I NEED TO BE FUCKING STOPPED, THIS IS THE FUNNIEST, MOST NICHE MEME I HAVE EVER MADE AND I'M OUT OF BREATH FROM LAUGHING RN
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I NEED TO BE FUCKING STOPPED, THIS IS THE FUNNIEST, MOST NICHE MEME I HAVE EVER MADE AND I'M OUT OF BREATH FROM LAUGHING RN
The Malice of the Finale from Gaiman
Despite the fact that Gaiman didn't write the final script, it was based on 6 finished scripts he wrote, so it feels safe to assume the core ending was his idea. Former fans of his writing said the ending's nihilism felt like something he'd do. Various facts such as director Rachel Talalay saying there was no kiss in the script and she was told she couldn’t add one, Gaiman basically saying post-s2 about the kiss that he wanted a way to give fans what they wanted without giving them what they wanted, and David Tennant telling fans at a convention back in 2024 that the ending might not be what fans wanted, indicate that Gaiman never intended to give Aziraphale and Crowley the happy, romantic ending he chose to set up.
The question is: why would a writer do this? In response to shippers back with the first season in 2019, Gaiman could’ve simply said, “I understand fans feel very passionately about their relationship, but Terry and I didn’t write it that way and I don’t want to rewrite their dynamic without him here.” But he didn’t do that. He played a fool by twisting himself into knots to say he wrote them secretly holding hands and would comment on fan posts “confirming” their headcanons, and then went out of his way to textually change the dynamic with an explicitly romantic kiss at the end of s2, but evidently, had zero intention to make them do it again, perhaps not despite fans wanting it, but due to fans clammoring for it. But let's emphasize this: no one made him do this! He could have capitalized on fan excitement and shipper feels, written two more seasons full of subtext, and never changed the nature of their relationship. The finale’s human marriage is cute, but he must have known it was not what fans wanted with the cottage. The lack of kiss and verbal love confession, along with him killing the audience's version of the characters, feel deliberate. You have to go out of your way to squander the s2 cliffhanger and not make them kiss again, kill the version of the characters everyone loved, and screw with the cottage ending
I saw great tags about this on a post that had reblogs disabled, so I assume the OP doesn't want attention and I won't mention their url here. But they were right: Neil Gaiman simply lied to the fandom. He lied about Good Omens always having been a love story, he lied about bringing Aziraphale and Crowley together romantically being Terry Pratchett's dying wish, and he lied about fans' headcanons being true. Obligatory disclaimer: what he did in real life to women is on a different level and cannot be compared to writing choices, but this lying is not unrelated to his sinister side. He was manipulative and calculated towards his fan base (and the tumblr fan base primarily consisted of women), and knew exactly what he was doing. He got off on fans worshipping him and seeking his validation, but had enough disdain for them to openly say he didn't want to give them what they wanted even though he knew how much it meant to them. Writers aren't obligated to give fans what they want, but again: he went out of his way to pander to fans at the end of s2. You can't do that, hang around fans on tumblr to drink up their praise, and turn around and say "nah, fuck the fans" after that, unless you're actually an asshole who enjoys toying with people. I don't believe he intentionally made the ending bad—I think he's enough of a hack that he thought the retcon would be a good plot twist—but I do think he intentionally fucked with fans when he rewrote the premise of the cottage and didn’t make them kiss. Can’t you picture a real-life abuser wanting to mindfuck a bunch of women, especially when he did literally abuse some fans? Keep in mind this is the same guy who wrote a gomens movie script in the 90s out of spite, too
You know, there are some YouTube video essays talking about other showrunners being shitty towards their fan base, and a lot of those have little actual evidence. This, however, should be a case study in a creator who hung around tumblr way too much to soak in fan worship turning around to spite them. I don’t think people who never saw his weird behavior on tumblr truly get it. I did not know Gaiman was secretly a violent man, of course, but I did see him as a liar who had a big ego and loved attention from fans to a creepy degree way back in 2019; when he made them kiss in 2023, I thought his desire for fan worship outweighed his obvious discomfort with fans reading Aziraphale and Crowley as gay, but it really should not be surprising that he did not intend to give these characters the kind of happy ending the fans wanted, because he never wanted it and he clearly resented fans who said the "representation" in s1 wasn't enough. But like I said: no one forced him to write the characters kissing! This was so deliberate and feels so malicious.
As a scholar of the failed movie script from the 90s I can only say that there is a long history of weirdness surrounding NG and his relationship to Good Omens that did not just start on Tumblr.
I'd even say Tumblr was just the platform he ended up clinging to bc he found the most success here. And while I'd reckon that the 90s script wasn't written out of spite, it was supposed to be a shared effort at first but Terry saw the writing on the wall and left the project after the first draft got rejected, it definitely reads like an attempt at pushing his own importance in the matter. Just as with him basically making himself the news outlet for another potential adaptation by Terry Gilliam in the 2000s. For which a surprising amount of information stems from only his mouth and where he constantly found ways to hype the project even while answering completely unrelated questions. All this AFTER publicly stating that Terry and him didn't want anything to do with any screen adaptation bc of their experience in the 90s.
Even back then he rode the coat tails of the story of an insignificant author being lifted out of obscurity by another bigger author. Putting up an air of gratefulness while also trying to dominate the conversation around Good Omens in multiple small ways.
Then there is the way the 90s script got published. How the few surviving reviews for it praise it but are also oddly critical of Terry as author. How even in that publication there is a note of "look at me in the shadow of Terry, but do look at me", all copies being signed while still expressing that he isn't exactly proud of it in the preamble. A strange two tracked narrative that prevailed into his Tumblr days. Where he proudly threw around the idea of publishing that script once more (for charity) while still joining in with the bashing of the work when fans pointed out their displeasure with the script. (And also threatening with copyright takedowns "for our own protection" only after more and more people voiced how crappy they thought the whole thing was).
I already made another post about how the TV show has some markers that show an influence from the shit!script. And I stand by that. Especially after S3.
To me all of it reads as an author well aware that his own writing can never capture what another author put in to make a joined work great. Yet he was trying to make the whole thing mostly his bc he was striving for grandeur. It reads as someone incredibly insecure and spiteful who thought himself clever by pandering.
In retrospect it reads exactly like that type of person NG turned out to be. But that's in retrospect. Back then it bc community NG latched onto was already starving and an enthusiastic author on Tumblr actively interacting with the fans, who occasionally even reminded everyone you should never trust an author seemed annoying but not something to be too weary about.
Oh, I didn’t know this! Very interesting, and once again makes me wonder what a sequel would have looked like if Pratchett had lived
And yeah I didn’t intend to suggest that Gaiman’s strangeness with gomens started with tumblr, just that his tumblr behavior with the fandom really can’t be separated from his writing choices for the show, but it’s definitely important to note how he acted about gomens before ever getting on tumblr, too. The only thing I can say is that, given how much he seemed invested in using gomens to inflate his own ego and have people sing his praises, I hope that bastard is lurking around online and seeing how much everyone absolutely hated the finale. I can’t imagine his ego coping well with it, especially now that the emerging fandom take is, “It’s clear now that Terry was the heart of this story and Gaiman was always the worse writer.”
Thank you for the addition!
every day i wake up and hate the finale a little bit more. what do you mean you made me watch them kill themselves with zero prior indication this is where the story was going. what do you mean the threads introduced in the previous season got absolutely zero resolution. what do you mean new threads were introduced on a significantly smaller runtime just to also get no resolution. what do you mean the ultimate message is that the only way to fix something broken is to destroy it and start over. what do you mean this is good omens
Say it with me: IT. IS NOT. ABOUT. THE FUCKING. KISS!!! That’s not why people are mad.
The Ending SUCKS because the WRITING SUCKS.
NO, I don’t find the concept of ‘tHeY FiNd eACh oThEr IN eVerY uNivErSe’ beautiful.
1) Because they don’t. There’s zero evidence that this is a recurring thing, thats 100% fandom copium- and even then they don’t have any of their memories and aren’t the same people. THATS. NOT. THEM. And it never will be because people are the sum of their experiences AND THEIR CHOICES. You don’t take a comedy Christian satire and make the solution some Buddhist-esque reincarnation philosophy that requires an entirely new suspension of disbelief no one signed up for or wanted. That’s shit writing.
