#spn freethinking

I must be insane to be attempting a freethinking session while SPN is airing. I can tell because over half the posts on my dash are blank due to the spoiler filters I have blacklisted. No way this post is going to be noticed upon the millions of live blogging posts that are no doubt going around but I wanted to talk about it.

Something I really hope the show will eventually get into before it ends is the subject of the human vessels angels need to use in order to walk the earth. When angels were first introduced to the lore, I found it fascinating that they needed these vessels, they could only take the vessels if they have the vessel's expressed permission, and not every human can be a vessel.

I ask myself and anyone reading this, really: Why are only certain humans able to withstand angelic possession? My own theory, completely unfounded by canon but until canon says otherwise, I'm going with it: vessels are the products of soulmates somewhere down their ancestral line. The show has stated that soulmates are rare but my thinking is that maybe it's not that soulmates are rare. Maybe everyone has a soulmate, but most don't find their soulmate, only the insanely lucky ones do. Soulmates only end up sharing a heaven if they actually met and formed some sort of bond with each other.

We know that souls have an insane amount of power. So I wonder, when soulmates collide with each other, do their combined souls give off more power? So let's dig into this. Soulmates are able to create the angelic vessel bloodlines because it's essentially these two souls that compliment each other perfectly coming together and creating this new being through their bond. This influx of power adds more strength to the vessel being born and thus we have an angelic vessel ancestral line. The vessel has a soul and body strong enough to withstand an angel's presence. Now, why are some vessels able to house powerful angels and others are not? Well, I like to think that each soul is a little different. I know that the show has said souls are like batteries but my thinking is there's also a certain kind of life essence within those souls (at least that's what I choose to believe) thus making each soul slightly different. Some are stronger than others and thus can create stronger vessels.

Or we get stronger vessels if there are more instances of soulmates coming together and creating life along the ancestral tree. And this is also interesting to think about because it also means that the angels must've put in a lot of work to make sure the Winchester ancestral tree became what it was, they must have done a lot of pushing soulmates together.

So that's a thought I have. Hey, who knows? Maybe this was addresed in tonight's episode?

Welcome to another Supernatural Free Thinking session. Wherein, I think about a random element in Supernatural and try to sort out how I feel about it -- all in an attempt to help make the show make a little more sense.

What’s on the docket today? Well, let’s talk about cupid and cupid’s affect specifically on John and Mary’s love life. I’ve often seen this pop up within the fandom. Do cupids force you to fall in love? Were what John and Mary felt for each other their actual feelings or were those feelings manufactured as a tool in birthing Sam and Dean? Both Heaven and Hell were definitely invested in making Sam and Dean happen. And it is canon that the match between John and Mary was cupid-influenced. So did John and Mary ever really love each other?

Well here’s my take on all of this. First off, when talking about cupid lore within the show, I don’t believe that when you get hit by cupid arrows, it forces you to fall in love. Why do I think this? Because Chuck specifically gave humans free-will. When heaven uses humanity as their tool to conduct their business, they have to operate within the constraints of freewill. Angels cannot possess humans without that human’s expressed permission. Heaven has prophets but those prophets still operate under freewill. Prophets have to choose to relay the information they receive. Now granted, Heaven can and will coerce humans to work for them if it’s necessary but it technically doesn’t really break the freewill protocol. Chuck isn’t in the business of dealing with “shades of grey,” he deals with absolutes. His sister was causing problems for him so he locked her away instead of trying to work with her. Lucifer was becoming problematic so he got the boot, too. Humanity started to disappoint Chuck so he walked away. Looking in-between the lines and compromising is not something that’s in Chuck’s nature. So while there’s definitely something to say about angels coercing humans and a legitimate argument can be made about whether or not a decision made from coercion can be considered freewill, according to how Chuck initially created freewill, regardless of what’s happening, it’s still our decision to make the decision we make. If the angels threaten to kill everyone you love unless you say “yes” to becoming a vessel, while a douchey move on the angels’ part, it’s still your decision to say “yes” or “no”. It’s still your decision on whether or not you’ll let everyone you love die. That’s your freewill. That’s what Chuck gave humanity. I mean, if you’re under the influence of alcohol and you kill someone while you were under the influence, the fact that you were inebriated doesn’t absolve you of wrong-doing, does it? Same basic principle can be applied here. Regardless of events that lead to that decisions, it’s still our decision to make the decisions we make. That’s freewill in its most basic form. So, no, I don’t believe cupids force people to fall in love. That would effectively take away their freewill and cupids are the tools of heaven. They can’t do anything that takes away that basic freewill.

