spn 4x8-4x16: Dean post
OKAY. I STILL LOVE HIM, I SWEAR. But I'm having big issues with Dean's arc and with the way the show is handling it.
At first it's heartwrenching, the way he tries to keep it all from Sam. Just because he can't let Sam see that he needs to be taken care of. Because if Sam has to care for him a little bit, then it calls his whole role in the world into question, and he can't deal with that on top of the hell-trauma and new revelation from the angels. And I found myself annoyed at him a little - unfairly, because of course he's entitled to his privacy about it all, but at the same time, he's justifying his own weakness (for not being able to show weakness, how's that for irony) by underestimating Sam even though Sam is seeing right through his bullshit, which is a bit harsh.
He tries, though, he tries and my heart bleeds for him. When he says he's not going to lie but he's not going to talk about it - that right there was so moving and perfect. But then he went on to, erm, talk about it, about how AWFUL it was, about how NOBODY COULD POSSIBLY UNDERSTAND, because if there was a slight chance anyone dared relate to or try to understand Dean, that had to be crapped on immediately, BECAUSE HIS PAIN IS SO GREAT.
I love the way Dean is such a dick about Ruby. Suspicion is always justified in their world, especially of demons, but he's overtly hostile. It sucks, but - I get it. He's so afraid she's what he was going to become. And it's one thing with the demons he can just exorcise or off - that he can trust Sam can keep out - but as she is, Ruby is a threat to Sam himself, and Dean's idea of Sam. Sam's his little mascot, and Sam's trust means more than anything to Dean. But if Sam can suddenly trust this demon, then what does that say about Dean? Maybe the one thing he does depend on about himself isn't really so great after all.
And then it just veers into a BOTTOMLESS WELL OF MANPAIN at the end of every episode.
It's not that he's screwed up by hell, or by his life before it. It's the way his experiences are so very extreme, and so all about how IMPORTANT!!! he is that makes me roll my eyes. It was WORSE THAN YOU COULD POSSIBLY IMAGINE! And oh wait, it was ACTUALLY FORTY YEARS! And IT TURNED ME INTO ONE OF THEM! But no, ACTUALLY, I LIKED IT, I AM A MONSTER!! Also IT IS ALL MY FAULT and TAKE THIS CUP FROM MY LIPS, GAWD, could this get any more over the top? The presumption seems to be that we wouldn't sympathize with him if he wasn't in this dominant position. But the MAN PAIN is damaging my sympathy for him; the way it's heaped on is insulting my sophistication as a viewer.
I have huge, huge narrative and philosophical issues with the way Dean's specialness implicitly shits on everyone else who's been preyed on by the hellhounds. The only takeaway I get from his description of the torture is that nobody could possibly deserve it - but then all the yapping about the RIGHTEOUS MAN, about how NOBODY COULD COMPARE to those Winchesters, that's a huge slam on EVERYONE EVER who dealt with a demon out of desperation, intentionally or not. Really, the guy who gave up his own life and soul to save his wife, who never hurt anyone but CANCER, that wasn't righteous? Bela, who as a CHILD offhandedly mentioned how she would like please not to be RAPED BY HER FATHER any more, she had it coming? Gross. A lifetime of physical violence is the only way to be "righteous" in this theology, apparently.
And in the other corner of "what irritates me the most" about this, is the continued sanctification of John Winchester. Who was not, I do get this, a villain. He was horribly wrong, not rotten or evil. But someone who drags children into a holy war is not righteous, and I really don't like the way that's gone from being portrayed with the sympathetic complexity it deserves to something that is being at best swept under the rug and at worst glorified.
The philosophical ugliness does nothing for the story. I loved Dean plenty without a Special Destiny, you know? Sam always had otherworldly power and of course his journey has been really phenomenal too, but it's just different from Dean, who had always felt like this guy who was just swept up in the whole thing and doing the best he could with it all. That was way more impressive to me than this entity on a whole other PLANE OF IMPORTANCE, that the CREATOR OF THE UNIVERSE took a personal interest in him. I do like the big operatic feel of the major plot-arc, but I'm not sure Dean's story needs to be this extreme and alienating to make it work. I think even the narrative knows it's going too far, with the in-text protagonist privilege talk in the wishing well episode (TEDDY BEAR DOCTORS, OH DEAR LORD), and yet it just keeps going.