2) So not only does the finale spit on every theme it had prior regarding championing human choice as miraculous and the world being worth fighting for in all its flaws as it is- you are going to sit here and tell me that actually they never had any choice at all, so they decided to toss everything down the garbage disposal for the next life. That is, frankly, terrible, and nihilistic, and not at all sensible for this series.
Aziraphale and Crowley are a wonderful love story because they were on opposite sides and they CHOSE each other, and they CHOSE to love humans. They chose to be hedonistic and compassionate and selfish and ‘human’ as they were because they knew how to make choices. Their love has always been THEIR choice.
So how can you tell me that the ending is great because they sacrificed everything for humans to have free choice- which they already had by the way- and then say the ending is beautiful because Aziraphale and Crowley are Predestined to love each other in every reality. How is that not massively hypocritical to the concept they are trying to sell us last minute out of nowhere? Is predestiny not the antithesis of what they asked for by your own definition?!
How is taking their 6000 years of choosing each other over and over again, and summing it down to a deterministic soul bond, more ‘free will’ or beautiful than them literally defying cosmic powers just to stay together and eat dinner at the Ritz on a casual Tuesday?!
People act like their life was just complete suffering, but they were perfectly happy on their own earth. Season 1 left them exactly where they wanted to be!!! Together with the Earth. It was so EASY to circle back to that, all they had to do was write it, and no one would have questioned it because that’s THEM and what they want to be doing. If Adam defied Satan for humanity, why would Jesus Christ- who’d already died once for the salvation of humanity- not tell God to be merciful?! Why not have the humans make the choice, rather than Crowley- which is another hypocritical move because he’s making choices for them just like he’s telling god not to!
How do we have any evidence this new world doesn’t have a god? Trust? In the woman who just destroyed the world after having a casual laugh with Satan? Okay. They didn’t trade their existence for freedom, they traded the apple of knowledge for ignorance.
The fact is, is that the world that championed choice and love was the one they came from, not the one they sacrificed themselves for- because choice and love doesn’t mean there are no complications, it means you take a stand and you do what you want anyways.
This dystopian nightmare of an ending where they let the universe die and don’t know each other was never a thought in anyone’s mind until it came into existence with the most shallow and contrived justifications of all time ten minutes before close, and that’s because it’s out of character nonsense.
And I’m sick of hearing ‘they were always gonna be human’ ‘it was always gonna be this way’ like there was rational grounds for it beforehand. No it wasn’t, and it certainly didn’t need to be. At most it was everyone’s joke of a worst case scenario, and that’s what they decided to give us- probably after a quick google search to find out what would piss everyone off the most.
This was Neil Gaiman and his team of horror writers, who probably didn’t even consider the source material, throwing a temper tantrum and abusing the fandom for liking Terry Pratchett’s divine optimism more than his petty ass. They designed every ridiculous contingency in this horrible script to justify their own mess.
The Ineffable Husbands were fine as they were. Even as a Demon and an Angel they were already ‘human’ enough, THATS what was funny. What the hell is so great about being mortal and not being able to have a free table whenever they want, and having to deal with real world shit like taxes, and homophobia, and Dying?
Enough Dyin’. No Maur DYIN’. It’s it’s-ITS NOT ON!!!
The two were horribly out of character this entire film. All the film did was spit on the world building and take the magic out of it.
I agree with everything said above!
(Even if I am very tired of all of us taking this tone with each other. I understand the frustration, but instead of being two sides of the fandom shouting at each other, we could be coexisting and enjoying the stuff we all like together, and the stuff we disagree on with only "our half" of the fandom. I hope you don't take this as a personal attack, OP, because I do get that your frustration comes from a genuine place of caring, and that's great! We all care about this fandom and that's what should unite us, not split us apart.)
I especially agree about the point about the humans Asa and Anthony being soulmates / predetermined to meet (and all the other people in the pub) undermining the entire sacrifice that Crowley and Aziraphale have made to end predetermination! That was one of the most frustrating things about that ending for me!!
Anyway, I wanted to add a few points that underline a couple of things already mentioned:
About free will:
In s1, Adam had the free will to throw away his destiny by literally making himself into not-the-Antichrist in the end. Anathema demonstrated her free will by burning the (second) book that had predetermined her entire life up until that point. And Crowley and Aziraphale showed their free will by not following their sides but fighting for the humans. That was the central theme of s1, and saying that humans had no free will in that universe is a little insulting to that story, imo.
About killing and then remaking the / a universe:
There's the scene where Adam tells the Them he's gonna kill and then remake all the people, even their parents. And the Them are horrified and tell Adam they don't want new parents, they want THEIR parents.
Parallel to that, in s2 we have Job, whose children are supposed to die. And then, if Job stays faithful to God, he gets double the children! Only not the original ones, because they're dead. Aziraphale, Sithis and Job all express their absolute horror at this because they don't want new children. They want THEIR children. I'm assuming Crowley sees the horror in that even more because not only is it HIS idea to save the children - no, he saved all the frikkin goats too, because new goats also wouldn't have been the old goats.
In the face of that, I am truly baffled that s3 then turns around and says killing everyone in the universe (and that includes Adam, Anathema, Newt, Tracy and Shadwell, who fought for the universe to be saved) and then making new people in a new universe, is a good ending.
About the kiss:
After s1, I staunchly said that I do not want Aziraphale and Crowley to kiss. Then s2 rolled around and they did kiss. We all know in what context. Now after that context, I think a kiss to resolve how they left off s2 was narratively necessary.
I see the argument that the fingers-to-lips is a mirror to Aziraphale pressing his hand to his face after Crowley kissed him. I understand. But it also gives "Amazon doesn't wanna upset the homophobes" just a little bit. At least to me.
It's not that they didn't need a kiss. They HAD a kiss. And that kiss was without consent and tragic. If they had wanted the story to be "actually, Aziraphale wanted to kiss Crowley too, it was just that the context was bad" then a kiss in s3 from Aziraphale would have cost them 2 seconds of screentime and cleared all that up.
About the ending being inevitable:
s3 tried very hard to say it was inevitable. But it definitely wasn't, even after s2. Because out of all the millions of tumblr posts, fanfics and theories, not ONE that I've seen predicted that they would kill the entire universe in the end.
If an ending was inevitable from the beginning, people would see it coming. Not everyone of course, but I would expect a good half to a quarter of the fandom to say "yeah we know how this is gonna end" beforehand.
(I'm personally not against them turning human, and I've seen this said a lot. That is not what I'm talking about. I specifically mean all of humanity and them dying.)
About nihilism:
I am, in fact, a nihilist. And yet, this ending still felt like a slap in the face. Yeah, sure, nothing matters so we might as well kill ourselves right now. But if nothing matters, then we also might as well NOT kill ourselves right now. We might have a little fun and whimsy if it doesn't matter anyway.
But the message "if there's someone more powerful than you, then the only way out is to kill yourself" is definitely not the message they wanted to send with Good Omens. And yet, that is the message that was told with s3. And THAT is the slap in the face.
(Crowley's human doppelgänger then being happy, presumably because he didn't go through Crowley's trauma from the Fall, only makes it worse. That tacks on an aftertaste of "if you're traumatised, you're not gonna be happy in this life either way". I will admit that this conclusion does not directly follow from the narrative of s3, but I have heard people argue that the reason they had to die is that it was the only way to undo Crowley's trauma. To someone arguing this, I will kindly ask: What's wrong with you? Please think about what you're saying to people before you say it. You can't tell actual, living, traumatised people that they'll never be happy unless they kill themselves.)
About Asa and Anthony:
If they "didn't die" or "died but came back", then Asa and Anthony would need to BE Aziraphale and Crowley. And I agree that that's what the writers wanted to say. Unfortunately they did not actually say it.
The only reason I know that the human doppelgänger are supposed to be A&C is that there would be absolutely no other reason to show them in the epilogue otherwise. But that's a meta reason. Actually IN the story, they're treated like Shax and Madame Tracy, like Nina and Sister Mary Loquatius, like Maggie and that other nun whose name I forgot. They're played by the same actor and are in Good Omens. Why are we supposed to believe that Shax isn't Madame Tracy in another life, but we're supposed to believe that Asa is Aziraphale, when we're not given a single nudge in that direction?
