CW and TW: discussions and mentions of Neil Gaiman.
Ok, it’s been a minute since my first post which basically gives a run down on my emotional state, my emotional reaction, and just a lot of deep seated feelings. I did promise I would talk a little bit more about contextual issues and today’s post is going to be devoted to the writing of the finale.
Again because this is going to be yet another critical take, I understand those of you out there who either enjoyed the finale and don’t want to see anything negative or even if you hated it but don’t want to be exposed to any further negativity may not want to read this. So I will put my thoughts under the cut.
Again, I ask that people do not argue or send hurtful or derogatory messages to each other or anyone involved in the cast and crew*
*I’d give a caveat to the writers but in the end, don’t even send them hate messages. They’re not worth your time or effort.
This is a bit of a long one, so buckle in!
Post 2. The writing
I know I’m probably not going to say anything that hasn’t already been said. There has been so many great takes about the incomprehensible writing and I don’t know if I will do them justice but I will give it my best go.
Firstly, we’re going to get the elephant in room out of the way first. Everything we saw on that screen was Neil Gaiman. Plain and simple. Perhaps I had been incredibly naive in thinking that when he was removed from production the new script writers brought in were going to use the skeleton of his story beats and re-write the finale from scratch. I mean, if thousands of fandom fic writers can do it, why can’t published authors? But when you look at the timeline of events, the decision to bring on new writers and the length of time before filming started (whilst pre production had already commenced), the only thing that could have happened was a gutting and condensing of the script.
This was made abundantly clear in the cryptic crossword scene when Aziraphale says the word pedometer, a moment that punched me in the gut, because NG had given that inclusion fact long ago. You can go to this previous post of mine for further context about that.
NG has always had a nihilistic structure to his stories. His characters’ “happy endings” come at great personal cost or sacrifice, or through incredible hardship or heartache. Read Neverwhere, read American God, read Ocean at the end of the Lane, or Sandman (or actually don’t, but you get my point). Protagonists who go through awful tumultuous times before coming out the other end, sometimes unscathed, sometimes worse for ware, sometimes dead. So the way the finale ended set my sights directly on NG to blame.
What is the most galling is, I’m convinced this was ALWAYS how he intended to end it. He spoke many times prior to the allegations coming out how he had completed episodes 3-4 was finishing drafting episode 5 and the end of episode 6 was written. You can clearly see the outlines of the episodes where the story was cut away for time, and then where the plot completely falls apart when everyone is erased which in my opinion, clearly shows where he stopped writing. Plot threads are woven and then completely dropped, and it’s obvious to me how the writers just couldn’t be bother figuring out how to tie them off properly.
Jesus
What on earth was the point of Jesus, except to be a plot device? A reason to get Aziraphale out of Heaven and to work with Crowley. His actions and story arc went no where and affected nothing. Wouldn’t it have made more sense to have him appear in the bookshop in the end? Solve the problem of the destroyed universe? Face God himself? Bring the find the lady card game full circle? Be the literal counterpoint to Adam and his arc in S1? On the topic of Jesus, he mentions his disciples and his mother (Mary) and Aziraphale just sadly says it’s been a long time. WHERE THE FUCK ARE THEY?! They’re in Heaven, WHERE ARE THE DEAD HUMANS?! I’ve pointed this out before about how Heaven looks suspiciously empty so where do all the humans go? Looks like we’ll never know the answer.
Michael
Michael’s set up as the bad guy was obvious from the start, but why not include a set up to her feelings of being under appreciated? Actually give her motivation for feeling like she has to do everything and get no reward. Maybe a scene of Aziraphale telling her to do a bunch of stuff. Instead what we get is “Oh those silly women and their emotions.” Honestly, not surprising to have such a one dimensional character arc from the man who we now know has no respect for women.
The Metatron and the FF
So, The Metatron’s setup in S2 always seemed like there was something far more nefarious going on. The music queues, the menacing look he gives Crowley, the furtive and anxious looks Aziraphale has. Now, we just have to accept everything in that scene was at face value. He really was offering Aziraphale a job. He legitimately thought Aziraphale was the best. There was no secret threat to Crowley. And Aziraphale did just want to go back to Heaven to make a difference (remember it had nothing to do with the second coming because he finds that out in front of the elevator). There is also the small mention that The Metatron was tampering with the Book of Life. Again, probably something cut for time, but had the potential for something far more meaningful. His story arc instead is meaningless and becomes just part of the plot line to create a mystery. Also, when you think about it, nothing in S2 was necessary to get us to S3. Except maybe to explain why Gabriel wasn’t there, and to have a reason that Crowley is angry and Aziraphale is in heaven. So why on earth bother with S2? *cough NG cash grab cough*.
