And May All Your Omens Be Good

Librarian. Currently cataloguing the cosmos. Would be happy to end my days as an angel in an old bookshop.

[chronologicalerrors]

Fan Theory: Neil Gaiman used the Good Omens sequel's ending in Season 1. By Season 3, there was nothing left.

Here is my theory about the ending of Good Omens Season 3: it wasn't the ending that was always planned. 

The ending that was always planned was actually this one:

Let me present the evidence:

Season 3 was to be based on 668: The Neighbour of the Beast — the sequel that Gaiman and Terry Pratchett plotted together in a hotel room in 1989 but never actually wrote. By 2019, Gaiman confirmed it only existed as a plot, not some unfinished manuscript or even drafts and notes [source]. Nevertheless, it was sold as the story Terry always wanted to tell:

"Terry was clear on what he wanted from Good Omens on the telly. He wanted the story told, and if that worked, he wanted the rest of the story told." [source]

We know a handful of things about what this sequel was supposed to cover. First, The Second Coming and a flight to America (which we did see fragments of on screen). But also, and more importantly for this theory: the inner workings of Heaven and Hell. In interviews during Season One, Gaiman said a lot of the sequel was about "where the angels actually came from." [source]

When building the world of Good Omens the TV show, NG drew heavily on the sequel's ideas. He has said so directly:

"I stole stuff from the sequel we never did and put it in this series." [source]

"A lot of the trappings and the idea of what propelled book two into existence wound up integral to what I did in Good Omens the TV series." [source]

In the original book, we don't actually see many other angels or demons. The Heaven and Hell we see in Season 1 — the corporate offices, the hellish basement, Gabriel too — all of it came from the sequel. Gaiman did also note at the time as this was all very useful in building out the world of Good Omens for the show: "We never actually see the people behind the scenes who are very, very keen on Armageddon [in the original book]" [source]. But importantly, all of this was something that had left to be explored in the sequel novel, which he was now cribbing from.

(These guys were not the original book. Metatron was though.)

In a 2019 Guardian interview, Gaiman confirmed that the visual concept of Heaven and Hell as a shared building came directly from the unwritten book:

"It's all one beautiful skyscraper and the angels have the fantastic offices right at the top, and hell is the basement rooms that nobody really wants to be in." [source]

I can imagine this all being an interesting development in the sequel book, very Pratchett-esque in its humour, with a bunch of suited angels all gung-ho about The Second Coming after the first apocalypse was called off, and the absolute corporate nightmare of trying to talk to get to someone actually in charge...

But if a bulk of the plot was about Heaven and Hell's office culture, then doesn't Aziraphale and Crowley's face-swap ending from Season 1 fit perfectly here?

Per the Radio Times, Gaiman has admitted: "When I got to episode six [of Season One], I realised that I ran out of story halfway through, so I was going to need more story to take me to the end." [source]. He never said he went back to the ideas for the sequel for this bit, but it does rather make sense.

With so much focus supposed to be on their Head Offices in the sequel book, wouldn't Aziraphale and Crowley effectively getting fired and set for destruction in Hell Fire/Holy Water, wouldn't them tricking their respective superiors into finally leaving them alone be a fitting ending to that story? It just works really well, narratively.

(Have a gratuitous Crowley in the bath...)

Further to this, Marc Burrows (Terry Pratchett's biographer) has been saying some rather interesting things on Twitter about the ending to S3 and why Pratchett wasn't credited:

"While I actually like the ending, and while I think the moral/philosophical argument Crowley makes is inherently Pratchett, I think this is Neil Gaiman's ending and that's why he has the sole story credit. I also suspect that, even if we'd got the full series, we'd always have gotten this ending." [source]

"What I know for sure: not Sir Terry’s ending. That’s not a guess, I know that for sure. What I don’t know: the full details of what that ending was." [source]

Marc Burrows is close to the Pratchett estate, knew Terry and his work, and is saying this doesn't sound like him. And that Terry wasn't given a story credit does suggest that this story was made-up by Gaiman and did not come from the late-night conversation Terry and Gaiman had about the potential sequel book in 1989. Burrows has also said that the Pratchett estate didn't fight for the S3 finale story to be told after Amazon all but cancelled it, as many fans have claimed, it was actually BBC Studios who did that. Marc also has some things to say about what Terry had in mind for an ending:

"The 'South Downs Cottage' ending was always Terry's plan [...]  But I very strongly believe he wouldn't have destroyed the whole universe and all the characters therein to make his point." [source].

