#good omens lockdown special

[unseeliefaerie]

Noticed a pattern of Crowley reaching out to Aziraphale and Aziraphale rejecting him and now I'm sad

Bonus (Spoilers for Season 2!)

In the face of all that, Crowley is so brave for this

[sprintingfish]

OP You need to see this. I feel it will rock your world! https://youtu.be/quSXoj8Kob0?si=z2YYoRYomn7Bw_FO

✏️ Talent 🗒️

What would Crowley say if he saw Aziraphale had some neat drawing skills??? If they ever actually sit down so Aziraphale can draw him, I'm pretty certain Crowley is just going to blush so hard he'll pass out eventually.

[worrynoodle]

I had a dream where Good Omens released a lil video like they did for lockdown. I don't remember what it was but I think I remember Crowley taking off his chain necklace and giving it to Adam.

Am I prophetic? No.

Am I hopeful? Maybe a little.

We deserve a lil good omens... as a treat.

[lovaboy]

watched the lockdown special again yesterday… if it’s true that crowley’s living in his car at this point it makes this exchange just the fucking worst, man. his disappointed little sigh after aziraphale turns him down :( and then the fact that he says he’s setting the alarm for june at the beginning of the call but then changes it to july after getting turned down?? truly sick and twisted

[dott-de-la-torre]

Wait but if he was evicted, does that mean that Crowley spent the pandemic locked in his car? 💀

No wonder he wanted to stay with Aziraphale so badly

[ashke-e]

Old one, but for me new one. Yep, I'm diggin' in Good Omens' fics. The offspring of my beloved story are so... sweet <3 I'm slowly getting around to cataloging my favorite authors (one of them above) and the stories I would like to return to. I still wonder where I would end up with my fixation without ao3. Perfect lightning rod.

Modern Problems Require Modern Solutions

The two-day deadline he’d set for himself was nearly up, and Aziraphale hadn’t called again.

It wasn’t like he’d been obsessively checking the time or anything, cross referencing it to the exact hour that Aziraphale had dialed him what seemed like years ago. He was just— staying aware. Keeping his phone on him at all times. In the atrium, misting the plants; in the office, rearranging his  precious keepsakes; sprawled out in front of the television, clicking through channels and retaining absolutely nothing.

He knew what it was about. In a time of crisis, nothing comforted Aziraphale more than learning the rules and abiding strictly by them. If he tried to force his way in, tempt and cajole and convince, it would all collapse like one of the angel’s awful magic tricks, complete with all the full-body embarrassment that implied.

No, there would be no slithering over. Aziraphale was having fun by himself. An unbelievable amount of fun, by the sound of it. This was paradise for introverts like the angel; what right did Crowley have to saunter in and bring it all crashing down? 

He had a tendency to do that with paradises, historically speaking.

Fuck, two days. Why the hell had he given himself two whole days? He shouldn’t have even bothered. It was hopeless, clearly.

Three hours to go, now. The angel might well be dithering and pacing and fretting a mile away in his cozy, closed, bookshop, but Crowley knew it wouldn’t make a difference in the end. Crowley might as well go to sleep now, get it over with, fast-forward to August when the whole thing was over— when Aziraphale said he’d see him again. He had said that, right? It hadn’t just been Crowley’s brain, proffering up a hopeful hallucination in a time of great need.

With a snap of his fingers, Crowley was clothed in a slinky black silk dressing gown with red piping, open in a deep V at the chest and trailing elegantly on the floor.

His bed was calling. He could practically feel the deep luxury of his enormously expensive mattress and just-cheap-enough sheets* already sending goosebumps of tactile pleasure up his limbs. Did the bookshop have these accommodations? No. Definitely no. Decidedly no. Positively no. So it was a good thing, then, that Aziraphale hadn’t called. Absolutely a good thing.

As he walked to the bed, Crowley caught a glimpse of himself in his gilt-framed full-length mirror. Damn, he looked good. He’d been growing his hair out for a few months now, and it fell to just above his shoulders now in perfect red waves. Combined with the black silk, the effect was pure glamour.

Pity the angel wasn’t around to see it. “Your loss,” Crowley muttered, as he pulled his phone out of his dressing gown pocket, and began to snap a series of truly daring mirror selfies. Leg out, leg in. Hips this way, hips that way. Angle, angle, different angle— yeah, that’s the stuff—

And then his phone lit up.

“What—?!”

It was Aziraphale calling. Except, no, he wasn’t calling— it said— how could it say—

He pressed the answer button so hard he nearly cracked the phone screen. “Aziraphale, are you FaceTiming me?”

“Oh, Crowley! I can see you!”

“Yes, that’s the blessed point.”

“But it’s wonderful! And you look— oh, good lord.”

Crowley was, against his better judgement, holding his phone far enough out so that Aziraphale could get a better view. He could see, in every HD pixel, the flush building on the angel’s cheeks as he took it all in. This was dangerous territory. 

“No, hold on,” he said, “you don’t even own an iPhone. Or a cell phone at all. Or a webcam, so how are you doing this?”

