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destielshippingnews · 2 years

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Edvard's Supernatural Guide 2x03 Bloodlust

2x03 Bloodlust is the second episode in what some people have called the ‘Dark Dean Arc’, i.e. the three episodes following John’s death. Dean deals with his bereavement and the burden John placed on him in a self-destructive and sometimes frightening manner. I referred to episodes 2x03 and 2x04 in my previous review, saying that it was not until these two episodes that the severity of Dean’s distress and loss is visible. While I do not think that his behaviour itself is quite as worrisome and bad as some make it out to be, it is definitely indicative of a seriously troubled mind and an ailing spirit.

As for Sam, Sera Gamble shows she really is a Samgirl. She is very keen to present him as the morally upstanding counterpart to Dean’s brutish barbarity, the saint to Dean’s sinner, the Brain to Dean’s Pinky. This heavy bias was less apparent in series 1 when she wrote with Raelle Tucker on 1x12 Faith and 1x21 Salvation, but without her writing partner nothing holds her back. The reverse is true of Raelle Tucker’s solo work, as 2x20 What Is and What Should Never Be shows, but she does not take Sam to such an extreme as Sera Gamble does. She also does not seem to dislike Sam, which cannot be said of Gamble and Dean, but that is a story for another time.

First things first: look at his wee little outfit! (And look at him check that guy out.)

On to the episode, and this one is about vampires, the creatures who were supposedly almost wiped out but have now appeared twice within a space of six episodes. I will have less to say on the subject of vampires in this episode than I did in my review of 1x20 Dead Man’s Blood because I have already said most of it, but one thing worth bearing in mind is that this episode aired about three years before the Twilight films were released. Perhaps Gamble and Tucker had read the books and were intrigued by the idea of ‘vegetarian’ vampires (this would make since given how much Gamble’s writing in e.g. 2x17 Heart resembles soap opera melodrama), but at the time of the episode’s release this was definitely unusual in the vampire genre, Louis in Interview with the Vampire notwithstanding.

Speaking of vampires, the cold open of the episode shows a woman (later revealed to be a vampire) running away from a dark figure in the woods at night, only to end up beheaded on screen just before title card. The viewer is supposed to identify with the woman, because she is a woman running scared and we have seen this same scene in umpteen horror films. We are of course supposed to empathise with her, and her death is supposed to shock us and show us that the monster is monstrous. It is interesting that the ‘monster’ in the show is actually a human, and the victim a monster. This is the first time the show has really introduced this idea that monsters can be victims and the hunters can be the bad guys. It is relevant because Sam is on the road to becoming a ‘monster’ and John has burdened Dean with becoming the one to hunt and kill him. Who, in that situation, would be the real monster and who the hero?

This episode does not provide absolute answers, but instead focuses on grey area and nuance. But more on that later. First, context for those who do not remember the episode:

Reports of what appears to be cattle mutilations and exsanguinations draw Dean and Sam to investigate a case in northern Montana. The sceptical sheriff acts a bit shifty and appears to wilfully misinterpret Dean and Sam’s intentions with the case. They said clearly that the cattle mutilations could possible be a Satanic ritual, but the sheriff misconstrues this as them thinking Satan did it. Having been on the internet as long as I have, I have grown exceedingly accustomed to interacting with people with the reading comprehension capabilities of a cauliflower, but this took the biscuit.

It turns out that the cattle killings actually WERE Dean and Sam’s kind of case, but the cause was vampires who did not drink human blood, subsisting instead by exsanguinating livestock. A hunter named Gordon is killing the vampires on principle of them being vampires, disregarding their rejection of human blood. Dean is drawn over to Gordon’s way of thinking due to several reasons, but is eventually forced to change his stance and fight Gordon when he sees how much lead vampire Lenore fights against her vampiric nature. Gordon loses the fight, the vampires escape, and the episode ends.

Note the name of the newspaper Dean and Sam claim to be reporters for: World Weekly News. This is an actual newspaper which is referred to on various occasions throughout the run of the show, and which has featured at least one faux-article on Dean and Sam. It will be referenced again in episode 2x15 Tall Tales, the episode where a young man is repeatedly raped and we are supposed to laugh at it because a) he is a man and b) he ‘deserved it’. Would we be invited to laugh at The Trickster conjuring an ‘alien’ to ‘probe’ a young woman who ‘deserved it’? I think not.

Note also that Dean is the ‘stupid’ brother in the sheriff’s office and cannot remember the name of the newspaper. Yes, this is most certainly a Sera Gamble episode. Give me strength...

How adorable was it, by the way, when fanzines and faux-articles still existed? I saw a Smallville magazine from 2004 for sale on eBay, and searched my soul for whether I was willing to pay £24 plus p+p for a two-page spread about Jason Teague… As for the question ‘Why did Jason Teague go so bad?’, the answer is ‘because the writers of Smallville make the writing of Supernatural look competent’.

And back to the show…

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Returning to the opening of the episode proper, what might be obvious to the viewer is how Dean’s mood is drastically different at the beginning of this episode than it was at the end of 2x02 Everybody Loves a Clown. A few weeks, perhaps a month or two, has clearly passed since Dean played whack-a-mole on the boot of his car. Now it is in perfect working order, and Dean’s mask appears to be very tightly on. He seems normal, chipper even, something which Sam feels it necessary to make a redundant conversation about. Is this what normal humans do? Constantly comment on people’s emotional state? I would feel like I am in a panopticon or something. Just let it go, Sam: not everything needs to be a conversation just because you constantly roll a Nat 0 on perception.

This scene is one of few scenes in the show where I can see both Jared AND Jensen acting, but the fault is not in their work, but rather the fact it is obvious the car is not actually moving at all. Instead, it is in front of giant but very convincing screens playing landscape scenes to look like the view from a speeding car. The car itself does not look like it is moving, however, so Dean’s hands on the wheel look strange and fake. Most people will not have noticed it, though, but I am cursed with knowledge.

Now that those who have forgotten have the necessary context, are up to speed, I can get onto the interesting part of the analysis. The main thematic takeaway from 2x03 Bloodlust is better understood as an informed viewer. Upon my first watch of this episode just after Christmas about 12-13 years ago, it did not stand out. I liked seeing Amber Benson on screen again but the story did nothing to interest me.

