#good omens what's with the trumpets?

[251-dmr]

Arrivals - Compare and Contrast

I've been thinking for a while now how there seems to be parallels to the arrival of Gabriel (E1) and the arrival of Muriel (E3) to the bookshop. I imagine they've been obvious to everyone else already?

Anyway, I tried to lay out how I thought they were similar and where they differed, even if it's just an exercise for myself. But there's another arrival too: Michael, Uriel, and Saraqael in E2, and that one is quite different.

None of this may mean anything other than good story telling.

For Gabriel and Muriel:

Both arrivals are announced to us via someone in the coffee shop: Nina for Gabriel and Mrs Sandwich for Muriel.

Both arrivals are accompanied by car horn honks. With Gabriel it sounds like 1 long followed by 2 short (then a bunch more, lol). For Muriel it sounds like 2 medium-length honks and followed by a wolf whistle.

If I've got this right and please correct me if I'm wrong, Gabriel enters on Whickber St from the park (east?). Muriel, however, is coming in from the other direction, on Whickber St from the west(?).

For both, when they arrive and knock on the door, Aziraphale is listening to music, and wearing his grey sweater. With Gabriel, his back is to the window, and he's facing his old-fashioned gramophone listening to Shostakovich. With Muriel, he's at his desk facing the window and listening to Everyday on a boxed record player sitting on the end of the counter (where Gabriel's box was originally placed but which has now apparently been moved).

Azi opens the door for both Gabriel and Muriel and our initial view is from the inside looking out. Gabriel has his back to us and is facing away. Muriel is facing us.

Gabriel and Muriel both ask to be allowed to come in. With Gabriel, Azi initially says No, but then agrees, somewhat rudely telling him to get inside. With Muriel, he hesitates briefly, then invites her in politely.

Once inside, Gabriel is now seated with his back to the window and Azi sits, or stands, facing him and the window. He brings the hot chocolate and simply says "You drink it." Which Gabriel does. With Muriel they are seated 90* oriented differently, with the window to Azi's right and Muriel's left. He brings her the tea and explains "To drink." Which she doesn't.

Up until now, Crowley is not around for either arrival.

Later, Azi meets up with Crowley in the coffee shop to "not" discuss Gabriel's presence. I didn't really identify a parallel scene for Muriel.

Then we get Crowley's jump scare upon seeing Gabriel, and his surprise and amusement at seeing Muriel.

For Gabriel and for Muriel, A & C go into the back room to discuss the situation.

That's as far as I felt I could follow the parallels. Probably superficial, but that's what I got.

Now, in E2 when Michael, Uriel, and Saraqael arrive, it's quite different and may not even warrant being mentioned here.

Azi is not in the bookshop, he's not listening to any music, but he is in the record shop to find out about the Everyday song that Jim was singing.

While he's there, we do hear a horn honk which Azi turns his head to look out the window toward. Shortly after, he/we hear the trumpets [see below] sound.

Michael, Uriel, and Saraqael arrive from the park direction, same as Gabriel.

They arrive at the bookshop first and Azi gets to them just after, so they are waiting on him to arrive.

Jim is the one who opens the door and the view is from the outside looking in. Saraqael asks to discuss things inside and I'm not sure if Jim has invited them in or is just excited about having "customers" but then Azi agrees and invites them in.

No offers to sit, they just stand, Azi doesn't bother to offer them anything to drink, because, angels.

But later, A & C meet at the pub to discuss the situation.

As for those trumpets...what? Why are we hearing trumpets? I know we hear them in S1E4 after they beat up Aziraphale and that was to signal that Armageddon was starting. Was there anywhere else?

So why are we hearing them for Michael, Uriel, and Saraqael just dropping in to ask about Gabriel? Hearing them definitely concerned Azi. We don't hear them in E6 after the attack on the bookshop. Is that because Crowley was with them?

Please, I hope someone has a nice explanation for the trumpets and what those trumpets may mean at that point in the story.

I tried to search to find anyone else's take on this but I couldn't find anything. Probably more my problem of not getting the hang of searching in Tumblr. If anyone knows of a good post on this I would love to read it.

[youryurigoddess]

Gabriel’s (missing) cross

Let’s put everything we know about that spooky statue of the Archangel Gabriel in one thread to make the conversation about its possible meaning as a Good Omens 3 clue more structured. Starting off with the relevant part of the official commentary from X-Ray:

Douglas Mackinnon got one thing wrong in his part of the interview — Gabriel wasn’t carved by “some guy in Italy,” but a British sculptor and prop maker David Field working as a part of the team at 3DEye in London.

Technically speaking, it’s a gorgeous piece of hand-carved expanded polystyrene with a clay sculpted head on top of it — even if the Archangel’s smug likeness isn’t that pleasant to look at, all things considered. The scenic artists from 3DEye made it look like stone afterwards.

The body itself took ten days to sculpt and is a faithful copy of the famous statue on Ponte Sant'Angelo in Rome called Angel with the Cross by Ercole Ferrata. It stands on the inscription “Cuius principatus super humerum eius” (“Whose government shall be upon His shoulder”, Isaiah 9:16), and this quote makes much more sense for Gabriel than the cross in his hands. The usual iconography of the Archangel uses a trumpet or a white lily instead.

Ponte Sant'Angelo was originally used to expose the heads of those sentenced to death — each of the angelic statues on it carry Arma Christi, the Instruments of the Passion. Like the Second Coming, what seems to be a hopeful message to the Chosen Ones can also be a warning for the others.

The statue of Gabriel, first shown in full in the cemetery scene of the Good Omens 2 title sequence, reappears at the very end as a part of the bridge leading to the biggest Easter egg — at least according to Peter Anderson, the animator behind it — which is the lift in the background, implying how we’re getting closer towards the Second Coming. Notice how the cross broke down in half at some point between these two scenes!

And it disappears in the plot as well: Gabriel’s memory depicts it only from his point of view, with the camera deliberately moving slightly to the right and stopping at his eye level. The centered, establishing shots show the statue with empty hands as a bookend.

I believe that this cross is meant to serve as a foreshadowing, a reminder of the absolution of sins and eternal life through Christ’s sacrifice and Second Coming. We see it only through Gabriel and Aziraphale’s eyes — when Beelzebub looks at the statue, the cross is not there.

As seen in the BTS photos and videos, it’s not an editing error, but a deliberate positioning of the physical props on set. The cross was clearly meant to be a removable part of the statue and displayed in a specific way to convey a message to the audience.

The question remains: is it a reassurance, something to look forward to, or maybe rather a warning?

Not helpfully at all, the traditional use of angelic imagery in Christian cemeteries matches both interpretations.

[daneecastle]

Sketch dump

Sorry it’s been a while, I’ve been working on a lot of art that is either still in process(WIP), Patreon only, or is a comic page.

I constantly have new ideas. It’s exhausting.

Anyways, the images. First one with Aziraphale and the angry snek. Just something silly that came slightly off an Rp. The next two are from the Western Rp, which is almost done and will be turned into a fan fiction with illustrations. The ending has been intense and we have like ….. 8 sex scenes. … I think. Separate couples. So it’ll be NSFW.

The next one are different versions of my Crowleys. Two demons and two angels.

Then two drawings for my patreon free comic (I’ve decided) Split in Two. Admael the angel’s instrument of choice(which hasn’t been decided yet. Might be all but the trumpet. Then the second is just a little sibling fight over what’s there’s.

Then the last two are shits and giggles. “ what would Aziraphale do if Crowley slept too long and his hair kept growing” @ad-astrah

Anyways help support me! It’s my only job (drawing) while I go through health issues.

[weirdly-specific-but-ok]

HERE I'VE BEEN MEANING TO SHARE THIS, for those of you have not read the Good Omens book (you should) or skipped the authors' notes on each other (go back and read them!!), I want you to read Sir Terry Pratchett's words on @neil-gaiman's writing.

"Well, he's no genius. He's better than that. He's not a wizard, in other words, but a conjurer.

