GO3 Spoilers! My thoughts on the finale and why it fell so horribly flat
So, this was written as a thread on Twitter and Bluesky first, but I thought I should maybe share it here, too, anyway, in case anyone here is interested in my thoughts as someone who didn't enjoy the finale at all. If you did enjoy it, good for you, I actually envy you. As for me, i feel gutted. But this is not just a lament for my favourite angel and demon who got obliterated instead of getting the happy ending they so desperately deserved. This is more about themes of the overall storyline. So, here it goes:
So, briefly: Good Omens s1: You can bend reality with enough imagination (flaming Bentley). Humans have free will (eve the right to murder), and they are fundamentally people, more evil AND better than Heaven or Hell could even influence them to be. The world, flawed as it is, is worth saving (the Them tell Adam so). And it is absolutely possible to stand up, make a change and fix it, not destroy it. Adam told Satan off and brought everything back that got lost in the crossfire of Armageddidn't. And Crowley and Aziraphale should be proof enough that angels and demons also have more agency than they believe. God tells the story with a twinkle, but remains distant, not really talking to anyone. Adam, too, proves how imagination forms reality.
S2 continues: Without your memories, you really are quite a different person - Jim is very different from Gabriel. The Job episode tells us that people cannot just be replaced (He quite liked the old ones) - something that mirrors what the Them in s1 said to Adam about their parents. And Edinburgh tells us that suicide isn't a good option. Beelzebub and Gabriel also prove that yes, angels and demons ABSOLUTELY have free will as well, if they allow themselves to use it. So, will all these MAIN THEMES of s1, carried through into s2, let's take a look at the finale, shall we?
Now, s3 comes along and meets all that out the window. The universe gets destroyed, and instead of restoring and fixing it (they had ALL the options in the world - you can't tell me a writer cannot make something of such a carte blanche!), instead of fixing it, they decide, yes, let's leave all the people we've ever known, the entire universe, dead, scraped from existence, and commit double suicide, thus complying with the initial destruction plans and all that in exchange for a brand new universe they know nothing about, with new people, with all the magic and anything supernatural gone, a universe they, according to God, will never experience. And oh my, what a cruel b*tch that God is! I'm not even getting started on how ooc many of the scenes for several characters were, especially A&C, or how detrimental it was to change the tone from a warm comedy to utter tragedy, especially (again) in a queer story, and in this political climate. But s3 blatantly contradicts s1, the book and s2 in the major underlying themes. So, the old world is broken, so we just yeet it, choose to die, and if our clones get a happy ending in another world, that's a happy ending for us? How?
To sum it up, in more than just one way - in a literal way within the story, and on a meta level regarding the general themes - s3 utterly destroys s1, the book and s2. So no, I don't think I can accept s3 as it stands now as canon. That would destroy my canon.
And as an addendum: if that's our universe, humans STILL invented religion, only with nothing behind it now. And I highly doubt they have more free will now since apparently there's still fate putting the same souls together (former angels and demons). And it's definitely not better than the universe of s1, rather the contrary. Well. Not so briefly after all, I suppose. Sorry for the rant. If you enjoyed s3, good for you. I for one can appreciate the work that went into it, and I can still toss it.
Another addendum: I didn't even touch on the major plot holes, like the 25 lazarii miracle power never used again, the Metatron's glare at Crowley in s2, the Deus ex Machina Book of Life, Aziraphale's derringer…so many things. Okay, limited time, but still.
All in all, for the story as well as the fandom, in a way, I think Crowley put it best: "You're testing them, you said you'd be testing them. But not to destruction! Not to the end of the world!"
Thank you for coming to my TED talk.
