Macbook, and meta I so didn't intend to write!
Am home sick today with girlie TMI issues. My mood does not bear contemplating.
This does mean I can read fic, watch the wonderful vids coming back out of Vividcon, and continue rewatching Supernatural. Asylum, Scarecrow, Faith at the moment. I'll never get over those three episodes, how they hold so much of the show's mood and themes, encapsulated so early.
It feels like I did know this previously but for some reason didn't really get it this sharply until just now, and I am probably stating the obvious here.
But John's phone call at the beginning of Scarecrow, his refusal to meet up with the boys, his remark to Missouri at the end of Home. He doesn't go to them until Shadow, after Meg has entered the picture, and she's deliberately set a trap for him. It's the kind of thing that makes more sense with two more seasons of canon knowledge, but every decision John made in season one now shouts to me that he was protecting Sam, hoping he'd stay hidden from Azazel. That was his highest priority. John was tracking Azazel, Azazel and his kids knew it, and after Stanford, they didn't know where Sam was. Jessica's death was to drive Sam away from stability, make him more vulnerable, but then he goes on the road with Dean. John texting Sam and Dean coordinates helped keep them on the move, and the boys moved around from hunt to hunt plenty on their own and that kept Sam hidden and one step ahead of the YED. John, chances are, didn't figure out for a bit that Sam met Meg. He doesn't figure that out until Shadow, possibly. And from Shadow onward, is when John really moves back into their lives.
He leaves again at the end of Shadow, saying that the boys make him vulnerable. From a retrospective look, watching season one knowing the end of season two, John staying away made sense, to keep the YED as far from Sam as possible.
Once Meg finds Sam and the jig is up, why would John stay away, except to prevent exactly what wound up happening in Devil's Trap. If John knows how demons think, that they would use him against the boys, and vice versa, he'd still try to stay away. But after Dead Man's Blood, he gives in, stays with them, "I guess we are stronger as a family." But in fact that's what made them vulnerable. That's maybe where the John logic of season one jumps the rails, and I fall back on my theory that John was driven by fear/love. Having failed to keep Sam from Azazel's eye, then he couldn't help himself, and gave in, joining up with the boys. Which wasn't the smartest move logistically, but I think John tried to be the strategist and then wound up being a father. Erm, wow, that wound up being way more meta than I'd intended to write, and certainly not to open another round of "John Winchester: drill sergeant or good father." But that's what I think was going on in season one. The guy was always at war with himself.
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I ♥ my new Macbook. It is smoooooth. I actually keep tensing up expecting the usual slowdowns, dropped wireless, and hangs and the fact that it does what I want when I need it is kind of shocking.
This does mean I can read fic, watch the wonderful vids coming back out of Vividcon, and continue rewatching Supernatural. Asylum, Scarecrow, Faith at the moment. I'll never get over those three episodes, how they hold so much of the show's mood and themes, encapsulated so early.
It feels like I did know this previously but for some reason didn't really get it this sharply until just now, and I am probably stating the obvious here.
But John's phone call at the beginning of Scarecrow, his refusal to meet up with the boys, his remark to Missouri at the end of Home. He doesn't go to them until Shadow, after Meg has entered the picture, and she's deliberately set a trap for him. It's the kind of thing that makes more sense with two more seasons of canon knowledge, but every decision John made in season one now shouts to me that he was protecting Sam, hoping he'd stay hidden from Azazel. That was his highest priority. John was tracking Azazel, Azazel and his kids knew it, and after Stanford, they didn't know where Sam was. Jessica's death was to drive Sam away from stability, make him more vulnerable, but then he goes on the road with Dean. John texting Sam and Dean coordinates helped keep them on the move, and the boys moved around from hunt to hunt plenty on their own and that kept Sam hidden and one step ahead of the YED. John, chances are, didn't figure out for a bit that Sam met Meg. He doesn't figure that out until Shadow, possibly. And from Shadow onward, is when John really moves back into their lives.
He leaves again at the end of Shadow, saying that the boys make him vulnerable. From a retrospective look, watching season one knowing the end of season two, John staying away made sense, to keep the YED as far from Sam as possible.
Once Meg finds Sam and the jig is up, why would John stay away, except to prevent exactly what wound up happening in Devil's Trap. If John knows how demons think, that they would use him against the boys, and vice versa, he'd still try to stay away. But after Dead Man's Blood, he gives in, stays with them, "I guess we are stronger as a family." But in fact that's what made them vulnerable. That's maybe where the John logic of season one jumps the rails, and I fall back on my theory that John was driven by fear/love. Having failed to keep Sam from Azazel's eye, then he couldn't help himself, and gave in, joining up with the boys. Which wasn't the smartest move logistically, but I think John tried to be the strategist and then wound up being a father. Erm, wow, that wound up being way more meta than I'd intended to write, and certainly not to open another round of "John Winchester: drill sergeant or good father." But that's what I think was going on in season one. The guy was always at war with himself.
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I ♥ my new Macbook. It is smoooooth. I actually keep tensing up expecting the usual slowdowns, dropped wireless, and hangs and the fact that it does what I want when I need it is kind of shocking.