![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
Supernatural has only named two kinds of angels – angels and archangels, though the angels seem to have some kind of internal hierarchy that hasn't been explained much. They do not seem to be arranged in the Seven Choirs, though there are ranks of some sort, since there is an 'upper management' that is keeping the details of the Apocalypse from the foot soldiers, for fear that they'll rebel against their orders if those orders seem to contradict what they know of God's Will.
Angels do consider each other family, and refer to each other as brother and sister (depending on Vessels -- we've only seen three female-embodied angels so far, and only Anna had a speaking part). However, the hierarchical nature of angels seems to be more important that the familial, as for angels obedience and respect for rank are more important than compassion and love for each other.
Obedience is expected from angels of low rank to those superior to them; disobedience is the gravest offense, completely with death being the penalty in extreme cases. This might be why the angels can't seem to get through their heads that Dean is not going to go along with their plans. Castiel may have coerced Dean into that oath of allegiance, but it never occurs to the angels that such a promise given under duress is invalid. They simply don't see anything wrong with manufacturing consent by lies of omission, pressure, or outright torture. Especially since they seem willing to torture their own into obedience, given the hints dropped about what happened to Castiel during The Rapture after he was dragged back to Heaven against his will.
Archangels are 'Heaven's deadliest weapon' and seem to be an entire of order of magnitude more powerful than other angels. So far, only two archangels have been seen in canon and three named (four, if Lucifer was an archangel). The archangels seem to have closer ties to each other than to the rest of the angels. Certainly, Gabriel seemed much more distraught over the idea that Michael and Lucifer would have to fight to the death than the fact that he himself had visibly hurt Castiel – though he did call Castiel 'brother' when directly talking to him.
Individual Angels
Castiel – simply an angel of the garrison assigned to watch Earth for the last 2000 years, Castiel is the one who succeeded in pulling Dean out of Hell. He had some small amount of rank, because he was Uriel's superior until On the Head of a Pin – but he was basically a groundpounder. He seems to be very well versed in Enochian sigils and warding, as he drew the Devil's Trap that contained Alistair, has used the Angel-Banishing Sigil twice, and carved Enochian sigils onto Dean and Sam's ribs to shield them from all angels; he may be unusually skilled, because besides Anna's one-time use of the Angel-Banishing Sigil, we've never seen any other angel use Enochian sigils.
His total space-case affect when dealing with humans suggests that either he's never dealt with humans before (never taken a Vessel before), is a lot younger than he seems, or has an angelic spectrum disorder. He has almost no human social skills when we first meet him and decidedly lousy combat skills against creatures of his own abilities (at least in Season 4; he's doing better in Season 5). His flat aspect, low understanding of human emotions, and stiff and awkward way of moving set him apart from humans, and even other angels. Castiel has almost no understanding of pop-culture references, even ones other angels get, or make. His utter seriousness is matched by his utter devotion to the will of God – which is not the same thing as the will of his superiors, as it turns out.
He rebelled for Dean's sake (Dean seems to be his only true friend) and told him about Lilith being the final seal. He is currently searching for God in order to ask his Father to stop the apocalypse. He also aids Dean and Sam when they need him – he is frighteningly obedient to Dean's goals, though his methods are sometimes disgustingly pragmatic and even horrific from a human perspective. He proposed murdering the cambion boy, Jesse, simply because it was safer to eliminate a potential threat than try to recruit the child as ally.
Besides a decidedly alien viewpoint of what is a 'good' outcome, he has low ability to think for himself, at least when it comes to wants and goal-setting. Give him a directive -- like Dean's goal of finding the Colt -- and he will pursue it to the end, no matter how insane or frivolous he thinks the goal is; he's quite a determinator, and it seems that Sam and Dean not realizing he will try to meet any goal them give him is the one things that are protecting him from what could be a quite hideous abuse (well, that, and Sam and Dean are not so flawed as to take advantage of someone that realize won't disobey them in any serious way). He's a surprisingly good tactician, for someone who isn't exactly adept at grasping human motivations or reasoning.
His morality is focused on the long term and on achieving happy outcomes for as many humans as possible, as God commanded the angels to love humanity before God. This means he wants as many humans getting to paradise as possible – this occasionally gives completely inhuman results, like thinking it would be a good reward for his Vessel, Jimmy, to die and go to heaven, instead of be healed and reunited with his family, which is certainly what Jimmy would have preferred.
