Characters / Supernatural: Demons

WARNING! Contains unmarked spoilers for the series up to Season 9!

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Demons

In General

1. Demon Henchmen and Knights of Hell (Black-Eyed Demons)
2. Crossroads Demons, including Crowley (Red-Eyed Demons)
3. Azazel (Yellow-Eyed Demon)
4. Lilith, the first demon, and Alastair (White-Eyed Demons)
5. Samhain, demon of All Soul's Day, (Clouded-Iris Demon)
6. Acheri Demons, child-like demons, (Clouded-Eyed Demons)

You demons. You think you're something special. But you're just spirits. Twisted, perverted, evil spirits. But, end of the day, you're nothing but ghosts with an ego.

—Bobby Singer, "Weekend At Bobby's" (S06, E04)

Demons in Supernatural were created by Lucifer, who was jealous that God favored humanity over His own angels. They are created when a soul is sent to Hell, where all the humanity is stripped away by torture. Humans see a demon as a cloud of smoke or as their vessel, but angels can see the true face of a demon.

More powerful demons enjoy positions of leadership in the hierarchy of Hell, with one ruling as the King of Hell. Most demons serve Lucifer and fought for him during the Apocalypse, but after Lucifer was sent back into his Cage, Crowley took charge of Hell.

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• Abusive Parents: Even though he is the one who created them, their "father" Lucifer secretly hates them all for having originally been humans. Actually, he may even hate them more than he hates humans, as demons are the walking embodiments of the flawed, murderous aspects of humanity which Lucifer found so terrible about us in the first place, only without any of the redeeming features humans can have and ten times the evil. It's unclear if the demons are aware of his hatred for them following his exile in the Cage, but a few demons (like Crowley) were aware of it before he tried to fight Michael.
• Adaptational Species Change: With the exception of Lucifer, who himself still counts as an angel, demons are actually mutilated human souls instead of Fallen Angels.
• The Ageless: Like angels, demons can be killed but won't die of natural causes.
• All Men Are Perverts: Demons in general tend to be very sexual creatures, whether it's limited to using suggestive dialogue to make their enemies squirm, hitting on them (probably while actually hitting them), or openly trying to get with them, with or without the other party's consent.
• Always Chaotic Evil: When first introduced in "Phantom Traveler" (S01, E04), demons are portrayed as evil for evil's sake, but almost all major demons in the series turn out to have an agenda. They're still all evil though.
  Dean: I don't know, man. This isn't our normal gig. I mean, demons, they don't want anything, just death and destruction for its own sake. This is big.
• Amnesiac Dissonance: According to Ruby, most of them might not even remember that they were once humans themselves.
• Ancient Evil: Ruby and Crowley are both several centuries old, and it's implied that they're among the younger demons, as they're the only ones young enough to remember having once been human.
• Anthropomorphic Personification: The Seven Deadly Sins in "The Magnificent Seven".
• Apocalypse Cult: In Season 4, certain demons work to break the seals, start the Apocalypse and release Lucifer.
• Arch-Enemy: They fear and hate angels in about equal measure. Oddly enough, they also worship one, since he created them. Go figure.
• Ascended Demon: Despite demons being by and large Always Chaotic Evil, there are a few examples of redeemed demons: Ruby (except not), Meg (accidentally, but of her own will), and an unnamed demon in "Clip Show" (S08, E22) (whose fate isn't disclosed).
• Asskicking Leads to Leadership: Seems to be the way Hell operates. Demons fight each other to fill empty slots in the hierarchy. Abaddon certainly thinks that that's the way it should be, except she'd like to extend this to the rest of the universe, kick the ass of every other sentient race and enslave them for a universe ruled by demons (with her as Queen, naturally).
• At the Crossroads: Crossroads demons can be summoned at (you guessed it) crossroads, whether it's dirt or a highway intersection. As fitting the trope, one can make deals there with said demons. Summoning a crossroads demon requires that you bury a box with things like a black cat's bone, graveyard dirt and a photograph of yourself.
• Badass Army: What they were intended to be after they were released in the Season 2 finale. However, their general was killed and the intended replacement refused to step up even after being informed of his role, so they mostly just caused havoc randomly rather than truly fighting a war. Until Lilith steps in, anyway.
• Badass Boast: Demons are always boasting and gloating.
• Badass Crew: They are just as badass as the Angels only they are the evil version. While angels serve God, demons serve Lucifer.
• The Baroness: Many female demons, most notably Meg and Abaddon, are Sexpots.
• Beauty Is Bad: Most of the female demons (Meg, Ruby, Lilith, Abaddon, Dean's Crossroads Demon, etc) are very attractive and very nasty. Rip-your-head-off-after-sex-and-eat-it nasty. Of course, the meatsuits they're wearing aren't what they really look like, and Ruby in particular is described as "one ugly bitch", but they do choose their own meatsuits.
• Being Tortured Makes You Evil: Every demon was once a human whose soul was tortured to the point that they lost most (if not all) of their humanity and began enjoying dishing the pain back out...unfortunately, (mostly) onto innocent humans.
• Black Eyes of Evil: The fastest way to tell a person's possessed is to have the demon inside flip their eyes black (or red, white, or yellow).
• Black-and-Gray Morality: Demons tend to come across as wholly malicious and sadistic, and Dean once described them as just wanting death and destruction "for its own sake." You would think that that's all there is to it, but it has been revealed and reinforced in surprising ways that demons are more complex than that. They can love, and they do love. Lucifer's followers — including some of the scummiest demons of the whole series, like Alastair, Azazel, and Lilith — believe that he is their savior and the rightful ruler of the universe who will save the world. Although it could have just been her manipulating Dean, Casey seemed sincere when she espoused her disdain for the weak, sinful nature of humanity, and her belief that her kind is stronger and deserves to win. Azazel, Meg, and Tom were called a "family" with Azazel as the "father" and Meg and Tom as his "children," with some genuine sense of love and loyalty in the group. Azazel is also implied to have demons who were his "friends." The demons possessing Casey and Father Gil had been in love for centuries and were protective of each other, the Seven Deadly Sins hung out together and tried to go save one of their own when he was captured, etc. Demons have also been shown capable of loving non-demonic individuals: Lucifer loyalists' love for their "Father," Ruby's love for Sam, Meg's love for Castiel, Cain's love for Colette. All this just goes to show that Even Evil Has Loved Ones and that occasionally Love Redeems. Per Word of God, at least some demons think that they're the good guys doing the right thing. They have their own moral code and are often deeply loyal and committed to the causes they serve, even willingly sacrificing themselves when necessary.
• Blood Magic: Demons communicate using a goblet filled with fresh human blood.
• Break Them by Talking: A favorite hobby of many a demon.
• Celestial Bureaucracy: The demons have a hierarchical structure with a leader and Evil Minions. The Knights of Hell are among the oldest and most powerful demons, chosen by Lucifer himself.
• The Chessmaster: Demons are known to be highly manipulative and cunning. Azazel, Lilith and Ruby are examples of highly manipulative demons.
• Chronic Villainy: Demons just cannot stop doing evil. Dean explicitly describes them as causing nothing but "death and destruction for its own sake."
• Color-Coded for Your Convenience: Most demons have black eyes, crossroads demons have red eyes, high-level demons have white eyes, and Azazel is the only one with yellow eyes. The color of their smoke also may occasionally match their eyes, as Crowley is seen to have red smoke.
• Consummate Liar: "Demons lie!" Although they will tell the truth if they know it'll hurt more. Since the main characters are all massively screwed-up, demons end up doing this a lot around them, often by pointing out their flaws with great relish.
• The Corrupter: What most demons are good at. They are good at manipulating humans, especially when they are vulnerable or at their weakest, to do immoral and corruptible deeds.
• Dark Action Girl: Most, if not all, of the female demons, most notably Meg and Abaddon.
• Dark Is Evil: Black smoke, black eyes.
• Deadpan Snarker: If they get a line, they're most likely going to be this.
• Deal with the Devil: Crossroads demons can grant wishes to humans in exchange for their souls. Usually these deals come due in ten years, at which point the poor bastard who made the deal gets torn apart by hellhounds and their soul dragged into Hell to be tortured. Some demons made deals themselves back when they were human, which is what landed them in Hell and got them turned them into what they are in the first place.
• Demon of Human Origin: This is how demons are created on the show — essentially anyone who goes to hell will eventually end up with a job there, as their humanity is stripped away and they become a demon. This means that demons are essentially a type of ghost—for instance, burning the bones of either a demon or ghost's mortal remains will destroy them for good. The quality of the position is directly based on how tough the person in question is; Hell is an Asskicking Leads to Leadership place, and the only person with a guaranteed spot, Satan, is both out of circulation and an archangel, meaning he outranks the rest of them so totally he could probably ash the whole place alone.
  Ruby: It might take centuries, but sooner or later Hell will burn away your humanity. Every Hell-bound soul, every one, turns into something else. Turns you into us.
• Demonic Possession: When demons possess someone it's a possession of the Meat Puppet variety.
• Devil in Disguise: It may not be immediately revealed that a character is a demon (e.g. Meg, Ruby) or that a pre-established character has become possessed (e.g. Azazel posing as John and Samuel, Crowley posing as Linda Tran). You usually have to wait for the demon to reveal itself on purpose. Originally, it was supposed to be possible to find out who is possessed by a demon by saying "Christo," which made demons who heard it flinch and their eyes to turn black, but this was dropped after "Phantom Traveler" because the writers thought that that made it too easy for Sam and Dean to figure out who the villain was.
• Dirty Coward: While demon's aren't exactly cowardly (after being tormented in hell, what is there left to fear) and most of the dirty tricks they pull are usually for sadism, demons will turn and run with their tails between their legs when face with a more powerful force or a genuine threat to their lives. Even the most hardcore and zealous of demons will show a look of utter shock when faced with their demise or impending demise. Bottom line is that for a demon, self-preservation is everything.
• Dishing Out Dirt: Limited; some demons can create small earthquakes.
• Dream Walker: At least the higher level demons are able to visit a person in their dreams.
• Even Evil Has Loved Ones: It has been shown that demons are capable of loving others. An example is Azazel loving his Father Lucifer, Ruby having a soft spot for Sam and Meg developing feelings for Castiel.
• Evil Counterpart: To angels... ostensibly.
• Evil Empire: Although Hell is ruled by a king or queen and not an emperor.
• Evil Gloating: By far the most talkative and most sadistic of the Monsters of the Week. This tends to bite them in the ass when it gives the heroes enough time to stage a comeback.
  Dean: [to Meg] My God, you like the sound of your own voice.
• Evil Is Burning Hot: Considering that demons come from Hell...
• Evil Is Hammy: Lots of demons enjoy being Large Hams.
• Evil Has a Bad Sense of Humor: Many demons tend to be very sarcastic and they often resort to the use of snarky comments.
• Evil Wears Black: Most demons who pick their own clothes are seen in black or other dark colors.
• Fallen Angel: Subverted. In the Supernatural mythos, demons are human souls who have been completely stripped of their humanity through centuries of unrelenting torture in Hell, transforming them into vengeful, malicious, evil spirits.
• Fire and Brimstone Hell: That is, until Crowley takes over as King of Hell.
• Flight: When in their natural forms demons are able to fly.
• For the Evulz: Their original description. "Demons, they don't want anything, just death and destruction for its own sake."
• Good Hurts Evil: Holy water affects demons with a burning sensation. Plus, demons flinch at the word "Christo".
• Hannibal Lecture: Even after you've got them caught in a devil's trap and try to torture them, prepare for them to keep talking.
• Healing Hands: Some demons have the ability to heal, though their willingness to do so comes at a price.
• Hell: The home of demons. The opposite of Heaven, which is the home of the angels.
• Hellgate: Here called "Devil's Gates." If even one of these gates are opened on Earth by an outside force, hundreds of demons can pour out of Hell and onto Earth. In Season 8, Crowley originally plans to use Kevin to open all the Devil's Gates on Earth so that the world will be completely infested with demons, while Sam and Dean plan to use Kevin to permanently lock all the Gates. Neither succeeds.
• Hellhounds: Giant, invisible dogs that serve demons and kill people whose contracts are up. They're even more terrifying than their masters — Crowley had to bring in his own hellhound to fend one off, and Castiel (leader of an army in Heaven and a seraph at the time, mind you) ran away from a pack of them when he has killed demons without any effort. Yikes.
• Hell-Bent for Leather: Demons seem to have a penchant for leather, especially leather jackets.
• Hellish Pupils: Azazel and Dean's Crossroads Demon both showed these early on, but later on it was changed so that they both have completely yellow and red eyes, respectively.
• Hot as Hell: The vast majority of female demons, even the minor, unnamed ones.
• Holy Burns Evil: Holy water burns demons that come into contact with it like acid. It proves ineffective against high-tier demons like Azazel and Lilith.
• Humans Are Bastards: Many demons are not fond of humans, just like Daddy Lucifer, who despises humans and seeks to destroy them.
• Hunter of His Own Kind: Most demons wouldn't blink at killing members of their own species if the situation pits them against one another.
• Immortality: Demons have an indefinitely long lifespan and an arrested aging process.
• Invisibility: Some demons can become invisible to humans.
• Karma Houdini: With the reveal in Season 13 that when angels and demons die, they go to The Empty and begin "sleeping an endless peaceful sleep", which seems a hell of a lot better than being in Hell or Purgatory, one could argue that there really is no way to truly enact punishment on demons for their crimes save for father Cramer's demon curing ritual.
• Lack of Empathy: "You hit a dog and stopped. Why?"
• Laughably Evil: Many demons tend to be very snarky and comical.
• The Legions of Hell: Demons serve as the henchmen and soldiers for the King of Hell.
• Light 'em Up: Some demons can cast blinding white lights.
• Light Is Not Good: A few demons like Lilith and Samhain are capable of using white light-based powers, similar to those of angels. Why they can do this is never explained.
• Manipulative Bastard: Demons are very good at manipulating people.
• Mind Manipulation: Demons are able to manipulate humans minds to their will and make them see or believe what they want them to see or believe.
• Mind over Matter: Most demons are telekinetic.
• Mind Probe: Abaddon displayed an ability like this. Presumably the other Knights had it, too.
• Moral Sociopathy: Adhere to this kind of moral code, if any. For example, Meg's shock and outrage that Dean would renege on their deal seems genuine, as does her shock and outrage when her own "brother" and fellow demon endangers her life by using her to test out the Colt's authenticity. Azazel promises not to hurt anyone when he's paying his visits to get his end of the deal so long as nobody interferes with his business. Alastair claims that he wouldn't lie about the seals because it's a "religious thing" with him. Crowley enforces very strict rules about deals because he thinks that Hell should have "integrity." Even some minor demons — like one of Crowley's minions in "Soul Survivor" — display some sense of ethics. Speculative, but Katherine Boecher (who played Lilith in Season 4) mused that even most demons might hesitate to possess children.
• My Significance Sense Is Tingling: Demons tend to have the sixth sense and are able to sense things easily around them.
• Nigh-Invulnerability: Injuries that would be fatal to humans, such as broken necks or gunshot wounds, have very little, if any, effect on demons. They can only be killed by special weapons or rituals. Unlike angels, they don't always heal their vessels. If the meatsuit receives too much damage, they simply find another human to possess, leaving their former vessel to die.
• Not Always Evil: They were presented as Always Chaotic Evil throughout the first two seasons, before Season 3 introduced Ruby, who claimed to be a rare example of a good demon who was on the heroes' side, although she still had the standard demon snark and lack of empathy — except she was an agent of Lucifer manipulating Sam towards starting the Apocalypse all along. From there, whereas monsters were portrayed as having a mix of good and bad eggs like humans, demons were portrayed as invariably evil creatures due to their origins as souls which have literally been tortured to rage, spite and cruelty by centuries of Hell, and any demons that sided with the heroes were at best self-serving nominal heroes. That was until Season 9: Crowley became increasingly humanized and his redeeming qualities more pronounced than his worst qualities, albeit only as the result of being forcibly injected with an incomplete soul-healing ritual. Probably the first truly good demon to be introduced on the show, and one of the only ones thus far, was, ironically, Cain, who was much more human-like than any of the other demons.
• The Nth Doctor: Many of the major demons in Supernatural have had more than one vessel.
• Obviously Evil: Most of them. They are demons, after all.
• One Myth to Explain Them All: Demons are behind many of the stories of evil forces causing natural and man-made disasters.
  Sam: So, every religion in every world culture has the concept of demons and demonic possession, right? I mean, Christian, Native American, Hindu, you name it.
• Only Known by Their Nickname: Even the ones whose names we do end up learning, as they all take up aliases after losing their humanity. The only demon whose real name was revealed is Crowley.
• Only One Name: All the known demons only have one name.
• Our Demons Are Different: Just look at the rest of this page.
• Playing with Fire: Some demons can generate and manipulate fire.
• Prophet Eyes: Lilith and Alastair have entirely white eyes. Samhain has clouded irises while the pupils remain black. Acheri demons have clouded gray eyes.
• Protective Charm: Charms or tattoos can protect against Demonic Possession.
• Psychic Radar: Demons are able detect or sense other demons or also detect and sense whenever the presence of others, including humans and other supernatural beings.
• Rank Scales with Asskicking: Demons who're higher up on the food chain in Hell are far more powerful than ordinary demons and correspondingly are that much harder to defeat.
• Reality Warper: Some demons who are especially powerful or have an immense amount of power are able to warp reality to their will. They have the ability to create, change and destroy things to their will.
• Red Eyes, Take Warning: Crossroad demons. Their king, Crowley, also has them.
• Red Right Hand: Their eyes.
• Religion of Evil: They fanatically worship Lucifer, so duh. They think that he will lead them all into Paradise, so it probably isn't evil in their eyes, though.
• Seven Deadly Sins: Not only do demons live and breathe by these sins, the sins also exist as a group of black-eyed demons. Unusually for demons, the Sins seem to get along very well and care about each other to some extent, as they will protect each other and try to save each other.
• Shock and Awe: Demons can manipulate electricity and can even generate it.
• Simplified Spellcasting: Demons are able to cast spells with the use of the abilities, similar to that of witches and warlocks.
• Supernatural Gold Eyes: Azazel is the only demon known to have yellow eyes. In fact, the Winchesters refer to him almost exclusively as "the Yellow-Eyed Demon" or just "Yellow Eyes", even after learning his name.
  • Subverted later during Season 12, where it turns out he was just simply the only one who remained loyal to Lucifer, turns out yellow eyes is not unique, and belongs to the caste of Demons known as the "Princes of Hell" only below Lilith in power.
• Super-Senses: Demons have an enhanced sense of smell and taste.
• Super Smoke: Demons manifest as thick clouds of smoke without hosts.
• Super-Strength: Demons possess superior physical strength compared to that of humans; capable of physically overpowering humans and most monsters. Once, a demon (the "Phantom Traveler" demon) ripped open an airplane hatch with over 2 tons of pressure at over 1,000 feet above the ground. The higher ranking the demon, the stronger it is. The highest-ranking demons can overpower low-level angels.
• Super-Toughness: Demons never tire, and do not require food, water, oxygen or sleep to sustain themselves. Sam states that they also do not get hot or cold.
• Sycophantic Servant: To Lucifer.
• Tom the Dark Lord: Many have pretty common names you would find in real life. Justified, as in some cases, they're just going by their vessels' name and all of them were human once themselves.
• Tortured Monster: It is revealed in "Malleus Maleficarum" that demons are former humans who ended up in Hell for whatever reason and have been spiritually mutilated and tortured until over the years they devolved into vicious, twisted monsters lashing out at anything they come across.
• "Uh-Oh" Eyes: The eyes of their hosts occasionally turn a demonic color.
• Was Once a Man: All demons were originally human.
• Weaksauce Weakness: Demons cannot cross a line of salt or iron.
• Weather Manipulation: Some demons are able to manipulate the weather to their will.
• Villain Forgot to Level Grind: Remember how Sam and Dean struggled to even exorcise a demon in early seasons. In the latter season they're cutting them down left and right.

Kings of Hell

Lucifer

See his entry on the Archangels page.

Crowley

Crowley

I've sold sin to saints for centuries.

Crowley is the King of the Crossroads and later of all of Hell. He's wholly self-interested, is fond of team-ups, and, unlike other species in play, doesn't seem to care if he's on the side of humans, angels, or demons, as long as he personally benefits. Portrayed by Mark Sheppard, Lauren Tom and Kristen Robek. Crowley first appears in "Abandon All Hope..." (S05, E10).

