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gwaevalarin) wrote2012-03-23 07:21 am
gwaevalarin) wrote2012-03-23 07:21 am
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In Which I Seem To Jump To A Different Conclusion Than Everyone Else
I'm slightly afraid to even post this after seeing the reactions on tumblr. A lot of them from people whose opinon I rate very hightly, and who I usually agree with.
I've seen a lot of rage about the spoiler that Castiel is married. Not butthurt shipper rage, but genuine concern about consent issues. I'm not saying they are unfounded. I hear the reasons. Obvious plot holes aside, I just... can't really understand them.
For the sake of this, I'm assuming that Daphne is just who she seems to be. A normal girl, and a real love interest.
I admit I know next to nothing about amnesia and how it affects a person. I'm not a doctor, and I never had to deal with anyone suffering from amnesia of any kind.
I can just try to imagine the most straight-forward scenario:
Castiel crawls out of that lake, confused, no memories, and Daphne happens to find him, and she brings him to a hospital. That's where she could leave, or just check in once or twice to hear if he is okay considering, but she is a kind girl, and it would just feel wrong, and she sticks around.
It turns out that no one knows who he is and how he ended up where he did - which, erm... Jimmy? - and somehow Daphne feels responsible for him because she was the one who found him and the human mind is weird like that, so she decides to help him deal with his situation, no hidden agenda at all.
Well, thing is, Castiel (or Emmanuel) doesn't have anyone beside her. He doesn't know where to start looking either, and there is this part of him that doesn't want to remember who he was even though he doesn't know why.
She doesn't push him into trying to find out more, even though he has those weird abilities that kinda freak her out a little. Instead she encourages him to put them to use. Partly because she believes it will be good for him, and partly because she's starting to feel like she is suffocating with him sitting around and just staring all day. So Emmanuel becomes a healer, and Daphne can go back to her own life for a bit. She still makes sure he is as okay as can be expected, without finding herself on the edge of wishing she had never gotten herself into this more often than not.
A few months pass, and they both start to realise how much they care for each other. Maybe it is mainly the circumstances, maybe it is more. It's not that simple, but they had enough complicated. So yeah, maybe Daphne doesn't know who Emmanuel was, but she knows everything about who he is right now. And maybe Cas doesn't remember who he was, and he can't know if his former self would agree, but his self right here, right now does consent.
And yes, it's a little weird that they are married after such a short time. I'm thinking maybe Castiel was a little desperate to start new and leave his old life behind for reasons he doesn't understand but feels very strongly about. And maybe Daphne should have seen this and said 'Stop. We're not doing this for the right reasons.' But she is human, and those months were tough for her too. So she's in a bit of denial, and a little overwhelmed with everything, and a little too stupidly in love with these deep blue eyes, but she is certainly not pressuring him into anything he - his current self - doesn't want (or at least claims to want, no matter how often she asks him if he is sure).
Bottom line, when I read the spoiler, I did think that the "married" part was weird after only a few months, but mainly I'm just glad that, at least in the best case scenario, Cas found someone who cared when he crawled out of that lake alone and broken.
All the pain the show will put him through, now that he has the Winchesters back in his life, are a completely different topic. As is my concern that, should Daphne really turn out to be who they try to make us believe she is, she'll probably be dead by the end of the episode just to add more pain to the huge pile that is already there.
I also believe that things will turn out completely different from the way they sound right now, and certainly different from the scenario I describe here, but a speculation for tonights episode was hardly the point of this post.
Also, before you decide that I'm a horrible person for not having issues with the storyline per se, take into consideration that I have been growing up in the safest little bubble you can possibly imagine, and I'm probably just terribly naive.
I've seen a lot of rage about the spoiler that Castiel is married. Not butthurt shipper rage, but genuine concern about consent issues. I'm not saying they are unfounded. I hear the reasons. Obvious plot holes aside, I just... can't really understand them.
For the sake of this, I'm assuming that Daphne is just who she seems to be. A normal girl, and a real love interest.
I admit I know next to nothing about amnesia and how it affects a person. I'm not a doctor, and I never had to deal with anyone suffering from amnesia of any kind.
I can just try to imagine the most straight-forward scenario:
Castiel crawls out of that lake, confused, no memories, and Daphne happens to find him, and she brings him to a hospital. That's where she could leave, or just check in once or twice to hear if he is okay considering, but she is a kind girl, and it would just feel wrong, and she sticks around.
It turns out that no one knows who he is and how he ended up where he did - which, erm... Jimmy? - and somehow Daphne feels responsible for him because she was the one who found him and the human mind is weird like that, so she decides to help him deal with his situation, no hidden agenda at all.
Well, thing is, Castiel (or Emmanuel) doesn't have anyone beside her. He doesn't know where to start looking either, and there is this part of him that doesn't want to remember who he was even though he doesn't know why.
She doesn't push him into trying to find out more, even though he has those weird abilities that kinda freak her out a little. Instead she encourages him to put them to use. Partly because she believes it will be good for him, and partly because she's starting to feel like she is suffocating with him sitting around and just staring all day. So Emmanuel becomes a healer, and Daphne can go back to her own life for a bit. She still makes sure he is as okay as can be expected, without finding herself on the edge of wishing she had never gotten herself into this more often than not.
