some highlights from osric’s late livetweeting of “slumber party”

freckledbuttchester:

frightencas:

do you think crowley draws doodles on that little piece of paper to distract himself

and everyday sam comes and change the little paper 

and he hangs them in his room after

no need for kitty posters dean

Cas’ Death vs. Charlie’s Death: Supernatural 9x03 and 9x04

he-is-lightning-in-a-bottle:

Two Deaths. Two times that Dean cups the face of the dying person with both hands. Two times Zeke brings one of Dean’s loved ones back from death.

We are obviously meant to see parallels here, otherwise Charlie’s death would not have happened at all.

Here’s what I saw.

CAS DIES. Dean comes up to the seated Cas who lays vulnerable and exposed (open legs, naked chest). Dean plants himself right between Cas’ open legs (in fact, he’s straddling one of Cas’ thighs). He puts a hand on Cas’ thigh, another on his shoulder, and calls Cas’ name repeatedly while moving his hands to cup Cas’ face. The music is heartbreaking. Dean’s breath catches; you hear his words falter as soon as he knows Cas is gone. Once Zeke heals Cas, Dean rushes back to Cas again (instead of to his fallen brother). He once again places a hand on Cas’ thigh & shoulder, confirms Cas is going to be okay, then steps back, collects himself, and angrily asserts “Don’t ever do that again!”

CHARLIE DIES. Dean comes up beside where she’s collapsed. He uses both hands to cup her face, calls her name repeatedly, grasps her shoulders to try shaking her awake. He moves her to the bed, strokes hair out of her face, tries again to wake her. Zeke heals her. He puts a hand on her shoulder and offers a gentle rebuke: “Charlie? I told you to stay in the dungeon.”

Structurally, they’re almost identical. We know that Dean views Charlie like a sister, so do these parallels mean that he views Cas like a brother?

For me, the biggest difference between the two is the level of vulnerability shown both by Dean and by the people who died.

Cas had a naked, exposed torso (something his character has never had in front of Dean before). In fact, his chest was exposed in a scene of sexually-charged assault, when April was straddling his hips and used Cas’ angel blade to pop his buttons open. The writers could have had April do ANYTHING else to torture him or assert power over him during questioning. In fact, I believe they gave us a nice parallel scene with Dean torturing the rogue reaper in the same episode to show how it could be done in a way that isn’t sexual assault. But they chose to give us a Cas who’d been made even more vulnerable. So when Cas dies, his armor (clothing) was already stripped away, and he draped in the chair with his legs spread wide and his arms tied behind him. He was not just physically vulnerable, but EXPOSED. (And Dean walks right into that exposed space, right between Cas’ legs when he could have stood to Cas’s side. Talk about intimate!)

Contrast this with Charlie, who died fully clothed (in multiple layers, in fact) in a heroic act. 

While both died, Cas was definitely the more vulnerable of the two, and definitely filled the romantic trope of a damsel in distress far more than Charlie did.

Dean was also more vulnerable in Cas’ death. That’s because he was charging into the scene specifically TO SAVE Cas. He had just journeyed a long distance scouring the countryside for any hint of Cas’ whereabouts. He even resorted once again to torturing monsters for information about Cas, calling us back to the sort of desperation we saw from him in Purgatory. Dean arrived on the scene in April’s apartment ready to play the hero, the knight in shining armor, only to confront his failure and watch Cas die right in front of him.

Jensen played Cas’ death in a much more emotionally charged way than he played Charlie’s death. While he played both with a lot of gravitas and heartbreak, he delivered far more urgency to Cas’ death than he did Charlie’s. (Saying the word “no,” repeating “come on, come on” while Ezekiel healed him.)

So while these two deaths might at first appear to be identical, I believe the different nuances in their setup is the difference between a romantic death and a platonic one. And I can’t imagine any other reason Robbie Thompson had for giving us this parallel except to demonstrate that Dean and Cas’s relationship is the more romantic of the two.

Just take a moment to put on heteronormative lenses and imagine if Cas were a female. If Dean had rushed into the apartment to find his female best friend who had rescued him from hell, rebelled against heaven for him, stopped the apocalypse for him, been to purgatory with him, etc. Imagine that woman in the chair with her shirt ripped open, her legs spread apart, and her arms tied behind the chair. Imagine him being between her legs, cupping her face, calling her name, and crying out “no” when he realized she’d died. 

Now contrast that image with Charlie’s death.

One is obviously more romantic. 

sp00kernatural:

But guys, whatever is going to be so horrible that they are giving us TWO funny episodes in a row.

9x04 summary:

futuredeanspieholster:

- Sexy historical dudes in fedoras and suits
- Charlie is a fucking genius
- And looks GOOD in plaid
- More braiding hair references, foreshadowing? 
- ZEKE IS FUCKING GOOD OK
- Charlie dies and is reborn officially a Winchester 
- Possessed!Winchesters are fucking hot
- Feeling the love between Charlie and Dorothy
- “Am I a zombie now?”
- “There’s no place like home” ;-;