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qqueenofhades · 10 months

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Good Omens Season 2: Some Thoughts (and also Screaming)

First, /screams

Second, obligatory disclaimer that this meta contains MAJOR SPOILERS for all six episodes. If you somehow have managed to remain virginally unspoiled, look away now, scroll past, or add "good omens s2" and "good omens spoilers" to your block list, as those are the tags I have been using for all posts and reblogs.

Third, /screams more

Okay okay okay. Deep breaths.

Anyway, so, uh, how about all that, huh? First, the good thing about the tone of the season overall was that it felt considerably darker and more adult, in a good way. We didn't have the precocious kiddies, the kitsch and literally-comphet Anathema and Newt, the so-clever narration, etc. All that was gone, which makes sense when you consider that a) the end of last season saw them reboot into an entirely new universe, and b) the fact that God has gone silent is, in fact, a major plot point for the season. We don't have Her slyly telling us the story, or indeed anything, and everyone is left to make their own judgments and take their own actions. Which, obviously, gets them into a lot of trouble, especially when Metatron (the Voice of God, aka someone acting in the belief that they're speaking for God and therefore doing terrible harm) swoops in with the ultimate buzzkill at the end of episode 6. But we'll get to that.

The downside was that the main, present-day plot (hiding Gabriel in the bookshop and trying to get Nina and Maggie to fall in love) was fairly thin, felt stretched out and at times weirdly paced, and otherwise existed mostly to get us to That Ending and the setup for season 3. But the ending was so damn good (if obviously, very painful) that I can't be TOO mad, not least because we spent six episodes with them just making absolutely no pretense about the whole thing being as incredibly homosexual as possible. I'll be honest: I did not think they were going to actually, explicitly go there. Neil Gaiman has been so consistent about "your interpretations are valid and you're welcome to read it however you want, but the only canon is what's on screen," which I think is frankly a good thing (not least since the Neil GAYman Cinematic Universe is consistently very, very good to us queers), that I just... didn't quite think they'd pull the trigger. Sir Terry is dead and can't have active input, this is based on a book published 30 years ago, maybe they didn't want to make it LIKE THAT... etc. I certainly hoped, but I didn't really think they would.

Uh. Well.

As I said in my various semi-coherent liveblog posts, I honestly don't think there was a single straight person in the entire season, among both major and background characters. Aziraphale/Crowley and Maggie/Nina are the obvious paralleling couples, but Beelzebub (using "they" pronouns and addressed as "Lord" despite presenting as femme/femme-adjacent) is clearly nonbinary and therefore also queer, and the countless gay/queer side characters were just /chefs kiss. From Job's son making a sassy pass at Aziraphale, to the random Scottish goon with Grindr on his phone (which he then gives to Aziraphale, because what is subtlety), to the interracial couple with the trans spouse at the Pride and Prejudice ball, there was just a lot of casual, unremarked, non-story-critical queer representation visible at every turn. It's like the NGCU saw the bigots wailing about Sandman season 1 being extremely gay and went CHALLENGE ACCEPTED, LET'S MAKE GOOD OMENS 2 EVEN MORE GAY.

God bless.

Obviously, Jon Hamm as Amnesia!Gabriel stole the show (he was SO fucking funny) and it was also incredibly fun to watch Miranda Richardson repurposed as a scheming demon. Nina Sosanya also reappeared as Nina the coffee shop owner, which leads us into the Maggie-and-Nina subplot. They're obviously, wildly, incredibly clearly an analogue for Aziraphale and Crowley themselves, but they're also each, crucially, a mix of both. On the surface, Maggie is Aziraphale: the plump, blonde, earnest, sweet-natured one owning a slightly dated book music shop and somewhat clueless about emotional nuances, while Nina is (also on the surface) Crowley, the hard-edged dark loner who doesn't want to open herself up to people or be spotted caring. But emotionally, Maggie is Crowley: the one openly pining, clearly besotted, only wanting to hang around their crush and do whatever they can to make themselves useful, while Nina is Aziraphale. Interested but reticent, attracted but conflicted, trapped in an abusive relationship with a demanding offscreen "lover" (Lindsay/Heaven) who tries to constantly control and shame them without ever offering much, if anything in return. By the end, they bring themselves around to what Maggie/Crowley are offering, but by then, well. We've got a lot more problems on our hands.

As I also said in my earlier posts, this entire thing has always been a metaphor for religion, queerness, and what religion -- especially abusive, fundamentalist, organized religion -- does to queer people, but they really cranked the FUCK out of that metaphor this season. Aziraphale is guilt-tripped, controlled, and shamed for his attraction to Crowley at every turn. He is torn between his imagined duty to Heaven, in all its ignorant, uncaring, bureaucratic, gratuitously cruel system that he still insists on seeing the best in because he can't bear the alternative, and the chaotic and sometimes grey but genuinely more good morality that Crowley offers him. (Can I just say, we were explicitly shown that the two of them together doing "just a little miracle" are more powerful than Heaven AND Hell combined.) And at the end, he's told that the only way he can be with Crowley -- what Metatron explicitly blackmails him with -- is if they both go back to heaven, submit themselves to the cruel system again and give up everything that has made them who they are: their home in London, their human friends, their reliance on each other, their independence, their own ways of doing things. You can be queer in this (religious) framework, but only the limited, watered-down, controlled, controllable, constantly-under-supervision kind of queer, which relies on both you and your lover "converting" back to the true faith. And if you don't cooperate, they will literally kidnap you, lie to you, manipulate you, take you from your soulmate, and force you right back into doing the one thing (destroying the world) that you never, ever wanted to do in the first place, because in their minds, that is still better than this. It's for your own good.

Ouch.

And the thing is: that's why the ending a) hits so hard and b) is so fucking painful, because of course Aziraphale agrees. He has no conception of being able to defy Heaven on his own; he has always, always needed Crowley for that. In the flashbacks, when Aziraphale is faced with an order from Heaven that he desperately does not want to carry out (such as letting all Job's children get killed), he still relies completely on Crowley to "outsmart the rules" and find a better way. Crowley is A Crafty Demon; that's what he does, and so Aziraphale rationalizes it to himself that therefore that must be fine. Even in season 1, when he really didn't want the Apocalypse to happen but initially thought it was his duty as a good Heaven footsoldier, he relied on Crowley to talk him out of it and allow him to do what he really wants instead. That's their whole dynamic in a nutshell, as exemplified in that scene in episode 2, where Crowley tempts Aziraphale with the "pleasures of the flesh" while sprawled on his back in Ravish Me mode like the giant walking gay disaster that he is. (Sorry, buddy. That beard. Can't do it.) Everything that Aziraphale's existence is, that makes him who he is, that he loves and cherishes the most (in this case, food and wine) comes from Crowley. Everything else is just background noise.

Throughout the season, what we see is Aziraphale increasingly coming around to the fantasy of being with Crowley. He's coy and flirty; he talks about "our car" and expects Crowley will let him (which he does); he wants to have a Jane Austen ball and for them to dance together (oh my heart); he even thinks, at the crucial moment, that the best way for them to be together is to go back to heaven just like they were in the beginning, once more perfect angels, as if those entire six thousand years of struggle and grief and pining and separation and falling didn't happen. And Crowley -- poor, poor, brave, devoted, heartbroken Crowley -- has just heard for the first time in said six thousand years that actually telling the person you love how you feel is an option. Maggie and Nina tell them point-blank that their whole stupid plan failed because people aren't chess pieces who can be moved and automatically achieve the desired result. And of course this gobsmacks the dearest and dumbest Ineffable Husbands, because they can't conceive of anything else. People are chess pieces in the Great War of Heaven and Hell; Aziraphale and Crowley themselves are chess pieces who have been desperately trying to get out of being moved by external forces, but that doesn't change the fact that that's what they are. They don't have volition or agency aside from that which they can sneak for themselves in brief and stolen moments. That's it.

