#just thinking about the various ways the show frames cas's relationship as being a sam-and-dean kinda thing

[crackers4jenn]

spn is such a funny show, it'll be like:

Naomi tells Cas he has to choose "us, or them" and 'them' is meant to imply Sam and Dean both, but then

she makes Cas kill fake copies of Dean only

Or Metatron will speechify about how Cas is "in love... with humanity"

and then give Cas another lil speech about how it was all "to save Dean Winchester. That was your goal, right? I mean, you draped yourself in the flag of Heaven, but ultimately it was about saving one human, right?"

Ishim shows up and tries to tell Cas how weak he is for befriending Sam and Dean

and then when he wants to "cure" Cas of his human weakness, that weakness is just Dean

AND THEN you'll have things like

Sam will say that Cas is family, that he'd die for him

but he also refers to Cas as an "it" just hanging around in a vessel strong enough to take on Lucifer (in season 11!! It's not like he said that in s4 or something, it was like 8 years after knowing the guy)

Or in "Regarding Dean," Dean will say to Sam "and our best friend's an angel!"

and then when he's by himself in the mirror, he'll say "and Cast--Cas is my best friend."

[katsidhe]

could you do 9.10 and 9.13 for episode reviews.

Love your takes btw.

9.10 Final Thoughts

well, well, well, if it isn’t my old friend season 9. God I love season 9. buckle in. 

Plenty of what season 9 tries to do with angel drama falls flat, but plenty of it doesn’t. It’s at its strongest when interrogating the ways that the angels are looking for personal purpose, rather than folding themselves into various suit-clad factions. In this episode, we have Gadreel, Abner, and Thaddeus, all with very different takes.

Thaddeus is the most boring of the three—a straightforward narcissist and sadist. (Lucifer will follow in his rockstar-impersonating footsteps in s12. SPN clearly has a dim view of the music industry.) We don’t care when he dies, and we aren’t meant to.

Abner’s found a family, and he’s let go of revenge. He’s clearly found peace and happiness—but it’s stolen.  I’m ambivalent about this. I guess I could take his word that his vessel was abusive and therefore deserves to have been permanently body-snatched, and I guess I could believe him when he says his new family loves him, even though they clearly don’t know what he is or what he’s done. His regard for humanity as something other than a project is… uncertain. Even if everything is as sunny as he explains to Gadreel, there is fundamental selfishness and short-sightedness here. Get what you want, Abner says, and never let go.

Gadreel asks Abner if his vessel is happy. This reveals both Abner’s scorn for his vessel, and Gadreel’s uncomfortable awareness of and respect for Sam (and his bartender vessel, who Gadreel stares at, and who accepts Gadreel back easily).

Gadreel! OF COURSE Gadreel’s gotta be the scapegoat for Lucifer’s release, HAHAHAH. I love him to pieces, oml. Seriously, the Sam parallels could not BE more blatant. I’ve talked about this before, that it makes the earned antipathy between them all the more alarming, all the more visceral. The big sticking point is that Gadreel’s years of pointless torture came prior to his “redemption” arc, rather than as a consequence of it. Gadreel has all of s5 Sam’s despair and helpless anger and self-loathing, all of his drive to set things right at any price, and all of it is amplified by his trauma.

Sam and Gadreel’s relationship is defined by its liminal spaces. Gadreel threatens to tear Sam apart, but he does not, even when he is tortured. He locks Sam away in a dream rather than force him to watch him kill, or to suffer. But when Sam forces Gadreel out, Gadreel leaps instantly on telling Sam he is weak, reciting back Sam’s fears and Gadreel’s own. This reads like Gadreel is aiming quite a lot of his own self-pity and self-hatred at Sam.

Cas’s murderous rage at Gadreel when his identity is revealed is fun. It shows that Heaven’s PR team did a good job, for one thing. But Cas is furious because it’s specifically Lucifer. And the Apocalypse, and all the attendant suffering, his and Dean’s and Sam’s. It’s a personal wrath.

“Stupid for the right reasons…” oh, Cas, your scarcity of positive human role models is showing. Also, Cas’s particular brand of reassurance here isn’t actually something Dean has a problem with. He expresses regret over having been tricked—he says he’s stupid, he says he got played—but he’s never in doubt that his intentions were good. He’s never in doubt that he did the righteous thing. He’s never in doubt that he’d do it again.

Dean apologizes to Cas for barring him from the bunker. (Sam will not receive an apology.) Cas compares what Dean did to Sam to what Cas did by trusting Naomi. There’s a key difference here. Cas’s moral compass is not the problem; it’s his critical thinking skills.

Crowley, Cas, and Dean are a hilarious trio. (Also, I really hope that Cas’s pimpmobile got to Heaven too, like the Impala.)

Crowley being genuinely sorry that Kevin’s gone and his willingness to risk his life to help Sam are the best two moments of the generally weak Crowley-has-human-blood plot line. They feel earned. [also Crowley’s ‘I told Kevin he should’ve run!’ is both accurate, funny, and sad.]

Let’s talk 4.21 parallels! I mean, first, the glaringly obvious: Sam locked down to be purged of something supernatural; Sam suffering; Dean unable to bear Sam’s tortured screams; a very atmospheric fan. Dean walking away.

and then, of course, there’s “at least he dies human.” Right off the bat, Dean tells Cas he’s going to kill Gadreel. Cas, concerned, says that this will kill Sam too; Dean, sounding tortured, says he knows. Now, obviously, Dean doesn’t kill Sam. He doesn’t even get particularly close. But it’s really interesting that this is the first thing Dean brings up! He declares unprompted that he’s ready to kill Sam rather than leave him possessed. Which is both a recapitulation of the save-him-or-kill-him mantra, and an ironic twist on the decision Dean made in 9.01. Then, Dean knew Sam would rather die than be possessed, but had him possessed anyway. Now, Dean has decided instead that Sam must die because he is possessed. Obviously Dean’s opinion on the possessing entity has changed in the meantime: Sam’s hasn’t, but Sam’s isn’t what matters. 

Dean reaches new levels of PEAK IRONY when he declares that Cas should possess Sam too. Cas has to actually point out that Dean can’t, in fact, volunteer Sam’s permission. Because apparently Dean had forgotten, lmaooo. Crowley, on the other hand, is happy to oblige. Dean directs Cas to burn Sam’s tattoo off.

The language of this entire scene is so sexual. I mean, it’s Crowley, of course it is, double entendre is his first language. But this theme recurs again and again. Here it is just more pointed than usual. It is queasy.

Gadreel has Sam trapped in a Dean-type happy place—a hunt with ghouls and cheerleaders, no organic produce to be found. And I don’t think it’s because Gadreel doesn’t understand what Sam likes. I think it’s because Gadreel’s aim was for Sam to feel comfortable, not blissful. It smacks of Hallucifer, just a bit—using the verisimilitude of Dean’s louder moods rather than trying to appeal directly to Sam’s contentment, because of his always questionable, always a question, sense of reality. If things were too smooth, too cheerful, Sam might just be suspicious. Sam is easier to trick by proxy. 

The HORROR of this episode for Sam: Gadreel washing someone’s blood off of Sam’s hands. Crowley pushing needles into his brain. Sam’s body and life as a bargaining chip as Gadreel threatens to kill him, and then as Dean threatens to kill him right back. The quiet heartbreak as Sam remembers Kevin’s death, as he realizes the magnitude of Dean’s betrayal. But the worst part of it, I think, is somehow still Sam’s face when Crowley comes to get him in the dream where Gadreel stashed him. How his expression just crumples as Crowley tells him he is trapped in a lie, that his mindscape is once again a prison, that he truly cannot trust his reality. The sheer devastation of this on top of Sam’s history, plus the knowledge that Dean did this—and he pulls himself together and puts his foot on Gadreel’s neck and casts him OUT anyway. Sam Fucking Winchester.

and then the Bridge Scene. The lighting, the staging… it’s fucking gorgeous. It’s one of those scenes where I knew as I was watching it for the first time, seven years ago, that it was going to be something. I held my breath and still hold my breath. I can’t take my eyes off the way that Sam is shaking slightly, the entire time. The way he can barely meet Dean’s eyes but he does it anyway. He SAYS HIS PIECE, says it clearly, says it with an even tone despite what he’s gone through, despite the holes in his head that were healed seconds ago.

I love the gentleness between Sam and Cas here. I love knowing that 9.11 follows this. I love that there is no question that Cas will leave with Dean—he is staying with Sam, to heal and support him, even after he spent this episode mostly reassuring Dean.

Dean does not start this conversation to apologize. He starts out with the intent to DELIBERATELY egg Sam on: “come on, let’s hear it.” It’s an incitement, because Dean wants Sam to act angry, so that Dean can feel more justified in leaving. Sam does not rise to the bait.

Dean has an excuse for every point Sam has: I had no choice, you were dying, it’s not in me, he saved your life. He says, “I did a bad thing with bad consequences and I would 100% do it again, anyway, bye.”

And then the most infuriating thing: Dean is in the wrong, so he tells the person he’s wronged, ugh, I’m just such an awful poisonous person, I’m going to burn for this. It’s so clearly wrong-headed. Intentional or not, it’s such an obvious invitation for Sam to comfort him that it might well have been embossed. If this were in e.g. season 15, or if the crime he’d committed had been less awful, I can easily hear Sam’s reassurance: no, Dean, I promise you’re a good person, we all make mistakes. It is the most toxic way possible to frame a potential apology.

The textual theme of Dean-as-poison (and, for that matter, the consequence of Kevin’s death vs. the initial crime of the possession) is an intentional muddying of the waters: Crowley, Cas, and Dean himself all bring it up in some fashion, linking some fundamental aspect of Dean himself rather than Dean’s choices to Kevin’s death. Crowley is trying to be cutting; Cas is trying to be supportive; Dean is both excusing himself and camouflaging that fact in his exhausting self-loathing. There is a complicated interplay of what the text says about Dean’s guilt and what it condemns; this pattern continues throughout s9, and reaches its apex in the next several episodes. Dean’s love as a condemning feature rather than a redeeming one is one of my favorite things about SPN, and s9 has it in HIGH gear.

But, here, at least, Sam doesn’t rise to this bait either. “Don’t go thinking that’s the problem, ‘cause it’s not.” The problem is obviously, achingly, exhaustingly clear. Sam’s spelled it out in this very conversation: you tricked me. You lied to me. You got me possessed when I was willing to die. But Dean, and a fair portion of the audience, can’t hear it. So he doesn’t. And they don’t, and they pretend that this line is some sort of puzzle! a cliffhanger on a conversation unfinished! when it was the conclusion, not the beginning.

image that is now inextricable from 9.10

[castielcommunism]

same anon-thanks for the answer! i enjoy reading your thoughts.

i guess i kind of disagree that dean is narratively never punished though i definitely get where you're coming from and agree that all these things CAN be rationalized which is less interesting and detrimental to real character work. i think dean is "punished" in that overwhelmingly horrible things continue to happen to him which i would argue the show sees as "punishment." but you are right in that the show doesn't let him be "wrong" about bigger issues (except i guess debatably the decision to allow michael to posses him).

i think you're right also about it mostly being a problem with sam and cas's lack of reaction to any of this as well (down to neither of them ever finding out that dean killed himself during the widower's arc). cas was MEAN in his first few seasons and shouldn't have hesitated to scream at dean over jack. sam essentially exists as a tchotchke with a tape recorder taped on. honestly in retrospect i think the show permanently fell on its face as soon as season 9 started and never recovered even if i like certain characters/episodes/ideas after that (namely rowena, the love of my life). i also don't know where the narrative shift of "dean is becoming like john now" started but i also think it's poorly handled and always thought it was more interesting that sam was more like john than dean could ever be even with him trying.

yeah I think there might be some miscommunication about what we both mean by “punishment”. like the show is basically just bad things happening to sam and dean over and over again, but dean is framed as the POV character so things like cas and mary dying are seen as largely (if not exclusively) his losses, not sam’s. which personally I view less as narrative punishment and more as, like, a plot device lol. It’s a BAD plot device but IMO it’s done more to generate conflict and drive the plot as opposed to punishing dean.

there’s also sam and cas, who are punished emotionally by the narrative for “disobeying” dean or whatever (I’m struggling to come up with examples atm because my brain is a bit fried but I know there are examples in the show), which is what I mean when I say punishment in the context of the show. however I agree that dean is written in a very unflattering light in the later seasons, possibly deliberately (idk enough about the showrunners to comment on intentionality), but it’s also done in a boring way that I personally dislike because it feels like wanting to have your cake (deancrit) and eat it too (dean apologism).

re: the sam stuff, I know dean says his brother is like john but I never got that impression lol? maybe I’m missing something but like, sam is openly angry and driven towards revenge in the very early seasons but that fades pretty fast. I think dean is presented as the john clone bc he’s put in positions of authority over other people more and acts as a father figure throughout the show to various people, so it naturally comes out more. Honestly I think a lot of it comes down to dean becoming the main character and inheriting all the personal conflict, character flaws, relationships with side characters, etc, so he’s got way too much going on and also does a lot of just, like, insane shit that never gets addressed. S8 is also where I stop paying attention to stuff that’s happening and cherry pick individual eps/arcs from the rest of the show

[laikuh]

Hi! Would you like to expand on why Lebanon is a manipulation? Or link to a post if you've already talked about it before, I'm intrigued (and have seen the episode only once, tbf)

hello! sure!

i have talked about this before, but i don’t mind doing so again, and idk if i’ve talked about it in this specific way anyway, so it’s all good. you can scroll through my meta tag (which i’ll use in the tags of this post) and see my various takes on john/the boys/”lebanon”/heaven, but basically this is what i mean.

