#really overestimated the protection being squishy would give me

[shih-coulda-had-it]

why cat paw hurt when jumping onto me

[incarnateirony]

we need to talk about the finale

Listen, I know, I knowwwwww it was bad it sucks etc etc but just. Bear with me a second here.

So I'm gonna preface this to avoid misunderstandings: In no way am I actually defending the finale in any of this. Its bad wigs, its secondhand embarrassing death scene, its blurry wives, any of it.

What I AM about to do is protect Dean Winchester from his own supposed fans who, in reaction, have actually been doing far more damage than the finale itself ever did.

.Yeah. You read that right.

Listen. I am so Goddamn sick. Of the "Dean gave up/was suicidal" take. I know that death scene is hard to process, but in choosing to double and triple down on that, people are literally kidnapping what growth Dean WAS allowed to have.

I can explain until I'm blue in the face on things like travel times, structural integrity and beamers, and basic biology--all things Dean, a smart warrior, silently calculated in his head. Some of which was even in the original script but they cut out, assuming the audience, being adults, would also understand these things naturally, but apparently really overestimating people's willingness to think when hit by emotions, so they probably REALLY should have kept that ELI5 in there.

Having PTSD flashbacks to when I had to explain why Sam's jugular being ripped open in Beat the Devil means he was dead before he went down the tunnel, nobody "gave up" on him. But people lashed out. They didn't want to think about any of that. They favored the anger. Like things I'm sure 99% of the upset people probably knew since they were like 10 years old just flies out the window when looking for something, SOME WAY to parse WHY they are so upset but not being able to like. pontificate it well.

Dean Winchester is literally the story of a dude that inherited his father's shit plate, and misguidedly idolized that father, despite his bad attributes. He took on being a dual parent in the absence of it, and in many ways, mirrored that parent he knew, but he mirrored both. Like how he processed loss and grief, with early S13 in example (you're acting like dad). And yes, his romance parallel. That obsession, revenge, all of it.

And over time he thought that's who he was. John 2.0. Daddy's blunt instrument. But Cas taught him that he wasn't. He was more Mary than he was John. But beyond that, he was himself. And that hate, anger, a killer, that's not who he was. And when Cas stole his heart from Death, not only did Dean learn who he was but he started to live, to love.

Turned over cups all year, rejected food, you're hungry, I'm hungry, why not eat. Dean started trying to eat, even if the pie was smashed in his face. He started. Living. And loving. Because THAT'S who he was. And that's. Literally the whole point.

I want to chew on glass whenever I read Thee Suicide Take.

Dean wasn't suicidal. Dean wasn't giving up. Dean just knew that human squishy bits staying inside are pretty important to the being alive thing, and there was no way to fix the squishy bits in time, so rather than ending on hysteria of pointless ambulances, he took what he learned from Cas (AGAIN), and used his last moments to say something important.

He found peace. He found his garden. In order to be in the Soul, the Soul must be in You. Now, like Cas, his life was No Longer Empty, and Heaven Waited For Him. After years of yearning for Death. Cas re-taught him that spark.

And choosing to triple down on ignoring all of this. That's literally destroying what little things Dean DID get, it's destroying his self actualization, all to just sort of swing at something we all know is OBJECTIVELY bad. But there's other ways to critique it than totally forgetting biology or that distance+travel=time or that support beamers hold up buildings guys. There's ways to express frustration that are intelligent. And ways to do it without forgetting and deleting who Dean Winchester is, and his entire journey, while claiming to defend him.

We can point out the embarrassing, jpeg overacted protracted death scene really broke the vibe of recovery because it featured almost as long as dean's positive living curve did. We can point out Singer's annoying ass being all over the episode in every way possible. We can point out bad wigs and blurry wives. We can discuss ways the narrative integrity waffled in its final form. How Dean, as the scrappy streetfighter, would have shoved a vampire onto the nail and not the other way around. These are all ways to discuss and express frustrations on where we felt the narrative fell short.

Hell, we can argue about if the path as a general statement (beyond dickbar specifics) makes sense. People will probably disagree with me all day on that one, that's fine. I already knew it was gonna happen and had been putting it in 2 years of video spec. But not the embarrassing HOW. But sure! Debate that!

But please STOP actively destroying what little good Dean got out of things just because someone doesn't want to take the time to really mechanically break down WHY they are upset and WHAT went wrong, because in "defending Dean", you're taking a hammer to 15 years of him. And what he learned. And even to Cas. And Destiel. And all of it. It's just active demolition of what value Dean had, and learned, and I'm so tired of reading it.

THE STUPID DEATH SCENE, I WAS SUBJECTED TO FOR SEVEN MINUTES.

THE DESTRUCTIVE FANDOM DIALOGUE I AM SUFFERING EXPOSURE TO A YEAR AND A HALF LATER.

STOP IT.