#metatron is a total bastard

[cuddyclothes]

Okay, some Thoughts about Good Omens 2 and that ending and stuff

Disclaimer: I’ve never read the book. I’ve never heard the radio show. Beware, there is criticism under the “keep reading” as well as my analysis of the ending. I’m using male pronouns but feel free to substitute the ones you prefer.

I loved “Good Omens 2″. And have rewatched it at least three times, as well as having it on in the background. And watched clips on YouTube, especially of the ending. I’VE CRIED A FUCKING RIVER. The beginning with Angel!Crowley squealing and squeaking with happiness over his new universe is cute and heartbreaking.

And naked Jon Hamm! Who doesn’t love naked Jon Hamm? He is hilarious.

But here were my problems as I was watching it. First: Crowley’s present day hair. Hated it, hated it, hated it. The little curl bobbing around when he moved his head kept distracting me. It was a beautiful red first season, and all of the hairstyles were lovely, especially when it was long!!

What’s with the color and curls? Aziraphale’s hair is still the same. And no full-on serpent eyes!

And no odd little noises. What happened to the odd little noises?

The plot was thin. Hanging the whole thing on something as small as Gabriel’s disappearance after the enormity of S1 left it a tad lacking. The Nazi zombie “minisode” was irritating. If you’re going to have Nazi zombies, don’t let them stumble out and kill more people! Also, it was so SATISFYING when they were killed. (Does that count as retcon?) The zombies were mainly there so we could watch Aziraphale play with the feather boa and be flustered all over the place. It was so unnecessary. It would have been better minus Nazi zombies. But zombies are all the rage these days, so I guess you have to have them.

I’m generally down with the horror side of things, except for those poor graveyard guards, doomed to fall forever. And why did Maggie love Nina so much? Nina was basically a grump who barely smiled and certainly gave her no encouragement. I know they were supposed to mirror the main couple but it was pretty weak tea. The more anvilicous, the less enjoyable. Seriously, I didn’t give a shit. The only part I liked was when they told Crowley to back off.

While I knew when watching that the series was mostly fan service on a silver platter garnished with parsley, I still enjoyed it. I would watch Michael and David talk about coding. (In my day we’d say read the phone book but do phone books even exist any more?) However, again, my toes are broken from all of the anvils. I squirmed at how shameless it was. I knew there would be fan art and fan fiction and GIFs out the wazoo, so who am I to piss on somebody else’s fun? But for me, there were moments when I wanted to say, “tone it down a little! We get it!�� 

Especially since Aziraphale was such a prissy little fluff ball through the whole season. Does anyone else think S1 Aziraphale would have been a ferocious warrior when the demons showed up? Rather than “oh dear, here girls, you fight the devil’s army!” He could have yeeted the demons into the holy circle! By the way, who made the holy circle? When he calls, “Anybody there?” who answered?

And, and, AND there was no significant fights between Aziraphale and Crowley! Remember “How can somebody so clever be so stupid!”?  When the conflict between the main characters is insignificant (until the end) it diminishes the whole stakes. Which is why I feel like the ending was hastily slapped on, even if it did rip my heart out of my chest.

But I’ve thought a lot about the ending, and I think Metatron played Aziraphale like a harpsichord. Do you think for one minute Metatron thinks Aziraphale could lead Heaven and a huge project like the Second Coming? Of course not, he thinks Aziraphale is a chump. Azi will think he’s in charge while Michael and Uriel walk all over him.

Aziraphale didn’t want to go to Heaven, but Metatron flattered him AND offered to let Crowley return as bait. That did it, because Azi can be an idiot at times. Remember how he thought he could go have a word with Heaven and straighten everything out in S1? When Crowley says no, Aziraphale has made a promise and I don’t recall him ever being able to break a promise. When they kiss he’s hopelessly confused and crying. 

Metatron comes along, Azi almost protests that he doesn’t want to go, but again, he made a promise. This is just me, but when he’s in Heaven’s elevator, as we watch it go up, we see him slowly being brainwashed

[beaniegaebie]

i don't really have any solid conclusions about this yet but i noticed A Thing in a rewatch and i haven't found it mentioned elsewhere yet so here we go

(apologies for the appalling image quality you're about to see, i can't screenshot easily rn pls bear with)

OKAY so in the scene where crowley confronts gabriel about "shut up and die", something about the arrangement of book stacks caught my eye a little

the majority of the books are angled so that we mostly just see the page edges and not the spines clearly, EXCEPT for a particularly shiny and familiar colour combo right here-

but nothing too weird going on there, i thought, crowley coloured books in a bookshop so what? right up until i registered crowley's line when we get a closer look-

hhhhmmmmMMmmmm yes yes "everything just the way you wanted" huh, very interesting considering that we know how much thought goes into props huh

and for most of the shots we get of crowley in this position those freaking books are just quietly nestled right there in the corner-

look at that god damn framing i fuckin see you, you glorious bastards

so i paused to see if i could figure out what the hell was up with those fuckers and this is when i absolutely lost my mind, your honour

A and C you say?? in crowley colours???? framed like this?????? localised entirely within your kitchen???

anyway long story short they're two books from an Agatha Christie Crime Collection set (24 volumes, three stories per volume) and guess whats on the mfing front covers I'm-

(its a rant for another post but when paired with this other set of initials spotted in s2 i want to scream actually)

ANYWAY back to the books, through an absolutely unhinged comparison of the formatting of gold text blobs i reckon the two we have here are:

(on top) The Pale Horse; The Big Four, The Secret Adversary

(on bottom) 4:50 From Paddington, Lord Edgeware Dies, Murder in Mesopotamia

(I'm fairly confident but if anyone has a better image to confirm/correct this pls do)

now here is where I'll need a bunch of help from some Christie-heads out there bc I haven't read any of these and I've only seen the tv adaptation of one of them, so i dont know for sure if these are like A Clue, or A Cool Thing, or if I've just fully brainrotted myself into a fun lil corner here? wa-hoo

but here's some initial stuff that jumped out at me after skimming the basics:

(some of) the titles: Pale Horse/Big Four - death's horse ofc, the four horsemen mayb? the them+adam?? ; Mesopotamia is a very biblical choice bbz ; 4:50 From Paddington- azi likes trains i guess? idk that one's tenuous lmao ; honestly no idea with the other two but Secret Adversary feels a tad ominous

iirc Big Four just has kind of an unusual history, it was initially twelve short stories that she later compiled into one, and it was published fairly soon after christie's mysterious disappearance/reappearance

in Big Four, poirot fakes his death at one point and doesnt even let hastings in on it and I'm hoping sure its totally irrelevant to the ineffable bois

part of the Pale Horse story is a group of assassins that basically try to pass off all their murders as being actually caused by like ✨satanic powers✨ which is interesting

christie knew a fUCkton about poisonings thats why she wrote so many into her work and, while i don't believe the poison coffee theory myself, it sure is an interesting link with how cyanide is associated with almond smell/flavour and that metatron chooses almond syrup in particular

(ALSO random side note that is mostly meaningless but I've worked in a good few uk coffee shops and have never worked anywhere that stocks almond syrup; almond milk yes, hazelnut syrup yes, but never almond syrup...? prob just the places i worked though lmao)

EDIT forgotten point: I've seen some speculation that the bently's plate reading "CURTAIN" could be a reference to poirot's last story, along side that alternate scene of crowley ordering the sherry for "miss marple", its just one too many agatha christie references for my melted brain to handle and I'm SUS

so this is where i run out of idea steam and hand it over to you lot because i have no clue what this could mean, if it even means anything other than a cool set feature

is there something here actually or am i yelling into the void just for fun?

who knows, who cares!

