#but i just LOVE oedipal sam

[headlightsontonight]

obsessed w interpretations of sam in a oedipal light bc yes, he is absolutely deans child but also,,, his lover and brother and he wants to surpass johns role in deans heart and hes jealous whenever anyone even remotely comes close to threatening that space in deans mind, the one that's john's but should be his, he should be the top priority, the one that dean listens to obediently, stares reverently at, fights for even if they're wrong, is a weapon soldier wife for... i love the idea of sam vying to supplant john 🫠

the angst and tension that can come from it. :come with me to stanford dean, choose me, stay with me over dad. and dean, torn between brotherchild and fatherhusband... :dad needs me, man, i can't. oh the resentment from sam, for dean choosing someone who has evidently destroyed their future and is continuing to destroy their present and the fury at losing the competition essentially, for losing in a contest he's never felt like he's won and this is just confirmation of it. fine! if dean and john are gonna be together, then sam will just go off and make his own life. he doesn’t need them. (hes delusional)

and then dean's back, and john's gone...

[hello-starlingfics]

SPN 4x16 On The Head Of A Pin has so many dark fucked-up parental things going on and I love it.

The scenes with Dean and Alastair are so claustrophobic and intimate, with Alastair paternalistic towards Dean in the darkest way. The comments like ‘daddy’s little girl’ and ‘all the poking and prodding’ and talking about John are just the most deliciously screwed-up stuff. Then cut to Sam with Ruby in a fucked up vampiric mothering parody as he drinks blood from her wrist, which feels both Oedipal and like it calls back to Azazel’s line about demon blood being better than mother’s milk. You can also draw a parallel from that to Mary’s original deal to allow Azazel into Sam’s nursery and feed him blood to save John, and Sam dealing with a demon and drinking blood to save Dean.

On top of that we get the angels and their god-daddy issues.

It’s the cycle of intergenerational trauma in full in just one episode. God, I love it so much.

Did Ben Edlund ever write a bad episode? And yes, the one with the fairies has its moments.

[alaynestone]

❤️❤️my top 5 favorite edits i've made in 2023 because i love self promotion❤️❤️

do you have any idea what it feels like to watch your brother-- - sam/dean, dean/others. sam's oedipal jealousy of john and every man who's gotten close to dean's heart and bed since then and all the feelings of exclusion and insecurity that inspires. thank you canon for serving all of this and more on a plate for us.

mitski, i'm your man - sam/dean. they are capable of being monsters to each other, for each other, because of each other yet will show up for each other no matter what. no one does devotion like them.

you're the michael sword - dean, dean/michael. dean's vesselhood arc is forever fascinating and horrifying in all its implications.

slippery slope, brother. just wait and see. - because the tragedy of sam's arc in season 4 is tragically misinterpreted and oversimplified on a daily basis. the lies he tells himself to justify his actions are repeated uncritically and he becomes a much less compelling character as a result of that. version with more of my commentary here.

let's talk about your father. - dean/john, dean/others. some examples of the ways john deprived dean of intimacy outside the family.

bonus: twin peaks vibes s1 au where dean has already been murdered by yellow eyed john by the time john picks sam up from stanford to investigate his disappearance. nobody liked this one but it's one of the many azazel!john concepts that are dear to me.

top 5 inspired by @preseriesdean❤️.

[ultrahpfan5blog]

Retrospective Review: Skyfall (2012)

So after QoS was generally considered to be a letdown after the impressive success of Casino Royale, there was a bit of a course correction required. It wasn't as if QoS was a bomb. Both Casino Royale and QoS were the highest grossing Bond films till then. But critically they needed to course correct a bit. Skyfall came in with a lot of hype since it came on the 50th anniversary of Bond in films. Sam Mendes came in and knocked it out of the park in Skyfall. In my opinion, Skyfall is second only to Casino Royale in the ranking of Bond films.

What is interesting about Skyfall is that it feels like it takes a significant step away from the previous two films. It feels aesthetically different from the previous two films and Bond himself is reinvented as someone at a different point in his life. While Casino Royale and Quantum of Solace were films with Bond as a new 00 agent. In Skyfall, he is an older agent, considered to be past his prime. So it seems like there is a big time leap in his career. The film has a fantastic opening action sequence, going from car chase, to bike chase, to fight on a train. You really feel Bond being pushed to his limit in this sequence. Yet, there are still very lovely iconic touches like when Bond leaps from the tractor into the train, he checks his cufflinks. Its really a small thing but it lends a lot of Bond's character. Skyfall is probably one of the most known Bond songs and it really lends to the mood of the film to follow.

The film's biggest strengths lie in the film making and in the performances from the actors who are all excellent across the board. The film has makes some bold choices when it comes to plot by making MI6 fallible. M in this movie is not at her best. She makes mistakes and a security leak happens as a result and people die because of the mistakes she made. There is also a legitimate argument to be made that she did wrong the villain and does manipulate Bond. As a result, she becomes an even more interesting character. If there is a true Bond girl in this movie, it is Judi Dench because she is front and center in this movie and the plot really surrounds her. Its by far her more substantial role in the franchise and she really makes the most of it. Her relationship both with Silva and Bond is fascinating, with Silva having almost an Oedipal complex with her whereas there is a clear maternal connection with Bond. Its a very fitting swan song for her.

There are a couple of other Bond girls in the movie. Naomie Harris makes an excellent debut as Moneypenny. If I am correct, I don't think we even know she is Moneypenny until the very end of the movie. But she's pretty badass from the very beginning and she has a nice witty banter with Bond. There is a nice and friendly sexual tension between the two. Its definitely a different Moneypenny from the previous eras but she is a welcome presence. One performance that doesn't get enough credit is Berenice Marlohe as Severine. She is actually pretty fantastic in the movie in a fairly brief role. She is enigmatic and seductive and a deeply tragic figure but her scenes are ones that really stick with me. Definitely the scene in the Casino is excellent.

We also get the reintroduction of Q, played by Ben Whishaw and he's immediately winning. It makes a lot of sense for the modern technology driven Q to be a younger man and its a fun switch of the dynamics between Bond and Q, where previously Q was sort of a mentor figure for Bond, here Bond is the elder person who makes fun of Q's age. One other character who is a surprise is Ralph Fiennes as Mallory. When he is initially introduced, he feels like a stereotypical government employee who is against Bond and M, but you slowly see that there is more to him than meets the eye and he's actually quite a badass himself and ends up being the new M by the end of the movie. Fiennes is great as he normally is. Albert Finney has a fun role in the last act and Rory Kinnear continues on as Tanner.

Javier Bardem's impact on this film is immense. What is interesting is that he doesn't appear until just a few minutes past the halfway mark of the movie. And even in the second half, he disappears for about 15-20 minutes after the hearing shootout. But his impact looms over the entire movie, even when he's not there. And that's a testament to his performance. He is brilliant in the role. He has an outstanding entry scene with a great monologue. You can just tell that Bardem is having a blast in this role. He manages to induce menace, rage, heartbreak, and madness. You genuinely feel some sympathy for his him because he isn't completely wrong. Its a performance that is truly right towards the very top of Bond villains and it elevates the movie a lot.

