A/N: I apologize in advance for every spelling and/or grammar error that might have eluded me. English is not my native language. I am, however, always grateful if you want to point them out. Otherwise I can't get better.
In my first meta (if you can call it that) I would like to discuss the question „What is grace, anyway?“. Recently I have seen a few questions concerning this topic floating around so I thought I could write down my own take on the matter and share a few headcanons.
Before I delve into the question itself, let's collect what we already know about grace, as abstract a substance as it is:
grace possesses a blueish-white color and is usually seen glowing
it behaves much like smoke in swirling around and it seems to be perfectly capable of floating in air
grace equals mojo: with enough power an angel can heal (themself and others) and cast spells (he can not fly without wings, however)
when your grace is burning out, you are on the verge of dying
when grace leaves a body, the vessel reachieves his free will, but there is a residue left that marks the vessel
in Castiel's case, when he lost his grace, he didn't become Jimmy and his character did not change
in contrast to Anna who lost her memory, Castiel was fine – that might have been the spell or the fact that Jimmy was long dead?
it is possible to swallow grace in order to replenish power, but killing an angel is required to do that as grace does not seem to exist anywhere else but in angels
it seems that is only a temporaly solution and that the own grace is far superior in keeping up with angelic powers
What we know is that grace is a substance that is directly affecting the power of an angel. It also seems to be the form an angel takes when leaving its host's body. The question that remains is: Is grace the soul of an angel or merely fuel for its power?
We have arguments supporting both sides: Obviously angels are not completely whole without their grace. Anna didn't have access to her memories and her powers while Castiel's situation results in health problems. Angel need grace in order to survive. Cutting an angel also usually results in grace leaking from the wound, much like blood. I've always liked the idea of grace being the blood of angels because it answered a lot of questions for me.
Angels can change grace? Blood donation.
Angels can heal through grace? Well blood is the juice of life, isn't it?
However, it is not completely blood, as we have seen angels turning into grace in order to return to heaven or leave their vessels.
In my head, angels are not their grace. I do believe that every grace is unique, however. It is used to mark a vessel, which would explain why not every vessel can host every angel with the same results. It also explains why Castiel has problems maintaining his grace. I guess only the „right“ grace is able to cure him because the stolen ones are just fill-ins. It's grace and it is doing its job, but it does not have the right frequency or substance or maybe color. I have absolutely no idea how they might differ from each other, but I am quite sure they do.
That take on canon events, however, causes a problem. I have seen some interesting thoughts (if you wrote about this, please let me know and I will include a link to your post!) concerning the question: „How do angels in heaven look like?“. Supernatural uses the vessels because it is far easier to understand for everyone, but are they really in that form when they enter „home“?
I always had the headcanon that they change back into multidimensional wavelenghts of celestial intent and talk via sounds that are like the true voice that Dean hears in Lazarus Rising. But season 9 and 10 made me reconsider. Angel can't be their grace. We have seen Castiel in heaven with his stolen grace – and he was still Castiel. They must have a way in discerning others without depending on the respective grace. Or they just mix together? I'm not entirely sure, but that ticked me off.
Is grace nothing more than fuel for an angel, then? I've read dancing-phoenix's post that compared Castiel's search for grace with fuel stations and I think that is an interesting point. I think that grace might be something similar – maybe not gasoline even though it shares quite a lot of symbolism. As a passionate gamer, I think more of RPG's and the ominous substance that is mana. Also usually blue, it allows mages, wizards and witches to use their spells. Maybe grace is angel mana, then? But how can you explain why angels sometimes become grace …
What do you think? Do you believe that grace is the very essence of an angel's existence or merely the steam that drives the wheels? I would love to discuss!
