#I will probably come back to this

[gobstoppercowboy]

Okay so I finished watching Good Omens 2 last night and I just have so so many thoughts on **that ending** that I feel compelled to share even though no one’s gonna read it. (But it would be nice if someone took pity and did)

Spoilers below!

Okay. So.

The thing that literally kept me up last night and had me staring at the ceiling at 2am was Aziraphale’s “I forgive you” following the kiss.

Neil Gaiman (the brilliance that he is) has made it pretty clear that he wanted this line to be a multiplicity and to both confuse and invoke us as viewers to gather our own interpretation of the moment, and Aziraphale’s character at this point in the story, but that doesn’t mean that I’ve exactly … got my own solid interpretation, yet.

Initially, to me, giving the response of forgiveness implies that Aziraphale read the kiss from Crowley as some convoluted version of an apology. As if Crowley’s kiss was a messy “I’m sorry, but”, that Aziraphale just doesn’t know how to deal with or where to go with. We watch him stutter and struggle with himself before biting out his words of forgiveness — I don’t think it was said on a whim or by accident. I really believe that Aziraphale meant that “I forgive you” and had intended for it to land the way that it did. But I could be wrong, obviously.

However, what complicates this for the pair of them, is that I don’t think Crowley went into the kiss with any specific sort of meaning. He didn’t do it to replace words, especially not an apology. He’s adamant in his stances on Heaven and Hell and has been throughout the series — unapologetically so, which is the essence of who he is.

To me, the kiss was a “look at me, acknowledge me, see me for what I am” action from Crowley. He laid himself bare and put himself into the open — showing Aziraphale that this is his priority, that this is where he wants to be, and that under no circumstances will he be willing to return to Heaven for its ease or convenience, and never because it could be seen as the ‘right’ thing to do. It was Crowley telling him, “I don’t care what’s right and I don’t care what’s wrong. I care about this.” I’d say this is really emphasised by the physicality of the kiss — the grabbing of Aziraphale’s clothes, the forced prolonging of it.

It wasn’t an apology, and it wasn’t an “I love you”, either. I think it’s so important that that statement isn’t said aloud between the pair of them. Crowley has already expressed his love for Aziraphale in countless other ways that I don’t think I really need to recount. Crowley doesn’t struggle with showing Aziraphale that he loves him, what he struggles with is being open about what he wants to come from it — whereas, Aziraphale does not.

Aziraphale evidently wants their love to be able to translate as a catalyst for doing good, or saving humanity in Heaven, working together as Angels. He’s not trying to change Crowley from evil to good, because he already perceives him as being good — he just isn’t aware of how different the goodness is between them, and how much of an exception Aziraphale is to Crowley. Because, Crowley doesn’t care about doing ‘good’ or what’s ‘right’ — he just cares for what he knows to be true, or what he feels is important. It just happens that this regularly aligns with Aziraphale’s perception of ‘goodness’, because Crowley isn’t an evil person. Aziraphale aims to be ‘good’, Crowley aims to be true.

Crowley wants their love to manifest as a third party, in a way. He wants their love to be able to open doors for them, not confine them into one static room (ie: as he perceives Heaven, or Hell for that matter). Crowley doesn’t believe that their own personal freedom, and fighting for what they want, can intersect with the structure of somewhere like Heaven. But Aziraphale takes a more potentially naive stance on this, believing emphatically that it can because of their love for each other, because of their willingness to work together — not in spite of it, as Crowley does.

This then of course brings us to Crowley’s “don’t bother”.

This, I’ve struggled with unpicking a bit more.

As Crowley never meant his kiss as an apology, he’ll obviously interpret Aziraphale’s “I forgive you” in a different light.

It could be an effort to further reject the values of Heaven / religion in a wider sense; seeing forgiveness as one of those core Christian/‘good’ values that Aziraphale is constantly trying to measure up to or abide by. His “don’t bother” would therefore echo his utter exasperation with trying to understand Aziraphale’s determination to live by Heaven’s standard or rules, no longer caring if his bluntness hurts his feelings.

Or, Crowley could be highly aware of how his kiss was misunderstood by Aziraphale to mean an apology. Then, his “don’t bother” just highlights his disappointment in being so deeply misunderstood by someone who he cares so much for. He thought Aziraphale knew what he stood for and respected it — but this whole encounter has seemingly proved him wrong, thus Crowley’s defences have spiked again. After his monologue of vulnerability, of almost pleading with him, he forces himself back into himself. He chooses not to fight anymore, because if Aziraphale doesn’t agree with him immediately to begin with — then this isn’t a battle he wants to win. Because, above all, he wants Aziraphale to be happy. And if Crowley’s offer doesn’t bring him happiness, then he doesn’t want to force his energy arguing about it — and would rather just “not bother”, simply laying it all to rest and accepting his loss. If Aziraphale would be happier in Heaven, knowing that Crowley will never follow him, then so be it.

