I Believe In Nightingales

"To Our World🥂✨" * * * * * * * * * * * * * * For the Lovers, the Dreamers, and the Believers in the Ineffable Husbands/Building HOPE for the Final15 One Post at a Time/ Metas, analyses, philosophical ponderings, stories, etc. Lisa (she/her), AuDHD & demi, WistfulNightingale on Ao3 * * * * * * *

[wistfulnightingale]

For All the Ineffable Believers in Nightingales...

Here to comfort the afflicted and possibly restore a bit of a safe space again. Our Beloved Ineffables mean the world to us, and that meaning still exists, waiting for us to find it and share it with each other.

I write about Our Ineffables' devotion, and GO philosophy, and about keeping ourselves and our fandom together when the unexpected hits. There are metas about love, and identity, and acceptance... Loneliness, and courage... About acespec companionship, about romance, about quiet love...

I'll "Tell You A Story" in-universe, too, inspired by these ideas. I'll be adding more to that list now.

I had believed that Our Ineffables were truly a couple in Season 2, and that 15 minutes couldn't destroy a 6000 year old bond of trust and affection. So that is what you'll still find here, and what I'll still be writing. Whether you had also believed it, in the days before, or if you simply want to move away from the chaos to peacefully explore those ideas now, you are welcome here!

I'd also passionately worked out Theories-with-a-Capital-T, based on my beliefs -- few saw the light of day in GO3. They're shifted lower in this list of my written record of my love for Our Beloved Ineffables. But I hold my head up with pride and hope you'll still find them interesting -- who knows what would-have, could-have, or should have been if Hope and Optimism had been the path...

You've found my Pinned Post, so they're all listed and linked below.

This blog is for the Lovers, the Dreamers, and me. The Believers in the Ineffable Husbands. The ones who love them both. My name's Lisa (she/her), I'm happily (pleasantly? unsurprisingly?) AuDHD & grey/acespec, and I write as WistfulNightingale on Ao3 (scroll down for my fanfics).

*****

Meta Musings - About Aziraphale ✨

Anything to Protect Crowley

What a Brave and Handsome Demon (Angel?)

The Night That Changed an Angel

The Courage of an Angel (Sometimes the Ordinary is Extraordinary)

A Weeping Angel (I Hope Aziraphale Gets What He Deserves)

Grand Dame Aziraphale (Huzzah! for THE Southern Pansy)

Times Aziraphale Risked ABSOLUTELY EVERYTHING to Save a Few Paltry Humans. (includes GO3 trailer thoughts)

A Suffering Angel… (Thoughts inspired by a reblogged gif from the GO3 trailer. Still relevant up to S2)

*****

Meta Musings - About Crowley 🔥

Somewhat Heroes (Not Quite the Usual Heroes Journey)

Purged by Fire (Crowley as a Romantic Hero)

Catch a Falling Star (Aziraphale's Protector, Forever)

Gestures of Love (Crowley's Heart)

Crowley and the Kids (Victims and Offerings are NOT. ON.)

Being Truly Seen (Why Crowley Changed After Meeting Jesus*)

Crowley Does Not Read Books. (He said so himself, didn't he?)

*****

Meta Musings - About our Ineffable Husbands 🥂💞

An Old Married Couple (Together Since the Bus Stop)

A.Z. Fell & Crowley (The Demon Who's Always Been Welcome!)

Promises to Keep (When It All Goes Too Fast- Lost Picnics, Dances, & Regrets)

Only One Angel Dances (It Began With an Apology)

At ANY Cost (We need to talk about the Final 15)

I Will Never Get Over... (The Ineffable "Wedding", 1941)

I May Never Recover...Multifaceted Beauty (A Sheltering Wing)

I Will Always Remember... (Aziraphale's Ball, his Joy and Loss)

*****

Meta Musings - Good Omens Philosophy

Loss & Safety & Taking Sides (Is it still Grief when you mask & swallow your tears?)

Finding Forgiveness (Text Barrages & Apology Dances)

Forgiveness & Absolution (Holy Hot Chocolate, Jim!)

Reflections & Divisions (Mirrors of Ourselves)

Good Omens & the Existential Art of Not Giving Up (When It's All Exhausting)

"For the Greater Good" (Good Omens' Take on Justified Violence)

More Than One Way to be Smitten (Ace is okay too!)🖤🩶🤍💜

Worthy of Rescue, Worthy of Love (The Damsel-in-Distress Saga)

*****

About Loneliness, in Good Omens

Facing Loneliness (Reaching Out in Courage)

Unmasking an Angel (Free to Be Who You Really Are)

An Archangel Alone (Beyond the Boxes)

*****

Just for Fun! (Photo/gif essays)

Job and the Ineffable Plan 🐐 🐐

It Begins as it Will End (Their True Character Revealed) 🔥

Many Ways (Couples, Commitment, and being Acespec)🖤🩶🤍💜

I Will Never Get Over... (The Ineffable "Wedding", 1941) 💼

Do I look like I run a bookshop?! (silly demi imaginings!) 📚

But it's P R E T T Y! (Ineffable Squabbles) 💛🍬

Crowley Dramatically Seated with Theatrical Flair (through the ages!)

*****

To Our World (miscellaneous meditations)

The Book of Love (Song Lyrics and Ineffable Moments)

A Willing Sacrifice (A Poem? A Meditation?)

Storytellers Restore Order & Instill Hope (About philosophies of hope, and loss, and memory, and about Sir Terry Pratchett. It was also about what I hoped for in GO3, so TW, but it meant more...)

*****

Tell Me A Story... Links to my Missing Moments & theory-related fanfics on AO3 (ace-friendly)

* Love Languages (sweet flirting, adorably fluffy, and poignant)

* When Gentlemen Fraternize (Azi's diary after Edinburgh)

*Time and Enough (S2 They're coming. Azi is panicked. Swap theory)

*Just Like Us (Oneshot, C&A relate to The Gilded Age tv tragedy)

**********************************************************************

Okay.

From here, it's a record of could-have-beens. First, any significant essays/posts about GO3. It was hard for me to process. I'm not sure if I'll be writing any metas or analyses directly about it, like my usual style, in the future.

After that section comes the MULTITUDE of theories I had about GO2 and where I thought it was going. It's a fun treasure trove if you'd still like to dive in! They're part of my history here, and I loved writing them...

***********************************************************************

*****

Trying to Process the GO3 Finale

Sendarya gives us back "our old children"-- No credit to me. Just me passing along someone else's genius. A brilliant fix-it edit video!

Magic & Misdirection? Chess? Nah. Watch the Cards. "Find the Lady" was a switch-con to try to sell us on nihilism and hopelessness.

It's 3 a.m. and another night of horrible sleep (thank you Prime) and maybe everyone is too worn out to care, but……. Things I can't accept.

It's hard enough bein' people as it is, without other people coming and messin' you around. -- The more honest, 2nd version. We were Misled into a tragedy instead of the Hope and Free Will they showed us.

It's hard enough bein' people as it is...Original version, if you'd like to see it. I was still struggling with the idea that GO bait-and-switched us!

No wonder nobody could find you. This is where you were keeping all your memories. All your… you. -- Losing what made them... Them

Further thoughts about the finale -- Why the epilogue still feels broken… (still an early reaction. Processing.)

My GO3 First Thoughts -- Feeling betrayed by the Loss

Maybe cutting GO3 to 90 minutes changed Everything (But Maybe it Didn't…!). **GO3 -- Theories about the trailer, pre-May 13th

The Other Author of Good Omens…. (Sir Terry Pratchett and GO3) -- written pre-May 13th

*********************************************************************

The Treasure Trove of Theories!!

Moments That Mattered (The Case for The Final 15)

Power Strategies & Masking (Please Don't Underestimate Our Beloved Demon). Crowley masks too, & understands power dynamics. He saw the threat.

#JusticeForCrowley (More than 18 moments that prove there's More Than Meets the Eye in the F15). A collection of Proofs, including screenshot evidence.

Aziraphale is Not a Fool (And Never Was) -- Misdirection in the Final 15. Screenshot proof that Aziraphale Did recognize the Metatron

The Challenge and the Response (Crowley and the Metatron duel for control) Our Ineffables begin strategic teamwork as he arrived

Through the Window Part I (If we can see into shop windows, so can the Metatron in F15) -- Visual proofs & patterns throughout GO2

Through the Window Part II -- (Did A&C Know he was watching?) Screenshot proofs that Aziraphale knew the Metatron was watching, and Crowley saw him too! Based solely on scene analysis

Crowley on Patrol (They Weren't Entirely Caught Off-guard) -- S2 Crowley was literally patroling the neighborhood looking for trouble.

The Moment of Recognition (Aziraphale's Angel Alarm & The Metatron) -- A theory with evidence that Azi senses heavenly arrivals.

Danger From On High (Why suspect the Metatron was coming?) -- A meta-analysis that A&C would expect big trouble to follow Jimbriel.

The Looming Threat (Misdirection and a Little Abra-Cadabra -- That Moment with Crowley & Nina) -- There's too much proof that they're already a couple, so what was this actually about? A theory.

"They're Not Talking..." (But are they communicating?) -- Did we get sold on word play that stuck with us from the *ahem* original writer?

