I've Even Got An Improbably Ethnic Name

[chasingtides]

I've read that Misha Collins will be a series regular on SPN if it gets a fifth season (which is looking more and more likely as I cross my fingers). (ETA: Article: here.) While I probably like Misha Collins more than the average fan (I do mod mishaland after all), I am not sure I like this. Jim Beaver isn't a series regular. JDM wasn't a series regular. I don't think either Ruby was a series regular. While I do like Castiel as a character and think he provides a good counterbalance to the demons, especially Ruby, this is a show about two brothers.

Misha is awesome. I love him dearly. I kind of want to grow up to be him. I am already from Massachusetts and have an improbably ethnic name.

I love Castiel. I have a thing for angels who question authority. I think it comes from growing up Catholic. They can't feel guilt so we can push all of our guilty Catholic needs onto them. I like that Castiel can kick ass and take names (4.01 Lazarus Rising) and then have moments of softness (4.07 It's the Great Pumpkin, Sam Winchester). I like that he's trying to learn to be human and that he still loves God and that he trying to learn compassion and seems to have a better heart than Uriel.

However, he still isn't Sam and Dean. I still think that season two was the best season ever and love to read and write fic there. The show is "epic love story of Sam and Dean," not the show about two guys and their angel buddy.

The one thing that could make this sit better with me is if Ruby became a regular, too. I don't much like Ruby for reasons I have trouble articulating, but Castiel makes me like Ruby more (and I think I might like Castiel more because of Ruby).

Castiel feels like an important counterbalance to Ruby to me. This means that if Castiel became more important, then Ruby would need to counterbalance him for me. They come from opposite sides (Heaven and Hell) and are both trying to move toward the middle (Earth, humanity). I think they could learn a lot from each other if they stopped hating each other so much. They are very much the same.

However, were Castiel alone (or Ruby alone or Bobby alone) to become a regular like Sam and Dean, I would be a sad panda. I'm not even sure why I feel like it would ruin the balance and dynamic of the show, but I think it would. As much as I love our resident angel, he is nowhere near as important as Sam and Dean.

Comments

[chasingtides.livejournal.com]

If Ruby goes, Sam's got nothing going on.

I could not disagree with you more. What about Sam's demonic powers? What about the fact that Uriel and Castiel both seem to have a vested interest in Sam and his powers? And what about how he seems to be taking a more protective role in relation to Dean (something of a reversal of season one)?

Sure, Dean's got his heaven-and-hell plot arc, but he seems to be taking Sam with him, come hell and high water, and Sam's got issues of his own now, separate from Ruby.

[hrairroo.livejournal.com]

Sam’s powers are on the wane, and with them the story of his own, internal struggle with good and evil, as well as any interest Castiel and Uriel will have in him. I honestly hadn’t noticed a Sam/Dean role reversal. And yeah, Sam *should* have issues; being stuck with demon blood, being the designated antichrist (at one time, anyway), trying to turn his curse into something good -- these are all worthy of attention. But except for IKWYDLS and the one scene in “Metamorphosis” when Sam finally tells Dean what it feels like being a whole new level of freak, Sam’s stuff has pretty much been ignored. Even "Pumpkin", which seemed like it might be about Sam’s issues,turned out to be about Dean’s stuff: Dean’s role as humanity’s savior, the decisions Dean will have to make, Dean’s terrible burden. And we can now add to this litany of woe Dean's suffering over his memories of hell. Sam has no part in any of this and, without his powers, no story of his own, either, except for his questionable association with Ruby.

Speaking of dropped Sam-storylines, whatever happened to that business about him maybe not being the same Sam he was before he died? Seems like this might've been a good time to get back to that. But this is The Dean Show now. I miss SamnDean.