#Erdnase

[fuckyeahgoodomens]

The words we have of Season 2 script! :)

15th word of the script: white

15th word dialogue: if

6th word, 6th line, 6th page: a

20th word, 22nd page: road

27th word, 27th page: Mr

28th word, 28th page: Bentley

69th word of the script: Something

7th word of the 12th line of the 7th page of the 4th script: the

Sandwich

Erdnase

[frederikschubert]

S.W. Erdnase Typospielwiese

[pissas29pissas]

Pls tell me someone here likes this shi / just some sketches ♣️♥️♠️♦️

[o-uncle-newt]

I do love that Aziraphale is willing to give away the Doctor Who annual but is only willing to lend the signed Erdnase. He'll never not be a magician at heart and he won't give that up.

On that note, I just found the post I did about Erdnase when Neil released the word from the script.

Turns out I threw just about every possible theory at the wall to see what stuck, and so my suggestion that Aziraphale owns a first edition with identifying info about the author ended up being correct, but also, obviously. I'd have been more surprised if Aziraphale, who owned the original Book of Revelations, did NOT own a signed first edition The Expert at the Card Table with clues to the author's identity.

(Also, I strongly disliked the joke about Jane Austen, but I'd have loved jokes about the true identity of SW Erdnase and his exploits.)

The thing I DO want to pat myself on the back for, though, is this:

Now, personally, having thought about it for the five minutes it took for me to get this far down in the reblog, my favorite way for Erdnase to be incorporated would be that, if I'm understanding the little tidbits of info that have come out, it seems very possible that Aziraphale and Crowley have lost some, if not all, of their angelic powers and connections. So could one, or both, of them be trying to recoup some skills by learning them out of a book- or possibly multiple books? Now that I type it out it doesn't SEEM likely but it would be cool.

BECAUSE I WAS RIGHT! It was in a minisode but I was STILL RIGHT! Aziraphale does use sleight of hand in a situation where he no longer has magical powers. It's not because he lost his magic in the present, and it's not related to Erdnase himself, but THAT STILL HAPPENED. And it was, and still is, my favorite of the theories that I had at the time. So that's pretty dang cool.

(That said, I do think that the "miracle blocking card" was a ridiculous plot device that makes no sense and seems far too convenient for them not to be used all the time. But it let my theory be accurate so I don't care for right now.)

[ermm-what-the-alpha-theta]

Kay,

Neil so far gave us i think 7 words from GOS2 script, which are: Road, a, Mr, Bentley, sandwich and, here it goes, ERDNASE. Specifically S.W. Erdnase, who is the author of ,,The expert at the Card Table'', a book about card magic tricks. My deduction is: more magician Zira is season 2 :D

[worrynoodle]

Crowley: pfft humans. You can't let yourself get too attached

Aziraphale: No, I suppose not.

How many humans did it take for them to feel this way? How many humans did they love and lose before they didn't allow themselves that attachment anymore?

Aziraphale keeps himself surrounded by books written by people he had met in person. Jane Austen, Oscar Wilde, S.W. Erdnase, and Prof Hoffman are all authors I know he keeps off the top of my head. His copies are signed personally

"To Mr. Fell, a wonderful student" Says his copy of Modern Magic.

And Crowley has a sketch from DaVinci. Imagine how personal their relationship had to have been for DaVinci to gift that to him.

What was their breaking point? Who did they lose that they said 'never again will I get attached to a human.' And instead, cling to one another.

[vidavalor]

Final 15 Temptation Parallel #2: Mutt

Second in a series of short posts showing parallels between Aziraphale's more innocent tempting of the Whickber Street people to the ball he's told everyone is a meeting and That Coffee-Wielding Villain showing up in The Final 15 to tempt Aziraphale to join him.

You can read them in any order. The first post was about Nina. This one's about the lovely Mutt.

When Aziraphale tempts Mutt to attend the meeting, he once again doesn't share that it's really a ball. Pretty much everyone on Whickber Street is lured to this thing under false pretenses regarding what it is that they are attending... which very much calls into question the validity of the paralleling job offer from Our Villain in The Final 15.

While Aziraphale's deception is more innocent than what is happening in The Final 15, parallels exist between them as Aziraphale's temptations of the Whickber Street people are each showing different aspects of Aziraphale's own temptation in The Final 15.

Mutt and his Beloved Spouse are two of the show's most overt Aziraphale and Crowley parallels. Mutt represents Aziraphale's love of human magic-- and where that ties into his imposter syndrome. What is exploited in Mutt to get him to attend the meeting is his feeling that he would be a better, more successful person with more to offer the person he loves if only he were, in his mind, a better magician.

When we come into Goldstone's in the scene, we see Mutt at the counter of his business. He's practicing a magic trick, indicating that, like Aziraphale, he is not the most confident of magicians.

Initially, though, we think that there's no way that Mutt is going to be persuaded to go to this meeting because he has the single best excuse of anyone we'll hear to miss it:

It's his wedding anniversary and he's taking his Beloved Spouse out to dinner.

Even The Original Temptress Crowley is silently like good luck with that, babe to Aziraphale and starts wandering the shop...

