I found Sam relatable because it makes sense to me to not assume a whole huge group of beings are inherently evil and should be always killed on sight. *Especially* when you are part of that group/when the person you love most in the world is part of that group. And it makes sense to build trust, to learn about yourself as part of that group, especially since it's coming out whether you like it or not, in dreams and in your body, no matter how much you try to control it and push it down or away.
For me, S4 Sam kept threatening to turn into the world's most uncomfortable (unintentional) metaphor for homosexuality, for exactly the reasons you cite. He has this intrinsic evil in him from infancy that he tries to resist but can't ultimately suppress, and he fears that his family will reject him if they see his true self. And he absolutely hates the word 'freak,' which dances kind of close to the word 'fag.' I was somewhat disappointed by the demon blood thing because it seemed like a cop out that denied Sam responsibility for his actions, but I was also kind of relieved the whole thing turned into a metaphor for addiction. Especially when it proved to be significantly less ridiculous than Willow's magic addiction.
Re: America,fuck yeah! monster killing
There are so many versions of monster killing that it's hard to talk about without narrowing it down, but I was picturing your basic monster-killing movie, like Aliens, or Predator, or anything where someone awesomely mows down a fuckton of zombies. Maybe Jaws, too, or any movie the ends with someone blowing up a shark (improbably, there's more than one).
I like a good monster-based action movie, although not as much as I like a good monster-based horror movie, which is an entirely different thing, and the subject of a different discussion. I think the attraction of monster-killing stories is id-driven: when cavemen learned to talk, the first story they told around the fire was probably about the sabertooth tiger they totally killed with a spear. When Ripley goes mano a mano with the alien queen, she's fighting all your most primal fears and winning. Pretty much everybody in every culture wants some version of that: it's like seeing pretty people have sex or eating fatty foods. It's a quintessential human desire.
I'm talking about movies because I'm having a hard time thinking of a TV example. The only one that comes to mind is The Walking Dead, and that mixes awesome zombie killing with much more serious violence between the surviving human communities.
Re: Babylon 5
Yay! Someone else knows that show exists! Where are you in the series?
no subject
For me, S4 Sam kept threatening to turn into the world's most uncomfortable (unintentional) metaphor for homosexuality, for exactly the reasons you cite. He has this intrinsic evil in him from infancy that he tries to resist but can't ultimately suppress, and he fears that his family will reject him if they see his true self. And he absolutely hates the word 'freak,' which dances kind of close to the word 'fag.' I was somewhat disappointed by the demon blood thing because it seemed like a cop out that denied Sam responsibility for his actions, but I was also kind of relieved the whole thing turned into a metaphor for addiction. Especially when it proved to be significantly less ridiculous than Willow's magic addiction.
Re: America,fuck yeah! monster killing
There are so many versions of monster killing that it's hard to talk about without narrowing it down, but I was picturing your basic monster-killing movie, like Aliens, or Predator, or anything where someone awesomely mows down a fuckton of zombies. Maybe Jaws, too, or any movie the ends with someone blowing up a shark (improbably, there's more than one).
I like a good monster-based action movie, although not as much as I like a good monster-based horror movie, which is an entirely different thing, and the subject of a different discussion. I think the attraction of monster-killing stories is id-driven: when cavemen learned to talk, the first story they told around the fire was probably about the sabertooth tiger they totally killed with a spear. When Ripley goes mano a mano with the alien queen, she's fighting all your most primal fears and winning. Pretty much everybody in every culture wants some version of that: it's like seeing pretty people have sex or eating fatty foods. It's a quintessential human desire.
I'm talking about movies because I'm having a hard time thinking of a TV example. The only one that comes to mind is The Walking Dead, and that mixes awesome zombie killing with much more serious violence between the surviving human communities.
Re: Babylon 5
Yay! Someone else knows that show exists! Where are you in the series?