#14x20 meta

[soullessjack]

sorry for the winchesters posting so late in the game but im finally seeing it with my good ol buddies and oh my god there are so many jack parallels it almost has to be on purpose. and like yeah Tony the half-Djinn who tries to be a good monster is the most obvious parallel but holy shit. MAC from episode 6 is soo.

like. you have a quaint little hunting circle, and there’s a guy with a bad background and a “dark soul” that you allowed into your circle fully knowing that he had a “dark soul,” and posed a risk because of it. but when you saw how that darkness and violence could be useful to you, you just let it go unchecked and worsen over time and you let his need for power become extreme enough that he turns to **dark magic for it and only when he became a threat to you, did you decide he just had to die because in the exclusively hypothetical scenario where he finally turned on you, you knew he’d win.

and the thing is, you already knew he was a threat from the get go. you knew about his darkness and why he did what he did. you knew he needed help, but you didn’t know how to help him, and frankly you didn’t even try to help him because he was more useful to you as a weapon, and only when you were at the same mercy you inflicted on others with him did you finally act. and you didn’t know how to help him and frankly you didn’t even try to. you had a friend stuck in a cycle of violence, and instead of helping him, you wielded him like some kind of weapon.

**and like, I know Jack didn’t turn to dark magic for the exact same reason Mac did—Mac was an abuse survivor who wanted to stop feeling powerless and became excessively power-hungry in the process, while Jack is an all-powerful being who hates feeling powerless and also explicitly feels that not using his power for others is selfish and wrong, which in turn drives him to become power-hungry specifically for the sake of others and doing things for them: resorting to potent and unstable necromancy just to bring Mary back for Sam and Dean; drawing on + destroying his soul just to kill Michael for everyone he’s ever cared about and because he personally hates Michael, using the fullest extent of his power to excruciatingly kill Nick and Duma’s targets for Sam and Dean, becoming a living God-destroying bomb just so he can make amends for his actions, etc.

and that’s his personal cycle of violence. that’s the cycle both he and his family explicitly weaponize for their benefit.

Mac’s cycle was seeking more and more power, becoming more and more violent as a result of his past abuse and helplessness, and instead of helping him with that initial trauma like TFW sort of did, Mary’s aunt (?) and her circle of hunters fully enabled him to seek out more power and be useful to them, and when he became what they let him become, they blew up a cave with him inside. buried him, similarly to how Jack was “buried” in the Ma’lak box after the state of soullessness and Michael-blinker that Sam and Dean were both responsible for and complicit in, made him an unstoppable threat. (although to their credit, TFW does make some effort to break it by repeatedly telling Jack that he doesn’t need to be strong or helpful to be valued/loved by them, and they do make efforts to help him, but they also don’t exactly stop him from seeking/gaining power depending on the long term goal and they really only help him after he’s already suffered the ‘inevitable fate’ of the monster they created in him).

ultimately the episode ends with Lata convincing Mac to destroy his cycle, to choose peace and move on from the past instead of dwelling on resentment and becoming as angry and violent as his abusers, and Mary’s relative (i rlly don’t remember her name I’m sorry) says that she has a lot of work to do if she’s going to make it right, even if she can’t undo what she did, which i feel is a very solid parallel to Dean [and Sam] working to make amends with Jack.

I know that Dean didn’t create this alternate universe and isn’t a controlling force like Chuck, but given that he’s the narrator and blatantly speaks from his experiences as The Monster Club goes through them, I can’t help but think that all of these parallels to Jack (between Tony and Mac and even a few things with John that I’ll post about later), are on purpose. …

[antlertree]

a list of sastiel significant episodes in supernatural

every episode that sam and castiel interact in (+ a FEW mentions) this literally has no purpose i just made it cause like why not

season 4

4x07 It's the Great Pumpkin, Sam Winchester

4x10 Heaven and Hell

4x16 On the Head of a Pin

4x21 When the Levee Breaks

season 5

5x01 Sympathy for the Devil

5x06 I believe the Children Are Our Future

5x10 Abandon All Hope…

5x13 The Song Remains the Same

5x14 My Bloody Valentine

5x16 Dark Side of the Moon

5x17 99 Problems

5x18 Point of No Return

5x21 Two Minutes to Midnight

5x22 Swan Song

season 6

6x03 The Third Man

6x07 Family Matters

6x10 Caged Heat

6x11 Appointment in Samarra

(balthazar refers to castiel as sam’s boyfriend. so)

6x12 Like A Virgin

6x15 The French Mistake

6x17 My Heart Will Go On

6x18 Frontierland

6x19 Mommy Dearest

6x20 The Man Who Would Be King

6x21 Let It Bleed

6x22 The Man Who Knew Too Much

season 7

7x01 Meet the New Boss

7x17 The Born-Again Identity

7x21 Reading is Fundamental

7x23 Survival of the Fittest

season 8

8x07 A Little Slice of Kevin

8x08 Hunteri Heroici

8x10 Torn and Frayed

8x17 Goodbye, Stranger

8x21 The Great Escapist

8x22 Clip Show

8x23 Sacrifice

season 9

9x03 I’m No Angel

9x09 Holy Terror

9x10 Road Trip

9x11 First Born

9x18 Meta Fiction

9x21 King of the Damned

9x22 Stairway to Heaven

9x23 Do You Believe in Miracles

season 10

10x01 Black

10x02 Reichenbach

10x03 Soul Survivor

10x05 Fan Fiction

(sam literally mentioning “sastiel��)

10x09 The Things We Left Behind

10x10 The Hunter Games

10x14 The Executioner’s Song

10x17 Inside Man

10x18 Book of the Damned

10x20 Angel Heart

10x21 Dark Dynasty

10x22 The Prisoner

10x23 Brother’s Keeper

season 11

11x01 Out of the Darkness, Into the Fire

11x03 The Bad Seed

11x04 Baby

11x06 Our Little World

11x10 The Devil in the Details

11x14 The Vessel

11x18 Hell’s Angel

(any other episodes i missed are because it’s only lucifer/casifier)

season 12

12x02 Mamma Mia

12x03 The Foundry

12x07 Rock Never Dies

12x08 LOTUS

12x09 First Blood

12x10 Lily Sunder Has Some Regrets

12x12 Stuck in the Middle (With You)

