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wormstacheangel · 4 years

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Stay Unhappy. Stay with Me.

15x18 Coda Fic aka I just can’t accept what happened so I keep changing it lol (hurt comfort idk but happy ending)

“You changed me, Dean.”

Dean watched, listened, while the pounding at the door grew desperate. His ears ringing as the echoing of his heart slamming into his chest was making itself known because of Cas…

“Why does this sound like a goodbye?”

Tear filled eyes, shining so bright and free, stared back at him. A pulling smile on his lips, heartbreaking, as he tried hard to hold back whatever was left. “Because it is.”

Cas opened his mouth to say something else but Dean took a step forward and pressed his palm against Cas’s mouth. Stopping whatever it was he was going to say because he knew, he knew, exactly what he was about to blurt out and this was not the way they were going to do this. Not here. Not now.

“Dean!” He heard Cas mumble under his hand but Dean only pressed it harder against his mouth as he glared down at him, the tears really made it hard for him to look angry or even annoyed but he was.

“Shut it.”

They both turned towards the bubbling noise behind them just as Billie broke through the door. Dean wrapped his free arm around Cas’s waist to press him close to his chest, shielding him from both threats because this is not how their story is going to end. This is not how these pushed back emotions were finally going to be acknowledged.

Cas looked at him with wide eyes that still glistered under the one light as Dean shushed him again, keeping his hand over Cas’s mouth to keep him from saying anything else. To keep him from being...happy.

Cas only nodded once as he stood still in the embrace, keeping his eyes on Dean the whole time as the goo reached to take Billie. Covering her from head to toe so quickly she didn’t even have time to scream, Dean was sure she wouldn’t out of pride. Then just as quick as they came the threats were gone. The only noise that echoed the room was the clank of the scythe hitting the floor.

Dean finally turned to look back at Cas, to meet his ocean eyes that were burning holes into the side of his face.

“You dumb son of a bitch,” Dean tries to sound annoyed but his voice is too shaky. “You don’t get to do that shit anymore.”

“Dean.” Cas mumbles from under his palm and Dean rolled his eyes before he pulled his hand back only to rest it on the side of Cas’s face instead. Cradling him as he tightens his grip, afraid that the wrong words can make him happy. Make him disappear. “I’m sorry. I saw no other way to save you.”

“Save me?” Dean almost laughed at the idea. Cas being gone only ever made Dean feel lost and broken. Empty and dead. “You leaving wasn’t going to save me, dumbass.”

He didn’t want to add how it would have probably been the thing that really sent him over the edge. Closer to pulling the trigger and just ending himself his way. Billie being gone now meant he may not be thrown to the Empty like she promised and now he was afraid he would be resurrected if he did. Cas is here though, he is in his arms and alive, so there was no need to think of a backup plan just yet.

“I need you here, Cas, with me.” Dean leans in to drop his forehead down on Cas’s shoulder. Feeling his neck ache at the movement as he realized how tensed his whole body was. Locked up and cold as if he’s been unmoving for hours instead of the slow-moving ten minutes that actually passed. “So stop fucking leaving me. Please.”

Dean could hear his voice, broken and desperate, as he pleaded with him. Wanting to scream out what he means and wants but he’s unsure of how to do so. Afraid the wrong words can bring the Empty back to get him, them. So he says words that were spoken before. Words Cas knew, that were familiar to them both. Safe.

“I want you to be happy, Cas. That’s all I fucking want but...not like this” Dean pulled back to meet his wide eyes, still unblinking as tears continued to flow. “Just, stay unhappy for a little bit longer.” Dean could see Cas crack a smile at his words, blinking finally to look back at Dean with warm eyes. The love Dean always tried to ignore was now front and center. “Can you do that for me?”

“Of course, Dean.”

With shaky hands, Cas reached to take Dean’s face in between his hands. His thumb ghosting over his cheeks to wipe away heavy tears while he looked back at him, smiling as he let out a shaky sigh. His eyes roaming over his face as if trying to carve it into memory.

“I miss you.” Cas says as he watches his thumb brush over the freckles on his skin. “I miss you so much even though I have you so close.”

“Me too.” Dean swallowed the same words Cas needed to push down as they stayed like that for a few more minutes. Looking at each other as if it was the first time, or their last, before Dean finally caved and let his forehead drop to Cas’s own. His eyes shut close to feel Cas’s hands grip at the front of his jacket. Keeping him close as fresh new tears fell because now that the waterworks were open they were having trouble closing them.

So close to having something they both knew they could finally have but it was still so far away. Only a thin thread holding them back now and Dean will figure out a way to finally break that thread so he can have him. Have Cas the way he has been wanting him for so long.

“We’ll figure it out.”

“I know.”

“We’ll be happy.”

“I know, Dean.”

Sam and Jack came home to find Dean swinging Death’s Scythe around the map table, Cas was sitting on one of the chairs far away enough to not accidentally be killed. They were all thinking out loud as to what to do next, being the only things left in the whole universe, or at least the earth as social media has finally stopped updating.

“Okay, let’s get to work!” Sam clapped his hands as he stood up, nearly missing being beheaded by Dean. So he took the scythe away and handed it over to Cas, who took it giving him the same annoyed expression Sam was giving him.

The big battle started off as dumb and reckless as any other Winchester fight. Chuck was snapping his fingers and slowly things disappeared around them. Nature disappeared right before their eyes, every snap of the finger plummeted them into darkness. Into nothing.

