I'm sure this has been said already but hear me out. As an asexual, I recognize that Crowley and Aziraphale don't NEED to kiss to show each other affection, however, if it were a heterosexual couple, it wouldn't even be a question. They would've kissed. They would've hugged. We would've seen a wedding for their alternate selves, likely them meeting at a younger age so they can have kids. Maybe adopting kids. However, all we get is a shot of a wedding ring. Not both rings, just the one on Crowley's hand, leaving us to assume that the other is on Aziraphale. And I'm not here trying to peddle some conspiracy that they aren't married, it's just something I noticed.
Some thoughts on why Good Omens S3 felt so disappointing from a queer theory perspective; major spoilers below the cut:
I wanted to organize my many scattered thoughts after watching the new season today, and try to put my finger on just what made the finale so disappointing as a queer story.
I find Aziraphale and Crowley to be queer in four major ways:
1. Most obviously, they are both male-presenting beings in love with each other.
2. They are magical/incorporeal beings that canonically lack human gender.
3. They actively work to counter the dominant systems in control of their lives to forge their own way forward (especially Crowley).
4. Their story spans countless times and places, weaving through different eras of history and prehistory and defying linear time.
In order to explain points 3 and 4, I'm going to perform the classic trick of pulling out Jose Esteban Muñoz’s Cruising Utopia. Part of Cruising Utopia examines the concept of queer time, which Muñoz characterizes as a time that is never fully arrived at due to its constant diversion from the status quo (which, of course, changes throughout time, rendering the queer experience ever-striving). Queer time is a continual process with no possible end, but one that is nonetheless carried out with hope and care despite its impossibility. It dovetails neatly with the philosophy of positive absurdism where, despite the chaos and cruelty of a random universe, the best thing to do is live anyway with all the love and kindness you can. This is a theme that is incredibly prevalent in Terry Pratchett’s parts of the Good Omens book, specifically the storyline of Adam coming into his powers as the Antichrist.
Adam is constantly cajoled by a thrum of deep voices goading him to start the world afresh. The world is rotten and falling apart, they tell him. The only thing to do is destroy it all and rebuild it in your own image. It’s a selfish outlook, and one that is incredibly easy to fall into as humans with limited time on Earth. There’s no shame in having this outlook as far as Heaven and Hell are concerned. But Adam resists with Aziraphale and Crowley’s help, insisting that the connections he has with his friends and family and the inherent messiness and complexity of humanity is precisely why the world should remain the way it is. It’s a really beautiful sentiment (and a very Pratchett one). If we all gave in to apathy about changing the world and loving those around us, then we wouldn’t be living much of a life at all. In encouraging Adam to make his own human choices, regardless of what Heaven and Hell (the status quo) want, Aziraphale and Crowley demonstrate a queer ethos and an alignment with queer time. They may never see humanity fully at peace, but they can do their best to shepherd them on that quest.
When God gives them the “choice” to remake the world in S3, it doesn’t feel like much of a choice at all. Throughout the book and the previous two seasons, Heaven and Hell are depicted as overstuffed, underperforming bureaucracies who often aren’t aware of their own goals due to the indecipherable power structures. All they seem to be concerned with is sticking it to The Enemy. There are some occasional scenes where they are seen punishing humanity, but never on a scale strong enough to show that they’re actually good at their job of policing human morality (and it’s almost always to prove their cruelty to each other, like when the story of Job ends up being a bet between the two organizations to see who’s truly the best. Humans are just collateral in this eternal beef). When Aziraphale and Crowley opt to “remake” the world without Heaven and Hell dictating human actions, it feels like a fool’s errand. Heaven and Hell were never effective in policing humanity previously, and so it doesn’t change much when they are erased at the end of S3.
