do we know how long God has been on his vision quest? What have the angels said about this?

What struck me and mellenbal as interesting is that when Raphael was ranting about God's absence and probable death, he only held up the 20th Century as an example to both Dean and Castiel. Why that, and not, say, "the past two thousand years?" Why give short shrift to Caligula, Genghis Khan, Vlad the Impaler, the Medici and so on. The Mayans were not exactly known for following Geneva Convention-type rules in their warfare, either.

It could be that Raphael was just using verbal shorthand, but it could also mean that God has only been on walkabout for around a century, or maybe a little longer. If that's the case, I'm wondering how that timing works out with Samuel Colt's invention of The World's Largest Devil's Trap (tm), and creating a lock (and key) that could close or open a gate to Hell. Not to mention a gun that can actually kill a demon, and maybe even an angel.

I'm not sure what conclusions I'd draw from that, but the fact that the Colt is being dragged back into the S5 storyline makes me think that there's a lot more to Colt's story and it's going to come into play somehow.

I suddenly feel the need to track down a few Sam Colt-SamNDean AUs to read.

Folks do tend to gloss over that there's been a lot of inhumanity throughout human history. Really, the 20th century is only remarkable insofar as there were a lot more people than before to suffer, and some of said inhumanity was inflicted en masse by new technology rather than on an individual level.

Weird thought just occurred to me. A big difference from previous times is the infant and childhood mortality rate. What if the big to-do isn't about bombs and gulags, but about the fact that there's no longer as steady a stream of innocent souls wafting upward from being cut off early in life? So that more and more people survive into adulthood and the percentage of souls being corrupted by the world is growing too large?

Oh, man. That's creepy and sad, Matt. But I can see what you mean.

It sort of reminds me of that movie, The Seventh Sign, with Demi Moore. Where the Guff was empty?

Oh, yeah. That's something to give you shivers.

My thought had been (after Samifer's speech) that where the 20th Century exceeded all others was in the damage, not just to ourselves, but to the planet. The technology-enhanced cruelties and horror. Sure, we've been ghastly to each other all over the place, and man's inhumanity to man is nothing new.

But the 20th Century basically production lined it.

I think the damage to the planet was key--Samifer called it the last thing God did or something to that effect, and made it clear the hairless apes were screwing it up.

Yeah, I got that impression, too -- he kept calling it this "beautiful thing".

Samifer

Ha! Excellent. JP was just fantastic in that scene, I thought.

Also, since my name is Jennifer, I can read it as a different portmanteau, and one that I find particularly appealing. I wonder why? No, I don't.

On rewatch, I think he overplayed the first couple lines, but once he got into the scene it was gorgeous.

I wonder why? No, I don't.

I can't imagine why!