Daniel Craig is again fantastic here. He continues to give his all, both physically and emotionally in the role. The scenes between him and Bardem on the Island are some of the best acted sequences in the movie. And again, the dynamic between M and Bond sells because of how well both Craig and Dench play off each other. There are little touches that Craig does that I love so much. I already mentioned the cufflinks scene in the opening action sequence. Then there is a fight scene in a Casino where he and a goon fall into a pit and he spots a Komodo dragon and he is startled and points at it even, even when he is being picked up by the thug. Also, when he gets pissed off when he sees the DB5 get blown up in the climax. It doesn't sound like much, but it genuinely adds a lot to the character when you see it. He has good chemistry with all the cast and you even buy him when you see him struggling physically post the injury inflicted in the opening sequence. Its a performances where he delivers the humor, action, drama, emotion etc... and he does it all brilliantly.

As I mentioned earlier, the film making is terrific. Aesthetically, this film stands out and his beautiful to look at. Its no surprise that Roger Deakins is the cinematographer. There are just some gorgeous sequences throughout the movie, be it the fight in the empty office in Shanghai, the sequence in the Casino, the empty old house in the middle of nowhere, or the moors of Scotland in the climax. There is just a wonderful use of light to make every frame stand out. Sam Mendes also keeps the pacing tight. This is almost as long as Casino Royale, and just like that film, you don't feel the time. The only reason I rank this below Casino Royale is that the story telling isn't as tight as it could have been. For example, Silva's entire plan is really implausible when you think about it. No amount of preplanning would have led to everything happening exactly as he planned it because it requires a lot of random actions from people which he could definitely not predict. Then there is the fact that M endangers the ministers and everyone at the hearing despite knowing there is an eminent threat. Also, while the climax is spectacular and I get that Bond wanted to get Silva out of his comfort zone, but I still don't see how isolating himself in the middle of nowhere, with just M for backup against Silva and his entire army was a wise idea. Also, the film sets up the interesting notion that Bond is not at his best physically, but it sort of abandons the idea towards the end with Bond basically taking out Silva's whole army on his own. So there are some loose ends to the storytelling. But its easy to overlook them. The film also makes the brave choice to have Silva actually win since M dies in the end. So it is a bittersweet ending in a way. But its all done in a very satisfying manner.

Overall, its an excellent movie. Definitely top tier Bond and a very fitting movie for the 50th anniversary for Bond. A 9/10.

[cecilyneville]

the spanish princess ep 2:

once more unto the breach, my fellow clowns

jsyk, i am skipping a lot of scenes bc i have far better things to do with my time (even under stay-at-home orders), and i cannot for the life of me watch the maggie pole/thomas more scenes. like what is the point of keeping maggie around, she is so boring. andrew buchan what were you THINKING signing up for this 

reggie pole looks like a weird cross bw ben whishaw and sam riley

ok i take back what i said about laura carmichael last week - she’s a damn sight more talented than you-know-who. maggie still boring as hell tho

i can’t wait for the catherine/lina friendship blow-up...it’s coming & lina deserves so much better

oveido’s speech about childbirth and war...you been reading the mirror & the light dude?

THE GLOVE FROM ANNE OF BRITTANY!!!

james iv: i have done nothing wrong, ever, in my life / me: i know this and i love you

as someone with a catherine of aragon icon i just want to say that i really cannot stand tsp’s catherine, she has no redeeming qualities. ef keeps trying to make her likeable by asking oviedo to stay and letting meg keep james’ body but none of it actually gels with her behaviour

[dramatic militaristic music] really just sums up the lameness of this soundtrack

margaret’s prophetic dreams! i wish they’d included the part about her queen’s jewels turning to widow’s pearls

ANGUS DOUGLAS. ANGUS DOUGLAS. ARE YOU FUCKING KIDDING ME, EMMA FROST

god he’s not even hot what’s the POINT. angus is supposed to be a hot dumbass fool who is just like “hey margaret i know you’re mourning your husband and have just given birth to his posthumous son and are trying to rule the country but are you dtf yet”. what did i do to deserve an ugly angus

i don’t get why they don’t also have meg pregnant at flodden. given that catherine is presumably going to lash out with jealousy at lina, mary, bessie - literally anyone who has given birth to a living son - i think it would have been a good choice, as well as drawing direct parallels between the two women

meg’s costumes are my fave. the colour palette suits georgie and her red riding cap is v cute

catherine’s clown shoes slapping on the floor as she storms off to war

like...it’s supposed to be such a moving scene and i’m just like wow she is literally the biggest moron to have ever lived

oh now she’s going into the enemy tent. honestly can james just kill her on the spot and then the rest of the show can be about margaret in scotland and mary & brandon in france

“he’s fighting for gold from king louis” shock horror! has catherine never heard of the auld alliance or???

like, i know they’re not actually wearing kilts, but the tartan is still stupidly ahistorical - we get it, they’re scottish! 

love how catherine’s trying to do all this shit to rouse support, meanwhile in twp all elizabeth had to say was “do it for me” and all the lords were like yeah sure we love you lizzie

just in case the childbirth/war analogy wasn’t clear enough, we fucking get it emma

i’m not even going to comment about catherine physically fighting and actually killing people, this is the dumbest thing i have ever seen

meg saying james was her “best friend” would be lovely if there had been literally anything demonstrating that. georgie’s performance here is so good though. emotion! actual emotion!

so...catherine rode all the way back to london still covered in blood from the battle...once again i have no comment

also no comment on a very pregnant catherine looking wistfully on at a bird in a cage. i want to die

i know i’ve been going on about how good ruairi o’connor is - and he’s good - but i feel as if he’s a little miscast? idk, he’s just not rowdy enough for me to believe him as henry viii. his appearance and manner is very similar to jacob collins-levy though, which i appreciate

not nearly enough mary this episode imo

still stan the hell out of bessie blount. the strawberry-blonde hair! the rosebud mouth! the eoy vibes!!! (no i am not trying to suggest henry has an oedipal complex, that’s for d*vid st*rkey to do lol)

i hate that all these more interesting characters spend the whole time praising catherine for behaving like an absolute clod

emma frost has no idea how pregnancy and childbirth work (remember rosa’s miscarriage in s1?)

anyway, here’s hoping next ep will have some fun margaret in scotland scenes (lowering the portcullis at edinburgh castle...i can only dream) 

[drsilverfish]

The Family Psychodrama of it all - Back and to the Future (15x01)

Have we talked about the reference to Back to the Future (1985) in the 15x01 title yet?

Marty McFly goes back in time and has an Oedipal crisis (of sorts). His mother temporarily thinks he’s hot, not of course realising he’s her son (Jocasta/ Oedipus). And he has to re-set the time-line, with the Doc’s help, by making sure his parents do meet and fall in love (which his time-travelling presence has disrupted).  

This reference also recalls for us (ouroboros style) 4x03 In The Beginning, when Cas sent Dean back into the past and he met his (hot) young mom, Mary, and his (hot) young father John. Yes, Dean was bi for his young parents - he just, in SPN’s habitual subtextual register, didn’t say the Dad part out loud. 

