Just Alice here

Hey there! My name isn't actually Alice (it's a pen name really), but I answer to it just as much as I do my real name. Once upon a time, this was supposed to be an rp blog, but that did not last long! Now all I do is post my otp and the random funny thing. In case you weren't aware of this already, I am 1000% Destiel trash, forever and ever amen. Misha is my favorite, Castiel is my bby. Feel free to ask me anything! Disclaimer: I don't own any of the gifs or pictures.

[averywiseanimatedcat]

One of my favourite GO moments is when Nina calls Crowley weird bc she really breaks the glittery 4th wall of the story and makes you realise how deeply strange they must look.

To everyone on the street there is just this extremely gay, pushy bookseller bookhoarder who probably sells something illicit or runs a backroom operation in his shop to stay in business in the middle of Soho. Then there’s his off putting emo rottweiler husband/body guard/possibly a sugar baby because his only job seems to be mogging during their thinly veiled public dom/sub play while he drives at a gazillion miles an hour in Draculas favourite hot wheel.

[starmaker-astral]

Most of us suspected it, but it's really nice to have confirmation.

This is the same ending. This is the exact same ending David and Michael have read before the rewrite and said it was very good.

And more importantly: the ending wasn't "changed to hurt the fandom" or anything.

[noneorother]

I wrote an essay about the ending of Good Omens, and you can read it now.

You can't bite the apple twice.

How I learned to love the finale of Good Omens for what it is (and maybe you can, too).

It got so long I had to find another home for it, but if you're feeling sad, confused, lonely or even ambiguous after the finale, maybe reading some hopeful analysis will ease the way. I haven't written an essay in 12 years but this is what this show has done to me so here we are.

[actual-changeling]

like aziraphale, michael tried to fix heaven in their own way. the book of life allowed them to see every possible timeline, every choice that could have been made, what did and didn't happen. no one (including celestials) is meant to know all of that at once.

it very much reminds me of rose tyler looking into the heart of the tardis and becoming the bad wolf, with the doctor having to sacrifice himself to save her. while she had that knowledge, that power, she made jack immortal, she manipulated the very fabric of reality even though she shouldn't have.

michael did something similar, changing small things at first, and the book compensated. erasing the metatron didn't do much, and murdering sandalphon didn't either. even getting rid of uriel didn't destabilize the universe. my point is, there was no external reason for michael to start burning everything down.

what they saw, every single possible lifetime of the universe, led them to the conclusion that they cannot fix heaven. they cannot fix anything.

everything they might have tried did not change the story because it was already written.

before, the celestials did not know that. they were meant to blindly follow orders, to trust in god's Great Plan without questions, which includes the demons. armageddon, the antichrist, the second coming—every apocalypse was built on expectations, but they never knew for sure.

god is the only one who knows what game they're playing and what the rules are, and it's not chess, there are no pawns. azirphale comparing it to solitaire is really what it comes down to. there is one person playing, one person who can win, one who controls every single card and even shuffled the deck. the cards themselves do not have the power to change the game. once the game is done, everything will be destroyed because it has fulfilled its purpose.

season 1 and 2 showed us that many celestials are uncertain of what's meant to happen, they follow orders, and crowley and aziraphale tried their best to save the world within the limitations outlined by god and the prophecies.

problem is, they knew even then that there's a non-zero chance they were supposed to prevent armageddon. god's plan is ineffable, after all. who's to say that their roles aren't written into the book? how can they actually tell if they have free will or are just doing what god created them to do?

the starmaker is told that after six thousand years, the universe will be destroyed. not just earth, every single star and planet and nebula and galaxy. creation as a whole will be undone, the curtain drops, that's it.

no one knows what that will look like, but they all know it will happen, so they have to trust that god has a plan for them. otherwise they'd go fucking nuts, which brings us all the way back to michael.

the illusion of free will and agency disappears when working with the book of life. is anyone free to do as they please when every possible action has been predicted in advance? how is michael supposed to have faith in god when confronted with the reality of their situation?

even satan is not free, he's a villain of her own making, he rebels the way he's supposed to. they all fall not because of their actions or because they're "evil" or bad or demonic but because that is how the story goes. in the end, aziraphale understands that, he understands that crowley was never evil, they were never opposites. there was no sensible purpose to anything.

so michael does the only thing they CAN do, the most free choice there is: they burn it all down. maybe that was meant to happen, maybe it wasn't. maybe it was their first true act of free will, and they used it to get rid of the literal and metaphorical book.

so what exactly are crowley and aziraphale meant to do?

put everything back the way it was? then what? angels and demons still want to go to war, humans are still being tortured in hell, the universe is still being manipulated behind the scenes; by god or by them, it comes down to the same result.

the last thing crowley wants is to become like her. he fights for his agency, he questions her even as she is about to destroy them. why does she get to make this choice? why is everything always up to her?

there's no real answer to that question, so god gives him an offer instead: you get one choice, one act of free will, do with it what you like.

so he does. he doesn't need the book of life to understand the reality of their situation, he's known for thousands of years. michael burned it all down, but he wants something to come out of this. there needs to be a reason for all of this, a consequence, something that actually matters.

burn it all down, yes, and then plant a new seed. water it, let it grow, but don't you dare touch it. its purpose is to exist and nothing else, a universe with genuine free will.

i understand how the ending can seem depressing, but personally i do not find it nihilistic or see it as an act of defeat. everything they did mattered, they're the fabric of the new universe, their love the big bang.

sometimes, you cannot fix the system. sometimes you have to tear the house down and rebuild it from its ashes. there's sadness and grief, but it still happened, it mattered.

the love will always be there even when you can't see it.

[liquidlyrium]

Messing About, Stacking the Deck, and Free Will - Why the themes of Good Omens Season 3 Worked for me

Hey all, it's been a bit of a rough time for us, hasn't it? I really enjoyed the finale, compromises, heartbreak, and all. I don't want this to come off as scolding or telling anyone they are wrong to feel the way they do, or that they don't 'get it,' because the finale allows for a multitude of valid and contradictory readings. But I haven't seen too many people talking about the things I've been mulling over for several days now?

I think part of the divide here is cultural, philosophical, religious, etc. Like, we're over here as a fandom trying to settle the longstanding question of Predetermination vs Free Will (among other things) in the space of four ten days!!! These are NOT trivial questions being brought to the fore!

It's been so interesting too, to see people so split on whether this ending is a Pratchett ending or not. There is also a divide on whether it is true to the themes of the book and the show* and I have to say........ yes???

It is, at the very least, explicitly engaging with the text of the book and the show--a lot of the dialogue at the end is in the book itself!!--and I can see how you could tease out these ideas in a hypothetical sequel and come to where we ended up. Did we get the only or the best execution of these themes? Assuredly not. We certainly got a truncated, compromised execution of these ideas, and I can almost see the shape of where some of them could've branched out in a full season.

*The problem is that the text *is* so dense, and wide-reaching, and philosophical, and weird, and zany, is that S3 also *ABSOLUTELY* dropped other themes too. And Good Omens isn't just a few ideas!!

We have known for a long time that we were going to get a compromised product, but I'll tell you why S3 still worked for me.

This is quite long, so I will break this up into a few separate pieces.

[liquidlyrium]

Part 1: Messing About

I was really excited by season 2, I loved it, I think it is probably still my favorite? S2 E2 is perhaps the best television I've ever seen. And yes, season 2 focuses on the romance and relationship between Aziraphale and Crowley, but it also focuses on their relationship to *humans*.

The thing I was so excited about when season 2 first aired was in direct relation with something Adam says towards the end of the first book:

And after watching season 2 I was stoked!! "OH!! They're going to address that point in the final season!! I see now!!"

