#spn queen of sheba

[silver-stake-through-the-heart]

Jack x Harper is a parallel for King Solomon x Queen of Sheba.

Jack and the Queen of Sheba are Nephilims. Huge powers and (apparently) the same tendency to fly away and going MIA.

Harper and King Solomon are magicians/masters of witchcraft, with tendencies to delve into dark arts. They have creatures bound to them, carrying out their orders (demons and djinns for King Solomon, her ex-boyfriend for Harper).

Harper and King Solomon also doesn't want to let their Nephilim disappear out of their life:

13x08

Sam: The spell… I think it checks out. I put together a rough translation. Um, it's Canaanite. Dates back to the time of King Solomon, who apparently commissioned it to keep tabs on the Queen of Sheba, who, according to the lore, was half-angel. Dean: She was a nephilim? So, what you're saying is that King Solomon created a spell so that he could stalk his girlfriend.

which echoes the last words said by Harper in 14x06

Jack, I'm already writing. Isn't that crazy? I'm not crazy. But our love is so vivid. I can't wait to find you. You are the first man to ever get me to leave McCook. Now I'm in the world. I'm sorry I have to kill you for what you did to Vance but then I can bring you back so that we can be together again. It's gonna be perfect. See you soon. Love, Harper

[wisteria-lodge]

SPN MAGIC PART II - NATURAL (ANGELIC/DEMONIC) MAGIC

PART I - RITUAL MAGIC (WITCHCRAFT) is here if you’re interested

NATURAL MAGIC 

In the Supernatural universe there’s a difference between *knowing* magic and *being* magic. Bobby can use magic. Angels and Demons are magic. After Dean becomes a demon, he gains super strength and a healing factor. After they lose their angelic mojo, Castiel and Metatron become human. 

Angels & Demons

And I’ve tried, but I just can’t see any difference between angelic magic (grace) and demonic magic (...sulphur?) Angel magic is usually more powerful, I guess? But it’s all the same skillset, used in different ways. Angels and demons share some *weird* powers like voice mimicry, dream walking, electrokinesis and demon-smiting. it would be quite a coincidence if their magics weren’t at least related. (And it isn’t that demons *can’t* heal, it’s just that they usually... don’t. They can certainly heal their vessels, who are just people they happen to be possessing. And there’s the bit where Bobby’s legs stay healed after Crowley returns his soul. That particular spell wasn’t soul-powered magic. That was just Crowley healing Bobby’s legs.)

Relevant also: Lucifer created the demons, and we’ve *met* Lucifer. He’s not going to bother creating some whole new magic system from scratch. Proud, easily bored Luci? He’s going to make his new creation exactly like him, only less powerful. And without that annoying ‘needs-permission-to-possess-someone’ design flaw.

So, witchcraft and angelic magic are different, and in order to use the latter you kind of need to *be* an angel or a demon. Or you know, drink enough demon blood to trick the universe into thinking you’re a demon. Or do whatever Lily Sunder was doing under that eyepatch (I think she had an actual eye from an actual angel stuck in her head.) But either way, it’s stealing, and it isn’t going to end well for you.

Natural Psychics

But. There *are* a handful of humans in the Supernatural universe with sustainable magical abilities. To Sam and Dean, these are ‘psychics’ as opposed to ‘witches.’ And some of those psychics probably are just skilled witches with a repertoire of spells and some way of making hex bags invisible/remote/whatever. But Magda Peterson spent her life locked in a basement, and she could kill people with telekinesis. Patience Turner manifested future-telling abilities out of nowhere. I see so no reason why a psychic couldn’t also be a witch if she were interested, but the Winchesters are right - there is a difference. 

The natural psychics that we’ve seen so far have at least one of the following abilities: 

Mindreading

Telekinesis

Ability to contact the dead

(Limited) ability to see the future

And those are all pretty standard angel/demon powers. (Except for ‘limited ability to see the future.’ That’s a standard archangel power.) 

Nephilim & Cambion

Jack the Nephilim and Jesse the Antichrist (see note) also have plenty of these abilities. Just, massively juiced-up versions. And that’s why nephilim and cambion (half-angels and half-demons) are the key to all this. 

