Based on what I've seen of the two out of character, that probably maps pretty closely to their intent. Somerhalder long ago convinced me he's a self-absorbed douchebag.

Which doesn't inherently make the amount he loves her low, as much as ridic OTT Sam-love. And if she's not totally okay with that, they can't be okay, and it's another way in which he can't be himself.

I don't think the Sam-love is even necessarily over the top if you view it from the perspective that Dean was, in practice, one of Sam's parents and the primary caregiver for much of his life at that. Overprotective focus that seems beyond the pale from a brother is far more understandable from a surrogate mom.

But he is his brother. Him having been surrogate mom to Sam is where the OTT started, and it never stopped.

As for Ian Somerhalder, he's apparently extremely nice in real life. Cat-rescuing sweetheart and all that. Pretty much only seen good things about him, and not just from TVD fangirls or anything.

I am skeptical. He was an entitled, homophobic jackass on the commentary track of the Rules of Attraction DVD and interviews I read around the time of Lost did nothing to improve that first impression.

I don't have any of that exposure to him. I've just heard about the animal rescue, oil spill cleanup, and the omnipresent "It Gets Better" support, although that just seems to be showing up (eta: I don't mean he's just showing, just that showing up in Hollywood seems to mean you're involved with the project). And sweet stuff he's done for fans.

I don't like his face, though. I mean, he's really pretty and stuff, but he has a perma-sneer to me, and few of his roles involve contradicting that.

Evil!Winchesters are a tossup for me--I clearly adored that scaramouche story where they were all sociopaths...good god, did I ever like that...

LINK ME, PLEASE. That sounds like the sort of thing I would like.

(Yes, I'm lurking in here. No, I haven't seen anything of the current season beyond the first two episodes. What? I figure I'll cope with this season better if I'm thoroughly spoiled.)

The season doesn't really need coping with--nothing extreme happens. In fact, I think that's some of the criticism of it. (eta: Oh, wait. There is Bobby. Fair point.)

Some Kind of Courtship: [link]

And I just read her summary for her Big Bang story, and LET IT BE JUNE. But seriously--as soon as I saw pairing (guess) and length (35K+), I'm in for the scaramouche ride.

And I did not know she wrote so much Wincestiel.

The season doesn't really need coping with--nothing extreme happens

Eh, I've been told by some folks that Bobby's arc will upset me. Which it probably will.

Thank you for the link!

Well, there isn't anything too upsetting about Bobby's arc, just where (that?) it ends.

My issues with beloved character death have kinda intensified over the past year, which is no surprise.

Plus I'm having way too much fun following the various SuperWhoLock .gif sets on Tumblr. That's the show I really want.

Have you seen the insertion of the Avengers? I just bumped into one this past week.