Fearful Memories (Aziraphale KNOWS) -- Our Angel gets so underestimated, but he really does know that heaven is awful!

An Unexpected Encounter (2 Angels & a Demon in the Park) -- A Gabe theory, with S1 evidence, that impacts how A&C handle S2.

The Secret Smile Moment (I finally found it as a gif to share!!) -- Okay, let's be Real. WHY would Azi smile at Crowley like that NOW?

The Nightingale DID Sing for Aziraphale -- Part 2 (more information!) Plus a F15 with lowered music and clearer birdsong.

Why we didn't see a breakup coming (Final15🔥Quick Hot Take) -- Part meta, part rant, part structural analysis.

Hot Takes🔥 (because things need to be SAID)

Alpha Centauri's... Nice (He gave it away)

"Horsehead Nebula" is code for Chess Knight (and C&A are the knights)

Aziraphale's Memory (It was tampered with from Before the Beginning)

3 Signals that they Knew the Metatron had arrived

Something HUGE about the Kiss (How Crowley saved Azi's Memories)

Significant Side-Theories! (Well, I right about Muriel & Azi, at least... 😅)

A Storytelling Tag-Team (Are two Ineffably Otherworldly Teens changing reality?). GO3 Jesus & Adam both create stories. Are they trying to change the "Great Plan" and save humanity?

Important F15 Discovery? (Was "Nothing Lasts Forever" code language after all?). TWO classic movies with startling similarities! (Includes discussion of 1946 P&P's Stairway to Heaven, & poster)

The Small Back Room (Could a GO3 1941 Kiss be more than just fanon?) Maggie's shop name, and a P&P movie poster with a wartime Kiss.

"…An Offer He Couldn't Refuse" ?? (Muriel's Hidden message for Us) About the GO3 Trailer Announcement, it's not quite what it seems!

Heaven's Thuggery (Hmm… Which one inspired Crowley's Absolutely Feral Fury?) -- GO3 Teaser pics & heaven as a Crime Syndicate

"Something Smells Evil" (Is Sandalphon a Murder Hornet?) -- A theory. You can't trust heaven, & how Sandalphon influenced Gabe.

Resident Priviledges ("Don't open the door to anyone!") -- This one's pure theory. I'm sure there are clues that the Metatron was here twice, but can't quite put my finger on when...!

Monsieur Rossignol is more than just a nightingale! -- He was a Code Master! This is a tag-team reblog, info found by @azfell-ajcrowley. Honestly, I'm listing it here because their info was too valuable to lose

(What theories did You think were possible? 🍷No shame.🍷 Season 2 definitely scattered some seeds. Then the lawnmower came by...! 😆)

The 8 Chess Moves MetaTheory Set (Directly About the Final15 - I believe it was a desperate, deadly chess game)

1 - The Metatron Misdirection *

2 - The Metatron's Second Coming

3 - Ineffables in Check

4 - A Hefty Jigger of Death

5 - Nothing Lasts Forever

6 - The Circle Kiss Theory

7 - The Nightingale DID Sing -- it CAN be heard as Crowley leaves!

8 - Aziraphale's Jubilant Smile (Not the crazy elevator grin)

Also: The Chess Moves Theory Set, Why Chess & Magic?

*And: The Metatron Misdirection New Note, Is it a Shell Game of White-Haired Men? *

I used an * because I made a mistake at the time about when/where the Metatron showed up, and reference it in the theories (oops!).

It's really a pity that the Metatron set-up got dropped for the 96 minutes. They had set up such a Terrible Terrific Villain to play with!

[wistfulnightingale]

I Need a Path OUT of This Tumoil and Chaos (also, I Still Believe in Nightingales, and in Our World!)

One Neurodivergent (and Acespec) Human's Perspective

*****

Prior to May 13 and all the, um, recent developments in Good Omens and our fandom, writing about Our Ineffables on Tumblr and AO3 (and my very full list of almost-finished fanfics!) had been my haven, my sanity and safe space. I know I'm not alone in that.

I'm also pretty sure that I'm not the only one who feels lost now -- not only because of GO3 itself, but because of how our little Tumblr space has become a chaotic turmoil that I don't even need to describe. We all see it, every time we scroll.

In the first week or so, I wrote and vented and tried to sort it all out too. I seldom post what I write now. The feeling of it being a minefield of potential conflict is... intimidating, to say the least. (Long history of people-pleasing, me. Lots of personal work becoming more honest and authentic. Unexpected conflict still feels like trauma.)

I love Good Omens too much to leave. But I'm exhausted from draining my energy navigating the turmoil, and from trying to process so very very many thoughts and opinions -- and so many of them are insightful and valid, even when folks are angry and arguing. My neurodivergent brain can only make it through so much before I become emotionally exhausted all over again.

And I'm really, really tired...

You see, I'm ADHD and Autistic. (Can I hear a Wa-Hoo?) My neurology already runs on emergency-crisis-adrenalin-hyperdrive. It's exhausting, but that's pretty much how it works. (That's why Azi's fumbles felt so relatable!) It takes actual strategies to get it all to run at a "normal" baseline.

A lot of the folks who followed my blog before this absolute mess told me they're neurodivergent too. We enjoyed each other's writing and comments, even when topics seemed to have nothing to do with neurodivergence. I miss those lovely little interactions, those familiar people. So many have gone silent, at least with their own voices. Maybe our chaotic feelings colllided against each other. Maybe they're also feeling the strain of this constant turmoil... or just heartbroken.

(I miss you all. You know who you all are. If you're thinking, "Probably not me," then it's definitely you, too!)

Processing strong emotions quickly isn't a strong suit for me. It takes me extra time to work through all the layers - especially when anger or conflict is part of it. I also tend to count on "best intentions". So, when folks are angrily saying, "You shouldn't have thought that..." or "You should have seen this coming..." Well...

I'm also on the asexual spectrum. (Although I'm an absolutely "hopeless romantic"!) It was always part of my subtext for how I perceived Our Ineffables. That's become a bit of a minefield now too. Emotions are running high, and it doesn't feel particularly safe for aro/ace folks to mention ways we felt represented -- moments we still felt were meaningful -- or to grieve that our possibility of representation also disappeared in a cloud of sparkles.

And that's a sad thing. I'm pretty sure that ace/arospec folks loving the ace/arospec relatability we see in Aziraphale and Crowley isn't actually harming anyone, not in the big picture. And that neurodivergent folks believing we see autistic traits in S1/S2 Aziraphale and ADHD traits in Crowley is not somehow adding to the GO3 destruction...

No one here, no one who genuinely loves these characters, is here to support erasing anyone. We all just wanted a little bit of space to see these beautiful characters as relatable in our own ways, like we used to before May 13.

We deserve that space. Some of us need it. I need it.

And my little acespec autistic heart doesn't like feeling cautious and afraid, not in the space I loved and felt safe in just a few weeks ago.

So... I need a path.

Maybe this path will feel calmer for you, too. Or maybe it'll help you to find a similar path that's more authentic to how YOU see Our Ineffables, and what YOU might still love and want from Good Omens.

For me -- I'm going back to the roots of I Believe in Nightingales. If, like so many of us, I can't accept GO3, then I'll see if I can just keep enjoying what I've always loved.

I always loved Season 2. I saw it for what it could have (or should have?) been, not for the negative direction it was being taken in the F15. I naively thought the Final 15 was a desperate attempt at coded communication, not the actual breakup of 6000 years of trust and affection. (Wrote lots of theories and justifications for it!) And of course, we saw GO3 plunge far deeper into those negative and fatalistic waters. The F15 set off a chain reaction of brokenness, ultimately culminating in a Choice...

(Now, I'm not pitching the case that this was true. It's not the only p.o.v. - it's merely my own. I'm not inviting angry arguments. My intention is simply to restore a peaceful little Tumblr garden I hope to preserve. Or to invite you to make a similar haven of your own, with whatever You love about Good Omens.)

When we remove the heavy hand of "Fate" (ie fatalistic writers) and change the ooc meanings from the F15, Season 2 gracefully becomes a beautiful story of a subtle and loving long term relationship, an "Old Married Couple". Simply believing that the Metatron couldn't so easily break their trust in each other opens a world of subtle love and infinite trust for Our Ineffables' relationship.

It also opens the way for so many other beautiful possibilities -- maybe they are acespec, maybe they are both neurodivergent, maybe Crowley is aromantic, maybe they are helping each other heal from the past...

So that's what I want to keep writing about.

And I'm tired. Truly. The grief and loss of what could have been GO3 is already hard enough. The anger and outrage is too draining for me to sustain. Maybe for you too. I just want to hug my Ineffables close -- the Ineffables I believed in, the ones that helped me find perspective and sort through all the layers -- and try to be happy again.

Hopefully, we all can start making space for people to believe what they believe and feel what they feel. I want us all to move towards restoring that. I want my blog, I Believe in Nightingales, to be a Safe Space for people who enjoy both S1 and S2, who like exploring Our Ineffables' traits and characteristics. If that's not what you like or believe, that's truly okay, but please scroll on.

A lot of folks are doing that now with the posts they see -- leaving argument and anger behind. If everyone does it, regardless of tags, we can move on as a community again. Accusatory or insulting comments are unkind, and none of us need to be doing that to each other. The world is difficult enough. For my part, I never had to deal with those sort of comments before May 13, and frankly, I'm too damned far into adulthood to be willing to start dealing with them now.

