I disagree in general on the too tall thing; past a certain point people always look weird to me. Jared doesn't suffer from this, but IMHO most pro basketball players do and I don't recall seeing anyone over about 6'6" that I considered well-proportioned. Sorry, Zdeno Chara.

My impression is that a lot of Sam/Gabriel writing (though not all) comes from a place of "Humph! If Dean gets an angel of his very own, then Sam should too!"

The stories that strike me as even far, far more hard to accept than Sam/Gabriel are the crop of Dean/Gabriel titles that keep appearing on the newsletter. Really, people? You think this is remotely a possibility?

Of course, this is the same fandom that has Dean/Alastair and Castiel/Crowley and so on and so on, so what do I know.

I get Dean/Alastair. They're not usually remotely happy. I also get Castiel/Crowley in light of the end of S6, but not from before. Strange bedfellows to the max.

Dean/Gabriel, no. Dean/Trickster, yes.

Rewatching And Then There Were None, I really feel bad that Gwen went out like that. Or, not so much that that was her demise, but that they'd done so little with her beforehand. Maybe I'm a sucker for an Ellen Ripley face, or it's remnants of the botched job they did with the Campbell's. But, they introduced them, left them as one-notes, caricatures, messy enigmas, and ultimately disposable, which seems like a waste of breath. I mean, shit, Gwen's husband turning out to be have been ridden by a demon for who knows how long was dropped by the wayside. And I end up back to being ticked off that all the interviews with Sera, etc. revolved around the Campbell's. And, I'm sorry, they added nothing to the Winchester legacy, and illuminated nothing about Mary. And in the end, we still don't know how they survived Azazel's purge, or why Corin Nemec was possessed, or for how long, or what was his goal, or Gwen's reaction. Grampa Samuel still makes no sense. Help!

Corin Nemec was possessed, or for how long, or what was his goal

So Crowley would have an inside man.

Gwen's reaction

Horror and grief, I assume. But she really wasn't enough of a character to make it matter.

The Campbells (or any kind of other characters introduced for more than an episode) are going to exist to illuminate changes or conflicts in Sam and Dean. Otherwise, you've got an ensemble drama, which this is isn't.

In this case, they didn't execute that thread very neatly, but it does mean a) they weren't completely alone; b) they might not be, even now, since they could stumble on others next season; and c) family is about who you choose it to be, the way they've chosen Bobby. Blood isn't everything.

Samuel's motivation for agreeing to work with Crowley is ridiculous to me, but the arc is over now, so I'm not particularly bothered.

I'd actually like to see less people coming back from the dead this season. Let people stay in the grave for once.

Gwen had a husband? Who was that?

I think it's not so much how the Campbell arc played out, but how it was hyped in comparison to how it played out that has me miffed.

ita, she was married to Christian, the dude who turned out to be possessed by a demon. Played by Corin Nemec.

Really? I thought they were cousins of some sort.

she was married to Christian

When was that established? When she was introduced, she was just introduced as a distant cousin, like Christian.

Christian's wife's name began with an A...

eta: Arlene.