24 Queer, Nonbinary They/Them Virgo Topics: Flowers and nature, lgbt+ rights, social justice, some fandom stuff (supernatural, Star Trek, Les mis, etc) ~ BLM, Intersectional Feminism, Trans Rights are Human Rights!
Is it just me or does this line hit different when you remember that David Tennant actually has a non-binary kid who uses they/them pronouns, and has worn this non-binary rainbow pin to a bunch of interviews —
Hi, it’s Brandy Schillace in my other guise. I have lots of friends whose lives have been upended by the strike—and a lot of shows cancelled or disrupted. I wonder; if for some reason S3 doesn’t get picked up (omg, I might die), would you write it as a book? Just to, you know, ease our pain.
Hello Brandy! As we were heading into Season 2, we planned everything so that we could go smoothly into making Season 3. Amazon wouldn't commission two seasons, we would have to bring out the audience for Season 2, but everything was planned and set. One reason for shooting in Bathgate instead of London was the relative cheapness of being able to keep our set up between seasons.
But the strikes have upended that plan a little. At best, they may delay it, at worst it's possible that we won't get the viewing figures or something and it might not happen at all.
If that became a thing, I'd definitely write the book.
Hi! My mum and I had a conversation in the car where I mentioned how funny I found this bit, because I had read it as Anathema thinking that she had, in fact, just been run over by a very campy gay couple, and a campy gay couple wouldn't harm her. But my mum read this as Anathema, who she thought could feel that Crowley was a demon, realizing that she was also in the presence of an angel, and an angel wouldn't harm her. And I guess I just wanted to know which was the intended message?
The version that Terry and I had in mind when we wrote it was the former.
Reading the comments I realize that things that were perfectly obvious to readers in the UK 33 years ago don't land the same way now.
If anyone has been in any doubt about what Anathema was thinking the line that would have made it utterly clear would have been..
...the "two consenting cycle repairmen".
In the UK the 1957 Wolfenden Report recommended that 'homosexual behaviour between consenting adults in private should be no longer a criminal offence'. And the phrase "consenting adults" became a euphemism for gay men once the recommendations of the report were put into action and male homosexual acts were decriminalized. (It took a decade and happened in 1967.)
So, yes. She thinks they're gay. And she was safe.
After having the conversation multiple times about how many people (myself included) had stopped writing for years until the Sandman on Netflix came along and grabbed us by the neck.
And after watching the screaming reactions to Good Omens season 2, (and all the meta and analysis and thoughts about plot structure, and suggestions for what makes sense for season 3.)
I have decided that Neil Gaiman's secret agenda is not the screaming or the angst.
I think his secret agenda is to make us all WRITE.
Okay, so that's how I think the pre-creation scene and Gabriel's arc connect to Aziraphale's choice. I also think the ineffable bureaucracy speedrun exists to prove totally different things to Aziraphale and Crowley: Aziraphale loves that they can love each other but notes they have to run away to be together; Crowley sees this and immediately thinks "hey, we can do that too!", forgetting that running away is not a solution Aziraphale has ever been interested in. It's the mentality of an individualist vs a group-oriented mind, and neither of them is necessarily wrong, it's just that their priorities are different and they HAVE TO TALK ABOUT IT, which they don't.
Continued analysis under the cut:
3. Let's take the Job minisode. Why include it? We already mentioned that it proves Aziraphale remembers Crowley as an angel, since he mentions it. And he believes Crowley is the same person he always was, and that he doesn't want to harm Job's crops or animals or children. Crowley tries to convince him he's a Big Bad Demon who is all in on this assignment, but fails utterly to kill even a single goat, soooo... Aziraphale comes to the conclusion that he knows what Crowley wants. Alert! Alert! This is a big problem! Crowley says, "What do you know about what I want?" Aziraphale: "I know you." Crowley: "You do not know me." But because Aziraphale got it right this time, he goes ahead assuming he'll always get it right, which is a crucial failure when it comes to the final reckoning. He doesn't ever ASK Crowley what he wants, he just assumes. When you assume you know what someone wants, you usually assume their priorities align with yours... he couldn't be more wrong about that. The Job minisode sets up this dynamic for them, and they never really manage to change it.
