#not to mention sam being the plot protagonist also makes sense if the narrative lives in dean’s head

[cannibology]

i think about this a lot. because the thing is, i don’t think either of them are truly to blame for the seals they broke. dean was tortured into submission and had no idea that there could be such massive consequences to giving in; sam was manipulated and deceived and honestly thought what he was doing would stop the apocalypse, not set it in stone. neither of them willingly chose to break a seal, and neither of them had any way of knowing what they were really doing. they were key pawns in a game they didn’t even realize was being played, not active participants in it. and i don’t think you can really blame someone for falling victim to that.

but if you are going to blame sam for his part in it, you also have to blame dean for his. either both of them are responsible for accidentally breaking the most important seals, or neither of them are.

didn't...didn't dean break the first seal? why is everyone on sam's case for being manipulated into killing lilith (which he thought was a good thing bc hey demon dead) but not on dean's case for torturing souls and LIKING it? protect sam winchester oml

[prairiedust]

The Further Folklore of Supernatural

Here’s a little more folklore meta in light of how season 15 has been playing out if anyone is game. I genuinely thought that Moriah would be the end of the folklore stuff and tossed out “Folk the Author” as an “epilogue,” so this is probably less of an addendum than it is a waymarker as I try to continue to parse these themes into the last seven episodes.

Welp. *waves hands at everything* THIS is not how anyone expected 2020 to go. Things got a little bit big and I stopped thinking about Spn in light of needing that energy elsewhere. But I also don’t want this crapfest to ruin how I fan my favorite show, so here I go again. I will attempt a TL;DR, too!

If you’ve read my old “folklore” analysis here about how I think fairy tales and all their baggage fit into Supernatural season 14, you know that I believe Castiel has stepped into a Sleeping Beauty type story, and that coincidentally a few themes and symbolism from Snow White kept popping up around Dean. (I hold Sam to be a Protagonist in the modern “literary fiction” sense of the word, but emotionally, thematically, and narratively he’s always been a little inaccessible to me. I finally understood him when the death-of-the-author plot surfaced, and I’ll get to Sam eventually here. And Jack, there’s a little Jack in here, too.) 

If you would rather have the TL;DR than read several thousands of words about how folklore and myth *might* be abstractly connected to an American genre show, all I can say is that I tried. The textual support is all in the folklore posts. This is as succinct a summary as I could fabricate. At least I’m not gonna talk about Sam and bricolage and freeplay! This is an almost completely theory-free post! If you don’t want to read or don’t need a refresher and just want to know how this has been working in 15, you can scroll down to “END OF TL;DR”.

So, to catch up, I’m not talking about the folklore and mythology that this show has always relied on for plot and MOTWs. I wasn’t drilling down into urban legends like Hook Man or world folk monsters like shtrigas or pishtacos. By “folklore” I mean the study of storytelling tropes and tale types that have been with us for ages. One of the many subtexts of the end of the series. I’ve been tracking this because I think it’s fun to see how fairy tale imagery and mythology might layer preconscious suggestions into the text of the show. I personally think it was loud enough to be seen easily, but more than likely viewers felt unsettled, felt cheered, or felt like they knew what was coming? I’m curious to know. Anyway.

When we found out that Kelly Kline was going to name her baby “Jack” waaaaay back in season 12, things started chiming. Jack and the Beanstalk. Jack the Giant Killer. Jack Tales. Jack is a powerful Western character, sort of a cross between a noble hero and a trickster, featuring in stories that often blur lines and boundaries. He is both the poor man’s youngest son and the equal to King Arthur’s heir. Jack is both everyman and extraordinary. Jack is so cool, I wish I had more time to parse that but his qualities are not subtle in the text/subtext, anyway.

But back to my half-crack reading of seasons 14 and 15. 

Once upon a time in Supernatural, there were two fairy tales being told. Both fairy tales are found all over the world and in many forms, but they all can be grouped together because they all contain shared elements of the same basic plot or shared themes, and these two in particular are sister stories. So when I mention “Sleeping Beauty,” I’m talking about lots of different versions of the folk tale, and the same for “Snow White,” which can be found in one form or another in storytelling traditions all over the place. It is both helpful and irritating that these are both Disney movies, too.

Jack makes an allusion to Sleeping Beauty in 14x03 The Scar while talking to Castiel-- it’s the kind of subtextual flash that in and of itself means little and proves nothing, but then beginning with The Scar we got three stories in a row that dealt with “sleepers” of some sort-- Lora in 14x03 doomed to die because of a witch’s spell, Stuart in 14x04 Mint Condition in a coma because of a ghost attack, and Sasha’s father in 14x05 Nightmare Logic under the spell of a clever djinn. It’s powerful subtext, like a soft light that bathes these episodes in the color of fairy tale and makes Jack’s Dramatic Swoon at the end of Optimism all the more Dramatic-- subtext amplifying the plot. Jack goes to Heaven, but is eventually cornered by the Shadow, who wants him in the Empty where he will sleep forever-- the Shadow being an entity who has claimed the husks of dead angels since their inception and thus implies a “curse” laid on Jack from the moment he came into being-- but Castiel, who is ever a thief in oh so many ways, makes a bargain with the Shadow and essentially takes over the consequences of Jack’s Sleeping Beauty story (hence my rarely used but hilarious tag “Castiel Thief of Endings.”)

Now that we know from 14x20 Moriah that the Shadow and Billie the Reaper are, if not allies, at least working together when Jack is awakened in the Empty, does that mean that Castiel’s deal is still on the table, or has that fate been thwarted? *pounds table* Was Jack’s death and Chuck’s rise as a “greater threat” in 14x20 enough to shift Castiel’s ending? It’s the kind of subtextual question that lends tension to the narrative and it’s what I am here for. 

Well, speaking of thwarted expectations, Dean’s arc was being shadowed by a Snow White tale type. We all know Snow White but why don’t I sum it up anyway, since Disney messed up the folktale ending lol. Snow White is cast out of her home by her jealous stepmother (and echoes of the stepmother’s magic mirror show up in 15x02 Gods and Monsters) who sends her huntsman to kill her; the dude can’t do it and turns the girl loose in the forest instead. Snow White joins a band of outsiders who live in the forest-- in the Disney movie and the Grimms’ tale they are dwarfs, in some versions she happens upon a band of robbers-- and they love her very much and we presume she’s safe for the rest of her life; Michael mysteriously turns Dean loose to join Sam’s gathering of hunters, however we know, like Stepmom, Michael is still out there. The stepmother finds out that Snow White is actually alive and contrives to kill her herself. Eventually succeeding, Snow White appears to die and is usually laid to rest in a crystal casket/glass coffin. Her stepmother’s machinations have _stolen her agency_ (further paralleling Dean’s possession by AU!Michael.) A Handsome Prince stumbles upon Snow White, is besmitten with her, and he asks her protectors if he can have her, as one does. Leaving the Disney adaptation aside, Snow White awakens when whatever item that has caused her death-like state is dislodged (piece of apple in her throat) or removed (magic corset) or withdrawn (poisoned hairpin) by her protectors. Snow White is a story about the community of the dwarves of band of robbers or adopted family caring deeply for her, and when Dean starts making his own crystal casket, the ma’lak box, in which he will ride out eternity in tormented symbiosis with Apocalypse Michael, he has to rely on his family to help him see the plan through. However, here’s where Jack-- who is as much a chaos engine as his surrogate father Castiel if not more so-- steps in and ruins the ending. Jack smites Michael. Dean Winchester is saved. Again. To put the final nail in the coffin, so to speak, Jack later destroys the ma’lek box entirely. 

That was quite the surprise ending… for one of the stories.

Was the end of season 14 the end of the Sleeping Beauty theme, also?

END OF TL;DR

I quit writing about “folklore” for a while, but that doesn’t mean it stopped being a theme. It just stopped being fun to write about as the story got more and more dark, and when it transmuted into two parallel themes of “folklore” or storytelling by the people versus Death of the Author--or storytelling by a lauded authority-- and there was so much angst about the boundaries of Chuck’s powers, I just wanted to sit back and enjoy that. I did distill my thoughts about Sam’s new arc in the DotA plot, which I thought would subsume the folktale themes but hey, we still have folktales around, too. I mean, we have Sam and we have Dean, and we have two “literary” subtexts, or maybe rather two subjects about the nature of story, something that I thought was a little bit of a surprise.

Storytelling was a Feature of 15x07 Last Call, both in the sense that Lee and Dean swap new stories and tell old tales of their adventures together as they catch up, but also in the sense that we got additional “text”-- hints of a backstory where John and Dean hunted with Lee in that swampy long-ago “Stanford era,” and again we get storytelling when _Lee recounts how he ended up keeping a marid in his basement_. There is also an allusion to the Thousand and One Arabian Nights in that episode that I yelled about in a meta that I never put on the interwebs, but the “marid” is in a specific tale in many editions of that collection, and thus calls in not only a different folktale tradition but the concept of a framed/nested narrative, which I believe will be important to understanding the last episodes of the series, but that’s an aside. In 15x08 Our Father Who Aren’t In Heaven, Castiel _tells Michael the story_ of how everyone ended up where they are now to convince him to help. And Michael and Adam’s allyship, if not friendship, was probably the best subversion of any “storytelling” expectation we’ve ever had on this show. Belphagor set us up for “room full of crazy” or something, but, no. We got symbiosis. 

That almost sums up how I’ve been viewing the last “era” of spn. This wasn’t in the master post, but I shouted a lot about underworlds before 15x09 Purgatory 2: Return to Purgatory, and then stopped shouting because I had to ferment for a while. Also, as has been mentioned, the world turned to crap. But talking to other meta writers during the ramp up to the resumption of the season helped me realize just why this reading of myth to folktales to literature feels so right.

