#captainfantasticalright

[shaylogic]

Season 2 Predictions: Niko, Charles & Monty in the Neitherlands ; Niko & Charles' Parents

Borrowing this shot direct from @captainfantasticalright's fantastic Niko costume design breakdown post

Aurora Borealis is often associated with folklore about spirits travelling the sky.

Highlighted excerpt above from here.

In the Toby Litt/Mark Buckingham comics, the Neitherlands are a place between life and death, shown with bird bone snow (I have a theory we will see Monty bump into Niko again in season 2 in the Neitherlands like when they first met).

There's no Niko in the comics, but the combination of Hana & Rosa proxy over to Niko in the show.

Charles saves Rosa from the Neitherlands in the comics.

Charles and Niko are both shown foreshadowed with the bear, probably an allusion to Nanuk.

Walrus = Mick => Niko's costume design parka in the last scene

Aurora Borealis => Spirits of the Dead

I also have a theory that one of Charles' parents will die in season 2 and he'll see them there, like Niko will see her dad

I have a much more in-depth post on my theories about Season 2 and Afterlife Worldbuilding here.

And here's my theory on Charles' parents in season 2, based off of comic book parallels to the show that I've picked up on.

Update 1: Here's a post on some afterlife lore I scanned from a J Non-Fic book called "An Atlas of Afterlives"

Update 2: George Rexstrew Cameo reading the last two stanzas of "Sack of the Gods" by Rudyard Kipling (the last stanza of which was read in episode 1 of season 1). He did this cameo on the last day, before people could ask followup questions (and later in the week when he would have had time to get permission from higher-ups to drop hints?)

Update 3: George posted a vid of the Collar Scene with the caption "As long as the red Earth rolls <3"

Update 4: George Rexstrew Cameo where someone asked about DBD International Cases (season 1 already was in America vs London) and GEORGE ANSWERED JAPAN (Niko family lore).

[captainfantasticalright]

sorry if this is a weird question, but is your blog name supposed to be ‘fantastic alright’ or ‘fantastical right’??

Not a weird question at all and always happy to reply! It gives me a chance to talk about my favorite musician: Elton John.

The username is “captain fantastic” and then followed by “alright”. Hope you don’t mind me blabbering as to why that is, but I originally only wanted the captain fantastic because of Elton John’s album “Captain Fantastic and the Brown Dirt Cowboy”. Weirdly enough, it is not my favorite album of his, but I have always loved the backstory of why it was named Captain Fantastic.

It was the record that Elton would go on to describe as one of – if not the – finest he’d made to that point. And, after its release, on May 19, 1975, it became his first album to enter the American chart at No.1 .John and Taupin wrote Captain Fantastic…, unusually, in chronological order, in the sequence in which the songs appeared. It is basically an autobiographical album and Captain Fantastic is Elton John and the Brown Dirt Cowboy is Bernie Taupin, the genius lyricist behind almost all of his songs. It details the rough beginning, the rough middle and just a journey of self discovery and rising to fame amongst the chaos and poor choices.

And because the original username I wanted was taken, I still wanted to have something entirely dedicated to Elton John. At the time, the song that I thought would fit better with this was “Saturday night’s alright for Fighting”. And because the alright is very highlighted in the song, I thought it would be a nice one to add because when you say the name out loud it should have a sing songy quality to it. (At least in my brain it does). :)

[fuckyeahgoodomens]

Good Omens graphic novel update: January 2024 ❤ 🐍😊

A toast to the new year, courtesy of your favourite angel and demon. Let’s start off 2024 with a preview of some new artwork from the Loot Packs, this time courtesy of Mark Buckingham: 

Our updates will, naturally, become more packed as the year goes on, and for January it’s a fairly swift one, but we promise from here in, there will be lots to cover. 

An update from Colleen

For those of you who missed it, Colleen Doran, our ineffable artist, has posted an update over on Substack detailing her 2023 working on the graphic novel, but also her own journey with various health issues and looking ahead to 2024. As she mentions, but it is worth reiterating: the Good Omens HQ team sends all the good wishes and support to Colleen, now publicly as we had previously done privately. The graphic novel is more than worth the wait. You can read Colleen's full post here.