first off, i was being flippant last night when i used the word manipulation, but i guess i don’t really want to take it back. i like “lebanon,” and i think it serves a purpose, but i also think it is...kind of a manipulation of the audience’s feelings specifically wrt john. “lebanon” is preceded by “prophet and loss,” which contains this conversation between sam and dean:

so, this is the first acknowledgement we get of sonny’s boys’ home since the s9 episode where we get the original story (”bad boys”), and it’s the first confirmation we get that dean was sent away more than once. sure, maybe not always to homes, we don’t know. but at the very least he was removed from the family unit as a punishment, which was hidden from sam and clearly framed by john and dean as something dean deserved to feel guilty for, or he wouldn’t have worked so hard during “bad boys” to excuse john’s decision to leave him there.

that’s super fucked up. like. undeniably fucked up. john did that. the show made an effort to remind us that he did that, and that it’s something that so stuck with dean that decades later as he mentally prepares himself to essentially die, he feels the need to confess his guilt over being absent repeatedly to sam.

john did that.

but right after “prophet and loss” we get....“lebanon.” which tells us that another of dean’s deathbed wishes, besides absolution for being an awful mother-brother to sam, is to have the whole family back together. to have john winchester alive and well. and it’s almost like this conversation is kind of wiped from our minds bc omg! they’re all together again! everyone is crying! so sweet! what a happy family!

and this gives me two follow up thoughts. the first i will just link to a post for, which is that i think it’s interesting to think about dean’s wish not really having everyone together, but specifically everyone together for just one night, which i talked about here and which either no one saw or no one liked lmao, going off the notes. i believe after i posted that meta i did get an ask saying they thought everyone in heaven would be fine bc john would have had time to change, and like, that’s valid. i hope so!

my second thought is that it’s not that i don’t think both of these understandings of john can exist at the same time, because i believe they can and should. and that’s what i meant in my post yesterday with that quick eta about sam’s and dean’s relationship to john. you can love the person who hurt you, and i don’t...like i’m not begrudging that because i know it personally to be true. and so i think “lebanon” is important because it gave sam and dean (and i guess mary) closure, and that’s huge. im grateful for that. but what i know i have also said before (tho idk where) is that my issue is that the show doesn’t (imo) give sam and dean enough breathing room and time to really address their conflicting feelings about john. like, idk if i think it’s addressing them to have that exchange in “prophet and loss” and then immediately follow it up with “lebanon” when there’s no connection made between the two.

i have also talked about this fic here, but there’s a lovely destiel fic where dean is a secret poet who takes a class from cas, who is an expert in dean’s poetry. and it’s a great fic, and i love the destiel stuff to bits and pieces, but what really sticks with me is the way it weaves in dean’s grief over the recent death of his father, and how it gives some room for sam and dean to gently talk about how they feel about john after he dies in which they get more explicit about what they feel then in the show itself, which just kind of dances around stuff. it’s not that i want my hand held or shit spoon-fed to me, but i just want them to talk and reflect now that they’re fully adults on what they’re upbringing did to them and the ways in which they do and don’t cope, the ways they have and haven’t moved on.

and maybe we could say, well, vin, that was “lebanon”! like, the closure in that episode is the final word, the final reflection. and, okay! i would buy it! except then s15 comes around, and sam tells dean that dean “protected” him from their father--PROTECTED?! WHAT DOES THAT EVEN MEAN?--and then there’s the deleted scene from inherit the earth, which like, i know deleted scenes aren’t canon i know, but still, dean wants to toast “to john” and sam is taken aback and says, “dad?" so, notable on two fronts, bc dean calls him “john” even though he calls mary “mom” and also bc sam seems genuinely surprised dean would even want to honor him this way.

so yeah. when i say “lebanon” is a manipulation i mean that in the scheme of things, it does give sam and dean closure, but for audience members i think it’s meant to rend your heartstrings and encourage you not think too much about all the terrible things he did, because he loved them! and they loved him! which! fair!!! true!!! valid!!! i sincerely believe john loved his children and that his children loved him!!! but!!! i!!! want!!! the show!!! to be!!! as obsessed!!! with unpacking!!! the mess!!! that is!!! john winchester and his boys!!! as i am!!! and not just!!! tug at my heart strings!!! like that’s adding!!! real depth!!!

lol does that make sense?

[orionsangel86]

You want the boys to separate in the end?

Yes. Because it makes the most sense. I don’t say this because I hate them being together please don’t assume that. I love Sam and Dean together, but I find their relationship very interesting in how they have basically been forced from childhood to depend entirely on each other and to not really know how to function without each other and since at least season 8 the show has been showing us just how unhealthy this is.

When I talk about the toxic codependency, I am not being hateful towards the brothers bond. I am just explaining what I feel the show itself has made very clear - that Sam and Dean’s dependence on each other, and desperation to stay joined at the hip, has caused not only a threat to their own safety and mental health, but also a threat to the world. Their terrible decision making when the other is in danger has been shown over and over again. Their willingness not just to die for each other, but to sacrifice the world for each other, is a huge problem, and one that hasn’t been tackled fully in the show, but we have been making great progress with it in the later seasons.

In fact, so much of Chuck’s storyline relies on Sam and Dean’s codependency. In 15x09, the vision that Chuck showed Sam of the future where “they won” was tied heavily to the brothers inability to let each other go, even when they were both extremely unhappy. They just spiralled until they ultimately became what they had always fought against. Of course, there were other key factors such as Dean losing Cas which caused him to give up leaving his only reason for living being his brother (which is a bleak and horrid future but one that did make sense given the season 13 grief arc), but ultimately it was the reiteration of “Butch and Sundance” and the call backs to the warewolf murder suicide from 15x05. Sam and Dean’s codependency is always their downfall.

When the show has explored the brothers separate desires, dreams, and wants, throughout the series, it has always clearly shown how different those desires are. Sam has previously questioned whether he would continue to hunt without Dean. He has said that he couldn’t do it without him, but so much of the time hunting and Sam are not portrayed positively. It always comes across as an obligation or something he has resigned himself to. Sam has explored taking a leadership role - which he suited extremely well until his set back in season 14, and he has also been a sort of apprentice to our Witch Queen Rowena. More recently, his relationship with Eileen has been framed as a realistic goal for him. She is a hunter too, but they are also both legacies. Sam’s desire to learn and gather lore, his interest in magic and his leadership skills have all been built on and explored more heavily in Dabb era. It stands to reason that Sam’s future and endgame lies somewhere among these things.

Dean, on the other hand, thrives in hunting. Where Sam was dragged back into it much to his own protests, Dean always enjoyed it. Dean enjoys the hunt. He wouldn’t have called Purgatory “pure” if that wasn’t the case. But Dean has also expressed his desire for a beach vacation and also a partner to stay by his side. He says he won’t do the apple pie life, but so much of Dean’s arc has been about finding a happy middle ground between apple pie life and hunting. Dean has a lot of abandonment issues - something the show has made very obvious since season 1, and in later seasons what I have always called Dean’s “pining arc” has continued to subtly play out in the subtext. Sam may have the clear romantic love interest right now, but Dean still very much wants that too. 15x10 showed this through Garth, and through Dean’s dream, where symbolically his platonic dance partner disappears and instead Dean dances with a lamp whilst imagining a love interest. The meaning in that is blatantly obvious.

Given that Chuck’s ending wish is for the brothers to die in some epic murder suicide way, we know that this won’t happen. Sacrifice is also old news on this show, so in fact is death in general since death will never be satisfying in a show that made death trivial in season 2. I believe that part of the endgame will be a massive shake up of the afterlife and the various realms but I still don’t think the show can end with both brothers dead. So how then are we supposed to close out this story if they stay alive and are still just doing what they do? There still needs to be some sort of bittersweet feel to it. It has to feel like the end of an era, but once you rule death off the cards, a brother separation by choice is the only thing that feels right.

Plus it makes sense. The toxic codependency MUST end. That is a big key area that has been laid out as a negative quality in the brothers relationship for seasons now. Sam must choose to find his own path away from standard hunting, and Dean must find a level of peace that allows him to go on whilst also letting Sam go. Dean must choose to let Sam go, just as Sam must choose to walk away.

This is why Castiel and Eileen are so important. Eileen has her purpose by Sam’s side. The liklihood that she is an endgame match for him is very strong. Even if they don’t actually take the relationship any further in text, just her coming back and standing by Sam’s side would be enough now following the kiss for the show to set that relationship in stone.

Castiel has his own journey to make, one that includes fixing heaven, guiding Jack towards his true purpose (my speculation being him taking Chuck’s place as God), and making a choice about his own future. Given every single one of Castiel’s storylines so far in the entire series, Castiel should choose Dean.

Whether this means Castiel decides to permanently give up his halo or not remains to be seen, but Castiel fits the missing space by Dean’s side in every way. I don’t just say this as a Destiel shipper, I say it because the story has placed Cas in this role countless times now. It makes sense. Regardless of whether the surface level relationship between them remains platonic or takes that final step, I am pretty damn positive the ending will keep Dean and Cas together, with the “end of an era” closing bittersweet emotional note being Sam and Dean saying goodbye to one another and parting as brothers who have been on one hell of a journey, but recognise that it has come to an end.

Frankly, it’s my ideal ending for the show. Sam taking Eileen’s hand and making the choice to travel the world searching for other Men of Letters chapter houses, to collect more magical artifacts, and to build a better resource for other hunters world wide to tackle the remaining supernatural creatures on Earth (yes I know i’m entering fanfiction territory here but I love the idea of Sam being a Supernatural artifact hunter in Europe - give me THAT spin off!) and Dean and Cas sitting side by side in the Impala, on their way to the beach - Dean will take Cas shopping first of course. He’ll try to convince him to buy a tiny blue speedo but Cas will raise an eyebrow and pick out the novelty swim trunks with the little bees on them (He’ll alsosecretly get the speedo for later).

Okay okay I’ll stop with the fanfiction :P. Other than my silly ending headcanons, the parting of the brothers just makes sense. If you don’t agree that’s fine. This is all just my spec and Dabb does have a tendency to throw major curveballs at us so who knows what will actually happen. So long as they don’t go all Game of Thrones on us.

[neven-ebrez]

Hmm, I've always seen Cas as the pursuer. In the end, I think Cas girls see Cas as the one who submits/is pursued, and it's the other way around for Dean girls, and it probably says a lot about the girl herself whom she identifies more with. As for 10x22, I'm sorry, but the MoC absolutely qualifies as mind control -- and Cas has gaslit Dean/beat Dean/nearly killed Dean just as many times.

Hi there. Cas literally leaves Dean all the time. Dean also does this, but it’s more framed by “You can’t stay” (quite literally in 9x03) to Cas, or Dean simply asking Cas where he’s going, what he’s doing next. I think it’s more accurate to say Cas does less pursuing and more making himself available (waiting) I guess is the way you’d word it. Cas sees intimacy with Dean as something frowned upon (this part he cares less for the further we go on as he’s been pretty steady on the outs with angels for a while now and just kinda accepts their judgment of him) and sex is practically forbidden (no clue where Cas’ current mindset over this is because imo this is a part of what the nephilim storyline did for Cas, which is reframed angel/human interaction as producing something good, which is a part of why when Jack’s human side was eaten up, Dean and Cas’ relationship disintergrated with it imo). Right now Cas is absolutely the one being pursued tho, as I said before, quite literally in 15x09. Dean tries to find him and Cas waits. It’s like a game of tag. And the writing still frames Dean as the one needing to find a way to get Cas to stay with him. Cas is not coming to Dean and asking, “Can I stay with you?” Though by now, it’s quite understood by Dean that Cas always returns to make himself available should Dean be brave enough just to ask Cas to stay with him, to “tag” him. But since Dean continues not to ask, Cas often leaves for various reasons most often related to how wanting to stay with Dean is not a mission (15x05’s cut scene touched on this too when Sam asked Dean about Cas leaving and Dean said it wasn’t his JOB to stop him). It’s selfish in Cas’ mind (Dean’s too) and Cas doesn’t know how to take care of himself emotionally (though I’d argue this changes in 15x03 finally). Learning to take care of their own emotional needs and acknowledge their own desires, not jobs, is important! They want to be together, however the show wants to frame it in detail.

As for the rest, I personally have a real tough time thinking of the MOC as mind control! To me it was more of an amplifier, pushing all of Dean’s negative qualities/thoughts to the max. The source was Amara (probably not thought of until after S10 was over but that’s just my suspicion) and she was also holding onto all this negativity. And this is where I blame the writing for failing my views here, if this view is indeed “wrong”. Looking at the whole of the story the amplifier understanding sits best with me personally.

S10 was not full of consistent controlled person mirrors like S8 was. I don’t know if you remember but I ranted about the MOC’s portrayal for almost a year when it was happening because the writing itself could never quite determine what metaphor/association it truly wanted, to my great frustration. When Robbie first wrote it in S9 they still hadn’t decided what it was going to be exactly besides Dean punishing himself or whatever. A lot of Carver era was them flying by the seat of their pants as a writing team! Maybe not with thematic delivery, but definitely concerning the details (and here’s where I say this is very, very likely because they didn’t know how long the show was continuing so to a degree I understand and sympathize with the problem here). So I’m sorry but I just don’t have the same view there! Granted, the show’s gonna have to be over for me to even consider watching the whole of S10 again.

