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@nikkiscarlet reply: Every romance in the story is another iteration of Aziraphale and Crowley’s dynamic.
Anathema is Aziraphale, Newt is Crowley.
Shadwell is Aziraphale, Tracy is Crowley.
Strong-willed, stubborn Character A sees themselves as a righteous warrior for the greater good but is trapped in a system of zealous obedience that makes their life miserable. One day they meet Character B, who they see as a loser at best, or their sworn enemy at worst … but can’t help liking in spite of themselves. Character B patiently and kindly shows them that they do have the freedom to choose something different for themselves if they want it (tempts them with it, if you like) and also shows them a kind of selfless love and acceptance they’ve never really had before. In the end, Character A chooses freedom, alongside the person they’ve grown to love.
@notlikeotherbirds reply: I’m so glad someone said it at last. I just wanted to add that in the book there even another quite an important point about not being able to live without your enemies. The Them and the opposing group of children (lead by baby B aka Greasy Johnson) are sworn enemy’s but when Adam says he could just get rid of them, when he goes full Antichrist, the Them say that life would be entirely boring without the other group. They even bring that argument when talking to Beelzebub and Metatron (in the book it’s Metatron not Gabriel) when they say that the war has to be fraught so that one side can win. They say life would be terribly dull without the other side.
So once again Good Omens tells us that we need the other side and that we might be off worse without them if not even better off when we get to really know them.
@linipikk reply: God herself presented every “hereditary enemy"couple a way out of the cycle of destruction, and they took that chance.
@bygodstillam reply: #happily i don’t think liking shadwell is particularly necessary #he’s not meant to be a likeable character #and yet #even unsympathetic people find love sometimes #or even just comfort #in other people (via @jackironsides)
…I just liked these tags.
But yeah this puts into perspective exactly why i was always so uncomfortable with the level of vitriolic hatred and “ugh she can do so much better” leveled towards Newt/Anathema and Newt in general since the show came out.
Like, maybe she can do better, but she happened to fall in love with the guy she blindly slept with due to the prophecies that have run her life since she was born. The guy who was the first person in her life to really say “is this what you want? what is the choice YOU want to make?”, which is a BIG DEAL.
He may be a disaster but honestly I don’t understand the hatred, he’s a bit of a dope and a disaster but this poor guy wants nothing more than to be a computer programmer or engineer or whatever, but he can’t, because he BREAKS it. he knows SO MUCH THEORY you know he’s read every book, you know he’s written codes for programs BY HAND just to avoid breaking anything when he wants to practice a coding language or something. Like, he joins shadwell’s witch hunters but it’s just a lark. He’ll get paid for hunting witches, which he clearly doesn’t believe in? Sure, okay old dude, whatever you say, it can’t be worse than being unemployed again.
Like. He’s not sexist. He’s not aggressive or gross about Anathema even after the sex. He’s just… a slightly awkward guy who’s had a shit time his whole life because god made him the antimatter of technology in order to stop the end of the world one day.
He doesn’t have to be your favorite character - hes certainly not mine - but he’s not this awful character who is somehow manipulating or “ruining” Anathema, and he’s not “dragging her down” and she’s not LOWERING herself somehow to decide she wants to be with him. Will they work out long term? Who knows. But what I do know is that he encouraged and supported her in starting to live her own life on her own terms, not on Anges Nutter’s. Even if they don’t last romantically, he supported her in becoming her own person, and she will grow and learn a lot from that, and it very much seems like he’ll be happy to help support her through that learning process, probably even if she ended up not wanting to be with him after all.
And that’s a good guy right there.
@freyadragonlord reply: Also please stop saying that Newt is dumb or useless.
He is terrible with computers, which is unluckily what he is passionate about. But kept away from technology, he is quite smart and perceptive.
He figured out that there was something wrong with Tadfield without any hints, and he is ths only character who managed to do so (everyone else was told either by the Book or by somebody else).
He remembers details about people and situations.
He goes through some pretty intense stuff but doesn’t lose his nerves.
He figures out how to use Agnes’ prophecies, and that if they just pick one randomly, it would be the right one.