[Side note: I don't think it was wrong of them to drop this whole line of thought from the first season. The ending sequence works well enough without it, and it's not critically load bearing if S1 is a standalone product, and there's enough supernatural meddling to justify underlining it later, as they ended up doing.]

In Season 2 especially (though in S1 as well) we explicitly see *Crowley and Aziraphale* "messing people about, not just Heaven and Hell, but our beloved protagonists.

Crowley and Aziraphale "mess about" with Job and his family. Now they are being told to do it by their head offices, but they are "messing around" with Job. Explicitly for capricious, fickle whims between Satan and God, but messing about nonetheless! It's CRUEL, it's a cruel story in the Bible that has bedeviled scholars for thousands of years in the examining and interpreting thereof. What is the nature of God, does God contain Sin and Evil as part of being all things?? How can cruel things happen in a universe with a caring, loving God? Why does God allow bad things to happen to us? Can we do anything to appease God to end our suffering? It asks a lot of hard, hard questions of us, unfair ones in an unfair universe whether you believe God exists or not.

And the episode beautifully points all this out, and subverts the ending with quick thinking from our heroes. So it does, ultimately, have a happy end, but the misery Job and his family experienced was still real. They were still used for cheap entertainment for higher beings with far more power than they could ever hope to have.

There's also Elspeth and Wee Morag. By waffling on the complexity of human morals, Crowley and Aziraphale inadvertently end up getting Wee Morag killed. Elspeth's suicide attempt is averted by their actions (and presumably she goes and runs a farm and is good, given that Crowley gets dragged down to Hell for punishment) but that's still a high cost to pay, all around. All for 'messing about.' It's true, Crowley and Aziraphale are not perfect beings, they do make mistakes, they are like us, but far more powerful than us.

And of course, in the present day, they are using Maggie and Nina to try and fix a problem of their own making. They disregard the fact that Nina has a partner, and are doing their best matchmaker routine.

Now I say this as someone who enjoys Maggie/Nina and I hope that they went off into the sunset together after an appropriate amount of time for Nina to get herself sorted. Also, it's part of the premise! It's FUN to watch our angel and demon swan about and do ridiculous things and give people things they deserve or want. But...

Nina and Maggie take Crowley to task at the end of the season, right before the final fifteen. I don't see enough people talking about it.

Nina: "Where's the other one? We need to talk to you." Crowley: "He's out. Not a good time." Nina: "I wasn't asking. There are things you need to hear. You and your... partner *have been messing about in our lives*." Maggie: "We're not a game. We're real people. You can't just pair us up for your amusement."

Nina even uses the same phrase! "Messing about!" It's SO important it's in the book 6 or 8 times in that final confrontation scene in some form or another.

And you can see in the book that Crowley takes it to heart quite quickly!!

And he's trying to impress that importance to his angel!

Crowley, the purported architect of Free Will (possibly, let's call it Schrodinger's Free Will for the moment), realizes he's been party to meddling in people's lives, and I don't think he cares for it.

And I think Adam's words to Anathema are critically important here for the final bit of groundwork for this theme. In the book she approaches him and tells him he could do all sorts of good things like saving the whales etc and Adam shuts her down:

I think this is crucial for understanding the ending of season 3. I think it is there in the text and subtext throughout the show to get there as well, though not stated quite so explicitly.

Aziraphale and Crowley are supernatural beings! Even without explicitly using miracles, they are often shown to influence reality around them, just from their expectations alone! A lot of what happens during *The Ball* was as eerie as it was fun, and I don't believe that Aziraphale is playing anyone like a puppeteer, but his hopes and expectations are so strong, they are clearing having a huge influence on the proceedings. We also see it in Season 3. Without its protector, Whickbur Street fell into a terrible state while our angel was gone.

Aside from the power of their expectations, they have been living their way with their powers for thousands of years, are they really going to let the mundanity of waiting for a reservation to open up at a fancy restaurant happen to them? Are they going to meekly submit to the parking meter enforcer? Again! We LOVE seeing them banish those mundanities, and it's part of the fun and the premise, but I can absolutely see the path to a hypothetical sequel novel where the narrative hooks them by the collar and says "No, actually, it's not okay for you two--or any supernatural entity--to have this much power over humanity! It's not fair!" And I can see the seeds for Crowley coming around to this thought with what Adam said/what Nina told him in season 2.

[liquidlyrium]

Part II: Stacking the Deck

I have seen quite a few folks bemoaning the gambling subplot and complaining that it takes up too much time but, in my opinion, it is *thematically* load bearing, and you really can't remove it because it is the bridge between "messing about" and the question of Free Will.

Good Omens starts with the analogy of games of chance (the show borrows this essentially word-for-word):

God does not play dice with the universe; He plays an ineffable game of His own devising, which might be compared, from the perspective of any of the other players,* to being involved in an obscure and complex version of poker in a pitch-dark room, with blank cards, for infinite stakes, with a Dealer who won’t tell you the rules, and who smiles all the time.

This also comes up near the end of the Armageddon that Almost Was, where Gabriel (or the Metatron in the book) tries to claim that God does not play dice with the Universe/His Loyal Servants. ("Where have you been!?")

And returning to Job (briefly), that was framed as a wager, a bet, between God and Satan.

All over the series you have wagers, chess, games of skill and chance, cards, and gambling as a running motif:

Hell wasn’t a major reservoir of evil, any more than Heaven, in Crowley’s opinion, was a fountain of goodness; they were just sides in the great cosmic chess game. Where you found the real McCoy, the real grace and the real heart-stopping evil, was right inside the human mind.

Crowley reminds us of the Three Card Monte analogy used in S1 when he is drunkenly talking to Jesus. And when he tries to win the Bentley back. The thing to remember about the Three Card Monte is that it's a confidence game at its heart. The dealer will always win in a well-executed game. They don't even have to deal in order to win in the best-laid of plans. And we know that God plays some kind of ineffable card game of her own devising, so why not Three Card Monte? "Nobody ever finds the lady unless she wants them to." Does God play sleight of hand tricks with the Universe as well?

The other thing that the Three Card Monte usually employs is a shill to sell the validity of the game. We'll come back to that idea.

Crowley's early triumphant run at blackjack, followed by the inability to "find the lady" is put there specifically to put us in mind of unfairness, stacked decks, and playing in a rigged game. Just as BC's high-pressure ambush on Crowley when he lost the Bentley is.

Crowley even says it, out loud when he and Aziraphale are in the Bentley looking for Jesus:

"It's all rigged! The entire universe! [...] But you're not [the boss] and you never will be! There's always someone above you stacking the deck."

Aziraphale also mentions that the Metatron is missing during this exchange, but of course we can infer that Crowley really means God here when talking about who the real Boss is.

And if we understand God to be omnipotent, omnipresent but also playing Her own personal game with the Universe… where does Free Will factor in?

[liquidlyrium]

Part III:  Free Will

Free Will in Good Omens is a bit of a sticky wicket. It is said that angels and demons do not have Free Will, but that humans do, that they get to choose, but... do they?

I am not remotely qualified to talk about the myriad of ways people try to reconcile this question (or don't, looking at you, Calvanists), but Good Omens as a whole seems to be mostly operating on a binary of an either/or. Maybe you can make an argument that God lets humans choose the little things or, conversely, maybe she lets us choose the big things, but I don't know that it is fully settled that Free Will is as real as we think it is.

Throughout the show and the novel, at critical junctures Aziraphale and Crowley turn to each other and ask: "Did the Almighty Plan it this way all along?" Now we could make the argument that as beings without Free Will, this may just be their default position. After all, they are much closer to Her than we are, even if humans are made in God’s own image.

But it happens multiple times in the book at the show, and most of these exchanges are nearly identical to the book.

Their meeting in Eden starts with them contemplating God’s plans. Practically page 1 of the book!!

