It wasn't until that most recent fic I wrote that I started seeing how clear the parallels are between addiction and the way Dean appears to regard Sam--that sense of being empty inside without your drug, and being willing to do anything, no matter how horrible, to get more. It made me want to write another fic, exploring it. Maybe I will!
However, I couldn't agree more with pretty much everything else you say. I do wonder about how much warmth and affection he got from Sam in his youth; some of the flashback episodes indicate contentiousness between them, and brothers seldom get along swimmingly in RL, so I might disagree with you about why exactly Dean feels like Sam is so vital to who he is as a person, but we think similarly, even if not identically. I was just going to suggest the possibility of both of us exploring it via fic, and I see you've written one, which I will go read as soon as I'm done here. :-)
Interesting point about being able to let him go if he has time to think about it. I've worried it was a shift in his character since S5 that made him unable to do that now, but you may well be right that it was due to the lack of time to think it through. (I hope so; I don't want to believe Dean has become incapable of it.)
It becomes even more clear if you think of the exact same dynamic but in a couple relationship, as in, if Sam were Dean's girlfriend -- all this behavior would look super controlling and not at all healthy.
YES.
I had one fantasy this summer about Sam nearly dying, after the Season 8 finale, and Dean having an epiphany as he sits by his bedside... and promising to look at universities with him, help him find an apartment, get a dog... promising to visit him while he works on his degree... Giving Sam what Sam wants and learning to be OK with it, not to cut off when Sam goes elsewhere, but stay connected in a new way.
Lord, what a beautiful vision. (I did actually write something similar about Dean coming to terms with Sam's life at Stanford, if you would like to read it: http://brightly-lit.livejournal.com/5176.html)
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branchandroot
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Date: 2014-01-25 10:46 pm (UTC)It wasn't until that most recent fic I wrote that I started seeing how clear the parallels are between addiction and the way Dean appears to regard Sam--that sense of being empty inside without your drug, and being willing to do anything, no matter how horrible, to get more. It made me want to write another fic, exploring it. Maybe I will!
However, I couldn't agree more with pretty much everything else you say. I do wonder about how much warmth and affection he got from Sam in his youth; some of the flashback episodes indicate contentiousness between them, and brothers seldom get along swimmingly in RL, so I might disagree with you about why exactly Dean feels like Sam is so vital to who he is as a person, but we think similarly, even if not identically. I was just going to suggest the possibility of both of us exploring it via fic, and I see you've written one, which I will go read as soon as I'm done here. :-)
Interesting point about being able to let him go if he has time to think about it. I've worried it was a shift in his character since S5 that made him unable to do that now, but you may well be right that it was due to the lack of time to think it through. (I hope so; I don't want to believe Dean has become incapable of it.)
It becomes even more clear if you think of the exact same dynamic but in a couple relationship, as in, if Sam were Dean's girlfriend -- all this behavior would look super controlling and not at all healthy.
YES.
I had one fantasy this summer about Sam nearly dying, after the Season 8 finale, and Dean having an epiphany as he sits by his bedside... and promising to look at universities with him, help him find an apartment, get a dog... promising to visit him while he works on his degree... Giving Sam what Sam wants and learning to be OK with it, not to cut off when Sam goes elsewhere, but stay connected in a new way.
Lord, what a beautiful vision. (I did actually write something similar about Dean coming to terms with Sam's life at Stanford, if you would like to read it: http://brightly-lit.livejournal.com/5176.html)
Thanks for an awesome comment.