after several discussions that left me baffled, let me throw this out to the masses: do you look at ao3's icons when you're looking for a fic to read?

Sam definitely went to see Donnie darko like four times

Dean caps season 1  → “Dead in the Water”

Nothing to see here, move along.

"You guys are breaking my heart. Can we please just leave?"

Pure Sunshine

📸: My Con Photography (Anika), Lemondropsonice (Sandi)

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My holy place is [him]. And it is an abomination.

Iris Murdoch, from 'The Philosopher's Pupil'

The two of them both need to exist in the story because the story is about them both and their relationship with each other, but...

While he is often used to provide pov for the audience, and is frequently the narrative heart, Dean's purpose in the story has always been Sam. Protect Sam. Watch out for Sam. Keep Sam alive, no matter what. Sam is Dean's function and without Sam, Dean ceases to function.

Sam's purpose in the story was to find peace with himself, his family, and his life. Even when the plot focused on Dean, Sam's narrative purpose continued beyond Dean's. It was through Sam that the family line was continued (even if he did name the kid Dean). It was Sam's choice's that inevitably saved or (temporarily) doomed the world; suppressing Lucifer long enough to jump into the cage, choosing to not finish the final trial when Dean begged asked him to stop, choosing to not go with Death when Dean begged asked him to stay alive, even offering up himself to Dean's determination (and gambling everything on his faith in his big brother's inability to kill him) to fulfill or not the demands of the MoC, and then resisting Chuck's attempts to break him. Sam's choices were the thread through the series, but he could only have made the choices he did because of Dean's love and support, without which, Sam would have made different choices.

Because while Sam is the narrative thread that the story is actually following, it would not have had the strength on its own to hold all the way through if it wasn't for Dean's thread winding around and reinforcing it.

Deep down, i believe the two brothers are both protagonists, and that's a given fact, but i have another more comprehensive reason Sam is the protagonist.

I dont wanna delve into it, but it's something along the lines that Dean has always existed as an ultimate extension of Sam. His standing within the narrative is that of a soldier, not a leader; he exists to protect (sam) and constantly needs an external drive (which sam fills) to do anything.

Dean is also heavily biased and prejudiced. He is not really a protagonist for a story who'd lead/take all under his wing bc he wouldn't. He is definitely a protagonist in Sam's life but not in the supernatural story.

He doesn't hold the axis of the general narrative as Sam does, and as he does hold Sam's.

Yea they both dont make the best selfless protags but Dean is by far the lesser chivalrous out of them, he is also unwilling to take that burden canonly, he HATES taking care of other people his role as a soldier/guardian has always kinda just extended to Sam and ended there that's why he says there's no me if there ain't no you to Sam. Dean IS the ultimate extension of Sam. Without Sam, he ends.

we were opposites at birth / i was steady as a hammer / no one worried ‘cause they knew just where i’d be / and they said you were the crooked kind / and that you’d never have no worth 

but you were always gold to me (x)

——

theeightschronicle requested: dean and, always gold by radical face

when i heard the song and read the lyrics, though, i had to throw sam in there. this might be my new song for dean omg.

i remember tears streaming down your face when i said, “i’ll never let you go.”

and all those shadows almost killed your light. (x)

baby boy, you’ll be alright

—

for my best friend claire who has ruined my life

cross my heart and hope to die, i’ll see you with your laughter lines

you are the smell before rain, you are the blood in my veins (x)

too old for a lullaby, too tired for life on the ledge

you’ve got a warm heart, you’ve got a beautiful brain - but it’s disintegrating