In SPN world "the supernatural" is literal maneaters and monsters, enemies of the people. In BBC Merlin there are a few of good harmless "supernaturals". But not all of them are, over and over again you picture them as innocent flawless sheep. The show is much more complex, it's not a school lesson on American history or something.
The idea that a school lesson on American history would be less complex than a poorly written early 2000s tv show saying “there is such a thing as being born inherently evil” is so so so silly <3
These shows oversimplify a concept which reflects real life bias (bioessentialism), which is why marginalized people (like myself) tend to be critical of the ideologies they implicitly (or explicitly) and unquestioningly relay.
Even so, you seem to have it mixed up. It’s actually SPN which plays with the idea that the supernatural is evil by default with the exception of a few good harmless ones. We see this frequently with the vampire, werewolf, and demon plotlines, and quite poignantly with Amy the kitsune, who Dean kills for [checks notes] having killed sexual predators to save her son’s life.
In BBCM, they do approach with suspicion of sorcery by default (which is likewise equivalent to real life profiling), but it is well-established that magic is not inherently evil and that sorcerers are people first, which is why they may act on either good or evil. It is the Pendragon regime which refuses to recognize the neutrality of magic as a force of nature.
Again, I do recommend that you learn the function and methods of bigotry in society, since you do live in a society (even if you don’t interact with it much). While I haven’t taken any college-level courses centered on American history, common sense tells us there is a lot to learn from in any such class.
I’m lucky to be in attendance at a university with many options in gender, ethnic, and cultural studies, but I understand that this privilege is not available to everyone. However, there are alternatives such as Coursera and Khan Academy where you can participate in structured lessons on these very topics. In fact, even YouTube has innumerable video lectures to choose from.
Of course, I recommend reading the accredited literature on these topics, but you don’t strike me as someone who read the books they were assigned in school (very much “the curtains are blue because they’re blue” vibes). You may need to begin with media comprehension studies instead of diving straight into the deep end. There are countless books and videos that help teach this form of literacy, and it is well worth it, especially when reading news articles, research/studies, and even watching a silly tv show packed with propaganda. Good luck!
I think that if the 2008 Supernatural fandom was a little different or if Uriel was played by someone else* young and/or white, casuriel would’ve been huge. They’re coworkers who butt heads but are sarcastic as fuck together. They’re brothers on the show where people ship brothers. Cas thinks Uriel is funny. Uriel knows Cas’s weakness for humans better than anyone else on screen and they go on missions together to balance each other out in that way. They both have doubts. Uriel’s last thoughts were probably about how Castiel chose God and humanity over him.
* thank God (or Lucifer? Idk it’s Uriel) he wasn’t, mainly because Robert was awesome and also the only actor who picked up what Misha was putting down when it comes to playing an angel
unironically dean gets treated like a kpop idol. everything he does right is an indicator of how good of a person he is but everything he does wrong is the writers’ fault #lol #lmaoeven
deangirls INSIST they understand dean’s character better than the actual text of the show so when dean does something reprehensible or indefensible that is definitely in character, now it’s all "NOOOOO dean would NEVER do that 😡😡 the writers hate him!!!!”
genuinely they have constructed an entirely new version of dean that only exists in their heads, and they compare the two versions to endlessly criticize the writers on how bad of a job they’re doing while butchering everything that makes dean who he is as a character
if canon doesn't match deangirl expectations then canon is WRONG and the writers are EVIL bc duh silly dean is the idea of whatever dean girls want him to be, not the actual character on screen!!!
