#supernatural meta

[girlboysam]

in the early seasons of supernatural, sam wears unique clothing. he wears jeans with detailing on the pockets, his signature hoodie, and lots of graphic tees. even his computer has cute little stickers on it.

yet as the seasons go by, he loses more and more of his unique clothing until his wardrobe is nearly identical to deans. this loss of personal style tracks with his willpower and willingness to fight with dean and his assimilation into the hunting lifestyle.

[dreamytfw]

It's the capitalizing of MOM that makes it passive aggressive. It's putting emphasis on the word, which changes the tone completely. We also have to remember the context of this text. Dean's still hurt from Mary "leaving" him (which like... bro, YOU were the one who told her to leave when she just asked for some space to try and figure things out during her existential crisis after being brought back from the dead). And what does Dean do when he's hurt? He lashes out. This is an extremely well-established pattern by this point. This message can only be read as sincere with 0 passive aggression if you strip the scene of its context and Dean's established characterization completely.

I have to say, I do love Mary's response, though. To me, it reads like she's not putting up with his passive aggression. It reads like when a little kid is mad at their parent over something minor and says "I hate you! You're not my [parent] anymore!" out of frustration. And the parent comes back with "I'm always going to be your [parent] whether you like it or not. Now go to bed." She's not just saying "I'm always going to be mom," but she's acting like it.

Arguably, she shouldn't have to act like it because Dean is a grown man in his late 30s, but that's neither here nor there.

this is one of the absolute most insane dean moments in the whole show i am chomping on glass. IS MOM STILL OKAY OR WEIRD? SHOULD I CALL YOU MARY??????????

[follows-the-bees]

Let's talk about the two Dean and Cas hugs in S11 & 12.

These are the two hugs were Cas puts both of his arms higher than Dean, essentially engulfing him.

Dean usually is the one who does this or the split arm hug with all people he hugs. This is because he uses hugs to comfort others. But in the case of these two hugs, it is Cas who needs the comfort and who wants to comfort Dean. Dean knows this and let's his guard down, his vulnerability, and let's Cas take control of the hug. Their knowledge of each other's emotional needs, their ability to be vulnerable with each other, their need to comfort each other is unmatched.

In S11 hug, they hug thinking it will be the last time seeing each other. Cas clings on with a pained look on his face. Dean smiles at first, sending comfort to Cas and to himself. The smile drops a bit as Dean realizes this could be the last time he touches Cas.

After the hug, Dean even drops his eyesight and looks Cas up and down like he's trying to memorize what Cas looks like. He then offers more comfort to Cas by putting a hand on his shoulder and asks Cas to take care of Sam. The amount of trust in that.

S12 after saving Cas, Dean approaches him arms out, waiting for Cas to hug him. This is a reunion hug, Dean smiles even with Mary being there seeing how vulnerable Dean is at the moment. Not caring cause it's Cas.

Sidenote: you will never convince me this isn't Mary realizing her son is gay! It's okay Mary, you're already lesbian-coded, my love.

These two hugs hit differently for me than the others. And I think they are unique because both Cas and Dean allow themselves to be truly vulnerable in them with people around to see them, and Dean gives up control, let's himself really feel his emotions.

Originally posted here.

[thefableddestiel]

Here’s a parallel I noticed that highlights the difference between Cas relationship with Dean and Cas relationship with Sam pretty well. Episodes 10x22 vs 14x15

When MOC Dean is beating up Cas, Cas doesn’t hit back even once. The most he does is try to bear hug him from behind to calm him down. But not a single punch.

When Sam is Justin Smith, Cas says he won’t hurt him, but he actually does pick him up and slam him into the ground. It’s not a big deal, obviously he knows Sam can take it, but it’s something he wouldn’t even do with Dean.

Before the actual fighting, Cas tells dean, “I’m your friend… I’ll be the one that watches you murder the world.” And then when MOC Dean is on top of Cas holding the angel blade to him, Cas holds onto the wrist Dean has on his tie and the only thing he says is, “please”. He doesn’t even try to grab the hand holding the knife. And then Dean stops.

On the other hand, when Sam is on top of Cas trying to stab him, Cas uses an entirely different approach. He’s forcibly holding back Sam’s arm that’s holding the angel blade. He tells him he understands that he wants to be happy, but that if he does this he fails the people they lost. He says “if you do this you fail Jack. Sam, you fail Dean.” And that makes Sam stop.

