John's Journal Notes
Thought I’d share a few things I thought were interesting from John’s journal. There is a lot of confirmed fanon in there, which makes me smile, but there is also a lot of stuff in there that couldn’t have been in there because the boys didn’t have that info. The journal is synched up with Origins and Rising Son, and sheds a little more light on the events that happen in the comics.
As for whether or not the journal should be considered canon, I would say don’t consider it canon unless you think the comics are. These observations are in no particular order.
This whole book is practically dripping blood and pain. John’s personal entries are short and pointed, hitting straight to the core of things in a cut-and-dry fashion. The way it’s written actually reminds me a little of how I wrote Sam’s Journal, which makes me both happy and sad, because man, do I ever think Sam is a lot like John.
He makes entries without fail every single year on the boy’s birthdays, his wedding anniversary, and November 2nd. The rest of the entries tend to deal with hunts and things he has learned.
Confirmed Fanon
John gave Dean the Impala for his 18th birthday. He stipulated that he’d still have to drive it for a while, but that it was Dean’s now. We can assume he didn’t yet have the truck.
Dean did, indeed, kill a werewolf with John on his 16th birthday, and John was one hell of a proud dad. (HOWEVER - this hunt, contrary to popular belief, was NOWHERE NEAR Dean’s first hunt.)
After the fire, Dean used to climb into bed and sleep with Sammy. John started Dean in school a year late because they moved around too much, and when he went, he always made John swear to watch out for Sammy while he was gone.
They moved around a lot, as suspected, but the RATE at which they moved amazed the crap out of me. They moved so much that Sam didn’t graduate until he was 19. John suspected Sam always resented being so behind.
John speaks to how the boys are so different from each other. It is clear he loves them both dearly, but he seems to always put the hunt first. He bemoans the necessity of it often, but he pushes his regrets to the side in favor of pushing forward for the boy’s safety.
He was much, much harder on Dean than Sam when it came to training. Dean conformed to the lifestyle so smoothly that John never questioned if Dean ever wanted to do anything else.
By the time Sam is 15, John says the boys don’t get along as well as they used to. On Sam’s 18th birthday, John writes that he’s surprised Sam doesn’t just take off. *sobs*
Specific Incidences that are interesting
Dean was learning to handle guns by his fifth birthday. Dean’s first Supernatural kill (an exorcism) seems to be when he was 12, and it was Mrs. Lyle, as mentioned in Rising Son. John speculates a lot about her, about some succubi, and whether or not they were Lilith. (Not THE Lilith, ‘A’ Lilith … or so it would seem. There is a lot of Lilith lore in the journal)
Dean’s first HUMAN kill was when he was THIRTEEN. He killed a hunter named Anderson - a hunter who was hunting Sam. In his entry about it, John puts the tally at 5 hunters he’s killed so far to protect Sam.
Dean’s first solo hunt was when he was 17. It was a salt and burn, involving the ghost of two (lesbian?) nuns. John and Sam were close by, but Dean handled the hunt on his own. John says he ‘won’t be sending Dean on a solo for a while.’ He doesn’t say what happened, but he describes it as ‘a little tense’.
Sam told John and Dean he was going to Stanford in March, graduated in June, and left on August 31st. (which, as a personal side note, makes me sad, because that’s my birthday) In March when Sam told them the news, John describes himself as the one who kept his temper, stating that he thought Dean would have started throwing punches if he hadn’t kept calm. He takes his anger out on the journal though, because the last line of the entry is “He can go to hell, that’s where he can go.” Ouch, John. *sobs*
In his November 2nd entry of the same year, John is heartbroken because Dean has just informed him that he’s cut off all contact with Sam. After Sam’s departure, Dean withdraws and becomes distant from John.
Things that are in there that I don’t think were in the book that John left Dean in the Pilot.
There is a lot of information and accounts of Ellen and her family, tons of mentions of spending time at the roadhouse (Also I think Dean would have remembered), and the true accounting of Bill Harvelle’s death from John’s POV.
John states that Sammy has learned there are things to be afraid of by the time he’s 6, but in Show he was 8 when he found out the truth. Also, the Christmas portrayed in show has an entry from John stating that he’s hundreds of miles away from the boys that Christmas, making an entry when in AVSC, the boys have the journal in the room with them.
There is info in the journal about the fact that what killed Mary was a demon, even though it does fit in that John didn’t become convinced until right before the Pilot, it is still IN there, when we know the boys didn’t find that out until … Scarecrow? Scarecrow, right? I think.
Lilith lore.
~*~
I guess that’s it for now. I haven’t read through the whole thing yet. There are tidbits in there that may be important in the future - for instance, there is a lot of lore and sigils and things for summoning, ect, of angels, even though John says they don’t exist.
ETA: Oh, and also lots of mentions of Stull, Colt, and even the Winchester family connection and the Winchester Mystery House. *fangirls*
If I find anything else I feel the need to copy out, I’ll add it to this post.