Happy WW friend! There has been endless discussion about Dean’s close relationship with John. But... If John lived, do you think Sam could ever have a similarly close relationship with him? Or do you think the Stanford incident and Sam’s childhood has left too big of a stain on their past? If John and Sam had their own closeness, would Dean ever get jealous? Or would he see it as the final stage of his fucked up family healing itself?
ooooooh boy ok i had to take some time on this one! thank u for the ask!
the big thing that started pushing sam towards forgiving his dad was jess' death + john's death. without grief to kind of...soften the memories i think once the azazel arc was over it would get tense again real quick. dean's only got a year left because he didn't kill sam and instead sold his soul for him so THAT would cause some fights (and probably john going off on his own again), and then sam goes off the rails fast after his death. john wouldn't be able to keep him on track, and he would probably start believing that even with azazel dead sam's too corrupt at this point to save.
i honestly think s4 would result in john trying to follow through on killing sam to save him from himself and dean from his influence. and uh, that would be. real bad for a lot of reasons. might result in dean and sam protecting each other and bonding that way but would more likely result in like...a tragic murder-suicide situation. maybe with dean as the sole survivor. OR sam killing john with his psychic mojo.
i really don't think that there's potential there for reconciliation. the only way they could ever be close is if it was a john from an alternate universe or from prior to mary's death, because his trauma and his righteousness really do result in a man who can't admit he's wrong - and sam would need that admittance to make any progress.
if they did ever manage it, yeah dean would absolutely be jealous. he wants his family reunited and hunting together, but the idea of sam and john having a relationship that doesn't involve his input/mediation would be unthinkable for him and probably a little scary. what if they leave him? he already thinks john prefers sam - how long before they decide dean's not actually that useful and head off together to hunt without him?
