#I will accept robbie cas

[swordofsun]

Thinking about the samulet today. Because thematically as a prop item it was just *chef's kiss*

Because it does symbolize the brother relationship. Full stop, through the entire run of it's appearances on the show. And the way it's utilized to show the changes in that relationship is where the writers werenreally just going above and beyond with the symbolism. (Thanks Dabb and Robbie!)

The first four seasons it is an anchor for how no matter the odds or the situation Dean trusts Sam. He believes in Sam. The samulet was given to him by Sam in a very clear way to show that Sam understood it was Dean and not their dad who was really taking care of him (something Sam forgets and remembers as is convenient to him over the years) and needed the protection. And Dean holds it as his most precious possession. He believes in Sam and their relationship.

Until he doesn't. It is important that Sam wore the amulet while Dean was dead between s3 and s4. It's a very clear signifier that Sam kept the faith that Dean could be rescued. It was his driving goal in those months with killing Lilith as a means to that goal.

But he gives it back to Dean and loses sight of why he was going after Lilith. In much of s4 he goes after Lilith to go after Lilith. Whereas Dean spends s4 slowly losing his faith and trust in Sam. He knows when Sam is lying to him, almost every time. He knows that Sam is sneaking behind his back and doing stuff he knows Dean wouldn't approve of and that he can't fully justify. Because you don't hide things you can justify doing.

The end of s4 is the complete rupture of their relationship. Sam breaks the trust in a way that it takes years to recover from and never even seems to notice. We start s5 and Dean does not trust Sam. He does not trust that Sam will make the correct choices.

Which makes it so good that it's at the beginning of Good God, Y'All that he gives the amulet to Cas. He's literally putting his faith in Cas' hands because he can't put it anywhere else (Gamble can have some rights). Sam and Dean go their separate ways at the end of the episode because Dean can't trust Sam. The amulet is gone and so is Sam.

It is vital to remember that Dean doesn't call Sam up at the end of The End because he wants to hunt with him again or has rediscovered his trust. He calls him because Zachariah just showed him a future where Sam said yes and the first step to stopping that future is changing how it happened. By reconnecting with Sam.

(Not actually Zachariah's plan, but it's what happened.)

Which brings us to Dark Side of the Moon. The episode about lost faith. In it they, and most importantly Cas, learn that God couldn't give less of a shit and they are on their own. (Cas' loss of faith in this episode and the repercussions deserve their own essay.) For Dean he learned that everything he sacrificed for Sam, everything he gave up and everything he let go weren't enough. Every little bit of goodness he tried to scrap together for Sam when they were kids wasn't enough.

Sam barely even remembers one of Dean's best memories. A perfect moment where he got to make Sam happy and loved. (And to be clear this is not Sam's fault. He had a very different perspective on their childhoods and it takes Dean years to accept this.) But the journey through heaven and seeing Sam's happiest moments drives home that everything he thought their relationship was built on was, not a lie, but a delusion. They don't have that shared foundation to rebuild on. Sam broke them in s4 and they don't have solid ground to rebuild because that solid ground never existed in the first place. (And is part of the reason Sam was able to completely destroy Dean's trust in him.)

Throwing away the samulet at the end of the episode is very clearly saying "We don't have a relationship I can trust in. We don't have something to rebuild." Dean still loves Sam, he will always love Sam, but that blind devotion to their siblingness is gone. And it never comes back, just like Dean never wears the samulet again.

It was theorized from approximately 3 seconds after the episode ended that Sam dug that thing out of the garbage, but it's a long time before we get confirmation.

The next time we see the samulet is in Fan Fiction. I think it's important, symbolically, that what we see is a fake. A bad fake. We know what the samulet actually looks like unlike the kids putting on the play. We know it's as fake as everything else in the show. And it's important that this comes at a time when Dean and Sam are very much faking a healthy relationship dynamic.

They never actually discuss everything that lead to Dean being a demon and Sam forcefully healing him. All of the s9 stuff is swept under the rug and by the time Fan Fiction comes around Dean and Sam are back to playing the roles of brothers who are also bffs. It's as fake as the samulet in the show.

It's not until Don't Call Me Shurley that we see the samulet again. This time we're shown that Sam did pull it out of the garbage and apparently carries it around with him. We can take this to symbolize both that Sam never gave up on gaining back their previous relationship and that he wasn't actually willing to do the work to fix it. He was just going to carry on and hope something happened.

We don't see the samulet again after this. It's purpose has been served. Sam has been shown that what he was hoping for wasn't what he was going to get by having Chuck be so much less than the God Sam's had faith in for so many years. It's important that this is the point where both Dean and Sam allow the other to make sacrifices without much argument. Sam was going to take on the Mark to retrap Amara, Dean with the soul bomb. It's a new stage in their relationship where they're willing to let the other person be fully their own person.

Dean still needs most of s12 to fully accept that Sam having a bad childhood was not his fault and he didn't fail Sam; he was given more than anyone could have succeeded at. But it's not a coincidence that s12-15 see them rebuilding a brotherly relationship on much more healthy grounds. (Still overly codependent, but nowhere near as bad.)

Dean actively embraces being his own person and exploring what will actually make him happy in a way we hadn't seen until them. Similarly Sam finally gets to the point where he can stop pretending that he doesn't like hunting and doesn't want to do more. He finds the BMoL intriguing for a reason. Most importantly they are able to do this without, for the most part, insisting that the other person do the same things.

And thank you for reading my essay.

[incarnateirony]

So let's go back over this for my hate readers.

By April 2020, you had already lost Jensen Ackles as One Of You.

Your refusal to listen, to pay attention, and your compulsive and psychotic need to demand people believe the world and anyone you look at conforms to your biases simply because you Said So made you unable to intercept and disarm this.

Jensen struggled with the ending first, then the rewrites, then went to Kripke, then still tried to push through the ending, then ran out the door to register CM and start talking to WB while wracking his brain.

Late 2020 he didn't just move to Colorado for fun. My geico caveman beard coping mechanism may have been presented as humor, but it was true. And, with ZERO speculation to this, I can tell you that Jensen Ackles wasn't sleeping. He couldn't let go, he couldn't move on, and he knew Dean's story wasn't done. He was sorry about Castiel, and Dean and Cas, and Tried To Give It To Us.

