#i saw an interesting idea that while the show was supposed to be about sam #dean was a more interesting character and jensen was a better actor #so obvs sam took a back seat #but the finale was basically trying to shoehorn sam back into the lead position #like he was originally supposed to be #and it just…. didn’t work #supernatural #spn
First of all kudos for the url…
The idea was that the story was ~about the two brothers~, which I suppose would share screentime in a fairly balanced manner, but Sam was intended to the the point-of-view character, the “filter” we would experience the story through.
It makes sense on paper: Sam is a character in a situation we can relate to (college student living a regular life), whom something happens to we can sympathize with (he loses his girlfriend tragically) and who - while he knows about that world having grown up in it - has distanced himself from the world of the supernatural, so we, the audience, who enter into that world for the first time as we watch the show, “enter” that world together with Sam as he re-enters it.
Dean, on the other hand, is a character who’s always been in that world, so he can’t be our “guide” into entering it. He also has a lifestyle we can’t really relate to, because the audience in front of the tv is obviously closer to the college guy than the rebellious nomadic monster-killer. He doesn’t have attachments other than to this mysterious missing dad, and is a generally mysterious person himself, so Dean is sort of an object to discover and decode rather than a subject to identify with.
Enter Jensen Ackles and Dean is suddenly a magnetic character who exudes a vulnerability that people can, indeed, relate to.
Enter Sera Gamble, Raelle Tucker, and John Shiban (I’d say the authors who most explored Dean in s1) and they do write Dean in a way that’s interesting and touching.
(Sera Gamble is a weird case, because she can do utter disasters but also write really good things, one could argue she’s the one person who most drove Supernatural from Kripke’s original idea to what we actually got, she’s the one who most drove the story away from ‘urban legends’ to religious themes & co, and while I haven’t seen the Magicians I know that she’s both the person who built a very interesting story and destroyed it.)
Dean and Jensen have carried the show all along both because Dean ended up a more compelling character and also because Dean has the strongest (narratively and emotionally) relationships. All the most interesting side characters have relationships with Dean, with a few exceptions (and again if a side character has a relationship with Sam, their exchanges with Dean are still more interesting, just think of Ruby!).
Crowley was supposed to be “associated” to Sam in the Carver era, to balance Dean’s association to Cas (s7 ends with Crowley making a cruel speech to Sam, the scene in the church where Sam almost turns Crowley human, Rowena using Sam to kill Crowley…) but Crowley ends up having a massive arc with Dean and a love triangle with Dean and Cas, which is why the Carver era is so unbalanced towards Dean XD (Then the writers did their best to make Rowena a “Sam character”, but at that point she was quite her own character with her story with Crowley and all, so it wasn’t really a narrative-supporting arc.)
Mary was both Dean’s and Sam’s mother, but her relationship is with Dean. Jack was presumably supposed to be associated to Sam more, too, with Sam taking him under his wing while Cas is dead and Dean blames Jack for it, but the relationship between Dean and Jack is the one that immediately stands out and gets developed.
One of the most unrealistic thing about the show is having all the side characters talk about “SamandDean” “the Winchesters” all the time when what they actually mean is “Dean and his brother”, if not just “Dean” at all.
As the only person in the fandom who liked Amelia—
A couple different times they also set up two new characters and “gave” one to Sam and one to Dean, and every time they did that, Dean’s was the more dynamic and interesting relationship. Cas was a more engaging character than Ruby. The Benny/Cas/Dean Adventure Squad was more entertaining than Sam trying to get along with Amelia’s asshole dad.
And then there’s the way the characters engage with the universe. Sam has to complete three quests in order to save the kingdom- noble, but also… done. It’s a standard interaction with fantasy tropes.
Dean, on the other hand, tells an extremely confused nurse “I’ve got the king of hell in my trunk” and then goes down to the parking lot where he has very nonchalantly left his car containing a demon, and has a conversation with the king of hell through his trunk lid. That’s something we can only get from Supernatural.
Sam is a character who knows and follows lore. He is the tropes we’re used to. Dean is a character who lives in a world full of magic and accepts that, and carries on accordingly. Witches aren’t “evil,” they’re sticky. Sword stuck in a stone? Modern solutions to modern problems. Gotta steal a fulgurite to bind Death? Bring him some pickle chips maybe he won’t kill us. Build an EMF reader out of a walkman. He’s the first dumbass mcnobody to call a monster a bitch to their face and that is engaging.
