renidyy

[renidyy]

If you liked this piece, prints are now available on INPRNT! My username over there is renidere and the piece is called “Aziraphale’s Apology”!! :)

The one who forgives finally asks for forgiveness, himself.

#good omens spoilers #good omens 2 fanart #art print

[renidyy]

Okay okay, so I really want to talk about S2 Crowley.

I’ve been thinking about who Crowley is in the book and who he is in the show, and the gap is significant. (@tbutchaziraphale has fantastic meta over here which I think is spot on.)

Book!Crowley is an optimist, yes? I mean, we’re outright told this:

“Because, underneath it all, Crowley was an optimist. If there was one rock-hard certainty that had sustained him through the bad times—he thought briefly of the fourteenth century—then it was utter surety that he would come out on top; that the universe would look after him.”

Honestly, what a thing for a fallen angel to believe! And to me, it’s powerful, yes, but it never quite answers the question: where is he getting that certainty?

Tv!Crowley, in the meantime, is emphatically not this. He’s never been an optimist, not even in S1—although in S1, it might have been easier to look at A & C and consider them essentially similar to their book selves if a little out of sync.

In S1, Crowley gives the whole “don’t test them to destruction” speech. He cares about humanity deeply, even if he won’t admit it. He will try to stop the Apocalypse.

And there is still a moment when he feels helpless. When he has no innate optimism to carry him through, no deep belief in the universe looking after him or anyone. When his instincts tell him to run, and he tries to follow them. When he despairs. Aziraphale pulls him back out of that despair; they make a stand together. As we know, it works.

But the thing is, the thing is. I find tv!Crowley’s lack of optimism so very relatable.

I find despair so very relatable, too.

We live in an age of deep anxiety. (Climate change, anyone? Just for starters! The promise and wonder of the Moon landing and the end of the Cold War are far in the past; day to day, we deal with the effects of capitalism, of reactionism, of continued exclusionism. It’s far too easy to feel helpless.)

So in S2, Crowley is very much the same character as he was in S1, except we see it even clearer.

He is not an optimist. He wants to run; he wants to escape when faced with Gabriel’s arrival; he wants to protect Aziraphale and himself, and believes that the best—perhaps only—way to do that is by them retreating as far away from the problem as they can.

In Heaven, Crowley finds out about The Second Coming. His need to escape and to keep his angel safe become overwhelming. But he doesn’t tell Aziraphale about the Second Coming, does he? And his repeated offer to run away together doesn't even make sense to Aziraphale. (Not that Aziraphale would want to run if he knew. Quite the opposite, in fact, which Crowley must know.)

Anyway, Crowley already knows that the clock is ticking. Aziraphale is about to find it out. (Do you notice how often, in the last fifteen minutes of S2, we hear nothing in the background but the ticking of a clock?)

And just—the despair, the desire to retreat and escape when you are faced with overwhelming odds, with a fundamentally broken system, are so relatable.

And yet escape has never been the answer.

I hope, of course, that this is what we’ll see in S3 if there is a S3. Crowley deciding, emphatically, that running away is not the answer. 

We didn't get there yet. We were dropped out of the story at the darkest point.

But I think being at this point is precisely what makes Crowley’s confession at the end of S2 transcendent.

Because it’s the same conflict, isn’t it, except on a personal scale. Despair in the face of overwhelming odds, followed by the decision to not give up.

Crowley, who’d been ready to confess, sees what is likely to happen. He sees the way the deck is stacked against him, sees that he is unlikely to get through. He feels the coming loss. 

And then he does it anyway. 

He confesses anyway. He says what he has set out to say, gasping and clawing for every word. He does it at the point when everything appears lost.

And no, we don’t see the effects of it, not yet. We don’t see what he has launched, the hook that sank into Aziraphale, the change it has wrought in Crowley himself.

But his bravery won’t be lost.

We live in a dark timeline. I maintain that this is precisely what makes this story so compelling.

Be brave. Do the difficult thing anyway. Do it anyway. Do it anyway.