Dean watched as Sam was snapped out of the dark abyss while Dean struggled to breathe, Chuck decided oxygen needed to go next. Cas was on the floor burned out by Chuck’s feet while Jack was on his knees bleeding as he stared up at him.

“Amara?” Dean heard Jack say as he lazily looked up at Chuck, everything in him was still trying to fight but they still lost. Dean tried crawling towards Jack, protecting the last person in his family that was left but he couldn’t even feel his body anymore. “It’s okay. It was nice knowing you for the short while I did.”

Dean tried calling out to him but darkness was blurring his vision.

“Thank you for wanting to get to know me. I would have loved to get to know you too. I think...I think we would’ve been a good family.”

Dean heard before the darkness finally took him with one last gasping breath.

Then Dean woke up with a bright light in his face. He laid still on the beach, his legs soaking wet but he couldn’t find it in himself to move or even open his eyes. Afraid of what he’ll see or not see when he opened them. His fingers gripped at the sand, feeling the grains slip through his fingers, as he tried to remember what just happened. Wanting to focus his mind before anything else but he never did get a chance to get past the panic, the pain of watching his family die before him.

“Dean? Dean, wake up.” He heard the familiar voice of someone he thought was lost a while ago. He opened his eyes, blinking a few times until Amara’s face was clear. “Hey, there.”

“Amara?” Dean reached for her, to poke her cheek to see if it was really her, but she slapped his hand away with a little laugh. “Ow!”

“Well, I’m glad you’re okay at least.” She stood up and pulled on Dean’s arm to help stand him up.

“But Chuck...ate you? How are you - wait how the hell am I here?” Dean patted himself over just to make sure he was actually him and he was actually alive. Taking a deep breath of air that seconds ago he was trying to suck in. “My family?”

Amara smiled and pointed further down the beach where he saw Jack crouched down, alive, with Cas’s head in his lap.

Dean opened his mouth but before he could get the words out Amara spoke, “Sam woke up first and I sent him to where his girlfriend is. He said he’ll see you at home.”

“But where’s Chuck?”

“In here.” She points at herself. “I got him. Balance finally restored. I just wanted to say goodbye to you before I left.”

Amara was sacrificing herself for Jack, for him to keep his family. Trading Cas’s spot for her and Chuck with the Empty so Jack could have his Dad. For Dean to have him.

“Go. He’s gonna wake up soon.” She nudges him a sad smile playing on her lips.

Dean didn’t have to be told twice as he ran across the beach to kneel on the other side of his angel. Jack smiled up at him before he got up and walked over to Amara, taking her hand as they spent a few minutes together before she had to leave.

Dean watched them walk across the water for a few seconds before giving Cas his full attention once again. Calling out for him to wake up.

“Cas, sweetheart, wake up. We did it. We won.” Dean lifted Cas head to rest on his lap now, leaning down to press his forehead on top of Cas’s own. “We’re alive, Cas.”

“We are?” He heard Cas say a playful tone to his voice before Dean felt his hand reach up scrunch up his jacket. “Mmmm, if we’re not then this must be heaven.”

“Don’t be so cliché or I’ll kiss you.”

Cas raised his eyebrow at that. “Is that...are you threatening me with a kiss?”

Dean watched as Cas' face turned just slightly pink before he cleared his throat and pushed himself away from Dean. Sitting up and rubbing the back of his neck awkwardly.

“Dean, this is hard enough already without your teasing. I barely survived this far so I’ll rather not have the Empty come get me before we figure out a way to break-”

Dean pulled Cas back as he tried to get up. Taking his arm and moving close enough that their faces were inches apart, Cas’s breathing hitched before it stopped. Staring down at Dean’s lips just as he stared back at the angel’s perfect lips. Wanting them for so long and having them closer than he ever had them before but there was something he was supposed to do beforehand.

“I love you, Cas.”

Cas gasped as tears welled back in his eyes, blinking them away as his eyes met his once again. Cas quickly moved just enough to cling to him but kept his eyes on his face, fear dancing around his expression.

“No. No, Dean, don’t say that. I don’t want to leave you. I don’t want to go. Please, don’t-”

Dean reached to cradle his face between his hands, kissing the tip of Cas’s nose. “Cas, sweetheart, nobody in this whole damn universe will ever take you from me. You’re mine and you’re here to stay.”

“I am?” Cas leaned into his palm, making Dean think of a cat. “Are you sure?”

“I love you, Cas.” Dean repeats, watching Cas eyes widen again as he blinks up at him. Still a little scared. “I love you so much.”

“I-I love you.” Cas hesitantly says before pressing a kiss on Dean’s palm. A sigh of relief escaping him as he let his eyes drift closed. A warm smile spread across his face making him brighten up. “I love you, Dean.”

They rested foreheads, kneeling on the sand as they held each other. Letting the warmth of their words linger around them and envelope them with newfound hope.

#I want amara to overpower chuck #also Jack loves her that he figures out a way to separate them again and get her back #so they can have cool family time #im sorry i just want amara and jack to have a cool aunt and nephew relationship #Destiel #Deancas #Supernatural #SPN #A More Profound OTP #My Writing #spn coda 15x18 #15x18 coda #15x18 fic #destiel fanfic #destiel fic #destiel ficlet #WormstacheWrites

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hen-of-letters · 3 years

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Series 15 gives all of the characters you could ever care about their worst possible endings, but presents these endings as somehow good or satisfying or acceptable. Here's a list.

The short version: they're Chuck's endings, and Chuck is a bad writer.