Knowing where the show is going makes a vital difference, though. Dean knows he might one day have to kill Sam because of Sam’s psychic powers, and is torn between two sides of himself – here manifested as Lenore and Gordon. Gordon is a weltanschauung of moral absolutes, whereas Lenore is nuance. Gordon is an extreme exaggeration of archetypal masculine traits – control, order and stasis. He is not interested in any shades of grey regarding monsters. They are not human, they are a danger, and so must be killed. In contrast, Lenore is a touch of the archetypal feminine – change and unpredictability. The vampires diverged from their inherent nature, electing to not be controlled by it so they can live in peace. This is analogous to the conflict in Dean; Sam could become a monster, and as a monster he will be a danger and must be killed. But can Sam overcome his nature and live in peace?

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To add further layers to this, Gordon the human is the one who behaves like a monster, whereas Lenore and Eli act positively human and sympathetic. As Glory is a representation of the monster Buffy fears she will have to become if she fully embraces her slayer calling, so too is Gordon a representation of the monster Dean will have to become to kill Sam. Contrasted with this is the mirror of Lenore who is a ‘monster’ fighting her hardest to be ‘good’, as Sam might if he becomes a ‘monster’. What this is telling the informed viewer is that, in this situation, Dean might become the true monster.

Dean’s ‘flirtation’ (here not intended with sexual implications) with Gordon is Dean walking the path of deadening himself to his love for Sam, thereby learning to numb himself and dehumanise his brother in order that he may one day be capable of killing him. Gordon is a reflection of a part of Dean, and Gordon clearly says of monsters “They’re not human”, the unspoken denouement thereto being “...they’re monsters, so it’s necessary and good to kill them.” Dean intended wholeheartedly to kill Lenore because she is not human, and therefore a monster.

Lenore is also polysemetic mirror of both Sam’s future and Dean’s hesitation. As Lenore does not want to give in to her monstrous tendencies and become the thing Dean wants to kill, Dean does not want to give into his own monstrous urges and become something he will hate. The struggle is overwhelmingly hard for both, but it is one both are determined to fight at the end.

And as for Evil!Dean… well, not for the last time, but three words come to mind. Such potential, Supernatural.

Having discussed ‘masculine’ and ‘feminine’ here, I did not intend to conclude anything as banal and trite as ‘the feminine defeated the destructive masculine’ because 1) I do not have time for that nonsense and 2) the exaggerated masculine archetype in Dean was intentionally overblown. It would need to be if a brother were forced to numb himself to future fratricide. The conclusion of the episode sees Dean fight Gordon, the monster he is afraid of becoming. The fight ends in Dean overcoming Gordon and tying him up, with Gordon defeated and silent.

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Dean’s apology afterwards accompanied by his acknowledgement of the nuance can be read with more nuance than simplistic gender politics. Rather, there is a hint that equilibrium is being restored within Dean; the archetypal masculine is very much alive and well in him, but it is no longer as overwrought and negatively exaggerated as it was.

That just about does it for abstract, metaphorical analysis for this episode, but plenty remains for me to discuss more generally. One of them is Dean and Gordon’s relationship. Last episode, I mentioned Paula R. Stiles’s comment that Dean befriends people who turn out to be monsters. In 2x02 Everybody Loves a Clown, it was the blind man who was the rakshasa, and in this episode it is Gordon.

Their bond was based on trauma-bonding and a mutual experience of enacting violence on monsters. Gordon shared the story of his sister being bitten by a vampire, with the twist being that he found and killed his sister (or it would be a twist if that were not Gunn’s story in Angel, and similar to the abduction of Mulder’s sister in The X-Files). Dean actually felt comfortable opening up to Gordon about John’s death and how much he was struggling. Dean said he could not talk to Sam about those things I said last episode. In addition to everything I said there, Dean also has to be the parentalised big brother figure who keeps it together for Sam’s benefit.

Dean’s recent bereavement was almost definitely a contributing factor in his alliance with Gordon. Gordon did not doubt himself or his morals, and he provided Dean with an illusion of surety and clarity. Dean needed this after losing his dad, especially considering the burden of killing Sam. For the last few weeks or months, Dean has been scared, angry, lonely, doubtful, and grieving without anybody to support or help him. Then along comes Gordon who deals in absolutes and certainties. This would of course be an attractive chance to feel in control for Dean, so it is completely natural he cleaved to Gordon in spite of Sam’s warnings.

Having said ’bond’, ’attractive’ and ’cleave to’, some readers might be under the impression I saw romantic and/or sexual subtext between Dean and Gordon. I did not. The only male characters I have really seen Dean have romantic and sexual subtext with are Castiel, Lee (15x07), and the guy at the beginning of 6x01 Exile on Main Street who had been buying Dean beers for the last year. I do not see anything more than a ’brotherhood’ between Dean and Benny, nothing sexual at all between Dean and Henriksen in their five minutes of shared screen-time, and nothing between Dean and Ketch. I have been on the internet long enough to have seen all these pairings, but only Dean/Cas and Dean/Lee seem valid to me. I am not the arbiter of whom Dean did or did not pork or get porked by, but I am a man attracted to men and I just do not see it. And Benny calls Dean ’brother’ far too often for their bond to be sexual.

Returning to Gordon providing Dean with a clear direction and course of action, Sam is right to note that perhaps Gordon is an ersatz father for Dean, though Sam is perhaps wrong to claim Gordon is nowhere near as good a hunter as John. As far as I can tell, John and Gordon are quite a bit alike: other hunters eschew them, they think in black and white, and they are dangerous to be around.

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Sam really should not have said anything about Dean and John in the car park scene, especially not when Dean was clearly so riled up by Sam’s pestering. The punch should not have happened, but given Sam’s incessant mithering and snapping in the previous episode, and his patronising, gauche attempt to psychoanalyse Dean in a motel car park, it is not surprising that Sam’s continued, whiney nagging ends with his face colliding with Dean’s fist at high velocity. ’You slap on this big fake smile but I can see right through it.” Well done, Mr Big Smart-Smart. At least you did not try the sanctimonious act again and claim Dean was insulting John’s memory to try to shame him about making a friend who is not Sam. Oh wait...

