Powa = Teh Ebil
This is sort of a work in progress born on Twitter and developed in an LJ comment to Becky.
I've been thinking of supernatural powers on Supernatural. I can't think of any powerful being in the SPNverse who is good. By "Good" I mean "an ally of mankind."
(Spoiler Warning! for Buffy the Vampire Slayer and Supernatural)
Up until the s6 finale I would have made an exception for Cass, but I can't even do that anymore.
Look at the people and creatures with power. ALL demons, without exception, are evil. For awhile I think they genuinely were going to do the Good Demon thing with Ruby, but that was dumped. Aside from Cass, ALL angels are bad too. Well, the ones we see do anything, that is. I can't really make judgments on Rachel other than she was unpleasant. Joshua seemed OK, but he was only in one scene. But as for the angels we know? All of them are at some point an enemy to humans. Even Gabriel and Balthazar did crappy things to humans and only became "good" (as I define it above) at the last minute. Before...dying. Strangely, Balthazar and Gabriel die after betraying an overly-powerful individual. They can't even use their power to help man out by fighting their greater enemy without dying in the process. And then there is Anna. Anna was "good" when she rejected her angelic power. Once she embraced it, she turned bad. True, she was tortured into it by heaven, but that goes along with the message I'm getting from the show: No matter how good you are in your heart, if you get power you WILL turn bad, natural or not.
This in contrast with Buffy. I'm on season 5 in my re-watch when Dracula points out that her powers come from darkness and are not too far removed from where vampires get their powers. This could be compared with Sam's practically innate powers (powers obtained through demon blood as an infant). Buffy even drinks Dracula's blood before she is finally strong enough to break his thrall, which is sort of like Sam drinking demon blood in order to have stronger powers (yes, Ruby claims he didn't need to drink demon blood, but that is beside the point). But she masters this power, even though it came from darkness and even though it got stronger from drinking blood. She takes hold of it and uses it for good.
SPN doesn't allow this to happen. Sam can't use his dark powers for good. The show doesn't let him. His demon blood powers must be rejected and never used, let alone used in concert with ingestion of more enemy blood. Anna becomes just another murdering angel. Ruby was evil all along. Castiel is able to carry out his plan to use the souls in Purgatory in order to win the war, but instead of mastering this unnatural power it overtakes him and transforms him into an egotistical Luciferian douche (based on those last two minutes). Even God has abandoned the universe to a gaggle of creeps who don't respect his creation, let alone love it like he told them to. That doesn't make him an enemy of man, but it doesn't make him a very good friend either (random Castiel resurrections and beam-ups onto planes notwithstanding).
It's been eloquently suggested that the real evil on the show is unnatural power, such as the power that comes through demon blood or opening Purgatory, but I don't think The Powers That Be involved in shaping Supernatural draw much of a line between Naturally and Unnaturally obtained power on the show. I say this because I can't think of any powerful character (whether naturally powerful or not) who isn't an enemy of mankind. Aside from some basic spell-work (location spells, that kind of thing) and Castiel up until now, if a character has power they are enemies to man. They don't use their power for good unless it's right before the show kills them off.
I'm writing this from memory, so it is possible I am forgetting important characters or moments. But overall it seems pretty clear to me that SPN is about embracing humanity and rejecting unnatural power. I don't think this is a bad thing, just an interesting one, especially when contrasted with Buffy the Vampire Slayer, which has mention of killing unnatural forces in the title but actually features characters using evil unnatural powers for good, something Supernatural backed away from.
I've been thinking of supernatural powers on Supernatural. I can't think of any powerful being in the SPNverse who is good. By "Good" I mean "an ally of mankind."
(Spoiler Warning! for Buffy the Vampire Slayer and Supernatural)
Up until the s6 finale I would have made an exception for Cass, but I can't even do that anymore.
Look at the people and creatures with power. ALL demons, without exception, are evil. For awhile I think they genuinely were going to do the Good Demon thing with Ruby, but that was dumped. Aside from Cass, ALL angels are bad too. Well, the ones we see do anything, that is. I can't really make judgments on Rachel other than she was unpleasant. Joshua seemed OK, but he was only in one scene. But as for the angels we know? All of them are at some point an enemy to humans. Even Gabriel and Balthazar did crappy things to humans and only became "good" (as I define it above) at the last minute. Before...dying. Strangely, Balthazar and Gabriel die after betraying an overly-powerful individual. They can't even use their power to help man out by fighting their greater enemy without dying in the process. And then there is Anna. Anna was "good" when she rejected her angelic power. Once she embraced it, she turned bad. True, she was tortured into it by heaven, but that goes along with the message I'm getting from the show: No matter how good you are in your heart, if you get power you WILL turn bad, natural or not.
This in contrast with Buffy. I'm on season 5 in my re-watch when Dracula points out that her powers come from darkness and are not too far removed from where vampires get their powers. This could be compared with Sam's practically innate powers (powers obtained through demon blood as an infant). Buffy even drinks Dracula's blood before she is finally strong enough to break his thrall, which is sort of like Sam drinking demon blood in order to have stronger powers (yes, Ruby claims he didn't need to drink demon blood, but that is beside the point). But she masters this power, even though it came from darkness and even though it got stronger from drinking blood. She takes hold of it and uses it for good.
SPN doesn't allow this to happen. Sam can't use his dark powers for good. The show doesn't let him. His demon blood powers must be rejected and never used, let alone used in concert with ingestion of more enemy blood. Anna becomes just another murdering angel. Ruby was evil all along. Castiel is able to carry out his plan to use the souls in Purgatory in order to win the war, but instead of mastering this unnatural power it overtakes him and transforms him into an egotistical Luciferian douche (based on those last two minutes). Even God has abandoned the universe to a gaggle of creeps who don't respect his creation, let alone love it like he told them to. That doesn't make him an enemy of man, but it doesn't make him a very good friend either (random Castiel resurrections and beam-ups onto planes notwithstanding).
It's been eloquently suggested that the real evil on the show is unnatural power, such as the power that comes through demon blood or opening Purgatory, but I don't think The Powers That Be involved in shaping Supernatural draw much of a line between Naturally and Unnaturally obtained power on the show. I say this because I can't think of any powerful character (whether naturally powerful or not) who isn't an enemy of mankind. Aside from some basic spell-work (location spells, that kind of thing) and Castiel up until now, if a character has power they are enemies to man. They don't use their power for good unless it's right before the show kills them off.
I'm writing this from memory, so it is possible I am forgetting important characters or moments. But overall it seems pretty clear to me that SPN is about embracing humanity and rejecting unnatural power. I don't think this is a bad thing, just an interesting one, especially when contrasted with Buffy the Vampire Slayer, which has mention of killing unnatural forces in the title but actually features characters using evil unnatural powers for good, something Supernatural backed away from.