impala_chick | Not So Long Ago, I was the Villian

My favorite female character on Supernatural is Rowena MacLeod! I wrote some meta about why she's my favorite for the

lands_of_magic challenge: character study.

HER MAGIC

Rowena is the purest form of magic user. She treasures, and uses, magic for magic’s sake. She harnesses the power that she receives for no specific purpose except her own self-interest. That’s why she has been able to survive for hundreds of years, completely independently. She was born sometime in the 1600s, poor and destitute. She had to fight for a way to make herself not only safe, but prominent and powerful. Even the Grand Coven turned against her, although that was probably warranted based on her dash for power. The show gives just a taste of her back story, and we get to see a very aesthetically pleasing 1600s witch circle featuring a pagan ritual.

My favorite thing about her magic is that she creates and then writes down her own spells. There’s no other witch that can hold a candle to her skill, which was only acquired after hundreds of years of work. By the end of SPN, she has a massive library of research and work that she basically bestows to Sam. My favorite spell is easily the one she comes up with to be resurrected via magic every time she’s killed. We literally see her body burned to a crisp, and yet she’s able to come back to life, and it was more plausible than a lot of other resurrections on the show! She’s killed by Lucifer TWO times and returns! What an icon. On top of that, she’s the only character who is able to bring herself back from the dead, instead of relying on a supernatural entity/deal/higher power.

Her pursuit of power and magic dominates much of her life. Once she chooses magic as her priority, she is committed to the cause. Magic is her identity, and her only love, for many years. She has a son, Fergus, but she has no relationship with him while he’s growing up because of her single-mindedness. She embodies the career woman trope, forsaking all others including her son in her pursuit of power and personal safety/comfort. However, she’s actually really good at what she does. That’s what I love about the use of the trope - her sacrifices and choices are worth it for her, because in the end she ends up exactly who she wants to be. Of course, there are consequences. Crowley, her son, suffers emotional trauma that manifests into him making his own ‘bad’ choices, but I think the show does a good job of showing that he could have been different if he’d chosen to. Not everything is Rowena’s fault. She does try to get him killed in the name of self preservation and/or because she doesn't want to see her flaws in him, which really highlighted exactly how far Rowena is willing to go - which I appreciated, because a villain shouldn't always choose family, especially when there isn't any love or actual relationship there.

She embodies self-preservation and skill, and doesn’t completely change. BUT she also goes through a somewhat modified redemption arc through the series.

NOT QUITE REDEMPTION

Two big events start to change her perspective on the show: Lucifer’s actions and Crowley’s death.

She is the only person, besides Sam, who suffers the worst possible outcome in hell. She shares the cage with Lucifer, and he inhabits her mind, body, and spirit in a way that she can never quite outrun. She realizes the limits of her own power, and feels weak and scared.

When son Crowley dies, this makes her consider all the ways she failed him. She still realizes that he’s made his own choices and she’s made hers, but she says that the way Fergus’ life turned out just wasn’t fair. I like that characterization of it, because so many events led to what happened to him and the choices he ultimately felt he had to make for the greater good.

There are things that come to motivate her beyond just power, magic, and self-preservation. As she gets to know Sam, and to some extent Dean and Castiel, she grows to care about them and their fate. She freely communicates with them, comes to their aid when they ask for help without expecting something in return, asks after Dean’s well-being, and even tries to come up with a cure for Jack when he’s ill and suffering (despite Sam keeping her out of the loop at first).

In season 14, we see her say yes to Michael when he makes a promise not to kill Sam, Dean, Cas, and Jack. Whether or not she believed his promise is up for debate, but the fact remains that she said yes to him when she was probably capable of just high-tailing it out of there and saving herself.

I also think it’s interesting how her wardrobe changed to reflect her shift in perspective. At first, she always wore very flashy and very witch-y dresses. As she grows closer to the Winchesters, we still see her impeccably dressed but in more business or dressed-down/comfortable attire (at least by Rowena standards).

THE END GAME

I love that despite her growing love for Sam, Dean, Cas, and Jack, ultimately her redemption arc is flawed. She comes to find out her destiny - that one of the people she loves, Sam, is going to kill her. And this turns out to be true! She had a hand in making it so, because of a spell she initiated to save the world, and all it cost was her life. In the end she wins a one-way trip to hell. She never puts her family back together, nor does she get forgiveness from her son, but she also has a life she enjoys with friends that matter to her. She doesn’t need to get married or get into a steady relationship to have a great life. In fact, we see plenty of times where she gets to have fun and be flirty/sexual with men of her choosing. My favorite flirting scenes involved Mick Davies and Gabriel. And Sam!

Later, we discover that she’s become the Queen of Hell. She’s successfully leveraged her skill, and filled the power vacuum the Winchesters left in hell, and she loves her new job. It was such a perfect ending for her. Plus, that Queen of Hell outfit was unforgettable!

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And a fanmix tribute to the Queen of Hell!

Not So Long Ago, I was the Villian

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