SPN: "In the Beginning" SPOILERS
Oct. 6th, 2008 08:40 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
lunabee34The Angel Castiel: Loki Reimagined
Ever since he first appeared onscreen, I have been intrigued by Castiel. I don't know who or what he is. He says that he's an Angel of the Lord, but I don't know if he's telling the truth, and even if he is, I don't know what that means. I also don't know if he's mistaken about his own identity; he could truly believe he is an angel and actually be some other kind of creature entirely. He clearly has great power (enough so that demons fear him)* and access to privileged information. But he also shows a blatant disregard for human life that seems remarkably like that shown by demons; even if Castiel's host prayed to be used by God, he's still a dead man walking. And Castiel has definitely threatened Dean with a return to hell if he doesn't do what Castiel wants, which in my opinion is very different than threatening a person with the negative consequences of his actions or punishing her for committing a particular sin. (But maybe that fine line doesn't even exist because I guess that disobeying Castiel, not doing what presumably God wants, would be sinful.)
I don't think Castiel is an angel. I think he's something else entirely.![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
kyuuketsukirui mentioned in a comment to this post that the actor portraying him really manages to make Castiel feel alien in a way that the demons never are. And she's absolutely right. Demons on SPN are hyper-human--all the foibles and the desires and the capacity for cruelty that we possess ramped up to the nth degree and mixed liberally with a strange sort of loyalty and affection and sense of fun. Demons on this show are very much like the Greek gods, possessed of great power but ultimately incredibly flawed and very human-like beings. Castiel is, like Grace says, alien. He seems to me to be wearing, and poorly, his body more than any other possessing creature we've seen so far. He seems to have no conception of human body language or interaction. He is, in a word, strange.
Which brings me to my theory. I think Castiel is a Trickster figure, not necessarily the one we've met before in previous episodes, but a Trickster figure all the same. Trickster figures are rule-breakers; their tricks generally teach lessons, either to other gods or to humans. Although Tricksters often have noble motives for their mischief, many times they behave maliciously or meanly for no other apparent reason than the joy of being mean. Tricksters are shapeshifters; they can change form and gender. And in the case of Coyote, at least, while they are not the Creator, they share in his power. They have the power to create and to manipulate that which has been already created.
We've already seen much of this canonically. The Trickster was able to change his form, to appear to be another person in Sam's endless Tuesday, and to appear to be dead after he was staked. He has the ability to create scenarios, manipulate matter, and control time. Finally, the Trickster was teaching lessons with his tricks on the college campus, albeit very harsh and fatal ones. I haven't decided what motivated the enormous amount of time and effort he spent messing with Sam in "Mystery Spot." Either Winchesters really are that fun to screw around with or the Trickster is personally invested in Sam learning what life without Dean will be like. Maybe the Trickster fears what might happen to the cosmic order if a grief-stricken Sammy really put his mind to it. But I digress.
Every other entity we've seen possessing a human body *inhabits* that body, puts it on like a pair of pants and wiggles around inside to get a little more comfortable. Demons move like humans in human bodies (probably because they once were human, if Ruby is right with her demon origin myth); they display natural, if often ookily erotical, body language. You cannot tell humans and possessed humans apart unless the possessing demon wants you to. That's why demons are scary. The Trickster we've seen in canon also behaves this way, with the major difference being that he isn't possessing anyone. His body is his own to transmute at will. He doesn't have to possess anyone because he can take any form he wants. Castiel behaves much differently. He doesn't quite walk around staring at his hands like he doesn't know what they're for, *g*, but he does seem ill at ease in his body and his body language is off. I wonder if this is because he isn't possessing anyone at all, but rather changing his form to a new one he's never dealt with before. He's already admitted that he normally exists in another state, one that's too overwhelming for humans to encounter. (I realize that this really isn't a very convincing part of my argument; Castiel could be behaving in this way because as an actual angel he's never had to appear in this manner.)