So the next question to think about is: What do the cupids do then? Well, I’m about to go a little old school on you and reference some cupid lore that popped up in Xena: Warrior Princess. In that show, Cupid could get two people to fall for each other by firing his arrows at them. However, it’s worth noting that what he was doing was not actually placing feelings of love in his victims, it was more along the lines of opening them up in a way. It was essentially creating a situation where the two prospects were open to the idea of each other and through Cupid’s arrow, saw traits in the other they admired. Thus, creating a pathway to potential love. And I believe a similar thing is happening with Supernatural’s cupid lore. The cupids aren’t taking away freewill and making people fall in love, they’re creating situations and environments to where the prospects would be receptive to it.

Now, were John and Mary ever in love? I like to think that they were. The cupid created an environment to where they were receptive to it and ultimately, it was their decision to let those feelings the cupid helped open to grow to the point where it lead to Sam and Dean’s birth. Was their relationship perfect? No. It’s implied they had their fights and disagreements but that’s normal for any couple. Just because they had fights isn’t indicative that their love was manufactured. We do know for a fact that Jimmy and Amelia were soul mates and while it isn’t clear if they were matched by cupid, they certainly had their disagreements as well. Were John and Mary going to fall in love without the cupid’s assistance? That’s hard to say. And that question may never be answered. But I also certainly don’t believe that just because you’re touched by cupid, that you’re soulmates with your partner. If that were the case, a whole lot more people would be sharing a heaven. I definitely don’t believe Mary and John were soul mates. But it doesn’t mean that it was impossible for them to love.

Basically, I don’t subscribe to this idea that the cupids in Supernatural take away freewill. I don’t believe that the feelings John and Mary had were manufactured by heaven. Heaven created an environment and situation to prod those feelings along but ultimately it was still John and Mary who had the freewill in their relationship. They still called the shots. And at the end of the day, isn’t that what Supernatural’s really about. Freewill. That freewill is something that isn’t so easily taken away.

I got some more Supernatural free-thinking headed your way, guys. Hope you enjoy it. For those who don't know, these are just little blog sessions I do with whatever Supernatural thoughts I may currently have in my head. It's typically me trying to make sense of things that are pretty nonsensical and will probably never actually be addressed in the show. Supernatural has plot holes, we know this. But the show is so charming and lovable we forgive those plot holes. So this is me trying to fill them in as best I can.

What's on the docket today? Cas and The Empty. We got this huge confirmation in season 13 that The Empty is where angels and demons go when they die. But we were also given information that God aka Chuck has no power in The Empty. He doesn't control what goes in...or what goes out.

Now, our sweet, dorky, lovable, badass angel, Castiel, has died a few times since hanging out with the Winchesters. So this revelation about The Empty and the nonexistent power Chuck has over The Empty has left us and by "us" I mean primarily me with some questions. Like, how has Chuck been able to resurrect Cas? And not just once. Chuck has done it a few times. If angels go to The Empty when they die (theoretically, since they have no soul, which I also have a lot of questions about; but that's a free-thinking session for another time) then Cas should technically have gone there a few times and if he did, Chuck shouldn't have had the ability to resurrect him. But here's the thing. I don't think he did. How have we seen angels die?

1) Most often, it's done by the angel blade. Although, I still have questions as to why Chuck would make angel blades in the first place. Why would he want them to kill each other? But maybe angel blade creation all happened during the Lucifer insurrection thing.

2) The angel's very being gets blown up. Essentially, every atom is torn a part until basically there's nothing left of them.

