Who is Superman?

75 years ago, a couple of Jewish kids came up with a great champion of those in trouble.  Drawing heavily from the story of Moses, this lost child had no people to return to nor a promise land to reach.  Undoubtedly this led to the original Superman’s rather “Old Testament” style in his golden age where he was quick to dole out punishment to the guilty.  As the years went by and the character was absorbed by the wider culture, he became much more protestant with a shift in focus from punishing those guilty to saving the innocent – and redeeming the guilty.  Today?  Superman seems to be undergoing another shift though whether that will be towards secular humanism or eastern mysticism is being fought with canon – so who knows how it will end.

Factoring in all the elseworld stories of Superman in addition to these generational changes, the question arises: who is Superman?  What is at the core of his being?  What is the bare minimum we have to keep in a story for the readers to grasp, “this is Superman”?  Well I admit Grant Morrison summed it up best: Doomed planet. Desperate scientists. Last hope. Kindly couple.  Though I would add two more words: Great power.  Heck, you can boil it down to a half dozen words: Doom.  Desperate.  Hope.  Kindness.  Fly.

All of this added up shows us why Superman persists in the cultural memory as well.  Well a debate we have had as a species, at least as far back as we can tell, is that of nature vs nurture.  Superman IS that dichotomy: Super/nature – man/nurture.  His kryptonian being which gives him his abilities and powers, those are a part he is born with.  No matter the alternate world or interpretation of Supes, that part always remains.  The man, Clark Kent, that is nurture.  What if he was raised elsewhere?  What if the “man” in Superman was Amish?  Or communist?  Or British?  These questions are fascinating to us and Superman is a great tool for examining them because his split is so distinct.  Let’s face it, if any one of us were to be “transplanted” to a different reality, would we really be able to tell what remained the same?  What was our innate nature?  After all, strength, skill, fitness, and so much more can vary with exercise and practice.  But with Superman, it’s very easy to see what comes from the nature of his being, the powers that are innate to his nature.  Only by a stark thread of commonality can differences and variations be best examined.  The Super provides that which best allows us to see what is a Man.

So with all that, we can see that it is very hard to not make a Superman story (even if he is called “Ultraman” or “Apollo” or “the Plutonian”, or whatever, we all know it is really Superman that is in the story), what makes a good one?

Well that will obviously vary from person to person, so I’ll just share my favorite recipe.

• Krypton – Should it be a place Superman is thankful he escaped from or a world he should morn having missed?  I think it is best when most like earth: that is it has good and bad features.  Earth – humanity can be wonderful.  We can also be bastards.  I prefer a Krypton that’s the same.  One that can make Kal-El appreciate Earth more, yet still be sad at all that was lost.
• The parents – This is something the current canon and a lot of storytellers disagree with me on, but I prefer Jor-El and Lara to have no real idea what awaits their son on Earth.  Now I do get the temptation.  I will admit that it is very heartwarming to see them get a glimpse of their son’s future and die with hope, but I think it makes a weaker story.  I have a lot of friends becoming parents nowadays and I know, from them, that raising a child is nothing but uncertainty.  That sending them to school on their own can be just as nerve wracking as jettisoning them into the void of space.  Letting Kal-El be sent to earth with a vague HOPE that it is habitable for him… that makes him as relateble as any of us.  After all, how can the audience find Superman ever in danger if he wasn’t even in it at the beginning?
• The Kents – This is the one thing that bugs me most of all in the Supes original movie, Returns and MoS trailers: “You will be an inspiration”.  No.  That is wrong, and it is the worst example of metatext invading text.  Superman is an inspiration to us, the audience.  In his world, it is humanity, represented by the Kents, that are an inspiration to him.  A lot of the movies (and some of the comics) have this backwards.  One of my favorite images (and not just because of where it came from) is this one.  That’s not just a tearjerking tribute to 9/11, that’s how Superman should see all of mankind.  He should be super, because he’s trying to live up to being a man.  Especially the man (and woman) who raised him.
• The Love – I don’t mind Supes and Wonder Woman getting together in some elseworld tales, but in general, he should always be with Lois.  Because she is another tie to the humanity he wants to be a part of.  Because her spunkiness and bravery, yet kindness, is a perfect fit for his own spirit.  Because there is some irony that a man who can do almost anything must struggle to win the heart of a “simple earth girl”, yet while he could probably have any girl, he wants the one that can see through the “super” and love the man – love who he is.  Winning Lois is a microcosm example of his winning acceptance by humanity.
• The villains – See what I previously wrote.

