#sam critical

[iliketoydinosaurs]

"Sam doesn't understand Dean at all!"

And Dean understands Sam?? Have you seen Dark Side of the Moon(05x16)?? Just My Imagination(11x08)?? They don't perfectly understand each other all the time because they are flawed and they're bad at communicating. Your Deangirlism is ruining your perception of the show.

[vaicomcas]

Cas episodes rewatch notes. Early S13.

There is this exchange early in 13x01.

SAM: What about Cas? Is he - is he really dead? DEAN: You know he is.

Sam saw as much as Dean when Cas was killed. This question is significant because it hints at what Sam must have been thinking: Death isn't necessarily "real" in their universe.

No, the writers didn't suddenly forget about that. In S13e5:

Billie: It’s funny to hear a Winchester talk about the finality of dying. 

Which makes it all the more jarring that the Winchesters made Zero effort to find a way to bring Cas back.

Quite the opposite. In S13e4:

JACK: My mother… could she be a ghost? SAM: No, we, um… we burned the body. DEAN: That’s right, and what gets burned… stays dead.

They didn't forget that in their universe resurrections can and often happen. Dean performed his grief so convincingly in preparing Cas' body for the funeral pyre, but what the Winchesters really did was they burned Castiel's body with the explicit intention that Cas stayed dead.

Poor Cas was under the illusion that the Winchesters would have tried:

CASTIEL The Winchesters. Sam and Dean, they must’ve made a deal.

No, they didn't. They didn't look in books, they didn't try spells, they didn't make a deal, Cas must stay dead so they get to keep their hunter code, their grief rituals and their man pain angst.

[crowley-the-1-true-king-of-hell]

Sam: What the hell, Crowley? Biting?! Seriously?!

Bitch tf??? You have the guy in chains while you painfully jam a needle into his neck. What is he meant to do? Clap? You're also planning to turn him into a human and the only good thing that came out of Crowley being tortured in Hell was that he got powers. Can you imagine that soon your torture would be for nothing? because the only good thing you got out of it, aka your powers, is apparently going to be taken from you?

Wtf was Sam expecting? A standing ovation?

[bloodygayness]

Okay wait sorry hold on. I swear I’m not a Sam anti, but I’m mad at him again over Amy. He was so upset with Dean, for a long time, after he killed Amy. Then he turns around and hates on Dean’s relationship with Benny! Benny was arguably much more significant to Dean’s life than Amy was to Sam’s. And Sam gets pissy at Dean for him being angry at how he treated Benny!

[fuzzyflowers22]

SPN Rewatch

“Devils trap”

Again how is Sam the smart one? This first scene really shows how much smarter dean is.

Yay Bobby!

Awe Sam gets in front of Bobby.

Why is exorcising the demon seeming like it’s supposed to be a bad thing? They literally can’t save the girl so it’s exorcise the demon from her (killing her) or leaving her to be used as a meat suit for potentially forever. It’s really not that bad to choose the exorcism.

Sam you are just like John wanting to kill this demon over everything including each others lives. Makes you think he would choose it over deans life too.

Also dean didn’t drag Sam from college to go on a mission kill the demon. He got him for one case to find their dad and then Sam chose to go on a mission to kill the demon after it killed Jess.

I also don’t really understand the point of Sam bringing up what John wants like he cares. Sam doesn’t care if it’s want John wants or not. Sam’s not bringing the colt because he doesn’t want to regardless of John.

Dean making all the right points: just like John, selfish, just wants revenge.

Sam only making good points afterward. Like if you really think “we can’t bring the gun because then well have no leverage and the demons will kill us” then why the fuck did you start with “can’t because revenge quest”?

I don’t want to hate Sam but Jesus they write him so poorly.

I can’t get over this 2000s fashion please give these boys pants that actually fit them.

Could you look more sus Sam really get your shit together.

Self reflective moment but what matters is what’s done with it. Idk what’s done with it yet.

This acknowledgment of willing to do anything so much it scares you is a good first step to overcoming this toxic codependency. I don’t think they actually go through with it but there is potential here.

It’s funny in a really sad way that the tipping point in dean’s suspicions is John saying please.

This whole scene is so fucked up.

What kind of asshole do you have to be to have a demon be nicer than you.

Also dean looks like he’s gonna cry.

