Thoughts & Epiphanies

[carrieblmt]

The Name Change…🐍

This blindsided my brain yesterday, so of course I had to rewatch several GO clips/episodes to be sure my brain was braining correctly. And now that I know it is, here’s my most recent epiphany. It involves Crowley’s name change.

Here we have the demonic CRAWLEY, with an A…

…fairly fresh from crawling & slithering around Eden & causing the Fall of Man.

He meets angelic Aziraphale…with whom it can be argued he is immediately smitten when he learns that Aziraphale has just given away his flaming sword:

TELL ME this isn’t the face of a demon in love. You look me in the eye and TELL ME!

Oooo, he’s got it bad.

Fast forward a couple thousand years, and our heroes meet again on the eve of The Flood, where Crawley is still Crawley…

…popping up behind Aziraphale & recognizing him immediately. He expresses his regret that kids are going to be killed in the flood, and we start to sense maybe this demon’s not really quite so terrible. It gives Aziraphale something to think about, too.

The next time our duo come face to face, Crawley has been given a permit to destroy the goats, geese, property & children of blameless Job…

BUT…..does he really WANT to? After all, the goats & geese & kids are just as blameless as Job, maybe even moreso.

And Aziraphale clearly agrees. Not only that, in just the couple interactions he’s had so far with this Fallen Angel, he’s seen Crawley’s ‘soft side.’ AND he remembers the angel Crawley USED to be. So he calls him out on it…

Crawley unflinchingly asserts that he LONGS to strike down the blameless children of blameless Job, leaving Aziraphale to walk away with his head hung low as he questions his character judgement of Crawley. But just moments before he leaves the courtyard, he hears a bleating coming from some crows…and in moments, he’s miracled away the illusion that Crawley had created to disguise Job’s blameless goats.

TELL ME this isn’t the satisfied face of someone whose character judgement has turned out to be correct after all.

Crawley then goes on to help save Job’s children from destruction; and along with the assistance of a lie from Aziraphale, he returns them to Job & Sitis no worse for the wear.

Later, he helps allay Aziraphale’s fears of going to Hell by telling him that *he* won’t tell Hell about Aziraphale’s lie if Aziraphale won’t tell Heaven. And thus, a rather unlikely friendship is born.

NOW we come to the good part.

Ah, who have we here? At their very next meeting following the Job escapade?

Why, it’s Aziraphale and Crawley!

Wait…no. It’s CROWley now…because CRAWLey sounds too slithery.

But is that all? Nay, I say:

CRAWLey dredges up images of him slithering & crawling through Eden tempting Eve and causing Man to Sin.

CROWley, however, brings to mind the scenes of him sparing Job’s goats by turning them into CROWS…and the further moments when he also saved Job’s children.

This big, bad demon wants this glorious angel to REMEMBER THE GOOD IN HIM—and, perhaps, even remind Crowley himself…?—EVERY TIME THE ANGEL SAYS HIS NAME.

CRAWLEY: BAD.

CROWLEY: CAPABLE OF GOOD.

Remember that, Angel.

Headcanon accepted?

[carrieblmt]

They say if you think about yellow cars, you suddenly start to see yellow cars everywhere. When I was pregnant, I suddenly noticed all the other pregnant women around me. My point is dolphins what your brain thinks about, it NOTICES.

My brain’s present distraction is—probably no surprise—Good Omens.

So naturally, I find references everywhere.

Yes, even in 1930’s editions of ‘Nancy Drew Mystery Stories.’

To wit:

I read this book years ago when I bought a copy at a local book resale shop 🙃 but I did NOT recall this character’s name until it jumped off the page this afternoon and hissed in my face.

To be fair, Anthony Josiah Crowley would ABSOLUTELY couch-surf around and stay with random relatives & then create & hide a secret second will just to screw over the ones who are shitty to him…so maybe I shouldn’t have been so surprised….. #mainplotpoint

[factoseintolerant]

michael gazing adoringly at david | david losing it at michael’s jokes 

[tismrot]

I told my mom that Michael Sheen called Crowley a thin, dark duke (she likes the show), and she said “oh, like the David Bowie song?”, and I couldn’t figure out which one she meant, and she misremembered, because the song mentions a thin WHITE duke, but read the lyrics! It’s Crowley!

David Bowie - Station to Station

The return of the Thin White Duke

Throwing darts in lovers' eyes

Here are we, one magical moment, such is the stuff

From where dreams are woven

Bending sound, dredging the ocean, lost in my circle

Here am I, flashing no colour

Tall in this room overlooking the ocean

Here are we, one magical movement from Kether to Malkhuth

There are you, you drive like a demon from station to station

The return of the Thin White Duke, throwing darts in lovers' eyes

The return of the Thin White Duke, throwing darts in lovers' eyes

The return of the Thin White Duke, making sure white stains

Once there were mountains on mountains

And once there were sunbirds to soar with

And once I could never be down

Got to keep searching and searching

Oh, what will I be believing and who will connect me with love?

