I can’t get over the fact that both Aziraphale and Crowley desperately try to protect each other, but do so in opposite ways.
Aziraphale, who is afraid of falling but even more afraid of what Hell might do to Crowley, tries to protect them both by pulling away, putting distance between them, even straight up putting an end to their relationship if he thinks he needs to.
Crowley, like the hopeless romantic he is (not that he’d ever admit it), is on the the other hand constantly working on the idea that so long as they’re together, he’ll find a way to make things work. He’s always on guard, circling Aziraphale ready to protect him, he wants Holy Water so that he’s ready to fight back, and straight-up tells Aziraphale to run away together, even if it’s completely stupid and suicidal, because that’s all that matters to him.
My favorite thing about this is that Crowley is on guard, protective, ready to battle. That is, he protects Az like an angel would.
Aziraphale uses lies, evasion, and deceit to shelter Crowley. That is, he protects him like a demon would.
Ok this is the best addition you could possibly make.
Am I the only person who watched this and clearly realized Burbage wanted to fuck the absolute shit out of Crowley, and Crowley realizes it, is flattered, and basically says ‘no, thanks’? And Aziraphale only puts it together at the last second because he’s too busy being flustered?
These tags must be seen
How have I not seen this before, how have I not recognized this before - but now i’m sold, hook, line and sinker. Crowley’s oh-so-pleased, smugface… aaaaah!! And Aziraphale!… in the third GIF he’s literally doing this:
and not coming up with a pleasing result on his calculation…. (relax, Aziraphale, he’s already turning him down as you process what’s happened..)
The idea of Newt Pulsifer’s unironic anti device curse being passed down through the family is just something that I’d like to read.
The combo of Newt’s curse and anathema being an environmentally aware anti-governmental witch would make their kids like these Huge leaders in the movement to get back to the earth and work along with nature. Oh gosh now I really gotta think about this because the would would be even more tech advanced for their kids and they would just go along frying everything.
I was thinking it came about from Adultery Pulsifer downwards in parallel with the rise of the Devices, but your line of thought is cool too!
So, no one really notices it until the Industrial Revolution.
Richard Pulsifer had a run of bad luck with employment through the cotton industry. Machines would seize or jam for no apparent reason. He knew that the future lay in this automation of labour, so he kept trying to overcome this bizarre affect right up until his death. He was crushed by a loom.
John Pulsifer, scarred by his father’s demise, abhorred the textile industry and took the small settlement offered by the mill owner to purchase a farm. He worked hard and turned a profit from the land, keeping his young wife and widow mother comfortable. He kept things simple right up until his son, Joseph Pulsifer, suggested investing in a traction engine to ease the work load. John was getting older and finding that the work was starting to take its toll. They bought a shiny Burrell engine with the intent to lease it to neighbouring farms for a bit of extra income. It never worked.
By the time that Joseph took over the farm, it was clear that they couldn’t compete with the increased efficiency and productivity of their neighbours. Machinery refused to work on the Pulsifer land. He sold the farm and moved his family south, hoping for opportunities in the cities. Having been accustomed to horses, he made a fine living as a hackney cab driver.
When his son, another John, came of age, he expanded his business to two carriages and three horses. This good fortune wasn’t to last much longer, as the introduction of electric cabs heralded a new age for transportation.
Ever possessed by that Pulsifer need to embrace new technology, John Pulsifer learned all he could about the electric motor in preparation for investing in one. Three days after he signed the paperwork, the first internal combustion powered cab took to the road. Undeterred, John ran his electric cab around London, frequently breaking down and losing his customers to passing cabs of both horse and combustion power.
Daniel Pulsifer was largely unaffected by the family curse, except for the time it saved his life. In a trench along the western front, tired and miserable, he saw a grenade bounce at his feet. In a panic, he stamped on it as one might a spider or mouse, and the internal mechanism seized completely. He survived the war and married his sweetheart back home.
Stanley Pulsifer was a postman. Exempt from military service, he avoided the worst of the second world war. He was content with life and enjoyed his route. It wasn’t until he got too slow on his feet that he was moved to a position in the sorting office. The mail sorting machine was installed just six months before his retirement but it didn’t work property until after he’d left. Until the day it was replaced, people swore that it had a mind of its own.
Andrew Pulsifer joined the navy at 16. He was almost immediately discharged from the navy and asked, very politely, to never step foot on a British vessel again. Every year or so, a black car would pull up to his house, take him to a dockyard, and deposit him alongside a ship with the instruction to “fix it”. He wouldn’t comprehend the implications of his actions until the end of the cold war, but they paid him very well to do very little.
Charles Pulsifer was tragically killed whilst trying to program his VCR. He left a widow and a young son.
