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Okay. First? GABRIEL! NOOOOO! *bawls* It's a LIE, I tell you! He's just ... he's just faking! He faked Lucifer out, he could have done it, he could totally have done it ... *bawls some more*
Now. Ahem.
This episode ... this episode actually didn't track with me at all. And it kinda came off the rails LONG before the ... the ... the ending. *wibbles, takes moment to compose herself*
But it came off the rails for me right about when the gods are first introduced. Even just from the list of gods. And here's where I admit to being a wee bit of a mythology buff, especially in regards to Norse mythology, and, um ... Baldur? Seriously? And Gabriel was Loki? There's ... there's actually a whole load of potential in that, but the way it was done ...
Um. For starters? Baldur is dead. Baldur was the lightbringer of Norse myth, the most beloved son (um, anyone noticing something, here?), and his mother made sure nothing could kill him. So Loki, pretty much just for the fun of it, made a weapon of the one thing left in the world with the power to kill Baldur, and convinced a blind god to shoot him with it, putting all the blame onto that god until he was found out later (Gabriel? Can I just say I really, really hope this is what you're suddenly doing?). Baldur was sent to the Underworld, and had to stay there until every creature in the world wept for him. One of them refused (a giantess), and he's stuck there ever since. Dead. Very, very dead.
Erm. All of a sudden ... okay, the parallels (and the HOPE) are lovely, but I wish so very hard that they'd taken just a little bit more care with the actual gods in the episode. Because I want to think that they planned this, and Gabriel having been the Loki in question is very, very suggestive, but then they killed all the gods in sight, and him, and suddenly I'm freaking out all over again.
I mean, it would have been nice. It would have been cool. If Baldur was only up top again because when Luci got out of the underworld he brought a few pissed off friends with him, and Baldur was there deliberately leading the gods against Luci so they'd die. Possibly to get Gabriel killed, on account of Gabriel having been the one to kill him the first time around. In which case all went well for him, up until Lucifer betrayed him and killed him too. It would have been good. Not happy, because hello, Gabriel still dead, but ... good. Plotty. Nice echoes across mythologies, and the gods could have gotten a decent showing.
But no. It's Mercury who called Lucifer in. (Mercury, messenger of the gods??) And, alright ... since I'm putting my optimistic goggles on, that's also pretty interesting. Gabriel's roman counterpart summons the devil up? Because he's getting nervous about all the talk about killing people? Um. Again. Echoey, but so carelessly done. Nice bit of foreshadowing on what Luci intended to do with Gabriel himself, mind. But so ... careless.
Ganesh and Kali ... um. No offense to Lucifer, but on any sane show, I'd have put my money on Kali so hard. But that's neither here nor there. But Hindu is not my best mythology, so I'm not really qualified to pass judgement on that one.
*head-desk* I have so many peeves with this. So many. Not even taking the overall story. Not even taking seven (?) of the most awesome gods across world religions, and having them slaughtered inside two minutes by one angel. Not even taking in the incredible amount of potential this episode had, and then ... nothing. But even the little things. Things like Odin having both eyes. Things like Baldur being freaking alive in the first place.
Things like the Baron being there at all, trying to kill people. The Baron doesn't kill. The Baron doesn't die. The Baron is the loa of the dead, he guides them home, what the hell was he doing picking fights with archangels? The Baron serves the One God. Not necessarily the Christian one, exactly, but the actual Hoodoo deities, the loa, are actually closer to being angels themselves, or saints, in that they serve as the Bondye's (Good God's, the Creator's) intermediaries on earth. While I can see him trying to stop the apocalypse (sort of, maybe ... the Baron doesn't object to death, even global death, if it's taking place at the proper time, in the proper way), why is he entering into assassination plots with pagan gods? That makes about as much sense as Gabriel doing it. And then he died! NO!
*shakes head* No. No. This episode, on paper, it was a good idea. It was a frikking fantastic idea. When they started plotting it, when they got themselves the line-up of gods, they were on to things. Lovely, pan-global, echoey things. Arc-themes, commonalities. Myths in the making. Perfect. They were on to some lovely dovetails across mythologies. And then ... they did this, instead. *cries* It could have been so good!