Crowley having no miracles
What was the point other than the side quest to get the Bentley back. Which frankly was fun and the best part of the finale in my opinion. But when it didn’t matter at all to the plot it could have just been cut and more spent given to Aziraphale and Crowley just reuniting in a better and more fulfilling way. Crowley without miracles doesn’t seem to matter or be resolved in the end, considering the Bentley still got to space and Crowley still got them to the bookshop using the burning book of life page.
Did the writers even watch S2? Or S1 for that matter? Or even read the book?
When I first heard who the writers were I did a bit of a deep dive into their writing credits and history. When fantasy horror was all that came up and no proof at all that they were a fan or even spoke of Pratchett’s work, alarm bells started ringing. But I didn’t want to bring everyone’s moods down as a lot of angst around whether the finale would be any good was being thrown around at the time. So I kept my fears to myself.
But when the writers seemed to miss key elements of what made S1 and parts of S2 great and special (companion of owls and the resurrectionists specifically) it honestly felt like they didn’t bother to do any research at all. For example:
Adam is convinced in the end of S1 that the world is worth fighting for. That he doesn’t need to make it new even though the voices keep telling him. That it’s up to the humans to make it right. So how can you reconcile that with Crowley saying we need to just start again? It makes no sense.
Crowley drunkenly berates Wee Morag for wanting to commit suicide “No dying. No more dying. No trying to kill yourself, it’s wrong!” So why the FUCK does he decide complete annihilation is the answer?!
The entire Job minisode is devoted to explaining why Job and Sitis don’t want new children, they want their own children because they love them. Why on earth would the writers think Human Crowley and Aziraphale would be at all satisfying?
And for that matter, the entire S2 storyline with Jimbriel tells us that Jim is not Gabriel because he doesn’t have his memories and experiences. So how can you expect the fandom to accept Anthony and Asa are just a reincarnated versions of Crowley and Aziraphale when the lore you set up in your own show contradicts otherwise!
Plot lines that were added which makes no sense:
In the great war prologue Aziraphale is seen as this great general and leader. A master strategist. Why not have anything to do with him being a great strategist included in the rest of the plot then? Why do the angels later think him an incompetent idiot when they had so much praise for him (which has been established since S1)? Where did he lose their faith and gain such distain? Are we supposed to infer it is merely from being on earth?
Also was this Great War scene just a way to establish why Crowley doesn’t fear to approach Aziraphale on the Wall of Eden in S1? Because Aziraphale was kind to him and therefore he can trust him? You know we didn’t need that right?
Crowley’s knowledge of the book of life. How does Crowley go from “that was just a story to scare the cherubs” to “tampering with it sends you crazy” and “can’t be destroyed, it’s too well made”. How does KNOW all of this?
Why didn’t Michael just erase Aziraphale from the book of life to begin with? (Pitch Meeting Guy voice: so the movie can happen!)
Missed opportunities:
Aziraphale seemed to be in over his head in Heaven, it seemed like Sandalphon was about to start some kind of coup. So why did Michael not work with him? Why erase him? Did she just want to get the competition out of the way first? Why bring Sandalphon back at all when again he served no purpose to the story, except to be erased.
As much as I love Crowley’s heaven outfit (I will get down on my knees and worship that outfit), there was no reason for him to be dressed like that. He wasn’t in disguise, Saraqael saw him immediately and objected to his presence. Crowley also is still supposed to be without miracles at this point, so it’s implied it’s all Aziraphale. So damn well focus on that! Put some quick banter in there, maybe about how tight Crowley’s trousers are and Aziraphale just raises his eyebrows and turns away to smirk (perhaps it was lost to the cutting room floor, but I needed flirting and closeness between them, and these sacrificed moments were too much to lose).