Even in the face of overwhelming odds. Especially in the face of overwhelming odds. While not being an optimist in the slightest.

This is what hope is.

This is what we have to do.

(And to all of us who’d lost a comfort story: I’m so sorry. I, too, am still grieving for it. I know, I know.

Emphatically: all is not lost.)

[renidyy]

"Crowley can't have been Lucifer because Crowley is 'just some guy'" okay but what if the point is that Lucifer was just some guy? who got blamed for all this stuff? what if Lucifer is just the scapegoat for the Fall, the one who asked the questions that got other angels mobilized to rebel? what if Lucifer is the scapegoat humanity blames for anything bad we think originated in Hell? what if Crowley relates really personally to Job's innocent blameless goats when he disguises them as black-winged crows? what if & what then.

[renidyy]

It's about Crowley bearing witness to Aziraphale's desire, about the way that desire is animal and visceral and enormous and terrifying*. And about how Crowley sees that and wants it. Crowley offers the ox rib and watches Aziraphale eat because eating provides them no sustenance, it's purely for pleasure, sensual, selfish. And Crowley introduces Aziraphale to this, and thousands of years later still takes obvious pleasure in feeding Aziraphale, in watching him eat. In watching Aziraphale's pleasure.

And I think it's significant the things we see Crowley put into his body in s2, and why: six shots of espresso, as something bracing before seeing what it is that made Aziraphale call him in his "something's wrong" tone; whiskey, because he has to give Aziraphale some bad news; wine, because they "might as well get comfortable" during the storm coming down on Job, after Aziraphale learns that Crowley is actually pretty unhappy with Job's suffering; and poison, to dispose of it so Elspeth (or Wee Morag, I've fogotten which is which) doesn't die. Crowley doesn't take Aziraphale's "something that calms you down", only consumes things that not only don't bring him pleasure but are an attempt to prevent pain. Crowley, who introduced Aziraphale to this important physical, sensual, selfish pleasure, denies it to himself. He denies himself the eccles cakes, he denies himself partaking in food, and he denies himself Aziraphale.

And we see throughout the rest of the season other things he's denying himself: the comfort and safety of a home in the bookshop in favor of the mobility and ready-made escape of living in the Bentley, the surety of saying what he really means during the confession. He cannot bring himself to admit what he wants, that he wants. Gabriel and Beelzebub "going off together" is not what he wants. He wants Aziraphale, but he doesn't say that, because he's never, in the years and years and years we've seen this season, let himself want or be seen wanting. "Going off together" is as close as he can get to speaking it. "A group of the two of us" is as close as he can get. So he has to watch as Aziraphale leaves and takes his pleasure in the world with him.

[renidyy]

the Raphael we need but don't deserve etc

Okay babes, I'm bringing my catholic schoolgirl education and googling skills fully to bear on this one. Our Arch/Angel Raphael has been hiding in plain sight all along, and they aren't Crowley. Aziraphale is Good Omens' Raphael.

(Possibly this was theorized like 3 yrs ago during my tumblr hiatus so like apologies if I'm just repeating meta, but most people seem to think Raphael is Crowley(?????), and not our best b*tch 'Raphale.)

The Angel Raphael

Let's start with this scene of Raphael in Eden talking to Adam and Eve:

That's an artist's depiction of John Milton's Paradise Lost, which I read in high school 100 years ago so you don't have to. Milton wrote that God asked the angel Raphael to warn Adam and Eve that they would be tempted to eat fruit from the Tree of Knowledge. Here's another depiction of the same.

This angel, with his pale hair, is not a bad likeness for our Aziraphale. Milton is kind of a big deal when it comes to cultural angelology, so it's more than fair to consider his work.

Note that Milton does NOT call Raphael Archangel. Just angel. More on that later.

The Angel Raphael is also called Azariah or Azarias in the Bible when he goes amongst humans in disguise.

Raphael is also noted as an important angel to humans in particular.

Interesting! It's his job to heal the earth after the angels fuck it up, you say?

