I’ve been avoiding social media until I got a chance to watch it and I am so surprised at all the disappointment within the fandom! I was skeptical through parts of it, but I thought the ending was beautiful. Crowley got to create something he wanted from the beginning, our couple is together and in love, and that feeling that I relate to SO MUCH about loving the world for what it is and for the wonderful people around me instead of having a god being the central message made sense to me!
The struggle between “good and evil” has been a central theme throughout, obviously, and this acceptance/whatever of things just Being (+ the ability to make CHOICES) was, to me, very satisfying <3
They are trapped in freezing conditions inside a tent that offers no protection—no heating, no proper blankets no safety.
Alma and Lama are burning with high fevers and suffering from severe illness caused by this unbearable life in the cold. I watch them shiver in front of me powerless while my heart breaks.
Every minute that passes puts their lives at greater risk.
Please, donate now to help us provide warmth, food, and urgent medical care for my children.
If you cannot donate, please share—your share could be the reason my children survive.
In Good Omens, Heaven is a cult. A religious cult.
And Aziraphale and Crowley are not on the same page about this.
Crowley was cast out of the cult for (presumably) openly questioning it, and sees it for what it is. He is still deeply traumatised by the experience (we see it with his houseplants, his reactions to rejection, to forgiveness, etc), but he has shed his identity as a cult member entirely. He isn't that angel anymore, nor does he want to be.
He has been forced to depend on another cult—Hell (which has some elements of a commercial cult, multi-level marketing style)—but very clearly resents having to do so. He isn't a demon by choice, and when Beelzebub offers a deal to welcome the former demon back, he tells them just where they can stick it.
Aziraphale, on the other hand, still can't admit to himself that it is a cult. He's uncomfortable with Heaven and aware that it isn't nearly as good as it's supposed to be. He has distanced himself from it, but he hasn't left it.
Aziraphale rationalises and makes excuses and uses mental compartmentalisation to deal with the massive cognitive dissonance. While he enjoys the relative freedom he's had after Heaven partly disowns him after Armageddidn't, he is still, deep down, in its clutches. He believes that underneath all the atrocities, Heaven is still "the good guys", and craves being welcomed back, because he still identifies as a cult member an angel. And he carries his own religious trauma.
This is why he fundamentally can't understand that it is unthinkable for Crowley to return to the cult Heaven, to give up his independence, his identity, and become an obedient cult member angel again. He still thinks that Crowley, deep down, craves to be accepted by the cult again. And he really doesn't understand how hurtful his continued insistence on this is to Crowley.
Crowley understands all that. He sees it, and he knows that you can't argue with a cult member to make them see that the cult is a cult, that it's toxic. It's something they have to discover for themselves. He knows that trying to force Aziraphale to see is most likely just going alienate him and drive him back into the arms of the cult (although he's so desperate in the final fifteen that he does just that).
He's been trying for 6,000 years to nudge Aziraphale into a position where he can make that discovery and admission, patiently offering the tools Aziraphale needs to get there.
And it seemed he was getting somewhere. Especially after Armageddidn't.
But then the Metatron showed up, expertly using cultish mind-control techniques to reel Aziraphale back into the cult.
Others have described the Metatron's manipulation tactics in great detail (here's a great YT analysis), so I'll just give a few examples here:
"I am your new best friend"; love bombing; threats, over-the-top promises
denigration of the past self; emotional unfreezing; heightened emotion
And finally, information compartmentalization; not letting you see the big picture until you are "ready" to accept it, or it's too late for you to back out (this is where I think the Metatron makes his fatal mistake, but more on that later)
The Metatron skillfully plays on Aziraphale's millennia-long cultish conditioning to sacrifice his own wants and needs for the cult's Greater Good, his inferiority complex, and his genuine desire to protect and make right (he is a guardian angel, after all).
Paradoxically, Aziraphale’s love for Crowley makes him more susceptible to the Metatron's manipulation: He wants to keep Crowley safe, from Heaven (the Metatron's implicit threat), and from Hell's retribution (a danger that was always there, but which has become more tangible after Shax' threats). And as Supreme Archangel, he really believes he would be able to protect Crowley—if they're together in Heaven.
The Metatron's (insincere) offer to restore Crowley as an angel preys on Aziraphale's own guilt at (he believes) having caused Crowley to Fall. He sees a chance to make amends and right a wrong, to restore to Crowley what should never have been taken from him: his rightful place in the cult Heaven. Because as I said, he doesn't understand.
But Crowley doesn't know that this is what's going through Aziraphale's mind. Or, his capacity to understand is effectively short-circuited when Crowley’s own religious trauma makes him think Aziraphale is saying he isn't good enough for Aziraphale the way he is.
