ineffable smut and other things

[wardrobeoftime]

Good Omens + Costumes

Aziraphale's brown jacket and white & brown kilt in Season 03, Episode 01.

[wardrobeoftime]

Good Omens + Costumes

Asa Fell's white, blue & orange shirt, yellow vest, brown pants and green & brown coat in Season 03, Episode 01.

[twilightofthesandwiches]

Obviously I never minded it when the ‘Good Omens’ Fandom tried playing around with concepts of, like, Crowley and Aziraphale being Soulmates or being Made for each other or so on. We were just having Fun in our little shared Sandbox. But I really cannot understand why the Actual Writers of the Actual Good Omens Show were like “Hey, do you know what our narrative about Free Will and star-crossed lovers defying their assigned roles to be together needs……. Implications that they’re actually Soulmates bound together by fate!” Like WHAT do they think they were doing here???

Then I thought, ‘Well, this is basically like a Newt and Anathema situation, isn’t it? They’re also a couple from ‘opposite sides’, a Witchfinder and a Witch, who get together but also they are explicitly Predestined thanks to Agnes Nutter’s prophecies….”

But the thing is:

Newt and Anathema’s ‘Hereditary Enemies Turned Lovers’ appeal was always pretty minimal. Newt is barely a Witchfinder, Anathema holds no ill will towards him or his ancestor, there is no real friction in their relationship around that part. The predestination part was by far the main focus.

GO1 and especially Book Omens's Newthema does give us a few nods to how Weird it is to know a relationship you are interested in has also been Determined by Unchangeable Fate.

While all the implications of Aziraphale and Crowley’s ‘Soulmates’ status in GO3 is pretty much always played as unironically straightforwardly Romantic. Even after they supposedly break away from God’s control…. “They will always be together in every lifetime and every universe” is supposed to the bittersweet but triumphant message their story ends on.

At least Newt and Anathema get to burn Agnes’ second book and actively choose to try and live together and freely. You could say Crowley and Aziraphale remaking the world and then reincarnating into Human versions who get married is the equivalent of that, but the fact that they have no conscious memory or awareness of their previous lives remove the aspect of Choice.

Also, GO1 and Book Omens are a bit more… ambivalent about the questions of the Predestination Paradoxes and how Free Will factors with Ineffability. “If God planned for everything and the Ineffable Plan cannot be changed, then this means They actually want Humans to disobey the plan and make their own destiny, so this is still part of the Plan” is the piece of Theological Bullshitting that makes up Aziraphale and Crowley’s main contribution to actually saving the world. It is a positive moment in the context of that storyline.

And in general, the tone of the ending of the Book/GO1 when it explores the idea that disobedience and Free Will are actually part of God’s Ineffable Plan is…. Maybe not in a 100% straightforwardly positive, but is definitely kinda sardonically jovial about the concept. Especially when you consider, like, the moment in the book where Agnes Nutter’s ghost chuckles with both foreknowledge and joy seeing her descendant reject her second book.

And the implication that God’s real plan might be to set the stage for a Humanist revolution against Heaven and Hell…

GO3, meanwhile, is of the opinion that this means that there is no REAL Free Will under these circumstances. This is just a hopeless rigged game that will always end with the destruction of the world one way or another, and this such a dire state and Real Free Will is so important that this is worth it for our two beloved Protagonists to kill themselves over it.

So, yeah, it does feel more discordant that the idea of these characters exploring how their Love might have been one of those things that always felt like disobedience and an expression of their own Free Will was also ‘Predictable’ to God and given by Them just…. never even comes up. Because Someone forbids these two actually get to talk about their relationship in any meaningful way in canon, am I right?

And even more discordant that the idea that their relationship is still controlled by some sort of Cosmic Force of Fate is their Happily Ever After???

Also, like, no offense to Newton Pulsifer and Anathema Device as characters, but who the FUCK ever looked at the Ineffable Husbands and went ‘oh, yeah, you know what would make this even better? If it was more like Newthema!’?????

[ingravinoveritas]

"We've all got to be fighting that fight every day."

Happy Pride, everyone...

[angelsandfelines]

[bubblegum-bitchhhhhhhhh]

I love when you’re reading multiple fics by the same author and you start to spot all the phrases and adjectives they like to use

[visceravalentines]

I ghostwrote these tags my god

[brionysea]

[rofell]

It objectively makes ZERO sense that the universe we saw in GO was destroyed and rebooted into our universe. The universe are the same. Are you telling me that our evolved universe spontaneously over billions of years had the EXACT SAME historical trajectory as the 6000 year old universe - right down to Shakespeare, and the French Revolution, and making the band Queen and a David Bowie who wrote a song called Life on Mars in both universes? We are talking each individual flap of a butterfly's wing being unchanged here.

