Tension, Conflict, Motivation, and Plot: Why the Story is About Dean and We Do Know Sam

[bowtrunckle]

I wrote a meta thingy! :)

There’s been avid discussion about Sam and Dean and which of them, if either, seems to be favored by Kripke as well as debate about “who is the story really about”. I’ve noticed there’s been a propensity for some self-proclaimed “Dean girls” and “Sam girls” to run circles around each other, trying to prove their points.

Comments

[bowtrunckle]

Oh god, I hated his depiction at the start of the Season to be frank.

It left a bad taste in my mouth, too. I tried not to think too much of it and kept brushing it off, thinking that "the next episode Dean will have a break through" and the humor would get back on track. But my reserve broke with 3x06 and I feared we'd lost Dean to his facade of flippancy and off-color jokes. That episode was the first time I was ever disappointed with The Show. I went into more detail about the offensive humor and Dean's characterization in an episode review if you're interested:

http://bowtrunckle.livejournal.com/24149.html#cutid1

Sorry, I can't concisely recap what I said in this comment because I'm sure I'll run out of room (again).

it was about the issues with his self esteem which has been his single major theme for three years now.

This is really interesting because we're talking about the same episode (and probably the same scene: Dean vs. dream!Dean) but we both interpret the outcome differently. Yes, I agree that Dean's self-esteem issues have been the focus of his characterization for the better part of 3 seasons, but I felt "DaLDoM" was the first time we saw Dean actively counter the assertions of him "being useless/thinking of himself as nothing/having a low self esteem" (in "BUaBS" and in "AHBL-2" he didn't argue or deny anything). Dean not only vocally countered dream!Dean, he silenced him by shooting him ... a symbolic death of his old self in a sense. That, to me, was a huge first step out of his self worth rut he's been waffling around in since the pilot. That's what I consider "change".

so he couldn`t very much do anything in this arc, couldn`t drive it forward

I think this is the big issue with the plot tiger (Dean S3). A character who is stuck to the plot literally can't escape no matter what they do. This happened to Sam in S2 with the PsyKid thread where he was belted into this roller coaster of a plot that was going around and around. The overall effect does makes the character appear more helpless than a motivation-driven character because even though they can exercise choice and take action, they're still confined to the boundaries of the plot and what will be inevitable. So, yeah, Dean was stuck and should appear more helpless than he was in S1/2. And that's part of the catch22 of being the new plot tiger: finally the plot is about Dean but it feels like he's not (as you say) "driving it forward". Just like Sam in S2.

Dean knows why it happened, he made his bed himself.

I think this might also be a reason behind hamburger-muncher-fun-all-the-time!Dean of early S3. Not only was he in denial, I think he was purposely trying to fight off an chance he's slip into a self-pitying/emo-ing hole by running interference because he was fully aware he did this to himself. My impression of S3 Dean isn't one of a self-pitying, rage-at-the-midnight-sky-in-the-rain person. I actually got the opposite vibe from him: one of someone who was doing everything possible not to feel anything; someone who was desperately trying to be stoic and lay quietly and with little protest in the bed they'd made.

Heh. You and I are almost polar opposites XD!

[astri13]

But my reserve broke with 3x06 and I feared we'd lost Dean to his facade of flippancy and off-color jokes. That episode was the first time I was ever disappointed with The Show. I went into more detail about the offensive humor and Dean's characterization in an episode review if you're interested:

http://bowtrunckle.livejournal.com/24149.html#cutid1

Thanks for the linkage. :) While it wasn`t the first time I was unhappy the show was missing its potential - All Hell Part II was a crushing disappointment to me - I consider "Red Sky" to be the worst episode so far. And pity that Bela would have had potential as a character but once again we give the "character-making" (6th) episode of the Season to a total newbie writer and voila, we`re in deep guano.

I felt Andries, the new writer, coming from Alias was still writing for Alias, with Sydney/Bela the main character and Dean as the goof partnered up with her. On top of that it suffered from soap syndrome where if ever a blue collar guy gets introduced they`re hopelessly inferior and deliberately more uncouth to the posh, sophisticated woman.
Yes, Dean the movie fan wouldn`t know how to play-act at a high class party, he`s chewing gum - for the first time ever on the show. *crawls from anvil*

Dean not only vocally countered dream!Dean, he silenced him by shooting him ... a symbolic death of his old self in a sense. That, to me, was a huge first step out of his self worth rut he's been waffling around in since the pilot. That's what I consider "change".

I`m wary if it holds. I saw some first necessary steps in that very direction in Season 2 yet by the end of it all went poof and we were back at "start".

I think this is the big issue with the plot tiger (Dean S3). A character who is stuck to the plot literally can't escape no matter what they do. This happened to Sam in S2 with the PsyKid thread where he was belted into this roller coaster of a plot that was going around and around.

I felt Sam could have had a more active role in Season 2 if the writers had a bit of a better grip on pacing. His destiny didn`t preclude him from researching Azazel or the other Psy-Kids, trying to look into demon-summoning rituals, trying to hone his powers etc.
Now a whole lot of nothing took place till we got an exposition dump - delivered by the YED himself in a dream speech no less - but the story/characterization didn`t preclude it. Essentially noone drove the plot forward in Season 2 as it stood still till the Finale.

With the clause however Dean`s hands are literally bound or he could welch and be destroyed as a character so he couldn`t be shown researching or anything else. Thus once again it came to "how does that make him feel". It`s essentially that and that alone that I want to break out of.

And stuff where he could legitimately partake in falls under secret-keeping once more - Mary for example - so we can keep our crawl-y pacing. And on that front I hope he is involved plot-wise, not only how he feels about it.

In general I feel the writers haven`t managed yet the juggling process of keeping an arc running and in suspense while interminling it with standalones. Undoubtedly it`s harder than pure arc or pure anthology but for example having Buabs and ignoring any potential fall-out in following it up with lightweight Tall Tales (which I liked) gives me whiplash.

I actually got the opposite vibe from him: one of someone who was doing everything possible not to feel anything; someone who was desperately trying to be stoic and lay quietly and with little protest in the bed they'd made.

If that would have been more in the execution - instead of frat-boy on crack to draw a teen male demon - I`d have liked this Season a whole lot more.

Heh. You and I are almost polar opposites XD!

Hee. But hey, we both disliked "Red Sky", so common ground. :D