#I love our ineffable husbands so much

[foul-fiend]

Feeling shy writing this, but here’s a brief love letter to the Good Omens fandom on this fine day…

Back when the first season was released, I fell head over heels in love with you all. I was so, so smitten — I devoured all your gorgeous fics, all your stunning art, all your brilliant headcanon. I had so many feelings about these two idiots that no one in the world understood, except for YOU PEOPLE.

And now, flash forward to four years later, here we go again. Round and round we go. 💜 So grateful for everyone and all the positivity here.

[inhonoredglory]

A Wartime Footing: An Explanation for Aziraphale's Elevator Smile

(Based on an ask from @sabotage-on-mercury in response to my meta on why Aziraphale had to go to Heaven)

The creepy smile was one part of the ending I couldn't quite put my finger on either, until someone pointed out on a Twitter response to my meta:

The reason why its scary is bc azi is becoming properly angry at the system and is 101% determined to set things right (Source)

In season 1, Aziraphale was determined not to kill anyone to stop the Apocalypse. He wouldn't even tell Crowley where the Antichrist was, because Crowley's only solution was to kill him.

And because Crowley consistently didn't have any ideas ("not one single better idea??"), Aziraphale took it on himself to pursue the only option left––to ask God to intervene and stop both Heaven and Hell from destroying Earth. Therefore, Aziraphale had to keep the integrity of his angel status by distancing himself from Crowley, while the world was still in danger.

Despite this dedication avoid bloodshed, when God didn't have an answer, Aziraphale went against one of his core beliefs to help save the world. He was willing to murder a child.

For Aziraphale, that takes guts. And (seeing how he reacted at the end of the Job minisode), I wonder that if he had killed Adam Young, Aziraphale would have checked himself into Hell.

Going to Heaven for Aziraphale is ultimately a conscious choice, one that he is clearly afraid of. We see him constantly steeling himself again the Metatron in the end, covering his fear and hurt from losing Crowley with a placid smile and a flippant attitude. He's wearing so many masks, to Crowley, to himself, to the Metatron...

All season we've seen him playing roles (detective, magician, doctor, landlord). But the final role is warrior. Going up that elevator, we first see Aziraphale's eyes searching, worried, panicking, but unable to show it because he's not in a safe space. He swallows, blinks, he's breathing hard (you can see his entire shoulders rise and fall).

But as he goes up, his expression steels. He's quite literally putting on a mask (to himself): a vengeful, hardened expression of pure anger and rage (to drown out the fear and uncertainty he so clearly still has).

Michael Sheen conveying contained anger in both Good Omens and Masters of Sex.

Cuz this isn't just him scrambling to kill a kid, this is him walking calmly and knowingly into sacrificing everything he loves most (Crowley, the bookshop, his entire life on earth) to create a world that will always be safe for him and Crowley and humanity for the rest of time. Where he would have to go up against the most powerful angels, the Metatron, and God Themself to change things. He can't be the kind, sweet angel he was on Earth. That won't cut it in Heaven if he wants to make a difference in any real way.

He wanted to do it with Crowley, with the love and support and strength of his demon. But without him, Aziraphale has to channel something else to keep his resolve afloat.

Something he had when he was a warrior, fighting on the front lines of a battle between Heaven and Hell, when he very likely led a platoon into divine fields of bloodshed before the earth was born. When he was an avenging angel.

I haven’t done this since the Great War.

It was a time and an identity he had chosen to leave behind, because it wasn't the kind of angel he was anymore ("I'm not fighting in any war!"). In this context, you can read Aziraphale's passionate unwillingness to take a life (his pacifism) directly into his past experience as a warrior. It is often the veterans of terrible wars who are the most earnest advocates for peace. (And especially in Britain and Europe, where the violence of the world wars is still such a powerful and painful national memory.)

As he goes up the elevator, he's breathing so hard we can hear it mirrored in the soundtrack, and he is so hyperfocused on steeling himself that he doesn't even care that the Metatron is watching him. He doesn't rest until he's psyched himself into that warrior mindset necessary to carry out this mission entirely by himself, to be both the moral advocate and the uncompromising leader of angels who had intimidated him his entire life. To demand respect and to talk to the very face of God and tell Them they are Wrong.

(Please read this Neil-approved meta for further thoughts on God and Aziraphale.)

That creepy smile is clearly not there because Aziraphale is happy to fall into a toxic parent's false love. There's no comfort or wistful nostalgia in that face. There's no "it'll be so much nicer" in that smile. It's not a happy smile. It's an I'm-gonna-fuck-shit-up smile.

Because it's a warrior's smile before they go into battle, before they put on that armor and, for a while, become something they're not in the name of some greater good. He's fucking furious and it's downright frightening.

Because I have no doubt that the angel Aziraphale we get in Season 3 is the angel Aziraphale who can say this:

He's not quite there yet in the TV show. But this bravery, this anger, this flaming rage is how it starts.

