#spn 7x21

[postmodernmulticoloredcloak]

Most insane underrated line in Supernatural is "the angels, they don't care. I think maybe they just don't have the equipment to care. Seems like when they try, it just breaks them apart". We are in season 7 episode 21!! Cas and Dean haven't repaired their relationship yet!! Dean is fresh from Cas' betrayal and loss, he has barely started processing the entire thing - and this line has everything, there's the acknowlegment that whatever bad Cas did was from a place of caring, of trying, there's the dose of guilt because Dean blames himself for breaking Cas, there's the other side of the blame coin because as far as Dean is concerned "breaking" Cas is an improvement from the default angel uncaring condition, but is it, isn't it, is it, isn't it? Is giving an uncaring creature the equipment to care an improvement or a downgrade? Is the pain worth it? Is turning Pinocchio into a real boy a gift or a punishment? The very touch of your corrupts. You turned him into the same rotten, twisted thing as you are. Humanity is a virtue. Humanity is a curse. The humanity in you is a value. The humanity in you is a perversion. You are hell incarnate, turning an innocent thing into a monster. But is the monster a monster when the monstrosity you gave him was the ability to care? Where's the line between defilement and mercy? Who traces the line? Depravity and goodness are sides of the same coin called humanity and you're so full of humanity it's bursting at your seams. You're a plague inflicting the ones around you with your sickness but the sickness is being a person. You installed the personhood software into the robot and it's not perfect anymore. Is it broken? Or is it really perfect now? Who decides that? Do you get to decide? Is the one you affected able to decide?

*grabs Ben Edlund by the shoulders and shakes him, all while screeching*

[strawlessandbraless]

I remember watching Supernatural for the first time and feeling bad for sexualizing Castiel because he’s an angel and also my best friend

And then all at once I understood why Dean Winchester is the way he is. And it made the line ‘the very touch of you corrupts’ hit so hard. Just look at how both Dean and Cas react here…

If they had only loved themselves as much as they loved each other

[drulalovescas]

THE VERY TOUCH OF YOU CORRUPTS WHEN CASTIEL FIRST LAID A HAND ON YOU IN HELL HE WAS LOST!!!!!!!!!!! is an actual line spoken to Dean Winchester about gay angel Castiel in the CW show Supernatural. How insane is that??????

[bloodydeanwinchester]

DESTIEL IN EVERY EPISODE → 7x21 reading is fundamental

lines that almost certainly set destiel's relationship back years because dean took it as confirmation of what he's suspected all along...that he's like poison to castiel

[becauseofthebowties]

CASTIEL IN EVERY EPISODE ↳ 7.21 - Reading Is Fundamental

[captainchilly]

"What are you two jackasses doing with the word of God?" ↳ 7.21 - READING IS FUNDAMENTAL

[sirlancenotalot]

happy 16th to my favourite episode ever made on any show and to my favourite character EVER, happy lazarus rising day 😇🐿️🫎

[spn20rewatch]

Season 7, Episode 21: Reading Is Fundamental (March 17th)

The Winchesters visit Castiel in the hospital with the tablet, only to have it stolen by prophet Kevin Tran. -Super-wiki

Originally aired on May 4th, 2012

Written & directed by Ben Edlund.

Fun fact: Castiel booping Kevin Tran's nose is a reference to the movie Dogma, where God (Alanis Morisette) boops the nose of Bethany (Linda Fiorentino).

Have fun watching, and tag any posts with #spn20rewatch!

[garashir]

2x21 All Hell Breaks Loose (Part 1) // 7x21 Reading Is Fundamental // 15x18 Despair

[shirtlesssammy]

Dean and Cas every day not often enough -- 37/?

Supernatural 7x21//Reading is Fundamental

[strawlessandbraless]

7x21 Reading is Fundamental // 12x03 The Foundry

[drulalovescas]

CASTIEL CARED .... AND IT BROKE HIM APART

[shallowseeker]

theres a cut line from the drafts of ouroboros where jack says "i'm a winchester, i'm the chicken And the snake" and i think about that line a lot.

he gave up something he loved (his soul) to destroy something he hated (michael) and he was too "greedy" (in a sense, he missed his old power a lot and had he not healed cas he mightve had a sliver of his soul left) and it killed him (his soul). i understand why that line was cut (redundancy was probably a factor) but i wish it had been kept. hes the chicken and the snake......

Yes, I do love this line. It's the duality of it all. And I think it's also the horror of the cosmic hierarchy. To the livestock, we are their Leviathan. But the Leviathan treating us as livestock in season 7 is a campy horror show!

I don't think Jack is uniquely dual-natured (because I think everyone in the entire show is), but Jack's symbolic nature is pretty heavy-handed in its symbolism!

Here again we have the word "nothing," that is so often applied to Jack. He is the chicken sacrificing his soul and becoming the snake (angel).

//

The grace twists like a snake, as Jack becomes an ouroboros after sacrificing his soul, the snake consuming the snake.

I love this moment because Jack is specifically saving Rowena, the same woman his father murdered:

////

I think this has some interesting things in common with Cas's consumption of Theo, way back in season 9. It certainly characterizes Cas's panic. Jack is becoming like Cas here, like Cas's family, specifically. Snakes. Beasts. Burning serpents. Barbarians. Creatures of war. (War, where even Lucifer is happiest, needed. Note: Lucifer was attentive to Kevin Tran, the AU refugees, Jack, and Dean during his stent in Apocalypse-verse. He was happy there, too. Lucifer is happiest as the underdog, not God.)

///

CASTIEL: I'll – I'll need a moment to make contact. (THEO waits.) And you have something that I'll need. THEO: Anything. CASTIEL grabs one of the medical implements and slices THEO in the throat, letting his white grace slip out; CASTIEL opens his mouth and swallows it. Mm. (CASTIEL groans; the grace fills him up; his eyes turn blue; THEO stares in dazed recrimination, blood dripping from his neck. CASTIEL looks at him, then puts a hand to his forehead; THEO screams, his angelic white light bursts out of him, and he falls to the ground his eyes burned out. 9x09

CASTIEL: He had me. I, uh, I was tortured. But I got away. DEAN: How? CASTIEL: I... I did what I had to. I became what they've become. A barbarian. ...

CASTIEL: It's better I stay away. They're gonna want me even more now. But I'm gonna be all right. I... I got my Grace back. Well, not mine per se, but it'll do. DEAN: Wait, you're – you're back? You got your mojo? CASTIEL: I'm not sure. But I am an angel. DEAN: And you're okay with that? CASTIEL: If we're going to war, I need to be ready.

You are an angel, once and forever. (Hannah, 10x01)

JACK (to DEAN): I don't think you have a firm grasp on what snakes eat. (14x15)

DEAN: There's no use asking "why me?" 'Cause the angels – they don't care. I think maybe they just don't have the equipment to care. Seems like when they try, it just... breaks them apart. (7x21)

CAS: You understand? I can't. I destroyed...everything, and I will destroy everything again. (7x23)

It's what serpents do. When they enter gardens, all they know how to do is consume and destroy.

[mira-mercury]

His eyes are so telling (and they’re gorgeous)

[67ssam]

who the FUCK lobotomized Cas???!

[captainchilly]

"I'm sorry. I think you have to go back to start." ↳ 7.21 - READING IS FUNDAMENTAL