The level of restraint and diplomacy Dean displayed throughout the episode was truly remarkable. Dean is the most experienced hunter on the planet and more than capable of judging for himself if someone is ready to hunt or not, yet he carefully avoided anything that might seem like he was undermining Sam’s authority.
co-parenting done right oh my god
like it didn’t hit me until now that he was making sure that he didn’t just undermine sam’s authority as 1/3 of the dads in their little family and not just as a leader
oh my god i love him
FURTHER THOUGHTS THAT HIT ME
and it didn’t hit me that he wasn’t just calling sam because sam somehow ended up being the bunker hunters’ leader. it was also because that’s what you do when you parent a kid with someone. and if there’s one thing dean knows that he swears he sucks at, it’s parenting.
ALSO sam isn’t just asserting his authority all over the place. they talk about it like EQUALS. AS IVE BEEN WANTING FOR THEM ALL ALONG.
and even when sam isn’t there, he still makes sure that dean has family, has someone familiar and close to him to look after him.
The level of restraint and diplomacy Dean displayed throughout the episode was truly remarkable. Dean is the most experienced hunter on the planet and more than capable of judging for himself if someone is ready to hunt or not, yet he carefully avoided anything that might seem like he was undermining Sam’s authority.
co-parenting done right oh my god
like it didn’t hit me until now that he was making sure that he didn’t just undermine sam’s authority as 1/3 of the dads in their little family and not just as a leader
if this is because you think my criticism of g/nc/st bang is because i hate platonic bro fic, you’re wildly misunderstanding me and the issue by a country mile. the mod is even allowing romantic plots so long as they don’t end up together at the end so
if this is because bronlies are being dicks to you about it, don’t let them. they’ve controlled how people react and feel about the bro bond for far too long.
Also, if you look at the non-Bronly responses to @brobondchristmaschallenge on Twitter, as well as the positive interactions here on Tumblr from people interested, you’ll see that people who haven’t written fic before, or have balked from writing Bro-Centric fic, are joining for THE FIRST TIME. I mean, this is absolutely amazing! We as a fandom NEED THIS.
yes exactly! seriously i’ve seen so much love and need and excitement for bbcc from everyone. we needed this so bad, i don’t think we realized it.
This. One participant stopped writing fic years ago. Another never did. Myself, I avoided fanfic like the plague much less participated in any because of certain qualms I had with it. I gotta say, having to either tilt hard into the Destiel lane (which, while I ship it, I’m generally not all hot for how it comes across in fanfic – sorry to Destiel fic authors, you do good work people enjoy, it’s just not for me) or stumble through a land mine on bro content, like… it’s a problem. So I’m all kinds of excited for fun and inclusive but FUCKING SAFE content.
Gencest doesn’t give that. It just doesn’t. The “it can be but can’t be but might be Wincest of varying degrees of what we think we can get away with” doesn’t work for some people. It certainly doesn’t work for me. And I’ll not touch anything that passes through that vein ever, knowing their willing ambiguity on tagging. It’s a hot mess fam. BBCC = bless
Hard to suss out the motives of the anon here but let me add onto this thread to further dispel some misconceptions. Because the discussion surrounding the g-cest challenge has been mis-represented and it wasn’t about shaming anyone for liking Sam and Dean centric platonic fic. It wasn’t about shaming fans for writing w*ncest fic and posting w*ncest fic in spaces friendly to that ship, properly tagged and with appropriate warnings. The discussion had to do with the implications of the use of the g-cest term now and its usage as a tag and how its ambiguity presented problems for tags when you’re dealing with a trigger ship.
