The great TIE-pology of Sam and Dean Winchester
First of all, I'm not obsessed ... well, maybe a little bit.
Second, this entry is about the tie-pology (and no, I'm not above some silly pun) of the ties of Sam and Dean Winchester and their meaning for the state of the characters ... gosh, I wished I could write a term paper about that topic. Maybe I would actually manage to meet the deadline for it.
To get the basis for this meta (and yes, I totally call this a meta) you need to know that there is some kind of psychology behind the pattern of ties. Yes, that's true. At least for striped ties.
Maybe you don't have noticed it, but most striped ties show stripes going from the bottom left to the top right. It's a rising line, broadly thought to symbolize success, hope and confidence.
So, when the leaders of the world, the big ones of the economy and whoever else is important or thinks of himself as important, decide to wear a striped tie, they usually go with the rising stripes.
And because I learned that I need to cite references, here we go:
Barack Obama & John McCain
(courtesy of this site)
and
Gordon Brown
(courtesy of this site)
See what I mean? All of them are wearing ties with rising stripes.
Which brings me to our beloved Winchester boys and their ties. Since I only came up with this thought in season four I stick with three episode of that season as the base of my theory.
Here we go again:
Monster Movie
Dean
(Sam's tie doesn't have a pattern, so we're going to ignore it for now)
Sam
(Dean's tie doesn't have a pattern in this scene, so we're going to ignore it as well)
---
Yellow Fever
---
It's the Great Pumpkin, Sam Winchester
Dean
Sam
(all courtesy of supernatural.tv)
---
Do you see where I'm going with this one?
Dean: rising stripes
Sam: falling stripes
Dean: success, hope and confidence
Sam: failure, despair and doubt
Dean got pulled out of hell by the command of God. Dean got back from the dead (and apart from Lazarus and Jesus, not many people managed that feast). Dean is told by an angel that he can give angels orders.
Dean may have flashbacks from hell and surely is traumatized by it (even though his mind pushed that on the backburner for the time being), but he's alive and he's back with Sam (even though that brings his own issues).
Dean sure as hell (ah, puns indeed) seems to be ready to take on the world.
Sam couldn't save his brother from hell. Sam's been on his own for four months. Sam has been trying to use his powers for good. Sam is told that basically his life was screwed before he was even born. Sam is told that God himself doesn't approve of what he's been doing. Sam is told by Dean that he would hunt him down if he didn't know him. Sam is told by Uriel that he's only alive because he's useful.
Sam sure as hell seems to get kicked in the gut whichever way he turns.
For my part, I'm left wondering how Sam manages to get up every morning. I surely would have went down the deep end by now.
So my point is, that Kripke/TBTW/whoever decided consciously on the stripes. It seems to be too consistent to be accidentally. Maybe the stripes reflect also the development of the character, which would mean that it only gets darker for poor Sammy.
Any thoughts? Criticism? Approval? Sunflowers?
(I can't believe I wrote a whole meta on ties and their meaning ... this show)
Second, this entry is about the tie-pology (and no, I'm not above some silly pun) of the ties of Sam and Dean Winchester and their meaning for the state of the characters ... gosh, I wished I could write a term paper about that topic. Maybe I would actually manage to meet the deadline for it.
To get the basis for this meta (and yes, I totally call this a meta) you need to know that there is some kind of psychology behind the pattern of ties. Yes, that's true. At least for striped ties.
Maybe you don't have noticed it, but most striped ties show stripes going from the bottom left to the top right. It's a rising line, broadly thought to symbolize success, hope and confidence.
So, when the leaders of the world, the big ones of the economy and whoever else is important or thinks of himself as important, decide to wear a striped tie, they usually go with the rising stripes.
And because I learned that I need to cite references, here we go:
Barack Obama & John McCain
(courtesy of this site)
and
Gordon Brown
(courtesy of this site)
See what I mean? All of them are wearing ties with rising stripes.
Which brings me to our beloved Winchester boys and their ties. Since I only came up with this thought in season four I stick with three episode of that season as the base of my theory.
Here we go again:
Monster Movie
Dean
(Sam's tie doesn't have a pattern, so we're going to ignore it for now)
Sam
(Dean's tie doesn't have a pattern in this scene, so we're going to ignore it as well)
---
Yellow Fever
---
It's the Great Pumpkin, Sam Winchester
Dean
Sam
(all courtesy of supernatural.tv)
---
Do you see where I'm going with this one?
Dean: rising stripes
Sam: falling stripes
Dean: success, hope and confidence
Sam: failure, despair and doubt
Dean got pulled out of hell by the command of God. Dean got back from the dead (and apart from Lazarus and Jesus, not many people managed that feast). Dean is told by an angel that he can give angels orders.
Dean may have flashbacks from hell and surely is traumatized by it (even though his mind pushed that on the backburner for the time being), but he's alive and he's back with Sam (even though that brings his own issues).
Dean sure as hell (ah, puns indeed) seems to be ready to take on the world.
Sam couldn't save his brother from hell. Sam's been on his own for four months. Sam has been trying to use his powers for good. Sam is told that basically his life was screwed before he was even born. Sam is told that God himself doesn't approve of what he's been doing. Sam is told by Dean that he would hunt him down if he didn't know him. Sam is told by Uriel that he's only alive because he's useful.
Sam sure as hell seems to get kicked in the gut whichever way he turns.
For my part, I'm left wondering how Sam manages to get up every morning. I surely would have went down the deep end by now.
So my point is, that Kripke/TBTW/whoever decided consciously on the stripes. It seems to be too consistent to be accidentally. Maybe the stripes reflect also the development of the character, which would mean that it only gets darker for poor Sammy.
Any thoughts? Criticism? Approval? Sunflowers?
(I can't believe I wrote a whole meta on ties and their meaning ... this show)