Today I’m having a lot of feelings about. ok. Aziraphale knew there was a demon causing a big ruckus in the Garden. and the very FIRST thing he does is. give his only means of self defense away!!! like
all he knows about demons at that point is what Heaven has told him. and he’s quite certain they’re irredeemably Evil and possibly out to settle a score from the War. and he. he’s not just being nice to the humans. he’s potentially risking his own life for them. he just. does that. immediately
and then said demon waltzes up to him and starts blabbering on about the moon and acting precious about getting damp idkgjfg
like i imagine if Crowley hadn’t shut him up his next words to Anathema would have been like. ‘’…and technically I was supposed to plunge a flaming sword into his head. but well, anyway. he was yammering some nonsense about meta-ethics and the moon and he hates it when his toes get wet, it’s adorable. we’re married now.’’ they’re so absurd
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@tabbystardustreply: And also when the demon asks about his sword he just tells him he gave it away instead of lying like he LIED TO GOD what a disaster angel gotta love him
@ileolaireply: lmao right and like. no wonder crowley immediately splashed his pants over it. first day on the job and this angel is off his chain. he’s fucking mental. he lets humans raid the no-no tree and gives them free weapons for their trouble. immediately blurts out what he did to the Enemy but lies to the boss’s face about it. That’s more Nonsense than Crowley managed to cause in five minutes and causing Nonsense is his job
We can see Crowley’s, though a little wider, snake pupils here. He was comfortable enough to have his portrait taken by Leonardo like this. Actually, I’d bet that it was Leonardo himself who made these glasses for him.
Why is that?
It’s because Crowley and Leonardo were friends! Crowley has a sketch of Mona Lisa in his appartment:
and from the bts detailed picture:
we know that the inscription is:
Al mio amico Antonio dal tuo amico Leo da V. meaningTo my friend Anthony from your friend Leo da V.
So we know Crowley and Leonardo were friends :). (also there is a short deleted scene with them in some versions of the Good Omens Script Book)
Crowley’s is the apple, the forbidden fruit, his reminder of the Garden of Eden, where he tempted Eve. You can also check a long article about the symbolism of an apple here. :)
Aziraphale’s is a scroll: Symbol of life and time. Both ends rolled up indicates a life that is unfolding like a scroll of uncertain length and the past and future hidden. Often held by a hand representing life being recorded by angels. Can also suggest honour and commemoration. (x) and An emblem of wisdom and an early emblem of the Apostles.(x) I believe there is a multiple meaning, while it is an object often held by angels with meanings such an honour or wisdom, it’s also personal object for Aziraphale, of his love for knowledge and books (which are the human invention, so perhaps even the humanity itself).
Ombra e Luce:
When you put the two portraits together, you find out that they are actually one large picture!
And what is the one object that is the in both portraits, that is connecting them and that they are both touching?
It’s a book:
The book’s name is OMBRA E LUCE, italian for: SHADOW AND LIGHT. Symbols for Crowley and Aziraphale.
The background of Crowley’s potrait
The background of the demon’s potrait is the same as Mona Lisa’s!
@tsilvyreply: It might be redundant, but I’d like to point out that Leonardo da Vinci made an art of combining shadow and light, ‘ombra e luce’, in his chiaroscuro and sfumato techniques, which became a trademark of his art, as we can see in the Monna Lisa and many of his other works.
Now maybe I’m a romantic, but I love the idea that Leonardo saw how perfectly Crowley and Aziraphale, shadow and light, fit together, and got inspired by them to try that in his art as well.
@thegoodomensdumpsterreply: I love all of this, but the question I’m asking myself is: were Crowley and Aziraphale independantely in touch with Da Vinci and had their portraits done separately, and Leonardo, this old jokster, had totally connected the dots between them and joined their portraits on purpose… or did they go ask Da Vinci together for a double portrait ?
@poetic—-nonsensereply: Honestly, my headcanon for this is perhaps a little out there: just from looking at these pictures, I tend to think da Vinci never met Aziraphale, or at least hadn’t by this time.
