#dean studies

[sailorsally]

[destiel-wings]

Dean Winchester & hug dynamic analysis

I was thinking about how whenever Dean hugs someone he's almost always the one hugging the other and how this links to his psychological trauma of always being the caretaker of people, making himself bigger to protect them.

Because that's how Dean sees himself, as a shield for others, and then I thought about how Cas actually is the shield, and he's HIS SHIELD, specifically, the only one who's really there to protect HIM, which is why it hits so much when we see this:

The way Cas wraps his arms around him, trying to protect him with his whole body--that he'd use as a shield and give up in a second if he could spare him from any pain and save him.

(for context: Dean was about to go use the soul bomb on Amara there, it was a suicide mission)

Bobby is another one that hits, he hugs him as the big hugger because he's his father, he loves him and he's actually here to protect him (and Dean LETS him -barely, but he lets him *and Cas* - in a way that he doesn't let Sam)

I watched a compilation of Sam & Dean hugs to check if i was right about it, but it's almost always Dean the big hugger with Sam, except when he's about to die or Sam sees him alive again after losing him.

Even then, Dean mostly tries to hug Sam as the big hugger anyway, with at least one arm, like a way to comfort him, making him feel protected, like his body language is saying "I'm here, I'm okay, I'm still strong, i can still protect you" (because their real father failed and Dean thinks it's his job).

He rarely lets himself be the little one hugged with Sam, unless he's barely conscious. Which is why it kills me so much more now that in this moment (s14, when Dean was going to lock himself in the Ma'lak box cause he was possessed by Michael) and Sam has a desperate breakdown and punches him (to stop him) he forcefully hugs him as the little hugger, the way Dean always kept him, like a way of saying "I still need you to protect me, please don't do this to yourself".

In the scene below he gives Sam his blessing to do a dangerous (possibly suicidal) mission, and one of his arms is down, but the other one tries to stay up--he's forcing himself to do it and he struggles because he still wants to protect him, but (as the seasons progress) he slowly becomes more prone to let go.

So in this view the hug dynamic becomes an indicator of how Dean sees Sam (and himself) and his protector role, how adult and self sufficient he considers Sam, and how much he lets people around him take care of him, lowering his walls and letting himself be hugged.

This is also why i think hugs from characters like Garth or Charlie are so special, because they're just like us: they see Dean and they just know that he needs to be hugged a lot, and that he's not used to it, so they just go for it-- and it's so normal and kind and spontaneous that Dean's just not used to it-- he doesn't know how to respond (especially with Garth, at the beginning, but as the seasons progress, he learns to, and he even initiates the hug eventually).

I love the hugs where they're 50/50 (one arm up, one arm down both), feels like they're equals, both taking care of each other. I feel like with Sam and Dean, this indicates a healthier dynamic, because Dean lets go a little of the role that was imposed to him and manages to see Sam as the strong individual that he is. But the same applies to 50/50 hugs with other characters, like with Cas, where I feel like it testifies how equals they feel in terms of being fighters, there's a show of respect of each other's strength that transpires by the gesture (which is even more astounding considering that Cas is literally a powerful angel).

And just to end on a destiel note, I'd like to note the possessiveness and protectiveness of Dean (rightfully so) whenever he finds Cas after he thought he had lost him, and how that translates into his body/hug language:

[solarmidnight]

Supernatural: Dean is in heaven, a better place. He gets to drive around for forty years waiting for Sam to show! Isn't that great? Perfect ending for him! 😊

Dean, the very moment people took their eyes off him:

[vendettasfanfictioning]

Ok so. "Why does this sound like a goodbye?" Was fucking heartbreaking, right; we have the full-on uninterrupted eye contact, the head tilt, Dean's already open mouth twitching before the scene cuts to Cas' "I love you," like he had more to say, but Cas beats him to the punch. It's great, we love that. But for the dialogue to be sequenced that way, and to have Dean reply with, "don't do this, Cas."

I'm only just realizing how fucking insane it was. And sure, I might just be coping here, at the end of the day who fucking knows, but look at it. Think about it. Now let yourself feel it all over again.

It's Dean's death knocking on the door behind Cas, and it's Cas' death emerging behind Dean. Like this, they're directly facing their own demise—but they're too stuck on each other, in their moment, to give a damn. And then Dean doesn't say, "I love you too." He says, "don't do this."

He isn't disgusted or ashamed or put off in the slightest by Cas' confession, because if he is then why is he on the verge of tears? In what world would it make sense for him to want to cry after his best friend confessed to him, if the confession was something he did not want. He says don't do this here, don't do this to me now.

Even if, and that's the most unlikely if to ever exist, Dean did not reciprocate Cas' feelings—don't do this is still so fucking powerful. Because Dean's connected the dots, happiness [...] is in just saying it, and Cas said it, so where does that lead Dean? That's right, with Cas dead again, trying to save him again.

