I had a match, but she had a lighter

[thorne_scratch]

I am not dead. Still buried under work, though.

So, about an hour ago I was hauling ass down Route 123, on my way to work, balefully cursing the potholes under my breath and wondering why it is there is never a single road in Virginia that is not under construction at any given time. It was your usual middle of the week work commute, with the added contemplation of just how drunk it is possible and/or acceptable to become on a Wednesday Cinco de Mayo. When all of a sudden, I see what looks like two largish grocery bags or crumpled boxes in the middle of the road. There are some smaller crumpled things sifting around them. Oh good, I think, something else that can possibly take out my alignment.

But as I get closer, it turns out they are not boxes or bags. They are, in fact, a family of Canadian geese, two adults and four tiny, fuzzy goslings, regally marching their way across the highway.

Any normal hostility I feel towards Canadian geese (damn things used to crap all over the pool and were a bitch to clean up after, though I do give them some reluctant respect. They're part of the "large birds who will immediately fuck shit up in a hilarious way as long as it is not you getting attacked" group that includes geese, swans, ostriches, cassowaries, emus, and squeemu) was immediately swept away by fond memories of "Make Way for Ducklings!" So I slammed on my brakes and sat in the middle of the road as they waddled their way across my lane. The person in the lane next to me stopped, and threw on their hazards for good measure, and so did the driver in the next lane over, and we all just sat there with goofy smiles and watched the geese do their thing. The parents were each herding two of the goslings, who peeped and scrambled around their feet, clearly asking their parents if there was a pool and cable TV at their eventual destination, and were they there yet.

No one honked (except the geese); no one drove on until they were safely across. It was an unexpected feel-good moment, all the better for coming in the middle of the week and completely out of the blue. I feel a great encompassing fondness towards all humans and avian life forms at the moment. It will have probably faded by the time I leave work today, but for right now, the memory still makes me smile, sitting here at my desk. Happy Cinco de Mayo; may there be tequila for everyone tonight, and no hangovers tomorrow.

Oh yeah, and I also bought a house. Or possibly a small European principality, judging from the check I'm supposed to write. More on that later.

Comments

[velithya]

HAPPY BIRTHDAY

[thorne-scratch.livejournal.com]

THANK YOU!

(PS, if you want to talk Supernatural finale here, I am all about that! and I just didn't want to hijack Flidget's post and get all spoilery, and ruin it for someone.)

[velithya]

Sure! I just had a comment on your mention of how fans talk about Dean takes after his mother and Same takes after John, given the whole bloodline plot at the end of season five. I mean, since Adam was clearly a suitable vessel for Michael (although not ideal) that means that Michael's vessel bloodline went through John and Lucifer's vessel bloodline went through Mary. Which means that in a really significant way, Sam takes after Mary and Dean takes after John.

[thorne-scratch.livejournal.com]

The more I think about it, the more I could write a whole damn essay on Sam vs. Dean in relation to John vs. Mary/masculine vs. feminine/paternal vs. maternal/physical vs. metal. But like most fandoms, someone's probably already done it.

Which means that in a really significant way, Sam takes after Mary and Dean takes after John.

Ah, but I should say that while I liked large quantities of the Apocalypse plot-arc, I found the whole bloodlines thing rather-- well, rather pasted on yay. (Which, to their credit, I think they recognized-- after all, they named the first Adam episode "Jumping the shark". I think they came up with a cool idea later in the game than expected, and were doing their best to shoehorn it in so it could come into play by the ending.) I actually find the bloodlines thing the least interesting factor towards comparing them towards their parents and then onwards towards their respective Michael/Lucifer hosts. But I suspect I feel that way because the show was all but smashing the audience over the head with a mallet saying "SEE, SEE, DEAN IS A GOOD SOLDIER WHO OBEYS DADDY LIKE MICHAEL AND SAM IS A REBEL WHO QUESTIONS AUTHORITY LIKE LUCIFER. SEE? SEE?!" Much of that dialogue was painfully awkward in its attempt to make the point. A cool idea-- but awkwardly executed, imo.

I think (and I say this in a fond and complimentary way) that sometimes Kripke succeeds entirely by accident, and not actually because he put the long thought process in. From my perspective, I think Sam and Dean both have traits you can associate with both their parents, and easily compare them to John and Mary, and the fact that they both have such a mix of traits is the interesting thing for me. For example, I think Dean does have the nurturing side you could associate with Mary, but also the soldier-taking-orders trait from young!John, before John turned into the commander. I think Sam definitely has a certain ruthlessness and willingness to question authority we saw in the show's portrayal of pre-show Mary, and yet he’s also in the role of John, putting revenge as top priority in response to the harming of a loved one, with both Jess and Dean.

I think they both ended up with the blindly loyal nothing-else-matters mentality. And what I liked about the show is that it mixed all that up. Neither of them stayed the same, in the end. Both boys learned and traded certain traits over the course of the show-- the valuing of a normal life, the ability and desire to question authority, the value of family, etc. And I think that's very nifty, even if the evolution of it had its hiccups and awkward moments on the way!

BUT—this is what I think, as someone who started watching really at the beginning of the third season, and then watched 1 & 2 to catch up, and then switched back to 4 & 5 in order. I’m aware my perspective may be different from someone who watched at the beginning of season 1.

And to go back to my very original point—my opinion is that overall, from what I’ve read and seen, fandom in general does tend to throw Dean on the Mary side of the equation more often than Sam. Whether or not you personally find that accurate is up to you. I think it’s rooted in physical appearances.

Gosh, my original point is actually quite short.

LATE COMMENT IS LATE

[velithya]

I think you should write that essay! It sounds like a fun read ;)

I dunno, I thought they laid the groundwork for it pretty early on - at the end of season 2 when Sam is talking to Azazel in his dream, he gets shown the Azazel-over-his-crib scene again and Mary recognises him ("You!"). There's also the part in season three where Sam is trying to investigate Mary's family and comes up with them all being dead, and even back mid-season one in Faith, the healer is all 'you're a young man with an important job to do. and it isn't finished'. I wish we'd got a proper season three - I know they did their best to run with the storyline that they wanted but it was clear that a 16 episode season was gonna run a little short of what they had planned :( I suspect there would have been more groundwork in there that they just didn't get to.

Oh, I definitely agree that they have traits from both parents - right back in season 1 either dean or john is talking about how Sam and John are so alike and that's why they can't stand to go 5 minutes without an argument.

And again, you're right, and that was why in the end they triumphed - because they did grow and change, and the angels didn't/couldn't.

Hee, yeah I think because Dean is 'prettier' and Sam was compared to John so much in season one (and because Dean was sam's 'stay at home mum') fandom got the impression that Dean was more like Mary and Sam was more like John.

Sorry this took so long, I am tired and also life. Blah!