Ho trovato questo articolo, sul sito di
MediaBlvd Magazine, che mette in relazione
Supernatural con le faccende politiche degli USA. Su certi punti credo che si sia calcata un po' troppo la mano.
Does Supernatural take a stand on the 2008 United States Presidential Election and other political concepts?
Note: The article contains Season 4 spoilers!
***
In a recent interview Eric Kripke has said that “Dean is basically a POW coming home from the worst hellhole — literally — ever. How do you reconnect with your life when you've been through something that horrific?”. That made me think of Senator John McCain, the US Republican Party nominee for the position of the “Most powerful person in the world” – The President of United States of America.
Senator McCain was shot down over Hanoi in 1967 while flying on a mission, and was held as a POW by the North Vietnamese for five and a half years. He was released on March 14, 1973.
And it doesn’t end there.
In an interview preceding Season 3, Kripke and Singer talked about the third season being an analogy to the war against terror. Sera Gamble revealed, in another interview, that prior to introducing ‘Lilith’, the writers referred to the new demon boss as “Zarqawi”.
Abu Musab al-Zarqawi was a notorious Sunni Muslim terrorist, operating in Afghanistan and Iraq and was linked to Al-Qaeda. He was killed by the US military on June 7, 2006.
Gamble also said that the writers concept of the charcters “evolved somewhat away from that place, but we started from the model of a terrorist up-and-comer.”
But just how much of a part has this model played in Season 3, and how much has it evolved from that place?
In “Sin City”, while Casey mapped out the demons’ world to Dean, every word she said just screamed “Religious war”. Obviously, this is a personal observation. Feel free to disagree. But bare in mind: On a monotheistic faiths level, Supernatural is a Judeo-Christianity oriented series.
“Malleus Maleficarum” is where we hear for the first time about a new powerful demon coming from the West. In the fight between Good vs. Evil, in the dichotomy between them, if one side is the West, then the other has to be the East. Only, in the war against terror, it is generally the West which is being accepted as “Good”, while the East (Middle East?) is “Evil”. Is this the writers way of telling us that it’s time for the world to change its perspective? That what we see isn’t necessarily there? That things aren’t as they seem?
Or is this their way of showing us, once again, that one may pick sides, only to find out that the boundaries are not that clear.
And while the concept of the war against terror was raised in the third season, can we see hints to it in the previous seasons?
Was “Phantom Traveler” a flashback of planes being hijacked, traced back to 1970s? Are episodes like “Skin”, “Scarecrow”, “Shadow”, “Croatoan” and “Born Under A Bad Sign” a frightening reminder that we can’t really know who the enemy is, because it can literally be anyone? And does an episode like “Bloodlust” serve as a warning that we can not, must not, generalize?
Do the creative minds behind Supernatural warn us against sacrificing scapegoat(s) in the name of an alleged peace and false quiet, because once you give up one, you will pay forever? Because you do not negotiate with terrorists? Because you always, always, protect your own?
Fight the good fight?
If the scene between Dean and Casey in “Sin City” is, indeed, a hint to a religious war, weren't the ideas of religion(s) and having a faith already brought up in “Faith”, and later on, in “Houses of the Holy”?
Truth be told, the whole “Psychic kids” storyline can be seen as an ingredient into the “war against terror” concept, seeing how young children are raised on the knees of fundamentalistic ideology, and taught, from an early age, to become “Holy Warriors”. Is “Something Wicked” a metaphor for capturing innocent souls? Does Andy and Webber’s mind-control in “Simon Said” more than hint to the abuse of a religious power? Of how one can simply make others do things, as destructive and horrible as they may be?
Can the soon-to-be-dropped concept be viewed as a “sleeper cell”?
Was the hated-by-so-many Roadhouse, along with the expansion of the hunters’ world, a way of saying that “you are not alone in your fight”?
The last three episodes leading to the third season can be seen, in retrospect, as part of the war against terror as well: The wish for everything to be different (“What Is And What Should Never Be”), a wish which stays just that... a wish, and the horrible, unintentional, outcomes of the war against Evil (“All Hell Breaks Loose, Parts 1-2”).
Because war is not an exact science.
And as if to set the ground for Season 3, the “war against terror”, the Season 2 DVD was released on September 11, 2007.
In light of all this, Season 3 was, indeed, a natural step: a separated demon attacks in the name of a greater plan; the new boss; renegades; those who will make profit (even) in a time of war; non-believers who will turn into believers (but whose side will they join?).
And now the “war” is even closer to home, as Dean is a POW. No more “What ifs”. This is (Supernatural) reality. Now, how do we deal with it?
And how do we deal with the real reality?
The war against terror, declared by US President George W. Bush after the attacks of September 11, 2001, is still going on. In January 2009, President Bush will leave the White House after 8 years in office. Will the next US President, arguably the most powerful person in the world, be a Republican or a Democrat?
Will the war against terror continue on the same course? Will non-believers turn into belivers, and will believers abandon their faith?
Will a former POW lead the war against Evil?
And does Supernatural take a stand?
FONTE