And for the last, I never said Cas hasn’t done shitty stuff to Dean (outside their worst nature)? Cas beating the shit outta Dean in that 5x18 alleyway always comes to mind there. I was talking about extremes in my other post against natures and I’ve explained (both back then on my blog, and now) that I see the MOC as amplifying Dean’s violence/anger. I’m sorry but I just don’t understand this need of Dean fans and Cas fans that are Dean/Cas fans to keep a running tally of all the bad to prove which one of them is “better”, who gets blamed for what. If it’s something productive for you then good but to me this is exhausting. I look more at who they are together and who they are together ranges from simple to a fucking mess. They clearly want to be together tho, so I try to look more at how they can be good for each other, rather than how they can bring out the worst in each other. This is to say, I can see why these discussions are important I just personally don’t care to engage in them because I personally care more about how the current writing is going.

[nellie-elizabeth]

Supernatural: Moriah (14x20)

Well then! Yeesh!

Cons:

I wish we could do a bit more to sort out this whole Cas vs. Dean thing. Now that we've got bigger fish to fry for next season, it seems like Dean and Cas' pretty intense disagreement will likely be pushed aside in favor of... you know... surviving the end-times. But maybe I'll be pleasantly surprised, and their relationship drama will continue to be a factor as we enter into the final season of this show.

I really, really like the direction this is going, but I can't help but wonder if there were re-writes once the decision was made that Season Fifteen would be the end. It seems to me that several elements of the story, especially the stuff with Lucifer coming back, wound up being scrapped in favor of the ridiculously awesome reveal that Chuck is our final Big Bad. So while this finale on its own kicked some major ass, there were definitely some elements that didn't add up for me in terms of the buildup from the rest of the season.

Pros:

What a smart episode this was, though. Honestly. Usually the finales of Supernatural have to escalate things to some new extreme height so that we know what's coming in the next season. Oh no, we've started the apocalypse! Oh no, all the angels have fallen from Heaven! Oh no, the Darkness has been released! This season is, in some ways, no exception to that. Apparently, God is the villain. And he's done playing nice. While this might seem like just another classic Supernatural power-creep escalation, it's actually something a little different. And I love it. This is an opportunity to pit early show vs. late show against each other, by bringing back old villains, but letting Sam, Dean, and Cas handle it in the way they've learned to do over their many years of being hunters. It's an opportunity for nostalgia while at the same time a chance to focus on the one and only true central theme of Supernatural: free will. Honestly, this show goes all over the place with its plots and messaging, but at the center of it all, from day one, has been the idea of free will, and I love that we're setting up the final season to be a direct reckoning of that theme.

This episode was also a lot more down-to-earth than some other finales we've got. It's very focused - Jack is out there. Dean wants to kill him. Sam admits that killing him is maybe their only option. Cas is not on board. Three different approaches to one big problem. Meanwhile, Jack is trying to do the right thing without a soul to guide his conscience. And then God is there, and we learn once and for all that he truly does view the Winchesters as a story. That they've been puppets all along, dancing for his amusement. The end. I love that a lot of this episode really was just sitting around talking things out, making plans. It felt real, and grounded, in a way that I really appreciate from this show.

Let's talk Dean and Sam for a minute - I loved the scene when Dean said he was going to take the shot at Jack, effectively killing both Jack and himself. They don't even need to have the full conversation, because they've been there so many times before. And Sam says no - he's not going to be okay with a plan that makes him lose Jack and Dean in one fell swoop. He's lost enough as it is. Dean, who has over the last few seasons grown into a person who actually respects his brother's right to make his own decisions, has been having a bit of a relapse on account of Mary's death. He takes the gun and leaves without telling Sam. It's predictable, and frustrating, and it was easy for me to feel Sam's pain.

I love how angry Dean is, how his tight grip on his control seems to be in constant danger of snapping. He loves Sam, he loves Cas, and he loved Jack, but he can't bring himself to process those emotions in a healthy way right now. He needs to be a man on a mission, otherwise he'll fall apart. Jensen is doing such a great job with this. There's the moment in his conversation with Sam where he talks about the fact that God told them that Jack needed to die, so that's the end of the discussion. It's just so Dean to be such a hypocrite about this. Billie tells him that locking himself in a box is the only way to save the world? Cool. He'll do it. God tells him to kill his foster son? Cool. He'll do it. Because Dean Winchester kind of hates himself. And he definitely hates himself for Mary's death. It's just that in this case, he can kill Jack, the person who he outwardly blames, and himself, the person who he blames for everything, in one fell swoop. Yeesh. Poor Dean.

The moment when Dean shows up to kill Jack, and Cas is there and tells Jack to run? I fucking lost my mind. I am so in love with the way they've positioned Dean and Cas on opposite sides of this debate. These are two men who would die for each other - who have died for each other in fact. And in this moment, they are as opposed as they've ever been. Not since Season Six have we seen Cas and Dean at such odds with one another. There's this delicious tension to knowing that Dean is going to kill Jack at any cost, and Cas is going to stop Dean from killing Jack at any cost, and yet the thought of either of these people doing anything to hurt the other is so ludicrous. This is the stuff good drama is made of.

Then there's Sam Winchester, who easily gets MVP from me for this episode. We've seen, from the very early stages of this show when angels were considered an unrealistic fairy-tale, that Sam has always had faith. Maybe he hasn't quite understood the specifics of his own belief, but he's believed in a higher power and he's believed in the essential goodness of that power. We saw the way he behaved with Chuck when they met the last time. He was worshipful. Dean didn't quite understand it, but Sam... even when Sam was annoyed or frustrated with Chuck, he actually believed in him. So the moment when Sam says "hey, Chuck," and shoots God in the shoulder is honestly just... exquisite.

Sam spends this episode trying to contextualize everything that's been happening to them recently - he blames himself for Mary's death, because he's the one who brought Jack back without a soul. He tries to understand why Chuck hasn't been showing up to help them before now. He tries to explain himself to Dean, to make his brother hear him. He tries to reconcile his love for Jack with what Jack has become. And then he picks up a gun and he shoots God, even knowing he'll hurt or even kill himself to do it. And it's not a brave sacrifice play, or a planned moment - it's done in anger, in desperation, in fear. The realization that Chuck doesn't care about them is the biggest betrayal Sam Winchester has ever faced, and that's saying something, given the life he's lead. It's so hugely important to me that Sam is the one to make this move, and not Dean. It represents a breaking point for his character that I cannot wait to see play out next season.

Obviously I figured that Dean wouldn't really kill Jack, but I admire how much tension they still managed to put into that scene, and how, as Cas says "writers lie." The magic gun doesn't kill Jack; Chuck does that directly once he realizes that Dean isn't going to play the little game he's devised. We get this final shot of Sam, Dean, and Cas all standing back to back, ready to fight against the hoard of returned villains that are closing in on them. Cas has the angel blade, but Sam and Dean are practically unarmed, and Sam is bleeding from a gunshot wound to the shoulder. It's bleak, and on top of it all there's Jack's corpse just sitting there, a reminder of their failure.

We see Jack awaken in the Empty, and Billie seems to have plans for him, so now we've got a Billie vs. Chuck situation, with Jack, Cas, and the Winchesters as potential pawns. I am beyond excited to see how this plays out, and where Team Free Will lands in this battle for their own agency.

Before I finish this review, I want to praise the episode for suggesting the apocalyptic scope of Jack's powers. This show has never managed to really convey the way the whole world is affected by the various apocalypse-y type things that have come up over the years. But here we see that Jack's order to "stop lying" actually throws the whole world into chaos. If Chuck had wanted to see that play out, he would have; it's only his ability to reset things that saves the world. We see how people's inability to lie leads to instant resentments and chaos. It's actually a pretty great trope to explore some inter-character drama, so at first I was a little surprised that Sam and Dean didn't accidentally drop any uncomfortable truth bombs on each other when they both lacked the ability to lie. But then I realized - while Sam and Dean are having a rough time because of Mary right now, they are firmly on each other's sides and fighting to preserve their family at all costs. They actually aren't hiding anything from each other, and they haven't been for quite some time.

As a plus, all of this stuff is actually pretty humorous too - I loved the Celine Dion bit, and Dean going on and on about internet gossip, and the guys fighting about yogurt, the newscaster confessing his love, and the not-so-subtle dig at Trump.

Okay. This review is long, but I think that's allowed, given that it's for a finale. I greatly enjoyed it. I thought the smaller scale and the more character-driven story worked in its favor, and I love that everything from the plot to the framing is placing Castiel on equal footing with Sam and Dean as a protagonist for the finale season. I can't wait to see what we get next year! This time in 2020, I'll be sobbing my eyes out as "Carry On Wayward Son" plays over one last montage... it's going to be a wild ride.

9/10

[tinkdw]

Good morning Tink. I was thinking about season 8 and I realised Cas didn't seem to mind losing his virginity to someone who killed him right after. He didn't express any regrets and even smiled thinking about it. Any thoughts on the subject?

Hi! You mean season 9 and April right?

It’s not long but it’s under the cut as this is during his human experience and as such is entirely relevant to human!cas meta in general and I’m not putting this all over everyone’s dash as I think everyones pretty sick of The Discourse as its apparently been named.

Basically:

1. Bucklemming seem unable to write sex if it isn’t at least partially awful and rapey then the later writers had to find a way to use it in the way it was supposed to be used in the first place as an overall theme in the season, but probably without being rapey (similar to how they had to work with Toni after 12x02).

2. Anna / Balthazar are massive expositions for Angels x sex and how Cas’ personality is that he is extremely dutiful and puts duty/the mission first but is not asexual (imo and I believe 9x03 and various other moments in the show confirm this) and this doesn’t mean he doesn’t want it, same as a lot of other things like sugar and Dean being the main ones, with sugar as the big metaphor for this.

3. Human!Cas and how sex and this storyline is a part of this puzzle

1. BL don’t even seem to be aware that they write rape and think it’s some kind of sexy thing, then the following writers have to work with what they have so it can be quite conflicting/awkward to think about and find the overall sense the show runner is trying to portray beneath what they wrote in particular…

2/3. Sex for me falls into the list of experiences that Cas has as human and how he experiences negative things but in the end comes to understand that he still wants them anyway, i.e. how his experience of humanity is generally pretty shit even though there are great moments and he in my opinion comes to the conclusion in the end that he wants to be human. It’s really important that he doesn’t just have positive human experiences as his opinion of being human would then not be truly representative and a valid, educated decision, hence overall his human experience to start with is negative but then turns more positive.

Here, he is essentially raped by April although he enjoys it at the time, it’s a negative/positive experience and I’m sure mightily confusing. It’s mostly framed as negative though of course within the episode and later even despite BL’s writing of it because, well it just is. He then is awkward and apprehensive about his date with Nora and his interactions with Dean in 9x06, a kind of in between.

Later though by the time he’s becoming accustomed to humanity in 9x09, he is clean and tidy in his suit (and importantly NOT the trenchcoat), able to hunt, making headway on leads, SMILING, being awesome bros with Sam and he is actively flirting with Dean, winking at him and everything. It’s like… 8x08 but different, the next step… he’s feeling good, he’s happy here. Then of course starts the bad stuff again when Dean tells him they can’t be together, he is tortured by Angels (and he uses his brain/tactics not his powers to escape, atta boy!), he then takes grace because he HAS to, back to DUTY (also to help Sam after hearing about Ezekiel, it’s not about himself).

So it for me forms a part of this human experience. It also makes sense as one of the things that he represses, one of his desires as an Angel that he doesn’t indulge. It’s not that Angels in general don’t like sex, we know some do like Balthazar as an exposition for this, to show that it’s Cas himself not Angels overall who abstain. Anna, the massive Cas mirror, falls to experience humanity and uses sex as a huge part of this. She then actually HAS sex with Dean while reminding us of Cas. Cas then sees them kissing and looks away, the only real readings for me of this are that either/or he is jealous because he has feelings for Dean or he is jealous because of the humanity of the act / feelings. Either way this is really important and IMO it’s both although at THIS point early on it’s more about humanity, because from the OFF we have learned that Cas is not a hammer, has doubts, has always been DIFFERENT from the other Angels... he’s set up blatantly to fall from I think the 3rd episode he’s ever in?

IMO sex (and a relationship with Dean, sugar, all the other things we see him address and actively look for as a human) are not things that he doesn’t want as an Angel but things he DOES want but REPRESSES.

My tag for this is #cas x sugar because IMO all this stuff is a massive exposition for what he really wants deep down but doesn’t allow himself to have, because of duty / superego / his family background. Just like Dean. Which is also why in s13 we should see more exposition of this, after Dean’s climax in 12x22 we should see more of Dean’s deep desires coming through and after Cas’ climax of death in 12x23 and subsequent rebirth we should see more for him, I believe culminating in his choice to be human probably in 13x23.

Basically Dean is Cas’ sugar and so is sex. So he should have sex with Dean :p

I joke but seriously.

[elizabethrobertajones]

@goodfemalecharacters you’re making me self-analyse >.> Thanks 

It was just a passing thought after noticing how much I linked that was about what Dean and female characters says about him rather than Dean and dudes posts... Of course then I went to dinner and had time to reflect on it so now *I’m* curious :P

I suppose if you were going to decide consciously do this, it would be because it’s so easy to frame all the Dean is bi meta as “Dean once got a boner looking at Cas and has a crush on Doctor Sexy” which is all fine but basically boils down to using the same pile of gifs to throw back at anyone who disagrees, old school gif war style but not for fun. And we have our refutations about their “Dean is straight” gifs so I’m sure they have refutations they spell out about the boner and that thing where Dean freaked Aaron out when he decided why not while being hit on to make him go away and leave Aaron the heck alone...

