Thoughts on GO3
Okay, I’ve had some time to process and cool down a bit. I know I’ve already been posting a lot about what I think, but I think I’ve finally got it all sorted out logically in my head. (If you follow me and are tired of my endless rants, you can totally skip, sorry for the constant posting). (This is also much longer than I originally anticipated, so seriously, feel free to skip by this if I’m just rambling too much).
I want to preface this with I know there are a lot of people who did like the ending. I totally respect that, and am not bashing on anyone who did. People have different opinions and I’d never dislike someone for that unless they’re actively attacking me/others. I’m happy that they got what they needed to feel resolution with this. I just personally did not.
I’d also like to say, to all of those I’ve interacted with that also have issue with the ending: I know some of this may be different from your opinions too. Yours are all extremely valid, and I respect them and you so much. You’ve all been a huge part of helping me get through this. These are just my opinions influenced by my own personal experiences, and they certainly don’t mean I’m correct by any means.
I think I’m finally able to organize why I’ve had so much trouble accepting this ending. And the truth is, I don’t accept it. But I also did like some parts of it. So here’s what I got.
Stuff I liked
I know a lot of people didn’t like it or thought it was pointless, but I personally really liked the first scene. I was so excited we were going to get to see something from the Great War. And I liked that it established that even from the beginning of them being ‘enemies,’ Aziraphale couldn’t bring himself to hurt Crowley.
Related to the point above - I was digging their looks. I know a lot of people don’t like Aziraphale’s Legolas look, but it was so reminiscent of Michael Sheen’s Lucian from Underworld, which has always been one of my favorite movies. And Crowley’s Braveheart-esque look - it was working for me.
I think Jesus is absolutely precious. He’s so sweet and innocent. And I wanted to cry when he asked about his friends and his mother. I also love that he kept trying to tell parables and couldn’t find the right ones.
I like that we got to see more of Muriel and they had a more pivotal role in this. Muriel is also a precious character to me, and their scenes always made me laugh.
Love that Mrs. Sandwich was looking after/defending Crowley even if he was annoying her asking for money all the time.
Also, drunk and sad Crowley. Don’t get me wrong, I love him and want him to be happy. But this fit my vision of how he would be after S2. (I may have an unfinished fic that has him living in the alley by the bookshop that I started over a year ago).
The crossword battle was so funny. Also the fact that Crowley kept losing at Monopoly of all things.
Love that Aziraphale acknowledged to Crowley that he recognizes that Crowley always rescues him, and that he wanted to be the one to rescue him this time.
Crowley’s outfit in Heaven - perfect. Loved the streaks in his hair that looked like devil horns and that it essentially fit his style just in different colors. Because Aziraphale had to miracle that for him, so Aziraphale dressed him like that.
The scene with Aziraphale and Muriel in Hell. I thought Aziraphale’s disguise was hilarious. Still as ridiculous as his gardener disguise, but it actually fit better with Hell. And Muriel’s disguise - loved. The ‘BAD’ written on their cheek had me cackling.
I love the Muriel and Eric interaction! I’ve personally had them together (be that platonic or romantic) as a headcanon. Getting to see that was really cute.
“Don’t Stop Me Now” is one of my favorite Queen songs, and I feel like it fit so well there.
God is a woman, and she’s black. Enough said.
I thought returning to the Garden of Eden in the bookshop was really cool and beautiful. Visually stunning.
I actually like Asa and Anthony. I think they’re very cute and deserve to be happy. It’s exactly the kind of story I’d read. If I was looking for a human AU fic only.
Stuff I didn’t like/hated
Also want to preface this with I know they had to fit a season’s worth of content into 90 minutes. All the points below are made with that in mind.
As much as I liked the opening scene, I don’t like that there wasn’t more to it than just showing a brief interaction and introducing the Eternal Flame. Just wish there was more to it.
There’s absolutely no interaction with the Metatron at all. S2 definitely gave him menacing vibes, but we literally only saw him when he was erased. Feel like him as a villain could have been explored more.
