The Bat Ladder

he/him

[the-muppet-joker]

Time to start MAXMAXXING. I will DO EVERYTHING. BE EVERYTHING. FEEL NOTHING. HOLLOW MYSELF OUT AND BECOME THE PERFECT VESSEL. FROM NOW ON, I AM ONLY EATING CANNED SARDINES AND DRINKINKING MY OWN BATH WATER!!! I WILL BE MEWING AND MOGGING 25 MISERABLE HOURS A DAY!!!!!! FUCK YOU!!!!

[armageddidnt]

The 5 real themes of good omens that the finale completely botched

I know we only had 1 episode and whole plotlines were scrapped but I was just left feeling so empty after the finale given how powerful and moving and profound the themes of season 1/the book were. So buckle up for a long ride let's talk about it

Theme 1: Human Incarnate

The book and the show established that humanity is unique because it is neither purely good or purely bad. From the book: "Most of the great triumphs and tragedies of history are caused not by people being fundamentally good or fundamentally evil, but by people being fundamentally people." This Aziraphale describes as "much better" than either Heaven or Hell

This is one of my favorite sequences in the whole show. And the music is soaring and gorgeous. Adam recalls the things in his life he has come to know and love; his parents, his friends, his dog, his home. He makes it have nice weather all year. Aziraphale could feel that love at the Tadfield Manor. Heaven and Hell tried to create an instrument of destruction. But by putting that inside a human boy, they didn't realize the strength of one boy's love would be strong enough to literally burn the hell out of him. He told Satan himself to shove it and rewrote reality to have the dad he truly loved. The power of humanity's love is stronger than any immortal power could ever be.

This is the idea that would have been so cool for the finale but unfortunately never paid off. As the second coming prepares to destroy Earth again, Aziraphale and Crowley could have teamed up with the power of humanity to reshape heaven and hell for good. Adam and Jesus as the antichrist and christ born to end the world and instead used their humanity to save it. Instead we got the book-of-life arc and humans were literally left to dust

Theme 2: Free Will

Next good omens establishes that angels and demons are just puppets but humans are the ones with real free will because they have the ability to be good or bad. Even with heaven and hell, the humans on Earth always have a choice. In season 2, they agree on this, but Crowley's main grievance is the inequity of it all. Humans have free will but it still isn't fair.

God made angels and demons and humans but the humans never had to follow her 'plan.' Free will and the ability to recognize what is truly right outside the propaganda of good vs evil is what saves the world.

Humans always had free will, even if God was around to kill a bunch of them with floods or take their stuff to win bets or something. Creating a new universe without God wouldn't change that. They would still have free will, just less threats from above/below, I guess. What Crowley's established character really should have wanted here was to fix the inequity inherent in human society. That's what is truly holding them back, not a lack of will. Removing God from the universe doesn't actually solve the root problem here

Theme 3: Our Own Side

This is something Crowley learned very early and spends the whole show trying to teach Aziraphale. That good must be separated from heaven and bad must be separated from hell.

Heaven can do some truly appalling horrors and demons, at least Crowley (and somewhat Beelzebub I guess) have the potential to be kind. 'Their own side' is one where they have the freedom of humanity, to do what is truly right. Aziraphale and Crowley sort of found their way there in the finale, but it was all rushed and Aziraphale never really turned his back on heaven, it sort of just became irrelevant when everything started disappearing. What a beautifully flawed and nice world they could have created together

Theme 4: Love Conquers all

What was it all for? Love. God made Aziraphale and Crowley for each other because she liked to smile at the silliness of their love. The literal only constant in the entire universe. Their love for the world and each other saved it. I think the decision to turn Aziraphale and Crowley's queer love story into a tragedy was the biggest mistake of seasons 2/3. Forcing the soft and romantic comedy of good omens into a queer tragedy was the instant it all crashed and burned. Now everything is tainted leading up to the pain and destruction of it all and the whimsy and lightness is gone. There were moments of it, but it was all leading toward the end. And queer love deserves to not be a tragedy. We have far too much tragic queer love in our society. Yes we got the south downs, but Aziraphale and Crowley never got to experience that freedom. They finally came together just to instantly be destroyed. We deserve happy and fulfilling queer love that is sweet without the bitter parts. Good omens was intended to be a comedy, not a tragedy

