#not really discourse since I haven’t seen any hate towards her (thankfully)

[qrcane]

I know everyone says it all of the time, but I think it’s a good time to say it again:

If I see anyone sending hate towards Bagi because of her character choices as Carol, it is on SIGHT

[nileqt87]

Despair For Castiel: A Review

From a series of posts before and after watching:

Before:

As far as I'm concerned, I'm now imagining the Empty having to deal with Gabriel and Balthazar redecorating the Empty into the angel/demon afterlife (probably with a lot of wacky alternate realities and bad porno) with all the free will angels and redemptive demons invited, Cas finding Meg and eventually Jack again for his true happy ending that he can have and Crowley probably trying to install himself as king again. Then when Rowena finally exits as Queen of Hell, she'll join and Crowley will annoyed, but Gabriel will be happy to see her again. LOL.

Megstielers also got robbed hard with all that setup of Cas still pining for Meg for YEARS, the Empty using her image (not Dean!) to taunt him (the Empty clearly saw Meg in Cas' head when it could have taken the form of anyone, including Cas like last time) and a whole dropped plot thread that Cas made a deal with Ruby to break a demon out of the Empty, which only makes sense with the one and only demon he'd actually want to let out of the Empty. That's dangling one 'ship a whole bunch of carrots (like every single Clarence reference for a decade) to rip the rug out from under them.

I suppose I should've seen it coming when the previously on segment for 15x13 was a Pizza Man and the Babysitter retrospective that shoved Cas out of the Pizza Man role beside Babysitter Nurse Meg to shove Dean into Megstiel's sexy times meme. I guess it turned Cas into just Dean's Baby in a Trench Coat (which was an insult about being useless to Dean's cause without powers, which suggests Cas has no worth to him otherwise), since he got infantilized with the removal of the Pizza Man originally being him.

I still haven't watched the episode. The Tumblr crap is that off-putting.

What should've been an epic moment in Cas' story is now tainted by his love of humanity, found family and free will (his real love story is with all of humanity and finding belonging, in spite of always being on the outside looking in on a life he can't have because he's not human) being reduced to horny girls who just want fetish smut with Dean and don't give a fig about canon Cas outside of a toxic, abusive crack!ship. It's always so immature and vapid!

It was immediately clear when I joined the fandom that shockingly few gave a crap about any character but Dean, even refusing to see what he's become in later seasons. Also numerous examples where they admit having not seen the show in a decade or only knowing the show via manipulative .gif sets. Cas and Sam (if they remember him at all) are just props or prizes to be won. They ignore context of familial/platonic relationships. Canon love interests aren't good enough because they're not the big prize of being a main. I also note the deluge of Wincest girls who hate Cas for existing (he's in their way) in the anti-Destiel tag.

I can't say the .gifs are making me want to watch, even though the dialog is vague enough to still fit Cas' actual character for the general audience who isn't glued to social media.

As for Dean's non-reaction, I had similar problems with Jensen's constipated acting back in 15x03 when Cas finally walked away while Dean looked like he couldn't care less, which the writers coincidentally praised Jensen for (holy crap that interview was up his backside) and completely ignored Misha actually giving a good performance in a scene that actually meant something long coming for Cas. I certainly can't say the same about the quality of this scene, which just looks forced on both ends.

I hope I like the episode more than the sounds of it, but my hopes aren't high. This is not how I wanted Cas' final moments on the show to be.

After:

Well, I got up the stomach to watch it tonight. Thankfully, in context, it definitely got blown way out of proportion by what the Hellers turned it into (as usual). Yeah, even when watching while unfortunately not blind to the wackadoodle fandom discourse, it played out better on screen than the .gifs. And frankly, a whole lot less like creepy Care Bear stare nightmare fuel than the few choice screenshots kept showing (yikes). I still wish Sam and Jack had been there, because they're just as much part of what connected Cas to feeling like part of a family (even more so in the later years), but it's not the total monstrosity it was turned into online.

Average viewers who just take canon as is without trying to read into it what they want to be there instead, IMO, will safely interpret it platonically (even if coming after a particularly hellish few years in Dean's personality rot where the whole friendship was beginning to be questionable) more often than not because that's what the canon has said for a dozen years. Again, I repeat that Cas already told the Winchesters he loved them when he thought he was dying.

