I was reading s-cornelius’ comment on deangirl’s post on how Sam knows about Dean and Cas, and I just couldn’t stop watching this gif.
It’s Sam’s body language that makes me absolutely sure that he’s figured out what Dean and Cas haven’t–that they’re in love. Because we’ve all seen this kind of body language in tv shows and movies over and over and over, and we’ve seen it in specific circumstances.
This isn’t Sam giving a sitrep about a tactical problem. This is Sammy bracing himself to give his already debilitated brother news he believes might break him.
And I mean literally bracing himself–look at the way he takes a breath and shifts his weight before he speaks. The way he licks his lips after he says, “Listen, Dean,” delaying just a fraction of a second before he tells Dean that Metatron has Cas. Watch how he keeps his facial expression calm and forms the words very carefully, speaking a little slower than he usually does, so that Dean, who’s really still a bit out of it, can clearly see as well as hear what he’s saying.
This is the demeanor of a person saying, “I’m sorry, we’ve done all we can, but you should prepare yourself for the worst,” to someone who may be about to lose the man he loves.
Not my gifs, but here’s a thing I find interesting: this framing began as an SFX cheat.
TPTB needed to depict Cas’s supernaturally abrupt method of departing a scene; either they didn’t have the budget to actually show Cas winging away, or they preferred a more subtle and suggestive approach. (Having now had an on-camera angel teleport in ‘The Vessel’, I know the subtler suggestive approach is my preference.) What they decided on was the following sequence of shots:
1) Medium shot of both Dean and Cas in the frame.
2) Closeup on Dean/camera follows Dean as he walks or turns away from Cas, cutting Cas out of the frame.
3) Wide shot of Dean alone, emphasizing the empty space where Cas used to be.
There are some slight variations in there–for example, sometimes they cut directly from a shot with Cas in it to the wide shot without Cas–but generally, this was TPTB’s decision on how to exeunt Cas. It was a budget-conscious, technically straightforward, functional way to place Cas physically in the scene/narrative.
HOWEVER. This framing has now come to be used in scenes that Castiel is not, and never was, a part of physically at all. In the last two gifs here (another example would be Dean praying to Cas in his room at the bunker at the end of ‘Remember the Titans’), the wide shot of Dean alone doesn’t depict Cas’s departure, but rather his absence. The empty space isn’t emphatic because it’s where Cas used to be, but because it’s where Cas should be. It emphasizes that Dean wants him to be there.
So, this visual technique that used to be all about locating Castiel physically has become a visual technique for locating Dean emotionally. And I think that’s nifty. 🙂
This
morning I was watching this wonderful Destiel fanvid by @1940sdeancas and
I had an epiphany. I’ve watched the video several times, but I’d never realized
something. In meta I’ve written before, I’ve mentioned that in season 8
(8×17 to be more specific), TBPT asked a question. The question was for Cas,
but Cas didn’t know the answer to that question, so the audience was supposed
to fill the gap. I’m talking about this question:
Cas had
been brainwashed into killing thousands of Deans. However, when the moment for
Cas to kill the real Dean came, he couldn’t. That was the episode where we got Dean’s
epic words:
“Cas, we’re family. We need
you. I need you.”
When Cas dropped the blade, touched the angel tablet, and
recovered full control of his mind, Dean asked him the reason for his breaking
the connection with Naomy. Cas’ answer was that he didn’t know. I’m fairly sure
that the night 8×17 aired, many viewers yelled “YOU!!” to their television when
Dean asked that question. It was obvious that Dean was the reason Cas was able
to break the connection, but that was subtext. The text was plain and simple: “I
don’t know.”
In this
post about Destiel over the course of the seasons, I explained how I understood
the fact that Cas answered that way in season 8. I said this:
“I don’t think Cas understood what kind of love
he felt for Dean. That’s why he couldn’t answer the “what broke the connection”
question. HE DIDN’T KNOW. He had to be human to be able to understand that he
can love his brothers and sisters, humanity, Sam and Dean, but each love is
different.”