None of the characters can escape the fate set out for them or break the cycle of trauma begun by Chuck. The show itself doesn't even realise how truly awful these endings are - it dresses up a tragedy in pie gags and pretty colours and calls it a happy ending. And in order to inflict these worst possible endings on its characters, the narrative has to be twisted and contorted in the most absurd of ways.

So, onto the list:

Adam: Forgotten and left to languish in the pit, he's finally freed, only to suffer an anticlimactic offscreen death and be forgotten again. Michael, his only companion for so long, is also killed off. In the finale, blood family seems to be all that matters - and yet he isn't mentioned.

Alternate Kaia: She helps rescue Kaia from the Bad Place, but chooses to remain there to face certain destruction rather than return to earth with Kaia, Dean and Sam. This world is so hostile to her that death is preferable. Her horrible, pointless death stands as a powerful statement about the real harm caused by exclusion, but the text doesn't seem to acknowledge the full horror of this. Her death isn't remarked upon; it seems to suggest that both Kaia and her double are returned to their rightful places. It's just one example of the show creating awful endings without seeming to understand how awful they truly are. (I rant a lot more about Alternate Kaia here.)

Amara: After being betrayed and locked away for millennia, we see Amara's initial impulse for revenge and destruction transform into an admiration for creation. She becomes an advocate for humanity and the world. And yet she ends up being betrayed (by both the Winchesters and Chuck) and locked away again. She's absorbed by Chuck in a way that doesn't fit within the logic of the show. Chuck and Amara are equals - it doesn't make any sense that Chuck could overpower her. Wouldn't they become a blend of the two of them? And, since their separation caused the Big Bang, wouldn't their unity end the world? Anyway, having the cosmic feminine be voiceless and invisible is the worst way for Amara's story to end. Having Jack speak for her, saying that they are 'in harmony' tries to make this an acceptable fate for her, but only makes it worse.

Benny: Another offscreen death, and this one feels particularly spiteful. It really seems like he was killed just to be a conversation-starter for Cas and Dean. However, if his fate can be sealed by a line of dialogue, then it only proves that confirmation of the fates of Eileen, AU Charlie and the other hunters could have been given in the same way. Just one line could have done it - "I just spoke to Eileen, everyone's back." Instead, at the end of 15.19 we're in the absurd position of having Sam and Dean toast the people they've lost without them even bothering to check who that may or not be.

Billie: The bizarre thing about Billie being revealed as a villain at the end of Season 15 was that she was supposed to be acting in self-interest - that she wanted to be the new God. It made no sense. What would make sense to me, though, would be if Chuck was controlling her (as Lucifer bound Death in Season 5). Season 15 has strong echoes of Season 4 - and Billie took on both the role of Ruby (feeding Jack hearts rather than demon blood, but nevertheless making him into a weapon, with the price being the loss of his sense of self and ultimately his life) and Heaven (persuading Dean that it had to be this way, and telling him to go along with the plan). We only have the Shadow's word for Billie's motivation, and we know she wasn't responsible for the deaths of the AU hunters, so in the end her status is ambiguous - she really seems to be a victim of Chuck's bad writing. She's erased from the narrative along with Castiel, when really she should have been freed from Chuck's control and fighting on the side of nature and free will alongside the Winchesters. Supernatural also concludes with nobody in the role of Death, which is a crazy loose thread left dangling.

Castiel: His confession was a thing of beauty, perfectly summing up the truth of both his and Dean's characters. Both of them are made of and motivated by love. And yet after speaking his truth, he is silenced. He never gets to hear that he is loved in return (when the previous twelve seasons have made it abundantly clear to the audience that Dean loves Cas just as much as Cas loves Dean). His capacity for love made him the only thing that Chuck could not control; as an agent of free will, he should have had a central role in Chuck's defeat.

In 15x13, when Cas is in the Empty to see Ruby, the Shadow says: "funny thing about [Death's] plan, though... she didn't say anything about needing you. Baby, you can't just traipse in and out of here. It upsets the order of things." To me, this sounded so much like 4x22's "you're not in this story" that I saw it as a pretty clear indication that Cas would play an important part in Chuck's defeat. Because Team Free Will wouldn't follow the plan, would they? They would find another way, wouldn't they? Wouldn't they?

However, after the confession, he's never seen on screen again. He's barely mentioned. Eventually we're told he "helped" Jack, so he ends up where he started: as a servant of heaven. He deserved to complete his fall, to become human, to live as well as speak his truth. Making him a silent, unseen instrument of heaven undoes his entire arc. Erasing him from the narrative requires the extraordinary warping of that narrative: nothing about his death suggests that it should be accepted as a permanent 'sacrifice', when we know that there is a spell that can return angels from the Empty (and, thanks to the handprint, we have his blood for it) and that Lucifer was brought back by Chuck in 15x19. And the idea that Sam, Jack and Dean wouldn't try everything in their power to bring him back is utterly ludicrous.

Cas' confession scene to so closely mirrors 4x01's barn scene that the narrative is crying out for the parallel to be completed by Dean rescuing Cas from the Empty just as Cas rescued Dean from hell. However, we're never given that narrative closure - just like we are never given the reunions demanded by the scenes of Sam losing Eileen and Charlie losing Stevie.

Chuck: Okay, so he might not make your list of characters you could ever care about, but my point about his ending is that while it's fitting, for it to really work we also needed Cas to become human, too. For Chuck, being human is a punishment, but for Cas it would be a reward. We really needed this balance, otherwise all we have is humanity as the worst thing that could happen to you, which is not exactly a great parting message for the show. (Also, how precisely is it possible to make him human?) Not only is being human the worst fate possible, but, specifically, so is growing old and being forgotten. Again, this is a punishment for Chuck, but it would have been a reward for Dean: growing old when the story (and his own self-loathing) constantly told him that he would die young; and being forgotten, not in a negative sense, but in terms of not being a character in a story any more: remembered fondly by his friends but no longer a legend, just a man living an insignificant little life exactly the way he chooses.

