The Berkeley Square Nightingale

Very long and messy whole essays about Good Omens...

[the-berkeley-square-nightingale]

I have created this blog to be dedicated to Good Omens and the analysis of the show;

Basically, my summer homework, that consists on too many google docs filled with good omens theories and analysis provided from madness.

[destiel-news-channel]

[Image ID: There are two images. The first one shows the Destiel confession meme edited so that Dean answers 'Neil Gaiman will not get profits from the Good Omens merch store'. The second is a cropped screenshot from Bluesky where someone asks the question 'I don't want to be a killjoy, I'm also excited about the merch. But are part of the profits going to Gaiman?'. The answer from the Good Omens HQ is 'No - the Good Omens store is financially independent of Neil Gaiman'. /End ID]

here is the link to the thread

Good Omens HQ is run by the Terry Pratchett Estate team and will launch a Good Omens Store soon.

[hikarry]

If you stop to think about it, Aziraphale would be a much better demon than Crowley ever could. Especially book Aziraphale.

I'm not even going to mention the Deadly Sins he consistently partakes in (yes I am: Gluttony, lowkey Greed with his books and whatnot, and a very obvious Lust - I'm looking at you Bastille Aziraphale and Season 2 Aziraphale!), that's easy hanging fruit, we all know he is a bloody hedonist.

Now, Aziraphale not only made that guard in the airbase disappear to Satan knows where but he was also ready with a fucking gun to gun down an 11-year-old child. Was it to save the world? Details! Book Aziraphale had no problem with a little murder on the side!

I've already discussed here how he is a liar. For 6000 years he lied to Heaven (once to the Almighty's face, many many times to Gabriel's face) consistently. Be it the flaming sword, the mysterious appearance of Job's new children, the "Evil Smell" in the bookshop, the location of the Anti-Christ, making humans fall in love, or Gabriel's location. And, most importantly: Crowley.

He hid his relationship with the Serpent of Eden, the enemy, a demon, for all his staying on Earth until the Apocalypse when their cover was blown. And his relationship with Crowley wasn't just "a relationship". And no, I'm not referring to the fact he fell in love with a demon - that's irrelevant for this matter -, I'm talking about the Arrangement. Fraternizing with a demon is a thing, but having an Arrangement with one where you share the workload and perform temptations in his place? As an angel? Now that's a whole other story. And he kept all of that hidden for millennia. Hell! Do Hell and Heaven even know about the Arrangement at all? They know about Aziraphale and Crowley's relationship but not once is mentioned that they know Aziraphale was performing temptations and Crowley was performing blessing for each other! He IS still lying to Heaven about the Arrangement!

The way he acts with the clients is also not very angel-like now, is it? What about the shady people that go to his bookshop and mysteriously disappear never to be seen again?

Yes, he plays by the rules and his heart is good, and loves the Almighty above all (eh, kinda. Anyway), but he is also wicked! Deep down, Aziraphale is a terrible angel!

If he did Fall, he would be completely heartbroken and confused and scared about it for a few centuries, who knows, but he would soon take shape and adapt because, truthfully, he'd keep quite a few of his traits. He could keep his Deadly Sins, his murder, his lies, his stubbornness, his cunningness. He would just receive a new rule book to play from.

Would he be a perfect demon? No, I'm not saying that. Above all, he has a good heart and tries to do good as much as he can - much like Crowley himself, but he has certain demonic qualities that Crowley is severely lacking.

In summary: Aziraphale would be a better demon than Crowley. Not the best demon, because he isn't evil and I doubt he would ever be, but better than Crowley nonetheless.

[the-berkeley-square-nightingale]

News: the accusations (yk which) kinda altered my relation to the show, in a very sad way since many other people worked on it, and i wish one day ill be able to separate the show and the man but i kinda want to distance myself for now

[rylandsgrace]

#He always remembered who he was (insp)

[chronologicalerrors]

Crowley deserved answers.

(If we find out he taught the Ostrich to run, I'm rioting)

[the-berkeley-square-nightingale]

Too fast, too late

We all remember the "you're going too fast for me, Crowley." that breaks hearts and shed tears. But what about Crowley being too late?