People who read my analysis of the previous episode might remember this quote:

[Sam] is a yapping chihuahua who has not learnt that yapping at a German Shepherd is a sure way to get a giant paw in your face.

And what do you know, the yappy dog finally got a paw in his face.

Whilst on this subject, it bears mentioning that Dean and Sam are adult brothers of roughly equal physical build, height, and strength. Neither has any (inherent) power over the other in their relationship, because being brothers is an equal relationship, at least in theory. I have laid into John due to the likelihood he used physical violence with poco!Dean, and held Dean hostage in a mentally, physically, and possibly sexually abusive father-son relationship. John had inherent power in that relationship, being the one in power over his son. He misused that power in many ways, and Dean’s lack of self-esteem, his self-destructive and suicidal tendencies etc are the natural result of this, as is his erstwhile obedience to John.

Some people critical of Dean like to claim that Dean is an abusive older brother, and I have referred to this line of criticism before. Evidence such criticism cites is the fact that Dean punches Sam on a few occasions in the show, and a tiny number of comments can be construed as implying Dean was a physically-abusive older brother to Sam. One such line appears in this episode shortly before said punch. In the pub after Dean beheads the vampire with the chainsaw, Sam gets all uppity and sanctimonious about decapitations not being his idea of a god time, then decides to leave Dean and Gordon alone while he returns to the hotel. As Sam makes his exit, Dean says “Sammy, remind me to beat that buzzkill out of you later, alright?”

This line has been taken to support interpretations that Dean is to Sam what John was to Dean. In their defence, this is something taken directly from the text, but that is the only defence I can offer them: one would have to think that characters always mean what they say and say what they mean in every single situation to think this supports such an interpretation. Yes, Dean says this, but does Sam act around Dean the way Dean acts around John? Does Sam act like Dean uses violence or the threat thereof to control Sam? Does Sam act like a battered husband around Dean?

Quite simply: no. In fact, as I have written many times, Sam is the narcissistic abuser and Dean is the co-dependent abused. ...Who occasionally punches when provoked. Dean’s punch was not part of a pattern of physically-abusive behaviour to control or terrorise Sam. It was just douchey behaviour from a pissed-off brother who appeared to expect Sam to punch him right back. To Dean’s credit, he looked ashamed of himself afterwards... which he should, see above RE: douchey behaviour. If Sam had punched him back, he would have deserved it.

Editor’s note: Remember Sam shooting Dean twice in 1x10 Asylum and never once apologising properly? I remember. Carry on, Dean. Additional editor's note: Dean did take on a huge part of the role of raising Sam, so their relationship is not simply two brothers. However, the show has shown us time and time again that Dean has no authority over Sam, and Sam does not treat Dean like an authority figure or a parent. It is notable that Sam did not punch Dean back here, even though he could have. I will have a bit more to say on this next episode, but I still think what I said a few lines ago: it was douchey, angry, riled-up brother behaviour.

To be fair to Sam, he WAS also trying to talk sense into Dean, and Dean needed somebody to do that, just not in the way Sam was going about it. ’Friendship’ with Gordon is easy for Dean because he is familiar as well as absolute: he shares many traits with John, but also with Dean. Dean is a ’good guy’, but he has an incredible propensity for violence and death and does not always do what a good guy’ should. He is heroic, but not a HeroTM. He is not a psychopath like Gordon, but he finds it easy to relate to people who are. Sam tried to be a counterbalance to this, but failed.

A quote from Paula Stiles:

Because they’re polar opposites, Sam and Gordon need a tie-breaker and that ostrich feather on Osiris’ scales is, naturally, Dean. Dean is the prize over which Sam and Gordon viciously fight to the death (that demon blood thing later on? Just a distraction). It would be easy to argue that’s because Dean’s so awesome and that’s…sort of…true. That is to say, both Sam and Gordon are loners and outcasts who have both only found one real connection (though Sam did have Jessica and Gordon did have his sister, once), that connection being the one hunter who’s even more of a freak than they are (and therefore, won’t reject them). But Dean, freak or not, can only have one BFF at this point in the series and so, Sam and Gordon have to duke it out.

But perhaps the bigger reason why this conflict, or triangle, or what-have-you is so effective is because Dean is the swing voter in Sam and Gordon’s moral war. Tolerance or intolerance? Relativism or absolutism? Dean waffles between the two, balancing on that knife’s bloody edge, which makes him the perfect target for campaigning from both sides. Who will win the war for his heart and soul (and isn’t it an irony that he ends up going his own way after all that?).

Gordon was absolutely lusting after Dean trying to win Dean over to his side of the force. First he encouraged Dean’s despair, then tried to separate him from Sam (”Doesn’t seem like your brother’s much like us.”) This is a tactic used by abusers who want to isolate their victim, and it is telling that Dean apparently is so vulnerable to such manipulation by people he identifies with or cares for. After all, he has known little else than being controlled by a man not too different than Gordon. This manipulation is so powerful that Sam’s (lamentably poor) attempts at getting through to Dean with the nuance of ’the vamps aren’t killing people’ falls on deaf ears, or perhaps deafened ears.

As for the other star of the episode whom I have barely mentioned, Lenore also played a critical role in getting through to Dean. Other than Dean’s abject disgust at Gordon’s treatment (torture) of her, apparently for his own amusement (or misogynistic vindication, as Paula R. Stiles suggests), her staunch refusal to give in sways Dean away from the dark side of the force to the ...well, not the light side, really. Dean is definitely a Sith, but he is far from evil (Remember: the Star Wars films are Jedi propaganda). To avoid paraphrasing or Heaven forbid plagiarising her work, I will take a snippet from Paula Stiles’s analysis again:

But I should note that, despite the pretty-brutal misogyny that Gordon brings to the table (the murder of his sister is clearly cast as a sort of honour killing) and the way he treats Lenore, it would be missing the point to see her as just a helpless victim or Damsel in Distress. Lenore has a stronger will than perhaps anyone in the episode. She is surrounded by angry men itching for a fight, but even though she could probably clean the floor with Gordon, Sam or Dean, she risks her life under extreme torture to stick to her principles. And it’s really this that saves the day. If she had not shown that kind of fortitude, neither Sam nor Dean would have thought twice about letting Gordon kill off her entire nest. Amber Benson does a good job of playing Lenore as a different kind of Hero who controls her own bloodlust and influences two out of the three hunters she encounters to control theirs. That’s pretty impressive.