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• Abusive Parents: He had been one to his son, Gavin, when he was still human. We later learn that his own mother, Rowena, to him when he was a child.
• Affably Evil: Subverted at first in Seasons 5 through 8, where he was more Faux Affably Evil, but post having human blood injected into him, he becomes more of this.
• Almighty Janitor: He's not a particularly powerful or old demon, and "King of the Crossroads" is basically a middle management desk job in Hell. He got to the top by biding his time until all the more powerful demons who could dethrone him had either been killed by the Winchesters or made clear their lack of interest in ruling Hell. This does come back to bite him when a more dangerous demon like Abaddon returns to contest his position.
• Arch-Enemy: To Meg, who is willing to go so far as work with the Winchesters, with whom she has a long-standing feud, to get at him. Crowley doesn't seem to return the feeling quite as strongly, but he does want to capture her (as the leader and, later, the last of the Lucifer loyalists). His Arch-Enemy is Castiel after the latter goes back on their deal and double-crosses him. Abaddon filled that role for a while, too, while Lucifer serves in this role in Seasons 11 and 12.
• Archnemesis Dad: To his son, Gavin, whom Crowley fathered back when he was human. They hate each other: Crowley suggests that Bobby torture Gavin's ghost while Gavin rats Crowley out, which allows Bobby to get his soul back. The relationship becomes better in Season 9, though.
• Badass Boast: Crowley states that he's ten steps ahead of whatever escape and revenge plan Lucifer has in store. The end of the episode makes it clear that he wasn't bluffing.
• Badass Finger Snap: His favorite way of displaying power.
  • In Season 12: Crowley does it to shut off Lucifer's power and break his limbs.
• Badass in a Nice Suit
• Bad Boss: Seems to treat his "employees" with about the same amount of respect as his enemies and has no qualms about killing them for relatively minor errors. A crossroads demon captured by the Winchesters in "Taxi Driver" makes them swear to kill him in return for information, as he knows A Fate Worse Than Death is the alternative from Crowley. Unfortunately it seems to be a big factor in why his troops are so keen to turn on him every time an alternative (like Abaddon or Lucifer) shows up.
• Beard of Evil: Sports one from Season 7 onwards.
• Been There, Shaped History: Apparently he helped Buzz Aldrin land on the Moon!
• Big Bad Duumvirate: With Castiel in Season 6, the both of them planning on obtaining the souls of Purgatory but for different reasons: Crowley so he can secure his position as the new King of Hell, Castiel so he can defeat Raphael. When Castiel turns on him in the season finale, Crowley forms another duumvirate with Raphael.
• Big Bad Ensemble:
  • With Raphael and Castiel in Season 6. Each of the three has their own plans: Raphael plans on restarting the Apocalypse, Crowley plans on obtaining the souls of Purgatory to eliminate all opposition to his position as King of Hell, and Castiel plans on stopping Raphael.
  • He's one of the two main villains of Season 8, alongside the lead "black ops" angel Naomi. Crowley plans on having Kevin Tran translate the Word of God demon tablet so he can open the Gates of Hell and Take Over the World, and moreso he wants to stop the Winchesters from using the tablet to close the Gates of Hell forever; whereas Naomi's interest is instead in seizing the angel tablet, although the two (who apparently have a history) do come to blows when they both seek out Castiel to further their ends.
• Bigger Is Better in Bed: Implied to be the reason why Crowley sold his soul.
  Crowley: Just trying to hit double digits.
• Break the Haughty: His defeat to Lucifer and spending some time in a rat in "There's Something About Mary" gave Crowley time to think, and afterwards he admits that he's so sick of running Hell that he's willing to do humanity a favor by sealing Hell.
• Breakout Villain: He was originally just a minor character aiding the Winchesters against Lucifer in what Eric Kripke intended to be the final season. After it continued beyond that, he was popular enough to come back, eventually getting promoted to regular status.
• Card-Carrying Villain: Makes no pretense of who or what he is from the word "go". In "Taxi Driver", he admits that he has absolutely no virtues, especially patience (although, going through the list, he seems to exhibit Ambition, Diligence, Honesty, Loyalty, Patience (in the past), and Responsibility).
• Catchphrase: "Hello, boys." Lampshaded in the Season 8 finale, when Abaddon arrives to Crowley's rescue call and enters with the line "Hello, boys". Crowley's response? A slightly disappointed-sounding "That's my line."
• Character Name Alias: In "Captives", it is revealed that Crowley, the de facto king of Hell, rented several storage units under the alias "D. Webster" as a tongue-in-cheek reference to the short story "The Devil and Daniel Webster".
• The Chessmaster: Due to his manipulations in the Season 7 finale, Dick Roman is killed, the prophet's in demon custody, Meg is dragged back to Hell, and Castiel pays for betraying him, ending up in Purgatory with Dean.
• Cool and Unusual Punishment: After Crowley took over Hell, he made an endless line consisting of millions of people the standard punishment. No agonizing torture like what Dean experienced during his time there, and instead of Fire and Brimstone Hell we get what looks like a long hallway that contains a line that requires people who reach the front to go all the way to the back of the line again. His reasoning was that many people who get sent to Hell are masochists that are Too Kinky to Torture, but nobody likes waiting in line.
• Cooperation Gambit: Crowley tries to team up with just about every character on the show.
• The Corrupter: Crowley's main strength isn't in baiting heroes with lies and manipulation, but in offering them power right when they feel the most powerless. He was the corrupter to Castiel in Season 6, to Dean in Season 9, and to a lesser extent, Bobby in Season 5.
  • In Season 11, he fantasizes about a world where everyone is evil, but then quickly changes his mind, because he finds corrupting good people into turning evil much too enjoyable to give up.
    Crowley: Well, actually now, come to think of it, if everyone was dark and damned, it wouldn't be much of a challenge. Watching a human reject the light and embrace depravity? Yes, well... that's where the gratification really is. Never gets old.
• Crazy-Prepared: Turns out, Crowley wasn't as nearsighted when it came to making Lucifer his prisoner as it first appeared. The removable chains holding him are purely for show, as Crowley's carved spells from the Cage into every molecule of his vessel, trapping him and giving Crowley total control over him. It still inevitably goes wrong and Lucifer gets free, but points for effort.
• Darker and Edgier: In the first episode of Season 8, we watch Crowley pull his usual, smarmy "Mr. Nice Guy" routine as he spends an entire year trying to cajole Kevin into helping him, only to get screwed to the rafters for it. In his last scene of the episode, he takes the gloves off, and his nastiness snowballs for the rest of the season.
• Depraved Bisexual: In Season 11, he possesses a woman and winds up having a foursome with her husband and another couple... before butchering them all.
• Disproportionate Retribution: The entire reason he helps the Winchesters take Dick Roman and the Leviathans down is because he was irked that Roman snubbed and insulted him.
• Double Entendre: He's quite prone to spouting these out.
• Embarrassing Nickname: Apparently, demons call him "Lucky the Leprechaun" behind his back because of his original name which, as Bobby points out, is Scottish, not Irish.
• Enemy Mine: With the Winchesters. On more than one occasion. And once he commits to a cause, he will do whatever it takes to see it through. He even takes on the role of the Heroic Comedic Sociopath on occasion.
• Establishing Character Moment: Crowley's very first interaction with the Winchesters sees him examine his immediate environment and discover the Devil's Trap under his rug, whereas most Demons would have come right at the Winchesters and gotten themselves stuck, and then asking them if they have any idea how much the rug they defaced cost; foreshadowing him as a dangerously savvy antagonist and a Demon who is interested in more than death and destruction.
• Even Evil Has Loved Ones: His son, Gavin MacLeod, who Crowley — thanks to the Third Trial — now cares about enough to screw the space time continuum. He endangered the current timeline to save Gavin's life, and then stepped aside to let him live it.
• Even Evil Has Standards: He may exploit loopholes, but he never breaks a deal, as he explains to a minor crossroads demon who had been killing "clients" ahead of schedule. Though this looks more like worry about scaring off future "clients" than actual standards.
  Crowley: This isn't Wall Street; this is Hell! We have a little something called integrity!
  • He's disgusted when he learns that one of his demons has started a "sex-for-your-soul" ring on his behalf.
• Evil Brit: Crowley has a very English accent, despite being a Scottish demon from around the 1700s wearing a literary agent from New York.
• Evil Gloating: When is Crowley not bragging or gloating?
• Evil Is Petty: Make sure you mind your manners around this guy. If you do something that pisses him off, he will get you back for it as cruelly as he can.
• Evil Is Not a Toy: As he continues feeding Amara with souls, he realizes more and more what a tykebomb she is.
• Evil Versus Evil: If there's a being more evil than him out there, there's a good chance he'll team up with the Winchesters or their allies (temporarily) to help take them down.
• Evil Versus Oblivion: Part of the reason he repeatedly teams up with the Winchesters to avert various groups attempting to bring about the Apocalypse. Even after becoming King of Hell, Crowley genuinely enjoys the world and prefers it remain as it is. If keeping the human race alive so they can sell their souls to him happens to increase his overall power...well, that's just one of the perks of the job!
• Evil Virtues: Crowley, self-admittedly evil, states that he has no virtues. He's wrong, though, since he exhibits:
  • Ambition: He has played a centuries-long game to ascend to becoming the King of Hell, started the quest for unlocking the souls of Purgatory, and has other goals for the demons far into the future.
  • Diligence: While he delegates a lot of tasks to his underlings, he has no reservations about doing the hard work himself if he has to or if he finds them incompetent for the job.
  • Honesty: He demands that his demons keep their words about the deals they make with mortals and not break the contract by killing the humans years ahead of schedule, although this has as much to do with maintaining "consumer confidence" as with having integrity. However, "Trial and Error" suggests he might have only adopted this philosophy recently, as none of the people who sold their souls to him in 2003 were apparently aware of the 10-year deadline.
  • Loyalty: He is not prone to a Chronic Backstabbing Disorder, and doesn't betray those he makes alliances with. He calls out Castiel for doing just that in the sixth season finale.
  • Patience: As stated above, for centuries he's been ascending in the demonic hierarchy and waiting until enough of his superiors had died out that he could assume command of Hell himself. In the series he's decidedly less patient (and even admits so), but that's only due to the Winchesters working at such a fast rate that their actions require immediate responses.
    Crowley: Patience isn't one of my virtues. Well, I don’t have any virtues, but, if I did, I'm certain that patience wouldn't be one.
  • Responsibility: He is in command of all of Hell's forces, and fights for the demons' interests as well as his own. Examples include helping in locking up Lucifer again so he can't wipe out the demons and trying to prevent Sam and Dean from closing the Gates of Hell.
• Evil Wears Black: Crowley is mostly seen wearing black clothing.
• Ex-Big Bad: He functions as one of the primary antagonists in Season 8, cutting all former ties to the Winchesters in the process. After being defeated, and ending the Season Finale still in the Winchesters' custody and reeling from the effects of a ritual which almost fully restored his humanity, Crowley remains a recurring character in subsequent seasons until his death, but he never becomes an active foe to Team Free Will again, resuming an on-off relationship with them as a Token Evil Teammate.
• Face Death with Dignity: Subverted in "Meet the New Boss". He's fully willing to face death, but Castiel doesn't want to kill him.
• Faking the Dead: In Season 6, after Castiel "kills" him in "Caged Heat". As it turns out, they're working together, and staged the whole thing. Does so again in Season 12 when it looks like Lucifer has killed him, transferring his essence into a rat just in time.
• Familial Foe: While Crowley is an occasional ally of the Winchester brothers, he's been an enemy to them, their mother, and their maternal grandfather and cousins (although they do reluctantly make a deal with him) over the show's run.
• Flaming Devil: One of Crowley's traits that appeals to fans. Maybe because there aren't enough LGBT icons on TV, or maybe because he's one of the only characters who "appreciates" the boys as much as the fans do.
• Friendly Enemy: Played with, especially at the end of Season 5. Ultimately he's still a demon who crawled his way to the position of King Of Hell without the angelic power someone like Lucifer had to back him up, so the Winchesters know damn well not to trust him. But he's honest with them (most of the time) and he doesn't play the mind tricks that Lucifer or Ruby did. In Season 6, Crowley began averting this in his ruthless quest to find purgatory. The yo-yo-ing continues with a snap-back in Season 7, as Crowley vitally helps the good guys save the world a second time. But in Season 8, he's pitted against the Winchesters for the same mega weapon and, in his desperation, he begins raining literal hell on the boys. There seems to be another painful snap-back at the beginning of Season 9, though, to the point where there's a slender chance Crowley might be on a new path. But, knowing him, he'll probably just yo-yo again. Predictably he does, even turning Dean into a demon en route, but later seasons land him in several more Enemy Mine situations against Amara and Lucifer, leading to him becoming this near-permanently until his death.
• From Nobody to Nightmare: Abaddon (who time-traveled from 1958) mocks Crowley "the salesman", only to be completely shocked to learn that he's now the King of Hell.
• Gotta Kill 'Em All: He spends a couple of episodes of Season 8 going after and killing people that Sam and Dean have saved to get them to stand down from closing the gates of hell.
• Heel–Face Revolving Door: Crowley isn't one to be consistent on which side he's on. One moment he’s helping the Winchesters with their ordeals. The next he’s working against them and only interested in what he wants. Simply put, Crowley is on whoever’s side benefits him. This comes to an end during season 12, where he grows tired of being the King of Hell and permanently remains on the Winchester’s side, up until he is Killed Off for Real.
• Hellfire: Like Azazel, Crowley can conjure flames and heat to burn anything he wants.
• Hell Has New Management: This is technically what Crowley did with a few hundred years of bureaucracy and backstabbing an otherwise Machiavellian business. He died, went to Hell, became a demon, worked his way up the ladder to head of purchases, survived the demises of every other major demon in Hell in the countdown to Apocalypse as all Lucifer's faithful raced into the fray to assure his victory...and then defected to Team Free Will and helped seal the head honcho back in his cage and save the world. In the absence of significant competition he promptly established himself as King of Hell. Three seasons later, after angering every other being more powerful than himself that still exists, he retains his hold on this position. He's rather responsible about it, too. "This isn't Wall Street, this is Hell. We have a little something called integrity!"
• Heroic Comedic Sociopath: When he's on the Winchesters' side, the indiscriminate killing he does as the Token Evil Teammate is often played for laughs.
• Heroic Sacrifice: In "All Along the Watchtower," he sacrifices his life to power the spell that can trap Lucifer in an Alternate Universe.
• Iconic Sequel Character: He is easily the most recognizable antagonist in the series, but doesn't show up until halfway through season five.
• I Gave My Word: Crowley is defined by his strict adherence to one rule: if Crowley makes a deal, he keeps his end of the bargain. No matter what. Even if breaking the deal would be more beneficial to him in the short term, Crowley won't do it. Normally, when someone makes a Deal with the Devil, they get ten years of life before their soul is claimed, and Crowley is outraged with one of his followers for abusing a loophole to come for them early, because people will be less likely to make a deal if they think Crowley or his subordinates will go back on their word.
  Crowley: There's a reason we don't call our chits in early: consumer confidence. This isn’t Wall Street, this is Hell! We have a little something called integrity. If this gets out, who'll deal with us? Nobody! Then, where are we?
• I Just Want to Be Loved: Said verbatim as he's experiencing more emotions during his demon cure.
• Indispensable Scoundrel: Crowley eventually settles into becoming a more permanent member of Team Free Will, where despite his shady past, the heroes allow him to stick around due to how critical his aid is as the villains become more powerful.
• Informed Ability: In "Taxi Driver", he claims that he doesn't have any virtues whatsoever. Going through the Evil Virtues list, he hits nearly every one.
• It's All About Me: Crowley is Crowley's first priority: he's most concerned with preserving his life, and building up his assets and power.
• It's Personal: Don't make this mistake with him. He'll take a certain amount of crap from Sam and Dean because he finds them to be useful on occasion, and he'd rather have two of the most dangerous loose cannons on earth handy in case he needs them, but anyone else had better tread lightly. Leviathan Dick treated Crowley like dirt, and Crowley made DAMN certain he'd get his payback and that Dick would know exactly where it came from.
• Jerkass: Would you expect anything less from the ruler of Hell?
• Jerkass Realization: After Lucifer escapes in Season 12 and he's forced to flee to Sam and Dean, he admits that he's had a lot of time to think while playing dead, and has realized he actually hates the position of King, as it's brought him nothing but backstabbings and grief. He's still a dick after this, but one fully on the Winchesters' side.
• Kick the Dog: Comes with the territory of being the King of Hell, but torturing Kevin, torturing Samandriel, and killing Tommy, Sarah and Jenny pissed the fandom off till Tuesday.
• Killed Off for Real: Kills himself to provide the final ingredient — a live sacrifice — in the spell that traps Lucifer in the Apocalypse World.
• Laughably Evil: For an evil, sociopathic monster, he's rather fun to watch.
• Limited Wardrobe: Intent on a posh, professional image, Crowley is always seen in black-on-black suits that he's very fussy about. (The only exception to date saw him in private, and he spent half the episode in his jammies.)
• Lonely at the Top: It's heavily implied long before he was put through the third trial that Crowley is a lonesome devil, especially considering all of Hell turned on him the moment he started helping the Winchesters, and remains unpopular, even as a king. It's implied to be part of the reason he takes Demon Dean under his wing in Season 10.
  Crowley: It's always your friends, isn't it, in the end? We try to change, we try to improve ourselves. It's always our friends who gotta claw into our sides and hold us back.
• Man of Wealth and Taste: Crowley actively tries to live up to this trope, and will complain when he is forced to accept less.
• The Napoleon: Crowley is one of the best live-action examples of this trope, mostly because the Winchesters skew the height curve and make him look downright tiny◊. But he looks and acts enough like Napoleon for it to seem intentional.
• Neutral Evil: Crowley is firmly in the Type 1 category, being motivated by pure self-interest.
• Nice to the Waiter: While Crowley treats his own underlings like crap, in one episode, he berates Dean for being a bad customer at a cafe while their waitress watches in silent agreement.
  "Are you serious? You take this girl's table, her time, you spread out like an overgrown teenager, and for what? What's the tip on a single cup of Joe? A nickel?"
• Nice Job Fixing It, Villain: Lucifer genuinely thanks Crowley for giving him a permanent vessel and keeping him out of hell; two extremely bad moves when as he points out, Crowley could have had him back in the cage and out of the way.
• The Nicknamer: Crowley likes to give people nicknames, like calling Sam and Dean "Moose" and "Squirrel", respectively (although he has Dean registered in his cell phone as "Not Moose").
• Noble Demon: Sort of. Crowley is out for himself, which means he'll do terrible, horrible things, but not For the Evulz and will just as quickly do very good things if it suits his needs. He also prides himself on keeping his bargains — holding up his end and never taking souls before they're due (though that had more to do with not wanting to scare away potential future customers).
• No-Sell: He's immune to Rowena's demon killing hex bag.
• Not-So-Harmless Villain: Crowley was never really harmless per se, but because he was so much fun and his wrath was frequently directed at characters the audience didn't care about, most fans forgot that he wasn't a nice guy. But whenever the Winchesters opposed him, (hunting him in Season 6 and trying to close the gates of hell in 8) suddenly all that menace was pointed at the boys and wasn't so fun anymore.
• Number of the Beast: It's his telephone number.
• Offscreen Teleportation: After the Badass Fingersnap, it's Crowley favorite power. You can't kill what you can't catch.
• Only Known by Their Nickname: He wasn't always "Crowley". In life, his name was Fergus MacLeod. Don't call him that.
• Only Sane Employee: He seems to think of himself as this, as far as Hell is concerned. Especially since promoting himself to King of Hell and finding out that trying to show demons a new way of doing things...doesn't work.
• O.O.C. Is Serious Business: Generally when faced with someone, stronger than him (Such as Lucifer and Dick Roman), he stays as he always is, unflappable and confident, usually because he has some sort of backup to deal with them (Read: The Boys), when confronted with something waay out of their league, such as Cain or Ramiel all that ego goes out the window, hell, he was sat having tea with Cain and his hands wouldn't stop shaking!
• Opportunistic Bastard: The Winchesters created a power vacuum by killing or defeating all of hell's top brass — Crowley filled it and became the King of Hell.
• Out-Gambitted:
  • By Castiel in the Season 6 finale.
  • Happens again in the Season 8 finale, this time by Sam and Dean.
• Pet the Dog:
  • In "Two Minutes to Midnight", Crowley reveals that he added an additional clause to Bobby's contract: regaining the use of his legs. It may have just been pragmatism on his part, but he gets a sincere thanks from Bobby.
  • In "Road Trip," Crowley makes a deal for his freedom with Dean to sneak into Sam's head and alert him to the angel that's possessing him, in hopes Sam will expel him. He knows the angel can and will kill him, so his plan is to flee before that happens. But when the angel catches up to them, Crowley stays to defend Sam and takes a nasty beating for it.
  • In "Stuck in the Middle (With You) it looks like he's bailed on the team, leaving them alone against Ramiel, a Prince of Hell on the level of Azazel. In reality he goes to bargain with Ramiel for their lives, despite knowing full well he's broken the terms of his deal with Ramiel (he gets to be King of Hell as long as the Princes are left alone). Ramiel ends up throwing him through a wall, but points for effort.
• Playing Both Sides: Does this to the Winchesters and the Leviathans in the Season 7 finale and to Abaddon in "King of the Damned".
• Post Modern Magic: Crowley, in one of many cunning moments, melts down ancient blades capable of killing angels to make angel-killing bullets for his guns.
• Pragmatic Villainy: Is nice to the heroes when he needs them, and when they're against him, he's vicious to them. See also Even Evil Has Standards above.
• Real Men Wear Pink:
  • He watches Casablanca and reads Little Women under the influence of human blood.
  • He also watches Girls and Wicked and that's pre-trials. Gets a taste for girly drinks with tiny umbrellas.
• Red and Black and Evil All Over: Dresses in all black, while his demonic eyes and smoke are red, due to being a crossroads demon.
• Red Eyes, Take Warning: while a Crossroads Demon, his eyes were solid red, but once he became the King of Hell, the promotion apparently changed something about his demonic form, with his eyes still red, but now, they constantly leak red smoke, and the red of his eyes ''and' his smoke form are more a deep burgundy than the solid, blood red and normal black smoke of before.
• Revenge Before Reason: Crowley could have kept Lucifer in the cage forever, but chose to have him in a permanent vessel in seemingly unbreakable Supernormal Bindings so that he could beat down and humiliate the devil in the same way he was humiliated by him in the previous season. Lucifer even points out how stupid this is, and says it's inevitable that he'll break free. He does, starting a chain of events ending in Crowley's own death.
• Screw This, I'm Outta Here: In "The Man Who Knew Too Much", he quips "Exit stage Crowley" and disappears, following Castiel absorbing all the souls of Purgatory and becoming the new God.
• Shout-Out: Crowley's name references either Aleister Crowley the occultist or AJ Crowley (formerly Crawly) of Good Omens.
• Smug Snake: Crowley is truly brilliant, and when he really tries he's well on Magnificent Bastard levels, the trouble is even though he knows not underestimate his opponents, he's simply so arrogant that he still does and he falls into this. However he quickly takes the first wake up call he gets and will jump out of it.
• The Starscream: By canon, Hell might be Lucifer's domain, but as far as Crowley's concerned, there's only one true King of Hell.
• Stealth Hi/Bye: His "Hello Boys" often comes out of nowhere.
• Suddenly Shouting: He does this a lot when he gets ticked off.
• Tears of Remorse: In "Sacrifice." As of the beginning of Season 10, he's the only demon we've ever seen do this.
• Terms of Endangerment: Rather fond of calling people "darling". He's also done "sweetie", "kitten", "handsome", etc.
• Theme Naming: With Alastair, named after the English occultist Aleister Crowley.
• Those Two Guys: An amusing subversion with Castiel in Season 12 — he's fully aware he hasn't got this going with the angel, but is fully aware his constant banter annoys the hell out of Cas, so does it anyway.
• Token Evil Teammate: Whenever it's in his best interest, you can count on Crowley to be the Winchesters' "Plan C".
• Took a Level in Badass: When Crowley was first introduced in Season 5, he was a Dirty Coward who basically ran and hid under a rock at the mere thought of Lucifer or the rest of demonkind coming after him. Now in Season 12, his balls have grown so big that he treats the archangel as an equal to be crushed and humbled beneath him. He even openly fought the devil in a previous episode despite having no advantage whatsoever and threw him across a room, before having his ass handed to him.
• Torture Technician: Season 6 shows him looking for Purgatory's location by strapping monsters down and carving them up until (and after) they talk. He indulges in it again in Season 8, this time managing to crack the angel Samandriel and the prophets.
• The Unfettered: As demons are lemming-like mooks who love to jump on bandwagons (like freeing Lucifer), heroes complicate situations with their inability to prioritize (see Dean being unwilling to kill a few night watchmen to save the world), and angels are rigid, being unfettered works to Crowley's advantage. But as a crossroads demon, he's the least likely recurring character to break a deal or backstab someone.
• The Usurper: After working his way up from common crossroad demon to "King of the Crossroads", Crowley then works his way up to "King of Hell", filling the power void left behind after the Winchester Brothers kill the much more powerful Azazel and Lilith. He also attempts to help the Winchesters kill Lucifer, reasoning that Lucifer hates demons even more than he hates humans. Crowley has also successfully fought off Abaddon, a Knight of Hell. Since his introduction in Season 5, Crowley has survived many who legitimately had a much more legitimate claim to Hell's throne.
• Wicked Cultured: Crowley loves and embraces finer tastes, he takes the host of a man who owned a massive house, he makes a note of refusing to drink anything but a specific drink, aged at least thirty years.
• Villainous Fashion Sense: While Crowley is one of the least evil demons the Winchesters have ever tangled with^note inasmuch as he acts out of self-interest and will do good and fight evil gleefully when it's to his own advantage, he's certainly the most evilly-dressed. Where Lucifer himself opts for jeans and a T-shirt, Crowley enjoys dressing like he's here to kill James Bond. He loves his suits.
• Villainous Friendship: He really, really wants to have this with Demon Dean, but gets a nasty shock when the latter turns out to be an uncontrollable psychopath who couldn't care less about him. Even after Dean is cured, there's definitely something there — near the end of Season 10 he goes to help Dean on the basis of a vague phonecall despite everything that's happened between them. Granted, that turns out to be Sam trying to kill him, but still...
• Villainous Rescue: A few times, such as saving the Winchesters from the demons' hellhound with his own, saving Castiel from Naomi in Season 8 and saving him again in Season 10, this time from other angels.
• Weak, but Skilled: Despite being a lowly crossroads demon. Crowley has repeatedly use his intellect to get the upperhand on beings who could end him in an instance.
• Woobie, Destroyer of Worlds: It turned out that his mother, Rowena, sired him at solstice winter orgy, so he didn't know his father, she later abandoned at the age of 8, tried to sell him for three pigs....
  • In Season 11, Rowena's initial story of his conception is shown to be a lie; she knows exactly who his father is, a nobleman who dumped her as she was giving birth to Crowley and left her there alone, and admits that she hates her son because loving him would make her weak, and she refuses to be weak for any reason. Crowley's face doesn't change during that admission, but you can still see the pain.
• Would Hit a Girl: Delivers an especially brutal No-Holds-Barred Beatdown on Meg in "Goodbye Stranger", and implies that he would be happy to continue doing so for eternity before he loses his temper and kills her instead. He also spends over a year torturing her offscreen, and in the Season 8 premiere he snaps Channing's neck simply because Kevin pisses him off. Also made a female Jinn very scared — chivalry isn't his thing.
• Would Hurt a Child: He threatens to slaughter a nursery full of infant shapeshifters to make their alpha talk (he doesn't, so who knows if Crowley made good on his threat), and later bakes baby uvula muffins for Dick when he's trying to get on the Leviathans "good" side. Those two things might not be unrelated...
• You Are in Command Now: Following Lucifer's re-imprisonment in Hell, Crowley gets promoted/promotes himself to the new King of Hell.
• You Have Outlived Your Usefulness: Crowley enters an Enemy Mine with the Winchesters in Season 5 because he believed Lucifer would pull this trope on the demons if he survived the Apocalypse. And it's strongly implied that he was right.

SPOILER CHARACTER

Rowena MacLeod

See Supernatural: Witches.

Princes of Hell

In General

Princes of Hell in Supernatural

The Princes of Hell are the first generation of demons created by Lucifer himself after the creation of Lilith. They were originally generals of demonic armies and successors to ruler over Hell, However the Princes having lost interest in Lucifer's plans left Hell to live peacefully on Earth. These Princes are Azazel, Ramiel, Asmodeus and Dagon.

