The Supernatural Color Wheel: "Oranges and lemons," say the bells of St. Clement's
"You owe me five farthings", say the bells of St. Martin's
"When will you pay me?" say the bells of Old Bailey
"When I grow rich", say the bells of Shoreditch
"When will that be?" say the bells of Stepney
"I do not know", says the great bell of Bow
Here comes a candle to light you to bed
And here comes a chopper to chop off your head!
Chip chop chip chop - The last man's dead.
Okay, so, have you ever stumbled on something in the dark? The electricity goes out and you're searching for the candles, and your hands light on something big. You can feel the edges and outlines and the texture under your hands, so you've got a pretty good idea what the thing is, but what you don't know is just where it begins and ends and how it fits in with the rest of what's going on. That's kinda how I feel now.
I have this idea, this hypothesis, but I'm not so sure if I've got the right word explaining the underlying concept. I'm not sure it precisely explains what this thing is and how it relates to the rest of what's going on around it. So, what I'm going to do is throw it out there, process by which I arrived by my ideas and all, and see what you guys think.
~*~
The Key
Remember this anvil? It fell from the sky and bonked me on the head. (There's a certain irony in associating anvils and balloons, but, well, there it is.)
Ben's birthday party, TKAA
Well, okay, see? Here's the thing, it was immediately followed by this:
Ben's birthday party, TKAA
And I completely missed it the first time around, but then… I saw this:
Bedtime Stories
Huh.
See it? Hmmm…. Lemme show you a similar scene and maybe it'll be clearer.
Here's another hospital with which we are very familiar. Pay attention to the general colors and the signage.
In My Time of Dying
Okay, now look again:
Bedtime Stories
A lot more bright and colorful, isn't it? Now look at the colors more closely, foreground and background. Do you see how what Sam is wearing perfectly echoes the orange and green of the sign behind them and what Dean is wearing and the exit sign by his head perfectly echo the red and blue of the sign?
Sooooooo not by chance, surely.
Yeah, orange. Dang. A new color. *Charges up the iPod battery, fires up the Nordictrak, and takes notes during workouts*
Examples of Orange in Season 3
Okay, so, yeah, I went back over season 3 (yeah, it was a tough job, but, hey, no sacrifice too large) and here's a sampling of the orange I found.
Magnificent Seven
Dean in the house touched by Sloth
Ruby follows Sam
The Kids Are Alright
Dean begs for a bendy weekend
Sam discovers Mary's losses
Sam poses as an insurance investigator
Bad Day at Black Rock
Sam and Dean win big at Biggerson's
Bobby works on the Colt
Sin City
Thai silk from Canal Street
Ritchie's got nuttin'
Something wrong with my brother?
Sam threatens Ruby
Bedtime Stories
Sam and Dean meet Callie
Sam and Dean farewell
Hansel meets his end
In the Gingerbread House
*blink* Ooooooookkkaaaaaaaaaaaaaaay. Confused and overwhelmed? Me, too. Cuz that's a good amount of orange, worn by and placed around a fairly disparate number and type of people and situations. Boy.
I suppose it could be something about Sam's..well, no, because Bobby's wearing it, too. And what in the heck is it doing in Mag Seven? Hmm… I suppose the underlying commonality could be something about.. well, no, cuz….. Yeah. I got nothin'.
Guess that means more research, eh?
*skims through pics from earlier seasons*
Examples of Orange and Associations in Earlier Seasons
Huh. Well looky there.
Fr.s Sam and Dean talk to Max, Nightmare: note yellow, white, and orange flowers
Any other flowers in Nightmare? Huh. Yep.
Spooky looking Max, Nightmare: note yellow and white flowers
Yellow=psychic associated with white=purity when Sam attempts to talk Max out of using his psychic powers to harm others.
Let's see, any more flower combos in Season 3 that might bring things together?
Wow. Yeah, there are.
Ruby tempts Sam, TKAA: note yellow and orange flowers
Sam and Dean's farewell, Bedtime Stories: note yellow and orange flowers
So. White/purity and yellow/psychic and orange/??? are associated together, huh?
*squints back up at screencaps of yellow and orange arranged in order of episode*
Is it just me, or … is there more orange in the later episodes of Season 3 and not so much yellow as before? And, too, what was yellow is showing up later as a darker shade, turning orange.
