Not that little, but tallawah nonetheless

lookatthesefreakinghipsters:

Does anyone else find it a little sad that Dean is the only Winchester to identify the “family business” as “saving people, hunting things,” where saving people is the first priority?  It wasn’t John’s priority.  He was on a vendetta against the “thing” that killed Mary and anything evil that got in his way got ganked.  Saving people was a happy by-product of his true aim: revenge. 

After Dean gives his now-famous line, Sam counters with “…I gotta find Jessica’s killer.  It’s the only thing I can think about.”  For Sam, saving people didn’t come first, like John, hunting was a means to an end, in the earliest seasons.

But for Dean, a character whose entire sense of self had been sublimated into a need to save and protect others, “saving people” came first.  His need to save everyone, especially in those earlier seasons, came directly from what he believed his father wanted to achieve as a hunter.  He believed that John’s goals were to save people, first and foremost.  And so, Dean believed if he just saved enough people, if he protected Sammy well enough, John would be proud of him.  And if Dean saved people, other children wouldn’t have to go through losing a parent to monsters and demons like he did.  Other families wouldn’t be torn apart at the hands of evil.

But Dean could never make John proud by saving people, because that’s not what John valued.  And there is no way to save everyone, so Dean could only ever fail in his goal of saving people.  Dean’s tragedy is that even his laudable traits are turned against him, increasing his self-loathing through guilt and blame for his failure to meet an impossible standard.  No wonder it’s such a crushing burden.

Dean knows John knows he killed Azazel. So if that’s supposed to be the metric, then he’s a winner. But in the end, John gave up on revenge, and there’s no reason he needed to save enough people just to get to the YED and the Colt. I will never believe the John who said “Hey, can you boys take out the Woman in White? I’m avenging over here, so I’m busy.” didn’t also value the lives of innocents.

No, it’s not what made him into a hunter, but he was a man (a soldier, a leader, a husband, a father, and most sadly a lonely son) before his wife died, and before he killed his first non-human monster. He couldn’t have been the hunter he was and raised boys who saved the world time and again without being more than just revenge. Maybe Dean would have been an EMT without him, and Sam a civil rights lawyer instead of pool-hustling serial killers of evil, but it all has value. 

(Source: fallencassbutt, via allonsy-castiel)

ibelieveindestiel:

#this makes me cry so much because john probably wasn’t even there for dean’s birthday  #and dean wouldn’t say a thing  #because he knows john’s out there on a job  #saving people  #and that’s got to be more important than his birthday  #and he tells himself he understands  #and then years later he meets this kid  #and finds out that john could be the dad he never had  #that maybe HE just wasn’t important enough  #and some part of him wants to scream and maybe die inside  #…  #cue dean feels

Did Dean ever find out that Adam hated John because he was just some guy that showed up a couple times a year, and taking you to a ball game is something anyone can do, but loving you and keeping you safe and making sacrifices and saving your life is what a parent should do?

(Source: bowlegschester, via castiel-angel-of-the-lord)

The feels this gives me are immense. Dean got enough rope to learn how to tie his own knots, and John is looking at something he never has before. Dean being a leader. I don’t think he second guessed himself as the guy in charge much after this, and there’s a point at which it’s not “big brother” stuff anymore. Bobby followed his lead, Cas followed his lead, they deferred to his GED and give ‘em hell attitude, and he’s been a solid leader (even when he goes with someone else’s plan) ever since.

(Also, jesus christ, how pretty is he in that last GIF????)

(Source: jensens14thfreckle, via nothingbeforesam)

sebbystan:

#and you can just tell from that look on his face that he’s thinking #’it was always me. #i’m the disappointment. #i was never smart enough or fast enough or brave enough. #i didn’t protect you when i was supposed to. #i didn’t follow orders. #i let you out of my sight and you ran away. #i’m the bad son. #you’ll always be his favorite.’ #FUCK THIS SHOW #to me you are perfect

Yet, who gets the last cookie? Priorities…

(via allonsy-castiel)

the-fandoms-are-cool:

maplemooseandshotguns:

hermione-j-e-a-n-granger:

heartslogos:

brakes:

thepoundcakeofthebakervilles:

