Free Will

"What the prophet has written cannot be unwritten.”* In our class discussion we talked about the analogy of God and writers. Writers control their “worlds” same as gods do – as it is widely believed – whether these worlds are complete fiction or attempts at representing truths. Every action Sam and Dean made to oppose their faith brought them closer to it. The power of their free will is tested against the power of the prophecy (by God) and the screenwriter. In opposition to the perceived freedom of choice in the real world, characters in literature (and the like) are bound to the will of their creators. That said, these characters do appear to have free will within their worlds, though it is subject to their creators’ control.

As the audience, we have the freedom of choosing how to react to the plot adjustments and twists, and consequential discrepancies, which are under the control of the creators. How did Sam and Dean find their way to the prophet just as Lilith went after them? Did God Enable Castiel to indirectly aid the brothers in spite of the prophecy? Or did the screenwriter enable it by “hiding” this information from the character of God? We, the audience, are active participants, and as such we can demonstrate our free will. Will we choose to be fully immersed in the creation and let the manipulation made by the creators take over us? Will we notice the discrepancies and oddities but choose to overlook them? Or, will the plot line be too difficult to accept and our choice will be to disregard the creation completely?

Writers have control both over the characters in their stories and the audience. The audience has the ability to choose whether to allow that control to lead them, whereas the characters do not. In real life, as far as I know, we write our own prophecies.

*Supernatural, season 4, episode 18: The Monster at the End of This Book

**Inspired by class discussion