Or as he's described in the book when Aziraphale mysteriously does away with the local mafia:

Just because you’re an angel doesn’t mean you have to be a fool.

[procrastiel]

All I’m saying is this:

Neil created s2 to set up everything that needs to happen in s3.

He literally orchestrated an event for us (much like the ball) to see in the next season. So yes, I do believe there are Clues hidden in s2.

[vidavalor]

Why does Crowley in season 2 have sideburns and Crowley in season 1 doesn't?🤔🐍

Because he's actually Elvis in S2. It's a theory I've been keeping to myself for awhile now because I was worried people might think I'd lost it but I feel comfortable enough now with all of you to share that I'm 150% sure that this will be revealed midway through 3.04, when Gabriel will return to tell Aziraphale that he forgot to mention it before he left for Alpha Centauri but he's had the real Crowley in a magical cell in Heaven since the end of S1. The one Aziraphale's been sleeping with since then is actually The King in disguise. (Elvis is supernatural so he can shapeshift, obviously, in case you were worried that I didn't think that bit through.)

Upon learning this, Aziraphale will pause, consider, then smirk and wiggle a little bit while making a dirty joke that involves the phrase "burning love", and then politely ask for his actual Crowley back. When Gabriel shrugs and says it's not his department because he doesn't work there anymore, Aziraphale's flaming sword will appear in his hand to match his rage. He'll slay Gabriel like Adam did the lion outside of Eden (because parallels, you guys...). The King-- who really didn't want to be a part of this and doesn't want to go on together with suspicious minds with anyone anymore-- chooses redemption, whips out his lethal banana (you gutter brains, it's an actual fucking banana...) and goes with Aziraphale to storm Heaven to rescue Crowley. David Tennant's really going to be stretched thin playing two characters at the same time in S3 atop all the flashbacks but we know he can make it work.

When they finally get through Michael (this takes about 40 seconds), our scrappy gang of Az, Elvis, a pair of ragtime singer ghosts played by Nina Sosanya and Maggie Service, and Crowley's two most emotionally damaged plants find the real Crowley curled up in the fetal position singing "All Shook Up" to himself (he and Elvis are permanently psychically linked now but don't worry, it's not a big deal, just a callback to the fly) and the dramatic score swells as Aziraphale rushes over and finally lays one on the real Crowley.

Aziraphale then recaps S2 to the real Crowley, who just stares. The only thing he reacts to is learning that Elvis snogged his girl. In a fit of rage, he has the Maggie and Nina ragtime ghosts (who are also angels, it's complicated) make him holy water and then hurls it at the demonic King of Rock 'n Roll, who lives long enough to sing: "Lord, Almighty, I feel my temperature risin'" before being eviscerated.

We might expect Frances McDormand to return here for this but she doesn't. We will be left wondering why The Voice of God didn't even show up to respond to the dying King and what that meant.

Except remember when I said that Crowley and Elvis were psychically linked?! Yeah. Crowley starts to die and Aziraphale sobs because, really, this was all very avoidable. This is when we all get wibbly because "A Nightingale Sings in Berkeley Square" covered by AI replicating the voice of Elvis plays as Crowley begins to draw the last breath he doesn't need to take. He dies. We're all sobbing. But it's okay because, as the final credits roll, Lord Beezlebub then appears, looks at the ridiculous mess in front of them, just says "this is so dumb", and then zaps Crowley back to life.

I don't know about you all but that really seems the most logical explanation to me. Especially since the alternative is just: "because he felt like it."

[ineffableaddiction]

Is this Crowley’s way of flirting?

[mumblers-lobby]

Crowley and Ed could be good friends.

[idreamofsleeping]

*shouting into the void* Hello everyone!! I have become hyperfixated on a new pair of middle aged men!!

[chaotic-autumn]

ok so here's where I'm at with the good omens + ofmd brainrot:

the thing that really butters my bread about ofmd is the way these two men have lived forty odd years on earth never feeling comfortable with themselves or the lives they were living, and then in an instant they see a future better than any they ever previously thought possible as soon as they meet each other. And it's so beautiful and hopeful bc it's just like. It's never too late. And also. Yes it's such a rare and precious thing to meet someone who sees you and understands you so completely and immediately at the perfect moment of your life when you need them most, and just. It's never too late for that to happen and it's never too late to admit that ur unhappy and do something about it

And Good Omens is giving me this related but different kind of hope and happiness of just. It is so beautiful to know someone so well. And have known them for so long. And still feel so giddy in their presence and still find new ways and new reasons to love them. Even like. Thousands of lifetimes later. Like there truly are people who you could spend infinite lifetimes with and only ever love them more through all that time. And we get their meet cute and the thrill of first love as this backstory montage. And we see how this relationship has deepened and strengthed and they are an old married couple in the best way. But also even from the beginning it feels a little like they could never have possibly not known each other?

Idk I'm just screaming and crying over here because watching these two shows back to back has made me feel uncynical about love for the first time maybe ever?

