Bet you liked it better when I only updated once a week, huh?

[clex_monkie89]

I just ate about two pounds of lasagna. In related news I also drank a quarter gallon of milk or so and feel like I'm going to throw up.

Also I was sitting here eating and thinking of fic things, as I do, and I realized that Bobby is bad for the boys.

Don't get me wrong; I love Bobby. It's just that the boys have becoming complacent since meeting back up with him. They've become soft and lazy. Because it's just so much easier to sit there and let someone else do the work. I mean, look at Sin City. Yes, I know that realistically Dean not remembering the exorcism was because they need a dues ex machina to keep Dean down there talking shop with the demon, but it can also be fanwanked as a character thing (It's not even eight in the morning, bear with me, I don't have all my words yet).

Season one Dean would know that exorcism, he might stumble a few times and have to restart once or twice but he would know it. But then there was Bobby and then the Roadhouse and then Bobby again and it's just so much easier to kick back and let someone else do the work for you--because it doesn't really matter who does it as long as it gets done, right? I mean, look at the Pilot, Sam did all the research on Constance in there and did most of the research from then on--even though we know Dean knows how to research (no way in hell John would let him hunt alone if he couldn't).

John said he was more of a drill sergeant to the boys than a Dad, and I think he did that because he always had that "just in case" attitude. He went off on hunts hoping for the best (that he would come back) but expecting the worst (that he wouldn't)--otherwise he wouldn't bother telling the boys to call Pastor Jim or Bobby or anyone if he didn't come back in X days. He taught Dean how to shoot, taught Sam bow-hunting, taught them all that stuff not just because he needed help but because if he died he needed to know that they could protect themselves from whatever was out there. And I know that sounds hard and sounds shitty but it's the only reason they're still alive right now.

So, yes, Bobby may be being the father to them now that they didn't traditionally have growing up but it's hurting them just as much as it's helping them. The boys haven't been dumbed down since S1, they've been made complacent. In season one when the boys ran into a hunt they looked in Dad's journal, they researched some more and they occasionally called one of Dad's friends if they were stumped. In season two they researched and they called Ellen occasionally (that one can be let to pass a little because they was mostly Psy!kid things and there wasn't much else of a way to search but begging off on Ash). Now it's season three and they research and, when it gets too tough or they get tired of it, they call Bobby.

Also? I have realized that coming from Comics has kinda fucked me for meta. Because I've been trained to think very little of the creators, to expect them to be very stupid, honestly. That's part of why I didn't chime in on the whole racism/sexism wank (and no, this is not an opportunity for you to tell me your thoughts on it); because I just don't give the writers that much credit. I know I should but some of my previous fandoms are Prison Break (where the fucking genius brother stood there dumbstruck and outsmarted by a fucking ELEVATOR) and Smallville (who has given Lex a dead younger brother, added a living half brother, later said Lex was an only child despite the half-brother still being alive and then possibly have brought the dead brother back to life and aged him twenty-something years or so).

I'm just not used to having writers who actually have the brains to have John summon YED with the Sigil of Azazel way back in IMToD and then remember that and tell us that the YED was Azazel a full season later.

Yeah, it's totally nine now and I took a break from this to make Yussie food and do the dishes, I think I'm gonna go finish the dishes right now and maybe spam more later.

I'm a fucking masochist, I swear, I clear eighty messages from my inbox and then immediately make a post guaranteed to get me a shit-ton more.

Comments

[gigglingkat]

Yes. You will get commenty comments...

I agree - Comics and X-Files make my view of Supernatural's showrunners slanted to the good.

[lexii314.livejournal.com]

This is the case with almost everyone they meet. The road house crew Ellen and Ash. Now Bobby and Bela.

[clex_monkie89.livejournal.com]

I don't really think Bela can be counted in this though because the only time they called her for help was with the dreamroot and they've never really run into a case like that before where they needed something that they couldn't get a hold of.

[janissa11.livejournal.com]

Re: Bobby, that's definitely one way of looking at it. The question to me becomes kinda two-fold -- first, are the boys actually capable of doing the work they fob off on Bobby or whomever, if whomever isn't around to do it -- and second, are the boys truly supposed to go it alone?

The first, I think, is easier -- I think they ARE capable, most of the time, of fending for themselves. Calling on Bobby or whomever to help is more expedient than strictly necessary. Now there are exceptions -- when they first met the Trickster they were so befuddled I'm not sure they WOULD have extricated themselves without assistance. But by and large I think the boys have the knowledge, the tools, and the skills to go it alone.

Harder to answer: should they? John Winchester clearly advocated the lone-wolf mentality, although equally clearly he DID have assistance and semi-friendly ears to bend here and there. In general, though, he had a whole lot of trouble delegating.

That the boys do not, points I think not to any substantive lack on their parts, so much as a desire, unlike their father, to NOT feel as if they are entirely alone in this quixotic venture. So they cultivate contacts in ways that maybe -- we don't necessarily know this for sure -- John did not, or to a degree that he did not.

Now if you take the stance that this is done out of weakness -- lack of knowledge, resources, skills -- then it might not necessarily be a good thing. But aside from Bobby's arguably immense library of knowledge, which the boys clearly need to tap pretty regularly, I don't think the boys lack in ability or skill. Sam CAN do his research, cogently, and I suspect that if he were required to, Dean can as well. The question then becomes ability vs. expediency.

Not to mention that cultivating some insider contacts carries a few extra perks, not least of which is safe harbor, someone who'll notice if Sam and Dean vanish off the map, and so on. So I think the only reason to see Bobby as a negative would be if the boys avoid learning/doing things simply because they can always call on him for assistance. It would be risky, because ain't no guarantee Bobby will always be around and available.

[girlmostlikely.livejournal.com]

Yes, to all of this.

[littlewings04.livejournal.com]

Yeah, I agree with a lot of the points here. The boys need a safety net, in a way. Sam is going to be utterly alone in a few months time unless he figures out something Very Clever to save Dean. We saw what happens to Sam when he is completely alone, and while Bobby is not the same as having Dean, nurturing these contacts and the relationship between the boys and Bobby doesn't put them as far out into the wilderness alone as it would if they went along the John Winchester Way. John attacked hunting like he was the point man on patrol and didn't feel like he needed to check in occasionally. The boys are, I think, subtly rejecting that methodology in favour of one where they are more interwoven into others' lives. After all, they're facing a level of demonic/spiritual activity no-one has ever seen before with the opening of the Hellmouth. They're going to have to do things differently in order to cope. It's one thing to track down Dad and fight things along the way. It's another to be trying to push Hell back down where it belongs, and that can't be done alone.

I'm rambling. I'm in the middle of a paper on ritual. I apologise now if I make No Sense Whatsoever.

[spinfrog.livejournal.com]

Oh yeah, cross bows! I wish we had an episode where Sam & Dean actually used those!