“You’ve got to admit it’s a bit of a pantomime, though,” said Crawly. “I mean, pointing out the Tree and saying ‘Don’t Touch’ in big letters. Not very subtle, is it? I mean, why not put it on top of a high mountain or a long way off? Makes you wonder what He’s really planning.” “Best not to speculate, really,” said Aziraphale.

Or again, later, 11 years before Armageddon:

“I can’t interfere with divine plans,” he croaked. Crowley looked speculatively into his glass, and then filled it again. “What about diabolical ones?” he said. “Pardon?” “Well, it’s got to be a diabolical plan, hasn’t it? We’re doing it. My side.” “Ah, but it’s all part of the overall divine plan,” said Aziraphale. “Your side can’t do anything without it being part of the ineffable divine plan,” he added, with a trace of smugness.

The biggest difference in the book when deciding to become Godfathers, is that Aziraphale throws in a dig that everything that Hell does is part of the overall Ineffable Divine Plan. A sort of smug ‘neener-neener’ that always lets him have the upper hand.

But it cuts both ways, doesn’t it? We see Aziraphale struggle in the book and the show with the idea of ineffability and trying to intuit what God actually wants (see The Flood and Job) and reconcile those wants that with his morals.

And as Aziraphale contemplates in the book: Sometimes you really had to hope that the ineffable plan had been properly thought out.

And then of course, after Adam et al avert the Apocalypse, in the book as in the show, Aziraphale and Crowley ask themselves—again—if God had really planned everything out this way (on the page and onscreen).

The last time they really talk about God’s plans in the book was left out of season 1, but transplanted into season 3. It is adapted, of course, for the screen and to account for different characters being present, but just about everything said on screen for much of that scene is directly from the book:

With the understanding that we can’t really fathom the Ineffable—is God playing Solitaire or Three Card Monte?

Indeed, Crowley asks a fantastic question in his little tirade. Why would God let the rebellion and good and evil happen? What if Satan’s role in the cosmic game is to act as a shill? Whether Satan knows it or not*, he and Hell are there to sell humans on the idea that we have Free Will.

*(I’m not sure he does, but Crowley implies that he might be in on the grift with his assertion “You knew we couldn’t win!”)

Because that’s the problem, with having an all-knowing, all-seeing, all-present deity that is playing some kind of cosmic game with the Universe. It’s that, fundamentally, They could be manipulating everything. They do have the power to exert control or lay out plans within plans. It’s nearly a paradox, isn’t it? If God knows all, and sees all, and has all power, do our choices even matter if we do have Free Will? If God can anticipate our every choice and action and build a game around it, is that still Free Will? Or is that stacking the deck? If we have the Free Will to exert our own choices and thwart Her plans, then wouldn’t that make us more powerful than the all-powerful God? Doesn’t She always have the upper hand on us?

With Satan and the illusion of Free Will the Universe becomes a blind test (it could never be double-blind, with one party all-seeing). With Heaven and Hell being the same sides of one coin (or two floors in the same building) that gives humans an illusion of choice in where we are going, when it is all the same destination. Maybe we all get shuffled back into the deck after everything is said and done.

As I have said, this is a question that has bedeviled humanity for thousands of years. I don’t have the answer, but I feel like the text really encourages us to think about the ultimate authority and power of God, and the structure of the Universe according to Their ineffable whims.

[liquidlyrium]

Part IV:  Putting it All Together

So, at last, we come to the final sequence. In the show Aziraphale and Crowley are alone with Satan and God, and almost the whole of Creation destroyed.

I will risk a bit of speculation in this part, on how the sequel-that-never-was or what-a-six-season-arc would have looked like, but I will try to minimize this, but I feel like that is equally important to explaining why this worked so well for me, because I feel like you can see the shape of greater things in what we got.

I think, if you take the ideas from the book that did not make it into season 1, and the ideas that were seeded in season 2, you could absolutely find your way to a sequel that asks the question: Is it right or just or fair for humans to live under the yoke of beings so much more powerful than us? For them to use us so cheaply like cards in a deck? And the answer is, of course: no.

And I do believe it when the team says that this was the intended ending all these years, so I do think it’s right and natural that A&C would get elevated roles in a sequel anyways, given that they’d probably be the most major (if not only) repeat characters in the sequel that never was. The Pratchett estate could have let this go. They fought tooth and nail to claw this out of cancellation. Rob is an executive producer on the project. He and Terry’s daughter (and, yes, even certain disgraced other parties) have all insisted that this is where we were going to end up. The ending was the thing that everyone involved in was the most protective of.

But we got an imperfect ending. It would have been nice, and an obvious bookend, for example, to get Jesus facing down his Mother as we got Adam facing down Satan. I think we definitely would have gotten something more there in a full season. But the writing is already so tight, there wasn’t enough time to fully develop both story lines in full, and they absolutely focused on the themes I’ve already talked about up to this point. And because Aziraphale and Crowley are our protagonists now, from Season 2 on, they are the ones to make this choice in the end. And I think that is right and proper in this instance. Because they are ultimately deciding what happens to the supernatural world.

Aziraphale and Crowley get some time to themselves in a garden, and Aziraphale asks Crowley what he wants. (Because he knows he is too selfish in this moment, he just wants Crowley). And Crowley—the demon who thought this whole time (and yet also doubted) that he gave humanity Free Will, wants to do it all over again. Only this time, he wants to do it right. He wants it to be real.

And he and Aziraphale do it. For us.

Because they know, even if they banished the rest of Heaven and Hell, they themselves would always be prone to influence the world around them with their powers. Once you start messing around, you can’t really stop. Even if God put the Universe back how it was, you could never get away from that kind of interference. It’s embedded in the very bones.

Now was this a test from God just to see what they choose? Or does She actually cede control for a change? Or is it another one of Her Plans?

Let us ask ourselves, why is Satan really here? Is Satan there to sell the image of Free Will to Aziraphale and Crowley as he was to humans? His place in the ending seemed strange to me until I thought of his role as the shill in Three Card Monte. (And how quick he is to tell us that The Satan was just a role, a job title!)

Because if Satan is in on the grift, not just an unwitting tool, he seems genuinely shocked by Her acquiescence. He didn’t think they’d get their way, that She would enact whatever Her real plans were.

And I think they did it. I think Aziraphale and Crowley, impossibly, Found the Lady with the decision they made. (Whether or not God wanted them to). They did the impossible and asked for the impossible in return.

It is a difficult ending open to a MULTITUDE of interpretations, but I think they were also able to vouchsafe the universe from any undue interference from Her in that moment.

They asked for a Godless universe. They birthed a Universe with their love (didn’t we see how powerful they are when they work miracles together!?). They asked for our choices to matter. Wouldn’t their choice—having a true, real decision—make them more powerful than God in that moment!?

And if we make choices in this Universe for good or evil, at least it will be us making them. If the Universe is unfair, then it is unfair to everyone in the same way. There is no favoritism or predetermined fate. No special providence in the fall of a sparrow.

This is a bit more of my own interpretation (or at least one of them, I hold multiple readings of the ending at the moment, and I'm still developing some of these ideas), but I think the similarities we see in our history are implied to be the echoes of what happened. The echoes of Aziraphale and Crowley’s memories ripple through our Universe and our Earth.

As Adam says in the book:

Spirited Away has a lovely companion to this idea: Nothing that happens is ever forgotten, even if you can't remember it. || Once you've met someone you never really forget them. It just takes a while for your memories to return.

I like to think that Aziraphale and Crowley quantum entangled themselves in that moment. That they know, underneath, in their souls who they are and everything that happened, even if they don't always remember. But now they get to be just like us, through a multitude of lifetimes, finding each other over and over. Soulmates by choice.

