#spn2.02

[incesthemes]

consider the rakshasa in 2x02 as an allegory for john.

he's just died, and this episode is about sam and dean's grief, as well as their struggles as they try to move on from his death. the circus itself represents hunters and the hunter society they've just newly discovered (also in this exact episode), and the rakshasa is a monster hiding within that culture of misfits. much of 2x02 is from dean's perspective, and dean has just come to view his father in a violently negative light (consider the end of the episode, where he destroys the impala in order to symbolically hurt john).

so the rakshasa as john. the monster can turn invisible, similar to how john's presence in the narrative is oppressively absent: in season 1 he's missing, and now in season 2 he's dead. yet he's always present in spirit, even though sam and dean can't see him. he's an invisible force weighing down on them, there yet not.

the rakshasa also preys on children. this could be symbolic of the way sam and dean are rather emotionally immature, frozen in time due to the abuse they suffered as kids. indeed when children are featured as guest stars in an episode, they act as allegories for dean (see 1x03 and 1x18). the same thing is true for teenagers, who are typically paralleled with sam (see 1x05 and 1x08)—this present, if sparse, theming could indicate the emotional states of the brothers, or the points in their respective lives which have shaped them most strongly: dean lacks a childhood because he was forced to grow up too fast and therefore imprints on children, and sam is stuck a rebellious teenager, allowed to grow into adolescence due to being sheltered but perhaps stunted in growth as he becomes aware of the world around him and his own situation, and as he develops a lasting resentment toward john. therefore, the invisible monster john winchester is preying on sam and dean, both in their literal childhood and as their present-day selves, trapped in a state of immaturity due to a life of abuse and neglect.

i also like the little detail that the rakshasa lives in squalor, as this can be compared to the motel rooms and the car that sam and dean grew up in: their constant instability and run-down, cheap housing that sheltered them their whole lives. it's a stark difference from the comfort of a stable home, and combined with the nomadic lifestyle of a circus, there is a very striking parallel between the rakshasa's life and the life that john forced his children into.

(an interesting aside, but the rakshasa feeds in 20-30 year cycles, which is quite similar to the cycle azazel appears to be working with to create new generations of special children, which is around 23 years. not sure if this is intentionally drawing a parallel between azazel and john, but i wouldn't be surprised given the tangled-up, impossible web they exist in together.)

in the end, sam is the one who kills the rakshaka, as dean has been immobilized by it (the imagery recalling that of 1x22, where dean is immobilized by an azazel who looks like john; additionally, one can compare the emotional arc dean is suffering at the moment, metaphorically paralyzed by john's final wish and his inability to act on his own because he has spent his whole life a soldier to john's instruction). if the rakshasa is john, then it implies that sam will ultimately be the one to save dean from his conflict, the one to free him of his paralysis—and he does in 2x09, when dean embraces his codependent relationship with his brother, abandons his father, and throws down his gun to choose sam as his guide and moral center. the conflict of croatoan is all about dean finally coming to terms with the choice he's been given and making his decision: sam, above all else. and so sam is the one who saves him and propels him forward into the rest of the season, with his head on straight and his mind clear of distractions. sam above all else, no matter what, no nuance. just like here, where sam frees dean of the rakshasa's literal binding, sam too frees dean of john's emotional binding.

[demonmadej]

buzzfeed unsolved | supernatural ✽ the secret society of the illuminati

“So this is just a bunch of hobos and rapscallions… meetin’ down by the train tracks…”

[incesthemes]

i just can't stop thinking about how sam uses john's memory to justify his own—desires, goals, what have you, despite how obvious it is that he couldn't have reached a conclusion further from the truth. there's two interpretations of this that i enjoy which don't really contradict each other:

the first is that sam has decided he does want to keep hunting, but he's lying to himself (perhaps to save face after all his talk about returning to school, or perhaps it's way more subconscious than that). so he's displacing those feelings onto john, who in his death has become a symbol onto which anything can be ascribed because john no longer has a voice for himself. john was a hunter, he raised his kids to be hunters, so obviously he would want sam to keep hunting. it doesn't matter that he literally says twice how he does not want his kids to keep hunting, and that he wants them to live normal, safe, fulfilling lives because, y'know, that's a normal thing to want for your kids.

the other interpretation is that sam's desire to keep hunting reflects that he is indeed following the path of his destiny as laid out by azazel. azazel is the one who drew him back into hunting in the first place by killing jessica, and hunting is pursuing a life of violence which, across several episodes in season 1, has been alluded to turning people into monsters (and this suggestion continues well beyond season 1). it's through hunting that sam's powers develop, it's through his rage and quest for vengeance that sam pursues his destiny—meg tries to convince him, after all, to go to california to keep hunting azazel in 1.11 scarecrow. it's the choice sam has to make in 1.22 devil's trap: kill azazel and succumb to his fate, or let john live and choose his brother (his family) over his revenge. fate vs family.

and so sam wanting to keep hunting, to keep hunting azazel specifically ("don't you want revenge?" sam asks dean at the beginning of this episode), represents him following the path of his fate. which is exactly what john's last wish is about—if sam goes too far down the path of destiny, dean will have to kill him. fate vs family.

and so john comes to symbolize not only dean's fate (his duty) but sam's fate as well (his revenge). or rather, sam believes he's choosing family by choosing to follow what he thinks john would have wanted, but in reality, he's choosing his fate. and because he's displacing his own feelings onto john, he doesn't even realize it.