Like honestly, the demon wasn’t even that nice but he was still too nice to be John.

A+ acting JDM I honestly forgot it’s the same guy who plays John it’s so good.

Does anyone else think that “dad please” is because he doesn’t think John would fight the demon for him?

John I don’t think you realize how fucked up asking you son to kill you is.

Good growth Sam! Revenge after family.

[morsick]

i've recently noticed that the fandom tends to overlook in the analysis how strongly jack was influenced by the time he spent in au world. of course, mostly it happens because show itself forgets about story arcs as soon as they end, but still.

it's insane that jack has been alive for only a few months when he was forced to fight a fucking war. can you imagine what a war can do to a person who began to form his worldview just a few months ago? just how traumatic must it have been for jack who already has been heavily traumatized right after he was born? and it wasn't addressed by the show at all! yes, jack became more aggressive and ruthless after his return to the home world. but the reason for that is just glossed over, and suddenly jack showing any signs of his trauma grows into the argument that he's a dangerous monster, and thus violence against him is excusable and winchesters' abuse towards him was okay. it wasn't. the show just didn't want to show any sympathy for anyone's trauma except for the winchesters'.

[emmathompsonegot]

I'm a Deangirl, but all of the weird flaws in how they write Sam are sooo compelling to me. Like, they had a vague idea what they wanted, and then missed every single opportunity to make something out of him

[crowley-the-1-true-king-of-hell]

It's because he didn't really care to be subservient to Dean and Sam

“but godstiel was evil!”

why?! cause he killed corrupt people?! homophobes?? bad politicians!? that just sounds like girlbossing to me 🙄

[counterspelling]

The Legend of Vox Machina, Mid-Season Roundtable

[setsailforthestars]

Absolutely screaming at this tweet exchange

[somewhatsentientspellbook]

I need to know how Aabria reacted in the crowd to seeing Sam become the monster I think we all want to be, or be with

[iliketoydinosaurs]

I think if we as a fandom insist on critiquing Sam it should be for his eagerness at abandoning Dean for the majority of the show.

[vaicomcas]

9x21 and 9x22 enrages me as much as TMWWBK. I'll have to break it down to multiple posts.

"The Commander"

Sam and Dean haven't even entered the door and they already started judging Cas as soon as they heard the angel call him "commander".

"If you will follow me, the commander will see you now."

What a neutral and normal thing to say! Yet look at Sam and Dean's faces! Look at the contempt they already had, just upon hearing someone referring to Cas in a respectful way!

They go in, Cas was so happy to see them, he hugged each of them warmly. And the first thing they say to Cas? It was to disparage him.

Look at the condescension and judgment on their faces! Look at it!

Cas picked up on their disapproval immediately. He said, "not my idea. The angels had no leader and they insisted on following me."

Dean responds with sacarsm:

Sam: "so this war between angels is really gonna happen, huh?"

Cas: "Not if I can find a diplomatic option for getting rid of Metatron."

Dean: "Good luck with that".

No respect for his noble cause, no concern for the challenges and danger Cas was in.

Cas: "Dean, this angel-on-angel violence, it has to end. Someone has to say, 'stop.'"

Sam responds by skepticism and doubt: "and that someone is you?"

I wrote elsewhere that it takes unimaginable courage for Cas to step up to lead. The amount of self-hating and self-blaming he had to overcome, the knowledge that Metatron had made plans for him to fail in his leadership, his belief that he was a screw up: He fought through all this burden in order to restore his family.

How devastating is it to have the only "friends" he had see his leadership, his army, and immediately cast doubt and disapproval? Immediately put him down as a leader?

And this was only the first 2 minutes of the Winchesters seeing Castiel leading his army. All because Cas being called Commander! He was the commander! It was simply a fact! The Winchesters couldn't stand it. What would they be happy with? If everybody else think of Cas as "a weird, dorky little guy" too?

