User blog comment:NaiflidG/Relating to Alastair in "On the Head of a Pin" and "Caged Heat"/@comment-212.3.18.48-20141113113050/@comment-11331875-20141114040710

Ha, that's funny, because I've thought about demons having different powers and weaknesses before and had actually considered adding that into the blog post as another possibility. It might be an interesting addition to the mythos, depending on how (if) it was explained. Like maybe it depends on the demon's traits affected by which demon the former had sold his soul to as a human, if he sold his soul to anyone at all or if he just damned himself through sin, and/or by which demon the former was tortured by. Maybe it could depend on where demons spent their time -- demons like Lilith and Alastair could be super-charged from spending so much time in Hell, near Lucifer and with all those souls, that they soak up the power, but demons like Azazel could have greater immunity (or at least resilience) to weaknesses like holy water because he spends so much time topside that he is exposed to more blessings, exorcisms, etc., and so "adjusts" to the weaknesses he continually encounters, e.g. holy water. I don't know, I just like the "demons are on different power levels but all have different abilities and weaknesses" thing because it complicates the mythos in a way I find very interesting.

The Essential Supernatural went out of its way to imply, twice, that Alastair could actually have been killed by Ruby's knife by reiterating that it missed his heart / only hit his shoulder and that that was why he said "Looks like God is on my side today" -- because he narrowly escaped death. (It did note that he seemed resilient to it, though.) So, if you believe that, then Lilith's fear was justified because if her fellow White Eyes Alastair could be killed by it, she most likely could be, too. I'm not sure if I totally believe it, though -- that part wasn't a quote from an actual writer or showrunner, and I take everything that that author (Nicholar Knight) says with a grain of salt because he says some things that are either really outlandish or don't quite seem to match up with canon events. The Essential Supernatural also came out right before Season 8 aired, so it was right before Abaddon's debut, and Abaddon was affected by the knife similar (but actually even worse) to how Alastair was, and it was flat-out stated that she couldn't be killed by it because only the First Blade could kill her. Also, as some users argued on the debate on the Talk page for the knife about this very subject, the knife appears to hit some vital part of Alastair's chest (probably his lung -- Azazel was shot in around the same spot and I'm pretty sure the bullet went through where his lung would be) twice, which is good enough to kill ordinary demons. My stance right now is that Alastair (and Lilith) were at least resilient to Ruby's knife, but that they could possibly have been killed by it. Maybe. I dunno.

I feel you; I remember starting to lose interest in the sixth season premiere. I've only gotten more and more frustrated with the show since then. (I seriously yell at the TV every episode because something stupid invariably happens.) Anyway, Abaddon can teleport; I'm not sure if she showed it concretely in any other episode, but that's definitely how she ran away from Gadreel in "Devil May Care". I'm not sure why she ran from him, exactly. She's probably just weaker than him, but she must know that he can't kill her, right? Unless the First Blade is just the only weapon that can kill Abaddon, and angels can still smite her. After all, it's pretty obvious that Cain could smite her without the First Blade, which tells me right away that it's not the only thing in existence that can destroy her. If angels can't kill her, though, she could just be fearful of being permanently imprisoned by angels in Hell a la Lucifer, or wary of dealing with an angel and a group of hunters without back-up (which also seems to imply that she's not as powerful as we might believe); in short, just not as fearless and confident in her power as Alastair was.

I agree with absolutely everything you said in the last paragraph. Maybe he was burned out on Supernatural, but I wish that he'd stuck around to see his show through its end. He wasn't a perfectly showrunner / writer, but he gave a damn about continuity, things linking back together and making sense, and he was very responsive to the fans' reaction and their input. This show's a hot mess without him.