“I don’t know about any of that,” said Aziraphale. “I’ve just seen people on the street, you know, video chatting away, so I sat down at my computer and told it to get you on the line, and that I wanted to see your face, and, here we are!”  

Crowley couldn’t rein in his grin at the thought of Aziraphale’s ancient, groaning desktop, being angelically commanded to sprout a webcam and an internet connection and an iOS operating system, purely in service of getting in touch with a demon over a one-mile distance. 

“You really went to all that trouble?” 

“Well, you were bored. You said so. And— oh, I really wouldn’t like to set a bad example by breaking the rules, but— if you slept for that long, I’d… I’d miss you.” 

“Nnh.” Crowley did not dare try to verbalize a response to that.

“And we are rather experts at these sorts of things, aren’t we? Loopholes, arrangements? I thought it would be such a pity if I didn’t even give it a try— for your sake. Is— is that all right?” Aziraphale said. His eyes were now wide with the beginnings of alarm, and it killed Crowley that he couldn’t physically reach out to soothe it all away. 

“It is. It really is. But hold on, gimme a mo, I’ll make it better—” Crowley left his bedroom and went out the living room, where he AirPlayed his phone to the television, blowing Aziraphale’s face up to majestic proportions, like a Chuck Close portrait or a Moai head. 

He propped his phone up below it, keeping the entire living room in frame, and retreated to the sofa, where he recreated the type of graceful limb-drape he so often engaged in at the bookshop. “Howzat, then?” 

“My goodness. It’s like you’re right here in the shop with me!” 

“It’s not,” said Crowley, “but it’ll do, angel. It’ll do just fine.” Very slowly, he lengthened his sprawl, letting a hand casually come up and slide the fabric of his dressing gown away, revealing one tanned thigh, the barest hint of a scallop-edged undergarment beneath.

“For now,” Aziraphale agreed. His eyes were so big on the screen, and getting bigger. He was looking, looking very intently indeed, at the movement of Crowley’s hand, and was that— oh, he most certainly just licked his lips. “Yes, for now— I think it will, my dear.” 

*Because sometimes things that are expensive are worse.

[charlesemersonwinchesteriii]

"You know, I could hunker down at your place. Slither over and watch you eat cake." ⁠ —Crowley to Aziraphale in the Good Omens Lockdown special

[helphowdoiusethis]

How do you not brain rot about good omens?

I have thus friend right? I told them the whole plot of season 1 of good omens on a 2 hour bus journey.

Now today this same friend?

Well, I explained the plot of all three minisodes and the lockdown special and now I'm planning how to say everything about the main plot of season 2. This friend also repeatedly heard about Good Omens season 3 being confirmed.

[good-omens-gallery]

Good Omens Gallery Filter Tags, Pt. 2

This is Part 2 of filtering tags for the @good-omens-gallery. For info about the Gallery. and for Crowley + Aziraphale tags, refer to the Good Omens Gallery Master Post.

C+A Through the Ages

Before the Beginning

The Great War

Eden, 4004 B.C.

The Land of Uz, 2500 B.C.

The Flood

Ancient Egypt

Golgatha, 33 A.D.

Rome, 41 A.D.

Kingdom of Essex, 537 A.D.

1400s

1500s

1600s

Globe Theater, 1601

1700s

Bastille, 1793

1800s

Edinburgh, 1827

St. James Park, 1862

1900s

1920s

Soho, 1941

1960s

Soho, 1967

1970s

1980s

1990s

The Bandstand

Lockdown 2020

Through the Ages (all eras except 1941)

Crossovers & AUs

Crossovers (Good Omens + other media)

AUs (all AUs)

Cowboy AU

Coffee shop AU

Flower/Plant Shop AU

Human AU

Knights AU

Merm AU

Pirate AU

Priest AU

Professor AU

Side Characters

Beelzebub

(the) Bentley

Four Horsemen

Furfur

Gabriel

Hastur

Jesus

Jimbriel

Ligur

Lucifer

Maggie

(the) Metatron

Michael

Nina

Sandalphon

Saraqael

Satan

Shax

Uriel

Ships

Ineffable Bureaucracy (Beelzebub/Gabriel)

Maggot Husbands (Hastur/Ligur)

Vinylatte (Maggie/Nina)

Holidays, Seasons & Special Events

Winter

Spring

Summer

Autumn

All Seasons

New Year

Lunar New Year

Valentine's Day

Pride

Halloween

Christmas

Hanukkah

All Holidays

Good Omens Celebrations (book & show anniversaries, etc.)

All the Omens

Book Omens

Radio Omens

Michael & David

David Tennant fanart

Michael Sheen fanart

Staged fanart

Art by Medium

Fanart (all)

Animatics/music edits

Animation

Gifs

Papercrafts

Embroidery

Clay

Art process videos

Art by Posting Date

Posted before Season 1

Posted Season 1 - Season 2

Posted Season 2 – Season 3

Art by Influence

Art for fic

Art inspired by music

Art inspired by poetry

Famous art recreation

[fuckyeahgoodomens]

Maggie Service interview with Ekaterina Spiridonova for ADAR, July 2024

You starred in the first season of Good Omens. Very soon, Season 2 is coming out, in which Neil Gaiman wrote the role of Maggie especially for you. Wow! Please share your impressions about it.

