#have no idea wtf dark is and think he's related/causing all the distortions that he's busting ass with daisuke

[dnangelic]

he almost laughs after dark shares every word with him , but something keeps his face stuck at bashful and troubled . humans can't even get caught in pokeballs --- of course , that was a simple fact . yet there were still plenty of other traps that humans could use to try to capture and subdue . ' there are still things like jails ... or ropes and handcuffs , and cages . not to mention , even if it has no effect , having a pokeball thrown at you still kind of --- um , hurts . '

would a wild pokemon have even known what a human jail or pair of handcuffs was , or what any of it was like ? for all he knew , thor might not have even known what a criminal was . human beings and their laws were always like that , and having to explain the way that he was not only aware of certain complicated , sometimes unnecessary human rules , but also a person that was readily outright breaking them --- felt like an awful , awkward confession to make .

' i'd also ... like to be your friend . if it's really okay --- is it really ... ? ' he couldn't have blamed anything or anyone for at least a little defensiveness , and likewise he would have understood if thor suddenly decided to change their mind and run away from him as well . his hand retracts from the space of the other's head to anxiously grip a fist above the space of his own heart , the niwa fretting already about the outcome of the sort of unpleasant self-description that would have no doubt alarmed if not disgusted a great , great majority .

' i'm ... a thief . ' then --- ' a phantom thief . i take things like arts , or treasure , or sometimes ... even pokemon from other people . ' a swallow , and he quickly continues . ' --- b-but it's not because i want to hurt them ! the ones that need help , or the ones that are being abandoned or mistreated , i just want to be able to do something for them ! there are these distortions , too --- where pokemon , all the time , are getting misplaced in completely different times or places , and i try to bring as many as i can back home , ' he winces a little , here .

' humans ... i'm breaking a lot of human rules , and they also --- think that those distortions are my ... dark's fault . i wouldn't --- i don't want to hurt anyone , but because of the way things are ... ' he hopes the other could somehow understand . ' ... it's dangerous . i'm --- ' a bad person , he can't help but briefly think to himself . ' ... sorry . i'm sorry . even if it should be okay if you don't have a trainer , and you live here where no humans are , i still don't want to bring you --- anyone here any trouble . i'd never try to capture you , but there are --- a lot , always a lot of people who always want to capture me . '

He couldn't help but startle a bit at the sudden change in his appearance. His eyes couldn't help but flicker in recognition as well. Had that what he meant by Dark? Because of the darker hair colors? So was Daisuke technically Dark now? Thor squints in confusion, even as Daisuke's? Dark's? Darsuke's (?) cooler palm plops on his head in the space between his ears.

["It is kinda weird… but not scary! It was surprising because you changed so quickly!"] Thor pauses, flicking his tail as a thought comes to him. ["Hmm, maybe I'd be more scared if we weren't already talking."] It would definitely be more strange to see a human you'd never met suddenly change without warning, but within the short amount of time they've spoken with one another, Daisuke doesn't seem all that scary.

Thor waits with bated breath for the other's response, body tensed and ready to flee at a moment's notice. There was also a very faint shift in the atmosphere, the air becoming the slightest bit pressurized--the smell of ozone faint but sharp. He even had his electricity on standby as he feared the worst, but then, he heard the boy's nervous response and that pressure immediately disappeared. Like it was never even there.

A heavy sigh is released from the rodent in relief as he goes back to relaxing his upper body on Daisuke's leg. ["Oh, alright… that's--that's good."] He is very happy to hear the reasoning behind the question, because if the response had been anything different... well they certainly wouldn't be chatting right now, that's for sure. ["Sorry for bein' defensive."]

He scootches his upper half up a bit more so he's practically laying across his lap. ["I just don't… have any interest in being captured, but I don't mind just being your friend, if that's alright. What's so dangerous about talking with you and why do you care about being caught?"] The idea of a human being captured made no sense to him. ["Humans can't even get caught in Pokéballs."]

[bibliophileiz]

Jack bestows faith: A theory (now irrelevant, since Jack has lost his powers.)

Spoilers for Supernatural seasons 12 and 13 below the cut

Like you, I am frustrated that Jack's mind-control/manipulative/what were they anyway? powers are no more -- and without us ever really knowing what those powers were. (Or maybe you're not frustrated that Berens introduced this intriguing plot only for bucklemming and Dabb to ignore it in favor of resurrecting dead stunt angel No. 557 from Season 4 for no goddamn reason, but you definitely should be.) There was a debate about glowy-golden eyes and mind-whammying all last hiatus. There was discussion as to whether Jack was "brainwashing" Cas or just "influencing" him and what the differences between those two things would be. There was suggestion that the yellow eyes proved the Four Princes of Hell had all been nephilims. There was fierce debate as to whether all or any of that made Jack good or evil.

So we were all pretty disappointed that the only person who seemed to even remember that fetus!Jack used some sort of power on Cas to convince Cas to save him and ditch the Winchesters with Kelly was Berens Dean. In fact, Dean seems to have been the only person who ever cared at all.

