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.

Mary was probably gung ho on the VW bus and every other trapping of traditional suburban living, so I might allow for a little wiggle room there, for fic purposes. He would have been anyone she wanted him to be, within reason, judging by the way he looked at her. Maybe just a woodsy family? I'm just thinking of teaching kids, but he never taught kids like kids, did he?

Do we know how long his tour was? He really switched that back on without hesitation. As soon as he believed, he was a soldier again.

Man, I love the choice to make the Campbells hunters, even though I think it was largely squandered in season 6.

and slicing his palm open

Yes, he looked very fierce and comitted to action and whatnot. However, it is an incredibly stupid thing to slice open your hand if you expect to need to hold weapons and use your hands to fight. I know they needed the blood, but they didn't need it from the palm of his hand. I'd hope a soldier would have known better.

Well, it was his left, It's a little something,

Slicing his palm open is a more dramatic visual choice, though. This is TV, after all.

I think John's tour in Vietnam is a huge plot hole -- I'm not entirely sure the dates line up, even. But I'm too tired to look it up now. I think I once figured he couldn't have done more than one, based on his age and when the war ended.

Dean is completely smart enough to suceed in a number of fields.

I think, however, he would need to be his own boss of something he gave a good damn about (HAI DEAN WE HAS STUFF IN COMMON!) because he would have serious authority issues and a low tolerance for bureaucracy and bullshit.

ION...SexyGeekLethalSam is hot like fire, but Dean still SO Does It For Me...

Random thought is random.