#8.21

[spacedean]

DEAN WINCHESTER in one random episode per day ‣ 320/327 8.21 THE GREAT ESCAPIST

#spnedit #deanedit #dean winchester #supernatural #8.21 #making that first gif made me feel like i was back in 2013

[ardentpoop]

who told me rewatching was a good idea. this is torture

#can they leave me alone have they not done enough damage to my psyche #''these trials aren't just something i did - they're doing something to ME. they're changing me dean!'' #AUGH!!!!!!!!!!!!! #i . adore him #spn #liveblog tag #8.21

[scoobydoodean]

Thinking about 4.05 "Monster Movie" and how the shifter (Lucy) who dresses up as Dracula fixates on Jamie and Dean, casting Jamie as Mina and Dean as Jonathan Harker—Mina's fiance—the righteous hero who, with Van Helsing, saves Mina from Dracula.

The last time we really focused on the POV of a shifter was 1.06, where our shifter was a Dean parallel. This time I think our shifter represents Sam—or rather, the shifter represents Sam’s feelings about his own monsterhood, and the occasional envy he feels toward Dean—Dean who is cast by the envious shifter as righteous hero who "gets the girl" (but not this time, Harker!) In season 4, Dean will be given the title “The righteous man”. The same angels calling him that will call Sam “The boy with the demon blood” and “abomination”.

Opening on the scene where Dean has been dressed in lederhosen and tied up by the shifter:

DEAN looks at a portrait of a woman’s face on the wall which resembles LUCY. DRACULA She is beautiful, no? Bride number three from the first film. She never got the acclaim that she deserved. Which is why I chose her shape, her form, to move among the mortals unnoticed. To listen to the cricket songs of the living. That is when I discovered my bride had been reborn in this century.

The shifter wanted to fit in—to be perceived as normal—so they chose Lucy’s shape. It isn't difficult to connect that desire for normality with Sam's initial desire for normality. But the shifter discovered Mina (Jamie) and then everything changed.

In “Monster Movie”, the shifter initially despaired of their monsterhood, but monster movies gave the shifter a sense of dignity—a taste of power.

DRACULA "Real" is being born this way. Different. "Real" is having your dad call you "monster" -- it's the first time you hear the word. And he tries to beat you to death with a shovel. Everywhere I ran, everywhere I tried to hide, people found me, dragged me out, attacked me. Called me "freak," called me "monster." Then I found them. The great monsters. In their movies, they were strong. They were feared. They were beautiful. And now I am like them. Commanding. Terrifying.

I'm immediately reminded of a speech Sam gives in the previous episode, explaining why he's decided to embrace demonic power (4.04):

SAM I've got demon blood in me, Dean! This disease pumping through my veins, and I can't ever rip it out or scrub it clean! I'm a whole new level of freak! And I'm just trying to take this - this curse... and make something good out of it. Because I have to.

In Dracula, Mina was saved from Dracula at the end of the story by Harker and Van Helsing. Lucy wasn't able to be saved—she was a victim of Dracula’s, who started out a kind, soft hearted woman, but was killed by Dracula and reborn as a monster who fed on children. She was subsequently destroyed by Van Helsing.

In our parallel, I don't think Mina (played by Jamie) parallels a person so much as Mina represents an ideal or desire. Mina represents "getting to be the hero"—Mina represents the capacity for redemption.

What the shifter (and Sam) don't know is that redemption is something Dean is also seeking:

JAMIE That must suck. I mean, you're giving up your life for this terrible... I don't know, responsibility. DEAN Last few years, I started thinking that way, and, uh, it started sort of weighing on me. Of course, that was before... A little while ago, I had this – let’s call it a near-death experience. Very near. JAMIE sits down next to DEAN. DEAN And, uh, when I came to... things were different. My life's been different. I realize that I help people. Not just help them, though. I save them. I guess it's -- it's awesome. It's kind of like a gift... like a mission. Kind of like a... a mission from God.

Dean is on a mission from God—and we as forward-looking viewers who know Dean tortured souls in hell have a better understanding of why Dean ties himself to that mission—as a form of redemption.

