– stealing a concrete truck to seal away H. H. Holmes
Bad Day at Black Rock
– throwing Bela the rabbit’s foot
Jus in Bello
– letting the demons in; exorcism via PA
Ghostfacers*
– erasing all the Ghostfacers’ hard drives with hidden electromagnet
Time Is On My Side
– burying Doc Benton
Good God, Y’All
– recognizing War’s arrival from the Bible
Changing Channels
– trapping Gabriel in Holy Fire
Appointment in Samarra
– flatlining to call a reaper in order to contact Death
(* not 100 % text if this is actually Dean’s idea, but it seems to be implied)
A post about smart!Dean (aka DEAN FUCKING WINCHESTER IN GENERAL)? Oh yeah, this is my jam!
What I love about Dean’s intelligence is that he’s not only shown to have great logic skills (i.e. the connecting of the dots) and the mechanical knowledge to put together an EMF, but for all these magnificent moments the OP has pointed out, which demonstrate his talent for lateral thinking.
Dean shows different types of intelligence, but often it comes back to his immense ability to strategize, problem-solve and see alternate solutions. Dean is really, really smart, especially when it comes to lateral thinking, which stems from seeing a creative solution to a problem and to then to implement these solutions (the implementation of which can often be a difficult enterprise in its own rights, unusual solutions can often be more difficult than the straightforward solutions).
Now, Dean’s ability to make an EMF is generally considered a marker of his intelligence (and I’m not saying it isn’t), because engineering skills represent a type of intelligence that is easily recognized in our society as intelligence. Engineers require a decent understand of physics, of math, of how to make things work, which are skills which are perhaps over-emphasized in our school systems as markers of intelligence. But less emphasized is the creative side, problem-solving, and “out-of-the-box” thinking, the ability to look at a problem and find a new solution to it. (Ironically, that type of ability is integral to success in STEM fields as well, but too often teaching curriculum in pre-university fails to encourage the application of lateral thinking to STEM classes).
And since it’s less emphasized, it’s considered as less important. And because it’s less important, it’s not noticed or valued as highly as markers of intelligence. Which is why there has been an ongoing debate about whether or not Dean is actually smart for years in this fandom.
But he is smart. Damn smart and his greatest talents lie in his ability to perceive solutions where others would have failed.
And in conclusion, Dean is hella smart.
Your analysis is spot on. And it brings up just how much of a deficit lies in our current educational models.
Here’s a fanfic where ultimate smart dude MacGyver recognized Dean’s childhood genius.
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