Anthony and Crowley even have distinctly different characters and I can't for the life of me figure out why. Because that must have been a deliberate choice. They chose to not make him like Crowley, and then said "We've done a good enough job establishing that this is Crowley, so we don't need anything else to show that they're the same". (And something something, even David Tennant said that Crowley was evaporated. But honestly, David Tennat's opinion on this is just as valid as everyone else's.)
Anyway, that's why I think the story fails at introducing them as a happy end for Crowley and Aziraphale instead of a replacement for Crowley and Aziraphale.
Plus, it depends on what, in your personal opinion, makes a person a person. I do think all our history shapes who we are. I also hate stories that clone a character, kill off the original one, and then say "happy end!! They've been cloned, so they're not actually dead!!" (If I had a nickel for every story that did this, I would have, like, 5 nickels. Which isn't a lot but it's weird it keeps happening.)
To those who liked s3:
If you liked the ending, that's great!
This post is not an attack on you or your opinion! It's just a write-up of the literary / narrative reasons why this ending, for me personally, was the absolute worst that it could have been. ("worst" not as in not-happy but as in "badly fitted to the pre-existing narrative of s1, s2 and even s3 itself")
We can still all enjoy the parts of Good Omens we all enjoy, and we can seperately enjoy the parts we don't all enjoy. I'm not here to rain on your parade. In fact, I'm happy you're having a parade! I just hope you're okay with me not attending that parade.
Say it with me: IT. IS NOT. ABOUT. THE FUCKING. KISS!!! That’s not why people are mad.
The Ending SUCKS because the WRITING SUCKS.
NO, I don’t find the concept of ‘tHeY FiNd eACh oThEr IN eVerY uNivErSe’ beautiful.
1) Because they don’t. There’s zero evidence that this is a recurring thing, thats 100% fandom copium- and even then they don’t have any of their memories and aren’t the same people. THATS. NOT. THEM. And it never will be because people are the sum of their experiences AND THEIR CHOICES. You don’t take a comedy Christian satire and make the solution some Buddhist-esque reincarnation philosophy that requires an entirely new suspension of disbelief no one signed up for or wanted. That’s shit writing.
2) So not only does the finale spit on every theme it had prior regarding championing human choice as miraculous and the world being worth fighting for in all its flaws as it is- you are going to sit here and tell me that actually they never had any choice at all, so they decided to toss everything down the garbage disposal for the next life. That is, frankly, terrible, and nihilistic, and not at all sensible for this series.
Aziraphale and Crowley are a wonderful love story because they were on opposite sides and they CHOSE each other, and they CHOSE to love humans. They chose to be hedonistic and compassionate and selfish and ‘human’ as they were because they knew how to make choices. Their love has always been THEIR choice.
So how can you tell me that the ending is great because they sacrificed everything for humans to have free choice- which they already had by the way- and then say the ending is beautiful because Aziraphale and Crowley are Predestined to love each other in every reality. How is that not massively hypocritical to the concept they are trying to sell us last minute out of nowhere? Is predestiny not the antithesis of what they asked for by your own definition?!
How is taking their 6000 years of choosing each other over and over again, and summing it down to a deterministic soul bond, more ‘free will’ or beautiful than them literally defying cosmic powers just to stay together and eat dinner at the Ritz on a casual Tuesday?!
People act like their life was just complete suffering, but they were perfectly happy on their own earth. Season 1 left them exactly where they wanted to be!!! Together with the Earth. It was so EASY to circle back to that, all they had to do was write it, and no one would have questioned it because that’s THEM and what they want to be doing. If Adam defied Satan for humanity, why would Jesus Christ- who’d already died once for the salvation of humanity- not tell God to be merciful?! Why not have the humans make the choice, rather than Crowley- which is another hypocritical move because he’s making choices for them just like he’s telling god not to!
How do we have any evidence this new world doesn’t have a god? Trust? In the woman who just destroyed the world after having a casual laugh with Satan? Okay. They didn’t trade their existence for freedom, they traded the apple of knowledge for ignorance.
The fact is, is that the world that championed choice and love was the one they came from, not the one they sacrificed themselves for- because choice and love doesn’t mean there are no complications, it means you take a stand and you do what you want anyways.
This dystopian nightmare of an ending where they let the universe die and don’t know each other was never a thought in anyone’s mind until it came into existence with the most shallow and contrived justifications of all time ten minutes before close, and that’s because it’s out of character nonsense.
And I’m sick of hearing ‘they were always gonna be human’ ‘it was always gonna be this way’ like there was rational grounds for it beforehand. No it wasn’t, and it certainly didn’t need to be. At most it was everyone’s joke of a worst case scenario, and that’s what they decided to give us- probably after a quick google search to find out what would piss everyone off the most.
This was Neil Gaiman and his team of horror writers, who probably didn’t even consider the source material, throwing a temper tantrum and abusing the fandom for liking Terry Pratchett’s divine optimism more than his petty ass. They designed every ridiculous contingency in this horrible script to justify their own mess.
The Ineffable Husbands were fine as they were. Even as a Demon and an Angel they were already ‘human’ enough, THATS what was funny. What the hell is so great about being mortal and not being able to have a free table whenever they want, and having to deal with real world shit like taxes, and homophobia, and Dying?
Enough Dyin’. No Maur DYIN’. It’s it’s-ITS NOT ON!!!
The two were horribly out of character this entire film. All the film did was spit on the world building and take the magic out of it.
I have now watched the finale of Good Omens aka GO3, 7 times.
Yeah, I know, God likes 7’s.
I also know, God is a bitch.
Writers of the finale of Good Omens in ANY capacity, this goes out to you;
Do you hate us that much? Do you completely despise us to the detriment even of profit?
David admitted he wasn’t happy because Crowley was “evaporated”. Michael used the phrase “annihilated”.
And we, WE are devastated.
We know NG stalked this site, so to think that he isn’t still doing that, I believe, is a wrong assumption.
If we have learned one thing about Neil, it’s all about control. (Call me Master) Control of the narrative. It’s his decisions, actions, words that hold the weight.
What follows isn’t by chance.
It isn’t foretold.
It isn’t fate.
It’s because he has decided on how things will be.
When you look at what we know about his youth, being raised in Scientology, it isn’t hard to imagine how this has shaped his world. His ideals. His beliefs in right and wrong.
I never thought much about his writings as more than just fiction until I truly began to drill down into them. It was then i realized that these stories were an insight into the way Neil thought, and reacted to his world.
The Ocean at the End of the Lane - “My favorite response to this book is when people say “My childhood was nothing like this- and it was as if I was reading about me.”
If you have read this book you realize the trama the boy went through.
Sandman - “But where shall wisdom be found? And where is the place of understanding? Man knoweth not the price thereof; neither is it found in the land of the living…for the price of wisdom is above rubies.” Book of Job - Chapter 28, verses 12, 13, 18
The connection to Job in Neil’s work is interesting also. Who are you Neil? God or Job?
Corraline - The inference in this book are so sublime, but still there. A child that hates their life and their parents enough to wish for and receive change. Believing that change is good, only to find out you have walked into the wolves den.
As Garth told us long ago, “some of Gods greatest gifts are unanswered prayers.”
Scientology has formed the misogynistic rhetoric that Neil lives, writes, and believes deeply in.
Do I think Good Omens 3 would have ended the same way if the accusations had not occurred? If the pedestal remained upright, spit-polished, and revered?
Absolutely. Fucking. Not.
Why? You ask?
Because a cliffhanger ending on S3 (after a full 6 episodes) would have led to S4. There is no way Neil would have walked away from that.
I’m not talking about Neil wanting to please his “fans.” I’m talking about the millions, possibly billions of dollars in revenue he and major corporations have lost because of his actions. The possibilities were endless for merchandising this.
Asa and Anthony, I’m sure are lovely people that we all wish we could have in our lives…..but we don’t.
We have Our Ineffables. Our love for them is the messiest, silliest, most predictable thing in the Universe. And oh, how it makes Us smile.
But I digress.
These two would NEVER have voluntarily ended the others existence. Love always finds a way.
I have decided to channel my inner Aziraphale:
I forgive you.
Why? Because I’m too old to carry a grudge. I’m too old to dwell on something I have absolutely no control over.
Serenity - Courage - Wisdom
They are Ours. They always were. They always will be.
You’re Not Their Dad.
