SORRY I CAN'T STOP
May. 7th, 2011 09:38 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
metonomiaTELL ME EVERYTHING, CAS.
But guys, I had this thought (lol I can actually think now, I didn't have very much mental capability last night) - this episode, this season, is all about LYING, right? Part of what I really love about this episode is that because it is from Cas' pov, we don't have all the info about the Winchesters' side. Rewatching for the bazillionth time, Cas and Dean in the car at the beginning (OH SHOW. I was convinced this was a flashback at first. SO MANY SELF-REFERENCES <33333) reads very much as not only Cas lying his eyes out to Dean, but Dean lying right back [ETA: lol so apparently I forgot the part where the next Winchesters scene has Dean talk right out about how he lied to Cas. Ahem, anyway]. Maybe Sam is in Omaha, but I don't think he's tracking a djinn. They're already investigating Cas, and both Cas and Dean are feeling each other out (lol okay so I almost typed 'up' but c'mon, I think at this point that's not even a typo, it's canon) and trying to see how much they know and all that. Yeah, Dean is betrayed at the end; he really really did want to believe Cas. But part of what this episode showed is that no matter how much spying and dealing and human liaising Cas has done, he doesn't get it. He's not human, and he's trying to use the human wiles and freedoms and such that he's learned from the Winchesters to make this heaven that Crowley's manipulated him into and that he thinks is right, but there's still that missing bit. He takes everything so much at face value, and that makes me want to rip my heart out and give it to him gift-wrapped with a bow, because these regrettable things, these deals, the lying, the spying....it's so trite to say he's doing it for 'pure' intentions, but that's the thing with Cas. At the heart of it he's still an angel, he's made for pure intention and to follow commands, and it's been made messy by his time on earth and his use of human emotions and his working with Crowley and his relationships with Dean and Sam...but at the end of it all, Cas saying that he doesn't know if he's made the right choices or not, if he's doing the right thing, that is fucking heartbreaking, because the point of Cas is his assurance, his righteousness.
The Castiel of season 6 isn't 'dark,' he's not a bad guy. "Regrettable things" is really the best way to describe it, because Cas still believes so firmly in the idea that he is chosen, he has been brought back over and over by God, and now this desperation, this self-knowledge that he might be wrong, just makes him cling more closely to the idea that he must be doing something right, that it will all work out, and he is unraveling and I love it. I love it I love it I love it.
And that's really it - the relationship with Crowley, Crowley's refusal to accept Cas' self-righteous bullshit that to Cas is true but obviously is flawed....what it's bringing out so sharply is that Cas is purely self motivated at this point. Even to himself he still couches it in terms of a greater good, the need for free choice, but that realization that freedom is a rope on which to hang yourself....he knows. And so these days he does what benefits him. He rebelled against Raphael, so he does whatever he must to keep that going, because he can't give in, he can't accept that he made the wrong choice. And since that choice had so much to do with Crowley, he clings to Crowley even though they hate each other. And the Winchesters, more than anything...Dean is the one who expresses it most poignantly and heartbreakingly, obviously, when he straight up says that Cas is like a brother, but let's look at the Cas side of things. "SAM, I'M THE ONE WHO RAISED YOU FROM PERDITION." Threatening Crowley. Slaughtering the demon-hunters.
"I was so full of confidence, of mission." SO HE WENT TO GET SAMMY BACK.
To Cas the Winchesters are the epitome of the representation of his own righteousness and rightness, and that's why he is both lying to them, because he knows they would disapprove of this stuff and he needs them to validate himself, because he's chosen to act according to the human values (skewed along his angelic perspective) they taught him, but he also can never ever break from them, for the same reason. He adores them, yes, but it's not the same as how Dean feels, or Sam. CAS. CAS CAS CAS.
And who are we to say that Cas is at all in the wrong? He WAS brought back, he WAS given greater power, he WAS filled with confidence and mission. Show's had God out of the picture for a whole season now, and I know that the point of the S5 finale was that human (and angelic) choice and love won out over heaven-ordained fate, but...something brought Cas back. I think, given the Chuck-structure of 5.21, that something is God. And that does give Cas a whole hell of a lot of clout. What he's doing now can be seen as wrong (and it is, in the most amazingly horrific, beautiful way possible). But there's a sense to Cas that he's got a right to use these souls, to make these deals, to do these regrettable things. Because he was put back together.
IDK THIS MAKES LESS AND LESS SENSE THE MORE I TRY TO PUT IT INTO WORDS. SO I DEFAULT TO CAPSLOCK. FLIST DO YOU UNDERSTAND ME?
MY POINT IS THAT CASTIEL IS AN ANGEL GONE HUMAN GONE BACK TO ANGEL, AND HE IS A LYING CHEATING SELF-CENTERED SELF-RIGHTEOUS EGOTISTICAL MEGALOMANIACAL MANIPULATING MANIPULATED GOOD-INTENTIONED SELFISH UNSURE DOGMATIC COMPLICATED BASTARD.
