History Characters / SupernaturalSamWinchester

* NiceGuy: In the beginning, Sam is a generally nice, kind, caring and sensitive guy who cares for everyone. This changes as his dark destiny starts to overtake him as the series progresses.

* NiceGuy: In the beginning, Sam is a generally nice, kind, caring and sensitive guy who cares for everyone. This changes as his dark destiny starts to overtake him as the series progresses.

!!!Portrayed By: Creator/JaredPadalecki, Creator/ColinFord, Alex Ferris, Dylan Kingwell

[[caption-width-right:300:Clockwise: Vampire Sam, Demon Sam, Dead Sam and Lucifer Sam]]

** Demon, Dead and Lucifer Sam all ended up living in the Bunker with Dean.

** Dead Sam was killed by Dean who had become a Knight of Hell.

* ForWantOfANail: In this BadFuture, Sam never saw Dean again and ended up saying yes to Lucifer.

* SwappedRoles: [[spoiler:With his IdentityAmnesia, Sam is very different from how he usually is which creates a different dynamic between him and Dean. While Sam grew up hating the hunting life and wanting to be normal, Sam hates living a normal life and dreams of being an actual hunter.]]

* ForWantOfANail: John choosing to turn hunting monsters into a literal family business turns Sam into a pampered and slightly spoilt UpperClassTwit. It's also caused him to have a far closer relationship with John and be much happier.

* CainAndAbel: Except for Vampire Sam who died fighting against his friends along with Vampire Dean, the other versions of Sam either killed or were killed by Dean. Despite being the younger brother, it appears that Sam is usually the Cain.
* ForWantOfANail:
** The sole difference between the main Sam and Vampire Sam is that in the latter God was successfully trapped.
** Demon Sam had completely embraced demon blood and now leads an army of demons before killing Dean. He's also implied to have killed Bobby and Jody, while his demon army caused the death of Benny.
** Lucifer Sam said yes to Lucifer and ended up killing Dean.
** Dead Sam was killed by Dean who had become a Knight of Hell.

Samuel William "Sam" Winchester is [[TheProtagonist the protagonist]] of ''Supernatural''. Sam was born May 2, 1983, in Lawrence, Kansas, United States. He is the youngest child of John Winchester and Mary Winchester (nee Campbell). He has an older brother, Winchester, who is four years his senior. His mother Mary died on November 2, 1983 when Sam was only six months old. On November 2, 1983, when Sam was exactly six months old, his mother Mary (a retired creature hunter) was engulfed in a massive conflagration by yellow-eyed demon Azazel (one of four Princes of Hell). Her death was not premeditated, but rather a result of her incidental interruption of Azazel's visit to Sam's crib in the night – a contractual option Azazel had acquired with Mary's "consent" years before Sam was born, and which Azazel was now exercising in order to feed Sam his own demon blood to bestow him with psychic powers. Sam was saved from the ensuing house fire by his father, who then gave him to then-four-year-old Dean to carry outside, but Mary tragically died. Since that event, Dean has felt responsible for Sam and became Sam's de facto protector, largely due to their father's absence when he was away tracking Azazel.

!!Samuel William "Sam" Winchester
[[quoteright:300:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/sam-1_8921.jpg]]
[[caption-width-right:280:''"You know me. You know why. I'm not leaving my brother alone out there."'']]

Samuel William "Sam" Winchester is [[TheProtagonist the protagonist]] of ''Supernatural''. Sam was born May 2, 1983, in Lawrence, Kansas, United States. He is the youngest child of John Winchester and Mary Winchester (nee Campbell). He is the younger brother of Dean Winchester and the older paternal half brother of Adam Milligan. His mother Mary died on November 2, 1983 when Sam was only six months old. Exactly 22 years later, on November 2, 2005, Sam's girlfriend Jessica was also killed in the same fashion that Mary was killed. Sam is a "Special Child", who are children chosen by Azazel (also known as "Yellow-Eyed Demon") to take part in the coming of the Apocalypse. As a Special Child, Sam developed special abilities at the age of twenty-two. Sam's powers included premonitions, telekinesis, and later on, the ability to exorcise demons back to Hell and kill demons with the use of his mind. It is later discovered that Sam is the one true vessel for [[{{Satan}} Lucifer]].

