Castiel (![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
desacralized) wrote2020-10-09 12:05 pm
desacralized) wrote2020-10-09 12:05 pm
Entry tags:
application
CHARACTER:
Name: Castiel
Canon: Supernatural
PB/Image:
http://i1343.photobucket.com/albums/o798/daisydaysea/spn619-5_zps60556292.gif
http://i1343.photobucket.com/albums/o798/daisydaysea/Castiel_zpsb58d19ba.jpg
Info links:
http://www.supernaturalwiki.com/index.php?title=Castiel (character wiki)
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Castiel_(Supernatural) (character wikipedia article)
Canon Point:
Very end of Season 5, after he's been resurrected and Lucifer and Michael have been sent to hell.
Powers:
Normally Cas has all sorts of angel mojo powers. In short they have been shown to include: teleportation, communicating with other angels telepathically, exorcising demons by touch, knowledge of spells and magic, being able to etch symbols onto people's bones, pyrokinesis (handy for burning a demon's old bones). His true voice and form can burn people's eyes out. And he can apparently watch people while hanging about invisibly. And wings. He has wings. He can heal people from even extremely serious injuries. All of these are when he's at his full strength. Several circumstances have left him with much weaker abilities, or cut some abilities off entirely. Oh. And he's quite strong.
Personality:
Castiel is not human. That's one of the main things to remember about him. He spends a good deal of time in a human vessel, but it is very much a book-and-its-cover situation. Castiel may do a decent job of looking human (except his posture tends to be a bit too stiff, a bit too still) and sounding human (except his voice tends to be a bit too intense, and the stuff that comes out of his mouth is not always normal), but some of the finer points of humanity are still something he's learning.
Because of this, Cas is a contradictory mix of an ancient and powerful being (full of knowledge and capability, and downright dangerous to be on the wrong side of) and a child just learning that fire can burn (not only himself but everyone around him). He's naive and entirely unaware of social norms. Personal space, the finer points of conversation, not blurting out personal and sensitive matters. All these things that are perfectly obvious to most anyone who has been raised in just about any society, are mysteries that must be discovered and explained to Castiel.
Dean mentions his personal space issues with an old frustration that makes it sound like it is not the first dozen times it's been brought up. And when he decides to take Castiel around as a sidekick, it's very apparent that Cas falls short of managing a convincing human impression, too ready to blurt out the truth. For all that he can be deceptive, he is pretty prone to just stating things as they are as well. Dean has to explain that when humans want something very very badly, they lie, or at least don't just blurt out impossible truths to normal people.
Technology thwarts him. Media and entertainment both puzzle and fascinate him by turns. Personal boundaries or limitations aren't exactly his forte either. When Dean tries to help him lose his virginity at a house of ill-repute (who thought that was a good idea?), instead of, er, closing the deal, Cas decides it's a good time to discuss his lady companion's daddy issues. Jokes and references are often lost on him, though he does have a sense of humor. It's subdued, but it's there. He has the ability to tease and find the humor even in dark situations. He also tries to explain an old angel joke, but when it falls flat insists that it's funnier in Enochian. Not all angels are quite this clueless about these aspects of humanity. But Cas definitely is.
Part of this being torn between two worlds leaves Castiel with an almost childlike sense of wonder. The way he looks at things and people, like he's confused and fascinated and bewildered and enraptured all at once, is a common expression on his features. He's figuring out a world that he has watched for a long time, but never experienced up close. And the longer he spends in it, the more affected by it he becomes. Being with humans changes Cas, teaches him about freewill and choice and consequence.
As an angel, Castiel has watched the world a very long time. It's his Father's creation, after all. Arguably his most important, and that alone makes it precious at first. Because when Castiel first appears to the brothers Winchester, God's will and Heaven's orders are what matter the most. He is there and helping them because it is what he was told to do. Castiel starts out as a perfectly obedient soldier. He's been honed on the battlefield. Heaven wields him like a weapon. The will of his superiors (and he thinks at least at first, of God) is what matters, and his own choices aren't the driving force in anything.
However, this changes. People. The Winchesters. Earth. They start to matter because they matter to Cas himself. It's not an easy process. When Castiel first begins to question, first begins to wonder about whether what he is doing is right, it ends badly. Despite his misgivings, a reprimanding is enough to quash his doubts and get him back in line. For a time.
But that's the thing about Castiel. He's persistent. And even if he may have been created to follow orders and to obey as angels are, he eventually comes to want something more, to believe that there should be something more, since blind obedience will bring about too high of a cost. It's sort of a breakthrough for Castiel when he chooses to rebel, to basically go rogue and do what he believes is right rather than what he is being told is right.
