scripted-downfall · 2 years ago
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how sam is paralled with john and dean is paralled with mary...
Oh, that's an interesting topic; thank you for the ask! I know a lot of people point to the opposite parallels (Dean to John, Sam to Mary), and I'm not trying to say that they're not present, but I think noticing the parallels you mentioned is also really important. I'll try to go a decent length and not get too verbose, but a lot of the parallels in this show are really cool, so I might not succeed :)
So, for Sam and John: perhaps most obviously, you've got the overtly paralleled narrative as regards their love interests. The way Mary and Jess died in the same manner; the way both immediately became obsessed with the revenge; the way they jumped both-feet-in towards revenge. (For an example of an overt canon conversation about this, I can refer you to s01e21 "Salvation", where Sam is nonplussed when Dean states that "it's not worth dying over" killing the demon.) We didn't really get to see how John would react if a family-member-but-not-love-interest were killed, but we know that Sam reacts obsessively when Dean dies and throws himself into hunting again, most notably in "Mystery Spot" and between seasons 3 and 4. And we do have a clear cinematic parallel for how they react when Dean's in a slowly oncoming danger and a demon-deal is on the table; I've included screenshots of when John was summoning Azazel compared to when Sam was summoning Ruby; the similarities in camerawork/layout are pretty clear.
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It also bears mentioning that Sam shows a lot of the same almost... clinical? way of looking at hunting. He's a little less pragmatic at the beginning, but that disappears before long; he's the one who wants to bring Adam into hunting instead of letting him keep his normal life (s04e19 again); he was willing to let and/or encourage Lester to sell his soul to find Dean when he was a demon (s10e04 "Paper Moon"); his willingness/active desire to remove the Mark from Dean's arm despite them all knowing it could harm countless innocent people (s10e23 "Brother's Keeper"); and, though I haven't gotten here in canon yet, there's the line about "I know you think that you can use him as some sort of an interdimensional can opener, and that's fine. But don't act like you care about him, because you only care about what he can do for you." (s13e03 "Patience") I admit that I don't know for sure if this is an accurate assessment of the situation, but the fact that I would believe that it's true says something.
Sam and John also both have a tendency toward similar personalities. Both place responsibility for Sam at Dean's feet... which is oddly at cross-purposes with a lot of Sam's personality (by which I refer to previous points about how Sam has a lot of his motivation rooted in moving out from Dean's overprotective tendencies, proving he's not a child, showing he can handle himself, etc.). They leave Dean with a lot of the burden of curtailing Sam's self-control (see: s02e01 "In My Time of Dying" --- John's famous save-him-or-kill-him order --- compared with s02e11 "Playthings" ---when Sam, while drunk, demands that Dean kill him if he's out of control). Also, they have a tendency to lash out to vent anger (whereas, say what you will about Dean, but he usually hides pretty much every emotion until cornered).
As for Dean and Mary... They were both raised into the life from the very beginning (whereas John --- leaving aside the as-of-yet-unknown events of The Winchesters --- only came into it after Mary died, and Sam a) came into it slightly later than Dean --- we know he didn't know about it until he was about 11, which is still too young, but is older than Dean was --- and b) only truly embraced it after Jess). Both tended to be more the home-maker types; Mary wanted the normal life away from hunting to start a family, and Dean is repeatedly shown to be "nesting" (s08e14 "Trial and Error"), as well as having parental instincts (settling down with Lisa after "Swan Song", taking care of Bobby-John in s06e02 "Two and a Half Men", pretty much any time he's protective of Sam, etc.) and there's his adorable reaction to getting a room at the bunker.
Additionally, when they lose family members, they have very different coping mechanisms from the other two; the main parallel being, of course, making their deal (Mary dealing with Azazel in s04e03 "In the Beginning" and Dean selling his soul in the s2 finale). We don't really know how Mary grieves over an extended period of time, but Dean very clearly grieves in a different manner from John/Sam. If he can't do anything to bring someone back, he usually just shuts everything down until Sam tries to talk to him about it and then lashes out.
Also, this is probably going to seem false at first glance, but I'm saying it anyway; Dean is more empathetic. Sam wants to deal with emotion more, but he doesn't really understand it in other people; most of the time he's emotionally connected to someone --- e.g. insisting that a non-human background doesn't necessarily make someone evil, latching onto the Sam parallel in any given narrative (like Alicia Barns instead of Max) --- it's because he's got a personal parallel to them. Ironically, it's Dean who makes the suggestion that Lucifer and Chuck talk things out, "I-feel"-therapy-style, in season 11, and there are other, more subtle examples (e.g. connecting with Lucas in s01e03 "Dead in the Water", etc.)
And it also bears mentioning that the interactions between both pairs are handled similarly in-show. Season 1 has Sam and John at each others throats, and Dean mediating. Dean even points this out in s04e19 "Jump the Shark" (You know, I finally get why you and Dad butted heads so much. You two were practically the same person.) Thus, it's notable that season 12 has Dean and Mary struggling to get along, with Sam more in the middle.
I don't know that these are all the parallels, but a) I said I'd try to keep the post vaguely short and b) I've been going in circles adding/deleting stuff, and my brain is a touch scrambled... feel free to add stuff on if you have it! Or to (politely) correct stuff I said! Thanks to anon for the ask; I hope the answer was enjoyable enough!
