batsy

can someone pls cast a spell to motivate me or something

[batsyvie]

tags

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𝖒𝖞 𝖎𝖓𝖙𝖊𝖓𝖘𝖊 𝖆𝖓𝖉 𝖕𝖗𝖔𝖋𝖔𝖚𝖓𝖉 𝖕𝖔𝖓𝖉𝖊𝖗𝖎𝖓𝖌𝖘

my reblog tag that i definitely do not abuse

[fuckyeahgoodomens]

My thoughts about the Good Omens Finale

Note: I do not wish to convince anyone of my opinion or be convinced of theirs, I just want to write down how I feel about the finale. Also, I've heard that the creators are getting some hate messages, omg? Please if you have a slightest inclination to do that or to be mean to someone because you disagree with them then log off the internet and go for a walk... try to find a rainbow, feed peas to a duck ❤.

Simply put... I hated the finale. During while some things felt quite rushed I was thinking that it's because of the 6 episodes to 90 minutes shortening and even if it won't be perfect it will still be worth it because of the ending. And then came the scene in the bookshop with God and Satan and our ineffables after which they... died. And then we saw some two human clones who looked like them ending up together.

...

Crying, I couldn't have believed my eyes. The finale killed Aziraphale and Crowley and all the characters we came to know and love and replaced them with some random people who looked like them and we are supposed to care about?

Have I really just watch Soho struggle, learn that Mutt have died, Nina and Maggie had to leave, and people there were barely hanging on to be given a bit of hope by Jesus so they would be erased and this wouldn't matter at all?

I can't even start to begin to describe how much this is not Good Omens that I love. My words fail me and I am left stuttering and waving my hands erratically.

Not starting again but fix what we have has been an important point of Good Omens. Same as Job and his wife don't want some new children but the old ones. But somehow replacing the Earth is the ideal ending now?

The finale is trying to convince us that it's better because now there won't be any Hell and Heaven with their influences, but the big part of Good Omens was always that the humans do have their free will unlike most angels and demons - and all the big events on Earth like World Wars or Spanish Inquisition are created by humans, no matter how many coins Crowley glues on the pavement. If this was truly a problem then even a God's edict that from now no direct influencing people would do (not that we have that much reason to believe that there was that much influencing going on in the first place - most demons and angels kept to their dominions and Aziraphale and Crowley had The Arrangement), Aziraphale and Crowley could have been left on the Earth to make sure no such things was happening. But no, let's throw this all out, kill everyone and start over with real dinosaurs this time because it will surely be better... or will it? The humanity without Hell and Heaven seems the same to me in the ending. Hmm.

The whole scene with the God and Satan (what happens to him? who knows) where God calls Aziraphale lazy felt very very weird.

My brain is completely baffled why I should care about some random two men that look like Aziraphale and Crowley when I just saw my ineffables die. It's not them. It's like someone killed me and cloned me. I would not be very happy about it. And I know that some people like to say it is at least an imprint of them because they created the universe and they find each other in every universe over and over but nothing like is stated there, it is just wishful thinking of a broken heart imho. Aziraphale and Crowley are dead after Aziraphale spend years trying to make Heaven better and Crowley spent years in depression...

...which is another thing of itself:

Crowley is an optimist. (so seeing him in the finale makes me want to put the gif of from The Godfather: "look how they massacred my boy" here :D)

I hate this trend where you have an uplifting funny movie/season/book/something and you see that it is successful and people love it because it gives them comfort and hope and you go "oh but what if we make it drama where suddenly our characters full of hope and energy are depressed and see dying as the only option because surely that is what the fans of the original material appreciate". Fuck that.

I can't help it but the finale doesn't feel like Pratchett. At all. Perhaps there is a reason for that:

I have decided that I will consider only the book and S1 the canon in my head (perhaps with occasional visits from Bildad, Muriel or Furfur ;)). But I simply can't take this ending into my heart.

I have been waiting for the Finale to find out if it rekindles my passion for Good Omens, which sort of died away after the info about NG came out. I'm afraid it hasn't and I don't plan to update this blog much more anymore, perhaps sometimes if I see something that I want to share but I am not sure how much. Thank you for following me all these years, it's been a blast ❤.

