#I blame Neil gaiman

[super-andi-ness]

GOOD OMENS 2 SPOILERS BELOW:

The only peace I have in this dark hour is that Aziraphale will DEFINITELY have to do the dance when he pulls his head from his rectum.

[goodluckdetective]

If you’re reaction to this Neil Gaiman stuff is to crow how “I always hated his work” or “I knew he had bad vibes” I want you to stop, and understand what I hear, which is “they deserved it”

“But no” you say! That wasn’t what you meant. You just wanted to-

What? Talk about how you always knew better? That you were above falling for the act? That you always knew something was off? You are good enough to know evil when you see it?

Cool. So they were too stupid to know better? That they fell for the act? That they should have known something was off like you? That they weren’t good enough to spot this coming?

“That’s not what I meant! I meant his fans!”

Some of his fans were his victims. So only they deserved it?

“Not his fans who were his victims but his annoying fans-“

That’s what you’re getting from this? That you can finally brag to those annoying fans about how stupid they were for liking his work because…. a monstrous level of abuse happened. Glad you’re enjoying putting those fans in their place with….a bunch of horrific sex crimes.

Anyway, people who are making this about Gaiman’s work or his characters have lost the plot, I agree there. But people making this about how smart they were, how they knew better?

Think about what you’re actually saying and maybe shut the fuck up.

[ouidamforeman]

This may make me look like an idiot bc I can’t articulate myself BUT!!!!!!!! Big Queer Good Omens meta incoming

I want to talk about This Neil Gaiman ask for a minute because I figured out why I really like his blanket response to this “discourse” a lot but still somewhat disagree on the nuance, and why fandom attitudes about this bother me much much more than his open ended response like this one

Under a read more because im going to get Insane

First of all this is going to be riddled with my own viewpoints on queerness as a transmasculine nonbinary person who reads too much theory so if u disagree please be polite lol

So like. To begin with I really don’t think Neil is obligated to understand these nuances or even comment on them, let alone explain them to fans desperate for validation, so the fact that he’s been able to answer so eloquently is pretty impressive considering how vicious fandom is. But I want to specifically talk about what I think he means here and why that seems to bother fandom so much sometimes, and how fan interpretation of these ideas he presents can get Really weird and interesting imo.

In my view, Neil is answering this from a Doylist perspective, as in like. To the real life human audience, angels and demons are inherently queer because they don’t fit into traditional human definitions of genders and sexualities. This especially comes across in his insistence that Aziraphale and Crowley aren’t gay because they aren’t human men, but they ARE queer. This literally just looks to me like him saying “yeah so no angels and demons fit into these categories so they’re definitely queer from our perspective but I understand ‘gay’ as being two men and i don’t think that fits because it’s narrow” and while I disagree on some nuances here for reasons I’ll get into I think this makes total sense as an author describing how, from his perspective, an audience is intended to view these nonhuman characters.

However, I’m much more interested in a more Watsonian explanation of how A&C are queer, one that’s much more relativistic and honestly not something I expect Neil to go over every time he gets another ask about this???? My opinion has always been that A&C choosing human queer masculinity is significant and that it gives evidence to them being nonbinary, transmasc, gay, ace, aro, anything that people headcanon really. Because they are presenting themselves as queer in a HUMAN way in universe imo, which makes them queer not just by the standards of the audience but by the standards of other angels and demons in the story? I think that the fact that they were created as sexless and genderless and then CHOSE human gender presentations, whether nonbinary or not, that reflected themselves, and then them being in love with each other in a human way IS what makes them queer, not Just the idea that an angel without a gender or sexuality/romantic or other relationship orientation is inherently queer from the average human’s perspective. People who just want them to be Human Cis Gay Men are really missing this idea I think.

The thing is though. And I don’t think this is Neil’s problem to solve or whatever, nor does it mean “stop liking that angels and demons are genderless”. The thing that annoys the shit out of me. Is that fandom, even queer fandom, took Neil’s Doylist explanation of celestial beings’ gender status and just didn’t think any further about it. To this day people insist that A&C MUST be nonbinary forever just because they’re an angel and demon and were made that way. Like literally just inventing Fantasy Biological Essentialism again which is annoying as hell to me, another nonbinary person. Again, the fact that they were created without any sense of gender or biological sex and then chose any humanish gender for themselves at all whether nonbinary or not is what makes them queer in universe I feel. I think the “they’re an angel and demon so they’re inherently nonbinary and can’t be anything else” is shit tbh.

