Castiel

inkcharm

● Your character has a chance to undo a terrible mistake, but in doing so, there could be unintended consequences for everyone they know. Is it worth the risk? Or should the dead stay dead?
At his worst, Castiel can be prideful and arrogant, painfully blunt, lack empathy, and be self-sacrificial. He no longer would consider sacrificing anything else with the same sort of reckless abandon in the name of a cause, but will absolutely put himself in harm's way and certain death to ensure the safety of others. His self-preservation stops where others are affected - or where he's guilt ridden enough and considers the punishment fitting the crime, or considers himself just that expendable. As long as the unintended consequences are purely for himself, as long as he takes the brunt of the risk, he will do whatever it takes to help his loved ones, and will stop at very little safe hurting other innocents to bring back his loved ones, aka Dean and Sam, either.

However, when the risk involves other, he will struggle to accept it and look for other solutions. Castiel has been shown to interfere with the deals the Winchesters have made, refusing to let them suffer the consequences of their own actions if he can prevent them in any way, with unknown consequences to himself and the world at large. In the past we've also seen him try and bring characters back - in Season 6, he resurrects Sam but accidentally without a soul - an unintended consequence he seems to accept as regrettable but necessary to bring Sam back. It appears that in the past, he was recklessly or perhaps pridefully willing to risk such things, but has moved somewhat away from endangering anyone and everyone other than himself. There's still little he wouldn't do to save Dean and Sam Winchester - or those that matter to them.

● If your character had the option to permanently lose the ability to feel certain negative emotions like fear or grief, or permanently forget certain memories, would they take it? What if they will never know that something has been taken from them? Does loss only matter if it's known what's missing?
Despite his crushing guilt, depression and lack of recognizing his own importance, Castiel would not deny himself the ability to feel negative emotions or forget horrible memories. Canonically, angels are not meant to feel, they're not designed to feel, and find it overwhelming and at times unpleasant, but Castiel through the years has embraced this. He cares about the world, he finds joy in emotion and human experience, and he's learned that the negative emotions are worth the positive ones. He's learned to see the beauty in the midst of all the suffering and pain that he used to see in humanity, and finds that worth preserving and partaking in. Dean Winchester has led him down a path to caring about individuals, about humanity, about the whole world, and Castiel wouldn't trade the ability to feel such profound love just to be spared fear or grief. In fact, when offered to rest in the afterlife without pain, just eternal slumber, he actively rallies against that painless peace to return to those he loves, accepting pain and a lack of reciprocation of his feelings over losing those feelings.

As for memories: Castiel canonically has been made aware that Heaven itself has tortured him, erased his memories or rewritten them, at countless occasions. As he does not know how many things have already been taken from him, he would not give up memories for his own sake for reasons similar to the ones states above, with some trauma regarding his past lack of autonomy added in. The only scenario in which he would give up memories - good or bad - would in service of saving or sparing Sam and Dean in some fashion, but not to shield himself from the horror of his own memories.

● Could your character ever forgive themselves for something morally wrong that they've done? No matter how much time has passed? No matter how much penitence has been done? Is being sorry enough to be a good person?
Over the course of the show, we see Castiel being crushed under the weight of emotions that he wasn't created to handle - feelings are something humans are made to have, but angels aren't meant to be capable of, and yet we see several of them come to terms with them. Castiel himself experiences great guilt for his wrongdoings and betrayal of his friends, for the pain he's caused others, and for his inability to make the right choices alongside the right people that has led to so much more pain and suffering. He's grown deeply empathetic, but lacks that empathy for himself, to the point where for long stretches of time, he deals with crushing guilt, feeling useless, expendable, depressed and borderline suicidal. Nevertheless, he's applied himself to those who matter to him time and again, throwing his life away only when he believes this will aid those he loves, and doing all he can to stand by those who need him otherwise, as proven by his current canon point: Woken up from the eternal sleep that is an angel's death, Castiel is nearly lulled into just giving up, becoming "a fond memory rather than a festering disappointment" as the entity puts it. But while we see him want to give in - the natural downward spiral he's been on for a long time - he ends up defying the will of his afterlife's eldritch guardian because he believes that his friends and family still need him, and that therefore, he needs to live to stand by their side.

Can Castiel forgive himself? No. But can he soldier through the crushing weight of his guilt to do what he believes is right, to keep trying to redeem himself to those he wronged? Yes.

● Your character has a secret they have been sworn to, but revealing this secret could save the lives of countless others. Is it worth breaking the promise to save others, or is betrayal never justifiable?
Castiel has had plenty of experience with keeping secrets or making secret deals. Starting out as a bluntly truthful character, he learns that sometimes lies and secrets are necessary. The lies and secrets he spins himself into always serve a greater goal. When not motivated to be secretive himself, he tends to want to default to honesty, as seen when trying to cure Dean of the Mark of Cain. Dean wishes no further research into saving him to be conducted, but Castiel and Sam continue regardless, with Castiel expressing uncertainty about why this is being kept from Dean until Sam convinces him of the necessity for Dean's sake, at which point Castiel concedes to be secretive on Sam's behalf. Castiel vastly prefers to speak the truth, but will conceal his own plans and intentions behind lies and secrecy if those serve to protect Sam and Dean. And while in earlier seasons he would maintain the lies and secrecy for the greater good, in later seasons he becomes much more prone to revealing the truth to Sam and Dean if to keep it would be to hurt or risk them. Secrets entrusted to him by others will be measured against that end goal, too. Castiel will betray the trust of others if he feels he must for very specific goals, but will do what he can to avoid hurting Dean and Sam, and shies away from betraying their trust unless he feels it's absolutely necessary. This can be seen in the final season, when Jack intends to sacrifice himself in the final battle, a plan Jack doesn't wish to be shared, which Castiel brings to Dean's intention immediately, wanting to abandon this plan to save the world in order to find another way that would spare Jack. At the same time, he keeps the deal he made to resurrect Jack that will eventually lead to this own death a secret until the moment has come.

● Has your character ever gotten joy out of hurting others, physically or mentally? If they have, does it scare them?
Castiel has been a soldier for billions of years. He knows the necessity of regrettable actions - as this is his own phrasing, that should inform the answer to this question. Castiel knows that torture can be necessary, but takes no joy in it, and as the show progresses has shown further and further aversion to it. He does torture someone in even later seasons, but does so only when time is running out on other solutions and he realizes he's the only one willing to dirty his hands like that, at which point he soldiers through the process. We see this behaviour in him a lot more often in early seasons, when he's still much more generally in soldier mode, and hasn't yet grown empathetic of other living beings, a time during which he describes himself as "not having the luxury to care". But as time goes on, he cares more and more, first about specific people (Dean and Sam), then about humanity at large, and about doing the right thing. He will never shy away from hurting his foes, and will adopt his old blunt soldier ways if out of other options, but in general Castiel has been shown to vastly prefer doing good to inflicting deliberate pain.