How Do You Explain To Someone What Supernatural Is About???? Like It’s About Two Brothers Who Hunt

Gonna need someone to have taken a better photo of this man’s hips

Dean Winchester & hug dynamic analysis

I was thinking about how whenever Dean hugs someone he's almost always the one hugging the other and how this links to his psychological trauma of always being the caretaker of people, making himself bigger to protect them.

Because that's how Dean sees himself, as a shield for others, and then I thought about how Cas actually is the shield, and he's HIS SHIELD, specifically, the only one who's really there to protect HIM, which is why it hits so much when we see this:

The way Cas wraps his arms around him, trying to protect him with his whole body--that he'd use as a shield and give up in a second if he could spare him from any pain and save him.

(for context: Dean was about to go use the soul bomb on Amara there, it was a suicide mission)

Bobby is another one that hits, he hugs him as the big hugger because he's his father, he loves him and he's actually here to protect him (and Dean LETS him -barely, but he lets him *and Cas* - in a way that he doesn't let Sam)

I watched a compilation of Sam & Dean hugs to check if i was right about it, but it's almost always Dean the big hugger with Sam, except when he's about to die or Sam sees him alive again after losing him.

Even then, Dean mostly tries to hug Sam as the big hugger anyway, with at least one arm, like a way to comfort him, making him feel protected, like his body language is saying "I'm here, I'm okay, I'm still strong, i can still protect you" (because their real father failed and Dean thinks it's his job).

He rarely lets himself be the little one hugged with Sam, unless he's barely conscious. Which is why it kills me so much more now that in this moment (s14, when Dean was going to lock himself in the Ma'lak box cause he was possessed by Michael) and Sam has a desperate breakdown and punches him (to stop him) he forcefully hugs him as the little hugger, the way Dean always kept him, like a way of saying "I still need you to protect me, please don't do this to yourself".

In the scene below he gives Sam his blessing to do a dangerous (possibly suicidal) mission, and one of his arms is down, but the other one tries to stay up--he's forcing himself to do it and he struggles because he still wants to protect him, but (as the seasons progress) he slowly becomes more prone to let go.

So in this view the hug dynamic becomes an indicator of how Dean sees Sam (and himself) and his protector role, how adult and self sufficient he considers Sam, and how much he lets people around him take care of him, lowering his walls and letting himself be hugged.

This is also why i think hugs from characters like Garth or Charlie are so special, because they're just like us: they see Dean and they just know that he needs to be hugged a lot, and that he's not used to it, so they just go for it-- and it's so normal and kind and spontaneous that Dean's just not used to it-- he doesn't know how to respond (especially with Garth, at the beginning, but as the seasons progress, he learns to, and he even initiates the hug eventually).

I love the hugs where they're 50/50 (one arm up, one arm down both), feels like they're equals, both taking care of each other. I feel like with Sam and Dean, this indicates a healthier dynamic, because Dean lets go a little of the role that was imposed to him and manages to see Sam as the strong individual that he is. But the same applies to 50/50 hugs with other characters, like with Cas, where I feel like it testifies how equals they feel in terms of being fighters, there's a show of respect of each other's strength that transpires by the gesture (which is even more astounding considering that Cas is literally a powerful angel).

And just to end on a destiel note, I'd like to note the possessiveness and protectiveness of Dean (rightfully so) whenever he finds Cas after he thought he had lost him, and how that translates into his body/hug language:

misha just has such a way with words

hey guys do you remember dean saying "The movie...with Kurt Russell. I made you watch it." and how that one line confirmed that dean and cas have been having movie nights throughout the course of the show. cas watches dean's favorite movies with him -> cas doesn't remember something from one of the movies -> dean gets pouty -> cas quotes a line from the movie to prove he paid attention -> dean blushes. << real scene in the show Supernatural that you can watch with your eyes on a screen

I guess they just complete each other 🤷🏼‍♀️

I think the only instructions the makeup team on Supernatural were given were to make sure Jensen's lips were as smothered in lip balm and clear lip gloss as possible and to never put anything on Misha's just to see how chapped they could get.

oh my god??? this is really freaking cute of him

THIS

It’s one of the sickest acts of homophobia among other enormities to have Dean Winchester die a fighter. to never allow him safety and stability and relationships he forges himself without any shackles on his character. to never release him from the narrative. to trap him in the life like that forever. everything about that life I mean it Everything. to force him to be remembered only as a caretaker as a fighter as a sacrificial lamb as a pretty boy. let him be more. transform him. please take him. take Dean Winchester apart. explore every alternative he could’ve been. give him the aching satisfaction of exquisitely wrought love, of relieved tension, of friendships that have lasted and continue to last and none of the pain, of saying finally, finally I can have this. i don’t care how unrealistic. repair him. make it real.

The sleeve grab to try and ground each other is actually feral. Jensen and misha deserve jail time for what this does to me.

oooh they didn't know. they didn't know. cas walked into that barn and they had no idea their lives would change forvever. dean was just a mission to complete. cas was just another monster to kill. and instead they weaved their way into each other's lives and became each other's first best friends. they became family. the love of each other's life. and they had no idea.