I came up with this theory to deal with my disbelief that God would just erase Crowley and Aziraphale from existence, along with her universe, for no good reason.
It's not perfect and there may be some plot holes, but I tried thinking of as many factors as I could, and still like it as an explanation of the confusing mess of the ending.
If you find comfort in this as I have, feel free to add your own ideas or help me explain aspects I may have missed to fit this theory.
What if the entire universe of Good Omens is a continuously recurring sandbox made by God for two specific souls: Crowley and Aziraphale?
If so, before the human story, and before the Biblical/Apocalyptic universe we watched, God has spent eternity dropping these same two souls into different 'stories' to watch how everything plays out. As Aziraphale says, "they were just characters in her book".
The way God narrates the story of Good Omens throughout Season 1 suggests She's just telling us Her story She created. She says things like "It starts, as it will end, in the garden" because She knows exactly what's going to happen, having written it all - this is Her "Ineffable Plan".
As She reveals to Aziraphale, She gave him Crowley because they could value each other, unlike many others, and that "they always made [Her] smile" as though they were her favourite thing to watch. The institutions of Heaven and Hell, the war and the Earth itself are not the main event. They are merely the elaborate narrative scenery, obstacles and friction designed to give their love story depth.
And then She declares "that was then, that universe is over, as I think are both of you". But when a particular universe or 'story' runs its course, like when the previous reality is destroyed by the burning of the Book of Life, God does not abandon Her beloved characters. She means this in the way that those roles for Crowley and Aziraphale are over, and it's time to place them in new roles. This means it is not a multiverse of alternate-dimension variants. The Crowley and Aziraphale we followed through the Apocalypse are not dead or replaced. They are the exact same souls being moved to a new stage.
To populate Her new worlds, God recycles the souls and faces of other angels, demons and humans, but reshuffles their roles too. They are, in fact, just "stand ins in a cosmic game of solitaire". The game of solitaire being Crowley and Aziraphale's story.
In this latest universe, God rewards Crowley and Aziraphale by removing the burdens of Heaven and Hell from their previous universe, as they asked. By making them human in this world, She frees them from their trauma and gives them a peaceful, quiet life where they can just be together.
While their new brains act as a temporary filter to prevent all their years of history from overwhelming them during their new lives, their identity remains entirely intact. The love and history they built are permanently in their souls, manifesting as deja vu (like the nightingale), specific interests and character quirks (like Anthony's interest in stars and Asa's use of words) and feelings, such as with Anthony’s declaration: "I have the universe out there, and I have you. I have everything I've ever wanted."
However, because this time Crowley and Aziraphale asked to reset it themselves, God sent them straight into the new universe without taking them out, like she would usually do, to remember all their previous roles and stand beside her whilst she made the new one. As this is probabaly a rare occurrence, due to the factor of this story's involvement of heaven and hell, and them not actually being able to properly be together as a result of it, she made this next universe and their small part as humans as a reward.
The rule of this new universe is God’s promise to them: a world independent of divine intervention, entirely for human free will. To honor this, God cannot constantly drop into the timeline or pull strings. She starts the new universe off and sits back to see what happens, programming Crowley and Aziraphale’s ancient souls to be born as humans at a specific coordinate in time and space.
She does not nudge them towards each other or interfere. She relies entirely on the magnetism of their souls and even in a godless world full of billions of people and infinite choices, their souls naturally lead them to each other.
But because humanity now possesses true free will, the world cannot simply vanish when Crowley and Aziraphale’s human lives end, or her promise to them will be broken. Instead, the universe runs its full, natural course across millions of years.
Thousands of years of human history take place entirely through human choices before the two souls are even born. To God, this happens in an instant, but to the world, it is a lived reality.
Then Crowley and Aziraphale are born, live a full, precious human life together, age and peacefully pass away in their cottage. They get to experience the ultimate human privilege - a mortal lifetime where every moment matters, free from the looming dread of an apocalypse or the watchful eye of heaven and hell. This is their reward.
The world then keeps going for millions of years. Humanity explores the stars, creates magnificent things and lives freely until the universe eventually cools (or heats up) and reaches its natural end. God honors Her promise to let the world run on its own, until the very last light goes out.
When their bodies die, their souls step back outside of time to stand beside God. The veil drops away and their transition back to pure cosmic beings hits them as their memories of everything return.
They look back at every universe they have ever lived. They realize that across every universe and story they have been a part of, they chose each other every single time.
Standing outside of time, they will hold hands and look back at their 'godless' universe that just finished its billions of years run, and watch it fade out. And as it does, God will look at Her two favorite creations, smile and say:
'Now... are you ready for the next one?'
And they will be. Because they know that no matter what this next world will contain, they will always have each other.
This is how I am coping guys...
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