Pre-Series Timeline
Sep. 22nd, 2009 11:49 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
hells_half_acrePRE-SERIES TIMELINE:
March 4-5, 1861 – Two very clean strangers show up in Sunrise Wyoming looking for Samuel Colt. (Frontierland)
1954 – John Winchester is born. (What Is And What Should Never Be)
December 4, 1954 – Mary Winchester (Nee Campbell) is born. (year - Children Shouldn’t Play With Dead Things, date – What Is And What Should Never Be)
-The article on the plane crash in the DjinnWish-verse in WIAWSNB is dated December 5th, Newspaper report on events the day AFTER they happen, which means that the plane crash actually occurred on December 4th, therefore when Dean watches (I’m assuming the 11 o’clock) news after celebrating Mary’s birthday in the DjinnWish-verse and they say that it is one year anniversary of the crash, it would mean that it is December 4th
April 24, 1967 – The Impala rolls off the assembly line in Janesville, Wisconsin. (Swan Song)
October 1972 - 8 Nuns are disemboweled at St. Mary's Convent in Ilchester, Maryland. (Lucifer Rising)
-The newspaper Sam reads this from is dated October 16th, 1972.
April 30th, 1973 - John Winchester buys a 1967 Impala on the recommendation of a stranger. (In The Beginning)
May 2nd, 1973 - John Winchester proposes to Mary Campbell (In The Beginning)
- Samuel and Deanna Campbell are murdered (In The Beginning)
One night around April/May 1978 – Anna attempts to kill John and Mary Winchester. They end up with no memories of the encounter or the two Hunters that helped them. At this time, John and Mary live at the address 485 Robintree, Lawrence, Kansas. It is not the same house as the Sam and Dean’s childhood home. (The Song Remains The Same)
-Mary is pregnant with Dean, but it is still very early in the pregnancy.
January 24th 1979 - Dean is born
May 2nd, 1983 - Sam is born
Between May and November 1983 – John and Mary have a fight and John leaves home for a few days. (Dark Side of the Moon)
November 2nd 1983 - Mary Dies
1985/1986 – John takes Dean shooting for the first time.
April 7th, 1985 - Jo Harvelle is born (Hunters Log - S2 DVD special features)
March 1985 - a meteor is seen over Kentucky. (Heaven and Hell)
December 1985 - Anna Milton is born. (Heaven and Hell)
~1989/1990 - A Shtriga almost kills Sam in Fort Douglas, Wisconsin (Something Wicked)
-(I've also seen this year referenced as 1988 with a citation to John Winchester's Journal)
January 1990 - John Winchester investigates a series of grave robbings in Windom, Minnesota. (Jump the Shark)
September 29th, 1990 - Adam Milligan is born. (Jump the Shark)
December 25, 1991 - Sam and Dean spend Christmas alone in Broken Bow, Nebraska, while John is on a hunt. (A Very Supernatural Christmas)
Summer 1994 – Sam and Dean spend a portion of the summer being looked after by Donna, a babysitter (and maid at the Mayflower) in Housatonic, Massachusetts, while their father hunts. On one occasion, John is gone for two weeks. It is the summer before Sam enters 6th grade, and he assigns himself a summer reading list. Dean possibly has a crush on Donna. (Swap Meat)
-Year estimated by assuming Sam was 11 when he entered 6th grade.
Unknown – One or both boys go to the Cleveland Botanical Gardens on a field trip. (Dark Side of the Moon)
November 24th, 1994 (Thanksgiving) – Sam has his first traditional Thanksgiving dinner at his friend Stephanie’s house. He has been attending a school called McKinley for two weeks. (Dark Side of the Moon)
1995 - Sam wins a division championship soccer trophy (Bad Day at Black Rock)
- While Sam waits in the car, Dean kills something (most likely a werewolf) with a silver-arrow to the heart while on a hunt with his father and "embraces the life" of a hunter.(Bloodlust)
May 16th, 1995 - William (Bill) Anthony Harvelle is killed while on a hunt with John.(Hunters Log - S2 DVD special features)
July 4th, 1996 – Sam and Dean “burned down that field” when they set off their own fireworks display. (Dark Side of the Moon)
Unknown (presumably when Sam is a teenager) – Sam runs away for two weeks and lives in Flagstaff, Arizona. He befriends a dog, who he names Bones. Dean fears he is dead and gets in trouble for Sam leaving “on his watch.” (Dark Side of the Moon).
