SEASON EIGHT. everyone has already said this. but they are like: while sam was off playing house with his military wife in cartoon fairytale world, Dean was steeped in bloody grimy hyperreality living PURE like an ANIMAL. while Sam was at the farmer's market purchasing one single red pepper, Dean was HUNTING. and I'm thinking abt this bc spn always frames the hunting lifestyle as an inherently deeper more authentic experience sitting just beneath the surface of the naive civilian artifice which we simultaneously covet and resent. obviously this is bc it is military propaganda.
but I'm thinking abt all this bc I'm thinking abt popular hc that Amelia was a hallucination in conjunction with Sam's post-cage issues identifying what is Real. Sam left for Stanford but Stanford in spn represents civility and thus is inherently Less Real than life on the road. and partially this is bc the show is abt classic action heroes and normal life doesn't show up on camera. lucifer tells Sam: you're real, I'm very real, everything else is just set dressing. doylistically, women like Lisa, Amelia, Jess and Mary's blessed memory ARE rendered set dressing. stanford is the djinn dream. stone number one is pain. Sam's linchpin for reality post-cage is hunting. you pretended to be normal but the REAL you is based in violence. hey man like it or not we are not like other people. so Sam's bid for individuality and 'normal' life is inevitably reframed as Sam shutting his eyes and trying to live in a dream, aka impotent spineless refusal of the call. so ofc it contributes to Sam's disassociation/unreality even pre-cage when he's been told over and over again not to trust his own mind. & this is one of the main contributors to fan perception of Sam as some sort of incredible liar bc he wants to be a civilian even though he knows the Truth and civilians inherently inhabit a shallower level of reality.
stormborns
ellievsbear
origamiaround
yousharknotpass
turnnoffyourmind
kianamaiart
blakekathryn