And that’s my favorite recipe for a Superman story.  What’s yours?

Superman & Me

BW media is doing a “superman” week leading up to Man of Steel and I thought that was a great idea to steal theme to also embrace.  First up, my own testimonial to the Last Son of Krypton. (later, ruminations on his history and character)  But I don’t mean to just rant about myself here.  By all means, stop by and share your own stories of how a character that doesn’t exist, impacted your life anyway.

It’s probably a result of the timing of my birth that I became such a nerd of DC.  After all, Batman came out when I was 8 years old.  Then B:tAS came out right as I was hitting late grade and middle school.  The only Batman movie I haven’t seen in theaters since then was Batman & Robin and I think only then because it was gone before I could go.  Yes I even went to Mask of the Phantasm and Batman: Forever (of which my dad and I were the only two in there).

But before all that, was Superman.

After all, Supes 1 & 2 had come out in the 70s and, with VCRs hitting the mass market, they were out on VHS right as I hit the age to pester my parents to watch something for the twentieth time.  My grandparents had a pan & scan cut of Superman 1 that I would watch just about every time I stayed with them.  Even now I could probably recite large tracks of that movie from memory (except for the Lois “song” bit which I always zoned out or fast forwarded through).  Superman 2 my house had thanks to recording it at a time when it had aired on TV.  Yes, I spent the first half of my life watching a Supes2 edited for television.  And you know what?  It was still AWESOME!  (I still get a little chill when I hear, “General!  Would you care to step outside?”)

I was such a fan that I watched Superman 3 & 4 too.  (3, also taped from TV)  Say what you will about Supes3, but the scene of him and Clark Kent fighting is comic perfection.  It’s hard for movies today to evoke the pure joy of good triumphing when you see Clark burst out of the trash compactor, choke a bitch, and then reveal his insignia.  It’s still one of my favorite metaphors for the crucifixion.  Of course, I thought a lot of my confusion about things in the movie was related to me being too young to grasp them.  Imagine my surprise when years later, I realized that no, the movie just didn’t make that much sense in some places.

But it wasn’t just the movies.  Besides watching some VHS, when I’d stay with my grandparents, Granny would often take me down to the bookstore (she was an avid reader and passed that on to me – thanks, Granny).  Of course I hit the sci-fi and fantasy section hard but in the small (well, it was smaller back then) town there weren’t a whole lot to pick from.  There was one comic related thing though: A hard cover book collecting some of the earliest Superman stories in black and white.

It had to be one of the first tradepaper backs ever made and if the NSA were to go look for the old library card it had, I’d bet my name would be one of the more common ones listed.  I checked it out a dozen times.  Some of the stories that still stick in my mind (note, I’m not going to source these, I leave that as a fun exercise for the reader):

• First time Supes met Lori Lemaris.
• First time Supes met Mr Mxyztplk.  No that is not a typo.  THAT’S how far back the stories went.  They STILL had the original spelling of the imp’s name.  And I know what they say about aging fanboyz but if you ask me, the imp should ALWAYS have a bowler hat and suit.  Maybe it’s me, but I find craziness and silliness has a bit more impact when it’s dashed with a bit of debonair.
• Lex Luthor and Superman having a boxing match on a world orbiting a red sun.  Oh this planet has aliens you know.  Aliens who then take Superman and Luthor and LOCK THEM IN SEPARATE ROOMS COMPLETE WITH BUILDING TOOLS AND JUNK!  Yes, long before grudge match, aliens were already pitting MacGyver against the A-team.  Did I mention both Lex & Supes build tornado machines?  And that in the end, the planet believes Lex to be their greatest superhero?  Yep, even back then comics were showing that some villains had a softer side.
• Superman fights Mr Please.  I don’t remember if that was his name but I’m calling him that.  See, this one guy got this power where he could make anything happened if he shouted the word “Please” in a very particular way.  So he went from bum to a bit power mad.  How did Superman beat him?  Why he slapped a spring-loaded muzzle on the guy then used “super-hypnotism” to make the guy never say please again.  Why did the guy have this power?  Oh see, a long time ago, Jonathan Kent helped out a pair of aliens (apparently intergalactic AAA has given high ratings to the Kent household).  They granted him one favor.  Years later, after he was dead, Jonathan was brought back to life for a period of time to see how his son had grown up.  Mr Please had been nearby when Jonathan returned to life and some magic space rays gave him phenomenal polite powers.  You know what?  “Pa” Kent just wanting to see how his son turned out (and subsequently proud of how he did) STILL makes me shed a manly tear.

