#but for azirpahale is like

[thatskindarough]

I’m not sure about anyone else but I personally have a pretty hard time finding Aziraphale centric fics. Crowley centric fics are really easy to find, stuff that splits C/A evenly is also pretty easy to find.

So I think we should start a thread of Aziraphale centric fics (or at least ones where he gets to take a major role in.)

I’ll go first:

These are the Soul by Mikripetra—This is my comfort fic I love it with my entire being.

Starmaker and Starlight by Nohaljiachi—This one just made me very happy then very sad. It focuses on Aziraphale before the beginning, coming to be friends with the starmaker (angel Crowley)

Prax In Terris —by Oatmeal Addiction I love this one because it captures the spirit of good omens perfectly. Genuinely if s3 was a fanfiction this (and the other fic in this series) is what I’d want it to be. Now it is not exactly Aziraphale centric, it does split time pretty evenly with Crowley and Muriel, but I love Aziraphale’s role in this, and he gets to be really interesting and stubborn. (Maybe not for all readers who dislike face value interpretations of the FF though.) It’s a wip about the second coming and I’m very curious where the author is gonna take it.

If you want, please feel free to add any Aziraphale centric fics to this post and also please shamelessly self-rec your own fics

(Edited to add the author names and also to say thank you for everyone recommending things, it makes me and I’m sure other Aziraphale fans very happy!)

[thealogie]

I’m so late to this but I just don’t get “do it again” from azirpahale in that scene (which one of the producers said was what azirpahale was feeling when Crowley kissed). What do you think?

If that was supposed to be “do it again” then Michael Sheen can’t act, which would negate one of my most fundamental beliefs in this world (that Michael Sheen is one of the greatest living actors right now). I really think that was supposed to be a storm of emotions which was portrayed perfectly. There is an element of “do it again” with that lip touch but there was also “how dare you do this now of all times” and “I don’t know what to feel” and *fanfic voice* some other emotion I can’t name.

[phantomram-b00]

Sometime reading Aziraphale bad takes make me remember how my folks (at least two of them) had some bad hottakes. I’ve said it before but one of them called Aziraphale stupid and an asshole for doing what he did because they said he should’ve told metatron to wait a moment and run up to Crowley to tell them about the second coming despite the fact Metatron figurative and literally trapped Aziraphale. Like-

[aestophobia]

feeling emotional about the fact that most people put on top of a christmas tree either an angel or a star

[moonyinpisces]

close relation of “he would not fucking say that” is “he would not fucking fuck like that” and often it only comes up as a finale of sorts, so either you give up on the sunk cost of having read almost the whole thing or you subject yourself to whatever this person is doing to your precious guys

i straight up stop reading like i have quite literally been 80k balls deep into a slow burn fic and then they get to the fucking and crowley pulls out the wicked self-assured incubus intentionally sexy moves and i close out. who wants to see that

[lydiablackblade]

Can we just appreciate that despite Crowley being the demon and everyone expects him to be a liar, Aziraphale is the one who blatantly tells bigger lies AND more frequently?

[extraordinarium]

girls when they cannot find a tiktok screenshot with the name of a fic they are ITCHING to read (i'm girls)

[sassasafreeaction]

The rearrangement of Bohemian Rhapsody while they're in the coffee shop is delightful. I love that that's the song that's played both times now when the main problem of the season has been introduced.

[armageddidnt]

Welcome to My Collection of Random Thoughts during my nth* rewatch of Good Omens Season 2

*only amazon prime knows the exact number at this point but I’m fairly certain it’s in the double digits

Episode 1: Gabriel’s fly lurking in the box when Aziraphale first takes it inside 👀

Crowley’s promise of “two minutes” basically means that he’s been homeless and living in his car for the past 4 years strictly so that he can be within 2 driving minutes of Aziraphale at all times in case his angel needs him I’m not crying you are