Wonderful, wonder who, wonder when

Have you sought fortune, evasive and shy?

Drink to the men who protect you and I

Drink, drink, drain your glass, raise your glass high

TWO TIMES:

It's not the side-effects of the cocaine

I'm thinking that it must be love

It's too late - to be grateful

It's too late - to be late again

It's too late - to be hateful

The european cannon is here

I must be only one in a million

I won't let the day pass without her

It's too late - to be grateful

It's too late - to be late again

It's too late - to be hateful

The european cannon is here

Should I believe that I've been stricken?

Does my face show some kind of glow?

It's too late - to be grateful

It's too late - to be late again

It's too late - to be hateful

The european cannon is here, yes it's here

It's too late

It's too late, it's too late, it's too late, it's too late

The european cannon is here

I’m putting this one in the playlist I cry to these days.

[bexism]

can't help falling in love with you + epic instrumental + aziracrow

[grntaire]

fun musical bit about this scene!:

the piece that the car is playing (the "classical music that stays classical music") is a tone poem, saint-saëns' danse macabre. it's a super famous piece that you've probably heard before and is associated with all things spooky. but it's not just spooky bc it sounds spooky: it's spooky bc it tells a story! a tone poem is a piece of music evokes a poem, short story, landscape, etc. in short, it's a piece of music that's describing or outlining something.

danse macabre tells the story of the devil, who every year on the stroke of midnight on halloween plays his fiddle to raise the dead. the dead dance for him until the following dawn, where they return to their graves until the next year. (musically it does a lot of cool things to reflect this: there's 12 notes at the beginning representing the 12 strokes of midnight, and the frequent use of a specific musical interval called the tritone. in the medieval period the tritone was also called diabolus in musica, literally meaning "the devil in music" bc of how dissonant it sounded to listeners at the time. it also quotes the dies irae chant as well!)

so the fact that it's what the car chose to play is SUPER cute. bc it's classical (technically it's from the romantic period, but w/e), like aziraphale wants, but it's also reminiscent of crowley. bc i bet the car knows just how much aziraphale loves crowley, too. it's a really subtle nudge that the car knows both of them and it's like the car is finding a musical middle for them both, almost.

it's also a subtly brilliant choice bc in the flashback prior, aziraphale said that crowley asked to meet aziraphale in the graveyard at midnight. just like the devil met the dead on halloween.

[inhonoredglory]

Aziraphale’s Choice, the Job Connection, and Michael Sheen’s Morality

I’ve had time to process Aziraphale’s choice at the end of Season 2. And I think only blaming the religious trauma misses something important in Aziraphale’s character. I think what happened was also Aziraphale’s own conscious choice––as a growth from his trauma, in fact. Hear me out.

Since November 2022 I’ve been haunted by something Michael Sheen said at the MCM London Comic Con. At the Q&A, someone asked him about which fantasy creature he enjoyed playing most and Michael (bless him, truly) veered on a tangent about angels and goodness and how, specifically,

We as a society tend to sort of undervalue goodness. It’s sort of seen as sort of somehow weak and a bit nimby and “oh it’s nice.” And I think to be good takes enormous reserves of courage and stamina. I mean, you have to look the dark in the face to be truly good and to be truly of the light…. The idea that goodness is somehow lesser and less interesting and not as kind of muscular and as passionate and as fierce as evil somehow and darkness, I think is nonsense. The idea of being able to portray an angel, a being of love. I love seeing the things people have put online about angels being ferocious creatures, and I love that. I think that’s a really good representation of what goodness can be, what it should be, I suppose.

I was looking forward to BAMF!Aziraphale all season long, and I think that’s what we got in the end. Remember Neil said that the Job minisode was important for Aziraphale’s story. Remember how Aziraphale sat on that rock and reconciled to himself that he MUST go to Hell, because he lied and thwarted the will of God. He believed that––truly, honestly, with the faith of a child, but the bravery of a soldier.

Aziraphale, a being of love with more goodness than all of Heaven combined, believed he needed to walk through the Gates of Hell because it was the Right Thing to do. (Like Job, he didn’t understand his sin but believed he needed to sacrifice his happiness to do the Right Thing.)

That’s why we saw Aziraphale as a soldier this season: the bookshop battle, the halo. But yes, the ending as well.

Because Aziraphale never wanted to go to Heaven, and he never wanted to go there without Crowley.