Unable to alter their fates (although he did ensure John and Baby teamed up) Dean was witness to the horrific Oedipal scene of Mary making a demon-deal with Azaezel whilst he was inhabiting her father Samuel -  sealed with a kiss.

Family psychodrama indeed.

The other “back to the future-y” previous SPN episode is 5x13 The Song Remains the Same when, this time, Castiel transports both Sam and Dean into the past to meet their young parents, this time to protect them from Anna, who is on a misson to prevent Sam (the Lucifer vessel) from ever being born. 

I’m betting there will be a lot of S5 recalls in S15, because S14, in lovely ouroboros style, recalled so many S4 episodes. And it’s fitting isn’t it? Because Swan Song was going to be the “original” end for SPN. That’s also why I think some form of re-staging of Michael vs Lucifer (very possibly inhabiting Sam and Dean) is likely.

In The Song Remains the Same, Cas has joined Team Free Will, and so it is Michael (inhabiting John) who now tells Dean that the Winchesters cannot avoid their angel-ordained fates as the Michael and Lucifer vessels.  This is also significant on a psychological, as well as a mythic, level, because it is a John Winchester figure implying Dean cannot escape the “fate” of his father’s shadow, his father’s misson, or the profound (and damaging) impact John has had on him. 

The reference in the title of 15x01 Back and to the Future, thus sets out two key themes of the SPN ouroboros narrative for S15, which (in appropriate ouroboros style) have, of course, always been key themes in SPN:

1) Fate vs Free Will

In 4x03, Cas was still obedient to Heaven, and he was supposed to be showing Dean that his fate, his role in the angels’ plans, could not be avoided. In 5x13 Michael made the same argument. The House always wins - fate is fate is fate.  

Now, in S15, Team Free Will are reeling from the revelation that Chuck wasn’t just a deadbeat absent father, but a cruel God who actively toyed with their lives all along, so they were never (at least, that’s how it feels to them right now) truly, possessed of free will. 

This theme is underscored by Sam’s prematurely hopeful speech at the end of 15x01 about how Chuck has left the building (spoiler: he hasn’t) and so, if they can win this apocalypse, they can truly be free (spoiler: yes, I believe they will be free in the very end).  

2) Family Psychodrama

SPN has always been about the psychodrama of the traumatised family - the impact on the Winchester kids of Mary’s horrific inciting incident death on the ceiling in 1x01 and the subsequent impact of John’s revenge-obsessed, neglectful, repressive, hunter “parenting”. 

15x01 deliberately re-shows us traces of the co-dependent Parent!Dean/ Child!Sam relationship this trauma foisted on the boys as kids, in the scene when Dean dresses Sam’s God-gun wound whilst recalling how he’d take care of Sam as a kid:

Dean: How bad does it hurt?

Sam: A little, not much.

Dean: Okay. Hey, do you remember when we were little? What I would do to distract you whenever I'd rip off a Band-Aid or something like that?

Sam: Yeah. You'd tell some stupid joke.

(Thanks to Superwiki for the transcript:

http://supernaturalwiki.com/15.01_Back_and_to_the_Future_(transcript) )

So, that tells us that, in a final turn of the spiral, the very deepest roots of the Winchester family psychodrama will rise from the realms of repression, for which the ghost-zombies rising from Hell are, to perfection, a giant metaphor.

Only by finally and fully confronting the internal psychic ghosts of the past, will the Winchesters find peace when they are done.  

To conclude - Dabb really did a wonderful job with his Back to the Future references, and I am so nervous-excited to watch the rest of the season unfold.

[coinofstone]

It's not just grief.

Dean isn't just lashing out over losing Mary, tho he 100% for sure is doing that. He also just watched Sam nearly die. Again. Then watched him be saved by the same guy that apparently killed his mother. (Saved one of his dads from certain death then proceeded to murder his mother without really meaning to, Jack's on some somehow less incestuous Oedipal shit) There's a reason Dean keeps 🙄 every time the snake-icide gets mentioned, it's cuz HE knows he wouldn't give a fuck if Jack went full on homicidal St Patrick, *because Jack saved Sam from certain death*. The fact that he also killed the guy who almost killed Sam is just the cherry on top, really. Dean's anger toward Cas very much reads as a lover's quarrel over their troubled kid who just went violent. Dean's accusing Cas of keeping secrets about the kid's mental state as if Dean himself didn't see the signs and was worried enough to literally bring him to talk to someone (Donatello filling the role of mental health professional in this analogy). Dean's not mad at Cas for not telling them about what he saw with the snake, he's exploded repeatedly brushing off the importance/significance of the snake. He's not even mad at Cas at all really, he's mad at himself. Mad that he didn't 'do more' to keep an eye on Jack, mad that he left Jack alone with Mary knowing he's currently a danger to everyone around him, mad that he's not entirely mad at Jack cuz he still saved Sam, killed Lucifer, killed Michael, and most of all, he's mad at himself for loving Jack, despite his initial instinct that the kid is too dangerous. "It was a warning and I didn't see it." This is also why he's lashing out at Cas. He loves Cas, and he's just had his heart broken by a powerful angelic being that he let in, let get close enough to become family. He's just nearly lost his brother, lost his son, lost his mom, and pushed away his best friend (husband). It's not just grief. It's self loathing, it's fear, it's guilt. Dean's entire world just fell apart. Lashing out at Cas (but not Sam) is the closest he can come to lashing out at himself. As soon as Cas came back to the bunker Dean came out to hear what he had to say. "And what, you just took her word for it?" 'You're TRUSTING someone?!? Like that isn't what got us into this mess to begin with?!?' Lashing out at Cas in place of himself. The verbal/emotional beating he gave Cas this ep was the external mirror of the internal battle within Dean.

[spiders-hth-is-an-outlier]

Hot Take: Daphne is Castiel

(Sorry if everyone but me has already thought of this.  It made me feel clever; don’t take this from me.)

So I was thinking about that Daphne Loves Fred carved on the bar in Dean’s “fantasy,” and then I was thinking about Daphne in general and who she is to Dean, which actually has some layers to it.

So, Scoobynatural was obviously entirely about childhood innocence, and Daphne is exactly the right Perfect Girl for a pre-sexual, child version of Dean.  She’s pretty and feminine, spunky and game for adventure, loyal and a caretaker -- honestly, she’s one pale pink nightgown short of a full-blown Oedipal issue (not in her similarity to Actual Mary, of course, but to the Mother Mary fantasy that Dean, who grieved his mother and the innocent pre-monster life she represented nonstop throughout his childhood).  Dean’s life was, like an episode of Scooby-Doo, lived on the road, out of a moving vehicle, on an aimless ramble from event to event with a reset button at the end of every “episode” -- but Scooby-Doo remained a fantasy and not a nightmare for him because it showed The Hunting Life not as the grim, marginal existence that Dean actually lived exclusively in the care of gruff man’s men like John and Bobby, but a playful version full of bright colors and giant sandwiches and the Sweetest, Prettiest Girl In the World.