Dean: Where do I even start. Let's be clear: ending the story with his death (by any means and in any scenario) was always going to be the absolute worst possible ending for him and for the show.

In 15x19 we have the glorious moment when Chuck calls him the ultimate killer, and Dean (heeding Cas' words from 15x18) says "that's not who I am". Now, I mean no disrespect to Dean here (because he is, canonically, a genius) but I don't think that he was in any way necessary to the Michael double-cross plot that eventually saw the defeat of Chuck. Honestly, if he had died in 15x18, then 15x19 could still have played out in exactly the same way. It's as if he wasn't saved so that he could save the world - he was saved so that he could have this moment of self-realisation. He was saved so that he could stand up to Chuck (God, and the author, and parallelled with John) and tell him that he's not the person that he tried to force him to be.

And yet by the next episode, this revelation is entirely forgotten. He doesn't get to continue his self-actualisation by speaking his truth to Cas. Instead, 15x20 presents Dean as almost a caricature of himself. Dean loves pie. Dean loves his brother. Dean loves his car. All of his complexity (present right from Season 1) is stripped away.

Finally free to write his own story, he ends up giving Chuck the ending he always wanted: one dead Winchester - killed, you could argue, by his brother (Sam fails to call for help and instead tells Dean to "go".) Told by Cas that he's not "Daddy's blunt instrument" and accepting that he's not "the ultimate killer", Dean goes right back to killing (even threatening torture) and following his father's words (in the form of the journal).

For Dean to die exactly as the story has always told him, and as he's always told himself in his worst moments of self loathing, is brutal and tragic. What makes it truly appalling is the way in which both Dean and Sam accept his death and say it's "okay". For Dean to say "always keep fighting" at the very moment when he gives up and when Sam gives up on him is bitterly ironic. (Interestingly, when Cas said "you have to keep fighting" in his 12x12 death speech, exhorting Sam and Dean to save themselves and leave him behind, Sam replied with "we are fighting. We're fighting for you, Cas" and Dean followed with "and like you said, you're family. And we don't leave family behind".)

Dean has always been the symbol of humanity in Supernatural: he stood for earth against the forces of heaven and hell. He'd rather live with pain and guilt than exist as a "Stepford bitch in paradise", and yet that's exactly what he becomes, driving mindlessly through Jack's new heaven where everyone is "happy". Dean previously dismissed heaven's happiness as "Memorex", and after Mary's death he was the only one not consoled by the confirmation that she was in heaven and happy. Having Dean being content in heaven is utterly out of character. He's always fought for free will, and in heaven - where there's no agency, where he's cut off from the world - this is the one thing that he does not have.

Eileen: An interesting, complex, kickass character, Eileen deserved so much better than being erased from the storyline. A Men of Letters legacy, I imagine her working with Sam to share the knowledge contained within the bunker whilst also dismantling the patriarchy, elitism and colonialism of its past. Her disappearance from the narrative makes absolutely no sense - 15x09, 15x17 and 15x18 confirm just how significant she is to Sam, and yet we never see them reunited or see Sam mourning her death. The audience's love for Eileen is totally disregarded, too - she's ripped away from us with no further explanation.

Emma: Okay, so she wasn't actually in season 15, but that's sort of my point. I have a lot to say about Emma, but here I'll just say that her significance has grown massively since Season 7. The narrative has shifted from Team Free Will being sons to being fathers. Even if she wasn't brought back, just a mention of her would have been significant. (I can't stop thinking about the massive potential of a conversation about Emma between Dean and Jack.) She didn't deserve to be forgotten.

Season 15 was Supernatural's last opportunity to bring back characters from the past - such as Meg, original Charlie, Crowley, and Bela Talbot - and give them better endings. Sadly this opportunity was wasted.

Garth: He actually seems to get his happy ending, on several levels. He finds a family; he finds happiness; he's acknowledged as a hero by the Winchesters, who had previously mocked him. Dean's words to him about embracing happiness are powerful. Garth lives as his full, authentic self - monstrosity now included. It's that monstrosity that's the issue here, though - as werewolves, Garth, Bess and little Sam and Castiel are doomed to go to purgatory when they die. Mia Vallens said to Jack that "it doesn't matter what you are - it matters what you do", but in this case the opposite is true. It's hideously unfair, but again the show never acknowledges this. It would have been simple to change in a line or two - just a quick mention about how purgatory has been fixed, so that only truly monstrous beasts like the leviathan are kept trapped there - but the injustice remains.

Jack: From his birth, his destiny was either to be the monstrous destroyer or the divine saviour of the world, which is precisely why he should have side-stepped it and found another way. He deserved to live without the weight of the world on his shoulders. Instead, he was forced to take on the power of God - and since when has someone suddenly taking on a huge amount of power ever ended well for Team Free Will? Then, he repeats the exact same pattern set up by Chuck. First, he abandons his creation by walking away and disappearing off to, in the words of Bobby, "wherever he went". Like Chuck, he ignores earthly suffering: if he's now omniscient and omnipotent, is he in fact complicit in Dean's death? Secondly, he's controlling: he remodels Heaven as he sees fit, making it a place where everyone's together and everyone's happy, with its inhabitants given absolutely no choice in the matter. There's also no reason why Jack had to vanish from the story - Chuck was capable of spending time on Earth.