Crowley’s portrait looks pretty much spot-on, with a look I can entirely believe he would’ve been sporting around that time. When we look close-up, the details and shadows of his face, his expression, and, yes, his eyes, are really finely detailed and accurate, in a really instantly recognizable way.
By contrast, Aziraphale’s picture (to me at least) looks really… unsettlingly off. When put up with the other one, yeah, I can see that’s Aziraphale, the hair and clothes and general demeanor are distinctive, but it’s definitely nowhere near as natural-looking as Crowley’s portrait. Look at it: the neck is too long, the face too narrow and elongated, the expression is plastic, the body proportions are off, the hairline’s in the wrong place, and the facial features (eyebrows, eyes, nose, mouth) seem to float, heavily drawn and shaded, on a face otherwise devoid of detail and line and all those five zillion little creases and shapes on Michael Sheen’s face that have enraptured all of us.
(I mean, I imagine Michael’s reeeeeeeally difficult to draw properly, but this is da Vinci we’re talking about. And portraiture was kind of his thing. I imagine if he’d actually had Aziraphale in front of him, he’d have positively attacked it.)
It’s almost like da Vinci was working off a description Crowley had given him, of someone he had never seen.
Especially since loads of the people who met da Vinci mentioned that he was really good at memorizing faces – I think it was Vasari that said he used to go out and wander around the city, and then come home and sketch all the interesting-looking people he’d seen, with almost disturbing accuracy.
So, yeah, by my reckoning either Crowley commissioned a lover’s diptych to stare at longingly (and cry over), or da Vinci decided to make it as a present to Crowley, confident that he could sketch a pretty good approximation of this Aziraphale fellow after all the time his good friend Antonio had spent talking about him. And Crowley no doubt had a bit of a Moment upon reciept of it.
(There’s a really good post I saw ages ago when I was lurking about how this was a very specific style of portraiture that saw its day for a few decades as a popular way to paint lovers; I’ll see if I can find it again!)
Probably unnecessary EDIT: For reference, I submit this picture that I just pulled off a Google search, where Aziraphale’s at mostly the same angle (and also I just like his expression).
Aziraphale’s was done from imagination, after Crowley spent FIVE DAYS describing him in intense detail that NO ONE ASKED FOR.
(Or, yeah, I can actually just imagine excited Crowley telling Aziraphale he can introduce him to just the cleverest most interesting human JUST YOU WAIT ANGEL and then maybe asked Leonardo to do it from memory afterwards?)
Either way, Aziraphale has no idea this double portrait exists.
@noglingreply: Personally, my favorite part of this bit of artwork is that Leonardo’s Aziraphale looks a bit like Sir Terry, and his Crowley looks a bit like Neil Gaiman.
@marisferasiopcomment: These portraits were very popular among the wealthy I Da V’s time because one partner could have the other’s portrait in their rooms/home/etc but when they got together they could hang them side-by-side and have a full couple’s portrait already done. So either Da V did this as a little joke and gave them both to Crowley (my personal HC is that Antony was his “little devil” lover we can read about in his journals) or that they did it on purpose because it was a dad and Only Crowley knew WHY it was a fad and he desperately wanted that little bit of visible proof of their friendship/relationship which could be e easily hidden if need be
@somecleverreferencereply: I like to think it’s a double portrait and they cut it in half after the fact out of embarrassment and fear of their bosses finding out that they’d been doing portrait sittings together. They both moped about it for ages afterward.
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.
Ok there’s tons of cute art and fic and metas our there connecting Crowley’s past as a star maker to the star he wanted to run away to and the romance of Alpha Centauri being two stars that orbit each other and it’s all really sweet, but I can’t help thinking…
Y’all know Alpha Centauri is a triple star system right?
Alpha Centauri A (Rigil Kentaurus), Alpha Centauri B (Toliman) and Alpha Centauri C (Proxima Centauri).
A and B form the super romantic pairing.
C is a red dwarf, orbits much farther out (closer to Earth), isn’t visible to the naked eye, and is the one that actually has confirmed planets in the habitable zone.