[ethaniscool69]

ME WHEN INEFFABLE WIVES

(click the image for a better quality)

[thatgaiagirl]

Part of me can’t believe Good Omens 2 is real.

I remember watching a video dissecting all the different eras of Destiel and the SPN Finale. About how, if they had the balls to go all the way, they could’ve had a retroactive epic slow-burn gay romance the kinds of which the queer community rarely ever gets.

I remember watching Sherlock and picking up all the little hints they were laying down. Saw the possibility being played for jokes. Knew it was never going to happen.

Good Omens had the same set-ups as those. Other characters mistaking them for being in a relationship. Conversations and moments purposefully written to sound like a bickering old married couple. From the start, though, it had such an earnest treatment of those moments. It never mocked the audience for seeing that subtext. It encouraged us, listened to us. Something that feels so rare.

I felt like i could actually trust this show when it said Aziraphale and Crowley could be in a relationship, and by god was that rewarded

They didn’t need to kiss to prove they weren’t baiting, at least to me. But now that we have it, I hope that every person who’s been baited, who’s been taught to tune out those little moments and references because they’ve been lied to before, realises they were never wrong to see that.

FUCKING VALIDATION FOR OUR QUEER READINGS. FINALLY

We HAVE that angsty slow-burn romance with multiple seasons of build up now. Sincerely, Good Omens, thank you.

[clockwork-windmills]

something I've noticed from theory posts going around is that people seem to think that Aziraphale's actions at the end of the season are very out of character. I, to put it lightly, entirely disagree. Aziraphale's character arc in season 2 was beautifully and subtly written and the season HAD to end the way it did to let both Aziraphale and Crowley develop.

The flashbacks this season served narrative purpose beyond "haha let's see what AC got up to all that time ago". The way I interpreted the show was that these were specific memories Aziraphale was recalling throughout the season as a result of all the shit going on with heaven and hell and gabrie- i mean Jim and vinylatte and everything. Aziraphale went through a character arc known as a Fall Arc (coincidence? who knows):

Character believes lie

Character clings to lie

Character rejects truth

Character clings to worse lie (in this case, a more extreme version of the original)

This is shown not only through Aziraphale's present-day actions, but through the flashbacks.

All through the series we see how Aziraphale wants to do good. He likes doing the right thing and he - though he has moments of doubt - ultimately believes in the goodness of heaven and the evilness of hell. He hasn't had that same rejection of it as Crowley has had. That isn't a sign his mind has been tampered with or anything. That's just how he is as a result of all of heaven's manipulation and his genuine desire to do the right thing.

The apparently stark change in attitude after his conversation with the metatron isn't really as stark as people think. Aziraphale loves the idea of what heaven could be. His initial image of heaven has been shattered through millenia of being failed by them (especially recently with Armageddn't), but I think that he genuinely believes that with himself in charge, he could make that image real again. What he thinks he wants is what we saw at the beginning: him and Crowley side by side doing good. His arc in season 3 is going to be him joining Crowley in the recognition that the whole system is fucked up, and finally choosing Humanity (and Crowley of course) over heaven.

ALSO REMEMBER THAT HE ACCEPTED THE OFFER WITH THE IDEA THAT CROWLEY WOULD COME WITH HIM. Heaven are SO manipulative.

The fact that his actions are so in character for him at this point in the story is what makes "fix-it" fics so hard. It doesn't need fixing. This is literally how it has to go before they can converge their paths again and be happy. It's sad, and I love happy endings, but we need this sad ending first to give both Aziraphale and Crowley the opportunity to grow.

I may add to this some other time because this is a rambly mess but I just had to say this. thank you neil gaiman for writing such a well thought out transition season that stands on its own wonderfully. fingers are crossed for season 3 :)

[miraevanlynch]

Spoilers 2

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Love of my life, you've hurt me

You've broken my heart, and now you leave me

Love of my life, can't you see?

Bring it back, bring it back, don't take it away from me

Because you don't know what it means to me

Love of my life, don't leave me

You've taken my love (all my love), you now desert me

Love of my life, can't you see? (Please bring it back)

Bring it back, bring it back, don't take it away from me

Because you don't know what it means to me (means to me)

You will remember when this is blown over

And everything's all by the way (ooh, yeah)

When I grow older, I will be there at your side (ooh)

To remind you how I still love you (I still love you)

Back, hurry back, please bring it back home to me

Because you don't know what it means to me (means to me)

Love of my life

Love of my life

(Ooh, ooh)

[chubbylittlebumblebee]

How is this not plastered wall to wall all over tumbler yet.

Everything new I learn about this series makes me love it tenfold.

[depressedbyseason2]

This video needs more attention I swear. I'm in TEARS

[achilleanluke]

i need people to know that crowley has been calling aziraphale "my angel" since 2019 in the brazilian dub

[ineffableaddiction]

Crowley stops arguing with Aziraphale about driving the car when Aziraphale tells Crowley he’ll be taking care of the bookshop. He realizes it’s a big step for them.