#Spn S9

[roachingurcoach]

he was shocked here. before, he could see his soul coming from miles away, had the time to prepare himself for his presence, to compose himself. this was a surprise.

[undercovercannibal]

SUPERNATURAL 9.13 ⛥ The Purge

[gentlemancowboy]

What if... Sorry. WHAT IF???

[traumatizedsam]

kreophagos

[mixtpecas]

It's crazy how the missed connections of seasons 8-9 destiel carry over into the rest of their relationship...

I noticed when I re-watched Dean talking about Cas giving up his angel army "for one guy" that the way Dean said it sounded grateful, but also kind of resigned? Even though it's crazy to me that Dean and Cas (and the show itself) straight up acknowledged that Cas did that all for Dean, Dean still seems like he's not even considering Cas doing all that out of any kind of unacknowledged feelings.

But looking at it from Dean's perspective, he basically already offered his heart to Cas on a silver platter for all of season 8. Forgiving Cas for breaking both the world and his brother's brain, fighting and praying for a year in purgatory, "I need you", etc. And Cas responded by ditching him as soon as he was free of heaven's control, with no further explanations.

But for Cas, he didn't even recognize that! He was in purgatory as penance for what he did, and he was brainwashed as soon as he was out! Cas' whole life has been about the big picture, which is how he continued to see things even after rebelling. Stop Raphael, help Sam, protect the angel tablet, etc. His own feelings weren't as important as his responsibilities. But by the time he's (forcibly) removed from those responsibilities by becoming human, Dean has already accepted his unintentional rejection! So now Cas knows his own feelings, but Dean is acting on the basis that a romantic relationship is off the table.

And this is how it goes from then on! Dean will be devoted to Cas but still kind of bitter about Cas' selfless devotion that's so close and so far from what he really wants, while Cas will be shamed about his unangelic and unwelcome attachment to Dean. And how Dean and Cas see their relationship is formed through such a short period of time!! From the crypt to human Cas being kicked out to Dean taking the mark of Cain, there were so many moments where it all could have been cleared up. But it wasn't, so they'll live in a state of confused rejection for the next six years anyways.

[shinelikethunder]

my most universally cancellable SPN opinion, in terms of the sheer variety of factions & grudges it manages to clip in passing:

Sera Gamble could've fixed the Gadreel arc. and the results would've FUCKED.

[dailyspnpolls]

Review the following promo posters from the later seasons (8-15)...

 ⬇️ Season Eight   |  Season Nine ⬇️

 ⬇️ Season Ten    |  Season Eleven ⬇️

⬇️ Season Twelve   |  Season Thirteen ⬇️

⬇️ Season Fourteen (A) | Season Fourteen (B) ⬇️

⬇️ Season Fifteen (A) |  Season Fifteen (B) ⬇️

Tell us what drove your decision in the tags!

[ananke-xiii]

First borns and how to stop them

I love love love "First Born", it's a 10 10 10 across the board* for me and here's why.

(*although the John Winchester hunting Kinights of Hell beat is kinda meh. I don't know if it's my memory playing tricks on me lately or what but I remember that John wasn't exactly knowedgeable about demon lore. And what about his diary being filled with info about Abaddon while Sam and Dean act totally clueless? Shouldn't they know their father's journal by heart by now? Or, I dunno, at least recognize the damn name or something? I don't know, something seems off here but I can't be bothered to check so I'm gonna give it a pass).

Patriarcal societies focus on the prominence of (male) first borns over the rest of the offspring. They represent continuity, tradition and, in a word, the past. Matriarchal societies, on the other hand, favor the last borns representing innovation, discontinuation and, in a word, the future. The biblical story of Esau and Jacob is interesting in this regard and I find it unbelievably ironic that in Supernatural the former leader of the non-factional angels is named Rebecca.

Cain is, of course, the first born of all time. However, in this episode he's never addressed as such. Interestingly, he takes on the opposite role: the Father (of Murder). You know things won't go well in Supernatural when somebody invokes John Winchester's name and this is one of these cases.

