blue-chimera

[blue-chimera]

I know who I am. And after all these years, there's a victory in that. ↳ Matthew McConaughey as Rustin Cohle in TRUE DETECTIVE season 01 (2014)

#matthew mcconaughey is off the chain in this #and the chemistry between rust & marty is insane #true detective #rust cohle #gifs #not spn

[blue-chimera]

Gotta pull out these tags, cuz they're nailing it:

#unpopular opinion but i don't think it was John Doling Out Any Praise At All that tripped dean over into 'oh he is SUPER fucking possessed' #john's a withholding bastard but with erratic swings into really emotional displays of affection. like. onscreen. #the thing dean clocks as not just unexpected but *totally uncharacteristic* #is john going 'i don't like it but idk maybe i was too far up my own ass and anyway i appreciate and value where you're coming from' #on a subject where dean *knows* painfully well that he and his dad have a fundamental conflict of values #it is Literally The Entire Point 1×20-2×01 won't stop hammering on. which do you sacrifice. your revenge or your remaining loved ones. #dean knows damn that well he and his dad have different answers to that question and that john would never be proud of him *for that* #let alone do a whole conciliatory routine about valuing dean's care for his family and thanking him for putting that first #i doubt it was actually 'he's gotta be possessed' levels of unusual for dean to get some faint praise for jumping through dad-approved hoops #but for *defying* him? on a subject so core to john's identity & purpose for 20+ years? yeah right pull the other one it's got bells on

SUPERNATURAL 1.22 — Devil's Trap

#I'd meant to share this with commentary originally but got lazy #mutuals to the rescue #spn meta #other's meta #understanding john winchester #john winchester #dean winchester #spn

[blue-chimera]

SUPERNATURAL 1.22 — Devil's Trap

#dean winchester #john winchester #azazel #spn fanworks #spn #gifs

[blue-chimera]

Saw someone suggest that all Sam needed to do to help Kevin between seasons 7 & 8 was "pick up the phone."

But, uh... pick up the phone and call who?

There are other hunters out there, sure. We meet some: Travis, Annie, Gordon, Garth, Martin. If you needed to take down a vamp nest, lay a ghost to rest, or kill a rougarou, it'd 100% make sense to call someone like that. But which one of them would've been equipped to take on the King of Hell?

The Winchesters aren't the only hunters in the game, sure, but they are the only ones we ever see tangle successfully with high-level demons like Lilith, Crowley, Azazel, Alastair, etc. Most hunters don't seem to deal with demons at all, which makes sense when you consider how dangerous even a low-level demon is. If you don't have an extremely rare demon-killing weapon, all you can do is trap or exorcise them, both of which put a target on your back if or when said demon ever escapes Hell/your trap. We saw this play out on multiple occasions, including Meg targeting Sam in "Born Under a Bad Sign," Abraxas targeting Mary in "Damaged Goods," & Jael targeting Asa prior to "Celebrating the Life of Asa Fox."

And, again, those weren't even the top players. There's an enormous difference between a run-of-the-mill demon and a Prince or King of Hell. John Winchester spent decades hunting down Azazel (and searching for something that could kill him). Sam only managed to kill Alastair & Lilith by gorging on demon blood.

Not to mention the fact that none of the hunters still alive by the end of S7 are particularly close to Sam. They're not friends, and they certainly don't work for him. If Sam had called up, say, Wally and told him that the King of Hell had kidnapped a Prophet of the Lord, Wally probably would've gone, "And what exactly do you expect me to do about it?" — if he even believed him. Garth might've put in an effort (if he didn't judge it to be entirely over his paygrade), but I'm not sure I believe he could've found Crowley or Kevin on his own. And if he did manage to find Crowley, it's even harder to imagine he would've survived the encounter.

Supernatural doesn't spend a lot of time harping on it in the early seasons, but Sam & Dean really were in a class of their own. Even the British Men of Letters — who saw "supernatural creatures" & "evil creatures" as synonymous and who were capable of wiping out vamp nests with the press of a button — avoided fighting demonkind, going so far as to negotiate a peace treaty rather than take up arms.

So, yeah. There wasn't someone Sam could "just call." No hunter with a lick of sense would've taken that job. (Sam & Dean were, frankly, insane to challenge the kinds of forces they did even when they were together.)