Wizards don't have to work. They have their hands, and the magic happens. But conjurers, now... conjurers work very hard. They spend a lot of time in their youth watching, very carefully, the best conjurers of their day. They seek out old books of trickery and, being natural conjurers, read everything else as well, because history itself is just a magic show. They observe the way people think, and the many ways in which they don't. They learn the subtle use of springs, and how to open mighty temple doors at a touch, and how to make the trumpets sound.

And they take centre stage and amaze you with flags of all nations and smoke and mirrors, and you cry: 'Amazing! How does he do it? What happened? (...)'

And in the back row we, the other conjurers, say quietly: 'Well done. Isn't that a variant of the Prague Levitating Sock? Wasn't that Pasqual's Spirit Mirror, where the girl isn't really there? But where the hell did that flaming sword come from?'

And we wonder if there may be such a thing as wizardry, after all...

(...) I remember on one US Good Omens tour walking round a comics shop. (...) I wandered around the shelves looking at the opposition. That's when I realised he was good. There's a delicacy of touch, a subtle scapel, which is the hallmark of his work.

And when I heard the premise of American Gods I wanted to read it so much that I could taste it... When I read Coraline, I saw it as an exquisitely drawn animation; if I close my eyes I can see how the house looks, or the special dolls' picnic. No wonder he writes scripts now.

Have fun. We did. We never thought about the money until it went for auction and the big numbers started to get phoned in. Guess which one of us was amazingly cool about that. Hint: It wasn't me."

(I apologise for any typos that might have crept in at this point I don't know what I'm doing BUT GO READ THE GOOD OMENS BOOK IF YOU LOVED THE SHOW YOU'LL LOVE THE BOOK TOO HEHE)

[beebopboom]

Messages from Above

Witch or Prophet? Both?

Both is Good.

In part 1 we covered all the prophecies and images I could find in The Nice and Accurate Prophecies of Agnes Nutter book

and now we can jump into some analysis and theories about Agnes Nutter - starting with where the hell they came from

Now I’m sure we have all wondered how Agnes got her prophecies. Where they came from? How did she manage make the only completely true prophetic work in history? And predict her death? Well that one may be getting ahead of ourselves.

As for the rest of it though - well she shows us

In the artworks included in her book two that really stood out were ones depicting John and Ezekiel.

In each of these stories they are given a scroll to devour that will taste like honey in their mouth. They are then told to go speak these words/prophesies to others, even if they shall not listen.

But just to summarize what these stories are about - Ezekiel deals with warning people of the destruction of Jerusalem and the Temple as God’s punishment but with a promise of a New Beginning and Temple - John is dealing with the Second Coming, of the angels going through the seals, the blaring of trumpets, and just note that the scroll sits as bitterness in his stomach because of the judgements that are meant to come.

Sensing some running themes here

Agnes Nutter was a women that had a little more agency than these two men though

On the desk when her son-in-law and daughter are going through her things there is a upside down piece of scrap work paper that gives us a little more detail into this

although I do not have everything on this paper figured out, as some things are still a little iffy - I still think it’s enough to include

(and big thanks to @gallup24 @thesherrinfordfacility @archangelween for all the help)

So from what I could put together from all that the top reads as -

To Speak to Saints

Call the names

and say thus. I conjure you by His

Legs and Arm come to me in this

xxx xxx and send unto me a saint named

xxxx. fulfill my command and

understand my word

So while I may not have those names it’s very clear a summoning was happening.

combined with the rest of the paper - which features a pretty similar set up to a certain bookshop, angel and alchemy symbols, and various words such as “Chants, Robes, and Armageddon” - and I believe that this is just kind of like a scrap/work paper which would explain why it’s a bit more messy and unorganized than anything else

So what the hell is going on here? Well it may not be perfect but just to throw some things out there

Some saint/angel - yknow what maybe even God herself(I promise that’s not just a throw away comment but wait and see!) - comes to Agnes

Agnes has a way for a human to get in contact with Upstairs

Agnes produces the first and only work of completely correct prophecies of events that lead to Armageddon 

I think we can fill in the blanks with saying she received her prophecies from some Divine Being and continued to be visited - maybe even visiting on her own

There is a reason her title is on the front of Good Omens after all

————————————————————————-

Alright that’s all folks - for this part at least. Next time we will dive into her death, the death of her work, and what she leaves behind -> right here

[aziraphales-library]

Hello!

I was wondering if you have any fics about jesus and the second coming so a continuation of season 2!

Ive been trying find a tag for it but I cant fine any unfortunately

Thank you!

Hi! Tags on ao3 I'd suggest are The Second Coming (Good Omens) and Jesus (Good Omens). We also have series three speculation fics here. Here are some more fics for you...

Fallen from the sky-The Second Coming by Bucky1984 (M)

After the abandonment of Aziraphale, Crowley struggles to reinvent himself and finds comfort in the daily lives of the inhabitants of Soho... Meanwhile, the new Supreme Archangel has been entrusted with the new phase of the Great Divine Plan! Determined to use his new influence to save humanity from the worst, Aziraphale is torn between trust and conscience. When Good and Evil become diluted, there is no longer black or white. Only grey remains...

Once for the Devil, Once for Christ by Eighty_Sixed (G)

During the Second Coming, Aziraphale and Crowley find themselves on opposite sides. Meanwhile, the newly returned Jesus Christ isn't quite what everyone expected.

Falling with Style by NooRose93 (E)

Aziraphale is having a difficult enough time averting the second coming without an amnesiac demon to look after, thank you very much. Crowley has always been the one to rescue Aziraphale, will Aziraphale be able to save Crowley's memories before the end of the world?

I am with you always, to the very end of the age. by garlicpasta (NR)

Then will appear in heaven the sign of the Son of Man, and then all the tribes of the earth will mourn, and they will see the Son of Man coming on the clouds of heaven with power and great glory. And he will send out his angels with a loud trumpet call, and they will gather his elect from the four winds, from one end of heaven to the other. Or maybe not. Aziraphale and Crowley get together after they last saw each other to save the world once more. But working together won’t be easy if they don't stop arguing every five seconds. Will Muriel and Jesus Christ be able to save their marriage, I mean, the world? Saving the world was never this fun! –Muriel I just want to get over with this already so I can see Hozier live. –Jesus I think everyone should just die. –Michael

Demiurge by PanderrynRose (E)

As the dust settles, Crowley drives. Away. Away from everything. He can't stay, not now. Not when warm memories have frozen into icy shards that shred his heart and lungs every time he sees something that reminds him of everything he's lost. But just as he can't stay, he also can't stay away from those who need or ask for his help. Earth--for all intents and purposes--is his home. And he can't leave the planet to the whims of the same bureaucracy and being that harmed him.

From Foxclere (with love?) by Bohemia (T)

There, in the small space between the dessert bowl and Crowley’s coffee saucer, was a partial map of the cosmos, rendered delicately in Châteauneuf-du-Pape. “How’s your mythology these days?” Crowley asked, head bent down, keeping the conservation cloistered without any need for a miracle. “As good as it always was, thank you,” Aziraphale replied primly. ---------- Wherein Crowley restores himself to the Court of Hell, Aziraphale just wants to Do The Right Thing, and they are still very firmly Not Talking. An imaginary Season 3, featuring terrible choices, heartbreak, ridiculous situations, Jane Austen, Greek Mythology, a hefty dose of plot, and perhaps a long overdue Conversation.

- Mod D

[addledmongoose]

Good Omens Fanfic Friday (14 Jun 2024)

By the way, if you ever see one of your stories in my list and I haven't listed your tumblr name, do let me know so I can edit the post.

First, a self-rec of my fake marriage/never met AU, because I'm publishing the last chapter and epilogue today!

My Heart Was Always Yours (143K; Rated M)

Aziraphale has mostly kept to himself for the last six thousand years. As long as he gets his reports in on time, Heaven leaves him alone. That is, until Supreme Archangel Uriel orders him to buy Raphael's trumpet from a black market auction in New York. Armageddon is overdue, and Heaven needs the trumpet to kick it off.

Oh, and he needs a human to pose as his husband.

