aka – A Comparison of (Randomly Chosen) Violence Against Dean and Sam
aka THE MOST IMPORTANT BAR CHARTS I HAVE EVER CREATED
Once upon a time, I
just wanted to get a firm count of how many times Dean got slammed
into a wall (or the ground, or other things). @obsessionisaperfume
suggested I also track Sam getting choked or getting hit on the
head – which was a good suggestion, since those are things that Sam
is known for. I eventually decided to track everything for both
brothers, and that’s when things got… interesting.
The charts below are
the culmination of months of work (which was me watching the show and making
ticky marks in a notebook, which I then entered into a spreadsheet).
I am attempting to keep my commentary to a minimum, instead allowing all of you draw your own conclusions from the results. (However, there
are a few places where I can’t help making a comment because I’m chatty.)
There are several different ways I can present this data, so there is a slight chance that this may be part 1 of 2.
I hope you enjoy
them as much as I enjoy Dean getting slammed into walls.
We begin with the Wall Slam, which, as many of you know, is my favorite of all types of randomly chosen violence.
Wall Slam Criteria: A brother must be thrown or pushed into a wall by an outside force (such as a physical shove, telekinesis, etc). For this purpose, a ‘wall’ is defined as a wall or something relatively flat that is resting directly against a wall (such as a mirror or a bookshelf). A bookshelf that is in the middle of the room is not considered a wall, though – those are classified separately, as ‘other.’ Closed doors also count as walls, regardless of whether or not a brother is thrown through the door. (Glass is certainly a popular material for doors. Rich people, man.)
For most of the series, Dean was the reigning Wall Slam champion, clocking 11 straight seasons of winning the non-existent Wall Slam competition. In season 12, however, Dark Horse Dabb certainly made a statement in his first season as show runner: Sam, for the first time in series history, was thrown into more walls than Dean.
* The reason for the 0.5 slam for Dean is due to a half-wall/half-ground slam that occurred in episode 12×10.
When a wall is not available, the ground will suffice.
Ground Slam Criteria: A brother must be thrown or pushed into the ground by an outside force (such as a physical shove, telekinesis, etc). ‘Ground’ is defined as the ground or a floor.
Despite Sam taking the Wall Slam crown from Dean in season 12, Dean continued his winning record when it comes to the ground. Dean has been slammed into the ground more than Sam, winning 9 seasons to Sam’s 3.
Other Slam Criteria: A brother must be thrown or pushed into anything other than a wall or the ground by an outside force (such as a physical shove, telekinesis, etc). This is including (but not limited to) fences, people, tables, and piles of trash.
Season 1 is the outlier, being the only season where Sam was thrown into things other than the wall or the ground more times than Dean; Dean has an 11-season streak going since season 2. If there’s a thing, Dean will likely be thrown into it.
Choked Criteria – A brother must have something (usually hands, but may also be rope or cord) wrapped around their neck or they must have otherwise lost the ability to breathe. This includes when dick angels take away a brother’s lungs, or when a demon pretends they’re Darth Vader and force chokes a brother.
I am now convinced that the reason Sam has such a reputation for being choked is largely due to the 1st season, where he was choked several times and Dean wasn’t choked at all. Dean has actually been choked more times than Sam throughout the series, winning 7 seasons to Sam’s 5.
Hit on Head Criteria: A brother must have been hit on the head by an object other than a fist (because if I had tried to keep track of them getting punched in the head I would have run out of paper).
Hit on Head Criteria Exception: I counted a hit to the head by a fist when the fist hit resulted in unconsciousness.
This was especially interesting because there is an apparent pattern with the changes in show runners. Kripke was showrunner from seasons 1-5, where Sam was reigning champion of the head hit until they finally tied in season 5. Seasons 6-7 were run by Gamble, and Sam still reigned supreme. When Carver took over for seasons 8-11, and then Dabb in season 12, Dean was then consistently smacked on the head more than Sam.