12x19 The Future

12x23 All Along the Watchtower

season 13

13x01 Lost and Found

13x05 Advanced Thanatology

13x06 Tombstone

13x07 War of the Worlds

13x13 Devil’s Bargain

13x14 Good Intentions

13x16 Scoobynatural

13x18 Bring ‘em Back Alive

13x19 Funeralia

13x21 Beat the Devil

13x22 Exodus

13x23 Let the Good Times Roll

season 14

14x01 Stranger in a Strange Land

14x02 Gods and Monsters

14x03 The Scar

14x07 Unhuman Nature

14x08 Byzantium

14x09 The Spear

14x10 Nihilism

14x12 Prophet and Loss

14x13 Lebanon

14x14 Ouroboros

14x15 Piece of Mind

14x18 Absence

14x19 Jack in the Box

14x20 Moriah

season 15

15x01 Back to the Future

15x02 Raising Hell

15x03 The Rupture

15x05 Proverbs 17:3

(sam texting cas)

15x07 Last Call

15x08 Our Father, Who Aren’t in Heaven

15x09 The Trap

15x11 The Gamblers

15x12 Galaxy Brain

15x13 Destiny’s Child

15x15 Gimme Shelter

15x17 Unity

15x18 Despair

[mintconditiondean]

#michael is a burden jack and dean both consider THEIRS#as well#spn moriah#michael was jack’s enemy that dean took on when jack failed#then michael was dean’s enemy that jack took on when dean failed#spn 14x20#but dean prevailed in moriah but boy was the backslide to unity painful#💔

Such good thoughts from @ilarual​ and tags from @shallowseeker​. I’m actually watching s15 for the first time and YES the backslide to 15x17 Unity is so painful BUT it’s also very understandable given what happened in Moriah.

Dean and Jack are both on the same page. They understand each other, I think, on a level that Sam and Cas do not not. While Dean lowering the Equalizer in Moriah was a breakthrough, everything that Chuck did after that was enough to tear it back down.

Jack was born a monster shouldering the terrible burden of saving the world. And he’s willing to sacrifice himself for that because he thinks that’s his role to play. He’s in a different place than Dean is in; Dean has hit rock bottom. He’s spent his entire life being treated like an object by everyone and everything around him, fighting to be seen as a person and to gain some semblance of control, only to discover that he really has just been a toy  - a thing - this whole time. He can’t fucking take it anymore.

And it’s because he sees so much of himself in Jack, and because of how much learning the truth about Chuck has triggered him, that he can’t seem to care that Jack is going to die. He can’t care BECAUSE they’re two sides of the same coin. And he’s willing to let Jack die for the same reason he refused to shoot him with the Equalizer. He’d go on a suicide mission to kill Chuck himself, but it’s not his death that would work.

And Jack understands because he feels the same way. Same as he did in s14. It’s just that the stakes were different in Moriah than they are in Unity. But they’re making their choices for the same reasons.

My fave thing about Jack on rewatch was realizing how internally unlike Sam he is, despite the symbolic, structural blocks of being a “gifted kid.” Emotionally? Nah.

Not if you’re paying attention.

I feel like @dawg-motif really helped me puzzle that out re: Jack’s valuation of blunt honesty and need for space and processing. And after that, it’s like Jack’s entire arc clicked into place for my brain.

There is such a temptation in fandom to assume he’s a copy-pasta of Sam because of his “doomed child” motif, or that he’s like Cas because of his literal-mindedness and sass. But emotionally? Not even close.

Or worse, there can be as assumption that his “performing!Jack” is how how he actually feels about things... Falling for Jack’s sunshiney ditzy act is like falling for Dean’s mythical Marlboro man act.

[chuckwon]

"They didn’t miraculously outsmart Chuck. It’s all his plan that unfolds like a magic trick, and it works. He takes away everything and everyone else in the world, ensuring that the one course of action left– his planned course of action–is the one that the brothers will take. They forget the power of their free will and feel they have no other choice.

Jack’s sacrifice is completed as he supposedly becomes the 'new God,' but he actually 'dies.' As he told Cas in 15x15, 'God and Amara will cease to exist, and I won’t survive,' and that’s still exactly what happens.

. . . This is where the rest comes in: regardless of the mechanics of the plot’s specifics in 15x19–whether Jack is literally dead, simply caged in his own mind as Chuck uses him as a vessel, altered/corrupted by the God powers within him, or some similar variation–Chuck’s influence remains. Chuck deliberately removes himself from the story, but nothing of significance changes, either in the structure of the universe he created or in the brothers’ lives. And not only does Chuck get the ending he orchestrated in regards to Jack, but his ending for the story also punishes the Winchesters shortly thereafter."

–THE HOW: Chuck’s Method of Victory

Deeply apologize for insufferably quoting my own meta, but it's for the sake of expediency because I just want to put this thought / clarification out there right now and I've only got a few minutes!

(Standard disclaimer that I'm speaking from solely my perspective on the mechanics of a potential "Chuck won" plotline, aka I do not have a monopoly on this analysis or theory and others are free to disagree with my POV. The fact that I have this blog does not mean I'm positioning myself as an Authority on the matter.)

In terms of the plot (as in the literal things and not the metaphorical)... the idea that Chuck won is not beholden to the idea that the way to convey that concept or run with must literally include Chuck being inside of Jack's body. That's one possibility, and it just happens to be one that I tend to gravitate to when imagining potential for storylines. But the exact “method” if you will has several options. Maybe Chuck took over Jack, or maybe he knew the God power would corrupt Jack, or so on and so forth.

The idea of Chuck winning (in terms of the literal events) is essentially that...

A) God power should not have personhood. The fact that it does at the "end" of the story is inherently a problem based on everything the Supernatural universe has put forth thematically, literally right up until the end in 15x17.

B) What happens to Jack–him becoming the "new god"–isn’t okay. It's awful and it was Chuck’s plan or aim all along as part of the "Abraham & Isaac" ending he desired: the father sacrificing his own son.

C) Therefore, Jack needs saving (in some fashion) through his family making it clear that he’s loved for who he is not what he is, and that he never needed to prove himself or earn their forgiveness. By "his family" I specifically mean Sam and Dean, as they are the ones who unintentionally sacrificed Jack. Or, to reference SPNWIN 1x06,

"So you had a friend stuck in a cycle of violence, and instead of helping him, you wielded him like some kind of weapon?"

Sam and Dean needed to have told Jack something along the lines of what Mary tells John in that episode:

"I still want to get out of hunting. I really do. But it's not gonna be at your expense."

D) What happens to Jack–WHATEVER the specifics–embodies the cycles of violence on the micro and macro levels. He is a son who is burdened with the expectations of his fathers. He is also the grandson of Chuck/God and in the end he could not escape the fate of becoming him.