Additionally, by doing this, Aziraphale and Crowley abandon their pursuit of queer time, no longer fighting against the status quo and essentially giving themselves up as sacrificial lambs. It’s admirable that they’re willing to be on each other’s side so much that they will cease to exist, but it also means that their millennia-long pursuit of shepherding and loving humanity comes to an end. It’s a really hard pill to swallow for me, personally, and I feel like I can’t pass informed judgement on it with how short the scene was and with how out of character they both acted. (It’s extra heartbreaking to have them decide to do this under an apple tree and then never delve into the significance of that.)
The issue of there being no kiss is a really nuanced one. As someone on both the aro and ace spectrums, I’m all for different expressions and explorations of what love can be. Aziraphale and Crowley are really interesting characters for this since they aren’t human, and have been confirmed to be asexual/sexless beings. I enjoyed the novelty of the finger kiss, especially since Aziraphale has so many Victorian dandy-esque tendencies that could understandably lend themselves to such a gesture of affection. However, it felt incredibly flat and narratively unfulfilling for a few reasons.
Firstly, while there was potential for exploration of how an angel and demon might show their affection for each other in contrast to two humans, that was sadly never shown. Their love story was intentionally paralleled with a human one (Nina and Maggie in S2), so there was every reason to expect that they would mimic human social customs after living among them for so long.
Secondly, it perfectly encapsulates a major issue I have with the finale, which is that it is clearly a well-meaning story made by allies, but one that lacks any true queer substance. The finger kiss and hand holding happened without Aziraphale ever apologizing for his patronizing attitude towards Crowley and without him ever explicitly telling Crowley that he loved him. God states that They were always amused by Aziraphale’s love for Crowley ever since the Beginning. Aziraphale states that with Crowley, he was complete, but that that was taken away from him after Crowley’s Fall. All of this dialogue is clearly meant to be unassailable proof of their love for each other, especially when combined with the millennia of acts of service for each other. However, it doesn’t actually delve into the heart of their love, and fails to give it proper substance. The screenplay is content to let the audience know that Aziraphale and Crowley love each other without actually showing us a moment where the two explicitly verbally confirm it. Again, this could be interesting if the angle of a queer connection outside of human customs was explored, but since that isn’t delved into, the confirmation of their love ends up feeling rushed and unsure (and it never comes straight from their own mouths, which feels incredibly disappointing). It’s yet another instance of an issue that has cropped up in recent years now that queer media is more mainstream, which I like to call Being Gay Is Fine As Long As You Don’t Do Any of That Kissing Stuff.
Rachel Talalay, the director of this season, said in an interview that she, Michael Sheen, and David Tennant felt that showing another mouth-to-mouth kiss would have “the same or less” impact as the one in the S2 finale. Complete mismatch of stakes aside, this quote shows a fundamental misinterpretation of how to depict queer intimacy. Talalay says in the same interview that “they [the fandom] desperately want [a kiss], and they can write their whole sex scenes in fanfic.” In doing so, she equates showing a queer kiss or makeout scene with sexual activity, and subconsciously reveals that she feels that such queer intimacy is too “on the nose.” This feels to me like a clear watering down of queer desire in the service of what allies feel to be “more meaningful” — aka These People Really Love Each Other (We Promise!) But Not Enough To Kiss Onscreen (Don’t Be Ridiculous). It’s a sort of unintentional infantilization and refusal to let queer couples stand on common ground with straight ones. (You never hear this kind of thing being said about cishetero couples.) This stings even more because she, Sheen, and Tennant are demonstrably great allies to the queer community, but this interview shows the fundamental disconnect between well-meaning allyship and true, firsthand queer experience (what’s that Crowley said about the road to Hell?). I’m in no way saying that anyone on this show had malicious intent, but the subtext of the season and cast/crew interviews is still very telling of the storytellers’ biases.
