Honest to goodness … there are sooo many things about the show Supernatural that I love, but I have to tell you, the Title Card ranks right up there in Keeper’s Top Five. From the very beginning it has been The Boys, BDW, The Metallicar, The Music, and the Title Card. Seriously … it is amazing to me how something so seemingly insignificant can just make me down right giggly.
I know I’ve discussed the Title Card before, yet here I go again. I think it’s going to have to be an annual event now because each year fascinates and tantalizes me a little bit more. This particular year is no exception. I mean, seriously … shattering glass? Awesome!!
That lightning strike Title Card for the First Season … it seemed a fitting beginning. A bolt of lightning, ominous and foreboding as it flashed across our screen, leaving behind the title of Supernatural. As it flashed and faded, it let us know that a storm was brewing … a storm that seemed to begin November 2, 1983 … catching up the seemingly normal, happy Winchester family and casting them smack dab in the middle of it. Nothing remains the same after a strike of lightning hits and this certainly was no exception.
Second Season was actually when the Title Card truly drew my attention as a forebear of events to come throughout the season. Why else the change from a lightning strike to a blast of fire, branding Supernatural across our screens, complete with the pentagram. Beginning with In My Time of Dying and blazing through to the end of All Hell Breaks Loose Pt. 2, there was a fire burning in Dean for one thing … protect Sam, not only as his father told him but also because it was his job, one he knew even before his dad told him. Thinking about the pentagram in the Title Card … it seems appropriate, doesn’t it? Remember? In the Pilot? Sam and Dean sitting with the girlfriend of the last guy taken by the Woman in White? She was wearing a pentagram that Troy had given her. She wore it because it freaked her parents out with all that “devil stuff”, but Sam earnestly leaned forward explaining that the pentagram was actually a symbol of protection. Isn’t it interesting how the year had Dean spending it protecting Sam, only to have it end with Sam vowing to protect … to save Dean?
Then comes that Third Season Title Card, black demon smoke blasting forth from a Key of Solomon’s Devil’s Trap before giving us Supernatural. Everywhere we turned that season there seemed to be demons. The Devil’s Gate had been opened and the repercussions seemed to be endless. Demons intent on taking over, demon’s biding their time, demons hunting for The Boys, and then the cunning ones … intent on trapping The Boys for their own interests. No less intense were the personal demons The Boys had to deal with throughout the year - insecurity and fear being a couple of the biggest ones to cast their inky black shadows over the hearts of the Winchesters. The year ended with the demons seeming to have won … Dean was taken to hell, while Sam was left in hell on earth … both to be tortured by demons – external and internal.
The fluttering of black wings brought a whole new Title Card for Season Four. Angels … Supernatural gave us Angels of God. The season began with an angel raising Dean … gripping him tight and raising him from perdition, but as we find out later … not soon enough. Dean had broken the first seal and the season was spent with Winchesters working with and dodging against these seeming warriors of God, until the magnitude of reality came crashing at the end … leaving one angel siding with Dean, rebelling against his brothers in an effort to reach Sam before he mistakenly brought forth the Angel of the Apocalypse, Lucifer.
Blood … blood is life and also the Title Card depicting Season Five. This was a bloody season, looking back. Blood brought forth Lucifer and in the end, blood was the sacrifice that sent him back. And in between, it was a bloody battle for The Boys. You know how the saying goes … Blood is thicker than water. That means family. Bonds were stretched and seemingly broken, but in the end … family won out. Bloody and broken by Lucifer within Sam’s body, Dean watched as his brother gained back his ground, and gave himself to save the world.
A world that had Dean retiring from hunting, of returning to Lisa and Ben at the request of his brother, of backyard barbeques and normal jobs … a world that looked all shiny from the outside, but was only separated from the darkness of the supernatural by a picture window of glass. Making the Season Six Title Card of shattering glass all the more ominous.
I don’t know how this Title Card will continue to foretell the theme of this season. I have a thought on that, but I’m not ready to give it over. Only time will tell if the shattering glass is so that The Boys may “see face to face”, or whether it is a shattering of illusions. Or, could it be a how the glass flies and wounds as its reality shatters? Only those within the sacred Writer’s room know for sure at this point.
Yep … the Title Cards tell their own story for each season, creating a mood and atmosphere. The exceptions to this are rare – A Very Supernatural Christmas, Monster Movie, The Monster at the End of This Book, and Changing Channels – where the change in mood setting is deliberately changed and therefore, the Title Card is given a change as well. Just as the music, they set the tone for the episodes and the season. They are a small, yet huge part of what makes Supernatural such a unique show.
One that isn’t afraid to shatter boundaries and preconceived notions in order to entertain and drive its obsessive fans crazy each week.
Not that I’m admitting to being obsessive.
I just like Title Cards.
*grins*
On Friday, a friend on LJ posted the CW of the boys telling you to watch Supernatural at 9 Eastern, 8 Central that had the Supernatural logo with green smoke. I only 90% kidding told her that if that green smoke turned out to be the new title card, I'd call massive spoilers. And truth to tell, I'd have been a little disappointed. When Show came on, and the title card was there, Iggy and I both raised our hands up, like there was a field goal. It was so awesome!
ReplyDeleteI think the shattering glass has a meta level as well: the shattering of the old and the making of something new now that Eric has left and Sera has taken over.
If Whimsy and I had been sitting closer, we probably would have high-fived! :-D There was a friend watching with us who does not watch the show regularly and is not as obsessed (I mean - in like) as we are. And even she exclaimed at the glass how cool it was. So score one for Sera and her team.
ReplyDeleteAnd, Whimsy, I love that thought about the meta. Whether conscious or unconscious on the part of the creative team, I think you're right.