PLOT TWIST!!!!
*o*
Okay, I’m actually a little ticked that this didn’t happen, though. And by a little ticked, I mean FLAILINGLY IRRITATED. Because this right here, the Fall? That would’ve been the PERFECT opportunity to bring Gabriel back (as a confirmed living character thank you very much) and give him a plot-relevant arc like he had during his first run.
He is the last living archangel at this point. Some angels would’ve followed him. Others would’ve rejected him because they’ve learned the value of free will under Castiel’s rule or during their time on earth, and don’t want to defer to a hierarchy anymore. Still more would’ve fought him as rival factions. He would’ve been conflicted as fuck, because A) who the hell says he wants to lead? That’s why he was in hiding! But at the same time B) he can’t just abandon his family. He can’t just abandon EARTH to deal with their hyperdestructive bullshit.
So he’s caught between rallying the troops and just fucking off to sip piña coladas on some beach somewhere. But OH LOOK there’s Castiel, his second-in-command, who’s more in command than he is because fucking hell, Gabriel, you can’t just LEAVE in the middle of a war meeting because it bores you. (Of course, it didn’t bore him, he was just fighting back the urge to vomit knowing they have to take out so many of his little brothers and sisters, angels he’d known since their Father first created them. But Cas doesn’t need to know that.)
And OH LOOK there’s Sam and Dean, going merrily along with their plotline (that hopefully is more coherent in this universe), and Gabriel can’t help but stop in and fuck with them a little, maybe go on a hunt or two because he and Cas are tag-teaming their Winchester ride-alongs. Sam and Dean keep pushing him back towards dealing with the Fall, and Gabriel goes willingly, because yeah, yeah, he KNOWS. But that doesn’t mean he doesn’t need to be inspired by the two yahoos who stopped the Apocalypse every now and again. Especially Sam, who beat Lucifer with the power of love, who was the runaway black sheep little brother but came back and stood up anyways, and whose ass looks GREAT in those jea—ahem.
And then Metatron gets more powerful, and Gabriel isn’t standing for this shit anymore. He and Cas take the fight to Heaven. And when the day is won and the angels look for a new leader—you know what? They don’t need one. Cas and Gabe combined have taught them too much. Oh, yes, Gabriel is still in charge technically and Cas is still technically his second-bannana, but just knowing that there’s a nigh godlike being (whom most all of them actually LIKE, thank you very much) watching their every move has calmed Heaven’s tits enough that they aren’t all at each other’s throats. The angels go back and forth between earth and Heaven freely. Including Cas and Gabriel, who’ve decided that just tag-teaming the Winchesters isn’t enough anymore.
Time to have a little fun.
Tl;dr – GABRIEL SHOULD’VE BEEN PART OF THE FALL ARC GODDAMMIT