Okay fam: are we ready to talk about the Crowley-shaped elephant in the room?
Much has been said, speculated and theorized about Aziraphales motivations and motifs in the F15. What was he (really) thinking or trying to say? Why did he act the way he did? A not insignificant part of this has involved blaming him, calling him naive, cold, stupid and more. And much has been said in his defence.
But almost nobody ever seems to talk about how absolutely BONKERS it is of Crowley to choose this moment for his big love confession.
I mean, honestly: why THE FUCK would one do that? after they've been so painstakingly careful for millennia? They were just attacked by demons, then had an impromptu heavenly tribunal during which the fucking VOICE OF GOD chose to intervene. they've been threatened. they are being watched. Aziraphale returns from his little chinwag with the Metatron and is CLEARLY anxious; a fact that Crowley is supposed to pick up on (the something's wrong-voice and all that), and furthermore: the Metatron is STILL THERE. Right across the street. Watching. Listening.
i know there've been metas about poison and mind control, and maybe that's it, but idk i would've preferred a scene that makes sense for the characters and is consistent with what their state of mind should be after everything that went down in that scene.
the F15 however seems more and more like drama for drama's sake, consistency and logic be damned. abysmal writing, worse than most soap operas.
or am i missing something? if so, please please please tell me. i've been wrecking my brain and i just don't get it.
After the "season 3" of Good Omens, let's talk about season 2.
I. Shift in perspective: Moving from a human narrative to ethereal drama
Season 1, faithful to the book, was a work deeply rooted in reality. The plot advanced thanks to humans, through colorful characters and their increasingly eccentric reactions to the Apocalypse. Crowley and Aziraphale played a major role, but they acted primarily as fascinated, loving observers of the "human comedy," so to speak. Season 2 marks a complete 180-degree turn in terms of form: it narrows all its focus onto the angel and the demon. However, on substance, the message does not change immediately; it is still about showing how much the world is worth saving with its advantages and flaws.
A. The erasure and flattening of human characters
This recentering on the main duo comes at the expense of mortals. Where figures like Shadwell, Madame Tracy, Anathema, or Newt brimmed with eccentricity, making them instantly memorable, Nina and Maggie are hopelessly normal, placid, and overly realistic. Even if their characterization can be justified (Maggie as an introverted small shopkeeper, Nina as a slightly rough cafe manager processing her personal trauma through her work), they cruelly lack the poetic madness unique to the universe portrayed in the book. Lacking any eccentricity, they end up becoming simple, transparent extras around the main duo, making any attachment nearly impossible.
B. The alteration of Crowley and Aziraphale's characters and the illusion of "off-screen" evolution.
Several years have passed between the end of Season 1 and the beginning of Season 2. The characters have naturally changed, but this transformation took place entirely off-screen. Having not witnessed this journey, the viewer is thrust in front of altered protagonists without understanding how or why they arrived there. The result does not look like a natural evolution, but an arbitrary alteration where the characters become caricatures of themselves.There is a flattening of Crowley and the loss of his demonic nuance. In Season 1, Crowley was fascinating because he maintained a subtle balance between his benevolence and his true demonic malice (his tendency toward trickery, mockery, or the memorable scene where he hands out guns to humans). In Season 2, he is depicted as a character who is constantly agitated, annoyed, and aggressive on the surface, but completely incapable of the slightest act of real malice. By turning him into an irreproachable hero with a heart of gold disguised as a rebel, the series strips him of the ambiguity and depth that gave him all his charm.Conversely, Aziraphale's petty side is emphasized. In contrast, Aziraphale undergoes an inverse but equally damaging treatment. His sincere goodness and attachment to humans, which balanced his slightly selfish, hedonistic flaws in Season 1, are reduced to simple "poudre aux yeux" (smoke and mirrors). He is depicted as pettier, more naive, and more obtuse, serving mainly as a foil to highlight Crowley's alleged moral superiority.
