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tonydaddingham · 2 years ago

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LWA: That conspiracist "magic trick" document is...that's why I rarely interact with fandom spaces. S2 does indeed have a bunch of problems, a lot of which have to do with the material conditions of production and some of which are endemic to the source material. S1 was not a well-plotted or well-paced show, because the /novel/ is not well-plotted or well-paced. S2 didn't have enough material to justify six episodes, and only the Job minisode justified its length in terms of either character's characterization. Etc. Both seasons are flawed scripts saved by the leads.

The other problem here is that Gaiman has transformed a single season into a trilogy, and if there are going to be narrative payoffs we don't see them yet; it's as if PRIDE AND PREJUDICE ended with Lizzie Bennet rejecting Darcy's first proposal (which is, after all, what we got, except that Aziraphale and Crowley are both Darcy and Lizzie simultaneously). In an incomplete trilogy, there just isn't sufficient evidence to understand whether the author has missed a trick or if they're setting up a third-act resolution. For example, take Crowley's proposal, which insists that he and Aziraphale have spent their "existence" denying that they're a team. I know everyone got hung up on Tennant's intense delivery, which is great, but Crowley's narrative of their friendship in S1 ("How long have we been friends? Six thousand years!") doesn't track with anything dramatized for us on the screen, and neither does this. Is this another "Crowley is an unreliable narrator" problem, as Gaiman has confirmed he is about the Fall, retroactively constructing an emotional bond that neither character felt? OK, if so, what's the underlying narrative argument motivating this behavior? Or do Gaiman and Finnemore think that that's what the series is actually dramatizing?

Here's what I mean. In S1, there's nothing to indicate (in the script, the actors' performances, or even the score) that they have a genuine, mutual emotional connection until 1601, some centuries post-Arrangement, which is the first time that Aziraphale expresses concern for Crowley's safety and also the first time we see him successfully break out the puppy eyes. (Post S2, it's now "expresses concern for Crowley's safety as a demon.") Before that, they have unequal and fleeting moments of connection: Aziraphale is more interested in Crowley during Creation than vice-versa. Crowley is charmed by Aziraphale in Eden and pleased to see him again at the Flood, but he is guarded or hostile when they meet at the Crucifixion and again in Rome. S2 now adds that he isn't all that excited to see Aziraphale again during Job, either, although Aziraphale comes across as quite chipper about the run-in. Aziraphale is equally guarded at the Crucifixion, excited to see Crowley in Rome, and then mildly annoyed about running into him during the Arthurian period (and it's apparently still canon that the Arrangement won't begin until a few centuries later). In 1793, they've become attached enough that they've started the damsel-in-distress game, and in 1827 Crowley invites Aziraphale to Edinburgh for fun, suggesting that they are now actual friends and not just doing transactional job swaps. But in 1862 Aziraphale is cold again for reasons not explained by the 1827 minisode. (As an aside, S2 Aziraphale is just mirroring S1 Crowley in asking for big things--Crowley requests collaboration, a celestial nuke, treason, and child murder, all but one of which he gets, and the last not for lack of trying--and /Aziraphale/ is the only character making inappropriate requests for help?!) 1862 is the first time we see them seriously miscommunicating, as opposed to arguing--Crowley's approach to his request is bad and Aziraphale overreacts equally badly. And then we are shown that the emotional stakes of their relationship intensify after they reunite in 1941, when all the gazing and romantic music tell us that Aziraphale has fallen in love. Given that the script makes clear that Aziraphale and Crowley are having the same conversation in 1967 that they were in 1862, and Aziraphale still believes he's handing Crowley a suicide pill, Aziraphale's decision to yeet himself out of the car immediately when Crowley tries to ramp things up again is probably the /least/ codependent thing either character manages post-1941 in the first two seasons.

The fanon narrative in which they've been mutually pining for six millennia uncritically tracks Crowley's story, but it doesn't track the script. They /aren't/ a team or even especially attached until the Arrangement kicks in, and the first in-script signs of the codependency that will cause them to implode in S2 don't show up until the end of the eighteenth century. (In the novel, Aziraphale doesn't even understand that he genuinely /likes/ Crowley until they're thwarting Armageddon!) These are two characters who canonically get along just fine without seeing each other for years, decades, centuries, or millennia! But without the third part of the trilogy, there's no final evidence about how we should view Crowley's approach to relationship story-telling, let alone how we should judge whatever Gaiman (and Finnemore) are doing.