The other thing happens at the end of the minisode. Crowley acknowledges two crucial points: 1) he's lonely ("But you said it wasn't!" "I'm a demon. I lied"), 2) he doesn't think Aziraphale would like Hell. Aziraphale DOESN'T like Hell. Aziraphale hates Hell for what they've done to Crowley. He doesn't see Heaven as innocent or benign, but importantly, Heaven has never tried to hurt Crowley directly. They never threatened his safety. They never tortured him (as it's heavily implied that Hell did). Fast forward to the last ten mins of season 2: Aziraphale excited to tell Crowley that he can be an angel again BECAUSE: he never has to go back to Hell. They can never hurt him again, not the way they did before. And he doesn't have to be lonely anymore.
Last point before I leave Job: Crowley has the chance to cause Aziraphale to Fall, here, probably. ("I lied to Heaven to thwart the will of God!" "You did, but I'm not going to tell anybody. Are you? ...good, then nothing has to change.") He doesn't take it. He doesn't want Aziraphale to be a demon. He loves Aziraphale as he is. "Angel" as an affectionate. Aziraphale certainly doesn't use "demon" as a pet name for Crowley. I think they set up this scene to contrast the final one, and show how deeply hurt Crowley is that Aziraphale suggest he change.
4. Moving on to Victorian Scotland. This one confused me at first. I was delighted that they brought back the "the lower you start the more opportunity you have to rise" dialogue from the book, but apart from that I didn't really see the point of it. It seems like the statue of Gabriel and the fact that he and Beelz ended up at that pub in the present were more or less coincidental.
The point, I think, is actually not the girl, but the doctor. He's a person who is trying to do good by working in a system that's deeply flawed, and engaging in questionable moral practices for the greater good. (Cadaver dissection is still an essential part of medical school. You need dead bodies to understand living ones.) He shows Aziraphale a tumor he removed from a child who died, and Aziraphale clutches it to his chest. The camera zooms in and lingers to tell us that this is a guardian through and through. He wants to protect people. He wants to do good with every fiber of his being.
To Crowley, it's enough to just "be an us" with Aziraphale. He doesn't really want anything more than that. That's an issue! For one thing, it fosters unhealthy codependency, and for another, Aziraphale would never be happy without the opportunity to help and protect people. It's an essential part of who he is. Metatron knows that, and he plays Aziraphale like a fiddle. The doctor showed Aziraphale that you can make a difference even in systems that are flawed, and even if you have to do things you'd rather not do. Aziraphale doesn't want to go back to Heaven, but he truly thinks he can change things; thinks he can be a guardian with some real power. In his mind, that's the right thing to do.
Last thing that happens in Scotland: Crowley saves a soul from Hell, arguably, by preventing a suicide. He gets in Big Trouble. Whatever happened to him downstairs resulted in him coming back up, leaning on a cane, and asking Aziraphale to give him holy water. Go back and watch that scene knowing what we know now about the Victorian minisode. Ask yourself how Aziraphale must have felt. He likely blamed himself for what happened, because if he hadn't meddled then they never would have been there in the first place. He knew where Crowley was, and why he was there, and he had to sit with that knowledge for years. He desperately wants Crowley to be safe; is perfectly willing to push him away to keep him safe-- which is what he does do, the minute Crowley gets back.
Now think again about what Metatron offered him. A chance to keep Crowley safe forever. He'd never be harmed again. Aziraphale is going to take that offer, no matter what else is asked of him. He's shown over and over again that he'll sacrifice his own happiness to make sure nothing happens to Crowley. And he'll do it without talking to Crowley about it first, because he is a moron who doesn't know how to use his words. Leading Crowley to assume that Aziraphale doesn't love him. The idiot angel is doing it all out of love, but because he doesn't make himself clear Crowley doesn't know that.
Part 3: Maggie and Nina, and their roles as mirror couple/ Greek chorus!
question for you feral good omens aficionados (minor spoiler for ep 1)
when they did their fractional half-miracle to hide Gabriel and it ended up being immensely powerful instead, do you think it was because aziraphale and crowley are so powerful together? or was Gabriel unconsciously adding his power to their miracle too?