— Season one was a blast. Even with my having to wear a satanic wimple, glued on eyebrow, moustache and beard hairs and a wart I was in a joyous mood filming it. The first Season felt like a love letter from Neil Gaiman to Terry Pratchett so there was a very special atmosphere on set. I honestly thought it was a stand alone series as we’d told the entire story of the book. So to receive an email from Neil in the middle of lockdown, when I couldn’t imagine a world in which we’d get to work in the creative industry again, saying that he was writing Season two and was writing a part for me called Maggie so that there’d be no confusion in who would be playing her felt very special indeed.

Were there any behind-the-scenes stories on the set of season two that you can tell us about?

— The sets built for the show were magnificent, they built the streets of Soho in a studio in Scotland. Neil and I took a stroll on a break one day and discussed where there was probably an underground bar and what the name of our underground band would be. I reckon we should try and make that a reality one day, it would be pretty epic!

Describe your character Maggie in the new season in 3 words.

— Open. Kind. Loyal.

If you can play any existing character, which one would you like to choose and why?

— Probably Shax who you will meet in season two played by the brilliant Miranda Richardson. She’s funny, scary, silly and edgy.

[invisibleicewands]

Michael Sheen narrates our brand-new show for The Snowman Tour

We are thrilled to announce that Michael Sheen has recorded the narration of The Bear, the Piano, the Dog and the Fiddle for us, ready for its world premiere on The Snowman Tour, 2024.

“I get to tell the story of The Bear, the Piano, the Dog and the Fiddle! It's something that I'm really excited to be a part of; the storytelling by David Litchfield is so rich, and the music that has been composed by Daniel Whibley is incredibly beautiful. To be able to contribute to such a lovely family experience this Christmas brings me a lot of joy.” Michael Sheen

Our Managing Director, Rachel Whibley, explains, "It’s been a joy collaborating with award-winning author-illustrator David Litchfield, award-winning composer (and Carrot Productions' very own Artistic Director) Daniel Whibley, and animator Kevin Francis to bring The Bear, the Piano, the Dog, and the Fiddle to life for our audiences.”

"We are hugely honoured that Michael Sheen agreed to narrate The Bear, the Piano, the Dog and the Fiddle!" Rachel enthuses. "He is a phenomenal actor and an all-round lovely human being, and it has been a privilege to collaborate with him on this project."

Michael recorded the narration last week in a London studio, and we are delighted to be able to share a sneak preview of his beautiful narration alongside the animation and music.

Michael Sheen

Michael is a multi-award-winning Welsh actor and RADA graduate known for his extensive work across film, TV and stage, as well as his charity work. His vast film credits include The Damned United, David Frost in Frost/Nixon, Tony Blair in The Queen, Lucian in the Underworld series, Aro in The Twilight Saga, Woody Allen’s Midnight in Paris, and Apostle.

Michael’s numerous TV credits include The Special Relationship, Masters of Sex, for which he was also a producer, Good Omens, Prodigal Son, Quiz, and Staged - the hit lockdown comedy co-created with David Tennant. Sheen's acclaimed stage performances include Amadeus, Caligula, and Hamlet. Recently, he made his directorial debut with The Way and played Prince Andrew in A Very Royal Scandal. He created, co-directed, and performed in the ground-breaking three-day live event The Passion in Port Talbot for National Theatre Wales.

The Bear and the Piano - the book trilogy

The Bear, the Piano, the Dog and the Fiddle, published in 2018, is the second book in the trilogy created by the multi-award winning illustrator and author, David Litchfield. The original book,The Bear and the Piano, took the world by storm in 2016, winning numerous awards, including Waterstones Children’s Book Prize for the Best Illustrated Book of the year. The final book, The Bear, the Piano, and Little Bear’s Concert published in 2020, sees Bear’s international concert days behind him; now a father, his musical adventures continue closer to home. 

The Bear, the Piano, the Dog and the Fiddle - the story

Set in New Orleans with a new cast of animal musicians, this charming sequel is a story about friendship and perseverance. Hector, a fiddle player, and his dog, Hugo, are best friends. They have made music together through good times, bad times and even some crazy times. Hugo is Hector's biggest fan, and when Hector retires, Hugo secretly learns to play the fiddle himself. But when Hugo gets the chance to play and tour with Bear’s Big Band – an opportunity that Hector had always dreamed of – Hector’s jealousy gets the better of him. Will Hector be able to overcome his own disappointment and learn to be happy for his friend?

This heartfelt tale reminds us that there are many different kinds of success. It celebrates the joy and healing powers of music and friendship, and teaches that friendship, like good music, lasts forever.

