Random Musings on Sam and Dean: Relationships and Hunting

There is something about Sam starting out the series as the one with friends, and Dean being this loner who essentially tells him he shouldn’t even try to have relationships with other people when they are hunters. Dean sees his immediate family and hunting as the absolute most important things, and everyone else are outsiders.

Some of these things sort of stay the same over the course of the show, but others change in a pretty significant way.

Random, not super well-organized, and potentially off-base, thoughts under the cut. (If anyone actually reads this, please feel free to weigh in.)

Then, as the series goes on, Sam loses or let’s go of almost all of his relationships, until he has pretty much only Dean. He’s afraid to truly get close to anyone out of fear they will be hurt … except for Dean, who is already embedded too deeply in his heart to cut out.

Meanwhile, “Loner” Dean is collecting friends, or extended “family”. Yet, he still doesn’t want them around most of the time, seeming happiest when it’s just him and Sam, with Castiel and Bobby as tolerated/appreciated additions to the family, yet not quite full-family. I’m not including Jack here because no one will ever convince me that Dean fully let him in (and this isn’t a criticism).

The relationships differences between Sam and Dean are like an extension of how they fit into hunting.

Sam befriended normies in the past, but doesn’t fully connect with many new characters out of fear of losing them, while Dean befriends hunters and the supernatural adjacent. There is something about this … like, Dean fits the hunter life in a way Sam doesn’t, even in terms of relationships or how those in the hunting life relate to Dean vs Sam. I’m not saying Dean always likes hunting, or that he bares his soul to everyone he calls friend/family, but he fits it, even socially, better than Sam (and Dean isn’t even that friendly). Sam, with just a very few exceptions, doesn’t make himself at home in the hunting life, including not opening himself up to the people they meet… at least until much later in the series (if then). It’s like he’s afraid to fully live or engage as a hunter in some ways. This is like him refusing to see the bunker as a home until long after Dean has already thoroughly nested there.

Even Sam’s reactions to the hunting life are never quite proportionate, they are often too big (Demon blood, saving Dean from the MOC and risking literally everyone else) or too little (running when he loses Dean Season 7/8). Sam is the Goldilocks of hunting, except I don’t think he ever finds “just right.” And this doesn’t mean he isn’t good at it, or doesn’t learn to “love it,” but I don’t think it ever quite fits him fully.

Sam got close to Jessica and makes friends at Stamford, but he had fully turned his back on hunting at the time. Sam gets close to Amelia, but it’s because he’s running from hunting (and losing Dean). The only time he feels really settled in as a hunter (when it’s not a connection to Dean) is when he’s soulless. It’s only when he’s missing a crucial part of himself (or he has a revenge mission) that he fully embraces the life.

Dean, on the other hand, feels like purgatory is pure: kill the bad thing, rinse and repeat. Even when Dean is living with Lisa, he has an eye and ear open for monsters, and can’t fully shut off those instincts. Unlike with Sam, Dean melds life and hunting and family into this co-existing thing that he’s able to settle into. Again, this isn’t all Dean is, and it doesn’t come without personal/emotional/mental consequences, but Dean is a hunter, and he even suggests in Season 14 that he’s content.

Sam, in Season 10, tells Charlie he loves hunting, but he adds the caveat that he wouldn’t do it without his brother. And even getting into the weeds of Dabb era, Sam tells Mary he hunts because his family (Dean) does.

Speaking of Mary, Sam doesn’t even let her fully in. He provides a shoulder for her at times, respects her autonomy, and eve tries to make her proud, but he never fully opens up to her, not like Dean does. And we know how Sam got along with John who trained the boys to hunt .. or, you know, didn’t.

Dean is Sam’s exception. He’s close to Dean even though Dean is associated with hunting, is basically the best hunter. Sam says several times that he hunts because Dean does. He doesn’t get close to anyone in the hunting life, except for Dean. Dean is Sam’s tether into hunting after his revenge quest for Jess and guilt from losing John wear down.

