Lights Out @linipikk - Tumblr Blog

The epilogue reverting Crowley and Aziraphale to their angel selves is not only weird for the "they're trauma less now so they're truly free" implications, but also because it says that if they had been free from heaven they'd have been attracted to each other immediately. But that never happened when Crowley was making nebulas? Yes, Azi was a bit smitten but Crowley didn't even look at him twice lol. The beauty of their love was that it all started on the wall, with the "I gave it away!" "You wot?". And then their love grew, deepened, became multi-faceted as they went on with the arrangement. They weren't destined to be together, they actually noticed each other and choose each other, they started loving the other after the fall and temptation of Eve. Why did the whole narrative suddenly retcon things, Aziraphale saying Crowley was "the best angel", indicating they knew each other deeply before the fall? Why did that become more important than their 6000 years together, the arrangement, their mutual help of each other, their companionship?

masnadies

I'm very much not a meet-cute person and part of what I love(d) about Good Omens is that it was NOT like that (I didn't mind BtB as it was short, but didn't love it either, it took a lot of the beauty away from the initial Eden meeting and rainstorm just to tell us that Aziraphale had never trusted Heaven, but we could do without it-- and for his talk to God to be about Crowley when he still worked for God--those few minutes, that artistry, his questions (was it Aziraphale who fell in love first and hardest? maybe)-- and not about his relationship over the millennia was weird to me) The idea that their relationship was built on that conversation, that Crowley was dumbfounded by an angels who went against God because humans needed protection, and that Aziraphale loved hearing the thoughts Crowley had about free will, since he was trying to figure out what was Right and Good on his own (having already decided God was wrong in re: the sword thing). They loved each other because each was their own person and they had compatible thoughts about how to be Good. From Eden. And after that yes, they grew together and taught each other through actions and words, and supported each other, and Crowley came to Aziraphale and rescued him, and Aziraphale lit up when Crowley showed up and oozed the love that Crowley needed and understood that Crowley showed his own love very strangely and accepted that. And they were both imperfect but they were still the best because they cared, and THAT is why they loved, not because they were cute. (I mean, bonus though, of course) There is an implication (even in companion to owls, which I loved) that they knew each other. Was it BtB? But I agree-- for all they might have had run-ins or heard reputations, I like their love to stand alone on a wall in an audacious conversation when they see who they truly are and start to fall in love.

hellogoodomens

I’m SO tired of fixing everything, I just wanted one easy and warm thing in my life.

#No you know what? exactly this #this is the reason i needed a good easy win #i already live in a chaotic nonlinear world i wanted one funny silly and cohesive one For Once

racketghost

sincere apologies to anyone trying to interact with me about anything other than what that gay angel and demon have going on

racketghost

UPDATE: I’VE GOTTEN WORSE

tfemteach-deactivated20231124

"what are you a cop" is bookaziraphale's entire mindset btw. "is it very angelic to hoard books and be mean to customers" what are you a cop? "should you really be married to your adversary" what are you a cop? "should your husband be parking his car there" ah you ARE a cop. explodes your ticket notebook with his mind. like in his mind if the lord herself doesn't come down to tell him off he's doing just fine. because he's doing it. and if she DOES come down (where is the flaming sword I gave to thee) well then. what is she a cop

tfemteach-deactivated20231124

no so true. in fact I think this was a key experience in his conviction that he is correct about everything ever. after all she did not ask him again

hollow-head

book Crowley: you’re an angel, you can’t do the wrong thing book Aziraphale: you are absolutely right. everything i do *is* the right thing book aziraphale really took ‘do what thou wilt shall be the whole of the law’ and ran with it

tfemteach-deactivated20231124

pronouncingitwang

[ID: The first add-on shows tags from pronouncingitwang reading "#it is soo fucking important that not only did he lie to god #he thought it was so important that he wrote it in as a correction to the bilton and scaggs bible he wanted that shit printed+distributed" and the last add-on shows tags from indieninja92 reading "#MY BOY #as i like to say 'aziraphale did nothibg wrong... but not through lack of trying' #the greatest angel ever to sincerely attempt to shoot an eleven year old in the face" /end ID]

forensiccountermeasures

And when he knows he’ll HAVE to help the cops, he’s desperate to leave so that he WON’T have to help the cops!