We were told the g-cest challenge was and was not gen, was and was not w*ncest, told it wasn’t w*ncest then told, as platonic bro bond fans, “it’s not for you.” g-cest was presented as the only “real” way to have deep, emotional brocentric fic and if you didn’t want to participate then you got labeled Not a True Fan of the Bro Bond. And if you have any discomfort with w*ncest content you are gatekeeped against as Not a True Fan of the Bro Bond. The harassment and hate and shaming and gatekeeping towards any bro bond fan who doesn’t see the bro bond exactly precisely the same way a small virulent corner sees it and who doesn’t ship incest has been out of control for a long time and it seems to just be getting worse
The Brobond Christmas Challenge arose after the g-cest mod said “if you don’t like our challenge make your own.” It isn’t anti-bro bond fans. It isn’t some evol plot by “hellers.” It’s not open to w*ncest fic (or trigger ships) but if an incest shipper wants to write a platonic Sam & Dean fic for BBCC they can join in. Otherwise all-ships welcome as background–it’s not a shippy challenge. The fic has to center on Sam & Dean’s sibling bond. It’s not a “gen fic challenge” even though ships are only permitted peripherally; it’s simply to attract fans of the platonic bro bond especially from the TFW/Destiel positive lanes who feel a bit lost as to where to put their bro bond love given the gatekeeping. Or bro bond fans who might prefer a Sam & Dean focused challenge that doesn’t include incest, either implied or overt.
The area of fandom that doesn’t tacitly support hate on Destiel shippers and doesn’t tacitly go along with and always protect the most extreme voices who shriek “only Sam and Dean matter and all hellers and minions are evil and who let these other characters in we don’t want or need other characters only sam and dean” ad nauseam loves the bro bond very well. Some loud screechy voices continues to spread the lie that the only real bro bond fans are in their own screechy virulent elitist “brosonly” anti-character development bucket. They’re convincing non-virulent fans in earshot a string of lies about the TFW/Destiel positive end of the fandom and completely misrepresenting what happens in wanks, and that’s kinda sad because fans who might actually have a common ground and enjoy each other don’t get to connect.
Bro bond fans pull from all different lanes of the fandom. Facts are facts.
The Brobond Christmas Challenge is for fics centering on Sam & Dean platonic sibling bond. Platonic Sam & Dean fic is every bit as emotionally raw and honest and Sam & Dean as anything with a -cest tacked onto the end. Sam & Dean’s codependency doesn’t mean you need a -cest tacked onto the end. It’s a facet of their bond, and one that fans have different approaches to. Challenges with -cest tacked onto the end are not the only way to capture Sam & Dean’s bond “uniqueness”–some of the g-cest community tried to cite that “uniqueness” as a reason why their challenge, and their challenge only, can capture Sam & Dean accurately. “They aren’t just ordinary brothers! So we have to have the -cest tacked on!” That’s patently ridiculous. All these characters are extraordinary. Their relationships are extraordinary. Love for the platonic aspect of Sam & Dean isn’t robbing it of uniqueness. Not wanting -cest tacked onto the end isn’t robbing it of its uniqueness.
my apologies but i want to pick out a quote here that i think is very important:
“We were told the g-cest challenge was and was not gen, was and was not w*ncest, told it wasn’t w*ncest then told, as platonic bro bond fans, “it’s not for you.” g-cest was presented as the only “real” way to have deep, emotional brocentric fic and if you didn’t want to participate then you got labeled Not a True Fan of the Bro Bond. And if you have any discomfort with w*ncest content you are gatekeeped against as Not a True Fan of the Bro Bond. The harassment and hate and shaming and gatekeeping towards any bro bond fan who doesn’t see the bro bond exactly precisely the same way a small virulent corner sees it and who doesn’t ship incest has been out of control for a long time and it seems to just be getting worse”
this is exactly what’s been going on for a long time and ignoring them has made it so now the small percentage of assholes wield all the power over how one is allowed to enjoy sam and dean and their bro bond.
this is why i’m so appreciative of efforts like bbcc and individuals like y’all that go “you know what? screw you guys” and make their own bro stuff
(hell, them being dicks about how one HAS to love sam/the bros is what drove me to be more sam focused and to learn how to gif/edit…)
tl;dr: ENJOY THE BROS HOW YOU WANT AND DINT LISTEN TO GATEKEEPING ASSHOLES THAT TRY TO TELL YOU DIFFERENTLY