David Litchfield - the author and illustrator

David is a multi-award winning illustrator and author. David first started to draw when he was very young, creating Star Wars and Indiana Jones ‘mash up’ comics for his older brother and sister. Since then his work has appeared in magazines, newspapers, books and on T-shirts. He has also exhibited his illustrations in both solo and group shows in the U.K, Europe and America. In addition to The Bear and the Piano trilogy, David’s author/illustrator picture books include Grandad’s Secret Giant, Lights On Cotton Rock, T, and Kid Christmas: Of The Claus Brothers Toyshop. David has illustrated books for authors Ross Montgomery, Gregory Maguire, David Almond and Smriti Halls; Miss Muffet, Or What Came After for Marilyn Singer and book covers for Kate Dicamillo, Neil Patrick Harris, Chloe Daykin and many more. David lives with his family in Bedfordshire, England.

“I am so excited that Carrot Productions are adapting my book 'The Bear, the Piano, the Dog & the Fiddle' for their amazing live performance. Seeing my first book 'The Bear and the Piano' come to life on stage in Carrot's previous shows was one of the highlights of my life and I cannot wait to see what these incredible musicians and storytellers achieve with this new book.” David Litchfield

Daniel Whibley - the composer

Daniel is a composer and arranger whose music is heard live each year by thousands of people across the world, featured on TV and all BBC Radio stations. He was commissioned by Aardman to produce orchestral arrangements for all four Wallace & Gromit films and additional material for Wallace & Gromit and Shaun the Sheep in Concert. He wrote music for the 2023 CBeebies Prom and Mr Tumble’s Special Adventure with the BBC Philharmonic. His Musical Story of the Gingerbread Man has had millions of views, and his 10-part CBeebies series, Musical Storyland, was recently nominated for a Royal Television Society award.

“I’ve relished working alongside animator Kevin Francis to create a brand new score for The Bear, the Piano, the Dog and the Fiddle. Expect some very virtuosic violin playing at the performances!” Daniel Whibley

The Snowman Tour 2024

Carrot Productions are excited to be staging not one, but two world premieres for the 2024 The Snowman Tour. Alongside the screening of The Snowman, we will premiere two films featuring two very special dogs - Hugo the violin-playing dog, and The Snowdog himself.

We will be touring to venues across the country this November and December with two different shows. Choose between:

The Snowman™withThe Snowman and the Snowdog or The Snowman™withThe Bear, the Piano, the Dog and the Fiddle

Our shows feature screenings of the films, accompanied live by full orchestra, together with some other festive musical delights, and even an appearance from the Snowman himself!

You can hear Michael Sheen's charming and evocative narration of The Bear, the Piano, the Dog and the Fiddle at venues including: Stockport, Oldham, Derby, Buxton, Guildford, Birmingham, Liverpool, York and Chester. See listings for details.

“It's been wonderful to collaborate with the creatives at Penguin and author-illustrator David Litchfield to bring these films to life for our audiences.” Rachel Whibley, Managing Director, Carrot Productions

[isaacthedruid]

GOOD OMENS 2 TRAILER

“I’m back” “i can see that”

— Neil mentioned on his tumblr there would be a time skip, roughly the same amount of time has season 1 ended (so maybe about 3-4 time jump?)

Where did Crowley go?

My guess, homie took a long nap that was hinted at in the “Good Omens: Lockdown” special, where Crowley was going to sleep until covid was over and sent his alarm for July… of 2023(?)

BABES!! AZIRAPHALE WAS SALTY, WHERE DID CROWLEY GO TO?

[cottagecore-raccoon]

for the ask game: 2, 5, 8, 22!!!

Hi friend! Thanks for the ask!

2. Do you have any merch?

My aunt bought me Aziraphale's winged mug when she heard I was obsessed with Good Omens! I don't drink out of it all the time (cause it's a pain to wash), but it's the best way to drink hot chocolate :)

5. What is you favorite good omens one-shot?

A fun fact about me is I love stories that deal with intense feelings of guilt and the way other characters interact with that (and hopefully make it better). So if you wanna deal with some delicious guilt complexes, Be a Friend to Your Friend by WitherAndDecay is excellent!

A happier (and smuttier) option is Unexpected, But Long-Awaited by KitCat_Italica! It's a beautiful story of Aziraphale and Crowley's first time together, complete with laughter and a tickle fight!

8. Do you prefer season one or season two and why?

Season one will always have a special place in my heart because I first watched it over lockdown and completely obsessed over the ineffable husbands (back when I thought I was straight and wasn't on Tumblr). It was just such a source of comfort for me during a terrible time, and it had the happy ending I so desperately needed

Season two is delightful, but my goodness does it give me anxiety! Embarrassingly, I have really struggled to watch it all the way through and have had to resort to chunks at a time. I'm sure I'll grow to love it just as much, but something about the interpersonal conflict just makes it way more stressful for me than the literal end of the world in season one

22. What's your favourite Crowley hairstyle through the ages?

Oh absolutely the chin length with the little bun! It's a classic for a reason! (Although any time Crowley presents as a woman my brain fries a little bit)

[pengychan]

Good Omens fic list

Was starting to have more than a couple of Good Omens fics, so I figured it was time to give them their own post to put some order in my main masterlist.