(Auntie Nightingale's lecture is nearly over now, dears. Here, have a nice cup of cocoa!)

But I'm still hopeful. We still are the same people. We just have an extremely stressful challenge to get through. We were a Kind and Accepting community before this. We still can be.

It's Our World, and we all share it.

To Our World... 🥂✨

[eklmrlos]

thinking about their peaceful morning in the cottage

[cobragardens]

I've read a lot of fic about Aziraphale learning to sleep, or Crowley convincing him to try sleeping when Aziraphale has never seen the point, but for me this piece plays off a very poignant idea that--now that I'm seeing it--seems very obvious, especially for Show Omens, but that I've never once seen explored: maybe Aziraphale doesn't sleep because it's not safe.

We know Hell "never check[s] up" on Crowley and is severely understaffed, which explains how Crowley has been able to develop a sleeping habit: he's not any less safe from Hell asleep than he is awake. And we know demons can't enter the bookshop without invitation.

In fic and meta this is presumed to be due to "wards" Aziraphale has placed over the property, i.e., continuously acting miracles; but we see in canon that miracles require an occult or ethereal will to occur: as far as we can tell from what we're shown in the series, they're discrete events consciously willed into being by their directors. Aziraphale pulls power "down" from Heaven and Crowley pulls power "up" from Hell (and before the creation of the cosmos, the Starmaker pulls power from everywhere around themself) to make them happen.

There's no indication either way of whether a miracle like a ward is discrete or ongoing; if it's continuous, like an electrical field, that may require the continuous will and conduit of the miracle-doer. If that's the case, what happens to the ward if the miracle-doer falls asleep?

Even if that's not a concern, we do know for sure that before Aziraphale rebels against Heaven and establishes the bookshop as an "independent Heavenly embassy," Gabriel and Sandalphon can and do barge right in anytime they feel the need to put the frighteners on Heaven's misfit angel.

And then there's the symbolic meaning of the bookshop's oculus--not just the omniscience of God, but an eye always staring down from Heaven even into Azirphale's private space, the panopticon's someone could be watching at any given time.

And there's that Heaven-white Roman head, occupying the centre of so many of the S2 bookshop scenes--again, Heaven (specifically the Metatron, as he's the other floating head) spying on their own. (The head is also a reference to iconic British tv series The Prisoner, in which Cold War superpowers use busts and most notably a Roman bust as a/v surveillance tools against their own agents.)

Gabriel's already got a Thing against Aziraphale eating, which Aziraphale has to excuse as blending in and doing as humans do and defend by pointing out Gabriel's own love of human tailoring. What would the Supreme Archangel and his enforcer do if they found their Earthside employee sleeping on the clock?

Season 2 of Show Omens establishes that, although Crowley and Aziraphale now associate openly, they still understand themselves to be in danger from both their respective erstwhile employers--enough danger that Aziraphale moves to protect Crowley from demonic intrusion by assuming partial ownership of the Bentley and Crowley prefers to let the bookshop remain "technically" Aziraphale's even though Aziraphale gives him to understand that it belongs in fact and use (just not in contract) to both of them. The places a human would consider "home" or "safe" are neither for Aziraphale and Crowley, and they both know that. So even after Aziraphale stops working for Heaven, it may still not be safe for him to sleep.

All of this crystallized for me because of this piece. Because look at Crowley's face. You can see from @eklmrlos' previous pieces that they're very fucking good at putting exactly the facial expression on Crowley they want us to see, and that, along with the picture's caption specifying this is at the South Downs cottage, makes me wonder if maybe this is a depiction one of the first times Crowley has ever seen Aziraphale asleep.

Whether it is or not, it's unquestionably about the fact that Aziraphale is sleeping: he's what's presented to the viewer (and what Crowley's looking at), and the first two sketch panels show us that Crowley has touched him and even kissed him on the ear and Aziraphale hasn't woken up. So the significance of the picture lies in the fact that Aziraphale is asleep and doesn't wake up to mild interference.

I would argue that this is specifically about the vulnerability of sleep, too. The two sketch panels illustrate the need to sleep with someone trustworthy because you don't have control of what they do to you while you're sleeping--and if they do it softly enough you may not ever even know about it. @eklmrlos also chooses to depict Aziraphale with his belly exposed to the viewer, an expression of vulnerability that runs so deep humans share it with thousands of other species. You don't even have to be a mammal to understand what an exposed belly means.

And Aziraphale's belly in particular is shown here as softer than the appearance currently demanded by our diseased culture; it's also a part of himself that Good Omens fans are aware he covers with at least three layers of clothing, and these specific notes make the vulnerability of its exposure--and the significance of the moment being shown--hit even harder. (It tickles my nerdheart so much when artists achieve a layer of meaning with their art that only exists because it's fanwork.)

But it's Crowley's face that drives home that the safety of this moment is special. Because that's the expression you wear when you're in a museum looking at the painting you've always wanted to see in person but never thought you'd get to, or a zookeeper lets you feed a tortoise bigger than you are, or you look up at the sky at night: it's a face so intent on drinking in what it's seeing that it almost, but not quite, forgets to show its owner's happiness.

[eklmrlos]

wow, what a great analysis! i don’t fully know what i wanted to say with my drawing, so that’s why i love reading interpretations. thank you so much, it gives me a lot of inspiration 💔

[wistfulnightingale]

I needed to see something soft and gentle and beautiful about Our Ineffables... I'm so grateful for this 💖✨

[wistfulnightingale]

Everyone found their eyes turning toward Adam. He seemed to be thinking very carefully.

