simplybbh-blog

[literatigifs]

anonymous asked: I once read an article that was about how the audience was too hard on Dean as a character and some fans agree with that. What do you think?

I honestly think that at times some fans aren't hard enough on his character, but let me explain my reasoning for this.

Dean as a character is ultimately one that has no real purpose or storyline beyond being Rory's first boyfriend, and a considerate fodder for tension under the guise of romance for Rory when it's convenient for the storyline. I've seen people defend him by saying he's just an 'emotional' teenage boy when it comes to his issues with Rory, but the problem with this is that Dean stops being a teenager around season 3 when he turns 18 and then decides to get married out of high school. I'm not saying that he should suddenly exert the wisdom of a fully-fledged adult, but Dean isn't a teenager for the entirety of his screentime, and this excuse gets old after a while when his behavior becomes unexcusable towards other people aside from Rory. Even if you hate Rory and are glad to see her "fall from grace" once she sleeps with Dean who is still married, that doesn't excuse his behavior towards Lindsay who did nothing wrong to him, in fact often tried to do what he wanted in order to be the perfect wife to a husband who had a job that supported them. It also doesn't excuse him being an immature ass towards everyone else when his issues don't lie with them (particularly with Rory during their relationship but even with Luke in his final season 5 scene).

Another issue is that frankly, we know nothing of Dean's life outside of his relationship with Rory to even claim that he has some horrible or imperfect home life to suggest that that is the reason behind his behavior. The difference between him and Jess and Logan is that we at least know to a certain extent what the latter's parental figures are like, whereas Dean's family just comes off as typically fine? And this is part of why his temper tantrums get incredibly old after a short while, because it goes from a teenage boy being 'emotional' to expecting everyone, but particularly his girlfriend, to do what he wants her to do and for his own comfort. Instead of ever just confronting Jess on his behavior that bothered him so much, he repeatedly takes out his emotional weight on Rory by accusing her of getting Jess in her house when Dean wanted to come by, or getting angry with her for a situation that Jess instigated in the first place with the basket bidding. Even the whole "well Rory emotionally cheated on him!" argument gets old when you see Dean willingly cheat on his wife by lying to Rory about leaving her. I don't think I have to draw out a mental map to explain how Rory trying to distance herself from Jess in order to make her relationship work with Dean in season 3 is still miles better than Dean seemingly having no issue with trying to have a full-fledged affair with Rory in season 5, it's really not even comparable since again, he's the one that was married, not in just a teenage relationship with Lindsay.

Tldr; basically, Dean runs out of all the excuses as he continues to make more than his own share of mistakes throughout his screentime, and his complete lack of positive development doesn't help in leaving any kind of better look on him. And blaming all his mistakes on his ex-girlfriend can only go so far when you remember that he was never held at gunpoint to marry another woman whom he actually didn't love enough, thereby hurting her in the process.