[Full fic masterlist here]

Title: Come What May Link: Tumblr, Ao3 Summary: While completely improvised, Gabriel’s plan to transfer his memories in the container fly before erasure was rather solid. It came very close to working, too. But ‘close’ was not enough. [What-if set during Season 2] Characters: Gabriel, Beelzebub, Crowley, Aziraphale, the Archangels. Ineffable Bureaucracy with Ineffable Husbands on the side. Rating: T Status: In progress

Title: Everyday Link: Tumblr, Ao3 Summary: "Well, it's good to know there's someone who understands. Thank you. It's a pity we'll never speak again." Like many other times before, Gabriel was wrong. Characters: Gabriel, Beelzebub. Rating: K Status: Oneshot, complete

Title: Renunciation Link: Tumblr, Ao3 Summary: Beelzebub's monotonous day in Hell takes a turn when a naked, amnesiac Archangel shows up with a cardboard box and no idea where he is. [Or: Gabriel actually takes the elevator all the way down to Hell at the first try.] Characters: Gabriel, Beelzebub. Rating: K Status: Oneshot, complete

Title: Winging It Link: Tumblr, Ao3 Summary: Shockingly, attempting to destroy an angel without consulting God first comes with consequences. There is more than one way to fall, and a thousand more ways to inconvenience an angel and a demon who just wanted to be left in peace. [Written prior to Season 2] Characters: Gabriel, Beelzebub, Crowley, Aziraphale, the Archangels. Ineffable Bureaucracy with Ineffable Husbands on the side. Rating: T   Status: Complete

Title: Lockdowns and Phone Lines Link: Ao3, Tumblr Summary: Crowley remembers he can move through the phone lines exactly fifty-three seconds after ending the call. [Oneshot, based on the 30th anniversary special.] Characters: Crowley, Aziraphale. Rating: K Status: Complete

[kyokyo866]

You know, with this new info in Good Omens Season 2 about Crowley's been living out of his car the entire time... that makes the Lock Down special a little sadder of he's been going through lockdown and his pandemic naps.... in his car. Asked to come over and Aziraphales like nah but it's not like he knows

Crowley, please...

[du9on9]

Thoughts on Season 2 of Good Omens

I’m writing this little post to explain why I’m so crazy because if you’ve been following my tweets for a few days, you’re probably wondering why this person is so crazy.

I am not an atheist, nor am I a theist. In general, I reserve the idea of God because I recognize that it is a very meaningless exercise. If I had to choose a strict position on God, I would follow the opinion of the recently deceased Jean-Luc Nancy.

“Theism and atheism are just metaphysical symmetrical presuppositions about existence.”

From this premise, I like the phrase “Good Omens” because I think the writers who created them are certainly showing the best humor that people living in a monotheistic-Christian culture are capable of. The Christian dichotomy of the world they created, good and bad, is just a symmetry premise, like the Nancy quote above. Whether a symmetrical premise necessarily establishes an antithesis requires a bit more thought, but in this worldview, there is a strange antithesis. And they express it as bureaucracy. This is a very funny point because by its very nature, bureaucracy is a necessary condition for conflict and a sufficient condition for cooperation. And season 2 completely fulfills this proposition. So bureaucracy is a pretty fun environment and premise to be in, where there is a symmetrical premise of good and bad.

In this symmetry, humans are either marginalized or excluded. And there is an angel, and a former angel, who is confused between these symmetries. Two beings who see the symmetrical premise as a matter of choice…

The reason I thought this series was so unique is because it really speaks to the isolation we’ve been through over the last few years, and how it’s affected people (and why the hell we’ve been so understaffed). From the people who couldn’t pay their rent because the lockdown had just been lifted, to the hellish (dental) masks they wore in case they looked grotesque to others, to the relentless set photography that props up the series, to the actors who were willing to put in the work. I thought it was a (rather blatant) satire like Don’t Look Up until about halfway through (despite the presence of the final sequence in S2E6, all of these attempts stand up pretty well). As I said above, the series uses the symmetrical premise of the time-honored Christian tradition and the entanglement of “bureaucracy” in our reality to create a narrative, which makes it an appropriate series to show the situation and tragedy of our inevitable (or self-imposed) “isolation”. At least, that’s how I felt halfway through.

In the past few years, despite the harshness of the environment, there have been countless works, and the OTT industry has become a strange speciality. The rise of the dual (post-)apocalyptic genre (normal apocalypse is inevitably SF) has been interesting — it’s a great option that has a genre grammar that can be used to express the isolation we’re experiencing (and hopefully make it last), and people have found a lot of empathy and comfort in it. The kind of reassurance that we will be reunited and live and love again. (A number of factors lend themselves to thinking of Season 2 as sci-fi, and Season 1 was a quasi-apocalyptic show.) No other show, at least that I’ve seen, has made the pandemic so tangible.