And then this was SUCH A COOL IDEA they introduced. Perhaps the first time ever an angel and a demon performed a miracle together. The power of their love could create magic stronger than anything heaven or hell had ever seen. I was so excited to see the wonders they were going to create, they ways in which they could have rebuilt the world better using that love. If they had this kind of power doing a tiny miracle, what could they have accomplished if they really put their minds to it? God herself couldn't have stopped them. And instead, the finale literally revoked Crowley's magic for the entire episode. They sacrifice themselves for a new earth and people that didn’t even exist yet instead of using any of their power to change it. The god awful execution of this theme is probably the biggest letdown of the entire finale imo

Theme 5: Fix It, Don't Replace It

This is so obviously established in seasons 1/2 I cannot believe how badly they missed the mark with this one

Literally shows us the horror of replacing the Earth with all new people. Even children can recognize that just because something is broken, it doesn't mean you throw it away and start all over. They loved the world enough to want to save it. The world is inherently worth saving, flaws and all. If you love something, you don't abandon it. The ENTIRE PLOT of season 1 explores the horrors of humanity and yet humans, Aziraphale and Crowley do everything in their power to save it.

It absolutely blows my mind how directly this scene contradicts the entire message of the finale. Job didn't want new children, he quite liked the old ones. Aziraphale and Crowley didn't want the antichrist's new Earth, they quite liked the old one. We didn't want new human versions of Aziraphale and Crowley, we QUITE LIKED THE OLD ONES. Where the hell did that mentality go when they told God to create an entirely new universe????????????? Season 1 said the world is flawed but it deserves saving exactly as it is. Season 1 said an angel and a demon go off to the ritz together, exactly as they are. The finale said the world is too broken, we have to make it disappear and start over. The finale said Aziraphale and Crowley have too many issues/traumas to be happy, we have to destroy them and start over. That's why as cute as Asa and Anthony's love is, we quite liked them exactly as they were, angel/demon trauma + history and all. They deserved saving too.

Good omens has always been so special to me for how much it pokes fun at but also celebrates the messiness and wonder of humanity and love. The 6-to-1 episodes was a major setback but somehow the finale still managed to drop basically every one of its most endearing and powerful messages. What is the "real world" the finale is trying to make us value? One without a god to screw things up sometimes?? The best parts of humanity always shined through not even despite, but BECAUSE of the heavenly challenges they overcame. It's very clear good omens as a whole was always meant to be a one-season/one-book story. There was so much potential and missed opportunities and I wish we could have had the finale we were all dreaming of. I will always love the world of good omens season 1/the book, so that is the world I'll keep in my heart. And all the nightingales therein

[holyoleo]

Finally was able to process some of my thoughts on GO3 SPOILERS BELOW!

The finale was exactly what I was expecting up until the end.

I knew the pacing would be bad, I knew the writing would be mid, and I knew that over-all it would be mediocre at best. But I thought it would still leave us with something.

Instead, the two characters whom readers and viewers followed through more than 6000 years, the characters that caused a second season to be made in the first place are just… gone. Not just gone––they never even EXISTED.

Was it technically a happy ending? Yes. But did it essentially retcon the ENTIRE SERIES? Yeah!

Then, like a slap in the face, they show us two random humans who happen to have similar names and are played by the same actors and act like they're showing us Aziraphale and Crowley in a South Downs cottage. But that's not Aziraphale and Crowley. It's Asa Fell and Anthony Crowley. They have none of the history and none of the memories. It's not them, and acting like it is goes against a lot of what the series has been pointing out to us since the book was first published:

humans are unique. They aren't like angels and demons, even if angels and demons aren't as cut and dry as people thing they are. These two men aren't Crowley and Aziraphale because they can't be. That's the whole point.

anyways, ever since it came out, I've considered GO2 to be sort of a separate entity from Good Omens because Terry Pratchett passed before the show was made and he was a lot of the heart of Good Omens.