After an incident in the 19th century, Crowley keeps a low profile from Hell. His reports are only a little late, he takes credit for the worst of humanity, and he does a bit of fomenting to keep in practice. But the almost-peaceful life the demon carved out for himself comes to an end when the Prince of Wrath, Belial (née Raphael), orders him to New York to find the former archangel's trumpet.

So what should he think when he rescues the odd and very cute human bookseller down the street from a mugging only to learn the man is headed to a black market auction in New York to buy a rare book? Was this also part of Belial's devious plan? Is the poor human on Hell's radar and doesn't even know it?

When Crowley finds out the man needs someone to pose as his husband to infiltrate the auction, he knows exactly what to do.

***

Terminus (38K; Rated T) by @emotional-support-demon-crowley

Human AU. Very recently finished. We don't get to see many stories set in the future, and this is the only human AU on my list this week, oddly enough.

When reluctant astronaut Aziraphale Fell finds himself in need of assistance, the last thing he expects is to develop feelings for the mission controller who answers his call; the charming, foul-mouthed Anthony Crowley.

As they work to get Aziraphale home, they find themselves inexplicably drawn to each other. Unfortunately, Crowley has reason to believe the powers that be don’t want Guardian One and its sole occupant to survive the journey.

***

forgotten (but not gone) (10K; Rated T)

Aziraphale and Crowley have had their memories of each other wiped as punishment for stopping Armageddon. They're drawn to each other nonetheless.

***

A New Opportunity (64K; Rated E) by @ineffablerainstorm

Where Aziraphale hints that he plans to Fall to prevent the Second Coming and Crowley decides to pursue a new job opportunity. After all "head diving into a pit of sulphur" is listed under "special skills" on the demon's CV. Crowley hasn't anticipated, however, that this rescue mission would turn into a very messy fake-relationship-situation in a matter of minutes. And that Falling might be a lot harder the second time around.

This post-S2 manages to be both really angsty and also really laugh-out-loud funny. Jesus (aka "Chris") is a particular standout character here. He has a cross tattoo on his arm! There are a couple of side stories in the series I haven't yet gotten to, but I suspect I'll be suggesting them soon.

***

Time Marches Forward (129K; Rated M) by @bellisima-writes

I devoured this post-S2 story. Aziraphale is trying his best to stop the Second Coming, but the Metatron has plans to keep him in line. Crowley befriends the teenage Antichrist, helping him harness and control his powers.

While this story has a great happy ending, it is extremely intense and very angsty getting there. There were a few tears and a few times I wanted to strangle Crowley, but he came through in the end, and this isn't a story that decides either one was solely responsible for the Final 15's angst.

***

The rest of my list are all @lemon-tart-221 shorts. They were the perfect change of pace when Time Marches Forward got to be a bit intense.

A Slightly Overdone Miracle of Maximum Lust (3K; Rated E)

Crowley gets in trouble with Beelzebub for slacking and decides the easiest way to get a bunch of temptations done fast is to spread lust throughout London. He didn't expect it to affect him and Aziraphale.

***

A Very Clippy Christmas (2K; Rated M)

A multi-author collab. "Aziraphale wants to surprise Crowley with a naughty story for Christmas, only he’s using Word '98, clipart, and he’s Aziraphale."

***

An Angel with Questions, a Demon with Answers (3K; Rated E)

Set right after they save Job's children, Aziraphale has urges he doesn't understand. Crowley (as Bildad) helps him through it.

***

They're Not Talking (3K; Rated E)

Crowley and Aziraphale still meet to stop the Second Coming. They're still not talking. They find other ways to communicate. This one isn't exactly happy, but it's not exactly sad either.

[astrostrudels]

Hi here are my insane valorant headcanons (some nsfw, nothing too detailed)

• Pheonix is really good at fighting games like smash bros, and is only ever beaten by Astra who, despite never really playing them, is unbeatable.

• In that vein, Phoenix and Jett host game nights on Brim’s old Wii he still has for some reason.

• Cypher has cameras set up all over base, and sometimes him and Killjoy will watch the feed like a soap opera.

• Skye usually braids Breach’s hair so he can get that tight braid. Robot arms are cool and all, but not exactly delicate.

• Pheonix is banned from the kitchen. Not for burning shit, but for serving Jett beans on toast with unmelted shredded cheese.

• Killjoy has tried to get other agents into LoL, they all refused.

• Killjoy is also trans idc

• Chamber doesn’t actually know how to play chess. He’s only ever played by himself, and Cypher finds this out when he challenged him to a game when he first joined.

• Neon likes to draw and she’s not too bad.

• Yoru is bisexual but vehemently denies it, even while actively doing gay shit. He could be getting his back blown out and deny it’s anything but straight. That pride flag in his room? He just likes the colors, idiot.

• Chamber is violently lactose intolerant, but he denies it even tho everyone can hear him fighting for his life in the bathroom at 3 am because he wanted to eat some brie earlier.

• Chamber and his double have fucked. That’s it. You saw the fuck me eyes they were giving each other in the cinematic. Foul.

• Sova is not a natural blonde. Skye also helps him bleach and shave his hair.

• Phoenix can play the trumpet.

• Brimstone can’t really cook, but he is a master griller.

• Breach also likes to ride motorcycles. He tried to bond with Yoru over this when he first joined, but he annoyed him so nothing really came from that.

• Brimstone and Harbor do, however, bond over their shared motorcycle shenanigans.

• Minecraft is Sage’s guilty pleasure. She likes to pick flowers and build little cottages. She often plays with Killjoy and Omen, and they have a realm together.

- Killjoy is crazy at redstone. On some Docm77 shit.

- Omen likes to mine.

• They have communal showers. Do with that what you will.

• Yoru and Chamber had a one night stand. Yoru deeply regrets it, Chamber does not.

• As per my (somehow) brimstone approved comic, neons a furry. She doesn’t fursuit, she just likes drawing funny animal guys.

• Killjoy is an mlp fan.

• Back when morbius was a thing, yoru would watch the FUCK out of that movie in the valorant living room or whatver. He was eventually banned from the tv for like a month.

• Viper once hit Chamber in the nuts bc of his cringe ass advances on her. He considers it sex.

[bogmonstergeneral]

ok wait so

Crowley isn’t Raphael. very sorry.

but i think Aziraphale might be. Two quick things to consider:

Firstly - Aziraphale and Raphael.

Secondly - we know Neil pulls from different religions for Good Omens. In Islam, Raphael is Israfil.

Phonetics aside, let’s break it down a little. I'm gonna lay out some points all onto the table and we'll sort them at the end.

In Christianity and Judaism, Raphael is a healer. In The Book of Tobit, he is disguised as a human, and acts as a physician and expels demons.

In Christianity, he is the patron of of travelers, the blind, happy meetings, nurses, physicians, marriage, Catholic studies, medical workers, and matchmakers.

In Islam, Israfil's job is to hold a trumpet to his lips at the ready for The Second Coming.

In astrology, he's associated with the sun, and, if we wanted to throw Milton a bone - in Paradise Lost, he's assigned to Eden to warn Adam of the consequences of eating the apple.

In season 1, we see Aziraphale heal Anathema, and in season 2, we see him almost excited to heal wee Morag. In episode three, we also see him pretending to be a doctor, although I think this has less to do with his character and more to do with the plot of the episode. Obviously, the expels demons part... he's not too hot at that, considering he certainly didn't expel Crawly. But it was absolutely in his job description.

That matchmaker thing feels almost too on the nose.

In season two, the Metatron asks Aziraphale to rejoin heaven as an archangel to carryout the second coming, which parallels Israfil's job (of course, we have no idea what kind of work he's about to do up there. Maybe he'll be doing paperwork, maybe they'll have him ready with a trumpet to announce the second coming. I certainly don't know.)

And, of course - Raphael is associated with the sun; the sun rises in the east; Aziraphale is the guardian of the eastern gate. And the idea that Neil might have pulled from Paradise Lost is a bit of a stretch, but we have another parallel if I'm not overreaching.

Of course, there's a lot that would prove me otherwise. And I am often wrong! I am also sick right now, so I might be very wrong.

