The angel is up this week in the third of four individual character polls for Supernatural. Thank you all for participating so far. All of terms in these polls have been nominated by fans and selected based on the number of nominations and their standing in qualifying polls.
You get three choices in today’s poll. Voting will be open for a week. The topic of discussion is Castiel’s character, characterization, and why you chose what you chose. Bobby will be up next weekend. Character polls were previously run for Sam and Dean.
The answers listed in the poll scored top in the number nominations, but there were many great submissions that unfortunately I could not include. Here is the full list of submissions for Cas:
Arrogant
Awkward
Blunt
Bold
Caring
Childlike
Compassionate
Conflicted
Conniving
Conscientious
Courageous
Curious
Defeated
Detached
Determined
Devoted
Direct
Earnest
Emotionless
Epic
Faith
Friendship
Goal-oriented
Guilt-ridden
Guilty
Gullible
Heroic
Honest
Honor
Humble
Idealistic
Impressionable
Innocence
Innocent
Insecure
Knowledgeable
Literal
Lost
Loyal
Loyalty
Misguided
Moral
Naïve
Obstinate
Otherworldly
Passion
Penitent
Perserverance
Powerful
Principled in some ways
Protective
Questioning
Regretful
Resolute
Righteous
Rigid
Ruthless in ways
Selfless
Self-sacrificing
Sincere
Socially awkward
Solemn
Stoic
Strength
Strong
Stubborn
Tactless
Tough
Unpredictable
Vengeful
Wanting structure
Well-intentioned
Willingness
It's Cas's turn this week. A few people, myself included, found Cas the hardest of the four characters to define during the nomination phase. Why is that? He hasn't been on the show as long as Sam, Dean, or Bobby, but for the four seasons he has been on, he's had a strong presence.
ReplyDeleteIt's not as if Cas hasn't had a well-developed character storyline. He started as the angel who knew only to follow orders. We saw him gradually lose faith in what he had always believed in and rebel. We saw him become despondent, regain his faith, and take on a leadership role in Heaven, only to find that he didn't have as many answers as he had thought. We saw him become corrupted by power, fall hard, and find his way back to a path of redemption. So why is it that we struggled to define who he is?
Curious and devoted then toss up between naive and idealistic. And I chose naive
ReplyDelete..This character is very difficult to describe because angels dont have a normative or bio just follow the flow of the situation and react about it in a straight way for me castiel had some basic and my favorites are.Unpredictable,Innocence,.Questioning,..Curious,.Awkward,.Loyal,.Powerful,.Stoic and Stubborn
ReplyDeleteOne of my choices was idealistic. I chose innocent over naive, and I'm struggling to figure out why innocent felt more right to me. I guess it's because I don't think that Cas is really naive. Since his eyes were opened in season 4, he's been pretty quick to sense when something is off in his realm. But at the same time, he doesn't let the evil affect him. He keeps a certain distance and maintains an almost child-like innocence. It's like he understands and recognizes evil, but he's not touched by it himself because it's not in his nature. Except of course when he became corrupted by power in season 6.
ReplyDeleteIn some ways angels have been written as not having as much emotional depth as humans, but in other ways they don't seem so different. And of course, this varies widely depending on the angel.
ReplyDeletecurious,devoted,self-sacrificing <3
ReplyDeleteWow. This is the hardest one yet. I chose Powerful, idealistic, and loyal
ReplyDeleteannoyed that he's constantly described as naive? he might be unconcerned with human particulars, but he's not naive. dunno, my 2 cents. i used "caring, loyal, self-sacrificing"
ReplyDeleteGosh this one is hard, so many of these fit Cas..I went with Innocent, caring and devoted, but loyal, self-sacrificing, questioning, curious & powerful all fit him. I had a much harder time with this poll. Cas can be unpredictable, stubborn, idealistic & awkward but I prefer the good adjectives. lol
ReplyDeleteAwkward (with human things), loyal (even in Season 6, all that he did was for Heaven and the Winchesters, he thought he was doing good by them- this sorta goes with devoted), and self-sacrificing (he keeps dying for the Winchesters) were my votes.
