#jacketnatural

[heller-castiel]

em i might be wrong and i’ll rewatch the pilot but dean TAKES HIS FATHER’S JACKET FROM THE MOTEL ROOM and he wears it. he does not have the jacket prior to that point. what if i lost it completely

NO NO YOURE RIGHT

when they first go into johns motel room in the pilot you can see dean grab the jacket where john had left it in pretty sure

WE’RE PUTTING THE PIECES TOGETHER

[bittersweetbangers]

thinking about jacketnatural and clothes in spn again. dean wears his father's jacket like a security blanket, it is comfort he had to steal because it wasn't given. and after dean spends 40 years in hell with no reprieve from suffering, he comes back and bobby and sam put their clothes on his back because of course. because they love him. dean comes back from hell and he is met with kindness and love he does not have to steal, he doesn't even have to ask for.

[bitehimsammykillhim]

Sam sees Dean in their Dad's jacket as an extension of the familial divide in season 1. He sees dean picking a side and wearing the uniform of their father's army. They were raised like soldiers and even as they're supposed to be set off alone Dean holds more strongly to John's teachings and Sam can see it every time he watches Dean shrug on that jacket. Like he's taunting him with it.

Dean taking the jacket, even as a kid, is something Sam could never get away with. (see: john pulling a gun on a 18 year old sam when he got upset at john taking his hotdog. im not kidding) If Sam had taken the jacket, it would not have gone unmentioned, it would not be addressed with a mere look. Sam is punished for simply reminding John he exists, for taking up space and advocating for his emotional and physical needs all throughout childhood. Taking the jacket would be further encroaching on John's adamant ignorance of the child with something ever so slightly wrong with him that he can't quite look at. Taking the jacket would force John to look too closely. And we can't have that.

But the jacket is grief, the jacket is fatherly comfort taken by force. And so Sam doesn't get that. Doesn't grow up feeling safe around John, isn't allowed to grieve or acknowledge or feel his mother's death. He sees how he is excluded and grows resentful, more vocal about other areas he isn't supported. Goes on about moving around too much, because he can't shrug into the fantom hug of his father for support as he moves through school after school, drifting. Not even tethered to John, not even tethered to the grief that defines his family so deeply.

So yeah. He doesn't like the reminder that is Dean wearing the jacket.

[heller-castiel]

what is a fathers love if not a heavy jacket you had to steal from him when his head was turned

[bittersweetbangers]

dean keeping cas's trench coat in season 7. pulling it out of the water and folding it up and putting it in the trunk because he can't pull cas out of the water, can't put him in the backseat. and giving it back when cas comes back... dean's still mad he's still hurt, it's not forgiveness but maybe it is. it's maybe everything is still a mess but i don't have to hold onto this anymore because you're back and i know you're staying.

[heller-castiel]

you know what. i guarantee sam judges dean for wearing johns jacket

[heller-castiel]

Safety in the Stealing and Keeping (3.9k)

The hair isn’t what's startling about her. It’s the oversized brown leather jacket she’s swathed in, the sleeves uncuffed that her hands just barely peek out from, that ends at the middle of her thighs. It looks like a piece of armor on her. It looks like a blanket on her. It looks startling like a mirror to Dean, who knows that jacket well.

Or: Claire's got some emotional turmoil in a stolen oversized leather jacket. Dean remembers the feeling.

Written for Tim’s (@evenupsidedownbeautifulsomehow) birthday

[bittersweetbangers]

your dad's missing, so you put on his jacket. wrap it around you like the comfort you need right now. the love you hope to receive. the love you never have received. your dad's missing, but you've got this piece of him. maybe it's all you'll ever have. maybe it's more than you ever had in the first place. but the jacket is hope and the jacket is love and the jacket is grief. and love is grief and grief is love and you love your dad and you hate your dad. so you wear his jacket.