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Apr. 1st, 2025
CASTIEL
PERSONALITY
REBELLIOUS / INDEPENDENT
“I’m not a hammer, as you say. I have questions, I have doubts. I don't know what is right or what is wrong anymore, whether you passed or failed here."
Other angels have implied that there is something wrong with Castiel. That he "came off the line with a crack in [his] chassis." And as a tool in God’s arsenal, Castiel is kind of a failure. He was built to be a soldier, to praise and obey without question. But despite being programmed and reprogramed numerous times, Castiel has never been very obedient.
Castiel has his own sense of morality that doesn't toe the party line. Because he lets his conscience guide him, he can be unpredictable, impulsive and even dangerous to those who get in his way. He will defy heaven (or raise hell) if he thinks he's doing the right thing.
His independent streak has earned him a reputation as the “wild card” in all the worlds God created: the only angel who disobeyed, who fought for free will, who aligned himself with humanity. (Presumably also the only one to throw a Molotov cocktail at Michael, but he hasn't asked about it.)
PRIDEFUL / RECKLESS / STUBBORN
"You should show me some respect. I dragged you out of hell. I can throw you back in."
Castiel's unwavering dedication to his ideals has led him to stand against friends and enemies alike, even when he knew it would cost him everything. But his willingness to go to extreme lengths in pursuit of the greater good doesn't usually go how he intended.
Castiel's efforts are often thwarted by hubris and shortsightedness. His mistakes tend to follow the same formula: (1) Castiel has a problem; (2) Castiel does not ask for help; (3) Castiel decides that he has found the only solution (even though it's a bad one); (4) Castiel convinces himself that this will be the time things don't blow up in his face; and, (5) things blow up in his face.
Strangely, Castiel's commitment to handling everything on his own is motivated as much by confidence in his own vision, as it is by a lack of confidence in his value. A former soldier and instrumentality of God, Castiel ties his self worth to what he can do for others. He doesn’t fully appreciate that the people in his life would still want him there if he weren’t as useful.
Because he is desperate to be needed, he doesn't ask for help when he should. For example. Castiel didn’t want to pull Dean out of the life he was building with Lisa, so he struck a deal with Crowley. He also refused to tell Dean about the deal he struck with the Empty -- and his feelings for Dean -- because he thought it would burden him to know.
ATONING / REPENTANT
”Now I realize that there is no righteous path. It's just people trying to do their best in a world where it's far too easy to do your worst.”
Although Castiel once believed that "right" and "wrong" were objective standards that could always be observed, his time among humans has shown him that it's really not that simple. Your intentions don't always translate into your impact. And Castiel is capable of enough self reflection to see when he's gone off the rails.
To his credit, Castiel consistently tries to take accountability for his mistakes and make amends where possible. Whether this means helping someone he wronged get justice (even if it was an honest mistake), rebuilding the heaven he destroyed, or helping the child he left fatherless find a family.
In general, Castiel's penitence is a positive trait, but it becomes unproductive when he lets guilt cloud his judgment. If he's not focused on what the wronged parties actually want from him, his attempts to fix problems tend to just create new ones. (Case in point: Season 8.)
RELENTLESS / WRATHFUL
”You take what you want, you take who you want. And you believe that your power will protect you. Well, it won't protect you from me."
When it come to serving a larger purpose or protecting the things he loves, Castiel is brutally efficient, calculating, and even ruthless. Castiel has one of the highest body counts in the Supernatural canon, which includes death itself and most of his siblings. His first show of power as the "new god" were acts of wrath. And he’s the only being who has ever escaped from cosmic nothingness by tormenting the abyss until it spat him back out.
Although his cold celestial demeanor has warmed up in recent years, he's become more brutal since he started to form real attachments. In Season 15, Castiel's response to a Shaman trying to reschedule their appointment was: "If you don't help me tonight, I will find you and burn you alive."
Castiel can also be quick to anger with his friends. The way this manifests is less extreme, but he has (willfully) kicked Dean's ass at least once. And much like Bobby, Castiel will not hesitate to tear the boys a new asshole for making bad deals and leaving him to clean up the mess.