...but Aziraphale knows Mutt's weakness... because it's Aziraphale's own, too.

He knows what he can offer Mutt to tempt him into going to the meeting that we, at this point, really don't think Mutt should be bothering with. Of all the Whickbers, the one we want to resist this temptation the most is Mutt, right, because jesus fuck, man, it's a monthly meeting of the local business association vs. your anniversary dinner! 😂

Even though there was much more threat to Aziraphale in The Final 15 and the scenarios are not quite the same, there are plenty of parallels here. Our frustration in the end of S2 with just like fuck this villain and go to breakfast with Crowley, Aziraphale! are foreshadowed by our disbelief that Mutt is willing to scrap his plans to take the love of life out to a romantic anniversary dinner over this meeting.

How can Mutt be willing to be bribed into coming to a totally skippable business meeting when the offer is just to be loaned a book? A magic book, when he's already a professional magician?!

Well, what is this book of life... err, book of life-changing importance that Mutt's been offered here?

Aziraphale claims that he has a first edition of S.W. Erdnase's Expert at the Card Table. For anyone who doesn't know, this book is the book on sleight-of-hand-- on card and coin tricks and other, ironically, innocent magical acts of deception. Any professional magician would have a copy of this book. You could get a physical one at your local library with ease or download it in seconds. It's never gone out of print.

It's not a rare book but a first edition of it is pretty rare. The book was first published in 1902 and a first edition sold within the last few years for over $6k in the U.S., simply because most first editions of it are no longer around or are in really poor condition. That said? There's not really any difference between the content of the first and later editions. The first edition is valuable in a monetary way for collectors and there's sentimental and historical importance for magicians to one but, in terms of information that could be gained from a first edition? There's nothing there that is any different from the copy of the book that Mutt inevitably already owns.

This is why, at first, Mutt doesn't really bite, and this causes Aziraphale to have to pivot his temptation.

Mutt would already have a copy of this book and a first edition would be nice to check out in Aziraphale's shop sometime but is not something for which Mutt would throw over his anniversary date with his spouse.

It's important to note, though, that, like Mr. Arnold will with the rare Doctor Who Annual claim, Mutt completely believes that Aziraphale could have this book in his possession and offer it to him. Aziraphale is old money to the Whickbers and his wealth and the history of his family (whom they believe is his family but is really him, as we know) go back to the founding of Whickber Street. The bookshop is one of the oldest businesses on the street and one of the oldest bookshops still in operation in England.

Mutt and Mr. Arnold know that if anyone would be able to get their hands on rare book finds, it's Aziraphale, and neither of them doubt for a moment the provenance of the things he's offering them. It might be worth mentioning here that, over in this post about the connections between Crowley's signature in 1.01 and the inscription in Aziraphale's copy of Modern Magic in 1941 suggesting that the inscription was actually written by Crowley, I looked at the scene where Aziraphale tempts Mutt and went into how, while Aziraphale does have a first edition copy of this book-- the one we later see Mutt leave The Meeting Ball with-- he is absolutely lying about the person who signed it and the annotations being S.W. Erdnase himself, as is suggested by his expressions during the scene anyway.

Mutt believes in Aziraphale's authority to present such an offer in the same way that Aziraphale believes that a being presenting himself to him as The Metatron would have the authority to offer him a promotion that comes with the power to restore status of demons-- because The Metatron has billed himself as the one who speaks for God. While Aziraphale does have his doubts about what's happening, he does believe that, if he were to ever receive such an offer, it would come from The Metatron... hence, why The Devil is being played by Sir Derek Jacobi in The Final 15.

Just like in The Final 15, though, the initial temptation of Mutt falls flat and the pivot of a more specific, tailored offer is required.

Our Villain offered Aziraphale the job of running Heaven and nothing else at first-- just as Aziraphale offered Mutt a first edition of a copy of a book that he already owns. Aziraphale doesn't want to run Heaven-- who the fuck would want to do that? 😂 It's the worst job imaginable and it'd mean he'd have to leave Earth and leave Crowley and for what?

For both Mutt and Aziraphale in these scenes, there was nothing there to tempt them... and certainly nothing that would be enough tempt them to interrupt romancing their spouses over it.

Mutt already has the information the first edition could provide, so it's not of any value to him; Aziraphale doesn't seek power for power's sake and already knows that the job of Supreme Archangel is toothless with no real power to fully enact change. He saw what it did to Gabriel and doesn't want that or to leave Crowley.

Neither Aziraphale in The Final 15 nor Mutt earlier on see the point and, so, their tempters have to sweeten the deal.

The pivot then occurs:

Our Villain says...

...where, earlier, Our Hero said:

This is actually, quietly, the same kind of temptation. How so?

Because it gets at the heart of what our magicians feel they lack when it comes to what they can offer those beloved spouses that they love so deeply.

Aziraphale suddenly has Mutt's attention when he claims that the first edition was Erdnase's own copy, signed with his real name and, most importantly, annotated by him. Suddenly, this book really is rare-- the most rare, precious find in the magic world imaginable. So fucking rare that it would have behooved Mutt to, ya know, ask a few more damn questions about its provenance but he's thunderstruck by this opportunity that has fallen into his lap.