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Tropes:

• Authority Equals Asskicking: Princes of Hell were the first demons turned by Lucifer after Lilith, and so they are the most powerful in the demon hierarchy. Ramiel demonstrates this by not even flinching with stabbed with the demon-killing knife or an angel blade; the former could grievously harm Alastair a white-eyed demon, and the later could probably have killed him. Not even devil's trap bullets can hold them or nullify their powers. It takes an archangel's lance that was forged to kill any demon or angel to finally put Ramiel down. Meanwhile, Dagon is capable of killing angels using raw power, something that only the archangels and primordial beings are previously thought to be capable of. They are not ones to be trifled with.
• Demon Lords and Archdevils: The four Princes of Hell, first turned by Lucifer shortly after Lilith and intended to be the generals of Hell's armies. All were thought dead, but three were simply retired and in hiding. Their names are Ramiel, Asmodeus, Dagon, and Azazel. They all have yellow eyes.
• Evil Counterpart: They were deliberately created by Lucifer to be an answer to the archangels as the four mightiest warriors hell had to offer. Although that plan didn't quite go the way Lucifer wanted.
• Evil Versus Oblivion: The princes of Hell didn't go in for helping Lucifer escape the cage and starting the apocalypse, probably because like Crowley, they knew they'd get the axe along with humanity.
• Last of His Kind: By Season 12 Episode 19, Asmodeus is the last Prince of Hell left.
• No-Sell: The Princes of Hell are introduced mostly to subvert the expectations of the normally Mook-level demons in that they have power greater than usual.
  • Azazel's introduction establishes the fact that holy water doesn't work on them at all, unlike all other demons it's been used on. Nor does rock salt.
  • Ramiel shrugs off Devil-Trap bullets, demon knives, and even angel blades, which are shown to be able to harm Knights of Hell.
  • Dagon's CV consists of slaughtering at least five angels. Through raw power. She also destroys the Colt for good measure.
• Not Quite Dead: It was assumed after the deaths of Azazel, Lilith, Alastair, Abaddon, and Cain that there were no senior ranking demons left in hell above crossroad demons. It turns out there are three yellow-eyed princes of hell still alive who are comfortably retired and don't care about ruling Hell or conquering Heaven, or freeing their creator, Lucifer. But they will kill anyone who comes hunting for them.
• Rule of Symbolism: Lucifer created the four princes of Hell to be the generals of Hell's armies. Just as God created the four Archangels to be the generals of Heaven's armies.
• Retired Monster: The yellow-eyed princes of Hell, brothers and sisters of Azazel. They stopped caring about Heaven and Hell long ago and saw Azazel as a ridiculous fanatic. Instead they prefer to live quietly and engage in their own hobbies, some of which involve the occasional cattle mutilation or murder of a local virgin girl. Although Ramiel talks about Asmodeus' "hobbies" and Dagon's "toys", so its unclear how retired they are.
• The Smurfette Principle: Dagon is the only female of the four.
• Supernatural Gold Eyes: Their trademark. Before the rest of the Princes are revealed, this used to be Azazel's unique trait to the point that "the yellow-eyed demon" is what he is usually referred to before his name is revealed in Season 3.
• Worldbuilding: More is revealed about the demon hierarchy: Yellow-eyed demons are the princes of hell, personally turned by Lucifer to be the generals of hell's demon armies. Not only were there many more than just Azazel, they're all still alive and living quiet retired lives because they don't give a damn about Hell or Heaven anymore.

Azazel (aka "Yellow-Eyed Demon")

Azazel (also known as "Yellow-Eyed Demon")

"Well, this is fun. I could've killed you a hundred times today, but this...this is worth the wait."

^{Spoilers! Click here to see Azazel in his second vessel.}

^{Spoilers! Click here to see Azazel in his third vessel.}

Azazel is the General of Hell, and the reason the Winchesters became hunters. He plans to use his psychic "special children" to release and host Lucifer. Portrayed by Jeffrey Dean Morgan, Fredric Lehne, Lindsey McKeon, Christopher B. MacCabe, Mitch Pileggi, and Rob LaBelle, Azazel first appears in "Devil's Trap" (S01, E22) after cameoing in the pilot and "Salvation" (S01, E21).

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• 0% Approval Rating: Even other demons — his own soldiers — seem happy when Azazel gets killed by Dean. The demon possessing Casey in "Sin City" is a follower of Lucifer, like Azazel, but calls Azazel "a tyrant" and the best thing she can say about him is that he kept other demons under control. Even Meg, his beloved "daughter," doesn't care to seek revenge against the Winchesters after it happens, and refers to him dispassionately as "Yellow Eyes" instead of "Father".
• A Child Shall Lead Them: Azazel intends that the strongest of the Special Children shall lead his army in the Apocalypse.
• Aerith and Bob: With his "children", Meg and Tom.
• All According to Plan: Azazel's plan was to create a group of Special Children, whom he would then use to release and host Lucifer.
• Arch-Enemy: To the Winchesters, especially John.
• Authority Equals Asskicking: Azazel is the General of Hell up until his death and, being one of the oldest demons in existence, is very powerful indeed.
• Badass in a Nice Suit: In Dr. Brown in "In the Beginning", in contrast to the jacket-shirt-jeans-and-boots way he usually ends up dressed in meatsuits.
• Baddie Flattery: The reasons he lists for wanting Sam to win the psychic children "competition".
  Azazel: You're tough, you're smart, you're well-trained—thanks to your daddy. Sam...Sammy...you're my favorite.
• Bald of Evil: In Samuel's body.
• Beard of Evil: In John's body.
• Big Bad: In Seasons 1 and 2, he's the main villain and biggest threat currently out there, and the one who caused the central conflict both of the seasons (by killing Mary and kidnapping John) and the myth arc (by turning Sam into a psychic).
• Blood Magic: The Yellow-Eyed Demon's blood transformed the Special Children when he fed it to them as infants. It also appears that when a demon takes a vessel, the vessel's blood takes on the demon's magical properties, as the Yellow-Eyed Demon is shown cutting his vessel's wrist to feed baby Sam.
• Break the Cutie: He spends over half his screen-time doing this. Seriously. Go check.
• The Chessmaster: Arguably the best in the entire series, Azazel's plans ran over several decades, and they were so good, that even his own death was little more than a temporary set back.
• The Chooser of the One: He chose a variety of possible candidates before narrowing it down to the one who would release Lucifer and become his vessel; he seems to be totally unaware of the fact that Sam is The Chosen One predetermined by destiny.
• Classic Villain: Azazel displays ambition, pride, and greed.
• Co-Dragons: With Lilith for Lucifer.
• The Corrupter/Corrupt the Cutie: Arranged for his psychic kids to be manipulated by demons their entire lives, so that by Season 2, they're ready for him to swoop in and start whispering in their ears. He succeeds in turning Ansem and Ava and Jake evil, drove Scott to seek therapy, and tried his damnedest to corrupt Sam too. Right before Azazel gets killed, he's thrilled to see Sam gun down a pleading Jake in cold blood.
• Deadpan Snarker: He rips on everyone, really. Just don't make it too easy for him.
  John: Hey. [aims the Colt at Azazel] How stupid do you think I am?
  Azazel: [grins] You really want an honest answer to that?
• Demon Lords and Archdevils: A very high-ranking demon, his existence alone kept other demons from targeting Sam even though, judging by Pride, they hated the idea of having to serve a human one day. Later revealed to be a Prince of Hell, one of the oldest and most powerful demons, meant to rule Hell after Lucifer.
• Despair Gambit: Azazel's approach is to take away everything that his victims care about and take advantage of their emotional states to manipulate them into giving him what he wants.
• Dirty Old Man: He has a reputation as a Memetic Molester in fandom with good reason. Not only does he give off ridiculously uncomfortable vibes every time he's in a scene with someone, he tells Dean (Mary's son, mind you!) that he'd love to have sex with Mary and soon after manipulates her into kissing him. All while he's possessing her own dead father.
• The Dragon: For Lilith. Word of God (Eric Kripke) revealed in an interview that he was also working for Lilith all along. They both turned out to be acting as Co-Dragons for Lucifer.
• Demoted to Dragon: Although Azazel was the Big Bad for Seasons 1 and 2, it turns out that he was just Lucifer's servant. Also, as mentioned above, he was secretly working for Lilith.
• Even Evil Has Loved Ones: He is the only demon who seems to give a damn about his kin; the rest of his kind kill or torture each other without blinking. He also has "Well Done, Son" Guy vibes with Lucifer in the "Lucifer Rising" flashbacks.
• Everyone Calls Him "Barkeep": Although Azazel is his real name, most of the characters refer to him as "Yellow Eyes" or "The Yellow-Eyed Demon", including other demons. To be fair, the demons probably only do it because they know that the Winchesters think of him as such and not as "Azazel." Season 12 introduces other yellow-eyed demons and Azazel starts getting referred to by his actual name more.
• Evil Cannot Comprehend Good: Despite having a family of his own that he apparently cares about, he doesn't seem to grasp that murdering Sam's mother and his girlfriend, then torturing his brother to the brink of death in front of him, and then killing his father and taking his soul to Hell, and then being completely nonchalant about all of it, might not be the best way to convince Sam to do what he wants.
  Sam: You ruined my life. You killed everyone I love.
  Azazel: The cost of doing business, I'm afraid.
• Evil Counterpart: Arguably for John. Both have dealt with a degree of Parental Abandonment regarding their respective Fathers (Azazel was abandoned by Lucifer because Lucifer was locked in the cage; John was abandoned by Henry because Henry got stuck in Time Travel). They are both dedicated to their missions (Azazel was dedicated to the Evil Plan of finding Special Children and releasing Lucifer; John was dedicated to hunting and killing Azazel). Personality-wise, Azazel and John are both very controlling by nature (many of the demons have commented that Azazel was a tyrannical leader in Hell, while Sam and Dean have referred to John as controlling and strict). Azazel hates humans and human life and enjoys inflicting pain on them, while John despises demons and monsters and enjoys hunting and killing them. Both Azazel and John are vengeful and angry (Azazel is vengeful for his eternal damnation, while John is vengeful because Azazel killed his wife and cursed his entire family for life). Both Azazel and John are fathers and had children (Meg and Tom were Azazel's "children", while Sam and Dean are John's children).
• Evil Genius: Azazel's very strategic and manipulative, having planned the release of Lucifer for decades.
• Evil Gloating: He even takes too long to finish Dean off because he's too busy having fun messing with Dean. John intervenes, which allows Dean to grab the Colt and kill a very shocked Azazel.
• Evil Is Easy: He lures Jake, formerly a remorseful man who was Forced into Evil by Azazel and hates him for it, to The Dark Side by painting a picture of the bleak future Jake — who must be considered a deserter because he disappeared from his army camp — will have it if he tries to go back to having a normal life, and of the bright, fruitful future and all its opportunities that will open for the Talleys if Jake agrees to do Azazel a few more favors. The next time we see Jake, he's Drunk on the Dark Side and loving it.
• Evil Is Hammy: He's one of the, er, less-restrained demons.
• Evil Laugh: No matter the meatsuit, Azazel's got himself a creepy little chuckle.
• Evil Mentor: To his "Special Children". The Yellow-Eyed Demon has been manipulating the lives of the Special Children since they were infants to make them strong enough to serve his purpose
• Evil Old Folks: Azazel possessed all older men, notably Samuel (Mary's father) and John.
• Evil Plan: Azazel's plan was to choose kids born during the year 1983, bleed in the children's mouths by feeding them demon blood so that they would eventually develop special and various demonic abilities when they come of age, and eventually, Azazel would narrow it down to one "Special Child" whom he would mentor and manipulate into releasing Lucifer and becoming his vessel. Sam is The Chosen One.
• Evil Sounds Deep: While possessing John.
• Evil Sounds Raspy: Along with Evil Sounds Deep. It's mostly when he's possessing John.
• Evil Wears Black: Often seen wearing darker clothing and colors.
• Faux Affably Evil: Treats the Winchesters like old friends and frequently compliments them. While he makes occasional sincere compliments, mostly it's just to annoy them.
  How would you feel if I killed your family?. *smiling* Oh, that's right, I forgot, I did. Still. Two wrongs don't make a right.
• For the Evulz: Most of Azazel's actions have a point to them in that they further his goals in some way. Unlike Lilith, for example, he's never shown taking time off from freeing Lucifer to torture people for the hell of it. The way he goes about doing stuff, however, comes off as unnecessarily cruel, like tearing Dean down mentally before killing him. The way he kills the mothers of the special children is also completely over-the-top sadism: rather than doing something quick like slitting their throats when they catch him in their babies' nurseries, he uses telekinesis to slam them into a wall, slowly drag them up to the ceiling, and pin them over their babies' cribs, at which point he slices their bellies open while they're terrified and confused. He lets them live only long enough for their husbands to run in and see them in that state before he burns the poor women alive in front of their husbands.
• Four-Star Badass: There's some confusion as to what role Azazel actually played in Hell's hierarchy, but The Essential Supernatural: On the Road with Sam and Dean states that he and his fellow yellow-eyed demons are the Generals of Hell, which explains why Azazel refers to the demons he unleashed as "my army" and why his special children were expected to be his successors as demon army generals. Plus, his fellow yellow-eyed demons turn out to regard the cosmic war as a lost cause, explaining why none appeared ready to step in and take his place when he died. Incidentally, while Azazel was a demon general, his Arch-Enemy, John Winchester, was a Marine Corporal.
• Friendly Enemy: A one-sided example; he genuinely likes Sam, but Sam understandably has nothing but contempt for him.
• Glowing Eyes of Doom: Well, he is the Yellow Eyed Demon.
• The Heavy: In Seasons 1 and 2.
• Hellfire: His method of killing any of his "special children's" mothers who interrupted his turning of them involved conjuring flames which burned them alive. Notably, during the show's early seasons, advanced pyrokinesis such as this was exclusive to Azazel and to the ghost of someone he killed this way (whom only had such powers because of how Azazel killed her), before later seasons after Azazel's death showed non-demonic supernatural beings including angels performing such magic.
• Hellish Pupils: Early on. This was later dropped in favor of completely yellow eyes.
• Hero Killer: Killed a number of hunters, most notably Mary and John Winchester.
• Hidden Agenda Villain: It takes quite a while for his entire plan to be revealed. It's revealed bit by bit over the course of four full seasons, and even then, we're left with quite a few details missing that must have been important, like why he was making other generations of special children, even up to the current day.
• Hot as Hell: Probably the only time Azazel has ever been attractive was when he was possessing John.
• Lack of Empathy: At times he seems to have a terrible grasp on the emotions of humans, effective Manipulative Bastardry notwithstanding. When Sam and Mary rage at him for killing their loved ones, Azazel actually seems taken aback.
• Laughably Evil: Though many fans consider him among the most evil demons, they also consider him highly entertaining because he never fails to mock the heroes.
• The Man Behind the Man: Has been in both positions. He was this to Meg, and Lucifer was this to him (as was Lilith according to Word of God).
• Manipulative Bastard: Successful to Magnificent Bastard levels. And being the evil little sadist he is, he enjoys it. One of his actors has even described him as "getting off" on bending people to his will.
• Names to Run Away from Really Fast: "Azazel" is a very demonic-sounding name, and is the name of a fallen angel in some legends.
• Obviously Evil: From his very first appearance.
• Oh, Crap!: When he sees that Dean has the Colt and a clear shot.
• Oh, Wait!: When he asks Dean how he'd feel if Azazel killed his family. Dean is not amused, and uses it shortly afterward in an Ironic Echo. Azazel retaliates by almost killing Dean.
• One-Hit Kill: Dean visits this upon him via the Colt. Azazel's plan works anyway.
• Only Known by Their Nickname: He is only referred to as "the Yellow-Eyed Demon" or some variation during the two seasons he appears. We only discover his real name from a third party four episodes after his death. Even knowing his real name, most of the characters still refer to him as "Yellow Eyes."
• Papa Wolf: When Dean throws one of Azazel's taunts back in his face by mocking the death of his son and the exorcism of his daughter, Azazel responds by beginning to slowly and painfully torture Dean to death. When John offers Azazel the kill-anything Colt in exchange for Dean's life, Azazel comes close to rejecting the offer just to keep punishing the Winchesters, and it takes John giving up his own soul to persuade him otherwise.
• Parental Favoritism: He admits to Jake that he liked Sam more than the other Special Children and wanted him specifically to win the Involuntary Battle to the Death in Cold Oak, and his condescending treatment of Jake compared to his respectful, affectionate treatment of Sam speaks volumes. His favoritism of Sam mostly had to do to the fact that Sam, having been raised a hunter, made for a better soldier and also that Mary was his mother (Azazel had commented back in the 1970's that Mary was his favorite because he liked her spunk). Creepily enough, he teased Dean by suggesting he might be interested in impregnating Mary with the special child he wanted from her himself, which casts an even skeevier light on his nigh-paternal fondness for Sam. Sam may even be considered his favorite compared to his own demonic children Meg and Tom — Sam is the one who exorcised Meg and protecting Sam from Tom was the reason why Dean killed Tom, yet Azazel reserves all his anger and blame for Dean and continues to treat Sam with nothing but warmth.
• Pet the Dog: He has a mild one in "All Hell Breaks Loose" when he's showing Sam a replay of the night his mother died. He lets Sam see him standing over his crib, dripping blood into infant Sam's mouth, and his mother rushing into the room. When it gets to the point where Mary is thrown against the wall and about to be killed, he simply tells Sam "you don't need to see this", and shuts down the vision.
• Politically Incorrect Villain: He calls Mary and a nun "sluts."
• "The Reason You Suck" Speech: Azazel's favorite hobby is to call Dean stupid and insignificant to his face, repeatedly and with great relish.
  Azazel: Anyway, thanks a bunch. I knew I kept you alive for some reason, until now anyway. I couldn't have done it without your pathetic, self-loathing, self-destructive desire to sacrifice yourself for your family.
• Slasher Smile: Of the Jack Nicholson variety.
• Terms of Endangerment: He regularly uses Sam's nickname "Sammy" and also called Mary "sweetie-pie" and "doll."
• They Were Holding You Back: Azazel's reason for killing Mary and Jessica was because he felt that they got in the way of his plans for Sam.
• Tranquil Fury: The only time he gets well and truly pissed off, he goes silent and stares emotionlessly at the guy who pushed his Berserk Button (who is, of course, Dean) as he calmly rips him to shreds.
• Undying Loyalty: To Lucifer. Ramiel, one of the other Princes of Hell, describes him as a fanatic who was the only one of them to continue believing in Lucifer's plans after the other Princes had lost interest.
• The Unfettered: Finding out that the person he is interrogating has travelled back in time, is working with angels and will one day kill him? His only response is to decide not to tell him about his plans and enquire if he has a sibling.
• Villainous Crush: It's clear that Azazel has a thing for Mary. He's impressed by her fighting spirit, calls her his favorite, and says that, even though he's not going to create the special children by "mating" with humans, he wouldn't mind "making an exception" for Mary. He even spares her the first time she pokes her head into Sam's nursery, only killing her when she runs back in to stop him. He seems to regret killing her and calls it "bad luck." Since Azazel is a demon who murders her parents and boyfriend and later kills her, all as part of his scheme to use her sons to unleash Lucifer by corrupting her youngest and killing her eldest, it's one-sided, though they did kiss at one point.
• Villain Takes an Interest: In Sam. Azazel has proclaimed Sam as "his favorite" of the Special Children.
• Visionary Villain: He certainly has the "clear goal" and "good execution" parts down pat, considering the amount of work he put into putting his big plan together and how well he hid it from the heroes. It's implied in "All Hell Breaks Loose, Part 2" (and sort of confirmed via a statement on Lilith by Ben Edlund) that he fully expects his plan to change the world for the better. At least, he fully expects himself and anyone who helps him to reap the benefits.
• "Well Done, Son" Guy: Evidently had this with Lucifer. His whole program was geared toward getting Hell open to free Lilith so she could bust out Lucifer, in both cases using the 'very special child' Lucifer told him to procure; i.e. Sam. He in turn encouraged this from his own 'children,' such as the demon known as Meg.
• Would Hurt a Child: Injecting infants with demon blood in order to corrupt them later in their lives definitely qualifies.
• Yellow Eyes of Sneakiness: One of the most intelligent beings in the entire supernatural universe, he kept everyone guessing right up until it was too late do anything.

Ramiel

Ramiel (Jerry Trimble)

I don't care. I don't care who you are. I don't care why you're here. I don't care about Heaven or Hell or anything. I don't even care that Lucifer's got a bun in the oven.

Ramiel is a Prince of Hell who, alongside Dagon and Asmodeus, left Hell to settle down on Earth. He strictly wants to be left alone and will kill anyone who disturbs the status quo. Appears in "Stuck in the Middle (With You) (S12, E12)"

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• Berserk Button: He really hates those who disturb him or trespass on his property. He also seems to have a particular hatred towards angels, as he quickly stops toying with the Winchester's and starts to get downright angry the moment he spots Castiel.
• Chirping Crickets: Crowley introduces himself to Ramiel like his name should mean something. Ramiel responds with silence broken only by the sound of a cuckoo clock.
• Collector of the Strange: Ramiel likes to collect extremely rare and powerful ancient weapons, probably because most of them are the only weapons that can kill him.
• Die Laughing: After Sam impales him with The Lance of Michael, Ramiel begins laughing maniacally just before he dies.
• Faux Affably Evil: He almost exclusively speaks in a polite tone, engaging in conversation even with humans who broke into his house to steal from him. He comes across as reasonable in his earlier conversation with Crowley and happily encourages him to follow up on his own ambitions. However, the moment anyone does something to displease him, especially if they steal from him, he drops this mask and shows himself to be just as bloodthirsty, ruthless and cruel as it is to be expected from a Prince of Hell.
• Inconspicuous Immortal: Lives quietly because he doesn't care about who runs Hell or ruling it himself: he just wants to be left alone. When Crowley shows up to offer him the job of ruling Hell, he just tells Crowley to take the job himself, and that he'd better not come back and bother him again.
• Legendary Weapon: Ramiel received two as a gift from Crowley; the first is The Lance of Michael which can smite any demon instantly and can kill any angel,(but said angel suffers slowly and painfully as it was intended for Lucifer).
• Offered the Crown: Initially, Crowley wanted to make Ramiel the new King of Hell, intending to place himself in a favourable position by the new ruler's side. However, despite being among the three most powerful living demons in existence, Ramiel rejects the offer and urges Crowley to take the spot for himself.
• Retired Monster: As a Prince of Hell, Ramiel is one of the first demons in existence. However, he has essentially abandoned Lucifer and stopped caring about the affairs of Heaven and Hell long ago, to the point where he outright refuses to take charge after Lucifer got trapped in the cage once again. That being said, he has neither atoned for his past deeds, nor does he have any desire to do so. Instead, he merely wishes to be left alone in his retirement. Notably, the only reason he goes up against the Winchester's at all is because they steal from him. It is also implied that he is behind a couple of occurences in the area, including the disappearance of several virgins, meaning that he has not entirely retired from being a monster, but merely from being engaged in the larger cosmic affairs.
• Sadly Mythtaken: Unlike with the other princes, Ramiel is not the name of a demon from Christian mythology, but instead a fallen angel.
• Slasher Smile: Whenever a fight is about to break out or while he is in the middle of combat, Ramiel sports a wide, gleeful grin.
• Small Role, Big Impact: Though Ramiel only appears in a single episode, his refusal to take the Throne of Hell and open encouragement of Crowley's ambitions are what allow Crowley to become the new King of Hell. In this position, Crowley went on to become a major antagonist and occasional ally to the Winchester's, heavily influencing a lot of the plot post-Season 5.
• Talk to the Fist: Ramiel knocks Crowley through the barn's wall when Crowley tries to make a new deal with him.
• Villains Out Shopping: Ramiel likes to spend a lot of his time fishing.
• We Hardly Knew Ye: Unlike the other Princes of Hell, who are each important primary or secondary villains in their own right, Ramiel is not a recurring character. He is killed in the same episode he is introduced in, which is the same episode the concept of the Princes of Hell is introduced to the series in general. Therefore, he receives the lowest screentime and characterization of the four.

Dagon

Dagon (Ali Ahn)

I'll be there, right by his side, to nurture him, love him, to help him to... kill everything. You know, like a mother should.

