A to Z Challenge Day 3: Castiel (the Monster-Fighting Angel)

Most of my favorite TV shows are older ones…shows that I watched as a kid, or shows that have been around for ages but I didn’t discover them until more recently. Even the newer shows that I love are ones that I didn’t start watching until they were two or three seasons in and had loads of rave reviews. One such show was Supernatural, which my husband and I didn’t check out for the first time until somewhere around the end of the second season. We’d heard about it from people who actually watch television on a regular basis and decided to give it a go, and we wound up watching every available episode within a couple of weeks.

To say that I fell in love with Sam and Dean Winchester is an understatement, but this entry is not about the monster-hunting brothers. This entry is about the honest-to-goodness angel who first appeared in season four and quickly became one of my favorite fictional characters of all time. Castiel was introduced in order to save Dean from being doomed to an eternity of torture in hell, but he soon became a regular character of the show as the war between heaven and hell began. Now, I’ve got to go with my husband on this one…the whole heaven and hell thing was a bit much and took the show in a direction that I was not particularly happy with. I enjoyed Supernatural more when it was just about two (occasionally angsty) brothers fighting all manner of monsters and demons. However, without that shift we may have never gotten Castiel, so I’m willing to overlook my annoyance in this case.

One of the main things that makes Castiel so great is the actor who portrays him: Misha Collins. Misha does an amazing job of portraying a creature who is kind and just, who also has a mean streak under certain situations, and who is also the angel version of an adorably dumb puppy. Castiel is a powerful being, there’s no doubt about that, but there’s also a million and one things about humanity that he doesn’t understand, and the visualization of that makes him an adorably lovable character. Whether he’s innocently inquiring as to the plot line of a porno movie or drinking an entire liquor store, his antics, his love for the Winchesters, and his constant misunderstanding of all that is happening around him put him squarely at the top of a list of fictional characters whom I just want to hug and snuggle to death.

Even in the more recent episodes, in which Castiel is faced with learning how to be human or perishing, the character has an ingrained innocence and wonder about him that makes him an excellent addition to the team of streetwise Sam and Dean. Plus, more adorable angst-ridden characters is never a bad thing.