SPN: Brotherly Manlove by Winchesters (16)

[sargraf]

Chapter "Shadow" in the Catalogue of Touches between the Brothers Winchester. And in case you missed the previous installments:

Pilot. Wendigo. Dead In The Water. Phantom Traveler.
Bloody Mary. Skin. Hook Man. Bugs. Home. Asylum.
Scarecrow. Faith. Route 666. Nightmare. The Benders.

I'm all meta'd out right now, and specifically on Shadow. So this

Comments

[dotfic]

Sam is assuming Dean will have trouble letting him go, because he came back in Scarecrow, and Dean is assuming Sam will stay indefinitely... because he came back in Scarecrow. It all has a flow, and just like Asylum begat the fight in Scarecrow, the end of Scarecrow begat this scene.

I adore you meta. Do I say that enough? That makes sense.

On 16.1, I will never look at that scene the same way again. There's far more going on there than an injured stoic!Dean. Fantastic.

In 16.3, and around there, the whole goodbye scene with John, I so *heart* Dean's body language, overall. Just sayin'.

On the lameness of the emo stuff: it surprised me in s1 whenever they went there. Shadow was the first time they took the dampeners off the emo. There was emotion and angst before this, like Faith, but it was over quickly. In Shadow, DMB, Salvation, and DT, the dampeners go away for more than a few moments, to a whole extended scene. And it's ALWAYS for or with John. It is awkward, it is lame, and in a way, that works for it. As you said, these aren't guys who let their hearts out. We like them gruff and snarky and subtextual, the emotion coming across in a glance or a brief scene where one of them blurts something out (like Dean's "I'm proud of you" at the end of Scarecrow). John Winchester just blows it wide open, every time. It's like Sam and Dean don't need to do that, just the two of them on their own. But John's so complicated for both of them, neither of them can "hold it together"; they can't help themselves. To cap it off, John himself is very emotional, big with the anger, hugs, and love shining from his eyes. He doesn't do anything by half, even though he's gruff. But gruff doesn't quite work for John. He does gruff but his heart keeps bleeding on his sleeve. Dean keeps it in better than his father does, and Sam's just more even overall, not afraid of his emotions usually, so it's not as shocking when Sam is emotional.

At least, I hope that's what going on; I don't want overly emo Dean and Sam. It's okay for me when John brings it. Not that I don't enjoy emotional moments between the brothers, but it's just their characters, or should be, that it isn't prolonged or too broad. With John, it can be, because that's how he IS.

[sargraf]

Thank you! It makes sense to me. I don't know if I've said this before, but it was that scene in Shadow which brought me back to feeling the respect for Sam that I'd unfortunately lost post-Home. ...Huh. Funny how that works. The more Kripke pushes one brother's woobie factor, the more I find myself drawn to the other. What gives? I guess victimization bothers me, because it implies there is also a villain. And that mindset really bothers me regarding their relationship.

On 16.1: mission accomplished! ;)

On 16.3: oh, yeah. I heart his body language and Sam's, too. But the prolonged and excessive EMO from all three just turns me off. I get what you're saying about John. He seems to be very emotional underneath, and a great part of his interaction with his kids is caught somewhere between it spilling out all over them and it being held back determinedly... like trying to put play-doh back into its tube (or... whatever it comes in these days). I don't really ever want to see it as extreme as it was in Shadow (and, really, the actual John stuff wasn't so bad in Salvation/Devil's Trap), but I can handle the OTT-ness of it while they're around John, and during these Emotional Decisions. If they get to be this way around each other, Sam & Dean, I'll have a hard time believing their characterization.