Dagon is a Prince of Hell who is interested in Kelly Kline's Nephilim son. She protects her from harm, be it from the angels or humans who come to hunt down the "abomination" before he is born. First appears in "Family Feud (S12, E13)"

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• A Wolf in Sheep's Clothing: Dagon is fairly approachable during her first appearance, saving Kelly's life and winning her trust. Despite being a Prince of Hell, she supports and reassures Kelly, almost appearing like the lesser of two evils when compared to the angels who are out to kill her. She gradually drops her nice facade and fully reveals her true intentions at the end of her second appearance.
• Ax-Crazy: Apparently so much so that even a normally reserved angel describes her as savage and psychotic.
• Come with Me If You Want to Live: Said ad verbatim to Kelly, in a clear Shout-Out to Terminator.
• Didn't See That Coming: Dagon actually comes close to killing Castiel and the Winchester brothers, having thoroughly outmatched them and taken away the only thing able to kill her. As such, her shocked facial expression really shows just how little she expected to be overpowered and killed by none else than the unborn Nephilim she tried to get her hands on this entire time.
• The Dragon: Serves as Lucifer's dragon in Season 12 as she is given the task of protecting Kelly Kline until the birth of Lucifer's son.
• Evil Matriarch: Believing him to be as evil as his father, she plans to be this to Lucifer's child by taking over maternal duties once Kelly dies giving birth. Her Evil Plan is to ultimately turn him into a perfect weapon to destroy all life. He kills her instead and is later revealed to be a good kid who remembers her as a "bad woman".
• Faux Affably Evil: She's laidback and humorous. However, she obviously takes great pleasure in being cruel, especially to Kelly, whom she eventually begins chaining up to keep her from escaping her watch while taunting her about how she'll die and her child will be evil.
• Informed Attribute: Castiel calls her savage and psychotic, but she's really no more violent onscreen than most demons and even comes off as somewhat tame compared to other demons whose viciousness was showcased (like Lilith and Alastair). Dagon seems more practical in quick kills she does to cover her tracks, rather like Azazel, and even capable of keeping Kelly's trust as a protector for quite a while before revealing her true nature. It's possible that Castiel was referring to her past reputation and that Dagon has become more focused and controlled since leaving Hell.
• Jedi Mind Trick: When a doctor notices something wrong with Kelly's ultrasound and is about to say something that Dagon doesn't want Kelly to know, Dagon nonverbally compels him to say everything's fine. She doesn't display this power again even when it would've been helpful in keeping Kelly under her thumb, but as Kelly was pregnant with Lucifer's child it's possible that made her immune to it.
• Kill It with Fire: Lucifer's son, while possessing Castiel, immolates her alive.
• Omnicidal Maniac: Expressly says she wants to use Lucifer's powerful child to kill everything.
• Pop-Cultured Badass: She debuts making a Terminator reference, is shown relaxing by watching a game show on TV, and tosses out modern slang like "jk" and "adorbs", showing Dagon has spent her retirement immersed in human culture. She can also torture and kill angels with a touch and destroys the legendary Colt by melting it.
• Pragmatic Villainy: For a demon with a reputation of being Ax-Crazy, Dagon surely proves herself to be capable of very pragmatic decisions. She manages to put up a nice act longer than any other demon with the exception of Ruby, winning Kelly's trust and almost succeeding at getting her hands on the Nephilim baby. Most notably, she is the only villain in the series who is smart enough to destroy the Colt, one of the only weapons in existence that pose a threat to her, instead of keeping it for herself or trying to lock it away.
• She Is the King: Dagon is female, but is still referred to as a Prince of Hell.
• Smurfette Principle: Dagon is the only female Prince of Hell.
• Subordinate Excuse: It's implied that she has feelings for Lucifer. She even describes herself as his "side piece" at one point. As he hates demons and is willing to punish her if she doesn't do as he says, this would also be a case of Mad Love — and given that her brothers and demons in general see Lucifer as their father, it'd also be Villainous Incest.
• This Cannot Be!: When she is overpowered by Castiel, who is supported by the unborn Nephilim, she reacts with disbelief and utter terror.
• We Can Rule Together: Apparently the reason she decided to work with Lucifer again in Season 12 despite abandoning his cause eons ago is because Lucifer offered to let her rule by his side whilst raising his son. She is dismayed when Lucifer threatens to renege on their deal after Cas escaped with Kelly. Given that he is shown able to inflict psychic torture on her for failing him, it's literally an offer she can't refuse.
• Wrecked Weapon: Dagon ends up destroying The Colt which was pretty much the only means the Winchesters had to killing the Princes of Hell.

Asmodeus

Asmodeus

I am Asmodeus, here to rule until such time as Lucifer returns with his son. And there are gonna be some changes.

The last in line of the Princes of Hell and considered to be the least impressive of the four. With the destruction of Hell's leadership Asmodeus takes over Hell as its King and starts setting in motion his own plans. Portrayed by Jeffrey Vincent Parise, Aubrey Arnason, Keith Szarabajka, Misha Collins. First appears in "The Rising Son" (S13, E02)

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• Asshole Victim: No one's ever gonna miss him after Gabriel burns him into a crisp.
• Bad Boss: Kills all of Crowley's former lackeys in his first appearance, betrays Lucifer the first chance he gets, gives a giant thrashing to Ketch in "The Thing"...yeah, he's not someone you'd want to work for.
• Benevolent Boss: Subverted. He barely tries to hide from any of his underlings that as benevolent as he may appear, he is as much of an asshole as any of their previous leaders.
• Big Bad Wannabe: For all his talk and manipulations, his schemes in Season 13 have had a low rate of success; his attempt to release the Shedim failed when Jack realized he was being manipulated, Castiel and Lucifer managed to escape captivity rather easily, his brainwashing of Donatello was rendered moot once the prophet was corrupted by the demon tablet and rendered brain-dead by Castiel, his alliance with Ketch ended once he beat him to a bulb and pissed him off leading to Ketch releasing the captive Gabriel, stealing the Archangel Blade as well as the Archangel Grace, and delivering all three to the Winchesters. Finally his attempt to retrieve Gabriel and the Archangel Blade resulted in him being burned to death once Gabriel reabsorbed his stolen Grace.
• Bullying a Dragon: Asmodeus kept Gabriel captive and fed on his grace for years, all while torturing him and stitching his mouth shut. When Asmodeus returns to reclaim Gabriel, he learns the hard way why you should never mess with an Archangel.
• Contrasting Sequel Antagonist: Crowley was a (relatively) normal-powered demon who was British, dressed in black, sympathetic, a Bad Boss to his underlings, was fond of the Winchesters and Cas, despite coming into conflict with them on occasion, and was willing to make alliances with them and put aside their rivalry if there was a greater threat on the horizon. Asmodeus is an Elite Mook, has a southern accent and dresses in white, imprisoned Lucifer and Castiel instead of allying with them, is generally benevolent and respectful enough to his underlings (at first), barely interacted with the Winchesters (at least, not when he wasn't shapeshifting) but considers them to be a nuisance, and is a Love to Hate villain. And unlike Crowley, his stint as a villain is very brief, while Crowley remained a major player for years.
• Crazy-Prepared: After finding out about the potential arrival of the Apocalypse World version of Michael and his army, Asmodeus finds the Archangel blade, the only weapon powerful enough to kill an Archangel, and an Archangel to wield it: the revived Gabriel.
• Chronic Backstabbing Disorder: Doesn't hesitate to betray Lucifer when he gets the chance, and treats Ketch like shit in "The Thing". He's also not above killing his underlings, as seen in "The Rising Sun".
• Disc-One Final Boss: Despite being built up as major character throughout Season 13, he ends up burning to death courtesy of Gabriel in "Bring 'Em Back Alive".
• Dragon with an Agenda: At the start of the season, while he claims that he is only holding on to the seat of King of Hell until Lucifer's return, the fact that his first move was to try and resummon the Shedim suggested he had ulterior motives. Indeed, once Asmodeus finds out about Lucifer's weakened state, he takes over hell permanently.
• Eviler than Thou: To Crowley who over the years (and possibly because of being purified by Sam in Season 8) became a much less threatening character and became friendlier with Team Free Will. Asmodeus in comparison murders all of Crowley's pencil pushing lackies in his first scene and turns hell back into a consistent threat by employing the "fire and brimstone" Demons of old.
• Faux Affably Evil: Speaks and appears like a gentleman, but is just as sadistic and twisted as any other Demon.
• Good Scars, Evil Scars: The Evil kind. He was punished by Lucifer for trying to unleash the Shedim, with the results remaining as permanent scars across the left side of his face, over his cheek, eye, and nose. Meanwhile, Sam, Dean, and Castiel continue to be poster boys for Beauty Is Never Tarnished, sometimes bleeding a little but usually the damage has vanished by the end of the episode and definitely no lasting damage.
• Hate Sink: A smug, despicable, and sadistic Demon who is cruel to pretty much everyone around him.
• Karmic Death: Killed by the Archangel he tortured and abused.
• Last of His Kind: With the confirmation that there were only four Princes of Hell, Asmodeus is the fourth and final one, with all his siblings having been killed off by Dean, Sam, and Castiel in previous seasons.
• Man on Fire: Gabriel incinerates him.
• The Runt at the End: When they meet face-to-face again for the first time in millennia, Lucifer implies that Asmodeus was the least impressive of the Princes of Hell and even calls him "the runt of the litter", among other insults.
• Sadist: Takes great pleasure in torturing and feeding on Gabriel's grace. He also enjoys beating up Lucifer, Ketch, Sam, and Cas.
• Small Name, Big Ego: While he is known as a Prince of Hell, that's as far as his fame goes amongst demons and hunters. Lucifer considered him to be the runt of his siblings, and considering how Lucifer first used Dagon to find Kelly Kline, and that Crowley approached Ramiel when Hell was in need of leadership, it becomes clear that Asmodeus, for all his grandeur, isn't all as impressive as he makes himself out to be to others.
• Smug Snake: Compared to the rest of the Prince of Hell, his plans occasionally backfires when he tries to manipulate Jack.
• Southern Gentleman: Asmodeus dons the white-suited look and speaks with an attempt at a Southern accent, presumably his host's.
• The Starscream: He quite likes being the King of Hell in Lucifer's absence, and as soon as Lucifer is weakened by losing part of his angelic grace, he usurps his former boss's throne.
• Super-Empowering: The reason that Asmodeus is so strong in the present, despite being considered the weakest of Lucifer's creations, is because he is juicing himself up with Gabriel's Archangel grace.
• Suspiciously Similar Substitute: While all Princes besides Azazel were said to have lost faith in Lucifer and Dagon was expressly the only Prince who had an interest in Jack, Asmodeus is introduced the following season wanting to serve Lucifer and to locate and use Jack, replacing Dagon's role in the narrative after she was Killed Off for Real.
• Tyrant Takes the Helm: Asmodeus in his Establishing Character Moment. Upon his debut, he seizes the throne of Hell for himself to rule in Lucifer's stead until his return. As the first order of business, he spares only three demons (who appear to be Lucifer loyalists, like Asmodeus) and slaughters all the other demons in the room for exemplifying the Villain Decay he is trying to avert.
  Asmodeus: The underperforming and ineffective, the corporate lackeys in the Crowley era are being purged. The grand old days of fire and brimstone are back.
• Unskilled, but Strong: When he appears he's theoretically the most powerful demon in creation, with the other three Princes of Hell having been killed. And he is strong enough to intimidate the same demons who were always scheming to stab Crowley in the back. He's careless and arrogant, though, often biting off more than he can chew. When Ketch liberates Gabriel, Asmodeus tracks them to the bunker intending to raze it to the ground and kill Sam and Cas. Gabriel heals in front of him and kills him in a matter of seconds.
• Villain in a White Suit: A despicable demon who is dressed in an immaculate all-white suit.
• Voluntary Shapeshifting: He disguises himself as an unnamed bartender and Donatello without changing hosts, successfully impersonating them to fool Dean, Sam, and Jack, though they realized it after meeting up with the real Donatello. Shapeshifting is not a power usually ascribed to demons, so he may have done it using a spell (Crowley's minions used one to appear as Sam and Dean trick Kevin) or simply using a rare demonic power Asmodeus possesses. In "Various & Sundry Villains" Lucifer admits to Castiel that Asmodeus' shapeshifting powers were not something he bestowed upon him and he must have gotten them somewhere else. It's implied that his shapeshifting powers were a side effect of absorbing Gabriel's grace.
• "Well Done, Son" Guy: Although he is first mentioned in the context of abandoning the mission to free Lucifer along with Ramiel and Dagon and he later tells Dean while disguised that he hated his father and ran away, he appears devoted to Lucifer in the same vein as Azazel; trying to locate him and his son to return him to being King of Hell, telling Dean also while disguised that all kids just want their father's approval ("Well, that's how it was with me"), and describing Lucifer's "disappointment" and punishment of him thusly: "The pain, the total humiliation... it forged an eternal bond between us. I am his to command." Until he decides to betray Lucifer at the first chance he gets.

Knights of Hell

In General

Knights of Hell in Supernatural

An elite order of warrior demons formed and led by Cain himself. Thought to be extinct in the present day (after Cain underwent a Heel–Face Turn and wiped them out), they become relevant to the plot after the reappearance of Cain and Abaddon, as well as Dean becoming one of them.

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Tropes:

• Elite Mooks: Seem to be this for the forces of hell. They're some of the most powerful demons in existence, but don't seem to be quite on the level of Lilith or the Princes, suggesting they weren't originally intended for leadership positions.
• The Starscream: Seems to be a recurring trait — Abaddon spends a lot of time in series 9 trying to depose Crowley, while Demon Dean just straight up bullies him into submission.
• Walking Spoiler: It's tough to reveal much relating to them without giving away Dean becomes one of them.

Cain

Cain

Lucifer was gonna make my brother into his pet. I couldn't bear to watch him be corrupted, so I offered a deal — Abel's soul in Heaven for my soul in Hell. Lucifer accepted...as long as I was the one who sent Abel to Heaven. So, I killed him. Became a soldier of Hell — a knight.

The Cain. He is an extremely powerful demon who even scares the hell out of Crowley. Seems to possess abilities and powers far beyond even the King of Hell. Portrayed by Timothy Omundson. Appeared in "First Born" (S09, E11) and The Executioners Song (S10, E14).

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• Adaptational Heroism: He sacrificed himself to Lucifer in order to save his brother Abel who was making a deal with Lucifer. The Bible did an in-universe Historical Villain Upgrade.
• Affably Evil: Becomes this after losing control of his blood lust. He's cordial and polite to both his victims and Dean, has genuinely good (if very warped) intentions, only kills those who he believes carried his cursed linage and even accepts his defeat and death with dignity.
• Biblical Bad Guy: He's the actual Cain from Old Testament times, having murdered Abel and become a demon afterwards.
• Cain and Abel: Inverted. Cain did murder Abel, but he was the good brother in this case and Abel the evil one, as the latter was being seduced by Lucifer.
• Curb-Stomp Battle: Scores of demons invade his house but he disposes them off with ease. As Dean aptly put, they were trapped in the house with him. In his second appearance, no one (even Dean with the Mark of Cain) could hurt him and it took Dean taking advantage of a tactical mistake from Cain to finally defeat him.
• Death Seeker: Cain reveals to Dean, he's tired of his existence and gives him the Mark on the promise Dean will kill Cain when he's done with Abaddon. Following losing the fight to Dean, he accepts this and faces death with dignity.
• The Dreaded: For Crowley, reigning King of Hell.
• Four-Star Badass: Has this role as commander of the Knights of Hell, not to mention the strongest one. Abaddon sends a force of at least twenty demons to his home in an effort to capture Dean and Crowley, and Cain slaughters every single one of them with barely any effort.
• Humanoid Abomination: Unlike other demons, who have to take hosts to manifest and affect the physical world, it is heavily implied that Cain's current body is his own. He is one of the oldest of the demons and also comes with unique powers, such as biokinesis and able to smite demons. And to top it off, even a demon as powerful an calm as Crowley is afraid of him.
• Inconspicuous Immortal: Tries to live a quiet, low-profile life as a beekeeper. He's perfectly willing to trash anyone or anything that tries to bother him, though.
• It Runs in the Family: Cain heavily implies that every one of his descendants is predisposed towards violence and murder in the extreme cases.
• Kill the Ones You Love: Kills Colette accidentally as she is possessed by Abaddon, who manages to escape.
• Last of His Kind: After Abaddon's death and Dean turning back to normal, he's the last Knight of Hell.
• The Lost Lenore: His wife Colette is this for him.
• Love Redeems: Fell in love with Colette and turned on the Knights of Hell. It didn't end well for any of them. Cain killed all the Knights (except Abaddon) and Abaddon fatally injured Colette in revenge.
• No-Sell: In his first appearance, Dean stabs him in the heart with Ruby's knife. Whereas it affected Alastair (even if only slightly), it doesn't do anything at all to Cain. Later, Castiel tries to stop him with his angelic powers and fails to even truly bother him. Justified in both cases, since while Alastair and Cain are both ancient demons, Cain packs more juice with the Mark and is likely older; and the only ones ever said to be able to kill Knights are Cain himself or the Archangels.
• Offing the Offspring: In "The Executioner's Song", he plans to kill his legion of descendants, believing that his line is curse thanks to him (it's implied he's partially right).
• Retired Badass: Retired prior to the present day and lives as a beekeeper as a promise to his dead wife.
• Sanity Slippage: Following being forced to massacre Abaddon's army, Cain lost control of the mark's bloodlust, it had an effect on his sanity, and left him willing to wipe out one tenth of the earth's population to stop the spreading of his bloodline, which he believed was cursed.
• Superpower Lottery: Being a very old demon as well as a Knight of Hell will give you a power boost.
• Take Me Instead: He offered himself to Lucifer to save his brother.
• The Snack Is More Interesting: As a test, he lets four of the demons besieging his home in to fight Dean and Crowley. While Dean is battling three of them, Cain sits calmly at his kitchen table, shucking the ears of corn he bought for dinner.
• Thou Shalt Not Kill: He promised his wife that he wouldn't kill again. He breaks that promise to save Dean and Crowley. Unfortunately, he falls back in the influence of the Mark and start killing his descendants believing his bloodline is cursed.
• Well-Intentioned Extremist: After losing control of his bloodlust, he manages to switch to this planning to wipe out his entire bloodline, believing it to be cursed (it's implied to be true, as while not all of them are killers, a lot of them are) however as one of the fathers of mankind, this would lead to killing around one tenth of the present population.
• Would Hurt a Child: He tries to kill a boy named Austin because he's the son of a serial murderer, who is his descendant.

Abaddon

Abaddon

Why don't you be a doll and give me what I want? And I promise to kill you and your friends here quickly.

Abaddon is a Knight of Hell who was handpicked by Lucifer himself. Portrayed by Alaina Huffman.

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• Almighty Janitor: Black-eyed demons are the bottom of the ladder in terms of power and the hierarchy in Hell. Abaddon is the big exception. She's one of the most powerful demons ever on the show, period. Given that several 'high level' demons had differently-colored eyes, though, it may not mean anything special.
• And I Must Scream: She is unable to use her powers or move much at all, due to a bullet engraved with a devil's trap shot into her skull. It also prevents her from "smoking out" of her host body. Dean then cuts her head off, cuts her into pieces, and buries her in cement. While she isn't dead, she is trapped for what is expected to be a very long time. Dean explicitly calls this a Fate Worse than Death for Abaddon. When the Winchesters find out that they have to turn a demon back into a human for the third trial, they take her out and put her back together to use as their guinea pig. She seizes the opportunity to escape, of course.
• Asskicking Leads to Leadership: That's how she thinks it should be. When she finds out that the inferior demon Crowley is the new King of Hell, she guns after him with the intent of killing the "salesman" and taking over herself to remake Hell into the bloody place she remembers and then to bring that Hell to both Heaven and Earth, with her ruling demons, humans, and angels alike. For his money, Crowley prefers to hide and manipulate the situation so that he never has to face Abaddon, as she is almost definitely more powerful than him and he certainly can't kill her himself anyway. In the end, Crowley's brains triumph over Abaddon's brawn, and he retains the crown.
• The Baroness: Sexpot. She notably pauses one fight to express her lust for Dean. He quips that she should make up her mind whether she wants to kill him or make out with him.
• Beauty Is Never Tarnished: Abaddon has her head chopped off and then put back together by the Winchesters, but she still manages to look attractive.
• Big Bad Ensemble: With Metatron in Season 9. She is the main demon enemy who intends on leading Hell's army to Take Over the World and whom the Winchesters must face and Metatron the angel one.
• Black Eyes of Evil: Despite being insanely powerful.
• Blood Is the New Black: Her dress in "As Time Goes By" has her victims' blood splashed on the front. A man who sees her thinks that she's been hurt and asks if she's okay before she kills him, and a girl thinks she's cosplaying Carrie.
• Body Horror: The Winchesters deal with her by hacking her into pieces while she's still conscious. (And possibly with Josie still trapped inside her own body.) As a result, there are prominent Frankenstein-esque stitches around her neck and wrists where her head and hands have been re-attached. That said, she still looks amazing.
• Dark Action Girl: She relishes chances to get her hands dirty and racks up a very high body count in her first appearance.
• Deadpan Snarker: Never misses a chance to mock, and can even keep up with Dean in this regard.
• Demon Lords and Archdevils: Abaddon is one of the last of the Knights of Hell, the first-fallen, first-born demons hand-picked by Lucifer and turned and trained by Cain. The Knights of Hell are very pure and strong.
• Eats Babies: She threatens Dean in "Devil May Care" with making him eat a newborn, which probably means that, like Lilith, this is one of Abaddon's favorite foods.
• Elite Mooks: As a Knight of Hell, Abaddon is one of the oldest, most pure, and most powerful demons, selected by Lucifer himself. This means whoever her boss is had better be pretty freaking strong himself/herself, since if anyone weaker than Abaddon tries to give her orders, she'll beat the tar out of them and take over herself. Just ask Crowley.
• Evil Gloating: Really can't resist gloating, such as over Dean and how she planned to steal his body.
• Evil Redhead: The host she uses (Josie Sands) is a redhead. Crowley lampshades this by referring to her as "the world's angriest ginger".
• Evil Wears Black: She's often seen wearing black clothing.
• Familial Foe: The demon Abaddon fights the Winchester brothers decades after trying to kill their paternal grandfather and ruining his life.
• Femme Fatalons: Has long red fingernails that she uses to slit a man's throat in "As Time Goes By".
• Fiery Redhead: Has the hair and has the temper to go with it.
• First Law of Resurrection: Abaddon could have easily come back in a new vessel, but Alaina Huffman as Abaddon has been popular with the viewers.
• Fun T-Shirt: In "As Time Goes By", Abaddon dons a black shirt with pink letters that reads "The Devil Made Me Do It"; she took it from the comic store clerk she kills.
• Hair-Trigger Temper: Abaddon is very quick tempered and gets easily angered.
• Helping Hands: A devil's trap-etched bullet stuck in Abaddon's brain keeps her from moving any body part attached to said brain. Fortunately for her (A.K.A. unfortunately for everyone else), Sam and Dean don't sew her hands back on when they put her back together, to stop her from clawing their eyes out if she somehow gets at them. Since her hands aren't attached to the devil's trap-etched bullet anymore, Abaddon is able to make them crawl over to her and dig out the bullet so that she can move the rest of herself.
• Hell-Bent for Leather: After arriving in the 21st century, Abaddon seems to take a liking to punk style clothes. She steals a girl's punk outfit (including the leather jacket) off her corpse after killing her, and after that outfit is destroyed by holy fire, she finds a similar outfit with another leather jacket.
• Hero Killer: Cemented as this right off the bat in her first episode when she slaughters an entire organization of Watcher-esque people by herself in under two minutes. The Winchesters' response to her for most of the episode is to run away, with her chasing. In a later episode, Sam even comments on how terrifying she is, albeit to get a rise out of Crowley.
• Hot-Blooded: You better believe it.
• If I Can't Have You…: It is implied that Abaddon had been in a relationship with her maker, Cain. After Cain found Colette and settled down with her after quitting the Knights of Hell, Abaddon kidnapped and possessed Colette. He found her, but when he refused to come back to Abaddon, she tricked him into killing Colette and having her die in his arms out of spite.
• Implacable Woman: In "As Time Goes By", where she's a superstrong, virtually unstoppable type of demon never seen before.
• Kick the Dog: After reading their minds for information, she kills the motel clerk and the comic book shop girl, even with the girl begging her not to hurt her, for no reason other than they had nothing else to give her and she's a bloodthirsty demon.
• Kicking Ass in All Her Finery: For half of "As Time Goes By", she's wearing a silvery (blood-stained) evening gown, pearls, and pumps with her hair done up in an elegant bun. While she's hunting down the Winchesters and casually slaughtering everyone else she meets along the way.
• Kill It with Fire: Like Meg, Abaddon is set aflame with holy fire. Unlike Meg, Abaddon runs out of her host rather than stay and burn.
• Lady of War: She initially wreaks havoc in a classy evening gown (with pearls!). She did just come from the 1950s, after all. Even once she steals an outfit off a punk girl she murders, she retains an air of dignity and grace.
• Last of Her Kind: Abaddon was said to be the last Knight of Hell left in existence. As it turns out, Cain is also still around, but it seems that the forces of Hell have blacklisted him.
• Mad Artist: Implied to be one. She calls her murders "art," and prides herself on particularly gruesome ones.
• Manipulative Bastard: Comes with being a demon.
• Meaningful Name: Abaddon means "destroyer" in Hebrew.
• Meet the New Boss: Like Ruby, Abaddon inherited many of Meg's personality traits from earlier seasons and even her role as the rebellion leader and Crowley's main enemy in later ones. The major differences between Abaddon and Meg boil down to Abaddon's status as a Knight of Hell and her not allying with the heroes to undergo a High-Heel–Face Turn.
• Never Found the Body: The Winchesters thought that Abaddon's vessel, Josie Sands' body, was done for when it was burnt in holy oil and Abaddon smoked out. But, they did not keep track of what happened to the body.
• The Nicknamer: Abaddon refers to Sam and Dean as "sunshines" and to Father Max Thompson as "Maxie".
• No-Holds-Barred Beatdown: Gives a good one to Crowley in the Season 8 finale after capturing him.
• No-Sell: She can't be killed by Ruby's knife, although it does seem to hurt her more than it did Alastair. She also seems immune to exorcism rites.
• Not So Extinct: The Knights of Hell are supposed to have been exterminated by archangels. Clearly, they missed one. Which is a serious problem as only archangels are supposed to be able to kill them, and all the archangels either dead or trapped in Hell. The Winchesters don't find an archangel to help them, but they do find Cain, his Mark, and the First Blade, all of which can also kill Knights.
• The Nth Doctor: Subverted Trope. Even though Abaddon's previous vessel was assumed to be destroyed when she was doused in burning holy oil, Abaddon does not return in a new body.
• Power Creep, Power Seep: Abaddon is shown to have the 'unique' ability to reads people's minds by partially possessing them. However, it's been shown that all demons can read the minds of their vessels while in possession — it's just that none of them have been as flashy as Abaddon.
• Pre-Mortem One-Liner: Abaddon chokes the life out of a disrespectful demon (but, in a non-fatal variation, exorcises rather than kills her) as she tells her, "You go to Hell. And you tell them I'm coming."
• Proud Warrior Race Girl: As a Knight of Hell, she is among the elite of demons, and firmly believes the strong should lead, so much so that she is disgusted when she finds out demons are being lead by a "salesman" in 2014.
• Sealed Inside a Person-Shaped Can: She’s de-powered and bound to her host body to such a degree that she can’t even smoke out after she gets a devil’s trap-engraved bullet shot into her head. It’s then crossed over with Sealed Evil in a Can after she’s chopped up and buried in cement. Would have stayed that way too if the Winchesters didn’t dig her back up so they can use her as a lab rat for their demon curing ritual, and Abaddon uses the opportunity to dig the bullet out and escape.
• Screaming Warrior: In "As Time Goes By", when she gets mad or impatient, she starts screaming in anger, making lightning and thunder strike.
• Shock and Awe: Abaddon's screaming causes thunder and lightning.
• Suspiciously Similar Substitute: She is very similar to Lilith, being an incredibly ancient, incredibly powerful demon who is More Deadly Than the Male, easily ranking as one of the most evil demons in the setting.
• Take Over the World: Her Evil Plan in the ninth season.
• Terms of Endangerment: Abaddon calls Henry "doll" and "pet".
• Villain Ball: Being a demon, she can't resist screwing people over. In "Sacrifice", this leads to her downfall.
• Woman Scorned: When her lover Cain — yes, that one — took up with another woman and abandoned the evil side, she possessed his bride and killed her.