#spn meta #sam winchester #kevin tran #crowley #understanding sam winchester #supernatural season 7 #supernatural season 8 #spn

[blue-chimera]

SUPERNATURAL 9.02 ⛥ Devil May Care

#dean winchester #abaddon #spn fanworks #spn #gifs

[blue-chimera]

SUPERNATURAL 9.02 ⛥ Devil May Care

#dean being subjected to sexualized threats as always #dean winchester #abaddon #spn fanworks #gifs #spn

[blue-chimera]

If 1,000+ people vote for Cas being choked & then 1 really intense person writes 1,000+ words in support of Dean staring down Alastair, that's a tie, right?

#cuz essays are more heavily-weighted than multiple choice? #anti-popular vote #pro-philosopher king #silly stuff #anyway... vote whatever you like! #(or vote for the right answer) #(which is obviously dean staring down alastair) #polls #spn

[blue-chimera]

Inspired by this poll.

"ON THE HEAD OF A PIN" — MORE PIVOTAL FOR CAS OR DEAN? Who's the real focus of this episode?

From the perspective of S4 & 5 as a whole, I would argue that Dean's development lies at the heart of this episode. Cas's "Free Will" arc merely takes a step here; despite his agonizing, Cas's change in position is ultimately incremental. Dean's "Hell" arc, on the other hand, reaches a (dark) resolution.

Now, I can see the other side. This is where Cas first begins to openly consider disobedience, after all. But, by the end of the episode, he's discovered that the bad orders from his superiors in Heaven didn't really come from his superiors: rather, Uriel was a rogue agent. Because of this, Cas's "turn" is reduced to a false start, and he ends the episode roughly where he began: on the side of Zachariah & Michael. "On the Head of a Pin" puts a dent in his practice of mindless obedience, but his progress ends up being negligible. Defying Uriel (it turns out) wasn't defying Heaven at all.

This is how I see Cas's arc away from steadfast warrior of Heaven to fallen angel fighting alongside humanity:

Cas confesses in "It's the Great Pumpkin, Sam Winchester" that he has doubts: he's not sure Heaven is always right.

His internal conflict is brought into the light & explored overtly in "On the Head of a Pin" (should he obey Heaven if Heaven's wrong?)

He thinks he's crossing a threshold when he concludes that Uriel's orders are wrong & makes the decision to defy them (as he assumes Uriel is speaking the will of Heaven). However, he discovers that Uriel doesn't represent Heaven's will; he opposes it. So, in defying him, Cas hasn't actually made a break with Heaven.

Cas makes a decision & takes his first concrete action actually opposing Heaven in "The Monster at the End of this Book" when he chooses to obey the letter but not the spirit of Heaven's orders.

In "The Rapture," Cas discovers that his superiors are trying to bring on the apocalypse. He's horrified and attempts to take significant, overt actions to oppose them (informing Sam & Dean).

Cas is called back to Heaven & subjected to "Heaven's persuasion." Following his "re-education," his loyalty to Heaven is restored.

In "When the Levee Breaks," he confirms his loyalty to Heaven over humanity (and Sam & Dean particularly) by extracting a vow from Dean to serve Heaven and releasing Sam from the panic room

In "Lucifer Rising," Dean confronts Cas and challenges his beliefs. At first, he doesn't seem able to get through to Cas, and the angel vanishes. But when Cas returns, he's made a turn & he's back on Dean's side. He banishes Zachariah and teleports Dean first to Chuck and then to Sam to stop Lucifer's rising.

Thus, while "On the Head of a Pin" spends a fair amount of time examining Cas's conflict, it's neither a turning point nor a resolution of that arc for Cas. Conversely, it is notable for Dean's Hell arc: it resolves that arc & opens up the story for a new one to begin.

Dean's Hell arc starts with his emergence from Hell in "Lazarus Rising" & his insistence that he doesn't remember anything about it; it builds with hints dropped in episodes 6 through 8 (with "Yellow Fever" revealing that he used fear as a weapon, "It's the Great Pumpkin, Sam Winchester" suggesting that Uriel knows something shameful about Dean's time in Hell — something that would knock Dean off his "high horse" — and "Wishful Thinking" having Dean finally acknowledge that he does remember Hell); it escalates sharply with Alastair's appearance in "I Know What You Did Last Summer;" and, with Dean's confessions to Sam over the next 2 episodes, the battleground is set.

