It occurred to me that while I am taking for granted the fact that the three main couples in Good Omens are mirroring each other, a lot of people actually don’t know about it. So I decided to make a post gathering all the details on the matter that I could find in the show.
This meta was partly inspired by this postby@nitocrisss (I had this idea and couldn’t motivate myself to actually write it but your post helped a lot. Wahoo! :))
So, the theory is that Aziraphale-Anathema-Sergeant Shadwell on the one hand and, respectively, Crowley-Newt-Madame Tracy on the other are the characters that serve as each other’s mirrors in terms of their narrative arcs and, as we’ll see, even some aesthetics.
The first group of characters that I’m going to talk about are Aziraphale, Anathema and Sergeant Shadwell. How are they similar?
First of all, all of their lives are somehow connected to the Book and, in Aziraphale’s and Anathema’s case, to a woman speaking through it. For Aziraphale it’s the Bible and God; for Anathema, it’s the Nice and Accurate Prophecies and Agnes Nutter; for Shadwell, well, it’s not as straightforward, but he says that a witchfinder should have a book (the Bible, I assume) with him at all times, right? Anyway, their lives are driven by a very strict set of rules and The Higher Purpose, which they can’t disobey. Aziraphale can’t fail God’s plan:
Anathema can’t fail Agnes and is destined to stop the Apocalypse:
Anathema’s life is connected to prophecies and, as we know, collecting book of prophecy is Aziraphale’s greatest passion. Just like Aziraphale tries to contact God at a certain point, Anathema is talking about Agnes as if the latter one is alive and is still “consulting” her. Also, when she looses the book, she’s calling her mother via Skype.
Meanwhile Shadwell is fighting non-existent witches and, quite importantly:
@ouidamforemanreply: In the book Crowley/Aziraphale and Newt/Anathema also have these little scenes:
And these:
Which I noticed on my reread and thought were very cute
@moveslikebuckycomment: Just to add to your book connection - in the novel Shadwell has a dream where Agnes yells at him. I don’t remember the full details and I’m at work so can’t look them up but if you’d like I’ll find that bit when I get home ^_^
@joan-daardvarkreply: I checked the book and found an addition suggested by @moveslikebucky (thank you!) It’s an excerpt from Shadwell’s dream where he witnesses the execution of Agnes Nutter. As we see, she also communicated with him:
A witch, thinks Shadwell. They’re burning a witch. It gives him a warm feeling. That was the right and proper way of things. That’s how things were meant to be. Only … She looks directly up at him now, and says “That goes for yowe as welle, yowe daft old foole.” Only she is going to die. She is going to burn to death. And, Shadwell realizes in his dream, it is a horrible way to die. The flames lick higher. And the woman looks up. She is staring straight at him, invisible though he is. And she is smiling. And then it all goes boom.
Also, the book that Shadwell gave Newt for his mission in Tadfield was Prayers for Little Hands.
That scene where Aziraphale and Crowley get shot with paintballs is even more hilarious in the book because of the way it’s dramatized like these idiots get shot and we immediately cut away to an explanation of how Sister Mary Loquacious came to be a successful entrepreneur and when we get back to the ineffable morons Crowley has sunk to the ground, dramatically leaning against a statue and Aziraphale has straight up fallen over on his ass and stays lying down until Crowley, after a quick contemplation of how inconvenient it is to get discorporated at a time like this, realizes Shenanigans are Afoot, tastes the paint and crawls over to him to be like “hey Shenanigans are Afoot” like the adaptation gives them too much dignity in this scene when they both legit thought they were dying for at least a full minute
This new animatic is what happens when you can’t get over the 90’s cursed movie script. And it’s also been an excuse for basically drawing all my takes on every Aziraphale and Crowley (Green: Book version. Grey: Radio drama version. Red: Tv series version. Purple: Movie script version).
This is probably the most indulging thing I’ve ever done yet. I’ve got no excuse, and I REGRET NOTHING.
“Aziraphale and his not-totally-obvious crush on his hereditary enemy”
Based on @superdogbiter‘s incorrect Good Omens quotes and inspired by the fact that I’m working on an animatic with the 3 Crowleys which lead me to the obvious conclusion that I had to draw the 3 Aziraphales (Book, Radio Drama and TV show).
I also love how Good Omens is one of the few stories that, with each adaptation, turns more and more queer.
