arlowritessam:

People talk a lot about Sam’s lack of autonomy in his own
life, but it’s also interesting how often that correlates to the times
he’s literally been sold, bought, or otherwise leveraged as currency.

Off the top of my head:

– Mary’s deal with Azazel- trading
not-yet-alive-Sam’s blood and future for John’s life

– Dean’s demon deal- trading his own soul to
obtain Sam’s soul and life.

– Michael reviving Sam from Anna’s attack- Dean
demands that Michael ‘fix Sam’ which he agrees to do after they talk. He says
that Dean is not his only true vessel (in the same ep that Anna says Sam is
Lucifer’s only true vessel) and that they are destined to say ‘yes.’ He brings
Sam back from the dead in preparation for that final fight, for Lucifer.

– Dean’s deal with Death in season 6×11- trading a
service of serving as Death (and the amusement that provides) for Sam’s soul
and the service of Death putting it back in.

– Cas breaking Sam’s wall- to keep Dean occupied.
He says that he will ‘save Sam, but only if Dean stands down’- he uses Sam’s
sanity as an object for the service of Dean not attacking.

– Gadreel possessing Sam- when he was still
‘Ezekiel,’ he wanted a vessel to stay in to recuperate (service). In return, he
said that he would heal Sam’s body from the inside (service).

–
there’s the obvious 13×11 where he is actually auctioned
off.

– Lucifer bringing Sam back- to give as a gift/sign
of goodwill (object) to get closer to Jack.

The imagery associated with the above examples is also
interesting. In every example, he is
laying down- in all except for the baby one, it is because he is in a position
of no power: either too sick to move, dead, or tied down while others negotiate
over his prone body.

There’s many more times when his autonomy is taken away. But
this on-going pattern of his body/soul being traded without his consent implies ownership to a disturbing
degree. Normally that power is vested in Dean, but it’s also commonly co-opted
by Lucifer.  

It’s also interesting that whenever Sam tries to trade for
own his body/mind/soul, it is refused. None of the demons would trade with him
to save Dean, when Soulless Sam still wanted the soul no one would work with
him, trading his body for the trials ultimately fails, Cas won’t extract all of
Gadreel’s grace from Sam’s body because he values life more, offering his soul
to Casifer doesn’t do anything, offering to take the burden of the mark doesn’t
do anything. When he casts Lucifer into the cage, the ‘trade’ is accepted- but
this is a plan sanctioned by the ‘good guys.’ Whenever Sam attempts to leverage
himself without the explicit permission of Dean, he fails.

Any self-initiated exchange fails, but when he is traded by other people? When he is the passive
object to be negotiated over? Those measures all succeed. It’s just another
marker of the lack of control he has in his own life. And by repeating this
pattern, the narrative perpetrates the idea that Sam does not have ownership of
himself, either.