Monsters on the other hand... monsters don't get the girl—monsters don't get redemption—monsters don't save the day. Harker and Van Helsing save the day, and Harker (Dean) gets the girl.

DEAN You do realize what happens at the end of every monster movie? DRACULA Ah, but this movie is mine. And in it, the monster wins. The monster gets the girl. And the hero, he’s... electrocuted. And tonight, Jonathan Harker, you will be my hero.

This is, in some sense, our Sam from 4.04 manifesting a win—manifesting becoming the hero through monstrosity. Dean doesn't get to be the hero this time.

SAM Dean, I need her to help me kill Lilith. I know you can't wrap your head around it, but maybe one day you'll understand. I'm the only one who can do this, Dean. DEAN turns back around. DEAN No, you're not the one who's gonna do this. SAM Right, that's right, I forgot. The angels think it's you. DEAN You don't think I can? SAM No. You can't. You're not strong enough. DEAN And who the hell are you? SAM I'm being practical here. I'm doing what needs to be done.

Sam wants Dean to take a back seat. In a sea of motivations for lying and working with Ruby, one of them—most certainly—is that Sam wants to be the hero and wants Dean to not be the hero... and in some sense, this also fits with shifter who tries to force Dean into a role—who insists Dean play the role of Harker... who, while one of the story's heroes, also plays the part of the damsel in distress at various points in Bram Stoker's Dracula.

Crucially though, Sam isn't just represented by Lucy and the shifter in "Monster Movie". Sam is also associated with Van Helsing—or rather—when Sam arrives to free Dean and Jamie, the shifter shouts,

DRACULA You will never be Van Helsing!

This is Sam's despair in the mouth of the shifter. Sam could never be a traditional hero. He's unclean—he could never be a hero like the badass Van Helsing—the closest thing the Dracula novel has to a hunter (knowledgeable, strong, tenacious, clever). Sam could never go on a quest like that.

SAM Knights of the Round Table. Had all of King Arthur's knights, and they were all on the quest for the Holy Grail. And I remember looking at this picture of Sir Galahad, and, and, and he was kneeling, and— and light streaming over his face, and— I remember... thinking, uh, I could never go on a quest like that. Because I'm not clean. I mean, I w— I was just a little kid. You think... maybe I knew? I mean, deep down, that— I had... demon blood in me, and about the evil of it, and that I'm— wasn't pure?

The thing is, Sam is paralleled with the shifter as Lucy (desperation for normality) and as Dracula (despair, reclaiming monstrosity as his own), but Van Helsing is also a part of Sam too. Van Helsing represents Sam's ability to choose his destiny—Sam's ability to choose to be a hero, despite how he's despaired of ever being clean. He just has to realize it's his choice—that life is not a maze he has no choice but to run through. He is not unclean. His destiny is not defined by Azazel's blood.

JAMIE Ever think that maybe you're lonely because you kill people? DRACULA Or I kill people because I’m lonely.

Sam continues through season 4 with this same frame of mind in a sense—not in the sense that he's killing people (though... at one point, he will) but in the sense that his actions are someone else's fault and are out of his control. And yet, the capacity to be Van Helsing and not the monster who despairs remains.

#pk rewatches spn number? #4.05 #4.21 #8.21 #4.04

[lower-the-volume]

8.21 The Great Escapist

#deancas #destiel #castiel #dean winchester #spn #supernatural #Sam Winchester #s08e21 #8.21

[dailytxf]

THE X-FILES | 8.21 “Existence”

#txfedit #xfilesnet #cinemapix #the x files #8.21 #s8 #gif #dana scully #fox mulder #mulder x scully #usermulder #userveronika #userhella #userkraina #userrin #tusershay #userbetts #underbetelgeuse #* #by mills

[duck-in-a-spaceship]

Correction: All Robert Sean Leonard knows how to do is fall in love with his best friend and then die tragically.

#house md #house md spoilers #james wilson #dead poets society #neil perry #robert sean leonard #i just watched uhhhh #8.21 #holding on #i cried a liiiiitle bit #why does he keep doing this to me #this episode was so emotional #the scene in the car killed me #also his sentence is six fucking months of course it is #how am i supposed to deal with this show being over in an episode???

