She/her, bi, 30+. Multifandom. Not a spoiler free blog!
*Insert next hyperfixation (?) here*
Hazbin Hotel/Helluva Boss
The Amazing Digital Circus
OFMD (rip), WWDITS
Good Omens (rip)
i love that we and cats share pareidolia (seeing patterns where they dont exist), but instead of seeing faces in everyday objects like us, they see snakes
that computer cord? snake. string? small snake. cucumber? short fat straight snake
snake pareidolia is one of the strongest things in human minds too! people report freezing mid-stride before being consciously aware of a snake in front of them, and the same happens with coiled rope, etc. in humans and other primates. it’s even been proposed that the need to detect snakes was a factor in the development of primates’ insanely good color eyesight
so back when my little brother was in high school, my mom went as a chaperone for their senior year field trip to an amusement park. which, you know, brave move to volunteer to supervise a bunch of high school seniors let loose in a wonderland of rollercoasters and sugar
my brother and his friends in this field trip group were truly great kids. but they were not above run of the mill teenage boy shenanigans. it’s the end of senior year, you and all your buddies are at the amusement park, you’re naturally going to want to act like a complete moron
there was one kid in the group who was especially prone to goofing around. committed to the bit, some may say. my mom knew that if nonsense was going to break out, he’d likely be at the center of it
so she goes up to this kid at the very start of the trip and says “hey, i’m kinda worried about this chaperoning thing. this might be a lot to ask, but can you help me keep an eye on everyone? you wouldn’t have to do anything big, just be an extra set of eyes for me.”
friends, this kid proceeded to run their field trip group like the fucking us marines. everyone is at the meet up spots at the designated time. everyone waits in line for the rides like a bunch of boy scouts. the second the horseplay gets too out of hand, this kid is getting it back under control
it’s incredible how differently people act based on the expectations you set. instead of going to this kid and saying “hey, i know you’re trouble, so i’ve got my eye on you,” my mom went “hey, i know you have influence in your peer group, so i think you can help me.”
treat someone like a problem, they’ll act like a problem. but give people a chance to help, make them feel important, and they usually rise far above the occasion. it was a stroke of genius that i’m honestly still in awe of
i hope every post guilt tripping people into not expressing their dislike for the finale is written by a minor raised on internet puritanism who will eventually realize because if you’re past twenty and you think you should stay positive 🫶 and be grateful 💕 for whatever the master feeds you, then i really don’t know what to tell you apart from please stop this isn’t catholic school.
i DO believe that a good writer can make mischaracterization work. oh there's a character who doesn't normally cry? figure it out!! disect the character. make the situation cryable for them. make that character cry ugly tears even if it goes against their very nature. YOU CAN MAKE IT WORK!!!
A great piece of advice I've seen is "Don't fixate about what the character would never do. Think about the circumstances that would drive them to do this, even if they wouldn't normally."
Welp, it's been about a month, and I finally have the energy to try to convey my thoughts on the Good Omens finale. Yeah, I know, old news at this point, but what's the point of Tumblr other than talking to myself about my feelings?
Anyways, this is coming from someone who isn't a massive, longterm GO fan. I did not wait years for this finale. I am not heavily bound to these characters (though I have developed my usual maternal feelings towards Crowley pretty quickly, so there's that). I didn't go through the emotional upheaval surrounding the news that the writer is a vile sexual predator. Essentially: I don't go here. I'm not an appreciable part of this fandom.
So I feel like it means something kind of negative when the finale had even me - all but an outsider - kind of grimacing at her screen.
Again: I don't have an extensive history with this series. I watched S1 years ago, liked it fine, and promptly forgot about it. Fast forward a few years later, and it's February 2026. I get the sudden urge to rewatch the David Tennant era of Doctor Who from my college days, but I am also cognizant of the fact that I am an emotionally delicate little cupcake and don't really want to sob on my couch for multiple hours. So! For some silly reason, I decide that watching Good Omens will provide me with some Tennant enjoyment without the emotional commitment.