Castiel absolutely wants to do what is right. This doesn't always lead to him doing the best thing, but at the very least his intentions are good. Unfortunately, the road to hell is paved with those sorts of intentions, and Castiel isn't exactly afraid to stretch the truth or outright lie or manipulate people to accomplish what he thinks is the right thing. He can be ruthless at times, in how he dispatches his enemies and former friends alike, when he must.
Even though he's an angel, Castiel is not some perfect creature of feathers and fluff. He's visceral and violent at times. He's a capable and downright fierce fighter, dispatching his foes both angel and demon alike. More than that, he's shown himself capable of taking out his frustrations out violently -- specifically on Dean when he believes that the elder Winchester is going to say yes to Michael. Cas tends to hold people to sometimes impossible ideals, even himself. This leads him to disappointment. In the Winchesters, in himself, in his Father, his fellow angels. He picks up and goes on, but not without being affected. At one point he gets quite drunk to try to cope -- something he undoubtedly learned from watching Sam and Dean. Angel see angel do.
It's impossible to explain Cas's personality without talking about his relationship with the Winchesters, especially Dean. He pulls Dean out of hell, and from that point on, they're connected. It's obvious. Castiel shows up again and again, getting to the point where he comes when he's called. Mostly. Sometimes. Either by phone or later, by prayer. At first his relationship with Dean is tense, and he is quick to threaten the hunter that he ought to obey or face the consequences. This is a far cry for when Castiel outright rebels to help Dean and Sam in their quest, to fight against Heaven and his brothers to stop the apocalypse from coming about.
Castiel learns a lot about himself because of Sam and Dean. He takes risks and gets into trouble, going to far as to put his life on the line, banishing himself, making himself vulnerable. Then again, sometimes he puts the brothers in danger as well. But he learns to respect what they are trying to do, even if he doesn't exactly sugarcoat things when they screw up. And occasionally when they ask him for help, he acts more like they're bothering him than they likely are. Though his help sometimes comes with warnings or reluctance, Castiel is loyal. He cares about Dean and Sam and actively fights beside them and helps protect them and their friends, risking his own life time and time again. He and Dean often butt heads, but there is a trust growing between them (though sometimes it wanes when one or the other feels let down by the other). Castiel saved Dean from hell, and there's a sense of obligation and devotion there. Just being around the Winchesters is enough to bring Castiel to rebel against Heaven, after all.
He seems significantly closer to Dean than he does Sam, even telling Sam that they have a more profound bond (this revelation comes after Cas's current canon point, but is true even at the time that he is from). He calls Sam an abomination, though he doesn't seem to mean much offense by it. Even if he is closer and connected to Dean, he does admire Sam's determination, and the decisions he makes, especially the sacrifice of himself to seal Satan back into hell. He'll also side with Sam when the younger Winchester is being the more reasonable party (a frequent occurrence), and genuinely seems to care about his well being. And there was that one almost hug that instead became an awkward moment. Humans are confusing. Sam more so than most, but he matters to Castiel.
Despite growing and learning from the brothers, Cas is still an angel, and is still part of that family. He speaks of the other angels as his brothers, and much of the strife that goes on seems to be a large family brawl. Unfortunately, it's violent and vicious and the fallout can be catastrophic. However, just because they're kin, doesn't mean that Castiel is a fan of all his family. There is outright animosity between him and Raphael (that comes to a head in season seven, beginning shortly after his canon point). When he starts getting too sympathetic to the Winchesters at first, he winds up being made subordinate to Uriel, something that doesn't sit well with him. It sits even less well when he realizes that his kin have been making up their own rules and trying to bring about the apocalypse, no matter what the wishes of God, since God has been quite absent.
This is the beginning of a crisis of faith for Cas, which culminates when, after searching for God on earth, he's basically told to stop looking, that God doesn't want to be involved. The sheer level of abandonment that he feels is near devastating. Castiel's faith is shaken a few times, and towards the end of season 5, he's begun to give up all hope. Everything they've tried has proven to do nothing to change faith, and he is nearly ready to give up, a fact that doesn't seem to sit well with his human friends. Eventually Cas is inspired by their continued efforts to keep on moving forward and fighting himself.
It's around this time that Cas even gets up the nerve to stand up to the strongest of his brothers, joining Dean in a last ditch effort to stop Michael and Lucifer (even though Castiel has lost his powers nearly entirely at this point).
In general, in the everyday moment, Castiel is serious and steadfast. He tends to watch and listen more than he speaks, unless he has something to say. He's full of questions (many of which have answers that should be obvious). He's both naive and incredibly knowledgeable. He's a creature of Heaven, but he's been tainted by freewill, and seems to be picking up more human traits the longer he spends around them. Above all, Castiel is evolving. He's spent most of his life as an eternal being, but in the short time since he met Sam and Dean, he has begun to truly change and evolve at an impressive rate. He can be ruthless, but he also shows genuine remorse for not only his actions, but for his failures and inability to help. He cares about the Winchesters and his other "friends" including Bobby. But he's also not shy about putting them into danger if he must.
