#LET HIM LEARN HER SIGN LANGUAGE KRIPKE

[amwritingmeta]

I just read your thoughts on S13 potentially being the last season and just knew you were the right person for my question! (PS, I really want them to make 300 too :D) Anyway, to the question: I read on TVTropes a while back that Dean is the main-ish character, I guess, and before everyone gets their knickers in a knot, he's the main in that for the most part, the story we get is from Dean's POV, if you know what I mean? Anyway, I was wondering if you a) agree and b) can explain how and why?

Hello, Nonny!

Yes, indeed, I was convinced for a while that S13 would be the last! I’m still overtly certain they are in serious countdown mode and I have trouble seeing them going beyond S14, if even that far. But these writers are miracle workers in their own right and can spin narrative like a miller’s daughter can spin her hair into gold, so I’m sure they’ll deliver and I shouldn’t be banging a drum that the series is wrapping up before there’s confirmation. (I bang cymbals instead)

Thank you for your patience and for the compliment in your vote of confidence!! I hope you see this reply, you’ve been waiting an age and a half. *hangs head* *head pops up* *hands rub together*

Let’s get to it!

a) Do I agree that Dean is the main-ish character?

Yes.

b) Can I explain how and why?

Yes.

Pleasure taking your ask and I hope I’ve answered it to your satisfaction.

Of course I’m kidding. You didn’t think I’d answer your ask with such a brief, short-winded, to-the-point reply, did you? DID YOU? *maniacal laugh* (this is why answering asks takes you so long) (what?) (because you have to make it into a thing) (I am NOT) (you’re arguing with yourself in parenthesis right now) (shut up)

Dean, Dean, Dean.

What’s not to love about strong, brave, driven, insecure, flawed, angry, broken, smart, funny, charming, loyal, loving, caring, soft, self-loathing, devastatingly handsome, control freak Dean Winchester? There really isn’t much there that doesn’t make you love him more. Even those negative sides are what makes him feel so real, so grounded, so damn human. (ooohhh “human”ity references starting early are they?) (you’re not doing that through this whole ask) (FINE)

Dean didn’t start out as our protagonist - which is just a fancy word for main-ish character, btw. I can stick with main-ish character, except autocorrect wants to make it “mannish” character, which, granted, is fucking hilariously fitting (point one, autocorrect), but makes me feel protagonist will make the writing of this answer a wee bit quicker. So - protagonist it is.

Dean didn’t start out as our protagonist because the Pilot is driven by and centred around Sam. That said, a part of me, a wii part of me (the one not always holding the controls) believes it’s possible Kripke wanted to write a story about a young man struggling with his identity due to shit from the past, who slowly grows to accept himself as he finds that he’s falling in love with an angel. (a literal angel of the Lord) (straight outta Heaven) And then there’s a brother and a great car and classic rock and ghosts and shit.

It’s just that, however enticing we find it (I’m salivating right now) such a tale is a hard sell. 

No, let me rephrase that, back in 2005 that was either an impossible sell or a sell that meant a corner niche market and maybe a handful of episodes at most, or, more likely, an indie film and a festival circuit run. So Kripke didn’t go for the hard sell, he went for this sell:

SAM is pulled back into the life he left behind when his girlfriend is brutally murdered. Together with his brother he follows in the trail of their missing father, tracking the killer that, twenty years ago, was responsible for their mother’s death. Along the way Sam will begin to uncover the truth that’s been hidden from him since the night his mother died: the truth of who he really is.

Easy af. That show? Yeah, I’d watch that show. Hell, we are ALL watching that show, right? This is what makes Supernatural one of the greatest shows on Earth: the depth of the angles, the sharpness of the edges. Nothing is simple here. I can watch the Pilot and nod and say, yes, this is Sam’s story. Clearly. His experiences as a baby are the focal point of the cold open, grown up Sam drives the narrative, he shows off his skill set, his story bookends the episode. 

But Dean was never a side character, and he was never meant to be. 

The narrative for the pilot may be centred on Sam, but Dean was always meant to take up space, to throw his weight around, to enter in shadow and mystery, hidden from view, cloaked, we don’t know if he’s friend or foe, we think he’s most likely a foe, Sam is BAMF with a gun, showing skills, but Dean’s entrance steals the moment because as soon as Sam says “Dean?” it clicks for us: the brother from the opening.

This introduction to grown Dean gives the impression there’s more to him than meets the eye, as he moves out of shadow into light (forever reminding me of BAMF Cas in that barn with the sparking and the uuunnnhhhhhh) and the point is - there is. And there was always meant to be so much more to him.

Now, that said, this is just me theorising. 