actually no soulless sam was not “technically not sam”. he very much is sam… just without his inhibitions. the fact that sam can be alive without his soul means that in universe, the soul is what gives humans ability for compassion and empathy but the consciousness itself is not attached to it. so sam was very much himself lmfao i’m pretty sure someone even confirms earlier on in s6 that sam’s brain is still fully functioning like his memories, his knowledge, and his personality is all still there so obviously the soul isn't the main thing humans need it’s just the more emotionally driven parts of the moral compass (because logic drives morality too!!!). plus it’s not like he doesn’t remember how he used to be. soulless sam still cares for dean in a weird roundabout way (he tried to play normal, tried to comfort him as best as possible, saves him repeatedly), he still hunts (which by the show’s logic is the most noble thing you can do), uses the exact same tactics (some taken to a unflinching extreme) and he still has that core competitiveness and stubbornness. tbh the only shit missing is his soft spoken voice and the crippling guilt complex that normal sam carries like sisyphus lmfaooooo
In the words of Raoul the imaginary gay dragon who lives in the internet, 'this is either going to be the best episode of televised entertainment ever, or it's going to make us all wish we'd never been born'. Unfortunately, this one was not even in the realm of good. It provided me with so little of interest to say or comment on that skipping it entirely might have been an understandable choice. Neither Paula nor Demian had much to say outside a basic recap, and nor do I. This will be a short one.
To summarise, 'dragons' are kidnapping virgins. Dean and a newly-ensouled Sam investigate, kill a 'dragon' or two, rescue the surviving virgins, and find a grimoire the 'dragons' had been using. The grimoire turns out to be a manual to opening a gate to purgatory and bringing forth the Mother of All. Two surviving 'dragons' open the gate for a moment by yeeting a virgin into a volcano. The Mother of All takes possession of her body, and thus endeth the episode.
Oh, and the wall Death put up to keep Sam from remembering his hell-trauma is already well on its way to crumbling. As soon as my friend watched the previous episode a year ago, she said instantly 'that won't last an episode'. And last it did not.
First of all, the dragons blew chunks in this episode. They were just men whose hands got hot, and were they shown at any point with wings? The show does not have the budget for everything, but if so the writers should know not to push it.
At least the episode got the story of series six to move on a bit. The lame soulless!Sam plot is finally over, although we still have to endure ten more episode of Sam's stupid soul nonsense.The end also finally gave the purgatory questline a kick up the arse and made it do something, although to be fair this pace is actually about average for Supernatural. Regarding the plot of the whole of series six, it has felt more present than the plot of earlier sereis where many episodes could go by with only passing mentions of overarcing plot. This was still the era of network television, though, when the audience mostly expected monster of the week episodes with a little bit of actual plot. Oh for the days when telly could just be telly and we had 22 episodes a year with only a few months between each series, rather than 'cinematic experiences' which only have 10... no, wait; 8 episodes every 2 years. Or every 3 years.
No wonder television is dying.
The Sam plot is dumb. I did not care when I first watched these episodes, and I care less now. It also does not help that characters act stupid around him for obvious plot reasons. The writers need Sam's mental wall to crumble for the next part of the story, so of course Bobby makes it obvious he is hiding something from Sam and Dean conveniently neglects to fill Cas in on the whole thing. So what should happen but Cas accidentally tells Sam he has not actually just come back from the cage, but rather has been walking around for a year and half like a muppet with a hand up his arse.
I could queef a better story than this, and I lack the equipment necessary for queefing.
Apropos Cas, he reminds me Cartman's song Kyle's Mom's a Bitch, because Cas really is being a total bitch at the moment. He was vehemently against restoring Sam's soul, and after fisting Sam at the beginning of this episode, is horrified and infuriated by what he found. Sam's soul apparently feels 'flayed', and Cas gets all up in Dean's business about it. Why precisely is never made clear to me: how is Sam's soul being in Sam's body any worse that it being in the cage? It might kill Sam, but... so? Soulless!Sam was about as much use as a marzipan dildo, so thank Scrooge he went out screaming like a little girl. If Sam's trauma were to kill him, what would actually be lost? Presumably Sam would go to heaven if he died, which is a vast improvement on *reads notes* being gang-banged by Lucifer and Michael in the cage. And if Sam were suffering on Earth... well, the same Sam was suffering even worse in the cage, so nothing has been lost. In fact, Sam has been saved from further damage at Lucifer and Michael's hands.
Actually, just Lucifer's. The show later makes it clear that Michael and Adam were essentially taking inspiration from Inception and living endless lives together for their entire time in the cage. In other words, Adam spent eternity boning an archangel. Which makes the penultimate epiosode of the show even worse, and means that the last three episodes of Supernatural is just a series of Bury Your Gays one after the other. Cas, Michael, Adam, and Dean.
