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REJECT RENDERING RETURN TO ANIMATION RAAAAAAGH

some stills from the thing ^_^

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I’ve been seeing posts demonizing #GoodOmens fans for not leaving the fandom over recent revelations.

I say to hell with that.

Let’s show these people who we really are.

I’m donating $500 to www.thenightministry.org that helps homeless LGBTQIA folks.

I’m also donating another $500 to rainn.org/resources

There’s also this fundraiser by the fandom:

I am able to do this because of the Good Omens fandom, who are incredibly supportive of artists like myself, writers and other creators that found a home here.

We love hard.

Let’s keep having fun, keeping healthy and be The GOOD in the omens.❤️❤️❤️

And that’s all I have say about that.

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First of all, I'm so sorry for what happened to you. No, what someone did to you. It's reprehensible and wrong and I wish I could take it away from everyone who has experienced something like that.

Second, I appreciate you sharing this with all of us. I can't imagine it was easy, and it's even harder when we're struggling to understand our own emotions and where they're coming from and why.

I recognize a lot of your internal conflicts in my own. I had the same experience with JKR and the IP -- it meant a lot to me growing up, but it was so easy for me to cut ties with it in the face of her transphobia. But like you, I don't feel the same compulsion to cut myself off from the Good Omens IP or its fandom or community. I struggled at first, but it didn't take me long to unpack and understand why the two situations are different.

Supporting JKR and her IP isn't just a matter of whether or not she directly benefits from it, monetarily. Keeping her relevant, through cosplay, through art, through fanfiction, through independent artists on Etsy or at conventions, through film and game adaptations, all of it -- it keeps her relevant to book publishers, game developers, media distributors, etc. She continues to leverage her fame, her platform, her audience to make more content, more IPs, more revenue streams, and people keep letting her -- because there's no such thing as bad publicity. She has garnered a HUGE following of transphobic supporters who love how vocal she is with her transphobia, and will continue to boost her harmful rhetoric and support her projects. This makes her lucrative. Regardless of the controversy, if she makes a company money, they will publish her book, turn her IP into a game, program the film adaptations of her books during the holidays and every other time of the year. Supporting the IP whether you support JKR or not is still making her a hefty profit, and it continues to perpetuate harmful stereotypes and ideas against the queer community.

But more than just that -- and compounded by that -- the money that she continues to make from all the attention is going directly to lobbying for policy that hurts trans people. I'll say that again. If you still engage with HP in ANY public way, you are funneling money directly into policies that can permanently harm trans people. This is why it is SO important for us to disengage. Because the more JKR tweets, the more she gets attention, articles written about her, followers on her platforms, etc, the more money she makes -- and the more she's able to lobby for these policies.

There's also the fact that JKR's seven-part IP is full of the anti-Semitic, anti-women, racist, and queerphobic values that she herself holds. So supporting the IP is still excusing those parts of it.

With Good Omens, none of this is the case.

When the allegations against NG first surfaced last July, he immediately disappeared. From all of his social media (where he had been very visible and received a lot of positive attention), from the press, from everything. He stopped doing events, he didn't promote any of his work. Nobody did. In fact, all of his projects in development in the way of film and television adaptations were halted, shut down, or altogether canceled.

To be clear, NG's disappearance from the public eye does not make him a better person than JKR. Whether he did it out of shame or a desire to avoid backlash, it doesn't really matter. The reality is, the scandal didn't make him more popular the way it did with JKR. It didn't drive more attention toward his properties, it didn't accelerate his financial gain. It did the opposite.

Furthermore, NG has been publicly and financially castrated from Good Omens. He's been removed as writer, executive producer, and his production company has been removed as well. He is no longer profiting off of the series finale. And he did so in order for the project to see its end in honor of Terry Pratchett, who people often forget or ignore was also responsible for authoring the IP.

Again, this is in no way a defense of NG, it's not meant to humanize him, nor is it absolution for his crimes. My point is simply that continuing to engage with Good Omens doesn't have the same social impact as with JKR's IP. There's no financial benefit to NG for the success of the show. He doesn't use the scandal and take any previous profits and lobby for policies that harm women. He doesn't get on social media and encourage people to go out and SA people, he doesn't espouse harmful rhetoric about how great SA is. If he did any of this, I'd drop Good Omens like a hot rock.

