.picspam: The Casifesto; or, Why Castiel is not your grandma's angel

[aesc]

One of the things I'd really like to see more of in my life and my fic is a Castiel who is crabby, impatient, vaguely hostile, angry, and kickass, not just sad/patient/content to muse on the sorrows of his life and/or Dean's. It's something I've been thinking for a while as I've been working on the Dean/Cas Exchange Fic of Doom and some other

Comments

[vikki]

I want you to know that I am so behind you I don't even know what to say. I mean, holy cow. Castiel is a BAMF for a reason, and not just because he can physically eff your shit up, if you will. I've striven to write Castiel like this for ages; the most difficult part, to me, is managing to balance the softness of heart and the transitioning/learning about Earth/etc with the manipulative, irritable, and knowledgable angel.

"Good" angels don't blackmail/pressure you into taking an oath to obey no matter what, no changies, no takebacks.
THIS IS TRUE. But if I can add something? The wording of the oath absolutely fascinates me:

You give yourself over wholly to the service of God and His angels? ... You swear to follow His will and His word as swiftly and obediently as you did your own father's?

He's so sneaky, even as Stepford!Cas: we've just had Heaven and God made distinct in the previous episode, with Castiel stating he serves Heaven (as opposed to God or Dean). And then he makes Dean swear an oath to GOD. And HIS angels. So ... Dean isn't beholden to Heaven. He's beholden to Castiel's Father.

Thank you for an excellent, beautiful picspam/meta.

[22by7]

I always thought that there was a possible further layer of sneakiness to that oath - because by this point Dean had shown that he'd lost some of his illusions about his own father.

[vikki]

That's also a good point. Especially in light of John's final words to Dean, it suggests that Castiel is making Dean swear to question his (angel-given? God-given?) orders.

I hope somebody makes something of this in a fic, someday.

[laurie_ky]

I kind of like to believe that when Dean swore that oath, he amended it a little and left off the 's' of angels. He swore that oath to one angel, to Castiel.

Laurie