Yellow bedspread from TKAA
Yellow bedspread from Sin City
Yellow bedspread from Bedtime Stories
Sam and Ruby's confrontation, TKAA
Sam and Ruby's confrontation, Sin City
So, maybe white, yellow and orange are along a continuum? Yellow is transforming itself into orange? On it's way to turning red? (danger! danger!)
Hmmm. Perhaps it is, but the evidence so far is still pretty circumstantial. Need something more to convince myself this isn't just a coincidental house of cards I'm constructing here regarding thematic associations between white, yellow and orange. *reshuffles deck of screencaps*
Orange and Evolution of Other Color Associations
Hmm. Funny how orange just *poof* pretty much disappeared in Red Sky at Morning. We get white/purity back again, this time associated with green.
Sam and Dean pack, Red Sky at Morning: note green and white walls, yellow candles
I've said before that I think that Green represents "choice," the exercise of free will. When I was preparing that meta, a pattern seemed to emerge in terms of what colors were associated with Green. Maybe that's a key to understanding the role of Orange.
So, here we go: Green and colors associated with it.
Dean and Sam in Faith: note white and green hotel
Green/choice associated with white/purity
Sam makes life and death choices about Dean.
Sin City
Green/choice associated with white/purity, green/choice associated with white/purity and/or yellow/psychic nature
I find the boar's head reflected onto the yellow and red art glass particularly interesting. What a complex shot! It's got to be intentional. If so, what was the point? I think it centers on choice.
The main theme of Sin City is about free-will and the path people choose when under the duress of temptation. Sam is given means and motive to "act against his gentle nature" by Ruby and perpetuates "collateral damage" despite his distaste for it. Trotter is tempted into exploiting vices by Demon!Casey. Sam, like Trotter, exercised free will under demonic influence/temptation and acted in ways were inconsistent with their previous character. Orange shows up in the episode only after Sam's exercised that free will.
Bedtime Stories
Green/choice associated with yellow/psychic nature and Orange.
As with Sin City, a major theme was free will versus the lack of free will and the choices made. The Wolf, Grandmother, and Stepmother were "puppets" playing out Callie's will. Their lack of free will only serves to highlight Sam's full possession of it. As in Sin City, when Sam makes the choice to use the Colt, it's associated with wearing Orange.
Red Sky at Morning
Green/choice associated with White/purity again. Only smatterings of Yellow and no noticeable Orange. Sam "just lately I feel like I can't save anyone."
Nothing Rhymes with Orange
Okay, so then white, yellow and orange seem to be on some kind of continuum. As the story unfolds, green (choice) is associated White (purity), then also associated with yellow (psychic nature), and then additionally associated with orange (which=???).
See the pattern that's building here? Orange is nothing good, it's placed in opposition to White/purity along a continuum of White, Yellow and Orange, and associated with Green/choice. It's the outcome of a choice between purity and the psychic nature that was associated with the YED's sacramental blood.
*ponders* *ponders some more* So, by this point, I have some ideas, but I'm still not sure of it's precise limits.
Okay. When abstracting information from anecdotal incidents and attempting to build a general construct from their commonalities, it's helpful to examine not just positive incidents but to also contrast them with negative incidents. Basically: how is Orange Incident #1 like Orange Incident #2 and also different from Not-Orange Incident.
So, here we go: How are Bobby, Ritchie, Max, and Sam of Sin City and Bedtime Stories alike, but then different from Sam of Red Sky at Morning, Nightmare, and AHBL-1? (See pics below.)
Bobby working on the colt, Bad Day at Black Rock
Something wrong with Sammy? Sin City
Ritchie's got nuttin', Sin City
"Forgeh dabou 'dit." Sin City
Fr.s Sam and Dean talk to Max, Nightmare:
Sam after using the Colt on Demon!Casey, Sin City
Sam and the Crossroad's Demon, Bedtime Stories
VERSUS
Red Sky at Morning, note green/white plaid
Red Sky at Morning, note green/white stripe
Sam and Dean confront Max, Nightmare, note brown and white striped shirt
Sam at Cold Oak, AHBL-1, note green and white striped shirt
In Orange
In white/green/brown combinations
Bobby
In cap: working on the Colt
In orange shirt: after having given Sam the Colt which he prepared with Ruby's help
n/a
Ritchie
A character that functions as a mirror in which to examine Dean's morality. In contrast to Dean, Ritchie pretty much gives into demonic temptation like all the other citizens of Sin City. Unlike Dean, he puts the desires of the flesh ahead of the job and this clouds his judgment.
