The Controversial Hannah and Castiel

Many fans are seemingly outraged by the speculation in a Sneak Peak of Supernatural Season 10, that was released earlier this week, that Angels Castiel and Hannah may become an item. This is what I have to say on the issue…

First of all, the speculation that a romantic relationship will form is not exactly confirmed and the whole thing is kept very mysterious. In the sneak peak, we have executive producers, Jeremy Carver and Robert Singer explaining that Castiel and Hannah will become closer in Season 10. They state how Hannah starts to find that she cares about Cas in a non-angelic way which seems unusual seeing how blindly obedient and simply uncaring she was in Season 9. I have spoken about how much I hated Hannah’s character last season because of the underdevelopment, and so this preview was a blessing for me. We get to see a long-deserved, complicated, independent character that I hardly recognise. It could be that writers purely want to develop Hannah’s character rather than start a romance between the two of them.

Fans may simply be jumping to conclusions about things, assuming a romantic relationship will come out of this. Executive producers also teased that Hannah and Castiel will bond over the feelings of humanity that they are both developing, but this could just add to the theory that they are becoming closer as friends.

Ah.

Okay this preview scene may go against my point as we see Castiel apparently naked underneath a bath robe in front of Hannah.

But, if these two characters are both Angels then this situation may not seem as awkward or embarrassing or sexual as the way humans may see it. Hannah does seem slightly uncomfortable as she looks curiously at Cas’ body to which Cas slowly covers himself up. Firstly, Castiel is the socially-awkward, adorable character of the show so probably wouldn’t read this situation like we would. It could simply be that Hannah walked in on him whilst he wasn’t decent and it led to this slightly comic scene. This doesn’t have to lead to sex or love but rather a more intimate friendship between them.

In my opinion, Hannah doesn’t need Castiel, and vise versa. In the sneak peak, Hannah is shown asking Castiel for help, inferring that there is something going on in Heaven or with the Angels. In contrast to her pathetic personality last year, she is confident, she’s driven and wants to get her job done and look for a solution to save her people or her home. I doubt that what she’s looking for right now is romance with someone who she used to closely serve and refer to as “commander” (and Cas even calls her a “soldier” at one point in this preview.) Going on what I said earlier, it could be that this year Castiel and Hannah are turning from co-workers to friends.

There is also the fact that Hannah did screw up last season, by joining Metatron’s side and not believing Castiel because of her blind obedience. (It is hard to tell if this is meant to represent the obedient quality of all Angels or if the writers are just being slightly sexist.) Anyway, the fact that Hannah did screw up may mean that this year she is trying to do things right. To use her head instead of just going on what the men in charge tell her to do. Referring back to the closeness to humanity aspect of her this year, she may be feeling guilty over how she hurt Cas by not believing him and it took the suicide of fellow Angel Ezekiel to make her realise that she had made a mistake. This year it seems like she is really trying to care for Castiel, and be there for him through his dying days.

Many fans have also admitted that they don’t like it when Castiel has his own, very independent storylines, and purely want every scene of him to be with Sam and Dean. I really don’t know why some viewers almost possess over this dream that Cas can only possibly exist within the brother’s own personal story. I, for the most part, enjoy Cas’ single storylines and am really excited to see his subplot with the intriguing, reinvigorated Hannah.

The next problem, that I have heard from fans, about this idea or “ship” is that it could easily be classed as incest as Angels are seen by many viewers as family. Many of the Angels on the show refer to God as their “father” and fellow Angels as “brothers” and “sisters”. Some characters do this more frequently than others but you don’t have to watch for long to hear the family terms that are used within the species’ community.

Personally, if Cas and Hannah do develop a romantic relationship, I wouldn’t find an issue with the idea that it may be incest. I interpret the words and language that Angels use to describe each other as wanting to be affectionate and caring towards each other rather than actually indicating that they are blood relatives. As an audience, we’ve never really been told how Angels are made or how/if they reproduce. I always believed that Angels did reproduce but some may interpret this differently and say that all Angels were made at the same time by God (except maybe the archangels were made before this), making them all the same age. However, this must mean that there are only a limited number of them and, even though the exact number of Angels is unknown, it seems that there are more and more that pop up despite the amount of them who have been killed off over the years. Castiel murders hundreds of his kind when he becomes God in 7.01 “Meet the New Boss” and many are said to have died in the fall from Heaven at the end of Season 8. Due to the many Angel deaths on the show and the fact that there are apparently still lots of them around, I assumed that they did reproduce but I can understand if other fans think differently.

Going back to the incest worry: I recently read on the Supernatural Wiki’s twitter a similar opinion to mine…

“Some fans seem to think angels are actual siblings? Um no. if they were, then who is their mother?” – “Terms like “father” and “brother” are not used literally by angels.” – “It’s a bit like the SPN Family – if i have sex with a member of the SPN family I am pretty sure its not incest!” – “What was it Kripke said about fans being overly literal??”

I very much agree with these views of Angels not being biological siblings and, even though we have never had a romantic relationship between two Angel characters before, I really don’t think fans should be taking the Angel species and the way they interact with each other so literally.

If you look at the show as a whole, many fans love it when characters such as Bobby, Castiel, Kevin and Charlie are referred to as family by Sam and Dean, and yet we know that this just means that they have a very close bond with the boys. This doesn’t stop the masses of Destiel shippers out there from dreaming that their perfect couple will one day confess their love for each other.

That’s another issue; the majority of the fans are Destiel shippers and so any female character that gets in the way of Dean and Castiel’s love is pretty much doomed from the beginning. The appearance of Hannah also strikes fear into these shippers that Castiel might actually like someone else.

Whomever you ship together, let’s not take it out on Hannah who is perfectly innocent in all of this. We don’t get many strong, females characters on this show, guys, let’s not judge Hannah before the show starts. I refract my judgement of her in Season 9 and am really looking forward to seeing her new persona in the new season.

To conclude my opinion about the relationship, that may or may not form:

At first I was surprised to hear that Castiel and Hannah may get together but then, after thinking it through, realised that it’s perfectly okay for the writers to do that and, if Hannah is actually written well this year, I think that they would be a very happy couple. I didn’t even think about the idea that it might be incest because I always imagined the Angel community to be similar to humans in that they have similarly close bonds with each other. Both Castiel and Hannah have a common cause to fight for which is Heaven and can comfort and have sympathy for each other because they are both in the same position of being a member of a dying and chaotic angelic race.

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Photos from the Sneak Peak
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