#barthamus

[thebeautyofspn]

13x08 The Scorpion And The Frog

[peetapiepita]

Love comes in all different forms, all of them beautiful.

You who judge, are just afraid.

------Barthamus, His Dark Materials (TV) Season 3 Episode 8

[soluscheese]

13.08 - The Scorpion and the Frog

[overmarr]

Drawing a roleplay scene

[demondetoxmanual]

[thayerkerbasy]

Everyone watching Supernatural last night pinged Barthamus as a cheap imitation Crowley, but this season has been full of things that aren’t what they seem and empty spaces full of those we’ve lost.  We were meant to initially see good old Bart as “the next Crowley”, what with his monochromatic wardrobe and questionable allegiances.  Heck, he was even the new King of the Crossroads.  But for those of us who actually miss Crowley, it felt awful to imagine he might be replaced so easily with someone who turned out to be incapable of filling those expensive shoes.

Consider instead, Luther Shrike.  Made a deal, died, went to Hell, and came out more powerful than when he went in.  People said he was a monster, a murderer, as bad as any demon, but that was just one side of the story.  He was a collector of rare and valuable things, but none of those things could fill the hole in his heart.  He was lonely.

He sold his soul to save his son, who then ended up drowning anyway.  I know I’m not the only one who has questioned why the hell Crowley would have sold his soul for three extra inches of willy -- this entire post was spawned because of other people flailing in their liveblogging -- but it all makes sense if you assume he didn’t.  Since when has Crowley ever honestly admitted to caring for someone besides when he’s being snarky?  If he sold his soul to save Gavin from some illness, he’d never admit to it.  He’d much rather people thought he wanted a bigger John Thomas.  Love makes you weak and all that.  But then Gavin boarded a ship for the Americas and drowned when it sank.

So there we have it.  Luther Shrike, a man who lost his beloved son, became nearly immortal after going to Hell.  He lived a lonely life making deals for things that didn’t make him happy and then died, because in the end, his love made him do something reckless.

Look at how many people misjudged Shrike until the very end.  I think the person actually meant to be a Crowley mirror was no cheap imitation.

[spn-imagines-nation]

Supernatural 13x08 | The Scorpion and The Frog

[amwritingmeta]

13x08: Scorpions and Frogs

So, as much as I think this fable is bullshit (it’s a bullshit crappy fable with a bullshit crappy core morality message of bullshit) of course Meredith Glynn uses it expertly. Fair enough, the scorpion is a scorpion and the frogs are all frogs (no sneaky froggies with poison glands here) but there are the wonderful twisty bits –>

Sam and Dean (frogs) aren’t in any way naively letting Bart (scorpion) climb onto their backs

They make a deal not based in trust, but mutual gain (the fable frog stands to gain absolutely nothing by helping the scorpion across the river, aside from the satisfaction of having helped a fellow critter)

Then they become the scorpions in the scenario when they outright decide to play along with the heist scheme - and kill Bart regardless the outcome

Halfway through (a little further through but never mind) Frog-Dean is put to the test and he has to stick his hand into a Mouth of Truth replica to unlock the door to the vault. (the original Mouth of Truth says that, if you’re a liar and stick your hand into it, it’ll bite off a few of your fingers) Instead of a test of truth, this is a test of faith for Dean!! I love it I love it! To secure what they need to find Jack, Dean has to let go of his tightly held need for control. MEREDITH GLYNN!!

He sticks his hand in the mouth (after a bit of hesitancy and kind of “no don’t want to oh okay-ing” same as with the birth canal tunnel of new beginnings and facing the toxic masculinity rep in 13x06) and goes non-performing in ways we see too rarely and YELPS (I love Jensen Ackles) and gets stung.

But survives this sting. Because he put his faith where it was right to put it - not in the scorpion itself, but in doing the necessary thing in order to get Jack back.

*fields of purple flowers and running and leaping*

Now, what’s Sam doing?

Sam is the decoy. And, really, he enters Shrike’s home as the scorpion, right? As Shrike will say at the end of the episode “You’re on the wrong side of this one, boys”. And now Scorpion-Sam goes on to stab Shrike in the stomach, but Shrike (the Frog) survives, because he’s in the right here. Then Shrike gets shot by Scorpion-Dean before the Scorpion Bros proceed to shove Shrike through a room where he gets DARTED IN THE FUCKING FACE. (that was some visual) Shrike - the self-preservation Scorpion - is turned into the Frog and Stung by his own Stinger.

Flippety flapjacks, Batman!

So Shrike is one frog under the weight of having Scorpion-Bart on his back.

Alice, of course, is the other frog. (so many frogs)

She’s in deep debt and feels she has no choice but to carry the weight, right? Until she is handed a stinger by Dean. And I’ve already written about this but let me just mention again how Alice (to me at least) represents Dean’s non-performing side and how he effectively assists that side to burn into a fucking cinder the toxic masculinity controlling her.

*mad cackle of glee at the beauty of it!*

So the role of the frog and the scorpion are constantly flipped, the bullshit morality fable is called out for its bullshit (I love Meredith Glynn I LOVE HER) and we’re left with CHOICE being key in everything. At the end of the day, it’s all about perspective and choosing which side you’re on. What’s right to you will be wrong in the eyes of that person over there.

Looking at it from the perspective of this narrative we’re shown those shades of grey and asked to consider who we agree with. Of course we side with the brothers: they’re doing good, they’re trying to get Jack back, Jack isn’t only the key to balance for the narrative itself, but he really is a loose canon - the brothers want to get him back to protect others. They’re the good guys.

But they team up with a demon. And then plot to kill that demon because he’s a demon (and yeah fair enough but also wow). And they break into someone’s house. And they steal from him. And this guy turns out to be one of the demon’s many victims.

It’s interesting to note that Bart is kept slightly ambiguous until Shrike tells his story, at which point Bart’s true toxic masculinity colours are revealed (gasp surprise what) and he’s subsequently iced.

I just love the threads of this theme and how Meredith Glynn underlines the two sides to everything and doing this brilliantly until using standard narrative tools to push the good vs bad that is necessary, and through it validating the bad going the way of bye-bye, naturally!!

*I love this show*