To reiterate, I think Neil is responding about this from a Doylist perspective aka “to the real life audience all angels and demons are queer because they don’t fit into human genders and sexualities” but I am focused much more on the Watsonian idea that A&C are queer in universe bc angels and demons can choose their gender presentations like humans can and everyone else hasn’t figured it out bc they haven’t been on earth to figure out what gender even is. I feel fandom gets weird about this because lots of people still see gender as something solely internal and inherent, when I genuinely don’t think that’s all it is. It’s internal feeling, external projection/behavior, and both of those as a reflection of social experience all at once. The feelings and internal sense of Knowing your gender or lack thereof is inherent to your self identity, but your gender is also informed by what you understand genders as, and what presentations you understand and have access to! Aziraphale and Crowley can be Human Genders because, because they’ve been on earth, they 1)know what gender is, 2)can see those feelings reflected in themselves, and 3)through that understanding choose how to present based on their feelings! They don’t just have to be genderless celestial beings in the sense angels are if they don’t feel like it anymore! They can be like “oh actually I’m a queer man” or “oh I’m nonbinary but in the way that I’m among humans and I’m not a man or woman.” I just feel like only considering them queer from a human or angel perspective but not both is sort of undermining the themes in the text against bioessentialism in favor of the instant validation of “oh they’re angels so they must be nonbinary.” Perhaps having any human gender presentation is queer to the average angel. Our internal feelings and sense of self knowledge as queer people is inherent. How we act on those things and assign meaning and labels to them can be anything! A&C can be anything they feel like! They don’t have to be the classic celestial beings above gender! I feel like they would love and have fallen into human gender customs just from so long on earth, and that doesn’t mean they can’t be nonbinary or agender. It means they, as a part of humanity, saw and understood human genders and realized what gender they were in relation, whatever you headcanon that to be. And that’s more queer than “god made them without sex and gender so I guess their species makes them inherently one thing”!!!!!!

[kristen-rollens]

Good Omens if it included Muppets: A Thread (Part 3)🧵

-Dr. Bunsen Honeydew as Nina/Sister Mary Loquacious: I just love this ok

-Beaker as Maggie/Sister Theresa: I can picture Beaker yelling at Hastur after the AntiChrist is born😭

-Scooter as Muriel: If this isn’t perfect casting idk what is🥴

Now for some bonus ones just for funsies:

-Lesley the Delivery Man as Beauregard: You can’t lie this WORKS

Eric the Demon as Crazy Harry: Always discorporating themselves💥

Ok that’s all I got lol

@neil-gaiman

[outsideyourhousewithaknife]

Watching good omens and scrolling through my many many tabs of good omens fanart and good omens textposts and good omens fanfic rn

[queer-reader-07]

“tumblr changed this man” no. neil gaiman has been weird AT LEAST since he started publishing in the 80s. we all on tumblr are just all a bunch of weirdos (affectionate) and he just so happens to fit right in with us.

[agottamndelight]

If I win the billion dollar lottery, I will tell no one, however, there will be signs:

Everyone on earth suddenly has the best of Queen in their apple/spotify/etc playlists, every new car will come with a CD of Best of queen, Gideon's bible style.

Thus fulfilling my apology pact with the Demon Crowley for blaming all of my inconveniences of the last 30 years on him

[accidentalseer2020]

If Good Omens series 3 doesn't have a scene with Queen's 'I want to Break Free' playing as Aziraphale comes to terms with how desperately he misses earth and Crowley and how Heaven just ain't worth it... well that'd be a bloody waste of a perfect song.

[lunior-art]

sometimes i wonder why i can’t consume media like a normal human being why do i have to act like a rabid dog

[criminalflower]

sometimes i look at characters and i'm like 'yeah, i ship them'

while sometimes i look at characters and i'm like 'oh they're a couple i guess. canon acknowledged' and it takes me a while to figure out they're not canon. and then I'm baffled they're not canon.

[aeolianblues]

Thoughts about association. In light of the Neil Gaiman article today, and previously too with anyone else who falls from grace (/were never in a position to be looked up to anyway), there start to be citizen investigations into who all is still 'associating' with the perpetrator. I've seen people talking about going through Neil Gaiman's followers to note/harass/condemn anyone who still follows them.

And honestly, I don't think following is a very good metric of association. I know, we place importance on the act of unfollowing and all of that, but like news journalists must continue to follow the vilest people on the planet, because have to keep up with current developments. Journalists can't unfollow Donald Trump, he's going to be the literal president. For other reasons too, people may want to keep up with a developing story, or know responses, especially where there's a chance they might get deleted under fire. Sometimes I don't even remember that I'm actively following a specific celebrity; our algorithms have a way of just pushing whatever the fuck they want you to see whether or not you follow an account, so it's not unreasonable to think you're not following someone even if you see their posts because that's just what algorithms do.

