someone made a post about how people in the fandom treat the council like they just absolutely treated gabriel horribly and i. agree (with the point of the post, which was calling this out)

like. okay the council isn't great, but up until like. 3-2 where gabriel failed for the first time, i doubt that they had ever showed him with anything but respect or things like that.

of course people can headcanon things of the sort and a lot of people do through a sort of self-projection onto the character (which is not inherently a bad thing, mind you)

But with Gabriel's status as an archangel and how much 3-2 changed him as a person, i do not believe that the council would have treated him like shit before the events of v1. in fact i think it would have been the opposite, kind of like a sort of "waow.. archangel.. you are the best that god had of us, so you must be placed upon the most dire of situations!"

Hell, i would even go so far as to say Gabriel was likely merciless before 3-2, i mean canon supports this with him and Minos Prime, where Minos wanted to negotiate peace and couldnt even get a word in before he was killed.* Like i think the idea of him standing by something/someone in the past and coming to regret it later is a lot more interesting and is a more interesting narrative than "oh the council forced him to do this"

I'd say Gabriel was more-so the Council's attack dog of sorts, trained to attack when given the go but overall pampered aside from it

and on the topic of the council: i believe that they genuinely did believe that what they were doing was right and just in God's absence. but the thing is was that they were unable to hear Gabriel out due to the sheer absurdity of the idea of being beaten by a machine, thinking that he was actively going against their- and in their eyes, god's- orders.

like. okay to actually think on it more, jesus doesnt exist, so its likely that this would be (in terms of comparing) moreso like the god of the Old Testament (aka before jesus came into the picture), and he was a lot more strict on sins and what got you into heaven (hell, limbo is for people that commited the sin of not being baptized and nothing else.) so who knows, maybe they *are* being accurate to what god would have done, but they are not all knowing nor all powerful, so they have biases and judgements that get in the way, i.e "how can we be defeated by a MACHINE???"

[Context: this ramble and this last ramble was posted seperately, im referring to the sentence with this *]

Okay merciless for gabriel pre 3-2 feels kind of like an overstatement because Gabriel was the only one of heaven that showed compassion towards the ferrymen, however my point is i dont think Gabriel would have questioned anything until 3-2, not only because of the lord's teaching, but also due to his own want for a good fight- he literally nerfs himself in 3-2 by fighting with everything but his actual swords as they're more seen as for serious opponents (in canon, they were only used regarding Sisyphus and the Leviathan, and those were very very big fights for heaven)

I do not think he would have even thought to question the morals and acts he had done before they were turned upon him, and i think that is a lot more interesting than him being a skeptic towards the council and not supporting them, because it is very likely he would have done the same thing had he been a councillor