Breaking the World the Winchester Way
Jun. 2nd, 2013 09:29 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
butterflyInspired by littlehollyleaf’s tags here, but then I just go on and on, so I figured I should make a new post.
I guess the construct of ‘dean says don’t do the thing’ 'i did the thing and broke the world’ doesn’t bother me because I feel that the show absolutely acknowledges that Dean’s methods of communication have been terrible and have contributed to horrible situations? And he was the one of them who screwed up first and kinda started the ball rolling on world-screwage.
I kinda see the seasons like this:
S1 - Dean represents family, John represents revenge, the climax of the season is Sam choosing family over revenge.
S2 - With the intent of living by the guiding principle of his life (and because he hates himself), Dean fucks over the world without that being his intention when he sells his soul to save Sam. Sadly, no one was there to tell him not to do the thing, but he still knew doing the thing was wrong (see: his tirade about how pissed he was that his dad had done that exact thing) and did it anyway because he felt like he had no other choice based on his internal moral compass.
S3 - Dean wobbles between being accepting of and horrified of the consequences of his actions (and he has no clue what they really are yet), culminating in his death, about which Sam can do nothing, though he tries.
S4 - Believing Dean to be too weak, Sam takes it upon himself to kill Lilith. This is couched as revenge, the same principle Sam had once placed above Dean in importance. Though he doesn’t intend to do it, Sam fucks over the world when he raises Lucifer by killing Lilith. Dean tries to tell him not to do the thing, because he finds the means reprehensible, but Sam believes he has no other choice if he wants to save the world/Dean.
S5 - Much like Sam was tempted by an outside source in S4, he is tempted again in S5. Ultimately, he accepts the responsibility of dealing with Lucifer himself, culminating in his bodily going to the Cage, which is not a fate Dean can save him from.
S6 - Believing Dean to have already done enough, Cas takes it upon himself to prevent a reoccurrence of the Apocalypse. He doesn’t intend to fuck over the world, but he does when he swallows the Purgatory souls. Dean tells him not to do the thing but can give no reason for it besides “I don’t want you to”, and Cas believes he has no other choice if he wants to protect the world/Dean.
S7 - Castiel’s S6 actions first result in his apparent death (about which Dean can do nothing), then – when he does return – it takes him time to realize he must take responsibility for bringing the Levithans into the world rather than run away. Ultimately, killing Dick sends Dean and Cas into Purgatory and into a new journey.
In S4/S6, Dean contributes to what’s happening by showing a remarkable inflexibility and lack of understanding when it comes to the two people in his life that he cares for and trusts the most. In S5/S7, Dean slowly comes to a realization about how part of the issue is in how he interacts with and treats the person in question (unfortunately, his S5 realization about Sam doesn’t stick because: Soulless!Sam and then once that’s taken care of, Sam’s got the Wall and then the Wall is broken by Cas and he has Hallucifer; which is why it had to be done all over again in S8).
So, in S8, Carver is resetting the gameboard and that’s what he decides to focus on – Dean’s arc this season is about communication (fixing the wrongs he did in S4/S6); Sam is confronting issues that stem from S4; Castiel the issues that stem from S6. But Dean is the person who changed his approach to his loved ones most drastically in S8 – he realized that the way he’d been acting before was wrong and contributed to the problems, and he self-corrected.
Original Post: Breaking the World the Winchester Way