Give us more of Asa and Anthony if you wanted us to care about them. A montage of dates, kissing in the rain, seeing one of them propose, sitting in a park having a picnic, a brief glimpse of their wedding day, dancing in the living room of their cottage, sweet soft moments of affection. Something! A 30 second montage would have been all that we needed. Instead we’re left with a semi platonic hand hold and some lovely music. I get that that is sweet and wonderful, but as I said in my previous post, the fandom has been fucking reeling for almost 3 years. We needed healing and proper visible on screen queer representation. This would have helped sway the anger and disappointment!
Character Assassinations:
Aziraphale. Just, everything. Leaving Crowley in the ally. Not actually apologising. That whole “you’re the best angel” bit (god damn it accept him for the demon his is you maniac!) I rest my case. I don’t enjoy at all how he was written this season, and it just shows the writers had no clue how to fix that or understand who he was a character.
Circling back to NG
When he was on Tumblr, NG would try to convince us constantly that there was going to be a happy ending.
The post where someone asked why and he said the answer was Love. The post where he was asked what his favourite line from S2 was and he answered the invisible line that connects Crowley and Aziraphale. That the ending was set and was what Terry wanted. The years of speaking about a cottage where Crowley and Aziraphale were retired. Telling us to trust the process. He said this for a year after S2 before he abandoned social media. Rachel Talalay said it in her Blueksy post there was never any kiss scripted for the finale. NG always intended to never resolve the heartbreak of S2. For S3 he sets up Crowley as broken, depressed, sick of life, and then has Crowley suggest at the end to just accept the end of the universe. Start again, make it new, but not with him in it. And we’re meant to accept this as somehow noble? What kind of a fucking message is that?! NG always saw himself in Crowley and I think this incredibly broken man is frankly telling on himself here. And he used our comfort show to do it. I still can’t get over how incredibly angry I am with this man. For everything he did to those women and everything he did to this fandom.
This season was full of plotholes, contradictions, and non-sensical out of character actions, and they cannot all be blamed on the cutting down of 6 hours to 98 minutes, but can be laid at the feet of a broken man who sadistically took pleasure in the pain and suffering in others.
And the most upsetting thing of all is the inability of fandom to now continue writing in canon universe stories for Crowley and Aziraphale. They are dead and gone, unless we can think of a way to bring them back. What point is there to write of Asa and Anthony when there was already thousands of human AU stories out there. And also we know so little of their characters and how they lived in this world that it’s hard to write anything for them (full props to all the fanfic writers out there who have managed it so far. Please don’t let me discourage you).
I think this is why I’ve struggled to continue writing my WIPs, even though I am getting there, but it worries me that people will see this end as a way to just stop participating in the fandom. And I can’t help but feel that maybe NG was playing a long game with us all along, that this was his endgame. He initially hated the shipping of Crowley and Aziraphale and then years later leaned into it when it meant financial gain. And now that he can’t have these characters anymore, neither can anyone else.
I realise that this is quite a dark and heartbreaking conclusion to end on. So I will say to everyone out there, keep creating, keep writing, keep making art, keep making friends in this wonderful fandom. You don’t need to take anything in S2 or S3 seriously if you don’t want to. You don’t need to accept it as canon if you don’t want to.
If you got this far, thank you for reading. My next post will be more positive about the things that I did like and love about the finale. So stay tuned.
i am at the point now in my post-s3 grief where just seeing positive takes about it pisses me the fuck off.
you enjoyed the finale. thats great. have a gold star. everyone is entitled to feel the way they feel about it. but I just dont understand it. I dont understand the positivity surrounding it. I feel like people are fucking clutching at straws or something trying to make it good in their heads when the reality is that everybody got the fucking infinity war ending. they got thanos snapped out of bloody existence and they didnt come back. no. they rebooted the universe.
im a marvel nerd so forgive this comparison but...you know not even the avengers wanted to do that? the avengers wanted all the original people back. that was the whole point of getting the fucking infinity stones. hulk snapped his fingers and brought everybody back. yes, it was 5 years later but the point was that everybody they had lost, everybody they loved, came back as they were.
why the fuck couldnt the good omens ending have been more like that? we dont want copies. we want the originals. as was said in the job storyline (that apparently means fucking nothing now because it never happened) we dont want new children, we want the old ones.
