SPN question re: Dean/Castiel and violence

[rivkat]

I am fond of Dean/Castiel that deals fairly with Sam, and I like Castiel as a character a great deal. That said, anyone have a line on a story in which, post-apocalypse or post-apocalypse averted, Castiel makes a move and Dean decides that part of being a functional grown-up is not sleeping with people who beat you up when you anger them? (Along with not beating other people—Sam—up himself, of course. Dean hasn’t exactly covered himself with glory on the domestic violence front, but this is a season of change.) I mean, if Castiel’s model for human relationships is the Winchesters, I’d recommend therapy first, at least.

Comments

[rivkat]

I have also been thinking about John and wondering when he did more than raise his voice. I can definitely see him using his belt for discipline. Plus the whole difference between "best he could under the circumstances" (arguable, though I think less so now that we know about Adam; I wanted to resurrect John and let him see Dean's reaction to the stuff about birthdays and baseball games) and "in any way healthy," which is the background for Dean's failure to understand the role of beating and being beaten in an intimate relationship.

Castiel has suffered his own form of emotional (and physical) abuse; those to whom evil is done do evil in return. I just want it acknowledged as such.

[amonitrate]

I have also been thinking about John and wondering when he did more than raise his voice. I can definitely see him using his belt for discipline....which is the background for Dean's failure to understand the role of beating and being beaten in an intimate relationship.

Yes. Dean's reactions towards Sam, using violence when he's upset, was a red flag for me. There are little hints here and there, nothing particularly concrete, but I wouldn't be surprised if there had been some level of physical abuse in the Winchester family.

I really appreciate the way the show has dealt with the deep dysfunction of the Winchester family, because John was an abusive parent who clearly loved his kids, and this isn't typically how abusive parents are portrayed in media. Usually they're THE EVIL STEPMOTHER/FATHER and lack any kind of sympathetic characterization. Which is patently unrealistic.

[rivkat]

And now I'm totally going to recommend Split again, because I think it's another great, painful version of the abusive loving parent.

[amonitrate]

i will have to check it out!