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nnyI'm not entirely sure how this happened - I think the blame mostly rests on ![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
aesc and unamaga; huge thanks to the both of them for putting up with my rambling. :D
SPOILERS UP TO SUPERNATURAL 4x10
I'm the one who gripped you tight – a Dean/Castiel manifesto
('cap byoxoniensis)
Castiel is an angel of the Lord. It's one of the first things we learn about him; Castiel is an angel of the Lord, on Earth to attempt to prevent the Apocalypse, one of the weapons of which is apparently Dean Winchester. Haven't you heard? It's all over Angel FM – Dean Winchester is saved.
('cap byoxoniensis)
Dean Winchester is perhaps the least likely of Chosen Ones, particularly where God is concerned. Dean Winchester doesn't believe in it, has no truck with angels, has no pre-existing baggage with the holy and as a result sees the angels as beings first, and God's warriors second. More precisely, he sees them – according to Dean – as dicks. Dean, perhaps most importantly, doesn't necessarily have as clear cut a vision of What Is Right as some. He does what he believes he has to do in order to help people, and what sort of overarching philosophy of Good is that?
Saving People. Hunting Things.
One of the angels describes being stationed on Earth as "…on the road, sick for home, waiting for orders from an unknowable I can't begin to understand…" and Dean? Dean can relate. His priorities were always to follow John's footsteps because of some intangible sense of right that John apparently possessed and Dean did not; once his father was dead and that sense of right was gone, Dean's mission was as above – "Saving people. Hunting things." It's simplistic, certainly, but the importance is in the order of priority. He doesn't have the Missions (with ever such a capital M) that Sam has, not unless Sam is the one at stake; Sam has individual priorities in the name of Good and Right that are more important than the individual. Sam will challenge orders and go his own way; an attitude in Uriel that Castiel refers to as 'close to blasphemy.'
In this, then, Castiel and Dean are alike. They will follow orders, but each of them secretly questions more as time goes by, and appreciates the individual saving acts that take place. At the end of episode 4x07, sat together in the park, Dean points out that although they failed in their task, the people in front of them would not be alive if it hadn't been for his brother and him. Castiel agrees – the people are "my Father's creations. They are works of art."
"The decision's been made."
"By a mud monkey."
"You shouldn't call them that."
So when was it that Castiel started to care? The first couple of times that he is seen, he seems far more distant, impersonal. Yet time passes, and we come to the scene in the motel in 4x07. Uriel is angry and disdainful and ruthless towards the human perspective – although he doesn't engage in violence towards them, despite provocation. (I can't help imagining Castiel, over time, saying increasingly insulting things to him and getting patiently smashed through walls, as a sort of Dean Winchester immunisation program.) Castiel on the other hand is fixated on Dean's face until the discussion comes around to orders that Dean is unhappy with, upon which Castiel seems too uncomfortable to look at him. Ashamed. Castiel canonically does not want to be seen as 'God's Hammer' by Dean. He wants it to be known that he has questions. Perhaps because Dean doesn't have this pre-existing baggage with God and with angels, sees Castiel as something more human than that. Rails at him and insults him as if it matters, as if his reactions to Castiel can somehow make a difference – and, judging by Castiel's expressions as Dean reacts, it seems that somehow they do.
So what does Dean get out of this? Castiel tells him, upon their first meeting:
"I'm the one who gripped you tight and raised you from Perdition." What if it's not the 'raised' part – the orders from on high – that is the significant factor here? What if it's the part where it was 'from Perdition'? Dean has now admitted to Sam that he was in hell for long enough to have, as he sees it, failed himself and failed at humanity; to have begun torturing as he was tortured. Yet Castiel, upon seeing Dean first in the show, seems almost bemused by the fact that Dean doesn't think he deserved to be saved. Castiel is the only one who has seen Dean at his very lowest possible point; therefore Castiel's forgiveness and Castiel's good opinion is the only one that can truly matter.
What it comes down to is that they each see the humanity in each other – they can only experience their best selves through the other's eyes.
As Uriel says to Dean:
"See, he has this weakness. He likes you."