Dean Winchester

See his own page

Cambion

Jesse Turner (aka The Anti-Christ)

Jesse Turner

Portrayed By: Gatlin Griffin

^{Click here to see Jesse as the Anti-Christ.}

Jesse is a young, but powerful "cambion" or "katako," being a half-human, half-demon creature. According to Castiel, he was destined to become the Anti-Christ and aid Lucifer in the war against Heaven. Jesse Turner was conceived when a virginal human woman named Julia Wright becomes possessed by a demon. She manages to regain control of her body long enough to exorcise the demon from her body during labor. She contemplates killing the newborn Jesse, for fear that he would be evil, but instead gives him up for adoption.

Jesse was adopted by the Turner family in Alliance, Nebraska. Jesse's adoptive parents spend a good deal of time outside their home, with him mostly taking care of himself. He was unaware of his birth history or even of the fact that he was adopted. Despite his heritage, he is a fairly normal boy: he attends school, likes soup and believes in many common child-age misconceptions and myths, like the Tooth Fairy.

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• Adorably Precocious Child: Jesse is a cross between this and Creepy Child. However, Jesse only crosses over into Creepy Child territory due to the fact that he is the Antichrist destined to destroy the Host of Heaven.
• Anti Anti Christ: He doesn't want to do anything with Apocalypse, and then flees to Australia to after knowing about his fate.
• The Antichrist: Destined to be this. After meeting with Winchesters, he rejects his fate and flees.
• Apocalypse Maiden: Jesse is meant to destroy the Host of Heaven and bring on the end of the world and much chaos and mass destruction.
• Badass Adorable: Jesse may look innocent and adorable, but he is very deadly, powerful, and dangerous. Don't get on his bad side.
• Birds of a Feather: With Sam. Sam saw a lot of himself in Jesse.
• Child Prodigy: He's the most powerful child on the planet, considering that he's the Anti Christ.
• Children Are Innocent: Yes, Jesse is The Antichrist, but he was completely naïve and innocent, considering that he had no knowledge or idea that he was destined to be responsible for mass destruction.
• Children Forced to Kill: Because it is Jesse's destiny to become the powerful Anti-Christ, it will force him to stand alongside Lucifer during the Apocalypse, helping him to destroy mankind and the Host of Heaven.
• The Chosen One: To destroy the Host of Heaven.
• Creepy Child: Subverted. Jesse is very cute, adorable, and lovable, but the fact that he is The Antichrist makes him rather scary and dangerous, considering how much destruction he is capable of causing.
• Curb-Stomp Battle: Barely enough to count as a battle, but when Cas attacks him he turns him into an action figure with a thought. According to Cas, he could do the same thing to the entire Host of Heaven if he wanted to.
• Cute Bruiser: Jesse is The Antichrist, therefore, he's extremely powerful and dangerous.
• Cute Is Evil: Jesse is so adorable, but he is very dangerous because he's the all-powerful Anti-Christ.
• The Cutie: OH SO MUCH. Jesse is extremely loveable and just one look at him makes you go "Awww!"..until he unleashes his power.
• Dark Messiah: Jesse IS the Anti-Christ after all and he's extremely powerful and dangerous once he unleashes his power.
• Deadpan Snarker: Jesse is rather witty and sarcastic.
• Deliberately Cute Child: Jesse is adorable and lovable — but beware, the kid is seriously dangerous considering what he's destined to become (The Anti-Christ).
• The Dragon: Destined to be this for Lucifer as the Anti-Christ. Subverted in that Jesse doesn't embrace his destiny and wants nothing to do with the apocalypse or Lucifer's plans.
• The Dreaded: He's The Antichrist, meaning that he is extremely dangerous and is capable of major destruction.
• Enfant Terrible: Subverted. Jesse is just an innocent kid who was completely unaware of the fact that he is dangerous and powerful because he's The Antichrist.
• Expy: Jesse shares a lot of similarities with Sam. He's almost like a mini-Sam. Kripke also admits he takes cues from Adam Young.
• From Nobody to Nightmare: Totally normal until he learns he's the Anti-Christ. He immediately runs to Australia to avoid the Apocalypse.
• Half-Human Hybrid: Half-human and half-demon, of course.
• Heartwarming Orphan: Since Jesse's mother gave him up for adoption and his "Father" is a demon, Jesse was adopted by adoptive parents since he was a baby and raised by them like a normal child.
• Humanoid Abomination: Jesse is half-human and half-demon, plus he's the Anti-Christ.
• Hybrid Power: Like the Nephilim, despite (or maybe because of) his half-human lineage, at the peak of his power, he is far more powerful than any demons.
• Innocent Blue Eyes: His Puppy-Dog Eyes make his eyes look even more innocent.
• Innocence Lost: If Jesse embraced his destiny as the Anti-Christ, it would be assumed that Jesse would lose his innocence and become a monster.
• Innocent Prodigy: As the Anti-Christ, Jesse is extremely powerful, but since he's just a child, he's completely innocent and oblivious to his very dark destiny.
• I Just Want to Be Normal: Jesse wants nothing to do with the apocalypse business so he takes off and leaves his adopted family.
• Killer Rabbit: Sweet, adorable, cute, lovable... and The Antichrist.
• MacGuffin Super-Person: Sought after by both Hell and Heaven, demons and angels because he is The Antichrist, similar to Sam throughout his life.
• Mouthy Kid: Jesse is rather sarcastic and snarky and he says exactly what he wants to say.
• Names to Run Away from Really Fast: When one hears the "Anti-Christ", everyone better run since he's extremely dangerous once he unleashes his power.
• "Not So Different" Remark: Sam tries this with Jesse in order to prevent him from making the wrong decisions and choices and to not embrace his destiny of darkness. It works.
• Oblivious Adoption: Jesse had no clue that his birth mother gave him up for adoption.
• Parental Neglect: While Jesse's parents do love him and he loves them back, they are only briefly shown onscreen and it is clear that Jesse is used to taking care of himself.
• Person of Mass Destruction: Jesse has the ability to obliterate the Host of Heaven.
• Plot Parallel: Jesse's life and role as The Antichrist mirrors Sam Winchester and his journey.
• Puppy-Dog Eyes: Shares this trait with Sam.
• Reality Warper: When Lucifer has a physical presence on Earth, this is what his powers manifest as. He makes everything he believes come true for miles in every direction. Without even trying or knowing he's doing it. Which is bad news, since he's still young enough to believe in kid stories like the Tooth Fairy.
• The Runaway: To Australia. Considering Lucifer (his power source) was shoved back into the cage presumably while he was still there, that means an 8-year old is now stuck in the Land-Down-Under.
• Screw Destiny: Jesse wants absolutely nothing to do with angels, demons or the Apocalypse.
• Story-Breaker Power: A nice-hearted kid who has the power to annihilate the entire Heavenly Host with a single word and can twist reality like a pretzel would make the Winchesters' fight against the Big Bads much easier, so of course he had to teleport to Australia.
• Take a Third Option: Rather than choose to fight on the side of the demons or the Winchesters, Jesse chooses to move to Australia and avoid the Apocalypse altogether.
• The End of the World as We Know It: Jesse wants no part in it.
• Troubling Unchildlike Behavior: Downplayed; Jesse just acts much older than his age.
• Tyke-Bomb: Kid's only eight and was conceived to become Hell's greatest weapon during the Apocalypse.
• What Happened to the Mouse?: Jesse warps himself to Australia and is never mentioned again. Justified in that he's trying to hide, but still.
• Wise Beyond Their Years: Childish beliefs aside, Jesse is rather mature for his age. It might have something to do with his mostly-absent parents.

Ruler of the Crossroads

Crowley

See his folder above

Lilith

Lilith

Nobody scream, okay? Screaming makes me mad.

The first demon ever made, Lilith is considered the demons' Messiah. She takes over as the leader of demons in Season 3, after Azazel dies, and is the one who holds Dean's contract, as she is the Queen of the Crossroads. She breaks the sixty-six seals to free Lucifer from Hell in Season 4. Portrayed by Rachel Pattee, Sierra McCormick, Katie Cassidy, Katherine Boecher, and Anna Grace Barlow, Lilith first appears in "Jus in Bello" (S03, E12).

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• All Your Powers Combined: Lilith's return in Season 15 establishing her as the final dragon of the show has her quickly reveal that as the first of all demons she has powers previously shown to be unique to the Knights and Princes of Hell, like Cain and Ramiel's resistance to the Devil's Traps and Dagon's ability to melt holy weapons at a touch.
• The Antichrist: A gender-inverted version, as she is a demonic mirror to Jesus in Christianity. Lilith is the first-born "daughter" of Lucifer, whom he created as a condemnation of humanity, while Jesus is the Son of God, whom He created as humanity's salvation. According to Revelation, Christ is supposed to be the one who breaks the seven seals; in Supernatural, Lilith is the demon who arranges for the sixty-six seals to be broken. She also sacrifices herself with the intention of "saving" her kind and the world by letting Sam kill her — in a manner that resembles crucifixion, no less! More in line with The Antichrist's personal goals, however, Lilith succeeds at bringing about The End of the World as We Know It. The demon in "Malleus Maleficarum" even calls Lilith demon-kind's Messiah.
• Arch-Enemy: She becomes this to Sam during Season 4 after killing Dean by siccing a hellhound on him. Likewise, Lilith isn't too fond of Sam even before she meets him, and takes great pleasure in his pain.
• Authority Equals Asskicking: According to Kripke, she ranks even higher than Azazel. After she gets out of Hell, she proceeds to wipe out the competition for leadership of the demon army until everyone falls in line.
• Back from the Dead: God brings her back in Season 15 as part of his vendetta against the Winchesters.
  • Back for the Dead: After her big return, she is effortlessly smote three episodes later by a returning Michael.
• Badass Adorable: Only in her child meatsuits.
• Barrier Maiden: She is the final seal keeping Lucifer in Hell. Too bad nobody tells Sam until after he's killed her...
• Beauty Is Bad: She begins possessing beautiful young women later on but she remains just as murderous and sadistic. The beautiful young women hosts fit her role in legend as a seductress, temptress, and succubus.
• Big Bad: For Seasons 3 and 4. In Season 3, she's the one holding the contract on Dean's soul and in Season 4 she's the one causing the central conflict by trying to break the seals.
• Blood Is the New Black: After killing the family dog for being "mean" to her, Lilith walks in on her meatsuit's family with hands and her white dress soaked in blood and her blood-filled shoes audibly squelching. She doesn't even consider changing her clothes to go outside until her host's father timidly points it out to her.
• Creepy Child: When possessing little girls. She switches to attractive adult women in Season 4 after announcing she likes being "all grown-up and pretty."
• Cute and Psycho: She enjoys taking the bodies of cute little girls, but is still just as sadistic and brutal while in them.
• Dark Messiah: In addition to being The Antichrist (see above), Lilith is also a Dark Messiah, since demons believe that releasing Lucifer will be a good thing for them and she calms down one of her more frightened Mooks by telling him that they are going to "save the world." Word of God has it that she is 110% convinced that she is a force for good that is setting right what is wrong in the world by starting the Apocalypse and raising Lucifer so that he can rule the universe. An interesting trope to be applied to Lilith, considering how Sam himself takes a turn down the same road in that season...
• The Dragon: Was originally this for Lucifer. As of the final season, she's been unwillingly conscripted into this role for God himself.
• Eats Babies: She eats so many babies that she has her own "personal chef" who kidnaps newborns from different maternity wards for Lilith to eat.
• Evil Laugh: In the third season finale, Lilith bursts into laughter as Dean gets torn to bits by hellhounds and his brother screams at her to stop. In the fourth season finale, she does it again, laughing mockingly at Sam for hesitating to kill her when he hears Dean calling for him. This is what gets her killed — just as she planned.
• Face of an Angel, Mind of a Demon: A literal case; she enjoys using cute little girls as her vessels, although her adult vessels are equally innocent-looking.
• The Fake Cutie: Acts like a sweet, chirpy young girl even as she's drenched in blood and snapping old men's necks.
• The Fatalist: Has become this after her death and resurrection. The cause she spent her long existence as a demon fighting and suffering for, the liberation of her master Lucifer, crashed and burned with Lucifer Killed Off for Real. The whole universe turned out to be just a game God, her greatest enemy, always set her side up to lose, and that he's now going to end in a fit of pique, and she's helpless to do anything but assist him in doing it. And she can't even get real revenge by killing the two people she hates almost as much as God, Sam and Dean Winchester, because said ending revolves around them. But she seems to be in a good mood despite all this, willingly following God's plan because she knows it will cause Sam and Dean a great deal of suffering along the way.
• Faux Affably Evil: Imitates the demeanour of the little girls she possesses as she tortures and murders their loved ones.
• For the Evulz: Lilith's idea of a vacation is to possess some poor kid, torment said kid's family until they're terrified of her and plotting to murder their own child just to escape her, and then start picking them off, one-by-one. She also spends 45 minutes torturing half a dozen people Sam and Dean saved in "Jus in Bello" to death for fun while forcing everyone else to sit tight and watch, saving Henriksen for last because he shares Dean's desire to save people; this took place off-screen, obviously.
• Four-Star Badass: She is the new General of Hell that emerges from the demonic power struggle in early Season 3, and commands Hell's army when they are fighting angels and breaking seals to start the Apocalypse.
• The Heavy: During the third and fourth seasons.
• Hero Killer: She kills Agent Henriksen, and later Dean Winchester.
• I Let You Win: Not only does she let Sam win, she goads him into killing her when Dean shows up to save the day.
  • I Am Not Left-Handed: When she returns in the final season, she reveals that now that her plans no longer require tricking Sam into killing her, she's free to use her full power. It turns out Sam's previous resistance to her powers was all part of the act.
• Kick the Dog: Most of the things she does in Season 3, including killing an actual dog.
• Kill the Cutie: Lilith skins adorable virgin secretary Nancy alive and kills her shortly after the latter has been saved by Sam and Dean. She also kills Dean.
• Light Is Not Good: Lilith appears as either an adorable little girl or a lovely young lady (usually blonde), acts like a sweetheart, sometimes wears a white dress, has solid white eyes, and even wields Holy Hand Grenade powers common to angels, but don't be fooled — she's just about the baddest bitch there is.
  • She stays true to form when impersonating a Damsel in Distress after her return in the final season. All three of the werewolf victims Chuck offered her as hosts were young blonde women, and she reveals she chose Ashley because she "had the best hair".
• Little Miss Badass: In her child hosts.
• Loves the Sound of Screaming: Surprisingly averted, if we go by her character quote.
• Manipulative Bastard: Manages to manipulate a doubting Sam into killing her and freeing Lucifer.
• Monster Progenitor:
  Ruby: Demon Sunday-School story. God likes humans better than angels. Lucifer gets pissed and then he gets creative. And he twists and tempts a human soul into the very first demon as a "screw you" to God. It's what got him locked up in the first place.
  Sam: That was Lilith?
  Ruby: She's way older than she looks.
• Mood-Swinger: Most noticeable in "No Rest for the Wicked". She goes from serene to downright cheerful to seething to icy-furious in matter of minutes. You never know what she'll do next or how she'll react or (most importantly) what's going to set her off.
• My Death Is Just the Beginning: It turns out she is the final seal, so killing her frees Lucifer from the cage.
• No-Sell: Just as Sam gains immunity to her powers, she is immune to Sam's powers... until he gets really strong.
• Obliviously Evil: According to series creator Eric Kripke, writer Ben Edlund, and Lilith's actress Katherine Boecher, Lilith honestly believes that she is doing the right thing by raising Lucifer because she is convinced that he should rule the universe and that that is the way it should be — in her mind, she is taking it upon herself to "fix" everything. Presumably, she taught this exact same mindset to other members of her little Satanist group.
• Oh, Crap!: Her reaction when Sam No Sells her White Light attack in the Season 3 finale.
• Prophet Eyes: When she shows her demon eyes.
• Psychopathic Manchild: She behaves like a spoiled, egotistical, sadistic kid. Really obvious when she actually possesses little girls — which she does in order to torture their families for days.
• Scarpia Ultimatum: Offers one to Sam in "The Monster at the End of This Book": if he agrees to her deal and has sex with her to "sign" it, she'll stop breaking the seals and Lucifer can rot in Hell for all she cares... oh, and she gets to kill Sam and Dean. It looks like he's gonna do it, but then he tries to stab her with Ruby's knife when they're in bed together.
• Screw This, I'm Outta Here: While Lilith isn't exactly cowardly beyond a normal sense of self preservation, she will generally back off and in some circumstances run when the odds are against her. Biggest example being when she threatened Dean and Chuck, the archangel Raphael was about to appear to protect Chuck. Given that the room and possibly the town they were in was shaking just from Raphael's immanent appearance, Lilith wisely decided that tangling with an archangel was not in her best interest (and basically suicide).
• Sealed Evil in a Can: She's trapped in Hell until Azazel frees her on Lucifer's orders, so that she can break the seals, in the second season finale. Considering that she is the final seal, might not the angels have sealed her away themselves?
• Sexy Backless Outfit: Her white dress in "Lucifer Rising."
• She Is All Grown Up: Played with. She's thousands of years old, but prefers to take child vessels to torment their families. Later, she adopts an adult host. And she likes it!
• Soap Opera Rapid Aging Syndrome: After two (three if you count Dean's hallucination in "Yellow Fever") appearances as two different little girls, Lilith starts possessing women instead. Of course, her second and third appearances in Season 4 would be hard to watch if she were appearing as a child, seeing as how she's trying to seduce Sam in one and getting killed in the other.
• Strike Me Down with All of Your Hatred!: Gleefully provokes Sam into killing her to break the final seal when he hesitates because he hears Dean calling for him. She calls him a "freak" and a "monster," and laughs at him to purposefully push his Berserk Button. It works, and he manages to finish her off — unfortunately.
• "Take That!" Kiss: Lilith greets Sam in their first face-to-face by pinning him to a wall, grabbing his face and sticking her tongue down his throat right before she makes him watch his brother get Dragged Off to Hell.
  Lilith: Your lips are soft.
• Thanatos Gambit: Pretty much the entire demon storyline, including her death, is to release Lucifer from Hell.
• The Vamp: She shows signs of this trope when possessing women, kissing Sam and later trying to entice him to have sex with her. Given her Real Life counterpart's role as such in lore, it makes sense. Luckily, she isn't anywhere as sexual when possessing children.
• Villainous Crush: On Sam. Considering that Lilith has went out of her way to first kiss him and then go onto seduce him into sleeping with her, it's almost certain that Lilith had some kind of lustful attraction to Sam. Luckily, she only displayed those lustful feelings for Sam when she was possessing hot blondes who were young women and not little girls.
• Visionary Villain: The writers designed Lilith as one of these. To restore Lucifer to his rightful place as ruler of the universe and transform the current Crapsack World she lives in into Paradise, Lilith sets up the dominoes to fall just so as soon as she gets out of Hell and then spends the next couple of seasons knocking them all down. She does succeed at freeing Lucifer, but the rest of her plan falls apart, partially because Team Free Will locks Lucifer back in his Cage before he can defeat Michael and assume control of the universe and partially because Lucifer is not the righteous, benevolent, demon-loving angel Lilith apparently thinks he is... assuming that Lilith hadn't been brainwashed by him into agreeing that a Crapsack World like "The End" is a perfect world. Which isn't a stretch, since he already brainwashed her into worshiping him and wanting to sacrifice herself for him even after he tortured her for God knows how long to burn the humanity out of her and turn her into a demon.
• The Worf Effect: The returned Michael smites her out of existence when she tries to bring him back to his Father, re-establishing that despite his time in the Cage, Michael is still a force to be reckoned with.
• Your Approval Fills Me with Shame: Manipulative Bitch Lilith invokes this trope on Sam to manipulate him into accepting her Scarpia Ultimatum.
  Lilith: Are you really so arrogant that you would put your life before the lives of six billion innocent people? Maybe it's all that demon blood pumping through your pipes. Man after my own heart.

Hell's Torturers

Alastair

Alastair

You can't run, Dean...not from me.

Alastair is the top torturer in Hell, where he prefers to remain for his "studies" until he's dragged out to prepare for the Apocalypse. He is responsible for the first seal breaking, as he is the one who made Dean torture other souls. Portrayed by Mark Rolston, Andrew Wheeler, and Christopher Heyerdahl, Alastair first appears in "I Know What You Did Last Summer".

