Aeryn13

I wouldn`t have minded that or anything in that vein. My problem wouldn`t have been if he had been involved or did his part - as long as Dean kept being a direct part of the arc. But what they meant to do was IMO have Sam pull a Sue-save. Just like in the Season 5 Finale. And I don`t even know who they modeled that after because even Luke freaking Skywalker did very much not get a Sue-save in Jedi. He got a heroic moment, something in between nothing (Dean) and absolutely everything (Sam).

In the original version he would have used his dark powerzzzz to do it. And even though they still trashed it in the end but thank God for the writer`s strike. I would have hated Sam Sue-saving Dean from hell with the power of a million suns. I hated those fanfics as well but at least those were just stories on the net. I was so excited for Dean going to hell because I figured finally, finally he would get drawn into the supernatural mytharc from it. Well, yes and no. Joke was on me. But Season 3 I was close to stop watching because Sam Sueing it up was exactly the ending I feared.

Other people do, anyway. Sam and Dean can't catch a break. ;P Anyone remember all the mirrors they broke in Season 1 "Bloody Mary"? Foreshadowing? I almost believe so now. There have been scenes where I could ignore the familial relationship so it was an okay scene between partners. Like, you could have such a scene in any buddy-cop dynamic. I meant a brotherly scene that didn`t make me go "I hate your relationship and you are THE worst people ever to be around each other". They used to have those. Yet I can`t recall even one in the last few years. I mean, there were ones I outright hated like in Fallen Crapols, Point of No Return, Suck Song or the Season 8 Finale. Vile all around. But more than that, they didn`t have a single moment where I enjoyed them as brothers like in Seasons 1 and 2. I`ll also second (or third?) the Carry on my wayward son blah-ness. And I`m a big sucker for musical montages. However, it worked so well in Season 1 because it was something new and nifty. Already when they did it in Season 2, I was like "oh, this is gonna be a thing now...okay". Nowadays, I don`t give a crap what the montage is about, it bugs me that it is so goddamn repetitious. Just like Bobby ended up being catankerous and saying "balls" every five seconds. Have those writers never heard of Flanderization? Another UO. Well, possibly one. I absolutely hated Missouri and found Loretta Devine`s line readings awful. She played exactly that kind of character that is like nails on chalkboard. And it wasn`t just because she was an asshole to Dean, she was an asshole to everyone in that episode. I don`t know why for one random episode Sam actually liked someone pulling out the diapers when it came to him. But that client, that woman in the house. Just urgh. And incompetent as fuck. Pamela was a million times better.

I think after nine years the shine is off everything. And I know, blasphemy but even the car. It had a certain cult status early on for me while these days it`s mostly just a car. Other UOs, I guess: Carver isn`t the worst showrunner they`ve had. Is he good? Nope. But I don`t see him as worse than Gamble. Or even, another blasphemy, Kripke. The latter just had the reigns when the shine wasn`t completely off yet. Granted when it was on I absolutely hated Season 3, I thought nothing could be worse than this dreck. Until I watched the Season 5 Finale. Or Season 6. Or Season 7. Or the second part of Season 8. And Season 3 suddenly seemed way less offensive than I remembered. That doesn`t actually mean it didn`t still suck, though. So that`s kinda how I view Kripke`s era. He had the fortune of having the good Seasons in it and the stuff that - in retrospect - sucks less. And Singer who was there for it all? Increasingly meh. They all had their hits and misses. Often misses. It, too, has been too wishy-washy for years now. And the revolving door of Castiel appearances "oh, we found a reason to keep him around for a bit" "gotcha, we found an even stupider reason why he exits stage left" has become somewhat of a running joke. In that vein, another UO: I don`t think there has been a good scene between the brothers since, I don`t know, early Season 5 maybe? Earlier? There was some fake-emotional stuff with horrid dialogue, like the Season 8 Finale, Season 9 Opener and even the Finale, mostly revolving around the old "as I lay dying" chestnut. Like any of them actually die. But even without these grandesque moments which don`t work IMO, the day-to-day stuff? While Dean still hangs onto Sam as much as ever, even he doesn`t seem to know why anymore. It`s mostly because of reasons. And Sam looks like he perma-sucks a lemon when it comes to his brother. People who hate each other have better chemistry.