Then he said, "I don't see why it matters what is written. Not when it's about people. It can always be crossed out."

~~~ Adam Young, from the novel Good Omens: The Nice and Accurate Prophecies of Agnes Nutter, Witch

[fakemichaelsheen]

-the bookshop-

aziraphale: are we going to talk about what happened between us? before I left for heaven

crowley, avoiding looking at him: no

aziraphale, disappointed: no. quite right. a shame, though. I would've quite liked to try it again

crowley, scoffs: have you lost your mind? the answer is no, angel

aziraphale, raising his hands: of course, I quite understand *pauses* it is unfortunate we never shared our kiss under the proper circumstances *smiles, wiggling his shoulders* I have a feeling we'd be rather good at it

crowley, steps closer, pointing at him: no, no. you don't get to tempt me. I won't be tempted. I'm a demon, if there's any tempting to be done around here, I'll do it

aziraphale, nods: yes, yes, you're right *pauses; let's out a longing sigh* oh, I just know it would've been terribly romantic

crowley, arms folded, mutters mockingly: terribly

aziraphale, looks around the bookshop: well, everything seems tickety-boo

crowley, waves his hand to dim the lights and ignite candles, striding towards aziraphale: *mutters* fuck it *gently takes aziraphale's face in his hands and kisses him*

aziraphale, holding on for dear life: *kissing back*

crowley, let's go and staggers back: *panting*

aziraphale, thrilled: vavoom, indeed

crowley, rolls his eyes, trying not to smile: shut up

[wistfulnightingale]

(the vavoom that saved the universe!)

[wistfulnightingale]

My Treasure Trove of Theories (listed below)

by @wistfulnightingale

Well... That was a Thing.

I wrote a lot of S2/Final 15 Theories. And I mean A LOT. But many of us did, so I'm honored to be in such good company, genuinely.

I also write metas. And analyses, and philosophizing... Whatever feels meaningful to me at the time. And I'm still writing! I believe there's still a lot to contemplate, and Our Ineffables are always worth it.

Here's the link to my pinned post Master List.

I finally reached the maximum number of links on my pinned post at "I Believe in Nightingales." (Can I hear a Wa-hoo?🎉) So... My Treasure of Theories gets to relocate to a linked post, and you are the lucky finder of that link!

I'm proud of them, actually. They are part of our history here -- my own and everyone who shared them with me, as well as all the other theorists who were pouring our hearts into Our Beloved Ineffables.

We weren't foolish, and I still don't believe we were "wrong" - not as such. We speculated about S2 and the Final 15 because WE CHOSE HOPE. We chose Commitment, and believed in the power of a 6000 year old Friendship filled with Love. We found Capital-C Clues because S2 was sprinkled with leads, both subtle and in-our-faces, that didn't get to see daylight. (There were even BOLD PLOT POINTS that didn't get their follow-through in GO3!) S2 abounded in mysterious possibilities. Some were misdirections, some were red herrings, but all were woven there on pupose by someone.

We'll never know what would-have, could-have, should-have been... The "if-only's." But we can hold our heads high, because within our speculations, we designed something beautiful and complex indeed!

Whether you enjoyed reading GO theories or wrote and posted your own, or if you've just now discovered that sub-genre of our fandom, I hope you enjoy these! And if they inspire anything for you, please tip me a nod and a tag or a mention in it -- it would mean a lot to me!

Thanks for being here!

To OUR World! 🥂✨

*****

The Treasure Trove of Theories!!

Moments That Mattered (The Case for The Final 15)

Power Strategies & Masking (Please Don't Underestimate Our Beloved Demon). Crowley masks too, & understands power dynamics. He saw the threat.

#JusticeForCrowley (More than 18 moments that prove there's More Than Meets the Eye in the F15). A collection of Proofs, including screenshot evidence.

Aziraphale is Not a Fool (And Never Was) -- Misdirection in the Final 15. Screenshot proof that Aziraphale Did recognize the Metatron

The Challenge and the Response (Crowley and the Metatron duel for control) Our Ineffables begin strategic teamwork as he arrived

Through the Window Part I (If we can see into shop windows, so can the Metatron in F15) -- Visual proofs & patterns throughout GO2

Through the Window Part II -- (Did A&C Know he was watching?) Screenshot proofs that Aziraphale knew the Metatron was watching, and Crowley saw him too! Based solely on scene analysis

Crowley on Patrol (They Weren't Entirely Caught Off-guard) -- S2 Crowley was literally patroling the neighborhood looking for trouble.

The Moment of Recognition (Aziraphale's Angel Alarm & The Metatron) -- A theory with evidence that Azi senses heavenly arrivals.

Danger From On High (Why suspect the Metatron was coming?) -- A meta-analysis that A&C would expect big trouble to follow Jimbriel.

The Looming Threat (Misdirection and a Little Abra-Cadabra -- That Moment with Crowley & Nina) -- There's too much proof that they're already a couple, so what was this actually about? A theory.

"They're Not Talking..." (But are they communicating?) -- Did we get sold on word play that stuck with us from the *ahem* original writer?

Fearful Memories (Aziraphale KNOWS) -- Our Angel gets so underestimated, but he really does know that heaven is awful!

An Unexpected Encounter (2 Angels & a Demon in the Park) -- A Gabe theory, with S1 evidence, that impacts how A&C handle S2.

The Secret Smile Moment (I finally found it as a gif to share!!) -- Okay, let's be Real. WHY would Azi smile at Crowley like that NOW?

The Nightingale DID Sing for Aziraphale -- Part 2 (more information!) Plus a F15 with lowered music and clearer birdsong.

Why we didn't see a breakup coming (Final15🔥Quick Hot Take) -- Part meta, part rant, part structural analysis.

*****

Hot Takes🔥 (because things need to be SAID)

Alpha Centauri's... Nice (He gave it away)

"Horsehead Nebula" is code for Chess Knight (and C&A are the knights)

Aziraphale's Memory (It was tampered with from Before the Beginning)

3 Signals that they Knew the Metatron had arrived

Something HUGE about the Kiss (How Crowley saved Azi's Memories)

Significant Side-Theories! (Well, I right about Muriel & Azi, at least... 😅)

A Storytelling Tag-Team (Are two Ineffably Otherworldly Teens changing reality?). GO3 Jesus & Adam both create stories. Are they trying to change the "Great Plan" and save humanity?

Important F15 Discovery? (Was "Nothing Lasts Forever" code language after all?). TWO classic movies with startling similarities! (Includes discussion of 1946 P&P's Stairway to Heaven, & poster)

The Small Back Room (Could a GO3 1941 Kiss be more than just fanon?) Maggie's shop name, and a P&P movie poster with a wartime Kiss.

"…An Offer He Couldn't Refuse" ?? (Muriel's Hidden message for Us) About the GO3 Trailer Announcement, it's not quite what it seems!

Heaven's Thuggery (Hmm… Which one inspired Crowley's Absolutely Feral Fury?) -- GO3 Teaser pics & heaven as a Crime Syndicate

"Something Smells Evil" (Is Sandalphon a Murder Hornet?) -- A theory. You can't trust heaven, & how Sandalphon influenced Gabe.

Resident Priviledges ("Don't open the door to anyone!") -- This one's pure theory. I'm sure there are clues that the Metatron was here twice, but can't quite put my finger on when...!

Monsieur Rossignol is more than just a nightingale! -- He was a Code Master! This is a tag-team reblog, info found by @azfell-ajcrowley. Honestly, I'm listing it here because their info was too valuable to lose

(What theories did You think were possible? 🍷No shame.🍷 Season 2 definitely scattered some seeds. Then the 90-minute lawnmower came by...! 🫠)

*****

And, here's where it all began for me:

The 8 Chess Moves MetaTheory Set (Directly About the Final15 - I believe it was a desperate, deadly chess game)

1 - The Metatron Misdirection *

2 - The Metatron's Second Coming

3 - Ineffables in Check

4 - A Hefty Jigger of Death

5 - Nothing Lasts Forever

6 - The Circle Kiss Theory

7 - The Nightingale DID Sing -- it CAN be heard as Crowley leaves!

8 - Aziraphale's Jubilant Smile (Not the crazy elevator grin)

Also: The Chess Moves Theory Set, Why Chess & Magic?

*And: The Metatron Misdirection New Note, Is it a Shell Game of White-Haired Men? *

I used an * because I made a mistake at the time about when/where the Metatron showed up, and reference it in the theories (oops!).

*****

It's really a pity that the Metatron set-up got dropped for the 96 minutes. They had set up such a Terrific Villain to play with, and an incredibly under-utilized iconic actor!

Stick around if you'd like. It's a really big sandbox to play in!

Now & Always,

To Our World!🥂✨

[wistfulnightingale]

The Book of Love... 🎶💞 (To Our World...)

The Book of Love is long and boring

No one can lift the damn thing.

It's full of charts, and facts and figures

And instructions for dancing!

But I --- I love it when you read to me And you --- you can read me anything

The Book of Love has music in it

In fact that's where Music comes from

Some of it's just transcendental

Some of it's just really dumb

But I --- I love it when you sing to me And you --- you can sing me anything

The Book of Love is long and boring

And written very long ago

It's full of flowers and heart-shaped boxes

And things we're all too young to know

But I --- I love it when you give me things And you --- you ought to give me wedding rings

And I --- I love it when you give me things And you --- you ought to give me wedding rings.

You ought to give me... wedding rings

-- Lyrics and music by Peter Gabriel

[wistfulnightingale]

This beautiful song was part of the Official Good Omens Angelic Playlist. It's incredibly lovely. The Book of Love is Life-Affirming.

*****

I first created this post as a Tribute, a very real expression of grief and loss when Good Omens was cancelled in 2024.

I reblogged it that October, a hopeful celebration of the "Rescued 90".

I'm sending it out into the world again... Why now? I don't quite know how to explain it. Because we need love? Because I'm not ready to let go, and I hope you aren't either? Because that precious-something is still part of our lives, waiting for us? Because we're all still here?

Yes.

All of this, and more.

I love Our World. Let's get through this together. We'll rebuild it.

To Our World🥂✨

(https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KpjBbYJmWJM) -- I like this one when I'm sad. The lyrics are added in English and Spanish, with just a simple peaceful fanart image of Azi reading to Crowley, who's leaning against his shoulder. No edits to make me cry.

[just-sauntered-vaguely-downwards]

Therapist: how has the last week been

Me: so, um…have you heard of the show Good Omens?

Therapist: no I don’t think I know it

Me rolling up my metaphorical sleeves, clearing my throat: well then, let me tell you about an angel and demon…

[wistfulnightingale]

Next session:

Therapist: By the way, I like the Frog & Toad tee-shirt you're wearing.

Me: Um... (sniffles softly) yeah, thanks.

Therapist: It's such a cozy story, isn't it? Two best friends making their way together in the big world...