So here I think the key word is “fragile,” Crowley knows they are ostensibly safe from their respective sides but that could change at any moment so he’s basically spent the last 4 years in anxiety-ridden terror hovering as close to Aziraphale as he can to try and protect him from heaven, hell, and anyone else that would want to bring him harm after all that business they pulled in season 1 with stopping Armageddon

Episode 2: I just happened to pause the episode while Aziraphale is lying to the angels about his miracle and LOL Michael really outdid himself here (Sheen, not the Archangel)

Gabriel trying to swat flies and almost smashing the repository of every single one of his memories

I’m cAckling

So if Good Omens exists in Good Omens, does that mean Neil Gaiman and Terry Pratchett exist in Good Omens?? Do you think they based their Aziraphale and Crowley characters on Aziraphale and Crowley??

Episode 3: So I’m trying to find any hints or foreshadowing of the Gabriel Beelzebub thing bc tbh I did kind of feel like it came out of nowhere which is really the only issue I have with them. I found this one scene where Beelzebub almost ?? seems to be concerned about Gabriel ?? But it’s blink and you miss it and there could be lots of other reasons why Beelzebub doesn’t want to fail in locating Gabriel (pressure from/leverage over heaven, etc) so idk

More Foreshadowing Fly content 🪰

Episode 4: So here we’ve seen that Shax can just appear inside the Bentley bc she did it earlier to talk to Crowley. Shax only pretended to be a hitchhiker so she could be invited in because Azirpahale was driving so technically she needed permission to cross the threshold of an angel 👀

This scene will never not destroy me the 1941 flashback is the absolute sOFTEST thing ever to happen on this show

We really need more context here I need to see the Crowley-Furfur Monkey Rides

Episode 5: ahahaha thank you google translate for absolutely destroying my sanity this evening

POP goes the Ziraphale

Okay I know you can’t hear it in the gif but just before Nina takes Maggie’s hand, there’s a very quiet miracle noise, like Azirpahale literally MADE Nina dance with Maggie, he said I’m writing a Mina Jane-Austen-Ball-AU and my otp will KISS godDAMMIT

Azirpahale seems lowkey kind of manic this whole scene tho, he’s controlling literally everyone to force Nina and Maggie together and whenever Crowley says anything that pokes holes in Aziraphale’s Magical Jane Austen Ball Fairytale, Aziraphale just straight up denies it. He wants Nina and Maggie to dance and he wants him and Crowley to dance and he refuses to acknowledge anything beyond that.

Is this just Shax insulting Crowley for how much of a nuisance he’s been or a reference to his former status as an angel ???

They’re both completely dismissive of each other when they’re trying to say something important and that’s the main issue they’ve been having this entire season tbh

Episode 6: I think it’s funny that Crowley describes the angels as bees here because in the book, Neil/Terry describe humans the same way. Guess we have more in common than we thought huh?

So the metatron was the one who originally decided Gabriel would be memory wiped and not sent to hell, and he was also the one that decided not to sound an alarm about Gabriel for some reason and said ‘just go find him yourself’ instead. The metatron has definitely got his own agenda and you can bet he doesn’t want Aziraphale up there in heaven because he’s a “leader” and he’s “honest” like that’s exactly what Gabriel was and look where it got him 👀

There’s just something I can’t quite put my finger on about the metatron bringing Aziraphale a coffee from “give me coffee or give me death” and then asking Aziraphale if he’s going to take the coffee he’s giving him…

I have not seen a single person talk about this since s2 came out but Nina literally calls Maggie “angel” because that’s the term of endearment they hear Crowley using for Aziraphale !!!! I’m still going fERAL over this and I can’t believe no one else is eitHER

Something about this part of The Final Fifteen compared to this scene from the first episode is so representative of the entire season. Azirpahale keeps saying “my way or get out” and Crowley finally hits a wall and can follow Aziraphale no further. So he does just that. He goes.

