could u imagine waiting millions of years for your bf to kiss u, and after planning constant intricate rituals and endless dinner dates he decides to do it while you're both crying over your 8th breakup where u just accidentally asked him to detransition
One thing I love about Crowley --never stated, but consistently shown-- is that he is, at heart, an engineer.
I have a few different things to say about that. Let's unpack them.
As the Unnamed Angel, we see his designs for the Pillars of Creation are millions of pages long, comprised of cramped text, footnotes, diagrams, schematics etc. It's very...Renaissance polymath, in the way it implies a particular intersection between artist and inventor.
Also: in the naked romanticism with which he views his stars.
We already knew he made stars, but in s2 we learn that he did NOT sculpt them one-at-a-time. He designed a nebula ("a star factory," he says) that will form several thousand young stars and proto-planets, and all --beyond getting the 'factory' running-- without him lifting a finger. We also learn that these young stars and proto-planets stand in contrast to those made by other angels, which are going to come 'pre-aged.'
...I'm reminded of Hastur and Ligur's approach to temptations. Damning one human soul at a time, devoting singular attention to it over the course of years or decades, and how that stands in contrast to Crowley's reliance on, quote, 'knock-on effects.'
Ligur: It's not exactly...craftsmanship.
Crowley: Head office don't seem to mind. They love me down there.
Hm.
I'm also reminded of the M25.
The M25 may not be as grand as a nebula (sentences you only say in GOmens fandom...), but LIKE his nebula it's an intricate, self-sustaining engine that does Crowley's work for him, many times over. Again.
That's some pretty neat characterization --and so is the indication of Crowley's disinterest in victimizing anyone tempting individual people. It takes a considerable amount of planning and effort (and creeping about in wellies), but in accordance with his design the M25 generates a constant stream of low-grade evil on a gigantic scale.
Cumulatively gigantic, that is. Individually? Negligible.
But no other demon understands human nature well enough to parse that one million ticked-off motorists are not, in any meaningful way, actually equivalent to one dictator, or one mass-murderer, or even one little influential regressive. That's the trick of it. Crowley gets Hell's approval (which he NEEDS to survive, and to maintain the degree of freedom he's eked out for himself while surviving), and at the same time ensures that any actual ~Evil influence~ is spread nice and thin.
It's some clever machinery. And he knows it, too:
The Unnamed Angel and Crowley are both proud of their ideas.
(musings on professional pride, Leonardo da Vinci, the crank handle, and 'the point to which Crowley loves Aziraphale' under the cut)
In the 1970's Crowley gives a presentation on the M25, projector and all, to a room full of increasingly impatient demons. Maybe the presentation was work-ordered; the 'can I hear a WAHOO?' definitely wasn't.
Before the Beginning, the Unnamed Angel can barely contain his excitement about his nebula. Aziraphale manages a baffled-but-polite, "....That's nice...! :)"
11 years ago, Hastur and Ligur want to 'tell the deeds of the day,' and Crowley smiles to himself because (according to the script-book) he knows he has 'the best one.'
(Naturally, his 'deed' has nothing to do with tempting anybody, and everything to do with setting up a human-powered Rube-Goldberg machine of petty annoyance. Oodles of 'Evil' generated; very little harm done.)
They don't get it, of course. That's also consistent.
Nobody ever knows what the hell he's talking about.
It didn't make it on-screen, but, in both the novel AND the script-book, Crowley was friends with Leonardo da Vinci. The quintessential Renaissance polymath. That's where he got his drawing of the Mona Lisa --they're getting very drunk together, and Crowley picks up the 'most beautiful' of the preliminary sketches. He wants to buy it. Leonardo agrees almost off-the-cuff, very casual, because they're friends, and because he has bigger fish to fry than haggling over a doodle:
He goes, "Now, explain this helicopter thingie again, will you?" Because he's an engineer, too.
(It is 1519 at the latest, in this scene. Why the FUCK would Crowley know about helicopters, and be able to explain them, comprehensively, to Leonardo da Vinci?
...Well. I choose to believe he got bored one day and worked it out. Look, if you know how to build a nebula, you can probably handle aerodynamics. And anyway, I think it's telling that this is his idea of shooting the shit. 'A drunken mind speaks a sober heart,' and all. He probably babbled about Aziraphale enough to make poor Leo sick)
Leonardo da Vinci is the only person Crowley has any keepsakes or mementos of, apart from Aziraphale.
Think about that, though. Aziraphale's bookshop is bursting with letters, paintings, busts, and personalized signatures memorializing all the humans he's known and befriended over 6000 years (indeed: Aziraphale has living human friends up and down Whickber Street. He's part of a community).