What’s even funnier?  Almost every one of those above stories were in only 1 issue.  MAYBE 2 but mostly 1.

This is what bothers me about a lot of modern comics “bringing back” the silver age.  They’re making it “dark” and “gritty” when that’s the very antithesis of the silver age.  You don’t necessarily have to make the modern crop of comics silly, but just look at the above examples.  You could take just ONE of the ideas above and stretch it out into a multi issue run.  Take the themes of parental worry about the future.  Yes the Kents are alive (or are they dead at the time you’re reading this?) but what about his birth parents?  What if Jor-El got some weird aliens to allow him to spend a day or week with a grown up Kal-El?  What about a world where Luthor is seen as the hero and Superman the villain?  And I don’t mean a parallel universe where Luthor is good and Clark evil, I mean just a place in this universe where the VIEW the interpretation is backwards?  And like I said, that’s just Superman.  Imagine what you could do with all the other heroes?  Stretch yourself, DC.

Still, no matter how things might be today, I remember what it was like, and nobody can take that away from any of us.  From the best to the worst, Superman taught me… taught us all to fly.

MLP:ER – the Crystal Empire

Ugh, this wasn’t easy.  Netflix kept having problems playing the episode which… I should have taken as a warning.  I’m going to be honest, of the 4 “continuity” 2 parters (5 if you want to count the Grand Galoping Gala as one of that group) this one is the weakest.  But to be positive, let’s do the ‘cons’ of the episode and finish with the ‘pros’ so we’ll go out on a high note.

Cons:

• The threat is way too nebulous.  What will happen if the mane six fail?  Uh… sales of Zoloft will skyrocket?  Which lead us into…
• The cast doesn’t reinforce the stakes.  Either Twilight has a real problem with priorities if she’s more worried about “a test” or else the stakes are really that minor.  At least when Nightmare Moon arrived in the premiere, we saw TS forget about the “make friends” assignment and focus on a larger concern.
• Some dialogue choices were questionable.  Like near the beginning where Shining Knight references “his magic being blocked” in a context that seems to answer why Cadance is so exhausted – even though the time SK actually GOT blocked was a minute earlier.
• If the shield is such a pain, why doesn’t Cadance just make a bit of a smaller one?  In the episode it looks like there is a lot of extra real estate beyond the empire proper that is being shielded.
• Twilight is so good at magic she can copy a spell Celestia used just seeing it once, but she doesn’t bother copying Cadance’s spell to give her poor friend a break?  Or excluding that, how about healing her brother so he can take a shift?
• In previous episodes, it was somewhat understandable why the big powerful Celestia (and/or her sister Luna) couldn’t help solve the problem.  In this one?  No real reason given (which further undercuts the feeling of what’s at stake).
• The whole… side message of this episode (whereby the crystal ponies need to “be happy”) is kind of contrary to the earlier episode “A Friend in Deed”.  What if one of the crystal ponies didn’t want to be happy at the moment?  Maybe he/she is just naturally surly.  Kind of makes the whole empire seem a little… sinister doesn’t it?
• I admit to somewhat looking for the “crystal heart” to have been a fraud all along and that it didn’t matter what it was as long as the crystal ponies believed in it.  Somewhat disappointing that didn’t play out.
• Jousting?  JOUSTING!?!?!?  I mean, the point of jousting was to knock the rider from his horse, how do you do that with ONLY the horses? (save seriously injuring the competition)  Of all the sports they could have done here (such as… polo?) jousting is the one that makes the LEAST amount of sense.

