NOT "Jilt Ye" (first letters in episodes)
НЕ «Бросаю тебя» (первые буквы серий)
Во втором сезоне создана система символов, как в театре Кабуки, на картинах Фриды Кало, в языке цветов для букетов. Я нашла целые композиции подсказок и сделала выводы о финальных 15 минутах.
In the second season, a system of symbols was created, reminiscent of Kabuki theater, Frida Kahlo's paintings, and the language of flowers. I found entire compositions of clues and drew conclusions about the final 15 minutes.
Series of posts "Breaking the "Good Omens" Code"
If you are short on time, read only Part 1 and Part 2 of this series.
Marvelous!
Part 1. Seeming unprofessionalism
Supplement one to Part 1. About "rings" and "a spring in a box"
Supplement two to Part 1. Analogies to "66" and "66"
Part 2. Professionalism and Bullet Catching
Серия постов "Взлом шифра "Благих знамений""
Если у вас мало времени, прочитайте только Часть 1 и Часть 2 этой серии.
Чудесно! (Marvelous!)
Часть 1. Кажущийся непрофессионализм
Дополнение 1 к Части 1. О «кольцах» и «пружинке в коробке»
Дополнение 2 к Части 1. Аналогии на "66" и "66"
Часть 2. Профессионализм и ловля пули.
Crowley was poisoned in the fin-15!
Кроули в финальных-15 отравлен!
Crowley, Death, and Cups / Кроули, смерть и стаканчики
Part 1. The Cups Discontinuity / Киноляп со стаканчиками
Part 2. Crowley's associations with death / Ассоциации Кроули и "смерти"
Part 3. The ink ring is Crowley / Кольцо с чернилами - это Кроули
Part 4. Excalibur. King Arthur is Azi / Экскалибур. Король Артур - это Ази
Part 5. Aziraphale's Diary / Дневник Азирафеля
Series "Numbers" / Серия "Числа"
Clock in fin-15. Quarter and three quarters
Часы в фин-15. Четверть и три четверти
Clock in fin-15. Who complements whom
Часы в фин-15. Кто кого дополняет
Quarters. What does the price of “Bullet Catch” mean?
Четверти. Что значит цена “Ловли пули”?
Clock in fin-15. Number 88 - two lucky infinities
Часы в фин-15. Число 88 - две счастливые бесконечности.
The Demon-Snake and the Curtain / Кобра и занавес
Mirrors / Зеркала
Duplicates-Passers-by in fin-15 / Прохожие-дубли в фин-15
House of cards, tarot and characters | Карточный домик, таро и персонажи
Letters, news and suggestion box (see english text in reblog)
Письма, новости и ящик для предложений
Metatron is not a villain? / Метатрон не злодей?
Ash Yggdrasil / Ясень Иггдрасиль
Deadpool & Wolverine: Good Omens 2 References
Дэдпул и Росомаха: отсылки на Благие Знамения 2
Sandwich, Nina, Muriel and Crowley's Memory / Сэндвич, Нина, Мюриэль и память Кроули
Seamstresses and Miss Cheng's Fan / Швеи и веер мисс Ченг
Gabriel's Cocoa and Crowley's Rain / Какао Гавриила и дождь Кроули
Earring and curtain / Серьга и занавес
Meaning of Eccles cakes /Значение экклских слоек
Views of Edinburgh 11:22 and 22:11 / Виды Эдинбурга на 11.22 и 22.11
1. The tie and Aziraphale's halo /Галстук Нормана и нимб Ази
2. Old and New Contrast /Противопоставление Старый и Новый
The striped man-twice in fin-15 /Полосатый чел-дважды в фин-15
Alekhine's Book on Chess / Шахматная книга Алехина
Why is Dalrymple? / Почему Далримпл?
GO and the Methods of Rationality / Благие знамения и МРМ
Candy in a reactor and a fly in a box / Леденец в реакторе, муха в коробке
What threatened Crowley in S2 final? / Что угрожало Кроули в финале 2 сезона?
Job-episode and the final-15 / Эпизод об Иове и финальные-15
1. Nina Simone, mint and chamomile /Нина Симон, мята и ромашка
2. They'll take my records! / Они возьмут мои записи!
Why is it Azerbaijan? / Почему Азербайджан?
