#possible parallels

[acourtofquestions]

Okay, so is Avallen a fae trope out of folklore/mythology or something… or do all these books just coincidentally have it as a place?

[winnie-the-monster]

Why do I feel like we’re gonna get a parallel of this, with Fran after John dies. Even more so if they do have Frohn have a baby together.

😭 yup I just broke my own heart

[sickofthistoxicshit]

Rewatchin Station 19 it just occurred to me that this is the most logical and acceptable way I can see Buddie happening 🧐❤🤷‍♀️

On a side note I loved Jack and Maya together, kinda wish she didn't screw him over for the promotion, he totally deserved better than what he got from both Andy and Maya.

Personally, I would have totally married him and never let go 😍

[dustydreamsanddirtyscars]

13x04 “The Big Empty” Cas vs. Himself (?)

Alright so, the one thing I had to think about with the Empty scenes was that to me it felt like Cas meeting his shadow self inside his mind (in a way to me it felt even similar to Dean meeting with Amara for the first time, who I always analyzed to be somewhat of a metaphor for Dean’s darker self) and not just meeting it, but (re-)connecting with it. In this regard what the scenes between Cas and Empty!Entity! or Shadow!Self!Cas reminded me of a great deal in how Cas was forced to re-live some of his worst memories in  6x22 “The Man Who Knew Too Much” in which Sam needs to confront all his worst memories in order to put himself back together again after being re-souled (and conveniently like Cas’ other version in this week’s episode in Sam’s case his own “mind” also tries to keep him from “going back” initially). So to me in a way these scenes could work as a set up to truly reveal Castiel having come back not as an angel, but human, but differently than before when his grace was stolen with a soul (I have always headcanoned that Castiel had “grown” a soul throughout the years so this would work nicely with that crazy assumption).

In any case, I think it’s noteworthy that Shadow!Self!Cas doesn’t seem to be immune to Castiel’s pain when being subjected to all of his memories. At least from the looks of it, he did feel all of it to to some extent. And in that regard I think it’s important to look at the ending scene with Castiel waking up in a field. Tbh if this is really “just” Cas than they could have spared us the entire Empty stuff including Castiel’s death, because frankly it would be boring as hell, that is why I think even if Castiel may be the true Castiel to come back (though the looking up into the sun and waking up, etc. could also perfectly be Other!Cas - then again that also would be too easy imo), his Shadow!Self has hitched a ride inside of him and is more of a part of him than it was prior - they could tie it all back to a “soul” in the end. I personally definitely felt like one needs to see Castiel’s expierences in the Empty in relation to Jack confessing to Mia that he “says he feels bad, but that he actually doesn’t feel anything”, because it works nicely with and calls back to S12 where the boys for a brief period of time had tried to extract the angelic part from Jack leaving him “only” with a soul. At the very least this line - even if Jack isn’t comparable to Soulless!Sam at all in all other departments - feels very similar to how Soulless!Sam tried to operate once Dean was with him. But given how hard it was for him to pretend, it remains to be seen if Jack will hit a similar wall at some point as well. I sure don’t hope so, but without any ups and downs his arc would be too boring, I suppose.

[dustydreamsanddirtyscars]

5x10 "Abandon All Hope” Oh Crowley, uhm... Fergus or... Damiel?

Please feel free to ignore all of my following rambles, but I just feel like dropping a few crazy thoughts and fueling the never dying “Crowley is something else than a demon”-topic. ;) I happened to re-watch this episode today and apart from how very much this episode made me once more realize how dearly I miss Ben Edlund on the writing team (or episodes of this kind of depth in general in S12). Fair warning ahead, the following was sparked by simply me misunderstanding what that bank guy says to Crowley here. Funnily enough this is the first time I misheard it even though I have re-watched this episode plenty of times before. Point is, I didn’t hear “Damn you”, but “Damiel”. And THAT made my mind wander, because you see, Damiel is one of the two angels (the other being Cassiel) from Wim Wenders’ “Wings of Desire”, which served as the inspiration for the Hollywood adaption of it known as “City of Angels” with Meg Ryan and Nicolas Cage. And “Wings of Desire” and Damiel’s arc can basically be compared or understood to have been the inspiration for Castiel on “Supernatural”.

Now, it’s been a long standing topic of discussion among fandom - and fueled by Mark Sheppard himself - whether or not Crowley actually may not be a demon, but something else entirely, meaning, possibly a fallen angel, such as Damiel. I have no idea if Edlund was inserting nods to Wim Wenders’ movie in this episode, but I am willing to believe he may have done it, because there is a lot going on in this episode that breaches topics of the movie (the conversations between Meg and Lucifer and Castiel for example). Furthermore some of the visuals used in this episode also reminds of scenes and visuals from the Hollywood adaption of “Wings of Desire”. One of them being the scene of all the reapers gathering dressed in black. It seems very reminiscent of the scenes in the movies showing the angels in libraries or near the oceanside.

