#like suppression vs redirection. they’re worlds apart to me

[dogduocatquartet]

going off that last post because my tags were getting too long but my sister (shit with animals and don’t know fuck all about them) has always INSISTED that oskar (a TERRIER/SPITZ MIX) wouldn’t bark if we just trained him better like 😐

and yeah, sure, maybe he wouldn’t, but.. he IS well-trained. my mom and stepdad live in the middle of nowhere, for them his purpose of “alerting everyone when Things Happen” is hugely useful. he never barks for no reason! sometimes the reason is “i heard a deer in the yard at 1 am” which can be annoying but ultimately he’s doing his job. he’s being good.

[amwritingmeta]

15x10: Normality

So. Dabb swoops in and throws our boys into a topsy-turvy state of existence where God’s torn away their horseshoe of very few real-world small-stuff consequences and left them stumbling and fumbling, with colds and cavities. Hells to the yessss.

Here’s the thing (and my fervent hope): our boys have been spoilt. They have, though. They’ve been spoilt to the point of complacency when it comes to actually being aware of the choices they make. They’re so used to the grooves of their patterns of behaviour that the narrative is still finding ingenious ways of pushing them to recognise said patterns of behaviour and, hopefully, realise they have to move out of them. Once and for all. 

This episode, and I say this gently and with all the love, both brothers are displaying absolute dumb-ass stupidity at the highest level, and the gloriousness of it all is how the narrative underlines that this stupidity comes from never really having to think about what actually could be the possibly simple (and often big) consequences of their actions. 

Because that’s how their story has always been written.

The brothers throw themselves into situations and everything turns out okay in the end, right? They go into a fight more often than not entirely without a plan in place, or even a  proper conversation or any type of strategic thinking behind it, because they always win. Because they’re the heroes of this story. 

And now here comes the narrative (Dabb is Lord) and yanks that away from them, and my fervent hope comes into it because I hope it’s for a bigger reason than them needing to chase down a deal to gain some manufactured luck. 

I hope the reason is actually to show them how their patterns of behaviour aren’t cutting it anymore, and that they have to start looking at them and they have to start thinking outside of this box they’ve been living in their whole lives and know so well. 

It’s telling that the moment God throws a small wrench in their machinery (which I suppose we can assume he actually did), they both completely freak out and, honestly, lose every ounce of faith that they’re any good at what they do. 

Which, hopefully, will be proven utterly ridiculous in the next few episodes. 

Because they’re the guys who save the world, for goodness sakes.

My hope then, and the way I see them this episode, is that they’re just blinded by fear at suddenly thinking themselves cursed, because yes there’s the credit card and Baby coughing to a stop, but there’s also a whole lot of questionable decisions made this episode. Or, as already stated, a whole lot of sincere stupidity. 

Because oh my God the parade of stupid choices is rather spectacular, and the subsequent consequences is pretty telling of how these men really, honestly do need to grow up and grow out of these patterns. Or they most likely will accidentally kill each other, because damn, guys, use your heads.

1. Dean parking in front of that fire hydrant at all. Like... just maybe don’t? Solves the problem of that ticket, right?

2. Sam grabbing that hot stuff out of the oven... and then grabbing the hot pan off the stove after he already burned himself once. Um. That’s not bad luck, that’s bad choice-making, mate. Even if food is on fucking fire and you’re scared the fire will spread you don’t use your hands. *give me strength*

3. Dean biting on a piece of candy and feeling pain and then biting the piece of candy again only to later, again, eat a piece of candy. Dean. Seriously?

4. Going to an abandoned warehouse where cage fights between monsters are filmed for the dark web without... I don’t know, staking the place out, interrogating their one witness, learning the ins and outs of the place? Do they even really need to hit up that place at all or might they find some other way to shut it down, like, say... blowing it to kingdom come? Getting an actual strategy in place rather than just driving over and arming themselves would probably be in their favour. And yah. We’re shown that it really would. *hmh*

5. Eating seven grilled cheese sandwiches in one go. I mean, there’s eating your emotions and then there’s just being plain greedy, Dean Winchester. (also stuck in unhealthy coping mechanisms and he really needs to realise he’s no youngster anymore) (grow) (up) (please) (”growing boy”) (jeeeeez Dean)

6. Yelling about lactose intolerance when you should be staying vigilant in case you’re, I don’t know, getting snuck up on from behind? “Didn’t even hear them coming” eh, Sam? *tut*

7. Thinking you can pick a lock with a nail. A rusty nail? I mean... maybe that’s worked for them at some point, but genuinely, I cannot believe they thought that would actually open that lock and if they genuinely did, then they need to relearn what they know about how locks work, because no. (also Dean breaking a nail is e-p-i-c)

8. Fighting a huge vampire with nothing but their hands. Now, listen, usually there’s preparation and proper weapons involved and they’re completely unarmed thinking they can take down a creature that just survived a pretty big explosion with a few punches? Of course they’re going to fail and fail big. Again, just trying whatever is right there rather than finding some way to regroup.

