This is amazing. I legit cackled when I saw this. Also I love the idea of the conversation that would follow:
Crowley: Care to explain the horror show in your fridge?
Aziraphale: Well, I’m sure I’ve mentioned upstairs has been rather cracking down on miracles of late - and I’ve been practicing that trick, you know the one with the finicky compartments and such- and- well- it’s possible I might have been a tad heavy handed closing it and that he might have got a bit, well…smooshed I suppose.
Crowley: That doesn’t explain why the unfortunate bird is in your fridge.
Aziraphale: Oh don’t give me that look, I couldn’t bear to leave Lazarus like that, and this way he’ll keep until I’m back under quota.
Crowley: Lazarus?
Aziraphale: Well, uh, you see-
Crowley: Angel, just how many times exactly have you killed this poor bastard?
On the matter of tags: an earnest attempt to communicate
As a random member of the Good Omens fandom community, I’d just like to toss my hat into the ring and attempt to clear up some misunderstandings. I also want to encourage some honest, good-faith dialogue in a severely fractured fandom.
This is not an attempt to convince anyone to interpret the finale a specific way. This is a practical conversation about how we discuss the finale in fan spaces.
For the purposes of this discussion, I will be focusing on tags as they are used on social media platforms like Tumblr, Twitter, Bluesky, and Instagram. AO3 tagging is considerable more complex and warrants a whole convo in its own right, so I won't focus on that here.
THIS POST INCLUDES DISCUSSION OF SUICIDE.
So, tags. Tags have become a thorny issue in the Good Omens fandom. I suspect this issue is so pertinent now, two months after the finale aired, because most of us have dropped “GO3 spoilers” tags, which people would have been filtering out if they did not wish to see anything from the finale. The finale is no longer a fresh commodity, so we are all trying to determine for ourselves what the next phase of our engagement with fandom will look like.
In fandom spaces, tags are a courtesy. No one can force anyone to use tags, of course. But tagging is a long-running standard of fandom etiquette across multiple online platforms. Tags are tools that help us find or filter out specific content. But what happens when we disagree on what tags should even be used in the first place? When tags themselves are a battleground?
I have seen assumptions that finale dislikers are demanding that all content with Asa Fell and Professor Anthony Crowley be tagged with “suicide.” It's possible that I’ve missed some significant conversations, but as someone on the disliker side, I have not seen anyone demand that Asanthony shippers use a "suicide" tag on all their posts featuring Asanthony. If anyone has asked that, I agree that it would be unreasonable! But I strongly suspect this perception comes from a game of fandom telephone in which different conversations are being conflated.
What IS being asked:
All content featuring Asa and Anthony should be tagged with their names or their ship name, Asanthony.
The "ineffable husbands" ship name should not be used for Asanthony.
Content warnings are strongly encouraged when sharing visuals of the scene where God grants Crowley and Aziraphale’s request to be removed from existence, specifically the moments as they disintegrate, as this decision is interpreted by many fans as a suicide.
Let’s address that first point now.
Tagging Asanthony as "Asanthony" makes sense. I think most people are already doing this. If you’re not doing this, well… I strongly advise you to reconsider. Tags aren’t just for those filtering out content, but for those seeking it. Someone who doesn’t want to see Asanthony can use this tool to avoid them, and someone who is specifically seeking out Asanthony content can use the tag to find them and share some appreciation.
Where we have some disagreement is the second point listed above: whether Asanthony deserve to be tagged with the general “ineffable husbands” ship name as well. I don’t think we’re ever going to agree on this one. Some people do see them as the same ship, and others do not. Personally I’m someone who does not see Asanthony as "ineffable," but I am okay to concede on someone using the general ship tag for them, as it really does boil down to one's own interpretation. In my view, so long as "Asanthony" is also used, tag them as you see fit.
Now for the third point. This is where I'll be talking about suicide.
