Eden| 25 |Slytherin| Multi-fandom |Shipper| I like books, music, writing and obsessing over my favorite shows, films and characters. Check out my about me and navi pages for more that I'm interested in.
No hate because I love The Bear but in real life if my favorite local sub shop turned into a place where you pay $56 for three tortellini and a sea scallop I would be inconsolable.
- Sam says “I hate this plan, Dean” which apparently he’s said many times before, which means he’s very anxious about the two of them going to prison. Sam hates feeling trapped, but he trusts Dean, or at the very least he is incapable of letting Dean go through with this on his own.
Look how close together they are, Dean protectively just a little in front of Sam and Sam’s body turned a little toward Dean.
- Sam gets catcalled and Dean promises he won’t trade him for smokes. The first of many times in this episode in which Sam is specifically coded as the feminine, and as Dean’s.
- Sam looks to Dean in fear after laying eyes on his cell mate just as the barred doors shut on both of them. He tells Dean later that his cell mate is looking at him in a way that makes him “uncomfortable”. This prison setting again puts Sam in the role of damsel needing Dean’s protection from the scary men who want to do lecherous things to him.
- Dean said prisoners’ lives matter
- Dean is already several meters ahead when Sam accidentally shoulder-checks another prisoner and yet the moment Sam says sorry Dean emerges to defend him. You can see his head turn at the sound of Sam’s voice and he immediately turns around to defend his honor.
Sam watches as Dean defends him verbally then physically. He’s unsurprised by Dean’s possessiveness or protectiveness, but he does look worried the entire time.
- Sam points out that Dean is very comfortable in prison. I think firstly this is because Dean is reckless and fully believes in his ability to get out, which means he’s not bothered by being imprisoned the way regular people are- it’s certainly not the worst thing that’s ever happened to him. It’s also a place where his aggression, lying, persuasion, and ability to read people are constantly necessary. Secondly, these men are the only kind of people that he feels comfortable with. They’re rough around the edges outcasts in their own rights. They remind him of his dad and of other hunters. And finally, it’s a place where the fact that he’s going against the system and has a problem with authority is crystal clear to the point that it’s an expected part of the system. His rebellion is easily legible. Even his role as Sam’s keeper is codified.
- when Sam and Dean fight in the yard and the guards break them apart, Dean maintains eye contact with Sam until the guard restraining him (Deacon) shoves him in the opposite direction. They’re communicating nonverbally. Dean seems like he’s reassuring Sam, and Sam looks worried again.
Sam is anxious about the plan and he’s anxious about what will happen to the two of them, but especially to his brash big brother.
This is the second time in the episode that the brothers are separated but maintain intense eye contact (the first was when the doors closed on their cells). It’s a little like fanfic. The first time I watched this episode I was surprised by how blatantly possessive and protective Dean is over Sam, and how clear it is that the other prisoners want Sam but see that he belongs to Dean.
- Deacon calls Sam “sweetheart,” further feminine coding him
- this entire hunt happens because Dean feels helping Deacon is the right thing to do, to repay a debt and hold to his value of loyalty. Sam is protective of Dean as well, asking him to leave the prison according to plan and coming up with his own plan.
The episode is propelled by Dean’s ethics, by what he thinks is right and who is worth fighting for. The episode doesn’t contribute much to the season arc, but it does show their bond and dynamics clearly.
phillip's great. love phillip. he's just like, "my brother got murdered and now i have to inherit everything AND I have marry some guy from thousands of years ago because he's in the body of my brother's fiancé? 🙄 ugh fine whatever, but i better still be allowed to maintain my high standards for fashion." most dutiful son ever.
Darrow vs Lysander - symbolism and favored weapons
Okay this I a bit of analysis that has been turning around in my brain since I finished Light Bringer. There will be major spoilers for all of the books, so read on at your own discretion.
And of course if anyone has points to add please do! This is by no means exhaustive, just a compilation of my main thoughts on the whole thing!
Darrow basically grew up with a weapon in his hand, since he started mining at age thirteen. It becomes part of his identity, an extension of himself. It’s also a symbol of his people, as all Red miners are given one. So as a Red, he already closely identifies with the slingBlade as a weapon, as a cultural symbol, and as a means of protection.
“I wonder what Eo wants of me. Does she want me to take my slingBlade and start a rebellion? I would die. My family would die. She would die, and nothing would make me risk her. She knows that.”
(RR Ch 4)
“This is your slingBlade, son. It will scrape the earth’s veins for you. It will kill pitvipers. Keep it sharp and if you get stuck in the drills, it will save your life for the price of a limb.” So said my uncle.”
(RR part III intro)
Lysander, on the other hand, is trained by his grandmother from childhood to use his mind as his weapon. He is capable of using a razor after spending a decade with Cassius, but his mind was his first weapon. It’s also a callback to the Jackal losing his hand and being mostly unaffected - because all Golds are taught that their mind is their first and greatest weapon.
“He sighs. “I told you. I am something different than you. A hand is a peasant’s tool. A Gold’s tool is his mind. Were you of better breeding, you may have realized this sacrifice means so very little to me”
(RR Ch 41)
“Skipping supper. No wonder you’re a little twig,” Cassius says, pinching my arm. “I daresay you don’t even weigh a hundred ten kilos, my goodman.”
“It’s usable weight,” I protest. “In any matter, I was reading.” He looks at me blankly. “You have your priorities. I have mine, muscly creature. So piss off.”
(IG Ch 8/ Lysander 1)
“My memory is a formidable thing. In many ways it is my grandmother’s great legacy, her teachings preserved in me.”
