I think I’m gonna rewatch Supernatural. I feel at this point there’s so many episodes that by the time I get to the last episode, I won’t remember and I can just ignore it and pretend it didn’t happen. I’ll read a fix it fic and it’ll be prefect!!
So, when we first watched the finale, my husband was like “it was fine, I don’t get why you’re THAT upset. Sucks Dean and Cas couldn’t be together, but eh.” (He did, however, hate the Sam wig).
But the more we talk about it, the more he’s like “Jesus Christ, the fuck were they thinking?!”
He was also watching DeanCas fanvids last night
So now he’s back to early-morning rage-tweeting at the CW about their treatment of Cas ♀️
Dean takes his time, running his fingers over the banister of the porch. The white paint is chipping and worn down, but the wood, he can tell, is quality. No splinters, no cracking, no warping. It’s nice. He drags in a deep breath, his senses flooding with the scent of pine trees as the warm early-autumn air blows through them. The sky is clear, save for a couple little puffs of cloud here and there. And as his eyes scan the sky, he waits for it – that impending sense of doom and dread. Even when he’s trying to relax, it’s always there, bubbling beneath the surface. There’s a reason he’s slept with a gun under his pillow for three decades.
But he’s struck with the sudden realization: it’s not there. All he feels is calm and peace. Something he’s never really known.
Well, that’s not true, he silently amends.
He felt peace with Cas.
Frowning, Dean drops his head and closes his eyes. Cas… Fuck, he misses him. He misses everything about him. He misses telling Cas jokes that land like a fucking brick in front of him. He misses the tie that’s always askew. He misses that mess of hair. He misses those eyes Dean can, and often has, get lost in. He misses that trench coat. He misses Cas, plain and simple. And while he feels calm and peaceful here… it does feel like a piece of him is missing. It’s probably not supposed to. Not here. But it does.
It’s comforting to know he escaped the torment of the Empty… but, “Damn it, Cas,” he breathes, wrapping both hands around the banister.
“Hello, Dean.”
Standing suddenly, Dean opens his eyes and whips around. Cas is standing beside the battered screen door, smiling warmly at Dean. “Cas,” he breathes, his eyes wide as he looks him over, like he’s taking inventory of all his favorite things. Messy hair, check; crooked tie, check; trench coat, check; breathtaking eyes, check… Cas, check. “It’s–”
“Yes,” Cas nods. “It’s me.”
Dean surges forward, throwing his arms around him in a crushing hug. He buries his face against Cas’s neck and closes his eyes, breathing him in. It’s another thing he’d previously forgotten to add to his list of things he missed. That clean, earthy smell that was somehow distinctlyCastiel.
When he pulls away, his hand slips down Cas’s arm to his hand, his thumb brushing the inside of Cas’s wrist. He heaves a breath, the line between his brows deepening. “You’re a dick, you know that?” He says suddenly.
Cas blinks in surprise and tilts his head. “I– what?”
Dean purses his lips and shakes his head. “You drop somethin’ like that on me and then just fuck off to the netherworld?”
“I wasn’t in the Netherworld, I was–”
“In the Empty, whatever. You’re still a dick.”
Cas lifts his eyes to the ceiling of the porch, as if the answer to Dean’s outburst is written there. “I still don’t underst–”
“You drop that on me and then you die, and you didn’t give me a chance to say anything.”
“I didn’t think there was anything for you to say.”
Dean scoffs, incredulous. Didn’t think there was anything for him to say? “What show have you been watching, huh?”
“I haven’t been watching television.”
Though outwardly, Dean appears frustrated, he fucking missed this. But something suddenly occurs to him. “Wait.” He shakes his head, those lines between his brows growing deeper. “You really didn’t think I’d have somethin’ to say? You didn’t think I–”
“Reciprocated?” Cas says. He frowns, casting his glance downward. “No, Dean. I didn’t.”
“Well you’re dead wrong.”
One corner of Cas’s lips turn up in a smirk. “I believe we’re both deceased now.”
Scoffing, Dean’s eyebrows shoot up. “Did you just make a joke?”
“Yes,” Cas’s smile widens, “I believe I did.”
“Alright, listen.” Dean grasps the back of Cas’s neck, his fingers brushing up into his hair. There’s no sense of fear or uncertainty welling up inside of him anymore. He’s in Heaven. He gets what he wants. There’s no fear of judgment or self-sacrifice anymore. He’s just gonna fucking go for it. “I love you, Cas. I shoulda said somethin’ a long time ago, but I-I-I was scared, okay? I’m sorry. But–” He cuts himself off and glances out over the farmhouse’s property; the sprawling lawn (that he can’t wait to mow) surrounded by lush trees; the path that leads to the garage that houses Baby. The house he’s always imagined for himself, but always knew wasn’t a possibility. “This is about havin’ peace, right?” His gaze turns back to Cas’s, and he swallows the emotion rising in his throat. “We get forever here.”
“That is the idea, yes.”
Dean licks his lips and takes a step closer. His shoes bump Cas’s, and his hands slips further into the back of Cas’s hair. “Then that means I get forever with you, right?”