Until, well. It's not it. They discover that this whole would-be war is actually an elaborate ruse to cover up another angel-demon romance, that of Gabriel and Beelzebub. (I'll be honest, I'm 99% sure they did this storyline because they saw the fans crackshipping them, but I appreciate a fictional narrative that values and incorporates its fans' input, rather than trying to constantly "trick" or "outsmart" them or "do what they don't expect.") And Gabriel and Beelzebub get to be together, but only by leaving their world forever. They have to desert their homes, their structures, even their own identities, and never return. And Crowley and Aziraphale are so rooted in their "precious, perfect, fragile" life in their little corner of Soho, with their bookshop and their Bentley and their dining at the Ritz (which they didn't get to do in the end because METATRON /shakes fist), that that just doesn't work. Neither of them can conceive of doing that. So Aziraphale thinks "go back to heaven and try to make the terrible system do some good and take what we can in terms of being together" and Crowley just... pours out his heart. He's ready to fucking propose. He barely stops himself from saying something to the effect of "I want to spend eternity with you." He begs, he pleads with Aziraphale to go away not in the literal sense, but the emotional/metaphysical: to finally break this toxic dependence on Heaven and tell them once and for all where to stick it. And because he is desperate to make Aziraphale understand, he finally throws all caution to the winds and recklessly, desperately, adoringly kisses him, the one thing he's wanted to do for ages and...

Gets. Shot. Down.

Ugghhhhh. I'm suffering all over again. Aziraphale wants him, hungers for it, for them, and yet he's been so abused and so conditioned by Heaven (he's still blithely repeating to Crowley's face that "Hell are the bad guys!") that he just cannot accept that kind of desperate, blind, limitless, lawless affection. He even forgives Crowley for this "transgression," just to really twist the knife, and Crowley just can't take it, can't face up to how terribly this has all gone up in flames, after he went to heaven trying to find the answer for Gabriel's situation. Gabriel, who he fucking hates. Gabriel, who tried to kill the angelic being he loves (and for which Crowley has transparently never forgiven him). And yet at one pouty puppy-eyed look from Aziraphale and a warning that whoever is harboring Gabriel might be in danger, Crowley leaps headlong into the Bentley again and rushes to the rescue while "Good Old Fashioned Lover Boy" is blaring. He stoutly protects Gabriel; he does a miracle to disguise him; he lets him have hot chocolate and stay in the bookshop; he guards him from the literal demonic horde outside. All because of Aziraphale. That's it. And then, it still doesn't work. Not only that, Gabriel's absence and decision to forego Armageddon gives Heaven the one tool they finally need to take Aziraphale away from him.

I repeat: Ugghhhhhhhh.

(In a good way. Ngl, I love this angst. This is the kind of angst my brain Thrives on, the Thematic Parallel Romantic Character Arc kind. Nom nom nom. But also: AGONY.)

I also need to talk about Aziraphale driving the Bentley, aside from the obvious metaphor of him being in Crowley's home while Crowley is in his. Last season, we had the "you go too fast for me, Crowley" scene with them sitting in said Bentley, which was Aziraphale saying he's not ready for a relationship. In this season, as noted above, we see Aziraphale increasingly embracing the potential fantasy of being with Crowley. But here's the catch: when he's in the Bentley this time, driving it, setting the pace, acclimating to the idea, he's driving his own idea of what the Bentley/his relationship with Crowley is. It's not the real thing. He plays classical music; he supplies himself sweets; he turns it yellow; he drives too slow. Crowley calls him in another old-married-couple snitfit to complain that Aziraphale's messed it up, but what Aziraphale has actually messed up (or will, by the end of the season) is far more consequential than just a car. He's changed the entire shape of their relationship to the one he thinks can make it work, and it just doesn't. It has to be them -- "we could have been... Us" -- or it's not even close to the truth. It's not worth their time.

I repeat: Ouch.

Speaking of the writers validating fan theories, I know we all picked up and screamed about on Crowley's idea of Peak Romance Guaranteed To Fall In Love being sheltering from rain and gazing into each other's eyes, which confirms that that poor bastard was indeed ass-over-teakettle gone as soon as he met Aziraphale (again) in Eden. I also need to talk about the 1941 redux, because wow. This time, the danger comes from Hell, which we see being its usual self: gleefully, pointlessly cruel, pettily backbiting, dirty, sniping, tedious, endless, determined to mindlessly destroy because They're The Bad Guys and they like it. So they blackmail, spy on, miracle-block, illicitly photograph, and try to prove that Aziraphale and Crowley are secretly a couple, right after Aziraphale himself has just had the Light From Heaven realization that he's in love (which we all also picked up on in s1). They're forcibly outing them (to speak of more Religious Queer Trauma) in order to break them up/get them into trouble with their authorities/families. Aziraphale and Crowley manage to escape it mostly by dumb luck, but Crowley having an altogether freakout, hands shaking, barely able to actually point the gun at Aziraphale even in the knowledge that it's supposed to be fake, is just... wow. He can't even fathom the idea of ever trying to destroy him in earnest, especially when he knows on some level that Aziraphale also finally just realized his own feelings. So I just need to --

/screams

Anyway, Aziraphale's entire arc this season is doing what he thinks is the right thing and then inadvertently causing harm and damage as a result. In the Edinburgh flashbacks (live slug reaction of me: SEAN BIGGERSTAFF???!!) he tries to stop Elspeth from stealing bodies and gets Morag killed and Crowley drinking the laudanum to save him (though that part with David Tennant just riffing left and right, using his natural Scottish accent, and being Tiny Crowley/Huge Crowley was hilarious). He invites his neighbors to a Pride and Prejudice ball and makes them all the target for demonic attack. And of course the Job episode: Aziraphale, horrified at Heaven's callous cruelty, desperate not to get Job's children killed, willing to go along with Crowley's tricks to save them somehow, tempted by Crowley to do the fucknasty with their angel bits eat some food and decide that he likes it. As mentioned, the whole thing about God being silent this season is a major thematic choice. The only time we see/hear God is Her communing with Job from afar. Aziraphale enviously imagines the answers he must be getting (he's not, he's baffled and perplexed), while Crowley longs beyond words to even have the opportunity to ask the question: why? Why do this? Why is this your plan?

And of course, this absence culminates in the Metatron, the Voice of God, the person arrogantly claiming that they're speaking for God and know exactly what Heaven wants, being able to seize Aziraphale by the short hairs and absolutely fuck him over. Gabriel is gone/decommissioned/eloping with Beelzebub, so Heaven needs a Supreme Leader (God apparently is no longer a factor in the equation). And what this Supreme Leader needs to do is finally unleash the Apocalypse that Gabriel decided to pass on (the Second Coming). Aziraphale needs to be punished, taken away from Crowley's influence/love, and put back under Heaven's explicit control, so Metatron spots a great opportunity to do all three at once. It's not an accident that the exact tool he uses to get Aziraphale to agree is "now you can actually be with Crowley!" Aziraphale and Crowley have been trying so hard to hide out from their respective Head Offices, but now all at once, there's this seemingly miraculous opportunity for them not to have to do that anymore! They can be together! They can be sanctioned by Heaven! They can give up all this hiding and sneaking around and lying! Isn't that better?

... As long as, of course, they give up absolutely everything that makes them who they are. No big deal. Minor catch. Probably nothing.

