Wincest! The Musical

[coyotesuspect]

Awhile ago, right before spnland  closed, I told a couple people I would write up why I shipped wincest. Then I forgot about it. I remembered this morning. Wrote it up. And here we are- a 1200 word manifesto on why I ship Sam/Dean, which will probably only be of interest to those two people I promised I'd write it for.

Thanks to familiardevil  for looking this over for me. It's always good to have someone support my crazy. <3 (And, yes, I kept the title because it amused me.)  

 

I'll start with your basic disclaimer: I don't condone incest, and, personally, I don't ship other incest pairings besides Sam/Dean. Not because incest is immoral- I get nervous when people start bringing morality into discussions about sexual practices- but because it is incredibly unhealthy. It's a sign of a relationship that has gone deeply wrong and, honestly, it's a little sad that someone could never quite manage to see beyond their immediate family.

But Sam and Dean, and their relationship, are already deeply fucked up. They're everything to each other. Dean went to Hell for Sam; Sam would have gone to Hell for Dean. You can argue that John did it for Dean, but it makes far more sense that a father do it for his son, than someone do it for their brother; a parent shouldn't have to bury their child.

What's most telling, though, is what happens after the other dies. Dean sees absolutely no way of living without Sam. It's not even a question of whether or not he's going to see the Crossroads Demon; it's only a question of how long it will take him to decide. Sam is the same, and, when his deal is refused, he doesn't move on with his life- which would be the expected reaction for someone who has lost his brother- he goes on an epic quest for revenge, crossing several very important moral boundaries in the process because Dean is and was the single most important thing in his life.

That's what it comes down to: Sam is Dean's everything, and Dean is Sam's everything. That may sound melodramatic (because it is), but it's also true.

There're a couple lines of dialogue in Tall Tales 2.12 that, to me, kind of exemplify this point. It's very brief, blink and you'll miss it kind of stuff, and not really anything I've ever seen pulled out to explain wincest. It's right after Bobby accuses the boys of bickering like an “old married couple.”

Dean: Yeah. Except old married couples can get divorced. We're more like Siamese twins.

Sam: (irate) It's conjoined twins Dean!

Here we have Dean, who has been furious and peeved at Sam for the last few days, admitting there's no way he could ever see him and Sam part. They are, for good or for ill, stuck together. And Sam may correct him, but he doesn't correct him in on that part.

All other relationships therefore become ancillary. I honestly don't believe Dean and Sam could ever love anyone as much as they love each other. If, for example, Dean and Jo had become a couple, I don't see how that pairing could have worked in a way that wouldn't have been extremely insulting to Jo. Dean would forever have put Sam ahead of her. It's laughable to suggest that Dean or Sam could be capable of loving someone more than they do each other. They lack the history, and for Sam and Dean, it's all about the shared history. Their pasts have not just made it so that they're the most important people in each others' lives, but also that they're the only people who can understand each other.

To a certain extent, the show backs up this interpretation of their relationship as a romantic/sexual one. Season 4 and the early part of season 5 were a giant metaphor for a marriage being broken up by marital fidelity. Sam was off to see the other woman; Dean was stalking him and checking his phone messages. The final scenes in 5.01 and 5.02 are break up speeches, and 5.04 is Dean telling Sam he'll take him back because, in his own words, they keep each other human.

Sam and Dean are essentially nothing without each other, and that's some really fucked up codependency.

I know this kind of in for a penny, in for a pound thinking is fallacious. Just because Sam and Dean already lead messed up lives, doesn't mean their lives should become more messed up. That would just be making things worse.

But here's the thing- all of the above just explains why I see wincest as possible and inoffensive, which is an entirely different beast from why I ship wincest.

On a purely superficial level, there are a lot of reasons to ship wincest: the boys are incredibly hot, Jared and Jensen have amazing chemistry, and the smallness of the cast make it so that there aren't a lot of other options. And some of those other options can be just as, if not more so, squicky, especially if we're talking about vessels and issues of consent.

But none of that is really the reason I ship Sam/Dean. I ship couples for lots of reasons- because it would be hot, because the two have (or would have) an interesting dynamic, because it's fun, and because I honestly think that those two people are the best-suited for each other.

Sam/Dean has bits of all the of the above. It would be hot. Their dynamic is extremely fascinating, and most of the reason I watch the show. And, for reasons stated before, I think they're the best fit for each other because of the horrible circumstances that make up their lives.

But simply? I think it would make them happy. Or, at least, I think it would make their lives a little less god-awful.

I don't subscribe to the belief that someone has to be in a longterm romantic and sexual relationship to be happy. But I think, for most people, it certainly helps. Sam and Dean are, really, already incestious in every way except sexually- the one line that society has, more or less arbitrarily, deemed inexcusable to cross. But their relationship resembles much more a partnership than a brotherhood; they live together, their emotional lives center on the other, their main concern is the other person. Adding sex is not only not that big of a deal; all things considered, it makes the relationship more complete.

It means they're getting physical intimacy and comfort from someone who isn't a one night stand, from someone who cares about them more than anyone else possibly could, from someone they trust and respect deeply. It is simply not something they could get from anyone else. I love this show. I love the Winchester brothers. And I really don't want anything except for them to be happy. And I think this might help in that. There's no way they're going to be able to find an outside romantic relationship that provides that level of comfort.

I came into this fandom pretty appalled at the idea of wincest- and it's a large part of the reason it took me until season 3 to start watching. I started reading wincest fic because I was curious and because the gen fic I was reading was unsatisfactory. It was missing a component, and, I felt, denying the intensity of Sam and Dean's relationship.

I started, and I continue, to ship wincest, because it makes sense to me.

And, on another level, rules almost don't apply to Sam and Dean. I was in second grade when I started reading Greek mythology, and I quickly became obsessed with it. Greek mythology, of course, has more than its fair share of brothers marrying sisters and the like.

Of course, they're all gods. And yet...

When Sam and Dean fight, the world ends.

Now that they've made up, I have no doubt they'll manage to save it.

When you're talking about a love that epic- normal rules almost don't apply.

As Sera Gamble herself said, Supernatural is all about the "epic love story of Sam and Dean."
 

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