I’m sure a lot of us by now have seen this post that brings up how Aziraphale literally pushes the remains of Crowley into his mouth and swallows and it’s the only thing I see when I watch this now

We still don’t know for certain if Crowley queued up this song to play on their way to the Ritz or if the Bentley started playing it all on its own and it’s driving me insane

Basically how I am doing after my Truly-Alarming-Number-th watch of this traumatizing episode/season. WELP hope you enjoyed this garbage dump of my thoughts and feelings time to go cry for a bit again BYE

[valdomarx]

"It's easy!" Crowley waves a nonchalant hand. "Humans are simple creatures. All it takes for the blossoming of romantic love is a bit of rain and an awning."

"And that..." Aziraphale looks at him sceptically, "works, does it?"

Crowley puffs up, a little offended on behalf of his thorough understanding of human psychology. "Of course it does. I'm the expert in temptation, aren't I? Here, watch."

He grabs Aziraphale's wrist (warm. and soft.) and tugs him out of the bookshop and into the street.

"Ordinary day, right? Sunshine, blue skies, blah blah blah. All very nice, yes, but no atmosphere. No," he pauses meaningfully, "va voom."

Aziraphale merely raises an eyebrow.

"But with a little work," Crowley snaps his fingers decisively, and thunder booms. Deep grey clouds pile high in the sky, rushing in towards them and gaining momentum as they do. He turns to Aziraphale with a grin as lightning forks overhead, illuminating the sky in bright flashes. Aziraphale returns an indulgent smile, and the air is thick and heavy between them.

It starts as a soft pat. pat pat. and then builds to a pat pat pat patpatpatpatpat as the heavens open and rain cascades down on their little street, fat drops bouncing off tables and cars and the pavement. Within seconds the rain crescendos into a torrential downpour, soaking them both. Aziraphale's fluffy hair is flattened, sticking to his forehead as the humans around them squeal and duck for cover.

"And now," Crowley holds out one hand with an ostentatious curtsy, "we shelter."

Aziraphale takes his hand with a roll of his eyes, and Crowley steps neatly under a shop awning which is miraculously free of any members of the public. He doesn't let go of Aziraphale's hand, the incoming rain forcing them to stand just a few inches apart. The storm rages above, the smell of rain on concrete surrounding them like a bubble.

"And what do we do next?" Aziraphale asks. Crowley is close enough to catch the way his tongue darts out to wet his lower lip.

"We. Umm." Crowley is having some difficulty in focusing. He's very warm, despite the chill and the wet, something blazing hot and ashy pulsating in his chest. "Traditionally, we look into each other's eyes."

He considers whether he should facilitate that by taking off his sunglasses, but Aziraphale has never had any trouble reading him with them on. And anyway, his hand won't stop shaking.

He takes a step closer instead, squeezing Aziraphale's hand and dropping some of the practised hardness from his face. He feels, abruptly, extremely exposed as Aziraphale regards him studiously.

Time seems to freeze in place, though whether that's a miraculous phenomenon or merely an effect of proximity, Crowley couldn't say.

"Oh," Aziraphale breathes.

Crowley ought to say something. Something clever and irreverent. There had been some point he had been trying to prove, hadn't there? It's quite flown his mind.

Instead, he finds himself leaning in to brush a lock of soggy hair off Azirpahale's forehead.

"Well." There are spots of blush on Aziraphale's cheeks. "I can certainly see this seems to be. Erm. Surprisingly effective."

Every idea and plan and argument has deserted Crowley's mind, replaced by an enormous blooming sensation he doesn't want to examine too closely. Aziraphale's face is soft and sweet and very close.

"And now?" Aziraphale asks, voice quiet and barely audible over the crashing of rain and thunder.

"I. Uhh." There's something he's supposed to do. There's something he's supposed to do. It's important, it's pressing, it's urgent.

But not one single thought remains in Crowley's head as he gestures vaguely and tries, "Va voom?"

[createserenity]

I won’t leave you on your own.