ReplyDeleteHe's also stoic and wanting structure (he needs/wants someone guiding him whether that's Heaven or Dean telling him what is right to do - the one time he tried to take leader role he made a huge mistake). He was a leader in his garrison, but up until Season 6 he was never at the top.
He's very questioning, which gave him the capability to realize what his bosses were doing and to do the right thing in Season 4. He's also direct (says what is on his mind- no beating around the bush) and is honest for the most part. When he does try lying, he's usually pretty bad at it. Definitely not a thing that comes naturally to him.
Sincere sorta goes with honest.
He was a bit naive and innocent at times, but with everything that's happened to him the past few seasons, I think that's pretty much gone.
And except the future version of himself.
ReplyDelete100% agree with the innocent explanation. It's fun how he can be so powerful and scary one moment and innocent looking the next at times.
Don't know. He's a complicated character. Not saying the others aren't but I remember at the beginning always trying to get in his head and it being a challenge.
ReplyDeleteFuture hippie Cas was hilarious, but I don't know. I could never really reconcile that Cas with the character we were seeing.
ReplyDeleteIt might be that Cas has a kind of otherworldlyness that sets him apart. A lot of people identify with part of Sam or Dean, but no one ever identifies with Cas. Of course, I'm fully expecting that I'll be corrected on that last part as soon as I hit post. ;)
ReplyDeleteAwkward, naive, powerful
ReplyDeleteHowever, I'd think I'd get more specific with the first one and call him "socially awkward" instead.
I can relate on some level with the social issues, just not on his level.
ReplyDeleteSincere, Naive, Curious.
ReplyDeleteI think it depends on how much they've been around humans or just their personality. Gabriel and Balthazar both spent a lot of time on Earth and they were very loose and playful characters for most part. Doing whatever they wanted.
ReplyDeleteIt depends on the episode and sometimes the scene. He has been made to look powerful, impotent, funny, stoic, awkward, fierce, righteous, obedient, honest and sneaky.... I could go on... but I am going to stick with awkward, stoic, and unpredictable.
ReplyDeleteIts so hard to choose... These all fit him so well! I wish I could pick more than three...
ReplyDeleteI'll chose awkward, self sacrificing, and I'm stuck between innocent and courageous....
Castiel is very social awkward as he still doesn't understand many human things.
He's very self-sacrificing, he stood in Raphael's way to give Dean enough time to save his brother. He banished all the angels guarding Adam, at his own expense. He sent Michael way [knowing he's be angry when he got back] and was killed by Lucifer just to give Dean five minutes with his brother. He started a war in Heaven [though this was also because of pride] and took in all the souls of Purgatory [we learn from Balthazar that Cas knew all that power might kill him] and he fought Dick with Dean.
To me innocence still is a big part of Castiel's character, if he lost it he'd be more or less a human with powers.... its part of what makes him an angel.
And courageous kinda goes with the self-sacrificing bit, he's always ready to jump into a fight alongside the brothers, or alone, like when he chose to take on Crowley though he was still pretty weak...
What I love most about Castiel is how he agonizes over what the right thing to do is - as we saw in season 4 and season 6 - but once he's committed, he's in 1000%, and he'll do whatever it takes without a second thought. I think what's really key to his character is that he wants to do The Right Thing, but for most of his existence he had no independent way of determining what that was, and now he has to struggle with it on his own, and I love watching that struggle.
ReplyDeleteI agree with this. I mentioned in a different post that I picked "idealistic" too. I think Cas wants to believe in the good and will fight for it.
ReplyDeleteI think it would be interesting if was saw Cas lose a little of that innocence this season. While he would be changed, I don't see that as a bad thing. It's realistic given what he's dealing with with his guilt over what he's done.
ReplyDeleteThere are a lot of words that describe Cas and we've seen so many variations of his character. Personally I wouldn't mind seeing him become more well-rounded and less the butt of humor in the episode.
ReplyDeleteI mentioned this in another thread, but I agree that he's not naive. Not anymore anyway.
ReplyDelete