I hope i get my wording and point across properly enough but Aziraphale being sometimes mean to Crowley in season 1 and 2 works. The reason it works is because while Aziraphale tends to be more soft and nurturing, he can also be, in Crowley's words: "just a little bit of a bastard worth knowing."
He isn't mean to Crowley in a way that is inherently malicious. Aziraphale expresses frustration and anger safely around someone who he knows won't judge him for it.
He can't be expressively rude to the archangels, and even if he could, being overtly rude is not precisely in his nature. But he also can't express disappointment or literally any emotion besides begrudging toleration around said angels.
Aziraphale represses a lot of emotions, so when thoes emotions bubble up, they always explode towards Crowley's direction. But most times the emotions he is trying to express come off wrong.
It's an accumulation of his inner frustrations, his repressed disdain and anger towards heaven, his responsibility to do good...all of these manifest when he gets in conflict about where his relationship with Crowley stands.
Because well, Crowley represents half of these inner feelings to Aziraphale + Crowley allows Aziraphale to express himself in a way that makes the angel feel safe.
And Aziraphale sometimes spills things out that he didn't mean, weather it be some parts of indoctrination ideals he holds about heaven, some sort of deflection, a cry for help and as previously stated, he feels secure enough to express his suppressed emotions around Crowley.
He just ends up wording it wrong because centuries of hiding makes it dificult to fully encapsulate how he feels about certain things in a way that doesn't come off as rash or impulsive.
And it's not like Crowley is Aziraphale's punching bag. Aziraphale doesn't enjoy hurting Crowley.
I mean, look at Aziraphale's face after he said that there isn't any "our side". And him and Crowley can't work together anymore. Does this look like someone who genuinely believes that?
And this is Aziraphale's face after "forgiving" Crowley. Now the context behind this is different, Crowley hurt him too so the angel, in his way, returned it. But the moment Crowley actually leaves, he sits with the hurt. Because Aziraphale in that scene had been downright expressing how much he needed Crowley, just for the demon to (rightfully) misinterpret all of it and leave.
Back to my original point, Aziraphale being sometimes cruel to Crowley works wonders in the show because there is so much context that provides insight on why he does this.
And this behavior stems from so many different things, but the one that it connects to at the end is his relationship with Crowley.
So why am I touching on this subject? Because season 3 doesn't even seem interested in exploring any of this, which makes absolutely no sense to me.
Season 2 goes out of its way to establish that both Aziraphale and Crowley are terrible communicators. Crowley avoids vulnerability until he's backed into a corner, and Aziraphale buries his feelings so deeply that when they finally surface, they often come out wrong. Their inability to say what they actually mean is one of the biggest recurring sources of conflict in their relationship.
Yet GO3 does not addresses this aspect of Aziraphale's character at all. It ignores a communication problem that has been consistently present since the beginning of the show and that played a major role in the ending of season 2.
In addition to that, the story introduces an entirely new set of relationship issues that were never properly established beforehand and, arguably, shouldn't even exist in the first place. Rather than examining the flaws that have always been there.
Instead of exploring Aziraphale's tendency to say hurtful things when he's scared or emotionally overwhelmed, the story seems to recast those moments as evidence of a deeper moral failing on his part.
The problem is that this shifts the dynamic in a way that feels fundamentally different from the first two seasons.
Previously, Aziraphale was often the meanest of the two when they are in conflict. I'm not saying that he was cruel, but because centuries of repression and conflicting loyalties would sometimes spill out in the form of poorly chosen words. The narrative provided context for those moments and treated them as character flaws to be understood rather than proof that he was fundamentally in the wrong.
In GO3, however, that complexity largely disappears. Aziraphale's mistakes are emphasized and revisited repeatedly, while Crowley's increasingly harsh treatment of him is often framed as understandable, justified, or even deserved.
As a result, the relationship begins to feel strangely lopsided. The story increasingly positions Aziraphale as the primary source of the problem and Crowley as the injured party reacting to it.
And that's a significant departure from the dynamic that had been established previously.
To illustrate what I mean, let's go through some specific examples from GO3:
1. Crowley's need to twist the knife over and over.
First of all, I don't think Crowley is above being cruel. He's absolutely capable of saying things that hurt when he's angry, frustrated, or scared.
But throughout the series, he's also shown a tendency to be careful with his words when it comes to Aziraphale.
Crowley tends to direct conflict with blunt truths that Aziraphale tries so hard to deny. Even when they're arguing, there's usually a restraint there, a sense that he's trying not to wound him more than necessary.
Crowley is loudly gentle; even when Aziraphale is being stubborn, Crowley usually approaches him with a surprising amount of patience.
And honestly, I don't think Crowley being rude to Aziraphale after the fallout in Season 2 is inherently out of character. If anything, some bitterness, distance, or sharpness would be a perfectly natural response to having his heart broken.