Lenore is indeed light-years away from being weak, but the strength she embodies is the opposite of the masculine strength Dean embodies (and Gordon negatively exaggerates). Her greatest strength in this episode is not her physical strength, but her strength of will, endurance, and her determination to change things for the better, and her caring for the wellbeing of others. This is an archetypically feminine kind of strength: it is quiet, subtle, discreet, but no less powerful than archetypical masculine strength.

Another fictional character who embodies this feminine strength is Galadriel. She is an incredibly powerful sorceress and enchantress who shielded and guarded an elven realm with her magic for millennia, but her strength lies also in her ability to nurture life, in providing a sanctuary to rest and heal, her self-control, wisdom, perception, and insight, and her refusal to surrender to her demons. Dean’s masculine strength is a potent force, but so is Galadriel’s steadfast perseverance. In The Lord of the Rings films by Peter Jackson, Cate Blanchette did an incomparable job of portraying this: she exuded an aetheral presence which demanded attention and could silence a room with a single glance.

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Even in the disastrous The Hobbit trilogy, she has her moments of weakness but refuses to surrender. Without her presence at Dol Guldur, The White Council might not have managed to oust Sauron.

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She almost certainly knew how to defend herself with weapons, but she did all this without once picking up a phallic symbol or punching anybody. Funnily enough, only two elves have been able to best Sauron in a one-on-one duel, and both were elf-women: Galadriel and her mentor Melian's daughter Lúthien, both of them using sorcery in different forms. Lúthien even bested Sauron's master Morgoth with her magic song and stole one of the Silmarils from his crown. Her uncle High King Fingolfin who challenged Morgoth to a duel and wounded him seven times, including a wound in his foot which never healed and caused Morgoth to limp forever, the cost being Fingolfin's own life.

That people think there are no 'strong women' in Tolkien's work is utterly risible to me. Quite apart from Éowyn, females in Tolkien's work are incredibly powerful, just not necessarily in the same sword-and-shield way as men.

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Lenore lacks the powers of an enchantress and sorceress, yet she still did not have to lift a single finger to triumph over Gordon and save her nest. Considering this is a Supernatural episode and not Buffy, it is a pleasant surprise to have this amount of metaphor and interplay of different forces: masculine vs feminine, yin vs yang, light vs dark, absolution vs nuance, etc.

Which brings me on to a last few minor points of discussion. Lenore is the name of the dead wife in Edgar Allan Poe’s The Raven poem, and indeed another poem bearing the name Lenore. The poem is about a man driven to ’madness’ out of grief for the fact he will never see his dead wife again. The raven in question is a metaphor for this despair and hopelessness, perched upon the bust of St Pallas above the narrator’s chamber door where its shadow lay floating on the floor. The looming, heavy presence of despair after the death of a loved one will not go away, but rather wears away at the narrator’s sanity. Other than the alarming comparison of Dean grief with that of a man grieving his wife, the rest is a fitting parallel, especially as the narrator does not even believe he will see his lost Lenore in Heaven.

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Less pleasing was the claim at the end of the episode that ’Dad did the best he could’. I often think that the writers of this show are unaware of exactly what picture they painted of John in series one, or indeed over the entirety of the show. Other times I think they are aware of it and want to ret-con or fix their mistakes. Unfortunately, that ship has long since sailed, and no amount of apologism can fix it. I intend to watch The Winchesters when it comes out, but I have already written about Jensen’s apparent attempts to ameliorate the audience’s perception of John (Jensen, WHY?!). I do not intend to forget that just because The Winchesters wants me to like John. Whatever the reason for the ’Dad did the best he could’ line, I wish the writers had stopped trying to make us forget what we had seen with crap like this. John did not do the best he could, but I have gone over this in depth in this essay, so I will leave this for now.

Regarding Gordon for one last time, he said in this episode that Dean ’is a sadistic killer, just like me’, and Dean believes this is true of himself. It is not true, of course, but Dean believes it is because it is what he was groomed to be. The same episode tells us that Dean was killing werewolves with John at age 16 while Sam was safe in the car. 16 would be a very young age to be doing this, but at that age Dean had already been hunting with John for a few years, and had known how to fire a gun for about a decade.

On the subject of Sam, his ability to remember the way to Lenore’s nest based on the time elapsed, the direction the car went etc all while blind-folded was a little hilarious. I understand the show wants us to think Sam is Resourceful and Intelligent, but this stretched my belief a bit too far. The way he ’worked out’ that Gordon already knew the vampires were good was also quite the impressive logical saltation: according to Sam, Gordon killed his sister who had been turned in to a vampire, therefore Gordon knew the vampires were good. How Sam worked this out is anybody’s guess, because the show certainly did not tell me how.

The vampire named Eli is played by Ty Olson, the same actor who portrayed Benny in series 8.

Some people have tried to work out how this can be explained within the show, but Benny’s story before ending up in Purgatory does not match with Eli’s. Spatial-genetic multiplicity is the explanation I go with. As for Ty Olson, this is his second appearance on screen with Jensen, their first being in Dark Angel 2x11 The Berrisford Agenda.

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Now I miss Alec again.

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Moving on before this turns into a meeting of the Helsinki Chapter of the Jensen Fan-Boys society, one last thing before I finish this. Dean killing the vampire did not seem unduly violent to me. I have just re-watched 2x04 Children Shouldn’t Play with Dead Things, which features Sam claiming Dean is ‘scary while hunting’, but if this is the case, the show has not done a good job of portraying this. The vampire Dean killed was trying his hardest to kill him, and the only thing Dean did which was not necessary to kill the vampire was punching it twice. I am aware I am supposed to be horrified that Dean killed the vampire with the chainsaw, but I am really not. Yes, it was gross, but the vampire had just tried to do the same to Gordon and would have done the same to Dean, so… what is the problem? Yes, he was a vegetarian vampire, but only Gordon knew that at the time. As far as Dean knew, the vampire was the same as the ones in 1x20 Dead Man’s Blood, and he used what tools he had at hand to get the job done. He did look deeply shaken by it, though.

