#jack meta

I understand being those kinds of girls I talked about. i have been like that before. that post was about me too. The scary thing is that you have to let your self be open to the possibility of hurting AND after you hurt you're going to try again.

it's a tough road but the people worth a damn will wait for you to figure it out, will stay by you when you stumble, and will shake you around when you're starting to be one of those kinds of girls. you have to keep fighting against it.

I think another aspect of Jacks character that is often forgotten is that he also isn’t entirely human, and that coupled with the general infantilization he gets from the fandom means nobody is really looking very deeply into his behavior or recognizing it as a performance—specifically one that’s rooted in his need to be seen as acceptable and “Good,” and contributes so much to the sensitivity and defensiveness he’s shown to have towards his perceived place in TFW and the Winchester family.

everyone thinks it’s cute and charming that he wanted to match ties with Cas and supposedly has a talking teddy bear toy in 15x11 (the both of which can be seen as part of traditional nuclear family roles just like Cas calling him ‘slugger,’) but when that same episode ends with jack ruefully admitting to cas that he’s going to kill himself as part of Billie’s plan and as a way to atone for the damage he caused, you really have to question the sincerity of his behavior—especially since it’s not even the first time he’s used cutesy charming behavior to essentially manage everyone’s mood and emotions to keep being perceived the way he wants to be perceived at the face value he’s created for himself (unabashedly lying to Sam and Dean about anything happening while he was out with a big smile and an “I promise,” in 14x16, and doing the same thing to Mary in the beginning of 14x17).

another thing is that if jack does feel like he can be himself and also be accepted or even praised for it, like he was in apocalypse world with Mary and the refugees that saw him as a hero, he gets immediately defensive whenever something about his [genuine] self or his capability is questioned; he gets upset at Mary for not thinking that he can beat Michael alone and blows up at Cas for thinking he’s too weak to do anything by himself as a human being, and in both of these instances he switches tones a lot between a very deadpan and blunt when he’s essentially unmasking, vs a soft one when he’s trying to be reassuring and acceptable.

it adds a lot to his identity crisis in the beginning of s14 and especially to his soulless arc, when he’s basically desperate to get back into the traditional Good Son role he’s gotten even though his own subconscious outright mocks him for it and calls him pathetic for even wanting to be that person again

*which jack also becomes increasingly defensive and blatantly aggressive about.

Optimism & the tragedy of Harper

& how it relates to Jack's death (a long one)

A lot of debate over how accountable he may or may not be is centered on his age compared to his maturity level. This is understandable considering he has the capacity to learn complex skills and concepts at an alarmingly fast rate while also very much being new to the world.

What makes me insane about what happens to Mary is if it were literally anyone else the brothers would not have reacted the way they did. Would they have been upset? Sure. No more upset than they were when he accidentally hurt the security guard in 13x06. As Dean himself said in 13x06, they all have blood on their hands and they’re all monsters if held to the standards Jack is attempting to hold himself to. Not only that, but he rushed in moments earlier to save Sam’s life which is conveniently forgotten.

The problem is, this is Mary. This is the perfect mother figure that Dean (and even Sam) can’t quite remove from a pedestal considering their whole lives revolved around getting revenge from the last being that killed her before discovering the larger web of “fate” they were tangled in and forced to suffer through.

Dean and a lot of anti-Jack fans often forget all of the events that led up to this point, all that his parental figures have done in their own pasts, and Jack’s true age in spite of his appearance and complex skills. There are a lot of people who put Jack in one of two spaces: he’s a baby/toddler or he’s a teenager/young adult.

The thing is? He’s both.

It is canon that he learned how to drive before he learned how to blow a bubble out of bubblegum. He likely learned how to fight a war before he learned how to tie his shoes. He was hacking traffic cameras before he received a talking teddy bear. Jack is experiencing life out of order and on fast forward, and has repeatedly shown that his lack of overall experience may not make him necessarily a “child” but it does give him a certain level of naivety and lack of ability to properly handle certain stressful situations.

