Supernatural 7.03
Oct. 8th, 2011 03:25 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
sailorhathorThis episode seems to have upset a lot of the fandom, but for completely different reasons than why it upset me.
Spoilers ahead for SPN 7.03 "The Girl Next Door."
From what I've read, lots of fans are upset with Dean for lying to Sam and coldly killing Amy at the end of the ep. That didn't upset me at all. Amy needed to die. She was a monster with selective morality and she has no right to decide who's worthy of living or who should die just to feed her monster child, which she didn't have to have. The thing that bothered me the most is she was deciding whether someone deserved to live in the span of a few seconds based on what she could observe of their behavior in that short span of time, and judging them in pure black and white terms, which isn't the most precise system. If Amy could somehow prove that she was only killing rapists, murderers, and child molesters, then I might be behind her. The fact that she was feeding off the dead wasn't really a perfect solution either; I've lost people close to me and the idea that she was eating the brains of someone's loved one doesn't make me feel any better. It's still a violation. Sam felt too close to her to do what needed to be done, so Dean had to do it. I actually kind of disagreed that he should leave Jacob alive, as horrible as it sounds, because seeing Dean kill his mother only made him angrier at humanity. The kid will probably kill just to get revenge as well as feed himself.
This episode did make me understand something I didn't fully understand before. I thought Sam just had a monster fetish, but that's not the reason why he seems to be attracted to werewolves/demons/Amy/what have you. It's because Sam feels like a monster, like a freak, and he identifies with them emotionally. I don't know why I didn't see that before.
The thing that I objected to in this episode that pretty much ruined it for me was calling the monster a kitsune when Amy and her mother were nothing like kitsune. I don't understand at all what the point was of calling them something they clearly weren't. It's no secret that I'm a huge Japan/Asia in general freak and I love to read about the mythology and culture. How hard is it to do a little research and use a little creativity in creating your monsters... and giving them the right name??!! There's absolutely nothing in the lore of kitsune that says they eat pituitary glands or that they can be killed by a simple, boring, overused knife to the heart. I mean, seriously, there's got to be a boogeyman somewhere in the world that eats brains; a little visit to freakin' Wikipedia probably would have gotten them a more appropriate monster. Why force something that simply isn't there and make your writing look stupidly amateur?
What's even more ludicrous is the fact that Amy and her mother are supernatural creatures of largely Japanese origin (there are similar legends in China and Korea as well, but you get the drift), but they're both white women. That's just so ridiculous it's... wow. The kitsune is a very unique mythological legend. There is nothing like it in Western society. It just makes absolutely no sense to me for a kitsune to be white. (White as in race, not actual color.) She should at least be Asian, if not Japanese. (After all, kitsune is a Japanese frickin' word!) Perhaps you could make a case for "she started out Japanese, but through race mixing over generations, there are now white kitsune" or "the bite of a kitsune turns you into one and that's why there are white kitsune" if they had done something like that, but it's the coward's way out. Why not just cast freakin' Asian actresses as Amy and her mom? I mean, we're not talking about something like vampires, where the lore has spread to many, many different countries and races. "Fox spirits" are a very Asian concept. Besides, this show NEEDS more racial credibility. It certainly wouldn't hurt them. But instead of doing what made sense, they cast yet another white actress from a popular sci-fi show. Hey look, we got people from "Buffy," "Battlestar Galactica," various versions of "Stargate," and now "Firefly"! Woohoo, look at us! Would it really hurt them if they cast an actual Asian person in a big speaking role? Can we just chalk this up to lazy writing and casting, or what?
Truth is, everytime this show has tried to cover an Asian myth, they've gotten it wrong. At this point, I would rather that they just stop trying to write them if they're not going to make even the simplest effort to do it right. I did some reading on kitsune this morning just to refresh my memory and I couldn't see why it would be so hard to stick to the actual myth. Kitsune have been known to be malicious, are considered succubi in some versions of the legend, and have definite weaknesses that would be just as easy to fit into the show as a knife to the heart. And there isn't any reason that one can't decide to get on a boat or plane and leave Japan for a new home in the west, spawning more generations of kitsune in America. So, what?