We immediately see Aziraphale panicking once Crowley leaves, leading me to believe that we’re probably gonna see some sort of apology arc in season three? But then again, the way Sheen acted Aziraphale in the elevator as the credits roll makes this maybe … not guaranteed? There was something very powerful going on in that little sequence. I think we’ll see new sides to Aziraphale’s character in season three.

Anyway! Going to try and wrap this up now before I embarrass myself even more.

Kind of TLDR: The kiss wasn’t an “I love you”, and it wasn’t an apology. We’re still yet to get either of these things (plainly and verbally) from Crowley and Aziraphale, but I suspect we’ll be getting them in season three.

[humming-fly]

I love how Gerald was trying to keep Shadow from spoiling anything about the future meanwhile literally everything Shadow says and does around Maria is the biggest death flag ever

[chloesimaginationthings]

The day FNAF Charlie Emily was shut out..

[platoapproved]

louis + cruelty

[vesperosy]

a series of birthdays, ages 8-16

my illustration for @aatrucyzine. thanks for having me!!

[tossawary]

This is petty fandom salt, BUT... I've been chewing on this phenomenon that I've been calling "Fandom's Darling". It is related to things like "Author's Darling" and "Mary Sue / Gary Stu" and "Protagonist Halo" and all that jazz, where one character gains a peculiar narrative weight in a story.

"Author's Darling" is when a writer has a favorite character, and the world and all other characters sort of get... warped to put the Darling in the spotlight. It's most noticeable in TV shows with multiple writers, when a character you personally like suddenly has their previous characterization destroyed to make another character look good somehow. Every other character might become weirdly incompetent. The Darling's feelings are treated as The Most Important Feelings in any given situation. The logic of the fictional world seems broken past suspension of disbelief in order to validate this one character's beliefs or skillset or some other fantasy. And so on.

"Fandom's Darling" is what I've been calling the pattern where a fandom essentially crowns a New Protagonist for their fanfiction stories (it's often a side character rather than the original protagonist, but it can also happen to protagonists). This character becomes the self-insert for all sorts of indulgent fantasies, gaining special powers or backstories, and/or becoming the focus of extreme whump, and/or hooking up with all the various hotties, starring in all sorts of tropey AUs, and so on. They're not always an obvious Mary Sue version of themselves, but the character's original personality and interpersonal relationships tend to get warped or dropped completely, and other characters tend to become a little flat around them. I call it "Fandom's Darling" because it's not just one self-indulgent fantasy fic (you do you! Have fun!) with characterization choices that I don't vibe with (I have neither the time nor the desire nor the authority to police anything, I am just venting), but rather a prolific mini-fandom of sorts revolving around this empty doll / fanon version of the chosen vessel character, so it becomes a little unavoidable.

I am salty about this (mildly frustrated) (imagine a soft sigh of disappointment before I just go do something else) because you are FUCKED if you actually liked the canonical version of this character and their interpersonal relationships. It's almost worse than liking an obscure character that no one cares about. There's about a thousand fics starring your fave, but maybe only about a dozen of them are actually rooted in any kind of recognisable canon.

[paracosmicka]

have doodle lol

functionally, i am alive, emotionally?? idk about that work has me crying almost everyday now chat idk if i can do this anymore

[egophiliac]

still ruminating over Lost In the Book With Spooky Skeletons Part 1, so here's a selection of some of my favorite little bits! (...some more loosely paraphrased than others) (I just feel like Idia has no room to criticize in general, okay)

anyway, I'm sure we're just going to have a fun time celebrating Halloween and nothing bad is going to happen whatsoever! :)

[bunnieswithknives]

As much as I love angst I think it would be funny if he just didnt give af

[eats-a-berry]

i wasn't sure exactly what i thought adult gideon should be doing, but i DO quite like the triple combination of cowboy-biker, drag queen, and used car salesman at the same time. she's always a busy person!

[skeletood]

yeah, they're boyfriends

[qoldenskies]

i think its so funny when people take the way donnie acts at face value even though its a horrible lie because he's a horrible liar, while understanding leo is bullshitting very well despite him actually being GOOD at bullshitting. many such cases

[hinamie]

corvidae

[fashionsfromhistory]

I love this look HOWEVER looking at his shoes all I can think of is 'those are his hooves you bitch'

[haliaiii]

army dreamers

[froggydraws]

y'all send my girl marinette your thoughts and prayers 😔🙏