Gabriel/Sam Winchester

Sam/Gabriel or Sabriel is the slash pairing of Sam Winchester and the archangel Gabriel in the Supernatural fandom. Sam/Gabriel is the second most common slash pairing involving Sam Winchester.
Sabriel has become one of the most common ships (slash or not) involving Sam in the whole fandom. In 2015, it was the 21st most common pairing on Ao32015 Ao3 Ship Stats by centrumlumina and the third most common ship in the Supernatural fandom.
==Fandom==
===Development of the Ship===
Gabriel first appeared in the second season as Trickster posing as a Janitor, he was hunted by Sam, Dean, and Bobby.Super-Wiki's Gabriel's page has many more details. Most shippers site the semi-flirtatious behavior between Sam and the Janitor as the beginning of the ship.
Gabriel appears in several Supernatural episodes, but it's Gabriel's third appearance (Changing ChannelsSuper-Wiki's Changing Channel's page has more details.), where Gabriel is revealed as an archangel, that caused the Sam/Gabriel pairing to really take off and gain a lot of fans. After Gabriel's speech in Changing Channels fans started to point out the similarieties between Sam and Gabriel and how they both tried to escape their somewhat troublesome families but got dragged back in anyway.
It's in Hammer of the GodsSuper-Wiki's Hammer of the Gods page has more details. in season five, where Gabriel sacrificed himself to let the boys escape and was decidedly declared to be a good guy after all, that really gained him a lot of fans and shippers.
The pairing attracted many slash writers interested in the canon who were uncomfortable writing Sam into the juggernaut pairing in the fandom, the incestuous Wincest pairing. With Castiel's addition to the cast in season five, and his subsequent pairing with Dean, writers started pairing Sam with other characters and Sabriel really took off.
===Fanfic Tropes===
Common tropes explored in fanfic include wingfic, height difference, and food kink. Alternate universe fics are also very popular in the Sam/Gabriel fandom.
There are some common themes in fic that are specific to this particular pairing:
* Gabriel falling for Sam during the apocalypse and deciding to help Team Free Will end it a different way.
* Sam and Gabriel acting as matchmakers for Dean and Castiel and falling for each other in the process.
===Challenges===
*Angels' Radio - A Destiel and Sabriel Fest
*Dear Sabriel Fic Exchange
*Once Upon A Sabriel
*Sabriel Mini Bang
*Sabriel Big Bang
*Sabriel Holiday Exchange
*Sabriel Week
==Fanworks Examples==
===Fanfiction===
====Canon Universe Fanfic====
* Black Swans by Wolfling and omphalos
** Summary: A post-apocalyptic road trip with a still recovering archangel wasn't how Sam had envisioned the aftermath of their big plan, but it sure beat a lot of the alternatives.
* Your Bottle Is Empty (But Your Glass Has Been Filled) by jjtaylor
** Summary: "Becky wants me to tell you that she's read everything so far and that she...thinks the romance plot is very compelling."
* Highway of Love (Or: How Sam Winchester Learned to Stop Worrying and Relax Already) by Jassy
** Summary: Sam noticed a few things weren't quite right after they killed the Trickster. After going back to check things out, his life will never be the same.
* Be Careful What You Think Of by thirtyspells
** Summary: In which Sam is inadvertently a cocktease and the "The Most Sexually Frustrated Angel in the Garrison" award goes to Gabriel.
* Important Angel Business by Entanglednow
** Summary: Sam has no idea how Gabriel got his number.
* omni gladio ancipiti by lifevolutionary
** Summary: The archangel Gabriel had never chosen a Bearer for his sword. Until now.
* Back to December by VioletHyena
** Summary: Sam starts a tentative relationship of casual sex with the trickster after Loki tells him he's alive. It continues longer than Sam ever thought it would and it develops in an unexpected way. But when it develops past casual and into the emotional Sam tries to stop. But love isn't exactly something you can just quit.
* Nothing Like a Little Deus Ex Machina by Ilcuoreardendo
**Summary: The angels are seeking the destruction of the world. God’s still out of the picture. And Gabriel’s dead. But Gabriel should’ve known that being dead wouldn’t be enough to keep him from ringside seats to the Apocalypse.
====Alternate Universe Fanfic====
* Eat Me 'Verse by LadyDrace
** A verse where Gabriel is the most super sweet Dom in the world and Sam is significantly more of a sub than he ever imagined. In which there are sexual epiphanies by the buckets, slow burn of growing affection and lingering darkness of past mistakes.