As a big fan of Asian cinema, culture, TV, and mythology, I'm extremely disappointed that my favorite show currently on television will not portray their legends correctly, or even cast Asians as major secondary characters. (By major secondary, I mean characters like Jo, Ellen, Rufus, etc or one-episode characters like Amy, Madison, etc. instead of the Chinese restaurant owner who has two lines or the "kami" monster who has no lines at all.) Asian actors and actresses do exist, Show, and they're not all in Asia! And many of them are quite attractive! >:(
Besides all that, I was quite perplexed with why Sam was on his own, doing all the research and talking to his father and brother by phone. I get that the Real Life reason is because they can't get JDM anymore and maybe they didn't want to pay Brock Kelly to return as young Dean this time around. But why would things be this way in Show? Did John and Dean take off in pursuit of the "kitsune" and leave Sam behind for his own safety, unaware that the monster was right under their noses the whole time? I guess. Still, it came off really awkward and WTF for me.
After seeing their lame version of a kitsune, I've decided to reject this canon. John and Dean shouldn't have let a hormonal 15-year-old do all the research. As smart as Sam is, he misidentified the monster they were chasing. Doh. It's the only explanation that makes sense. :P I mean, I'm all for TV shows taking creative liberties with myths, but only if it's done with respect. If it's okay to call a brain-eating white chick a kitsune, then why not point out a person with fangs sucking the blood from someone's neck and say, "Look, it's a siren!"? :P Because it makes no fucking sense, that's why.
Also, even though they haven't done a pie reference for a while, I'm kind of tired of the Dean/Pie jokes. Maybe that's just because I don't see the difference between that and cake either. :P I don't know, I just never found it that funny. Just made me want cake.
Honestly, if they had identified Amy properly as some other type of monster that actually fit her description, I probably would have liked the ep a lot more. A LOT more.
Hey Nicky, did you see the Garden Wall in this ep? It's back! :D
Spoilers ahead for SPN 7.03 "The Girl Next Door."
From what I've read, lots of fans are upset with Dean for lying to Sam and coldly killing Amy at the end of the ep. That didn't upset me at all. Amy needed to die. She was a monster with selective morality and she has no right to decide who's worthy of living or who should die just to feed her monster child, which she didn't have to have. The thing that bothered me the most is she was deciding whether someone deserved to live in the span of a few seconds based on what she could observe of their behavior in that short span of time, and judging them in pure black and white terms, which isn't the most precise system. If Amy could somehow prove that she was only killing rapists, murderers, and child molesters, then I might be behind her. The fact that she was feeding off the dead wasn't really a perfect solution either; I've lost people close to me and the idea that she was eating the brains of someone's loved one doesn't make me feel any better. It's still a violation. Sam felt too close to her to do what needed to be done, so Dean had to do it. I actually kind of disagreed that he should leave Jacob alive, as horrible as it sounds, because seeing Dean kill his mother only made him angrier at humanity. The kid will probably kill just to get revenge as well as feed himself.
This episode did make me understand something I didn't fully understand before. I thought Sam just had a monster fetish, but that's not the reason why he seems to be attracted to werewolves/demons/Amy/what have you. It's because Sam feels like a monster, like a freak, and he identifies with them emotionally. I don't know why I didn't see that before.
The thing that I objected to in this episode that pretty much ruined it for me was calling the monster a kitsune when Amy and her mother were nothing like kitsune. I don't understand at all what the point was of calling them something they clearly weren't. It's no secret that I'm a huge Japan/Asia in general freak and I love to read about the mythology and culture. How hard is it to do a little research and use a little creativity in creating your monsters... and giving them the right name??!! There's absolutely nothing in the lore of kitsune that says they eat pituitary glands or that they can be killed by a simple, boring, overused knife to the heart. I mean, seriously, there's got to be a boogeyman somewhere in the world that eats brains; a little visit to freakin' Wikipedia probably would have gotten them a more appropriate monster. Why force something that simply isn't there and make your writing look stupidly amateur?