На русском:
Серия "Память Кроули"
1. "Да будет свет", пропажа вещей и память
2. Верх, низ и лошадки
3. Карл, Клара и лошадка
4. Горы и мозги
5. "Воронья дорога", "Доктор Кто"
Подраздел "Смена ролей"
6. Волованы
7. Слойки
8. Арестуй меня
Адам и Кроули: You do
Спасибо всей команде создателей второго сезона "Благих знамений" за великолепную головоломку. Я благодарна внимательному фандому и особенно паблику "TWO BEERs or not TWO BEERs".
Переводы на русский:
Хиастическая структура сезона 1
Хиастическая структура сезона 2
«Невыразимое детективное агентство» представляет:
Что произошло «Перед началом»?
Как это понимать — существуют ДВА Эдема?
Параллели в «Благих знамениях» (сезон 1). Часть 1 из (?).
Почему в «Благих знамениях» есть бесконечные петли или ленты Мёбиуса?
Why I hate Good Omens 3, and why it’s not only about the ending
It’s been 8 days now and since then a lot of good points have been made regarding an oodle of plotholes and inconsistencies, so I won’t be focusing much on every one of them. It’s also been 8 days of real grief for me, and I found myself thinking, why am I so devastated? Why can’t I move on? Because it seems like an easy thing to do – the mess is so big it can as well just be ignored.
Here’s what bothers me: the characters who chose that ending were not Aziraphale and Crowley.
And I don’t mean any hidden clues here, any searching for meaning in parallel universes. The characters we saw in the finale were just so incredibly mischaracterized it feels personal. Yes, of course, I am a mere ficwriter and don’t claim to know them as if they were my own characters. But still, I spent years meticulously trying to understand their personalities and motivations, unlike, it seems, whoever it was that wrote that script.
On May 13, I got seated, jittery and prepared for the end of an era. But the very first scene, the Great War over a plot device called the Eternal Flame, instantly got me saying ‘I don’t like this’. The Aziraphale I saw there, let alone Crowley, acted in a way that filled me with unease. I had an uncanny feeling that I was watching some other show, so little it had to do with Good Omens, aside from the actors. I have to say, that feeling of unrealness stayed with me throughout the episode’s entirety. But in those opening moments, what I felt especially acutely was that this retcon of their early relationship was absolutely wrong.
Of course, it was somewhat retconned in season 2 with the Before the Beginning sequence, where Aziraphale introduces himself to the starmaker, in contradiction to their original first meeting in the Garden of Eden. The way they both act on the wall in Eden is undoubtedly written like a very first meeting. So that scene in season 2 was already questionable, but everything that was questionable in season 2, at least to me, left the benefit of the doubt because of the possibility of a future explanation in the finale.
Said finale does the opposite, making the magical dynamic between Crowley and Aziraphale even more eyebrow-raising. And it becomes really frustrating when near the end it turns out that the Great War scene is there for one reason – backwards writing.
To arrive at a certain point in a story, one needs to establish cause and effect. And this is why Good Omens 3 fails as a story – all plotlines leading to the (very trendy) universe reset are frantically installed during the film (one would think that this butchered script might’ve even been fed to AI). Somehow, Palpatine returned. Somehow, the Book of Life (Plot Device Number 1), ermmm… needs to be… stolen? But hmmmm… we need someone to do the reset, and everyone loves these two characters – Aziraphale and Crowley, soooooo… let’s have Plot Device Number 2 (Eternal Flame) be the instrument of destruction of the Plot Device Number 1 so that the Beloved Characters can arrive at the reset situation with Plot Device Number 0 (God).
The problem is, in order to make Aziraphale and Crowley arrive at that situation, one has to get them there through making several decisions. And these decisions are not the decisions that the priorly established Aziraphale and Crowley would make. I don’t just mean deciding to reset the universe, I mean basically every move they make.
I think it’s safe to say everyone was eager to see Aziraphale’s motivation for leaving at the end of season 2 explored in depth in the finale. Not only we didn’t get it, but we can also see him having regressed from all his previous character development, which he’d had plenty in both seasons, but mostly in season 1 – going from dogmatism to accepting his free will (yes, they both had free will all along. As did other angels, like Gabriel, and demons, like Beelzebub, and humans. Which was the whole point of the story). The faces he makes at the mention of Crowley, the way he behaves when he asks for Crowley’s help, the fact that he never shows that he realizes what exactly he did wrong, demanding Crowley’s forgiveness in order to brush their conflict off and move on to what the plot requires them to do, and ultimately speaking of Crowley as an angel, who he’s long ceased to be and never wanted to become again. This is not Aziraphale. Aziraphale is stubborn but kind, and no matter how badly he parted with Crowley in the final 15, he wouldn’t stop caring, wouldn’t neglect to check on Crowley in years, knowing the state he was in. This is not the angel who made a point out of discovering Crowley’s holy water heist and brought it to him just because he was worried for Crowley’s life. And at the core of it all, in spite of all his pro forma ‘you’re a demon’ remarks, Aziraphale loved Crowley for Crowley, not for his angelic past.