In "Heaven and Hell," Dean reveals that he broke and began to torture other souls in the Pit. However, that's not all he's been concealing. He continues to hide a key detail from Sam — something that bothers him even more than the breaking, even more than the torture itself — until, finally, in "Family Remains," he confesses the worst part: that he enjoyed it. That pain and fear and powerlessness twisted him up until he hungered to deal those things out himself.

And this isn't something he can rationalize that he was forced into. The acts themselves, he can say — as Sam does — that anyone would've eventually broken & committed. But nobody (overtly, at least) forced him to like it.

(Of course, it's perfectly human to respond to pain with misdirected anger, to indulge in cruelty & schadenfreude to soothe our own hurts & fears, to seize power over others to assuage the sting of powerlessness elsewhere. Like the bully who's beaten at home and so goes to school & beats up others — or even just the student who's stressed at school and so goes home & snaps at their parents — we are all prone to externalizing pain this way. It was already revealed, after all, that every other demon in Hell was made evil, made to relish pain, by being tortured. But Dean can't accept that as an excuse for himself.)

Dean's confession (specifically, the second part) sets the stakes for "On the Head of a Pin." The narrative tension — the "will he or won't he?" — isn't simply, "Will Dean torture Alastair?"¹ Indeed, that question gets resolved in the very first act. Instead, it's "Will he relish it?" Will he be able to perform the task clinically, treat it like it's just another part of his job, or will he lose focus, indulge in sadism? Can he torture the one who caused him so much suffering without getting distracted from the end goal? Without reveling in it?

Dean doesn't think he can.

And if he can't, well... Dean wants to shut the door on his experiences in Hell. He wants to say that that was something entirely divorced from who he is on Earth. If he's seduced by his fantasies of torturing Alastair here, in the realm of the living, if he allows himself to cause Alastair pain simply for the satisfaction of causing him pain, that makes it real — makes it part of his identity — in a way it wasn't before. It shatters the last of his illusions about himself.

It gives the ring of truth to Alastair's words: “I carved you into a new animal, Dean. There is no going back.”

In a previous post (here/here), I argue that this episode marks the spot in S4 where Dean falls. "On the Head of a Pin" brings Dean's Hell arc to a full circle, leaving his spirit broken on Earth just as it was broken in Hell. Prior to this episode (as seen in "Metamorphosis," "Monster Movie," "Heaven and Hell," "Criss Angel is a Douche Bag," etc.), Dean still has some measure of faith in himself & in Sam. Not that they'll survive the coming crisis, necessarily, but that — together — they'll be able to stay on the straight & narrow, do the right thing, and, with Heaven's help, maybe even win. After this episode, Dean no longer has that faith. Zachariah successfully shames him in "It's a Terrible Life" into getting back to work, but every episode after that only showcases more clearly his despair.

In the aforementioned post, I describe this image as follows: Dean’s face is inches from Alastair’s. The camera shows them in profile: two sides to a coin. Stark light falls on their faces, highlighting the edges of strong chins, cheekbones, the blades of their noses — desaturated, drained of color & warmth, mirror images in a sea of pure black. In this one frame, Dean is Alastair. Seeing it, we realize that the true struggle was never to subdue Alastair. It was to avoid becoming him. And, here, Dean lost.

Dean is shaken briefly from despair-induced apathy by the revelation in "Lucifer Rising" that Heaven has been working to trigger the apocalypse, but his failure to stop Sam from freeing Lucifer breaks that last fragile thread of hope, and, by the end of S5:E1 "Sympathy for the Devil," he's made it clear that he's just going through the motions, and that his resistance to Heaven's plan is merely out of stubbornness & spite.

"On the Head of a Pin" isn't a turning point, then, in Cas's journey towards membership in "Team Free Will." But it is a turning point in Dean's journey towards reconciling what he did in Hell with who he is today. Unfortunately for Dean, it's a negative turn — one that ends with him concluding that any faith invested in him is misplaced. But it resolves the Hell arc and opens the story for the start of a new one,² making this a pivotal episode for Dean in a way that it just isn't for Cas.