Name: Castiel
Canon: Supernatural
PB/Image:
http://i1343.photobucket.com/albums/o798/daisydaysea/spn619-5_zps60556292.gif
http://i1343.photobucket.com/albums/o798/daisydaysea/Castiel_zpsb58d19ba.jpg
Info links:
http://www.supernaturalwiki.com/index.php?title=Castiel (character wiki)
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Castiel_(Supernatural) (character wikipedia article)
Canon Point:
Very end of Season 5, after he's been resurrected and Lucifer and Michael have been sent to hell.
Powers:
Normally Cas has all sorts of angel mojo powers. In short they have been shown to include: teleportation, communicating with other angels telepathically, exorcising demons by touch, knowledge of spells and magic, being able to etch symbols onto people's bones, pyrokinesis (handy for burning a demon's old bones). His true voice and form can burn people's eyes out. And he can apparently watch people while hanging about invisibly. And wings. He has wings. He can heal people from even extremely serious injuries. All of these are when he's at his full strength. Several circumstances have left him with much weaker abilities, or cut some abilities off entirely. Oh. And he's quite strong.
Personality:
Castiel is not human. That's one of the main things to remember about him. He spends a good deal of time in a human vessel, but it is very much a book-and-its-cover situation. Castiel may do a decent job of looking human (except his posture tends to be a bit too stiff, a bit too still) and sounding human (except his voice tends to be a bit too intense, and the stuff that comes out of his mouth is not always normal), but some of the finer points of humanity are still something he's learning.
Because of this, Cas is a contradictory mix of an ancient and powerful being (full of knowledge and capability, and downright dangerous to be on the wrong side of) and a child just learning that fire can burn (not only himself but everyone around him). He's naive and entirely unaware of social norms. Personal space, the finer points of conversation, not blurting out personal and sensitive matters. All these things that are perfectly obvious to most anyone who has been raised in just about any society, are mysteries that must be discovered and explained to Castiel.
Dean mentions his personal space issues with an old frustration that makes it sound like it is not the first dozen times it's been brought up. And when he decides to take Castiel around as a sidekick, it's very apparent that Cas falls short of managing a convincing human impression, too ready to blurt out the truth. For all that he can be deceptive, he is pretty prone to just stating things as they are as well. Dean has to explain that when humans want something very very badly, they lie, or at least don't just blurt out impossible truths to normal people.
Technology thwarts him. Media and entertainment both puzzle and fascinate him by turns. Personal boundaries or limitations aren't exactly his forte either. When Dean tries to help him lose his virginity at a house of ill-repute (who thought that was a good idea?), instead of, er, closing the deal, Cas decides it's a good time to discuss his lady companion's daddy issues. Jokes and references are often lost on him, though he does have a sense of humor. It's subdued, but it's there. He has the ability to tease and find the humor even in dark situations. He also tries to explain an old angel joke, but when it falls flat insists that it's funnier in Enochian. Not all angels are quite this clueless about these aspects of humanity. But Cas definitely is.
Part of this being torn between two worlds leaves Castiel with an almost childlike sense of wonder. The way he looks at things and people, like he's confused and fascinated and bewildered and enraptured all at once, is a common expression on his features. He's figuring out a world that he has watched for a long time, but never experienced up close. And the longer he spends in it, the more affected by it he becomes. Being with humans changes Cas, teaches him about freewill and choice and consequence.
As an angel, Castiel has watched the world a very long time. It's his Father's creation, after all. Arguably his most important, and that alone makes it precious at first. Because when Castiel first appears to the brothers Winchester, God's will and Heaven's orders are what matter the most. He is there and helping them because it is what he was told to do. Castiel starts out as a perfectly obedient soldier. He's been honed on the battlefield. Heaven wields him like a weapon. The will of his superiors (and he thinks at least at first, of God) is what matters, and his own choices aren't the driving force in anything.
However, this changes. People. The Winchesters. Earth. They start to matter because they matter to Cas himself. It's not an easy process. When Castiel first begins to question, first begins to wonder about whether what he is doing is right, it ends badly. Despite his misgivings, a reprimanding is enough to quash his doubts and get him back in line. For a time.
But that's the thing about Castiel. He's persistent. And even if he may have been created to follow orders and to obey as angels are, he eventually comes to want something more, to believe that there should be something more, since blind obedience will bring about too high of a cost. It's sort of a breakthrough for Castiel when he chooses to rebel, to basically go rogue and do what he believes is right rather than what he is being told is right.
Castiel absolutely wants to do what is right. This doesn't always lead to him doing the best thing, but at the very least his intentions are good. Unfortunately, the road to hell is paved with those sorts of intentions, and Castiel isn't exactly afraid to stretch the truth or outright lie or manipulate people to accomplish what he thinks is the right thing. He can be ruthless at times, in how he dispatches his enemies and former friends alike, when he must.