Bear with me on this one, but the long-term, or big characters, associated with the hunting world are largely closer to Dean or exist to hurt Sam. John (Mr. Hunter Parent) was disappointed in Sam’s lack of both commitment to hunting and obedience, and favoured Dean (not that it did him any good). Bobby considers Sam like a son, but Dean is his clear favourite (and Sam rarely turns to Bobby for personal help, if ever). Castiel considers Sam a friend/family, but as an extension of Dean. The angels hate Sam because he’s lucifer’s vessel. Ruby was able to manipulate Sam into embracing his power (and hunting) and was closer to him than Dean, but it was because of his initial grief for Dean that she was able to get in his head. Sam is tormented by the devil himself when he’s in the hunting life. Sam never thaws towards Crowley w who tries to take Dean away when he becomes Dean’s frienemy. Mary (Mrs Hunter Parent) comes back to life and basically ignores Sam out of her own guilt and bonds more with Dean (at least at first). Rowena bonds more with Sam than Dean, but they bond over shared trauma not really hunting (though she does teach him spells, so she’s a bit of an exception). Jack, Sam actually bonds with more than Dean, but it’s over shared “freak” experience, and Jack actually becomes the new god, so while he starts as a part of hunting life, he is actually beyond it.

Even the junior hunter girls are arguably closer to Dean: Krissy, Claire and Charlie. And we have the part-time hunters. Jody is pretty close to both boys, maybe even leaning towards Sam, but she’s a cop as well as a part-time hunter. She isn’t fully in the life. Donna, the other cop and part-time hunter is definitely closer to Dean. So, the rule mostly holds true even for the more minor hunters. Finally, even a lot of the random hunters we meet hate Sam (Gordon, Walt and Roy, Girl in Episode 2 of Season 9, etc).

Anyway, my point with all of this is that there might actually be a reason that so many chracters in the hunter world, or associated with it, are closer to Dean than Sam. And it isn’t just writer favouritism or “Everybody just loves Dean” ( 🤷🏻‍♀️). I mean, it makes sense that chracters are drawn to Dean because he’s got that charm, while Sam tends towards introverted. But it actually makes sense to be more than that within the story. Sam is never quite at home, or settled in, or fits in to the hunter society or hunting world.

And yet, while most chracters are out here preferring Dean, Dean couldn’t care less because Sam is his world. And in return, Dean is Sam’s exception to everything. He stays in hunting for Dean (in the long run). He gives up many of his morals for Dean. He risks damning everyone in the world with the darkness for Dean. He learns to love hunting because it’s part of his life with Dean. And he gives it up again when there is no Dean alive on earth (assuming he quits in the finale).

I know there is more to their relationships than this little summary, and this didn’t cover Deans also complex relationship with hunting and John and Mary, etc., but it just stuck me as interesting how so much of the show truly points to Sam not fitting in the hunting world. It’s almost like he paused his regularly scheduled programming to be with Dean for the rest of Dean’s life, before carrying on.

But the kicker is, even though Sam (seemingly) gets out of hunting, the normal life can no longer fit him either because it doesn’t have his big brother Dean in it.

It is undoubtably sad that Dean dies young, but Sam is also still living out a tragedy at the end of Supernatural.

The fact that we got reunited brothers on that bridge is … everything.

even as someone who does not ship the brothers (or deancas), i feel that there is no denying the heavy handed undertones of romance between them, and the writers' very intentional and frequent exploration into incestual themes, if one is truly understanding the show. however, it's also my understanding that a lot of hellers/deancas people/whomever use a frustrating argument that "sam doesn't really know dean" when in reality, he will always know dean better than cas. thats the whole point of the show. when dean and sam 'betray' each other from the other's persepctive, the person doing the betraying genuinely believes they are acting in the other's best interest, whereas with dean and cas it's always for personal benefit.

to stop the rambling, i wanted to ask, purely in interest of seeing multiple sides: if so many hellers were not so anti-sam and did not project so much onto castiel, do you think the fandom at large (outside of that group) would have less of an issue with the ship? again, i am genuinely curious and you seem both well established in the fandom and well versed in the show itself. i feel as though where other shows do have beef between shippers and such, the supernatural fandom is watching two completely different shows and so many of them are bypassing crucial parts.

Hey Anon!