The mechanics of the bomb plot also irks me no end. We're told by Death that the bomb will kill Jack. However, their plan fails, and Jack survives the blast. In 15x19, Dean tells Chuck that all the work done to turn Jack into a "cosmic bomb" has turned him instead into a "power vacuum." It makes it seem like a side-effect, and also that "sucking up bits of power" has been charging him up to the point where he's "unstoppable". He's able to both absorb and appropriate Chuck's power. However, in 15x17 Adam and Serafina explain that the bomb will create a "metaphysical supernova" that will make Jack into "a living black hole for divine energy" - which suggests that, actually, the bomb worked as intended.

But if the plan worked, why is Jack still alive? Billie made it clear that Jack wouldn't survive. And "nothing can escape" a black hole - so how is Jack able to use Chuck's powers to bring back Earth's population? Besides which, didn't 15x17 reveal that Chuck himself had "orchestrated" the entire thing? Which makes the theory that Chuck possessed Jack really the only outcome that makes sense. (Particularly as Serafina talks about Jack making his "vessel" strong. Jack is a nephil, not an angel - he has a body, not a vessel. Also, the bomb is made by fusing his soul with his grace - so, the two things that make up Jack, his humanity and his divinity, are annihilated.) Deliberately making Chuck win, however (with no tease at the end that this might be the case), makes no sense either. My head hurts.

Kevin: As if he hadn't been treated badly enough by the story already, we find that Kevin hasn't been in Heaven since we last saw him, but rather hell. He ends up as an untethered ghost, presumably just wandering about for all eternity. His fate comes courtesy of a bizarre new rule that souls from hell can't go to heaven - when previously both Bobby and John have done exactly that. Again, just one line telling us that he's now in heaven could have changed his ending.

Michael: Bringing back Adam and Michael was a brilliant move, and this version of Michael was utterly compelling - struggling with his faith in his father after being abandoned, torn between his loyalty to Heaven and his relationship with Adam. I thought that his handing over of the spell was very similar to Cas' "just so you understand … why I can't help" moment, and it seemed the precursor to Michael becoming an advocate for humanity, even a member of Team Free Will. However, instead Michael was doomed to play out his father's narrative: killing his brother and repeating the cycle of sibling conflict and trauma that Chuck began when he betrayed Amara. (And we'll credit Chuck's bad writing with the fact that the battle between Michael and Lucifer that was once predicted to wipe out millions and scorch the globe can now happen in the bunker without so much as a chair being knocked over - and without wires as well.)

Rowena: She seems to be relishing her reign as Queen of Hell, but the way she's so casually condemned is jarring. Surely her previous good deeds and her final act of self sacrifice would be enough to tip the scales in a heavenly direction? (It worked for Lily Sunder - another woman who vowed never to be powerless again.) They could easily have said it was Chuck's fault that she had to remain in hell - but instead it just seems like a foregone conclusion. She deserved better.

Sam: If we're supposed to believe that having a "normal" life is Sam's idea of writing his own story, why doesn't he do it as soon as Chuck is defeated? Instead, his suburban "apple pie" life only happens after Dean dies, which makes it seem more of a grief arc than a happy ending. (Just as he escaped into a self-professed "fantasy" life with Amelia after Dean's death, or when he succumbed to the comfort of a fake married life in Charming Acres after the trauma of losing all the AU hunters).

The idea that he'd keep hunting for Dean doesn't ring true - Dean had been the one openly craving retirement and domesticity for several seasons. After all, the idea of Dean as a hunter and Sam as the brother who wants to be normal is Chuck's story. Dean wasn't the "ultimate killer" that Chuck wanted him to be, and Sam too had been forging his own identity as a leader, a Man of Letters, and a powerful witch. He'd also found love - and with Eileen, he could be his full, authentic self. The idea that he would leave her is absurd, as is the idea that he would abandon his entire extended found family, who seem to have no part in his new life. When Dean returned from purgatory, he was furious that Sam had failed to help Kevin. Would Sam really do the exact same thing again - walk away from Jody and the girls when they are mourning both Cas and Dean and need his support? Would he just abandon Rowena's entire witchy collection and leave the huge store of knowledge in the Bunker locked up in the dark?

The Shadow: again, dubious on a list of characters you care about, but hey - all they ever really wanted was to go back to sleep, and can't we all relate to that? Anyway, they made the list for being one of the most frustrating open endings of the show. What did it mean for the Empty to be "loud"? Who is the Shadow, anyway? Just how did this cosmic entity fit in with the mythology of Chuck and Amara? It's maddening that the Shadow and the Empty were made central to several seasons only to be suddenly dropped.

The Wayward Sisters: my beloveds. Such a brilliant cast of characters and such wasted potential. They're an important part of the Winchesters' family and Team Free Will, but, in the end, they're forgotten. Claire may have gotten her happy ending with the return of Kaia, but this happens off screen. We never see her reaction to the deaths of Castiel or Dean.

The final few episodes seem to be about stripping away all of the characters except Sam and Dean, so they are completely alone by 15x20. Phrases such as "just us" and "just you and me" and "it's always been you and me" seem to suggest that this is a good thing, but previously the idea of them being isolated and alone has seemed like the worst case scenario (for example in Season 8, when Sam and Dean are forced to give up Amelia and Benny, respectively, or in Chuck's vision of a future in which the brothers lose Eileen and Cas along with Jody and the girls, give up hope, and end up as vampires, killed by their remaining friends).

