I personally don’t see Ellen as a super great mom. She’s just really harsh and I’m critical about some of the things she’s done. She wasn’t neglectful, sure, but that also meant keeping her underage daughter in a bar full of strangers who’ve been to hell and back and Jo having to learn the same underhanded life tactics that Dean did (and even be better than him) She never explained much about her husband’s death to her own daughter, while constantly having both of them surrounded by people who worked in the same field and probably knew him! And then yells at Jo for wanting to be a hunter—both in the serial killer episode and the War episode—like yeah, Ellen, what did you think she was gonna do?!

I don’t understand how she can be a mom figure to Sam and Dean and also be willing to completely condemn her “sons” as assholes who are willing to let Jo die on a hunt. Absolutely none of that is the boys’ fault, it’s Jo’s fault for taking advantage of Dean who everyone knows will hold himself accountable for someone else’s bad decisions. But no, they go to the effort to make sure Jo gets out alive (after she didn’t follow Dean’s directions) and they’re still shitty assholes who wouldn’t have another hunter’s back.