This is carried even further by choosing to reincarnate Aziraphale and Crowley as humans. In gaining corporeal, human forms, the queer significance of their nonbinary, magical forms is stolen away from them. The millennia of queer time they spent arguing and questioning and striving and laughing together is erased, and they are sentenced to a few linear decades of marriage, looking feebly up at stars they once created. I won’t lie and say that it wasn’t touching to see an older gay couple have a meet-cute resulting in marriage onscreen. It’s true that there’s a beauty in the fact that they’ll find each other in every universe — but we only see two of those universes, and they won’t get to live in the one they helped create and cherish together. If that’s the case, then what’s the point? (And fuck that nightingale!!)
If you got this far, thank you so much for reading! I definitely have many more thoughts about the finale, but those are all the ones that pertain to specifically queer theory and queer themes throughout the show. I’d love to hear what others have to say, whether you agree with my points or not! (But of course please be civil. I don’t pretend to speak for every queer person. Variety is what makes us so beautiful after all!) I’m really bummed that this is how the show ended after years of waiting, but it does provide interesting insight into how queerness is portrayed in pop culture and viewed by society at large, for better or for worse.
Aziraphale turning away to hide his reaction because he knows that Crowley is making the right decision as he knew he would, but it's his fault. It's his fault Crowley is choosing humanity over them because he ruined their chance. If Aziraphale hadn't gone to heaven none of this would have happened. Because Aziraphale does not do what is right, he never has. Crowley does.
And Crowley is standing there, asking "did I say the wrong thing" (again).
The destruction of the entire universe and every soul in it is a truly depressing ending. Just because God replaced it with another universe that looked similar doesn't change anything - this is Job and his children all over again. Job doesn't want new children, and neither do I.
I would have liked that when Aziraphale and Crowley met in the new universe they would have said "Have I met you before? You seem pretty familiar" "Me too, I think I have seen you before" that would have been perfect.
Eventually the universe did look out for Crowley. He and Aziraphale found each other after billions of years, fell in love, had a south-downs cottage and like he said: "I have the universe and I have you." It wasn't the ending we wanted I think, but it was definitely the ending they deserved, though it was sad to see all of their history gone. But they gave up everything for humanity, their chance to be an 'us'. And they finally communicated directly, instead of dancing around each other!!! Aziraphale asking him for dinner was just peak. And we got a finale. It could have been so much worse than this.
Aziraphale literally says it’s just us two now when they’re in the bookshop at the end, like there is LITERALLY nothing else that exists in the universe, NOTHING that can prevent them from being together openly and without fear…
And they still stay 5 feet apart, no touching, no declaration, no KISS now that it’s only the two of them… no moment of relief like “wow we can finally be honest and tender and loving towards each other because there is literally NO reason not to be anymore”???
No fear of heaven or hell, nothing that even exists outside of the two of them and still… nothing??
Their love should have been the most important thing… that’s what has been there since the very beginning of everything. Their love for each other. And it’s like suddenly it didn’t matter anymore? Sad. Idk…
I know that its not them who get to live out their happily ever after that's the point babes.
I know that God destroying their 6000-year history #sux and means that none of it ever happened but guess what: THERE IS NO GOD. THERE IS NO HEAVEN OR HELL IRL
The magic of that ending is that this is actually our world. I was lowkey blown away by the notion that all those former angels and demons are just existing as people. For all we know, the story is true, and any of us could've been an angel too.
There's something outrageously hopeful about the fact that, despite not knowing, they do find each other in this life. They get what they've always wanted. (AND THEY KNOW IT, even if they don't know it)
Listen, I’m satisfied with the ending, as I know we might as well have gotten nothing.
They’re together and deep down I believe that they feel they’ve known each other for 6,000 years, maybe a part of them is still there.
However, I genuinely think it ruins the book and the TV series, maybe more the series than the book. Like I cannot rewatch it now, I’ll be thinking “this was all for nothing” or that they really didn’t get a happy ending for themselves. My belief is that somewhere in their hearts they’re still Crowley and Aziraphale, but maybe that’s just wishful thinking. That’s how I’ll deal with it tho.