Some admin...

Final reminder: Cameos 

Thanks to everyone who has submitted their photos. We’ve collated everyone’s excellent pictures for the various tier levels and been in touch if there are any issues, but we have to issue a final reminder for those who backed a cameo tier and have yet to submit. We have sent several individual chases to anyone outstanding and we want to make sure everyone who backed the tier gets their cameo. A final deadline of Friday 9th February 2024 has been set; while we will share any images submitted with Colleen beyond then, with the graphic novel significantly underway, we cannot guarantee inclusion beyond the deadline. 

Addresses

We’ve been messaged a lot about this, so to put minds at ease: we’ve not yet asked for addresses, and this will be done via PledgeManager when it launches later in the year. If you’re moving house, or have moved since backing, don’t worry! All is fine, and can be updated down the road. If you’d like to add more items, this will also be possible there. We’ll notify backers when it’s live, but you can also sign up for an update from PledgeManager if you’d like. 

A Masterful Masterpost

If you'd like to dive more into the behind the scenes of the graphic novel, there's a great masterpost to check out courtesy of @captainfantasticalright. You can view that on Tumblr and TikTok.

Pins? Pins! 

We’ve heard you asking for updates beyond the pins and while we’re working on getting a number of the items to the final stages for production and photographing to share with you, and plan to have some for next month’s update (wait until you see the socks that have just arrived), we’re not quite there yet. So, for those fans of “how many times can you say pins in an update”, here’s a first look at the bookshop pin from the mystery pin packs:

Pins are being notoriously shiny in photos, but exciting nonetheless. Here’s the first(!) delivery of pins that have arrived at GOHQ: 

Safe to say, we have a lot of pins. How many times have we said pins so far? One more for good measure: pins. 

A surprise!

(x) Until next time. 

[sayuri-of-the-valley]

Let's remind the world that Good Omens is Terry's too. It's MOSTLY Terry's, even.

Terry was taken from us way too soon. Let's not allow his last wish and last story to suffer the consequences of one man's actions. Terry had nothing to do with them.

Let's finish this for Terry.

Tweet by the amazing @captainfantasticalright

[dduane]

Of parsnips and parsnip soup

So the question of parsnips, and particularly parsnip soup, came up secondary to this quote from an interview with Terry Pratchett. (Thanks to @captainfantasticalright for the transcription.)

Terry: “You can usually bet, and I’m sure Neil Gaiman would say the same thing, that, uh, if I go into a bookstore to do a signing and someone presents me with three books, the chances are that one of them is going to be a very battered copy of Good Omens; and it will smell as if it’s been dropped in parsnip soup or something in and it’s gone fluffy and crinkly around the edges and they’ll admit that it’s the fourth copy they’ve bought”.

And when @petermorwood saw this, he immediately reblogged it and added four recipes for parsnip soup.

These kind of surprised some folks, as not everybody knew that parsnips were an actual thing: or if they were, what they looked like or were useful for.

The vegetable may well be better known on this side of the Atlantic. (And I have to confess that as a New Yorker and Manhattanite, with access to both great outdoor food markets and some of the best grocery stores in the world, I don't think that parsnips ever came up on my personal radar while I was living there.) So I thought I'd take a moment to lay out some basics for those who'd like to get to know the vegetable better.

The parsnip's Linnaean/botanical name is Pastinaca sativa, and in the culinary mode it's been around for a long time. It's native to Eurasia, and is a relative to parsley and carrots (with which it's frequently paired in the UK and Ireland). The Romans cultivated it, and it spread all over the place from there. Travelers who passed through our own neck of the woods before the introduction of the potato noted that "the Irish do feed much upon parsnips", and in the local diet it filled a lot of the niches that the potato now occupies.

You can do all kinds of things with parsnips. The Wikipedia article says, correctly, that they can be "baked, boiled, pureed, roasted, fried, grilled, or steamed". But probably the commonest food form in which parsnips turn up around here is steamed or simmered with carrots and then mashed with them: so that you can buy carrot-and-parsnip mash, ready-made, in most of our local grocery chains.

