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brightwanderer · 4 years ago

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Some thoughts on Raphael in “Instructions not Included”

Apropos of nothing except that I keep having this thought train about him (especially with his cameo in “The Rose and the Serpent”) and then thinking “no-one will care so there’s no point posting it” but then it always comes back... so fine, Imma post it, maybe that’ll shut it up.

The entire reason Raphael became a semi-OC in INI was that I needed Aziraphale and Crowley to have an ally in Heaven from the beginning of that story, but I wasn’t willing to put any of the existing named angels into that role, because they haven’t done anything to earn A&C’s trust. Raphael seemed like an obvious choice, as the “missing” Archangel of one of the traditional sets.

(There are a bunch of different “these are the named Archangels” canons from different parts of Christian lore, but the one I was familiar with before GO was the one where there are four of them, one for each cardinal direction: Gabriel, Michael, Uriel, Raphael.)

(And yes, Raphael is the Archangel of the East.)

But I didn’t want him to be just Aziraphale-but-shinier, so I spent a lot of time thinking about how to characterise him and why he’d be an ally. And then I’m not sure I really conveyed that in the story, tbh, which might be why it keeps bugging me. (It might come up in the next one, possibly. Not sure.)

So here’s my conception of the Archangel Raphael as I’m writing him: he’s basically a good guy, but he’s not great at the whole responsibility thing. He sort of assumes that when he’s not paying attention to something, it’s just chugging along perfectly well. He’s the guy who left his staff in the care of humans because he didn’t want to leave it in Heaven where Gabriel or Michael might ask awkward questions about why he wasn’t using it on his alleged mercy mission to Earth. He’s the guy who missed the Apocalypse because he was having so much fun with his jazz band he just didn’t get around to checking back in on his job duties for like a decade.

(And in “The Rose and the Serpent”, he’s the guy who got out from his controlling family and set off on his own - good, fine, best thing he could do, really - but then never tried to get back in touch with Aziraphale or help him out of the same situation - not because he didn’t care, but because he just sort of... didn’t think of it? He was busy with pirates and mermaids and he assumed Aziraphale had sorted himself out by now.)

And the really important thing, to my mind, is that he’s a solid ally to Aziraphale and Crowley in INI, but he absolutely would not have been if he’d been around during the Apocalypse. Because although he loves Earth, he loves it like a rich white guy loves the “exotic” country he goes to on holiday every year, not like someone who lives there. He would have been devastated by the arrival of Armageddon, but he would have accepted it as God’s will, and done his part to bring it about. If Aziraphale had managed to get hold of him during that time, he would have been as disappointed in Raphael as he was in the rest of Heaven, just with a slightly different vibe: “you say you love this place but you’re just putting your hands up now and going oh well, nothing I can do”.

(Raphael would also, incidentally, not have been a safe person to tell about the Arrangement, at any point in history. He’d have been very much “holy shit, Aziraphale, NO, you can’t DO that, crap, look, we can fix this, okay, first step, do not ever see the demon again, second step, I’ll get you assigned back up to Heaven”... etc. He would also have assumed that Crowley was trying to corrupt Aziraphale.)

But the failure of Armageddon changes everything. Because Raphael immediately and absolutely grasps Aziraphale’s point about the Great Plan vs the Ineffable Plan, and his faith in God’s omnipotence means that he cannot entertain the idea that She made a mistake or that Her plan was somehow prevented by a handful of minor actors. Therefore, the only possible conclusion is that Aziraphale is right - this was the plan all along. “Wow,” he thinks, amazed and kind of perversely delighted, “a six thousand year long-con? Really Lord? Man, you sure had us all going...”

(One thing that would have changed if he’d been around for the Apocalypse: he would not have stood for Aziraphale being sentenced to destruction. He’d have thrown an absolute fit about it (and about the holy water for Crowley if he knew about it) and argued the other Archangels down to a lesser punishment, such as recalling Aziraphale and putting him on janitorial duty for a couple of centuries, or something. He wouldn’t have gone to bat quite so hard for Crowley, but he would have said that Crowley’s punishment was Hell’s problem and Michael had no business taking them holy water for it. Which, obviously, given how the bodyswap worked out, would have actually been WAY worse for A&C. So let’s all be glad he was off going platinum at that point.)