Sam and Dean may not have meant to “kill” Jack, but they did anyway between 15x17 and 15x19 because Jack was sacrificed on the altar of their hopes, struggles, and expectations. It plays right into Chuck’s favorite themes and ideal ending. In Chuck’s words from 14x20, it’s “the father killing his own son,” otherwise known as “Abraham and Issac.”

Jack’s sacrifice fits perfectly into an unbroken cycle of violence that Chuck embodied and that was embedded into the DNA of Supernatural as a story from day one. Breaking that cycle once and for all was the only avenue to true victory, but in the end, the cycle remains intact. In-narrative and out-of-narrative, the story and characters were not allowed to fully grow beyond it —which is why it’s important to understand the breadth of these themes in order to understand the reasoning behind the writing of Chuck’s canonical victory.

How the future authors or any future sequel may or may not run with all of this in terms of a plot–is Chuck using Jack as a vessel, and if so, is Jack alive or dead? Or is Chuck not involved and this is a consequence he left behind as part of the tragedy, and the God power itself corrupting Jack and he has to be convinced into giving it up? etc.–the baseline idea is the same.

My point in bringing this up is that "something's wrong with Jack"–which I think many people are picking up on anew in the SPNWIN finale–is enough to be getting on with :)

[antigonewinchester]

🔥 jack

I quite enjoy him as a character and dislike the majority of fandom discourse around him.

Jack is clearly favored by the writers & story in his seasons: he’s given the sympathetic cute white guy treatment in casting AlCal, he’s an entirely new character who becomes arguably the 3rd lead, he a part of major plots and has narrative focus**. given all that, I can very much see why some ppl dislike him, his role in the story, etc. hate away! but the other side of it, fandom’s woobification of him, making him literally a child, or downplaying his choices / agency / incredibly strong powers, is also incredibly boring. despite his narrative focus there’s room for a lot more fandom explorations of Jack.

Jack’s ending of becoming God was foreshadowed from S13 and I think the writers had something like it in mind from early on.

Kelly's death & sacrificing her life so Jack could live influenced him from Day 1 and Jack was going to have major guilt issues and feel like he had to do good / live a good life even if he hadn't been raised by Sam, Dean, Cas. some of Jack's issues are all his own.

S14 is by far the best Jack season and the tragedy of it doesn’t work unless Jack is actively making choices and has agency within his story—choosing to sacrifice his soul to save his family, choosing not to tell Sam & Dean (or Cas) about almost killing Stacy, choosing to brutally kill Nick, etc. 14x16 – 14x20 from Jack’s perspective is excruciating and that’s what makes it so good! put that guy through the horrors!! as messed up as 14x20 is, the fandom framing of Evil Abusive Dean going to kill Poor Sweet Jack misses 1) the deliberate narrative reversal of the beginning of the season w/ Jack saying they'd have to kill Michael!Dean to protect the world, and the season climax in Dean believing he has to kill Jack [and himself] to protect the world, What Could It Mean, and 2) Jack actively choosing mercy instead of fighting. Jack could’ve run or easily incapacitated / killed Dean with his powers but decides he'd rather die than risk hurting or killing someone else. which is a fucked up but compelling & interesting character choice!

speaking of 14x20, I’m surprised I’ve never seen a comparison between 4x20/4x21 and 14x19/14x20. [there’s… a very cynical meta-through-line I’ve thought about here, but I’m not sure if I’m reading too much into it.]

reveal of Sam drinking demon blood & his ‘monstrousness’ > Dean & Bobby lock Sam in the panic room > Sam breaks out thru angelic power > Dean goes to confront Sam

reveal of Jack killing Mary and his soullessness > Dean & Sam lock Jack in Ma’lak box > Jack breaks out using his angelic powers > Dean goes to confront Jack

**Dabb & his writers wanted to keep exploring generational traumas & familial cycles and brought in Jack to continue that thread as Sam & Dean had mostly worked thru their issues, but there’s a feel of warped or forced character development to make it all fit—say, Dean as Jack’s “cool uncle” is arguably more realistic given Dean’s understandable distrust of Jack and resistance to parenting him from early S13, but the writers wanted to explore the conflict of Dean as Jack’s father figure and so that’s what the dynamic had to become. so it's less that the characters are OOC but the way the writers approach it & the narrative framing of it all that's overly simplistic.

Send me a “ 🔥 ” for an unpopular opinion.

[spnmarchmadness]

LETS GO SPORTS FANS

the official ranks are in. if you want to participate in the bracket contest (its free. the prize will be the valor that comes from a job well done), you can do so here. 

if you just want to make a bracket for funsies, here’s a google sheet with the intial match ups seeded. The full seeding list is below the cut!

1. 5x22: Swan Song 2. 5x08: Changing Channels 3. 6x15: The French Mistake 4. 13x16: ScoobyNatural 5. 3x11: Mystery Spot 6. 2x22: All Hell Breaks Loose: Part 2 7. 4x01: Lazarus Rising 8. 10x05: Fan Fiction 9. 11x04: Baby 10. 11x20: Don't Call Me Shurley 11. 2x20: What Is and What Should Never Be 12. 3x12: Jus in Bello 13. 4x22: Lucifer Rising 14. 8x23: Sacrifice 15. 9x23: Do You Believe in Miracles? 16. 14x13: Lebanon 17. 14x20: Moriah 18. 1x22: Devil's Trap 19. 2x01: In My Time of Dying 20. 3x03: Bad Day at Black Rock 21. 3x16: No Rest for the Wicked 22. 4x18: The Monster at the End of This Book 23. 4x03: In the Beginning 24. 5x10: Abandon All Hope... 25. 5x21: Two Minutes to Midnight 26. 7x10: Death's Door 27. 11x09: O Brother Where Art Thou? 28. 2x15: Tall Tales 29. 2x21: All Hell Breaks Loose: Part 1 30. 4x16: On the Head of a Pin 31. 4x06: Yellow Fever 32. 5x04: The End 33. 6x20: The Man Who Would Be King 34. 8x17: Goodbye Stranger 35. 1x12: Faith 36. 12x10: Lily Sunder Has Some Regrets 37. 5x14: My Bloody Valentine 38. 5x03: Free to Be You and Me 39. 4x20: The Rapture 40. 13x06: Tombstone 41. 14x14: Ouroboros 42. 3x13: Ghostfacers 43. 7x17: The Born-Again Identity 44. 8x11: LARP and the Real Girl 45. 7x20: The Girl with the Dungeons and Dragons Tattoo 46. 15x09: The Trap 47. 12x11: Regarding Dean 48. 6x04: Weekend at Bobby's 49. 12x06: Celebrating the Life of Asa Fox 50. 8x08: Hunteri Heroici 51. 5x16: Dark Side of the Moon 52. 13x05: Advanced Thanatology 53. 1x06: Skin 54. 9x18: Meta Fiction 55. 10x22: The Prisoner 56. 15x18: Despair 57. 14x04: Mint Condition 58. 2x13: Houses of the Holy 59. 9x06: Heaven Can't Wait 60. 15x15: Gimme Shelter 61. 3x08: A Very Supernatural Christmas 62. 10x14: The Executioner's Song 63. 14x10: Nihilism 64. 11x14: The Vessel