Right, this might be controversial, or I might be the only one who sees this moment in this way, but I need to talk about this now. It’s really sweet when Crowley says this, except what happens afterwards isn’t sweet at all. And can I just add right now that I love both Azirpahale and Crowley, they’re both wonderful and also brillianty flawed, I don’t hate either of them. But as far as I’m concerned Crowley behaves really stupidly here.

GIF by ladybokatankryze

C: I’m going to get the humans out of here and then I’m coming back. I won’t leave you on your own. A: I know.

Oh dear, Crowley. Why did you leave him on his own after saying this? Why did you let Aziraphale down? Why does no one talk about the fact that you did? You walked out that bookshop and Aziraphale was so confident you would come back that he expressed this confidence to the humans and then defended his reliance on you, “Crowley will have a plan,” “Rescuing me makes him so happy.”

But you didn’t come back, Crowley! Why? You left the bookshop, spotted Muriel and then in some super weird ADHD* move just left Aziraphale to sort out the demon problem on his own whilst you went off to heaven. Whyyyyy?

Now okay. I admit, Crowley was working towards the ultimate goal of finding out what the heck had happened to Gabriel, which was something that needed to be done. He spotted the opportunity, knew it probably wouldn’t come up again and so took it. He did what probably needed to be done. He also did it expecting that the demons wouldn’t ever be able to enter the bookshop because Aziraphale was never going to say they could come in. It’s not his fault Maggie is an idiot. I still love him and so does Aziraphale. Also Aziraphale is perfectly capable of defending himself in some ways and we see this after Crowley leaves…

BUT. What a mistake.

He basically left Aziraphale on his own to fight the demons. An Aziraphale who trusted so absolutely that Crowley would come back, and that Crowley would know what to do, that he hadn’t bothered to come up with the whole plan himself. He didn’t have to. Aziraphale and Crowley are a team, they work together and they don’t let each other down.

Except this time Crowley did.

It’s unclear exactly how long Crowley spent in heaven watching the trial etc but since the ball starts at 6.30pm and the demons seem to turn up not that long into the evening, we can assume it’s a really long time. By the time he comes back it’s very clearly morning again, the entire night has passed. Maybe Crowley didn’t intend to be away that long, maybe he expected his jaunt to heaven to be quicker, or maybe this is because time passes differently in heaven and Crowley had no way of knowing exactly what time he’d return to earth, but whatever the reason, he leaves Aziraphale alone for a really long time, after explicitly stating that he won’t leave him on his own.

By the time he does turn up it’s long after the battle is over and long after Aziraphale has been forced to take an action he really didn’t want to take in order to defend himself and the bookshop.

Just look at Aziraphale’s face when Crowley returns, he isn’t super delighted to see him, he's sort of happy, but more looks like he can’t believe Crowley is actually there.

When he says, “You came back!” he sounds kind of surprised and also perhaps relieved. Why? Because he’s given up on Crowley coming back by that point. He has no idea what has happened to him or why he let him down so badly.

I think we can fairly safely assume that Aziraphale and Crowley can sense at least to some extent where the other one is when they are both on earth if they try to do so, and it’s probable that at some point after sorting out the demon problem Aziraphale had wondered where Crowley had gone and tried to sense him, so likely he knows Crowley has been away from the earth. What he doesn’t know is where he’s been or whether he went there willingly (at least until he turns up with a bunch of angels, at which point he’s intelligent enough to work it out).**

So now he knows where Crowley went, but he doesn’t know why or what he discovered. He’s still in the “Crowley let me down,” space at this point. Then Crowley asks what happened to the demons and Aziraphale has to tell him he blew up his halo. Crowley finds this delightful and he laughs, but for once they aren’t laughing together. This is only the second time that we have seen Crowley laugh at Aziraphale (the first is when he mocks him about thinking he’s a demon after the Job thing, which he quickly stops doing and switches to being kind when he realises how upset Aziraphale is). When he laughs about the halo he doesn’t mean it to be mocking, it’s actually the same disbelieving reaction that he does on the walls of Eden about the flaming sword, except magnified, he doesn’t just do a single “you what?” of disbelief and amusement as he does in Eden, he properly laughs because he knows Aziraphale better and thinks their relationship can take the laughter.

