You don't need to have a family to know what you are talking about. And we all know how difficult it is to find and marry someone when you hunt demons for a living.
After his wife died, I think that much like John, Bobby made the decision to devote his life to hunting. The difference is that Bobby didn't have any children. I think if he did, we would have seen the difference between Bobby's and John's hunter-parenting strategies.
Just because he didn't remarry doesn't make him a coward in his interpersonal relationships. Maybe you could call it cowardice to decide not to drag someone into demon hunting, but you can also say that is was simply a conscious decision, and that there are more personal relationships than the spousal relationship to not be a coward about. You don't necessarily have to remarry to prove anything. Heck, you don't even have to marry a first time to prove anything.
Maybe it's BECAUSE Bobby never got a chance to have a family of his own that he has such a strong sense of family - he is less likely to take what family he does have for granted (not saying that John did - I'm just talking in general here).
Also, sometimes when you don't have something of your own that other people do, it gives you this weird continuous outsider perspective on the thing...you acquire knowledge through witnessing other people's mistakes rather than your own, and you are more likely to pick up on things that other people miss because you are not involved (for instance John may not have noticed that Sam was planning to leave for school until the fight about it - but I bet if Bobby was around he would have...or in most cases people don't realize their spouse is cheating/leaving/a complete bastard, but the outsider can see it.)
So, I think Bobby DOES know what he's talking about. It's true he can't prove whether or not he'd avoid John's mistakes if it were him, but he's not claiming that he would.
Anyway...my main point is that you can criticize a man raising two headstrong kids even if the only relationship you have is with your dog...because you have the time and the outsider perspective to see what that man is doing wrong - sure, you can also understand WHY he is doing it wrong, and cut him a little slack for it (which I'm sure Bobby did, up until the shot-gun incident) - but that doesn't mean that the man isn't still wrong.
(I don't have a Bobby icon! Horrors! To compensate: Dean reading books - books I'm sure he got from Bobby.)
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timeasmymeasure
no subject
Date: 2009-05-17 02:47 pm (UTC)After his wife died, I think that much like John, Bobby made the decision to devote his life to hunting. The difference is that Bobby didn't have any children. I think if he did, we would have seen the difference between Bobby's and John's hunter-parenting strategies.
Just because he didn't remarry doesn't make him a coward in his interpersonal relationships. Maybe you could call it cowardice to decide not to drag someone into demon hunting, but you can also say that is was simply a conscious decision, and that there are more personal relationships than the spousal relationship to not be a coward about. You don't necessarily have to remarry to prove anything. Heck, you don't even have to marry a first time to prove anything.
Maybe it's BECAUSE Bobby never got a chance to have a family of his own that he has such a strong sense of family - he is less likely to take what family he does have for granted (not saying that John did - I'm just talking in general here).
Also, sometimes when you don't have something of your own that other people do, it gives you this weird continuous outsider perspective on the thing...you acquire knowledge through witnessing other people's mistakes rather than your own, and you are more likely to pick up on things that other people miss because you are not involved (for instance John may not have noticed that Sam was planning to leave for school until the fight about it - but I bet if Bobby was around he would have...or in most cases people don't realize their spouse is cheating/leaving/a complete bastard, but the outsider can see it.)
So, I think Bobby DOES know what he's talking about. It's true he can't prove whether or not he'd avoid John's mistakes if it were him, but he's not claiming that he would.
Anyway...my main point is that you can criticize a man raising two headstrong kids even if the only relationship you have is with your dog...because you have the time and the outsider perspective to see what that man is doing wrong - sure, you can also understand WHY he is doing it wrong, and cut him a little slack for it (which I'm sure Bobby did, up until the shot-gun incident) - but that doesn't mean that the man isn't still wrong.
(I don't have a Bobby icon! Horrors! To compensate: Dean reading books - books I'm sure he got from Bobby.)