A/N: This is for @thesassywallflower for the @spnfanficpond’s Secret Santa Fic Exchange! (I had to pinch hit for the person who drew your name because they had a family emergency, so I hope you like this quickly-written thing!) They listed a few different pairings they would like, and my weird brain said, “SHOVE THEM ALL IN THERE!” Well, that wasn’t physically possible, but I fit three of them in, somehow. Not beta-read because I’m a savage and time is a cruel mistress.
Summary: This is technically post-15x19, but in a canon-divergent world where certain folks are somehow back because reasons.
Pairings: Dean x Donna, Sam x Eileen, Cas x Meg
Word count: 1230 words
Sam landed so heavily next to Dean that he sent the gliding seat flying back hard enough to nearly tip the thing over. It was a pea-green two-seater outdoor gliding rocker that had been Donna’s grandparents’ from sometime in the early ’70s, but she kept it greased and looking good. Dean appreciated the work she put into it, just like Donna appreciated the work Dean put into Baby. He shifted to counterweight his moose brother and successfully stopped an accident from happening while glaring at the culprit.
Sam was so drunk his cheeks were bright red and his eyes rested on somewhere near Donna’s garden shed, completely oblivious to how he’d nearly knocked everything over. Dean wanted to grunt at his brother in disapproval, it would have gone well with his mood, but Sam looked to be in a similar mood.
“I love how much Donna and Eileen and Cas and Meg are getting into the holidays, but man, I don’t think I can listen to another version of The 12 Days of Christmas. That last one was just dogs barking, I think? Who comes up with all of this stuff?”
*john mulaney voice* I know it’s weird to draw art for a show that I haven’t been invested in in years and after it’s over, but I didn’t have an art blog back then. So I have to do it now.
Hi@ronon-dex thanks for your super polite reply to this post! I was initally going to respond in the post, but it sort of turned into this whole meta, so I thought I’d transfer it here.
You do realize that the hero’s journey and narrative symmetry doesn’t ACTUALLY end with the characters in the exact same place, right? It ends with them going back to “normal” but with things changed.
I’ll give you a good example of the heroes journey and narrative symmetry: Frodo in lotr. He starts out living in hobbitton happy, but he wants to leave and see the world and go on an adventure. He does that, but spends most of his journey wanting to come home. Only when he returns home he is so irrevocably changed that he can’t find happiness in his home anymore and needs to leave.
Another good example of storytelling from the lord of the rings: Aragorn starts out denying his family legacy, and hiding from his destiny as a ranger. His story arc is about learning to accept his destiny, and take responsibility to be king. In the end, he grows as a character and becomes king. Now would his story have been satisfying if he’d gone back to be a ranger?
Another example, this time of bad storytelling, is Jaime Lannister, specifically in the Game of Thrones TV show. He starts off completely devoted to Cercei, and it’s shown to be an unhealthy relationship. His character arc is about branching out as a person and separating himself from his toxic relationship with his sister. In the end, he dies with his sister, the thing he’d been fighting against the entire show. This was widely regarded to be a poor ending for his character.
So why is Jaime’s ending bad, when Frodo’s is good? Well the difference here is chnage, and satisfaction of story arc.
The Frodo ending works because while Frodo is off on his journey, all he wants is to go home, and when he gets that, it’s not something he can have anymore. There’s change in that storyline, even if on the surface it seems like he’s come full circle, things are DIFFERENT. The plot of the story had an effect. Is it a happy ending? No. It’s tragic, but it fits in with the themes of the story.
Jaime’s ending doesn’t fit because nothingchanges, and it doesn’t make sense in the story. The mesage of his story wasn’t “nobody can change” it was “anyone can change”, then it was destroyed when he doesn’t. Jaime could have had a tragic ending that made narrative sence, but his ending did not.
So does Supernatural’s ending fit with the story of Supernatural? No. Sam and Dean aren’t the people they were when that was their ending, but they’re shoved back into it like round pegs into square holes. Does it sort of fit? Sure. But poorly.
Sam’s character arc throughout the show has been him learning not to deal in absolutes. He believes that he can either be a hunter and have Dean in his life, or have a family, but he learns that he can have both through Eileen. So for him to end up with the white picket fence, alone, without his connection to hunting and his brother is dissatisfying.
Dean’s story arc was about him learning that he wasn’t just “daddy’s blunt instument”. That he was his own person, had his own fate and could be happy. So to have him die young while hunting is dissatisfying.
Now aside from the characters’ arcs being left in the dirt from the ending, you also have the overarching message of the show.
For multiple seasons the message of the show was about carving your own path making your own destiny. So how exactly does them deciding to go full circle make any sense? I suppose you could say that the overall message of the show is “you can’t fight fate”, except its explicitly not, considering they defeated literal God the episode before.
Finally, since most people seem to think our problem with the end is about destiel, let’s make a more narratively satisfying conclusion without it, hm?
First of all, don’t have Cas confess his love in episode 18. If you’re not going to follow it up in any way, then you shouldn’t bring it up in the first place.
Sam marries Eileen, and they have a kid or two. They don’t stay in the bunker, but they stay close, maybe they move into Lebanon. They still hunt, because Sam finds satisfaction in it, but it’s no longer the sole focus of their entire lives. He get’s a melding of the two worlds he always thought couldn’t meet.
Dean settles into the bunker, but starts taking online classes, maybe he starts working in the mechanic shop in town. Cas and Jack live with him, because even without romance they’re still family. Dean hunts a lot less, but starts coordinating hunters from the bunker. On weekends, he visits Sam, Eileen and the kids. He does what he always wanted but never expected to do: grows old and happy, surrounded by family.