(I still love Good Omens. I am going to The Ineffable Con 7 and I will look forward to meeting you there or at another opportunity. ❤❤❤)

[inhonoredglory]

So about free will and the ending of Good Omens 3...

OK let's talk thematics.

Because one of the reasons Good Omens resonated with so many of us is that Crowley and Aziraphale were like us, people who've been traumatized by oppressive systems that forced us into corners and destroyed our sense of self, ability to love, our free will, everything about us.

Good Omens taught us that we can find healing and bravery to overcome that trauma by bonding with other traumatized souls and DEFYING those systems of oppression.

Adam in GO1 wanted to destroy the world to remake it better, but that's not an option for us, is it? We can't eliminate homophobia or transphobia, we can't eliminate the abusers in our lives, we can't eliminate corporations that pollute our environment and we can't eliminate religious institutions or political corruption or fascism or racism and every other awful thing out there.

But we CAN take their power away from controlling us, by banding together and declaring NO. YOU will not define me. That is what Aziraphale and Crowley represent.

As angels and demons, they represent revolting against the systems that birthed them and telling those systems that they REJECT the identity foisted upon them.

That is why Good Omens 3 doesn't make sense thematically. Because it takes this metaphor and says instead that the only solution is to eliminate the entire system and start again. Something that is virtually impossible to do without mass destruction on a global scale (for example, an extinction event that takes us back to before civilization and the patriarchy began). This is exactly what Adam thought:

Adam: “We'll get rid of everything stupid and start all over again.”

But Good Omens 1 tells us that this thinking is wrong. It is wrong to nuke the world to forge a better one, because individuals lives matter and we can try to fix it.

Brian: “You're going to burn all this away. Why? Because some adults mucked things up? That's a reason to fix it, not destroy it.”

Good Omens was always optimistic about how, despite the fact that humans can destroy the world, we can also make it better.

Everyone in Good Omens 1 made choices, created their own free will, by defying god. Not eliminating god. Defying god. Adam, by rejecting his birth and parentage. Anathema, by rejecting her inherited role. Crowley and Aziraphale, by choosing to love one another (and what a queer metaphor that is, to choose to love as your form of rebellion 🏳️‍🌈).

This works beautifully as a metaphor because we in the real world can also choose to make our own free will, despite the oppressive systems we live under. Even if it's difficult, even if maybe we need therapy and support to do so, we can choose to reject the abusive systems in our lives and forge our own identities outside of them.

So when Good Omens 3 comes along saying the only solution is to remake the world entirely because apparently there is no hope under ANY oppressive system?? It's basically a pessimistic outlook. It's saying, no matter how much support and love we find, we will never have freedom from those abusive systems. (and maybe that's true on a social level, but on an individual level?)

Saying the only solution is to remake the world entirely removes the power WE have to do something within the broken systems we live under.

I get how Good Omens 3 works (sorta) from an atheistic perspective, and I fully believe it's the ending Terry would have wanted, but it just does not work from a Good Omens (or a realistic) perspective.

About the atheistic POV, just to say briefly: Does removing god actually fix all the problems in the world? Well, Good Omens already told us that humans are the primary drivers of evil. So god wasn't even responsible for that. And plus, it is humans who created god, and what we imagine god wants, and why we fight religious wars.

It's not god's existence that ruins society, it's the idea of god, and that's all humanity's creation.

So, no, eliminating god does not create a perfect world.

But!! Having free will to defy the oppressive systems that will invariably plague humanity is how you find freedom. Not a perfect world but free will, and the ability to act on it, is still how you define Who you are, that is how you defeat everything society wants you to be, how you CHOOSE who YOU want to be.

That is why Good Omens is so inspiring, because it speaks to all of us who feel oppressed and traumatized. It tells us there is hope despite what happened (and is happening) to us.

Good Omens 3 does not share that theme though, and that to me is the primary reason I can't get behind the ending.

[lavendercrownbookworm]

@demonicputto 's post i just reblogged has me needing to rant

If humans don't have free will then what was season 1??

I thought part of the point was that Adam turned his back on the Great Plan because he was so human, he loved the humans around him, and because he realized that free will was a big part of what makes us human. Demons and angels and heaven and hell can play their games all they want, but Adam still has to choose to join in, and he does the most human thing ever: says "fuck that and fuck you".

