#+ he doesn't want him to be needlessly separated from mary

[weirdo-from-bonesborough]

"Billy gets adopted by Bruce" fic but while dragging his feet at a gala he bumps into Mary and after all the tearful reunions and/or beating up of gala-crashing goons Bruce and the Bromfields start duking it out over who gets custody of the twins

[finethingswellworn]

So my two favorite shows are being discussed in conjunction with each other and now I'm trying to figure out why the ending to Good Omens 2 has left me significantly more distraught than Our Flag Means Death.

They ended in similar places, after all. And Our Flag went much, much darker with it's main character's breakdown. (Lucius going over the side and the toe scene, anyone?) So... why did Good Omens completely wreck me, then?

Both shows have comedic and dramatic elements. Both end on a somber note, with our beloved leads separated and pining. Both shows have a critical lack of communication and a tragic misunderstanding between the two partners where one (or both) assume what the other wants or is feeling, directly leading to their falling out.

Well, I think it's because the conflict between Aziraphale and Crowley is so much deeper and more irrevocable than that of Stede and Ed. Or it feels that way.

Stede doesn't fully realized his love for Ed, not until he's separated from him, until Mary describes what it's like. And then he finally gets it. Immediately he comes up with a scheme to get himself declared dead so that by the end of the season, we, the audience, as well as Stede know that there's no more ties to his old life keeping him. He's free to pursue Ed and win his love and trust back again. I've written on here a lot about the complications they're going to have settling into their life together. It's going to be a long, rocky road. I am ABSOLUTELY NOT trying to minimize that. It most certainly will be. And a painful one, too, more than likely.

But between Stede's realization of his newfound love and Ed's miserable tears at the end of ep10, the viewer knows that it's only a matter of time before Stede tracks Ed down and makes his true feelings known. And only a matter of time before Ed forgives him.

But the sting in the Good Omens finale isn't that our two main characters are or ever were unsure of how the other feels about them. It's clear to me that they've known at least since 1941, even if they've had ups and downs since then. The care, the devotion, the love is not really what's in question here and that makes it a million times more difficult to resolve because there's no easy assurances either of them can give to mend the breach. It's that they have reached an insurmountable impasse as to how they can be together.

Good Omens fans have said for a long, long time that Aziraphale and Crowley FEEL married. And i see their issues in season 2 as the culmination of many, many things left unsaid and unresolved for so long that they "inevitably end in a (metaphorical) divorce. It's the constant push/pull of tension lying just below the surface of their relationship that neither really want to face head on.

And it's so utterly gut-wrenching because we are essentially witnessing two beings who love each other more than anything else in the universe watch each other make choices that they believe will ruin them and their relationship and there's nothing either of them can do to change the other's mind. Seeing loved ones make terrible choices and being unable to stop them is one of the most painful fucking things in the universe. Knowing that they will be unhappy, knowing that they will suffer, knowing that if they would only reach out you would be right there to help them but also knowing that it's far, far too late to help now... knowing that they would refuse your help even if you confront them about the danger they are in... that's what that ending was.

And both Crowley and Aziraphale feel that way.

Of course, Aziraphale thinks Crowley has needlessly chosen to damn himself and their relationship and doomed himself to be unhappy for ever. And Aziraphale remembers how happy Crowley was as an angel. Why is he purposefully choosing unhappiness when it's wholly unnecessary? He's watching the love of his existence condemn himself a second time. It's devastating to him.

But Crowley knows the truth about heaven and the angels. He also knows just how unhappy Aziraphale will be in heaven. And he's helpless to stop him from going. He can't and won't force him to stay. He never has and never will. He waits. He always, always waits, watches from afar as the other angels mistreat his angel over and over and over. And he doesn't understand. He's so, so angry that Aziraphale would go back to them but there's nothing he can do. Not anymore.

How can you love someone so much and still misunderstand them so fundamentally after so very long? How can two beings want the exact same thing and still hurt each other? How can ideology and indoctrination so effectively manage to drive a wedge between two people who have one-hundred percent trust in each other? How is that possible?

Those are the questions Good Omens Season 2 asks.

And it doesn't give us any answers to these questions. Not yet. Because true love is not enough in this case. A confession from either party is not enough. Both characters knowing how they feel is not enough and accepting it is not enough.

So what would be enough? What could fix this? I honestly don’t know. 

That's why it hits so hard.

So, even though Good Omens will probably end with the Ineffables happily living together (I can't see it ending any other way,) there is a distinct lack of hope or optimism for the future in the season 2 ending that Our Flag somehow manages to retain.