#Sam and Dean by proxy

[peach-coke]

Yesterday I watched some totally random horror movie called "Under The Bed", that my prime told me I'd probably like. Fair enough, it's horror, and there's brothers in it - That tracks.

But then it started. And it's just... Okay, so there's cool-guy big brother Neal, with his tousled blonde hair and his half-denim, half-leather jacket who got send away to avoid prison, ‘cause he set their house on fire, right? So he's coming back from his "exile", running right into a welcome-back party that his dad (who he has a strained relationship with...) and his new step-mom throw for him. Because, you know. Their actual mom died in the before mentioned house fire. Uh-Huh.

He then ditches the party (and the girl he "came back to" apparently) to run around the house, frantically searching for his brown-haired baby-brother Paul (which he alone calls Paulie. Unless he’s angry at him, then it becomes a very stern “Paul!”. Because of course.) screaming his name like a maniac for... Reasons? How would I know? Neal just needs to find him asap??

And when he does, they hug it out for a minute or two. Very important stuff? I get it, you're close. Thanks for taking like... Ten minutes of screen time to establish that. It’s only the first. Of many, many, many hugs to come.

They then BOTH ditch the party to hang around in a diner. And we have wonderful dialog like: "I really missed this." - "What did you miss more, the diner or me?" Yes. Normal brother things - Like come on LOOK AT THEM y'all are doing this to me on purpose at this point?

But then. THEN. Neal just whips out a fucking leather-bound diary with monster-scribbles in it and at this point I'm fucking certain that I'm just tripping on my pneumonia meds.

But IT JUST KEEPS GETTING WORSE?!? Sammy Paulie has weird premonition-like nightmares that come with an extra cool hell-filter

While Dean Neal is just out there being very normal, scribbling pictures of the two of them in his diary while his baby-brother is at school without him

Thorough the movie both of them just keep constantly reminding us about the fact that they're brothers (by saying it like, 20 times as if we could've missed it) and would never hurt each other and do everything for each other. They share beds and we get the actual Baby-camera-pan I’m just- while their dad is just out there like????? Y'all are weirdos maybe stop sleeping together (because this movie is actually about a monster under their bed and not them being weirdos lmao)...

...until Paulie gets hurt by the monster and John Dad forcefully separates them because he assumes it’s Neal’s fault. Obviously they can’t have that and sneak out and break locks to hug it out. I mean, they’ve been separated by a door for like, maybe half an hour in realtime. Can’t have that.

Dad is really not amused to find them like this. Again.

AND THEN THEY GEAR UP TO HUNT THE MONSTER UNDER THEIR BED (where Neal shows little Paulie how to properly hold a gun a screwdriver just because... hands??) 'cause what if they end up getting permanently separated because of it?! THE HORROR.

In the end Neal is absolutely ready to sacrifice himself to get his brother back from the nightmare-realm where they do some reunion-forehead-touching, Dad dies on his first hunt in the final confrontation and they beat the monster by throwing their mothers ashes at it (which was totally Paulies idea because you know - He‘s the smart one)...

TLDR this is not just a random Horror Movie, it's a canon divergent Winchester/Teenchesters Fanfic unfurling right in front of my salad and I AM OBSESSED and I need someone to watch this movie to confirm that I am, in fact, not losing my entire mind.

[sweetpapercroissant]

actually insane that we didn’t get an episode where samdean fuck the same girl one after the other

[denimshortsdean]

Dean "I'm not much of the praying type, but... I'm gonna pray for you" Winchester. And you have the audacity to tell me this man doesn't care? fuck you.