In this episode Crowley's seduction of Dean begins but we already know it'll eventually go badly since he positions himself like the daddy-type you can have fun with. I'm not sure why Crowley started to look for partners to rule hell with. I mean, of course he's a sentimental bastard who wants to be loved so it totally tracks. But from a narrative pov I can't tell where he made the switch. For sure, he made sure to show the Winchesters that he's a demon of his word, "the devil you know and so you can trust" and promptly proceeds to help Sam from the Gadreel's infestation. Crowley's fully aware that you never refuse a chance to impress a Winchester and basically everybody and their mother knows that if you save Sam, Dean falls in love with you on the spot. So Crowley played it very well, good for him. Or not (little aside: this is the beginning of Crowley's arc apotheosis. From imprisoned demon almost turned into human to restored King of Hell who turns humans into demons and make them his partner. The beginning of his end, sigh).

Anyway, from predator looking for his prey ("and your prey, Gadreel, has left the building. So, it's time to move on to more pressing matters, like destroying Abaddon") Dean is, once again this season, manipulated and Crowley quickly turns him into his little experiment, his guinea pig if you will.

The other (self-proclaimed) guinea pig of the episode is second-born Sam. He's just expelled Gadreel and found out about Dean's lies. He took it so badly that he's ready to literally risk his life to have Gadreel's remaining grace (ewwww) removed. The scientist experimenting on him is, luckily for Sam, none other than Castiel.

While his dark mirror Crowley stands for "fun, fun, fun, let's hunt together without consequences, yeah", Castiel is the voice of reason, mitigation and diplomacy. For pissed people like Sam and Dean Jiminy Crickets are no fun and must be silenced. Sam cuts him off twice or three times even, he doesn't want to listen to him because he's in his feelings. Nothing bad with that per se, the issue is that both Sam and Dean are highly emotional disregulated and they don't have the tools to deal with strong emotions. This episode shows it very well.

Sam hyperfocuses, internalizes everything, shuts down externally, he actually puts his own life on the line for a stupid experiment and literally utters the words "My life's not worth any more than anyone else's". It should be "My life is as worthy as anyone else's, right?" Do you agree with me? Not Sam. On the other hand, Dean un-focuses (he was hunting Gadreel but the next second he's in Cain's cabin on a killing spree), externalizes everything and shuts down internally. He also puts his life on the line but, just like Sam, he's also looking for a sense of worth and finds it in the Mark of Cain ("The mark can be transferred to someone who's worthy").

Dean is in so much trouble because he doesn't have a Castiel by his side. Or, well, he has his dark mirror version who preys on his insecurities ("He was right, you know. You are worthy") and is blatanlty playing him. The saddest part of all is that Dean realizes that and lets himself be played: it's not even begun and it's already ended. However, Sam's got newly reformed Castiel by his side and he's not as passive as Crowley fakely is, he takes matters into his hands and calls Sam's bullshit ("Sam, I want Gadreel to pay as much as you do. But nothing is worth losing you"). Castiel stops Sam. If the fight with Sam is what makes Dean go on a hunt with Crowley, it's Castiel's absence that prevents him to call it off. This is important.

What about Father-First-Born Cain, uh? He's paralleled to what's left of Gadreel inside Sam and, by extension, to Gadreel himself in their connection with Lucifer and their manipulation of Dean (yes, Gadreel and Cain 100% conned Dean, the moment he sent out his prayer to all angels and the moment he entered Cain's property he was doomed. As I said, Dean and Sam Winchester are very well-known names on the interdimensional street, you either steer clear of them or try a way to gain the upper hand, Gadreel and Cain tried and succeeded).

I'll be frank here, Dean is indeed worthy of Cain because if there was one guy who ever got conned was Cain himself. I mean let's look at his story:

Abel wasn't talking to God. He was talking to Lucifer. Lucifer was gonna make my brother into his pet. I couldn't bear to watch him be corrupted, so I offered a deal -- Abel's soul in heaven for my soul in hell. Lucifer accepted... As long as I was the one who sent Abel to heaven. So, I killed him. Became a soldier of Hell -- a knight.

Cain must be the most gullible character ever because not only he offered a deal with Lucifer but it was such a stupid deal that I'm like... really Cain? I mean, how could he know that Abel's soul was sent to heaven? Lucifer accepted. The same Lucifer who was literally browsing inside the mind of his brother pretending to be God? Hello, Cain, hello???? (little aside: S12 "I never lied" Crowley vs "I will never lie to you" Lucifer power showdown could have been SOOOOO good... if only...). But this is the fundamental error of human beings: getting tricked into thinking they can deal on equal footing with decidedly more powerful beings. He got totally played by Lucifer and he doesn't even know if Abel's really in heaven. The game is rigged ladies and gentlemen.

