Mirror Mirror on the Wall: Chapter 12 - On Sam Out of the Box Redux
Sam Out of the Box - Redux:
Just as Mr. Wyatt opened the door in the midst of Sam's despair, so did Ruby. Just as it took someone outside the Winchester family system to challenge the view of the validity of "Keep Sam safe," so did it take an outsider to challenge the Winchester family value of "Reject all things supernatural."
( The door out of despair )
I think it says a lot about how much Sam loves Dean for him not to completely resent Dean putting that weight on him or acting like Sam's loss of innocence is a personal betrayal.
Yeah, I really agree with that. I kept trying to find a place to stick in the observation that Sam rarely aggresses against Dean, like Dean, the older of the brothers, aggresses against Sam to keep him in line. Not only is it the use of force is often the purview of the older sibling, but Sam refrains from deliberately hurting Dean. He certainly makes choices that hurt Dean, but, unless the supernatural or alcohol loosens his tongue, he doesn't go for Dean's jugular even though he's got the material to do it.
reminded me of stage parents
Yep, good observation. It's a characteristic of enmeshed family systems that the boundaries between "what I need" and "what you need" get terribly blurred. That who Sam is serves a need for Dean at that level of self-identity is a heavy responsibility. It's like Dean's lost half of himself. *sigh* Poor Dean... dammit. I mean, crisis can be good, cuz it can shake us up and impel us to do the hard work of reconstructing ourselves into something a bit stronger and healthier, it's just.... damn... *sends out "I haven't even begun to learn how strong I am" vibes to Dean*
"Hell, I did everything Dad asked me and he ditched me too"
Huh, interesting, I hadn't thought of that. I bet it would be terribly scary for Sam to feel that kind of anger at Dean. Irritation? Sure. Annoyance? Ohhhhh yeah. Anger? Yep. But that kind of rage that would be commensurate with Sam's sense of loss? Huh!!!!! *brain implodes* I wonder.... it would make a whole lot of sense for Sam to project that rage onto a "safer" source, like Lilith. Sam works so hard to protect Dean from those things that really do enrage Sam about Dean. No way he'd take that kind of rage about his "abandonment" on Dean. But take it out on Lilith, the secondary source of Dean's "betrayal" of him, you betcha.
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