so there's a theory that chuck's alternate future in "the trap" was a lie and i just. realized that if it was, it's interesting how chuck didnt show cas going to the empty in order to protect sam and dean from his corruption. like burying him in a mal'ak box seems more work than cas confessing and going to the empty where god will never be able to return and cas won't be a threat anymore. which makes me think that chuck was purposefully hiding the empty deal from sam.
like there's also a theory that the trap was set up so cas or dean would end up confessing in purgatory after reuniting and trigger the deal, so i gotta wonder if chuck was hiding information about the deal so that dean and sam couldn't attempt to break it before castiel triggered it.
idk if this makes sense i just wanted to share it.
Firstly, thanks for entertaining me with all your takes. It's so fun!
I completely agree with you that Chuck's a known liar. And that casts this veneer of doubt over everything we get from him. I'm not even sure how much how much he can see when it comes to The Empty and its deals!
For example, he seems baffled by the AU angel blade in 14x20, telling Sam, "I haven't seen one of these in ages. Where did you get it?" Now, it could've been a stalling technique... or it could've been a slip that he's not as omniscient as he wants us to think. When Amara calls him 'God,' she does so like she's taunting him. "God."
In my opinion, if anyone seems like they were trying to set up Cas's Empty deal to trigger in a premeditated way, it's Billie, leaving her scythe on the table like she did, and even joking with Dean at some point, "Have to watch this scythe around you." Plus her, "Good thing. It can't reach me. HERE." Then, her uncharacteristic pursuit of them.
But yeah, another thought I had re: Mark Cas is that I don't think Cas would necessarily "[go] to the empty in order to protect sam and dean from his corruption" in that scenario.
I don't think Cas's happiness is necessarily univariate. Dean is a part of it, sure, but in a world where he's lost both Jack AND Claire, I'm not sure a loving testament would be "enough" to bless him with sunshiney happiness. I could see a scenario where he actually tries to trigger his deal, and does tell Dean, but he's shocked to learn that it isn't enough.
I can even see a scenario where they overtly get together, and it's still not enough. (That would devastate them both, I think.) But happiness is like that, interwoven with many different aspects of our lives.
There's also that perhaps the mark itself sucks up happiness, exerting its angry will and creating the same disinhibited "numbing effect" that Demon Dean faced. "[human Dean] felt strong emotions and also tremendous pain," unlike Demon Dean. Perhaps it could cause the same disconnect from his emotions for Cas? (He's already a bit disconnected as an angel, and it would undo so much of his progress, perhaps.)