...this was a mistake, obviously. Y'all can see that coming, but I did not at the time. So I went ahead and fired up S1, enjoyed it again, and followed it with S2. S2 was... well. That last bit, eh? What do y'all call it... the Final Fifteen? Is that right? Yeah. Yeah, that was upsetting.
But! Fear not, sad little me, for S3 is just around the corner! I managed to get into this right before the conclusion, escaping years of doubt and longing and potential disappointment.
Aaaaaand then I watched it.
I watched it like... a week or two after it came out. After watching the general reception and just kind of steeling myself for it. I'd become attached to Crowley. I enjoyed Aziraphale as well, and their relationship had grown on me significantly in just a few months. I'd read bits and pieces of the original book, and I enjoyed them there, too. So I was trying to prep myself for the emotional disappointment, y'know?
But when I finally watched it, I was less disappointed and more just... weirded out? I think that's the best way of putting it? Like, the whole thing felt so disjointed, so strange, so thematically removed from the S1 and book that I enjoyed, that my normally canon-focused brain just kind of rejected it. I wasn't sad simply because the whole thing just didn't feel like an actual, in-character, thematic conclusion to the story.
The whole conflict surrounding free will: S1 and the book made it pretty clear that free will existed? I think? Like, that was part of the comedy: Heaven and Hell go through all of these motions to influence things, but at the end of the day, humans are just like "meh, we'll do what we want, thanks." Like, that was funny! Crowley doing dumb, annoying things to try to foment evil while simultaneously sabotaging himself and also never coming up with the level of evil humans came up with was funny! Angels kind of being bureaucratic assholes was funny!
It was funny, and it was wholesome. An angel and a demon forging a longterm bond simply because they felt more understood by one another than by their "sides" was wholesome. The Antichrist telling Satan to fuck off so he could go live a normal kid life with his newly-liberated hellhound was wholesome.
And now, as of S3, those things didn't matter? None of it happened? What? Why? What in the world was the point of *gestures* All Of That? Why even bother?
The whole concept of fighting for your current world, of striving to survive and repair things the best you can, of valuing the people and creatures around you for what they are... all of it is just gone. Everyone is gone. None of it ever happened? What. Why would you write it that way. Why would you essentially destroy the entire everything of the actual, canonical book that had established themes and a satisfying conclusion? Why would you rewrite it as "nah, this whole mess is too far gone, so we have to let it die and also destroy ourselves in the process; give the audience a bunch of body doubles living happily afterwards in a world that means nothing to them"?
And S2! Like, S2 on its own seemed less organized and realized than S1, but I figured that that was because it was to be paired with S3 in completing its arcs and developing its themes. Instead, literally everything that happens in S2 is just... pointless?
Like, what the hell was the point of Gabriel and Beelzebub? Why in the world did we spend six episodes chasing Gabriel's memories around and learning of his relationship with the Duke of Hell only for it to not matter in the slightest?
Then there was the Job flashback: a whole plot making it very clear that killing everyone and replacing them with new versions was not the same. Both Azi and Crowley knew this. It was emphasized heavily. And then S3 comes along and we just... ???
God was changed from a creature I actually kind of liked in S1 (passive, kind of eldritch and unknowable, not actually malicious) to the sort of asshole I interpret (and hate) the actual Christian god being. Callous and vaguely entertained by the trials and sufferings of what were essentially her own children whom she was supposed to love. Her detached amusement over Crowley and Aziraphale's entire relationship was actually infuriating to me. Her children were in such distress, and the way she treated them was repulsive to me. The idea that Azi spent his whole life trying to live up to the expectations of this narcissistic twit was... ugh.
The fact that no human characters even knew anything was going on, let alone were able to have agency in their world's fate felt so, so contrary to the vibes of the original work. And that's coming from someone who generally doesn't care for human characters: I was bothered by their omission because it upset the themes the story had so championed.