Cas is smiling, and he pulls his free hand out of the coat pocket. He grabs a fistful of Dean’s jacket and Dean watches his Adam’s Apple bob as he swallows, Cas’s eyes roaming Dean’s face. “Of course, Dean.”
Dean breathes out in relief. All at once, that feeling that a puzzle piece was askew; the feeling that something was missing dissipates. Forty-one years of sacrifice and loss earned him this: a life of peace with the love of his life – the love that had come completely out of left field and left him breathless. Forty-one years of sacrifice and loneliness and loss earned him the love of a millennia-old angel who thought he was worth something. Worth everything.
He kisses Cas then. It’s soft and slow and gentle. There’s no sense of urgency or fear or desperation behind it. It’s being lovingly handed what he’s always wanted; what he’d always been missing. And, well… he’s in Heaven, so that makes a whole lot of sense.
When they part, Dean keeps his forehead against Cas’s, and they’re both smiling. Finally, Dean rocks back enough to meet Cas’s eyes. He tips his head toward the house and raises a brow. “Wanna come in. Stay a while?” He presses his lips together and shrugs. “I’m thinkin’ maybe forever?”
“I’d like nothing more.” Cas smiles, and Dean feels warmth flooding his chest. In Cas’s smile, Dean feels content. He feels like he’s home. He’s waited his whole life to feel like this. He tried, with Lisa and Ben, but that piece of the puzzle just wasn’t there. He tried with the Bunker, and while he loved that place… there was always just something not quite right. But here, he has Cas. He feels calm. He has no feeling of cosmic obligation or the feeling that he’s running the clock. He has everything he’s ever wanted.
For the first time, and for the rest of time, Dean Winchester is at peace.
Bringing something “full circle” is a great device for thematic elements over the course of a story. Bookending can be great.
However, years of rigorous, detailed, painful character development and movement of stories should not, under any circumstances, be destroyed for the sake of bringing something “full circle.”
That’s not a satisfying ending. That’s saying to your viewers; your readers; your fans, “Remember all that time you invested? Eh, didn’t matter. Train’s right back in the station. Hop on off. Sorry for bumpy ride around the block.”
The cause and effect is negated. If you start a story, throw in a bunch of emotional, situational, and personal development in the middle, you should end up further down the road than where you began. But if you start a story and are able to take away all of the middle and you still end up right where you began with no betterment or differences save for the age of your characters… that’s not a good ending.
It’s like you make a sandwich just to remove all the filling and eat the bread. Why make the sandwich if you just wanted bread?
Why create meaningful relationships and focus large portions of entire seasons on them, only for them to be completely erased in the end? Why focus so much on free will and finding who you are and being happy despite everything, only for him to die unfulfilled, alone, and co-dependent… right where he started?
I saw a post somewhere and if I find it, I’ll tag the OP, but it went something like this:
Sam, if the last 15 years never happened: White picket fence, wife, dog, kids, etc.
Dean, if the last 15 years never happened: Dies alone on a hunt gone wrong.
Sam, after 15 years of character development: White picket fence, wife, dog, kids, etc.
Dean, after 15 years of character development: Dies alone on a hunt gone wrong.
No matter what the issue was and how or why that was the ending we got… it was deeply unsatisfying to someone who has been on this journey since day 1. Since the absolute beginning. I’m not discussing this through the goggles of a ship. I’m speaking as someone who appreciates well-written stories. As someone who invested twelve years (eighty percent of the entirety of the show) in a character and the development of a deep, meaningful relationship (whether or not you view it as romantic).
There was a lot missing from that finale. A lot. I can make jokes about it all day, but overall, I’m deeply disappointed and hurt by whatever went down behind the scenes for that to be the final product (something, I’m certain, we’ll never know).
I’m done beating the dead horse. I’ll carry on (heh) with my fic writing. Because no matter what happened with that finale, I will never not love these characters. They’re in my heart and under my skin (literally, I have Cas’s tattoo on my arm) forever.
Anybody have a transcript of Dean’s death scene? I’m writing a fix-it and I just don’t feel like putting myself through watching that train wreck again.
Hello, beautiful people, I just hit 700 followers!
To celebrate, because I’m back on my DeanCas bull shit and #cantstopwontstop, send me asks with your headcanons or mini prompts, and I’ll write you a drabble!
Reblogging if you want to send me fix-it headcanons, fix-it prompts, Heaven prompts, etc.
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”.
Hey so uh I’ve been updating my Dean Winchester x plus sized love interest fanfic lately. I’d appreciate you guys reading and voting on it. Maybe add it to your libraries and comment anything, honestly
So, thing is…. I have not watched the episode. I just was spoilered on the explore page on youtube when looking up news and there it was. Thank you so much algorithm for ruining the only episode in 4 years that I actually would have liked to watch unspoilered. That’s off the table now of course…. That said. I will watch it later in full. So take all of this with a shitton of salt, because my opinion is basically based only on Dean’s death scene and Sam’s life montage and the ending in Heaven of them meeting again without any in between so I might miss some vital infos – and yeah maybe I should have waited to post after I have seen the full episode first, then again, it doesn’t really matter, my opinion doesn’t matter, as I have not been involved with fandom or tumblr in ages, but maybe my impression can help someone somewhere to feel a bit better about this ending.