[amanda-melly]

My Good Omens Season 3 fan project

I spent most of my day fleshing out "my 3rd season of good omens" and I have to say I'm pretty damn proud of it. It's structured in 6 episodes and all.

I don't know if I'll have the time and patience to type everything. I wrote it on a notebook. I'd actually prefer to make a podcast or maybe a video narrating everything, but I guess people prefer to go to AO3 or something like that...

Some "spoilers" of my headcanon:

* hilarious scene of Crowley doing confession in a cathedral in Oxford to get a chance to talk to the priest (Crowley wears a full body raincoat and extra padded boots).

* Aziraphale starts the story overseeing the 7 angels practice playing their trumpets (they need to be ready for when the 7th seal is broken) as part of the insufferably useless corporate routine the metatron imposed on him. Another one is supervising incense production. Lots of incence in the book of revelation.

* there's a crown court hearing/ trial taking place at Oxford (that's a real thing and real name, I didn't make it up) that moves the plot forward. There are 12 jurors as a reference to the 12 apostles (that's the real number of jurors for these cases). The trial at Oxford triggers flashbacks to Crowley's trial. Back in Crowley's trial, Aziraphale tries to testify in his favor but the heads of Heaven, especially the metatron, subvert everything he says to make Crowley (Starmaker back then) look guilty. An angel - none other than Pre-Fall Dagon - comes in as accusation witness, Crowley says hey, you rebelled too! And dagon says they were a special spy infiltrated under superior orders and all their actions will be pardoned in exchange for them testifying. Dagon's testimony seals Crowley's destiny, and later, once all the rebels have been sentenced, Heaven sentences Dagon to hell anyway claiming the deal was invalid because of some ridiculous technicality. Season 1 was a chase story, season 2 was a mystery story, season 3 is a trial story (not exclusively, of course, but it's important. The whole theme of the second coming is Christ judging everyone, one by one. There's no escaping the "judgement" theme here) (I'm a lawyer so I'm pretty confident to approach this theme).

* did you know that Milton Keynes was designated as a new town in 1967? Do you know what else happened in 1967 in season 1? And do you know that both Crowley and Aziraphale took credit for Milton Keynes to their respective head offices, in the book? Put 2+2 together and we get an amazing flashback including Aziraphale and Crowley's first ever dinner at the Ritz! (for reasons I already explained in another post, no, they don't kiss before the s2 scene, so hold your horses).

* possibly a flashback of Aziraphale and Crowley during the wars of religion in Wales that serves to showcase some of their conversations trying to understand Christ's message and why humans misanderstand him so much. It's included for a number of reasons: we need to have something in Wales for Michael Sheen (now that David Tennant got to do his Scottish accent!) plus they really should talk about how ironic and tragic it is that so many people have killed each other over religious differences concerning Christ's message of peace and love among all persons and all peoples. Including the commandment of not killing each other. Seems to have gone right past people somehow. (this flashback also helps to give us some lighthearted Aziracrow early on, because Aziraphale and Crowley only really hit it off again by the end of episode 3 and only really get back together in episode 4).

* a new human character named Abel J. Ryuss has an important role as well. His full name is Abel James Ryuss. We get some 4 ou 5 new human characters that are important to the plot.

* Crowley kind of calls attention on a new human prophet and "outs" him as a prophet by accident and the dude ends up becoming a famous influencer - aka the modern equivalent of a prophet.

* the story begins with 4 out of 7 of the apocalypse seals already broken (aka the 4 riders of the apocalypse). When the 5th seal breaks, the dead arise. When the 6th seal breaks, in episode 5, Gabriel and Beelzebub return. But they're foreshadowed in episode 4 by the appearance of a blue bird with a fly flying around it in a tree in the background.

* the trio of angels: Michael, Uriel and Saraquiel each makes very different choices and have very different endings. One is irrelevant, one is killed and one ends up as the supreme archangel.

* heaven has at least 3 different factions with different agendas working to their own ends simultaneously. Hell has 2.

* catastrophical destruction followed by huge battle.

* In the end Gabriel and Beelzebub become consultants.

* careful with those to claim to speak for God.

* a marriage at south downs - and it's not Crowley and Aziraphale's! It's another couple we love. Aziraphale and Crowley needed a reason to go to south downs in the first place. Then they can take a walk and stumble upon a lovely cottage that just happens to be for sale.

[hurts4maya]

GOOD OMENS THEORY

Ok so in a religion class I learnt abt the different angels in Islam. There is isrifil (sounds similar to aziraphale) who's name is raphael in christianity. His job is to blow the trumpet on judgement day to signal the end of the world and then again to resurrect everyone .

Raphael is an archangel. Aziraphale became an archangel. The rapture/ second coming (christianity) and Yaw muddin (Islam) are both judgement day and the end of the world. The metatron told azraphale they would have stuff do do with the seond coming. What if aziraphale is forced (or that's his new job) to start the end of the world and him and crowely have to stop it somehow???

Also Azi- Raphale

[youryurigoddess]

A. Z. Fell & Co. bookshop and its statues

To start off, you have to be warned that the former set was almost completely destroyed in the S1 bookshop fire and whatever wasn’t important enough to be salvaged before the shooting had to be replaced afterwards. Which means that a few memorable and already identified pieces aren’t there anymore, for better or worse.

This is going to be another long analysis, and certainly not a full one — I’ll describe only the big picture and the most important props. A continuation focusing on the decorations in the less prominent parts of the bookshop will follow here.

Right at the entrance we can see twin tables with the Marly Horses by Guillaume Coustou the Elder. The sculptures showing two rearing horses with their groom were originally commissioned by Louis XV of France for the entrance to château de Marly, a royal residence near Versailles.

In S2 Crowley is shown consistently using one of the horses, partially out of convenience, partially in line with a returning throughout the season dark horse theme. Ironically, the symbolic harnessing of a wild animal mirrors the supposed domestication of the demon by his angel, as seen in the transformation of the statue to the right from the entrance into an altar of his submission.

After all, there’s nothing more vulnerable to Crowley than losing the usual protection of his shades, and using a horse sculpture as a stand for his sunglasses speaks volumes about his natural aptitude towards uncertain and liminal states. He thrives in stress situations, dangles his feet while hopping onto a curb, and assumes the form of a non-Euclidean fluid when asked to sit down in a chair. Stability isn’t exactly what he’s most comfortable with. So what for Aziraphale signifies the power over his (theirs?) own domain and ultimate safe space, for Crowley means a challenge.

It makes sense that this particular spot near the exit is where the demon feels most secure in the bookshop, his favorite place in the world. That’s where he stood after crossing its threshold in 1941 too.

The statue in the middle, right on top of the central bookstand, was replaced after the S1 fire. It’s still clearly a Cupid, but in a different pose and without his weapons — instead of shooting an arrow, now he’s holding his left hand over his head, pointing up towards Heaven or God. Quite a change. This is the most similar copy made after Ernest Rancoulet. The butterfly-like wings (similar to the ones Rancoulet used in his La Nuit Tout Repose, At Night Everything Rests) on the copy in the bookshop have visible screws, so they were probably added either by the previous owner or the Good Omens art department.

What’s especially important from the analytic point of view is that similarly to S1, the Cupid in question still appears in the frame facing Crowley, but not targeting him anymore, like it used to, but rather mirroring. The most memorable example appears during the Final Fifteen™ when the demon points up with left hand to highlight his “No nightingales” line.

This one will be fun! Everyone, meet George Maxim’s bronze allegory of Music in her full glory. Angels like music in general, right? And Aziraphale is a known audiophile, which was asserted in the very first episode of the new season. But there’s another link to music in his angelic roots. A rather apocalyptic one — the Archangel Raphael is believed to blow the trumpet from a holy rock in Jerusalem to announce the Second Coming (the Day of Resurrection), and Israfil, its Islamic counterpart, Qiyamah (the Day of Judgment).

Staying in the very same context, let’s read the ballad Israfel by Edgar Allen Poe, which was obviously inspired by the titular Archangel.