[destielbait]

I've queued the elimination round nominations i could find - I'm missing

Cas’ grace as a spell ingredient in a love ingredient based spell (8x23 slash the tail end of season 8)

When Jack implements the truth spell while Dean and Cas are fighting we get a gay couple fighting and a married couple telling their child that it's not their fault they're divorcing (14x20)

if anyone has a link to these scenes as gifsets, or tumblr videos, (or meta's for the more abstract ones) I'd be much obliged!

[mybrainproblems]

We should talk more about the meta episode run I did last month of 11x23 -> 14x20 -> 15x04 -> 15x10 -> 15x20

[cpopnatural]

14x20 Notes

-TRIPLE WALL SLAM

-oh my god Destiel fight hahaha

-Sam looks like he wants to cry oh my god

-he can’t lie hahahahahahahaha

-stop this is a perfect thing I have no notes

-CROWLEY WE MISS YOU

-CHUCK?

-he just Naruto runs away????

-Dean bashing God’s guitar hahahaha

-the writers are NOT allowed to call the British Men of Letters storyline weak

-bro

-cas hitting car.gif

-awwwwwwww that’s his SON

-God hanging around the area he gave you the quest like an NPC is funny

-“you’re my favorite show” is so real

-this is sooooo 6x20 core good god

-THE VIRGIN MARY BETWEEN THEM

-HE LOWERS HIS GUN MOMENTARILY

-HE LOWERS IT

-kinda iconic lines from Sam tbh

-No NO NOOOOOO

-Sam shooting God was so badass

-the burned out eyes…

-his wings…

-HELL????

-so EVERYTHING supernatural is back

This was really good. I really enjoy the dumb meta stuff, and the stakes and everything were actually really good? Like woah??? The part about the zombie apocalypse was kinda weird tbh but this was probably one of the best finales of the show 8/10

[verobatto]

Destiel Chronicles

Vol. CXX

It was a love story from the very beginning.

Destiel Fight Intensifies

(14x19/14x20)

Hi there! And we finally reach season 14 ending!

Just one more season and we will be finishing this project.

Remember this meta is a summary of my analysis from season 14.

You can find my season 14 metas from these episodes in the following links: X, X, X, X, X, X and X.

The Promise that broke Destiel

Episode 19 was full of drama after Mary's death.

Dean avoiding talking with Sam and Castiel, but crying alone in the woods.

But what I want to point here the cause of Castiel and Dean's quarrel: Jack (the promise to Kelly).

Castiel's mission is his promise to Kelly, so from the beginning, he marks the limit. He won't hurt Jack. He will help him and guide him.

Before continue with this topic, let's talk about visual narrative related to the Destiel break up. Pay attention to how Dean and Castiel are placed in the following frames...

Gifset credit @agusvedder

Another frame that shows Dean and Castiel in different pages is this one:

Yes... At the same time. Avoidance. Negation. No hands here. Not now. One in front, the other looking backwards.

In the other hand, Sam and Castiel are in the same perspective related to Jack and how they need to save him and not to kill him.

Coming back to the fact that Castiel puts Jack before Dean, it's because there was a change of priorities since Jack showed Castiel the future, since Castiel became a dad.

Jack is like the newborn baby coming up to a young couple. Suddenly, the father felt a little left over, and jealous. It's the same situation here.

14x19: Dean and Sam locked Jack on the Mal'ak box. Second big fight between Dean and Castiel for that.

Destiel Fight Intensifies

14x20: Dean and Cas fought twice bc of Jack... And interesting clues about what was going on in Dean's head right now... we have this...

Gifset credit @agusvedder

Then Castiel pushed Dean with his shoulder, in an obvious way to show him how mad he is. He even squeezes his teeth. And then Dean stays there not turning around... That hurts for him... Castiel still being loyal to Jack after what he did. It hurts seeing Castiel pushing him that way and not being with him this time in this battle. Castiel choose Jack and that hurts to Dean.

The camera focused on Sam, showing us his suffering about the situation.

And then we will have Dean depressed, drinking in a dark room, after this fight.

Mirror Universe

There was a lot of visual elements and mirrors in Mirror Universe. One of the most significant that showed us the fact that Castiel puts Jack (the promise) before Dean was the following:

Gifset credit @agusvedder

The man in blue (Castiel mirror) confessing his secret love to that wan in red (Dean) but his name is Jack... And Dean face here is... Yeah... Jack. Ok. You said you love me but now is only Jack for you. And he turn off the TV, one: bc it was a love confession and he isn't ready yet for that. And two, bc it reminds him Castiel's love confession when Jack wasn't there... And now things are different.

... or walk away

Another scene in which this quarrel intensifies is when Dean gives Castiel the chance to choose (and Castiel picks Jack again).

CAS: There has to be another way.

DEAN: Well, there's not. Now, I know you don't like it, and I don't really care. 'Cause you just heard it from God Himself that this (picking up the gun) is the only thing that can kill Jack, so either get on board, or walk away.

(Cas leaves the room)

There's a pause Dean made before saying OR WALK AWAY. He didn't want to say that. He is the first that wants him there. By his side. He is the first that suffers each time Castiel disappear of the bunker. Not... He doesn't want to say those words... But he pushed Cas to make a decision again between him and Jack. And he loses again.

To Conclude:

Episode 14x19 but mostly, 14x20 showed us the Destiel break up that was foreshadowed the whole season.

Castiel's priorities changing are evident at the end of season 14, with a dramatic ending with Jack's death.

This break up will be elaborated more in the last season.

Hope you liked this summary, see you in the next one!