Suicide is obviously an incredibly sensitive and distressing subject, one that is highly likely to carry a personal resonance for many fans on all sides of the GO3 debate. I understand why people are upset to have to bring this subject up in their tags when they do not see the final scene that way.
But if you do find it upsetting to even consider using that tag... that means you agree that this topic is distressing, yes? The ineffables' decision was genuinely genuinely distressing for people who interpreted their choice as a suicide. I am pleading with you to understand this: there are members of our community who struggle with suicide ideation, and that scene genuinely triggered some of these people.
You don’t like to see this tag imposed. Well, others don’t like to suddenly come across visuals that in their view shows a suicide. Not seeing Crowley and Aziraphale's decision as a suicide is just as much an interpretation as seeing it as a suicide is.
We will never agree on our interpretations of Crowley and Aziraphale's final request to God and how it played out. The fact remains that the scene where they make this choice and it is granted is triggering to a significant portion of the fandom. This is not a niche opinion.
We won't be able to reconcile our views on this. But we do have to share fandom spaces together. Blocking others who have a different approach to discussing this scene is always an option. But maybe we can also attempt to reach a middle ground in the form of a tag.
I have chatted with others about this, and an idea I have seen discussed is for the fandom to come up with a neutral term for the scene where God grants Crowley and Aziraphale's request, akin to how we settled on “the Final Fifteen” for the last fifteen minutes of season 2. This term should not favour one interpretation over another.
Some suggestions:
The Final Half Hour (or… the Final Twenty? How long is this scene? Anyone clocked it?)
The Decision
We’ve Come to a Decision (WCTOAD? Well, I do like toads)
Please chime in if you have other suggestions!
Like I said at the top, no one can force anyone to use tags. This is ultimately down to one's own discretion.
But I think it's fair to say that our fandom is currently in crisis. The community has fractured — or perhaps it is simply going through some very nasty growing pains. Maybe we can grow with it.
We will never be in a place where we all agree on GO3’s choices. Right now, we are all figuring out how we want to navigate this story and fandom we have all come to love. However we feel about the finale, we are all trying to find new ways forward.
We can argue about who’s right. We can block as we see fit. We can tag or not tag according to our own interpretation to make a point.
We can also decide to make productive choices that will help us all navigate our fandom spaces moving forward. Above all else, we can choose to be kind.
If you've read this far, thank you for hearing me out.
Air to air combat is the easiest form of warfare to argue that both parties consent to. Dogfighting is basically kink and it should turn you on at least a little.
This honestly does it all such little justice. You need to know your opponents airframe intimately- how it handles, turns, how much it weights and how it pulls against the air. How to dance with her body elegantly, and all for just a brief moment under the sights. The strain of your body as you pull the stick, the strain of the engines as they try to give all the force you need. All for a glimpse. The blood rushing from your head as you push forward, the fight for elevation, dominance, potential energy. Position is gained slowly and lost quickly. Eagerness can find you vulnerable, under the eye of your enemy. And all they need too, just a brief glimpse. Just one moment under her sights till you’re undone, penetrated, bleeding oil and smoke and shuddering.
I like “pentapodactyl” tremendously!!! but hate “chiro” in this context, and I don’t know why. Obviously I have no authority to be the arbiter of this but I do feel strongly!!
There’s a gorgeous rhythm to:
Cephalopharyngeal pentapodactyl monstrosity of the alarm
@elodieunderglass I'm curious how you pronounce "Cephalopharyngeal" - my instinct is to pronounce the opening as a dactyl, like in "cephalopod", i.e. "SEF-uh-lo", but the scansion of that line feels better to me if it's an amphibrach, i.e. "suh-FAL-lo"
The Cephalobrachial Pentapodactylus! Palmate monstrosity of the alarm!
The sesquipedalian's best pernoctalian psuedo-mammalian hand without arm!
This maniform, bursiform, digital deep-dweller drifts through the darkest demersal domains,
A five-footed fingerling phantasm floating full fathoms afloor from the foam-freckled main!
