aziraphale saying “we’re the good guys” after being physically and verbally attacked by sandalphon michael and uriel vs aziraphale saying “you’re the bad guys” after crowley tries to convince him to not go back to heaven. i need a gallon of grappa to deal with this one
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“Crowley is still an angel deep down” “Crowley is more of an angel than any of the archangels” “Crowley was only cast out because he needed to play his part in Armageddon, he's not a real demon” “Aziraphale wants to rebuild Heaven to be more like Crowley because he’s what an angel should be” no. Stop it. This is exactly where Aziraphale went wrong.
Crowley is 100% a demon. He's not actually a bit of an angel, and he's not cosmically better than any of the other demons we see in the series. He's much less vicious than most of them, yeah, but he's also much less vicious than most of the angels, because how “nice” a celestial being is has nothing to do with which side they're technically on. Crowley's kindness comes from him doing his best to help people despite the hurt he's suffered himself, not any sort of inherent residual or earned holiness. He was cast out just like the rest of the demons, and that's an important part of his history that shouldn't be minimized, excused, or, critically, 'corrected.'
Being angelic is not a positive or negative trait in the Good Omens universe. It's a species descriptor. Saying that Crowley is still an angel deep down because he helps people is an in-character thing for Aziraphale to think, certainly--Job and the final fifteen showed that in the worst possible way--but it's not something Crowley would ever react well to, and it's the main source of conflict in the entire "appoint you to be an angel" fiasco.
We know that Aziraphale thinks Crowley's fall was an injustice, but why? Well, because Crowley is actually Good, which means his fall was a mistake, or a test, or a regrettable error in judgment, or…something. Ineffable. Etc. The point is, he’s special, much better than those other demons, and if they can fix him and make him an angel again, everything will be fine! (So once Job's trials are over, everything will be restored to him? Praise be!) Aziraphale has to believe that Crowley's better traits come from traces of the angel he used to know and not the demon he's known for 6,000 years, because that’s how he can rationalize his incorrect view of Heaven as The Source Of Truth And Light And Good with his complicated feelings about Crowley's fall.
But Crowley's fall was not an injustice because he's actually a Good Person who didn't deserve it. Crowley's fall was an injustice because the entire system of dividing people into Good (obedient) and Bad (rebellious) is bullshit. Crowley is not an unfortunate exception to God's benevolence, he is a particularly sympathetic example of God's cruelty.
And really, Crowley doesn't behave at all like an angel, especially when he's at his best. All of the things that he's done that we as the audience consider Good are things that Heaven has directly opposed. (See: saving the goats and children in defiance of God in S2E2, convincing Aziraphale to give money to Elspeth despite Heaven's views on the "virtues of poverty" in S2E3, speaking out against the flood and the crucifixion in S1E3, tempting Aziraphale to enjoy earthly pleasures because he thinks they'll make him happy, stopping Armageddon.)
Heaven as an institution has never been about helping humanity. And that's not an issue of leadership, as Aziraphale seems to think--it's by design. Aziraphale's first official act as an angel toward humanity was to literally throw them to the lions. Giving them the sword wasn't him acting like an angel, it was just him being himself. Heaven doesn't care about humans. It's not supposed to. It's supposed to win the war against Hell, with humans as chess pieces at best and collateral damage at worst.
Yes, it's easier to think that there are forces that are supposed to be fundamentally good. It's easier to think that Aziraphale is going to show those mean archangels and the Metatron what’s coming to them and reform Heaven into what it "should" be, and that God is actually super chill and watching all of this while shipping ineffable husbands and cheering for them the whole way. And of course it's easier to take Crowley, who Aziraphale (and the audience) adores, and say that he deserves to be on the Good team much more than all those angels and demons that we don’t like. But that's not how it works. People are more complicated than that, even celestial beings.
Crowley is a demon, and the tragedy of his character is not that he's secretly a good guy who is being forced to be evil; the tragedy is that he's lived his whole life stuck between two institutional forces that are both equally hostile to the love he feels for the universe and the beings in it. There are no good and bad guys. There are no "right people." Every angel, demon, and human is capable of hurting or helping others based on their choices. That is, in fact, the entire fucking point.
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Please tell me no one actually bought Gales line about getting the Netherese Orb by trying to return a gift to Mystra with no ulterior motive
The entire point is he's lying/deceiving himself
He convinced HIMSELF he was trying to impress Mystra to prove he was worthy. But he wanted power. He wanted access to the Weave, he wanted more than she was giving him and more than any mortal had access to.
It is NO COINCIDENCE that if he ascends in the end he becomes the God of Ambition, because Ambition has ALWAYS BEEN his biggest flaw/Achilles heel/hubris/crux of issue
Gale sought ULTIMATE power, always. He was always too curious, too certain that HE above anyone else was MOST deserving of power because he would use it the best.
This is a big part of his character
It is what makes him multidimensional, flawed, human - it informs his thoughts on Raphael, the Crown of Karsus, etc. This is the joy who couldn't be told no to a kitten so he summoned a Tressym. This is a student who broke every rule in school just to prove he could do it better. It's huge chunks of his personality
Don't set it aside to make him innocent and perfect. Add it to all that he is as flavor. A little bit of
🌶✨️spice
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Cullen: *trying to distract Ras Al Ghul for his sister who he just found out was Blue Bird* Why do you worship Lazarus anyway? What does it give you?!
Ras Al Ghul: It gives me endless life and eternal youth.
Cullen: But I bet it can't give me a boyfriend.
*Lazarus green portal opens up in the sky and shoots a guy down at Cullen feet*
Ras:
Cullen:
Nightwing:
Bluebird:
Robin:
Cullen: Dibs
Robin: That is a demon. A pit demon.
Cullen: and I called dibs
Phantom: ????
Phantom: I know a place if you like burgers
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