Personality: Adam is something of a special case, considering we never see him exactly as he was in life. When the Winchester brothers first meet him, it’s not their half-brother that meets them at the diner, but a ghoul wearing his face instead, with the real Adam and his mother having been killed days if not weeks beforehand. That said, the ghoul’s representation of Adam seems to be fairly accurate – he’s taken on more than just Adam’s appearance, but also his thoughts, feelings and memories.
Those who knew Adam in life act as though there’s nothing out of the ordinary when they interact with him. He shows himself to be respectful and well-mannered, evidenced in the way he talks to and thanks the waitress taking care of them when he first meets with Sam and Dean. He is both intelligent and hard-working, a pre-med student at the University of Wisconsin. Even though Adam’s first appearance is made by an imposter, it still gives us a glimpse of how family-oriented is, as he spends most of his time being torn up and worried sick about the disappearance of his mother. She’s the only family he’s ever really known, despite the annual birthday visits he received from John Winchester during his teenage years, and he is fiercely protective of her. The way he sees it, his mother worked hard as a single parent and did her best to give him everything she thought he deserved – he’s insistent on showing her that same kind of dedication.
His mother, unfortunately, is also his blind spot, and the importance he places on family can and has been used to manipulate him. It was the angels that brought Adam back from the dead, promising him that if he did all they asked and served as Michael’s vessel, he would be rewarded with getting to see his mother again. It was enough to make the decision to help them a simple one, at least in his eyes, and no matter how much Sam and Dean tried to impress on him that the angels were trying to manipulate him, he refused to bend. He’d made a promise, and he had every intention to keep it. When Sam tried to pull the “family sticks together” card to try and get Adam to give them the benefit of the doubt concerning the angels and their intentions, Adam’s response made his feelings on the situation crystal clear:
”No, John Winchester was some guy who took me to a baseball game once a year. I don’t have a dad. So we may be blood, but we are not family. My mom is my family. And if I do my job, I get to see her again. So no offense, but she’s the one I give a rat’s ass about, not you.”
Having been raised in a single-parent home, Adam is very independent and self-sufficient, having learned to take care of himself at a young age out of necessity. His mother was a nurse who worked the graveyard shift, and Adam states plainly that he spent his childhood making his own dinners and putting himself to bed. He never held a grudge against his mother for her absence, but instead appreciated how hard she worked to make sure their lives were as comfortable as possible. All of his bitterness was directed towards John, though John did turn up when Adam was twelve and made an effort to be involved in the boy’s life, even if it was rather minimally. The time spent with John clearly meant something to Adam; not all of the memories are bad, as evidenced by the photos he’s kept of the two of them together at one of the baseball games John took him to, but he can’t help being angry and feeling cheated that he never had the opportunity to have a real father.
While he doesn’t have anything personal against either Sam or Dean, the fact remains that he’s jealous of them, no matter how many times they tell him their childhood was less than ideal. Sam tells Adam that the only thing worse than only getting to see John once or twice a year was having to see him every day, but Adam insists that he “would have taken anything.” Anything would have been better than no father at all. If the timing had been better – that is, if the real Adam had been given the chance to meet his brothers when they weren’t being forced into the middle of a war – he would have been eager to get to know the both of them, hinted at when the ghoul posing as Adam shows excitement over learning he has brothers at all. The promise of being part of a family is incredibly appealing to him, but he’s uncertain about whether or not he and his brothers will have that “dewy-eyed bromance” Sam proposed.
Adam is a person who puts a premium on loyalty and dedication, someone who keeps his promises once they’re made. Once he gives his word, he’s not likely to go back on it. His determination stems from that Winchester stubbornness, a trait that’s extremely prominent in each and every member of the family. He believes in working hard for what you want, something he learned from watching his mom while he was growing up. Considering the fact that he’s only nineteen and he’s already solid in his decision to study pre-med, he’s not afraid of setting the bar high and doing whatever it takes to accomplish his goals. Considering how much stock he puts in his own promises, he is easily blindsided by betrayal and takes it very seriously – it cuts deep. Because he wouldn’t do such a thing himself, he doesn’t expect it of other people, which implies a certain level of naïveté. How horrified he looked when he realized the angels had lied to him about their deal and only intended to use him as bait for Dean was evidence enough of that. He expected them to keep their word, just as he intended to keep his, and was not only disappointed, but angry at their exploiting his love of his family and his personal moral code to suit their own purposes.
