Azazel

"So, if any of you gals are the praying type, now would be a good time to start."

- Azazel to a group of nuns.

Azazel was a very powerful demon who served Lucifer. Until Sin City, Azazel's name was not revealed and he was referred to by nicknames such as "The Demon", "The Yellow-Eyed Demon", or "Yellow Eyes". Once he killed Mary Winchester, the Winchester men hunted him for nearly two and a half decades and finally killed him in revenge in the second season finale; however, his actions continued to influence events and characters even years after his death. For example, both Sam and Dean have been haunted by visions or hallucinations of him.

Prior to his death, Azazel was also the tyrannical leader of the demon world.

Early life
Nothing is known about Azazel's human life or how he became a demon. What is known is that he rose through the ranks of high level demons in Hell and became one of Lucifer's most devoted and trusted servants, to the point where he ruled hell following his "father's" imprisonment. Eventually, he took charge of the plan to find Lucifer and free him from his cage. He also took on a "daughter" Meg, a student of Hell's Grand Torturer Alastair. He also claimed the demon Tom as his "son." He was close enough to Lucifer to know of the location of Lucifer's Crypts and toured them all with Meg at some point. At some point, Azazel left Hell and went to Earth to search for the entrance to Lucifer's cage.

After years of searching, Azazel finally located the doorway to Lucifer's prison in 1972. The fallen angel tasked him with freeing the demon Lilith from Hell, as she was needed to break the 66 seals holding Lucifer captive, and also to find him a "special child" strong. By the following year, he began making demonic pacts with young individuals - specifically young women - in exchange for a wish: that he would be allowed to enter their homes exactly ten years from when they made the bargain. He promised that no harm would come to them as long as they did not interfere with his business.

Azazel eventually comes across Mary Campbell, the future mother of Sam and Dean Winchester. After taking possession of her father, Samuel Campbell, he kills her mother and stabs himself to kill his host. Mary's fiance, John Winchester, is the demon's next victim. However, Azazel makes his usual offer, giving her the chance to resurrect John, she reluctantly agrees.

In 1983, Mary discovers Azazel standing over her baby Sam's crib, feeding his blood to the infant. Upon being interrupted, the demon pins her to the ceiling, slashes her stomach and causes her to burst into flames. Mary's death inspires John to dedicate his life to hunting down Azazel, at the same time training Sam and Dean to hunt supernatural creatures. Perhaps because of the enormity of his task (of selecting and grooming potential vessels for Lucifer across the world), Azazel rarely encountered the Winchesters directly; instead, he sent his children to confront them and manipulate Sam in his stead.

Season 1
Years later, because demons cannot be killed by conventional means, the Winchesters track down the Colt, a mystic gun capable of killing nearly anything, including Azazel.

In Salvation, they trace the omens caused by the demon's presence to Salvation, Iowa. Like he has done with Sam and countless others, Azazel plans to visit a six-month old and feed it his blood so the child will later develop demonic abilities. Although Sam interrupts the demon's plans and saves the family, Azazel teleports away to avoid being shot. Meanwhile, the demonic Meg Masters and her "brother" Tom kidnap John, and then set their sights on Sam and Dean.

In Devil's Trap, an angry Azazel, possessing John, chastises them for exorcising Meg and killing Tom, he deems them his children, and begins to torture the brothers. John temporarily retakes control, giving Sam the opportunity to grab the Colt. Unable to kill his father, Sam shoots John in the leg, allowing John to regain full control and he briefly is able to hold Azazel inside of him and begs Sam to shoot him in the heart and kill them both. Sam hesitates and the demon flees from his host.

Season 2
In In My Time of Dying, John Winchester is summoning Azazel. When he appears John aims the Colt at him and tells him that he will give him the Colt if he heals Dean. Azazel says that he can't heal Dean but he knows someone that can. He then tells John that there is something else he wants, John dead. Later, in exchange for John's life and the Colt, Azazel takes over the reaper Tessa and heals Dean.

In Croatoan, Dwayne Tanner communicates with Azazel through the goblet of blood, informing him that Sam Winchester is immune to the Croatoan Virus, after causing an outbreak of the Croatoan Virus which was released in Rivergrove, Oregon.