Nothing on Earth lasts forever — but that’s exactly the reason why we should use it for inspiration, savor this momentary bliss, and hold it in our hearts. The ballad shares the same sentiment about all creation being temporary and only the passions of angels (i.e., Aziraphale’s and Crowley’s feelings) staying eternally unchanging as Aziraphale’s “Nothing lasts forever”. His line was intended as an affirmation of his feelings, similar to “You go too fast for me, Crowley”.

And just like the Cupid is mirroring Crowley in the “No nightingales” line, Music is targeting Aziraphale with her harp in the following frame.

On the counter there’s a smaller bronze statue, which original unfortunately remains unidentified, but I was able to track some similar designs. A woman coming back from the harvest with crops — either a representation of Autumn or the Greek goddess Demeter bringing a blessing of a plentiful harvest. In the Bible, the harvest is a metaphor for both spiritual fruitfulness and judgment. Our productivity in God’s kingdom is supposedly tied to our faith and obedience. And the most popular verses repeat an even older saying, how one reaps what they sow:

Do not be deceived: God is not mocked, for whatever one sows, that will he also reap. For the one who sows to his own flesh will from the flesh reap corruption, but the one who sows to the Spirit will from the Spirit reap eternal life. (Galatians 6:7-8)

And another angel came out of the temple, calling with a loud voice to him who sat on the cloud, “Put in your sickle, and reap, for the hour to reap has come, for the harvest of the earth is fully ripe.” (Revelation 14:15)

The harvest is past, the summer is ended, and we are not saved. (Jeremiah 8:20)

If you read The summer that was never supposed to end meta, you’ll interpret the figure itself as a rather ominous sign. Now let’s add to it positioning right next to the gigantic Victorian cash register one cannot possibly overlook and the recurring theme of payment. And the fact that it conveniently disappears at some point in The Ball (S02E05) episode, never to be seen again. Is the payment reminder not needed anymore, because its day just came?

For some reason ever since S1 this one was often interpreted as a bust of Alexander the Great by the fandom. The proper name is the Head of a Victorious Athlete, also known as Benevento Head. As this suggests, the originally bronze sculpture represents a victorious athlete wearing an olive crown and was found near Benevento in Italy, in the remnants of the ancient town Herculaneum, wiped off from the face of the earth together with Pompeii in a tragic volcanic eruption (which was conveniently used later on as a more modern example of the story of Sodom and Gomorrah). It’s an obviously Roman copy of a Greek sculpture and dates back to 50 AD, less than a decade after Aziraphale and Crowley met in Rome in 41 AD— who knows, maybe they were still around at the time? This would make an interesting connection to the statue Crowley brought back to his apartment in 1941.

And no, in the HD quality and especially en face it doesn’t appear similar to Crowley. In fact, there seems to be a very good reason why most photographers choose another, more flattering angle for this particular artwork. But aesthetics aside, the white bust seems more like a mirror for Aziraphale and his self-constructed (and self-imposed) idealized image, based on a specific set of virtues. The presented athlete is victorious because he’s the epitome of the Platonic Triad of higher Forms: Truth, Beauty, and Excellence, understood in the wider context of the Greek Aretē.

To highlight this point, in S1 the head was literally used as a designated display place of the medal Aziraphale got as a commendation for his 6000 years on Earth in the 1800 cut scene. As a free agent not affiliated with Heaven in S2 he doesn’t hang it there anymore, but the medal is still in the bookshop, visible on his desk. You can see it in detail and read the description of its provenance in the last bookshop meta.

Daedalus and Icarus are a very popular motif in the history of art, but certainly not in this overtly masculine, military style. Icarus was too ambitious for his own good and ignored explicit instructions, which constitutes both the sin of pride and that of disobedience to one's parents (or one’s Creator?).

Interestingly, there’s also a version of the myth in which Icarus fashioned himself greater than Helios, the Sun himself, and the god himself punished him for it with the fall — which resonates very strongly with my vision of Crowley both in relation to his Fall and potential S3 development.

But back to Aziraphale. If the medal in question was given to him as a commendation he from the Supreme Archangel himself, it also serves as a warning for him to not get too arrogant or comfortable with his accomplishment (i.e., life on Earth) or it might lead to his fall (or, in this case, Fall).

Foreshadowing much?

[blogdeepbelieverbouquetworld]

David Tennant says Bafta film awards will be ‘evening of generosity and joy’

David Tennant has said the Bafta film awards will be an “evening of generosity and joy” rather than stars being roasted when he hosts the show this weekend.

The Scottish actor, 52, will be helming the star-studded ceremony at the Royal Festival Hall in London’s Southbank Centre on Sunday, where Oppenheimer will be leading the pack with 13 nominations.

Tennant, who recently reunited with his Doctor Who co-star Catherine Tate for the show’s 60th anniversary episodes, teased that she could make an appearance with him.

Ahead of the ceremony, he told the PA news agency: “There are some wonderful famous examples, of course, of people making terribly near-the-knuckle comments and some very funny things that we’ve all enjoyed in previous awards ceremonies, that’s not probably my style anyway, and I know that’s not what Bafta are going for.

“We want to have an evening that’s a celebration and that won’t make people feel uncomfortable and won’t have people being roasted in any way, so it will hopefully be an evening of generosity and joy and a love for this industry that is one of the great success stories of this country.

“We’re very good at the arts. There’s lots of things that we we struggle with, but the arts is something that remains one of Britain’s greatest exports, so let’s celebrate it and enjoy that and trumpet it to the world.”

Tennant admitted he felt a bit “bewildered” when he was first asked to host, but then thought: “What a laugh, what a lark.”

“It just felt like an honour and a privilege to be asked to do something so august”, he added.

“It’s just nice to be on that side of it. It’s obviously thrilling for everyone who’s nominated and there’s so many exciting films to be celebrating, but also that’s pretty nerve-racking, I just have to stand up.”

Tennant, who has also starred in crime drama Broadchurch and fantasy comedy Good Omens, has previously presented as part of Comic Relief’s Red Nose Day line-up.

He said hosting not being his normal day job has taken some pressure off of him, adding: “I sort of don’t have anything to prove, because this isn’t really what I do.

“It’ll either work and everyone will be terribly nice about it or it’ll be a total disaster and I’ll never be asked again. Either way – it’s fine.”

The actor revealed he was feeling “pretty relaxed” ahead of the show but thinks the prospect of it will become more “nerve-racking” in the lead-up to the big night.

Asked if his co-star Tate could make an appearance alongside him at the show, he said: “Listen, there’s nobody I enjoy working with more than Catherine, so who knows?”

In 2023 Tennant appeared with Tate at the TV Baftas to present the best features award to Joe Lycett VS Beckham: Got Your Back At Xmas.

As the host, he said he was staying “entirely neutral” on who he thinks could win big at the award show but praised the level of talent in the world of film this year.

“It’s been a big old year, hasn’t it? And there was that Barbenheimer moment in the middle of the year where suddenly everyone’s talking about going to the cinema and being part of an audience,” he said.

“We’re bouncing back (after) the world went through a slightly weird thing, where we all locked ourselves in our house.

“Cinema, as with theatre, which is another area that is hugely important to myself and to the arts world, they are all about people having a collective experience and sitting in rooms together…

“And it took a minute and I think this is the year where that’s bounced back…

“You look at the the shortlist and there’s some extraordinary stuff on it, extraordinary performances and brilliant pieces of work, so it’s a great year to be hosting this event.

“It feels like a bit of a bumper crop and I feel like I’ve won a prize without being up for it or having to worry about that side of it.”

Daily Record

[pengychan]

[Good Omens] Everyday

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. [SPOILERS FOR SEASON 2] Pairing: Archangel Gabriel/Beelzebub Rating: G

A/N: I stayed up all night to watch Season 2 and then I wrote this on caffeine and two hours of sleep in an act of pure hubris.

Bon Appétit.

***

"Well, it's good to know there's someone who understands. Thank you. It's a pity we'll never speak again."