When was
Cas human? In season 9. What happened in season 9? We were given the answer to
the “what broke the connection” question, but it stayed in the realm of
subtext. In season 9, Cas was given the order to kill Dean again. This time,
however, he was not being mind-controlled. The only thing was that he was
risking his credibility with the angels. He had to choose between his family
(Heaven) and Dean. It wasn’t even a matter of choosing between the angels and
the Winchesters. NOPE. Hannah stated it clearly when she told Cas, “Don’t lose
[our trust] over one man.”
And what happened? One more time Cas couldn’t kill
Dean. One more time there was something that broke whatever connection that
remained between Cas and Heaven. Two seasons, one after the other. In season 8
Cas didn’t know that Dean was the one who broke the connection, but in season 9
he knew, because Cas himself made the conscious decision to choose Dean. Maybe
his decision was unconscious in season 8, but that wasn’t the case in season 9.
Things didn’t
end there, though. TPTB asked a question purposely in 8×17, and they were the
ones who answered it in 9×22. Metatron has been a meta character from the
start. Every time he says something, it’s like listening to the writers speak
directly to the audience. What did the writers tell us? That Castiel’s weakness
had been revealed.
Metatron said that
Cas was in love with humanity, but one episode later, he corrected himself:
When season
9 ended, it was clear that everything Cas does is about saving Dean
Winchester. It’s not about humanity. In fact, season 10 proved that humanity
was not relevant if it meant hurting Dean. Why couldn’t Cas simply kill Dean? I
mean, controlled by the Mark of Cain, Dean was well on his way to become the
father of murder, but Cas told him that he was going to be the one who would
watch Dean murder the world (10×22). Where was Cas’ love for humanity? Cas was willing to
let Dean live even if it meant innocent people would die. Metatron got it right:
IT WAS ALL ABOUT SAVING ONE HUMAN.
So, if Metatron got that bit right, I wonder if he also got right the part where he
said that Cas’ weakness was that he was in love.
If we
follow that line of thought, then… What broke the connection in 8×17? The
obvious answer was and has always been Dean, but not only that. What broke the connection was that
Castiel, angel of the Lord, was and still is in love with Dean Humanity Winchester.
The
question from season 8 was already answered and some people missed it. Wait for
seasons 11 and 12 to answer the other questions TPTB have asked regarding
Castiel 1) who is he (10×18) and as what he wants to live, man or angel (9×06).
I knew Robbie would make some big revelation through the meta episode, but the revelation wasn’t for the audience, it was for Dean. I love that he used the Ben Edlund episode in which the subtext indicated that there was an actual sexual relationship between Dean and fallen Castiel in the future, because there is definitely S-E-X in Robbie’s subtext. Robbie is by far not the only writer to purposefully insert Destiel subtext, but his subtext isn’t just romantic, it is erotic. So it’s fitting that he chose The End as the plot element in the episode.
In The End, Dean has his phone call with Castiel, which from his point of view ended with Castiel curtly saying ‘Yes’.
The phone conversation was Dean reminding Castiel that he was human, and Castiel having little patience for Dean being human. Dean didn’t know what Castiel said after he hung up, and he certainly never knew that Castiel waited for him all night. The next heard from Castiel, after having come in contact with this very human version of the angel in the future, was when Castiel pulled him away from Zechariah. But Dean did not know that he waited for Dean. Dean did not know that during this time, he was Castiel’s only preoccupation.
So why is this important? Because from Dean’s point of view, Castiel is always leaving. Just like he walked out of his door at the bunker. He can never keep Castiel.
But Dean’s point of view has always been wrong, because we know that most of the times that Castiel has physically vanished from Dean’s presence, he has still had his angel radio tuned into Dean. There’s an incongruence in their experience in that Dean feels abandoned while Castiel, from his point of view, never leaves Dean. It is a revelation for Dean that what Castiel is doing is not leaving him again, leaving like he always does, but that the angel is waiting for him. Castiel is waiting for him like he alwayes does, and all Dean needs to do is to reach out and he will be gripped tight.
How dare you bring this back to my dash, how very dare you.
I’ve been so focused on the way that this song took an arguably platonic moment and retroactively showed it to the show’s audience through a romantic lens with the lyrics “I’ll wait for you” that it never occurred to me that Dean “everybody leaves” Winchester was also getting this perspective.