Winners in a cosmic game of Solitaire versus God.

[actual-changeling]

So, the fate of Whickber Street is why the very, very best case scenario for Aziraphale and Crowley would have been the OG human theory. It's also why you cannot have them as "guardians of humanity" or anything else that implies that they retain supernatural powers.

I think some of the confusion derives from forgetting the world-building. Angels, demons, and the Antichrist have active miracles, signaled by the chimes, and then transformative effects that derive from a combination of their own assumptions about the world and their supernatural essences. Adam is not intentionally preserving Tadfield in amber; it's a side-effect of his love for the place. WITCHFINDER GENERAL plays in the coffee shop where Crowley meets Shadwell because Crowley is in the room. Crowley's plants remain alive only because Crowley knows nothing about gardening. In S2, I couldn't hear a miracle chime when Aziraphale gets the graveyard thugs to loan him a cellphone and back off. As he says, he did ask politely. S3 confirms that Aziraphale's love for Whickber Street was load-bearing, just as Adam's love for Tadfield was.

That's the problem. Because Whickber Street ran on Aziraphale's emotional energies, the humans never fully developed their own independent strategies for survival, as they would have if their environment was free of supernatural forces. Even without doing anything consciously, Aziraphale negatively affected everyone's will. It wouldn't be enough to impose extreme restrictions on A & C's intentional miracles, because as creatures of a different dimension, they can't help rewriting the three-dimensional world as they move through it.

VERY good points!

they can't help rewriting the three-dimensional world as they move through it.

That is EXACTLY it, they're supernatural beings to the core and the world reacts to it. Aziraphale has been putting on a show for the last decades, and we really saw the extent of it during the ball when they literally became characters in a movie scene he played out for himself and Crowley.

They love humanity, they never wanted to intentionally hurt them, but they directly affect them, there's no free will.

[actual-changeling]

the old universe wasn't destroyed. it couldn't have been destroyed.

instead, it became the foundation of the new universe, and crowley and aziraphale's love—as one post beautifully put it—were the big bang.

we saw that everyone and everything that vanished turned into stardust, miracles themselves consist of it, or rather it's all about manipulation of matter and energy.

the laws of thermodynamics clearly describe that energy can neither be created nor destroyed, it can only be transformed. god created the universe out of herself, everything in existence is an extension of her, meaning that if we combine current particle science with religious theory, we arrive at the higgs field and higgs boson, sometimes (very inaccurately) referred to as the god particle.

without going into detail, it's an explanation as to how certain particles gain mass, because without that process there would be, well, pretty much nothing. no stars, no planets, nothing with mass. just pure energy.

so when god created the first universe, it was a playground for herself out of herself, a source of amusement. she describes it as a game of cards in a dark room with a dealer who smiles all the time; the house ALWAYS wins and the game is rigged from the start.

destroying said universe was always part of the story, six thousand years and that's it. but "destruction" does not mean it gets destroyed in the way many think, it cannot be destroyed. so what does happen? a change of states, transformations from one kind of energy into another, back into literal and metaphorical stardust.

everything the universe was remains, nothing just vanishes and disappears without a trace. the new universe she created is still an extension of her, there's no alternative, but aligning with crowley and aziraphale's request, she does not meddle. she does not turn it into a story, she simply lets it exist, no celestial intervention. real free will, nothing after death, no pain, no punishment.

you could think of celestials and their planes as a specific kind of matter, one which does not come to be in the new universe but was present in the old one. their energy remains. they remain.

changed, yes, and different, but still the same they have always been. their love is real now, it doesn't serve a purpose like it did before, it's about crowley and aziraphale, anthony and asa, two beings who will fall in love with each other in every universe, time after time after time.

nothing ever truly dies.

[actual-changeling]

(since you wanted to send it on anon, I'm going to answer it this way!)

Aziraphale does have the ability to take charge when he wants to, we have seen it a few times before! God entrusted him the flaming sword for a reason, he was a general in the war, he was guarding Eden, he was chosen to watch over earth.

Combine that with his desperate need to do good, he's the ideal guy to put in charge of heaven now that Gabriel is gone. Predictable, presumably easy to manipulate if needed, and whatever the Metatron was planning, it was something that would have kept him in his position above everyone else.

Aziraphale is powerful, he blew up his halo which counted as a declaration of war, and honestly if pushed, he'd definitely start killing (and feel bad about it later).

The Metatron's mistake was not overestimating Aziraphale but underestimating the other archangels, especially Michael. I think he is so removed from everyone else in heaven, he has a very simple view of them as mindless inferiors.

Which got the Metatron meta-murdered, and I've said it before, but I'm glad that happened pretty much immediately. He's boring as fuck as a villain because his motivation is clear, confined to the system, and basically just "keep the status quo and myself comfortable".

Michael on the other hand—man, I WISH we'd gotten the chance to properly explore their storyline. Amazing, groundbreaking, incredible, insane, on my hands and knees for them.

[secondbreakfastwizard]

Okay one last post (lol). Yes, the finale was rushed, no doubt about it. I would've preferred a proper season, for sure. But. Did we not see the way Aziraphale's whole "trying to fix it" thing went sideways so so so fast and also so predictably?? Has this, especially on top of everything that happened before, not made it clear that the system can not be fixed?

Like sure Adam got back his human(ish) life but a few years later, bam, second coming. It never ends! Because it's not supposed to be humans living their life! It's god playing cards without anyone but them knowing the fucking rules. And they're probably changing them up as they please.

Literally how could they have gotten their happy end in this universe? There always would've been something else happening, something else threatening everything, bc it was supposed to end! It's spelled out right at the beginning of season two! So if they had decided to let god reinstate "their" universe, they always would've needed to keep fighting, and it would've been at the cost of humanity.

[danshee]

“BUT THAT’S NOT THEM!!!!”

HOW can you say that?!?!?! HOW can you sit there and watch Asa say “scrumptious” and “tickety-boo,” bring out the hot cocoa, and then watch Anthony absolutely GEEK OUT over the universe and point out the NIGHTINGALE while they hold hands under the night sky — and then look me dead in the eyes and tell me that’s not them?!?!?!

Like I’m sorry but that is literally their ESSENCE reincarnated into human form. Same souls. Same love. Same ridiculous little mannerisms. They found each other AGAIN. What more do you WANT FROM ME!!!!!!!!

[highlyincorrect]

Honest (SPOILER) thoughts regarding the GO finale, I think a valuable piece of writing people are kinda overlooking is the INCREDIBLE subversion of their main motivations

Like we as the audience are lead to believe from the start that Crowley is this jaded, cynical little fucker who’s fond of one person and one person only. The typical “nothing in this world matters except you” grumpy who doesn’t give a shit about a universe that rejected him. Aziraphale, likewise, is pretty easily seen as the bigger picture guy, it’s obvious he loves Crowley deeply but it’s the mission of the larger world, the good of the people, that draws his time and energy- he chooses that responsibility more than Crowley. These are the roles we’ve seen them play and the archetypes we’ve kinda locked them in to. It matches with their grumpy vs sunshine attitudes, their aesthetics etc

Then in s2 we started noticing some cracks in it. We’ve met Angel Crowley who is a beautiful sunshiny dreamer who cares so deeply about the gorgeous world around him. Aziraphale starts to get a bit wrapped up in his own self interest from time to time, caring more about his bookshop or Crowley or even Jim than his larger mission. These little moments added depth to their characters, but ultimately didn’t shake our ideas of them. But THEN-

When they were asked by God what they would save, everything in the world has been stripped from them. The universe is lost- all that remains is each other and the final question of “what in the whole of existence matters to you most?” And we think we know what they’ll say, we think the way we’ve been taught all this time- Crowley is the selfish lover and Aziraphale is the heartbroken rejector.