[crowley-the-1-true-king-of-hell]

I think what really bothers me about Destiel is that every moment with Cas & Dean is seen as romantic Destiel. Every. Single. Moment

There are moments in the show where I understand why a scene was tagged as Destiel in a romance way. Even as someone who despises Destiel I can look at some interactions and understand why the scene was tagged Destiel in a romance way

This for example

But then there are moments that I would never in a million years see as Destiel in a romance way and I cannot fathom why people on Tumblr tag the scene as such

Like this one

Look at the reblogs on when Jack got imprisoned in a box and Cas' reaction to that

I ship Crowstiel but if Crowley did this to Cas? I would not see that moment as Crowstiel. I don't think a fictional ship has to be 100% fluffy to be valid or deserving of being shipped. This is fiction not reality

My issue isn't that people ship a ship that isn't fluffy. My issue is that some Destiel shippers genuinely truly believe that everything and anything is proof of Dean's love for Cas

Talking about the link above if I shipped Destiel as a healthy and romantic relationship then my reaction wouldn't be praise, it wouldn't be acceptance. It wouldn't be awwww Destiel 😍 I would be outraged because you asked for domestic Destiel, you begged for domestic Destiel and do you know what the writers gave you? A domestic Destiel involving Dean justifying child abuse to Cas

Why tf would anyone, who ships Destiel romantically ever tolerate that or let it slide? The show writers do have their own ideas but some of their ideas are from listening to the fandom. When you don't push back the show writers think it's okay

Some really dark ships like Ramsay x Reek are shipped because they've always been shipped as an effed up inappropriate relationship. People KNOW that ship is wrong. They KNOW this. They ship that ship for what it is. And what it is is a psychological study of a torture victim with stockholm syndrome and a torturer with lima syndrome. It is shipped as a psychological study. It is not shipped as a romance. It's shipped as a dark taboo kink that should only exist in fiction. It's never shipped as romance

But Destiel is NOT Thramsay. George RR Martin has created Thramsay as effed up from the very beginning. In the books written by Martin, Ramsay calls Theon his sweet Reek and kisses him on the cheek, while Reek is also a victim Ramsay tortures

Destiel. Either the show creators have intended Destiel to be a ship between an abuser and a victim

Or the writers intended for the ship to be a healthy relationship and listened to you guys on whether they were doing it right. Obviously with tags like this, it's no wonder they didn't get it right

If the tags were #why did the writers vandalize my ship?! #I know this is wrong but I can't help but like how fucked up it is

Then I would think that Destiel shippers are aware of what they're shipping and that's all I ask for

But when they genuinely believe that this is proof of normal romance and parenting it is painful

Do you ship this moment psychologically as a character study of a toxic moment in a relationship?

Do you ship this moment as a taboo? Like I know it's wrong but it's psychologically fascinating

Do you ship this moment ironically?

All of the above I get

But shipping it as romantic I don't get

[bloodygayness]

Ooh I swear I could punch Sam in the face for trying to compare Dean killing Amy (a matured monster who had in fact been killing people and Sam hadn’t seen since he was like 12) to him “having” to kill Dean’s CHILD (who was his own flesh and blood! barely three days old! not a killer!!)

[fuzzyflowers22]

SPN Rewatch

“Everybody loves a clown”

I wish they actually gave Sam some consistency in how he feels about john. I don’t think we ever get resolution on this. We have way more of an idea about dean’s relationship with john.

But all we really know about Sam’s is very surface level. If Sam’s resentment was due to the actual neglect and manipulation john inflicted on them then why is he so wishy washy? Especially after johns death.

I know trauma affects people differently but can we resolve it? Can we have a clear idea of how sam actually feels about John instead of “loves him when he’s gone, hates him when he’s here”?

And why he feels that way! We do not get nearly enough of their actual backstory about how they were raised. I need flashbacks damn it!

Dean is flirting with ash and no one can convince me otherwise. Wayyy too many flirting smiles. And that tone? Same one he uses when he flirts.

Look John died and Dean immediately starts flirting with a dude and passing up a chick. I don’t know what to tell you.

I know Jo was never really a love interest but they still made her too much of a love interest. She should have had a different role in the narrative.

I actually kind of wish they had her interact with Sam. I feel like the development in Jo and Ellen’s relationship could have taught Sam a lot.

Teach him about healthy family dynamics and emotional growth.

Also she doesn’t take shit and Sam gives a lot of shit.

She coulda put him in his place.

Sam take a look in the mirror before you start judging ash.

See I can’t really be invested in Sam’s grief about John with how stupid it’s been up until now. Like… how I am supposed to give a fuck when they’ve been half-assing their relationship until now? No consistency. Fuck that shit.