[im-the-j-in-anthony-j-crowley]

I think I talk a lot about loving Crowley, but now I want to talk about Aziraphale because the reasons I love him most I think are perhaps worth sharing.

Going back to heaven: Yes, he totally destroyed us. But it's an attempt to change a system, and you have to think about the fact that heaven is not a system like any government you can find in our reality. It is an entity that CREATED THE UNIVERSE. The level of power that heaven has is something unimaginable next to any equivalent in our world. And this angel had the audacity to say: Yes, I'm going to try to fix it.

You broke my heart, AND you made me love you more in the process. The fucking audacity

Being Enough of a Bastard: Have you ever noticed those moments where Aziraphale throws out phrases that seem innocent, but at the same time if you think about it too much, they are a... my life what are you doing?

Commenting to Gabriel about human clothing after Gabriel despised human food.

Asking Crowley if he had better ideas or ONE better idea

Challenging authority: He does it in a subtle way, he does it in a way that minimises the risk of retaliation, but he does it.

Being in a room full of high ranking angels and high ranking demons and just telling them "shut up and let's see what Beelzebub and Gabriel want" MY LIFE I LOVE YOU

When he was trying to save Job's children.

In his conversation with Metatron. Yes, he eventually gave in, but he was defying him.

In hell when he was pretending to be Crowley

I am not usually inclined to love characters who are defined as the "always do the right thing" the "morally right" the "good one"

I tend to respect those characters, but they are not usually the character that makes me go: OH GODS I WANT TO BE ABLE TO MANIPULATE REALITY TO MAKE EVERYTHING PERFECT FOR YOU, YOU ARE THE MOST PERFECT BEING I'VE EVER SEEN

And Aziraphale does that. And at the same time, he is enough of a bastard. And oh fuck, how much i love that bastard part

Also, I can't leave here without mentioning Michael "acting choices" Sheen. I've never been so interested in an actor that I started watching every single thing they acted in as if my life depended on it, BUT I'M DOING IT FOR THIS MAN

Every expression he chooses to make, every movement, reflects so well the reality of Aziraphale that I can only say that it's perfection

I believe in perfection simply because I saw Michael Sheen being Aziraphale, and Aziraphale being Aziraphale

[very-normal-abt-this]

hypothesis on what Aziraphale was thinking during the elevator ride (s2e6)

They rode the elevator in silence. Hundreds of thoughts raced through the Angel's panicked mind, as he tried to figure out what just happened.

But after panic, came anger.

Anger, which was caused by an answer to the sudden question that arose in his mind. The question was - How is HE the best angel for the job of "wrapping things up" on Earth? That actually made absolutely no sense. Certainly, after Aziraphale thwarted the last attempted Armageddon, Metatron was highly aware of Aziraphale's disapproving stance on Earth obliteration and on starting wars between Heaven and Hell. So then...why would the Metatron recruit him??

Aziraphale could think of only one reason that made any sense. He suddenly remembered what the angels had said about the combined miracle performed by Crowley and himself - "almost 25 Lazarii", and they had barely put any effort into it. (Metatron's plan all along was to separate us, in order to prevent us from interfering in their plans again!) Aziraphale realized that Metatron was probably *betting* on Crowley rejecting the offer to come back to Heaven. It was probably the lynchpin of his entire plan. On top of that, the bastard also used Aziraphale's affection for the demon as bait, to get him to consider the offer, while knowing the whole time that Crowley would never go for it. (Unbelievable. Actually...completely believable, but still. Unbelievable). Aziraphale was absolutely seething. Metatron had played him for the fool. He had played both of them. (And we completely fell for it. United we stand, divided we fall...isn't that some famous human expression?) Aziraphale tried very hard to control his facial expressions, trying not to let his bitterness and disgust be overly apparent. He wasn't totally successful...

After anger, came resolve.

(So, you think you've tricked me? You think you've neutralized your biggest threat? Fine. Good on you. I will let you think that. And I will use that to my advantage.) Aziraphale was thinking that it is all up to him now. That he WILL figure out a way to stop this from happening. Once and for all. He has to. Aziraphale's eyes darted around the elevator, as he considered his nex steps.

The elevator was slowing down now, and Aziraphale knew that the doors will be opening in a few seconds. He steeled himself internally, and stuffed all his genuine thoughts and emotions very deep, and very far away from his face. He then conjured up the most pleased/excited smile that he could muster.

The problem is - Aziraphale was never good at hiding his emotions. He tended to wear his heart on his sleeve, and his emotional state was usually quite obvious to those around him.

So, as often happens with disingenuous and forced expressions of emotions that are the opposite of how we are actually feeling - Aziraphale's "pleased/excited smile" came out as over the top, maybe even mildly grotesque. But he didn't care. He knew that most angels had a very limited understanding of emotional expression. And...they had a very limited understanding of him.

(full fic located here https://archiveofourown.org/works/50747473/chapters/128195287)

[tonydaddingham]

What is your take on the whole "the Metatron threatened Aziraphale off-screen & Aziraphale lied to protect Crowley" theory that seems to have become very popular in the fandom? Personally, I think it does raise some interesting points, but I'm not sold on it for a variety of reasons. I love your metas btw! ❤️

hi anon!💕 thank you so much, that's very kind of you!

gosh, been a while since i've had a meta ask!✨ hmm. tbh, im in two camps, and i do think there's some merit in the two of them matching up. i wrote a couple of posts on this, breaking down the final fifteen practically shot-by-shot, and have read countless different takes from other brilliantly observant people, but essentially my thought process is this (lengthy explanation under the cut, im afraid - im a bit meta-rusty):

aziraphale did not want to go to heaven. that much is clear from the two refusals he gives the metatron. furthermore, he rejects heaven for what it currently is and what it stands for (and, arguably imo, reaches the end of his tether with god, too) in s1, when he realises that heaven is also firmly working to bring about armageddon. that it wasn't just the agenda of the archangels; the metatron, the voice of god, confirms that war is the goal, no matter the collateral. and god does not intervene. this continues throughout s2; aziraphale is notably still disdainful of heaven, is happy enough being separated from it... but it should be noted that he has replaced heaven, and the structure and comfort it offered him, with crowley ("it's nice to tell someone about the good things you've done... now that im not reporting to heaven...")

