Michael

Michael is a rather complicated being, having many sides of his personality. He is a strong but strict leader, having set up a rigid and sturdy hierarchy in Heaven, along with strict rules and harsh punishments; likewise, his rule was described as by Castiel as "corrupt", albeit stable. Despite this, he kept his brethren in the dark on many important matters, including God's leaving, and punished any who displayed disobedience with death.

To his father God, however, Michael is fanatically loyal and blindly follows God's orders without question, as sees himself as a "good son", and that is what matters most to him. He loves his father dearly and, despite having not seen him in thousands of years, never lost his faith or his love for him (one of the many qualities that Michael and his one true vessel Dean Winchester both share). Due to his zealous trust in his father's commands, Michael doesn't believe in free will, not even for himself, believing everything that occurs is how his father planned it. In order to help bring God back, Michael went so far as to work with Lilith to bring on the Apocalypse as believed it to be God's will. When he met God for the first time in over a millennia, he was happy to meet his father again and stated it was his destiny to serve him after he was thanked for betraying the Winchesters and his own nephew in the process.

According to Lucifer, when he puts his mind to something he'll do it no matter how many have to die. This goes along with his intent to let the Apocalypse proceed to fight his brother as his father commanded and bring paradise. He also shares this trait with his counterpart.

He also professes his love for Lucifer, his younger brother, and admits to Dean that he doesn't want to kill Lucifer any more than Dean would want to kill Sam, but accepts he must do it due to his father's orders and the actions of his younger brother. His love for Lucifer is proven true, as seen before the fight where he acts in a polite and genuinely saddened manner, and when Lucifer proposes they "walk off the chessboard," Michael seriously considers it for a moment before ultimately refusing. Despite loving his younger brother, Michael holds great anger for Lucifer, calling him a "monster" and blaming him for all their problems, pointing out they were once "happy together" but Lucifer ruined everything by "betraying them, betraying all of us" and "making [their] father leave". It remains unknown how good his relationship was with Gabriel and Raphael, although considering Raphael was his second-in-command and proved to be loyal to his cause to kill Lucifer and bring paradise along with still attempting to free him so he and Lucifer could fight even after the Apocalypse was averted, it was obvious they were on good terms but his relationship with Gabriel could be strained considering Gabriel left Heaven and was resentful of Michael's devotion to kill Lucifer, although notably Michael never ordered Gabriel to be hunted down and killed, indicating he was willing to tolerate Gabriel as long as he remained neutral. Nevertheless, Michael expressed genuine sadness when he referred to the deaths of his archangel brothers and did not exclude any of them, even Lucifer or Gabriel, showing despite everything they did, Michael deep down never lost his brotherly love for them. However, Michael retained his feelings of anger and resentment at Lucifer even after his death, as he literately spat on the fact that the Winchesters released Lucifer while he was left on the Cage unable to stop him and when Castiel calls Lucifer the smarter of the two archangels because he at least knew that God can't be trusted, Michael is instantly provoked into attacking his younger brother, having previously kept his composure despite his obvious anger and disbelief over the Winchester's and Castiel's claims. After Lucifer's resurrection, Michael is distrusting of his brother from the moment he sees him, even reacting in disbelief that the Winchesters may trust him. When Lucifer revealed he was actually working with God, and was the new favorite, Michael's anger was shown in full force as he didn't hesitate to attack his brother, and killed him for the second and final time with the Archangel Blade, showing no remorse as he did so.

Michael also seems to think of himself as magnanimous when he promises to leave Dean intact after having him as a vessel and erasing the memories of his parents of Anna's attack in The Song Remains the Same. He was also shown to be a relatively forgiving person, as he forgave Uriel and Zachariah, even after Zachariah's constant failures, along with indicating a willingness to consider showing Castiel mercy despite having insulted him and helped send him to Hell, implying that despite being strict or even cruel with them, he does not enjoy killing his own kind.

However, Michael could be wrathful, particularly with anyone who interferes with his destiny, including Dean at Stull Cemetery (although this could also be a case of restraint as he just tells Dean he isn't part of this and tells him to leave as opposed to killing or forcing him) and again with Lucifer when Lucifer suggests they refuse to fight. He also kills Anna Milton when she tries to interfere with his plan. It is this insistence on fulfilling his story as written that leads him into imprisonment in the Cage, because he pleaded with Sam, who had recently regained control of his body from Lucifer, that "i have to fight my brother", then grabbed hold of Sam's arm as Sam went tumbling down into the Cage, going down with him. After Lilith annoyed him, Michael obliterated the demon when she refused to leave him alone. When faced with Castiel's utter lack of respect over how he led Heaven, Michael displayed his pride by remaining completely unfazed, as if he saw his much younger sibling's insult as proof of his lack of understanding of the necessity and efficiency of his methods.

When it comes to humans, Michael seems to be somewhat uncaring; he does not care if or how many he kills. On one notable occasion, he randomly killed a bar full of people just so he could talk to Zachariah, and referred to Dean at one point as a "maggot", just as Zachariah called Dean a "maggot inside a worm's ass". Despite this, Michael also doesn't hold any true hatred for humans, never specifically going out of his way to harm any, or even really bothering about them before the Apocalypse occurred, and unlike Lucifer, he felt no anger by God's love for humans being greater than for him, and obeyed God's orders to bow before mankind without question. However, Castiel and Balthazar believes that Michael joined Lucifer in torturing Sam in the Cage as revenge for being trapped there, though this has neither been confirmed or denied, and Sam only remembered Lucifer torturing him, suggesting Michael didn't. After being reunited with Sam, Michael sarcastically comments that Sam looks better than the last time he saw him, but Sam simply interrupts the archangel, still leaving it a question whether or not Michael was in part responsible for Sam's state, although considering Sam's lack of resentment compared to Lucifer, any torture Michael did would be minimal at least. In addition, Michael cared nothing for the humans who died when Michael entered a bar in his true form to speak with Zachariah.[4] However, it appears that his time having Adam as his vessel has somewhat softened his opinion towards mankind as Michael simply erased the memories of a diner full of witnesses who saw him kill Lilith rather than getting rid of the humans completely. While Michael appears to have an uncaring view of humans, this isn't as extreme as his counterpart, who openly admitted to enjoying killing humans and ordering a genocide of the humanity in his world.

