I’m further aware that this might possibly anger some followers (if you are a Supernatural fan. If not, ignore this). Hopefully no one disagrees to the point where they unfollow, because let’s be honest, losing a follower is demoralizing. *le grin*
Please note that this is not directed at anyone specific. Just the SPN fandom in general.
Let’s face it. John Winchester is one of the most hated characters on TV. And frankly, I think the John Hate is out of control, so I’m going to do a support post for him, because… ahem. I actually like him.
Who is he?
He’s Sam and Dean’s dad in Supernatural.
Reasons Why People Hate John Winchester
* He was a terrible father.
* He was abusive.
* He only loved Sammy.
* He was too hard on his sons.
* He was a drunk (and abusive when he was drunk).
* He didn’t love his boys.
Yay, I get to defend this. LOL.
What you need to remember about John, is that before marrying Mary, he was a Marine. This would have made him a strong man -- a hard man. Someone who had already seen a lot of violence and death. He’d have known how to defend himself, and it’s likely that he would have been hard on the boys anyway, whether he had become a Hunter or not.
John’s father disappeared when he was like five or six, so he never had a role model father-wise. He had to learn by the seat of his pants, in a manner of speaking.
Okay, so here’s the gist of how John Winchester became a Hunter. It was the middle of the night, He and Mary were at home, their 4-year-old (Dean) was in bed asleep, and Sammy, just turned 6 months, started crying upstairs. He randomly heard Mary scream, so he rushed into the room to find her stuck to the ceiling above Sam’s crib, bleeding from a gash in her stomach. It was horrific. And then the room exploded around her, setting everything on fire. John grabbed Sammy out of his crib and was about to get him out of the house. Dean had already gotten up, so he handed Sammy to him. “Dean, take your brother outside as fast as you can. Now, Dean! Go!”
And then John ran back into the room to try to save Mary.
That’s his introduction.
He ran back into the blazing bedroom to save his wife. How can you hate that?
So there you go. That’s John Winchester’s backstory.
The number one cry coming from John Haters is, “He was a terrible father! He didn’t love his sons, he was mean! John sucked!”
Well… okay. John definitely wasn’t what you can call a real fabulous Daddy. I agree. He was certainly more of a general than a father.
But consider what he was going through!
1.) He literally witnessed the murder of his wife.
2.) He then discovered that what killed her was a demon named Azazul, who had a giant plan to open hell and take over the world.
3.) He went from believing the world was normal to realizing that the supernatural is real. Demons, werewolves, ghosts, wendigos, vampires, etc… all real.
4.) HE WAS GRIEVING. People do weird things where they lose someone they love. (And I think that since John and Mary were matched up by the who’s who in the Cupid Circle of Heaven {something I really disapproved of in the show, btw} his grief was enhanced and prolonged because of the strings pulled and the magic used to make them fall in love in the first place.)
5.) Finding out all of the above freaked him out. He was afraid for his boys because, for all he knew, the demon that killed his wife might come back for them.
Yes, he was obsessed with finding the thing that killed his wife. Wouldn’t you be? He needed closure, and the only thing he could think of to do was hunt down the beast and kill it. How was he supposed to know it wouldn’t come back and hurt the rest of his family? How was he supposed to know it would take so long?
Because of his quest to kill this thing, Sam and Dean grew up on the move, constantly going from place to place, following the Demon. So they never really had a home. They grew up knowing that monsters were real, they knew how to fight, and use guns.
Sam:“Yeah, I know. But still. The way we grew up, after mom was killed. And dad’s obsession
to find the thing that killed her.We still haven’t found the darn thing.
So we kill everything we CAN find.”
Dean: “And we save a lot of people doing it, too.”
Sam: “You think mom would have wanted this for us? The weapons training,
and melting the silver into bullets? Man, Dean, we were raised like warriors.”
John wasn’t trying to ruin their lives, he was trying to protect them. Was he too hard on them? Yeah. But that doesn’t automatically make him a bad father. He was doing his level best under the circumstances. Besides, what dad isn’t hard on his son? My dad was hard on my brother. It’s just a natural thing. Normally however, the dad’s usually have a wife to let them know when they’re being too hard. John lost his wife, remember?Besides. None of the other people who were part of Azazul's big bad, take-over-the-world-plan were hunters. Did that save them? No. With the way all the fates were involved in Sam and Dean's lives, I think they would have become hunters anyway, even without John's help.
"JOHN ONLY LOVED SAM."
No he didn’t. He loved both boys. Sam was just his youngest. The baby. From Sam’s point of view, Dean was the special one. From Dean’s, Sam was. So… explain to me, how both boys were special and not loved?