Which leads me back to where we left Aziraphale and Crowley in Season One, dining at the Ritz, polishing off a bottle of wine...and, for all we know, about to jump in the Bentley and drive off to the South Downs to a cottage they rented for the weekend. Finally free of Heaven and Hell, because of a little face-swap trick. I think that ending was, after all, Terry's original ending.

To be clear about what this theory is and isn't arguing: this is not a claim that Season 3 is without merit, or that the ending we got is without meaning. But I do think it was made-up solely by Gaiman, because the actual original ending - where Aziraphale and Crowley were always supposed to end up at the end of the sequel book - had already been used to cap off Season One. And it's where I prefer to think of them, still and forever more - the Angels Dining at the Ritz.

[thewitchqifrey]

RIVALS 2.04 • "Episode 4"

[chronologicalerrors]

With all the clarity of hindsight, you know what I would have loved Good Omens Season 2 and 3 to be? A pure, What We Do in the Shadows-style hang-out spin-off.

No world-ending stakes, no Plot with a Capital P. Just our Ineffable Duo hanging out on Whickber Street, getting up to no good for 30 minutes an episode, 8 episodes a season.

Imagine the episode lineup we could have had:

Episode 1: Aziraphale and Crowley try to matchmake Maggie and Nina. Aziraphale thinks he’s being helpful, Crowley thinks it's a lark, and the women are entirely unimpressed, but they find out their neighbours are supernatural, setting them up as regular side characters.

Episode 2: Shax turns up and evicts Crowley. He secretly lives in his Bentley until Aziraphale finds out at the end of the episode and forcefully moves him into the bookshop.

The rest of the season could be made up of historical flashbacks (Job, the Resurrectionists, wherever you want to go in history...) treated as standalone escapades. Maybe an episode that peels away and show us the offices in Heaven and Hell instead for a bit, or a meeting between Muriel and Eric who are both supposed to be spying on A&C.

Episodes 7-8: Season ends with a cosy, low-stakes two-parter about a memory-wiped Gabriel turning up as "Jim."

Then it all resets and we join them back in the bookshop again next season, where maybe Crowley loses his Bentley gambling with a gangster and Aziraphale has to reclaim it for him, maybe there's another Whickber Street Traders event...just all the nonsense like that, minus the anguish. And a lot more of it.

Just an angel and a demon being domestic and chaotic. I guess budget would have precluded anything ever like this, but it's a shame that this was always sold to us like it had to follow dramatic lines, whereas the more I look back on it, the less I think it needed it. Who do I talk to about getting this timeline instead?

[midnightblue767]

Well!

[stargazingbitch]

To the world!

- Good Omens (2019 - 2026)

[hollow-head]

A missing scene. Thanks for all the fanart and fic throughout the years, you guys

[ineffableteeth]

I am screaming look at these photos

Cut scene of Crowley sleeping on a WALL in his PAJAMAS (HE WEARS PAJAMAS ((AND BLACK SILK ONES AT THAT)))

(From the Script book) He DOES wake up a mess and he DOES clean up instantly (WE WERE ROBBED OF MESSY HAIR CROWLEY)

CONCEPT ART FOR CROWLEYS BEDROOM

I CANT

[youryurigoddess]

The summer that was never supposed to end

You’ve probably noticed how in Good Omens 2 Crowley’s eyes are brighter, more saturated, as if glistening with liquid gold. We’ve already covered his hair. And it’s not only the visual aspect of him — even in objectively stressful conditions, Crowley appears mature and put together, way cooler and more protective than before. Even his faults are heavily romanticized in the past and present scenes, reminding of the S1 body swap, when Aziraphale projected his love to him on the way he played the demon in Hell.

It’s not just the demon. The whole season is more vibrant, bolder, filled with sunshine. Just like a summer that was never supposed to end. Like a memory of a loved one seen through the eyes of someone who thinks of them every day until the end of the world.