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• Aerith and Bob: He's among the oldest and most powerful demons, but his name is awfully mundane and modern compared to Lilith or Azazel.
• Deadpan Snarker: Often. When threatening Dean with a return trip to Hell because Dean didn't torture him well enough, he says, "You've got a lot to learn, boy. So, I'll see you back in class, bright and early, Monday morning." Surprisingly maintaining deadpan even while kicking Dean's ass.
• Demon Lords and Archdevils: His white eyes mark him as an archdemon on par with Lilith; like her, he is a demonic "chief of staff," likely a "Chief Torturer" of sorts who oversees the tortures doled out in Hell, given his field of expertise. It's ambiguous which of the two is the stronger one, as Alastair was much more susceptible to Sam's demon blood-fueled powers than Lilith was, but she seemed to think that Ruby's knife would kill her even though it didn't kill Alastair.
• The Determinator: Alastair shows the villainous variant of Heroic Willpower when he refuses to break under the torture of angels or his former apprentice in Hell. Sam's powers prove to be too much for even him, though.
• The Dreaded: Everybody who knows Alastair is afraid of him. The very idea that he is after them is enough to make Ruby freak out, and to make Dean abandon the Demon-Killing Knife and retreat rather than risk fighting Alastair for another second. Ruby describes him as "The Grand Inquisitor downstairs," and "Picasso with a straight-razor," and admits that she is more afraid of him than both Castiel and Uriel.
• Even Evil Has Standards: Evil as he is, it seems that even Alastair may have some sense of integrity about him, keeping to his promise not to torture Dean if Dean continued to torture souls even after the first seal already broke. In "Heaven and Hell", he is openly contemptuous of fellow demon Ruby protecting the angel Anna but still holds a conversation with her. It is only when she reveals shortly after that she (supposedly) wants to betray the people she's sided with against Lilith by handing over the angel whose safety she's been entrusted with, that Alastair gets nasty with the name-calling and takes her captive to torture her half to death, remarking that she's living up to an apparent, not-so-great reputation of being devious and cowardly.
• Evil Gloating: Runs with the stuff, and often mixes it in with "Reason You Suck" Speech, to him its just another form of torture.
• Evil Laugh: At the idea of Dean torturing him.
• Evil Mentor: Presumably, he was this off-screen to Meg, since he was the one who taught her how to torture people. He was explicitly this to Dean when Dean was in Hell, not only pushing Dean far enough to torture people, but also getting him to enjoy it. Thankfully, Dean seems to snap out of it as soon as he gets away from Alastair, going back to his normal heroic personality and being extremely reluctant to use anything Alastair taught him — which disappoints Alastair, as he thought that Dean had shown a great deal of potential in Hell.
• Faux Affably Evil: Alastair loves to smile and chat up his victims as he's carving them up. He also inverts the trope in the episode "On the Head of a Pin", when he becomes Dean's torturee and spends the whole time dispensing advice, commenting on Dean's technique, or reminiscing about the good ol' days back in Hell, when he apprenticed Dean in the arts of mutilating people.
• Hannibal Lecture: Doles out a string of them to Dean in "On the Head of a Pin", finally breaking him with the last one.
• Hero Killer: It's really saying something when Ruby — who has already made her terror of angels plain, and with good reason — tells Sam she's more worried about what Alastair would do to her and the Winchesters if he caught them. He proves her right by spending about two-thirds of all his scenes overpowering other characters, torturing, and otherwise beating them down. His status as an immensely powerful and terrifying villain is such that when Sam's powers get strong enough to kill Alastair with minor effort, it's held up as something to really be concerned about and other characters are appropriately unnerved.
• Historical Rap Sheet: Implied to have been involved in the Holocaust when he notes how he hasn't been on Earth since "Poland, '43".
• Hoist by His Own Petard: Played with. The demon who tortured Dean for decades in Hell is himself tortured by his former victim in "On the Head of a Pin". However, it's portrayed less as just deserts than Dean skirting the edge of He Who Fights Monsters.
• Kick The Son Of A Bitch: Alastair is undoubtedly a nasty piece of work, but he is at least an enjoyable villain. Ruby, on the other hand, rubs a lot of fans the wrong way for being unlikable and possibly evil. For this reason, some fans relished him insulting Ruby and subjecting her to Cold-Blooded Torture for the sake of catharsis. The reveal that Ruby is in fact a villain who gets Sam hooked on demon blood and manipulates him to start the Apocalypse while driving the brothers apart retroactively makes the torture scene in "Heaven and Hell" a solid, if retroactive, example of the trope.
• Mad Artist: Invoked by Ruby calling him "Picasso, with a razor," not only conjuring unsettling images of what Alastair might do to his victims' faces but also directly implying that Alastair's handiwork has earned him a reputation as one of Hell's most skilled torturers. Alastair himself expresses admiration of a really good torture implement and is known to take on "apprentices," again like a master passing on his craft. He even criticizes the job Dean is doing of torturing him as though he was still overseeing him in Hell, and laments the limitations of earthly torture.
• Meaningful Name: "Alastor" is the name of a demon in Christian mythology who is described as a exceptionally cruel "tormentor," which perfectly describes Alastair. Alastor is further described as the demonic "executioner" in charge of carrying out the sentences in Hell decreed by its ruler, which can be compared to how Queen Bitch Lilith put him in charge of torturing Dean's soul with the goal of breaking the first seal, and how it is probably at her demand that he comes topside to help her break seals and deal with angels. Finally, in Grecian mythology, "Alastor" was a spirit of wicked vengeance who would punish sons for their father's crimes if the father died before the punishment for him could be exacted, which is reminiscent of Alastair's story that he had to use Dean to break the seal when he couldn't with John. It also works nicely with the theme of revenge associated with Alastair and his fellow White Eyes Lilith, with Dean and Sam getting some measure of revenge against Alastair in "On the Head of a Pin" for his torture of Dean, and Sam's obsession throughout Season 4 with killing Lilith for revenge against her being the one who killed Dean and sent him to Hell to be tortured by Alastair in the first place.
• No-Holds-Barred Beatdown: For his debut, he throws Sam down a flight of stair so that he can beat Dean's face in before the boys jump out a window and escape... because Alastair let them. He has a much nastier encore when he is freed from the devil's trap in "On the Head of a Pin", and this time gets very close to literally beating Dean to death (so much so that Dean had to be hospitalized afterward). Castiel arrives to save Dean and then Sam arrives to save Cass.
• No-Sell: He's completely immune to the angels' ability to kill demons with a touch, and also survives getting stabbed in the heart with Ruby's knife twice; he just pulls it out and goes on his jolly way. He's also immune to Sam's Psychic Powers until Sam becomes immune to his powers by "Death Takes a Holiday", and gets strong enough to psychically torture and then kill Alastair an episode later.
• Oh, Crap!:
  • When his powers stop working on Sam in "Death Takes a Holiday", Alastair goggles for a second before getting the hell out of there.
  • He laughs at the idea of Dean torturing him, and mocks him at the idea of using of holy water. Then he sees Dean filling a syringe with holy water...
  • Has another one when Sam tells him, "Now I can kill."
• Poisonous Captive: In "On the Head of a Pin", while he's being interrogated by Dean and the angels.
• Prophet Eyes: Has eerie white eyes like Lilith.
• Psycho for Hire: Alastair is noticeably even nastier than other demons. He cares more about carving people up than he does about the Apocalypse. In fact, it seems like he only (barely) tolerates going topside when he gets the chance to dick over the angels or because Lilith orders him to.
• Psycho Knife Nut: An Alastair without some sharp instrument in hand is a rare Alastair indeed. He appreciates a good tool, too. When he was torturing Ruby with her own knife, he calls it "an exquisite piece" and tells her that she must tell him where she found it.
• Theme Naming: With Crowley as Lilith's Co-Dragons, for Real Life occultist Aleister Crowley.
• Torture Is Ineffective: At least, Dean's and the angels' tortures are. Alastair is Hell's greatest torturer, so trying to do a number on him is prone to backfire spectacularly. When his former "student" Dean interrogates him through a long process of Cold-Blooded Torture, after Alastair escapes he actually berates Dean on the job he did and tries to kill Dean to send his soul back to "class" immediately. Subverted with Sam, who finally gets Alastair to talk... only for him to reveal that he never had the information they were looking for anyway.
• Torture Technician: Good God. His defining characteristic is being what Ruby describes as "The Grand Inquisitor Downstairs," as in he's spent thousands of years and even longer in Hell-time flaying and mutilating souls past their breaking point.
• Voices Are Mental: His first and third hosts share a very similar lisp-type thing that makes Alastair sound kind of like a snake.
• We Didn't Start the Führer: Alastair implies he had a hand in the creation of the extermination camps in Nazi Germany.

Belphegor (Spoilers)

Belphagor

^{Spoilers! Click here to see Belphegor.}

Downstairs, I punch a clock. A soul comes in, I torment it, it's what I do.

A torturer demon who claimed to be a fan of Dean's work with Alastair during the hunter's stint in Hell, Belphegor possessed the corpse of Jack Kline and assisted the Winchesters in escaping the horde of zombies after God began the end of the world. Portrayed by Alexander Calvert.

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• Almighty Janitor: He is a fairly low-ranking demon in the greater scheme of things, but makes a play to become Hell's new ruler.
• Ascended Fanboy: He squees over meeting Dean and treats him like a celebrity due to Dean's stint in Hell, calling Dean's activities to be "art".
• Desecrating the Dead: Possessing the corpse of Jack Kline, which Castiel isn't happy about.
• Disc-One Final Boss: It appears that he might be a major threat in the final season, but ends up getting killed three episodes in.
• Enemy Mine: Teams up with the Winchesters to combat the Ghostpocalypse.
• Eyeless Face: As a result of possessing Jack's corpse, Belphegor has no eyes, although his behavior indicates this isn't a hindrance.
• Faux Affably Evil: Quite friendly and helpful, but he's still a demon after all and is biding his time until he can rule Hell and possibly even Heaven and the entire world.
• Indispensable Scoundrel: The Winchester have no choice but to keep him around to resolve the Ghostpocalypse, even though Castiel would happily kill him then and there.
• Kill It with Fire: Castiel smites the crap out of him to the extent that his (Jack's) physical body is reduced to a charred skeleton.
• Manipulative Bastard: As Castiel discovers, Belphegor had been playing them the whole time and his real reason for helping them was so he'd have a chance to absorb the billions of souls into himself.
• Near-Villain Victory: He came very close to succeeding in his plan to absorb billions of souls and become the new god.
• Punch-Clock Villain: Literally describes himself as such, as seen above.
• Purely Aesthetic Glasses: Despite not needing them, he adopts a pair of sunglasses to disguise the fact his vessel lacks eyes.
• Sixth Ranger Traitor: Despite allying with Team Free Will, he actually plans to absorb the souls in Hell and become "close to" a god.
• Your Approval Fills Me with Shame: Belphegor fanboys over Dean's time as a torturer, while Dean would rather have left this forgotten.

Dean Winchester

See his page

Azazel's Children

Meg

Meg

The best torturers never get their hands dirty.

Meg initially served under Azazel. She appears to go off the rails in Season 2 before rejoining the cause and serving Lucifer in Season 5. Despite being bitter enemies with the Winchesters due to her having killed many of their friends, they reluctantly ally with her in later seasons for mutual benefit. Portrayed by Nicki Aycox, Jared Padalecki, and Rachel Miner, Meg first appears in "Scarecrow" (S01, E11).

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• Aerith and Bob: "Meg Masters" is the name of the unfortunate girl Azazel's daughter possesses. The name of the demon herself is seemingly never mentioned. It seems that she might've eventually just adopted Meg as her name, as even another demon calls her by it in Season 8.
• All Women Are Lustful: Like pretty much all female demons, Meg enjoys sex and is a very lustful individual.
• Aloof Dark-Haired Girl: In her second meat suit (portrayed by Rachel Miner). Meg being a demon automatically classifies her as an Ice Queen who is a Manipulative Bitch and a Dark Action Girl who kicks major ass. She is also an Eerie Pale-Skinned Brunette. Meg is also incredibly snarky and sarcastic and she has a major attitude.
• Ambiguously Evil: Meg becomes this in Season 8. Although in the beginning Meg was fighting for the bad side, she eventually becomes a Friendly Enemy to the Winchesters and helps them to take down Crowley. She even tried to change her ways because she starts developing feelings for Castiel.
• Artifact Alias: Notoriously keeps using the name "Meg" even after she is no longer possessing Meg Masters.
• Ascended Demon: After teaming up with the Winchesters, she is well on her way to becoming one of the good guys. She attributes this to her affection for Castiel, indirectly comparing it to how Sam falls in love with Amelia and quits hunting to be with her (implying that Meg has fallen in love with Castiel and is turning good to be with him). She's somewhat disgruntled by this change in herself and misses being completely evil, since it was simpler and being kinda good sucks in her opinion. Meg deserves some props, though: unlike a semi-cured Crowley, she is trustworthy, and unlike him, she chooses to change and go the route of redemption.
• Avenging the Villain: She tries to accomplish this after Lucifer gets his ass locked back in Hell by gunning after Crowley.
• Aw, Look! They Really Do Love Each Other: Her relationship with Castiel. Although Meg is a demon and Castiel is an angel and they are supposed to be enemies, it is very clear and obvious that Meg has a very deep affection or soft spot for the angel.
• Back for the Dead: Captured by Crowley's men at the end of "Survival of the Fittest," tortured for a year for the location of Lucifer's crypts, and then killed when she returns to the screen in "Goodbye, Stranger."
• Badass in Distress: Meg has been caught and tortured a few times. The most notable instance of this was when Crowley got her: it happened for over a year, without any of her "allies" (by that time, Sam, Dean and Cass) bothering to go look for her. They only rescue her because they need the information she has, and don't even know that she's the one they're rescuing at first. Considering her actions to them in the past, it's understandable why Sam and Dean might not care enough about what happens to her, and Cass was busy being brainwashed by Naomi, but Meg makes it clear that she finds it a betrayal by Sam when she finds out that he hadn't even looked for her.
• The Baroness: Meg is of the Sexpot variation. Like most female demons, she often uses her sexuality in order to get what she wants. She also has a tendency to be rather domineering and controlling and she is also very cunning and manipulative. She had shown strong shades of this in the earlier seasons with Sam as she has tried to seduce him multiple times, much to Sam's disconcertion.
• Belligerent Sexual Tension: With Castiel. Most of this stems from the fact that Castiel is an angel and Meg is a demon, meaning that they are from opposing species. Angels and demons are known to be enemies, therefore, this makes Castiel and Meg's relationship very unusual and odd. Because of the immediate "hatred" between the two of them because of their respective species, there is also a very strong sexual attraction there. This was taken up to eleven in Season 6 when Castiel kissed Meg. From there, it seems that their relationship grew from a strong dislike to a mutual like and respect on some level. Meg even admitted in Season 8 that she loved Castiel and would even give up her evil ways because of her affection for him.
• Bitch in Sheep's Clothing: She befriends Sam in Season 1 in the guise of a fellow hitchhiker, before he learns she's evil.
• Boyish Short Hair: Her first incarnation, the real Meg; the demon cut off most of her hair while she was possessing her. Her third incarnation apparently gets to keep her long hair, as does her second incarnation, the very floppy-haired, very male Sam Winchester.
• Card-Carrying Villain: "You ever miss the apocalypse?...I miss the simplicity. I was bad, you were good. Life was easier. Now it's all so messy. I'm kinda good, which sucks, and you're kinda bad, which is actually all manner of hot."
• Cloudcuckoolander's Minder: To Castiel in Season 7 after he absorbs Sam's mental trauma.
• Cold-Blooded Torture: Happened to Meg for an entire year in Season 8.
• Cute and Psycho: Especially in the first season or first few seasons. She tones it down in the later seasons when doing a mild Heel–Face Turn.
• Daddy's Little Villain: To Azazel in Season 1.
• Dark Action Girl: Most of the time. She graduates to Action Girl status when working with Sam, Dean and Castiel against Crowley.
• Death by Adaptation: In the anime.
• Deadpan Snarker: Meg is always perfectly willing to throw out witty one liners in between killing and torturing innocent people.
• Defiant to the End: When Crowley is beating her and taunting her, Meg taunts him right back and tells him to take as long as he wants with her (since she's trying to keep him focused on beating her up instead of go after Sam, Dean and Castiel to get the angel tablet), even though she doesn't even have the strength to stand up on her own. The last thing she does is mock him about losing the angel tablet and stab him in the arm, which pisses him off enough to finish her off.
• Depraved Bisexual: Implied by her attitude towards anybody she has at her mercy.
• Disney Villain Death: The daevas she was controlling turn on her when the altar breaks and drag her kicking and screaming out a window in "Shadow," where she plunges to her death...okay, not really. Being a demon, Meg turns up again like a bad penny. It does mean that her host at the time dies when she's exorcised in "Devil's Trap."
• The Dragon: For Azazel in Season 1.
• Eerie Pale-Skinned Brunette: When portrayed by Rachel Miner (until she dyes her hair blonde in Season 8).
• Enemy Mine: With the Winchesters. She sometimes helps them on missions.
• Even Evil Has Loved Ones: Although she's a demon, Meg indicates that she does love Lucifer, Azazel, and possibly even some of her other demonic brethren, like Tom (which might explain why she was so shocked when he tested the Colt by shooting her). She also comes to love Castiel.
• Evil Laugh: When Dean and Bobby try to exorcise her for a second time and fail due to the binding link she burned into her current host, and again when hellhounds are chasing down the hunters in "Abandon All Hope...".
• Evil Versus Evil: She dedicates herself to killing fellow demon Crowley in revenge for his helping trap Lucifer and then assuming the throne of Hell for himself. This leads to a shaky alliance with the Winchesters in the sixth and seventh seasons.
• Evil Virtues: Unlike most demons, Meg has a few of those:
  • Determination: she managed to crawl back from Hell in the time between her exorcism and Born Under a Bad Sign in order to get revenge on Dean and Sam. Later she refuses to gives in to Crowley despite her multiple tortures at his hands and remains determined to fight back against him despite never really getting a win from him.
  • Love: in Salvation she mentions it as one for the reasons that motivates her to do what she does. She seems to hold affection for Azazel, calling her "father" and it's implied she has developed romantic feelings for Castiel by the time of Goodbye Stranger.
  • Loyalty: another stated motivators she mentions in Salvation. She's initially loyal to Azazel and his plans before her exorcism by Dean leads her to risk sabotaging it for revenge. After Lucifer's defeat, she stays loyal to him and seeks to overthrow Crowley to bring him back. Eventually she shifts her allegiance to the Winchesters and even dies for them.
  • Valor: She opposes Crowley and his followers despite being severely outnumbered and even dies trying to fight him off.
• Evil Wears Black: Meg often wears black clothing.
• Expecting Someone Taller: Don't get her wrong, she thinks John's hot and he may even live up to his reputation as a hunter, but she finds him somewhat lacking in the vertical department when she meets him face-to-face in "Salvation". Clearly, Sam set the bar too high.
• Expository Hairstyle Change: In Season 8. Meg's bleached blonde hair is part of the torture Crowley put her through.
  Meg: Aww. Thanks for noticing, Dean. But this wasn't my idea. It was Crowley's. And it's just another reason I want to stab him in the face.
• Female Angel, Male Demon: Inverted with Castiel, with Meg being the Female Demon to Castiel's Male Angel.
• Foe Romance Subtext:
  • VERY much with Castiel. In fact in Season 8, Meg admits that she's in love with Castiel, though in very ambiguous terms and the writer admitted he does not believe she can feel that in the sense we'd recognize. Castiel sort of admits he has affection for her too, describing their kiss as a 'good memory'.
  • Also with Sam in the earlier seasons.
• For the Evulz:
  Sam: You killed those two people for nothing.
  Meg: Baby, I've killed a lot more for a lot less.
• Friendly Enemy: She becomes this to Sam, Dean, and Castiel when she starts helping them out in later seasons in the hopes that they'll return the favor and help her with Crowley. Downplayed because Sam and Dean twice plan on killing her despite their alliance, only to be foiled when she teleported away or proved that she didn't betray them, so they probably don't feel as warm and fuzzy about her as she seems to come to feel about them.
• Gender Bender: She possesses Sam for over a week in "Born Under a Bad Sign", and makes him kill other hunters to goad Dean into killing him/her to punish both brothers for exorcising her. At the end of the episode, Dean jokes about how this means Sam had a girl inside of him for a week.
• Girl with Psycho Weapon: Meg is mostly accompanied with some kind of a weapon, mostly a knife.
• Groin Attack: Christian mutilates her meatsuit's genitalia with a knife when he's torturing her in "Caged Heat".
• Hard-Drinking Party Girl: Meg seems to love her alcohol.
• The Hedonist: Meg seems to enjoy pleasure and the good things in life, such as drinking, partying and sex.
• Hell-Bent for Leather: Once Rachel Miner takes over the role, she keeps the same leather jacket, jeans, and biker boots ensemble for the entirety of her run. The Nicki Aycox version had a little more variation, but still displayed a definite penchant for leather jackets.
• Heroic Comedic Sociopath: In later seasons. She's still definitely not good by any stretch of the imagination, but she saves the day on more than one occasion, and her lack of morality is often Played for Laughs.
  Meg: Wait, hold on. There's one part I don't understand. You hit a dog and stopped; why?
  Sam: That whole story, and that's your takeaway?
• Hero Killer: She killed a few minor hunters, including Pastor Jim and Caleb, in Season 1, and later kills Ellen and Jo in Season 5.
• Hidden Depths: Despite being a ruthless, cunning, and bloodthirsty demon, Meg does love her "fathers" Lucifer and Azazel, and has dedicated her existence to serving them and helping them achieve their goals because she wants to go to Heaven. This doesn't mean that she's a mindless servant, however — she is so angry at Dean for double-crossing and exorcising her, sending her to undergo more suffering in Hell, that she stops caring about Azazel's plans and instead concocts a plan to get him to kill what he thinks is an evil Sam to torture him psychologically by tricking him into killing Sam while she's possessing him. Also, after meeting Castiel, Meg also starts to fall in love, giving more evidence to the fact that she can love. In "Goodbye Stranger", she basically admits as a bitter jab at both herself and Sam, that, just as Sam fell in love with Amelia and (temporarily) gave up hunting for her temporarily, but went back to it, she believed she had fallen in love with Castiel, thought she wants to give up demon-ing and spend her life with him... but in all actuality, it was doomed from the beginning, bound to end as badly as Sam and Amelia did instead. Unicorns do not exist in the Supernatural universe and are too pure to be caught by hands such as hers/theirs, and she cynically empathizes with Sam about it.
• High-Heel–Face Turn: Kind of. She never exhibits any remorse or makes any attempt to atone for her sins, and she seems bemused more than anything else to find herself on the same side as the heroes... but later seasons nevertheless have her allied with the Winchesters and show her in a more sympathetic light, and she ultimately sacrifices herself in holding off Crowley to allow Sam, Dean, and Castiel to get away with the angel tablet and live to fight another day.
• I Have Many Names: She says it almost word-for-word in "Born Under a Bad Sign" when Dean asks who she is.
• I'm Not a Doctor, but I Play One on TV: She invokes it almost word-for-word when she poses as a psychiatric nurse in order to watch over a temporarily debilitated, dependent Castiel.
• I Need a Freaking Drink: As one might expect, Meg hits the bottle after being rescued from over a year of torture. She takes swigs from an open bottle of whiskey while Castiel patches her up.
• Interspecies Romance: With Castiel. They make-out when she steals his angel blade in "Caged Heat", and in "Goodbye Stranger", Meg expresses interest in having sex with him later if they both survive. It is implied in "Goodbye Stranger" that her relationship with Castiel has a hand in her kinda-sorta-High-Heel–Face Turn and appears to be reciprocated.
• Jerkass: Often, especially in the earlier seasons.
• Jerkass Has a Point: Her insistence that Crowley is a much bigger threat than the Winchesters give him credit for. They don't pay her much attention at the time, since they're busy dealing with the Leviathan. in Season 8, her words ring true.
  Dean: Crowley ain't the problem this year.
  Meg: When are you gonna get it? Crowley's always the problem.
• Kick the Dog: It's heavily implied that she killed Bobby's dog, Rumsfeld, off-screen in the Season 1 finale.
• Kiss of Distraction: With Castiel in Season 6. Meg kissed Castiel in order to distract him and steal his angel blade from his trench coat. It backfires when Cas spins her around and kisses back, dumbfounding not only Meg but the Winchesters as well. (The other side of the coin of Forceful Kiss and "Take That!" Kiss for them.)
• Limited Wardrobe: From Season 5 through Season 8. Meg might change the clothes themselves, but she sticks with the same basic ensemble — necklace, leather jacket, jeans, and spiked boots (in Season 5) or biker boots (in Season 8), all with a dark color scheme.
• Love Redeems: A possible reading of Meg's last stand, seemingly for the "unicorn" she, like Sam, could never catch.
• Meaningful Name: "Meg" is a nickname for Megan, a form of the name Margaret, which means "pearl." In jewel symbolism, pearls are believed to represent tears and can also symbolize sexuality.
• Mirror Character:
  • On two occasions, she points out that she's motivated by the same things that as the Winchesters, namely familial loyalty.
  • She also mirrors Castiel in that both are formerly loyal soldiers who end up going rogue and being hunted by their own kind though in reality she's more like the loyal, gleefully corrupt Zachariah to Lucifer's Michael while Ruby is more loyal, controlled Castiel.
• My Species Doth Protest Too Much: Unusual in that, while Meg is initially introduced as an unrelenting villain, she's the only recurring demon character so far to have gained some measure of redemption.
• Nominal Hero: When allying with the Winchesters and Castiel in Season 6 and 7.
• Not Quite Dead: The Winchesters are shocked and horrified to realize she survived her Disney Villain Death in "Shadow"; to be fair to them, they didn't know yet that she was a demon.
  Sam: Last time I saw you, you fell out of a window.
  Meg: Yeah, no thanks to you. That really hurt my feelings, by the way.
  Sam: Just your feelings? That was a seven-story drop.
• Oh, Wait!:
  Dean: Where's our father, Meg?
  Meg: You didn't ask very nice.
  Dean: [not missing a Beat] Where's our father, bitch?
  Meg: Jeez, you kiss your mother with that mouth? Oh, wait, I forgot — you don't.
• Only Known by Their Nickname: Since the demon's real name is never revealed, the characters (and fans) just call her Meg, after the girl we first see her possessing. She herself uses the alias "Meg Masters" when working as a nurse at a mental hospital to watch over Castiel. Oddly enough, even another demon calls her this in "Goodbye Stranger", suggesting that either he didn't know her name either, it had become her nickname even with her fellow demons, or it's her real name.
• Opposites Attract: With Castiel. Meg is a demon and Castiel is an angel.
• Perky Goth: Meg's playful behavior coupled with the Gothic looks of her third host (very pale skin and very dark hair, dark clothing, and leather jackets), particularly in Season 5, wherein she is at the peak of her perkiest at the same time that Rachel Miner's skin is at its palest and her hair its blackest .
• Pop-Cultured Badass: She's almost as bad as Dean in this department. Seems to have a particular fondness for Star Wars, Ryan Seacrest and gossip magazines.
  Meg: [upon being rescued from Crowley's torture by Sam and Dean] Aren't you a little short for a Stormtrooper?
• Put on a Bus: A recurring nemesis in Season 1 and appearing in one episode in Season 2, she drops off the face of the planet for quite a while. The Bus Came Back in Season 5. However, she still doesn't show up too much — twice in Season 5, once in Season 6, three times in Season 7, and once in Season 8. All in all, Meg appears pretty sporadically.
• Real Life Writes the Plot: Rachel Miner's worsening case of multiple sclerosis limited Meg's appearances in later seasons, as well as how much she was able to move and fight. Eventually, Meg had to be Killed Off for Real because Rachel wasn't healthy enough to continue playing her and the cast apparently didn't want to replace her. Instead, Meg died on the side of good.
• Redemption Equals Death: For a given value of "redemption" — when Crowley tells her that the Winchesters are trying to seal the gates of Hell, Meg surprisingly shrugs it off, says that as long as Crowley gets screwed it's A-okay with her, and keeps fighting him to stop him from catching the boys. They both realize that Castiel has already run off with the angel tablet before Crowley kills her in anger.
• Smug Smiler: One of her trademarks. She often does this when she is resorting to manipulative tactics or when she has gotten her way.
• Sugar-and-Ice Personality: In later seasons.
• Taking You with Me: Her logic behind allowing the Winchesters to try and close the gates of Hell is that she doesn't care about the possibility of her own death so long as Crowley dies with her.
• Tempting Fate: Meg suggests she and Castiel should get together if they survive the assault on Lucifer's crypt, instantly dooming herself to a drawn-out and brutal death at Crowley's hand.
• Terms of Endangerment: In Season 1 in particular, Meg uses "Sammy" (which he only lets his family call him) and "baby" (which Jessica called him) when she's talking to Sam. She also calls John "Johnny" and "John-boy", and Dean "Deano". After meeting Castiel, she starts calling the angel "Clarence".
• Theme Naming: With Ruby as demon girls named for gemstones. Although a pearl is the birthstone for June and a ruby is for July, they can be used as alternate birthstones for each other's months, referencing how Meg and Ruby act as Suspiciously Similar Substitutes for one another and end up inverting one another despite their similarities.
• Token Evil Teammate: Turns into this in later seasons due to being hunted by Crowley and needing allies anywhere she can get 'em — even in the form of the hunters she once had a blood feud with.
• Too Kinky to Torture: She flat-out laughs at both Dean and Christian when they try. She also claims what Christian does to her is nothing compared to what her host has already suffered.
  Meg: This is kind of a turn-on, Dean, you hitting a girl.
• Took a Level in Kindness: Somewhat in Season 7. More so in Season 8, bordering on outright Heel–Face Turn.
• Torture Always Works: Subverted. When Meg was tortured in Season 8, she had been lying to her torturers, hoping to buy enough time for an escape.
• Torture Technician: She apprenticed under Alastair in Hell at some point. She must've had a nasty internship, too, since she doesn't break under getting her vagina carved up with an angel sword by Christian and more than a year of torture from Crowley. She herself uses her powers to torture Crowley at one point to force him to give the Winchesters information, but after he breaks free and incapacitates her, he sneers at her technique, saying that she knows nothing of torture.
• Tsundere: Big time with Castiel after becoming his caretaker when he's off his rocker for a while. While still snarky and abrasive she expresses some vulnerability around Castiel who calls her beautiful with all of her "Thorny pain." Put perfectly during their interaction while riding with Sam, Dean, and Kevin.
  Castiel: (sounding concerned) Meg, are you hurt?
  Meg: (slightly embarrassed) Shut up.
• Undying Loyalty: Towards Lucifer. She refuses to believe Castiel when he tells her Crowley's theory that Lucifer hates demons as well as humans and will kill them after they help him destroy the human race. When about to kill Crowley, she dedicates his death to Lucifer, even after Lucifer has been locked up for over a year. When questioned in "Shadow" and "Reading is Fundamental", Meg claims that she's driven by the same things the Winchesters are: loyalty and love.
• The Unfettered: Meg is so obsessed with killing Crowley that she ultimately ends up sacrificing her life so that Team Free Will might have a chance at bringing him down, even if it means she won't get to do the deed herself.
• The Vamp: Just don't let her tie you up.
• Villainous Crush: First for Sam in Season 1 and later, for Castiel in the later seasons. Meg clearly had sexual feelings for Sam as she tried to seduce him. And Castiel, she developed genuine feelings for him because he's the opposite of her in every way so it's definitely a case of Opposites Attract (and taken up to eleven considering that Meg is a demon and Castiel is an angel).
• Villainous Rescue: She kills Crowley's demons when they're about to kill Dean in "The Born-Again Identity" and kills Hester to save Cass in "Reading is Fundamental".
  Meg: What? Someone had to.
• Will They or Won't They?: With Castiel throughout Seasons 5 to 8. When Castiel and Meg have their first encounter in Season 5, it seemed to some viewers that there was some serious sexual tension between the two. This led many to believe the possibility of Castiel/Meg developing a relationship in the distant future. In Season 6, the sexual tension comes to a head when Castiel and Meg make out passionately in battle conditions, but never again (in front of the Winchesters no less). By that time, it is possible but not obvious despite the expectations that A Man Is Always Eager, that there is an attraction between the two, although Castiel is perturbed by the possibility of any alone time with her. In Season 7, their relationship is taken to the next level when Castiel ends up in a mental hospital after absorbing Sam's hell pain, trauma and memories and Meg poses as a nurse to become Castiel's caretaker. Castiel makes it seem quite obvious that he has an affection for Meg, even though he's not himself and Meg as well as Castiel points out his Stockholm Syndrome. In Season 8, their relationship becomes more open as Meg admits to Castiel that she feels for him, mostly that she desires to have sex with him once the angel tablet is safe. Castiel is interpreted by some to reciprocate Meg's affections while reminiscing about their past relationship, their flirtations, and their memorable "Pizza Man" kiss. Unfortunately, the audience is left to wonder whether or not Castiel and Meg would have progressed their relationship farther or taken their relationship to the next level since Crowley kills Meg in Season 8.
• Worth Living For: Defines herself by this trope. Meg needs a cause to serve for a reason to keep going in life. She chooses to serve Azazel's cause and when that doesn't go too well for her, to serve Lucifer's. When doing that becomes impossible, she decides to serve her own cause of killing Crowley. What she plans to do after that isn't said. Maybe she would go back to trying to kill the Winchesters, maybe she would appoint herself the new Queen of Hell, or maybe she was so wrapped up in her current mission that she just didn't think that far ahead.
  Meg: Look, I'm simpler than you think. I've figured one thing out about this world –- just one, pretty much. You find a cause and you serve it; give yourself over, and it orders your life. Lucifer and Yellow Eyes –- their mission was it for me.
  Dean: So, what? We should trust you because you wanted to free Satan from Hell?
  Meg: I'm talking "cause", douchebag, as in "reason to get up in the morning". Obviously, these things shift over time. We learn, we grow. Now, for me currently, the cause is bringing down the King.

