But he wasn't Dean Winchester in that world.

I thought Zachariah said he was - just with different beginnings? But I admit I am terrible at remembering those details. (Well, I now that I think about it, they weren't brothers. So I guess he wasn't Dean.)

Yeah, his parents were "Ellen and Bob" and he had a sister named Jo. Sam never mentioned his parents, but he did have a girlfriend named Madison that he had broken up with.

Without the Winchester baptism of fire, they can't really be the same people.

Yeah. You know, I should rewatch from the beginning. I've seen lots of my favorites several times, but I should do an entire rewatch.

I should do that with Buffy too. It's been a while.

I really want to do it with Angel, actually.

3-4 years ago, I did a massive Buffy/Angel rewatch where I watched them together, alternating shows during the years the aired together. It was fun but I doubt I have the time to think that hard again.

He had Dean's brain, though. ("Just plunked you in the middle without the benefit of your memories."--and he did the job) So I maintain our Dean has the capability, although absolutely no interest or relevant education. Also, Sam was tech support, not phone sales.

Didn't John have part ownership of the shop that he sold before he left Lawrence?

Oh, I think Dean has the brain to do anything he wants. Inclination and temperament is another story.

I think he was part owner, yeah.

It was fun but I doubt I have the time to think that hard again.

I just want to watch straight through and enjoy it, no hard thinking. My brain is perpetually overtired lately.

I would love to learn about the Winchester family. John's parents. I know they're not relevant, because they weren't hunters, but I just want to know how John grew up. Did he become badass in the Marines, or was he raised kind of alternatively? Even just a little, knowing how t shoot guns before he joined up. How much did it take out of him to go on the road? Was it a complete break from all he had known before? How easy was it to induct Dean from the fire onwards right into the life as he adopted it?

TELL ME.

I'm so glad Dean was in construction in canon. *So* glad he wasn't a mechanic. That would have been tiresome.

I think based on the young!John we met, who was about to buy the VW bus, he was probably raised pretty traditionally. Probably signed up for the USMC before being drafted, so he could have his choice of branch.

But when he got back, I think he was determined to give Mary the life she wanted, and I think the VW bus was less hippie influence than what he could afford that might work for a young family. And she liked it, right?

I think they left something of a disconnect between the John we see then and someone just back from a tour in Vietnam, because none of the tours were a piece of cake. But when we go back in time again, and see how fierce he is about guarding against the angels and slicing his palm open, I saw someone who very deliberately shut the memories and experiences of war away -- until he needed to be that soldier again.

But I think. it does explain how he goes from white-bread, blue-collar family guy to a hunter after his wife's death. As in, he shut off that family man (and the expected trappings) to do the job he needed to.