Tagging @magnificent-winged-beast @emblue-sparks @weirddorkylittlediana @michyribeiro @whyjm @legendary-destiel @a-bit-of-influence @thatwitchydestielfan @misha-moose-dean-burger-lover @lykanyouko @evvvissticante @savannadarkbaby @dea-stiel @poorreputation @bre95611 @thewolfathedoor @charlottemanchmal @neii3n @deathswaywardson @followyourenergy @dean-is-bi-till-i-die @hekatelilith-blog @avidbkwrm @anarchiana @dickpuncher365 @vampyrosa @authorsararayne @mybonsai1976 @love-neve-dies @dustythewind @wayward-winchester67 @angelwithashotgunandtrenchcoat @trashblackrainbow @deeutdutdutdoh @destiel-shipper-11 @larrem88 @charmedbycastiel @ran-savant @little-crazy-misha-minion @samoosetheshipper

@shadows-and-padlocked-hearts @mishtho @dancingtuesdaymorning @nerditoutwithbooks @mikennacac73 @justmeand-myinsight @idontwantpeopletoknowmyname @teddybeardoctor @pepevons @helevetica @dizzypinwheel @horsez2 @qanelyytha

@destielle @spnsmile @shippsblog @robot-feels @superlock-in-the-tardis @superduckbatrebel @belacoded @madronasky @anon-non2 @cea1996 @lisafu02 @asphodelesauvage @deancasgirl777

If you want to be added or removed from this list just let me know.

If you wanna read the previous metas from season 14 here you have the links:

Vol. CIX, CX, CXI, CXII, CXIII, CXIV, CXV, CXVI, CXVII, CXVIII, CXIX.

Buenos Aires July 4th 2021 11:37 AM

[restlesshush]

People talk about how refridging Mary to make Dean want to kill Jack in the soulless Jack arc was a really shitty thing to do, and it was, but the thing is I don’t think that’s even quite what happened, writing-decision-wise. Refridging Mary is not only not necessary for the soulless Jack arc to work, it also actively makes it less effective as a storyline, specifically in ways that seem to clash with what was otherwise being set up. Which makes it look like they didn’t kill her to serve their plot, given they actively made their story worse by writing her out.

(Edit: I’m not going to speculate as to what was going on with Sam Smith because I don’t know, but approx 1400 words under the cut about what I think was happening writing-wise)

Anyway so this is all based on an initial theory from @autisticandroids (who also asked me to write this post, hi!) that the way Mary’s death was handled makes it look like the sort of character death that happens because of an actor having to be written out, rather than one the writers really wanted to do otherwise. And once you’re primed to be thinking about this, 14x18 especially does really come off as the show scrambling to try and make her death hit, which is sort of the opposite of what fridgings are for – they’re normally thought of as being a low-effort way to pack an emotional punch. But because we’ve kind of barely seen her all season (she’s in less than a third of episodes), and because this is Mary so if we’re going to kill her again it has to hit, they feel compelled to spend time giving us a couple of slightly on the nose flashbacks to try and make sure we care. It’s the sort of work you’d normally do before you kill a character, rather than slightly messily afterwards to try and make their death look worthwhile, which is really how it comes off here.

And the thing is, it’s not just that it’s kind of messy – it doesn’t actually help facilitate the soulless Jack arc at all really, instead it actively distracts from it. Obviously this is true in terms of screen time, because we have to take time away from Jack stuff for the flashbacks and for Mary’s funeral, but also in terms of the story’s focus. The interesting thread here is “someone we care about is ~dangerous now, what might we have to do to stop them??”, which is pretty decently well-trodden ground for spn, which you could easily have done just based on the snake and burning Nick alive on their own. And then in theory, this would all be made extra tragic by the fact that it was Jack saving them from Michael that even put him in that position, but we barely lean into this because we’re so focussed on Sam and especially Dean’s reactions to Mary’s death. Like, that thread does even still gets pulled on a little bit! You have Dumah's “he lost his capacity for good through an act of goodness” – and that’s what’s actually compelling here. But it’s barely touched on really, because if you’re going to kill Mary, that’s what you have to focus on, or at least that’s what the show seems to be convinced of. Nick even explicitly says it in 14x18 – “Buddy, you killed Mary Winchester. You cannot come back from that.” So we get hung up on an accidental death that could easily have just happened while Jack had his soul, instead of the actual implications of Jack’s soullessness beyond that.

Everything with Mary’s death also obviously makes Dean come off less sympathetically (and not in an interesting way), if he’s motivated by revenge, rather than genuine concern about what Jack might do. In part because of the revenge motive, he seems to take a genuine vicious satisfaction in tricking Jack into the box, for example, whereas if it was more a tragic last resort for how to deal with this very difficult situation, it would make for a much more nuanced and interesting situation, that would hit much harder.

And this isn’t the only way in which the restructuring of the arc to accommodate Mary’s death has implications re Dean’s character. It does look like they were setting Jack up as a Dean parallel here, which obviously if he’s killed Mary, it’s hard for him to be in the same way anymore. There’s a really good post somewhere which I’m annoyed I can’t find about how good leaders don’t ask their subordinates to do things they wouldn’t do themselves, and how Dean would do insane things and so thinks it’s reasonable ask his subordinates to do them too. The post explicitly cites Jack in the Box and iirc also Moriah (edit: it was this post and it cites Jack in the Box and Unity) as examples of this, and while it’s a really interesting piece of character analysis, it’s kind of striking when trying to think about writing decisions that 1) this stuff would be strengthened if Jack was still in the category of people Dean could see himself in, which because he’s killed Mary, he can’t be and 2) by drawing the parallels it draws, it also points out that “oh hey! The writers have chosen to put Jack in situations that Dean has also notably been in! What does this tell us?”

Moriah is probably the less strong of the two examples re just the situation, but the thing is that in addition to Dean effectively asking Jack to be prepared to die for the good of the world like he has before, the obvious thematic use of a mechanic like the Equalizer is “by killing this person you are killing yourself not only literally but also figuratively”. Like, something something supernatural and wasted potential goes without saying, but they did presumably come up with that object for a reason, y’know? But then Mary’s death and the revenge motive means that Moriah doesn't come anywhere near to playing like Dean killing himself on two levels even though like… what is the point of that gun otherwise? It almost feels like a fossil from a different story. And then the situation re the Ma’lak box is very similar. @autisticandroids pointed out to me separately a while ago that Jack is becoming Dean in ouroboros – “I am a winchester + eating michael + being destined for the box” – and also that were it not for the vengeance motive things would very much more come across as “oh my god dean’s putting himself in the box”, which y'know would be both hard-hitting and also the sort of thing spn loves to do.