It's especially frustrating that Dean too has to be the CHOSEN ONE!! because his psychological conflict over it is done so subtly and well, until the 38 minute mark of every episode where we're treated to more MANPAIN. Because it's his whole child soldier thing writ large, isn't it? Sam was up shit creek before either of them were even born, but Dean didn't know that when he decided three years ago that he needed his brother and wanted to pull Sam back into the hunt. (Depending on what John's deal was, it's likely the same for him as well.) He made the immediate choice, but he couldn't possibly have chosen the lifetime of circumstances that drove him to be that desperate. Jumping way the hell to the end of that spectrum suits the massive Biblical tone of the season, but it runs the risk of overpowering three seasons of subtle character work that went into making that same point.
Because it's all so good when it's just about our boy! The sub-plot where he was torturing Alastair, oh my God, such a painfully excellent exploration of abuser/victim and subjugation/complicity and guilt/shame and JENSEN ACKLES, WHO DID YOU SELL YOUR SOUL TO FOR THAT FLAWLESS FUCKING FACE, OMGWTF.
There's another big issue that raises. I'm actually really impressed with the way the Dean and Alastair scene was clearly alluding to sexual violence, without ever being sexualized. (ISH when comparing that to the Ruby (RUBY <3) torture porn of a few episodes back, what the actual fuck.) But - Dean's locker-room talk about girls has taken a turn for the dub-con. He makes a joke about wanting to peep in Victoria's Secret when they're ghosts; he makes all kinds of wisecracks about the cheerleaders during the Samhein episode. And those things are played as jokes. On a strict Watsonian level, it does make sense - look, I'm not saying "he's had it hard so that excuses it," but I do think that that kind of sustained trauma he experienced could cause someone to lose some ground on their understanding of consent. But it is still a narrative, and I don't think he's called out for that, I think it's supposed to be funny, and I think it's supposed to be some stupid dudebro-crap that assumes any enjoyment of men's sexuality has to come at women's expense, and that is a gross, dangerous lie. Once we find out he's also been in the torturer role, his joking about sexually predatory behavior isn't funny, it's extremely frightening.
I love him, I do. I don't think he's out of character, and I love his wisecracks and his concern for Sam and his appetites and his skepticism and and and. I'm concerned with the shift in his myth-arc because I don't want it to overshadow all the great character work. I don't know, TALK TO ME.
At first it's heartwrenching, the way he tries to keep it all from Sam. Just because he can't let Sam see that he needs to be taken care of. Because if Sam has to care for him a little bit, then it calls his whole role in the world into question, and he can't deal with that on top of the hell-trauma and new revelation from the angels. And I found myself annoyed at him a little - unfairly, because of course he's entitled to his privacy about it all, but at the same time, he's justifying his own weakness (for not being able to show weakness, how's that for irony) by underestimating Sam even though Sam is seeing right through his bullshit, which is a bit harsh.
He tries, though, he tries and my heart bleeds for him. When he says he's not going to lie but he's not going to talk about it - that right there was so moving and perfect. But then he went on to, erm, talk about it, about how AWFUL it was, about how NOBODY COULD POSSIBLY UNDERSTAND, because if there was a slight chance anyone dared relate to or try to understand Dean, that had to be crapped on immediately, BECAUSE HIS PAIN IS SO GREAT.
I love the way Dean is such a dick about Ruby. Suspicion is always justified in their world, especially of demons, but he's overtly hostile. It sucks, but - I get it. He's so afraid she's what he was going to become. And it's one thing with the demons he can just exorcise or off - that he can trust Sam can keep out - but as she is, Ruby is a threat to Sam himself, and Dean's idea of Sam. Sam's his little mascot, and Sam's trust means more than anything to Dean. But if Sam can suddenly trust this demon, then what does that say about Dean? Maybe the one thing he does depend on about himself isn't really so great after all.
And then it just veers into a BOTTOMLESS WELL OF MANPAIN at the end of every episode.
It's not that he's screwed up by hell, or by his life before it. It's the way his experiences are so very extreme, and so all about how IMPORTANT!!! he is that makes me roll my eyes. It was WORSE THAN YOU COULD POSSIBLY IMAGINE! And oh wait, it was ACTUALLY FORTY YEARS! And IT TURNED ME INTO ONE OF THEM! But no, ACTUALLY, I LIKED IT, I AM A MONSTER!! Also IT IS ALL MY FAULT and TAKE THIS CUP FROM MY LIPS, GAWD, could this get any more over the top? The presumption seems to be that we wouldn't sympathize with him if he wasn't in this dominant position. But the MAN PAIN is damaging my sympathy for him; the way it's heaped on is insulting my sophistication as a viewer.