I think the storyline of Crowley losing the Bentley was unnecessary. I thought it was funny, but too much time was spent on that when it could have been given to other plot lines or character interaction.
Crowley losing his powers is just stupid. I feel like it was just a way to get rid of the option of them performing powerful miracles together like they did in S2. Personally seems like lazy writing to me.
Related to the point above - I hate that their powerful miracles were never explored. That was such a pivotal thing in S2. The whole reason they got on Heaven’s radar and had to go through the whole ‘love miracle’ farce was because it was so powerful with them barely trying. This would have been much more satisfying to look into than the thug/Bentley storyline.
I hate that there were so few human characters from S1 and S2. I know this is more because the actors weren’t available and there were time/budget constraints with cutting back the season, so this isn’t really something I think they could have changed. Just sucked not getting to see more.
What the hell was the point of Jesus even being there? I love him and am happy we got to see him, but honestly what was the point? He learned a card trick, gave people some pizza and inspiration, and then they all got erased. Also, he’s part of God - the tribunal Godhead or whatever, right? So how was he so easily erased? (And telling Mrs. Sandwich she needed to go home because her mother was sick and then she didn’t get to was so sad).
Even though I loved the Hell infiltration scene, there was no point to it. The only thing they got out of it was that He’ll didn’t know anything and then she’ll wanted to start a war. But that didn’t even affect anything at all, so there was no point to any of it. It’s just another thread that was a waste of time that could have been spent fleshing out other things.
No Gabriel and Beelzebub at all. Barely any mention.
I hate that even at the very end, Muriel thought of themself as dim. They figured out it was Michael! Maybe after the others, but they still did! They never got to realize their own value.
Michael being the big bad because no one ever told her thank you and she didn’t get a promotion? That is just so anticlimactic, honestly.
If Michael throws the whole book into the flame and Crowley only saves the bookshop page, how are they still there? Their pages would have been burned. And we already saw with other angels that destruction of their page equals instant Thanos style erasure. People vanish even if the place they are in hasn’t been destroyed yet. So it stands to reason that they would vanish and the bookshop would have remained, just empty.
S1 kind of implied with the voiceover throughout and the lack of divine retribution that God didn’t want Armageddon to happen. Agnes had those visions and Anathema followed her path exactly. That implies that specific thread being ‘fate’ or part of a plan. And then it’s proposed that what happens is not part of the Great Plan, but it is part of the Ineffable Plan. So God didn’t want the world to end then. So why end it less than 10 years later?? What’s the point of letting Armageddon be stopped just to go ahead and destroy the universe anyway?
And on the point of God - why does anything need to be destroyed? “Stories don’t continue after their last chapter.” Um, have you never heard of a sequel? A spin-off? Yes ma’am, they can and do. So you personally are done with the universe and don’t want to be around anymore. Then just leave? You’re God, you can do whatever you want. Why not just leave everyone alone and go off?
“Your love for him was the messiest, silliest, most predictable thing in the universe, and it always made me smile.” So God ships them, cool. Then why tear them apart again and again? “Aw yall are cute. Time to die now!”
The idea that humans in this universe don’t already have free will. Yes, there have been angelic and demonic influences throughout history. But it’s already been well established that humans alone are capable of greater good and evil than Heaven or Hell could create. They already live outside of anything Heaven or Hell could influence. Adam goes against his entire identity because he wants to be human. We establish in S1 that humanity’s free will to choose their path is greater than Heaven and Hell trying to have their war. Another example is Anathema. Agnes sent her another book, more prophecies for her to follow, a new path. And she rejects it and burns it. Humans have free will. And angels and demons have it as well. I mean, demons would have never been able to rebel in the first place if they didn’t. Aziraphale and Crowley wouldn’t have had the arrangement, their relationship, or their rebellion against Armageddon if they didn’t have free will. Even Gabriel and Beelzebub wouldn’t have fallen in love and been able to run off together if they didn’t have free will. It exists in this universe.