Anna Milton – formerly Castiel and Uriel's superior (unknown if she was just immediately above them in the hierarchy, or actually the leader to the garrison), currently a rebel captured by Heaven. She unwisely kept trying to persuade Castiel to think for himself, even after she knew he'd been dragged back to Heaven for 'Bible Camp'.
She is extremely kind and compassionate, and has the most understanding of human morality of all angels – because of her time as one. She also is extremely concerned for Castiel, attempting to guide him towards what humans would prefer, until she is captured. Hopefully, she'll get an interesting episode or two sometimes soon, but given that she's a reoccurring character and a female one at that, her odds of long term survival aren't high.
Uriel – is dogmatic and disgusted with the mess humans have made of the world, Uriel did seem like a loyal if jaded and somewhat kill-happy soldier. Until it was revealed he had switched his allegiance to Lucifer, had corrupted several of more of the garrison to Lucifer's side, and killed the seven angels that did not agree with his persuasion. His death at Anna's sword was a Pyrrhic victory for her and Castiel, because it was a betrayal by a dear friend and brother. Oddly enough, he seemed to know more of human pop-culture, enough to taunt Dean about 'slicing off a little angel food cake' about Dean having sex with Anna. Definitely *not* an archangel, but implied by the supplemental material on the Season 4 disc set to be the angel responsible for the destruction of Sodom and Gomorrah.
Zachariah – Castiel's former superior, is affable, chatty, and knows all of Dean's pop-cultural references, to the point of offering Dean Ginger and MaryAnn from the second season of Gilligan's Island as company when the angels were holding Dean in the Green Room. He tried to torture Dean into becoming Micheal's vessel when it became apparent that Dean was not going to obey the orders Zachariah tried to issue. He's some disturbing blend of marketing executive, used car salesman, and angel. He really doesn't have humanity's interest in mind, any way.
He's extremely slick – Dean describes the angels as 'coming on like shady politicians from Planet Vulcan', and Zachariah seems to have inspired that description. He is also willing to justify starting the Apocalypse by blame-shifting – Dean and Sam were actively trying to prevent it, but because they were told half-truths and mislead every which way, they inadvertently did everything necessary to start it off.
Raphael – is the archangel who guards Chuck Shirley (Prophet of the Lord). He's the only other angel with lines that shares Castiel's thousand-yard stare and flat affect. Claims to be merciful in that he didn't smite Castiel and Dean immediately for summoning him.
Raphael is tired, and just 'wants paradise', which he believes will come after the Apocalypse and Michael defeating Lucifer. He seems very weary and sad, but still threatens to drag Dean to Michael and promises Dean that he will be much more imaginative than Zachariah when it comes to getting Dean to consent to Micheal's take-over.
Gabriel – is the archangel who skipped out of Heaven and 'ran off to join the pagans'. He's been masquerading as a Trickster ever since, and has way too much fun being smirky, delivering poetic justice to people who are unethical, immoral, or just plain jerks, eating sweets, cavorting with women he's summoned into being with his power, and basically being as selfish as possible while nominally giving people their 'just desserts'.
His berserk button is his family – he left Heaven because he couldn't take the infighting any more, and wants it simply to 'be over'. He was trying to force Dean and Sam to agree to being Vessels for Michael and Lucifer, but didn't go with physical torture – mind-games are his area of expertise. He's incredibly creative in how he messes with humans, and never goes for pure physical harm when -- he always has some element of horror, humiliation, or mockery in his pranks, the more black comedy the better.
He knows the most about humans and the human perspective of all the angels, since he's been living on Earth for years, possibly millennia. He seems genuinely sorry for Dean and Sam's intended roles in the Apocalypse, but won't fight destiny to help them, at least as of the end of Changing Channels. He certainly knows how to manipulate Sam and Dean's brotherly affection, as every time he's appeared, he's manipulated their familial tension for his own goals, sometimes more subtly than others.
Could be an extremely useful ally if Sam or Dean could get him to fight for humanity instead of retreating from all responsibility. And if he gets over the worst and long-lasting case of Middle Child Syndrome in history of the universe...
Michael – hasn't shown up yet. The General of the Heavenly Host seems to be AWOL. I rather like the fan fics where Dean *is* Michael after tearing out his Grace, but I'm 100% that's not going to be canon.
