'The Balance of Red & Blue': Color Symbolism in context of Fate & Free Will in Season Five

[zimshan]

So, apparently I’ve been out of school for too long and had the urge to write a paper? Who knows…

This thing got ridiculously massive very quickly, I blame it all on Serge Ladouceur for making me all thinky. I want my brain back, Serge

Comments

[squaringkarma]

Heads up for you:

I have now in my possession S2E01 to S2E17 + S2E20, so I will get on them in the next couple of weeks. I get the remaining season 2 episodes, all of season 3, and about half of season 4 at the end of the month. One of the networks here started showing season 4 a couple weeks ago, so I'm gonna try to catch up to that ASAP and watch the show that way.. No idea when they'll get season 5, but just maybe they'll start right after season 4 and I can watch some that way.

[carmy_89]

amazing.. you have converted me.. i was always firmly in the what looks best on screen camp but this is just too much.. wow

i bow down to your intelligence.

[zimshan]

Ah, I'd have to say I normally stray closer to the 'what looks best' camp as well. At least on TV which is for the most part very practical. But considering the palette colors chosen in past seasons, and the glut of change this year, it does look like a bunch of people are having some color fun up there in Vancouver. ;)

Anyway, glad you could enjoy the post!

[annspal]

This is wonderful and I know I'll be linking to it when I work through how it fits with my view of the show. You've put together a thorough and logical examination that had me anticipating your conclusion. Stronger together!

The LICENSE PLATE. The two colors are built into the car Sam and Dean drive! Are you kidding me? [Yea, yea, I know, it’s the license plate for Kripke’s homestate, and has been there for years. Just work with me here.]

Man, when I was going through screen caps for 5.08 that shot of Impala-Sam caught my eye for the license plate too! It was striking enough that I actually checked against earlier shots (the Impala on the edge of the collapsed bridge in 5.02) to see if something about the plate had changed. (Nothing I could spot had.)

[zimshan]

Oh, the flag in the back of the sheriff there is mostly likely the Ohio state slag (the circle is the Buckeye). It's been in a couple of episodes this season because we've had a lot of eps which have taken place in Ohio this year. At least two or three. I almost included those shots for the red and blue component they add to the shots but then reasoned it was more for practical story reasons that it existed.

has me wondering how much adjusting you did in clarifying and intensifying the colors in the shots you selected for this? Ah, yes, I did clean up these caps a lot, mostly because I wanted to get the real color of everything as it stood in the shot before it was filtered through the camera. But AVI files of the episodes are also notoriously darker and drabber looking than what appears on television as well. I believe some contrast and saturation is lost in transfer. When you further play around with caps, resizing them and all, you lose alot more from them. For visual purposes, looking at all of these caps at like 1/16th their

[annspal]

[zimshan]

That 5.10 flag was sure bizarre wasn't it? The 'Anti-God is Anti-American' made me go, HUH? What are you trying to SAY, Show??? But it was SO prominent, it felt definitely intentional somehow. But there was a good bit of red and blue outside of the flag that made me go HMMM too.

I appreciate you talking a little about the difference in quality between what I see and what you are able to show us. I got in the habit of looking through screencaps back when I was watching the show on a snowy broadcast before the digital switch happened.
Oh, no problem! I totally understand, this is actually the first year I've been able to watch on a real tv, so I had actually not realized how big of a difference there was between AVIs and HD broadcast myself until lately. My laptop doesn't have the best picture in the world so I've taken to watching tv with the saturation and contrast dialed way up the last couple years anyway.

[cosmicviolet]

This is fascinating! I never noticed all the use of red and blue until you presented it like this

[zimshan]

Just getting back to replying to comments now, but you must know, I literally *GASPED* when I first read your comment. I had NO IDEA about the astrology stuff, that is just FREAKY! My knowledge of astrology is pretty void, but I imagine its origins are pretty seeped in ancient culture and beliefs similar to what developed in ancient Greece and China? I'm not sure I could even believe little birthday dates of characters had meaning when they were first created, but still, that is very nifty that it fits here. And actually, that it fits right into the characterization of the characters too...idk, maybe they did look those up before hand? It's interesting you say Kripke just used his wife's bday for Dean, in light of how Kripke originally said Sam was more like him. This would actually be an awesome question for him, just on astrology/bdays alone. In fact, I wonder if someone has already asked this one

[cosmicviolet]

Wow, I made you gasp? Awesome! :P I know, it is kind of freaky, isn't it? I mean, if it is a coincidence, it's an amazing one, because it just fits so well with what we know about the characters and their whole journey of free will vs. a predetermined path (and perhaps gives more weight to that destiny than I had originally thought). I don't think anyone has ever asked Kripke anything like this (that I recall, anyway), but if I ever get a chance to ask him, at a con or something, I will be sure to do so. :)

From what I read, astrology began in Mesopotamia, but it was the Greeks who were responsible for dividing the zodiac into twelve parts of thirty degrees' difference. I can't claim to be very knowledgeable about the subject either, but it does intrigue me.

Anyway, glad I could contribute something and that you found it useful. :)

[hugemind]

Oh man, this is awesome! I have difficulties in organizing my thoughts coherently, but I love how you collected all those caps for evidence! That's a lot of blue&red.

I especially enjoyed the thoughts you had about the flags, because I have wondered about those for a good while now and have had no idea what they could mean beyond adding to the red-blue visuals.

Thanks for sharing this!

[zimshan]

Aw, thanks! I'm glad you find this post worthwhile! And that the organization worked for you. I swear, I literally looked at my folder by the time I was done collecting all my good caps (sifted out of 260 caps in all, I was still staring at 150 caps), and I was just like, HOW on EARTH am I going to present even HALF of these! I just kept having to group them until I had workable size groups of each, but honestly I'm still surprised I was able to package them all in a way that made sense. ;)

I think the jury is still out on what the flags mean, but I decided to take my stab for now. And hey, what about that bizarre flag in 5.10? With the 'Anti-God is Anti-American'? How weird was that one! I'm still not sure what was going on with that usage but it was HIGHLY prominent for some reason. Set designing needs to stop making my head scratch and start giving interviews already!