I gotta be honest again and tell it like it is: Cain's a bit of a self-righteous dick. He couldn't bear to watch his brother be corrupted so he offered a deal and he killed Abel. It's almost like the price, the burden that the mark weighs on its possessor is a sort of contrappasso: the power you abused will abuse you. Horrendous and utterly, utterly unfair because see above: power imbalance between the parties to the agreement. Again, the game is rigged. I take a little pity on the Father of Murder, the wonders of Supernatural!!!

However, there is someone in Cain's story who has good sense: poor, plain, unremarkable Colette. Yeah, it didn't go well for her, too. And who's the sanest person in this episode again? What? Castiel? Thee Castiel??? You know things are BAD when Castiel is indeed the sanest person in an episode.

The duality of the Castiel/Crowley combo has never been better showed than in "First Born": they are Colette/Abaddon, the wife and the mistress, the humdrum and the fun. The "you have to stop it"and the "we could have been forever". Rules of juxtaposition dictate that if Castiel manages to stop Sam he won't be able to stop Dean. And if Crowley manages to "be forever" with Dean he won't be able to keep the party going. And if Colette couldn't do anything about Abaddon but getting possessed&killed, Castiel will get possessed and will kill Crowley (he was very close). Exactly what happens in S10.

(the whole "you're living my life in reverse" has always sounded strange to me because Cain doesn't kill Abaddon and Colette doesn't exactly get killed by Cain... Abaddon did snap her neck and bones. Plus, there's the whole possession thing between the two (the blurring of the lines between two love interests). I don't want to sound smug but my interpretation is maybe a bit more faithful to the events as they are presented, I choose to trust Robbie Thompson's vision. The end result is the same anyway).

So what about Abel? Yeah, what about him. This episode marks the slow decline of the writers' interest in Sam. I know people don't like it when I say it but it's like... a fact. And, I mean, it's not even their fault 'cause the biblical and patriarchal story focuses on the first born. However, they are clearly retelling it and adding new characters to it so why removing Abel completely? It's written as a character who's incapacitated due to the fact that an archangel is snooping around his mind transforming him into his pet. Silencing him is a very dangerous move. S9 is so complicated, man. Anyway, it was unfortunately a "necessary" absence/silence because the final message of S9/10 is: patriarchy wins, tradition continues, the cycle of abuse is not broken. Yes, the cycle's still very much intact even if Dean didn't kill Sam.

Since SPN's version of the story seems to be working by juxtaposition, First-born-Father-Cain-Dean doesn't kill Second-born-Son-Abel Sam. But he doesn't get stopped by Wife-No Fun-Colette-Castiel either. Instead, Dean kills Death. Now, I've got things to say.

You don't know how I wish the whole Book of the Damned thing were never written or were a red herring. Imagine if killing Death was the Key to removing the mark and opening the cage! Beautifuuuuuuuul! First of all, in this way killing Death has a meaning and a value and doesn't feel like a cheap way to solve a conundrum. And second it would've brought home to the audience that Dean and Sam's main fatal flaw is that they can't let go. In a very convoluted way, Carver is saying: yeah, they didn't kill each other but this isn't a good thing because they're also refusing to integrate each other and move on. Therefore, The Things We Repress, Cage, Forget and Totally Do Not Want to Talk About must come to the surface of our conscious mind. And it will be total DISASTER because the unconscious mind, by definition, does not share the same values, beliefs and mechanics of the conscious mind. Fishing something out of our darkest pits must be done with the utmost care you can ever imagine and with the right tools in the right season.

Carver was working with pretty loaded symbols for 4 long years and it wasn't always easy to watch, I'll be honest. But the final message is very clear: Dark and Light are Distinct but Not Separate. This is like the basis tenet of all spiritual journeys. He literally laid his cards down and said: look, this is a story about two brothers and, like all stories about two brothers, this is a story about integrating two opposing aspects governing our psyche, the literal key is seeing/acknowledging our trauma, do the work and move on with more awareness. The cycle can be broken: there will be a shitload of work to do but people can outlive it. It's possible. I'm oversimplyfing too much here but this is just to say that "killing Death" would've been a powerful message if that was what brought The Darkness upon the earth: you can't kill a basic aspect of the psyche, the literal guardian between two dimensions, something will tip over if you do.