[egipci]

[twochildreninamoteldemo]

christ every time i rewatch devil's trap it's like oh here we go again every member of this fucking family wants to fuck each other

[shadypoliticianfromplanetvulcan]

today is the day where i think about fem!dean and sam wanting to have kids together, so, because they're not actually sleeping with each other or anything crazy like that, it's just that deanna wants to have sams babies and sam wants his sister to have his babies because if not his sister then who else? so they find an ovule donor somewhere, in vitro fertilise it with sams sperms and do this whole phoebe from friends thing and implant the thing into deanna. now she's pregnant with her brothers child! how proud! rosy cheeks for weeks! and also sam being super protective and elated because this is the life they always wanted, a family and each other and no one can take that away from them now except the police and child protection services because the whole thing is probably totally illegal but they've been good at hiding from these people their whole life and sam's gonna make sure that his sister and their child will stay completely safe even if he has to use his powers again thank you very much

[deanwinchesterpregnant]

i have to get up early so i can't watch more tonight but lmao come oN first of all dean is not capable of picturing himself happy you just spent all of 5x14 telling us he is literally unable to want anything for himself secondly you spend however many episodes INCLUDING THE PREVIOUS ONE that dean's happiest memories are with sam AND is happiest/only happy when they're together and not fighting and thirdly lisa deserves better than this (aka she deserves to not die bc she has a positive relationship with a winchester brother lol) omg that annoyed me so bad...you can literally seem them being like 'fuck we have to make s6 happen' sorry dean and sam should die and/or go to hell together in swan song lol. THIS ISN'T EVEN A SHIPPER THING i mean it sort of is but mostly i'm annoyed with the bad writing...the way this show grabs u by the balls only to lure u into cbt

[iamsapphine]

I'm a samgirl the way I obsess over Dean like it's my personal puppet with strings and funny outfits

[cormoranthh]

Chapters: 1/1 Fandom: Supernatural (TV 2005) Rating: Mature Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply Relationships: Ruby/Sam Winchester, Dean Winchester/Sam Winchester Additional Tags: proxyfucking, physically Sam/Ruby, emotionally Sam/Dean, Grief/Mourning, sad and depressing sex, Dubious Consent, Episode Related, Episode: s04e09 I Know What You Did Last Summer (Supernatural) Summary:

"Sam, I know what he was to you.” “He was my brother,” he says, and his voice breaks on the word. “Yes,” she says. “That too. But that’s not why you won’t allow yourself to touch me.”

Dean is in hell and Sam is falling apart, and Sam and Ruby are both aware she's standing in for someone else.

[diaryofaprettyprincess]

dean with bimbo!crybaby!reader who always goes to him for comfort n he doesnt understand why.. like you’re one of sam’s best friends but you have such an infatuation with dean (not knowing dean secretly likes you) he doesn’t really show his love crush that much cuz ur only 19 (almost 20) and he’s 27 n tries to not prove sam right when one day sam caught his older brother staring a little too long (and lovingly) at you whilst you chatted to a homeowner during a case you all had and sam mocked him for having a crush on you later on that day. 

you guys are all friends--kinda by proxy cuz sam asked you to come with them on missions to help with some paranormal research because you are surprisingly knowledgeable about history on the supernatural.

but all i can imagine is like that scene from that 70s show with jackie n hyde..

sam is sitting on the couch and dean is standing up, leaning against the wall, both sipping on a bottle of beer before they see you storming into the room, slamming the door as tears stream down your face.

“h-he broke up with me!” you sob, glossed lips pouted and trembling, shiny tears glimmering on your cheeks. 

he being your boyfriend from back home..you left him behind to go on the road with dean and sam--not telling him what you were actually doing with them, he assumed some really messed up things that was just a little too graphic in your opinion.

sam immediately jumps up from his spot on the couch; his face is filled with concern, open arms welcoming you in for a comforting hug. dean stays against the wall across from where you were-- his back a bit more straightened then before, but he nonetheless takes a long sip from his beer, assuming his younger brother can handle you. (and trying to hide his secret elation at the fact that you were single).

sam murmurs a small, “c’mere,” to you, but you ignore him, just wanting comfort from one specific person right now. the person that seemingly doesn’t want your attention on him (even though he secretly wants you). you weren’t sure why you wanted to be comforted by dean so badly, but you just couldn’t help it!

you brush past the younger brother--your own best friend--whimpering a soft, “dean..” as you run up to him and quickly wrap your arms tightly around his torso, your head lying on his chest as you breathe in his scent--much more comforting than your own boyfriend’s ex boyfriend’s. you adjust your arms so that they are now around his neck, your kitten heels doing very little as to help boost you up to fit your head in the crook of his neck.