The difference that’s so stark is that Cas has to appeal to Sam through talking about Dean. But Cas can appeal to Dean through his own relationship to him. He doesn’t need to bring up what it will do to Sam or anyone else, because their own relationship is powerful enough and he knows it.

[queerdeans]

i love how jack came into the world and it was like a) your mom is dead and died in childbirth and she loved you and believed in your power to be good and b) your dad is actual lucifer like from the bible.

and now there are two (2) adults in your life, neither of whom are your biological parents, but that's okay because this is the family-don't-end-in-blood show. but one of the adults is trying to work through his own self-worth issues when it comes to being Tainted By Lucifer™ and the other one was widowed in the exact hour of your birth. neither of those things really has to do with you but they're both being projected onto you and you're also like, a day old.

and the only person who was also on your side when you were in utero is dead and happens to be the lover of the widower who now hates you because of what you represent, which is a Whole Other Thing and you don't even really get why he hates you to be honest because again, you're new here and you're just finding out about good and evil as concepts at all.

so you're now stuck very much in the middle of a complicated and fucked-up family dynamic that is not yours because you just got here and caretakers one and two are arguing about such subjects as 'should you be killed at the first opportunity' and it seems like they're both kind of bringing their own baggage into the situation. the mother-brother is like 'i'm tired of being the caretaker for everyone' and the son-brother is like 'that's too damn bad' because if mother-brother stops being the caretaker then what the hell will come of it all? and there's just a whoooole lot of history you don't even understand.

then fortunately the dead lover guy comes back and you maybe made that happen, so mother-brother guy doesn't want to kill you anymore, and you also now have someone in your life who actually wanted to care for you the whole time. yay! but you're also not sure if you want to be taken care of, or how someone would go about it. and he doesn't seem to be sure either. everyone here was classmates at the school of absent fathers, by the way.

and then enters the mother-mother. not your dead mother, but she's someone's dead mother. she haunts everything and the idea of her doesn't match up to the shape of her and you're starting to kind of get the fucked-up family dynamic you've been dropped into. but here's a mom! and how nice is that? you wanted a mom and here one is. only she's not really your mom and she doesn't really want to be a mom but she does love you and she turns out to have a more motherly relationship with you than she does with either of her real sons. and that's nice, but there's also maybe resentment from those sons, or maybe just one of them, because the other one had a mother, and it happened to be his brother.

and all of this happens within the first like six months of your life and we don't even have time to address when you actually meet your father satan ✌️

[thepunkmuppet]

the lack of jack and claire interactions is genuinely such a travesty, and not just because 1, they’re both cas / tfw’s kids and 2, because i love them both dearly, but because THEY DIRECTLY PARALLEL SAM AND DEAN!!!

claire is driven by parental grief and revenge, she holds grudges, is stubborn and quick to anger, is queer and searches for purpose and drive through hunting, finding comfort in violence but also having self-destructive tendencies.

jack has powers literally no one else has, he’s important to lucifer, and angels and demons in general. he’s a kind and well-meaning person with the potential for great evil, and is misunderstood and mistreated because of what he is / what he can do.

he’s also young and naive, juxtaposed with claire who is also young and naive but has a lot of harrowing and character-building life experience. she’s a character often made into the daughter, or the younger sister - here, she could so easily be a big sister, the dean to jack’s sam, which would be a great way to develop her character and show her growing into adulthood.

i would’ve KILLED for a bottle episode of jack and claire going on their own journey in baby (or any car, but yk, for the vibes), perhaps to save the boys / cas, where these parallels were explored. maybe an almost play by play reenactment of the pilot, where they need to “find their dad” in a similar way. considering all the different characters they used to comment on sam and dean’s relationship, i could SO easily see this being a s13-14 episode, literally grieving the fact that it never happened because AAAH IT’S SO PERFECT

[beinghymen]

Thinking about Deancas' "the very touch of you corrupts" thing, and like.

By the time Dean shortened Castiel's name to Cas, he was already sowing the seeds for Cas's fall. Cas was no longer the "shield of god." He took away the 'iel', took away the obedience to God that had been ingrained in Cas since the Beginning. Dean stripped away Heaven's possession with just Cas's name.

No longer the shield of God, Cas made himself a protector. Dean's protector, every chance he got; even from the very God that his old name was sworn to obey. Dean's protector, right up until the very end.

