Good Morning everyone, today "on va marcher sur des œufs" as the saying goes, because I want to talk about the people who actually liked the ending of Good Omens.
At first, I strictly forbade myself from doing this because the fandom is completely shattered, and everyone is insulting everyone else without shame. It is mind-blowing; even I, who see very little of it since this is the only social media platform I use, am deeply shocked.
Having appreciated the ending myself for a certain period of time before looking into what the anti-GO3 crowd had to say and ultimately siding with them, I feel it is my duty to talk about it.So, if you liked the ending of Season 3, you are obviously welcome to read this post and perhaps agree on certain points, or you can choose to remain thin-skinned and go your way. In that case, have a good day.
Right then, let’s be perfectly clear: I find it insufferable when people who liked the ending look down on us. I have never seen anything like it.I will not break down their arguments in favor of GO3 here, because that would mean listing every single writing flaw of the finale, which I and hundreds of others have already done... (You truly have to be in denial to think this finale is perfectly written.)
I am using this image to illustrate my point; the person has since deleted it, so please do not harass them.
I The Arguments
First of all, the kiss. I have seen people claim time and time again that those who are anti-GO3 are just disgruntled because there was no kiss, and that this is the sole reason they disliked the ending. To this, we can reply that while it is by no means the primary reason the majority hated the finale, the absence of a kiss is indeed on the list of things missing for our taste. Because, you see, we have every right to criticize the fact that there was no kiss. For instance, we can emphasize that the only kiss they ever shared was a desperate one that could have been corrected.
Furthermore, just because you think they are asexual does not make it a fact. It remains a headcanon, in the exact same way as people thinking they could sleep together is one. In other words, it is not canon in the series; everyone has the right to think what they want because it was never addressed: not by the actors, nor by the previous seasons, the finale, or even the book (the quote "angels are sexless unless they really want to make an effort" does not refer to sleeping with others, but to the sex they chose or not to present). We are therefore completely justified in criticizing the absence of a kiss, just as you are free to view the lack of kisses as a positive point. This is a subjective criterion, so no one should attack anyone over it. No one should try to force their own headcanon onto the entire fandom. (I should note that I will not comment here on how personnal it is to associate kissing with sex for asexual people, I assume there are different spectrums of asexuality, and not being part of that community myself, I do not wish to speak for them).
Their main argument, the centerpiece of their disdain, if I may say so is the famous: "If you didn't like the ending, it's because you didn't understand Crowley and Aziraphale's characters at all"(insert someone laughing with disdain).
Well, actually, yes we did. Through numerous quotes from the book and previous seasons, we can state that the final decision has nothing to do with who Crowley and Aziraphale truly are.Examples are plenty, such as the fact that Crowley openly says free will already exists in the world since he was beaten to the punch for the Spanish Inquisition and World War II. Or the fact that Aziraphale doesn't want to kill anyone, and Crowley’s selfishness throughout, wanting to flee to Alpha Centauri (this is a non-exhaustive list, of course; there are dozens and dozens of examples like these, so feel free to add more in the comments).Moreover, the fact that Crowley never wants to be reduced to an angel, yet is effectively reduced to one in the finale, completely strips away his character development as well as Aziraphale's. When Aziraphale tells him he was the best of angels, it implies that the first and last vision he will ever have of Crowley is that of an angel. This vision already includes the fact that he hasn't evolved, still considering that angels are the good side and demons are the bad side. Even worse, the implication that he never loved Crowley as a demon but only by remembering what he used to be never accepting that he changed is tragic.
To this, people who liked the finale might reply: "Well, just like the kiss, we can interpret it however we want, right?"
Well, in this case, no. Unlike the kiss, which was a headcanon meaning we could form a personal opinion, this is written into the series. Crowley and Aziraphale's characters can be roughly summarized in the book and seasons 1 and 2 as follows:
- They do not want the world to end.
-They want everyone to be saved.
-They are also selfish (and not the altruists and grand martyrs the finale tries to sell us); they want to save the world because they find comfort in it and because humans are much more pleasant than Heaven and Hell.
Therefore, criticizing their choice is a matter of objectivity, not subjectivity like the kiss. Here, it means you cannot characterize them to suit your taste just to impose your vision on the world; there is a well-established canon that goes completely against the finale.
II. The Ad Hominem
Another point I wanted to highlight is that there has been a certain preference from the people who liked the finale to attack individuals directly rather than what they actually had to say. If everyone imitated this behavior, if we all indulged in criticizing others just because they don't share our thoughts, we could easily sink into this game because there are things to be said about the people who liked the ending.