“why does she always come to me?” his gruff voice speaks to his younger brother, eyebrows pulled together in confusion.

sam just shrugs, shaking his head as he chuckles lightly.

you sniffle, whining a little bit then hiccup.

the older brother pats your back lightly with his left hand a small but stiff, “there, there,” spoken from his lips.

ten minutes later, when sam goes into the shower, you two are cuddled up on the couch watching tv--dean’s arms wrapped around you. (and he tries to make you think that he doesn’t enjoy it, but even you aren’t that dumb) <3

UGHHH I NEED MORE OF THIS STUFF PLZ SEND REQUESTS OMG

[writinginthesecrettrees]

dark wincest and Dean goes all Munchausen by proxy. Induces fevers in Sam because Sam delirious is Sam cuddly and needy and clingy, reminds him of when Sam was little. Flushed cheeks invite kisses and the searing heat of his body is a shame-filled aphrodisiac and Sam is so easy to manhandle into whatever position Dean wants him in. He gives Sam sponge baths and helps him use the toilet and feeds him chicken soup and Sam like this needs him. Won't leave him, can't leave him, is completely dependent on him and there's a part of him that recognizes how fucked up it is but he really doesn't care.

[sounknownvoid]

s9: Remember gadreel?(warning: rant)

Remember gadreel?....

How the arc was: sam was dying after the trials and dean was desperate to save him n on the brink of shaking hands with Death, dean tricks sam n stuffs an angel into him (aka rape) ? .... n then how it led to:

And

And then all this?:

That led to idiot dean doing this

& you know what the kicker is? - all of it - completely unnecessary 🙄...

Its just a Massive plot hole OR a very clear indication of deans selfishness being clearly portrayed: let me explain-

- they had OG Death still around back then - Billie wasn't in the picture and so there wasn't a reaper'-"fatwa" on the winchesters n "losing 'em in the empty"-campaign yet...

Dean & tfw in general ALREADY KNEW HOW TO SUMMON n make deals with Death- hell, dean did it just to shove sams soul back n they were still allies at that point just before in s8 (&again in s10/11)

Not to mention, they ALSO knew how to make deals with reapers - THEY'D literally used it to help Sam complete his 2nd trial in s8, just earlier!....

So it wasn't like an angel possessing sam was literally the ONLY option available to dean to save his dying brother- he could have reached out to Death or reapers or literally anything else!....

Hell, when gadreel showed dean sam chatting to Death - that alone should have given him an idea to make a deal with death or reapers ....

Point is - he could have let sam die n then brought him back as he'd done before...

why was violating sam the 1st and only option he considered at that point? - especially KNOWING how sam would feel about it?- hell he even said it to gadreel....n then proceeded to do the exact opposite

dean is supposed to be the "genius at hunting and lore" - he knows all sorts of things about all sorts of gods n beings even if he didn't deal with death - & we know it was hours they'd spent in the hospital if not days ... he could've been looking for options - but it's clear he hasn't been...

but no, nothing else considered n sam raped by proxy and violated by the person he trusted the most - because to dean sam wasn't a human being, just this living-doll he possessed n carried around with him, labelled "little brother" like a toy a boy carries around for his own comfort....which is why sam is EXACTLY right when he said: "you didn't save me for me, you did it for you"

If not for Dumbass,selfish deans decisions, none of this would have happened:

Kevin not killed, his mom not killed

No moc!dean n demon!dean

maybe metatron still and gadreel but differently

No darkness released n dumb undercooked "return of mary" doesn't happen

No Charlie dying - hell we could had Kevin AND Charlie - it'd be hilarious to watch them together!...