Anyway, the whole idea of just Sam and Dean going wherever the road takes them is Chuck's story. It's on the cover of his books. By making Chuck the villain, Season 15 itself makes it impossible for a return to this idea to be a satisfying conclusion to the story.

In fact, Supernatural was never about just Sam and Dean. It was always about family. Season 1 was about Sam, Dean and John. Bobby introduced the phrase "family don't end with blood" in Season 3 and Dean coined the phrase "Team Free Will" in Season 4. It's an ethos that has spread into the fandom, too. Didn't the SPN Family deserve a finale that celebrated that idea, of banding together, of caring about the whole world, of love being the ultimate expression of free will?

You can't help but pick up on a theme: characters that were forgotten are forgotten again. Characters who were locked away are locked away again. The same narratives and the same traumas play out again and again. No-one escapes their miserable, predestined fate. It's Chuck's ending. And it's Chuck's spiteful ending.

It's the ending that kills off its beloved characters, and also destroys their whole world. The bunker is left in darkness. Time has moved forward by so much in order to accommodate Sam's natural death that we can't even imagine the ongoing stories of other characters like Garth or the Sioux Falls family (ironic, given the episode's title).

It's the kind of ending you get when a show is cancelled and the writer decides to kill off their characters and wreck their world so that there's no possibility of another network or another writer taking over their story. (And yet outside of the show, there's no evidence to suggest this - you would think that the ending had been designed to make a reboot impossible, but it has already been talked about.)

If we were not going to get a sense of the world continuing, then we could have been given a more radical and satisfying ending. We could have had Death collect on their promise to one day reap God. We could have had a world freed from the supernatural entirely: heaven, hell and purgatory obliterated, and Team Free Will finding peace in life on earth.

Because Chuck has been the author and the narrator the entire time, it makes no sense for the story to continue past the point of his defeat. (It makes even less sense for that story to revert back to Chuck's ideal narrative.) So, really we should have been given a more open ending: Team Free Will triumphant over Chuck and their future left open, the author dead and the characters' stories entrusted to the audience.

Instead, in the end, it's a bizarre mix of needlessly closed-down endings (killing off Cas, Sam and Dean, and vanishing Jack) and frustrating open ones (the loud Empty, there being no Death, Kevin wandering, the ambiguous fate of Eileen, Adam, Donna and the AU hunters).

And the final two episodes are also objectively bad. The double-cross plot in 15x19 is lame when the resolution of the Chuck storyline should have been profound. (It invites comparisons with the Season 11 finale, which was excellent.) 15x20 feels weirdly empty and flat. Dean's death is unrealistic; it echoes Sam's death in Season 2 and Dean's in Season 9 (which, if you think about it, would only be possible if Chuck was still writing it), but lacks the emotional punch of either. Dean's "I'm proud of us," in his Season 9 death scene is so much more powerful than his "I'm proud of you" in the finale. And let's not even mention that wig.

In conclusion: every single character deserved better. The actors deserved better. The audience deserved better. Because the ending we were given was not the ending that the season, or the entire series, had been building towards.

The ending tries to destroy every good thing that Supernatural has ever given us - vibrant characters, the fight for free will, the value of found family, the power of love - but it fails. Ultimately the characters and themes are too powerful to be contained by that terrible, flimsy ending. So now I've gotten all of that off my chest, I'm going right back to finale denialism.

#so I've been compiling this list for quite a while and now seems as good a time as any to get it off my chest #it's also the checklist for the fix-it I'm writing so really I should go and work on that #supernatural #spn #spn 15x20 #spn 15.20 #tw dean's death

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delabor · 3 years

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We're curious about how you would like to see Samael crop up throughout the rest of the series then? What are would he get involved with, his reaction to them. You don't gotta do every arc obv because that's a lot xD we're just curious

{ ☠ — @naturanexum }

other than gabriel; briefly; there aren’t many angels that don’t fall to a side lucifer; michael; good bad & any rogue angels are quickly snuffed (as far as i’ve watched; i’m still not caught up). although samael claims to be a lucifer sympathizer; never seems to act on it. noticeably absent during most major league games & maintains a role of minor problem for filler episodes; gives seriously reluctant assistance on occasion. thinks lucifer’s baby is stupid; men of letters isn’t his problem. bummed he missed the leviathans; his favorite. there’s mention of him that b a f f l e s fans when dean is a demon; implying they spent bloody time together; without crowley. sam might try to reach him about the mark of cain; only to hear a voicemail outgoing message telling him the mark makes his brother cooler & he should stop whining. don’t leave a message. can’t be reached when fighting amara; to show up early season twelve for a filler. night; winchester brother is sleeping. a noise; swell of dramatic music. whips out weapon ; to see samael sitting; one knee over other; on top of his dresser; shaking a magic eight ball. he heard about a soul bomb & wants the scoop. complains about a human using his scythe. you called me. yeah, m o n t h s ago. time is only linear to humans. “leaves” but rest of the episode; full of problems. things don’t work; shoelaces cause trips; every red light; can’t find papers. has a verbal spat when they find out it’s him. steals something that’s a problem down the road. a random episode he shows up out of nowhere partying with fae & hangs around; stays for an extra episode making quips & insults; being a nuisance; flirting with bystanders; stealing; lying; breaking things; eating their food. ends up helping in both episodes ; extensive knowledge or comment; offhand & leaves without explanation. (unknown number) hey baby what’re you wearing? huh? (laughter) what the fuck samael. well? what are you wearing? did you get (plot device) you’re so lame. yeah i did. there’s a running gag of him stealing souls & having to give them back; being bratty about it. only came & saved someone in the nick of time o n c e entire series ; & it was castiel in some powerless situation. it was spectacularly over the top; intimidating. fans are confused why he was never used before but also admit overpowered would diminish potential plot. stans argue for autonomy ; should choose not to help if he wants. he later steals their wallets. ? an episode where he annoys the brothers enough they show up; but it was a lure. uses them as bait to get something; double crosses baiters; “saves” them & leaves. may leave them some critical piece of information in return. might appear with or be name dropped by rowena; is one of the few who doesn’t seem fazed by jack; even visibly put off. heaven might try to get him to help repopulate heaven ; but he’s a death angel & hates that idea. may be on screen; but only briefly. disaster happens off screen when he lashes out & escapes. possibly more of a main character in the last season; as is very gung ho about offing chuck. i thought you didn’t want to help us. actually i’m here to piss on my father’s grave.