He's so openly vulnerable about it that we instantly feel bad for him and find ourselves in the wild position of wanting to shield him from our beloved, cuddly Aziraphale. We find ourselves questioning how necessary Mutt really is to The Meeting Ball plan and think maybe this guy should just be left alone to take his poor spouse out to eat already.

Mutt's wide-eyed, eager, desperate how much? is too much and our heart is breaking for this magician who is being taken for a bit of a ride here... a preview of what's to come in The Final 15 with the main magician on our show.

So, why does Mutt want this annotated book so badly?

Because he thinks it will make him a better magician. He thinks this book, if he could just get his hands on it, would answer all his questions and provide him the path to being better at what it is that he does. You might say: ok but Mutt might love being a magician but it's just his job, even if he loves it-- what about his poor Beloved Spouse? How is the spouse not more important?

The thing is, though... these are not separate things to Mutt, just as they are not to Aziraphale.

Mutt's profession is being a magician; it's not just his passion but the source of his livelihood. Being the magician who had Erdnase's secrets that could teach Mutt to become better at that passion that is his livelihood means more opportunity. It means a new angle for the shop and an elevated status for Mutt in the professional conjurer community. It means more money and, with it, more security and less worry for him and his Beloved Spouse.

It means that Mutt, in his mind, could offer his Beloved Spouse more of a level of protection that he doesn't feel he's able to offer him in their current life as it is.

That's Mutt's justification as to why obtaining this book from Aziraphale could be worth rescheduling the anniversary dinner-- because, really, it's all about Beloved Spouse in the first place.

In Mutt's mind, this book wouldn't just make Mutt a better magician, it would make him a better partner. It would give him everything he feels he doesn't have within his own power to offer to the person he loves more than anything.

Doesn't Mutt's need to try to do anything to obtain the resources that he thinks would help him better protect his trans spouse and their interracial, queer marriage in a world that is growing increasingly Nazi Zombie Flesheaters sound like a parallel to Aziraphale being willing to give up his freedom and spend eternity doing whatever is asked of him in exchange for the one bit of power-- the one resource-- that his Earthly wealth has never allowed him, in his mind, to truly, permanently, provide for Crowley? To be willing to give it all up to offer Crowley safety from Satan and Hell in the form of the restoration of his status as an angel?

It's not the right way to approach this but neither is Mutt accepting the offer of the book bribe-- but both magicians are understandable in their vulnerability. They've fallen in love and that has left them open to falling for a temptation that exploits their feelings of being just jiggery-pokery at human magic. Their beloved spouses tell and show them all the time how safe they feel with them and how they are enough but imposter syndrome will shut them out and whisper we're not enough, we can do better, we can be better providers and protectors, they deserve so much more than us...

Aziraphale tells Mutt that the book isn't for sale but that, if he shows up at the meeting, Aziraphale will be willing to lend it to him. Fine by Mutt-- he doesn't have to own the book, he just wants access to its knowledge. He immediately says yes. Aziraphale, in The Final 15, is more cautious, but the parallels are still the same. For both magicians, this is a temptation that cannot be overcome because it's The Tempest/The Maltese Falcon-- it's stuff that dreams are made of.

The magicians are going to have to tell the beloved spouses that something came up... because the thing that's really come up is their own insecurities over not feeling like they are enough as they are for the partners who love them.

What does Aziraphale say, though? It's fine, Mutt, why don't you bring them to parallel hell the party, I mean, the meeting! with you?

You can work with your spouse, Mutt, no worries! Bring your, in your case, not just de facto partner but spouse with you!

Aziraphale genuinely does not have any desire to separate Mutt from his beloved. He'd like them to come join the party and be friends and a part of his group. There's going to be dancing and romance and Aziraphale totally can see the parallels between he and Crowley and Mutt and Beloved Spouse. After all, he's got Beloved Spouse in the most Crowley-esque outfit possible during The Meeting Ball...

...Aziraphale wants them all to be friends and have a good time. That is far more than we can say for Our Villain in The Final 15, though...

In the end, Mutt and Aziraphale are both tempted by the offer of the one, vital resource that they each feel has been out of their reach to, in their minds, empower them to better provide for those they love and seek to protect.

It's all about, as Mrs. Sandwich put it, their beloved spouses' welfare, quality of life, and coffee.

[talenlee]

Decemberween 2024 — Card 'Cheat' Documentaries

How many playing cards do you think I own?

It’s an interesting question because it’s got these unstated assumptions folded in. Depending on how you read it the answer is some variant of ‘a lot’ or ‘not many’ and perhaps even ‘less than you might think.’

I’m a magic trick enthusiast, I try to do and learn magic tricks myself. I have a deck of beat up playing cards I regularly shuffle while I’m on-mic. I can do arch shuffles and double lifts and false deals. I also, own maybe five actual decks of ‘playing cards’ as a Casino might understand the term. I own a lot of cards that are for playing games, though, with an embarrassing Magic: The Gathering collection, given how my card collection of actual played cards at this point is pretty much just digital these days.