[ID: A snippet from the Good Omens book. It reads “There was the sound of a siren outside, abruptly broken off as a bullet hit it. Aziraphale nudged Crowley.” The next part is highlighted, and reads “‘Get a move on,’ he said. ‘We're going to be knee-deep in police at any moment and I will of course be morally obliged to assist them in their enquiries.’” /end ID]

#Honestly i made the mistake in 2019 to watch good omens first read the book then rewatch good omens listen to the audiobook rewatch the se--#you get me. so i have the s1 Aziraphale and book Aziraphale completely integrated in my brain #tbf at least in s2 the second he kept lying. would have loved the confidence about it tho!#...and i do enjoy The Anxieties of Sheen's acting choices #but also remember musical omens: thatvAz is the epithome of 🙄😒🥱 and i love him for it

animulablandulavagula

well petronius didn’t own a restaurant but you know what he was? A cerimonial and a poet who wrote the Satyricon which is a book about satirical greek romance featuring homosexual and erotic stories. I also wanted to add the while Petronius didn’t write a lot about food in his saturas (the genre of the satyricon) the theme of banquets and food is very important and also present in his book in the passage of Cena Trimalchionis which depicts the “malus more” of free slaves at the time. Also did you know that the name Satyricon might derive from the fact that Satiri loved to “stalker” and follow Ninfee around, at least based on what my professor said anyway. I don’t know i this will make any sense but Aziraphale and Crowley here are depicted as beings who have rather human tendencies and who enjoy rather depravity if I may say so, I mean Petronius is not Cicero am I right? This is what they were in reality, not two heroes but two random dudes connecting despite their differences, their love wasn’t really predictable if was casual, ineffable if I may say. They weren’t made to safe the universe they were made to understand it and help humans to fix it this is the only way human incarnate can win on religion and oppression

lanzadeperla

Thank you! I will never understand how the fandom remains blind at how clearly Aziraphale is propositioning Crowley here:

Restaurants were not really a thing back then, not in the modern concept of fancy dining. The popular classes ate basic meals at noisy and crowded taverns, people rich enough to afford fine dining had it served by slaves at home. The neither the concept nor the word to name it wouldn't have existed in Latin.

Petronius is a) the signed name of the author of one of the first explicit gay eroticas of the western tradition b) through the Satyricon, openly mocking of the mores and values of his age's upper class and c) more than likely, a pseudonym, not a real person but a false name to protect the actual author from the rage of the system so brazenly criticised.

"[Petronius] does remarkable things to oysters" is, in no way, shape or form, something remotely normal to say about an eatery you are trying to persuade someone to dine at (and anybody daring to argue otherwise should try using it on a colleague or an in-law and report their results back). A sentence so preposterous should make jump every "secret code" alarm.

Oysters. C'mon, this one was supposed to be crystal clear. Just to most universally acknowledged aphrodisiac of the world, nothing to see here.

animulablandulavagula

EXACTLY!! Aziraphale was SO obvious here!!

#yall can pry earthly pleasures defender Aziraphale from my cold dead hands #I bet it is a play as to say Aziraphale was into the pleasures of the age and did not change even in discreet gentleman clubs #they were just guys enjoying this wild world they were thrown into #and Az like it as much as Crowley does #they loved it here actually and they did EVERYTHING to enjoy all the things #that was the fuck ass arrangement to begin with #...ok yeah i need to lay down

tired-shadow-creature

The ending of Show Omens is not the ending of Book Omens (or of it's non-existent sequel). There are several reasons that I think make this a fairly solid conclusion:

For one, Book Omens doesn't have a sequel. And it almost certainly was never really going to have one. I mean, it was published in 1990. Terry Pratchett died in 2015. That's 25 years in which they could have written a sequel but chose not to.