At the end of season 2, ineffable husbands fixed things up, as they did with the apocalypse, so it's time for the finale, right? And their finale is the Ritz. They went to the Ritz at the French Révolution, when the decided of the issue with Adam, and when they saved the world from the apocalypse, etc.

Moreover, the last time they seemed to be on the same hymn sheet, the time when they opened up about possibly being more than just allies for the sake of humanity, that time was the end of season 1, when they lunched at the Ritz. It had seemed like the beginning of a growing relation for the years, even centuries, the eternity to come.

But since this lunch at the Ritz, they moved away from each other, because Crowley loses his apartment and job, and maybe the lockdown. Something have failed.

So this season 2 finale is the occasion for Crowley to fixes up and doing things right. It has to be perfect. He then plan their "us" time at the Ritz, tidies the bookshop, and kicks Muriel out (sorry, love), and waits for Aziraphale.

The thing is, they're not the same as a few years ago, things happen since, like, a lot; and Crowley just made that mistake we all do at one time of our life: we wants so much that a moment happens again that we ignores the fact that it can't happen two times in the same way; he's expecting something that can't happen. He is because he wants to resume their relation where it was at the end of season 1, and just erase what happens in between that wasn't a good time for him.

Aziraphale is the best thing that happened to him, and he can't risk messing it up.

But the Metatron. The Metatron happens. And something funny occurs: Aziraphale wants to change while Crowley doesn't. For one time, Crowley wants to stay the same, but it's too late. And what had to happens happened, things don't go as they were supposed to go; with their two expectations.

[doriangraysrockcollection]

thinking about Good Omens 2. and stories, and the shape of them, and Terry Pratchett and his themes. and something clicked.

Aziraphale is cackling.

it's not just the ball. he spends the entire season trying to force the story into a shape it's not, and everyone suffers for it.

i've seen some less than charitable takes on Crowley's actions and they all ignore how much Crowley did try to talk to Aziraphale, did try to ask Aziraphale questions, did try to help, only to be ignored or brushed off. because his questions, his offers, they didn’t fit with the story Aziraphale was telling himself.

quiet, gentle, and romantic. it was, if you're our favorite Angel - right up until the end, at least. because he decided that's the story he was in. from the very beginning, he's off in la-la land, living out this romcom with a cute little mystery wrapped up in it, completely ignoring what's actually going on around him. i'll set Nina and Maggie up! (completely ignoring that Nina tells him she has a partner, and at that point, he has no reason to think she's anything less than happy.) i'll take ~our~ car to go do investigate this silly little mystery (he's not taking it even a little bit seriously!) while you stay here and run the bookshop and it will be so quaint and domestic! soon we'll dance and confess our feelings that we obviously share because we're already so clearly a couple we just need to finally say it!

Crowley knows the entire time that they're in a horror story but Aziraphale ignores every attempt he makes to point that out because it doesn't fit the story he decided he's in the middle of.

he brushes off Crowley's concerns and questions - his QUESTIONS! - like they're nothing. he doesn't want to see it, so he doesn't. and Crowley should have told him more?

why would he?

when you are CLEARLY in distress and it's being BLATANTLY AND WILLFULLY IGNORED, what the fuck are you supposed to do? "Crowley didn't comminicate" well okay if I were having a panic attack about something and my husband completely ignored it, chattering on about our dinner plans or whatever, that wouldn’t exactly make me want to open up about what was wrong! that would send the very fucking clear signal that he didn't want to know!

words aren't the only way we communicate and Crowley's body language, the entire season, is that of someone who is living in a horror story, knows he's living in a horror story, and is fucking terrified. if Aziraphale were paying any attention to Crowley instead of focusing all his energy trying to set things up just so for the big climax of his love story, he would know something major was wrong.

why would Crowley have told him how cruel Gabriel was about the execution when Aziraphale's already so thoroughly convinced that heaven is pure and good and has shown over and over through the millennia that he's not really open to considering that it can be cruel!

just look at them at the dance. Crowley freaking out because there's a horde of demons out there and Aziraphale giggling as they go to dance. that's the whole season!

you know who Crowley reminds me of this season?

he's watching helplessly and with increasing levels of distress as Aziraphale shoves every plot point into the romcom hole even though it's obviously not remotely romcom shaped! and i'm sick of people saying he was abusive because he raises his voice about it a few times!