Underworlds and Otherworlds…. Everybody has crossed into an “underworld” or three in Supernatural, it’s really nbd. It was actually surface-level plot in season 13. By the time 15x09 rolled around, our heroes are just, like, strolling in and out of “sealed off” Hell after doing a level one spell and chilling with Billie in the Empty and even that Purgatory trip didn’t have the same feeling of danger that, say, crossing into the AU did. But also, we’re at the point where subtext is leading us to a _satisfactory_ ending. Where before we had serial text, like a cumulative tale type-- “The House that Jack Built”-- which just kept adding more and more plot, we’re hurtling o’er the apex of Freytag’s pyramid now and things are getting loud.

But they’re also getting very shifty.

I wrote a little bit about Sam Winchester successfully reviving Eileen in 15x06 Golden Time and the “Orpheus and Eurydice” symbolism of him keeping his back to her. (I’m not linking it because it’s so, so rough.) But because Sam is not an underworld hero, not completely-- I see him as a modern Protagonist coming to terms in a psychoanalytical model with things like mortality, fallibility, and mastery-- maybe bildungsroman, even -- he was able to subvert the tragic ending of the tale of Orpheus and Eurydice because it is not “his” story. But if I were pressed to find a mythic or folk tale type to measure Sam against, I could. I would probably sideye “the sorcerer’s apprentice” trope (ATU 325-The Magician and his Pupil :D ) which began as a poem that entered European folklore on different fronts. (and weirdly, that story was also Disnified in Fantasia. That’s probably more my own limitation as a gen x american lol than anything coming from the writer’s room.)

Dean got his moment in Purgatory where he was able to finally come to grips with his anger and heal the rift between himself and Castiel because Purgatory is a different kind of underworld. Dean is a successful threshold-crosser, having crossed that boundary out of Purgatory before, but in 15x09, his prayer to Castiel is all a subtextual evocation of doing the emotional and mental work of therapy, which Sam, as a modern protagonist, is usually caught up in. The mythic hero also deals with mortality, failibilty, and mastery, but in different terms. I hope I’m doing an okay job peeling apart these nuances that I’m seeing.

Since Castiel accompanied Dean to Purgatory, and in the past made his own wildly successful incursion into and out of Hell with Dean’s soul, and was the one in The Trap who actually retrieved the Leviathan blossom, Castiel counts as an underworld hero, too, but you can pull the lever and send the tumblers spinning again and make him a fairy tale character in that he has made this Bargain with the Empty which is both in the “modern” tradition of subverting a fairy tale, and the tale type “deal with the devil.” Or he could be seen as a modern protagonist in that he’s lowkey grappling with questions of selfhood and identification. “I am an angel of the lord.” “I am no one.” “It’s Steve, now.” “You are nothing.” “I am an angel.”

We even got an episode that playfully explored the concept of “hero” by subverting our expectations (Sam and Dean were rescued by, of all people, an upgraded Garth.) It was called The Hero’s Journey, after the Joseph Campbell book about mythic heroes.... !!! Like, what??? !!!! I didn’t even have anything to say about that episode, it just rocked. The “meta” was just all out there in plot, like the olives and boiled eggs in a 1950’s gelatin recipe. 

Some of this slipperiness in the subtext points right at the study of folklore and the (admittedly Eurocentric at first) efforts to transform a “soft science” into something approaching scientific rigor. The Aarne-Thompson-Uther folktale index is today a codifying or cataloguing tool, with which anthropologists and literature scholars can line up stories based on the motifs found within them-- it is useful for cataloguing tales, making comparative studies, and for trying to trace these stories back through human history to find the One First Story of that type, for instance the ur-story that led to Snow White. When did people first start telling that tale, where, how did it spread, and why are we still telling it today? The danger in using the ATU index is that by stripping a story down to it’s bones, we lose the story, if that makes sense. The beauty of using the ATU index is that you find many, many more interconnected stories. It’s sort of a paradox. Some scholars criticize the ATU, claiming that one could take a random selection of these motifs and shuffle them to create a story and, you sort of could? That’s the beauty of the system. 

So that brings us to Jack. I feel like Jack, as in Jack of all Trades, is anything that the narrative needs him to be. As far as I can find, “Jack” is not a “tale type.” He shows up alongside any number of them-- sometimes as a trickster, sometimes as a hero, almost always as a kind of slippery character. In the first folklore post, I invested many words in exploring Dabb’s obsession with threes-- AU Michael asks three beings what they desire, asks his human victim to guess his name three times, then we follow three sleeper stories, and so on. The original TFW was three people. But Jack makes four. 

What is Jack’s story going to be?

¯\_(ツ)_/¯

And speaking for a sec about the origins of myth and folklore-- what about ALL OF THE OTHER PEOPLE in the world? Are they lowkey churning the matrix of reality on their own and generating their own content, like Becky and her AO3 stories and mackettes? 

*¯\_(ツ)_/¯ intensifies*

It all just feels so good at this point, even the peril that I feel surrounding Castiel.

I *think* this will be the last of the longform metas before the end of the series. I mean, I can only hope so. I’ll drop some stuff about individual episodes that might be applicable as I rewatch, and I might clean up my post about Last Call and drop it on here, but I just wanted to kind of hold this up as a mile marker before the Final Seven air.

[postmodernmulticoloredcloak]

Presences, absences. Rowena, Mary, Eileen, Amara in 15x06

The protagonists of 15x06 Golden Time are all women, some physically present in the narrative, some physically absent but there in their absence.

On the level of the plot, the narrative plays with how the two ghost women, first the dead witch and then Eileen, appear in the fight and take their opponents by surprise: two seemingly absent figures that are in fact key players, but there’s more than that.

The episode opens with the witch Jacinda breaking in Rowena’s apartment, and, while the apartment is apparently empty except for the intruder, Rowena is the protagonist of the scene. The young witch is counterposed to Rowena’s portrait: Jacinda is disorderly, chaotic, increasingly frustrated. Rowena’s figure is still, composed, collected. While Jacinda is seemingly being the one in a position of power as she trashes Rowena’s stuff and shatters things, it’s actually Rowena who has full control of the situation. An intruder trashing through her apartment was a situation she perfectly accounted for, and the visible part of the apartment was just a stage, constructed to deceive and punish looters.

Reality and illusion is a strong theme this season, where you don’t know “what’s God and what isn’t”, where Dean and Sam have been put in front of the fact that the world around them is a stage where God moves his pieces from behind the scenes. This episode even contains a Djinn, the creature that most of all messes with your perception of reality. Nothing is what it seems: the young woman isn’t a concerned neighbor, Rowena’s apartment isn’t the abandoned space any witch can come in and steal from, the visible part of the apartment isn’t all there is and is in fact carefully constructed for appearances, the moving truck isn’t a moving truck, the sheriff isn’t human--and Cas isn’t either--, the fight isn’t two against two and isn’t two against three either, Sam isn’t the ignorant nobody Rowena’s legacy would be wasted on.

But let’s get back on track. Rowena is physically absent, but she is the director behind the scenes: she hexed the apartment so that an intruder would die, and set things so that Sam could have access and take what he needed, and she left journals so that her successor could learn from her and use her magic. Rowena’s ingredients and spells save Sam and Dean and bring Eileen back to life. Rowena isn’t physically there, but her legacy and forethought save the day and allow Eileen to come back as a fully living person.

The other woman who isn’t there but whose presence runs through the episode is Mary. Mary has been a “absent presence” since Jack did the thing. The episode that followed her (supposed) death, aptly titled Absence, was all about her presence in her disappearance, and her absence has never stopped existing in the narrative. It’s in Absence, in fact, that Rowena researches the spell that Sam ends up using for Eileen, and the events from that episode are repeatedly referenced by Sam and Dean. The conflict between Dean and Cas, while it has its roots in “structural” issues between them, has arisen from Mary’s death. Mary’s absence still informs the narrative, and silent storytelling techniques also add to making her “present”, such as Dean’s appetite for meat.

@drsilverfish​ has been suggesting that Mary might not be dead, but “misplaced” either mistakenly by Jack (possibly in another universe, as Jack has obviously been a force that messed up with universes since before he was even born), or deliberately by Chuck in a scheme where everyone would assume that Jack had killed Mary, thus putting the “Moriah” storyline in motion.

The hints are indeed there, and this episode is just the culmination. The circumstances of Mary’s disappearance and her supposedly being in heaven are repeatedly referenced (in an episode where Cas, the one who saw her in heaven, goes against a Djinn, the monster that makes you perceive a fake, fabricated reality...), Dean expresses his regret that they couldn’t bring her back (but the spell brings back a woman from water, after a series of multiple episodes rich in symbology revolving water and fire, fire being the element that notably killed Mary).

Even the villains of the episode are a mother with her two children, although one may argue that the witch mother was more of a John parallel than Mary, but even as a contrasting mirror it plays into it. In the other storyline of the episode, we have a mother who is looking for her child. In this case, the presence-absence axis is swapped; it’s the child whose absence moves the plot, but, again, it’s the woman, Melly, who is the “director” of the events in that storyline, as she’s the one who gives Cas the elements to run the case and asks for his help.

So, Rowena is the director of the witch storyline (the mother witch thinks she is, even looking through mirrors like a director looking at the screens where footage is being played, but she’s mistaken), while Melly is the director of the Djinn storyline (although the absence that puts it in motion is her son’s, while it’s Rowena’s own absence that puts the witch storyline in motion).

And Mary? She has never been the “director” of anything, quite the opposite, her entire life being manipulated by God with the one exception of Amara going against her brother’s plan for her. And yet her absence has been a driving force for so long, the force who drove her husband’s and sons’ entire life--John’s revenge quest, Dean and Sam’s upbringing in the world of monsters and hunters. The biggest clue that there’s more to her (supposed) death than it meets the eye is that it’s just history repeating. Mary dies, her absence drives the story: Dean’s revenge quest against Jack (the failure of which really pissed Chuck off), the cleft between Dean and Cas.

The theme of this episode is indeed women who are in the middle between life and death. Eileen and Jacinda are ghosts, existing in the veil between earth and the afterlife, neither one or the other, as both Sam and Jacinda’s mother plan to take advantage of a “loophole” in the order of Death.