Gosh, what else... I feel like this is all so disjointed, but I have issues with basically all of it...
Jesus was pointless. Could have been removed from the plot, and nothing would have changed.
My sweet baby Muriel never had a chance to leave their sheltered existence.
Nina and Maggie are just gone? Anathema and Newt and The Them are gone? None of these people, who witnessed and were involved in supernatural affairs, had any sort of involvement with an attempted second apocalypse? Really?
The relationship between Azi and Crowley was just so sad in the end? Like they realized that there was no point in fighting for their own lives and their own relationship and just... gave up. After spending the whole S3 plot angry and upset and afraid and so unhappy with one another. None of it resolved before they both decide to die.
But CF, you may say, what did you expect to happen?
Jeez, I don't know. I'm not a writer. I'm not even a legit GO fan. I don't even go here. But from the way S1 was written, and the was S2 happened, I had some vague ideas of what would make sense.
I thought that Jesus would be a sort of parallel to Adam. In S1, Hell tried to initiate the End Times by sending their child to Earth. Said child took his free will and said "fuck off." Now in S3, it would have made sense to me if Jesus played a similar role: Heaven's child sent to end the world, only to take charge of his own destiny and tell his mother to fuck off. Would have been poetic for the two of them to come together somehow, y'know? Hell's child and Heaven's child coming together to say no and to save their world. A parallel to one of Hell's demons and Heaven's angels doing the same thing.
I thought that Gabriel and Beelzebub would have some bearing on things. Their love and their own, personal choice to leave and pursue their own freedom would act as proof that Crowley and Aziraphale aren't just weird outliers; all angels and demons have the capacity for free will. All have the capacity for love. All can decide to reject The Establishment and pursue their own happiness.
Oh, and the 25 Lazarii miracle! Dang, I thought it would mean something, that an angel and demon working together could achieve such a feat. I thought... I dunno... if the writers wanted to turn God antagonistic, perhaps it would involve some sort of reveal that the sides of Heaven and Hell were purposely being kept apart so that the angels and demons didn't realize the sort of power they had if they worked together. Power that could defeat their creator.
It may just be years of JRPGs and the enjoyment of His Dark Materials in my youth, but I was expecting them to kill God. Or something similar. Christ and Antichrist, aware humans, angels and demons coming together to wrest control of their freedom and their lives from the capricious asshole who created them. All of the people - mortal and immortal - who were oppressed and controlled and contained by this deity and their supposed plan waking up and realizing that they have the ability to free themselves from it.
I guess that's what I ultimately wanted: for all of these people to just be able to live their own lives. Peacefully. Without the fear of their masters hanging over their heads. The humans. Animals. The angels and the demons. Michael and Muriel and Beelzebub and the Erics. And especially Aziraphale and Crowley. Gosh but I wanted Azi and Crowley to just be able to live as themselves, share their lives with one another, without constantly worrying and fearing that they'd be found out and destroyed. I wanted them to have their cottage and their garden and their peace after millenia of doubt and fear. I wanted Azi to be able to enjoy food without guilt. I wanted Crowley to be able to do something kind without getting all defensive about it. I wanted peace for them, the poor dears.
And that's just after thinking about these characters for a few months. I can't even imagine the pain visited upon people who are Bound to this story and these characters. I am so, so sad for people who waited years and had their hearts broken.
There's more I could say. More plot details that are weird, character details that don't work for me. A lot more, but I think I've reached the limit of my coherence for now. Maybe I'll post more later, if I can organize my thoughts again.
*sigh* The only saving grace for me personally is that it all feels so contrary to the established themes. Even to the general vibe of the characters and story... so much so that I can actually reject it in my brain's understanding of canon. Which is normally incredibly difficult for me to do. I'm normally such a canon purist, but this... this feels so off. To the point that the rejection of it doesn't even feel like coping to me; it just feels like a logical conclusion.
stormborns
2087
germansingergirl
vaporwave
turnnoffyourmind
janainaart
