Anyone remember those promotional flyers at nycc that gave Crowley’s contact info as Aziraphale’s bookshop?
It implies he’s easier to find there than anywhere else. Just, yeah, have people ask your not-enemy if you’re around, that’s not weird or potentially dangerous for both of you at all
Crowley, making fucking flyers asking for help finding the anti Christ:
“Seems about right, somethings missing tough…”
The part inside Crowley that makes him go to watch children’s Saturday morning cartoons in cinema after he got dumped:
“Put a little cartoon baphomet on it!”
Crowley: “PERFECT”
Wait so are we just supposed to bring all 11-year-olds we find to a SoHo bookshop?
Idk this sounds like the set up to an absolutely hilarious accidental dads scenario (to which autocorrect suggested I meant accidental sass but I assure you all the sass from the abandoned 11-year-olds following Crowley around like a train of ducklings will be absolutely intentional).
woke: the nazis recognized crowley because he was working for british counterintelligence
also woke: crowley didn’t actually know exactly when and where aziraphale’s book deal was going down, he just had a vague idea, so he’d been busting into churches at random for about the past month and a half, hopping around on his burning feet, and each time he did it he Loudly announced his entrance like “here comes anthony j. crowley to save the day!” because he had a whole plan, he was gonna be so suave, but it was never aziraphale, and he ended up interrupting several other clandestine nazi meetings so that word got around in nazi circles of anthony j. crowley, the weird hopping church guy, and then when he finally did happen upon aziraphale’s deal, he was just so incredibly happy to see his angel that he completely forgot his smooth introduction, but the nazis recognized him as the weird hopping church guy so they did it for him.
Also he absolutely thinks “here comes Anthony J Crowley to save the day” is a smooth introduction.
Also Aziraphale would also think it was a smooth introduction so it works.
A scene from Ineffable Penguin’s OA3 fic “Villainous” great fun, go check it out. @ineffablepenguin I couldn’t decide shirt on or off so I did both. :)
From a Q&A at Ineffable Con 2 on 17th October, 2020.
Neil:
There are definitely people out there who seem to think that I accidentally wrote a love story, with all of the beats of a love story, including a break-up halfway through, without somehow noticing that I’d written a love story. And I may not be the brightest candle on the candelabra, but as an author who’s been doing it for a long time, I’m very well aware of when I’m writing a love story, thank you very much. And so, from my perspective, I knew that the love story would be one of the driving things that would get us from the beginning to the end.
And I also made a bunch of decisions about our angels and our demons in terms of casting, in terms of gender, that everybody backed me up on, which I loved. You know, the idea that the archangel Michael is played by Doon is something that is - or Beelzebub is Anna Maxwell Martin, whatever, there’s - it’s not like we are going these are women, there are men. We are going these are demons, these are angels. They - this is not a thing. And also doing something like Pollution where you go in and go okay, well, if we were doing this in - if 1989 was now, if there were they pronouns, we probably would have done that. We didn’t think of it at the time, but that’s no reason why we can’t do it now. And we did. And I remember having a - not exactly a battle, but a - my - very tiny skirmish with one of our execs who was very nice and very bright and was like “Why are you saying they?” and I’m like (demonstrating a pause) and I - explaining, and he’s like, “Well, I’ve never heard of that before,” and I’m like “Oh, okay, but trust me. Just trust me. It’s all - it’s all fine. Just trust me.”
Douglas:
And you know I have to say, just following on from what Neil’s saying, I’ve been directing for quite a while, and I tend to notice if characters are falling in love. I tend to notice a love story happening in front of me. And I think it’s there. And everything is meant, guys. Everything is meant.
[…]
Neil:
I would just say, there are some things that you do while you’re writing a script intentionally. The fact that - I wanted to do this, well, it was a thing I did that I really enjoyed doing, where whenever people accuse them of being a couple, they don’t deny it. They don’t argue. There’s no flustering on their part. They absolutely… everybody… what I’m trying to say is - yes, other people in the story are perceiving them as a couple too. And here is Uriel perceiving them as a couple. Here is wonderful Dan… you do scenes like that because that’s - you are trying to make a point here and you’re trying to make a point on how people are perceived.
The new-TV-GoodOmens fanon tendency to take Aziraphale’s very-soft presentation as unadorned truth is be/amusing to me.