While his frustration is usually justified, he doesn't always have clean hands. Castiel rarely asks for help, but he's still angry when he doesn't get it. Castiel rarely allows himself to be vulnerable, but he's still upset when people don't respect his feelings. He's right that his relationships can be a little one-sided, but doesn't understand the part he plays in it.
AWKWARD / NAIVE
"My 'people skills' are 'rusty’”
Although Castiel has some 40 million+ years of ancient knowledge, he can be very naive. His efforts to blend in with humanity are often awkward and stilted, and his successes incidental. He tends to stare at people in ways that can range from searching to unsettling, and doesn’t have a good sense of appropriate physical boundaries or personal space. He often mimics other people’s mannerisms (mostly Dean’s), but can't quite make them look natural.
He values honesty and is very literal and blunt, saying exactly what’s on his mind without consideration for the human tendency to lie or sugarcoat. (Perhaps best exemplified by his casual statement, “Sam, of course, is an abomination.”). Because that's not how humans operate, he has a hard time parsing when people say things they don't mean.
Castiel can (usually) get an accurate read on social cues and tone now, but he still has difficulty communicating. He is very compassionate and can pick up on other people's emotions, but doesn't always understand the motivation for them. He says what he means, but people don't always know what to make of it.
SELFLESS / SELF-SACRIFICING
"You're my family I love you, I love all of you. Just please... Please don't make my last moments be spent watching you die. Just run."
Early on, Castiel decided that Dean was his human, and he has since come to include Sam, Bobby, Jack and Mary as people in his care. While other angels and demons tend to see this loyalty as a source of weakness, Castiel believes they give him strength.
Castiel is forgiving, caring and gentle most of the time. And this is substantially the Winchesters' influence. As often as they've screwed up, lied to each other, or hurt each other, they'll still drop everything to help each other. Castiel's never had the kind of friend before who would keep his coat in the trunk of their car after Castiel lied to them and told them to get fucked. And he tries to extend them the same grace and care when they need it.
Castiel's determination to keep his humans alive has led him to make some decisions that had dire consequences - up to and including his own death. But Castiel consistently chooses to put his family first, even when he believes they wouldn't do the same for him.
LOVING / DEVOTED
"You draped yourself in the flag of heaven but ultimately it was all about saving one human.”
Around 300,000 BCE, when humans first emerged from the evolutionary tree as a distinctly viable primate species, God commanded his angels to bow down to humanity, and love them above even God himself. Lucifer, the first and most beloved among God's children, refused, and was cast out of heaven. Roughly 302,000 years later, Castiel was cast out of heaven for loving humans a little too much.
Castiel has a deep appreciation for God’s creation, including an affection for humanity. But Castiel learned to love because he loved Dean. He learned to love people because Dean loved them. He learned to love the world because Dean loved it. In many ways, the bond he shared with Dean was transformative, connecting Castiel to humanity in a way that other angels aren't.
An uncharitable reading might be that Castiel was a creature designed for worship, and he effectively substituted one god (Chuck) for another (Dean). Certainly, Castiel's initial decision to go against God and heaven was motivated by his competing faith in Dean, and the sense of fulfillment that serving man offered him. But it's more accurate to say that they drew strength and purpose from each other, believing in each other even when they didn't believe in themselves.
HUMAN / DIVINE
"[As a human,] I enjoyed the taste of food, particularly peanut butter with grape jelly. . . . Now, I taste every molecule. It's overwhelming. It's disgusting."
Castiel's true nature impacts the way he interacts with the physical world. Angels weren’t meant to experience the world through human vessels, but to occupy the vessels in order to carry out God’s vision. They need to catalogue and interpret information, not feel something. So when Castiel’s grace is at full power, he perceives everything too completely to experience it. Food tastes like the molecules that comprise it. Touch just feels like the electrons within your body repelling the electrons in another person’s body, hovering away from each other at an unfathomably small distance.
But his time occupying a human body has allowed him to experience and understand these things in a way that is neither fully angelic nor fully human. Though he still doesn't care for food, he seeks contact from close companions, and seems to derive the same comfort from physical interactions that humans do. And if he were to see his own true form again, it's likely that it would look a little more like Jimmy Novak.