It also has to be mentioned that most Irish kids have had this stuff foisted on them at one point or another, and a lot of them hate it. (@petermorwood would be one.) I find it hard to blame anybody for this opinion, as one of the parsnip's great selling points—its spicy, almost peppery quality—gets almost completely wiped out by the carrot's more dominant flavor and sweetness.

Roasting parsnips, though, is another matter entirely. They roast really well. And parsnip soups are another story entirely, as it's possible to build a soup that will emphasize the parsnip's virtues.

So, to add to Peter's collection, here's one I made earlier—like yesterday afternoon, stopping the cooking sort of halfway and finishing it up today.

I was thinking in a vague medioregnic-food way about a soup with roasted bacon in it, but not with potatoes (as those have been disallowed from the Middle Kingdoms for reasons discussed elsewhere. Tl;dr: it's Sean Astin's fault). And finally I thought, "Okay, if we're going to roast some pork belly or back bacon, then why not save some energy and roast some parsnips too? The browned skins'll help keep them from going to mush in the soup."

So: first find your parsnips. I used four of them. You peel them with a potato peeler...

...sort of roughly quarter them, the long way...

...then chop them in half the short way, toss them in a bowl with some oil—olive oil, in this case—spread them on a baking sheet, and season them with pepper, coarse salt, and some chile flakes. (I used ancho and bird's-eye chile flakes here.)

These then went into the oven for about half an hour, and came out like this.

While that was going on, I got a block of ready-cooked Polish snack bacon out of the freezer.

On its home turf, this is the kind of thing that turns up (among other ways) sliced very thin on afternoon-snack plates, with cheeses and breads. But we like to score it and roast it to sweat some of the fat out, and then use it in soups and stews and so forth.

So I scored this chunk on most of its sides, browned it in a skillet, then shoved the skillet into the oven for twenty minutes or so. Here's the bacon after it was done.

While it was cooking, I made about a liter of soup stock from a couple of stock cubes. If you can get pork stock cubes, they'd be best for this, but beef works fine.

This then went into the pot and was brought up to just-boiling while the bacon and the parsnips were chopped into more or less bite-sized chunks. After that, the meat and veg were added to the pot and the whole business was left to simmer for a couple of hours while I went off to do some line editing.

Finally I turned it off and left it on the stove overnight (our kitchen is quite cool, it was in no bacteriological danger from being left out this way) and then finished its simmering time around lunchtime today.

And here it is. (...Or was. It was very nice.)

...Anyway, this is only one of potentially thousands of takes on parsnip soup. Recipes for more robust versions—based on mashed parsnips and more vegetables, or different meats—are all over the place.

Meanwhile, as regards how much damage this soup could do to your copy of Good Omens if you dropped yours in it, I'd rate this at about 5 damage points out of 10. ...Call it 5.5 if you factor in the chiles. Soups along the boiled-and-mashed-parsnip spectrum would probably inflict damage more in the 7.50-8.0 range. But your results may vary: so I'll leave you all to your own experimentation.

[nocturnalnewsiestrash]

psst. morgan. do you have any dbd blogs you recommend? they can be multifandom, i just wanna follow more people with the same brainrot

Hi Molly! Yes I have many, hopefully i didn't forget some of them. Okay this is going to be a long list of all the ones I love and follow and/or are mutuals with:

@neurodivergent-fangirling

@its-about-the-acethetic

@offspring-of-calliope

@archive-offspring-of-calliope

@alittleannihilati0n @cosmosinfinity23

@toomanyfandomsstuff

@libertyeveningsun @emeriart

@shaylogic @pinklemonslices

@idliketobeatree @tragedy-machine

@screechwhisper @thesecondcharlie

@niko-sasaki-dbd @kickingtheladder

@lesbiannieism @shanleenkinnjaskey

@virgilphobic @that-ineffable-devil

@captainfantasticalright @wishfuldeity

@likemmmcookies @sthilarions

@coloursflyaway @shamelessly-obsessed

@naruthirnith @ethan-elliott

@0pure-insanity0 @detectivewatson

@livrere-green @stonehenge-asexual

And I KNOW there are a few of my long held mutuals that also got into the dbda fandom that I'm forgetting to mention because i can't keep track of which ones get into which fandoms after so long :/

But yeah here's some I hope this helps you find some new DBDA blogs!

