Brat Farrar (bratfarrar) wrote,
Brat Farrar

Reviews: Bryony and Roses; SPN 14.02

Bryony and Roses by ursulav - I've read a bunch of different 'Beauty & the Beast' retellings, and this one really plays up the mystery angle--some versions focus more on the character of Beauty finding herself, or falling in love with the beast, or the idea of the rose living or dying somehow being tied into the beast's well-being. This one is really about "what the heck is going on?", which gives it an intriguing edge missing from some other retellings; after all, we know (or perhaps 'know', if the author feels like being cruelly deconstructionist) that she'll eventually marry him and break the spell, yadda yadda. Here, Bryony, although she grows to be good friends with the Beast and even to love him, is much more concerned with figuring out the weird dreams and ghostly footsteps that keep haunting her at night, completely unrelated to her time spent with the Beast during the day. It's an excellent example of how you can keep the characters and plot of a story basicallythe same but spin the story in a very different direction just by changing your focus.

SPN 14.02, "Gods and Monsters" - Hm. It's kind of weird how there aren't really any pieces of this that really stood out to me. The scene where Michael's pretending to be seduced by red dress werewolf lady was effect, and his various casual uses of power to smack people around remind me a bit of early-season Lucifer. I wasn't expecting him to simply abandon Dean, especially not with that preceding augmented-werewolf attack. He said he was baiting the trap, but since I know from having watched 14.04 that everyone's more or less okay in that episode and Dean's definitely acting 110% like himself, I have no idea what exactly that trap actually was or its intent. (Yes, I know everyone who's watching s14 like a normal person already knows what's up; it's cool, I'll find out eventually.)

Jack's visit with his grandparents was very effective--and look at how far he's coming in figuring out how to interact socially with people who don't know what he actually is! s13 Jack probably would've told them everything, and left them thinking he was crazy--or believing him and being crushed under the weight of something they have no way of bearing.
Tags: reviews & recommendations, supernatural

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