#fellony

[mimisempai]

Yes, I’ve come to the decision to make them live on forever through my stories, my silly gifs, and sharing all the love I have for Good Omens.

Just like Aziraphale here, there is the sadness of turning the page, but also the joy of all the chapters yet to come.

The story isn’t over.

[rainbowhyperfixation]

I’ve mostly not been looking at social media since I watched the finale, but I’ve still seen some back and forth about the “bury your gays” trope. Idk where y’all stand on this but the phrase that came to me earlier was “Schrödinger’s Bury Your Gays”. Hear me out:

Even as angels and demons are queer compared to humans, Aziraphale and Crowley queered what it meant to be an angel and demon. They were the ones who discovered that celestial/occult beings were capable of free will too. And they developed a relationship and an Arrangement that they knew would have them possibly destroyed if their Head Offices found out. So they were kept apart, essentially punished and tortured for who they were, and they were led to believe (by a forced binary choice from god) that the only way to make things better for anyone was to sacrifice themselves. Just as they were finally starting to express what they meant to each other. God is the one who used the word love and her saying she smiled at them while they struggled the entire time… makes me want to throw things at the screen.**

On the other hand, the finale ends with a queer gay couple having a meet cute, a first date, and then a retirement in the South Downs where they hold hands and Anthony says he has everything he ever wanted- the universe out there and Asa right here. It sounds lovely, like the opposite of “bury your gays.”

The problem with this- the thing that makes it Schrödinger’s problem- is that not everyone agrees that Aziraphale/Crowley are Asa/Anthony, as I wrote about here, so for some this is a tragedy where the characters we have followed all along get judged by god herself and then are given a false choice which leads to them choosing annihilation. And others believe that this is a more or less happy ending where human versions of our beloved characters get their happy ending in a South Downs cottage.

It is simultaneously a tragedy and a romcom 🙃 hence Schrödinger’s “Bury your gays”. Not that everyone will see it as both, but that the collective view of it is both. (And that is the fault of the writers!)

**This isn’t even mentioning all of the lgbtqia+ people who were also destroyed when the world was obliterated and not restored.

(And yes on the meme that is the Amazon logo I used as an arrow because they are at least partially responsible for this mess🤬)

[daphnethefox]

Just finished Good Omens.

Is it ok if I NEED now a totally new TV show about that cute bookseller falling in love with that ginger astrophysicist and they get married and live happly ever after in a cottage? 🥹

Old men yaoi, my babies. ❤️

[brstudios]

The godfathers of the current pocket universe (which was the whole world) will oversee the new one, and all the ones that follow. 🩵

[twilightofthesandwiches]

…Okay, so a thematic argument that one could make in favor of the GO3 Ending is that sure, Crowley and Aziraphale have already been very Human, but the kind of Human life they’ve been living is the one only two Humans before them even had the chance to live.

Their lives have been kind of a Modern Eden, full of basically limitless Earthly Pleasures and free of most of the actual inconveniences of Human existence - most importantly, death. While also being still trapped under the thumb of Divine Authority. Asa and Anthony are what happens when they bite the apple and get cast out of Eden; an actual human life without endless affluence and immortality, but with actual freedom and actual Free Will.

And, like, that might’ve been the intent, and that might’ve been real poignant if it was actually, y’know, well written, but I think there’s also a bunch of counter-arguments you can make against it. Like, just because that idea makes sense thematically, still doesn’t mean it makes sense narratively. And there’s plenty of thematic ways to challenge it as well.... But the specific thematic complaint I keep getting stuck on when it comes to this reading comes down to a pretty simple question. If Asa and Anthony are what happens when Aziraphale and Crowley bite out of the apple, why didn’t they ever get a chance to even just savor the first bite?

Like, y’know, the metaphor of the Forbidden Fruit is generally about authority trying to restrict you from some tempting pleasure, the original book basically ended with a passage about how ‘There never was an apple, in Adam's opinion, that wasn't worth the trouble you got into for eating it’. It’s about the joy of rebelling against authority, that the forbidden pleasures are worth the punishments you might get for your disobedience. But Crowley and Aziraphale get ‘cast down from Eden’ by refusing their pleasures, denying themselves the things they want for the Greater Good, and just kinda going quietly and miserably into that good night.

There’s hardly any sense that they’re really rebelling against God, or that they’re really doing anything She didn’t want them to do. (I mean, sure, the implication in ‘Good Omens’ has always been that God secretly wanted Adam and Eve to bite that apple, but the fact they did so against God’s explicit orders is a vital piece of that narrative! It’s a huge contrast to GO3 God giving Crowley and Aziraphale an open-ended question to suggest anything they want about the world without any implication that there is a ‘wrong’ answer). If they really are supposed to be sticking it to God, why not give them a moment to relish that rebellion? To at least enjoy the fact that She’s not going to be part of that new Universe either? Why is there no joy or pleasure in biting that apple? If they’re going to go, why can’t they at least go with style?

