#spn the song remains the same

[spnwin-reader]

Prime Dean gives Alt John the tools to unlock the truth and decide for himself if he will hunt

Original run context: John's feelings of betrayal

In the original #SPNprime, John was not allowed to fight for or defend himself until it was already too late. This made the wound of Mary's death much, much deeper than it would have otherwise been.

Unlike with Sam keeping the truth from Jess out of shame, Mary's keeping the truth from John may stem from incredible fear, watching Azazel kill him in The Beginning.

(It's perhaps more akin to Dean symbolically blinding Lisa and Ben to the truth to keep them safe than how Sam was with Jess.)

But the in The Song Remains the Same, John (temporarily) learns the truth, and he is (rightfully) frustrated by having been kept in the dark. He feels intense betrayal. He feels like a child.

JOHN: Monsters. Monsters? MARY: Yes. JOHN: Monsters are real. MARY: I'm sorry, I didn't know how— JOHN: And you fight them? All of you? SAM: Yeah. JOHN: How long? MARY: All my life. John, just try to understand— DEAN: She didn't exactly have a choice— JOHN: Shut up, all of you! Look, not another word, or so help me, I will turn this car around! Silence falls.

/// LATER ///

JOHN: What? Y'all might have treated me like a fool, but I am not useless. I can draw a damn— (JOHN picks up the paper from next to a large knife.)—whatever it is—a sigil.

///

Original run context: Mary continued to hunt near/during the beginning of her marriage?

In Celebrating the Life of Asa Fox, we learn that it could've been Mary who created much of the tension in their marriage by potentially stepping out on John to hunt, calling into question if the fight shown between them in Dark Side of the Moon.

MARY: "No, John. We're not having this conversation again. Time to think? About what? You have two boys at home." DEAN: "I remember this. Mom and dad were fighting, and then he moved out for a couple of days." MARY: "Fine. Then don't. There's nothing more to talk about."

Now we wonder: Was this fight even John's fault to begin with? The stereotype of "angry husband" might lull you into thinking so, but it's equally possible that it was Mary that originated the fight--Mary who had a long, canon-supported history of lying. She's even the one shutting down the conversation here!

Mary would probably rather John think she's unfaithful than risk John being dragged into hunting, and she'd probably pivot to supporting their kids as an excuse to smooth things over. (Just as Cas would rather Dean assume anything so long as he's not dragged into the dangerous world of angelic Civil War).

Alternatively, the fight may have even been part of the normal ebb-and-flow of a marriage. It may have been that the fight looked a LOT bigger through the eyes of a sensitive four-year-old.

(A couple of days ain't even that long, but boy it sure does feel big when you're a kid. But just because their marriage wasn't "perfect" doesn't mean it wasn't good, and the Dean-Sam conversation completely misses on that front.)

//

One of the things post-season 12 in #SPNprime does so beautifully is calls into question everything we know about Mary, including the cartoonish idea of John as the root of all evil.

Mary's lies are given rich complexity, as is Dean's memory of her.

Everything in Dark Side of the Moon, from the idea of "Heaven" as the "perfect place you grow up" to being simplistically at peace with your siblings/"littermates" in the ideal childhood home forever is given more complexity by the narrative unfridging of Mary.

(It's why the gate to Heaven is always associated with a playground. "There's no place like home," is literal in SPN. Heaven can even be seen as the idealization of childhood, as sharing the same history.)

///

Dean helps John because Dean was also "locked out" during critical periods in his life, prevented from Danger "for his own good"

Dean feels this pain acutely in season 6, when Samuel Campbell, his brother Sam, and Bobby Singer keep him out of the larger hunting plot in order to "keep him at peace."

Despite their good intentions, this denied him the right to choose for himself if he'd meet The Fight head on.

Cas, too, does this with the angelic Civil War, with Kelly Kline, general "angel business," and The Empty deal, and Dean feels that as unintended rejection.

He feels, like John, coddled. Like a child. Not getting the chance to be an equal comrade or partner in the fight.

///

Here, prime Dean is giving John the key to discover the truth about monsters and Henry's Men of Letters heritage.

Certainly John has a lot of emotional baggage and childhood abandonment trauma to work through, but at least this time he'll have more agency ahead of time, and he'll get to choose which path to prepare for rather than having the world of monsters thrust upon him in the midst of a grief-spiral.

Dean has handed that power of Choice back to John.

Perhaps prime Dean too is wounded from being kept in the dark. Perhaps he longs for a world were he's known about Cas's The Empty deal instead of, like John, being blindsided and struck dumb by grief.

[shallowstories]

It was very easy to convince Anna to kill Sam Winchester. All we had to do was threaten to cast her human "parents" into Hell.