Even though he's an angel, Castiel is not some perfect creature of feathers and fluff. He's visceral and violent at times. He's a capable and downright fierce fighter, dispatching his foes both angel and demon alike. More than that, he's shown himself capable of taking out his frustrations out violently -- specifically on Dean when he believes that the elder Winchester is going to say yes to Michael. Cas tends to hold people to sometimes impossible ideals, even himself. This leads him to disappointment. In the Winchesters, in himself, in his Father, his fellow angels. He picks up and goes on, but not without being affected. At one point he gets quite drunk to try to cope -- something he undoubtedly learned from watching Sam and Dean. Angel see angel do.
It's impossible to explain Cas's personality without talking about his relationship with the Winchesters, especially Dean. He pulls Dean out of hell, and from that point on, they're connected. It's obvious. Castiel shows up again and again, getting to the point where he comes when he's called. Mostly. Sometimes. Either by phone or later, by prayer. At first his relationship with Dean is tense, and he is quick to threaten the hunter that he ought to obey or face the consequences. This is a far cry for when Castiel outright rebels to help Dean and Sam in their quest, to fight against Heaven and his brothers to stop the apocalypse from coming about.
Castiel learns a lot about himself because of Sam and Dean. He takes risks and gets into trouble, going to far as to put his life on the line, banishing himself, making himself vulnerable. Then again, sometimes he puts the brothers in danger as well. But he learns to respect what they are trying to do, even if he doesn't exactly sugarcoat things when they screw up. And occasionally when they ask him for help, he acts more like they're bothering him than they likely are. Though his help sometimes comes with warnings or reluctance, Castiel is loyal. He cares about Dean and Sam and actively fights beside them and helps protect them and their friends, risking his own life time and time again. He and Dean often butt heads, but there is a trust growing between them (though sometimes it wanes when one or the other feels let down by the other). Castiel saved Dean from hell, and there's a sense of obligation and devotion there. Just being around the Winchesters is enough to bring Castiel to rebel against Heaven, after all.
He seems significantly closer to Dean than he does Sam, even telling Sam that they have a more profound bond (this revelation comes after Cas's current canon point, but is true even at the time that he is from). He calls Sam an abomination, though he doesn't seem to mean much offense by it. Even if he is closer and connected to Dean, he does admire Sam's determination, and the decisions he makes, especially the sacrifice of himself to seal Satan back into hell. He'll also side with Sam when the younger Winchester is being the more reasonable party (a frequent occurrence), and genuinely seems to care about his well being. And there was that one almost hug that instead became an awkward moment. Humans are confusing. Sam more so than most, but he matters to Castiel.
Despite growing and learning from the brothers, Cas is still an angel, and is still part of that family. He speaks of the other angels as his brothers, and much of the strife that goes on seems to be a large family brawl. Unfortunately, it's violent and vicious and the fallout can be catastrophic. However, just because they're kin, doesn't mean that Castiel is a fan of all his family. There is outright animosity between him and Raphael (that comes to a head in season seven, beginning shortly after his canon point). When he starts getting too sympathetic to the Winchesters at first, he winds up being made subordinate to Uriel, something that doesn't sit well with him. It sits even less well when he realizes that his kin have been making up their own rules and trying to bring about the apocalypse, no matter what the wishes of God, since God has been quite absent.
This is the beginning of a crisis of faith for Cas, which culminates when, after searching for God on earth, he's basically told to stop looking, that God doesn't want to be involved. The sheer level of abandonment that he feels is near devastating. Castiel's faith is shaken a few times, and towards the end of season 5, he's begun to give up all hope. Everything they've tried has proven to do nothing to change faith, and he is nearly ready to give up, a fact that doesn't seem to sit well with his human friends. Eventually Cas is inspired by their continued efforts to keep on moving forward and fighting himself.
It's around this time that Cas even gets up the nerve to stand up to the strongest of his brothers, joining Dean in a last ditch effort to stop Michael and Lucifer (even though Castiel has lost his powers nearly entirely at this point).
In general, in the everyday moment, Castiel is serious and steadfast. He tends to watch and listen more than he speaks, unless he has something to say. He's full of questions (many of which have answers that should be obvious). He's both naive and incredibly knowledgeable. He's a creature of Heaven, but he's been tainted by freewill, and seems to be picking up more human traits the longer he spends around them. Above all, Castiel is evolving. He's spent most of his life as an eternal being, but in the short time since he met Sam and Dean, he has begun to truly change and evolve at an impressive rate. He can be ruthless, but he also shows genuine remorse for not only his actions, but for his failures and inability to help. He cares about the Winchesters and his other "friends" including Bobby. But he's also not shy about putting them into danger if he must.