!!Samuel "Sam" Winchester
[[quoteright:280:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/sam-1_8921.jpg]]

Samuel "Sam" Winchester is TheProtagonist of ''Supernatural''. Sam was born May 2, 1983, in Lawrence, Kansas, United States. He is the youngest child of John Winchester and Mary Winchester (nee Campbell). He is the younger brother of Dean Winchester and the older paternal half brother of Adam Milligan. His mother Mary died on November 2, 1983 when Sam was only six months old. Exactly 22 years later, on November 2, 2005, Sam's girlfriend Jessica was also killed in the same fashion that Mary was killed. Sam is a "Special Child", who are children chosen by Azazel (also known as "Yellow-Eyed Demon") to take part in the coming of the Apocalypse. As a Special Child, Sam developed special abilities at the age of twenty-two. Sam's powers included premonitions, telekinesis, and later on, the ability to exorcise demons back to Hell and kill demons with the use of his mind. It is later discovered that Sam is the one true vessel for [[{{Satan}} Lucifer]].

* AcheyScars: In Season 7, Sam got a scar on his hand after he cut it with a piece of glass. He got this cut when he started to [[spoiler:recall some of his memories from Hell after Castiel had broken his wall]] at the end of Season 6. Sam used this scar to relieve himself of [[spoiler:seeing Lucifer or to get rid of his memories of Hell and his hallucinations of Lucifer. He would have to press on the scar very hard for his hallucinations and his memories to go away.]]
* ActionSurvivor: Sam, with his brother Dean, is heavily involved in a lot of action. They usually are involved in some kind of fight every episode. It comes with fighting supernatural beings and monsters for a living. Sam engages in combat, fighting and using weapons to combat or fight the enemy. However, despite that Sam is just as much of an action hero as his brother Dean, Sam is actually more into the research aspect of hunting, as he is often the one who conducts research while on a hunt, He will look up information such as lore and mythology; he almost always has his laptop to help him conduct research. He is also a Man Of Letters, which involves a lot of books, literature, and research. Dean, on the other hand, is more of the brawn to Sam's brains; he is the one who loves hunting, fighting and combat much more than Sam. Dean loves using weapons and combat to fight supernatural beings, just like his father John. In the first season of the series, however, Sam is more of an ActionSurvivor, as he had left his normal life behind and embraced the hunting world. Sam did begin handling guns and weapons and was exposed to the hunting world at the tender age of eight so he had at least some experience although he did grow rusty over time as he was living his normal life.
* ActionDuo: With Dean of course. They hunt supernatural beings for a living and are constantly engaged in battle together. The two brothers compliment each other and each has what the other is lacking. For example, Sam is the BadassBookworm, who is the brains of the duo, the one who researches the hunt. He is the one who looks up what needs to be done through the use of the internet, books, literature, etc. He also has a softer demeanor and more effective social skills, allowing him to better gain the trust of witnesses and victims. Dean, on the other hand, is more of the BloodKnight who is the brawn in the duo. He is the one who is more into the fighting, killing, and kicking ass. They both have different skills that contribute to their duo and complements them as a pair.

* [[AloofBigBrother Aloof Younger Brother]]: Zig-zagged in regards to Sam. Sam is smarter, more practical and more refined than Dean, who is much more impulsive and rogue. Sam is also more introverted, calm, cool and collected while Dean is more extroverted, hot-headed and passionate. Sam gets straight A's, received a scholarship or free ride and attended an UsefulNotes/IvyLeague school (Stanford University), and was an aspiring lawyer, while Dean spent time in a reform school and eventually dropped out of high school and got a GED due to the time-consuming and stressful double life as a hunter. Sam also developed special powers which made him at times, significantly stronger and more powerful than Dean, who was a regular human who had no superhuman abilities. Plus, Sam had a normal life and got away from the hunting life, unlike Dean, who was ultimately trapped in it from a young age. Sam was also in a serious romantic relationship with the love of his life Jessica whom he was going to marry and settle down with. In Season 1, a shapeshifter read Dean's mind and had told Sam that Dean resented Sam because of everything that Sam had and he didn't. Dean was also jealous of the fact that their father seemed to pay more attention to Sam than he did to him. However, despite that Sam had a lot of things going for him that Dean was jealous of, Sam also found himself jealous of Dean in the sense that Dean is a much more effective leader who can bring people together and that Dean had a childhood which involved knowing their mother Mary unlike Sam himself, who never knew his mother because she had died when he was just a baby.