[CANON] Adam Milligan || Supernatural || Reserve Expired || 2 of 3
Those who knew Adam in life act as though there’s nothing out of the ordinary when they interact with him. He shows himself to be respectful and well-mannered, evidenced in the way he talks to and thanks the waitress taking care of them when he first meets with Sam and Dean. He is both intelligent and hard-working, a pre-med student at the University of Wisconsin. Even though Adam’s first appearance is made by an imposter, it still gives us a glimpse of how family-oriented is, as he spends most of his time being torn up and worried sick about the disappearance of his mother. She’s the only family he’s ever really known, despite the annual birthday visits he received from John Winchester during his teenage years, and he is fiercely protective of her. The way he sees it, his mother worked hard as a single parent and did her best to give him everything she thought he deserved – he’s insistent on showing her that same kind of dedication.
His mother, unfortunately, is also his blind spot, and the importance he places on family can and has been used to manipulate him. It was the angels that brought Adam back from the dead, promising him that if he did all they asked and served as Michael’s vessel, he would be rewarded with getting to see his mother again. It was enough to make the decision to help them a simple one, at least in his eyes, and no matter how much Sam and Dean tried to impress on him that the angels were trying to manipulate him, he refused to bend. He’d made a promise, and he had every intention to keep it. When Sam tried to pull the “family sticks together” card to try and get Adam to give them the benefit of the doubt concerning the angels and their intentions, Adam’s response made his feelings on the situation crystal clear:
”No, John Winchester was some guy who took me to a baseball game once a year. I don’t have a dad. So we may be blood, but we are not family. My mom is my family. And if I do my job, I get to see her again. So no offense, but she’s the one I give a rat’s ass about, not you.”
Having been raised in a single-parent home, Adam is very independent and self-sufficient, having learned to take care of himself at a young age out of necessity. His mother was a nurse who worked the graveyard shift, and Adam states plainly that he spent his childhood making his own dinners and putting himself to bed. He never held a grudge against his mother for her absence, but instead appreciated how hard she worked to make sure their lives were as comfortable as possible. All of his bitterness was directed towards John, though John did turn up when Adam was twelve and made an effort to be involved in the boy’s life, even if it was rather minimally. The time spent with John clearly meant something to Adam; not all of the memories are bad, as evidenced by the photos he’s kept of the two of them together at one of the baseball games John took him to, but he can’t help being angry and feeling cheated that he never had the opportunity to have a real father.
While he doesn’t have anything personal against either Sam or Dean, the fact remains that he’s jealous of them, no matter how many times they tell him their childhood was less than ideal. Sam tells Adam that the only thing worse than only getting to see John once or twice a year was having to see him every day, but Adam insists that he “would have taken anything.” Anything would have been better than no father at all. If the timing had been better – that is, if the real Adam had been given the chance to meet his brothers when they weren’t being forced into the middle of a war – he would have been eager to get to know the both of them, hinted at when the ghoul posing as Adam shows excitement over learning he has brothers at all. The promise of being part of a family is incredibly appealing to him, but he’s uncertain about whether or not he and his brothers will have that “dewy-eyed bromance” Sam proposed.
Adam is a person who puts a premium on loyalty and dedication, someone who keeps his promises once they’re made. Once he gives his word, he’s not likely to go back on it. His determination stems from that Winchester stubbornness, a trait that’s extremely prominent in each and every member of the family. He believes in working hard for what you want, something he learned from watching his mom while he was growing up. Considering the fact that he’s only nineteen and he’s already solid in his decision to study pre-med, he’s not afraid of setting the bar high and doing whatever it takes to accomplish his goals. Considering how much stock he puts in his own promises, he is easily blindsided by betrayal and takes it very seriously – it cuts deep. Because he wouldn’t do such a thing himself, he doesn’t expect it of other people, which implies a certain level of naïveté. How horrified he looked when he realized the angels had lied to him about their deal and only intended to use him as bait for Dean was evidence enough of that. He expected them to keep their word, just as he intended to keep his, and was not only disappointed, but angry at their exploiting his love of his family and his personal moral code to suit their own purposes.