#ritzen

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[shallowseeker]

Thank you for the blade/penis meta. <3 Do you think when Dean slides him the blade during the Ritzen fight, it's a continuation of this?

The moment that Cas reclaims his blade in 9x06 Heaven Can't Wait is a big one for me. I think it can certainly be read as him reclaiming his virility, his agency. (EDIT: Thanks for this one, dad.)

When we see Cas again in 9x09 Holy Terror, he is wearing a suit, driving a car, and motel-hopping on his own—skills he appears to have no problem accomplishing. (Much like how taking the bus wasn't difficult for him as early as season 5.) This suggests that his time "lying low at the gas station" was about more than just lacking resources.

With the Rit Zien, this decision to live—to not simply exist but to act—contrasts beautifully with his sense of suicidality in Purgatory, and even his earlier breakdown in season 7, where everything felt meaningless/repetitive. This transformation in 9x06 is signals Cas choosing to actively engage with life again. Truly engage with it in a way he hadn't in a long time!

On the darker side, it also mirrors the archetype of the rejoiner: soldiers who find themselves unable to integrate into civilian life. They get drawn back to war for purpose and identity. Cas, too, finds strength and clarity through action—though the cost of this path remains... ambiguous at best.

This is a part of SPN's broader commentary. Rowena’s pointed observation in 13x21—“I know a thing or two about wounded masculine pride,” for example. Rowena tries to soothe Gabriel with sex:

ROWENA: I know a thing or two about wounded masculine pride. [She trails her fingertip over the top of the pestle. They continue eye contact, then Gabriel’s eyes widen as he catches on to her innuendo. Then the scene cuts back to the Winchesters and Cas in the kitchen.]

With Cas, it's a literal reclamation of the blade, but it can function as a virility (penis) symbol all the same:

EPHRAIM: You say you want to live. But you can't see what I see. By choosing a human life, you've already given up. You … chose … death. EPHRAIM lifts a hand to CASTIEL's forehead. DEAN slides the knife across the floor towards CASTIEL. CASTIEL grabs it and stabs EPHRAIM. White light bursts out of EPHRAIM and he screams; DEAN ducks his head to shield his eyes from the blinding white light. A torrent of white light streams out of EPHRAIM's mouth as his scream continues. The body of the formerly-possessed, now-dead, husband falls to the floor. DEAN pants. CASTIEL looks solemn. 9x06

Ephraim accuses Cas of having already surrendered by choosing a human life. (Choosing death!) But Cas isn’t choosing death. He’s choosing life, with all of its complications (one of which is death ofc)…

Anyway, when Dean slides the blade to Cas, Cas takes it and stabs Ephraim—a rejection of being a passive participant in life. It's a violent, sacred affirmation of Cas’s will to keep going despite the pain, a contrast to the checked-out nihilism that plagued him in Season 7, and the struggles with suicide and penance throughout Season 8-9.

Yet, this moment carries dual meanings. On the one hand, Cas's decision to fight IS his desire to live. On the other, it's tied up with the idea that, for him, survival is linked to conflict. (The specter of the rejoiner lingers—has Cas rediscovered his will to live, or is he following the only path that still makes sense to him? I think it's probably both.)

EDIT: I think about this one a lot. Moral injury is just... *waves at it all* It's my thing.

[granada1443]

Jodi Ritzen

[axjanj]

Boofen in den Ritzen zusammen in einem Schlafsack. Normal.

[friedstummwaves]

"Radiowellen quellen aus Ritzen und Dellen"