[ananke-xiii]

Mary's "angels are watching over you" is a great line that makes full use of dramatic irony. We, the audience, know that having angels "watching over" you is NOT a good thing. So from our perspective "watching over" takes the meaning of "keeping under survellaince" and it's not pretty: it reminds us that angels are soldiers, they have a plan and a war to win. However, Mary doesn't know that when she says it, for her "watching over" means "protecting, taking care" and it's associated with the image of angels as guardians and protectors. What's even better is the fact tha later in the series, the show will strongly associate the "watching over" part with Castiel. And honestly? It works SO well 'cause the dramatic irony still works. Cas still doesn't incarnate the preconcevied notion of "guardian angel" and, at the same time, he stil sees himself as a solider. He shapes his own way of caring and protecting in a military fashion rather than a family-oriented one. It's not a "I'm here for you", more like "I'll go to battle so you won't have to". And this basically sums up the BIG issue he has in his relationship with Dean but that's for another story. Anyway, I'm just so fascinated with some lines in this show, I'll take the good ones when I can, lol!

[caranfindel]

Thinking about The Song Remains the Same, when Sam and Dean are trying to convince Past!Mary to leave John so they won’t be born, and she says it’s too late because she’s already pregnant with Dean, and Dean’s just, okay, she’s right, nothing we can do, like it doesn’t even occur to him that she could still prevent Sam from being born, it’s just, if I’m here, Sam has to be here, there’s no other option. Yep, I’m thinking about that.

[littlebluejaydraws]

All these centuries and you're underestimating me now? 5x13: The Song Remains the Same

ID: Two images of the same digital drawing showing Cas and Anna from episode 5x13 of Supernatural. They are shown in profile, standing back to back in a large, dark room. They are positioned to the right of the image, with the shapes of a door, pipes, and shelves are visible in the background. Cas is facing into the room with his head tilted up, light from above illuminating his face. Anna is standing behind him with her head turned down and her hair falling forward to hide her face. Each of them holds an angel blade by their sides and a halo behind their heads. There is a quote from the episode written over the image, reading: "You've changed." "Maybe too late, but I have.". End ID.

[thebeautyofspn]

5x13 The Song Remains The Same

[the-girl-lost-in-fandoms]

no but the best possible explanation for 'angels are watching over you' would've been mary witnessing castiel save dean from anna and uriel and then subconsciously remembering it

[arcanespillo]

the holy trinity

[420technoblazeit]

i forgot how incredibly fucked up the terms of mary and azazel's deal were. he shows up in the body of her dead dad and murders john in front of her. and then he taunts her with it, tells her she can never live a normal life unless she makes a deal with him

and he doesn't even tell her the cost, just that she'll pay the price if she interrupts him when he comes to collect. how was she supposed to know he'd be standing over sam's crib ten years from then? she had a split second and by the time she realized it was already too late

mary winchester was so desperate to be free that she cursed her boys to suffer the fate she gave everything to escape. led to her death by angels and demons alike. and she never even knew it

[samepisodebracket]

Round 2; Group 2

[thefandomchaos]

Supernatural Headcanon: Sam and Dean have scars from all their deaths

Sam:

• Scar on his lower spine from his first death. Is the one Dean hates the most because he feels guilty for not being there in time.

• Lightning like scars around his legs, arms and near his heart from the wish that killed him (from Wishful Thinking 4x8)

• Pulse like or sound wave like around his chest from when Pamela took his and Dean’s Soul/killed them

• Stab wound in his lower abdomen from when Anna stabbed him (5x13)

• Gunshot wound in the center of his chest from when Walt and Roy killed them

• Dark marks around his heart from when he jumped in the cage. (Adam had this as well)

• x2 pulse/sound waves around heart when Billie killed them in 12x9

• Bite mark in neck from 13x21

Dean:

(I din’t add Mystery Spot because it was a time loop, so his deaths technically never happened)

• Claw marks (especially around his chest) from hellhounds (this are the ones Sam’s hates the most)

• Pulse like or sound wave like around his chest from when Pamela took his and Sam’s Soul/killed them

• Gunshot wound in the center of his chest from when Walt and Roy killed them

• x2 Pulse like/sound waves from when he made the deal with Death to bring Sam’s soul back

• Stab wound in abdomen from Metatron

• bruise like around his throat from overdose (11x17)

• x3 pulse/sound waves around heart when Billie killed them in 12x9

• x4 pulse/sound waves around heart when he stopped his heart to talk to the ghosts/Death (13x5)

• Impale wound from his final death

[trannydean-moved]

OKAY exactly how many spn episodes were named after led zeppelin songs

[caranfindel]

Y’all know I’m a rabid Sam girl, but Dean’s little “this is awkward” moment when Anna visits him in his dream in The Song Remains the Same is literally one of the cutest things I’ve ever seen.

I mean, come on. Look at his widdle face.

[littlebluejaydraws]

Now I just act like I don't remember, Mary acts like she don't care Soulmates as horror my beloved <3

This started as another leyendecker study but ended up just using the pose because i got impatient haha

Image descriptions in alt text.

[thebeautyofspn]

5x13 The Song Remains The Same

[deansrainbow]

"When I would get sick, you'd make me tomato rice soup, because that's what your mom made you, instead of a lullaby, you'd sing hey Jude, your favorite Beatles song" can we talk for a sec how he remembers all that from such a young age cause,, wow, dean :(