Having his friends by his side helps him think of how the Horsemen can be stopped: through his friends' hearts and beliefs and sheer human stubbornness that demands we make our own choices, no matter who is trying to pull our strings. We will cut those fucking strings. There will be no apocalypse. "You're not my dad."

.... but free will didn't exist? That was all just... God, playing a game of Solitaire? And because that's what it started as, it can't ever change? That universe is no good, it needs to be torn up and burned and wiped from existence?

Fuck that. The humans of that world are worth saving, it's worth trying to make things better without just burning it all the fuck down.

[demonicputto]

Been thinking about it for a few hours now, and I think I've figured out something that bothers me about the end. I don't understand why the world needed to be restarted because I never thought the humans in the Good Omens universe didn't have free will.

I thought they did. I thought that was the point.

It's in the book: "Being a demon, of course, was supposed to mean you had no free will. But you couldn't hang around humans for very long without learning a thing or two."

It's also why the world is saved in the book/series 1. Because Adam just grows up being very human, without the expected interference, he has the free will to resist what's expected of him.

I guess I don't see what this ending gets us that the original ending didn't, when Adam told Heaven and Hell to stay out of everyone's business and Aziraphale and Crowley got to just go eat lunch together and chill.

[demonicputto]

Last rant and then I'll post funny miis or something.

In a way that feels uncharacteristic for me, I find myself disliking the ending the longer I sit with it. Normally I can warm up to something, but I feel like the whole thing flies in the face of the book.

As I ranted about earlier, humans have free will in the Good Omens universe. That's the whole point. Free Will is what lets Adam stand up to heaven and hell. He refuses to play his role because he's human and he doesn't have to.

But also, when Adam first gets his powers he starts changing things to "make things better". He wants to get rid of the all the bad stuff and make the world just the way he wants it. And he has to learn that the world is worth saving as it is. He puts it back nearly the same so that the world can have another chance.

Going, "actually this universe needs a restart because we can't work with it this way and the humans never had a chance to really have free will," doesn't make any sense!

I'm less mad that Aziraphale and Crowley got rebooted than I am that THE ENTIRE WORLD got rebooted. It's their world, and Adam's, and Anathema's, and Dog's, and the world of all those people who get little scenes in the book that got cut from the show. It's all of their world and it's worth saving.

[armageddidnt]

My thoughts on why the good omens final 15 was so devastating, S3 edition

Since finishing the finale, I’ve been reading a lot of all your thoughts, and I’m glad that other people are also not as satisfied as I wanted to be. Yes, we are very fortunate that we got anything at all, we are fortunate that the creators still care about these two and gave some version of them a happy ending, we are fortunate that it was done as well as could possibly be done in one episode, etc., etc. etc. but I think what a lot of people are frustrated about is the fact that Aziraphale and Crowley still never actually got to be together. They didn’t have their happy ending. The entire show was them, literally being in love since the beginning of everything and how they’re circling each other, and they can’t be open and unafraid about their love their entire lives and their relationship was impossible, and then at the very end, the show just kind of confirms that. It’s basically saying that their relationship was always impossible, and there is no version of it where it can exist, EXACTLY AS THEY WERE. The only version is the rebooted earth where everyone is completely replaced and Aziraphale and Crowley don’t exist. A lot of people have made the analogy that it’s the exact same as God giving Job new children when he loved his old children and really just wanted them instead. And I absolutely agree. I think we’re also frustrated because we wanted to see Aziraphale and Crowley, who have the power to create the most insane miracles (25 lazari!) by just barely working together, we wanted to see what they could do when they chose each other and used that power together to create a life for themselves that they always wanted. A better life for the humans too, yes, but the life they always wanted with each other. We all believed in that love and that desire, and it just feels like a slap in the face to have the show say that it was impossible and the only way they can be together is to not be the way that they were, but to be something different.