But it was Crowley who taught him that he could, even SHOULD, act when his moral heart told him something was wrong. While Crowley was willing to run away and let the world burn, it was Aziraphale (in that bandstand at the end of the world) who stood his ground and said No. We can make a difference. We can save everyone.

And Aziraphale knew he could not give up the ace up his sleeve (his position as an angel) to talk to God and make them see the truth in his heart.

I was messed up by Ineffable Bureaucracy (Boxfly) getting their happy ending when our Ineffable Husbands didn’t, but I see now that them running away served to prove something to Aziraphale. (And I am fully convinced that Gabriel and Beelzebub saw the example of the Ineffables at the Not-pocalypse and took inspiration from them for choosing to ditch their respective sides)

But my point is that Aziraphale saw them, and in some ways, they looked like him and Crowley. And he saw how Gabriel, the biggest bully in Heaven, was also like him in a way (a being capable of love) and also just a child when he wasn’t influenced by the poison of Heaven. Muriel, too, wasn’t a bad person. The Metatron also seemed to have grown more flexible with his morality (from Aziraphale's perspective). Like Earth, Heaven was shades of (light?) gray.

Aziraphale is too good an angel not to believe in hope. Or forgiveness (something he’s very good at it).

Aziraphale has been scarred by Heaven all his life. But with the cracks in Heaven’s armor (cracks he and Crowley helped create), Aziraphale is seeing something else. A chance to change them. They did terrible things to him, but he is better than them, and because of Crowley, he feels ready to face them.

(Will it work? Can Heaven change, institutionally? Probably not, but I can't blame Aziraphale for trying.)

At the cafe, the Metatron said something big was coming in the Great Plan. Aziraphale knows how trapped he had felt when he didn’t have God’s ear the first time something huge happened in the Big Plan. He can’t take a chance again to risk the world by not having a foot in the door of Heaven. That’s why we saw individual human deaths (or the threat of death) so much more this season: Elspeth, Wee Morag, Job’s children, the 1940s magician. Aziraphale almost killed a child when he couldn’t get through to God, and he’s not going through that again.

“We could make a difference.” We could save everyone.

Remember what Michael Sheen said about courage and doing good––and having to “look the dark in the face to be truly good.” That’s what happened when Aziraphale was willing to go to Hell for his actions. That’s what happened when he decided he had to go to Heaven, where he had been abused and belittled and made to feel small. He decided to willingly go into the Lion’s Den, to face his abusers and his anxiety, to make them better so that they would not try to destroy the world again.

Him, just one angel. He needed Crowley to be there with him, to help him be brave, to ask the questions that Heaven needed to hear, to tell them God was wrong. Crowley is the inspiration that drives Aziraphale’s change, Crowley is the engine that fuels Aziraphale’s courage.

But then Crowley tells him that going to Heaven is stupid. That they don’t need Heaven. And he’s right. Aziraphale knows he’s right.

Aziraphale doesn’t need Heaven; Heaven needs him. They just don’t know how much they need him, or how much humanity needs him there, too. (If everyone who ran for office was corrupt, how can the system change?)

Terry Pratchett (in the Discworld book, Small Gods) is scathing of God, organized religion, and the corrupt people religion empowers, but he is sympathetic to the individual who has real, pure faith and a good heart. In fact, the everyman protagonist of Small Gods is a better person than the god he serves, and in the end, he ends up changing the church to be better, more open-minded, and more humanist than god could ever do alone.

Aziraphale is willing to go to the darkest places to do the Right Thing, and Heaven is no exception. When Crowley says that Heaven is toxic, that’s exactly why Aziraphale knows he needs to go there. “You’re exactly is different from my exactly.”

____

In the aftermath of Trump's election in the US, Brexit happened in 2018. Michael Sheen felt compelled to figure out what was going on in his country after this shock. But he was living in Los Angeles with Sarah Silverman at the time, and she also wanted to become more politically active in the US.

Sheen: “I felt a responsibility to do something, but it [meant] coming back [to Britain] – which was difficult for us, because we were very important to each other. But we both acknowledge that each of us had to do what we needed to do.” In the end, they split up and Michael moved back to the UK.

Sometimes doing the Right Thing means sacrificing your own happiness. Sometimes it means going to Hell. Sometimes it means going to Heaven. Sometimes it means losing a relationship.

And that’s why what happened in the end was so difficult for Aziraphale. Because he loves Crowley desperately. He wants to be together. He wanted that kiss for thousands of years. He knows that taking command of Heaven means they would never again have to bow to the demands of a God they couldn’t understand, or run from a Hell who still came after them. They could change the rules of the game.