Crowley doesn't have any of that. It's just the stone albatross from the Church (for pining), the infamous gay sex statue (for spicy pining), the houseplants (for roleplaying his deepest trauma over and over, as one does), and this one piece of artwork, inscribed, "To my friend Anthony from your friend Leo da V."
To me, at least, that suggests a level of attachment that seems to be rare for Crowley.
...Maybe he liked having someone to talk shop with? Someone who was interested? Someone engaged enough to ask questions when they didn't immediately understand?
...Anyway.
There's also the matter of the crank handle.
This thing:
This is one of the subtler changes from the book. In the book, Crowley knows Satan is coming and, desperate, arms himself with a tire iron. It's the best he can do. He's not Aziraphale; he wasn't made to wield a flaming sword.
The show, IMO, improves on this considerably. Now he, like Aziraphale, gets to face annihilation with what he was made for in his hand. And it's not a weapon, not even an improvised one like the tire iron.
He made stars with it.
[both gifs by @fuckyeahgoodomens]
If you Google 'crank handle,' you'll get variations on this:
Crank handles have been around for centuries. Consisting of a mechanical arm that's connected to a perpendicular rotating shaft, they are designed to convert circular motion into rotary or reciprocating motion.
Which is to say they're one of the 'simple machines,' like a lever or a pulley; the bread and butter of engineering. You'll also get a list of uses for a crank handle, archaic and modern. Among them, cranking up the engine of an old-fashioned car... say, a 1933 Bentley. That's what Crowley has been using his for, lately. But he's had it since he was an angel and he's still, it seems, very capable of it's angelic applications.
I know everyone has already said this, but: I REALLY LIKE that when he needs to channel the heights of his power, he does so not with a weapon but with a tool. Practically with a little handheld metaphor for ingenuity, actually. One from long-lost days when he could make beautiful things.
(And he loved it. Still loves it, I'd say --he incorporated it into the Bentley, didn't he?)
Let Aziraphale rock up to the apocalypse with a weapon: he has his own compelling thematic reasons to do exactly that. Crowley's story is different, and fighting isn't the only way to express defiance. And if you've been condemned as a demon and assumed to be destructive by your very nature, what better way than this?
He made stars. They didn't manage to take that from him.
Neither Crowley nor Aziraphale are fighters, really --they have no intention of fighting in any war. They'll annoy everyone until there's no war to fight in, for a start. But between the two, if one must be, then that one is Aziraphale. Principality of the Earth, Guardian of the Eastern Gate, Wielder of the Flaming Sword... all that stuff. Even if he'd prefer not to, it's very clear that Aziraphale can rise to the occasion, if he must.
Crowley was not that kind of angel. He wasn't a Principality. He has no sword.
...And yet.
It's Crowley who protects. He's the one who paces, who stands guard, who circles Aziraphale and glares out at the world, just daring anyone else to come near.
In light of everything else I've said here, I think that's interesting.
Obviously part of it is that Aziraphale enjoys it and, you know, good for him. He's living his best life, no doubt no doubt. But what about Crowley? What's driving that behavior, really?
Have you heard the phrase, 'loved to the point of invention'? Well, what if 'the point of invention' was where you started? What if where you end up involves glaring out at the world, just daring anyone else to come near? What is that, in relation to the bright-eyed thing you used to be?
What do we name the point to which Crowley loves Aziraphale?
...Thinking about how an excitable angel with three million pages of star design he wants to tell you all about...becomes a guard dog. Is all.
This is so so good. And I hope you don't mind me adding something I have been thinking about it ever since I read the word polymath take here to this but... sometimes an engineer is also a gardener. Because Crowley, in all of his forms, has always been someone who plants a seed and steps back to let it grow. And, yes, maybe he occasionally needs to step in to do some cultivation work and tip the scales in a certain direction, but by and large what we see him most involved in is in the initial spark that blooms into something more. His tool in itself reflects this too. Circular motion that gains momentum as it goes, creating an effect that causes something bigger to swell up from the energy it’s created.
Like this post says, his actions have cascade effects, whether it’s setting up the start of a nebula that will constantly be producing stars, or setting up a roadway that will cause bubbles of frustration with relatively low level side effects, or giving a surgeon the idea to wash his hands, or choosing to play the role of a Nanny. He’s not constantly shaping what he builds, just nurturing what’s there to work with. Not quite as hands off as the Almighty is or as controlling as the structures of Heaven and Hell.