Crowley’s portrayal is not much better. Sure, many of us wanted to see his heartbreak, I did too, but the way it’s executed would be laughable if laughing at funerals was a thing people wanted to do. Backwards writing being, we need drama, so let’s make him homeless through ummm… losing his Bentley! And, somehow (Palpatine wink) his miracles! All that in order for him to be too drunk to realize it’s Jesus talking to him. And this is his excuse for missing Jesus – oops, I was too drunk. An ancient demon of his cunning, the original tempter, missed the key figure because he was drunk. Like just some guy. How very plausible.
Naturally, I have to remind everyone that Crowley is an optimist with an unlimited imagination and always, always slithered his way out of any pear-shaped situation. Let’s not forget that he was the one to propose averting Armageddon and insist on doing that despite Aziraphale’s initial objections. And it worked! Worked because humanity has free will. And you’re telling me I have to buy him saying, yeah nah, let’s restart it all cause there is no other way? For Crowley, there is always another way. There’s no way he would give up and doom the entire universe and the love of his extremely long life to destruction (“You’ve got to keep testing people. But not to destruction.” – Crowley’s quote from the chapter ‘Eleven Years Ago’).
I saved the part that hurts me the most for the last. And I think this is the reason why it hit me so hard and isn’t letting me be.
I can see no love between Aziraphale and Crowley in the finale. It is spoken of by a third party, in a mocking way no less, it is implied through some guys played by David Tennant and Michael Sheen who were married for 20 years off screen, but it’s just not in the story anymore. It was there in season 1. It was there in season 2. The chemistry between them was insane, with their infinite push and pull, their being so similar despite belonging to different factions. They were so compelling because they were an impossible pair of an angel and a demon. These characters shaped each other, in the world that they loved so much and that wasn’t easy to live in, but it was theirs. To the world, they say proudly, with deepest affection, in such a fitting ending in season 1. Their so-called decision in the finale is not what they are. To arrive at this decision, the writers turned them into Plot Device Number 3, now without any chemistry whatsoever, the shells of their former glorious selves that I, and I’m sure most of us, loved so much in the previous installments. For their love for each other and their love for the imperfect but wonderful world that was their home.
I feel sorry for their character assassination, in both ways. I do hope that I’ll be able to move on and forget this mess of a finale like a terrible nightmare, continuing my journey with Aziraphale and Crowley, the characters that have become so dear to me. And I’m positive that collectively we, the fans, will do them much better justice than was done by the people who clearly don’t give a single fuck about Good Omens.
Don't worry guys, they're not actually human! They lived and they're immortal, they're just freaks who like to do elaborate human roleplay with each other every few decades. You know, like couples in a hotel bar. Just to spice things up.
"Oh yes, Professor Crowley, I have just the book for you. 🤭"
"Well well well, isn't it just my lucky day, Ang— I mean..... handsome stranger who I've never met. 😘"
I've been spending a week telling myself that the ending of Good Omens S3 didn't affect me because the only canon boys for me are the ones in the book, but...
that's probably untrue because I also seem to have written a whole fanfic just to retcon it.
I don't consider this a fix-it fic, it's more of a I DARE YOU TO PROVE THIS DIDN'T ACTUALLY HAPPEN fic.
So here you go, spoilers under the cut:
And Everything Else
It was dark. Aziraphale had the unpleasant sensation of a million trillion atoms buzzing back into place. He could see nothing past his… nose? He thought there was a nose. Which was odd in itself; that wasn’t supposed to be.
“Crowley?” He ventured.
The sardonic groan that answered him from the void was reassuring.
“I say, Crowley! I thought we were dead!”
Somewhere below his left ear, Crowley wheezed. “Not dead, discorporated. Though I’m starting to wish it, got a whopping great headache.”
“But - why? How?”
“S’wot bloody happens when reality explodes, I should think.”
