Yay for Beauty and the Beast references!
Okay, so I've been thinking. A dangerous pastime, I know.
So, I love Soulless!Sam. I mean, really love him. He's adorable, hilarious, and creepy by turns. And occasionally sad, too, particularly there at the very end of 6x09. I'll be happy when he's resouled, don't get me wrong, but I'm enjoying the hell out of him at the moment.
Dean, though. I dunno, there's just been something off about Dean's reaction to Sam's soul-impairment, and I've been having a lot of trouble articulating my problem even just in my own head. I'm not entirely sure I have it even now, but I'm gonna try to work through it.
It seems to me that Dean can't quite decide how to view and treat Sam's soulless body. Which, fair enough. I think it'd be a head-trip for anyone. What bugs me, though, is the nature of his confusion. I should note for the record that this train of thought was inspired by a fic/meta/discussion in which it was observed that Dean has very little sympathy for Sam's situation. And that, I think, is the root of the problem. Dean's confusion is based, not on "how does this suck for Sam and also me?" but on "how is this all about pissing me off?"
Before the big revelation, Dean was working on the assumption that what was riding around hunting with him was Not His Brother, in a very literal sense; it was a demon, or a shapeshifter, or a doppelganger, or some such thing. Then, we find out the truth: it's not really Sam, but it's not anything else, either. It's Sam's body and Sam's mind, but not Sam. But I don't think that every really sunk in for Dean.
His reactions to Robo!Sam seem to veer wildly and inconsistently between two extremes. One is that Robo!Sam is a 100% separate entity from Regular!Sam, in much the same way he was thinking pre-revelation, and this pisses him off because This Thing is: a) imitating Sam; and b) imitating Sam badly. He can't quite seem to decide which of these two offenses pisses him off more. In Dean's second reaction, though, he harkens back to the first few episodes of Season 6, in which Sam was just Sam, but Sam being an asshole, and the whole soulless thing is irrelevant, just the latest in a long line of excuses for Sam acting in a way that pisses Dean off; that if only Sam tried hard enough, then the whole lack a soul thing shouldn't make a bit of difference.
Either way, it's all about Dean being pissed off.
Now, god knows that Dean has plenty to pissed off about, and that Sam's soul situation has had profound and profoundly unpleasant results for Dean personally, separate from his love for his brother and his identity as one half of Sam'n'Dean. That being said, as much as Dean likes to yell at Robo!Sam about empathy, that is exactly what has been absent from Dean's reactions.
Dean seems completely oblivious to the idea that this whole situation is something horrible, something tragic, that has been done to his brother. That this is not Sam's fault. That Sam died and went to Hell to save the world, and he was repaid for his sacrifice by having his soul stolen from him, only to have his body run around doing things that would horrify the real Sam. That, despite the gigantor body Dean sees beside him, Sam himself is still in hell. That Sam is a victim and is still suffering.
I'm not trying to make this a rant against Dean. I've done that before, and really, my feelings for Dean in no way compare to what they were during Season 4 and select portions of Season 5. It would take something truly incredible to make me feel the same way about Dean as I did after Dark Side of the Moon. He'd have to murder a basket of puppies and kittens and rainbow-farting unicorn colts. Not likely. Right now, I'm just... puzzled, and a little bit bothered. Maybe it's just because I'm kinda right there with Sam in not really caring about Lisa and Ben anymore. (For the record, I don't dislike them. I just don't care one way or the other.)
Hopefully Dean will get his head out of his ass in coming episodes and the sense of urgency will ratchet up a little. Cause, right now? No sense of urgency at all. Everyone seems content just to sort of leave Sam's soul where it is, and if they can get it back eventually, then that's cool. Never mind that four months in Hell broke Dean into itty pieces and screwed him up for life, and by now Sam's already been in an even shittier vacation spot for something like four or five times as long. I am genuinely curious as to how they're going to handle Sam's return, because by all rights, he should really come back either a vegetable or a demon.
