Evaluation
of Supernatural
From Angels to Demons, from golems to phoenix, from skin
walkers to unicorns, the many creatures that appear in the Supernatural show
have all got their origins deep in human legends. None of the creatures were made up for the
show. This show is supposed to be scary
like Grimm or American Horror Story, but unlike those shows Supernatural doesn't go overboard. They all appear somewhere in human history, in myths and legends. The subtlety they use on the monsters and with
the way the episodes are written, they are all made to be plausible. This really ups the scary factor of the show.
Throughout
the series Sam and Dean come across all kinds of creepy creatures. The creators of the show do their homework,
they research every monster and everything the monsters do in the show goes along
with all the myths about the creature. Since all of these creatures appear in the
real world somewhere it makes the show scarier.
Unlike shows with aliens in it or something that’s completely made up
these monsters are more believable. When a monster is subtle and believable it
makes so much scarier because it seems like it could happen to you.
In
episode two the Winchesters face a Wendigo, one of the scariest creatures they
face. Wendigos come from tribes in
northern America and Canada. The wendigo
was once a human that had to resort to cannibalism for survival. Azazel, Lillith, Abbadon, all appear in
either Christian or Jewish folklore. Azazel
was a fallen angel or a demon like he is in the show. Ghouls and Djinn appear in the ancient Middle
East. Ghouls feed off of humans and take
the form of the last human they eat.
Kitsune, shojo, okami and buruburu are all creatures from Japanese
myth. The Leviathan in most cultures
were giant sea monsters, however the show used the Christian version which are
also known as Hell mouths.
Many
of the Angels that appear in the show are based on Angels in the Old and New Testaments. Castiel is based on the Angel Cassiel;
Cassiel follows orders and does not interfere with humans unless ordered
to. He is an observer; Castiel was the
same way in the beginning. He always followed
orders even if they were to destroy a whole town, until Dean stopped him. It is later revealed that Cas’s true orders
were to follow Dean’s commands. The Archangel Raphael is a healing angel, in
the show he want s the apocalypse to happen so that Paradise can be brought to Earth
and the humans can come back and be healed of the original sin. Metatron is believed to be Enoch, who wrote
the Book of Enoch, and in the show Metatron is the scribe that wrote God’s
word. The Angels are either real angels
in the old and new Testaments, or are based off of them. This furthers the feel that things in the
show seem very real.
The
brothers also face some Gods. In the
episode Hammer of the Gods, Gods from several cultures. From Hindu is Ganesh, patrons of the arts and
sciences, and Kali goddess of death.
From Norse mythology Baldur, son of Odin, leads the group of pagan
gods. Loki is the trickster, in the show
we don’t ever meet the real Loki but instead there is someone impersonating
him. Odin is the king of the Norse
gods. Still in this same episode is the Roman
god Mercury who is the messenger of the Gods.
The Egyptian goddess Isis is also in this episode she is the goddess of
magic and motherhood. Baron Samedi is
the Loa of the dead in Haitian voodoo.
More Gods appear in other episodes throughout the series. The Greeks Zeus, Artemis and Prometheus show
up fighting each other. Osiris, Zao Shen, Vesta, Veritas, Leshi and more Gods
all run into the Winchesters at some point. They myths surrounding each of the
Gods are accurate in the show. They might
not say it outright but the way that they are portrayed makes it obvious who it
is without having to say it. Most of the
Gods don’t survive their encounter.
The
Winchesters also face off against the four horseman of the Apocalypse. They deal with War, Famine, Pestilence and
Death. The Horsemen bring about the
divine apocalypse in the Christian religion.
War creates illusions that turn people to violence. Famine makes people
hunger for everything, and when they die from extreme overindulgence he eats
their souls. Pestilence creates
different diseases, sometimes combining different viruses. The Winchesters are able to defeat these
three horsemen. Death however made a
deal with Dean because there is no way to defeat him. Death does not really
want the Apocalypse to happen, he is being controlled by Lucifer, and so he
helps out a little. Death will help out
the Winchesters again. Most people are aware of the story of the four Horsemen
of the Apocalypse, which helps solidify the idea that the things in the show
could happen.
All
of the creatures in this show appear somewhere in myths and legends. The creators of the Supernatural show spent
hours researching these creatures so that everything would be accurate. Much of the mythology in the show including
how to defeat them is all correct, at least according to the legends. The show
is subtle about most of the things that happen.
It’s not like in Doctor Who where the whole world sees spaceships, most
of the cases that happen are in small towns or small cities. Twice the brothers have fought something in
Rhode Island which sort of brings the supernatural home. The normal humans in
the show usually come up with a more natural reasoning behind the things in the
show. The fact that there could be both natural
and Supernatural things behind many of the cases makes the viewer think. Was it really just a completely random animal
attack, or could there be werewolf in town?
