#dean as template for all modern hunters

[hnrywnchestr]

⸻  # 𝐇𝐍𝐑𝐘𝐖𝐍𝐂𝐇𝐄𝐒𝐓𝐑 ; this  is  a  medium activity,  heavily  plot  based  roleplaying blog  for  𝗛𝗘𝗡𝗥𝗬 𝗪𝗜𝗡𝗖𝗛𝗘𝗦𝗧𝗘𝗥  of supernatural.  extremely private.   penned by  stormie. 32. est.  est  march 2023.  

— [ 001 ]  THIS IS AN INDEPENDENT,  21+, extremely private rp blog for henry winchester from supernatural. he is canon divergent and headcanon based. if i do not follow you first, please do not follow this blog. i tend to hardblock frequently with those i wish not to interact with. no offense. it's for my own comfort and i would like to keep my dash enjoyable.

— [ 002 ]  THIS BLOG IS EXTREMELY PRIVATE AND MUTUALS ONLY , and i would appreciate it if that was respected. i tend to prefer plotted things more than winging it but if you don't have an idea for our muses, then shoot me a message. we'll work something out. all plotted interactions will get answered before anything else. keep in mind that i work 40+ hours a week in retail and won't be around every day for rp.

— [ 003 ]  WHEN IT COMES TO SHIPPING , this blog is multi-ship and strictly chemistry based , do not force ships on me as i won't do the same to you. ships are fun and i love them but i tend to be extremely picky with them. i portray henry as heterosexual.

— [ 004 ]  MY PORTRAYAL , post 8.12 — my henry becomes a hunter. he wasn't killed by abaddon but critically injured where he spent time in ICU before tagging on the road with dean and sam. this blog will feature a lot of his time learning the hunter ways from his grandsons as well as him learning modern living.

— [ 005 ] TRIGGERING TOPICS , are not limited to just nsfw but there will also be themes of death, gore, and everything else. including darker content. however, smut will be rarely written here as it's not my main focus. this blog is also 21+ due to the content and my comfort level. obviously no smut with minors. there will also be no disgusting topics such as rape, incest, and all that. don't touch this blog if you write/support that. this includes wincest.

— [ 005 ] CREDIT WHERE IT'S DUE , psd is by tigeredits on deviantart, icon template is by jaynedits, while everything else was made by me.

[readinginthereadyroom]

I’m thinking about when gordon said “word travels fast. you know how hunters talk” (spn 2x03). and bobby’s living room piled high with stacks of lore, pastor jim’s secret room, ellen’s roadhouse.

sam and dean are stumbling into john’s world. a world of hunters who help each other out, who share stories and lore—a community. one that sam and dean know nothing about.

and that’s because john never brought sam and dean to the roadhouse. never let ellen look after them or jo befriend them. instead he leaves them behind at motels, or at pastor jim’s church, or at bobby’s scrapyard. places where he thinks they will be isolated. where other people (besides himself) can’t influence them.

this is an abuse tactic. luckily for sam and dean, it doesn’t always work. we find out later how bobby becomes their stand-in parent. they are his boys. and that fight dean mentions bobby and john had? the one where bobby threatened to fill john up with buckshot (spn 1x22)—I’m gonna take a wild guess and say that was about bobby taking issue with how john was raising sam and dean. because bobby knows about abusive fathers.

and obviously there were repercussions. sam and dean hadn’t been back to the scrapyard since bobby threatened john (we don’t know when it was, but can assume it was years ago). just a couple lines but they speak volumes. hints at a john and bobby qpr divorce arc where john keeps the kids.

back to gordon. he’s a john mirror. like john used to, he drives a muscle car (a blood red el camino) with it’s own secret cache of weapons (notably in the backseat, where sam and dean would sit in the impala). gordon is the john who leaves his kids at a motel, so he can “go-it-alone”. the john who salivates over the details of a hunt, a broken and twisted man who believes all monsters are monsters full stop end of story.

gonna reference myself and say that yes, the narrative of season 2 is about who and what are monsters. and that includes dean (after his many brushes with death) but also john. if season 1 asked *where* is john? season 2 is asking *who* was john? was he a hunter or was he a killer? was he ever actually a father?

because john very obviously had a life outside of sam and dean. which, 20+ years later, they are only now learning about. ellen says there was a time that john “was like family” (spn 2x02). except that john didn’t have his actual family with him.

we will see this pattern repeated in a later season with adam.

and it’s because of john’s example that dean finds it so hard to let people in—he calls ellen a stranger at one point and he’s right! he and sam don’t know her at all, even if their dad did. and it’s also so very very confusing. john said one thing and did another.

dean’s job is to protect sam—and that includes from their dad. their family is complicated and messy and came with empty stomachs and bruises. and was very strictly limited to four people: dad the drill sargent, dean the soldier, sam the baby, and the martyred memory of their mother.

and yes, gordon is a good hunter. ellen doesn’t deny that. but he’s also bad news. and he’s bad news BECAUSE he goes it alone. john is supposed to be redemptive because he had a community, because he was a father.

only he’s not. because john is also a mirror of dean’s. dean is willing to see the grey lines between monsters and humans. he goes back to bobby. he eventually trusts ellen. why? because dean is also a parent. he (and not john) raised sam. made sure he wasn’t just safe, but looked after. and he LISTENED TO SAM. sam saw that lenore wasn’t evil—and convinced dean. sam reached out to ellen and trusts her—and convinced dean to too.

we haven’t heard the iconic line “family don’t end in blood” yet (spn 3x16). but that’s what we’re building toward here. with john outta the picture we’re starting to see sam and dean branch out of thier isolated nuclear family. to step into a community. into a new family—one they choose.