infinite variety

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[firstvisittoearth]

The Book of Life / The Book of Love

[disneyprincessdxminatrix]

being late getting into a piece of media or joining a ‘dead’ fandom is not that bad actually cause even if it seems like the party is over there will always be people still celebrating and the decoration is still up and there’s a piece of cake reserved especially for you in the fridge you just have to come and enjoy it.

[chronologicalerrors]

Fan Theory: Neil Gaiman used the Good Omens sequel's ending in Season 1. By Season 3, there was nothing left.

Here is my theory about the ending of Good Omens Season 3: it wasn't the ending that was always planned. 

The ending that was always planned was actually this one:

or, why Terry's final ending was always the face-swap ending we saw at the end of Season One.

Let me present the evidence:

Season 3 was to be based on 668: The Neighbour of the Beast — the sequel that Gaiman and Terry Pratchett plotted together in a hotel room in 1989 but never actually wrote. By 2019, Gaiman confirmed it only existed as a plot, not some unfinished manuscript or even drafts and notes [source]. Nevertheless, it was sold as the story Terry always wanted to tell:

"Terry was clear on what he wanted from Good Omens on the telly. He wanted the story told, and if that worked, he wanted the rest of the story told." [source]

We know a handful of things about what this sequel was supposed to cover. First, The Second Coming and a flight to America (which we did see fragments of on screen). But also, and more importantly for this theory: the inner workings of Heaven and Hell. In interviews during Season One, Gaiman said a lot of the sequel was about "where the angels actually came from." [source]

When building the world of Good Omens the TV show, NG drew heavily on the sequel's ideas. He has said so directly:

"I stole stuff from the sequel we never did and put it in this series." [source]

"A lot of the trappings and the idea of what propelled book two into existence wound up integral to what I did in Good Omens the TV series." [source]

In the original book, we don't actually see many other angels or demons. The Heaven and Hell we see in Season 1 — the corporate offices, the hellish basement, Gabriel too — all of it came from the sequel.

(These guys were not the original book. Metatron was though.)

In a 2019 Guardian interview, Gaiman confirmed that the visual concept of Heaven and Hell as a shared building came directly from the unwritten book:

"It's all one beautiful skyscraper and the angels have the fantastic offices right at the top, and hell is the basement rooms that nobody really wants to be in." [source]

Gaiman did also note at the time as this was all very useful in building out the world of Good Omens for the show: "We never actually see the people behind the scenes who are very, very keen on Armageddon [in the original book]" [source]. But importantly, all of this was something that had left to be explored in the sequel novel, which he was now cribbing from.

I can imagine this all being an interesting development in the sequel book, very Pratchett-esque in its humour, with a bunch of suited angels all gung-ho about The Second Coming after the first apocalypse was called off, and the absolute corporate nightmare of trying to talk to get to someone actually in charge...

But if a bulk of the plot was about Heaven and Hell's office culture, then doesn't Aziraphale and Crowley's face-swap ending from Season 1 fit perfectly here?

Per the Radio Times, Gaiman has admitted: "When I got to episode six [of Season One], I realised that I ran out of story halfway through, so I was going to need more story to take me to the end." [source]. He never said he went back to the ideas for the sequel for this bit, but it does rather make sense.

With so much focus supposed to be on their Head Offices in the sequel book, wouldn't Aziraphale and Crowley effectively getting fired and set for destruction in Hell Fire/Holy Water, wouldn't them tricking their respective superiors into finally leaving them alone be a fitting ending to that story? It just works really well, narratively.

And isn't the face swap also a bit like a card trick? If the 'Find the Lady' plot is indeed also from the sequel, then this ending is also a complement to that.

(Have a gratuitous Crowley in the bath...)

Further to this, Marc Burrows (Terry Pratchett's biographer) has been saying some rather interesting things on Twitter about the ending to S3 and why Pratchett wasn't credited:

"While I actually like the ending, and while I think the moral/philosophical argument Crowley makes is inherently Pratchett, I think this is Neil Gaiman's ending and that's why he has the sole story credit. I also suspect that, even if we'd got the full series, we'd always have gotten this ending." [source]

"What I know for sure: not Sir Terry’s ending. That’s not a guess, I know that for sure. What I don’t know: the full details of what that ending was." [source]

Marc Burrows is close to the Pratchett estate, knew Terry and his work, and is saying this doesn't sound like him. And that Terry wasn't given a story credit does suggest that this story was made-up by Gaiman and did not come from the late-night conversation Terry and Gaiman had about the potential sequel book in 1989. Burrows has also said that the Pratchett estate didn't fight for the S3 finale story to be told after Amazon all but cancelled it, as many fans have claimed, it was actually BBC Studios who did that. Marc also has some things to say about what Terry had in mind for an ending:

"The 'South Downs Cottage' ending was always Terry's plan [...]  But I very strongly believe he wouldn't have destroyed the whole universe and all the characters therein to make his point." [source].

Which leads me back to where we left Aziraphale and Crowley in Season One, dining at the Ritz, polishing off a bottle of wine...and, for all we know, about to jump in the Bentley and drive off to the South Downs to a cottage they rented for the weekend. Finally free of Heaven and Hell, because of a little face-swap trick. I think that ending was, after all, Terry's original ending. The one that was drafted for the sequel novel.