In fact, in an interview thing that's conveniently included with my copy of the book, they answer the question "Why is there no sequel?" like this:

Does this sound to you like they have an actual, fleshed out plan for a sequel? It sounds more like they were just throwing ideas around, not even in a drafting phase yet, for a story they didn't really expect to fully write. They also last did this at least 11 years ago, likely much longer.

At best, whatever parts of their ideas made it into the show are the result of one of the two people involved using pieces of something unfinished, likely barely even started, from years ago, without the input of the other author. It certainly can not be a fully accurate representation, simply because one of the people involved is no longer able to add his own insight.

But also, just looking at the book itself, it doesn't really strike me as being written with a sequel in mind. It literally ends with a vision of the future, which is fairly conclusive and also not particularly compatible with the show ending:

This ending does not exactly scream "needs continuation" or "there is further trouble ahead". More the opposite, really.

The scene right before this ending also serves as a very neat bookend and conclusion to the whole story, with Adam stealing an apple and deciding that life would be less fun if people didn't. That eating the apple was worth the trouble you got into for doing so.

The closest we get to foreshadowing a sequel is Crowley mentioning the possibility of the "Big One". But it's not exactly treated as something that is bound to happen. So while I guess it's possible it was actively meant to imply a sequel, the rest of the ending makes it somewhat unlikely imo. More likely it's either incidental or a more vague consideration without an actual, already existing plan attached.

Secondly, it would require a somewhat strange genre and tone shift. Good Omens is a comedy that parodies various things (The Omen, Revelations, The Cold War) to make it's point in a fairly light hearted way. It's universe is somewhat silly but also hopeful.

For it to end the way the show did, it would realistically have to change it's genre. It would have to be a Drama or even Tragedy with a story that seems to have somewhat lost it's parody elements as well as it's hope for the future. Which would be a very strange thing for the sequel to a fairly light hearted and hopeful comedy to do.

It would also be very odd in terms of how Terry Pratchett books usually end. Like, even the more bleak Discworld novels, like Night Watch, do end with the world in tact and at least marginally better than before. There is always hope for the world there. An ending in which the world can not be saved and every single character experiences identity death would be very much out of the norm. (I can't say if it would be for Gaiman, the only other book of his I ever read was Coraline).

Finally, related to this, it is not thematically consistent. Some of the major themes and points of Good Omens are, I would argue:

Both the best and worst of humanity is purely humanity's doing. They have a capacity for great good and evil and either way deserve to exist as they are. Free will and the knowledge of good and evil were worth the cost.

Just because it is written, does not mean it must be done. You can not and should not live your life doing only what someone else has decided you ought to be or do. Your choices, human choices, matter and they make a real difference.

The future may seem bleak, there may be a lot of things wrong, but it is not hopeless and it is worth fighting for. This world and its people are worth fighting for. The only real way to improve it is to get it into people's heads that their actions have consequences and that they should be kinder to each other and the environment.

The show ending is thematically opposed to this. Humanity's will and choices are not the deciding factor, do not make the ultimate difference. The humans of the old universe do not deserve to exist as they are. That imperfect world is not worth saving, can not and should not be saved.

As far as the show seems concerned, Adam, at his worst, was right. The world wasn't salvageable, it's best if we just destroy it and start all over again.

It would be extremely strange to have a sequel contradict the themes of the original like this. Especially since the original themes are ones extremely common in Terry Pratchetts work in general while the shows treatment of humanity, the world and it's future really don't seem to mesh well with them at all.

legendary-lunatic

Absolutely.