And he’s still going to do that. But it hurts him that he has to do that alone.

[ao3cassandraic]

This is an Aziraphale I can love and respect and want to be like. Headcanon accepted -- pending, y'know, outcomes of a few theories.

And in fact I'm starting to cry because if there's anywhere I connect with Aziraphale, it's a need to have my presence betoken something good for the world. If there's anything I admire Sheen for, it's needing to do something.

Aziraphale, though well-loved in Soho, is a bit insular (mild pun intended), a bit closed-off in his routines and his pleasures. My headcanon about that is that he has to be, or the weight of the world's horrors and evils will just crush him. How Crowley handles it I don't even know -- well, I do; in s2 he seems to handle it by shrinking his world even further than Aziraphale has his.

It's a response I can also relate to.

Thank you, OP. I'll be thinking about this one.

[good-soupmens]

Ik the good omens fandom has different takes on God as a character, but I like the idea that she DOES have an ineffable plan, and Heaven is doing their absolute worst job carrying it out.

Most angels never talk to God, and they're usually selfish, they don't do the right thing (only what they're told), and it's even possible they're working under a corrupt power (like the Metatron). I like that theory because Metatron IS the barrier between God and the angels. He could easily lie to them and change plans, and we the audience know that "friendly old man metatron" swindling Aziraphale is not what he seems.

But from the beginning, we see inconsistency. Crowley falls from heaven after asking questions/hanging out with the wrong group while Aziraphale is allowed to lie about the flaming sword and change Heaven's plans. God can see how much he cares about humans and the earth by his actions (Crowley being the same), which makes me think that him getting away with it is intentional, not inconsistent or neglectful. ESPECIALLY if Aziraphale and Crowley run heaven and hell respectively in season 3. They have the power to change things, just like they stopped the world from ending the first time. I think Crowley and Aziraphale ARE the ineffable plan.

Their love could bridge the gap between opposing forces in a way that it couldn't if they were both angels. After all, both heaven and hell think they're doing the better thing while they're both not. Crowley and Aziraphale are the best of both sides.

If bringing them together was God's plan, it'd be a powerful story for queer Christians!! A lot of us have been hurt by the church, but we hold on to God's love, which doesn't fail us. We stay in a religion with a history of fighting queerness not because we're all brainwashed, but because we wholeheartedly believe in a God that loves us. Sometimes I see good omens' heaven as an analogy for toxic churches, and I'd love nothing more than for Aziraphale to realize heaven is working against God. Not to mention God using a gay couple to save the world/save heaven from corruption?? I'd kill for that storyline

Secondly, Aziraphale's devotion wouldn't have been for nothing. If God was awful the whole time, it defeats the times he and Crowley reached out, and the moment in the GOs1 finale where Crowley says, "what if you're going AGAINST God's ineffable plan?" to Gabriel and Beelzebub. (It'd almost defeat the purpose of her being the quirky narrator following their story, too.)

Even Crowley, never fooled by "heaven is all good" calls for God in his time of need ("God listening? Show me an ineffable plan.") (Possibly when he reaches to the sky in order to stop time) (Calling for God before Satan in the burning bookshop) (Looking up and muttering "God" after realizing Aziraphale is going to leave him in s2)

Lastly, after the trauma that both Crowley and Aziraphale went through, with Crowley falling and Aziraphale coming to terms with heaven's corruption (and both being mistreated by their side) it'd be nice to have been for a reason. They have every right to grieve and be angry for all that they went through, and the centuries that they weren't supposed to love each other, but I believe the series will end on a positive, sweet note, like the rainbow after a storm.

Like Job, they're losing almost everything (their relationship as it was, the bookshop, and the life they carved out), but they have each other. I think they'll lose everything to save EVERYONE, and in the end, the reward will top the pain. No holding back, no forces hunting them down, just them together after a PAINFULLY long time with everything they'd wanted.

We know that God doesn't get around to answering many questions, but her speech to Job was in part to say "trust me"

She laid the foundations of the earth. She made every living thing. Job couldn't see past the destruction of his life, but she has a plan. Job is a valuable human being, but he doesn't have the power and knowledge of God. God will share her plan when he can make a whale. Otherwise, he can trust that "Most things are fine in the end"

*Aziraphale voice* That's ineffable!

[ao3cassandraic]

What does Aziraphale know and when does he know it? Part 4: The Aftermath

Prologue, Part 1, Part 2, and Part 3, for those who need them.

After Crowley strides out, Aziraphale has a lot going on in his head still, and it shows on his poor devastated angry (he is angry, just a bit) face.

