the cloud I'm in is playing different tunes

Will I see you on the dark side of the moon? Talk to me about Star Trek TOS, Star Wars (esp the OT), Good Omens, The Sopranos, Pink Floyd, or politics! Main OTPs: Han/Leia, Kirk/Spock, Aziraphale/Crowley discorporating on Ao3

[discoonthegrass]

TOS Ships - Final Bracket and Stats

After the success of my TOS episode bracket (where Amok Time won, because of course it did), I launched a TOS ship bracket! Now, nearly 2 months after I first came up with the idea, here’s the final bracket!

Some ships won in an (expected) landslide victory — looking at you Spones vs Kuhura — but others were much closer. As most of us probably expected, McSpirk took the crown from top-seeded Spones. Its victory, however, would soon be challenged by the ultimate ship… Spirk.

Despite a fierce fight by the McSpirkers (that made my poll get over 2000 votes!), the Spirk shippers came out on top. I do need to give a shout-out to the McSpirkers though, since they came back from a 74/26 trail to briefly lead the poll before concluding at a respectable 47%. Solid work guys!

Now, with both brackets concluded, what sort of bracket should I do next? A favorite character bracket (even though we already know Spock is gonna win)? A Kirk-love-interest bracket? Or shall I give up on the bracket idea altogether and simply post polls according to whatever I or my friends come up with? Let me know in the tags!

Until then, I’ll be posting random polls as usual...

[discoonthegrass]

I miss this era soooo much, 2019 just squeeing in giddy delight to know that the actors felt the way we did, that it didn't have to be explicitly laid out for it to be a love story, looking at all the crumbs of romance and turning that into a full cake (okay I lost the metaphor there). But it was so great -- we thought the show was done but our creativity couldn't have been bigger. 20k fics in one year; that was the record, you know, til THIS YEAR with Heated Rivalry.

S1-era Good Omens was simply perfect, and I hope we can go back to that positivity and creativity.

[fellshish]

s1 era good omens fics with like 10k kudos fill me with an impossible nostalgia for what must have been an amazing, busy, positive, thriving time in fandom but alas i arrived post-kiss

[discoonthegrass]

Oh it was such a great time! I remember watching in EARLY June 2019 and immediately going onto Ao3 where most of the fics were Book!Omens and there were less than 2000 fics. Then I watched the fandom grow and grow, all these post-canon happy endings, these human AUs -- playing with the bodyswap scene was a fun one. No one ever expected there would be a S2, and we didn't need one! We didn't WANT one, really. S1 was so impossibly perfect that there was no need for more.

I remember latching onto the snippets of interviews where Michael confirmed he played Aziraphale as in love with Crowley, or when David said (in Crowley's voice) that he couldn't possibly comment on loving Aziraphale, because that was far too demonstrative. I remember the lockdown video we got of them that launched a whole new genre of fics. Ah, those were really the days. The community was on fire. We beat the record for most fics of one pairing in a single year, and we kept it all the way til Heated Rivalry this year! That's gotta count for something, I'm sure :)

Honestly lately I've just been reading (and rereading, because I've read quite a lot) the fics posted from 2019-early 2023, and it's been a delight. All the post-S1 loveliness where the angstiest thing is the bandstand breakup. Little did we know...

[discoonthegrass]

Hot take in some parts of the GO fandom (pls don't crucify me lmao) but... I really don't like nor understand the "Crowley loves Warlock/was deeply saddened when they were separated/still is in contact with Warlock" trope.

Like. Did you read the book? Did you watch the show? Warlock was a genuine menace and Crowley was all too happy to suggest Aziraphale kill him lmao. And he wasn't just saying that to hide his big mushy feelings about the subject. He genuinely could not gaf about Warlock.

Crowley likes kids, in a distant "oh, this one's cute" sort of way. Yk, the same way that the average person might look at a baby exotic animal and swoon over it. Doesn't mean we desperately want said baby exotic animal in our house or have an uncanny knack for raising it (well. some of us do I'm sure. but I'm talking averages here. Most ppl would have no idea what to do with a strange baby creature that's a different species than them other than to coo at it when it's acting cute.)

The point is dolphins Crowley is not out here like Jo Frost being Supernanny to all the kids in the world lol. He's marginally more fond of kids than he is adults, but we're still the weird creatures he doesn't quite understand.

(Not to yuck anyone's yum tho. If you enjoy it, then happy for you! My only issue is when people treat their headcanon/fanon interpretation of Crowley & Warlock/children in general, as canon)

[randompolltournaments]

I Wish They Stayed Platonic Tournament - Round 2 - Poll 17

Who would you like to have stayed platonic?

