Meta

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demon!Dean

Demon Lore and how it relates to Dean as a Demon in S11

I'm looking at the basics here.

• Someone does bad shit in their life, goes to hell instead of heaven when they die. Or they sell their soul. Whatever.
• Hundreds of years of torture and torturing turns them into a demon.
• Demons still have souls, evident in early S11 when Amara is eating them. In fact, all demons are are souls, because without the borrowed body, they're just smoke.

So how, exactly, does Dean turning into a demon at the end of S10 work?

The Mark of Cain protects itself, protects it's bearer. Dean dies, the Mark of Cain resurrects him. Or the Mark + the First Blade. Whatevs. It/they bring him back to...life? He comes back as a demon.

He's kind of an anomaly. A demon wearing his own meatsuit. Okay, let's start with the demon part, the soul.

• the MoC ressurrection is a fast track to demon status. No hell, no torture, no hundreds of years.

But without the hundreds of years of torture, how exactly does Dean turn into a demon? Okay, physiologically, yeah, okay, I get that. I get that the Mark could be capable of that. I buy it. But I don't necessarily buy the evil part. I can't actually figure out how his humanity can just be wiped like that.

Which is why I don't buy that it has been.

• he leaves Sam a note instead of killing him bloody
• he's protective of the girl he's banging during his vacation with Crowley
• he refuses to kill the wife of the dude who sold his soul
• he doesn't kill Cole

Okay, so he's got an answer for why he didn't kill Cole. I kinda buy that, I do, but I have to put it down there just in case. And yes, he's a cunt to the girl. And, yes, he kills the dude who sold his soul. And, yes, he just about puts a hammer through Sam's skull.

But Mark of Cain. And, physically, he's a demon. He's probably got demony feelings. But I don't buy that he's 100% evil or that all his humanity is gone.

There are other examples of this. Not Ruby, because she was free range evil the whole way, just patient and a really good actress. But Meg. And Crowley. They have both exhibited human qualities at times. Don't know much about Meg's softening cos that arc was a speedrun, but a lot of Crowley's flaccidity could be attributed to the unfinished demon cure and his subsequent blood addiction. And maybe his epic crush on Dean. I dunno.

Anyway. I don't know if my 'Dean might have been a demon, but it doesn't mean he had to be evil' theory actually holds up. I mean, other demons have shown compassion and concern and a trace of humanity. Or maybe my theory is flawed because I can't convince myself that the demon conversion via MoC resurrection should have been different from what it was in canon.

I think my problem here (confusing as it is) is that I wish it had been different. Sure, turn him into a demon, physiologically, or as much so as a demon possessing his own meatsuit can be physiologically a demon. But don't take away Dean. Don't make him evil, because he just as easily could have been a demon but not evil. demon!Dean could have kept hunting with Sam, okay, give him his Crowley vacation, then send him home to Sammy, where he belongs.

Or, as an alternative, have him beat the shit out of Crowley and replace him as King of Hell. Either of those two would have dragged the demon!Dean arc out a little longer, which I really think I was hungry for.

Dean & Benny

Dean's relationship with Benny is treated like a romance from the very beginning, in that Benny is a threat to Dean's relationship with Sam. Dean tells Benny he doesn't have time for him in the same episode that Sam doesn't go to meet Amelia, and then Charlie suggests that Dean's just broken up with someone as well...

There is, I think, far more slash potential in this pairing than in any other in the series. Despite the fact that Benny's a vampire and Dean's a hunter, despite the coldness Dean exhibited toward Benny when they first met, despite the fact Dean chose Sam over Benny not once, but twice, there was a hell of a lot of trust between them. More so, I think, than between Sam and Dean at times.

Benny was always willing to talk to Dean, and I think Dean was probably more willing to share feelings with Benny than he was with Sam. Benny didn't judge, for a start.

And Benny was willing to die when Dean asked him to. He just stood there and let Dean cut his head off. If that's not unconditional love, I don't know what is.

I think there was probably a lot of codependence between Benny and Dean in purgatory, even after Castiel joined them. It transferred upstairs, but once Dean readjusted to having Sam there, and once Sam ditched his threat to the Sam & Dean relationship (Amelia), Dean went back to relying on Sam and he simply didn't need Benny quite as much anymore.

It broke my heart when Dean broke up with Benny. Not because of any potential slashiness, but because Benny needed Dean so much.

Of course when Dean needed Benny, Benny was there. He came through.

Dean never burned Benny's remains. He buried them (or at least that was the intent). I like to think they're buried somewhere near the bunker, that Dean kept them close.

(to be continued obviously because The Trap)

Dean Could, Quite Possibly, Be Bi

Like, why the fuck not?

Okay, so, as a slash fan, I'm obviously not going to be talking about Dean's passion for the ladies on this site. I know Dean likes girls, there's simply no way to headcanon that out of the way. And, there is, at least in earlier seasons, Dean's discomfort with 'the gay' to deal with.

Dean's not homophobic, however, and I think this often comical awkwardness is more of an argument for a potential willingness to hook up with guys than it is against.

I think this could easily be read as a kind of repressed bisexuality. In some ways Dean is wise to the world, in other ways, not so much. Dean didn't finish high school, and went on to a hunter's life of cheap motels, small towns, and dive bars. They're not the most liberal places.

(Sam, by contrast, went to college, and would have been exposed to a lot more diversity - hence, perhaps, his entire lack of comical awkwardness.)

Dean's not really a product of that environment, however. If he was, he could be as bigoted as all the other rednecks, but he's not.

Charlie, I think, has a lot to do with getting Dean over that awkwardness. When he's first confronted with the fact that she has no idea how to chat up a guy because she's into girls, he's a little stammery, but moments later he's totally playing Cyrano to her Christian. The next time he's confronted with her gayness, he's cool with it.

Dr Sexy M.D.

Okay, so Dean goes totally fangirl when Dr Sexy himself appears in the episode Changing Channels. I mean, blushing, inability to hold eye contact, the whole nine yards. It's kind of beautiful, to be honest, and he seems to have no desire to be even remotely cool about it. And the pure fact that the dude is called 'Dr Sexy' coupled with Dean's reaction is like a particularly unsubtle bit of subtext concerning Dean's orientation.

Or, at least, that's the way I'm going to read it :D

There's a whole lot of other little moments from the show that make this into one of my strongest headcanons, so I may add stuff as time goes by.