#but like youre Catholic about it because you think you're going to moral purity heaven over policing others entertainment

[panuccispizza]

anti fict people are like catholic fujoshis

[shallowseeker]

Purgatory isn't pure in the good sense; it's a suicide trap and a black-and-white, unthinking world

(where difficult decisions don't have to be made and relationships don't have to be worked at because they exist only as soldiers-in-arms)

Purgatory is total war.

==Simpler morality==

Because the enemies aren’t human, Purgatory is like a zombie game, and you don’t have to think about your enemy as an actual entity. You defend yourself against the enemy, and that's it. It’s an easy morality. Black-and-white. It’s a place where your killing has no consequences. Purity and happiness and queer allegory? That’s mostly a red herring.

It’s not a happy place. That it is ever referred to as such is a taunt. It's always almost, at the core of its theme, a coded reference to dying and suicide, or checking out of life. That's why it is so present in season 8, where all three mains are heavy with suicidal ideation. It also appears in season 10, when Dean wants to kill himself because of the Mark of Cain. It reappears in season 15's The Trap when Cas is effectively "killing himself" via a complementary Mark of Cain.

Purgatory is a place of holy, god-sanctioned killing and self-annihilation. It’s self-flagellation.

They feel purified. It's an "angelic mission" carried to its extreme.

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==The concept of penance==

[I]f they die truly repentant in charity before they have made satisfaction by worthy fruits of penance for (sins) committed and omitted, their souls are cleansed after death by purgatorical or purifying punishments, as Brother John has explained to us.

And to relieve punishments of this kind, the offerings of the living faithful are of advantage to these, namely, the sacrifices of Masses, prayers, alms, and other duties of piety, which have customarily been performed by the faithful for the other faithful according to the regulations of the Church.

Second Council of Lyon (1274, Catholic)

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==Purity is a "poughkeepsie word"==

Purity is a reference to this tragic notion of purification by suffering (a theme which Sam also reckons with during the Hell trials).

Cas reinforces the morif, as the Seraph with the burning hands. He turns bodies to ashes. He attracts all the desperate abominations who, deep down, long to be killed. It is a purification rite of burning. A rite of holy absolution.

What Purgatory is about is Cas giving himself whole-heartedly to angelic, unthinking war as penance. To be nothing more than a weapon. Because it’s all he thinks he deserves. That's why Naomi and her angels swoop in and brainwash him so easily.

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==Dean and Cas==

But that's not what Dean initially wants. When it comes to Cas, he wants to rip Cas away from that life. Because, "Cas, we're going home." Because, "Cas, you're more than a weapon--"

(13x14 Good Intentions draft)

No one could be more trapped by god than the 400+ million year old soldier. But even thought Dean struggles with the same thing, Dean wants to save him, oh how he wants to SAVE him. Through caring about Cas, a doomed soldier, Dean has to care about himself.

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==Why Sam "should've" looked for them in Purgatory==

From a religious reading of the communion of saints:

Because of the communion of saints, the faithful who are still pilgrims on earth are able to help the souls in purgatory by offering prayers in suffrage for them, especially the Eucharistic sacrifice. They also help them by almsgiving, indulgences, and works of penance.

The Catechism of the Catholic Church

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==The burden of war==

Dean prayed to Cas. Every night. Not because of romance per se, but to relieve the holy psychiatric burden of war.

He wants to help him heal, too. In healing Cas, a corrupted soldier, Dean heals himself.

“I’m at war. Certain regrettable things are now required of me.” -Castiel

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==Married to your work==

Season 8 is also about being Sam and Dean being "married" to Hunting. And Cas is married to Heaven. They can't seem to escape their political marriages to duty, sanctioned by God. They are prisoners.

In purgatory you are nothing more than a god-blessed weapon. It’s just more holy war propaganda.

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(Text Attributions// Supernatural scripts here via @spnscripthunt. Transcripts are located here via SPNWiki. Visit their Tumblr to donate.)