Metatron doesn't let Aziraphale have time to escape, or think it over, or reflect, or anything. He pressures Aziraphale to come with him immediately, or be once more subject to Heaven's implicit wrath/destruction/judgment. Believe me, Aziraphale already KNOWS he's made a huge mistake, as soon as he hears what Metatron really wants: bringing him back to unleash the Apocalypse that Aziraphale and Crowley have given up literally everything to prevent. He doesn't need time to reflect. By the time my man is in that elevator, he's well aware of what a catastrophic misjudgment he's made, and yet --

Aziraphale needs this. He has, as noted, literally always relied on Crowley outsmarting Heaven's cruel orders in order to prevent himself from having to do them. He's relied on Crowley rescuing him ("rescuing me makes him so happy," WELL BUB, IT'S BECAUSE YOU ALWAYS NEED IT). He admits to Crowley's face that "I need you!" He hates Heaven's sadistic meanness, but he has absolutely no framework, in and of himself, to defy it. When the rubber hits the road, he will crumple and try to go along with it, and now he's been put in a position where he's going to have to stand up, defy Heaven, and make the break once and for all BY HIMSELF. He doesn't have Crowley around to do it for him, he has no support, he is going to arrive in Heaven and be shuttled straight off to the Apocalypse 2.0 War Room. The only way he gets out of this is if he actively stands up, if he chooses himself and Crowley and their life, and he has to.

The thing is:

Aziraphale has lived his entire eternal existence Looking Up. Up is the direction of Goodness and Heaven. Up is where Angels go. Up is where Aziraphale comes from and where Demons and Hell are not. But now he's going Up, in a position to take over the whole shebang, and it's the last thing he wants.

So he's going to have to come back Down.

He's going to have to Fall. He's going to have to get back Below at all costs. He's going to have to finally, once and for all, understand what led Crowley to make the choice to leave Heaven and never come back. It's only then that they can possibly be together on any kind of conscious, equal, deliberate footing, claim their own agency, reject Heaven AND Hell, and try to really earn that South Downs cottage and that happy-ever-after, and it's gonna hurt so good.

Now if you will excuse me, /screams

#good omens #good omens meta #good omens s2 #good omens spoilers #ineffable husbands #look this probably could have been twice as long #but i had to stop somewhere #I JUST HAVE A LOT OF FEELINGS

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littlehollyleaf · 10 months

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Oh I'm dumb

I got fooled by Maggie being the sunshine one while Nina is the grumpy one

But the parallel with our ineffables has them the other way round doesn't it?

MAGGIE is the one moving too fast, trying to tempt Nina into a romance with gifts (ie. the record, like Crowley tempts with food and books etc), and Maggie is the one who insists she will be there waiting still at whatever unknown point in the future Nina might be ready and willing to start a romance with her (as Crowley has been waiting for Aziraphale all these millennia, coming back still after all the times Aziraphale has rejected him)

While NINA is the one with the emotionally abusive, possessive and controlling partner she is constantly defending and struggling to remain loyal to despite their treatment of her (ie. as Aziraphale is and does with Heaven)

THIS is why we got Nina claiming to not be Maggie's type alongside Shax claiming Aziraphale doesn't seem Crowley's type, which initially confused me - because NINA is the Aziraphale parallel, and neither of them seem like the type of their respective love interests

A+ paralleling - nicely thought-provoking while still being cute and fun - Brava!

#good omens #good omens 2 #good omens meta #ineffable husbands

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vidavalor · 9 months

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Lindsay isn't just Heaven. She's Lucifer.

Going to mention here that this has discussion of abuse, including sexual assault and PTSD and recovery, in case you do not wish to read further.

So, Maggie & Nina are blended parallels of Crowley & Aziraphale, right? They're each a bit of both of them. Story-wise, personality-wise, paralleling-wise, vibe-wise, etc., right? So then can we talk about how Lindsay isn't *just* representing Heaven's abusive relationship with Aziraphale but also then how a blended parallel means that Crowley has a Lindsay, too? And that the show seems to suggest pretty heavily that it's Lucifer/Satan?

S2: Crowley triggers a blackout in the area that brings down mobile phone networks in London, trapping Maggie & Nina in the coffee shop and keeping Lindsay from being able to reach Nina through an electronic device. When the connection is restored, Nina is overwhelmed by the torrent of abuse sent to her through that device and we get confirmation that Nina's partner is emotionally and verbally abusive. This mirrors...

S1: Crowley brings down every mobile phone network in London, which keeps him from reaching Aziraphale (his Maggie) for a time to tell him about the antichrist... but it *doesn't* keep his abusive partner from reaching him through an electronic device (his car radio) and then abusing him in a metaphorical-to-human-rape demonic assault. It's mind control. It's forcible and against Crowley's will. It's literally taking away his own sense of bodily autonomy and control of himself while he's driving (the epitome of navigating your own surroundings under your own power)-- and he's driving the car that is an extension of his consciousness, no less.

FWIW, this is *really* why Crowley has a complete meltdown over Aziraphale wanting to drive The Bentley in S2. It's a much more light-hearted group of scenes but the themes of a sense of autonomy for Crowley are still there. ("*We* don't have a car. The Bentley is *my* car.") Trusting Aziraphale to drive the car when Crowley can feel every bit of it and has no control over what Aziraphale is doing is analogous to a rape survivor with PTSD, who is now in a healthier relationship, having to learn how to trust that person enough to relinquish some control-- both in and out of bed-- to build a life with that someone. To be vulnerable around them and learn to trust that they can feel safe doing so and that everything will be okay. It takes time, no matter how much you trust your partner, and Crowley does trust Aziraphale.

See, Crowley? He's qualified.

#ineffable husbands #good omens #crowley #aziraphale #crowley x aziraphale #aziraphale x crowley #nina good omens #maggie good omens

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biancathecrossbow · 10 months

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It's pretty easy to hate on an angel RN so let's shake things up and talk about how CROWLEY enables Aziraphale's repression.

Most of the flashbacks put Aziraphales burgeoning cognitive dissonance on centerfold- with Crowley acting as the voice of reason. To Aziraphale, he represents a slippery slope; the personification of Temptation and Hard Questions and Grey Morals, but those things aren't actually character flaws on his part, as the show reminds us over and over. His actual flaws are more subtle, but very much still present.

Frankly, Crowleys worst flaw is stated plainly by Aziraphale; that he enables naivety in order to keep his angel safe. Put another way, swooping in to "save" him.

It's hard to blame him because, well, they could both die otherwise most of the time. But when Crowley saves the day with Job's kids and the Laudanum, he's also stopping Aziraphale from reaching his own solutions (and conclusions). The fact Aziraphale has managed to avoid any kind of punishment is, in fact, a detriment adding to his indoctrination under Heaven. Put simply: for Azi, it always works out. So why worry? Crowley, on the other hand, isn't so lucky- he gets punished for the Laundanum incident (which I hope we get more detail on btw) and in general suffers a lot for protecting Aziraphale.

You see this pattern repeat in smaller interactions, too. Crowley does all the work re-wording things to make them more palatable to Aziraphale. Crowley always returns to apologize after a storm-out. Etc.

((Side tangent: This is another reason I think the Blitz continuation is so interesting. For once you see a bit of a role reversal- Crowley INITIALLY saves him from the Nazis, but it's Aziraphale who saves them both from Furfur. Its one of the first and only times you see them communicating more effectively- so it's NO COINCIDENCE that this is also when Aziraphale seems to unclench his ass a little.))

