An unconquerable soul
Thoughts on Castiel, freedom and order, balance, the bigger picture, Cas, chaos, things taken to extremes, and why Castiel in season 6 is just being Castiel. And did I mention Cas?
Spoilers for the 6x20 preview clip and minor reference to the 6x22 pics.
"Is freedom preferable to the old scheme, one that was tyrannic but orderly and safe?"
Keep this question in mind. If this ramble has any uniting thread (which is highly arguable XD), this is it.
The discussion about Castiel's ‘dying over and over again until the end of time’ line and the idea that Cas isn’t in full control here made me think back to what he said about fighting for freedom in MHWGO. Maybe he wasn’t only referring to humanity’s free will there, but freedom from whatever larger restraints seem to have gotten him and Crowley into a tizzy. While it seems they have torn up the script, it sounds like remnants still linger.
Perhaps the universe is supposed to react in the manner of stretched rubber snapping back into place, symptoms of which include the pressure from Raphael and, if Crowley was being sincere, the reticence of demons to be anything but, well, demonic.
Additionally, in the preview, Crowley does refer to the big bads of yore not as players, but as gamepieces. It could just be a throwaway phrase but it takes on significance if this all goes back to the the beginning of time, something the writers have decided is important for us to know, and Castiel (and Crowley) perhaps deciding that after a lifetime of order and roles, they are going to kick it up to Chaos level and start it all over - not in the apocalyptic sense, but in the sense of destroying all fatalistic regimes.
Recall that the previous title proposed for 6x21/6x22 was “Haunter of the Dark”, which is a tale from the Cthulhu mythos. It's about Nyarlathotep, and while I haven’t read much of the mythos, the simplest impression is that he’s a manifestation of chaos.
Thinking about chaos also calls to mind Balthazar's line in The Third Man: "just complete and utter...freedom". That seemed 'off' to me, in the way that you hear a line of a song and expect it to finish with a certain word, but it uses a different one. Watching it for the first time, I completely expected him to say 'chaos' instead of freedom.
The idea of a former agent of order like Castiel advocating chaos is terrifying and awesome at once. But it wouldn't be surprising either as he already set it in motion when he rebelled in 4x22. I don't think it can be emphasised enough how big that choice was. It really wasn't a simple call to make, as much as it seems to be from a human-centric POV. Previously, there was order and balance. There was the impression that whatever either side was capable of, the balance would remain because beings were acting within their natures, in their roles, as set out in the beginning. Humans will always fight the greater forces: that's just how it's meant to be. Even supposed defiance against fate is par for the course. Ask all the stories.
An angel switching to the other side tipped that balance.
Something that's given me a bit of confusion here is the nature of the apocalypse. Sometimes it seems it was never supposed to happen, that the angels jumped the gun. In which case Castiel's actions would merely have restored the natural order. Castiel would have been the ultimate keeper of the Script, putting his foot down to say that it was premature. If we take the traditional view here, the Apocalypse is supposed to happen anyway, some day. Was what they avoided The Apocalypse or an apocalypse? At times in seasons 4 and 5 we're alternatively given the impression that the apocalypse began exactly as it was Supposed To. Azazel's play, Lilith's death: it wasn't just the angels pushing it into motion.
Season 6 appears to clearly take the view that Sam, Dean and Castiel's actions threw the world off kilter, that it wasn't fated or merely 'fixing' things. So I think this is what we're going with. In any case, it's been presented that the most important thing for Castiel was protecting people's rights to live their lives, such that he would want to prevent End of Days whether scripted or unscripted and wouldn't let it happen again.
But I'm meandering.
The point is, let's hold that Castiel threw a wrench into the works of something running smoothly, upsetting the balance by switching to a side he wasn't supposed to be on. I’ve seen people complaining about how Cas’ exes (erm sorry, Fate and Balthazar XD) appear to credit/blame him entirely with stopping the prize fight without mentioning Sam and Dean. But really, why would they? For one, they're talking to Cas, who clearly had at least a hand in it. From their point of view it also makes complete sense to believe Cas was the crucial driving force in messing things up. And when you look at what happened in seasons 4-5 and Castiel’s interventions, you have to credit that view.
You’ve gotta be careful about planting ideas and ways of thought into the heads of beings capable of so much (...Dean). Especially when said beings are irrationally taken with you, have been controlled their entire lives, and have buckets of creative and destructive power to spare.
Castiel is a creature who is capable of taking things very far. He takes ideas and wings off with them to the other side of the universe. We're hearing about his well-intentioned extremism a lot more now, naturally. But he’s always been an extremist. Who else goes confidently to certain death in order to buy their friends a little extra time to achieve something which has a snowflake's chance in hell of succeeding?
As a higher level of supernatural being, Cas might just be big enough to swing the complete destruction of The System. At the same time, he's small enough that he must struggle for it. And maybe this thing is like an Anti Apocalypse and also requires a partnership between the big guns of Heaven and Hell to work. Something so big that it requires the approval of both the upper and lower houses... This could explain the ritualistic feel of the 6x22 Raphael and Crowley pics too: if there is to be a double-cross or fake double-cross we may hear a case of “sorry, I found myself another angel”.