But instead we meet their cores. We meet the truest stripped down versions of themselves and we learn the truth. Aziraphale picks Crowley. His lover, his life, the being that completes him. He makes the selfish, or loving, choice, no matter what it means to the world. And Crowley- Crowley is crying for the world. He is so utterly helplessly desperate for humanity to have their chance that he’s willing to throw away everything out of his sheer love for them. We’ve met the old part of him again, the artist and the lover, the selfless one he’s had within him all along. And for Aziraphale we’ve finally met the lover in him too, the one who’s finally willing to put his love for Crowley above all else.

I don’t know but I think it’s absolutely beautiful to get to know characters that you thought had these black and white motivations, only to discover that when it all comes down to it, they are capable of throwing everything we assumed about them out the window. There’s no black and white or even grey, but a whole world of mixed up colours and choices that make them whole. The sinful Angel and the selfless demon to the last.

[alice1505]

As I’ve seen a lot of negative reactions about the GO finale, I’m of course here to put my own two cents in as someone who liked it a great deal. This is not going to be a bash about the people who don’t like it, because you know what, I 100% see and understand where they’re coming from, and they are making great and valid points. They aren’t wrong, their interpretations are just different from mine, and that’s okay!! I do feel sad that it wasn’t what they wanted or expected, and now it is tainted for them. But also… because of that… as someone who DID enjoy it, I wanted to articulate (and by that I mean word vomit) my own positive thoughts and takes to help with the way I’m feeling disheartened. I want to keep my positivity and those feelings I felt while watching it. So! If you’re here to argue with me, or try to tell me I’m wrong, please don’t. I’ll ignore it and move on with my day. I’m not here to convince anyone of anything – just here to offer my thoughts and why I enjoyed it. It will be rambling and all over the place, and stupidly long…omg so long, so bless anyone who reads it.

I love that Crowley got to be a salty bitch. I’m sad that they didn’t get to have a real conversation about it, but he sure did milk it for everything it was worth, and I love that for him. Ms. Sandwich giving Aziraphale a dressing down was also delightful, Ms. Sandwich and Crowley friendship ftw.

Jesus was precious and I adored him. Also, Adam at the end?! I screamed “IS THAT ADAM?!” at my screen and had to rewind it. I adore that they put that in there, because that was one of the most amusing fan favorite pairings I saw and they DID IT. Romantically, as friends, it doesn’t matter, they were hanging out.

Muriel and Eric!! I loved that as well, and Muriel’s hell get up, please, I love her your honor.

I desperately wanted to know who Crowley was before he fell, because WHY does he know so much?! His powers?! WHO WAS HE. But leaving it open is fun too, creativity can go as hard as it wants.

The opening flashback? Obsessed. Absolutely obsessed. I don’t care if it was corny, I LOVED the long hair and braids on Aziraphale. First and only hair switch up we see on him?! I live. And first instance of helping the enemy? Crowley giving the sword back? The theory I saw that the bandage became his scarf???? OBSESSED.

Now for more sticky points for the negative reactions I’ve seen:

The no kiss thing. I am also bummed about it, it was really the ONE thing I was hoping for, I came into this with no expectations. And maybe that’s helped me to love it, I watched s2 later, and haven’t had as long to sit and stew on it, to plot out my own endings or build things up in my head like I think people may have. As gently as I can say it, when things sit for as long as GO, I fear that headcanons are born across the fandom, and they are taken deeply to heart. That isn’t a bad thing, I swear, there are some amazing ones that are born. But I do think it can impede or set people up for failure when it comes to the show coming back online. Anyway, back to the kiss! I wanted them to kiss badly, I really did, and I’m bummed they didn’t, but you know what? It’s ok. I can live with what did happen. I’ve seen some posts on it, and kudos to others with the same thought. The kiss last season was Crowley initiating, and it was desperate, overwhelming, full of so many things. And this time… Aziraphale got to initiate that little finger kiss/return kiss. He got to do it at his speed. Azira- “you go too fast for me” -phale got to do it in a way that felt consistent to his character for me. This is a man who adored Jane Austen and her love stories, a fucking slow burn lover. Not kissing Crowley full on in view of god, but doing something very sweet and gentle feels on brand.

The lack of a fully explicit “I love you” thing. It would have been absolutely lovely to hear the actual words, don’t get me wrong. But also… I felt like they showed their love and the understanding of that love in so, so many ways. “We can be an us.” “If Gabriel and Beelzebub can do it, so can we.” “Why would you give me Crowley, make me complete?” “I only want one thing.” “I forgive you.” “Heartbroken.” “Your love for him…” Crowley’s “I forgive you.” Etc. etc. etc. Personally, I didn’t need the explicit words, the grand declaration. To me, they already knew. They’ve probably known for a long time.

I actually quite loved that their roles were so reversed for this. Aziraphale getting to rescue Crowley, and swoop in to save the day. Aziraphale got to be the one with the plans and making shit happen. In the end, Crowley, who the last two world ending disasters said "screw humans and earth, let's run away together and ignore it all," gets to turn around and say "actually, no, let's save them." Aziraphale, who the last two times made the hard decision to do what was right, to stay and fight and try to save humans and earth even if Crowley left, got to admit that he really only wanted Crowley and this time he was willing to abandon earth and humans to be with him if that's what Crowley wanted. Crowley got to be the hero, and AZIRAPHALE TAUGHT HIM THAT!!! If the options were everything disappears or everything goes back to the way it was and you’ll probably repeat this process for the rest of forever (I will come back to this point, promise), Crowley knew that they would never be at peace. Do you think Aziraphale could live with abandoning humanity or sentencing to this cycle ad naseum? The same angel who put humanity before his own wants again and again? And do you think Crowley could live with the knowledge that it would make Aziraphale unhappy in the long run to not do The Right Thing? Their sacrifice shattered my heart, but to me, after thinking about it, it did feel in character.

The choice. I need to rewatch it, after some recovery, but it felt like, to me at least, that God was giving them some less than ideal choices… It seemed like she implied that “sure, I’ll let you choose, here are your options: sucky ass option 1 or sucky ass option 2!” Do I wish and think that there could have been a third, way better option??? YEAH. Of course I do. But it did sound a bit like they could choose to let God end everything, close the chapter, that’s it the end, the way she wanted and was planning on before Crowley stops her at the last second (and I have to make the Chuck/SPN comparison, I really do – She was bored of this particular story, she was done with it, time to end it, main characters to US be damned, they’re just dolls to her), OR that the board is reset. It all goes back to the way it was. Heaven and Hell chomping at the bit for some great war and end times. Humans caught in the crossfire. Apparently Metatron fucking with things himself. Aziraphale still under heaven’s influence and what the image of a good angel “should” be per heaven’s views, Crowley belonging to his own side. God playing ‘a solo game of solitaire’ anyway with no promise she won’t just laugh and end it all at a moment’s notice. Again, do I think there could have been a better third option??? Absolutely. People pissed about that, you’re absolutely right. There could have been a different work around, I bet. Sadly I’m keeping in mind that they had to cram 6 hours into 90 minutes, had to wrap everything up that they could, and if I remember correctly, they had to scrap anything NG had contributed? So here we are. I think Crowley and Aziraphale making the decision to make a new board where people can decide their own fates, really and truly, even if that cost is themselves, and god won’t interfere either, feels… fairly on brand, really.