I know that, as the story goes, Dean simply grew into the more popular character during S1 (sorry Sam) (but no surprise there) (because Dean is a much more complex character) (hence why he wasn’t the immediate choice for protagonist) (hence why they tested him out first) (and when he resonated with the audience) (they bumped him to protagonist) (again might just be me reading into things) (anywho) and since Dean was the more popular character it made sense that in 2x01 they let him take the actual lead in the narrative and he officially shouldered the Protagonist cape. And with it, the weight of the world. (aw Dean)

So, that’s me agreeing with the fact that Dean is, indeed, our main-ish character now, whether he was planned to be or simply moved into that position organically simply by being… well, Dean fucking Winchester.

And though I’ve touched on the gist of it above, here’s the How and Why to Dean being seen as the protagonist—>

The telltale signs of a protagonist is:

His character growth is central to the purpose of the plot

His choices are hinges for the turning points of the plot 

His choices determine the overall course of the plot 

The placement of secondary characters in the narrative is determined by how they relate to him

How the secondary characters relate to him affects or informs their choices and these choices will ultimately be meaningful in underlining or highlighting character traits in the protagonist - whether these traits are already known or brand new 

That’s a lot of words babbling on about shit. Let me break it down in actual conversational language, shall I? Yuh-huh I shall!

1. —>

The journey a character goes through brings meaning to the story. 

A character’s inner journey - their growth - is the emotional anchor for the audience into the narrative. 

If there’s no one to bring us into the world that the narrative is exploring, then there’s no one for us to relate to. 

In other words - why the fuck should we give half a toss about what’s happening in this world, right?

This is why the protagonist is most effective when he’s a multi-layered human being who begins his journey at a starting point that is going to reach an opposite bookend by the end of the story. That journey is our hook into the narrative - we want to see if the protagonist is successful and gets his reward, or if he refuses to learn and dies, or possibly a combination of both! We don’t know! It hopefully makes it very exciting! (if done right)

2 —>

The protagonist shouldn’t be passive in his own story

Meaning he should be the motor moving the narrative forward

The PLOT is there to throw the protagonist into sudden and new situations

These new situations force the protagonist to make CHOICES that service the narrative twofold:

By revealing character (ah, yes, the audience gets to see that the protagonist stands his ground and fights rather than flees)

By furthering the plot (a situation leads to a choice leads to a new situation leads to another choice, and so on)

The TURNING POINTS are the BIG CHOICES that the protagonist has to make where the character growth/progression is most clearly revealed to the audience. These choices usually comes at somewhat even intervals throughout the story and mark a NEW DIRECTION for the PLOT itself. 

3 —>

A passive protagonist who is led by the hand makes for a dull watch. 

Aurora in Sleeping Beauty is a prime example of a passive heroine. 

She’s not in control, whatsoever, over her own fate. 

The reason Sleeping Beauty is still a fun watch is because, at least in the Disney version, Aurora is not the protagonist: the fairies are. How? Well, let me tell you.

They convince the King that he must let them take his daughter

They make the choice to change their form and learn to live a human life in order to raise Aurora and keep her safe from Maleficent

They make the choice of telling Aurora who she really is when they learn she’s fallen in love

They make the difficult choice to bring her to the castle though her heart is broken

They’re confronted with their failure as Maleficent still gets Aurora to prick her finger

They choose to put the castle to sleep and to save the one person who can restore the kingdom: Prince Philip

They put themselves in peril for the love they have for their adoptive girl

And in the end they watch, proudly, as she takes her rightful place as princess, and bride to be, on Prince Philip’s arm

(*cough*SPN parallels*cough*)

Now, the fairies don’t go through that much of a change, not really, but they still go through a journey and one that could be called circular, rather than progressive: they end up where they began, having fulfilled their allotted “quest”, as t’were.

But this is how CHOICES that drive the PLOT also denotes the “hero” of the tale. (I like the word protagonist more because genderless) Sam, Dean and Cas have all of them made BIG CHOICES that have affected the plot, created twists and turns, and have progressed the narrative, and all of them are going through an internal journey that is changing how they understand themselves and their place in the world.

But Sam states in S11 that, however much he loves hunting he wouldn’t be doing it without Dean - his choice to hunt and do what he loves, as a secondary character, is tied to the protagonist’s continuous need to watch over him and keep him safe.

I’m not getting into the love story. I will never finish this answer if I get into the love story of it all. Safe to say that Cas is the protagonist of his own story, just as Sam is, just as EVERY secondary character if written well needs to be, but Cas’ story is not the core journey for the narrative of this show (or he would be in ALL THE EPISODES) (please be in more episodes in S13 Cas)

OH MY GOD THIS REPLY IS GETTING SO LONG I WANT TO SAY SORRYNOTSORRY! :D

4. & 5. —> 

Secondary characters.

