User blog:FTWinchester/Season 9 Arc

I was just wondering what are your thoughts on the current direction of the season. Do you find it intriguing? Exciting? Slow? Boring?

What do you think will be the main focus of the arc? Are you liking the arc so far?

Personally, I think it's slow and repetitive. How many times could the angels attempt to kill Castiel? Why are they trying to kill Castiel when they should be finding him to ask him what is going on? Why is nobody asking Metatron's motivation? Why is no one concerned about striking him down? Why are all the angels now being painted as complete dicks? Didn't Castiel have followers that tried to enforce free will and help humanity? Sure, there is Ezekiel, but really? Of the thousands of angels, all but one so far, are absolute dicks? How many more breakdowns (they had several since season 5, by the way) in heaven should they experience before they come to their senses?

Additionally, for an era supposed to be focusing on the tablet, development in that department is really scarce. I have realized that we are in the sixth episode and basically, nothing much has changed. Angels, by and large, are still a silent, semi-unseen threat that are still working to consolidate their organization, and the tablets are all dead-ends. The only info we have so far, is that Metatron's spell is permanent. What's up with that? Season 8 was already slow on developing tablet lore (and was built up as if the existence of the Angel tablet was a shocking and ground-breaking revelation--hint: it's not), and I would be utterly dismayed if Season 9 was just as slow (if not slower).

Nobody is talking about the demon tablet anymore like it never happened, nor are they trying to discuss the repercussions of their selfish choice to stop the trials, and they certainly have not even mentioned trying to find another way to achieve a similar effect (to close the gates of hell--that is, if they still even care). The angel tablet is being mentioned for 2 seconds and only got a good time last episode (still, the exposition was very limited). Sam is still basically dying, and Zeke seems to be taking his time in recovering and healing his vessel. The only real development right now is Abaddon is now, effectively, the ruler of hell. (Yes, I know, episode 9 would bring back the arc-episodes, but given the little development we have on the previous ones, it really gets frustrating).

The show seems to begiving focus on little things which is great, and I really like the individual episodes and their execution but when you take a general look back at Carver's era so far, it's all small game. Individual characters rarely go big. For a while, Sam and Dean's attempt at the trials and Abaddon's ambition reminded us of the big-game spoils the characters were fighting for in the Kripke and Gamble eras, but the hype pretty much started to die down because the show has included so many small things that slow down the plot. While the Gamble era was confusing in individual episodes, it did have good endgames and characters aimed at epic goals, Carver's season is great in individual episodes (it gets you watching through even the filler episodes), I think it's quite lacking in the major arc department. With that said, I am still hopeful for an even better second-half, once they start introducing Cain. Given Season 8's interesting second-half, at least, we could assume that the same would be true for season 9.