(I like to imagine Carver watching SPN finale undoing everything he spent 4 seasons on and got a shitload of (sometimes justified) hate for. I think it's a mix of horror and satisfaction, nothing beats the feeling of seeing our successors fall hahaha)

I'll stop now 'cause I feel I've blabbered enough. But this fucking show is not as bad as you think it is!

[angel-fruitcake]

spn episodes between 9x3-9x6 and 9x6-9x9 are a joke, and not a funny one. i cannot take any anything seriously, or frankly think about anything else when i know that poor Cas is just out in the wild trying to fend for himself as literally a baby in a trenchcoat !! he JUST became human and Dean just threw him out on the streets !!! we could've had so many more adorable moments of Cas going on cases and navigating his humanity with the help of the Winchesters. and they could've written things differently to make it fit with the Gadreel storyline, but no they were lazy and decided to write Misha out of those eps. nah fuck that. i'll never forgive the writers for that bullshit

[sometime-in-1995]

if im not careful, the story from the bible i remember might be altered 'coz of supernatural lol

[restlesshush]

Anyway Cas is the protagonist of supernatural to the extent that in season 9 Sam and Dean have to borrow his big bad to kill because they’ve run out of villains of their own. Like, all the way through 9x21, Metatron is Cas’s problem first and foremost. Obviously he’s the reason for Kevin’s death but that’s not really part of a wider pattern of him being a threat to humans. His villain status is about his role as a rival to Cas, and the fact that his rule of Heaven would be bad for the angels – potential consequences for Earth don’t really come into it. When Sam and Dean get involved with him in 9x18 and 9x21, they’re specifically helping out Cas, rather than having any particular skin of their own in the game (aside from the potential vengeance motive re Kevin, but that’s actually not really touched on). Metatron is Cas’s problem, not theirs. But then once Dean has killed Abaddon in 9x21, suddenly Metatron is the level of “boss fight” it makes sense to reserve the first blade for even though 1) he’s still just a regular angel at that point and 2) there’s no real indication he poses any particular threat to humanity that would mean he had to be taken off the table. It’s literally just that we need Sam and Dean to have a season villain to kill, and Metatron is the best candidate left. And I mean, Metatron’s defeat isn’t really to do with Sam and Dean in the end anyway – it’s about Cas revealing to the rest of the angels Metatron’s true nature and them turning against him. Dean’s attempt to kill Metatron doesn’t really have any meaningful impact on the episode other than his own death – it’s irrelevant re actually wrapping up the season arc. To keep up the pretence that Sam and Dean are the true protagonists, they have to go after Metatron in their own right for no clear practical reason, but it’s Cas’s actual victory, because the whole thing is his plot, not theirs.

[undercovercannibal]

SUPERNATURAL 4.04 ⛥ Metamorphosis 9.07 ⛥ Bad Boys

[flowersintheimpala69]

Old man assures trans (ftm) guy that he isn’t going to out him as trans, and then ask why trans guy named himself Ezekiel

[gentlemancowboy]

9.06 Heaven Can’t Wait

[fandom-hoarder]

"Dean making a pregnancy/abortion joke about Sam's gadreel grace."

ohhhhh but what if the leftover Grace really did create an mpreg situation? Sam thinks Gadreel's gone for good, but he starts getting sick in the mornings, feels tired, and his chest is weirdly sore.

How long until Castiel realizes what's going on? Do they tell Dean "by the way, the angel you stuffed into Sam made a baby" or do they pretend that Cas is the daddy?

I'm having so many thoughts here...

So many optionssss. I love the idea of them pretending it's Castiel's. Especially because I'm over here like: Sam and Cas were alone in the bunker together for two weeks "nursing Sam back to health" 👀👀👀👀👀👀

What if the leftover grace created a situation where mpreg is possible in a non-mpreg world.

Aaahhh but then also, with Sam's mood post-gadreel, he probably wouldn't hold back guilt-tripping Dean. Would Dean feel worse knowing he's pregnant from Gadreel's violation alone, or knowing that it was Castiel's comfort in Sam's time of susceptibility that got Sam pregnant-- something Dean can't do even if Sam would let him. 👀👀👀👀👀

[slytherintothedms]

“for what, to save dean winchester?” “ultimately it was all about saving one human” THERE IS A REASON SAM IS NEVER MENTIONED IN MOMENTS LIKE THESE