A thought.

[glorious_spoon]

Just re-watched Mystery Spot.

Two things occurred to me. First of all, it's kind of interesting to come at this from a Season 5 perspective, because the Sam we saw in that ep was a scary new thing at the time. Sweet little Sammy, turned into a killing machine. Who could believe such a thing?

Now it's just SOP.

It's really true that those boys can't function without each other. And they both go crazy in the same ways; if you look at the way Dean was in 5.04, it's pretty much the same thing. It's interesting. Fandom makes them go tragically mad, all tears and PTSD and fractured psyches, preferably to be cured with lots of Healing Cock and cuddles. I kind of prefer the canon take. Neither Sam nor Dean will stop being able to function when they lose their minds. They'll just stop being human. Which is both a lot more disturbing than most of the angsty fanfics I've read to that effect, and a lot harder to fix. It's a rare thing for me to prefer a show's canon handling of emotional issues to the standard fanon handling of same.

The second thing is...where the hell does the popularity of Sam/Gabriel come from? I keep seeing it everywhere, and while I kind of get it as a hate-sex thing, or even something that you could eventually work into a romantic relationship, why are people acting like Sam and Gabriel are just going to be the best of friends right off the bat? Dude, Gabriel destroyed Sam's life, on purpose, for the fun of it. The weirdest part is that these same people can't seem to conceive the notion of Dean/Gabriel, because "It would be an explosion of tempers!"

Dean violently dislikes Gabriel, I won't argue with that. But it's nowhere near as personal as the beef Sam has with him. 

It's like Harry/Draco again, except like 3000X worse.

Comments

[deangirl1.livejournal.com]

I love our canon... which may not be a popular view...
And Sam/Gabriel? I'm so glad I'm not the only one left scratching my head at that.... but then fandom is all about making sure the boys are treated "equally" and Dean has his angel... but yeah. I don't get Sam/Cas either....

[glorious-spoon.livejournal.com]

I think this is one of the shows where the fandom is so huge and active that it's easy to get used to fanon characterizations and forget how the guys act in canon. And, I mean...I don't love everything about canon, but this is one issue that seems to get handled really, really badly by the general fandom.

[alexseanchai]

In fairness, in Changing Channels Sam wanted to get the Trickster on-side and Dean just wanted to kill him. But I'm right there with you.

[glorious-spoon.livejournal.com]

I think Sam's developed something of a coldly practical streak--he's always been more okay with using people, whereas Dean likes the quick, easy, and violent solution.

[dollarchan.livejournal.com]

I agree, I mostly prefer the canon handling. I've never been much of a fan of hurt/comfort anyway.

I don't have any particular feelings about Sam/Gabriel, but I think part of it is that Gabriel is, if I'm not wrong, the only angel, and also one of the characters in general, who has a personal history with Sam himself, as opposed to Dean or SamnDean. The whole deal in Mystery Spot kind of gives a certain intimacy to them in that they're the only ones in the whole universe who lived and remember those six months. I think a certain connection, even of the negative kind, is what fuels any ship. Some people see an opportunity of that with them. That's just what I think, of course. Some of them may just be pairing Sam off with Gabe so that Dean can be with Castiel without anyone feeling like Sam's been put on a bus. It's all possible.

[glorious-spoon.livejournal.com]

I don't actually have a problem with Sam/Gabriel--Hell, I've written Sam/Gabriel. And if it's just porn, I'm cool with handwaving the explanations, but any kind of long, plotty fic really ought to address the massive and myriad ways that Gabriel has totally fucked Sam over before turning into prank-playing fluff.

(which is another thing that I find slightly baffling; Sam's idea of a prank is gluing his brother's beer to his hand. Gabriel's idea of a prank is feeding a guy to alligators. Slightly different ends of the spectrum, you know?)

[dollarchan.livejournal.com]

Ah, I see. I've never read Sam/Gabriel actually, so I don't know if it tends to be more angsty/conflicted or fluffy and romantic. Well, I suppose some people just want to get home at the end of the day and read something sweet and sugary without worrying about mindfucks and all. But I think I'd prefer the non-fluffy stuff, too.

[ginzai.livejournal.com]

To be fair, I think both Sam and Dean would benefit from a good hug. The problem is that you have to get them to a place where they'd be comfortable receiving a hug, which is a whole struggle in its own right. How they are when they've completely fallen apart is a major indication of how broken they are just in general, I think. Functional, sure, in a completely dysfuntional, unhealthy type of way. And while they might shed the rare tear in moments of great distress, they aren't much for the hysterics I'll see in fanfic.

The only thing I've got to say about Sam/Gabriel is that I don't understand it either. I got Harry/Draco. Draco was obsessed with Harry for five years, then Harry spent all of book six being obsessed with Draco. They stalked each other. It was full on rivalshipping.

Sam/Gabriel... Eh. I don't get it. You'd think Sam would be furious about Mystery Spot, but he didn't particularly seem to care in 5x08. Dean had far more of an issue and as far as we know, Dean doesn't even remember being murdered so many times. There's no passion there. No real interaction. You could ship Sam/Gordon and it would make more sense to me. To each their own and all, but it's not and probably never will be my thing.

[glorious-spoon.livejournal.com]

How they are when they've completely fallen apart is a major indication of how broken they are just in general, I think. Functional, sure, in a completely dysfuntional, unhealthy type of way.

Exactly what I was thinking, elegantly put. I think for a lot of writers, "Dean has a nervous breakdown that results in his inability to do anything but sit in a corner weeping brokenly" is a lot easier to cope with than "Dean has a nervous breakdown that turns him into a cold and unemotional killing machine". Same thing with Sam, although Dean seems to get that treatment a lot more.

The impression I got from Mystery spot was that Dean was less pissed at Gabriel specifically than with being jerked around by a powerful supernatural entity. And that Sam...yeah, I don't really see the connection. I think it's just the desire to have both Winchesters paired up with an angel.