I don’t ship Wincest either (though most Wincesties I know are cool), and I REALLY don’t ship Destiel. But, I do joke about brother husbands a lot and love the brothers’ codependency. Still, I don’t think the writers are actually ever suggesting there are true romantic feelings to Sam and Dean’s relationship. Or maybe I should say, I don’t think canon (or subtext) Sam and Dean are actually (even secretly) hot for their brother. However, I think the romantic parallels and even outright nods to incest are very deliberate (and obvious). Partly, it’s on brand for the horror/gothic genre of the early seasons, but it also serves the purpose of highlighting how important Sam and Dean are to each other. They are each other’s soulmate, life-partner, and number one, which are usually roles reserved for couples. Also, I think the show just likes to make jokes as well. It’s clearly deliberate when the show goes from having characters assume they are couples, to villains making incesty remarks about them, to Dean asking if Sam wants a divorce.

I agree that Sam knows Dean better than Castiel, or anyone else. And Dean knows Sam best. That being said, they don’t understand each other perfectly, and they speak “different languages” in terms of showing care a lot of the time. Sometimes this is works in a complimentary way that has them in sync (Dean loves his family, especially Sam most, and Sam needs to be Dean’s number one), and sometimes it causes friction between the brothers (Dean letting Gadreel inside Sam or Sam trying to cure MOC). But, I agree that MOST of the time when they “betray” each other it’s when they are trying to help each other, or at least it’s a byproduct of something they feel they need to do. They never treat each other as expendable. And I also agree that betrayals between Dean and Castiel just hit different. I think this is because 1) they don’t have the same obsessive love underlying everything they do to/for each other (despite what hellers think), 2) they are more brothers-in-arms than true adopted famoly until later seasons 3) Castiel is not human, and I believe that Dean (however subconsciously) treats him differently because of that, and Cass not being human also changes his view of the fallout his actions will have with the people he cares about, and 4) I agree that they both betray each other out of personal interest in thst they value other things/people more highly than each other quite often (Dean will always value Sam above all, and Castiel often values whatever mission he is on above the brothers or is at least willing to risk them for it to an extent).

Feel free to ramble in my asks whenever you like. Clearly, I do it too, so no judgement here.

My short answer to your question is … yes. If hellers didn’t hate on Sam in a transparent attempt to make him seem less important both to Dean and to the show in general, I doubt Sam girls would care that people shipped Castiel and Dean. It’s the attempt at twisting canon and down-playing Sam that is frustrating. And yes, the projecting added significance onto Castiel is massively annoying because it shows a lack of understanding of the show, whether purposeful or due to ignorance. And that annoys everyone who cares about the “fscts” of the show. It’s also their insistence that Dean is bi … because reasons (often offensive, stupid and/or steryotical) that annoys the people who actually enjoy Dean’s true chracter, not the fan-fic woobifued version of him that hellers (and some AAs) fawn over. But, I think what pisses the fandom at large off the most about hellers is their insistence that they get their way and the tantrums they throw about being “robbed” when a ship that was clearly never going to sail in the show continued not to happen. More specifically, their need to hate on actual actors, writers, producers, networks and other so called “homophobic” fans who don’t agree with them is abhorrent to many.

I agree with your final sentiment completely. It is like Supernatural is at least two totally different shows, depending on which type of fan you are talking to. I mean, there are arguably more than two versions of the show in collective fans’ minds, if we consider which of the brothers a group sympathizes with most and how they interpret the chracters’ actions (Sam is a whiny brat … Dean is an abusive monster 🙄). But, out of all the fan groups, there is only one who seems to be "watching" a piece of media that does not even resemble the actual show … and it’s hellers.

And to be clear, I’m not talking about Destiel shippers in general here, but hellers in particular. No one I know, including me, cares if people ship Dean and Castiel for their own enjoyment, but it’s the insistence they are right and attempted rewriting of canon (and threatening real people) that makes people ragey.

Anyway, thank you for your ask. I’m sorry my reply was so long. (This is likely one of the reasons I don’t get a ton of asks, lol).

Forgive me for restating the obvious, but I was reading through an old post and it just kind of hit me in a way it hadn't before: One of hellers' most fundamental disconnects with the show (and media literacy in general) is how they try to insist parallels establish romance.