Something something the way that Crowley introduced himself to Aziraphale the first time they met in the garden and reacted as if they had never met before. Something about him later behaving as if he did actually have those memories of their time in Heaven together and trying to pass it off as being someone different now. Something about Heaven's way of punishing angels that go against the plan by erasing their memories. Something about Crowley seeing Gabriel without his memory and saying "ask him properly." Something about "remember it now" "it hurts, to remember. my head isn't built for that" "I know. Do it anyway"
Something about "I know. Looking at where the furniture isn't"
I think a key difference between Aziraphale and Crowley - one of the reasons why they keep having the same argument, namely run away together or stay and fight - is where they think good comes from. Their values and basic morality is more or less the same. Peace, beauty, good wine, beneficence (maybe more of a general nonmaleficence, in Crowley's case), freedom. As much as Crowley objects to the word, both he and Aziraphale are shown to value goodness, but the problem is that they're approaching the concept from opposite angles.
Aziraphale, along with every other angel, was brainwashed into thinking that Good stems from Heaven and Heaven alone, the collective efforts of a cohort of angels carrying out God's ineffable plan. The flashback episodes in both seasons show the beginnings of Aziraphale's deprogramming, where he witnesses "God's will" causing direct harm to people. If my memory is correct, the Job minisode is the earliest example of Aziraphale choosing to stand in opposition to Heaven, acting on his own sense of rightness and justice rather than regurgitate the company line. But even up to the present day, Aziraphale still clings to the belief that Heaven is ultimately good, despite all evidence to the contrary. Why? Partly because that's just how deep six thousand years of brainwashing goes, but also because for Aziraphale, goodness is a community project.
Aziraphale's approach to morality is that good comes from collective works, from and within a community. Heaven is (supposed to be) the perfect community of perfectly like-minded people working towards a common goal, and I don't think Aziraphale is wrong for wanting this, he just refuses to admit to himself that Heaven's goal is draconian and its work is obedience. We see him building a community on Earth, with the shopkeepers' association and the friends he's made through his bookshop - these aren't necessarily deep connections, but they are people he shows up to help and who show up to help him. This is what community is: people doing good for each other in small ways, offering to help when someone is in need, and asking for help in your turn. It's what Aziraphale thinks Heaven is.
On the other hand, Crowley's approach to morality is extremely individualistic, and for good reason. He was cast out of Heaven and (presumably) tortured by Hell for disobedience, for following his own morality instead of the letter of the law. He has no faith in other people, understandably, and thinks that good can only happen when no one else is watching because both Heaven and Hell have punished him for doing good. Hence, Crowley's vehement rejection whenever Az calls him good or nice, etc.
This difference in perspective is why they keep fighting, even when they clearly love each other and have the same values at heart. For Aziraphale, good stems from community, but he fails to grasp that goodness is still an individual choice, not an institutional one. For Crowley, good comes from the individual, often at their own expense, but he doesn't see the power in collective action (he's never had the chance).
So, when Crowley asks Aziraphale to run away with him, he has no context for understanding what's keeping him anchored. Aziraphale wants to stay at the bookshop and protect his friends, neighbors, and most importantly, Crowley. I think this is a big part of what informs Az's decision at the end of season two - he's not power-hungry, and he's not so completely naive that he believes he can swoop in and fix everything wrong with Heaven (although, his programmed belief in the essential goodness of Heaven is doing a lot of work here too). He accepts the Metatron's offer because it is a strategic move to protect his community. He thinks he can play the Metatron the same way he and Crowley have been playing the archangels for millennia. But I think the Metatron is an entirely different level of opponent, one that I have no doubt will be central to the conflict of season three.
BUT at the same time, Aziraphale just absolutely fails to understand the irrevocable harm Heaven has done to Crowley, he's not acknowledging Crowley's agency as a demon who makes his own choices, and he hasn't let go of that last bit of loyalty to Heaven. It's such a slap in the face to Crowley, after everything they've done together, for Az to turn back to Heaven at the last moment ("we could have been us"). From Crowley's perspective, Aziraphale is running back to the cult that abused them both and rejecting Crowley as a demon. From Az's perspective, Crowley is giving up on the community they've built together on Earth and abandoning a strategic position of power. As Nina and Maggie point out, they don't know how to openly talk to each other (because of the millennia of having to sneak around, probably), so they both end the season feeling misunderstood and rejected, even though they want the same thing in the end.
Also, their respective retirements from Hell and Heaven are incredibly recent, considering the span of their lives and how much time they each spent punching their timecards. They haven't developed their own identities yet. Like Nina's speech at the end - "I'd just be a rebound mess." They're not ready yet, but they will be.
huge shout out to gabriel and beelzebub for speedrunning aziraphale and crowley’s 6000 year will-they-won’t-they and then leaving for a happy ending together while aziraphale and crowley still can’t even manage to hold hands
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