S2 seems ridiculously saturated, whimsical, and full of red and gold, just like a certain demon. Aziraphale not only painted his bookshop in his image, but literally colored the whole world in Crowley’s colors. It was such lush and saturated and blooming with warmth and hazy light.

It’s either that all the newest events are just another memory seen through a certain angel’s eyes, or said angel actively made it appear this way — as in, his feelings grew so strong that they’ve started to warp the reality around him. And it’s a well-known fact that Aziraphale has a tendency to affect his surroundings, either unconsciously, when his presence in the bookshop literally lightens up the sky seen through its windows, or very much consciously, when he takes over the position of a master puppeteer and manipulates people with or without the help of his miracles.

S1 was more dramatic and apocalyptic, but not particularly gray — at least not as much as the color grading typically used in portrayal of similar apocalyptic narratives. S2, at least as seen through Aziraphale’s own La Vie En Rose lens, is vibrant and saturated. And those colors drastically fade in the heavenly light of the elevator during the credits, suggesting that they won’t be as visible in the course of S3.

But I don’t want to ramble about the apocalypse sandwich and the three-act structure here, so let’s circle back to S2.

Good Omens 2 was really set in a summer that was never supposed to end. But it did, autumn crept in, and there was no chance of hearing the nightingales sing. They all had left by the time an angel and a demon finally kissed.

In the most literal sense: the very last nightingales usually migrate from the UK to their wintering grounds in Sub-Saharan Africa in the first days of September.

Aziraphale was right that nothing lasts forever — and the passage of time on Earth is marked by subtle details invisible to the immortal eyes.

The main thing about autumn migration is how sudden and hard to predict it is. The birds start disappearing gradually, often without notice, until at some point they are no longer here. Much like the angel leaves the bookshop — their shared nest — to spread his wings and fight.

And it was basically announced on the poster.

Can you see the migratory formation of birds up in the sky? It looks like Aziraphale is the last one to get off the ground and fly.

[thx4thfsh]

"[I]f only he could make the scales fall from his mate's eyes they'd be in a much better position." 💔😢😭

[lenaellsi]

“Crowley is still an angel deep down” “Crowley is more of an angel than any of the archangels” “Crowley was only cast out because he needed to play his part in Armageddon, he's not a real demon” “Aziraphale wants to rebuild Heaven to be more like Crowley because he’s what an angel should be” no. Stop it. This is exactly where Aziraphale went wrong.

Crowley is 100% a demon. He's not actually a bit of an angel, and he's not cosmically better than any of the other demons we see in the series. He's much less vicious than most of them, yeah, but he's also much less vicious than most of the angels, because how “nice” a celestial being is has nothing to do with which side they're technically on. Crowley's kindness comes from him doing his best to help people despite the hurt he's suffered himself, not any sort of inherent residual or earned holiness. He was cast out just like the rest of the demons, and that's an important part of his history that shouldn't be minimized, excused, or, critically, 'corrected.'

Being angelic is not a positive or negative trait in the Good Omens universe. It's a species descriptor. Saying that Crowley is still an angel deep down because he helps people is an in-character thing for Aziraphale to think, certainly--Job and the final fifteen showed that in the worst possible way--but it's not something Crowley would ever react well to, and it's the main source of conflict in the entire "appoint you to be an angel" fiasco.

We know that Aziraphale thinks Crowley's fall was an injustice, but why? Well, because Crowley is actually Good, which means his fall was a mistake, or a test, or a regrettable error in judgment, or…something. Ineffable. Etc. The point is, he’s special, much better than those other demons, and if they can fix him and make him an angel again, everything will be fine! (So once Job's trials are over, everything will be restored to him? Praise be!) Aziraphale has to believe that Crowley's better traits come from traces of the angel he used to know and not the demon he's known for 6,000 years, because that’s how he can rationalize his incorrect view of Heaven as The Source Of Truth And Light And Good with his complicated feelings about Crowley's fall.