I mean there’s nothing WRONG with that but it all relies on the “this is what we see Dean doing around dudes” stuff

And then there’s the narrative stuff e.g. paralleling Dean’s crush on Gunnar (which was a mirror anyway to his crush on Dr Sexy) to Sam’s crush on the announcer lady. I like stuff like that a lot because it’s all pretty solid and a lot of Destiel meta comes under that with the parallels and themes and tropes, and also other stuff like the Benny x Dean vs Sam x Amelia set ups and so on. (And Charlie lampshading it and asking if Dean broke up too) and that’s all really solid meta that I love and I think we can build on to say Dean is definitely portrayed as having romantic or sexual interest or his relationships mirroring romantic/sexual relationships (idk where “poster on bedroom wall” or “watches his soap on TV” comes into this :P) but it is all still putting together narrative and symbolic stuff to prove that Dean’s portrayed by the narrative as being interested in men or at least suggesting romantic potential (I don’t think things with Benny ever WERE as much as the parallels suggested but that doesn’t mean they weren’t telling us some truth anyway. Like they’re each other’s one that got away or something). That’s the kind of meta I would build a house with :D

If you go one step more abstract (aka dangerous overthinking territory but I live out here :P) and discuss well if Dean likes men too, and this is a defining part of his character, how does this affect this that and the other about him, so you get performing!Dean meta which includes the fact he’s bi as one of the underlying things he’s covering over (the Dean vs cake thing was especially fun but even with wink winks from one of the writers, I wouldn’t call it easy to explain or prove because I’m still baffled at the wilful ignorance towards “vegetable water makes you gay” meta (I’m sorry, it’s so funny I can’t stop calling it that :P)). Uh, and other serious character stuff about his relationship with John or Samuel Campbell as the disapproving father figures, or Bobby as the supportive one. (There’s a lot of Bobby Knows meta floating around on my dash right now :P) And other stuff about how it affects him at a core level if he’s been raised in the macho hunter environment and so on. 

One of the siren/gay panic metas I wrote was about how horrifying it would be the siren might have got to him because he was bi and not on the guard for male attraction, which is how it got to him (and that moment of horror between the flask reveal and the siren smoothing it over and making it about brothers but DEAN wasn’t to know he was about to say that EITHER) and Crowley doing the exact same frickin’ thing to him in season 9 when he was already in a self-loathing pit of despair. Which all seems to come from canon for me but idk how reach-y it looks from the outside to construct that argument as it relies on some pretty abstract connections and empty spaces.

Anyway trying to discuss how this all fits with Dean and female characters he’s canonically been actually interested in romantically/sexually takes us all the way back to the gif wars and like, refuting the ridiculousness of showing him kissing a woman as proof he’s straight like, duh of course he makes out with women, he’s BI as in you’re all in danger... I think we don’t talk about the female love interests/Dean’s interest in women much because it gets all psychoanalyse-y (it comes up a lot with comparisons like Carmen and Ann-Marie and Lisa to Mary, for example (side note: always here to pull receipts on Sam doing the same so it’s a Thing on the show not just a Dean thing)) or the idea of because he’s bi women are safe so hooking up is a kneejerk reaction (don’t disagree, but it’s often the end of the discussion when it’s brought up like that to explain his hooking up behaviour) 

And idk, the Lisa post came about because I saw a lot of discussion about Lisa comparing her to the “Amelia is a figment of Sam’s imagination” theory and she has the El Sol djinn dream connection, but I do also believe Dean loved her and the weirdness of it has a ton of sexist bad writing in the end of season 5 (season 5ausagefest, honestly >.> Name me a female character who isn’t randomly in 1-2 episodes then dies or disappears completely from the narrative and then start listing 4 archangels, 4 horsemen and TFW + Bobby and Crowley :P) and Gamble did a salvage job on her in season 6 but too late to fix all the weirdness of Dean showing up on her door out of the blue, while also knowing Dean can’t stay with Lisa because of the formula of the show >.> So I took the chance to explore it a bit deeper and compare to 2x20 and why Dean might be struggling with self-acceptance and how Lisa is easier, and tracing their relationship back to season 3 and Gamble’s work to suggest Dean thought she was endgame but even by the end of season 3, it was seeming clear she wasn’t, but there’s an *explanation* already there in the text of why when Dean “imagines himself happy” it’s with her.

I also don’t see the female love interests as no homos or whatever, just part of the complex tapestry of Dean. Carmen in 12x18 is from the same writer as Gunnar Lawless in 11x15. I don’t think it all magically goes away when they write Dean hooking up. And there’s maybe some wariness to drag some characters into it because touchy fandom, and some because we already KNOW he likes women so does writing about Dean & Lisa actually tell us anything new, when the meta format in this debate is normally about proving with positive examples of Dean x dudes and using evidence that’s easy to argue for bisexuality, so delving into the heterosexual encounters seems redundant.

But I don’t know! I never planned to do this, I just wrote about what interested me, and then I suddenly had a realisation the pics I put in that post were ALL Dean and blonde women which made me laugh because even though I dragged in Cas and Gadreel and Crowley at least, the actual subtext was ALL about the women as the narrative device to link it all together through various homoerotic moments, and then I realised all the meta I linked was discussing Dean and how various heterosexual encounters shaped or showed his inner landscape. I guess I’m just interested because Dean and his sexuality is all over the place so it’s a rich topic and it shows in ways other than flirting with dudes. 

I remembered writing this that I was obsessed for a while when my long meta rewatch hit season 4, with Anna as a proxy the show used so Dean could hook up with Cas. And they used the handprint moment in the car sex scene to PUT Cas into that scene. Dean was having sex with the symbolic representation of angels and Cas is that angel on the customer service desk who represents Heaven to him, and it’s his mark on Dean’s arm. And Sam hooked up with Ruby, the symbolic representation of Hell, and he drank her blood even though it was Azazel’s that went in his mouth first but no one makes it nearly as weird as that ridiculously romantic/erotic shot of Anna putting her hand over the handprint and making the *entire* scene about Cas...

Hrm. 

I mean I feel sort of bad using these characters as props for the meta, but the show uses them as props - Wendy in 1x03 is literally there as T&A and Dean gets a boner over her which the camera jokes about, and that’s her role over. Lisa is an emotional pit stop, Carmen wasn’t real, Anna was the most realised character but she still seemed, narratively, there to balance out Sam x Ruby and how Dean x Cas was the obvious opposing force in the narrative, but AFTER that she got to be an interesting character in Cas’s vicinity. (I mean I guess she was a “No homo” but she had plot and character stuff going for her from the start, it’s just her role in 4x09 and 4x10 was SO different from later, and she was originally only going to be there 2 episodes)... 

But yeah I only just realised this so I have no idea wtf I’m doing and I don’t think this is an a critique of how we write meta per say because I have written miles of the easier stuff about Dean and dudes as well, and I don’t feel wildly feminist for these metas, due to the fact I’m using T&A or prop-for-the-manpain characters as exactly that instead of exploring them for themselves rather than what they do for Dean :P

[postmodernmulticoloredcloak]

honestly your breakfast analysis just gave me hope because i hated that the writers needlessly through in a random hookup when dean hasn't been that guy for like 3 or 4 seasons. I was so ready to see more of worried dean this episode.

Honestly I was giddy while watching that part because I felt like the episode was spelling that Dean was purposely reacting to his feelings about the absence of Cas with a night with a woman. Like, a woman Dean has had sex with is a specific emotional fill-in for Cas. I personally felt it very clear that the episode was framing the hook up as a distraction for his worry. I think the writing did its job in that (basically it’s the first non-strictly-case-related thing Dean does after the scene where they talk about Cas) but also Jensen has a series of specific tells when he plays Dean as seeking a distraction/playing a part (usually those things are connected, in various ways) - he basically “overdoes” what he does, I don’t know how to put it in words, and makes certain microexpressions Dean does when he’s not acting genuinely.

To be honest, I am not sure what kind of “guy” we expect Dean to be - the random hook-ups are a form of self-medication for him when he feels really upset. I mean, he likes sex, he enjoys it like people who like sex do, but he has a specific relationship with sex like he has a specific relationship with food - eating is also something people do and having certain eating habits or preferences is normal, but some people’s relationship with food is more complicated and invested with emotional layers. It’s like porn, it’s basically implied through the show that he doesn’t just read/watch porn for the mere purpose of getting off, but he invests his porn with additional psychological layers.

I personally don’t think that any of the sex that has happened on the show (involving Dean, involving Sam, involving Cas, involving anyone actually) is “random”. I mean, the hook-up is “random” in the sense that he flirts with a random waitress he meets in a random diner, but on a narrative level, Supernatural never has “gratuitous” sex scenes. They always belong in a wider emotional context. This was no exception - Supernatural does not have his characters have sex for the sake of saying ‘oh, X has had sex’ and nothing else.

At the end of the day, having sex with a random woman is easy. Dean Winchester’s life is complicated enough. Now in addition to everything else there are very complicated feelings for, like, the most complicated person he could have feelings for. Sometimes he needs to form connections with people with zero ties, zero repercussions, zero dangers. When Dean seeks easy, it means he’s being overwhelmed by complicated.

[floralmotif]

Destiel and editing

@obsessionisaperfume here’s the Kuleshov Effect post I talked about. Hopefully it is sufficient. TL;DR: Editing is probably the most powerful tool film has and how it’s used tells the story. Literally. In the case of SPN, there is a lot of instances that can be read as destiel riding in on a giant brick.

Ok, so preamble for those who don’t know what it is: The Kuleshov Effect was named for Soviet filmmaker Lev Kuleshov. It deals with a “mental phenomenon by which viewers derive more meaning from the interaction of two sequential shots than from a single shot in isolation.”

The original test that coined the name was a short series of clips showing an actor in a black and white film with a stoic expression, intercut with various images. It’s about 50 seconds, have a looksie.

The short was built to see what meaning people would give to the man’s expression and as Kuleshov expected, they reacted accordingly based on what shots were intercut. So the stoic face was read as hungry, lustful, sad, whatever by most people even though it was all the same expression.

You can invoke this effect without both pieces ever seeing each other. You can create a vast head space for a character that the actor may never see by intercutting the actor with something like... war stock footage. We can understand what the character is going through without it ever being spoken and without the actor saying or sometimes really doing anything in relation to it.

That isn’t to say that actors aren’t important, of course they are. But a lot of understanding a filmed work look to the editing. The same way books look at word choice, sentence structure, etc. Editing is the last stand of “authorial intent” (as a nebulous term. Not by a single person) between the production and the audience. It’s the syuzhet, the filter of bias that sets the tone and the pace and the narrative and almost no one is truly privy to it until all of production is over.

Now, directors, producers, various others depending on the work often help dictate the editing to an extent. They decide what version of shots to leave in and give an idea of what they’re going for. Some take a much more active role and are part of the editing process to a great extent. Sometimes it’s just the director helping, sometimes it’s like... 8 other people in production. Sometimes a film studio drops all their footage for their several million dollar property off at a trailer house and says “panic number’s on the fridge, I’ll be back in the morning.” and expects the final edit not to suck.

Editors exist for a reason and it’s not just to cut the film to an edible size, set pace and presentation. “When to cut” and “how to think like an editor” are important to the process on their own and they are their own people.

Authorial intent is honestly kind of hilarious. Especially in works with multiple “intenders”

But let’s poke the intent bear anyway, shall we? ‘Bunch of examples under the cut.

Let’s start with 12.10 since it was recent and was pointed out specifically by @bluestar86​ not long ago.

Gah... I don’t have any gifs. I keep trying to make them but they don’t want to work for whatever reason when I post them.

I’ll add them in later if I remember/get them to work.. *sigh*

So in 12.10, we’re shown the scene Cas tells about what he remembers when he and Ishim’s fleet killed Akibel. At one point, Akibel states something like: “ “how can you know humans and not love them?” with the camera cutting to Cas’ reaction.

Another instance happens in 12.09 after Billie is killed and the BMoL meet up with the Winchesters on the bridge. When the Winchesters are getting back into the impala, the BMoL tell the Winchesters they were “unprofessional” with the camera then finding Castiel and then cutting to him entering the car with foliage framing the foreground. It’s a PoV shot.I have a feeling they’ll be after Cas before the season’s end.

One of my favorites is in 8.17 (when it doesn’t make me sad), while Sam is talking to Meg. It’s intercut with Cas and Dean’s Crypt Scene to an interesting parallel. It’s a bit muddy, but it’s there:

Meg: So some chick actually got you off hunting eh? That’s a rare creature. So tell me, how did you meet this unicorn?

-And the scene cuts to Cas in the crypt with Dean. They have the start of their tiff, followed by a J-Cut and we’re back to Meg and Sam talking. Now take a look at this exchange and then think about how it relates to the next scene with Dean and Cas.

Meg: You hit a dog and stopped, why?

Sam: That whole story and that was your takeaway?

It is kind of a weird takeaway... isn’t it? Moving on.

Meg: No, I heard the rest. You fell in love with a Unicorn. It was beautiful, then sad, then sadder. I laughed, I cried, I puked in my mouth a little... and honestly I kinda get it.

Sam: Really?

Meg: ...We’ve got company.

Sound familiar to another situation?

-Cut back to a closeup insert of Cas and his Angel blade. The above discourse serves a few purposes with the lens I’m applying to the cuts here:

1) It parallels a relationship between Sam and a love interest to Cas and Dean. How many times has that happened? Oh yeah. Constantly.

