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that the ideal marriage is one between siblings. This analysis assumes that, as stated in the Bible, woman was created from man, and together they make the ideal “oneness” that everyone strives to achieve through marriage (Vaz de Silva 7–8). Typically romantic love places oneness as an ideal, with terms such as “soulmates” and “two halves of a whole” emphasized as standards to achieve within true romance. Thus incest inherently supports and is supported by the universal requisites of romance; for if incest connotes oneness, then “all legitimate love objects are always already substitutes for the objects of incestuous longing” (Pollak 15). As noted above, folklore often portrays incestuous relationships between siblings as tragic. When the incest involves brother and sister, the story entails discovery and subsequent punishment: its tragedy is that “the sister must die and the brother must mourn, or vice versa” (Twitchell 63–4). Supernatural, however, centers its story on adult brothers who have already isolated themselves from society, thereby rendering pregnancy and the threat of societal segregation irrelevant. In turn, this allows fans of the show to treat Wincest as something acceptable within its given context. Not only the overall context of Sam and Dean’s relationship but also the portrayal of their relationship within the show enable Supernatural fans’ loyalty to the Sam/Dean ship. While many television fans’ ship pairings have little to no basis or support from their respective shows, Supernatural often explicitly alludes to the brothers’ relationship as being irrational or too dependent, and both the material written and the embod-
iment of that material in the show encourages and facilitates, at the very least, recognition of Wincest. In the very first episode of the show, viewers see the boys’ father tell Dean to take his baby brother, Sam, from a fire, thus setting the tone for the rest of the show: Dean takes care of and raises Sam while their father is, largely, absent. Later in this episode, viewers watch as Dean shows up at Sam’s college apartment to tell him their father has gone missing and that he needs Sam’s help. Clearly they have been apart, Dean still hunting while Sam is at school, but their reunion scene emphasizes their close relationship and, given body language and dialogue, hints that there may be more between the brothers than simply brotherhood. One blogger recalls that “Dean’s very first words to his brother after four years apart are, ‘Whoa, easy, tiger!’ which has both affectionate and possibly sexual undertones, spoken as he has Sam pinned under him on the floor” (Pinkwood 2011). The entire scene takes place in a dark room, at one point filmed so the brothers, standing extremely close, are silhouetted—a typical device in romantic sequences when characters are meant to kiss. Sam’s girlfriend then interrupts them, and they step away from each other quickly. While Dean’s motives for collecting Sam do largely revolve around their missing father, he admits to Sam that it isn’t solely because he needs his help, saying “I can’t do this alone.” When Sam responds with “Yes, you can,” Dean replies, “Yeah, well, I don’t want to” (Supernatural 1.01). These few lines accentuate the codependent nature of their relationship, spurring fan fiction about the brothers VOLUME 2
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