Victory for Castiel could never end satisfactorily with small heroics, could never end in the type of triumph involving declarations of "hooray, the immediate threat to my life and happiness is dead!" Castiel's actually in a position to change things, to attack the very institutions that have been revealed to him as rotten and oppressive, to prevent the possibility of them undoing his and the boys' work. "I rebelled for this!", his famous protestation, speaks of a personality that will not allow his efforts to go to waste.
And Castiel would undoubtedly feel an additional responsibility to follow through to the end and propose a new way of life, precisely BECAUSE he destroyed the old order. I get the impression that part of the knee-jerk reaction to this as being bad is exactly because it may not be futile. Because he isn't just fighting in a struggle to get something he and his peers have a natural 'right' to, which we've been conditioned to see as The Heroic Narrative. Castiel is trying to get everyone *more* than they were ever "meant" to have.
If Castiel is to be a tragic hero, what is his fatal flaw? Determination? Being a 'poor example' of an SPN angel?
This character has always been a driven one. But he's never used this drive for personal gain or even self-preservation, and I would never believe that of the character. I'm not saying that what Cas is doing won't necessarily go awry and cause some serious blunt force trauma. Or that I won't watch it unfold with dreadful awe and plead for the character to ease off the pedal. But to condemn Castiel is to lose sight of everything that he is and everything he's been through. And it would be to forget that, however much I've appeared to characterise him as this brutal forward-moving force, Cas has always evened this up with almost debilitating doubt and uncertainty, reflection and remorse. In addition, it is nothing short of canon that Castiel loves Dean.
But because of his possible actions in s6, questions are being raised in greater fandom, predominantly: Where in the line did things go 'wrong' with Cas?
I have my own answer. It wasn't when he began working with a demon or returned as Castiel 3.0. It wasn't when he stumbled over a lie or found an old comrade. It was when he stood in a nervous writer's dingy kitchen and declared "We're making it up as we go." This was when Castiel first answered yes to that question at the top there.
And Season 6 is a function of Castiel still answering 'yes'.
Though it may be bloody under the bludgeonings of chance, fate, and the pressures of making your own decisions, don't bow your head, Cas. Just keep nodding. And if they decide you're too much of a good thing, your fans will accept you for everything you are.
Here's to an enjoyable, heartbreaking, and hopefully fulfilling The Man Who Would Be King.
Spoilers for the 6x20 preview clip and minor reference to the 6x22 pics.
"Is freedom preferable to the old scheme, one that was tyrannic but orderly and safe?"
Keep this question in mind. If this ramble has any uniting thread (which is highly arguable XD), this is it.
The discussion about Castiel's ‘dying over and over again until the end of time’ line and the idea that Cas isn’t in full control here made me think back to what he said about fighting for freedom in MHWGO. Maybe he wasn’t only referring to humanity’s free will there, but freedom from whatever larger restraints seem to have gotten him and Crowley into a tizzy. While it seems they have torn up the script, it sounds like remnants still linger.
Perhaps the universe is supposed to react in the manner of stretched rubber snapping back into place, symptoms of which include the pressure from Raphael and, if Crowley was being sincere, the reticence of demons to be anything but, well, demonic.
Additionally, in the preview, Crowley does refer to the big bads of yore not as players, but as gamepieces. It could just be a throwaway phrase but it takes on significance if this all goes back to the the beginning of time, something the writers have decided is important for us to know, and Castiel (and Crowley) perhaps deciding that after a lifetime of order and roles, they are going to kick it up to Chaos level and start it all over - not in the apocalyptic sense, but in the sense of destroying all fatalistic regimes.
Recall that the previous title proposed for 6x21/6x22 was “Haunter of the Dark”, which is a tale from the Cthulhu mythos. It's about Nyarlathotep, and while I haven’t read much of the mythos, the simplest impression is that he’s a manifestation of chaos.
Thinking about chaos also calls to mind Balthazar's line in The Third Man: "just complete and utter...freedom". That seemed 'off' to me, in the way that you hear a line of a song and expect it to finish with a certain word, but it uses a different one. Watching it for the first time, I completely expected him to say 'chaos' instead of freedom.
The idea of a former agent of order like Castiel advocating chaos is terrifying and awesome at once. But it wouldn't be surprising either as he already set it in motion when he rebelled in 4x22. I don't think it can be emphasised enough how big that choice was. It really wasn't a simple call to make, as much as it seems to be from a human-centric POV. Previously, there was order and balance. There was the impression that whatever either side was capable of, the balance would remain because beings were acting within their natures, in their roles, as set out in the beginning. Humans will always fight the greater forces: that's just how it's meant to be. Even supposed defiance against fate is par for the course. Ask all the stories.