I spoke in more detail about their distortion here: https://www.tumblr.com/belisarius456/823646449122377728/if-you-are-sensible-move-along-and-above-all-have?source=share
II. The alteration of the "ineffable husbands" relationship: From complicity to toxicity.
In Season 1, although Crowley and Aziraphale's shared scenes were proportionally fewer, every single one demonstrated their extremely solid and beautiful bond. Their exchanges, arguments, and bickering were those of an old couple who knew each other by heart. There was mutual respect, a shared love of humanity, and unwavering support against Heaven and Hell. It was refreshing, funny, and far removed from all the usual romantic tropes.Then in Season 2, while they spend a large part of the season together, their complicity collapses. The series tries to make us believe (notably through the concept of the apology dance) that they have never truly spoken in depth over their 6,000 years of existence and that their relationship rests on heavy unsaid things. Furthermore, instead of letting chemistry operate naturally as in Season 1 (where couple-like undertones came from direct banter between them), Season 2 relies on the heavy-handed device of third parties (the shopkeepers, Gabriel) constantly coming to ask if they are together, weakening the authenticity of their bond.We only understand the "romantic" link uniting them in this season through the lens of other humans like Nina and Maggieāerased characters who do nothing but orbit around them to remind us how much they look like a married couple.Take away the Job and 1941 flashbacks from Season 2 (for Edinburgh, it's different) and see for yourself how much they lack chemistry in the present. Try the experiment.
III. A suffocating aesthetic and a shift in visual tone
A. We observe a feeling of confinement in Season 2.
Unlike Season 1, which took us traveling across England and History, creating a warm, cozy feeling on a global scale, Season 2 suffers from indoor filming (heavily influenced by health constraints, which we cannot blame them for).Apart from a brief scene at St James's Park in the first episode, the entire plot stagnates in the bookshop or on Soho street. This lack of air and large open spaces generates a rather suffocating feeling of confinement.Even Aziraphale's trip to Edinburgh feels claustrophobic, lacking wide outdoor shots.Once again, remove the flashbacks and notice this feeling. Even if the best shot of the series in Job's flashback was computer-generated (I realize that), the rest traps us and breaks away from Season 1: no more outside world, no more Tadfield, no more interesting and eccentric humans.
B. Furthermore, a shift in color grading occurs.
Season 1 used a colorful, vibrant, almost absurd visual palette that perfectly matched the frantic pace of a story that never stopped.There were so many colors that you didn't know where to look. This highly distinct visual identity defined by multiple colors was intrinsic to the zany universe of Good Omens.Season 2 adopts much more muted, grainy, aestheticized, and polished visuals (notably during flashbacks shot or processed like old film).In Season 2, we find an aesthetic that is darker, flatter, and more controlledāa symbol of the unfortunate uniformity found across all streaming platform series at the moment. Although Job's flashback offers sublime visuals, this stylistic choice deprives the series of its original chaotic and spontaneous energy.
IV. The trap of the finale, the bias of the kiss, and the absurdity of Season 3.
Was the kiss ultimately just smoke and mirrors?! If Season 2 received higher ratings than the first, it is largely thanks to the last 15 minutes of episode 6. (I know I might miss out on news by saying this, but don't worry, I fell for it tooāI was actually the first one).
After years of disappointment over the lack of official same-sex couples in other cult series (Sherlock, Supernatural), the audience was more than pleasantly surprised to finally see two main protagonists of the same sex kiss. This unexpected emotional payoff completely overshadowed all the writing issues of previous episodes. Neil Gaiman used this kiss as bait to guarantee audience engagement and create a sense of urgency around the sequel.(It is an even deeper betrayal knowing that Rachel Talalay specified that no kiss was originally planned in the Season 3 script).
V. A transition toward a dead end
Trying to turn Season 2 into a "bridge" between the original novel and a dark, ultra-short (90 minutes). Season 3 centered on the drama of two ethereal beings is a narrative aberration. You don't write a 350-page book followed by two television seasons celebrating the beauty of humanity only to end up destroying that world or declaring that free will never existed. This 180-degree shift in ideology completely distorts Pratchett's work.
VI. Conclusion and personal rewriting of the canon
Season 2 can be considered a guilty pleasure (at least, that is the case for me). Taken in isolation, it remains an entertaining and endearing television series. However, it fails to be a coherent sequel to Season 1 and the novel.The ideal chronology to preserve the work (in my eyes):
- Keep Season 1 as the only true canonical story.
-Extract the flashbacks from Season 2 (particularly Job's) and insert them in the middle of episode 3 of Season 1 to form a grand 90-minute historical episode.
-Keep only the scene from the rest of Season 2 where Gabriel and Beelzebub declare their love for each other, inserting it right before the Ritz scene. This makes all Season 2 characters canon without altering the message or the end of the series.
