Like, the thing is, the Third-Act Break Up isnât part of the Romantic Comedy Formula just Because. It became a Genre Conversation for a reason. Third-Act Break Ups donât just up the emotional stakes, they also help felicitate the coupleâs individual character arcs - the breakup happened because something about the characters wasnât fully compatible yet, and then it forces both of them to address and confront that something. And it also acts as a somewhat oversimplified dramatized way to âproveâ this relationship is strong enough to survive hardships.
I mean, obviously in Real Life, a relationship going through some of the melodramatic Third-Act Breakup bullshit that happens in certain Romantic Comedies would be seen as more of a red flag than anything. Iâm hardly going to pretend that there arenât badly-written Third Act Break Ups with bad resolutions that do not actually meaningfully address the underlying issues that led to the Break Up and/or are just too Extreme considering the circumstances, which therefore make the coupleâs supposed âHappy Endingâ seems like a lowkey toxic relationship at 'best', a high-key toxic relationship just ready to explode again at worst.
But also, in Real Life, no relationship is truly without friction or problems or conflicts or bad days ever. Obviously there is a line beyond which the relationship is just Toxic and it's better to just Get the Hell Out of There. But still, being able to work through, and making sure your Love triumphs over misunderstandings and personality differences and differences of opinions and frustrations and things said in moments of high emotion is part of having a long-term Relationship.
The Third Act Break Up is just the Dramatized High-Tension version of what happens when the Honeymoon Phase (the Second Act) is over, and the friction in the relationship comes to the surface. For the sake of the narrative, an Extremely Exaggerated Example of Friction that we can feel that if their Love triumphed over that, we can safely assume it could triumph over any other more Normal problem in the relationship in a more Normal way.
And when Good Omens Season One pulled on this Trope for Crowley and Aziraphaleâs new relationship arc, it worked perfectly. Their âBreak-Upâ was bringing to the surface a lot of the underlying tensions that have been kinda always present in their dynamic, just in the most Extreme way due to the pressures of the upcoming Armageddon. But they pulled through, their Love pulled through. It showed us that no matter what, Crowley will never truly abandon Aziraphale. No matter how much heâll insist that heâs totally leaving THIS time, heâll come running as soon as it even seems like he's needed, and he's never going to abandon Aziraphale to the horrors of Armageddon.
And as soon as Aziraphale realizes his faith in Heaven was misplaced, he immediately goes to Crowley, immediately knows where his loyalty truly lies.
He defies Heaven publicly and proudly, so he could find Crowley again (which also acts as the âThird Act Break Up as a way to facilitate necessary character growthâ aspect).
And knowing Aziraphale is alive is what gives Crowley the necessary drive and optimism to perform some truly amazing feats to get himself back with Aziraphale and save the world (or, yâknow, provide moral support and comic-relief while the actual protagonist saves the world, but thatâs neither here nor there).
And with how in-sync they are through most of this ending and then the absolute beauty that is the Body Swap, all of this creates the sense that their relationship has come back from both interpersonal crisis and Armageddon stronger than ever. That if they went through all of this and still chose each other, they can get through anything and they will always choose each other.
âŚWhen GO2 decided to essentially walk back this very satisfying conclusion to do what seems like a second, bigger, badder this-time-for-all-the-marbles Third Act Break Up⌠and I will argue and emphasize that the way GO2 in general and the Final Fifteen in specific is structured and framed is absolutely meant to invoke the structure and convention of Romantic Comedies and the Third Act Break Up... At the time, I was intrigued and optimistic of where this through-line was going.
Like, the idea that GO1 didnât actually fully resolve Crowley and Aziraphaleâs personal and interpersonal issues because progress isnât linear, especially when it comes to healing from trauma and unlearning indoctrination, especially when it comes to two beings as old and set in their ways as Crowley and Aziraphale, felt intriguingly realistic. And then making the conflict not Aziraphale choosing Heaven over Crowley, but thinking he could have both Crowley and Heaven felt like a good way to raise the stakes. As well as the other little problems in the relationship highlighted and showcased throughout S2, all made me feel emotionally invested.
It felt like this new Third-Act Break Up is going to set up, much like the first one, much like the Trope Convention it is clearly invoking, something triumphant and heartwarming. Something that will showcase to us how these two can work through the problems in their relationship, and even if they can't address every single little flaw, it will be something that will make the audience feel like whatever problems remain or will appear afterwards, they could now actually handle them like Grown Up Celestial/Occult Beings.
The Cliffhanger was very much "oh no! How could Crowley and Aziraphale's relationship get salvaged after all of this!" with an insinuation that once we tune in to the next episode, we'll find out!
But what we actually got was... This Break Up did not facilitate Crowley and Aziraphale's character growth into people who could have a better relationship, during the Time Skip, they basically regressed into having the most extreme and most unhealthy versions of all of the character flaws that led us to the Final Fifteen in the first place.
And then they died, with so few of their relationship problems getting a meaningful culmination or resolution this time. "Aziraphale takes Crowley for granted and doesn't sacrifice enough in the relationship" is basically the only problem that really got enough narrative attention to say that it was 'resolved', and the resolution was Aziraphale agreeing to the Singular Grand Gesture of going along with Crowley's sacrifice out of love. When GO2 was all about how the grand gestures of GO1 weren't enough to solve their relationship problems in the long term so who knows if this development would've stuck if it didn't matter because they Literally Died Moments Afterwards. With so much time spent bickering at talking at each other, it's hard to get a sense that their love could survive the Final Fifteen the way it triumphed over Armageddon.
And then Asa and Anthony, if they really are Aziraphale and Crowley reborn and given their 'Happy Ending' as Humans, only reinforce this idea. If the only way they could have their Happily Ever After is not by triumphing over the external and internal struggles, not by proving their love is stronger than their anger or frustration or doubts , not by being able to heal and move past what happened in the Final Fifteen. Their Happily Ever After only comes by putting them into a world where these problems just never existed and starting over fresh without all the "baggage" from before.
And, I mean, I went over many times before how the limited runtime Asa and Anthony inevitably have in this story means them and their relationship just doesn't have time to establish all the beautiful human messiness that Aziraphale and Crowley have, so they come off as kinda Inhumanly Perfect (âŚin this ending supposedly about the beauty in imperfect human lifeâŚ). But it's also notable just how much of the limited screentime we have with them is seemingly dedicated to establishing that the internal and external friction that Aziraphale and Crowley's relationship struggled with just does not exist for them. Not that they're doing a better job of handling it, that it just doesn't exist.
Logically, we might know that relationships with literally no problems or disagreements just don't exist, but.. I mean, with the information the show has given us, it won't be out of the question to assume Asa and Anthony only stayed content and happy together because by some quirk of the universe they literally faced no problem or difficulty as a couple ever.
There's nothing inherently wrong, storytelling-wise, with invoking Tropes such as the Third-Act Break Up in order to subvert or change them, but these kind of subversions and changes have to be done with intent and skill. You have to know what sort of story you're telling through this subversion, and I don't think this was the story that was intended at all. For this story to work, we are supposed to see Aziraphale and Crowley's love as Powerfully Beautiful, at least so it would be oh-so-tragic that it must be sacrificed for the Greater Good, and Asa and Anthony's love as, at the very least, some sort of reflection of this powerful beauty. But the set up and failure to deliver on the concept of the Third Act Break Up just makes both of those relationships feel much weaker than they should be. Much weaker than Aziraphale and Crowley used to be.
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