SPN & Equilibrium

[retro_eidas]

I'm sure there's similarities to other dystopian stories like Fahrenheit 451 or 1984, but I'd just been watching "Equilibrium" and the whole emotionless dystopian world there seems similar to what Kripke was going for with some of the descriptions of angels and angel society. Though funny, Castiel was the only really emotionally-challenged one of all the angels. Maybe Anna somewhat after her Heel Face Turn. Otherwise the angels are hardly emotionless "marble statues". Heh. I don't know if that's supposed to say what a good little soldier Castiel was before Dean came along or Kripke just felt like fanboying "Equilibrium" one or two eps and promptly forgot about it in favor of angels as emo, smug bastards or dicks?

DUPONT: The Grammaton Cleric, whose sole task it is to seek out and eradicate the true source of man's inhumanity to man - his ability to feel.

PRESTON: There's no war. No murder.
PARTRIDGE: What is it you think we do?
PRESTON: No. You've been with me, you've seen how it can be - the jealousy, rage.
PARTRIDGE: A heavy cost. I pay it gladly.
Equilibrium

ANNA: I mean it. Every emotion, Dean, even the bad ones... It's why I fell. It's why... Why I'd give anything not to have to go back. Anything.

ANNA: Perfect... Like a marble statue. Cold... No choice... Only obedience.
Heaven & Hell

****

PRESTON: I'll do what I can to see they go easy on you.
PARTRIDGE: We both know they never "go easy".
PRESTON: Then, I'm sorry.
PARTRIDGE: No, you're not. You don't even know the meaning. Its just a vestigial word for a feeling you've never felt.
Equilibrium

CASTIEL: I'm sorry.
ANNA: No. you're not. Not really. You don't know the feeling.
Heaven & Hell

****

MARY: Let me ask you something.
[Grabs his hand]
MARY: Why are you alive?
PRESTON: [Breaks free] I'm alive... I live... to safeguard the continuity of this great society. To serve Libria.
MARY: It's circular. You exist to continue your existence. What's the point?
PRESTON: What's the point of your existence?
MARY: To feel. 'Cause you've never done it, you can never know it. But it's as vital as breath. And without it, without love, without anger, without sorrow, breath is just a clock... ticking.
Equilibrium

CASTIEL: You try to understand - this is long foretold. This is your...
DEAN: Destiny? Don't give me that "holy" crap. Destiny, God's plan... It's all a bunch of lies, you poor, stupid son of a bitch! It's just a way for your bosses to keep me and keep you in line! You know what's real? People, families - that's real. And you're gonna watch them all burn?
CASTIEL: What is worth saving?! I see nothing but pain here. I see inside you. I see your guilt, your anger, confusion... In Paradise all is forgiven. You'll be at peace. Even with Sam.
DEAN: You can take your peace... and shove it up your lily-white ass. 'Cause I'll take the pain and the guilt. I'll even take Sam as is. It's a lot better than being some Stepford bitch in Paradise. This is simple, Cas! No more crap about being a good soldier. There's a right and there's a wrong here and you know it. [Forces Cas around to face him] Look at me! You know it.
Lucifer Rising



****

DUPONT: No? Don't look so surprised, Preston. Why should Father be more real than any other political puppet? The real Father died years ago. The Council simply elected me to pursue his paternal tradition.
Equilibrium

ZACHARIAH: Grunts on the ground, we couldn't just tell 'em the whole truth. We'd have a full-scale rebellion on our hands. I mean, think about it, would we really let sixty-five seals get broken, unless Senior Management wanted it that way?

DEAN: Tell me something. Where's God in all this?
ZACHARIAH: God? God has left the building.
Lucifer Rising

****

DUPONT: It is not the will of the Council, it is the will of Father -- and he is law.

