(That was a really jaded 12-year-old, by the way. And also maybe harboring a wee bit of resentment against Sam, who still got to be innocent and not know what really happened to their mom and what is out there in the dark?)

And yet, still doing his best to make sure that Sam believes that their dad came through.

And yet, still doing his best to make sure that Sam believes that their dad came through.

::gets misty, yet again::

t handwave

John left an abbreviated version of the journal (loose-leaf: easy to abbreviate) for Dean to study. He wasn't supposed to let Sam know he was looking at it, but he wasn't good enough at hiding the pages in Hot Rod.

t /handwave

::loves on Micole::

Because it would have been Dean who paid, of course. First for not keeping an adequate eye on Sam, second for allowing Sam to steal the journal without being detected, and third because John wouldn't yell at his baby boy.

?? We have no canonical evidence that he was ever more punish-y to Dean than to Sam. Expected more out of Dean, yes, since they're considerably different in age. But that's a big leap to blaming the older kid for something the younger kid does.

And whoa do we have evidence that John did and would yell at his baby boy, because they did it to each other in DMB, and it was obvious they were on the nine millionth verse of the same song. (Whereas, he takes it remarkably well when Dean talks back at him angrily, in Salvation.)

I tend to think that the only way he'd have punished Dean for that one is if Dean had decided it was a bright idea to cover for Sammy.

The thing that pulled me out was the meta of how Kripke & Co. are so adamant that John Was A Bad Father, and it seemed like John being absent for the Wee!chester Christmas is their way of pointing and going "See! Bad Father!"

I qualify anything I say by first saying I love John. I heart him to pieces. I can't imagine trying to raise, protect, and prepare a small boy and a baby while feeling a duty to fight the things that go bump in the night. I don't think anyone could have done better as it was an impossible situation. That said, I don't know how they could have written him as a good father unless they established babysitters along the way. But I think that would have diminished the character of John as a dark and brooding loner that was damaged himself. They had to establish his obsession and, I assume, sense of duty to saving the world because he killed other evil things that he crossed while hunting the demon that killed Mary. And babysitters would have probably notified social services because of the moving around and weaponry at hand. There would have been very few people he could trust if he wanted to retain access to his sons at all. So I think in a perfect world, he would have been a bad father. But I don't think we can judge good or bad parenting by our standards outside of the SPN universe.

At least that is how I can justify saying, "Bad John, you hurt your boys", but still believing he acted in (what he believed was) their best interest.

(I'd really love to see the confrontation between Sam and John.)

If only this were possible, it would have been awesome! Completely worth the price of admission.

Yeah, from watching Mutant Enemy shows one would conclude that Roger Burkle was the only father in human history who was both present and caring.

And Fred loved him like pancakes. ::sniff::

eta: Look at my post number! We rock!

What I have liked about the flashbacks, both in Something Wicked and here, is that we're NOT dealing with mini-adults. They're both very clearly still painfully young, and it's so painfully obvious that Dean was trying his best, but still not able to quite pull things off because, well, he was just a kid, and that it wasn't just limited to Christmas. (And, man. I remember the year we didn't get Easter baskets, and trying to save Easter for my buttmunch little brother--I don't know what was going on that year, to be frank. It was really weird for my parents to forget, despite the whole atheist thing, and that wasn't one of the years of serious penny pinching. Anyhow, I assembled him a half-assed basket including my Huey Lewis and the News cassette and some other stuff. That Barbie brought back memories.)

You know what I loved about the flashback? Dean teasing Sam. (Rough paraphrase follows.)

"Why do we always leave?"

"Because everywhere we go people get sick of your face."

That's brotherhood, right there. In so much wee!Chester fic, Dean is practically a slavering fool and martyr for Sammy, and that's not in any way realistic. The above is. And it doesn't mean he loves Sam less, it means he's a normal thirteen-year-old boy who has HIS OWN resentments and disappointments and no one to take it out on but his little brother.

But Dean making Christmas for Sam was also believable. Especially when Sam opened the Barbie and Dean said, "Dad probably thinks you're a girl."

They wrote REAL kids here, which I appreciate like whoa.

It was SO much better than the watch-from-the-hall writing for that Mini-Dean kid earlier in the season.

Yo, writers, speech patterns and musical tastes aren't passed on genetically.