AZIRAPHALE
Ah, yes, I thought perhaps they might send you. [beat]
Well.. [beat] I’m ready to go.
CROWLEY
Go where?
AZIRAPHALE
To Hell.
CROWLEY
I’m not taking you to Hell, angel.
Notice Crowley doesn't confirm or deny being sent to take Aziraphale to Hell. Just that he - who was ordered to slaughter the blameless goats of blameless Job's and did. not. do. it. - is not doing this either.
AZIRAPHALE
Why not?
CROWLEY
Well, I don’t think you’d like it.
"Why not?" is answered with a deflection that is more or less an "I don't want to," and very much not a denial that he was sent to do it. And if not liking Hell is a reason for an angel to not be taken there, no angels should ever have gone. It is by definition and design a miserable penal colony for wayward angels, such that none of them like it.
AZIRAPHALE
But you have to. I’m like you now: A demon.
CROWLEY
(laughing) Sorry. You think you’re a demon? With your
curly little… and your neat white…
Making fun of Aziraphale for suggesting that he's a demon is another deflection. Crowley does not deny Aziraphale's claim/worry/supposition that he is a demon. It's implied by the joke that he isn't, but only because the joke relies on the incorrect premise that demons cannot have cute curly hair or neat white clothes, like it's an immutable law of celestial physics or an unbreakable sumptuary law. Hmm...
I'm not even going to bother showing you images of Crowley's curly hair because we both know there's more pictures of his curly hair on your phone than there is of your own family.
AZIRAPHALE
I’m a fallen angel! I lied. To thwart the will of God.
CROWLEY
Well, yeah, you did but… I’m not gonna tell anybody.
Are you?
AZIRAPHALE
(Shakes head no)
CROWLEY
No. Then nothing has to change, does it?
Again Crowley does not deny Aziraphale's assertion that he is a Fallen Angel, whereas, tellingly, he does confirm that Aziraphale lied to thwart the will of God. Then they enter into their first ever arrangement, which is quite possibly thwarting the will of God even more.
AZIRAPHALE
(long pause) But what am I?
CROWLEY
You’re just an angel who goes along with Heaven as
far as he can.
That sounds like a shift away from the Heaven faction to me. One very fascinating thing about Good Omens, the magic of holy water and hellfire notwithstanding, there doesn't seem to be much difference between angels and demons beyond aesthetics and political faction. Even being "good" or "evil" is an aesthetic. None of the demons seem to actually know what "evil" is and are flummoxed when humans come up with far worse than occurs to them. Most of the angels do horrible things but call them "good," a rose by any other name and all that.
AZIRAPHALE
That sounds um…
CROWELY
Lonely?
AZIRAPHALE
(Nods)
CROWLEY
Yeah.
AZIRAPHALE
But you said it wasn’t!
CROWLEY
I’m a demon. I lied.
Nice touch, that, lamp-shading lying by bringing it up in a conversation that one can easily suspect may be constructed out of a pile of lies (even if they are lies of omission)
In light of all that, I would like you to think about the poetry of this scene in which Aziraphale, never having had his Grace boiled out of him in Hell, excises it himself or some goodly portion of it anyway, and casts it down with his own hand, for his own reasons, with his own free will.
hot take babes: my thoughts whenever someone says i’m crazy for shipping destiel.
the simple possibility of nephilim tells us that angels can fall in love/have sexual interest in humans. (just like ishim felt something ((obsession)) for lily and lucifer felt something ((sexual desire)) for kelly). so if you say it’s impossible for cas to feel something for dean other than platonic love, the only reason is that you’re homophobic. “oh, but angels can’t be gay” but chuck, who’s literally GOD, can??!?! this goes into another whole area of “we can make the villain gay, but not our precious little dude who all the hetero fellas love so much”. and i’m not even gonna touch the amara subject (who was god’s sister and was supposed to be a being of extreme force and bigger than creation and she still felt something for dean and it wasn’t written by chuck, ‘cause dean is that guy apparently. so an angel can feel something just like amara did ((but shit was weird af)) ).
you can say that maybe dean didn’t reciprocate the romantic love or whatever (even with all the not even subtle subtext that he is a bissexual man in denial), and maybe i’ll get that (MAYBE) but if you say they can’t be together because cas didn’t love him like that, you are blind! watch the show again.