Dean: "So what are you sayin'? That Dad was disappointed in you?"
Sam: "Was? Is. Always has been."
Dean: "Why would you think that? Sam, Dad was never disappointed in you. Never. He was scared."
Or how 'bout that part:
Sam: "You were perfect. He was all over my case."
John saved/kept a savings account for Sam for when Sam was old enough to go to college. The only reason he freaked out when Sam actually went to college was because he wouldn’t be able to protect Sammy. I think at this point, John had figured out what Azazul was going to do with Sam, and that scared him.
He freaking gave Dean the impala! The impala was John’s baby before it was Dean’s.
Remember when he “wasted” a bullet from the Colt (the only thing that could kill the Azazul the Yellow Eyed Demon) to shoot a vampire and save Sam? YEAH SELFISH, RIGHT?
He kept Dean's first sawed off shot gun. Why would he do that, except because it was Dean's first and he was proud of it? The thing was pretty much useless, after all.
He kept all of Sam’s trophies from sports.
Who did John sell his soul for? Oh, right. Dean.
The guy climbed out of hell to save his boys. He was awesome!
But yeah. He obviously only loved Sam.
JOHN WOULD HAVE KILLED SAM IN SEASON 2
JOHN TOLD DEAN TO KILL SAM.
No, he didn’t. He told Dean to save him. He knew what the Yellowed Eyed Demon had in mind for Sam, (Season four and five. The apocalypse.) and he knew what the consequences would be. (the end of the world.) So he warned Dean that if he couldn’t save Sam, he might have to kill him to stop him.
He didn’t say, “Oh hey, Dean. I’m gonna sell my soul for you. FYI, you need to kill your baby brother.“ He warned Dean, and Dean just chose to save Sam. Like a boss.
JOHN WAS ABUSIVE.
I guarantee you, if John was abusive, Dean, being the protective big brother that he is, wouldn’t have stayed with him. Besides, if someone is abused they wouldn’t have the kind of love that Sam and Dean have for their father. It’s rotten to assume, just because John wasn’t all cuddly and kind, that he beat up and emotionally abused his kids. The show itself never once states that John was out of hand. The only time it suggests that John drinks and gets upset is in the episode with young Sam, when he’s talking to the girl he has a crush on. And he only said that because she implied that her mom is not a good person.
Girl Sam has a crush on: "Yeah, well, she has a temper. Sometimes. It's... no big deal."
Young Sam: "My dad does, too. You don't want to see him when he's drinking."
JOHN WAS A DRUNK.
John was not a drunk.
Bobby was more of a drunk.
Dean is more of a drunk.
I mean, come on! Sam gets smashed when things get really bad!
John was never shown getting drunk. Heck, Sam even says.
Sam: “Well, I’ll tell you one thing, we were lucky we had Dad.”
Dean: “I never thought I’d hear you say that.”
Sam: Well he could have gone a whole other way after mom. A little more tequila,
and a little less demon hunting, and we would have had Max’s childhood.
All things considered, we turned out okay, thanks to him.”
Thanks to him. Thanks to him. Thanks to HIM.
Yeah, John obviously drank too much and beat up his kids. I mean, it's so obvious.
When Sonny asks Dean in Bad Boys if his dad gave him the bruises on his wrists, Dean says, “No, werewolf.” which Sonny thinks is a lie.
Someone actually asked the writer if John was the one who hurt Dean.
The writer said no.
The writer writes John Winchester.
The writer knows John.
The writer says John didn’t beat up Dean.
Who are you going to believe…. The fans or the writer?
In Swap Meat, Sam and Dean are talking to a lady who used to babysit them when John went on a really dangerous hunt. And she said, "Mm-hmm. Oh, he'd always come limping back. He loved you boys."
Or in Phantom Traveler:
Jerry: "Your dad said you were off at college, is that right?"
Sam: "Yeah I was. I'm taking some times off."
Jerry: "Yeah, you bet he did."
Now, I won’t lie. John would never have won a best dad medal. And, like most fans, I back and forthed trying to decide if I liked him.
He’s so frustrating.
Like, he’ll do something sweet, like save money for Sam to go to college…. And then Sam decides to go to college and he flips because he’s scared for Sammy’s life. (Like I said, I think he'd already figured out what Yellow Eyes was planning and he knew that it would be dangerous for Sam to be alone.)
Dean: "He was afraid of what could've happened to you if he wasn't around.
But
even when you two weren't talkin'... he used to swing by Stanford
whenever he could.
Keep an eye on you. Make sure you were safe."