During the Bookshop fight, Aziraphale waits for Crowley to save them to everybodys detriment. He endangers Maggie and Nina, and ends up having to use the halo as a desperate last resort. Again we see Aziraphale avoid implementing a solution (and thus avoid facing the consequences) until the last moment, hoping Crowley will do it for him. In the end, Nina nails them both on the head, right? They don't talk, and they really should.

All of this to be a stubborn Aziraphale defender, so here's my point:

Aziraphale looks completely shaken during Crowleys confession because it IS the first time he's hearing some of these things. Sure, Crowley has said some variety of "Heaven sucks" a million times, but Aziraphale always heard it to the tune of a jealous guy who has been kicked out for bad behavior. Their situations don't seem the same to Aziraphale because in his LIVED reality, they arent.

Hell, even their "exile" isnt the same- Aziraphale keeps the bookshop and is allowed to keep helping people. Crowley loses everything and continues to be hounded by Shax. To Azi, Heaven and Hell are moral opposites, not parallels, and Crowley has never really argued otherwise until now.

Crowley, of course, bails him out every time because he wants to spare his angel the Heartbreak that destroyed him. You can't blame him- and snapping under all the pressure is only logical too. But you also can't blame Aziraphale for being upset when 6,000 years of Crowleys obscura comes tumbling down around them.

#good omens #good omens meta #ineffible husbands #also this is NOT to shift blame on Crowley. its to point out they are both normal flawed people having normal reactions #to a very abnormal situation

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manicpixiedreamcrowley · 4 months

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planning on writing good omens meta soon, so:

#chanposting #good omens #neil gaiman #crowley #terry pratchett #aziraphale #ineffable husbands #aziracrow #good omens 2 #ineffable divorce #good omens meta #poll #the philosophical one would be the longest for sure but i would go absolutely crazy on it #also feel free to suggest meta ideas #lmk if these dont make sense tbh #giving it a week because itll give me time to brainstorm anywYs #if you see typos please please ignore them ive tried to draft this like 4 times but my wifi went out and i lost it. then it turns out #if you save a poll as a draft you cant edit it

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bastardsallofyou · 11 months

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okay i just need to talk about parallels between nina + maggie and aziraphale + crowley rn

I think the obvious parallel is that Nina and Crowley are the “grumpy” ones, while Aziraphale and Maggie are the “sunshine” ones (though we haven’t seen much of Maggie so far, we can take a wild guess.) But I love how the new descriptions of Nina and Maggie show their yin and yang thing, similarly to A+C.

Nina is a “realist,” while Maggie is a “dreamer,” and while I think most of us would initially think of Crowley as the “realist” and Aziraphale as the “dreamer,” (and they both are in their own ways) the show really hammers home the message of their conflicting, so very human, natures in how they think.

Crowley is the one who is an described as optimist at heart. Crowley is the one who suggests running away to Alpha Centauri, thinking Heaven and Hell won’t find them; believing, inherently, that God is less than omniscient in his thinking that they won’t be found. He can be such a blindly hopeful dreamer, even though everything in his immortal life has told him to think otherwise.

Aziraphale is the one who a realist, maybe even a pessimist at times. “Together? Listen to yourself.” “That’s ridiculous. If I can just talk to the right people-” etc, etc. He openly enjoys the wonders of existence on Earth, yet there’s a realist buried inside of him, a part of him that knows there’s a deadline on it all.

I guess what I’m saying here is I love how Good Omens sets up expectations in how relationships parallel (I could say that Madame Tracey and Shadwell, Anathema and Newt, etc, parallel A+C in their own ways. Grumpy and sunshine trope. Confident and professional vs the idiot tm.) And then they break that- the whole point is that they’re all human in their twisting and turning, confusing little ways, and they each have a bit of those tropes in them. God, I love this show.

#good omens #my thoughts #crowley #aziraphale #ineffable husbands #i never know what my point is #but i enjoy making it #dolphins- that's my point

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thesherrinfordfacility · 7 months

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another batshit theory for the ages...

though tbh it's just a summary that interweaves a variety of them. it's long and rambly im sorry

so @booksandmate added this increíble addition to what was honestly meant as a half-hearted shitpost, and then allowed me to pepe-silvia at them in their DMs, but it's been spinning in my head ever since - because if we consider if crowley had managed to reach ten before the lightning strike, and managed to control his temper... well, what would have happened?

but that's not necessarily what im looking at here, specifically. i am however gonna start with ep1 and the lightning strike, because im somewhat dogged by nina's words in ep6 that now suddenly feel like a healthy helping of foreshadowing:

that everything started with the locked-in-the-coffeeshop-incident, which of course was precipitated by crowley losing his rag, summoning (?) lightning, and it bouncing off the café.

noting a couple of things: the lightning definitely appears to originate from crowley, right? it may well be calling like-to-like, but either way the lightning starts in him, and we suddenly then have either a) a bolt summoned from the heavens, channeled through him, and hitting the café, or b) two bolts, one of which relays back and forth from the heavens, and a further bolt rebounded on the café.

but what... is the point? im relatively on the team that it could just be building crowley-lore, playing into the "crowley is a very powerful demon 💅" characterisation, and it has the ultimate byproduct of kick-starting the events of the s2 plot; like @booksandmate said, without crowley counting to ten and controlling his anger, we wouldn't have the above, wouldn't have nina and maggie locked in the café, etc etc. but.

this locking-in business could easily, i hubristically presume (albeit less exciting, admittedly), have been written as caused by something else, or not occurred altogether (and maggie would still have shared with aziraphale that she thinks she's in love with nina, gave her the LP etc)... so why specifically did it require crowley, and such a raw display of 'demonic' power?

with that in mind, do we assume it serves a different purpose, or at least has another layer? well, we collectively seem to be surmising the latter, given god's words in the job minisode:

do you know the rules of the heavens? did you set the constellations in the sky? can you send lightning bolts and get them to report back to you?

obviously the last two now, in retrospect, seem very significant in the context of what we find out about crowley in both s1 and s2; he created nebulae and hung stars and planets, and now can seem to summon lightning. i originally wondered if it were simply a message to crowley or at least the audience that god was still watching, and had not forsaken crowley at all, but i do now ponder if its something more.

the first one is iffy, but actually... well, it definitely seems that crowley has the better measure of heaven than aziraphale or indeed anyone else has - what its motivations and limitations are, to say the least. even his line about the bees; in this respect, he is deeply perceptive of the intragroup dynamic of heaven in a way that the angels are not. and then, if we hypothesise about crowley in a pre- to post-fall context, that he Only Asked Questions, an action that may turn out to have precipitated the Big Bad, then yeah - maybe crowley does in fact know the rules of the heavens, and learnt it the hard way.

and this doesn't even take into account the whole general parallel between job and crowley in receiving undue punishment "and not even to know why". whilst i do still hold that the minisode flashbacks may well be crowley's POV, that is largely irrelevant; we know crowley displaces his emotions surrounding the fall/god onto his plants in modern day, and we are immediately introduced to the minisode with the display of him doing the same to job's goats.

either way, i think that we can be reasonably certain that whilst maybe unintentional at the time, god's words were a direct mirror to events unfolding/character history revealed for crowley at the very least in s2. even if we step outside taking god's action/inaction literally in job, and see it as a parable, it's a lesson that sometimes suffering occurs for no reason, that the universe is not always explainable and certainly not always good, but trust in god and god's power. icky to think about, at least for me, but the same passage (job 41, god's answers) then brings me to my next thought: the matchbox.

i wrote a follow up to a fab post looking at where i feel the matchbox might come into play (specifically, job 41:19 that is inscribed on the side of it), but here is the précis of sorts:

given that the matchbox features the quote before being dropped in heaven, it was potentially placed there in the pub as a long-standing direction for gabriel 'for when the time came', a mark of omniscience

the passage itself may refer to the leviathan as per job, but imagery-wise refers to the heaven trial in s1, where crowley-as-aziraphale spits out fire at the archangels

it's the last thing gabriel reads before he heads down to earth. he still thinks it's aziraphale (ie. heaven is presumably not aware of the body-swap at that point), and so heads to where he knows aziraphale will be - the bookshop - to seek... protection?

if the message however was put there by god, who is omniscient (and the narrator of s1), they would have been directing gabriel towards crowley, not aziraphale... crowley who is homeless living in his car, but whose own last sanctuary is that same bookshop

and lastly, it seems that it's only crowley that is able to unlock gabriel's memories... we know that crowley definitely has some kind of hypnotic, trance-like power, and this might be key... especially as gabriel then starts recounting memories (and prophecies...?) that he wasn't present for - only god, job, aziraphale and crowley.

