Harder than Dean/Tessa? Totally not.

Oddly, ita, yes.

Which, umm. I'm going to blame Hard Core Logo for.

The beauty of all of it is that it's this huge interconnected thing, with no one ever learning from history and thus being doomed to repeat it.

Except Dean! Dean told Sampa to learn from their mistakes!

Show has been very careful not to tell us where John and Mary are (other than John is no longer in hell). All we can do is guess.

Is this perhaps why Sampa was so eager to help Crowley find Purgatory? Maybe that's where John and/or Mary are.

I'm still unclear on how Crowley had the mojo to get Samuel out of heaven, if he was there. But I can't see why he would have gone to hell or purgatory.

I thought that the cage was in hell, and that's how Crowley managed to get Sam out.

Maybe purgatory is where the "othersouled" go.

And Meg's Ellen-esque stand to hold off the hellhounds while the others forged ahead didn't really ring true, since the whole kill Crowley mission was bound up in self-preservation for her.

Not if she thought that she could take them. If it was a suicide mission, I can see it, but if she thought that she would win, and that sending the boys ahead would get her Crowley to play with, I can see it.

Crowley attempted murder and failed. He wasn't playing around with unkillable avatars in his head. He was ending a threat.

Yeah, but he was bullshitting, though. Why send ghouls in with Dean and random demons in with Sam when he can kill either/both of them with a flick of his hand? The only thing I can think of is as a plot device reward for his minions to get to kill the Winchesters?

I thought that the cage was in hell, and that's how Crowley managed to get Sam out.

That doesn't explain Samuel though.

he was bullshitting, though

So you really thought he thought they'd survive? I think that's reading too much into it. It went down the way it did so that they could get out on their own devices (meta), but if Sam hadn't been insane, they'd be dead.

Inefficient, yeah. Not intending for them to die? I just don't buy it.

So you really thought he thought they'd survive?

Not necessarily, just that he wasn't committed to them being dead. If he was, he would have just lopped their heads off like he did with the shifter.

I think that's reading a lot into the meta that had them survive with a badass moment from Sam. As far as I interpret it, that was the only reason they weren't killed immediately--because the text needed an out. Nothing I'd ascribe to the character motivation within.

I read and enjoyed a dark agenda racebending AU story that Anne recommended: When The Badger Grows Horns. I have no idea how accurate it may or may not be...the author isn't actually of the ethnicity she writes primarily about, but seems to have done rigourous research.

However, in her author's notes she mentions she thinks canon Dean is dyslexic and G/T. What's G/T? And WTF dyslexia? When has he had any symptoms of reading problems? Why do people keep doing that?

It drives me nuts. It shouldn't, but it does.

G/T = gifted/talented. I think.

Aha. I see.

I still think reading dyslexia into canon is just pandering to your particular narrative/character kinks. He's shown absolutely no problem reading or spelling whatsoever, much less dyslexia-specific issues. Yet it seems to have a minor fan following.

Yeah, that's fanon, not canon.