I've been thinking about this ever since I read this post a few days ago, credit to @starsonpluto

I can only conclude two possibilities from this insanity

The writing was terrible. It was not well thought through. This is a giant, massive, gaping plot hole and no one gives a shit. (Favouring this one being true)

We are meant to take this as a suuuuuuuuper subtle clue that this is a Job situation where the original universe was never destroyed at all because "we quite liked the old one".

I don't think it's number 2, I know there are lots of fun head canons and theories out there and if that's how you enjoy interpreting things, have at er!

My interpretation of what the movie is telling us/from comments from BTS and Rachel Talalay is that the official story is the universe was destroyed but the souls of (all?? many?? some??) of the original characters have lived on and been reborn in the new universe.

I'm just really bothered by the fact that the old universe doesn't just seem like ours, it's literally exactly like ours. The universe being "rigged" has apparently in no way changed the flow of history one iota to the point of the same exact songs being written. So there is no reason to have destroyed that universe. You could have just destroyed Heaven and Hell with the same effect.

[twilightofthesandwiches]

Anyway, I guess since I’m done trying to be thoughtful and considerate and has fallen entirely to the depths of Salt then I probably take this opportunity to make one thing clear:

I am the World’s Biggest S02E01 Cold Open Hater. If Good Omens S02E01 Cold Open has a million Haters, I one of them. If Good Omens S02E01 Cold Open has ten Haters, I am one of them. If Good Omens S02E01 Cold Open has only one Hater, that is me. If Good Omens S02E01 Cold Open has no Haters then I have been erased from the Book of Life. I could honestly bring myself to have more positive things to say about the fucking Asa/Anthony Ending then I do about the writing decision to retcon Aziraphale and Crowley as having met in Heaven before Crowley’s fall.

Like, that trope of Aziraphale and Crowley meeting as Angels was one of my least favorites back when it was still a fanfiction trope and, like, sometimes a piece of serialized media canonizes a theory or a headcanon I didn’t like, but manages to do so in a way that totally subvert all of my misgiving about it and makes me actually love, or at least accept, that decision…. But that was absolutely not one of these times.

I still felt like it seriously diminished the importance of Earth and Humanity and the thematic choice of having Eden as the place their story and romance begins in and I disliked how it’s like the official starting point of “ooooh Crowley was such a big important Angel” rather them letting them be Some Guys who are ‘special’ primarily just due to their connection with Humans, and I especially especially HATE how it went out of its way to recontextualize the Eden Flashback in a way that just weakens its meaning for both Aziraphale and Crowley’s characters!

I hate this I hate this I hate this I hate this I hate this I hate this I hate this I hate this I hate this I hate this I hate this I hate this I hate this I hate this I hate this I hate this I hate this I hate this I hate this I hate this I hate this I hate this I hate this I hate this I hate this I hate this I hate this I hate this I hate this I hate this I hate this I hate this I hate this I hate this I hate this I hate this I hate this I hate this I hate this I hate this I hate this I hate this I hate this I hate this I hate this I hate this I hate this I hate this I hate this I hate this I hate this I hate this I hate this I hate this I hate this I hate this I hate this I hate this I hate this I hate this

But, you know, I was trying to not make this ruin the show for me. You know, a fantheory I hate got canonized but I can still appreciate the show for what it is! And it does seem like they’re at least doing some interesting Character Drama with the whole Angel Crowley thing, and since Aziraphale’s desire to have Crowley reinstated as an Angel is clearly framed as foolish and Crowley keeps trying to distance himself from that former identity and still seems to define their relationship as starting at Eden this storyline is clearly going to conclude with Aziraphale realizing that Crowley’s former Angelic identity doesn’t matter that much and that his brief infatuation with his cute excitable co-worker was not the most important part of his thousands of years of falling in love with Crowley, right?

(And to be honest, like, I didn’t like most of the Metatron Manipulating Book of Life Conspiracy Theories that came at the wake of Season 2, I felt like diminishing Aziraphale’s agency in making mistakes is also diminishing his character and his eventual arc… But I did hold deep down one weird rebellious irrational hope that maybe the ONE important thing that was changed is that the Metatron wrote in the S02E01 opening, changed Crowley and Aziraphale’s personal history so that they met in Heaven before Eden. So that Aziraphale would have a fixation on Angel!Crowley and forget that he was the kind of person who would strike a kind casual conversation with a Demon and shield him from the rain, even if he was a total stranger. That way we could still circle back to Eden being the true first meeting between the two and not totally remove Aziraphale’s agency in choosing Heaven (he could’ve still decided that reversing Crowley's fall was an Obviously Bad Idea, and also maybe noticed the inconsistencies in the alterations to his memory/history on his own). It was a total long shot that it would turn out like that, but I still held out that hope for that kind of plot development until the moments GO3 aired. )