Jo and Link (Grey’s Anatomy)

Gabriel and Beelzebub (Good Omens)

Voting ended onJun 2

This tournament is not meant to cause any shipwars or spread hate. Please stay kind when sharing your opinions on the submitted ships.

Vote in the other polls here

Why people wished they stayed platonic:

Jo and Link

They’d been introduced as platonic best friends and it was so nice to especially in a romance-focused show have a man and woman with compatible orientations being purely platonic besties. And then they had to go and have a love confession and make it weird and annoying.

Link was introduced as Jo's completely platonic bestie from back when she was an undergrad. And their dynamic was built around the fact they were strictly platonic, and neither of them had feelings for the other at all. They were friends. Then the actor playing Jo's then-husband quit suddenly so his character was written out of the show (in a really shitty, out of character way, but that's a separate issue) and Jo was single. So the second Link was also single they suddenly entered a friends with benefits situation, and always had feelings for eachother and actually nothing here was platonic woopsies. And now they're married with kids. Like, can't a man and a woman just be FRIENDS???

The whole best friends to lovers storyline felt so forced and out of nowhere. I don't even like calling it a storyline tbh because there was no buildup. They were just forced together as a couple because the writers didn't know what to do with either of their characters. Sometimes men and women can just be friends!!!!

Gabriel and Beelzebub

I just find it so difficult to believe that the two BOSSES of Heaven and Hell who for millennia have been genuinely trying to kill each other would, within the span of a mere 3 years (during which they only interacted like 3 or 4 times total), decide to give up on not just their disgust of each other but also their roles which they were shown to greatly enjoy, their very status as a supreme archangel or a lord of hell respectively, and their ethereal/infernal power. And the only reason they did this was to run off with each other. It felt straight out of a fanfiction and not based on the actual content of the show. Moreover, these two are the entire reason that Aziraphale and Crowley have been so repressed and traumatized. For SIX. THOUSAND. YEARS. Only for them to just easily figure out their own shit and run off together like nothing is wrong. It really pissed me off because a huge part of the appeal of Aziraphale and Crowley being in love was that they were different than all the other angels and demons - they were on their OWN side and could look past the skin deep. But apparently everyone else can do that too, including the #1 perpetrators of this "we need to defeat the other side" propaganda. Makes no sense.

[discoonthegrass]

Honestly I never really liked the idea of Aziraphale and Crowley's first meeting being before the beginning when it was introduced in S2, and the scene in S3 just cemented it.

Like yeah. It's cute. "Look at you, you're gorgeous" is funny. Angel!Crowley being a silly cutie compared to Aziraphale's innocent sweetness is very nice.

But at the same time, I think it's so much more poignant that Aziraphale shielded a complete stranger on the Wall of Eden. He didn't do it because he knew who the angel Crowley was, but because... Aziraphale is fundamentally a good, trusting person. He didn't smite Crowley since he doesn't *want* to smite anyone -- he doesn't actually hate demons even though he should. And Crowley, simultaneously, reassured Aziraphale not because he was remembering the sweet worrier of an angel he met before the Beginning, but because *Crowley* is also a good person.

I like the idea that these two strangers who have no reason to trust each other, who have nothing in common on the face of it, just decide to trust each other anyway, because they can, because they see a kindred goodness and love for humanity in each other right from the start. And I somehow feel like this notion that Aziraphale loved Crowley before he was a demon, or that Crowley knew how notorious Aziraphale was as a hunter during the war, really cheapens that.

[discoonthegrass]

I could not BELIEVE that Crowley single handedly decided to do even worse than what they had stopped Adam from doing…. Adam agreed not to destroy the Earth and to let humans suffer, endure, and be woefully human! It was okay to be imperfect!

And now the solution is actually to wipe everything out (not just Earth but the Entire. Universe.) then apologize with a "better" universe later? Sounds familiar (Noah's Ark, Job)

[discoonthegrass]

After 6000 years of Crowley giving into Aziraphale, going at Aziraphale's pace, now Aziraphale did the ultimate sacrifice of giving up forever for Crowley.

Because he didn't want to. You can't tell me he wasn't absolutely devastated. But he did it, not even because it was the right thing to do, but because he wanted Crowley to be happy. Even at the end, even for a brief moment. He wanted Crowley to finally get what he's always wanted...

[discoonthegrass]

CMV: Once God comes it just becomes so OOC.

First, Crowley’s burning question being about humanity and their free will when he didn’t fall because of that, he fell because of not understanding why things are created just to end.