Maybe they still get Jack n Rowena n return of lucifer etc...but at least sam wouldn't have to face the horrific reality of his beloved brother violating him

[paellegere]

so skin is an episode about being hurt by your loved ones. the allegory is told through the literal torture and murder of girlfriends by a shapeshifter wearing the face of their boyfriends. the psychological aspect is just as important as the physical aspect for this shifter—it's a betrayal, something that will destroy both parties involved and ruin their relationship (if the victim makes it out alive of course).

the shapeshifter takes dean's face: he becomes the boyfriend-murderer, and sam is therefore the girlfriend-victim. it's the first time an episode has itself had an incestuous lining on a thematic level since the pilot (interesting too that the episodes that focus on sam have placed sam and dean in the position of lovers, whereas the dean-focused episodes until now have been more platonic in nature).

throughout the episode, the emotional B story depicts both sam and dean hurting (betraying) the people who trust them. sam, for one, is trying to maintain a relationship with his college friends, but he's lying to them. it also seems like he's not being very communicative with them in the first place, since most of his recent messages are people asking where the hell he even is:

(side note, i love that sam is apparently friends with two people named john and mary. feels weirdly psychosexual)

he hurts rebecca, and zach by proxy, later in the episode by lying to her and contaminating the crime scene. his lying, through the lens of the allegory, is framed as a betrayal of trust—metaphorical abuse and torture.

the shapeshifter also brings up another betrayal: sam leaving for stanford, betraying his brother and stealing his life away by forcing dean into a difficult position where he has to abandon his own dreams so that sam can pursue his.

this is victim blaming. the shifter is hurting people because he thinks they deserve it, because he's the true victim here, because he was shunned from society and treated as a freak. this episode portrays the monster as imprinting on dean, rather than sam or dean imprinting on another character. it's the second time a parallel has been drawn between the monster and one of the brothers, the first being pilot.

the shifter speaks for dean: dean is jealous because sam has friends, a life—and dean is just a freak. the B story of the episode starts with dean telling sam that it's for the best if he cuts his ties with people, and up until this point in the episode dean is portrayed as being unilaterally correct, because sam keeps hurting people as a result of his lying.

but now it's given a different framing. even if what dean has said isn't incorrect, we can see it through a lens of selfishness and jealousy. does dean want sam to give up his life because it's truly for the best? or is it because dean wants what sam has, and he'd rather neither of them have it than watch miserably as sam achieves what he's given up on?

misery loves company.

dean apologizes for what he said at the start of the episode at the end of it, but the shapeshifter dug dean's memories and feelings out from somewhere. because the shifter is imprinting on dean, it's likely that his own experiences are intensifying the secondhand feelings he's receiving from dean, but even if that is the case, there's still something there—it's possible that right now, dean still isn't fully aware of it himself. it's possible that he is and is just trying to bury it.

regardless, we're still getting a rare glimpse into dean's true feelings here, however biased they may be. as dean's fear of abandonment unravels, dean himself is slowly coming undone, and this begins to take on a more prominent part of each episode. the ending scene of phantom traveler, too, is revisited in this same conversation:

if episodes 1-3 are introductory to sam, dean, and john respectively, then episodes 4-6 make an interesting trilogy about dean's fear of abandonment. phantom traveler introduces dean's fears and then reveal a scene at the end where dean perceives john as betraying him. bloody mary, too, includes a scene where dean perceives sam as betraying him by not being open and honest with him about his secret. these events are synthesized in this episode and elaborated on, and the fears that have been underscored through the past two episodes are finally given voice.

anyway, tangent aside, all of this culminates in the blurring of lines between the shapeshifter wearing dean's face and dean himself: there's very little difference between sam's big brother and the monster they're fighting. it helps that they share the same sentiments and anguish toward the world, the same jealousies, the same fears. where does the shifter end and dean begin? how much does the shifter speak for himself, and how much is extrapolated from dean's secondhand feelings?

is dean the real monster in this story?

