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Entry tags:
spn s7 finale
1) purgatory: how might it work?
2) s8 arc speculation
3) fics you should write for me immediately
purgatory stuff
It's either fucked up or beautiful that purgatory exists at all.
I mean, if Dean had died a vampire or gone full-on demon, would he have ended up in purgatory after he died? At what point does the soul become irredeemable? At what point do you completely lose the possibility of heaven? You're born a rugaru or you're turned into a vampire or you're tortured until you become a demon, and suddenly you're doomed to an eternity of being hunter/hunted? And where do you go if you die in purgatory? You're already in the afterlife. Are you Prometheus on the rock with the eagles constantly eating your liver? Do you just respawn?
Basically, the monster afterlife is so different from the Abrahamic human afterlife as portrayed in the show. (Assume that all references to the human afterlife from now on refers to the Abrahamic conception.) In the human afterlife, heaven and hell are rewards/punishments for what you do in life. In the monster afterlife, being in purgatory seems to have nothing to do with what a monster does with its life. It's not a reward or punishment. Every monster ends up in purgatory like it's not an AFTERlife per se, but just another life. That's the other difference that strikes me: a human soul is isolated whether in heaven or hell. Monster souls come together, almost like a return to the source.
Maybe purgatory isn't even the monster's word for it. Maybe that's what outsiders call it. The etymology of the word implies that it is a transitional place: 'purgatory' from the root word 'purge', because here you are purged until you are pure, until you can move on. But purgatory is where monsters are at their most monster. What if it's already pure? So what if purgatory is a monster's Platonic ideal? What if it's their kingdom of heaven? Sure, you may be hunted there and you might be torn to pieces, but that is how it should be because this is where monsters are pure monsters, whether they like it or not. It kind of reminds me of the idea that a warrior's afterlife is a neverending glorious battle.
And Eve is like their mother goddess Gaia figure.
And the Leviathan was in a cage in purgatory the way Lucifer was in a cage in hell.
I wonder if some monsters didn't believe in purgatory until they got here.
Also, it's like... SO WEIRD that the binary here is 'HUMAN' and 'NOT A HUMAN' because there are many kinds of not-a-human, actually. It doesn't sit right with me. What are the provisions under which heaven, hell, and purgatory exist??
season 8 arc stuff
If season 8 really is the last season, I can see this set-up being a good opportunity for closure. They face their collateral damage. They face the trail of destruction they've left in their wake. (And ya sure, it would've been a bigger trail of destruction if they hadn't intervened, but trauma cares not for that.) And that's why Sam and Dean are separated, because the saints have to walk through the desert alone. (Dean and Cas are each other's deserts.) Dean faces his monsters and Sam faces his humanity. They'll meet in the middle.
fics you should write for me immediately
- The one where Sam is an old man by the time he gets Dean and Cas out of purgatory.
- The one where Dean and/or Cas start succumbing to their own inner monster, Cas to being an angel, Dean to being a demon, and maybe one tries to keep them both human but the other's like, "No, this feels better, this feels right."
- The one where Cas never comes back from wherever he zapped off to, and Dean struggles alone for months. He thinks he'll see Cas in the corner of his vision, but it's not him. Hey, that's Cas in the distance and Dean runs to him but it's never him. He sees something that he wonders is an angel in its true form. It must be hallucinations, right? But the hallucinations keep looking back at him, they keep trying to tell him something or running away, becoming less human each time, more monstrous. Did Dean dream that Castiel was here last night? But Dean knows by now that just because it happened in his dream, doesn't mean it isn't real.
- They become myth among the monsters. There are two here who should not be here. / No, that's just stories excitable rugarus like to tell! A fic told entirely in the monster equivalent of bedtime stories and campfire tales about the adventures of two beings from another world who are just trying to get home.
- PURGATORY AS GENIUS LOCI. The land is alive and it can hear you.
- Let's be real, this is basically croatverse but instead of croats and demons, it's EVERYTHING ELSE. So basically, Dean and Cas on the run, fighting monsters together, protecting each other from monsters, lots of h/c, and then they make out.
- Cas's newfound calling of befriending all the beasts follow him to purgatory.
- Dead angels put Cas on trial.
- Castiel doesn't return from wherever he zapped off to, and he and Dean spend their time desperately trying to find each other again. A story full of painful coincidence.
- Cas runs into Anna. FAMILY AND LOSS AND IDENTITY.
- Dean runs into Alastair. STOCKHOLM SYNDROME RELAPSE. Oh god, the show needs to bring back Christopher Heyerdahl if they can, I AM SO FUCKING SERIOUS.