Second God just insulting Az for no reason, calling him lazy, gluttonous, and prideful, with Crowley giving 0 reaction or a single word of defense?!

Or, When Az confesses that Crowley completes him, all Crowley has to say is “you won’t get an answer”?? When God says Aziraphale’s love is the silliest most predictable thing in the universe, Crowley has nothing to say?? No reaction to the explicit confirmation that the being he loves more than the world loves him back, after all this time?

Not my Crowley, not my Aziraphale, I swear.

[discoonthegrass]

For those who were ambivalent-to-disliked the GO3 ending, would you have rather:

Which possibility for GO3?

GO3 not made at all, ends with GO2

GO3 AND GO2 not made since they directly lead into each other, ends w GO1

Keep it

Voting ended onMay 20

Sorry, not giving an option for "different GO3" ending. That's too easy of a copout.

[discoonthegrass]

I think what gets me the most is how much the ending goes against the central message of the book (and Season 1, at least). Like the point of S1 was that you could choose your destiny regardless of what Heaven, Hell, or God had planned for you. Adam had his whole life planned out for him, his whole purpose, and he said no. He chose free will. He chose humanity.

So, what, now that choice actually meant nothing? Now he didn't have free will after all, simply because Heaven/Hell/God exists? The only way to have "free will" is if you wipe away the entire universe Noah's Ark style and start anew?

Look, I don't think the ending was necessarily bad. It was real, poignant, tragic, and philosophical. But that's not what Good Omens is. Good Omens is a silly comedy where angels dance the gavotte and demons fly through the phone line and humans bungle the way to saving the world - and yeah, sure, it's sometimes serious! But it's certainly not mostly serious, mostly tragic, with only mild amounts of comedy that fall flat because of how overwhelming this ending was. I am happy for those that appreciate the "realistic" human ending, but that's not what I expected when I watched the fantasy comedy Good Omens.

[discoonthegrass]

You can tell how horribly rushed this movie was, with Jesus being completely plot irrelevant, Michael’s evil turn coming from nowhere, the Metatron literally being a nothingburger after being hinted as the main villain all season, random Satan appearing for who knows what reason (or, no, apparently for a “poetic ending”), Az and Crow knowing things they randomly shouldn’t, Crow deciding casually to go up to Heaven for no apparent reason after resisting it for yearsss, the stupid mob boss daughter coming back to bully Az and Crow only to be completely irrelevant??? And wdym Metatron used to somewhat modify the book of life?????

But then – the potential for angst. My goodness, when it was good, it was REALLY good. I loved seeing Crowley so hurt, so open about how heartbroken he was. I loved seeing Aziraphale trying to go back to their old selves with his jokes about music, and the Queen songs in the Bentley! I loved the my car/our car thing again, or how Aziraphale got to rescue Crowley for a change. Crowley instantly telling the mob boss he’d give up the Bentley if it meant the bookshop wouldn’t burn down. Aziraphale calling Crowley the best angel of them all, Aziraphale admitting Crowley completes him (I wish we got to see more of a reaction to that on Crowley's end). That was so angsty and horrible and tragic but also poignant. I just wish they didn’t die. And maybe later I’ll be able to accept this ending. But not for now. For now I’m just grieving what could have been.

[discoonthegrass]

I am so, so sad that all the little sweet moments in the 90 min are overshadowed by that heartbreaking ending:

Crowley instantly being willing to give away his Bentley to save Aziraphale's bookshop

Aziraphale giving fallen!Crowley a bandage during the great war

"How fast did you say this goes" after "you go too fast for me" in S1

"I already have everything I want" and "The best is Crowley"

Crowley just being so impressed by Aziraphale solving the crossword

Aziraphale trying to amuse Crowley by not knowing "bebop"

Crowley ordering good food and wine for Aziraphale

And now look, all of that is GONE, GONE, GONE, erased like the entire rest of the show.

[discoonthegrass]

I'm just sobbing I'm so heartbroken I can't believe they did this I just I don't even know what to say I

[discoonthegrass]

Throwback to the time I was in Turkey and saw this "English study" where all the example words are perfectly normal (apple, orange, zebra) except then I'm flashbanged by NIGHTINGALE and all I can think of is

[randompolltournaments]

I Wish They Stayed Platonic Tournament - Round 1 - Poll 34

Who would you like to have stayed platonic?

Gabriel and Beelzebub (Good Omens)

Octavia Blake & Levitt (The 100)

Voting ended onMay 15

This tournament is not meant to cause any shipwars or spread hate. Please stay kind when sharing your opinions on the submitted ships.