In All Hell Breaks Loose, Part 1, Azazel appears to Sam in a dream. In this twisted dream, the demon informs Sam that he is in a contest against all the other "special children" like him. The demon then notes that Sam is his favorite, so he shows Sam a vision of the night that the demon visits him. It is shown that the demon sort of "baptizes" the special children with his own blood, as sort of a ritual. Azazel also shows that Sam's mother, Mary, recognizes him and was only killed because she was at the "wrong place at the wrong time".

In All Hell Breaks Loose - Part 2, Azazel approaches Jake Talley in a dream to tell him what to do now that he is the last survivor. He threatens Jake's family, and the soldier listens. When Jake is asked by the Demon to do something for him, Jake is given the Colt which he immediately aims at Azazel but the Demon says Jake would rather have health and wealth than to shoot him. He promises security for his family as well, causing Jake to lower the Colt. Jake is agrees to enter the Devil's Trap and use the Colt as a key to open a gate to hell.

The rush of demons from the gate destroys the Devil's Trap so that Azazel can enter. When the iron lines are broken, he appears behind Dean and is about to be shot with the Colt, but telekinetically grabs it and forcefully throws Dean onto the ground, telling him how thankful he is to Dean that he revived Sam since he liked him better than Jake. He also informs Dean that whatever Dean brought back is probably not "100% pure Sam" and taunts Dean that Sam coldheartedly shot Jake multiple times, a feat which he could not accomplish before. He then aims the Colt at Dean, preparing to kill him, but John appears and grabs him from behind pulling him out of his human host.

Azazel escapes from John's grasp and returns to his body, but Dean already has the Colt and shoots him in the chest, killing him. Dean then triumphantly stands over the demon's "body", recognizing his and Sam's victory over the thing which has given their family so much death and heartache. However, with the release of hundreds of demons, the Winchester brothers accept the fact that they have more work to do and more demons to hunt down and kill, possibly worse than Azazel.

Season 3
In Sin City, Dean learns the Yellow Eyed Demon's true name, Azazel, from the demon Casey, who describes him as a tyrant that held all the other demons together. She also tells Dean that in the wake of Azazel's death, the demons who escaped the Devil's Gate are divided over who should lead them. Originally Sam, Azazel's favorite, was supposed to lead them, but hadn't "stepped up to the plate."

Season 4
In In The Beginning, the angel Castiel sends Dean back in time to see the circumstances of how Mary Winchester and Azazel met in 1973, and Dean's own actions are what caused his own mother's death by telling Azazel of Sam. When Castiel returns Dean he states that the angels are aware of what Azazel did to Sam but don't know why and used the event as a means of to get Dean to stop Sam developing his physic powers any further.

In Yellow Fever, Azazel appears as one of Dean's hallucinations while he's inflicted with Ghost sickness. Dean hallucinates that Azazel is possessing Sam. "Azazel" tells Dean that his brother is not possessed, and that this is what Sam is going to become, and there's nothing Dean can do about it. Later when Dean is talking to Sam after being cured, for a slight minute, he sees Sam's eyes glow yellow in a slight hallucination, implying that even though dead, Dean still secretly fears Azazel.

In When the Levee Breaks, when Bobby and Dean lock Sam inside Bobby's panic room so he can detox from the demon blood, Sam starts to hallucinate. When he sees his younger self, he starts a conversation with him until his younger self's eyes flash into Azazel's eyes.

In Lucifer Rising, whilst trying to track down Lilith Sam and Ruby learned of Azazel's slaughter of the nuns in 1972 and discovered that the convent is where Lilith was going to break the last seal to free Lucifer. When Sam finally kills Lilith and frees Lucifer, Ruby tells Sam that everything Azazel ever planned was to get him to that point, same with Lilith.

Season 5
In The Devil You Know, it is revealed by Brady, an old friend of Sam's in college, that Azazel had a demon posses Brady who introduced Sam to Jess. It is also revealed that it was actually Brady who killed Jess rather than Azazel but on Azazel's instructions.

In Swan Song, when Lucifer finally possesses Sam he waits for the arrival pf Michael with a team of demons, but all of whom are people Sam has befriended or been fond of in the past, Lucifer reveals that Azazel had them all possessed even when a toddler.

Season 6
In Exile on Main Street, lingering fear and hatred of Azazel was revealed to continue to haunt Dean, when Dean was poisoned by a djinn. Dean's hallucination of Azazel claimed that he was resurrected by God like Castiel had. He mocked a shocked Dean about thinking he could leave hunting to live with Lisa and Ben Braeden, then tried to strangle him. This apparition of Azazel dissipated when Sam intervened and administered an antidote to Dean to cure him of the djinn's poison.