But simply, the two situations are not the same. So please don't feel bad about still loving the show, or the book, or continuing to engage with the community. You deserve to heal however you need to. If that means clinging to Good Omens more than before, then cling, baby, cling. It doesn't mean that you don't support the victims who have come forward. It doesn't make a single impact on their lives. What does make an impact is how vocal we have been in renouncing our support of NG, and how we've used the fandom to rally together to raise money for charitable causes that help victims of SA. And if anyone tries to tell you differently or make you feel bad about it, they can fuck right the hell off.

Anyway, I leave you all with what I hope with be a cathartic anthem for victims of SA everywhere.

Kill 'em dead, kill 'em dead (x2) F**kin' bodies in the hallway Kill 'em dead, kill 'em dead (x2) I got rage with it Kill 'em dead, kill 'em dead (x2) Run, you can run, but you can't hide

Don't let anyone steal your peace. Stay strong.

I want to talk about Neil Gaiman from the perspective of a survivor of SA.

I am a trans/ gender fluid person, a survivor of R*pe, and a diehard Good Omens fan. And I have been struggling to cope with and process the horrific things that Neil Gaiman has done. I don’t get a lot of engagement from the Good Omens fandom. I’m mostly a lurker here, TikTok, Twitter, and BlueSky and AO3. But I feel like I need to say something, and Im saying it here so I can share without a character limit. And then I’m going to take a break for a while because my mental health can’t handle the chaos anymore.

I read the Vulture article and I was of course horrified and disgusted and repulsed. The things he did to those women made me absolutely sick. But I’ll tell you what, as a survivor, I have been way more triggered by the online reaction to these allegations than I ever expected to be.

I am struggling, because while I unquestioningly stand with his victims and hope they get the full weight of justice they deserve, I am grieving. I am not reacting the way I would have expected myself to react to this news, and I haven’t since July when the story first broke. I would have expected to react the same way I did when JK Rowling exposed her horrific transphobia. I took a pretty hardline stance that any engagement with Harry Potter, even through fandom and etsy purchases, kept her relevant and sent the message that you too were transphobic. As a gender queer person, I now have an extremely hard time enjoying Harry Potter anymore even thought it was overwhelmingly influential on my life. I would not have met my husband without HP!

So why don’t I feel the same way about Good Omens? I am a victim of R*pe, myself, so why haven’t these allegations made it difficult to enjoy this story? In fact, all I want to do right now is actually watch the show! Or read the book, or fanfiction, or watch my favorite fan edits. I’m actually reaching out to it more. My instinct ever since July has been to clutch the story to my chest, white knuckled, and crying to myself in the shower, “No, no, no, no. Please, please, please. Not this. Not this too. Please don’t go.”

The answer is I don’t know. I… I don’t know why I’m reacting this way. It is something I will have to work through with my therapist for sure. And I feel absolutely horrible for it. But I do know that folks on Twitter and TikTok telling me that nobody cares about my feeling and saying that nothing matters at all except his victims has been extremely triggering - more so than any discussion of his acts. And I know that I will need a long time to work through it, and that I may never get over it.

I also know that two things can be true at once. We can be supportive of his victims and understand that what Neil Gaiman’s fans are going through is ALSO a collective trauma that deserves time and space to process. Because he violated us too. He violated our trust and our perceptions of reality, and that is much more traumatic than people give it credit for. Demanding that his fans just give up the stories and communities that may have been the only thing keeping some of these people alive at one point completely cold turkey is cruel and heartless. Some people may be able to do that. They may be able to not care for a while and may even need that. People deserve time and grace to grieve and come to terms with what is going on in their own ways.