Look at what Aziraphale does literally immediatelyafter saying this.
He looks at Crowley.
We saw how Aziraphale looked the second he fell in love with Crowley. This is how Aziraphale looks the second he chooses Crowley. Accepts what Crowley and Aziraphale’s own heart have been telling him all along. As the Antichrist rejects the role he was created for, so too does Aziraphale.
I find it interesting how, as Gabriel is arriving with his thunder and lightening, Crowley is the first to react well before everyone else.
This is everyone at the very first frame of Gabriel making his way to the everyone.
This is five frames later. Everyone else is reacting to the loud thunder that claps around them.
Any theories on why Crowley reacts to Gabriel’s presence much quicker than literally anyone else, even Aziraphale?
My favorite theory is Crowley has probably the highest level of Self preservation on this side of Heaven, hell and earth.
He is looking out for himself and an angel who was probably created to run face first and defend against danger as a Principality (who as shown in the show is way more concerned about Crowley’s death then his own). So Crowley’s thresh hold for ‘what in the room is going to kill me’ is probably Spidey-sense level or stronger. So An Archangel is probably high enough on that list that Crowley could feel The momentGabrieldecides he is going to come down to earth. Hell Crowley knows when Hell is checking up on him and when they aren’t looking at them. He knows when Aziraphale is in trouble. Crowley is ready for attack at any moment.
Meanwhile I really think Aziraphale is a 100% oblivious by creation to not think about his own death. He was created to protect. If you were terrified of your own death you wouldn’t be a good protector. He gave away his weapon because it would protect the humans, he has gotten himself into multiple scrapes, he let a demon under his wing and close to him. When him and Crowley fight it is never ‘Heaven is going to kill me’ it is ‘Heaven and Hell will hurt you’ this angel was sitting in a jail cell and he was more worried about paper work, he barely flinched at a gun being pointed at him. In the book he looked at Satan picked up his sword and prepared to for a Throw down with the devil even in the show his sword is up ready to launch at the devil if he tried to hurt Adam. So Gabriel isn’t on his radar like he is on Crowley’s. Because if it came down to it. Aziraphale would fight him too with out batting an eye.
Yesssss
A very interesting thing is that, according to the book and the tv script, Crowley basically runs on fear.
He’s deeply aware of the fact that he’s not a very powerful demon. He’s scared of Hell, he’s scared of Hastur and Ligur, he’s scared of Satan, and he lives in a world where the first old lady with a bottle of Holy Water could kill him.
Admittedly, he’s a bit more jumpy in the book, but I suspect he just hides it better in the show. A bit more “fight” on the “flight or fight” scale, but I think the essence is the same. This demon always knows where (and when) the threats are, because he was literally terrified into always knowing.
Meanwhile Aziraphale only ever brings up Crowley being destroyed or humans getting hurt. He brings up discorporation to criticize Crowley’s driving, but even then it’s more scolding than real, genuine fear of physical harm.
I don’t think we ever see Aziraphale scared of physical harm, in fact. And part of it it’s definitely that he used to be an angelic warrior and was created with little self preservation. And in the book that’s probably it.
But in the TV show, I suspect he actually… doesn’t think himself worthy of protection? Or, well, no, that’s not right. But it’s not just that’s he ready to throw hands, it’s that he genuinely doesn’t seem to realise that he doesn’t deserve to be hurt and get into trouble?
Like, he’s so happy when Crowley comes to the rescue. Is Crowley the only person who ever stood up for Aziraphale? How much of it it’s Aziraphale being created with no self preservation, and how much it’s Aziraphale not realizing he has a right to stand up for himself, after millennia of emotional abuse?
I am sorry, I am doing a terrible job at explaining what I am thinking, I just have lots of feelings right now
We don’t know much about how angelic/demonic perception works, but we see Aziraphale asking Crowley if anyone is looking before they swap back on the bench in the park. There’s an implication there that Aziraphale can’t check for prying eyes as well as Crowley, otherwise he could do it himself, i.e. there is the implication that Crowley’s senses for angels or demons being around is better/sharper/more sensitive in some way.
Crowley also always finds Aziraphale anywhere no problem, especially when he’s in trouble, and he can sense (smell?) the Hellhound having found his master all the way from London. Whether it’s a honed skill, built after centuries of fear, or at least partly an innate skill, a natural sensitivity, Crowley picks that sort of thing up much more quickly than anyone else. He is also the first to react to Satan’s arrival at the airbase, and his reaction is by far the most violent. He’s in stabbing pain, as the Script Book says.
Aziraphale is sensitive to Love. Nobody else among the angels or demons reacts to that.
