Gabriel (Supernatural)

Gabriel, also known as the Trickster, is an antagonist appearing on the TV series Supernatural, played by Richard Speight Jr. He was thought to be a demigod by mortals and was also thought by the gods to be Loki, the god of mischief. However, he is in fact the archangel Gabriel, having willingly left Heaven to escape the chaos of Michael and Lucifer's battles.

Personality
Acting as a demi-god, Gabriel behaves in a mischievous manner enjoying toying with his victims, humans he believes should be brought down a notch. He embraces a hedonistic lifestyle, including the "sweet tooth" for which that type of demi-god was known. Even after revealing himself to be an Archangel, he still used misdirection to achieve his goals and to protect himself. He is often sarcastic. Gabriel's manner is the most human of any of the angels so far, perhaps because of his long sojourn on earth. He holds humans in high regard, despite their many faults, something the other Archangels did not, not even Michael.

Origin
Gabriel was one of the four Archangels that God had created. He was high up in Heaven's hierarchy and he was also the youngest of the four Archangels. He was good friends with Lucifer, Raphael and Michael, the eldest Archangel. Gabriel was chosen to be the Messenger of God, assigned to deliver the Lord's word to humanity. Since nobody ever met God personally, Gabriel may have been the one who dictated the Ten Commandments to Moses. Gabriel was one of the more human angels, and understood humans as a species and in fact he died for them.

Sometime in the past, God asked Lucifer and the other Archangels to love the humans more than him, but Lucifer refused. He told God he couldn't love them more than him, so Lucifer fought with God, and Michael, once Michael didn't agree with him. Later a giant war had errupted in Heaven, where Lucifer was eventually thrown down into Hell. However, he escaped, and corrupted Cain, so God threw Lucifer deep into the lowest level of Hell, the cage. Gabriel couldn't stand the family tearing itself apart because the Apocalypse used to be a Sunday dinner discussion.

Gabriel left Heaven in the early Roman times, and possessed a human, possibly a Roman officer, and he manifested on Earth. He announced Jesus' birth, and bought Christianity to humans.

Gabriel later posed as "the Trickster" and "Loki" to the Norse gods, who knew him and such were suspicious of him. Gabriel spent the majority of his time playing pranks on people.

Season 2
Gabriel posed as the janitor in a college campus and he began to humiliate bullies and jocks. He did mass hallucinations, such as making a jock believe he had been kidnapped by aliens.

When Sam and Dean showed up to put a stop to the mysterious incidents, he didn't seem all that worried, he knew the boys suspected him, but he didn't care. He simply went back to his room to think up more legends to bring to life. When he got hungry he got up to eat from the candy and sweets he had made himself, Gabriel then made two beautiful women appear out of thin air. Bobby Singer told Sam and Dean they were dealing with not any god, but a Trickster, a demi-god capable of make anything appear out of ghin air. He then went on to say that the Trickster was the most powerful creature they have ever faced. When events got out of hand, the brothers tracked down Gabriel, who welcomed them to his theatre. The angel promised Dean he could have the two beautiful women he made, but Dean demanded he stop messing with people. Gabriel said OK as long as they left him alone. When they refused he created monsters to attack them. Bobby, Sam and Dean managed to fight them off. Dean then shoved a stake in his heart, seemingly killing him, his creations disappeared immediately afterwards. But after they left, the real Gabriel came over and picked up the stake, causing his artificial clone to dissappear.

Season 3
In Mystery Spot, Gabriel traps Sam in a seemingly infinite time loop, where Dean continually dies in increasingly strange ways (once by Sam's own hand), with Sam continually failing to save him. After a countless number of repeats, Sam eventually realizes that a trickster must be at work, and manages to locate the culprit. He threatens their tormentor with a blood covered stake, causing Gabriel to reveal himself, revealing that he survived their previous encounter, and agrees to break the loop. However, when Sam then considers killing him anyway, Gabriel supposedly stops the loop. This, however, proves to be false. Dean once again dies, but this time there is no loop to revive him. Throughout the next several months, Sam becomes a far colder and more calculating person as he attempts to track down Gabriel, killing whatever threat he can along the way.

Gabriel undoes his work after Sam's begging. Eventually, it is Gabriel who calls the younger Winchester to him, where he tries to drive in a point: that the two brothers continually sacrificing themselves for one another would bring no good, and when people die, they just have to learn to accept it and live with it. He says that "this is what it will be like without Dean." Nonetheless, Sam pleads with him to turn back time so that he can save Dean. Gabriel comments that it's like talking to a brick wall and snaps his fingers, reversing time to the Wednesday when Dean died for good.