Like, I honestly don’t know what romantic thing you can do with this information but i honestly love the sort of angsty/unrequited romance feel of it which doesn’t seem like a good fit for this ship (more of an OT3 thing? Or some kind of identity thing idk?) but I’m just saying if anyone pulls it off idk tag me and I’ll name a cat after you in the future.
i looked into alpha centauri because i was interested in the potential meaning of that choice as the place he wanted to run off to, and i noticed the triple star system fact as well. to my mind the red dwarf would represent earth for them - it’s the thing that united them in the first place and that allows them to continue to be together, but it fades into the background compared to their relationship to each other. i think the fact that crowley suggests they run off together to be there reinforces that concept. even though the earth is an intrinsic part of their connection (as the dwarf is an intrinsic part of this star system), when it comes down to it, it’s so much less important to crowley than his relationship to aziraphale that he would abandon the whole planet to be with him (as the dwarf is so dim in comparison to the binary stars that it’s invisible). but visibility - i.e. crowley’s perspective - is not the only thing that matters. there’s a practical reality beneath what is clear to the viewer. if the dwarf were removed from the system, the whole thing would be unstable and it could not survive. if aziraphale and crowley did abandon the earth, their lives and relationship would fundamentally change in a similarly unsustainable way. they’d be on an empty world, forever hiding in fear, with literally nothing but each other. they’d be alive but not living. they couldn’t be happy, and ultimately they would probably be found and destroyed anyways.
the only solution is to maintain all three, and two of them can continue to feel much more important, but they do need the third to stay together. which is how things work out for him and aziraphale in the end.
i think this is probably just me stretching to make the analogy work, but it’s fun to find meaning in these little things, whether it was intentional or not.
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@aethelflaedladyofmerciacomment: @mochacoffee idk sounds like a pretty solid metaphor to me we often ignore how the Earth, the city, the cultures they live in have shaped them into who they are. They are what humanity has made of them.
my cat seems unimpressed tho so I don’t think she’ll be willing to be named after you.
@ambular-dcomment: Hm. I think the third one would be God. Out of sight, keeping an eye on them, exerting an influence, but basically staying out of their way.
@rudyrose365reply: Wait. There’s an invisible third force orbiting around our romantic pairing, gravitationally acting them, and maybe creating life?
@tickety-boo-afreply: On a less metaphorical level, the fact that there are potentially habitable planets in that system makes it seem like less of a dumb choice to run off to. Sure, it’s abandoning earth’s humanity for the sake of each other, but maybe there are other life forms they can coexist with? And their corporations might not be useless there?
@chonaku-things comment: for me, it is earth, because it is the second love of crowley and aziraphale
@alviepines comment: Third star is their new adopted son, Adam. And/or their other son, Warlock.
I have never noticed how Aziraphale’s instinctive reaction to being called Crowley’s friend is to smile at him:
This is the moment right before Aziraphale remembers that they’re not supposed to be seen together and starts explaining that they have never met before. So, even in Shakespearean times he already considered Crowley to be his friend. Which makes the bandstand scene and the “We’re not friends” even more ridiculous. This angel is so good at lying to himself.
Also, as I’ve already said somewhere, Crowley then proceeds with the famous Age does not wither nor custom stale his infinite variety. By saying this, he’s playing on Aziraphale’s ridiculous excuses about having never met before and not knowing each other. Basically Crowley is emphasizing the fact that, firstly, they are friends indeed and, secondly, that each of their meeting is like discovering each other anew.
In other words, he says Yes, Aziraphale, one could really say that we’ve never met before because your infinite variety makes each of our meetings feel like the first one.
Also I just realized the other day… This sentence that Will plagiarizes ends up in Antony and Cleopatra. Like I knew that before, because @drawlight pointed it out, but I suddenly made the connection “Oh, so Anthony wasn’t a random choice for a first name then, huh.” Like wow. Naming yourself after the titular character in a play that didn’t exist yet but you contributed to on one of your dates. How sentimental!!! (Especially when you consider the terms on which they parted… Happier memories… I wonder if the name is a sort of apology/olive branch. ‘let’s start over/dial it back, remember the good times?’)