When you build a narrative, you usually begin with an idea of who your protagonist is, why this journey he or she is going on matters AT ALL to the world (why the fuck should anyone give half a toss) and what narrative setting is best suited as a backdrop and enhancement of this journey blah blah whatever. 

No really, it’s important. Because the secondary characters are secondary for a reason. Your secondary characters are there to do exactly what the narrative setting is doing for the protagonist: enhance, underline, highlight, further, support, mirror, oppose, whatever challenge is needed to make the main character’s final goal - his or her endgame - perfectly clear to the audience.

Let’s look at Dean and what the narrative is telling us about his endgame.

He will not go out in a blaze of glory. He’s learned that he doesn’t have to. He’s GROWN UP. He has evolved past that machismo ideal of Butch and Sundance and bullets flying. Or, for that matter, that even older soldier’s adage of dying with honour. 

Why has he grown out of that notion and into this new, adult view on reality?

Because of and thanks to the lessons he’s learned along the way - all of them owed to his helpers: the secondary characters that have either challenged his perception of himself and his place in the world, making him reflect on it, or that have supported the REAL HIM when he’s shown glimpses of him, underlining and highlighting the lesson that he is accepted and loved for who he is: he just has to accept himself, love himself

The main secondary characters - Sam and Castiel - still have individual arcs, and all of the stronger secondary character will. They’ll make their own choices and they’ll make mistakes and go through their own journeys, but the clincher is that they cannot reach endgame without the protagonist first reaching his.

Sam’s development has hinged entirely on Dean’s attitude loosening up. Sam couldn’t break away from Dean on his own because the core journey of the narrative doesn’t centre around Sam, it centres on Dean. So that moment was more integral to Dean’s journey, than to Sam’s. Which means that that BIG CHOICE - to finally let go and allow Sam to grow up - had to be given to Dean. This moment (among many) underlines that Dean IS our protagonist.

What about Cas’ death, you might say. That will, as it seems, have an enormous impact on Dean, but it was out of his hands.

Well, as I listed his character traits above, one of the foremost ones (to my mind) is Dean’s need for control. This comes from him taking responsibility on himself for EVERYTHING. Cas’ death wasn’t Dean’s choice because it’s meant (I HOPE) to teach Dean the lesson he’s already begun to learn in being capable of letting go of Sam and trusting his capabilities to look after himself, to LEAD: the lesson of accepting that some things are simply beyond you, they’re not your fault, and there’s nothing you can do to change them.

Dean blames himself for everything. He carries a heavy guilt around for the people he can’t save or fails to save. He’s the goddamn firewall and a lot of the time he comes up short, right? He needs to stop taking everything on himself. Like he told Cas in S11, letting go of the people you can’t save is the healthy thing and that’s the opposite of what he does.

It’s a lesson that’s been a long time coming.

So even Cas’ death is tied closely to Dean’s individual arc. Because Dean is our protagonist.

That said, I will state again that this doesn’t mean that Sam and Cas are less valuable to the overall narrative. On the contrary. Without them, Dean wouldn’t have been able to get to where he is now in his own story. They’ve influenced him and inspired him to change and grow. That’s the ultimate use of the secondary characters. And when most of the secondary characters are as fleshed out and grounded and human in their own right as they are on this show - that’s when you’re mining gold.

What about GoT you might now ask. Who the fuck is the protagonist there?

Well, to be fair, there are narratives that have multiple protagonists. But we’re talking Dean Winchester here, and these are the clear reasons I can see for why and how he can be viewed as the protagonist on SPN.

Wow, all of this said and I’m going to add this last thing: as much as Dean is our protagonist, there is equally the point to be made that Dean cannot reach his endgame without his brother and his love interest there to guide him. You take one of these men out of the equation and nothing adds up anymore (hence why we were given The End - to underline this very real fact). They’re all of them integral to the overall narrative, which is why S13 excites me to no end, because it looks like TFW are assembling Big Time, and the only way for all of them to reach a balanced and happy endgame is for them to be together, be supportive, be honest and openly communicating, and yes, it seems it’s now confirmed after all the SDCC goodness that they will do all this now that they have a common cause in Jack the nephilim.

Oh, but it will be beautiful!

And wow, wow, wow, that’s it, I think. I hope this wasn’t just a long rambling confusing mess of new information mixed with stuff you might’ve already known and I hope it helps in clarifying what makes Dean the mannish character!

I’m ending with a manly unicorn rainbow because why the hell not. :D

xx