The problem wasn't that he was upset or that he lashed out. The problem was how it was handled. There's a difference between Crowley expressing genuine hurt and Crowley saying things that feel designed purely for the sake of drama.
His anger has always come from a place of caring too much, not from suddenly wanting to tear Aziraphale apart.
For example, the scene in go3 where Aziraphale explains that one of the reasons he went up to heaven was because he didn't want Earth to be destroyed. And Crowley says something along the lines of, "well how did that work out for you?"
And then the camera pans to Aziraphale's face. He looks devastated. The angel is already carrying the weight of a failed plan, the guilt of knowing people got hurt, and the stress of trying to fix an impossible situation. Crowley can see all of that.
And Crowley even takes a moment to look at him. When I first watched the scene, I genuinely thought, "Awh, okay. He realized he went too far."
Because that's usually how these moments go with him. Crowley says something sharp, sees the effect it has on Aziraphale, and then you can practically watch the regret set in. Even if he doesn't apologize outright, there's normally some attempt to soften the impact or redirect the conversation.
But nope. He just lets Aziraphale sit with it.
And honestly, I was willing to go along with it at first. I thought, okay, Crowley is still carrying a lot of unresolved pain from Season 2. Maybe this is the low point of his arc. Maybe he'll gain more perspective later. Maybe once he understands why Aziraphale made that choice, we'll get a moment where he acknowledges that things weren't as simple as "Aziraphale chose Heaven over me."
Because the reality is that Aziraphale's decision has never been that simple. Right or wrong, he genuinely believed he was protecting Earth, protecting humanity, and creating a safer future for him and Crowley. You'd think that would be something Crowley, of all people, could eventually understand.
But then... that understanding never truly comes.
It feels like the script wants a dramatic mic-drop moment more than it wants to stay true to how Crowley typically treats Aziraphale.
Because Crowley's defining trait has never been cruelty. It's care.
Even at his angriest, even when he's frustrated enough to storm off, even when he's convinced Aziraphale is making a terrible decision, there's usually an underlying concern for how that decision will affect him.
That's what makes moments like "You idiot, we could have been us" so devastating. Crowley is angry, yes, but the anger exists because he's heartbroken.
In GO3, however, the hurt often feels disconnected from the love that is supposed to be motivating it. Instead of seeing a Crowley who is struggling with betrayal, grief, and disappointment, we frequently get a Crowley who seems content to keep twisting the knife long after the point has been made.
If the goal was to show Crowley processing the fallout from Season 2, then where is the conflict? Where is the internal struggle between wanting to protect himself and still loving Aziraphale? Where is the realization that Aziraphale's decision wasn't solely about Heaven, but also about his desperate need to protect Earth and the people living on it?
And yes, I know Aziraphale later on admits to Crowley, "I choose heaven because of you", but after that the only acknowledgment we get from Crowley is a somber look and then later on a bregudging acceptence to forgive Aziraphale.
Yet the revelation barely changes anything. Crowley gives him a somber look, and later on throughout the film offers a begrudging acceptance that ultimately amounts to, "Fine, I forgive you."
2. Now about that wierdly almost-coerced apology scene...
That scene is so weird to me. Aziraphale can be incredibly stubborn, but I don't buy that he'd reduce the entire Season 2 fallout to a simple mistake and then pressure Crowley into accepting an apology for it.
And Crowley struggling to forgive Aziraphale? Sure, I can see that happening. However, forgiveness was never the part of the conflict that interested me. Both of them understanding each other was.
Crowley's hurt makes sense, his reluctance to forgive makes sense. What doesn't make sense is how little attention is given to whether he actually understands Aziraphale's perspective by the end of it all.
Because the central issue was never simply that Aziraphale hurt Crowley. The central issue was that they walked away from the same conversation with completely different interpretations of what had happened.
Whether either of them was right is almost beside the point. The emotional payoff should have come from finally bridging that gap in understanding, not from treating the situation as though Aziraphale committed a straightforward wrong that Crowley eventually decided to forgive.
Their conflict was messy, complicated, and deeply rooted in who they are as characters. Reducing it to an apology and a reluctant forgiveness feels like flattening one of the most interesting relationship dynamics the show had spent two seasons building.
The show skips straight to the conclusion without doing the work in the middle. And even if they were under time restraints, I don't think that's a particularly strong excuse.
Because the missing piece isn't some massive subplot that would have required hours of screentime. It's a conversation. It's reflection. It's allowing the characters to genuinely engage with each other's perspectives before arriving at forgiveness.
3. Crowley just overall, not caring much about Aziraphale being hurt, he doesn't defend him or offer him any comfort throughout the whole thing.
