What you did to the M25 was a stroke of demonic genius, darling.
You know, it’s just occurred to me that, presumably, Crowley had to prepare these acetates himself. I just find the thought of him tracking down the OHP pens and acetate, painstakingly tracing the map (little forked tongue sticking out?), and writing the caption under it as neatly as he can, endearingly hilarious.
Every part of this is endearingly hilarious and someone should give him his Wahoo!
Also, the handwriting is sort of semi-calligraphy, the kind people who are trained in calligraphy use when they want to be neat but lazy (and also don’t have the right kind of pen). This just feeds into my headcanon that Crowley has awesome Gothic Font Calligraphy skills developed from writing soul contracts in the Middle Ages, but he doesn’t use them any more because it’s too hard.
The drawing started as a joke, but now I can’t stop thinking about Crowley who has a desk in hell and paperwork to do, but he absolutely hates being in hell and hates officework even more. He puts it off as long as he possibly can, years or decades, usually to the point of a higher-up crackling their way into his radio program, threatening to come up to earth and drag his ass down into hell themselves.
But when he DOES go, he takes an ever-increasing determination to be as annoying as possible. He is the entire Malicious Compliance subreddit in a single being. He has to go shuffle papers around, but he’s not going to do so quietly. He emails everyone in hell (any demon who doesn’t use or understand computers gets a paper memo on their desk automatically) about pretty much everything he’s doing and how he’s doing it. He chugs coffee, red bull, and whisky the entire time. He basically turns every project or paper into an opportunity to annoy every demon in hell for the crime of making him come down to deal with it.
Each time, he ends up able to put the whole thing off for another couple decades, because nobody in hell actually wants him there anymore. But even with the other demons avoiding putting things on Crowley’s desk, he’ll inevitably have to come back down again at some point. But at least he has the courtesy to announce to all of hell when he has arrived… even if it means Beelzebub has to deal with a flood of completely unrelated field work requests from every demon in hell.
Crowley is the original master of malicious compliance and you should say it.
I have loved that particular incorrect GO quote ever since I saw it, so thank you for this OP.
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.)
“I’m not safe with others but I’m safe with you and I trust you completely” is my goddamn storytelling WEAKNESS, OKAY
