#hellatus rewatch

[magical-liopleurodons]

My family thinks it’s crazy that I’ve seen all of Supernatural 3 times now but I’m wondering if that’s all that unusual in the fandom... how many times have y’all watched it all the way (or most of the way) through?

I’m especially curious about meta writer like @mittensmorgul @tinkdw and @amwritingmeta... and what’s the max number of times you’ve seen a single episode?

[trisscar368]

8x20 is on

*incredibly garbled bunker mapper noises*

[wisteria-lodge]

SPN  MAGIC PART III - SOUL MAGIC

or: Pagan gods are totally tulpas

PART I - RITUAL MAGIC (WITCHCRAFT)  PART II - NATURAL MAGIC (ANGELIC/DEMONIC MAGIC) 

So here is a list of things you can do with just ONE soul: 

1. Power literally any amount of reality warping.

Soul magic = why crossroad deals even work. Another series might put a caveat on this: can’t use magic to bring people back from the dead, can’t use magic to make people fall in love. But SPN doesn’t care. It’s soul magic, it’s /fine/

2. Turbo-charge witchcraft

Don’t know why we don’t see more of this, actually. Henry Winchester travels 55 years into the future and only needs a week to recharge before he’s good to go again. Seems relatively low-risk and really useful.

3. Turbo-charge angelic / demonic magic.

This one’s not recommended so much for human use. Lily Sunder burns away bits of her soul every times she uses angel spells, and we all know what a problem that can be. 

(and I know Death says you can’t split souls... but we’ve seen angelic and Ozian magic absolutely split souls. Let’s say he was just making the issue reaaalllly simple for Dean)

Now, here is a list of things you can do with a WHOLE BUNCH of souls: 

1. Kill archangels. 

2. Kill God. 

3. Give yourself God-level powers. 

... because monster souls were fine. The leviathans were the problem. If it were just the souls, it would have been Godstiel for a whole lot longer. 

4. Create tulpas / thought-forms.

AND THIS is the one I want to focus on. Tulpas: once enough people believe something exists, reality warps and it begins to exist. Once it exists, it keeps on existing regardless of belief. (re. Mordecai Murdoch back in S1).

So, based on the way pagan gods are described, can we just agree that they’re really powerful tulpas? 

... and that they work almost exactly the way they work in American Gods? 

SAM: The thing is, with the Old Gods, once upon a time they were - they were just short of invincible. But they got a lot of their mojo from worshippers, from people feeding them.  JODY: These days, not so much.  SAM: Right, they’re not what they used to be. But they make up for lack of power with being twice as pissed and a lot more hands-on. 

I mean, the boys always *think* it’s a tulpa, and it never is (like House and lupus.) But they are constantly fighting pagan gods. Gods that are really interested in either judging them, eating them, or both. Witches, psychics, powerful demons - they don’t act like that. They have their own power sources, so they don’t have to depend on humans. 

SO I think that whenever we see an “old god,” nine times out of ten we’re looking at a tulpa. Because I do get that the distinction is a little messy. The angel Gabriel and the demon Samhain both set themselves up as gods, and I see no reason why a powerful psychic / witch / nephilim / antichrist couldn’t do exactly that, if they wanted. Cas and Metatron both present as gods in present day, and it would have been much easier back in the BCE. 

(but sorry Kali. In SPN, the Abrahamic stuff is clearly canon.)

Demigods

God + Human = Demigod. 

At the moment there’s Oliver son of Prometheus. And I think that’s going to be pretty much it. 

Mostly, I don’t think the writers want to step on the toes of the Percy Jackson books. They shy away from treating vampires even slightly romantically because of Buffy/Twilight, and stay out of anything even vaguely sci-fi because of X-Files. Since 2013, the closest we’ve got is this: 

GABRIEL: They’re not really demigods. Look, the whole Norse Pantheon is it’s own weird thing. Think of them more like, uh, god-begotten monsters.

Which I’m interpreting as monster + nephilim / antichrist / demon / angel / tulpa. (”other”).  Since Fenris/Fenrir is actively worshipped by werewolves, I’d say the smart money goes on him being half-werewolf. 

Although, it is kind of funny that these guys...

worship this guy

this guy

[trisscar368]

We’re a full two thirds of the way through s4 and a massive chunk of my rewatch notes still consist of “WHY THE HELL ARE THERE EYES EVERYWHERE” (I’m exaggerating slightly, but this is driving me nuts.)

I’ve got a list of themes and symbolism (macro and micro) as long as my arm and all of it makes sense except for the bloody eyes/something is watching motif.  Gah.

And the fact that this is a thing in s13 isn’t helpinnnnggg meeeee

[fallenandthefaithless]

"You have some kind of angel watching over you" oh doc you have no idea

[fallenandthefaithless]

1x01 and 1x02 done and... I can’t say dusted without tearing up (thanks marvel). Crap. Anyways... watching Baby get beaten up in 1x01 hurt considering what just happened to Dean in 13x23. Losing Mary in 1x01 hurts more and more. 

Sam asking how Dean and John both handle losing loved ones/the desire for revenge is interesting because John and Sam’s pain is different to Dean’s. Dean lost his mother while both John and Sam lost the person they were in love with. Also Dean was never one for the revenge path - he just wanted to look out for his family. But considering what happens later (and the parallels between 12x23 and 1x01 with one of the brothers dragging the other away hurts so much still) this really stood out. Both John and Sam really throw themselves onto the revenge path whereas Dean broke at the start of s13 and Cas looks like he might go the same way. He certainly did in s10.

The desperation to save your family in 1x02 is really relevant considering what Dean did in 13x23. Yay. All in all the themes are really running strong and that’s only the first 2 eps. 

[fallenandthefaithless]

Dean just used the alias Ted Nugent and all I could think of was Nougat Winchester

[fallenandthefaithless]

And now that hellatus is here my supernatural rewatch begins! Season one here we go