Never thought I could love this episode more, and yet here we are :’)
I can’t help but wonder if Dean’s fear of Cas not wanting to stick around is actually worse now. Because he learned in Fan Fiction that Cas had waited for him. He learned in The Prisoner that Cas planned to stand by him forever.
But then Dean beat the hell out of him, and killed Death, and didn’t kill Amara, and Cas was angry with him.
And then Cas said yes to Lucifer. In Dean’s mind, saying yes to Lucifer is surely tantamount to leaving. And he still doesn’t know why Cas did it.
It occurs to me that from Dean’s perspective, it likely looks like Cas has finally given up on him.
It also goes some way into explaining why Dean so adamantly denied the possibility that Castiel could have made the choice out of his own volition (while fearing in his heart of hearts that he might have) – because for Dean to accept that Castiel made the choice for himself means to accept some other uncomfortable truths, as well.
It’s not just that Castiel seems to have given up on him, but that it’s because Dean failed to take care of him – Dean failed to take care of someone that he had made his responsibility, someone that he had chosen to protect (even from himself) – and in Dean Winchester’s world there can be no greater failure.
So there’s the focus on hands / hand prints and the focus on “the wrong shoulder”. I’ve not delved into this thoroughly but has it clicked yet that while Castiel’s hand print is on Dean’s left shoulder / arm, the Mark (The Darkness) is on Dean’s right arm (the wrong shoulder).
While Lucifer touching Dean’s right shoulder serves as a little heart-tug to let the audience (and Dean) know that something isn’t right – I think it also serves as part of a larger subtext about this whole “wrong shoulder” business. It’s essentially the same as how hands have continued to show up – the right arm also shows up a lot, foreshadowing the darkness.
Dean is literally pulled in two directions. Castiel (the left arm, the hand print) and The Darkness (the right arm, the Mark). Notice how one is male and one is female – Dean duality / bisexuality subtext again.
(We all saw the recent ep where Dean has a huge DARK sign hanging over his right arm, yeah?)
Also, Lucifer = The Light (bringer / bearer).
Isn’t it interesting how Castiel thought he needed to become The Light in order to defeat The Darkness.
Hands and Shoulders (follow up)
(Ah, don’t you hate when you hit ‘submit’ on something but your train of thought hasn’t quite finished yet.)
I forgot to bring in that third meta that’s going around, ‘cause I’ve got something for that too.
Cas = the light.
Amara = the darkness.
Dean is caught in the middle therefor Dean = the gray.
The gray…the grail… (and possibly the power of ‘gay’ love).
Also Dean the grail = the vessel. Which we already know is true, because he’s an angel vessel.
Now stay with me while we consider Tarot for a moment. There are four elements.
Lucifer = fire (because hell, devil, light, star)
Amara = air (because dark smoke)
Cas = water (because of all the reasons)
Dean = earth (because Earth, humanity, material attachments like his car and his burgers.)
In Tarot the pentacle represents earth. Dean has a pentacle tattoo on
his chest. (The ‘bad chest touch’ being the fourth meta going around.)
And in Tarot the cup / challis / grail represents water. So why is Dean
also the grail? Because it’s a vessel for water. And who represents water again? Cas.
Water + fire = smoke. As in air. Amara. This is a bad combination and it’s only going to make things worse.
Air + earth = dry lifeless dusty wasteland. Dean, do not give in to Amara!
But… Water + earth = clay. The stuff humanity is made from (or at least Adam in the bible).
Dean and Cas are the answer to this victory.
And finally, body parts -wise, if Cas = left arm, Amara = right arm,
Dean = chest / heart, what does Lucifer equal? (Is it just me or has
Lucifer been touching a lot of people on the head?) I don’t have answers
for any of this bit, I’m just trying to bring all the metas together.
And that’s me done. Enjoy.
Submitted by Anonymous.
(I’m not sure why people keep sending stuff to blog instead of blogging it themselves, but I love it. Keep ‘em coming.)
@bluestar86 has been chronicling the discussion on hands and hand-prints in season 11, so see their blog for more on the topic.
