#im sorry this is really long i have Feelings™ on the coffee theory and the ending in itselr

[p4nishers]

Tbh I DO feel like people thinking Aziraphale has a Plan or believing in the coffee theory takes away from the emotional impact and the narrative as a whole. It's a cult. Aziraphale has spent his entire life in a cult. I don't personally have that kind of religious trauma, but it's very real and it can be very hard to shake the conditioning. What's four years of freedom in the face of over six thousand. When we KNOW he struggles with black and white mentality (Crowley falling was a singular mistake, he alone is the exception to the 'demons are evil' rule, the system is not broken there are just a few bad apples) and this season he's not quite coping with the lack of connection to Heaven. The Metatron's approach is exactly that of an abuser trying to coax their victim into compliance. Crowley leaves already knowing from experience that both Heaven and Hell are corrupt. Aziraphale notably hasn't learned that lesson yet, but S3 is setting up for him to have a rude awakening. And it's not OOC at all.

you said it perfectly, thank you. it's not out of character, it's not the coffee, it's not metatron literally controlling his mind (yes i saw someone theorize that, it was a whole thing).

it's an entire existence of brainwashing and abuse.

honestly, i wasn't surprised very much when aziraphale accepted metatron's offer or that he didn't see the problem with it in the first place. every flashback this season (besides maybe 1941) was just the show saying loudly and clearly to us how much influence heaven still has on aziraphale's thinking, even if he can learn, he still will fall back on what they brainwashed him into. in the job ep he was so eager to find a way to make heaven be the good guys, he was absolutely certain that this wasn't what God wanted, despite the fact that They ordered the whole thing.

he cannot just escape this kind of good/bad and black/white thinking bc it's what he knew his whole life. and that's what crowley doesn't, can't understand bc he fell relatively early, before earth and people, and he had thousands of years to see how rotten heaven actually is but aziraphale doesn't have that. he didn't fall, he's still an angel and still has the same mindset despite seeing heaven wanting to end the world perhaps even more than hell. and no, he can't break out of it until he sees the whole problem up close, sees how fundamentally wrong everything is and that it cannot be changed.

even if we are all upset about this, i think we should keep in mind that if this didn't happen, if aziraphale didn't get to see the system as it actually is, he would've still believed in it in some way and shared their mindsets, however unintentionally, and he and crowley could never have truly lasted without both of them learning from their mistakes. because crowley needs to learn too, needs to see that running away from it all doesn't solve anything and it will eventually catch up with him.

that's why the coffee theory, even if it ends up being true, which i highly doubt, is not good for aziraphale's character and not the "big saving grace" everyone thinks it is.