[anishake]

The problem with Supernatural shipping discourse is that the canon story itself isn't a conventional OR generally acceptable love story. It's literally just two brothers choosing each other over and over again while most of the fandom wants to see them in comparatively normal romantic relationships. And what's funnier is, that most of them just end up unconsciously projecting the Sam and Dean dynamic to other ships, because that's literally the only relationship close to romantic partnership we can derive from.

[reallyunluckyrunaway]

[cupidswurld]

last night i watched the first episode in supernatural and within 10 minutes i put it on pause because in NO way, through the 15 seasons, should anyone be happy with how dean's story ends with him dying whilst hunting

because in the 10 minutes that ive learnt about him is that he's spent his entire life fighting, and he dies FIGHTING

no satisfying narrative ends like that, especially not for one thats run for 15 years

[girlboysam]

I think that watching Supernatural and not seeing at least the covert incest is like watching the show with your eyes closed. Covert incest usually manifests by being overly sharing of sexual exploits, being unhealthy entangled, and often times enmeshment (I am going to make a separate post about enmeshment that dives deeper).

We see this in multiple episodes, with Dean sharing too much or outright exhibiting his hookups (s3e1), their inability to function without each other, the way Dean makes important decisions for Sam, and the way their differences are seen as faults.

The thesis of the show could be boiled down to the quote “Sam and Dean are psychotically, irrationally, erotically co-dependent”, which is shown time and time again. failure to recognize it shows that a lot of people are fundamentally misunderstanding both the show and Dean and Sam’s characters.

[dreamytfw]

Dean's siren is endlessly fascinating to me. And I'm not talking about the very surface level "OMG DEAN'S SIREN WAS A GUY" baby's first queer reading here. According to the siren (which, let's all remember, has 0 reason to lie about this), what Dean wanted was his hero-worshipping kid brother back. What I think is extremely interesting, though, is at no point does the siren ever act like Sam at all. Nor do they ever act like Dean's caricature of Sam that we get a glimpse at in Tall Tales.

What makes me go fucking feral is the siren acts like Dean. Which is wild because we're told and shown over and over again that Dean fucking hates himself and thinks he's obnoxious to be around. But based on the way the siren acts, it's very clear that Dean doesn't want a whole separate person with their own feelings, thoughts, autonomy, etc. What Dean wants is someone who likes all the same things he likes, does stuff to boost his ego, and never challenges him or his world view. What Dean wants, as it turns out, is a good little soldier.

I wonder if that speaks to his understanding of family and familial dynamics and certain cycles and things that get perpetuated in those cycles at all!!!

[haley-harrison]

is this anything?

[bi4bisamjess]

yeah um. give us a heaven where everyone is happy and nothing is wrong and you drink the beer you first drank with your dad and you drive the same car he passed down and it never breaks down or needs repairs and you never get stuck in traffic and you never scrape your knees and get to put cute bandaids over the scabs and you can never ever escape. not to get existential. if death is just another life then what's the point of either? why have your heart stop if you are stuck forever in a mock life that is nothing more than simply existing? not to get biblical and miltonian or anything but. eden was heaven on earth. why did eve eat the fruit if there was nothing to be desired in eden? why would she have desire for anything if she was meant to live out a painless ambitionless ambling life? why would god put fruit containing the knowledge of good and evil in the garden if he did not want humanity to have free will? why would he give us the ability to fall from paradise at all? why would god put us back there if we've already tasted life?

pain comes with free will. i'd rather rule in hell than serve in heaven. i'd rather drive 6 hours to see my brother for a day and turn around and drive the 6 hours back. i'd rather drink warm beer.

[s0fter-sin]

one of my favourite aspects of supernatural that you very rarely see in paranormal shows is that sam and dean are already versed in the world they live in. there’s no sudden discovery of ghosts and demons and now they have to learn about them along with the audience; they are born into it and already know all about it. it allows the audience to follow their personal story instead of also trying to figure out this new world and its rules

the first season is full of knowledge we never see them learn; “w*ndigoes are in the minnesota woods or- or northern michigan. i’ve never even heard of one this far west.” […] “great. well then this [his gun] is useless.” (1x02), “you don’t break a curse. you get the hell out of its way.” (1x08), d: “it’s a god. a pagan god, anyway.” […] “the annual cycle of its killings? and the fact that the victims are always a man and a woman. like some kind of fertility right.” […] s: “the last meal. given to sacrificial victims. d: “yeah, i’m thinking a ritual sacrifice to appease some pagan god.” (1x11)