i do think what we're shown on screen is accurate. there's allowance for the fact that the flashbacks to the aziraphale-metatron conversation may be biased and therefore unreliable, being from aziraphale's pov, but... i don't think there will be anything necessarily revealed that wasn't shown to us in the FF. there might be snippets of that conversation that he's kept from crowley, but has essentially seen fit to share with the audience... so personally i think it's accurate, and nothing is missing. and tbh, if nothing else, it would feel narratively cheap if the 'solution' to the FF was in something being purposefully withheld from the audience. in that respect, i do take the FF at face value

we know that aziraphale has a low evaluation of himself. it's presented to us that he's evidently hedonistic and enjoys earthly pleasures just as much as crowley does, but i don't think it's as evident until shax's jabs during the demon raid just how much aziraphale actually might be - frankly - ashamed of these things. i think on a fundamental level he likes being an angel, it's all he's ever known. but even if he accepts that he may be a bit of a bastard - is even slightly proud of it - i think he's equally self-conscious of the fact that who he truly is will never be enough for heaven, god, or to warrant his own angelhood, and all these things he enjoys equally serve as a source of shame in how far it removes him from what his belief on what a good angel should be

in the same vein, he's caught between the devil and the deep blue sea in that he might feel that he's not enough for crowley, either. case in point for me, unfortunately, is that crowley has constantly reaffirmed that they are both on their own side, but when aziraphale opts to shelter gabriel, arguably the right thing to do for many reasons but ultimately because that's the kind of person aziraphale is (imo), crowley retracts it... possibly unconsciously, and completely understandably, but aziraphale definitely notes it ("i thought we carved it out for ourselves!") and his resulting petulant, bratty dismissal is textbook responding to rejection with rejection. especially when aziraphale clearly was not totally on side with "our own side" at the end of s1, but has come around to it and accepted it in the four years since. so, it feels like aziraphale has done what he considers to be the right thing to do, a core principle of who he is in modern day (having learnt some very hard lessons along the way) but that's enough for crowley to take back everything he had said previously

aziraphale loves crowley, that much is evident. and he may well remember the angel that crowley used to be with some degree of fondness. however, a) im not sold that the pre-fall flashback is aziraphale's POV, and b) that does not mean that aziraphale preferred crowley as an angel. imo, he fell for crowley whilst he was a demon, but because crowley was crowley. a demon that pretends otherwise, but is at heart, just a little bit, a good person. the concept of good is important to aziraphale, but he hasn't removed it from being a purely angelic trait. ergo, i think he considers crowley to have fallen unfairly, that it was a gross injustice (and i say this fully believing that 'just asking questions' may not have been the reason why crowley fell), and that if anyone deserves to be restored - to be forgiven and essentially be asked for forgiveness in return - its crowley

similarly, i think we can be led to assume that aziraphale doesn't actually know anything about crowley's fall, nor his actual thoughts and feelings on the matter. all he knows is what crowley told him - "sauntered vaguely downwards" - and up until the FF crowley hasn't truly (as far as i can recall) ever declared that he doesn't want the chance to be an angel again. he's obviously derisive of heaven, that is very clear, but when he states "unforgivable, that's what i am", i think that registered to aziraphale that crowley might feel like he won't be forgiven, but doesn't mean he wouldn't want it. all the sneers crowley has volleyed at heaven and the archangels might have been, up until now, simply been anger and resentment for something that was unfair in the first place. add to this that crowley has been placed in danger on multiple occasions by hell, and again i think the offer of restoration - to be beyond the reach of hell altogether - is lucrative to aziraphale... and it's now within his power to give.

so. i do think that there is an implicit threat in the aziraphale-metatron discussion. aziraphale visibly becomes very uncomfortable when crowley is brought up, the exact nature of their relationship heavily implied as not having escaped the metatron's notice. aziraphale is not happy as he walks back to the bookshop, and he's erratic and scattered when he delivers the news and offer to crowley. a threat may not have been intended, let alone been vocalised, but i do think aziraphale feels under threat of some kind... that any way you slice it, he doesn't feel like he has any choice in returning to heaven, and instead chooses to make hay whilst the sun shines etc.

but equally... i think aziraphale believes the best in everyone and everything. he has constantly been ostracised, mocked, or ignored as being irrelevant to heaven - and even himself perhaps wonders if he should be an angel at all. but here the metatron is, recognising that aziraphale might be "the angel for the job". whilst i don't think aziraphale buys in to the metatron's flattery, because im fairly sure that the angel as demonstrably intelligent as he is would potentially consider that the flattery is superficial and overplayed (especially given how nearly all of it contradicts the s1 conversation that he and the metatron had), i do think aziraphale might be thinking '...yeah, i am the angel for the job. just not the job you're intending'.

metatron mentions nothing about 'making a difference', but that's exactly what aziraphale tries to implore with crowley; that they could change things, and him being in charge - with crowley by his side, in on the subterfuge - might just be what is required. exactly as the people they currently are. there is something about heaven that aziraphale believes is worth saving, and i think that's where the "its the side of truth, of light... of good" comes in. qualities that he thinks heaven should be, was always meant to be, and he could restore. crowley however considers the endeavour to be utterly pointless.

i also think there's an element of doublespeak going on... kinda. more specifically, that aziraphale is speaking to two audiences in the scene (three, if you count us!); he's talking in a way that sounds entirely like he's dancing to metatron's tune, that he's heaven's man through-and-through... but also in a way that he's trying to sell the idea to crowley in turn - and is speaking in a way that won't tip either audience off to the full reality of the situation as he sees it. i wouldn't go so far as to say it's a code, though - e.g. i personally don't accept the ''time out' signal but crowley missed it' theory - but instead that he's trying to lead the metatron into underestimating him, and also perhaps downplay the exact truth of the situation from crowley. if crowley were to know that aziraphale is frightened or uneasy, or felt under threat in any way, i think he might be afraid that crowley would do something drastic, or at least inadvertently give 'the game' away. nonetheless though, he has to reveal some of his true intentions to crowley, in order to bring him on side - just very subtly.

regarding the restoration offer - kinda went over it above, but i do think aziraphale genuinely thought that crowley would want it, and would take it not just so he could be an angel again, but also in order to help change heaven and be with aziraphale. that being said, as he walks into the bookshop, i think a part of him recognised it might be a hard sell, and instead aziraphale would need to frame it in a way as being like... a disguise, or a cover, or some sort? but aziraphale severely underestimated crowley's feelings on heaven and angelhood, even if i don't think it was an unfair assumption to make, either. aziraphale was excited about it because it was something he could actually give crowley, something within his power to bestow - to right a wrong that he's possibly always thought was a gross injustice ever since job.