(tbh, i then wonder how far the 'signs from the almighty' might extend to buddy holly playing in that bar, for beelzebub to introduce the concept of music to gabriel, 'information in a tuneful way'.)

i also want to pay some attention to the 25-lazarii miracle, because im still obsessed by the idea that the miracle didn't quite work as intended, or at least not in the way crowley ends up describing in ep6. summary:

gabriel took his gabrielness and put it in the fly, and the fly followed him into the bookshop and continued to chill there quite happily for all of s2

michael and shax seem to be able to sense gabriel to varying degrees - michael in ep2, and shax in ep3 - where i think it's possible they're sensing the consciousness of gabriel stored in the fly. in any case, they are all able to perceive and acknowledge jim as a inconsequential human, which in any case goes directly against 'not noticing' him in that form

when aziraphale and crowley do the miracle, they hold hands with jim - where gabriel definitively isn't - and attempt to hide gabriel. but if gabriel isn't in there, and it didn't work on jim, and yet a miracle still registers up in heaven, what did the miracle actually do? did it hide someone else?

if god is somehow channelling themself through jim, as we see in ep2 and ep3, did the boys - in fact - hide god?

but then, now that im thinking about, would a miracle of that magnitude only take 25 lazarii? what if instead it's the son of god, who has the power of words to give eternal life? the power, when he returns, to grant humanity eternal salvation, or eternal punishment? john 6:68 (yes, the verse number struck me dumb for a minute):

hold that thought (sorry) for a minute though, because the lightning strike came before hiding anything... so, does the lightning serve a different purpose, in the wider narrative? well, let's consult matthew 24 and break it down:

lighting strike? ✅* (more on this later on)

carcass around which eagles (or vultures depending on the version) gather? im gonna hazard a ✅

or considering the more metaphorical:

sun shall be darkened, moon will not give her light? bit of a stretch, but darkness fell pretty quick in ep5, certainly more rapid than would be warranted for 6.30pm, and lasted that way, presumably, until the demons had all been eviscerated... so, tentative ✅ (though given the green lighting... it could have all just been the demons, sure)

stars from heaven, and powers of heaven will be shaken? not too sure on the stars, unless you potentially count it in with the above darkness thing, but the metatron making a surprise appearance would suggest that the powers definitely be shooketh ✅

if we look at verse 30, this suggests that this hasn't happened just yet; that whilst we may be gearing up towards the second coming, it hasn't actually happened*, and this is where we'll lead into s3.

but if we continue matthew 24 (discussed in this post and this post too by @paperbunny):

days of noah: okay so yeah this could well be a literal flood, and tbh i still think (i wear glasses, so full disclosure ok) that that little snippet behind aziraphale in the first link looks like an optical illusion of a flood, but the chapter continues to clarify a little more about what was happening before the great flood, that humanity will exist in a similar bliss until the second coming arrives... so, a tentative ✅

eating and drinking ✅ there is a lot of eating and drinking imagery in s2, no doubt, but i feel like the coffee and eccles cakes in ep1, before the lightning, play a potentially major part here* (again, more on this later on)

marrying and giving in marriage ✅ if you take into account the whole maggie/nina subplot, gabriel/beelzebub subplot, and then The Big One that is crowley's marriage proposal in ep6

one shall be taken, the other left ✅ 💀 i don't need to explain this surely

two women grinding at the mill, one shall be taken, the other left ✅ ...ish. grinding maybe as a reference to how maggie and nina end up in the café together, working together, then visit crowley and end up Not Getting Together for Good Reason, but where crowley leaves them is that maggie is back in the record store, asleep (and waiting for nina to heal)

but where i come back to the *s is twofold:

nina says eccles cakes would calm someone down. aziraphale seems to consider it, and believe her. he takes the eccles cakes with him, deliberately hands them off to crowley so he can open the door, and the last interior shot before crowley loses his mind is the cakes, untouched, on the table. we know aziraphale seems to have a knack for unconscious miracles/reality manipulation, so what if by believing the eccles cakes would in fact calm crowley down, they actually magically take on the attribute that they would calm him down? im calling this diversion-from-matthew-24 #1

and then the lightning strike itself; crowley fails to rein in his temper, and the lightning shenanigans happen... but matthew describes that it cometh from the east, and shineth unto the west... but in crowley's case, the lightning strikes the bookshop, which lies to the east (going by the compass in aziraphale's bookshop) (actually technically north-east i guess)... diversion-from-matthew-24 #2.

this where im wondering a few things, as a culmination of all of the above...

did god foresee a good portion of all of this, and the events that follow, and warn gabriel ahead of time to seek out aziraphale and crowley via the medium of the matchbox?

does crowley, having not eaten the cakes, summon lighting because he did not Calm Down, constituting as the first sign of the second coming - and was just a wee bit ahead of schedule?

and did he botch it, à la s1 baby swap, by it hitting the coffeeshop instead of the bookshop (going to the east, not the west)? and is the lightning reaching upwards towards the heavens significant?

did crowley's lightning summon jesus, yank his... spirit? soul? out of heaven, and bring it earthside, and it attached itself to jim, currently a vacant vessel?

aziraphale and crowley hide said jesus spirit inadvertently with the 25 lazarii miracle, expecting to hide gabriel?

when jim goes all purple-eyed-mystic-meg, is that jesus speaking? speaking as an omniscient being with his mother's voice, and prophesying the rest of the second coming with "a tempest... great storms"?

and yet, despite this, all the signs of the second coming continue throughout s2, and possibly even kick-start the last judgement, with the various mentions of people going missing? hell being understaffed?

if you've made it this far, kudos

#im literally just doing this so the multiple theories might flow somewhat cohesively #feel free to ignore tbh it's a mammoth post and barely coherent #good omens #s3 narrative spec #crowley meta #25 lazarii theory #second coming/last judgement theory #i have not fully proof-read this - pretend you do not Perceive the Errors

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did-somebody-say-pizza-rolls · 10 months

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apologies if someone has already said this but I only finished it last night so here’s my two cents about good omens season 2

Nina and Maggie are a parallel to Crowley and Aziraphale but not in the way you’d expect.

You’d expect Nina and Crowley to be paired together. They’re both the grumpy, glass half empty, albeit more “realistic” half of their duos. They wear dark colored clothes and have more similar, sarcastic, personalities. The grumpy to their partner’s sunshine.

Maggie and Aziraphale are the same. They’re cheery, idealistic, glass half full people. Their clothes are lighter and brighter and they’re always smiling and looking on the bright side of life. Sunshine people.

BUT

Thinking back on the last scene between Maggie, Nina, and Crowley, I can’t help but feel like the dynamic is Nina/Aziraphale and Maggie/Crowley.