He was the angel left to guard one of the Gates to Eden and he did in fact have a flaming sword. He is also the one who WOULD have shot Adam, had Madame Tracy not intervened.
He is also the angel who’s response to “wait I need to get back to Earth to stop Armageddon” is to do something that clearly SCARED THE SHIT out of the other angels who watched him do it, with a malicious-glee-glint in his eye, who hopped disembodied down to earth, and then floated around to try to find the right place.
He also, well. Fucked around with Heaven at all. There’s such a thread of comic corporate-absurd involved that it can be easy to miss, but what we’re shown is that the hierarchy of Heaven is just as happy as that of Hell to murder, torture, restrain, make captive and otherwise punish its own in the most horrible ways possible and in fact they’re far more effective at it. They just have a lot of Rules they follow, whereas Hell acts on a whim.
And there’s Aziraphale running around lying to them and pulling the wool over their eyes and so on. Something which, very clearly, none of those other angels are interested in doing.
Fundamentally Aziraphale is a stone cold agent of divine wroth.
He just doesn’t want to be.
He doesn’t like being like that. He doesn’t likesuffering, his own or other people’s. All those times Crowley saves him, it’s important to keep in mind that Aziraphale’s in no more fundamental danger than he is when he loses his corporal form in the bookshop fire: if Crowley hadn’t shown up to save him in the church, for example, all that would have happened is that either a) he would have been discorporated and had to wait in line for a new body (or risk being reassigned) or b) Aziraphale would have had to do something Nasty to the Nazis there in order to save himself that trouble.
He doesn’t like either of those options! Those are both crappy options. But they’re not existential threats.
I’m the nice one he snaps when Crowley’s too busy having his Moment over his Bentley to take care of dealing with the soldier.
Aziraphale doesn’t like having to be cruel, or mean, or scary, or stone cold. He doesn’t enjoy it and given the choice he will in fact choose not to be.
What Crowley saves him from, over and over again, isn’t actually being killed.
Because what interests Crowley in him, and we see that, all the way back, is that very first instance of Aziraphale choosing not to be that person. That first time when what Aziraphale was supposed to be was Stern and Frightening and Judgemental and Harsh and Terrifying … . and instead he chose to court potential punishment (and actual existential threat) to give the people he was supposed to Terrify a way to protect themselves from all the scary things.
Aziraphale doesn’t want to be an instrument of judgement and wrath and what Crowley keeps saving him from is having to be. Crowley condemns the bloodthirsty executioner, so that Aziraphale doesn’t have to; blows up the Nazis so Aziraphale doesn’t have to.
Lets Aziraphale be the nice one, in fact.
Which I think is frankly far more fucking adorable.
But never let it make you think that Aziraphale is the safe one, or the helpless one.
He’s the one who, when faced with the apparent choice between killing a child and the end of the world, chooses to kill the child. Actually chooses to do it - not just plan, not just talk about, not just contemplate, but do it - and is only saved from having done it by sharing the body of someone who won’t let him.
Aziraphale is soft and slightly silly and gentle and non-confrontational and all of those things because that’s what he wants to be. He has fought for a long time to get to be that.
This is important.
Yes, this! That’s it, and it’s written out so well, too.
Good Omens is about choices. That’s a main element, this free will idea. You’re not defined by what you are born to be or told is your role. The guardian angel chooses to give away his sword and to be soft. The demon chooses to cause minor inconveniences rather than death and terror, and then he chooses to stop the end of the world, too. The Antichrist chooses his friends over the horsepeople, his home over ruling the world, the father that was there over the satanic father who was not. The professional descendent who lived her whole life following the words of a five hundred years old witch chooses to burn the next batch of prophecies instead.
Good Omens is about defining one’s own destiny and identity. That’s probably why it clicks with so many queer people, too. You aren’t what others tell you to be. You aren’t what you are expected to be. You are what you are most comfortable being.
All the ace and aro people marking out over Good Omens and its amazing love story is rather lovely and awesome
It’s kind of weird, right? Seeing a genuine, undeniable love story presented in the mainstream media that doesn’t canonically involve (or REQUIRE) romance or sex? And it is in no way whatsoever treated as “less than”, or less significant, meaningful, or real? Good Omens is al o v e s t o r y.Unequivocably. Unquestionably. Unilaterally. Even though it doesn’t have many/most of the generally established hallmarks of what a love story “should” look like.