We know that angels and demons’ miracles work based on belief and expectations. We know these expectations shape reality around them, unconsciously usually. How much do their expectations and emotions shape the angels/demons themselves? I mean, how much does Crowley’s state of constant terror, however much he tries to hide it under a helping of Cool, shape his very nature and how it interacts with the world? How much will Aziraphale’s focus on love being maybe The most important thing on Earth shape his ability to perceive it? Maybe Aziraphale feels the love in Tadfield so intensely because he believes love is so important, and this belief creates or at least greatly boosts the sensitivity?
And, in that vein, how much does Aziraphale’s belief he isn’t really worth saving inform his lack of fear to be hurt? You’re absolutely right, @whispsofwind, Aziraphale seems to have very limited self-preservation instincts, to put that mildly. Aside of his complaints about Crowley’s driving, he never seems to care for his own well-being? Saving himself from getting beheaded is a frivolous miracle. Being shot will be paperwork. Aziraphale worries for everyone else’s safety, very noticeably for Crowley’s (“they’ll destroy you!”), but not for his own.
And that’s entirely Heaven’s fault? I’m sure Crowley is indeed the only person to ever give any value to Aziraphale as a person, who tries to keep him from harm, who tries to help him. None of the angels care about him at all. He’s just a foot soldier, and his posting on Earth isn’t even considered active duty by Gabriel. Six thousand years of work, and nobody cares about the results for real, let alone about the hardships encountered on the way.
The same is true about Crowley and Hell. Crowley’s role, as we learn early on, is to be “a tool” (in the glorious destiny of bringing about Armageddon). A tool. Not a person. Not an instigator. Not an agent. A tool. A thing. That’s the value Crowley is given by his superiors.
It’s never said with those words about Aziraphale, but it’s obviously the same thing. Nobody cares about them as people. They only have each other.
This ties in to what I said the other day about different angels and demons having different gifts or knacks or tricks, however you want to put it. I think they vary as much as we do, regardless of their allegiance. Crowley and Aziraphale sense very different things, and have very different reactions to them.
Of course, in Crowley’s case I’m 100% sure his hypervigilance is trauma-induced. I doubt he’s always run on fear and prey-animal wariness. But he sure as hell does now.
In addition to this shot, we can also see it in his reaction to the gun going off, and in the background when Satan yells at Adam. (I’d love to be one of those awesome people who can string together a gifset, but alas.) He’s got a very strong GET AWAY response to anything that poses a threat. It’s completely reflexive. He doesn’t think about it, his cool guy mask is nowhere to be seen, he doesn’t even look embarrassed about it. He just throws himself away from danger with every noodle muscle in his body, and if he can’t (like with Satan), he jerks and flings his arm up as if fighting off the urge. This guy is a survivor. There’s a reason he suggests running away, when Aziraphale would never think of it. They’ve developed very different skills, and this is Crowley’s.
All of this makes it really amazing that Crowley is even capable of being protective of anyone else. But he is, he’s legitimately watchful over Aziraphale. Always tries to keep him out of danger as well. That’s not innate. That’s him fighting his baked-in self-preservation response because if he flees, if he escapes and Aziraphale doesn’t, then it’s not bloody worth it. There are worse things than pain or death, even for Crowley. He’ll run, yes. But he won’t run without Aziraphale. And he’ll stand next to him when he clearly wants to get the hell out.
(Also when he’s prowling the bookshop, he’s got the stone-cold wariness of someone who’s not only looking out for threats, but is prepared to do something about it if he finds one. That expression on his face kills me. If the bookshop isn’t safe, he’s going to make it safe. We almost never see him like that and I’ll never be over it.)
@krakensdottir you’re right about everything, including this, gotta take that out of the tags for a moment here: this difference between them is a good illustration of the different types of trauma they suffered?
Crowley got used to expect physical violence and abuse. It started with the whole falling into the sulphur pool thing (which sounds… OUCH no matter how you put it), and we are shown on screen what kind of an environment Hell is. Their paperwork burns you when you sign it. A higher ranking demon can and will without having to expect any complaints set his underlings on fire. The show is actually less open about it than the book and script book, but in there it sounds not only like they frequently threaten Crowley with torture, but also like it has actually happened before. Crowley’s trauma comes from being repeatedly hurt, being constantly in danger of getting hurt again, and having developed the according reactions.
The abuse Aziraphale suffers at Heaven’s hand is emotional. (Mostly. It seems like the physical violence Uriel and Sandalphon subject him to on the day of Armageddon is not the norm, he reacts very surprised and confused to it. With disbelief. This isn’t normal treatment.) Aziraphale is being belittled, gaslit, ignored, talked over. His contributions are never considered worthwhile, he never gets any recognition even for doing a good job, like in the deleted scene where he’s supposed to be recalled but Gabriel falls for Crowley’s ruse and believes Aziraphale to be the only angel capable of thwarting Crowley. They never tell him about this great job he’s doing.