Now, #2 is very important as that's how almost all of Cas's deaths have panned out. My theory is that if you're an angel and you get killed by an angel blade, you get sent to The Empty as that life essence angels have (maybe have?) essentially is still intact. But if you get torn apart on a sub-atomic level as Cas has been, it completely destroys everything. But, because there's nothing to send to The Empty, it leaves Chuck open to rebuild that angel if he so chooses. But in Season 12, when Cas dies by angel blade, there's nothing Chuck can do for him at that point.

So basically, if you're an angel and you die via sub-atomic self-implosion, you don't go to The Empty which means Chuck can re-build you if he feels like it. But if you die by angel blade, you go to The Empty and at that point, you're shit out of luck unless you have an arch-angel nephilim child to wake you up, and then you need to be annoying enough to the caretaker of The Empty to make it send you back.

Advice for any angels who fear they may die in the future: Avoid being killed by the angel blade. Choose death by sub-atomic self-implosion. The whole resurrection via The Empty feels like an overly involved process that really could only have worked with Castiel.

Of course, this also means there's a chance Raphael could come back as he was killed by self-implosion. But I get the feeling Chuck didn't like Raphael all that much anyway. So i dont think we need to worry about that. Speaking of which, how pissed off do you think Raphael would be if he learned that during the apocalypse while whining and complaining that God has left the building, he was actually protecting God at the same time?

Oh man, God really does have a sense of humor, doesn't he? I'd stomach having Raphael come back just so we can see that bombshell be revealed to him.

WARNING: THIS MAY COMPRISE OF UNPOULAR OPINIONS. IF YOU DON'T LIKE THEM, YOU CAN LEAVE. YOU DON'T HAVE TO AGREE WITH THEM BUT I STILL ASK THAT YOU BE A DECENT HUMAN BEING AND RESPECT THEM. Kay? Thanks.

So I saw this come up on my dash a few times and figured I'd talk about it real quick.

"What happened to Our Bobby after he helped free Metatron and the angels came and got him?"

"Wouldn't it be great if Our Bobby and AU Bobby were to meet?"

And I agree, on one hand, it would be super cool to have these two characters meet. On the other hand, I don't think it would be all it's cracked up to be because of how the show has written these AU characters so far. AU Bobby, for the most part, is pretty much exactly like Our Bobby. Or at least, I haven't caught anything that shows major differences. So these two meet and we're essentially just going to be watching the same two characters interact. Sure they might have different life experiences but those different life experiences haven't really changed who they are. They're basically going to have the same attitudes. And I don't really want to see that. Some time ago, I mentioned that I didn't like the AU characters crossing over into Sam and Dean's world. And that's because these AU characters feel way too similar to their original counterparts. They're not their own characters. They've had different life experiences so I would like to see how those life experiences changed them but the characters instead still feel like carbon copies of the originals. At this point, it feels like fan pandering. I'm all for having Bobby and Charlie back. I really am. But if it's going to be AU versions of them, I want their AU versions to be different. Not a way for the show to be like "ha ha, fandom. We know you've been asking for these characters back, so here they are. Have fun." I don't like this idea that the fandom has that the writers brought in AU Charlie to apologize for her being killed off in Season 10. I was sad and angry about Charlie's death for sure. Not necessarily that she died, it did make sense on a thematic level. I'm not even particularly angry about the villains chosen to kill her off. They're not great or interesting villains by any stretch of the imagination, they were definitely shoe horned in at the last minute, and they deserved everything they got. But while not really caring about these villains or finding anything interesting about them whatsoever, they did get the job done. They did fulfill the purpose they were written for. I just didn't like the events leading up to Charlie's death. Never before has Charlie been written so out of character. But as badly done as Charlie's death was, it did mean something. Everything that she did, everything she chose to sacrifice, those were integral parts of her character. And to bring in an AU Charlie who's basically a carbon copy so the boys and fans can feel like they have Charlie back is a bad move. It completely devalues her original character. Now as I've also said before, if the show creates their own original character with AU Charlie and the show continues to acknowledge that she is not a surrogate for Our Charlie, I'll be fine with her. Same goes with AU Bobby. Bringing in AU Bobby and treating him as if he was Original Flavor Bobby, at least to me, devalues everything Our Bobby represented and everything Our Bobby sacrificed. So, until Our Bobby and AU Bobby are written and acknowledged as separate characters, I would prefer they not meet. Same goes with Our Charlie and AU Charlie. I'd prefer they not meet until we've seen enough of their characters to note that the AU versions are not the surrogates for the original flavors.