So, with that said. And I guess this will be a surprise to most people, these little ten minutes of episode to me delivered more emotion – though the hair and make up on Jared as Aging!Sam was just awful lol so I am ignoring all that – than all of the past 4 years combined.
Is the ending dissatisfying? I can see how people think that. I have to say, I look at it more objectively since I am not involved in fandom etc. anymore. But imo and I really would not have ever expected to say that about an episode written by Dabb. Imo this ending does make sense. I see a lot of posts going around saying that this ending doesn’t make sense, because of the season long arc of the death of the author and fight for free will and that it is the badly written ending Chuck would have penned. And I kind of think no, it isn’t. It’s just that many people treated the past seasons or watched them with rose coloured glasses.
I have expressed in a single post last week why I have issues with Dabb’s era and people’s appraisal of him, because they excused all the bad writing with that only having been „Chuck’s bad writing“ and therefore Dabb and Co were so extremely clever and amazing and soooooo meta. Which yeah, no Dabb was no genius and neither was a Berens. It was objectively bad and lazy writing. This ending however imo actually makes sense – and people only hate it because they did not get what they wanted. Did I get what I wanted from this ending? Not by a long shot – for one: Dean would have deserved more. Much could have been done better, but from the quality or rather extreme lack thereof since Dabb took over, this ending is more than I ever would have expected possible.
So let me get into the meat of it and why I think that way. I can see why it is frustrating to accept this ending, because it feels like all of what they went through was for nothing, because it was never „truly them“ - and I guess that was Jensen’s biggest issue with that ending – and that Dean dies so quickly after just having been free(d). You see, if you operate with the death of the author and celebrating that fact, because it means true free will for the Winchesters then this ending simply – as dissatisfying as it may feel for the character who just achieved freedom – is a fitting one and indeed does not negate character development made (which arguably was influenced by Chuck and never real), but rather showcases it.
Dean dieing on a hunt, in a mundane fashion, due to a rusty nail many say is a disgrace, because it should have been an epic fighting scene or whatever. Why though? We had that countless times. We know Dean is a skilled fighter. He did many Big bads in. Why would it need one more for the final episode? Especially when considering all those times before Chuck has been pulling the strings (this is much more why I think they never should have introduced God in that way and go this route, because that in fact destroys all of the past – which again is why I think Jensen struggled with the ending). Again, I understand people’s discomfort, but I actually think Dean dieing on a hunt, in a mundane fashion, due to a rusty nail is a „good“ (as good as it can get with Dabb & Co) ending. Why? Because it all was entirely Dean. No Chuck. No big story. It was Dean. It was Dean writing his own story. Holding the pen. And That is all I ever wanted (would I have wanted it for him to be able to do it longer, hell yes, but even getting Dean’s joy of being free just for one day imo is worth it and worth more than a lifetime as a puppet for a cruel God). Dean died while doing what he believed in, what he loved doing, with his brother by his side and them both on the same page and not butting heads, he was there out of his own free will, he was not supercharged by an special weapon and he was most of all not indestructable because he was a plaything of God. He died, because he was/is free. Because that is what happens when life happens. And life is tragic. That’s what this is. A tragic death. A tragic death of a wonderful human being. And that’s always what I loved dean for: his humanity and his flaws.
And I don’t see/read it as Dean only finding happiness or true free will in death, though I understand why you could read it that way, absolutely. But imo seeing it that way only cuts things short. Dean was able to let go, he was able to say goodbye to Sam (now his whole speech about him being weaker than Sam etc., that part was enraging and unnescessary, but for the sake of the much despised „bigger picture“ I will ignore it here, because that part I have big issues with). That means he did „overcome“ his „always be there for Sammy“ and giving himself up in the process of doing that (and again yes, that he was only to overcome this when dieing makes this part pretty problematic, very much so – but then again, I don’t expect well crafted story from Dabb, so…). Every single time before (when God was still in the picture) the Winchesters did something bad to undo „death“, etc. whether that was what they would have done if God was not in the picture is up for debate, but in any case here Sam and Dean met one another on eye level. Sam let Dean go and he lived with the grief (yeah, the irony of Dabb trying to replicate „Swan Song“ with roles reversed just in a spectacularly worse way is not lost on me, believe me), but he kept going, didn’t go to extremes to reverse it. He lived with it. Because that’s how life happens. Most of the time it’s not fair. And it’s not what we deserve. But we „carry on“. And we keep writing our story. However a tragic one it might be. But at least it’s ours. We are the paper. We are the pen. And not a bit of spilled ink in Death’s or God’s book. And I happen to think that is as good as it gets…
Alright, those are my two cents on an episode that I haven’t seen lol. I am sure once I see it, there will be a lot of things I will probably dislike about it, but just from the small but probably big bits of the episode, these are my two cents. Don’t get up in arms over it. I am not here to fight. Have never been. And I sure won’t start now that I probably will never log back into this account. :)
I’m also gutted that they didn’t have a “Road So Far” like they have for every other finale. It’s like they didn’t even want to give CLIPS of Sam and Dean’s found family???