Right, so but then -- puberty happened, and Dean discovered sex.  And the thing about Dean is that he ISN’T attracted to ingenues like Daphne.  Dean likes frisky women.  Dean likes ladies with experience.  Dean’s adult fantasies are exclusively about strippers and porn stars and One-Night Wonders and tramp-stamp rock’n’roll badasses like Pamela.  And he doesn’t have some kind of gross Madonna/Whore complex, either -- the time he found a woman that he could see in the wife-and-mother role, it was Lisa, whom he remembered with enormous enthusiasm from her younger days, when she used to pick up cute drifters in biker bars and bang them like screen doors for a couple of days then send them packing.  Yeah, Lisa had mellowed with age by the time she was Dean’s actual partner, but he picked someone he associated with assertive sexuality, not just domesticity.  Dean likes women who are going to meet his flirting and come back at him twice as hard, who want him, and who know what they want him for.

Season 13 rolls around, and he slips through what the fuck ever and ends up revisiting his childhood, and his childhood crush.  And in keeping with the theme of the episode, which is about the needs that nostalgia fulfills and the urge we have to protect the innocence of the child versions of ourselves (even knowing that the whole concept of “childhood innocence” is built on a series of illusions), he’s back in that child mindset right away: he wants DAPHNE, Daphne is PERFECT and BEAUTIFUL and everything he missed out on having in his life when he was young -- she’s both Devoted Girlfriend and Team Mommy Figure.  She’s terribly ill-suited to the person Dean actually grew up to be, but that’s not the point; she’s a child’s dream of feminine affection.

So who is Daphne, as “person” within the Scoobynatural universe (as distinct from the character Dean knew on the tv show)?  Well, just like he remembers, she’s brave and cheery and endlessly kind and foxy... but unlike whatever Dean’s half-formed boyhood fantasies were all about, she’s... completely unattainable.  (Oh, look who wants what he can’t have.  Hm.)  She’s completely unattainable for two reasons.

One is that she IS a devoted girlfriend -- Fred’s devoted girlfriend.  Sam calls him out immediately for trying to pick up someone else’s girl, and Daphne is impervious to Dean’s clumsy attempts to disparage Fred (”What a jerk!” “Not really.”)  When he asks what Daphne wants, she describes Fred -- strong, sincere, ascot.  (We’re gonna come back to the ascot.)  Daphne’s wants and needs are simple: she is a one-man woman, and she has her man.  There’s nothing there for Dean to work with.

The second is that... Daphne is a child’s fantasy, and appears to be, completely without calculation, as asexual as a child.  Now, the rules of the Cartoon Universe clearly don’t require that to be the case: Velma is also a cartoon character, and she’s wildly thirsty for Sam from minute one.  Sex, or at least sexual attraction, seems to exist in this reality... but Daphne is wholly unaware of it.  She hasn’t even rejected it; she just doesn’t think about it.  Boys and girls don’t sleep in the same room, silly.

Daphne loves Fred.  But Daphne doesn’t sleep with Fred; Daphne isn’t a sexual being at all.  Her love is loyal and true, but her love is for Fred’s virtues, not Fred’s body.

There’s a whole ‘nother long essay, of course, about Dean’s weird, all-over-the-map reaction to Fred.  Fred is the worst, Fred is a loser, the Perfect Woman is totally wasted on Fred... but of course, Fred also embodies some standard of heroism that Dean wants to be: he is strong, he is sincere, he’s the leader, the driver, the Good Soldier -- not just an obedient soldier, but a good one that people admire and care about.  His fear when he gets the Big Reveal about ghosts is that he hasn’t saved enough people; he’s that kind of guy. (Oh, hey, what does Daphne worry about? Just her eternal soul, whether she’s worthy of Heaven or damned to Hell. Isn’t that interesting.) Not for nothing does Dean end up wearing that goddamn ascot by the end of the episode; more than anything, what Dean aspires to be is someone who is strong and sincere and has done good and is worthy of the love and friendship that Fred takes for granted.

Daphne loves Fred.  Well, why shouldn’t she?  He’s a good man, faithful and strong, her companion and protector and teammate.  In spite of Dean kicking against the post, even he has to admit by the end, Daphne loves Fred because Fred deserves Daphne’s love.  They suit each other.  The exist in this fantasy world, perfectly matched and perfectly happy.  In separate bedrooms.

There’s a perpetual question, after this many years, about why exactly Dean is the only sentient being in the universe who seems convinced that he can’t be with Castiel.  He is not unaware of the fact that the obvious explanation for 3/4ths of everything Castiel has done in the past decade is “he’s absurdly, self-destructively in love with Dean.”  Like, Dean couldn’t be unaware of it, because people keep saying it.  A lot of fanfic has this kind of goofy, YA novel take on it, where Dean is obliviously self-deprecating, where he’s all like, oh, just some regular guy like me, how could he ever want me?  But that’s -- come on.  Dean’s not stupid, and he’s certainly not stupid about people.  The way he blithely factors Castiel into all of his future plans, the way he’s got that beach chair all picked out for their retirement, it’s clear that he know Castiel is here for the long haul, that he’s loyal to Dean for life.  Literally everyone knows that.

Daphne loves Fred.

But Dean can’t have Daphne.  Not in the real world.   Because Daphne isn’t from the real world.  She’s not a human being, although she’s close enough to make an engaging fantasy.

Daphne is entirely, unbreakably, unquestionably devoted to her strong, sincere, righteous man.  But boys and girls don’t sleep in the same room.  Silly.

I think it’s not Castiel’s love that Dean thinks he can’t have.  That’s often fandom’s take, because of some perception that Dean doesn’t think he deserves love or whatever.  And maybe Dean doesn’t think he deserves it, I don’t know, but he’s not an idiot, and it never really made sense to me that he could be that goddamn blind to the fact that he does have it.  Daphne loves Fred, and Dean maybe has some complex feelings about that -- about whether Fred is good enough, about whether Fred deserves Daphne -- but he knows it’s true.  He’s so sure it’s true that he keeps it carved deep in the grain, a sentimental reminder, the kind of thing childhood sweethearts do, a memento of first love in all its purity.

What Dean thinks he can’t have isn’t love.  It’s sex.  Because who he’s in love with is fundamentally incompatible with Dean specifically sexually -- and while I still think Dean’s internalized homophobia is a part of that, I think he’s at least mellowed enough to know that getting over his own shit is an option for him.  What’s not an option for him is Castiel ever becoming the kind of hot-blooded, sexually assertive, throw-you-down-and-fuck-your-brains-out kind of person that gets Dean’s dick hard.  Daphne may love Fred to death, but Fred is never, ever gonna get any ass from Daphne.

Fred seems to be fine with that.  He seems to love in that same pure, childlike way that Daphne does -- that Dean did when he actually was a child with his mother’s voice in his ears, telling him that angels were watching.  But present-day Dean, the man that Dean grew into, is not fine with it.