And it’s also what they’ve been setting up! Like, you go from Dean having something dangerous inside him that means he might have to be locked up or killed, to Jack ending up in that position instead, specifically via him fixing Dean’s issue! It's even him specifically who directly argues for killing Dean to protect the world from Michael in 14x02! There’s a lot of groundwork there for them as parallels in s14 which Mary’s death undermines – the season is just structurally way tighter and more thematically resonant if you take it out. Getting rid of Mary’s death and the revenge motive for Dean (leaving a tension between concern about Jack vs concern about the world in its place) also meshes way better with the way they originally set up the stuff with Jack’s soul too, where it’s meant to be a sad thing for him, that he would no longer be himself etc. And like, that’s arguably partly because it’s Yockey handling it and he’s the only writer who cares about Jack, but it is still what was being set up. “Jack died –> the mechanism we used to bring him back allowed him to burn off his soul to be useful –> he’s dangerous as a result of this and oh god we have to do something about it” is way neater and more compelling as a trajectory if you don’t throw in “also he accidentally killed our mother and so Dean sort of wants him dead because of that too”. There’s a disconnect between the obvious route to take this story and then end result, and Mary’s death seems to be the thing lying behind it.

So yeah, Mary’s death was a bad writing decision not just because it’s not worth refridging her for the sake of the soulless Jack arc (which it definitely isn’t), but also specifically because it actively makes the soulless Jack arc worse. Obviously misogyny was frequently a driving force behind writing decisions on spn, but it doesn’t look like it was here in the way people seem to assume. It doesn’t look like they were killing a woman in order to serve our story – instead, the story has been actively derailed by them killing a woman. Which does really make it seem like that’s not why they wrote her out.

[soullessjack]

yeah! like whether he’s aware of it or not, jack thrives way more in frenzied chaotic situations than he does in normal/mundane situations—the only question is if that speaks to his true innate nature as a Nephil being the “dominant” heritage over the nurture of Kelly and TFW.

and ofc that’s not to say he doesn’t have natural qualities from Kelly or their human heritage, or even that all their outward kindness and positivity is a total farce. They really are a sweetheart, and even a bleeding heart sometimes, just one whose bleeding heart can twist up horribly with anger or grief. like, take this whole scene where they look Like That—

at jack’s core all they really want is to be loved and wanted and accepted, and the fact that this is a direct reaction from Sam and Dean rejecting him, that this utter monstrosity is only lashing out in a pain of being rejected and betrayed. the way something so innocent and simple as wanting to be loved can be twisted into something like this, really is one of the key elements of his character I think.

and I also think that that balance between those parts of himself is always what he’s struggled to find and maintain, because as soon as he thinks he’s either mediated or found a side to settle on, something happens that rips him out of place and says “No, you don’t belong there actually.”

and going back on the “primitive fear response,” thing, I’ve always considered jack to have a very defensive nature overall; throughout 13x01, he never outright attacks or shows hostility to anyone unless it’s a direct reaction to them acting first—Dean shooting at him, Sam tasering him in the back, etc. I’m not sure if you’ve ever seen the iron giant, but if you haven’t, watch it. it’s a literal masterpiece of both animation and storytelling and is rife with sooo many parallels to jack that it almost sickens me.

but anyways, without saying too much, one of the details of the iron giant is that he’s a 50 foot tall childlike amnesiac robot with a defense mechanism that completely weaponizes him and is triggered by the sight of other weaponry—particularly guns, for the narrative’s sake. the film was directed by Brad Bird and morbidly inspired by the death of his sister via gunshot, as in his grief he wondered “What if a gun was alive and didn’t want to be a gun?” and thus we got the iron giant! Even without seeing the movie I’m sure you can see the Jack parallels in that sentence alone anyways lol. but basically, the Giant reacts purely out of defense and is otherwise not an active threat when shown kindness, like jack.

I had somewhere to go with this but I just lost it. Oh well!

todays tally on the “things about jack that have been almost erased by the baby au” is just how truly genuinely insane (and funny) they are. they pretended to be a coke addict to sneak into rehab and get kaia. their attempt at making friends was teaching the Lebanon kids knife combat because he hasn’t had any other socialization outside of constant war and violence. he loves hunting and he loved the war torn apocalypse refugee camp despite their constant risks of death and loss and suffering.

he straight up fucking decapitated a Gorgon with a fucking sword and just stepped over the headless corpse like an ugly carpet. they disobeyed Death Herself just to save someone they vaguely remember caring about and having responsibility over, then blackmailed the fucking reaper that was sent to watch him into keeping quiet or else Billie would kill her for failing to keep him in line. he attempted to strangle someone in a fit of rage that was so bad it took three gunshots fired into his back to snap him out of it.

some of his personality trait in the fucking wiki are literally how his “protective instincts are in fact, so strong that he will retaliate or turn against anyone if they have hurt someone he cares about” and how “because of Jack’s desire to protect his loved ones, he can show a ruthless side to himself at times.” he used necromancy, magic so evil and dark and potent that the self proclaimed evil skank Rowena Macleod wouldn’t dare to use it, just to bring Mary back.

they were smiling the whole time they fought Michael and especially when they exorcised/killed him. they were smiling and enjoyed torturing Nick and it was literally canonically in-script described as a cathartic kill. when the last Grigori had him bound and held at knifepoint in the church he smiled and said “You can’t kill me” and was still smiling while talking about the other Grigori he’d killed and eaten the literal fucking hearts of.

jack is canonically wanted by the fbi since dean opened a file at some point after Mary’s death + jacks disappearance, and alongside having multiple charges pending on said file, they’re considered armed and dangerous, too. They’re also literally personally hated and personally murdered by God Himself.

But we stay silly :3

[postmodernmulticoloredcloak]

The shifting narrative of God’s interventism and how it reflects on the narrative on John

This post will ignore the issue authorial intent entirely because I can, but it’s also about authorial intent in a way, but I also don’t like to talk about things as happening “accidentally” because a) a serialized story like Supernatural, especially one that got renewed for much longer than anyone could possibly expect or hope in their wildest ambitions, structurally relies on serendipity, because that’s how stories work when they’re work in progress, b) a television show is an extremely multi-authored text and the chance that something happens out of the intent of any of the multiple layers of creators is kind of... statistically negligible. So, yeah, that’s my stance on the topic. Anyway.