And, there was a lot that was unresolved in Aziraphale and Crowley‘s relationship that I think we all were hoping for. And of course they only had one episode, but there was a lot of things we wanted to see like them ACTUALLY TALKING TO EACH OTHER, them being more open with each other about their feelings, even just another kiss, goddamnit. Now the only aziracrow kiss we ever got and ever will get was the tortured one at the end of season 2. So yeah. We’ll have to live with that for the rest of our lives. And I know it’s like you don’t need kisses or physical affection to convey love for someone, and there were lots of other ways they convey their love over the years, but it all just felt like they were dancing around it and doing the same thing they’ve done the entire show and the last 6000 years of their relationship: stuff is implied, but never said explicitly. They never even say “I love you” to each other. It’s God tangentially telling them about their love for each other, as if it’s a fact. Confirmed facts are great, but expression and communicating directly to each other is better.

Personally, my two deepest darkest desires for this episode was that either Aziraphale would apologize to Crowley (there are a lot of things that I would’ve liked to see him Apologize for, About Aziraphale turning Crowley down so many times, about how anxious Crowley was for years about trying to protect him, about not seeing what Crowley was trying to tell him for 6000 years about heaven and hell, about not just accepting Crowley as the demon he is. [AND THAT’S MY BIGGEST ONE btw I personally felt so bad for Crowley when Aziraphale basically told him he was only willing to be with Crowley if Crowley became an angel again and fundamentally changed who he was. I’ve always felt like that was such a slap in the face to Crowley and the show literally never addresses it]) Instead, Aziraphale literally made Crowly apologize to HIM. so. Not really at all what I wanted.

OR…. My other deepest, darkest desire: I would have liked to see both of them have a very clear and candid discussion. About anything really, but especially about their relationship. Because of course that’s what they spent 6000 years not doing. And I don’t know. Maybe the finale is saying that they both already knew all of it anyway and none of it needed to be said. But I just wanted them to say it. And I think a lot of of us feel the same way. We are all just humans who wanted to see them talk properly about their feelings. Maggie and Nina told them they needed to do it. And they just never did. We got a lot of really great things in the finale, but having a clear and candid discussion was not something that they did.

And yes, the south Downs thing. But Aziraphale and Crowley didn’t get their happy ending in the south downs. Their alternate universe counterparts did. Which is like the second best thing, but it’s still not the best thing. And there are people saying that the alternate versions of them absolutely are the same, that it’s their literal souls reincarnated into human bodies, and everything that they are is the same. But at the same time, I argue that there’s so much of them that is lost. All of their memories and experiences and struggles and the times that they chose each other and the times that they didn’t, everything they went through to bring them to where they are in the finale. I just think all of that lends so much more weight to what could’ve been them finally choosing each other even with all of the heaven and Hell brainwashing they had to endure for 6000 years. All of that is lost in their alternate counterparts so in a sense, it can never really be them, even if it is a version of them. (Cue “is there a version of this” from staged I’m so sorry) So yes, it’s a win, but there is still much that is lost, and I think that’s why I and so many others are feeling pain and sadness about that loss. 6000 years of being in love and just once, we wanted to see Aziraphale and Crowey both choose each other at the same time, on the same page, no strings attached. I guess at the end, they both chose the world together. So also like the second best thing, but it’s still not the best thing. So that is what we lost.

BASICALLY: even if you believe that the rebooted universe was just one version, and that there may be infinite versions of them where they find each other in every single universe, that still means that the one version of them that we all actually DESPERATELY wanted to be together, will never be. The finale basically said the one thing that we all, as a fandom, wanted, is impossible. And I think that is the most tragic and devastating thing for me about it.

(and a whole other thing that I didn’t even get into is the queer allegory. A lot of people have talked over the years about how Aziraphale and Crowley facing so much pressure from heaven and hell about being together is like how queer people in our society face so much pressure and brainwashing, etc. about being together. It just feels like even more of a slap in the face to be told that Aziraphale and Crowley‘s relationship is impossible and couldn’t happen in the world they lived and loved in. It’s like saying that if they want to be in love, THEY need to change instead of the world doing it. idk it just adds a whole extra layer of tragedy for me since that is a layer that I’ve always seen Aziraphale and Crowley’s relationship through and it would have been so powerful to see that message affirmed by them achieving the impossible and being able to to be together just as they are)

There. I’ve said my piece. For those that are mad about people people saying negative things about the finale, please understand that there is a lot that we loved and we are very grateful for what we got, but there are a lot of reasons why we are frustrated and why we felt like we lost a lot of things we were hoping for. For those that are very frustrated or heartbroken, I feel you. We are all in this together. There will always be fandom and fanworks and the fact that this story makes us all feel so much about these characters will never cease being the most precious gift I could imagine. There have been at least two universes canonically in the show. I choose to believe that we as fans create a universe where Aziraphale and Crowley chose each other and get to be together, exactly as they are, for the rest of time.