almost every episode in the first season is a monster they’ve faced before that they then explain to the audience in a way that should feel patronising; like it’s the same speech given over and over again but instead, the audience almost feels included in the knowledge. it’s stated with such an innate confidence and comfort in said knowledge that it feels like we already knew it too; “spirits and demons don't have to unlock doors. if they want inside, they just go through the walls.” […] “the claws, the speed that it moves; could be a skinwalker, maybe a black dog.” (1x02), “it's biblical numerology. you know noah's ark, it rained for forty days. the number means death.” (1x04), “no no no, not the reaper, a reaper. there's reaper lore in pretty much every culture on earth, it goes by 100 different names.” […] “you said it yourself that the clock stopped, right? reapers stop time. and you can only see 'em when they're coming at you which is why i could see it and you couldn't.” (1x12)

they already know and, at least in the first season, already have what they need to kill whatever they’re hunting; already know to salt and burn bones for spirits, fire for a w*ndigo, exorcisms for demons, a silver bullet to the heart for shapeshifters. there’s only three times in the entire first season that they run into something new to them; 1x14 when sam gets his first vision that leads him to another psychic, 1x16 when dean calls caleb for help on the sigil he put together and he tells him about daevas, and 1x20 when they find out vampires are real- and they only don’t know that bc john thought they were hunted to extinction and not worth mentioning

(there’s also technically two half instances if you count one of them knowing something the other doesn’t - sam figuring out the tulpa in 1x17 and dean already knowing about the shtriga in 1x18 - but those still rely on sam and dean having prior knowledge)

even when they’re uncertain about facing something, it’s not bc they don’t know what it is; it’s precisely bc they know what it is and acknowledge that it’ll be a difficult hunt (“i don't know, man. this isn't our normal gig. i mean, demons, they don't want anything, just death and destruction for its own sake. this is big. and i wish dad was here.” 1x04)

so much of the tension in paranormal shows typically comes from the main character(s) not knowing what is happening to them/the people around them and having to find out how to resolve it. supernatural is unique in that it operates more like a police procedural. the tension comes from solving the clues and identifying patterns to figure out who (what) the killer is and intercepting before they can take another victim

it’s such a different tone to go for when compared to other shows that came both before, during, and after its run. it sets sam and dean on even footing with each other since they both have the same knowledge going in, and it puts them in a place of authority usually reserved for an outside character

the shows i compare spn to most is charmed, buffy and teen wolf; every main character in those shows are brought into the paranormal world knowing nothing, putting them on the same level as the audience, and they have their mc interact with others already knowledgeable about that world in order to overcome their problem/monster of the week. the audience organically learns about this new world as the characters learn about it. it’s a sound writing strategy that prevents “as we already know”-style exposition but something that complicates it is if your world building isn’t unique or intriguing enough, this slow introduction can become boring

we’ve seen shows like these before; sitting through the same tropes of characters learning to use their powers, struggling with no longer feeling normal/relating to the regular world around them, and not knowing how much they can trust the people already involved in this new world gets repetitive. all three shows eventually reach the same level of comfort with their new world that spn starts with but if the characters aren’t enough to draw you in, you can end up dropping it before they reach that point (and often, before the overarching plot can really kick in and evolve the show beyond the villain of the week format)

it’s the superhero origin movie in tv format; dragged out and overplayed. dropping the audience into an established world of course comes with its own problems but you also have the benefit of pre-existing established character dynamics that let the audience slot in like they’ve always been there instead of just getting to know all the characters while the characters also get to know each other

sam and dean already knowing about the supernatural lets the audience immediately get to the core of the story; the conflict between sam and dean, the search for their father, and the mystery of what killed their mother

[thefabledpheasant]

So, we all know that Cas branded Dean’s soul with the handprint. And then in his last scene left a bloody handprint on Dean’s jacket.

But, have we ever considered that this last handprint was Cas letting dean go? Like, literally removing the handprint brand he left on his soul? That it’s Castiel saying, “I love you so much that I’m dying for you and freeing you from the claim I made on you. I know you are not mine even if I will always be yours and that’s ok. Please live a good life now that my burden is gone from you.”

And if that’s the case, do you think Dean could feel it? The mark being gone? Do you think that left an emptiness nothing else could fill and that’s one of the reasons he was so fine with dying? Because for the first time since he met him, there was truly nothing of Cas left on Earth or with Dean?