Whether you agree or not with my thinky bit, it's the individual interactions and reactions and camera angles that make a pairing in a show, right? So the little bits of squee:
# Castiel considered that Dean was special enough that he might be able to see his true form.
# PERSONAL SPACE ISSUES.
# Castiel, in the majority of the scenes he's in, cannot take his eyes off Dean's face.
# Dean's face when Sam mentions looking for weapons that can kill an angel.
# Castiel's face when Anna kisses Dean.
# Dean gives Castiel a nickname.
# Castiel WATCHES DEAN SLEEP.
# Dean attacks a demon with a tyre iron to save Castiel.
# Castiel tells Dean secrets.
# OTHER ANGELS HAVE NOTICED THAT CASTIEL LIKES DEAN.
*beams*
Feel free to agree, disagree, expand upon, add squee moments, what have you. My first musing of this kind, so I'm totally happy to be Learninated. XD
aesc and unamaga; huge thanks to the both of them for putting up with my rambling. :DSPOILERS UP TO SUPERNATURAL 4x10
('cap by
oxoniensis)Castiel is an angel of the Lord. It's one of the first things we learn about him; Castiel is an angel of the Lord, on Earth to attempt to prevent the Apocalypse, one of the weapons of which is apparently Dean Winchester. Haven't you heard? It's all over Angel FM – Dean Winchester is saved.
('cap by
oxoniensis)Dean Winchester is perhaps the least likely of Chosen Ones, particularly where God is concerned. Dean Winchester doesn't believe in it, has no truck with angels, has no pre-existing baggage with the holy and as a result sees the angels as beings first, and God's warriors second. More precisely, he sees them – according to Dean – as dicks. Dean, perhaps most importantly, doesn't necessarily have as clear cut a vision of What Is Right as some. He does what he believes he has to do in order to help people, and what sort of overarching philosophy of Good is that?
Saving People. Hunting Things.
One of the angels describes being stationed on Earth as "…on the road, sick for home, waiting for orders from an unknowable I can't begin to understand…" and Dean? Dean can relate. His priorities were always to follow John's footsteps because of some intangible sense of right that John apparently possessed and Dean did not; once his father was dead and that sense of right was gone, Dean's mission was as above – "Saving people. Hunting things." It's simplistic, certainly, but the importance is in the order of priority. He doesn't have the Missions (with ever such a capital M) that Sam has, not unless Sam is the one at stake; Sam has individual priorities in the name of Good and Right that are more important than the individual. Sam will challenge orders and go his own way; an attitude in Uriel that Castiel refers to as 'close to blasphemy.'
In this, then, Castiel and Dean are alike. They will follow orders, but each of them secretly questions more as time goes by, and appreciates the individual saving acts that take place. At the end of episode 4x07, sat together in the park, Dean points out that although they failed in their task, the people in front of them would not be alive if it hadn't been for his brother and him. Castiel agrees – the people are "my Father's creations. They are works of art."
"The decision's been made."
"By a mud monkey."
"You shouldn't call them that."
So when was it that Castiel started to care? The first couple of times that he is seen, he seems far more distant, impersonal. Yet time passes, and we come to the scene in the motel in 4x07. Uriel is angry and disdainful and ruthless towards the human perspective – although he doesn't engage in violence towards them, despite provocation. (I can't help imagining Castiel, over time, saying increasingly insulting things to him and getting patiently smashed through walls, as a sort of Dean Winchester immunisation program.) Castiel on the other hand is fixated on Dean's face until the discussion comes around to orders that Dean is unhappy with, upon which Castiel seems too uncomfortable to look at him. Ashamed. Castiel canonically does not want to be seen as 'God's Hammer' by Dean. He wants it to be known that he has questions. Perhaps because Dean doesn't have this pre-existing baggage with God and with angels, sees Castiel as something more human than that. Rails at him and insults him as if it matters, as if his reactions to Castiel can somehow make a difference – and, judging by Castiel's expressions as Dean reacts, it seems that somehow they do.
So what does Dean get out of this? Castiel tells him, upon their first meeting:
"I'm the one who gripped you tight and raised you from Perdition." What if it's not the 'raised' part – the orders from on high – that is the significant factor here? What if it's the part where it was 'from Perdition'? Dean has now admitted to Sam that he was in hell for long enough to have, as he sees it, failed himself and failed at humanity; to have begun torturing as he was tortured. Yet Castiel, upon seeing Dean first in the show, seems almost bemused by the fact that Dean doesn't think he deserved to be saved. Castiel is the only one who has seen Dean at his very lowest possible point; therefore Castiel's forgiveness and Castiel's good opinion is the only one that can truly matter.