maybe i am a bitter old man. maybe im being too harsh. but genuinely, just think for a second what you are praising was a good ending. just think what these characters meant to people. just think what they represent. hope. love. survival. growth. being themselves. shades of grey. not fitting in but choosing their own path to escape the systems that hurt them.
and then think of the fucking finale that butchered all of that.
these characters showed me that i should keep going, keep surviving. that i dont have to fit in to be worthy of love. that i dont have to be ashamed of who I am. that my trauma and my mistakes dont define me. aziraphale and crowley survived so many hardships, so much trauma but they kept fucking going and that trauma wasnt all they had. because they had happiness too. shared lunches. adventures together. laughter. subtle touches. love spanned across 6 millenia. they were not traumatised husks. they were not on either side fully. they were themselves. and even though yes, they were constantly afraid of heaven and hell, they still found ways to find joy in the mundane. they still drank wine together, they still ate lunch together, they still hung out with eachother all the fucking time despite their abuse.
they could still have trauma and still experience happiness. still grow from it. still survive and love and smile. and that kind of message speaks to someone like me on a personal level. its why I fell in love with them so much. especially crowley. crowley always kept going even when he wanted to run away. even when he wanted to give up. his whole character arc was that he is an optimist at heart and he always knew the universe would take care of him.
to see him the way he was in the finale, to see him choose murder-suicide and bring aziraphale down with him...that goes against everything we've been shown him to be. a sarcastic cynical bastard at times, yeah, but a fucking survivor. and not only that, a survivor who is so in love with his angel he was shown to be giving up literally in that exact episode because aziraphale had left him! and then youre telling me he has a chance to be with him, something he's always wanted and he chooses to sacrifice them both instead? sacrificing himself i can understand i suppose...in a way, but aziraphale? and aziraphale just fucking folded and let him?
do you have any idea how harmful that message actually is to people? especially neurodivergent, mentally ill, traumatised, queer people like myself? it just makes me feel like im fundamentally unworthy of a happy ending because im fucking traumatised. and my bpd makes me feel like a bad person all the time anyway. i have always felt unworthy. thats why i related to crowley. and crowley always gave me the strength to keep going, that i am not just my bpd, just like he isnt just a demon. hes a good person. but now...what, none of that even meant anything because he chose to end it all? fuck, this notion that eradicating everything, eradicating the characters that mean the world to me because they keep fucking surviving, and doing it in a self sacrificial way, this notion that its a good ending truly fucking baffles me. all that theyve gone through, all that growth, all that love...it suddenly doesnt mean a damn thing. they killed themselves. its so fucking harmful. genuinely.
people saying they loved humanity more than themselves, yeah okay. but the whole purpose of season 1 was they wanted to stop armageddon because they loved earth too much. they loved all their earthly delights. but the main thing was that they wanted to experience it. and they were useless in the end anyway because all the humans stopped armageddon! they didnt do a damn thing. adam, the antichrist, chose to ignore his purpose and tell off his dad and save the fucking world along with the them and anathema and newt and even fucking shadwell and tracy in some weird way. aziraphale and crowley basically did nothing. and that was what free will was all about! anathema chose to burn the rest of the prophecies, adam chose to save the world not end it. aziraphale and crowley chose to save eachother from certain destruction and get heaven and hell off their backs because they loved earth and humanity and wanted to experience it with them. they all chose free will and they all ignored who they were supposed to be.
so when crowley asks god about free will, why is that suddenly an issue? crowley already knows that angels and demons are basically useless to humanity anyway, they all think up horrible stuff themselves and get on with it and crowley just takes the credit for it. free will was never the problem. the problem was heaven and hell constantly trying to end the fucking world. crowley always wanted to know what the purpose of everything was. why make the world and then end it in 6000 years. he was curious. he asked questions. that was the point. then all of a sudden it becomes about giving the humans free will when they literally always fucking had it.
so yeah. no. not buying it. everytime I think about it i get angrier. there were so many different ways they could have ended it. think of the thousands of fanfics that were made post s2. and they chose the one ending that nobody fucking wanted. not only that, they somehow made it worse by choosing to completely destroy everything including aziraphale and crowley. then tried to soothe the burn with asa and anthony like we arent completely choking on the current fucking smoke.
its bullshit. it pisses me off. it entirely defeats the purpose of s1 and the book. it defeats the purpose of the job storyline. they butchered aziraphale and crowleys characters. they made crowley a pessimistic suicidal ball of depression and they made aziraphale the villain. no one said one nice thing to aziraphale that entire episode. there were plot holes everywhere. the jesus storyline went fucking nowhere. the metatron villain arc they were building went nowhere. I get they only had 90 minutes but cmon!
it was just a big depression shit show and I am eradicating it from my brain entirely. it is not the characters I fell in love with. it is not how I hoped the ending would go.