n/a
Max
A character that functions as a mirror in which to examine Sam. Both have psychic abilities. Max has been "pushed" into using them to kill others. Sam attempts to "save" him, convince him to stop harming others.
n/a
Sam
That orange and blue/green plaid shirt first shows up after he shoots Demon!Casey with the Colt. Orange plaid shows up before/while he shoots Crossroad's Demon with the Colt. Even though both were not immediately threatening Dean's life, he kills them and the innocents who they possess. This Sam seems to believe in expediency.
Sam doesn't shoot anybody. In fact, he's all about saving those people who, by their actions, really don't "deserve" it. Max, who killed his father and uncle and is threatening his stepmother. He gives mercy to Jake even though Jake had threatened him. He extends mercy to Bela, though she's demonstrated her untrustworthiness. None of these have earned mercy, but that's not the point. This Sam believes in redemption and the basic worth of human life beyond his capacity to judge.
It seems, then, that commonality between Orange Bobby, Ritchie, Max and Sam that is different from a Sam dressed in white-based colors is the types of choices made.
The best I can come up with is that Orange is associated with making choices that place you on a slippery slope toward putting your soul at risk.
What I'm not sure about is: Is the appropriate word "temptation"? Is it about giving in to temptation? Is it demonic influence, then? Or just temptation that's not necessarily demonic in nature and is about giving into our own flaws or vices? So is it about giving in to Wrath? Pride? Lust? Is Orange all about that slippery sloperly slide regardless of whether its influenced by external, demonic forces or prompted by our own internal weaknesses? Is it about sliding into Red/danger… putting a soul at risk because of the choices made? All of the above? A and B but not C?
Ideas? Thoughts? Product testimonials?
~*~
Credit goes to Marishna of Summerskins and Oxeniesis of Oxeniesis Art for the screencaps. We are but satellites revolving about you, reflecting back the glory that is your light. :D
"When will you pay me?" say the bells of Old Bailey
"When I grow rich", say the bells of Shoreditch
"When will that be?" say the bells of Stepney
"I do not know", says the great bell of Bow
Here comes a candle to light you to bed
And here comes a chopper to chop off your head!
Chip chop chip chop - The last man's dead.
Okay, so, have you ever stumbled on something in the dark? The electricity goes out and you're searching for the candles, and your hands light on something big. You can feel the edges and outlines and the texture under your hands, so you've got a pretty good idea what the thing is, but what you don't know is just where it begins and ends and how it fits in with the rest of what's going on. That's kinda how I feel now.
I have this idea, this hypothesis, but I'm not so sure if I've got the right word explaining the underlying concept. I'm not sure it precisely explains what this thing is and how it relates to the rest of what's going on around it. So, what I'm going to do is throw it out there, process by which I arrived by my ideas and all, and see what you guys think.
~*~
The Key
Remember this anvil? It fell from the sky and bonked me on the head. (There's a certain irony in associating anvils and balloons, but, well, there it is.)
Ben's birthday party, TKAA
Well, okay, see? Here's the thing, it was immediately followed by this:
Ben's birthday party, TKAA
And I completely missed it the first time around, but then… I saw this:
Bedtime Stories
Huh.
See it? Hmmm…. Lemme show you a similar scene and maybe it'll be clearer.
Here's another hospital with which we are very familiar. Pay attention to the general colors and the signage.
In My Time of Dying
Okay, now look again:
Bedtime Stories
A lot more bright and colorful, isn't it? Now look at the colors more closely, foreground and background. Do you see how what Sam is wearing perfectly echoes the orange and green of the sign behind them and what Dean is wearing and the exit sign by his head perfectly echo the red and blue of the sign?
Sooooooo not by chance, surely.
Yeah, orange. Dang. A new color. *Charges up the iPod battery, fires up the Nordictrak, and takes notes during workouts*
Examples of Orange in Season 3
Okay, so, yeah, I went back over season 3 (yeah, it was a tough job, but, hey, no sacrifice too large) and here's a sampling of the orange I found.