God I just can’t stop thinking about this now!! Crowley, waking up after his extended nap. Getting back in the saddle, maybe still spending a few years apart from Aziraphale depending on when you think exactly he woke up. Suddenly he’s busy and he needs a name…. And maybe enough time has finally passed that he regrets the argument they had. He knows why they can’t come to terms, and he won’t ask for it again, but he misses his angel. So what better way to signal to him, “If you hear about me, please, I’m ready to talk. I’m ready to make up. Please, I’m going to build up a reputation until you can’t ignore me. I want to meet you again and discover how you changed in my absence” than to pick the name Anthony???
“Remember when I said that about you? When I talked about meetings and knowing? I’m ready for that again.”
Except. He went by some version of Tony with Da Vinci didn’t he?
…… That I think is true (I think it was Antonio maybe??? Idk if that’s a book reference or something they added for one of the special editions), but consider… Anthony and Cleopatra did exist. And their romance was defined, as much as one can glean any truth about such mythologized figures, as an arrangement becoming something more. Something real. Being on their own side against a great power that ultimately vanquished them.
And I also don’t think that necessarily precludes Crowley advertising himself as Anthony as a means of communicating all these feelings to Aziraphale. (In any case, Aziraphale doesn’t seem to know about the moniker prior to 1941….)
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@ambular-dcomment: So does that mean when Aziraphale said ‘Anthony??…I’ll get used to it’ at the church, he was implying 'Wait, you’re seriously casting me as Cleopatra?? … all right, well, if that’s really how you feel about it then who am I to contradict’
@a-ginger-in-blackreply: The Roman dude’s name was Antony, not Anthony, though in British English they’re pronounced the same.
In the novel, there’s mention of the Mona Lisa cartoon being dedicated to Antonio, so he was using the name by 1503 at the latest.
@joan-daardvarkreply: This makes me wonder why this alias didn’t come up until 1941. Not to Aziraphale, in any case.
joan-daardvarkreply: Upon further consideration and discussion with @forbiddenmadrigals… What if he’d already taken this alias in Rome? He could have witnessed Antony and Cleopatra’s romance and heard Antony say these same words to her in real life. So he didn’t come up with Age does not wither, but rather repeated it. He thought that this description suited the angel well and then uttered it at a convenient time (at the Globe). All that was left was to nudge Shakespeare to write a play about the events which Crowley had actually seen himself.
Another thing excites me though. The details below confuse me more than actually clarify anything but I think they’re worth mentioning anyway:
Original sin, serpents… May I go completely nuts and suggest that Crowley could, in fact, be Cleopatra? This doesn’t explain why he chose Antony as an alias but still it’s a fun thought. Or maybe he was present at her court? Who knows but it’s curious nevertheless.
Also, knowing my obsession with solar/lunar symbolism (Aziraphale = Sun, Crowley = Moon), I found this so very endearing:
Helios meaning sun and Selene meaning moon, ofc.
@liquidlyriumreply: Yes! I saw that in my frantic wiki reading as well!!! This is all extremely good!!!! (Also if we’re being honest Crowley is not the soldier of the two)
I mean let’s also consider that we know that they view each other far better than they see themselves yes? At the trials, Crowley plays Aziraphale as brave and strong under pressure… Yes he is Cleopatra clearly, but maybe he took that name because of what he sees in Antony (Aziraphale) in the hopes that he’d take on some of those qualities 0:
But he never let on until 1941 I’m still dying at all these Implications
joan-daardvarkreply: …in the hopes that he’d take on some of those qualities
You mean, like, as if they were able to… become each other?? *le gasp*
liquidlyriumreply: but also counterpoint: Crowley adopted the name so that his initials would be AC so that way he could always see them next to each other. Esp when he thought it would never happen because SIDES and all
joan-daardvarkreply(): Knowing his propensity to symbolism, I don’t see why not. We’re talking about a person bringing stone lecterns to his house in memory of his forbidden love, he could absolutely do that.
I am also convinced he sees it as something stylish.
I’m still in need of plenty rest (so no regular art updates in store), but I wanted to wish you all a wonderful weekend with some soft ineffable cuddles. Whether it’s with friends, lovers or by yourselves, have a very lovely day and take care.