Was the horrific part the fact that he looked at what he was doing while it was happening instead of looking away? I really do not know. Maybe I have watched too much Hannibal and The Walking Dead to be particularly bothered by that death, so I do not understand why Sam was so uppity about it.

Thus concludeth my analysis of 2x03 Bloodlust.

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devoutpriest · 21 days

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ofmoonsea:

☾ FAVOURITE MOMENT FROM YOUR MUSE’S CANON, AND WHY. (IF YOUR MUSE IS AN OC, THEN FAVOURITE ASPECT OF THEIR STORY.)

One of my favourite moments would be when Athelstan ends the Bishop’s suffering in 2x03, and says “DEUS TIBI BENEDICAS. SUFFER NO MORE BUT TRUST IN THY SALVATION.” Despite the Bishop accusing him of being an apostate and telling him he will get crucified, Athelstan does not hate him. The man was being made a sport of shooting with arrows. He sees how much the man is suffering and hears his prayers (especially in the last few lines), coming up the steps, as Erlendur was to shoot him with an arrow, recalling how he himself had prayed for God to hear him, and gives out mercy, cutting his throat with a knife.

#rp partner | ofmoonsea #ic #headcanon.#rp partner | unapostate

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flynnscarnation · 6 years

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13 Day Countdown to Season 4 ↳ Day 1: Favorite Season - Season 2 “They’ll need every trick in the book”

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sourdough-morbread · 3 years

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Morgana 👀

ok so i know you left this ask ages ago and this is like so fucking long i am so sorry.

but i just... i have a lot of thoughts on morgana. *hides pages of notes made for two big morgana-centric WIPs*

First impression: this is what went through my mind in my first watch through

s1: i fell for morgana really quickly. i was like. YES she has MAGIC and she tells off uther and arthur.

s2: i still liked her but i getting concerned about the direction the writers were pulling her character in season 2. i was quite disappointed in the way her turn to evil was written. like she was good then barely on screen and very damsel-in-distressy for some reason. and then she became evil!morgana with zero explanation and zero reluctance. didnt really make sense to me.

s3: i enjoyed her as a villain in, but at that point she was a completely different character in my eyes. not in the old character new instalment but in a entirely different person was put inside her.

s4: she was so boring and one dimetional. just. meh. she barely felt like a threat..

s5: i wasnt even paying attention to her. she has become the random conflict generator the writers rather than a character. so i just didnt care. also i skipped a few eps in my first go so. like dark tower bc i didnt want to see gwen hurt. so i missed out on the emotional impact of that.

Impression now: after rewatching i can see her character arc a lot better. i still think her arc wasnt well done. but thats because the execution was lacking, rather than the trajectory of her character not making sense. because it actually makes a lot of sense.

like in season 1, she is basically immune. she is caught aiding mordred and yet she can get away with uther yelling at her and have it all be forgotten with an apology. meanwhile tom is executed for being seen with a sorcerer. when she wants to kill uther, i dont think she thinks she will be caught. nobody would ever dare accuse morgana and arthur would never suspect it.

then she discovers she has magic herself and all of that immunity is gone. and without that safety net she becomes willing to endanger so many people, including the allies of magic in camelot. you know, people she would be screaming at the defence of previously.

her in 1x10 is a small glimpse of what she could have been. a force for good. someone willing to actually fight against what uther and rulers like him were doing. and i would have loved to see that.

but thats not what the writers chose. instead she regains her footing in hatred and blaming everyone for the fear she felt of death and disgust she felt of herself once she became one of those she defended but saw as beneath her none the less.

and i will never not be salty about how they skipped over her turning evil and how flat she became. like. let me have a deeply evil terrifying witch damn it!

i think what makes her terrifying is that she doesnt want power. not really. she wants revenge. she wants to take everything arthur cares about. she wants the throne because arthur doesn't get to have it. she wants camelot to kill its people. she doesnt care about power beyond how much pain she can cause with it. and thats so terrifying. enemy with no goal but to cause you pain. and knows all your weaknesses and can fool the people you have wronged to think she is fighting for their salvation. how do you even fight that?

idk i just think it was underutilised. again she was just a conflict generator the writers used until the final battle. even then mordred was more significant than morgana.

Favorite moment: just her in the entirety of beginning of the end. if i had to pick one moment it would be her goading arthur to look behind the curtain. its just so good.

Idea for a story: again... the WIPs. but one i havent written yet.

i had one au where arthur found out about her magic on accident and like. it kicked off a whole plot of her learning magic, and arthur finally facing how terrible uther is and getting his shit together. its not a very detailed idea. morgause would probably use this opportunity to manipulate arhtur. agravain would proably be not evil, tho still a spineless slimy noble. idk.

Unpopular opinion: this is not going to be a surprise to people who know me, but i dislike pretty much all of the discussion ive seen about 2x03.

fandom seems to be stuck on this dichotomy of either merlin should have told her about his magic and by not doing so he betrayed her— he did not. merlin tried to help her at the risk of his own life. go watch 2x03 again. or merlin reacted perfectly— also he did not. even while helping her, he still refused to acknowledge her magic.

in a situation where something invisible about you can get you killed, subtle word choices matter. merlins words, him continuing to say he wouldn't know if it was magic, even though they both knew it was and that the other also knew, means something. it means i will keep your secret but i cannot help you. this is by no means a moral failing of merlin. he made this choice out of fear for his own life, and i think it is unreasonable to expect him to react perfectly.

morgana in turn had no reason to go to merlin again about her magic. he has made it clear he doest want to be involved, which he has no responsibility to. and why would merlin be able to help her? he, as far as she knows, has no personal experience with magic except his sorcerer friend.

besides, druids were the safest place for a her to be. it was the safest place for any warlock to be, including merlin. her knowing or not knowing about merlin has nothing to do with it. like. everything that happens in camelot between merlin and morgana in season 2 is perfectly understandable. they didnt wrong each other.

what merlin and morgana actually did wrong is getting all those druids killed because they didnt think the plan through. like all of those people in that camp died. aglain, the person helping morgana, died right in front of her and mordred. the druids were the only ones wronged in that situation. which i have never seen pointed out.