The human ending. I 100% understand why the human au ending was upsetting, and part of me definitely agrees with the sentiment that it’s not them. I’m devastated that they won’t remember those 6,000+ years, at least not that we know of. I would love to see endless years and contents of them as an angel and demon in love. But you know what? Here's what I'm going to take from that ending. Not only was that just one lifetime/universe we were shown (I’m of the camp that sees the credits scenes as implying there are tons of other worlds and universes we didn’t get to see, and that Crowley and Aziraphale were there in all of them), we got to see a version of Crowley that wasn't punished severely for asking questions, who wasn't isolated and didn't fit in with the angels OR demons. Who wasn’t deeply traumatized and all too aware that heaven and hell are the same fucking thing, two sides of the same coin, who has to perform a constant balancing act. We got to see a version of Aziraphale that wasn't super conditioned/brainwashed with religion and heaven, who didn't have to spend thousands of years being terrified of showing even the smallest amount of affection for Crowley, who wasn’t ashamed of the human things he enjoyed in the face of other angels, and because of that, we got to see AZIRAPHALE actively pursuing Crowley! He made the first move! Went after him! This version of them got to love openly and get married and get that South Downs cottage ending. If they had stayed as demon and angel, who knows how long it would have taken. I would have loved seeing that and watch it develop, don't get me wrong, but it was sweet to see Aziraphale doing the chasing and initiating. They literally became the embodiment and personification of ‘I will find you in every universe, and love you in every lifetime possible’ and that is so gut wrenchingly romantic that I need to lie down for a few hours.

All in all to say, clumsily, that I loved the ending. It was absolutely bittersweet, and their expressions and words making their choice had me SOBBING. I’m heartbroken, and I am sad for the things we did not get, the things we will not see. But… but. I like what we did get. I feel like there was a happy ending too, along with the pain. I thought they did a pretty damn good job given all the factors, and personally, I think it could have been so much worse, or that we didn’t get anything at ALL and would have been left on that s2 final 15. I do understand that, for some people, this WAS the worse that could have happened, and I’m so sorry. I hope you can still find things to enjoy about it, and the best part is, with a multiverse theory? It just means that every fanfic ever created IS well and truly canon too.

[alice1505]

Sorry to add more to the word vomit, but you know, there's something so incredibly special to me that their love is ineffable. They'll always find each other, and always fall in love. I'm haunted by the fact that we'll never get to see Aziraphale and Crowley, angel and demon, living out eternity together, but... but. I love that they'll get multiple lives and universes together.

[alice1505]

Ohhhh another thought that I'm having. Mind you, it's not going to be super scientific or possibly even accurate 😂 but it gives me comfort and I hope it brings comfort to others.

So, isn't there a law in physics or whatever that says matter/energy can't be destroyed, only changed. Here's my thought. When that universe was destroyed and a new one made - all the people, angels, and demons, their matter/energy/particles/souls/whatever you want to call it, weren't destroyed and erased. They were just changed and reformed. Reincarnated. Used to make this new universe. Sure, angels and demons and God don't exist in it, but that's not to say they've been erased. They ARE there, just in new forms; their matter has been changed. That's why Adam is there, and Jesus. Not destroyed, just remade. No, they don't have their memories, they're just regular people now, but to me, it's still all them . This is rambling and not well articulated but I hope that makes sense. So to me, yes, that IS our Crowley and Aziraphale, as much as they are those are new people. Made of the same stock, you feel me?

[alice1505]

As I’ve seen a lot of negative reactions about the GO finale, I’m of course here to put my own two cents in as someone who liked it a great deal. This is not going to be a bash about the people who don’t like it, because you know what, I 100% see and understand where they’re coming from, and they are making great and valid points. They aren’t wrong, their interpretations are just different from mine, and that’s okay!! I do feel sad that it wasn’t what they wanted or expected, and now it is tainted for them. But also… because of that… as someone who DID enjoy it, I wanted to articulate (and by that I mean word vomit) my own positive thoughts and takes to help with the way I’m feeling disheartened. I want to keep my positivity and those feelings I felt while watching it. So! If you’re here to argue with me, or try to tell me I’m wrong, please don’t. I’ll ignore it and move on with my day. I’m not here to convince anyone of anything – just here to offer my thoughts and why I enjoyed it. It will be rambling and all over the place, and stupidly long…omg so long, so bless anyone who reads it.

I love that Crowley got to be a salty bitch. I’m sad that they didn’t get to have a real conversation about it, but he sure did milk it for everything it was worth, and I love that for him. Ms. Sandwich giving Aziraphale a dressing down was also delightful, Ms. Sandwich and Crowley friendship ftw.

Jesus was precious and I adored him. Also, Adam at the end?! I screamed “IS THAT ADAM?!” at my screen and had to rewind it. I adore that they put that in there, because that was one of the most amusing fan favorite pairings I saw and they DID IT. Romantically, as friends, it doesn’t matter, they were hanging out.

Muriel and Eric!! I loved that as well, and Muriel’s hell get up, please, I love her your honor.

I desperately wanted to know who Crowley was before he fell, because WHY does he know so much?! His powers?! WHO WAS HE. But leaving it open is fun too, creativity can go as hard as it wants.

The opening flashback? Obsessed. Absolutely obsessed. I don’t care if it was corny, I LOVED the long hair and braids on Aziraphale. First and only hair switch up we see on him?! I live. And first instance of helping the enemy? Crowley giving the sword back? The theory I saw that the bandage became his scarf???? OBSESSED.

Now for more sticky points for the negative reactions I’ve seen:

The no kiss thing. I am also bummed about it, it was really the ONE thing I was hoping for, I came into this with no expectations. And maybe that’s helped me to love it, I watched s2 later, and haven’t had as long to sit and stew on it, to plot out my own endings or build things up in my head like I think people may have. As gently as I can say it, when things sit for as long as GO, I fear that headcanons are born across the fandom, and they are taken deeply to heart. That isn’t a bad thing, I swear, there are some amazing ones that are born. But I do think it can impede or set people up for failure when it comes to the show coming back online. Anyway, back to the kiss! I wanted them to kiss badly, I really did, and I’m bummed they didn’t, but you know what? It’s ok. I can live with what did happen. I’ve seen some posts on it, and kudos to others with the same thought. The kiss last season was Crowley initiating, and it was desperate, overwhelming, full of so many things. And this time… Aziraphale got to initiate that little finger kiss/return kiss. He got to do it at his speed. Azira- “you go too fast for me” -phale got to do it in a way that felt consistent to his character for me. This is a man who adored Jane Austen and her love stories, a fucking slow burn lover. Not kissing Crowley full on in view of god, but doing something very sweet and gentle feels on brand.

The lack of a fully explicit “I love you” thing. It would have been absolutely lovely to hear the actual words, don’t get me wrong. But also… I felt like they showed their love and the understanding of that love in so, so many ways. “We can be an us.” “If Gabriel and Beelzebub can do it, so can we.” “Why would you give me Crowley, make me complete?” “I only want one thing.” “I forgive you.” “Heartbroken.” “Your love for him…” Crowley’s “I forgive you.” Etc. etc. etc. Personally, I didn’t need the explicit words, the grand declaration. To me, they already knew. They’ve probably known for a long time.

I actually quite loved that their roles were so reversed for this. Aziraphale getting to rescue Crowley, and swoop in to save the day. Aziraphale got to be the one with the plans and making shit happen. In the end, Crowley, who the last two world ending disasters said "screw humans and earth, let's run away together and ignore it all," gets to turn around and say "actually, no, let's save them." Aziraphale, who the last two times made the hard decision to do what was right, to stay and fight and try to save humans and earth even if Crowley left, got to admit that he really only wanted Crowley and this time he was willing to abandon earth and humans to be with him if that's what Crowley wanted. Crowley got to be the hero, and AZIRAPHALE TAUGHT HIM THAT!!! If the options were everything disappears or everything goes back to the way it was and you’ll probably repeat this process for the rest of forever (I will come back to this point, promise), Crowley knew that they would never be at peace. Do you think Aziraphale could live with abandoning humanity or sentencing to this cycle ad naseum? The same angel who put humanity before his own wants again and again? And do you think Crowley could live with the knowledge that it would make Aziraphale unhappy in the long run to not do The Right Thing? Their sacrifice shattered my heart, but to me, after thinking about it, it did feel in character.

