#it's not about neil gaiman

[greenfiredragonfly]

Uhhhhhh how to say this...

...Why are people making the good omens spoiler leak all about neil gaiman?

Uhhhhh idk. I liked the TV show when I watched it, and it was fun to see one of my old, longtime fandoms burst into vibrant life with so many wonderful new people! I made a lot of friends! There are so many new and beautiful fanworks in the world now! So many people were introduced to my OTP and fell in love with them just like I did!! Yay!

However. I'm not actually planning on watching season two, because GO is my favorite book and I hate sequels pretty much across the board. I love terry pratchett's work. Neil is not my favorite author. I really like some of his stuff and really dislike others.

....

*breathes deeply*

So basically:

I DON'T CARE ABOUT WHAT NEIL IS SAYING OR WHAT HE THINKS ABOUT STUFF BEING LEAKED!! WHO CARES?? WHO CARES IF YOU LOVE NEIL OR HATE HIM???? WHO CARES IF YOU WANT TO TAUNT HIM OR RUB THE LEAK IN HIS FACE OR WHATEVER THE HELL?? DEATH OF THE AUTHOR AND ALL THAT!!! WHATEVER!!!! BUT PLEASE TAG YOUR GOOD OMENS SPOILERS BECAUSE SOME PEOPLE ARE ACTUALLY TRYING TO AVOID BEING SPOILED!!!!???? HOW HARD IS THAT TO BELIEVE???? IT'S ABOUT BEING KIND TO YOUR FELLOW FANS!!!!!

People are so keen to rub the leak in Neil's face that they're being rude to everyone else who just loves good omens and wants to watch it without being spoiled. Please stop. Please. At least tag your posts "good omens season 2" or something. Please. Please.

[fuckyeahgoodomens]

From the Neil Gaiman: Dream Dangerously 🥺❤ (you can watch it here in US or with US vpn :) <3) (or just this bit on youtube here :))

Neil Gaiman: I miss him most when I get stuck. You know, I'll just be working on something and I'll go, "Oh, this isn't quite it," and all I want to do is just call Terry, tell him what's going on and have him say, "Ah, grasshopper, the answer is there in the question." And I'd go, "Oh, for fuck's sake, Terry, just tell me."

[Terry Pratchett laughing]

[ace-kaz-brekker]

Every time I see a bunch of posts from Neil Gaiman on my feed I think, "Neil... you're procrastinating writing again, aren't you"

[hansoeii]

head empty, no thoughts. just turtleneck crowley

[asasdemorcego]

me lately once again

[churail]

i mean this in the nicest way possible but making pieces of media your whole personality is not a good idea. not just cause individual authors can turn out to be horrible people that you might want to distance yourselves from later, but also because your self deserves to not be flattened by one story (no matter how important it seems to be). you deserve to be a person who cannot be defined in a few sentences.

[crowleyholmes]

Been working on this for a while and if I don't post it now I never will so here you go <3 enjoy the most self-indulgent thing I've ever spent time on - I just really needed them to hug...

[astrhae]

crowley used the metal tool in season 1 to start time, and we learn that he's used it first to start space. to create the stars -- he still remembers how. he still remembers all of heaven's passwords: in the book crowley is described as an optimist because he has the "utter surety... that the universe would look after him". not god, but the universe. and of course he does: he helped create it and he's looking after it, too.

think about it: aziraphale had a sword, but crowley is about to face satan who wants to destroy the world, and crowley's only weapon is a tool of creation

[sherlock-is-ace]

ok hear me out

[diamondcitydarlin]

Just fair warning- I said on my personal post about this that I wasn't going to talk about Neil Gaiman anymore, but as it's becoming clear that him and his publishers and anyone else who makes money off of him is circling the wagons and trying to bury these allegations, as well as some fans still defending and trying to 'rationalize' this information, I feel like, actually, we need to keep talking about him (as much as I cannot stand him and feel physically disgusted now when I so much as see his face somewhere). Specifically, the fact that he's a liar, master manipulator and should not, under any circumstances, be given access to his fans like he has in the past. At the very least. (And if you need to blacklist his name or even unfollow me so as to not be triggered, I completely understand, but I will always try to tag these posts accordingly and I think it's crucial right now that the truth be put where people can see)

This post specifically is in response to those 'rationalizations' I've seen, some that have gone as far as to blame the young fans/groupies that hooked up with him for being 'golddiggers' or just making a mountain out of a molehill for something they now regret. It's not that simple, yall. (And, again, this requires some amount of completely ignoring the story about him extorting his tenant for sex under threat of eviction of her and her three young children, I'm not sure how you 'rationalize' that under the best of circumstances)

So let's be clear here. What we know is that NG has routinely, for possibly an upwards of 30 years, pulled sexual 'partners' from his fan groups, most of whom are 18-22 year old young women (though possibly younger, accounts are coming forward of 16 year olds having allegedly been inappropriately touched/flirted/propositioned by him, which ig is the age of consent in the UK but still?? 16 year olds!!). This wasn't one or two times in the course of three decades, this was a constant pattern of behavior for him and for a very insidious reason.