Pros:

• Spike saving the day was awesome and adorable.
• The visuals in the episode were top notch.
• Grats to the show for giving a “regular pony” villain.  That every other antagonist has to be alicorn or demi-god kind of gets predictable.  Would be interesting to see other two-parters with a pegasus and earth pony villains. (How could such be villainous?  Well that’s the challenge!)
• Uh… we got to see Luna!

Yeah, there was just no saving these parts, really.

Keep in mind that the ranking is relative to the series as a whole (so far).  While these episodes might be better than some kids’ shows, as a MLP:FiM romp, it was one of their worst.

Dear Liz

Well I’m working on getting some writing projects finished up and sent to some editors (so I can share with ya’ll soon) so… letter time!

The lovely Liz who’s beauty is only eclipsed by her talents has written a long comment regarding season 8 which I’ve decided to write a lengthy reply to.

I haven’t been a fan of Supernatural long but I caught up in a short amount of time and am looking for someone to discuss it with.

There is only one response…

One of us!

I am on the fence as to how I feel overall about this season. Especially when I take into account in who’s hands the show was left with. A part of me wants to ignore all the inconsistencies and just accept whatever the writers give us for the love of the show because I want more of it.

May I recommend my “Cure for Hellatus” series where I review a lot of the extra SPN material out there.  Some of the books and comics (well… maybe 2 comics) can fill that hankering, plus there’s always the RPG if you want to try running the show on your own. (GM and other players not included)  The anime I can also recommend.

Barring all that, there’s always Fanon Discontinuity.

But I can’t help but fear for what showrunners and writers have in mind now that Kripke seems to have abandoned it. Recently I heard that Ben Edlund is joining Kripke and no longer working on SPN either.

Now you know the sensations we old fans had back in the day when season 6 was announced.  And losing the creator of the Tick?  That’s a blow I don’t think the show will quite recover from.  Say what you will about Edlund, he was at least willing to stretch the show and had some great humor moments.

Robert Singer is becoming worrisome in that his vision for the show seems to be just about the brothers and nobody else. I understand thats’s the basis of the show but I would hope that in the end the brothers leave behind a family or at least someone that remembers what they did as actual deeds that can be told in a way that differ Carver Edlund books. Instead of just fading and nobody ever knowing that what they did was real (in their universe of course).

I think the best way of putting it is that in the early series, it was about the boys dealing with a hostile, crazy universe.  Nowadays the show is more about about the universe dealing with the boys.  True, it’s not like the bros haven’t earned that, but it loses some of the punch compared to when Dean was just a guy with “a G.E.D. and a give ‘em hell attitude”.  Of course this is another problem with long running forms of media.  The ending to season 5 was perfect and fit with all themes, progressions, etc.  The more years we get, the more it feels like the only satisfying ending for the boys is a standing ovation by the U.N. (and rest of the world) if not the entirety of Heaven itself.

I would never stop watching but it seems that watchers must lower their standards as the show comes to an end.

And now… Rambling time! (though I think this might be relevant by the end)

When I was in scouts, they were teaching us wilderness survival.  Why do people go in circles when lost?  Because when they’re lost they go in a direction until they find something familiar.  Then they wander around until finding something else familiar, all this time thinking they are “back tracking” their path.  Unfortunately a lot of the landmarks look familiar because the lost folks saw them not two minutes ago.  Thus people keep going in circles.  Likewise I’ve noticed that when some long form media just wanders around, they end up going in circles and repeating themselves.  Why?  Because they note what gets the positive reactions from fans & critics so they do more of that.  And more and more until suddenly seven years have passed like a groundhog day.

The solution we were told in training was to pick something a ways off that was distinct – like a unique tree or rock outcropping (or whatever) – and then head towards that object in as close to a straight line as you could.  Then upon reaching it, pick a new object further in that same direction and repeat until you finally get somewhere (that’s hopefully civilized).  Now compare to SPN: In the Kripke era, there was a clear destination and end goal in mind, with each season having one specific goal they worked towards to move along the path. (1: Find Dad, 2: Find Azazel, 3: Save Dean, etc)

Now we don’t have that so the show just keeps going in circles…

I have a big place in my heart for this show. If I can leave with a question: How do you think the show will end? Or if you will: How do you want the show to end?