And he sat. And rotted. And worried. And tried to think like a writer and be creative with Danneel at home during covid, talking to friends online to figure out where to go.

And, as if by magic, a nice package that was almost fully developed reached him. And Danneel reminded him of that one. And they worked on it and gave it to WB and WB liked it, then they called Robbie who was already working on his Cas spinoff, but the concepts fused well enough into it as a collab, and that's where we're at.

These basic truths, these steps in reality people want to dismiss for inconvenience, are why we are where we are, and it isn't gonna change. If you wouldn't try to change a 3 year heller dumpster resident's mind, you shouldn't even try to whine your way through it with Jensen Ackles, because he's now the king heller making the king heller show, whether your parents emotionally prepared you for how to handle not being personally pandered to or not.

You lost him years ago, and were too inserted in your own asses and delusions to do anything to stop it.

Congratulations, you lost. The hellers have been far, far, far, far, far closer to Jensen for 3 years, and you're just now slowly accepting the reality.

In That Moment, he'd have hugged him as a brother in arms. In That Moment, In That Moment, In That Moment, he had a take. And then, by The Next Setup, he had another Take. One that caused international dubbing confusion, ADR re-recordings, and just mountains of upset. One that is quite literally a fundamental part of the plot The Winchesters is shaping out the importance of. Me too, mom. Me too.

This is it. This is reality. You guys seem almost ready to accept that reality. Deep down you have with all your raging but you refuse to allow yourself the processing phase of accepting and internalizing this, because you keep regressing. You lost. It's over. Go home.

[bunnymcbunnister]

I think there is something to the fact that Dean spent his heaven driving time looking for his family and then dove right in to help them at great personal cost- very Dean Winchester. But it wasn’t a completely altruistic motivation. By helping his family, he was processing his emotions and leading with love, which was precisely what Cas’ speech was all about. I think the whole journey was him getting his house in order. (I’ll be forever mad he had to do that in death but at least in this universe death is not the end.)The journal entries/narration was both Dean talking to his parents but also seeking to highlight his best self. I really think he was preparing himself to spend an eternity with Cas and accepting the man Cas knows he is. Dean Winchester, giving every bit of his love driven existence to save his parents’ world but also setting up happiness for both his future alternate self and his own own self. Thanks Robbie Thompson and The Vessel Jensen Ackles!

[studyingthelore]

I have two incompatible and diverging thoughts on what’s going on with Cas in this timeline:

1. The obvious assumption is that he’s still in the Empty; that was the deal he made, and we have no real indication that Cas is anywhere but the Empty. Sure, there’s the throw-away line of “Cas helped” in the spn finale, but that’s never explained.

2. But the events of The Winchesters have me wondering if there might be another option. Facing one’s darkest secrets, speaking the truth, bravely accepting reality have all led to unexpected transformational experiences. Lata was able to rescue herself and Carlos from the site of her deepest guilt by sharing what happened between her and her parents. Carlos was able to break everyone free of Limbo’s spell by getting the little boy to acknowledge that he was sad, he missed his parents and his brother. So, what if Cas summoned the Empty, but then he transcended it through the power of that moment of truth? He isn’t in Dean’s heaven (because I’m still going with the Limbo parallel here; this heaven isn’t real happiness. It’s little more than a list of things that someone who didn’t really understand Dean might get for him to try to comfort him)... but that doesn’t mean that he has to be in the Empty. What if Cas broke free and created something new in that moment? And Dean is following an instinct that’s telling him to break free and he can make his way to Cas: reject this heaven, reject this false “peace” and pursue freedom, and you’ll find him there.

The more I think about it, the more I’m leaning toward/hoping for option #2, because that would go with the more hopeful themes of The Winchesters. But, I would love to see Dean on a mission to the Empty to rescue Cas too. And Robbie, Jensen, and Misha probably have some totally different plan in the works that I can’t even foresee, but I just know that they’re going to do something really special with this.

[dotthings]

So I watched the part of the J2 panel where Jared and Jensen talk about the finale and as usual the "brosonlies" takes are completely warped, fangasm's tweet coverage of that question was simplistic and inaccurate, and people distorted everything. They didn't even actually praise the finale. Jared: "It's better than bugs!" Jensen (humorous self deprecating tone): "Sure! Yeah why not you've come this far, go and tie it up with a bow" And mind you this is after Jensen said his biggest regret for Dean is not dodging the rebar.

Then Jensen's more serious respectful pitch for the fan was that since the fan had already watched all the other episodes, they might as well finish the journey. There's no throwdown here shaming anyone for skipping it and neither of them were singing its praises. Jensen was just saying it's part of the story, which it is, I don't want it, and I don't want to accept it, but I can't yell that it's not canon, it is. Now it's part of the story. And Jared echoed Jensen's stance that the last episode of the tv series known as spn doesn't mean it's actually over.

I have every confidence in Jensen, Robbie, everyone at CMP that they're going to do something that will make 15.20 feel better, the story's not over, Dean's story's not over, whatever it is that hurt about 15.20, will get some additional context and further story that will make it better.

Anyone in this fandom using that comment from the j2 panel or fangasm's chronically incomplete tweet style to weaponize it and tell people they're fake fans for skipping something that they KNOW will give them too much pain or any other reason people might skip it, maybe they just don't want it to end (which seems to be why the fan on this panel asked, they thought ep 19 made for a gentle landing and was hesitant to move from there and there is nothing wrong with that.) and continuing to dump all over Dean fans and people who actually care about the show beyond "Just the brothers" with lectures about how "it's about the brothers so it's PERFECTION and you're a stinky bad horrible fan for being hurt by it." The series finale was a harm to Sam, Dean, Cas, and the whole show and I will continue to hold that position. It's not an attack on the hard work of cast and crew. It's not an attack on spn.

Jensen's not shaming anyone. Reminder Jensen already said whether you like the finale or dislike the finale, that's valid. Jensen's comment at Vegascon was not him peeing territory or meant as a lesson to those evil hellers/AA's or whatever deranged thing whatever antis have decided to assign to Jensen, or what maybe others fear he meant.