I know that some of these folks mean well, but the argument that nobody cares about fans feelings is not looking at the whole picture and feels like just a way to discredit and belittle fandoms in a new way. Because this is NOT breaking news! This story originally broke back in July, and the fandom rallied behind his victims en mass! They have recently raised thousands of dollars to donate to Take Back The Night, which is amazing! This most recent article and fandom meltdown is just rehashing everything that we said last summer. So my then questions are:

When CAN we grieve? When CAN we talk about how we are feeling? When CAN we reach out to our community and collectively heal from the trauma that we are facing as well? And not fear that some self righteous ass hole on the internet is going to bully them for not being a good enough feminist. And do NOT sit there on your performative high horse and tell us that what we are going through is not as bad as R*pe. We fucking know that. I certainly fucking know that. But it is still bad, and it does deserve recognition too. It is extremely unhealthy to pretend that this news is not also a noteworthy trauma to his fans. And gaslighting them by telling them that their heartbreak and grief is problematic is just fucking mean.

Neil’s fans deserve grace and compassion too.

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THE FINAL CHAPTER!!

Chapter Summary:

Dream conducts Neal's trial, and the Fates determine his destiny for the Afterlife. Aziraphale continues to try and get through to Crowley, who is too hurt to let him. Ultimately, their argument comes to a head at the end of Neal's trial.

Rated: M for language and adult themes/jokes. Please see chapter notes for more details on rating/content/triggers.

Chapter word count: 6,167 (+194 in footnotes)

@goodomensafterdark @fairytalegobang

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The problem is, people say this to me about Good Omens and like, you're only hurting yourself by not watching it. 🤷‍♂️

i need people to understand that fundamentally when I say I want to watch something I mean that i will probably not watch that within the next 6 months but I think about it often

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Please write your story. Draw the artwork. Finish the animation. Continue on whatever project you're working on. It doesn't matter if you're not good at it, or you have doubts, or you're afraid of mistakes. Your creation has a right to exist, and it will be important to others.

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ao3 wrapped [writers edition]

How many words have you written this year?

How many works did you publish this year?

What work are you most proud of (regardless of kudos/hits)?

What work of yours has the most hits?

What work of yours got more feedback than you expected?

Favorite title you used

If you use song lyrics, which artist’s songs did you pull from the most?

Pairing you wrote the most for this year?

Favorite pairing you wrote for this year?

What work was the quickest to write?

What work took you the longest to write?

How many WIP’s do you have in your docs for next year?

What’s your longest work of the year?

What’s your shortest work of the year?

What WIP are you taking into next year with you?

What’s your most common “Additional Tags” tag?

Your favorite character to write this year?

The character that gave you the most trouble writing this year?

What’s one pairing you want to explore next year?

Which work of yours have you reread the most?

How many kudos in total did you get this year?

Which work has the most comments?

Did you do any collaborative works this year?

Did you write any gifts this year?

Did you receive any gifts this year?

What’s your most common category?

What do you listen to while writing?

Favorite work you wrote this year?

Favorite line/passage you wrote this year?

Biggest surprise while writing this year?

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I've written one that features infamous white-collar criminal Neal Caffrey! Aziraphale and Crowley are his shoulder "angel and devil."

Good Omens Fan Fiction Friday (12/13/24) - Smooth Criminals

People around the world are celebrating a plethora of winter/summer holidays. And I'm thinking about fan fics featuring criminals. What can I say? I'm a contrarian (come back next week for some Christmas recs). Here are a few favorites featuring criminal undertakings. Let's start with the one I couldn't put down--that made me feature this theme: Protect and Serve (E) by snae_b tells the story of Chicago cop Aziraphale Fell on the hunt for master thief, the Serpent. But is all as it seems? This fic offers surprises from the very first chapter (go ahead, read it; I dare you to not keep going). And keeps the tension going through the entire work with several twists and turns. Mind the tags. The story is violent at times and references trafficking and abuse of children. But, if that is not a deal breaker for you, absolutely worth it. After the tension of my last rec, you'll need something a bit more fluffy. So may I recommend The (Wedding) Arrangement (T) by Sonnet 23? Private detective Aziraphale McFell and the thief Anthony Crowley are close friends--and maybe more? They team up to catch the criminals targeting grand weddings all over London. For readers who like their capers with a heaping helping of fluff. In Thieves of Mercy (T) by Fyre, art thief Anthony Crowley is casing the museum for a job when he's hauled in by security with a tracking tag on him. The only person who could have framed him was that chatty art conservator with the halo of platinum hair. Thus starts a hilarious game of wits. Father Crowley is asked to take over directing the choir in Father Gabriel's church, replacing Aziraphale in Take Me to Heaven (M) by TawnyOwl95. Yes, it's a Good Omens take on a popular movie with singing nuns. And it features some fun art by NettleThistle. Set in Australia, A Season of Whale Song (E) by @drconstellation features botanist Aziraphale bunking with leader of whale tours Crowley when his accommodations get messed up. Both are keeping secrets. But manage to become quite close. This is a WIP but it's one chapter from finishing this first part of what's going to be a trilogy. Don't want to give too much away about why it's on a list of criminal fics. But I can tell you it's one of those stories that entertains while teaching about all kinds of cool things--whales, indigenous culture, astronomy, plant life, and more.