But Crowley's fall was not an injustice because he's actually a Good Person who didn't deserve it. Crowley's fall was an injustice because the entire system of dividing people into Good (obedient) and Bad (rebellious) is bullshit. Crowley is not an unfortunate exception to God's benevolence, he is a particularly sympathetic example of God's cruelty.

And really, Crowley doesn't behave at all like an angel, especially when he's at his best. All of the things that he's done that we as the audience consider Good are things that Heaven has directly opposed. (See: saving the goats and children in defiance of God in S2E2, convincing Aziraphale to give money to Elspeth despite Heaven's views on the "virtues of poverty" in S2E3, speaking out against the flood and the crucifixion in S1E3, tempting Aziraphale to enjoy earthly pleasures because he thinks they'll make him happy, stopping Armageddon.)

Heaven as an institution has never been about helping humanity. And that's not an issue of leadership, as Aziraphale seems to think--it's by design. Aziraphale's first official act as an angel toward humanity was to literally throw them to the lions. Giving them the sword wasn't him acting like an angel, it was just him being himself. Heaven doesn't care about humans. It's not supposed to. It's supposed to win the war against Hell, with humans as chess pieces at best and collateral damage at worst.

Yes, it's easier to think that there are forces that are supposed to be fundamentally good. It's easier to think that Aziraphale is going to show those mean archangels and the Metatron what’s coming to them and reform Heaven into what it "should" be, and that God is actually super chill and watching all of this while shipping ineffable husbands and cheering for them the whole way. And of course it's easier to take Crowley, who Aziraphale (and the audience) adores, and say that he deserves to be on the Good team much more than all those angels and demons that we don’t like. But that's not how it works. People are more complicated than that, even celestial beings.

Crowley is a demon, and the tragedy of his character is not that he's secretly a good guy who is being forced to be evil; the tragedy is that he's lived his whole life stuck between two institutional forces that are both equally hostile to the love he feels for the universe and the beings in it. There are no good and bad guys. There are no "right people." Every angel, demon, and human is capable of hurting or helping others based on their choices. That is, in fact, the entire fucking point.

[kazunaris]

do you hear that? no nightingales. (x)

[empireofthesin]

Ohhhhh I need to go outside take a deep breath in and scream

[neil-gaiman]

do the angels and demons in GO speak enochian? or is that not canon in that universe?

I suspect that in the GO universe (in which, remember, Crowley's reaction to Hieronymous Bosch was "What a weirdo,") Enochian was probably just something that Edward Kelly made up to deceive John Dee. ("Why do they think we sound like that? I don't sound like that. What's he doing now?" "I believe he's speaking in tongues." "Well, I don't like it. Make him stop.")

[neil-gaiman]

Hi! I noticed at the start of season 2 of good omens Crowley's wings are darker after he learns what is planned for the universe, is just my overthinking and shadows or a sort of sign of Crowley's "loss of faith"?

It's a thing we worked on very hard.

[chronologicalerrors]

But it's been no bed of roses No pleasure cruise I consider it a challenge before The human race And I ain't gonna lose

- Queen, We are the Champions

[sing-you-fools]

op your post is more than two weeks old so it turned into Queen just fyi

[chronologicalerrors]

Oh no, it was Pale Blue Eyes by the Velvet Underground before!

[neil-gaiman]

Hello Mr. Gaiman,

First of all, HUGE fan of Good Omens (both the book and show). I don’t remember the last time I’ve been so enthralled by characters and a story. I absolutely adored Season 2 and have been recommending the show to all my peers. It’s also inspired me to get back into my art, so I thank you for that.

Okay, on to the question: I’ve been on my n’th rewatch of the show and am a little confused with something regarding how Crowley talks about his fall. Throughout the whole first season he’s going on about how he didn’t mean to become a demon and only ever asked questions, hung out with the wrong people, etc. But then in season 2 he talks about remembering fighting in the Great War (regardless of whether he recalls poor Furfur being there). I feel like knowingly fighting in a war against the forces of Heaven must come with the expectation or at least consideration of being cast out or punished in some way. So why say “I only ever asked questions” when he evidently did much more?

I'm not sure that Crowley is the most reliable of narrators when talking about his Fall.

[crowley-anthony]

#the many walks of crowley