god im sorry this has taken so long but - no, i don't think the metatron threatened aziraphale off-screen, but i do think aziraphale feels threatened by the discussion and implications within it, and whilst feeling that he has no way out, instead opts to return to heaven to exact his influence - as an angel that's not like the rest of them - and to play his own game... to do the right thing, and make a difference.

and no, i don't think he lied to crowley to protect him. i think he had to toe a line between 'the metatron might somehow be able to hear and observe us, so i have to speak in such a way that makes it seem im on heaven's side', and 'what i say to crowley has to be without cottoning him onto the fact that i feel threatened, bc a) he might do something silly and b) the metatron would know, but what i say also has to be worded so that he can see why i truly want to go back'.

thank you for the ask, i really enjoyed it!!! sorry you have to read an essay tho oops💕

[catsconflictscopicsandchamomile]

@kimberleyjean ok, you asked for this, its cursed and I'm sorry.

So first off I'm NOT going to try to explain what Supernatural is. Its a garbage fire, and I am unfortunate enough to be one of the feral, touch-starved gays to live in said garbage fire. Its the best show ever but all of its accidental, its the worst show ever in terms of anything that was done on purpose, etc etc. You're on tumblr you know the drill

Anyway, before GOs2's "Final Fifteen", the ONLY connections between GO and SPN were:

A demon in spn is named Crowley, in an homage to GO Crowley. They are alike, but they are NOT the same character and I don't think it can be argued that they're the same person in different forms (bc with demons that would be possible). They are however both Scottish, greasy and have a deep disrespect for authority. I do HAVE a theory/hc connecting the two Crowleys but that's another post for another day. Weirdly, SPN!Crowley (who I'm going to call Fergus from here on out, bc even though nobody in spn or the fandom calls him that, it is his canonical first name) has very little to do with anything I'm about to say. Just fyi, he exists.

Secondly, The Hillywood show did a Supernatural parody back in 2014-ish. I will link it below if you're curious, but again not much in this video is ACTUALLY RELEVANT to what I'm about to say (however, Fergus is there. He's the Scottish guy)

However, the specific arcs of Supernatural that SURROUND the season/topic this parody is centered on (Mark of Cain arc, ~s9-10) are where the coincidences get weird, and ok now I do have to talk about Supernatural a bit.

mmmfffff. Okay so the Metatron is a greasy, annoying, manipulative, power-hungry bastard who lies every time he speaks, wants full rule over Heaven and will control anyone and wreck anything he can to get there....

...and I'm talking about the version of the Metatron from Supernatural. LONG tldr, Dean (buzz cut, older brother, guy who's in love with an angel, the guy who says the news headlines in the Destiel meme) takes this thing/curse/whole other mess called the "Mark of Cain" to kill this kinda super-powerful arch-demon called Abaddon (more on her later), and blah blah blah Supernatural Happens For A Bit, and due to the Mark's curse making Dean act like a total psycho (and also, its implied, slowly turning him into a demon) they try to get help from the Metatron, who had been locked up after... well.

-when God was no longer contacting heaven, Metatron ran away from Heaven and hid on earth because he thought that the angels would use the Word of God (which the Metatron holds) "wrong" or something

-later, took advantage of strife & power vacuums in Heaven to manipulate Cas (angel, deeply autistic, the guy who says "I love you" in the destiel meme, in love with Dean) into doing a spell that CAUSED ALL OF THE ANGELS IN HEAVEN TO FALL, for no reason other than the Metatron is an actual pissbaby.

anyway, Metatron claims he can help Dean, that was a lie (shocking, I know), Metatron pulls some bs including basically stealing Cas' life-force (a second time. the first time was when he was ALREADY fucking w Cas as mentioned above) and runs off back to heaven... along with Gadreel, who he has manipulated/convinced to help him take power in Heaven.

who's Gadreel?

well. he's the angel who let the Serpent (or in this canon, just Lucifer) into the Garden of Eden, and he was cast into Hell to be tortured forever or something as punishment. However, after Metatron's earlier all-the-angels-falling scheme, Gadreel (for reasons I'm not too sure of tbh) took the name/identity of a VERY highly-regarded and powerful angel named Ezekiel, who died of his injuries during the fall

^this last part is a detail I try hard not to think about. this is because the names and roles are JUST similar enough to GO's Ineffable Husbands for the implications make me very, very sad.

Anyway, Gadreel had been around spn canon before, posing as Ezekiel, possessing Sam blah blah blah shit happened

Anyway this is a whole lot of words to say that the season/s of SPN that The Hillywood Show was parodying were the seasons where the Metatron was a main villain, and attempted/temporarily succeeded in taking power in Heaven BY MANIPULATING THE GUY WHO LET THE DEVIL INTO THE GARDEN OF EDEN

and then The Hillywood Show (who tbh I almost feel bad for lmao like BRUH) got signed to produce the parody/teaser/release date announcement for GOs2. Where the Metatron...

yeah.

yeahhhhhh

I would have LOVED to see the Hillywood Show team's live and immediate reaction to the Final Fifteen because I can't even imagine what must have been going through their heads.

ah yes. the FUCKING Metatron

oh also in spn, the Metatron (its complicated but basically)severely/fatally wounds Cas, and straight-up KILLS Dean, but Dean resurrects as a demon (for a few eps at least), meaning that Metatron DID technically try, and almost succeeded in, killing both members of an angel/demon gay couple, if only bc timing lined up so that Metatron was an antagonist in the arcs where Dean was turning into a demon.

so yeah

anyway I mentioned we'd get back to Abaddon so here's those major spoilers I mentioned. I'm fairly sure these are real spoilers and not theories, since my source is wikipedia

that's the whole article, there's not much else on her on wiki (though I should really do more research on Muriel). I think I heard Neil say somewhere that he created Muriel because "he wanted an angel character, from Heaven, who was 'just nice'" but idk if anything specific has ever been said about her name.

anyway that's why the Metatron gave Muriel that book "The Crow Road" in the Final 15, why he likes her so much, and why he's having her stay on earth

"The Crow Road" is a book about the nature of Death, and Metatron is, for lack of a better/less problematic word, grooming Muriel for the role of angel of Death in the apocalypse (Abaddon being a VERY prominent figure in revelations, for those who weren't aware)

...so on top of all the other Supernatural/Hillywood-Specific coincidences, sure, let's have Abaddon too.

uhhhhh

yeah

[phantom-of-the-501st]

The Metatron and Crowley

⚠️ Spoilers for Good Omens 2 ⚠️

°•°•°•°

I keep seeing people saying that The Metatron hates Crowley because he knows that he may be a threat when paired up with Aziraphale: he's trying to get him out of the way because of the whole 25 Lazari thing.

