This whole 'verse is possibly the most evocative I have ever read. I read it struggling through rage at moments and tears at others and overall just wanting to reach through the screen to touche thes characters. To hug Sam. To tell Dean he's a good kid whose sole value doesn't lie in how well he obeys his father. To kick the crap out of John.
Sam is an obstinate kid, no doubt, and a button-pusher. He can't see beyond himself to the bigger purpose behind what his Dad is trying to teach. But John? Your thirteen-year-old son is AFRAID OF YOU. Not just in the moment, because he knows he did something wrong, but ALL THE TIME. How's that for training? Even injured and a little high, he's positive you're going to whip him again, for an accident. He feels like he's drowning and will never escape and like he can't even express who he IS because it goes against the standards you've set: equal ones for a grown man and one nearly grown and someone who's not even fully left childhood.
Yes, John's care and concern are there, expressed in sugar sandwiches and ice baths. But it doesn't negate the rest: not for Sam and not for me. Whatever John's reasons or goals, regardless of where his heart is, he's abusing his kid--both kids, but only one views it that way and is recoiling from it with every resource he has, which isn't much.
This is in no way a criticism of your writing--quite the opposite!! It takes amazing talent to be able to convery so much and so honestly and starkly. I am a huge, huge, fan, and I can't wait to read more!
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Sam is an obstinate kid, no doubt, and a button-pusher. He can't see beyond himself to the bigger purpose behind what his Dad is trying to teach. But John? Your thirteen-year-old son is AFRAID OF YOU. Not just in the moment, because he knows he did something wrong, but ALL THE TIME. How's that for training? Even injured and a little high, he's positive you're going to whip him again, for an accident. He feels like he's drowning and will never escape and like he can't even express who he IS because it goes against the standards you've set: equal ones for a grown man and one nearly grown and someone who's not even fully left childhood.
Yes, John's care and concern are there, expressed in sugar sandwiches and ice baths. But it doesn't negate the rest: not for Sam and not for me. Whatever John's reasons or goals, regardless of where his heart is, he's abusing his kid--both kids, but only one views it that way and is recoiling from it with every resource he has, which isn't much.
This is in no way a criticism of your writing--quite the opposite!! It takes amazing talent to be able to convery so much and so honestly and starkly. I am a huge, huge, fan, and I can't wait to read more!