and i’m saying this because jared himself said some pretty stupid shit at a panel about how they can’t be together ‘cause cas is junkless (even though he had sex when he was human and his vessel doesn’t change with grace, this is not even important but ok dude??) and made a weird comparison of romantic love and paternal love saying that you can love your kids and not want to touch them inappropriately and it was the craziest fucking thing ever. so much internalized homophobia i can’t even���
jensen does the same, he acts likes he IS dean and even suggesting that cas and dean might be in love turns into a personal attack to him. but you’ll also find him being a destiel shipper in some videos like the time someone said: “why is it not samstiel?” and jared made 🤢 face and said “sam has better taste” and jensen made a 😒 face and said “dean has no taste, clearly.” so dude, pick a side pls?!
and misha, i have nothing to say about him except that i love him so much. (i love all of them, obviously, but i have my fav).
Okay… so one of the biggest writing hurdles I often face is writing dialogue. Good dialogue. I know such a statement can be pretty subjective, but there’s something to dialogue that demands attention. There’s things involved like subtext, purpose, characterization, and sense of realism. On the other hand, there’s also character voice, expression, body language, and dialogue tags (sparingly, if you can)… all of which can be important, too. Sometimes it’s tricky for me to get a handle on writing dialogue that sounds natural, less stilted, and more as though the characters are real and conversing like we humans would (not to say dialogue should include unnecessary filler-words and repetitions we tend to overuse in our day-to-day conversations).
Today, I’m going to share three quick tips I’ve accumulated from research and from my own experiences in creative fiction workshops on improving your dialogue.
1. Avoid needless filler-words and phrases.
Let’s just get this one out of the way. I know this was already mentioned a few sentences ago, but it needs to be further cemented. This is the kind of fluff that we use in day-to-day chatter, like misused grammar, useless small talk, and talking in circles that, more often than not, comes across as boring and trivial. We may think this is a good way to create realistic dialogue, but alas, there is such thing as too-realistic dialogue. Focus instead on crafting dialogue that sounds as natural as possible. At least, try to get rid of the fluff, or use it with caution, as it may bog down your pacing and slow down your readers.
This doesn’t mean you can’t utilize some small talk, repetitions, filler words, or speech patterns like stammering. Rules are sometimes meant to be bent, just a little. It can be used to create distinctions between unique character voices, lighten the mood, express an emotion that is being felt, if you know where to put them. Dialogue can — and should — be personalized to each character.
This brings me to the next point:
2. Refrain from revealing too much information at once.
Not only is this considered info-dumping, but giving away a ton of detail in a piece of dialogue can come across as stiff and out-of-place. Though it may seem convenient to utilize dialogue as a way to pass information to the reader without getting all repetitive or boring within the narrative, it tends to break away from what the character (or a real person) might actually say. Especially when it’s given to a character that has no reason or incentive to recite drawn-out exposition to give the reader some background. This can be attributed to being uncharacteristic.
Try tweaking it as to fit your character’s voice: their mood, how they communicate their values, which aspects they find more important to discuss, which topics they actively avoid or tend to overlook. Also keep in mind who they’re speaking to, and whether or not they need to hear the information, as well.
3. Think about what is being left un-said.
Now, I’ve mentioned subtext quite a bit, already. Subtext, as the definition goes from Literaryterms.net, is “the unspoken or less obvious meaning or message in a literary composition, drama, speech, or conversation.” Knowing this, we can implicitly communicate to the reader covertly a truer meaning or mood within a conversation or interaction between characters: that a character is smiling through a grimace trying to look as if he’s enjoying what his friend had cooked for him when in reality he’s forcing it to spare their feelings. Or, when a woman says “she’s fine” when actually she’s not fine (real). Her answer is forced, her tone clipped, her arms are firmly crossed and she’s angling herself away. How about when a character is pining for another? They might stammer over their words and are prone to blushing whenever they’re around.
There’s a lot of different ways you can go about using subtext. I probably could’ve added a lot more, but all I want to say for now is that the beauty of subtext allows to stir interest and to further character examination, especially in dialogue. There is more that can be said, but the characters may choose not to. It could also be used to hint at the reader, to foreshadow, facilitate themes, make contradictions, to build tension and emotion… there’s internal conflict that can be explored here. Let your characters tell their own stories in their own, unique ways.