Here’s why:

All throughout, we see Nina in an emotionally abusive relationship with her girlfriend. She’s constantly getting texts telling her she’s awful and she doesn’t care and eventually, threats that her partners leaving and won’t return. The same can be said about Aziraphale’s relationship with Heaven. They’re both aware the relationship is bad, but they’re so far in they feel a duty to uphold it and make things work, despite the clear imbalance (they care for their abusers more than their abusers care about them). Like Crowley said, Heaven, Hell, they’re all toxic—but Aziraphale still values that relationship because it’s all he’s been conditioned to know. Until or course, Crowley came along and showed him the truths of the world, challenged him to think for himself and showed him it’s ok to walk your own path—which is exactly what Maggie offers to Nina. A clean slate, a chance to rediscover her individuality, and time to figure that all out.

Likewise, Maggie’s been shown throughout the entirety of season 2 to be happy and self-sufficient with her independence. She runs her own shop, connects with people through the shop keepers monthly meetings, and dedicated her time to a passion and shop that other people may not value but SHE does and that’s enough. What’s more Crowley-coded than that? Marching to the beat of his own drum, caring for the Bentley more than he does people, forming his own eccentricities around ducks, music, wine, etc. BUT like Crowley, Maggie is shown to be missing one thing, wanting one thing: love. She has a crush on Nina across the street and has been silently pining after her for a while now (close proximity slow burn sound familiar anyone?) and much like Crowley, she’s the one to admit her feelings to a very hesitant Nina.

But the scene with the three of them at the end is very inspiring for the future of Aziraphale and Crowley, in my opinion. Nina and Maggie sit Crowley down and tell him they’re people and they can’t be toyed with for the sake of celestial matters. Nina even goes as far to say she’s not ready for a new relationship (because her previous one was so awful) but hopes if Maggie sticks around, they can make it work—which Maggie is almost immediate in reassuring she will be there. It’s played for laughs here, but looking back with the knowledge of what happens with Crowley and Aziraphale just after this, I’m looking back on the line with a quiet hope that it’s a sign of what’s to come for our ineffable duo. Because really, in what universe can anyone see Crowley NOT wait for Aziraphale?

What I think this means for next season (God, PLEASE give us a third season) is Aziraphale will finally start to cut off ties with Heaven (or maybe they’ll cut off ties with him, a la Lindsay), especially after realizing a relationship with Crowley is possible (shoutout Gabriel and Beelzebub). But whatever happens, I’m positive Crowley will be there, as always, to welcome him back. And Aziraphale will perform one hundred I-was-wrong dances and they’ll drive the Bentley off into the sunset (to their new cottage in the South Downs).

Or maybe I’m just delusional and coping ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

tldr: Nina is Aziraphale, Lindsay/Heaven are their abusives exes, and Maggie/Crowley are the people who actually love them and will wait for them to come around.

#good omens #good omens season two #crowley #aziraphale #good omens season 3 predictions #maggie/nina #ineffable divorce #ineffable husbands

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alargehunkofdebris · 10 months

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why the confessions are so vastly different

So I’ve seen a couple of things about how Beelzebub and Gabriel’s confession scene is a tiny bit cringe and embarrassing, with the singing and immediate use of endearments, and yes, I agree, of course it was. It’s that way by design, I think.

Because whilst these are entities who are 6000+ years old, they are only 6000+ years old in Heaven/Hell years. And if we know anything about Heaven/Hell, it’s that not a heck of a lot goes on in either. You either get a blank, white void of Heaven, with barely anyone walking around and thus zero interaction, or you get the cramped, horrific, repetitious white-noise of Hell. There’s nothing changed, no new ideas, nothing. They’re both menial places to be, and thus their occupants’ experience with existence and emotion is stagnated. In fact, I’d argue that the only times beings can “grow” emotionally is when they’re interacting with something new, something that challenges them, etc. And the only place that truly happens with any regularity is Earth. Earth is where angels and demons grow.

So when you think of it that way, Beelzebub and Gabriel are not two 6000 year old entities. They are two teens, falling in love for the first time. They are cringy because puppy love IS cringy – it’s horrible PDA and singing and gazing into each other’s eyes while everyone else stands around, unbelievably uncomfortable. They aren’t self aware, they aren’t ashamed, because they’re kids.

And then you have Crowley and Aziraphale, who for sure have their “young love” moments (like the dance scene) but only because they’ve been restrained for so many years. They’re certainly new to the technicalities of romantic relationships, but not to love. They’re two old, old souls who’ve been forced to deny how they feel their entire lives. Their love confession was never going to be like Gabriel and Beelzebub’s, because Gabriel and Beelzebub are the “kids who have it so easy.” They’re the youngsters who never have to worry about being caught together, never have to agonize about what would happen to the other if they were found out. They never have to lie, sneak around, or feel guilt. They take for granted this minimal consequence to their love, unaware how very, very lucky they are.

So yes. Crowley and Aziraphale very much represent this “older suffering,” this war fought for so long, and which benefits a younger generation that can never quite grasp the level of pain necessary to pave the path so smooth. And these younger ones benefit in blissful ignorance, which is wonderful and right, but by God is sure not very fair.

So why did Neil Gaiman have this scene? Well, it could be to show this parallel. It could also just serve as a push for the main couple to get on with it. We, of course, already have a push with Nina and Maggie, but maybe Gaiman simply wanted there to be zero reason for the confession not to happen. He wanted there to be no obstacles any more – the only ones that remained were ones they constructed themselves. Because, of course, the best way to break a person, the fastest route to pain, is to provide the largest amount of hope possible, then have it vanish before their eyes.

#in short: Gaiman? More like PAINMAN #he's wanting this to be as painful as possible and I love it #good omens 2 meta #good omens 2 #good omens 2 spoilers #gos2 spoilers #go2 spoilers #good omens s2 spoilers #good omens s2 #good omens meta

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frmulcahy · 10 months

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Also can we please take a minute to appreciate the sapphic representation in Good Omens season 2?

I adore Nina and Maggie. Their story is a breath of fresh air. It’s not a formulaic coming of age/coming out story. Queer people exist past their teenage years.

It’s not “we’ll give the bi girl a girlfriend for a minute for the sole purpose of getting inclusivity brownie points.” (I don’t want to see any biphobic clown behavior in the comments. Bi girls dating men are still bi!!! It’s just disappointing when media gives them very clearly throwaway partners.)

And it’s not “the only lesbian in the show is either a creep or manipulative.” So much media plays on this harmful trope, and that’s obviously not to say that there aren’t sapphic folks who are horrible people! We see this in Good Omens with Lindsey! But she’s not The Lesbian CharacterTM. We never even see or hear from her aside from her texts. Nina and Maggie, however, are two wonderful and dynamic characters. They’re just like any other folks trying to navigate a relationship. (They just happen to have and angel and demon meddling with theirs lmao.)

I also love the conclusion that they come to. It’s pretty certain that they’ll likely pursue a relationship in the future, but Nina has been dealing with a lot! They can take it slow for now. Aziraphale and Crowley can’t just smush them together and have them immediately live happily ever after. Humans don’t work like that. (Hmm something something parallels and needing to get through the dark times and heal and being complicated humans rather than just one thing or the other etc etc.) The communication and love and respect between the two is really heartening.

Idk, I’m rambling and I’m sure this isn’t very coherent. I just love them okay

#can you tell I’m still angry at how badly Keeley’s character was treated in ted lasso 3 #anywaaaayyys #good omens #good omens season 2 #good omens spoilers #good omens nina #good omens maggie #do they have a ship name??#like ‘coffeerecords’ or something silly like that idk #aziraphale #crowley #ineffable husbands

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lilyginnyblackv2 · 10 months

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About Good Omens 2: SPOILERS!