Can Aziraphale play a violin? I don’t know- it just seemed like a soothing skill to have so I painted it into being. As you do. For a month. It was relaxing, I swear.
Please for the love of everything go to twitter and zoom in! tumblr always ruins the quality. I did all sorts of cool things into it!!!! see if you can spot the things that made me giggle a little
![Here’s the third post and the last batch of doodles. Do enjoy! [Twitter link]](https://64.media.tumblr.com/86d1ba8a4adb955eecacb66e8a37977d/59d968c82c9f0ae8-84/s1280x1920/854ba10a763057ef52dcaa0b788b8a3ec4d395cc.png "Here’s the third post and the last batch of doodles. Do enjoy! [Twitter link]")
![Here’s the third post and the last batch of doodles. Do enjoy! [Twitter link]](https://64.media.tumblr.com/035b084584f306d58229aacc6720987a/59d968c82c9f0ae8-f2/s1280x1920/c9e8e996a3c48dad11e054d1e7123ea661fcc90c.png "Here’s the third post and the last batch of doodles. Do enjoy! [Twitter link]")
![Here’s the third post and the last batch of doodles. Do enjoy! [Twitter link]](https://64.media.tumblr.com/8a78d60552960b4a1683633868e02f5a/59d968c82c9f0ae8-dc/s1280x1920/f7a8ebde88fd7b379d8b4149ccbb58c10563fa51.png "Here’s the third post and the last batch of doodles. Do enjoy! [Twitter link]")
![Here’s the third post and the last batch of doodles. Do enjoy! [Twitter link]](https://64.media.tumblr.com/3b17d2d2fbd1c821463bfc2e2f7307e3/59d968c82c9f0ae8-cf/s1280x1920/a598bb5a692ee594375a70f452b92033a9bd5048.png "Here’s the third post and the last batch of doodles. Do enjoy! [Twitter link]")
![Here’s the third post and the last batch of doodles. Do enjoy! [Twitter link]](https://64.media.tumblr.com/1416a606f367d44266712f6f26f8fd94/59d968c82c9f0ae8-54/s1280x1920/a9a45d7f6fc94a6e2223ff0146fe27813e264dd4.png "Here’s the third post and the last batch of doodles. Do enjoy! [Twitter link]")
![Here’s the third post and the last batch of doodles. Do enjoy! [Twitter link]](https://64.media.tumblr.com/b26868a331379b4d95baae5fac36618e/59d968c82c9f0ae8-c8/s1280x1920/f7d3b94686c949e381e24861101f8cf747fa00f4.png "Here’s the third post and the last batch of doodles. Do enjoy! [Twitter link]")
![Here’s the third post and the last batch of doodles. Do enjoy! [Twitter link]](https://64.media.tumblr.com/fab3aabaf931fb2999e6ca97cddf9ba7/59d968c82c9f0ae8-54/s1280x1920/5bf92a921306ef468c7532fd0bd5552a74997882.png "Here’s the third post and the last batch of doodles. Do enjoy! [Twitter link]")
![Here’s the third post and the last batch of doodles. Do enjoy! [Twitter link]](https://64.media.tumblr.com/c5143ac52faa19203037613496ef8c10/59d968c82c9f0ae8-f6/s1280x1920/aff3d4c5e0109f663b8d7158fd98e7f2daa3f11b.png "Here’s the third post and the last batch of doodles. Do enjoy! [Twitter link]")
![Here’s the third post and the last batch of doodles. Do enjoy! [Twitter link]](https://64.media.tumblr.com/5125c1ff03effdf5baec06a9f0a103aa/59d968c82c9f0ae8-8a/s1280x1920/9fe603c79883d55804879988cc994b088e5e223d.png "Here’s the third post and the last batch of doodles. Do enjoy! [Twitter link]")
![Here’s the third post and the last batch of doodles. Do enjoy! [Twitter link]](https://64.media.tumblr.com/1a4504a8d8f00921d31a49fa7ab44636/59d968c82c9f0ae8-06/s1280x1920/5fd2e0c4f73dd04809e362e78ef7b491580716d8.png "Here’s the third post and the last batch of doodles. Do enjoy! [Twitter link]")