Then the Metatron comes back in, and Zira has to turn sharply away to pull himself back into some kind of kayfabe. "How did he take it?" the Metatron asks cheerfully, despite already knowing because he was watching. Jehoshaphat, y'all, I thought s1!Gabriel was punchable -- I want to drop the Metatron into Earth-core magma like Gollum at this point!

Aziraphale's heroic efforts at kayfabe are pretty successful, on the whole, but it hurts to see him stiff as a board, arms at his sides, letting the Metatron (argh, so punchable) insult Crowley and laughing nervously. Then the Metatron starts forcing him out the door again with "Right, ready to start?" The presumptuous wretch doesn't even wait for a yes -- just assumes it!

Aziraphale, however, knows he never said yes, so he tries playing for -- anything, really, more information or some kind of choice (arc word! arc! word!) or anything at all. No dice; the Metatron highhandedly gives his bookshop (his. BOOK. SHOP.) to Muriel. Aziraphale now knows why the Metatron wanted Muriel to stay behind on Earth, and he also knows that the Metatron will stop at nothing and trample anyone to get what he wants. Not comforting knowledge, that.

And Aziraphale, having essentially no more choice (I repeat: arc word!), but still horribly torn because he never got to make a decision about the job offer, still doesn't have a Metatron-thwarting plan, and wants Crowley with all his mind and heart, blurts "I think I --" Then he drops back into kayfabe, following the extremely punchable Metatron out the door.

Crowley's still there, standing by the Bentley. All our hearts shatter. But the extremely punchable Metatron (have I mentioned that he is extremely punchable?) keeps Aziraphale moving along by dropping hints at answers to his continuing questions: whatever the Metatron's up to, it's something to do with the Great Plan.

Aziraphale asks. And now that he's firmly in the Metatron's clutches, the Metatron answers: it's the Second Coming.

Watch Aziraphale drop kayfabe (fortunately, the Metatron isn't looking at him) for a look of helpless dismay. A.Z. "entire collection of Bibles, wicked and otherwise" Fell knows what that means! Watch him re-establish kayfabe when the Metatron looks at him from the elevator. Watch him turn back toward Crowley to tell him (unnecessary -- Crowley knows from his visit Upstairs -- but Aziraphale doesn't know Crowley knows), then decide (with another of those pulling-himself-together deep breaths) that he must instead play along. Watch him kayfabe-smile at the Metatron and enter the elevator.

And watch kayfabe warring with devastation and guardianly determination in Aziraphale's face over the credits. My read -- you may have a different one -- is that determination wins, and the eventual smile is an "okay, now I have a plan" smile.

Watch out, Metatron. Aziraphale's gonna wreck you and I'm gonna enjoy it.

-------------------------------------------

This interpretation of the Final Fifteen Minutes is parsimonious. It works with what's there onscreen, not assuming much beyond that -- the only Caveat About Offscreen Shenanigans I left in was to note that we don't necessarily see the entire chinwag. Exactly zero of the twistier, more elaborate fan theories, you may have noticed, made it into this meta -- heck, we don't even have to assume we didn't see the entire chinwag! We might have! What we did see was enough to lead to these outcomes!

The Gaiman-Pratchett-Finnemore brain trust likes jigsaw-puzzle plots where everything has its place and little or nothing is wasted. That's a big reason I think a parsimonious interpretation is likely to be close to a true interpretation. It's all there; why get wild if there's no need to?

This also aligns with what Michael Sheen has said (do please read this not-mine meta, it's lovely) about angels and goodness and making choices. I, too, want Aziraphale to have made the hard, hurting, noble choice at last, even if he was partly railroaded into it.

(Anyone who doesn't care for fan theories should stop reading now, with my effusive gratitude for making it this far.)

That said, the explosion of fan theories about the Final Fifteen Minutes also demonstrates that this interpretation is narratively accommodating. It doesn't have to assume poisoned or drugged coffee, but it doesn't preclude that. It doesn't require a body swap, but it allows it -- all that really has to change is the estimation of who's doing how much kayfabe when. It doesn't need some massive season-spanning conspiracy arc, but if there is one, it can make that work.

Neil knows fandom, none better. He knows we love our meta and our theories. So I have no trouble believing he wrote us a narratively accommodating finale so we could get our book-length Tumblr posts on. Appreciate it, and you, Neil.

[florence-ghoul]

We’ve all agreed that Aziraphale dresses to broadcast a friendly appearance. But I’m here to argue that’s only a secondary reason for the colors he chooses for his outfits.

The more I look at Aziraphale’s outfits, the more I just see the deuteranopia visual spectrum. I’m not saying whether or not Crowley actually is colorblind, but I am definitely saying that Aziraphale knows snakes to be dichromatic, and dresses specifically so that he knows his outfits appear the same to him as they do to Crowley. Crowley’s eyes are anatomically those of a snake, so that’s a logical conclusion for Aziraphale to make.

