(no subject)
In the Season 5 Finale of Supernatural one thing happened that made me really upset with Eric Kripke; Chuck "Vanished" at the end.
The reason I was so upset with this was because I knew what would happen and of course, nearly immediately it did happen. Without any solid word from anyone on the series, fandom immediately adopted the theory that Chuck is God. The Supernatural Wiki was edited that very night, both for Chuck and for God. Articles across the internet were thrown up discussing all of the awesome of how Chuck was God. There were a few people that disagreed, but the majority was expressing their love with their OMC! and cries of, "Team God".
I didn't want to even consider how this was going to impact my portrayal of Chuck until I had actual confirmation of some sort. I kept on it, too. I follow Rob Benedict on his Twitter and he @replied to someone's OMC update with something to the light of "Hey I like that." Which wasn't confirmation of anything.
I have always gone by what canon stated. Chuck is a Prophet of the Lord. There were countless things in canon to support me.
1) Castiel has all the names of the Prophet's burned into his memory.
2) They SAID he is a Prophet of the Lord.
3) We have seen his visions or, at least, from the perspective of his "vivid dreams".
4) He was ordering a harem of hookers at the end of the S4 because he knew the world was going to end and he wouldn't have to pay.
5) In the future where Sam said yes to Lucifer, Chuck was just hanging out, warning people about saving toilet paper.
6) He had an archangel protecting him.
7) He was afraid of Zachariah.
8) He drank a lot. To the point of pass-out drunk.
There are a lot of other things, but most importantly - they said he was a Prophet. Because of that statement, I have done a bit of research into Prophets. I figured even though Supernatural has stated it doesn't follow any one religion as far as it's own "lore" that at least I'd have a better idea.
One thing that I came across when reading about the Prophet Muhammad was that he had Ascended. The same was true for Elijah, Enoch and a few others. Ascension means you are granted access to Heaven without death. If they did their job, spread the word, lived their life right - they were given that gift from God.
When Chuck vanished at the end of the finale, I took all that I knew about his character, the circumstances around him vanishing, and went with my theory that he had ascended. He broke up with Becky, got cleaned up, finished his last drink, finished those last pages and then was done with that world. It made a lot more sense to me than stating that suddenly he was God.
Earlier this month I went to the Salute to Supernatural convention in New Jersey. Rob Benedict was a guest there and it was his first convention appearance since the finale. As soon as he sat down at our table for the Breakfast I asked him, "Team God or Team Ascension?".
My friend piped up with "Or are you Jesus?" and that derailed the conversation completely. He was very interested in how she came to the thought that he was Jesus. When she mentioned the toss-in clue about Mistress Magda being a reference to Mary Magdalene, Rob said that he'd never even made that connection. He said her name at least a dozen times, but hadn't connected it. At our table he said that, from what he was told it was this (loosely from memory):
Chuck is the voice of Eric Kripke. Eric Kripke is the creator of that Supernatural world, so in that sense he's God. Eric was leaving after Season Five, and since I'm the character that embodies Eric in the series, I left. So God, being Eric, left and so in that sense I'm God.
However, during the Q&A which was more open than the breakfast, he was asked the same thing and he said that when he got the script and read it, he didn't get it. Chuck vanishes and he wasn't sure what happened. He said, when he got picked up at the airport, the driver said to him, "So, you're God." and from there all on the set, people were making mention of him being God. Rob called up Eric to ask him what was up with the vanishing of Chuck. Eric said it was his perception that Chuck was God, but that he also wanted it to be open for Fan interpretation. Rob was unsure that people would make the connection, but that after the show aired, it was all over the place.
Rob also said that there were additional scenes that made it more clear, but they were cut because Eric didn't want fans to be pinned into thinking one thing or another. So he wanted to leave it up to the fans to decide if Chuck was God or not.
Sera Gamble in several interviews has stated how she loves the discussion and that she won't be answering that "Is Chuck God?" question, because she doesn't want to kill that debate. She said something about, "How many shows out there can state that they've started a discussion about God?"
Rob himself stated that it's doubtful that Chuck will return in the next season, because if he is God it's difficult to work out how he'd just drop by to check on the guys. Even if he's not God, it's still hard to work around him leaving Heaven - or wherever he is.
My personal choice is that Chuck Ascended into Heaven as a Prophet of the Lord that had completed his duty. Even Rob himself, was considering the Jesus idea during the Q&A stating that it made sense.
I'm going to the Chicago convention as well, and I'll corner him if I have to in order to properly get his feelings on Chuck Ascending as a Prophet. Hell, I'll document all of my proof that he's not God if I have to. I'm that dedicated to my belief that Chuck being God is the most conceited and ridiculous thing to ever get tossed into a character arc. It makes more sense to me, is less offensive, and fits with what we were presented earlier in his character arc to keep him as a Prophet and allow him into Heaven as his reward. For a guy that had zero-life and not a lot of successes in any department, this is a great thing for him.
Because my own portrayal of Chuck has been what I perceived to be canon up until the finale, I am staying with that portrayal that Chuck is a Prophet. In the past I have not made a public post about what I did with a character when their canon pulled a 360 on me, so I wanted to make sure I remedied it this time.
For me (and my personal beliefs) it is more believable, less offensive, and fits better into what I have been shown in canon (even including his vanishing at the end) that Chuck is a Prophet of the Lord that Ascended and was granted access to Heaven without the price of death.
In order to keep with this, even though canon will probably never flat out state that Chuck is God, I am giving Chuck a second & retroactive permanent Loss.
Chuck's New Permanent Loss:
His ability to Prophesize events, along with any and all knowledge/belief that he is God.
Should I canon update him to post finale in the future, he will return to Para believing that he was going to Ascend into Heaven, not that he was/is God and was just going back to Heaven.