with as much gentle encouragement as possible: fandom is a verb. if you want people to engage with you / your art, engage with theirs too. reblogging fanworks is a large part of that on tumblr. and above all it’s fun
The results are here, whether you voted or not, it’s too late now (it's always too late).
Let’s analyze these numbers (I’ll try to be as objective as possible). There’s almost 1600 votes for the poll about the film as a whole and more than 1000 for the ending of the film, so there’s a wide sample of people in both polls. As a whole, we can say that these numbers are not good news for amazon & co.
💬 24 🔁 158 ❤️ 132 · Tumblr · It's been a few days and I'm curious. The fandom is divided. My dash is obviously biased, so let's see the nu
A staggering 50% of the voters didn’t like or even hated the finale as a whole, with quite a lot more hate (28,1%) than dislike (21,9%) (we are a passionate fandom).
Almost a quarter (23%) of the fans are not sure yet what to think about it.
And, obviously (this is maths after all), the other quarter (25,9%) has positive reviews. Almost 1 out of 5 people liked it (19,6%) while only a few really loved it as a whole (6,3%).
Now, if we see the results for the ending of the finale, the numbers change a bit (thanks to @fellshish for the addition of this poll, which is quite interesting).
Almost the same number of people who loved the film as a whole also loved its ending (6.9%). However there’s a big dip in people liking the ending (11,7%), which brings us to 18,6% of people having positive feelings about the ending of the finale. That’s 7,4% less people having positive feelings towards the ending than the film as a whole, and most of that descent comes out of the ones liking it, rather than the ones loving the film (who are almost the same number in both polls).
About the voters with negative feelings towards the ending, we can see there’s an overwhelming 57,5%, with most of them hating that ending (43,4%) (what’s not to hate? Sorry, objectivity!) and just 14,1% who disliked it. Again, we are passionate people in this fandom.
Finally there’s almost the same number of people in both polls who haven’t reached a decision over the ending yet (23,9%).
It’s very interesting that more than 7% of voters are positive towards the film as a whole but hate the ending (there is much more hate than dislike in the ending poll). There’s many people too who dislike the film but hate the ending.
Finally, the addition of @thebright1 had a little over 400 votes. Most of the voters (53,2%) found sense in s2e6 final 15 before season 3 aired. About 2 out of 5 voters (43%) haven’t understand the meaning yet, and an astonishing 3,9% have found its meaning after watching go3 (I’m astonished because s3 didn’t deal with any of the issues the F15 brought up, imho)
In conclusion we can say that only a quarter of voters are happy with the finale, and that is even less for the ending, with just 7,4% of voters who liked or loved it. That said, we could argue that the film is disliked in general and its ending in particular is hated by most of the people who voted on this poll.
All in all, we could say the fandom is divided, yes, but we are not so far away and the edges of the division are a bit blurry.
Thanks for voting, reblogging, and commenting on this poll.
Sorry for not posting this yesterday, but motherhood took its toll on time once again.
this is very interesting! it should definitely be noted that these polls are likely to have circulated mostly within finale critical spaces (because of who created them / possible blocked blogs and tags etc)
so this isn’t really science….. nevertheless i find the difference between enjoyers of the finale vs enjoyers of the final 15 minutes of the finale quite telling 🫶
they scrapped all of [redacted]'s original script and started over
it was light and humorous all the way through
az was not treated as dumb or naïve for taking that place in heaven
az and crowley made up in the beginning of the film and were a team trying to stop the end times for the rest of the finale
the message would have been "we need to fix what is broken, not burn it to the ground"
Az and Crowley would show some form of affection towards each other, like a hug or maybe a kiss
Az and Crowley decided they didn't need god anymore, nor follow her rules
the metatron would have been dealt with properly
what would have been a PERFECT ending:
Az gave Crowley hope by explaining that they just need to fix what's broken, not start over, and Crowley admitted Az had a good reason for going to heaven in the first place
Az and Crowley say "I love you"
Az and Crowley being pretty much "useless", while jesus and the humans are doing the important bits by "being fundamentally people"
the plot was solved when heaven and hell teamed up against humanity (including Az and Crowley who's now explicitly on "their own side: humanity's side.") and Team Earth convinced Team Celestial how stupid this whole charade had always been
god had NOT been controlling everything this whole time and had always been more like a narrator of the universe, rather than one affecting the story
On a meta level, Good Omens S3 was EMOTIONAL ABUSE.