“I’m not a hammer, as you say. I have questions, I have doubts. I don't know what is right or what is wrong anymore, whether you passed or failed here."
Other angels have implied that there is something wrong with Castiel. That he "came off the line with a crack in [his] chassis." And as a tool in God’s arsenal, Castiel is kind of a failure. He was built to be a soldier, to praise and obey without question. But despite being programmed and reprogramed numerous times, Castiel has never been very obedient.
Castiel has his own sense of morality that doesn't toe the party line. Because he lets his conscience guide him, he can be unpredictable, impulsive and even dangerous to those who get in his way. He will defy heaven (or raise hell) if he thinks he's doing the right thing.
His independent streak has earned him a reputation as the “wild card” in all the worlds God created: the only angel who disobeyed, who fought for free will, who aligned himself with humanity. (Presumably also the only one to throw a Molotov cocktail at Michael, but he hasn't asked about it.)
PRIDEFUL / RECKLESS / STUBBORN
"You should show me some respect. I dragged you out of hell. I can throw you back in."
Castiel's unwavering dedication to his ideals has led him to stand against friends and enemies alike, even when he knew it would cost him everything. But his willingness to go to extreme lengths in pursuit of the greater good doesn't usually go how he intended.
Castiel's efforts are often thwarted by hubris and shortsightedness. His mistakes tend to follow the same formula: (1) Castiel has a problem; (2) Castiel does not ask for help; (3) Castiel decides that he has found the only solution (even though it's a bad one); (4) Castiel convinces himself that this will be the time things don't blow up in his face; and, (5) things blow up in his face.
Strangely, Castiel's commitment to handling everything on his own is motivated as much by confidence in his own vision, as it is by a lack of confidence in his value. A former soldier and instrumentality of God, Castiel ties his self worth to what he can do for others. He doesn’t fully appreciate that the people in his life would still want him there if he weren’t as useful.
Because he is desperate to be needed, he doesn't ask for help when he should. For example. Castiel didn’t want to pull Dean out of the life he was building with Lisa, so he struck a deal with Crowley. He also refused to tell Dean about the deal he struck with the Empty -- and his feelings for Dean -- because he thought it would burden him to know.
ATONING / REPENTANT
”Now I realize that there is no righteous path. It's just people trying to do their best in a world where it's far too easy to do your worst.”
Although Castiel once believed that "right" and "wrong" were objective standards that could always be observed, his time among humans has shown him that it's really not that simple. Your intentions don't always translate into your impact. And Castiel is capable of enough self reflection to see when he's gone off the rails.
To his credit, Castiel consistently tries to take accountability for his mistakes and make amends where possible. Whether this means helping someone he wronged get justice (even if it was an honest mistake), rebuilding the heaven he destroyed, or helping the child he left fatherless find a family.
In general, Castiel's penitence is a positive trait, but it becomes unproductive when he lets guilt cloud his judgment. If he's not focused on what the wronged parties actually want from him, his attempts to fix problems tend to just create new ones. (Case in point: Season 8.)
RELENTLESS / WRATHFUL
”You take what you want, you take who you want. And you believe that your power will protect you. Well, it won't protect you from me."
When it come to serving a larger purpose or protecting the things he loves, Castiel is brutally efficient, calculating, and even ruthless. Castiel has one of the highest body counts in the Supernatural canon, which includes death itself and most of his siblings. His first show of power as the "new god" were acts of wrath. And he’s the only being who has ever escaped from cosmic nothingness by tormenting the abyss until it spat him back out.
Although his cold celestial demeanor has warmed up in recent years, he's become more brutal since he started to form real attachments. In Season 15, Castiel's response to a Shaman trying to reschedule their appointment was: "If you don't help me tonight, I will find you and burn you alive."
Castiel can also be quick to anger with his friends. The way this manifests is less extreme, but he has (willfully) kicked Dean's ass at least once. And much like Bobby, Castiel will not hesitate to tear the boys a new asshole for making bad deals and leaving him to clean up the mess.
While his frustration is usually justified, he doesn't always have clean hands. Castiel rarely asks for help, but he's still angry when he doesn't get it. Castiel rarely allows himself to be vulnerable, but he's still upset when people don't respect his feelings. He's right that his relationships can be a little one-sided, but doesn't understand the part he plays in it.
