if i look back, i am lost
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@musingsofmaisie
From Tor.com, an essay. By Maya Gittelman.
Well, that went down like a lead balloon. Smited, smote, smitten, here at the end of all things.
As if...AS IF my poor queer heart wasn't already in half a million pieces, this just pulverized what was left.
sob. This is why the series means so much to me, why it has affected me so deeply.
Thanks for sharing this-and for seeing us.
*me, drunkenly pressing my face against my 17 year old cats face*: I love you. Do you know that? I hope that somewhere in your brain you can understand that I love you. You have been with me for so long. We have grown up together. I was only eight years old when you came into my life as a kitten. We were both babies. Please understand that I love you more than I can ever say. You are my companion through everything. When you die I will sob and scream and beg for you back, even for a moment. When you rest your paw against my hands there's a connection that passes through time. Humans and animals, bonded since before history began. I love you.
No, you cannot eat my sandwich.
He's still with us! Here he is chilling in a sunbeam this morning 😊
oh my god thank you for letting me know about him! this genuinely made me happy. I hope he enjoys his sunbeam nap and many more
🎶Kitty in a sunbeam! Moving poem!🎵
PLEASE give this poor cat a sandwich. I suggest paté, scallops, poached chicken or salmon. any of the above. poor baby looks hungry.
So I posted a thing
Summary:
Aziraphale took the Supreme Archangel job and is not coming back to Earth. After almost two years, Crowley has come to terms with that. He finds love and happiness in an unexpected way.
Amazon confirms information for the third and final instalment of the Good Omens television series.
Today, Prime Video announced that it has confirmed that the global, fan-favorite series Good Omens will return for a third and final season. They have confirmed, as follows:
• The third season will comprise of one 90 minute episode starring Michael Sheen and David Tennant who return as the angel Aziraphale and demon Crowley, respectively. • Prime Video is delighted to bring its global customers a gripping conclusion to the ineffable journey between Aziraphale and Crowley. • Production is expected to begin in early 2025 in Scotland and the third season will premiere on Prime Video in more than 240 countries and territories worldwide. • The forthcoming season will bring to life a serendipitous conversation from almost 35 years ago, between the late Sir Terry Pratchett and Neil Gaiman, where they mapped out “what happens next” to the wonderful characters in the world of their internationally best-selling novel. • The first season of Good Omens launched globally as a limited series on Prime Video in May 2019, and became a worldwide hit. This led to the series being renewed for a second season, which premiered in July 2023, and explored storylines that went beyond the original source material to illuminate the ineffable friendship between Aziraphale (Michael Sheen), a fussy angel and rare-book dealer, and the fast-living demon Crowley (David Tennant). • Rob Wilkins of Narrativia, representing Terry Pratchett’s estate, as well as BBC Studios Productions’ head of comedy Josh Cole will executive produce. Good Omens is based on the well-loved novel Good Omens: The Nice and Accurate Prophecies of Agnes Nutter, Witch by Sir Terry Pratchett and Gaiman. The new season is produced by Amazon MGM Studios, BBC Studios Productions, and Narrativia. • While Gaiman has contributed to the writing of the Good Omens series finale, he will not be working on the production.
my musings:
Shouldn't it have been a series of six episodes?
It should have yeah. It should have been 6 episodes so the seasons would make 666, now it's 661.
Is Neil Gaiman involved?
According to the press he will not be working on it as such though he "contributed to the writing", I mean the third season is based on what he and Terry had outlined together and he started to write into the scripts so I guess it couldn't be done without?
Tell me some good news
uuuuh, *racks my brain*
It is not cancelled completely (like OFMD for example :(), so we still might get the cottage?
Since there will be less of it then there will also be less post production and we might get it sooner?
Ta-da. (sorry)
And
Remember that David said something about how it "might not be the ending that you want". I think that's what we're gonna get.
I'm one of the ones who would rather have no ending than a rushed wrap up written by someone who isn't one of the OG creators. Just my $.02
Mysterious Man seen leaving Microsoft HQ
every day is better with this picture in it.
Once you start seeing them, it's impossible to ignore.
I don’t know the context but the vibes are impeccable
Took someone putting this on Twitter for me to get it.
GREGORY HINES & MIKHAIL BARYSHNIKOV White Nights (1985) dir. Taylor Hackford
Masters of their craft.
My favorite thing about this sequence is that if you don’t know who Hines and Baryshnikov are, and I tell you one is a ballet dancer and one taps, you should be able to figure out who’s who based on their specific movements, even though the choreography is the same.
