That's my thinking. He planted the question in Home and answered it (as well as how Sam got his psychic abilities) in AHBL.

I'm using the phrase "in love" very loosely, ita. Just how, despite everyone's best efforts to hate him, they develop soft squishy spots for him.

I still didn't think Max developed a soft squishy spot for him, though, Julie.

Disappointing fic: [link]

Man, it started out so great. The first two sections (pretty long) have great Dean, great Sam, great D/C chemistry, great surrounding characters, original or no (Tamara!). And then, in the final section, blam! Dean is Michael, fallen. WTF? I tried to stick with it, but I really couldn't care anymore. I am a huge Dean girl, as is obvious, but I hate when people do shit like that with his character. It just erases him. And the author spends little to no time on how this would affect Sam (answer=HUGE) despite having a strong Sam presence up until that point in the story. Too much time on how it affected Castiel. Whatever, honestly. And they also did a little too much to Cas: making him the newest angel is a bit too special snowflake for me too.

Man, I was *really* liking it up until that whiplash turn. Really really.

How can you say that, ita? First Max is all "this dude is dangerous, no likey" and then inexplicably she's all "I have to save him!" (and let's not forget the initial "soothing the caged animal" scene). I swear it was evenly explicitly stated once or twice that she cares about him.

Max is mother hen, and I think it's perfectly in character for her to extend her web to someone else not properly human. I don't see her as liking him particularly much, but maybe I'm forgetting something from an earlier chapter where she was dealing with him. She's only been thinking of Alec and the immediate issues of her team in the most recent chapters.

She got over her initial dislike, but it seemed perfectly standard "we must fight, we are now on the same team" dynamics from every show ever, not to mention most fics.

Max is mother hen, and I think it's perfectly in character for her to extend her web to someone else not properly human.

Haven't read the story in question, but yeah. That's sort of the typical Max pattern. Her operating mode is, for better or worse, by S2, SAVE ALL THE THINGS!

I think my whiplash is that she started off considering Dean a threat to safety of all her other Things. And then, without even having seen him for more than five minutes, let alone conscious, she's all "Fellow cock-a-roachies, we must save DEAN!"

Disappointing fic: [link]!

Well, crap. I just started it yesterday, and I did like the opening scenes a lot (although I was a little confused about where exactly in the story she was starting, and the whole dragons! and apocalyptic shit raining from the skies! was a little startling, too.)

she's all "Fellow cock-a-roachies, we must save DEAN!"

He's Alec. He's being menaced by White. It's not about his personality at all--it's totally about hers. It's pretty inevitable.

Amy, I am so hurt by that fic. I mean, in fic-proportion. It was so great. I think I can rec the first chapter, which is pretty damned lengthy. It almost stands alone. But the second chapter is pretty tied into the completely bogus revelation in the third (which also derails the main plot quite a bit), so I can't say as much nice about it--but at least the characterisation doesn't go off the deep end until everyone completely fails to deal rationally with DEAN HAVING ALWAYS BEEN MICHAEL AND NOT JUST SAM AND JOHN AND MARY'S DEAN.

I guess that just doesn't come across to me, as someone not totally familiar with the show. I'm not recalling, and certainly not strongly or in detail, the relationships on the show. I bailed a third of the way through the first season. And that's the pitfall of fic: relying on familiarity with the show and being able to shorthand it.