Supernatural ep5.19
Apr. 23rd, 2010 05:22 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
weaselettOk - so behind the but lies spoilers for all of SPN up to and including ep5.19 (I am unspoiled - I watch the episodes as they come and avoid most everything else)
Basically There was a lot of bad/insulting messages.
This episode? Just kinda made me even more 'meh' about SPN.
Up until this season I didn't ever have any huge issues with the show - it was annoying that there were so few girls and that the PoC were all evil or died, but with two white male leads and most guests being open to killing there was always going to be a bit of a lean that way.
This season however just NO
And this episode? MY GOD (irony not entirely intended) - did they write the names of 'major' pagan deities and pick them out of a hat? - it wouldn't have bothered me quite so much if it hadn't gone the way it did.
Seriously, have the deities make a statement about the Christian faith and then have them almost all killed BY ONE ARCANGEL? WTF SHOW?!?
-
There was just SO MUCH WRONG with this episode (and the random ass ghostfacers bit? what was with that?)
Now, I, in my younger days when I wasn't spending my time trying to remember which period I'm meant to be talking about today, was into mythology, I am still when I can be. BUT my knowledge is a bit limited.
I do however know enough to HATE what they did in this episode. Not to mention the fact that their choice of deities was just GAH. I mean, Baldur? seriously? You had Baldur, Odin and 'Loki', then Kali and Ganesh, then one each from a select number of other 'pagan' beliefs?
Plus other than Kali there was exactly one other female deity. The blonde girl with the name page that its hard to read.
(That I can see, via pausing and stuff - directly named Gods present= Mercury, Baldur, Odin, Kali, Baron Samedi, Zao?, Ganesh. Of the other three the only one with a name badge that you can almost read is the Blonde Girl = Isis. There is a total of 10 Gods, 2 of whom are female - plus there's race!fail with Ganesh, and possibly also 'Isis', without touching on the other two,as they're unnamed.)
I also have no idea why all of the deities were eating people (not all of them are associated with human sacrifices - i.e. Mercury, who the typical sacrifices were animals, plus Odin, ummm, that I know of, human sacrifices wasn't a thing in Norse myth.)It's like they went out of their way to say 'pagan gods bad - Christian god good' because we have yet to actually meet God and he *mutters* has been staying out of the whole thing. Also, he doesn't eat people.
I have no idea what they were thinking.
Some things, that had they included/changed, would have made me less annoyed-
one - the most important, if they wanted this to play out as it did, they should have used the archangel equivalents of 'pagan' faiths, i.e. Valkyries, demi-gods, minor deities etc - then there wouldn't have quite been the issues of 'archangels are better than pagan deities'
two - explained why the pagan were so damn pitiful (seriously, Kali got to do cool stuff, and suck ass - Baldur walked forward to do what exactly? punch Lucifer?) - or make them actually represent an actual threat
three - have actually looked at the damn mythology. I have no idea why these deities were at each others throats - that is such a hugely western thing to think - compare Christian faith intrusion into other countries with (early) roman faith intrusion. One wipes the other religion out, marking it as 'wrong' while Christianity is 'better', while the other includes and works with other religions. Pagan religions actually tend to get along (mainly cos, you know, there's not really anything that says 'we are the one true religion' in their stuff).
Let's not even mention the fact that Ganesh and Kali are avatars of one god. *sighs*
four - equal representation. One God per pagan belief (so, trade Ganesh for say, a female celtic deity (i.e. Brigid (irish)), replace Baldur (you could have a greek diety, Hera would have been awesome, though if she'd been killed by Lucifer I'd be more pissed). Or have representatives of Mayan myth, or Aboriginal myth. Just a more even spread (If those two white guys whose names I can't read are meant to represent anything from non-white myth? I will not be impressed).
So basically? THE MESSAGES IN THIS EPISODE WERE TERRIBLE - it pretty much reinforced the idea that Christianity is the 'real' and 'better' religion. And that? I DO NOT BELIEVE. No religion is better than any other.
Yes you could potentially argue that the defeat of the pagan Gods by the Lucifer was a metaphor for the world, but that really doesn't make the message any better. Nor does it make it necessary. (Pagan deities can step back and let it happen as easily as God seems to be doing in SPN verse).