skin is an episode about being hurt by your loved ones. the shifter takes on the likeness of various women's boyfriends/husbands. there's also an implication toward the episode that the shapeshifter uses this setup to have sex with women he finds attractive:

there is, of course, no real point for the shifter to undergo what appears to be the rather painful process of transforming back into dean after shedding rebecca's skin once he captures sam. except that this episode is about betrayal. the psychological torture is just as important as the physical torture for this shapeshifter. and the shifter finds girls he likes and uses their lovers' faces to destroy them.

dean is the lover. sam is the girl. the lines are clearly drawn here, made stronger by the sheer amount of overlap shared by dean and the shapeshifter. it's important to the shifter that dean is the one who is going to hurt sam, because the connection between sam and dean makes the violence that much more painful.

he says that sam should "appreciate" dean more than he does. it adds to the idea that dean feels "all alone" and that he wants someone to love him. dean's core desire is for family: dean wants his family to love him. he thinks sam doesn't love him, but sam should love him. again sam is blamed for a perceived betrayal, dragging up more and more of the minute details across the last several episodes that point to the emotional distance between them. dean wants those gaps closed, and sam is trying to keep them apart. skin is an episode about being hurt by your loved ones.

just like in the pilot, sam and dean are thrust into overtly romantic positions via the allegorical A story. a monster who has victimized girlfriends is assuming the role of dean and victimizing sam. like in the pilot, the character onto which sam and/or dean imprint is the antagonist, the monster. two lines are crossed in both of these episodes: the boundary between hero and villain, and the boundary between family and incest. doubt is cast on the roles they occupy, and that doubt breeds the gothic anxiety which allows for the nature of sam and dean's relationship, both to each other and to the world, to be questioned.

perhaps then it's only natural that shortly after this episode is where the integral running gag begins and sam and dean start getting mistaken for gay lovers. they stand within the liminal space that separates the acceptable from the taboo, and in doing so they become both, neither, everything all at once: brothers, lovers, boyfriends, girlfriends, tempting and unfaithful and desiring of something they can't have.

sam wants to go home. dean wants someone to love him. in the end, all they have is each other.

(fascinating, i think, how this is the episode where the idea that they're "freaks" is introduced, not only once but twice. very peculiar language)

[scoobydoodean]

How did, you think, the perception of Dean come to be so twisted/different from what is actually shown to us? Like some things I can see people just not bothering to look past superficial instances (The “no chic flick moment” thing, assuming that him not having Sam’s level of formal education means he’s automatically unintelligent because people assume that irl, for example) but others (Him being emotionally constipated in fandom but genuinely one of the most introspective and emotionally intelligent characters in canon, making him a slob/a bigot/an abuser, or someone that only hunts for the thrill of the kill) just… I can’t even begin to understand and it’s so homogeneous in the Fanon Mindset too.

I honestly do think a lot of these relate to Sam in an interesting way. A lot of narratives about Dean are in "contrast" to Sam. Sam is smart, Dean is dumb. Sam is introspective and emotionally intelligent, Dean is repressed. Dean is a slob, Sam is neat. We get many of these ideas from or through Sam.

Sam sometimes makes digs at Dean's intelligence (though he's far from the only one—even Dean himself is guilty of it) and people just kind of buy into that and regurgitate it despite the many examples we get to the contrary. In fact (and I wish I had tracked this in particular over this rewatch but I noticed how often it was happening pretty late) Dean is often referred to as dim-witted right before or right after displaying exactly how brilliant he is.

