#if you don’t think sam loved dean unconditionally then idk what to tell you

[lambmotifz]

thinking about those two times dean confessed to sam that he enjoyed killing & torturing people and how both times sam was understanding and just accepted it

[sortasirius]

“Inherit the Earth” and the Fakeout

Absolutely genius.  Amazing, iconic, legendary, something only our showrunner Andrew Dabb can pull off.

"But Lilly, the episode was so bad!  It was just the brothers, they didn’t look for Cas and Eileen!”

YES.  THAT IS EXACTLY THE POINT.  THIS WAS A FAKE ENDING, THE END OF THE SEASON, NOT OF THE SERIES.

Let’s get into it.

An empty world.  No one left but Sam, Dean, and Jack.

So Dean ran, he somehow managed to pick himself up off the floor of the dungeon and meet up with Sam and Jack.  That jacket was this silent reminder.  Remember what I’ve been saying, Cas has occupied the negative space all season, this is no exception.

Dean can’t look either of them in the face, he’s doing that thing, where his eyes move everywhere BUT where he should look. 

“I couldn’t save anybody.”

Sam couldn’t save the world and Dean couldn’t save the one person that means the world to him.

“Where’s Cas?”

“Dean?”

I think it’s there, in that pause where Dean tries to push down the emotions, continue the fight, not think about the memories he left in the bunker, that Jack realizes what must have happened. Jack is the only one that knows about the deal, he has to know what Cas not being there must mean.

“He saved me.  Billie was coming after us.  Cas summoned the Empty.  It took her...and took him.  Cas is gone.”

This may shock you, but I am GLAD they didn’t talk about Cas, especially with what happens at the end of the episode.  Cas is allowed to just take up unsaid space.  It’s obvious he’s missing with the way they blocked things, obvious he’s missing here.  This whole “oh well they don’t care about Cas because they didn’t talk about him”?  Malarkey.

“Jack I’m sorry.”

Guilt.  Regret.  Pain.  Dean will carry this with him for the rest of his life.  Not only that he lost Cas, but that Sam lost Cas, that Jack lost Cas.

That SHOT, with the distance between Jack and Sam where Cas is SUPPOSED TO BE, and then a zoom out to...THE WORLD.

Okay, as usual, Bucklemming has the subtlety of a sledgehammer lmao.

Jack crying???  Praying to Cas????  Bruh?????

Also it’s just straight-up frightening for everything around my boy to die he is my baby son.

Also not to point out the incredibly obvious, but Dean starts drinking immediately, and continues drinking throughout the whole episode.  Grief arc 2.0 babey.

“We can what, Dean?  There’s no one left to save!  Everybody’s gone!”

“You can’t just give up.”

“What other choice do we have!”

Idk why, but for Sam, who’s the constant, the one who’s always had hope, through everything, through all these years, when he finally says this, when he finally loses his hope?  It hits the hardest.  Sam is the leader, so not only is he grieving the loss of Eileen, he is a general grieving the loss of his soldiers, his friends, the world that he feels the duty to save.

When they go to meet Chuck, I just can’t get that image of Dean, leaning against the car, handprint still on his jacket, staring at the ground out of my head.  It takes him a few seconds to catch up to Sam, like he’s pulled out of thoughts like deep dark water.  Remember friends, it doesn’t have to be loud to be powerful.

Chuck wearing BLACK?  FEAR.

“That’s right, the whole Cain and Abel thing.  Us dead, whatever.  I’ll kill Sam, Sam’ll kill me, we’ll kill each other.  Okay, you pick.  But first?  You gotta put everything back the way it was.  The people, the birds...Cas.  You gotta bring him back.”

Willing to kill his brother.  Willing to die.  Tears in his eyes, begging God to bring Cas back.

And Chuck?  Chuck doesn’t care about their surrender, he knows he’s already got them beaten.  He cares about their pain, he cares about them suffering, because to him?  That’s the entertainment.  He’s not entertained by their found family, by their happiness, by their joy.  He wants them to suffer, all of them.

“Eternal shame.  Suffering.  And loneliness.”

And he leaves them with just that.  No hope, no family, just the three of them, broken, alone.  Jack locked in his bedroom, Sam trying desperately to make life “normal” again.  And Dean.  Dean who drank so much he passed out on the floor.

He doesn’t feel terrific, he feels like shit, because not only is he dealing with the shame of an empty planet, he’s dealing with the guilt of being back in the place where the Empty took Cas.

This whole thing with the dog was just absolutely heartwrenching shit and if I didn’t hate Chuck before, him snapping Miracle right in front of an already fragile Dean would seal that deal.

I just want everyone to know that this is a Jake Abel stan account.

“Daddy’s boy” is a big insult for my boy Dean to use considering his own past with his trash abusive father but I’ll allow it.