1) At this point I really don’t know.  If we assume that Singer aims for his vision up to season 10 and the show ends there (instead of being picked up for more) I would say… the boys probably make that universe most like our own.  Hell, Heaven, maybe even Purgatory are all closed.  Monsters are all eliminated and maybe even something is done to keep ghosts from ever bothering anybody.  This will probably cost both brothers their lives – permanently, but they’ll get to find all their family and friends in Heaven.

2) Season 5.  Ok, somewhat seriously, there’s one answer I can’t share yet (but hopefully you’ll get to see soon) but the other… I would have the boys end up retiring to live semi-normal lives with good women and a kid or two.  However, both brothers end up being “Men of Letters” in their old ages as they set up training and instruction and aid for new hunters to keep fighting.  Either in secret (thus making them the new Bobby(s)) or they actually make a larger difference and end up becoming the heads of new security agencies (either in the US or UN).  Maybe they can call the BPRD.

Hope that answers your questions, Liz and stop by anytime.

Cure for Hellatus – Rite of Passage

Wow, I had gotten behind on my SPN novels. (3 as of the time of this writing)  Well the summer is upon us, time to catch up!

First on our list is Rite of Passage, written by John Passarella.  If that names sounds familiar, that is the author of our last outing, Night Terrors.

While the previous book wasn’t bad, it did have a problem with its villain – namely that it was too strong.  Oh there wasn’t any issues with the boys defeating it, what strained credibility is that the creature had always been defeated in the past.  The circumstances of its rise and defeat were so easy with the former and hard with the latter that logically speaking, it should have “won” several times over in history. (a problem with a lot of fiction that have “historical” or “legend” components)  In this book, however, the creature/enemy is tough yet beatable- while something new and never-before-seen.

In fact this book took on whole new unnerving undertones.  Why?  Well although it was published back in August, I didn’t get around to reading it until April.  What happened in April?  The Boston Marathon bombings.  The creature in this book is very much a “terrorism monster”.  I don’t mean it’s an ordinary human terrorist or anything, rather it is a monster which thrives on causing widespread destruction and “feeds” on the death and fear it causes.  Needless to say, it was… cathartic to see the boys win against that son of a bitch in the end*.

With all that death and destruction, there is gore in this book, like in the previous book.  This author seems to be one who is drawn to the gorier section of SPN, however he doesn’t go over the top to the point that it takes one out of the story.  It had a really good balance this time.

There is, however, one thing I have to call out.  Early in the book, we get this description of a retired hunter:

It took Dean a stunned moment to process that the man had lost half his left arm, the stump ending above where his elbow would have been.

The character’s name is ‘Roy’.  Here is a scene with him just a few pages later:

“Three skydivers,” Roy mused as he cut into his steak. “What are the odds? Never mind.” He held both hands up on either side of his head. “Forgot I don’t want to know.”

It doesn’t happen often, but just enough to jar you out of the story.  This is what I’m talking about when I talk about “reinforcement”.  If you give a descriptor (like “only one arm”) then have that affect things.  So in the above it should be “He held up his hand to the side of his head.” etc.

All in all, if you were to ask me to make a SPN movie that was going to be MotW instead of arc-related… this book would be one of my picks for adaption as it’s really got a grand, movie-esque feel to it.  Pick it up if you’re needing your Winchester fix until fall.

*Oh you know the boys are going to win at the end of the books, they have to with the way the historian’s note works out.  The question always in these things are “how will they win” and “who will they save”.  On that, this book delivers.

MLP:CR – The Return of Queen Chrysalis

(Sorry for the delay, I was hoping to get some stuff up while on vacation but the internet wasn’t great.)

Well Netflix seems to be having some problems, so why not take this opportunity to review the MLP comic!  Or at least the main “proper” line as there is also a “side” run of issues where each main character gets a turn in the spotlight (so far).  Now that I’ve concluded season 2, I can begin reading these comics as the first arc (taking place from issues 1-4) involves… well you’ve seen the title to this post.

