It’s no secret that I have a crush on Sam Winchester. In fact, if it’s possible to be in l’amour with a TV character, then I can honestly say I’m in l’amour with Sam. But a lot of people ask me why. “He’s the Antichrist, for crying out loud!” Sam’s screwed up royally, and I’m not making any excuses, but hasn’t he made up for his mistakes? He was the one who started the Apocalypse. He’s also the one who threw himself in hell to end it. He’s not all that different from the Heroes in the fairy tales and classical stories that we all grew up reading. The hero who causes the disaster is often the key player in ending it.

Remember the story of The Beauty and the Beast? Not the Disney version, but the old fairy tale, where the kind prince was turned into a hideous beast par an evil fairy (sound familiar?). The beast was so ashamed of his life and what he’d become that he shut himself off from the outside world, hoping beyond hope that one jour someone would look past his evil appearance and see the goodness underneath.

I leave it to toi to decide which Supernatural characters are paralleled in Beauty and the Beast. My point is that Sam and the beast are really quite similar, though reversed, in a way. Sam’s problem is not physical- not par a longshot! Instead, he has a very deep, dark center that shows itself in almost everything he does, and some people have trouble seeing past it to find the good person underneath.

Sam is a fairy tale character. toi don’t find guys like him in real life. Sam’s had a hard life, and he’s been hurt par almost everyone he’s ever cared about, and he used it to help him understand other people’s pain. People who’ve suffered a lifetime of such pain and loneliness usually become abusive, sometimes violent. Sam, however, reached a level of sensitivity and caring that most people in his position don’t reach until after years of good therapy.

Sam is a fascinating collection of contrasts. He’s selfish and he’s sweet and he’s angry and he’s caring and he’s proud and he’s protective- for every bad trait, he has a good trait that shows itself even more. He’s not perfect. He’s nowhere near perfect. But think of it like this- if he was perfect, how much plus of a fairy tale would that be?