YES to alllll of this! His trauma is in his writing, and lashing out at the story and fandom with this ending is proof of that. "You're Not Their Dad!" This world belongs to us.
reblog if you’ve had an online friendship that’s lasted more than 2 years
@killerqueen-82 hiiiiiii
In my heart, Crowley and Aziraphale are sitting in that lovely yet slightly jaded bench in St. James's Park.
Crowley is marveling at the sight before him, a mother duck carefully guding her ducklings whom are following close behind. The mother puts herself infront of her children, but she cannot help constantly looking back at her own creations. They are flowing aimlessly in the vast body of water. One with nature. Basking in what it really means to just live.
Aziraphale on the other hand, has his eyes trained on another wonder of the world.
A young girl sits on a nearby bench, though she carries herself as if life has placed burdens upon her far heavier than her years should allow. There's another girl next to her, it's a friend, prehaps? She wraps her arms around the troubled one and holds her close, offering the comfort of her presence while the other feels whatever she needs to feel.
The wind blows softly, stirring loose strands of hair and carrying with it the distant sounds of laughter, birdsong, and the gentle lapping of water against the shore. Neither girl seems to notice. For this brief moment, the rest of the world has faded into the background.
Aziraphale sighs softly, "Extraordinary, isn't it?"
Crowley follows his gaze, his sunglasses reflecting the image of the two girls sitting together.
"Yeah," he says quietly, a softness creeping into his voice. "Funny thing is, they probably don't even realize they're doing it."
"Doing what?"
Crowley looks back toward the lake, where the mother duck nudges a wandering duckling back toward the group, "Saving each other."
The angel smiles softly at that, scotting closer to Crowley.
"Well, it's a beautiful sight to see indeed," he let's out a breath he has been holding for far too long, "but it wouldn't be as beautiful without you by my side."
Crowley sits with those words quietly. He slowly puts an arm around the angel.
"I mean, ducks are nice and all. Tiny feathery weirdos." He gestures vaguely toward the lake, "But I've seen ducks before."
Aziraphale looks at him, utterly perplexed.
"My dear, what on Earth are you talking about?"
Crowley snorts.
"I'm getting there."
"Getting where?"
"Angel."
"No, really, you've lost me."
Crowley shakes his head fondly before looking back out at the lake.
"I've seen sunsets. Meteor showers. Nebulas. Mountains. Oceans." He glances at him, "The thing that makes them worth remembering is having someone to turn to afterward."
Aziraphale's breath catches.
Crowley shrugs, as though he hasn't just said something monumental.
"And I have to say..." A small smile tugs at the corner of his mouth, "If there's one thing I could spend an eternity marveling at, it's you."
Aziraphale is stunned to silence. Not an uncomforble one, the opposite actually. The kind of silence that is at art galleries, where people gaze at something beautiful and find that words would only diminish it.
Crowley shifts slightly under the angel's gaze.
"Oh, don't do that."
"Do what?"
"Look at me like that."
Aziraphale's smile is small and impossibly fond.
"How am I looking at you?"
Crowley opens his mouth, then closes it again. Because he doesn't have a name for it.
Above them, the branches sway gently in the afternoon light. Around them, life continues in all its strange, fragile beauty.
A child happily screams somewhere in the distance, the sound carrying across the park as they race through the grass.
The girl who had been crying earlier is no longer hiding behind her hands. She sits a little straighter now, a small smile breaking through as her friend says something that sends them both into laughter. Whatever burden she had been carrying has not vanished, but for the moment, she does not carry it alone.
The ducklings continue to swim along. The breeze carries the scent of grass and warm earth.
It's all terribly ordinary, really. And yet, these were the very things Aziraphale and Crowley had spent six thousand years fighting for.
Aziraphale leans into Crowley, his face only inches away.
"I love you so," he breathes. Then, he closes the distance between them.
The kiss is soft, tender.
Crowley smiles against it, one hand coming up to cup Aziraphale's cheek. He leans in without hesitation, knowing exactly where he belongs.
The world continues to turn around them. You can hear faint noise in the background. Laughs shared. The rustling of leaves. Somewhere nearby, a dog barks, and a child answers with a delighted squeal.
Then, without warning, a raindrop lands on Crowley's nose.
He blinks.
A second follows, splashing against Aziraphale's coat.
Then a third.
The sky opens.
Within seconds, rain begins to pour over the park, sending people running for cover and prompting a chorus of surprised laughter from every direction.
The girls on the bench scramble to gather their things, one of them grabbing the other's hand as they attempt to dash toward the nearest shelter.
The ducklings, meanwhile, seem entirely unbothered by the development.
Crowley looks up at the sky.
"Really?"
The rain answers by becoming even heavier.
Beside him, Aziraphale laughs.
"Well," he says, beaming, "I suppose that's one way to cool off a warm afternoon."
Crowley stares at him.
"Angel."
"Yes?"
"We are getting soaked."
"I had noticed."
"And you're smiling."
"Of course I am."
Crowley shakes his head, utterly helpless against his own fondness.
"I think this is a sign to head back to our bookshop. Warm up with some hot cocoa before dining at the Ritz?"
Aziraphale's eyes brighten at the sound of that.
Before answering, his gaze drifts across the park.
The two girls from earlier are huddled together beneath a tree, trying and failing to shield themselves from the rain. They're laughing now, but neither seems particularly successful at staying dry.
With a subtle flick of his fingers, Aziraphale performs a small miracle.
A large umbrella suddenly appears over their heads.
The girls blink in surprise.
One looks up at the umbrella.
The other looks around in confusion.
Then, deciding not to question their good fortune, they scoot closer together beneath it and continue talking.
Aziraphale watches them for a moment, satisfied.
Only then does he turn back to Crowley.
"That sounds lovely," he says warmly. "Though I think perhaps a pot of cocoa. One mug hardly seems sufficient."
Crowley snorts.
"Naturally."
"And perhaps a few pastries?"
"Of course."
"And then the Ritz."
"Obviously."
The rain continues to fall around them, drumming softly against the lake. the water nurturing the trees around them.
Crowley rises from the bench and offers his hand, "Come on, angel."
Aziraphale takes it without hesitation.
Together, they start toward the bookshop, leaving behind the ducks, the lake, and the rain-soaked park.
Behind them, the girls sit beneath their mysterious umbrella, laughing.
Ahead of them waits a warm bookshop, hot cocoa, and a dinner neither of them will ever admit they had been planning all along.
The afternoon had been beautiful. The evening promised to be even better. And tomorrow would be just as lovely.
Ordinary days.
The sort of days that, when strung together, become a life.
As they disappeared down the rain-slicked street, hand in hand, neither Heaven nor Hell watched from above, no prophecies awaited them.
Just tomorrow. And the world. The same world they had chosen, time and time again.
A world of shifting weather, of second chances. A world where ducklings finding their way home. A world were people hold each other when life became too heavy to bear alone. A world where tears give way to laughter, where old wounds heal slowly, and where kindness survives despite everything.
.......
The Aziraphale and Crowley I know would've never given up on humanity, or on the humanity that lives within them. Crowley would fight for Aziraphale the same way Aziraphale would fight for Crowley.
The answer to a broken world is not to abandon it, but to keep caring for it. That is the Aziraphale and Crowley I fell in love with, and the ones I will always carry with me.
To me, Good Omens is about finding the courage to build out a life your heart wants, even when the people in power and systems try to decide who you get to be.
remember how Terry Pratchett used to write little New Year's resolutions for Aziraphale?? does anyone have these?? 😭
incidentally, the notion of an ageless immortal being committing to something like New Year's resolutions so perfectly encapsulates what Good Omens is all about. what could be flimsier, more subjective, more human than accounting for who you are now--and who you might become in one trip-round-the-sun?
Good Omens is about the ephemera of being human: lignin-infested shelves and James Bond memorabilia, filigreed snuffboxes alongside stickers and potting soil and whatever pomade the barber recommended last Tuesday. it's a story that understands that all life happens in the incidentals; that stuff becomes something more for being cherished.
Crowley and Aziraphale are doggedly, determinedly materialistic. that's not a bad thing! and it's not just a part they're playing, like Gabriel in his off-the-rack suits. they're able to understand each other--to love each other--because they love the world: selfishly, joyously, materially.
glory, victory, all that jazz? they're abstracts. but love is a thing made of atoms.
this is something the S3 writers, headed by that evil man, don't acknowledge: love doesn't cave in the universe. it stores up every trifle, because those vacant wine glasses (still streaky with a long-legged red) and half-emptied teacups (tannins softened into something algal)--they're the things we share to build a life, a world, an us.
the idea of an ageless immortal being devising little nitpicky changes for himself!!! the ritual of marking time by choosing what you'll do with it!!! (and failing! and trying again! and forgetting about it all entirely until next year, when you try again!!!)
