There have been fifteen years worth of Supernatural, during which the core group of characters have experienced a whole lot. While they’ve undoubtedly achieved a lot of heroic feats, they’ve also seen their characterizations get slowly worse in other aspects.
Castiel isn’t the same as when he first started out, with several parts of his character taking a progressive move downturn. He remains one of the absolute best overall, but it can’t be denied that he did become worse and worse in other areas. That said, here are 10 ways and reasons as to how Castiel got bad in certain aspects.
He Lost His Fighting Skills
Castiel is supposed to be stronger than most angels, but he’s been shown to be beaten by those ranked lower than him due to his failing fighting skills. Originally, his combat level was hardly bested by anyone, only to later solely rely on the angel blade.
Even this didn’t help him in the final few seasons, as Castiel would be seen taking the blade out but getting disarmed fairly quickly. In Season 10, he ended up losing in a fist fight to Dean, despite the latter being a human. The same way, he lost to a British Men of Letters agent in Season 12 even though he had Dean alongside him.
He Became A Pushover
Castiel had a badass entrance in the fourth season premiere, where he showed off his powers and didn’t let Dean talk over him. He also threatened to throw Dean back in Hell if he wasn’t shown respect, something Castiel would never have the guts to do in later seasons.
Instead, he became the biggest pushover in the series, being talked down by everyone from Dean, Lucifer, Claire Novak, and every angel in Heaven. In Season 15, though he knew going to Hell was almost a death sentence for an angel, he was forced to go down by Dean, despite Castiel having pointed out why it was dangerous for him.
He Relied Too Much On Sam And Dean
Part of Castiel’s initial character development had been him realizing how Heaven had been using him as a mindless soldier, and how he grew to have his opinions. However, this ended up morphing into Castiel completely relying on Sam and Dean.
After Season 9, Castiel was hardly ever shown leading from the front, and instead took his orders from the brothers. This meant he pretty much regressed into being a soldier once again, this time being bossed around by humans.
He Started Underestimating His Angelic Powers
Castiel’s status as a Seraph should make him one of the most powerful angels ever, but that’s hardly ever seen after Season 6. The reasoning that angels losing their wings made them weaker isn’t appropriate, seeing as others like Gadreel retained their powers to kill off their enemies.
Castiel had many scenarios where he could have tried to use his abilities, but ended up attempting to use the angel blade instead. This marked a downturn in the confidence he had in his powers, something that eventually made Castiel easy to beat for a number of beings.
He Became Trusting To A Fault
Despite having seen so many shady characters betray the Winchesters, and having seen how his misplaced faith in Heaven had turned out, Castiel continued placing his trust in the wrong people. A quality that progressively happened more as the years went by.
He didn’t wonder just what Metatron’s plans were for the angels, bringing him the things he needed to complete the spell that ejected everyone from Heaven. Castiel also agreed to work with Lucifer - the devil, and the most untrustworthy being - by giving him control over his body, something that very nearly resulted in the main characters’ deaths.
He Gave Up On Arguments Without Trying
There were more than dozens of occasions where Castiel had a different viewpoint about a matter, but it didn’t mean anything since no-one bothered to listen to him. Considering it happened so many times, it really has to be Castiel’s own fault for failing to speak up.
For instance, when Dean wanted to kill Jack, Castiel very weakly argued with him, an argument that did no good as Dean still went ahead with the plan. Had Castiel put up a valid fight, a lot of horrible things could have been avoided since he did turn out to be right about those things. And yet, he kept getting worse in arguments to the point where his opinion meant squat.
He Stopped Considering The Impact His Actions Would Have
When he’d had his eye-opening realization about angels wanting to cause the apocalypse rather than prevent it, Castiel helped ensure that didn’t come about. Unfortunately, his judgment skills got worse afterwards, as he took to making rash decisions.
Season 6 saw him open Purgatory and absorb all the souls, deluding himself that he’d become God. In Season 14, he didn’t do anything to stop Jack, despite having seen Jack become evil due to the lack of his soul, which eventually led to him killing Mary. None of this would’ve happened had Castiel considered the consequences.
He Kept Making Bad Deals
You’d think one would learn not to enter a deal that’s doomed to fail, especially considering the entity creating the deal is clearly evil, but Castiel started dealing against even badder beings as the seasons progressed.
He agreed to be Lucifer’s vessel as long as he promised to kill The Darkness, even though it was clear Lucifer had lied. Even worse, Castiel made a deal with The Shadow to be trapped forever in The Empty if it left Jack alone. Yet, The Shadow did get Jack after Chuck killed him and still expected to take Castiel to The Empty. Basically, Castiel made a deal for nothing and doomed himself.
He Became Willing To Do Bad If It Meant Getting What He Wanted
Castiel had started out without having any empathy, going so far as being willing to kill children if it meant the mission was done with. However, he had learned to think with comion in Season 5, only to overlook that later on.
Metatron’s spell had included Castiel killing an innocent Nephilim and cutting out her heart, while Rowena’s spell to get Dean’s Mark of Cain off had involved Castiel delivering the innocent Oskar to be murdered by Rowena. He might have gotten a in the first few seasons, but doing these things later on does prove how Castiel’s empathy got worse.
He Allowed His Relationship With Dean To Become One-Sided
The friendship of Dean and Castiel had been established due to the former influencing change in Castiel where it was needed, while Castiel appealed to Dean’s sensitive side. However, he let Dean talk him down on more than several occasions, which eventually led to Castiel being something of a servant to Dean in later seasons.
The relationship became extremely one-sided, in that Dean would boss him around while Castiel would do nothing even though he felt hurt by Dean’s attitude toward him. Although the elder Winchester is at fault, Castiel himself got much worse at keeping their friendship on an even keel by allowing himself to become Dean’s follower rather than his equal.