The destruction of the current universe. This honestly just goes against the very themes established in S1. Adam wants to destroy the world and remake it how he wants so it will be better. It’s determined then that’s not the way to go. You don’t destroy and make something new. When something is broken, you fix it. You don’t just give up and try again. This is also reiterated with Job. They don’t want new children, they want their children. This is kind of the same thing, honestly. This was just such a disheartening disappointment of a decision. It’s such a contradiction of the original themes of the show.
The OOC choices by Crowley and Aziraphale. Now, this is going to be a hot take, because I’ve seen a lot of people saying the opposite, but I personally don’t see them sacrificing themselves for humanity as OOC. Aziraphale has already sacrificed his own happiness multiple times to ‘do the right thing.’ Though it does seem like he wants to do differently this time, it does make sense that he would agree to it again. As for Crowley - yes, he’s chosen Aziraphale and them running off multiple times. But in this season, we see Aziraphale saying again he thought giving up Crowley to go to Heaven for humanity was ‘the right thing.’ And Aziraphale points out that they couldn’t leave humanity to whatever Heaven may do. We already know that Crowley does care about humanity - “not the kids, you can’t kill kids,” not killing Job’s children, “don’t test them to destruction.” Then Aziraphale calls him the best angel of them all because he truly cared. This was building up to him making this decision. That being said, the fact that their decision was to die to create a whole new world was OOC. They have always, always found some clever loophole or been able to wriggle out of a bad situation. They don’t even try to do this or consider any other option. They don’t even explore the fact that God is giving them the ability to choose what will happen. They could have found a better way to do things, but they just give up and leave this current universe and all of its people to be destroyed. So while I think it’s not that OOC for them to make that sacrifice for humanity if there was no other option, that’s not what they did. There were other options. And it’s not even the humanity they know. They’re condemning all the people in this universe to destruction just because they think they don’t have free will (which as u said before, they do). They wouldn’t do this. They wouldn’t give up on these people or trying to find another solution.
And on that subject, the fact that there were other options. Literally there are so many ways destruction could have been avoided. So you want humans free of angelic or demonic influences? Okay, then ask God to brung everything back and turn all angels and demons into humans (thought I’d personally want our boys to stay as they are since they’ll leave the humans alone). God literally asked them what they want and she can do anything. She could have done that. You didn’t have to condemn an entire universe. Or, they could have written things back themselves. They had a new book of life right in their hands. All they had to do was write that things were back and change whatever they wanted. They had the power literally in their hands to fix the universe!! So no, the only option was not total destruction. It was the worst, stupidest, and most tragic option.
We never get a true conversation or confirmation of feelings from Crowley and Aziraphale. They dance around Aziraphale leaving and address why he had to leave. Crowley’s feelings of hurt are never acknowledged. They never even talk to each other about their true feelings. Aziraphale’s declaration is spoken to God. They never even get to address the fact that Aziraphale asked Crowley to be an angel again. We know he loves Crowley, but we never got to see him push past that idea that he should be an angel and just accept Crowley as he is.
The lack of a kiss. I know, a lot of people are saying they don’t have to kiss to show they love each other. And that’s true. And I’ve even grown to like the little finger kiss. But I have two issues with the lack of a real kiss. One, it means the only kiss they have ever shared was that awful, desperate, heartbreaking kiss. They should have been able to have a redo. Two, I don’t want to have subtext anymore. Yes, you can tell they love each other with every look and word. We can interpret that very easily. But after the kiss in S2 I was so hopeful to finally have an explicit queer relationship where we don’t have to rely on subtext. My issue isn’t that we NEEDED a kiss to see how they feel for each other, we know how they feel. My issue is that I’m tired of having to rely on interpretation with queer relationships. And on that note, queer characters having to give up their happiness. (And yes, I know we get an explicitly queer relationship with Asa and Anthony being married, but again, they are not the main characters Aziraphale and Crowley.)
