The Destructive Power of Love

s-cornelius:

I’m going to start by saying I Am Not Okay with Charlie’s death. But I don’t think the episode is completely irredeemable.

Before Charlie died, we got not one, but two declarations of love. Charlie told Rowena that the Winchesters were like her brothers and that she loves them, and Sam told Dean that Charlie and Cas and him all love him. But this episode showed us that love without trust is not enough. Love without respect for another person’s choices is not enough. And worst of all, love that demands putting one person’s safety over another’s can only lead to the worst imaginable things.

At the beginning of the season, we were told that Sam had gone down a dark path in the months since Dean’d gotten up and walked out of the bunker. And while he led Lester down a bad path that ultimately got him killed, we as an audience were kind of okay with that, because Lester was not a good man. Sam’s actions are forgivable because, hey, one less bad guy in the world, amirite? 

But, as Rowena points out in this episode, the line between good and bad isn’t always so clear. Sam and Dean have both done true atrocities–torture and murder, just to name a few–but the show moves on, and we forgive and forget. Their bad choices are for the Greater Good; the end justifies the means.

But what about the choices for their relationship? Dean stopped Sam from closing the Gates of freakin’ Hell to save him, and then put an angel in him that led directly to Kevin’s death. Can either of those decisions be argued to be for saving the world? Of course not. Dean may say the work’s not done and it needs both of them, but are either of those statements true either?

Then, from 10x18 to this episode, Sam has consistently made decisions that have made Dean’s safety more important than Cas’ or Charlie’s, that have required all three of them lie to Dean, that have removed Dean’s agency. In doing those things, Sam’s choices have led to Charlie’s death. 

And this one is inexcusable. Yea, the writing feels a little bit too much like fridging for my taste, but I get why TPTB chose to do this. This is not something Dean will forgive, and this is not something we the audience will forgive. Sam is 100% human, but he’s been behaving worse than Dean the last few episodes. Sure, things with Dean are rough, but he’s actually been in control since seeing Cain again in 10x14. Instead, Sam is the one getting worse and worse as he gets more and more desperate. 

I’ve seen a few people saying that Charlie didn’t have any agency in this episode, and I actually disagree with that, but I don’t think Charlie had all the facts when she agreed to help Sam. She loves them and she wants to help them, but even after reading the Carver Edlund books, I don’t think she had any idea how all-consuming Sam’s love for Dean is, and how much that put her in danger.

Because, in the end, this kind of love between the brothers is dangerous. It was dangerous to Kevin and Bobby and even Cas and now Charlie. When there is love without respect for another person’s decisions or trust that another person is capable of making the best decisions for themselves, the belief that the other person needs to be constantly watched and protected creeps in. From what we’ve seen, Dean isn’t any different over the past few episodes, and he’s miles better than where was was at in 10x09/10x10. But Sam’s hypervigilance and not believing Dean when he says he’s okay and wants to keep fighting, both results of deep love, has brought about saving the Book of the Damned, recruiting Rowena, and Charlie leaving safety to be killed horrifically in a motel bathroom.

Love isn’t going to save the Winchesters; it’s only brought them pain. I wrote here that the Carver era is about consequences, and while I hate that Charlie had to be one, maybe for once, they’ll figure out that thinking you’re making the right decision (which is mostly to save your brother) is very different from actually making the right decision.

euclase:

I don’t have a Twitter, but if my fellow Supernatural fans feel like getting #fuckyousupernatural trending for that shameless betrayal, I’d be right there with you.

Because brutally killing a female character just so your male character can have a reason to be angry is such fresh, new storytelling.

Thanks for slapping your fans right in the face, guys.

itsajensenthing:

But what if Charlie had awesome Comic Con tickets? What if her LARP Kingdom was about to rule indefinitely? What if she had just ordered the only known limited edition figurine of some Star Trek character?

At least she’s with her parents now. We all know how hard she held on to her mom. Now she can hear her voice again and hug her and spend endless days with her.

Did everyone just wake up on the stupid side of the bed this morning?

defilerwyrm:

The worst part about Charlie’s death is that everything precipitating it depended on the characters being seethingly, irresponsibly, unaccountably dumb.

They have been hunting supernatural baddies all their lives. They have been to Heaven, Hell, and Purgatory. They’ve faced down everything from minor ghosts to the Mother of All Monsters and then some. They’ve been the subject of manhunts by monsters, fellow hunters, the FBI, and the Heavenly Host. I refuse to buy that they’re so careless and ignorant they would just leave a resourceful, preternaturally-strong enemy chained up by one wrist with the other hanging free, but that’s what the RTP – that’s the Racist Truck People, Buckner & Ross-Leming, for those playing the home game – had them do so Herr Frankenstein could get free.

They made it Sam’s fault because Dean spent the entire episode trying to reach out to him and get some honest communication but Sam, who’s lost his agency and the world to family lies and needless secrets, wouldn’t fucking talk to his brother.

They made Castiel – the billions-of-years-old seraph and former leader of an angelic army who has faced off with all four archangels – completely clueless and effete, unable to so much as get two humans to stop quibbling for a few fucking moments.

They made Charlie, the wily survivor and expert of going off the grid, unable to handle a squabble with another woman (because women just can’t help but be catty and dramatic with each other amirite boys hahaaaa edgy) to the point that she ran off on her own, despite knowing that she was actively being hunted and had she just ASKED for backup she would have gotten it.

Not only did they write Charlie running off on her own to escape ~woman drama~ they also had her leave a literal bunker full of supernatural and mundane weaponry with nothing but a knife to defend herself instead of oh say A GODDAMN SHOTGUN.

They had a lesbian left dead in a bath/shower by a member of the group responsible for the rise of Nazism. That’s not a character running with the Idiot Ball thing but it deserves mention and if you don’t get what’s wrong with that you need to crack a history book bruh.

Apparently it just wasn’t bad enough to kill off the character who was a fan favourite, fandom representative, their only canonically queer character, and one of the few recurring female characters period. The RTP made it the result of four people going out of character to be as foolish and useless as possible. And that’s just bad writing.

Terrible writing killed Charlie Bradbury, and I will not forgive them.