Rowena is not there and yet she is, though her preparations is case something happened to her. Mary is not there but she is constantly evoked, and the circumstances of her death are affecting her family. Are they going to be Eileen or Jacinda? Is their metaphorical ghost going to be banished once and for all, or are they going to be restored to corporeity and full presence?

Eileen is reborn from water in a clear metaphor for a mother’s womb. Rowena drew the spirits into her belly in a reverse-birth imagery. Mother and child were the main civilians they helped in 15x01, mother and child are helped by Cas in 15x06...

I want to conclude this with two other women who are not present in this episode, and yet their presence, in different ways, can be felt.

One is Death, mentioned by the witch mother in the foreshadowing-smelling line “show Death a loophole, and she closes it”. And the other is the figure that represented the banished feminine returning, Amara. Eileen was killed by Ketch when his role in the narrative was exactly to be the toxic masculinity dark mirror to Mary and Dean, and now she is brought back in a win against the repressive masculine (also, the witch mother, who tries to oppose Sam’s plan to bring her back, despite appearances, is primarily a mirror for John and Chuck, representing abusive parenting - the older sister might have abused the younger but the implicit enabler of that abuse is the parent, who probably encouraged Jacinda’s spells and made Emily feel inferior and all - and manipulation that mirrors Chuck’s).

Eileen falls in a pattern of figures of femininity and healthy interpersonal relationships harmed by figures of toxic masculinity and abusive dynamics. She is brought back thanks to Rowena’s magic, so I wonder if we’re supposed to read an Eileen--Mary Rowena--Amara parallel. If not really Rowena, then magic/witchcraft.

No one remembers it, but I had massive feels/expectations of a connection between the Darkness and witchcraft, and if the show is actually doing the thing, my heart is probably going to burst and I’m going to die on the spot, I’m warning you.

Anyway. Amara is the cosmic feminine principle who was banished and brought back, and that is implicitly evoked by Eileen’s comeback. And Mary is the narrative feminine principle that was fridged for the plot and Amara brought back. Now magic (the feminine principle that the Men of Letters attempted to banish, remember? We were all expecting Sam embracing magic because it was the perfect “supernatural” parallel to Dean’s embracing of “human” feminine side) brings Eileen back.

And beyond all of this, the woman that the poetic fabric of the cosmos brought back upgraded after she was killed as the consequence of the vicious circle of self-sacrifice in season 12, the same as Eileen. Speaking of vicious circles... what’s round and bad-tempered?

Now to the actual conclusion of the post--there’s another “absence” in the episode, although in a different sense. Dean takes a step back from things, taking refuge in ways to soothe the shock of the latest revelation about Chuck and his newfound nihilism. While Sam drives (figuratively and literally), Dean chooses to be absent from the case of helping Eileen. But then, of course, he intervenes when he’s needed, and in fact kills the two siblings, dark mirrors for him and Sam (unlike the werewolf brothers, it’s Dean and Sam who actively destroy the dark mirrors for the Winchester family in this episode, so who knows if Chuck was behind that.)

Genders are swapped here, Dean and Sam are aligned to Rowena and Eileen, while the witches represent abusive and codependent family dynamics (that one sister chooses not to break despite being given an opportunity to) with the mother, as I mentioned before, paralleling John and Chuck, and the sisters an apparent parallel to Dean and Sam, as Sam tries to connect with Emily, before we realize that their experiences with the respective siblings are on totally different levels.

In particular, Dean burns the body of the older sister. Again, fire and water in contrast, with the figure of abuse burning and the figure of healthy interpersonal relationship and femininity banished by toxic masculinity is reborn from water. Sam does the latter, Dean does the former, two movements that are opposite yet complementary. The negative is destroyed in fire, what killed Mary, the feminine principle of the narrative, in the first place; the positive rises from water, an allegorical womb.

[sweetsmellosuccess]

The Best (and Worst) Films of 2019

In many ways, 2019 served as a crucible, and no more so, at least cinematically, than with the venerable superhero flick. After a deluge of big studio films on the subject of capes and spandex (the MCU includes 22 films since the 2008 release of Iron Man; the nascent DCU, running it fits and starts has seven), we saw the explosive close-out of the previous “phases” with Marvel’s Avengers: Endgame; as well as the rise of pseudo art-house comic book film, Joker, in the same bloody year.

The talk on Film Twitter  —  the living definition of ‘tempest in a teacup’ —  was all about those films, and Martin Scorsese’s now legendary take down of the genre by referring to the super hero films, collectively, as  “theme parks.” But in truth, there were many, many other films that came out during the year, some of them utterly brilliant, some of them ridiculously awful. Here are my picks for both, with some of what I wrote about them at the time in my review.

10. Avengers: Endgame

“There are so many small but noteworthy details -- opening the film with Traffic's "Dear Mr. Fantasy"; the name drops, and special shout-outs to comics' fans; the small character beats that allow each protagonist more than just a quip or two; the closing credits, which give singular notice to the stars who have been there from the beginning, and wisely do not use the signature Marvel trick of teasing out the next film, which gives the series, at last, a sense of real closure, if only temporary -- the film feels as if it has been created and calibrated with the utmost care. For a film destined to break the bank no matter how shoddy they might have made it, Marvel has poured enough genuine soul into it to earn its inevitable bounty.”

Full Review

9. Her Smell

“In some ways, the film takes on a sort of Raging Bull aspect, Martin Scorsese's classic film about a boxer's rise and fall, only to turn the ending on its head. In Scorsese's picture, we see Jake LaMotta, now fat and retired, attempt to break into showbiz as a comedian, the scenes draped in cutting sardonicism. Perry gives Becky a much less punishingly ironic turn, but instead a hero's journey, venturing away from the abyss into something a good deal less grandiose and realized.”

Full Review

8. The Last Black Man in San Francisco

“It's also a film about the versions of the stories whose ideas lend depth and valor to our otherwise nondescript lives, the things we hope make us the heroes of our own narratives. In this way, Jimmie's story is conflated with that of the city itself, and the palpable sense of loss he feels about his family's house is mirrored in the city's own loss of identity.”

Full Review

7. Under the Silver Lake

“Mitchell fairly stuffs the film with portents, symbols, and runes, some real, some imagined. Squirrels mysteriously fall dead at Sam's feet, a parrot in his courtyard keeps calling out something he can't decipher, a dog killer stalks the neighborhood, and graffiti strewn about the area calls out to him. Films are always encoded with symbolic meaning, utilizing visual language to instill emotion and establish significance for the audience (think of Spielberg's girl with the red coat in Schindler's List, or James Dean's red windbreaker in Rebel Without a Cause), Mitchell's film gives us so many options, almost everything can be read symbolically, which perfectly captures the paranoia his character feels, and the pointlessness of trying to make sense of it at all.”

Full Review

6. Marriage Story

“Noah Baumbach’s latest film, about the dissolution of married couple – played extraordinarily well by Adam Driver and Scarlett Johansson – will no doubt get comparisons made to Bergman’s brilliant Scenes From a Marriage. But whereas that 1972 film concerned the relationship itself, its highs and lows and metamorphoses, Baumbach’s film is much more about the logistics, legal and otherwise, of ending a very much shared life together.”

Capsule Review

5. Midsommar

“Viewing Aster's films is a bit like walking into an art installation -- quite literally, as he populates his frame with stunning compositions and art-focused mise en scene, as with the beautifully designed wooden structures of the compound, or the exquisite murals and art displayed on the building's walls (a huge shout-out to his production designer, Henrik Svensson, and the art directing crew) -- but, as with Hereditary, behind all the sumptuous, hand-crafted beauty, there is a cruel, brutal core of humanity's continued savagery. If art represents the best sort of impulses of humankind, in Aster's hands, it becomes yet another facade, hiding -- or in this case, exemplifying -- our instinct for vicious barbarity.”

Full Review

4. Parasite

“By the end, as it swerves inexorably into blood-soaked violence, the film reveals to be a bit of a con itself, drawing us in with its enticing humor, then opening up into a much darker vision, before ending on an emotional note of surprising vulnerability. Through it all, Bong shows a mastery of odd tones, from the opening comedic salvo, to the final emotional beats.”

Capsule Review

3. Uncut Gems

“It’s one of those pressure-cooker films, where the steam builds more and more intense as Howard gets in and out of trouble through his ability to constantly shift the playing board. There’s a scene about midway through, with various aggrieved characters coalescing at once in his office, as he’s trying to have a speaker phone conversation with his doctor, that’s so stressful, you will want to avert your eyes and remind yourself of the exit signs.”

Capsule Review

2. Once Upon a Time in Hollywood

“It's also an unexpected joy to watch the nonchalant swagger of Pitt match up with DiCaprio's more high-strung ministrations. Two of the biggest film stars alive playing mostly washed up TV actors may stack the irony, but both of them settle in so well into their characters, you can't help but admire the result. Rick is a dude whose ego has gone from tumescent to shriveled -- he parks his car miserably in front of one of his own old movie posters -- but beneath all his hubris and despair, he actually has a lot of talent. As always, it's pure joy to watch Pitt smoke up a screen, a middle-aged Redford speaking every line with a sinfully breezy smile, whose confidence extends around him like the golden hue of his deep suntan.”

Full Review

1. Knives Out

“More than the plot itself, an ingenious and kinetic thing that's as satisfying as a hot bowl of soup on a raw and windy day, there's the sense of joyous chaos from the cast. Those scenes where the family is all together, in the drawing room and continually at each other's throats are so delicious, they should come with a napkin. The interplay between vets like Shannon, Johnson, Curtis and Collette is filled with fractious energy, the characters revisiting age-old disagreements ("Your kid's a brat!" -- "Your kid is a Nazi!") with sadistic glee. Even when they band together, in moments, against what they believe to be a common enemy, it's clear the harmony between them is more Iggy and the Stooges than Beach Boys. In short, Johnson has devised a perfect ensemble of dreadful characters and set them all against one another in a narrative fishbowl filled with lye.”

