stars & lightning

I’m just into a lot of things and have a lot of feelings.

[theladydrgn]

Something i haven't seen discussed much on here (possibly because I've been avoiding the tags because of all the hate) is that

CROWLEY AND AZIRAPHALE AREN'T IN THE BOOK OF LIFE

Michael burns the entire book. Crowley saves a *single* page. Yet Aziraphale and Crowley persist. Even when God "makes a universe" without them in it.... They still are. They persist. Aziraphale and Crowley are as foundational to creation as God and Satan themzelves (you'll notice Satan also didn't have a page)

Aziraphale and Crowley can not be destroyed in any way that truly matters.

[who81]

A post I saw, but couldn’t repost. But I am so thankful I have found it…🩷

Please read it…for me, it is the biggest Easter egg there ever was in GO…they are sitting in the Garden of Eden, surrounded by the new universes, with Champagne in their glasses (to the world - to our world/worlds), with the apple still intact and without wings…they did it. They gave them their ending as an „us“…hidden, but there. And I love it…🥹

[wingly-coded]

[paperpoetryandpetrichor]

Crowley and Aziraphale's choice did not wipe out humanity. Everyone and everything was already gone.

That was not the plan for the Second Coming. That would have caused a war between heaven and hell that killed humanity and destroyed earth.

Michael wiped out humanity, earth and the entire universe by destroying the book of life.

No Alpha Centauri. Nowhere for them to go except staying in an empty bookshop with nothing else and God and Satan being able to pop in whenever they want?

God basically gave them a choice between having it all back as it was (with them never being free of heaven and hell and inevitably having another Second Coming, a Great Plan and war that destroys earth) or living in a world of nothing forever.

Instead they chose to break free and make a new universe were none of that could exist, including them and including God.

They would never have been left alone, heaven and hell always dragged them back into it. They would have never been free, or happy together. So they stood in front of God and told her to go fuck herself.

Don't tell me they lost.

[aduckwithears]

Hope this helps

[thavron]

The more I think about it, the more I believe the divide in the Good Omens fandom right now is a philosophical one.

We’re asking, where does the soul live?

For those who think that who we are is shaped by a life time of experiences. That we grow and change with each each heartbreak and trauma. We see the ending as something horrible. We’re witnessing the death of our beloved characters and we are grieving for them.

For those who believe in a soul, who believe that Asa and Anthony are Aziraphale and Crowley because of the something intrinsic that lives inside them, what they’re seeing is a rebirth and a second chance. In that sense the ending is beautiful. They both get exactly what they’ve always wanted. To live as humans without the pressure of heaven and hell. In that sense, the ending is a joyous one.

Sadly these beliefs are deeply held, often the roots begin as far back as our childhoods. No amount of screaming at each other about media analysis is going to change anyone’s mind. Please just accept that there are multiple ways that one can view the ending and that those who are upset are experiencing grief. This is an extremely normal and valid reaction to end of something so meaningful and should be treated with care.

That said, your grief is not an excuse to lash out and those who don’t deserve it.

Be kind to each other.

[starsandlightning]

I would like to add, it’s also okay to feel both. As far as nature vs. nurture goes, I’ve always been of the opinion that it is both what we live through as well as what we are born with that influences who we become. In that sense, the ending felt deeply bittersweet to me, because I DO feel that something was lost with the death of OG Aziraphale and Crowley. I am grieving them. However, I also think that Asa and Anthony ARE still Aziraphale and Crowley, that their souls have lived on and will remember each other in every life. So, I find that wonderful. It’s alright to feel conflicted about it forever, even, and to never really settle on “I loved it” or “I hated it”. Like OP said, it’s all valid. Just don’t take it out on each other.

[fellshish]

hi we are on the post apocalypse bus together can we hold hands

[turquoisedata]

How very depressing that Neil Gaiman had trended not even a tiny bit for demonstrating what a fucking horrific person he is.

As a reminder, he's suing Caroline Wallner, one of his accusers, for breaking her NDA. Not for libel. He's saying she shouldn't have told anyone about it, not that she lied.

Neil Gaiman Seeks $500,000 From Accuser Caroline Wallner

The author says Wallner broke her NDA by sharing her story with the media, including with New York Magazine.

He doesn't need the money. He's risking the Streisand effect. He is punishing Caroline, he's trying to intimidate other victims who have signed NDAs to scare them into continued silence.

He is no friend to women, to the LGBTQIA+ community, to anyone quite frankly unless he thinks they are of value to him.

Share the story. Put it on Facebook and bluesky and whatever else you're on. Make it clear what a horrifying person he is. Tell your friends. He's paying Edendale a fortune to try and cover this up. Make this hard for him. Make it cost him money.

