resilience: the ability to become strong, healthy, or successful again after something bad happens

[juppschmitz]

I have this idea that Sam is resilient, Dean isn’t. Then again I might be wrong, or it’s not as simple as that. Maybe both are a bit of both. Maybe it depends on your own point of view.

My instinct goes with Dean not being as resilient as Sam, though.

Do you guys have any thoughts on this?

Comments

[ash48]

*jumps onto your journal again

[juppschmitz]

Hey (again :))!

I reckon that you're right - they both have to be resilient to be able to still function after everything :D

And yes, so true that they both have very different ways of coping.

I think the reason why I feel Sam to be more resilient than Dean is probably that I just don't pay as much attention to him and so my judgment is skewed, seeing as how I just notice more stuff regarding Dean.

Thank you for your comment, and thanks for popping by again :)

[tabaqui]

I think you're right, I think in a lot of ways Sam is more resilient than Dean. He can 'bounce back' a little more quickly, he can shake things off and just *go*, and do his best to be positive and work for a goal.

Dean tends to let his guilt and self-hate mire him down a bit more.

But Sam, on the other hand...once he settles on something, he kind of gets stuck. He used to be more hopeful for their eventual 'end', but now he's kind of got this 'we'll go out fighting' that is his mantra. Dean has actually spared a thought or two for them *retiring*. So I think Sam can fake it 'til he makes it better, in the long run, Dean will never say die, and I think Sam might come to that point sooner.

Frankly, I think they're both amazing, considering a 'real' Sam and Dean would be either comatose or in the corner, gibbering.

[juppschmitz]

Oh yeah, I get what you're saying. They definitely have different coping mechanisms.

Like I was saying to ash48 above, my judgment is probably skewed because I just pay that much more attention to Dean.

And that's why I see the difference between early season 1 and now. Like, that Dean seems to be truly gone. And where he always seemed to try and stay strong for Sam in the early seasons (really up to season 8 and the trials), he seems kind of...helpless now at times.

I'm thinking especially of the end of "Love Hurts" where he opened up to Sam and really made himself vulnerable. I don't think he'd have done anything like it years ago. The closest was probably admitting that he was scared of going to Hell in season 3.

Thank you for your thought and thank you for sharing :)

[hunenka]

I couldn’t stop thinking about this, because when I first read your post, you saying that Sam is more resilient than Dean literally pulled me up short. To me, Dean’s always been the synonym of resilience - all the things he went through, the things he survived and just kept going

[juppschmitz]

... but somehow he still keeps going, still keeps fighting, even though he’s basically just one big walking open wound.

Yes, this exactly! I wonder so often HOW he actually manages to go from one day to the other.

And yes, I totally see what you're saying about Sam. I think it was in one episode in s7 (don't remember which one) where Sam says something about how feels good, like he has atoned for releasing Satan by doing his time in Hell.

This just always makes me feel so bad for Dean, because where Sam did something bad, and got the "opportunity" to atone, Dean never really did anything he needed to (massively) atone for until AFTER he was tortured into doing something horrible. So, in a manner of speaking, it's reverse compared to what Sam's experience was. What was atonement for Sam - being tortured in Hell, was for Dean the catalyst for becoming the torturer, and being "saved" from Hell left him with the knowledge that there will always be this open tab

[hunenka]

Yeah, that conversation about atonement was in Defending Your Life.

The trouble is, I don't think Dean only feels guilty about those ten years in Hell, or about the people he couldn't save, or the times he hurt his loved ones. I think Dean believes that being a hunter has turned him into a lesser person. "I ain't a father, I'm a killer," he told Veritas. "I think my job turns me into someone who can't sit at your dinner table," he told Ben. He thought Purgatory was pure, and a part of him clearly misses that simplicity of "killing with no consequences."

He might not be the most self-reflective man out there, but I'm sure he's fully aware of all these things about himself. And that's what makes him think there's no hope for him. (Though he doesn't seem to think the same goes for Sam. But then again, Dean almost always has more faith in Sam than in himself.)

[juppschmitz]

(Though he doesn't seem to think the same goes for Sam. But then again, Dean almost always has more faith in Sam than in himself.)

Well, if that's not the truth.