~1996/1997 - at the age of 13, Sam experiences a brief phase where he wants to be a magician. (Chriss Angel Is A Douchebag)
Summer 1997 - The Winchesters hunt a werewolf (After School Special).
-There is an inconsistency in After School Special, because it informs us that it is 1997, and Sam says it's November, but in the High School there are "class of 97" banners everywhere, which would indicate that the graduating class is going to graduate in June 1997, which would make it November 1996. That being said, the caption on the episode itself informs us that it is 1997.
November 1997 - Sam and Dean attend Truman High in Fairfax, Indiana, for 3 or 4 weeks, while John is on a hunt that was originally supposed to be 2 weeks but ended up taking longer than expected. (Dean is in 12th Grade. It is the third school they have attended since September.) (After School Special)
-There is an inconsistency in After School Special, because it informs us that it is 1997, and Sam says it's November, but in the High School there are "class of 97" banners everywhere, which would indicate that the graduating class is going to graduate in June 1997.That being said, the caption on the episode itself informs us that it is 1997.
~1998 - Sam is a mathlete (Metamorphosis).
~September 1998 - Dean takes a roadtrip alone, while Sam and John are in Orlando, Florida, hunting a banshee. He meets Lisa Braeden. (The Kids Are Alright)
Late May or Early June, 1999 – Ben Braeden is born. (The Kids Are Alright)
2002 - Sam leaves for Stanford.
2002/2003 - Adam Milligan meets John Winchester. (Adam states that he is 12 at the time) (Jump the Shark).
Thanksgiving 2003 - Sam's friend Brady returns from holiday and begins to get into drugs. Sam attempts to help. (The Devil You Know).
A Spring either in 2003 or 2004 - Dean dates Cassie Robinson in Athens, Ohio, for a few weeks, while she finishes up her senior year of college (at Ohio University). Personal Opinion - Spring 2003. (Route 666)
Sometime in early 2004 - Sam begins dating Jessica, after being introduced by his friend Brady. (Route 666 - Sam said he dated Jessica for a year and a half) (The Devil You Know - Sam tells us that Brady introduced him to Jess.)
Summer 2005 - John teaches Adam Milligan to drive using the Impala. (Jump the Shark)
- Adam claims he was 15 when John taught him to drive in the Impala, but that's impossible given that Dean had sole possession of the car while Adam was 15. So, John must have taught him the summer he was 14.
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Date: 2010-10-24 09:12 pm (UTC)~1989/1990 - A Shtriga almost kills Sam in Fort Worth Wisconsin (Something Wicked)
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Date: 2010-10-24 09:15 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2010-10-24 11:41 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2011-03-24 01:46 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2011-03-24 02:10 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2011-07-26 10:31 pm (UTC)And Jess was born on January 24th somewhere in the timeline since in a season one nightmare that Sam has where he visited her grave, it's on the headstone. (Yay for Jess and Dean having the same birthday!)
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Date: 2011-07-27 12:52 am (UTC)Yes, I didn't know the year so I didn't put her in...but I suppose we could assume she was the same age as Sam, since they met at school.
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Date: 2012-08-22 05:30 am (UTC)-(I've also seen this year referenced as 1988 with a citation to John Winchester's Journal)
John Winchester's Journal also says that Dean graduated, and that apparently he got the Impala on a hunt early on. And other stuff but whatever, that book is 80% copypasta about supernatural stuff and...well, if I was keeping a journal about hunts and thing to look out for and my kid for 22 years...there'd be a lot more of it.
-Year [1994] estimated by assuming Sam was 11 when he entered 6th grade.
I just wrote it out and it makes sense to me too. I was born in November of '83 and was Class of '02, but my parents told me that they could have put me in kindergarten earlier and I would have been Class of '01 like Sam is in canon (though John Winchester's Journal has him graduating a year late in '02 and not leaving for Stanford right away, possibly as troubleshooting for Dean saying that Sam was at Stanford for two years when Kripke said oops, no it was four).