In the 14th Century, Crowley is a thief. And Aziraphale is the kind nobleman who befriends him in The Weight of Memory (E) by @missunderstoodlyrics and @searching4sarahtonin. Unfortunately for our pair, Aziraphale's suitor, Gabriel curses Crowley to separate the pair. But the curse doesn't work as expected. This magical story is loads of fun. And very romantic. It's a lovely fantasy.

In Eros, Philia, and Other Misunderstandings (M) by @thinkinginscripts, Aziraphale is a celibate administrator in his family's mega-church trying to stay true to himself without rocking the boat. Crowley is an East London barman trying to make a better life for himself. They meet at the library. I adored the slowly unfolding relationship for these two. And that's what you'll get for most of the work. Don't want to give too much away about why it's in this theme. But let me just say you'll get a satisfying glimpse of BAMF!Aziraphale and BAMF!Crowley. One of my all-time favorites. And finally, Stalwart Sun, Wily Moon (M) by @dustandhalos is back on my list again. I recommended it before in my list of works with stunning art work. But this story of Crowley as an art thief at the top of his game and Aziraphale, the art conservator drawn into his dangerous world is worth another mention. It's a top notch heist story, well plotted and beautifully written. Reblog and add your favorite fics featuring criminal activity.

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Commenting positively on fic like

Unfamiliar author: wow I loved this!

Author you’ve interacted with before: you killed me, I’m dead

Author who’s your friend: I hate you

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Chapter Summary:

As Neal prepares for his Afterlife sentencing, tensions run high between Crowley and Aziraphale following their night in the Eden dreamscape.

Rated: M for language and adult themes/jokes. Please see chapter notes for more details on rating/content/triggers.

Chapter word count: 4,580 (+156 in footnotes)

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Don’t look too closely (she says as she posts a closeup) — I’m no artist, and my Photoshop skills are mid. But for whatever reason, I am obsessed with the way Jack holds Ianto’s hand while they dance, and I am obsessed with the idea of Crowley and Aziraphale dancing like that. So I put a scene of it in the latest chapter of my fic, “Let’s Go Steal A Dream!” and I made this manip to accompany it since I can’t draw. 🤣

Please enjoy!

📝 Chapter Summary: ▪ WHEN WE GOT TOO CLOSE ▪ As we come upon the end of their assignments in The Dreaming, Crowley turns his shameless flirting into shameless seduction when he takes Aziraphale to his private Eden dreamscape.

⚠️ Please see chapter notes for specific details on rating/content/triggers

😈 Rated: M for language and adult themes/jokes

😇 Chapter word count: 6,670 (+168 in footnotes)

🧚‍♀️ This fic is a part of the @fairytalegobang

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NEW FIC: This Fantasy, This Fallacy, This Tumbling Stone

(Part 3 of The Eden Experiments)

Part 1: The Eden Experiments

Part 2: Seeing The Stars Again

All my love and eternal thanks to @maidenimage for developing this indulgent smutty goodness with me 🖤✨

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Chapter Summary:

Crowley turns his shameless flirting into shameless seduction when he takes Aziraphale to his private Eden dreamscape.

Rated: M for language and adult themes/jokes. Please see chapter notes for more details on rating/content/triggers.