I guess what I'm trying to say is, remembering how Terry saw these characters--how he set them loose in the world--makes me so happy. it reminds me that part of why I love Good Omens is that it makes me want to be a better person--a hopeful person.
this blue marble is the best of all possible worlds for being ours. there's so much I want to do; not all of it will come to pass, and not all of it should. but isn't it wonderful, getting to try?
"You know what I want."
"Ngk, Aziraphale I don't think this is the right ti-"
Aziraphale touches Crowley's cheek and reaches for an apple.
"Let me tempt you," he offers the fruit to the former demon.
If you are a queer Good Omens fan... *hugs* I feel you. I feel your anger, your frustratation, your grieving and sadness for a space and media that was meant to welcome us, that was meant to make us feel safe.
If you are deeply upset about the ending, you aren't alone, and you shouldn't feel ashamed for feeling this way. You have every right. Us people of the queer community, we are tired. We are tired that our stories never are fully heard, that our queer representation in media always ends in some form of cosmic tragedy. So many queer couples or characters we see ourselves in end up dead, separated, or we were led to believe their relationship would matter only for it to be treated like bait. It's as if people keep telling us we don't deserve love, that we don't deserve joy. That we should be greatful for the crumbs they give us, and we are so tired.
Good Omens wasn't suppoused to be like this. Aziraphale and Crowley's love for each other was meant to be taken seriously, it was building up for emotional cathartic moments follwing reflective messages. This show means a lot to queer people specifically,because we barely get stories where a relationship like theirs is allowed to exist with that much complexity and sincerity without being reduced to a joke or treated like an afterthought.
And some of us really did get to see ourselves in them: in the longing, in the restraint.
There's many queer people who feel connected to Crowley, with his rebellion, with the way he exists outside of every system that tried to define him, and with how alienated he often feels while still refusing to give up on what he believes is right. It's admirable to see a character whom has been cast out, labeled as wrong but still chooses love, still strives to stand up for his personal beliefs no matter what it costs him.
A lot of people in the LGBTQ+ community know what it feels like to be made to feel “other,” to live with that distance between yourself and the systems or communities that were supposed to welcome you, and to still keep searching for a place where you can exist honestly. Crowley carried so much of that.
I personally saw myself so much in Aziraphale, his character arc meant so much to me as someone who has a complicated relationship with religion and my queerness. Watching him wrestle between duty and desire. The way he tries so hard to do “good” while loving someone he wasn’t supposed to love felt painfully real. As a queer person who grew up trying to reconcile love with systems that taught us that love was wrong, and Aziraphale embodied that conflict with so much compassion and humanity. His journey mattered so much to me, to see him unlearn fear, to see him keep trying to choose love despite everything he had been taught.
Aziraphale, to me personally, represented that deeply human conflict of wanting to believe in goodness and belonging while also trying to make peace with parts of yourself you were taught to fear.
So it hurt deeply to see how unresolved his arc felt in season 3. Because for so many of us, his story was never just about whether he and Crowley would end up together. It was about watching someone who had spent so long carrying shame and trying to earn his place finally reach a point where he could choose love without fear.
And what do we get? instead of finally giving Crowley and Aziraphale the honest emotional payoff their story had been building toward, We get half-assed conversations between Crowley and Aziraphale that don't go anwhere. After everything they had been through together, it felt like they were still being kept at a distance from the very truth the story spent so long asking us to invest in.
And then the ending asks us to accept a sacrifice where they reboot the universe into one without angels or demons, without the versions of themselves we followed and loved. It's like they straight up ripped everything we saw ourselves in and loved apart and laughed in our faces.
These two characters loved each other so much, and the story's direction was never aimed for them to just disappear. These characters suffured so much, longed so much and chose each other over and over again just for the ending to make all of this feel futile.
Not just to the characters, but to us viewers who felt emotionally invested. Especially queer viewers who found something deeply personal in their story. For a lot of us, their relationship felt safe. It felt like seeing pieces of ourselves reflected back with tenderness. And when a story spends years building that trust, asking us to care, , to believe in where these characters are headed—only to make that journey feel like it led nowhere, the hurt goes beyond simple disappointment.
And then, the political climate we are living in makes the ending even more grim. At a time when queer people are still having to defend our right to exist openly, stories like Good Omens matter in a very real way. This story become more than entertainment. They become places where people feel seen, understood, and safe.
That’s part of why this ending feels so heavy. A story about two characters who spent centuries resisting rigid systems and finding home in each other ends without that love being fully honored, instead it ends with their disappearance. With sacrifice. With the versions of them we loved no longer getting to exist at all.
And this just, adds wound to the salt. Because queer people are constantly being told, in ways both subtle and explicit, that our lives, our love, and our futures are still up for debate. So for Good Omens, a show that lets be honest, has a major queer audience, erase Aziraphale and Crowley's romantic history and the thematic messages along with it.
We were genuienly left with nothing. The alternative versions of them didn't even feel authentically like Aziraphale and Crowley, so it doesn't hit. They get married yes, but we didn't really get to see the progression of their love or get to know these new versions on a deep level, so does it matter?
Aziraphale and Crowley didn't even get to kiss. And if you read them as aroace, that’s genuinely valid—people connect to these characters in different ways, and that interpretation matters too. A lack of physical romance can feel meaningful and affirming to a lot of people, and that deserves respect.
Howeveeer: they have kissed before.
But narratively, that’s also why this feels so frustrating for many viewers, because the story itself had already crossed that line. By season 2 especially, the emotional and romantic buildup was no longer subtle implication or fandom projection. The story intentionally framed their relationship as romantic, built around confession and choices neither of them could keep avoiding.
So the frustration isn’t “they needed a kiss or the story failed.” It’s that the narrative itself spent years building up so much intimacy and love between them in a way that clearly pointed toward resolution.
Which is why ending their story without ever letting them truly reach each other feels so painful. Not because every love story needs romance expressed the same way, but because their story was written around longing and around finally crossing emotional boundaries they had spent centuries avoiding.
The only kiss we have of them is genuienly emotionally devastating. It's a desperate declaration of love. It happens in the middle of fear and the unbearable realization that they want the same thing but can’t reach each other in that moment. And that’s exactly why so many people hoped the story would eventually let them have more than that.
And then, their love doesn't necesarly need to be translated with a kiss in season 3, sure. But it's not like we got any straight forward confession that mattered, and even if we had a semblance of one, it doesn't end up being relevant BECAUSE THEIR ENTIRE EXISTENCE AND HISTORY GETS ERASED.
Also, Crowely and Aziraphale are non-binary, and in the reboot version of them that gets erased too. Which also fucking sucks.
LGBTQ+ good omens fans, I love you, I hear you and you have every right to grieve this show. Please, keep creating fanarts, comics, and fanfics for our voices to atleast still exist in this media and fandom. You guys are amazing and what keeps this space alive with so much love and passion.
Yessss exactly because their love story was built around the longing and to not give that resolution seems purposeful and spiteful. It feels like a betrayal.
I keep seeing posts about the finale from people who loved it being very critical and quite frankly, a bit rude about the people who didn’t.
I saw one particular post today and was going to type my reply (respectfully) directly to them however they tagged it with “if you don’t like my post then don’t engage”. So unlike that author, I will be respectful and just post this into the Tumblr ether.
These are common themes I’ve seen over the past two weeks:
“People who don’t like the finale are just selfish because they didn’t get the ending they wanted” - I would argue that Prime/writers etc have been leading our expectations in a certain direction for years just to pull the rug from under us at the last second. I don’t blame people for reacting this way and I don’t think it’s selfish for wanting a happy ending for our characters. It’s not an unreasonable expectation for a tv show finale.
“If you don’t like it, you just don’t understand media literacy/you’re stupid” - This is a comedy fantasy show about angels and demons attempting to thwart apocalypses. You don’t need a Phd in English Lit/philosophy/psychology/whatever to understand or enjoy this show. Disliking the finale is not an indicator of intelligence level or understanding. It’s a personal opinion, based off of many factors. The same goes with liking the finale.