As a recent fandom parallel- Sam is the Witcher and Dean is Jaskier. Sam is the hero and ostensibly the main character but the audience is more interested in the sidekick straddling the 4th wall.
I’ve been saying this for years. Sam was the character we started this adventure with, but Dean was the more charismatic character with ties to everyone interesting. Which is why Destiel became so viable. The bond between Castiel and Dean was relevant on so many levels, it became a very rich field to mine.
was john abusive, yes. was he neglectful, yes. Was he innately evil, no. But general areas you even try to discuss shit like cycles of abuse and you get branded an abuse apologist like. no!! I hate who john was by mainline spn!! but i don’t hate the innocent john crawling back from vietnam that americans had initially been told was a great duty to fulfill before it all went sideways!! vets were victims of the imperialist system too!!! I don’t hate the bright eyed boy in love with the Nice Girl that wanted to buy a goddamn vw bus because he wanted to have a family!! That guy!!
the man motherfucking walked into his son’s nursery one day and his wife fucking exploded on the goddamn ceiling!! war vet or not that’s bound to fuck anybody up!! and what therapy or help did he have!! yes mister psychologist there are demons chasing me and my sons i’m not crazy??? what venues did this guy even have!! it doesn’t justify how he channeled it but humans are FUCKING MESSY even ones that started good!! yall mfers lash out over someone’s unethical consumption of fucking moon pies and turn it into a 5 year long campaign aggroing someone eating twinkies and you expect me to think the majority of you would process that shit any better than john did?
the entire point of dean’s journey even is about Not Becoming That. And that at times he got way too close to it, like when cas died at the end of s12 and dean basically indirectly and at times directly blamed jack!! yknow the cursed yellow eyed lucifer kid??? “dean ur acting like dad”!! barking orders being consumed by anger and loss and revenge!! that’s even the plot of s15!! The Trap!! The alternate times!! but moving on and letting go not bc it doesn’t hurt but so that you don’t become that person!! ITS THE ENTIRE P0INT
Dean’s Wife™️ exploded in black goo and at first he was passed out drunk on a whiskey bottle but Wife™️ had taught him he wasn’t just that hate and anger and grief and he actually internalized it and grew and freed himself of that cycle!!! goddamnit!! it’s the whole point!!!! and that doesn’t mean dean was perfectly ok at the end either!! Grief doesn’t go away, but life grows around it!! Dean was starting to let life grow around his loss and that’s the real tragedy on his life being cut short, beyond our parasocial relationship with a fictional character we watched grow up for 15 years and just want to put in a nice coffeeshop au!!!
Really running out of parts for Pat to proclaim were “fake” atp.
Still, some of it IS gonna be cut/trimmed for time, that’s unavoidable. I imagine the various street conversations will shrink. The more I look at the Lodge/Clubhouse, the more I see that as our new proverbial batcave so I’m pretty sure it’s gonna get introduced. Millie’s place turns up a LOT and may be able to be compacted too. But I think we’re really looking at it.
Any time anyone yells But Muh Sources, be wary of that motherfucker. Especially when he never turns up actual content.
Also…I really don’t care about a John and Mary prequel. Especially since their entire relationship is toxic and only happened because heaven wanted their children to fulfill a divine prophecy….ANYWAY
Actual Good Ideas (imo):
A show centering around Claire Novak and her hunting adventures (bring back characters like Jody, Alex, Eileen, Patience, maybe even Sam or Castiel for an episode because technically they’d still be alive)
A Wayward Sisters show
An anthology series that follows different hunters and their stories (including some we know and love). Kind of like American Horror Story in a way.
A Rufus and Bobby prequel. Recast them and follow their adventures from when they first started hunting together. They could explore those beloved characters a lot more.
Does THIS fragment of the trailer count as Casbaiting?
I swear to God Jensen if you think this will make me watch that show I don’t even have interest on… Then you’re right I’m a fucking clown and a basic bith gimme more Cas ✌️
No but seriously is it Cas or I just need better glasses? Help
People giving side by side comparison of the cas shot in the trailer to 4x01 just to make sure it’s the same shot. Like I don’t need the visual comparisons. I know that shot. I got it.