Tom

Tom

It's a fake!

Like Meg, Tom is one of Azazel's minions/children. He is brought in to help Meg during the demons' hunt for the Colt, which has the power to kill them. Portrayed by Sebastian Spence, Tom first appears in "Salvation" (S01, E21).

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• Aerith and Bob: With Azazel, his "father". While he and his "sister" Meg have normal sounding names, Azazel's name is much more unusual.
• Big Brother Instinct: Nope. He decides to test the (fake) Colt by shooting his own sister. Even Meg is shocked by this.
• Break the Fake: With the fake Colt, after examining it he decides to test it by shooting Meg with it. When it fails to kill her, he tosses it aside. See above.
• Dynamic Entry: Tom captures John by coming out of nowhere, telekinetically slamming him into a wall, and pinning him there. He later gets the jump on the reunited Winchester boys by ambushing them.
• Faux Affably Evil: Surprisingly averted, considering how playful most demons are. Meg even lampshades the difference when she tells John, "He's not nearly as much fun as I am."
• Hunk: Tom's meatsuit is pretty attractive.
• No-Holds-Barred Beatdown: Delivers a brief but effective one to Sam in "Devil's Trap", so much so that the latter still has visible injuries for a while afterward. Considering how the Winchesters' Beauty Is Never Tarnished, that's quite an achievement!
• No Name Given: He isn't given a name in the show itself, the audience knows him as Tom because that's what his actor is credited as.
• Overlord Jr.: Azazel refers to him as his "boy".
• Pretty Little Headshots: Dean shoots him the head with the Colt to save Sam from being beaten to death.
• The Quiet One: He is nowhere near as chatty with hunters as certain other members of his family, although that doesn't make him any less deadly.
• Silent Antagonist: You see his quote? That's the only time he talks in the entire show.
• Smug Smiler: In his appearences he either has a poker face or an arrogant smile on his lips
• Tom the Dark Lord: At least Meg has an excuse, since it's not her real name. Maybe it's not "Tom"'s, either?
• We Hardly Knew Ye: He gets this treatment compared to the other members of his family, being basically the mauve shirt version of a mook. He was killed in the second episode in which he appears and is never mentionned or featured again after his death besides an indirect mention by Azazel in the season 2 openner. By comparison, his father is the overarching antagonist of the first two seasons and features heavily on the show even after his death by way of flashbacks, hallucinations and time travel, where the audience learns more about his plans, which still influences the plot up to season 5. Meg for her part, would be back as an antagonist in season 2 and 5, and become a recurring character in season 6 and 7 and guest star in season 8 and 15.

Other Notable Demons

Dean's Crossroads Demon

Dean's Crossroads Demon

You're gonna make me an offer? That's adorable.

A crossroads demon whom Dean first crosses paths with in "Crossroad Blues" (S02, E08) when he tries to free one of her clients from his contract; he ends up making an ill-fated deal with her himself at the end of the season. She is portrayed by Christie Laing, Jeannette Sousa, Ona Grauer, and Sandra McCoy.

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• At the Crossroads: Appears at crossroads, where she makes deals with anyone dumb or desperate enough to summon her and give her their souls. You know. Seeing as how she's a crossroads demon and all. This particular crossroads demon is never seen outside of a crossroads, though she can leave at any time — it's mentioned that, after she made a deal with George Darrow, she followed him back to Lloyd's Bar and made deals with unsuspecting bar patrons there.
• Casting Gag: Her last actress was engaged to Sam's actor. They have a scene together in which he shoots her dead. Sometime after, they broke off the engagement. Oops?
• Cruel Mercy: In a fit of rage, she threatens to rip Dean limb from limb, but then decides to spare his life upon realizing that he is a Death Seeker. Instead, she gives him a cruel Breaking Lecture, closing it with, "See ya, Dean. I wish you a nice, long life."
• Did You Just Scam Cthulhu?: In "Crossroads Blues", Dean coerces her into tearing up Evan Hudson's contract.
• Everyone Calls Him "Barkeep": Sam and Dean refer to her as "the crossroads demon" for the first three seasons, before finding out that they are more where she came from.
• Evil Is Petty: Dean tricks her beneath a devil's trap and gets her to break a deal. In revenge, she exploits his guilt over his father's death by detailing to him how John is suffering in Hell because of him. Still holding a grudge against him may be the reason why she's so damn smug over Sam's death and messes with Dean by rejecting his initial offers of a deal before she gives him only one year in the second season finale.
• Faux Affably Evil: Even though she is a sadistic, vindictive little demon, she treats the Winchesters in an almost unfailingly friendly manner that belies what she's saying. One must always be nice to possible customers after all.
• Hellish Pupils: In her first host. As was done with Azazel, her eyes were changed to being a solid red color — as soon as her second host, in fact.
• Hot as Hell: She seems to pick out attractive brunettes to possess to tempt her potential clients.
• Little Black Dress: What she wears most of the time.
• Ms. Fanservice: Wears sexy brunette women wearing short, low-cut black dresses.
• No Name Given: She's just "The Crossroads Demon."
• Pretty Little Headshots: To her surprise, Sam shoots her between the eyes with the Colt in "Bedtime Stories", killing her.
• Red Eyes, Take Warning: Standard for crossroads demons.
• Revenge by Proxy: When Dean forces her to relinquish her hold on a man's soul, she sees that he is thinking of exorcising her anyway and tells him that if he does, she's going to crawl out of Hell, find the man he just saved, and skin him alive in revenge. Dean ends up standing down and letting her go, as promised, to protect the man.
• Would You Like to Hear How They Died?: A variation; the demon taunts Dean about his father being tortured in Hell for him.
• Villains Never Lie: She tells Dean that she is bound by her word when she makes deals. It is implied that that is because there some sort of magical rule that all demons have to adhere to when they make deals, rather than because she feels obligated to be honest with her customers.
• You Look Familiar: The demon's host in the teaser for "Crossroad Blues" previously portrayed the Girl of the Week's roommate in "Hookman".

Ruby

Ruby

On the bright side, I'll be there with you...that little fallen angel on your shoulder.

Although she's a demon, Ruby wants to help the Winchesters kill Lilith for her own reasons. By Season 4, she's won Sam over, and trains him to master his Psychic Powers. Portrayed by Katie Cassidy, Genevieve Padalecki, Anna Williams, and Michelle Hewitt-Williams, Ruby first appears in the third season premiere.

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• Action Girl: According to Dean after she saves Sam in "The Magnificent Seven", she fights even better than Sam. Press releases about her in Season 3 also described her as a better hunter than either of the Winchesters. Of course, being a demon probably helps.
• Ambiguously Bi: Besides her canon relationship with Sam in Season 4, "Malleus Maleficarum" hints that Ruby had been her female Evil Mentor's lover in addition to being her servant. After that episode aired, some fans thought that Ruby was a lesbian, since it was before she got involved with Sam.
• Ambiguously Evil: In-Universe, whether she's really on the good guys' side or not is a huge matter of debate for two seasons. The fanbase responded with a resounding "Nope!" Turns out, they (and Dean) were right on the money in that she was up to no good, but it seems as though Ruby didn't realize that she was dooming the world instead of saving it.
• Ascended Demon: Is introduced as the first one in the series, due to her remembering what it's like to be human. Similar to Meg's sentiments in "Goodbye Stranger" (S08, E17), Ruby wishes she were evil through and through like other demons, presumably because then they wouldn't view her as scum. With the reveal of her real motivation, it's not clear if Ruby meant any of it.
• Battle Couple: Averted with her and Sam. After he becomes powerful enough to incapacitate and defeat demons with his powers on his own, Ruby begins stepping back from the scuffles and letting him do all the work while she observes. She's probably letting him get in as much practice as possible before they go to kill Lilith.
• Beauty Is Bad: Or at least Coma Girl and the unnamed blonde she wears are beautiful. Ruby herself is described as "one UGLY bitch" by Dean when he can see her real face beneath her host's. Anna starts to flip out when she gets a look at Ruby; she acts like she's looking at a Humanoid Abomination, and she probably is.
• Berserk Button: Calling her a bitch, skank, slut, whore, whatever, really gets on her nerves, which is probably why Dean and the other demons keep doing it. Being a Manipulative Bitch and The Chessmaster, she also gets pissed off when people don't do as she expects, interfere with her plans, or do something she considers incredibly stupid instead of going with her suggestions. Finally, don't hit her unless you're too powerful for her to hit back. Since Dean has a habit of doing all of the above, Dean is not Ruby's favorite person.
• Big Bad Friend: For Sam. He helps Dean kill her when he finds out that she's been playing him all along.
• Black Eyes of Evil: As with all demons, and she proves to be just as bad.
• Bond Breaker: Despite what she says in "Lazarus Rising" about not wanting to get between Sam and Dean, they argue over her constantly, which eventually leads to a huge rift between the brothers in the last half of Season 4 that lasts well into Season 5.
• Category Traitor: Surprisingly enough, Ruby's rampant slaughter of other demons, her working partnership with the Winchesters, and her ongoing rebellion against Lilith, don't win her any brownie points with The Legions of Hell. Alastair in particular seems to think that she doesn't even deserve to be called a demon anymore because of her protecting Anna (an angel) in "Heaven and Hell".
• The Chessmaster: Her Season 3 actress, Katie Cassidy, describes her this way, saying that Ruby is completely in control of her situation and being about ten steps ahead of everybody else. Shows it retroactively when it is revealed in "Lucifer Rising" that she has been manipulating the Winchesters the entire time. Her plan is to gain Sam's trust, convince him to start drinking her blood, and trick him into killing Barrier Maiden Lilith. She accomplishes all of this within two years despite him knowing that she is a demon who is manipulating him and withholding information from him. She has him wrapped around her little finger so tightly that he even picks her over his own brother. Made better upon rewatch when you get to go back to earlier episodes and watch Ruby deal with Winchester-induced complications with full knowledge of that little tidbit. Ruby is Supernatural's reigning champ of Xanatos Speed Chess.
• Consummate Liar: Dean crowns her the "Miss Universe of Lying Skanks" at one point.
• The Corrupter: In Seasons 3 and 4, Ruby encourages Sam to do more and more morally dubious things in order to win the war against Lilith and her demons. Partially because of this, and partially because he Came Back Wrong, Sam does, which concerns his brother. Sam bounces back to his normal self (mostly) after Ruby's death, though, so it doesn't stick.
• Dark Is Not Evil: A demon and not a particularly nice person, but one who is at least dedicated to helping Sam defeat Lilith and one who does seem to have some capacity for softness and affection. It is ultimately subverted with the reveal that she is working for Lilith to get Sam hooked on demon blood and kill Lilith, freeing Lucifer in the end.
• Deadpan Snarker: On levels comparable to Dean.
• Deal with the Devil: How she got to be the way that she is — Ruby sold her soul to a demon to learn witchcraft as a human and served that demon until she (Ruby) died, went to Hell, and became a demon herself.
• Defrosting Ice Queen: Towards Sam, possibly as early as late Season 3. While still pretty bitchy from time to time, she is markedly more gentle and considerate towards him in Season 4 than she was the previous season. It could have been a deliberate choice on Ruby's part to switch up her manipulation tactics when she saw that her old act just wasn't cutting it and that sympathy would go a lot further in making a connection a shattered Sam, but at least some of it does appear to be genuine, as she does become attached to him. Then subverted when it turns out she was a Manipulative Bitch the whole time.
• Distaff Counterpart: For Dean, though neither of them would ever see it or admit it. Sam recognizes this; in fact, his recognizing it may have been part of why he started trusting Ruby in Season 4.
• Don't You Dare Pity Me!: She is obviously embarrassed by having her past as a human tortured into a demon in Hell revealed to the Winchesters in "Malleus Maleficarum". When they keep looking over at her, she glares at them, black eyes and all. "Go."
• The Dragon: Is revealed to have been working as Lilith's double-agent at the end of Season 4, in the service of fulfilling Lilith's plan to free Lucifer, although we don't find out until after Lilith is killed.
• Dull Surprise: In her second (main) body, she's not at all expressive, even when angry or dismayed.
• Dynamic Entry: Ruby's favorite way to show up for a fight. She does it to kill the Seven Deadly Sins in her first episode, she does it to shove Dean up against a fence in "No Rest for the Wicked", and she does it to Sam and then to Lilith's Mooks in flashbacks in "I Know What You Did Last Summer". She must've taught Sam her ways, because he does it to Lilith's chef in "Lucifer Rising". Ruby was so proud.
• Everything Is Racist: She claims to be offended when Sam treats her with distrust for her being a demon. Of course, they're right not to trust her.

  Sam: You're a demon!

  Ruby: Don't be such a racist.