And… And… And people get it?????? Nearlyeveryonegets it???
I’ve been into Good Omens almost a year now (yes, a bit late to the party), and I’m still not over this. For the first time in my life, I can identify with a love story on screen. It’s hard to believe.
The wonderful Good Omens posters ❤. The high quality parts of the second to last can be found here and even larger version of the last one here:).
All of these are epic. Does anyone know if you can buy prints somewhere?
Also, I took until just now to notice Crowley’s hair is shapes like horns in the one with Aziraphale’s halo. His hair sticks up in rather gravity defying ways a lot, so I think I didn’t pay enough attention…
One really interesting thing about the church scene is just how Aziraphale reacts when Crowley shows up, especially when compared to the Bastille scene.
I mean, look at his face when he hears Crowley’s voice in France.
He just lights up. Whether you believe he arranged his own arrest with this outcome in mind, or whether you think it was just a lucky coincidence that Crowley happened to be nearby, Aziraphale is clearly thrilled that he’s there.
That is the face of an angel who’s just learned that his immediate future no longer involves his own beheading.
And he doesn’t even hint. We don’t get any of the puppydog eyes he uses to get Crowley to make Hamlet popular or clean the paint off his coat. He’s totally relaxed and at ease during their conversation, he agrees that he’s lucky Crowley was in the area, and then Crowley frees him. He doesn’t have to ask. By this point in their relationship, they’ve clearly reached the stage where the idea that Crowley might not be totally willing to save an angel from discorporation doesn’t even occur to either of them.
And now compare it to Aziraphale’s reaction when Crowley shows up to save him in the Blitz.
It’s basically the same situation. Aziraphale has got himself into a situation where he’s about to be murdered by humans (and for some reason can’t just miracle the problem away) when Crowley shows up to save him.
Except this time, Aziraphale isn’t thrilled. If anything, he sounds rather annoyed. “What are you doing here?” His first assumption is that Crowley must be working with the Nazis, for god’s sake, even though he knows that that isn’t Crowley’s style, and was genuinely shocked a few centuries earlier when he thought that Crowley was admitting to being responsible for the French Revolution. (Crowley is right to be offended.)
But of course, it’s easier for Aziraphale to believe that Crowley is somehow involved with the Nazis, because there has to be some reason why he’s in that church. At this point, Aziraphale honestly finds it easier to believe that Crowley could be working with Nazis than that, after their big argument, Crowley could still be working to protect him.
After all, how familiar do we think Aziraphale is with the concept of forgiveness?
Given the Fall, given the Flood, given humanity’s exile from the Garden.
Given the whole Heaven and Hell set up that he and Crowley’s jobs revolve around, which really depends on the idea that humans cannot repent after death. Aziraphale might be able to redeem some of the humans on Earth, but once they’ve died, if Crowley’s convinced them to commit whatever magical number of sins you have to commit to warrant eternal damnation, then that’s it.
Given the fact that Aziraphale’s own 6,000 years spent living on Earth might well be meant as a punishment for letting the serpent into Eden, because despite its reputation on Earth, Heaven really isn’t as big on the whole ‘love and forgiveness’ thing as everyone seems to think.
Aziraphale lives in a universe where if you mess up, even if you didn’t mean it, even if you regret it right after, then that’s it. So why wouldn’t he apply that to his friendship with Crowley?
Why would it occur to him that you could fall out with somebody and then make up afterwards with no hard feelings? That you could say things, hurtful things, that you didn’t mean— because you were scared and because he wanted holy water and because it was too much and too fast— that you could fall out so badly that you don’t speak to each other for nearly a century and that, after it all, they’d still walk across consecrated ground and bomb a church for you. And even save your books in the aftermath.
And Crowley, it’s worth mentioning, doesn’t even seem to realise this. Crowley is baffled and a little insulted that Aziraphale would even ask why he was there. Obviously he’s keeping his angel out of trouble— isn’t that basically his second job by this point? He’s totally casual about offering Aziraphale a lift home, though I suspect that that might be a conscious decision to deliberately act like everything’s back to normal, so as to signal to Aziraphale that everything is indeed back to normal. Crowley (and we get to see this trait more later on when it comes to the whole Alpha Centauri thing) forgives so easily that he doesn’t even notice he’s doing it.
