#spn Meta

[castielsflowers]

every time the whole sam eats rabbit food thing comes up on the show or in fanfiction it’s such a great example of the writers doing something interesting that they don't have the guts to follow through with because it’s usually in the context of “sam eats traditionally non-masculine foods let’s laugh at him for his failure to perform masculinity on the Man Show” but in the context of PTSD and sam's self consciousness the mr. king of compartmentalization is eating “clean” foods in an effort to live in a “cleaner” body and cleanse himself of the moral failings and contamination that comes with having demon blood in his body which is an infinitely more interesting metaphor for abuse but yeah no sam's just a pussy for eating a salad got it

[beautysurvives]

today I am thinking about the way Amara imposes her love onto Dean, saying that it’s inevitable, assuming that his being drawn to her is him taking a romantic interest because why wouldn’t he want her? How could he not? Isn’t it obvious? The way that Amara is associated with giving up, giving in, allowing the world to end and relinquishing hope for a future, and especially being tempted towards “evil.”

I’m thinking about that, and then the way that Dean apologizes to Cas at the end of the season — while they’re on their way to buy drinks, when Dean has totally accepted defeat and is content to merely wait for the world to end — for making him feel so unvalued that he went to Lucifer. and then immediately following it up with, “you’re our brother.” How this, for Dean, is not only a moment of surrender/accepting defeat (to Amara) — but also accepting that Cas will never have romantic feelings for him. This is Dean (who not only relates to Amara, but has also been told by GOD that he is like her, and has ALSO been told repeatedly for years that his desire to have others close to him is selfish) releasing Cas from any obligation to return his affection.

Dean is apologizing for not being focused enough on him to keep him from being seduced by Lucifer, and yet at the same time accepting that he is not deserving of the kind of relationship he wants — saying “this is the closest I’m ever gonna get, and that’s fine.” Dean sees himself as responsible for Cas’s fall from grace by being a temptation, imposing himself on him, assuming that Cas must feel or will eventually feel the same way.

Edit bc I can’t stop thinking about this:

Because despite it being his way of letting Cas go — he’s still doing exactly what Amara does to people when she consumes their souls (she describes it as preserving them, keeping them from being harmed). Dean is keeping Cas stuck in the same emotional in between phase that they’ve been in for years — like purgatory. Treating Cas like both a lover and a family member, and preventing either of them from moving forward in any direction — not closer to each other, but not further away either. And that is exactly what Amara’s version of the apocalypse is — she’s saving God’s creatures from suffering by keeping their souls perfectly preserved inside her. Protecting people from harm by making sure that nothing will ever be done to them ever again.

[zmediaoutlet]

was scrolling through your tags and saw "i wonder if he and dean argue abt gas money" and i feel like dean is in charge of their finances. like maybe there's more to be said about that topic like winchester money or lack there of, that maybe you have opinions about? i'd love to hear them.

love your writing, btw ❤️

Dean is definitely in charge of their finances, altho what "finances" means in the era of "we know how to hack credit agencies" is a little fuzzy. (Someone pointed out a laptop screenshot where Dean emails Sam and says that Sam "owes him gas money", which is both a) endearingly dumb and in character, and also b) YOU SHARE MONEY, DORK. THERE IS NO MONEY. [Dean: "It's the principle!" me: I repeat, dork.])

Winchester money is an interesting one! In the way-way back there was this big sprawly meta conversation about their interaction with class that really went all over the place, but what's interesting about it to me is that they are no-collar while coding blue-collar middle class. Like the old middle class, of limited debt and home ownership but still being on a modest salary and with modest tastes. Maybe a vacation once a year, etc. Not that that was their exact situation, but it's the social bracket they occupy. Note that Sam was desperate to get into the white-collar strata and really tried hard to play at that, especially in s1, but like a lot of the jumped-up masses he was more bougie nouveau riche than actually part of that set -- note how he couldn't order a glass of wine in Provenance (which happens to be one of my most hated scenes in the whole series, but that's not Sam's fault, lol). He makes fun of Dean's blue-to-no-collar tendencies but he's irrevocably part of them, and luckily he grows up mentally enough over the first few years that we don't get as much of that college kid crap, just home from school and making fun of Mom's casserole for not being what the kids in the city think is cool. You like the casserole, kid. Stop fronting.

