#dean is smart

[sky-is-the-limit]

Okay but when I say that the only reason Sam gets treated like the "smart sibling" is because Dean never got the chance, yall boo me.

[scripted-downfall]

I absolutely agree with folks who say that Dean would make a great mechanic, but.  Hear me out.

Electrical engineer.

I love this idea so much --- have ever since it first occurred to me, which is a problem because I now can't ever decide what career to give him in fics I'm writing --- because it's kinda already set up in canon?

He hand-made the EMF meters out of Walkmans (and these continue to be used throughout the show, so he either did a helluva good job on them at the beginning, or he's been fixing them along the way)

He also made the cold-spot detector (aka infrared thermal scanner, probably, but I don't fully recall) in "Nightmare."

He had to have made the electromagnet that wiped the Ghostfacers' computers because he's the one telling Sam about what it did in-episode. ("Electromagnet wiped out every tape and hard drive that they have.")

In season 7, when he and Sam (and Bobby, I think? Or maybe he's just visiting? idk, the memories are spurious) are on the run from the Leviathans, staying in abandoned houses along the way, he's the one fixing the electricity when the breaker shorted out (which it did repeatedly).

And then there are just the normal things he does that comes across like an engineer...

He made his first sawed-off in sixth grade.

It's implied if not stated that he came up with (either on his own, or working with John) the salt-in-shotgun-shell method of fighting ghosts, since Sam doesn't even know about the idea and outright asks if he and John devised the idea.

Actually, he shows consistent prowess in designing/constructing weapons... There's also the bomb in "Abandon All Hope" and a number of bullet-forging sessions across the seasons.

It was his idea to swallow whiskey+phoenix ash in the confrontation with Eve and then convince her to bite him.

I don't know if I can rightfully call this is engineering, but I still want to include it; he took like a duck to water to Frank's tutorial about hacking local surveillance feeds.

He's always the one rebuilding the Impala; need I say more? (Also, if any of her electrical systems had to be repaired --- which I find it kinda hard to believe they avoided, given the number of wrecks she's been in --- this is electrical engineering too.)

There are probably more, but I ran out of stuff that I could remember off the top of my head.

[rewatchnatural]

It's an EMF meter

Why does that one look like a busted up walkman?

Because that's what I made it out of. It's home made.

Yeah, I can see that

He was so proud of himself, then Sam had to be a dick about it.

[you-cant-spell-subtext-without]

I see all of your Dean is Smart Discourse today and you are absolutely correct.  Dean’s ignorance is performative.

This post was partially instigated by my falling into a wormhole googling things about Ramble On today (thanks @im-shaking-like-milk​ for those earworms) and all things therefore Tolkien/LOTR related -

y’all remember this scene?

the line - 

DEAN Listen, I may not be able to carry the burden that comes along with these trials... But I can carry you.

the “I can carry you” line he semi-quoted is from Return of the King.  I had to google that to figure it out, btw, and I’ve read all the books AND I’ve seen the movies (a while ago, but still).  Dean knowing instantly it was said by “the Rudy hobbit,” to me, speaks VOLUMES. Dean’s not a himbo, he just plays one on tv.  

Also, remember the J*hn Winchester journal discourse Of Yore, and how little Dean wanted to go to school so badly, how excited he was whenever he got to go?  And how Sam left to go to college, and for that J*hn thought he deserved to go to hell?  

And how in After School Special (the one I fondly refer to as The Red Shorts One), how that young Dean doesn’t care about anything other than getting with girls, doesn’t seem interested in school, or in learning at all?  Oh now I’m drawn back, I'm drawn back to that other post about how the timeline of that episode and Bad Boys puts Dean’s 17th birthday right in between the two.  Sigh.

Yeah.  I’m angry now, too.

[bauliya]

dean literally figured out the dana shultz thing same time as sam without writing anything down and he's still the dumb brother? ok

[superduckbatrebel]

I love how Sam thinks Dean is a nerd, episode 20 season 14 on 6:21

Dean: Nerd

Sam: takes one to know one

Dean: What?

Sam: You. Come on, man, You always calling me geek but you know every word to every Led Zeppelin song, backwards and forwards, you can discuss in detail every major drummer between '67 and '89, and you watch.. Jeopardy! Every night

Dean: Okay. All right, yeah

[nancylou444]

thank you for reminding me

(x)

That scene made me cringe. EVERYBODY knows the term ‘ Achilles’ heel’, so for Dean to not get it was a terrible disservice to the man. 

It’s bad enough Dean is forced to eat like an ill mannered two year old, but come on, he’s been hunting since forever, so stop using him as comic relief. 

That’s what Cass is for.

And shame on Jensen for allowing it. 

[dovesdanceatdusk]

Barthamus claiming Sam is the smart one.

Well, he’s not wrong there, but Dean is smart too. So . . . yeah.