SPN used parallels to couples and romantic tropes a lot in regards to the brothers. But it was never meant as a signal that they were romantically in love or to tell you something you otherwise couldn't figure out. It was to underline what we already knew from the entire rest of the story about how they were the most important people in each other's lives. It used romantic relationships because that's a central status typically reserved only for romantic relationships - that was part of the point.

Let's take an example or two. Dean compares himself and Sam to Jesse and Cesar from The Chitters. After interacting with them for a while, Dean is like, 'Haha, you fight just like brothers, almost as bad as Sam and me' and they say that it's more like an old married couple. This is Dean comparing an exact thing that actually happens between him and Sam, silly petty bickering, to something that exactly happens between a married couple. Likewise, let's take Dean's expression and the script note he's thinking about Sam's close call in Red Meat. Michelle is talking about watching the man she loves die and how nothing can be the same, and Dean is thinking about how he believed he lost Sam earlier that same episode and reacting to what she's saying. No one is under the impression that these are signposts telling you for the very first time that Sam and Dean are weirdly, claustrophobically close in a way that compares to romantic couples. They're quick moments which draw an underline on what you already know from the way they've acted towards each other for the entire preceding (and following) length of the show. If you cut either of those moments? It would change nothing about what we understand of Sam and Dean's relationship, because that's how using parallels in storytelling actually works.

Hellers want to insist that romantic couples and tropes being parallels to D/C in and of itself proves that D/C is romantic. Why else would SPN use couples and romantic tropes?!? Well, because SPN does that all the fucking time, maybe? Which is even before you get into how superficial the basis for their supposed parallels typically are.

Let's take an example or two. Hellers want to insist that Dean and Castiel were paralleled to David and Violet from Bloodlines because and I shit you not, one of them wore a tan coat. As well as the absurdly generic dialogue line, "I was there, where were you?" being used both in the backdoor pilot and in 6x20 by Dean. Aha! David and Violet are clearly stand-ins for Dean and Cas, and they were planning to run away together, so D/C is clearly romantic, BOOM! Except literally nothing about Dean and Castiel's actual relationship lines up with that. In no sense were Dean and Castiel ever planning to run away from their families together - not at the point where Dean was calling Castiel out for pretending he didn't know where Dean was if he really wanted advice or otherwise. Unlike the actual parallels with Sam and Dean, there is no underlying narrative base. Likewise, hellers want to insist that Castiel is Dean's Colette. Aha! Cain said Dean is living his life in reverse, and he killed Collette last and his brother first, so since he said Dean would kill Castiel before Sam, Castiel=Colette, and Colette was a romantic partner, so Dean lurves the angel! BOOM! Just for the sake of being pedantic, let's break this nonsense down one more time. Cain lists Crowley as well as Castiel as people Dean will kill before Sam. Collette was special to Cain because she saw everything he was, never gave up on him, and was able to get him to drop the blade. Which is literally what Sam does during the time Dean has the Mark - meanwhile Castiel tries to get Dean to not go and slaughter the Stynes and fails and is ready to give up and kill Dean after he goes demonic. Which doesn't even get into the part where ... Cain is literally just wrong in telling his little fairy tale. Dean is not him. When given the choice of killing his brother, Cain does it. When given the choice of losing control, Cain does it. Dean tries to get Death to shoot him into outer space and then kills Death rather than actually kill Sam. Dean and Dean's love for his brother are both far stronger than Cain is capable of understanding. So the parallel life thing? Is fundamentally hooey anyway. Again, there's no narrative there for a parallel to be drawing an underline on because none of their cobbled together meta resembles anything going on in the actual text. That's not how storytelling uses parallels or any other kind of subtext, by creating something entirely separate and expecting the general audience to decipher it. Though it's no surprise they try to insist that a show would do that, because they have nothing else.

TLDR; Their entire argument is that a comparison to a romantic couple makes two other characters' relationship automagically romantic because reasons. Which even putting aside the lack of validity in their parallels ... continues to be a boldly idiotic statement given the number of actually textual comparisons the show makes between Sam & Dean and romantic couples. Again, it's no wonder they freaked the fuck out over that forehead touch, because they very fundamentally refused to understand what SPN was actually doing on literally any level.

unfriendly reminder that this is what sam and dean looked like when sam left for stanford

I’m sorry, but in what world was/is half the audience for Supernatural destiel shippers? This is so wrong it’s laughable. Do hellers not realize that …

1) Tumblr isn’t a good indicator of acrusl fandom numbers because of things like sock accounts and side blogs. Also, the sheer number of hellers on this cursed site who haven’t even watched the show boggles the mind, but first lead to views.

