SPN 11.03 The Bad Seed
SPN 11.03 The Bad Seed
Identity is gradual, cumulative; because there is no need for it to manifest itself, it shows itself intermittently, the way a star hints at the pulse of its being by means of its flickering light. But at what moment in this oscillation is our true self manifested? In the darkness or the twinkle?
-- Sergio Chejfec, The Planets
The Darkness. Amara. Little girl or "almost infinite power"? Actively evil, or evil as a mere side-effect of the need to come into her own majority... in all ways. Or is there even a difference, when the end result is... souls being consumed.
Dean: Where are you going?
Crowley: To see the child that eats souls.
Dean: You don't get what that thing is. (11.02)
Amara is still trying to discover her identity fully. Remembering who she was, finding out who she is and what she is supposed to become.
Grown Darkness: You look confused. Troubled.
Young Amara: God did all of this after he locked me away. I didn't know it was so much.
Grown Darkness: All for his own ego. And no matter what he made, that doesn't excuse what he did to us. Amara, you must stay fixed on our purpose. Even we cannot undo what has already been done. But as you grow and become stronger, your true destiny will be clear to you. I am what you are becoming, and we are mightier than God.
Amara seems reluctantly intrigued by the scope of this world and what's been done and come to be during her time away. Her two selves seem to have potentially different perspectives about it all. Are they two people? Or two different views within the same person whose viewpoint is being shaped by what she is exposed to? What is Amara's true purpose? Revenge against God? Reshaping the Universe under her own terms, her own ideas or visions?
Crowley: That's God for you... I'm guessing you'd have done things differently.
Young Amara: I sure will. I've had a lot of time to think it through.
Crowley is trying to control it. Focusing her so-called education in directions he believes will serve his own interests.
Crowley: Amara seems to be growing in leaps and bounds. Not just in maturity, but in strength and confidence, too. I don't want her to get out of hand before I'm sure of her loyalty.
Amara, though, has a knowing sense for bullcrap, and an unwillingness to fully trust another entity of power. She is using him just as much as he hopes to use her. Right now he is a convenient food source, and seems sympathetic to her situation. But she already sees the emptiness behind his posturing and conniving.
Crowley: That's what I get for trying to be the good guy.
Sam: Wait a second, so you're the good guy?
Crowley: Do you have any idea what I've been at this past year? The changes I've made to Hell.
Sam: Am I supposed to be impressed by that?
Crowley: Yes! I thought if I did better, I might actually feel something again. That it might matter. (10.22)
Crowley's not trying to be anything but himself at present time, which is nothing more than an empty shell housing some twisted up evil smoke... er, soul. His true self is manifested with every action he takes, the choices he makes.
Crowley: You and I together? Well, we can shape things to our own world view. A place where, like the dinosaur, virtue is extinct, where the very air that we breathe is pure evil. Would you like that?
Young Amara: Would you? You'd really be happy if everyone... was evil?
He chose the darkness over the twinkle of a uncorrupted soul for himself, and he continues to revel in it. His only real problem with his life has been boredom.
Amara: I don't think you're seeing the big picture.
Amara: Good, evil, Heaven, Hell, people. It all seems so unimportant.
She decries the importance of labels. Limitations. Locations. Morality. Species. As accurately described by Death, she is truly amoral. Such concepts don't hold value to her. She offers an interesting observation based on her perspective:
Amara: Every time I take in a soul, I feel how much emptiness there is.
Crowley: Yes.
Amara: God made a world where people have to suffer, and then die.
Crowley: Unfortunately.
Amara: But frankly, why would they want to live in such a world?
She herself is more than simple evil. Sure, she consumes souls of all kinds. I wonder if her impression about the emptiness within them comes from all the demon souls she has consumed -- souls already twisted from light into darkness before she ever got her hands on them.