AWKWARD / NAIVE
"My 'people skills' are 'rusty’”
Although Castiel has some 40 million+ years of ancient knowledge, he can be very naive. His efforts to blend in with humanity are often awkward and stilted, and his successes incidental. He tends to stare at people in ways that can range from searching to unsettling, and doesn’t have a good sense of appropriate physical boundaries or personal space. He often mimics other people’s mannerisms (mostly Dean’s), but can't quite make them look natural.
He values honesty and is very literal and blunt, saying exactly what’s on his mind without consideration for the human tendency to lie or sugarcoat. (Perhaps best exemplified by his casual statement, “Sam, of course, is an abomination.”). Because that's not how humans operate, he has a hard time parsing when people say things they don't mean.
Castiel can (usually) get an accurate read on social cues and tone now, but he still has difficulty communicating. He is very compassionate and can pick up on other people's emotions, but doesn't always understand the motivation for them. He says what he means, but people don't always know what to make of it.
SELFLESS / SELF-SACRIFICING
"You're my family I love you, I love all of you. Just please... Please don't make my last moments be spent watching you die. Just run."
Early on, Castiel decided that Dean was his human, and he has since come to include Sam, Bobby, Jack and Mary as people in his care. While other angels and demons tend to see this loyalty as a source of weakness, Castiel believes they give him strength.
Castiel is forgiving, caring and gentle most of the time. And this is substantially the Winchesters' influence. As often as they've screwed up, lied to each other, or hurt each other, they'll still drop everything to help each other. Castiel's never had the kind of friend before who would keep his coat in the trunk of their car after Castiel lied to them and told them to get fucked. And he tries to extend them the same grace and care when they need it.
Castiel's determination to keep his humans alive has led him to make some decisions that had dire consequences - up to and including his own death. But Castiel consistently chooses to put his family first, even when he believes they wouldn't do the same for him.
LOVING / DEVOTED
"You draped yourself in the flag of heaven but ultimately it was all about saving one human.”
Around 300,000 BCE, when humans first emerged from the evolutionary tree as a distinctly viable primate species, God commanded his angels to bow down to humanity, and love them above even God himself. Lucifer, the first and most beloved among God's children, refused, and was cast out of heaven. Roughly 302,000 years later, Castiel was cast out of heaven for loving humans a little too much.
Castiel has a deep appreciation for God’s creation, including an affection for humanity. But Castiel learned to love because he loved Dean. He learned to love people because Dean loved them. He learned to love the world because Dean loved it. In many ways, the bond he shared with Dean was transformative, connecting Castiel to humanity in a way that other angels aren't.
An uncharitable reading might be that Castiel was a creature designed for worship, and he effectively substituted one god (Chuck) for another (Dean). Certainly, Castiel's initial decision to go against God and heaven was motivated by his competing faith in Dean, and the sense of fulfillment that serving man offered him. But it's more accurate to say that they drew strength and purpose from each other, believing in each other even when they didn't believe in themselves.
HUMAN / DIVINE
"[As a human,] I enjoyed the taste of food, particularly peanut butter with grape jelly. . . . Now, I taste every molecule. It's overwhelming. It's disgusting."
Castiel's true nature impacts the way he interacts with the physical world. Angels weren’t meant to experience the world through human vessels, but to occupy the vessels in order to carry out God’s vision. They need to catalogue and interpret information, not feel something. So when Castiel’s grace is at full power, he perceives everything too completely to experience it. Food tastes like the molecules that comprise it. Touch just feels like the electrons within your body repelling the electrons in another person’s body, hovering away from each other at an unfathomably small distance.
But his time occupying a human body has allowed him to experience and understand these things in a way that is neither fully angelic nor fully human. Though he still doesn't care for food, he seeks contact from close companions, and seems to derive the same comfort from physical interactions that humans do. And if he were to see his own true form again, it's likely that it would look a little more like Jimmy Novak.
INFO
NAME: Castiel
ALIASES: Cas, קַצְפִּיאֵל, Cassael
DOB: At least 40 million years old.
