In the old days, guns were necessary for survival, so the logic of some people in the panel, totally understandable, was that the same could be applied to the Winchesters. But we were thinking that circumstances might warrant training and familiarity, but hardly, like you pointed out, the expectation that a 10 year old and a six year old would be allowed around a sawed off shot gun with the safety off for DAYS and then, the ten year old is expected to USE said gun on a supernatural creature that he doesn't know anything about, that is, he doesn't know how to kill it, like, while it's feeding. John's expectations were totally off the charts here, and of course Dean failed, and that breaks my heart each and every time.
And I agree with you about your distinction there. I think that's the concensus the panel came up with - he was a bad dad but he didn't fail totally as a parent. I like your distinction even better, because it's more clear about what the conflict is here - can we say he's a good person, while allowing that he was a shitty dad. You don't often meet such complexity in a character that was in less than 15 episodes!
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Date: 2008-03-13 02:29 am (UTC)And I agree with you about your distinction there. I think that's the concensus the panel came up with - he was a bad dad but he didn't fail totally as a parent. I like your distinction even better, because it's more clear about what the conflict is here - can we say he's a good person, while allowing that he was a shitty dad. You don't often meet such complexity in a character that was in less than 15 episodes!