Thing is, with my kind of interest in cards and playing games, I feel like you’d expect me to be someone who owns a lot of playing cards, for prototyping and practice. One of those people who has a shelf somewhere of just cards for the material process of practice. I definitely feel like that kind of guy. I am drawn to and interested in the everyday magical effects of what people can do with cards, and that means that while I have no taste for casino games as games, I am always interested for people who can talk about ways they can break.

Like card counting!

Playlist: Beat The Odds - Card Counting Series [IN ORDER]

Watch this playlist on YouTube

Steven Bridges is a perfectly nice and reasonably ordinary model of the mid-20s Interested In Trying Things Youtubesman. Starting out as a street magician, he moved on to trying out blackjack card counting as hash-tag content in a series of Youtube and subsequently Nebula videos. These videos are a really interesting mix of a technical skill (how card counting works) and practical execution (can you maintain that count, can you keep the cool, can you do it without looking sus as a bag of snakes), and then a lot of emotional realities (since card counting is about losing the game about 49% of the time).

Steven is personable, he’s funny, he does a lot to edit these videos together to make them more interesting, and he does the storytelling part of the job really well. What’s most interesting to me is that this is very shareable kind of media in the context it’s in. Fox is not big on casino games and she’s not big on gambling (and to be clear, neither am I). But things like Steven’s regular insistence on following rules and demanding casinos obey the rules they all agreed to is really good for flaring up Fox’s sense of unfairness and injustice.

Artifice, Ruse & Subterfuge: The Expert at the Card Table

Watch this video on YouTube

There is a single book that may be one of the most important magic books in the real world history of magic performance, and it’s primarily a book about cheating. The Expert At The Card Table, by S. W. Erdnase, is an iconic book (and I don’t own one, if you’re considering christmas gifts) about what techniques in card manipulation existed at the time of its printing, with clear and detailed instructions and diagrams for their execution.

This book is also the centre of conspiracy theories and a shocking amount of detective work. Makes sense, after all, you print a book full of ‘here are smart things for the cleverest boys,’ you’re going to get a lot of the cleverest boys trying to outwit the book itself. This documentary isn’t just an explanation of what is in the book and who cares about it — Dai Vernon and Ricky Jay were both immense fans of the work and its technicalities — but also includes an extensive consideration of the question of its provenance. What’s fascinating about this is that because playing cards and their techniques, and human hands, have been largely the same for a hundred years, this book of techniques about how to handle and manipulate the cards is still a useful and relevant thing — even if we’ve found better methods for what it describes, many of those better methods have been built on the techniques in the Erdnase book.

That’s history, though, what about something more recent? What about a time of modern surveillance and shuffling machines and casinos taking house edges over millions of iterations of games in a year? Is there anything interesting in terms of card manipulation in the now?

The Greatest Legal Casino Heist in History

Watch this video on YouTube

Yeah!

One of the richest poker players in the world, and he’s rich because he’s really good at it, is a guy called Phil Ivey. Phil Ivey is a kind of problem gambler in that he gambles so much it’s a problem but also he’s got a big enough bankroll and he is himself good enough at a lot of it that he can become your problem very easily. When a client can show up and drop a million dollars on your table, you are now one million dollars committed to making sure that guy comes back.

Phil Ivey is also at the centre of a truly unhinged example of advantaged play in a game that was ostensibly, impossible to play at an advantage, while being constantly observed because, as might be obvious he’s Phil bloody Ivey. There’s a story here, and this documentary does a good job of explaining it, explaining the process, and most importantly, explaining the aftermath.

Much like with the Steven Bridges videos, though, there’s a fundamental unfairness to the whole thing. When you enter a casino and play a game there’s probably an understanding, under the hood, that you’re going to play as well as you can and they’re going to try and make that as hard as they can, but that that is a contest of equals doing their best. The story of Phil Ivey’s ‘cheating scandal’ — and how it is framed for the rest of the world — is a story about that’s actually not the case at all. The house always wins, until it doesn’t, and then the house changes the rules.

Check it out on PRESS.exe to see it with images and links!

[indigovigilance]

How to Write Good Omens Meta

Someone left something in my ask box that intrigued me:

My Ask is for insight into the theory of clues and how S2 clues move and build S3. Is there a meta on this? (If not, would you consider it at some point?)

Well, I did consider it, and here’s my first shot at answering this really good question. It's more about the art of writing than of clue analysis, but I may do a second piece in this series, if it feels necessary. Anyway, here we go:

read on Ao3

Learn Something New

People want to read meta to learn something that they didn’t know before. This probably means you will have to learn something that you didn’t know before. Some meta-analysts arrive pre-loaded with a rich background in costuming, tarot, biblical canon, and the wide array of cultural references that appear in the show. We also seem to have a fair number of psychologists (formally trained or otherwise) representing. I (and others: see Chekhov's Contract by @ineffablyruined) happen to have a background in law and so I was able to make a unique contribution via my piece Sovereignty, Citizenship, and the Bookshop. But for other topics, I have to self-educate.

