hollydragonstreams

[hollydragonstreams]

if you dont want print media to die, buy physical copies of things. if you don’t want independent journalism to die, subscribe to a local newspaper. if you want more libraries and skate-parks and arcades, get a bunch of friends and call in the individual charge of your village or town or whatever and ask for one to be built and use the existing ones. if you want more native flora and fauna, start looking at the ones that already exist and how to preserve them. this is your world too. fight for it. get rid of the rot of passivity.

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I love it when people take characters that are made to be Conventionally Attractive and go "but what if they looked like actual human beings" and this isn't sarcastic. Doing gods work.

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My redesign hot take is that if you’re aiming to “desexualize” a female character, don’t make her boobs smaller. You’re implying a lot here.

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Pieter Bruegel the Elder painted Godzilla 4 times between 1556 and 1563.

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Lieutenant Owen Stanley of the British Royal Navy kept a journal detailing his personal experiences on HMS Terror. The journal has been housed at the University of Toronto’s Thomas Fisher Rare Book Library since 1971.

Stanley was the surveyor on the HMS Terror on an 1836 expedition, nine years before the Northwest passage expedition. A book of his watercolours from the voyage is also kept at the Rare Book Library. These Sketch shows the HMS Terror in the Ice of the Northwest Passage

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I’m sure you’ve already considered this but what if a universe where the dragons are the angels. Maybe even big wyrm with many eyes

dragons occupy an interesting space in theology because in some cultures they're sanctified and even deified, but in others they're associated with evil and sin (eg: in christianity satan is sometimes referred to and depicted as a dragon). so i feel like there's definitely a space for dragons as angelic or saintlike, a sort of median point between the divine and the earthly.

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This is why archaeology is so great

anger management tip: dig a hole in the ground

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it's hard sometimes and that's okay

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occasionally I am struck dumb by the sublime beauty of the world in the small moments, you know?

egg

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[hollydragonstreams]

Okay, this is pretty incredible. A 3D artist, consulting scholars and archaeologists, worked for a year and a half in Blender to create a reconstruction of pre-Columbian Tenochtitlán, complete with the surrounding landscape. It’s staggeringly beautiful, and—at least to me—gives a wonderful impression of the city as a place where people worked and lived and worshiped

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Ok, how did you guys get hold of the 2050 scripts for "The further adventures of Sherloctopus Holmes and Dr. Watson, Professional Sturgeon?"

If Sherlock Holmes was Isekai'd to a fantasy world he would just deduce the rules of this world and get back to solving crimes. He'll find an elf girl sidekick,name her Watson, and pretend like nothing happened.

#Sherlock under the sea

[hollydragonstreams]

Aziraphale was wrong this. He’ll come crawling back that. I want him to do the apology dance blah blah blah.

You know what I want? I want him to succeed.

I want him to give Heaven hell.

I want him to be a problem of the Metatron’s own making.

I keep seeing a take floating around that the Metatron was obviously lying when calling Aziraphale a natural leader and a good choice for Supreme Archangel and just trying to butter Aziraphale up so he’ll be more open to the idea of rejoining Heaven, but I think there is an important distinction to be made in this regard.

Aziraphale IS those things. He IS a natural leader. He was the first being to ever wield a weapon on earth. He is a high ranking member of Heaven’s army and was in charge of a platoon in the first war EVER. HE WAS FULLY EXPECTED TO DO SO AGAIN IN ARMAGEDDON. We can see this leadership both in Season 1 when he insists to Crowley that they don’t run away and in Season 2 when facing the demons. And if Heaven actually was everything it was meant to be, everything it still proclaims that it is, Aziraphale WOULD be the obvious choice for Supreme Archangel, because when faced between making the right choice or making the obedient one, or even between making the right choice or the comfortable choice, he has always picked the right one.

Give up the sword and lie to God or let the humans suffer? Welp, there goes the sword.

Lie on my word as an Angel or allow three human children to be killed? Guess who’s lying again!

Go back to my abusers in order to make things better for everyone or run away with the love of my life who just confessed his feelings for me? Up I go.

Here’s the kicker. The Metatron ALSO thinks he was lying to Aziraphale. In the Metatron’s eyes, Aziraphale is none of those things. The Metatron and the Archangels are nothing but condescending pricks to the Angel they see as a bumbling, incompetent, slightly insane fool who chose Earth over Heaven.

I don’t want Aziraphale to come crawling back. I don’t want him to realize it’s a lost cause. I don’t want him to give up.

What I want is to see the Metatron’s face as he watches Aziraphale succeed.

[hollydragonstreams]

one of my favorites crowley fanart posts! wanted to make it look more comic-like because why not & now it's just a really fun little crowley collage

[hollydragonstreams]

Not to stoke the fire or anything*, but the focus on the shoulders in shot and the emphasis from the hands touching there immediately reminds me of where Crowley's wings would be (of whatever shade they are). *I lied.

The products of trying to recreate what was going on outside the frame during the kiss. (for ENTIRELY SCIENTIFIC purposes)

@actual-changeling altered my whole outlook on life with this post about Aziraphale's left hand (I'd only been looking at his right hand) and I couldn't stop thinking about it, so I painted the rest of the fucking owl (and his bf).

so normal about this

#good omens 2 spoilers

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The process (also on youtube)

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Metatron's manipulation step by step

Part 5: The offer ("canonical" version)

Part 1 - where I discuss the significance of the coffee.

Part 2 - where I take a look back at season 1

Part 3 - from Metatron's arrival on Earth to sending the Archangels away

Part 4 - inside the bookshop after sending the Archangels away

The time has finally come for the "main event". For the conversation between Metatron and Aziraphale where the former makes his offer and convinces the latter to take it*.