1. I liked it far more than Season 1. I liked Season 1 well enough to check out Season 2, but Season 2 is just 😍.

2. I feel like I am kinda stuck in the middle of everyone's takes on the relationship this season. I view them as queerplatonic, that is their relationship to me. I think that there were romantic aspects to their interactions this season, but that doesn't negate a queerplatonic reading. I also think they felt even more like a pair in an actual queerplatonic *relationship*, with the relationship (partnership) being the key element here, than in Season 1. This makes sense, since this season focuses much more clearly on them as a pair.

3. That being said, the kiss doesn't feel romantic to me. It feels desperate, but I think it is a desperation that stems from Crowley's desire to continue to have Aziraphale in his life. He craves the intimacy that they have and he tries to keep Aziraphale with him, because that's how it is suppose to work in the human romance movies. Big, dramatic kiss, vavoom, the other person stays and it all works out. Of course, it didn't quite work out that way.

4. I still think the kiss is steeped in Crowley's love for Aziraphale: which is based in romantic desire and a general desire for the intimacy and connection that they have with each other though, and I don't think that negates a queerplatonic reading of them.

5. I love how this season really hits home the fact that angels and demons don't understand humans. Aziraphale and Crowley understand them more than any other angel or demon, this is especially true for Crowley, but he is still a demon, and there is still a level of disconnect. Specifically in regards to romance and the way humans understand and express love, specifically romantic based feelings and emotions. I'm aroace and that is honestly a struggle for me too, and the parallels with Nina and Maggie illustrate how humans do struggle with these things too.

6. I don't get interpretations that they are still, some how, 'just friends,' that the series or ship is still, some how, 'queerbait,' (⁉) or any hate, etc. being thrown at the real life people involved with the series. Though I'm also not here for fans who push aside queerplatonic readings of them or don't leave space in the fandom for those interpretations or readings of them, especially since QPR dynamics can be so varied and diverse.

7. I likely won't be saying anything more on this. I made another, longer post, reiterating some of the above and talking about some other things (which I'll link to in the comments), but that's about it. I love the series, but I feel like the fandom is a bit too much for me, lol. I'll definitely engage in any discussions and the like. But I'm not here for anything messy.

#Good Omens #Good Omens 2 #GO2 #GO2 spoilers #Crowley x Aziraphale #qpr #queerplatonic #queerplatonic relationships

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sofyachy · 10 months

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Good Omens 3 Thinky-Thoughts

Now that I've had some time to watch Good Omens Season 2 and go through all the stages of grief (including rewatching repeatedly and dreaming up various fanfiction plots), I'm ready to start jotting down some reflections on S2 and where I think S3 should go. So, spoilers! You know what to do...

Pride & Prejudice

First, the Jane Austen / Pride & Prejudice references in the script are no accident. Alright, I absolutely loved the joke about Austen being a jewel thief and brandy smuggler, and Aziraphale trying to make people fall in love at a ball is a very Aziraphale thing to do. But the references go much deeper.

We can see parallels between the way Aziraphale and Crowley relate to each other with Elizabeth Bennet and Mr. Darcy. After being snubbed at a ball, Elizabeth becomes prejudiced against Darcy in subsequent interactions, and "willfully misunderstands" his behavior and motivations even when doing so would go against her otherwise sensible observation skills. Similarly, despite Aziraphale and Crowley's ongoing arrangement / partnership / friendship / oblivious marriage / etc., Aziraphale repeatedly demonstrates his prejudice against Crowley for being a demon. For example: "You're a demon, I'm sure you've fired lots of guns." "You're a demon, you're one of the bad guys." Throughout both seasons, we see examples of Crowley committing good deeds, but Aziraphale continues to see him as the enemy.

Crowley, meanwhile, shares Darcy's difficulty with communication and recognizing that his desires aren't lining up with Aziraphale's / Elizabeth's. Both of them appear to realize their own feelings before their partner's. We see examples of Darcy singling out Elizabeth in social situations long before he proposes to her. Crowley, meanwhile, appears to have something of a silent epiphany in S2 when Nina mentions that other people's love lives are easier to understand than one's own.

After Nina and Maggie tell him that he needs to open up and tell Aziraphale how he feels, Crowley proceeds to do so at the worst possible time -- making his own version of a proposal similar to Darcy's. Neither one of them could "read the room" and only really considered their own needs instead of the other's. Crowley wants Aziraphale to turn down a new job offer that he's obviously ecstatic about because he himself doesn't want to go back to heaven and be Aziraphale's sidekick. He has too much pride for that, and Aziraphale can't see that Crowley's burned his bridges with heaven anyway.

The results of these failures are as devastating in that final bookshop scene as they are in the drawing room in Hunsford. However, Austen's novel doesn't end there, and so I think Season 3 could follow some parallels with the rest of it. We may see both Aziraphale and Crowley self-reflecting and reconfiguring their understanding of who the other actually is. Maybe they bump into each other accidentally after these reflections and see each other in a new light. Maybe the Second Coming of Christ pulls a Lydia and runs off with a demon, and Crowley has to stop them. (I'm laughing as I write this last sentence.)

The Crow Road

Another book that S2 references is The Crow Road by Iain Banks. I haven't read it (though I'm adding it to my reading list) -- though there is a decent analysis of its use in the story here. I think it may have some clues about possible directions for S3 as well.

Talking to God

Season 2 showed us God talking to Job and Crowley's jealousy with him for being able to have that conversation. God asks Job if he can do certain things that we've already seen Crowley do (manipulate lightning, make constellations, etc.). Maybe this is a hint that Crowley already has the qualifications that Job doesn't and will get that conversation somehow. Crowley still carries a lot of baggage about falling from heaven (and Aziraphale repeatedly rubbing salt in that wound can't be helpful). I think it would help him if he could have a chat with God and maybe find some peace with that part of his identity.

Deception

Aziraphale is terrible at deception except when Crowley's at stake. He can see that Muriel is terrible at it when she arrives as a "human police officer," but in the same episode he pretends to be a journalist with no more success than Muriel had. Likewise, he is terrible at sleight of hand magic tricks except when Furfur has evidence that could get Crowley in trouble. At first, I thought there was a pattern with angels in general being inherently terrible at deception, and this would retcon the examples in S1. In S1, Aziraphale first poses as a gardener so he can influence the Antichrist. But maybe this isn't meant to be effective, as he can fool a child but his appearance isn't presented as convincing to the audience. Similarly, we've seen that he can lie to save Job's children from the wrath of God. He only needs to fool the other angels for this, however, and their inherent belief in the goodness of one of their own means that they believe him. At the end of S1, Aziraphale is able to convince Hell that he's Crowley. How could he possibly be convincing about this when he is otherwise so bad at playing pretend? The only explanation that makes sense is that his willpower to keep Crowley safe overrides his angelic need to be true to himself.

Stronger Together

We've also seen that Crowley and Aziraphale are much stronger when they work together than when they're on their own. When they combine their powers to keep Gabriel safe without being noticed by Heaven or Hell, instead of the infinitesimal miracle they intend, they get something exponentially more powerful. It's questionable whether they actually tried to go for the tiny dose of power they said they would give -- I don't think they fully trusted each other to do enough to keep them all safe and could easily have "juiced it" to make up for the other's deficiencies. But the reactions from Heaven and Hell indicate that what they accomplished was worrisomely powerful. It's possible that the reason the Metatron chose Aziraphale to replace Gabriel was to separate the two of them and keep that power in check. In S3, maybe we would see them team up again to wield that power for an even greater purpose.