I think I actually hate this show. But at least Sam got to marry his blurry wife *vomits*.
Back to Cas; spoilers, but he is to blame for Sam's soul remaining in the cage while his body escaped. Everything that happened over the 18 months before this episode is Cas's fault. Being the overgrown teenager he is, accountability and responsibility are his kryptonite. Not to flog a dead horse, but this never changes. Even during the divorce arc of 15x03-15x10... Moreover, he is putting all the blame on Dean, and even has the cheek to say 'If you wanted to kill your brother, you should've done it outright', as if it were Dean who botched up the job of getting Sam out of the cage in the first place.
But on that topic: why does Cas not kill Sam? They have no relationship to speak of, do not resemble friends in any way, and the mess Sam will be in in a few episodes time is Cas's fault anyway. Although since they are not friends, I wonder why Cas was personally listening to Sam's prayer later in the episode. Guilt, fear, and anxiety probably.
Back to the plot: why did Dean and Sam drive all the way from South Dakota to Oregon to investigate a random case? The drive is so long. I live in Helsinki, and the drive they took is like me hopping into a car and spending a day and a half driving all the way to Austria. And then later, Dean drove from Oregon to San Francisco. WHY?! Is that like me driving from Austria to the south of Greece or Italy? How does he have enough money to pay for all that petrol? And to maintain the car? Are there no hunters already in the vicinity who can take on the case while Dean and Sam fart around in Minnesota or Iowa or somewhere nearby?
And why does Dean leave Sam alone in Oregon for so long? Not an idea of the good variety since Sam has only just returned from hell. And why, on the first case after Sam returns from hell, does he end up saving the day after Dean softens the enemy up and gets beaten up for his effort? This is as predictable as The Walking Dead having zombie ex machina all the bloody time. A few weeks ago, a clip from The Walking Dead: Daryl Dixon 3x01 appeared on my youtube feed, and I rolled my eyes after watching it. 'Bet you didn't expect those zombies to just appear out of that abandoned bus, did you? Wasn't that gnarly! I bet it scared ya!'
Actually, I thought it stupid that Carol and Daryl's recon skills were apparently non-existent after having lived in a zombie-world for many years. They walk past a bus in an infected area like that, but neglect to peer in through the open doors. Did they not even smell the huge number of dead bodies in the bus and down the street? It was pretty obvious what you were going for, but go off, I suppose.
At least Dean and Sam's conversation in the car does not get too ridiculous. Generally speaking, Sam is sufferable in this episode, although this might just be in comparison to soulless!Sam. Sam broaches the subject of Lisa (presumptively presuming Dean did not try to live a life with her), and Dean brushes the topic aside and deters further question by turning the music up. Sam, surprisingly, takes the hint and keeps his questions to himself.
One last point; Bobby claims that the grimoire is written in an obscure variety of Latin which will take him ages to translate. Paula pointed out that the Latin shown in the book is completely run-of-the-mill standardised Latin, so that was nonsense. Although I wonder whether there are actually any documented varieties of Latin which are especially obscure or unusual. The Anglo-Saxon used in the original manuscripts varies greatly between manuscripts written in different areas of England, and even between different time periods in the same area. Students of Anglo-Saxon will be presented with a standardised version to aid learning before dealing with variation. It is a similar situation with Old Norse. I really do wish the show were more specific with things like this, though, rather than making vague references and claims in the hopes the majority of the audience will be happy with it sounding meaningful. But how much more interesting would it have been if the grimoire had been in Faliscan, Latin's sister? Close enough that a skilled Latin speaker could reasonably be expected to work with it, but different enough to prove a challenge?
Anyway, that does it for this time. The next episode is a bit better than this one, so at least I have that to look forward to.
Anyway, that does it for this time. You can read more of my analyses here:
Series 1
Series 2
Series 3
Series 4
Series 5
Series 6
Sundry
You can read Paula’s review here and Demian’s here.
P.S. The only version of Like a Virgin I care about.
