Yeah, it's something that the show hasn't really gotten into, choosing instead to focus on how Sam leaving pushed all three Winchesters apart, but I do believe that, for both John and Dean, there have to have been moments where it was not all bitter, all the time. They have different reasons for hunting, but without Sam causing friction, I can imagine that John and Dean worked as seamlessly together as Dean and Sam usually do on the show (when they're not fighting). And that there was, at least to some extent, a sense of being comrades and not always a little unit of one general and one soldier.
I remember when I was about 17 and my dad and I made a pact to shift our relationship from father-daughter to friends. It's not a perfect switch--never could be, as there will always be times when one reverts, for both good and bad reasons--but I do think that John is the kind of man who, for all that he is used to and expects Dean to come to heel, still sees and is proud of the man that Dean grew to become. I do see him understatedly and subtly letting out Dean's leash, as it were, until the day when he finally trusts *himself* - not DEAN - to give Dean his own independence and responsibility.
There are some good Stanford-era fics where John lets Dean take lead on a hunt, sort of like taking him out with training wheels and then without. It's an era that doesn't get explored often, but I do think that they both felt a certain ease and commonality of purpose without Sam.
And I bet that tore them both up a bit, too. Oh, boys.
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branchandroot
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Date: 2008-08-18 01:58 pm (UTC)I remember when I was about 17 and my dad and I made a pact to shift our relationship from father-daughter to friends. It's not a perfect switch--never could be, as there will always be times when one reverts, for both good and bad reasons--but I do think that John is the kind of man who, for all that he is used to and expects Dean to come to heel, still sees and is proud of the man that Dean grew to become. I do see him understatedly and subtly letting out Dean's leash, as it were, until the day when he finally trusts *himself* - not DEAN - to give Dean his own independence and responsibility.
There are some good Stanford-era fics where John lets Dean take lead on a hunt, sort of like taking him out with training wheels and then without. It's an era that doesn't get explored often, but I do think that they both felt a certain ease and commonality of purpose without Sam.
And I bet that tore them both up a bit, too. Oh, boys.