I do think it’s interesting, ending of his arc aside, that Michael is willing to help them now.  What changed?  Sure, he ended up trying to help Chuck, running back to his father, but why get back in the game?  I wonder if it has anything to do with the loss of Adam.  It’s an interesting parallel, a man loses his angel while an angel loses his human.

Everything is so DARK in the Bunker now too, even the lighting is loud.

When I tell you I lost my shit when I saw Cas was calling Dean, when I heard Misha’s voice??  I knew it didn’t make any sense but I didn’t care, I would’ve been one step behind Dean as he sprinted towards the door.

Fuck you, Eugenie.

I mean it’s torture not only to Dean, who looks beyond fucking crushed when it’s damn Lucifer at the door, but for us too.  Who the FUCK wanted Lucifer back?  And to tease Cas???  Garbage.

I mean...fam.  Listen, we know who’s writing this episode, this whole Betty thing is just like blatantly unnecessary but again, Eugenie loves Lucifer, gotta distract her with a shiny toy lmao.

It was cool to see Michael and Lucifer onscreen together.  It was a cool dynamic that we rarely got to see.

The whole episode is just twist after twist.  Listen, it’s their last episode so I guess they needed to fit in a season worth of twists in one episode.

Bye Lucifer.  We know Eugenie can’t bring him back.  Blessings to all.

This scene with Adam is the FOURTH scene where Dean is drinking...big yikes to my guy’s liver.

Here’s the thing about Michael.  He’s a mirror for Dean in season 5.  Loyal to an absent father.  He has never changed, but Dean has.  Dean is able to acknowledge now, the trauma that his father put him through, he was able to move past the need for pleasing him at any cost.  Michael and Chuck?  Are John and Dean, if Dean had never been allowed to grow.  And Chuck proves, like John did, that he would always put his wants (in John’s case “the mission”) over his children.

Also not to beat a dead horse but Michael’s death was also peak Eugenie.

Sam getting to punch Chuck in the face?  Thank you, he deserves that.

Obviously I don’t love any scene of my boys getting brutally beaten.  But what I love, what I will always love about them, is what Chuck hates about them:  they won’t ever give up.  They know they won’t win against him, they don’t even land any hits, but that’s not what matters.  What matters is their controller doesn’t control them anymore, that they really are free.  No matter how hard they get hit, the get back up.  It is their choice to stand up to him, no matter the cost.

The moment where Sam and Dean are supporting each other, covered in blood, and they look God in the face, and they laugh.  That is why I will love them unconditionally for the rest of my life.  That is who they are, they will never cow to the villain, whether that’s Azazel or Alastair or Zachariah or Lucifer or Amara or Death or Metatron or Cain or God.  They will always choose to stand up.

“Why are you smiling?”

“Because.  You lose.”

Chills.  What a line.

And Chuck is left, small, human, no longer a villain, no longer anything.

Gotta be real, woulda been nice to, idk, not see all this essential plot in a flashback, but I know I can only ask so much of Bucklemming.

For Dean to walk away from killing Chuck, right after he’s called him “the ultimate killer” is quite simply the most beautifully heartwrenching thing I could ever ask for.  Because that’s who Dean was under Chuck, that’s who Chuck wanted him to be.

And he would have before:

But he’s heard some things since then, heard some things about how others see him.  Not as the killer, not as a monster, not as angry and broken or his daddy’s blunt instrument:

I’m not saying that Dean doesn’t kill Chuck for Cas.  He doesn’t kill Chuck because he doesn’t think he has to anymore, he doesn’t kill Chuck because he listened to Cas, he took Cas’ words to heart.  He made the choice not to be the killer.

“See that’s not who I am, that’s not who we are.”

And Chuck is angry, because he thought, after everything, even after losing, that he would still know Dean well enough to know that he would kill him.  But Chuck has never really known Dean, he has never understood where he’s really come from.  Cas understood, Sam and Jack understand, but Chuck never did, and writing off Dean as angry and broken is his biggest mistake, because that’s never been Dean.

“It’s not his power anymore.”

And it’s not just his physical power, it’s his power over the story, over the boys that’s the real power taken from him.

For Jack to be the one to bring everyone back, for him to be the hero of the story?  That’s poetic right there.  Now, I will say, I don’t think this story ends with him as God, because for him, the child, to take on this burden, it doesn’t make a ton of sense to me for his arc, but we shall see next week.  It felt pretty tied up, but there’s one major loose end: and that’s Jack seeing Cas again.

“Just you and me, going wherever the story takes us.  Just us.”

“Finally free.”

This doesn’t feel triumphant to me, it doesn’t feel like relief.  It feels like they’ve settled, like this is the best they’re going to get, so they might as well make the best of it, at least they have each other.

For Cas and Jack to be carved into the table?  I cry.

And for the montage, very similar to “Swan Song” to be set to “Runnin on Empty”?  Sorry but that’s just too sus to be ignored.

