Mulling over SPN
Oct. 18th, 2013 10:41![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
zubeneschamaliAs problematic as many people are finding this season (including myself), and as problematic as some people are finding other people's reactions to this season, and as much controversy as has been thrown up on LJ and Tumblr and Twitter and elsewhere...I don't think fandom has been this engaged with Show for a long time. I'm even making a post that's not a direct reaction to an episode! But reading over reaction posts and comments has inspired some thoughts.
I've said this before, but the first few seasons were shaped by three times Sam had to make a difficult choice, each time chose what looked like the right thing to do from an ethical perspective, and each time lived to bitterly regret it. 1) He didn't shoot YED!John even though John was begging him to--in no small part because he knew it would destroy Dean. If he had, there never would have been the truck-Impala crash, John would never have died, Cold Oak never would have happened, etc., etc. 2) He didn't kill unarmed!Jake at Cold Oak. If he had, he never would have died, Dean never would have sold his soul, etc., etc. 3) In JIB, he was seriously considering sacrificing Nancy to eliminate Lilith, but Dean persuaded him not to. If he had, Henriksen and the rest would have survived, Lilith would have been eliminated, the seals never would have been broken, etc., etc. The net effect of all of these choices, I've always thought, was that the next time Sam was faced with a hard choice--drink demon blood to develop his powers and go after Lilith, or not--he looked back on all of the times he'd done the "right thing" and realized it had always come back to bite him in the ass. So he made the ethically wrong choice and started drinking demon blood because he felt the end result would be worth it (only to later regret that choice, too).
So now we have Dean, twice facing a hard choice, and each time making the choice that's ethically wrong. First, he decided to end the Trials rather than lose Sam. As Dean himself has pointed out, this means there are all sorts of demons running around doing demonly things, and it's on him, no matter how good his intentions were. Second, he tricked Sam into saying yes to Ezekiel, doing something to Sam's body that he knew Sam wouldn't want him to do.
But. Sam and Dean are often the mirrors of each other. So, what if these two ethically wrong choices turn out to be right in the end? What if Dean's choices mean that Sam!Sam will be around to fulfill some necessary, greater purpose later on, whereas if he'd done the "right thing" and let Sam die, some greater catastrophe would have occurred? (Other than Dean falling apart.) I will be pleased if that turns out to be the case, for symmetry's sake if nothing else.
I've said this before, but the first few seasons were shaped by three times Sam had to make a difficult choice, each time chose what looked like the right thing to do from an ethical perspective, and each time lived to bitterly regret it. 1) He didn't shoot YED!John even though John was begging him to--in no small part because he knew it would destroy Dean. If he had, there never would have been the truck-Impala crash, John would never have died, Cold Oak never would have happened, etc., etc. 2) He didn't kill unarmed!Jake at Cold Oak. If he had, he never would have died, Dean never would have sold his soul, etc., etc. 3) In JIB, he was seriously considering sacrificing Nancy to eliminate Lilith, but Dean persuaded him not to. If he had, Henriksen and the rest would have survived, Lilith would have been eliminated, the seals never would have been broken, etc., etc. The net effect of all of these choices, I've always thought, was that the next time Sam was faced with a hard choice--drink demon blood to develop his powers and go after Lilith, or not--he looked back on all of the times he'd done the "right thing" and realized it had always come back to bite him in the ass. So he made the ethically wrong choice and started drinking demon blood because he felt the end result would be worth it (only to later regret that choice, too).
So now we have Dean, twice facing a hard choice, and each time making the choice that's ethically wrong. First, he decided to end the Trials rather than lose Sam. As Dean himself has pointed out, this means there are all sorts of demons running around doing demonly things, and it's on him, no matter how good his intentions were. Second, he tricked Sam into saying yes to Ezekiel, doing something to Sam's body that he knew Sam wouldn't want him to do.
But. Sam and Dean are often the mirrors of each other. So, what if these two ethically wrong choices turn out to be right in the end? What if Dean's choices mean that Sam!Sam will be around to fulfill some necessary, greater purpose later on, whereas if he'd done the "right thing" and let Sam die, some greater catastrophe would have occurred? (Other than Dean falling apart.) I will be pleased if that turns out to be the case, for symmetry's sake if nothing else.