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asoftepiloguemylove · 3 months ago
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SPEND ALL THE EVENINGS YOU CAN WITH THE PEOPLE WHO RAISED YOU / 'CAUSE ALL THE TIMES THEY WILL CHANGE // ON NOSTALGIA, GROWING UP, AND MOVING ON
Lorde Stoned at the Nail Salon // Djo End of Beginning // Katatsumori (1994) dir. Naomi Kawase (via @octoberdead) // @lettingitlinger1 // Taylor Swift Never Grow Up // 怪物 Monster (2023) dir. Hirokazu Kore-eda // Sam Haft You Will Be Okay (Simon's Lullaby) // Keaton St. James A LIST FOR NIGHTDREAMERS // @chloeinletters // Sylvia Plath Witch Burning from "The Collected Poems" // Aftersun (2022) dir. Charlotte Wells // Lorde Stoned at the Nail Salon // Banana Yoshimoto Kitchen // Moonlight (2016) dir. Barry Jenkins // John Green Looking for Alaska // 방탄소년단 BTS EPILOGUE : YOUNG FOREVER // Stephen Chbosky The Perks of Being a Wallflower // 火垂るの墓 Grave of the Fireflies dir. Isao Takahata
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lambmotifz · 25 days ago
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like mother like daughter
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seasononesam · 5 months ago
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- The Family Reunion by T. S. Eliot
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wolfboywarmachines · 11 months ago
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i do not remember my life before you and i hope to never see one after you
the holy bible // supernatural (2005-2020) // "the fall of the house of usher" - edgar allan poe (1839) // bridgerton (2020-) // where things come back - john corey whaley (2011) // the addams family (1991) // antigonick - anne carson (2012) // the chronicles of narnia: the lion, the witch, and the wardrobe (2005) // the other boelyn girl (2008) // the parent trap (1998) // "brother, sister, rival, friend: the longstanding effects of sibling relationships" - joshua a. krisch (2019) // pride and prejudice (2005) // "song for sasha banks" - the mountain goats (2018) // it (2017) // "the reynolds pamphlet" - original broadway cast of hamilton (2015) // little women (2019) // "the secret of siblings -- the relationship between brothers and sisters has a degree of closeness - and distance - like no other" - erica e. goode (1994) // before i fall (2017) // unknown // succession (2018-2023) // unknown // stranger things (2016-) // the perpetual calendar of inspiration - vera nazarian (2010)
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spnstillstudies · 8 months ago
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dean + holding his family (1, 2, 3)
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thismustbeso · 1 year ago
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Dad, don’t you let it kill me
Devil’s Trap / How To Write A Love Letter To Your Brother - From Smoking the Bible, Chris Abani
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sammygender · 5 months ago
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i’ve said this soooo many times but i cannot believe the widespread fandom take on nightmares is ‘episode that proves john didn’t hit the kids or at least that sam didn’t know about :)’ NO??? that entire episode is to directly parallel sam to max??? i really hate to break it to you guys but sam being like Damn at least we weren’t and aren’t still being regularly beat to shit by the two male parental figures in our lives 🙏 lucky to have dad fr is not the same as him saying Wow i’m so grateful dad never hit us at all. essentially he is literally like ‘if dad had got drunk more often and hadn’t channeled his energy into hunting maybe we would’ve ended up like max. guess i should be grateful he didn’t”. hello. how does that endorse an entirely violence-free parenting style. like have your own interpretation. but the text of the episode isn’t saying John didn’t hit them. the text of the episode is intentionally bringing up the concept of john hitting them, withholding direct judgement/confirmation on whether it happened and keeping it ambiguous, sure, but still bringing it to our attention.
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becauseofthebowties · 2 years ago
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THE WINCHESTERS 1.05 | SUPERNATURAL 1.01
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rocks-in-space · 2 years ago
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"We're all villains in Nassau. Don't think because you're new you're any different."
[Image ID: 5 photos from Black Sails overlain with text. The pictures show Silver and Madi kissing, a close-up of Madi's face in the dark with Billy's hand holding a knife to her throat, Israel Hands and two other pirates holding the open chest of gems on the deck of the Walrus, a close-up of Madi's face looking hurt with Silver in the background in her room in the Maroon camp, and Silver pointing a gun at Flint. Text reads, "Do you have a wife? How do you imagine she would feel if she were told you were suffering some awful, degrading abuse and that the only way she could end it would be to betray your trust? How do you think she would feel if she betrayed you, knowing she likely lost that trust forever? 'And no one was harmed.'" end ID]
Photos from fancaps.net
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mobius-m-mobius · 1 year ago
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#sure could've used Gene in 2006 😔😅
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lambmotifz · 1 month ago
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something something john’s idealization of mary something something canonical sam/mary parallels something something the only two women dean views as pure and innocent are his mother and his little brothersister something something dean’s obsession with sam’s purity/the perfect version of sam….
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castielsparkle · 1 year ago
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☆ ...on siblings & safekeeping & secrets-kept
☆ supernatural 5x02 - good god, y'all | dexter 6x12 - this is the way the world ends | supernatural 4x20 - the rapture | dexter 1x01 - dexter
please do not tag as 'ship' - this is not intended as such so fans of that please dni, thank you
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completelymindfucked · 6 months ago
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scoobydoodean · 1 year ago
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Sam and John + Revenge Trail Weapons Molds | 1.20, 3.11
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flowersintheimpala69 · 1 month ago
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hey so this is insane
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