SPN: Spare the Rod by ghostwriter056 (John/Dean, R)
Title: Spare The Rod
Author: ghostwriter056
Artist: purple_carpets
Fandom: Supernatural
Pairing/Characters: John/Dean
Rating: R
Warnings: pseudo incest (Dean is from an alternate reality), consensual sex between an adult and a minor (Dean is 15), discussion and non-graphic descriptions of the physical and psychological abuse of a minor. Sexual content is discussed, but very little of it is graphic. {Review note--I feel the consent in the story is problematic. I've discussed it in more depth in the review.]
Word Count: 19,800
Summary: Dean Winchester died on one of his first hunts when he was only thirteen. Two years later and John hasn't forgiven himself for not protecting his son better. He barely sees Sam and he's thrown himself even farther into hunting. For once, John's at the right place at the right time and an unplanned visit to a fairy ring results in a gift he never expected, the return of Dean. Only this isn't John's Dean. This Dean's a fifteen year old kid from another reality where John never learned the truth about Mary's death, but rather took to drinking and became a mean, abusive drunk.
Link to masterpost: http://john-w-bigbang.livejournal.com/7325.html
Download Report: Six posts on LJ. Also available without art on AO3. PDFs with and without art available on Mediafire.
First, I'm going to tackle the consent issues in the John/Dean relationship. I'm putting the details under a spoiler cut for discussion of underaged incest and abuse, but the bottom line is this: While there is definite discussion and acknowledgment of the problems around John and Dean's relationship, I feel that other elements within the story undermine that discussion. I wouldn't recommend this to anyone with issues regarding incest and consent.
[Warning: Discussion of underaged incest and abuse]For those of you who want to know how the incest is handled, here goes. I described it as a Mobius strip of John and Dean--especially John--seeming to know that Dean's situation is extremely fucked up and that they shouldn't do it, but they're going to do it anyway because they both want it, even though they both know that wanting it is part of Dean's situation being extremely fucked up and that they shouldn't do it. It's even more screwed up because John doesn't know at first that Dean's John sexually abused him as well, but even after he finds out it doesn't change much in the cycle of "we shouldn't but we want to so we will."
To clear up some other points: John didn't want his Dean before he died, had no sexual interest in him at all. At one point, though, he and the other Dean wonder what would have happened if dead!Dean had grown up and John has to say that he honestly doesn't know now. There's also a scene early on in John's attraction where John speculates briefly if his attraction to this Dean is possible because of the gap between dead!Dean and this Dean, that there's enough difference that he doesn't quite see this Dean as being a continuance of his son.
Despite all the talking, though, the eventual actions make the talking sound a lot like a backwards kind of apologism. By that I mean that John does a lot of preaching about how screwed up Dean is and how wrong it is, which is good, but there are never any real negative consequences of the relationship (more details about that in the spoiler section). Instead the talking is undermined because it's *shown* as being better for Dean that he's in this relationship with John, despite the spoken misgivings.
So, the rest of the story. It's actually the kind of AU I like, crossing from one world to another to see what happens. There's also an interesting sub-plot with Azazel that is, unfortunately, smushed into the latter half of the story (more about that in the spoiler section). One thing I did like was that Sam and Dean still cared a lot for each other, and their brotherly bond was very much as it was in Season One canon. One of Dean's first priorities was always Sam, as well it should be.
Most of the story, though, is about Dean and how John found him and Dean's growing up and training. The plot only comes into play in the last quarter of the story, and as I said it kind of suffers from being crammed in there.
Also, everyone speaks in dialect. It's awful, apostrophes all over the place. Frankly, that was nearly a deal-breaker all in itself.
[Further discussion with SPOILERS for Spare The Rod by ghostwriter056]SPOILERS!!!!!!!
The plot, as I said, was interesting, but it got way too short shrift. The world in this story is an AU of the canon world. Azazel was apparently thrilled when Dean died, less than thrilled when another Dean popped up. He threatened to destroy the fairy ring and send Dean back to his world, at the same time that Brady would move in on Sam and Jess all the way across the country. There was no way that John could save them both. He and Dean split up, but while Dean is able to save Sam, Azazel tricks John into thinking he's beaten the demon guarding the fairy ring. The ring is destroyed, and Dean is zapped back to his own world. Oh no! Angst! Drama! What will they do?!
Castieaux ex machina shows up, pops Dean back to John's world, they live happily ever after the end.
WTF?!