“No no, how are we still here? I distinctly remember nobly extinguishing ourselves from existence in a rather stirring act of self-sacrifice. You were there too, don’t you remember? Demands were made of the divine, the nature of reality was debated, certain feelings were disclosed…”
The angel stopped short, a sudden swoosh through the darkness seeming to indicate that his newly re-formed wings had shot up.
“Crowley!” he gasped. “Do- do you suppose that’s what saved us? Is our bond stronger even than the dissolution of time and space?”
Aziraphale couldn’t see his rangy companion but he could just feel the ironical arch of those brows.
“That’s one theory” came the languid reply. “Or could be… I dunno, could be that both our names are still written in the Book of Life.”
Something about his tone said he was suppressing a self-satisfied grin. Aziraphale swiveled toward him.
“Whatever do you mean? There’s no interference of the divine, remember? The new universe doesn’t have a Book of Life.”
“Right, but this universe does.” The demon flexed a wing experimentally. “This universe sticks around so long as the book does. We wrote a new one, if you’ll recall. And what do you suppose it says?”
Aziraphale strained to remember, and found his lips moving over the words like a half-forgotten rhyme. “There were four of them in that bookshop, which was the whole world…” he whispered.
“Exactly. Four beings… including yourself. Including yours truly. Still listed, still very much existing.”
Aziraphale tried to concentrate. He could feel the last of his molecules reassembling, and it made his fingers tingly. “But God said-”
“She said we can’t exist in the new universe. Didn’t say anything about the old one then, did she?”
“But- but Crowley!” cried the angel, wringing his hands, “Then what was the point? You said you wanted a new earth! A new start, without the meddling of the divine! You said a world without free will isn’t worth living in.”
“I did, and it isn’t. Think, Angel. Four of them in that bookshop. Where are the other two? The prime meddlers, if you will."
Aziraphale paused and blinked about into the void.
“Why yes - the devil and the lord herself, what’s become of them?
“It seems,” Crowley droned, sounding very much pleased with himself, “that when we requested an impromptu celestial reset they both jumped at the chance. Became rather occupied mucking about in an alternate universe where they don’t nominally exist, or some such. Probably a confounding affair with vague doppelgängers and the likes, if I know them.
Aziraphale started. “They left, just like that? To go exist in another universe?”
“To go not exist in another universe. But they’ll never not be entirely. S’long as there’s good, long as there’s evil. You wrote it yourself, God was here the whole time. Bit of a paradox but it’ll do in a pinch.”
“So” began Aziraphale, slowly, “if they’re off being nonexistent in another universe…”
“Then they’re not interfering in this one, just so happens” finished Crowley. His eyes twinkled, Aziraphale knew they did.
“Crowley!” he cried, somewhere between scandalized and impressed. “You mean to tell me this whole time- that it was all a ruse to get heaven and hell to finally leave the world alone?”
“What,” said the demon, “did you really think I was just going to throw away 8 billion people? Ninety trillion perfectly good star systems? And after all the trouble we went through trying to save them the first time.” He sniffed. “Ruddy waste if you ask me.”
“Why Crowley, you dear thing! I…. I don’t know what to say! You’ve saved the day! You’re a miracle!”
“Alright, alright,” he grimaced. “Don’t rub it in.”
“Don’t be modest, dear boy! Why, you’ve saved the entire universe!”
“We did, Angel,” he muttered. “Us.”
Aziraphale placed a hand on what he thought must be Crowley’s shoulder and squeezed it fondly.
“Though…” said Crowley, thoughtful, his tone sharpening abruptly, “I suppose I don’t have to tell you any of this.”
Aziraphale straightened. “Whatever do you mean?”
“Just that you jumped onboard with my throw-out-the-universe-and-die pitch awfully fast. You really mean to tell me you didn’t want to save the world just as much as I did? Have a little go at subverting divine will?”
“I’ve no idea what you’re talking about.”
Crowley’s voice was closer to his ear now. “Awfully convenient, wasn’t it, your happening to write our names down in the Book of Life like that. Without knowing it would save us.”
The Angel pursed his lips. “I… may have had an inkling.”
Crowley threw up his hands. “Of course you bloody knew! So why the charade? Do you get off on listening to me re-explain it all?”
“Oh, but Crowley!” the angel huffed, flustered. “It’s just, you do so love saving me.”
“I want you to know that I’m rolling my eyes, Angel,” said Crowley, “even if you can’t see it.” But he did not sound displeased.
