Awesome!

Still ignoring non-aired stuff.

Kinda a duh thought here. The Supernatural universe has become one where death is not the worst thing that can happen to you. Another character death? Call up an angel or make a crossroads deal, no worries. But losing your moral compass. That is different. I know we have gotten twisted around on how souls and contracts with the devil work in this verse. Bobby didn't lose his morals when his sould was under contract and yet his soul had to be "given back" to him.

Ok, just babbling now. Nebbermind me.

I feel like Bobby never lost possession of his soul, just ownership.

Call up an angel or make a crossroads deal, no worries

Well, I think a crossroads deal has been shown to be fraught with worries--that fueled two seasons of angst and started the apocalypse.

Bobby's soul wasn't given back to him--the lien on it was removed. I was viewing soul and contracts wrongly up until the Bobby ep, and Sam's reveal has clarified it for me--he's the only human we've seen without a soul. Everyone else had just given theirs up at sometime in the future, apparently coinciding with their death and descent into Hell.

The "no worries" was supposed to be in sarcasm font. I can never seem to get that to show up correctly.

Laga and ita, that makes sense about soul ownership versus removal.

Taking it a step further. Why does the person HAVE to die at the end of their contract? Could he or she live without their souls? I mean, obviously Sam is, so it can happen. The hell hounds make sure the person is shredded when the account comes due so it is a moot question. But why? Wouldn't the demons enjoy yanking a person's soul and then watching the havoc that the person creates without their moral compass?

I am waiting somewhat impatiently for Show to explain how Dean's soul was his consciousness being tormented in Hell and there was nothing left over, yet Sam has some consciousness apart from his soul that can animate his meatsuit.

That's what's inconsistent so far for me.

Perhaps something about either his various infusions of demon blood/power over the years or the full-on possession by Lucifer rendered Sam's body and memories capable of going on without the creamy soul filling?

Though I'm tending to think this was something done deliberately, that body and mind were intentionally reconstituted without the soul by someone (not necessarily Crowley) to a specific end purpose.

In conversations with my boyfriend, I generally feel like I'm at an advantage on the whole "what role does the soul play?" discussion because it's a discussion that came up in the Buffy-verse, so we (on this corner of the Internet) developed ways of thinking about it (even if show runners don't). I will admit to thinking of it as the empathy gland.

I get the sense that if you asked the SPN people, you'd get A)Lots of different answers and B)A lot of incoherent "It's a soul. It does...soul...things. Look, it's important, okay?" The best answer I think we've gotten canonically is that it's your gut, in the sense of "gut feeling". My handwavium is that, in the past, they've said "soul" when they mean "spirit" (in the sense of disembodied, complete self)

Why they don't take an official stand and deal with "soul", "spirit", and other similar issues on any show that has ghosts and monsters from the get-go, I do not know. It just seems like poor planning.

Why they don't take an official stand and deal with "soul", "spirit", and other similar issues on any show that has ghosts and monsters from the get-go, I do not know. It just seems like poor planning.

I still can't reconcile how some ghosts (spirits, whatever) can suddenly become tangible (i.e. John in AHBL II) and touch things, etc. There's not a lot of consistency to the 'verse when it comes to lore and rules for creatures, so I've decided to let it flow over me, pretty much, and go with the emotional pieces.

And the pretty boys.

Oh, shiny. Pretty boys.