* AlwaysSecondBest: Sam always felt this way in regards to Dean since childhood. From Sam's point of view, Sam always felt that John favoured Dean over him, mostly because Sam never saw eye to eye with John and Dean was John's perfect obedient soldier. Sam also points out that growing up, he never felt like he fit in with the family and that he was the BlackSheep, because Sam had different outlooks and goals than wanting to be a hunter like Dean and John. Sam also feels that Dean connects better with people than he does because Dean has a much more sociable and outgoing personality, while Sam himself is more introverted and shy. Sam feels that Dean might have an advantage over him because he is the older brother and therefore, can make orders much more easily while Sam, as the younger brother, has to obey. Because of this parent-child dynamic between himself and Dean, Sam sometimes rebels and prefers to be independent by doing his own thing as much as possible.

* AmbiguouslyEvil: During the fourth season, [[spoiler:Sam's morality was deeply grey. It was hard to tell whether Sam was fighting for the good or bad side. He was using his demonic abilities to save humans from being possessed by demons. Although Sam was saving humans by exorcising them out of the human host, his powers were based in darkness. Sam was also aligned with the demon Ruby, and she was manipulating him to get him to do what she wanted which was to kill Lillith. Sam even began strengthening his powers by drinking demon blood. He was also lying to Dean constantly, not telling him where he was going and going behind his back training his abilities with Ruby. Also, Sam became increasingly distant from Dean and kept numerous secrets from him. Sam became increasingly darker as the season progressed to the point where he became a demon blood junkie and turned against Dean]]. Although ultimately, Sam's intentions were good, it was just the way that he chose to go about achieving his goals and agenda were rather immoral and morally ambiguous.

* AnnoyingYoungerSibling: Averted. Sam is actually the more mature, practical, logical and serious one between himself and Dean. Sam often takes things much more seriously than Dean; Sam is the more serious, introverted brother and Dean is the more fun-loving, extroverted brother. However, from Dean's point of view, Dean has always seen Sam as his child, as someone whom he has to continuously look after and protect to make sure he is safe. Dean's entire life has been about protecting Sam no matter what. Dean has said to Sam that he has always seen Sam as the "snot-nosed little kid" that he has always had to take care of and look out for his whole life. This is probably because since Sam's very early childhood (since he was a baby), Sam was [[LikeASonToMe raised by Dean]] and Dean has been both Sam's [[ParentalSubstitute parent]] and his [[BigBrotherInstinct big brother.]] Because of this combined parent and older brother instinct that Dean has towards Sam, Dean can become extremely possessive and overprotective over Sam, [[KnightTemplarBigBrother to the point where if someone so much as looks at Sam the wrong way, then Dean will either harm them or kill them on the spot]].

* TheAtoner: In the fifth season (after the whole [[spoiler:freeing-Lucifer-from-Hell]] business) and in Season 6 ([[spoiler:after getting his soul back]]). In Season 4, Sam had gone an a RevengeBeforeReason mission after [[spoiler:Dean was killed by Lillith]] at the end of Season 3. Sam then aligned with Ruby, a demon, so that he could strengthen his abilities. Dean discovered what Sam was up to and that he was hanging out with Ruby and Dean was very angry. Dean told Sam to [[spoiler:not use his powers but because Sam liked the way using his powers made him feel, he did not listen to Dean and contented to use his powers to exorcise demons out of human hosts. While doing this, Sam felt that [[KnightTemplar he was doing the right thing, even though his powers were based on darkness and evil]]. Dean continuously warned Sam throughout Season 4, as well as many other characters, that Sam was falling down a darker and darker path that he might not be able to come back from. Sam became so dark that he started to resort to drinking demon blood to strengthen his powers. He even became a junkie and became addicted to the blood as well as addicted to using his dark, demonic powers. It got so bad, when Sam ended up choosing Ruby over Dean and ultimately, he ended up fighting Dean and going off with Ruby instead. Sam ended up using his powers to kill Lillith, who was the final seal, and as a result of killing Lillith, Sam had started the apocalypse which ultimately released Lucifer upon the world.]] At the beginning of Season 5, Dean told Sam that because of what he did, he could no longer trust him, even though Sam had apologized. Sam's entire purpose and arc in Season 5 was ultimately about atoning for his actions in Season 4 and basically undoing the damage that he had done. At the end of Season 5, [[spoiler:Sam decided to host Lucifer so that he could take him down and end the apocalypse. He did this by [[HeroicSacrifice throwing himself and Michael (in Adam's body) into Hell's pit]], leaving Sam down in Hell to suffer for eternity. Fortunately for Sam, Castiel ended up rescuing Sam and pulling him out of Hell, albeit without his soul.]]
* AudienceSurrogate: According to the WordOfGod (Eric Kripke), Sam was originally intended to be this. However, this role seems to belong to Dean since Dean is the series emotional or point of view character and Sam is the story or myth arc character in which the series revolves around. Sam is TheProtagonist and Dean is the {{Deuteragonist}}. Although much of the storylines and the myth arc revolve around Sam and his journey, many fans complain that because Dean ended up being the point of view character and the audience surrogate, Sam has no point of view or emotional perspective. Therefore, it makes it harder for the audience to sympathize with Sam in the same way that they do with Dean. This often makes Sam's actions seem misunderstood by the audience and he ends up suffering a lot of unnecessary criticism as a result.