Michael is in fact in many ways a tragic figure, as both the people he loved the most either betrayed or abandoned him, and all he ever really wanted to do was to prove to his father, God, that he was a good son, the one thing that he never actually managed to achieve.

According to Lucifer, being locked in Lucifer's Cage didn't sit well with Michael and it drove him insane, leaving Michael curled up in a ball in the cage and "singing show tunes and touching himself". God later stated that calling Michael into battle against the Darkness is not an option as he isn't in any shape to fight. When meeting Michael's counterpart, Lucifer further added that Michael was also a drooling, hot mess. After God's betrayal, Dean suspects that both God and Lucifer were simply lying about Michael's insanity.

Like many angels, Michael has an extremely low opinion of demons. Upon encountering the resurrected Lilith, Michael doesn't believe her claims that God sent her and called Lilith as a demon "a speck of infernal bile". Although he worked with Lilith to bring back God, Michael openly showed he held nothing but disgust for Lilith and resented the necessity of it. Lilith's behavior leaves Michael extremely irritated and when she refuses to leave him alone, Michael simply obliterates Lilith to stop her, showing no reaction at all for killing the demon.

After escaping from the Cage and Hell, it is shown that God and Lucifer were in fact lying and though his time in the Cage has changed Michael somewhat by the time of his escape, mellowing the oldest archangel and making him unsure of his place in the world due to the other archangels being dead and as far as he knew, God being gone, he still retains much of his old personality, remaining loyal to God, and expressing anger and irritation when faced with the Winchesters and Castiel both for their role in trapping him in the Cage and in the present time and for abandoning Adam to the same fate, showing a fondness for his vessel. When confronted with the truth about his father, Michael adamantly refused to believe it and acted like a petulant child, giving Adam control simply so that he wouldn't have to listen to the truth, which he admits to being attributed to the fact that he feels doubting will mean betraying who he is as the Good and Favorite Son. Ironically, it was his fascination and devotion to his father that led to his own demise.

However, after Castiel shows Michael his memories of God's betrayals, including seeing his father was always around disguised as Chuck, the war with the Darkness, seeing his alternate reality counterpart and the murder of Jack, Michael finally lets go of his view of God and becomes completely disillusioned in his role as God's favorite son, stating that he didn't even know there was more than one Michael. Embittered towards his father for his apathy towards all creation and lies, Michael willingly provides Dean and Castiel with the means to trap God and even opens a rift to Purgatory to facilitate their efforts, but he refuses to do anymore and leaves.

Michael is shown to have something of a unique relationship with his vessels compared to the other archangels and even regular angels. While possessing John Winchester, Michael promised Dean to leave him "better than new" and even saw it as a kindness that he was erasing John's memory of the experience. While Michael permitted Zachariah to torment Dean to get his consent, he also attempted to talk to Dean directly and convince him as one older brother and good son to another that they had no other choice.[3] Michael originally appeared disdainful about Adam Milligan, coldly stating that "Adam isn't home right now" when Dean addressed his brother and saw Dean as no longer important since he had Adam as a vessel.[5] However, his relationship with Adam changed during their years trapped together in the Cage when Michael and Adam only had each other. Having reached an understanding with Adam and appeared to have struck up a friendship with the young man, Michael chose to share control with his vessel rather than remaining dominant at all times unlike other angels and even held conversations with Adam and sought his advice. Notably, Michael's expressed anger at Dean was for abandoning Adam in the Cage while Dean was willing to let Lucifer roam the Earth. In turn, Adam, while on friendly terms with the archangel, didn't hesitate to challenge Michael and his opinions and was unafraid of Michael's angry reactions to his questions. Notably, while angry at Adam's beliefs that the Winchesters were right, Michael was open to listening to him and Adam was even able to get Michael to admit the true reason he wasn't willing to listen. While Michael clearly valued Adam, he felt that his eternity with God and believed understanding of his father outweighed Michael's far less years with his vessel and Adam's thus far less informed opinion, at least in Michael's mind. However, Adam ultimately proved to be in the right while Michael was in the wrong.

Though Michael had initially managed to move on from being the loyal son and only believing his existence was to worship his father, in the end he proved that he was incapable of fully changing from this opinion. Adam's death at God's hands did cause him to resent his father to a degree, to the point of actively siding with the Winchesters and Jack to try and open Chuck's Death Book. Once he was taunted by Lucifer that Lucifer was the Favorite, and that God didn't care about him, Michael returned to being the loyal son, deceiving the Winchesters and his nephew Jack into believing he was still on their side. This deceit led him to learn their alleged plan to take down Chuck, and informing him so that he could stop them. When he came face to face with his father, Michael was overjoyed to see him and once again declared himself as his loyal son. When Chuck revealed he couldn't forgive Michael for siding with the Winchesters, even initially, the archangel immediately started pleading with his father that it had only been a lapse in judgement and that he was sorry.