Jensen loves the whole show and I respect his completist approach. Even though for my own well being I wish I had skipped the finale because that would have been better for me.

It's immensely trashy of brosonlies/jared stans to shame people for disliking it and being hurt ("It's just fiction! Fiction can't trigger you! Fiction can't hurt you!" while they themselves raged against SPN and what made THEM mad pretty much 75% of its entire long run and went on and on crying about their feelings about 15.20 and how beautiful it was but if they're going to insist fiction can't hurt you, then they need to stick to their own rules, fiction can't make you feel feelings in a good way either.) and then turn around and shift to rhetoric about how everyone HAS TO WATCH THE FINALE OR THEY ARE BAD FANS.

And all of this nonsense is disconnected from what J2 said about it at Vegascon.

[angelsdean]

like, i get that some people are upset that dean is still in heaven but, it wasn't really a shock to me at all ?? sure i clowned a bit w/ the 'time traveling aliveboy dean' stuff but they literally said before the show even started that dean was on a "hiatus" from heaven and that was always in the back of my mind thru out my clowning. and it really was a hiatus from heaven ! it all took place in the heaven drive time gap as like a finale coda (and what a huge time gap that is to fill. there's still so much they can do w/ that bit of time alone imo). we also don't know how much jensen + robbie were allowed to change, there may have been stipulations w/ spnwin to not change the heaven finale, something that might have to wait for a reboot / continuation of spn prime.

but regardless, crucially ??? what spnwin did is it completely recontexualized dean's ending. i said this in the tags of this post but i'll say it again: the spn finale said. ok dean's dead. he waits for sam. and that's it. spnwin said. no actually !!! he's not accepting that peace !! he's not waiting around for sam !! and giving dean back that agency is important to me. giving dean back the ability to make his own choices and want things for himself is important to me.

and i know some people are doubtful that we'll get a s2 of spnwin, meaning dean's story would end here, on him being unhappy in heaven. but personally, i don't think it matters if we get a s2. i think jensen is Not done with dean or the spn prime story. he's said before that spnwin is only one of many stories he wants to explore in the spn universe. also, after that answer he gave recently at jibcon re: a destiel reunion, i think he def wants more spn ("hopefully we get to see that at some point / i'm sure it would go how we all think it would go" and dean wanting to talk abt the confession)

i think even if we don't get a s2, everything that spnwin established re: dean's story will be the foundation for that reboot / mini series they're always talking about. personally, i Don't think we'll see dean again if there is a s2. (tho we may hear him in voiceovers as they read his journal and use it as a guide. and we may learn more abt dean and his journey this way). overall, i think dean helped establish this story and these characters, but moving forward it will be focused on them and not dean (tho we will see familiar spn faces, and maybe they will get involved in the multiverse too and visit the main spn universe, who knows?)

i think we needed what spnwin gave us re: dean's story not being over, dean unhappy in heaven, dean still searching more, (hints about jack possibly being "off" too / chuck won theory...) as a foundation for future stories in the main spn universe post-15x20. we want to see dean bust out of heaven and find happiness right? well, the seeds for that have been planted. and i knowww that's asking for optimism and faith that we WILL see a continuation in the future, and i get that some people are just doubtful and hopeless, but i really think we will see a continuation in the (maybe not so distant) future. and imo having this foundation to work off w/ dean's recontextualized time in heaven is important for all the things we want to see in a continuation.

and like, even tho i'm annoyed that ppl think his 'ending' now is worse than it was in 15x20, i don't think it's wrong to feel upset, because if that really were where it ended for dean i wouldn't be happy either. but for me the thing is i really really do Not think this is it for dean. i don't think jensen will be satisfied w/ dean staying dead in heaven forever. it completely goes against the thesis of the show, and dean's personal desire for freedom over peace in 'paradise.' and after everything jensen said abt dean + cas reuniting, i think there's a lot of unresolved things in spn that he wants to address, and he'll keep trying to make more spn until we get a better ending for all these characters (bc lbr, sam's ending also sucked. we never saw cas again and all he got was a throwaway line in the finale. jack deserves better too. they all do).

[sio-lokistiel]

Hi!! So I'm a fairly strong chuck won believer (i have been given some Extremely convincing evidence and I think its interesting to think about so) but I saw a post you made about how that theory disregards cas and jacks arcs and I was just wondering if you could expand on that? I'm super open to interpretations lol and I'm really curious to hear the other side (i haven't seen too much anti chuck won stuff so I dont know the arguments)

Okay, oh boy. I guess part of it is what exactly you mean by “Chuck Won” because I understand it on a censorship level. Yes, Chuck was representing the network. Yes, the network meddled and cut Dean’s reciprocation and we ended up with that garbage finale with pages of [OMITTED] in the script. So, if that’s all you mean by “Chuck Won” then yeah, whatever I guess.

Idk, some people probably feel it’s a legitimate theory simply because Dean died. It seems a lot of the fandom thinks death = bad…and that’s just not the case now that Jack freed the souls. I mean, I can throw quotes from The Mummy and Lord of the Rings at you about how death is the next step in journey. So while I’m no longer upset about Dean dying in general, especially because it was foreshadowed, the way he died was so fucking dumb. That doesn’t mean I think it has anything to do with Chuck.

Cas’ arc was all about self-actualization. His speech in Gimme Shelter explains a good part of it with how he found purpose having a family and becoming a dad, BUT him also realizing that having himself is important, too. Then, oh goodness, we reach the culmination in Despair (The Truth) when he realizes happiness is in the saying, in accepting your truth, both the good and bad bits of yourself. The Empty comes and he reintegrates with his Shadow to become whole and saves Dean, the world, and himself in the process. Yes, that’s a whole bunch of Jungian psychology stuff and it’s a lot to process and I’m probably not doing the best job of explaining it. Most of the Chuck Won theory stuff I’ve seen ignores all that and seems to ignore the canon that Cas IS in heaven. I understand the disappointment of Cas and Dean not reuniting, YET. Corporate fuckery (and Covid) kept it from happening in the finale with the original Roadhouse ending that was planned and then scheduling conflicts and Jensen and Misha agreeing Cas needed more than a cameo kept him from being in The Winchesters.