***

Truth be told, Lord Beelzebub - Prince of Hell, Lord of the Flies and so on and so forth - hadn’t found it to be such a pity at the moment. They and the Archangel Bloody Gabriel had the type of understanding that comes from being commanders-in-chief of two opposing sides but, for the longest time, that was all. They could, and did, go centuries without once acknowledging or remembering one another’s existence. 

Except that the Armageddon had not happened, quite literally all Hell kept pestering them about it like starting the War without the Antichrist was in any way within their power, and no amount of throwing demons into the dung pit or assigning them to paint-drying-watching duty seemed to be quite put an end to that.

Getting ten million demons to really step down the war path was a near impossible task, and somehow the worst part about it was that no one understood the frustration that came with being expected to accomplish a task so beyond their scope. Satan had not been heard from since the failed Armageddon, so no instructions were forthcoming there. Crowded as Hell was, they were on their own. No one had the faintest idea of the pressure they were under.

Well. Supreme Wanker Gabriel aside, apparently. Except that he was not in Hell and they would never speak again. Nor meet, most likely - until Armageddon finally happened, of course, who knew how, at which point they would do their best to rent each other asunder should they happen to cross paths on the battlefield. The meeting was done, and it was time to put him out of their mind. Which they did, successfully. 

For about a month.

***

“Gabriel.”

“... Have we met?”

“It’s still me, moron,” was the polite reply, punctuated with a fly being pretty much spat in his face.

Well. Someone was prickly today. At least more than usual, or so Gabriel assumed. Truth be told, he had no idea how prickly the Lord of the Flies was or was not on a daily basis. 

“Ah. Yes, the new face,” Gabriel said, gesturing to his own and swatting away the fly in the same motion. “Still used to the old one, I suppose.”

“I can’t recall you getting all that many chances to see it,” Beelzebub muttered, causing Gabriel to shrug.

“I don’t see the point of making the change in the first place, to be honest. Look at me. This face has served me perfectly since the Beginning.”

Beelzebub tilted their head, eyes narrowing as they seemed to… consider his face for the first time. “... I suppose there are worse things to look at.”

“Thank you,” Gabriel said, and leaned back in his seat, crossing one leg over the other. He saw no reason to keep talking about faces, so he went straight to the point. “You have yet to tell me what the meeting is about. Having trouble with the preparations for the Armageddon the Sequel?”

Beelzebub made a face. “Preparations are continuing, torturously slowly as everything in Hell.”

“I thought you said you were ready for round two.”

“So did you, but I have yet to hear your trumpets.”

“Well…” Gabriel cleared his throat, deciding that they did not need to know that preparations were excruciatingly slow in Heaven too. It wasn’t easy, getting everyone ready again after the entire thing was dismantled by a rebellious brat. “I seem to have misplaced my trumpet.”

“Ah.”

“A minor setback.”

“Of course.”

“For the sake of fair play, however, we are willing to wait until you are ready as well.”

“How magnanimous.”

He smiled. “Ah, yes. Magnanimous. That’s me. And as I magnanimously agreed to this meeting with so little notice, I’d appreciate knowing what was so urgent?”

“Is the pleasure of my company no reason enough?”

Gabriel stared a moment. “That’s… sarcasm, yes?”

A roll of their eyes. “Of course. I’m actually here to have another look at the face that’s served you perfectly since the Beginning.”

“Really?”

“Ugh, no.” Beelzebub frowned, leaning back and crossing their arms. “Ten million demons are still expecting war to happen three months ago and are being an absolute pain in the ass about it.”

“... I can imagine.”

“I’m sure you do.”

“You’d think angels would be better at understanding the benefits of delayed gratification.”

“Still from the same original stock, I suppose,” Beelzebub pointed out, and Gabriel acknowledged that with a nod before waiting for the Lord of the Flies to continue. 

Except that they didn’t. They just scowled at the table for several more moments, and Gabriel cleared his throat. “So. We are both here because…?”

“I’m pissed.”

“... All right?”

“And you are the only being in creation who’s ever been in my same position,” they added, and looked up. “So I have a proposal. I will now sit here for the next…” they checked the clock on the wall. “Forty minutes to properly bitch and moan about having to deal with this mess. Then we’ll take a break, at which point it will be my turn to be magnanimous and lend an ear as you bitch and moan as well for… twenty minutes.”

Gabriel frowned. “Why do I get half the time?”

“I thought you said things are going swimmingly in Heaven,” Beelzebub replied, all false sweetness, leaning their elbow on the table and resting their chin in the palm of their hand. “How much could you have to bitch and moan about?”

As it turned out, a lot. While Beelzebub kept to their forty-minute deadline, Gabriel kept his bitching and moaning going for just over an hour, with half the time dedicated to Michael’s snide remarks alone. Beelzebub didn’t bother to point it out or stop him once the time ran out, however, which suited him just fine. Their conversation that followed, figuratively roasting their underlings - although Gabriel suspected Beelzebub might roast them in a more literal way once back in Hell - lasted well over another two hours. 

In the end, the meeting ended for reasons outside their control. Which was to say, the pub was closing. The walk back to the closest elevator was not unpleasant, either. By the time he nodded at his counterpart and pressed the button up, Gabriel was feeling more relaxed than he had since… well. Surely since the Armageddon’t, and probably a good while before that. That entire bitch-and-moan session had been oddly entertaining. Cathartic, even. 

They should do it again at some point, he thought.

And they did.

***

“We’re fraternizing, aren’t we?”

“I beg your pardon?”

"Ah, I am afraid giving pardon to demons is outside the scope of my--”

“I don’t want pardon, I-- what did you just say?”

“I said, it seems we’re fraternizing? I think meeting up regularly to talk for reasons outside diplomatic relations and the organization of the next Armageddon might count as fraternizing.”

Well. Beelzebub had never thought of it in those terms, but when he put it like that…

“... I suppose it could be taken for fraternization.”

“Because it is.”

They pushed out their chin, looking him in the eye. “Yes. It is. Getting cold feet?”

“No? I find the temperature here perfectly pleasa-- why are you laughing?”

“Ah, just trying to figure out how God chose you to lead the Heavenly host.” Beelzebub leaned back. “What I am asking is, do you wish us to end these meetings?”

A pause, and… hesitation. Beelzebub didn’t need to breathe, but they did it anyway when on Earth to blend better, the same way they eliminated the rash on their face and changed their teeth; now, they found they were holding that breath. 

“... I don’t think that’s needed, do you?” Archangel Gabriel was finally saying, slowly. “It’s not like we’re trading strategies or secrets.”

Truth be told he had let a couple things slip that he probably shouldn’t have, but he didn’t seem to have realized as much and Beelzebub - who now started breathing again - chose not to point it out. “No, we are not.”

“So, this can continue. On Earth.”

“Until Armageddon happens.”

“Ah. That.”

“Yes. That.”

Silence. Beelzebub stared at their nails. Gabriel shifted on the seat. Somewhere at the back of the pub, someone knocked over his pint of beer to roaring laughter. 

“... Well,” Beelzebub finally said. “Mortals do often claim that the fact all things are bound to end makes them all the more special.”

“Sounds like idiocy.”

“It does.”

“I mean, if I like something, I’d like it better if it never had to end.”

“Mmmh.”

More silence. 

“If you like these meetings. Of course.”

“... I’ve had worse.”

“That’s a yes, yes?”

A chuckle. “You really don’t do subtle, do you?”

“Says the Lord of the Flies.” A grin. “Manifesting in a cloud of literal flies.”

“Heh. Point.”

Another silence, not as tense as the previous ones. Gabriel’s mind, however, kept… wandering for the remainder of the encounter. 

It didn’t wander very far, of course, because the solution was very simple. No Armageddon, no end of Earth, no end to… whatever it was they had going on now and that he desperately wanted to keep going. Stop Armageddon in its tracks, and never have to cease fraternizing with a demon on neutral ground. It was what Aziraphale had done, and he’d tried to destroy him in Hellfire for it. 

What he’d done was treason, after all; punishment had to be dealt with. Back then he couldn’t begin to understand why the Angel of the Eastern Gate had done something so stupid, risked so much, to keep frolicking around Earth with a demon. Now he suspected he was beginning to understand. 