Aziraphale brightened. “Well, to business then! The universe, you know - it’s rather… missing at the moment. How are we supposed to get it back?”
He felt Crowley shrug. “Rewrite the book, I suppose. I think there’s still a pen in my - yes, seems I’ve got my pockets back.”
“Re-write the entire universe! That will take ages! Eons!”
“You have somewhere else to be?”
The angel looked about into the vacancy. “Nowhere at all, it seems. I’ve nothing but time. Or lack thereof, I’m not sure time exists yet. Well then… how shall we write the world? Put back everything just as it was?”
“What, you want to put everything back? Including Gabriel?”
“Now Crowley…”
“Ooh and let’s leave out slugs. Never could stand them, all squiggly-like. Maybe we start with ‘No Gabriel, no slugs.’”
“Gabriel stays. And I don’t know, I rather liked slugs. All the overlooked things. They were… important.”
“Fine” drawled Crowley. “Have it your way. Here, I’ll start it off.”
“But what will you write?”
“I dunno, does it matter? Best of times, worst of times. Dark and stormy night. Call me Crowley. Take your pick.”
“Mind your penmanship!”
“I can’t bloody well see, now can I?"
“Wait! I’ve a good opening." Aziraphale groped about until he located something distinctly pen-like and something distinctly book-like. And he said the words as he wrote “Let… there… be - light.”
There was, and it was good. But also rather far away. The faint glow seemed a small question on a non-existent horizon.
It was enough for them to make out the gray outline of pages, though. Crowley contemplated their lines of script for a moment, then plucked back the pen back and hurriedly scrawled “And everything else.” He handed it off to the angel for approval, looking doggedly pleased.
Aziraphale pulled at a curl. “Perhaps a bit vague?”
“Sure, but it’ll save us buckets of time. 'Everything else' ‘bout covers it all. Humanity, polar bears, airplanes, Queen albums.” Crowley shuffled. “…Love. All that rot.”
They stood side by side in the yawning gray. Aziraphale suddenly found himself unsure what to say. So they gazed into the elongating dim, and they waited. The light was growing stronger, minuscule but steady. Somewhere far away and faint, Aziraphale thought he could hear the call of birds.
“Everything else. It’s coming closer,” said Crowley.
“I expect it is.”
“Taking it’s time, isn’t it?”
“Patience, now. The universe wasn’t built in a day.”
“Seven, if I recall.”
The light continued to grow, as did a great far-off din of jungle noises and the muddled song of rushing rivers.
Crowley bounced on his heels.
Aziraphale hesitated. “Crowley. Was it… all an act?”
“Hrm.”
“You know. The part where you looked at me like that, was it real? Just before we discorporated. Like you weren’t sure if the universe really would end, or if everything would work out, but that it somehow didn’t matter just then. The way you were looking at me, it was as if I was the whole universe.”
Crowley had assumed the demeanor of a deflated beach ball. “Are you really going to make me say it?” he muttered. “Last time I tried to tell you it didn’t work out so well.”
Aziraphale felt suddenly small. “Tell me what?”
The demon studied his feet. “Oh, that I love the world, but… s’not much good to me if you’re not in it.” He looked up at Aziraphale then, helpless, and it was a question.
It was almost here now, the Everything. The steady swell of light, the din of waters and winds and animals; a cacophony of life, surging towards them.
In the growing bright Aziraphale could finally make out the bedraggled figure next to him clearly. Crowley looked like he had been through every ring of hell and back and tripped down every escalator of heaven to boot. All for his sake.
The angel faltered. “Oh, Crowley. I’m sorry, dear fellow. So sorry for leaving you. I never should have gone. Only, I wanted so badly to put things right for the world but I ended up making a terrible muddle of things instead. You must know I never wanted to go - that it was all for you, because of you. That of all the things I love in the world, I love you the most. Oh, what dreadful ideas I get sometimes, running off and leaving you with no one but house plants and gangsters for company! Why if only I had stopped to think-”
Crowley's gaze softened as he looked at the babbling angel, adoring. The universe was closer now, so close, and the sheen of a thousand expanding nebulas danced in his eyes.
“I’m sorry, Crowley,” Aziraphale stammered on, “terribly sorry.”
It was with infinite fondness and not even a hint of irony when Crowley touched his face and murmured back “I forgive you.”