And Jack. Jack was literally the whole goddamn point. The two big things are he’s possessed and sometimes dead because of this, or he is corrupted somehow. I have never seen a convincing damn argument for either of these things. There’s one post that tries to compare some his mannerisms to Chuck, but is filled with so much straw grasping and reaching I’m surprised the author didn’t need a doctor afterward. Another is that some people project on the poor boy so much and just they don’t like his arc, they want to think something is wrong. There is a lot more Pagan stuff about Jack and the number of mythologies where some god is brought down by being a power hungry dickhead and that comes back to bite them in the ass as a grandchild in Jack’s case removes them from power. There are better people to explain all the Pagan imagery surrounding Jack; my tag #jack is the orphic egg should get you to some really good stuff. I’m also not down to argue about how the last 3-5 seasons are meant to read with a Pagan lens. There was one group who predicted the end of the mothership months in advance and then all of The Winchesters and it wasn’t the people clinging to some white Christian reading.

Last thing, I just personally find the theory really lazy as well. I would legitimately be so disappointed in Jensen and whoever ends up writing the next chapter whether that’s Robbie or someone else if they went that route. Luckily, they are all smarter than that and I can see them seeming to lean into it, but then having the most fabulous rug pull! This is very long, oops.

[babygirl06301]

Does anyone else feel like they'd rather not have Cas back in a revival or the 2nd season of TW or whatever if it's just going to involve Dean not reciprocating and Cas being okay with it? Really, like, there would be absolutely no harm in Dean returning Cas's feelings at this point. The main show is over, the non-shippers got their happy ending, and if Cas were brought back just to be rejected, it would leave such a bitter taste in the mouths of so many in the fandom. Again.

I don't want an AU Cas or a Cas that accepts, yet again, that his desires are less important than everyone else's. I don't want an ambiguous reunion that somehow addresses the confession but doesn't give us Dean's response to it. If Cas comes back, the only reason I can find for it being sensible is if Cas finally gets treated properly by the writing and his relationship with Dean is finally written as explicitly romantic after over a decade of it being undercut with those implications. That's the only way I can see Cas's return as resulting in character development because, if he comes back just to be rejected, all it'll be is more of the same. And if that's what Jackles is going for, I just don't see the point in bringing Cas back. I'd rather remain in the ambiguity that is being able to believe that Cas and Dean reunited eventually in heaven and Dean confessed, too. There's no point in hurting a large portion of this fandom by permanently closing the door on mutually canon Destiel.

Bottom line: don't bring Cas back if you're gonna be dumb about it, Jackles. You've got Robbie Thompson, for Jack's sake--use him well.

[casspurrjoybell-24]

My Unwanted Mate - Chapter 1 - Part 2

*Warning Adult Content*

Calvin Frey

The Pack House was busy with others getting ready for school, work and parents dropping off their pups for pack daycare.

It's also been more crowded than usual with new members staying here until their homes are ready.

Torin spent most of his time with the pups or purposely annoying Robby.

So after discovering that he wasn't in any of the colorful and already loud playrooms, I decided to check Robby's office.

Pack Mates greeted me and I murmured quiet hellos or nodded my head in acknowledgment.

They were use to my silence.

The office door was open so I stepped in only to turn back out.

Seeing my best friend making out with my little brother was a sight I'd like to never see.

Sadly, it was something pretty much everyone had witnessed by now. Even our poor mother.

"Calvin," Robby called and I risked peaking in.

Seeing that they were done eating each other's faces, I stepped back into the room.

My pup wiggled until I put him down so he could run to his uncles.

Torin was still sitting in Robby's lap and picked Benjamin up so they could both smother him with affection.

It surprises me that they still haven't had any pups of their own.

They'd make great parents.

"Have you finally come to your senses and are here to accept your place as my Beta?" Robby asked, looking up at me with a smirk.

I chuckled and shook my head.

"I told you to find someone else."

He'd asked me to be his Beta years ago when we were teenagers.

Then, I had gratefully accepted.

Hell, a couple of years ago I was ready to take on the task but after what happened I knew I couldn't devote myself to it.

I had Benjamin now and as his sole parent, he needed all of my attention.

"I'll get you to cave, eventually," Robby sounded determined and I didn't doubt he'd continue to try.

Not that I'd accept any time soon.

"I should get to work," I sighed, sitting the backpack filled with anything Benjamin could possibly need in the chair in front of the desk.

"Wait, I say bye papa," Benjamin yelled, rushing from around the desk to me.

I crouched down so he could hug me.

"Bye papa," he said cutely, kissing my cheek.

I made sure to give him a loud smooch on the cheek that made him giggle happily.

"Be good for your uncles."

"Otay."

It was always a struggling parting from him.

If I could, I'd carry my pup around with me everywhere.

There was always the fear that I'd miss some important or big moment.

Luckily I'd been there for his first words and first steps.

I hope I had the same luck for his first shift.

That could happen any day, it all depended on the pup.

It could be today or in five years.

My feet felt heavy as I forced myself to leave Benjamin behind.

If I kept this us, I was going to get fired for being regularly late to work.

Huffing, I stomped my way through the pack house.

I've used some of my vacation time to get a few days off to spend with my pup next week.

We both needed it.

Rounding the corner, I was hit in the face with a scent that made my breath catch and my knees grow weak.

It took a few seconds for my brain to catch up with my rapidly beating heart.

No... this couldn't be happening.

********

Drumming my fingers over the steering wheel nervously and staring up at the pack house, I imagined every possible way I could avoid going in.

My mind had been distracted since this morning.

Even working had been difficult.

The guys eventually got fed up with my mistakes that caused them to do more work.

After having been cursed out numerous times, I figured it was best that I left early.

Now I was faced with a new dilemma.

How to get my pup.

Torin wouldn't agree to bring Benjamin to the truck and no one in the pack house would go against their Luna.

He'll want me to stay for dinner too. I had no choice but to go in.

Running my fingers through my messy hair, I got out of the truck.

It's best to just get things over with and out of the way.

Maybe I can get Benjamin and sneak out.

I'll have to deal with Torin later but it was better than running into whoever it was that smelt like ripe peaches.

It was a nice day, not too cold but not yet warm enough to be considered spring.