[turquoisedata]

I thought this post would get 150 notes maybe. 300 at the absolute outside.

It's got more than that in the last few hours.

I'm really glad to know how much people hate him.

To the Friends of Calliope — Kitty Kendall, MA, LCMHC

Thank you all so much for your love and support. If you are a survivor reading this, know that you also deserve to be believed, beloved, and

[fellshish]

i’m not a fan of the good omens finale but what i refuse to do is go into finale lovers’ positive posts and go rain on their parades. i think our fandom can survive this if we don’t try to tell others what to feel. and yes that goes both ways.

then eventually we can go back to peaceful parallel play and even sharing toys

[ribelleribelle]

there are two wolves inside you: one is extremely upset about the good omens finale and the other actually kinda liked it and thinks it made enough sense. both of them are gay and depressed.

[sais-12-blog]

Yo wey

[racketghost]

thematically i think it was pretty fucking spot on. i think this is how it was meant to end.

however, it is also very apparent to me (and for the purposes of this tumblr post this is an OPINION and i am not calling anyone anything for not agreeing) that that ending was God giving them what they wanted: a universe without heaven or hell. a universe where they can find each other again and again in every lifetime (time after time plays softly in the background). a universe where they can be authors and booksellers and ace and allo and have agency and free will every single time and no matter what they keep choosing each other over and over again.

i also do not think that god would ever disappear completely from all universes. how could she undo herself? i think that they exist as they are as angels and demons in other timelines and in other universes where they also keep choosing each other. i think that they probably just reset back to something near the end of season one. where they are apart from head offices but living on earth.

but in the one ending we see, in this little godless snow globe that they chose for themselves, they are just two halves of a whole reconnecting over and over again even without a divine hand intervening and i think that’s fucking gorgeous.

[akajustmerry]

In light of the no.1 trending topic on this site, I'd like to inform youse that Kitty Kendall, one of the survivors who bravely spoke out against Neil Gaiman and accused him of rape in 2025, has said here and here that if you are looking to support her and other survivors, you can make a donation to OurVOICE (the counselling service Kendall herself used) or your local rape crisis centre. If you can't make a donation, you can help to ensure people do not forget what Kendall and other survivors have gone through and continue to go through as they pursue legal action, and that Gaiman has already spent a lot of money in the attempt to sue these women for speaking out.

[starsandlightning]

GOOD OMENS SPOILERS AHEAD

I had to really sit with myself for a bit to decide how I felt about the ending. As most people who’ve seen it can probably attest, it’s definitely bittersweet at best, and more than a little controversial.

Now, for me, personally? I think I actually liked the ending. It’s completely devastating—the fact that Az and Crowley didn’t get to be together freely in their universe before it was destroyed will always hurt. However, I do love that they sacrificed their universe for the humans they had grown to love so much, just so future humanity could have a chance at the freedom they never got. It feels very in-character for them. And this is an unpopular opinion I think, but I absolutely adored Asa and Anthony. I agree that they’re not Aziraphale and Crowley in the literal sense—they aren’t the angel and demon who spent 6000 years loving each other in secret, bending over backwards in order to keep themselves and Earth alive, and doing everything in their power to protect what little they had. I will always mourn our Az and Crowley. I’m so, so sad that they didn’t have longer together to love each other out loud. But Asa and Anthony make me so, so happy.

This is probably bold of me to say, but I think the reason I’ve grown to appreciate this ending is because (in my opinion, anyway) it’s something Aziraphale and Crowley would’ve wanted for themselves. They would’ve wanted to be human, free to live and love however and whomever they chose, free to enjoy Earth as they’d never been able to before. Free to be messy and sinful and still good, to not have to choose sides, and to be whatever shade of gray they wished. Free to find each other again, fall in love without anything holding them back. Free to do it all together. I wish they would’ve had that choice in the show, as well—not just choosing Earth, but choosing a human life, even one without the potential of an afterlife. So, even if they’re not the Az and Crowley we know, it makes me so happy that Asa and Anthony will know the peace that Az and Crowley never got. And, this is obviously just my interpretation, but I do believe that Asa and Anthony are reincarnations of Az and Crowley, not just alternate universe versions of them. I’d like to think that that’s why they both fell so quickly this time around—their souls remembered each other. I can’t help but find that completely beautiful.

BUT. All this to say, I don’t think that anyone is wrong or crazy for disliking the ending. I’m not completely happy with it myself, and even if I were, I don’t think it’s ever my business to tell someone else how they should feel about something. It is, without a doubt, a deeply sad ending for these characters that we’ve grown to love so much. I’m still happy I watched it, I’m happy with what we got, and I think it makes sense with the story as a whole. But that’s just my opinion—I can very easily see the other side, and I want everyone to know that your anger, your grief, and whatever else you’re feeling is incredibly valid.