Finally, my major line of argument: Castiel can manipulate time in the same way the Trickster can. The Trickster can move time backwards and forwards and even stick Sam in an eternal loop if he wants to, but nothing really changes except for Sam. The rest of the world is unaffected by what happens to Sam; he doesn't do anything in the past or future that has lasting consequences for anyone except himself, and those consequences are really of a psychological nature. Sam has to learn a lesson and he has to live the lesson to learn it, but everyone else remains unchanged. I prefer to think of that experience as a microcosm cut off from the rest of the timeline, with everything else continuing as it would have around the little pebble of Sam stuck in an endless Tuesday. In the same way, Castiel can fling Dean back in time to learn a lesson. And like the Trickster, he doesn't tell Dean what the lesson is. Dean spends almost the entire episode believing that he has gone back in time to save his family and to kill the YED before it has a chance to harm the future. But Dean is wrong. Dean's lesson is about Sam, about what Sam is, about his potential for evil. And like Forever Tuesday Sam, Dean ultimately changes nothing except himself. He is utterly powerless to stop his mother from making the deal or his grandparents from dying or the YED from living on to hurt other people. His appearance in the past is meaningless except for the ways it changes him psychologically.
I think another point in favor of this reading of the show is that the YED clearly has no memory of his encounter with Dean Van Halen. The YED in "In the Beginning" believed Dean's story about moving through time, about being Samuel's grandson. The YED in the rest of the series is cunning and ruthless and operates on an agenda that moves glacially. His plans take decades to come to fruition. He already has psychic children in the 1970s. He's clearly been working on his endgame for quite some time. The YED thinks ahead. He's a big picture kind of guy. I refuse to believe he wouldn't have murdered Dean as a baby or at some other point in Dean's life if he had truly met him in the past. I think Castiel sent him to some shut-off microcosm of time that accurately reflects what happened in the past and what might have subtly changed if Dean had been there, but that was not actual time. If that makes sense. Otherwise, as soon as Dean started looking as he will look as an adult, John would have remembered meeting him. And while I suppose there's no canonical evidence to suggest that John didn't remember meeting Dean, I have to assume that would be the kind of thing he'd mention along with, "Oh, yeah, and you might have to off your little bro." I can't fanwank the YED and John's lack of recognition of Dean in any other way than to assume that Castiel sent him back in time to a copy of the timeline, or a stream of time that runs alongside what actually happened.
Thoughts? Tomatoes?
I have a ton more to say about this episode that will appear soon in essay form, rather than my usual episode reaction itemized list of squee. (The title contains the word "atavistic." I feel so Lovecraftian.)
*I still don't think it's 100% for sure that Castiel did snatch Dean from perdition. He says he did, but *shrugs*. Who knows?
Ever since he first appeared onscreen, I have been intrigued by Castiel. I don't know who or what he is. He says that he's an Angel of the Lord, but I don't know if he's telling the truth, and even if he is, I don't know what that means. I also don't know if he's mistaken about his own identity; he could truly believe he is an angel and actually be some other kind of creature entirely. He clearly has great power (enough so that demons fear him)* and access to privileged information. But he also shows a blatant disregard for human life that seems remarkably like that shown by demons; even if Castiel's host prayed to be used by God, he's still a dead man walking. And Castiel has definitely threatened Dean with a return to hell if he doesn't do what Castiel wants, which in my opinion is very different than threatening a person with the negative consequences of his actions or punishing her for committing a particular sin. (But maybe that fine line doesn't even exist because I guess that disobeying Castiel, not doing what presumably God wants, would be sinful.)
I don't think Castiel is an angel. I think he's something else entirely.
kyuuketsukirui mentioned in a comment to this post that the actor portraying him really manages to make Castiel feel alien in a way that the demons never are. And she's absolutely right. Demons on SPN are hyper-human--all the foibles and the desires and the capacity for cruelty that we possess ramped up to the nth degree and mixed liberally with a strange sort of loyalty and affection and sense of fun. Demons on this show are very much like the Greek gods, possessed of great power but ultimately incredibly flawed and very human-like beings. Castiel is, like Grace says, alien. He seems to me to be wearing, and poorly, his body more than any other possessing creature we've seen so far. He seems to have no conception of human body language or interaction. He is, in a word, strange.Which brings me to my theory. I think Castiel is a Trickster figure, not necessarily the one we've met before in previous episodes, but a Trickster figure all the same. Trickster figures are rule-breakers; their tricks generally teach lessons, either to other gods or to humans. Although Tricksters often have noble motives for their mischief, many times they behave maliciously or meanly for no other apparent reason than the joy of being mean. Tricksters are shapeshifters; they can change form and gender. And in the case of Coyote, at least, while they are not the Creator, they share in his power. They have the power to create and to manipulate that which has been already created.