¹ You could argue that the focal "will he or won't he?" is whether or not Cas will disobey Heaven, but I'd call that the B plot. It's subordinate to Dean's struggles. If Dean were able to resist Alastair's provocations & stay dispassionate, Cas wouldn't be flirting with disobedience. After all, the torture itself isn't something new: we've seen the Winchesters torture for information before. What's new — and concerning — is Dean's relationship with Alastair & subsequent inability to remain detached from the work. And, ultimately, it's his inability to stay detached that leads to him failing to notice the erosion of the Devil's Trap. (This is driven home visually when, in a moment of emotional turmoil, Dean goes so far as to turn his back on Alastair.) We only get comparable alarm bells on torture scenes when Dean is going crazy with fear over Lisa & Ben being kidnapped and then, later, when dealing with the Mark of Cain.

² What you might call the "Despair" arc or the "Becoming a Weapon of Heaven" arc, which resolves — in a positive manner, thankfully — with Dean's turn away from Heaven (and despair) & back towards faith in humanity (and his brother) in "Point of No Return."

#in conclusion you should go to that poll & vote for the screencap of dean and alastair #you're welcome #dean winchester #castiel #spn analysis #spn meta #understanding dean winchester #supernatural season 4 #dean studies #on the head of a pin #alastair #spn

[blue-chimera]

2.14 Born Under a Bad Sign

-Meg possesses Sam which forces the brothers’ dynamic to develop. Dean really reclaims a sense of himself this episode after spending all season in various degrees and types of turmoil over what to do about Sam. I don’t think he ever really considered killing Sam, but he agonized over his role and what he should do. He lied to a drunk Sam in Playthings and said he would kill him.

- Dean has called Ellen multiple times about Sam going missing, so much so that Dean doesn’t even refer to him by name on the phone, he just calls asking Where is he. Dean says “I’m losing my mind here.” He’s desperate to find Sam. I wonder if Dean ever lost Sam when he was a baby, like at the store or something.

- Dean also says it’s like when John went missing all over again. Dean sought out Sam for help and comfort when that happened. It’s a little kernel of insight into Dean’s state of mind when he broke into Sam’s house in s1, he was probably a lot more afraid than he let on to Sam because he was trying to keep it together.

-when he gets to the motel room Dean kneels in front of Sam, who’s sitting on the bed. He’s off to the side rather than right in between Sam’s legs but when he zeroes in on the blood on Sam’s shirt, on his lower stomach, he starts moving aside Sam’s jacket and touching the bloody fabric. It looks very intimate. Dean reaches directly into Sam’s personal space and even moves his clothes aside to check for injury.

This quick shot of his fingers feeling Sam’s stomach is particularly intimate. Meg!Sam says that he doesn’t think it’s his blood. Dean certainly thought it was Sam’s blood, he wouldn’t have been considering other options at that moment. So Dean is touching Sam’s wound on his lower belly, as far as he and the viewer know. It’s a sexual and feminine image. Although he’s not actually injured, Sam’s body has been invaded and controlled by a demon. It’s a sexual assault parallel, a first taste of Sam’s fall from grace. Throughout the episode, Dean fights for him and refuses to harm him. As long as Sam is still in there somewhere, Dean will protect him.

-Meg is inside of Sam’s brain and body and she has a pretty good understanding of Sam. She’s acting the way she thinks he would and also in whatever way plays to her advantage with Dean, so she has a primary interest in the nature of their relationship. She knows about Dean’s promise to John and to Sam about killing him, so she must have some access to his memories. She plays up Sam’s pleading eyes more than anything, which means she knows Sam’s memories that this has worked on Dean in the past.

- Dean reacts with deep skepticism to the gas station clerk telling him that Sam was drinking, smoking, and behaving violently.

Dean has also picked up on a couple of other specifics that aren’t like Sam: the name he gave at the motel is the name of a Bon Jovi band member, which Dean doesn’t think Sam likes and isn’t one of the names they would recognize for each other; and if Sam did smoke, Dean seems convinced he wouldn’t smoke menthols. He knows Sam so well.

