Everybody Loves A Homerotic Bond In The Trenches

[hope]

There's been a lot of speculation around about John's relationship to Ellen and Jo; namely, a lot of people are thinking that Jo is John's illegitimate daughter. I have to admit I don't particularly agree with that interpretation, for a number of reasons.

- Timing. Jo is what, no younger than about 19? That would mean that about three, four years after Mary's death John would be sexing Ellen. I kind of have mixed views about how much sexing John would have done after Mary's death, even *that* long after, though I'm not ruling it out entirely. However, this would make Jo considerably younger than Dean, and... not sure if they'd do that. It depends on where the creators take that 'relationship'.

- My impression of the Winchester family is that it's a pretty self-contained bastion. Its integrity is based on its hermetic nature - it's All About Them. their vigilante logic is all based on the family, not the greater good, John is clearly still obsessed with his wife 20 years after her death, etc etc. In other words, I'm not sure that the show would undermine the construction of their family by introducing illegitimate children (be they demonspawn!Sam or Jo) etc - i.e. Winchesters who aren't entirely Winchesters. Because that's what the essence of the show is about. People who are Entirely Winchesters. (Then again, I wouldn't put it past Kripke & co to undermine it deliberately to fuck things up. But i think it's more likely that they'd introduce that *potential*, make the characters deal with it, the reveal that it isn't true (demons lie/manipulate/etc) - Think Veronica & Keith Mars and the paternity test, hey?)

- The construction of Ellen and Jo as parallell to John and Dean. Ellen and John are reflections of each other (whilst maintaining their own characterisation, OMG SHOW I LOVE YOU), they're not complementary components. Mary was John's complementary component, Dean is Sam's (Dean and Sam are not reflections of each other).

WHICH LEADS TO MY SUBJECT LINE. Ellen's complementary component. (and here's where my thoughts go all meandering...)

Jo is very fair. This is another thing that makes me think she's not John's child; Ellen isn't that fair herself. Sure, if Mary Winchester had impregnated Ellen I could see Jo being the result, but John? even with blonde!mary, his children are reasonably dark (you're dark) in colouring (though, jo does have awesome dark eyes).

So, that made me think that heh, Jo's father was probably blond. So, John and Ellen both had blond(e) spouses. Further complementary + reflection stuff, there. And, um, Jo's father was also a hunter, and is also dead.

Then my brain got all excited. When did John meet/know Ellen? was it before or after her husband died? Is it quite possible that - gasp - John hunted with Ellen's husband? aka the blond, male, Mary-reflection? Then I got all excited in my pants, so to speak. Ellen's family is a varied reflection of the Winchesters, with genders inverted. Maybe adultery isn't your thing, but the thought of John off hunting and fucking with a male version of Mary takes me to a very happy place. Brothers/lovers in arms (a la wincest, even).

Also, John angst, because of course Jo's father DIES at some point. And maybe, she speculated with further glee into the 'verse she's entirely creating out of thin air, MAYBE Mr.Ellen's death is in direct relation to John (hah, Caleb, Jim, etc...), maybe John feels responsible, maybe that's the source of his self-enforced alienation from Ellen. MAYBE it was one big love triangle thing. MAYBE.

And man, I want to write that whole damn fic, now. Epicly so. Only, we've had what - ONE episode with Ellen's family? No doubt I would be jossed before the end of the season. Still, see above comment about being happy in my pants.


As a kind of unrelated aside, all the talk and excitement over the Dean/Ellen pairing makes me cackle with glee, too. Because as I said, Ellen is John's counterpart. So to me, these people are getting all squeeful about John/Dean by proxy.

Also, on the flipside of that coin, how do people feel about Ellen/Jo?

Comments

[phantomas.livejournal.com]

Writing a PhD. If I ever manage to finish it, that is ;) There isn't a major theorist of the buddy pair dynamic (that would be me once the thesis is done, says she with not a grain of modesty), but I have several articles/authors that you could use. If you send me the relevant passage, I can point you in the right direction. Buddy pairs have been considered almost always in relation to issues of gender and race, and only recently and more rarely as anything more than a subgenre of police drama - I mostly talk from a film-television studies point of view, of course, but I have been forced to research in several directions, ie. American literature, feminist studies, etc, because, as I said, there's very little on the buddy dynamics per se. I'll be very happy to help!

[hope]

*beams*

I shall email you right now!!! I am so intrigued by your thesis. Are you hoping to get it published/bookified when you're done? I'd love to read it.