the lady doth suck (or why the finale gets God wrong)
this fantastic Good Omens fix-it comic by @cliopadra has been on my mind a lot. (if you need a little joy, I highly recommend! it's smart, it's funny, respectful of both the audience and the story: you know, everything you might expect from a proper finale!)
the comic's brilliant playfulness makes me a little sad, too, when I reflect on the finale we got--and its depiction of God. note: I am not here as a God apologist and/or criminal defense attorney! however, I think S3's deviations from God's established role and limits within the GO universe are indicative of carelessness (at best) on the part of the writers.
the finale's characterization of God is weird for many reasons, especially since up to this point in canon she's depicted as a distant presence. in S1 and S2, God is given to bouts of silence; dial her extension, and you'll get the Metatron as a sort of glorified secretary. she's not directly active in the goings-on of the universe. it's a rather Deist view of things, and it works because that's how free will works: God's ways are mysterious, hard to articulate, ineffable. even in puzzling them out, we're continually making choices--some frivolous, some momentous, all of them ours.
for some reason, the writers forwent this to reveal God as a cosmic sadist. here, she looks upon creation through a magnifying glass--and wouldn't you know it, we're ants beneath a sunbeam.
here's the thing: I'm not suggesting the writers needed to make God all warm and fuzzy, but a removed sort of benignity could have reinforced that God sets the board, but we move the pieces. picture God not as an interrogator, but an interlocutor at the end of the universe: a daytime TV host mediating for a fractious couple. the point is that God asks the questions. in fact, her voice throughout S1 and S2 happens in the interrogative. she asks Aziraphale where his sword went, without challenging his answer. and remember that divine voiceover during the Job storyline? it's part of a much longer Biblical passage in which God shows up to the hard-done-by Job and says hey buddy! if you know who I am, you should also know that you're asking the wrong questions!
in other words, l'd love to see a magic trick: yes, we're playing three card monte. the Lady's in God's pocket. but what's this, right behind your ear? another card?
turns out, there's more than one queen in the deck. we are tested, but not to destruction. we get to choose--the universe, the world, an us.
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