I could hear that a lot of the Werewolves were in the back, enjoying the weather.

From the sound of their playful growls and howling, I knew most of them were in their furs.

I found my brother there amongst them all.

His copper toned pelt was easy to spot, along with the fact that he was the smallest wolf besides the young pups.

Torin and I never spent much time together in our furs or ever really.

I was always scared I'd hurt him, especially when we were younger and his wolf was no bigger than a small lap dog.

Robby didn't seem to have the same fear.

He chased after my brother and pounced on him, making my heart pause before spotting Torin wiggle free unharmed.

My pup didn't yet have his fur yet but it didn't stop him from playing along, imitating their growls and jumping on the large black wolf.

I knew if it were any other Alpha, they would have growled at the pup to teach him his place.

Benjamin waddled around in his puffy jacket, his little legs only allowing him to move but so fast.

His cheeks and nose were red from the cold, his little teeth on full display from the large smile.

He's my life now.

Everything I do is to make sure he's happy and comfortable.

I couldn't risk anything getting in the way of it.

Or anyone.

No one would pull me away from my pup.

No one would make me feel ashamed for having him.

His giggling pulled me closer and I picked him up, making him squeal before he noticed it was me.

"Papa."

"Having fun?" I chuckled, ruffling his hair.

Just being around him lifted my mood, taking my mind off everything worrisome.

"I'm a wolf," he gave a mock growl, his teeth snapping.

Torin appeared beside us, having quickly dressed because his shirt was on backwards.

I didn't mention it to him, he'll eventually figure it out.

"You're not suppose to be here for another two hours. You can't take him yet," Torin argued, looking devastated that he couldn't spend more time with my pup.

Benjamin reached out for his uncle who quickly snatched him from my arms and ran away inside to hold him hostage.

Robby chuckled, having not cared to get dressed besides pulling on a pair of jeans.

"Looks like you're stuck here for the rest of the day," Robby pointed out.

"Why don't you knock him up already," I growled irritably and Robby's smile turned smug.

I was distracted by a scent that I had ran from this morning.

I could do so again. Come back later and pick Benjamin up, when everyone's retiring to their rooms and there's no risk of running into anyone.

Unable to help myself, I took in a deep breath.

If there was ever a Utopia, it would be in that scent... such a subtle sweetness.

I wanted to roll around in it... cover it with my own scent.

Growling, my jaw clenched.

There was no running... I'd have to face them.

The quicker it's done, the faster I can go on about my life.

I couldn't run away every time I picked up that scent.

They'll eventually pick up mine, if they haven't already.

[armandomendoza]

Does that mean I can call Castiel Bobby

god no

[myhumanweakness]

Hear me out!

I’ve seen so many people saying, “What if Dean’s narration is him telling Cas/Jack the story of their family?” and people really loving the idea of solidifying destiel that way. 

But what if! 

Dean is narrating, and it’s him telling Jack and Sam and whoever else the story of his parents falling in love, and (as we’ve seen with so many other moments in the canon spn-verse) it’s a bunch of parallels to Dean and Cas’ relationship. And the whole prequel is just Dean slowly realizing that he’s in love with Cas, and after telling the story he’s finally ready to discuss the confession, how he feels about it, and how he feels himself with Cas. 

[deanwasalwaysbi]

you’re right tho. they can’t revive the show and bring cas back and have him and dean reunite without addressing destiel to some capacity. not only would it be unfair to misha’s ending to retract the romantic connotations of his declaration, but they know the backlash they’d get trying to bury it. jensen is hell bent on a revival. cas is inevitably coming back. these are facts. 2 + 2 = a destiel reunion and some indication of a confession aftermath. one we actually deserved to see and they deserved to play out. dean was gonna sidle up next to cas in heaven’s roadhouse anyway, which gives me an idea of at least the subtextual direction they’ll go. and he has robbie on the prequel and rich directing, notable destiel-supporting creatives. plus, chaos machine is front-loading the visibility of their queer rep support. i will be utterly baffled if we don’t get something.

Maybe we've all just been burned too many times but my problem is I don't have faith. There is absolutely nowhere else I can accept this story going at this point. Dean saves cas and - yeah fuck it - an on screen kiss or no ambiguity clear as fuck declaration, or I don't want to see it. No CW, no singer, woosh episode 20 never happened we are going to do a six episode post 18 finale redo. Sounds gay. I'm in.

Or I don't want to see it.

Am I nervous that Jensen can't risk a mlm kiss as his mainstream career is taking off? Yes. Would I accept a clear statement instead? Yes. But I don't think we'd get one. "Dean wouldn't" is too strong.

But then I didn't think we'd get Dean's confession in the Trap or 15 FREAKING 18. So.

They COULD start off in post canon with Cas already back. But they can't do that without answering some vital questions. Has Cas seen Dean and vice versa? What is their relationship now? Who is blurry wife? Were Jody Donna and the girls alive? Did the AU hunters come back? Did. Chuck. Win?

At this point you can not revive spn and chicken out. It's time to commit.

[incarnateirony]

Min, after all of Dean's journey is said and done and he has found the light, and we trace all of it to the moment of Dean sitting with Bobby drinking beer and when Dean asks "Jack did all this" and Bobby cheekily says "Cas helped" and when Dean does that smile...then that smile would mean something more than it did back in 2020 right?

That's among the things that get New Context, yes. That's what Giving New Context means, guys.

And it's not gonna be just that moment. It's going to be Thee Moments. I call them the Robobo moments: Robbie's first edited-out I Love You from Dean used IN the damn market testing. Who We Are changing Jensen's view of Dean. The Future. The Rupture. The Trap. The Truth. And all accented by narrative elements of Yockey: Optimism. Nihilism. Ouroboros. To name a few. Meredith too, as her and Berens were "Work Boyfriends" by their own name. Big Empty, and others. Cas came to in a garden.

(To even unpack that, it's because Dean was Meredith's POV character and Cas was Bobo's, and the authors were all very much that aware of the text and in support of us while people Nuh Uhed. Meredith gave the Dean mask back to Robbie. [somethingsomethingPersona]. The Rose to Bobo's jack, as Bobo put it. Clinging together on the sinking ship.)