Looking at the line up of gods. Two Hindu. Two Norse (three if you count Gabriel himself). One Roman. One ... shinto? I didn't catch him properly. One Hoodoo. All of them either Tricksters, messengers/knowledge-bearers, light-bringers, or Death gods. Or some combination of the four. I'm gonna assume that line up wasn't an accident, because it has so much potential. Even taking only the Norse part, so much. But what did they actually do with it, in the end?
Sweet fuck all. Pardon the language, but.
This thing needed to be more than one episode. Actually, this thing probably needed to be its own series or something, just to have space to do it justice. If you're going to take mythologies that diverse and that rich with meaning, you need to take the fucking time to do it fucking right, people! And if you're going to be going around knocking chunks out of your own mythology for no good reason (Gabriel, oh gods, Gabriel, not to mention frikking Cas, where is he?), then please, stop drafting others in just so you can do the same to them, with even less fairness and justification. It's. Not. Funny.
The mythologies they invoked here had so much potential. Even just taking the Norse one, even if they'd just picked one of them to work with, it would have been better. They could have developed it, then. They could have pulled up the base themes, the commonalities, and used them to such aching effect. The whole Baldur-Loki/Lucifer-Gabriel echo was so perfect, so goddamn perfect, especially when the Norse versions are sort of flip-sides of the judeo-christian angels, the same nature, the opposite alignment/goals ... they could have played with that, how Baldur was originally the good version of Lucifer, how he could have been tainted by the betrayal and the underworld like the Devil was, how he came back wrong ...
*head-desks some more* I don't know. I don't know. Given the ending, I almost don't even care, because way to kill off the good bits of your show, folks! *growls* This was just ... badly done. Very badly done.
Sorry, y'all. I like this show. I love it. I do. But this episode ... this was just very badly done. *sighs*
EDIT: Why did Gabriel have only two wings? He's an Archangel! And yes, admittedly I don't know if it's ever actually mentioned how many Gabriel should have, but Michael canonically has six, as Prince of seraphs ... Actually, come to think of it, why did Zach only have two last ep, when he said himself that he has six? Are the charred wing-thingies not actually real at all? Representations on the mortal place that have no relationship to angelic reality at all? Does this show have one canon, or fifteen that they skip between depending on the episode?
Um. Never mind. I may be more pissed off than I thought.
Now. Ahem.
This episode ... this episode actually didn't track with me at all. And it kinda came off the rails LONG before the ... the ... the ending. *wibbles, takes moment to compose herself*
But it came off the rails for me right about when the gods are first introduced. Even just from the list of gods. And here's where I admit to being a wee bit of a mythology buff, especially in regards to Norse mythology, and, um ... Baldur? Seriously? And Gabriel was Loki? There's ... there's actually a whole load of potential in that, but the way it was done ...
Um. For starters? Baldur is dead. Baldur was the lightbringer of Norse myth, the most beloved son (um, anyone noticing something, here?), and his mother made sure nothing could kill him. So Loki, pretty much just for the fun of it, made a weapon of the one thing left in the world with the power to kill Baldur, and convinced a blind god to shoot him with it, putting all the blame onto that god until he was found out later (Gabriel? Can I just say I really, really hope this is what you're suddenly doing?). Baldur was sent to the Underworld, and had to stay there until every creature in the world wept for him. One of them refused (a giantess), and he's stuck there ever since. Dead. Very, very dead.
Erm. All of a sudden ... okay, the parallels (and the HOPE) are lovely, but I wish so very hard that they'd taken just a little bit more care with the actual gods in the episode. Because I want to think that they planned this, and Gabriel having been the Loki in question is very, very suggestive, but then they killed all the gods in sight, and him, and suddenly I'm freaking out all over again.
I mean, it would have been nice. It would have been cool. If Baldur was only up top again because when Luci got out of the underworld he brought a few pissed off friends with him, and Baldur was there deliberately leading the gods against Luci so they'd die. Possibly to get Gabriel killed, on account of Gabriel having been the one to kill him the first time around. In which case all went well for him, up until Lucifer betrayed him and killed him too. It would have been good. Not happy, because hello, Gabriel still dead, but ... good. Plotty. Nice echoes across mythologies, and the gods could have gotten a decent showing.