2) We know that Dean has been paralleled to a dog before. Cas hits Dean, then stops... he breaks his connection to Naomi by any means needed. He chooses “them”.

Meg: Go. Save your brother...and.. my unicorn

We know what she’s talking about. She’s saying her feelings for Cas and how important she is to him but using the established metaphor. Cas is likened to a unicorn by Meg- who’s connection to Cas draws us further into the intercut parallel by specifically referring to Cas in metaphorical terms and comparing her situation with Sam’s. That situation being what’s happening in the crypt during their conversation. You could argue that Cas and Dean are each other’s unicorns but for the purposes of this, Dean is the dog Cas hit to make him stop, and Cas is a rarity that changes you. On its own, the scene allows for some drama and the continuation of Sam’s story but we don’t learn anything new on Sam’s end. We also don’t really learn anything new on Meg’s end. We already knew she had something for Cas  It mostly serves to give motivation to Meg’s actions but why tell the whole story at that time? The famous “Too much heart was always Castiel’s problem” cut to the river scene in 8.02. Remember, a physical person edited that. Why put that scene there? What were they trying to accomplish? Some instances from season 11:

Dean and Sam’s intercut difference in takeaway at the end of 11.11

11.18: Amara’s reaction shot when her attempts to reach Dean are cut off by his concern for Cas.

11.21: Amara uses Cas to find Dean, we see her placing her hand over Cas’ heart, then cutting to Dean behind a cage motif.

11.22: Casifer going limp on the cut after Amara inflicts her power on Dean and Lucifer’s “vessel” being out of commission afterwards. You cannot convince me that Amara didn’t access Cas’ function through her power..

Isn’t it interesting that throughout season 11, the closups on hearts and pining have all involved Dean or Cas?

Here’s a favorite from all the way back in 5.04. This episode is full of editing choices that tell us about a potential relationship between endverse Dean and Cas: 2014!Dean kills his own man and 2009!Dean intervenes. From the shot of the remaining men and 2009!Dean, we’re led to believe the convoy is disturbed by 2009!Dean. It’s not until 2014!Dean starts talking about his “pretty messed up situation” does the camera cut to 2009!Dean, who, along with the audience, realizes that 2014!Dean isn’t pointing at him, he’s pointing and talking about Cas, and from Cas’ expression, there’s a reason for it. This scene sets up, almost entirely through editing; an unseen structure of the conflicts in the episode and the endverse. The way the relationships for Dean have progressed in this version of the future.  Also in 5.04, there are several great ones in the meeting scene just before they take the fight to Lucifer:

2009!Dean: We were in uh... Janes.. cabin last night, and apparently we, and.. Risa. Have a connection.

Within this dialogue alone, there are several shots showing character relationships. There’s Risa’s disgusted arm crossing, 2014!Dean’s sort of sad glaring, realization of what is known about him in the room and who is present, but most notably Cas’ inhale of realization and smile at the end of what is said. Cas isn’t being spoken to. He has seemingly no reason to have a reaction shot here that says without words “Of course he did” unless there was some reason to place it there. It’s a very specific reaction. 2014!Dean shoots the rest of that conversation down right quick.

There really are so many instances of this. I can only think of a few. I’m sure many others could think of more. Feel free to add your own. Doesn’t have to be destiel related.

Even if we don’t get many match cuts in this show (for some dumb reason), we aren’t short on very heavily framed instances of the Kuleshov effect giving us little glimpses of whatever swims around in the post production of SPN. The final decisions that tell the story mixed with our own expectations and perspectives. Many hands working to create a world.

[orionsangel86]

Sam & Eileen - A Supernatural Romance.

I am quite clearly over the moon about 15x06 and Sam reunited with and bringing Eileen back from the dead. I was so over the moon in fact, that I burst into tears when Eileen stepped out of the bathtub and took Sam’s hand. That was… wow. 

That was the most romantic moment in this show since 13x05 “it’s never too late” (also a return from the dead!)

So I was inspired to write an homage meta post celebrating Sam and Eileen’s romance looking back at everything canon has given us on this epic pairing.

It turns out, despite all my usual grumbling, there is still one het ship out there that I can totally get behind, and no one deserves love more than our dear Sam Winchester.

11x04 - Baby

This is where I believe the story started for Sam. 

“You don’t ever want something more?”

(x)

“You know, with a hunter? Somebody who understands the life?”

This question, from Sam to his brother at the start of Season 11, has shaped so much of the subtext in the seasons following. It’s significance to the Winchesters individual development arcs, their hopes, their dreams. It blatantly spelled out for the audience what both these boys desire and what they deserve for each of their endgames.

Not a white picket fence, not the apple pie life, just something. Something that suits them. Something to share with someone else, romantically, who might fit that particular box. Let me be very clear here and stress that Sam certainly wasn’t talking about him and Dean finding that something with each other.

Dean’s journey towards finding that something has been building for even longer than this particular moment in canon, with the other stand out scene being his confession in 10x16 where he talked about having things, people, feelings, that I want to experience differently than before, or maybe even for the first time. Dean’s journey is something we have discussed at length, and as every meta writer in fandom knows all too well, it only leads in one particular direction - towards a certain dreamy blue eyed angel. 

Sam’s journey has not been discussed as intensely as Dean’s, but 11x04 did lay groundwork for the writers to build upon. It hasn’t been as smooth or as obvious in the subtext as Dean’s either, with certain writing decisions appearing to come out of left field and confuse the path. But it seems that Dabb has course corrected and brought us back on track. 

This episode was the first time in canon in a long time that we heard Sam textually voice his desire for a romantic relationship of some kind. I therefore immediately got excited and locked this moment away in a pocket in my heart to pull out again if ever the show would introduce a character who could fit those requirements for Sam. 

The show did not disappoint.

11x11 Into the Mystic

GOD I forgot how full of delicious layers this episode was! It was written by the same writer who wrote 11x04. Robbie Thompson clearly had something in mind for Sam when he first wrote that script, and he gave it to us (and Sam) in this episode.

Eileen is introduced in 11x11 as another Hunter on a quest for vengeance - to avenge her murdered family.

It isn’t a surprise that we basically immediately shipped Eileen with Sam after this episode first aired, because her entire backstory is written to compliment Sam. Within the first 5 minutes of getting to know her, she already fulfills the requirements from Sam’s wistful speech in 11x04. She is a hunter, she is someone who understands the life. But more than that, she is all of the following:

She is on a revenge quest

She has murdered parents

She was raised by a Hunter or rather “trained” to be a Hunter rather than raised (in a scene which implies a similarly strict hunter upbringing to Sam and Dean)

She continued hunting alone after her guardian died

Her grandfather was a Man of Letters, making her a MOL Legacy, just like Sam.

Her mother was a lawyer, so she makes a joke about studying law which prompts further bonding with Sam due to his Stanford law education.

Eileen catches Sam’s eye almost immediately, and it is surprising I didn’t pick up on that on my first watch at the time, but Eileen is literally disguised as the cleaner in order to go unnoticed. Sam had no reason to be suspicious of her, and I think at the time we all assumed that he just wanted to question a potential witness - but even so, there was no need to interrupt Mildred to go speak to her. Could Sam’s distraction have been a bit more than strictly professional? In hindsight I’m gonna go with YES.

Their next meet is cute simply because by this point the audience is misled to think that she is actually the banshee. The ominous music tones, the shots of Eileen watching the Winchesters from a window. We believe that she is the villain, and then when she uses magic to pin Sam and comes at him with a dagger it’s practically a romantic trope used in enemies to lovers fics. A case of mistaken identity (another trope) and Sam and Eileen are able to reveal each of their truths. They bond immediately with both Sam and the audience learning all of the above. the checklist requirements indicating their compatibility is so blatantly obvious its almost too on the nose. But then het romance always seems that way doesn’t it?

The real kicker in this episode that made my heart sing at the time was this:

“Feel free to drop me a line if you ever need anything. Or even if you just wanna hang out”

“you can’t call me though, I mean you could call but I won’t answer.”

(x)

FIRST OF ALL - HOW DARE YOU KILL ME WITH FEELS SAMMY OVER THAT GORGEOUS SMILE

Sam’s line here though was SUCH A LINE. “Or even if you just wanna hang out”

I see you Sam Winchester. Hoping for Netflix and Chill right? I know you have Netflix. You gave Cas your password. :P

This little interaction at the end of this episode was pure flirtation and it was gorgeous to watch (and to rewatch, with hindsight, knowing what happens in 15x06 to totally deepen their relationship. Urgh. I guess I really am a sucker for a good old fashioned Supernatural Love Story!)

The other big takeaway from this episode is that meeting Eileen rejuvenated Sam. He starts the episode unable to sleep, haunted by his Lucifer trauma and feeling so down and broody that Dean steps in constantly to ask if he’s okay and try to engage in talking about feelings (always a bad sign for a Winchester to get to the point where they feel they need to ask the other to talk about feelings!)

But the end of the episode marks a significant change in Sam. He smiles, he opens up to Dean, he textually states that the case helped him. He opens up a keepsake box (that we never knew he had before this episode) and puts the retirement homes leaflet in there - an indication that he actually has hope that he might live to see a happy retirement (a wonderful sign for someone who just 40 minutes ago was acting like a total nihilist.)

The case alone wasn’t some spectacular revelation, so what else could have possibly caused Sam’s change of heart? The answer is obvious. Eileen did. She acted like a beacon of light this episode for Sam, and in a perfect bookend to how the episode opened, Sam curls up in bed, turns off his light, and is able to sleep. It is only Dean who spends the night restless and haunted.

This was the first time that Eileen acted as a “win” for Sam just by meeting him.

Unfortunately, we don’t meet Eileen again until a whole season later in

12x17 - The British Invasion

This episode is a far cry away from 11x11′s layered genius. Messy, overly plot heavy, too many various character stories causing mental whiplash, too much focus on unnecessary side characters, LUCIFER existing in general, an unnecessary sex scene between Mary and Ketch (eww), a bloody death scene, and moments of utter stupidity from the lead characters.

In other words it’s a CLASSIC BUCKLEMING.

Do yourselves a favour and if you ARE planning on re-watching this episode, just skip to the parts with Dean, Sam and Eileen (the Dagon and Kelly stuff is relatively good as well - the rest is utter garbage).

Anyway, pushing aside my hatred for the terrible duo for a moment, I will say that as per usual, what they lack in subtlety and intelligent subtextual layering, they make up for with a sledge hammer to the face in terms of trying to get a point across. So when it comes to Saileen in this episode, well, it might as well be canon already.

Practically every time Sam and Eileen interact in this episode, they are framed as a flirtatious couple in the early tentative stages. The smiles and playful flirting, the smirks when one does something to make the other proud. It is very clear, even if it is still technically subtextual, that both Jared and Shoshannah are playing this like these characters are attracted to one another, and are building on that relationship.

Hell, even Dean teases Sam twice about Eileen in this episode (though once was in a deleted scene that they should have kept instead of the Lucifer crap):

(x)

What we also find out from this opening scene, is that Sam and Eileen have been communicating off screen since 11x11. It is textually confirmed that the two of them have been developing their relationship previously, and we just haven’t seen it. Did Eileen visit the Bunker previously? Because she certainly seemed comfortable there this episode. Have her and Sam cuddled up to watch movies previously? (We know another pairing that textually do this even though we’ve never seen it on screen - Dean and Cas). Dean feels comfortable enough to tease his little brother in that playful typical sibling way, so clearly Eileen at this point has become a more frequent character in Sam’s life. It’s just a shame we as the audience have never seen anything of it until this episode. 

This episode might be the first time we have seen her again since her introduction, but it certainly isn’t the first time Sam has seen her since. This is canon.

The rest of this episode continues this theme of displaying with zero subtlety that Sam and Eileen have something more than friendship. One of the easiest ways to truly see the effect of this is just watching Sam in scenes with her compared to Sam at any other time. Like in 11x11, Eileen manages to light Sam up and have him grinning like a puppydog. It’s kind of adorable and also quite shocking when you realise how rare it is to see Sam smile (or any of the characters in this angstfest of a TV show for that matter.)

Just look at the above cheesy smile in the car scene. Look at Sam’s bashful face here when Dean teases him in front of his girl:

(x)

Look at this smug face when Eileen snaps back at the irritating guy:

(x)

Jared hits every mark playing a loved up Sam Winchester. 

By the end of this episode, a tragedy strikes and Eileen is scared off. Their relationship here ends on a comforting hug, because meaningful relationships in this show are almost always first signified with comforting hugs following traumatic events, and tentative hand holding.

The way he strokes her hair gently is just SO touching and intimate.

(x)

When all is said and done Eileen leaves, terrified of the British Men of Letters. When Dean asks Sam where she was, he tells him she went back to Ireland, and Sam looks so dejected at that thought. I don’t see how anyone can possibly read his reactions towards Eileen as anything other than romantic affection.

As a bonus point - I will mention that due to Bucklemings sledgehammer approach, it is quite clear that Eileen plays a Cas mirror in this episode. All of her scenes with Sam are paired off against Dean who spends this entire episode trying and failing to get hold of Castiel. In the Winchester’s final scene, Sam greets Dean in the morning and immediately asks his brother about Cas. Sam does this a lot in season 12, because Dean’s concern for Cas is present throughout every episode in which he is absent. Dean admits he is worried, but changes the subject, instead asking Sam about Eileen (note that it is the next morning so Dean assumed she had stayed the night).