Dean says near the end of Season 12 that Jack "sock-puppetted" Cas. In Season 13, Episode 3, he explodes at Sam, screaming that Jack "manipulated,” promising him paradise but only getting him killed. Then I think he spoke for most of the fandom when he finished the rant with "You may be able to forget about that, but I can't!"

But was Dean actually right? Did Jack use his powers to "sock-puppet" Cas or Kelly or any other character? We only see Jack use this power on five people. Each time he uses it, it causes the person he's influencing to immediately reverse course and do something that, at first glance, seems out of character, but is actually something that, I think, they really want to do -- or rather, hope is the right thing to do.

In other words, he gives them faith. Or, tunnel vision. Dealer's choice.

Faith vs. tunnel vision

Faith is a major theme in Supernatural, and it's particularly associated with God and angels. So it's natural that Jack, being related to both, could have some natural affinity toward bestowing faith on the people he cares about -- certainly the more his allies see of his powers, the more faith they have in him.

But that's not always a good thing.

In his book "Still Life With Woodpecker," Tom Robbins defined tunnel-vision the following way:

"Tunnel vision is a disease in which perception is restricted by ignorance and distorted by vested interest. Tunnel vision is caused by an optic fungus that multiplies when the brain is less energetic than the ego. It is complicated by exposure to politics. When a good idea is run through the filters and compressors of ordinary tunnel vision, it not only comes out reduced in scale and value but in its new dogmatic configuration produces effects the opposite of those for which it originally was intended." p. 86 (Bold emphasis mine.)

Faith is belief working in tandem with logic and hope. Tunnel vision is when the logic, and sometimes hope, are no longer involved. I explain these to say that when Jack "mind-whammies" someone, he's bestowing faith, but jamming it through so fast that the logic and hope don't have time to catch up before the character has time to do something, well, out of character.

WTF actually happened?

The first time we actually see Jack's powers in the wild (other than the time they set the Gideon Bible on fire, a bucklemming gag that didn't make any sense at the time and makes even less sense now) is in Robert Berens' and Meredith Glynn's episode "The Future..” Kelly has just learned that she will die giving birth to Satan's baby and that she will never be able to influence him to use whatever powers he has for good. Instead, she's afraid he'll be left to the devices of the archangel who raped her and the demon who is currently keeping her chained in a basement -- two sources of extreme evil planning to turn young Skywalker to the Dark Side. When Dagon unchains Kelly so Kelly can take a bath, Kelly fills the tub with water, gets in and slits her wrist.

But instead of dying -- or at least instead of staying dead -- Kelly is healed and/or brought back to life by her child. (I still don't know why he couldn't have done that after he was born, wtf Jack?) This gives her hope that he's actually good, even though Dagon and later Cas try to convince her Jack was acting out of self-interest. Later in the episode, after Cas has captured her and she's trying to convince him her baby can be good, her eyes glow yellow -- the baby's giving her a vision, and maybe adding some brainwashing to go with it.

While Kelly had thus far simply appeared to want to have and raise her baby in peace, she's now a mission to make sure the baby's powers are intact when he's born. Even when Sam and Dean offer to remove the baby's powers, she turns them down, kidnaps Cas and tells him to take her to the gate to Heaven, assuring him that the baby showed her if she just goes with him, everything will turn out okay.

Let's break down Kelly's thought process here. First of all, she gets pregnant with the devil's baby and appears to just want to have it in safety. Not an outlandish or grand goal by any means. And while I don't remember her ever expressly saying it, I think she's reasonably confident the baby won't be born inherently evil, like Cas seems to think. This is an act of faith -- deciding to become a parent is essentially that -- but it's tempered with logic and caution.

When she learns she'll die giving birth and that Dagon will most likely end up with her baby, her faith and hope are gone so suddenly that she tries to end her own and her baby’s lives -- the ultimate act of despair.

She changes her mind after the baby brings her back and gives her a vision telling her to follow Cas to Heaven. And when I say changes her mind, I don't mean, just decides to not attempt suicide again -- she goes from, presumably, wanting to be a single mom to wanting to Make Sure Baby Is Powerful Enough To Save The World. While Sam's plan to strip the baby of his powers has the potential to save her life (and is objectively a good idea anyway), she tells Sam and Dean that the baby being born with powers is "the only thing that matters." It's a complete 180 from that moment of despair when she tried to end her own and her child's lives.

Now let's look at the episode from Cas' point of view. Cas starts out in a pretty dark place. He's been working with Heaven -- always a bummer -- and is now going to have to betray the Winchesters, all to kill someone he doesn't believe deserves death. He steals the Colt from under Dean's pillow and heads to where Dagon is hiding Kelly.

At the critical moment, he can't bring himself to shoot Kelly. Instead, he takes her to a motel, and the rest of their scenes that episode are the debate about whether the baby's powers can be used for good.