Now let’s add all Wall Slams, Ground Slams, (Other) Slams, Chokings, and Head Hits together.
There is one firm conclusion I can draw from this: Sam was beaten up more in season 1, and then Dean became the favored punching bag for all show runners.
I’d like to also present the exact same data with a different visualization:
What are your predictions for season 13?
[Sam & Dean] have nothing but each other, but that’s the core of the show.
What if little tiny Sammy died of SIDS, and little toddler Dean made up a story about fires and demons to explain why his baby brother wasn’t around anymore?
ok. but what about.
dean gets hurt on a hunt and wakes up in a mental institution. john is there. and mary. they tell him this is the first time he’s been lucid in years. dean’s shouting about getting back to sammy, to protect him, there’s demons after him. and john and mary just look real tired. and sad. and mary crouches down next to him all gentle and says sammy- sammy died dean. as a baby. you don’t- don’t you remember? we had a funeral. you were only four… try and remember for me baby.
and god it feels so real, and his mom and dad, they’re there. mary touched him and it’s everything he remembers, down to the smell of her hand cream. but it can’t be real, can it? so he lashes out, rushes for the door, and john has to hold him back him until a nurse comes in with a sedative and knocks him out.
he wakes up in a different hospital, sam but his side, smiling at him as soon as he opens his eyes dude, you took a pretty good bang to the head. they say you’ll be fine, though. be outta here in a few days. dean tells sam about his dream and sam shrugs it off, concussions, man.
a few weeks later he goes to sleep in his motel bed, sam snoring a few feet away, and wakes up in a hospital bed, arms restrained, belted to the bed. mary’s there again, sitting beside him, rubbing his hand. and he opens his eyes but he feels so tired. mom? she whispers when she talks to him, shh baby. we’re going for a little field trip today. you feel up for that?
and he doesn’t realize where she’s taking him until it’s too late. it’s sunny out, brighter than it has any right to be as she leads him to it. the tiny headstone fashioned in the shape of a teddy bear, engravings weathered and rounded with age.
Hush my dear, be still and slumber, Jolly angels guard your bed
Samuel Winchester 5/2/1983-11/2/1983
and it’s real. the stone is solid under his fingertips and the grass beneath his knees is damp and seeps through his jeans and he can almost remember it, standing here over twenty five years ago, holding his father’s hand, not really understanding but trying to be brave, be a brave little soldier for daddy ok? he remembers, and it’s real.
on the ride back mary explains as best she can. he’d had a psychotic break, twenty two years to the day after sam’s death, no one really knows why. he’s been institutionalized for years, semi-catatonic until a new experimental treatment became available. after the third treatment he began having these moments of lucidity. but we need you to fight for it baby, we need you to fight your way back to us. the doctors had explained, the treatment is only the first step, but if dean doesn’t fight to stay in the real world, he’ll revert right back into those delusions.
mary signs him back in and dean pulls her into a tight hug before she leaves. i love you mom. i’m so sorry. tell dad i lo- his voice catches- i love him too. she pecks his cheek, tells him it’s ok, that she loves him too, that she’ll see him tomorrow.
but she won’t. it’s his choice, right? the life he remembers may be nothing but a paranoid delusion, but he’ll take delusions any day over a world without his brother in it. when dean wakes up the next morning, it’s to the smell of convenience store coffee and the sound of sam turning on the motel shower.
FANGIRL CHALLENGE | Pairings (1/15) |Sam & Dean Winchester (Supernatural)
“It doesn’t matter — whatever we do. I mean, it turns out that you and me, we’re the, uh – the fire and the oil of the Armageddon. You know, on that basis alone, we should just pick a hemisphere. Stay away from each other for good. Because whatever we have between us — love, family, whatever it is — They are always gonna use it against us. The point is, maybe we are each others’ Achille’s heel. Maybe they’ll find a way to use us against each other, I don’t know. I just know we’re all we got. More than that, we keep each other human. So, what do we do now? We make our own future.”
Backup bloh 