This is Supernatural on the Rocks, a new #Supernatural podcast hosted by two of the voices behind Glee on the Rocks.
Every episode we cover a season of Supernatural, digging into the mythology, the characters, and the fandom it left behind.
Join us to remember the road that was. linktr.ee/spnontherocks
idc supernatural seasons 1-5 is a different show than supernatural 5-15. it’s like giving your old Barbie set to a younger cousin. the dolls might have the same names but they are NOT going to play w them the same way
long answer: yes, but mostly when it's his choice.
We know he reads for pleasure.
We know Jensen and Jared swapped lines in 9.04 where Dean was supposed to be the one begging not to get spoilers on GoT because he was reading the books, and that this pissed off Robbie Thompson enough for him to write the Aesop lines in 11.04 in such a way that they couldn't make Dean the "lol I'm supposed to be the dumb one" character.
He was the one devouring the Supernatural books in 4.18 while Sam was doing research on the fandom on his laptop.
Sure, Dean has this reputation (mostly in fandom, canon doesn't truly support this) for hating research and preferring to just charge in, but... if folks actually *look at canon as a whole* Dean is overwhelmingly shown engaging in obsessive research. Sam acknowledges it a few times, too:
You don't become a master of the lore by hating reading, or refusing to do it.
Remember when he had a deep self-interest in finding a cure for the MoC and Sam taunted him for rereading the same mountain of lore books over and over for literally weeks, to the point of futility, because he had no where else to look and was getting desperate? Heck, this technically spanned most of two seasons of the show...
then the next season had him pushing as hard into research to find a way to free Cas from Lucifer's possession...
Like... when he's motivated, he will fall so hard into research that Sam will actually make fun of him for it:
So... yeah he's fine with reading.
I'm incredibly exhausted by the persistent-- again, mostly fanon and not at all canon-- presumption that Dean's dumb or hates reading or doesn't read. I could go on, but like... folks could actually watch the show and observe with their eyes. :'D
I do want more Supernatural actually. There's things, characters, feelings that I want to experience differently than I have before, or maybe even for the first time. Like a beach episode.
season 1 supernatural really was just so iconic because they took two of the grumpiest, ill adjusted, stubborn twenty year olds you could imagine, threw them into a cramped car that only played classic rock by law, and made them fight monsters and childhood trauma together. while they were actively dumbass twenty year olds whose version of research was going to the local library, doing a quick google, and harassing locals while pretending to be government agents. it was a mini horror film every week and the main characters were prissy tough guy idiots. and it was filmed on film so like the haze baby the haze! impeccable vibes