Favorite relationship: her and mordred

listen there is only a singular instance of morgana genuinely hesitating to hurt somebody after her turn and that person is mordred.

Favorite headcanon: oracle!morgana. this is like a whole big headcanon thats basically the origin story of how draognlords came to be. something happened and oracles stole dragons wills and their births to give to mortals as punishment. and then a group of these people came to albion and became the Seers and the dragonlords. who have like different traditions to the druid seers and the priestesses who use methods adapted from scry methods.

thats why she can speak with aithusa even though aithusa cant speak.

#im sorry i cant shut up #a cup of jasmine tea #this is so fucking long #long post #ask #bro idk how do i even tag this monstrosity of a post?

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stahlop · 4 years

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Once Upon a Time 3x07 “Dark Hollow” Review

Reviews 1x01 1x02 1x03 1x04 1x05 1x06 1x07 1x08 1x09 1x10 1x11 1x12 1x13 1x14 1x15 1x16 1x17 1x18 1x19 1x20 1x21 1x22 2x01 2x02 2x03 2x04 2x05 2x06 2x07 2x08 2x09 2x10 2x11 2x12 2x13 2x14 2x15 2x16 2x17 2x18 2x19 2x20 2x21 2x22 3x01 3x02 3x03 3x04 3x05 3x06

Well, we officially have a love triangle going on, although Emma seems to want no part of it. Ariel and Belle make quite the plucky duo. And who would have guessed that Peter Pan was keeping John and Michael Darling alive for his own nefarious plan? On the plus side, Rumple now has ammo to capture Pan, thus ensuring he can come home to Belle.

Summary: Neal tells the group how he used the coconut to get off of Neverland the first time, which leads himself, Hook, and Emma into Dark Hollow to capture a shadow. Ariel and Belle search for Pandora’s Box for Ariel to bring back to Neverland, but are held up by an unlikely pair.

Opening: Clock Tower

New Characters:

John and Michael Darling: We really don’t find out too much about them. Basically, Pan has kidnapped their sister, Wendy, presumably allowed them to grow up enough to be able to do things for him, and now they need to get and destroy Pandora’s Box in order to get Wendy back. They are obviously very loyal to Wendy, and blame themselves for her predicament. Fortunately, Belle convinces them (after setting a coal cart on them), that they are the winning side and they can beat Pan with Pandora’s Box.

Character Observations:

Henry: He is convinced that Pan is hiding his family from him. Henry wants to know where Pan goes when he disappears from camp if it’s not to see his family hidden somewhere. Henry tells Pan he’s going to find out what it is. Oh, Henry. The first rule of trying to find out if someone’s hiding something, is not to tell them that you think they’re hiding something. Pan sends Felix to get ‘supplies’ and so Henry follows him, in the least stealthy way possible. He’s practically breathing down Felix’s neck he’s so close. He even does the classic step on a twig and hide move so Felix doesn’t catch him. Henry eventually finds the tree house(?) that Pan has put Wendy into (Felix drops a bag of apples in front of the ladder). He wonders why she’s so far away from camp and she tells him that she’s sick and Pan doesn’t want anyone else to catch it. Wendy also tells him she’s sick because the magic of Neverland is fading. Then she tells him how much he looks like his father, and that she knew him when he was a boy. Wendy then tells him he needs to leave so he doesn’t get sick and he promises to come back for her. He ‘runs’ into Pan on the way back to camp and confronts him about Wendy. Pan pretends he hid Wendy from him because he didn’t want Henry to know that because magic is dying, so is a young girl. Henry buys this hook, line, and sinker, and now wants to know how he can help save magic. Pan tells him it’s not how but where and leads him to Skull Rock, where the heart of the truest believer will be their salvation. Pan feeds into Henry’s wannabe hero complex by telling him saving magic will require heroism and sacrifice, and if Henry doesn’t realize that by sacrifice that means him, then I don’t know if he’s worth saving.

Belle: She’s obviously upset about Rumple leaving and going to sacrifice himself, even if it is for his grandson. Archie, the Blue Fairy, and the dwarfs see that she is upset and discover that Rumple left her with a cloaking spell to protect the spell. It’s the first spell she’s ever cast so she’s nervous. Blue Fairy tells her she needs to believe in herself (do spells not work if you don’t believe in them?), and it looks like it won’t work for a hot second, but then it does, and a huge cloaking dome encapsulates Storybrooke. Five days and four rejected cheeseburgers later, Archie is trying to psychoanalyze Belle in Granny’s (with his first question being ‘You miss him, don’t you?’ Well, duh!) Belle is upset because Rumple has gone off to his death and she feels like she can’t do anything to help him. Archie reminds her that she helped put up the cloaking spell, but pouring a potion over rocks apparently isn’t that big of a deal in her eyes. Archie tells her that she’s protecting the town from outsiders, but she thinks that was just a distraction because he doesn’t really need her. Which is when Leroy brings Ariel over with the news that Rumple needs her. Ariel hands her the sand dollar Rumple gave her and Belle is confused about what she’s supposed to do with it. She finally figures out that it holds a message from Rumple that gives clues as to how to find Pandora’s Box. Belle’s just excited that Rumple wants her help. I have to roll my eyes over this whole thing. The Belle that we saw in the Enchanted Forest knew her worth. She used books and her smarts to find the Yaoguai and figure out that he was the enchanted Prince Phillip in The Outsider. Yet here she has self-doubt because the man she loves didn’t take him with her to find his grandson? And she only gets her mojo back because he needs her? Ugh! Belle finally figures out that placing the chipped tea cup in it’s normal place in the cupboard activates a secret panel on the floor which is where he keeps Pandora’s Box. Which is, of course, when John and Michael come in with their guns, tie up Belle and Ariel , and take the box. Belle tries to convince them that they don’t know who they’re working for, but they are quite aware that Pan is their boss and that Greg and Tamara were patsies for their plan, which confuses her even more. They leave with the box. Belle laments about how every time she tries to be a hero she fails (I’m sure Prince Phillip would disagree). Belle figures out that they can get out of the ropes if Ariel gets her fins back, and somehow this words (not sure how considering they were mainly tied up around their chests, but okay). Belle figures out the men went to the mines to destroy the box with one of the dwarfs' pick axes. Belle tries to play on their sympathies by telling them that people they care about will die if they destroy the box, but they tell her they have the same issue if they don’t destroy the box. At least Belle is smart enough to send a coal cart careening their way to stop them from destroying the box. Belle finally convinces them that Rumple will be able to stop Pan, thus freeing their sister, and that’s when we find out, officially, that they are John and Michael Darling. Belle says goodbye to Ariel at the shore and is happy that Rumple will be able to defeat Pan and come home to her.

