30 Days of SPN - Day 9
Back to our regularly scheduled programming. Death, story, issues....
Day 9 - Your favourite Dean death scene
It’s faintly ridiculous that there are enough to choose from here to make this a challenging question, but I guess that's the whole point. However, this one’s not really such a hard one, for me: it’s the beginning of Dark Side of the Moon.
First and foremost, I just love how Dean handles this situation. The surreptitious reaching for his weapon (echoing his move way back in Phantom Traveler), his ironic nonchalance in saying good morning to Sam, his ID-ing of the shooters, and most of all his fury and stone-cold defiance once they shoot Sam, is chock-full of charactery goodness.
“Go ahead, Roy. Do it. But I’m gonna warn you: when I come back, I’mona be pissed. Come on! Let’s get this show on the road.”
There’s a deep satisfaction in me at these lines, that Dean is taking his story (though not his role/identity, yet) to heart, not fighting it any more. There is an incredible fascination and appeal in someone (real or fictional) who has learned and embraced the precise workings of the story they inhabit, who knows unerringly how to navigate it. For lack of a better word, it is best called wisdom: the fine calibration of perception to reality. Dean has and is achieving it (although it should be noted that doesn't make him any less broken). This pushes all my delight buttons so much, I can’t even begin.
This is actually only (only!) the second time Dean’s seen Sam die. But oh, the difference three years (and forty in Hell) spent racking up frequent flyer points crossing the veil makes in understanding how this is going to play out. There is no desperation, no panic, because there is absolutely no doubt in Dean’s mind that this will not stick, for Sam or for him. Just an incredibly focussed, white hot fury in processing what was just done to Sam. Isn’t it interesting that even in the brothers’ only joint death scene, Sam’s is passive and Dean’s is aggressive? I think it’s interesting.
Then, too, it would be wrong to deny the very enjoyable surface element of sheer badassery; any human man who can stare down a barrel and make threats with absolute confidence he’ll be able to follow through on them, no matter how things play out, is a man to be backed away from slowly with your hands carefully visible. I love how this scene shows that Dean’s (and Sam's) reputation in the hunting community has probably surpassed John’s, by now.
“He made us, and we just snuffed his brother, ya idiot. You wanna spend the rest of your life knowing Dean Winchester’s on your ass? Cos I don’t. Shoot him.”
Just a few lines, and they say so much about the mythic quality the Winchesters have taken on. The brothers are as legendary and dangerous in their world as any fangirl could wish.
Finally, this death is God’s way of getting his attention, after his despairing prayer at the end of Valentine (the original order of which would have had the two eps airing back-to-back). Somehow, it figures that the best and possibly only way to get Dean’s attention is to kill him. (Only after killing Sam, though.) It’s God’s way of answering that prayer for help, by showing Sam what he needs to truly see and understand Dean, etc.
So, yeah. That one was actually not so terribly hard. Yay!
Day 9 - Your favourite Dean death scene
It’s faintly ridiculous that there are enough to choose from here to make this a challenging question, but I guess that's the whole point. However, this one’s not really such a hard one, for me: it’s the beginning of Dark Side of the Moon.
First and foremost, I just love how Dean handles this situation. The surreptitious reaching for his weapon (echoing his move way back in Phantom Traveler), his ironic nonchalance in saying good morning to Sam, his ID-ing of the shooters, and most of all his fury and stone-cold defiance once they shoot Sam, is chock-full of charactery goodness.
“Go ahead, Roy. Do it. But I’m gonna warn you: when I come back, I’mona be pissed. Come on! Let’s get this show on the road.”
There’s a deep satisfaction in me at these lines, that Dean is taking his story (though not his role/identity, yet) to heart, not fighting it any more. There is an incredible fascination and appeal in someone (real or fictional) who has learned and embraced the precise workings of the story they inhabit, who knows unerringly how to navigate it. For lack of a better word, it is best called wisdom: the fine calibration of perception to reality. Dean has and is achieving it (although it should be noted that doesn't make him any less broken). This pushes all my delight buttons so much, I can’t even begin.
This is actually only (only!) the second time Dean’s seen Sam die. But oh, the difference three years (and forty in Hell) spent racking up frequent flyer points crossing the veil makes in understanding how this is going to play out. There is no desperation, no panic, because there is absolutely no doubt in Dean’s mind that this will not stick, for Sam or for him. Just an incredibly focussed, white hot fury in processing what was just done to Sam. Isn’t it interesting that even in the brothers’ only joint death scene, Sam’s is passive and Dean’s is aggressive? I think it’s interesting.
Then, too, it would be wrong to deny the very enjoyable surface element of sheer badassery; any human man who can stare down a barrel and make threats with absolute confidence he’ll be able to follow through on them, no matter how things play out, is a man to be backed away from slowly with your hands carefully visible. I love how this scene shows that Dean’s (and Sam's) reputation in the hunting community has probably surpassed John’s, by now.
“He made us, and we just snuffed his brother, ya idiot. You wanna spend the rest of your life knowing Dean Winchester’s on your ass? Cos I don’t. Shoot him.”
Just a few lines, and they say so much about the mythic quality the Winchesters have taken on. The brothers are as legendary and dangerous in their world as any fangirl could wish.
Finally, this death is God’s way of getting his attention, after his despairing prayer at the end of Valentine (the original order of which would have had the two eps airing back-to-back). Somehow, it figures that the best and possibly only way to get Dean’s attention is to kill him. (Only after killing Sam, though.) It’s God’s way of answering that prayer for help, by showing Sam what he needs to truly see and understand Dean, etc.
So, yeah. That one was actually not so terribly hard. Yay!