Which brings us to his arrival in INI, a year after the Apocalypse-that-wasn’t, in which the fact that Raphael wasn’t there for the Apocalypse very much plays into his immediate acceptance of the Ineffable Plan. Like, it’s already happened, so obviously God planned it that way. And obviously Aziraphale was supposed to do what he did, and obviously his association with Crowley is fine, and obviously the other Archangels would realise this-- wait, what do you MEAN they tried to destroy you??

And that’s how, in my mind, Raphael makes an excellent ally in this specific storyline, whilst remaining a dangerous part of Heaven’s machinery up until the Apocalypse, and not someone who could have been called on earlier to sort things out. Thank you for coming to my TED talk, p.s. fun fact Raphael also just immediately accepted as The Will Of God that Aziraphale and Crowley love each other very much, and sees no need to comment on it because it’s Obvious, Right.

#good omens #instructions not included #the rose and the serpent #headcanons #raphael #the one who isn't crowley #fanfic #writing

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ao3feed-destiel · 5 years ago

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An Angel's Bounty

Read it on AO3 here!https://ift.tt/2YdI1vF

by RieltheWolf

Sam and Dean don't take human bounties often for a reason. They never seem to end well and the little amount of money they get from it is never worth it. When a man who's the CEO of a Fortune 500 company offers them 2 million dollars for a special human bounty, they think their luck has changed. They are reminded pretty quickly that their luck never changes for the better. In taking this bounty, they end up being on the run with the people their supposedly getting paid to hunt down as well as having cut-throat bounty hunters out for their blood. Secrets are uncovered, unethical experiments are set loose into the world, and feelings between the brothers and the escaped prisoners, Castiel and Gabriel Novak develop into something more than begrudged cooperation.

Words: 7159, Chapters: 3/?, Language: English

Fandoms: Supernatural

Rating: Mature

Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence

Categories: M/M

Characters: Dean Winchester, Castiel (Supernatural), Sam Winchester, Gabriel (Supernatural), Zachariah (Supernatural), Balthazar (Supernatural), Uriel (Supernatural), Lucifer (Supernatural), Michael (Supernatural), Azazel (Supernatural), Alastair (Supernatural), Adam Milligan, Naomi (Supernatural), Background & Cameo Characters

Relationships: Castiel/Dean Winchester, Minor or Background Relationship(s)

Additional Tags: Mildly Dubious Consent, Non-Consensual Body Modification, Unethical Experimentation, Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Alternate Universe - Bounty Hunters, Enemies to Friends to Lovers, Slow Burn, Eventual Relationships, Eventual Smut, Angst with a Happy Ending, Implied/Referenced Child Abuse, Prostitution, relationships tbd - Freeform, Supernatural Creatures Still Exist They're Just Not The Main Focus, Other Additional Tags to Be Added, Implied/Referenced Abuse

Link: https://ift.tt/2YdI1vF

#ao3feed #ao3feed destiel #destiel

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ao3feed-castiel · 5 years ago

Text

An Angel's Bounty

read it on the AO3 at https://ift.tt/2YdI1vF

by RieltheWolf

Words: 7159, Chapters: 3/?, Language: English

Fandoms: Supernatural

Rating: Mature

Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence

Categories: M/M

Relationships: Castiel/Dean Winchester, Minor or Background Relationship(s)

read it on the AO3 at https://ift.tt/2YdI1vF

#IFTTT #castiel #cas #spn #supernatural #ao3feed

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ao3feed-castiel · 5 years ago

Text

An Angel's Bounty

read it on the AO3 at https://ift.tt/2YdI1vF

by RieltheWolf

Words: 3331, Chapters: 1/?, Language: English

Fandoms: Supernatural

Rating: Mature

Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence

Categories: M/M

Relationships: Castiel/Dean Winchester, Minor or Background Relationship(s)

read it on the AO3 at https://ift.tt/2YdI1vF

#IFTTT #cas #castiel #spn #supernatural #ao3feed

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