Now look me in the face and tell me that’s less satisfying then “Dean dies in a random hunt, Sam gives up hunting and marries a faceless woman”.
i think supernatural wouldve been miles better if dean and cas had settled down after s10 and sam teamed up with garth to hunt
I want an episode where Dean and Cas try to legally adopt Claire while Sam gets his ass kicked by a Djinn and Garth is accidentally set on fire a little bit but he ends up fine
Dean and Cas have a fight about the laundry but its not about the laundry, its about their dads. Meanwhile, a ghoul ALMOST guts sam like a fish while Garth is busy stuck in a well. Also theres like a ton of news reports about Garth being stuck in the well he stays in there for 14 hours
Jack still happens in this universe because Lucifer is a whore anyway so Cas befriends a random pregnant lady at the local coffee shop because when he smelled her she didnt get weirded out and Dean’s very proud of him for making a human friend but BOOM its Kelly Kline and one day Cas comes home like “hey Dean after Kelly dies we’re adopting her baby” and Dean is like “uh uh uh can we go back a few steps please why’s Kelly dying” anyways they do adopt Jack and he stays a baby this time.
Across the country, Sam and Eileen are having weird knifeplay sex and Garth is sitting in the next room chillin with headphones that are way too big for his head
Eileen hates casual sex. She’s been dealing with her heat for years with artificial pheromones and a good vibrator. When the elevator breaks down and locks her in with a handsome alpha stranger, though, neither can resist the other.
Rated Explicit, 3694 words, Saileen. A/B/O, Alpha Sam, Omega Eileen, Stranger Sex, Office Worker AU, Heat, Knotting, Trapped In Elevator, Vaginal Fingering, Vaginal Sex, Gratuitous Smut, Undressing Each Other, Grinding, Multiple Orgasms, Deaf Character, POV Eileen, Touchy-Feely, Sam Winchester Has a Large Cock, Mildly Dubious Consent
Being in heat was like losing your mind, and this damn alpha wasn’t helping. He smelled delicious…she desperately wanted to taste him. On impulse, she grabbed the front of his shirt and yanked him down, pressing a kiss to his open mouth. She felt his whole body shudder pleasantly at that, and his heart was thudding in his chest against her hand.
Still, amazingly, he pulled away.
“I-I can’t,” he said, licking his lips. “Can’t take advantage of you.”
Dean has no object permanence and forgets people exist outside his scope of influence sometimes (in which he is me)
ID under cut bc I can’t shut up!
[ID: 1. Sam and Dean sitting at a table in the bunker. Sam holding out his phone with an excited smile, says, “Hey! Looks like Eileen ran into some old hunter buddies!” Dean, arms crossed and looking grumpy, replies, “Shouldn’t she and Cas be back from their dumb Vegas hunt already? I’ve got a pot roast defrosting.” 2. Close up on Sam’s phone showing a photo from Eileen. In the photo, Eileen is taking a selfie with a group of women with Cas in the center. They appear to be in some kind of club with flashing colored lights, and they are all holding glow sticks or wearing them around their necks and wrists. Eileen and another woman are wearing neon shutter shades. Everyone is smiling and yelling, having a good time. Even Cas is smiling, one arm around Eileen, sans suit jacket and tie, shirt half unbuttoned, blue glow stick necklace perched on his head like a halo. One of the women next to him is pressed close, grinning at the camera with a drink in one hand and the other tugging playfully at the glo stick around Cas’s neck. 3. Sam, now pulling his phone back and texting, smiles sincerely and says “Looks like they’re having fun.” He texts Eileen back: “Nice glasses” with a blushy smiling emoji and “Cas invited to girls night?” Eileen responds “of course,” with a smiling sunglasses emoji. Dean, unnoticed, sits frozen and trembling in place at Sam’s side, face slack and darkened in shock. /End ID]
[ID: 5 panel supernatural comic. 1. Sam and Eileen in the foreground; Sam is grinning confidently and saying “I got this” while signing “can do”. Eileen smiles and signs “good luck” in response. In the background, there is a man in a ball cap and chin beard sitting on the hood of his car signing “werewolf” to a policewoman who is taking notes. 2. The cop has left and Sam turns and walks toward the man, lifting a hand to get his attention. Eileen smiles and watches him go. 3. Eileen continues to watch as Sam signs “what happened” to the witness and gets a series of rapid signs in response including “werewolf,” “heart,” and “murder.” 4. Eileen frowns in confusion as Sam suddenly turns and jogs back to her, looking nervous and harried. The witness is staring after him in irritation, hands paused mid-sign. 5. Sam reaches Eileen and embarrassedly admits, “I don’t got this. I think he’s from New York,” while signing “new york.” Eileen snorts into her hand. /end ID]
Local man loses all understanding of language when provided at 1.5x speed
[ID: 5 panel supernatural comic. 1. Sam and Eileen in the foreground; Sam is grinning confidently and saying “I got this” while signing “can do”. Eileen smiles and signs “good luck” in response. In the background, there is a man in a ball cap and chin beard sitting on the hood of his car signing “werewolf” to a policewoman who is taking notes. 2. The cop has left and Sam turns and walks toward the man, lifting a hand to get his attention. Eileen smiles and watches him go. 3. Eileen continues to watch as Sam signs “what happened” to the witness and gets a series of rapid signs in response including “werewolf,” “heart,” and “murder.” 4. Eileen frowns in confusion as Sam suddenly turns and jogs back to her, looking nervous and harried. The witness is staring after him in irritation, hands paused mid-sign. 5. Sam reaches Eileen and embarrassedly admits, “I don’t got this. I think he’s from New York,” while signing “new york.” Eileen snorts into her hand. /end ID]
Local man loses all understanding of language when provided at 1.5x speed