[incesthemes]

coming back to this i think you could also say the allegory is of azazel. almost every one of these points is equally true of him, save for the "living in squalor" bit which we simply can't know because we've never been shown any physical space in which he lives. but azazel too is an oppressively invisible force in sam and dean's lives, the very being which shaped their lives in the worst way despite never being seen once until just a couple episodes ago. and azazel too preys on children, fits this parallel even better than john because he routinely kills the parents of the children he preys on and uses to further his own goals. he has his "feeding" cycle of 20-30 years. he doesn't, however, fit neatly into the symbolism of living within the circus/hunter society, so just like john there are some places where the allegory isn't a 1:1 match.

i like the implications of this, and i think the fact that you can parallel both john and azazel to the rakshasa allows the audience to see their similarities as well as the futility of john's goals. much of john's choices are made from a desire to protect his kids, to counterbalance the destiny azazel laid out for them, but in making those decisions he inadvertently primed them for exactly azazel's plans. john did everything azazel wanted him to do, even though he was desperately trying to thwart that design. and in the end, john and azazel aren't much different, both the absent gods pulling on sam and dean's strings and manipulating them, preying on them, even if their intentions are quite opposites. john and azazel are equally responsible for the lives sam and dean were raised into, for their becoming hunters. and it is only when sam and dean abandon their father that they're able to overcome their fates and avoid falling into the cosmic scheme tugging at them. john becomes over the course of the story just as much a symbol of their destinies as azazel does, and it is only in their letting go and refusal of the father as an authority that they can even begin to choose each other instead.

so that's fun and cool ✨

consider the rakshasa in 2x02 as an allegory for john.

he's just died, and this episode is about sam and dean's grief, as well as their struggles as they try to move on from his death. the circus itself represents hunters and the hunter society they've just newly discovered (also in this exact episode), and the rakshasa is a monster hiding within that culture of misfits. much of 2x02 is from dean's perspective, and dean has just come to view his father in a violently negative light (consider the end of the episode, where he destroys the impala in order to symbolically hurt john).

so the rakshasa as john. the monster can turn invisible, similar to how john's presence in the narrative is oppressively absent: in season 1 he's missing, and now in season 2 he's dead. yet he's always present in spirit, even though sam and dean can't see him. he's an invisible force weighing down on them, there yet not.

the rakshasa also preys on children. this could be symbolic of the way sam and dean are rather emotionally immature, frozen in time due to the abuse they suffered as kids. indeed when children are featured as guest stars in an episode, they act as allegories for dean (see 1x03 and 1x18). the same thing is true for teenagers, who are typically paralleled with sam (see 1x05 and 1x08)—this present, if sparse, theming could indicate the emotional states of the brothers, or the points in their respective lives which have shaped them most strongly: dean lacks a childhood because he was forced to grow up too fast and therefore imprints on children, and sam is stuck a rebellious teenager, allowed to grow into adolescence due to being sheltered but perhaps stunted in growth as he becomes aware of the world around him and his own situation, and as he develops a lasting resentment toward john. therefore, the invisible monster john winchester is preying on sam and dean, both in their literal childhood and as their present-day selves, trapped in a state of immaturity due to a life of abuse and neglect.

i also like the little detail that the rakshasa lives in squalor, as this can be compared to the motel rooms and the car that sam and dean grew up in: their constant instability and run-down, cheap housing that sheltered them their whole lives. it's a stark difference from the comfort of a stable home, and combined with the nomadic lifestyle of a circus, there is a very striking parallel between the rakshasa's life and the life that john forced his children into.

(an interesting aside, but the rakshasa feeds in 20-30 year cycles, which is quite similar to the cycle azazel appears to be working with to create new generations of special children, which is around 23 years. not sure if this is intentionally drawing a parallel between azazel and john, but i wouldn't be surprised given the tangled-up, impossible web they exist in together.)

in the end, sam is the one who kills the rakshaka, as dean has been immobilized by it (the imagery recalling that of 1x22, where dean is immobilized by an azazel who looks like john; additionally, one can compare the emotional arc dean is suffering at the moment, metaphorically paralyzed by john's final wish and his inability to act on his own because he has spent his whole life a soldier to john's instruction). if the rakshasa is john, then it implies that sam will ultimately be the one to save dean from his conflict, the one to free him of his paralysis—and he does in 2x09, when dean embraces his codependent relationship with his brother, abandons his father, and throws down his gun to choose sam as his guide and moral center. the conflict of croatoan is all about dean finally coming to terms with the choice he's been given and making his decision: sam, above all else. and so sam is the one who saves him and propels him forward into the rest of the season, with his head on straight and his mind clear of distractions. sam above all else, no matter what, no nuance. just like here, where sam frees dean of the rakshasa's literal binding, sam too frees dean of john's emotional binding.