User blog comment:FTWinchester/On Reapers and Angels/@comment-11331875-20140604041630

I was actually preparing to post something on ImperiexSeed's Talk page to suggest a compromise for the "are reapers angels?" debate--basically, do the equivalent of the "Is Chuck God?" section on Chuck Shurley's page, that would present both sides but (hopefully) otherwise keep the information we have on reapers and their mythos unaltered--but halfway through I just gave up because it seems that the Carver administration seriously intends that reapers are now angels--some staff members apparently got into a fight about it with fans on Twitter around the time "I'm No Angel" aired, "Stairway to Heaven" made it clear that Tessa is an angel now, and Carver has belly-ached about how Kripke and Gamble's mythos didn't make sense and he's fixing everything by sticking to Bible canon (e.g. reapers = "angels of death" with the capital "D").

Thing is... While it was never flat-out stated, it was always very heavily implied that reapers and angels are two separate species. That it was never flat-out stated doesn't give Carver a pass on going against it. I mean, if he really, really must, then fine. Have a blast undoing years of canon, buddy. Kripke did something similar in Season 3 when Ben Edlund wanted demons to be Hell-warped ghosts for a twist in "Malleus Maleficarum". Demons's origins had not been addressed, reapers's origins have not been addressed. The difference is that Kripke acknowledged this abrupt subversion of what fans expected of the origins of demons (fallen angels) by showing Sam and Dean being just as taken aback as the viewers, and then explained it through Ruby to expand and add to the mythos. The twist suited and benefited the Season 3 storylines (if Ruby was once human and she remembers it, maybe she is good; if Dean goes to Hell, he is going to become a demon himself, the thing he hates most), and future storylines. Moreover, it made sense--demons and ghost actually do share many traits, so it makes sense that they'd be connected. But Carver did none of those things. Not only that, but the change did not benefit any of the storylines, nor did it make sense. In fact, it actively damages the story because now you have fans pissed-off and confused because Carver never addressed any of the conflicts with prior canon. It's as though an episode that introduced and explained the reapers = angels thing is missing: how does Dean know they're reapers? Because he just does. Why is Tessa suddenly working for angels instead of Death? Because she just is. If reapers really were angels all along, why were they serving Death instead of God or Michael? Because they just did. For that matter, who created reapers, God or Death? I dunno. Why are reapers suddenly visible to people who aren't dying? Ah-ha, I know this one! Because vessels! Well then, why do reapers suddenly need vessels when they never needed them before? And for that matter, why would Tessa's vessel look exactly like the girl Tessa made up to appear to Ghost!Dean? Because shut up and stop asking questions. Do you see the difference in how Kripke and Carver handled these changes to the show's mythos? Because it's a pretty damn big difference.

While we're on the subject of Tessa, it boggles my mind that they even brought her in on that episode. There was seriously no point to using her. They could have used any random angel with minimal tweaking on dialogue for the exact same ends, and it would have salvaged much of the reaper mythos. (Same goes for misuse of reapers of "I'm No Angel". They could have used an angel to transport them to Hell in "Taxi Driver" if they wanted to spend more time on convincing the angel and then on being in Hell, and either strike a deal with a leprechaun--what with their ability to find "back doors"--or bind a reaper if they really wanted Sam to go through Purgatory.) Sam and Dean knew her from before, and she wanted to ferry the dead out of the Veil. That's it. That is literally all that constituted Tessa in this episode. She's OOC, she's an angel, and then she's dead. They reached all the way back to Season 2 to bring back one of their last remaining recurring female characters for the sole sake of killing her. It pisses me off. They could have just had one of Castiel's pre-established soldiers fulfill Tessa's role, and prevented so much pointless stupidity and teeth-gnashing, but there was just something about Tessa that they felt the need to bring her back to ruin reapers a little more and then kill her.

What is Carver's obsession with changing the reaper mythos? First, rogue reapers, then corporeal reapers that can possess people, and now angel reapers. Who wants to make a bet that he's gonna add a bunch of other changes to reapers in Season 10 that will make FTWinchester tear all his hair out? I could use the money.