Castiel

[oselle]

Posting a pic of Misha Collins in a sarong yesterday led to a lengthy conversation with insight2 that included a link to aesc's monumental Casifesto, which I'm sure some of you have read, but I had not.

I loved the Casifesto but I was getting a little hot under the collar while reading it, because it demonstrated something I've believed for a long time -- that Castiel is one of the things SPN really got right. From how the character was envisioned to the casting of the pitch-perfect Misha Collins to the way the character was allowed to develop, they really got it right.

So now, of course, they're going to flush it.

Of course, I don't know what they're planning to do with Castiel. I actually don't think they're going to kill him off, but I do think they may either keep him around for some occasional guest appearances (less than Bobby but more than, say, Rufus). Guessing aside, it's a fact that Misha's no longer a regular cast member; it's also a fact that Sera Gamble's reaction to any potential backlash from the diminishing of Castiel's role boiled down to a shrug and a not-very-promising promise of "stories that are fresh" and not "redundant."

Because I suppose that finding a continuing role for one of the best characters they ever managed to create would just be "redundant."

I am of two minds about this. On the one hand, I'd rather they write Castiel out if they don't know what to do with him.

On the other hand -- why don't they know what to do with him? Are they really so lacking in imagination that the emergence of this wonderful character -- that they themselves created -- has become nothing but a burdensome complication? Something to be disposed of?

Reading the Casifesto, I realized that Castiel is the only character on the show who's had a genuine, meaningful arc. Sam was supposed to have an arc, but for the past few years he's just wavered back and forth between various degrees of corruption and self-pity, coming out more or less blameless and unaltered when it's all over. I love Dean to pieces but in spite of how much Jensen has to offer, the character has unwisely been held back from any significant change, other than becoming more melancholy and self-loathing.

The show's most exciting character arc to date has belonged to Castiel. He went from being the completely faithful servant of an unseen God, to being an apostate who used his newfound sense of self-determination first to help avert the apocalypse and then to wage civil war in heaven, ultimately at great cost to himself. And of course, along the way, he fell in love, lost his faith, lost his grace, and discovered the value of free will, both his own and all of mankind's. Castiel's been a busy guy the past few years.

I don't think you can underestimate how much this has to do with Misha Collins. I remember reading that initially, Misha was only signed on for the first half of Season 4 -- if Misha hadn't brought so much to the show, Castiel probably would have disappeared a long time ago. Just as Jensen elevated Dean way above his original "sidekick" status, Misha poured such life into this character that I suspect it was his performance that influenced and steered the writing, not the other way around.

And therein lies the problem, I think. Misha was too good for his own good. With his help, the character grew into something the writers couldn't manage or imagine, and they literally don't know what to do with him. And so they have declared him "redundant."

Part of me thinks that it's a writer's prerogative to stay true to the original vision. Severus Snape became a wildly popular character in the Harry Potter books, but he wound up having little to do with the ultimate showdown, and I think many readers were disappointed by the skimpiness of his backstory. But while J.K. Rowling could (and maybe should) have realized how much potential Snape had from the start, his importance was most likely not part of her original vision and so she was wise not to enlarge his role suddenly just because he had become popular. A writer risks throwing herself completely off course if she responds to reader influence that way.

In SPN's case, though, I really don't know how much "vision" there is. It's such a work in progress and honestly, they usually don't know until spring of each year if there's even going to be more story to tell. That means the story is fluid, it has the ability to shift and change course with each new season, and even midseason -- so when these writers decide that they have to fade Castiel out, it's not because Castiel was never part of some nonexistent vision, but because they're creatively tapped out. And frankly, the word "lazy" comes to mind. Altogether, SPN has to have -- what? -- nearly a dozen writers and producers? And none of them could take up the challenge to work with a character who had evolved from the ground up into one of the very best on the show? One of the things -- one of the few things -- they've really gotten right all these years?

It's a shame. It is really a shame.

Comments

[tazical.livejournal.com]

I still have half a hope that they're just getting their giggle on by fucking with our heads over this whole Castiel thing. Reducing his already limited role just makes no business sense to me, not when they created this wildly popular character more or less by accident, which is something other writers try (and fail) to do for years and years on end. Misha's twitter account alone has something like 1/8 of their ratings audience, which is promotional gold to networks, so I'm still praying that all of this hoopla is a result of them actually realising what a valuable character Castiel is, rather than an attempt to boot him.