[holyoleo]

Good SuperLock should be the new SuperWhoLock

The holy trinity of "WHAT THE FUCK WAS THAT ENDING?"

plus we get to keep David Tennant in there!

[mrosetta]

so happy for these random old men who we nothing about! yay!

would have loved to see the two main charcters who we have followed and gotten to know throughout the last two seasons end up happy but whatever. it's fine.

[holyoleo]

You don't get it, they have the same names! that makes them the same!

[mrosetta]

ah of course! and their unique shared history as two immortal beings from before the creation of the universe, through every major historical event, to the now, and all the intricacies of their journey is all held in their names! how could i forget…

[holyoleo]

Good Omens 3 took Bury Your Gays to a whole new level

[mawofthemagnetar]

What do you mean “chat” is now referring to ChatGPT and not twitch chat? What? What? What the fuck? No?

When I address chat I am speaking to a presumed Greek chorus of real human people shitposting on their lunch break, not a machine that devours lakes to covert electricity into slop.

[aqueerkettleofish]

For those who have missed it, a tourist in Hawaii decided it would be fun to chuck a rock (a BIG rock) at a monk seal. He missed, but he was captured on video, and when told it was illegal to interfere with them, said "I'm rich, I can pay the fine."

Is the best part that he got doxxed? No.

Is the best part that he got tracked down by a local and beaten? No.

Arrested on state at federal charges, looking at up to 5 years and 50K? Nope.

The best part is the local city council's reaction.

And the best part of that is the look on the attorney's face.

[mrosetta]

so happy for these random old men who we nothing about! yay!

would have loved to see the two main charcters who we have followed and gotten to know throughout the last two seasons end up happy but whatever. it's fine.

[holyoleo]

You don't get it, they have the same names! that makes them the same!

[mrosetta]

so happy for these random old men who we nothing about! yay!

would have loved to see the two main charcters who we have followed and gotten to know throughout the last two seasons end up happy but whatever. it's fine.

[rantingaboutbadwriting]

The Good Omens finale makes me feel like what Job and Sitis would have felt if they actually got 6 new children instead of 3 of their old ones..

[holyoleo]

real screenshot from GO3

[holyoleo]

was it shit? yeah

am I happy? yeah, cause we knew it would be, and we still got our south downs cottage

[holyoleo]

my favorite thing the MythBusters did was testing how easy it really is to take candy from a baby. They used a little robotic claw to measure how much force it took to physically pull lollipops away from a myriad of babies. They ran into three obstacles in their tests.

Babies tend to be scared of robotic arms held by a strange man that is trying to take their lollipop away

Babies won't just sit there and will in fact try to move their candy around so that the robotic arm held by a strange man cannot take their lollipop away

Babies will start crying if a robotic arm held by a strange man tries to take their lollipop away, making the strange man holding the robotic arm feel guilty and subsequently stop trying to to take their lollipop away

Conclusion: It's pretty easy to take candy from a baby, so long as you're not a strange man using a robotic arm designed specifically to measure how easy it is to take candy from a baby. It is, however, relatively more difficult to take candy from a baby rather than just picking it up. 25x more difficult.

[holyoleo]

i hate how often politics become an argument of individual rights vs public order, when an individual is inseparable from the society they exist within and society is inseparable from the people that make it up

[dragon-in-a-fez]

keep thinking about how I wrote in my dissertation about how every time a new form of public/social space emerges it's immediately popular with kids and teenagers who see it as a chance at freedom and then adults colonise it and kick them out. this happened with malls in the 80s and diners in the 50s and pool halls in the 20s. my dad was doing research on this trend in like 1975. and I was like "yeah so this is going to happen to the internet" and then five years later every government suddenly decided to ban kids from everywhere online. I hate being right especially when I don't even get paid for it

[the-muppet-joker]

My three musketeers.

And yes, they smoke weed