Me: *starts sobbing in Good Omens flashbacks*

[wistfulnightingale]

Crowley's Nightmare (A "fix-it" meta-theory in story form)

*For all the theorists and Ineffable Believers of S2

(With much gratitude to @vidavalor's fascinating meta that S2 & GO3 are Aziraphale's dream. But you all know how much I loved Our Ineffables in S2 and had my own ideas about that Final 15, so I needed to forge my own path. I started out writing my usual meta-analyses, but the complex shift into explaining Crowley's perspective and motivations seemed easier to relate as a short story. Like many of you, I find it impossible to believe Crowley and Aziraphale felt and acted in-character in GO3. This meta-theory keeps S2 as canon, reframes the GO3 finale, and gives me -- and hopefully you, too -- some much-needed peace of mind...)

*****

It was a moonless night. The narrow cobblestone street was dark and quiet.

No one noticed the grand old car parked there -- no one was awake to notice. If anyone were, their sleep-blurred eyes would miraculously pass right over the gorgeous Bentley as if it didn't exist, or maybe as if it had always belonged there. Rather like how you stop noticing a postbox or a street light as you walk past it day after day. But even a street light gets noticed now and again, if it buzzes and flickers or fails to turn on.

But no one ever notices this majestic old car parked there late at night, and sometimes on random afternoons.

If they did (which they couldn't!), they might notice the long lanky form in the front seat, folded and twisted and stretched to wedge into any availble space. Distant starlight reflected faintly off the dark glasses still securely hiding his closed eyes.

Crowley was lightly snoring. It was the soft, irregular rumble that happens when a body is absolutely exhausted but still has too much tension stuck in it. The kind that happens when someone is stressed to the top of their capacity, even as they sleep.

A muscle suddenly twitched in his cheek, and his jaw started jutting forward as he unconsciously clenched and unclenched his teeth as he dozed.

The plants in the back seat trembled in sympathy as he let out another low moan. Their dark master had been so kind to them since they'd moved into the car many cycles ago, despite the cramped arrangements. They rustled their leaves, hoping to comfort and relieve whatever was troubling him.

Crowley had slept in side streets a lot in the past few years. He'd always had the security of knowing, though, that the bookshop was there waiting for him -- that Aziraphale was there waiting for him. Always. The warm twinkle in those sparkling blue eyes, the passing touch on his arm that meant so much to them both. Late nights, good wine, and excellent conversation filled with delicious little quarrels and verbal sparring and so many old stories told and retold as the telling wove their bond ever closer.

This was the first night the bookshop was without its proper guardian. No Angel to pop in on, to sweetly wile away the hours with. Gone.

Crowley groaned again as he threw his head from side to side. He was dreaming...

*****

You will never have existed, Aziraphale... Complete piffle...! What about you, demon, do you know me...? It's just you and me Aziraphale... An extremely alcoholic breakfast...! Come to heaven, with me... And you told him just where he could stick it...? Oh, Crowley, nothing lasts forever...

Scenes from that morning unfurled in his mind like an ancient scroll unrolling across the hills.

On some level, Crowley knew he was dreaming. The fury and frustration he'd felt at the Metatron was still bitter on his tongue. He'd wanted to crash through the bookshop window and grab the smug bastard by his scraggly old throat, standing out there spying, watching them struggle and panic.

Crowley had wanted to tell Aziraphale straight out that he understood, that he knew what was happening, saw his anxious signals. That he wasn't giving up on him. He'd desperately wanted to take his Angel's hand so he knew he wasn't alone.

All their watchful planning hadn't been enough. The Metatron had outmaneuvered them anyway. Checkmate.

Part of Crowley's subconsciousness tried to guide the dream into a re-do. A forced fix -- even if it wasn't real. But the scenes played out the same. Coded messages missing the mark, Aziraphale's near-panic as Crowley strode to the door. His Angel's hands on his back, holding him for just a moment right under the bloody Meta-bastards nose.

Only one thing changed in the dream. This time, he cried out as he watched the elevator doors close. This time, tears streamed down his face as he slowly drove away.

*****

As the dream played out, Crowley's feet were shifting and scuffing in the tight space under the dash. His breathing became irregular, pulling in deep, stammering breaths. His lips pursed and popped as his dream-self argued and protested and panicked when the older memories flooded in.

*****

It's always too late... Aziraphale, where the heaven are you, you idiot...? Just to be able to ask the question... Extreme Sanctionzz... I remember when the morning stars sang together, and all the angels of God shouted for joy.... We're on our own side... I only ever asked questions... frighten the cherubs... a suggestion box... Aziraphale, for God's- For Satan's- Ah! For somebody's sake, where are you...?! All of us against all of them... Tell me you said No...! It's always too late... To the World!

Like the shattering of window panes exploding inward, with the force of a pressure blast throwing him across the bookshop, Crowley spiraled into a deep interior darkness... and became trapped in dream he couldn't recognize as such.

A nightmare of everything he'd ever feared -- all his self-doubt, all his loss, all his loneliness, every cynical or unworthy thought he'd ever had -- concentrated into one seemingly endless dream he didn't know he could wake up from. His mind began to stop questioning, and accepted it as reality...

*****

Aziraphale looked very... peculiar? Long hair, bare knees. So confident. When did he grow his hair long like that? And braids? (I liked the fluffy curls! So soft...) Sad angel. Then sympathy dissolved as a sudden dream-rage grew inside him. Killer angel! The next thing he knew, he had Aziraphale by the throat, then his sword, then a searing pain like fire piercing his leg. ('S almost like we never even met before. We did, didn't we? Did we?) But the handsome General was unexpectedly kind. Best not to tell anyone.

Suddenly, Crowley was alone in a dingey SoHo alley. Well, there was this rat, so maybe not entirely alone. And a plant. (Since when do I baby-talk plants? Must do now. Sweet thing.) And a stong smell of booze. (No miracles? Oh, right. They're shut off.) AND no Bentley. (Idiot. Stupid STUPID IDIOT! Getting cornered by that sodding con man and losing her!)

At least he'd kept the bookshop safe. A remnant of what was. (Souvineer, I s'pose.). Nowhere to hide, though. No safety. (Stupid Dagon, nutters as usual!)

He saw how Aziraphale was managing in heaven without him. Just enough of a bastard to keep those archangels in line. (Suit looks awful on him though. Not his color at all. And who picked out that ridiculous tight collar?) Crowley's sleep-mind forgot to question how he could spy on all this, like watching a movie play out at the cinema.

Crowley especially enjoyed his front-row seat when the Metatron dissolved into glittering confetti. (Bloody git deserved it!) A shiver ran through his sleeping form, though, and cold sweat formed on his brow.

His Angel came back. What had heaven done to him? Where was the twinkle? (He's exhausted. They broke him...!) Part of Crowley wanted to reach out, to comfort his Angel. But he was trapped in a mire of resentment, like tar, like churning heat, like a pool of boiling sulfur. (He left me. Left US! Look how he's looking at me... He deserves what he gets.)

Constant tension, constant rejection. (How did we come to this??) How? Angels reject demons, of course. Former demons included. (Unforgivable, that's me.). No apologies, no compassion, only this cold exhausted wariness.

All the desperate, coded phrases Aziaphale had said that same morning, the real, true morning, took on new meaning in Crowley's dream-state. He'd been abandoned. Scorned. Not good enough. (Why try? I'll Never be good enough!) He coiled himself like the snake that he was and bared his fangs whenever the angel deserved it.

Heart broken. World broken. What's the point of it all?

Aziraphale got his Bentley back for him, at least. (Clever trick. Have a gold star.) Damned if it wasn't All just a trick. A roundabout way to use Crowley now that Mr. Fancy Pants Supreme Archangel NEEDS him. Find Jesus. Save the world. (Fix things Crowley. I wouldn't need you otherwise Crowley. Go back to hell, Crowley, you're just a no-good serpent-eyed demon!)

*****

Crowley was so deep in the dream, his mind simply accepted the surreal SoHo streets, the blocked road, the graffiti, the scarcity of people, all the things that signaled the disconnection from reality. Somehow it made sense that Jeshua actually believed that his "mission" began with a Three Card Monte... Even the ridiculous bright yellow ice cream truck Bentleymobile didn't stir Crowley's rational mind to question.

His hands twitched as, in his dream, he chucked the vanillas-with-a-flake over his head.

Thankfully, his foot wasn't near the real Bentley's pedals when he rammed his foot hard into the floorboard -- in his dream, he let out a roar as he accelerated the dream-Bentley into the sky.

*****

Everything was unraveling. Of course, that Jesus-kid couldn't fix it. Couldn't fix it first time around as an adult, how would he fix it now? (The fix is already in. Too late. Can't change anything.)

Angels frying left and right. Fun watching Sandalphon turn into shadow art, but Crowley's gut clenched as he watched Muriel wander into danger, then wander out. Events started racing, all spiraling towards inevitable doom. Book of Life, Eternal Flame, crazy archangel. Bad combo. (Almost feel sorry for Michael. None of us ever had a chance, none of us are more than pieces on a chessboard.)

It's all going away. Life ending, World ending, Everything Ending... (It's always too late. I tried. I tried so damned hard, time after time...). He struggled to stay calm, to keep trying, but he felt so so sad, so heavy...

The last page! The bookshop! (Now, Angel! Now!) No time to even feel the comfort of Aziraphale's hand in his again. (Silly Angel, turning the sign to "Closed." ) But there was a familiar comfort in it. Just enough to uncoil a little. Just enough to forgive.

Just enough to remember all the Love.

*****

Like dreams do, the dream-reality shifted in crazy waves of emotion. What could have been a prolonged and tender reunion was quickly set aside. The planning and strategizing they usually tried was forgotten in a hurried rush.

Crowley's body, back in the Bentley, was showing his deep distress. His chin jerked upwards violently and his breathing became ragged as his mind manifested his fearful former Dark Enslaver, Satan himself, into their precious haven.

