Lucifer's fall in the first place implies free will on the part of the angels, even if most of them don't actively exercise it.
And God? I don't think he's the absentee landloard Zac is making him out to be.
That's my take on it. I can easily see Zachariah conflating God no longer communicating with him (assuming he's one of the four that have been in contact in the past) with being absentee on a larger scale. But I'd think that Anna regaining her angelic nature, Lucifer remaining bound until freed in the prophecied way, and the fact that things like holy water work at all are indications that He's still at work behind the scenes.
And again, God not "having left the building" explains how Dean is not in violation of his oath. He swore to serve "God and his Angels". If God is still around, and his Angels are no longer serving Dean's oath to God takes precedence over Dean's oath to the Angels.
I'm also not clear on how that oath is to be enforced...
It may not be enforced as such. But in a magical universe violating a sworn oath to a powerful supernatural being probably has bad consequences. Dean being an oathbreaker would probably make him more vulnerable to a whole bunch of stuff.
Lucifer's fall in the first place implies free will on the part of the angels, even if most of them don't actively exercise it.
It seems like that's the case, but they said that angels don't have free will when they were explaining why Anna was wrong and bad, didn't they? Which confused me at the time and still confuses me, so I don't think I can parse the subtleties. But if the stated policy of 'angels have no free will' has changed in recent times, that would be interesting, certainly. Or if it was never the case and just something they all believed for some reason, I suppose.
Or if it was never the case and just something they all believed for some reason, I suppose.
I could see the "do as you are told, OR ELSE" mentality developing amongst the higher-ups as a way of controlling what Zacharaiah referred to as the rank and file. Anna, who was apparently fairly high-ranking, needed to be made an example of.
Speaking of Anna, any guesses/speculation as to whether she is dead or off being "re-educated" somewhere?
any guesses/speculation as to whether she is dead or off being "re-educated" somewhere?
Originally, they'd said punishment for her fall from grace is death, but who knows what's in store for her. Although, it would be very interesting if Anna was actually a player in a bigger, more overarching plan -- God's plan.
So Ruby was Lucifer's ringer and Anna is God's? Interesting.