2) Social media in general isn’t a great indicator of fandom numbers or percentages because lots of fans of the show aren’t social media level fans (ie. making fan accounts, etc.).

3) The General Audirnce, who make up the most viewing numbers, often aren’t shippers at all. And many of them don’t even know destiel is a thing (in fandom, not the show).

4) there are probably more fans who would be angry at the out of chracter behaviour of Dean suddenly being into Cass when he wasn’t in canon for 12 years of the show. (See the GA reaction to the canon breaking of TW to see how they like things going against canon.)

5) Nobody connected to the show, who matters or will have any power in a potential revival, wants Destiel to happen. Especially Jensen.

what the cw and all of the people involved in the spn revival need to understand is that AT LEAST half of their loyal public won't be watching if

Cas isn't there

Destiel doesn't happen

and it's just because their queerbaiting made the story evolve in a way that the only possible outcome is letting those two men french kiss.

yeah there is public out there still gaslighting themselves into thinking cas doesn't love dean that way, or even trying to make it seem as if all was a fever dream from the so called hellers. but just take a quick take around the fandom and you'll see that the vast majority of the fans are people that SEE the queerness in all of what they did.

so, if they invest and don't make destiel happen -> bankruptcy.

I agree very much with this.

I absolutely love the fact that Sam has the capacity to go completely unhinged, but I especially love that he becomes this forgiving dude, who gives people freedom to make their own choices, and still has faith despite everything he’s been through.

Sam, as written, is a good character, but I might have liked more screen time and focus. Sam as portrayed by Jared is fantastic.

like I’m not even griping abt sam haters rn I’m griping abt sam FANS who lean so far into the “bloodfreak” thing that they erase a shitload of his other qualities

like no he isn’t actually just Crazy Freak He Was Terrified Of Becoming. given the environment he was raised in and his and dean’s lifestyle (to say nothing of their relationship) he IS incredibly, laboriously kind and gentle to the people around him… why do some of you guys pretend that side of him doesn’t exist

same complaint for people who claim “the writers dulled him down in the late seasons/I liked him so much more when he was bitchy in the early seasons.” have you seen what he’s been through lol. he changes over time and that only adds to what an endlessly fascinating character he is.

you’re all failing to appreciate why he’s one of the best characters ever created - the Layers.

Coming for you

I want a Tumblr best friend. Reblog if I can go on your page and write stupid things about One Direction in your ask box whenever I'd like to.

Facts!🤭

boops you

https://www.tumblr.com/neecy83/746427590983680000/dumb-all-of-you-suits-you-right-why-do-you-always

Sorry, Neecy, you did an excellent job replaying to this heller already, but it seems to be my new thing to get a kick of of responding to poorly edited walls of destiel text, so I hope you don’t mind me adding to the response for this. (Also, I’m the OG "Dumb Anon" so I feel it my duty to step up, lol.).

//dumb all of you suits you right.//

Capitalization and grammar are things that help us communicate with each other clearly, Anon. Perhaps you shouldn’t pretend you have media literacy when you don’t even seem to poses literacy literacy.

I mean, I know typos happen, no judge t there, but to not even capitalize?

//Why do you always make it a competition that it is sam or nobody, chill I am not saying dean doesn't care about sam, In fact I said dean cares about first and foremost about sam but if anything happens to cas that also deeply affects him we have seen this time again.//

First, as Neecy already pointed out: there is no competition. Period. Also, we over here in bibro/general audience/wincestie land are perfectly chill because we actually like the show fir what it is. I don’t see any of us responding in all caps like this anon did recently (this reads like the same anon, anyway). Now, something happening to Cass deeply affecting Dean is actually quite debatable depending on the season or occasion. But, no one is arguing he never cares, we are arguing against silly claims of him being suicidal or acting like a "widower."

