tea_and_ink | I'm strangely productive today...

Okay, for starters, last night they aired "Houses of the Holy" and I hadn't noticed that the girl Dean saved thanked god, not Dean. Also, how come Sam was so shattered after witnessing how the priest put Gregory's spirit to rest without salting and burning his bones? Doesn't that make the priest more... legitimate? Like there is something behind him, behind the powers that have been invested on him?...

Apparently I like italics way too much. Whatever.

Two things.

First: I’m fresh out of watching “The Godfather” and faced with their concept of family and the dynamic such a conception creates, it hit me that, if it weren’t for the blatant lack of physical contact with his family members and… well, lately the rest of the world too, I'd swear Dean Winchester is Italian.

Now, the physical contact issue can be addressed and maybe cancelled, by the fact that Sam and Dean LIVE in each other’s personal space. I’m Italian, and in my family, we’re all about the touching and hugging, but we’re also American, so we acknowledge such a concept as “individuality”, hence our respect for the other’s personal space, or else we’d get smacked upside the head for being annoying little air-stealing rodents.

Dean and Sam, have an unconcealed absence of sibling-like physical contact. They become in touch with each other’s body in the way the rest of us would when encountered with a friend, a male way of approaching the other’s anatomy as a mean of recognition of their presence and/or emotions. A slap on the back, a slap on the shoulder, if they’re very emotional, we’ll see a squeeze on the shoulder… and possibly more manly slapping to make up for the little slip. And that’s all folks.

And I’d be sure that Sam was raised in another family, if it weren’t for their constant presence within each other’s breathing room. They’re practically sewn by the hip, what with the road-tripping and all, which all in itself isn’t of a great relevance, but it does come in handy when we take in consideration that even when out of the Impala, they still seem sewn together. They stand way too close to each other, one usually slightly behind the other, as if watching his back (I like that, it makes me go all awww brothers), and while these positions are exchangeable, they’re always assumed by one of them. They even sit in each other’s space when presented with the opportunity (like a couch instead of two separated sits for example). That said, I would think that the lack of hugging is irrelevant for other purposes than us, reputable fangirls, squeeing over Jared/Jensen love…

And no, I haven’t forgotten that I singled out Dean as the Italian one. Onto that now.

Why Dean alone? Because of the two of them, Dean is the one that has the most similar family-comes-first-second-and-third “Corleone” policy. Italian people value family like whoa, and I can completely understand why. Family is the stone pillar of our development as human beings, as citizens, family is the first social environment we’re exposed to and thus is what sets the model for our future social relationships (this is a psychological fact). Also, notice how I make no distinction between blood-relative, political-relative or close friend; as I see it, family can be found everywhere and that doesn’t make it any less valuable or loyalty worthy. My friends can testify for me on this one. That clarified, I move on to Dean.

Dean is defined by his role in his family; he’s John’s soldier and Sam’s protector. So its not weird that he’d freak out when learning that he might have to kill his protectee, the last thread of identification he has left; its completely understandable that after John’s passing, he’d dive nose-first into the hunting, it would be a way of both accentuating his role as John’s soldier while finding a new possible definition for him as “a hunter”. Its, from all points of view, a defense mechanism, was it scary? Yes, it was. Was it valid? Very much.

Now, Sam otoh, has a different psychological setting, Sam is identified by his own choices, by his right to choose and to be given the option to choose. Sam believes that evil can be found anywhere and blood-bonds or friendship liaisons are, in no way, the most valid aspects to judge from. He does take them in consideration, but he also sees other evidence and usually takes it from there.

If we go back to “Bloodlust” we’ll see that Gordon was Dean’s new found hero, until Dean finds out that Gordon had killed his sister, even though his sister was evil and was killing innocent people, and it was Gordon’s job to take her down. Only then did Dean dub Gordon evil, crazy or whatever other endearment he’d used, after his confession to have killed his own sister, not because of Gordon’s unnecessary sadistic ways, not because of his blind-hunting tendencies. But because he’d killed his own family.

Of course we could argue that Gordon was hitting too close home there, having killed his gone-evil sibling… but then again, its not like there wasn’t enough evidence to believe Sam’s story when he said that the vamps weren’t hurting anybody…

As expected I digressed. My point was that “The Godfather” had me seeing Dean to an entirely new light.

Second: silver_spotted, did you notice how during the whole Trickster ordeal, John’s journal wasn’t touched? Not even by accident? When dealing with their lack of knowledge, they went to Bobby. Are you seeing what I’m seeing here?

So this is what’s on my head right now. Btw, I so should get some kudos because I finally sat down to write spn meta. I’m still overdue with the rest of it, but this is a start. Innit?