That was bad, of course. He was not supposed to understand, much less to even think of following the same path. It would make him a traitor as well as a huge hypocrite, going against the mission of the Heavenly host - just about the opposite of all he was created to be doing. Any angel worth their salt wouldn’t even consider it.

Maybe he wasn’t such a good angel, after all. Maybe he wasn’t a good angel at all. It was a terrifying thought, and yet it paled compared to the other option: Heaven victorious, Earth reduced to a wasteland, and the Prince of Hell… gone.

Suddenly, being a traitor and a hypocrite didn’t seem all that bad.

***

"So, agreement concluded. No need to ever meet again, is there?"

"None whatsoever."

***

“Everyday, it's a-gettin' closer, goin' faster than a roller coaster--”

“Lord Beelzebub?”

Ah, for Satan’s sake. Beelzebub coughed, summoning a furiously buzzing swarm of flies as though they could cover up a song they’d already stopped humming anyway. All it achieved was making Dagon’s voice harder to hear. 

“Were you… singing, my Lord?”

“Of course not.”

“I could swear I--”

Beelzebub turned with their mouth wide open, snarling, and another swarm of flies flew forth to physically push Dagon out of the room. The heavy door shut on her surprised yell, and Beelzebub snarled again at the closed door. “I owe no explanation,” they buzzed, and sat back on their throne with a scowl. The nerve, just walking in without so much knocking. Were manners left out at the mouth to Hell?

… Well, mostly yes. But still. 

With a sigh that dissipated the last of the swarm, Beelzebub reached to scratch the boils on their cheek with one hand and took out their phone with the other, wondering if they should text Gabriel after all. It had been a few weeks. Surely a few weeks was long enough not to appear too desperate? Maybe, maybe not. They should probably wait another week at least, to be on the safe side. 

But they didn’t.

***

“Everyday seems a little longer, every way  love's a little stronger - come what may--”

“What’s that noise, Gabriel?”

Gabriel trailed off and looked up from his phone, where he had just starting writing a text message. Michael was looking at him with a raised eyebrow, clearly confused.

“Noise?”

“The… noise you were making?”

“Ah, that was singing. It’s called music. You know, like when I blow my horn? Except that it’s totally different and has words and is not meant to signal an attack, but other than that it’s pretty much the same thing. Humans do that a lot. They think we do that too, you know? They think we have choruses to sing praise, or something silly like that.”

“Oh,” Michael said, her tone alone making abundantly clear how unimpressed she was. “You’re spending a lot of time on Earth lately.”

A smile. Did it even reach his eyes? Gabriel really hoped that it did, but had his doubts. “Well, got to prepare the battleground, no?”

“True enough.” A smile, no more sincere than his own. “Do be careful, though. For a moment I almost feared you were going native, too.”

Like Aziraphale. Ah, I do owe an apology or two or twenty to Aziraphale, come to think of it.

He said nothing, and forced out a chuckle. The smile faded as soon as he watched Michael’s back retreating… and then spread on his face again when he heard a ping, and looked down at his phone to see a text from Beelzebub. 

Tomorrow?, was all it read, and he immediately replied YES. Only a few moments later would it occur to him that maybe he should have waited - just a few hours or a few days, so that he wouldn’t seem too desperate. Except, of course, that he was.

It had been a few very long weeks.

***

“I don’t actually know what to say.”

“Why not?”

“No one's ever given me anything before.”

Vulnerable was not a word Beelzebub may have ever considered using to describe the supreme Archangel of all Heaven, but that was precisely how the confused expression on his face made him come across. Not that they had ever received gifts, either - boons and sacrifices in times long gone, yes, but always seeking for something in return. 

That stupid little miracle Gabriel had pulled with the jukebox had been the first thing anyone had done for them with no strings or expectations attached. But no one in Hell is used to expecting favors, or gifts, or small kindnesses. Beelzebub had assumed that perhaps Heaven was different. 

Clearly it was not. 

Somewhere on their left, there was some laughter. Beelzebub looked over to see that, while a man tried and failed to get the jukebox to play a different song, two young men who clearly had more than a bit to drink were standing and holding onto each other, stumbling around a bit.

“What are they doing?” Gabriel asked.

“I think they’re dancing.”

“Dancing?”

“It’s a thing you do with music. You move around like… you know, how we did with our heads last time? Same, but with the whole body.”

“It looks stupid.”

“Well, those two are not very good at it. Are you telling me that angels still don’t dance?”

“... Never occurred to us that we should. Do you?”

“Demons do dance. We actually invented group dances. A torture if there ever was one.”

“You’re dodging a question there.”

“I don’t particularly enjoy it, personally. Why, were you going to ask for a dance?”

“Is that something humans do as part of a courtship?”

Ah.

Silence fell suddenly, and even the jukebox stopped playing as though someone had pulled the plug. Beelzebub looked up with a jerk of their head, to see Gabriel was giving him the peculiar stare of a rabbit caught in the headlights of a vehicle. “I-- I mean--” he stammered, but seemed unable to come up with anything else. 

In the end, he turned his gaze away and cleared his throat. “I believe,” he finally told his pint of beer, “that  I might have just said the quiet part out loud.”

“Yes, of course I know you didn’t mean-- wait. What?” Beelzebub’s eyebrows shot up nearly to their hairline. Under their stunned gaze, Gabriel - whom they’d fully expected to backpedal, saying that was absolutely not the word he was looking for - seemed to… shrink. 

“I-- I do apologize. It seems I have misread the situation.”

“Wait--”

“I believe I ought to--”

“Wait,” Beelzebub commanded, grabbing his sleeve before he could actually stand up. He looked back, surprised, and they met his gaze. “Sit. You may be a moron, but you’re--”

my moron

“-- not that much of a moron. You misread nothing,” they finished, realizing the truth of it just as the words left their lips.

Well. Look at that. The Prince of Hell, Lord of the Flies, was well and truly fucked.

“... Sit. Don’t call attention to us. I suppose it’s about time we say this damned quiet part out loud.”

Gabriel did sit, eyes wide. Beelzebub’s hand let go of his sleeve and slipped lower; Gabriel took it in his own hand, and held on as the jukebox resumed playing.

Everyone said, "Go ahead and ask her"

Love like yours will surely come my way…

***

When the day arrived for everything to come to a head, Gabriel was ready. 

He was perhaps not always the brightest bulb in the box - Beelzebub loved to remind him as much, not always so politely - but he wasn’t so naive he couldn’t tell that his opposition to a second attempt at Armageddon would do a lot more than raise eyebrows. It would have consequences, which he had partly anticipated. 

He had expected to be stripped of his rank. However, he had also expected to be cast down to Hell; the decision to keep him in Heaven and wipe out his memory had been a complete surprise. A mercy, they called it. What a mockery. It had always been a mockery, how had it taken him so long to see it?

I’m the Archangel fucking Gabriel, he’d once said. Not anymore, he thought now, and good fucking riddance. 

Luckily, for once in his existence he’d been able to quite literally come up with a plan on the fly. All right, maybe some details of that plan weren’t precisely ironed out, but he only had what little time his lie about cleaning a non-existing desk could give him. 

Enacting it had been easy in more ways than one; after six thousand and something years thinking that being cast out of Heaven would be the most agonizing fate he could possibly suffer as punishment for failure, walking himself out had been a piece of cake. He’d expected fear, and regret, and he’d prepared himself to push through it as he left all he had ever known behind - but there was neither. 

There was one path to walk, and only one, to keep his memories and keep holding onto the one being in creation he’d give up his very existence for. He’d walked it with no hesitation. Everything was suddenly so simple, so clear, and Gabriel had always liked simple things.

The only twinge of regret he felt before transferring his memories to the container Beelzebub had gifted him was for the nice tailored clothes he’d been forced to leave behind.

***

“New clothes, really? That was the first thing you thought to mention?”

“I missed my old ones. They were really nice. Tailored. Aziraphale has terrible taste.”