*****

Crowley knew all the rules to the Book of Life. All the rules of existence, in fact. (Did I always know all this? Doesn't matter. They all add up to squat anyway.). He felt so tightly compressed, heavy with tension. Part of him simply wanted to hold his Angel and hide there for a very, very long while. (Damn Satan back into his pustulent Pit!! Oh... His now non-existant Pit...) But there was no privacy for them, no time for them now. (Never enough time... Always too late.)

A hollow triumph flooded him knowing they could summon God. He hadn't really expected much of Her, but her utter coldness shocked him, threw him back into the intense despair and resentment he'd felt during The Flood. All those terrified kids, all those screaming people, and the water rising, rising... The same helpless rage washed through him all over again.

He coiled protectively near his Angel, a defanged viper.

Never an answer, never a hope. Crowley dared God to smite him down on the spot -- but she still wanted to play with her toys a few moments longer. Then she gave them The Choice, one that wasn't really a choice at all. And ironically, she gave them privacy.

His time-weary heart crumpled like ancient parchment when he saw the Apple Tree. (Adam was wrong. Both of 'em. Apples aren't worth the trouble. Never works out in the end. She always gets her way, she's always-- )

And he knew what they had to do...

*****

Under the distant starlight in the quiet cobblestone street, the former demon cried out in his sleep. No one heard.

It was enough, however, to shift something in his consciousness. He was in the dream, but he was also watching the dream. Dream-Crowley chose disaster, chose to extinguish himself like the tragic hero of some damned dystopian movie, while the faithful, loving comrade devotedly chose to end himself with him.

Still trapped in the nightmare, Real Crowley thought he was standing up, running towards them to stop this fatalistic Hobson's Choice. He slammed into an invisible wall. Insubstantial, but solid as the thick glass of a dolphin's viewing tank. He pressed his palms against the barrier, slammed his body into it over and over... And wept like an abandoned child as he watched Aziraphale touch his lips, smile with a boundless infinity of Love, and dissolve into Nothingness.

*****

The dream shifted again. Crowley, still trapped outside that invisible barrier, watched helplessly -- like a child peering into a *snowglobe. He wished he could turn away. He desperately wished he could break through. (Who are those people? Not us? Please tell me that's not us!) Crowley battered his fists against the invisible wall and shouted with all the strength he had left --

I'm right here, Angel! Aziraphale, please! Come back to me! Come back to Yourself!

It was Aziraphale, it wasn't Aziraphale. And that puff-haired softie certainly wasn't Crowley. They were idyllic echoes, and those echoes courted, and loved, and had storybook lives with all the time in the...

Oh.

Well. They began to run out of time. They were human, after all.

In his dream, Real Crowley slid helplessly down the wall and collapsed into a sobbing heap...

*****

"Owww! Dammit All!" Crowley bellowed as he shot upright in the cramped Bentley and slammed his head on her hard interior roof.

He was disoriented at first. The stars had faded, and the first thin rays of sunrise were pushing through the early morning haze and shimmering off the dew that drenched the Bentley's windshield.

Crowley rubbed his hand across his face, and was shocked when he felt wetness there too. He ran his fingers under his glasses, and realized he'd been crying. Fleeting dream images flickered in his mind. Nightmare images. He mentally chased after them...

Satan? Back to hanging out with God? And the Book of Life. And Aziraphale. And being trapped outside a snowglobe? And white sparkles like glittering confetti dissolving into a vast nothingness --

Shit. Shit shit shit!!

All the details flooded back into his mind, in all their cruel, dismal horror. Crowley swallowed hard as his heart rapidly fluttered in his chest like a trapped nightingale. He grabbed the steering wheel and pressed his forehead against it, hard. The cool pressure was reassuring, grounding him in his proper reality.

It hadn't happened. It wouldn't happen, screw the bloody Ineffable Plan!

God doesn't answer questions? Fine. Crowley wasn't the same beaten-down demon he used to be. He and Aziraphale had stood side by side against Satan's fury, had helped young Adam overcome his fatalistic destiny. And if the Antichrist himself could do it, so can we!

The Metatron's "victory" was only temporary. Sure, he'd outmaneuvered them, but he'd also dramatically underestimated them.

Like he underestimates all of us. Angels, demons, all waiting in limbo, wanting to be seen. Waiting for someone to take their hand, to appreciate them, to help them feel that they actually matter to someone...

Crowley had learned a lot that morning about what love and appreciation could accomplish. Gabriel and Beelzebub, of all blasted Beings! Actually, it just reminded him of the importance of what he already knew.

He had held hands with an Angel. Lots of times, in fact, since that gentle bus ride home. He'd almost forgotten just how special it still was each and every time. Like some Old Married Couple, and I'm the grumpy old man! He grinned to himself. The thought made him giddily happy, in spite of everything else.

Don't worry, Angel. I won't give up on us, not now, not ever. And I damned well won't let go of the World we both love too much to walk away from.

Before he even reached for the key, the Bentley turned on the ignition and revved the motor, gently encouraging. Crowley rubbed the last traces of salty tears off his face. In his mind's eye, he saw the loving looks his Angel had given him yesterday, before everything had spiraled.

He pushed back his dark glasses and gripped the steering wheel. Something like determined optimism entwined with imagination sparked in his golden eyes. 

"C'mon, old girl. Aziraphale's gonna need some help. We've got places to go and people to see!"

As they pulled away from the kerb, the old Cyndi Lauper cd turned into Best of Queen (some cd's still do -- especially if they just don't measure up!).

The plants in the back seat swished happily, and Crowley tapped his thumbs on the steering wheel to the music that began to thrum:

You're My Best Friend!

************************************************************************

I appreciate you for reading this! I know it's strange to post a meta-theory in the form of a fanfic, but this isn't meant to be a fix-it story -- it's actually linked very strongly to my theory about the snow globe.

(Of course, since it's in story form, I've also posted it to my AO3 page: Crowley's Nightmare by WistfulNightingale.)

I really think there's something to the snowglobe. Here and now isn't quite the place for that discussion, so I've linked it to my theory, discussed here: Of Snowglobes & Dual-Realities, 2 Canon Endings?

I'm back, folks! Somewhat calm, and most definitely speculating and theorizing once more! Philosophizing soon too, most likely...!

To OUR World! 🥂✨

[wistfulnightingale]

Of Snowglobes & Dual-Realities (Did we get TWO canon endings* to choose from?)

*The "Elsewhere" that could heal a divided fandom

Once again, the Good Omens fandom was given a divisive season ending, this one final. But this time, I think we've been shown an actual canon option out of this chaos, slipped in quietly for us. NOT by the authors in the script. It's in the snow globe and the end credit scenes.

I've been wondering about the final moments of this garden scene. It doesn't actually look very "real life" to me... (Yep. I'm back to analyzing again!)

Asa and Anthony were meant to be in "the real world" -- this actual world. But when the camara pulls back from their stargazing, we see an absurd and crowded display of (symbolic?) objects, including a snowglobe (right foreground). It's not a realistic garden scene. I love what the collection seems to represent, but it looks like a shadow box, or a book nook scene, or a room in a dollhouse, crafted with miniatures.

The objects are a little out of proportion with each other, just enough to look strange. (I brightened both light and color for visibility.) They make Asa and Anthony's matching chairs look unnaturally tiny. The effect is surreal. Why make it surreal, when it was emphasized that THIS is the "real world"? Because someone is telling us - maybe it's NOT.

The snow globe represents an "Elsewhere", originating from the 1988 finale for the television show St. Elsewhere. All 6 seasons turned out to be a child's imagination, looking at a snow globe. (Sir Terry Pratchett used the term as a location in Discworld, but I leave that analysis to the experts!) I've seen speculations about the GO snow globe, some good, some worried, some creating a fix-it alternative ending with Aziraphale and Crowley inside the snow globe bookshop completing their own Book of Life.

But I have another idea... And it was given in the ending itself.

What if the snow globe was placed there to indicate that THIS particular world version -- the oh-so-different SoHo and world erasure, etc., of GO3 -- might actually be the "Elsewhere"? That this entire GO3 World and new universe is in its own snow globe. Meanwhile, the universe we see in the end credits, events and places and realities from S1 & S2, is still out there alive and well and REAL.

Remember, everything erased from the Book of Life is gone forever, as if it NEVER EXISTED AT ALL. So then, why does Gabriel's statue still exist in the Edinburgh churchyard, with crosses as religious symbols when there was never a Crucified Jesus-as-Savior? Plus, that "planet" in the upper right is the S2 credits scene with elevators going up and down from Heaven to Earth! (Hell and it's spiders exist, too, on the 1st "planet"!)

We race through the universe that's beyond Asa & Anthony's garden, with more impossible moments recalling the adventures of our own Aziraphale and Crowley, until finally It ends, as it began, in a Garden.

The Garden of Eden, in fact. The one from a universe that supposedly NEVER EXISTED, yet somehow still exists, with OUR Ineffables dining and toasting To the World!

Two endings. One in Asa & Anthony's garden, one with Our Ineffables at their Ritz table in Eden. Which means we actually have a choose-your-own-ending situation here...

Maybe this was part of the plan, a direct intention of the total storytelling. (Can you hear the doubt in my voice?) Or maybe someone added it there to give us another option. A choice, rather than a conflict. We don't need to be a split fandom, as if we're on opposite sides.

I believe we can heal. We're on the same side...

I think the dual-realities we're being shown can both be valid. If you loved the ending told in the story itself, with Asa and Anthony, please bear with me a moment as I (gently and calmly) explain why I think the second ending also exists.

The GO3 scriptwriting team, NG & company, went for a dark ending of a universe erased, with Crowley and Aziraphale themselves gone. But many experts on Sir Terry insist that it's not the ending he would have written. After all, in the Good Omens novel, Sir Terry made certain that no one stayed dead. The air base soldier, the delivery man, all are shown to return, alive and well. And everyone else (even Warlock and the forgotten 3rd baby, Greasy Johnson) gets some sort of happy ending that gives them more control of their life.

