Hello Shal~ hope you're doing well~
I just went on a deep dive of your Henry-Samuel-John-Cas tags and BOY did I have the time of my life. The crunchiness of it all! Samuel's favorite grandson being Cas, and John having like, a conniption over it is just. Yum. I also dig the idea of Henry liking Cas for his steadfast appearance. (Soldier's soldier, even if Henry is very High Brow. Cas has a lot of knowledge? Maybe it'd give a free pass in Henry's mind.) Because I love putting Dean into situations apparently.
(Also, I keep remembering Crowley's "sex appeal" comment. People just go wild for the angel.)
Deanna/Samuel established hunter couple with good communication, a house, a daughter, and meals they take together whenever they can... looking at the bunker. The DeanCas of it all. Dean with his hearth tendencies and homecooked meals. Wanting to keep his family together vs Cas's knight self imposed lone wolf exiles. (Does he deserve the warmth of a home and a meal cooked from the heart if he does not come back with a WIN?)
You know that ep where Dean doesn't want Mary to come with on a hunt so he kinda looks back at Cas and Cas goes all, sigh, stay back with me Mary, I'd appreciate the company.
THAT energy. I wish more outsider POVs happened in the show man, these two radiate insane levels of domestic.
Ohh, what about Deanna-Cas bonding? Millie-Cas bonding? Where do the wives stand in this? 👀 I trust your judgment on this, Shal:D
Yaaaay! I have such a good time with this one! Let's play!!!!!!
re: Henry and Cas - You know, I suspect that Henry could be vulnerable to the same sort of awe that Sam had when first meeting Cas.
But if we wanted to do something unexpected in our play, we COULD have Henry be Very Afraid and Suspicious of Cas because he KNOWS how dangerous "that thing is."
It would be hilarious if Henry had that push-pull of being afraid and fascinated by Cas's knowledge. He can be a pretty haughty guy, so I'm sure this could manifest in dehumanizing language meets admiration, and it'd be so crunchy!
I think Henry could even blow whatever way the (mission) blows when it comes to Cas! I suspect he has that awful wishywashy pragmatism that Sam has...
Aside// Would be so ironic to see John defending Cas... to Henry tho. Ykwim?
re: Samuel and Cas - He's outwardly kinda unabashedly ME LIKEY I WANNA HAVE A BEER WITH THAT GUY *cue awe* about Cas, which Deanna doesn't like that much.
I actually think Soulless Sam wasn't wholly wrong that Samuel is a LOT like Dean (and Mary in critical ways). In season 6, he's like a Dean that got traumatized, doesn't trust where he's at, doesn't feel alive, and lost his moral compass in some ways. Because he's so *desperate* to undo his trauma mistakes and failure as a Protector. Before that, he honestly reads pretty "surprise maternal" and gets misread by Mary to prop up her own fears and choices around hunting.
That said, I think he says some pretty crass thing TO Cas and probably delights in explaining innuendo in-depth to him. I could see him trying *in earnest* to get Cas laid at first and arm him with knowledge, and Dean is like, "Stop. Seriously, ahaha. Stop."
But you're so right that just the IDEA of Samuel damselifying John will giving more responsibility to Cas would be HILARIOUS.
re: Deanna/Samuel established hunter couple with good communication - And I think too they have occasional MIScommunication dropout to the point that the fights explode hahaha. For zest and crunch. From the sounds of SPNwin they're on-again, off-again over the years.
re:Dean Cas - I lol'ed at this comment! -> Cas's knight self imposed lone wolf exiles. (Does he deserve the warmth of a home and a meal cooked from the heart if he does not come back with a WIN?) Thanks a lot, HEAVEN.
re: Deanna-Cas bonding - Cordial and fun-loving but crucially doesn't get along with Cas. She disagrees with him sometimes just to be difficult. (Think Cas and a Gabriel-Raphel mashup, like... outwardly chipper BUT... oddly prickly underneath.)
However, Deanna is a fellow spanner, she gets things epically wrong, so when she and Cas DO agree on something, it doesn't bode well for either of them.
Side note// I think a Henry - Deanna - Cas teamup could go spectacularly badly, but if they all agreed on The Mission they would do it even if it meant Questionable Means. (Samuel and Mary both can ALSO do this, but it's not their default.) -> Deanna and Henry and Cas ALWAYS think they're doing the right thing. They're convinced. They don't get along! But they operate in similar (terrible, secretive) lone wolf and self-gambling ways.
Also Deanna desperately wants Cas to show her some knife-fighting moves, but she's too proud to ask, so she creeps on him and studies him sometimes. Idk maybe Cas also reminds her of HER dad or mom, and she hated said parent and wanted to be Independent and but at the same time deeply admires him and thinks he's cool. (Crucially, he can never know that.)
Fun side note: Deanna is a control-freak in the kitchen, and Dean... doesn't enjoy that at all either. She's the kind that makes a good first impression, but it gets tenser the longer you hang.
re: Millie-Cas bonding - Millie is opposite of Deanna in that she can make a bad first impression but gets warmer the longer you hang. As for Cas, They get along super easy, but like Mary (and yanno, even BOBBY), Millie gets freely MAD at Cas and EXPECTS THE THINGS of Cas.
She's got a great Cas lie detector/Spidey sense, and a Bad Idea Gut Feeling detector overall that ABSOLUTELY pings whenever Cas is up to no good.
When it comes to that, she's on Dean's side in a huge, huge way.
Cas generally likes to hang with her, but if Cas starts avoiding her, Millie gets Suspicious. She also tries to police his communication. "CAS. CALL YOUR FAMILY."
I think Millie also has soft piano moments where she tries to tell Cas how much he means to his family, and what happens, Cas, if you play reckless with your own life and leave them ALL ALONE?
(Crucially, Millie can't easily say this to John or Henry, because that means Big Emotions and She Doesn't Do That. She's also been known to go overwhelmed and mute when it comes to expressing love in the moment TO Henry. That's probably why he wrote her love letters, because she could Handle That (TM) better. But Cas's situation is just enough removed from Millie's DIRECT loved ones that it all comes tumbling out.)