He wants what he can’t have.  He keeps that purity of love close to him, among the other signs and symbols of his identity that decorate his dumb squirrel bar, because he does value it, and he values Castiel.  But that distance exists between them, and I’m increasingly convinced it’s because of that fundamental incompatibility -- Dean is a guy who likes to get dirty (hell, even his demon-self just had orgies at honky-tonks with world-weary barmaids instead of properly debauching and corrupting the innocent like we see so many other demons preferring to do), and Castiel is (I think almost indisputably) some version of asexual.

Castiel loves Dean and the entire goddamn multiverse knows it, but he’s still something that Dean wants and can’t have.  Both of these concepts always seemed pretty intuitively obvious to me, but I don’t think I ever fully grokked how they connected to each other until the Daphne thing fell into place.

[contemplatingoutlander]

On Certain Unsettling Symbolism in Jamie and Bree’s First Meeting

Preface

Before I discuss some of the more disturbing symbolism in both the book and show’s depictions of Jamie and Bree’s first meeting, I want to make it clear that for the most part I loved the way their meeting was played out in episode 409. Both Sam and Sophie did a fabulous job but I have to single out Sam’s performance as being exceptional. The joy and anguish mixed on his face pierced my heart. He showed us a man who was overwhelmed with happiness at seeing the daughter he never thought he would see and at the same time he was grieving all the years of her life he missed. In my opinion it was one of the most powerful performances Sam has ever given.

When Symbolism Knocks You Over the Head

But I have to confess I was hoping that the show would set up Jamie and Bree’s meeting in a slightly different way.

You see my graduate training was largely psychodynamic (although my practice is much more integrated). Consequently, I still carry that mindset to a large extent in how I view the world. I find that perspective invaluable when I read literature or watch films because it helps me to see layers of meaning in the material that I might not have seen otherwise.

So, it is not surprising that the unsettling symbolism in the initial way Jamie and Bree met practically hit me over the head. 

But you don’t have to have psychodynamic training to realize that how they met was fraught with some troubling meaning. My guess is many fans also picked up on it--and promptly tried to put it out of their minds.

On the surface, Diana might have thought it would be fun to have Jamie and Bree meet for the first time in a most unconventional way. Rather than meeting after Jamie had performed some heroic feat or when Jamie was splendidly attired in a kilt or 18th century gentleman’s clothing, we instead have Bree getting her first glimpse of Jamie attired in everyday clothes doing the basic, mundane (yet very personal) task of peeing.

But aside from the novelty of the meeting it is rife with symbolism, whether or not Diana consciously intended that symbolism to be there.

You can find the rest of this discussion under the cut.

“Birds and Bees” Indeed!

Okay, getting straight to the point, Jamie is literally holding his cock when Bree sees him for the first time.

When I first read that I remembered thinking.

One basic meaning of this is that Jamie was holding the “instrument” he used to impregnate Bree’s mother with Bree during a sexual encounter. Yup, he’s the biological father. No two ways about it.

Paging Mr. Oedipus!

But there is also a disturbing Oedipal aspect to the initial parts of the meeting. 

JAMIE: What d'ye want here, lassie?

BREE: You.

JAMIE: I'm sorry, lass. I'm a marrit man.

JAMIE: I meant it. I have a wife.

It is clear from the dialogue that Jamie mistakes Bree for a prostitute. So immediately after he puts his cock away, Jamie turns down what he considers to be a sexual proposition by Bree.

My guess is that consciously Diana just thought that a case of mistaken identity would be amusing.

But seriously?

WARNING: Now I’m going to discuss a few things that might be unsettling to some readers. So stop reading here if you don’t like to think about Oedipal issues.

From years of working as a therapist, I can attest to the fact that Oedipal issues do exist. I don’t buy all of Freud’s beliefs about this topic, especially his sexist interpretation as applied to women. But it is very clear that many young girls go through a period of being “Daddy’s little girl.” Bree was certainly “Frank’s little girl.” 

But Oedipus is typically discussed in terms of the child’s development, not the parents’ thoughts, feelings, impulses or behaviors. The reality is that fathers sometimes experience conscious or unconscious sexual attraction towards their daughters when they become young women. I’m not talking about actual incest here. I’m talking about how fathers sometimes don’t know what to do when their daughters hit adolescence and they suddenly see them as attractive young women. Most fathers who experience this usually repress any inappropriate thoughts. Unfortunately, sometimes in the process they end up distancing themselves from their daughters for a while until they get a better handle on their feelings towards their daughters becoming young women.

Occasionally though fathers come out with inappropriate comments about how nice their daughters’ figures are, etc, which of course cause their daughters to cringe.

A good (or bad) example of this is Trump’s comments about Ivanka. 🙄

Yeah, I know we don’t like to think about these things but they are regrettably part of the human experience.

The reality is that Jamie and Bree are meeting for the first time as adults. And unfortunately for them they are two gorgeous human beings. 

Even this comment by Jamie can be interpreted on different levels:

JAMIE: Hadna thought of you as grown. Had ye in my mind somehow as a wee bairn always. As my babe. Never expected...

On the surface level, Jamie is talking about how he typically imagined Bree. At a slightly deeper level, as he speaks Jamie was getting in touch with the reality that he lost a large amount of time when he could have known his daughter. That brings up grief that gets mixed in with his joy.

But on another level, Jamie is also acknowledging that he wasn’t expecting his “babe” to actually be a “babe.” (Yeah, I know that’s hard to think about.)

Good old repression works really well. 

It’s fascinating that Jamie chose to think of Bree as a “baby” rather than the young woman he saw in the photos Claire showed him when she returned to him. Remember when Jamie saw the photo of Bree in a bikini?

Jamie suppressed that quickly! He retreated back into thinking about Bree only as a baby, working hard to suppress what he saw in those photos...

Until Bree showed up in front of him as a beautiful young woman.

And a woman who reportedly looked nearly exactly like his mother Ellen...whom Jamie only remembered from when she was young...

Paging Mr. Oedipus indeed!

So meeting Bree was a whole lot more complicated for Jamie. But given the good man he is, undoubtedly Jamie consciously suppressed any inappropriate thoughts he had about his daughter and then his unconscious mind further repressed them.

Sometimes defenses are our friends and in this case repression served Jamie well.

Fortunately, this season the show has been working hard to “age” Jamie. In episode 409 in particular the makeup department did a great job of making him look 48. My guess is it was important to them to make sure he looked like Bree’s father and not her older brother, or a cousin, or a peer.

So even though Bree is meeting an attractive older man, it is clear he is older and so less tempting for Bree’s unconscious mind to do cartwheels over. Consequently, her Oedipal issues might not be as complicated in terms of Jamie.

Furthermore, Brianna was an Oedipal winner in terms of her relationship with Frank. In other words she became the most important person in the world to Frank, even more important than Claire. I don’t want to even begin to talk about the possible psychological consequences for a young woman of being an Oedipal winner but suffice it to say that most of Bree’s “Daddy issues” are with Frank, not Jamie. 

Anyway, there you have it. Some of the disturbing symbolism in the meeting between Jamie and Bree. Sorry if this was upsetting for any of you to read about but I can’t help but think that some of the symbolic meaning briefly dawned on many of you.

And then you quickly repressed it.