HI LWA✨!!!!!!

i mean first off, in general response to the entire thing:

i joke, but what you've said does really highlight, i think, a key detail that the fandom (including myself) get carried away with; that if we were to watch the show specifically with brand new eyes, without any influence of a surrounding fandom that has existed for the last six years (or 33, paying the book due consideration), the relationship between crowley and aziraphale would be regarded very differently.

but first re: Magic Trick Theory. i felt really bad for saying it at the time, but i was so full-body convinced that eps 1 and 2 were fake following the screening because they felt weird. i genuinely couldn't understand why people were saying what they were (obviously there were great moments, no questioning that), because all i could feel was a sense of unease. and that's not even because it didn't follow the tone of s1 (which i loved for its delicate balance of being the most ludicrous, dry-funny story with undertones of serious philosophy and subtle complexity), but because it felt like someone had taken a section of the story and stretched it out so forcefully across a frame that was too big for it.

i won't list off any particular issues i had for fear of causing offense, because my rather insignificant opinion is genuinely not intended as a means to shit on s2, but once i let go of the notion that this season was meant to do anything other than set up s3, have a couple of silly (but still potentially Important for s3) subplots, and just be a fun and wild ride in developing aziraphale and crowley as characters, i began to enjoy it. that was entirely to do with me and my expectations, because neil never really told us to expect otherwise. in any case, for me, this feeling kicked in around ten minutes into ep3; let go of expectations and just went along for the ride.

with the benefits of hindsight, i don't think that s2 was badly written; it was still subtly nuanced and clever, but just in a very different way to s1. it still asked questions. it still questioned the black, white, and in-between. it still had the undertones of a fairly cohesive plot. production quality, given the state the industry was in when filmed, was really commendable and honestly astounded me given the limitations that were in place at the time. david and michael's respective performances were amazing, there's no doubt, but i don't think they necessarily saved it, because in many respects i don't think it needed saving.

yes, there were flaws, but altogether it was a very enjoyable season. and whilst i realise that some people understandably watch shows for plot and thematic intricacy, artistic direction, particular acting set pieces, or anything that gives Depth (myself included on some shows), i just liked it simply because it entertained me. it made me laugh, cry, angry, bemused - whatever emotion you can think of, i can probably tell you a time during that fateful Friday morning (clutching my fourth coffee that night, having driven the m5 for a horrendously inappropriate amount of time, and in my 16-22nd hour of being awake - just setting the scene) where i felt it. i just enjoyed the ride.

(and by the by, still personally think the screenings were a mistake - fun, exciting, and communal in spirit, but a mistake)

but this brings me to the Theory. im sure this comes to noones surprise, but i love speculating. it's fun, it's self-rewarding, and frankly just helps my head Quieten Down a little. a form of self-care, if you like. i like that it's possible to look at the same scene, episode, season, and interpret it differently. to think that a character does something for one reason, but also for another, or that the plot could go this way, or it could go that way. ive personally tried to stay away from speculating based on anything but what the story has shown to us so far. yes, sometimes i joke that "haha, neil would definitely bait and switch us" etc etc., but ultimately im not the authority on what he will and won't do, and i don't try to assume that i have spotted an ulterior motive other than what has been shown to us in the show/book.

so when it came to the Theory, i loved the parts that referenced the show itself; because the interpretation and presentation of such was really well speculated. it has references, clearly had a lot of knowledge and research behind it, was eloquent and well-reasoned (however inaccurate it may turn out to be), and honestly was intimidating - in a good, awe-inspiring, jealous-of-their-intelligence way - in the depth of dedication the author had to writing it. but as i remarked in an ask from someone (@swansdreaming shout out!✨) that asked for my thoughts on it, the only real reaction i could give as to how valid i found it was that it was "A Lot".

s2 ended narratively on a problem (well, a couple of them), so it's not bold to assume that they will be largely resolved in s3. what i think was bold however is to be embroiled in how odd s2 was that there has to be a higher purpose for it narratively. i think a season can be written perhaps a smidge weaker just because it was, with no lofty reason as to why. it's entirely possible - as i got over myself - to just sit back and enjoy it for what is put in front of you, and not think much more than that in terms of the technicality of the show... just relax and trust that the loopholes, or the armoury chock-full of chekhov's guns will be explained. speculate about the future of the plot in terms of the material itself put in front of you? yes, cool. but justify the plot by way of "there's no possible way that the script/writing could be flawed?" - whilst a commendable notion and likely rooted in admiration, i think that's potentially a little audacious and even a little bit of unnecessary glorification.

but let's talk about the relationship itself. again, controversial and brave, and yet so inescapably true. i definitely think there is Something There right from the beginning, but my god, it is not love. curiosity and fascination, absolutely (to varying degrees). attraction and tension (in any form), i daresay so. but it's not love, not even friendship - frankly it's barely even respect. we see flashes of potential friendship and respect:

crowley's reaction to aziraphale giving away his sword and aziraphale being grateful for his platitude on his choice to do so

aziraphale lying to the archangels in job, and aziraphale's reaction to crowley's constant attempts to show job and his family mercy

aziraphale offering crowley dinner in rome, and crowley's stunned/amused reaction to "let me tempt you"

their mutual bemoaning about their respective roles during arthurian albion, and agreement that the weather is pretty miserable (incidentally but irrelevant - my favourite funny line from s1 is michael's damp comment, gets me each time).

