I have no big brothers! Just an annoying little one.

I love how Sam just had such contempt for Ronald while Dean was so simpatico. This is where I want to pull apart the characters, but I just can't.

Dean has tremendous empathy for small children and outsiders. He's not as good with normal humans, with their various layers of socialization and strange customs.

Sam's better at the latter. He's got the toolset for normal human interaction, and has paid attention to the things Dean's never bothered with in that respect.

He does have a squishy gooey center. Like an m&m that got left in a warm place.

Dean has tremendous empathy for small children and outsiders.

This is one of the things that SLAYS me. He knew exactly how to talk to Ronald. Knew what it felt like to be so outside what everyone else believes.

And the kid way back in ... the one with the lake, and Amy Acker. Dean may not think he *likes* kids necessarily, but he goes right to where they are, emotionally. Sam, much as I love him, would have been all child-psychologist with the kid, nodding and analyzing, and Dean was like, "Cool, we're coloring."

Sam's better at the latter. He's got the toolset for normal human interaction, and has paid attention to the things Dean's never bothered with in that respect.

I would agree, but I also think part of that is Sam being a damn good mimic. Sam wants and needs to fit in much more than Dean does, so he's made it part of himself, but on some level he's just as much of an outsider as Dean is.

Also, Dean may be the best big brother in the world, but in an incredibly burdensome way. I think Sam was running away from Dean just as much as he was from John.

I think Sam was running away from Dean just as much as he was from John.

I agree, even though I kind of want to smack him for it.

I also think Dean relates to kids (in the limited way we've seen) because he never was one, really. He's super competent, yes, but he was forced to be. Much as I like John, he didn't exactly care for Dean the way a parent cares for a child. He *trained* him, trained a soldier. It's one of my most insistent plot bunnies, Dean learning how to let someone take care of him, learning how to let some of that burden fall on someone else's shoulders.

he's so brittle and tough outside, but hit it right and it fractures, and then it's all marshmallow inside.

Yes. I have to wonder if the opposite holds true for Sam. He's very much in Captain Empathy mode much of the time, but I'm now wanting to go back and look more closely at how he reacts under certain kinds of pressure.

It's one of my most insistent plot bunnies, Dean learning how to let someone take care of him, learning how to let some of that burden fall on someone else's shoulders.

Oh, yes. I think the conversation between him and Sam at the end of AHBL2 brings that idea into very sharp focus.

Hit Sam the right way, I think you find a Core of Steel.

Other than just those abs.

I would agree, but I also think part of that is Sam being a damn good mimic. Sam wants and needs to fit in much more than Dean does, so he's made it part of himself, but on some level he's just as much of an outsider as Dean is.

Yep. Which is why I think of it as a toolset. It's totally a learned skill for the boy, not in the way most people learn it, but in a creepy kind of study them like insects way. I love Sam.

Also, Dean may be the best big brother in the world, but in an incredibly burdensome way. I think Sam was running away from Dean just as much as he was from John.

As you probably know, I feel the same way.

Hit Sam the right way, I think you find a Core of Steel.

I can't believe I am quoting Stephen King here, but in the Stand, one of the characters (the one hit wonder rock star) is described along the lines of go one or two layers down, and it's like biting on tinfoil unexpectedly.

That's always seemed to fit Sam to me.

It's totally a learned skill for the boy, not in the way most people learn it, but in a creepy kind of study them like insects way. I love Sam.

Love this, and love Sam.

As you probably know, I feel the same way.

I do know. I'm pretty sure this is SPN discussion #37 v4

Hit Sam the right way, I think you find a Core of Steel.

Oh, yeah. Sam's inherently strong in a way that he doesn't even recognize, due in no small part to the parenting of both John and Dean. Sam will destroy the world if he thinks it's the right thing to do--and he can. Sam won't break, although he (and we) may wish he did; instead he digs in, gets angry, pushes back. But he won't break. That's why he is, weirdly, so much more dangerous than Dean.

Sam will destroy the world if he thinks it's the right thing to do--and he can.

I would like to see him move sideboards with his mind more often. Because, I mean, what is cooler than a pair of demon-hunters in a classic car tooling around the country? A pair of spoonbending demon-hunters. (Dean can learn to juggle as his special power, or something.)