teerickster:

i think it’s important to remember that sam has never forced gabriel into fighting or doing something he doesn’t want to (except where he tries to get him to stop in mystery spot where he’s got the stake to his throat, but i don’t think gabriel feels threatened in the slightest, he knows sam can’t do anything so that’s kind of a grey area. and plus it’s before he knew him as intimately as he does, and he has obvious and understandable reasoning behind it); he’s only asked and gotten gabriel’s choice of answering. he’s shown he’s basically the only one who cares about gabriel beyond just his use as a powerful archangel. beyond just being a tool. on that thought it’s important to remember he’s the only one gabriel has really sacrificed himself for willingly and knowingly. in hammer of the gods, he thought he had at least a chance at winning. he was at full grace and strength. he didn’t predict that lucifer would already know his plan and tricks, at least not straight away. he hadn’t been on the field to fight in a long time, but i think he still believed he could win. his expression was… very different than in exodus. he was obviously shocked.

in exodus i think it was pretty obvious he knew he didn’t have a chance. even weakened, normally he would’ve fought more than he had in that scene (either that or the fight was written and choreographed awfully but i’m willing to give the benefit of the doubt rn and say it was intentional) and he just seemed so… he seemed to have accepted losing. the look shared between him and sam, the urgency at which he told him to go… to me it adds up to both of them knowing there’s no way he can win. but he went forward to fight anyway. he sacrificed himself, specifically for sam, which we now know is proven by canonical foreshadowing in unfinished business.

anyway my point about this is the whole theme of spn is family and sacrifice, doing whatever it takes to protect or save a loved one, and gabriel’s only done that purposefully and willingly for sam. which leads me to believe that gabriel feels like sam’s treated him decently, actually cares about him, gives him the affection he so desperately craves. else why would he take one look at him and make the decision to end his own life for a chance for sam to escape?

literally the only thing i can really fault sam for is going along with dean on things, like for example the handcuffs. that was not right and sam shouldn’t have just let it happen, but we gotta remember that it’s usually the way they work. sam tries to get equal footing, but they always seem to slip back into old habits of dean being the big brother and taking charge. that doesn’t excuse it, but it gives a reason for it. and anyway, i don’t think gabriel really blames sam for that kind of thing, because he understands it.

tl;dr – sam has been the kindest to gabriel out of literally every other character on the show. when people say tfw mistreated gabriel, it’s important not to lump sam in with the other two. because sam cares about him. and gabriel feels cared for, else he wouldn’t have sacrificed himself for sam in exodus.