Separated this way, Season 2 no longer needs to be watched after Season 1.
āWow, isnāt the Power of Fanfiction beautiful? The characters might be heartbroken and miserable and Doomed By the Narrative, but Fanfiction offers us this multiverse of endless possibilities and variations where you can imagine they lived Happily Ever After!ā I mean, the thing is that I do generally agree with this statement, but when in order to make this point, you take characters who accumulated such a fervent fandom and fanfiction community because their story had a Happy Ending for over 30 years and then add in unnecessarily drama and misery and you smash the storyās narrative and themes and tonal consistency to pieces just to force these characters to die tragically and destroy the entire original universe while you're at it, suddenly this whole āButā¦ Now everyone can imagine all of these stories where they are happy!!ā thing feels pretty sour to me.
Yeah I was looking forward to going back to reading fanfiction that started from the happy ending, rather than fix its for the f15. But now the canon compliant options are fix its for s3, or Asa/Anthony stories.
I liked it when canon compliant stories had angels & demons in them, I don't watch/ read much fiction that doesn't have either a fantasy/supernatural or sci fi component. Good Omens ends in the real world with a standard romance. And lots of people like that genre, but ... it's not why I was watching the show.
Fanfic writers wanting to be (show)canon compliant now have to start from the 'real world' ending. If they want to write a plot in the old GO universe they have to resolve how that exists again before they can get to the story they want to tell.
There are loads of s2 fix its I love, and s3 fix its too, but I like post s1/book fics the best because writers could go off in any direction.
And of course, none of that should inform how a show ends - but I do find it frustrating to see people claim this ending is better somehow for fanfic because its 'all canon'.
looking back to the day of the finale release, itās absolutely insane how excited i was. Like I was fully thinking ātomorrow Iāll get to see aziraphale and Crowley kiss and make up!ā in the days before and feeling so warm and happy about it and i wasnāt able to watch it immediately but I fucking RUSHED home to download the file and when it took practically YEARS I was in absolute agony and then it finally started and just went downhill SO fast. Like I was clinging to my hopes for a good ending like a swimming ring. Didnāt give a fuck about the bad characterization, the randomly killed of side characters, the plotholes, I didnāt care I just wanted them to hug and kiss. And i was so absolutely certain that they would and then they fucking died.
i dunno itās just crazy to me to remember a time when that finale wasnāt the worst thing in this fandom after Neil Gaiman himself.
I genuinely do not like the They Find Each Other In Every Life/Universe trope in any context.
Maybe it's the nonamorous aroace in me, who is intensely opposed to the amatonormativity in it (yes, yes, you definitely can make it platonic, but... let's be honest here. No one ever makes anything platonic), and doesn't quite get why people pair up like that in general.
Maybe it's the rational part of me, that hates the concept of Fate or Destiny, the thought that people's choices don't matter, that Free Will doesnāt exist, that no matter what you do, this thing will always happen to you, that even love is inevitable and forced upon you.
Maybe it's the irrational part of me, the one with mild PDA, that just doesn't like being told what to do or who to love, that hates not having a choice.
Maybe it's the memory of that learning psychology lecture, where I was taught that personality is 50% nature (genetics) and 50% nurture (upbringing, lived experiences, trauma, culture, etc), and knows that, if the circumstances of your life are different, then so are you, and there's no guarantee you'll still even get along in another life (I know, I know. Suspend your disbelief. But it bothers me).
It's definitely the same part of me that hates the soulmates trope.
It's just the romantisation of supernatural oppression, and I donāt like it.
as someone who leans heavily on the aro spectrum, predestined love isn't "romantic" to me (but uhhh fair I might miss the point of romance FINE). What is "romantic" to me is working through an imperfect relationship with your imperfect partner and building a life together.
To make this about Good Omens, that's what I loved about Aziracrow. They were so messy and imperfect and had such a long way to go, but they chose each other time and again. The idea of them being fated to be together is hollow by comparison.
Exactly. Every time Aziraphale and Crowley met and had a friendly conversation, it was treason. And yet they kept doing it anyway. Because they found common ground and wanted to spend time together. That is what made their relationship so interesting to me.