(note) The idea that ‘the Antichrist’ is a singular entity shows up in the mid 20th century, and only really gets popular after the film The Omen. Before that, the term ‘antichrist’ was plural, and referred to someone who was acting against god in some way. Even Johnny Rotten sings “I am an anarchist / I am an antichrist” during “Anarchy in the UK.” The SPN writers seem to be using ‘antichrist’ as a more recognizable synonym for ‘cambion.’ But I think the word ‘cambion’ is cool, so I’m going to keep it. 

It’s honestly no wonder that angels are so committed to getting rid of these half-breeds. They really are that powerful. But, this kill ‘em all dead thing is a (comparatively) recent policy. Sam mentions the Queen of Sheba was a nephilim, and she - well, she’s a historical-mythological figure sort of like King Arthur - and her thing was being sexy. The Queen of Sheba had kids. The entire royal family of Ethiopia is supposedly descended from her. And okay, maybe a full nephilim is a potential world-ending threat. But someone who’s half-nephilim? One sixteenth nephilim? I can’t see the angels being quite so committed to tracking those guys down. I’d say that any human with inborn magical power has an ancestor who was either a nephilim or a cambion. And if you can reliably tell the future, that ancestor was more specifically an archangel - they’re the only ones we’ve really seen do that. 

After all, if we know anything about Supernatural, we know that magic-ish stuff runs in bloodlines. Claire Novak is Castiel’s true vessel, same as Jimmy. Cain is convinced that his curse has genetically transferred to his descendants. Patience is a psychic like her grandmother, and Max Banes is telekenetic like his mother. (And sure, sometimes this stuff skips generations, or manifests in one sibling but not another, but the same thing happens with blue eyes.) 

And all this just makes Azazel’s plan more clever, and more evil. Because what he’s done is found a way to make artificial cambions. His “special kids” aren’t as powerful as the real thing (less of a threat) and since their powers aren’t natural, they need an endless supply of demon blood to keep them going. That makes them eternally dependent on him. They’re like the Jem’Hadar from Deep Space 9, soldiers genetically engineered to have a drug dependency. Kinda the perfect way to build an army. 

[moonchildpc]

When you’re named after the Queen of Sheba and they mention it in Supernatural

[anarchyforcanon]

the funniest thing ever will be going through the family list of angels on spn wiki and just the randomness shit on there

djinn queen? icon

queen of sheba? girlboss

the darkness?? she is the moment

[dustydreamsanddirtyscars]

Things about 13x08 “The Scorpion and the Frog”

Alright, since I am awfully late with watching the episode and I don’t think anyone really needs a ton of my rambles on my live watch, I figured - also since I didn’t find much noteworthy to meta or talk about while watching - I’d just make one bigger “impression” post on the episode.

Overall, I have to say - while this wasn’t one of the best episodes ever written - I did not mind the episode. I can’t say I adored it or liked it massively, but I certainly didn’t dislike it as I did with the previous two. I actually found the episode entertaining somewhat. The pacing was alright and I did enjoy the characters introduced in the episode - even though they felt too close to certain other beloved already deceased characters, which kind of left a bad aftertaste imo. In general though and despite it’s silliness, I think the episode worked as a true one off and filler (and I usually tend to say fillers don’t exist, but with this one to me it truly felt like filler - and yes, despite the fact some of the big themes were worked into the episode - but I’ll go into that in a bit).

Alright, here are some aspects I feel like commenting on a bit more.

First of all there is the title - one I think worked pretty well in relation to the context of the episode, because the fable the title is inspired by, I suppose, is explored directly within the episode by the characters and all their “deal making with the natural enemy” that like Dean said right in the beginning usually never works out for them. And of course we saw that ending up being the case with Alice (though in the end she was freed), but most of all Barthamus (who I did enjoy - he was kind of cross between Balthazar and Crowley to me - though tbh seeing him just made me miss Crowley so much more than anything else) and Luthor Shrike as well. More than how the title related to the episode’s arc however it is important to see it in relation to the overarching theme of the season of “nature vs. nurture” especially considering it was the lead up episode to the mid season finale which features Jack heavily, who is the main character through with the whole “fighting against your ~nature”-theme is explored by. If the fable is anything to go by and it’s dark moral then it would allude to Jack going dark side (even though he has been taught and socialized differently) as this is simply part of his “nature” as Lucifer’s son. In this regard it feels also noteworthy that Aesop (which Dean has read) wrote a similar tale about a “Farmer and a viper” where a farmer finds a snake freezing to death and takes pity on it and warms it in his coat - revitalized by that the snake ends up biting the farmer and kills him), which feels even more fitting in relation to SPN lore and how Lucifer is seen as the “serpent”.