[that-trans-autistic-guy]

i saw these awhile ago but didn't think about sending them to you til now. they have a lot of useful stuff you can quietly engrain into stories/i just find interesting, so I recommend just following them to see everything they dissect about the series (they've done a lot!). i'm happy i can help :D

https://www.tumblr.com/captainfantasticalright/749955086898380800/edwin-payne-and-his-edwardian-clothes-a-breakdown?source=share

https://www.tumblr.com/captainfantasticalright/750137070169866240/charles-rowland-an-outfit-analysis-i-had?source=share

https://www.tumblr.com/captainfantasticalright/749503866774732800/the-patches-and-pins-on-charles-rowlands-coat-i?source=share

https://www.tumblr.com/captainfantasticalright/750624948017676288/the-dead-boy-detectives-and-their-board-games-in?source=share

-🧃🪡

omg ive seen these before! they are so cool and i def need to reread them

[rillils]

actually sobbing rn

WHAT DO I DO RILS

(@ captainfantasticalright on tiktok 💕💕)

I JUST LOVE THEM SO MUCH OKAY 😭😭😭

(terry, my dear angel 😭😭😭)

oh my god 😭😭 I had never seen the two bottom pics, but they're so perfect omg 😭😭😭💕💕💕💕 TERRY FHSFJFKD 😭😭

hold me pls, I'm feeling emotional and fragile rn

[p4nishers]

is there any masterposts on easter eggs or some analysis on good omens s1?

im rewatching it and i want to be more aware of the little hidden things

idk if there's one on tumblr but u should check out @/captainfantasticalright on tiktok they have a bunch of videos on different easter eggs.

[captainfantasticalright]

Is your moniker Captain Fantastical right or Captain Fantastic alright?

I am so so happy you asked about this because it’s “Captain Fantastic” “alright”. And the reason is: I love Elton John and originally I wanted to be only Captain Fantastic because of his album, but that was taken. So I thought I could join it with another Elton song, namely “Saturday night’s alright for fighting”- so that’s the origin of the whole thing. Keeping it rocketman :)

[shaylogic]

Transcription of the "Layers of Hell" from Edwin's notebook:

Title: Layers of Hell

Illustration of descending levels, to be described with each level transcribed.

Right side of page divides "Upper Hell" and "Lower Hell" (both roughly 4-5 floors)

Left side of page labeling the levels:

Vestibule: Endless(?) Staircase [illustration: spiralling stairs as the top level]

I. Limbo [stick figures stuck in hotel lobby]

II. Lust [stick figures writhing together in a butchershop, hooks and blood dripping down walls shown]

III. Gluttony [stick figures binging and purging food]

IV. Avarice [stick figures seemingly pushing boulders back and forth] Notes to the right: "heavy [workers/laborers(?)], everyone in your way"

V. Wrath [stick figures swept up in what look like currents] Personal note of transcriber: I looked up notes on Dante's version to get a better idea of this, and I quote "Note how the two groups suffer different punishments appropriate to their type of anger--the wrathful ruthlessly attacking one another and the sullen stewing below the surface of the muddy swamp (Inf. 7.109-26)". Link to source.

VI. Heresy [stick figures that appear to be seated around office tables, or perhaps are laying on sacrificial tables? Possibly graves/tombs. I'm afraid this one seems unclear to me.] Personal note of transcriber: I looked up more notes from the same source website as before, and I quote "Dante opts for the most generic conception of heresy--the denial of the soul's immortality (Inf. 10.15)--perhaps in deference to spiritual and philosophical positions of specific characters he wishes to feature here, or perhaps for the opportunity to present an especially effective form of contrapasso: heretical souls eternally tormented in fiery tombs." Link to new source page.