I've talked about the soulmate trope with a friend of mine, who has much more experience with relationships than my aroace self. Her perspective was-- being soulmates is a fantasy. Because actual relationships are hard work, something you have to choose and work on, over and over. But being soulmates makes everything easy. You understand the other person perfectly with no work and no misunderstandings. You don't have to worry that you want different things in life which may be incompatible. The relationship just works and they're both in love and everything is just perfect.
From that angle, I can understand the appeal of the fantasy, but I don't want to read it. The fantasy is hollow to me-- all fluff, no substance.
The one most obvious difference when you compare GO3's Decision with the Ineffable Almost Heroic Sacrifice in the original book (which is something I have done in various formations many times. It's basically the one moment in previous GO Canon that even remotely resembles the direction GO3 decided to go in...) is, well, in the Book, Aziraphale is the one who suggests they stay and risk their lives for the Humans (in a moment that was essentially deleted entirely from the GO1 version of that scene) , while in GO3 they have basically 'swapped roles', with Crowley being the one who comes up with the idea of sacrificing themselves for the sake of a 'Godless Universe'.
But it's more then thatā¦ in Book Omens, Aziraphale is the one who first decides to try to sacrifice himself by fighting Literal Satan and talks Crowley into helping him, yeah, but it is an incredibly important moment for Crowley as well. It's a culmination for both of their individual arcs about their relationship with Humanity and their jobs. It's just a beautiful moment of resolve from Aziraphale, showing that despite his hedonism and selfishness and hypocrisy, he does have a moral code that's flat-out better than what we see come from Heaven, especially now that he's become disillusioned with his higher-ups and doesn't even try to put himself on a Moral High-Ground compared to Crowley.
And it's also such a great moment for Crowley's character, after a whole arc of being forced to confront all of his fears about Hell, to realize that as self-serving as he is, when he's got nothing more to lose, he wants to do this brave and selfless thing. As a huge Book Crowley fan this line of internal monologue always makes me feral. He's been trapped by his fears of 'getting in troubles' with Hell for 6000 years, and now he's finally free and he knows that what he wants to do is beat his shitty boss in the face with a tire iron and save the Humans!!
And it's, y'know, kinda important that if you have one character talk their friend/partner into doing a Heroic Sacrifice with them, to see that the friend comes to actually understand why they should risk their life like that, that it means something to them as just an individual person.
Because the problem with the GO3 'Sacrifice' isn't really that it 'gives' Crowley a moment that Aziraphale 'lost'. It's the way that it goes out of it's way to make this moment all about Crowley to such an absolute degree. It's the culmination of his relationship with Humanity and his arc about being free from Heaven and Hell and his arc about challenging God, and the narrative seems to go out of its way to emphasize that Aziraphale only goes along with it as a demonstration of his love and trust of Crowley, his relationship arc with Crowley, how he's trying to make up for not listening to Crowley and being a ""Taker"".
They swapped out a moment of (Almost) Heroic Sacrifice that was led by Aziraphale, but was extremely powerful for both of these characters, to a moment that centers Crowley first and foremost and makes Aziraphale's role to just be The Boyfriend. And I think this is such an astronomical-scale downgrade for the note their story ends on.
New Commission for @maidenimageās fabulous fic Foolish Behaviour (Seems Right)
She asked me to capture this lovely moment in Chapter 8 and it gave me a great chance to play with light and colour. This was a genuine delight to be able to make.
Do give the fic a read! E rated, slow burn, human AU.
THIS ART IS SO INCREDIBLE I COULD HONESTLY DIE I HAVE BEEN STARING AT IT FOR HOURS AND I JUST ššššš
Seriously thank you so much @alwaystuesday you absolutely KILLED this. You captured all of the magic that I hope I conveyed in the scene, and I couldn't have asked for a more perfect illustration. š
"Many people, meeting Aziraphale for the first time, formed three impressions: that he was English, that he was intelligent, and that he was gayer than a tree full of monkeys on nitrous oxide."
An Archive of Our Own, a project of the Organization for Transformative Works
Care for a bit of Sandalphon-directed schadenfreude? Follow the archangel through Heaven's bureaucracy as he repeatedly gets the short end of the stick over the course of a terrible, horrible, no good, very bad assignment.
Rated G, pre-season 2, light and humorous, about 800 words, based on a children's book, written for an event with the prompt: an unpopular character as protagonist.
romaincrisis
turnnoffyourmind
yousharknotpass
blakekathryn
gummygunk
jimmyeatworldofficial