ABSOLUTELY. It’s so obvious in the way they move, and things like the positioning of the hips as they do the same step. Where the weight is in the leg. All those things. It’s one of the things that makes the sequence such a pleasure to watch – you can see that both of them are amazing dancers and you can also learn a lot about their specific disciplines and the differences between them watching it.
OK OK I am actually going to go through those gifs one by one to talk about the things that really strike me in each one as demonstrating the two styles of dance. I’m sure I am missing some things, this is just what is obvious to me.
1. Look how they lead the movement as they step back. Baryshnikov moves his leg following a hip/torso movement. Hines comes very close to leading with his knee. You’ll see that knee-leading motion in a later step, too. You can probably do this yourself: stand with your feet and hips square to the front, then turn your hips towards the left and use the pull of it to lead your leg into the step. Then go back to square, and take a step back by letting your knee open to the side and go backwards. You should be able to feel the muscles working pretty differently – the first movement engages a lot more of your core, the second relies more on your various thigh muscles.
2. The leg extension in the air – that perfect straight leg is ballet to the core – and look at how differently their hips and feet are when they land! Baryshnikov’s hips are squared to the side and his feet are aligned; Hines’s hips are angled and his back foot faces the front and is flat. If a ballet dancer had his foot like that – and he might – his hips wouldn’t be doing that angle.
3. This is a tap sequence and it’s where that knee-lead comes in again. Hines’s hips are loose and his knees seem to be leading the movement – almost like they are pulling both his hips and his ankles along for the ride. You can see where his feet will strike by watching the knees. Baryshnikov is not a tap dancer and it really shows here! Once again you can see that he moves his hips in order to shift his knees and weight.
4. There are a few things here but the biggest to me is how they land out of that jump. Hines lands…well, like a tap dancer. He comes down hard and flat – you can see the little jolt as he hits – like he’s slammin’ that tap shoe down to make a big ol’ noise. Baryshnikov’s landing foot isn’t as easy to see, but he comes down toe-first, as is correct for ballet.
5. Again there are a few, but what I find most striking is the looseness/rigidness of posture. Both of them have immense body control, but Hines is letting his joints flex more in the air. It looks to me like again he brings his heel down harder, as well, on both back and front legs – in fact I kind of wonder if the heeled boots Baryshnikov has on are to make it easier for him to match Hines’s foot movements in certain sequences, since he won’t have to bring his foot down as far. (They’re both in shoes with some degree of heel, but Hines’s are much less so.)
6. Aaah both of these are lovely spins. Again with the rigidity vs looseness in the joints, but also, Hines traces MUCH more of his foot on the ground, which is common in tap spins but uncommon in ballet. His weight is slightly less centered over the support leg, and you also can see the knee-lead vs hip-lead here as well – look how Baryshnikov shifts his weight, then look how Hines does it. And as they come out of it, Baryshnikov has his toe pointed and his heel up, while Hines snaps his heel down against the floor.
I never, ever get tried of watching this. Pure poetry in motion.
British LGBT Awards 2024
CELEBRITY ALLY: DAVID TENNANT
David is one of the LGBTQ+ community's most fierce allies and supporters. The Doctor Who legend has never been shy about speaking out for marginalised communities, with the Bafta nominee mainly focusing his attention on standing with those who identify as trans and non-binary in recent years. David often does red-carpet interviews while wearing pins associated with the community, with one particular Doctor Who-themed Tardis badge, designed in the colours of the trans Pride flag, helping to raise thousands of pounds for charities.
Congratulations!
"We've all got to be fighting that fight every day."
Happy Pride, everyone...
This.
You think its good?
The meeting of Agnes Nutter and Saraqael is always good.
perfect response
For those not in the know, this is one of the Amanita mushrooms referred to as a Destroying Angel. Never, ever, ever, ever forage with an app. Especially for mushrooms.
One day when AI is finally regulated, those regulations will be written in blood
We're currently in the "unregulated wild west cuz no one has died yet" era
The Amanita mushrooms, destroying angel included, are a horrible way to die. Particularly because, like rabies, when you first show symptoms you're already dead.
But that's not what makes Amanita Ocreata and it's relatives awful.
With rabies there is no reprieve: you are sick and get sicker until you die. With these mushrooms, though, you will be sick for a while, and then suddenly you will feel like it has passed, and you are on the mend.
This is a lie. You are about to return to groaning intestinal pain, slip into a coma, and die. Because during that "reprieve" period, as Kingfisher & Wombat note, the active toxin in the mushroom is destroying your liver.