An angel switching to the other side tipped that balance.
Something that's given me a bit of confusion here is the nature of the apocalypse. Sometimes it seems it was never supposed to happen, that the angels jumped the gun. In which case Castiel's actions would merely have restored the natural order. Castiel would have been the ultimate keeper of the Script, putting his foot down to say that it was premature. If we take the traditional view here, the Apocalypse is supposed to happen anyway, some day. Was what they avoided The Apocalypse or an apocalypse? At times in seasons 4 and 5 we're alternatively given the impression that the apocalypse began exactly as it was Supposed To. Azazel's play, Lilith's death: it wasn't just the angels pushing it into motion.
Season 6 appears to clearly take the view that Sam, Dean and Castiel's actions threw the world off kilter, that it wasn't fated or merely 'fixing' things. So I think this is what we're going with. In any case, it's been presented that the most important thing for Castiel was protecting people's rights to live their lives, such that he would want to prevent End of Days whether scripted or unscripted and wouldn't let it happen again.
But I'm meandering.
The point is, let's hold that Castiel threw a wrench into the works of something running smoothly, upsetting the balance by switching to a side he wasn't supposed to be on. I’ve seen people complaining about how Cas’ exes (erm sorry, Fate and Balthazar XD) appear to credit/blame him entirely with stopping the prize fight without mentioning Sam and Dean. But really, why would they? For one, they're talking to Cas, who clearly had at least a hand in it. From their point of view it also makes complete sense to believe Cas was the crucial driving force in messing things up. And when you look at what happened in seasons 4-5 and Castiel’s interventions, you have to credit that view.
You’ve gotta be careful about planting ideas and ways of thought into the heads of beings capable of so much (...Dean). Especially when said beings are irrationally taken with you, have been controlled their entire lives, and have buckets of creative and destructive power to spare.
Castiel is a creature who is capable of taking things very far. He takes ideas and wings off with them to the other side of the universe. We're hearing about his well-intentioned extremism a lot more now, naturally. But he’s always been an extremist. Who else goes confidently to certain death in order to buy their friends a little extra time to achieve something which has a snowflake's chance in hell of succeeding?
As a higher level of supernatural being, Cas might just be big enough to swing the complete destruction of The System. At the same time, he's small enough that he must struggle for it. And maybe this thing is like an Anti Apocalypse and also requires a partnership between the big guns of Heaven and Hell to work. Something so big that it requires the approval of both the upper and lower houses... This could explain the ritualistic feel of the 6x22 Raphael and Crowley pics too: if there is to be a double-cross or fake double-cross we may hear a case of “sorry, I found myself another angel”.
Victory for Castiel could never end satisfactorily with small heroics, could never end in the type of triumph involving declarations of "hooray, the immediate threat to my life and happiness is dead!" Castiel's actually in a position to change things, to attack the very institutions that have been revealed to him as rotten and oppressive, to prevent the possibility of them undoing his and the boys' work. "I rebelled for this!", his famous protestation, speaks of a personality that will not allow his efforts to go to waste.
And Castiel would undoubtedly feel an additional responsibility to follow through to the end and propose a new way of life, precisely BECAUSE he destroyed the old order. I get the impression that part of the knee-jerk reaction to this as being bad is exactly because it may not be futile. Because he isn't just fighting in a struggle to get something he and his peers have a natural 'right' to, which we've been conditioned to see as The Heroic Narrative. Castiel is trying to get everyone *more* than they were ever "meant" to have.
If Castiel is to be a tragic hero, what is his fatal flaw? Determination? Being a 'poor example' of an SPN angel?
This character has always been a driven one. But he's never used this drive for personal gain or even self-preservation, and I would never believe that of the character. I'm not saying that what Cas is doing won't necessarily go awry and cause some serious blunt force trauma. Or that I won't watch it unfold with dreadful awe and plead for the character to ease off the pedal. But to condemn Castiel is to lose sight of everything that he is and everything he's been through. And it would be to forget that, however much I've appeared to characterise him as this brutal forward-moving force, Cas has always evened this up with almost debilitating doubt and uncertainty, reflection and remorse. In addition, it is nothing short of canon that Castiel loves Dean.
But because of his possible actions in s6, questions are being raised in greater fandom, predominantly: Where in the line did things go 'wrong' with Cas?
I have my own answer. It wasn't when he began working with a demon or returned as Castiel 3.0. It wasn't when he stumbled over a lie or found an old comrade. It was when he stood in a nervous writer's dingy kitchen and declared "We're making it up as we go." This was when Castiel first answered yes to that question at the top there.
And Season 6 is a function of Castiel still answering 'yes'.
Though it may be bloody under the bludgeonings of chance, fate, and the pressures of making your own decisions, don't bow your head, Cas. Just keep nodding. And if they decide you're too much of a good thing, your fans will accept you for everything you are.
Here's to an enjoyable, heartbreaking, and hopefully fulfilling The Man Who Would Be King.