#this is fucking depressing #you know what most normal 6th graders are proud of? #science projects and an A on their math exam or making the school’s basketball team #Dean Winchester is proud of a sawed-off shotgun that he made #ohmygod #What if he had it placed strategically on the motel kitchen table #and he just sorta sat there nonchalantly and kept an eye on the door #waiting for John to come in #and see his shot-gun #and be super proud of his son #and ruffle his hair #and tell him good job #that’s what little Dean expects and hopes for #but John comes in #and he doesn’t smell so good and his words aren’t coming out right #and he just glares at Dean and tells him to go to bed #and Dean knows his dad has been drinking that gross amber looking stuff again #so he nods and says a quiet #’Yes sir’ #and grabs his shotgun and tucks it under his bed and tucks Sammy in #and remembers that it’s not his job to invent guns and it’s not his Dad’s responsibility to ruffle his head and tell him he’s a good boy #He crawls under the covers and mutters to himself #’Good job Dean’ 

Could you not.

can u not

Sit in a corner and think about what you just did

IF I COULD MEET ANYONE IN THE WORLD I WOULD MEET LITTLE DEAN WINCHESTER AND I WOULD HUG HIM SO TIGHT AND TELL HIM HE DOES EVERYTHING GREAT AND THAT HE IS SO SO STRONG AND THAT SAM GOES TO COLLEGE SOMEDAY THAT’S HOW AWESOME HE RAISED HIS LITTLE BROTHER

In sixth grade (I can’t work out what form that is—my last year of prep school?) my guns didn’t use gunpowder, and I got in trouble for aiming my bow and arrow at people. There’s got to be a middle ground between my youth and his, right? With lots and lots of fighting but no risk of kiddie life and limb?

Because every time Sam says he needs to give this life up, all I can think is “Selfish bastard! How dare you waste such a chance???”

But my issues are well documented, and I’m pretty sure John never rewarded Dean for normal boy things, but he damned well knew when he’d mastered a new weapon because you don’t build an eager soldier any other way. Dean got rewards. They’re just not ones Child Protective Services would agree on. Look at that smile…

(Seriously, though—Dean does not read like a son who had a father lost to him in alcohol. Sam and Dean read like sons whose value system was more platoon than playground. But Dean is an exceptionally deft alcoholic, and I would only assume that John was similarly effective yet imbibing to model this behaviour.)

(Source: mr-fassbennder, via allonsy-castiel)

a-ckleholic:

winschester:

1.02 - 1.21

No John why the hell should your boys finish what YOU started? Why the hell would you want that for the- oh, wait a second, hahahaha, I just forgot what a sh*t father you are. My bad, haha, carry on.

There are key differences between a project and operational tasks. A project is a unique defined set of finite goals that are to be accomplished, time bound, with a beginning and an end. John wants to avenge Mary, and to kill the thing that is threatening the boys, especially Sam.  This is specific, measurable, attainable, relevant, and time bound. This is a project.

Saving people and hunting things is an ongoing, repeated process of culling the dark nasties that snack on people in the night, and does not stop. You have neither ever saved all the people nor hunted all the things. Dean is in operations.

And, at least as far as we’re shown of John, Dean is wrong. Naive little SirGirl that I am, I feel that John wanted his kids to reach that final goal in time to do something else with their lives. The house, the education, the T-ball, the beer with the guys, the wife that doesn’t die on the ceiling. I don’t doubt that for a second.

John raised his sons to be heroes and save people because he’s a the kind of guy that saves strangers—not every soldier that comes back from war can walk back into another fray, but aside from the goal of ending the threat to his kids, John saved and taught them to save people who couldn’t fight for themselves. Continuing with that is a noble goal for Dean to have, but where does the text tell us that John was committing anyone to that life choice?

Clearly John is crap at delegation and reporting status to his team, resulting in massive scope creep. 

Hands up everyone that’s been in project management training all week. Yeah, that makes sense.

(via allonsy-castiel)

as long as we’re alive, there’s always hope

Dead? Also hope. That’s what separates you from the Campbells.

(Source: jaredbottoms, via castiel-angel-of-the-lord)

keepcalmandbringpie:

ita:

I’m not looking for an argument about the choices John made raising his children. He’s not exactly who I’d call to babysit toddlers, or anything. But why do so many AUs have him a bitter old drunk who dies in some petty, horrible, and relieving way? Yeah, I believe in a tradition of Winchester alcoholism and inability to share emotionally, but we have some pretty clear canon facts: John cast aside a lifelong vendetta by handing himself over to the target of his quest, the murderer of his wife to save Dean’s life. He manages to stutter out a constipated apology before he makes a deal with hell, where he then hies off to, and survives more torture than Dean managed to, and then was one of the spirits that clawed their way out at which point he saves Dean’s life again and allows the family to put that particular mission to rest, perhaps not knowing how much more intricate his sons had learnt it was since his death.