#::headcanon::#naturanexum #{ i outlined the whole rest of the se r i es : x couldn't stop }#::drabble::

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myblackeyedfire · 4 years

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15x18, hurting something awful but the story’s not over for Cas and Dean

Spoilers ahead.

I feel for the fans who left in earlier seasons due to queerbaiting or fridging or other shit in years prior who are seeing their feeds confirm that is what happened in this week’s episode and it’s frustrating feeling like the reverse of the boy who cried wolf, so I want to write out my thoughts on it because I want to believe TPTB learned from past mistakes and are going in a different direction for the conclusion. Here’s why.

1. The story itself. We get deliberate parallels to romantic couples in Charlie and Stevie, and Sam and Eileen. The losses are of people in love, mutually. Whatever stage of their relationship they’re at, from amazing scrambled eggs together or dates and photos of the other as the lock screen, the connection is that it’s a romantic relationship. Sam is devastated when he sees Eileen’s phone but he presses on then and there because it needs to be done, and to keep from losing it (see: Dean at the end of this ep).

Bobo Berens is deliberate and subtle. He crafted Claire and Kaia’s Dreamhunter dynamic with such care that I’m taking a reasoned leap of faith for the remaining two episodes. I’m thinking of how he wrote Rowena in The Rupture, the dignity and self determination in her deciding on closing the rift with Sam’s help to fulfil the prophesy. The music, the slow turn, she is the captain of her soul, steering it by choice. Rowena isn’t forgotten after that. She’s mentioned in in all but one of the subsequent episodes and we learn she’s taken over in Hell, so this strongly implies it is not a final goodbye.

The writer who gave one character’s dignified sacrifice a way to carry on is the same one who depicted Cas’ sacrifice as fully freely chosen and on his terms as much as it can be, to be taken to a place Cas got out of before and that Jack can enter. There’s as big a doorway to lead Cas out potentially as there was out of Billie’s library - assuming they can trick or overpower or persuade The Empty once they get there.

2. The Doylist logistics of creating the show as a story. Aside from the way we’ve seen how Castiel’s death leaves Dean looking hollow-eyed and unable to cope, we know there are two episodes left. See Dean here giving Cas a hunter’s funeral?

This is the face of a man who says “we’ve lost everything.” Chuck didn’t answer then and if he won’t now (hah, good luck with that!) Dean should be the one “to bring him back.” Because Cas staying gone is not a toes in the sand ending. There’s no peace when they are done if he stays gone. Sam is also devastated but Dean’s just hollowed out completely.

The shattered gaze here? Been there, done that. We’ve seen callbacks and parallels aplenty but at no point has this show committed itself to pantomime or exact replication. They’ve had the ending where everyone they love is gone, too, which is why I think we’ll see everyone who Chuck poofed reinstated. There was too much care taken to clarify that he didn’t kill them. They’re just *waving vaguely* not here at the moment. So here’s to bringing back Charlie and Stevie, Bobby, Donna, Becky, and everyone else. The quiet sobs as he sits and ignores Sam’s call remind me of Dean’s barely controlled breathing as he begins preparations for the funeral and starts walking around Cas’ shrouded body laid to rest. It’s already happened.

So, this repetition. Jensen played Dean as a grieving widower until he got Cas back (see above) and TPTB already indicated they’re not going for an ending befitting the first 5 seasons or GoT, so it makes no sense to leave things there as the end to Dean’s story. We already established that Chuck’s view of them and the ending he wants is the wrong one given how Becky reacts, so it has to be subverted from the names on tombstones doom and gloom.

Likewise, leaving The Empty, Chuck/Amara, Jack, Sam and Dean as the only pieces left on the chess board reminds me of Sam and Dean cut off from everything as the Leviathans take over. Andrew Dabb’s been instrumental in helping Sam and Dean adjust their relationship, too, to one of brotherhood instead of parenting and codependency, so leaving just them left with all their friends and allies and loved ones gone is too great a loss. It would be a regression. It would mean Chuck gets his ending.

Remember also how Chuck confirmed that Cas hasn’t followed orders since the very beginning of meeting Dean. That’s immense. It means everything he’s ever done was because he decided on it, not because it was a beat in Chuck’s story arcs.

Here is the first time the shot shows Dean since Chuck starts ranting. He’s listening intently, body language like a cat with an arched back before a brawl, but he heard what Chuck just revealed.

We’ve had layers already peeled back about angel and human relationships, most recently with Adam and before that with Isham. We’ve seen the Cas/Colette parallels, too. It’s all there. And with the enormous work Dean’s been doing on accepting himself more, of rebalancing his relationship with Sam to one of more even footing, he is doing the work on himself to be more open and able to express his emotions. Poor boy is still not great at it as a lifetime of running on coffee, questionable drugs, minimal sleep, and fear-soaked adrenaline within a hunter culture and the ever disapproving shadow of John Winchester doesn’t leave much room for processing.