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Date: 2012-08-22 06:36 am (UTC)And yeah, I totally agree about John's Journal - I think that's an early note from when I first started putting the timeline together, and I didn't know how off-base some of the tie-in books were. I've since decided to ignore mostly anything that isn't on the DVD.
I'm glad you agree with my year estimate for Sam's 6th grade. It's always tricky with the Winchesters, because technically they both repeated a year somewhere - or missed one - I talked it through with someone once, and we figured that with all that moving around, SOMETHING funky happened with their education. :P
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Date: 2012-08-22 07:08 am (UTC)Thanks!
And yeah, the tie-ins are crap. Sam is never "Sammich" anywhere but in Nevermore?
I'm only about seven months younger than Sam so it was easy to guess at what class he'd be in. If he did the regular 13 years, he'd have started kindergarten in '88 (I started in '89) and graduated high school in '01 (I graduated in '02). Then again, Sam and Dean were at the same high school in "After School Special" so either Sam skipped a year or Dean got held back, because there are three years between them, which means there should be three grades between them. (For example, my brother was born in '85 and is class of '04.) Unless it's a junior-senior high school, but as you've noted (and I hadn't even noticed the '96/'97 thing before you mentioned it), there are enough inconsistencies in that episode already. And it would have Dean still in high school his senior year, which leads you to wonder why he didn't stay and graduate when he'd made it that far...maybe he got injured, or John or Sam did? Or he just quit to hunt full-time, sounds like something John would approve of and he uses fake IDs all the time so the drivers license thing wouldn't have much effect on him.
(I have a growing list of WTF? questions and was going through all_spn to see if they'd been asked yet before I make a post with 'em myself.)
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Date: 2012-08-22 07:24 am (UTC)Given that Dean never planned to get a regular job - and he already had fake ids - I think it was probably a case of him not bothering with school at some point (probably in '97/98 and just writing the GED test to get it over with. But yeah, he could have also gotten injured and then written the test later - or maybe Sam got injured and Dean stayed home to look after him, and they BOTH ended up missing enough school that Sam had to repeat a grade and Dean just wrote the GED test.
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Date: 2012-08-22 07:40 am (UTC)And yeah, Dean either just gave up on school because he didn't plan on doing anything but hunting. I just got S1 and S2 on DVD and am doing a rewatch and you can really see in the first few episodes of the series that Dean really likes the saving-people aspect. (and I just saw the part of "Wendigo" where they mention that demons can go through walls, even though there are demons out the wazoo in the series and they never go through walls *go figure*) My headcanon is that Dean goes for his GED after Sam leaves because he doesn't want to be totally uneducated (on paper anyway) while his little brother got a full ride to Stanford through hard work and intelligence despite all the moving around and possible grade-repeating.
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Date: 2012-08-22 07:46 am (UTC)My take on the "demons can walk through walls" is that it translates to "demons can appear out of thin air when in meat suits" - because you can summon them to a closed room. But also, in Wendigo, Sam and Dean had never encountered a demon before, so to them it was just lore and nothing they had seen.
I'm actually working on a "Knowledge Timeline" that records when Sam and Dean learn things. It's taking me a while to do though, because it's a different sort of format to this one...I'm only half-way through the second season with it. I just work on it when I can, it's not a huge priority.
That's not a bad head-canon for Dean :)
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Date: 2012-08-22 08:12 am (UTC)But also, in Wendigo, Sam and Dean had never encountered a demon before, so to them it was just lore and nothing they had seen.
Which is strange. I mean, yeah, Bobby mentions very few (like less than five) demonic possessions a year until things start happening in S1, though in "Wendigo," they talk as if they'd come up against demons before, though in "Phantom Traveler" it seems like a first for them so *shrugs* It's strange because they know that a demon killed Mary so John should have been looking closely at demon lore and accounts from other hunters (I'm betting he learned a lot from Bobby given his history) and passing that stuff on to Sam and Dean.
Honestly, a lot of the stuff they do in the series (especially in the first few seasons) seems kind of amateur for Sam and Dean, since Dean's been steeped in the hunting world since he was four and Sam's seen the effects of it since before he can remember even if he didn't learn what was really going on until he was ten (AVSC was in '93, right?). A lot of fics have them memorizing the Key of Solomon and Devil's Traps and exorcisms, even though neither seems to memorize the exorcism, even after S1. But it would make more sense (though probably not make as good TV) if they had learned those things growing up.