“I like the grandpa sweater.”

“You also have horrible taste. Most demons do. I suppose it comes with the job description.”

“Not that either of us has a job to do anymore.”

“True. I think I’ll enjoy unemployment very much.”

Beelzebub chuckled, and finally looked around to see exactly where Gabriel had taken them, still holding onto his hands. When they gaze fell on the statue in the middle of the cemetery, the chuckle turned into a small groan. “Your statue, again? Really?”

“Ah, we won’t stay long. Just a little something I have to do.”

“And what would that--”

The crack of thunder drowned out Beelzebub’s words, and lit up the cloudless sky with blinding light. Stone cracked and shattered, raining all around them; a few of the gravestones close by were damaged, but they remained unscathed. Beelzebub - formerly Prince of Hell, still Lord of the Flies - raised an eyebrow at the smoking, cracked stone slab where a statue of the Archangel Gabriel had been standing until moments earlier. 

They looked down to see a piece of it - part of the face, an eye looking back at them - was at their feet. “I thought you loved looking at this statue.”

“I’m not too fond of its subject anymore.”

“A pity. I am.”

“I have a better haircut now.”

“Debatable,” Beelzebub said, but they turned away from the statue's remains. They let go of one of Gabriel’s hands, and turned. 

“One last visit to the pub?”

“I can’t see why not,” Gabriel agreed, and kept holding onto their hand as they walked out of the cemetery, humming quietly. 

Come what may, do you ever long for 

True love from me?

[aziraphales-library]

heya, do you know of any gomens fics that are set in berlin, germany? thank you!

Hi! Here are some fics set in Berlin...

daedalus, landing by Contra (M)

AU in which their city is Berlin instead of London. // Alternate Title: The Sky over Berlin

To rest my eyes in shades of green by HolRose (G)

During what began as an ordinary November evening, bookish, shy student Aloysius, and world-weary horticulturist Anton meet on the top of a notorious Wall in a city teetering on the edge of momentous change. Growing up in a profoundly divided country has given them both ample reasons to be distrustful. Neither of them have considered that they might fall in love at first sight, but where the personal and political collide on this most unprecedented of occasions, they may be about to change their minds.

A Berlin Wall AU

Left With No Trace by Anti_kate (E)

Aziraphale’s heart didn’t leap so much as plummet from a cliff-top, flinging itself towards certain doom. Aziraphale struggles with his feelings after his fight with Crowley over the holy water, until they meet by chance in Berlin.

Good Omens Deutschland by fathand (T)

1946 - 1989.

Berlin, during the Cold War.

Maybe This Time by orphan_account (T)

There was a cabaret in a city called Berlin, in a country called Germany, in a Europe that just narrowly escaped the end of the world and was rapidly heading towards another attempt.

And in that cabaret, an Angel and a Demon were dancing together. The trumpets signaling end times could have been playing, and they wouldn’t have even heard it over the music.

Atomic Omens by bookmarksorganization (E)

It's Atomic Blonde (which you don't need to have seen), but it's Good Omens. Basically: it's a spy story set in 1989 Berlin feat. Crowley as the femme fatale main character.

- Mod D

[kiralena]

Good Omens Season 3 speculation

Contains: Showdown in heaven, Aziraphale, Crowley, the trumpet and the Metadouche.

Hid below cut to avoid spoilers.

The Metadron points at Aziraphale: 'blow that trumpet, Aziraphale, you were always meant to start the Second Coming! This is your destiny!'

Aziraphale, looking at the trumpet in the Metadron's hands. The looking up, slightly shaking his head. 'NO, I won't. I have no intention to sacrifice humanity to your stupid power games.'

The Metadron, with a slight smile: 'How predictable. Then ... what about this?'

The 'ding' of the arriving elevator catches Aziraphale's attention. The doors open, and Michael and Sandalphon dragging Crowley into heaven, pushing him down to the floor. Both of them carry bottles of Holy Water.

Aziraphale wants to run to Crowley, but Crowley just slightly shakes head. Aziraphale stopps mid-motion, looking back at the Metadron. 'Set hin free, spit spot!'

The Metadron's grin is widening, growing evil. 'we know about your little trick. It won't work a second time. Blow the trumpet, or your friend, the demon Crowley, will end to exist.'

Aziraphale's fingers wander to his face, pressing them against his lips. He knows, if he wants to save humanity, he will never feel the touch of Crowley's skin to his again. No more endless conversations. No more basking in the glowing warmth of each others love. If he refuses to blow the trumpet, there will be nothing but painfull void. An empty space in his immortal soul, which never was meant to be empty but filled with love. The only thing worth living for.

Or...

Dying.

Crowley shakes his head, so his sunglasses fall off. He looks up, locking eyes with Aziraphale. 'I trust you', he simply says, his expression shifting from confident to sad to relieved. 'Always have.'

Aziraphale's eyes fill with tears, he wants to run to Crowley, but Crowley still shakes his head. 'I trust you', he repeats, and Aziraphale exhales.

'I love you.'

And without further thought he jumps to the Metadron, grabs the trumpet and breaks it in two.

The same momenent he hears the sound of splashing water. His eyes jump back to Crowley, surrounded by white flames. There is still this expression in his eyes, warm and full of love and trust.

Aziraphale breaks down, in his ears a ringing sound and his vision going black. He doesn't hear the Metadron yelling at him, throwing the worst curses ever known at him.

Then the sound goes mute. Aziraphale lifts his head, seeing everything around him has come to an halt.

Then...

...there it is.

The glowing warmth of the soul he loves so much.

'You told me to trust you'...he whispers.

And you have, Crowley replies.

'But ... how?'

Demon, possessing is our thing, you know? I'm glad I didn't make you explode.

Aziraphale presses his fingers to his lips again. 'Crowley, I'm so sorry. Please forgive me.'

Nah, don't bother, Crowley's voice shifts through his mind, but his tone is warm and happy. I'm not the one to forgive you. Forgiveness is your thing.

'You can stay as long as you want', Aziraphale whispers.

Not the first time we shared a home.

'You are my home.'

And you are mine. Always have been.

'Crowley, is it over? Did we safe humanity?'

We won't know until I start time again. Ready?

Aziraphale gets up, moving his hands over his coat to remove the wrinkles, then tightens his bowtie. 'Alright, it's time to lick some serious butt.'

It's kick, Aziraphale, remember?

Aziraphale nods, with a slight smile. 'I know, I just wanted to share this memory of the two of us heading into the lions den. Our group of two.'

Occult husbands?

Aziraphale giggles. 'I'm not occult. But ethereal sounds wrong either now. What about ... ineffable husbands?'

I like this. So, are you ready? We still don't know what is happening, now that you destroyed the key to Second Coming.

'Ready. Kick butt.'

The sound plopps back into space and Aziraphale looks around. Metadron is still yelling at him.

But ... who is this? The young woman standing next to them, no angel he has ever seen?

The young woman lifts her hand and the Metadron drops silent.

'You twisted my words, and for what?'

'Almighty, I always had no other intent than bringing you endless glory', the Metadron stumbles.

'What was so hard to understand about 'be nice to each other?'' She turns to Aziraphale, smiling across her face. 'The two of you were the only ones who understood, who followed my ineffable plan no matter what.' She snips with her finger, and Crowley appears next to Aziraphale. 'Which life do you want to live? Angel or demon?'

'I am who I am.'

GOD nods, 'then you may continue being yourself. Asking questions, being kind. And...'

She is interrupted by Arziraphale grabbing Crowley's shoulders and pulling him into a tight embrace.

God smiles, turning to the Metadron and the other angels: 'See? Was that really so hard to understand? That the ineffable plan was always about loving each other?'

'But the Second Coming ... our victory ...'

GOD waves with her hands. 'It never has been about winning something. Loving each other and embracing who you are, that is truly ineffable.'

She looks back at Aziraphale and Crowley, who are still hugging as tight as only a snake can hug somebody, and says with a bright smile: 'Now kiss already!'

And they do.

One kiss.

Another.

And many, many more.

Because: what would be the meaning of life if not filling it with love?