lunabee34: (spn: metallicar by trustygeek)
[personal profile] lunabee34
My friend Emily asked me:

I guess I didn't think about this when we were introduced to Tessa originally in the second season premiere, but isn't her version of a reaper completely different than the reaper from "Don't Fear the Reaper"? I have to admit that I'm a bad fan and don't always pay attention to the subtle details of the show, but I know you do! Did they address either in her first episode or this one [Death Takes a Holiday] why she is so pretty and brings death so peacefully but the creepy old guy chases people down and scares them to death? Are there different kinds of reapers?

Which got me to thinking about why the Reaper in DFTR is presented so differently.

This is the answer I came up with:

Re: your question, when we first see Tessa in IMTOD, she looks like a scary Wraith thingy, like a ghostly skeleton (which she later tells Dean is her true form). And then she makes herself look like a beautiful girl. Dean reads in John's journal that Reapers can alter human perception, make themselves appear to humans however they'd like. So I don't think the Reaper in DFTR and Tessa are different kinds of Reapers so much as that they choose to wear different forms. The Reaper in DFTR is being forced to act by the skeevy faith healer's wife; he's essentially a prisoner and he's being forced to go against his nature and kill people whose times have not yet come. So maybe he looks and acts scary because he's pissed off.

Oh, oh, or maybe that Reaper looks and acts scary because he can only appear the way that woman *thinks* he should appear--like the form he wears is tainted by her perception of what a Reaper is/should be and by the darkness of what she is doing.

Date: 2009-03-17 07:33 pm (UTC)
tabaqui: (deanringbyincata_art)
From: [personal profile] tabaqui
I think both of those are very, very cool ideas. I think Tessa looks like she looks because Dean would appreciate that more - maybe listen to her with more of an open mind if she *doesn't* look like a 'monster'. And, remember, she was pretending to be another human when she first met him, and we all know he responds to the 'damsel in distress'....

I think that yes, the 'Faith' reaper was not only angry at being held prisoner, but also warped by what um....the wife thought he should be.

:)

Your icon is OMG *fans face*

Date: 2009-03-18 03:00 pm (UTC)
ext_2351: (spn: rocksalt ftw by surrexi)
From: [identity profile] lunabee34.livejournal.com
*nods*

I really love that they were able to do some continuity with the same actress and that she didn't die. I mean, I totally get the whole "two of them against the world, lone survivors" thing the show has got going on and in many ways I like that, but I sure do wish they didn't have to gak everybody that's even remotely cool. (Oh, Pamela and Andy and Ava and Henrikson! *wails*)

Re: Your icon is OMG *fans face*

Date: 2009-03-18 03:51 pm (UTC)
tabaqui: (deanringbyincata_art)
From: [personal profile] tabaqui
Yes, it's rather sad, isn't it? But it's a war, and so...casualties. They just better not make Bobby one!
*clings to him*

Isn't that icon wonderful? I love it. It's by [livejournal.com profile] incata_art, feel free to snag.

Re: Your icon is OMG *fans face*

Date: 2009-03-18 06:30 pm (UTC)
ext_2351: (spn: bobby dean sam family by panicstryk)
From: [identity profile] lunabee34.livejournal.com
No! No Bobby!

That would destroy me.

*weaves spell of protection around Bobby*

Re: Your icon is OMG *fans face*

Date: 2009-03-18 06:44 pm (UTC)
tabaqui: (bobbyglyphbyangstpuppy)
From: [personal profile] tabaqui
YES!
Bobby is just...too....
*hands*

Too *Bobby*! We must always, always have him.
*grabs Uncle Bobby and doesn't let go*

The Reaperbahn

Date: 2009-03-17 07:52 pm (UTC)
From: [identity profile] executrix.livejournal.com
There's a projective test that you can use to prank your friends--you ask them to imagine that they're in a forest. Ask them to describe the forest. They're walking along, and they see a key. What does it look like? What do they do? Then they come to a body of water. What's that like? And then they see a wall.

After you've gone around the circle (and you'll be surprised what people come up with!) you tell them, haha, the forest is Life, the key is Love (everybody picks up the key!), the body of water is sex, and the wall is death.

My point being, that some people say, omg, the wall has an electric fence and barbed wire and rabid bears! (I said that the wall was about waist-high and I sat down on it and ate my sandwiches.) So whether or not everybody gets the Reaper they deserve, it makes sense to me that they get different Reapers.

Re: The Reaperbahn

Date: 2009-03-18 02:57 pm (UTC)
ext_2351: (spn: ruby 1st incarnation by music_fun)
From: [identity profile] lunabee34.livejournal.com
And now I am left to wonder what I would have said before I knew the trick. I will bring this out at the next party because it could be highly illuminating.

I love that you eat sandwiches in the face of death. LOL
From: [identity profile] executrix.livejournal.com
And when I saw the lake I wondered if they had rowboats to rent.
From: [identity profile] executrix.livejournal.com
I'm on my way out to Media Mail you some books--mostly decorating books for your (Mom? MIL? Can't remember) but a few for you.
ext_2351: (spn: rocksalt ftw by surrexi)
From: [identity profile] lunabee34.livejournal.com
WHHHHHHHEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE!!!!!!!!!!!

You, FTW!

Date: 2009-03-19 04:34 am (UTC)
From: [identity profile] hyding.livejournal.com
I think Tessa just chooses to appear as a pretty girl to make her job easier. You say the word REAPER! and turn up looking like the old guy in a black suit and any spirit would run the other way. If you look like Tessa, you can FOOL the ghosts (like how she fooled Dean in 2x01) and upon pursuasion she makes the ghosts accept that reaping is just a part of the cycle.

Date: 2009-03-19 03:53 pm (UTC)
ext_2351: (Default)
From: [identity profile] lunabee34.livejournal.com
Oh absolutely. I agree with you. But if you consider those her motives, it begs the questions of why the other Reaper appeared the way he did.

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