But Winchesters-and-money really takes on a whole other valence because they're free of it. Like obviously in latter years once the credit cards get perfect (I guess that's as of the introduction of Frank and/or Charlie) it means nothing, and I'm glad of that bc we actually don't need to think about it, it's a solved problem. But when they're younger, there's the literal in-the-moment needs of food/gas money/clothes/where are we gonna sleep tonight, and they're very hand-to-mouth. But the way they're hand to mouth is like... fine. They don't have to worry about a mortgage. The Impala certainly does not have insurance, and neither do they have health insurance. There is no retirement account and there are no debt collectors knocking. They're free of the credit/financial system in a way almost no one else is, because they're also completely free to steal and pirate their way through life. Not least because it's the moral choice inside the textual universe -- they have to be free to save the day, so who cares if they're fucking over some random person's credit history.

It does a really interesting thing to their characterization. They're not stuck in the backbreaking poverty of e.g. the characters in Shameless. They aren't struggling to pay bills because they don't have bills. There's in-the-moment urgency but once that moment has passed and there's food in their bellies and gas in the car and Sam's got a new pair of shoes without a hole -- they don't really have to think about it the way most would. It's almost more of an aesthetic than it is a foundational shaping. That said, you do have to solve those moments as they come because there's no savings cushion, either, so either you get the new cards from the PO box or you figure out how to scam someone or you, you know. Do whatever else Dean might've done, to make sure there was food on the table.

[hello-dean-bi-dean]

If the confession scene had never made it onto the screen, the show would be just as queer.

Supernatural repeatedly walked right up to the line between implicit and explicit queerness. Just as an example, TMWWBK. It about as clear as it could be about the nature of the relationship between Dean and Cas. The audience is meant to understand the episode as a romantic breakup, and it doesn't need to be said out loud for the meaning to be obvious. It's not a joke, it's not throwing a bone to the fans. It's implicit, it's subtextual, but it's right there. And it's not less queer just because the characters don't kiss on screen or say the words. (And if we're honest, this episode probably couldn't have been more explicit when it aired in 2011 anyway.)

(Word of God [or actors] can't erase it either. Jake Gyllenhaal once said he thought Jack Twist was straight. John Knowles claimed there was no gay subtext in A Separate Peace. They were both wrong.)

Why did the entire fandom tell me Supernatural was The Queerbaiting Show when it’s not bait, it’s just there on the damn screen?

[chiisana-sukima]

Saw that you also wanted to be asked this and I’d love to here your thoughts too. Exact same ask: What’s your thoughts on the idea of Soulless Sam losing his inhibitions and so giving into his darkest desires, and sexually assaulting Dean (which is how the vampire turning scene is read). I often see this tied to the idea that because of the incestuous deal and Azazel’s blood, Sam’s tainted and has this inherent darkness, specifically playing around the idea Sam’s sexuality is dark and perverse, and he harbours these feelings towards Dean and desires to assault him but feels shame and guilt for it. But as Soulless Sam he doesn’t. This reading always felt a little weird and uncomfortable to me but I couldn’t put into words why

In terms of the canonicity component, I have nothing to add to what @aliusfrater said. In isolation, I do think it's fair to read that look in Live Free or Twihard as at least metaphorically sexual, but it's one camera shot with no dialogue doing an awful lot of work in 327 hours of television.

This reading always felt a little weird and uncomfortable to me but I couldn’t put into words why

This is the part I wanted to write about. It feels weird and uncomfortable because it's an especially volatile subcategory of rape fantasy presented using the structure and language of an academic argument.