To be clear about what this theory is and isn't arguing: this is not a claim that Season 3 is without merit, or that the ending we got is without meaning. But I do think it was made-up solely by Gaiman, because the actual original ending - where Aziraphale and Crowley were always supposed to end up at the end of the sequel book - had already been used to cap off Season One. And it's where I prefer to think of them, still and forever more - the Angels Dining at the Ritz.

[ineffable-endearments]

Angels and demons affect reality whether they're trying to do so or not. That's why the Bentley was sentient and had the perfect Queen hit for every moment. It's why Whickber Street fell apart after Aziraphale left.

In those last few seconds, Aziraphale and Crowley were saying fond goodbyes. They were thinking of each other -- of the depth of their history, and of how very together they were, and, a little bit, of their regrets.

The other side of a regret is a wish. Specifically, it's a wish that things had been different. And when angels and demons wish for things, reality often has a way of bending around them, even if all they're thinking of is each other.

A few years ago, Aziraphale and Crowley desperately tried to hide a little half-miracle from Heaven; they weren't completely sure of themselves, and they had the awkward distraction of dealing with Jim in the meantime. That teeny-tiny little half-a-miracle ended up warping reality the same amount as if they'd brought Lazarus back to life 25 times.

This time, Aziraphale and Crowley weren't hiding anything; they were united and committed in front of their very maker, and their thoughts were pure. They loved each other, and they loved humanity, and they wished they'd been allowed to choose each other like humans do.

Reality listened. In effect, they held hands with no one between them and did an 8 billion Lazarii miracle. They brought themselves and the universe they knew forward into the universe being created anew.

It took a while (13.8 billion years), but the stuff that had once made up people and histories who had disintegrated before our eyes eventually reintegrated. For all the power of the Book of Life, Aziraphale and Crowley weren't undone. The world had a connection to Aziraphale and Crowley, and Aziraphale and Crowley made a connection to the next universe. And like Michael carrying the Archangels with her, they carried the world with them. It wasn't a one-way relationship, either; the remaining hints of the wills of people who had been erased clung to that one little bridge for dear existence. That's what free will looks like when there's nothing else left.

It wasn't a perfect duplicate of the old universe. The people couldn't be angels or demons, of course, so the angels and demons all got stirred into humanity. But it turns out a sapient being is a sapient being. Everyone was also starting from scratch, experience-wise, which leads to questions about whether they were the same people at all. But they were certainly continuations of the same stories.

You could argue that this means there was technically celestial interference in humanity’s next course, but all the quantum-level stuff that was brought over from the previous universe had to slog through billions of years of the laws of physics before any of it came together in a human way we would recognize, and it could have been stopped at any time if it weren't made of the echoes of people trying really hard, so I think it's earned its place in this universe, too.

As for God, She's on the outside, off doing something ineffable somewhere else. She knew right away that the new universe was made of the same stuff, including the same people (for starters, anyway) as the previous one. But She had already set the parameters: She could not interfere.

Sometimes She peers in to see how the slow-cooking universe is doing, but She doesn't have any particular plan. Sometimes, it's more interesting to see what happens when you don't stick your nose where it doesn't belong. It turns out that She doesn't have to mess people around for their lives to be worth witnessing.

[nikki-rook]

Crowley, please get up

[soloorganaas]

It's in there, besides gardening. Opposite philosophy

[nondelphic]

writing tip: put words on page. hope this helps. i will not be taking questions because i have not done this

[dustbunniees]

tbh my biggest problem with go3 is that aziraphale and crowley do stuff that affects the plot and actually makes a difference in the story #notmygoodomens. my ineffables do NOT save the world, they are there while the world is saved

you’ve taken the two most useless beings in existence and you made them make a decision. look at them. they’re suicidal now

[hope-inthedark]

…time after time

[glumdelay]

Playing god Trying out a bit more realistic proportions and shading! I love the snowglobe concept and wanted to do a bit more character study for Crowley

[graygray-gray]

Okayokay im back from exams, the grind is back on. Angel and demon feat. slight outfit change bcs i couldn’t find any good references…

[theeminentlyimpractical]

[oopsalldt]

He’s like a strange cat-snake-thing

[hope-inthedark]

Home Is Nowhere, Therefore You // Prologue (Nowhere and Everywhere)

Crowley was standing in a white-walled room, and he was very certain that he was supposed to be dead.

Dead was perhaps the wrong word. Erased from existence, never having been there in the first place, with no one left to remember him or Heaven or Hell or Aziraphale—

Aziraphale.

On instinct, Crowley turned around and scanned the room, but he was alone.

As if he’d summoned it, there was a crackle of energy and a small pop, and Crowley found himself staring at the second coming of Christ.

“Gosh,” said Jesus, his beautiful smile faltering at the look of flat disbelief on Crowley’s face, “I’m so sorry. I was meant to be here before you. Have you been waiting long?”

Read more on Ao3

———

This idea has been bouncing around in my head since approximately an hour after I first watched the finale. This will be a longfic, somewhat canon-compliant with the ending of Good Omens 3, but heavily exploring the ambiguity inherent there.

I’m very very excited to begin sharing this with you! The second chapter is nearly complete and will be up this weekend if all goes well.

I’d be remiss not to mention my cheerleaders here: thank you to @infinitevariety @racketghost and @smolalienbee for letting me yell at you about this fic for the past week!

[weatheredlaw]

Come to me now And rest your head for just five minutes Everything is done for @soft-october-night

[mrghostrat]

i fixed it. i didn’t want to but it was my duty so i did it. god dammit

[cornchrunchie]

『 So, how do you two know each other? 』

– via knjfedog (x)