gwaevalarin | The State of Affairs in Heaven (Reply)

alhana_antilles gave me two very interesting questions on the fandom-related question meme:

1) What do you think is up with Raphael fighting Castiel in the Civil War despite the fact that he KNOWS that God brought him back from the dead? (Personally, I think his fight with Cas has gotten more than a little personal at this point- after all, he knows God has our angel's back.)

I believe there are at lest three factors, that may be playing into Raphael's behaviour.
One, God may have brought Castiel back, but no one really knows the reason. Sure, the logical thing to assume, is that God brought Castiel back as a reward for doing the right thing. But angels generally don't seem to think like that. They believe in prophecies and direct orders. And none of those have exactly changed.

Two, we can't be entirely sure that it really was God who brought Castiel back. The first time, yes, that was confirmed by Joshua. The second time, Castiel says he believes that it was God. And it does make sense, but there is no confirmation. And I am under the impression that Raphael knows a little more about that matter than we (and Castiel) do. When he has Cas on his knees in "The Third Man", about to kill him once more, he says: "Somehow, I don't think God will be bringing you back this time." Why not, if he did it twice already? I believe that once we know that, we'll know more about Raphael's true motives.

And three, not matter what other motivation he may have, I absolutely agree that Raphael's fight with Castiel has become personal. Raphael does holds a grudge against Cas, there's little doubt about that, and I'm sure he will take any and every excuse to make our angel's life as hard as possible.

2) What do you think of Castiel's relationships with is fellow angels both before he met the Winchesters and after his rebellion? We've been given a glimpse with this with Balthazar and have seen that his attitude towards humanity and faith in God is wildly different from most angels we've seen- so how do you think he is viewed by his family (& relates to them) up in Heaven?

What makes this question so difficult to answer, is that we don't see much angel-angel-interaction on the show. And whenever we do see two angels interact, one of them is usually Castiel. So I don't know what behaviour towards your fellow angels is considered normal in Heaven, and to what extend Castiel's behaviour differs from that.

My personal impression is that, before he met the Winchesters, Castiel was an average soldier. He wasn't on the lowest step of the ladder, but he wasn't very important either. Lucifer wasn't even entirely sure who he was. I believe Cas loved all of his brothers and sisters, in a rather abstract way, but he also did have a few true friendships with some of the other angels in his garrison: Balthazar. Anna. Uriel, to a certain extend. I don't think he stuck out in any way back then. His attitude towards humans only changed when he met Dean. His faith may always have differed, and maybe that was apparent to Bal or Anna, but otherwise I can't imagine that anyone took a close enough look to see it. Or that Cas was in any way aware of it.

When he showed the first signs of rebellion and was dragged back to Heaven, I'm not even sure that was such a big deal. It had happened before, an angel slightly straying off the path. At this point, Balthazar was probably the only one who saw that things were a little different in Castiel's case.

During the Apocalypse, Cas obviously pretty much didn't have any relationship with anyone in Heaven any more. He was hunted, but I'm not sure to what extend Heaven really was aware of what was happening, of what threat/promise Castiel's behaviour was posing. I think they still underestimated him during that time, or they would have looked for him a lot harder.

Now, with the civil war raging in Heaven and Castiel a big name up there, there are obviously two camps. There are the "traditionalists", fighting on Raphael's side. For them, Castiel is probably something like the next Lucifer, who has to be stopped at all costs. And then there are the ones following him. The ones that look up to him now, and believe in the change he is proposing. But from what I can tell from the episodes, none of them really see him as a person the way the Winchesters and Balthazar do. For them, he is more of a symbol, the personification of an idea and a new era. So, ultimately and somewhat ironically, he is more isolated and alone now, than he ever was before he turned into someone "special".

I'm still happy to answer more questions of any sort and any fandom. So feel free to ask. :)