So after an entertaining turn as the villain to close out season 2, the evil queen Chrysalis returns!  Well… she’s not so much evil as just undersocialized.  One thing I will give the comic credit for is that it does try and play with the implication of changelings in the MLP:FiM universe.  One thing I will count against the comic is that this implication lasts for all of 9 pages.  Out of a 22 page comic.  Less than half of the first issue.  Why bother with the “pod people” paranoia trope if you’re going to have the main characters figure it out right away?  Are we that adverse to putting kids on edge that we can’t even let them worry for a whole issue?

Other than that, most of the arc is pretty enjoyable with the Cutie-Mark Crusaders’ routine with Chrysalis being the best parts.  The queen is given far more character in this series than in the show and draws a few laughs now and then.  While Discord, like the Joker, was humorous and silly to heighten his menace, Chrysalis’ humor and silliness serves to help us relate to her more.  By the end, you don’t exactly want her to pull a Luna and join the cast, but to become the enjoyable, bumbling villain that messes with the heroes from time to time.

Now how well does the show translate to comic format?  Well the “series of freeze frames” does suit the show’s tendency to smuggle in as many subtle jokes and references in the background.  It’s hard to rush through this story when you’re combing through every panel to make sure you get as many hidden gems as possible.  However…
Ok, you know how when you’re young, the icing on cake is your favorite part, and you’re always wanting to get the corner slice with as much icing as possible because it’s just so good?  Then you finally get to down icing straight or just scrape it off and eat it.  Most often you end up sick and so disgusted by icing, you refuse to eat it ever again.  Many things in life work best as… enhancers of experience (spices, drum solos, guest stars, etc), but are very poor as a “main course”.  Often they are more disgusting than the object of their aid by itself.
In MLP:FiM, one of the things that makes it work is the extreme reactions of the characters, not unlike the Cartoon Network’s Teen Titans.  A great example is Twilight Sparkle losing her mind in “Lesson Zero“.  The biggest problem with the comic up to this point is that due to its nature of static panels, all we get are these extreme reaction shots.  The “ordinary moments” of things as simple as walking and talking are lost between the panels.  Like eating nothing but icing, after awhile the effect dulls and you begin to hate it.  I’m not necessarily arguing for total decompression of the comic (one thing I have to admit is that these issues move) but the readers need moments to breathe here and there.

All in all, I give this first arc:

out of 5.  It was going to be 2, but there is an awesome Derpy Hooves moment in issue one that nets them a +1 bonus.

Other positives: the comic pages are all together with advertisements grouped at the front and back of the book so there’s no interruption.  Yeah this seems to make the comic more expensive as the issues are $3.99 each, but with that and the quality of the paper stock, it does feel like you’re getting your money’s worth.  But the trade paperback is also coming out soon so fans can also wait for that to arrive.

And for those curious, I ended up with covers A, B, B, and A.

Episode Review – Sacrifice

So… damn… angry..

No, I should focus on the positive.  What did this episode do right?  Well it had “Carry on Wayward Son” playing during the recap.  The sequence inside the base was really well done.  Mark Sheppard got to stretch his acting muscles, demonstrating just how much he’s underutilized in Hollywood. (seriously, wouldn’t you love to see him play a comic book villain?  I’m thinking… Lex Luthor, with accent)  Demonic handcuffs were actually a brilliant move by the boys.  And…

That’s it.  The rest of the episode was SHIT!  Really, the myriad problems with this episode can be summed up in one line:

Metatron: Who, God? Pretty much like you’d expect. Larger than life, gruff, a bit of a sexist. But fair. Eminently fair.

Think about that a moment.  In this universe, God is the confirmed creator of everything.  Including sex.  The creator of sex, is “a bit of a sexist”.  That’s like saying Bill Gates or Steve Jobs were “a bit nerdy”.  What was the point of it?  To complain that humanity isn’t an asexual species reproducing by mitosis? (maybe budding?)  Seriously, that line is one of those that while it doesn’t really ruin anything lore-wise or mess up the show, is just really bad writing.

This was just… disappointing.  Historically, the show ALWAYS had awesome season closers.  Seasons 3 and 6 may have been the lowest points of the series, but their finales still knocked socks off to the point they almost made up for all the crap earlier.  Without a doubt, this was the worst finale put out yet.

