Agree 100% on Balthazar and Michael.
This is gonna sound really contradictory for a minute but bear with me.
I hate that Balthazar is made to be something he isn’t in fan fic and that Micheal is never allowed to be more than a less directly involved version of season 5 Lucifer.
Balthazar did one bad thing. He was dealing in human souls when he shouldn’t’ve been and when he was caught he stopped. In his defense, it was likely he was doing this to get enough power to stop Rapheal from starting another apocalypse, but it was still wrong. That was one thing. Other than that he had an attitude but he was on the good side. But he’s an asshole to Cas like 80% of the time in fic. That bugs me.
And Michael was in charge of heaven and pretty much allowed all kinds of bad shit. But, fanfic is typically the place to play with ideas canon dropped. If Michael is supposed to be like Dean who would he do if he found out his father was basically a feckless loser who abandoned everything because he got bored? I mean, it’s fair to say that while Dean was loyal to John he’s lost some of the good feeling he had for his dad as he’s gotten older. He didn’t like the pressure he felt as a result of John’s actions (no matter how well intentioned. I’m not getting into the JW debate rn). If Dean felt he had the weight of the world on his shoulders, how would Michael feel? He had to run heaven and care for all his siblings, knowing someday he’d have to kill his (probably) favorite brother. Hmmmm. Wonder where we’ve heard that before??? I’m just saying fanfic presents the opportunity to paint Michael as a dissaffected man/angel who’s faith in his father was shattered and that can be fun to play with. It doesn’t mean he has to be a villain.
But I’m biased and I know that. I just don’t like when things are one way and deviation is rare.
I totally agree. Balthazar is always used as the ex-boyfriend or the annoying, flighty friend. For a fandom that loves to find parallels and write meta, barely anyone talks about Balthazar or speaks of why he rebelled from heaven. There are so many possibilities with Balthazar and yet we throw him aside.
Michael, also, is completely underrated. To me, my favorite version of Michael is the caring older brother. I love exploring the relationship between Michael and Castiel. It’s so complex, too— the angel who’s vessel is Dean Winchester, and the angel who saved (and loves) him. I’d love to see a fic where Michael is just as conflicted as Dean is about following his father’s orders and exploring the concept of free will. To do that, someone would have to go back to Supernatural’s roots about family and choice. I would love to read something about that.
Let’s talk about what we do know about Balthazar though! Holy crap. So in 12×10 Ishim mentions that Cas eventually got promoted and had both Uriel and Balthazar under his command. Also, Anna but that’s kind of a side point. Anyway, we know Ishim mentions Balthazar in the same breath as Uriel and refers to them both as good soldiers which Uriel totally fits but Balthazar, not so much (in terms of what a “good soldier” means to heaven). So, here’s the thing, Anna rebelled and fell because she wanted to be human. This happened around the same time Dean was born. Balthazar faked his death. So, he still wanted to be an angel but there had to be something important enough that made him rebel and we don’t know when it was or what it was. Something made him go from “good soldier” to rebel and outcast. Something so big he didn’t even tell Cas who was not only his commander but a good friend he really trusted. His good friend he “stood for in heaven”. And we know Cas felt pretty much the same about Balthazar because he trusts Balthazar even after finding out he faked his death. A friend who’s death he grieved. (How many times has that happened?) Also, interesting to note that Balthazar is the only angel who called Cas Cas first and not Castiel. Basically there is a really interesting backstory here that we don’t know about.
Like, I think it’s safe to say Balthazar and Cas have a history and whatever happened that made Balthazar rebel wasn’t small. I wish I knew what it was but it seems like the perfect thing to play with.
Ugh. This and the thing about Michael really makes me want to do gen-fic character focused snapshot fics. Like, little things that don’t change canon but give an understanding of characters (or at least how I would do the characters and their relationships to each other).
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