Neal/Emma/Hook: Oh look, the love triangle no one asked for. Anyway, Neal informs them that he escaped with Pan’s Shadow, but Emma doesn’t think they’ll be able to get it because they can’t get near Pan. Hook informs her his shadow is an entity unto itself, so they don’t actually need to get anywhere near Pan. Neal is actually thankful that Hook is going with them to find the shadow, since he knows the island just as well as Neal. Emma asks Mary Margaret when she’s going to forgive David since she’s still giving him the cold shoulder. Emma understands where David is coming from, not wanting to jeopardize the mission with his problems. Mary Margaret tells her to be careful with Neal and Hook since they both have feelings for her. Emma doesn’t want to deal with that. All she cares about is Henry. The trio head back to Neal’s cave to find the coconut. Emma goes to find where it’s hidden and Hook has a really awkward conversation with Neal about his and Emma’s kiss, assuming that Emma had told him. Neal tries to play it off as Emma being too focused on getting their son back (and also throwing in his face the fact that they have a son together), but you can see the hurt in his eyes that Emma kissed Hook and didn’t tell him, especially after he told her he’d fight for them. Emma brings the coconut to them and Neal says it’s not a star map but a way to trap Pan’s Shadow. Neal tells them they have to go to Dark Hollow. Hook looks frightened, Emma wonders why it couldn’t have a happier name. Hook tells her that it’s basically where the Shadows live and all light is snuffed out. They get to a particularly dense piece of jungle and Emma takes out Neal’s cutlass that Hook gave her in The Heart of the Truest Believer, almost slicing Hook who is behind her. Neal thinks she found it in the cave, but she tells him Hook gave it to her. Hook says he thought Emma might want something to remember him by, but Neal reminds him that he’s there now and goes off to hack the jungle brush. Emma wants to know what that was all about and he tells her he accidentally told Neal about their kiss. Emma wants to know why he would assume she’d told him, and Hook thought that maybe it meant something to her. Poor Hook. He’s really looking for some validation that it wasn’t a one time thing. She tells him that it meant a lot that he told them Neal was alive. He tells her it was a test from Pan, to see if he’d choose an old friend over the woman they both wanted. She’s impressed because he’s a pirate. For the first time, Hook looks upset over being called a pirate, or that Emma only sees him as one. He tells her that when he wins her heart, and he will win her heart, it won’t involve any trickery. It will be because she wants him. And I’m just going to cry in the corner now, because that is the most romantic thing I’ve ever heard. Emma takes a minute to catch her breath over that confession, and tells him that it’s not a contest. Hook tells her she’ll have to choose and she says she only has to choose how to save her son. Hook tells her she’ll get him back because he’s never seen her fail, and Emma is just glowing from all the faith he has in her, because, let’s face it, no one, especially Neal, has ever had this much faith in her. Neal interrupts their little moment when he’s finally found Dark Hollow. Neal explains that they’ll light the candle in the coconut and the Shadows will be drawn to it. Once in the coconut, they put the lid on and they have a trapped Shadow. Neal tries to light the candle with a Zippo, but it’s too windy. Hook gets impatient and tries to steal the lighter, and then he and Neal start fighting over it like children. Yep, that’s definitely the way to impress Emma. Even Emma calls them out over it. They lose the lighter in the scuffle and then the Shadows come and take the men and try to rip out their shadows. Emma is hunched in a corner of some logs freaking the eff out. Eventually she remembers that she has magic, and after a few false starts, manages to light the candle and catch Pan’s Shadow. She is very impressed with herself. Neal wants to know how she managed to do it and is not happy that Regina is teaching Emma magic. Emma has now gone from impressed to stunned. I find it pretty ironic that Neal left the Enchanted Forest to get away from magic, and now the girl he’s fighting for has it. Emma is pissed off at both Neal and Hook for their behavior. Hook feels the need to tell her that it wasn’t the lighter they were fighting over and she just looks at him like he’s the biggest idiot in the world. She tells them the only person she is choosing is Henry (this always reminds me of the 90210 moment where Kelly chooses herself, rather than choose between Brandon or Dylan). At least both Hook and Neal look properly chagrined. When they get to Tink’s place, Neal comes in like the conquering hero, like he did all the work when all he did was almost get himself killed. Neal and Tink have a lot of chemistry going on there. Maybe he can forget Emma and get with Tink instead. Problem solved. Anyway, Hook angrily states that they did it, and wonders if Tink will now help them (you can tell he’s angry because he’s popping all the letters when he speaks). Tink finally agrees to work with them now that they have an exit plan. Neal apologizes again to Emma and agrees that they need to put Henry first.