//You would know that if you didn't selectively watched the show or only watched to hate on cas. Dean cares about cas, he has called him his best friend, his family, took care of him even though cas is powerful in his own might he feels the need for taking care of cas, when cas is strong independently.//

The idea of a heller telling ANYONE that they watch the show selectively is … frankly …hilarious. Also, Anon, if we watched the show just to hate on Cass, it wouldn’t take very long because he’s not in it all that much, lol. Also, no one denies that Dean considers Cass a friend, though I do wonder how authentic it is at times because Dean also calls Cass things like a child, a baby in a trench coat, a talking dog (which are not respectful, never mind romantic). He also says caring phrases to Cass like, "nobody cares that you’re broken," and "you’re dead to me." Moreover, Dean attempting to take care of Cass despite him being powerful says more about Dean in general than it does about Cass because Dean tries to protect (and make decisions for, TBH) pretty much everyone he cares about (ever distantly or vaguely) in his life, including Sam, Bobby, Mary, Claire, Charlie, etc.. Cas is no "special-er” than half-a-dozen other people is Dean's life. Also, how was Dean showing care for Cass when he threw him out on his ass, powerless and penniless from the bunker? Or maybe, he ONLY cares about a powerful Cass (because he’s a useful tool).

//You all are mad about cas breaking Sam's wall I get it I have heard this time and again but you know who forgave him so fast dean because I don't know what to tell you but that is because dean loves him.//

You’re damn right we are mad and won’t forget Cass breaking Sam's wall because it makes him a complete asshole and a shitty character, and frankly I judge Dean for forgiving him ever. But, I have another correction for you, dear. Who ACTUALLY forgave Cass "so fast" was Sam, not Dean. I guess that means Sam is in love with Cass then? Sastiel for the win! Sam forgives Cass almost instantly because SAM is too precious for this world, while Dean stays mad at him for a while, and leaves him alone, guarded by a demon, after he heals Sam. Dean only pretends he’s grudgingly forgiving Cass in Season 7 because they need his help killing Dick & Co. Dean only really forgives Cass out of guilt when he thinks he failed to rescue him from purgatory (because Dean is a soldier who isn’t okay with leaving any ally behind, not because he’s in love with him).

//The difference between sam and cas, with sam, dean has been fed since he was a child every since he carried him out of the fire "your job is to protect sam that is it" but with cas he does it from his own instinct, even just like Dean asking how are you - "you are having a midlife crisis" in season 10 , in hunter heroici "talk to me" like he cares not out of obligation but out of love (romantic/platonic).//

Please. This is so weak, it barely merits a response. We KNOW it was ingrained in Dean to take care of Sam, but Dean loves him because he’s Sam, the other half of his soul. That is part of the beauty of the show. Dean would pick Sam every time, anyway. You can’t force love (as much as hellers try … "No, means no," hellers!). Also, Dean asking very generic variations of, "you, good, bro?" Is … umm … normal human consideration? It’s not like, inherently meaningful beyond showing general care. Sam, if you ever noticed, often asks how Cas is, or wonders how he is doing when he’s gone.

//It is not a competition I know if given a choice a dean will choose sam first, cas knows it too. It is not about competition between sam and cas.//

Good! I’m glad you get it. Dean will ALWAYS choose Sam. 👏

//Like people grow up and watch the show. Dean will give his life for sam out of obligation, but dean will be severely depressed when cas dies also, not because of some obligation, because he feels for cas that deeply and in 10 years they have become more than friends.//

Oh! SO CLOSE, heller! You almost got there! Dean chooses Sam out of love, NOT obligation. Dean is not even on the same planet of panic, depression or desperation when he looses Cass in comparison to Sam (or anyone else). Name one time Dean is desisted at losing Cass, when there are not other horrible things going on in his life at the sane time. Before you even try the "Widower Arc" BS, recall that Dean also lost his mother, the son of Lucifer is loose, and he lost Crowley at the same time as loosing Cass, when he’s upset at the start of Season 13. Dean thinks Mary is dead, so that is a VERY real factor there.

Okay. I’m done.

✌️

Anon, this was all pure BEAUTY! 🥰

Ranking 327 Episodes of Supernatural

(And I need your help first!)