The Everything rushed upon them then. And when they kissed it was with the brilliance of every star and a symphony of madly whirling planets and the chaos of a trillion galaxies exploding into being. There was a giddy leap of waves, and the great sigh of leaves in summer and friends calling out to one another and the tiny shuffling of every insect; a great burst of sunflowers and love songs and feel of their hands as they touched and the dizzy corkscrew of time itself. Reality brimmed over with with nightingales and orangoutangs and libraries and mugs of tea and the great contented shiver of all the things that ever were or would be as they clinked back into place.
It was awfully good, Aziraphale thought, as they held onto each other. There was so much light. And everything else.
After S2 the fandom has basically (like 90%) collectively decided that the Book of Life was not really a thing, not really a threat because Crowley was dismissive of it. (Not to mention that Aziraphale was not really getting the job and certainly not going to make any change in Heaven.)
If the fandom didn't decide that if Crowley thinks it's not really a threat then maybe we would have been more scared for Aziraphale who Michael was gleefully going to erase for helping Gabriel and wonder why Crowley was so nonchalant when the whole Michael/Metatron power play over Aziraphale's fate went on but I digress.
So how come in S3 Crowley suddenly knows ALL ABOUT how the book works and what can and cannot be done to it?
It hurts like hell that Crowley got all the comforting and all the words of love and devotion, while Aziraphale, across the entire 90 minutes, didn’t hear anything like that from Crowley at all. And from God, the only things he heard were that he was prideful, gluttonous, and deceitful. Fuck off with that.
Would it have been so hard to give us something like this? Give them this one, small moment to express their love for each other?
Don’t get me wrong, I kind of grew fond of the hand kiss gesture. But in the Bookshop Garden, when they had privacy - probably for the first time ever - I really grieve a heartfelt conversation; about the things they did wrong, about their affection, about their options. About the reasons why they decided to choose humanity over their own happiness *sigh*
So I chose to give them this hug. We all need this. I will continue drawing moments like this ♥️😭
I think the greater crime than the bad hair is that they turned Anthony into ANGEL Crowley. Astrophysics and all. Zero reference to snakes/ plants/ music/ cars. Crowley fought for 3 seasons to be seen as who he IS and not the angel he used to be, and not to be judged for his fall, and it was all for nothing. "God's best angel" give me a break no wonder he decided to off them both
This will always anger me. Crowley enjoys being a demon in the book. Only Crowley in the show ever showed any regret about being a demon ("I didn't mean to fall" scene in Season 1). In the book he happily embrace who he is.
This is why my story based on Season 3 element is going to deal with the issue of making Crowley an angel. With a HAPPY ENDING FOR THE BOTH OF THEM AS WHO THEY ARE BECAUSE THEY DESERVE IT.
I don't really think that show Crowley really hated being à demon either. He mostly hated the purpose of his nature as so he did for the angels.
That's the beauty of they relation. They learnt to love who they are and who they become out of their label. They love each other for who they are inside.
And so making human Anthony look like his angel self is heartbreaking bc its not the personne nore the personality Aziraphale end up falling for. (Yeah no, i don't buy the love at first sigh as angels things. I like seeing their love grow)
And also the fact that at then end Aziraphale is all over how Crowley was the best angel. At first i find it cute but as I think about it. It's still putting a label on him. He should have said he was the best being of the universe.
That what we love about them. That they used 6000y growing up to love and see behind their nature.
The 5 real themes of good omens that the finale completely botched
I know we only had 1 episode and whole plotlines were scrapped but I was just left feeling so empty after the finale given how powerful and moving and profound the themes of season 1/the book were. So buckle up for a long ride let's talk about it
Theme 1: Human Incarnate
The book and the show established that humanity is unique because it is neither purely good or purely bad. From the book: "Most of the great triumphs and tragedies of history are caused not by people being fundamentally good or fundamentally evil, but by people being fundamentally people." This Aziraphale describes as "much better" than either Heaven or Hell
This is one of my favorite sequences in the whole show. And the music is soaring and gorgeous. Adam recalls the things in his life he has come to know and love; his parents, his friends, his dog, his home. He makes it have nice weather all year. Aziraphale could feel that love at the Tadfield Manor. Heaven and Hell tried to create an instrument of destruction. But by putting that inside a human boy, they didn't realize the strength of one boy's love would be strong enough to literally burn the hell out of him. He told Satan himself to shove it and rewrote reality to have the dad he truly loved. The power of humanity's love is stronger than any immortal power could ever be.