Usually he’d be right, but the problem is he’s just let Aziraphale down. So while he isn’t really mocking Aziraphale, because he loves that Aziraphale does these unexpected and wonderful things, Aziraphale doesn’t like the laugh at all. Look at his face. He glares at Crowley and his look very much is one of, “if you’d come back like you said you would, if you hadn’t let me down, I probably wouldn’t have had to do it at all.”

Then since Crowley rather stupidly doesn’t read the reaction and stop laughing the look changes more to, “I’m really upset about all this, please, please don’t laugh at me, you’re hurting me.”*** It's only shown briefly so it's difficult to capture, but you can just catch this in his expression before the camera cuts back to Crowley, and then again for a second when it recuts to Aziraphale, just before he reacts to the arrival of the demons.

Basically, Aziraphale is really fucking pissed off and upset with Crowley at this point. (Side note, Maggie and Nina look less than impressed by the laughter too – even they know it’s not the right reaction.)

If you need anymore evidence of how annoyed he is, look at how far away he stays from Crowley whilst he’s laughing. Aziraphale never stands that far away from him!

Luckily for Crowley Aziraphale is very good at forgiveness, and also very much likes it when Crowley takes charge of a situation and thankfully Crowley finally steps up. Whilst Aziraphale worries about what he’s done (look at the tension in his hands) Crowley categorically declares there will be no war and the demons react by listening to him. You can see Aziraphale start to reconnect with Crowley, his eyes flick back to him and then once Shax is up and awake his hands relax and he closes the distance between him and Crowley, angling his body towards him and standing close to him again.

Crowley is going to sort things out and Aziraphale’s faith in him is easily restored, although without doubt it’s suffered some damage underneath.

So what does this all mean? Well, firstly Crowley hurts Aziraphale deeply here and doesn’t realise he’s done it (and this is the second hurt he’s caused him within the space of a few days). Aziraphale forgives him pretty quickly, because Crowley unknowingly repairs things and Aziraphale is so full of love that it will take more than this one transgression to break their bond.

What it does mean though is that Aziraphale has just had a reminder of the demonic nature of demons shoved in his face. Crowley has just hurt him in several different ways in the space of a very short time. I doubt he consciously sees this as demonic because by this point I don’t think he really even thinks of Crowley as a demon on a day to day basis, but I do think he is responding to that hurt in a very human way.

Look, if your partner left you in a sticky situation and told you they would be back immediately and then didn’t turn back up for hours wouldn’t you be pissed off? Even if nothing happened (if Maggie had never let the demons in for example) you’d still have a few things to say about your partner’s hours of absence – yes, even if they had just unveiled a huge clue about why the whole situation was happening in the first place. That wouldn’t undo all your thoughts about how they let you down really badly and left you on your own in a terrible situation.

Another issue is Shax’s demonic nature – specifically how Shax has hurt him during the attack on the bookshop. If Crowley had been there there’s no way Shax would have had even half a second to get in her jibes to Aziraphale, but he’s not there and Shax gets her chance. What she does is play on Aziraphale’s fears about Crowley’s feelings for him (right at a time when Crowley is letting him down) and also remind Aziraphale of some of the ways in which he is a less-than-stella angel (as a side note I find it really interesting that Shax seems to have this ability to look at people and see their worst fears about themselves – do all demons have that or does every demon have a slightly different ‘power’?) So now Aziraphale has been let down by Crowley, which has directly led to Shax hurting him, and had his worst fears about his own nature brought to the forefront of his mind.