Seriously. The plot could have been cool, but in the end there was no reason for it. At all. The only purpose it served was to have Dean angst for five seconds about John choosing Sam over him--which didn't happen--and then to have John angst mostly off-screen for a few days over losing Dean. Nothing happened to Dean in the other world. He didn't mysteriously run into his John, or find Sam, or become a bad-ass hunter and find a spell to get himself back. Nope. Instead, Castiel shows up and dumps a load of explication on him about how in Dean's world and John's world the crap that's going on in Castiel's world has been averted. Have a nice life, Dean, I'm going to send you back to your happy puppies incestous universe.
WTF?!
Then there's Sam. One of the plot points of the story is that Sam becomes enthusiastic about hunting because Dean comes back, and now Sam wants them to be a family again. But then Sam still ditches Dean and John to go to Stanford. There's a paragraph given to "Sam got tired of hunting," but it's not enough to Band-aid over what was a pretty major shift in Sam's personality.
Now I'd like to talk about the lack of consequences I mentioned above.
Warning for more talk of incest and consent for the rest of the post.
The first thing that undermined the "talking about the problems" was that Dean was mysteriously healed of his nightmares after he started sleeping with John (at this point, just sleeping with him, not yet having sex). He was also happier and healthier, etc., and the implication in the story was that he was all-around better off having this relationship with John.
The thing that was the absolute deal-breaker on the "don't read this if you have consent/incest issues" was that the two people who knew about John and Dean's relationship never once objected. As I said above, Castiel sent Dean back into John's world, and while he didn't specifically say that he was sending him back to his lover John, it was heavily implied that he knew pretty much everything about Dean's life. I interpreted his action as approving of their romance and enabling it without the least bit of censure, and to have that done by someone objective and outside their family bubble bothered even my un-squicked-by-fluffy-John/Dean sensibilites.
Sam, too, never showed any in-story disapproval. We're told that he was angry when he first figured out what was going on, but by the time he and John discuss it, he's come to terms with it and says he understands because now he's in love with Jess. So, again, no consequences despite all the talk.
Bottom line: If you're a die-hard John/Dean fan who isn't squicked or put off by any of the things I've mentioned, give it a go, but set your expectations low. Most of the rest of the planet, give it a pass.
This review was originally posted to the spnanonhaven Fiction Discuss post
Author: ghostwriter056
Artist: purple_carpets
Fandom: Supernatural
Pairing/Characters: John/Dean
Rating: R
Warnings: pseudo incest (Dean is from an alternate reality), consensual sex between an adult and a minor (Dean is 15), discussion and non-graphic descriptions of the physical and psychological abuse of a minor. Sexual content is discussed, but very little of it is graphic. {Review note--I feel the consent in the story is problematic. I've discussed it in more depth in the review.]
Word Count: 19,800
Summary: Dean Winchester died on one of his first hunts when he was only thirteen. Two years later and John hasn't forgiven himself for not protecting his son better. He barely sees Sam and he's thrown himself even farther into hunting. For once, John's at the right place at the right time and an unplanned visit to a fairy ring results in a gift he never expected, the return of Dean. Only this isn't John's Dean. This Dean's a fifteen year old kid from another reality where John never learned the truth about Mary's death, but rather took to drinking and became a mean, abusive drunk.
Link to masterpost: http://john-w-bigbang.livejournal.com/7325.html
Download Report: Six posts on LJ. Also available without art on AO3. PDFs with and without art available on Mediafire.
First, I'm going to tackle the consent issues in the John/Dean relationship. I'm putting the details under a spoiler cut for discussion of underaged incest and abuse, but the bottom line is this: While there is definite discussion and acknowledgment of the problems around John and Dean's relationship, I feel that other elements within the story undermine that discussion. I wouldn't recommend this to anyone with issues regarding incest and consent.
[Warning: Discussion of underaged incest and abuse]For those of you who want to know how the incest is handled, here goes. I described it as a Mobius strip of John and Dean--especially John--seeming to know that Dean's situation is extremely fucked up and that they shouldn't do it, but they're going to do it anyway because they both want it, even though they both know that wanting it is part of Dean's situation being extremely fucked up and that they shouldn't do it. It's even more screwed up because John doesn't know at first that Dean's John sexually abused him as well, but even after he finds out it doesn't change much in the cycle of "we shouldn't but we want to so we will."