Dean was later given a double dose of djinn poison; his hallucination involved Azazel murdering Lisa in the same fashion as his mother and convincing Ben to drink his blood as Ruby did to Sam, with Azazel repeatedly telling Dean that it's all his fault and he can't stop it. This hallucination ended when Dean received more antidote to the djinn poison.

Season 8
In Goodbye Stranger, it is revealed that Azazel is one of the few demons who were entrusted with the knowledge of the location of Lucifer's Crypts and its contents, due to his high-ranking status and closeness to his father. At an unspecified point, over a hundred years before 2013 he visited them, and took his servant, and demon daughter Meg with him. Meg thus also knew their location, which in 2013 garnered the interest of Crowley, who was looking for them.

Season 10
In Fan Fiction, Marie's stage play of Supernatural involved a student dressed as Azazel in a full black suit and mask, the only definitive part of him being his yellow eyes. In the play Azazel's imitator reenacts the murder of Mary and poisoning of Sam.

Personality
Azazel: "You mean why did I kill Mommy and pretty, little Jess?...Because they got in the way."

Sam: "In the way of what?"

Azazel: "My plans for you, Sammy. You...and all the children like you." Angry and vengeful over his own eternal damnation, Azazel took pleasure in inflicting pain (whether psychological or physical) onto others. Having a sadistic sense of humor, he liked to play with his victims' emotions by convincing them that their worst fears were true before he killed them. His signature method of murder was exceptionally vicious: he telekinetically pinned his victims to the ceiling, slit their stomachs open and burned them alive while ensuring that their husbands witnessed their death. Strangely, unlike many demons, Azazel rarely killed when it was unnecessary, as he does not kill the parents of his special children when they did not interrupt his blood rituals and even states that Mary's death was simply bad luck. However, Azazel had no regard for human life and frequently used murder to motivate the actions of his target as shown where he orders the death of Jessica and ensure Sam witnesses her death simply to get Sam hunting again or by slaughtering a group of nuns in order to contact Lucifer. He considered murdering everyone Sam loved as just "the cost of doing business." He would gloat to his victims, often monologuing about his victory, before killing them. Ironically, this led to his downfall, as it gave Dean enough time to kill him with the last bullet from The Colt.

Azazel was smug and self-assured of his own power. His arrogance compelled him to endanger his own life simply for the sake of making a point. For example, in Devil's Trap he possessed John in order to steal the Colt and kill Dean when he could easily have killed both John and Dean and taken the Colt without trying to trick Dean into giving it to him, but the appeal of further tormenting the Winchesters and asserting his superiority was too strong for him to resist. He showed open amusement at the idea of anyone succeeding at killing him and would taunt the person who threatened to do so. As a major driving force and architect behind Lucifer's complex release from Hell, Azazel was highly manipulative and cunning. He took advantage of any opportunity he could, such as forcing John to sacrifice both the Colt and his own life in exchange for Dean's resurrection, with the hope that John's spirit would possibly break the first of the 66 seals by his time in Hell as a righteous or good man who must spill blood in Hell to avoid torture, the latter which was achieved by Dean. Alastair confirms John was the original target to break the seal, something Azazel likely tried to use to his advantage before John even died.

Azazel often quickly modified his plans to accommodate unforeseen circumstances, such as the death of his favorite special child and survival of another and then again when the reverse unexpectedly occurred. He relished bending others to his will, to the point that he favored Sam out of all the special children because he wanted to corrupt Sam's kind-hearted nature, as well as due to the latter's skills and intelligence making him a capable weapon. Azazel was skilled at manipulation and corruption, successfully convincing Jake, Ava and Ansem to give in to their powers and kill innocent people to further their goals.

Azazel viewed his fellow demons as his family; he genuinely regarded his followers as his "children" and was enraged when Dean killed one and exorcised another. Most demons feared Azazel and considered him a cruel tyrant, even the Seven Deadly Sins feared him for his capabilities. Azazel was also deeply loyal to his father, Lucifer, whom he continued to believe in and search for even when most demons had given up. He held these "non-believers" in contempt, calling them "dickless heathens." He devoted himself to the task of freeing Lucifer, a mission he eventually died on.

Azazel's comments in In The Beginning indicate that he possessed great knowledge of angels as he deduced that only they could send Dean back in time and remarked that Dean must have "friends in high places." Despite his arrogance, Azazel showed caution when dealing with more powerful foes such as angels and was cunning enough to cover his tracks and his ultimate goal from the angel grunts of Heaven, so thoroughly that he had all of Mary Winchester's immediate friends and family killed to ensure his plans secrecy.