- omg Gordon Walker is reunited with his sister in purgatory :')
2) s8 arc speculation
3) fics you should write for me immediately
purgatory stuff
It's either fucked up or beautiful that purgatory exists at all.
I mean, if Dean had died a vampire or gone full-on demon, would he have ended up in purgatory after he died? At what point does the soul become irredeemable? At what point do you completely lose the possibility of heaven? You're born a rugaru or you're turned into a vampire or you're tortured until you become a demon, and suddenly you're doomed to an eternity of being hunter/hunted? And where do you go if you die in purgatory? You're already in the afterlife. Are you Prometheus on the rock with the eagles constantly eating your liver? Do you just respawn?
Basically, the monster afterlife is so different from the Abrahamic human afterlife as portrayed in the show. (Assume that all references to the human afterlife from now on refers to the Abrahamic conception.) In the human afterlife, heaven and hell are rewards/punishments for what you do in life. In the monster afterlife, being in purgatory seems to have nothing to do with what a monster does with its life. It's not a reward or punishment. Every monster ends up in purgatory like it's not an AFTERlife per se, but just another life. That's the other difference that strikes me: a human soul is isolated whether in heaven or hell. Monster souls come together, almost like a return to the source.
Maybe purgatory isn't even the monster's word for it. Maybe that's what outsiders call it. The etymology of the word implies that it is a transitional place: 'purgatory' from the root word 'purge', because here you are purged until you are pure, until you can move on. But purgatory is where monsters are at their most monster. What if it's already pure? So what if purgatory is a monster's Platonic ideal? What if it's their kingdom of heaven? Sure, you may be hunted there and you might be torn to pieces, but that is how it should be because this is where monsters are pure monsters, whether they like it or not. It kind of reminds me of the idea that a warrior's afterlife is a neverending glorious battle.
And Eve is like their mother goddess Gaia figure.
And the Leviathan was in a cage in purgatory the way Lucifer was in a cage in hell.
I wonder if some monsters didn't believe in purgatory until they got here.
Also, it's like... SO WEIRD that the binary here is 'HUMAN' and 'NOT A HUMAN' because there are many kinds of not-a-human, actually. It doesn't sit right with me. What are the provisions under which heaven, hell, and purgatory exist??
season 8 arc stuff
If season 8 really is the last season, I can see this set-up being a good opportunity for closure. They face their collateral damage. They face the trail of destruction they've left in their wake. (And ya sure, it would've been a bigger trail of destruction if they hadn't intervened, but trauma cares not for that.) And that's why Sam and Dean are separated, because the saints have to walk through the desert alone. (Dean and Cas are each other's deserts.) Dean faces his monsters and Sam faces his humanity. They'll meet in the middle.
fics you should write for me immediately
- The one where Sam is an old man by the time he gets Dean and Cas out of purgatory.
- The one where Dean and/or Cas start succumbing to their own inner monster, Cas to being an angel, Dean to being a demon, and maybe one tries to keep them both human but the other's like, "No, this feels better, this feels right."
- The one where Cas never comes back from wherever he zapped off to, and Dean struggles alone for months. He thinks he'll see Cas in the corner of his vision, but it's not him. Hey, that's Cas in the distance and Dean runs to him but it's never him. He sees something that he wonders is an angel in its true form. It must be hallucinations, right? But the hallucinations keep looking back at him, they keep trying to tell him something or running away, becoming less human each time, more monstrous. Did Dean dream that Castiel was here last night? But Dean knows by now that just because it happened in his dream, doesn't mean it isn't real.
- They become myth among the monsters. There are two here who should not be here. / No, that's just stories excitable rugarus like to tell! A fic told entirely in the monster equivalent of bedtime stories and campfire tales about the adventures of two beings from another world who are just trying to get home.
- PURGATORY AS GENIUS LOCI. The land is alive and it can hear you.
- Let's be real, this is basically croatverse but instead of croats and demons, it's EVERYTHING ELSE. So basically, Dean and Cas on the run, fighting monsters together, protecting each other from monsters, lots of h/c, and then they make out.
- Cas's newfound calling of befriending all the beasts follow him to purgatory.
- Dead angels put Cas on trial.
- Castiel doesn't return from wherever he zapped off to, and he and Dean spend their time desperately trying to find each other again. A story full of painful coincidence.
- Cas runs into Anna. FAMILY AND LOSS AND IDENTITY.
- Dean runs into Alastair. STOCKHOLM SYNDROME RELAPSE. Oh god, the show needs to bring back Christopher Heyerdahl if they can, I AM SO FUCKING SERIOUS.
- omg Gordon Walker is reunited with his sister in purgatory :')