Okay, so I'm going to skip around here, depending on what direction my thoughts take, so. Here goes.
To assume that Dean never fought with John and simply acquiesced to all of John’s orders is not admirable or human. It’s brainless and would state that Dean simply has no personality developed independently of John. I’m sure this is not what Dean girls want to say. And using the whole if A then B method, I determine that Dean was not the perfect son. He was the good son for sure, but not the perfect son.
All right, so I'm a "Dean girl," I suppose, if we're going to label people. I just like Jensen a whole lot more than I like Jared, which transfers over to the show because I have this weird thing where I think of the characters by the actors' names (or I just use the names interchangeably, like a lot of people seem to do). But that's not the point.
My point is that I pretty much completely agree with the statement I quoted above. It's probably the point that really caught my eye. I do think it's wrong (and weird) to say that Dean is the better son because he (at least, according to Sam) has always followed every single one of Dad's orders and played the role of the cherished, "perfect" older son. For anyone "Dean girl" to say so is just...well, it's weird. Have we thought of the context here?
Of course, we're not speaking strictly about which brother is the better son; it seems in this argument that it all comes down to which is the better PERSON. Sam is the asshole because he went off to college (something that a lot of people do); and just because he went against his father's wishes and "abandoned" Dean, Dean becomes the victim and Sam is the cruel, horrible person who scarred Dean for life.
On a completely different note, to say that Sam ignored all of Dean’s years of sacrifice is ridiculous. Dean certainly wasn’t a blithe martyr at the hands of the evil marauding Sam. He was resentful. He left to go play video games when he shouldn’t have just like a normal kid.
Again, I agree completely.
I also believe (and this might be completely off-base) that Sam wasn't necessarily thinking of Dean when he went to Stanford. Yes, Dean plays a very significant role in Sam's life, having been responsible for part of Sam's upbringing (although, personally, I don't think that Dean's role as a parent/guardian was as HUGE as fandom makes it out to be). However, Sam was a teenager. Teenagers aren't RATIONAL. Teenager!Sam may have been an intellectual, and he may have had book smarts, but this doesn't make him selfless, nor does it mean that his only concern (aside from his concern for himself) was for DEAN.
I think that when Sam left, he was thinking about his own future. He was mad at his father and he was rebelling against rules that he thought were completely irrational. Although he claims that he simply wanted a normal life, I really think that Sam thought of college as his salvation, his BEST CHANCE of living past the age of thirty. In my mind, it wasn't so much about getting AWAY as it was about ensuring his own future. HE WAS A NORMAL TEENAGER. You can't fault him for that, no matter how completely WRONG you think he was.
no subject
To assume that Dean never fought with John and simply acquiesced to all of John’s orders is not admirable or human. It’s brainless and would state that Dean simply has no personality developed independently of John. I’m sure this is not what Dean girls want to say. And using the whole if A then B method, I determine that Dean was not the perfect son. He was the good son for sure, but not the perfect son.
All right, so I'm a "Dean girl," I suppose, if we're going to label people. I just like Jensen a whole lot more than I like Jared, which transfers over to the show because I have this weird thing where I think of the characters by the actors' names (or I just use the names interchangeably, like a lot of people seem to do). But that's not the point.
My point is that I pretty much completely agree with the statement I quoted above. It's probably the point that really caught my eye. I do think it's wrong (and weird) to say that Dean is the better son because he (at least, according to Sam) has always followed every single one of Dad's orders and played the role of the cherished, "perfect" older son. For anyone "Dean girl" to say so is just...well, it's weird. Have we thought of the context here?
Of course, we're not speaking strictly about which brother is the better son; it seems in this argument that it all comes down to which is the better PERSON. Sam is the asshole because he went off to college (something that a lot of people do); and just because he went against his father's wishes and "abandoned" Dean, Dean becomes the victim and Sam is the cruel, horrible person who scarred Dean for life.
On a completely different note, to say that Sam ignored all of Dean’s years of sacrifice is ridiculous. Dean certainly wasn’t a blithe martyr at the hands of the evil marauding Sam. He was resentful. He left to go play video games when he shouldn’t have just like a normal kid.
Again, I agree completely.
I also believe (and this might be completely off-base) that Sam wasn't necessarily thinking of Dean when he went to Stanford. Yes, Dean plays a very significant role in Sam's life, having been responsible for part of Sam's upbringing (although, personally, I don't think that Dean's role as a parent/guardian was as HUGE as fandom makes it out to be). However, Sam was a teenager. Teenagers aren't RATIONAL. Teenager!Sam may have been an intellectual, and he may have had book smarts, but this doesn't make him selfless, nor does it mean that his only concern (aside from his concern for himself) was for DEAN.
I think that when Sam left, he was thinking about his own future. He was mad at his father and he was rebelling against rules that he thought were completely irrational. Although he claims that he simply wanted a normal life, I really think that Sam thought of college as his salvation, his BEST CHANCE of living past the age of thirty. In my mind, it wasn't so much about getting AWAY as it was about ensuring his own future. HE WAS A NORMAL TEENAGER. You can't fault him for that, no matter how completely WRONG you think he was.
*starts on next comment*