I hear ya on the knowledge timeline. I've been taking notes on what they knew about when, but it's pretty incomplete. And I've got the fandom directory thingy (the spnverticalfile that I mentioned earlier) that I keep procrastinating on.
And thanks, about the headcanon. In The Fic I May Never Actually Get Around To Writing Out, my OC talks him into it, but for pretty much the same reason. :)
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Date: 2012-08-22 08:25 am (UTC)It's a common mistake in fics to have them know it was a demon (or know it was a yellow-eyed demon specifically) from the jump. They didn't actually have any clue what it was until John told them, it was always just "the thing that killed mom". You can see why Sam would grow tired of a quest for revenge against something so vague and unknown...how could he ever hope for it to be over when they had absolutely no clue as to what it was?
So, yeah, the only time they mention a demon before Phantom Traveler is that one brief line in Wendigo when they list it as something that can walk through walls. And in Phantom Traveler, Dean says that demons are way above their "pay grade" - meaning that before then, the four or five possessions that took place each year were obviously handled only by the most seasoned of hunters (such as Bobby).
I'm guessing John kept them on relatively simple hunts when they were kids - ghosts, poltergeists, banshees, etc. The most complicated things they hunted pre-series that I can find are werewolves and skinwalkers.
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Date: 2012-08-22 08:45 am (UTC)Hmm, good point. I have memory issues and I haven't done a re-watch in awhile, I just figured the writers were being vague until they could decide what it was. But okay.
You can see why Sam would grow tired of a quest for revenge against something so vague and unknown...how could he ever hope for it to be over when they had absolutely no clue as to what it was?
True that. Not to mention the constant danger and injuries. (I'm always surprised [except in 4x01] that the makeup people don't add scars to the boys' bodies when they're shown shirtless.) Though in...I don't remember which episode it is, the one where Sam is all "this is why I left," I think a big part of it is also being sick of basically being John's subordinate/minion. He seems to do better, and even find hunting somewhat fulfilling, with Dean, since while Dean tends to have the final say in things they're still more or less equals.
Dean says that demons are way above their "pay grade"
Yep, seeing that now. I stand corrected. I'm watching "Phantom Traveler" now and Sam is just researching demon lore. (But Dean does know the meaning of Christo. Maybe they did learn some Latin anyway.)
I'm guessing John kept them on relatively simple hunts when they were kids - ghosts, poltergeists, banshees, etc. The most complicated things they hunted pre-series that I can find are werewolves and skinwalkers.
Probably, though in the (okay, notoriously unreliable) John Winchester's Journal it harps on how "a hunter never turns down a hunt." And (this is just my reading of John) I tend to wonder how much he worries about his kids since he's leaving them alone a lot (even when they were really young, like in the flashbacks of the Shtriga episode), and all Sam's comments about John's drinking in the Pilot. I mean, it's clear he cares about his boys, and he doesn't want to lose them, but he still takes them and/or sends them on dangerous jobs like the Wendigo one. Complicated guy.
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Date: 2012-08-22 04:11 pm (UTC)I think when they were kids they probably learned the basics of Latin - maybe to deal with witches? I don't know.
I think John is a complicated guy, because he's basically doing the wrong thing with his kids for the right reasons. He takes them hunting (dangerous) because he wants to keep them safe. So, when you are already acting on a contradiction, you tend to have contradictions inside that contradiction - hence leaving them on their own while he hunts more dangerous things...which leads to both neglect and the possibility that he might not come home. And then you add on the fact that he's grieving, and probably part of him realizes he's making questionable decisions as a dad and he's out of his depth...and maybe he's in pain from a hard hunt...and so he starts drinking, which really just makes the problem worse.
So, I think John constantly worries about his kids, but he really can't figure out what the right thing to do with them actually is...and of course, but of course, being a man, he's not about to admit that he might be wrong to anyone (like Bobby, when Bobby might criticize John's decisions).
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Date: 2012-08-23 02:53 am (UTC)I dunno either. It might be something they learned from Pastor Jim if/when they stayed with him.
He takes them hunting (dangerous) because he wants to keep them safe.
