that angels become the way they are in the same way demons, shaped by their extreme, relentless environment. I don't buy that they don't feel. If they had no feelings, they wouldn't have any individuality, there wouldn't be only "some" angels who dislike Sam and "some" who think Dean will save them. They're lacking a sense of individuality (demons, meanwhile, are all out for themselves just to survive); they don't get to name or express their feelings. Everything and everyone blends together for them. I wouldn't be surprised if time passed more quickly in heaven at the rate it passes more slowly in hell, and humans and human lives are as short and indistinguishable to observing angels as bug lives are to us.
Without a sense of self comes brutal, brutal lack of compassion. It might be true, that it would be better to wipe out the town on the Halloween episode than to alow the apocalypse to happen. But the Winchesters' instincts on that one are strong too - it doesn't seem to have been a last resort, it doesn't seem to come from a reliable decision-maker. It's not the angels' ability to do anything that's the problem, so much as their determined refusal to question and check it. Cas, who has compassion by the truckload and nowhere to put it, deals with that by latching onto Dean as his little damsel in distress in much the same way Dean himself did to Sam, at least for most of their lives. and...okay, I'm outta steam. LOL GUESS I HAD SOME STUFF TO SAY AFTER ALL. OFF TO WATCH EVERYTHING. LATAH.
It really helps the show to have expanded the scope of the world and the scope of the main plot. I liked the Winchester Brothers Traveling Circus fine, but those episodes which add a few other recurring characters into the mix - particularly Anna and Ruby! - they're the ones that pop, so the big myth-arc requiring it does wonders for the show as a whole.
Mostly, I didn't expect to be treated to my favorite thing, which is big cosmic political power struggles. I didn't have much expectation of the show, beside the emotional drama of the main characters in a straightforward good-versus-evil power structure. But, episodes 10 and 16 make clear, there are at least two major factions on each side. Sam's whole "let's you and him fight!" plan looks poised to play out again in a big way soon.
Down below, I haven't noticed any indication that Lilith is working with Lucifer. Lilith seems to be using demon minions to get to the seals; Lucifer is working on prying sensitively-placed angels toward himself for his own ends. Lilith's faction wanted Dean in hell; the archangels, Lucifer presumably included, wanted him out. I assume Lucifer's the real Big Bad and looking for the apocalypse as well, because, Lucifer, but he seems as likely to be a competitor for Lilith as a co-conspirator, subordinate, or boss.
Meanwhile, there's what seems to be some sort of massive power vacuum on heaven's side. I like that the God-question is open for now, both in terms of the existence of a deity and the nature of that deity - are the loyalists right to think that their father loves them? are the rebels right that he loves the humans too much more? or is he just a sadistic fiddler who likes making all of creation dance?
And what to make of the rebels? There must be some agreement among the four archangels - I'm using the term "archangel" for the four angels who have seen the face of God out of convenience but I don't know if that's apt - that Lucifer's faction at least has a point, or they wouldn't all be in line with the treasonous orders. So then there's (maybe) God, who's cut off from the angels, some of whom are splintering off from the hivemind and have no way to affiliate with God.
But Anna seems to be stepping forward for the other falling angels to rally around. WHERE HAS SHE BEEN ALL THIS TIME, I love the hell out of this girl. Maybe there's a God, maybe not. But there's still me. Anna is angel-powerful, but with the sense of self and connection to her own conscience she wanted so badly to develop as a human. It's Anna, not Ruby, who's the strongest mirror for Sam's arc - someone who made a choice to become something new in pursuit of knowledge and personal fulfillment. And she fell exactly like humankind, didn't she? Seeking knowledge. HAHA, show, your subtle tree imagery is not lost on this Grade 8 CCD graduate.
All of which makes Anna awfully attractive to dear Cas, who's simultaneously a three hundred pound bouncer and a little lost lamb. He's got no idea who he is or where he fits in, or if he does at all.
DEAN: You're some heartless sons of bitches, you know that?
CAS: As a matter of fact, we are. And?
As far as "lines that would rope me right in if I wasn't there already" go, that's a pretty good one. Because it's supposed to be true, Cas thinks. He wants it to be true. But there's the paradox - if you can want not to feel, you're feeling; if you acknowledge the validity of questions, you're no longer entirely certain. He's seen the goodness of Anna and the power of Sam and the treachery of Uriah, and nothing of the Lord but His absence, and there's no going back from that.
But to get to "what is a Castiel," there's the question of what is an angel. My working hypothesis is that angels become the way they are in the same way demons, shaped by their extreme, relentless environment. I don't buy that they don't feel. If they had no feelings, they wouldn't have any individuality, there wouldn't be only "some" angels who dislike Sam and "some" who think Dean will save them. They're lacking a sense of individuality (demons, meanwhile, are all out for themselves just to survive); they don't get to name or express their feelings. Everything and everyone blends together for them. I wouldn't be surprised if time passed more quickly in heaven at the rate it passes more slowly in hell, and humans and human lives are as short and indistinguishable to observing angels as bug lives are to us.
Without a sense of self comes brutal, brutal lack of compassion. It might be true, that it would be better to wipe out the town on the Halloween episode than to alow the apocalypse to happen. But the Winchesters' instincts on that one are strong too - it doesn't seem to have been a last resort, it doesn't seem to come from a reliable decision-maker. It's not the angels' ability to do anything that's the problem, so much as their determined refusal to question and check it. Cas, who has compassion by the truckload and nowhere to put it, deals with that by latching onto Dean as his little damsel in distress in much the same way Dean himself did to Sam, at least for most of their lives. and...okay, I'm outta steam. LOL GUESS I HAD SOME STUFF TO SAY AFTER ALL. OFF TO WATCH EVERYTHING. LATAH.