I just wanted them to retire to the south downs. an angel and a demon, living together in a peaceful cottage. crowley having his own garden. aziraphale having his own library. doing mundane domestic things together. loving eachother openly and fully and without fear.
people who say there was no other way...hello?? they literally wrote a new book of life. physically willed god into existence. they could have just said "bring everything back but heaven and hell dont interfere anymore".
if they were so willing to trust god and asked god herself for there to be a godless universe, then, yknow, I am fairly certain they could have fucking asked for this simple thing??
the ending is a dark tragedy to what was initially a fantasy comedy series.
i wrote these back in 2024, I dont really care for half of these, but im noting them down for the record:
A day in the life of madame Tracy, -> she wakes in the morning and thinks fondly abt shadwell(and also worries for his sugar levels) when the TARDIS arrives and out steps the 13th Doctor
Self-insert character sneaks into the TARDIS bcuz she wants to learn everything there is to being a Time-lord (to the Doctor's exasperation)
Aziracrow plot to bring Gabriel and Beelzebub together (only 1 scene written, the prompt was that A/C do some matchmaking using the formula only to find out that they've fallen in love with each other)
Aziracrow exchange puzzles through the ages
5+1 fic of gabe and beelzebub, high school au, utterly boring midway urgh, features the song Every Day by buddy holly
unironically i think we need to bring back computer labs because APPARENTLY some people WERENT taught basic computer literacy and internet safety in school
things about computers/the internet i think kids should be formally taught in schools because theyre important to know and the amount of soon to be grown adults i know who know NOTHING about any of these is quite frankly almost all of them (and resources to learn if you dont know these things, because its never to late to get better with computers)
how to troubleshoot by yourself when you have a technical problem
what common file types are
some very basics on how to use ""developer tools"" on your computer (because i cant think of a better way to refer to them) like task manager and command prompt (and their mac equivalents, terminal and activity monitor ofc)
how to read and understand a privacy policy and what your personal data is, as well as what it being collected actually means and steps you can take to keep it private
how to understand terms of service
(hey. if you have trouble with reading legalese and worry about being able to understand these policies anyways, here's a site that gives basic summaries of privacy policies and ToS)
what a cookie actually is
internet privacy and your digital footprint!! seriously i dont know why we stopped teaching people that they shouldnt be putting their entire real identity online in a world where your online actions can ruin you irl
basic safety measures like antivirus software (and why you should use it or if the built in one on windows or mac is enough for you) and backing up your computer (also a mac guide)
common keyboard shortcuts (and on mac)
as an additional note: things i think everyone should know on computers and the internet but schools may bit hesitant to teach about for whatever moral/legal standards schools pretend to operate on
vpns and adblockers! (btw for most of these where you can pay for things im purposefully not recommending any specific software but seriously just use ublock origin for an adblocker)
how to not get a virus while pirating something
what a temporary email is and when to use one
red flags that you shouldn't trust a website (and how to quickly check the security of a site)
what javascript on a website does and how to disable it to get around paywalls
ok one last addition! if you want to take it one level higher, i think learning the very basics of at least one programming language is good for people. it makes computers less scary and it makes you feel very cool, and a lot of people get discouraged about it because it seems overly complicated and hard to learn outside a formal classroom setting, so heres some resources for learning the very basics of python (because i consider it the easiest language to learn and knowing one language will make it easier to learn others)
an online compiler so you dont need to download anything or worry about running code directly on your computer if that makes you nervous
a basic video guide to introduce you to python and walk you through beginner steps
a guide to some syntax and commands you should know (this was literally my lifeline in my first CS class)
some performance tasks to give you things to code to practice and assess yourself
They should make a Solo Leveling type show about some sigma aura farming loner going from the weakest character in the setting to the very very strongest except they actually explore how someone so single-mindedly dedicated to growth and getting stronger would probably be extraordinarily mentally ill and fucked in the head.
