I’d first like to point out that I have less personal expirience to add to this post, but i do have a submissive person’s perspective on dominance. So- I can look at Dean’s perspective as a submissive as well. (Though Cas is dominant with anyone, really)
While dominance can often involve power, power and dominance are not the same thing. Castiel hold a lot of power, being an angel and all, but his angelic power is not the same as his dominance. (Though it does help) Just like with Dean, we have to look at body language.
Cas looks down at people instead of up at people as Dean does. Again, it’s not a huge thing to look at, but it matters. Even though both the Winchesters (and plenty of antagonists) are taller than Castiel, he doesn’t do the “I’m looking up at you for instruction” type of acknowledgement Dean does. You see the little head tilted back thing he does so he can look down on people.
(Disregard Misha’s adorable face doing that h movement at the corner of his mouth) He actually does the head tilt back a lot? But regardless he maintains eye contact which is a dominant trait. Unlike Dean “shifty eyes” Winchester like seriously.
Dean obviously can make eye contact but he easily gets shifty eyed and nervous. Usually Cas initiates the true deep eye contact.
Cas has power and confidence in a way that his glaring in someone’s direction can have SO MANY different meanings.
One of the legit best examples of Castiel’s dominant body language is this gif. Dean is not always affected by people attempting to intimidate/flirt/get in his space, but he is 100% affected by Cas being in his space. Because the stare is coming from someone with power, it has such impact. And Cas is not one to falter in his gaze, he keeps on staring. He easily asserts dominance with the way he looks at people.
Along with that, he is not afraid to lay a hand down when he’s not being listened too, especially when it involves people he loves. He has a great sense of loyalty.
Yes, Castiel rebels but it is for Dean, and for the Winchesters. He once saw the angels as his brothers and as his family, but now Dean and anyone he cares about- that’s priority. Castiel is protective. And when the person he is protecting fucks up he gets PISSED.
I do not want to turn the above moment sexual- because it is not- I’m looking at it in other terms. Castiel gives what he has and expects respect, he wants obedience.
From the beginning all he wants is respect, respect for giving so much to someone. But in the end…he’s always fighting to protect Dean or make Dean happy. He feels that keeping the Winchesters safe and happy is his job.
Being dominant in this situation makes sense. When being a dominant, one takes on a responsibility to make a submissive safe and happy. This often translates into life with Castiel.
He feels that his purpose, quite literally, is to protect Dean Winchester. Perfect Dom material. He also feels that failing Dean is one of the worst things he can do and that he must make it up to him. He protects people he cares about and feels horrible when he loses their trust.
As for…the sexual aspect of dominance we don’t have much to go off of. But what we do know is that sex is a power exchange.
So we can take power exchange into real life situations.
This is a great example. In this scene, Dean’s first reaction is a “what the fuck” but as soon as he sees Cas, as soon as Cas gives him that look that says “shut your fucking mouth and stay still” Dean is handing over his power to Cas in no time. They share this dynamic a lot, simple looks from Castiel communicating large things.
Alright, early, early gif. Cas READS people. And yeah, he’s an angel, but this is when he doesn’t know Dean, has no reason to tell him what to do. But Cas tells him he knows he wanted to stay dead, he knows he enjoyed torturing while he was in hell, he knows that Dean thinks that he is unworthy and worthless in general. He tells people what they think and what they deserve. Any more explanation needed?
This here hahaha, its a real good one. One of my favorites. Cas looks so confused that Dean is doing something for him, telling him what to do. Dean is tying his tie, Dean is explaining how things are gonna go, Dean is walking him through something and it’s fucking WEIRD. This is the power exchange in reverse and it’s weirding Cas out.
This here, invasive touch. Cas is not the best at personal space, and he certainly get told by Dean, but most of that is angel awkwardness. To get to this one we’re going to Misha. That’s right, even more meta.
Misha is where all the touchy-feely that Cas lacks is stored. Handshakes, gestures, invasive touches, that is Misha’s middle name. He’s especially touchy around his costars *cough* Jensen.
Misha is also a very caring person, the person that people can trust and look to for help when they most need it. He is very calming and gentle towards his friends as seen above. This is a moment where Jensen was struggling HARDCORE, on the verge of an anxiety attack or stress breakdown and Misha swooped in to save the day. He cares about people he has mutual trust with and that’s a very important part of being a dom.
But seriously the touching gets ridiculous. Get your hand off of Jensen’s cock you are in p u b l i c.
He even has the fucking cocky dom eyebrow to bring it all together.
Anyway we can all agree that Misha’s dominant personality is half of Cas’ dominance, but what about other characters?
Lucifer. He is power hungry, uses his power to create an illusion of dominance. He keeps Crowley on a leash, talks like he is hot shit, uses some dominant body language but he has no empathy. Misha is an amazing actor. There is a difference between playing an asshole dominant character and a genuine dominant but Misha brings his dominant body language to both.
As we near the end we can certainly see that Misha contibutes to the angel’s dom nature, but the way he’s written does as well. You take Misha body language, add Winchester passion, and angelic powers and you get a great dominant character.
A dominant character that could easily get Dean on his knees.
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