I don't know where fandom got it through their heads that I just woke up one day and decided to juggle 300 episodes of footage in a math formula to processes in like 3 months (the first wave), and a month to update 2 later (second wave), or another month to add in New Winchesters content (this wave.) Oh yeah. a solid half year of editing work like a full time job, to brain frying concepts, and massive footage management, unpaid, just. For fun. Because I wanted to. Is that what they just assumed? They never bothered to ask WHY? (And now, I have a whole army waiting. - Michael. Cough.)

While the original misinformation cores desperately try to save face on years of their bullshit, and pretend WB paid for DeanCas market testing For Funsies But Nobody Intended Anything Back Then, like. These authors were making their mark. They were laying down their good faith groundwork. They were telling their story how they could, even if it was between the cracks. Even if half of it was learning and accepting that Berens is the best kind of madlad, and to stop fighting it, and start listening.

All that stuff they wrote at the end years? Robbie respects that shit. Robbie's good friends with Bobo, and Bobo even carried on Robbie's plot elements like Cain/Collette. Like, jesus. They're mostly passing their own work back with the help of some codexes and specs.

And what Robbie gets to do? He gets to write right through it. He gets to give new context. He gets to put together those pieces the way HE wants, the way his friends always wanted. He gets to highlight and focus on how they WANTED things to be seen and heard, rather than when ~Chuck muffled it under his own tunnelvision (in show and in business), rather than when the point whistled over fandom's heads, or wasn't exactly what they wanted. He gets to use Dean's own gaze of self discovery to give context to what's been The Truth the whole damn time, douchebag.

He's getting rid of Despair. It was never meant to be Despair. It was meant to be The Truth. They never quit fighting. So yeah. Like sure. That smile. That moment. Good example. But I need you to realize it's doing that to, in full: The last several episodes; the last season in full; the last era; and the show in full, in roughly that order of magnitude.

This is revenge.

[deadlyanddelicate]

“it all comes down to the soul(s) in the end”: or, characters make the story work, and not the other way around

outing myself yet again as a dabb era critical blog here but. i just think the difference between carver era and dabb era is that carver era was character-arc driven while dabb era was overarching-main-plot driven with some good character moments thrown in (which may be to do with the fact that - iirc - during carver era for a while they didn’t know if they’d get renewed so they couldn’t plan too far ahead and just progressed the story by increments, as opposed to dabb era knowing they had a longer time frame to work with and deciding the plot beforehand). 

the thing is, i think most of us can agree that after the kripke era - which, for all its flaws and setbacks (hello writers’ strike), had a self-contained myth arc involving both an internally coherent narrative and certain well-defined character beats - and going into the gamble “hot girl summer but make it angst” era, the appeal of supernatural relies largely on the characters. it has to, because for a show to keep running after 6-7 seasons, you have to be invested not just in the story/stories being told, but in the people driving the story forward. it simply won’t work otherwise.

and - to my perception at least - the carver era (perhaps largely due to ben edlund’s imprint in s8, lbr) knew that. some examples of what i mean:

it gave dean an arc about dealing with the toxicity of his upbringing and his unhealthy attachment to sam, as well as starting to explore other meaningful relationships for himself (benny, charlie, and of course him continuously reaching out to cas) - essentially it allowed dean to confront that he wanted things. 

it gave sam an arc about dealing with his trauma re: demon blood, and having to confront what it means to be good, how he always felt impure through no fault of his own - and it shifted him over into accepting that his calling in life is as a keeper of lore and mentor to other people, by contrasting the failure of the sam/amelia relationship with him finding the bunker and discovering a different part of the hunting world

it forced cas to confront what he wants for himself, by making him deal with his own changing nature (being human, then an angel again, and the whole arc about living on borrowed grace), and with the other angels falling and what that meant for him; he got the chance to be on his own and be with the winchesters, to both make mistakes and be a leader to other angels - and then give up that leadership by choice because he prioritised his human family to his reputation in heaven (which should have been a clear indication of endgame human cas but i digress)

it brought in compelling new characters - primarily charlie and kevin, though they were both horrendously mistreated by bucklemming writing them off - claire novak as an angry teenager, aaron and his golem, metatron as a fascinatingly meta (ha) antagonist, rowena as a frenemy, and gave old characters compelling story beats (crowley and his “humanity addiction”). also, it had writers like robbie thompson who were attuned to the fan community in an unprecedented way.

with the dabb era, i feel like because they’d set their mind on where the story was going (e.g.: killing dean, having a new and “better” god in place, giving sam a white picket fence ending) they didn’t really care if they had to break the protagonists’ characterisation to get us there. we still had moments of great characterisation - steve yockey episodes first and foremost, and of course robert berens carrying the dean/castiel beats - but mostly, characterisation came second to what the story would need. this is how we get dean winchester, friend and protector to kids everywhere, being A-Okay with sacrificing a kid he supposedly cares about, not once but several times over, because the plot needed Emotional Stakes™️.

(and this, by and large, is my issue with jack as a character too, because he spends so much of his time on the show so clearly being a plot device - a literal deus ex machina - that he ends up being not very compelling to me. “but baby jack!” i hear you say. and yes, yes, he’s cute and i like him, but listen -- his characterisation reads as a blank slate because ultimately that’s what the narrative needs from him - and there’s a whole separate post i could make on that, really). 

but i think the main problem is that the endgame the dabb era had in mind conflicted openly with the stakes they had set up in the carver era - and that the most attuned writers kept up with even in seasons 12-15, which is why the finale felt as stridently wrong as it did (other than being ridiculously badly written). by which i mean:

dean was set up as wanting something more for himself, more than hunting and violence, and we see that in moments - but it’s not what he ends up getting. additionally, he spends so much of seasons 8-10 breaking down his toxic traits, and then bam - suddenly, he’s turned into john 2.0, because the story demands it. 

sam was set up to become a new kind of hunter, one with a men of letters background, and find happiness in the life - so you get a side plot where he successfully organises and leads a group of hunters - but ultimately he leaves all that behind and abandons the bunker (and eileen, his natural companion going forward). 

cas was set up as choosing humanity over heaven because that’s where he wants to be, and choosing to become a hunter because he wants to be useful and do good - but that gets boiled down to “cas is still an angel but now he’s Also A Dad and that’s his one purpose in life now” (i’m sorry, i am not here for the hot take of “jack is good for cas because he can’t just revolve around dean”. first of all, that’s a disservice to cas’s character over the seasons, and second of all-- oh but it’s ok for cas to just revolve around jack? it don’t make no cents luv!)

i don’t think story-driven eras are inherently bad. i enjoyed seasons 1-5, but they take place when we’re still getting to know the characters; and there is a certain evolution for them there that you may like or dislike, but it makes narrative sense for them. but if you decide to go forward into a new era with well-established and beloved characters, you have to know who the characters are and what they want or your story will always ring hollow. the main problem i have with the dabb era is that it decided the story it wanted to tell - and didn’t stop to consider whether the characters living it out would actually organically fit into it. and isn’t that chuck’s whole mistake?