The shifting narrative about God is simultaneously something that hangs on fortunate storytelling clicks on an essentially programmed narrative. At first, we don’t know where the fuck God is. Cas starts looking for him with little success. Raphael says he’s dead, Cas doesn’t believe it. Dean relates to his struggle because he knows the feeling of not knowing where the fuck your father is and going looking for him with little success, not knowing if he’s even alive. Then the theory that gets assumed as the truth is that God has left. He fucked off who knows where, who knows why, leaving his creation to struggle alone. Also essentially how Dean had felt after John had died; in that case there was guilt for his demon deal and everything, but the most cruel weight on Dean’s shoulder was that John left him alone to struggle with his devastatingly horrific instructions he doesn’t understand. The angels are also left with horrific instructions they don’t understand. No wonder Cas does his own ‘demon deal’ in season 6, as he desperately tries to do what he assumes his father wants from him, but he doesn’t actually know what that is.

“God has left” is maddening, and everyone is angry about it, but it has its own dignity. God has left us without clear instructions, we are confused and in pain and evil runs amock but at least, we suppose, the evil of it is our own doing. We are alone and we do our best, our best is simply not enough. We wish he gave us guidance, but he won’t. He wants us to figure it out ourselves, possibly. We don’t actually know what he wants. But maybe that’s the point. It’s possible he doesn’t even know what’s happening, he just has left the building entirely.

But then Chuck reveals himself. We find out that he never actually left. He was there. “I like front row seats. You know, I figured I’d hide out in plain sight”. He simply chooses not to intervene. He chooses not to answer. He chooses to be hands-off. He presents himself as a laissez-faire parent, because, he says, it’s better for his children to have the responsibility they need to grow up. He’s absent, but in a different way than we thought! It’s not that he doesn’t know what’s happening or isn’t interested in knowing what’s happening. He’s here, he knows what’s happening, he just stays there and watches as you stumble and struggle and scream. It’s worse, and it pains Dean so much he isn’t even afraid to yell at God. You know we’re suffering and you just don’t give us any support, any comfort.

You’re frustrated. I get it. Believe me, I was hands-on, real hands-on, for, wow, ages. I was so sure if I kept stepping in, teaching, punishing, that these beautiful creatures that I created... would grow up. But it only stayed the same. And I saw that I needed to step away and let my baby find its way. Being overinvolved is no longer parenting. It’s enabling.

But it didn’t get better.

Well, I’ve been mulling it over. And from where I sit, I think it has.

Well, from where I sit, it feels like you left us and you’re trying to justify it.

I know you had a complicated upbringing, Dean, but don’t confuse me with your dad.

At that point of the show, the writing team almost certainly didn’t have the s14-15 twist in mind. So this was probably intended to be Chuck’s truth. Later it gets twisted (retconned?) into a lie, but about that later.

Here, Chuck is really good at manipulating the conversation. Dean has a perfectly valid point, because there IS a middle ground between being overinvolved and not being involved at all. There is a middle ground between enabling your children and abandoning them completely. But Chuck hits Dean where it hurts, plays the emotional card, basically tells him that he’s too emotional to understand, too emotional to think rationally about it, because he mixes his feelings about his father to the issue and thus cannot see it clearly. He basically tells him he’s too close to it to get it. You don’t understand parenting, Dean, because you’re too blinded by your emotions about your own little life and cannot see the big picture.

It doesn’t really matter here if he’s telling the truth or lying, it already says a lot about Chuck that he’s emotionally manipulating Dean, silencing him by hitting the painful spot.

But the thing is, 11.20 immediately presents Chuck as a liar. He makes Metatron read his autobiography and the very first line is a lie (“In the beginning, there was me. Boom – detail. And what a grabber. I mean, I’m hooked, and I was there.” “I’m hooked too, and yet... details. You weren’t alone in the beginning. Your sister was with you.”) and the stuff he talks about his experience as Chuck is not exactly truthful about anything (“That, you know, makes you seem like a really grounded, likable person.” “Yeah, what’s wrong with that?” “You are neither grounded nor a person!”). Metatron calls him out (“Okay. There are two types of memoir. One is honest... the other, not so much. Truth and fairy tale. Now, do you want to write Life by Keith Richards? Or do you want to write Wouldn’t It Be Nice by Brian Wilson?”). Chuck SAYS he chooses truth and gives Metatron a different manuscript, supposedly containing the truth, to which Metatron reacts positively. Metatron believes it, and we believe it with him.

Oh! Oh, this! This is what I was talking about. Chapter Ten “Why I Never Answer Prayers, and You Should Be Glad I Don’t”, and Chapter Eleven “The Truth About Divine Intervention and Why I Avoid It At All Costs”.

Nature? Divine. Human nature – toxic.

They do like blowing stuff up.

Yeah. And the worst part – they do it in my name. And then they come crying to me, asking me to forgive, to fix things. Never taking any responsibility.

What about your responsibility?

I took responsibility... by leaving. At a certain point, training wheels got to come off. No one likes a helicopter parent.

This is sort of what he later says to Dean, except that to Dean he talks about “beautiful creatures” “my baby”, talks about helping, none of the harsh tone he’s using here. When Metatron accuses him of hiding from Amara, he retorts “I am not hiding. I am just done watching my experiments’ failures”. What a different language, uh? Then Metatron asks him why he abandoned them, and Chuck answers “Because you disappointed me. You all disappointed me”. Then, he admits he lied about “learning” to play the guitar and so on, because he just gave himself the ability, and then appears to Dean and Sam, after Metatron’s passionate speech about humanity.

So, no matter the authorial intent at the time - the truthiness of Chuck’s words was already ambiguous. He kept lying and being called out, or silencing the conversation with some good ol’ gaslighting.

The season 14 finale introduces the big twist: it was, indeed, all a lie. The whole of it. Chuck didn’t abandon shit. It was all him, minutely controlling the narrative of the universe, putting the characters through all the pain and struggles for his own amusement.

The “absent father” narrative was a lie.

What does this tell us about John? Nothing, according to the authorial intent that shines through Dabb’s Lebanon. But we don’t give a crap about Dabb’s authorial intent about John! He’s just one dude and plenty of other authors have painted a different picture. So I’m going to read the narrative the way I want, because I can, and the narrative allows me to. It’s all there.

I’m suggesting that the fact that Chuck lied when he talked about being a hands-off/absentee father parallels how Dean and Sam prefer to think of their father as an “absent father” when that’s not exactly a reflection of the truth.

You left us. Alone. ‘Cause Dad was just a shell. [...] And I-I had to be more than just a brother. I had to be a father and I had to be a mother, to keep him safe.