(IG Ch 8/ Lysander 1)
But the mind isn’t a symbol on its own, there’s no cultural gravitas to it. So to him physical weapons are tools that are an extension of his intellect. In that world view, a gun is the most practical choice of tool. Firearms are the great equalizer - you can be smaller, weaker, less trained than your opponent and there’s still a VERY good chance that you will win any fight.
This leads into another similar understanding that he and Darrow share: their rise must be meteoric. Darrow accomplishes this the hard way, through pain and training and failures. He builds himself as a symbol because he knows that’s the only way to start the chain reaction of bringing Gold down. He is a symbol, and so are his tools. The slingBlade becomes a symbols of liberation when once (as just a razor) it was a tool of the enemy.
Lysander? He cuts corners, because the tools don’t matter only the endgame does. He’s not trying to build something new, or inspire his followers to fight for something they never thought possible. He is fighting to reestablish the status quo as swiftly as he can. He doesn’t need to fight from the ground up to become a symbol - as a Lune, he already is a living breathing symbol of Gold, and that’s enough.
“Dancer would want me to accept the offer. It would guarantee my survival. Guarantee my meteoric rise. I would be inside the halls of the ArchGovernor’s mansion. I would be near the man who killed Eo. Oh, I want to accept. But then I would have to let the Proctors beat me. I’d have to let this little whorefart win and let his father smile and feel pride. I’d have to watch that smug smile spread across his bloodydamn face. Slag that. They’ll feel pain.”
(RR Ch 41)
“He sneers at the gun. “No honor.”
“No time.”
I shoot Alexandar in the head”
(DA Ch 81)
He studies those who came before him, flipping their symbols and methods against them instead of doing anything new. He quotes poems like Roque, uses Darrow’s Morningstar as his flagship, claims to be honorable like Cassius - but it’s hollow because these aren’t his achievements. He doesn’t subvert the paradigm like Darrow does constantly, he just borrows and steals to get his way.
Darrow sees himself as the sword of his people, but he’s more than that because he put in the work to be more. He questions if he’s a good man, but the we see the weight his decisions have on him. But because he built himself up, he has a community that loves him, friends and family that are truly loyal and will check his worst impulses. He is the symbol, but he’s anchored by those he represent. It’s real and has meaning because of all the sacrifices he has had to make.
Lysander can’t even unite the Golds because he is built upon lies. His parents and their deaths, a lie. His grandmother’s teachings, all lies and propaganda. The Golden lies of the Society he so desperately wants to restore. He is built upon lies and hollow promises, of course he collapses into Gold dogma at the first sign of pressure. He has no idea what he’s doing, but he’s sacrificing everything and everyone to prop up this dying system, because that’s where he feels safe. He has no symbols to look up to, no culture to give him strength and community. Anything that could have grounded him is gone (often because of his own actions). Pytha and Cassius were his only family left and he rejected them and their teachings. More than ever before there’s nothing holding him back. He has his mind and it is telling him the only way to be safe is to double down and become the worst of Gold.
i know we all hate lysander and whatever but i think what makes his character so compelling is how pierce has written him to feel like he is darrow’s double, and while the reader slowly sees through that, most other characters don’t. they don’t know darrow like we do, or like darrow’s family know him. most golds just think he is this untouchable iron gold, both a genius and a monster. and lysander is desperate (since he was a boy) to be exactly like darrow.
but in reality, we know the truth, lysander is actually darrow’s foil. he is the opposite of everything darrow truly is, because he never got to know darrow. he only knows the darrow from the institute, from the hc’s, the darrow that killed his grandmother. by trying to be like darrow, lysander became everything darrow is not.
can’t wait for lysander to finally understand that.
@boneskullravenriver ' tags: btw, please don't read if you haven't read LB yet
Lysander hero-worshipped Darrow, but villainized him when it stopped being what he perceives as heroism.
The dehumanisation of Darrow in his mind has never started, because it was always there. Lysander has never thought of Darrow as a human being, not when he thought he was a Gold and not after the truth came out.
But he still wants to be Darrow, he thinks that is the solution - to not only create a new myth, but to create one to replace the Reaper. At the same time, it's less out of his concern for the Society, as it is more about his wanting to be loved.
His very existance has become anathema with Darrow's - while Darrow lives he will never win the love completely; everytime he does something to gain love, Darrow comes in and takes over.
He doesn't understand how or why are people so keen to love Darrow, how can they forgive him, how can they want to co-exist with him, while Lysander himself worked so dilligently to be loved, to be liked, to be acknowledged and to destroy the very person they now profess to care about/want an alliance with.
He doesn't understand, because he is doing the same things he watched Darrow do as a child, why isn't he given the same feelings in return? He doesn't understand, because he cannot see Darrow as a human being, so he doesn't know that Darrow gained everything by knowing himself, caring about others, consistenly showing love and affection.
Lysander is a mere foil to Darrow, so he cannot measure up to him, because he starts from the get go with false premises AND he does not know himself enough at any point, even rejecting finding out.
As an effect of those aforementioned, he punishes people who want Darrow to live. Just like he did with Ajax, he thinks love is limited - if it is given to Darrow, there is nothing for him. He ended up 'if you are not with me, you are against me'. And it's still as pathetic and as parasitic as it has always been, except now it's dangerous.
If I had to become a single father at 23, suffer the trials and tribulations of parenthood, becoming a functioning alcoholic only for said kid to come and murder me as an adult, I'll haunt his ass to the ends of Infinity. You're not getting rid of my ghost bitch
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