Lucifer – affable, kind spoken, tells the truth at all times, loves the Earth as his Father's finest and last creation, and wants to wipe humanity out of existence and does not care a whit for the continued existence for his own creations, the demons (not surprising given that demons are twisted human souls). From humanity's perspective, a complete monster – from the angelic one, maybe not.
Angels do consider each other family, and refer to each other as brother and sister (depending on Vessels -- we've only seen three female-embodied angels so far, and only Anna had a speaking part). However, the hierarchical nature of angels seems to be more important that the familial, as for angels obedience and respect for rank are more important than compassion and love for each other.
Obedience is expected from angels of low rank to those superior to them; disobedience is the gravest offense, completely with death being the penalty in extreme cases. This might be why the angels can't seem to get through their heads that Dean is not going to go along with their plans. Castiel may have coerced Dean into that oath of allegiance, but it never occurs to the angels that such a promise given under duress is invalid. They simply don't see anything wrong with manufacturing consent by lies of omission, pressure, or outright torture. Especially since they seem willing to torture their own into obedience, given the hints dropped about what happened to Castiel during The Rapture after he was dragged back to Heaven against his will.
Archangels are 'Heaven's deadliest weapon' and seem to be an entire of order of magnitude more powerful than other angels. So far, only two archangels have been seen in canon and three named (four, if Lucifer was an archangel). The archangels seem to have closer ties to each other than to the rest of the angels. Certainly, Gabriel seemed much more distraught over the idea that Michael and Lucifer would have to fight to the death than the fact that he himself had visibly hurt Castiel – though he did call Castiel 'brother' when directly talking to him.
Individual Angels
Castiel – simply an angel of the garrison assigned to watch Earth for the last 2000 years, Castiel is the one who succeeded in pulling Dean out of Hell. He had some small amount of rank, because he was Uriel's superior until On the Head of a Pin – but he was basically a groundpounder. He seems to be very well versed in Enochian sigils and warding, as he drew the Devil's Trap that contained Alistair, has used the Angel-Banishing Sigil twice, and carved Enochian sigils onto Dean and Sam's ribs to shield them from all angels; he may be unusually skilled, because besides Anna's one-time use of the Angel-Banishing Sigil, we've never seen any other angel use Enochian sigils.
His total space-case affect when dealing with humans suggests that either he's never dealt with humans before (never taken a Vessel before), is a lot younger than he seems, or has an angelic spectrum disorder. He has almost no human social skills when we first meet him and decidedly lousy combat skills against creatures of his own abilities (at least in Season 4; he's doing better in Season 5). His flat aspect, low understanding of human emotions, and stiff and awkward way of moving set him apart from humans, and even other angels. Castiel has almost no understanding of pop-culture references, even ones other angels get, or make. His utter seriousness is matched by his utter devotion to the will of God – which is not the same thing as the will of his superiors, as it turns out.
He rebelled for Dean's sake (Dean seems to be his only true friend) and told him about Lilith being the final seal. He is currently searching for God in order to ask his Father to stop the apocalypse. He also aids Dean and Sam when they need him – he is frighteningly obedient to Dean's goals, though his methods are sometimes disgustingly pragmatic and even horrific from a human perspective. He proposed murdering the cambion boy, Jesse, simply because it was safer to eliminate a potential threat than try to recruit the child as ally.
Besides a decidedly alien viewpoint of what is a 'good' outcome, he has low ability to think for himself, at least when it comes to wants and goal-setting. Give him a directive -- like Dean's goal of finding the Colt -- and he will pursue it to the end, no matter how insane or frivolous he thinks the goal is; he's quite a determinator, and it seems that Sam and Dean not realizing he will try to meet any goal them give him is the one things that are protecting him from what could be a quite hideous abuse (well, that, and Sam and Dean are not so flawed as to take advantage of someone that realize won't disobey them in any serious way). He's a surprisingly good tactician, for someone who isn't exactly adept at grasping human motivations or reasoning.
His morality is focused on the long term and on achieving happy outcomes for as many humans as possible, as God commanded the angels to love humanity before God. This means he wants as many humans getting to paradise as possible – this occasionally gives completely inhuman results, like thinking it would be a good reward for his Vessel, Jimmy, to die and go to heaven, instead of be healed and reunited with his family, which is certainly what Jimmy would have preferred.
Anna Milton – formerly Castiel and Uriel's superior (unknown if she was just immediately above them in the hierarchy, or actually the leader to the garrison), currently a rebel captured by Heaven. She unwisely kept trying to persuade Castiel to think for himself, even after she knew he'd been dragged back to Heaven for 'Bible Camp'.
