lol finale
Sitting in a tiny coffee shop in Budapest, so this will have to be short and sweet.
I haven't actually gotten a chance to read anyone's episode reactions yet, but I hear fandom hated the finale. Which is too bad, 'cause I LOVED IT.
If we'd ended the season with Castiel where he was in 6x20 -- well-meaning but conflicted, tortured, headed down the wrong path -- I'd be worried about where they'd take him next season. But we didn't end there. They made too huge of a mess of their third most important character to not fix it. Castiel finished going down his wrong path, his absolute power corrupted him absolutely, and he became OTT and ridiculously not Cas, so now there's only two ways this could go:
1. They kill him.
2. They save him.
And by "they" of course I mean Dean. Possibly with Sam and Bobby's help, or if (when) he goes for option 2, possibly against Sam and Bobby.
Now, there's a shitload of reasons why TPTB won't do option 1:
They know how much we love Castiel and even if it often doesn't seem like it, I do think they care about what fandom wants. We bitched and bitched about Cas's nonexistent storyline in season six and then the last few episodes were all about him (and therefore amazing). We fell in love with him in season four which is the only reason why three seasons later, he's still around. They're not gonna get rid of him now, I don't care what Sera Gamble says about phasing him out. They try to make us worry about Cas/Misha getting written off every fucking season but they never do it so quite frankly it's getting to be a lot like the boy who cried wolf. That shit doesn't work on me anymore. Demoting Misha to guest star probably only impacts how much they have to pay him, not how much Castiel is going to be on the show. (Remember how much screen time he got in season four when he was a guest star? My guess is he'll be heavily featured in the first few eps, get fixed, and then just pop in from time to time after that, like the opposite of this season.)
Also, they need the ratings.
But mostly, they made it a point to talk about how Castiel and Dean were family every chance they got these last three episodes:
"Next to Sam, you and Bobby are the closest things I have to family. You are like a brother to me." -Dean
"I thought you said that we were like family. Well, I think that too." -Cas
"We were family once. I'd have died for you. Almost did a few times. ... Don't make me lose you too." -Dean
"You're not my family, Dean. I have no family." -Cas
They cannot even talk about family more than they did without shoving it down each other's throats with their tongues. That means something. In fact, this being Supernatural and Dean being Dean, that means everything. It means Dean loves Castiel, it means he'll never give up on Castiel or let him go, and it means he'll do whatever it takes to bring his Cas back, just like he brought his Sam back in the beginning of this season when Sam wasn't Sam. The fact that Cas only went OTT after he got juiced up really emphasizes that the millions of monster souls took over and it's not Cas at all anymore, as do his 180 on Dean being family and his immunity to the angel blade. Before that, when Cas was still Cas (the Balthazar thing was a terrible stretch of his characterization but I guess it was like killing Rachel a few eps ago, whatever, sorry Balthazar, I'll miss you), it was all about tearful looks of longing and regret and openly admitting to wishing things were different.
tl;dr: There is no way Dean's not going to save Castiel.
Maybe he'll do it in 7x01. Maybe it'll take all season of Cas being the new big bad. That's the only thing that worries me, but I don't really think they'll go down that route. Like Dean said, Cas is "full of nuke" and that can't last long.
Man I wish I had time to go through and screencap all the amazing Dean/Castiel moments of the past three episodes, THERE WERE SO MANY. Dean's trust and loyalty, the betrayal of that trust and Dean's subsequent hurt and inability to trust Cas again, the breakup talk, all the tortured post-breakup talks, Dean being jealous of Crowley and (so bitterly XD) calling him and Cas "butt-buddies", Castiel begging Dean to stand by him, Dean's stubborn, pained refusal to either stand by Cas because he's obviously doing the wrong thing or let him go (which is so Dean that I fell in love with him all over again), ALL OF IT WAS AMAZING. Oh OTP, you are so deliciously angsty and epic and OTP. I CANNOT WAIT FOR SEASON SEVEN.
...This totally ended up being longer than intended. The coffee shop owner probably hates me, my battery is dying, and I have yet to see anything in Budapest aside from the train station and the sex shop right outside of it (which was pretty much the only thing written in English). Eurotripping, I AM DOING IT WRONG. Thanks for that, show.