[archivistsammy]

stackednatural, may 1

But we're heading somewhere. The end.

3.14 “long-distance call” // 8.21 “the great escapist”

#stackednatural #supernatural #spnedit #cowboycoven #spncreatorsdaily #dean winchester #sam winchester #winchester brothers #3.14 #long distance call #long-distance call #s3 #8.21 #the great escapist #s8 #our edits #spn stacks #cries into a pillow

[katarinas-redemption]

Liz realizes who Red is. 8.22

#konets #nachalo #8.21 #8.22 #lotte verbeek #megan boone #redarina gifs #raymond reddington is katarina rostova #megan boone gifs #liz keen gifs #elizabeth keen gifs #the blacklist nachalo episode 8.21 #lotte verbeek gifs

[paellegere]

kevin smugly admitting that he saw right through crowley's act because there's no way sam and dean would be anything but massively selfish bitches to him even on their best days. what a legend

#liveblogging: supernatural #8.21 #i love kevin so much #.txt

[littlemourningstar]

Hi! So its been almost a week since I made an update post but for good reason!!!! I've been hard at work as Big Bang fic proposals are due on Tuesday. I've also been dealing with a heat wave and an apartment with poor temperature control, bugs getting into my apartment, my parents being on my case about my stepdads tattoo which is driving me nuts, I had therapy which was harrowing, and I had two auntie days in a row. But, I still managed to make time to have fun, get myself a Cricut machine and learn to use it, do some designing, and solve the bug problem!

Now for the WIP a day updates:

8/20

Spouted ideas to a friend about their fit

8/21

BB fic

8/22

BB fic

8/23

BB fic / some designing (Cricut machine!)

8/24

BB fic / some designing

8/25

BB fic!!! 

8/26

BB fic sigh I’ve been going thru it lol 

#wip a day 2023 #8.20 #232/365 #8.21 #233/365 #8.22 #234/365 #8.23 #235/365 #8.24 #236/365 #8.25 #237/365 #8.26 #238/365

[selttiks4313]

Why don’t we talk more about the camping trip story? They used to go camping together?? Camping where there was hiking involved?? (And bears!!)

I know so many other devastating things happen in this episode. But that little nugget of information has wheedled sooo far into my brain I can’t let it go.

Just the two of them. Deep into the woods. I can’t remember if they were backpacking or not (either way). Sitting by a fire, watching stars. Giggling in tents or just sleeping bags. Swimming in lakes/rivers. Skinny dipping at night?? Oooughh the possibilities are endless

This has become a desperate plea for someone to write a camping fic pleaaaaase please

#I’m so serious I’m begging you #i have two unfinished fics right now I cannot handle the idea fully forming I need someone else to #i will love you forever and ever #hilson #house #house md #8.21 holding on

[subcas]

supernatural 8.21: the great escapist / george santayana quoting ralph waldo emerson in the essential santayana / an oresteia: elektra by sophokles, trans. anne carson / anthem by leonard cohen / ben edlund in the story of castiel / antony and cleopatra by william shakespeare

#supernatural #spnedit #castieledit #castiel #dean winchester #deancas #tv: spn #5.18: point of no return #7.01: meet the new boss #12.12: stuck in the middle (with you) #8.21: the great escapist #12.23: all along the watchtower #m: edits #m: graphics #shakespeare & spn #* #this all makes perfect sense in my head

[ardentpoop]

bursts into tears

#first of all. relatable. #second - ''it doesn't matter anymore. because these trials... they're purifying me.'' NOOOOOOOOOO #spn #liveblog tag #8.21

[babyjapril]

Grey’s Anatomy 8.21

Moment of Truth

#greysedit #japriledit #japril #jackson avery #april kepner #grey's anatomy #userlolo #mine #yes i will gif every little moment from 8.21 even if no one cares idc #8x21

[lower-the-volume]

the great escapist

#s08e21 #dean winchester #spn #supernatural #Sam Winchester #Kevin Tran #metatron #8.21

[mittensmorgul]

so the tnt loop is looping around toward the end of s8, and it hit me again: I don’t think that Metatron sheltered HIMSELF so completely that he’d never even heard of the Winchesters. I think Chuck... bubble-ized him. I mean... this is a guy whose spent millennia collecting humanity’s stories for himself. I’m literally watching the scene where he explains it:

DEAN: So you have been holed up here, or, or, or in a wigwam, or before that in some cave, listening to stories, reading books?