In my personal opinion, the work on direct canon analysis (that is, watching the show and reporting what you see) has largely been done and I don’t think there will be many more breakthroughs until some people go away and come back with a freshly informed perspective. Personally, I’m waiting for someone to go learn everything there is to know about S.W. Erdnase and tell us what they found, because that is a very specific reference that I haven’t seen fleshed out yet (link it in the reblogs if it already exists!).

Don’t Be Afraid of Outside Sources

For example, quite a few times I’ve gone away to read outside source material before writing a new meta. Good examples are: Honolulu Roast, The Lament of the Metatron, and The Hornet in the Beehive. These are topics where I had no particular advantage over anyone else, I just had a question and decided to keep digging until I had something that looked like an answer.

On choosing a topic: in each of these cases I began with an in-show piece of information that seemed both unambiguous in its directness and yet unexplained. Why is there a mysteriously appearing sign in the coffeeshop that says Honolulu Roast? Who is the Metatron? Why is there so much attention drawn to bees when Crowley goes up to Heaven? If I start with a solid question and then follow an investigative pathway, usually beginning with the Bible given the nature of this show but not always, I’ll usually find something.

There are also some Clues that we’re basically told to investigate. The books on the shelves. The movie playing in the background in The Resurrectionist Pub. These are unambiguous breadcrumbs but they’re a lot of labor. I’m not going to read all those books and watch all those movies. So pick one (1) and go read it, or watch it, and then tell us what you found, so I can read your 1,500 word piece to learn what I need to know about it. 

Sometimes you get enough information for a meta just by hanging around long enough and absorbing information. That’s how I put together my pieces on Terry Pratchett’s Death and Crowley’s Dream. The trick in this case is to be able to synthesize it, and for that, the very best way to learn how to do that is read other people’s meta.

Specializing

The asker asked the most important question of all: what’s the balance between trying to manage all the Clues or ignoring them entirely? Well, think of it this way (I’m borrowing an XKCD comic for brevity):

The takeaway here is, when you get a PhD, you become a hyperfocused expert in a very narrow topic and you’re relying on lots and lots and lots of other PhD students becoming highly specialized experts in other topics so that together you are expanding the diameter of human knowledge.

We (meta-analysts) are all getting PhDs in Good Omens, one way or another. Some people are doing their theses in color theory. I am doing mine on the concept of memory and identity permanence (though frequently dabbling in law). Yet others have flung themselves body and soul into the topic of Crowley’s gender and God bless them. Heck, there’s a team of people on Discord who are on any given day ripping the Bentley down to its studs and building it back up again. Feel free to explore while you seek out your passionate topic but don’t feel the need to tackle all of them. You’ll find the one that you fit best in. 

You do not have to solve the S3 plot puzzle by yourself. You have to find two pieces, put them together, and then go find a buddy that also has two pieces and see if your pair of pairs makes a quartet. Literally. That’s what we’re doing here guys. It’s a team effort or nothing at all.

Organize your ideas into digestible segments

Great, so you learned something new, you have a tantalizing hypothesis, and you’re ready to write! But what does a good meta look like?

Your abstract (which I recommend you write last) will go at the top, followed by evidence in a logically progressive order that finally culminates in your conclusion. If you’ve ever written a five paragraph essay, you have these tools in your toolbox. And yes, sometimes you will even need to rebut counterarguments (“but Neil said” is the bane of my existence) just like your teacher taught you. But it shouldn’t be formatted like a five-paragraph essay. This is not an 8.5”x11” sheet of paper with 1” margins: this is Tumblr.

Walls of text are great and all but reading handicaps come in all flavors and I for one benefit greatly from having section headers that help me navigate a meta. I’m much less likely to read it if all I have to find my place by is paragraph breaks.

Section headers should tell me what the next paragraph or two are about, and if I read just the section headers, I should have a pretty good idea of what evidence you’re pulling from where and what conclusion you’re going to support with that evidence.

Here’s my opinion on gifs: if I need to see Michael Sheen’s micro-expressions to really understand your point, include it. If I just need a reminder of where we are in the story, or what a costume looks like, a still is fine and less distracting. For a lot of things, though, images are unnecessary. You’ll find the right balance but don’t overburden your written work with images. I think there are quite a few people who only read my work on Ao3 because they simply don’t like the Tumblr, image-centric format.

Have a main takeaway

What does all your evidence point to? It may feel like stating the obvious, but state it anyway. Put a little ribbon on top of this gift you have given to the fandom. Label it. Tell them exactly what your conclusion is from all this information you gathered.

…but don’t feel a need to draw a firm conclusion

In my meta Continuity Errors, I conclude that Crowley stops time in order to move something that was hidden in the bookshop out of the bookshop. I do not speculate on what exactly that something is that he moved. I don’t need to. By leading others down this path, I am tapping the collective resources of the hive mind to think about what exactly was hidden with the bookshop’s protection. They may have some information I don’t because they’ve been looking other places. Not having a hypothesis for this shouldn’t (and didn’t) stop me from publishing my work.