I think people have mentioned this before, but I still cannot stand Crowley's lack of defense when God put Aziraphale down.
You cannot tell me that hearing God list off all of Aziraphale's supposed flaws didn't hurt him. Aziraphale has spent centuries trying to live up to impossible expectations. He constantly worries about doing the right thing, being good enough, and failing the people he's trying to help. So having the literal voice of authority single out all of his perceived shortcomings hurt him. And you can see it in his face !!
And Crowley who was famously known for this:
He literally would not care for anyone, including God, belittle Aziraphale in such a cruel and personal way without saying something.
But instead we get...whatever this means:
He just stands there ominously, letting Aziraphale be picked apart and belittled.
Not only does he fail to defend him, but the scene is framed in a way that makes his silence feel almost intentional, as if we're supposed to see it as justified or deserved.
Which should not be the case at all, Aziraphale has done so much good.
He was willing to lie to God in order to protect humanity, he covered Crowley with his wing in the rain long before they were friends.
Aziraphale isn't perfect, he can be stubborn, rash and repressed. But he's also one of the kindest characters in the entire show.
And if there's one person who should remember those virtues, it's Crowley. He's the one who knows Aziraphale in a level that apparently, not even God does.
So the idea that Crowley would stand there silently while Aziraphale is reduced to a list of shortcomings feels as if the story forgot who Aziraphale isâand who Crowley knows him to be.
3. Aziraphale framing Crowley as the best of all the angels whatever.
This scene frames Crowley as the righteous one in such a wierd way because then Aziraphale says the whole "You were the best of angel" speech (which i hate, but i have already written an extensive post about why.)
But there's one part of the speech that infurates me so much.
Aziraphale??? A character in God's book????
So let me get this straight... *looks at notes*
The first angel to lie to God because he couldn't bear to see humanity suffer.
The angel who gave away his flaming sword to protect Adam and Eve.
The angel who spent six thousand years questioning Heaven's decisions while still desperately trying to do the right thing.
The angel who teamed up with a demon to stop Armageddon.
The angel who repeatedly chose people over rules, compassion over obedience, and mercy over blind loyalty.
The angel who risked everything to save the world and the demon he loves deeply in his heart.
....That's meant to be a character in God's book?? Someone who constantly defied her original plans???
Aziraphale, honey, my sweet baby, WHO THE FUCK IS "WE"??
The whole emotional journey Aziraphale has been having since season 1 was to question his position in heaven. Every major step in his story pushes him further away from blind loyalty and closer to making his own moral choices.
He has always asked questions, since the very beggining.
Crowley wasn't the only one who genuienly believed there was a sensible purpose to it all. Aziraphale believes that too. That's why he helped stop the destruction of earth, that's why Aziraphale enjoys reading books, sipping hot cocoa and spending time with Crowley.
Aziraphale questioned heaven from the moment he gave away his flaming sword to protect Adam and Eve. That's what set him apart from other angels.
So when the narrative seems determined to position Crowley as uniquely enlightened while reducing Aziraphale to someone who simply failed to see what was right in front of him, it feels like it misunderstands what made their dynamic special in the first place.
The entire point was that both of them learned to question the roles they were given. Not just Crowley. Not just Aziraphale. Both.
4. Aziraphale finally choosing Crowley, just for Crowley to be like: "aight no, fuck that, let's kill ourselves !!"
What do you mean we go from this...
Crowley...touch your nose if this is really you. Blink twice if you need help.
i have no words that can even begin to explain how much of a dumb choice this was. Crowley, who would always fight tooth and nail for Aziraphale, for a future with him that he always longed for. He gave up THIS easily?
idk who this is but that ain't MY Crowley and it certainly isn't Aziraphale's Crowley.
Crowley who crashed out when he thought Aziraphale had died back in season 1?? who rushed into a burning bookshop screaming, crying and getting depresingly drunk because he believed that Aziraphale was killed...he would willingly commit suicide and drag Aziraphale into this choice?? He would willingly LET Aziraphale die??? he would ontop of that just give up on everything he fought for???
EXCUSE....ME???? wtf did they do to my Crowley... who is this strange off-putting martyr no one asked for???
PLUS !!! Aziraphale didn't truly get a say on this choice, not really.
He didn't want to give Crowley up, his emotional journey got absolutely demolished by this wierd self sacrificial act that Crowley chose for both of them.
there was many ways to go around this choice, you have God at your disposal and you choose to kill yourselves and create a new universe??? LAMEEEEEEEE
Thats it folks because if i keep going i fear i will never stfu. Go3 mischaracterized my sweet angel and demon. They massacred my boysâand not even because they evaporated or whatever, but because they stripped away the nuance that made them special and called it character development.
Anyway, If anyone needs me, I'll be in the corner aggressively pretending that Crowley's nightmare theory is canon !!!