I don’t know if anyone will care too much what I have to say about it. There’s not many people in my life who’ve watched the show, and even fewer who have grown as attached to it as I have. I’d like to talk about it with members of the community who understand. I want to hear everyone’s thoughts. I think it would help me to process everything I’m still feeling, so wherever you stand, please feel free to reach out.

THE VERY FIRST STAR TREK SLASH FIC PUBLISHED

“A Fragment out of Time”, published in 1974. Kirk / Spock. page 1 page 2

I had to share it with you because I can’t stop laughing, and every time I reread it it just gets funnier and fUNNIER

[catbountry]

This fan fiction is older than the push-through tabs on soda cans.

[cylonqueen]

Your grandma wrote this on her Commodore 64.

[strike-team-delta]

I miss my Commodore 64

[stoplookingup]

Oh my dear, sweet children. The Commodore 64 came out in 1982. This was produced on a typewriter and probably mimeographed. And while it may seem funny now, it took more courage to write and distribute this than you will ever  know.

[athelind]

Reblogged for that last comment.

[gokuma]

respect your elders

[ohfreckle]

Children, in the olden days fanfiction was written on a typewriter, copied and sent by snail mail. Getting one one of those letters from across the world was every bit as exciting as getting a notification that your favorite writer posted a new fic.

[berlynn-wohl]

It’s been said before, but the fact that this fic begins with the dialogue assertion “We’re by no means setting a precedent” is endlessly amusing to me.

Diane Marchant changed all our lives. May she rest in peace.

[prokopetz]

The precedent line is especially amusing when you bear in mind that “A Fragment Out of Time” is not only the first Star Trek slashfic to be published in a widely distributed magazine: it’s believed by some to be the first slashfic of any kind to be widely published.

[ralfmaximus]

In 1974 it was illegal to send pornography through the USPS. So distributing fic like this via mailed newsletter was literally dangerous. And they knew it.

[devotedlystrangewizard]

i think everyone should program at least once just so you realise just how fucking stupid computers are. because theyre so fucking stupid. a computer wants to be told what to do and exactly that and if you make one typo or forget one detail it starts crying uncontrollably

[ashfae]

This is important. Computers are incredibly stupid. Never believe that because they can do complex things that they are not also overwhelmingly outrageously bewilderingly maddeningly stupid. Leave out one tiny thing and they can't cope. This is because computers. Can. Not. Think. No, not even so-called AI. And this is *why* AI is causing so many problems--it might be artificial but it is in NO WAY intelligent. Computers can ONLY do what they've been programmed to do, they CANNOT recognize their own mistakes, they CANNOT make judgements, THEY CAN NOT THINK they can only do what they've been told and we humans will often tell them to do incredibly stupid things and then be surprised when things turn out poorly. That or we'll leave out a single punctuation mark in all that coding and whoops, now nothing works.

Computers are a great tool but never, ever trust them to be smart.

[systlin]

Every time I see bullshit about women never EVER being able to beat men in any sport, I think about how in martial arts classes I, a cis woman, 5' 8" and 145 pounds, regularly beat the tar out of 6' 2" 230 pound cis dude weightlifters. One guy ragequit class. He came in cocky as hell and talking the standard bs line about how a woman simply never could beat a man in a fight because they're physically weaker and our instructor was like. Okay. Put the pads on you're sparring her. Yes, her, the one 4" shorter and 100 pounds lighter than you.

It wasn't close I beat the pants off that man, and others like him. I did it more than once. Some guys got humble and stayed. One guy got angry and stormed out.

And I think about that every fuck damn time I hear that bullshit, which seems to be all the fuck over the place these days. Oh, women are just fragile little soft delicate flower creatures who can't do ANYTHING and could NEVER compete with big strong manly muscular strong MEN.

I think about driving that dude into the mats and seeing the brutal reality of this big dude's misogany meet the realization that a woman was beating his ass literally that second, that none of his strength could stop the fact that I'd just hip thrown him facefirst into the mats and that had I actually connected with the axe kick to his neck I would have crushed a bunch of important shit and he could not stop me, and his whole psyche collapsing like a dying star in that moment.

Anyway, don't ever fall for it, ladies, and there's absolutely no goddamn reason to get your knickers in a twist about trans people in sports.

[systlin]

Yes. This. Correct.

The reason you hear so much about how women COULD NOT POSSIBLY EVER DEFEND THEMSELVES OR GO AGAINST MEN IN SPORT is twofold.

Socializes women to THINK that this is impossible and to keep them from developing self-assurance in their own physical abilities.

To make shitty dudes feel better about themselves.