They packaged this episode as an ending, because for many, it might be.  The season’s story, the season about fighting Chuck is over.  So, you might be asking (or, well, screaming, judging by my replies lol), what’s left?  And that’s a good question, Chuck has been defeated, so what is left?  What’s left is what’s really mattered all season: the relationships that have been crafted over the years.  Dean and Sam’s unhappiness at the end of the episode, where “just you and me” sounded more of a grudging acceptance than anything else, is one of the clues that has to be looked at.  Why didn’t Sam find Eileen, why didn’t Jack bring back Cas?  Those two characters specifically are the ones we need to watch out for.  As I’ve said over and over again, peace, contentment, satisfaction, those don’t come from Sam and Dean on the open road together anymore.  They have a family, more of a family than they did when they started hunting together all those years ago, and that family is what holds them together.  They need each other, of course, but each other isn’t enough anymore.  Sam needs Eileen, Dean needs Cas.  That is where they will find their peace.

This episode, as many written by Bucklemming was sloppy, rushed, packed full of shit, and had little gems that we can talk about forever, but that was the end of the season, and next week?  Andrew Dabb brings us home, where Dean and Sam will finally be able to choose what they want for themselves, and that, my friends, is Eileen and Cas.

[lesbianelphie]

Hey so I’ve seen you posting the supernatural/stranger things parallels and damn I didn’t realize there were so many. So thank you for pointing those out!! also I’m kind of curious do you think the st main characters would get along with spn main characters? Idk what seasons to base this off of but overall thinking about the main characters journeys. Like do you think the party/teens/adults from st would overall like team free will? Damn this is so open ended so like hopefully you don’t get confused by it! If you do just tell me to narrow it down or something! Have a great day/night!

Hmmm this is such an interesting question that could be approached in so many different ways. Short answer is I think they would like each other in a Self-Recognition Through The Other way. These guys are all massive dorks at heart and it's all about loving your (found) family and breaking cycles and challenging constructions of deviation/monstrosity/otherness. Long version is:

- A concept: ca 1985-87 John Winchester rolls into Hawkins with baby Sam and Dean in tow to investigate the Happenings. He tries to talk to Hopper the same way Murray did with similar results. Joyce/Hopper somehow find out that he's basically dragging his 2 small children along with him on a monster hunt and leaving them alone for extended periods and report him to the appropriate authorities. Joyce Byers in danger of adopting more children. (On that note I think Hopper and Bobby would make excellent friends. Hopper is basically if you combined Bobby Singer and Jody Mills into one person. Parental figure/adoptive parent, trauma over loss of a child).

- On another similar note I have a lot of feelings about the similarities/differences between Sam+Dean and Will+Jonathan. Parentification of older siblings and snarky queer-coded siblings and growing up in poverty and absent fathers whose presence is at least partially remediated by the presence of unconditionally loving/present parents/parental figures. Forming an identity around adherence/rebellion against that absent father vs. "you shouldn't like something just because people say you're supposed to". Healthy vs. Unhealthy sibling dynamics. Sam Winchester running away to college to escape his father vs. Jonathan Byers not going away for college bc he doesn't feel like he can leave his family.

- El and Cas and Jack would absolutely love each other so much. Just a bunch of Weird Girls (gn, affectionate) learning the intricacies of humanity/society while learning to see their value outside of their power. Finding out who they are and building a family that loves them for exactly that regardless of their usefulness. They would be best friends.

- Nancy "Unauthorized Investigative Journalism" Wheeler would LOVE Sam "So Get This" "The Lore" Winchester. She would become a hunter just so she could put on a little disguise and tag along for Monster of the Week.

- this is more of a rambling about thematic content but. Spn on the dichotomy of monstrosity/humanity (hunter/monster lifestyle vs. White Picket Fence) and ST as a commentary on forced conformity. What is "normal" and who is a "freak"? Who is the authority on the acceptable level of deviance? White picket fences that hide unhappy marriages. Ending up Just Like Your Parents. Characters who are desperate to live a normal life vs. characters who rebuke it. Finding a home in embracing your authentic self and slowly building a found family of people who love and understand you.

- on that note, Karen Wheeler meeting Mary Winchester would be. We don't have time to unpack ALL of that. Trapped in a life of normalcy to conform to what was expected of you vs. to rebel and escape the life expected of you. The baby is crying and your husband is asleep in his armchair. Is this your life? Who are you, really? I think it would break them.

- Dean "secret NerdDork" "besties with a lesbian supergeek" Winchester would vibe with stobin and eddie and the party so hard if they got him out of his shell.