I feel like I should disclaimer that rape fantasies are fine and normal (and among my personal faves) and that stories are meant to serve people, not vice versa, so I'm not complaining about either the content of these headcanons or their lack of support in the canon version of spn per se. What's frustrating is the way the meta format mixes together assertions of fact about the source material, assertions of fact about rl, and shit an OP made up out of thin air because they thought it was hot, and turns it all into an indiscriminate fact-y sounding stew.

No, actually. No he isn't and no it wouldn't.

Another part of the uncomfortable feeling, at least for me, is the way fandom does intimacy backwards. First we put our blorbos in Situations, then we talk about our favorite Situations and why we love them, then we talk about politics, and then if we really, really like each other, we might discuss the weather. And it's all done in public, often without direct communication.

Usually I love that for us, but sometimes it causes problems we don't have great protocols for solving. I feel super-uncomfortable scrolling past 'It makes a tragic kind of sense that a csa survivor would grow up to be a rapist' without adding 'speak for your own damn self', and I think that's entirely fair of me.

Butttt, I can also guess that an OP who looked at Sam having smoking hot consensual sex and thought 'looks like rape to me' probably has a reason. Maybe the reason is poor sex ed. Probably not.

(Another part of the problem: that 'probably not' was a lie for politeness' sake. I went to the OP's dash and I know they have a reason other than poor sex ed. But I'm not supposed to say that, or especially have guessed it beforehand, despite the fact that such experiences are incredibly common and isolating, and despite the fact that knowing that information makes the OP's error more sympathetic. Because we're supposed to be ashamed that we were victimized, and never speak of it again. So if I could be assed to follow social norms, we would now have two survivors of sexual violence arguing about sexual violence--though only indirectly with each other--and both pretending their only investment was detached academic concern for the sanctity of the canon of a stupid 2000s era ghost-hunting melodrama. Which we both probably like in large part for the exact reason we're not supposed to admit to. Nobody wins that fight but patriarchy).

And you know, ig the thing that's most murky, and therefore most uncomfortable of all for me personally, is how I feel about the fact that this is so obviously a Dean girl (gn) take about Sam. Idek why that's so clear or why I care. I actually really enjoy "soulless Sam, freed of his guilt and inhibitions, does evil sexual things to Dean" fics. One of my all-time favorite fics (Flying Weight by flesh) is in this genre and is even about the vampire bite in Twihard. And I can't always tell, nor do I ever even care, whether they're written by Sam fans or Dean fans. But the chances of a Sam girlie conceptualizing it all this specific way, with the Evil Desires from the csa/demon blood and the predatory (consensual) sex and all, and then writing it all down as a meta, idk man, it would just never happen. And I'm kinda icked out that a meta that posits Sam as a csa survivor also so clearly uses him as a cardboard prop.

And on the one hand, yeah, they're all barbie dolls and everything, so who cares. But on the other, I hope if I wanted to write a meta, for example, about Dean correctively raping Sam in the panic room as part of the demon blood cure, I would build a more careful frame around it. One where it was clear what aspects I thought were consistent with canon, what aspects I thought were plausible in a semi-analogous rl situation, and what ones I just thought were hot.

I was really mad at the OP of the post I took that screenshot up there from when I read the meta and I'm glad I managed to slow down enough to be way less of a douche about it than I initially wanted to be. Maybe this is still too much of a douche, idk. Anyway, ty nonny for giving me the opportunity to process it all.

[supernaturallyafreak]

Those sweet sweet innocent arms need to be wrapped around Castiel softly while he lays there dead awake staring at the wall waiting for Dean to wake up because he refuses to move in fear of waking the angry sleeper. Also I drew y'all a pic of them- do you like my editing skills?