Sometimes, defenses really are our friends. 😉

“Wait, what?” gif source; trump video source for gif

Thanks to Springfield! Springfield! for some of the Outlander dialogue.

[aion-rsa]

I Care a Lot: Peter Dinklage is the Scariest Gangster We’ve Seen in Years

https://ift.tt/eA8V8J

This article contains I Care a Lot spoilers.

J Blakeson’s I Care a Lot is one of very few films where everyone in it is a villain. In the lead role, Rosamund Pike ushers in a new amoral high mark as conservator con artist Marla Grayson. Peter Dinklage meanwhile mines the standard Hollywood heavy role for an unexpected haul of gangster gravitas. And with his turn as Roman Lunyov, the former black sheep of the Lannister family in Game of Thrones joins the likes of Robert De Niro, Marlon Brando, Wesley Snipes, and Humphrey Bogart as memorable cinema crime bosses.

However, this isn’t Dinklage’s first turn in a mob movie. He got his button in Find Me Guilty (2006). The film was based on the true story of Lucchese crime family soldier Jackie DiNorscio, played by Vin Diesel, and the longest mafia trial in American history. The movie was co-written and directed by Sidney Lumet, who not only helmed such crime classics as Dog Day Afternoon and Q&A, but was one of the original Dead End kids when the proto-gangster social drama was still on Broadway. Dinklage didn’t play a mobster in Find Me Guilty. He played a lawyer.  

Dinklage’s Lunyov Family isn’t strictly going up against law enforcement in I Care a Lot. Rather Pike’s Marla Grayson and her partner in crime (and life), Fran (Eiza González), are court-appointed guardians from hell, and they represent a rival outfit. They are also operating a lucrative racket.

This guardianship gang war could be seen as similar to the scenarios which happened when Italian, Jewish, and Irish mobs moved in on the Harlem and Chicago numbers games in the 1920s and ’30s. Or how Michael Corleone’s first order of business as head of family in The Godfather was to take over the casinos in Las Vegas. Like Don Vito Corleone before her, Marla’s also got judges, such as the sympathetic Judge Lomax (Isiah Whitlock Jr.), in her pocket. Eldercare racketeering dominance is also comparable to the prohibition fights of The St. Valentine’s Day Massacre, and the body count is just as high. The take is just as sweet.

Edward G. Robinson set the standard for cinematic mob rule as “Rico” Bandello in Little Caesar (1931). Dinklage’s Roman Lunyov, by contrast, is more of a Czar. He heads a family in the Russian mafia and purports himself like a descendant of the Romanov dynasty. But he’s got Cossack in him. It’s in his DNA and cascading down his chin like the tail of a cavalry horse.

On Game of Thrones, Dinklage’s Tyrion Lannister was part of an insidious dynasty whose roots intertwined with every twig of the ruling class. The modern Russian mob, on screen and off, can boast even more branches.

Netflix’s World’s Most Wanted dedicated an episode to Semion Mogilevich, the reputed head of the Russian mob (aka Bratva). While Moglievich is allegedly tied to arms dealing, international trading scams, and countless murders, the cops in the documentary series compare him to the Keyser Söze character from The Usual Suspects. He’s a respected, low-key businessman who likes to smoke. He lives in a mansion next to the head of the Communist Party in Russia. His activities aren’t merely state-sanctioned, they are apparently encouraged.

Dinklage’s Roman is all these things, even as his identity is actually more elaborately guarded than Söze’s, and his tastes run toward elitist’s treats.

But then Russian mobsters are always ruthless on screen. These are the guys who killed Denzel Washington’s seemingly indestructible narco cop Alonzo Harris in Training Day (2001). You never prepare for that. When the “Three Wise Men” who always have your back tell you to skip town, you know you’re dealing with folks in a rough trade. On Netflix’s Orange Is the New Black, Galina “Red” Reznikova (Kate Mulgrew) would rather go to jail for keeping bodies on ice than say she was keeping them fresh for the Russian mafia in Queens.

Dinklage’s big bad leans into this mythic image of Russian mobsters, with Roman appearing cut from the same cloth as the New Jersey-based operators who could make even Tony Soprano take pause in The Sopranos. Albeit if Dinklage’s character ever actually visited the tough guys in the Garden State, he would probably need to rethink his man-bun. After all, Tony Soprano couldn’t even get away with shorts.

When James Cagney had fist fights in his early films, he was always matched with a bruiser twice his size because the studios thought no one in the audience would accept him being remotely challenged otherwise. Dinklage also doesn’t display a traditionally imposing physical presence. But he is no lightweight. His own thugs cower at the very thought of a cross word. In the Lunyov family, it’s best to bring a gun to a food fight.

Roman’s personal attorney almost wets his briefs when he screws up. That’s because Roman is as unpredictable as Cagney’s Cody Jarrett, the gang leader in White Heat, Cagney’s most psychopathic role. Dinklage’s introduction as Roman shows him asking how many mules died on the last drug run. He calculates them coldly, as part of business, with the sociopathology of a Chief Executive Officer. But his biggest similarity can be found in oedipal complexities. Like Cody Jarrett, Roman Lunyov loves his mother.

We don’t know much about Jennifer Peterson, the nice old lady played by Dianne Wiest. She’s got money, a nice house, no living relatives, and a doctor who will exaggerate dementia symptoms in court for a stock payoff.  On the surface Peterson seems to be a competent business woman who retired after a successful career. Now under the less than sensitive care at the Berkshire Oaks Senior Living facility, we realize her chosen field was career criminal. After all, any of these sweet old ladies could have had criminally scandalous youths.

When Marla finally asks her ward who she is, all Jennifer has to say is “I’m the worst mistake you’ll ever make.” We learn she has more than one son in the Russian mob. She could be a post-Glasnostic Ma Barker from the Prohibition era. Barker’s fictional approximation in White Heat, Ma Jarrett (Margaret De Wolfe Wycherly) tells her son she can take care of herself. And while Jennifer may have been declared legally unable to do just that in I Care a Lot, she is quite adept at a choke hold, eschewing the standard garrote assassination for her own elbow.

Marla doesn’t romanticize her mother, calling her a psychopath and offering her up as the collateral damage of closing costs. Her single-minded opportunism is more sociopathic than Pike’s Amy Dunne in David Fincher’s adaptation of Gone Girl. She employs a cutthroat logic that’s in the same territories as bad-mannered comedies, but with the ruthlessness of the shark in Jaws.

Roman’s black-on-black dress code ensembles, by contrast, broadcast a desire for stylish power games. Marla is not interested in gangster chic; she prefers classy monochromatic suits so brightly focused they attract moths like flames. Her crew is all business as usual. Dr. Amos (Alicia Witt) is the fixer. She picks the “cherries,” elderly cash cows who can be milked in the retirement home. Sam Rice (Damian Young) is the monster at the center of the center. Everyone’s got a soulless nature except Eiza González’s Fran, who is also the only one to see the wisdom of getting the fuck out of there.

Dinklage is fearsome in one of the scariest screen gangsters in recent years. This guy can dispatch troublesome community angels easier than a creamy éclair pastry–and he loves those treats. He even takes a last loving bite of a chocolate-covered, custard-filled house specialty before he tosses it onto the cold concrete of an underground parking garage.