What's even more ludicrous is the fact that Amy and her mother are supernatural creatures of largely Japanese origin (there are similar legends in China and Korea as well, but you get the drift), but they're both white women. That's just so ridiculous it's... wow. The kitsune is a very unique mythological legend. There is nothing like it in Western society. It just makes absolutely no sense to me for a kitsune to be white. (White as in race, not actual color.) She should at least be Asian, if not Japanese. (After all, kitsune is a Japanese frickin' word!) Perhaps you could make a case for "she started out Japanese, but through race mixing over generations, there are now white kitsune" or "the bite of a kitsune turns you into one and that's why there are white kitsune" if they had done something like that, but it's the coward's way out. Why not just cast freakin' Asian actresses as Amy and her mom? I mean, we're not talking about something like vampires, where the lore has spread to many, many different countries and races. "Fox spirits" are a very Asian concept. Besides, this show NEEDS more racial credibility. It certainly wouldn't hurt them. But instead of doing what made sense, they cast yet another white actress from a popular sci-fi show. Hey look, we got people from "Buffy," "Battlestar Galactica," various versions of "Stargate," and now "Firefly"! Woohoo, look at us! Would it really hurt them if they cast an actual Asian person in a big speaking role? Can we just chalk this up to lazy writing and casting, or what?
Truth is, everytime this show has tried to cover an Asian myth, they've gotten it wrong. At this point, I would rather that they just stop trying to write them if they're not going to make even the simplest effort to do it right. I did some reading on kitsune this morning just to refresh my memory and I couldn't see why it would be so hard to stick to the actual myth. Kitsune have been known to be malicious, are considered succubi in some versions of the legend, and have definite weaknesses that would be just as easy to fit into the show as a knife to the heart. And there isn't any reason that one can't decide to get on a boat or plane and leave Japan for a new home in the west, spawning more generations of kitsune in America. So, what?
As a big fan of Asian cinema, culture, TV, and mythology, I'm extremely disappointed that my favorite show currently on television will not portray their legends correctly, or even cast Asians as major secondary characters. (By major secondary, I mean characters like Jo, Ellen, Rufus, etc or one-episode characters like Amy, Madison, etc. instead of the Chinese restaurant owner who has two lines or the "kami" monster who has no lines at all.) Asian actors and actresses do exist, Show, and they're not all in Asia! And many of them are quite attractive! >:(
Besides all that, I was quite perplexed with why Sam was on his own, doing all the research and talking to his father and brother by phone. I get that the Real Life reason is because they can't get JDM anymore and maybe they didn't want to pay Brock Kelly to return as young Dean this time around. But why would things be this way in Show? Did John and Dean take off in pursuit of the "kitsune" and leave Sam behind for his own safety, unaware that the monster was right under their noses the whole time? I guess. Still, it came off really awkward and WTF for me.
After seeing their lame version of a kitsune, I've decided to reject this canon. John and Dean shouldn't have let a hormonal 15-year-old do all the research. As smart as Sam is, he misidentified the monster they were chasing. Doh. It's the only explanation that makes sense. :P I mean, I'm all for TV shows taking creative liberties with myths, but only if it's done with respect. If it's okay to call a brain-eating white chick a kitsune, then why not point out a person with fangs sucking the blood from someone's neck and say, "Look, it's a siren!"? :P Because it makes no fucking sense, that's why.
Also, even though they haven't done a pie reference for a while, I'm kind of tired of the Dean/Pie jokes. Maybe that's just because I don't see the difference between that and cake either. :P I don't know, I just never found it that funny. Just made me want cake.
Honestly, if they had identified Amy properly as some other type of monster that actually fit her description, I probably would have liked the ep a lot more. A LOT more.
Hey Nicky, did you see the Garden Wall in this ep? It's back! :D