DUPONT: You must understand, Preston, that while you -- and even I -- may not always agree with it, it is not the message that is important, it is our obedience to it. Father's will. Call it faith.
Equilibrium

MICHAEL: From the beginning, he knew this was how it was going to end.
DEAN: And you're just going to do whatever God says?
MICHAEL: Yes. Because I am a good son.
DEAN: Huh. Yeah well, trust me, take it from someone who knows, that is a dead end street.
MICHAEL: And you think you know better, than my father? One, unimportant little man? What makes you think you get to choose?
The Song Remains The Same

Comments

[eido.livejournal.com]

seeing it all spelled out and accounted for is fascinating.

Sometimes the dialogue, and even situation behind it, was practically word for word. Namely that Preston-Partridge and Castiel-Anna scene above. Anna's whole spiel about what angels are like already had me tagging Heaven as dystopic, but the distinct similarities to an actual dystopian story drove it in more. Heaven is Orwellian, bb!

You know what I want now? Exactly, a fusion between Equilibrium and SPN with Cas in Preston's role and Dean in Mary's.

I think it already exists tbh, it's called Lucifer Rising. Dean!Mary realizing Cas!Preston is teetering on the emotional/human side of things, so presses and pushes until s/he can affirm it. One of the characters even died (though it was Cas!Preston as opposed to Dean!Mary, he got better though ;) Unlike poor Mary who got the martyr death). You could even say Dean's "That was for my friend, Cas. You son of a bitch" was all too similar to Preston's "I'll pay it gladly" right before shooting DuPont in the chest at the end. That angry, revenge-fueled line in honor of the fallen martyr (loved one) who helped the hero and helped change him.

[godofstrife.livejournal.com]

And Anna is technically not the only angel who confirmed that Heaven is not just sitting on cloud counting daisies, every other angel we've meat is disillusioned with Heaven, its order or its purpose. None of them want to exist in a world like it is now. Their main problem though is that they all want very different kinds of Heaven and none can seem to see the positive and negative of all sides.

Heaven is Orwellian, bb!

That's what makes Mary's lines at the end of 5.13 so creepy. Because it's actually true.

I think it already exists tbh, it's called Lucifer Rising.

Well, my next stop will be spnstoryfinders then. I need to read this fic like yesterday.

[eido.livejournal.com]

And Anna is technically not the only angel who confirmed that Heaven is not just sitting on cloud counting daisies

Yup. Raphael and Gabriel also both seem on the verge of a nervous breakdown, especially Raphael. And these are archangels we're dealing with, the elite. Even they're at the breaking point. While the grunts and the peons (Cupids, for example) - Huxley might refer to them as the Deltas - seem utterly oblivious, just going on with their duties like nothing is wrong. Much like most of the humans on Earth who have no clue. Almost madly jovial Cupid didn't even seem touched by Armageddon at all.

Their main problem though is that they all want very different kinds of Heaven and none can seem to see the positive and negative of all sides.

Like when Raphael was crying about how bad the 20th Century was, I failed to see how very bad it was compared to earlier human civilizations. Yes, there are nuclear bombs and bio-warfare, but there's also antibiotics and revolutions in stuff like stem cell research. He forget about the Crusades? The Dark Ages? The Punic Wars? Human civilization is cyclical, it rises and falls constantly and that's as true then as it is now. All I can think is Raphael is either drinking the Kool-Aid up in Heaven or he's just tired of the whole shebang, blaming it on the most recent century and all to justify their current actions. It's Final Solution, simple as that and they're seriously trying to pass it off as something beneficial to those they're planning to exterminate. Something they've convinced themselves Daddy would approve of.

That's what makes Mary's lines at the end of 5.13 so creepy. Because it's actually true.

"Angels are watching over you." = Big Brother is watching you. Totally.

[22by7.livejournal.com]

Oh come on, the 20th century hit a new record for bad even for us! But yeah, the justification was extremely fishy. I got the feeling that angels like Raphael and Lucifer (and perhaps Michael?) like to think of the Earth as this tiny picturesque island and are now pissed off that the natives have RUINED the place, something like that.

[eido.livejournal.com]

Of course, the angels apparently thought they wouldn't get trumped before they could really go Lord of the Flies on said island first. Or at least bestest.