Raphael from the christianized tradition is most likely based on another angel.

The Angel Israfel

There is an angel in Islamic tradition to whom Raphael is considered the "Christian" counterpart, and that angel is called Israfil. Or, Israfel.

As far as word roots, prefixes, and endings go - we have now compiled all the parts to get Aziraphale's name. "Az" from Raphael's secret human identity, "sra" from Israfel, "raphale" from literally the name Raphael with 2 letters transposed, and to cover that, the homonym-y way that "Israfel" and "Aziraphale" rhyme. It's like a portmanteau. The show even gives us "Mr. Fell" as Aziraphale's human name to really cement this. Say this out loud: Israfel, Mister-Fell.

So Aziraphale is Israfel is Raphael.

But Raphael is an archangel in the Bible and in western cultural tradition. Right, let's cover that. I've got 2 options, and they don't even contradict one another.

Aziraphale was an archangel before being demoted to Principality. This would explain his position on earth & his interactions with only (as far as we see) other archangels. He wasn't a super high level archangel like Gabriel (prince of heaven) or Michael and Uriel (or Crowley*cough*) but more like Saraquel or Sandalphon.

Good Omens has it's very own angelology canon that draws from sources like Milton & Abrahamic religions but does what it wants when it wants to, and guess who just got promoted to archangel? If it isn't our babygirl Aziraphale. And supreme archangel at that! This also covers the cherub with the flaming sword at the Eastern Gate of Eden - Good Omens is leaning on Milton rather than the Bible for that bit. (Actually if you read Genesis, God sticks that cherub there after Adam and Eve are cast out of Eden, to guard against humanity returning, so that angel can't be Aziraphale anyway.)

So that's how we get our (newly promoted) Archangel Raphael in Good Omens, and square the lore with Aziraphale's place in Eden and his role with humanity.

Wanna know something fun about Israfel?

Israfel's role, among other stuff, is to blow a big horn that basically uhh... Destroys all life? Yeah, he kicks off Armageddon & Judgement Day. Possibly, christian belief is similar about Raphael but it's unclear.

I'm not gonna get into trying to join up Islamic beliefs about this with christian beliefs about armageddon as written in the biblical Book of Revelation (which is absolutely in play in Good Omens btw, Azi even references it in S1) because I'm super duper far from qualified to do so. But, my understanding is that Israfel destroys all life, Resurrection Day happens, then Judgment Day happens (which is also what the Book of Rev says that the Second Coming of Christ has come to do, judge all souls etc) and then Israfel blows his bigass trumpet again and um. restores all life. New earth, new heaven, etc.

So that's interesting in light of things like: the Resurrectionists, s2's theme of bringing people back from the dead/only pretending to kill them, Gabriel's prophetic moment talking about the dead walking the earth, catching bullets in your teeth but not dying, measuring miracle strength by how many people it could literally raise from the dead, etc.

Anyway who's excited for season 3?!

Oh yeah and TLDR Aziraphale is Raphael who is Israfel. Raphael is not Crowley.

[renidyy]

The one who forgives finally asks for forgiveness, himself.

#good omens #good omens season two #good omens 2 #good omens 2 fanart #aziracrow fanart #aziracrow #aziraphale #aziraphale fanart #crowley #crowley fanart #ineffable husbands #ineffable husbands fanart #neil gaiman you should totally come look at what I made #The alternate caption was “your forgiveness matters more to me now than Heaven’s ever did. Forgive me” but I already posted that on twt

[renidyy]

GOOD OMENS S2 MAGGIE & NINA THEORY(long post, so sorry)

Why is no one in the good omens fandom talking about Nina and Maggie? Something HAS to be up with those two and I suspect they might be a lot more relevant than we think.

Okay, first off, there’s a lot of things that could be going on with those two, and I’m gonna let you decide for yourself what seems most plausible. They could be Lucifer and God trying to mess with their earthly ambassadors/just mess with aziracrow in general(I saw a small acc on Twitter mention this theory), they could be angels/archangels keeping an eye on earth & God’s plans, they could be literally anything!

