Much of this is valid, more than, particularly the frequently overlooked part where Anna could have had her own role apart from the half-conceived TFW intentions for her character that built Castiel’s story instead--and all the people going ‘OMG Cas STOLE hers! He’s why she’s dead!’ are full of internalized sexism and incognizant bullshit.
All except: it wasn’t a retcon. That part’s a lot wrong.
She didn’t show Dean how she did it, that wasn’t “basically this GIFset”, because, in this GIFset, when Dean asked “You want to tell me how?” she didn’t know how she did it. She never taught him, because she didn’t know, and he’d walked in too late to see her firsthand and learn that way.
Contrarily, Dean was front and center, watching every stroke, when Castiel made the sigil in the Green Room, in 4x22. Right there, for every single symbol, and for the proper order. Ergo: Castiel did teach him how to do it.
There are plenty of ways to complain about Supernatural’s misogyny (especially when it comes to Anna) without overwriting or ignoring context in canon and then complaining about oversights or writing failures that never happened. And if only, if only, the woodpecker sighs, if only the fantastic and clever lady lovers in this fandom didn’t near constantly do the latter to validate the former.
(P.S. Anna, important as she is as a symbol of angels exerting their will and making choices, is also not the origin of Free Will, or the leader of Team Free Will, in terms of what that means, because the capitals are supposed to indicate free will for humans, not angels, not demons, not everyone. Team Free Will fights for humans to all have free will--having it for oppressors of humanity comes secondarily. Dean is the origin of fighting for free will for humans, if it’s not Castiel [as he existed millennia before Dean and desired to rebel/rebelled for this cause again and again], and the leader of Team Free Will. And though I’ll definitely entertain arguments about how in-character 5x13 really was, what she planned in 5x13 was against the motives of Team Free Will, whose main aim was to keep as many humans from being controlled by--or dying for--angels’ purposes as possible, themselves included.)
(Additionally: Anna also didn’t teach Castiel what feelings were, what doubt was, what’s right, or pretty much anything of the sort. Not that we saw anyway, in S4/S5. They were both rebels in Heaven, it’s canonically established, but for different reasons. Anna was more-than-justifiably envious of human free will and Fell so she could join them, while Castiel tried to be loyal to Heaven, for God, until humanity was threatened. And though Anna tried to fashion herself Castiel’s mentor in a way, most of what she said he already knew, and when he asked, even begged, for specific guidance, she refused to actually teach as much as preach. Contrarily, again, Dean, the three times Castiel rebelled in S4, when Castiel asked him what to do, gave him specific expectations/orders to fill. That was kind of important in the teaching, considering the fact that Castiel hadn’t been without them--instructions in order to do what was expected of him and/or be punished if he deviated, for millennia--and acting on what he felt or wanted was kind of fuzzy, and scary, by then. Anna WAS an important catalyst--mostly by what she represented and as inspiration, not by much of what she did herself, thanks sexism--of his rebellion, arguably, but she wasn’t the reason, she’s not the origin, and she wasn’t the one who taught him to.
...And fun fact, neither was Dean, not primarily at least, not even close to entirely, despite Castiel’s unreliable narration. Castiel rebelled in many ways, many times, long before S4. He didn’t have to be taught. He just had to relearn.)