This is the idea that would have been so cool for the finale but unfortunately never paid off. As the second coming prepares to destroy Earth again, Aziraphale and Crowley could have teamed up with the power of humanity to reshape heaven and hell for good. Adam and Jesus as the antichrist and christ born to end the world and instead used their humanity to save it. Instead we got the book-of-life arc and humans were literally left to dust
Theme 2: Free Will
Next good omens establishes that angels and demons are just puppets but humans are the ones with real free will because they have the ability to be good or bad. Even with heaven and hell, the humans on Earth always have a choice. In season 2, they agree on this, but Crowley's main grievance is the inequity of it all. Humans have free will but it still isn't fair.
God made angels and demons and humans but the humans never had to follow her 'plan.' Free will and the ability to recognize what is truly right outside the propaganda of good vs evil is what saves the world.
Humans always had free will, even if God was around to kill a bunch of them with floods or take their stuff to win bets or something. Creating a new universe without God wouldn't change that. They would still have free will, just less threats from above/below, I guess. What Crowley's established character really should have wanted here was to fix the inequity inherent in human society. That's what is truly holding them back, not a lack of will. Removing God from the universe doesn't actually solve the root problem here
Theme 3: Our Own Side
This is something Crowley learned very early and spends the whole show trying to teach Aziraphale. That good must be separated from heaven and bad must be separated from hell.
Heaven can do some truly appalling horrors and demons, at least Crowley (and somewhat Beelzebub I guess) have the potential to be kind. 'Their own side' is one where they have the freedom of humanity, to do what is truly right. Aziraphale and Crowley sort of found their way there in the finale, but it was all rushed and Aziraphale never really turned his back on heaven, it sort of just became irrelevant when everything started disappearing. What a beautifully flawed and nice world they could have created together
Theme 4: Love Conquers all
What was it all for? Love. God made Aziraphale and Crowley for each other because she liked to smile at the silliness of their love. The literal only constant in the entire universe. Their love for the world and each other saved it. I think the decision to turn Aziraphale and Crowley's queer love story into a tragedy was the biggest mistake of seasons 2/3. Forcing the soft and romantic comedy of good omens into a queer tragedy was the instant it all crashed and burned. Now everything is tainted leading up to the pain and destruction of it all and the whimsy and lightness is gone. There were moments of it, but it was all leading toward the end. And queer love deserves to not be a tragedy. We have far too much tragic queer love in our society. Yes we got the south downs, but Aziraphale and Crowley never got to experience that freedom. They finally came together just to instantly be destroyed. We deserve happy and fulfilling queer love that is sweet without the bitter parts. Good omens was intended to be a comedy, not a tragedy
And then this was SUCH A COOL IDEA they introduced. Perhaps the first time ever an angel and a demon performed a miracle together. The power of their love could create magic stronger than anything heaven or hell had ever seen. I was so excited to see the wonders they were going to create, they ways in which they could have rebuilt the world better using that love. If they had this kind of power doing a tiny miracle, what could they have accomplished if they really put their minds to it? God herself couldn't have stopped them. And instead, the finale literally revoked Crowley's magic for the entire episode. They sacrifice themselves for a new earth and people that didn’t even exist yet instead of using any of their power to change it. The god awful execution of this theme is probably the biggest letdown of the entire finale imo
Theme 5: Fix It, Don't Replace It
This is so obviously established in seasons 1/2 I cannot believe how badly they missed the mark with this one
Literally shows us the horror of replacing the Earth with all new people. Even children can recognize that just because something is broken, it doesn't mean you throw it away and start all over. They loved the world enough to want to save it. The world is inherently worth saving, flaws and all. If you love something, you don't abandon it. The ENTIRE PLOT of season 1 explores the horrors of humanity and yet humans, Aziraphale and Crowley do everything in their power to save it.
It absolutely blows my mind how directly this scene contradicts the entire message of the finale. Job didn't want new children, he quite liked the old ones. Aziraphale and Crowley didn't want the antichrist's new Earth, they quite liked the old one. We didn't want new human versions of Aziraphale and Crowley, we QUITE LIKED THE OLD ONES. Where the hell did that mentality go when they told God to create an entirely new universe????????????? Season 1 said the world is flawed but it deserves saving exactly as it is. Season 1 said an angel and a demon go off to the ritz together, exactly as they are. The finale said the world is too broken, we have to make it disappear and start over. The finale said Aziraphale and Crowley have too many issues/traumas to be happy, we have to destroy them and start over. That's why as cute as Asa and Anthony's love is, we quite liked them exactly as they were, angel/demon trauma + history and all. They deserved saving too.