The protagonist instead of being a bland vessel for hype moments and aura farming is actually a goddamn bloodthirsty power hungry freak with an insane ego and god-complex, intense insecurity and trauma about the abuse they suffered while being the weakest in the setting, a deep sense of inadequacy over not being good or strong enough,mand an uncontrollable drive to grow and become stronger without knowing what they are even gathering this power for.
With them slowly changing and becoming different from what they once were over the course of their journey and ascendance to godhood until they become more like an walking disaster or eldritch storm of destruction than a person, only tetherd to who they once were by what loved ones followed them along their journey.
alright I've got to do some quick math to explain attitudes towards AI to my boss.
we're looking to create an AI policy, and when we were talking about this, my boss (older millennial) was genuinely shocked to hear that younger people do not (seem) to view AI positively (a la the recent commencement speakers being booed)
please rb for larger sample size!
Question 1/3
What is your age, and do you feel AI is a net positive or net negative in our lives today?
Hi OP! I have a friend who works in the heritage sector and thought you might find this useful. The place they work was having an exhibit on Experiences of a Certain Demographic Group in a Certain Period of History (vague to avoid doxxing) but instead of using human written copy from archival examples of real humans, the company they hired to build the exhibit used AI copy derived from archival examples.
What it did was make it impersonal, inaccurate, and unacademic. The voices and stories of the people weren't real so they didn't relate directly to the materials on exhibit, nor were they fictionally derived from a specifically curated amalgam and the experiences ended up a mismatch of class and racial norms for the time so a human copy editor had to fix it for a sum that far exceeded the original budget.
It cost them a lot of money but it also cost them audience attention and the "yes and" factor because stewards working the exhibit couldn't easily relate the work back to the artefacts they displayed (as the LLM had no ability to do this) and the public couldn't on their own initiative look up more about a person.
The friend in question is really pissed because the heritage sector is not all that well funded and he works for an organisation that is well known for its positive approach to rural life and natural preservation. And then the higher ups dumped more than he earns in a year into an initiative that funded environmentally disastrous data-centres, left skilled copy-writers out of a job, and alienated visitors. It was Bad.
Rules: Make a poll with seven of your all time favorite characters from seven different fandoms, and then tag seven people to do the same. See which character is everyone's favorite.
thank you so much @theoneinakrillion !
ok lemme just uh
gwen (spiritfarer)
noelle (deltarune)
barbara gordon (wayne family adventures)
ragatha (tadc)
sophie (howl's moving castle)
starfire/koriand'r (teen titans)
woo young-woo (extraordinary attorney woo)
Voting ended onMay 25
get in here @d3ad-daisyz @exray-spex @heart-and-music @xxcatlloverxx @cemetery-orbit @fl1ght0f1carus @missymagic
tags!! (zero pressure, of course): @emoemu420 @bundle-of-sticks-used-for-fire @underwaterm0lls @ryansattheross @505sunshine @frankieromustdih @m1l0-58 @makiroll16 +anyone who wants to join!! (also absolutely let me know if you don't want to be tagged in the future, definitely don't want to make anyone uncomfortable <33)
*IK IT SAYS ONE PER FANDOM BUT THIS AU IS SO MASSIVE AND ELABORATE AND AMAZING AND ITS LITERALLY GOT ITS OWN FANDOM AND I CAN'T NOT INCLUDE IT AS IT'S OWN CATAGORY
HMMMM @scammers-and-scotch @k4d3f4ngz @thatoneliquidbicricket @writingnotes520 @skylerashsworld @respectundead44 @squishythesquid592 IF Y'ALL WANT? +OPEN TO ANYONE ELSE! <3
Pick one of the characters who I love who I relate to on a spiritual level and who also happen to be canonically/headcanon/implied autistic. Every single one hm isn’t that weird
Dr. Captain Ryland Grace (Project Hail Mary)
Eva Stratt (Project Hail Mary)
Sherlock Holmes (every adaptation ever)
Luna Lovegood (Harry Potter)
Sheldon (big bag theory) (this is gonna be unpopular I can smell it)
Remus Lupin (Harry Potter)
JD (Scrubs)
Dr. Captain Ryland Grace (Live Wire version)
Voting ended onJun 6
Well almost all my moots have already done it but fuck it @vnilla-m0nst3r @vargdottern Uhm Uhm Uhm I can’t fucking remember my moots’ urls im sorry but open tags if you found thisssss
There are many different Greek gods that I think would work for Ryland Grace’s godly parent so I’m gonna rant about it. (Riordanverse au ig? But it’s only the Greek gods because I’ve only read up to trials of Apollo)
Cabin 3 - Poseidon: the god of the seas, storms, earthquakes, droughts, vegetation, and navigation. I think it’s very funny to think about a son of Poseidon writing a paper about how water isn’t required for life. But other than that, navigation. He navigates the shit out of the Hail Mary’s route. I know technically cabin 3 only has expertise in naval navigation but yk.