Amara too doesn't fully see the bigger picture. Caught up in her anger at God and his management style, being fed murmurs of agreement from Crowley, she has not -- so far -- been given a balancing or contrasting viewpoint. The persons of power overlooking the little guys and gals.
Power of the people. It might seem insignificant and empty, there for diversion only... but that's only one viewpoint. I rather look forward to Amara having a philosophical conversation with Dean, because he has always been an unwavering advocate for the human point of view. Standing as one of those little guys who actually tries to do something with his life to make it better for others. The guy who, from the beginning, has believed that even if his life is screwed up, he can maybe keep another family's from being so torn apart by evil.
Demon: Someone's gotta do something.
Angel: Someone?
Demon: Yeah. If management won't, it's up to the little guy.
Angel: Yeah, I hear ya.
Demon: Power to the people, my friend.
Why would anyone want to live in this imperfect world or universe? Heaven and Hell's entities, humans... we all have an ingrained instinct for survival. We want to live. We have things in our lives worth living for and holding onto, be it humans, demons, angels, or other kinds of monsters.
Sam and Dean don't have a perfect relationship, there are flaws and mistakes made between the two.
Dean: Sam knows my point. Keyword -- secrets.
Case in point. That being said, their family is something they value enough to fight for, to let themselves make compromises for, to take blows for if necessary. No apologies or explanations needed. Quite the opposite of empty.
Based on Amara's assertion of how she would do things quite differently than God, and how unimportant and empty those lives seem to her, Sam, Dean and Castiel might not be as alone as they initially appear in this fight to protect the world from the Darkness once word finishes getting around to all parties. Survival makes for strange alliances, not just drinking partners, and the Winchesters are quite familiar in dealing with all types of people (using that word loosely) if it means saving what means most to them.
The bigger picture. Rowena today, possibly Metatron down the road... saving your family, saving people... As long as both parties have something to lose or gain, it's too soon to write off any possibilities.
The Darkness is growing quickly, though, and her true self is still shrouded with plenty of mystery. Is her identity to be revealed through her words? Her choices? Or her unceasing appetite for more?
Identity is gradual, cumulative; because there is no need for it to manifest itself, it shows itself intermittently, the way a star hints at the pulse of its being by means of its flickering light. But at what moment in this oscillation is our true self manifested? In the darkness or the twinkle?
-- Sergio Chejfec, The Planets
The Darkness. Amara. Little girl or "almost infinite power"? Actively evil, or evil as a mere side-effect of the need to come into her own majority... in all ways. Or is there even a difference, when the end result is... souls being consumed.
Dean: Where are you going?
Crowley: To see the child that eats souls.
Dean: You don't get what that thing is. (11.02)
Amara is still trying to discover her identity fully. Remembering who she was, finding out who she is and what she is supposed to become.
Grown Darkness: You look confused. Troubled.
Young Amara: God did all of this after he locked me away. I didn't know it was so much.
Grown Darkness: All for his own ego. And no matter what he made, that doesn't excuse what he did to us. Amara, you must stay fixed on our purpose. Even we cannot undo what has already been done. But as you grow and become stronger, your true destiny will be clear to you. I am what you are becoming, and we are mightier than God.
Amara seems reluctantly intrigued by the scope of this world and what's been done and come to be during her time away. Her two selves seem to have potentially different perspectives about it all. Are they two people? Or two different views within the same person whose viewpoint is being shaped by what she is exposed to? What is Amara's true purpose? Revenge against God? Reshaping the Universe under her own terms, her own ideas or visions?
Crowley: That's God for you... I'm guessing you'd have done things differently.
Young Amara: I sure will. I've had a lot of time to think it through.
Crowley is trying to control it. Focusing her so-called education in directions he believes will serve his own interests.
Crowley: Amara seems to be growing in leaps and bounds. Not just in maturity, but in strength and confidence, too. I don't want her to get out of hand before I'm sure of her loyalty.