A few months pass, and they both start to realise how much they care for each other. Maybe it is mainly the circumstances, maybe it is more. It's not that simple, but they had enough complicated. So yeah, maybe Daphne doesn't know who Emmanuel was, but she knows everything about who he is right now. And maybe Cas doesn't remember who he was, and he can't know if his former self would agree, but his self right here, right now does consent.
And yes, it's a little weird that they are married after such a short time. I'm thinking maybe Castiel was a little desperate to start new and leave his old life behind for reasons he doesn't understand but feels very strongly about. And maybe Daphne should have seen this and said 'Stop. We're not doing this for the right reasons.' But she is human, and those months were tough for her too. So she's in a bit of denial, and a little overwhelmed with everything, and a little too stupidly in love with these deep blue eyes, but she is certainly not pressuring him into anything he - his current self - doesn't want (or at least claims to want, no matter how often she asks him if he is sure).
Bottom line, when I read the spoiler, I did think that the "married" part was weird after only a few months, but mainly I'm just glad that, at least in the best case scenario, Cas found someone who cared when he crawled out of that lake alone and broken.
All the pain the show will put him through, now that he has the Winchesters back in his life, are a completely different topic. As is my concern that, should Daphne really turn out to be who they try to make us believe she is, she'll probably be dead by the end of the episode just to add more pain to the huge pile that is already there.
I also believe that things will turn out completely different from the way they sound right now, and certainly different from the scenario I describe here, but a speculation for tonights episode was hardly the point of this post.
Also, before you decide that I'm a horrible person for not having issues with the storyline per se, take into consideration that I have been growing up in the safest little bubble you can possibly imagine, and I'm probably just terribly naive.
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from people whose opinion I rate very highly, and who I usually agree with.
I hear ya, oh, boy, DO I. I avoid Tumblr like the plague, but the OTT, incoherent rage I saw on Twitter last night was depressing and just plain scary. And again, a lot of it came from people I like, respect, and generally agree with.
before you decide that I'm a horrible person for not having issues with the storyline
You won't hear that from me. I'm just glad yours was the first LJ post I saw this morning. I fear other fans will not be nearly as calm and rational.
So, thank you for restoring a bit of my faith in the sanity of this fandom. :)
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There are very obvious plot holes with this storyline, most of which stem from Castiel still inhabiting Jimmy's body. And yes, that part is a little annoying.
There is also a ton of things I'm concerned about. But even with those I'm trying to reserve judgement until I have seen the episode.
As for my sanity: I'm not nearly as calm as I like to pretend.
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From your mouth to fandom's ears. :D
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Maybe I'm in a bubble, too, but I don't even see those consent issues if Daphne pretends to have been his wife before his amnesia (I think that was already ruled out, though? I'm taking an off-time from Tumblr right now, for obvious reason). People are screaming rape and stuff, but, what? Daphne comes along and tells Cas "Hi, I'm your wife and I don't care that you don't remember me, let's have sex"? Even if she tricks him, when it comes to sex he would have to agree, no way around that (except she forces him which is hard to imagine and also wouldn't help in convincing him that she's his legit wife). Nothing with consent issues. It's like with every other amnesia where somebody can't remember their significant other, there would have to be a build-up before becoming intimate again (if ever). I don't get how people jumped to the conclusion "rape" in a heartbeat.
Oh, and also thank you for posting an explanation that I'd be kind of okay with.
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Sure, I can think of scenarios where this storyline could be problematic, too. But why assume that one of them will come true and freak out about it, when we know absolutely nothing about the circumstances?
I'm worried about this episode. I have been waiting for Castiel's return for so long and I am afraid that they may screw this up in some way. But they haven't yet. And they might not. So, at the very least, I am going to give this episode a chance because CASTIEL IS COMING BACK. And that means more to me than I can explain.
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I'm just not going to get all upset until I see that I need to...at this point I just want Cas back!
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Anyway - awww.
I'm kinda sad to say I really don't think this is how it ended up being played. You paint a nice picture here. You probably talk more about this in your episode reviews which I'm going to read next, but I wanted to stop by to say this scenario is quite a lovely thought and if Castiel HAD managed to build a genuine, loving relationship with someone in the short time since we saw him last (as unlikely as it might seem), I wouldn't have begrudged him that either <3
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No, this isn't how it ended up being played. I don't think my scenario was supernatural enough to be realistic. Unless the plan was to kill her off just to hurt Cas even more.
The scenario we got was still an acceptable one, though. Not great, not perfect, but not horrible either.
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One of the spoilers I DID have was that Cas was gonna be called Emanuel. So when Bobby's hunter friend told Dean about him on the phone I knew immediately this was Cas.
When he then went on to say the best way to contact him was through his 'wife' I kind of jolted upright and made this high pitched squeak, which I immediately tried to cover by putting a hand to my mouth because - embarrassing :p
Everyone laughed and mocked me for it after the episode ended :)
I then proceeded to babble a little bit over the following scenes about 'is it Meg? oh my god is it Meg? how can he be married, it's been less than a year, wha-?'
It was fun.
I still can't hate Daphne. I'm interested to see if the show WILL do anything else with her...
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I wonder what my reaction would have been if I hadn't known. When I read it was somewhere in the general area of 'Wait, what? What did I just read? How does that make sense?' and I think there was a moment 'Oh god, please tell me that it isn't Meg.' in there as well.
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So relief all round there :)
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