VII. Violence (8-10 subsections are listed for this level, but they are small and illegible) [figures in a flood of blood or being impaled on the sides of the level illustration] Edwin's notes to the right: "trapped, impaled, submerged in blood"

VIII. Fraud [large level depicting giant snakes, dripping blood that reflects Lust's illustration, figures, and something else I can't make out (jutting outcroppings of stone, wings, hands? I am unsure.)] Edwin's notes to the right: "snake pit, gain human form by biting other humans"

IX. Treachery [figures submerged with only head above surface] Edwin's notes to the right: "frozen + stuck + chewed on"

At the very bottom of the page and levels of hell is an enormous creature that appears to be something like a dragon emerging from a dark pit.

[shaylogic]

Messy Masterpost: I don't have the words so here's a mess of links and ideas

@captainfantasticalright's Dead Boy Detectives: a breakdown of Dante's hell. This post is a masterpiece of understanding how the Hell/afterlife dynamics work in Sandman Universe and DBDA, and it's sent my mind buzzing like crazy

My post about Simon's book

Not just any book

Theory about Simon's brother/father? Being a part of Burgess' Cult ("Order of Ancient Mysteries")

Thank you @niko-sasaki-dbd

Ba'al ==> Sa'al

Seems like Simon may have gotten a demon-summoning book that worked from his brother who may have been involved on Burgess' cult from Sandman. He died with book in hand, and that's the one he's tearing apart on repeat in Hell. Tumblr user listed above identified what the book might be, based off the image.

This interview at 12:52 George Rexstrew answering that Edwin's favorite thing about Charles is his unconditional love and acceptance of him.

Post about Charles bearing his soul to the Night Nurse like Orpheus played music to Cerberus

Interviewer talking about "straight friend" Charles "rejecting" gay Edwin, only for George, Jayden, Beth, and Steve to stiffen up slightly. Asking about how Charles didn't have a gay panic reaction to Edwin's confession. This interviewer is actually gay and interviewed on a gay network later, which threw me after this question.

=>If Charles had really gay panic rejected Edwin, it really would have ended like Eurydice, thrust back to the pit of Hell to wallow in the internalized homophobia, rather than being released with the support and healthy love of Charles.

Actors have reiterated multiple times that the case is not closed on Edwin and Charles' romance, they're just getting started and figuring it out in the midst of all the chaos.

People are stuck in Hell because they believe they belong there but Edwin gets out the second time because Charles KNOWS he doesn't belong there! And reminds Edwin of this when he's getting pulled under in it all

Charles went back to his red polo after the confession and escaping Hell with @nerdytacollama's excellent addition on episode 7 specifically!!

Edwin's whole arc was about accepting loving and being loved and his attraction to men, and his love of his best friend, specifically

Steve Yockey saying the confession NEEDED to happen on the stairs out of Hell. One reason being that Edwin may have been too afraid to go through with it after, another being that he could get dragged away forever at any second and it could be his last chance.

[above article pic quote from this]

But also based on the Hell worldbuilding of the Sandman Universe where people only go to hell if they believe in it and believe they deserve to be there > Edwin believing his want for intimacy at all letalone with other men being "such a sinful life" (Night Nurse paperwork) > the upward climb of healthy love from the Dante's Inferno Post > Edwin HAD to confess on the stairs and be accepted! It freed him of Hell~!

Simon moved on from Hell with Edwin's mutual sorrow for the two of them and somewhat understanding/forgiveness? Maybe self-acceptance from the gay guilt

Edwin's form saying he would serve in Hell for living such a sinful life and then be reassigned to a more pleasant state (Hell not an eternal afterlife, just time served and then moving one)

[image posted in @reviewcreature's post with @melefim's addition]

If Edwin went back now, loved and accepted by his friends and himself, would he pass on to the better place?

My post wondering about reincarnation in the Sandman Universe, which others weighed in on in the comments about how it's indeed canon

The parallels of the Lust room in hell being a butcher shop with bloody hanging bodies to reflect the debauchery of bloody writhing lust bodies ===> compare to "Girls' Night" when Jenny was running and hiding from stalker Maxine in her butcher shop behind meat ===> compare Edwin's arc of accepting "sodomite sin" of being attracted to men (challenge to the epitome and catalyst (ha) by the Cat King) and him having been through the Lust room of hell before and him STARING AT THE RED BULL ON THE BUTCHER SHOP WALL (as compared to directly in the first linked post)