But no. It's Mercury who called Lucifer in. (Mercury, messenger of the gods??) And, alright ... since I'm putting my optimistic goggles on, that's also pretty interesting. Gabriel's roman counterpart summons the devil up? Because he's getting nervous about all the talk about killing people? Um. Again. Echoey, but so carelessly done. Nice bit of foreshadowing on what Luci intended to do with Gabriel himself, mind. But so ... careless.
Ganesh and Kali ... um. No offense to Lucifer, but on any sane show, I'd have put my money on Kali so hard. But that's neither here nor there. But Hindu is not my best mythology, so I'm not really qualified to pass judgement on that one.
*head-desk* I have so many peeves with this. So many. Not even taking the overall story. Not even taking seven (?) of the most awesome gods across world religions, and having them slaughtered inside two minutes by one angel. Not even taking in the incredible amount of potential this episode had, and then ... nothing. But even the little things. Things like Odin having both eyes. Things like Baldur being freaking alive in the first place.
Things like the Baron being there at all, trying to kill people. The Baron doesn't kill. The Baron doesn't die. The Baron is the loa of the dead, he guides them home, what the hell was he doing picking fights with archangels? The Baron serves the One God. Not necessarily the Christian one, exactly, but the actual Hoodoo deities, the loa, are actually closer to being angels themselves, or saints, in that they serve as the Bondye's (Good God's, the Creator's) intermediaries on earth. While I can see him trying to stop the apocalypse (sort of, maybe ... the Baron doesn't object to death, even global death, if it's taking place at the proper time, in the proper way), why is he entering into assassination plots with pagan gods? That makes about as much sense as Gabriel doing it. And then he died! NO!
*shakes head* No. No. This episode, on paper, it was a good idea. It was a frikking fantastic idea. When they started plotting it, when they got themselves the line-up of gods, they were on to things. Lovely, pan-global, echoey things. Arc-themes, commonalities. Myths in the making. Perfect. They were on to some lovely dovetails across mythologies. And then ... they did this, instead. *cries* It could have been so good!
Looking at the line up of gods. Two Hindu. Two Norse (three if you count Gabriel himself). One Roman. One ... shinto? I didn't catch him properly. One Hoodoo. All of them either Tricksters, messengers/knowledge-bearers, light-bringers, or Death gods. Or some combination of the four. I'm gonna assume that line up wasn't an accident, because it has so much potential. Even taking only the Norse part, so much. But what did they actually do with it, in the end?
Sweet fuck all. Pardon the language, but.
This thing needed to be more than one episode. Actually, this thing probably needed to be its own series or something, just to have space to do it justice. If you're going to take mythologies that diverse and that rich with meaning, you need to take the fucking time to do it fucking right, people! And if you're going to be going around knocking chunks out of your own mythology for no good reason (Gabriel, oh gods, Gabriel, not to mention frikking Cas, where is he?), then please, stop drafting others in just so you can do the same to them, with even less fairness and justification. It's. Not. Funny.
The mythologies they invoked here had so much potential. Even just taking the Norse one, even if they'd just picked one of them to work with, it would have been better. They could have developed it, then. They could have pulled up the base themes, the commonalities, and used them to such aching effect. The whole Baldur-Loki/Lucifer-Gabriel echo was so perfect, so goddamn perfect, especially when the Norse versions are sort of flip-sides of the judeo-christian angels, the same nature, the opposite alignment/goals ... they could have played with that, how Baldur was originally the good version of Lucifer, how he could have been tainted by the betrayal and the underworld like the Devil was, how he came back wrong ...
*head-desks some more* I don't know. I don't know. Given the ending, I almost don't even care, because way to kill off the good bits of your show, folks! *growls* This was just ... badly done. Very badly done.
Sorry, y'all. I like this show. I love it. I do. But this episode ... this was just very badly done. *sighs*
EDIT: Why did Gabriel have only two wings? He's an Archangel! And yes, admittedly I don't know if it's ever actually mentioned how many Gabriel should have, but Michael canonically has six, as Prince of seraphs ... Actually, come to think of it, why did Zach only have two last ep, when he said himself that he has six? Are the charred wing-thingies not actually real at all? Representations on the mortal place that have no relationship to angelic reality at all? Does this show have one canon, or fifteen that they skip between depending on the episode?
Um. Never mind. I may be more pissed off than I thought.
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