Chapter word count: 6,670 (+168 in footnotes)

@goodomensafterdark

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Appropriate that I’m in the midst of posting a fanfic about Crowley and Aziraphale being the angel-and-demon on someone’s shoulder. 😁

my tumblr feed knows what it’s doing

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Chapter Summary:

As Neal's time in the Dreaming draws to a conclusion, Crowley and Aziraphale have mixed feelings -- about Neal's performance, as well as each other. Neal puts the pair on one final mission to accomplish his own.

Rated: M for language and adult themes/jokes. Please see chapter notes for more details on rating/content/triggers.

Chapter word count: 4,521 (+319 in footnotes)

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90 minutes

I couldn't sleep, so I got on my computer and edited season 2 down to just the present-day Crowley/Aziraphale scenes, just to see how much time that fills.

The answer is: approximately 145 minutes (or 2 hrs 25 min).

I removed everything that didn't have either of them in it, as well as the minisode flashbacks. Here's how each episode tallies up:

2x01: 0:33:45

2x02: 0:18:58 Job Minisode is an additional 0:25:36

2x03: 0:19:12 Edinburgh Minisode is an additional 0:18:25

2x04: 0:05:36 Nazis Minisode is an additional 0:32:48

2x05: 0:27:19

2x06: 0:40:03 (like basically the entire episode, not much fat to trim here)

Keep in mind that this is not a story edit; meaning there are scenes that I cut out that probably would have been in the season if we were genuinely trying to whittle it down to movie-length but keep the integrity of the story. (This includes scenes such as Muriel bringing the matchbox to Michael and Uriel, Shax in Hell talking to Beelzebub, all the Gabriel/Beelzebub flashbacks in episode 6, etc.) But it's late and I don't have time to do that right now, so this is the rough framework we're working with.

Here's my takeaway:

Can season 3 be sliced and diced into one 90-minute episode/movie? Yeah, probably. Are we going to lose a lot of the heart of the show and the characters in doing so? Definitely. Because in order to edit season 2 down into 90 minutes while still keeping the story in tact, I would probably have to add back some of the non-Aziracrow scenes, and cut the following:

The "Before the beginning" scene with Angel Crowley starting up the universe (which we can all agree would be a devastating loss; but doesn't directly tie to present day)

Most likely, the apology dance (because it's long and isn't strictly speaking necessary, except TO ME ON A SPIRITUAL LEVEL)

Most if not all of the scenes of Aziraphale convincing the various shopkeepers to attend the meeting (which would gut me, but is objectively not necessary to the story)

A great deal of the Maggie/Nina story (would probably keep some of it, but most of it is superfluous)

A lot of the Gabriel/Jim scenes (which are adorable but are there for entertainment, and not story)

A great deal of the Crowley/Jim scene where he confronts him about telling Aziraphale to shut his stupid mouth and die. Parts of this sequence were important, but a lot of it would have been axed/shortened.

The scene of Aziraphale driving the Bentley and Crowley calling him, furious about everything (which would break my heart to lose)

All of the minisode flashbacks (which would be the MOST tragic thing to do to this content, but objectively none of it was needed for the season 2 plot)

All of Shax gathering the demon troops and Eric arguing with her (which, I wouldn't cry about losing, but still shows you the flavor of the show that would be gone)

Other Hell scenes (e.g. Beelzebub and the dung pits demon)

Other Heaven scenes (e.g. Michael and Uriel arguing over duty officer etc)

A great deal of the demons/bookshop battle (to shorten it up/tighten it)

A great deal of Crowley in Heaven investigating Gabriel's trial/disappearance (again just to shorten/tighten, but not lose completely)

And again, this is all stuff that could easily be cut and the story of season 2 would remain the same, but look at how much of what makes this show so great would be lost.

Ultimately, I'm not here to tell you how to feel. I can tell you what I feel, which is outraged and devastated and grieving and ready to storm studios with pitchforks and a frothy mouth. But I recognize that the Terry Pratchett estate went to bat for us in a big way, and we owe them everything we get in this upcoming finale.

I have other thoughts on this whole nonsense, but I'll save that for another post. Just wanted to provide some numbers data for folks who are curious about what could reasonably be done in 90 minutes. Hope this helps in some way.

@goodomensafterdark @fuckyeahgoodomens