If this was a story where Crowley and Aziraphale chose each other, were both the other’s Forbidden Fruit, and then were turned Human as a 'punishment', or if they chose to remake the world without Heaven and Hell while turning all the Angels and Demons into Humans because it was the only way they could live freely together there would at least be some thread of thematic parallel. Instead the whole metaphor is meddled by Crowley and Aziraphale resolving to deny themselves pleasure, and then also the ‘forbidden fruit’ of being together not seeming so forbidden with God shipping it heartedly. Are Asa and Anthony being together a symbol of them having Free Will and independence from God, or a subtle hint that She’s still pulling strings?

It also all feels very discordant with the fact the ‘apple’ is supposed to be the Fruit of Knowledge. After all, this interpretation would kinda depend on Crowley and Aziraphale being Anthony and Asa on some level, and yet so much of their resolution leaves them in ignorance. Crowley and Aziraphale die totally unaware of the possibility of reincarnation or Cosmic Echos or whatever, Anthony and Asa live totally unaware of their past lives, of the ways they have hurt each other and never truly resolved, of all the things they lost and gained by becoming Human, of the metaphysical realities of this world. If this is life after biting the apple, why is it that Crowley and Aziraphale are much more aware and informed, while Anthony and Asa seem to make a case for blissful ignorance?

(And then also, in all of this thematic mess, there’s the fact that in this through-line supposedly about the value of Free Will and rebelling against God/authority no matter what the consequences might be and how it’s worth sacrificing for freedom… the result of Anthony and Asa living a life in a seemingly supportive and more ‘free’ environment also means that they seem be considerably less Rebellious than the Rock Star Demon and the Angel who lied to God’s face... They're the versions with Real Free Will but it seems to be mostly expressed by how much happier they are being 'Free' from having to make the kind of hard Choices Crowley and Aziraphale had to make...)

It all feels like yet another point where any sort of thematic resonance GO3 is trying to go for is seriously hampered by its dedication to make the Sacrifice feel like Maximum Tragedy OMG so sad and beautiful and selfless. Biting the Forbidden Fruit has almost always had that element of Pleasure to it, the last time Good Omens had explicitly talked about ‘biting the apple’ it was about it was worth it despite the consequences. But GO3 also wants Aziracrow to ‘turn human’ while they are at their most miserable and absolutely sure they are selflessly giving their life away.

Its also emblematic of the way the GO3 Ending seem to mush together all of these Biblical parallels without managing to actually cohere them into any sort of meaningful through-line, and in fact, often having them clash against each other. Crowley is the new Eve, leaving his own eternal Garden of Eden in the name of Free Will… but he is also the New Job, so he had to be utterly miserable and lose everything before he gets to that point, so actually neither he nor Aziraphale have been actually living that Modern-Day Eden Lifestyle of endless Earthly Pleasures for quite a while before they were supposedly ‘cast away from it’.

But then also he’s the New Jesus so instead of either being rewarded like Job or being punished but feeling that it was worth it like Eve (or like Adam Young), he has to Sacrifice his life nobly in the name of his universal selfless love for all mankind… But then also because he’s also still the New Job, his life has been so utterly miserable lately that he seemed to be basically suicidal, so is it really sacrificing your life if you don’t want to live anymore?

It’s all just a mess, really (and it’s even worse when you think about what little role Aziraphale plays in all of these allegories…)

[orth82]

Second date. Asa and Anthony share their first slow dance and kiss.

[jj-turtle]

Has anyone noticed that they changed the aspect ratios between the old universe and the new one???

Before

After

[cut-pricemikeyarwood]

I'm probably a traitor for this, but if we could completely disassociate them from the shit show that was season 3, I could watch a series with Asa and Anthony.

Aagain, as long as there was NO association with s3 or pretense that they're the new Aziraphale and Crowley.

F* you know who for that.

Hi dear @phoenixthemenace!

You are not a traitor at all! They’re cute and I’m happy for them. It only bothers me in the context of GO3, for the many reasons already discussed at length.

I think the GO3 finale awakened an even stronger desire in many of us to see Michael and David acting together in a rom-com.

I had the same thought, and watching them, I realized that their behavior reflects much more of Michael and David as just them, the way they are sitting at that table and looking and smiling at each other...

(for science👇)

So my RPF lil heart has been somewhat healed a bit from that crap. A small patch on an artery wound 😅.

After taking some time to shake off the shitty emotional intensity of the finale, I’d be thrilled if they did a project like that together. It would be awesome to see them together again with their husbands energy.

(Always Fuck you NG!!!!!!!! 🎀)

Thank you for sharing your thoughts with me, wish you a nice start of the week and sending you a virtual hug 💙