Only forage with a reliable guide, never an app, and if you're not sure don't pick and eat it!
Death Cap.
Destroying Angel.
Funeral Bell.
Deadly Dapperling.
Deadly Webcap.
Mycologists don't give names like that as a joke, and various European countries have trained Mushroom Inspectors who check foraged mushrooms for hazards.
"All fungi can be eaten; some only once."
Also, about 20 years ago so well before AI errors, @dduane brought home a cookbook which had a glossary of various herbs, and the one for "bay leaves" said "...also known as cherry laurel..."
Nope. Most definitely nope. Bay leaves come from the bay laurel, Laurus nobilis, and are flavourings Leaves from the cherry laurel, Prunus laurocerasus, are toxic.
We don't have that cookbook any more - it was sent back to the publisher with a Post-It and highlighter in the proper places - but we do have the eight other cookbooks which they sent us for warning them about the error.
(No problems in any of those, BTW, and some very good recipes.)
Somewhere I have the beautiful set of 70s Recipe Cards I found somewhere in the late 1990s with a Rhubarb card telling you that the rhubarb stalk was commonly eaten sweetened as a fruit, while “Rhubarb Leaves can be cooked like any green leafy vegetable”.
Which is true but doesn’t mention that Rhubarb Leaves are toxic. Really toxic.
Learn about Rhubarb leaves poisoning or find a doctor at Mount Sinai Health System.
When I worked in North Carolina we had an entire family-Mom, Dad, 4 children-through my Emergency Department after eating Destroying Angels while camping. Mom and youngest kids survived-got transplanted. Dad and 2 other kids didn't make it.
*Well, yeah; of course artists were better off with software and hardware from 15 years ago
I keep my old desktop mac with my purchased copy of Photoshop CS6 so that I can use it when the need arises. I do use CC but if they don't fix their ToS I WILL drop my subscription and use Gimp, Photopea, or some other software.
Aziraphale in Art History
Source Xwitter
Miranda, painting by John William Waterhouse (1849–1917), 1875
Can't see that caption without adding this
Botticelli, the Birth of Venus, 1486
One thing that really gets me about the opening with angel Crowley is that he's not just excited by how beautiful his stars are, or how fun the process of creation is, or how impressed he's made Aziraphale. He’s not in it for the glory or the aesthetics. He’s actually horrified by the idea that the universe will just be "fancy wallpaper" in the future, even though Aziraphale assures him that humans will "marvel" at his creations.
What Crowley loves about his stars is their potential. He is building, essentially, a nursery. Most of the universe's stars, he explains to Aziraphale, will come pre-aged--but his are just starting out! After they're given time to grow, who knows what could happen! Good or bad, black holes or new constellations—there are so many possible futures ahead of them, and Crowley can’t wait to see what happens.
And then Aziraphale tells him that he knows what will happen: those stars will never grow up. They will never shine or burn out or implode or become anything new. They’ll be destroyed before they get the chance.
"You can't kill kids."
“Whose side are you on?” “God’s, of course!” “Same God that wants me to whack the kids?”
"People die." "They do, don't they?"
“Great pustulant mangled bollocks to the Great blasted Plan!”
"Don't test them to destruction."
"It's always too late."
"Nothing lasts forever." "No, I don't suppose it does."
This fear has been chasing Crowley since before the beginning. It’s what caused his first doubts, put the first traces of gray in his wings. He’s been raging at the futility of watching beautiful, complex things be damned or destroyed for his entire existence, and that’s why he seems to the audience and to Aziraphale to be a mess of contradictions.
He loves to follow the trends of the times, but he clings to his classic car in an era of planned obsolescence for vehicles. He lives in an ultra-modern flat, but finds his greatest comfort in the unchanging security of aziraphale’s old shop. He hates the idea of killing children, but is willing to see a child die if it preserves the rest of the universe and foils the Great Plan. He “goes too fast,” but his most unique and notable power is that he’s learned to stop time.
Crowley hates predestination. He hates divine intervention and the removal of agency. Crowley, the architect of free will, is constantly torn between his love of change and choice and potential and his terror that everything will be destroyed by an unstoppable, incomprehensible higher power. That’s his driving conflict in the way that Aziraphale’s is learning to find his own path without following Heaven’s rules, and I am fascinated to see how it resolves.
This post is everything today.
What’s your favourite line from good omens?
The invisible and unbreakable one that joins Crowley and Aziraphale.