... Meaning, I'm pretty sure Neil Gaiman did it ON PURPOSE, knowing how much it would upset the fans.
Neil knew how badly we wanted Aziraphale and Crowley (OUR version of Aziraphale and Crowley---the specific version of them we met in Season 1) to be together. He knew we wanted to see them resolve their issues and ultimately choose to be with each other in the end.
Instead, Aziraphale and Crowley forgo that emotional journey in favor of unnecessary pain. Neither of them experience real character growth in the finale; they are shown to be the worst and unhappiest versions of themselves, without getting a real shot at redemption. They never fix their communication issues. They don't express their true, authentic feelings for one another (don't @ me with that bullshit hand kiss thing). They never manage to get on the same page emotionally---even when they both agree to commit suicide (which I'm pretty sure was not the "one thing" Aziraphale wanted).
"Why give me Crowley? Why make me complete and then take it away?"
EMOTIONAL WITHHOLDING is a common abuse tactic utilized by men like Neil. They enjoy creating ATTACHMENT in their victims and then "TAKING IT AWAY".
It's easy to see how much Neil enjoyed frustrating his fans in retrospect. He actively taunted us on social media with the catchphrase "WAIT AND SEE" and threatened to make Aziraphale and Crowley kiss---but in a way we "wouldn't like". He loved dangling the implied promise of a happy ending over our heads, which we now know he never planned to deliver on.
Neil was unkind to his audience. He was also unkind to his characters. Aziraphale and Crowley are treated as punching bags throughout the entire series---shown to be "messy" for the sake of entertainment, but not as a real obstacle for either of them to overcome. God herself says she enjoys seeing how much Aziraphale values his relationship with Crowley. And this turns out to be her justification for "taking it away". (Tell me THAT isn't some fucked up shit.) Aziraphale and Crowley experience real emotional pain as the result of her actions---and this is demonstrated by the incredible acting skills of Michael Sheen and David Tennant.
Neil explicitly sold this as "a love story" when he created the show. Based on the tone of the book, an eventual union between Aziraphale and Crowley would have made the most narrative sense. It would have emphasized the overarching themes of love, agency, and the futility of "choosing sides". But that would have required Neil to possess the same ethos as Terry Pratchett---meaning LOVE AND RESPECT FOR FELLOW HUMAN BEINGS.
We were never going to get a good love story out of Neil. Men like Neil get off on "PUNISHING" people for no apparent reason; he obviously did this with our beloved characters, to disastrous result. Nonetheless, we still manage to ascribe deeper meaning to Aziraphale and Crowley, thanks to the phenomenal acting team and the dedication of this fandom. Aziraphale and Crowley remain the greatest love story of all time, not because of anything Neil actually wrote, but because of everything that was projected onto them by the people who cared. We assigned their relationship a depth "Neil himself" never could have imagined---one that exemplifies our maximalist ideals of love and the decision to choose it again and again, in spite of everything. It is never going to "end" on Neil's preferred terms. In this rare instance, fan interpretation STILL MANAGES TO ECLIPSE THE SOURCE MATERIAL---and that is because LOVE is always a more powerful story than ABUSE.
I would like to use this post as an opportunity to humbly offer my post-finale, 30k-word, fix-it fic cope where Aziraphale and Crowley keep their memories after the universe reset, get to live in the cottage, and finally work everything out 🙏
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