Mary Margaret/David: Mary Margaret is not speaking to David and he’s not happy about it, but he knows he’s in the dog house, so he doesn’t push it. While the love triangle goes off to find Pan’s Shadow, Mary Margaret and David head to Tink’s tree house to let her know about the plan. David tried to get her to talk to him, but she’s not ready. He tries to defend his decision not to tell her, but she just keeps heading to Tink’s. David changes tactics by pointing out the nice places in the jungle that he could build a hut. Mary Margaret just gets annoyed by that. She just continues on. David actually calls her Snow to get her attention, and eventually tells her that she needs to say something, anything. That gets Mary Margaret going. She wants to know why she needs to say something when he didn’t say a word to her about his being poisoned. He wanted to find a cure and then he wouldn’t have to say anything and worry anyone. Mary Margaret points out that he was cured and he still didn’t say anything. David finally tells her he was scared. Mary Margaret thinks he was scared that she wouldn’t stay with him, but David was actually scared that she would. He didn’t want to force her to stay with him. Mary Margaret says love means staying together, but David says it also means sacrifice. Mary Margaret says she’ll happily stay and dodge poison arrows and Lost Boys with him, as long as they’re together. She tells him he didn’t believe in them, and he needs to believe. David apologizes. And this is a really sweet scene between these two. It’s no wonder they’re married in real life. They pull off being a married couple so well. It seems these two lovebirds have finally made up.

Regina/Rumple: Rumple has drawn some kind of map to get Ariel to Storybrooke. She says she would have to cross several realms, but she can do it. He enchants a sand dollar for her to give to Belle with instructions. Ariel asks Regina where she’ll find Eric, but Regina tells her she needs to bring the box first, and then she’ll tell her that information. She tells Ariel incentives are important. Ugh! She’s a grown mermaid, not a kid Henry’s age. That was very condescending. Ariel wonders how she’ll know Regina will uphold her end of the bargain, and Regina says she’ll just have to trust her. Considering what Regina did to her last time, I’m surprised Ariel took the deal. Regina and Rumple discuss whether Rumple truly believes Belle will come through for them. Regina realizes Rumple truly loves Belle. She seems shocked that he could love someone. Rumple takes her tone to mean she’s jealous. Regina scoffs at being jealous of Belle, but Rumple accuses her of being jealous that he has someone and she doesn’t. Luckily, Ariel arrives before Regina can either ruminate on her feelings or send a fireball at him. Rumple seems shocked that they actually managed to get the box to him. Regina magicks Ariel’s bracelet so she can have legs whenever she wants. Ariel tells them about Wendy and the Darlings and that Belle wants them to try and rescue Wendy. Regina doesn’t want to stray from the mission to save Henry, but Ariel reminds her that without her and Belle, they wouldn’t have the box to save Henry. Rumple says they’ll do their best and Regina isn’t happy about another side mission interfering with her trying to save her son. Rumple tells Ariel to tell Belle he loves her and will see her again. Regina looks like she isn’t too sure about that last part.

Pan/Wendy: Pan basically manipulates Henry into believing magic is dying and he’s the only one who can save it by making Wendy lie about being sick because of magic dying. Wendy doesn’t like lying to Henry (especially since he’s Bae’s son). Pan finally has Henry right where he wants him.

Questions:

Did Rumple give Belle a spell or a potion? Or was it instructions as to what to do with the potion? Because a spell usually involves some chanting or saying of instructions, and all Belle did was pour the potion into the vein of fairy dust.

Is Rumple drawing a portal map to Storybrooke? How would he know how the mermaid portals work?

Does Ariel normally live in Neverland waters? How does Pan know when she leaves? Is it because she was sitting on the rock?

Ok, seriously, how does Pan communicate with people not in Neverland?

When did Rumple ‘record’ the sand dollar message for Belle? Or is it just a magic message?

When did Rumple have time to set up the hiding of Pandora’s Box and the teacup to activate it? Did he think that Belle would be the only person to have access to it, or was it just a sweet reminder for himself?

Why is it so light in Dark Hollow? When the lanterns went out it didn’t change the lighting level at all.

Why is the Shadow attracted to light? In Second Star to the Right Bae used a match to scare the Shadow into dropping him in the water.

What are the holes for in the coconut? To let the shadow breathe?

How the hell does Belle walk in the mines in 6 inch stiletto heels? I get that they didn’t have a lot of time, but she couldn’t have found a pair of flats or some boots?

Why is Belle always so confused when villains have personal stakes in the game? She had no idea about Milah’s true death in The Outsider with Hook, and now she’s completely stunned that Pan is forcing the Darlings to help him because he has their sister.

How has Pan kept the Darling boys alive all this time? Were they in Neverland until the time was right for them to ‘grow up’?

Why did Pan take Wendy? What purpose does she serve him? He obviously doesn’t care for her like in the books and movies.

Does Wendy really think Henry looks like Bae, or did she just tell him that to help believe?

Observations:

It has been five days since Emma and crew went to Neverland.

I don’t know why, but Belle’s blue nailpolish bugs me. It doesn’t seem in character for her to have blue nailpoilsh.

There’s a teddy bear keychain hanging from the dash of the Darling’s car.

What luck that the Darlings just happened to be trying to get into Storybrooke at the exact time that Belle was casting the cloaking spell.

The Darling’s license plate is from Minnesota.

Ariel’s bracelet is only enchanted for 24 hours.

Pan senses when Ariel leaves Neverland.

There’s a No Shirt, No Shoes, No Service policy at Granny’s.

Emma and crew rescued Neal from the Echo Caves the day before according to David.

Pandora’s Box contains the World’s Greatest Evil.

Emma only yells Hook’s name when the Shadows take him and Neal.

I’m going to assume that it took longer to rip Hook and Neal’s shadows from their bodies because they’re from the Enchanted Forest, whereas when they just ripped Greg’s from his body in a few seconds, it was because he was from The Land Without Magic.

John uses Happy’s axe when he attempts to destroy Pandora’s Box.

Wendy looks pretty good considering she’s been in a box for over a century.

It looks like Pan finally has his plan moving into place, now that he has Henry believing, Emma is not playing into the love triangle at the moment, and both David and Mary Margaret will be staying in Neverland once this is all over. Rumple now has Pandora’s Box, so let’s hope he is able to use it and actually defeat Pan.

Please leave comments and reblog! Let me know if you’d like to be tagged in future reviews.

@searchingwardrobes @thisonesatellite @justbecauseyoubelievesomething @laschatzi @profdanglaisstuff @mariakov81 @lfh1226-linda

#once upon a time #once upon a time review #once upon a time rewatch #once upon a time 3x07 #once upon a time dark hollow

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