"On pourrait dire bien des choses en somme! En variant le ton par exemple tenez"
We could say that the people who liked the Good Omens finale, meaning roughly 30% of the fandom (and I'm being generous here, because there are far fewer reviews on Rotten Tomatoes than for previous seasons, the main reason being that the majority of people who disliked it simply didn't comment)—are, for the most part, people who have NOT read the book.
We could say that the people who liked the ending have Season 2 as their favorite season for the following reason: it’s the one where we see Crowley and Aziraphale the most (you probably see where I'm going with this, and here I am throwing myself to the wolves, risking the worst insults from fans of this ending).
If we were petty, we could assert that the people who like the ending are mostly here just for the main ship and couldn't care less about the actual plot. Indeed, by looking at numerous accounts of pro-finale users, I realized that the majority belong to many different fandoms simply to collect yaoi. Plain and simple. This means the maxim "they find each other in every universe" is all that matters to them. If Crowley and Aziraphale end up together one way or another, it doesn't matter if the core message is butchered; they are happy. For them, the ship trimes over the quality of the writing and the story being told. I even saw someone say that since parallel universes work in Loki, it passes in Good Omens too. There are many people who only liked this ending because they are there to see a male couple end up together, and the plot doesn't interest them. They are fans of Good Omens solely for the Crowley/Aziraphale ship, just as they are fans of Arcane, Loki, Our Flag Means Death, Hannibal, or What We Do in the Shadows for the shipping. We could therefore prove two things regarding this: first, that Good Omens doesn't hold that big of a place in their hearts, and second, that they are here for one reason only.
What I did in this second part is called an ad hominem; it is a process aimed at attacking the person rather than their valid argument, which is exactly what the people who liked this ending did to try and discredit us. And I am against any form of ad hominem. What I said was merely to illustrate my point and create a mirror effect of what they did to us. Even if one or two things happen to be true for some of them, it by no means signifies that they are lesser fans than we are; everyone has their own way of appreciating a book, a movie, or a series.
De plus, il est inapproprié d'attaquer la personne sur ce point plutôt que de se concentrer sur ce qu'elle a à dire, que ce soit à l'égard de ceux qui ont aimé la fin ou de ceux qui l'ont détestée.
I also wanted Crowley and Aziraphale to end up together; I have rarely wanted two characters to have a happy ending together like I wanted these two to have one.But first of all, it's not them (David Tennant confirmed it) and I can't overlook the bad writing.
We CAN criticize the plot of Good Men 3, and I emphasize the word "PLOT"; I will in no way criticize to the people who participated, such as the actors or the directors, because they did not have control over what was written and they did their best to offer us something.I will always be grateful to them.
I would love for us to have calm debates where the only thing that matters is the argument, not the person. We are civilized beings; let us behave as such.Of course, I am not going to turn a blind eye to the people who disliked this ending and go on to harass those who liked it, as well as harassing the director. These people are absolutely horrible; they deserve to be banned from the fandom and punished by law. Online harassment remains harassment.It is no longer a debate when people attack each other shamelessly; it is harassment.We have the right to think differently: to not have liked the same things, to have hated or loved the finale. However, if we wish to talk about it, it should be done with mutual respect. After all, that is the very goal of Good Omens and the point from the very beginning: to make us understand that despite having different thoughts, we can all live together, and perhaps even dare I say it—appreciate one another while knowing that we are different.
To be clear, contrary to what Zoey has stated, these screenshots were NOT a private discord conversation. They are from a public discord, from a channel you just needed to click an emoji to get access to. Anyone could join the channel, it was not private. The purpose of the channel was to trash fics and tear down fic writers who wrote content that Zoey and her friends found unappealing. They speculated that various fics writers were “sick,” mentally ill and just stupid for creating content they disagreed with, which covered subjects like: autistic characters, characters with ADHD, asexual characters, male characters with vulvas, characters involved with various types of kink like Dominant and submissive play. Zoey and her friends said on more than one occasion they felt so confident in their opinions they could be quoted on them, and that they would be willing to say these things to the authors faces. They did all of this in a public discord with plenty of witnesses, who they assumed all had the same vile opinions as them.
Zoey (@vavoom-sorted-art) had claimed that she didn’t want to be associated with Moonyinpisces anymore when she was trying to convince people to join her Patreon and buy her commissions. Now that people have forgotten what a bully Moonyinpisces was, she’s claiming her once again.