And I know these stupid decisions are, hopefully, just a hard drawn line around the stuff that needs to change if they’re going to beat Chuck at his own game, because they’re still acting from the viewpoint that Chuck’s in control and they’re just struggling to keep up, but I believe they’re wrong about that. 

Or, at least, that if they catch up to the fact that their ammunition really is their free will, their power of choice, and that, if they redirect their energy towards what they know, rather than what they don’t, they can make adjustments that ensure they actually know more than Chuck, because they’ve learned a whole lot of lessons through their journeys and they can use them now to their advantage if they just become properly aware of them, and that’s when they can begin to truly strategise against his expectations of their previous patterns of behaviour.

Aw it would be grannnnnnd and gorgeous. We shall see!

So, what’s the most pointed arrow in the narrative of 15x10 indicating that we’re dealing with stupid choices vs non-stupid ones?

This guy ^^^

The unwilling hero (much rather be a guest star) who strategises a fairly straightforward plan in order to save his two friends, using his hunter skills to great effect, because even though his werewolf side obviously comes in handy when pulling those padlocks off the cage doors, that side gets knocked out within a second of trying to fight Maul, and it’s a hunter’s weapon that saves the day. Also, C4 is a hunter’s best friend indeed.

He’s also the epitome of living an apple-pie life of perfect normality without it making him fall apart or be unable to save lives. Again, yes, a werewolf might’ve had an easier time sneaking into a warehouse full of other monsters, but the point is that he snuck in, yeah? He had an actual plan in place, bringing those explosives. Dean leaving the warehouse is all frazzled over needing a plan and Garth is all Got One Already. Cool as a cucumber. 

Because Garth’s normal is him knowing where he belongs and how he wants to belong, because he’s happy with who he is, utterly and completely, but if I dive into that aspect of this episode I’ll be up all night, so I’m gonna have to leave it. 

Safe to say: Dean dancing with a lamp is, to me, a whole lot about shining a light on all those suppressed sides of himself and embracing them without hesitation. It’s all about finding balance and admitting out loud that he always thought he could’ve been a good dancer if he’d wanted to be is just such a fantastic underlining of this, as is Sam’s simple acceptance and agreement of it.

These brothers of ours need to embrace the fact that normal is just an idea, normal is what they make of it, and they know their shit (at least I sincerely hope they do) and the most beautiful thing about it is that, if the quick fix of winning some luck is a dud and they’re left as “normal” as ever after 15x11, then they’ll have to truly make a choice between staying in the life, or feeling suddenly free to actually walk away. 

Because if they can’t muster faith that they can beat God without God’s favour, then how the hell are they ever going to beat God? Yeah? Yeah.

They need to start believing all the stuff they said this episode, because all that speech-making is really about the truth of the matter, if they want it to be.

If they choose the life, then they face God as what they would look at as mere mortals, which means they take control of their own narrative and choose to trust that they’ve got this. 

It would mean that, after everything they’ve been through, they know they can’t possibly stop fighting, and through making the choice to stick with it, they would begin to build trust in themselves from the very ground up, and that’s exactly what they need the most. 

I mean. The brain. Delights. At the mere. Insinuation.

As ever, we shall just have to wait and see what we get. I hope 15x11 is an exploration either of the fears these men are still governed by, or a beginning of building that faith in themselves that they both so sorely need. 

Amara went to Reno. Chuck holed himself up in a casino (with a big pink elephant in the middle of the room that’s driving me nuts). And now the boys are about to gamble with their lives. Gambling is about skill, it’s about luck, but it’s also a whole lot about having faith. Faith that you can win, that you deserve to win, that luck will be on your side. And since they’re playing pool - a game we know Dean is very, very good at - it feels like he’ll have to put his faith in his own skills, his capabilities, tapping into him trusting in himself. Mayhaps?

*fingers crossed*