This isn't to try to infantilize those fans or young women/young people in general or try to suggest that they couldn't have consented to sex with an older person or famous person. In fact, the onus isn't on them at all. This is about an older guy with a lot of fame, power and wealth choosing to sleep with people that he had already conditioned to idolize him and using that power imbalance to coerce them into doing things they didn't want to.

Regardless of one's age or gender identity, it can be difficult to impossible to say 'no' to someone like that. After all, you've been 'chosen' by the chosen one, you're special and not like everyone else, and if you don't do what the popular person everyone trusts is telling you to do you could end up ostracized. Alienated. Or worse. And you know what? Gaiman knew that! He knew it when he was crafting his 'approachable dad' persona on tumblr. He knew it when he was cultivating a fandom of personality. He knew it when he was having huge meetups to try to ensnare more victims. I hate to even think it, but I'm starting to believe he knew it when he was writing children's books too.

It's been talked about again and again in separate issues, but needless to say something not being strictly illegal does not make it inherently, morally okay. It does not erase the fact that this man has been essentially grooming his fandom to feel safe meeting/speaking with him so he can coerce those he can snare into sexual acts they're not comfortable with. That is predator behavior, whether strictly 'illegal' in the eyes of a court or not (but ofc I think he should be criminally punished even if I'm not naive enough to think he actually will be, because this IS rape and rape should be criminally punished)

I'm not personally advocating for anyone to give up being in his related fandoms, but what I am personally advocating for is that people don't forget who he is and what he's capable of, especially when he tries to crawl back to where he was (I'm almost certain he will eventually, as I've said).

Again, at the very least, we need to use what little influence we do have to keep him from infiltrating fan spaces again. He should not be on tumblr yukking it up with young people, he should not be at public appearances hitting on teenagers, he should not be given the unrestricted access to fans that he's 'enjoyed' for the past 30+ years because he is not a safe person. While I wish there was more in the way of restorative justice that could be done, I think at very, very least we should do what we can to limit his proximity to people he could hurt in the future. Make sure no one forgets, because sweeping this under the rug means Gaiman gets to hurt more people.

Lastly, no one is the wrong for having been manipulated by him. Let's make that very clear. What we're NOT gonna do is blame ourselves, each other, the victims, etc, for evil acts that Gaiman chose to do himself, time and time and time again. It doesn't help the situation and it certainly doesn't protect future potential victims. We were all duped because we're human and we attach and a lot of us want to believe there are good people out there, particularly those who make art that means so much to us.

And there are. But let's also use this a teaching/learning tool about how much faith we place in famous people in the future, regardless of how 'approachable' and 'safe' they might seem. Let's remember to have a healthy suspicion of creators/famous people that are oddly immersed in fandom spaces- yes, even the ones you still currently like that seem fine, as difficult as that may seem.

At the end of the day, we don't know them or what they're capable of doing or what they might be plotting to do to us. Support victims. Amplify their voices. Don't forget.

[fellshish]

The metaphor kills me. You can’t turn a turnip into an inkwell the way you can’t turn crowley into an angel devoted to heaven

[star-containment]

good omens things that keep me up at night part 3: his little smile after he says shut up

[illchoosedismaythanks]

If this wasn’t on clickhole I think I’d pretty easily believe he actually said this

[artemis-pendragon]

He's feeding us but at what cost

[caspergs]

every time someone famous is outed as being a shitty person theres people going “this is why you shouldn’t idolize celebrities,” “why are you sad that a bad person is being exposed as a bad person,” like PLEASE just let people be upset that someone they liked sucks

[markmybirds]

Dear @neil-gaiman ...

You are probably not going to understand why I am writing to you until the end of this. It's kind of poetic but please stick around.. I am deathly allergic to hornet/wasp/bee stings. I live in Canada where atm in Ontario we are dealing with an invasive giant hornet species that eats bees. So. I had to save the bees. Edit: I've been educated by husband and some lovely tumblr folks about it being a European Hornet! Still very deadly if she had stung me.

I went to take a nap. And found one crawling around my room floor. You could say I did not take a nap. Instead I grabbed a glass cup and put it overtop of her. She's very pretty, but for me she's pretty deadly. The closest books to stop the paranoia of her flipping the glass over were your books. American Gods and Stardust were too thick. Posed threat of also tipping glass over. So.. The Ocean at the End of the Lane it was.

Thank you for the book. It's a lovely read. And you could say it's helping save my life while my husband is out of the house at work.

Sincerely,

Emelie.

"Words save our lives, sometimes." Literally.

Also shout out to @wardog-of-the-endless who sat in her office in Florida and listened to a panicked Canadian over Discord Voice Clips since I was shaking too much to type. I don't get scared often but when I do..

Jumpscare: Hornet.

Edit/Update: I didn't kill her, but she was not doing well prior to my trapping her. I was going to wait to get husband to decide what to do with her, he's a Biologist so I knew he'd know better. I was very scared due to the fact I was home alone and initially had no cellphone around me to call 9-1-1 if she was to sting me. But when he came home she had curled up and passed on. We're a trap and release sort of fam. We DO live in the area where trees have been killed off by invasive moth species so I was worried she was invasive. Thank you to those peoples who educated me.