[inconveniently-discorporated]

The way Gabriel's memory works is very interesting to me.

It's very much all like, on the tip of his tongue. If he catches it off guard, he can unexpectedly grab snippets of it. If he finds a trigger, it can lead him right to a very specific fragment. But if he tries to think too hard, it's just gone.

It's interesting because it feels like a very exaggerated version of how my memory works, which I imagine like a spiderweb-ish maze. If I manage to follow the right paths, I will arrive at the memory I was looking for, but otherwise I'm lost. The other day I forgot my own address because I approached it from the wrong path (I was imagining it written down) and I couldn't get my rote memory to override it. I was thinking about it too hard and all I could do was stare blankly at the receptionist and go, "Well -- it's X street."

I'm very much a fan of "Crowley has (at least some) memory loss" theories, and it inspired a little bit of a theory on how Heaven wipes memories. I feel like they'd be the sort to just go through and snip all the connections to these things -- but not remove them entirely. But, in doing so, you leave behind a bunch of jagged pieces. So, using context clues (where the furniture isn't), you can see this piece lines up with the jagged ends of that piece, even if you don't have the full context as to why or what the other pieces look like.

Sort of explaining why he would remember things like building the nebulas, but not who he built them with. Or remembering being part of the rebellion, but not running around with Furfur.

((by the way I've been having lots of migraines lately and I see I have a number of asks; I won't be able to address them yet, but will when I can))

[rosettyller]

so we've all acknowledged that in series 1, Crowley wears glasses around everyone else (including Aziraphale!) because he's not comfortable with people seeing his eyes

and then in series 2, he makes a point of taking off his glasses in the shop, showing how he's comfortable around Aziraphale.

but it's not just that! Crowley's eyes reflect his demon status, and he's become comfortable being a demon around Aziraphale, because they're on the same side now.

and at the end, when Aziraphale rejects him, and establishes that in his mind, demons=bad, and Crowley's good because he's still an angel deep down, Crowley puts the glass back on. Not only to put the emotional barrier/safety net back on, but to hide his demon-ness once again. Because he's no longer comfortable being a demon in front of Aziraphale.

[cherriielle]

just to hide outside your door 🐍🍎

[wutherheen]

so you're telling me aziraphale can speak every language on earth but french... the only language he's not fluent in is the language of love

[inconveniently-discorporated]

Oh I just had thoughts and feelings

The language of love is the one he's not going to cheat. He's going to learn it the hard way, the REAL way. He's going to stumble and fall at it but damn it he's going to try and he's not going to give up. Even decades of painful interaction after painful interaction, he's still going to try and push ahead.

"I can speak English" -- yes but you see he's given up on it before and he's not going to do it again. He'll learn, no matter how hard it is.

[the-berkeley-square-nightingale]

"Nothing lasts forever"

Aziraphale thinks accepting Metatron's offer would be a new start, a better one, in a new Heaven, both angels and ruling Heaven. They would not have to be alone on their own side anymore, the would make their side all Heaven. So when Crowley talked about the bookshop, what Aziraphale was thinking about was probably: "Oh Crowley, I'm ready to leave the bookshop and any of the material things I love on earth in order for you and me to stay side by side." but he said: “Nothing lasts forever.”

And Crowley heard “We were never meant to last forever”; like in the end of them, of their team, their group, of their “us”. And it broke his heart ; he had a friend, his only friend for centuries, and they the peaceful existence they carved out for themselves.

"Lasting" is the less suitable word to define Crowley, he's always changing through the time; but at every era they were still together, so he thought they were going to last. And Aziraphale just…made it all vanish in 3 words.

It’s like they’re strangers again, back when they were in Job’s house, angel manipulated by Heaven and demon alone on his own side.

[yeoldspinster]

It's not even that Aziraphale chose Heaven over Crowley. It's that he chose the angel Crowley over demon Crowley. He chose their past over any potential future. He chose the idea of Crowley over Crowley.

I'm broken

[beautifulbows924]

My current thoughts on The Coffee Theory…

I don’t think Aziraphale was mind controlled, but I do think he was poisoned. Almonds are supposed to signify holiness, and I think that drinking the coffee pushed his belief in Heaven much farther than it was. (There is a basis for his belief, but not nearly that much—his interference with Job, illustrates this perfectly.)