It's a crime to have Cas' perfect philia (brotherly), storge (parental) and agape-style (sacrificial and unconditional) loves being immaturely twisted into eros in a way that degrades the whole meaning of the character's journey. People telling each other they love one another when it's not sexual should never be mocked into being afraid to do so because of this insidious, willful misinterpretation. If only somebody had told Cas they love him instead of him always being the one with his heart on his sleeve!

This character went from being tortured into a robotic, emotionless, ancient, not-remotely-humanoid being who couldn't relate to the simplest of human needs to being someone deeply in love with humanity and wanting to find belonging amongst it despite knowing it would always end with him watching them all grow old and die after having families and such experiences angels are forbidden from having (another reason why Jack was so important to Cas' story).

The wording is valid for that philia/agape interpretation, given Cas definitely equated Dean (whom Cas watched sacrificing himself for Sam endlessly, including why he had to be raised from perdition in the first place) with a guide role in his learning to understand humanity and proudly-defiant free will before he could love it. It's valid enough to say that Cas wouldn't have broken his programming permanently without being challenged to question everything he'd ever believed and give up his entire angelic belonging. That much of it did begin with Cas just happening to be the angel who succeeded in the Hell rescue.

Obviously, it's also canon that Cas had a long history of not following orders and getting lobotomized by Naomi, but Cas actually understanding humanity and what free will means did happen only after this particular rebellion. I'm very glad at least that was in the speech, but of course, it's being hopelessly ignored.

I stand by my interpretation that what Cas can't have has always been the tragic version of The Little Mermaid where she turns into sea foam in the end. Cas has always looked in on what everyone else takes for granted from the outsider's perspective. There's a part of him that will always be left out, no matter how well he learns to fit in and how much those around him begin to treat him as a real person. Cas never really got to truly belong with humanity, no matter how much he loves and is loved by it. He's also not getting to stay where he wants to be. There's no Pinocchio ending for Cas that turns him into a real Winchester.

Sadly, Dean's constant othering of him and Jack like they're just more monsters to hunt only alienated them more. Jack was someone Cas could relate to as a supernatural being capable of human emotions, which might also have furthered his draw towards Meg. Sam was also someone Cas could relate to as freaks and abominations amongst their own kinds. Sam always had that same struggle, also with his own family. It goes a long way towards explaining why Sam was always so empathetic to Cas and Jack in a way that Dean couldn't be. All three kept conflicting with that black & white humans = good/other = bad mindset that sometimes creeps in with Dean. When Cas was Dean's "best friend" in the early days, he rationalized it by thinking of Cas as being "like" a human ("You used to be human, or at least like one.").

Yet it still remains true that Cas often found himself looking to Dean to teach him about humanity back when he didn't know enough about it to be inconspicuous amongst them. Dean gave him the crash course in both what humanity is willing to do for each other, but also its flaws and failings at the same time.

Perhaps the saddest scenes in the episode were actually Sam watching everyone poof in front of him. Sam has really been forced to watch a lot of death scenes this season all by himself (as with Rowena), but he looked the most broken by Eileen's. Cas is going to be hard on him, because I genuinely think Sam was far closer to him in the end. Sam was the one who actually was trying to reach out to Cas when Dean repeatedly kept him out of the loop. Sam being left out from the final words with Cas or even hearing first-hand about the deal with the Empty just furthers that tragedy. While Dean has been raging at everything in sight, Sam and Cas have both looked broken, sad and tired all season.

[shanastoryteller]

I just love your gods and monsters stories! I have been a fan of mythology since I was old enough to read and your takes on the stories are a modern breath of freshness. I was wondering if you were going on touch on Eris maybe?

a continuation of X

It hasn’t even been a day, the party for the wedding isstill in full swing. There are pockets of arguments, but nothing interesting haseven happened yet when Ares corners herand says, “I know it was you.”

Hebe goes cold. She wants to deny it, to lie and worm herway out of it, but if he already knows then there’s no point. She can’t dodamage control by pretending that the damage isn’t there. “Have you toldanyone?”

He raises an eyebrow. “And ruin all your hard work?” Hesounds sarcastic, but like he’s serious too. She just stares at him, waiting,and he sighs. “No, I haven’t told anyone.”

“Are you going to?”

“I should,” he snaps. “This is dangerous, and stupid. Thereare better ways to get power. There are easierways to power. You don’t need to do this.”