The Gun

Now, without a better transition, we're probably going to see the Nazi zombies again. We see that they're still around London at the end of the S2 scene in 1941. We also discover that 1941 Aziraphale keeps a Derringer pistol in a hollowed-out book in the bookshop. Following Chekhov's law, that gun is bound to make another appearance. The 1941 scene in S2 ends with A and C (I'm getting tired of typing out their names) hanging out in the bookshop. The zombies know where to find them. Guns can stop zombies. A is the type of angel who would probably bless his bullets and bestow them with special miracle powers. I could easily see the zombies storming the bookshop and A shooting them -- maybe saving C, or maybe accidentally shooting him, too, for the show to really milk some drama. Or maybe we get a callback to the magic show and C catches the bullet in his teeth. In any case, I think we're going to see some gun-on-zombie action.

Other more fanfiction-y thoughts:

Nina and Maggie Summon A and C into a therapist's office for couples counseling. Or maybe Muriel reads a self-help book and tries to do it herself. Crowley tries to take over another patient's session via demonic possession "because it's an emergency" and he absolutely has to rant to someone about what Aziraphale is doing. Please, someone, I absolutely need to read this fic.

#good omens #analysis #good omens 2 spoilers #good omens 3 #fanfic prompt

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ineffablecastielsstuff · 8 months

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Okay, people. Something's bothering me about the whole Nina and Maggie are the parallel story to Aziraphale and Crowley.

Let's look at our two etheral/occult entities. They've known each other for millenia. They've seen each other at their best and their worst, they've carried out stupid and risky and absurd and sort of brilliant ideas together. They've protected each other, they've been there for each other. They've fought about their priorities and values, they've miscommunicated (and obviously continue to do so) but the bottom line is: they know each other. They don't always understand each other. But they know each other.

Nina and Maggie don't. They don't know each other. Sure, Maggie is head over heels, but she's head over heels for the Nina she's carried around in her head for however long now. And all Nina knows in the beginning is that Maggie is "the skinny late" and that she owns a record shop, mocking her for that in the process ("I'd be more worried people coming in and leaving more records behind.").

Sure, there are parallels, and they are important in order for our two main idiots to start thinking about love and talking about love and revealing their concepts of love etc. But Nina and Maggie, as they are in the moment in time of season 2, really are more about crushes. Not about love. They have the potential to be a beautiful love story. But let's not talk about them as two people in love, please?! We don't know that yet, and neither do they.

That being said, I love Nina calling Maggie "angel" in the end, like a little wink towards Crowley :-D Makes me all fuzzy inside :-)

#good omens #nina good omens #maggie good omens #nina and maggie #ineffable husbands #aziracrow #aziraphale #crowley #love stories in good omens #a wee bit of meta

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billpottsismygf · 10 months

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Good Omens Spoilers

Okay, wow. It's going to take me a while to fully process that, and I definitely won't until I've rewatched it at least once. It has a very different feel to series 1. There are fewer disparate characters, especially human characters, like Shadwell, Anathema, etc., which I did rather miss; the lack of a narrator weirdly changes the tone quite a lot in itself; and, perhaps most significantly, there’s a real mystery that the audience are not let in on, in contrast to us in series 1 watching Aziraphale and Crowley search for a boy we already know the identity of.

Maggie and Nina are nice, and I really enjoyed the obvious parallels to Aziraphale and Crowley (the line about sheltering under a downpour especially felt very relevant), but I’m also not sure they merited as much screentime as they got. I am really glad that their story didn’t end with them dramatically falling in love with each other, as I found the idea that Maggie was really in love with Nina a bit suspect - they’ve clearly barely talked before we meet them. The open ended question of their relationship obviously mirrors Aziraphale and Crowley too.

And now the elephant in the room: that ending was devastating. The end of series 1 is so effective and moving because we finally see Aziraphale and Crowley get to be together on their own terms. Here, it’s completely undone. I love the little subtleties of the Metatron’s look at Crowley as he leaves the bookshop with Aziraphale - he knew Crowley would never accept an offer to be an angel again.

On the one hand, I believe that Aziraphale would accept the offer, and that he would think Crowley would want to come with him, as he’s always been the one most hesitant to distance himself from the Heaven/Hell dichotomy, and to commit to his partnership with Crowley.

On the other hand, has he learnt nothing? I thought he understood by this point that Heaven did not always have the best of intentions. And he’s just seen what happened to Gabriel when he refused to toe the line, a punishment that the Metatron himself was involved with doling out. Does Aziraphale somehow think he’ll have more control? What will he do when he’s inevitably asked to do something that contradicts his own morals? He can’t think that won’t be a problem.

Like I say above, it’s not that it’s out of character for Aziraphale to accept the offer. It’s more that it’s a step backwards in character, and feels perhaps a little artificial. It’s the hand of the writer, putting in the equivalent of that beat in a romcom when the characters have a falling out. Our other mirrors for them, Gabriel and Beelzebub, get to run off happily together, so we can probably expect the stereotypical reunion too.

And we now of course have our context for The Spoiler. It’s a lot more devastating than I think anyone was expecting. I know there’s been a lot of Discourse around queerbaiting, and I have read perspectives on that that I can understand, but it’s never been queerbaiting in my opinion. I sometimes wish that things could be allowed (and I mean by the fandom crowd, not by the mainstream) to be subtle and achingly unspoken, to be queer in theme and context, and also perhaps to allow for non-normative manifestations of queer love (asexual/queerplatonic/etc.).

However, the kiss changes none of that. I am glad that Aziraphale and Crowley are now queer in a way in which mainstream audiences can’t miss. I sort of wish it didn’t have to be that way but, after all, a kiss is not an inherent barrier to other queer readings, and it works so well in the context of the scene. It’s Crowley’s last-ditch attempt to demonstrate what they could be, without words, and it fails. It’s heart-breaking.

As to the future of the show and their relationship, we’ll have to wait and see. There’s a possibility that we won’t get a series 3 at all, in which case this is a dreadful place to end, and I really do hope that doesn’t happen. Ultimately, this series was a little unsatisfying, but Neil Gaiman always said that it was an intermediary, the lead up to the real next part of the story, and we’re just going to have to cope with that. Here’s hoping we don’t have to cope for too long!

Misc smaller things

I wasn’t sure about re-casting characters, but I actually loved the new actor for Beelzebub. Much as I adore Anna Maxwell Martin, I think she was perhaps slightly mis-cast originally. The visual effects and costuming around them were also much improved.

Miranda Richardson is amazing. Again, I wasn’t sure about her playing a totally different character, but she completely sells it. I love the clipped way she speaks, her mannerisms, all of it. She completely embodies Shax and not for a moment did she make me think of Madam Tracy.

I loved Muriel. Just very sweet and adorable and funny. No notes.

I also loved all the little references to things. The appearance of several Terry Pratchett books (The Colour of Magic and Good Omens specifically) and nods to his worlds - in particular, I got really excited about the seamstresses’ guild getting a wink.

There were many, many Doctor Who references as well. I know they all had outrageous fun having Crowley referred to as “Doctor”, and that he got to use a Scottish accent (though a bit posher than David Tennant’s actual accent).

On that note, the extended flashbacks were wonderful. The Elspeth stuff was maybe a little on the nose, but I loved seeing them run around Georgian Edinburgh (which was so surreal, because it looks identical to modern Edinburgh). The stuff with Job was especially enjoyable, and I still can’t quite believe we got to see the aftermath of the church bombing.

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