And that, I think, is why this is such an important moment in their relationship.
It’s not just the rescue of the books that makes Aziraphale realise the true depth of his feelings about Crowley. It’s the fact that, in his own way, Aziraphale considers himself to be just as unforgiveable as Crowley, and Crowley forgave him regardless.
tbh both of these lines hit me like freight trains so I don’t think I could have physically handled an “I love you” moment anyway
they don’t say it, but they show it, over and over and over again
i’m content with that. I don’t feel cheated in the slightest.
Content with it doesn’t even begin to cover it for me. I’m grateful. It’s so much better as it is. “You go too fast for me” or “to the world” (especially given the way he says those lines) knock “I love you” right out of the park.
Before Good Omens happened to me, I was in the place of accepting that love stories aren’t meant for me. I never liked the romantic side arcs in movies or shows or books really. I could never get behind it, nothing ever clicked. It felt superficial. Hollow. Formulaic.
A lot of media is very bad at show not tell when it comes to relationships, especially the romantic ones. How often do you see characters hardly interacting, and then they suddenly kiss and say “I love you” and get married at the end of the tale? It leaves me sitting and scratching my head and wondering what happened. This way of showing relationships depends on us to see characters kissing, holding hands or saying their I love you’s and believing it without questions. It asks us to fill in the blanks. They kissed, it’s love, look at the cute ship.
But that doesn’t work for me. It makes “I love you” seem like empty words. Quickly said, quickly voided after, because there wasn’t much substance behind them.
Good Omens on the other hand is super show not tell about it. Through the entire timeline, from Eden on, in every single scene they’re in together, we can watch them grow closer. We watch them become friends, and by the time of the Globe scene, they’re just radiating fondness for one another. Their looks, their actions, it’s so obvious even without looking at a single line of dialogue. Just look at how Aziraphale’s entire face lights up at Crowley’s appearance in Paris, or the way Crowley looks after Aziraphale when he miracled the stain off his coat. Or, in what’s arguably their worst moment, look at Aziraphale’s face when he tells Crowley it’s over at the bandstand. He’s so close to crying. Look at that quivering lip and shining eyes. He’s hurting himself at least as much as Crowley.
And if you do look at the dialogue, you get so much weighty confessions of love, friendship, devotion, concern, care.
You get “you go too fast for me”. It’s a line I find more powerful with every rewatch, because there’s so much behind it. It’s not a rejection. Not at all. It’s “I need time”. It’s “I’m not ready now, it’s too much for me at this time, but I’ll be ready for it. I’ll get there. I want to get there.” It’s “please wait”. It’s “be patient with me”. I think it’s something that needs a lot of courage and trust to say, too. It’s not something you’re usually told is okay to ask for, but it’s such an important thing to feel like you can ask.
You get, a moment before, “I’ll give you a lift, anywhere you want to go”. This is the line that stood out to me more on my first watch of it. It’s an unconditional offer, and the way it’s said, you get the feeling that if Aziraphale asked to be driven to, say, Australia right then and there, Crowley would have dropped everything else and done it. This is “I’ll go anywhere, with you. I’ll do whatever you need of me, for you.” And he says it again, drunk and still not entirely over his grief in that bar. “Where are you? I’ll come to you, wherever you are.” “Wherever you are is where I want to be. Where I will be”. It’s a promise.
You get “We can go off together”. How much louder can you shout it, really? This is Crowley saying “you’re the one thing in this entire world I will pick to save if I can’t save anything else”.
You get Aziraphale’s “I forgive you”, right after Crowley tried to talk him into running off again and called him stupid. I think it’s not Aziraphale forgiving Crowley for calling him stupid. It’s Aziraphale referring to their previous conversation, to Crowley’s “Unforgivable, that’s what I am”. This is, even before Aziraphale gives up on Heaven (he still clings to hope at this point), this is Aziraphale saying “I don’t care if God condemned you, because I don’t. I forgive you.”
And “To the World” has to be the best of them all. To the World, to the world Crowley entire gave up on when he thought Aziraphale was dead, to the world they lived in together for six thousand years, to the world that’s the only place either of them fits in and the only place they can enjoy together.
No, “I love you” can stay right out of this. It’s been said a hundred times over, with looks, with actions, and with lots of better words.