Both brothers revert to the other when it comes to their respective partners. Sam leaves it up to Dean to contact and worry about Cas, and Dean does the same with Sam about Eileen. By this being a common pattern throughout pretty much all of Carver/Dabb eras, both brothers subtextually acknowledge that they each have a strong emotional connection with their respective potential romantic partners and therefore any contact or communication about each partner must come from the brother closest. 

12x21 - There’s Something About Mary

Another Buckleming episode and the less said about this one the better. I won’t even mention the extremely insulting and inappropriate way to kill off a disabled character (almost as bad as killing off a lesbian by having nazis butcher her) I also won’t comment on the letter that Eileen sent Sam which whilst it did have romantic undertones, was clearly written by a 12 year old girl and did not marry with Eileen’s character at all (Eugenie showing her misogyny again).

The one good thing that came out of this episode (the only good thing) was Jared’s understated grief over Eileen’s death. 

(x)

(x)

His performance dealing with her death in this episode was beautiful. It was understated, but clearly portrayed as heartbreaking. Unfortunately Sam had to push it down and bottle it up. 

Eileen’s death was a huge shocker to us all as it didn’t make any sense at that point to cut short a story that seemed so clearly to be on a specific trajectory. We often talk about how Eileen’s romance with Sam at the time was tied to Dean and Cas, and that their relationship paralleled Dean and Cas’s in the narrative. This is all true, especially the death of Eileen coming as foreshadowing for the death of Castiel at series end. Just looking at that above gif of Sam where he looks at her corpse bears an extreme resemblance to Dean pulling back the sheet and looking down at a dead Castiel in 13x01.

However much I squee and love that these relationships are clear mirrors of each other though, I need to stress how Saileen, how Sam and Eileen’s canon relationship, is so much more than that. They may have mirrored Destiel, but they are also totally different, on a different course, and with a totally different backstory. Eileen doesn’t exist just to give Sam his own version of Cas to run off with. She is not there just to push up a separate ship. Sam and Eileen’s romance stands alone in this story. It may mirror DeanCas at times, but its purpose is not for DeanCas. It’s purpose is for Sam and Eileen. 

Right from the start she ticked all of Sam’s boxes, and the clear attraction between them made it obvious. Yet Eileen was not written to just be a love interest either. She is an ally, a capable hunter, who is written deeply, with her own trauma’s and tragic past. Yet she keeps fighting, all whilst owning her disability and making it work for her rather than hold her back. She is hardly a Lisa, or an Amelia, both of whom had zero depth of character and were more or less written to look pretty and concerned as the Winchester boys basically treated them terribly. Eileen stands out as an individual character far beyond her relationship with Sam. She was full of potential which is why her quick death was an absolute travesty. 

Eileen should not have been killed off. I believe even the writers are well aware of that, and this is why they brought her back. 

Which brings me to:

15x06 - Golden Time

We knew long before this episode aired that Eileen would be back as Dabb revealed her return at SDCC. He made comments at the time ensuring that any characters he brought back would not be fanservice, that they would be characters chosen because the writers felt their stories ended too quickly, and that they had more stories to tell. Something I believe that DabbBerens are doing in particular in this season is righting the wrongs of the past. Eileen’s death was a clear “wrong” and I think its highly likely that DabbBerens’ were aware of this and saw Eileen as a no-brainer to bring back. As I said at the start of this post, Dabb is course correcting, getting his endgame plans back on track, and ensuring that he hits certain markers in order to do that. 

Once again, we are at a place in the story where Sam is grieving, and suffering deeply from all of the loss and trauma that he has faced. Being God’s personal puppet, losing his mother, losing his son, and losing someone he was close to in Rowena by his own hand, has left him in a dark place. Sam’s arc in early season 15 plays out very similarly to Dean’s arc in early season 13. A Winchester in desperate need of a win.

Eileen was Sam’s win in this episode.

Given the time that has passed since Eileen’s last episode, and how the narrative has progressed since then, I was worried that Eileen’s return would seem like fan service, and would therefore fall flat (I felt this way with AU!Charlie and never warmed to the character because of it). I was also worried that whatever potential relationship might have been building between her and Sam in seasons 11 and 12 might not have shone through in this episode. But thankfully the writers played it pretty damn perfectly and Eileen’s return wasn’t just a small side plot to an otherwise jam packed episode (like Kevin’s return in 15x02). No, her story was the A plot as Sam devoted himself to finding a way to save her from a terrible fate.

My concerns about their potential romantic relationship not being played as it was in 12x17 were also completely unfounded. From the moment Sam saw Eileen’s ghost whilst on a jog the romance was immediately back and I have no doubt that Jared and Shoshannah are once again fully playing up the connection and romantic attraction between the two. 

I am so convinced of the romance being put across here, and I want you to see why I adore this so much (in case you don’t already see it). So here are my biggest and most important takeaways from Eileen and Sam’s scenes in this episode and WHY I feel these stand out as significant elements towards proving the writers intentions for this to be an endgame canon relationship:

1. Aside from the obvious similarities between Sam and Eileen that were written into 11x11 in order to ensure that Eileen was able to stand as Sam’s equal, the one other thing that we have long discussed that Sam needs in a partner is someone who at least somewhat understands the trauma and pain that he has experienced in his life. Sam has predominantly bonded with people via shared trauma. Before her death, Eileen had had her fair share of traumatic experiences growing up in the tough hunter lifestyle, but spending an eternity being tortured in Hell is a different level of trauma entirely.

This episode cleverly once again elevated Eileen to the same level as Sam. They are equals now, both through good and bad experiences. Eileen was dragged to Hell, and only escaped when Chuck released the souls. Given that 1 year on Earth is 100 years in Hell, this means that Eileen was in Hell for 250 years give or take. Her trauma, her pain over this, is something that she can’t talk about just yet, but this significant connection between her and Sam was textualised clearly:

SAM: “I’ve been there too. Hell… long time ago. You try and forget but it gets inside you. Talking helps.”

EILEEN: “I can’t. not yet.”

SAM: “I understand”

And he really does. It is something that we can argue is a shared suffering that can create a (forgive me for this) profound bond between two people. The only other people who can understand just what he has been through were Dean (via years of Hell torture), Cas (via shared Lucifer possession), and Rowena (via shared Lucifer torture). Eileen now makes that very small list.

2. The other big factor that this episode made clear to point out textually was that this is not a Chuck manipulation. This really is Eileen, and her return from death is not part of Chuck’s story: 

SAM: “Rowena got it, she didn’t know the details but she knew the game was rigged so this. Magic. This is how she kept control.”

The reason I do not believe that Eileen is part of Chuck’s manipulations is this very pointed line right here about Rowena. Along with many other things in this episode that indicate that it isn’t guided by Chuck, Sam specifically clarifies that Rowena used magic to maintain control over her own universe.

Whilst I fully believe that Rowena will be coming back as Queen of Hell (because whatever happens to Heaven and Hell at the end, they will need balance, and someone to play caretaker and Rowena has just been set up for this role far too perfectly for me not to at least consider the option), this episode so beautifully respects and honours her character, to the point that Rowena, even in her absence, is able to control and play architect to all that happens. Rowena effectively is given Chuck’s role over this particular narrative, but instead of being framed as something villainous, it is portrayed as a precious gift that she has given to her protege Sam.

Rowena rigged the system for herself, as Sam textually explains. Her use of magic, was her way of escaping Chuck’s control, and it is through Rowena that Sam is also given this power. The power to bring back someone he loves - who was most likely taken from him by Chuck’s own dark and poorly written story (yes I do believe that Meredith was throwing shade at Buckleming in the deep subtext - pretty much all the other writers do this all the time if you pay close enough attention :P)

Rowena’s journey from villain, to reluctant ally, to friend and then finally to family, is one of the most beautiful and epic journey’s on the show (rivalled only by Castiel in my opinion). She remains one of my all time favourite characters, and her tribute in this episode, that even after death she could bestow such a precious gift to Sam, is one that I think will remain one of the more touching stories this show has given us. This is yet another reason why I believe that Sam and Eileen are endgame. Because it is a gift from Rowena, and I believe it is a gift that will be honoured by the writers.

3. It’s a small moment, but it is IMPORTANT. Sam confirms that he was teaching himself ASL after he met Eileen. In a moment of adorable flirtation Eileen beams at him and a bashful Sam smiles and bounces on the spot like a giddy schoolboy. This is yet another reveal of moments in the lives of the Winchesters that we just don’t see in 40 minute episodes. That it is canon that Sam spent hours of his life teaching himself ASL so he could more effectively communicate with Eileen is so precious. There is no way to argue how much she meant to him. 

But it isn’t just evidence of Sam’s affections, it proves to be a useful tool to the hunt in this episode as well. When Sam is unable to speak due to the witches curse, he is instead able to sign “My brother” to Eileen so that she knows to go and get Dean. It is Sam’s knowledge of sign language, which he learned due to his affection and interest in Eileen, that saves his life in this episode. 

One point that I HAVE to mention here is how the writers gave so much thought to their depiction of Eileen as a deaf person, and how wonderful her return is as representation for deaf and hard of hearing people everywhere. In both this episode, and also in her first episode 11x11, her disability was not treated as a set back, but as a tool that enables her to get ahead. The only time the writing displayed an insulting and frankly ableist light was Bucklemings 12x21 which isn’t really surprising. We expect such things from Buckleming. The other writers have proven how much more compassionate and caring they are.

The idea that Sam Winchester could end up falling in love with a beautiful, deaf woman in Eileen is practically unheard of in TV media. When do the protagonists ever end up with anyone less than “TV perfect”? It is groundbreaking that Supernatural in it’s 15 seasons has grown so much and come so far. That it started with the fridging of two women, that it’s cast remained predominantly white men throughout its entire run, that it was blackened by excessive misogyny in its early days, as well as ableism via the treatment of Bobby Singer’s paralysis in season 5. 

Supernatural has faced heavy criticism throughout it’s run, but it seems like the writers have listened and are learning. By allowing Sam and Eileen to have a happy endgame, they are doing a wonderful service in truly putting this show on the map for progression and representation - They just need to make sure that they follow through on that other big important thing too…

4. Rebirth and new beginnings. I am reminded of 13x05 and the brilliant Steppenwolf song “It’s Never Too Late To Start Again” as I rewatch the bathroom scene for the hundredth time. If the rest of the episode hasn’t already had you crying out how desperately these two should be together I fully believe it was Meredith’s plan (along with the entire production crew and Shoshannah and Jared), to have us all bawling our eyes out in happy tears that Sam and Eileen get to be together now!! (well, I certainly cried. A lot. and ruined my mascara. and squeaked at such a high pitch only dogs could hear me. The only other time I have had that reaction was in 13x05… oh, and 12x19. It’s RARE okay!)

I think the most significant point here is the touching of hands, which calls back to an earlier painful moment in the episode when ghost Eileen reached out to try to comfort Sam as he despaired about being a cosmic joke, and found she wasn’t even able to touch him. 

It is a romantic trope that was most famously used in the film Ghost, where touch was a big part of the on screen relationship. Supernatural displays this same trope rather perfectly here when the big win of the episode takes place, and Eileen emerges from the bathtub alive and whole, and tentatively reaches out to take Sam’s hand again with vastly different results.

(x)

Sam is so hesitant to touch her back, so fearful that this isn’t real, that he isn’t being allowed this. The overwhelming sense of relief and warmth that radiates from him when he finally does take her hand was exactly what made me burst into tears. The moment is so extremely breathtaking, so intimate and touching that your heart just aches for them to have that happy ending. It’s rare that Supernatural gives us moments like this, but when it does give them, when it allows its characters a win, they are immediately memorable and stand out as bright spots in an otherwise dark show. It’s moments like this that make watching these characters suffer so much worth it in the end.

The hug that comes after the touching of hands is just as intimate. This is portrayed as a lifeline. Something for Sam to grasp onto and breath. Something that inspires him to change his outlook, to gather his determination, and to convince his brother to join him and fight for the happy ending that both of these boys so desperately deserve.

(x)

The entire bathroom scene was a testament to how well Supernatural can work romance into its narrative. How these talented creators can easily provide us with a romantic scene to tug on our heart strings. Anyone screaming that romance doesn’t belong in this show I will now point at this scene and tell them exactly how wrong they are. This scene is EXACTLY what this show needed. 

For anyone denying the romance here (yeah funny how the bronly’s are so anti Saileen - I wonder why...) I’ll spell it out for them:

This is how you set up a romantic scene in TV Production:

1. Candlelight. Check.

2. Soft focus (dates back to the 1930s when films would use soft focus to portray the dreamy emotional uplift of happy couples in love - see Meet Me In Saint Louis for a very clear example). It is almost always considered a filming technique to portray romance. Check.

3. Chivalry. As if any of us didn’t expect Sam to be a perfect gentleman! But the fact is that the way he turns his back and waits with bated breath to see if the spell had worked is shown as anything other than platonic. He is almost shy, knowing that if and when she emerges from the water she will be naked, but he turns to preserve her dignity. Check.

4. Leading on from that, this is literally a naked woman emerging from a bathtub whilst Sam awkwardly stands in the room. It could have been highly sexualised. They could have used that god awful 70s porno music they like so much in this show. Sam could have made a joke to dispel the tension. If this was a platonic friendship, any of these things would have given it away. The fact that none of this happened, that the scene remained tense and intimate but not overly sexualised only further validates the romantic reading. I mean LOOK AT THIS:

CHECK

5. The music. Music is such an important part in any story. It always plays a vital role in signifying the correct atmosphere, and the correct tone of a scene. We talk about music a lot in relation to Dean and Cas and the sweeping melodic notes that usually compliment any heightened emotional DeanCas scene. The music during THIS scene though? Well it was beautifully romantic in every way. If in doubt, just go back and listen to it with your eyes closed. Play this music track over another random scene of two people sharing a moment, and it will make the scene read as romantic. I guarantee it. 