Cabin 4 - Demeter: the goddess of agriculture, the Earth, and the seasons. Yeah. He’s the guy who kept the Earth from a mass extinction event. Makes sense to me.
Cabin 6 - Athena: the goddess of wisdom, intelligence, civilization, mathematics, strategy, and defensive warfare. We know he’s smart so. I feel like this is a given. But also math!! Bro was doing math before he remembered his name because gravity pissed him off.
Cabin 7 - Apollo: the god of the sun, medicine, plague, music, reason, knowledge, and is known to be the protector of the young. This is my personal favorite for this au(?) Like. He keeps the sun from dimming wtf. The dude has a doctorate so that also gets the reason and knowledge part down. With the music part, his best friend literally speaks in music notes. If he was the son of Apollo, I’d bet that would mean he’d catch onto Eridian language faster and I like the idea of that. I know his petty ass would love to give Dr. Staggering Waste of Carbon a common cold. Also protector of the young!! He loves kids and comes back to the project to protect them from the apocalypse.
Cabin 10 - Aphrodite: the goddess of love, beauty, desire, war, navigation, and passion. Aro/ace children of Aphrodite are cool as fuck. Additionally, he’s a very charming guy. People like him. In a friendly way and in romantic ways. Also navigation again! This isn’t only naval navigation so it fits even better. He’s very passionate about his opinions too.
Cabin 11 - Hermes: the god of travelers, speed, cunning, wit, and alchemy. He’s been places. To other planets and solar systems. If that’s not a traveler idk what is. And. That’s it, really. He’s smart, but not really cunning. I just thought the traveler bit was cool.
Cabin 14 - Iris: the goddess of rainbows, peace, awe, happiness, and communication. Remember that scene from the movie when he’s pinned to the ground looking up at the rainbow? Yeah. That. But also, he is in awe of so many things, like how astrophage functions, Eridian biology, and life in general. I like the communication aspect as well because he was the first person to converse with intelligent alien life.
Cabin 15 - Hypnos: the god of sleep and memories. This is only on this list because I find it funny. Yk. Because he was in a coma for four years and lost his memory. (Okay it’s not that funny at all, but it’s amusing enough to me to not remove this bullet point.)
The Other Option. He’s fully mortal, but can see through the mist. I think this would lead to him trying to help any demigod kids he comes across.
concept. gracerocky soulmate au (romantic or platonic you decide) where once you're like. idk at the start of the chain of events that leads you to your soulmate you begin to have prophetic dreams about the moment you make physical contact with them for the first time.
after grace moves onto the aircraft carrier he begins to have a recurring nightmare where he is surrounded by red flashing lights, immobilised and unable to breathe, when a giant spider creature crawls out of the darkness and drags him away. and then he wakes up
You ever think about how old people have no idea what “survivor bias” is, and take full credit for being excellent out of things where they lucked out?
“Back in my day we didn’t have any of these childhood protective things, we were smart enough not to do stupid shit on our own!”
Except your little neighbour, who got the funniest idea at the age of seven, and got his skull pierced when he slipped?
“Back in my day nobody got divorced, we stuck together and fixed our problems!”
What about your cousin, who was slowly killed by her husband because she had nowhere to escape him?
“Back in my day nobody had ‘mental problems’, we didn’t whine, we just toughed it out and endured life!”
Hey remember that guy you used to work with, who seemed really friendly and normal, and then suddenly hanged himself ‘for no reason’?
“Back in my day we didn’t have any of this ‘gay’ or ‘transgender’ thing.”