The purity of Charles and Edwin's love compared to that and the stereotypes of how male love is depicted in media, as George, Steve, and Jayden have spoken out against gently in multiple interviews

How it's partially childlike, partially deep friendship where two men can hug and cry, partially a crush, partially potentially reciprocally romantic

The juxtaposition of Edwin's archetypical confession to Charles on the stairs of Hell on the way out of the Limbo of it, with Maxine guilty and desperate just below them, not even looking toward the open door

Fans wondering why it was so easy to get out of Hell. The worldbuilding canon saying that Hell is what you make of it (Charles says this in the original Season of Mists Ch 4 comic, Edwin says it in episode 7 to Simon). People in Hell stuck because they feel they deserve it.

@podcastenthusiast's post about being glad Edwin didn't see Simon move on, because then he'd really wonder we he himself suffered so long

==>CHARLES got Edwin out because he KNEW he didn't belong there!!!!

They push and pull each other by the arms the whole way to the top!!!!!!!

Magical weight in the snake pit "nothing's meant to leave this place"

Charles literally dragging Edwin out of Hell for the love and devotion to him!!!!!!!!!!!!

Allegory of dragging him out of his self-rejection and holding him by the face saying over and over "I love you. I accept you. I'm not leaving without you."

Openly gay producer/director Steve Yockey insisting on being the one to write Episode 7 and you can feel it in every color on the screen.

There's no higher power deciding this, despite the paperwork and minders ensuring everyone is sorted. It's an internal self-decided fate, unconscious.

I'm not gonna be able to link and list every pic and organize this in the state I'm in but--

ARE YOU SEEING ALL THE THINGS I'M SEEING?

Girl help I'm getting visions!!!!!!!!!!!!

[shaylogic]

There's Something in the Water = Demons

"You're LYING" ~Crystal, Episode 7 He created a portal [to Hell?]!!!

Crystal, girl, you need to learn some demonology and get David's real name. He's some kind of aquatic-based demon. Some sort of brown fish based off Kelli Dunmore's costume Design.

Cat King and Monty had designs based off their animals. Even Esther FINCH had Finch-colored costumes.

@captainfantasticalright has god-tier posts on all the characters' costume designs. Here's the post on Crystal.

I've been noticing Crystal wears lots of brown, which seems to be the demon's color. You especially see these in relevant scenes with the demon, like when she's exorcised and wearing brown shorts.

She's got brown overalls on her hero color purple shirt when she confronts and buries David.

She also has a brown (demon) letterman jacket (reference to Charles' Harrington jacket -- in a boyfriend jacket vibe?) on with a hem that has burgundy/yellow-stripes (like Charles' collar). This is during the episode when she banished David from her head. She's still wrapped up in the concern of him.

Crystal similarly has the red and white stripe hem in ep 4 (with blue jacket to rep Edwin after she bonded with him in the Devlin house). I made a brief post on this here. Here's the image from it:

The demon's name is not David.

That's the human's name.

ALSO ON KELLI DUNSMORE'S WEBSITE she has pics of her work, including the costumes on Dead Boy Detectives, and she had THIS PICTURE FOR SOME REASON

Not really showing the costume design well in this shot that we NEVER SAW IN THE SHOW! Is this a deleted scene!?

I THINK THIS IS HUMAN!DAVID GETTING POSSESSED!!!!

In season 2, Crystal will need to learn the demon's True Name to banish him like Johanna Constantine did in Sandman.

What are we thinking this bitch looks like in his true form?

[captainfantasticalright]

https://www.tumblr.com/captainfantasticalright/749996246504226816/the-post-about-edwins-clothes-was-very?source=share

OH MY GOD YOU'RE DOING SUCH A GREAT JOB!!! i haven't seen the post about pins till your answer but i wanted to know about these pins through the whole show! you opened a secret to me c:

beautiful last post about Charles! loved the orange colour palette and info is very interesting. i'm so glad that you're in this fandom :D

have a great day, you're lovely!

This is absolutely lovely. Thank you so much!!

Ever since I saw the first pictures of DBD, I became obsessed with the pins and just had to write about them. I am so, so happy that you liked the orange background!!

These two have been such a blessing lately.