He’s not consulted on any major decisions, he says so himself, although he’s Heaven’s active agent on Earth. They don’t even actually tell him about the Apocalypse. When it’s starting, Gabriel comes down, picks on Aziraphale’s food choices, says something cryptic about Crowley being up to something, and leaves without any statement along the even vaguest lines of “oh, Armageddon is coming”. Would anyone have told Aziraphale, if it wasn’t for Crowley? I don’t think so.
Of course he’s afraid of being a disappointment! That’s the only feedback he ever gets from Heaven.
And, look, the only one who encourages and appreciates Aziraphale’s hobbies, his interests and pleasures, his being a person, is Crowley. Consequently, Crowley is the only one Aziraphale feel safe around and let’s go of the Very Good Angel Trying Very Hard Mask around. His body language, his entire demeanor, are completely different around Crowley than they are around Heaven. In Heaven, Aziraphale is small, shy, anxious, wringing his hands and stammering through his reports. Around Crowley, he keeps himself upright, he openly enjoys his food, he talks about his interests, he talks about business with Crowley as an equal, he becomes an entirely different person almost.
Likewise, Crowley feels safe around Aziraphale. He trusts him with his vulnerabilities (let’s him see his eyes, tells him about his worries, asks him to run away with him when his panic gets the better of him). He even lets himself be angry around him. Crowley keeps his anger (and doesn’t anger almost always come from a place of hurt?) very close to himself. The only other beings he lets it out around are his plants, which are barely sentient and hold zero power over him. The plants can’t hurt him. Aziraphale could, but Crowley trusts him not to. They are each other’s safe space.
(This is another reason why the bandstand hurts so much guys. Because that’s what happens there, isn’t it? Aziraphale does hurt Crowley, and Crowley doesn’t listen to Aziraphale’s concerns and hurts him in turn, because they’re both so scared and at the end of their wits. Sniff.)
Ok all this is wonderful, but I also had a tangential sort of thought related to Aziraphale and Love.
Because remember, he doesn’t sense love all the time, he only senses it in Tadfield. (My thought is: if he sensed it all the time, he’d have more specific language for it. This is a new experience for him, hence his uncertainty.) So he’s only sensing Adam’s love, specifically.
And he’s not sensing Adam’s love for his parents or his friends, he’s sensing how much Adam loves the little world he lives in, this tiny one or two square mile place where everything is perfect, where he belongs, where he understands his role and is accepted and valued for it. It’s not without conflict but even his “enemies” (the Johnsonites in the book and also RP Tyler to an extent) are part of what makes it great.
And that’s the sort of world Aziraphale longs for, for himself and Crowley. That’s what he thinks Heaven and Earth ought to be. That’s the sort of environment that would allow him to put his guard down and stop waiting for the next insult, the next cruel remark, the next threat towards his only friend.
He says it’s the opposite of when a place feels “spooky.” Maybe it’s just my anxiety speaking, but a place that’s spooky is some place that feels wrong, where there’s a threat behind every door or tree (according to your brain) and you won’t see it coming until too late.
(Incidentally, Crowley likes spooky. Why? Maybe because he spends his life in that state, and what qualifies as “spooky” for humans is a vacation for him. It’s nothing, it’s hilarious, y’all have no idea what real fear is.)
But the opposite of spooky isn’t love, precisely. In that case the opposite of spooky is feelingsafe. He’s come to a place inundated with love and acceptance and he can let his guard down for the first time in thousands of years. Maybe Crowley feels it, too, to an extent.
Because what do these two walnuts do, in that environment? (This is where I long for the days when we could get practically the whole show on Tumblr GIFs)
He holds out his arm to stop Crowley for a second, touching his chest, and Crowley’s reaction looks like reaching for Aziraphale’s hand
They let their guard down and get shot
Puppy dog eyes and blowing the paint off
Aziraphale trying to show off his weapons knowledge like a true dumbass (“I’ve inspected this weapon and it’s not a proper gun” yeah no shit Sherlock)
Wall slam
Whoops sorry stated at that GIF for two minutes
6. A retired NUN sneaks up on them both
Anyway. As I said, all tangential, but yes Crowley is on high alert for physical threats, Aziraphale is more concerned with threats to Crowley and psychological threats to himself, and that’s why they’re going to buy a lovely cottage and settle down someplace quiet together and build their own personal Tadfield the end.