I always thought it was something he doesn`t want to be thinking. He pushes down and is in denial about. And he is able to compartmentalize that when Dean is in danger of dying/dying/dead. It`s like a rose-tinted-glasses view sets in rapidly then. But once the crisis is averted, the glasses come off and the same issues remain. It only comes out really badly when his inhibitions become lowered or for the first time most recently "sober" when he was too angry. Day-to-day, though, it comes out in little ways and that is an acting tic for me. But it has become a point for me where the "I`m the least of you" speeches are the aberration and sorry, I can`t buy them. Not after how the character usually comes across to me. And even then it`s usually immediately followed by either by "and that is why I think I can handle Lucifer so this is my plan" or a version of "it`s my fault because you acted/reacted wrongly". Now I do believe the character has issues and emotional hang-ups but that version of low self esteem is just not one I see. Maybe in a way that for good or ill John shaped his world-view in terms of certain relationship dynamics. Sam is trying not to have the same dynamic he hated during childhood. To the point where IMO he has become near paranoid about it. Until recently where he got amped up due to the MOC, Dean didn`t consistently pull John-behaviour. Though in all fairness, even John never got a "everything about you is shit" speech. No matter how angry Sam was. Meanwhile Dean is chasing after some "family over everything" dream where he measures his only worth by how he can service the good of the family and does stupid shit doing so. It`s like they are each living with the ghost of John instead of each other. It is one of the reasons why I`m not sure they can work out their problems while remaining in close quarters 24/7. There was a slight chance mid-Season 8 but nope, could not have that.

I think on paper both characters started out thin and cliché. That early draft by Kripke? Horrendous. Gladly someone reworked it but Sam was so clearly the pimped-out Sue and Dean so clearly nothing more than the dumb jerk who was held as a negative mirror for Sue!Sam. It`s also uncanny if you read some of the tie in scripts. Both characters are completely unlikeable and flat. You hate Sam for his Sueness and Dean for being a dumb jerk. Where I think Jensen excelled was taking a character like that and bringing enough charme, fun and charisma to the role that it softened the edges. The writers also gave him more emotional exploration and layers and he ran with it. However, I never doubted that Sam was the main character early on. He was at the center of the plot and had the destiny and the powers and the angst coming from it. Unfortunately they both overpimped that aspect of the character too much and Jared didn`t really play against it so the combination didn`t work for me. Surprisingly, I found myself Sam liking more and more over the course of Season 1 and 2 regardless (whenever the Sue-plot didn`t rear its ugly head) because I felt his growing relationship with Dean, them learning to be brothers again was really heartfelt and touching. And my issue with the character having a certain sense of superiority was neither so bad that it tarnished my enjoyment nor had I lost hope they were going to address it. I mean, I expect characters to be more flawed early in the show, that`s what the show is for, to mature them. Dean had his fair share of flaws I wanted to see addressed, too. Season 3 was iffy but it`s hard to truly judge it because of the writer`s strike curtailing it. I know the original plan was Sam Sue-saving Dean, though, and having once more everything in the history of ever be about him and I would have hated that. Season 4, I felt Sam was at his worst in a way but I didn`t mind it. I didn`t find the character too unsympathetic while it happened. Sure, his superiority shtick grew five sizes but I was so confident that it would lead to the betterment of the character. And his motives weren`t unrelatable or anything. Then Season 5 happened and wow, talk about: hope. dashed. Dean gets the blame for Season 4 Sam and Sam gets the ultimate Sue-save. That broke the character IMO, not his dark arc. Compared to Dean`s dark arc this Season, Dean`s flaw which led to the bad decisions was actually the one that always bugged me as much as Sam being smug. The family patheticness. You wanna talk about having no sympathy for a character? I had none, none whatsoever when Dean made the deal. Like foaming at the mouth mad at the character. This time around I was admittedly happy that he got the mytharc for a change, no matter what shape it took and I didn`t hate it like I hated the deal. We`ll see if at least this will be used for the betterment of the character. In general, though, while there was always more emo-stuff for Dean then for Sam - and I have to say, in lieu of Sam hogging all the plot, what else would anyone have given Dean to justify his screentime? Nothing? I hated that stupid divide of only plot vs. only emo (and since I prefer plot, I hated that Dean was at least on the wrong end of it) but Sam couldn`t have all - I don`t agree that there wasn`t any POV of Sam. In fact, there have been episodes set entirely in his head. No other character, to my knowledge, has gotten that. The problem was just that these episodes didn`t help me make the characters more relatable. Quite the opposite in fact. I mean, imagine you go "hm, I wonder what Sam is thinking?" and the answer is "oh, his version of his Mom tells him how cool he is and how much better than his dumb weak brother" or "oh, Death is fellating his wonderfulness". The hell? Without knowing what the character thought for sure, I betcha even the most unfavorable thoughts wouldn`t have made him out to be THAT dickish. What were these writers thinking? I remember an old Star Trek TNG episode featuring a "what if" scenario for Picard on what his life could have been. Now the Picard we know is large and in charge, wise but tough in his own quiet way, a leader. The episode had him be a low-ranking timid Lt. who never went anywhere. That endeared viewers to a character. If the SPN writers had gotten their hands on it, it would have probably featured him as the High Admiral of the Federation who just negotiated a universe-wide peace treaty. With Sam, they seem kinda tone-deaf in their attempts to make the character more beloved.