I think a lot of the idea that Dean is emotionally closed off also heavily comes down to Sam... because Sam is often the person asking demanding Dean open up, and when Dean refuses to open up to Sam, and Sam starts spouting off pop psychology talk about it not being good to "bury your emotions" or whatever... people buy into what's being sold to them... by Sam. Sam is selling a story that HE is emotionally healthy, but Dean is NOT emotionally healthy, and the details of what is upsetting Dean need to be pried out of him for his own good. When the truth is, 1) in many cases, what we are actually seeing is Sam being pushy and not respecting Dean's boundaries 2) many of these instances show Sam urging Dean to open up to him as a proxy for his OWN feelings that HE is avoiding (ex: 2.02, 5.11, 13.04) 3) other instances demonstrate that he is a poor confidant for Dean who is best avoided because he will harm Dean using what Dean's opened up to him about (ex: 2.09/2.11, 4.08/4.14/4.18/4.21, 6.02, 13.04). 4) Other episodes simply demonstrate that Sam is not always a preferred confidant because of their upbringing or whatever other reason but is still willing to be vulnerable with others (even if spurned by them too) (ex: 2.03, 3.10, 3.16, 4.15, 4.16, 4.22, 5.07, 6.02, 6.06, 7.04, ). And even then... Dean still opens up to Sam quite a lot! (ex: 1.16, 1.18, 1.22, 2.03, 2.09, 2.20, 4.10, 4.11, ... I'm losing steam here but you get the idea).

One of the reasons this happens I think is actually a lack of interest in Sam. Because many fans don't spend a lot of time analyzing Sam, they tend to vaguely grasp who he is based on how he talks. Then the issue multiplies when they use him as a self-insert in a fanfic instead of characterizing him as he is in the show, using him to tell Dean or Cas things the author wants them to hear, or to act as a confidant. That further lends to this belief that Sam is some High EQ Therapist Lite type who is endlessly sensitive and vulnerable and Dean is uniquely in need of Someone To Help Him Get His Shit Together.

The idea that Dean is a slob I give people a little more grace with, because I think it likely comes about more honestly through how Dean eats—and this is one area where Dean absolutely is not neat. He tends to ignore manners when eating, and I think a lot of people extrapolate from "Dean doesn't care about table manners" -> "Dean is a slob". Dean actually having some issues with germs at times is something members of the writing team have messed up before. It might also be related to Sam's weird perception of manners surrounding food (i.e., not eating food in other people's houses even when it's offered to him for some reason) and people associating his overemphasis on that with "neatness" in contrast to Dean.

Another angle here is probably classism rearing it's ugly head. Because Dean has less formal education than Sam, he has to be a slob, and he has to be emotionally closed off, and he must be a bigot, and etc etc etc.

The reasons some people insist on Dean being a bigot or an abuser are more nebulous (many forms of bigotry may be under discussion, many moments might be chosen as "proof" of one thing or another and that may require some more individual attention). In a broad sense, it's sometimes classism at work here. However, a lot of these ideas persist through certain metas passed around by people who already don't like Dean. Many of them developed a dislike for Dean early on and will always choose interpretations of various events that cast him in the worst light based on their first impression, whether their interpretation is all that reasonable or not. I mean, I could go around saying Sam idolizes a known pedophile and is afraid of people with certain disabilities because he's ableist, and I could insist his interactions with Madison in "Heart" are intentionally written to tell us that Sam is an absolute creep who takes advantage of vulnerable women, but if the goal is to analyze the show in good faith, my analysis ends up being more charitable as I dismiss some of these things as Writer Crimes or things that maybe I wasn't intended to take so seriously or things that are a product of their time. Of course we also all know that some Sam and Cas fans love to shit on Dean for doing the same shit their fave did. That does sometimes leave me wondering if people's selective memory on Sam and/or Cas is more of the issue than their selective memory on Dean, but I also think because Supernatural is so long, and there is SO much fanon content, a lot of people's views on the characters are based around fanon/fanfiction they read in ways they simply don't realize, and that ignorance persists and strengthens as memories of the actual source material become more hazy.

NOTE: I know you know this—but for others: I track some of these things in the following tags:

#my smart bby

#dean and introspection

#bad therapist sam

#dean and cleanliness

#dean minimizations

[coward2coward]

how weird and incestuous would it feel if cas called sam sammy. started talking down to him like how dean does, except this time its wrong because hes not his brother. but well he is family by proxy

[a-dyke-posts-cannabalism]

Btw the best wincest dynamic is batshit insane Sam with munchausen syndrome and Dean with munchausen syndrome by proxy so they both just feed into each other's flaws

Also Sam will still argue he doesn't need Dean to care for him while actively making Dean care for him