- Dean says that smoking and throwing bottles at people sounds “more like me than you” which tells us that Dean is sometimes an angry drunk and sometimes a smoker, both of which make perfect sense for his character. There’s a lot we don’t directly see on the show.

-Sam moves differently, seems more feminine, and when Dean continues to insist he might not be a murderer he looks annoyed and almost rolls his eyes. Jared Padalecki is so good at being Sam possessed by Meg.

-Meg is basically begging Dean to feel horror that Sam killed someone- a hunter! with a family! caught on camera!- but Dean is like Ah fuck okay I’ll just run through the crime scene cleanup checklist quick and then we can take a nap together at home before we go okay babe? Babe u okay?

- Meg!Sam asks Dean to kill him, kinda using the puppy dog eyes but not quite selling it because it’s not needy enough, and Dean says “I’ve tried so hard to keep you safe…I can’t. I’d rather die.”

This is Dean admitting outright that his promise was bullshit and that he will either save Sam or die trying, and he’s faced so many trials to be completely sure and ready to say it. It doesn’t matter what Sam does. Dean had to understand more consciously his feelings for Sam before he could commit to this because it’s a fundamental part of who he is and his love for Sam. He feels guilty about his love, but he can’t doubt the strength of it and I think this is where he first accepts his role as Sam’s savior. The way he looks at Sam here is with such open love and desire. He’s like Wesley looking at Buttercup.

-Dean calls the phone company to get Sam’s location by pretending Sam is his son. He says “my son” and calls him Sammy and fuck if it isn’t the cutest. Dean is Sam’s dad now. Succession.

-Meg!Sam is so irritated that Jo is carrying a torch for Dean. She seems to be using Sam’s real memories and feelings to get what she wants, and in this case I think Sam is probably annoyed by Jo’s crush and wishes she understood she doesn’t have a chance with Dean, so Meg is using her weaknesses. She really enjoys using Sam’s characteristics and twisting them. For example, after tying Jo up she uses the puppy dog face again and says “c’mon it’s me, you can tell me anything” which echos Sam’s role as sympathetic ear to the victims and other characters. So when she talks about Jo wanting Dean and Dean not wanting Jo and then attacks her in a very sexually charged way, it feels like she’s playing with both their desire for Dean and Sam’s desire to be more like him. She seems to be telling the truth in these scenes, just truths that Jo wouldn’t want to know. So telling her You want him but he doesn’t want you and aren’t I the next best, when Sam in reality does not want Jo, makes Jo into a proxy to act out unrequited love for (and from) Dean.

-Meg!Sam shoots Dean and he falls into the water from the dock and Jo finds him soaked and bleeding and you have three guesses as to the first words out of his mouth (“where’s Sam?”).

-Bobby asks where Dean is so Meg!Sam tells him Dean’s with a girl somewhere. Bobby asks if she’s pretty and Meg’s eyes go black and she says “if you ask me he’s in way over his head.” The visual cue and emphasis make it clear Meg is talking as herself here, not as Sam, and it seems like she’s talking about Dean’s situation with Sam. It’s also a pun because she thinks he’s underwater, but regardless she’s connecting Dean being with some girl and Dean being in trouble because of Sam.

-she also smirks at Dean pretty wickedly and tells him “you wouldn’t wanna bruise this fine packaging” ie Sam’s body that she knows Dean thinks is mighty fine. What I wouldn’t give for her to taunt him more in this way.

- she tells Dean he’s worthless, he can’t save Sam, and the people he loves would be better off without him. Which means his worst beliefs about himself (as far as Sam knows) are that he isn’t good enough and that he’s actually bad for Sam. Why? Why would Sam know that Dean fears he would be better off without him? He’s protected and cared for Sam his whole life, both Sam and John have explicitly told him that they’re grateful, and even Dean can’t blame himself for the way he and Sam grew up. It’s possible this is about the fact that Sam is in danger hunting with Dean, but he would’ve been in danger in law school too. It fits better with Dean’s guilt over his feelings for Sam and his knowledge that Sam is in love with him. Sam knows that Dean blames himself.