She grins, because he’s not going to stand against her. He’sgoing to glare and lecture, he might even nurse a grudge, but he’s not going totell. She doesn’t need his approval, only his silence. “I don’t want power tobe given to me. I want to take it.” She hesitates, because she doesn’t meanthis in a hurtful sort of way, but says it anyway. “Father declared you the godof war, and so that’s what you became. Hephaestus made himself from nothing,made things from nothing for the mortals, and so that’s what they named him. Themortals declared him to be a god of crafting and so that’s what he became. ButI don’t want to depend on Father or mortals.”

“If your power comes from neither from the Pantheon nor thepeople, then where?” he asks, and thankfully he doesn’t seem hurt, onlyskeptical.

“From where the first gods got theirs,” she answers. “Theywere granted nothing and took everything. I’m going to do the same.”

He blinks, then smiles for the first time during thisconversation. “Chaos bore the gods, and so you will become a god of chaos?”

It’s not quite the same, the chaos that birthed the universeand the chaos she’s capable of claiming are not one in the same. But they’relinked, and she plans to use that link to her advantage. “Yes.”

Her brother frowns and rubs at his chin. His hair is looseand long around his hips, how he likes to keep but is rarely able to because itgets in his way during battle, and his chiffon is silk, something else he likesbut doesn’t often get the opportunity to experience. “One golden apple and acouple of feuds aren’t going to cut it, not if you want it to last. A slowbuild is all well and good, and worked fine for Hephaestus. But that’s not whatyou need. You need this to be a stone in a river, you need ripples, and largeones at that.”

“A couple of feuding major goddesses are pretty big ripples,”she points out.

“It’s not a bad start,” he agrees, and she’s going to smackhim. “But it can be bigger. It can be more, you can make it be more, and you knowthat. Why aren’t you doing it? Why aren’t you pushing it further?”

She looks away from him and admits, “I don’t want to causeyou more trouble.”

He’s talking about a war. If she really wants to be thegoddess of chaos, then a terrible war would be a wonderful beginning. Butstarting a war when her beloved brother is so hurt by them seems cruel, and shedoes not aspire to be the goddess of cruelty.

Ares grins, sharp and dangerous. He did not want to be thegod of war, but no one can deny he’s good at it, that he’s molded his unwantedpower into something deadly and different and entirely his own. “There willalways be war, my dear sister. The humans simply don’t know what to do if they’renot spilling blood. Maybe they learned that from watching us. There will alwaysbe another war, I will always inevitably be summoned to the battlefield. Onemore terrible war won’t change that.”

“You really don’t mind?” she asks, cautious, because shewants it so badly she can taste it, but she won’t run roughshod over herbrother just to get when she wants.

“What do you care?” he asks, but he’s still fond. “You wishto claim the primordial power of chaos for yourself. Strike fast, and strikehard. I’ll take care of myself, whatever destruction you bring.” She throwsherself at him, and he catches her easily, pressing a kiss against her cheek. Heputs her back on her feet, then pushes her back into the party. “Go. You havemore work to do.”

Hebe grabs a flute of nectar out of the hand of the closestnymph, who is outraged at the audacity until he sees who has taken his drink,and then he only bows his head ins submissions.

For now, they cower from her because she is the daughter ofHera and Zeus, because she is the sister of Ares and Hephaestus. But that won’tlast.

Soon, they will cower from her because she’ll have the powerto unmake them all, and this is her beginning.

~

To the fairest,says the apple, and she’d left it ambiguous on purpose, because she wasn’t surehow she was going to play it. An argument about beauty among goddesses is allwell and good, but not something they’ll wage war over.

“Who could it be for?” she asks, eyes wide and innocent, thesad and simple daughter of Hera. “Is not death the great equalizer of men?Perhaps it is for Hades.”

Minor arguments of beauty have been brewing all evening, butat this, everyone pauses, and looks at the golden apple with renewed interest.

“Clearly it is for me,” Aphrodite proclaims, who hadn’tcared for the apple when it was only a trophy to physical perfection. “For lovecomes to all, no matter the status and circumstances.”

Athena’s eyes narrow. Hebe is never quite sure if the twogoddesses loved or hated each other, and often it seemed as if they didn’t knoweither. “Oh, how can love be fair, when it cuts so deeply? Perhaps it is inmatters of intellect and warfare where true fairness lies, for all people can excelregardless of their history.”

Hephaestus usually sticks close to his wife, but at themoment he’s nowhere to be found, which is strange, because Hebe had seen himearlier. But what it means is there’s no one to restrain Aphrodite when shesteps into Athena’s space and says softly, dangerously,“The pursuit of intellect belongs to the privileged and the lazy, while lovestrikes all equally.”

