"But I Love the Naked Monkeys..." 

Castiel’s performance as both the Champion of Heaven and the Guardian Angel of team free will are greatly affected by his emotional condition, rooted on his perception of control. When Cass experiences high control, his values are coherent and adamant, his emotions are positive, and his motivation is ablaze. However, when he perceives low control, his values are chaotic, his emotions are negative (mostly; he is an angel and does not feel emotions the way we do), and his motivation is extinguished.

When Cass was under the yoke of heaven, he was experiencing low control. He was a soldier that could not question orders; even when he found them morally objectionable. As an angel, he was taught to obey the will of the Archangels blindly. Most significantly, his value ascriptions were skewed by this obedience. We went against his better nature and valued the importance of completing his missions and undervalued his innate intuition about the importance of the lives of humans. This is beautifully shown when Uriel (Cass’s assistant) calls Dean a naked monkey and later Cass uses this insult when fighting Dean to affirm the agency of heaven. As a result of this cognitive dissonance (between his inner conscience and his actions), he experiences negative emotions. He has great anxiety; a fear and apprehension that leads to poor performance. Cass started as a renown Garrison Commander who was in charge of all guardian angels deployed on Earth.  However, as a result to the poor performance brough by his low motivation, he was demoted to being Uriel’s underling. His arousal led to poor performance because of the cognitive pain he felt every time he was forced to proceed with the Apocalypse (and consequently harm humans).

On other hand, when Castiel experienced high control over his actions, his evaluations of his mission to protect Dean were very high. His emotions were renewed like a phoenix from the ashes, and he became the Champion of Free Will instead of the blunt instrument of heaven. He experiences the most positive emotions when protecting and helping Dean in his task to stop the Apocalypse. In another beautiful scene, Cass is so aroused that he tells Dean that he will stop the Archangel Raphael. Impossible. Even though he is a sinner in the eyes of Heaven, his performance is impeccable (pun intended); he becomes a sort of Deux Ex Machina to the brothers and saves their lives multiple times. He even allows them to time travel and picks them up in other dimensions. Interestingly, this becomes a double-edged sword. When he finds himself incapable of winning the Civil War in Heaven, he becomes so aroused, anxious, and quite frankly desperate, that he decides to make a deal with the King of Hell to open the door to Purgatory so he can absorb the souls therein. There was a time when angels protected souls, but now Cass wants to use them…. Very poor performance for any angel. Even worse, he releases the Leviathan: primordial beasts that almost destroy the planet (much more thoroughly than the Apocalypse Cass was trying to stop).

Cass is the quintessential example of a locomotive powered by a sense of control. He is a paragon to Team Free Will. His character arch is one in which a detached heavenly robot becomes an emotional angel that is more human than most of us. He became a man in both his resolve and in our pain and depression. 

      

Week 7: Goal Taxonomy Post.

 

 

                  “Did you just Molotov my Brother…!?”

 

 

Castiel has a single overarching reason for goal pursuit: being useful to his friends. This overarching motivation becomes introjected and regulates all the seraph’s choices. Introjected motivation is an external motivation that seeks to promote feelings of self-worth by accomplishing goals. Because of this, the subject does not depend on behavioral regulation (reinforcements and punishments) to perform behavior. The reward or punishment would be an increase or decrease in self-worth. Castiel’s actions are driven by his identity as a medium of justice. His war with Heaven and his allegiance to the King of Hell all revolve around the platonic ideal of an ethics driven by essence. Castiel’s essence is that of love. Love of justice. Love of his friends. Love of God. Love of Free Will. When he is not able to actualize his essence, his love, his identity and motivation will suffer.

          Because of the internal (identity) and external (apocalypse) high stakes of his mission, he exhibits mastery avoidance goals. He is greatly concerned with the dire consequences of not mastering himself and his mission because his loved ones will die. As an overstriver with a high fear of failure and a high hope of success, Cass will stop at nothing to help his friends. For example, when he was a second rank angel (before becoming a Seraph), he threw a Molotov cocktail at The Archangel Michael’s face. He was immediately disintegrated by Lucifer. “Castiel…..? Did you just Molotov my brother?” “I think so…..” Think about this! In Castiel's own words: "Archangels are fierce. They area absolute. They are heaven's most terrifying weapon." A lowly angel attacked the highest being of heaven, the thing closest to God. The greatest of the Archangels. With a Molotov….. This is because his identity is no longer as a servant of heaven, or an angel who happens to be in one piece, but now he defines himself as one who protects Dean.

          Goals provide direction, but reasons provide the impetus to pursue goals. Cass is obstinate in his pursuit. His reason to go on is his need for affiliation with his new human family, especially with Dean. Because of such a need for affiliation, he requires quality and pleasant relationships with others. Many times, Cass made Dean his priority. In fact, one time Dean kept praying to Castiel, who was currently engaged in battle in Heaven, and Cass still answered. This eventually cost him his rank as a commander and the lives of many angels. Cass sacrificed angels and his mission to have a good relationship with Dean. Another interesting dimension of Cass is that he conforms to group norms to fit in with the brothers. He is an angel, so he has no idea of the human experience. However, time and time again, he tries to be human. He changes what he drives because Dean said he looks like a pimp. He tries turducken sandwich because that is what Dean loves. He tries, and fails miserably, to make pop culture jokes (modeling dean). Perhaps his greatest assimilation is seen when he turns coat to join Team Free Will. It is not clear if Cass, initially, did this because he believed in its philosophy, or if he just did it to keep his friendship with Dean.

                                                [Cass trying to be human] 

          Finally, Castiel grows from primary to secondary control. As a vessel of Heaven, he values his anthropogeny (or “angelogeny”?) and heavily relies on his power to bring forth the will of heaven. Later, he continues to rely on his power to help the brothers in their mission to stop the Apocalypse. He takes this perspective to absurd heights when he risks releasing the Leviathans from Purgatory in pursuit of more souls to increase his power such that he may win the civil war in heaven. However, after many failures, including actually releasing the Leviathans and being killed by one, he switches to secondary control. He understands that the only control he has is of his own perspective and the meaning he ascribes to his life and friends. He understands that his family of misfits is what gives his existence meaning, rather than being a champion of either Heaven or Man. Perhaps, the angel has become more human than all of us in this realization.