[huffylemon]

[sigynpenniman]

“Sunset over the Grocery Box,” by me. The view from my father’s front yard in January 2014.

[slowspinningredemption]

“Sunset at the End of My Driveway (Excluding Pavements Covered With the Shite of One Million Dogs)” by me.

[motherfucker-somewhat-limited]

“Sunset from My Front Yard Taken on an iPod Touch in 2010″

[hydrojinn]

“Sunset in Nov 2021 Taken in the Parking Lot of the Pharmacy”

[judygemstone]

“sunset from the parking lot of the diner taken on an iphone 5 in 2016”

[vimbry-moved]

the view across the road partially eclipsed by house, 2017

[xxtc-96xx]

Taken from a stepladder putting up Christmas lights

-2014, front yard

[photosbyblep]

Taken from the back porch of my house, 2021

[gayvampyr]

sunset at my dorm, 2022

sunset from my front porch, 2020 (?)

[sanktaleksander]

“twilight from my local highway carpool lot”, December 2021

[valentica]

sunset on my street, 2015

[carrieblmt]

Master Writer @neil-gaiman really went full-on Master Magician when he took the anticipated ‘quiet, gentle, and romantic’ season 2 in his hand, closed his hand thusly, and banana-fish-gorilla-shoelace-with-a-dash-of-nutmeg’ed it away

[inhonoredglory]

A Wartime Footing: An Explanation for Aziraphale's Elevator Smile

(Based on an ask from @sabotage-on-mercury in response to my meta on why Aziraphale had to go to Heaven)

The creepy smile was one part of the ending I couldn't quite put my finger on either, until someone pointed out on a Twitter response to my meta:

The reason why its scary is bc azi is becoming properly angry at the system and is 101% determined to set things right (Source)

In season 1, Aziraphale was determined not to kill anyone to stop the Apocalypse. He wouldn't even tell Crowley where the Antichrist was, because Crowley's only solution was to kill him.

And because Crowley consistently didn't have any ideas ("not one single better idea??"), Aziraphale took it on himself to pursue the only option left––to ask God to intervene and stop both Heaven and Hell from destroying Earth. Therefore, Aziraphale had to keep the integrity of his angel status by distancing himself from Crowley, while the world was still in danger.

Despite this dedication avoid bloodshed, when God didn't have an answer, Aziraphale went against one of his core beliefs to help save the world. He was willing to murder a child.

For Aziraphale, that takes guts. And (seeing how he reacted at the end of the Job minisode), I wonder that if he had killed Adam Young, Aziraphale would have checked himself into Hell.

Going to Heaven for Aziraphale is ultimately a conscious choice, one that he is clearly afraid of. We see him constantly steeling himself again the Metatron in the end, covering his fear and hurt from losing Crowley with a placid smile and a flippant attitude. He's wearing so many masks, to Crowley, to himself, to the Metatron...

All season we've seen him playing roles (detective, magician, doctor, landlord). But the final role is warrior. Going up that elevator, we first see Aziraphale's eyes searching, worried, panicking, but unable to show it because he's not in a safe space. He swallows, blinks, he's breathing hard (you can see his entire shoulders rise and fall).

But as he goes up, his expression steels. He's quite literally putting on a mask (to himself): a vengeful, hardened expression of pure anger and rage (to drown out the fear and uncertainty he so clearly still has).

Michael Sheen conveying contained anger in both Good Omens and Masters of Sex.

Cuz this isn't just him scrambling to kill a kid, this is him walking calmly and knowingly into sacrificing everything he loves most (Crowley, the bookshop, his entire life on earth) to create a world that will always be safe for him and Crowley and humanity for the rest of time. Where he would have to go up against the most powerful angels, the Metatron, and God Themself to change things. He can't be the kind, sweet angel he was on Earth. That won't cut it in Heaven if he wants to make a difference in any real way.

He wanted to do it with Crowley, with the love and support and strength of his demon. But without him, Aziraphale has to channel something else to keep his resolve afloat.

Something he had when he was a warrior, fighting on the front lines of a battle between Heaven and Hell, when he very likely led a platoon into divine fields of bloodshed before the earth was born. When he was an avenging angel.

I haven’t done this since the Great War.

It was a time and an identity he had chosen to leave behind, because it wasn't the kind of angel he was anymore ("I'm not fighting in any war!"). In this context, you can read Aziraphale's passionate unwillingness to take a life (his pacifism) directly into his past experience as a warrior. It is often the veterans of terrible wars who are the most earnest advocates for peace. (And especially in Britain and Europe, where the violence of the world wars is still such a powerful and painful national memory.)