‘Set aside all the killing people or not killing people or whatever, and you’re left with this: Amy is a supernatural being that Sam fell in love with as a child. More importantly, from Dean’s perspective:Amy is a supernatural being that Sam once fell in love with when he was too stupid to know not to. Dean knows that no matter how innocent she seems, Amy is a snake in the grass. She’s dangerous. And by killing Amy, Dean thinks he’s doing Sam a favor. Sam’s blinded by nostalgia, Dean thinks, and so it’s up to Dean to do what must be done.
This is a pretty obvious projection on Dean’s part of his feelings about what Cas did to him. Cas seemed innocuous, and Dean trusted him. But then Cas broke Sam’s wall, opened the door to Purgatory and unleashed the Leviathan. Cas, by virtue of being a supernatural being, is and always was dangerous, and Dean forgot it. He let his feelings cloud his judgment, and now everyone must pay the price.
Here’s why I really emphasized all that stuff about A plots and B/C plots earlier, because without understanding how the A plot mirrors the C plot and vice versa, you’re missing out on what this episode is really trying to tell you.
Basically, the A plot in this episode (the Amy storyline) acts as a reflection of the C plot (Dean’s grief), in which Dean realizes that Cas is the supernatural being that he fell in love with when he was too stupid to know not to. And so by killing Amy, Dean is attempting to retroactively fix that mistake with Cas.’
this describes exactly EXACTLY my thoughts/feelings on the ‘pining’ situation (like, seriously – the breakdown of reactions to that line and the whole thought process about it is SO EXACTLY MINE it’s creepy – high fiv for being analysis twins on this, or something! :p)
Just gonna pick out the following for being particularly astute imo:
Mildred has created this construction of Dean–that Dean is single, he’s pining for someone, but he’s afraid to go after it, to follow his heart. and we already know that Dean is afraid of his attraction to Amara. he stated that explicitly in this very episode. but the subtext of the episode also suggested that he’s ALSO afraid of his attraction to Cas–for different reasons. and so maybe the ambiguity persists, maybe the attraction to Cas remains nothing but potentially unintentional subtext. when we hear Dean is pining for someone, it could come off as creepy–Mildred unintentionally referring to his connection with Amara.
where I think I honestly, honestly have to push back on that skepticism though, is where Mildred encourages Dean to go after what he desires, to “follow his heart,” that this is the secret to a long and happy life. […] and I think word choice is key, too–if the intended effect was a creepy allusion to Amara, it would have been far better for Mildred to say “I know when someone’s heart already belongs to someone else.” if she had said that, I would immediately assume it was an Amara thing. it would have had the right air of creepy, of the unwelcome possessiveness she exhibits toward Dean. but pining?Dean cannot resist Amara when he’s around her, but he’s hardly ‘pining’ for her. so it can’t be about Amara. it’s so clear, then, that it must be Cas. we know that Dean enjoys Cas’s company, that he misses him when he’s gone. Cas has the best shot of anyone at giving Dean a long and happy life. isn’t that a known truth, with or without the romantic factor?
Bolded parts are what I think are particularly key –
Dean is explicitly SCARED of his ‘attraction’ to Amara, that is stated outright. But as said above, he is arguably implied as scared of his feelings for / attraction to CAS as well. There’s a proper parallel between the two relationships going on.
But as with all parallels, they are about highlighting the DIFFERENCES as much as the similarities between two things – and the central difference here is, imo, the nature of Dean’s fear in both instances.
Why is he is scared of his ‘attraction’ to Amara? So far it seems to me because the attraction doesn’t seem his own, it is something being forced on him (hence why he feels he CAN’T resist it), and he is scared it will overpower him and take away his free will, change him into someone he doesn’t want to be.