You did, but your family cut all ties with her before you were born.
You kinda start seeing it in everything they think, if you start looking for it.
Jesus' early observation of, "Where are my scars? I had good carpenter's hands," and the followup about how it's okay because he has a new, fresh body really does seem to go directly against the decision to drive the whole plot right in that direction in the last 20 minutes.
I kind of rode right past that line on the initial watch because I didn't know where everything was headed, but on the rewatch it's like... yeah, he's distressed about having a fresh body, it's not the same, and the scene doesn't read as though we're meant to think it's "better." Bro (religious) is experiencing body horror.
Jesus was such a wasted opportunity. How can the literal anti-antichrist be an incidental throwaway character in the sequel to the story about the antichrist?
What a story he'd have made as the central character. The body horror, the confusion, the philosophical working through it all, raging and panicking and accepting and bargaining. Embracing his human side and being the one to make the decision for his fellow humans. The role of Wildcard, that random throw of the dice, double or nothing.
That would have been a great story. About being used as a conscious, helpless pawn in some vast unknowable game, about refusing to be helpless, helping your fellow humans. Being helped by your fellow humans, given strength and direction to stand up for yourself. Being a leader by example. Living the Beatitudes. All while a couple of incompetent little Ineffables eff it all up in the margins, working out their own problems whilst providing comic relief.
Instead we got only the sacrificial lamb. Served undercooked.
Yeah. For a story that was supposed to be about the Second Coming, Jesus doesn't actually do much of anything. I'm baffled.
What I would have liked to see is Jesus contrasted against Adam Young. I think he'd have been a more interesting character if he didn't lose his memories, and if he went down to Earth on board with the Great Plan. If he has been watching the world for the past 2000 years from Heaven, then you could absolutely start him as a character thinking-- this is how She planned it out, and there's so much misery and pain in the world, so many horrible things done in His name, wouldn't it be better to destroy all of it and start over? That's the point of the Second Coming, to judge the righteous and the wicked, and build a new kingdom of Heaven on Earth. No pain or suffering ever again.
And then you could have Adam Young come to Soho, maybe along with the rest of the Them, maybe alone. He's on a trip to London ahead of Uni, and he runs into Jesus. They start talking, and Adam can go-- no, you can't just get rid of everything and start over. It's not the same. People have to be free to choose how they want to live, even if they choose badly. I figured that out when I was 11, what are you doing? And also, hang on, didn't we just stop the world ending 7 years ago?? Didn't I tell you all to knock it off then? You all are still trying to destroy the world AGAIN just a couple years later?
Have Adam, along with the other humans Jesus meets, sway him away from the Great Plan. Have him learn the value is in humanity as they are, with all their flaws. Have Jesus and Adam both argue with God, or yell at both God and Satan. Personally I'd prefer they ditch the Book of Life plot entirely in this version, but if you have to keep Michael's whole thing and the BoL being burned, put Adam and Jesus in that position of arguing for humanity. Not the Ineffables. Let the Ineffables argue on behalf of all the other angels and demons-- that if they can become friends, and Beelzebub and Gabriel can find common ground, then ALL the angels and demons deserve a chance to be more than just enemies on opposite Sides. The humans already have free will, angels and demons don't, really. But they deserve to be able to choose, too.
I can tell which book this is from based on this excerpt, but I haven't read it
I started reading this, but didn’t finish it (or I am reading it currently
I haven’t read this book, but I like this excerpt!
I’ve read this book before, and I don’t like it
I haven’t read this book and I don’t like this excerpt
Voting ended onJun 7
Please reblog the polls, but KEEP IT SPOILER-FREE to make people read the excerpt with an open mind 💖📚 Title and author will be revealed after the poll's conclusion.
Thank you @off-the-beaten-timeline for the submission! 😄
Here we are with some of my boards for the Sofia the First: Royal Magic episode "The Green-Eyed Monster!". This was another favorite to board since I adorable close siblings bonds in media and I really loved getting to board scenes showcasing Zane and Zaria's. Loved getting draw out Zane going into protective big-brother mode. Zane jumping across the classroom tables, knocking everything over to grab his mandolin was a gag I added in, and I'm glad it made it in to the end, lol.
Patron of the arts @corvidcrafts273 - Tumblr Blog | Tumgag
