alrighty, time to go off i guess, since i’ve seen a few posts floating around in response to gabriel in 13×20
torture is torture is torture, whether it’s 7 years or 40 years or 100 years. it is still going to have a massive impact on someone
dean never properly processed or dealt with his trauma, which is why his self-image is lower than rock bottom, which is why he sees himself as so expendable, which is the reason for a hell of a lot of his behaviours. he’s also been out of hell now for 10 years
sam also never properly processed or dealt with his trauma, which is why he’s in a depressive, borderline suicidal spiral now. he also had cas who took the edge off sam’s trauma, and has been out of hell for 8 years (although repeatedly having to confront lucifer since then hasn’t helped him at all)
gabriel has been out of hell for a grand total of TWO WEEKS. where sam and dean knew the consequences of their decisions, gabriel was betrayed and sold like an object
of course he’s going to respond differently, the experience is a hell of a lot fresher for gabriel. and to people saying “well sam and dean are fine and they had longer!!”, re-evaluate their characters bc those two are the exact opposite of fine, and years of pushing down trauma is a big reason why
tldr: s13 is the most realistic spn has ever been when it comes to dealing with trauma. gabriel has been away from his suffering for TWO WEEKS, cut the dude some slack
Sam stood outside of the door for far longer than he had meant to. Dean had already drunk himself to sleep and Cas was spending the night in the library helping (more like babysitting) Rowena. There was so much he wanted to say to Gabriel, but every time he rehearsed it in his head, it seemed pointless and stupid. He clenched his fists and was just about to walk away when the door opened.
“So, you gonna come in or is standing outside of people’s bedroom doors a weird fetish or something?” Gabriel asked, poking his head out.
“Uh,” Sam looked down the hallway both ways as if he there was somehow someone else Gabriel was talking to.
“Yes, Sam, you,” Gabriel rolled his eyes. “Get in here, you Sasquatch.” He opened the door a bit more and gestured for Sam to come in. Flushing slightly, Sam ducked his head and walked into the room. He expected the room to already be decked out and lavish, as per Gabriel’s style, but it was still Spartan and free of decoration.
“I thought you would have added a bit of flair,” Sam commented, walking over to the desk chair and sitting down.
I Aim To Misbehave 