If it makes you feel any better, I don’t believe Cas is going to stay dead. In a show that routinely features death, death is not shocking or interesting. Unless… They go after someone you don’t expect. Dabb wanted to get this emotion out of us. But I don’t think he’s going to leave us in misery. That would not be very satisfying storytelling. I can’t say I have the same faith for Crowley, Eileen, or Rowena. But I’m confident we’ll see Cas again.

I appreciate your optimism, anon. I can definitely see where you’re coming from, but I think it was so shocking for me that I almost don’t know if I can think positively about it. We’ve seen Cas die, but we’ve never seen him spark out like that and it was just so sudden and different that it threw me. 

That’s not to say that if anyone wants to think positively they shouldn’t. By all means, if that’s what you feel is gonna happen I can’t take that away from you. I won’t take that from you.

I will say my issue with it has a lot to do with the fact that I don’t have the faith in the spn writers that I used to. I was very optimistic about the season when it started. I was excited to see which routes they were going to take with the characters and I was left unsatisfied. I was expecting more about the family dynamic and interpersonal conflicts, considering the statement about “smaller stories”. 

I’ve been going back and forth on this since it happened. On one hand, anything is possible (death is meaningless on spn) and we could see him again next season. Cas is a very popular character and he’s deeply loved by many people. On the other, I’ve been burned so many times and this season was just so full of death that I’m a little numb and disheartened. And I personally feel that pulling this kind of heartache out of your audience isn’t a thing a showrunner should want. There are a thousand things worse and more interesting than death so it just feels cheap. 

I’ll remain agnostic for now, but it still feels like a brick to the face.