“Please, don’t fight!” Hebe cries, stepping between them. “Letus settle this without discourse. Perhaps an outside party to decide who isfairest between you? A mortal, since it is upon your fairness to mortals thatyou each claim the prize.”

“A fine idea, daughter.” Hera’s voice rings like the tollingof a bell across the party, and all fall silent as their queen walks towardsthem. Hebe tenses, because if anyone besides Ares can see through her, it isher mother. But Hera barely glances at her, instead striding into the middle oftheir semi circle with hair in complicated curls and piled high, a moreintimidating crown than any gold or jewels she could wear. “But truly thefairest of us is I. For I am the goddess of family, and even those who have nointellect nor love to claim for their own have a family connected either byblood or by choice. Clearly I am the fairest of the Pantheon.”

For a moment, Hebe fears this will be the end, and bothAphrodite and Athena will lower their eyes and acquiesce the title of fairestto their queen.

But Hebe had not spent months calling magic from chaos andpressing it into molten gold for nothing. Without her influence, without thecall for conflict her golden apple exudes, perhaps it would have been nothing,perhaps it would have all amounted to nothing.

Her golden apple refuses to be nothing. It tugs and pulls atthem, it’s enticing strife demanding to be used.

Aphrodite and Athena, the motherless daughters of Zeus,stand against Hera, Queen of the Gods.

This is still small, still a not-quite-argument, but sheknows what it will grow into. This is the beginning of a Great War, one born andnurtured by her magic. It will be of chaos, and so shall she be of chaos.

By this war’s end, they will curse her name. Eris, chaoschild, the child of nothing more than the elements themselves.

Hebe will always love Hera, but Eris will have no origins.Chaos came before all else, and it has no mother.

~

Hades is walking down the hall of his palace, and then in thenext moment he is not, he is in a place that is not quite here nor there, norreally any other place either.

There are only three beings who can move him in such a way,and he’s looking at all of them.

“Fates,” he murmurs, inclining his head. “To what do I owethe pleasure?”

“It has begun,” Lachesis rasps, a woman in the prime of herlife and empty eye sockets.  “A primordialgoddess will soon walk this earth once more.”

An equally blind little girl runs her hand down the air infront of her, and for the briefest moments Hades sees a shining silver thread,one of the millions that the women are constantly weaving. “We could change it.Alter the destiny. It would just be one little snip.”

“All things must end,” comes the creaky, barely there voiceof the crone, the single violet eye the fates share between them in her face.Atropos glares at her counterparts, and he knows that they can tell, eventhough they don’t have eyes. It was them that taught Charon to see withoutseeing so long ago, after all. “So this girl is the beginning of the end. Weare born, and we will die.���

“Then we will be born again,” the child adds. Clotho remindshim of Styx too often, and he must remember that though she may look like achild, she’s not one, not even in the same way that Styx is no ordinary child. Thefates play by a different set of rules. “Perhaps I like this world. Perhaps Ido not want to leave it just yet.”

“We have time,” Hades says, and they all turn and look athim, swinging their bodies around in unison in a way that he doesn’t think he’llever get used to seeing. “The beginning of the end may be here, but the end isstill a far off thing.”

Atropos says, wry, “To master time is not to be a master toall that works within it, Kronos.”

Hades flinches. No one calls him that. Very few even know tocall him that. It’s been a long time since primordial gods walked the earth, long before Cronus and Rhea came together to make his current form. “I know that.”

“From chaos we were born and into chaos we shall fade,”Clotho says. “How long can you avoid your end, Father of Time? How long untilnot even your time can save you?”

Hades almost smiles, but restrains himself. He’s doesn’tthink they’d appreciate it. “Thank you for the warning, Fates. I will keep myeye on the ticking clock.” On the clock he controls, of course.

Their hands are moving through the air, touching strings hecannot see and rearranging them faster than his eyes can follow. “Goodbye, Kingof Death, Father of Time.”

Hades inclines his head, but doesn’t bother to voice his owngoodbye. Once they resume weaving, he knows they can no longer hear him.

He returns to his castle under his own power, and goes insearch of his wife. Persephone must be told first, after all.

Hebe is not the first god to reach for the power of chaos. Butmaybe it is time for the beginning of the end, maybe they should let her keepwhat she’s so desperate to steal.

Just because it nearly destroyed Dionysus doesn’t mean itwill destroy her.

gods and monsters series, part xxviii

read more of the gods and monsters series here