When he ends negotiations with Marla, his only caveat is to make it look “organic.” Georgia Lyman, who is only credited as “the Assassin,” is I Care a Lot’s Luca Brasi, sharing duties with a few “heavies.” The film’s Fredo is Alexi Ignatyev, played by Nicholas Logan as if he’s always waiting for another shoe to drop. Even Ms. Peterson laughs and calls him an idiot. She laughs a lot, and it’s not just the steady drugs she’s being forcibly and legally dosed with, it’s the glee of power.

Roman’s power lies in his legal team, and the Lunyov family’s Tom Hagen is Dean Ericson (Chris Messina). One thing you have to admit with the Russian mob is they do appreciate innovation and sophistication. Ericson can’t help but be impressed by Marla’s scam. His lowball offer of $150,000 is an insult, but an understandable one. His veiled threats are as subtle as his suits are ostentatious.

Marla doesn’t seem to appreciate the power the Lunyov family wields, but she does appreciate the irony.

“If you can’t convince a woman to do what you want,” she says, appraising the fine print under the mouthpiece’s exploratory offer, “then you call her a bitch and threaten to kill her.” Marla pays it forward by calling the Lunyov matriarch far worse and threatening extreme discomfort, which she promises will last until the day she dies. As restrained as her venom may be, Marla is a proud femme fatale. Though also a stereotypical “ice queen” villainess, and heartless materialist. We’re almost sorry to feel bad for Marla when she is tied to a chair during last minute negotiations.

Director Blakeson, who made the science fiction action movie The 5th Wave and the noir thriller The Disappearance of Alice Creed, sets up I Care a Lot like a horror movie.

“There’s no such thing as good people,” Marla Grayson says at the start of the film. The opening is exquisitely unsettling as Jennifer is guided through a process of enforced institutionalization, followed by her house being emptied, painted, placed on the market, and sold. The plot thickens as keys are traced to a safety deposit box containing millions of dollars’ worth of diamonds, which officially don’t exist. Most gangster films aren’t driven by this kind of mystery, but Roman is a new kind of gangster. Though cheap, dead drug-mules are an unnecessary expense, the Lunyov family want to make a difference in the world.

Blakeson wanted to highlight all-too true stories of elder abuse and the perils of court-appointed conservators which could even bring The #FreeBritney movement calling. But he captures the allure of the anti-hero and the all-American dream of a corner on the market. Roman Lunyov has one final thing in common with Michael Corleone, and many of the traditional gangsters: He wants to earn money legitimately. This is not to be confused with wanting to go legit.

Those of us who root for the “bad guys” will find a wealth of insidious characters, and a very original caper, at the heart of I Care a Lot. Peter Dinklage’s Roman Lunyev may go against type, with his eastern bloc nobility stunted by the limits of black comedy. But as a movie mob boss, he is Street Regal.

I Care a Lot can be streamed on Netflix.

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The post I Care a Lot: Peter Dinklage is the Scariest Gangster We’ve Seen in Years appeared first on Den of Geek.

from Den of Geek https://ift.tt/3sdUjQs

[zmediaoutlet]

could you perhaps elaborate on the oedipal vibes? what do you mean by that? (I love to hear your thoughts on all the SPN characters, and especially Dean)

anon, you flatter me. I had to go for a dig through my recent posts, and this must be in ref to this post, with these tags:

#this gives me unavoidable oedipal vibes tho #la ama de casa #and so on

So, what do I mean by that?

This gets some people very het up, but it’s hard to deny that the relationship of the Winchester men, post-Mary, was a pretty weird one. As I’ve talked about before, I don’t believe that John was 100% evil and abusive–that’s reductive to the point of being nonsensical–but he also clearly wasn’t 100% great at being a father, either. The reasons for that are many and varied, but the end results are the same: the relationships inside the Impala were not normal, and that does things to the people involved.

So, a few terms that are useful, especially when talking about the Winchesters. Covert incest, per Wikipedia, is “a style of parenting in which a parent looks to their child for the emotional support that would be normally provided by another adult.” It’s not sexual, but it does pervert the parent-child relationship. Another important thing to look at is parentification, which is closely related to covert incest, which Wikipedia describes here:

Two distinct modes of parentification have been identified technically: instrumental parentification and emotional parentification. Instrumental parentification involves the child completing physical tasks for the family, such as looking after a sick relative, paying bills, or providing assistance to younger siblings that would normally be provided by a parent. Emotional parentification occurs when a child or adolescent must take on the role of a confidant or mediator for (or between) parents or family members.

Who does that sound like. 

One of the things that makes the Winchesters interesting (and one of the things that makes John not a complete villain) is that, first, this wasn’t intentional, on John’s part. The deep need for revenge blinded him, and the importance of finding Mary’s killer superseded any other concerns. Okay, not a good father, but also not evil. There’s a level of nuance here. It’s also true that, most of the time, Dean and Sam interact like brothers, and John treats them both (as far as we can see) as his subordinates/sons. However, when John fails at that–when he lets Dean pick up the slack of running the household, and when he relies on Dean for emotional support (e.g.: I’d come home from a hunt, and after what I’d seen, I’d be, I’d be wrecked. […] You’d say, “It’s okay, Dad.”)–he is committing both of the sins above, and that, in turn, does something to Dean.

Very early in childhood, Dean starts to be in charge of feeding Sam (instrumental parentification, per the above), and he runs interference between Sam and their father and tries to make the household run smoothly (emotional parentification). John relies on him for support. Dean cleans the guns (the most important tools of their household), and cooks, and provides a listening ear, and takes care of the people around him. In many ways, he’s filling the role of the mother, and specifically of John’s wife, inside the family unit. Obviously he’s brother and son, too, but he’s straddling the line–when this amount of responsibility and care is placed on his shoulders, he can’t ever just be a kid, or just be an annoying big brother. Sam and John also both waver on how they treat him–Sam sometimes taking him for granted as the source of household comfort (something all mothers recognize, I’ll bet) even as they play pranks on each other; John letting him take the bulk of the spousal, household duties (the husband not doing his share, anyone?) even as he scolds and teaches fatherly lessons. 

So, when I see stuff like this:

I see a worried big brother, sure. I also see Sam’s (effective) mother. Now, it should be clear that there’s a lot of nuance, here–the Winchesters wouldn’t be interesting, otherwise! But it’s specifically the way these lines are straddled, and fought against, and then the times the characters go so far over them it’s outrageous–that’s what is really fascinating, to me. In the Oedipus story, the son kills his father, and marries his mother. Clearly the Winchesters aren’t a 1:1–Sam holds back from shooting John, even if it’s only because Dean begs–but there’s certainly a nice parallel to be drawn, isn’t there? (And once the father is out of the way, Dean’s loyalty swings entirely toward Sam–and then, eight years later, they make a promise, in a church. Isn’t that… interesting. At least Sam hasn’t put his eyes out. [Though there are further parallels to be drawn there, re: his guilt and fear over the years, hm?])

