10.20 On further review

[caranfindel]

Yes, I'm rethinking things already!

My initial reaction to Dean telling Claire that Jimmy's sacrifice let Castiel save the world was "Oh, that's nice." Because it was nice, that her father's death meant something. She needed to hear that. And honestly, it was nice that Dean was giving credit to Cas for once, since it seems like he has a habit of using him and maybe not being as appreciative as he should. Or perhaps just not expressing that appreciation.

And then I got on Tumblr and said, well. Huh. Because some of my Tumblr friends are seething right now.

Why didn't it occur to me that by saying what he did, Dean was denying Sam's role? Because I absolutely didn't take it that way until it was pointed out to me by a cadre of angry Sam!Girls. Why was I not one of those angry Sam!Girls?

What do you guys think?

Comments

[kalliel]

It didn't bother me at all, personally. XD I mean, he was talking to Claire. Claire doesn't care about the specifics, man! And jeez, as far as Dean's concerned (and he is reasonably correct) both he and Sam are dirt or less to her. It's not about them; it's about Claire, and her family, and Castiel. To say anything else to her would have been like, oh hey, you know, your dad was a swell guy, but it's not like there weren't other people working at that ad agency he was employed at! XP And I think it'd be a major stretch to actually try to make yourself believe that Dean doesn't have very vivid memories of how the end of S5 went down (where it was very, VERY much about Sam, arguably to Castiel's exclusion).

[balder12.livejournal.com]

I totally agree. It was a one-on-one conversation between Dean and a grieving teenager who needed to hear that her father's death had meaning, so that's what Dean played up. She has no reason to care what the Winchesters did, so he left it out--especially since explaining it might well involve getting into a lot of horrific realities he doesn't need to drop on her in that moment. He didn't give any credit to himself in that scene either.

Also, at a Doylist level it would have been odd to have Dean go into an explanation of show history that the audience already knows, and that wasn't relevant to the episode.

[kalliel]

Right! Plus, lol, Dean probably doesn't remember this, but he already did the whole "and then a bunch of people saved the world and it was complicated" rundown for a teenage girl in 10x05, and her reaction was basically LOL y u tell me this. So if he did remember that interaction, there'd be even more reason to not do that again. XDD

[tabaqui]

What you said. It was about Claire and her dead father, not about Sam, or Dean. Context, what is it.