[angel-fruitcake]

there is something to be said about the fact that it's now been more than 4 years since supernatural ended and we are still not safe from misha collins. every day we live in fear

[deancasforcutie]

"your angel" with such little context is another way of saying "your sweetheart" romantically and well. they're not wrong

[strawlessandbraless]

Supernatural 6x18 // 14x18 // 15x09

I love when the angel is down to his final straw

[t00muchheart]

I’m sorry the fact that when Castiel pulled Dean out of Hell he proclaimed “Dean Winchester has been saved” with such force that it broke through Anna’s humanity to the angelic part of her mind is something we don’t talk about enough actually

[alfalfapie]

my new Destiel theory: Dean couldn't say I love you not because of his own denial of the fact but because Chuck refused to write it like Chuck's weird psycho-sexual obsession with Dean made him so twisted that rather than allow his character to follow a natural arc that the character itself wanted to follow (see s8 rewrite of "I love you" into "I need you"), he just kept dodging it through increasingly ridiculous and pathetic ploys. he couldn't bear to watch Dean choose free will (Cas) over his heavenly ordained plan, so he just kept fucking with their relationship (see every divorce/widower arc, and all the other will they/won't they shit). really puts Cas's "What's real? We are." into context. like they are, in fact, the only real thing, despite Chuck's attempts to dismantle their relationship.

[otheredsam]

i love twinky doe eyed cutie pie seductive bratty power bottom whore sam as much as the next girl

exhibit A:

but there is something so personal about battered attic wife domesticated purified milf stepford bitch sam ????

exhibit B:

[beautysurvives]

okay rewatching 10x16 Paint It Black and having thoughts

#1 is that Gina from Dean’s confession is Crowley.

And #2 is that the hot nun Sister Mathias is Dean, making the decision to commit fully to a relationship with Cas (commitment to the church = commitment to this angel / walking representation of faith)

And #3, Isabella (the ghost) is also Dean, but specifically Dean with the Mark of Cain, being driven to kill Cas as Isabella killed Piero.

I think in this case, Isabella joining the convent is like Dean taking the Mark of Cain — hiding one’s sorrows in a holy mission. Dean ended up in a position to take the mark because of his mission to kill Abaddon.

And how many times did Cas reject Dean’s feelings (and run away from his outright confession in the crypt scene) because his mission and loyalty to Heaven took precedence over his relationship to Dean?

I think that taking the mark is also similar to what Isabella was planning to do by defacing her portrait — the thing that Piero prized over her — not only her image, but his depiction of her. The version of her that he created.

Piero’s painting of Isabella is like Cas’s resurrection of Dean — the handprint was like his signature. By first taking the mark, and then being resurrected by it/by Crowley, Dean destroyed Cas’s “art” — the thing that had renewed his life purpose and made him more devoted to a path of righteousness.

Isabella finding Piero in bed with a woman is, to me, a lot like Dean’s s6 discovery that Cas was working with Crowley.

So I also feel like……. Crowley here is also a lot like what the church represents in this episode. “There was hopelessness. I felt I had to find something larger than myself to focus on. A kind of mission, I guess.” In season 6 with Cas, and in season 9 with Dean, Crowley offered them a way to solve their most pressing problems — but working with him meant going without the things and people that made them truly happy.

[winchester-co]

i know this narrative has been beaten to death, but dean settling into the bunker and immediately nesting like a bird versus sam keeping his room empty and working like a dog is so interesting to me. dean wants to belong somewhere, lay down roots the moment he gets the opportunity. sam doesn't think he belongs anywhere, can't get comfortable, can't bring himself to see the bunker as anything but a transient space.

dean the drifter, desperate for a home. sam the escapee, who doesn't know how to settle. it's tragic really.

[ilovejohnwinchester]

Thinking about early days on the road before John started leaving Sam with Dean and was still going around and talking to hunters trying to learn everything he could. Imagine you’re some hunter and you get a call that the new guy in town wants to meet at the roadhouse and talk demons or werewolves or witches or whatever, then he shows up with a 4-year-old and a baby. He’s real serious and writes down everything you say in his journal but he also has to get up halfway through to sing and bounce a cranky baby to sleep on his shoulder while the kid stares at you with a mouth full of French fries. No wonder every hunter in John’s generation seems to remember Dean and Sam whether Dean and Sam know them or not.

[angel-fruitcake]

misha collins walking back onto the set of supernatural every time the writers were forced to bring cas back after killing him off bc the show almost got canceled