It hunts with its quick hyponychial cnidocytes fully envenomed and ready to kill!
If nocuous toxicants don't cause cessation its rostriform mandibles certainly will!
By ripping and rending, it ruptures its rations with razorlike radulae housed in its jaw;
Its great glabrous grub-grippers gather the gobbets to go in its ventropharyngeal maw!
The Cephalobrachial Pentapodactylus seldom comes skyward while it's still alive,
But sometimes some singular specimen surfaces, stalking the shore like a deadly high-five,
So if you should witness, in perambulation, gressorial fingertips roaming the sands,
I beg you, consider this simple hortation: observe from a distance, and do not shake hands!
Another FTH for @ack-emma. First up is The Ineffable Mrs Eastgate Collection, featuring two of her own works as well as @tawnyontumblr’s The Ineffable Mrs Eastgate. Individual story links below. Emma wanted wedgwood blue and this is as close as I could come, and it works beautifully with this paper I had. I’ll post separately about Th Counter-Arrangement.
Becoming Aziraphale Eastgate is the backstory for Aziraphale’s awful marriage. Mind the tags, there is a happy ending just not in this particular fic. But it does end on a hopeful note.
The Ineffable Mrs Eastgate is a particular favorite of mine and I posted about it here when I made Tawny’s edition.
💬 1 🔁 21 ❤️ 58 · Another of my favorites from @tawnyontumblr is The Ineffable Mrs Eastgate. (It reminds me of Knaves Wager, by Loretta C
And the beautiful sequel A Nightingale in Berkeley Square where Crowley becomes jealous of one of Aziraphale’s servants, which is hilarious.
Also included for @ack-emma is her series The Counter-Arrangement, another fabulous Regency story with Pepper and Adam matchmaking their parents, femme Aziraphale and Crowley. My wonderful daughter drew the cover art for me. Emma suggested yellow and I wanted to include the pineapple flower.
Sumo tournament starts this weekend! Please enjoy this Aziraphale as a sumo wrestler art that @hollow-head drew for me but never posted themself. I love it VERY MUCH!!!!!
Another FTH for @ack-emma. First up is The Ineffable Mrs Eastgate Collection, featuring two of her own works as well as @tawnyontumblr’s The Ineffable Mrs Eastgate. Individual story links below. Emma wanted wedgwood blue and this is as close as I could come, and it works beautifully with this paper I had. I’ll post separately about Th Counter-Arrangement.
Becoming Aziraphale Eastgate is the backstory for Aziraphale’s awful marriage. Mind the tags, there is a happy ending just not in this particular fic. But it does end on a hopeful note.
The Ineffable Mrs Eastgate is a particular favorite of mine and I posted about it here when I made Tawny’s edition.
💬 1 🔁 21 ❤️ 58 · Another of my favorites from @tawnyontumblr is The Ineffable Mrs Eastgate. (It reminds me of Knaves Wager, by Loretta C
And the beautiful sequel A Nightingale in Berkeley Square where Crowley becomes jealous of one of Aziraphale’s servants, which is hilarious.
The Ineffable Mrs Eastgate took over my brain (positive) to an extent I can't even fully describe (@tawnyontumblr has heard from me SO MUCH because of this story, I really couldn't help myself, thank you, friend!) and the ideas that came from her story activated my creative mind in a rare and precious way. To have a physical copy of these stories in my hands, and in such beautiful form, means the world to me. Much love to you, Brun, thank you. 💗
Happy Friday, folks! If you, like me, are currently being beset by this horrific heatwave, I hope you're keeping well-hydrated. I took the day off work originally to take stuff to the dump...then I saw it was 35°C today, and I thought fuck that. So! Instead, I'm relaxing on the sofa, a cat sitting on me (which feels like a furnace in my lap, but who am I to deny her?), and giving serious thought to having a Cornetto for lunch. Hope you have a restful weekend and solidarity to my fellow heatwave-sufferers 💜
As always, click on the images if the text is fuzzy!
