Yes, I'm Ranting Again About Blatant Dean Favouritism!
Hi, guys, I'm back from my holiday, and with new thoughts on Blatant Dean favouritism!
I've been working my way slowly through the backlog of my flist, and I found a question someone had posted on one my groups. It was basically asking why, exactly, the boys didn't listen to Cas's reasoning about Purgatory. A lot of people mentioned how hypocritical it was, given that pretty much the same thing happened in regards to Sam and the demon blood. I also watched season four during my holiday, so I was already riled up.
The situations with Sam and Cas were very similar, and I was pleased that the show bothered to mention it. I didn't mind that Dean acted the same way with Cas as he did with Sam, because it's in character. What did annoy me was that it played out exactly the same.
It annoyed me watching season four, because Sam had good reasoning. If you didn't know how it worked out and you looked at it from a purely rational point of view, Sam made a better argument.
Dean never said "Stop drinking demon blood because you're addicted" he said "Stop drinking demon blood because it's bad and if you don't, I won't like you anymore." It's the difference between "Stop drinking alcohol because you're an alcoholic" and "Stop drinking alcohol because I think alcohol is evil." When I was first watching season four, and didn't know how it worked out, I remember wishing Sam would stop drinking demon blood because he was an addict, not because of any moral issues; which was obviously not the angle the show was going for ('cause, god, you could really tell by the way they kept going on about it). He never killed the hosts - in fact, his powers gave him the ability to kill demons without killing the meatsuits. This only served to make Dean seem more unsympathetic to me, not Sam. Whenever he went off at Sam about using his powers or drinking the blood, I always thought (and still do think) "what about that poor bastard you just stabbed in the heart to kill that demon? Sam could have saved him."
I didn't feel quite as sympathetic towards Castiel's reasoning this year as I did towards Sam in season four, but I did spend a lot of time yelling at Dean "Why don't you just listen to him, you idiot!" I got why Dean didn't listen to Sam; after all, how many times does that kind of thing come up on life that you'd get practice and learn from your mistakes? But frankly, when Cas came around, this was basically Dean's second go in this situation, and he didn't just mess it up (which would be understandable) but he messed it up in exactly the way he did two years ago!
So, summing up my thoughts:
1) Sam and Cas, though to a lesser extent, made more valid and reasonable arguments than Dean did.
2) Dean always has to hold the moral high ground.
3) The show always makes Dean be right.
Basically, what I want is for X to do something morally ambigious for the right reasons, where they think the end justifies the mean, but which Dean thinks, and tells them, is terrible and bad and wrong and for X to actually be right. I'm looking forward to season seven, and I did enjoy season six and the souls plot immensely, but in the last few episodes, it did feel like they were just rehashing what they did two seasons ago.
I've been working my way slowly through the backlog of my flist, and I found a question someone had posted on one my groups. It was basically asking why, exactly, the boys didn't listen to Cas's reasoning about Purgatory. A lot of people mentioned how hypocritical it was, given that pretty much the same thing happened in regards to Sam and the demon blood. I also watched season four during my holiday, so I was already riled up.
The situations with Sam and Cas were very similar, and I was pleased that the show bothered to mention it. I didn't mind that Dean acted the same way with Cas as he did with Sam, because it's in character. What did annoy me was that it played out exactly the same.
It annoyed me watching season four, because Sam had good reasoning. If you didn't know how it worked out and you looked at it from a purely rational point of view, Sam made a better argument.
Dean never said "Stop drinking demon blood because you're addicted" he said "Stop drinking demon blood because it's bad and if you don't, I won't like you anymore." It's the difference between "Stop drinking alcohol because you're an alcoholic" and "Stop drinking alcohol because I think alcohol is evil." When I was first watching season four, and didn't know how it worked out, I remember wishing Sam would stop drinking demon blood because he was an addict, not because of any moral issues; which was obviously not the angle the show was going for ('cause, god, you could really tell by the way they kept going on about it). He never killed the hosts - in fact, his powers gave him the ability to kill demons without killing the meatsuits. This only served to make Dean seem more unsympathetic to me, not Sam. Whenever he went off at Sam about using his powers or drinking the blood, I always thought (and still do think) "what about that poor bastard you just stabbed in the heart to kill that demon? Sam could have saved him."
I didn't feel quite as sympathetic towards Castiel's reasoning this year as I did towards Sam in season four, but I did spend a lot of time yelling at Dean "Why don't you just listen to him, you idiot!" I got why Dean didn't listen to Sam; after all, how many times does that kind of thing come up on life that you'd get practice and learn from your mistakes? But frankly, when Cas came around, this was basically Dean's second go in this situation, and he didn't just mess it up (which would be understandable) but he messed it up in exactly the way he did two years ago!
So, summing up my thoughts:
1) Sam and Cas, though to a lesser extent, made more valid and reasonable arguments than Dean did.
2) Dean always has to hold the moral high ground.
3) The show always makes Dean be right.
Basically, what I want is for X to do something morally ambigious for the right reasons, where they think the end justifies the mean, but which Dean thinks, and tells them, is terrible and bad and wrong and for X to actually be right. I'm looking forward to season seven, and I did enjoy season six and the souls plot immensely, but in the last few episodes, it did feel like they were just rehashing what they did two seasons ago.