To clear up some other points: John didn't want his Dean before he died, had no sexual interest in him at all. At one point, though, he and the other Dean wonder what would have happened if dead!Dean had grown up and John has to say that he honestly doesn't know now. There's also a scene early on in John's attraction where John speculates briefly if his attraction to this Dean is possible because of the gap between dead!Dean and this Dean, that there's enough difference that he doesn't quite see this Dean as being a continuance of his son.
Despite all the talking, though, the eventual actions make the talking sound a lot like a backwards kind of apologism. By that I mean that John does a lot of preaching about how screwed up Dean is and how wrong it is, which is good, but there are never any real negative consequences of the relationship (more details about that in the spoiler section). Instead the talking is undermined because it's *shown* as being better for Dean that he's in this relationship with John, despite the spoken misgivings.
So, the rest of the story. It's actually the kind of AU I like, crossing from one world to another to see what happens. There's also an interesting sub-plot with Azazel that is, unfortunately, smushed into the latter half of the story (more about that in the spoiler section). One thing I did like was that Sam and Dean still cared a lot for each other, and their brotherly bond was very much as it was in Season One canon. One of Dean's first priorities was always Sam, as well it should be.
Most of the story, though, is about Dean and how John found him and Dean's growing up and training. The plot only comes into play in the last quarter of the story, and as I said it kind of suffers from being crammed in there.
Also, everyone speaks in dialect. It's awful, apostrophes all over the place. Frankly, that was nearly a deal-breaker all in itself.
[Further discussion with SPOILERS for Spare The Rod by ghostwriter056]SPOILERS!!!!!!!
The plot, as I said, was interesting, but it got way too short shrift. The world in this story is an AU of the canon world. Azazel was apparently thrilled when Dean died, less than thrilled when another Dean popped up. He threatened to destroy the fairy ring and send Dean back to his world, at the same time that Brady would move in on Sam and Jess all the way across the country. There was no way that John could save them both. He and Dean split up, but while Dean is able to save Sam, Azazel tricks John into thinking he's beaten the demon guarding the fairy ring. The ring is destroyed, and Dean is zapped back to his own world. Oh no! Angst! Drama! What will they do?!
Castieaux ex machina shows up, pops Dean back to John's world, they live happily ever after the end.
WTF?!
Seriously. The plot could have been cool, but in the end there was no reason for it. At all. The only purpose it served was to have Dean angst for five seconds about John choosing Sam over him--which didn't happen--and then to have John angst mostly off-screen for a few days over losing Dean. Nothing happened to Dean in the other world. He didn't mysteriously run into his John, or find Sam, or become a bad-ass hunter and find a spell to get himself back. Nope. Instead, Castiel shows up and dumps a load of explication on him about how in Dean's world and John's world the crap that's going on in Castiel's world has been averted. Have a nice life, Dean, I'm going to send you back to your happy puppies incestous universe.
WTF?!
Then there's Sam. One of the plot points of the story is that Sam becomes enthusiastic about hunting because Dean comes back, and now Sam wants them to be a family again. But then Sam still ditches Dean and John to go to Stanford. There's a paragraph given to "Sam got tired of hunting," but it's not enough to Band-aid over what was a pretty major shift in Sam's personality.
Now I'd like to talk about the lack of consequences I mentioned above.
Warning for more talk of incest and consent for the rest of the post.
The first thing that undermined the "talking about the problems" was that Dean was mysteriously healed of his nightmares after he started sleeping with John (at this point, just sleeping with him, not yet having sex). He was also happier and healthier, etc., and the implication in the story was that he was all-around better off having this relationship with John.
The thing that was the absolute deal-breaker on the "don't read this if you have consent/incest issues" was that the two people who knew about John and Dean's relationship never once objected. As I said above, Castiel sent Dean back into John's world, and while he didn't specifically say that he was sending him back to his lover John, it was heavily implied that he knew pretty much everything about Dean's life. I interpreted his action as approving of their romance and enabling it without the least bit of censure, and to have that done by someone objective and outside their family bubble bothered even my un-squicked-by-fluffy-John/Dean sensibilites.
Sam, too, never showed any in-story disapproval. We're told that he was angry when he first figured out what was going on, but by the time he and John discuss it, he's come to terms with it and says he understands because now he's in love with Jess. So, again, no consequences despite all the talk.
Bottom line: If you're a die-hard John/Dean fan who isn't squicked or put off by any of the things I've mentioned, give it a go, but set your expectations low. Most of the rest of the planet, give it a pass.
This review was originally posted to the spnanonhaven Fiction Discuss post