COORDINATES

SUPERNATURAL S4

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A Cruel Order

Episode: On The Head Of A Pin
Text: From the episode
Made: February '10
ThoughtsThis wallpaper deals with the scene where Dean begs Castiel not to insist on sending him in to torture Alistair. I always had my quarrels with the fact that neither Dean nor Castiel bothered to question the morality of the order to torture the demon, especially Castiel should have been more suspicious in my opinion. The angel uses the fragile trust between them to convince Dean to do something Castiel knows might break Dean completely, but he does it anyway. It's not one of his shinier moments, as he fails Dean and he fails God as well.

I think my artistic approach to the scene is pretty self-explanatory: Castiel hands a devastated Dean the bloodied demon killing knife - it's bloodied because earlier Castiel states that the angels already tried to interrogate Alistair, but he wouldn't talk. I mostly used stocks of dilapidated buildings and generally everything that expresses broken, derelict and deserted, to emphasise Dean's state of mind.
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Fractured Mind

Episode: When The Levee Breaks
Text: My own
Made: August '09
ThoughtsThis piece deals with Sam's withdrawal induced hallucinations. Sam is falling to pieces, his mind fractured into different manifestations of himself, represented as Mary, Dean and young Sammy. Their voices haunt him, mock him and taunt him and all he can do is listen. He looks up longingly to the exit of the dark prison he spun for himself, but, obstructed from all sides, he is unable to break free. In order to visualise Sam's factured mind, I cut the wallpaper into pieces and disarranged them slightly. I also used some glass splinters to enhance the 'fractured' theme and some striped light stocks to symbolise prison bars. The colours are a mix of cold and warm, because Sam finds comfort (Mary) as well as pain (Dean, Sammy) in his hallucinations.
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Replaced

Episode: Jump The Shark
Text: My own
Made: August '09
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ThoughtsIn this wallpaper I tried to visualise the conflicting emotions Adam creates in Dean. The realisation that John made a new family for himself, while Dean lost his own, and Sam's eagerness to play the 'big brother' to Adam's little brother threatens Dean's roles in his family. He doesn't know his place anymore, feels replaced in the lives of the people he loves most.

At the bottom Sam is bonding with Adam over research, while Dean watches from afar. Usually Sam and Dean work together, now Adam takes Dean's place next to Sam. At the top Adam is at John's side, father and son leaning towards each other. Again, Dean's place is taken by his half-brother. In the middle we see Dean, who doesn't know anymore where he fits in the puzzle of his life, if he is not Sam's big brother and John's son. I thought the incomplete puzzle metaphor worked well with Dean’s insecurity, and I used the colours to emphasise Dean’s outsider status. While Adam, John and Sam are bathed in warm colours, Dean is separated from them in cold black&white.
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Destruction

Episode: Sex and Violence
Text: Linkin Park
Made: April '09
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ThoughtsThis wallpaper deals with the siren-induced confrontation between Sam and Dean in Sex and Violence. Both brothers are forced to reveal their innermost thoughts to the other, they strike with words and fists, intent on hurting each other, tearing down the walls of civil behaviour between them in the process. After the spell wore off, it left nothing but destruction in its wake and the brothers fight with the aftermath of that encounter till the present day.

Originally I wanted to use caps from their fist fight, to show the raw violence of that encounter, but alas there were no good caps available. So, in the end I used a fist, smashing through glass, which not only symbolises their brawl, but also the power of destruction that arose out of their words. To the left we see Sam and Dean devastated by the events, to the right we see them under the spell of the siren. I mostly washed out the natural colours and instead added streaks of violent red throughout the piece to symbolise the red haze of rage.
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The Way We Were

Episode: After School Special
Text: Toad The Wet Sprocket
Made: February '09
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Suicide Note

Episode: I Know What You Did
Text: Johnette Napolitano
Made: February '09
ThoughtsThis wallpaper is an episodic piece from I Know What You Did Last Summer and deals with Sam's self-destructive course after Dean's death. After the episode I instantly thought of Johnette Napolitano's song 'Suicide Note' and knew I had to use it for a piece about Sam. I wanted the images to strongly resonate with the lyrics, hence the prominent placement of the broken bottle at the top, alluding to Sam's desperate attempt to numb his grief with alcohol. I visualised the 'that grenade you cuddle' line from the lyrics with drunken Sam looking at a gun in his hand, contemplating to end it all with one quick pull of the trigger. The deep red in the piece resonates with 'bloody', which is how Sam's life would have ended eventually.
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Crisis Of Faith

Episode: It's The Great Pumpkin
Text: Sam in ITGPSW
Made: November '08
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ThoughtsThis wallpaper is about Sam's crisis of faith after meeting Castiel and Uriel. The angels' order to smite a whole town as a preventive measure throws him and evokes doubts about his own beliefs and his possibility for salvation.

Sam is sourrounded by peaceful symbols of faith (angel statue, dove) in my piece, but from the right the fundamentalist angel Uriel smites right through these symbols, showing how his merciless attitude crashes Sam's beliefs. I positioned Castiel to the left, his pensive expression mirrors Sam's. The angel is willing to obey and destroy the town, but he is burdened by doubts and questions himself, which puts him apart from Uriel.
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Slippery Slope

Episode: Metamorphosis
Text: Dean in 'Metamorphosis'
Made: November '08
ThoughtsThis piece deals with the boys’ first confrontation over Sam using his powers. Dean feels hurt and betrayed by his brother and all he can see is the fear of losing Sam to darkness. He doesn’t know if he can trust his brother anymore, their relationship seems frayed around the edges, so I used the broken glass and splinter stocks to show their damaged relationship and a mix of cold and warm colours to emphasize Dean’s conflicting emotions. Sam looks back at his brother, hurt and afraid himself, but Dean can only focus on what his brother might become, a yellow eyed monster, and ignores Sam’s distress.
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Reunion

Episode: Lazarus Rising
Text: Red
Made: October '08
ThoughtsInspired by Bre@primordialsouls

I wanted to art a hug between the boys for a long time and Lazarus Rising finally provided suitable caps for that. I kept this wallpaper really simple because nothing is more expressive than Jensen and Jared's expressions and I wanted the distraction from it to be minimal. In accordance with the lyrics the caps surrounding the hug are only half-blended, broken up in pieces by various means (lights, boxes, lines) to symbolize that alone Sam and Dean are fractured. The images come together in the hug in the middle, both boys are whole again when reunited. I went for warm (orange) and hopeful (green) colours.
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From Perdition

Episode: Lazarus Rising
Text: Castiel in 'Lazarus Rising'
Made: September '08
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