He’s been let down, mocked and emotionally wounded, and he goes into the conversation with the Metatron carrying that hurt, only to hear the Metatron singing his praises and telling him he’s, “the perfect angel for the job”. The Metatron deliberately soothes Aziraphale’s worst fears about himself in order to manipulate him. I’m not saying Aziraphale doesn’t see through it or that he is completely taken in by it or that this is his motivation for accepting the job, I think there’s more to it than that, but well… something to think about?

Mainly though, Crowley acts in a bit of a daft way here. His jaunt to heaven is funny and useful for moving the mystery along, but in terms of his relationship with Aziraphale it's an absolute disaster of a move. I'd want the "I was wrong" dance as an apology for that one if it was me. Just saying.

[theravenmuse]

[Crowley notices that Aziraphale has inexplicably swapped out his shoelaces for a set that are aggressively rainbow colored]

Crowley: Making another wardrobe change already, angel? It’s only been, what, 150 years or so?

Aziraphale: Oh? Do you like my shoelaces?

Crowley: I do, yeah.

Aziraphale: Thank you. I stole them from the president.

Crowley: What?

Azirpahale: What?

[mrghostrat]

ceo / assistant au is set in the 90s btw

i gave crowley a blackberry before googling that the first one came out in 2002 😔 BUT. pager crowley. palm pilot crowley. deciphering and organising aziraphale’s slew of handwritten daily planners. high waisted as fuck jeans that make azirpahale’s brain screech like a dial up modem the first time he sees crowley in casualwear. aziraphale’s white 1995 bentley that crowley chauffeurs him around in 👏 do you see my vision

[phantomram-b00]

So my mom finally finished, now she understand the pain like the rest of us but she called Aziraphale an asshole noooo

(Also she finally realize they love each other, but not until Uriel called Crowley his boyfriend meaning she finally got it until episode five. So yay! She hate that there only 6 episode. But she overall love it)

[goodomensjail]

Contextualizing the finale fight with episode 1 fight

The “I wont help you with Gabriel” and the “I wont return to heaven with you” fights share some important beats.

The first shows us a typical way these fights go down:

Aziraphale presents something he wants Crowley to do innocently and sweetly

he meets resistance from Crowley

he pleads “no, I would like you to help me” in a bit of a whine

He pouts “but if you won’t, you won’t” and “then you’re free to go”

Crowley storms out moodily

Aziraphale waits all pouty for Crowley to return and apologize and help him / save him like he always does

Crowley comes back and apologizes and Azirapahale gets his way

So in the “every” fight there are similar beats:

Aziraphale offers angelic status and heaven to Crowley with so much glee

Crowley resists, giving his reasons and laying out an alternative

Aziraphale’s offer is rejected and he starts the pleading phase “come with me, we can be together, I NEED you”

Aziraphale moves into the pouting phase “I don’t think you know what I’m offering you here” and especially “then there’s nothing more to say” (gawd even the delivery and the looking away from Crowley reminds me of the “then you wont”)

But this time Crowley doesn’t storm out to be angry before eventually giving in. Instead he holds his ground and shows Aziraphale that this is different, he gives one last show of what Aziraphale is giving up by not budging: “we COULD HAVE been us”, by putting it in the past he is taking the offer off the table, he kisses him in the last ditch effort to show him.

Azirpahale says “I forgive you”, a dark and sad mirror of the apology dance, offering the forgiveness to an apology that crowley is not offering. Crowley will NOT be apologizing. “Don’t bother” And he doesn’t storm off in anger. He walks out in resolute dejection. He is resolute to hold this boundary, and is offering Azirpahale the chance to apologize and join him, he doesn’t drive off until Aziraphale closes the elevator door.

Episode 1 perfectly sets up the conflict: the pre fall flash back showing Aziraphale’s infatuation with Angel Crowley. The fight and apology “dance” putting the “dance they do with each other” into a literal form. Ending in episode 6 where Crowley refuses to dance, metaphorically and literally.

[moonyinpisces]

do u think crowleys more of a “i don’t kill kids except if the kid’s a dick” kind of guy

verifiably yeah. like if you take anything away from good omens s1, it should be that