* Borrowed Heaven by Miya_Morana
** Summary: In a world where angels are running the show, the Winchester brothers investigate paranormal cases for the Hunters Department. But Dean is ill and Sam has to take a job at Club Rouge as a "host" to pay the new bills. He certainly wasn't expecting to catch the eye of an archangel. As he and Gabriel get closer, Sam also takes on a case that will prove far more complicated than anything he would have imagined.
===Podfic===
*Sam/Gabriel Podfic Anthology by kalakirya
===Art===
*Sam and Gabriel with Bonus Ice Cream by JoannaJohnen
*Hi Sammy by Nile-kun
*morning after by padfoot2012
*Light by lastsavinggrace
*Sam Gabriel Reunion by Slashtastic
*I Missed You by SazzyPantz
*rainy day kisses by piratehatter
*Sabriel SPN AU by Apple-Cake
===Vids===
* Sabriel-Blank Space is a fanmade video that used the song Blank Space by Taylor Swift as sung by a man.
===Ship Manifestos===
*Why I Ship Sam/Gabriel by songsofthestars (January 2011); archive link
*Why I ship Sabriel. Or a mini-character analysis of Gabriel and Sam. by justawordshaker (March 2011); archive link
*Why I ship Sabriel - My head-canon re: Gabriel by aringofsalt (May 2011); archive link
*Okay, someone explain Sabriel to me [August 2011] by onlylightinparadise, bookjunkie89, tiptoe39 (August 2011, b/c of broken "read more" cuts, click author name for each part)
*why i ship sabriel by fandomsfrillsandfuckingtea (January 2012); archive link
*Archangels Gone Wild: A Counterargument Against Stuff I Like by defilerwyrm (August 2012); archive link
*Ask: Honestly, I think the Sabriel "thing" probably arose from… a deep misunderstanding of Gabriel's character, and the show's own failure to emphasize the trauma Sam had from Mystery Spot, as well as wanting an angel to pair with Sam to match Destiel by caleb-denecour [dickspeightjr] (October 2012); archive link
*Ship Manifesto by cloudwatchingangels (January 2013); archive link
*Okay, just for anyone who comes into the Sabriel tag and is wondering why the hell we ship it, I’ve made a convenient post for you poor, confuzzled people (Untitled) by mathiascronqvists (April 2013); archive link
*It's called Sabriel. We ship it because we want to. by speightedbreath (May 2013); archive link
*What made/make people ship Sabriel? How did that ship come about? by mishawhore, mixgoldenphoenixarchive-blog (April 2014); archive link
*S.S. Sabriel Meta by violethyena (July 2014); archive link
*Ship Manifesto by fuckyeahsabriel (August 2014); archive link
*Untitled commentary on Tall Tales by allmyships, wordssometimesfail (October 2014); archive link
*I don’t ship Sabriel because by greymichaela (January 2015); archive link
*why sabriel is an otp (not just a ship) by casandsip (October 2015); archive link
*ShippersGuideToTheGalaxy. "Sabriel Supernatural's Other Angel Ship" YouTube.com, 16 Sep 2017, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0_DYUxO-hos
*Sabriel Analysis (Part 1) (Part 2) by flamerush101 (April 2018); archive 1, archive 2
*Why do I ship Sabriel? by fullfacesochan (October 2018, Russian original June 2018); archive link, Russian original archive link
==Example Art Gallery==
File:Ramblin' Man.png|Art by iamkathastrophe created for the fic Ramblin' Man, as part of the 2018 Sabriel Big Bang
File:Night Weaver.jpg|Art by teenytinytony for the fic Night Weaver, created for the 2016 Sabriel Big Bang
File:Into the Light The Leader.png|Art by nintendostrickster for the fic Into the Light: The Leader, for the 2016 Sabriel Big Bang
File:The Roles We Play.jpg|Art by buttsp8jr for the fic The Roles We Play, created for the 2014 Sabriel Big Bang
File:Sabriel.png|Sabriel by L-a-m-o-N (2014)
==Archives and Communities==
*Gabriel/Sam Winchester tag at Archive of Our Own
*Sam + Gabriel at FanFiction.net
===Tumblr===
* Tags: sabriel, sambriel
* Sabriel Stories, a review blog for Sam/Gabriel fics
* Fuck Yeah Sabriel, A blog dedicated to all things Sam, Gabriel and Sabriel
* SabrielFanfiction is feed that links to new Sabriel fanfiction on Archive of Our Own
===Livejournal===
* Unsure Destiny is a Gabriel/Sam (& Richard/Jared RPF) Fan Community
* Sweet Reads is a Fanfiction Rec Community for Sam/Gabriel
* gabrielsam 
* gabrielsam_au
==Resources==
* Sam/Gabriel page at Supernatural Wiki
== References ==
Category:Slash Pairings
Category:Supernatural Relationships