Don't do this. Don't die for me, don't love me only to die for me, don't love me at all, just stay with me.

Don't let me watch you die again and not even let me follow you—because, at the very least, that was a consolation. She's gonna kill you, which Dean knows that Billie knows will hurt him more than his own death, and then she's gonna kill me.

"Don't do this," was actually so fucking powerful, I don't know how it slipped past me until now...

[dirtangeldean]

“don’t do this, cas” is not “don’t confess,” it’s “don’t leave me”

[castielsparkle]

☆ john winchester's journal | 1x12 - faith | 4x01 - lazarus rising | 12x19 - the future | 5x04 - the end | 6x20 - the man who would be king | john winchester's journal | 12x02 - mamma mia | john winchester's journal | 2x04 - children shouldn't play with dead things | john winchester's journal (x3) | 2x20 - what is and should never be | 6x20 - the man who would be king | supernatural season 5 disc 6 special feature commentary

[chappelroan]

Supernatural 3x10, "Dream a Little Dream of Me"

[t00muchheart]

Dean Winchester went to hell and spent thirty years on the rack before agreeing to torture other souls for his freedom. Dean Winchester spent ten years putting souls on the rack and torturing them, Alistair’s lessons supplementing the skills his father taught him, twisting the lessons that taught him to save people and hunt things. Dean Winchester liked it because, after thirty years, he wasn’t being tortured himself, and because he was good at it. Dean Winchester was raised from Hell and could accept what had been done to him but not what he had done, not able to accept that they were in some ways the same.

Dean Winchester was gripped tight and raised from perdition and of course he didn’t believe he deserved to be saved—how could he be, after all he’d done? And in the end, he was right, in part: heaven only wanted to use him as a weapon, a tool—just like hell had. Except that there was one angel who didn’t, one angel who saw his soul and had questions, had doubts. One angel who chose to fall and embrace humanity and free will, to learn to love. To prove to Dean Winchester that he was worthy of being saved, no matter how low he’d fallen.

[angelsdean]

also like yea dean doing sex work (for survival) is fanon but there ARE enough little canon moments to subtextually support it so like, if you add those experiences along with his michael possession arc, hell trauma (repeatedly tortured and violated for 30 yrs), the way he's the only one out of sam and cas who has not slept w/ someone who was possessed, the way he has to psych himself up for sex, the way we canonically see / hear abt him having sex very little for a 15 yr period, the way he doesn't sleep w/ the sex worker who's clearly not into him or as into her job as she says she is, the way he know what roofies look like and to keep an eye out for them, the way it's implied he was drugged underage at a club......like, he would be thee most normal abt sex and respecting boundaries, asking for explicit consent AND he would NOT fuck if he were possessing someone else !! like go back to dean studies 101 if you disagree with any of this bc you do not know this guy

[torturedpoetemotions]

The way people hate on the Mary arc of later seasons like "why did Dean have to lose his image of his mom" that was the POINT. Like??? That image he had of his mom was never real! Nobody is that perfect, least of all a traumatized hunter kid who was orphaned at 19 and made a desperate deal to save at least ONE person she lost so she wouldn't be completely alone in the world. The Mary Dean knew and idolized was a fiction cobbled together from grief and a four-year-old's hazy memories. She wasn't real!

And the loss of her is where it all started. All Dean's trauma. All of his hangups and issues and fears began the night Mary died. And to some extent I don't think healing was possible until he fully grappled with the fact that his mom was just a PERSON. Not a saint on a pedestal he should worship and sacrifice everything for and could never live up to.

Like!!! Sooooo many of Dean's Issues started with her death and the way John turned her into a martyred saint to justify his actions. Dean was mourning for a woman who didn't even exist and an idea of a perfect life he never would have had! His "perfect mom?" Their "perfect family?" Never. Existed. That's literally the point. He was never going to be able to love any life he could have if he was always comparing it to some impossible idea of perfection that was never even possible.

Sorry but Amara was right, he needed that false idol to be shattered.

[lilyflxwers]

nothing hurts me more than s9 e7 of spn ‘bad boys’, john letting dean be punished for stealing bread, absolutely no child steals bread unless they’re hungry and they don’t know when their next meal is. the fact john leaves him there long enough to get a taste of normality and then arrives on the night of his prom, you cannot tell me that john winchester didn’t know full well that it was an important night for little fifteen year old dean. he turns up right as dean is about to leave. not in the morning or after it’s happened but the second that dean was about to experience being a teenager, all dressed up smart, ready to just be a kid, you cannot tell me that that was merely a coincidence. and you can see the second dean realises that this has all been a fucked up lesson about never getting attached. and him seeing sam hanging out the back window and knowing if he doesn’t sacrifice his childhood then sams will be sacrificed in its place.