but even then, all of these are rooted in other things too, if not in actual fact; the main one that immediately springs to my mind is self-interest. the overall tones of these scenes are not very warm, barely even tepid; they are just two supernatural beings, alone in their experience of being so and being on earth amongst humans (who do many problematic things that seem to confound them slightly which - fair), and relating to each other as a result. but there's not much else to it, to their relationship, when you step back and look at it as the big picture. as i said, other than a couple of lines, there's little if any genuine connection beyond relatability - and even then that's questionable.

edit bc important: reexamining crowley's line in the coffee shop re: "you only ever call me for three reasons...", this indicates that he's aware that aziraphale only contacts him out of self-interest which... whilst i think is slightly derivative to suggest at this point, it is also true and aziraphale doesn't negate it. whether crowley says this as a reflection on himself for not being worth aziraphale's time, or as a reflection on aziraphale himself (both?) is almost immaterial - but he is able to admit to himself that their relationship might not be as rooted in love and partnership as he would otherwise like to think.

the one thing i do think is correct is that they have been in a six-millennia-long dance, circling each other and mirroring each other, a constant give and take.. and aside from its overt parallels to jane austen/regency aesthetic, that's why i particularly like that the dancing in s2 was the dance it was - a quadrille (?) instead of any 1-1 dancing in the time period like a waltz was such a great reflection of this... mirroring each other in their sways and swings, circling each other, drawing together and retreating, and the occasional brush with each other (hands)... it was just so symbolically appropriate to represent this symbiosis they have been cultivating for millennia, rather than them be represented as fully cohesive together in the form of a partnered ballroom dance... incredible. and completely - once again - set up the dilemma for the Feral Domestic in ep6.

i realised this earlier today (i don't want to admit what number rewatch im on but i feel like i could get s3 greenlit singlehandedly at this point), but when i ruminated what feels like eons ago on aziraphale's tendency to place crowley on a pedestal? yeah, once again the mirroring theme continues. these two have such idealistic images of each other built in their heads, and to me (without going off for the thousandth time in Detail) it's aziraphale that starts to re-examine that image in s1 and 2.

to me, he starts to consider that actually his image of crowley was not true to reality, but still found that he loved the Real Crowley even more. but crowley ends up destroying that image entirely by the end of ep6 with his 'i love you but not that part/s, and so fuck it, "no nightingales""... i don't know if that was the intention of the script/narrative, but it's certainly how it looked to me - that aziraphale was almost fully accepting of who crowley was (bearing in he doesn't have the facts - *sideeye*).

crowley's image of aziraphale however is so inaccurate and, as with just about everything that is crowley and his story, he doesn't like or want to hear or accept the truth if it doesn't suit him. run away together? aziraphale is practically the shaking-chihuahua antithesis of running away from things. reject heaven because they're toxic? yes, but it won't change unless they perhaps try to change it themselves. we could have been us? aziraphale was literally offering this to you, and a chance (as aziraphale genuinely believes at that time, naivety notwithstanding) to actually be free and safe in being so. whether crowley clings to this narrative out of loneliness, a hope of true redemption, stubborn pig-headedness, or a combination of these and others besides, he really set himself up for disaster.

aziraphale has his hand in the issue too, there's no doubt - he's pretty incompetent about seeing things truly outside of his own comfy little world (bookshop or in his head, either works), and doesn't make any overt measures to try to infer and understand the things that are left Unsaid. whilst crowley is keeping things from him and hiding behind a mask, aziraphale by all accounts is a smart guy, and even without the full facts you'd think he'd at least be able to surmise why crowley cannot say yes to restoration... or maybe he does, but by the point that he's caught up enough to understand, crowley already lit the touchpaper and aziraphale retreats in his own hurt and sense of rejection.

the fact of the matter is that these characters, for having known each other for so long (in varying degrees of intimacy, granted), just do not know the first thing about what their respective cores are. it's very easy to focus on the star-crossed lovers element of the story (including myself in that number) and hyper-romanticise that aspect, than actually recognise the constant, problematic miscommunication and subsequent misunderstanding that - the way it's currently going - is going to lead them straight to their demise.

#it is now 0244 in the big brother house and i need to sleep #glad to see you back LWA✨#youve been missed (not even just by me but ive had others asking if youre sat in my inbox somewhere)#but it's very good to hear your voice of reason again #good omens #ask #flashback meta #crowley meta #aziraphale meta #s1 meta #s2 meta

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