With all of this said: I don’t think I can be blamed for my fascination with the Full House of Wincest. 

(For more about the el ama de casa* vibe, you can also see my fic la cocina es el centro de la casa, where I look at how a young Dean is still trying to navigate that fine line in his behavior–being a big brother and a son, but also being… something else.)

((**yeah, sorry to los hispanohablantes who follow me, the ‘la ama’ in the tag was an unconscionable typo.))

[dustydreamsanddirtyscars]

When I first saw the gifs of Mary with the waitress in 12.18 I thought it was Dean with young mary. her coat even seemed similar. was this some weird oedipal on purpose thing or was that just me??

Hey there anon!

I’m sorry, I am a bit confused. I haven’t been able to rewatch the episode in good quality as iTunes still hasn’t uploaded it, but I don’t recall Mary being in the episode? Did I miss a scene in the crappy stream I had found? If so please let me know, because that would be interesting.

That said, I actually really liked the Dean flirting with the waitress moment. And yes, it is definitely a recurring pattern on SPN that the Winchester boys tend to have flings/relationships resembling their mom throughout the season and especially in times of distress or when things are hanging in the balance. I have written about this a few times before and most recently in S11. You can see a gifset and in depth meta on this pattern and what I think it symbolizes in relation to themes of “growing up” and “rites de passage” in relation to shaping of identity and personality if you CLICK THIS LINK.

To me this pattern doesn’t have any oedipal or sexual connotations at all. Even Dean having a one night stand as such is part of a pattern we have seen with Dean to substitute feeling held and “loved” for a few hours when he feels he isn’t at all. So imo Dean’s one night stands are more of a sign/symbol showcasing what he truly craves - emotional connection and a meaningful relationship for example - but since he doesn’t think he can ever have that, he is opting for the next best thing.

So when looking at all of the past “hook ups” Dean had then it shows that he clearly tends to lean towards women loosely resembling his mother. That doesn’t have anything to do with him having any romantic interest in his mom AT ALL, but I think should rather be undestood as a sign of a “Mother figure”-esque type of women serving as a stand in for the motherly love and support and attention that is lacking when it comes to Mary as a mother and person in general.

So yes, definitely a recurring pattern with the Winchesters and blonde haired women - like Jess for Sam or Piper from 11x04 “Baby” or Ann-Marie for Dean in 10x01 “Black” or the girl from this week’s episode - but no imo nothing oedipal about it. :)

[mycasandstarrs]

SPN 8x03: “Heartache”

THEN: Sam retired. Amelia. Professor Morrison. Kevin and the demon tablet. Kevin and his mother have ran away. Finding Kevin is the boys’ new main mission.

Minneapolis, Montana.

Who jogs at night? That seems rather dangerous.

RIP victim #1. Heart ripped out.

Farmer’s market.

My god, they are so tan.

“I had a year off. I took the time to enjoy the good things.” Good for you, hon. Now you gotta work.

Mr. Ackles!

“That chubby guy the last person to see the vic alive?”

“Other than the killer.”

Paul Hayes. He *is* the killer.

“You think he's gonna grab Freddy fitness here and throw him down and rip out his heart? I don't think so. Forgive me if I didn't take him out back and shoot him.” This detective is so intense, jeez.

“So, Paul, you passed a runner who was later killed. Did you speak with him at all?”

“Yeah, I went over this with the cops. I-I–I didn't know him. I had never spoken to him. I ran past him. I never saw him again. The end.”

He really doesn’t remember??

Ames, Iowa.

Arthur Swenson.

The foreign language chanting.

I wouldn’t get too close.

So he’s not possessed.

Not the eye, dude!!! 

Hot diggity damn, they look good.

Agent Sambora.

I love Dr. Kashi’s accent.

Swenson had an eye transplant last year...same time Paul Hayes had his organ donation.

“I e-mailed an audio file of Arthur's mumbling to Dr Morrison.” Professor Morrison, serving his country yet again.

Boulder, Colorado.

Randa.

The guy’s name was “Chick”?

RIP Chick. Killed by Randa.

Dean being happy about things being “normal”: he’s hunting with Sam again.

“I know where I'm at my best, and that is right here, driving down crazy street next to you.”

“Or... maybe you don't need me. I mean, maybe you're at your best hacking and slicing your way through all the world's crap alone, not having to explain yourself to anybody.”

Sam. Are you looking for a fight?

“Look, I'm not saying I'm bailing on you. I'm just saying make room for the possibility that we want different things. I mean, I want my time to count for something.” How does Sam suck at picking his words.

All three killers got their organs from the same guy: Brick Holmes.

I never would’ve figure Sam for the sporty/jocky kind of guy, but he gets so excited about Brick Holmes.

Eight organ recipients! Eight possible killers.

EWW OKAY. I didn’t need to see Randa eating a human heart.

Mrs. Eleanor Holmes.

“You know, Brick Holmes was my idol back in high school. Amazing career. Uh, 18 pro seasons, 7 division championships, 4 Super Bowls – never slowed down a day.” Sam geeking out. Again, never would’ve figured him for being that interested in sports.

“You know, I-I can't help wonder what happened that night on that bridge. There was light traffic, no alcohol involved, no skid marks. Big-time athlete, reflexes like a cat, how is it that he just drives off the side of a bridge?”

“When things happen that aren't supposed to happen, they're called accidents, I believe.”

pfft. She shut Dean down.

We got some shady business going on between Randa and Eleanor.

Lie your ass off, Sammy.

Ancient Mayan.

“The divine god Cacao is born.”

Sam was applying to colleges. Or at least, thinking of it.

Did ya think Dean was gonna overlook it because you swiftly changed the subject, Sam?

“Hey, Sammy, would it totally crush you to know that your boy Brick wasn't a natural blond?” lmao, shush.

Dean. NO. Do not suggest an Oedipal thing was going on, pls.

A sports memorabilia room. Even I’m fascinated.

And Sam immediately goes to play with something.

The box of letters.

“Dearest Betsy...”

Sugar Ray Robinson, the Red Sox, Le Mans, the Phillies, the Brooklyn Dodgers, Alain Prost...

“Love, Me.”

“Dearest Betsy, so tired of it all.”

4 different athletes, from different eras and sports...all the same guy.

Dearest Betsy...aka Eleanor Holmes.

Inyo. Made a deal with the god Cacao. Had to continue making sacrifices to keep up the deal. He met Betsy/Eleanor and fell in love. She aged, he didn’t. At the thought of living without Eleanor, he drove off a bridge.

“Do you know where the person is who has the heart? Do you know?” Come on, tell them.

The Bunny Hole. 

Brick’s other organ recipients came to the party!

ooOOHHH I SHOULDN’T THINK THIS IS HOT, BUT IT IS.

RIP Randa. Killed by Dean.

Eleanor has her peace now.

Sam’s gonna bring the mood down, I can tell by his face.

“Dean, the year that I took off, I had something I've never had. A normal life. I mean, I got to see what that felt like. I want that. I had that.” Well now I’m just sad.

Amelia set up a birthday picnic. That’s rather sweet, I’ll give them that.