A thought about responsibility

[ramblin_rosie]

About SPN Season 9 so far, but with some other stuff thrown in.

From SGA "Inquisition," when the tribunal tries to argue that the Replicators' decision to attack the Wraith by wiping out human worlds is the fault of Atlantis because Atlantis activated the Replicators' attack code:

WOOLSEY: We cannot be held responsible for the actions of the Replicators!
DIMAS: Colonel Sheppard made the same argument in respect to the Wraith – and in that case, I might be inclined to agree with him. But by your own admission, these Replicators are machines, so if I were to set a detonator, can I then later deny responsibility for the actions of the bomb?

I've always thought Woolsey's response should have been something like this: "Say the bomb was planted where it would kill only the guilty but then moved itself against my will to another place where it would and did kill only the innocent. If I could not stop it, is the blame for those deaths solely mine?"
(That's not the retort the screenwriter came up with, alas.)
I think a similar question applies to Dean's situation as of 9.09. He's going to blame himself alone, and he is certainly responsible for convincing Sam to say yes, hiding the truth from him and from Kevin, and letting GadZeke stay as long as he did. But arguing that Dean is the only responsible party overlooks:
- Sam's agency in agreeing to Dean's plans to save his life, first by stopping the trials, second by whatever means Dean had found to get him out of his coma. True, the second choice wasn't made with full disclosure, which is Dean's fault, but Sam could have pressed for more details before giving his consent.
- Gadreel's decision first to lie to Dean about his name, then to hold Sam hostage, and finally to follow Metatron's order.
- Metatron's choices: making the angel tablet indecipherable to begin with and possibly omitting key information from the other tablets as well, deciding he'd make a better god than God (without, I note, the mind-corrupting influence of a PurgatoryConsumptionPower trip), tricking Cas into helping him complete his spell to expel the other angels from Heaven, and apparently tricking Gadreel into killing Kevin.
[Aside: Why the heck Gadreel would willingly save Sam, Cas, and Charlie and then turn around and kill Kevin is beyond me, especially when he immediately picked up on the fact that Metatron's God-modding. Unless it's incredibly bad writing, which is always a possibility, I have to think that Gadreel's playing some kind of multidimensional chess here--not that that lets him off for the murder!]

Yes, Dean set the detonator, but is it his fault the bomb moved?

Comments

[auntmo9.livejournal.com]

Unless it's incredibly bad writing, which is always a possibility

Well, unfortunately, I can't forget who actually wrote the mid-season finale, so yes, it definitely is a possibility. I mean, I wold like Gadreel to be up to something more than just be another one of Metraton's angelic stooges, but I'm not convinced this writing team had that in mind.

But yes, there is plenty of blame to go around. Too bad Dean won't let anyone else shoulder it.

[ramblin_rosie]

Did you know Brad and Eugenie created Scarecrow and Mrs. King? Still blows my mind, knowing what turkeys they've written for SPN.
So yeah, bad writing is absolutely a possibility. I think I've read spoilers hinting that I'm at least partially right, but I guess we'll find out when Show comes back in a couple of weeks.

[nuranar.livejournal.com]

I've never watched the show, but you've put into words the frustration I've felt all too often in similar situations. When it comes to responsibility, it seems that writers, both TV and film, pretty much never bother to sort out the different factors. A character either takes it all or shirks it all, according to the needs of the plot. And you've put into words why it drives me up the wall, even when the situation doesn't end badly. Grr!

[ramblin_rosie]

YUPyupyup. The same, it seems, is true of a lot of fans as well, and they also accuse people who disagree with them of always blaming X and never blaming Y when the contrary position might actually be an attempt to show why both X and Y are at fault or whatever. And in this scenario, I didn't even get into all the ways Dean should never have been in a position to have to set the detonator in the first place... ARGH. (And people wonder why I write so many AUs....)

[nuranar.livejournal.com]

I never even thought of fans getting into the illogic of it! (Is that a word? Firefox doesn't think so, but Firefox has a somewhat limited vocabulary.) You know, on the face of it, it's a weird position for Christians to be in. We believe in absolute right and wrong, and yet we're the ones who resent the absolute responsibility of one person.

[ramblin_rosie]

Yes, illogic is a word. :D
On the surface, maybe, but I don't know that it's as contradictory as all that. (And I probably shouldn't be trying to make sense of the question this late at night, but here goes.) We believe that, in accordance with both justice and mercy, each person answers to God for his or her own actions and no others--God has no grandchildren, and conversely, He doesn't punish the child for the sins of the father. He'll punish the father for corrupting the child, should that be the case, but the child still has the choice to repent of his own accord. "Nobody's right if everybody's wrong," and if "all have sinned and come short of the glory of God," then "take it all or shirk it all" just doesn't fly.
I hope that makes sense....