The whole “they meet in every universe” thing. Yeah, I love that idea, I want every iteration that ever exists of them to be together. But much as I think Asa and Anthony deserve to have their happy ending, they are not Aziraphale and Crowley. Yes, they may have their core essence and be a reincarnation or version of their souls. But they are not the angel and demon that yearned for each other for 6,000 years. It’s shown in S2 that memories are who you are. Even if you have your basic characteristics, your memories shape so much of you. Beelzebub holding the fly saying “there you are, you lost all your you.” Gabriel was his memories. So while Asa and Anthony are sweet and may be a version of our boys, they are not them. And Aziraphale and Crowley deserved their happy ending. To yearn for 6,000 years and never get to be together right when it seemed it could finally be possible? I cannot think of anything more tragic than that. So yeah, maybe the ending is happy for a human AU fanfic. But it is not a happy ending for Aziraphale and Crowley.
Also, I think it was lost along the way that this was supposed to be a comedy. This was just my happy little show with my comfort characters that I got to enjoy when I was sad. It was joyful and uplifting. Even though S2 ended on a sad cliffhanger, we finally got explicit, canon confirmation of their feelings for each other. We had hope that season 3 would fix things because this was supposed to be on overall happy, funny show. We seriously veered away from that this season.
This is more a personal thing, and I don’t believe it was the intention at all, but I really don’t like that Crowley and Aziraphale never get to work through their trauma and heal. They’ve spent their entire existence under Heaven and Hell’s heel. And finally when it seems like they might be able to escape, they can’t. They have to follow the same tired pattern of fighting them again. And then instead of fighting till the end, they decide to just give in. It just feels like they’re two traumatized individuals who never get to escape their abusers and have to sacrifice themselves without ever getting away. That’s so depressing.
Overall, I just feel like this episode contradicted a lot of established themes and retconned a lot of character development. I think there were ways that the point they were trying to make could have been accomplished very easily and fit with the plot without having the main two characters sacrifice themselves without ever getting their happy ending. There may have been a general happy ending, and I’m glad Asa and Anthony get to be happy and grow old. But there is not happy ending for Aziraphale and Crowley. It’s just a tragedy.
So, that’s where I am. Like I said, I don’t really accept this as their ending, because I don’t really feel like it actually true to the heart of S1. Personally, I’m going to be reading others and writing my own fix-it fics and believing those are canon. I’m still sad, but honestly knowing that this ending doesn’t align with original canon and that we can write something that does so much better has made me feel a little better.
Absolutely agree, with all of this!
And I think that the fact that there werent almost any characters we already knew, and main duo didn't interact with them is why authors can somewhat get away with this ending and presenting it as happy one.
If we saw Maggie and Nina, Adam with his friends, Dog and parents, Anathema with Newton, Shadwell with Mrs Tracy, Beelzebub with Gabriel... Then there is no way in hell it wouldn't feel, like Azi And Crowley let them all be destroyed (because new universe was NOT reset. Without Hell And Heaven some characters would have been completely different people or wouldn't have be born at all. Like Adam, Son of SATAN.)
IT would be enough to see flashbacks of all these characters to feel the inpact of "creating new universe instead of bringing them all back"
It's Infinity war level of tragedy.
Non of these characters exists as we knew them anymore.
And worst part is, that it was completly pointless choice. God didn't give them any ultimatum or A/B options. They could literally come up with anything and she would apparently do it (for some inexplicable reason)
I'm really frustrated with this ending because in my eyes it was not only terribly tragic, but also nonsensical to what authors themselfs established with circumstances of that choice, it contradicted S1/S2 themes AND didn't made sense for main characters.
All this said, I would let everything slide, if they JUST let them remember each other in last minute of finale. I needed them back and happy So BADLY that I was waiting for it up until the end credits.
But it didn't happen, so...
anyway, I'm still greatfull we got Michael and David in those roles for the last time. They did amazing!!! Such a shame they didn't have better script to work with....
