Writing about movies and TV shows doesn't come naturally to me.
Saying this to dada last night almost prompted a massive "kaner goray!"
Sakib says I should do a character profile on Albus Dumbledore because Dada and I often talk in "Dumbledorian Language" on our chats. But Harry Potter and Albus Dumbledore is a topic too close to heart. I have literally grown up with the characters. I don't feel I'm yet ready to do proper justice to a character like Albus Dumbledore. Yet.
So I'll kick things off with another show close to the heart, Supernatural.
This show aired in 2005, but I began watching it from 2008 if I remember correctly. I can not remember how many times I have binge watched the seasons. I have all 15 season downloaded, something which I don't do often. I'm more of a watch and delete it kinda person. But supernatural is one of the few that escaped the recycle bin for many many years.
If you were wondering, Harry Potter movies escaped the recycle bin too, although I much prefer the books!
Getting back to Supernatural..
The sheer number of fantastic characters that the show introduced over the course of 15 years is insane. Starting from the dorky nerds to the badass of the badasses, lousy angels to elegant demons, Supernatural had it all! And they kept introducing newer characters almost on a regular basis.
It's hard to choose a favorite. And choosing the Main Characters as your favourite has become so cliched these days, the choice is made even more complicated. Who do I choose among the numerous side roles? Bobby? Charlie? Crowley? Rowena? The forgotten duo of Joe and Ellen? The first badass demon, Azazel? The asshole Arthur ketch?
Nah this is too complicated.
I'll get straight to the point. Jensen Ackles and Jared Padalecki has played the central characters Dean Winchester and Sam Winchester so flawlessly, that they made a cliched choice of the main characters being favorite look cool!
But what's most intriguing is, they played a few different versions of the same characters. But the comparison between "Demon Dean" and "Soul-less Sam" has always fascinated me.
Demon Dean vs Soul-less Sam
Of the 15 seasons, there aren't many seasons we can pinpoint to as a bad season. Especially towards the beginning when every season ended up leaving viewers on the edge of their seats. But to me there was sharp fall in the quality in season 6 and a good improvement back from the slump of season 7 and 8 from season followed by a sharp rise back starting from season 10. That's entirely my opinion and I'll explain a bit why.
I'll try to keep it as spoiler free as possible.
Soul-less Sam and Demon Dean was meant to bring out the Badass-ness of the two characters and while most fans loved both, I think Demon Dean was a massive hit, but Soul-less Sam was a failure, big time.
Dean always had that badass touch to his character. Even though the "Don't give a fuck" attitude on top was just a facade while he deeply cared inside (which we have seen on multiple occasions), it was a facade he wore all the time. So what Demon Dean did to that character was simply make the facade the only reality. All the complications human Dean had been dealing with inside of him were removed in an instant and Dean was free of all the guilt that was probably holding his full potential back. I mean, Demon Dean was Pure Savage and by far my most Favorite character of the show.
Hell, even Crowley was scared of Demon Dean! That should say more than enough for that character.
Soulless Sam on the other hand was a forced effort, a massively forced effort and the transition of Sam winchester from season 5 to season 6 was nowhere as smooth as Dean to Demon Dean at the beginning of season 10.
The character of Sam was never designed to be the badass, not give a damn kinda charater. Maybe once in a while, but not for a prolonged period. Sam's character was more suited as balancing out Dean's rashness.
A tiny spoiler alert for the next passage...
So when at one point we see Sam let Dean get turned into a vampire just to figure out where the nest is, it made no sense whatsoever and I kept getting this feeling of not making any sense throughout the entirety of season 6. Having gotten used to everything falling into place like pieces of a well designed puzzle up until season 5, it was hard for me to enjoy season 6. It is quite obvious why I hated season 6 so much.
Once that big of a mess was made with a central character, it obviously took a while to recover that mess and from season 9 things started to pick up with the introduction of big characters like Cain! My only issue with the Demon dean character was that it didn't last long enough! But it was fantastic while it lasted!
That's how all great things are, aren't they!