-Dean refuses to hurt Sam when Meg!Sam is punching him, and she punches him four or five times. Then when Sam is back unpossessed, Dean punches him in the face. When it was about saving Sam Dean refused to hurt him, but now that Sam is safe it’s like his anger at Sam comes pouring out. He needed some form of resolution for the fact that his little brother scared the shit out of him for a week straight going missing, murdered someone and didn’t even help clean up the crime scene, pistol whipped him, shot him in the shoulder, punched him, named his worst fears, threatened to bite his own tongue off, and pressed his finger into his wound and laughed. Obviously Sam did none of those things and it was all Meg, but I think it’s completely understandable that Dean reacted this way after not only keeping his shit together for Sam all that time but also actively protecting him. It’s a reasonable trauma response for him to have fought back. I’m not saying it’s ethical or anything just that it’s exactly what Dean would do and it gives his episode arc some catharsis.

-for his part, Sam isn’t upset with Dean for punching him. He never is. As evidenced by Sam’s little smirk when Dean makes joke about Bobby’s charms for keeping the demon from “getting back up in there.”

-Dean checks in with Sam in the sweetest way, gently prompting him to answer if he’s okay. Sam explains that what’s troubling him isn’t the memory of his own hands killing a man, it’s the knowledge that even then Dean wouldn’t kill him. They both know for sure now.

-Dean teases Sam about having a girl inside him and Sam grins. It’s just one of many references to Sam having someone inside him and otherwise sexually being referred to as the girl.

-Dean’s “if it’s the last thing I do I’m gonna save you” hits different when you’re on tumblr and you know the show ends 13 seasons later with Dean dying and Sam living out some kind of a life.

#other's meta #spn meta #don't necessarily agree with *all* of this but definitely some interesting thoughts here! #spn #sam winchester #dean winchester

[blue-chimera]

dean never gets upset about the loss of his authority or agency over his choices, over his bodily autonomy, never fights back for it in the way that sam does, and it's because dean has learned very quickly and very young that his body is a tool and weapon and much desired for it's beauty and it's violence and has come to know it's easier to roll with the punches than to push back. that whatever comes at him, he can handle it, he has to. what happens to him doesn't matter if he could be focusing on helping someone else. he's stronger than others because of this, because he can endure whatever they do to him: physical, mental, sexual. his body is a tool and it's a tool he can control, he can wield.

and he doesn't understand why sam doesn't do that. why he can't see how much easier it is to let it whatever is about to happen happen because they are winchesters, dammit. they can handle it. they are built for this. in the end, if they come out the other side winning, what does it matter? the end tends to justify the means.

#there's layers & layers & layers in spn when it comes to this topic #free will #agency #bodily autonomy #choices #destiny #“we don't have a choice” #when is that even the truth? #spn meta #other's meta #spn #dean winchester #sam winchester

[blue-chimera]

I can't imagine I'll ever blog anything other than Supernatural primarily, but... I just watched True Detective (Season 1) thanks to @goshen-applecrumbledore 's insanely good TD fic and then I saw this ask & I just needed to second it. If you haven't read Hangdog yet, go read it!

(If you haven't seen TD, ch. 1 doesn't really spoil anything for it, but ch. 2 touches on a bunch of major plot points. Both chapters will give you smoking-hot angst for days.)

Would absolutely read more!

Hello, I just read Hangdog and ohhhh my it’s so good! I love the tone of the characters and the retelling of their story. There is something soo delicious about terrible men finding each other. Thanks so much for sharing! (Also ignore if it’s coming across as pushy- would you write again for TD?) :)

hello!! thank you for the ask, I'm bored at work. talk to me

I'm glad you liked it!!! not to sound cocky but I fucking love that fic. very proud of it. I really loved writing it and I love rust and marty and their whole terrible greasy intense thing.

not pushy at all, thank you for being polite. not everyone is. ha ha. I WOULD write again for TD. I have a WIP on the go, not currently working on it, but it's there. I'd like to get back to it eventually. as discussed, I think I have to be watching a show to get the voices right, and S1 of true detective is so fucking good that I am pretty much always thinking about it, still, so I've got a rewatch in me for sure. at which point I imagine i'll go back to the fic. here's the summary. it is tentatively titled Middle Name

“Jesus.” Rust turns his head against the concrete. Under the car, between the wheels, he sees the dead mechanic's blood spreading in a neat pool from his shredded skull. “Don't tell me you get off on this shit.”