This is the best possible reply. Merci Neil
First post! I made a tumblr account because of S2 of Good Omens. Literally no other reason. What a time to join the fandom!
Well, truthfully, I’ve been lurking around for a while, trying to get a feel for things. Now after processing some of the things i’ve seen, commenting, asking, etc, I thought why not make a post. It’s what you do, right? I won’t be offended if you take my outsider’s perspective with a grain of interloper salt.
So, I wrote this. A brief introduction: I’m a grown person with too many responsibilities and I’m spending my precious, infinitesimally small amount of free time typing my intrusive thoughts about a fictional angel and demon on my phone. Am I doing it right?
I think so. I’ve read some amazingly complex metas, character analyses, and wondrously intricate posts analyzing the significance of pretty much any and every detail you could want to read about on this site. Truly awesome investigations, intriguing connections and insightful inquisitions.
I’ve also read some character analyses that left me very, very concerned.
I know this is a t e n s e topic right now, but stick with me.
There is a fact walking around out there that I want to set the spotlight on:
Good Omens is a comedy.
Now, this isn’t important in a ‘y’all need to lighten up’ sort of way. This is important because of how comedies develop their sympathetic characters versus how tragedies develop their sympathetic characters.
Now, in my opinion, some of the best comedic fiction rides the tragedy line just right up to the edge without pushing it over. (See the movie Stranger Than Fiction for a fun example of this). But ultimately, while a tragedy primarily pulls your sympathy with the realism of the suffering of the characters, a comedy elicits your sympathy with the absurdism of their suffering. Now these two things are, importantly, not mutually exclusive - the dial between real and absurd has to be spun round and around to bring life to most stories, but eventually it will land on one or the other.
Very important note: suffering in absurdism is not a lower form of suffering than suffering in realism. Suffering is suffering, it’s just that sometimes the combinations of forces that inflict suffering have no business trying to act like they make any sense, and sometimes they are exactly what you’d expect them to be.
Also important fact! Crowley and Aziraphale are both, equally, the sympathetic characters in Good Omens. One is not subjected to tragic suffering whilst the other is dealt comedic suffering. They are both intended to be read as characters equally deserving of our sympathy.
Which in turn means, in GO, if you feel more sympathetic towards one of the Ineffables than the other, then that is the story showing you exactly where you have room to grow in your understanding of and capacity for sympathy.
Which brings us back to character analytics in fandoms.
While we are, without a doubt, discussing fiction, any publicly expressed opinions made while analyzing that fiction can have real world consequences.
When fans post biased, cruel, vengeful, hateful takes about a character in a story whose narrative is intended to shine a spotlight the absurd complexities of suffering and to challenge our ability to embrace and cultivate sympathy for someone we don’t understand, that has the potential to bring harm to the real world. If people aren’t willing to challenge themselves to recognize the value of sympathizing with the fictional characters whose actions are outside their understanding, then what do they take out into the real world? And if those fans find an echo chamber in a fandom because harmful language is treated the same as opinion language, then that can have additional damaging real world ramifications.
The last of the important notes, and a very important one: it sounds like there have been reports of harassment by users related to this topic. Harassment is never ever okay.
But it is crucial to speak up to say, no, some takes are not just opinion. It’s not just a simple scroll past or block. There are folks out there that have written posts detailing the harm and suffering that they want for a character because of how they perceive his actions - a character that is, without question, by the very nature of the story, one that is intended to be a recipient of their sympathy. These harmful takes need to be challenged.
It’s not about whether you agree or disagree with actions, it’s about whether or not you are capable of having compassion for a suffering character that is not contingent on your understanding of their motivations or perspective.
If you don’t have sympathy for one of the two sympathetic characters, then I think you’re missing a very important lesson that NG is trying to tell you.
To end on a light note, there are about 10,000 other things I’ve seen in this fandom that make me forget all of this. The ART, the fanfics, the absolutely bonkers metas, l love it. I have a couple crazy meta ideas myself but I think i’ve written enough for now. Be well everyone!
The part that needs to be said, and said again, is that these characters are intentionally drawn exactly as we see them. And that the events of the final 15 were intentionally crafted to put viewers on opposite sides of the divide. That polarization is essential to generating buzz for what’s coming next. I’m ok with that, honestly.
I’m a committed #TeamCrowley but I’m sympathetic to that Aziraphale defenders, up to the point that they insert their own narratives to explain his actions. Everything he did and said was deliberate, and intended to produce the result it did.
We don’t know exactly what Neil has in mind for S3, but we do know that he has succeeded in getting us all thinking about possibilities.