* TheBabyOfTheBunch[=/=]TagalongKid: Sam is the youngest member of "Team Free Will", which includes himself, Dean, Castiel, Bobby, Crowley and now [[spoiler: as of Season 12, Mary]](interestingly enough, Jared is also the youngest cast member of ''Supernatural'' as well). On top of it, Dean is the older brother while Sam is the younger brother in their SiblingTeam. It's been shown that Sam resents the fact that he is the "baby" or the youngest of the team; therefore, he often likes to do things on his own even if it means separating himself from Dean and the rest of the team. There's also that Dean is TheLeader of the team, taking charge of all of the missions and plans. Sam is also the one that is constantly overprotected and given the most attention from the team members. As a result, Sam can come off as a TagalongKid and a DistressedDude at times. This causes Sam to need a lot of saving from time to time mostly by his other team members (such as Castiel and Dean), even though Sam is a highly competent and capable hunter in his own right.
* BabiesEverAfter:[[spoiler:He marries and has a son who he named after Dean.]]

* BadassTransplant: A variation of this trope. [[spoiler:Sam's demonic abilities were given to him due to Azazel/YED feeding him his demon blood at 6 mos. of age. This was all a part of Azazel's plan in creating a demon army out of the "Special Children" so that only one would end up becoming Lucifer's vessel. Turns out that Sam was Lucifer's pre-destined true vessel since the beginning, regardless of all of the "Special Children" that Azazel had created.]]
* BadassTyke: Sam began hunting or was aware of the hunting world at the tender age of 8. By 12 years old, he was already handling guns. In flashbacks, he was seen engaging in combat and was skilled in fighting. He also always carried a weapon such as a knife on him as a child. This is because as a child, John had trained Sam (and Dean) to handle weapons and exposed him to the hunting world. For someone that is handling weapons at such a tender age is both disturbing and heartbreaking. See [[LittleMissBadass Little Mister Badass]].

** Sam also shares quite a few similarities with Castiel. Their journeys parallel or mirror each other. They have both let pride and power get the best of them and have managed to put the world at large in danger because of their wrong actions and choices. This is probably why Sam is so forgiving of Castiel when [[spoiler:he betrays him (by breaking his wall in his head)]], even more so than Dean: because Sam sees himself in Castiel. Sam understands and empathizes with Castiel as Sam has made similar mistakes as Castiel in the past. Like Castiel, Sam has also tried to atone for his misdeeds.
** Sam also shares many traits and similarities with Kevin Tran. Both have had their "normal lives" turned upside down due to being TheChosenOne (Sam is a Special Child and the one true vessel for Lucifer, Kevin is a prophet), both have lost their mothers and their girlfriends due to a higher demon (for Sam, Azazel killed his mother Mary and his girlfriend Jessica; for Kevin, Crowley harmed his mother Linda and killed his girlfriend Channing), and both are {{The Smart Guy}}s and {{Badass Bookworm}}s who are certified nerds. Both have attended ivy league schools (Sam attended Stanford and Kevin wanted to attend Princeton). Both of them also have [[DisappearedDad absentees fathers]] (although John was physically there for Sam at times, he was not technically there for him emotionally; Kevin's father's whereabouts are unknown). And most of all, both of them [[IJustWantToBeNormal just wanted to be normal and safe]]. However, both Sam and Kevin's lives are brought down by tragedy and the circumstances surrounding their destinies.
** Sam shares some traits in common with his younger paternal half brother, Adam Milligan. Both of them are [[TheSmartGuy book smart, intelligent, and ambitious]]. Both of them are academic, scholarly and have attended university, with Sam aspiring to become a lawyer and Adam aspiring to become a doctor. Both Sam and Adam had lived a normal life of having friends and a girlfriend before their worlds were turned upside down by the supernatural. Both of them were thrown into or exposed to the hunting world unexpectedly. Both of them spent their early childhoods unaware of the supernatural and the dangers that go along with it. Physically, they even share the same quality of having PuppyDogEyes. These similarities between Sam and Adam is probably why Sam felt such an instant bond and connection to Adam after they first met. Sam probably saw a lot of himself in Adam before Sam was thrown into the hunting world. In other words, Adam represented the innocence and naivety that Sam once had before becoming corrupted by supernatural influence and the hunting world. Adam was basically Season 1!Sam.