Okay, so I'm finally planning to live up to my blog's name by doing a full rewatch of Supernatural (Only 3+ years after the show ended and 1+ years after I made this blog for this purpose 🤦‍♀️ ). Anyway, I’ll be "Rewatching Sam and Dean," in other words. (Sorry 🙄.)

I'm not only gong to rewatch it and comment, but I'm going to try to rate and rank every episode. I'm generally bad at ranking on a large scale, but I want to be able to say with confidence what my top 5, 10, 20, etc. episodes are. Because right now, I can list episodes I love, but I can’t say which one I like best among my favorites. Also, ranking gives me an additional purpose to my rematch.

(I’ll put my particular criteria for ranking under the cut, so there no need to skim through that part if you’re not interested in specifics.)

So, you might be asking, "Why do I care about this?"

And if you don’t, that’s cool. But, I’m posting about it here because I’m hoping to get some ideas for things to track as I’m watching the episodes. I don’t want to do too many things because that’s a sure way to get bogged down and make this feel like work, but there are often those little things that I wish I had a quick answer to, and looking for them as I go through each episode should be easier than hopping back and forth to track things down. And I know there are things like Superwiki for that (though they aren’t perfect), but I want to track some things for myself, too

So, these are some things I’m already planning to watch out for:

How John is described/acts, and his relationship with both boys

Sam and Dean's "anger issues"

How/when each brother responds when the other is upset (and how this changes), and which brother shares more

How Bobby treats each brother

How each brother relates to Mary and how she treats them

When each brother prays; who is it to, and what is it about?

Times when Sam and Dean are depicted as classic brothers, vs. blatantly compared to a couple, a parent-child, friends, or are just weird.

So, if you made it this far, could you please give me your suggestions for other things I should keep an eye out for while watching? Or, suggest other things that might be interesting to rate/rank as I go through the show?

Thanks for reading!

How I’ll be Rating the Episodes:

Now, when I rate these episodes, I’ll be determining MY FAVORITE episodes, not what I think are technically THE BEST episodes. For example, "On the Head of a Pin " is a very well executed episode, but I can pretty much guarantee that it wan’t be in my top 25 or anything, because Alistair disgusts me so thoroughly that I can't stand rewatching it.

I’ve created a bit of a rubric for myself to quasi keep myself honest, though there is still a lot of room for subjectiveness in my ranked areas. So far, my criteria is:

1. The Brothers: Are there good or meaningful brother moments? Do we learn anything new about either brother or their relationship? Are they behaving in character?

2. The Monster: Is the monster or antagonist of the episode interesting, frightening, handled in a unique way?

3. Story: Is the narrative strong, impactful to the show as a whole, or entertaining? Is there canon-breaking or retconning that damages the show?

4. Recurring/Side Characters: Are the characters who are sharing the screen with Sam and/or Dean interesting, effective, important, and/or standouts in some other way? Do I care about them?

5. Re-watchability: On Subsequent viewings of the episode, am I still entertained? Do I gain a new perspective or find more to enjoy when I watch it again? Does the episode lose impact, relevance or entertainment value (in a significant way) on repeat viewings?

Anyway, as I said, this is deeply subjective, so maybe no one will be interested in my takes, and that’s fine. But, I will give reasons with canon support, for what I like or don’t like, so my ratings won’t be based on what I head-canon to be true. I’d ideally like to do this on YouTube with edits, but I’m not sure I want to put myself out there to that extent. Either way, I’ll be on here, too. Either I’ll post here, or link my videos (if I ever make them) here.

My Pilot Review

From ages ago …

Also, if anyone is interested, you can find my original attempts at episode reviews HERE. My format for rewatching will likely be a bit more structured now (and not take multiple posts per episode), but here’s how my brain works, if you’re interested.

The way people try to argue against this is ridiculous, just because Ash doesn’t say the words, “You two, Sam and Dean, are soulmates.”

First, the guy nods at Sam and Dean when he says the word, and they both look uncomfortable since they aren’t in a fantastic place right now. The soulmate part of this scene wouldn’t even have been written if it weren’t giving us the info that is pertains to Sam and Dean. Soulmates sharing a heaven wouldn’t be relevant otherwise, so it wouldn’t need to be mentioned.

