#chooses to keep his overcoat like a suit of armor a coat of arms | Explore Tumblr posts and blogs

shallowseeker · 1 month ago

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I am at my most nerdy/pedantic/verbose/unhinged prolix when I'm trying to piece together my thoughts about Cas's overcoat as a metaphorical "animal skin," especially the loss/gain of the coat as it relates to: his amnesia, his reclaiming of celestial power, the subsequent loss of sanity, and finally, staying behind in "Enchanted Woods"/Purgatory. But it doesn't even end there... He gets reclaimed and used by Heaven, and when he falls, he casts the coat away until he decides to return home again. It's... HNNNNGH.

ANYWAY. The coat is Cas’s bridge between Heaven and Earth... duty and free will... divine power and human weakness.

#the overcoat as animal skin #the lost husband archetype #the lost husband #demon dean is the reversal arc where dean gets to be the lost husband whisked away by supernatural forces #cas's coat is so symbolic and losing it is a big deal #keeping it means keeping faith in him #even when he’s gone #but without it cas is lost to forces beyond dean’s control #the one time dean burns the coat #it parallels the legends—and dean is rewarded with cas's returns to earth #aarne-thompson classification system #i mean i can go at this all day and not get tired because even the lavish BEAUTIFUL ROOM kinda fits when dean is kidnapped by heaven #but cas instead of shedding his animal skin / divine nature to stay with dean #cas holds onto it as a shield but not for himself #but to protect the human fam from supernatural forces #chooses to keep his overcoat like a suit of armor a coat of arms #but that choice comes with suffering—he remains a target #a soldier #a tool of heaven #SCREAM #i was thinking about this in relation to cas stitching and repairing his overcoat #because season 9 in particular cas is resolving to GET BACK IN THE WAR #and so he gets ahold of angelic grace he repairs his overcoat #It's SO—#cas's animal skin #dean voice *distressed* - and you're OKAY with that?#ToT

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