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Chapters: 1/1 Fandom: Good Omens (TV) Rating: Teen And Up Audiences Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply Relationships: Aziraphale/Crowley (Good Omens), Aziraphale & Crowley (Good Omens) Characters: Aziraphale (Good Omens), Crowley (Good Omens) Additional Tags: Drunken Kissing, Drunken Confessions, Drunken Flirting, Medical Inaccuracies, Stabbing, Breaking and Entering, Burglary, Aziraphale Loves Crowley (Good Omens), Protective Aziraphale (Good Omens), Aziraphale's Bookshop (Good Omens), Caring Aziraphale (Good Omens), Crowley Loves Aziraphale (Good Omens), Crowley is a Mess (Good Omens), Hurt Crowley (Good Omens) Summary:

One Halloween night, a pair of burglars break into the bookshop...Crowley won't stand aside and watch it happen.

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I was working on some of my Fanfic just now, when something hit me that stopped me right in my tracks.

I think, maybe, we've all got it wrong.

We (the fandom, the viewers, et al) have gotten something fundamentally WRONG about something that seems a silly little throwaway, but may be extremely important, but for a reason utterly different than we assume.

We've been calling it "the apology dance."

Canonically, it's NOT. It's not an apology. Azi makes a comment of wanting a "real apology. With the little dance." Yes. But then he specifically calls it "the 'I was wrong' dance." And when Crowley does the dance, at no point during it does he say "I'm sorry." He says "You were right. I was wrong. You were right."

It's NOT the same thing. Especially when you factor in the references Azi makes to the times HE did the dance. Now, we have no idea what happened in 1650, because we haven't been shown that, yet. But in both 1793 and 1941, the only thing Azi did that he would need to say he was in the wrong for was putting himself in danger.

Yes, folks, I'm going on record to say I firmly believe the only time Crowley insists on Azi doing the dance is when he puts himself in REAL, mortal danger. And seeing as both cases we KNOW of were unintentional/beyond his control (unintentionally in 1793 because he didn't stop to think about what he was doing, and outside his control in 1941, because he wouldn't have been in danger if Furfur hadn't been there).

This also opens a whole other discussion about when Azi demands the dance of Crowley. We can safely assume he's NEVER asked it of him, based on Crowley's reaction to the suggestion of it on screen. "I don't do the dance." Meaning "that's your thing, not mine. I've never done that." Also, in the context of what I mentioned above "that's for putting yourself in danger, and I didn't do that."

The subtext, however, based on what WE, and Crowley, know (Azi doesn't, at this point), and I now believe is the reason he does, in the end, actually DO the dance, is because to Crowley, that dance is associated with Azi being in danger (self-initiated danger in the referenced situations), and in this one case, Crowley storming out and refusing to help did, in actual fact, leave Azi to face a very REAL danger alone, and uninformed he's even IN danger. And THAT is what drives Crowley to actually do the dance (not the subtle pressure Azi applies, by listing those other times he was the one to do it... Those just incidentally serve as a reminder to Crowley of the reason the dance exists).

It's not an apology. At least, not like we've been reading it all this time, because it looks like a silly little "I fucked up" thing. It's a very real, very serious reminder to them both of the fact that they're putting something very important at risk when they don't stop to think about the consequences. Azi asks (okay, demands) it of Crowley because at this point they're pretty much on their own, and if Crowley refuses to stay and work with him, then Crowley will put himself in danger because he won't turn to Azi if he needs help as long as there's this rift between them. And Crowley does the dance as a reminder to himself that he nearly left the one person it would destroy him to lose alone to face a threat Azi doesn't even know exists.

I don't know about you, but I won't be viewing that scene the same, next time through.