squirrelsan:

dissolving-worlds:

ekronnie:

squirrelsan:

dissolving-worlds:

Unpopular opinion: Dean’s self-destructive attempts to save Sam do not stem from brotherly love, but from brainwashing.

Yes!! Yes this so much!

And as not only a child, but a traumatized, parentified child, Dean had no defense against said brainwashing.

You can say this about a lot of first born siblings. It doesn’t mean love doesn’t exist there.

Siblings will do a lot to protect their siblings, yes, however killing yourself to do so does not fall into the spectrum of “normal”. I’m not saying Dean doesn’t love his brother, I’m just saying him going voluntarily to hell or killing himself with barbiturates has nothing to do with sibling love, even if Dean experiences it as such.

I would agree that there is a limit to healthy sibling love and the line lies around self-harm and self-destruction. Dean absolutely love Sam so so much. But the reason he so readily harms himself, the reason he considers himself less valuable than Sam has more to do, imho, with the abuse and brainwashing he has endured.