What it comes down to is that they each see the humanity in each other – they can only experience their best selves through the other's eyes.
As Uriel says to Dean:
"See, he has this weakness. He likes you."
Whether you agree or not with my thinky bit, it's the individual interactions and reactions and camera angles that make a pairing in a show, right? So the little bits of squee:
# Castiel considered that Dean was special enough that he might be able to see his true form.
# PERSONAL SPACE ISSUES.
# Castiel, in the majority of the scenes he's in, cannot take his eyes off Dean's face.
# Dean's face when Sam mentions looking for weapons that can kill an angel.
# Castiel's face when Anna kisses Dean.
# Dean gives Castiel a nickname.
# Castiel WATCHES DEAN SLEEP.
# Dean attacks a demon with a tyre iron to save Castiel.
# Castiel tells Dean secrets.
# OTHER ANGELS HAVE NOTICED THAT CASTIEL LIKES DEAN.
*beams*
Feel free to agree, disagree, expand upon, add squee moments, what have you. My first musing of this kind, so I'm totally happy to be Learninated. XD
![[identity profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/openid.png){kind=small}
no subject
Date: 2009-02-21 07:39 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2009-02-21 07:43 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2009-02-21 07:45 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2009-02-21 07:46 pm (UTC)*draws stupid hearts around the pair of them*
no subject
Date: 2009-02-21 07:52 pm (UTC)*helpless*
no subject
Date: 2009-02-21 07:52 pm (UTC)I mean. Oops?
no subject
Date: 2009-02-21 08:01 pm (UTC)Oh, Castiel. So deliciously deadpan.
You're reading
no subject
Date: 2009-02-21 08:14 pm (UTC)1) Uriel - Uriel of the mud monkey slurs! - knows Castiel likes Dean to the point of it being a weakness. Does Castiel gossip on Angel FM or is he really just that transparent? Because, I mean, it wasn't Uriel saying he thinks Castiel likes Dean and that's a problem, it was Uriel outright stating a fact.
2) I think it's interesting Dean's been nothing but hostile towards the idea of angels and God having a plan for him from the very beginning - and I'm not saying they haven't given him every single reason to be, because wow - but he is still so willing, time after time, to...take Castiel back, as it were, to trust him again and again. And I think that's part of why Castiel's so visibly discomfited when they come to take Anna: he wants to live up to that trust, but he doesn't quite understand why.
no subject
Date: 2009-02-21 08:32 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2009-02-21 08:34 pm (UTC)1) I suspect that Castiel is just that transparent, because he seems less familiar with emotions than Uriel. Admittedly Uriel is most familiar with Righteous Anger, but Castiel is very reserved, and therefore his - interest in the monkey is kind of obvious.
2) YES. Eee, yes, and I'm unable to get past the squee in order to respond more helpfully. CAS IS A VULCAN AND HIS EMOTIONS ARE ILLOGICAL, CRAP TAN!
no subject
Date: 2009-02-21 09:03 pm (UTC)I couldn't bring myself to make this one any smaller. Dear God, man.
no subject
Date: 2009-02-21 09:08 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2009-02-21 09:30 pm (UTC)Does Castiel gossip on Angel FM or is he really just that transparent?
Or maybe they just sort of know these things about each other? Orrrr... maybe Uriel was TOTALLY SPYING on Dean and Castiel in the park! D:
no subject
Date: 2009-02-21 09:32 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2009-02-21 10:16 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2009-02-21 10:21 pm (UTC)That is when Uriel has to go somewhere else.
no subject
Date: 2009-02-21 10:57 pm (UTC)Bah.
no subject
Date: 2009-02-21 10:59 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2009-02-21 11:10 pm (UTC)I'll just keep enjoying your picspams :) But ta.
no subject
Date: 2009-02-21 11:41 pm (UTC)God, though, Castiel is PRETTY.
no subject
Date: 2009-02-22 05:22 pm (UTC)