We learned a few things in this post (shared by @depraveddame, with a reblogged essay about Sir Terry's philosophies by @turquoisedata). Sir Terry Pratchett is listed in the GO3 credits as co-creating the original characters, but not for contributing to the GO3 story itself -- even though we were repeatedly told it was his idea. Someone posted that was odd, and Rob Wilkins gave that post a like. (If you check out that post, TW for language and anti-go3)

I think we were given Two Endings. A choice. (I don't credit the screenwriters with this!). I think the fix-it got squeezed in there for us, straight from Good Omens HQ, courtesy of Rob Wilkins and Peter Anderson Studios.

We get to choose our own destiny, without guilt or angst.

The script tells us that the Good Omens Universe was erased, and the world of Asa & Anthony remains. The snow globe and end credits imagery tell us that Our World -- the world of Aziraphale & Crowley, of hope and choice and magic and love-overcoming-trauma and of not-giving-up and of an Ineffable Bond -- still exists.

Maybe you'll think I'm trying too hard to resolve this. Maybe you've already decided. But i hope you'll consider the possibility.

Does the story end with love and happiness for Asa and Anthony? Are the end credits racing through space and time to show us forms of Asa and Anthony reborn throughout the multiverse, always finding each other again and again? Or is it showing us that Crowley and Aziraphale and everything they loved and endured was not dissolved into non-existance, that GO3 was an Elsewhere and that Our Ineffables and their peopled world, Our World, is still there, with its history and miracles and meaning and hope?

Two choices. One fandom. Everyone united in love for Our Ineffables.

To Our World! 🥂✨

*****

I wrote another alternative -- both ideas formed at the same time. This one helps justify the other. It's written in story form instead of my usual analysis format. It's called Crowley's Nightmare, on my AO3 and also here as a Tumblr post.

[wistfulnightingale]

“Some humans would do anything to see if it was possible to do it. If you put a large switch in some cave somewhere, with a sign on it saying 'End-of-the-World Switch. PLEASE DO NOT TOUCH', the paint wouldn't even have time to dry.”

― Terry Pratchett, Thief of Time

[theonevoice]

The End / The Beginning

[wistfulnightingale]

Look at you -- You're GORGEOUS! ✨

[wistfulnightingale]

Crowley and the Kids (or, Victims and Offerings are NOT. ON.)

TW/CW. We're talking about it seriously here, folks.

There's a lot about kids in this episode. Kids (children) and kids (young goats). It's wordplay. A cute running gag. Immediately followed by something about a rain-bow. More wordsmithery, with a dash of tomfoolery.

And a runaway unicorn. It's fine as long as you still have One, right?

Still... Aziraphale has devastated tears in his eyes. And Crowley isn't about to give God a pass for this one.

The bit about the kids slips past us quickly, liberally doused with sugar to make the medicine slide right down. It's all fun and games until somebody gets hurt.

But someone did. Lots and lots of someones. As Aziraphale and Crowley both remember all too well. Aziraphale is grief-stricken. While Crowley...?

Crowley is absolutely ENRAGED.

It wasn't just a clever word play to amuse us. Crowley is in pain here. This is the most "demonic" we ever see him look, hair wild, eyes feral and ferocious. But his motivation is far from demonic. There's no wish to commit harm or gleefully watch suffering. It's a fierce outrage and a desire to protect. To stop an injustice.

A Divine Rage -- that the needless sacrifice of innocent lives keeps being perpetuated, now holy-ly sanctioned.

We don't know how Crowley (Crawley back then) had managed to compartmentalize the brutality of the first war and the horrors of his Fall (and witnessing the similar destruction of friends/fellow angels) when we first meet him in The Garden. The dark-winged fallen angel we met on the wall had an undeniable cynicism, but there was humor there, and caring, and a desire to reach out for connection. He had retained something sweet and bright, despite the loss of his innocence and childlike joy.

Just 9 human generations after Adam and Eve, standing there watching Shem load the arc, that brightness was hidden. Crowley looked haggard and haunted. Was it because of more hellish torture? Or was it from witnessing how the dewy-new glorious favorite creation called humanity so quickly fell into pain and ruin? And God, again, just watched...

Then we revisit the issue of kids and sacrifice all over again in Season 2, in the Job episode. Kids and kids. All to be sacrificed.

For a bet.

And this time, Crowley is NOT HAVING IT. He saves them all. **************(Just this once 🌹, everybody lives!)***************

But at the time of Noah, it wasn't an option on the table for him (not that we know of, although our fanfics work hard to make it right). From the Beginnings, Crowley witnessed one divinely-sanctioned sacrifice after another. It broke him down, until he was willing to fight it in whatever small way he could...

(We're talking about Cain & Abel under the click here. And The Flood. Nothing vivid, but know that we're going there in an honest way.)

Because, you see, it wasn't just that people murdered people. It wasn't just that the first innocent human infants Crowley ever witnessed (and probably cared about, since he loves gorillas and dolphins and those oh-so-clever earthly creatures) those infants grew up only for one brother to be outcast by God for the destruction of his younger brother. It was far more than even THAT...

Before it all went so very wrong, God was given a sacrifice. Two, actually. One from each brother. And God made a judgment.

That younger brother, Abel? He was a shepherd of flocks. He guarded them from harm, made sure they had ample grazing, maybe helped with birthings, when needed. All Creatures Great and Small, after all.

His big brother, Cain, farmed the land. They each made a sacrifice to God -- they brought offerings from their labors. Cain offered "the fruit of the ground". He gave God a portion of the grain and produce he'd grown. Not like simply handing over an apple he'd picked from a tree. He would have collected seeds, tilled the earth, planted and weeded and watered them, protected the fragile seedlings from the scorching sun, learning how to care for the plants until they finally bore nutritious food for himself and his family. I'd imagine that any surplus, or unedible stalks, might have gone to feed Abel's flocks.

In the Bible story, which is the world of Good Omens, he and Abel both burned their offerings before the Lord.

Guess what Abel offered in sacrifice? The firstborn of his flocks. Yep. Young flocklings. Modern translations tend to simplify it as "lambs", but "flocks" at the time also meant goats. He probably kept flocks of both. He sacrificed and offered the firstborn of his flocks of sheep and goats. "Kids."

Because he and his brother had reason to believe God wanted it so. For each to offer the best of their labors.

From the very Beginning, God was sanctioning the killing of "kids" (goats). God accepted Abel's offering of the young animals he'd killed and burned for God. God rejected Cain's offering of his grains and fruits.

Cain felt hurt. Angry. Jealous. Killed his brother over it.

Got condemned and cast away by God. Who never explains (in the Bible story) why the one offering was so much better than the other. Why God in all their holiness were basically calling one hardworking brother wonderful and the other hardworking brother a ne'er do well, a reject. No responsibility taken there, no apology. Just sits by while the situation spirals out of control, waiting for Cain to sort his complicated feelings out all by himself, when he is literally the first human being to ever be blatantly rejected by God. NOT that the jealous path of violence he chose was IN ANY WAY OKAY.... But maybe, just maybe, a little more loving action from God could have changed the course of the life-altering event?

Yeah. Crowley had a lot of reason for righteous outrage.

[gif from @skelligiri , two of Adam & Eve's children, from the Leaving the Garden series, Part 5 (full color animation, this gif shows wip). Go watch the whole series -- it's Gorgeous!!]

Then God decides the decendants of Adam and Eve are too violent. They deserve to be destroyed, God declares. "Kids" too. But only by flood this one time. A promise is a promise, after all.

Honestly, that story never made sense to me as a child. Too much injustice, when I was being taught that God was Just. Too many unloving actions, when I was being taught that God was Love. One of many Bible stories... Like all the innocent kids in Noah's time, washed away with the "sinners". And I was taught to draw pretty rainbows over a big brown arc to celebrate God's Promise... ?!?!?

Crowley is the voice of our own questions. He had the courage to ask. He paid dearly. As do some (many?) of us too.

Crowley has never stopped asking. He stopped expecting Divine answers. But he searches for the answers himself, sifting through the wreckage of his own rejection by God, and the violence that he endured as a sacrifice for a Divine Cause -- for the "sanctity" of Heaven, the obedience of the angels, and, in some retellings, for the elevation of humanity.

(The elevation of humanity? Same ones drowned in the flood??)

Crowley looks for the logic in it all, and for the Love.

He found Love with Aziraphale. Together, they keep looking for the Logic. And for Peace. Happiness. A cottage. Ducks... (I'm more than a little obsessed with ducks and a South Downes Happy Ending right now, thank you very much, for all of us Dreamers and Seekers and Askers of Questions...)

But I digress.

Does Love require a burnt offering? A sacrifice? Require -- Demand -- Necessitate -- Dictate -- Command.

Good Omens suggests that we ask the questions. Search for the answers. Don't accept that the way it is, is the way it has to be. Kids can be turned into crows, or lizards, and they can be protected as they deserve to be. And institutional problems need to be fixed, dammit, without another victim sacrificed in a cover-up or a cause. And you can change your name and change how you look at yourself, and believe that you deserve better than what others seem to want for you.

In the words of the former Supreme Archangel Gabriel, "Sometimes an angel just has to say, 'Guys, enough!'"

*****

Thanks for sorting this out with me! Here's the link to my other stuff, if you'd like to check it out.

[wistfulnightingale]

I wrote this 8 months ago, and it's still oddly relevant now that we've seen the finale.

Crowley was always outraged and protective. So was Aziraphale, from the Beginning. And from the Beginning they protected each other, no matter the risk, no matter the consequence. They never gave in and they never gave up -- they both were already Purged by Fire.

They fought for the World, yes, and for each other

To Our World!! 🥂✨

[metalmiez]

