#10.12: about a boy

[jdeanmorgan]

SUPERNATURAL (2005-2020) 10.12 ❃ About A Boy

[spacedean]

DEAN WINCHESTER in one random episode per day ‣ 321/327 10.12 ABOUT A BOY

[horrorshow]

Screw it. I’m gonna believe in myself. Give me something dark and strong.

DEAN WINCHESTER 10.12 About a Boy

[padaleckigallery]

Supernatural - 10.12 About A Boy

[scoobydoodean]

I don't mean to talk out of my ass, and am saying nothing about how alcoholism works in the real world, but when it comes to the fictional world of the show I really don't think they ever meant to imply Dean has a dependency issue when it comes to alcohol. I think what the show is actually doing is using short hand for either "Dean is in a bad mental state and self medicating" or, separately and not related to that, is using alcohol as a glamorized "cowboy who can put away his liquor" shorthand. For contrast, I'm watching House right now and (regardless of if it does a good job depicting addiction, which I feel absolutely unqualified to comment on) it does want the audience to understand that House is an addict.

I think the issue is there is a lot of room to bring your own personal experiences with alcohol to interpreting the show, and obviously if those have been bad it's easy to apply that to Dean, who does drink frequently in show. As do Sam, Cas, Bobby, Rufus, Ellen, etc. I don't know why people focus in on Dean specifically, though.

I think the funniest thing about this disk horse (which I consider to be over btw—using this as a springboard for closing thoughts) is that I never said at any point that Dean has never abused alcohol. I didn't even say there's no point in the show at which he can be described as an alcoholic (Dean describes himself as one in 10.12 "About A Boy"). I didn't even say I would never believe that Dean has ever driven drunk ever in his entire life, or that headcanoning that Dean has driven drunk before at some point is somehow some horrible evil thing.

All I did was respond to mail asking me if I remembered times in the actual show where Dean was shown drunk driving, because my anon heard a claim that it is shown to us "All of the time" in the actual show, and didn't remember that, and they were looking for someone with a more recent memory who could corroborate. So I said I don't remember that happening explicitly in the show either, and invited people to provide examples if they remembered an example.

I think if the show wanted to say Dean is a frequent drunk driver— specifically—the show would show me Dean being a drunk driver. It wasn't a problem for the show to quite overtly show me Sam driving drunk in 4.09—it wasn't something they shied away from showing. If (to your point—which you are absolutely right about) alcohol is used as a signal of our characters current mental states (Bobby in 4.01, Sam in 4.09, Cas in 5.17, Dean in 10.22, etc) then there's no reason the show would refuse to simply show me Dean being a frequent drunk driver. I'd be happy to explore it if I thought frequent drunk driving was a genuine facet of Dean's character. I just don't think it is, because the show doesn't show me that. And people can say all day long that "Dean drinks a lot" + "Dean has a car and is often in the drivers seat" = "Dean is a frequent drunk driver" until they're blue in the face. I am still holding out my hand, palm up, waiting for an actual example instead of whiney voices crying and whining insisting it simply HAS to be true because they think it should be.

I think you're right at the end of the day that the show isn't worried about Dean being an alcoholic as much as the show uses upticks in each character's drinking to indicate they're going through something—you're 100% right there. I also understand and respect that some people legitimately—with well-meaning intent—want to explore Dean's relationship to alcohol, because it's absolutely in theme imo and I think there's more attention ultimately put on it with Dean than any other character (though this is not true up to season 4 in my current rewatch). I just can't say I'm sitting here wringing my hands over Dean's relationship with alcohol in the actual canon of the actual show. I'm just not. The fact is, our characters have extremely limited options in terms of coping tools, and have trauma more extensive in breadth and length and diversity than anyone in real life has experienced ever, and are almost perpetually existing in a war zone. The fact that they self-medicate in various ways in order to cope isn't remotely surprising and I don't think there's anything shameful and evil about it either especially given their circumstances and utter lack of options. I just also... don't think Dean is a frequent drunk driver.

[castiellesbian]

Adam Glass:

6.02 Two and a Half Men

6.08 All Dogs Go to Heaven

6.12 Like a Virgin

6.19 Mommy Dearest

7.04 Defending Your Life

7.11 Adventures in Babysitting

7.18 Party On, Garth

8.06 Southern Comfort

8.12 As Time Goes By

8.18 Freaks and Geeks

9.07 Bad Boys

9.12 Sharp Teeth

9.17 Mother's Little Helper

10.04 Paper Moon

10.12 About A Boy

Eric Kripke

1.01 Pilot

1.02

1.09 Home

1.16 Shadow

1.22 Devil's Trap

2.01 In My Time of Dying

2.22 All Hell Breaks Loose: Part Two

3.01 The Magnificent Seven

3.16 No Rest for the Wicked

4.01 Lazarus Rising

4.10 Heaven and Hell

4.22 Lucifer Rising

5.01 Sympathy for the Devil

5.09 The Real Ghostbusters

5.22 Swan Song

6.22 The Man Who Knew Too Much

[touchstarvedsam]

How much more Sam fills out this shirt in 6.18 than he does in 10.12 is actually killing me.

[archivistsammy]

stackednatural, february 3

As long as everyone wears a condom, we'll be fine.

7.13 “the slice girls” // 10.12 “about a boy” // 11.12 “don’t you forget about me”

bonus:

[campingmonkey]

How many times do you think they’ve heard that? 🤣

[arwenadreamer]

Regarding the Mark of Cain.

Sam: You can beat this, Dean.

Dean: Do you really believe that?

Sam: Yeah, you’re damn right I believe that.

Deam: You know, you also believed in the Easter bunny till you were 12.

Sam: No I didn’t. ... Look, I was 11.

Dean: And a half.

Sam: And a half. Right.

Favourite quote per episode

10.12 About A Boy

I love this quote because of

Sam's unshakable trust in Dean.

Dean's desperate need for Sam believing in him, when he himself can't.

the humour.

[stephanie-likes]

Self indulgence is my forte

[spacedean]

DEAN WINCHESTER in 10.12 ABOUT A BOY

[horrorshow]

Ugh! That sounds disgusting.

Culinary chef Dean Winchester 10.12 About a Boy

[padaleckigallery]

Supernatural 10.12 About A Boy

[the-angels-in-our-stars]

“Dean, I’m way too big to fit in that.”

“First time you ever had to say that, huh?”

//10.12 “About a Boy” //

[monkeysatemylastrolo]

Over three and a half years later and I still get ticked off whenever I remember how stupid the SPN folks were being when they wrote/made “About a Boy.”

HOW CAN YOU JUST IGNORE/NOT REALISE THE FACT THAT YOU LEFT SUCH A HUGE, GAPING, IDIOTIC PLOTHOLE?!?!?