FANDOM: Supernatural
CANON POINT: Flexible.
PRONOUNS: He/Him
PB: Misha Collins
ALIASES: Cas, קַצְפִּיאֵל, Cassael
DOB: At least 40 million years old.
FANDOM: Supernatural
CANON POINT: Flexible.
PRONOUNS: He/Him
PB: Misha Collins
HISTORY
NOTES/HEADCANON:
LINK TO FANDOM WIKI: Castiel History
- Castiel feels a sense of belonging in and attachment to the physical form he has occupied since he first decided to reject heaven and align himself with humanity. He didn't much care for being human, partly due to external factors surrounding his fall. But this body is substantially how he sees himself now. He'll still tell anyone who will listen that his true form is a interdimensional wavelength of celestial intent that's the size of the Chrysler building with six wings that are made of midnight and covered in eyes.
- Angels appear to have static pronouns that don't necessarily correspond to their vessel's sex, so I think Castiel has some internal sense of gender. But it doesn't precisely correlate with human ideas about it, which he doesn't fully understand. Castiel has a detailed memory of the first creature crawling onto the land to create the evolutionary tree branch that would eventually become humanity, roughly 40 million years. Humans (and therefore, women) were only invented about 300,000 years ago. Since most of Castiel's life was spent in a world where gender didn't exist, it didn't factor much into his self concept until he started regularly interacting with humans about ten years ago.
- Dean is obviously Castiel's favorite and he makes no effort to hide that. He also wasn't great at hiding his distaste for Sam, which persisted through the first few years of their relationship. He didn't really start to warm up to Sam until he lost his grace and realized that being a human was very hard, actually. So he should probably cut Sam a little slack for struggling with it.
- Castiel seems to be coded as autistic. Castiel's canonical favorite version of heaven is "the eternal Tuesday afternoon of an autistic man who died in 1953." This reading was confirmed by writer Ben Edlund, who stated that "the way [Misha Collins] interprets that character, there’s a quotient of autism in it. He’s got a very nice grasp on a sort of nonhuman delivery, but it’s very endearing.” Which is ... a weird way to say that, but it suggests that the choice was intentional.
- Castiel is technically married to a djinn queen. While in Syria, Castiel came to the djinn searching for the Fruit of the Tree of Life. Castiel and her clan fought, ending with Castiel killing most and bargaining with the rest. The marriage was part of the bargain. But they see other people. By which I mean, they see other people exclusively. He truly would not even know how to find her.
- Cas, who has spent his entire life being reprogrammed against his will and often without his knowledge to suit the purposes of heaven, dislikes and distrusts computers.
LINK TO FANDOM WIKI: Castiel History
ABILITIES
Castiel has the default abilities associated with angels in the Supernatural universe, and with Seraphs in particular. However, he currently does not have the use of his wings, and his powers are tied to his grace, which has been known to falter when he is cut off from the power of heaven.
His primary abilities include flight, teleportation, strength, speed, hearing prayers directed towards him (and other prayers made on Thursdays), and projecting his grace to heal (or destroy) others. He's also shown the ability to appear in dreams, create mental projections, move objects telekinetically, detect lies, and communicate telepathically (with focused effort). He can time travel, but it takes a lot out of him.
His primary abilities include flight, teleportation, strength, speed, hearing prayers directed towards him (and other prayers made on Thursdays), and projecting his grace to heal (or destroy) others. He's also shown the ability to appear in dreams, create mental projections, move objects telekinetically, detect lies, and communicate telepathically (with focused effort). He can time travel, but it takes a lot out of him.
STRENGTHS / WEAKNESS
Strengths: Extremely loyal and dedicated to his friends. Has plot armor that allows him to die and come back almost every time. Can heal humans and smite monsters with a touch. Compassionate and insightful.
Weaknesses: Impulsive. Quick to anger. Prone to hubris. Reluctant to ask for help. Fails to fully appreciate the likely and foreseeable consequences of a given course of action. Middling understanding of human behavior.
Weaknesses: Impulsive. Quick to anger. Prone to hubris. Reluctant to ask for help. Fails to fully appreciate the likely and foreseeable consequences of a given course of action. Middling understanding of human behavior.