Good omens has always been so special to me for how much it pokes fun at but also celebrates the messiness and wonder of humanity and love. The 6-to-1 episodes was a major setback but somehow the finale still managed to drop basically every one of its most endearing and powerful messages. What is the "real world" the finale is trying to make us value? One without a god to screw things up sometimes?? The best parts of humanity always shined through not even despite, but BECAUSE of the heavenly challenges they overcame. It's very clear good omens as a whole was always meant to be a one-season/one-book story. There was so much potential and missed opportunities and I wish we could have had the finale we were all dreaming of. I will always love the world of good omens season 1/the book, so that is the world I'll keep in my heart. And all the nightingales therein
✨️some thoughts under the cut, feel free to ignore it and just enjoy the picture✨️
Whenever I dislike something very much, I change my mind often within a few days. It's been a week, it hurts less, but I didn’t change my mind this time. I don't accept the final. It doesn't feel right to me, and it doesn't feel fair. I wrote a very angry text earlier and it was rather emotional, not gonna delete it though, it made me feel better. I don't care if the s3 ending was intended to be so bitter or did they genuinely thought it's right and good, I just know that it doesn’t match the whole picture to me (and also, it's just not what I wanted, not gonna lie, but there are so many ways to end the story, and they chose THE WORST). I'd like to say it one more time: the problem for me is not the characters make the choice they did, it's the writers put them in this situation in the first place. And EVEN in those circumstances, i believe that our angel and demon would come to any other solution than this one.
When I was drawing this, I was thinking about what makes our beloved characters themselves. It is their shared past and experiences, thousands of memories that influence their personalities and choices. It's their long story, their history. It's not just a "soul", though it matters too if it exists. So, when it was erased this easily, no reincarnations could fill the hole that many of us got. Asa and Anthony are sweet and I kinda liked them after all but their happiness doesn't really bother me as much as Aziraphale and Crowley's.
Besides, I was so so sad about not only they were destroyed, but all of the people and the world we knew. It felt so wrong, especially when you think about Adam giving the Earth a chance despite it being so twisted and bad in many ways. Because, firstly it's up to no one to decide the fate of everyone, and secondly, it is wrong to give up on trying to fix things and make it better. It's so important to remember our past, our pain and our mistakes so that we don’t repeat them in the future, and when it's just gone it feels like a loss, not a win. I'm not even talking about all the good things that humanity had, and now it's all went different way. We have seen that people live just fine, and in the new world everything is very similar to ours, but this feels so... not related to us? Idk, it feels like something else. I wonder what humanity had to go through during this time, but as I said earlier, I wanted to get a chance to live on for our world, and not for someone else, who didn't even exist yet... Don't we deserve this?
That's why I've drawn this picture. I usually draw something for fun or just to create something pleasing to my own eyes, but this one feel special because of so much thoughts behind it. Pretty simple thoughts but anyway. In my head Aziraphale and Crowley are alive as old selves, happy and loved. In the cottage, of course.
The last thing I would like to add is just my opinion (as everything above, sure) but I want to say it anyway. I believe that every author should tell the story the way they want, without necessarily listening to anyone's suggestions about it. But for me this story was a comforting one, the one about and for all of the people, and now it’s neither. After the S2 I felt like this show is going to end somehow lovely, with everyone achieve the peace they deserved, and that the ending would be the most cliché (in a good way) we could imagine. Because this is what we NEEDED. We needed something that ends fair and everyone is happy, that would be a beacon to help us through the hard times in reality. There are not so many stories nowadays that seems like a fairy tale that gives us hope, like the S1. I think we all have the right to grieve about something that was so important to us and turned out to be a kind of betrayal, despite the fact that it was the author's choice. They had that right, and we have the right to say what we think about it. Also, people who paid to watch it have a right to complain about the commercial product they dislike because it is obviously rushed and not really written very well hahaha but that’s not what I’m talking about. Even if this ending would be written brilliant with a full six episodes, it would be easier to accept but I probably wouldn’t.
I'm not the talkative one when it comes to openly expressing my opinions, it's always been a hard thing to me, but this is what happens when you make an introvert feel the pain about something they love deeply lol. I know a lot of people have already said exactly what I just said but I needed to vent it too. I feel so much easier after putting all of this into words and sharing. Glad if you read it! I’m open to discussion if you have anything to add or disagree.