-
Basically There was a lot of bad/insulting messages.
This episode? Just kinda made me even more 'meh' about SPN.
Up until this season I didn't ever have any huge issues with the show - it was annoying that there were so few girls and that the PoC were all evil or died, but with two white male leads and most guests being open to killing there was always going to be a bit of a lean that way.
This season however just NO
And this episode? MY GOD (irony not entirely intended) - did they write the names of 'major' pagan deities and pick them out of a hat? - it wouldn't have bothered me quite so much if it hadn't gone the way it did.
Seriously, have the deities make a statement about the Christian faith and then have them almost all killed BY ONE ARCANGEL? WTF SHOW?!?
-
There was just SO MUCH WRONG with this episode (and the random ass ghostfacers bit? what was with that?)
Now, I, in my younger days when I wasn't spending my time trying to remember which period I'm meant to be talking about today, was into mythology, I am still when I can be. BUT my knowledge is a bit limited.
I do however know enough to HATE what they did in this episode. Not to mention the fact that their choice of deities was just GAH. I mean, Baldur? seriously? You had Baldur, Odin and 'Loki', then Kali and Ganesh, then one each from a select number of other 'pagan' beliefs?
Plus other than Kali there was exactly one other female deity. The blonde girl with the name page that its hard to read.
(That I can see, via pausing and stuff - directly named Gods present= Mercury, Baldur, Odin, Kali, Baron Samedi, Zao?, Ganesh. Of the other three the only one with a name badge that you can almost read is the Blonde Girl = Isis. There is a total of 10 Gods, 2 of whom are female - plus there's race!fail with Ganesh, and possibly also 'Isis', without touching on the other two,as they're unnamed.)
I also have no idea why all of the deities were eating people (not all of them are associated with human sacrifices - i.e. Mercury, who the typical sacrifices were animals, plus Odin, ummm, that I know of, human sacrifices wasn't a thing in Norse myth.)It's like they went out of their way to say 'pagan gods bad - Christian god good' because we have yet to actually meet God and he *mutters* has been staying out of the whole thing. Also, he doesn't eat people.
I have no idea what they were thinking.
Some things, that had they included/changed, would have made me less annoyed-
one - the most important, if they wanted this to play out as it did, they should have used the archangel equivalents of 'pagan' faiths, i.e. Valkyries, demi-gods, minor deities etc - then there wouldn't have quite been the issues of 'archangels are better than pagan deities'
two - explained why the pagan were so damn pitiful (seriously, Kali got to do cool stuff, and suck ass - Baldur walked forward to do what exactly? punch Lucifer?) - or make them actually represent an actual threat
three - have actually looked at the damn mythology. I have no idea why these deities were at each others throats - that is such a hugely western thing to think - compare Christian faith intrusion into other countries with (early) roman faith intrusion. One wipes the other religion out, marking it as 'wrong' while Christianity is 'better', while the other includes and works with other religions. Pagan religions actually tend to get along (mainly cos, you know, there's not really anything that says 'we are the one true religion' in their stuff).
Let's not even mention the fact that Ganesh and Kali are avatars of one god. *sighs*
four - equal representation. One God per pagan belief (so, trade Ganesh for say, a female celtic deity (i.e. Brigid (irish)), replace Baldur (you could have a greek diety, Hera would have been awesome, though if she'd been killed by Lucifer I'd be more pissed). Or have representatives of Mayan myth, or Aboriginal myth. Just a more even spread (If those two white guys whose names I can't read are meant to represent anything from non-white myth? I will not be impressed).
So basically? THE MESSAGES IN THIS EPISODE WERE TERRIBLE - it pretty much reinforced the idea that Christianity is the 'real' and 'better' religion. And that? I DO NOT BELIEVE. No religion is better than any other.
Yes you could potentially argue that the defeat of the pagan Gods by the Lucifer was a metaphor for the world, but that really doesn't make the message any better. Nor does it make it necessary. (Pagan deities can step back and let it happen as easily as God seems to be doing in SPN verse).
-