I haven't actually gotten a chance to read anyone's episode reactions yet, but I hear fandom hated the finale. Which is too bad, 'cause I LOVED IT.
If we'd ended the season with Castiel where he was in 6x20 -- well-meaning but conflicted, tortured, headed down the wrong path -- I'd be worried about where they'd take him next season. But we didn't end there. They made too huge of a mess of their third most important character to not fix it. Castiel finished going down his wrong path, his absolute power corrupted him absolutely, and he became OTT and ridiculously not Cas, so now there's only two ways this could go:
1. They kill him.
2. They save him.
And by "they" of course I mean Dean. Possibly with Sam and Bobby's help, or if (when) he goes for option 2, possibly against Sam and Bobby.
Now, there's a shitload of reasons why TPTB won't do option 1:
They know how much we love Castiel and even if it often doesn't seem like it, I do think they care about what fandom wants. We bitched and bitched about Cas's nonexistent storyline in season six and then the last few episodes were all about him (and therefore amazing). We fell in love with him in season four which is the only reason why three seasons later, he's still around. They're not gonna get rid of him now, I don't care what Sera Gamble says about phasing him out. They try to make us worry about Cas/Misha getting written off every fucking season but they never do it so quite frankly it's getting to be a lot like the boy who cried wolf. That shit doesn't work on me anymore. Demoting Misha to guest star probably only impacts how much they have to pay him, not how much Castiel is going to be on the show. (Remember how much screen time he got in season four when he was a guest star? My guess is he'll be heavily featured in the first few eps, get fixed, and then just pop in from time to time after that, like the opposite of this season.)
Also, they need the ratings.
But mostly, they made it a point to talk about how Castiel and Dean were family every chance they got these last three episodes:
"Next to Sam, you and Bobby are the closest things I have to family. You are like a brother to me." -Dean
"I thought you said that we were like family. Well, I think that too." -Cas
"We were family once. I'd have died for you. Almost did a few times. ... Don't make me lose you too." -Dean
"You're not my family, Dean. I have no family." -Cas
They cannot even talk about family more than they did without shoving it down each other's throats with their tongues. That means something. In fact, this being Supernatural and Dean being Dean, that means everything. It means Dean loves Castiel, it means he'll never give up on Castiel or let him go, and it means he'll do whatever it takes to bring his Cas back, just like he brought his Sam back in the beginning of this season when Sam wasn't Sam. The fact that Cas only went OTT after he got juiced up really emphasizes that the millions of monster souls took over and it's not Cas at all anymore, as do his 180 on Dean being family and his immunity to the angel blade. Before that, when Cas was still Cas (the Balthazar thing was a terrible stretch of his characterization but I guess it was like killing Rachel a few eps ago, whatever, sorry Balthazar, I'll miss you), it was all about tearful looks of longing and regret and openly admitting to wishing things were different.
tl;dr: There is no way Dean's not going to save Castiel.
Maybe he'll do it in 7x01. Maybe it'll take all season of Cas being the new big bad. That's the only thing that worries me, but I don't really think they'll go down that route. Like Dean said, Cas is "full of nuke" and that can't last long.
Man I wish I had time to go through and screencap all the amazing Dean/Castiel moments of the past three episodes, THERE WERE SO MANY. Dean's trust and loyalty, the betrayal of that trust and Dean's subsequent hurt and inability to trust Cas again, the breakup talk, all the tortured post-breakup talks, Dean being jealous of Crowley and (so bitterly XD) calling him and Cas "butt-buddies", Castiel begging Dean to stand by him, Dean's stubborn, pained refusal to either stand by Cas because he's obviously doing the wrong thing or let him go (which is so Dean that I fell in love with him all over again), ALL OF IT WAS AMAZING. Oh OTP, you are so deliciously angsty and epic and OTP. I CANNOT WAIT FOR SEASON SEVEN.
...This totally ended up being longer than intended. The coffee shop owner probably hates me, my battery is dying, and I have yet to see anything in Budapest aside from the train station and the sex shop right outside of it (which was pretty much the only thing written in English). Eurotripping, I AM DOING IT WRONG. Thanks for that, show.