AND THEN OF COURSE GO3, okay the idea that it would be a Book of Life retcon was clearly a pipe dream, but the way GO3 did deal with Angel!Crowley just doubled-down on like every single thing I didn’t like about the S02E01 Cold Open; the diminishing of Aziraphale’s character and making it seem like all of his positive qualities are because of Crowley, making Crowley’s former Angelic identity and his Fall the Most Important Aspects to the derailment of any other aspect of his character, treating Crowley’s own definition of his personal identity as the One Thing He WAS Apparently Wrong About, making Aziraphale’s ‘love confession’ one where he STILL hasn’t gotten over his ‘Angel = Good’ bullshit and thus this character arc never really get resolved AND making it seem like the last 6000 years of Slow Burn and relationship development were less important than one brief meeting at the very start and also subsequently underplaying the importance of Earth and Humanity and EDEN to Crowley and Aziraphale (even as the whole ending is supposed to hinge on their relationship to Humanity) to the point that despite the whole ‘it starts, as it will end, with a garden’ stuff, Asa and Anthony’s final scene is much more of a callback to Before the Beginning then Eden…

Aziraphale never even told Crowley he thinks his yellow demonic snake eyes are pretty!!! Fuck!!!

So yeah, I hate the S02E01 Cold Open. I hate that I ever tried to give it the benefit of the doubt. I hate everything GO3 did with it. I hate Angel Cro-

Okay, no, wait, I don’t hate Angel Crowley himself. He’s good, he’s an innocent cute little baby boy (gender neutral), it’s not his fault everything the plot did with him was to the derailment of both his co-star and his future self.

[aydracz]

I actually always liked the scene but I never really realised its implications and these are some extremely good points

[fuckyeahgoodomens]

Some of the subtle clues that Aziraphale and Crowley switched bodies

Bonus - not so subtle anymore, where ‘Crowley’ is sitting prim and proper and ‘Aziraphale’ kind of lying on the bench (plus their reverse sitting position)

Bonus 2:

Bonus 3: We usually see Aziraphale under the sign E (east), but ‘Aziraphale’ under the opposite W (west)

[bohoteacher]

Why not reblog this now? It reminds me of some of my favorite scenes.

[rofell]

some new ones here for me - the tartan collar on "Crowley"!

[starsonpluto]

you know what fucking kills me? all major historical events that happened in our universe (the supposed new universe) also happened in the original universe.

we know that covid happened because the lockdowns were the reason Maggie was behind on rent (+ the whole lockdown audio bit, if you want to treat that as canon). the French Revolution, WW2, the Spanish Inquisition, climate change all happened. Shakespeare, Queen, the Velvet Underground, Shostakovich and David Bowie happened. hell, even on a much smaller-stakes scale, our version of the M25 still looks like Crowley's version.

the universe still worked out the same exact way. what was the point of their sacrifice then? no more cosmic meddling? we've ended up with the same exact thing anyway, so either Heaven and Hell were never that important because it's all humanity's doing (oh hello Book Omens/S1) , or the universe is just so inert that the whole "once you get rid of God you gain free will" thing is just blatantly Not True

"but humanity is now free to exist without the influences from Heaven or Hell!!!" yeah and everything still worked out the same way so ultimately Heaven and Hell never had much of a hand in anything

"but humanity being in control is very Pratchett!!!" yes, but killing the whole universe just to prove that point isn't. the death of 8 billion people was just a device to prove that humanity is capable of both beauty and horror? "sin, young man, is when you treat people like things."

I dunno man, this ending is fucking bleak

[rofell]

We are living in a timeline where the GO finale involved Aziraphale and Crowley never properly making up, spending a grumpy day together, and then dying.

I need to keep reminding myself of that. Because this outcome was so unimaginable to me. In the 990 days I spent waiting for the finale I never once considered this possibility.

This is the ending that we got. I'm getting closer to accepting it, but I'm not quite there. That's why I'm making this post - not to rile up the fandom that I know is divided. I love the positive takes too, keep em comin'. I just... need a little more time to accept that this is what we got.

I think on the other side of it I will be able to say: Yes, that was a show I loved. Didn't love the ending. But that's true for lots of shows. You've just gotta exist in the moments before that end and in all the art that comes after.

Edited to add: For me "accept" does not mean "like it" or even "internalize as canon". I don't think I'll ever do either of those things. But for me accept means stop feeling shock that this is what happened. That this is the story that was written, that was filmed. That they teased us for years, Rob showed us dolls kissing, Amazon shared fan art of them kissing, nothing but positive messaging when actually the finale was a tragedy.

[melsumaya]

The finale really made it seem like Crowley was the sole protagonist all along. Aziraphale even says it himself, that everyone else was just a character in a book, but Crowley was special.