You can tell Cas wants to believe Kelly -- he's looking for a reason not to kill her and the baby. I think if all the shit hadn't hit the fan at the end of the episode, Cas would have come around on his own -- certainly he was willing to consider Sam's plan.

Instead, he gets mind-whammied by the baby too, who gives him a "vision" of "paradise" and he does something completely out of character -- puts Sam and Dean to sleep, leaves them unconscious next to the gates of heaven and drives off into the night with a delighted Kelly.

Those are two sudden, bizarre shifts in behavior. Kelly went from suicidal to drank-the-Koolaid hopeful, while Cas' end demeanor is almost robotic. Those are two people who have clearly been affected by some strong BabyGodMagicJuice.

But they don't stay that way. The next time we see them, in the season finale, they're in Parents Preparing for Baby mode, which is to say they're hopeful and happy, but also stressed out, afraid and able to listen to Sam, Dean and Mary when they show up.

We're back to the difference between faith and tunnel-vision. If Jack had given them faith, it would explain why they made sudden course corrections from a point of hopelessness to where they were able to do something they wanted to do anyway -- in Kelly's case, have her baby, and in Cas' case, save the baby (and Kelly. Kelly is the sacrificial lamb in all this. RIP Kelly. I'm so sorry your useless son didn't resurrect you a second time like he did Cas.) But if it's slammed into them quickly by a self-interested, all-powerful fetus of limited understanding and who really, really just wants to not die, the logic and caution don't have time to catch up, so it becomes tunnel vision. Course correction from their path of despair is the only thing they can think of, so Kelly's willing to turn down Sam's plan and Cas is willing to leave the Winchesters unconscious outside Heaven where angels could find them.

It makes what Jack did not evil, as much as just something natural -- again, faith is a theme with God and angels, which Jack is a product of -- without quite having the control to know how much is too much.

It happens to Dean and Kaia too

Dabb may have forgotten about "The Future" but since Berens wrote it, he didn't forget it, and he used that same thing again in "The Bad Place" in Season 13. In that one, Jack uses his powers to show Dean and Sam a vision of Mary in Apocalypse World.

The next thing Dean does is profess he'll "get Mom back, no matter what." And he means it -- when Kaia says she won't help them, he pulls a gun on her and tells her to "get in the damn car." It's a terrifying moment and fabulous acting on Jensen Ackles' part -- I'm legitimately scared of him right there. To be fair, Dean has done similar things -- remember he pulled a gun on a bunch of LARPing nerds when he thought they were refusing to tell him where Charlie was in Season 8 -- but this scene is meant to give the viewer chills.

Again, it's tunnel vision. Dean has spent the entire season telling himself Mary is dead, but we know he doesn't quite believe it -- he tells Sam to keep the faith for both of them and starts to ask Billie if she knows whether Mary's alive. But he can't make himself believe. When Jack gives him the vision, it not only offers Dean proof, it gives him faith. But again, the logic and caution haven't had time to catch up when he pulls the gun on Kaia -- he's like a religious fanatic threatening heretics.

Likewise, Kaia has a change of heart in the episode after Jack shows her a vision. Kaia has spent her life thinking her powers are a curse. While we don't know for sure based on this episode, there's every reason to believe that at one point, she hoped to control her powers. She obviously wanted to know about it enough that she had a relationship with Derek, who loved using his Dreamwalking powers if his art is anything to go by. After Jack shows her a vision, she's willing to help the Winchesters.

Again, they sort of follow the pattern started in "The Future." Characters who start out in a bad place get a vision from Jack and suddenly have faith to do what they said at the beginning of the episode they wouldn't do. 

But as countless historical examples have shown, faith can turn to tunnel vision in a hurry. As Robbins said, a good idea subjected to tunnel vision can have drastic consequences, as these episodes show.

The one that got away

None of this explains Sam.

No, I didn't forget about Sam. Jack showed him the vision of Mary too, and Sam was trying to STOP Dean from forcing Kaia to Dreamwalk at gunpoint. In fact, of these five characters who get a vision from Jack, Sam is the only one who doesn't seem affected by it at all.

You could say it's a by-product of Sam being the Evil Chosen One with some leftover Lucifer grace, but that wouldn't explain how all of Jack's other powers work on Sam. More likely, I think Sam already has faith. Of the three main characters, Sam has always been the most hopeful, the most optimistic. He was the one who believed in faith healers and angels before Season 4, and he was the one who thought God could help fight Amara. And of course, he was the one who thought Mary could still be alive and that Jack could help find her. Sam didn't need Jack's powers -- he's had faith all along.

So what?

I agree. So what? Nobody bothered to explain this and Jack's powers are gone now. We have an hour until the new season airs and I highly doubt even Berens will try to address this again -- there's too many other problems the characters are trying to solve, too many other dropped plots from the mess that was the second half of Season 13.

But it's a good idea if it's what Berens was going for, and another example of this show coming up with intriguing plots that tie so well with theme and character development. Without his powers, Jack may need to find some faith this season, so the potential to continue this theme is definitely there.