#spn 20

[zmediaoutlet]

spn20rewatch, 1.12: "The guy probably would've died anyway."

After agreeing that, yes, you're invested in the mission of this family after all, and you're an equal participant in it and you're bought in -- what are you willing to do?

Death comes easy in Supernatural -- it's kind of the starting premise -- and avoiding death comes more-or-less easy, too. Faith is the first time we see the Winchesters evade the obvious conclusion but it's far from the last, and it's also the first time we see how easy the slippage comes between breathing and not, between moral and not, between allowable and not. Reapers seem to come for the dying no matter what, but it isn't actually that hard to redirect that energy from one person to another. What happens when you do it? What cost are you willing to bear?

Dean takes a mortal wound in the everyday exigencies of the hunt. He was a good person, saving kids from a monster. He doesn't deserve to die. (Right?) A faith healer sees something special in him and he's chosen, over a lot of others, and he will be snatched back from the jaws of patient death, and -- that's good, right? Dean will live and he will save many more kids, and him being alive is a net positive in the world. Does it matter what it costs?

Unfortunately, as Sam is soon to learn, evading the inevitable in the moral structure of Supernatural's universe is just a whole-ass series of trolley problems. Yes, Dean lives, but Marshall Hall dies. Did Marshall deserve that? He was probably a decent guy. Maybe he didn't save kids from monsters, but he was a human person and that should be enough to deserve life. Was his life more valuable on the eternal scales than Dean's? For Sam, most certainly, but we can't trust Sam's judgment on making that call. Is there any possibility of being objective, here? (On a meta level, would the driving structural forces of this narrative allow any other option?)

DEAN: Sam, the guy's playing God, he's deciding who lives and who dies. That's a monster in my book. SAM: No. We're not going to kill a human being, Dean. We do that, we're no better than he is.

Tricky calculus. Who decides? And, worse, what if you know that by one decision you're dooming some to death, but some others will live? Would Sam have made the decision to go to the faith healer if he knew that someone else would go in Dean's place? We really don't know, and at this point I'm not sure Sam knows, either. He'd certainly say that he wouldn't, especially with the benefit of hindsight. In the lonely growing darkness in a motel room with his dad refusing to answer the phone and Dean's white face in a white hospital bed blotting out every other thought -- who knows what decision he would've made, with full awareness.

How lucky that he got exactly what he wanted without having to make the grimiest possible version of the choice. Sam (and we) can wonder what might have happened, if Layla had been chosen first and they'd realized what the stakes really were and then on a later day Roy had turned his smiling benevolence Dean's way. Who decides who lives and who dies? Luckily the universe tends to intercede on the Winchesters' behalf before they have to answer that question truthfully.

[cthulhum]

does anyone realize how crazy it is to have the actor of a mostly headcanoned queer ship say the fans were never crazy and they were right all along after 10+ years of everyone just absolutely going nuts over the said queerbaited ship

[jackklinemybeloved]

watching the grey’s anatomy/trope island in misfits and magic is truly: k tanaka heaven is also evan kelmp hell, it’s a very efficient system.

[chxrrylungs]

do we fw sastiel..?

perchance

[microwavebeeep]

I know, what I'm doing

[wetsocksinbed]

me watching seasons 1-3: damn these Winchesters are pretty hot

watches season 4, sees Castiel:

[anbeeo]

Ohhh to be smote by castiel

[nochedie]

🕺

[samstrifee]

i can’t believe they aired supernatural on real life tv for 15 years and no one said anything to me.. we didn’t get a day off school for this? not one single US president has ever said anything about sam winchester

[onegiantmeep]

emily axford, the figayda warrior we deserve

[winbred]

Sam's canonical puppy dog eyes genuinely are my heaven on earth. His little (but bigger) brother staring at him and Dean caving into them because they're so adorable? That's Dean's soft spot? His brother's eyes.

[castiels-undercoat]

When ppl make fun of me but ive been shipping destiel since i was literally ten years old (2014) so nothing can hurt me

[souporsaladnatural]

Honestly I think season 7 isn't even bad, it just needed at least a few more episodes with godstiel being the main conflict and it would've been solid

[isaacthedruid]

supernatural is gonna be 20 years old this year.

castiel's introduction is gonna be 17 years ago this year.

the destiel confession scene is gonna be 5 years ago this year.

supernatural will have concluded 5 years ago this year.

dean and cas will have died 5 years ago this year.

and on a personal note, i'm gonna be the same age as sam winchester (age 22) in season 1 this year.

[annazima]

Supernatural Week 2024

Day 3: Monster of the week episode(s)

Supernatural 1-4 season

[blacknidstang]

Man i love bitchy sam but i so don't understand how people would think he'd be the same person after eons of being tortured in hell and every god awful thing he went through. Even after s4 sam was never the same. Yes i think the writing could go better in late seasons in many ways but what do you expect even. Plus sam DOES has the sass even in late season, jared still channels it but also like, he is fucked up kicked down and tortured and traumaized man and how do you want him to stay the same cocky bold and bitchy twink he used to be when he was still a baby!???