Setting aside how “I had to be a father and I had to be a mother” sort of retcons and cleans up the Winchester family picture painted by ealier seasons, the fact that John didn’t really count as a functional father figure and Dean and Sam were essentually alone is not incorrect or anything. It is true that John would leave them to their own devices a lot, thus the long stays in motels, the hunger, the food-stealing, and all. But John wasn’t always absent, at all. He trained them as soldiers, he disciplined them, he was around enough for them to be intimately familiar with what happened when he drank. He drove them around.

It’s almost like it’s preferable to Dean and Sam to spin their own “absent father” narrative, putting the accent on the time they spent alone, painting their childhood as a time they had to grow up on their own, rather than acknowledge they grew up under the thumb of a controlling, looming figure they would regularly live in fear of, even when he was not physically present.

The “absent father” narrative is what Dean and Sam need to use to avoid confronting the reality of the father figure whose moods and whims they had to dance around. “I know things got dicey... you know, with Dad... the way he was. And I just... I didn’t always look out for you the way that I should have. I mean, I had my own stuff, you know. In order to keep the peace, probably looked like I took his side quite a bit.”

John shaped their lives. He shaped their identities. Even in the episodes where he abandons Dean or both children somewhere, he’s portrayed as the figure who drives the car. He symbolically drives the car, you know? John shaped Dean and Sam’s relationship with each other, both on a surface level (the conflicts) and on a deeper level (the parental dynamic).

Heck. The entire first season of the show plays on John’s disappearance as the “elephant in the room”. John is there by not being there, you know? And after he dies, his death - his absence - is again the elephant in the room for Dean, the weight on his psyche that he shatters under.

It is not wrong that Dean and Sam had to spend long periods of time without John. But John structured their lives in quite minute detail. Where they needed to be, what they needed to do, what they must not do, everything had to follow John’s instructions. A drill sergeant, the narrative called him, ordering how his sons needed to live their lives. That’s no absence, except on a level where Chuck not showing himself and pretending he’s not there can be considered absent. That’s a presence, not necessarily always physical, but semiotical and psychological.

John is an absent father as much as Chuck is a hands-off god. He even writes himself into the story around the time Cas has the “season 1” phase (let’s go look for dad/let’s go look for god), which is when John actually was alive and appeared. Then he was no longer physically there, but he was still shaping his characters’ lives, just like he’d always done.

The “absent father” narrative on John is that - a narrative. Spun by the characters themselves because it’s easier and actually kinder on John. Or, better, it allows them not to be crushed by the psychological implications of having to accept that their father was such a looming, minutely formative figure in their lives. They know, but they can wave the “absent father” idea around to avoid thinking about it.

“I had to be a father and I had to be a mother” is something easier to tell yourself. I was the one who did it all. But he wasn’t, and that’s the problem. The fact that John was their father - Dean’s and Sam’s - is the problem. But ironically, blaming himself for every failure is a better option for Dean than fully acknowledging John’s abuse. As long as he blames himself, he has control over it. The moment he acknowledges the extent of John’s influence, he loses control over the entire narrative of his own identity and the family identity, the family dynamics. That’s scarier, just like realizing that God manipulated everything is much scarier than the alternative. “God abandoned us” was indeed a better option, and “John left us alone” was a better option. But neither was true, and the characters faced the implications of the cosmic level, but never got to face the implication of the familial level, because the narrative always danced around it and then Dabb’s apologist version “won”.

But what’s been put in the show is still there. The narrative of John’s abuse is still there. Nothing can take it out of the story.

[deanwasalwaysbi]

Can we talk about the fact that Dean says "my mom was my hero"? At the beginning of the series Dean would have said John was, Mary was just this idea, this idol on a pedestal.

But then he met Mary, then he is able to articulate who Mary, who John really was and he understands the truth. Everything he thought he liked about John he actually got from Mary.

"My mom was my hero" ... "no I won't kill my son so you'll bring her back"

[norahastuff]

Cas and love

Don’t mind me, just thinking about last season’s finale when Jack told Cas “I know you’re here because you love me, and I want to love you back. It’s just I can’t.”

And Cas responded by saying “You can’t yet.”

Cas died never having once heard that he was loved, and yet that didn’t stop him from always giving it fully. The angel with too much heart, as one of his angel brothers called him. How was it that Ben Edlund put it? “There’s a crack in Cas, the crack through which amazing things come.”

Of all those amazing things, it turns out in the end it all came down to love. Everything Cas did, he did for love. Love for humanity, for his friend Sam, for his son Jack and ultimately the all consuming love he felt for Dean. 

Which makes it that much more heartbreaking that he never got to hear someone express their love back to him. That being said, I’m sure he knew Jack loved him - it’s part of the reason being there for Jack helped him feel less adrift in the world, and gave him a purpose. It gave him a role in their family and made him feel like he belonged. Jack and Cas have seen each other as father and son from before Jack was even born, and apart from that short period of time when Jack lost himself, there’s always been unconditional love on both sides there.

That brings us back to Dean. I think Cas knew that Dean loved him, I mean after everything they’d been through, how could he not? Remember the whole mixtape incident when Dean got mad because “he came into my room and he played me?” That could have only worked if Cas knew there was a certain level of love and trust between them. The whole mixtape exchange was about as honest as they could be with each other in that moment, which made it equal parts cathartic and frustrating. 

The thing is, Cas felt a different kind of love for Dean. The kind of love he didn’t think he was allowed to feel - angels aren’t supposed to love humans that way, remember? Even if he ignored that, he wasn’t exactly an ordinary angel anyway, it’s not like Dean would ever feel the same way. It’s not like he felt that kind of love for Cas, right?

(Cas hasn’t been privy to Dean’s perspective for the past 12 years like we have. He hasn’t seen the things we’ve seen.)

And yet despite all that, in his final act, Cas decided that it didn’t matter. His fears about his love not being reciprocated, that the Empty taunted him with, shame, rejection, none of it mattered. Cas could love enough for the both of them - Dean taught him how. 

Cas’ run on the show may have ended like it started, saving Dean Winchester, but Cas most certainly did not end up the same being that he was when he started. You see all those years ago he saved Dean for duty. This time he did it for and with love. 

The power the simple act of loving another person could have? The power in allowing yourself to fully feel it? Nobody understood that better than Cas.

[trent-crimm-theindependent]

OH THE WAY THE ENTIRETY OF SEASON 14 WAS AN ABSOLUTE DUMPSTER FIRE AND THEN THE FINALE WAS ONE OF THE BEST EPISODES IN THE SHOW...