CHECK AND MATE.

Overall, this episode was the most romantic and most intimate Sam and Eileen have ever got yet in canon. It is a clear indication that their relationship is heading in a positive direction. I couldn’t be happier with how the writers are portraying this and am jumping for joy at the thought that Sam might actually get what he desired all those years ago during 11x04 when he tried to bring up the topic to Dean in the Impala.

We know from promo photos, that Eileen is still staying with Sam in 15x07. That she comforts him. With images like this to go on:

I’d say with some confidence that we will get to further watch their relationship grow, and I couldn’t be more excited for it.

I fully expect there to be darker moments coming up, and potentially Eileen will be sent away for a period of time (my money is on Chuck “dusting” her the way he did with Becky in 15x04 because I don’t believe that kills people and I do believe that they can be brought back from wherever he sends them too - plus “dusting” makes me think of Avengers Endgame which I find amusing because the “dusted” all returned at the end. I wouldn’t be surprised if Supernatural played around with that as it so often likes to play with pop culture references). I think that post Mid Season Finale we will be back to a period of utter loss and despair for the Winchester boys, and that therefore those who they feel strongly for (aka Cas and Eileen) will have to be separated from them.

However, the point is that it is always darkest before the dawn. In this story, 15x06 has laid the groundwork for Eileen to be Sam’s romantic endgame. It’s now up to Sam, and Eileen, to make sure they fight to get what they both so desire.

Bring on the finale show.

(If you liked this meta run through of Sam and Eileen’s building relationship, please leave a comment for me. It took forever to complete! Also, please click the links under the gifs and go give the gifmakers some love! The gifsets I have used are all wonderful and deserve your reblogs. (Gifs that don’t have links are my own)).

:)

[neven-ebrez]

So I read what you wrote about Dean treating Charlie like a child at times and really liked it... could you elaborate on what you mean when you say Dean treats Cas like a child/ spouse by turns ? Why does Dean treat Cas like a child anyway ? Cas is so many millenia older even if he is a little naive...

Oh boy! Those posts are like 6 years old! You really dug back through the ol’ analysis archive! I’ll try to take another crack at this since I first talked about it. Age has nothing to do with experience when it comes to angels. Cas, despite being so old, was so very new to free will (not counting all the times Naomi mind wiped him) when Dean met him. Who also has little experience with free will? Children. In Kripke/Gamble era Cas was learning and Dean was teaching. In S6 Dean blew up and called Cas a child. This is, most commonly, an adult/child situation, but not always. I think Dean has considered himself first and foremost (regardless of whatever feelings he has for him at any point), Cas’ teacher.

That’s why Cas’ struggles and failures fall so very heavily on Dean’s shoulders. Dean blames himself for Cas’ missteps. Dean sees (or rather, used to see) Cas as his responsibility. Same thing he does with Sam, only no one told him to do this. In S7 Dean saw it as he had basically “broke” Cas by telling him to embrace freewill. Finally in S12 Dean tells Cas he’s been the better for knowing him and his brother. This is one of the relationship’s narrative spirals, an important one.

Dean thinks he broke Cas.

Dean realizes that he didn’t.

This is an important realization from them both. It’s S7’s “nobody cares that you’re broken” -> S12’s “you are better off than what you were”. Cas thinks so to. We hear this when he voices his truth when others contradict the effect of Dean Winchester upon his person, like Ishim in 12x10. We see it vividly in 14x13, who Cas would be having never met Dean (because that wasn’t even S4 Cas, it was S3 Cas). Dean more or less sees Cas as his own person these days, but he still sees Cas as someone who he irrevocably changed. I think the feeling of responsibility is still there, if only in that capacity, Dean’s ability to blame himself for everything bad that happens to Cas. My kids are both teenagers, but I imagine it’s like how parents see their adult children.

I see this as the way Dean currently sees both Cas and Sam. He still feels responsible for them (in various degrees), tries to protect them, but also he trust their judgement, sees them both as separate from him now. With Sam things are a little more complicated, depending on what season/spiral we are on. Dabb era is good at the switching here, but it’s clear which one is regression and which in is progression.

S11 Sam framed as someone to save, Lucifer trauma highlighted (Lucifer vs Amara)

S12 Sam framed as leader -> American Hunters, MOL bad (Lucifer tries to return)

S13 Sam framed as someone to save, Lucifer trauma highlighted (Lucifer vs Michael)

S14 Sam framed as leader -> AU!Hunters, Michael bad (Lucifer tries to return)

Here in Dabb era Dean ping pongs between saving Sam from more Lucifer trauma and treating him as equal (brother instead of child). This is part of their narrative spiral. We compare this to Carver era which had Dean protect Sam so hard that it completely reduced Sam and completely damaged Dean. This is damage we see Dabb era trying to fix in the sense that we’ve already seen what it looks like, but we can’t stay there because it’s not a story the show is interested in. Now look at Cas.

S11 Cas “dead” (possessed) because of a mission to bring Dean peace (a win), Dean torn up

S12 Cas is shown he’s changed for the better, is still depressed, sees others’ happiness as more important than his own

S13 Cas dead because of a mission to bring Dean peace (a win), Dean torn up

S14 Cas sentences himself to death, sees others’ happiness as more important than his own

This relationship spiral is different from the one Dean has with Sam in a key way. We can’t see what the better, the progression for Cas even looks like. Cas doesn’t tell Dean what he needs from him, not like Sam does. Whereas with Sam we go back and forth.

Sam: sad and tortured needing Dean -> tired and leading helping Dean

Cas: sad and alive trying to bring Dean wins -> dead and leaving Dean devastated

With both, we lack balance. And the one framed to balance each of these spirals is Dean. Dean needs to work with Sam and Dean needs to tell Cas he wants him to live and stay with him. This is baseline, what the end of their spirals look like.

I feel I’ve gotten off base a bit? Structure is like the one thing I know how to talk about. The here and now psychology is harder for me. I think, in general, at least heavily in Carver era when I originally talked about this, it was highlighted just how traumatized Dean was by his upbringing. He’s so used to the parent (teacher)/child (student) dynamic that it’s just his default. And him realizing that this is not all he is to either of them effects both his relationship with Sam and his one with Cas, with both of them framed to need this certain development from Dean for different reasons. In short, Cas needs to be properly treated like his spouse and Sam needs to be properly treated like his brother. Because that’s what they are to him, truly.

[orionsangel86]

Some honest thoughts...

As many of you know, I have tried to remain very positive lately about the show and the current direction. I have always tried to speak my mind and not mislead my followers especially regarding a topic that we are all so very passionate about. This is why I want to write down some things that have played on my mind lately. 

Long post under the cut

I have always been honest about my analysis of the show, and what I interpret as I watch. What I don’t think is made clear enough by many of us meta writers is that sometimes the direction of the show changes, sometimes the change is slow, sometimes it happens abruptly. All we can do is let the show guide us. We let the meta guide US, rather than force it to fit our preferred reading.

The one thing I have always tried to avoid, regardless of what idiots on Twitter might claim, is confirmation bias. I will not let my desire for canonically romantic Destiel endgame affect my meta reading of the show. I ALWAYS force myself to see other perspectives and usually, the show still pleasantly surprises me by loading the subtext with Destiel themes.

I have written several posts on the topic lately to remind you all of my current stance:

My view on canon endgame Destiel (plus additions by others)

My view on the business side of things

My last meta piece on endgame themes in Season 14

Since the announcement that Season 15 was the last, I have suffered a whole range of emotions, and many of those were relating to my fear over Destiel. My desire for it to be brought to text is shared by so many of you, I am just another fan like any of you who desperately wants this love story honoured and done RIGHT. My optimism has constantly jumped up and down from episode to episode, from one PR release to another. I can’t make up my bloody mind. 

I’m scared. 

I’ll probably be mocked for saying that. I half expect the assholes to grab hold of this post when I’m done and use it to twist my words and attack Destiel shippers with. The one thing you can always count on with absolute certainty is the predictability of the bronlies and *others* who have recently aligned themselves with them. I’ll blow them a kiss now and be done with it.

This isn’t a post to announce a *change* of heart as such, but like @tinkdw wrote this morning my optimism on endgame romantic Destiel is currently at a low point.

Ever since the end of the S12/13 escalation after 13x06, I have had this horrible voice in the back of my head telling me that such an abrupt change of pace probably came from higher up. Suddenly jumping from a heavily romantic Destiel arc to zero Destiel focus was extremely jarring and confusing enough even for the general audience to be confused with.

Since then, whilst we HAVE had quite a nice helping of Destiel elements in the show to keep us going, the lack of follow up on that escalation at THIS point is starting to concern me. There is still definitely intentional subtext being laid down for us to enjoy, but in my opinion it has fallen back into the realm of plausible deniability and the characters can easily be viewed as platonic friends/brothers.

Instead, there has been a drastic increase in the focus on found family and the Winchester family unit lately - centering around TFW being the parents of Jack. Sam, Dean, and Cas have all been presented as three equal father figures to their son, the majority of PR has treated the three show leads very equal, and this in itself is amazing for a show that has so often side lined Cas in previous years. This is still a hug win for anyone who sits in camp “Cas is a lead and this show is more than the brothers”.

I always used to say when Dabb took over, that this was a good thing for Cas fans. I still maintain this stance. Cas is more present than ever as an equal to Sam and Dean, and sure they have their disagreements, but his character journey is integral to the brothers journey now. There is absolutely no way that this show will end without the three of them together - whether in life or in death. If it does, then I will be flinging my laptop into the wall in utter despair. 

The latest episode was a heavily emotional send off for Mary Winchester. I was expecting her death, though for a short time there I hoped that perhaps it would  be subverted. I feel like she was honoured well, but at the same time I am upset that she was given no choice in the matter, and I will never fully be satisfied with her death as on a very basic level, it was yet another fridging. I also recoiled at the idea that her heaven included John Winchester - after an early season build of a potential new relationship with Bobby (one that was heavily DeanCas coded) this is another change of direction that left me blinking in the headlights. It is another element that has shaken my faith in the show’s ability to logically plot story direction. The one comfort I can take here, is that the John from Mary’s heaven was NOT the actual soul of John Winchester, but a happy memory of him. Mary’s heaven’s front door clearly only states her own name. Her and John have never been actual soulmates - just forced soulmates for heavens purposes. I can’t berate Mary on her happy memories of her marriage, but from a narrative perspective it feels like a regression of sorts, put there purely for sentimental purposes. Had it been clear that it was John’s soul, it would have been far worse and I would be in a far worse frame of mind right now.

I have seen some really great meta on this latest episode talking about how Mary’s death has shown once again the difference between Dean and Cas, and Sam and Cas, and how Dean’s extreme emotional reaction to Cas’s desperate attempt to shelter Jack and the brothers from further pain indicates an emotional bond between them beyond the realm of platonic friendship and brotherhood. I really want to agree with this reading. I do. I can see it, and I agree that this could potentially lead to a discussion between them that is desperately overdue. 

But I can also easily see this being overlooked. I can see Bucklemming stomping into the story next episode with their gigantic clumsy boots and crushing all of Bobo’s delicately weaved plot full of call backs, mirrors and poetic symmetry. I can see the DeanCas *conversation* that we have been eagerly awaiting now for nearly 2 whole seasons being once again left behind. 

After the series end announcement, I looked back at several episodes that aired recently, and I speculated that the writers have known this since at least episode 300. Too much of what has been said in the scripts since is obviously a message to the fans. Therefore, everything we are currently watching is also already “the endgame” because the writers at this point should start wrapping up loose plot threads and focusing on finalising the character stories. Setting things up for the big finale.

This is why I believe 14x14′s shock end with Michael being destroyed so easily by Jack happened. I seriously doubt that is how it was originally supposed to go. They needed to clear the path for Jack rather than having various different plots running simultaneously like they usually do. 

This is also why I am slightly anxious about Cas’s Empty deal. If this becomes a thread picked up for season 15 great, but I can also see them easily resolving it in some outlandish way to instead focus on whatever big final story will be the focus in season 15. I would love Cas’s deal TO be the focal story, and if this happens, I will also regain faith in a romantic Destiel subplot, but I am wavering. 

Since the writers knew when writing the current run of episodes in season 14 that the season would wind up and prepare for the endgame, if they intended Destiel to be brought to text, I was expecting something more than what we have got. Perhaps I’m just finally burnt out, but frankly I don’t think that the way Dean treated Cas in this latest episode read as a lovers spat, I don’t see intentional romance being coded into their scenes together, and I certainly don’t see any indication from Jensen Ackles in his acting choices that Dean is struggling with a deep love for Cas vs his grief over the loss of his mum. I see loss, and anger, and an outstanding performance yes, but his treatment of Cas was far too cold. In fact, when I look purely at Jensen and Dean over the past season, his interactions with Cas have all been rather cold in my mind. I’m sorry to say this, and I would welcome anyone reaching out to me to point out examples where this view is incorrect. But compare his interactions with Cas to any interactions with Sam, and the difference is obvious, and not in a good way. 

Misha, on the other hand, as always, has spectacularly portrayed Cas’s love for Dean in such an outstanding and heartbreaking way. Throughout this episode his anguish was so evident. He took my breath away, and that final scene when he tries to go to Dean, but Sam stops him, that really made me want to cry. 