Amara, though, has a knowing sense for bullcrap, and an unwillingness to fully trust another entity of power. She is using him just as much as he hopes to use her. Right now he is a convenient food source, and seems sympathetic to her situation. But she already sees the emptiness behind his posturing and conniving.
Crowley: That's what I get for trying to be the good guy.
Sam: Wait a second, so you're the good guy?
Crowley: Do you have any idea what I've been at this past year? The changes I've made to Hell.
Sam: Am I supposed to be impressed by that?
Crowley: Yes! I thought if I did better, I might actually feel something again. That it might matter. (10.22)
Crowley's not trying to be anything but himself at present time, which is nothing more than an empty shell housing some twisted up evil smoke... er, soul. His true self is manifested with every action he takes, the choices he makes.
Crowley: You and I together? Well, we can shape things to our own world view. A place where, like the dinosaur, virtue is extinct, where the very air that we breathe is pure evil. Would you like that?
Young Amara: Would you? You'd really be happy if everyone... was evil?
He chose the darkness over the twinkle of a uncorrupted soul for himself, and he continues to revel in it. His only real problem with his life has been boredom.
Amara: I don't think you're seeing the big picture.
Amara: Good, evil, Heaven, Hell, people. It all seems so unimportant.
She decries the importance of labels. Limitations. Locations. Morality. Species. As accurately described by Death, she is truly amoral. Such concepts don't hold value to her. She offers an interesting observation based on her perspective:
Amara: Every time I take in a soul, I feel how much emptiness there is.
Crowley: Yes.
Amara: God made a world where people have to suffer, and then die.
Crowley: Unfortunately.
Amara: But frankly, why would they want to live in such a world?
She herself is more than simple evil. Sure, she consumes souls of all kinds. I wonder if her impression about the emptiness within them comes from all the demon souls she has consumed -- souls already twisted from light into darkness before she ever got her hands on them.
Amara too doesn't fully see the bigger picture. Caught up in her anger at God and his management style, being fed murmurs of agreement from Crowley, she has not -- so far -- been given a balancing or contrasting viewpoint. The persons of power overlooking the little guys and gals.
Power of the people. It might seem insignificant and empty, there for diversion only... but that's only one viewpoint. I rather look forward to Amara having a philosophical conversation with Dean, because he has always been an unwavering advocate for the human point of view. Standing as one of those little guys who actually tries to do something with his life to make it better for others. The guy who, from the beginning, has believed that even if his life is screwed up, he can maybe keep another family's from being so torn apart by evil.
Demon: Someone's gotta do something.
Angel: Someone?
Demon: Yeah. If management won't, it's up to the little guy.
Angel: Yeah, I hear ya.
Demon: Power to the people, my friend.
Why would anyone want to live in this imperfect world or universe? Heaven and Hell's entities, humans... we all have an ingrained instinct for survival. We want to live. We have things in our lives worth living for and holding onto, be it humans, demons, angels, or other kinds of monsters.
Sam and Dean don't have a perfect relationship, there are flaws and mistakes made between the two.
Dean: Sam knows my point. Keyword -- secrets.
Case in point. That being said, their family is something they value enough to fight for, to let themselves make compromises for, to take blows for if necessary. No apologies or explanations needed. Quite the opposite of empty.
Based on Amara's assertion of how she would do things quite differently than God, and how unimportant and empty those lives seem to her, Sam, Dean and Castiel might not be as alone as they initially appear in this fight to protect the world from the Darkness once word finishes getting around to all parties. Survival makes for strange alliances, not just drinking partners, and the Winchesters are quite familiar in dealing with all types of people (using that word loosely) if it means saving what means most to them.
The bigger picture. Rowena today, possibly Metatron down the road... saving your family, saving people... As long as both parties have something to lose or gain, it's too soon to write off any possibilities.
The Darkness is growing quickly, though, and her true self is still shrouded with plenty of mystery. Is her identity to be revealed through her words? Her choices? Or her unceasing appetite for more?