Anyway. Yeah. That's it.
So, I love Soulless!Sam. I mean, really love him. He's adorable, hilarious, and creepy by turns. And occasionally sad, too, particularly there at the very end of 6x09. I'll be happy when he's resouled, don't get me wrong, but I'm enjoying the hell out of him at the moment.
Dean, though. I dunno, there's just been something off about Dean's reaction to Sam's soul-impairment, and I've been having a lot of trouble articulating my problem even just in my own head. I'm not entirely sure I have it even now, but I'm gonna try to work through it.
It seems to me that Dean can't quite decide how to view and treat Sam's soulless body. Which, fair enough. I think it'd be a head-trip for anyone. What bugs me, though, is the nature of his confusion. I should note for the record that this train of thought was inspired by a fic/meta/discussion in which it was observed that Dean has very little sympathy for Sam's situation. And that, I think, is the root of the problem. Dean's confusion is based, not on "how does this suck for Sam and also me?" but on "how is this all about pissing me off?"
Before the big revelation, Dean was working on the assumption that what was riding around hunting with him was Not His Brother, in a very literal sense; it was a demon, or a shapeshifter, or a doppelganger, or some such thing. Then, we find out the truth: it's not really Sam, but it's not anything else, either. It's Sam's body and Sam's mind, but not Sam. But I don't think that every really sunk in for Dean.
His reactions to Robo!Sam seem to veer wildly and inconsistently between two extremes. One is that Robo!Sam is a 100% separate entity from Regular!Sam, in much the same way he was thinking pre-revelation, and this pisses him off because This Thing is: a) imitating Sam; and b) imitating Sam badly. He can't quite seem to decide which of these two offenses pisses him off more. In Dean's second reaction, though, he harkens back to the first few episodes of Season 6, in which Sam was just Sam, but Sam being an asshole, and the whole soulless thing is irrelevant, just the latest in a long line of excuses for Sam acting in a way that pisses Dean off; that if only Sam tried hard enough, then the whole lack a soul thing shouldn't make a bit of difference.
Either way, it's all about Dean being pissed off.
Now, god knows that Dean has plenty to pissed off about, and that Sam's soul situation has had profound and profoundly unpleasant results for Dean personally, separate from his love for his brother and his identity as one half of Sam'n'Dean. That being said, as much as Dean likes to yell at Robo!Sam about empathy, that is exactly what has been absent from Dean's reactions.
Dean seems completely oblivious to the idea that this whole situation is something horrible, something tragic, that has been done to his brother. That this is not Sam's fault. That Sam died and went to Hell to save the world, and he was repaid for his sacrifice by having his soul stolen from him, only to have his body run around doing things that would horrify the real Sam. That, despite the gigantor body Dean sees beside him, Sam himself is still in hell. That Sam is a victim and is still suffering.
I'm not trying to make this a rant against Dean. I've done that before, and really, my feelings for Dean in no way compare to what they were during Season 4 and select portions of Season 5. It would take something truly incredible to make me feel the same way about Dean as I did after Dark Side of the Moon. He'd have to murder a basket of puppies and kittens and rainbow-farting unicorn colts. Not likely. Right now, I'm just... puzzled, and a little bit bothered. Maybe it's just because I'm kinda right there with Sam in not really caring about Lisa and Ben anymore. (For the record, I don't dislike them. I just don't care one way or the other.)
Hopefully Dean will get his head out of his ass in coming episodes and the sense of urgency will ratchet up a little. Cause, right now? No sense of urgency at all. Everyone seems content just to sort of leave Sam's soul where it is, and if they can get it back eventually, then that's cool. Never mind that four months in Hell broke Dean into itty pieces and screwed him up for life, and by now Sam's already been in an even shittier vacation spot for something like four or five times as long. I am genuinely curious as to how they're going to handle Sam's return, because by all rights, he should really come back either a vegetable or a demon.
Anyway. Yeah. That's it.