So every time I read a vicious, abusive, homophobic, physically absent John who evinces *no love* for his family and drinks his way to cirrhosis or wrapping Truckzilla around a tree, I have to wonder where so many people were when John made the same sort of stupid-assed twistedly-noble deal that his wife and son did, and that Sam got himself in trouble attempting to compensate for having failed. He wasn’t the first one in the family to do so, but you know what? THEY ALL DID IT FOR LOVE.

So when I read so many Sirs who don’t seem to love their kids, who are unrelenting damage to Sam and Dean, instead of loving too much and making mistakes, it makes me sad. I wish there were a tag for asshole!John so I couldn’t get enamoured with a story, and then in chapter three learn how relieved Dean secretly was when John drowned in his own puke after leaving them to starve way too many times. Jesus.

He’s not the best but he is FAR from the worst. People have to find someone to blame. Demons aren’t a good enough scapegoat I guess.

I like the complexity of Supernatural. I like Dean as crying maternal figure/gun toting badass who’s got an angel-kill notched on his belt. I like the hulking behemoth that is Sam, who leads with his emotions and his gigantic mind, but will fuck up anything in order to keep strangers safe. John was not a good father much of the time. Which makes it hard to call him a good man, maybe. But he loved his wife (So, they argued. They’re grownups, in a relationship. Happens.) He loved her so hard it stripped part of him away when she died. I think he made the wrong protect-the-kids decision—but I am clear that he was making a sober and sane decision to make the hard choices to keep his sons safe while he’s helping random strangers go home to his loved ones inbetween clues. He’s not blottoed out of his mind scratching through his tighty whities and he drinks and smokes through the welfare money month after month.

That’s nowhere no how John. He was a fierce and principled man, and that’s precisely why he made the mistake of raising them like soldiers and putting too much on them too young—to save themselves and other people. He could only see two things to do—avenge Mary, and kill as many evil supernatural sons of bitches as he could on his way out.

I bet they’d both enjoy kicking back with a beer and chatting with their old man now. I think they’ve each gotten their own sort of “past it”. Sam in And The Song Remains The Same misted me up.

Domineering, overbearing, a harsh taskmaster, and a demanding judge, yes, he’s all that—but that’s involved in your kid’s lives. Not their PTA meetings, sure. But you can’t raise soldiers without raising them. Somehow, I believe, the lunches were getting made and the school slips were getting signed, so John went ahead and taught them things kids (hell, most people) shouldn’t know—because he felt this weight had fallen upon them from that night. Not even knowing how many different ways this was actually their birthright.

Weirdly, in a way, he did just what Sampa would have wanted for his bloodline, without eve knowing it, even though I imagine parent John and Samuel would have gotten on like a house on fire—with people trapped inside. As in, devastation and loss of life.

(via )

I’m not looking for an argument about the choices John made raising his children. He’s not exactly who I’d call to babysit toddlers, or anything. But why do so many AUs have him a bitter old drunk who dies in some petty, horrible, and relieving way? Yeah, I believe in a tradition of Winchester alcoholism and inability to share emotionally, but we have some pretty clear canon facts: John cast aside a lifelong vendetta by handing himself over to the target of his quest, the murderer of his wife to save Dean’s life. He manages to stutter out a constipated apology before he makes a deal with hell, where he then hies off to, and survives more torture than Dean managed to, and then was one of the spirits that clawed their way out at which point he saves Dean’s life again and allows the family to put that particular mission to rest, perhaps not knowing how much more intricate his sons had learnt it was since his death.

So every time I read a vicious, abusive, homophobic, physically absent John who evinces *no love* for his family and drinks his way to cirrhosis or wrapping Truckzilla around a tree, I have to wonder where so many people were when John made the same sort of stupid-assed twistedly-noble deal that his wife and son did, and that Sam got himself in trouble attempting to compensate for having failed. He wasn’t the first one in the family to do so, but you know what? THEY ALL DID IT FOR LOVE.

So when I read so many Sirs who don’t seem to love their kids, who are unrelenting damage to Sam and Dean, instead of loving too much and making mistakes, it makes me sad. I wish there were a tag for asshole!John so I couldn’t get enamoured with a story, and then in chapter three learn how relieved Dean secretly was when John drowned in his own puke after leaving them to starve way too many times. Jesus.

this is war.

Jo, not civilian. Otherwise? Pretty much perfect.

(via soultohostt-deactivated20121027)

dramatis-echo:

#I Believe In Sherlock Holmes Collection . DE

I…wow. Those are amazing.

(Source: dramatisecho, via ticklememisha)