Go back to the top and write your intro/abstract

Have you written your main takeaway? Did you support it with evidence? Good. Now take that and write a 20-30 word elevator pitch that you’re going to put at the top of the meta so that people know what it’s about before they commit to 1,000-2,000 words of being led down the garden path. I have a bad habit of burying the lead, and I’m trying to break it. For a moment people were worrying about putting big revelations below the cut so that we’re not interfering with Neil, but I don’t think Neil has ever seen my work and I doubt he ever will, and at this time my opinion is that playing “hide the lead” is more of a hindrance to the fandom than helpful to protecting the integrity of the IP. So be bold. Tell people exactly where you’re going with this and a short roadmap of how you’re going to get there. You don’t necessarily have to “give away the goods” but the theme should be obvious. An okay-ish example of an abstract is the intro to my first meta. My abstract for Continuity Errors is decidedly more tongue-in-cheek. You'll find your own style.

Cite and Tag

If you read someone’s post and it gave you a great idea, cite them as inspo! It’s a feel-good moment for them and it ties the fandom together. If you’re relying on your own prior work or someone else’s work to support a point, link the piece and tag the author. You will probably want to start copying links to metas that you like into a doc or spreadsheet to make this easier. Check out mine to get an idea of how you could organize a spreadsheet, or check out this doc to see an alternative approach to meta database management.

Speaking of which: @cobragardens, @aprilodite, @drconstellation, @vidavalor, and @irispurpurea, your work appears in this... whatever exactly this is idk.

Recruit a Mentor/beta

Various Tumblrites have published comments or posts that they are willing to beta other people’s work. Reach out to those people before you need them and ask if, whenever you’ve written your next piece, if they wouldn’t mind taking a look at it? Have an upfront discussion about turnaround time. Most of us work, and have other obligations, so it’s unlikely we can look at a thing the minute you send it to us, even if we’re active on Tumblr at that moment. Some people have set days off that they know they’ll have time to curl up with a cup of tea and read the first draft of your meta; you may find that having a weekly schedule with someone pushes you to produce and improve at a pace you wouldn’t achieve under your own steam. Writing is a skill; you get better by practicing and getting constructive feedback.

Anyways, I hope someone finds this helpful: maybe meta-analysis seems like an intimidating thing to get into, but it shouldn’t be! This is a welcoming community with room for all shapes, sizes and flavors of contributions. If you have any follow-up questions about this piece, please feel free to drop them in my ask box!

[vonlipvig]

I’m back, less diseased, WHAT HAPPENED WHEN YOU CHEATED FOR YOURSELF I MUST KNOW!

welcome back, hopefully in renewed spirits!

ok, so like, i couldn't decide whether to go with the comte's or erdnase's plans so i was like fuck it i'm nobody's pawn i'm gonna show them all what i'm capable of! but then you cheat for yourself and you get 5 aces in your hand, and the king is like get his ass, but the comte is like no it wasn't eugene, it was me (which is very nice actually, i could never hate him...), so he gets arrested instead. and then erdnase is like 'couldn't let you do that ;3' like.....cmon.

anyway, then the comte gets killed and you go back to run the tavern, and you get a scene with older!eugene serving some patrons and i think you can cheat and impress them, but i didn't get to do that cause i wen to pet the dog and suddenly the game ended AUGH.

which ending did you get?

[foxedthecards]

🍁 + "Do you have any favorite books or book genres, Jonas?" (Could also be directed towards Mr. Fox if you want hehe)

" Oh uhhh hm. I'm kinda not as uh...as big of a book reader as I used to be for some reason. Mostly non-fiction and biographies and a lot having to do with stage magic. Like I've got hmmm.. a copy of 'The Annotated Erdnase'...S.W. Erdnase that's the one who wrote 'The Expert At The Card Table'...fuck if I had a first edition of that book, man...and an old paperback edition of 'The Secrets Of Conjuring & Magic'. And 'Blackstone: A Magician's Life' But yeah. I like books like that. "

[fuckyeahgoodomens]

Hello Mr. Gaiman. It's not my birthday, but could tell us your favorite word from the GO2 script?

Hiya, I am not Mr. Gaiman :). Neil's page is here :). Anyway, the words we know from S2 are: a, road, Mr, Bentley, Sandwich, Erdnase, my favourite from them is Bentley :).

[most-normal-eccles-cake-ignorer]

Metatron used to be human maybe?? and related thoughts about Aziraphale's persuasiveness in S2E5

(using it/its for Metatron since apparently that's how it is narrated in the book, with the exception of Aziraphale using he/him for it)

From the wikipedia page for 'Metatron':

Genesis 5:23-24 :

Gonna try my first 'the rest is under the cut' here:

Interesting given the Metatron's offer to reinstate Crowley as an angel... Human -> angel isn't quite the same thing but it's still quite "unorthodox," to use its wording. I kind of figured that offer was just to fuck with Aziraphale (since Crowley would never) and I still think that; this Enoch/Metatron possibility just gives me more questions.