And the scene “Does anyone ask for death?”, what an odd question to ask if you’re just getting a normal coffee, as well as the strange miracle like sound that came directly before the cup was handed over.

+ Crowley’s poisoning scene from episode 3 felt like foreshadowing, and I think it doesn’t have so much to do with “mind control” as it does not being entirely aware.

Aziraphale’s “Nothing lasts forever” line in particular alerted me to something being off, because isn’t that his character? He’s worn the same clothing for over 100 years, he upkeeps books and hates selling them. He seems to have a strong aversion to change and yet he’s ready to give it all away for power??? He’s a bookshop owner, he’s never vied for power even on earth.

His motivations seem extremely off in my opinion… because he knows Crowley wouldn’t want to return to Heaven! The last 6,000+ years have been about them asking questions & coming together in a shade of grey.

Different shades mind you, but with similar motivations and goals regarding both humanity & earth.

All this to say… Aziraphale has never been cruel and the smile in the elevator at the end seemed edged with a vindictiveness I’ve never noticed in him prior.

Additional Theories, May Be Found: Here.

[neil-gaiman]

This perhaps may be a bit of a stupid question, and one I could be incredibly incorrect on as I haven't been to church in years, but why is Gabriel treated as Aziraphale's boss when Aziraphale ranks higher in the third sphere? Principalities rank higher than Archangels in Angel Hierarchy, and while Archangels are there to ensure fulfilment of roles (such as Armageddon) Gabriel would still rank lower than Aziraphale, so his treatment towards Aziraphale is a tad confusing for me.

Terry and I were of the opinion that, in the world of Good Omens, archangels and Archangels were different things.

As Wikipedia explains, there are those who “make a distinction between archangel (with a lower-case a) and Archangel (with an uppercase A). The former can denote the second-lowest choir (arch-angels in the sense of being just above the lowest Choir of angels that is called only “angels”) but the latter may denote the highest of all the angels (i.e., Arch-angels in the sense of being above all angels, of any Choir. The seven highest Seraphim, Michael, being the highest of all).”

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Christian_angelology

Christian angelology - Wikipedia

Christian angelology - Wikipedia

Christian angelology - Wikipedia

Christian angelology - Wikipedia

[the-berkeley-square-nightingale]

So I made a hierarchy of Heaven, with only the orders of angels we've heard about in the show so far (there are some others in the christian accurate hierarchy). I made the hierarchy based on both what we see on the show and the Wikipedia page (what a source).

God (God)

The Metatron (Metatron)

Supreme Archangel (Gabriel)(Aziraphale)

Archangels (Michael, Uriel, Sandalphon, Saraqael)(angel Crowley?)

Thrones (angel Crowley?)

Dominions (angel Crowley?)

Principalities (Aziraphale)

37th scrivener (technically Muriel; but you know, no one)

So, Crowley's prior rank as an angel is not said, but we know he's above Dominions, since he can see the "Matter of Gabriel" file. And has the passwords.

[the-berkeley-square-nightingale]

The kiss has not much to do with love

The thing about this kiss is that most of people get it like a proof that Aziraphale and Crowley are in love, when it is not. What I mean by that (I'm not saying they're not in love, wait a minute, don't kill me), is their kiss has nothing to do with a desire from Crowley to kiss the being, angel, person he loves, like in the human way (because, hey, they're not human). I think Crowley was just copying how human beings usually love each other because he don’t know how celestial beings are supposed to express it, and he tried to make Azi understand what he feels the only way he knows how. The funny thing is, Nina thinks there are already partners and aware of being more than friends, because even humans (some of them anyway) knows that it doesn't require kissing to be in love.

As Neil Gaiman wrote "I don't think kissing scenes have so much to do with love [...] Crowley's kiss is about a lot of things but it's not to show they're in love." (link). Actually, if you needed that kiss as a proof that they're in love, you don't get most of the thing. This is why Gabriel and Beelzebub singing "Everyday" -together- is more meaningful than a kiss (Neil Gaiman wrote that too).

The point is, love is not a pattern to follow; it is personnal between two (or more in fact) beings and, as such, expresses itself a million time differently.