METATRON: (grinning) And it was something to watch. What you brought to His Earth, all the mayhem, the murder. Just the raw, wild invention of God's naked apes... it was mind-blowing. But really... really, it was your storytelling. That is the true flower of free will. At least as you've mastered it so far. When you create stories, you become gods, of tiny, intricate dimensions unto themselves. So many worlds! I have read... as much as it's possible for an angel to read, and I haven't caught up.

Sam especially judges him HARD for this, for burying himself in narratives while “his kind” caused so much havoc on Earth. Metatron apparently hadn’t even heard of Kevin Tran, who Dean holds up as one of the Real People who have been harmed, and whose stories are what Metatron should be caring about. And that name also apparently doesn’t ping anything for Metatron. I thought all angels were supposed to have the prophets names etched into their brains or something (per Cas from 5.19, but also the fact only the current generation is there, the NEXT generation won’t be added until they are born, also per Cas from 8.07).

So... this makes me want to believe that Chuck... flipped a couple of switches in Metatron when he left Heaven. Like, oh, you’re gonna leave your post? Okay then, I’m gonna cut you out of the loop then. Or maybe Metatron even did it to himself, deliberately NOT wanting to know the Heaven situation... but I have a harder time reconciling that. I mean, he was HIDING, and on the RUN from Heaven, attempting to avoid imprisonment and torture for the information he knew about the tablets. I don’t think he’d want to be cut off from angel radio so entirely that he missed a decade of chatter about the Winchesters, the Apocalypse, and especially the fact that a supposed Prophet of the Lord was novelizing all of it. I mean... you’d think if he’d known, the same way Cas casually did in 4.18 like every angel knew all of this and it was entirely obvious information, that Metatron would’ve dropped everything else and read those books at the very least. But apparently not...

That seems like information that an angel attempting to hide himself on Earth to avoid angels for his own safety would’ve picked up on. You know. For his own safety.

Angels are all over the earth? End times? Catastrophic events left and right? Demons everywhere? And he was just... unaware of all of it? Assumed Michael and Lucifer were even still relevant playing pieces on the board and not both locked back in the cage after the apocalypse failed. Like.... HOW did he miss this even if he didn’t pick it up directly from angel radio? It really does feel like Chuck deliberately kept him shielded from all of this. Like Chuck MADE HIM into the weird lil guy he became.

Which leads me to point 2. We never knew what the results of the Hell Trials really would have been. Metatron said the Angel Fall Event wasn’t trials, but a spell. But it was built in the same way the Hell Trials were.

Sam went into the Hell Trials borderline delusionally hopeful that he could SURVIVE them. That was his goal on setting out (and why Dean worked so hard to save him when they learned Metatron had lied to them). And he KNEW what the description of the inevitable results of finishing the trials would be from the very first time Kevin ever told them about it: an eternity of being tortured, essentially. Sounds like something far worse than even the eternity in the Cage with Lucifer that Sam had signed himself up for in s5, yes? But WHY? Like, what would that eternal suffering accomplish?

And was that something Chuck wrote into the Hell tablet, or another addendum like the Angel Fall Spell added in by Metatron? We just don’t know. But I like to think Chuck knew full well that Metatron had added those unauthorized details for his own reasons, and that’s why Chuck helped him hide out, waiting for the time that he could bring Metatron out for his own narrative purposes. Just to see what would happen.

So yes, Sam and Dean decided for themselves in s8 to pull the Hell Trials. Their biggest act of hubris in all of canon, but it was like Chuck needed a plotline for s8 and started throwing tablets into their path, waiting for them to find the Scribe and drag him back into the story.

Anyway I’m about out of steam on this one. But there’s so many reasons metatron is my all time favorite spn villain. :’D

#spn 8.21 #i blame metadouche for everything including global warming and bee colony collapse #spn 4.18 #spn 5.19 #spn 8.07 #chuck's process #heaven hell purgatory and the empty