Love you all

[samwwise]

“you’re just mad that they didn’t kiss again” yeah you know what i fucking i am. what do you mean they shared the worst first kiss in history fuelled by grief and despair and then vanished from existence without ever knowing what it’s like to kiss someone out of love and joy

[the-ink-archives]

[plantlordv]

Aziraphale and Crowley did NOT get a happy ending. Let that sink in.

After everything they'd gone through together, all their history, their love spanning 6000 years, they literally vanished into dust.

Their "human versions" are not them. They met each other in their 50s? 60s? and will get like 30 or so years together.

No sticking together for centuries despite being from opposite factions in an eternal conflict, no developing their rivalry, friendship, and eventually love throughout the ages, no having each other's back despite the dangers of doing so, no bickering, no rescuing each other, no "you go too fast for me, Crowley", no 'our' Bentley, no "angel" as a pet name, NO THEM. At all.

This is my worst nightmare I'm going the fuck back to sleep.

[batsyvie]

AND ANOTHER THING, i hate that they created a new universe rather than allowing the current earth to exist again. were humans so irredeemable that they did not deserve a second chance? why give us that set up where jesus spoke to the whickber street residents - particularly mrs sandwich - where he spoke on how they should seek to make amends (whether it be internally or physically). i disagree with the argument that humans were given true “Free Will” in this new universe and therefore it is ‘better’, as if the past two seasons haven’t established how people already had free will to be “evil” or “good” or “in-between” irregardless of heaven and hell’s influence, because that’s just what humans are! crowley even says as much! the ending feels like they’ve killed billions of people, rather than given them another chance. those people in the finale weren’t the characters we knew, but individuals with entirely different lives and identities. after all the hard work aziracrow put into trying to stop the apocalypse, the conclusion for me felt pretty similar to that initial plan for the End Of The World in s1 - get rid of all the humans and start again.

aw man i’m so sad rn

[batsyvie]

this is your sign to return to your favourite post-s2 fix-it fics. that’s your canon s3 now

[batsyvie]

aziraphale saying that crowley was “the best angel” and listing out his angelic qualities irritates me to no end; it reaffirms crowley’s idea that aziraphale is endeared towards him because of his past rather than who he was as a being post-fall. which isn’t true — there’s been two whole fuckin seasons of aziraphale doting on crowley because of his enduring kindness and curiosity and minor-mischief-making as a demon. and what’s WORSE is that somehow we got more of a uncharacteristically positive reaction from crowley when aziraohale said as much than what we did when aziraphale confessed in front of GOD that crowley completed him

[daylightglitch]

aw they're gonna kiss when they're finally alone in the bookshop- nvm

aw they're gonna kiss after they made their decision- nvm

aw they're gonna kiss before they disappear- no what is the hand thing- nvm

maybe they'll kiss as humans- and then they pointed at me and laughed WELL FUCK ME THEN

[plantlordv]

Aziraphale and Crowley did NOT get a happy ending. Let that sink in.

After everything they'd gone through together, all their history, their love spanning 6000 years, they literally vanished into dust.

Their "human versions" are not them. They met each other in their 50s? 60s? and will get like 30 or so years together.

No sticking together for centuries despite being from opposite factions in an eternal conflict, no developing their rivalry, friendship, and eventually love throughout the ages, no having each other's back despite the dangers of doing so, no bickering, no rescuing each other, no "you go too fast for me, Crowley", no 'our' Bentley, no "angel" as a pet name, NO THEM. At all.

This is my worst nightmare I'm going the fuck back to sleep.

[fellshish]

not even a kiss in the old man yaoi au

[stardustdrawss]

Rogya shenanigans