And to some degree I think you can look at him as playing this role for Aziraphale too. He creates spaces for Aziraphale to grow and explore and change if he wants, applying a little bit of pressure when he thinks necessary but by and large just presenting the idea and waiting to see what Aziraphale does with it. It’s important, I think, that we don’t really see him do this with Aziraphale in any serious way until he’s sure Aziraphale is already heading down those pathways on his own. It’s not until after Aziraphale has already reached out to him that Crowley recognizes this is something he can help cultivate. And to his credit, Aziraphale, by and large, has nearly always chosen, even if he’s done so in different ways, to help Crowley let it grow. Crowley who, notably, throughout the context of most of their relationship, did know that eventually the world was going to end and that his stars would one day get shut down as a result of it. He spent 6000 years knowing that the plan had condemned everything he’d built and nurtured and watched grow. But Aziraphale is different in this one way. Odds are Aziraphale would survive the apocalypse. And that I think maybe is where the protectiveness comes from to some degree, at least at first. So long as they don’t get caught Aziraphale is maybe the one thing Crowley can have that he can guarantee will persist. So long as they’re careful, he will continue to have chances to grow and change and be surprising even if Crowley himself ceases.
Crowley’s plants standing in for crowley and crowley yelling at them and tossing them out for not being perfect. Aziraphale’s books standing in for aziraphale and aziraphale locking them up and not ever being comfortable with anyone looking too closely. Hm. Hmmm
I don’t think there’s going to be “you were wrong, I was right dance” I think there’s going to be “please dance with me”.
I either see Aziraphale, apologetic, extending his hand to Crowley, hoping he will take it.
Or Crowley, seeing how sad and full of guilt Aziraphale has been looking, hearing their song, standing up and seeing Aziraphale wince because he thinks Crowley can’t even sit by him when this song plays, but Crowley walks over to him and extends his hand and smiles at him.
Maybe Aziraphale will say "I was wrong, you were right" as he holds out his hand though! And then I'll faint and melt into a puddle and take up permanent residency inside Neil's walls.
I'm in the final year of my philosophy degree and I've struggled with this so i will try and help you out because comments like that one are super unhelpful and confusing, but unfortunately very common from philosophy professors:(
'to sum up' - i am summarising everything i have just said. this is sometimes useful if you've written something long but most acdemics are gonna disapprove of this. if your writing was clear and succinct enough, you wouldn't need a tldr at the end.
'to conclude' - i have finished my discussion and now i am going to make my final position clear. my conclusion states my final opinion on the matters that i have discussed and is supported by the arguments i have made. i am not just restating my propositions or my evidence, but i am using them to reach a decision. this conclusion should be a sound one.
from my interpretation of the comment you received, it sounds like you've signposted a conclusion without actually providing the content of one. conclusions are the hardest bit of philosophy, and professors are often not very good at explaining what they actually need to involve or how to do it.
sorry if u didn't actually want advice and that's why u had comments turned off lol xxx
finished good omens (s1 and 2) a few days ago for the first time. completed all of GOtwitter and most of ao3 already. only thing for it was to redownload this fucking app and repurpose it from a young royals account to a good omens account. sorry all!!
Wilmon having the most emotional conversations and people being in their close vicinity makes me so amused somehow.
At the ball when Wille says 'you are not in love me anymore. I will leave you alone.' there is another student busy on his phone, not only a meter between them.
And before the jubilee speech, at that little corridor, they are having a moment, with the most boyfriend position they could be in, there are students only two meters away from them, where they can see them so easily.
They don't even spare them a glance. Nobody even falters a second. There is probably a bet going on about when they will get their shit together at this point.
They were hiding shit, and I find that so hilarious.
If you accidentally hurt someone or cross their boundaries and they make you aware of this, literally all you have to do is apologize and stop. You don't have to beat yourself up internally for months. You don't have to hate yourself for fucking up. You don't have to feel like a horrible person. No one benefits from any of that - and at worst, such an extreme reaction will make the person in question less likely to speak up around you in the future, cause even if your negative reaction is directed at yourself and not at them, it's still unpleasant for everyone involved.
Simon taking out his anger over Wille being celebrated for kissing a girl out on Wille because it probably looks to him like Wille is now trying to conform to what’s expected of him. Wille looks like he’s starting to conform and Simon sees through the bullshit.
Felice is not a threat. You don’t love Felice. You love me. Fight for me. There’s a desperation in Simon’s eyes as he rips into Wille in the locker room and eggs him on; he can feel Wille pulling away and no longer fighting for them, and it makes him angry.
Despite trying to move on, despite trying to forget his feelings for Wille, deep down all Simon wants is for Wille to fight for them, and that’s why he panics so much when Wille finally starts moving away.
You told me you didn’t want to be who they want you to be and here you are doing exactly that.
rip to everyone who didn’t enjoy the borderline greek tragedy that was Sara projecting her pain on August, turning his world upside down, and then breaking his heart when she realised she misjudged him, but I was having the time of my life. There’s something so poetic about August, a privileged kid who is openly derisive of those he deems below him, having his shit rocked by 2 unhinged lower class siblings who want too much and don’t know how to stop
tangentwithtanner
2087
discoholicmusic
germansingergirl
yousharknotpass
kianamaiart