Obviously, the first thing I feel I need to do is to acknowledge that this scene/sequence is far less credible than the ones I've discussed previously. We aren't shown the entire conversation from the beginning to the end so there's no knowing what else was said that we aren't privy to. In addition, we only know it as told by Aziraphale and Aziraphale has been known to tell lies. So it's not impossible that even the fragments we see aren't relayed accurately.

And the second thing I feel I need to do is to ignore all of the above.

I do believe there was more to Metatron's offer than what we were allowed to see. But in this post, I'd like to only focus on what we were shown. Let's temporarily assume we have all the key pieces. That what we were shown was indeed how Aziraphale was won*.

The scene starts with Aziraphale's narration "He said that Gabriel obviously hadn't worked out as Supreme Archangel and Commander of the Heavenly Host" and in my humble opinion this opening statement is more than enough proof that Metatron goes hard and plays dirty.

Because, you know, Gabriel. What a hornets' nest that is...

Aziraphale's relationship with Gabriel is messy and complicated and I'll heroically resist temptation to get sidetracked by the topic here.

The gist of it is that the former Supreme Archangel simultaneously does and doesn't represent Heaven for Aziraphale. He does because that was literally his part - he used to be Aziraphale's superior, Aziraphale has been permanently stationed on Earth, so pretty much all of Aziraphale's interactions with Heaven were actually interactions with Gabriel. He doesn't because Aziraphale has a very idealistic idea of what Heaven is and Gabriel fails to live up to that ideal.

When Metatron says putting Gabriel in charge of Heaven turned out to be a bad idea, it's a very subtle misdirection. He is tapping into Gabriel is not Heaven sentiment, and pulls Aziraphale's focus to Gabriel's failure and away from what exactly made him one.

Metatron takes advantage of two things here. The first one is that deep down Aziraphale has always felt Gabriel was the wrong person for the job. We're talking 6000 years worth of decisions and actions contradicting Aziraphale's convictions and ideals here. Those feelings are STRONG.

The second thing is that Aziraphale doesn't really know what happened. He was aware Gabriel was in trouble and had just found out he was in love with Beelzebub. And that's literally it. He has no idea Gabriel had vetoed Armageddon the Sequel and that's the real reason Heaven was out for his blood.

When Aziraphale hears that "Gabriel obviously hadn't worked out" I imagine his visceral reaction is "finally, they've realized he's no good!". And Metatron primed him for leaning into that reaction by the way he handled Michael earlier (see: Part 3). He has sent a clear message that when Archangels act inappropriately it is eventually recognised as such.

And even if Aziraphale consciously knows that Gabriel's incompetence might not be Heaven's reason, there is a romance with the Fallen as a plausible explanation. He has no incentive to examine it any closer.

Let me just say it out loud: Metatron tries to demonstrate that Aziraphale's sense of right and good aligns with Heaven because has finally dismissed an Archangel whose decisions Aziraphale could never agree with. But he conveniently hides the fact that Heaven dismissed Gabriel because, for the first time in his existence, he made a decision Aziraphale would fully agree with.

I hate Metatron.

Let's move on with the scene.

"and he asked who I thought should take over in Heaven now that Gabriel was gone."

Aziraphale canonically has standards but in this particular instance, his standards are so low it's heartbreaking. He's clearly floored by the fact that he was asked for an opinion. I don't think I need to comment on that any further.

Interestingly, it's just being asked, not the topic itself, as Aziraphale's answer sounds rather disinterested to me.

He suggests Michael, who seems to be next in the chain of command after Gabriel, and I think to some extent he's playing safe, but mostly he genuinely has no idea. We'll get back to it in a moment.

Metatron dismisses this option vehemently - "Oh, don't be silly! No, no, no, no, no!" - because of course he does. He had just scolded her like a misbehaving child. He needs to act as if putting Michael in charge is a ridiculous idea to further confirm his criteria are similar to Aziraphale's. That they are on the same page about what Heaven is and what would be good for Heaven to be what it was always meant to be.

And then Metatron finally goes for it: "There's only one candidate who makes even the slightest bit of sense. And that's you".

Telling someone they're the only one to perform a certain task that is objectively perceived as necessary and desirable is probably manipulation 101. Actually, you don't even need a task like this, just telling someone they're the only one can make them special and appreciated enough to be willing to accept.

Additionally, Aziraphale knows he's different from other angels, an anomaly of sorts. This awareness on the one hand lends credibility to Metatron's argument - if they need someone like Aziraphale, he really is the only option, because no other angel is remotely similar to Aziraphale - and on the other hand validates his otherness.

In case you haven't noticed, Aziraphale is starved for validation.

Metatron knows what he's doing, showering him with compliments: "You're a leader, you're honest, you don't just tell people what they want to hear. It's why Gabriel came to you in the first place, I imagine. There are huge plans afoot, enormous projects, and I will need you to run them. You are just the angel for the job."

They're not even particularly accurate at this point. I mean, I adore Aziraphale but I think you'd agree with me that if you lined up everyone in the whole world and asked them to describe Aziraphale, nobody at all would say "leader".

The part about Gabriel is a particular BS I've already written about.

But while all those things had an effect on Aziraphale, it's very important to stress that they did not make him take the offer. It wasn't the promise that Heaven actually cared for him and valued him. That Heaven needed him. It wasn't the opportunity to lead Heaven and to fix it.

Aziraphale's answer to all of the above was:

"I don't want to go back to Heaven. Where would I get my coffee?"

So Metatron immediately changes strategy. Dangles another prize in front of Aziraphale.

"You know, as Supreme Archangel, you would be able to decide who to work with. (...) it would certainly be within your jurisdiction to restore your friend, Crowley, to full angelic status."

This is what tempted Aziraphale to agree*

*Except we don't actually know if that is what happened and I will discuss it further in the next part.

To be continued.