#dkjsalkajaldkj i am sorry this kinda got long and maybe it doesn't make sense i am sorry :O

[semirahrose]

Have you ever stumbled upon a Sam hater's blog and sincerely questioned what show they're watching? Because I recently saw Sam described as manipulative, condescending, narcissistic, ungrateful, petty, hypocritical, entitled, only caring about himself, lacking empathy & compassion, demanding comfort while never showing any himself, playing the victim, guilt tripping those around him, being heartless, selfish, and apparently never taking responsibility for his mistakes. (1/2)

(2/2) I’ve just never been more confused. And when I see dozens and sometimes hundreds of people agreeing with these kinds of posts it makes me wonder if I’M the one misinterpreting Sam’s character. Are they right that Sam is supposedly this terrible or are they just demonizing him in order to prop up their own faves? Idk it’s just that Sam is one of my all time favorite fictional characters and these posts really get to me sometimes and make me feel like I’m losing it. Help Semirah!

Oh, dear. I have seen Sam described in exactly that same way, and I even read all the way through the “meta” that “supported” those assertions. 

I absolutely get how you feel. I feel the same way sometimes. I wonder if I’ve tumbled so far into my love for Sam that I’m deluding myself and others into thinking that Sam is one of the nicest fictional characters ever to grace the SPN universe.

And then I question myself and decide for a while that I’m utterly useless and should Stop™, but whether or not that is true, I eventually come to the conclusion that if I’m right about one thing in this entire Chuck-forsaken universe, I am  right about Sam. Okay, at least partially right—so maybe he doesn’t have the softest hair in the entire world; sue me.

The thing is, I question myself every time I stumble on that stuff. But then I take a deep breath and dive into it…

…and the lack of textual support is laughable. When Sam hate does come with “support”, it’s cherry-picked and stripped of context or supplied with a “context” that comes from fanon and is based on unsupported assumptions.

I may be critical of Dean in the SPN universe, but I try my best to be sensitive to the context of the story in which he acts. 

Here’s the thing: so many Sam haters cite that scene in “When the Levee Breaks” as absolute, irrefutable proof that Sam is not only a selfish, evil, egotistical bastard, but also a murderous sociopath. They say that because Sam overpowered Dean and put his hands around his neck, he intended to murder him and is therefore The Actual Worst™.

And I’m gonna be real: that was not Sam’s most glorious moment, and I don’t support violence as a solution regardless of who wields it, and I can’t defend what Sam or Dean did in that scene. I can’t, and I won’t… but it was entirely understandable, and though anyone who knows me is aware that I am skeptical about a lot of things regarding Dean, that scene doesn’t even register.

(Cinematically/writing-wise, though, it was amazing, and long overdue. The tension and anger had been building THE WHOLE FREAKING SEASON, and if punches were not thrown and things not broken, I don’t know what would have happened.)

So yeah. Not anyone’s most shining moment. Not Dean’s either. But while people like the ones you mentioned defend Dean’s repeated pattern of violence to the ends of the earth because ~he’s sad THOUGH~ Sam does not get the same generosity of spirit.

That encounter was inevitable on both sides, but Sam was particularly aggrieved, and that is why, for the first time in the entire freaking show, Sam himself (not possessed by a demon or a ghost or whatever the heck the Winchesters have seen and been possessed by up to this point), Sam initiated a physical conflict for the first time in the entire show. At that point, Dean had punched Sam several times without response or retaliation on Sam’s part, but no. Sam finally snaps after four whole seasons and he’s ~evil.

And I’m not defending violence, but context is absolutely necessary to understanding the reasoning on both sides.

Sam had just been tricked by people he loved and trusted. He was forced into a detox that would have killed him. He was left alone and in pain. Before Dean locked him in without food, a toilet, or support, he called him “weak […] desperate, [and] pathetic.” He and Dean both believed (yes, even in that very episode) that killing Lilith was the right thing and the only thing to do. Dean said he’d kill her even though he didn’t have a plan and the last seals were about to be broken. Sam felt backed into the corner. He hallucinated Dean saying horrible things and wasn’t able to differentiate it from reality. He escaped and drank blood from Ruby. He was under its influence during the confrontation with Dean.

Whether they meant to or not, both brothers said things that got to the very heart of the other’s insecurities, and for the first time, Sam not only threw the first punch but actually came up as the victor in that ugly, painful fight.

I’ll accept that Sam was rash, emotional, hurt, angry—I will not accept that he is evil or cruel or egotistical or whatever the hell else people are trying to sell. There isn’t any support for it.

Context matters, and it shows a man pushed to his limits, a man who never acted in that way before and has never done so since. 

contextmatters.

And even though I question myself every weekday and twice on Sundays, it doesn’t change the fact that all of the “evidence” of Sam’s evilness and selfishness and narcissism and sociopathy is cherrypicked (and naked of context) at best, and purposefully twisted and misinterpreted at worst.

Sam is flawed, perhaps more than I give him credit for. (Hey, I love him, and love makes us biased.) But he is one of the most faithful, selfless, kind, understanding, and compassionate characters in the show, and anyone who thinks otherwise is missing out.

So to the haters who try to paint Sam as evil, I say:

And to you, dearest anon, I say it’s 100% understandable that you feel the way you do, but with as much confidence as I have in me at any given moment, I can assure you that Sam is as well-intentioned, generous, faithful, badass, and loving fictional character as ever was crafted for this garbage fire of a show (and I say that in a loving way from my own dumpster), and I hope you can believe in that if in nothing else in this lengthy and rambling reply.