AND I LOVE HIM TOO MUCH FOR WORDS.
But guys, I had this thought (lol I can actually think now, I didn't have very much mental capability last night) - this episode, this season, is all about LYING, right? Part of what I really love about this episode is that because it is from Cas' pov, we don't have all the info about the Winchesters' side. Rewatching for the bazillionth time, Cas and Dean in the car at the beginning (OH SHOW. I was convinced this was a flashback at first. SO MANY SELF-REFERENCES <33333) reads very much as not only Cas lying his eyes out to Dean, but Dean lying right back [ETA: lol so apparently I forgot the part where the next Winchesters scene has Dean talk right out about how he lied to Cas. Ahem, anyway]. Maybe Sam is in Omaha, but I don't think he's tracking a djinn. They're already investigating Cas, and both Cas and Dean are feeling each other out (lol okay so I almost typed 'up' but c'mon, I think at this point that's not even a typo, it's canon) and trying to see how much they know and all that. Yeah, Dean is betrayed at the end; he really really did want to believe Cas. But part of what this episode showed is that no matter how much spying and dealing and human liaising Cas has done, he doesn't get it. He's not human, and he's trying to use the human wiles and freedoms and such that he's learned from the Winchesters to make this heaven that Crowley's manipulated him into and that he thinks is right, but there's still that missing bit. He takes everything so much at face value, and that makes me want to rip my heart out and give it to him gift-wrapped with a bow, because these regrettable things, these deals, the lying, the spying....it's so trite to say he's doing it for 'pure' intentions, but that's the thing with Cas. At the heart of it he's still an angel, he's made for pure intention and to follow commands, and it's been made messy by his time on earth and his use of human emotions and his working with Crowley and his relationships with Dean and Sam...but at the end of it all, Cas saying that he doesn't know if he's made the right choices or not, if he's doing the right thing, that is fucking heartbreaking, because the point of Cas is his assurance, his righteousness.
The Castiel of season 6 isn't 'dark,' he's not a bad guy. "Regrettable things" is really the best way to describe it, because Cas still believes so firmly in the idea that he is chosen, he has been brought back over and over by God, and now this desperation, this self-knowledge that he might be wrong, just makes him cling more closely to the idea that he must be doing something right, that it will all work out, and he is unraveling and I love it. I love it I love it I love it.
And that's really it - the relationship with Crowley, Crowley's refusal to accept Cas' self-righteous bullshit that to Cas is true but obviously is flawed....what it's bringing out so sharply is that Cas is purely self motivated at this point. Even to himself he still couches it in terms of a greater good, the need for free choice, but that realization that freedom is a rope on which to hang yourself....he knows. And so these days he does what benefits him. He rebelled against Raphael, so he does whatever he must to keep that going, because he can't give in, he can't accept that he made the wrong choice. And since that choice had so much to do with Crowley, he clings to Crowley even though they hate each other. And the Winchesters, more than anything...Dean is the one who expresses it most poignantly and heartbreakingly, obviously, when he straight up says that Cas is like a brother, but let's look at the Cas side of things. "SAM, I'M THE ONE WHO RAISED YOU FROM PERDITION." Threatening Crowley. Slaughtering the demon-hunters.
"I was so full of confidence, of mission." SO HE WENT TO GET SAMMY BACK.
To Cas the Winchesters are the epitome of the representation of his own righteousness and rightness, and that's why he is both lying to them, because he knows they would disapprove of this stuff and he needs them to validate himself, because he's chosen to act according to the human values (skewed along his angelic perspective) they taught him, but he also can never ever break from them, for the same reason. He adores them, yes, but it's not the same as how Dean feels, or Sam. CAS. CAS CAS CAS.
And who are we to say that Cas is at all in the wrong? He WAS brought back, he WAS given greater power, he WAS filled with confidence and mission. Show's had God out of the picture for a whole season now, and I know that the point of the S5 finale was that human (and angelic) choice and love won out over heaven-ordained fate, but...something brought Cas back. I think, given the Chuck-structure of 5.21, that something is God. And that does give Cas a whole hell of a lot of clout. What he's doing now can be seen as wrong (and it is, in the most amazingly horrific, beautiful way possible). But there's a sense to Cas that he's got a right to use these souls, to make these deals, to do these regrettable things. Because he was put back together.
IDK THIS MAKES LESS AND LESS SENSE THE MORE I TRY TO PUT IT INTO WORDS. SO I DEFAULT TO CAPSLOCK. FLIST DO YOU UNDERSTAND ME?
MY POINT IS THAT CASTIEL IS AN ANGEL GONE HUMAN GONE BACK TO ANGEL, AND HE IS A LYING CHEATING SELF-CENTERED SELF-RIGHTEOUS EGOTISTICAL MEGALOMANIACAL MANIPULATING MANIPULATED GOOD-INTENTIONED SELFISH UNSURE DOGMATIC COMPLICATED BASTARD.
AND I LOVE HIM TOO MUCH FOR WORDS.