Season 5
The Trickster returns in Changing Channels, where he traps Sam and Dean in a number of television shows in an effort to force the brothers to accept their roles as the vessels of Michael and Lucifer. The Winchesters eventually figure out that he is actually an angel and trap him in a ring of holy fire, causing them to return to the real world. The Trickster reveals that he is Gabriel, one of the four Archangels, and that he left Heaven to get away from his fighting brothers. Gabriel then points out the similarities between the Winchesters and Michael and Lucifer (Dean being the obedient son like Michael, and Sam being the rebellious one like Lucifer), and insists it's the Winchesters' destiny to be Michael and Lucifer's vessels.

Gabriel returns in Hammer of the Gods, where he barges into a meeting of numerous pagan gods and it's revealed that he was once known as Loki and he once in a romantic relationship with the Hindu goddess Kali. He tries to seduce Kali in an attempt of getting the brothers out of there safely, but she figures him out and annouces to the other pagan gods that he is the Archangel Gabriel. She then stabs him with his angel blade believing she had killed him, when in fact she only killed an illusion. Later, when Lucifer is about to kill Kali, Gabriel appears and telekinetically throws Lucifer, sending him flying against a wall. He tells the Winchesters to leave with Kali while he faces off against his brother. Gabriel then condemns Lucifer on his "temper tantrum" over the fact that he was replaced by humanity as the apple of God's eye. After a tense standoff, Gabriel is revealed to have created a duplicate of himself; the real Gabriel tries to sneak up on Lucifer with his angel blade. Unfortunately, Lucifer sees through his ruse and stabs Gabriel with his blade, killing him. After everything is over, Sam and Dean watch the video that Gabriel gave to them. At first, it appears to just be a porno tape, but then Gabriel suddenly appears inside the porno to give them a message. He told them that if they were watching this, then that means he is dead, he then tells them how they can force Lucifer back into his cage, thus giving the boys hope in stopping the apocalypse.

Season 9
Through a hallucination imposed by Metatron, Gabriel appears again in season 9, in the episode Meta Fiction, where Gabriel says the version Lucifer killed was in fact another clone of Gabriel's. He says that it's impossible to out-trick a Trickster. Gabriel also says he was actually living in Heaven all through the Apocalypse and since the Apocalypse ended, he returned to Earth, and "got involved in porn" (which was a mistake) and he also watched the entire Downton Abbey series. However, he confesses to Castiel that he never really watched Downton Abbey and he wants Castiel to win against the hunting angels. Castiel realizes Gabriel's still dead, but the actor who played him, Richard Speight Jr. and the producers of Supernatural, have revealed that Gabriel is actually still alive, and although this aspect was a hallucination, the real Gabriel is still out there somewhere.

Powers and Abilities
Despite being the youngest Archangel created by God, Gabriel has nigh-omnipotent power, and is one of the most powerful beings in existence. He originally appeared to the Winchester brothers as a Trickster. Before they knew he was an Archangel, Sam called him "one of the most powerful creatures we've ever met." Both Castiel and Sam have said that Gabriel is much more powerful than a Trickster, too powerful to be one in fact. Despite this impressive power, Gabriel is still younger and weaker than Michael and Lucifer and possibly Raphael, but there is no evidence to support this. He has been in the same vessel for at least three years, likely thousands of years, judging by the Pagan Deities familiarity with this vessel, and has not yet begun to decay like Lucifer did, so it is assumed that he has found his one and only 'true vessel'.

Trivia

 * His aiding the Winchesters to stop the Apocalypse is ironic, since in Norse mythology Loki is the one responsible for starting Ragnarok, the Norse Apocalypse. Loki’s role is similar to Lucifer and it results in the death of most of the major Norse gods.
 * In popular culture, it is said that Gabriel shall blow the trumpet blast that initiates the end of time. (This is most likely taken from the Islamic religion as there is an archangel Israfel, who corresponds with Raphael, not Gabriel, which is said to signal judgment day). Ironically, Gabriel is the only archangel to help the Winchesters stop the Apocalypse. Perhaps he did it due to the main antagonists hastening the Apocalypse, and he felt that it wouldn't be right.
 * He is the only archangel to be featured in 4 seasons.
 * He is also the first Archangel to appear, although it wasn't revealed until season 5.
 * Gabriel is the only archangel who has only used one vessel.
 * If Gabriel had really died, it is possible he was only resurrected by Metatron to be a part of his "story."
 * With Gabriel seemingly alive while Michael and Lucifer are sealed in Hell and Raphael dead, he is more than likely the most powerful celestial alive and free.