“This is TP’s ending so you must accept/like/respect it” - respect yes, compulsory enjoyment - no. There should never be any hate/disrespect directed to anyone involved in the show. Ever. But insinuating that media should never be disliked or criticised because a certain person wrote it is just not realistic. No one is above critique. We are all humans with thoughts, feelings and opinions, these are involuntary responses. We are reacting to what we are seeing and it’s ok to discuss these (respectfully of course). God themselves could float down from the clouds and write me a poem and I’m well within my rights to like it or not 🤷♀️.
“These people are just selfish, be grateful we got anything at all” - ahh yes, gratitude. Well, this is one I am struggling with. Whilst I really do appreciate what must have been a lot of negotiations and turmoil behind the scenes and a massive amount of effort from everyone involved to get the finale to us at all…. I kinda wish we didn’t get one. There was some fun moments, but the ending completely and utterly broke my heart. I would rather wonder what might have happened than knowing for sure THAT is what happened to them and everyone else in that world. So, I’m sorry, but I cannot be grateful for (in my opinion) a poorly written, plot-hole ridden finale with such a bleak, depressing ending. I just can’t.
Anyway, this is just my 2 pence on the rhetoric I keep seeing. I am so happy for you if you loved the finale. I really wish I did too.
The point of this post is just to ask can we please just have a bit more respect for each other? I really do not understand or agree with people who loved the finale at all but I will not call you selfish/stupid/ungrateful for doing so.
I hope both sides can be pals again some day ❤️
When making a story about one of these Urban-Fantasy-Style "this World looks exactly like ours on the surface but there is a Secret Hidden Fantasy World", sometimes the goal of the concept is to help the audience imagine the whimsy of the setting in their real world… Giving them not just the fantasy that fairies or dragons can exist, but letting them indulge in the fantasy that fairies and dragons can exist right under their noses, in their apartment complex, in the grocery store, in the communal garden they pass by on the way to work...
Sometimes the goal is to use these Fantasy Elements as metaphors that reflect and critique the real-life problems in our real-life world. Yeah, Dragons secretly exist, but these Dragons are also clearly a metaphor to predatory capitalist business practices or something, and that's Bad. It also allows you to think of this world as your own, as a way of making you think of the parallels between that world's supernatural troubles and your mundane ones. But I think a lot of stories end up as a mixture of the two, a balance between the dream that allows you to roleplay that maybe Magic is real, even as an adult, and being a thoughtful fantastical metaphorical frame for real-life problems at the same time. Maybe the Dragons are Capitalism, but at least them being Dragons is still Objectively Cool and maybe it's kinda funny to imagine you are secretly working for one of them too, or imagine how the fairies secretly protect you from their machinations.
'Good Omens' has always been in that third category, right from the original book. Heaven and Hell are metaphors for real-life harmful power-structures, in the book it's the Cold War Era Global Superpowers, the show alternates between that original concept and them being a metaphor to gigantic mega-corporations. It is Bad that they exist and meddle (or try to meddle) in Human affairs in the name of their mutual beef with each other. They are clearly, explicitly harmful to humanity as a whole because they are a stand-in for real-life things that are harmful to humanity as a whole.
But… it's also fun to imagine that Angels and Demons could be walking among us in our world, and 'Good Omens' clearly knew it. Like, the whole premise of Crowley's initial characterization is both a satire on the concept of blaming Humanity's evil on Demonic Influence (THIS shit is not his fault! Or any other Demon for that matter! Only Humans can think up these things themselves!) and a sort of invitation for the readers, to imagine whatever silly minor annoyance kinda ruined their day is the work of this lovable Demon.
It was a running joke in the Fandom for years for a reason, it's fun to imagine that whatever stupid little annoyance happened to you was because of a cool-but-silly little Demon who's just doing his job, even if his 'job' is also Metaphorical Cosmic Imperialism. It's clearly fun, and it was written in the book to be a Fun Concept.
Same thing with Aziraphale and his Bookshop. The whole joke there is that used bookshops which are actually clearly just the owner's excuse to have extra-storage space for their book collection and they have little intention to allow you to actually buy anything and makes you wonder how they stay in business actually are actually absolutely a thing that exists in Real Life!
Why are they Like That? Where do they get their money if they clearly want to sell as few books as possible? Maybe this is all a front for a supernatural immortal bibliophile? That's also fun to imagine.
There's a lot of other little touches like that in the book. Hey, have you ever noticed that every car always seem to have a 'Best of Queen' Cassette in it even if you don't remember buying one? Yeah, the cassettes just transform into them, that's just a commonplace supernatural phenomena, everybody knows that. Yeah, obviously there's no 'Prophecy' in the world that's entirely accurate… because the one 100% accurate prophetess in the world made sure her Book of Prophecy ended up only with her family. Even the fact that the world ended up completely restored and a lot of characters ended up with only hazy memories of what happened and most of humanity decided to ignore it and go about its business as normal… Maybe Armageddon did come in August 1990 but we were saved and everyone just moved on?
Every one of these kind of stories has to deal with the balancing act between the fantasy of Magic and taking the metaphorical real-life injustices the Magic is tied to seriously and literally. Or maybe it's less of a balancing act and more of a Yin-and-Yang thing, encouraging the audience to think of the little charming bits of Magic in their everyday life, also makes them acknowledge the parts that remind them of real-world harm.
As far as balancing all of this in Good Omens goes, the book makes Crowley and Aziraphale lovable but also makes it clear that they're not necessarily our heroes, the show chooses to make them our heroes but draws a firmer line between them and the system they were both complicit in and victimized by. Both Book Omens and GO1 are about how ultimately, these horrible systems' attempts to control those weaker than them and destroy the world will inevitably fail, and maybe if we put aside our differences, we could team up and get rid of them entirely.
And in the meantime, you can just imagine Aziraphale and Crowley are chatting up on their favorite bench in St. James Park or maybe they're going to your favorite local restaurant because they had to visit your hometown for a 'business trip'.
…But it does make sense that if you're going to do a story that continues from that point, that explores how Heaven and Hell, and the oppressive systems they represent, aren't going to be so easily defeated and they are still going to keep victimizing people and endangering the world - that you're to build up to a Happy Ending where Heaven and Hell are gone, completely. And while the whole 'Humanist Revolution' that has been set up seems like the most thematically-appropriate solution, it's a solution that pretty much has to always be in the future-tense. Again, part of the fantasy is imagining that the Good Omens setting could be our world, and if Humanity is going to wake up to the machinations of Heaven and Hell, put aside our differences and unite together to rise up against them and kill God ourselves… well, that would be pretty hard to imagine this is secretly the world we live in now...
There’s still a lot of different options with different pros and cons, different ways to execute them… Could you dismantle Heaven and Hell while keeping the Angels and Demons as individual life forms that were also victimized by the system? Could you turn all the Angels and Demons Humans and still keep up the illusion that this is our world even thought 20 million new humans suddenly materialized out of nowhere? Could you just trick Heaven and Hell into trying to control a random uninhibited planet for the lols?
But either way, I feel like Good Omens 3 just kinda chose the absolutely worse option? I want to say they ditched the whole delicate balancing act in favor of just treating every Magical element of the show as 100% part of the Metaphorical Oppressive System that therefor must be dismantled… but they didn’t even do a good job of handling that concept! Because, yes, Good Omens Viewers, at the same time they enjoyed the fantasy of living in a world where a Miracle from a mostly-benevolent Angel or a barley-wicked Demon could be just around the corner, did also engage with the aspect of the world that clearly metaphorically mirrored the hardships and oppressions of our world (as well as the clear indications that the literal hardships and oppressions of our world also exist in the Good Omens world).
The Good Omens world didn’t just feel like our world when it made for a pleasant daydream, but also when Crowley and Aziraphale were fighting to escape harmful systems that seem fundamentally inescapable, when the inability to heal from the trauma it left on them was hurting their relationship, when Adam fell into environmental-anxiety-fueled despair for the first time in his young life and his friends had to pull him out of it, when Maggie struggled to keep her family business afloat after the pandemic…
This world felt like ours both in the sense we were supposed to think all of this biblically literal stuff could be secretly happening in the background of our real life and in the sense that the supernatural troubles felt relatable and applicable to the problems we faced in our world. And instead of at least offering us a coherent empowering narrative about defeating these oppressive systems (even at the price of even the Fun Silly Fantasy Element) it just seemed to tell us that our world is doomed to die.