Recent events aside, isolation is still a valid factor in the pandemic, and in that sense, love has always been effective. How many people and works have screamed over the years that it’s the sense of connection that can break the isolation (whether this message has worked in the real world… I’m not sure). Season 1, released in 2019, was about maximizing the benefits of “visualizing” the original. Everyone was delighted with the (belated) visualization of the Good Omens. At the time, I saw it as a tribute to the work and to the author who passed away. But now season 2 has taken a different turn (*not really a turn, more of a new opportunity to move away from the tribute aspect), pointing to a story about isolation, and a different look at what led to that isolation, which is probably why the pandemic was invoked.

I don’t know what Neil Gaiman intended (it’s a lie, and it’s painfully obvious), but I suspect he has a similar idea to mine: that what matters to humans is not whether there is a God or not, but how religion is practised. The result of the conventionality of religion is not (maybe) blindness, but “unawareness” itself. From beginning to end, (really fucking end!!!!!!) the work provides symmetry, and symmetry is derived from this symmetrical premise.

The repetition of the same group of figures (I wouldn’t go so far as to say they are surrogat of Aziraphael and Crowley), the angelic device of ‘Gabriel’ (ha-ha) and Beelzebub with his ‘face’ switched, the antics of God and Satan over God’s favorite ‘Job’, and the choice of Crowley and Aziraphael to stand between them. Or, the resurrectionist.

The superimposition of seemingly obvious elements all builds to a final moment: at a time when Crowley is feeling ashamed of Gabriel’s oblivion of his interest in the face-swapped Beelzebub (we don’t know why), the impact of the romance between the Archduke of Hell and Heaven’s Supreme fucking Arc Angel Gabriel on Crowley is enormous. This former angel, also the negligent demon was as cunning as a snake. While everyone else was looking on in disbelief at their respective bosses’ bluster, the clever snake saw a definite possibility. Just as they realize the possibility, the two humans they’ve been trying to unite come and whisper to them, “Speak”. There are countless self-replications of the same behavior in the series, such as this one. Like that moment when you fall unconditionally in love when you take shelter from the rain under the eaves, or the voice in Eden that whispered to you, “Desire”. Finally, demons can make up their minds. In fact, listening to the human story probably didn’t make Crowley the demon decide. It was the angel who helped him decide.

“They loved each other so much, and that love blinded them, that they never asked each other how they wanted to be loved.”

I think this is a euphemism because here I already think the power game (discussion) between them is never established in the first place. (More precisely, they can’t ask each other about love.) I re-watched the last sequence many times because I couldn’t believe my eyes. I couldn’t believe my eyes: the loose set-up, elements, and reasoning eventually culminate in the ultimate conflict. It’s not an Armageddon kind of conflict.

The conflict between the two manifests as “bureaucracy” because, by their very nature, they “must” be systems. They are born out of the symmetry premise, they are inevitably part of the system, and by virtue of being part of the system, they are pillars of the ‘structure’. The difference here goes back to the symmetry premise, as one is inherently and necessarily the defender of the system and the other is inherently and again, inherently the questioner/doubter of the system. As I said above, it’s not the presence or absence of a god that matters, but how religion conventionalizes people. In other words, whether or not we are able to recognize the structure itself, and whether or not we are able to detach from it and recognize the whole.

The ‘conventionalization’ of religion is not, strictly speaking, blindness, but ‘unconsciousness’. Therefore, the angel is a structure in itself, in its ‘unconscious’ and ‘unquestionable’ conventionality, and the ‘system’ that recognized the ‘structure’ has gone to hell. Therefore, the crawl is an anomalous system. And this relationship is the expression of bureaucracy. Including the union of the two. Those angels who were there when the pillars of structure created the universe, those angels who saw the possibilities of the universe and thought of other alternatives. But sadly, we know the truth: they are representations of bureaucracy itself, at the end of its symmetry.

When the angel hears Metatron’s offer, he is pleased. If he accepts Metatron’s offer, he can clear the name of the anomaly, the “doubting being,” and reinstate it as a “being” in its own right. That’s a level of authority, a conscious authority. All of this is again anomalous, and according to Metatron, Crowley, who disrupts the “order” with unnecessary questions, is unable to determine Aziraphael’s true intentions. This is true of Aziraphael as well. Whether or not Aziraphael can actually do it, it is not easy to change the structure within a bureaucracy represented by a structure. A witness to this is Crowley. But the ‘unsuspecting’ angel dares to change the structure because he loves him so much, and because that love can never be ‘wrong’. There is a wall here. An insurmountable wall between the seemingly romantic phrase “they love each other so much that it blinds them, so they never ask how they want to be loved”… Actually, this proposition is derived from the symmetry premise above. A wall between those who cannot be wrong and those who are made to be wrong. It is therefore (I dare say) inevitable that they should fall in love. For combinations of signs become ‘symbols’, and they manifest themselves in certain ‘omens’.