So back to 15x18. Dean hasn't even had time to consider the confirmation/revelation from 15x17 by Chuck that Cas was never operating under his control and what it means for the magnitude of Cas' actions, the very opposite of the centuries in the making soulmates that Mary and John Winchester were from heavenly machination. He's been angrily panicking all season up to now that nothing in his life is real, that choice is an illusion, that he's a rat trapped in a deadly maze all his life but Castiel is the undoing of that. What he told Dean earlier in the season when he was questioning what’s real, that they are, is amplified magnificently. Their connection is real. Castiel’s love for Dean is real.

Let’s take a breath and see how they explore the nature of Destiel in Act Two. With any luck there’ll be robots, a trip to the moon, and a story about love and love. Dean getting to experience things, people differently or maybe for the first time, y’know? Otherwise there was no point setting up any of those parallels, the meeting with the hunter husbands, the car conversation with Sam about settling down with a hunter, someone who knows the life. Dean’s heard Cas say he loves them, and now him in particular. It’s not a satisfying story to leave it at that and we’ve seen it already. In 11x17 Michelle says “They said I could leave an hour ago. But where am I even supposed to go? After everything we survived together... I watched the man I love die. There's no normal after that.” I don’t think what we’re getting is a repeat of this so here’s hoping Dean gets how in love Cas is, gets Cas back, and chooses him, too. I want them to continue making it up as they go. Dean rescuing Cas as a parallel for Cas raising him from Hell is a far better story than Dean going on without him, wouldn’t you say? So I have hope.

#spn meta #spn 15x18 #spn s15 spoilers #destiel #destiel meta #deancas #deancas meta #my meta #my writing

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sylvanfreckles · 3 years

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I saw your post about something scaring Malachi badly and I was like what could possibly Malachi thee anarchist and then I realized you were talking about your cat haha. Although now I wonder do you have headcanons for Malachi (my beloathed) like who would he truly fear because it sure didn't seem to be Bartholomew (my other beloathed)

He might fear the archangels a little, just for their raw power, but he wouldn't respect them, especially Michael and Raphael who want to stick to The Plan. I think he wouldn't be afraid of Chuck so much as loathing him utterly. Like "you suck dad I'm not listening to you. What are you gonna do, smite me? Yeah go ahead, I don't care, you'll just prove my point about how much you suck."

I think he'd be afraid of true chaos because as much as he sneers at the order and structure in heaven, true primordial chaos would be terrifying. And thus: Amara.

And one other. Jack. Jack represents everything he hates about heaven: true devotion to his father, love for humanity, following certain sets of morals. But. He's also an archangel's nephilim. Which means he can't be overpowered by Malachi, and his love and respect for Cas means he can't be charmed to Malachi's side. It's even worse when he absorbs Chuck's power, because here's this being with ultimate power who represents everything Malachi hates, but swirling around in there is Amara's primordial darkness. Jack has become everything Chuck should have been, and if he can't power himself up like Naomi he has no chance of surviving.

#asks #angelfishofthelord #angel headcanons

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almaasi · 4 years

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reaction post typed while watching SPN 15x17 “Unity”

i’m a whole entire emotion

07:40pm

did i forget about this for two days? you bet

in my defense i was busy planning and hosting an online dance party for the sid city social club and had a very good time but was then entirely exhausted

still haven’t cleaned the craft table i used to make my costume wings but it’s on my to do list for this evening~ (my costume for the second of two parties: https://photos.app.goo.gl/NJYSa8CuKT7eywD88)

07:46pm

HOKAY LET’S GO

i did read some spoilers, so i know a few things but not all

07:50

i really enjoyed this opening scene with the falling stars!

especially that shot of amara’s eye

07:52

SAM DO NOT LICK YOUR HAND

clearly this was still filmed pre-plague

jesus christ

amara: “my brother has returned”

jack: “that means it’s time”

somehow i just realised this show is ending and whatever happens next is the last big thing that’s gonna go down

i’d bet anything part of the reason i’m watching these episodes late is because i have this personal habit of stopping watching shows a few episodes before the end so they never end

i have no idea how the original x files ended, for one thing

do i think this show needs to end? yeah. do i want it to? not really

i’m just afraid of disappointment and if i never watch it then it doesn’t happen

07:57

amara vanishes like cas used to, the shots are similar, and i can’t help but think it’s intentional

07:59

dean: jack’s not family

EX C U S E ME

????

i mean i know the spoiler so i knew this was coming and why. but Y I K E

08:01

i love the soft guitar music over this scene where cas shows up and picks up a book

making me emotional

nice cas-is-family feeling at last, even if it’s painful

ooo are we gonna have an alternate perspective thing

08:08

i really enjoy amara and how she’s written here

brb gonna go eat

08:52

i have consumed nourishment AND cleaned up the craft table

success

08:54

oooooooo i like the storefront design for jim’s gems

omg tumblr hasn’t let me add screenshots to my posts in well over a year

THANK U TUMBLR

09:00

i was just thinking “huh... these characters are interesting.............. i wonder who wrote this one”

of COURSE it was meredith glynn

“their existence makes them divine, because god is in everything”

that might be the single most beautiful thing ever said on this show

i’m a sucker for stories of fate and everything leading to one moment the whole time. (tis why good omens is my favourite novel)