Then there is the whole talk on Solomon and him keeping tabs on the Queen of Sheba, which reminded me that earlier this season we had a scene featuring the “Song of Solomon”, which makes interesting, if Solomon ends up popping up a third time this season I’‘d call it a pattern and it’s probably interesing to di into all of that history a bit further.

As for the episode’s characters. I actually liked Grab, he was a kind of “one off”-demon - he wasn’t plain stupid or over the top cringeworthy evil like demons (and angels as well tbh) have been portrayed a lot on SPN the past seasons. I wouldn’t have needed to see him again as a character, but he was enjoyable for the time of the episode. I also liked Barthamus and how the actor played him, but in general to me just no one can in any way replace Mark Sheppard and Crowley so that’s that. And lastly there’s Alice. She was alright (the actress did an okay job), though tbh, to me she felt too much like a clichè and too much like Charlie 3.0 (seriously, they even had to give her a line featuring “Charlie”? Sorry, but… meeeh, I’m not a fan). Hell, they even sent her off with a bus scene and her showing the “victory”-sign. I mean…. how much more blatant can you be?

Now let’s move on to Luthor Shrike. I personally felt reminded of Magnus/Cuthbert Sinclair a bit with his collection of artifacts and such (forever disappointed they never picked Magnus as a big bad, that guy would have worked as that imo). Especially as he was described as “doing anything and everything to add to his collection”. Tbh though I did find him a bit stupid tbh. I fully believe he has his entrance video trapped (he just seemed like that kind of guy) so he must have seen Sam walking in an out of the devil’s trap and then when he hands Sam a shot of gin he hadn’t mixed holy water into that to test him? Seriously? That just seems to me awfully stupid for a 200 year old immortal being. Which brings me to the other character I had to think of aside from Magnus with how he lived secludedly: Cain. Like Cain, Luthor also seems to have drawn away from socitey after losing a loved one. And yes, of course the parallel to John giving his life for Dean and Dean then later dying was prettyy apparent, but I suppose it was alos meant as a possible moment of foreshadowing for Lucifer and Jack’s story. Will Lucifer in the end maybe sacrifice himself to save his son? While I really don’t need or want a Lucifer redemption arc, I’d take it if that meant we’d finally be rid of that character lol. In visuals also to me Luthor was aligned with Cain who was also immortal and got stabbed by the demon killing knife and then later died like Magnus by beheading.

And last but not least on to the Winchesters. I have to admit if Jensen wasn’t as good as an actor as he is the “compass hand thing” as well as the “paw thing” would not have worked. They were silly yes and once more Dean was used as comic relief, but Jensen delivered it. So I didn’t mind those a lot. What made me a bit moody was when the “Nerve damage”-scene rolled around, because it captured so much with nothing much said, but only “I lived off of that stuff when I was a kid, What is it like 10 times the legal amount of caffeine?”. Yeah, nice callback there to how Dean never was a child from 4 onwards and literally ran on coffeine to make it through. Like… how is that not yet another example of how friggin awful Dean’s life was and how much he had to shoulder at a way too young age? Aside from that I found it rather interesting that Grab called Dean a “hand puppet” - of course that as due to the spell he had cast on him, but I can’t help but rather think of that comment in a much broader sense with Dean as a vessel - yes, I am still stupidly hoping that someday Dean as Michael’s vessel will be rendered of import by the narrative again. Silly me…

And now truly lastly, the ending scene with the burning of Bart’s bones and the spell and how slow the Winchesters were there and how Bart just stands watching in slow mo almost when Alice patiently picks up the lighter after he just said he is sooooo quick was just… eye roll worthy imo. Also, lol, Bart saying Sam is the smart one? Apparently not when it comes to keep something from burning. ;P I mean, come on Sam, you blew on that? Really??? Bahaha.

Anyway… So yeah, that’s kind of all I have to say. Not much stuff for meta, but a few very pretty eye candy moments, so maybe I’ll try some editing. Anyway overall verdict: Alrightish irrelevant episode. Score: 6 out of 10.