The way the Metatron chews the inside of its cheek (or maybe just clenches its jaw, either way) talking about "ingesting" things in the past makes me feel like it pains the Metatron somehow to say this/remember it? I've seen many people point out this was a clear attempt to be relatable to Aziraphale and make Heaven seem more tolerant/progressive than it is, but also if this Enoch thing is in the story, who better to deal with this mess than angelic conversion therapy darling, Enoch/Metatron?

I saw a post saying that line had the same energy as Stanley Tucci in Easy A going "I was gay once. For a while. We all do it. It's okay." and it has stayed with me

ALSO during my daily rewatch of the series a casual review of S2E5, I noticed Aziraphale acting a lot like the Metatron while inviting some of the traders and shopkeepers of Whickber Street to the dance meeting:

Mr. Arnold @ music shop: Refuses outright at first, but is coaxed into it by the promise of the 1965 Dr. Who Annual proof copy

Mutt @ magic shop: Cannot attend under any circumstances bc of anniversary plans with their spouse ... until S.W. Erdnase's annotated personal copy of Expert at the Card Table becomes available for loan

Nina: We get "perfectly ordinary invitation with no hidden agenda of any kind" and then he lies to her again that the Christmas lights will be discussed so she accepts

"He's discovered his civic obligations," if by civic obligations we mean 'ability to identify what people want most and offer it to them in return for obedience'.

The Metatron does the same with with Aziraphale: Comes in all friendly, makes the invitation, gets immediately refused, then sweetens the deal by offering what Aziraphale really wants (to be with Crowley and have Heaven's approval again so he doesn't have to deal with the cognitive dissonance anymore).

What does this mean? (i have no hecking idea) Does the Metatron (in addition to just wanting to split the dream team up) also see itself in Aziraphale a little bit? Or is the parallel more for us as viewers to see (even more) how Aziraphale still uses Heaven's tactics and thinks he knows what others need better than they do?

On the other hand, apparently Sandalphon is said to be the prophet Elijah raised to angelic status in a similar way and that didn't really seem to be a thing in S1 soooo who knows.

[shoemakerobstetrician]

We have Erdnase as one of the words Neil released from the S2 scripts. It’s a pseudonym used by the author of a book about card tricks, presumably written by a magician. It has never been revealed who Erdnase really was.

Maybe Aziraphale is revealed to be Erdnase in the script?!

[tonydaddingham]

✨ episode 5 - running commentary✨

- this episode better be the one to Alter My Brain Chemistry, I NEED AN explanation for the too fast for me scene pls

- THEY BETTER KISS I S2G

- right okay hi shax I hate you 😘 but Miranda is killing WAIT TEN THOUSAND WHAT THATA OVERKILL ITS ONE SILLY BILLY ANGEL AND A DUMB ASS DEMON

- "can I watch" crowley TONE IT DOWN KINKY BOY

- "there will be sandwiches" LOL IM IN BABES

- DOCTOR WHO lmao harpischord guy get fucking SERVED

- HES JUST TEMPTED SOMEONE AND GIVEN AWAY A BOOK??? my guy going through some ROUGH character development

- hell is literally so understaffed wtf

- MAGIC SHOP AGAIN YES

- ERDNASE REFERENCE ERDNASE REFERENCE

- Crowley is so proud of his husband BUT THAT FEZ NEEDS TO GOOOOO

- neil if you ever read this pls can we have aziraphale be a permanent party planner bc he does the mostest and pls ignore my criticism of ep1 and 2 I take it all back pls pls more aziraphale planning tf out of shit

- SHAX MOMMY YES💅💅💅 ALSO ERIC MY BELOVED My sweet baby boy

- FRENCH AZIRAPHALE YOU NEED TO STOP crowley is FED UP he looks like a kid whose mum got caught chatting at the supermarket

- aziraphale pls stop

- NINA KNOWS WHATS UP GAY SPOTS GAY

- no crowley don't make that face no why why why WHY YOU LOOKING LIKE THAT😭😭😭✨ he loves you CROWLEY YOU BLIND FUCKKNG IDIOT and you love HIM you emotionally stunTED APE

- the glasses and sideburns are still BUGGING ME someone explain did he go shOPPING OFF SCREEN????

- ERIC NO BYEBYE MY LOVERRRRR

- wow that was a long pre credit bit wtf

- DATE???? oh no crowley is pulling away no no no

- "SMUT?" fucking OKAY??? DO IT THEN YOU PUSSY ASS BITCH✨💓

- fuck they're about to have a Conversation aren't they and get drunk and it's about to get EMOTIONAL

- Crowley FUCK

- CROWLEY BOO

- "friend" ok lol

- he's about to throw mf HANDS but goob is so innocent NO WAIT CROWLEY NO DOMT DO THAT oh thank fuck

- matchbox ajamakajalam sns

- lmao the growth that Crowley just did in 30 seconds gave me WHIPLASH

- Muriel no pls don't do it bbygirl💓💓 OH GOD YOUVE GONE DONE IT NOW

- ah Jim's mug

- DECORATING MIRACLES YES BABY

- WAIT AND SEE ✨✨✨✨

- oh aziraphale I love u so MUCH 😭😭😭

- Mrs sandwich I LOVE HER no aziraphale don't ask pls bby

- CROWLEY WHAT U SNIFFIN HONEY UR LIKE A BLOODHOUND FOR TROUBLE WHAT A POWER

- GOOB YOU ARE FABULOUS DARLING I LOVE JT✨

- "you young people"

