#then they'd bicker for a hundred years and think they're all that

[deanwena]

There seems to be a lot of fighting in this fandom over how people interpret different characters, and while I think it’s stupid to fight over this stuff in any case, I’d still like to make an attempt at helping everyone find some common ground re: Dean + commitment (specifically marriage).

I know a lot of people don’t like the whole Destiel/Saileen weddings endgame (and for valid reasons, personally that one is lower on the list for me but as an annoying multishipper I still enjoy it in some cases!), but I think the “Dean would never ever want to get married” take is not the greatest — hear me out.

It’s all about perception. A huge reason as to why marriage was not always his thing was because he never believed he could have this kind of steady presence and this normalcy in his life (so marriage would also signify moving on from his past life and embracing a new one). During a lot of the earlier seasons and even in the later seasons, marriage wasn’t a thing on the table for Dean; in the beginning, marriage is seen as an either/or scenario, in that getting married (to someone who... isn’t Sam) would mean an end to his life with Sam.

We see a significant change to the discussion in later seasons, with a focus on settling down with someone in The Life. (i.e. someone who can accept and love all parts of them, including the hunting life they share with each other, so it isn't an either/or with hunting and marriage/a family/whatever, but rather an enhancement of what they've already got). So once things started looking up in later seasons (and post-canon), I think he would’ve opened up to it a bit more (remember how he talked about retiring and going to the beach and stuff?).

After defeating Chuck (however you imagine them doing that), they'd know that there is no one messing with their lives, there's no next apocalypse looming that keeps them caught in a destructive cycle that can only sustain both brothers. They can expand now, have each other in their lives and a significant other on top of it. Even here, with Dean having hope for the future, I understand why one might be still hesitant to believe marriage is something Dean might want to do — which brings in my next point.

I think marriage IS within the realm of possibilities for Dean because it would be a way of his partner, whomever that may be, promising they won’t leave him; which is something Dean struggles with a lot. His whole life people left him and he had no idea how to ask them to stay (I could talk about the “I want you to stay but I don’t know how to ask you to” / “I want to stay but I don’t know how to tell you that” and “person who pushes people away before the other person can leave” / “person who leaves before the other person makes them” Destiel dynamics all day, but I digress). So I think the concept of binding his bond with someone (even in just a small, not-extravagant and not-legally-binding way like just getting rings and saying “we’re married” then bickering for a hundred years) would be incredibly reassuring to Dean and allow room for a lot of healing in his relationships and himself in general.

Obligatory author’s note: I know I mentioned Destiel in here a few times, but I promise I’m a bibro and big time codependency enjoyer that thinks even if Sam and Dean got into separate romantic relationships they’d still live very close to or with each other because they’re just that insane. I just also happen to be very multiship and Destiel made the most sense for the examples I was giving; the message I am trying to convey, however, can apply to any Dean ship.

[refinedbuffoonery]

I saw the new Top Gun today because my dad wanted to go for Father’s Day! I like it a lot more than the original, because Maverick in the original is just sleazy. But your post about an AU (the nerd in me wants to crack a joke that the idea is “golden” because Au is the periodic table symbol for gold) got me thinking!

I’d vote for it to be the second movie. Mac is Rooster, Jack is Maverick. Riley is Phoenix (whose character I adored, by the way), Boze is most certainly Bob. Here’s where it gets more complicated. For Ice Man, I’m thinking it could be Patty, Desi, or the lady from Season 1 who’s name I’m forgetting. Sarah? Goose was probably Pena, that would definitely fit into the plot nicely given Mac’s relationship with him in canon and reaction to his death. The hostility between Maverick and Rooster is kinda like the early Sandbox days, though it’s more on Rooster’s end, so that differs, cause Jack was more of the instigator in the show. The admiral who’s always pissed off at Maverick is one hundred percent Matty! I’d love to fit Sam Cage in there somewhere, too!

But I wanna hear more about your idea of Desi as Maverick! How would that work? Please don’t tell me Jack is Goose in that scenario…I would cry.

proposed edit to your idea: James MacGyver as Goose, Cage as Phoenix

OKAY NOW FOR DESI AS MAVERICK: (this got long...whoops)

(backstory)

young hotshot pilot develops massive ego after years of out-performing her (annoying, dismissive, frequently-sexist) male peers

however her backseat guy is a good dude, and they fall in love

they get sent to TOPGUN

due to a training accident, they're forced to eject and the now-fiancé is killed

desi gets court-martialed. final verdict is that it was an accident and not her fault. but that doesn't stop her from spending every waking minute blaming herself

(flash forward to the start of the second movie, where the fic would begin)

promotion-dodging test pilot with no close family has gotten in trouble more times than anyone can count, but she's too damn good for the Navy to get rid of her

so she gets sent to TOPGUN to be an instructor (they'd sent her once before, when she was still young and brash, and it didn't go well) (now, her career depends on it going better)

her task is to train this set of pilots for an assignment that is clearly a suicide mission

she thinks about her fiancé, who died for this. she thinks about how it felt to explain to his family what happened—her role in his death

she thinks about how she's spent the rest of her career/life since then single and minimally attached to people. there is nothing she loves more than taking risks and pushing limits, but after her fiancé's death she refuses to let her choices endanger anyone else

that experience and personal oath drive every decision she makes as an instructor

she tries her best not to get attached to the students, hoping her coldness will make their future deaths hurt less

but her primary focus is always to ensure her students have the skills to survive

"get in, get the job done, and come home"

when her students make mistakes resulting in theoretical deaths, she snaps, "Don't explain it to me. Tell their family." (their = person(s) who theoretically died)

at this point, the fic would diverge from the movie a bit

instead of desi having a personal connection to one of the pilots (i.e. rooster), they're all strangers who she comes to care about and see as her team. in order for them to live, she has to be all-in on this team thing just as much as the rest of them. no team = no way any of them are surviving this thing

she does, however, bicker with one of the students more than the rest

that student ends up being the one she sacrifices herself to save

and that student defies orders to save her in return

during their slog through the snowy forest, the student asks her why she is the way she is, and desi tells the story of what happened to her fiancé. by the end of this conversation, they've bonded and see each other in a new light

against all odds, desi and the student make it back to the carrier alive and only slightly harmed

the students are scattered across the country after the mission, but desi keeps in touch with every single one of them

in the end, she is asked to stay on as a TOPGUN instructor for a longer term, provided she agrees to behave. to which desi replies, like the snarky asshole she is, "where's the fun in that?"

[caparrucia]

you know what. mayuri

...so hilariously I'd just mentioned the Shinji/Mayuri fic.

My main headcanon is that he and Shinji get moderately along, in the 100 years in the past arc: it's part of the setup about how he doesn't say hi to Hiyori and instead says hi to Shinji instead, and the joke is Hiyori goes full on Hiyori but like.

I think they get along! They're both weird enough. (Yes, this is the sole basis of my goddamn ship, shhhh.)

Shinji is the sort of unbothered to not really think too hard about Mayuri being. You know. Mayuri. And I think they'd be good bickering partners. Cordial.

This also translates into my headcanon that Mayuri is the first one to properly welcome Shinji back into Soul Society after the Aizen business is all done with. Except it's less of a welcome and more of a "so I've been waiting like a hundred years to finish our discussion on this obscure nonsense factoid and I will absolutely be a bitch and resume from where we left off without any further explanation."

My terribly biased ship goggles insist Shinji finds this endearing.