Magnificent Seven
Dean in the house touched by Sloth
Ruby follows Sam
The Kids Are Alright
Dean begs for a bendy weekend
Sam discovers Mary's losses
Sam poses as an insurance investigator
Bad Day at Black Rock
Sam and Dean win big at Biggerson's
Bobby works on the Colt
Sin City
Thai silk from Canal Street
Ritchie's got nuttin'
Something wrong with my brother?
Sam threatens Ruby
Bedtime Stories
Sam and Dean meet Callie
Sam and Dean farewell
Hansel meets his end
In the Gingerbread House
*blink* Ooooooookkkaaaaaaaaaaaaaaay. Confused and overwhelmed? Me, too. Cuz that's a good amount of orange, worn by and placed around a fairly disparate number and type of people and situations. Boy.
I suppose it could be something about Sam's..well, no, because Bobby's wearing it, too. And what in the heck is it doing in Mag Seven? Hmm… I suppose the underlying commonality could be something about.. well, no, cuz….. Yeah. I got nothin'.
Guess that means more research, eh?
*skims through pics from earlier seasons*
Examples of Orange and Associations in Earlier Seasons
Huh. Well looky there.
Fr.s Sam and Dean talk to Max, Nightmare: note yellow, white, and orange flowers
Any other flowers in Nightmare? Huh. Yep.
Spooky looking Max, Nightmare: note yellow and white flowers
Yellow=psychic associated with white=purity when Sam attempts to talk Max out of using his psychic powers to harm others.
Let's see, any more flower combos in Season 3 that might bring things together?
Wow. Yeah, there are.
Ruby tempts Sam, TKAA: note yellow and orange flowers
Sam and Dean's farewell, Bedtime Stories: note yellow and orange flowers
So. White/purity and yellow/psychic and orange/??? are associated together, huh?
*squints back up at screencaps of yellow and orange arranged in order of episode*
Is it just me, or … is there more orange in the later episodes of Season 3 and not so much yellow as before? And, too, what was yellow is showing up later as a darker shade, turning orange.
Yellow bedspread from TKAA
Yellow bedspread from Sin City
Yellow bedspread from Bedtime Stories
Sam and Ruby's confrontation, TKAA
Sam and Ruby's confrontation, Sin City
So, maybe white, yellow and orange are along a continuum? Yellow is transforming itself into orange? On it's way to turning red? (danger! danger!)
Hmmm. Perhaps it is, but the evidence so far is still pretty circumstantial. Need something more to convince myself this isn't just a coincidental house of cards I'm constructing here regarding thematic associations between white, yellow and orange. *reshuffles deck of screencaps*
Orange and Evolution of Other Color Associations
Hmm. Funny how orange just *poof* pretty much disappeared in Red Sky at Morning. We get white/purity back again, this time associated with green.
Sam and Dean pack, Red Sky at Morning: note green and white walls, yellow candles
I've said before that I think that Green represents "choice," the exercise of free will. When I was preparing that meta, a pattern seemed to emerge in terms of what colors were associated with Green. Maybe that's a key to understanding the role of Orange.
So, here we go: Green and colors associated with it.
Dean and Sam in Faith: note white and green hotel
Green/choice associated with white/purity
Sam makes life and death choices about Dean.
Sin City
Green/choice associated with white/purity, green/choice associated with white/purity and/or yellow/psychic nature
I find the boar's head reflected onto the yellow and red art glass particularly interesting. What a complex shot! It's got to be intentional. If so, what was the point? I think it centers on choice.
The main theme of Sin City is about free-will and the path people choose when under the duress of temptation. Sam is given means and motive to "act against his gentle nature" by Ruby and perpetuates "collateral damage" despite his distaste for it. Trotter is tempted into exploiting vices by Demon!Casey. Sam, like Trotter, exercised free will under demonic influence/temptation and acted in ways were inconsistent with their previous character. Orange shows up in the episode only after Sam's exercised that free will.
Bedtime Stories
Green/choice associated with yellow/psychic nature and Orange.
As with Sin City, a major theme was free will versus the lack of free will and the choices made. The Wolf, Grandmother, and Stepmother were "puppets" playing out Callie's will. Their lack of free will only serves to highlight Sam's full possession of it. As in Sin City, when Sam makes the choice to use the Colt, it's associated with wearing Orange.