She is extremely kind and compassionate, and has the most understanding of human morality of all angels – because of her time as one. She also is extremely concerned for Castiel, attempting to guide him towards what humans would prefer, until she is captured. Hopefully, she'll get an interesting episode or two sometimes soon, but given that she's a reoccurring character and a female one at that, her odds of long term survival aren't high.
Uriel – is dogmatic and disgusted with the mess humans have made of the world, Uriel did seem like a loyal if jaded and somewhat kill-happy soldier. Until it was revealed he had switched his allegiance to Lucifer, had corrupted several of more of the garrison to Lucifer's side, and killed the seven angels that did not agree with his persuasion. His death at Anna's sword was a Pyrrhic victory for her and Castiel, because it was a betrayal by a dear friend and brother. Oddly enough, he seemed to know more of human pop-culture, enough to taunt Dean about 'slicing off a little angel food cake' about Dean having sex with Anna. Definitely *not* an archangel, but implied by the supplemental material on the Season 4 disc set to be the angel responsible for the destruction of Sodom and Gomorrah.
Zachariah – Castiel's former superior, is affable, chatty, and knows all of Dean's pop-cultural references, to the point of offering Dean Ginger and MaryAnn from the second season of Gilligan's Island as company when the angels were holding Dean in the Green Room. He tried to torture Dean into becoming Micheal's vessel when it became apparent that Dean was not going to obey the orders Zachariah tried to issue. He's some disturbing blend of marketing executive, used car salesman, and angel. He really doesn't have humanity's interest in mind, any way.
He's extremely slick – Dean describes the angels as 'coming on like shady politicians from Planet Vulcan', and Zachariah seems to have inspired that description. He is also willing to justify starting the Apocalypse by blame-shifting – Dean and Sam were actively trying to prevent it, but because they were told half-truths and mislead every which way, they inadvertently did everything necessary to start it off.
Raphael – is the archangel who guards Chuck Shirley (Prophet of the Lord). He's the only other angel with lines that shares Castiel's thousand-yard stare and flat affect. Claims to be merciful in that he didn't smite Castiel and Dean immediately for summoning him.
Raphael is tired, and just 'wants paradise', which he believes will come after the Apocalypse and Michael defeating Lucifer. He seems very weary and sad, but still threatens to drag Dean to Michael and promises Dean that he will be much more imaginative than Zachariah when it comes to getting Dean to consent to Micheal's take-over.
Gabriel – is the archangel who skipped out of Heaven and 'ran off to join the pagans'. He's been masquerading as a Trickster ever since, and has way too much fun being smirky, delivering poetic justice to people who are unethical, immoral, or just plain jerks, eating sweets, cavorting with women he's summoned into being with his power, and basically being as selfish as possible while nominally giving people their 'just desserts'.
His berserk button is his family – he left Heaven because he couldn't take the infighting any more, and wants it simply to 'be over'. He was trying to force Dean and Sam to agree to being Vessels for Michael and Lucifer, but didn't go with physical torture – mind-games are his area of expertise. He's incredibly creative in how he messes with humans, and never goes for pure physical harm when -- he always has some element of horror, humiliation, or mockery in his pranks, the more black comedy the better.
He knows the most about humans and the human perspective of all the angels, since he's been living on Earth for years, possibly millennia. He seems genuinely sorry for Dean and Sam's intended roles in the Apocalypse, but won't fight destiny to help them, at least as of the end of Changing Channels. He certainly knows how to manipulate Sam and Dean's brotherly affection, as every time he's appeared, he's manipulated their familial tension for his own goals, sometimes more subtly than others.
Could be an extremely useful ally if Sam or Dean could get him to fight for humanity instead of retreating from all responsibility. And if he gets over the worst and long-lasting case of Middle Child Syndrome in history of the universe...
Michael – hasn't shown up yet. The General of the Heavenly Host seems to be AWOL. I rather like the fan fics where Dean *is* Michael after tearing out his Grace, but I'm 100% that's not going to be canon.
Lucifer – affable, kind spoken, tells the truth at all times, loves the Earth as his Father's finest and last creation, and wants to wipe humanity out of existence and does not care a whit for the continued existence for his own creations, the demons (not surprising given that demons are twisted human souls). From humanity's perspective, a complete monster – from the angelic one, maybe not.
