#LOTS OF FREAKING PARENTAL ISSUES TOUCHED UPON IN 13x03

[naruhearts]

13x03: “But I CAN’T!!”

I...

I’m floored.

I just.

I have an entire amalgam of scream-y and flail-y thoughts darting inside my head like they’re high on sugar because of 13x03 overall, but this scene???

Sam: “I didn’t ‘end bad’. When I was ‘the freak’—when I was drinking demon blood—”

Dean: “C’mon man, that was totally different.”

Sam: “Was it? Because you could’ve put a bullet in me. Dad told you to put a bullet in me but you didn’t. You saved me. So help me save him.”

Dean: “You deserved to be saved. He doesn’t!”

Sam: “Yes he does, Dean! Of course he does!!”

Dean: “Look, I know you think that you can use him as some sort of an—interdimensional can opener. That’s fine. But don’t act like you care about him because you only care about what he can do for you. So if you wanna pretend, that’s fine. But me, I can hardly look at the kid ‘cause when I do, all I see is everybody we’ve lost!”

Sam: “Mom chose to take that shot at Lucifer. That is not on Jack.”

Dean: “And what about Cas?”

Sam: “What about Cas?”

Dean: “He manipulated him. He made him promises—said ‘Paradise on Earth’, and Cas bought it. And you know what that got him? It got him DEAD. Now you might be able to forget about that but I CAN’T!!”

Jack: *powers up* Castiel…

*Cas wakes*

I want to send Berens, Dabb & Co 134045093490384098 rainbow cakes.

This heart-wrenching, severely emotional exchange between Dean and Sam ended me. It ended me because Dean STIMULATED JACK’S POWERS--EMOTIONALLY-DRIVEN POWERS (Dean as the Emotional Hero)--while we as a collective gasping audience biting our nails observed that:

DEAN’S GRIEF IS CAS-CENTRED. He’s grieving--he’s hollow and internally festering and no longer gives a single flying shit--BECAUSE OF CAS. Mary is mentioned by SAM, whereas DEAN is the one who once again BRINGS CAS TO THE FOREFRONT OF THEIR ARGUMENT. This was a MAJOR EXPOSITION and made me yell at @thetwistedwillow and @sactownbrowns3 in crazy-ass excitement. I honestly don’t know how to explain Dean’s HUGE emotional outburst to non-Destiel believers in an objective, detached way ‘cause oh my god, seriously? At this point, after ALL the layered, textualized subtext from 13x01 and 13x02 we’ve gotten which keep tying together these consistencies--presenting Dean’s grief on a pretty much gargantuan scale that is “nothing like we’ve ever seen before”? THEY TRULY INDICATE THAT DEAN WAS IN LOVE WITH CAS.

(S7 Grieving!Dean / “I can’t shrug this off” callback that is much more blatant. So much more blatant. Look at the sheer grief-stricken anguish written across Dean’s face. Look at his furious, broken eyes. Look at him scream. ARGH. May I additionally point out Sam’s silent understanding here? Remember, Sam knows. He always knew.)

Copying and pasting something I wrote not-so-calmly several weeks ago since it’s 100% relevant to 13x03:

How do you explain the continuous distinction between Sam and Dean in terms of GRIEF PROCESSING (which, fyi, the showrunners/writers themselves keep pushing into PR)? (Yes, PR is not showrunning but at this point…*mic drop*) How do you explain the constant “DEAN IS TORN AND WRECKED AND EMOTIONALLY INCAPACITATED WHILE SAM ISN’T” discourse that the writers themselves seemingly substantiate with their interviews/sneak peeks/etc? How do you explain stuff like “Dean is just as low as we’ve ever seen him. And he just doesn’t seem to be at that point, being able to turn disaster around and come back. And of course the re-emergence of Castiel is a huge piece in turning Dean around again”? How come SAM isn’t the one who is FURIOUS AT JACK, who WANTS TO “SHOOT HIM IN THE FACE”/GET RID OF HIM, and who would, no doubt, BLAME HIM FOR CAS’ DEATH? How come SAM isn’t the one who “doesn’t deal with grief very well” (thank you, Jensen)? HOW DO YOU EXPLAIN ALL OF THIS?

Well. You can’t beat around the bush anymore. It’s futile difficult to sift through your brain and find a convincing counter-proposition to “Dean is grieving because he lost the love of his life and he hates Jack for it”. 

13x03 just corroborated this like a damn crater-sized bomb (yeah, the scene was a bomb).

¯\_(ツ)_/¯    ¯\_(ツ)_/¯     ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

**I’m sorry, I need to delve into 3/4 wank-y side commentary**

I mean, so many of us--so many meta writers in the Destiel community--have predicted this steep, sharp bump in the road ever since Cas died in 12x23. 

It's logical to assume Dean will cope with his grief THIS TERRIBLY since we base it on the belief that he is in love with Cas. 

Dabb & Co are pushing it to the surface. The Destiel love story was an integral part of the show the whole time. 

Calling S13 “boring, weird, or OOC” simply goes to show that antis don’t understand SPN’s storytelling structure. Right now, it paves the way for the full character progression of TFW's individual members (and TFW altogether via Jack BLANK SLATE Winchester). Antis don't understand past-present narrative symbolism and miss the fact that S13 is about Journeys, Connections, and New Beginnings. Cas had to die so he can be REBORN and gain (self)confidence/(self)faith. Dean had to grieve so he can HEAL and gain (self)acceptance, (self)tolerance, and (self)forgiveness.

Haters think Dean is "OOC" when the reality is--Dean’s in character! This is how he's going to react to Cas' death. 

Bottom line: antis say S13 "doesn't make sense”/"has shitty storylines"/"made Dean soft" because they don't see the Destiel. Dean's behaviour is derived from HIS FEELINGS FOR CAS. It’s the biggest piece of the puzzle that they're missing. If you don't believe in Destiel, S13 will make no sense. I’m not surprised that the hate towards S13 is at an all-time high (based on what I’ve seen lately). 

**wipes sweat off face and returns to 03 review**

  JACK KNOWS. Knows Dean BLAMES him for CAS’ DEATH. KNOWS DEAN IS IN LOVE WITH HIS FATHER. KNOWS HE MUST BRING CAS BACK TO WIN DEAN’S APPROVAL (aka he “NEEDS A WIN” FOR HIMSELF and FOR DEAN). This depicted vital callbacks to:  a) 12x19 Cas telling Dean he needs a win for him and for himself/Cas ‘doing the wrong thing for the right reasons’ to try and seek inner self-validation (obviously in this case, bringing Cas back is the right thing--“the re-emergence of Castiel is a huge piece in turning Dean around again” characteristically).  b) Dean’s own harrowing past/childhood, pulling out the Dean--seeking--John’s--approval and general neglectful Grieving!John/Dean--John--Sam parallels in regards to Sam as ‘the freak’ and dangling them right in front of our noses.  Yup, Jack is TFW’s unifying mirror. 

gif credit: x