Full Review

Other Worthy Mentions:

Amazing Grace, American Factory, Apollo 11, Bacurau, Birds of Passage, Charlie Says, Cold Case Hammarskjöld, Dark Suns, Dark Waters, Ford v Ferrari, Greener Grass, In Fabric, John Wick 3, Jojo Rabbit, Luce, Midnight Traveler, Ms. Purple, Pain and Glory, Rewind, Something Else, Terminator: Dark Fate, The Farewell, The Hole in the Ground, The Irishman, The Lighthouse, The Nightingale, The Report, The Souvenir, The Vast of Night, This is Not Berlin, Us, Varda by Agnes, Vitalina Varella

Best Upcoming Releases of 2019

The Personal History of David Copperfield

The Burnt Orange Heresy

Bad Education

First Cow

The Worst Films of 2019

5. Greta

“In short, Jordan turns Greta into a Michael Myers-esque boogeyman, everywhere and no place at once, almost a phantom, but for her high heels and French condemnation. In this way, the filmmaker loses his grip on his material.”

Full Review

4. Ma

“Apart from a truly absurd script, director Tate Taylor's film performs ungainly political gyrations -- asking us to root against a survivor of sexual abuse and humiliation for trying to gain (albeit misplaced) revenge on her attacker. Sort of a rape-revenge thriller set upside down, such that nothing makes any ethical (or emotional) sense. It quickly becomes an awkward mishmash of impulses, wanting to provide cheap scares while fostering a deeply schizoid sense of sympathy, while managing to fail mightily at both.”

Full Review

3. The Dead Don’t Die

“Jarmusch's proclivities have always leaned toward such lightly affecting material -- as if the act of actually generating emotion is somehow vulgar and unseemly -- which has also endeared him to his faction of fans. For everyone else, though, it doesn't leave much to look at. Filmed without fanfare (albeit with a few more special effects than usual, and a kind of cool splattering of sand-like mist when the zombies are beheaded), and with the intensity knobs all turned down to their lowest setting, he continues his sous vide-style of filmmaking. Whether you like the dish he's serving, or want to throw your hands in the air and go somewhere else for dinner is all in your temperament. Whatever you choose, you can be certain the same menu will be available the next time you venture back.”

Full Review

2. Dark Phoenix

“The clearest loss, however, is with the story itself -- its legacy struck deep in Marvel lore -- once again being studio nitpicked, and focus-grouped to within an inch of its life. If Endgame audaciously proved a superhero movie could rise toward an emotionally satisfying arc, this failed attempt proves the opposite is also true: Chronic incoherence, even if spread out among a multitude of titles over 20 years, just feels like a soulless money grab. Adding to the sense of this film's slapdashery, the trailer features lines and moments unused in the actual cut, which is never a good sign.”

Full Review

1. Lucy in the Sky

“The film is meandering and pretty much pointless, a major flaw that Hawley himself indicated in his introduction (“we work as hard on the bad ones as we do the good ones,” he told the audience in an example of supreme foreshadowing. Portman does her best, but the film sputters pretty hard, and is never able to justify itself.”

Capsule Review

Other Dishonorable Entries:

The Aftermath, The Curse of La Llorona, Gemini Man, Glass, Hellboy, Joker

Inexplicably Overrated: Joker, The Dead Don’t Die

Biggest Welcome Surprise(s): Ford v Ferrari, Once Upon a Time in Hollywood

Most Bitter Disappointment(s): The Lodge, Wounds

Film That Critics Got Wrong: Waves

Best Film I Saw Last Year, Period: Scenes From a Marriage

[charmingturkeysandwich]

On Series Finales

(I need to get this out of my head)

(I have so much to say about narrative structure vs. audience opinion)

People always have very strong opinions on series finales. Obviously. It’s the culmination of years of investment in something. Because of this you’re never going to make 100% of people happy. Each of us is invested for different reasons; we connect with different characters. What we “like” is always going to differ. 

That doesn’t mean that calling something a “bad” finale is all about taste or who you ship or stan or what have you. Sometimes the episode simply fails the narrative it built. Being disappointed in something because of a narrative failure can’t be written off as “you just wanted a happy ending and that was never going to happen.” Especially with modern dramas, bittersweet is the happiest we can really hope for. Even comedies usually have some painful episodes leading to the end. I don’t think anyone is expecting TV shows these days to end like Disney movies. Hell, Disney movies sometimes don’t end like Disney movies anymore.

Anyway, enough babbling. Here’s the thing: in fiction - as in life - expectations are everything. Many writing choices the writers, directors, and producers make will set up these expectations. When they’re not met, people are cranky. And for valid reasons.

1. Where you start a story is important. 

An often ridiculed series finale is How I Met Your Mother. The pilot focuses on Ted falling immediately in love with Robin. And the “twist” is all “oh, that’s not your mom; that’s Aunt Robin!” But there’s a reason it started there. Yes, technically, you can argue the reason is because Ted ran into the mother at Robin’s wedding, so meeting Robin was important. But they chose to continue to focus on Robin/Ted the whole fucking series. So technically it made sense narratively for him to come back to her in the end. Somewhere along the way I tweeted the show and said it should be called How I Met Your Aunt Robin, because it truly was more about her than the mother. So, yes, people were pissed when she died and it was “all for nothing.” But despite the title... it was never really her story. So in this way, I defend the ending. It fit the story that they told. They began with Robin. They continued to focus on Robin. Why wouldn’t he “end up with” Robin?

2. Pacing matters - and heavily influences expectations

In How I Met Your Mother, you have a day-to-day, usual kind of sitcom for 7 seasons. Then all of a sudden, a 48-hour span of time is spread out for an entire season! This was jarring and I found it to be tedious. Jack Bauer is not here; the world is not at risk. We do not need a minute by minute account of these two days. In this way, I think the whole last season is a disappointment. 

It also served to adjust our expectations. OK I just watched 20 episodes of how much Barney loves Robin - this must mean something. NOPE! Divorced in one episode. An episode, mind you, where they flew through years of their lives. After drawing out two days. For a whole season. They put a couple decades in, like, a half hour. In this way, How I Met Your Mother failed narratively. The pacing sucked and it made us expect something different from the finale. In this regard, I fucking hated that show and want my time back.

Pacing is super important to Game of Thrones, AKA the reason I can’t get series finale essays from running through my head. You’re set up in a world that is medieval-esque. There are no airplanes and Ubers and the magic doesn’t seem to have evolved into teleportation or the like. Everything was slow in the beginning, for many seasons. Conversations were at the forefront. It was  a social game. It was about the people, first and foremost, even though the stupid sword-y chair was important, too. That was the plot. Likewise, in the beginning, people weren’t protected by plot armor. Remember, GoT so fantastically shattered our collective expectations for a show, but in the most organic, realistic way. We were carrying the expectations of other dramas with us and projecting them on this show, assuming Ned was “safe” because he was our lens - at least, more so than anyone else. He was the protagonist! He might be tortured, but he surely wasn’t going to be beheaded. Wrong! He was. That and its fallout allowed us as viewers to fully commit to a whole new set of expectations.

But then as time went on, travel just kind of... happened. Things that should have taken a whole season happened in a scene! And with no kind of acknowledgement. Additionally, that initial slowness built us up to have HUGE payoffs. Think of all the tiny things that led to the disaster/amazing episode that included the Red Wedding. They built us up and they met that slow burn hype. In later seasons, they have ridiculous outward hype over the white walkers and Night King, over confrontations between Cercei and her potential killers (Jamie, Arya, etc.) The pacing led us to believe that these things would conclude in a deep and meaningful way that justifies the time we spend watching and theorizing on our own. When you suddenly hit fast forward through the good stuff, it’s jarring! And you lose character development.

And, oh, the plot armor thing. We were led to believe this show wasn’t like other shows. No one was safe. So someone please explain to me how exactly half (or more) of the named characters survived the battle with the undead?! Sam was basically crying in a pile of bodies. Jon was hiding behind a rock from the Ice Dragon who had just blue-flamed down a giant fucking wall. Brienne and Jamie had been on the front lines of that second wave. But their (and others’) plot armor was simply too strong. We were betrayed by the “new” expectations that I, for one, deeply respected. Gore is not my thing - I often had to look away and hum through certain scenes over the seasons - but to know that there were always consequences and that the stakes were always high and unpredictable... that’s what made this titty-fest bloodbath worth it! Take away its uniqueness from all other shows, and you’re just left with some really violent almost-porn. 

3. We watch your show for characters, not shock value

OK, yes, some people enjoy the big reveals and that’s kind of why they signed up to begin with. My brother cannot get over some of the CGI scenes and battles, so I get it. But for the most part, every story is rooted in the characters. You could take the most exciting story on the planet, in the most intricate world, but if you put boring ass people in it, no one will care. We’re invested in the characters and we want them to be consistent. And if they change... well they better change slowly, the way that actual people usually do. Redemption arcs are common in fiction - more common than in real life, sadly - and they can really pay off. As can whatever you call the opposite of that. Falls from grace? I’m not sure. Either way - slow is key here. Drop hints. Build it into their character. It’s a gruesome comparison, but if a frog jumps into boiling water, he jumps back out; if he’s in cool water and you gradually heat it up he will eventually boil to death. This is how falls from grace should occur. The character doesn’t just jump into boiling water. It doesn’t hold up.

Dany is obviously the big one here. I’m not arguing that it would be possible for her to become the Mad Queen and torch King’s Landing. But I’m saying that maybe at least a time or two before her little tolling bells meltdown we should see her saying “fuck the innocent people.” We should have seen her violence spreading beyond people who deserved it. The writers should have presented us with more moments that signaled she cared more about power than actually breaking the wheel. Her character was too consistent for too long (go back to pacing and expectations and where the story began) for her to have a turn like that and for it to be satisfying and accepted.

Similarly, Jamie’s abandoned redemption arc didn’t make sense to me. Drop us some hints that he’s still hateful above all else, maybe, before you have him just up and revert at the mention of Cercei dying... a thing he clearly had to realize was coming well before that moment.