But I stand by the fact that he doesn't just hate him for that. I don't think it started there. Nor do i think it started at Armageddon. That bastard has hated Crowley since he fell from Heaven because there is no way that he wouldn't be pissed off by someone ruining Heaven's perfect reputation.

"For one Prince of Heaven to be cast into the outer darkness makes a good story. For it to happen twice makes it look like there is some sort of institutional problem."

This suggests that Gabriel retaliating isn't the first time this has happened: someone has done this before. So, who could it be? I mean, it could be referring to Lucifer, but I doubt it. A) He's not a particularly integral character in the plot, so it doesn't seem totally necessary to bring him up. B) We already have a fallen angel (who is significant to the plot), who appears to have been very high up the corporate ladder in Heaven before he fell.

"You'd have to be a throne or a dominion, or above"

Crowley said that Heaven never changes their passwords, but that still implies he would've had to have been a throne, a dominion, or higher when he was there. And he says in episode one that he worked closely with upstairs on the plans for the universe. Crowley was high-ranking, one of the top. I've even seen suggestions that he could've been a seraphim. A high-ranking angel associated with flames that has direct contact with God? Reminds you of someone, does it not?

Now let's say that Crowley was a seraphim (or at least ranked dominion or above), The Metatron wouldn't be too happy with an angel of that status (who also played a very big hand in the creation of the entire universe) questioning God's plan and ultimately falling to Hell. Bit of a dark mark on Heaven's reputation, isn't it?

"Always asking damn fool questions, too"

Hmm... you mean the same angel who became a demon after asking questions? That's what he remembers Crowley for. The questions. The questions that led him to fall. The Metatron isn't going to forget a high-ranking Angel falling after they questioned The Almighty.

The Metatron has always hated Crowley. Or at least, he has since Crowley fell. And now the demon is hanging around with Aziraphale, preventing Armageddon and unintentionally performing 25 Lazari miracles. No wonder he wants him out the way.

It's not just the one miracle. It's the fact that a fallen angel, who has already left a dark mark on Heaven's reputation, is now continuously causing more chaos and encouraging other angels (like Aziraphale) to question the true intentions and behaviour of Heaven. He's been making Aziraphale question things for millenia! Crowley is causing institutional problems and The Metaron despises him for it.

Suffice to say, Crowley has been in his bad books for a very, very long time.

[arotheosis]

Is it weird that I really want to read a post s2 fic where Aziraphale and Crowley both do end up going to heaven, but they go together in solidarity to fuck with them as much as possible? Aziraphale pretends to “ascend” Crowley to angelic status, but it’s really just an illusion miracle that makes him look like an angel (because neither of them want him to change) and then with Aziraphale’s position and Crowley’s knowledge from being a higher angel they mess with all of heaven’s plans (especially the Second Coming) and totally piss off the rest of the Archangels and the Metatron in the process.

Just some Crack-ish indulgent Ineffable Husbands being crafty little bastards

[casgod]

Just wanted to give my two cents on the ineffable divorce discourse, for anyone out there willing to listen.

I have to say, however unpopular my opinion may be, I totally understand aziraphale's choice to take the position offered to him by metatron. The reaction to crowley's confession and the whole "heaven is good" thing is totally out of place and really lacks empathy imo, but I don't think he made the wrong choice. To him, heaven is home. He lies to himself into believing heaven is good and all that, because he knows it isn't, he knows it's flawed and that most angels in positions of power are bastards. He just can't get to crowley's level of hatred towards heaven... and he desperately wants to believe that he can singlehandedly (or better with crowley's help) fix all the problems up there. I can't blame him for it honestly.

I also believe that, while it is very romantic to want to run off together, it would have been also quite selfish to do so. They would've left earth without any protection whatsoever. After all, they litteraly averted the apocalypse! What would happen if they just got up and left? Nothing good for sure...

The problem lies with the fact that they both took way too extreme positions and neither of them was willing to take a step back. Actually, aziraphale was the least stubborn one if you think about it. He would've never agreed to leave earth (as he didn't the two times he was asked in s1) and I think that is the right decision. I believe if they only gave the other more space to explain their standpoint, the big fight could've been easily avoided. Aziraphale believed that there was no middle ground, either run away with crowley or go to heaven, what coice did he really have?

Ofc I totally sided with crowley when I first watched it because he's the vulnerable one doing the grand gesture and I do feel bad for him... aziraphale was way too cold and tha effing "I forgive you" was really really bad on his part imo. Once the fight was done tho the only choice he had was to go to heaven since in his perspective he already lost crowley...

Idk if this post makes sense at all or if anyone is even going to read this long ass rant. If you did, I'm sorry, it's late, I'm tired, I've been studying all day. But ! If you'd like to tell me what you think about this I'd really like to talk!

[thingsisayinmyhead]

More thoughts about That scene

So, I've seen so much meta analysis (I love it!) of that last scene in Good Omens season 2, but have you considered . . .

(I'm not sure how long until I feel comfortable not adding the "keep reading" link to spoilers - maybe a month. Though I don't know )

So my latest thought out the final scene in episode is that Aziraphale didn't have enough time to process and Crowley has too much.

I don't know how long Crowley waited between Nina and Maggie's talk and Aziraphale's return, but I do know Crowley's brain works very fast and he has a tendency to overthink. He was probably sitting there going over and over his love confession in his head - to the point where it came out kind of garbled ("we're a group of 2"). Like I totally picture that in his head he said, "Angel, you're so beautiful and intelligent. I love you! Will you be mine forever?" At which point he probably pictured Aziraphale melting into his arms. And that might even have worked better. Aziraphale is an incurable romantic and has a bit of a praise kink. (Seriously - he's so hungry for praise-he calls Crowley whenever he's done something clever, he preens when Crowley says "you did a good job" in episode 4, and remember how he batted his eyes at Crowley after being told he was "just enough of a bastard to be worth knowing" at the end of season 1).

However, even the garbled declaration might have worked except the mess in Crowley's head was nothing compared to the mess in Aziraphale's head.

Aziraphale has just spend an entire night battling demons, including blowing up his halo, which had to have taken a lot of energy. Then come the revelation about Beelzebub and Gabriel, then he sorts out the squabbling Archangels and demons. Then comes the Metatron offering him his dream job. Then comes Crowley's declaration. One revelation after another after another without a break to stop and think and ponder. Not a second to sit and process all that's happened.

And he needs that time - we've seen that over and over again - Aziraphale needs time to think, to process. It took him an entire day to decide what to do about the antichrist - when there were only two days until the end of the world.

So both of the boys were on edge and their nerves were raw before the conversation even began. No wonder it went south so quickly.

[talea456]

I. Love. This.

Also, I totally thought it was sus that Aziraphale didn’t make a face at Metatron saying he doesn’t just “tell people what they want to hear.” Like, Azi knows that’s all he was doing in his reports to Heaven. He knows he’s “just enough of a bastard” and that Metatron doesn’t know that he knows, ya know?