It was a very long story. The reason I have to tell this story so long is because I have seen possibilities in the faces of angels and in the faces of devils. If I had to name the greatest discovery or invention since the beginning of the history of video, I’d say it’s the close-up. Without having to explain the word close-up, the greatest thinkers have rallied around a concept that fills everyone’s minds. We can record human trembling!

After hearing Metatron’s proposal, the angel can’t contain his excitement. Metatron says, “Tell this story to your friends”. Aziraphael runs (emotionally). Crowley has been preparing the ‘confession’. Before the confession can take place, Aziraphael spits out an excited, almost confessional, praise of God. “Only, even nicer!” says Aziraphael in exultation. The matter of the unquestioning lottery. Was Crowley “conscious” of authority here? He asks again and again if The angel said no to Metatron’s offer.

We could have been us.

Crowley has a momentary flashback. Tears well up in his eyes… He’s in tears. At this point, Aziraphael falls into chaos. The close-up is an achievement, as we can see his fluttering pupils and quivering eyelids.

The confession is torn between disappointment and impossibility. Crowley ‘revisits’ the possibility that he has long sought but (ironically) never reached, only now, in the face of complete impossibility. Like their bosses, we can do it too. Like their bosses, we can do it too. Even when the love in front of him has taught him that ‘nothing lasts forever’, the desire never dies, but it surrenders (approaches) to a certain authority, an unconscious authority. All of Crowley’s acts, then, are trapped in a symmetry that can never be reconciled, even though he loves above all else. He cannot refute the angel who speaks of the impossible, so all he can say is ‘good luck’.

In fact, it is Aziraphael’s antithesis: ‘You don’t understand, no, I understand much better than you do.” I’m doing this for you, so why don’t you understand, and since there can be no such thing as angelic cries, I can only dismiss you as offended. Turning around and saying, “No nightingales,” Crowley puts an end to this love. There are no witnesses to the love, who witness the angels dining at the Ritz. (Despite my dislike of Michael Sheen, this scene is exquisite; it’s one of the few times we see Sheen’s face.) The angel’s confusion is beyond comprehension. Crowley’s “We could have been us” is a cry and a testimony. ‘We are both exceptional situations(conditions)’.

He grabs him by the scruff of the neck. Lips collide. We witness a clenched fist. The hands of an angel with nowhere to go. The lost hand cannot reach out to embrace its lover, because it is literally lost in all of this.

The lips part and the surprised angel says, “I forgive you.”

Forgive for what?

There’s a lot of thought going on here. Is it forgiveness for an unauthorized kiss? What makes forgiveness possible when there is nothing to forgive? If this constitutes forgiveness, what is next? But the devil says, “Don’t bother.” The devil stopped crying. There was the sound of a bell closing the bookshop door. Where the devil left off, the angel stares in surprise and confusion, breathing heavily and pursing his lips. His gaze is unfocused.

What I have seen, right here, is the beginning of sin. In other words, it’s the first anxiety that occurs to the angel. It is not merely a surprise, but the germination of another possibility. What is conceived here is the existence of a sexuality that was not possible (or necessary) for the angel. Søren Kierkegaard once spoke of “anxiety as the result of sin without guilt”. Surprisingly, this scene echoes Kierkegaard’s theology and philosophy of religion, as it is the moment of conception of original sin beyond Eve. “With the sinful nature, sexuality was established. At that moment, human history begins (…) The presence of original sin is anxiety.”

You don’t need to know what this means. To be honest, I don’t. But the moment of original sin was so intense that these words immediately came to mind. This can’t have been the first time Crowley and Aziraphael had touched. Crowley was forced to “give up” being with his one and only love because of his prior understanding that he could not “be an angel,” and he could not be made to understand that point. The system cannot persuade the structure.

But always, ‘events’ create a series of exceptional circumstances. The pebble that fell on the surface of the water created a ripple, and this ripple was the event that awakened the angel’s sexuality. Thus, Crowley had never before touched the angel in such a way. By not transmitting the trembling itself as an overt object of desire, the angel was transmitting overt sexual desire, and upon realizing this, the angel (being an angel, of course) must ‘forgive’ Crowley, for it was the harboring of desire that caused original sin, and with this original sin, sexual desire was born, and it was this that pushed Adam and Eve out of the Garden. For six thousand years, the fire-fist Aziraphael, the gatekeeper of Eden, has worn original sin! Along with sexuality. No wonder the angel was surprised by the demon’s touch, not because it was daredevil, but because it felt so “sexual,” and with it the understanding of “sexuality.” But in order for original sin to be established here, it must be the result of something happening within the individual that is not recognized as sin. The ‘consequence of sin without a consciousness of sin’, and therefore the point at which this emotion that I perceive as an expression of an order that can do no wrong, cannot be sin, is at the same time the sign of anxiety in Aziraphael’s eyes that proves that this is lust.

I talked about close-ups earlier. From the bust shot to the close-up, we hear the angel’s breath after the demon exits. Shaky vision, lips pressed against fingertips. (Even if I don't like Michael Sheen that much… the actor’s set-up for this entire sequence was so subtle that I couldn’t help but be overwhelmed.)