Therefore, I'm hoping for an intriguing god plot for Season 7 and then a mortal redemption plot if we get a Season 8. That way it solves the two main problems they have with Castiel. 1. That he's by default a deux ex machina character who undermines Sam & Dean's narrative purpose and 2) that keeping Castiel as an angel means they have to keep finding ways to tie Heaven into the season arc, which they clearly want to steer away from. I'll probably be disappointed, as usual, but a girl's gotta have a liferaft, right?

As you said, there are plenty of interesting things they can still do with the character, and of course it doesn't automatically mean that keeping him around would take any focus away from Sam and Dean, like some people seem to fear. My major wish for this show is that they'll finally figure out how to write episodes with a team rather than a duo. I've noticed that I tend to enjoy the few episodes when they've managed to hit that note far more than episodes when it's just Sam & Dean. Mostly because, well, Sam and Dean get depressing after a while. I miss the comedy/tragedy balance of the earlier seasons, and they can still do that when they add a few other characters into the mix to offset the emo drama.

Interestingly, the new CW boss seems very pro-SPN. He also appears to have a history with genre shows and knowing what works. Hopefully he'll be smart enough not to get rid of characters who work.

[oselle.livejournal.com]

I still have half a hope that they're just getting their giggle on by fucking with our heads over this whole Castiel thing.

I don't think this is a gag or some kind of deliberate misinformation to fake out the audience -- all that stuff about Misha's contract, it's just way too elaborate and I don't think it would be permissible within the business to purposely start a false rumor that an actor's part had been reduced. If something does change with Castiel's status, it will be a recent development based on the reaction to the news.

Misha's twitter account alone has something like 1/8 of their ratings audience

Good lord, how do they even measure something like that? I'd imagine that Misha's Twitter includes fans who don't watch the show when it airs, and might not even watch it on DVR, so they aren't counted in the show's ratings. I honestly don't think that anyone knows the exact size of SPN's audience.

Therefore, I'm hoping for an intriguing god plot for Season 7 and then a mortal redemption plot if we get a Season 8.

The problem with this as I see it, is that it would require making one, or possibly two seasons all but revolve around Castiel. And I just can't imagine them going in this direction, especially when Sera Gamble has said repeatedly that the show's focus needs to stay on Sam and Dean -- which is something that I think a lot of viewers agree with. Whenever I've read viewer comments about the show outside of LJ, there seems to be a fair percentage of viewers who say they'll be happy to see Castiel go so that the show can "get back" to Sam and Dean -- as if Castiel had been dominating the story all year. I think it may at times seem like he is, just because his part of the story is often the only one that makes an impact.

they'll finally figure out how to write episodes with a team rather than a duo.

Ensemble shows don't really resonate with me -- it's a big reason why I've never been able to connect with anything by Joss Whedon, but shows like SPN and The X-Files really sucked me in. That said, I hardly think that incorporating one more character (and an established character at that) into the Winchester universe would turn the show into an ensemble!

Interestingly, the new CW boss seems very pro-SPN.

I was encouraged by his history at ABC, especially his connection to Lost. I'm hoping he understands the unique and powerful relationship that an audience has with a genre show. I enjoy the idea of him calling Sera and Eric on the carpet to explain the reasoning behind their plans for Castiel.

[tazical.livejournal.com]

I don't think this is a gag or some kind of deliberate misinformation to fake out the audience

No, me either. I'm absolutely sure that the part about Misha's contract is correct. However nobody's actually said that his role's being reduced, they're just jumping to conclusions that it is. We know the show had budget issues last year and Misha himself said that they paid him for doing a lot of episodes that he wasn't in, so I wouldn't be at all surprised if the 'demotion' is more for financial reasons than an actual decision to reduce Misha's role. Maybe he'll be in the same amount of episodes, maybe less, who knows? Either way, one thing's for sure, it's certainly got people freaking out over the hiatus, which is exactly what they want, right?

Good lord, how do they even measure something like that?