I have huge, huge narrative and philosophical issues with the way Dean's specialness implicitly shits on everyone else who's been preyed on by the hellhounds. The only takeaway I get from his description of the torture is that nobody could possibly deserve it - but then all the yapping about the RIGHTEOUS MAN, about how NOBODY COULD COMPARE to those Winchesters, that's a huge slam on EVERYONE EVER who dealt with a demon out of desperation, intentionally or not. Really, the guy who gave up his own life and soul to save his wife, who never hurt anyone but CANCER, that wasn't righteous? Bela, who as a CHILD offhandedly mentioned how she would like please not to be RAPED BY HER FATHER any more, she had it coming? Gross. A lifetime of physical violence is the only way to be "righteous" in this theology, apparently.
And in the other corner of "what irritates me the most" about this, is the continued sanctification of John Winchester. Who was not, I do get this, a villain. He was horribly wrong, not rotten or evil. But someone who drags children into a holy war is not righteous, and I really don't like the way that's gone from being portrayed with the sympathetic complexity it deserves to something that is being at best swept under the rug and at worst glorified.
The philosophical ugliness does nothing for the story. I loved Dean plenty without a Special Destiny, you know? Sam always had otherworldly power and of course his journey has been really phenomenal too, but it's just different from Dean, who had always felt like this guy who was just swept up in the whole thing and doing the best he could with it all. That was way more impressive to me than this entity on a whole other PLANE OF IMPORTANCE, that the CREATOR OF THE UNIVERSE took a personal interest in him. I do like the big operatic feel of the major plot-arc, but I'm not sure Dean's story needs to be this extreme and alienating to make it work. I think even the narrative knows it's going too far, with the in-text protagonist privilege talk in the wishing well episode (TEDDY BEAR DOCTORS, OH DEAR LORD), and yet it just keeps going.
It's especially frustrating that Dean too has to be the CHOSEN ONE!! because his psychological conflict over it is done so subtly and well, until the 38 minute mark of every episode where we're treated to more MANPAIN. Because it's his whole child soldier thing writ large, isn't it? Sam was up shit creek before either of them were even born, but Dean didn't know that when he decided three years ago that he needed his brother and wanted to pull Sam back into the hunt. (Depending on what John's deal was, it's likely the same for him as well.) He made the immediate choice, but he couldn't possibly have chosen the lifetime of circumstances that drove him to be that desperate. Jumping way the hell to the end of that spectrum suits the massive Biblical tone of the season, but it runs the risk of overpowering three seasons of subtle character work that went into making that same point.
Because it's all so good when it's just about our boy! The sub-plot where he was torturing Alastair, oh my God, such a painfully excellent exploration of abuser/victim and subjugation/complicity and guilt/shame and JENSEN ACKLES, WHO DID YOU SELL YOUR SOUL TO FOR THAT FLAWLESS FUCKING FACE, OMGWTF.
There's another big issue that raises. I'm actually really impressed with the way the Dean and Alastair scene was clearly alluding to sexual violence, without ever being sexualized. (ISH when comparing that to the Ruby (RUBY <3) torture porn of a few episodes back, what the actual fuck.) But - Dean's locker-room talk about girls has taken a turn for the dub-con. He makes a joke about wanting to peep in Victoria's Secret when they're ghosts; he makes all kinds of wisecracks about the cheerleaders during the Samhein episode. And those things are played as jokes. On a strict Watsonian level, it does make sense - look, I'm not saying "he's had it hard so that excuses it," but I do think that that kind of sustained trauma he experienced could cause someone to lose some ground on their understanding of consent. But it is still a narrative, and I don't think he's called out for that, I think it's supposed to be funny, and I think it's supposed to be some stupid dudebro-crap that assumes any enjoyment of men's sexuality has to come at women's expense, and that is a gross, dangerous lie. Once we find out he's also been in the torturer role, his joking about sexually predatory behavior isn't funny, it's extremely frightening.
I love him, I do. I don't think he's out of character, and I love his wisecracks and his concern for Sam and his appetites and his skepticism and and and. I'm concerned with the shift in his myth-arc because I don't want it to overshadow all the great character work. I don't know, TALK TO ME.