Old Spoilers, ahoy!

[feliciakw]

Found this Kripke interview while I was surfing this morning.

I haven't read all of it, but I had to comment about a few things.

First, I love the comparison between how they broke their stories sessions in S1 compared to now:

"What's funny is, in Season 1, we would start [story breaking sessions with], "What are the episode ideas?" And we'd start with, "What's the monster?" And now we do that last.

"[Now]We break with, "OK, what should we put Sam and Dean through?" And then we say, "Oh, we should have them be confronted with an author who's their 'creator,'" or "We should see what their lives were like in high school," -- we come up with all of these different random notions of [what they are going through]. ...And then we say, "OK, what's a monster that'll let us do that?"

I believe we all know this, but Kripke & Co. finally saw the importance of peril, whump, and angst to the survival of the show. Like, on-going, serial peril and angst. I like how it started out to be all about the monsters (which the rest of us know so was never the case), and eventually they clued in to it being about "what are we going to put them through now?" Heh!

Warning: Snark ahead

"We always had the demon plan [for the seasons as they progressed], but the angels came in, and it was one of those things where it's like, if anything, we felt stupid for not thinking of it sooner -- because how do you have demons without angels? (Bolds mine)

Gee, I dunno, Kripke? Ya think? I said for ages and ages, with the feeling becoming particularly intense when Ruby disclosed to Dean, that there needed to be a supernatural force for Good. Don't know why you didn't clue into that earlier, unless it has something to do with your implied disbelief in supernatural forces for Good.

"We slap our forehead against our hands, and say, "Why didn't we think of it sooner?"

I don't know. Why didn't you? Though I will say that the timing was excellent. I haven't had such a visceral reaction to a show like the reaction I had to Castiel unfurling his wings for the first time . . . well, in a long time. It was awesome. So maybe it just hadn't been right in the story before that point. Either way, kudos on introducing Castiel. In deference to general politeness, I won't go off right now on your depiction of other angels.

*toddles of to read the rest*

And . . . I'm not gonna read the rest. I still don't like how he explains Lucifer at this point in the game, and I kind of get the feeling that things have evolved somewhat since this interview anyway.

Comments are welcome; spoilers are not. Anything up to 5.10 is fair game. Anything beyond that will make me sad and possibly result in a preventative salt-and-burn.

Comments

[ficwriter1966.livejournal.com]

I agree completely: Castiel's introduction was one of the 10 best moments in the show. (In fact, that whole episode was awesome.)

I honestly don't think Kripke cares much about adhering to conventional theology. I think they dig up just enough info that they can point to it and say, "See, this is actual mythology!" and then they just run all over the field with it. I'm sure if I were more invested in it, I'd be as peeved with him as a lot of people are - but as it is, I just get peeved over the sloppy story structuring.

I still believe if they hadn't found Jensen, the show would never have made it to a second season.

[leelust.livejournal.com]

I still believe if they hadn't found Jensen, the show would never have made it to a second season.
Totally and absolutely agree.

[feliciakw.livejournal.com]

I honestly don't think Kripke cares much about adhering to conventional theology.

Oh, I'd take it to Vegas that he doesn't. He says in the interview (which you probably have already read, yeah?) that he doesn't have a world view. (Which I kind of find impossible. You can't be alive without having some sort of thoughts about the world around you.) He goes on to say that if he did have a world view, it'd be humanistic (which, right there, is sort of admitting to having a world view). But as he goes on to explain his humanistic view, at least in the context of Show, I kinda want to tell him that his view and a belief in faith are not mutually exclusive. But for the purposes of his storytelling (the overall act of storytelling, not the execution of the storytelling), I'll let it slide for now.

I think they dig up just enough info that they can point to it and say, "See, this is actual mythology!"

Bwah! That's exactly what they do. I know I'm not the first one to be peeved about playing fast and loose with various mythologies.

And I actually do feel a leeeettle bit better after hearing the actors talk about the angel developments in the con clips. The fact that Richard went to the effort of researching Gabriel (which, I get the impression that Richard loves to research for roles), and when he started questioning Jeremy Carver about it, Jeremy said to ignore it . . . I felt a little bit better from an actor POV. Still peeved at the writer, but the actors made me feel a little better.

I still believe if they hadn't found Jensen, the show would never have made it to a second season.

I am inclined to agree with you 100% here. Interesting that Jensen was pointed out to them specifically, and that he read for the role of Sam first.

[leelust.livejournal.com]

I snark with you and agreeing with everything. It's strange he didn't see that and it's even stranger that if not the strike we could never get angels on the show.