As he goes up the elevator, he's breathing so hard we can hear it mirrored in the soundtrack, and he is so hyperfocused on steeling himself that he doesn't even care that the Metatron is watching him. He doesn't rest until he's psyched himself into that warrior mindset necessary to carry out this mission entirely by himself, to be both the moral advocate and the uncompromising leader of angels who had intimidated him his entire life. To demand respect and to talk to the very face of God and tell Them they are Wrong.

(Please read this Neil-approved meta for further thoughts on God and Aziraphale.)

That creepy smile is clearly not there because Aziraphale is happy to fall into a toxic parent's false love. There's no comfort or wistful nostalgia in that face. There's no "it'll be so much nicer" in that smile. It's not a happy smile. It's an I'm-gonna-fuck-shit-up smile.

Because it's a warrior's smile before they go into battle, before they put on that armor and, for a while, become something they're not in the name of some greater good. He's fucking furious and it's downright frightening.

Because I have no doubt that the angel Aziraphale we get in Season 3 is the angel Aziraphale who can say this:

He's not quite there yet in the TV show. But this bravery, this anger, this flaming rage is how it starts.

Or as he's described in the book when Aziraphale mysteriously does away with the local mafia:

Just because you’re an angel doesn’t mean you have to be a fool.

[ariaste]

The Magic Trick You Didn’t See: Being An Analysis of Good Omens Season 2

(or: Neil Gaiman, Your Brain is Gorgeous But I Have Cracked Your Sneaky Little Code And Have You Dead To Rights*) (*Maybe)

***

Soooooo I just spent the last 48 hours having a BREATHTAKING GALAXY BRAIN EPIPHANY about Good Omens Season 2 and feverishly writing a fuckin16,000 word essay about the incredible magic trick that @neil-gaiman pulled off. 

Yes, it’s long, but I PROMISE your brains will explode. Do you want to know how magic works? Do you want to know what Metatron’s deal is (I’m like 99% sure of this and it’s EXTREMELY FUCKING GOOD)? Do you want to know about the Mystery of the Vanishing Eccles Cakes and the big fat beautiful clue I found in the opening credits? Do you go through the whole inventory of Chekov’s Firearm & Heavy Artillery Discount Warehouse? 

Here is the essay, go read it: https://docs.google.com/document/d/193IXS11XN46lziHRb6eUpM17yK0BQkRqke1Wh64A_e0/ When ur done u can tell me I’m an insane crackpot, and u know what, i won’t even be offended

In case you don’t know whether you want to bother reading the whole enormous thing on google docs, I’ve put the first couple sections of it under the cut. JUST TRUST ME OKAY, HEAR ME OUT, THIS IS VERY EXTREMELY COOL, NEIL IS GOOD AT HIS JOB–

Keep reading

[icyolive]

IMO Crowley's brief "how long have you two been together" conversation with Nina was extremely important to the end of the season. This is where he puts two and two together, or at least what leads him to it. He already knew how he felt about Aziraphale; Aziraphale is his best friend, his only friend, His Person. (He says it outright and unapologetically several times in both seasons!) He already knew what human love is (although not the specifics of how to have a healthy relationship).

But it wasn't until Nina asked the usual human "couple questions"--so nonchalantly, so easily, not really even entertaining the idea that they could be not together--that he put those two previously unrelated thoughts together and started to realize they were very very similar.

Sure, he denied it--after all, it wasn't true, not exactly the way she was implying. But that's the face of someone realizing on a fundamental level... it's also not not true. If you take the extremely human concept of sex out of their relationship (something that's not strictly even required amongst humans!) it's preeeettty similar. He knew she was implying a different sort of relationship, but he also knew those questions did actually apply to him and Aziraphale.

As someone who had to be informed by friends that they were dating their now spouse.... that conversation with Nina is the "what? no." that comes right before the "ohhhhhhhhhhhh."

I don't think this significantly changed how he feels about Aziraphale, but it changed how he understands his feelings.

He's wanted to be around Aziraphale for years and years... but 'we're friends, let's hang out' hits a lot differently from 'I love you, I think you love me too, please be with me.'

If the Metatron hadn't interrupted, I don't think there would have been a kiss, at least not for a while; that kiss was such a desperate act, and didn't follow Crowley's usual pattern of gently offering temptations. But it wouldn't have happened without that conversation with Nina, either. Comparing their relationship to a human romantic relationship gave Crowley a new (physical! still physical! use your damned words!) vocabulary to express how deeply he feels for Aziraphale. And he used it in a last ditch effort to get Aziraphale to give up the charade and choose them.