Marty breathes out. He doesn't let go of Rust, doesn't move. 

“It's complicated.”

thank you as always for your enthusiasm. you people are so good to me

#true detective #not spn #fic recs #rust cohle #marty hart #rust/marty

[blue-chimera]

#can we get some more votes for dean? #top right is beating bottom left at the moment #but cas is beating dean overall #and cas is great but this is a dean episode at its heart #like... cas ALMOST has a breakthrough and then he finds out that uriel was working for lucifer #and he goes back to trusting the plans of his “loyal” superiors #for dean (on the other hand) this is a pivotal moment in heaven's campaign to break his will #the bitterness & despair cultivated in dean in this episode drives much of the darkness we see from him over the next dozen or so episodes #you can tell cas didn't successfully convert to team free will yet because he immediately tells zachariah about dean's despair #(confided to him in a private vulnerable moment) #a confidence that zachariah instantly uses to mock & manipulate dean #as much as I like cas I'd just be super disappointed to see this episode go to anyone besides dean (or at minimum alastair)

[blue-chimera]

There’s nothing wrong with having hope, Dean.

#gorgeous #spn fanworks #dean winchester #supernatural season 3 #gifs #spn #hell

[blue-chimera]

Team Free Will 2.0

Castiel Dean Sam Jack

My art tag

Ask me a question/say hi/make a request

#gorgeous #spn fanworks #spn fanart #sam winchester #dean winchester #castiel #jack kline

[blue-chimera]

This poll is just asking about Dean's pop culture references, but Supernatural as a whole makes a lot of pop culture references, and there's an additional complicating factor that, sometimes, if you don't know the work in question (or don't know it inside & out), you don't even know there's a reference being made. (Which makes it harder to judge how many references you aren't getting!)

My favorite "didn't know it was a reference until I read the wiki" is in S4:E16 "On the Head of a Pin" (which I actually mention in my analysis of this episode). Alastair's quip, “It’s your professionalism that I respect!” is a line from the 1986 film version of Little Shop of Horrors, a scene where a masochist [played by Bill Murray] deliberately seeks out a famously sadistic dentist [Steve Martin] and chirps this from the chair in between the sadist hacking at his mouth. The reference simultaneously implies, rather slyly, that Dean is taking a little too much pleasure in his task (casting him in the role of the sadist) and calls his efforts futile (as the dentist is ultimately frustrated by his patient's enjoyment of the pain).

(And I would've expected to get references to Little Shop of Horrors — I've seen & quite enjoyed the musical! — but Bill Murray's lines in the dentist's chair are largely ad-libbed & don't actually feature in the musical at all.)

Another great example: the dialogue from S5:E11 "Sam, Interrupted" where the head of the facility questions the name of the referring doctor ("Isn't there a children's book about an elephant named Babar?" & Dean replies, "I don't know... I don't have any elephant books") comes almost word-for-word from the 1985 film Fletch.

I've actually been using Supernatural references as motivation to go watch old movies I've never seen before... a fun little side-project that lets me indulge my Supernatural obsession while also increasing my cultural repertoire. So far, I've watched It's a Wonderful Life (1946), The Shining (1980), Weird Science (1985), Fletch (1985), Cocoon (1985), Little Shop of Horrors (1986), The Untouchables (1987), and Hellraiser (1987). If you haven't seen them, I recommend them all!

#spn references #spn commentary #media that influenced spn #spn trivia #spn

[blue-chimera]

me when i write the spn porn parody and use natural dialogue such as "listen, little brother"

#eh #I sometimes jokingly address my sister as “my dear sister” #or call her “sis” #I don't feel like “little brother” is out of the range of possibility for fond addresses #spn

[blue-chimera]

Look at me. Come on. You don’t know what’s real? Look man, I’ve been to Hell. Okay, I know a thing or two about torture. Enough to know that it feels different. Than the pain of this – this regular, stupid, crappy this.

#SPNWEEK Iconic lines

#spn fanworks #just absolutely gorgeous #spn