Also, Our Bobby and AU Bobby meeting kind of goes against the head canon I have about what happened after the Metatron business. I don't think the angels locked him in a prison or whatever. My head canon is that they sent him to the Empty. We have virtually no rules yet on how the Empty actually works, so hey, it could happen.

Here's another Supernatural free-thinking session for you guys. I'm giving you some @bluephoenixrises Supernatural thoughts and ramblings that are completely free of charge! I'm thinking about making this recurring as I think about Supernatural at some point every single day. Instead of internalizing it, maybe I should be telling the fandom what's going on in my strange, and at times, anime-fueled mind?

What am I thinking about today? Well, I've seen this pop up in the fandom a lot recently and that's this question: what happened to the paradise from season 5? Why wasn't Apocalypse World more paradise-y?

Well, I suppose this all depends on how you view the paradise argument in this show. So the story goes, whoever won was basically going to control everything. That's what the battle was about. The outcome depends completely on who won as Michael and Lucifer wanted to do very different things. If Lucifer won, he basically wanted to burn everything to dust and anything that was left would be for his own entertainment. He hated the humans as humans were what God loved more than him. He's basically that older sibling that suddenly had a new sibling that was getting all the attention. Lucifer's a real, baby; we all know that. He's a self-entitled little brat and believes he was wronged and he's owed everything because of it. Michael pretty much just wants peace and quiet. He's tired of being a baby-sitter. He's at a point where he's just ready to lock the humans away. He basically wants heaven on earth which is a type of paradise but is also a prison for humans. In heaven, we experience our happiest memories over and over again, but as nice as that sounds, it's not truly living. It's existing but never being able to experience anything new. Always stuck in the same frame of mind? Sorry, but no thanks. I'll take a world with monsters and horror over that any day. But a place where angels don't have to baby-sit humans and finally live for themselves? I can see how that would be a paradise to Michael.

So this leads us to Apocalypse World. Why did it look so...apocalyps-y and not paradise-y. Well there's a couple different ideas I have on this. The first one is Michael is actively trying to bring heaven's paradise but he didn't account for the pre-existing freewill getting in the way. Basically, humans weren't going to take this shit lying down. Just like season 5 in Free to be You and Me, humans were fighting for their right to live how they want to live. They were fighting for their freewill. Now, I have no idea how Michael was going to bring heaven to earth. Maybe he was going to combine them somehow. We honestly know so little about Michael as an archangel. The demon creatures we saw in Season 12 I think were demons that Michael may have manipulated himself to look that way. Their mission? Kill the human resistance, thus ushering in this earth-heaven world.

I could be way off base though so I also have another thought on how this world got so screwy. Michael did kill Lucifer, the one thing he loved more than anything. I think it's reasonable to theorize that this might have caused some insanity in Michael's mind. He wanted to kill Lucifer but perhaps he wasn't fully comprehending what that would do to him. Dean and Sam, according to the angels, are essentially meant to be mirrors of Michael and Lucifer. Do you think that if Dean legitimately killed Sam, he'd still be running on all cylinders? I'm inclined to think no, although granted, this season has done a lot to tackle the co-dependency and self-worth issues Dean has going on. So yeah, Michael killed Lucifer and the shock and horror of what he did, despite planning it and always intending it, turned him into the very being he wanted to kill. He no longer cares about heaven, earth, hell. He just wants to see it all burn.

But there's also a third angle we can look at here. Multiverse Theory. I won't get into the idea of multiverse too much but that's basically what these alternate dimensions are founded on. There's an infinity of possible realities based on every choice and every combination of those choices. Apocalypse World occurred because of Mary choosing not to make the deal with Azazel so therefore Sam and Dean were never born. But like I said, multiverse theory and the worlds included are based on an infinity of choice combinations. Who's to say there wasn't several other different choices that were made in this world that changed what Michael's goals were.