[theyarebothgunshot]

ROSE I AM FREAKING OUT HAVE YOU SEEN THE PREQUEL STUFF???? WHAT IS GOING ON, my god... I was literally about to go to sleep, decided to check Tumblr one last time and see this.... what WHAT!! WHATTTT!!!!!! I don't even know if this is good bad or what but just JENSEN IS PRODUCING A SUPERNATURAL PREQUEL AND DEAN'S GONNA BE THE NARRATOR OR Sth LIKE???? -🐸

YEAH i am normal about this <3 (jk i am also freaking out) welcome to: people screaming to me in my inbox about prequelgate ft. j/2 fallout theory. let's goooo!

Another copypasta and suddenly chaos machine is full on gay I love this prophecy

you know whats funny i just checked the j/2 tag and i feel like for the first time in a long time they are starting to realise that maybe THEY should be the ones who are "gutted" *sips tea*

ROSE HOLY SHIT ROOOOOOOOSE ITS HAPPENING HOLY SHIIIIIT

YEAH

Nevermind just read prequel and well good luck I guess but just you know kind of bleh who wants to watch John Winchester well let’s have hope anyways

i know a lot of people are bummed out but i am kind of very excited actually?? i trust robbie and even though yeah j*hn winchester turned into a nasty abusive bastard, it can be interesting to explore how it all started (imo). it's just the first of many stories they can tell.

I can only accept this circus if it’s Dean telling the stories to his and Cas’ kids and then we have a revival to show that the whole finale was in fact the end Chuck wanted there Jensen I fixed it

i would not say no to this

heyloo bee anon here

um- wtf is happening?

jackles prequel series?? why? i want to be excited about this but sheesh im scared

because supernatural is never dead <3

okay, but, jensen... john winchester ≠ jdm, you don’t have to go /that/ hard for him 🙃

true true... though i am waiting for jdm to comment on this, please i need it

WAIT A SECOND J2 FALLOUT THEORY TRUE??

LMAO HELL YEAH BESTIE

Rose you really picked the worst time to sleep for real

bestie it was literally 4 in the morning, what do you expect from me sdfjsfhsf

I can’t literally can’t we were all right LMAO j2 fallout theory is real and cockles (Misha supporting Jensen) is [gunshots] I’m just laughing cause what the hell is this timeline we’re living LMAOOOOOOOOOO

we would always end up here <3

Do we have the copypaste anons to thank for JP basically confirming the J2 fallout? lol 🦚

yes, everybody say 'thanks annoying idiots!'

ROSE, WAKE UP, COME HERE,

THERE'S A LOT GOING ON FFS

YEAH I KNOW BUT I NEEDED SLEEP

Anticipating that there's going to be a lot of yelling about the prequel on here: I am cackling, but also, I mean, the first time Dean got a look into his parent's past, Cas was the catalyst: literally entered Dean's mind and catapulted him to the 70s. So idk, it's not completely unreasonable to expect some Cas cameos, maybe setting up a parallel timeline since Dean is narrating. What I'm saying is, this is Jackles, he's getting JDM and Misha in on this lmao -Honeymoon Anon

you were right lmfaooo also i fully agree. misha's tweet further cemented that thought for me. he knew about this prequel and i dont think he is cas-baiting us, i think he'll be involved. i'd also be obsessed to see jensen and jdm act together again (though idk who jdm could play seeing as it's a prequel and he is way too old to play young j*hn)

longlivethetribbles heeft gevraagd:

Heyyyyyy bestie, are you SEEING the absolute madness going on right now holy shit

well a little late but I SURE AM BESTIE

bestie wake up pls s16 finale just dropped.

- 🍯

and WHAT a great one it was

I love coming home from work to see all of the chaos unfolding on Tumblr and Twitter. I'm absolutely buzzing right now. I'll probably still be here by the time you wake up and check tumblr 😂 - 🐢

lmaooo and were you still awake?? did you see my freak out??

Oooh bestie wake the fuck up, I know you’re gonna be excited for this one jsnsjsj

god i had SUCH a morning like. it's 12:00 now and all i did since i woke up is check tumblr rip

short summary: jen and dee gain the rights, they post on ig/twitter about a prequel ft john and mary that no one asked for, the fandom loses its everloving shit as usual, they trend on twitter thanks to the beloved twt intern who missed us, misha qt’s jen about cas possibly benefiting from being in the prequel, then j*red qt’s jensen abt how his feelings got hurt by him not being told about a prequel his character as no involvement in & he initially throws a tantrum, and the rest is history - 🦋 anon (ps: i hope this helps a little, i’ve been scattered brained trying to keep up with it all night lmao so pls let me know if i missed anything, bug crew !!)

thank you so much darling i figured it out eventually but this is a helpful summary!!!

I hope you enjoyed waking up to all of this XD -🐢

i sure did!!! also that answers my question about you being awake lmao

I WILL NEVER EVER EVER FORGIVE MYSELF FOR SLEEPING THROUGH ALL OF THIS DRAMA AND NOT EXPERIENCING IT IN PERSON I DIDN'T NEED THIS SLEEP - tea anon

well the party was still going strong this morning so im not TOO "gutted" see what i did there lmaooo

Now that you are caught up with the news... So idk if you remember this but...didn't jarpad tell jackles he was up for a reboot in an online panel? And jackles answered that this was news to him??