We've already seen much of this canonically. The Trickster was able to change his form, to appear to be another person in Sam's endless Tuesday, and to appear to be dead after he was staked. He has the ability to create scenarios, manipulate matter, and control time. Finally, the Trickster was teaching lessons with his tricks on the college campus, albeit very harsh and fatal ones. I haven't decided what motivated the enormous amount of time and effort he spent messing with Sam in "Mystery Spot." Either Winchesters really are that fun to screw around with or the Trickster is personally invested in Sam learning what life without Dean will be like. Maybe the Trickster fears what might happen to the cosmic order if a grief-stricken Sammy really put his mind to it. But I digress.
Every other entity we've seen possessing a human body *inhabits* that body, puts it on like a pair of pants and wiggles around inside to get a little more comfortable. Demons move like humans in human bodies (probably because they once were human, if Ruby is right with her demon origin myth); they display natural, if often ookily erotical, body language. You cannot tell humans and possessed humans apart unless the possessing demon wants you to. That's why demons are scary. The Trickster we've seen in canon also behaves this way, with the major difference being that he isn't possessing anyone. His body is his own to transmute at will. He doesn't have to possess anyone because he can take any form he wants. Castiel behaves much differently. He doesn't quite walk around staring at his hands like he doesn't know what they're for, *g*, but he does seem ill at ease in his body and his body language is off. I wonder if this is because he isn't possessing anyone at all, but rather changing his form to a new one he's never dealt with before. He's already admitted that he normally exists in another state, one that's too overwhelming for humans to encounter. (I realize that this really isn't a very convincing part of my argument; Castiel could be behaving in this way because as an actual angel he's never had to appear in this manner.)
Finally, my major line of argument: Castiel can manipulate time in the same way the Trickster can. The Trickster can move time backwards and forwards and even stick Sam in an eternal loop if he wants to, but nothing really changes except for Sam. The rest of the world is unaffected by what happens to Sam; he doesn't do anything in the past or future that has lasting consequences for anyone except himself, and those consequences are really of a psychological nature. Sam has to learn a lesson and he has to live the lesson to learn it, but everyone else remains unchanged. I prefer to think of that experience as a microcosm cut off from the rest of the timeline, with everything else continuing as it would have around the little pebble of Sam stuck in an endless Tuesday. In the same way, Castiel can fling Dean back in time to learn a lesson. And like the Trickster, he doesn't tell Dean what the lesson is. Dean spends almost the entire episode believing that he has gone back in time to save his family and to kill the YED before it has a chance to harm the future. But Dean is wrong. Dean's lesson is about Sam, about what Sam is, about his potential for evil. And like Forever Tuesday Sam, Dean ultimately changes nothing except himself. He is utterly powerless to stop his mother from making the deal or his grandparents from dying or the YED from living on to hurt other people. His appearance in the past is meaningless except for the ways it changes him psychologically.
I think another point in favor of this reading of the show is that the YED clearly has no memory of his encounter with Dean Van Halen. The YED in "In the Beginning" believed Dean's story about moving through time, about being Samuel's grandson. The YED in the rest of the series is cunning and ruthless and operates on an agenda that moves glacially. His plans take decades to come to fruition. He already has psychic children in the 1970s. He's clearly been working on his endgame for quite some time. The YED thinks ahead. He's a big picture kind of guy. I refuse to believe he wouldn't have murdered Dean as a baby or at some other point in Dean's life if he had truly met him in the past. I think Castiel sent him to some shut-off microcosm of time that accurately reflects what happened in the past and what might have subtly changed if Dean had been there, but that was not actual time. If that makes sense. Otherwise, as soon as Dean started looking as he will look as an adult, John would have remembered meeting him. And while I suppose there's no canonical evidence to suggest that John didn't remember meeting Dean, I have to assume that would be the kind of thing he'd mention along with, "Oh, yeah, and you might have to off your little bro." I can't fanwank the YED and John's lack of recognition of Dean in any other way than to assume that Castiel sent him back in time to a copy of the timeline, or a stream of time that runs alongside what actually happened.
Thoughts? Tomatoes?
I have a ton more to say about this episode that will appear soon in essay form, rather than my usual episode reaction itemized list of squee. (The title contains the word "atavistic." I feel so Lovecraftian.)
*I still don't think it's 100% for sure that Castiel did snatch Dean from perdition. He says he did, but *shrugs*. Who knows?