Vote in the other polls here

Why people wished they stayed platonic:

Gabriel and Beelzebub

I just find it so difficult to believe that the two BOSSES of Heaven and Hell who for millennia have been genuinely trying to kill each other would, within the span of a mere 3 years (during which they only interacted like 3 or 4 times total), decide to give up on not just their disgust of each other but also their roles which they were shown to greatly enjoy, their very status as a supreme archangel or a lord of hell respectively, and their ethereal/infernal power. And the only reason they did this was to run off with each other. It felt straight out of a fanfiction and not based on the actual content of the show. Moreover, these two are the entire reason that Aziraphale and Crowley have been so repressed and traumatized. For SIX. THOUSAND. YEARS. Only for them to just easily figure out their own shit and run off together like nothing is wrong. It really pissed me off because a huge part of the appeal of Aziraphale and Crowley being in love was that they were different than all the other angels and demons - they were on their OWN side and could look past the skin deep. But apparently everyone else can do that too, including the #1 perpetrators of this "we need to defeat the other side" propaganda. Makes no sense.

Octavia Blake & Levitt

These two met because Levitt's people kidnapped Octavia (and her friend) and then he specifically was chosen to enter her mind against her will and look through her entire life. What a gross foundation for a romantic relationship. It's worse than dating your therapist.

[discoonthegrass]

I fear I am an Ineffable Bureaucracy...well, not hater per se, but certainly not an enjoyer. Would've def preferred them platonic!

[discoonthegrass]

Good Omens Theory and Critical Analysis Masterlist

I am... a LOT more than merely "obsessed" with Good Omens. I've thought about it on and off for 7 years, with the months before and after a new season drops being Peak Obsession TimeTM.

Sooo, with Season 3 coming out, I wanted to gather my favorite theories, analyses, and general discussions from 2023 here on Tumblr into one loooooong post, mainly so that I don't have to scroll through pages of likes just to get to it.

Feel free to check out one or all of these amazing critical analyses. I have sorted them into:

Why Did Aziraphale pick Heaven?

They can't maintain the status quo - it's already not working

Aziraphale needs to protect Crowley

Crowley is clearly unhappy right now

Aziraphale wants to make Heaven good enough for Crowley

Aziraphale's idealism + he needs/wants to be with Crowley

The devastation of being "on our own side" for Az (via Job ep)

Making Crowley an angel would rectify Heaven's greatest wrong

Aziraphale thinks Gabriel was cast out for loving Beelzebub

Aziraphale wants to see Crowley happy again

Metatron's master manipulation, validating Aziraphale's humanity

Aziraphale is a liar, and will always protect Crowley

Az believes angels can change bc of Gabriel, terrified of what happened

Aziraphale feeling guilty over Crowley's fall

Az doesn't want Cr to be an angel, and didn't mean they won't last

Az deeply insecure and made to feel stupid constantly

Az terrified of Gabriel yet willing to protect him with his life

Az believes God is fundamentally good

Az didn't realize it was a love confession til nightingales

Az planned the ball for him and C, not Maggie and Nina

What's Crowley's role in all of this?

He hid a lot from Aziraphale

One fabulous kiss?

Crowley is so protective over Az that he's stifling

Crowley rightfully hates Gabriel yet helped Az anyway bc love

Crowley's kiss was a "goodbye" act of desperation

C already asked to live with Az during lockdown and was shot down

C mentioning nightingales was kicking salt in the wound

C didn't consciously decide to kiss Az, he snapped after heartbreak

A/C Together

Nina and Maggie represent well-adjusted S3 Aziraphale and Crowley

"The dark night of the soul" and the kiss had to happen

Their loveliest traits have become their most toxic (over-protection)

Crowley knows so much about Aziraphale

Both correct - Heaven needs fixing & they need to define relationship

They both love each other and want to spend eternity, in diff ways

Extreme miscommunication represented by Gabriel argument

Crowley doesn't back down from his feelings yet was the one to let go

Az really wanted to dance with Crowley

A/C would incorporate physicality into their romance

What might happen if they did incorporate it (joke)

Az asking C for things is an excuse for C to be nice

Az loves Crowley's yellow eyes

Crowley's Angel Self

He doesn't remember

Baraqiel

Crowley was an Archangel but doesn't seem to remember fully

Non-Final 15 Era

C wearing his 1941 hat in a church is such a demon thing to do

They danced to Nightingale song in 1941

Their domesticity in between S1-2

Crowley is utterly delighted by Az in 1601

Crowley protected Az's books over himself in 1941