Body-swap theory!!

okay, just putting this all together for ease of access, since it's been spread out across several posts now--

The day after it aired I watched the ending like actually 30 times and I became fully 99.999999% certain they switched places. I was initially thinking during the kiss, cuz of how the camera angle changes, but after watching an additional 20 times a few days later, I'm personally leaning much more towards them stopping time in the instance after "no nightingales".

Before the kiss, Aziraphale is saying "nice" things about the Metatron, but his face and voice keep switching to broadcasting distress, and they make it a point to show in ep 1 that Crowley can read him just from tone of voice

As they're pulling away after the kiss, they lock eyes and "Aziraphale's" expression shifts in the teeniest tiniest way, like a confirmation glance, before they shift back (and Michael Sheen is a master, so no chance it's not on purpose)

---(Like really, go back and watch how Aziraphale's expression shifts literally *a second* before "I forgive you" cuz the change is SO minute, but entirely different emotionally.)

Also the way he moves his jaw right after he pulls his hand away from his lips, is a bit from MS's Crowley (you can see it in the very last two seconds of this vid- link)

Aziraphale's hands -stay by his sides- after that, he doesn't clasp them at all, and it's particularly noticeable while he's walking to the elevator with Metatron. The way he walks is very stiff and precise, similar to after the swap in S1.

We don't see the underside of Crowley's jacket collar after the kiss, at any point (it is for sure red at the beginning of the ep, you can see it right before he changes in Heaven)

The Bentley drives away SLOWLY, which is how Aziraphale drives, and we're specifically shown that it only plays other music for Aziraphale

the seats in the Bentley are black as it drives away. They're usually brown, and the only other time they're shown to be black is when Aziraphale drives (@picturesque-about-it broke down the times so you can see-link)

---extra pic for anyone saying it's "cuz Aziraphale is lighter"-- the seats are still brown behind Crowley when he wears white

there's people wearing yellow in -every- part of the scene showing the Bentley both before and while it drives away! (link for pics/credit)

Aziraphale's smile in the elevator looks more like MS's Crowley. It's very similar to the trial during S1, but also (link)

This also explains why they're on opposite sides than they're usually shown while the end credits roll

Extra points--

many good points made by other folks here, about cues and snakes in beehives and swap motifs throughout the season-- link

The clock! Someone mentioned how the scene is so quiet you can hear it ticking, so I watched the ending a further 50 times to double check----I need to preface this by stating, I don't think this is a working clock, mainly cuz the hands aren't 100% where they should be between the minutes and the hours, like -a person- moved them to that time manually

When they're talking, the clock is at approximately 9:25 (?, again the hour hand isn't precisely set), then they walk across the room, and kiss, and immediately after that the clock is set about 15-ish minutes later (link to timestamps)

thanks to these bts shots, we can see that the clock on the opposite side of the room registers the SAME time difference before and after the kiss (link)

the first time Aziraphale looks "towards the window", I'm petty sure he actually looks further back towards the clock, *focuses on it* as Metatron walks up to him, and then spends the ENTIRE REST OF THE EXCHANGE blocking the Metatron's view of the clock

we're shown earlier in the season that Crowley can localize his time-stopping to a certain extent, like when he stopped the doctor and the rest of the room kept going, so it is possible he only stopped everything -outside- of the bookshop

---I KNOW Neil said it's a continuity error, but he also fully said "No" about there being a season 2 just days before they announced it was already written and in production, so. Take him at his word if that's what you wanna do.

---also I DID go back and look it over, and the clock IS consistently specifically set the entire rest of the episode as far as I can see. From the shots when you have a clear view of the clock, the angels and demons enter the shop at around 6, Maggie and Nina leave at around 7, the Metatron comes in at 8-ish, Aziraphale comes back in at that approximately 9:25

(insight from someone who works in production- link)

the music right before the kiss scene is the same leitmotif (Life After Death) used when they originally started formulating the swap in season 1! (link)

the movie Stairway to Heaven (1946) is featured as a poster in both the opening credits and in Maggie's shop (link)

the climax of the film has one of the leads willing to "take the place" of the other in heaven

(they also used a time-stopping mechanic, and the chess book Gabriel tests gravity with also plays a key role in the film)

and one last mention, extra food for thought--- the season's focus on their trusting one another, their history of performing "death (and heaven/hell) defying" feats together, and how they always get the trick right when it truly counts the most

that's what I've got so far!

If I'm right, they're apart now, but are actually more together then ever, and I find that terribly exciting. (And if I'm wrong, that's okay too! I'm just here to have fun.)

I'm not particularly concerned with very specific reasoning (that's for season 3 to tell us!), but I do think this theory is extra fun cuz pretty much any of the others could be the "why" driving it.

I'm not trying to convince anyone, or put down any of the other theories, so if you're not feeling it, that's okay! I'm just sharing what clues I'm seeing, so you can check if you see them too. 💕

[angeliclp]

After the utter mess of what felt like 40 concurrent story arcs last season, I really really loved the more simple, slow pace that season 10 provided me with. It was more structured and straight forward, culminating in some suspense-packed, exciting and emotionally charged last couple of episodes. This one certainly ranks pretty high on my like-list so far.

I kinda hated that they only gave me like 3 eps of demon!Dean, although my ears highly appreciated that they didn’t have to suffer through more karaoke (damn you Jensen, that was uncalled for you little shit), but they atoned by Dean slowly turning dark throughout the season, which Jensen totally nailed - Jack bless him. His whole arc was so. damn. good. Sam on the other hand... let’s just say that I could have smacked him into next week like every other episode. But I really appreciate that they furthered his friendship with Cas. Speaking of Cas... I just love that angel so damn much, the Claire sl was pretty neat. But seeing him getting hurt, especially by Dean, is just... awful to watch. I also really enjoyed the family drama down in hell. Rowena certainly is something else and she grew on my quite quickly. Also, Charlie deserved better. (and that is all I have to say about this, because that just hurt and I won’t get over it anytime soon.)

more random babbling:

ok... Dean's kinda Dean but not? this is... strange af

well that bitch-jerk banter between Dean and Crowley is just downright wrong

christ, that singing is really... bad... kinda make my ears bleed

who the hell is this Cole guy?

damn, Dean's really terrifying like that

my poor angel, I really hate to see him so weak

can they please kill off that annoying bastard Metatron? I'm so done with his crap

is Crowley getting... sentimental?

oh hello there Rowena, nice to make your acquaintance at last

those boys just can't stay away for two fucking minutes can they? well, at least they are talking... kinda

you are a damn hypocrite Dean, and after what you did the last couple of months you got one hell of a nerve to even think about getting on that moral high horse there buddy

didn't Chuck say once that he never published the last name of the boys? and that Sam and Dean knew it was proof that they were who they claimed to be? god, these plot holes...

