ratherastory (![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
ratherastory) wrote2010-02-03 04:38 pm
ratherastory) wrote2010-02-03 04:38 pm
Entry tags:
Scheduling woes, and pseudo-meta
[insert gnashing of teeth, pulling of hair, rending of clothes]
I stupidly agreed to a shift change, and now I'm going to MISS SUPERNATURAL!
WOE!
I am The Stupid.
Well, maybe if work is quiet they'll let me watch it then (I'm a dispatcher, we can keep the TV on if the lines aren't busy). If worse comes to worst, I'll just have to wait until I can download it at home. But still. Woe!
I have a meta post rattling around in my head about why Sam Winchester hasn't been given a fair shake as a character in the four and a half seasons of SPN that I've seen. See, while I love Dean with much love, part of me wants to love Sam more, because Sam is... well, Sam is me. Sam is the person that we could all become if we're not careful: utterly human and flawed and given to despair. Dean is the hero of the piece, the guy who takes the fall for his brother. Dean is the messiah figure, the one who bleeds (so prettily!) for the sins of mankind.
The problem is that unlike Dean, Sam has never properly been explored as a character: he's a plot device, poor bunny. Ever notice how we never EVER focus on his backstory? We get a lot about Dean, about his relationship with his father, and even with his mother. All the Dean-focused episodes are about fleshing out his character. All the Sam-focused episodes end up being about the plot.
The audience doesn't know Sam Winchester. Not as a human being. We don't know what he was like as a child, other than kind of sulky and spoiled (with the one exception of "After School Special," in which he doesn't come off all that well, if you ask me). We don't know what his life was like at Stanford: the only glimpse we get of that past life is a Dean-centric episode ("Skin"). We have no idea how he treated his girlfriend (Was he romantic? Distant? Clingy? Possessive?), or what, if anything, he talked about with his friends.
Sam's emotions have always been either a result of the plot or a way to propel the plot forward. Sam's grief and rage made him leave the safety of Stanford in the pilot. His guilt over Jess' death keeps him going during the first season. In the second season it's his grief/rage/guilt over his father's death. Third verse, same as the first for the third season, with an added sprinkling of desperation to try and break Dean's deal. Need I even bring up fourth season? And the fifth season too, obviously.
There's a reason Dean doesn't recognize his brother right away in 5.12: no one really knows who Sam Winchester is. There is no baseline for us to figure out if he's acting out of character. We ALL know that Dean isn't acting like the Dean we knew from the first season. He's hurting and frightened and desperate, and we know this because we had a baseline against which to compare him. Not so with Sam, whose inner life has been kept a mystery from the very start. Sam, whose brain is constantly filled with visions and doubt and second-guesses and who constantly gets jerked around and manipulated by everyone with whom he comes into contact (even Dean, and especially Dean).
Anyway, this post isn't meant to be that meta post. Part of me wants to sit down and write this out as a proper essay. Why Sam Winchester isn't a hero and why he ought to be. I haven't written a proper essay in a very long time. It would be an interesting exercise.
I stupidly agreed to a shift change, and now I'm going to MISS SUPERNATURAL!
WOE!
I am The Stupid.
Well, maybe if work is quiet they'll let me watch it then (I'm a dispatcher, we can keep the TV on if the lines aren't busy). If worse comes to worst, I'll just have to wait until I can download it at home. But still. Woe!
I have a meta post rattling around in my head about why Sam Winchester hasn't been given a fair shake as a character in the four and a half seasons of SPN that I've seen. See, while I love Dean with much love, part of me wants to love Sam more, because Sam is... well, Sam is me. Sam is the person that we could all become if we're not careful: utterly human and flawed and given to despair. Dean is the hero of the piece, the guy who takes the fall for his brother. Dean is the messiah figure, the one who bleeds (so prettily!) for the sins of mankind.
The problem is that unlike Dean, Sam has never properly been explored as a character: he's a plot device, poor bunny. Ever notice how we never EVER focus on his backstory? We get a lot about Dean, about his relationship with his father, and even with his mother. All the Dean-focused episodes are about fleshing out his character. All the Sam-focused episodes end up being about the plot.
The audience doesn't know Sam Winchester. Not as a human being. We don't know what he was like as a child, other than kind of sulky and spoiled (with the one exception of "After School Special," in which he doesn't come off all that well, if you ask me). We don't know what his life was like at Stanford: the only glimpse we get of that past life is a Dean-centric episode ("Skin"). We have no idea how he treated his girlfriend (Was he romantic? Distant? Clingy? Possessive?), or what, if anything, he talked about with his friends.
Sam's emotions have always been either a result of the plot or a way to propel the plot forward. Sam's grief and rage made him leave the safety of Stanford in the pilot. His guilt over Jess' death keeps him going during the first season. In the second season it's his grief/rage/guilt over his father's death. Third verse, same as the first for the third season, with an added sprinkling of desperation to try and break Dean's deal. Need I even bring up fourth season? And the fifth season too, obviously.
There's a reason Dean doesn't recognize his brother right away in 5.12: no one really knows who Sam Winchester is. There is no baseline for us to figure out if he's acting out of character. We ALL know that Dean isn't acting like the Dean we knew from the first season. He's hurting and frightened and desperate, and we know this because we had a baseline against which to compare him. Not so with Sam, whose inner life has been kept a mystery from the very start. Sam, whose brain is constantly filled with visions and doubt and second-guesses and who constantly gets jerked around and manipulated by everyone with whom he comes into contact (even Dean, and especially Dean).
Anyway, this post isn't meant to be that meta post. Part of me wants to sit down and write this out as a proper essay. Why Sam Winchester isn't a hero and why he ought to be. I haven't written a proper essay in a very long time. It would be an interesting exercise.
no subject
And just for the record, I'm bi-bro, as well. No blind character defending :)
no subject
Sam so often seems to come across as a spoiled, petulant brat whose demands are completely unreasonable, which is patently not true. He's not the same person as Dean, his wants and needs are different, and I really wish that someone on that show would validate him for once, rather than having Dean be the favoured brother all the time (ever notice how Sam is always the black sheep, no matter who they talk to? Ellen, Bobby, Pamela, Jo... all of them).
no subject
That is an issue, I agree. It isn't even that difficult to empathise with Sam, if we relate to him through our personal experiences of having screwed up (like you said in the beginning, Sam is much more "us" than Dean is), but a lot of that understanding for him comes from interpretation rather than direct evidence.