The reason why I also see a possible parallel to the movie here is due to how this episode has Crowley and Castiel featured in the same episode for the first time and to me it just felt curious how just name wise there could be seen a connection. As I said before the angel named Cassiel in “Wings of Desire” isn’t the one who decides to fall, but Damiel - the one serving as a mirror for Castiel’s arc or rather the arc I still think will be Castiel’s at the very end: Him freely choosing to become human, not because his grace was stolen, etc. and the show has been paving towards such a scenario for a long time.

Now, you may wonder how Crowley could be Cassiel/Damiel as well and yes, it is just crazy idea spinning on my part, but especially towards the latter seasons Crowley as well has grown way more human, in fact had gotten addicted to human blood and has not been the same ever since (just like Castiel). He is definitely more human, shows more emotion and deep down craves to be “loved”. So he to me does also fit the bill of “an angel fallen for ~humanity in some proximity”... So... Crowley and Castiel have served as polar opposites, unlikely allies, unwanted frenemies on Supernatural for a long time. So who knows... maybe Castiel - though sharing Cassiel’s name - is “having” Damiel’s arc and Crowley or Damiel is having Cassiel’s... Arguably - and even though Crowley has done a lot of horrible stuff of course, he has proven to be vulnerable and more often than not tring to protect the Winchesters (like the angels in “Wings of Desire” do) rather than working against them....

Anyway, I shut up now. I know how ridiculous it is to write a meta because I misheard something LOL

[dustydreamsanddirtyscars]

[Prefacing this by saying that the following will feature discussion and spec spinning that due to parallels may put some character in a very unfavourable light. I am talking about possibility and theory here so please don’t mistake any theory spinning for hate on characters.]

So I continued my “desperate to find something in this season that may miraculously turn my feelings on it around”-rewatch of S12 and last episode for that was 12x04 “American Nightmare”. At the time when the episode aired the story seemed like a textbook story focused on Sam and his past as a kid with psychic abilities, but if we truly assume that further down the line at some point this season the BritMoL may label Dean as a “rogue” that needs to be taken care of/defused/reformed or whatever else, it sure sends out some very troubling possibilities (I have to admit though given the BTS pics of the episodes it doesn’t seem as if Dean is separated from the rest, that may not have to mean anything, because the BritMoL could try and assert their control over Dean in other ways, but if they truly go down the road of torture/mind control/brainwashing as talked about the past couple of days, I think will rather be part of the season finale’s cliffhanger and not so much topic of the current season).

The key aspect of this episode was that Magda was “dead” to the world and in a way also to her family due them resenting her abilities that they thought unbearable and in need of reformation. They were - and especially the mother - of the mind that that could be brought on through self torture and praying. In her mind they kept Magda locked up and made society believe she died in order to protect the rest of the world from her. The whole family knew about that secret. All of them played along. Neither father nor brother intervened when Magda was made to beat herself up (literally), but considered her “to be their burden” and their “cross to bear” . Seriously, this episode was so freaking horrifying on so many levels back then, but if one draws possible parallels to what may lie ahead for Dean, it’s honestly truly something that would make any character to participate in such actions absolutely irredeemable - which is why I don’t think the show would go there, BUT for the sake of throwing ideas around have a couple of thoughts on it anyway.

Magda’s mother in conversation with Sam is talking about how God “showed them a better way” completely incapable of seeing her own actions as what they are: gruesome, disgusting and absolutely inexcusable. Magda’s mother in this regard almost can be considered to have brainwashed herself into believing her own twisted story. And this is where I kind of see possible parallels to Mary and possibly even Sam, most of all however to the BritMoL with their elitist view on on the hunting community and thinking they know best and their methods are the right ones. Because Mary too has been talking about the BritMoL and how they “show them a better way” . It seems even though she must deep down know that the BritMoL are shady as hell, she is desperate to believe the lie and motto they sell, to the point none of them even needs to manipulate her, but Mary does the brainwashing herself, because she wants the BritMoL to be right so very much. Similarly Sam is open to tag along with that, because he actually is afraid of losing Mary and therefore swallows the shit they sell and then even goes as far as manipulating Dean to work for the BritMoL without his knowledge. His “give me some time”” to Mick is all kinds of unnerving when you think of it as a strategy - basically emotional blackmail - to use Dean’s wish of his family to be together against him and in that regard completely ignore Dean’s doubts and dislikes of working with the BritMoL.

