#terry prachett

[thatoneuser1984]

So did anyone notice Elvis alive working for Sable or just me?

[lokisleftbranch]

I CANT READ APPAREANTLY IT LS MAY 13th

[lokisleftbranch]

WE MADE IT GUYS MAY 16th GOOD OMENS 3

IM GONNA HAVE TO CHANGE MY AO3 NAME

[genericnamenotkidding]

Nearly finished Maskerade and it’s struck me why the Witches books are so good. Though I guess it’s all of Pratchett’s books that are like this.

20/09/2025

there we go, fixed it.

[knightotoc]

'I can read and write,' said Evil Harry. 'Sorry. Part of the job. Etiquette, too. You've got to be polite to people when you march them out on the plank over the shark tank... It makes it more evil.'

'No one's blaming you, Harry,' said Cohen.

-- The Last Hero, Terry Pratchett

[oracle-of-moon]

“Look, sir, I know Angua. She's not the useless type. She doesn't stand there and scream helplessly. She makes other people do that.” ― Terry Pratchett, Jingo

Angua - The Power Within.

My love for Discworld should be well-known at this point, right? So always when I have some free time on my hands, I make art of sir Terry Pratchett's masterpieces.

This time I've portrayed sergeant/captain Angua Von Überwald of the Ankh Morpork City Watch, one of the many badass women in the Discworld lore! Made in Canson sheet (300g), mixed media (watercolors for the background and pencil colors for Angua).

[moderndayklutz]

You're The Bad Guys

I am not what one would call an "Aziraphale Defender", but I am also not in the "Innocent Crowley" camp. I truly see them both as equals. And as much as they are both stressed and freaking out at times, smart beings acting without thinking, messing things up, making mistakes, as much as they are both stubborn bastards, as much as they are both idiots... neither one of them is stupid.

And this statement in the Final 15 is a show of that.

I want to dissect this statement that Aziraphale says to Crowley in the Final 15, that Heaven/angels are the Good guys and Hell/demons are the Bad guys.

I don't think he is stupid enough to think of Heaven as good guys in the general sense nor is he calling Crowley a bad guy. Since he and Crowley met in Heaven, he wasn't this angel. He's never been this angel to be dumb to these things. He has known (word to the wise) and struggled with certain events and insides of it this whole time (well, if you're here, it must be Bad), but this sense of good and bad guys, of things that couldn't be said and how they were all being viewed, he's known since always. So, he doesn't think of Crowley as a bad guy this general way and he doesn't mean it to Crowley this way.

Not in the general sense.

Aziraphale means... quite literally... Heaven is the Good place and Hell is the Bad place.

That if you were to take anything, any law, any rule, any action at all, it can be viewed as Good or Bad (whether and completely separate from whether Right or Wrong).

An example... such as... let's say... making a scambled egg.

If Heaven scrambles an egg, it gets called "Good" with a big rubber red stamp of "Good" (legal, allowed) approval, with pats on the back of how "healthy eggs are" and how "you're supporting farmers" and how "high in protein and omega 3s" eggs are. Doesn't matter what it actually is, it gets called "Good" because Heaven did it. Because Heaven said so.

Conversely, "You're the Bad guys." Literally. No matter what Hell does, it gets an emblazoned-firey rubber red stamp that says "Bad" on it. Your scambled egg? Bad for you. Full of cholesterol. Not sourced ethically enough. A meat product, when you should have eaten something vegetarian. Expensive when you should have saved money. Heavy when you should have made something lighter.

Guys... it's just a normal egg.

And any scenario can get spun Good or Bad (which don't get me started on how the word Bad has been used to segregate, marginalize, dehumanize, prohibit, etc, etc (fight the good fights)).

"I don't think you understand what I'm offering you," Aziraphale says.

Aziraphale is not stupid.

I am an OG GOmens fan from Book in the '90s. The part in the book where Crowley and Aziraphale are riding in the Bentley and discuss some of their sides' influenced politicians and people is key. Crowley says he'll tell Aziraphale some of his if Aziraphale shares, too..

Three of the politicians they each name from "their side" are the same people.

This is exactly the point.

And in Tadfield, they get to the Satanic convent turned corporate training and event space. And Crowley does the trick with the paintball guns. "Moral argument".

This is EXACTLY the point.

Good and Bad choices.

Aziraphale doesn't want Crowley to change, or for either of them to change anything. But if he's in charge, they can make a difference. They can finally take what they are and what they want and what they believe in and it'll get a big rubber stamp on it marked "Good"... finally... after years of it being not allowed...

I am not being subtle... by the way...

and neither was the book... and neither is this show...

"I understand," says Crowley. And then Crowley says he understands a whole lot better than Aziraphale does.

And he is right.

Beyond what Aziraphale is saying, beyond everything in this book. Beyond what Crowley sees as a broken system that will never change, never accept them, never let them be safe, Crowley just SAW what Heaven still does to those who speak out of turn. To what JUST happened to THE Supreme Archangel who dared say "No". And the horrors that just happened to said Archangel, while Aziraphale here acts as though the Supreme Archangel position is invincible from it and can do anything.

Crowley knows the Supreme Archangel position is not invincible.

Crowley knows that high-ranking positions in Heaven are not immune to such things, even those higher than Supreme Archangel... from personal experience. Even those level Dominion or higher, which he was.

And it breaks Crowley's heart he can't change Aziraphale's mind about going, about leaving, about finding a chance to finally be viewed as normal and live a normal life together. The same way Adam is normal. The same way humans are normal. To normalize into reality how they feel and what they want and what they believe in.

He's tried for 6,000 years to get Aziraphale out of this Good/Bad view and somewhere in-between. And granted he's shit at it, because he's also damaged and lacking coping skills (aside from sleep and poorly counting to ten). He doesn't know how more to convince Aziraphale.

Now... does Aziraphale actually think the position of Supreme Archangel is untouchable? Or does he know better and just sees it as a way for them to get on the inside to cause trouble as an angel who knows a thing or two about deception (as an angel who fibs and as a good magician) might. Who's idea it was to hide Gabriel and deceive both sides.

Good question. Discussion for another time...

I am just bringing up my opinion and interpretation of what this line and conversation meant quite linerally and literally and of how the philosophies surrounding our societal notions of Good/Bad get treated here in lines so subtle.

All hail Prachett.

Thanks for tripping through this nugget of musings with me if you reached this far.

Until next time...

[pratchettquotes]

Of the three things that most people know about the horse, the third is that, over a short distance, it can't run as fast as a man. As Rincewind had learned to his advantage, it has more legs to sort out.

There are additional advantages if a) the people on horseback aren't expecting you to run and b) you happen to be, very conveniently, in an athletic starting position.

Rincewind rose like a boomerang curry from a sensitive stomach.

Terry Pratchett, Interesting Times