the whole fandom thing? still weird af to watch

but the way this brought them back together and the musical version of "Carry on my wayward son" was fucking beautiful

oh crap... Chuck

the background music in 10x06 is killing me

I really am kinda bothered by the whole Hannah Castiel thing... but Cas' flustered awkwardness is just so damn adorable

I'm already deeply in love with Rowena and I can't wait for the whole hellish family drama to start

Donna is... not what I expected... but I definitely like her

why do I get the unshakeable feeling Dean hides something? oh yeah because the dumb shit usually does

good gracious, Cas... I know you want to make up for basically killing Jimmy but... a teenage girl? I think that is way over above your pay grade

dark!Charlie is really kinda hot... but I'd much rather have the the complete Charlie back

god I laughed so much during the teen!Dean ep... the whole thing was just hilarious... and the Hansel and Gretel side to it didn't make it better

but honestly can someone please explain to me why they wouldn't just look for the spell that witch used to make Dean a bit younger? just like 2 years or so until they find a final solution?

Claire says Cas looks better in a tie and suddenly he starts wearing them again? cute

so Cole... does he actually have a pupose or...?

I highly enjoy the drama going on in hell... but I'm also ready for them to go cross blades with the boys

oh Dean, why do you always go and break my heart?

so no crossing blades then, at least not with Crowley... but well I did also enjoy their little heart to heart quite a bit

poor Bobby... will that man ever get a fucking rest?

god those broken wings, hurts to see my angel like this, yet I am so very glad he finally got his own grace back

but couldn’t they just kill Metatron? that fucker is crating on my nerves and he’ll just come back and fuck them up and... christ I just want him gone

goddamnit Cas, lying to Dean never works out... why won't you ever learn?

Sammy! you know the same applies to you idiot! and Rowena? she's gonna fuck you over and have you for breakfast... I already love the whole drama that will go down

Benny! I know you are just a figment of Dean's imagination right now but damn I've missed you buddy

10x20 was... beautiful... these three idiots make such good fathers it's unreal

Dean is gonna be so pissed when he finds out

is it me or is the tension between Charlie and Rowena not entirely hostile? I mean I'd totally ship it

poor Cas... to put that socially weird guy in a situation as this is just cruel

Frankensteins?! as if this show isn't already weird enough, they had to pull the fucking Frankenstein family out of their asses

Charlie NO! 😭

I so hate it when Dean goes all kamikaze... that dumb idiot

with all due respect Sam, HAVE YOU LOST YOUR FUCKING MIND?!

you know, deamon!Dean was kinda fun, this end of season Dean? he's just downright heart-wrenchingly terrifying

I am not sure killing Death was a good idea...

uhm yeah, the end was... certainly... something... what the actual fuck?!

[twilightknight17]

Today on Persona 5 Royal we are sitting in the corner crying with the roomba that we bought and never got a chance to give Akechi.

Also, Shido.

I can’t decide whether I’m annoyed or not at the final mouse puzzle, because it wasn’t a puzzle.

I don’t remember if it was like this before, but you literally just had to go in, sneak through the room to the left hallway, run down and turn off the thing, and come back. That other part? Completely superfluous, except for a chest with a bead chain. Which is nice, but... I dunno. Shouldn’t you have to work your way up to the hardest puzzle?

...these kids are so fucking stupid. X’D And not even just this; every letter of introduction could have been gotten without a fight if any of them could keep their cool for longer than two seconds. Except the noble, because Ann totally needed to beat the shit out of him. But like... Haru? I know TV guy is insulting your father, but just take the letter and go. Futaba, I know you’re a heroic phantom thief, but just play along for one more minute.

Yusuke, for the love of god, just tell him yes. He’s a fake person in an asshole’s head, the Palace is going to be gone in two days, just agree and get the letter.

But no, set us up for three boss fights in a row. Fine. Great. I really appreciate, after Goro flashes his other outfit, Makoto’s like, “So you were behind the mental shutdowns after all...” We knew that, Makoto. In fact, if I remember correctly, you called him the culprit behind the mental shutdowns while talking over the Plan.

Anyway.

New dialogue new dialogue new dialogue new dialo--

[Phantom of the Opera intensifies]

I’m assuming this dialogue doesn’t happen if you haven’t done his confidant. At least the first two parts. Because good lord. I just want to give this boy a cooldown hug, but he’d probably stab me.

I think there are places after the fight where the dialogue is redone. He sounds a little different behind the shutter. I also like this new translation:

It feels...clearer? But also still not quite right, because I don’t think Robin was a lie. That feels dismissive of a whole chunk of his character.

...

Don’t make fun of me. I’m keeping the glove, so come back to me safely, okay? We can’t fight again if you don’t.

:(

Shido’s fight felt...harder? All of his attacks felt like he was doing so much more damage. People were getting punched down to one HP a lot. The masses were actually not that bad, but Shido himself? Ugh. He was either debuffed to heck and doing scratch damage, or buffed to hell and borderline OHKOing people.

BUT THE DUEL WAS AWESOME.

(Me and Joker making identical worried faces as we realize what’s happening.)

I almost fucked it up because I thought at first it was a scripted fight. I didn’t realize his tyrant’s fist was a bless attack, and Melchizedek (who I was carrying because I can’t fuse Metatron yet) absorbed it. And my silly brain was like, “Oh, cool, we’ve got the heroic willpower to tank all of his attacks!”

And then next turn he cast Panta Rhei and nailed Melchizedek in it’s weakness. X’D

If I hadn’t had a persona with no weaknesses so I could swap between tanking elemental spells and absorbing bless for the health, it probably would have been a nightmare. And I was saving almost all of my SP for healing, so I was mostly chipping away at him with the knife. And I didn’t have dekaja, so when he cast Heat Riser it was basically scratch damage. But I brought that bastard down with my two hands, a knife, a Justice arcana angel, and sheer willpower.

...and also Maruki’s detox and wakefulness to cure my burns and give me back SP. But we’re not talking about that because I’m still mad at him.

Shido’s down, the Thieves are safe, and I think I have enough time left to finish off the confidants before Mementos. I hope. It’s going to suck if I get to all but one, and I don’t know how much time we have for things in semester 3.

Lastly:

The first turn of the duel, my menu freaked out. Regardless of what attack menus I opened and closed, it stayed like that. I just thought it was funny, and it fixed itself next turn.

But my brain took a very sharp turn from “Haha, a ghost menu for a ghost party member” to “oh no, Akechi...” and I pretty much gave myself emotional whiplash, so that was fun! X’D

[ao3cassandraic]

All-righty then! Good to know.

This raises the question of how he's so much more skilled than other angels in getting along on Earth. And that question leads me to my response to @amuseoffyre noticing the intertextuality of the Metatron as Big Giant Head.