Aziraphale: Nina and Maggie fall in love. Heaven's suspicions are allayed.
Crowley: You mean like a sudden rainstorm forces them together beneath a canopy? They look into each other's eyes... And realize they were made for each other?
Aziraphale: Sounds a bit unlikely.
Crowley: No, no, no. No. No. Get humans wet and staring into each other's eyes, vavoom, sorted. I saw it in a Richard Curtis film.
CRITICAL MUSICAL SYMBOLISM IN STRANGER THINGS ACROSS 3 SEASONS SETTING UP FOR ST5
Will’s First Lie & First I Love You
STRANGER THINGS NATION, BYLER NATION, WATCH, LISTEN, AND READ THIS WHOLE POST VERY CAREFULLY. NOT ENOUGH PEOPLE HAVE TALKED ABOUT THIS SO PLEASE SPREAD
this is one of my favourite details in stranger things and i love how it connects the different relationships in the show. i’ve thought this melody had a lot of narrative significance ever since season 3, but now that all of season 4 is out, i’m even more amazed by how this soundtrack ties everything together—especially with byler.
my nerd brain picked up on the similarities between these three songs—The First Lie, The First I love You, and Being Different, from seasons 2, 3, and 4 respectively.
The First Lie is played during the scene where Jonathan and Nancy hook up in season 2 following Murray’s encouragement. It’s a reference to Nancy not being truthful about her feelings towards Steve and could have a few double meanings, including the LIE literally being Nancy and Jonathan sleeping together (hence, LYING together), as well as Jonathan’s trust issues that Murray talks about.
The First I love You plays during Robin’s coming out and also El saying I love you to Mike (that Mike appears confused by in season 3). My favourite detail here is that the word “love” in the song is not capitalized. This may seem insignificant, but when you look at the ENTIRE stranger things soundtrack pre season 4, no other words have been in lowercase. This was intentional, both for Mike/El’s awkward kiss, and Steve/Robin’s love for each other, which is not romantic, since Robin is a lesbian. It starts out as one-sided for Steve and then we obviously see their amazing friendship.
Here’s where the symbolism gets super interesting. There’s no way this is not intentional. In season 4 vol 2 when Will gives Mike the painting, he confesses to Mike but covers it up with El’s name. He then turns away from Mike and cries, muffling the sound with his hand. It’s been emphasized throughout the show that Will is unable to lie to Mike. Literally season 1, episode 1: “it was a seven. The demogorgon, it got me.” Lucas encourages Will to not say anything to Mike since he didn’t see the roll, but Will physically cannot lie to him. This theme is seen with byler again and again throughout the show. Will never lies to Mike. EXCEPT, in this scene in season 4.
Will covers up his feelings. It’s a weird halfway point. He lies to Mike for the first time, and he can’t bear it, combined with all his other feelings for him. THE SONG THAT PLAYS DURING THIS SCENE, BEING DIFFERENT, has the exact same melody as BOTH THE FIRST LIE AND THE FIRST I LOVE YOU.
Are you guys hearing this??
It’s both the first time Will lies to Mike in the show AND the first time he somewhat confesses the truth, that he loves Mike. The melody of First Lie/First I love You ONLY STARTS once Will finishes up his monologue and turns away to cry, realizing what’s just happened.
This is literally insane musical symbolism.
I compiled a video with Will’s scene at the end for you guys to see how similar the songs are.
Text and subtext in Käärijä songs : an interpretation
Cha cha cha
We're partying!!
but also, isn't it sad how we tend to be so reliant on alcohol before we relax and let our personalities out?
Auto Jää
We're partying!!
but also, keep in mind that while you're this intoxicated, it's entirely unthinkable to operate heavy machinery, so please make a plan for your transport later when you're all partied out.
It's Crazy It's Party
We're partying!!
but also, fame can be fickle and overwhelming, so make sure to take care of yourself. It's not quite natural to live a life of party 24/7/365, you also need the time to wind down and gain some perspective. (also gay stuff)
I can't believe Mike friend zoned Will and then Will immediately friend zoned him back and Mike got all sad and quiet and retreated back "In the Closet (at Rink o Mania)"
(yes, that moment is the exact line the song starts playing, you can check)
How messed up you two are, that one is content that his brother's seeing him (dead) in illusion, and the other didn't even notice that is a weird response at all?