So I am still confused, and concerned, because where I see Misha continuing to act his heart out in favour of the love story, I see nothing of the same from Jensen - not since early season 13 anyway. If Destiel was truly on the cards, shouldn’t there be more in the way of early season 13? Are my expectations really so high to want something more than mere one sided scraps?

I need to stress here that I understand the many excuses given towards Dean’s sometimes offish behaviour. He represses his emotions, he hides his feelings, he comes across angry when he is worried. He gets aggressive and violent when scared. I know all of this and will accept this IF the next two episodes SHOW me that he is ALSO capable of apology, of the kind of care and feeling towards Cas that he always gives to Sam. 

Because we HAVE seen that softer, more loving Dean regularly in Season 14. We have seen outstanding performances from Jensen in that respect - but only ever towards Sam, or Mary, or occasionally Jack. He has never shown Cas that same treatment. Again, I appeal to you, especially to other meta writers, to point out clear examples of where I am wrong. Because I really really want you to change my mind. Show me where Dean is obviously looking at Cas with clear romantic love, where the music sweeps and his face betrays his emotion the way it does for Misha whenever Cas is with Dean. 

Of course, there is a rational argument here. That this is all done purposely specifically for the Destiel drama. If this is the case then GREAT. I want it. Believe me I do. But we have two episodes left of this season and one of them will be a huge mess of pacing, action, clunky plot and terrible dialogue, and the other will be the finale which appears to be mostly taken up by Chuck’s return IMO. I can’t see any DeanCas outstanding drama being resolved in the next two episodes. I really REALLY want to be wrong. But if they don’t resolve that DeanCas drama by season end, then IMO the story between them will remain familial. Because a Dean Winchester coming out story in the final season alone just isn’t plausible. 

Again, I stress that I want to be wrong here, but the writers knew the end was coming when they wrote these last few episodes, and if Destiel was something they were doing, then they would have written it into the end of this season. I’m not saying I need a canon reveal, but I do need something more than the scraps we have been given if I am to have my faith rekindled. 

Don’t get me wrong, I adore all the focus on found family, and I fully expect season 15 to further push the Winchesters to finally show to Cas how much he is part of their family. I even think there is a good chance that we could get his name carved on the table by final season end - following that heartbreaking shot of Mary’s initials next to her son’s in 14x18. But I don’t see it being romantic, if there is no romantic push coming up. It is far too easy right now for the show to reinforce the notion that Cas is another brother. I do love that the story is developing down a clear path where Cas will likely choose to be human and live a human life with his brothers, but brothers is all they will be.

I really hope I am wrong, but in amongst all the speculation of this big Destiel reunion and conversation that is long overdue, I can’t help but remember that we have been waiting for this conversation for nearly two years. Just because fandom remembers and holds on to the overtly romantic S12/13 escalation doesn’t mean a general audience will remember this. They will only see the present, and in the present Dean and Cas do not act like a romantic couple. If another long hiatus goes by without that conversation having occurred, it is yet another gap in which the general audience will forget, and the writers will be able to drop it as they have always dropped it previously. 

This is endgame, we can’t afford to have the deancas important plot points dropped anymore. We can’t afford to have their conversations, and apologies, and moments of making up, left in the subtext. We NEED to have that stuff shown the way they show it if it is Sam and Dean. 

If they aren’t planning on doing that, then I doubt there will even be a “Destiel” plot to meta about. It will remain in subtext, as scraps, and maybe something ambiguous right at the end as a saving grace in order to not completely destroy the shows legacy once complete. 

The further we move away from any substantial Destiel elements, the more and more likely it is that a CW exec already pulled the plug on it. As much as I love Bobo, and still enjoyed this episode for its melancholic poetic beauty, his own bitterness over Wayward Sisters still shows clearly in his writing (in my opinion) and I don’t believe he truly has his heart in it the way Steve Yokey does. I sometimes wonder if his lack of passion for his episodes recently is to do with more than just the loss of Wayward Sisters. Could Bobo also be upset about a “no” on Destiel?

The saving grace here being that Yokey still fills his episode with passion and plenty of queer coding. Yokey is the other person on the writing team who I focus on in terms of accusations of queerbaiting. Yokey certainly wouldn’t queerbait his own community, but unlike Bobo where there appears to be a certain bitterness over his place on the show, Yokey still embraces his role and seems very happy with it. If they had truly been given a red light from the execs, then wouldn’t Yokey also be feeling kinda pissed off that he is working on a show that is potentially going to go down in history as the biggest queerbait since TV began?

Aside from Bobo, which can be explained by Wayward Sisters, there is still passion and joy from the writing team, and if they were truly aware that Destiel wasn’t happening, I don’t think they would be so proud. So maybe there is still hope after all? They aren’t the kind of people to intentionally queerbait their fanbase. Yet Destiel has definitely been an intentional part of their storytelling for years. 

I truly hope that the next two episodes rekindle my faith, but right now I have very little hope for textual romance. I am still 100% on board with the found family, Cas is definitely a Winchester and third lead focus that the show has been pushing. It brings me a lot of joy. But yeah, I need a lot more than we are currently getting if Destiel is really still on track. 

Sorry guys. Perhaps I am just not quite out of my rough patch this week. I am fickle enough that by next week I could have totally changed my mind again, but as always. These are my opinions, not to be inflicted on anyone else. You are responsible for managing your own expectations. This is how I manage mine.

xxx

[cacophony-of-notions]

Ignorance of the environment that plays into Dean's trauma is a huge issue, and ignorance of trauma overall and the various responses to it is generally an issue all over Tumblr with multiple communities I have found when they talk about broken characters in various stories. However, my big issue with Dean crit blogs is that they pretty much universally hold Dean to different standards than they do Sam and Cas because they frame Dean as Sam’s father/mother and Castiel’s god, and in so doing, perpetuate Dean’s parentification. 

This belief in Dean’s authority through the parent relationship or Castiel’s worship is what leads them to title Dean as an abuser and not someone who is just... being a bad friend/brother when he is wrong. They see an imbalance of power, yet Dean is neither Sam’s parent nor a god. Crits often expect him to fill those roles then condemn him for (1) doing so inadequately and (2) being in the role to begin with. It is seen as entirely Dean’s responsibility to remove himself from these roles, when this is actually not possible if only Dean reframes his relationships. Dean does have to reframe the relationships for them to change, but if Sam and Cas and others in his life and the narrative itself do not also stop expecting Dean to fill those roles too, they will continue to be broken. Dean has recognized for a very long time that being expected to raise Sam severely damaged him and twisted his relationship with his brother. The problem is, he can keep recognizing it and trying to cast off those chains all he wants, but if Sam, for example, throws them back on by falling back into the role of a child when his own decisions backfire (at times even blaming Dean directly for his own unilateral choices), and/or expects Dean to take sole responsibility, the nature of the guilt associated with parentification means that Sam can actually suck Dean back into accepting responsibilities that should not belong to him and “doing better” at parenting instead of stopping, perpetuatating Dean’s trauma and Sam’s own (to the extent that Dean’s parentification has damaged both of them). The narrative itself also consistently throws these chains back on Dean as he tries to cast them off. See season 5′s “The End” for example, when Dean needs space from Sam, and is immediately punished for it by being shown a future where everything goes to shit because he didn’t love Sam hard enough. (Of course that isn’t the only message in the episode—the other message is that Dean is also better off with Sam, but the first message remains). 

Even Sam seeking Dean’s love and pride the way a child seeks a father’s is a form of parentification perpetuated... and I actually think it’s the more meaningful (and tragic) issue here. Sam spends the entire first half of the series struggling with the desire for Dean’s fatherly pride (jfc look at the season 8 finale for a great example of this) but at the end of the day, Dean is not Sam’s dad, and Sam also has to reframe his relationship with Dean and recognize when he is seeking something from Dean that Dean should not have to give or can’t. Your brother shouldn’t be the defining source of your self-esteem. It’s not Sam’s fault that he grew up framing Dean that way, just as it isn’t Dean’s fault that he was expected to fill that role from the age of four. But they both have to stop looking out of the lens of their childhoods, and that’s hard to do... and crits do not understand how to fix it. What they want, is for Sam to set boundaries, and Dean to have none. They want Dean to give as much as possible to Sam in terms of unconditional fatherly love and acceptance and pride (because they know Dean is the defining source of that for Sam), without also having fatherly authority. Basically, they want Dean to keep showing the “good” side of being Sam’s parent or Castiel’s god without the “bad”. This is, ultimately, why crits (and frankly, the narrative) can often be seen shaming Dean for setting boundaries after someone hurts him, while applauding Sam and Cas for doing so. What actually needs to happen, is that beyond Sam/Cas setting boundaries and Dean recognizing when he is falling into that role, Dean also needs to be allowed to set boundaries with Sam and Cas, and they also need to reframe how they perceive Dean! Dean needs to be allowed to tell his family that it is not his job to be their unconditionally loving nurturer who gives and gives and gives regardless of how he is treated, without being accused of being unloving or not filling his role by the narrative or being bossy or withholding love to get something. If you want to see how toxic SPN makes this entire dynamic, look at Bobby’s (who I love btw but this was fucked) screaming speech to Dean after he and Sam fight in “When the Levee Breaks”. Dean acts out in that fight with Sam by treating Sam as his child and mirroring their father, but then Bobby actually perpetuates Dean seeing himself as Sam’s father by shaming him for being a parent like John and telling Dean to be a better parent to Sam than John was, when the whole issue is Dean isn’t Sam’s father in the first place!!! Unfortunately, the narrative often perpetuates the idea that Dean needs to be the universal source of love and acceptance in the Supernatural universe, and when Dean’s trauma reaches a point where he consistently starts failing to be the sun (especially triggered by Mary’s multiple deaths), they also bring in Jack to further drive the point home that Dean isn’t loving enough to those who have sought out his light. At the same time, the narrative also suggests frequently that Dean needs to take charge and is bad and wrong if he doesn’t (the world is going to end if you don’t act, people will die, Sam will die, Cas will die, Sam and Cas will act unilaterally and it will backfire, etc)... but then is also bad and wrong when he does take charge because he didn’t do a good enough job and/or was perceived as bossy. 

The dynamic with Cas is in some ways even more fucked up than that, because Cas and Dean both seem to seek dual roles from each other that are unfair to one another. It’s incredibly hard to argue that Dean solely acts as a leader who lords over Castiel, when in many situations, Cas decides unilaterally what is best for Dean and then acts that out without consulting Dean at all—in fact, often in direct opposition to what he knows Dean would want. Dean sees Cas as someone he needs to protect at times, and at other times, he wants Castiel’s protection (the latter was more prevalent earlier in the series, when Castiel routinely did act as Dean’s guardian and had his full powers).  Castiel, meanwhile, sees Dean as this beacon of free will and treats Dean sort of like something to worship, but at the same time, is also prone to block out Dean’s voice and keep him in the dark. He doesn’t hear, he controls the means of communication, he leaves for days and weeks at a time... and in this way, there are actually colors of parentification and John Winchester in the relationship between Dean and Cas too... but it’s not just Dean being expected to provide unconditional love—the dynamic also reverses where it’s actually Dean seeking out Cas as a protector where maybe he shouldn’t, then becoming upset when Castiel shows him triggering shades of John’s abandonment and secrets. I think that since the beginning, Castiel has been kind of this revelation for Dean, of a person who has power and knowledge beyond what Dean himself posses, and cares about him and protects him, which isn’t something Dean had much experience with in his formative years. So Dean craved that, and in the beginning, Dean reacted to Cas as his guardian and Cas in turn reacted to Dean as someone who needs and desires his protection. It isn’t that Dean saw Cas as a father, but he did expect him to fill the role of protector, perhaps sort of in the ways that he wished John had. Cas was also okay with filling this role for the most part and wanted to fill it, beyond when Dean demanded more of his attention that Castiel felt he could give while managing other responsibilities. But then trust was broken between them, partly because Cas protected Dean from too much (a.k.a. kept secrets). In trying to mend the relationship, Castiel wanted to protect Dean more which meant he continued to try and protect Dean from information and make unilateral decisions about how to best protect Dean. This was all further exacerbated by Castiel’s waning powers. Castiel reacts to the loss of his powers from many angles which don’t all have to do with Dean, but the angle that does have to do with Dean, is that he’s afraid he can’t fill the role that he believes Dean wants him to fill as a guardian... and Dean responding to Castiel’s waning powers by trying to reverse the dynamic and protect Cas actually upsets Cas further because it threatens the guardianship dynamic that he believes is the cornerstone of their relationship, and pushes Cas further into this desire to protect Dean not just physically but also from basic information. It’s like a battle of wills with each party wanting to protect the other by taking charge, and they fall into this vicious cycle, and the spirit of John still somehow manages to look over it, especially in the later seasons. 

like I GET deancrit and I get that perspective but I can never truly get behind it at the end of the day, because if you just shifted supernatural a couple degrees to the left and gave tfw some stable external relationships outside each other this problem would be solved. the show demonstrates to the audience over and over again that actually when dean has stability, when he has people who will check his behaviour and tell him he’s being a dick when he’s being a dick, so much of the weird entrenched misery and nastiness in the tfw dynamic goes away. dean is not some arch-abusive villain who is destined to always be horrible. his maladaptive behaviours are, on the whole, relatively easy problems to solve that he ALSO wants to solve.

but then spn is like yeah but what if bobby died what if mary died what if they could never have a moment of peace what if every scrap of happiness dean manages to claw his way is taken from him what if these guys are single-handedly responsible for solving every dumbass supernatural problem that exists. “see these characters at their WORST” well okay I’ve seen that for ten seasons I don’t want that. that’s boring. I reject that