And what makes it worse is that this was a season of some consistent quality.  Here’s all the scores the season had earned from me:

4 4 3 4 5 3 4 4 2 3 3 5 3 3 3 2 2 3 2 4 3 3

Mostly 2-4, with a couple of fives. Guess it was inevitable that a 1 had to show up.

…

…

[warning: A nerd rant approacheth]

[Children, pregnant women, and muggles should leave now]

The biggest problem with this finale is more one of structure and writing than anything else.  In no particular order…

• We largely have a repeat of S4 finale with Dean bursting into a church where Sam is about to do something.  Only this time he is successful whereas before he failed thanks to Ruby’s interference.  They then have a conversation that would fit fine in season 4 or early 5, but doesn’t fit at the end of 8 here where both should have undergone character growth.  Really, Sam’s sin is “disappointing his brother”?  1) that isn’t a sin and 2) this is relevant any more.  Dean didn’t believe Sam couldn’t do it this season as much as Sam was physically being affected by the trials.  This isn’t an issue of lack of faith, but genuine health concerns.  We didn’t need a rehash over an old issue!
• Dean’s whole “don’t die Sammy”!  Repeat of S2 finale.  Which… was powerful back then, meaningless now because death has been cheapened in the SPN universe.  You close Hell, so ya know Sammy isn’t going to go there, he would have to go to heaven.  With both Bobby and Ash up there (as well as Castiel as far as Dean knew), it was highly unlikely Sam would stay dead for long.
• Speaking of which, Naomi!  Did you even try?  Here’s how the scene should have gone down:
  “Dean, Sam is going to die.” -Naomi”Oh no!  Every time it gives me a PTSD flashback.” -Dean
  “Tell you what.  We want Hell closed.  So you let Sam finish the ritual, and I promise we will bring him back to life immediately.” -Naomi
  “Let’s make a deal.” -Dean who then proceeds to make out with Amanda Tapping.
  Then, you could have SOME suspense at the end of the episode that Sam might have trouble getting back from death this time.
• Why Metatron?  You know what was the biggest twist of the season?  Benny.  Because at this point, EVERY Winchester ally has ended up betraying them to the point that as soon as they get help, we assume the helper is holding a metaphorical knife (or literal in many cases).  Even better?  Metatron DIDN’T NEED TO LIE!  He & Castiel agreed: Angels need some sense knocked into them, one way or another.  What’s wrong with Metatron’s solution?  Spending time on earth, “in the field” as they say, did wonders for Castiel’s and Anna’s empathy.  Heck, from what little we know about how angels weaponize souls, it might have been BETTER that the angels were cast out rather than locked up with a lot of good, innocent people.
• Which ultimately leads to the worst failing of the episode: the ending!  The music playing over the “angels fall” sequence sounds like it is supposed to be tragic and ominous.  But the show has spent the last 4 years demonstrating that if the angel ain’t Castiel, they are an antagonist like any other non-human.  Any time we saw an angel be fairly helpful or another potential ally, they ended up dead (*sniff* poor Anna).  If anything that ending was the first REAL victory the Winchesters have had since finales 2, 5 & 7.  If the show wanted to show us the angels falling as a bad thing, then they should have spent the last 3 seasons showing them as growing allies, not more enemies.  Metatron has done the boys a huge favor, that’s not what you should end a season finale on.
• Since we also saw a close up of wings peeling off of a falling angel, and wings are the representation of an angel’s power in the show (why do you think we see them turn to ash imprints when they die?) it’s reasonable to assume that all the angels are falling as mortals so….. no real threat from them.

Every season ended with a question (or two) that burned in our minds as we waited out the summer:

1. Did anybody live?
2. Can Dean get out of his deal?
3. How will Dean get out of Hell?
4. Does the world live?
5. How did Sam return?
6. What will Castiel do next?
7. How will Dean get out of Purgatory?
8. ____

What is the question this season?  “So?”

That is why this finale is the worst they’ve ever done.  They should have let Sam seal the gates of Hell and then had Metatron bring him back next season, letting us know that all the angel/demon stuff has been put to rest.  Now, I don’t care how long it takes for the show to return.