Yeah, I guess he figures it's even more unsafe for them not to know, but still the dangerous situations. And yeah, drinking to not-deal with what's going on, which makes things worse, then drinking to not-deal with the guilt and all, and poor Bobby trying to fill in the parenting gaps and John getting pissed at him for it.
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Date: 2012-10-12 06:55 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2012-10-12 07:18 am (UTC)I don't think it gives us much incite as to when Karen Singer died though, the two events aren't related...also, we know from Death's Door that Bobby already knew Sam and Dean in 1989, which would mean that Karen Singer died before then as well.
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Date: 2012-10-12 07:33 am (UTC)I JUST brained and realized that, yeah, of course Karen would have died long before then *facepalm*. I blame my blood sugar. Clearly I haven't had enough cake today.
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Date: 2012-10-12 07:37 am (UTC)Now go eat cake to celebrate! ;)
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Date: 2012-10-29 07:54 pm (UTC)Maybe add the approx date Sam took the LSAT?
or maybe the approx years Sam was in the Drama Club?
DEAN: You know, I've gotta say Dad and me did just fine without these stupid costumes. I feel like a high school drama dork....What was that play that you did? What was it – Our Town. Yeah, you were good, it was cute. -Shadow S1E16
I was a drama dork so yes I remembered this random off handed mention for a season one episode but I did have to look up the transcript to get the line.
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Date: 2012-10-29 07:59 pm (UTC)Might take me a couple of days to get around to it though.
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Date: 2012-10-30 03:06 pm (UTC)This helped me finish a fic about the times John would leave the boys with Bobby. So thank you.
Shared a link on my blog (tricksterfaerie.tumblr).
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Date: 2012-10-30 06:54 pm (UTC)I'm actually working on a different sort of timeline that I think you'll absolutely love. Unfortunately, it's not going to be finished until (hopefully) early next year. But when it is, I will let you know. :)
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Date: 2013-01-13 03:27 am (UTC)(Erm, may I friend you? Don't fret if you want to say no; I won't be offended.)
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Date: 2013-01-13 06:55 am (UTC)I'm glad you found me so I could save you the work though! Let me know if there's anything you need to know that I don't have. I try to be thorough.
And you can certainly friend me. Welcome! :)
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Date: 2013-01-13 11:51 pm (UTC)And thanks :)
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Date: 2013-03-12 10:40 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2013-03-12 05:47 pm (UTC)As you probably read from my long discussion - the way I rationalize it is that Sam didn't repeat a grade (though Dean may have).
Speaking as someone who is a year and a half older than Sam, yet graduated high school in '01, and was getting my Masters in '05 - and never repeated a grade either - I know that not everyone is in the exact same grade as their age group, even when there's no reason they shouldn't be. There's PLENTY of ways to rationalize it... the fact is that the boys moved around a LOT, often mid-semester, and who knows what schools they would have been put into and pulled out of - at some point. They're both little geniuses, so it would have been pretty easy for them to skip Sam a grade ahead at some point... or Sam or Dean could have gotten injured severely and missed too much school to advance a grade as well.
I also have plenty of friends who are Sam's age who decided to take a year off between high school and university - whether that was to save up money, take a few extra credit courses, or to backpack around Europe while they were still young and dumb.
So, just breathe through it. I know it's frustrating when the timing doesn't work out, but there's still plenty of great fic-fodder to explain why it doesn't! Think of it as mystery to be solved rather than a mistake that was made. ;)
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Date: 2013-07-04 10:03 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2013-07-04 10:17 pm (UTC)Sinking of Titanic
Date: 2013-10-01 02:03 pm (UTC)Re: Sinking of Titanic
Date: 2013-10-01 07:17 pm (UTC)I try to keep my pre-series timeline fairly sparse with just information that either affects the boys directly or the main mythology directly...or another important character directly (such as when Anna fell). Otherwise, I'd be here all day - Castiel was alive for every event in human history, after all.
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Date: 2014-05-26 04:45 am (UTC)(I have a few friends who write fic so I'm going to introduce your timeline for anyone who could use it aye?)
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Date: 2014-05-26 05:02 am (UTC)And yes, please let anyone you know who writes fic know about it - it's here as a resource to everyone who might find it useful. :)
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