And I got the feeling that through the series, and especially in the finale, Crowley was becoming more powerful and important, compared to how him and Aziraphale were portrayed in the book.

Crowley got the ability to stop time, he’s implied to be one of the Archangels, he makes the stars. None of this is in the book.

In the book they were equal, just two beings who happened to be thrust into similar circumstances, but in the series Crowley is much more important and powerful than Aziraphale, and the finale drives this point home. Crowley was right, he can do no wrong, he doesn’t have to apologise for anything, he’s God’s favourite little guy, he’s just so special and perfect.

Meanwhile Aziraphale is portrayed as a bumbling idiot, in the end gets insulted by God, and doesn’t get a single complement, not a single thank you from Crowley for trying before they both die.

This series favouritisim of Crowley was easier to ignore, when I thought season 3 would even out the playing field, and show that Aziraphale’s sacrifice was valid, but now I can’t stop thinking about it.

[rofell]

I Could Never Stay Away

Working on my fixit fic has been so therapeutic as I process the finale. If you are also having Feelings (TM) from the finale I invite you to come and hopefully be a little healed.

The premise is - what if Aziraphale didn't stay away? What if he came back sooner, and he and Crowley had a chance to begin to talk and work out their differences before the high stakes rush to the end? If we just changed that one detail, how would the rest of the story of the finale unfold?

Chapter 3

From the Beginning

CW for these early chapters lots of feelings

Current rating is mature for the complex emotional themes involved. It could end up being explicit but that is not the focus of the fic and I'll make sure it's skippable if so. Full love to those who headcanon our ineffables as ace but that will not be the depiction in this fic.

Thank you to my betas @angie-words @bohoteacher @enby-xb-nomad

[dailyaziraphale]

Aziraphale of the Day: he was so cute in his lil detective get up

[azaablue]

the best fanfiction you've ever read was written by a woman in her 40s before she made dinner for her kids. it was written by a teenager after school when they should've been studying for a history test. and a barista came up with the idea while they cleaned the espresso machine and busser fact-checked it on their break and the post-doc edited between writing grant proposals and the nurse apologized for typos in the notes after a long shift and behind every drabble and one-shot and multi-chapter fic there is a person with a wonderful and interesting and chaotic life and it is such a privilege that we get to be apart of it because they decided to do this thing we all share, for fun.

[kanna-ophelia]

I really do feel fine about the finale again. It happened, it sucked dingo's balls, we still have the book/radio/S1/fanfic.

But sometimes I think how very modest my wishes for S3 were:

* Aziraphale and Crowley retiring to the South Downs together

* An enthusiastically consensual kiss

* A hug

* Coming to terms with that they both made mistakes with the right intentions and love, and genuinely understanding and forgiving each other, even if they didn't agree

*Saying the words (everyone deserves to hear them)

* SAVING THE WORLD SO EVERYONE DOESN'T FUCKING DIE

* A point

And yet.

[rofell]

This list except instead of "SAVING THE WORLD SO EVERYONE DOESN'T FUCKING DIE" I want "Them flailing around, ultimately uselessly, until humans (led by Jesus and Adam?) save themselves.

[wren-again]

Sometimes it's not about need. We don't NEED a kiss. It's about the fact that if this was a straight romance there WOULD have been a kiss, and we want equal treatment.

It's, also, about the fact that in a finale that simply did not have the time to properly show the last third of this love story, certainly not with the subtlety that had previously been present, what they could have done EASILY is given us the NORMAL EXPECTED KISS SCENE THAT HAPPENS AT THE CLIMATIC MOMENT IN ALMOST EVERY ROMANCE. It's a good way to convey a lot of emotions fast and that's why EVERY OTHER STORY HAS IT. It's dumb at best and homophobic at worst, and THAT'S the problem.

[rofell]

THIS

I keep thinking about how Rob Wilkins made his Aziracrow dolls kiss, and how the Friday before the finale Prime shared GO fanart, the first of which was an animation of Aziracrow kissing. Which I, fool that I am, thought was a sign of things to come but noooo it was the powers that be being like whoopsy you won't get this, here - get by on imagination and art instead because we lacked the courage to do this for real.

[wren-again]

Sometimes it's not about need. We don't NEED a kiss. It's about the fact that if this was a straight romance there WOULD have been a kiss, and we want equal treatment.

It's, also, about the fact that in a finale that simply did not have the time to properly show the last third of this love story, certainly not with the subtlety that had previously been present, what they could have done EASILY is given us the NORMAL EXPECTED KISS SCENE THAT HAPPENS AT THE CLIMATIC MOMENT IN ALMOST EVERY ROMANCE. It's a good way to convey a lot of emotions fast and that's why EVERY OTHER STORY HAS IT. It's dumb at best and homophobic at worst, and THAT'S the problem.