But let’s take a look at what ACTUAL evidence there is of this.

First, the most notable is that Nina and Maggie were somehow immune to aziraphale’s miracle in the bookshop when he tried to get them to forget about what happened, whereas Crowley was able to pull off the same miracle outside with the rest of the shop owners.

I think the second-most notable point is that Crowley offhandedly mentions that he’s not able to give people permission to cross the threshold in azi’s bookshop BUT Maggie was able to. So, either humans are able to do this, or something a little Heavenly is going on with Maggie.

It’s also important to note the actresses themselves. The characters are NAMED AFTER THE ACTRESSES, and the actresses themselves were notable characters in the first season(Nina played the nun who messed up the baby swap, and Maggie was Sister Theresa). I don’t think it’s coincidental that Neil wanted these two to come back and even named the characters after them, essentially creating a fourth wall break using their names.

& so much more! They were the ones to urge Crowley to confess, Nina confronting crowley about what she thought was a romantic relationship, Maggie having the “Everyday” records. They were the ones who defended the bookshop, they were the ones who gave Metatron Aziraphale’s coffee, they were the ones who witnessed EVERYTHING that went down this season(crowley summoning lightning then returning power to Nina’s shop, they saw Gabriel when he first showed up, they were there for the demon attack, etc), they saw EVERYTHING and didn’t even really freak out about any of this they just,,,accepted it. I’d also like to add the fact that Maggie misspelled “urgency”, which I doubt was just a random quirky detail.

ALL of these point to the fact that somehow, these two are more relevant than we may think. They remind me of the small fly detail throughout the show that seemed random but ultimately ended up being EXTREMELY important to the overall Gabriel plot & resolution. No detail in this show is unintentional, and these details are SO important that there’s no way that these are simply just coincidences or added in just to get the show moving. I have a feeling that Nina and Maggie will be very important to the third season, I just have no idea HOW yet.

#good omens season two #good omens spoilers #good omens 2 #good omens 2 spoilers #Good omens season two spoilers #nina and maggie #maggie and nina #Are they satan & god in disguise? Are they an angel and a demon? Both angels? None of these??? Just really lucky humans #in contrast to the first season w how unlucky newt was?? Who knows #good omens theory

[renidyy]

👁️

#tma #tma fanart #jonathan sims #tma den

[renidyy]

Gertrude Walking Away From An Explosion Robinson and Agnes Looking Respectfully Montague

I saw this post and my mind went here, sorry

#Tma #gertrude robinson #agnes montague

[renidyy]

and when the web is spun, will you find yourself the spider or the fly?

#Holy shit #holy fuck #oh my god #jonathan sims #tma #tma fanart #tma den

[renidyy]

he’s so obsessed with jon it’s embarrassing

#cutie patooties #tma #elias needs a hobby other than being obsessed with the archivist #tma den

[renidyy]

Certain words can change your brain forever and ever so you do have to be very careful about it.

#inspiration #quotes

[renidyy]

cringe fail season 3 jon doodle

#tma #tma jon #tma den #jonathan sims

[renidyy]

third wheel elias part 3

#tma #tma den #simon fairchild #foggyskies #peter lukas #elias bouchard

[renidyy]

“I always wanted my friends to call me Gerry.”

#tma fanart #tma den #tma

[renidyy]

Ough pre institute tim has such a special place in my heart because I don’t think he was cool I think he was a lonely nerd who slept with people for a form of closeness he didn't have and he had work friends but no real friends and got phone calls from his mom and had to reassure her no, mum, i'm fine, i don't need a girlfriend- no, no, i don't need a boyfriend either, mum and he looked up to his little brother so much because he was doing everything he ever really wanted (and i think danny had a blog about his adventures, which tim read religiously), and he only ever felt any form of real love when he went home for the holidays

(and god did it suck when his brother died and his dad thought tim was the killer)

[renidyy]

I’ve meant to draw these guys for the longest time but just never got around to it. But here they are so yeippii

#tma #tma fanart #tma den