spn 8.09

[amonitrate]

So! I imagine there's a lot of Sam vs. Dean going around in fandom right now, or so I hear. Somehow I have managed to avoid all of it on my various social media outlets

Comments

[cactustree34]

Nicely articulated! I like the Sam/Dean conflict very much- and I think it's LONG OVERDUE (esp as you point out, without the pressures of the apocalypse etc); but I think one of the issues that I have is- do I really believe that this could go either way? Do I believe that they could agree to part ways and live separate lives - Dean hunting, and Sam attempting to live his version of "a normal life". Sadly, no, esp given the history of the previous seasons. At the back of my head is the knowledge that the show is all about two brothers on the road, hunting monsters and saving things or whatever, so it always means that Sam WILL come back to hunting full time, and perhaps (depending on how the other events of this season go) with a renewed sense of purpose. When the ending is almost set in stone..then from one perspective, the conflict is very artifical..Idk, I really hope Carver and team surprise me..what do you think?

[amonitrate]

I think the show overall, from the beginning, has not viewed hunting as a positive force in Sam and Dean's life. Yes, on a meta-level, Sam will probably end up back hunting again, as Dean did in season 6. Maybe I'm a pollyanna, but I trust the show to handle how that happens in a way that is consistent with how it's handled everything having to do with hunting for the past 7+ years, I guess

[una_clover]

Well written:> I also love that actions of every character in this ep could be easily traced to their state of mind and motivations, and that all of them are being simply human (even though assholes too).

[amonitrate]

Thanks, and YES. It was beautiful that they were all basically acting from places of fucked up humanness, and all of them contributed to the chain of events and the consequences with their reactions to each other.

[hoegh]

I think the reason I love the conflict this season is because it's so divorced of the pressures of The Apocalypse

This, to me, is the best thing about this season. It's a bit like we jumped from season 3 to 8 and I can just make my own reader's digest emotional reference points of the seasons in between, without all the 'the president is on the phone!' -moments.

[amonitrate]

aahha. I don't actually follow your reference! Not sure what you mean by the president is on the phone moments.

[hoegh]

Just... That thing about the whole world hanging in the balance.

[amonitrate]

Ah! Yes! I think that's what I meant too. It's like without the immediate sword over their heads pressure, they actually have to confront all the stuff they haven't really dealt with over the past 7 years, and it's messy and awful and I love it.

[runedgirl]

What a great analysis - so glad to be sent over this way. So glad, in fact, that I just friended yo so I can read more. Not only did you articulate what I've been clumsily saying is "as long as Sam and Dean are passionate about each other, I'mma keep watching, whether it's passionate in disagreement or rescue fantasies or betrayal hurts or whatever" - you wrote it all out, so all I could do was keep saying "Yes!" And you quoted Trauma and Recovery! Should be required reading for SPN.... I complain sometimes about lack of continuity on Show, but it's usually in more isolated things. In terms of continuity of the emotional damage sustained by the brothers and all the ways it influences them and their relationship, it's amazingly spot on.

[amonitrate]

ahaha thanks! Yeah, Trauma and Recovery fits this show pretttty well, and should probably be applied to Sam this season too in some way that I haven't thought of. I'm pretty easy when it comes to this show precisely because it very rarely drops the balls on emotional continuity, and just, how well it roots its characterizations in everything that formed the characters as children, especially, but everything since then too. It's not perfect, but it does it well enough and often enough to keep me excited.