So what it comes down to if we follow through with Magda’s predicament as a possible loose mirror for what may lie ahead for Dean, then it could either be that the BritMoL may make Sam and Mary believe Dean died (as @lost-shoe suggested for example) while they do god knows what to him, because they think they do the right thing, because Dean as a “rogue” like Magda as possesse by the “devil” needs to be defused. Or - and I kind of can’t imagine the show to go this road, because it would render Mary and Sam absolutely irredeemable - Sam and Mary may be so completely swayed by the BritMoL that they may think Dean truly needs to be “reformed” and therefore like Magda’s brother and father just stand by and don’t intervene - possibly because they don’t know the full story of what the BritMoL tell them. Again, I think it is rather unlikely to be the case as I can’t imagine an dearly hope that Mary and Sam even at the suggestion to harm Dean would get the fuck out, but if one wanted to stick to the general parallel, one may think of it as a possibility. Either way, even if none of this happens, no one pretends Dean is dead, Dean won’t be subjected to torture or mind control or brainwashing, one thing still remains the same. By completely ignoring Dean hesitancy, his emotions, doubts and wishes in a way Sam and Mary have already rendered Dean “dead” to them in a metaphorical sense, simply because they don’t care about Dean’s feelings on this matter at all…

[dustydreamsanddirtyscars]

Some Thoughts on 12x09 "First Blood"

I hadn’t realized that the next episode is going to be the 250th of the show. Given that, my hopes for this episode are actually even bigger now. :) I have talked about this a little bit already last year when the promo for the episode got released, but for unknown reasons I only now found out that the original title to the first Rambo movie - or rather the book the movie is based on - is titled “First Blood”.

And while I had assumed and speculated about what the predicament the Winchesters find themselves in may trigger (see here), reading up on the plot of the movie “First Blood” (yes, sue me, I don’t think I watched a single Sylvester Stallone movie in my life) and the summary of the episode, it would surprise me if SPN didn’t draw more parallels between the movie and Sam and Dean’s imprisonment.

As the official description for 12x09 “First Blood” tells us…

“After being arrested for the attempted assassination of the President of The United States, Sam and Dean must find a way out of an underground, government-run, detention facility in the middle of nowhere. Determined to find her sons, Mary and Castiel seek assistance from an unlikely source.”

…the brothers are captured underground for trying to kill the President of the Unites States. The promo suggests that this imprisonment is - understandably - taking it’s toll on the two. Especially looking at Dean’s expression when counting the days and his eyes twitch reminds of another episode written by Andrew Dabb, one that directly connects to the situation the Winchesters find themselves in. The difference is however that 10x22 “The Prisoner” focused heavily on Dean’s imprisonment due to the influence of the MoC, now in 12x09 “First Blood” this “mental” imprisonment got a physical quality as he is literally a prisoner in a what seems to be some kind of Guantanamo-esque jail, which according to the government “officially doesn’t exist”. And the aspect of “supposed nonexistence” is something important to keep in mind in relation to Hell, which officially in an enlightened world for most people doesn’t exist either… But of course that doesn’t make the horrors Dean and Sam experienced any less real for them as they know better.

Now, the first Rambo movie follows the story of John Rambo, a Vietnam war veteran who ends up in jail after he is asked to leave the city called “Hope” (Quite the speaking name, isn’t it? Reminds me of “Hope Springs” last season when God returned), but returns anyway. He gets locked up for ignoring the police’s wishes of not entering the city. While imprisoned he is experiencing traumatic memories from his time as prisoner of war. He manages to escape and a brutal cat and mouse chase follows raising a lot of questions on society. Long story short in the end, Rambo is captured again and suffers a mental breakdown in which he talks about his inability to re-integrate into society after his experiences in Vietnam.

To me the parallels and inspiration to the episode are undeniable. And it makes me hope that maybe this imprisonment may explore the Winchesters’ hell memories and traumas more again. After all, the fact alone that they are kept underground, caged, seems like a huge and obvious nod towards the cage and how Lucifer - even if de-powered by what the Winchesters did to him in 11x08 “Lotus” (yes, I don’t think he was sent back to the cage at all and I think Dabb said as much in an interview as well) - managed to send the Winchesters exactly where they were supposed to both end up had the show ended with 5x22 “Swan Song”: the cage, after saying yes to their respective archangels.

Now, of course none of this has to mean anything and none of this has to happen, but I think it could make for some interesting plot points. Especially when keeping in mind that later in the season Dean loses his memory and as I talked about in this post, there lies a lot of potential in also re-exploring the past and what those memories did to Dean and how they shaped him. I just hope that in the end he’ll walk out of this stronger and maybe a little closer to healing without experiencing another horrible mental breakdown like Rambo did, who felt he could never get used to normal life again, after all this is a topic the show has been emphasizing for Dean time and again (“I will die with a gun in my hand”) and Mary too this season…

[lowritesthings]

Tywin, Jaime and Cersei always remind me of the Boleyns. Tywin seems like a mix of Thomas Boleyn and Thomas Howard, Jaime and Cersei remind me of Anne and George. I always wonder if the Boleyns were ever part of the inspiration for the Lannisters.