The choice. I need to rewatch it, after some recovery, but it felt like, to me at least, that God was giving them some less than ideal choices… It seemed like she implied that “sure, I’ll let you choose, here are your options: sucky ass option 1 or sucky ass option 2!” Do I wish and think that there could have been a third, way better option??? YEAH. Of course I do. But it did sound a bit like they could choose to let God end everything, close the chapter, that’s it the end, the way she wanted and was planning on before Crowley stops her at the last second (and I have to make the Chuck/SPN comparison, I really do – She was bored of this particular story, she was done with it, time to end it, main characters to US be damned, they’re just dolls to her), OR that the board is reset. It all goes back to the way it was. Heaven and Hell chomping at the bit for some great war and end times. Humans caught in the crossfire. Apparently Metatron fucking with things himself. Aziraphale still under heaven’s influence and what the image of a good angel “should” be per heaven’s views, Crowley belonging to his own side. God playing ‘a solo game of solitaire’ anyway with no promise she won’t just laugh and end it all at a moment’s notice. Again, do I think there could have been a better third option??? Absolutely. People pissed about that, you’re absolutely right. There could have been a different work around, I bet. Sadly I’m keeping in mind that they had to cram 6 hours into 90 minutes, had to wrap everything up that they could, and if I remember correctly, they had to scrap anything NG had contributed? So here we are. I think Crowley and Aziraphale making the decision to make a new board where people can decide their own fates, really and truly, even if that cost is themselves, and god won’t interfere either, feels… fairly on brand, really.

The human ending. I 100% understand why the human au ending was upsetting, and part of me definitely agrees with the sentiment that it’s not them. I’m devastated that they won’t remember those 6,000+ years, at least not that we know of. I would love to see endless years and contents of them as an angel and demon in love. But you know what? Here's what I'm going to take from that ending. Not only was that just one lifetime/universe we were shown (I’m of the camp that sees the credits scenes as implying there are tons of other worlds and universes we didn’t get to see, and that Crowley and Aziraphale were there in all of them), we got to see a version of Crowley that wasn't punished severely for asking questions, who wasn't isolated and didn't fit in with the angels OR demons. Who wasn’t deeply traumatized and all too aware that heaven and hell are the same fucking thing, two sides of the same coin, who has to perform a constant balancing act. We got to see a version of Aziraphale that wasn't super conditioned/brainwashed with religion and heaven, who didn't have to spend thousands of years being terrified of showing even the smallest amount of affection for Crowley, who wasn’t ashamed of the human things he enjoyed in the face of other angels, and because of that, we got to see AZIRAPHALE actively pursuing Crowley! He made the first move! Went after him! This version of them got to love openly and get married and get that South Downs cottage ending. If they had stayed as demon and angel, who knows how long it would have taken. I would have loved seeing that and watch it develop, don't get me wrong, but it was sweet to see Aziraphale doing the chasing and initiating. They literally became the embodiment and personification of ‘I will find you in every universe, and love you in every lifetime possible’ and that is so gut wrenchingly romantic that I need to lie down for a few hours.

All in all to say, clumsily, that I loved the ending. It was absolutely bittersweet, and their expressions and words making their choice had me SOBBING. I’m heartbroken, and I am sad for the things we did not get, the things we will not see. But… but. I like what we did get. I feel like there was a happy ending too, along with the pain. I thought they did a pretty damn good job given all the factors, and personally, I think it could have been so much worse, or that we didn’t get anything at ALL and would have been left on that s2 final 15. I do understand that, for some people, this WAS the worse that could have happened, and I’m so sorry. I hope you can still find things to enjoy about it, and the best part is, with a multiverse theory? It just means that every fanfic ever created IS well and truly canon too.

[alice1505]

Sorry to add more to the word vomit, but you know, there's something so incredibly special to me that their love is ineffable. They'll always find each other, and always fall in love. I'm haunted by the fact that we'll never get to see Aziraphale and Crowley, angel and demon, living out eternity together, but... but. I love that they'll get multiple lives and universes together.

[actual-changeling]

people want everyone to "break the cycle" and then get upset when the cycle is actually broken and not reproduced slightly to the left. something that is working as intended cannot be fixed, it has to be completely replaced.

yes that means grief. it means anger and sadness and change and the opportunity for new joy. that's life.

[d3ad-eye-andy]

"They wouldn't choose humanity over each other" idk man their final words to each other in the first season was literally "To the world,"

[alice1505]

As I’ve seen a lot of negative reactions about the GO finale, I’m of course here to put my own two cents in as someone who liked it a great deal. This is not going to be a bash about the people who don’t like it, because you know what, I 100% see and understand where they’re coming from, and they are making great and valid points. They aren’t wrong, their interpretations are just different from mine, and that’s okay!! I do feel sad that it wasn’t what they wanted or expected, and now it is tainted for them. But also… because of that… as someone who DID enjoy it, I wanted to articulate (and by that I mean word vomit) my own positive thoughts and takes to help with the way I’m feeling disheartened. I want to keep my positivity and those feelings I felt while watching it. So! If you’re here to argue with me, or try to tell me I’m wrong, please don’t. I’ll ignore it and move on with my day. I’m not here to convince anyone of anything – just here to offer my thoughts and why I enjoyed it. It will be rambling and all over the place, and stupidly long…omg so long, so bless anyone who reads it.

I love that Crowley got to be a salty bitch. I’m sad that they didn’t get to have a real conversation about it, but he sure did milk it for everything it was worth, and I love that for him. Ms. Sandwich giving Aziraphale a dressing down was also delightful, Ms. Sandwich and Crowley friendship ftw.

Jesus was precious and I adored him. Also, Adam at the end?! I screamed “IS THAT ADAM?!” at my screen and had to rewind it. I adore that they put that in there, because that was one of the most amusing fan favorite pairings I saw and they DID IT. Romantically, as friends, it doesn’t matter, they were hanging out.

Muriel and Eric!! I loved that as well, and Muriel’s hell get up, please, I love her your honor.

I desperately wanted to know who Crowley was before he fell, because WHY does he know so much?! His powers?! WHO WAS HE. But leaving it open is fun too, creativity can go as hard as it wants.

The opening flashback? Obsessed. Absolutely obsessed. I don’t care if it was corny, I LOVED the long hair and braids on Aziraphale. First and only hair switch up we see on him?! I live. And first instance of helping the enemy? Crowley giving the sword back? The theory I saw that the bandage became his scarf???? OBSESSED.

Now for more sticky points for the negative reactions I’ve seen:

The no kiss thing. I am also bummed about it, it was really the ONE thing I was hoping for, I came into this with no expectations. And maybe that’s helped me to love it, I watched s2 later, and haven’t had as long to sit and stew on it, to plot out my own endings or build things up in my head like I think people may have. As gently as I can say it, when things sit for as long as GO, I fear that headcanons are born across the fandom, and they are taken deeply to heart. That isn’t a bad thing, I swear, there are some amazing ones that are born. But I do think it can impede or set people up for failure when it comes to the show coming back online. Anyway, back to the kiss! I wanted them to kiss badly, I really did, and I’m bummed they didn’t, but you know what? It’s ok. I can live with what did happen. I’ve seen some posts on it, and kudos to others with the same thought. The kiss last season was Crowley initiating, and it was desperate, overwhelming, full of so many things. And this time… Aziraphale got to initiate that little finger kiss/return kiss. He got to do it at his speed. Azira- “you go too fast for me” -phale got to do it in a way that felt consistent to his character for me. This is a man who adored Jane Austen and her love stories, a fucking slow burn lover. Not kissing Crowley full on in view of god, but doing something very sweet and gentle feels on brand.