Powers & Abilities
Jake: The only thing I'm gonna do is wake up, hunt you down, and kill you myself."

Azazel: You know, others have tried...It's not easy."

Azazel was a very high-ranking demon, described by Ruby as a being one of two beings on the "A-list" of demons (the other being Lilith). As of the ninth season, he remains the only known demon with yellow eyes. Azazel ranked incredibly high in Hell's hierarchy, as he was commanding the plan to free Lucifer. The demon Casey described him as a tyrant who held the demons all together, saying, "When you did him in, it all fell apart." He was subordinate to Lilith in rank, although it is unknown if her powers surpass his or not. However, he is an incredibly powerful demon, one of the most powerful to appear on the show along with Lilith, Cain, Alastair, Crowley and Abaddon who was a Knight of Hell.
 * Demonic Possession - He often possessed humans to manifest, though on one notable occasion he possessed a reaper - a feat that has not since been accomplished (on-screen) by any other being. His hosts tended to be older white males. The only way to confirm his presence within his host was when he turned their eyes a bright, slitted yellow.
 * Super Strength - He enhanced his host's physical strength to a superhuman level, to an even greater extent than most other demons do. He was able to casually snap John's neck and could overpower humans, demons, and even ghosts (although John was able to briefly hold him in place).
 * Advanced Telekinesis - He could move people and objects using only his mind, he was very skilled with this ability, able to use it on multiple targets at once, restraining them so they couldn't even cry out for help, and throwing grown men considerable distances, by flicking his wrist.
 * Biokinesis - He demonstrated the ability to psychically injure humans, even inducing fatal internal bleeding with a mere glare. One of the omens of Azazel's arrival also included mass cattle deaths.
 * Pyrokinesis - He could generate and manipulate fire. His power over fire was extensive enough that he could render entire buildings ablaze in minutes or even seconds.
 * Immunity - Azazel was immune to several demonic weaknesses, he was immune to Holy Water, Salt and was able to walk on holy ground.
 * Invulnerability - He could not be harmed by conventional weapons or methods, gun blasts and flames barely affected him. Death's scythe and the First Blade can kill him and the only gun with the power to kill him is The Colt
 * Immortality - Azazel was able to potentially live forever, he was thousands of years old when he died.
 * Resurrection - He was able to resurrect dying or dead humans, though he had to first make a deal with a living human, he explicitly stated that he couldn't resurrect people unless a deal was made, dismissing it as "red tape".
 * Super Stamina - Azazel did not require food, water, oxygen, or sleep to sustain himself.
 * Reality Warping - He could alter the world around him in the context of a demonic deal. Unlike all other demons, he did not require a soul to power the deals he made. However, he still had to obey the rules of the demonic soul deals. As he said in reference to Sam's resurrection at the end of Season 2, "You see, demons can't resurrect people unless a deal is made. I know, red tape--it'll make you nuts."
 * Teleportation - He could travel instantly from one place to another including hell and earth without occupying the space in between, he was quick enough to use this to avoid bullets. He was able to move fast enough to kidnap Sam and remove him in seconds.
 * Dream Walking - He could enter others' dreams, he used this ability to enter the dreams of his special children when they were asleep in "All Hell Breaks Loose - Part 1" and "All Hell Breaks Loose - Part 2". He was mentioned as having done so in "Simon Said" and "Hunted".
 * Weather Manipulation - As great masses of demons can, Azazel's presence alone could cause thunderstorms, massive temperature fluctuations, and sudden gusts of wind.
 * Healing - He restored a comatose, dying Dean to full health in "In My Time of Dying" and repaired John's broken neck in "In the Beginning" though in both cases he had to make a deal to do so.
 * Electrokinesis - His mere presence caused lights to flicker, electronic devices to go haywire, and clocks to stop. He could also do this at his will.
 * Memory Manipulation - He could erase the memories of people, and did so after resurrecting them.
 * Super senses - Was able to tell Dean wasn't one of his special Children, simply by smelling his neck.
 * Flight - When in his disembodied smoke form, Azazel could fly.
 * Spell-casting - Azazel was able to perform a ritual, by sacrificing a group of nuns, which allowed Lucifer to speak to him while he was still in the Cage.