- F BOMB FUCK YES

- oh no Maggie no not you CROWLEY YOU HERO GOD BLESS tell em babes

- lmao are they even gonna get to dance this is so stressful

- Mrs sandwich just chill out honey you are a madam SEX WORK IS VALID REAL WORK I said what I said

- "have a vol au vent" SO MARRIED💓

- omg am i now liking Maggie and nina hmmmmmmm AZIRAPHALE'S FACE crowley you could have that IF YOU EVEN TRIED MY GUY

- I HAVE SUCH JACKET ENVY LMAOOOO goob you are the only valid character

- WHAT no stop goob stop

- fuck OFF THEY ACTUALLY SANCE FUXK KM SWEATINF NOOOOOOK💓💓💓💓💓💓💓💓💓💓

- AHHHHHHHHHHHHH BOYS PLEASE

- well fuck that's put a spanner in the works

- aziraphale go fucking NAILS GET THEIR ASS oh that's not good✨

- GOOBY NO BE QUIET SHHHHHH

- GOOB NO

- NO GOOB

- the mf coat is SPECTACULAR ✨✨✨✨ did they spend the whole budget on it???? HES SO FABULOUS AND FRUITY

- oh my god the miracle is working against them fuck

- the fact that the humans are just chilling lmaoooo

- NEIL WE NEED CROWLEY AS A LAWYER PLS THANK U they just got SEVRED✨💓

- lmao IT WAS FAKE HAHAHAHAHA

- Mr brown shut up pipe down back in your box

- see that's what you get when you run your mouth

- IS THIS EVERY

- CMON GIVE ME EVERY

- oh my god crowley is the PATRON VIRGIN saint of sex work I LIVE FOR IT god bless or maybe not

- IS THAT A PRAISE KINK I SEE

- "rescuing me makes him so happy" FUCKING DECEASED

- Muriel lmao we know this it's ok bby take HIM TO HEAVEN IN THE ANGEL-ON-THE-ASS TRACKSUIT

- the MUSIC OKAY ITS GOOD NOW YES YES YES✨

- GOING UP

- I'm dead

[daisygrayce]

Aziraphale: TIL we might be a couple

Again, I believe that Aziraphale and Crowley have swapped appearances for protection.

It’s been a couple days since my post on Aziraphale in Heaven. I had intended to get on to talking about The Confession, The Kiss and The Departure. BUT I realized that I can’t skip ahead in Aziraphale’s transformation. If we don’t talk about his romantic journey, we’re only seeing half of where he’s at when he declares his love and begs Crowley to run away with him.

There’s two parts to Aziraphale’s Season 2 love story: the talk with Nina outside of the coffee shop and then when he sits down with Maggie and Nina.

Part 1 - Outside the coffee shop with Nina

So far, the afternoon hasn’t gone particularly well for Aziraphale. Crowley has GIVEN AWAY his Dr. Who book and offered to let Mutt LOOK at his first edition of S.W. Erdnase’s “Expert at the Card Table”. Even worse, Crowley is refusing to talk about it.

And then Nina pounces. Her assumption that they were together was something Aziraphale has always denied. And like so many times in the past, he denies the association or the closeness of the association. For someone who has been on Earth for 6,000 years, Aziraphale is surprised by so many things. Nina’s observation carries an additional weight because it’s a natural an assumption, accepting not an accusation. Worse yet, she doesn’t give Aziraphale the room to deny the romantic association. She’s only looking for context.

He’s thrown. As he’s trying to find a way to re-frame his relationship with Crowley when she presses on. Her assumption that his relationship with Crowley is romantic, is something that hasn’t occurred to Aziraphale. He’s a voracious reader and has experienced romance but only in the pages of novels. And he’s not always the most adept at translating from page to present. He’s not surprised now. He’s floored.

But those thoughts get trampled by her suggestion that Crowley could be a “bit on the side.” He’s incensed that anyone would think anything less than pure of Crowley. All of the love and respect he has for Crowley comes bubbling to the forefront in his forceful defense.

And in that defense, he uses “angel”. This is so important. He realizes that for all of his talk about Crowley being a demon, he still sees him as an angel. Staying in character as Crowley, Aziraphale couldn’t call him a “demon,” but in that instant Aziraphale knows that it’s true. His voice deepens with realization. He doesn’t see Crowley as anything but the “angel” he met in the stars. Demon or angel, Crowley’s essence is pure good, good for him.

But that word also comes with a simultaneous understanding. Crowley calls him “Angel”. Annoyed. Amused. Bored. Always. He feels the term of endearment. He feels the affection. He’s never noticed. How could he have never noticed? Is that really the way Crowley feels? He’s devastated.

As Crowley, Aziraphale is left with few options to think over these new revelations, so he finds a bottle to help him process. Wine. Not whiskey.