Why is he scared of his (potential) attraction to Cas? This is ofc less clear, as it hasn’t been addressed specifically, but I think we can at the very least say he is NOT scared of Cas or his feelings for Cas overriding his free will? – which alone is a major difference, marking his fears about his feelings for Cas as the OPPOSITE to the kind of fear he feels about Amara. Based on my general reading of Dean over the course of the show I would say he is afraid of his feelings for Cas because, again unlike with Amara, he knows these feelings ARE his own and is a) anxious about what that means about who he is, since Cas is (to all intents and purposes) a guy, and as I read Dean that’s something that will trouble him, like he’ll think him as a guy having ~feelings for another guy is weak or weird or some macho bullshit and c) afraid what the consequences might be if he acts on his feelings – which means fear of a shit ton of things, like if Sam might be weird around him if he became romantically involved with Cas, if Cas were to reject his advances, if embarking on another romantic relationship might lead to tragedy/heartbreak like his previous ones, if Cas being romantically involved with him might turn out harmful for Cas etc.
In a nutshell –
I think Dean is scared of his ‘attraction’ to Amara because
he DOESN’T LIKE OR WANT the feelings he has for her and certainly DOESN’T WANT TO ACT ON THEM, but equally DOESN’T KNOW HOW TO RESIST THEM.
While in opposition, I think Dean is scared of his (potential) attraction to Cas because he DOES LIKE AND WANT the feelings he has for him and absolutely DOES WANT TO ACT ON THEM, but equally DOESN’T KNOW HOW TO EMBRACE THEM.
So… yeah – these two relationships, with Amara and Cas, really do seem at this point to have been placed in tandem to show (as many have been saying all along) that they are equal but OPPOSITE to each other (right down to the sexes involved).
(and yeah, only in one of the two relationships does Dean’s feelings, as they seem to me to be being conveyed, really fit, well ANY definition of ‘pining’ – so I agree that word choice feels ~significant)
I feel like every second of “The Man Who Would Be King” was analysed to excruciating detail, but this scene right here always gets overlooked somehow. It’s a cute little moment in which Dean sees himself as Lois Lane to Cas’ Superman.
(And yeah, he said it to Sam, but come on. Everybody and their mother already knows how much Dean loves to project his own stuff on Sam.)
Bonus gif – Sam doesn’t know whether to roll his eyes or feel sorry for his older brother:
reblogging again because last time I was a little overwhelmed by feels and couldn’t be articulated about this, but now I want to take a moment to analyse this.
True, this scene doesn’t get the attention it deserves, IMO. But man, I love it.
First of all, Dean is known to use jokes as a way to masquerade the fact that he’s scared or hurt, and obviously the idea of Castiel betraying him is both scaring and painful. These kind of reactions are defense mechanisms. I think anyone who has grasped even just a little bit the fundaments of Dean’s character could expect some kind of pun to come at some point during that conversation.
But this time, the line does not contain some generical joke in bad taste. Dean has to process the idea that Castiel might actually have betrayed him. When someone you trusted completely betrays you (or when you think they might have), you don’t just feel hurt and broken. You also feel stupid for letting your guard down so much, for letting the other person in so much that now they have the power to break you like that in the first place. That’s why Dean’s usual one-liner this time is personal and specific. It’s referred to himself and it’s him basically telling himself: “you’re the stupid, defenseless one who got fooled. Joke’s on you.”
As for people who say he’s not talking about himself: the scene makes no sense unless what Dean is really meaning is “This makes me Lois Lane”. He’s been known to project his shit on Sam on lots of occasions (I’ll probably make a separate post for this) and there was no reason for him to tease Sam specifically in that moment.
There are lots other characters associated with Superman, but only Lois Lane is thought of as his true love interest. Sam has never acted around Cas in a way that could make the two of them look like a couple, or however look like they were romantically involved in some way. Dean has that kind of relationships with Cas, and everybody knows it: demons and angels point it out, Sam and Bobby recognize the “more profound bond” they share, Dean himself knows it, whether he is willing to admit it or not. In a parallel that sees Castiel as Superman and in which Lois Lane is brought up, anyone in- and out-of-story would immediately think of Dean. Sam has nothing to do with it. If Dean wasn’t projecting on Sam there would be no reason for this line to exist. I find it interesting that this scene is so subtle. Once again, it proves that the writers are smarter than a lot of viewers consider them, and also that just because they don’t make Dean and Cas bang each other against a wall it doesn’t mean that they don’t have very clear opinions on what their relationship is and how the characters involved feel about it.