Weaknesses
As a very high ranking demon, Azazel possessed very few weaknesses and was immune to the most common methods of defense against demons such as salt lines and holy water.
 * The Colt - Like all demons, Azazel could be killed by a fatal shot from the Colt. He himself describes it as the "the only gun in the whole Universe that can shoot him dead" and also ends up being the weapon that kills him.
 * Iron - Azazel is affected by iron as shown when he needs to send Jake to open the Devil's Gate because he claims he "just can't" cross the iron line. It is possible however that this was due to the fact that the iron formed a giant Devil's Trap.
 * Angels - In general, Azazel avoided interference from angels, and covered his tracks thoroughly to prevent them from getting involved. It's unknown if a regular angel could overpower a demon as powerful as him. However, as the highest class in the celestial chain, an archangel would be able to smite him.
 * The First Blade - As the First Blade can kill any demon no matter how powerful, it could kill Azazel too.
 * Death's Scythe - It can kill any creature or being, including every kind of demon.

Quotes

 * To Sam (season 1) - "Well, this is fun. I could've killed you a hundred times today but this...this is worth the wait."
 * To Dean (season 2) - " Boys shouldn't play with Daddy's guns."
 * To Dean (season 2, last words) - "I couldn't have done it without your pathetic, self-loathing, self-destructive desire to sacrifice yourself for your family!"
 * To Dean (season 4, through time travel) - " Demon blood is better than Ovaltine, vitamins, minerals - it makes you big and strong! "
 * To a group of nuns (season 4) - "Our father, who art in 'Heaven', hallowed be thy name. Thy kingdom come blah blah blah. Lead us not into temptation but deliver us...from evil. Truer words were never spoken, huh sisters? But sometimes it seems as though it's difficult to know the creator. Sometimes I feel, in a very literal sense,that I have been wondering the desert for years looking for our father. Well not our Father...my Father. See he's in jail. Your dad put him there. I almost gave up hope. But, ye of little faith, because I finally found him - or at least, you know, a spot where his cage door opens. It's right here. In a damn convent, for God's sake! Life is funny...Then again, I suppose it makes sense. Folks forget that my daddy is an angel, after all. Or was. I mean, I suppose some dumb bastard stood here, felt a jolt of his holy juice and thought "I'm gonna build me a nun factory!" You know? It's the right idea. Wrong angel!"
 * To Lucifer (season 4) -  "It is so good to hear your voice, Padre. I have been searching for you for so long. You have no idea. The others have lost faith. Dickless heathens! But not me."

Supernatural: Beginning's End
Azazel enlisted John Dee as his servant, granting him immortality and magic power in exchange for Dee helping the demons who had just risen from Hell to adjust to Earth. In 2001, Azazel ordered Dee to lure The Winchester Family to New York and capture Sam; when Dee succeeded, he summoned Azazel, whose presence destroyed Dee's homunculi before the demon possessed Sam. It was this way that Azazel met John for the first time. Knowing that John would not harm him while he was possessing Sam's body, Azazel claimed that Sam hated John and punished John for killing Dee by showing him visions of his family's deaths to both torment and manipulate him, taunting him by saying that everything happened as he planned and that he always won. He was taken aback when John stabbed himself with a knife and used his own blood to expel Azazel from Sam's body and into his own. When Dean could not kill his possessed father, Azazel reclaimed control, bid Dean farewell, and left John's body after incapacitating Dean with White Light.

Season 1

 * "Pilot" (in silhouette)
 * "Scarecrow" (unseen, communicates with Meg)
 * "Shadow" (unseen, communicates with Meg)
 * "Salvation" (in silhouette)
 * "Devil's Trap"

Season 2

 * "In My Time of Dying"
 * "Croatoan" (unseen, communicates with Dwayne Tanner)
 * "All Hell Breaks Loose - Part 1"
 * "All Hell Breaks Loose - Part 2"

Season 4

 * "In The Beginning"
 * "Yellow Fever" (as Dean's hallucination)
 * "When the Levee Breaks" (as Sam's hallucination)
 * "Lucifer Rising"

Season 5

 * "Dark Side of the Moon" (as an illusion of Mary)
 * "Swan Song" (in flashbacks)

Season 6

 * "Exile on Main Street" (as Dean's hallucination)

Season 10

 * "Fan Fiction" (referenced only)

Comics

 * Supernatural: Beginning's End

Also See
Azazel (Anime Series)

Azazel Azazel