Julie Siege Interview

[Supernaturalwithus]

ТУТ

What do Anakin Skywalker and Obi-Wan Kenobi have in common with Sam and Dean Winchester? More than you might think. Supernatural creator Eric Kripke once referred to the show as “Star Wars in truck stop America,” but the connection actually goes deeper — down to its very roots. Wanting to explore it more, I found the perfect person to discuss it with — she’s Star Wars: The Clone Wars scribe Julie Siege who also happens to be a story editor on Supernatural.

“When I talked to Eric Kripke about doing this interview, he said, ‘Oh absolutely, our boys are compared to Han Solo and Luke Skywalker, often.’ Then, as I started thinking about it more, I was struck by all the similarities.”

Maybe not so surprising, when Julie realized that both of her “bosses” had worshiped at the same alter.

“When George [Lucas] was developing the very first [Star Wars] movie, way back in the seventies, he was, to a greater or lesser degree, a student of Joseph Campbell,” says Julie. “My boss now, Eric Kripke, has Joseph Campbell’s “The Hero With a Thousand Faces” on his bookshelf.”

Even Jared Padalecki, who plays Sam Winchester on Supernatural, has mentioned his passion for Campbell’s “Hero’s Journey.” Given this history, it’s safe to assume that it’s no coincidence that Mary Winchester’s maiden name is Campbell.

Still, the roots of Campbell’s works and thus the stories behind both Star Wars and Supernatural go back even further.

“It all goes back to the Greeks,” says Julie. “It’s the very cornerstone of storytelling, the universal nature of that battle of good versus evil.”


THE SAME ONLY DIFFERENT
A simple concept, and yet it’s been the basis for thousands of stories, books, movies and TV shows. So how does a writer stick to the plan but still keep it fresh?

“There it is, you know. Its storytelling that’s tried and true for thousands of years but because these are such universal themes, there’s so much room to explore. So much territory that can be mined. I’m always saying, ‘let’s find the grey area. Let’s find something that might be a little bit good in a bad character, and what might be questionable in our heroic characters, and Eric’s head explodes and he shakes his head and goes ‘I don’t know, I don’t know’ and I’ll go, ‘Okay, just throwing it out there,’ but I think that that’s where you get some interesting storytelling. Audiences want things that are both familiar but at the same time surprising.”

Which can be very tricky on a show like Star Wars: The Clone Wars where the future of the character is already mapped out.

“The cool thing about writing Anakin now, in this series, is that he is a hero. He’s an absolute hero, but we know where he’s going, and I think that that’s just very rich territory to mine. You can start to layer in little indications of Anakin’s discontent at having to be the follower and his ambitions and his desire to be as strong and as powerful as he can be at this particular moment in his life. It could break one way or the other, and we know it’s going to break the other way, but just seeing that all those qualities can be heroic, and taken too far down the wrong road… anti-heroic.”

Boy, that sounds familiar, doesn’t it? Sam Winchester, walking the line between using his powers to save people and crossing over to the dark side?

Says Julie, “I know. Sam’s battling with that in a very epic way this season. One of the things, and we talk about all the time, is that he needs to believe that the things that he’s doing are heroic. It might be a bad thing, but he’s doing it for the right reason, and it’s a very fine line to navigate, but I think as long as we’re adhering to that, we’re honoring the character and honoring the story.”

HELP ME, DEAN WINCHESTER. YOU’RE MY ONLY HOPE
So if Sam is Anakin, does that make Dean Obi-Wan?

“Yeah I was kind of thinking about that, but you know, especially with the Clone Wars, that particular cross-section of the Star Wars story at that particular moment, Obi-Wan’s relationship with Anakin is that he’s mentoring him, he’s teaching him, Anakin is learning. That’s a lot like Dean’s relationship to Sam at the beginning of the show. The difference is, of course, that Sam is reluctant, but Dean was definitely the more experienced one. He was the one who had followed in Dad’s footsteps and he was the one who was kind of bringing Sam up and bringing him along like Obi-Wan was bringing Anakin up and bringing him along. We’re reaching the moment now on the show, and eventually on Clone Wars we know they’ll reach that point too, where the student is about to surpass his teacher, and what that does to the dynamic of their relationship. . . I think it’s just fascinating.”

This shift in the teacher / student dynamic became abundantly clear in this week’s episode of Supernatural, “Sex and Violence.” Compelled to speak their minds by a love-starved siren, Sam says that he’s become the better hunter and Dean is merely holding him back. Dean, like many mentors and parents, worries that Sam has gone too far, too fast and he longs to see their relationship go back to what it was when they were younger. Sadly, that can never happen. The rift between them is growing and now it’s just a question of how far and how fast.

“Our fans can be a little dogmatic and, I have to tell you, incredibly astute. I’ve been very impressed with a lot of their observations and comments on one of the first episodes that I wrote. There was a moment when there was a handshake and it was pulled apart and they turned it one way and turned another way, and they actually got exactly what the intention was for this handshake between Castiel and Sam. I’m very impressed with the fans, but they tend to be, ‘demons have to be bad, and we can’t let Ruby have any redeeming qualities, and Sam and Dean have to be good, and the angels have to be good, and I don’t want to watch it if there’s a grey area.’ But if all of those characters are so absolute then you really don’t have any conflicts, and you really don’t have any tension. I think, eventually, all of those characters will land exactly where they’re supposed to land, but in developing arcs and stories you need, at some point, to be on the edge o! f your seat wondering which way a character is going to break.”

That’s a scary thought for some fans and a point to look forward to for others. It seems inescapable that Sam, like Anakin, will eventually become Darth Vader and Dean (Obi-Wan) will have to battle him for the good of the universe. History tells us that a battle like that is not going to end well.

Now that I’ve thought it through, I agree with Dean. I liked it better when they were Luke Skywalker and Han Solo, exchanging witty barbs, fighting the good fight, while flying by the seat of their pants.

Either way, I’ll be watching every second of it, gloriously anticipating and yet hoping to be surprised by how it all ends.
(c) SpoilerTV

Проводятся паралели между СПН и Звездными войнами. И там Дин это Obi-Wan Kenobi, а Сэм - Anakin Skywalker, ставший в последствии Дартом Вейдером. Ясно, чем все закончится. Помните, что Оби-Ван в конце погиб? Впрочем, Вейдер тоже.