** He also has a lot of similarities to Jack, which allowed him to empathize with him and to act as a FatherFigure. Both have powers of a dark origin that they struggle to control and a close connection to Lucifer, which makes other people afraid and wary of them. Because of that, they've both been called an abomination by Castiel - and they both end up having a close relationship with him regardless. Moreover, they both are at one point soulless but eventually gain back their souls, and the initial plan to kill Chuck involved Jack making a HeroicSacrifice similar to the one Sam made at the end of season 5.
* BizarreHumanBiology: Sam possesses demon blood within his veins because he was fed demon blood by the YED when he was only 6 mos. old. This managed to alter his blood dramatically and he ended up developing special powers in his young adult age.

!!Sam Winchester

Sam is originally TheProtagonist of ''Supernatural''. Sam Winchester was born May 2nd, 1983, in Lawrence, Kansas, United States. He is the youngest child of John Winchester and Mary Winchester (nee Campbell). He is the younger brother of Dean Winchester and the older paternal half brother of Adam Milligan. His mother Mary died on November 2nd, 1983 when Sam was only 6 months old. Exactly 22 years later, on November 2nd, 2005, Sam's girlfriend Jessica was also killed in the same fashion that Mary was killed. Sam is a "Special Child", who are children chosen by Azazel (also known as "Yellow-Eyed Demon") to take part in the coming of the Apocalypse. As a Special Child, Sam developed special abilities at the age of 22. Sam's powers included premonitions, telekinesis, and later on, the ability to exorcise demons back to Hell and kill demons with the use of his mind. It is later discovered that Sam is the one true vessel for [[{{Satan}} Lucifer]].

* AntiVillain: In Season 4, Sam becomes a significantly darker character who falls deeper and deeper to TheDarkSide. Sam became addicted to demon blood and was using his demonic abilities to save people (and also strengthening them to prepare to kill Lilith). Sam also became obsessed and addicted to using his demonic abilities and became DrunkWithPower. His abilities continuously got more and more powerful through demon blood consumption to the point that he was able to exorcise a powerful demon-like Samhain and was able to kill powerful demons such as Alastair and Lilith. In Season 6, Sam was [[TheSoulless soulless]] and therefore became extremely ruthless, cold, dark and unsympathetic. However, despite being soulless, Sam was still hunting and kicking ass and saving lives as a hunter.

* AbortedArc: Presumably it was planned that [[spoiler:Sam or his brother would end up killing the other according to Chuck's plan, but because of the main universe versions defying Chuck he ended up destroying universes and changing his mind about what happens with the [=HunterCorp=] Winchesters]].

* AnythingThatMoves: Sam, while [[spoiler:he was soulless]] in Season 6, seems to have slept with a lot of different women, including a woman who has slept with both Dean and Bobby (Annie). Hell, he even paid prostitutes for sex. Normally, Sam is the chaste one between himself and Dean and does not sleep around with a bunch of women unless he is in some kind of a relationship with them. There are times when even Sam judges Dean for his overly promiscuous behaviour. See ReallyGetsAround.

** Demon Sam had completely embraced demon blood and now leads an army of demons before killing Dean.

* TeensAreShort: When Sam was a young teen, he was significantly much shorter then a slightly older teenage Dean. In fact, Sam was called "Midget" by a high school bully named Dirk. This changes when Sam eventually [[BigLittleBrother outgrows his elder brother]].

* HurtingHero: Sam suffers so much due to his life as a hunter that he never seems to catch a break. Although Sam constantly risks his life for others and saves lives almost on a daily basis, it is far from easy for Sam. In fact, Sam's life has been nothing but one giant tragedy.

* AdaptationalBadass: Because of RuleOfCool, this Sam is far more impressive than his live-action counterpart when it comes to combat. The episode "Rising Son" reveals that Sam's abilities first manifested when he was a child in order to save Dean and in "Loser" showed very powerful telekinesis when angered, while in the live-action show Sam's initially only had premonitions which appeared when he was an adult.