#I think... i think you are right #BUT there could be a sequel even with that book ending #it is not a crazy thing to do #i was thinking earlier today that for it to wark it should also be a parody of the situation <cold war. christianism. etc>#but it can still reiterate on its point and still be meaningful. what i mean is that it was a poorly finished sequel #it could've reiterated on that point too that life is silly and hopeful even with a big one #that heaven and hell where out of work since forever because in being human is the power to do both #it ended in a stupid plot a perfectly good story #even so my reaction when i knew about s2 was literal rejection in the most visceral way. we live in a mediascape where sequels and nostalgia #reign supreme but that can be done right - in my profesional opinion #this ending was NOT that and it is contradictory. It does help tho that s1 like the book are absolutely bulletproof #it was always meant to be a light take on how the end of times will -NOT- come #how even for ppl that look for 'the signs' the actual signs and the actual plan and the actual fight was unexpected #that's the story #the ending was contradictory and out of its own genre. it is a betrayal to the audience #so..just to say. Yeah it makes no sense. but also it could have been done right. But also 2019 lini was on the money about rejecting s2

itsineffhazbinle

#ACTUALLY YEAH EXACTLY #the whole turn from job descriptions to specieist narrative was so out of nowhere #they had it at the tip of their tonge with satan saying satan is just a job and then ?????#Where's the fun in the soulmate/red string of fate/whatever you wanna call it? the fun is them having a job and any of them wanting to do it #and not wanting to do it /alone/ and they get to know each other and go past that first impression of angel and demon to whatever they saw #in the wall and dancing around it and..... rgggghhhh

pirategf

There was definitely something very weird about them, she decided. Aziraphale bowed again. “So glad to have been of assistance,” he said. “Thank you,” said Anathema, icily. “Can we get on?” said Crowley. “Goodnight, miss. Get in, angel.“ Ah. Well, that explained it. She had been perfectly safe after all.

#anathema was like 🤨🫵🏳️‍🌈#happy pride i guess #these two queens should have ended sipping mimosas and tending to their marigolds #which reminds me...gotta wrote a bit about the ANOTHER missed opportunity to make them book thieves in s3 #like.... it was RIGHT THERE #so fucking angry. i gotta go lay down

holespoles

"Shimmering night" by Inaslind.

moolmung

#WEEEEZZZZZ #ok there is something poetic about how this whole mess played out #the last real scene of the good omens story how it was supposed to be told is the Ineffable Divorce #a divide between the two mains #and the Finale ended with the good omens fandom divided fandom is tru #children of divorce and all that bs lmao #it is poetic the same way the [angel] cones splatter on the pavement in the s3 #as a hater and crowley understander this is actually cathartic

distinguishedenthusiastcatt

In Pride month, I think it's important to remind you of this iconic dialogue. You don't have to talk about who you are if you don't want to❤️

twilightofthesandwiches

And what if I never needed their souls to be 'intertwined by fate'? What if all that I needed is for them to love each other because they have known and understood and shaped each other for so long? And what if I never cared about them ‘finding each other in every universe?’ What if all that I wanted is for them, in this universe where the odds were so stacked against them, to choose each other?

bleucalire

Aziraphale owning a computer since 1990 to do his taxes is super endearing

#MY LOVE--- oh angel....

fujodotcom

so you’re telling me rob wilkins, executive producer of all three seasons of good omens, of the “aziraphale wanted crowley to kiss him again” fame, hated good omens s3. you’re telling me that filming for s3 wrapped in february 2025 and at the ineffable con in august 2025 rob wilkins said two things: “nothing can top the kiss... apart from... i can't talk about season 3 can i" and that there’s no reason for there not to be more aziraphale and crowley, they have their lives to live together going forward. you’re telling me that in august 2025 it was also revealed that post production was still ongoing, meaning that s3 hadn’t yet been finalized into its final cut. not even mentioning the layers of neil gaiman psychological torture this entire thing fucking goes… you’re telling me rob was EXCITED after filming but DISAPPOINTED after the release? do you know what i say to all of that? #rwse. do you know what that means? ROB WILKINS SECRET ENDING

itwasaniceday

He's also been posting cryptic tweets about being silenced btw...

fujodotcom

I’M SORRY?

itwasaniceday

It's just Discworld quotes, but the one thing they all have in common is that they mention silence. These were posted in the days leading up to the finale, and he doesn't normally post things like that, so I've been wondering if it's connected haha