Eventually some powerful idiot is gonna snap and get their hands on the red button while everyone else is too incompetent or selfish or invested in their personal bullshit to stop them and the little people, the Humans, will have no agency to stop it at all and everything and everyone you know and love will die. And not only that, no one never had any hopes of saving the world or truly being free, because the Most Powerful Authority Figure around is just so powerful, there is no way to actually outplay Them. AND NOT ONLY THAT, these systems of oppression have been built so inherently into the foundations of the world, that there’s nothing and no one that could or should be restored from it. The only way to build something remotely better is to start over from scratch.
And the power to build back anything at all doesn't even come from Humanity! Or our protagonists! Or our protagonists' inherent humanity! They basically have to beg the Biggest Authority Figure around to dismantle/not bring back the system and then kill themselves and just trust said Authority Figure won't just break Their promise! There isn't really any good actionable narrative about how to dismantle a system or build things better to hang on to!
And after all of that, the ‘oh, no, THAT wasn’t actually our world! This new better world is ours! Doesn’t it just make you love our world so much knowing it’s so much better than the Good Omens world?’ shtick falls flat for many because the Good Omens world already felt like our world, because it seemed identical to it on the surface and it's fantasy elements were an obvious Metaphor for the troubles plaguing our real world. The same kind of troubles that the Finale spent like ~80 minutes telling us there's no real escape from and will ultimately doom us. And now we have to keep going through all of this without even the comfort of feeling like Humanity's Eternal Gay Uncles are boozing it up somewhere in the world.
Me reading every single analysis on how Gaiman The One Who Ruined Good Omens is the exact person responsible for this entire mess
Some excellent posts delivering Important Facts
Gaiman’s ’Good Omens’ finale revels in heartbreak
How we got the end of Good Omens
No one died so Adam could live
The Shuttered Garden: How the Good Omens Finale Betrayed its Humanistic Roots
Terry Pratchett facts
Bonus: This one’s a real mystery *sarcasm*
I know I said it before, but... when the first season of TV Omens came out and decided to underplay Crowley's whole 'Modernized Methods of Spreading Sins" shtick, in favor of mostly making it seem like he was bullshitting his way through his work and stealing credit for Humanity's evil...
That felt like an understandable adaptational choice. With Crowley and Aziraphale being upgraded to the Actual Main Protagonists, their characterization shifting from "complicit agents of cosmic imperialism" to "victimized corporate cogs", the changing nature of humor from the 90's to Present Day making Random Cruelty seem less Automatically Funny and just generally the other changes Crowley's character making him even more ideologically disconnected from Hell then he was originally....
But, that whole concept of inventing random mundane annoyances was such a central part of Book!Crowley's character I just... didn't really accept the idea that aspect of his character was truly gone, I just thought it was downplayed. I mean, the M25 project still happened, Crowley is still introduced doing his infrastructure sabotage shtick even if the inner monologue explaining his logic for why this is a legitimately effective technique for temptations is cut, Crowley still claims credit for inventing the Selfie even if it's not as strongly confirmed as the random annoyances he created in the book...
I thought that, yeah, Show!Crowley doesn't even have the token cynical allegiance to Hell that Book!Crowley had, but he still likes inventing annoying taxes purely because he is a show-off smartass and because staying on Hell's good better side by being an exemplary employee was better for his self-interest even if he doesn't give a shit about how it benefits them. I even theorized it might be kinda connected to his new 'helped design Nebulas' backstory. Like creating shit like Manchester and Furbies is the closest equivalent to the joy of creating stars that he think he'll ever be allowed as a Demon...
But as we moved into GO2 and GO3, it became more and more clear that this aspect of the character was dropped pretty much completely in adaptation. The M25 was most likely the only large-scale Evil project Show!Crowley has done, he really is just bullshitting excuses for the phone things, and he was definitely just stealing credit for the Selfie. And it's just... a huge bummer I think. Again, this was one of Crowley's defining characteristics in the book, and a major running joke in both the canon and the fandom. It's true that, like I said, in the 2020's maybe you can't immediately introduce one of your Main Lovable Protagonists the guy whose job it is to make sure you had a shit day at work and he's actually kinda proud of it?
But I feel like there was a way to loop Crowley's projects back into the narrative, I've said it before as well but... it really does defang the point your story is trying to make about the beauty in moral ambiguity if you can't even allow one of your main characters to be the kind of guy (gender neutral) who enjoys hot-gluing coins on the sidewalk. It's okay if Crowley is a little shit or selfish in his own way. If he's got actual shades of gray and wasn't just 'too kind and caring for Heaven' and really grumpy about it. (On kind of a metatextual level, maybe retconning out Crowley's projects is the reason why Show!Crowley seems to be getting gloomier and gloomier every season... They unwritten one of his main hobbies and sources of pride out of existence).
I've been considering the idea of, like, what if the story just treated Crowley's mischief slightly more seriously... Like, just tried to explore this idea that yeah, it's funny and relatable and maybe even understandable that Crowley has been doing this minor mischief and inventing small frustrations just so his bosses will get off his back and let him go on dates with his boyfriend at peace and maybe because it's the closest he'll ever get to hanging stars in the sky ever again. But maybe we can also explore the perspective of the humans who used to get caught up in his shenanigans? Like, use this thread as a jumping-off point to explore the same sort of "it's just me and my Angel against it all" attitude that also keeps leading Show!Crowley to repeatedly suggest giving up on saving the world and fucking off to the stars?
I'd say there's even groundworks for that in the original book! Like, Crowley and Aziraphale are absolutely not the main focus of the book and don't have the same prominent arcs as their Show counterparts get in S1, but... if you look very closely, they absolutely do still have arcs.
Aziraphale has roughly the same Arc between the Book and the Show, just with the show turning up the drama waaaay up. Book!Aziraphale does start out notably more jaded about Heaven...
But he does talk himself (and allows Crowley to talk him) into believing Heaven would want him to prevent Armageddon...
Right until that talk with the Metatron, which shatters what little faith in Heaven he had left...
Which also leads to him swearing for the first time in four thousand years, and shifting from "Oh, we have to do something about the Antichrist.... but nothing too horrible obviously" to "I am going to lie-by-omission (and also just plain lie) these humans into shooting the 11-years-old dead for me".
Meanwhile, Crowley... there are definitely moments when you can say 'okay, yeah, these are the same story/character beats from the book, but with More Drama...
But while Show!Crowley has his Alpha Centauri stuff, which was an interesting way to add extra stakes, this possibility of a selfish escape from doom. Which would probably not even work in the Novel, in which the Universe is implied to not only be a much younger world that is scientifically indistinguishable from a billions-of-years-old universe as a Sick Prank from God, but is also a much smaller world that is scientifically indistinguishable from an infinite universe as a Sick Prank from God.
Book!Crowley, I think, has a thread regarding, much like Aziraphale, what he feels about his job. So much of the Crowley's perspective early in the book is essentially about him justifying and rationalizing what he does. I mean, humans do way worse then what I can think of anyways! It's all about Free Will! Which I don't even have, I don't have a choice but to do my job! Like, the observations about human cruelty and kindness and free will are meant to be poignant and important to themes of the story.... but they are also just kinda Crowley rationalizing why he keeps programming traffic lights with durations that are just annoying enough to tempt people to run the red light.
And then the M25 happens, and Crowley is finally directly faced with the consequences of his meddling, the fact that his job does have a real effect on people, and on him, and his narration takes on a very different tone...
Crowley ends up having to sacrifice the Bentley, his one most prized possession in the whole world, because of this mess. And then when Adam notices him for the first time and seem to supernaturally identify what Crowley and what he is done, and Crowley seems to instinctively know that he's got a lot to answer for...
Because Adam's relation and feelings about Crowley and Aziraphale are not straightforwardly positive as they were portrayed/implied in the show. Like, the metaphor here is Cold War spies, Crowley and Aziraphale are complicit in Cosmic Imperialism, even if they were mostly interested in minimizing their work and maximizing the amount of fucking about and General Hedonism they were doing. They were on the side of preventing the War from heating over because the Cold War status que benefited them, but that's not quite the same as being good for Humanity, as far as Adam is concerned. And while he calls both of them out equally, the narrative focuses on Crowley's emotional reaction.
although it did also affected Aziraphale as well, because all of this, Crowley's being faced with the consequences of his mischief and the way humans must feel about them, Aziraphale losing the last bits of faith he had in Heaven... That all leads into the closest thing in previous GO Canon to the GO3 Ending.