Not only that, but let’s remember that the last time Jack disappointed a parent and lost a part of himself, he was beaten to hell and almost sacrificed himself in order to save another parent. It is even in the 14x17 script that, when Jack asks Mary, “Are you going to tell them?” he’s scared. Truly scared. Now, this can be anything between the very understandable “child is scared about his dad(s) being told he misbehaved and getting into trouble” and the recent memory of “the last time something like this happened was very traumatic and I haven’t been given the time or space to process this fully.”

More to it, the people who say Jack “murdered” Mary forget that it was not only an accident, but this two-year-old being flew around the planet in an attempt to right a wrong born out of a moment of emotional turmoil. When in this show have we seen anyone else give this much effort to fix an error? And, throughout his struggles to fix his mistake, we see him rocking back and forth, praying to his mother, and trying to ignore the demons in his head. This young soul had a lot of his autonomy stripped from him, repeatedly tried to prove to be useful in order to receive acceptance and love, and was rewarded with his worst fears being confirmed the moment he accidentally caused harm.

I’m not saying Jack wasn’t dangerous. Anyone with all of two years’ worth of life experience complete with intense powers is dangerous. How many toddlers in this world would have nuked their parents in a grocery store after being told they couldn’t get the cereal they wanted? He doesn’t have the life experience at this point to regulate his feelings with appropriate reactions. What I am saying is that he was treated unfairly and never received the understanding often afforded to the brothers who are both more experienced and, arguably, have caused more damage throughout their lives.

that’s true, jack and niki in my head are very close to tommy’s age.

then again, they are older, and when you’re a minor even one or two years is a HUGE difference to you. when you have a friend in a lower grade you’re usually well aware of the fact that you’ve been to more school then them, the stuff theyre doing is stuff youve already done, you’re more experienced then them and can therefore give advice—

like they might try to pretend those power dynamics aren’t there (especially if it’s seniors who want to date freshmen) but in reality they are.

and YET, jack and niki are still teenagers. i do not think their dynamic with tommy is that of two adults versus a child, i think it’s a dynamic of three teens. they are closer in age.

so basically what i’m saying is, i’m kind of a centrist in this particular issue— no rocket duo don’t have adult power dynamics towards tommy, BUT, they do have a power dynamic, even if it’s a much smaller one.

Sam and Dean, without asking questions, immediately:

Hi! :D I think something like law, political science, or maybe history are what I’d go with too, and for that exact reason. These are all really common majors for someone preparing for a career in politics, and I am quite sure that’s what Thompson Sr. (and Vernon) would have pushed him toward.

As for age, I’ve generally headcanoned him as being younger than CMM, because he strikes me that way. I had generally put him as a couple years older than Peggy and Daniel, but not that much older, maybe around 27-28. I don’t really have a good reason for not using the actor’s age except that I feel he reads younger on the show, and it’s more in keeping with his character arc, which I think makes the most sense if he was pretty young when he enlisted (20 or 21ish, maybe) and therefore didn’t have a lot of life experience yet.

... hmm, I just remembered that he refers to multiple years of college when he’s talking to his British Intelligence buddy in season 2. Without going back to check I don’t remember exactly what he said, but he definitely would’ve had at least 2-3 years of college, and it’s certainly plausible that he could’ve gotten a whole degree, like you said.

Basically I think I headcanon him a bit younger than that, but not a whole lot younger. Of the Peggy-Daniel-Jack triad, I think of him as the oldest, but not a lot older.

Hey, Anon! Sorry it took me so long to answer this---I’ve been really busy trying to write the fic I’m posting tomorrow--but to answer your question!