Sam: "What?"
Dean: "Yeah."
Sam: "Why didn't you tell me any of that?"
Dean: "Well, it's a two-way street, dude. You could've picked up the phone."
He’s way too hard on the boys, yes. And that first season when they’re looking all over the place for him, freaking out, he was a big stinker. And he wouldn’t answer his freaking phone.
Dean almost dies, and they can’t get a-hold of him.
The house where their mother died is haunted, and Dean tries to call him, and he doesn’t answer. (Even though he was in the same town. Like…. Across the street from the house. The guy was a turd.)
And then you find out, he was staying away because the things he was hunting had turned around and were hunting him right back. John knew this and he was trying to keep his boys safe by staying away from them.
COULD HE HAVE MAYBE CALLED THEM AND LET THEM KNOW?
YES.
DID HE?
NO.
WAS IT RUDE AND THOUGHTLESS?
YES.
DOES IT MAKE HIM A TERRIBLE ABUSIVE FATHER?
NO.
He thought he was protecting his kids.
The fact of the matter is…. so much John hate is speculative fans going, “Oh, John must have done this. John did that.”
When, in reality, John was just broken man who was trying to avenge his wife’s death and raise his sons by himself. He definitely made a load of mistakes, no denying.
He was a good man in an impossible situation, and no matter what choices he made, he would still be hated, because for some reason, the fans latched on to the defects in his character and won’t give him a break.
If he hadn’t gone after the demon, the fans would say that he was a bad husband and he didn’t love Mary.
If he didn’t teach his boys to defend themselves, the fans would say he was negligent.
If he hadn’t warned Dean about Sam, the fans would have said that he should have because Dean had a right to know.
If he hadn’t sold his soul the fans would have said that he didn’t love Dean.
The guy can’t win!
I love him.
But he was a better character than Cas. At least he never betrayed the boys. At least he didn’t hurt them. (Cas deliberately and maliciously broke Sam’s mind. It was calculated to do the most damage, because he knew it would incapacitate Sam and it would make Dean freak out and be almost unable to think. He did it anyway, because Cas wanted to be a god. So tell me again how Cas is just a sweet baby?)
John only left his boys because he honestly thought it was safer for them.
John gave up trying to avenge his wife, so that he could sacrifice his soul to save Dean’s life.
John was willing to give up his life to kill the yellow eyed demon.
John wanted nothing more than to quit being a hunter.
John was a sad person.
"No Sam. I want to stop losing people we love. I want you to go to
school,
I want Dean to have a home. I want....I want Mary alive.
It's
just....I just want this to be over."
Things I know for sure:
1.) There is never a part where anyone says that John abused his kids.
2.) There is never a scene or dialogue where it implies that John did not love his kids.
3.) There is no way Sam and Dean would be so loyal to someone, if he was abusive. Even after all this time, nine years after he died, they’re still fiercely protective of him. People say snotty things about John, and they both get like, “We will cut you.”
In As Time Goes By, when Henry says something snide about the way John grew up, and Dean says,
"The hard way. Surviving a lonely childhood, a stinking war... only to get married
and have his wife taken by a demon... and later killed by one himself.
That man got a bum rap around every turn. But you know what? He kept going.
And in the end, he did a hell of a lot more good than he did bad."
In the end he did a lot more good than bad. In the end, he ended up sacrificing himself so that his son could live. He loved his kids so much, that he gave up his soul for them.
John: "You know, when you were a kid, I'd come home from a hunt, and after
what I'd seen,
I'd be, I'd be wrecked. And you, you'd come up to me and
you,
you'd put your hand on my shoulder and you'd look me in the eye
and
you'd... You'd say 'It's okay, Dad'
Dean, I'm sorry.
You shouldn't have had to say that to me, I should have been
saying that
to you. You know, I put, I put too much on your shoulders,
I made you
grow up too fast. You took care of Sammy, you took care of me.
You did
that, and you didn't complain, not once.
I just want you to know that I
am so proud of you."
And c’mon, guys. Jared and Jensen both like John.
The writers like John. The guy who plays John wants to come back and set the record straight.
Why can’t the fans give the guy a break?
If you want to hate someone, hate Yellow Eyes for poisoning Sam.
Hate Lucifer for planning the apocalypse.
Hate Mary Winchester for not telling John that she made a deal to bring him back to life, for not warning him about things so he could have been more prepared.
Don’t hate John.
Dean and Sam take after John.
We love them.
Where do you think they learned to be good and selfless? It wasn’t Cas. It wasn’t Mary. It was growing up with John.
And that’s all.