The official ratings are somewhere between 1.7-2.2 million, I seem to recall. Obviously the actual number of viewers is going to be far higher, but the ratings audience and demographic figures are the things that the moneycrunchers are interested in and therefore the things that TBTP base their decisions on. Ha, don't get me started on the massive flaws of the various ratings systems, we'll be here all day. :D

The point is, social media is a huge promotional tool for these companies. They spend millions trying to get their product names spread around. The CW accidentally struck gold when they created Castiel, and they did it again when Misha turned out to be an entertaining twitterer. Re-tweets, twitter trending, those magazines which print the best celebrity tweets of the week- all of that is extra publicity in core media of their target demographic which is a good financial reason to maintain Misha's role on the show.

The problem with this as I see it, is that it would require making one, or possibly two seasons all but revolve around Castiel.

I don't think it necessarily has to, and to be honest, I wouldn't want it to. When I say 'team' I guess I mean more along the lines of having Castiel and Bobby as occasional background characters who work with Sam and Dean rather than having them all standing around angsting at each other over their communication chasms. It gets boring. I think it's because I love Sam and Dean so much that I want them to have a support network, because the more the show keeps killing off and alienating people who care about them, the more fucked in the head and isolated they get.

I'd be happy if they make Castiel mortal, shunt him off to stay with Bobby and have them show up as and when they need them, much like Bobby does at the moment. It doesn't mean the season has to be about Castiel, it just means that he can have his own plotline quietly going on in parallel. Even the X-Files had supporting characters like Skinner and Krychek who managed to go off and have their own little plots going on without detracting from the importance of the main two characters.

As you say, there's a fair percentage of people who want the show to get back to good old-fashioned monster-hunting. A fair percentage of that fair percentage don't have any quarrels with Castiel as a character, they just have issues with the fact that as long as Castiel's an angel the show's stuck with angel-related storylines, which they're running out of. I can only see two ways of resolving that, either cut Castiel off from heaven or kill him.

I was encouraged by his history at ABC, especially his connection to Lost.

Jared said at a con that one of the first things that Mark Pedowitz did when he took the position was phone J2 and ask if they'd be up for an eighth season. If he's considering it this early I'd be very surprised if he's all gung-ho about reducing the role of one of the most popular characters. But who knows, they've done dumb shit before and I expect they'll do it again!

[oselle.livejournal.com]

However nobody's actually said that his role's being reduced, they're just jumping to conclusions that it is.

That's true. I actually thought it was really strange that Misha was billed as a co-star this year instead of a guest star. Based on that, you would have thought at the start of the season that Castiel would have a much bigger role, which turned out not to be the case. In fact, his role was smaller than it had been during Seasons 4 and 5, when he was billed as a guest star. I think it again goes to show how poorly planned this season was -- they promoted Misha to co-star but then they hardly used him until the end of the season. I know he mentioned at some con that he was frustrated by the fact that after moving his family up to Vancouver, he wound up not working all that much, so even he had obviously been led to believe that his role was being expanded. So whatever the writers are planning at this point, it doesn't mean that's what will actually happen once the season gets going.

I can only see two ways of resolving that, either cut Castiel off from heaven or kill him.

Yet again, I have to lament the fact that they never chose to run with the apocalyptic storyline put forth by Ben Edlund in "The End." It would have taken heaven more or less out of the story (since all the angels had departed), made Castiel human, turned Sam into the BAMF they seem to want him to be, and given Dean (and Castiel by extension) a tangible goal. All while kicking tremendous amounts of ass and outfitting Jensen's thigh in some fine leather holstery (see icon). Win win win win win!

Jared said at a con that one of the first things that Mark Pedowitz did when he took the position was phone J2 and ask if they'd be up for an eighth season.

I just read in Media Life that one of Pedowitz's goals is to make the CW skew to the older end of the "Women 18-49" spectrum. I'm pretty sure that SPN is already attracting that audience (certainly all the fans I know are in that range), so there's no way Pedowitz can see it as anything but an asset that's worth keeping and, possibly, developing. Hopefully, that development will include holding the writers accountable and not letting them do dumb shit that can alienate the show's audience.

Re-tweets, twitter trending, those magazines which print the best celebrity tweets of the week- all of that is extra publicity in core media of their target demographic which is a good financial reason to maintain Misha's role on the show.

I agree. They couldn't even pay for that kind of free publicity.