It is the culmination for their arcs here. The whole recurring thing about how Aziraphale is supposed to intrinsically always do the right thing and Crowley has no choice but to do 'Evil', going all the way back to their first discussion in Eden. Crowley and Aziraphale both realize that however inconsequential and/or benevolent their work might've seen to them, it did cause a lot of troubles for humanity, they are the main representative of Heaven and Hell on Earth right now, so they need to take responsibility for that, by sacrificing themselves to give the Humans time to escape Literal Satan.
Of course, the central joke here is that this is far too dramatic for a silly comedy like Good Omens, and that Crowley and Aziraphale are just not the Heroes, or even Anti-Heroes, of the story. So the actual protagonist, Adam, comes in and solve the entire problem for everyone causality-free...
And then they just... settle back into their old ways, more or less. Because, again, they're just a couple of complicit selfish hedonists at the end of the day (but it's okay because they're OUR complicit selfish hedonists uwu). The other joke here is that this whole story was about shades of grey, and it's kinda okay if Crowley and Aziraphale only ever wanted to help Earth and Humanity out of their own self interest. That's actually very Human of them. the main thing they actually seem to learn out of it all is Crowley’s new found realization (until he gets mindwiped) about the sheer Scope of God’s Ineffability and control of everything that happened. Which is kinda the other biggest set-up to GO3, but is played up much more… joviality here.
I can... understand the logic that if you're doing any sort of Good Omens continuation where Crowley and Aziraphale are the actual Main Protagonists, that means you have to circle again to the Sacrifice but this time actually going through with it. Like, I honestly believe there are very little story concepts that are Inherently Bad, it’s all about execution, the devil’s in the details, so to speak. TV Omens just failed to meaningfully build up to that ‘Sacrifice’ at the end of GO3 for so so many reasons. This post is already long enough as it is, I can’t even begin to list them all. But a big factor is that we kinda…. lost the arcs that led into it the first go around. They were both already kinda trying to retire from their jobs. Aziraphale had an arc about getting disillusioned with Heaven in GO1, only for the show to walk back on it and have him, even minutes before the supposed ‘culmination’ of his arc, still hold the perception that Angels = Inherently Good.
And meanwhile, Crowley got even less. The switch from “let’s just run away from it all and be happy together” to “we have to sacrifice ourselves for all of humanity” happened way too abruptly and with very little actual connective tissue. Partly because that connective tissue used to be made from all the rougher edges and sharper corners that were gradually sanded off TV!Crowley.
And like, if the point of GO3 is to kinda deconstruct GO1’s optimism about Free Will at the face of an omnipotent and omniscient deity… instead of pulling on these random Crowley Quotes in the Climax even though they kinda make the opposite point of what this ending is trying to say and make it seem like after all of this journey, we still can’t actually find something more insightful to say then what was printed in the start of the 1990 book….
Why not give these lines the full ‘Resurrectionist’ treatment? Like, take a bit that was presented in the Book in a more ambiguous manner and spend some time REALLY deconstructing and arguing against it?
Have Crowley start out espousing those lines about Free Will and how he doesn’t really have it but how Humans have it and that’s wonderful, then have an experience that gets him disillusioned with the concept, while also facing the realization he was kinda using this logic to Justify Being an Asshole (or because he genuinely felt he had to please Hell to be safe but also wanted to prove how Smart he is, or because it was one of the few outlets to his creativity he had left available to him or…)
Well, the big hitch with the whole thing is the whole ‘Universe Reset’ thing, the more involvement, even comedic intentionally silly involvement, Crowley canonically has in Mortal affairs the Weirder it becomes that the new godless universe is implied to be ours and is, on the surface, 100% identical to the original timeline. But, like… that aspect of the Finale also Sucked Ass for Many Reasons, so I certainly wouldn’t mind another excuse for dropping it. Just have Crowley and Aziraphale sacrifice their immortality and powers to make all the Angels and Demons human, that's a big enough gesture as it is.
I mean, this is just a random suggestion, mostly stream-of-consciousness. You don’t have to reintroduce Crowley’s Actually Doing His Job and Being Damn Good at it to make GO3 make sense. And I don’t think that exploring Crowley’s mischief means you have to build up towards a GO3 ending either. There are plenty of character arcs and character conclusions you can build off the idea of Crowley doing, and even kinda enjoying, his Job. (I do really think it works well synergizing with an arc about how Selfish the fantasy of abandoning the Earth for Alpha Centauri is. Crowley is absolutely capable of caring and kindness! It’s just that fear, of Hell, of the Apocalypse, makes him shrink down his world to just himself and Aziraphale).
Maybe if you tone it down enough you can even just keep it as just a silly little running gag even… Again, this story is about moral ambiguity and the beauty in moral imperfection, Crowley and Aziraphale are Human enough that they don’t need to be 100% morally upstanding all the time to be lovable protagonists! Having satisfying character arcs as main characters doesn’t have to mean overcoming every single personal foible!
It’s just…modernizing sin-spreading was such an important part of Book!Crowley character, it’s literally how he’s introduced to the readers, and I love him so much for it… There were so many ways to fold that into the show continuity and it makes me kinda sad to realize they just… gave up on it.
No one will be able to convince me that the Good Omens finale was what Crowley wanted. Not Crowley. No way.
He ended Season 2 here:
and in the lead up to S3 we learned he had been spending his time like this
and you want me to believe that he didn't want this
(sure you do, angel, apart from the whole being a demon bit, fallen, unforgivable, that's what I--)
and that he wasn’t hoping for this?
Sure. Right.
That’s.. a nah.
And you know what, I think it’s actually so incredibly reasonable and healthy to be angry still.
I think it’s important that folks keep speaking on their feelings regarding the Good Omens finale if they want to and feel safe to, but the sad reality is that so many folks don’t feel safe right now (and for good reason).
I don’t know, y’all. While I can appreciate the sentiment behind “we should all just get along/please stop posting inflammatory takes/we will all feel better soon and reunite/we should be thinking of the fandom at large” posts, they don’t sit right with me. Because why should I or anyone else censor our feelings and opinions? What good is a community if you’re not allowed to express an opinion or emotion that is labeled as negative and undesirable? Why should I force myself to be in community with the people who are showing their true colors right now?
Maybe I’m… not glad, exactly, but sort of grateful to stand corrected on spaces I thought were safe and people I thought were safe, too. Maybe I’m not sure I want to reintegrate with people who think I’m either media illiterate, immature, willfully ignorant or just “stirring things up” on purpose? Maybe I don’t want to be around those saying “if you don’t like the Good Omens finale you should just stop talking about it so those of us who like it aren’t dragged down”?
Maybe the burden of shutting up so as not to offend the more incendiary factions on any side shouldn’t be put on the fandom? Maybe feelings and grief and anger and frustration are messy but that doesn’t make them inherently bad and people have a right to speak on those things without fear?
Maybe all feelings, “good” or “bad”, deserve space?
I also DEEPLY resent this implication that those of us who don’t like the finale are harassing the crew or cast. A very, VERY tiny minority crossed that line while the rest of us would never DREAM of it, so I’m not going to pander to anyone and add on anytning like of course you should never harass the crew or cast because we know that. We all know that. We shouldn’t have to add a disclaimer that we aren’t endorsing aggression and violence just because we hate this piece of public media.
ANYWAY it’s been three weeks and every day I find something else about this 96 minutes of foolery that I cannot stand or that shatters another part of me. I am dedicated to disregarding it as much as I can and I just want everyone to know— everyone who is hurt or decimated or infuriated or depressed or lost or anything of the sort— that it is okay to feel however you feel. I wish none of us had to feel any of this, and god knows we wanted to love this SO badly.
We only feel the way we do because we have such a deep love for Good Omens and its characters and themes.
So don’t let the bastards get you down, I guess is what I’m saying. Your feelings matter JUST AS MUCH as those who loved this finale. Take up space. Don’t let anyone tell you how to feel.
This soooo much. We love this show and that's why we feel so betrayed by this Tragedy with the OOC Angel and Demon that lacks internal consistency written by a person who seemingly wanted to create pain.