The aforementioned symmetry premise is rippled. Derived from the symmetry premise, the two Signs were determined (already in Season 1) to be anomalies to each other, but at least the incumbent Angel probably didn’t expect his anomaly to elicit this level of anomalous emotion, because he was a bureaucratic good (and a Sign) who couldn’t truly be an anomaly. That the two signs that saw the expulsion of Adam and Eve would result in this ‘repetition’ thousands of years later was unthinkable for an angel, much less a ‘demon’ who already had a sinful nature. I mentioned self-repetition earlier, and this is also self-repetition. If there is a variable here, it is that the angel was already an anomaly, and only he himself was unaware of it (not religiousizing, customizing, or conscious of goodness), and only the devil, who already knew of the presence of the demiurge in goodness (‘You really are a bastard’), gave the angel original sin by giving him a kiss of lust, by transmitting its tremors with his breath. I thought to myself. The only one who knows what he’s doing here is Crowley, the questioner/doubter. The lowly devil, at the moment of renouncing love, leaves having instilled a minimum of corruption, and therefore only the possibility of corruption. There is no more evil than this.

The angel breathes in, hard and fast, and sweeps a hand across his startled chest. It’s hard to tell why he’s crying, because there are so many assumptions involved, but here’s what’s happening. The devil cried, the angel cried, only the nightingales didn’t, because there was an abandonment of not only the opposition of the symmetry premise but of symmetry itself, which is to say, there was an abandonment of the ‘possibility of events’.

Funnily enough, however, I saw new possibilities right here, because the conventionalization of religion was shaken by the very moment when two people who loved each other too much that they never asked each other how they wanted to be loved, especially after the angel first recognized individuality, were infused with sexuality and acquired a sense of guilt. Here, religion would indeed become possible. And it can give birth to a new order and discipline. And I’ve replayed this scene dozens of times over the past few days because it’s so compelling and amazing. I don’t actually think Crowley has given up on loving Aziraphael. (I really don’t.)

It’s not an abandonment of love, it’s an abandonment of symmetry.

So I take this as confirmation that the story will no longer be told without sexuality between these two. This was a clear departure from season one.

All of this lust, angst, and potential sinfulness aside, Gaiman and the show’s intentions are clear. It’s a “bureaucracy” critique. It’s a critique of bureaucracy. Therefore, the series does not shy away from the “pandemic. Well, I don’t really need to make any predictions about what season 3 will be like, but let’s do it anyway: Crowley will probably run away from the problem (assuming there is a problem). Aziraphael will confront the problem… but not solve it.

But there is always an alternative. Ah, it would be love. So Crowley will personally (slink) down to heaven to rescue the troubled (trapped) angel. Such are the actions of those whose existence is a possibility.

I don't think I've ever analyzed a sequence with this much excitement. I've watched the series over and over again in the four days I've been writing this. I've seen it in other languages, not my mother language, too. It reminded me of my past life when I sat through Kierkegaard's seminar and said I had no idea what the hell he was talking about. Alas, Mr Kierkegaard, this is what it sounds like: the genesis of anxiety is clearly tied to guilt.

I honestly don't know why I wrote this post, but I wanted to excuse myself for having to buy and study the BL love scene. Honestly, I cried during the opening sequence of season 2. Because the stinging critique of 'a representative system' and 'bureaucracy', where the birth of the universe has been reduced to wallpaper for humanity, hurt. Here's the difference between Aziraphael and the other angels. For he recognizes that to doubt is to be 'risky', but the risk always includes 'adventure'.

The nameless angel at Aziraphael's side then could not love him 'yet', because he was (at least) then in a state of unconscious convention. But as a possibility, always as a seed, there was always the possibility of original sin, like Eve and Pandora in desire. The possibility of subversion.

Whether original sin is bad, whether guilt is bad, is another story, because, as the title of Good Omens suggests, all of these things (like the command to love because not to be sinful) are only premises, and humans live in the present.

("Anxiety is an expression of the fact that we are fully human.")

There are a lot of stories I wanted to tell but didn't. In fact, Gabriel and Beelzebub are the play's most important devices: they're the driving force behind the story, they're proof that their respective factions require cooperation, and they're Good Omens.

There's also the story of Nina and Maggie. They've been tossed around between the angel and demon, but because they're human, they're also descendants of Eve, and so they've learned desire from the beginning of time. They throw stones back at the one who awakens their desire, causing ripples. These are also Good Omens.

I didn't even tell the story of Metatron. Angels are better than anyone at emulating human emotions the higher up they get, and they're also better at erasing that humanity. I'd like to talk more about this point another time.

As I said at the outset, I'm neither a theist nor an atheist; I'm not ignorant of Christianity, but I know very little about it, and I'm sure I'll get a lot wrong, so bear with me. Thank you for reading this long post.

**English is not my primary language, so there will be a lot of errors, so please forgive me.