And I can totally handwave that as Sam being young and grieving and resentful. Because that's just the kind of fan I am.

The layout/type on this tumblr is horrifying, but what the poster is suggesting is sort of fascinating: that Crowley is not a demon, but an archangel, Samael.

I tend to not like Crowley-is-an-angel theories/stories, mostly because they tend to be Good Omen lifts, and/or a way to un-evil or further power him up.

The main reason I think that isn't true is because it's more attention to the lore than the writers have ever paid. I'd be surprised if they started how (or had been doing so on the down low the whole time).

Doesn't mean you can't fit it in, but I do seem to recall they established there were only four archangels, all of whom are spoken for at the moment.

Now that I look it up, she's wrong anyway -- Samael is an archangel, and the angel of death, in Talmudic lore, but in the New Testament he's essentially Satan, aka Lucifer.

It seems that Jewish scripture names a lot more archangels than the New Testament does, too.

I thought it was interesting for a minute, though. There are things they skipped entirely with Crowley, like no smoking out, no red eyes. At least they've consistently skipped them?

He hasn't smoked out because he's never abandoned a vessel. It's not a meaningful omission. And they seemed to imply that demons can appear and disappear just offscreen when they need to, but he's the only it's been stressed with.

If all demons could just disappear, why do they smoke out then? See: Lilith when Sam was about to kill her, Azazel in John's body in the cabin, etc. In other words, if he can disappear and take the vessel with him, how come others can't?

I know it's not really productive to wonder, because there's probably zero logic or conscious thought behind it, but I always want things tied up neatly. Or neater, at least.

All the crossroads demons we've seen apparate, don't they? Or have we been assuming they travel back and forth to the crossroads, or are possessing someone nearby?

At least the first one we see, the one Dean traps in Crossroad Blues, smokes out and leaves the vessel there, completely confused about where she is.

But they all just show up, don't they? Is the assumption that they got there some way other than appearing when summoned? Or are you thinking it's the summoning that is making them travel?

And when they're not trapped, they just seem to not be there anymore, at least as far as I can think of.

I always had the impression that they possessed someone near the crossroads they were summoned to, but I don't know if the show actually supports that.