#spn character

[throughthehardshiptothestars]

Misha endless beauty (2/∞)

(x)

[black-quasar]

i made a sequel, do with it what you will:

the original: [x]

[supernatural-1967-chevy-impala]

Happy Birthday, Sam Winchester!

May 2, 1983

[dory-maud]

Endless Character Aesthetics: Sam “Sammy” Winchester - Supernatural on The CW.

Supernatural Characters.

[amwritingmeta]

A lot of the spn fans I know call Dean an abusive and selfish brother. But, I think he's broken. Maybe all those times he brought Sam back, he did it because he didn't want to Sam died of his own accords. Years of drilling by his father to PROTECT Sam. Him getting sent to sonny for him, doing anything to keep him safe and innocent for as long as he could, it's practically carved into him. So when Sam dies, he doesn't want to it to be his OR Sam's fault prob. Bec Sam's his responsibility.

Hello, my lovely Nonny!

Firstly, let me say I agree with you! Secondly, let me tell you I was rather astonished to read that there are fans who call Dean Winchester abusive and selfish. Then I thought about it, and okay, I can see why they would. He even declares himself selfish once or twice, and failing to allow Sam the choice of death in S9, sending Gadreel in to possess and heal him, robbing Sam of his agency, was both a selfish and an abusive act, but all of the characters have done selfish and abusive things on the show and selfishness and being abusive are absolutely not the core traits of Dean Winchester.

Here’s the thing: characters need to have flaws, they need to have flaws to feel real, to make us relate to them, to give them weaknesses and internal conflict necessary to highlight to us what it is in the character that needs fixing.

Dean’s internal conflict boils down to this:

SPN is about identity

Dean’s identity is tied to Sam

Without Sam, Dean doesn’t know what his purpose is (and it’s difficult to find your own identity if you feel you lack purpose in life, if you don’t know who you are or where your place is, how can you know what you want?) (this is perfectly mirrored in Cas’ individual arc as well)

If Dean fails to save Sam, any amount of possible self worth he’s managed to accumulate goes out the window, because failing to save Sam automatically means Dean has no worth

This is, as you hit at, dear Nonny, tied to Dean’s fucked up childhood, which was all about saving Sam

So when Dean makes choices that are selfish, this ^^^ is the root of them. 

It’s still Dean’s choice and I wouldn’t pawn it off on his childhood and John and play the blame game here, Dean is an adult and his issues are his responsibility to deal with, but there is also a need for compassion with the character flaws.

This compassion should come from the understanding of how Dean’s entire journey is about learning how to feel comfortable in his own identity.

When he makes these bad choices and appears as though he’s only thinking about himself, it’s based in the simple fact that every mistake he makes is narratively meant to teach him a lesson. And looking at how his journey is progressing, I would say that every mistake truly is stacking up to one big realisation and a huge dose of honesty with himself. 

As for Dean being abusive, I would disagree with this. He has bouts of violent behaviour, but you have to look at the circumstances surrounding that behaviour. He can sometimes emotionally manipulate Sam - the codependency is one huge flashing neon sign of this - but Sam is also an adult who chooses to stick with his brother, so this is not abusive, merely an unhealthy lynchpin in how they relate to one another. Up until 12x22. 

So, to summarise, all those times Dean brought Sam back was rooted - apart from in deep love, of course - also in the fact that Dean has absolutely no idea who he’s supposed to be without Sam, and the choice to bring Sam back again and again always comes with a high price to pay (a lesson), because Dean’s dependency on Sam for knowing who to be, for having a place in the world, needs to come to an end for Dean to finally know who he is, apart from his brother. So these flaws aren’t bad - they serve an important narrative purpose, as well as a character based one: to make our characters feel like real human beings. 

Ending the codependency teaches both Dean and Sam the biggest lesson of all and allows them to move away from what has kept them from gaining their own identities - i.e. allows them their positive endgame.

Finding his own identity is positive endgame for Cas as well, and - as far as I can tell - identity and who he’ll choose to be seems to be the core issue for Jack this season (Jack’s struggle mirroring the internal conflict of TFW) so I’m, as ever, excited to see what happens in S13!! :)

Hope you’re well, lovely! Thanks for the great ask!

xx

[dory-maud]

Endless Character Aesthetics: Dean Winchester - Supernatural on The CW.

Supernatural Characters.

[dory-maud]

Endless Character Aesthetics: Castiel “Cas” - Supernatural on The CW.

Supernatural Characters.

[potions-and-halos]

Come meet the flyig Nightmare called Genesis!

This is a test run before I make a sideblog for my Nightmare Genesis! Meet the corrupted ex-heavenly steed turned demonic beast! Interact with her before her Fall and after!

Her Heavenly form is on the left and her Hellish form is on the right.