  • Which gets a Continuity Nod in "Heaven and Hell":
    Dean: [about Bobby's panic room] Iron walls drenched in salt. Demons can't even touch the joint.
    Ruby: Which I find racist, by the way.
    Dean: Write your congressman.
• Fake Defector: She plays it straight in "Malleus Maleficarum" and "Heaven and Hell". In the former, she pretends that she has just brought the Winchesters to her Evil Mentor as a gift so that she can serve her old master again, but is really just trying to get close enough to kill her. In the latter, she seems to be selling Anna out to Alastair for the protection of herself, Sam, and Dean, but it turns out to be her doing her part in Sam's plan. Ultimately, though, Ruby turns out to be an inversion.
• Femme Fatale: Although it doesn't seem to be her preferred tactic, Ruby has been known to make use of her sexuality. She does it in "Malleus Maleficarum" to lure her Evil Mentor into a false sense of security. She does it again in "I Know What You Did Last Summer" and possible other episodes in order to strengthen her connection to Sam.
• Friends with Benefits: "Friends" is a bit hasty — more like Partners/Trainer-Trainee/Drug Dealer-Addict with Benefits. Whatever you want to call them, Ruby and Sam definitely had sex in a flashback in "I Know What You Did Last Summer", they are highly implied to do it again off-screen in "Lazarus Rising" and "When the Levee Breaks", and it's possible that they're still hooking up any other time Sam sneaks off to meet Ruby. Though Ruby fell in love with Sam, Sam didn't seem to think that he and Ruby were a couple, since he slept with Cara in "Sex and Violence". According to Gen Cortese, Ruby was cool with it.
• Hair-Trigger Temper: Particularly in Season 3, Ruby gets pissed off easily. She might have something of an anger issue.
• Headbutting Heroes: With Dean. They almost never get along. If, by some miracle, they do, it's gone by next episode. Subverted as she's actually a villain.
• Hell-Bent for Leather: Even more than Meg, her fellow leather jacket-enthusiast. Ruby has only been seen without a leather jacket in a grand total of one episode. In Season 3, she favored pleather jackets in blue or gray, whereas in Season 4 she stuck with one particular black leather biker jacket.
• Hero with an F in Good: Her ideas for plans tend to go like killing a virgin and cutting out her heart to save everyone else or getting Sam addicted to drinking her blood to kill Lilith. Initially justified because she's a demon fresh outta Hell, then completely justified when it turns out that she's a Fake Defector.
• Heroic Sacrifice: Subverted in "Jus in Bello". When she finds out that the Colt has been stolen, Ruby (grudgingly) decides to cast a spell to kill all demons in the surrounding area so that the humans being attacked will be saved. Since Ruby will be in the blast-zone, however, the spell will also kill Ruby. She is only stopped from doing it because she needs to kill Nancy to work the spell, which the boys won't let her do. Although Sam and Dean manage to escape via other means, Lilith arrives and brutally slaughters everyone afterwards and it is left implied that they should have just gone with Ruby's plan.
• Hidden Agenda Villain: Was viewed as such by Dean and a portion of the fanbase due to their suspicions that Ruby was not the well-intentioned Token Heroic Orc that she appeared to be. It was suggested (In-Universe and out) that she might be an old follower of Azazel's trying to carry on his work and corrupt Sam, that she might be working with Lilith, etc., etc. Subverted when more light is shed on her motivations, revealing that she really is just different from other demons and wants humans to win the war against demons, and then Double Subverted when her REAL motivations are revealed at the end of "Lucifer Rising".
• Hoist by His Own Petard: She gets killed by the demon-killing knife she gave the brothers.
• Honey Trap: Ruby sleeps with Sam in order to strengthen his connection to her and make him more likely to listen to her.
• Hot-Blooded: Ruby is aggressive, quick-tempered, and violently action-oriented. She's very similar to Dean in that regard.
• Hot Witch: Her main talent lies in her remembering how to work witchcraft from her Plague days. She gets to be a Hot Witch because of her hot hosts. See above trope for more.
• Hunter of His Own Kind: And the rest of her kind are not happy about that.
• Iconic Item: Her demon-killing knife, which is much later suggested to be one of multiple ancient Kurdish demon-killing knives. See, it's not even hers and we're still calling it that!
• Irony: When Sam killed Lilith, Ruby gives a big boastful speech about how great she is, and it's implied that she expected to be considered the greatest hero in demonic history for freeing Lucifer from the Cage. Then she ends up killed and tossed to the floor like trash, all the hard work she bragged about only gets acknowledged once by a fellow demon after the fact - and even then only to antagonize Sam - giving the impression that even other Lucifer loyalists didn't really care for her, everyone put the blame entirely on Sam for opening the Cage, and, in the few occasions Ruby get mentioned, she's only regarded as Sam's demonic whore.
• Ironic Name: With regards to what rubies are commonly seen to symbolize. They are supposed to help your circulatory system, cure infections, flush out toxins, and promote happier thoughts. This is, uh... not the case with our dear little Ruby.
• It Meant Something to Me: As was implied in "Lucifer Rising" and confirmed by both Eric Kripke and Genevieve Cortese, Ruby really did come to care about Sam, despite her using him. Whether she genuinely loved him or not is debatable; Genevieve Cortese suspected that Ruby just loved what Sam could do. Eric Kripke believed that Ruby honestly thought that she was doing what was best for him.
• Jerk with a Heart of Jerk: Usually towards Dean. Though to be fair, Dean usually starts it and on occasion, Ruby has been known to drop the attitude and Pet the Dog, like when she tries to comfort Sam about his big fight with Dean. And then it turns out she really was evil the whole time and trying to use Sam to start the Apocalypse.
• Mama Bear: Describing how protective Ruby is of Sam, Genevieve Cortese directly compares them to a mother bear and her cub. Notice how Ruby stabs a demon in the throat with her knife just for laughing at Sam for failing in a vulnerable moment? Don't mess with Sammy.
• Manipulative Bitch: Self-admitted. It comes with the "being a demon" thing.
• Meaningful Name: The ruby color of blood, referencing both her nature as a vicious Action Girl and also how she feeds Sam her blood and gets him hooked on it.
• My Species Doth Protest Too Much: The ending of "Malleus Maleficarum" reveals that the reason Ruby wants humans to win is because, although she wishes she were, she isn't like other demons — she remembers what being human is like. Supposedly.
• Mysterious Stranger: At the very beginning of Season 3. She began to follow Sam around wherever he went, killed demons in a spectacular fashion in a way none of the hunters thought was possible, and virtually nothing was known about her. The mystery of who she was only lasted up until the very ending of the second episode when she revealed that she was a demon who wanted to help Sam, and very beginning of the third episode, where her name was finally revealed (to those who hadn't already read the spoilers on her name).
• Psychotic Smirk: Ruby has an obnoxious habit of breaking out cocky little smirks when Sam's got his back turned and she's succeeding in molding him into her Unwitting Pawn. She flashes one such smile at Dean when they both recognize that the other knows Lilith is the last seal and he's shown up too late to stop them.
• Rage Breaking Point: Hits it in the third season finale after Dean interrupts her while she's talking to Sam, punches her, tricks her under a devil's trap, and steals her knife for the confrontation with Lilith.
• Really 700 Years Old: Was around back when the Black Death was all the rage in Europe in the 14th century. And Alastair says that she's one of the younger demons. Geez.
• Reformed, but Rejected: No matter what Ruby does for them, Dean refuses to accept the possibility of a good demon (which Ruby finds racist, by the way). Sam eventually comes around, but (except for temporarily warming up to her for about one episode per season) Dean thinks that Ruby is bad news and tries to kill her whenever the opportunity arises. It turns out that Dean was right about her being up to something. The second they find out, they immediately kill her.
• Sassy Black Woman: Briefly.
• Screw This, I'm Outta Here: She prefers to just leave the police station rather than stay and fight in "Jus in Bello" because she thinks that the brothers are doomed for not taking her up on that Heroic Sacrifice she offered.
  Sam: So, you're just gonna leave?
  Ruby: Hey. I was gonna kill myself to help you win. I'm not gonna stand here and watch you lose.
• Sex for Solace: Kisses Sam when he is at his lowest and most vulnerable point in the wake of Dean's death, to prove to him that he still has her, at least. He tries to put some distance between them and rebukes her, but she keeps pushing it until he gives in, kisses her back (rather desperately), and has violent, desperate, hair-pulling sex with her. Rather than this showing two people coming together for comfort, it just goes to show how Sam has hit rock-bottom after Dean died; Sera Gamble even compared it to self-mutilating and calling it getting dressed for the prom.
• Sexy Mentor: To Sam, whether she's played by Katie Cassidy or Genevieve Cortese.
• Shadow Archetype: Ruby represents Sam's dark side and use of his Ambiguously Evil Psychic Powers.
• Sixth Ranger Traitor: She came into the series in Season 3 as an ally of the Winchesters' with potential ulterior motives, continued as such into Season 4, appeared regularly in both seasons to advise and aid them, and earned some degree of their trust before the fourth season finale revealed her to be a double-agent on Lilith's payroll who was only using them to start the Apocalypse and free Lucifer.
• Slut-Shaming: She gets it hard In-Universe. Other demons use gendered slurs to demean her, as does Dean; he did it near-constantly whenever he and Ruby met in the third season. Note that while Ruby had no confirmed sexual partners at the time, later only having one confirmed sexual partner and seeming truly devoted to him in her own way, in contrast her partner (Sam) sleeps with her and another woman in the same season and her primary accuser (Dean) is a well-documented Ethical Slut himself who tends to believe Sex Is Good, making it clear that Dean was only insulting her on the basis of sexuality because she is a girl he doesn't like. Dean's use of slurs against her is (comparatively) more toned down in the fourth season, though other demons keep laying down the slurs on Ruby. This is a little easier to swallow though, as they're supposed to be unlikable.
• Smug Snake: She's already smug, but she really kicks it into high gear when she successfully Sam into killing Lilith. Once it's done, she immediately boasts about how awesome, loyal, and special she is.
• The So-Called Coward: Moments after criticizing her for protecting an angel, Alastair insults her for trying to cut a deal with him to give him Anna in exchange for her and the Winchesters' safety in "Heaven and Hell", saying she lives up to her reputation as a "devious, cowardly little slut." The end of the episode reveals that Ruby was actually handing herself over to him, one of the demons she fears most, and risking her life to be tortured for hours on end in attempt to manipulate him into fulfilling Sam's plan. The end of the season one-ups this by revealing that she willingly took up the appearance of a traitor to Hell and went on the run for her life for two years, all for the sake of her mission to free Lucifer. Ruby is pretty ballsy, she just knows when to pick her battles and when to run.
• Stalker without a Crush -> Stalker with a Crush: She is first seen stalking Sam in "The Magnificent Seven". Lucky for him, that means that she's around to save him from the Seven Deadly Sins in the big climax. He figures out that she's been following him and calls her out on it in "The Kids Are Alright". Only later on does she start to like him, but she's not shown stalking him anymore after her first two episodes — not that that means she doesn't keep doing it. It'd certainly explain how she knows to turn up whenever he and Dean are in danger from demons. She eventually turns into more of a Stalker with a Crush later on as she starts to fall for Sam in Season 4.
• Suspiciously Similar Substitute: Her character could be summed up as "Meg plus Heel–Face Turn," which caused some speculation that she really was Meg in disguise, conning the boys for some nefarious purpose. It was possibly lampshaded in "Sympathy for the Devil" when Dean confuses Meg for Ruby despite having personally killed the latter only one episode ago. Revealed in the official third season companion guide to be deliberate when Eric Kripke even explained that the writers were trying to recreate the magic they made with Meg when they invented Ruby. Ironically, Meg ended up ripping off of Ruby upon her return to the series, bringing things full-circle.
• Teacher/Student Romance: While working with Sam on strengthening his powers (or possibly before, who knows with her?), Ruby falls in love with him. He doesn't seem to return her feelings, though he does trust her and allow himself to have an intimate little relationship with her.
• Theme Naming: With Meg as demon girls named for gemstones. Although a pearl is the birthstone for June and a ruby is for July, they can be used as alternate birthstones for each other's months, referencing how Meg and Ruby act as Suspiciously Similar Substitutes for one another and end up inverting one another despite their similarities.
• Token Evil Teammate: This trope to a T. The writers envisioned her as being a much more violent, ruthless killer than the boys, lacking their moral compass, and it shows in Ruby's deadly pragmatism in reaching her goals, bringing her into conflict with the brothers even when the have the same goals but are outraged by Ruby's methods. Subverted when it turns out she's not really on their side at all.
• Token Heroic Orc: A subversion: Ruby claims to be one as her reason for helping Sam and fighting the demon army she was supposed to be a part of, saying that she is different from other demons because she remembers what being human was like, but it is eventually revealed that she was working towards the Evil Plan of the first five seasons all along by getting Sam to give into his dark side and break the last seal.
• Took a Level in Kindness: Ruby comes off as nicer (read: less bitchy) in Season 4.
• Toxic Friend Influence: Her influence results in kind and thoughtful Sam turning into a demon-blood junkie who beats his brother down and starts the Apocalypse.
• Trademark Favorite Food: Here's a test. Sample some of her lines and tell me what her favorite food is.
  Ruby: These [French fries] are amazing. It's like deep-fried crack! Try some.
  Ruby: You know what sounds good? French fries. I'm starving. I just escaped Hell, I deserve a treat.
  Ruby: Who do I have to kill to get some French fries around here?
• Traitor Shot: Her evil little smirk as Sam's drinking her blood in "On the Head of the Pin" tipped off many fans to the fact that she was up to no good, six episodes before it was revealed that she's a double-agent for Lilith and (by extension) Lucifer.
• Treacherous Advisor: Spends the part between Seasons 3 and 4 teaching and advising Sam, all with the plan to use him to kill Lilith and free Lucifer.
• Tsundere: Type A. Sam is her soft spot, though even he gets attitude from her.
• The Unfettered: She wants Lucifer free of his Cage so that he will reward her and her beloved Sammy, and she's so convinced that it's what's best that she does it all without flinching or questioning herself, despite all the crap her mission throws in her way. Come Hell or high water, nothing — not the demons trying to torture and kill her, not Dean's constant distrust and attempts to kill her, not even what her beloved Sammy will think when he finds out — will stop her.
• Waif-Fu: Ruby uses martial arts a lot more than she does telekinesis or any of her other nifty demon powers. It's justified in her case since she's a superpowered demon, which would make her more than capable of taking a punch and throwing it back.
• Weak, but Skilled:
  • Downplayed. Ruby doesn't pack as much power as other demons, especially when compared to the likes of Lilith and Alastair, but she's crafty and knowledgeable enough to make up for it. Having that special little demon-killing knife (not to mention the luck of the Devil) also helps.
  • Subverted because she can walk on hallowed ground (which Meg said stronger demons can do) and may or may not be immune to iron (she doesn't start burning when getting beaten with a fireplace poker), both of which suggest that Ruby is a pretty powerful demon in her own right. It's not clear if she comes off as weak due to The Worf Effect (supernatural beings, especially other demons, do tend to do worse in fights as the brothers' allies than as their enemies) or if she is consciously holding back to make herself seem less of a threat in the Winchesters' eyes and make them more comfortable with having her around.
• What the Hell, Hero?: In "I Know What You Did Last Summer", Sam calls her out on the fact that, for a self-proclaimed Noble Demon, she's still possessing people against their will (which led to the death of her Season 3 host). She apparently listens to him and chooses to possess a comatose girl just after she dies.
• Yandere: Ruby becomes seriously obsessed with Sam. She stalks him repeatedly and is very overprotective of him. She won't hesitate to kill anyone who hurts Sam.
• You Are Too Late: Her last words, which she says to Dean when he shows up to stop Sam from breaking the final seal. Except Dean hates Ruby so much that he doesn't care, and stabs her to death anyway.

Minor Demons

Samhain

Samhain

Samhain, also known as the origin of Halloween, is a powerful and special demon of Hell, who can only rise when summoned by two powerful witches through three blood sacrifices over three days, that last day on the final harvest, Halloween. Once Samhain has risen, he is able to raise ghosts, zombies, ghouls and unleash them onto the Earth.

Samhain is an ancient demon who was worshiped as a god on Halloween by the ancient Celts. When he reigned on Earth on Halloween night, people kept their children indoors. They wore masks to hide from him, carved pumpkins to worship him, and left sweets at their doors to appease him. He was exorcised centuries ago by an unknown party. As he can only be summoned once every 600 years, he was trapped in Hell.

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• Brought Down to Badass: When Samhain realizes that Sam is immune to his powers, he fights him in hand-to-hand combat. He would've won, too, if it weren't for the fact that he was not immune to Sam's abilities.
• Combat Pragmatist: Waits for his victim to be in a narrow hallway before he unleashes his death ray. Had it been anyone but Sam, it would have worked.
• Creepy Blue Eyes: He's nearly blind, so they're very faded and clouded, but his meatsuit's eyes are blue, and he's definitely creepy.
• The Dreaded: A holiday was created to appease him.
• Evil Teacher: He possesses a high school shop teacher.
• Halloween Episode: Samhain is the inspiration for All Hallows' Eve in the Supernatural universe and is the focus of a Halloween-based episode.
• Necromancer: Part of Samhain's power is reanimating the dead.
• The Quiet One: Most demons are quite chatty. Samhain only said a few lines after his initial summoning and didn't speak again.
• Sadly Mythtaken: Samhain is a Celtic holiday that celebrates the harvest, not a partially-blind, undead-raising demon that can only surface every six hundred years. Also, it's pronounced "sa-win", not "sam-hane".
• Snowballing Threat: Sam describes Samhain as such, stating that once Samhain has risen, him summoning ghosts and reanimating zombies around him is just the beginning, and that if he isn't dealt with before the night's end, he'll have summoned "every awful thing [Sam and Dean] have ever seen" to him. Sam manages to exorcise him before it goes any further than ghosts and zombies.
• Summon Magic: His specialty. The longer he is on Earth, the more monsters he creates.
• Summoning Ritual: This is needed to bring him to Earth, and can only be performed once every 600 years.
• Ungrateful Bastard: Killed the witch who summoned him and called her a whore.
• Villainous Valour: Lilith scampered when she realized her demon ray didn't work on Sam; Samhain charged him. When he realized Sam had a knife that could hurt him, he simply knocked it out of his hands and continued to pound him. When he realized Sam could exorcise him, he just charged him again.
• Weaksauce Weakness: Can't see very well so he can be fooled by masks. However, he is immune to iron, unlike most demons.

Astaroth

Astaroth

Remember all those dark demonic forces you prayed to, when you swore your servitude? Just who did you think you were praying to?.

An extremely powerful and ancient demon. She manipulated women into condemning their souls to hell by turning them into witches. She was the demon who turned Ruby towards witchcraft and was responsible for her becoming a demon.

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• Almighty Janitor: She had the standard black eyes of a low ranking demon but she was extremely powerful. She was strong enough to grant mortal humans magical powers and she knew incredibly powerful spells, including a spell that allowed her to exorcise a demon while she herself was totally unharmed. A feat that no other demon has shown performing, not even Lilith or the princes of hell. It was never made clear what her official position in Hell was though.
• The Corrupter: A rather cruel one. The women she turned towards witchcraft had no real idea what they were doing and were horrified when they learnt they were actually harming people and had unknowingly condemned their souls to hell.
• Evil Mentor: She was too Ruby, she taught her witchcraft in exchange for her soul. They were close enough that when Ruby offers to return to her services she immediately considers it.
• No-Sell: She displays much higher immunity to the powers of the killing knife than regular demons, to the point Dean had to stab her repeatedly with it in short succession to kill her. She was also powerful enough to stop a bullet from the Colt, using telekinesis. She was also capable of holding onto Iron when she beat Ruby for her betrayal.

Jason

Jason

^{Spoilers! Click here to see Jason in his second meat suit.}

And here I thought all you Winchesters were supposed to be tough.

Jason restored Abaddon in the body of Josie Sands and follows Abaddon in her attempt to take over Hell. Appeared in "Devil May Care" (S09, E02). Portrayed by Kayvon Kelly and Jesse Hutch.

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• Beard of Evil: He could use a shave in the mechanic meatsuit.
• Black Eyes of Evil: His eyes flash in the teaser and after he possesses his second vessel.
• Blood Magic: He cuts his forearm and uses his blood to restore Abaddon's vessel.
• Grease Monkey: His first vessel is wearing coveralls with a patch that says "Jack's Auto Repairs Mechanics".

Del

Del

Do you know how long it's been since I've done this? I thank you for reminding me what I truly am.

Del is an employee at a Wichita rent-a-storage. Neither he nor the business are what they seem, because the storage is a dungeon for people Crowley keeps prisoner as long as they're useful, and Del is one of his guards. One of the prisoners is Linda Tran, mother of Kevin. Portrayed by James Immekus. First appeared in "Captives" (S09, E14)

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• Beleaguered Assistant: He gives Dean an earful of all the ways Crowley has slighted him.
• Bitch in Sheep's Clothing: First presents himself as a harmless, naïve geek, leading Dean to underestimate him.
• Four Eyes, Zero Soul: Wore a pair of glasses.
• Villains Want Mercy: When the Winchesters free Linda and give her a demon blade he pleads for his life unsuccessfully.

Lola

Lola

Lola was Crowley's lover, supplying him human blood for him to inject into himself. She turns out to be spying on Crowley for Abaddon, and is killed by Crowley when he finds out. Portrayed by Rebecca Marshall. First appeared in "Blade Runners" (S09, E16).

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• Leg Focus: There is a shot of her legs in some pretty nice boots.
• The Mole: She was reporting Crowley's activities to Abaddon.
• Stripperiffic: She doesn't wear all that much clothing.

Bearded Demon

Played by: McKenzie Murdoch

A Butt-Monkey member of Crowley's inner circle.

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• Butt-Monkey: In the past, he had to possess the body of a 14-year-old girl, which causes him to be prone to uncontrollable laughing fits years later. He also gets used as a human dartboard when Crowley is bored, and he's eventually unceremoniously killed.
• The Dog Bites Back: He's among the demons who mock their former Bad Bosses' recent failures and refuse to help him against Amara. Crowley makes him pay for it in his next appearance.
• Mauve Shirt: He appears across three seasons, in one episode each, before suffering a random death.

Demon Minion

Played by: Lee Shorten

One of Crowley's abused lackeys in seasons 10 and 11.

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• And Then What?: He refuses to help Crowley launch a coup to take Hell back from Lucifer and reminds Crowley that the Darkness is about to consume Earth and Hell, which will render the conflict meaningless. The only reason he even hears Crowley out is to have a good laugh about his desperation before the (expected) end of existence.
• Bearer of Bad News: He has to bring Crowley information about threats to his plans on occasion and lives in fear of meeting a Shoot the Messenger fate.
• The Dog Bites Back: In his final appearance, he defiantly refuses to help Crowley launch a coup against Lucifer, gives a Breaking Speech about how ineffectual Crowley is, and mockingly compares his boss to a dancing monkey.
• Mauve Shirt: He appears in multiple episodes across two seasons, aiding Crowley in minor capacities, and ultimately avoids being killed.
• No Name Given: His name is unknown.
• What Happened to the Mouse?: He's never seen again after refusing to help Crowley against Lucifer.

Gerald

Played by: Jackson Berlin and Viv Leacock

One of Crowley's enforcers, who helps run a brothel trading sex for souls.

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• Dragon Ascendant: He becomes the main Demon heavy in his debut after Rowena kills his boss.
• Frame-Up: Rowena eventually frames him as a traitor to Crowley. He angrily attacks her and she kills him while being able to claim self-defense.
• Know When to Fold 'Em: He abandons his host and retreats to Hell after seeing Rowena easily kill his boss.
• Matricide: He got sent to Hell for killing his own mother. He defends this action by saying that she burned him with cigarettes.
• Off Screen Moment Of Awesome: Despite Rowena's great power, he and a squad of men capture her offscreen and bring her to Crowley.

Jervis

Played by: Jesse Reid

One of the middle-management demons who serves Crowley.

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• Bearer of Bad News: He's the one to tell Crowley the Darkness has been unleashed.
• Butt-Monkey: He's a recurring target of Crowley's darkly humorous abuse, such as being forced to guard Amara's door. He also gets tricked and knocked out by Dean when he infiltrates Hell in one episode.
• Grew a Spine: He's constantly nervous, but spends his last few seconds of screen time defiantly standing up to the deposed Crowley and declaring "Hell will never follow you."

Drexel

Played by:Alex Barima

A demon of Hell who is loyal to Lucifer rather than Crowley.

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• Affably Evil: He's always polite, but is a devoted servant of the cruel and unhinged Lucifer.
• Chuck Cunningham Syndrome: Asmodeus seemingly recruits him as a lieutenant in his debut, but afterward, Drexel is never seen or mentioned.
• Undying Loyalty: To Lucifer. He helps him escape after Crowley imprisons him and after Lucifer disappears, Drexel guards his throne, awaiting his return despite mockery from his associates.

Demon Subspecies

Acheri Demon

Acheri Demon

In the folklore of India, Acheri is the spirit of a child who come down from the mountains at night, bringing illness to others. In Supernatural, an Acheri demon in the form of a little girl is used in the battle between the Special Children in Cold Oak, South Dakota, which was engineered by the Yellow-Eyed Demon. Portrayed by Hannah Dubois. Appears in "All Hell Breaks Loose, Part One" (S02, E21).

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• Absurdly Sharp Claws: When she transforms into demonic form.
• Creepy Child: The Acheri demon appears as a little girl.
• Creepy Shadowed Undereyes: When she transforms into demonic form.
• Enfant Terrible: A demon who appears as a child.
• Fangs Are Evil: Develops sharp teeth before she attacks.
• Ghost Town: Appears in the abandoned western city of Cold Oak.
• Giggling Villain: She never speaks but has an innocent child-like giggle.
• Nightmare Face: Before the Acheri demon attacks, her skin becomes blotchy and gray with dark circles around her eyes. Her eyes become gray and clouded, and she has a mouthful of sharp fangs.
• Not a Zombie: When Jake sees the blonde little girl all alone in the ghost town, he initially tries to help her, thinking she is lost and telling her not to be afraid. She lures him into the schoolroom and attacks him.
• Our Demons Are Different: The Acheri demon differs from other demons we have seen in that it seems to take the form of a child, but this form disappears when it dissolves into black smoke suggesting this is not a vessel but a transformation which they likely undergo to trick humans.
• Prophet Eyes: When she transforms into demonic form.
• Summon Magic: Ava Wilson, one of the Special Children, learns how to summon and control the Acheri demon using her psychic abilities.
• Writing Lines: The Acheri demon has filled the chalkboard in the one room schoolhouse with the line "I will not kill" written over and over again. She does not seem to have learned her lesson.
• Youthful Freckles: She has a freckled face.

Daeva

Daeva

Daevas in Zoroastrianism were false or rejected gods, but in Supernatural they are demons of darkness, which are savage and animal-like, but can be controlled with rituals. Meg summons daevas to commit murders in Chicago, Illinois, as a trap to lure out John Winchester. Appear in "Shadow" (S01, E16).

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• Always Chaotic Evil: They are described by Dean as "savage, animalistic, you know, nasty attitudes — kind of like, uh, demonic pit bulls."
• Dark Is Evil: We only see the daevas as shadows in the dark.
• Destination Defenestration: Meg is thrown through a window by the daevas.
• Electromagnetic Ghosts: Or demons in this case.
  • Meredith's iPod stops working when the daevas approach her.
  • Dean's EMF meter beeps repeatedly at the apartment of the first victim.
• Hoist by His Own Petard: Someone using rituals to control a daeva risks becoming a victim themselves if the daeva breaks free.
• Invisible Monsters: Only their shadows can be seen.
• Kryptonite Factor: Light.
• Older Than Feudalism: Caleb describes them as "very, very old school, like two thousand years before Christ."
• Summon Magic: Meg summons the daevas using a black altar with a goblet of blood.
• Weakened by the Light: They are defeated by a flare gun.

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