Okay, so this, I feel, has kind of been done to death/is pretty much general knowledge considering what I’ve seen on my dash, so I’m gonna keep this short. I personally think that Jack imprints on Dean specifically because of Castiel’s relationship to both brothers. By this, I mean: Dean is Castiel’s best friend (and potential romantic partner), and Sam is Cas’s friend. Or: Dean has always been more emotionally involved when it comes to everyone’s favourite trench-wearing angel, as opposed to Sam, who is concerned as any friend would be, but does not have anywhere near that level of attachment.

Barring the fact that Jack is nephilim (though I’ll touch on that later), it’s pretty clear that Dean has been the one totally and overtly destroyed by Castiel’s passing, which... for a new-born kid who has no experience with reading complicated micro-expressions and other complex human emotions, the immediate conclusion is: Sam is sad, Dean is devastated. Ergo, Dean was closer to Castiel. If Cas was supposed to be Jack’s model for goodness and human behaviour, and Cas was very close to Dean, it then stands to reason that Dean can act as a role model in his stead.

The fact that Jack is nephilim also adds a really nice analytical space for the audience to play with. Most notably: we know that angels sense longing. Jack is half angel, but it’s possible he can sense this as well. Living with Dean must be unbearable with regards to his grieving process and longing for Castiel, which is, honestly, something I think Jack can recognize in himself: he is also longing for his mom/dad/parental figure. It may be a different type of longing, but once again, I feel that Jack is still a little young to be able to parse the subtleties differentiating Dean’s longing and his own. Recognizing himself in Dean, therefore, makes him an ideal candidate for imprinting. 

Then there’s the other really interesting fact that Jack was inside Castiel. Dean recently pointed out that he manipulated him, with the implication that this was from the inside because he was unborn. If this is the case: does Jack know anything of Castiel? We don’t know yet, but if he does... he’d also know that Dean was Cas’s primary teacher when it comes to humanity and “goodness”, further establishing the eldest Winchester as the best model for human behaviour. 

Furthermore, I think that if Jack has indeed learnt Castiel about through his manipulation of him---if he knows him, you could make a very good argument for Jack choosing Dean as his human role through recognizing love. This is essentially the same argument for Jack’s recognizing Dean’s longing in himself: if Jack can recognize that he feels love for his mother, even though she’s gone, he should be able to go recognize that Cas felt love for Dean. Clearly, the types of love will be different, but he’ll feel it, recognize the feelings as being very similar and think: my father loved this man, therefore he is good, just as I love my mother and she was good. 

I know this argument is pretty tenuous, but it’s my headcanon, and if it’s true, that also gives insight into just how upset Jack must be that Dean is outwardly antagonistic towards him. I mean, we can understand Dean’s actions as being tied to his grief and Jack’s past actions, but all Jack knows is that this man who, was loved by his father and was therefore good, hates him. No wonder he’s convinced he evil: if Dean, the paragon of goodness (because Castiel loved him), says he’s bad news, he must be! And in fact, when Jack overhears Dean and Sam’s argument, and when Dean, for the first time, truly lays out why he’s so angry with Jack and doesn’t trust him---why he thinks he’s evil---that is when Jack calls for Cas. Because yes, he is scared and thinks he’s truly alone... but also because he gets it, now: because Cas loved him, Dean is good; Dean blames him for X; the way to become good in Dean’s eyes is therefore to reverse X. 

I’m actually blown away by how Cas-centric this season is, even though he isn’t even technically alive. Castiel’s entire way of being has influenced Jack’s moral positioning and fuelled his desire to imprint on Dean, while Dean will not stop re-quoting and twisting one of Castiel’s first lines to him in 4x01: you deserve to be saved. And I know I’ve said this a billion times, but I’ll say it again because it continues to blow me away: Dean has not once in this season said to anyone: “you deserve to be saved”. He’s told Sam you deserved, past tense, but no one is currently worthy of saving right now. Dean has come leaps and bounds in his own personal development in past seasons, and now he’s basically back to square one. Why? Because Cas is dead, guys. And if the angel who saved him isn’t brought back i.e. not worth saving---then why the hell even bother trying?