There were complaints about this same thing with Barney from HIMYM, along the lines of “seriously we sat through a season of him redeeming himself (and truly, he started before that) just to watch him go back to banging any under 30 with daddy issues an episode later?” Honestly, that one makes a little more sense. He was problematic even at his best! And they did show that he tried to not be that guy - he and Robin were married for a year or two (offscreen, of course) before the divorce. The biggest problem with HIMYM wasn’t the characters - it was the pacing! It changed our expectations and left many disappointed. 

And finally, For God’s sake you don’t always need a crazy twist.

And maybe this falls to the producers and not the writers. They want viewers. They want coverage. They want listicles on Buzzfeed. And both HIMYM and GoT got them! But at what cost? The reason we didn’t get any lead up to Dany turning is because they wanted to shock us. The reason that they didn’t have some of the strongest theories come true is because they wanted to shock us. Shock has been used well in this series to this point. Masterfully, even! But this wasn’t masterful. This was the showrunners playing God instead of letting things happen organically. Some twists make sense after you look back and notice the buried hints. Some twists make sense because there were things that you as the audience didn’t know yet. But other twists are only shocking because they’re out of character, unrealistic, or just plain dumb. We didn’t get much after the twists except some speeches that honestly sounded like the showrunners themselves speaking to defend their choices. Awkward.

Another series finale that disappointed many fans with its twist was Lost. I never watched, but, I mean, if I watched a whole series just to have it never have been real, I would have been pissed. I was terrified that OUaT was going to do that - that in the finale we’d find out it had all been a dream little Emma was having at a group home or some shit. Fans are invested in long-running series - especially those with supernatural/sci-fi words - and to pull the rug out from under them like that is just... rude. And massively disappointing. You mean we speculated ourselves to death for nothing?! 

What people want from a series finale is an ending of this chapter of the characters’ lives that honors the past and acknowledges the future. There’s a reason that series finales often do something to bring it “back to the beginning.” It’s satisfying! I love that the last thing that we saw the Friends do is go get coffee together. That’s how it started! But after that coffee, they were off to the next part of their lives. I love when they get a little self-aware/meta in the last episode, like when Cory says, “Boy Meets World, now I get it.” And then he and Topanga were moving to New York City. Back to the beginning/the roots... but also going somewhere new.

My point in all this is simple: usually when there’s a massive uproar over a series finale, it’s not just petty people being mad their fave didn’t get the ending they wanted. It’s usually a sign of a problem in the writing, whether it be the writing of that last episode or of the series in general. 

Everyone’s opinions are valid and their feelings are real. But when the writing is bad/lazy/shoddy/too focused on a few scenes they’d clearly imagined before writing the finale/clearly leaving certain plot holes or opportunities for spinoffs even when it doesn’t necessarily make sense... people notice.

(And, oh, do they let you know it.)

[nightqueendany]

Daenerys As Antagonist

Alright, time to go to school children. Get your notebooks out and pencils ready. We’re gonna talk about what an ANTAGONIST is, how it’s used in literature and film/television, and whether or not it’s accurate to refer to Daenerys as one.

The definition of Antagonist as a literary device from Literarydevices.net:

In literature, an antagonist is a character, or a group of characters, which stands in opposition to the protagonist, which is the main character. The term “antagonist” comes from the Greek word antagonistēs, which means “opponent,” “competitor,” or “rival.” It is common to refer to an antagonist as a villain (the bad guy), against whom a hero (the good guy) fights in order to save himself or others.  In some cases, an antagonist may exist within the protagonist that causes an inner conflict or a moral conflict inside his mind. ...Generally, an antagonist appears as a foil to the main character, embodying qualities that are in contrast with the qualities of the main character.

Also from LD.net, they give us the purpose or function of an antagonist and say this:

Conflict is a basic element of any plot. The presence of an antagonist alongside a protagonist is vital for the typical formula of a plot. The antagonist opposes the protagonist in his endeavors, and thus the conflict ensues. The protagonist struggles against the antagonist, taking the plot to a climax. Later, the conflict is resolved with the defeat of the antagonist; or, as in tragedies, with the downfall of the protagonist.

Britannica.com defines an antagonist as the following:

Antagonist, in literature, the principal opponent or foil of the main character, who is referred to as the protagonist, in a drama or narrative. The word is from the Greek antagnistḗs, “opponent or rival.”

Both the Britannica definition and the Literary Devices.net definition mention the word’s etymology, the Greek equivalent, and that the direct translation is “rival or opponent.”

TVTropes.org gives us this:

The Antagonist is the opposite number to The Protagonist. This is because antagonist exists for the purpose of opposing the efforts of the Protagonist. They don't have to be a Villain, or even morally objectionable in any sense (though they often are); they merely have to oppose the Protagonist. For example; if the Protagonist is evil then the Antagonist is the one standing between them and their goals. The Antagonist usually provides the conflict and thus the story. Because of this, the Antagonist is about as Omnipresent as the Protagonist, though there are stories that have No Antagonist. The Antagonist is usually the Big Bad, or at least an Arc Villain.

I find this definition particularly interesting because it says the Antagonist doesn’t need to be a villain, they just need to oppose the Protagonist.

In summary, the ANTAGONIST opposes, stands against, fights, or competes against the PROTAGONIST and makes it difficult for the Protagonist to reach her goals. The Antagonist may or may not be a villain and usually embodies characteristics that stand in contrast to the Protagonist.

But before I get into all this as it relates to GOT and Daenerys, I’ll also give you guys the definition of Protagonist:

LitDevices says this:

A protagonist is the central character or leading figure in poetry, narrative, novel or any other story. A protagonist is sometimes called a “hero” by the audience or readers. The word originally came from the Greek language, and in Greek drama it refers to the person who led the chorus. Later on, the word started being used as a term for the first actor in order of performance.

In the Function section on Protagonists: LitDevices also adds this which I think is super interesting:

Some stories weave many characters into an ensemble story, but even in such stories there is often one character that is more important to the story than the rest. For instance, in The Lord of the Rings trilogy there are many characters that have great significance to the story, but Frodo Baggins is the one who stands out, because everyone else’s destiny rests in his hands.

Which gives another layer to what a Protagonist is, or could be: Someone who is responsible for the fate of all the other characters.

Last piece of info I’ll throw at you guys before applying all this to GOT is describing what natural story-arc is:

Even if you have a story told out of order/chronology a là LOST or anything by The Nolan brothers (Westworld, Inception - I’ve got Batman on the brain, to be explained later), you still inevitably have a story that is presented in this arc. The beginning of a movie or story is the exposition phase (even if it’s a flashback or flashforward), middle is rising action, rising action hits the climax, then the rest of the movie/story is falling action and resolution. Any story, any movie, any show, ever, follows this formula.

Exposition: Beginning of the story, introduces characters, setting, other important information the audience needs to know. Possibly sets up the “goal” for the Protagonist.

Rising Action: The series of incidents or events that create suspense, tension, or interest in the narrative and lead to the climax. This is where all the “problems” and “obstacles” come in that prevent the Protagonist from reaching her “goal”.

Climax: The “turning point” of a story, the “crisis” of a story, where the action of a story reaches it’s peak. The ultimate “fight” or “showdown”, when the Protagonist confronts her problems head on.

Falling Action: When the main problem of the story is resolved, begins to lead to closure, gives the audience a feeling of relief, chance to catch their breath again, when the audience gets to see the “fruits” of the protagonist’s labor.

Resolution/Denouement: The essential “end” of the story, where the conflict is explained or clarified, typically is the “epilogue” in stories, answers the “so what?” of the falling action, the outcome. Often can be combined with Climax and Falling Action.

In television, if it is not the series finale, the Resolution/Denouement scene/episode often also contains a *NEW* problem/sows the seeds of future obstacles/conflict that leads the audience into the next episode/season and keeps them interested in continuing watching the series.

Now how does this all relate to Daenerys and Game of Thrones in general?

Let’s take it Point by Point according to Story Arc

Exposition: The exposition of our story is the first episode/season 1 as a whole. We learn all of our key players and we learn of all the major/key conflicts.

Nothing and no one introduced after the Season 1 either a) lives to the end or b) has a major affect on the endgame/is a key character anymore.

Think about it. Season 1 told us everything we need to know that is still 100% relevant to the endgame now seven seasons later:

Our key characters now are: Jon, Dany, Cersei, Jaime, Tyrion, Sansa, Arya, Bran, Sam, and Theon. Every single one of these characters was introduced to us in Season 1. Hell, they were all introduced to us in Episode 1 (save Sam). Everyone else on the show simply functions as a part of one of the above characters. Euron, for example, though he’s a prominent character now, only really functions as a side-kick for Cersei and a personal antagonist against [mainly] Theon - who is not the main protagonist.

We learn about key issues in season 1 that are still relevant: Daenerys’ exile and her family’s history, Jon’s bastardry, Cersei/Jaime’s incest, the conflict between the Lannisters and the Starks. AND, of course, we can’t forget the main one, our very first glimpse into the world of Ice and Fire in both book and show: The White Walkers. All of these elements are still incredibly important going into the final stretch and will most definitely have an affect on the outcome of next season.

We learn of our key locations in Season 1: Winterfell, The Wall, and King’s Landing. I would be incredibly surprised if we spend much time next season outside of these three locations.

All of what we need to know for the endgame was introduced to us back in S1. We even learn how to DEFEAT the army of the dead back in S1 (courtesy of Jon): FIRE. And of course, we’re introduced to our final element of the story, the main piece in play in the whole story (the piece that also contains the element to defeat the main antagonist): the fire breathing dragons.

(I say piece in play because the dragons, though we love them, don’t really serve as characters. They are more tools. And, as we saw at the end of 7x06, we now know that BOTH sides have this tool to use).

Rising Action: In ASOIAF/GOT, of course, there is A LOT of this. All of it relevant to the endgame in it’s own way, but of course, some pieces are more relevant than others:

The Starks vs The Lannisters/Cersei’s Rise to Power: essentially began the War of the Five Kings, put the nation at war for years, greatly depleted the countries resources and of course, fighting men. This most definitely has an affect on the endgame because it necessitates outside forces in order to defeat the army of the dead. If there had never been that war and Robert were still alive and serving as King, then there would be plenty of men to send North to take care of the Walker problem. It would be a terrible war. But the country would have enough men to handle it. Renly alone commanded a force of about 100k.