It's all bullshit, the current trans panic is horseshit, a 17 year old girl named Jackie Mitchell struck out both Babe Ruth and Lou Gehrig and dudes threw a tantrum over it, don't ever buy a fucking word of any of this horse shit.

[brainstatic]

Psst, hey, Marilyn Monroe’s image as a freewheeling sexpot was a carefully constructed lie. The real Marilyn Monroe was a roiling tragedy and her life was an indictment of our society as a whole. She was orphaned after her mother had a schizophrenic breakdown, bounced around between foster homes where she was sexually abused, and married a 21-year-old at 16 to get out of being sent to an orphanage. Hugh Hefner published nude photos of her without her consent that were taken when she was 23 and desperate. She suffered severe anxiety and depression, which she coped with by drinking and using barbiturates, and was already a full-blown addict when she became famous in the mid-50s. Her career was one of exploitation, condescension and alienation, and she killed herself at 36. That Hugh Hefner, a man who was at best an unpleasant footnote in her life, felt entitled to be buried next to her is one more humiliation in a pop cultural landscape we should all be ashamed of.

[class-struggle-anarchism]

“Please don’t make me a joke… I don’t mind making jokes, but I don’t want to look like one… I want to be an artist, an actress with integrity..”

 - Marilyn Monroe, last taped interview, days before her death

She deserved better than this

[tikkunolamorgtfo]

Can I just also say, in addition to all this, that I’m still pissed off about the fact that Joe DiMaggio swooped in and gave Marilyn a Christian funeral before her Rabbi could return from a trip overseas? ‘Cause that shit is fucked up.

So many men who claimed to be in love with her, and not one could fucking respect her wishes, even in death.

[emily84]

“I’ve never fooled anyone. I’ve let people fool themselves. They didn’t bother to find out who and what I was. Instead they would invent a character for me. I wouldn’t argue with them. They were obviously loving somebody I wasn’t.””  — Marilyn Monroe

Also:

As one of the biggest Ella Fitzgerald fans, she literally helped desegregate her performances. Ella was not allowed to play at Mocambo because of her race.

Ella Fitzgerald: “I owe Marilyn Monroe a real debt… she personally called the owner of the Mocambo, and told him she wanted me booked immediately, and if he would do it, she would take a front table every night. She told him – and it was true, due to Marilyn’s superstar status – that the press would go wild. The owner said yes, and Marilyn was there, front table, every night. The press went overboard. After that, I never had to play a small jazz club again. She was an unusual woman – a little ahead of her times. And she didn’t know it.” thisisnotmyfairytaleendingg (Source: dmvnessa)

ALSO:

In August 1956, Monroe began filming The Prince and the Showgirl, with Laurence Olivier staring and directing. The production was complicated by conflicts between him and Monroe. He angered her with the patronizing statement “All you have to do is be sexy” and his attempts to get her to replicate Vivien Leigh’s interpretation. She became pregnant and miscarried during the production, which heavily worsened her depression and increased her drug abuse.

A L S O , I will never forget watching a documentary about her once and, speaking about her marriage with Arthur Miller, the narrator said, verbatim: “America’s Brain had married America’s Body”. Like, literally, because he was a famous writer, he was entitled to personhood; she, being an actress, and a beautiful woman, was reduced to being “a body”. I have never been more enraged with her portrayal in the media. If you want to be dismissive of her,  literally come for you.

[amuseoffyre]

She was also chronically ill her whole life: she suffered from endometriosis with pain so debilitating that a clause was written into her contracts accounting for the days when she would not physically be able to work during her periods.

She was on courses of strong medication, had invasive surgery to try and limit the damage caused, and despite trying for a baby numerous times, suffered many miscarriages because of her condition. The miscarriages especially sent her into deep depression, since she desperately wanted to be a mother.

There is speculation that the condition may have been one of the triggers in her drug dependency as well, because when you have endo, you will take whatever you can to stop. it. hurting.

Marilyn Monroe was smart and strong as hell in a world that saw her as a sexy doll and nothing more.

[wiciclesatmidnight]

She deserves better

[blamebrampton]

Marilyn was a founding member of the Hollywood branch of the Committee for a Sane Nuclear Policy and had lifelong left-wing political views with a particular emphasis on racial equality. She formed her own independent production company that survived for several years and earned a credit as an executive producer on several films. Additionally, she was not only concerned for workers rights, she acted for them, using her own fame to stop staff being unfairly sacked from several of her films. She was a loyal, kind woman and her early death remains a great tragedy. Worse still, as OP notes, is the co-opting of her image by exactly the sort of people she would have loathed in life.

[durnesque-esque]

Posting this because apparently some of you really need to internalize that you do not have to be a perfect person to deserve justice.