User blog comment:Kaestal/Free Will debate/@comment-5619706-20160204220924

This debate isn't just limited to the show, though. Actual philosophy classes talk about this. We do have choices, but some things are always bound to happen like death.

Another thing to take into consideration is that they did have to shake up the story after the apocalypse arc. Nothing past Season 5 really were part of the "plan". That isn't to say there was nothing interesting from thereon. The Dragons, Alphas and Eve were pretty cool--by far the best post-apocalypse arc they came up with in my opinion.

(This is unrelated but just to comment on what you wrote for the rest of your blog) They should have gave Eve her own proper arc, but whatever. Cas proclaiming himself the new God was a pretty good shakeup (although it also borrows from Buffy the Vampire Slayer 6, which also had a main character go darkside after an originally planned final season). The Leviathans were executed poorly but still had direction.

Season 8, I agree, is where it started to go really downhill in terms of storytelling. We had no direction (a consequence of continuing the story after the original plan, which, interestingly, coincides with the Free Will theme the boys chose), the Men of Letters and Abaddon weren't utilized well enough, the tablets were boring, Crowley was getting tiresome and Metatron's curveball (although really shocking), was pretty much unnecessary in the grand scale of things.

I would have loved it better if they stretched Eve's role a bit, maybe into the first half of Season 7, with the Leviathans participating only in the second half so they don't get overexposed, and go straight to the Darkness arc.

As for Lucifer being their "ace" against the Darkness? We've been given several plot-induced stupidity and character-induced-stupidity victories but this one takes the cake. It took God and FOUR archangels to defeat the Darkness. I mean, it just sounds ridiculous plain put.