And Aziraphale? He has such a beautifully complex reaction to the kiss because (in addition to the fundamental upheaval their relationship is suddenly going through) he too had never framed their relationship like that. He has that "ohhhhhhhhh, is this--?," right on camera, over a few short seconds, in the middle of an already emotionally charged argument, and out of the two of them, he's the one experiencing a whole lot of cognitive dissonance over the whole "friends with the enemy" thing. So there's this beautiful succession of emotions, anger and desperation and then he touches his lips and oh, but he's still angry and scared and rejected, too.

Anyway, enjoy this wall of text based on two split-second confused expressions performed by David Tennant and Michael Sheen, A++ acting.

[mizgnomer]

Crowley’s hairstyles/looks - down through the ages ...now including Good Omens Season Two

The original Season One post [ x ]

[icyolive]

So I've been thinking about the argument between Crowley and Aziraphale, and how exactly they end up talking past each other so badly in that last scene. I don't think it's poor wording, bad self esteem, or uncharitable assumptions; they know each other too well for that.

I think it boils down to... they both went into that conversation with very different intentions.

There's this pretense.

There's a pretense they've been dancing around since the garden: Heaven is good and right; Hell is Heaven's opponent and therefore evil; Crowley is therefore evil, and therefore Aziraphale's enemy. On some level Aziraphale knows Crowley isn't evil. Over and over, we (they!) see that they share values—it's the foundation of their entire relationship. I mean, the look Crowley gives him when Aziraphale says he's given his sword away (and fibbed to God!)

He's delighted. I mean, can you imagine anyone else from Heaven doing that? Aziraphale is so kind, and cares so much about humanity, even if he doesn't admit it.

And like the snake he is, Crowley has been very gently tempting Aziraphale away from his obedient ignorance since the garden. They spent all of series two—when they weren't dancing around the idea of caring for each other—in dialogue about morality.

They had very different intentions.

Aziraphale goes into the conversation expecting to uphold the status quo—the same old pretense that they're enemies, Crowley is evil, and morality is as simple as Heaven and Hell. Except now Crowley can come back to the good side—doesn't that solve everything?

He's coming from a place of love, but he's not coming from a place of vulnerability or honesty. Or even respect. It's as easy an answer as simply giving Job new children.

Crowley goes into the conversation ready to do away with the whole pretense. He's ready to be honest and vulnerable on a personal level. He acknowledges that they're "a team, a group of the two of us," and that they've "spent [their] existence pretending that we aren't." He's not even saying I want us to be together—he's saying we already are. Not just on the same side in a cosmic war, but a team of two.

Basically, Crowley has thrown out their normal, safe, comfortable argument. It's a huge emotional risk. He's all in.

And Aziraphale doesn't know what to with that.

A shit ton of bad gifs below the cut.

Look at how confused and almost hunted he looks while Crowley is trying to confess.

Aziraphale has no idea that they're no longer on the same page. Or maybe he can tell, but doesn't know how to respond. He looks open and a little confused, smiling like he normally does when Crowley looks at him.

He doesn't seem to notice Crowley's put his glasses back on; did he even notice Crowley had been taking them off around him in the first place? (It's lovely the way he gazes at him, despite—because of?—the eyes and the glasses, but he's clearly missing the subtext.)

Crowley just looks... tired.

Not their usual argument.

And I don't think it's until that last few lines, and the kiss, that Aziraphale realizes this has gone way beyond their usual arguments. He's completely blindsided.

This is before that point, immediately after the "you don't know what I'm offering" exchange. He looks disappointed, indignant, mad, and a little bitter. But it's an amiable sort of mad?

This is after "no nightingales." He goes stock still.

This is where he realizes they're not just talking about good and evil in the abstract; they're talking about them.

And then after the kiss, we get this insane series of emotions.

(Why I think Crowley went with a kiss.)

First, he's overwhelmed. Then, anger. It's the rationally irrational anger of someone who is experiencing a lot of cognitive dissonance, the discomfort of trying to hold two conflicting ideas at once.

And he lashes out with "I forgive you." I, a good angel from Heaven, forgive you, an evil demon from Hell. It reestablishes the hierarchy of good versus evil. It puts him back on strong familiar footing. It's also a desperate plea to go back to normal. I forgive you—don't go.

And after Crowley leaves, Michael Sheen gives us this brilliant, amazing performance. Heartbroken, and then trying to hold onto his anger. Then finally processing the kiss—vulnerable, shocked. And back to anger.

Personally, I think he got past that anger very quickly; he's not the type to hold onto anger. This is the face of someone having a Lot of Thoughts.

Anyway, enjoy ten thousand shitty gifs of Aziraphale. I'm actually really into Crowley??