After all, it’s Dean feeling like the Lois Lane to Castiel’s Superman, not anyone else telling him he looks like it.
The first thing you’ve gotta know about this post and me, is that I adore Flutie’s meta, the other is that I can’t watch Repo Man without crying a thousand oceans from start to end: 1) because it’s so Dean-heavy it makes me wanna puke, 2) because it’s so Destiel-heavy it’s gross, 3) because it is genuinely terrifying.
Flutie did an awesome analysis of it, which you are going to need to read in order for this post to make any sense. I’m not going to remake a lesser version, so don’t expect me to explain in detail why x mirrors y. I repeat: this is not an analysis. I am just going to collect all the parallels so that you get a sort of visual scheme with all the evidence that proves that the A plot mirrors the C plot. Also, Flutiebear is not associated with this post in any way and does not necessarily agree with it or with my interpretation of her analysis.
i did this mostly because feels. But since my exam paper in June might be about Supernatural (YES YES YES YES YES SO EXCITED), for the first time in my life I can say it’s also legitimately for science (YAY!)
——-
The parallels start with physical appearence: Jeffrey and Dean wear the same clothes:
since you never get a clear view of them standing next to each other in the episode, I drew a sketch for you.
Dean’s outfits are both in the same style as Jeffrey’s. This also works if you combine the outfit Dean wears earlier in the episode and after.
All the other characters, Sam included, are wearing visibly different clothes.
Then there is the dialogue. Here are all the quotes that are significative for both the A and the C plot. That is to say, all these parts are about Jeffrey’s story with the demon (in the text), but also they mirror Dean’s story with Castiel (in the subtext) and say something relevant about either Dean, or his grief and struggles and coping mechanisms, or what happened with Castiel. Note that here I’m reporting almost only the dialogue, not the character’s reaction to it. Again, for all Dean’s very telling expressions, Flutie’s analysis will ensure you don’t miss anything.
From what I’ve seen most people are like: the sole purpose of having Rudy in this episode is to make the mirror scene no homo. Well, I get where are you coming from but… what if there actually WAS some other purpose? Because now as I think about it, the death of Rudy in Dean’s mind might have been that next time he told Cas about. He looks in the mirror, sees Cas, who isn’t well but is at least alive, and then he sees someone he didn’t even thought about saving, he didn’t hesitate, didn’t even flinch. He sees Rudy and realises it REALLY could have been Cas. It hits him with a great force, that realisation how out of control he really is, if he came this close to killing someone he loves. This is why he doesn’t contact Cas, doesn’t say goodbye. He just can’t risk putting his angel’s life in danger. If he wasn’t planning on killing Sam, he wouldn’t contact him either (note:.he calls him only after his little talk with Death). It could have been shown differently, yes, but I can see the reason behind this and it’s not solely a fuck you to shippers.
Exactly! Rudy’s death wasn’t about Rudy himself. Rudy was a symbol of ‘innocent person that gets killed because of Dean’s condition’. It takes a toll on Dean because there was no reason to get Rudy killed. He had no reason to get Rudy killed. He had no ill against Rudy. And yet he got him killed. And it terrifies him because he realizes that he could get literally anyone killed. He almost killed Cas… and ‘next time’, he figures, he could actually kill him for real. Because if he’s gotten a random acquaintance of his killed for no reason… who knows who else he can get killed. He had just an insignificant little squabble with Rudy, and yet that apparently was enough for him to want him dead. What’s gonna happen if next time he faces a person he’s got a whirlpool of confusing, messy, vaguely scary feelings for?
Yes, the meaning of the mirror scene indeed was ‘that could have been Cas’. It probably would have been more clear if they had shown Rudy first and Cas second (’hey Dean you killed Rudy – hey Dean it could have been Cas instead’), but I guess they went for ‘BAM Dean look how you trashed Cas – you could have killed him like you did with Rudy, you know?’. Dean was feeling guilty about Cas before (that’s why he was drunk in that motel room trying to tell himself he was good…), what’s changed now is that Dean has gotten the proof that he’s indeed able to kill someone he knows just because. And that has a retroactive effect on Dean – ‘oh my god when I said ‘next time won’t miss’ I could have actually meant it’.
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