Trouble at The Wall/Jon’s Rise to Power: throughout the series, we see just how in disrepair the Wall has been in and what the men at the Wall have had to go through. Not only have the Night’s Watch dealt with wildlings attacking, depleting their men, weapons, and other resources, but of course, many Night’s Watchmen were lost to the army of the dead when Jeor Mormont took his host beyond the Wall in Clash/Season 2.

Essos/Daenerys’ Rise to Power: Parallel to the decline of the Seven Kingdoms due to the War of the Five Kings, Daenerys rises to power in Essos, hatching her dragons, gaining her armies, gaining her legions of dedicated followers, and of course, all of this leading to her finally returning to Westeros.

Those three elements or “plot points” (I know they’re more plot lines but this is condensed remember) have been leading us to the climax of our story and the ultimate showdown next season. Every other little dispute, fight, problem, conflict, etc. has been directly tied to one of those three major ones.

So far as Climax and Resolution, we will see those next season.

So with all of those in mind, how does this apply to the definitions of Antagonist and Protagonist in the series?

With a series like GOT, again, it can be difficult to pin down who the “main” characters are or who the “protagonist” is when we’ve got characters like Ned and Robb being killed off in the first few seasons.

But again, going back to Episode 1, it’s relatively straight forward if you pay attention. Our main Antagonist is introduced to us in the first scene of the entire series: The White Walkers. The main conflict connected to that, of course, is first getting people to believe in them, Ned telling Bran the walkers haven’t been seen for thousands of years. It’s something Jon struggles with up until the very last episode of S7 - convincing people of the real threat.

The series is called A Song of Ice and Fire. Right there, we’re given a Pair of Opposites: Ice and Fire. If we were to try to guess characteristics of main characters without any context of the story whatsoever, the natural assumption should be that there will be two and that there would be one male and one female - a pair of opposites....but maybe that’s just me projecting.... 

Watching the first episode also, it’s not difficult to identify one male character and one female character who both stand out from the others: Jon and Dany. Even if people didn’t fully understand it then, those two even in that first episode 1x01, are fundamentally different from everyone else. Out of every single character introduced to us in 1x01, they’re both the ultimate underdogs. We learn right away that Jon is a bastard and therefore looked down on by society. And we learn Daenerys is not only an exiled former princess but she’s also a pawn of Viserys’. Out of everyone in the series from that first episode, they both have the most against them.  

In the 1x01 commentary, Dan and Dave only talk about three characters: Ned - of course, he’s the “main character” of Season/Book 1; but they also talk about Jon...and Dany. That’s it. No one else is mentioned, not even Bran’s fall or Cersei and Jaime’s incest. No other storylines are mentioned. We were told straight from the beginning by the producers who to watch. These two.

The question that arises then, mostly from antis, is: but is the series setting Jon and Dany up to fight against each other? Is Daenerys the “other” antagonist aside from the White Walkers?

To answer this, let’s first establish one thing: I don’t think anyone would argue that Jon is the main male character in the show. He has more screen time than anyone else in the series, he is obviously pegged as the “hero”. So Jon is the main male “Protagonist”. Anyone arguing that? No? Good.

So to figure out who Jon’s “Antagonist” would be, looking at the definitions of antagonist, functions of an antagonist, and the natural arc of the story, we first need to figure out what Jon’s main Goal is. After all, whatever stands in the way of our Protagonist’s “Goal” would be the obstacle or Antagonist.

What is Jon’s goal?

Of course, like with any television series, Jon’s “goal” changes throughout based on what he experiences. In the beginning, he’s looking for a sense of belonging and also recognition/a little bit of glory. He’s grown up a bastard and knows he will never inherit or be able to make a name for himself elsewhere, so he goes to the Wall with Benjen to join the Night’s Watch.

We could say Jon’s “antagonist” in the first few episodes is Lady Catelyn as she’s the constant reminder that Jon is a bastard and Jon even thinks about her long after he left Winterfell.

Jon’s also a little bit in conflict with himself in these early episodes because he is rather arrogant and thinks himself better than his companions at the Wall. This is something Tyrion helps him overcome by giving Jon a different perspective on his own, actually privileged upbringing.

Thanks to Tyrion’s help, Jon soon realizes another goal of his or a purpose of his: to help/protect people. At first it’s on a small scale, sticking up for Sam, helping Pyp and Gren to improve their sword skills, etc.

Jon’s antagonist throughout this storyline is very obviously Alliser Thorne and of course Ser Alliser makes comebacks throughout Jon’s time at the Wall to oppose him at crucial moments.

But then Jon’s goal/purpose becomes helping/protecting the world of men at large once the two bodies of the former Night’s Watchmen are brought back to Castle Black and attack Commander Mormont.

In that first season, we see, on a small stage, Jon facing off against his main opponent: the dead. Jon is the first of our main characters to face off against the dead so I absolutely believe it was foreshadowing of the final showdown in Season 8 - it will be Jon against the dead (as opposed to Robb or Ned or Bran). Pretty incredible actually to look back and know we were told the ending of the show wayyyy back then, huh?

Jon being our first main character to encounter the dead, he is also the one who discovers the primary way to defeat the dead: FIRE.

(Interestingly, the scene DIRECTLY following this one between Mormont, Jon, and the wight, is a Dany scene, the character in the series who is most closely connected to fire). But I digress...

Again, as the series progresses, Jon’s GOAL, again, gets a little muddied. He discovers what Craster is doing with his baby boys and realizes Mormont knows and isn’t doing anything about it, he’s taken captive by the wildlings and asked by Qhorin Halfhand to spy on them, he’s tasked with defending the Wall from Mance’s attack...Jon’s got a number of “small scale” goals he’s got to accomplish and get through and obstacles/small scale antagonists he’s got to get through/go up against throughout the show.

But they all connect to, and they all go back to, the primary one: defeat the Night King, save the world. (having a flashback, save the cheerleader, save the world (anyone, anyone?). Now if only Jon had a cheerleader...)

So again, as we get closer and closer to the close of the series, we realize what Jon’s ultimate goal as the Protagonist is: DEFEAT THE NIGHT KING.

Now, the question becomes: Does Daenerys present obstacles to Jon’s goal of defeating the Night King? OR Does Daenerys actively work against Jon’s goal of defeating the Night King? OR Does Daenerys present a threat to Jon’s people?

OR even: Is Daenerys working with the Night King?

Because those are really the only reasons Daenerys would be considered an Antagonist in the series. She would have to be working against Jon’ and his goal(s). It would have nothing to do with what happened in Meereen or even against the Lannisters because the slavers of Slaver’s Bay and Cersei/Jaime/Randyll Tarly are not the Protagonists.

So lets take this one question at a time:

Does Daenerys present obstacles to Jon’s goal of defeating the Night King?

YES. For all of about twenty minutes of screen time. Daenerys refuses to accept Jon’s word as truth about the Night King and then doesn’t meet with him again for a few days (at most a week), leaving Jon twiddling his thumbs on her island when he needs to be planning on how best to protect his people.

THEN Jon asks Daenerys for Dragonglass - the weapon which will help his people in their fight against the Night King...and Daenerys GIVES it to him. Rather than present Jon with another obstacle, not only does Daenerys REMOVE an obstacle for Jon, she gives him ASSISTANCE or an AID in achieving his goal.

Does Daenerys actively work against Jon’s goal of defeating the Night King?

No. While her war with Cersei does prevent Daenerys from further ASSISTING Jon, it does not stop Jon from going to fight the Night King.

Seeking AID and not getting it and having someone actively work against the hero’s efforts are TWO COMPLETELY DIFFERENT THINGS.You cannot equate the two in order to reason that Daenerys is an Antagonist to Jon. That’s not the way story/rising action/conflict works.

Does Daenerys present a threat to Jon’s people?

YES. For all of about an episode and a half. When Jon receives Tyrion’s scroll he now knows there’s a new queen in town with an army and dragons that could POTENTIALLY pose a threat to his people. And at this point, Jon doesn’t know what Daenerys’ intentions with him are. So up until Daenerys gives Jon the dragonglass, she could be perceived as a threat. That’s 100% fair.

BUT again, when Daenerys goes from “I don’t believe you about the army of the dead” to “I will give you weapons to help you defeat the army of the dead” her character moves from “Potential Antagonist” to “Passive ALLY”. I don’t say “potential ally” because there’s nothing potential about it. Dany’s not just thinking about helping Jon, she actually is. She’s not fighting alongside him yet, but she’s helping. That’s an ally.

Is Daenerys working with the Night King?

HAH! Oh gods. Uh...No. Let’s see:

Went to save Jon - the hero - FROM the Night King

Lost a dragon AT THE HANDS OF the Night King

Pledged to Jon - the hero - to fight with him AGAINST the Night King.

I’d say it’s safe to say at this point, Daenerys is just as opposed to the Night King as Jon is.

Which, according to our definitions of Antagonists and Protagonists, if Daenerys is in opposition to the Antagonist and defeating the Antagonist is now her main goal, that makes Daenerys, A PROTAGONIST and a HERO.

Now, I’ve seen some people argue, well, Daenerys will help Jon defeat the Night King but then she will threaten his people/go mad/try to kill someone in his family, and that will make her the “ultimate” antagonist.

However:

All of that is SPECULATION. It hasn’t happened yet. And unless it does happen, it means Daenerys isn’t an antagonist in the story.

After defeating the Night King, Daenerys’ resources will be severely dwindled - her army will be smaller, her dragons may die. If she is without the resources to threaten Jon, it doesn’t make her the “Ultimate” Antagonist. It makes her a weak threat if she so chose to then attack Jon - which is what the entire argument rests on: IF SHE ATTACKED JON.