✨At the End of Everything, somewhere beyond the Nothing, they're watching over us✨

⚠️GO3 The Finale Spoilers ahead! Stop reading if you haven't watched it yet! Good? Good!⚠️

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Well. I didn't cope well with the Finale so far.

There were quite a lot of things i loved. But the ending just k!lled me. I spent the last 2 days grieving and crying and trying to get to terms with what has happened.

I don't want to accept that they're truly gone. I miss them greatly. I mourn the 6 episodes they deserved.

I'm shaken and heartbroken and I'll probably need a long time to digest. I will keep creating. Because after all, this fandom is one of the greatest things that has ever happened to me. I cherish all the friends I made along the way.

To Love that conquers everything, even death.

To our World.

To Them.

They deserved a better ending.

[wistfulnightingale]

💛💙✨

[wistfulnightingale]

I wish I could be more of a help.

I wish I was coming up with gentle insights and wise guidance and calm assertions that anger and grief are okay and are part of the process and we can hang in together while we each are in all these different phases of processing all this.

I wish I could compose a beautiful essay about how we are still a beautiful fandom who are all dealing with this as best we can, in whatever way we can, even if we struggle to understand why someone else is dealing with it differently.

I wish I could sort out my own swirling, churning, tumultuous thoughts more clearly, in some sort of sensible progression, instead of pitching back and forth as I write and write and write...

I wish I could process my emotions better as I bang-crash-slam into wall after wall of angled corners of phases of grief and anger and sorrow and hope and relief and loss like I'm trapped inside some painful dodecahedron of coping while working through some Very. Difficult. Crap.

I wish I didn't feel like the comforting world I turned to when life was hard got shattered, and now I and all of us have to put the pieces back together.

*****

But one thing I can do is allow myself time. This is hard. Hard things take time.

I can be here, with all of you, as we all share our pain and our confusion and wherever we're at in our coping and our struggle to understand exactly what the hell happened and why.

I'm sorry for the things I might have said wrong, in my posts or in responding to comments, the times I was struggling to understand my own feelings and not understanding enough of yours. Please forgive me if I did. I'm trying to do better.

I'm so grateful for the folks who are sharing comfort, and insights, and wisdom, and imagination, and fix-its. Please know that you are a gift to all of us.

I want to help us all know we're on the same side. A team. A group of all of us.

We always have been, and so we shall be.

This is Our World, after all.✨

[copperplatebeech]

The End Of The Story - rated G, ~ 2000 words

A fix-it inspired by a comment on my Tumblr rant over... whatever that was.

Everything's gone but the bookshop. Satan's just appeared. Except... everything's not gone. Quite. Nor everyone.

God stared fixedly, for a long beat. “How did you get here?” She said. “Existence has ceased. This bookshop is all that is left of My universe.”

“I don’t know,” said the boy. “Something – the same thing’s happened before. I’m gone. And then I come back.”

“Habits are hard to break,” remarked Crowley. “I should know. Stock in trade.”

“You,” said the boy. “You taught me. How to see past what people pretend to be, to who they are. How to be gentle as doves and wise as serpents. How to turn anger into love.” He took a deep breath. “I’m angry now.”

“Who are you?” said God, low and threatening.

“Oh, Lord,” chuckled Satan, “don’t You know Your own son?” He smiled oilily. “So pleased to meet you. After Crowley’s reports, I feel as if I know you.”

Read on AO3

I'm back! It's been a while, I'll explain later, but... action was required.

Tagging in the replies as usual, let me know if you want to be added or removed on my tag list.

[wistfulnightingale]

Bit by bit... We'll all put the bits of our hearts and imaginations together to make this right again.

This one is helping a lot.

We're all together on our own side. I'm so glad to have you all -- I'm so proud of all of us. We'll get each other through this!

For Our World!

[wistfulnightingale]

A message to Prime, from a fan who loves Good Omens (From all of us!*)

(*Not really. Just a late-night, emotional rant, wishing I could somehow storm the barricades for us all.)

To Prime:

We'll never know what deals were made behind closed doors, what NDA's had to be signed. To you, this show was just another business arrangement. How many subscriptions will it bring in? How many products will it sell? What will your profit margins be? And when there was trouble because of one author, you cancelled Good Omens. And yes, what he was accused of was all terrible, truly. Deserved to be shut out. Sounded real noble of you to do it.

Except, it punished everyone. Cast, production team, everyone. Fans too. But you? You could claim you kept your nose clean. For the moral good of it all, yeh?

So then the people who loved Good Omens and its other author, Sir Terry Pratchett, fought for it. Rob Wilkins, Rhianna Pratchett, and others behind the scenes. The fans promoted it, campaigned for it, spread your name everywhere. We even bought your Good Omens merch specifically so that we could speak your profit-language to prove to you it was "worth" renewing. Money talks, right?

You gave us 90 minutes. A begrudging "compromise." And, terrified worried though we were about what could go wrong, we even thanked you for it. Grateful for whatever we got, us.

That's how much we love and value this show. That's how much Crowley and Aziraphale mean to us.

To all of us, the fans and the people who fought for it, Good Omens and its beautiful characters are more than a show. It's a message of Hope in a troubled world. A light in the darkness.

Many of us found Good Omens when we needed it most. These 0h-so-relatable goofy wonderful brave characters showed us so much about Survival and Love and Hope... How trauma and pain and anxiety can be overcome. How courage and conviction can change your "Fate." How you can overcome the judgments and condemnation of others, to be who you choose to be. How you are always worthy of forgiveness, and Always deserving of Love.

But you don't really understand any of that, do you? You didn't care.

You counted on us to forget. To forget that there was a storm of anti-trans political rhetoric swirling in both the US and the UK at the time you cancelled it. To forget those hate-fueled fires stoked by "important" people with "important" connections. You figured we wouldn't connect the dots that David Tennant himself was fighting for Light and Good in the middle of it all. You assumed we'd lose track of how many shows with LGBTQIA protagonists were disappearing from streaming platforms that bowed to political (aka financial) pressures, no matter how good the view counts were. Selling out.

Oh, but not you. You were clever. You looked like the good guy, you saved this show about an angel and a demon who typically visually presented as male and happened to be in love. Have a gold star.

I can't help but wonder, Prime, if that had anything to do with the missing follow-up to The Kiss. Personally, I think they created a beautifully tender, aching moment between Aziraphale and Crowley anyway. But the F15 Kiss wasn't even discussed. Our Ineffable Husbands were oddly emotionally crowbarred apart for nearly all of that meager 90 minutes.

I'm, um, curious as to why the director and others involved were told a Kiss was completely off the table. "It had already been done"? Did you or your horror-genre writers even watch the Final Fifteen? (Do you even know that's what we lovingly call it??) Or was a gentle, properly good Kiss too risky for you?

So, Prime... Were you actively trying to sabatoge Good Omens? Or did you just not give a damn anymore? Not worth it to you, was it...?

What did you put in those NDA's, Prime? Why did you sign on two new writers who write horror and dark fantasy, and actively hide that fact from us until a month before the premiere? Why did you promote Good Omens as if it was still a "Comedy Drama Fantasy", full of hope and promise?

We loved Good Omens precisely because it wasn't another grimdark or gothic fantasy about fated fallen angels and cruelly destructive gods where no one was safe. Remember that light-in-the-darkness thing I mentioned? That was what we loved.

But it turned out that You were the deceptive dealer pulling a con with Three Card Monte -- concealing and shifting bits of information around over time until we weren't sure which bits still mattered. News about replacements and rewrites all sold to us in the prettiest packaging.

How tight did you make the budget and production time? Few returning characters besides the main protagonists, only a few sparse lines for the incredibly iconic Derek Jacobi (who was set up for a proper villain arc!), not even the briefest cameo from actors who appeared in both seasons! The tiniest handful of extras in SoHo, and only 4 angels in a scene set just after the final moments of a war encompassing all of the heavens!

Plus, no follow through on any of the plot points and mysteries set up in S2, no true continuation of character arcs or relationship development, and so much unloving and out of character behavior it made our heads spin! A total deconsturction of all that came before. And nothing but secrecy as to how it all got to that point...

I'd say we feel betrayed by you, but we didn't have much reason to trust you in the first place. The people we do trust obviously did all that they could to salvage this train wreck you created, and we love them for it!

Well, Prime, did you get you wanted? You nearly broke our fandom in two, as people tried to cope with the sudden fated-tragedy cruel-god meaningless-Jesus ending your nihilistic writers sprung on us without warning. That struggle has kept Good Omens trending on multiple social media platforms for nearly a week so far. The Finale itself is still trending as we watch and rewatch, trying to make it make sense, and as new viewers come to see what all the fuss is about.

Feel good about that, do you?

Me, though? You'll make a bit more of your precious moolah off me so I can purchase Good Omens for myself, I admit it. (As much as I'd like to tell you where you can stick it, I won't give you the power to make me abandon this show that I love!) After that, I'm gone. No Amazon merch, no Prime subscription. I'm done with you.

But I refuse to be done with Good Omens. With Crowley and Aziraphale. These beautiful characters live in my heart, in all of our hearts. We know them far better than you and your nonsensical "dark fantasy" death-is-inevitable writers do. We carry Aziraphale and Crowley's real stories. They inspire us to Grow Better.

Bollocks to you and your Great Plan, Prime.

Good Omens is OUR WORLD. We're taking it back, and keeping it safe for ourselves. We'll fix it for Our Beloved Ineffables as we see fit. We need them and love them a whole lot more than you do...!