I am accepting constructive criticism on this one so feel free to chime in

[finalgirlbrainrot]

I wanted to write a fancy meta with quotes and screencaps and stuff about the difference between sam's reactions to dean keeping secrets from him and dean's reactions to sam keeping secrets from him (because I've seen a lot of dean stans calling sam a hypocrite for being mad at dean for not telling him about jack dying in 15x16) but I'm too lazy, so I'm just gonna go into incoherent ranting, but anyway, thing is

whenever sam is mad at dean for keeping secrets from him, it's always about stuff that either affects sam directly (like john's last words or the gadreel possession) or stuff that directly affects people sam cares about (dean killing amy or jack dying)

but dean gets mad at sam for keeping secrets about himself, secrets that in no way affect dean, which is his god given right (like him using his psychic abilities or drinking demon blood or his friendship with ruby)

also something else I want to point out is their reactions when the other one is being honest and tries to open up

whenever dean is being honest and opens up to sam about anything, sam is unconditionally supportive (like when he told him about what the amara bond or about what he did in hell)

but whenever sam is honest with dean, dean is rarely, if ever, supportive. when sam told him he let amy go, he went being sam's back and killed her. when sam told him about his hallucinations, dean was upset that sam hadn't told him earlier and acted as if sam's mental illness was a personal affront to him and used said mental illness to justify amy's murder. when sam told him about his visions and about getting infected with the darkness sickness, dean used him getting infected to dismiss his visions and mocked his faith

when dean confessed to being suicidal in 8x14, sam responded by praising him and telling him that he's not a grunt. when sam confessed to being suicidal in 8x23, dean responded by making it all about himself and about what HE DID FOR SAM

honestly, if I was in sam's place, I would've stopped telling dean anything somewhere around s4

there's this thread in particular where op was complaining about how everyone is allowed to keep secrets, except dean (looool like what show have you even been watching mate) and they used these examples: sam in s4, cas' deal with the empty, jack's death

okay

*looks into the camera like I'm in the office*

*inhales*

OKAY KIDS REPEAT AFTER ME!!!!!!!!!!!

SAM KEEPING HIS FRIENDSHIP WITH RUBY, HIS POWERS AND THE DEMON BLOOD (THINGS THAT ONLY AFFECTED SAM AND RUBY AND THE DEMONS HE WAS EXORCISING AND IN NO WAY AFFECTED DEAN) A SECRET IS HIS GOD GIVEN RIGHT

CAS KEEPING HIS DEAL WITH THE EMPTY (SOMETHING THAT ONLY AFFECTED CAS AND IN NO WAY AFFECTED DEAN) A SECRET IS HIS GOD GIVEN RIGHT

JACK KEEPING HIS DEATH A SECRET - okay, this is a bit more complicated, because jack is still a child and he SHOULDN'T keep something like that a secret, BUT IT'S STILL NOT THE SAME AS DEAN KEEPING SECRETS ABOUT OTHER PEOPLE

DEAN KEEPING SOMETHING ABOUT SAM'S SON (AND NO, THE FACT THAT DEAN DOESN'T CONSIDER HIM FAMILY DOESN'T CHANGE THAT) A SECRET FROM SAM (AND NOT JUST SOMETHING MEANINGLESS, BUT THE FACT THAT HE WAS LITERALLY SENDING HIM TO HIS DEATH, SOMETHING THAT DIRECTLY PUTS HIM IN HARM'S WAY) AND USING THE EVERGREEN "BUT YOU COULDN'T HANDLE IT, I WAS PROTECTING YOUUUUUUU" (WHICH IS COMPLETE BULLSHIT) AS AN EXCUSE IS FUCKED UP AND CRUEL AND IN NO WAY COMPARABLE TO THE EXAMPLES ABOVE

HOW IS THAT SO HARD TO UNDERSTAND?

*drops mic*

also this is kinda off topic but during the whole "jack has to die in order to kill god" thing, I've noticed this really interesting parallel:

in 5x13, anna wants to kill sam because she thinks it's the only way to stop lucifer, since nothing else seems to be working. now I say this as someone who loves sam to death and will defend him to my last breath, but anna's logic makes sense. even if it's awful, killing one person to save the world is... reasonable. and we all know that sam is more that willing to sacrifice himself for the greater good and he even proves it once again in that same episode: he asks cas if anna has a point, cas says no, but he looks at dean before answering, so I don't think he was being truthful. anyway my point is, objectively, anna's logic here isn't wrong. and yet she's demonized by the fandom because of this and I've seen a lot of people even saying that she became a villain in this episode

now fast forward 10 years later. s15 has dean more than willing to send jack (a literal 3 year old child, who's so desperate for dean's approval he's willing to kill himself to get it) to his death so he could kill chuck. not for some greater good, not because chuck was literally destroying worlds, but because dean wants to be free from chuck's influence. and even after sam tells him that if the plan succeeds, pretty much everyone they know will die, he's still okay with it as long as chuck is gone. and yet the fandom will literally bend backwards to defend him

idk just some food for thought