I honestly don’t know why this is so difficult for people to understand. According to logic and literature, Daenerys is NOT an Antagonist and there are no signs that she would “become” one in the future. Her plight is Jon’s plight now. If anyone believed Daenerys was on some kind of a “villain” arc or “anti-hero” arc or “antagonist” arc with her story, then that ended the moment Daenerys gave the dragonglass to Jon and it was even more solidified when she pledged to fight alongside him in the Great War ...and then actually left for the North in order to do so.

I’ve seen some people bring up the Two-Face Argument (this is why I had Nolan and Batman on the brain earlier): You either die the hero, or you live long enough to see yourself turn into the villain.

But if we are to apply this logic to all heroes, it would mean Jon too MUST die in the Great War OR ELSE he will turn into the villain of the story.

However, the example of Two-Face is highly specific. Think about what happened in the story: Harvey Dent’s girlfriend, love of his life, was murdered. And, due to some weird reasoning on Dent’s part, he believes this to be Batman’s fault. So, of course, he wants revenge against the man he believes is the reason his girlfriend is dead.

Jon’s “girlfriend” is Daenerys. Daenerys’ “boyfriend” is Jon. If either of them die, it will likely be at the hands of the Night King. So the person they would want revenge against...would be the Night King...the main antagonist anyway.

But Batman examples aside, I’ve already talked at length about why Daenerys wouldn’t go mad next season after the Great War is over.

If Jon dies - she’ll move on. She’s lost a husband she loved before.

If she has a miscarriage or her baby dies - she’ll move on. She lost her son before.

If Drogon and/or Viserion die - she’ll move on. She lost a dragon before.

If she’s captured and tortured - she’ll move on. She’s been held prisoner and beaten/raped before.

If she’s betrayed - she’ll move on. She’s had people lie to her, join her enemy’s side before.

There is nothing that could happen to Daenerys next season that would make her turn mad at the end of it all. She’s already been through everything imaginable. She’s learned to cope. Yes, she has become a harder person. She’s become more ruthless. That is absolutely true. But ruthlessness does not equal madness. Tywin Lannister was one of the most ruthless characters in the series and yet he’s seen as one of the most cunning characters in the series as well, no madness accusations thrown at him ever.

It’s time to face facts: Daenerys is the other half of the Protagonist in A Song of Ice and Fire/Game of Thrones and she is a Hero. She and Jon will work together to defeat the Night King. She will not betray him. She will Jon. She will not challenge Jon. She will not fight against Jon. Whether they both live through the end of the story, who knows? But she is NOT an Antagonist.

[mittensmorgul]

Season 13 and the Big Bad

A defining characteristic of Supernatural in seasons past was the early identification and buildup of the Big Bad character of the season, to the degree that the cosmic escalation of big bads became a running joke. And then the show itself transcended the running joke with the whole “God’s SISTER!” thing, and honestly, where the heck do you even go from there.

Demons, Bigger and Scarier Demons, More Demons, Apocalypse-starting Demons with a side of Dick Angels, Lucifer and Michael, Raphael and Monsters, Leviathan, Demons and basically the Winchesters screwing with the natural order, Angels and Bigger and Badder Demons, MoC!Dean, God’s Sister the Darkness…

I mean who else was waiting for Fuckhands McMike to show up?

Once you hit that level, the whole IDEA of a single season Big Bad just… loses the power to engage. Almost everything after that point is gonna have a Been There Done That element to it.

That’s why the whole point of s12 wasn’t about a Big Bad Character, it was about the Winchesters finally having moved out beyond the plot far enough to look back at their legacy in a critical way. The BMoL weren’t there to act as the Big Bads, despite filling in part of that role. Same with Lucifer. Same with Mary. The real Big Bad of s12 was the Winchesters’ past, their legacy, their “destiny.” And finally beginning to find some sort of resolution and a fuller understanding of themselves. And that theme is continuing full-steam ahead in s13.

The real Big Bad is the friends we made along the way.

Nah, just kidding. The real Big Bad of s13 so far is Dramatic Irony. But let’s back up and examine the players on the board so far:

(under a cut because it’s like 3.6k words and this just seems practical, if annoying) :P

--There was much speculation that Wee Lil Nephilim Jack could “grow into his power” and become the season’s Big Bad, and 13.01 certainly tried hard to make us believe it… for about 15 minutes. He’s certainly got a terrifying amount of power at his disposal, but he’s such a lil marshmallow and just wants to be GOOD so badly. Just give him some nougat and watch him struggle to understand human morality with his Beyond God-like Abilities. So while he’s definitely a source of Major Cosmic Disruption, he can’t really fit the Big Bad bill.

--In 13.02 we met the Kentucky Fried Demon, the last yellow-eyed Prince of Hell, Asmodeus. Thanks to later retconning, we’ve tied yellow-eyed demons right back to the opening scene of the entire series, and the Inciting Incident of all the drama we’ve watched unfold over the last 12+ seasons. And the last one standing has now also been referred to by Lucifer as the “least” of his creations, yet Asmodeus has had a few surprises up his sleeve-- including his shapeshifting. But for all his inexplicable raw power to even confidently best Lucifer in a head to head fight, what are his actual goals? We know he’s long wanted to release the Shedim from Hell, but to what end? What does he even want? He talks a big game, but does he even have a Big Plan? Halfway through the season, we just don’t know, and as a result Asmodeus reads more like a cartoon than an actual threat, despite his “weirdly strong” powers.

--The Empty Entity, which after 13.04 I saw numerous posts speculating that maybe the Entity would grow weary of sleeping (or of being woken up by other angels and demons who somehow began awakening as a result of Cas’s disturbance to the force). But really, the essential nature of that force is… the opposite of interfering in reality. Much as God’s powers of creation held no power in the Empty, the Empty’s eternal stasis can’t hold power within Creation. Obviously Jack’s powers are somehow capable of bridging the gap between them, the same way he’s able to bridge the gap between alternate realities, but so far, the Empty Entity seems like a one-off.

--Billie as the New Death. I, for one, am SO GLAD she’s back, and that the mantle of Death has finally passed on to her. I’d been screaming about her being the New Death since 11.02, and she’s finally come full circle and stepped into that role. As such, she’s in a position to see the full scope of the Cosmic Circumstance, and her previous insistence on what amounts to a tiny cosmic imbalance of the Winchesters’ continued existence is more like a tiny grain of sand out of place while the problems the Winchesters’ continued existence SOLVES is like an entire beach crumbling away. As the linchpins holding the multiverse together, she’s counting on the Winchesters being ALIVE now. Hardly seems Big Bad-ish to have thrown her lot in with the protagonists of the piece, yes? She still has cards to play, especially after warning Dean about the cosmic house of cards and its current precarious state due to Jack’s interference with multidimensional affairs. Rather than having an agenda to do harm, like the Old Death, Billie serves more of a bellwether role. She’s a neutral force that’s acting within her powers to at least drop hints and warnings to the Winchesters.

--Lucifer has incredibly found his way back to the story AGAIN. Like, why won’t he just DIE already? *sighs heavily* At least now he’s been officially de-powered by AU Michael to the point where he’s become rather… ineffective. Poor thing and his little stick. So far, since he’s returned to the regular universe, his function has been running around Chicken Littling at everyone. Ironic since his main stumbling block so far has been his own personal Colonel Sanders impersonator. *cue all the chicken/egg metaphors* *something something chickens coming home to roost* *finger lickin’ good* It’s hard to take those sorts of parallels too seriously.

Just as Asmodeus is the “weakest” incarnation of a Yellow-Eyed Demon who has become “weirdly strong” mostly through the emotional significance that Yellow-Eyed Demons have held for the length of the entire series, Lucifer has become “weirdly weak” himself despite the effect his mere presence has just looming over the entire narrative since he was first mentioned way back in s3. His power is now largely symbolic through the psychological trauma he inflicted on Sam (and now as of 13.12, on Rowena). His Big Bad status seems far more weighty on a personal level for the Winchesters (and particularly on Sam), in finally confronting how their cosmic destiny has truly fucked with their lives.

Lucifer himself, meanwhile, has spent most of the season impotently locked in the AU, physically locked in AU Michael’s Iron Maiden, physically depowered by AU Michael’s rift-opening spell, and then tossed around by his “weakest” creation and locked in a cell for the last six episodes. Granted this gives him motivation for taking action, but his obsession with destroying Michael still seems to be his underlying motivation. Sure, he’s still interested in saving “the last perfect handiwork of God,” i.e. the natural world, but he still doesn’t give a damn about humanity. As of 13.12, the most danger he represents is the fact that the Winchesters have no idea he’s back in this world, and that he’s not the one holding Mary captive in the AU and torturing her. Which brings us tidily to…

--AU Michael. The Ultimate Big Bad of s5, at the end of the day, was Michael. He was the one who insisted on sticking inflexibly to his “destiny.” The “good and obedient son” who was prepared to carry out what he believed he had to, despite every opportunity to resolve the apocalypse peacefully and just choose not to fight. Even LUCIFER tried to make peace with him when they finally met at Stull Cemetery, and yet Michael regarded it as yet one more act of “disobedience” from his disobedient brother. And in the AU, their version of Michael actually won the big throwdown, and as a result left the entire planet a wasteland. Lucifer may have wanted humanity wiped off the planet, but witnessing the destruction of all of God’s creation was a shocking reminder that he never wanted to destroy nature… Michael didn’t even care, as long as he’d fulfilled his destiny. How… righteous (in the worst possible sense of that term, bordering on self-righteous). That has some Big Bad makings, no?

The problem with Michael so far this season is that he’s already succeeded in destroying his version of Lucifer, and destroying his own Earth in the process. It’s a fait accompli in his world, but as soon as he stumbled across the rift and learned of another world where he’d failed in the past, he’s been rejuvenated with fresh purpose. It seems almost compulsive for him-- Find World, Destroy World. It’s like his Prime Objective, and he’s incapable of NOT living up to that destiny. It doesn’t make him a Big Bad, just based on that alone, but it does give viewers the ol’ raised eyebrow of suspicion, just based on Michael’s past history.