Nothing to see here, just an ex-cult member a fallen angel reenacting his religious trauma
Unpacking all the miscommunication going on in the ineffable divorce scene needs its own post or ten, or a hundred. But for the record, I don't believe in the coffee theory, the time-manipulation theory, or the body-swap theory. Or any of the other theories that make this anything other than the heartbreak of two people deeply in love, hurting each other because of a complete breakdown of communication caused by unresolved trauma.
So Crowley drives away, gutted by the experience of laying his heart bare for Aziraphale only to be rejected, and of seeing his life companion choosing the cult over him, of going to the one place he cannot follow. I'm worried for Crowley. Yes, he is, at heart, an optimist. But how will our hero cope?
And Aziraphale is devastated, too, at having his outstretched hand slapped away, at having his own oblique declaration of love denied, at Crowley running away from them, from responsibility, again.
But still, this is where I am hopeful. Because Crowley's patient nudging hasn't been in vain. Aziraphale has already stopped the end of the world once, and he was the one who convinced Crowley to continue fighting long after Crowley would have given up (guardian angel, right?).
I know, I know. Aziraphale didn't listen when Crowley told him "When Heaven ends life here on Earth, it'll be just as dead as if Hell ended it." But that's because he didn't know, then, what Crowley knew: that this was what Heaven was already planning at that very moment, and that the reason Heaven went after Gabriel was that he tried to stop it (Aziraphale probably still thinks it was for loving a demon, which further colours his thinking). Crowley never had the time to tell him. The Metatron saw to that. It's always too late.
Or is it?
The Metatron has just told Aziraphale about the Second Coming, sure in his belief that he is "ready" to accept it. But Aziraphale isn't ready. He is appalled, shaken to his core. I think this is the moment the scales fall from his eyes, and he finally allows himself to see that Heaven is a cult. A destructive religious cult. And now, everything clicks into place for him. At last, Crowley's words and actions make sense. And our determined guardian angel starts making his plans.
I don't know what Aziraphale is planning, if he's going to tear down the cult from within. But I think the Metatron is about to find out that evil always contains the seeds of its own destruction.
Sirius: Which one of you was going to tell me that tea taste different if you put it in hot water
Lily,*slowly puts down her book*: Y-You were putting it in cold water....
Sirius: ....
Remus: Padfoot? Answer the question. Sirius!
Sirius: Yeah I thought for like 5 years that people just put it in hot water to speed up the tea-ification process. Didn't realize there was an actual reason.
Everyone: ....
Sirius: You think I have the patience to boil water?
Regulus: You don't have the patience to microwave water for 3 minutes????
James,*grabbing him*: Why are you. putting it in the microwave to boil it?!
Regulus: Do you think I have the patience to boil water on the stove?!
Remus: Fuck Regulus you too!!??!!
James: It takes less than a minute!
Marlene: IS YOUR STOVE TOP POWERED BY THE FUCKING SUN?????
James: HOW LONG DOES IT TAKE YOU TO BOIL A CUP OF WATER ON THE STOVE!??!
Remus: Like 7 minutes!
James: Just stick the mug on top of the stove on medium heat and it boils in like 2 minutes less than that and you use a saucepan.
Pandora *taking notes*: Everyone in this room is so creative :)
Dorcas*turning to Remus*: So no one in your house uses a fucking kettle!?
Remus: Its right there near the stove!!
Sirius: Wait a second... that's used to make tea??
Regulus: You told me it was there for aesthetic!!!!!!
Reblogging again because I took a screenshot of the side effects...
“Side effects may include: stuttering, stammering, blushing, kissing, hugging, hissing, going too fast, wall slamming, drunken confessions, crying to Hozier, being the little spoon, banter, involuntary snake transformations, and marriage.
Please call your doctor if snake transformation lasts longer than 24 hours
Medication for demonic use only. Use on humans without adequate millennia of preparation may induce seizures, coma, religious conversion, hallucinations, and hiccups”
I just wanted to share that my ten-year-old kiddo got a whole bunch of Doctor Who stuff for Christmas and their favourite (apart from the 14th Doctor's sonic screwdriver) were this unlikely duo of Daleks. My child put them in front of me and excitedly went "Do you see it?!" and I, the unwell creature that I have become since watching Good Omens six months ago, went "Oh my God... it's Them."
So without further ado, meet the Ineffable Daleks.
Also the fact he said existence (singular) rather than existences (plural). They share the same existence. Yes, they’ve been alive the same amount of time, but what he’s essentially saying is “we’ve spent our life” rather than “we’ve spent our lives” they are so intertwined they share one existence
He has been waiting for them to be an open until since well always!