-🍯

yeah i think you are right but he was clearly joking and didnt expect jackles to actually be working on something already

J2 anon spare more of those anons let's finish this - tea anon

please, we're having a ball in this bitch

I saw a post on tumblr where someone said now that Kripke gave J&D the rights, maybe they’re starting with a prequel just to end on a reboot in years time and honestly ? I wanna believe that so badly. This is tinhatty but what if this is all calculated in a way that makes it so that Jensen is slowly starting to fix everything that was wrong with spn - now that he has the rights and he’s slowly making spn his own story ?! I mean he did say in his ig post he wants to ‘fill in the rest’ - and maybe Mary and John’s story is only the beginning of spn related content from J&D to come ??? Maybe he wants to give spn the justice it deserves ?? Thoughts ??

i dont think this is tinhatty at all i think this is very possible and not that much of a reach. i could see this happening yeah for sure

want to hear something funny. I found out I had a ruptured blood vessel in my eye because I was sending my friend a video freaking out when the prequel news dropped and I noticed the corner of my eye was red af. and when I got back online jared had tweeted.

DJFHSJD ANON THE CHAOS OF IT ALL, HELP, are you okay? <3

rose.. bestie... how are you feeling about The News? nsfshsf being european is a curse </3 🐞

i feel GREAT im living for it i feel on top of the world tbh (and yeah it really is dsjfhs)

What am I waking up to I can't WHAT I rested my eyes for like 5 minutes help *hits reblog button* - anon anon

yep yep essentially djfhs

“Jensen and Misha are Co workers who barley talk”

I can’t be sure of course but I’m fairly certain that this is the copypasta that brought the j/2 fallout theory back to life. Who’s apparently ‘barely talking’ now? skansjsjsj. It’s almost prophetic, these j/2 anons have superpowers I’m telling ya.

-poker face anon

next time we get one of them we should be thanking them lmaooo

ok, but are we gonna talk about the "When Daneel and I formed Chaos Machine Productions, we knew that the first story we wanted to tell was the story of John and Mary Winchester [...]"-quote because the way this is phrased implies they formed CHAOS MACHINE Productions with the intent of telling this story (first), i haven't been in this dumpster long enough but the name just tickles me in that Misha way, isn't it so sus??? am i missing something???? i mean with this announcement they SURE lived up to that name... 🧩-anon

you are absolutely right, chaos machine SCREAMS misha and we are all here for it!!

hey hey hey. joining the clownverse, there's no way THEE cas girl danneel doesn't know just how much the fandom loves misha and cas. so 2 + 2 = misha in the spn prequel!

AGREED

So I think I finally managed to catch up on wtf happened while I was asleep and my brain melted. What a shit show to wake up to.

Anyway thoughts.

I don't hate the idea of a Mary&John sequel. I think it has the potential to be good (It has the potential to be really bad too, so I'm kind scared).

🕯️🕯️🕯️ manifesting Mary being badass and John being kinda useless🕯️🕯️🕯️

As for the Jensen and J*red thing.

I can see Jensen not telling J*red even if they are still friends, because J*red is kinda good at accidentally telling Secrets. He could have told him right before he announced it so, so that J*red didn't have to find out from twitter. He was on the show for 15 years, he is bound to get asked about it. The public twitter meltdown was really unprofessional so. Like you have Jensen's number J*red. You could have sorted that out in private like a normal person, but instead you choose to act like a toddler throwing a tantrum.

Is it weird that I'm actually going to be kinda that for them if the actually had a falling out, even tho I don't like J*red all that much. They seemed to be really important to each other and while I thought before that the might have triefted apart a bit, I didn't think that the where actively fighting.

- 🐌 anon

the thing is, the polite/normal thing for jensen to do was text him before announcing it on twitter. it's weird he didn't, and that makes me believe that maybe yeah they did have a falling out. especially with the way j*red responded to it on twitter. if he had no other reason to be this upset (no prior beef or falling out) you'd think that he wouldn't be responding like this. on the other hand, the man is a mysterie to me so who the hell knows. i'm not gonna mourn about it if they did/do grow apart because j*red is just.... awful imo.

[clairenatural]

#like. why are they scared to lose that fanbase in the first place? — THIS! if (big if) jensen directing w*lker is indeed a pr fix-it to presumably help smooth things over with the jp + j/2 fans after the fallout the logical conclusion is that /those/ are the kinds of fans chaos machine apparently wants to ensure will tune in for the spn prequel (based on the measures being taken). which is an... interesting choice. (1/2)

dare i say such a choice would go hand-in-hand with choosing one of the few spn storylines that pretty much guarantees not having to realistically address anything to do with cas/destiel, based on the fact that it’s deliberately focusing on john and mary and takes place in a different timeline. (2/2)

yeah exactly lmao. like first of all obviously chasing down any demographic isn’t worth choosing to work on a racist show but also the demographic a show caters to says a lot about both the production of the show and the content itself (see: walker running promos on fox news). IF that theory holds and they’re trying to patch up the j2 rift to keep j*red fans and jensen is willing to work on walker to do so.....1. not an excuse lmao (actually kinda really gross to think of someone deciding to compromise their anti-racism to get viewership for a tv show??? and like i mentioned in the other post makes a ton of stuff look performative) and 2. means even robbie thompson can’t save the prequel

i will say that i don’t think it’s that deep. i don’t think jensen was told to choose between directing an episode or his prequel flopping. i don’t think it was a calculated, logical decision to try to win over fans lost in the twitter drama. i don’t think it was that dramatic. i think he’s a rich white texan man who ultimately accepted a job offer without seeing anything wrong with it (or maybe seeing an issue but shrugging it off as not a huge deal). which is unacceptable on its own because he should both know and do better.

like i’m a huge proponent of walker theory and genuinely think there is merit in the idea that the end of spn was butchered to cater to the walker demographic. but i don’t think there’s a conspiracy here? and i think trying to find a destiel/rancid nutwork/spngate style conspiracy here, regardless of if it’s used to excuse or condemn jensen, is a disservice because it. idk. dramatizes? and thus almost erases and downplays? the kind of casual complicity in racism and promotion of racist institutions that is so damaging but is most likely what happened here