[four-of-cups]

trying to sleep but can’t stop thinking about how Dean Winchester was queer-coded to the point of cliche the whole time:

- Dean knows (and says) he’ll never marry a woman and settle down.

- He fears his father and idolises his mother.

- His gender expression is deeply performative.

- He fetishises a particular type of masculinity.

- He only really forms meaningful lasting bonds with women when they’re completely platonic (Charlie, Claire, etc).

- His deepest and most compelling relationships are with men (Benny, Cas, Crowley - all transgressive characters in their own rights).

- He rejects hierarchy and hates authority.

- He takes in a kid who doesn’t belong.

- He reinvents family.

- He kills God.

- He dies young.

[swordofsun]

Avoiding rambling mostly off topic on another person's post, so I'll just spill it all over here instead.

Sam had a tv from pretty much the moment they moved into the bunker. We see it in Pac-Man Fever when they all gather in Sam's room to watch Game of Thrones. In s11 during Cas' recovery period Sam gets him hooked on Netflix.

Which is actually fascinating in and of itself. For years Sam was the one with a tv. Just Sam. Not Dean, the tv and movie reference guy. And once Dean gets a tv, it's in a group space. Even when he's watching something on his laptop he does it in the library.

The only time we ever see Dean watch something in his room is in Mint Condition when he's full on depression caving (and presumably took the TV from the Dean cave) and hiding from the AW!hunters. Outside of that one instance he'll read or listen to music in his room, but he doesn't watch TV or movies.

And we don't know when exactly the Dean cave was created. Just that Sam didn't learn about it until s13, long after it had clearly been finished and in use. So why did Dean put it together? We've been shown that he's okay with watching on his laptop in the library. He clearly wants a separation between his own personal living area and the tv/entertainment area.

(Presumably because motel rooms are set up with tvs right at the end of the bed and he's not living in a motel anymore.)

But, Cas loves TV as much as Dean does and with as little discrimination about the exact programming. We've seen Cas happily watch infomercials and know he enjoys trashy talk shows. Outside of the beginning of s11 Cas just doesn't spend a lot of time at the bunker. He spends most of s9 and s10 doing his own thing/supervising Sam's secret project. S11 he was posseased by Lucifer and then kidnapped by Amara for the vast majority.

So, S12 is when he really starts staying for longer periods of time. S12 is when Dean is looking at potentially weeks of Cas hanging around and sitting in the library in the middle of the night is no longer appealing. S12 is the most likely option for building the Dean cave and the most likely reason is a comfortable place to hang out with just Cas. No Sam wandering in during the middle of a movie. No one complaining that sound travels pretty well from the library and asking them to keep it down.

The Dean cave was built to spend time with Cas. The only reason Sam ever found out about it is because of the circumstances of the eventual TV acquisition. The place was fully constructed and in use by the time Sam sees it. And there is no way Dean got all of that set up by himself, Cas had to have helped.

But the Dean Cave was used as a place to hang out with Cas. Yes, movies and TV shows on the laptop, probably on a table pulled up inbetween the recliners. But also Dean and Cas sharing a drink from the bar, playing fooseball, listening to music, maybe sitting silently reading together. It's the first place Cas goes to look for Dean. They spend time there.

[uh-ohspaghettio]

Ngl some of you are a lot like Chuck (completely missing the subtext of his character and only characterize him based on how Dean chooses to portray himself to others built upon years of being told by others who he is)

[hauntedpearl]

I've said this before and I'll say it again: the problem with dean winchester is that he is a 4 year old trapped in a 40 year old's body. he literally died with his mother (and his father) in that fire. he's just this lost, lonely little soul haunting a body that's been honed to kill and Protect His Brother. he caves so easily to simple affection because there's all this empty space inside him where he should be. he's so angry and he's so scared and he's so lonely and he doesn't know how to deal with Things™. he doesn't understand how to regulate his emotions. all he knows is that he has to do a thing, and he does the thing, and if he can't do the thing, then the facade he's built so painstakingly to keep all that awful, childish yearning inside will crumble and he will not survive that. everything he does is like. an act of self-protection. and he's sooooo entirely engulfed in this world he's made up where he doesn't — can't — trust anyone to, like, just, for once, comfort him or let him break down that he truly just believes that it is the only way to live. he can't see past this deep seated fear of the world he has. he can't see past it to the hurt he's causing. he can't confront reality in any capacity. he can't survive it. he's literally a 4 year old in his bedroom, and there is a monster in his closet, and he keeps screaming for his mother to come get him, and there's no one coming. but the thing is. the door is open. and he can just leave. but he doesn't know how.

[castielsparkle]

☆ HELLFIRE !

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