Red Sky at Morning
Green/choice associated with White/purity again. Only smatterings of Yellow and no noticeable Orange. Sam "just lately I feel like I can't save anyone."
Nothing Rhymes with Orange
Okay, so then white, yellow and orange seem to be on some kind of continuum. As the story unfolds, green (choice) is associated White (purity), then also associated with yellow (psychic nature), and then additionally associated with orange (which=???).
See the pattern that's building here? Orange is nothing good, it's placed in opposition to White/purity along a continuum of White, Yellow and Orange, and associated with Green/choice. It's the outcome of a choice between purity and the psychic nature that was associated with the YED's sacramental blood.
*ponders* *ponders some more* So, by this point, I have some ideas, but I'm still not sure of it's precise limits.
Okay. When abstracting information from anecdotal incidents and attempting to build a general construct from their commonalities, it's helpful to examine not just positive incidents but to also contrast them with negative incidents. Basically: how is Orange Incident #1 like Orange Incident #2 and also different from Not-Orange Incident.
So, here we go: How are Bobby, Ritchie, Max, and Sam of Sin City and Bedtime Stories alike, but then different from Sam of Red Sky at Morning, Nightmare, and AHBL-1? (See pics below.)
Bobby working on the colt, Bad Day at Black Rock
Something wrong with Sammy? Sin City
Ritchie's got nuttin', Sin City
"Forgeh dabou 'dit." Sin City
Fr.s Sam and Dean talk to Max, Nightmare:
Sam after using the Colt on Demon!Casey, Sin City
Sam and the Crossroad's Demon, Bedtime Stories
VERSUS
Red Sky at Morning, note green/white plaid
Red Sky at Morning, note green/white stripe
Sam and Dean confront Max, Nightmare, note brown and white striped shirt
Sam at Cold Oak, AHBL-1, note green and white striped shirt
In Orange
In white/green/brown combinations
Bobby
In cap: working on the Colt
In orange shirt: after having given Sam the Colt which he prepared with Ruby's help
n/a
Ritchie
A character that functions as a mirror in which to examine Dean's morality. In contrast to Dean, Ritchie pretty much gives into demonic temptation like all the other citizens of Sin City. Unlike Dean, he puts the desires of the flesh ahead of the job and this clouds his judgment.
n/a
Max
A character that functions as a mirror in which to examine Sam. Both have psychic abilities. Max has been "pushed" into using them to kill others. Sam attempts to "save" him, convince him to stop harming others.
n/a
Sam
That orange and blue/green plaid shirt first shows up after he shoots Demon!Casey with the Colt. Orange plaid shows up before/while he shoots Crossroad's Demon with the Colt. Even though both were not immediately threatening Dean's life, he kills them and the innocents who they possess. This Sam seems to believe in expediency.
Sam doesn't shoot anybody. In fact, he's all about saving those people who, by their actions, really don't "deserve" it. Max, who killed his father and uncle and is threatening his stepmother. He gives mercy to Jake even though Jake had threatened him. He extends mercy to Bela, though she's demonstrated her untrustworthiness. None of these have earned mercy, but that's not the point. This Sam believes in redemption and the basic worth of human life beyond his capacity to judge.
It seems, then, that commonality between Orange Bobby, Ritchie, Max and Sam that is different from a Sam dressed in white-based colors is the types of choices made.
The best I can come up with is that Orange is associated with making choices that place you on a slippery slope toward putting your soul at risk.
What I'm not sure about is: Is the appropriate word "temptation"? Is it about giving in to temptation? Is it demonic influence, then? Or just temptation that's not necessarily demonic in nature and is about giving into our own flaws or vices? So is it about giving in to Wrath? Pride? Lust? Is Orange all about that slippery sloperly slide regardless of whether its influenced by external, demonic forces or prompted by our own internal weaknesses? Is it about sliding into Red/danger… putting a soul at risk because of the choices made? All of the above? A and B but not C?
Ideas? Thoughts? Product testimonials?
~*~
Credit goes to Marishna of Summerskins and Oxeniesis of Oxeniesis Art for the screencaps. We are but satellites revolving about you, reflecting back the glory that is your light. :D