Not to mention, Lucifer’s pointed out several times that like Asmodeus who seems “weirdly strong” (and yes I keep harping on that phrase because the Plum Sisters were also “weirdly strong” in 13.12, and for Yockey to write such terribly awkward dialogue there HAS to be a purpose, aside from gently mocking standard Bucklemming dialogue), AU Michael is more powerful than the version that the Winchesters (including Cas) helped defeat in 5.22.

The fact that Lucifer keeps insisting that Michael is so powerful, that Michael always gets his way, for those of us actually WATCHING the show, that’s just… blatantly false. The one thing Michael wanted most back in s5 was for Dean Winchester to say yes to him. It’s the one thing he never got. Because Dean’s will proved stronger than Michael’s sense of destiny and obedience. Back in 5.22, Michael rendered himself irrelevant when TFW “ripped up the ending.” The AU where this version of Michael is from never had the Winchesters to contend with, and so has never had to confront the true power of Free Will. Honestly? With TFW 2.0 resurrected from the ashes, how big of a threat does AU Michael truly pose? Because from OUTSIDE the story? No matter how “weirdly strong” that Michael is, it looks more like he and Lucifer are playing out the same pantomime they did back in s5, with just as much chance of actual success as they’d had back then.

What Michael and Lucifer DO bring to the story right now isn’t so much their power to be New Big Bads, but their power to bring the PERSONAL trauma that Sam and Dean (and Cas, by extension) went through as a result of the original setup and downfall of the Apocalypse, and an outlet for them to finally examine the emotional and psychological fallout of what they’ve suffered through and sacrificed to keep the universe from derailing itself over and over again. Which brings me to…

--The interdimensional rifts themselves. Billie had warned Dean about the cosmic house of cards that was dangerously close to toppling as the characters become more self-aware, and realize there are actually ways to cut through to other universes where they might find a way to give themselves a mulligan… where they might be able to “start all over again,” where they made different choices that led to different results. But the stability of the multiverse relies on individual realities maintaining internal continuity, and not bleeding over into one another at random. Which brings me back around to what Chuck told Dean when he left Dean in charge of the universe back in 11.23, and which Dean referenced in his anguished plea for help in 13.01, namely…

--Dean’s not only the “firewall between light and darkness,” but he’s been set in place as the figurehead for balance in the universe. He’s been appointed the guardian of creation by proxy, and hell he really doesn’t want the job. And yet who else is even going to try? Is that what Lucifer is trying to do, at least on the surface? Is that what Cas is attempting in trying to find Jack? Is that what Sam’s attempting in trying to help Jack learn what it means to be human versus a monster?

--Heaven and their Endangered Species Repopulation Project. It seems the angels are growing more desperate as their numbers dwindle. They’ve mostly ceased their interference on the mortal plane, aside from their desperate quest to find and use Jack’s powers to replenish their numbers. But considering Jack’s power level, it doesn’t really seem like much of a real threat to Jack himself. Considering the burst of power that came from Jack’s “power up” of Kaia, that seemed to make BOTH of them “weirdly powerful” enough to tear open another rift and simultaneously nuke six angels. Something tells me that if Jack wanted it enough, he’d have the power to snuff out pretty much any threat to himself. Sure, he’s trapped in the AU right now, but even that’s effectively removed him from the angels’ grasp anyway. It’s been a non-issue for the most part, and in the overall scheme of things, doesn’t seem like a top priority concern for anyone right this second...

--and finally, after 13.12, Rowena’s true nature and full powers have finally been unbound. What is she? What will she do with her powers? What are her goals now that she’s finally been restored to her full power? Will she retain reluctant Frenemy status with the Winchesters? Will she actively seek revenge against those who wronged her, primarily Lucifer? Will she make a play for power in revenge for Crowley’s demise? What does she even want now that she’s attained the personal freedom and safety she’d been seeking since her first introduction back in s10? Right now, she’s a wild card, but we do love her dearly, and I’m glad she’s back. :)

So… who’s really the big bad?

Between the season’s major themes of “things that look like other things,” and things not being what they seem on the surface, as Lizbob’s been saying all season, the Big Bad seems to be Dramatic Irony. The story ITSELF is its own worst enemy.

It’s the narrative structure screaming, “What you don’t know absolutely can and WILL hurt you.”

And all of this is being delivered through the resurfacing of old friends in slightly “off” ways. How many characters and cases and circumstances have directly pinged circumstances from the Winchesters’ past? Going right back to the opening scenes of 13.01, and the “vision” Dean had after Jack knocked him and Sam out-- the flashback to Mary burning on the ceiling overlaid against her being dragged through the rift by Lucifer in 12.23. The entire setup of that scene was rife with flashbacks to Sam losing Jess in the pilot episode, the woman in white played by Kelly Kline, the yellow-eyed monster in the nursery played by Jack, and Cas playing the role of the loved one who was burned and therefore was supposed to “stay dead.” But Mary had already defied that assumption, because she didn’t stay dead. Cas didn’t stay dead either. And now Rowena has also defied that particular truism...

Right from the start of the season we’ve been confronted with things from the past, but which only hint at the past because they’ve now either been applied to different things, or they’ve been transformed into something different, or encountered under entirely different context.

--The “Black Spur Bar,” which had previously been Demon!Dean’s hangout during his summer of love with Crowley was transformed into an entirely different bar where Dean mourned Crowley’s death and was unwittingly confronted by a new demonic adversary (dramatic irony!).

--Donatello the prophet, now purposeless in this post-prophecy, post-God world, left to live on without his soul, and yet still doing the best he could in the circumstances he was left with.

--Literal Alternate Universe versions of lost friends-- from Bobby to Kevin, to mentions of John and Mary and their existence in that other world. There’s no bigger metaphor for “Things that look like other things” than literal alternate versions of loved ones…

--Missouri Moseley, absent from the narrative for thirteen years, returned to pass on her legacy to her granddaughter, who’d been raised to doubt her own psychic powers and has now been forced to face what having those powers means for her.

--Not to mention Patience Turner’s last name dredges up questions about who the “Turner” who gave his name to James and Patience may have been, and as I sit here watching 11.16 I’m again reminded of the speculation that maybe it was actually Rufus Turner… we may never know, but heck, it’s definitely not wild to believe it might be true.

--Buddy the shapeshifter, in the sense that nobody is GIVEN the name “buddy.” It’s a nickname, and one that Dean has used many times in the past for Cas. But “Buddy” by his very nature… wasn’t. He impersonated Dean and attempted to shoot Sam. He wasn’t their “buddy” either.

--I mentioned her above, but Billie is no longer what she was before. She’s not a reaper, nor a dead reaper, but has been returned to the story as Death.

--The reaper who comes to collect Dean (and who Dean defies) in 13.05 is named JESSICA. That name is never spoken lightly in Supernatural. It’s a name nearly as loaded with personal baggage for the Winchesters as Mary or John, and again resonates straight back to the pilot episode of the series.

--Themes of monsters and the old west and cowboys and time travel (it was an antique pocket watch that even tipped Jack off to the case in Dodge City in the first place), with Cas now fully reintegrated with TFW, all call back to 6.18, even with the same musical cues, but the themes have all been twisted around sideways and reframed to new purpose. The fight’s no longer about external monsters and stopping the apocalypse, but internal monstrousness.

--We all thought Arthur Ketch was dead until he showed back up pretending to be his own “good twin.”

--We all also thought Rowena was dead.

--Nick’s Bar, where Lucifer chose as a convenient spot to have a chat with Cas about the potential Apocalyptic Situation they may be facing… while Lucifer’s now perma-trapped in the vessel formerly known as Nick…

--The new King of the Crossroads who survived less than the run of a single episode before being dethroned… He thought he could be the next Crowley, and Dean slapped him down with the truth, calling him “Some random demon.”

--Smash, aka Alice; the human dragged against her will into matters Supernatural, who pretty much everyone saw and immediately yelled OMG CHARLIE.

--The return of the Wayward crew, Jody, Donna, Claire, Alex… but now they’re no longer victims of the narrative. They’ve got their own entire spinoff. :P

--The Bad Place. Aka Purgatory Redux.

--Darth Kaia

--A monster auction that put the Winchesters on the chopping block, run by an FBI agent who literally served the monster population, in contrast to Human Authority Figures of the past, up to and including the BMoL who’ve fairly unilaterally wanted to destroy monsters in favor of protecting humanity.

--In that same episode, we finally see a bit of Donna’s personal life-- from her care for her niece to her relationship with Doug 2.0, and Doug’s ultimate rejection of the hunting life when he’s finally introduced to it.

--Jamie, aka Dean’s temporary “soul mate” in 13.12, was also the name of the bartender in 4.05 that was symbolically Dean’s “new first time” after having been “rehymenated” after his resurrection from Hell.

Not to mention Various and Sundry Villains, the theme this season being “Not what it appears to be,” as demonstrated at its most basic visual level with physical masks and hoods obscuring identity, monsters that take on different faces like shapeshifters and ghouls, or force their victims to PERCEIVE an altered version of reality such as the wraith.

Things are not what they seem on the surface, and the entire plot, the monsters of the week, and even ALL the potential “Big Bads,” and the narrative structure itself-- which is turning around and around this central point of Dramatic Irony-- is the fact that even us as the audience to this entire spectacle, with our added insight into SOME of the dramatic irony playing out week to week, even WE still do not see the bigger picture.

I'm cautiously optimistic that a lot of the Winchesters' problems regarding what they Don't Know will resolve when Cas joins up with them again. Cas holds a lot of Important Information that Sam and Dean need. They’ve been kept as much in the dark as a result of Cas’s imprisonment as Cas himself has. But even through the early part of the season, the validity of information they’ve worked off of has been suspect at best. The info they got from Jack's Vision Download in 13.09 wasn't the WHOLE truth about Mary’s imprisonment in the AU. They’ve made several rather large inaccurate assumptions based off that quick glimpse, though. Just like Patience's vision of Claire's death wasn't the WHOLE truth either, but it let to making several Big Choices that ended up having Massive Consequences.

Even when they think they're seeing the Big Picture Truth, there's still critical info missing from that picture.

The entire SEASON is the big bad wolf in sheep’s clothing.

That’s the entire POINT.