The lack of a fully explicit “I love you” thing. It would have been absolutely lovely to hear the actual words, don’t get me wrong. But also… I felt like they showed their love and the understanding of that love in so, so many ways. “We can be an us.” “If Gabriel and Beelzebub can do it, so can we.” “Why would you give me Crowley, make me complete?” “I only want one thing.” “I forgive you.” “Heartbroken.” “Your love for him…” Crowley’s “I forgive you.” Etc. etc. etc. Personally, I didn’t need the explicit words, the grand declaration. To me, they already knew. They’ve probably known for a long time.

I actually quite loved that their roles were so reversed for this. Aziraphale getting to rescue Crowley, and swoop in to save the day. Aziraphale got to be the one with the plans and making shit happen. In the end, Crowley, who the last two world ending disasters said "screw humans and earth, let's run away together and ignore it all," gets to turn around and say "actually, no, let's save them." Aziraphale, who the last two times made the hard decision to do what was right, to stay and fight and try to save humans and earth even if Crowley left, got to admit that he really only wanted Crowley and this time he was willing to abandon earth and humans to be with him if that's what Crowley wanted. Crowley got to be the hero, and AZIRAPHALE TAUGHT HIM THAT!!! If the options were everything disappears or everything goes back to the way it was and you’ll probably repeat this process for the rest of forever (I will come back to this point, promise), Crowley knew that they would never be at peace. Do you think Aziraphale could live with abandoning humanity or sentencing to this cycle ad naseum? The same angel who put humanity before his own wants again and again? And do you think Crowley could live with the knowledge that it would make Aziraphale unhappy in the long run to not do The Right Thing? Their sacrifice shattered my heart, but to me, after thinking about it, it did feel in character.

The choice. I need to rewatch it, after some recovery, but it felt like, to me at least, that God was giving them some less than ideal choices… It seemed like she implied that “sure, I’ll let you choose, here are your options: sucky ass option 1 or sucky ass option 2!” Do I wish and think that there could have been a third, way better option??? YEAH. Of course I do. But it did sound a bit like they could choose to let God end everything, close the chapter, that’s it the end, the way she wanted and was planning on before Crowley stops her at the last second (and I have to make the Chuck/SPN comparison, I really do – She was bored of this particular story, she was done with it, time to end it, main characters to US be damned, they’re just dolls to her), OR that the board is reset. It all goes back to the way it was. Heaven and Hell chomping at the bit for some great war and end times. Humans caught in the crossfire. Apparently Metatron fucking with things himself. Aziraphale still under heaven’s influence and what the image of a good angel “should” be per heaven’s views, Crowley belonging to his own side. God playing ‘a solo game of solitaire’ anyway with no promise she won’t just laugh and end it all at a moment’s notice. Again, do I think there could have been a better third option??? Absolutely. People pissed about that, you’re absolutely right. There could have been a different work around, I bet. Sadly I’m keeping in mind that they had to cram 6 hours into 90 minutes, had to wrap everything up that they could, and if I remember correctly, they had to scrap anything NG had contributed? So here we are. I think Crowley and Aziraphale making the decision to make a new board where people can decide their own fates, really and truly, even if that cost is themselves, and god won’t interfere either, feels… fairly on brand, really.

The human ending. I 100% understand why the human au ending was upsetting, and part of me definitely agrees with the sentiment that it’s not them. I’m devastated that they won’t remember those 6,000+ years, at least not that we know of. I would love to see endless years and contents of them as an angel and demon in love. But you know what? Here's what I'm going to take from that ending. Not only was that just one lifetime/universe we were shown (I’m of the camp that sees the credits scenes as implying there are tons of other worlds and universes we didn’t get to see, and that Crowley and Aziraphale were there in all of them), we got to see a version of Crowley that wasn't punished severely for asking questions, who wasn't isolated and didn't fit in with the angels OR demons. Who wasn’t deeply traumatized and all too aware that heaven and hell are the same fucking thing, two sides of the same coin, who has to perform a constant balancing act. We got to see a version of Aziraphale that wasn't super conditioned/brainwashed with religion and heaven, who didn't have to spend thousands of years being terrified of showing even the smallest amount of affection for Crowley, who wasn’t ashamed of the human things he enjoyed in the face of other angels, and because of that, we got to see AZIRAPHALE actively pursuing Crowley! He made the first move! Went after him! This version of them got to love openly and get married and get that South Downs cottage ending. If they had stayed as demon and angel, who knows how long it would have taken. I would have loved seeing that and watch it develop, don't get me wrong, but it was sweet to see Aziraphale doing the chasing and initiating. They literally became the embodiment and personification of ‘I will find you in every universe, and love you in every lifetime possible’ and that is so gut wrenchingly romantic that I need to lie down for a few hours.

All in all to say, clumsily, that I loved the ending. It was absolutely bittersweet, and their expressions and words making their choice had me SOBBING. I’m heartbroken, and I am sad for the things we did not get, the things we will not see. But… but. I like what we did get. I feel like there was a happy ending too, along with the pain. I thought they did a pretty damn good job given all the factors, and personally, I think it could have been so much worse, or that we didn’t get anything at ALL and would have been left on that s2 final 15. I do understand that, for some people, this WAS the worse that could have happened, and I’m so sorry. I hope you can still find things to enjoy about it, and the best part is, with a multiverse theory? It just means that every fanfic ever created IS well and truly canon too.

[dominolikesthings]

SPOILERS FOR SEASON 3 OF GOOD OMENS MAJOR SPOILERS DO NOT READ IF YOU HAVEN'T SEEN IT YET TRUST ME

I completely understand why people are upset that the original Crowley and Aziraphale died. I completely get it. It’s sad that all of that history is gone. But guys, them deciding to die and give the Earth another chance, give humanity another chance, was so incredibly in character and was probably the best ending we were going to get.

And no, it wasn’t the bury your gays trope. If it was really the bury your guys trope then Asa and Anthony wouldn't have gotten together at all and I will die on this hill.

And yes, Asa and Anthony aren't the versions of the characters we've spent so much time with. They aren't the ones with 6,000 years of history who saved the world together multiple times. But they still are versions of Aziraphale and Crowley, they still have history and they still have love for each other.

Could the finale have been better? Oh yeah, absolutely. This show has never been perfect and I never expected the finale to be perfect either. But guys, it was a happy ending. Well, a bittersweet ending in my opinion, but it was also happy. Because Aziraphale and Crowley died knowing they truly loved each other, and Asa and Anthony got to get married and grow old together.

Literally the whole point of the end of season 2 was Crowley pointing out how toxic Heaven and Hell was, not only to them but to every human as well. Hell, this has been a point since the beginning of the story, with Crowley saying how ridiculous it was for God to tell Adam and Eve to not eat from the apple tree and then put it smack dab in the middle of Eden. The whole point was that, while there was a God who made everything and a Heaven and Hell to go to when you died based on whether you were good or not was toxic and how the humans never had true free will because of it.

Aziraphale and Crowley were established to love Earth and humans, so much so that they became natives of the place and constantly made friends with humans, never seeing humans as beneath them like all of the other angels and demons did (except for Muriel) so them giving up their immortal lives so God could create a universe where humans had true free will perfectly fit with their characters and the story's narrative.

If you're upset with the finale, if you think Aziraphale and Crowley deserved a better ending and Asa and Anthony getting married doesn't count, then that's your opinion and it's a totally valid one. But given the constraints the writers were under, I think that this was the best ending we and the characters could've gotten, and I enjoyed the finale despite being sad that the original universe is now gone. But that's just my opinion