Also, people who argue Dean needed to use a road to find Sam because they weren’t in the same heaven are missing the fact that Dean could ONLY find Sam without some sort of spell (like Ash used) BECAUSE they are in the same heaven. Thus, soulmates.

It’s really not that hard.

Sam and Dean are canonically soulmates

It's Winchesterland as in SamDeanland only because

05x16

Y'all are doing the soulmates poll wrong!

There you go <3

Is this person very stupid, or are they just used to talking only to their echo chamber, so they think things like canon don’t matter?

- Sam and Dean ARE soulmates, as we see in DSotM

- Sam and Dean are “tied together” because they CHOOSE to be by choosing each other over and over.

- Again, they are linked to each other because they WANT TO be. They have separated, but aren’t happy when they do.

- The Sam and Dean on our show are the Only Sam and Dean who refused to do what Chick wanted (kill each other), so they actually successfully bucked against being his “playthings”.

- Dean and Cass? Yeah, they aren’t soulmates because Castiel has no soul. (Stop stealing everything about Sam and giving it to Cass challenge.)

- Of course Cass will always find Dean; he’s his super-powered stalker, so it’s not that special. But yes, their love is SO powerful ... unless Cass or Dean need to betray the other to accomplish any number of goals, or if it’s a choice between Sam or Cass, or if Cass does something that that gets Mary killed (and actually thst wasn’t even his fault, but Dean blamed just him anyway).

- Sam and Dean ARE in fact the cosmic opposite of what Dean and Cass are … they are two people (not supernatural soulless bearings) who love each other above anyone else, always choose each other, are soulmates, are miserable without each other, will move heaven and earth for each other, are true family … and so on.

Why are hellers so ridiculous? The show is right there for anyone to watch, and saying a bunch of bullshit doesn’t make it true (or canon).

Our soulmates who always choose each other:

S/D aren't soulmates but Cas and Dean are according to this hellers. Aside from the fact that Cas doesn't have a soul, this is just... YIKES.

I have to weigh in on this.

Dean says 1 month = 10 years in hell, and it is the only measure we know of hell time for a human. So, we the audience, understand hell to work this way. And as has been mentioned, the longer time was needed to “justify” Dean breaking.

Sam goes to hell just 2 seasons later, and we have heard nothing to counter Dean’s account of hell time at this point, so it’s very fair to assume Sam also has the 1 month = 10 years in hell experience. Similar to Dean, it has to be that long (or similar) because, imo, 1.5 years is not enough time to account for Sam's soul being flayed raw and the very real (and proven) risk of him going insane if he remembers all that hell trauma. Sam is often the more mentally resilient brother, the one who has is able to find hope, to endure. While the devil himself torturing Sam for 1.5 years being enough to beak him sounds fair, in terms of the show, it has to be more. To me, there is no question that Sam was in hell for around 180 years, or more.

For Crowley, Cas and Death to acknowledge how bad off his soul is, it has to be a very long time of torture. Also, Sam perceiving his hell flashback as weeks rather than minutes is too similar to Dean’s measure of time (1 month = 10 years) to assume one is reality and the other is perception. This was a time on SPN where the writers still trusted the audience to connect some of the dots without them saying everything explicitly (late seasons are shallower and over explain things a lot of the time, while also throwing established canon out the window).

While I understand someone questioning it, to me, it just doesn’t make sense that Sam was “only” tortured in hell for equal earth time because that’s bad yes, but not horrific like hundreds of years is. Also, if we question Sam’s perception of time, we should question Dean’s as well. Dean is not a more reliable narrator than Sam.

Also, late seasons shouldn’t be considered in this because 1) they are terrible at consistency 2) Season 4 set the standard for Season 5/6 hell time, so we should go with that standard because we don’t have another one at that time on the show.

Just my thoughts on it, of course.

Does the show ever actual say how long Sam’s soul was in Lucifer’s cage in relative time? Because I know they specifically said for Dean that it was like 40 years, but at no other time do any of the characters that go to Hell experience time dilation/distortion so it seems just as likely that Dean’s time was messed with to hasten him breaking to jump start the apocalypse. But I’m wondering if I’ve just forgotten a reference or if we’ve all just assumed that Sam’s time down there was longer than the year or so that his soul wasn’t in his body.