This time, I've seen people wondering whether stars of Gaiman's TV series would unfollow him, and whether or not they'd be 'bad people' or 'implicitly supporting him' by not doing so. But does that really make sense? Don't you think that say, if Michael Sheen or David Tennant were asked about something Neil Gaiman said, they'd rather first know what he said so they can be prepared to talk about it, rather than like, sitting in an interview going 'oh, what did he say?' and having to make shit up from there. Or forget interviews, even. Of course, if they're on a PR outing, they will absolutely be briefed beforehand. But they have private lives beyond what you and I read about, surely they'll be keeping an eye on it as people who think they know the man well and have worked with him?

Information isn't the enemy, that's all I'm saying. I also don't think performing angelic ignorance and purging yourself of any outward association is going to do much. What I'm saying is, the Neil Gaiman Vulture story had me clamping a hand to my mouth in shock throughout, it's absolutely sickening, but I don't think people following or unfollowing him is that significant. His following obviously won't drop to 0 from this, but also I'd be more concerned with real-world consequences in this case. Networks dropping him and his shows, that matters more to me than whether David Tennant still follows Neil Gaiman. Even if in this specific case I don't imagine Gaiman is going to say too much, there are other instances where people will be busy on social media either doing damage control or digging their own grave deeper. Information isn't the enemy. That's the talkings of book-banners that think you can 'sin' by association or knowledge of 'bad things' or people.

[spider-avenger22]

Little Good Omens Headcanon of mine:

We know that Gabriel's eyes are a vibrant purple in Good Omens. Some theorize thay his eyes are purple because he's supposed to represent the most beautiful man, and the most beautiful woman, Elizabeth Taylor, also had violet eyes. Others theorize it has to do with being the Supreme Archangel of heaven.

I think it's both to a degree.

See, I theorize that Gabriel thinks very highly of himself, maybe even to a narcissistic degree. We can see that as he admires the statue of himself in the cemetery. He saw himself in someone who was valued as "the most beautiful," and so when he was appointed as Supreme Archangel, his status manifested in the color purple. Purple eyes and a purple accent color (his tie). It reflects a form of love or an angel equivalent.

I've seen people draw Supreme Archangel Aziraphale with purple eyes, and while I think that looks cool, I don't think that's what his eyes would look like.

In Season 2 episode 3, Aziraphale is driving Crowley's Bentley, and we see that it's yellow. He finds fondness and comfort in the color. And the Bentley doesn't mind either, considering it was content with Aziraphale and his driving style and preferences.

Now, what else is yellow in the show?

Crowley's eyes.

And when do we see Crowley's eyes the most?

With Aziraphale in his bookshop, the only place the demon feels comfortable to expose his eyes when in the presence of others.

So my theory is that when Aziraphale is officially appointed as the new Supreme Archangel, his eyes will shine yellow, the same yellow as Crowley's eyes. He'll probably have an accessory that is also yellow (tie, scarf, something) like Gabriel did with his tie. It will not only show his new elevated status but his devotion and still cherished love of Crowley even if they're on terrible terms at this point.

Imagine how off-putting that would be to the other angels, too. Here is this heathen, this human lover, this demon conspirator, now appointed to the highest position an angel, and his eyes are just like of the fallen one. The demon he's spent so much time with has obviously imprinted on Aziraphale in such a capacity that, even though he chose Heaven, the demon is still with him. He's been influenced so deeply that it reflects in his angelic nature.

[arttsuka]

Kinda lowkey highkey really bothers me when people tag things that aren't there when reblogging my posts

[the-bi-fangirl-biatch]

"oh, crowley. nothing lasts forever."

"no, i don't suppose it does."

[im-the-j-in-anthony-j-crowley]

I want to take this space to apologize to Michael Sheen, whom I chose to try to draw a face

I would show you, but I couldn't live with it and deleted it without recording it in any way

This is an atrocity that will happen again

And it's entirely Neil Gaiman and Terry Pratchett's fault for creating something so beautiful that it was able to motivate me to want to draw

[ineffablydelighted]

[My humble contribution to the meme mania surrounding @neil-gaiman having pyromaniac tendencies]

Featuring: the reference you SHOULD understand, it was not that long ago, folks 😂😂😂

Also featuring: me, late to the party but here I am with my zero to none Photoshop abilities

(Hi, by the way 👋)

Just came by to drop this and disappear as quickly as I popped.