I don't know whether someone has already asked about this or you've already talked about it but I thought of something. There's this thing with the grenade launcher being a symbol for performing!Dean's facade coming down, right? So I noticed that it was always Sam who kept Dean from using it. Could it be a symbol for the fact that ultimately, the brodependency was keeping Dean back because he still felt like he had to maintain the strong parental role for his /child/?
I’d love to hear @mittensmorgul thoughts on this actually, as she’s the one I saw talking heaps about the grenade launcher this season… that ok Mittens?!
Personally absolutely, this is a key part of the Performing!Dean facade, that he is Sam’s parent and as such needs to protect him from anything, even parts of himself that he sees as unfit parent-wise, it’s a standard parent - child dynamic, especially for a single parent, to put the child first before indulging in what they want themselves.
It reminds me of the parents who say that they rediscovered life and go travelling / buy a villa in Spain or become circus acrobats or whatever, once the kids go off to college, because they rediscover themselves after repressing it for so long for the kids, while the kids are nonethewiser and often like WTF? I didn’t know you would have wanted to do that? You could have! I wouldn’t have stopped you! But the parents see that they have to put the childs needs before their own…
I think the brodepedency is definitely a big part of why Dean felt that he had to hold back, it wasn’t Sam’s intention of course, whereas Sam’s intention was to stop him using the grenade launcher, until the time was right… but yeah, it still fits in the sense that a large part of it is Sam even if it isn’t intentional on his part.