Yeah, I'm back at Orwell and Nineteen Eighty-Four and telescreens (which are surveillance as well as propaganda tools, don't forget) and Emmanuel Goldstein the other Big Giant Head.

Because part of the answer is Earth surveillance. Has to be. The Metatron has zero on-screen incentive to wander the earth as Crowley and Aziraphale do, and there's zero on-screen indication he has (save perhaps his offhand admission to having ingested things, which he could perfectly well have done in Heaven). We never see him anywhere or anywhen on Earth until the Final Fifteen Minutes. He sends his minions the archangels after Gabriel rather than do anything or go anywhere himself.

So he's watching. Big Giant Head uses Big Giant Globe. Heck, he might have built that thing himself. Seems his style.

There's a fair whack of evidence that Heaven and Hell are surveillance states. The Metatron openly admits to Aziraphale -- it's in one of the bits we actually see, rather than in Aziraphale's recounting to Crowley -- that he's been using the records to piece together what Crowley and Aziraphale have been up to all these centuries.

I'm also thinking that something important may have gotten lost in our concern for the ineffable husbands. How consistently is the Metatron surveilling humans? Routinely? Or intermittently? Or does he just pop over to the records for a quick etiquette-up dekko when something like Whickber Street suddenly must be accounted for in his calculations?

I think there are arguments in several directions.

Pro: Surveillors gonna surveil. "Surveillance creep" is totally a thing -- it's routine for the scope of surveillance measures to expand past all reason no matter what the original intent of surveillance was. (If you think I am saying "oppose surveillance at every opportunity" you are absolutely correct.) The Metatron is a creepy manipulative bastard who seems to have no care for anyone ever.

Con: The Metatron is consistently contemptuous of all and sundry except when buttering them up to force them into his schemes. Does he think humans matter enough to bother surveilling us? He's certainly happy enough in both seasons to faff on about murdering us by the billions, and he's certainly dismissive of Muriel in ways that suggest he won't be interested in watching them.

We also know he's neither omniscient nor infallible, such that it's also possible his surveillance mechanisms are incomplete. He doesn't know why Jimbriel went to Aziraphale -- and Jimbriel explained himself before the 25-lazari miracle was put in place, though it's also possible that Aziraphale's more ordinary protections warded off the Big Giant Globe.

There's also a middle ground vis-a-vis the bookshop -- a meta I've unfortunately lost track of noted that Aziraphale's summoning circle gets an answer during the demon fight, and it's entirely possible (though not wholly certain; we don't know the rules governing that circle) that answer came from the Metatron. That would suggest inconsistent and incomplete surveillance, at least of the bookshop -- if the circle's on, the Metatron is listening; if not, not.

So yeah. I think the extent of Metatronnic surveillance, and how to either evade it or distract him from it, could be a pretty useful question to take into a putative s3.

Hi Neil Gaiman, I would like to know if Good Omens had any influence from the books of Enoch :)

Not particularly. I'd say the majority of the biblical influence on Good Omens the novel would have been Genesis and Revelations, and in Season 2 you can add The Book of Job.

I think it's fair to say that there's no textual evidence in either version of Good Omens for Enoch/Book of Giants as part of What Happened in the last 6000 years.

[ellicler]

ok here’s my take on the Emotional Make-Up & Moral Journey of Aziraphale. it’s Much Too Long because i can’t be concise i’m sorry

(1) book!Azi is a stone cold bitch who behaves Nice most of the time because he’s the laziest person in existence, and Niceness is the path of the least resistance for him. ‘why can’t we all just be friends and get along’, literally. (see here for the best way to put it: ‘The thing about Aziraphale is that he very genuinely and sincerely wants to be good and make the world a better place, but he also very genuinely and sincerely wants to accomplish this without any significant effort.’) he’s also very invested in the idea of himself as a Good Person and that’s why he buys Heaven’s party line hook line and sinker. he’s a very black-and-white thinker, and stubborn as the proverbial ass, so he holds onto this idea the longest he can. but when he snaps, he snaps. after Metatron in the book tells him definitively that saving humanity is not something Heaven has any interest in, we later get treated to this beauty of a speech:

I mean, you're right about the fire and war, all that. But that Rapture stuff well, if you could see them all in Heaven—serried ranks of them as far as the mind can follow and beyond, league after league of us, flaming swords, all that, well, what I'm trying to say is who has time to go round picking people out and popping them up in the air to sneer at the people dying of radiation sickness on the parched and burning earth below them? If that's your idea of a morally acceptable time, I might add.

And as for that stuff about Heaven inevitably winning . . . Well, to be honest, if it were that cut and dried, there wouldn't be a Celestial War in the first place, would there? It's propaganda. Pure and simple. We've got no more than a fifty percent chance of coming out on top. You might just as well send money to a Satanist hotline to cover your bets, although to be frank when the fire falls and the seas of blood rise you lot are all going to be civilian casualties either way. Between our war and your war, they're going to kill everyone and let God sort it out—right?

afterwards it never occurs to Aziraphale to stand back, give up or shut up. it’s him who convinces Crowley that making a heroic Last Stand before Satan Himself is a good way to go.

at the center of Aziraphale, there’s this steel of moral righteousness and absolute conviction, and it’s a beautiful thing to see it freed from the shackles of the false ideology that used to blind him. now he follows the moral compass that’s always been within himself, and he has no problem admitting:

"There are humans here," he said. "Yes," said Crowley. "And me." "I mean we shouldn't let this happen to them." "Well, what—" Crowley began, and stopped. "I mean, when you think about it, we've got them into enough trouble as it is. You and me. Over the years. What with one thing and another." "We were only doing our jobs," muttered Crowley. "Yes. So what? Lots of people in history have only done their jobs and look at the trouble they caused." "You don't mean we should actually try to stop Him?" "What have you got to lose?"

Aziraphale has always known all of this, all about how ‘good and evil are just names for sides’, but only after finding a new moral bedrock to stand on he can allow himself to admit it. to his credit, once he commits, he is ready to stop defending his past beliefs and actions (because now he’s a Good Person once more!).

(2) show!Aziraphale is also very invested in being Nice and A Good Person, but there’s a deep underlying anxiety at the core of it. he’s very afraid of being not good enough, of breaking out of the mold, of showing any sincere emotion (if it’s a negative one it’s obviously Bad; if it’s a positive one it might be... out of place?? about a wrong thing??), so he copes with all social interactions by politely smiling and shutting himself off and following the script of I’m A Nice Angel.

(i can’t help to mention that this is the way I’ve experienced being raised up as as a Good Girl, being told to always be the model of politeness and never disappoint my parents (who of course love me very much), or else. conform, be quiet, and then we all will have a nice time!)

i think the vision of Heaven we’ve been shown in the tv series reads very much like this kind of a dysfunctional family. All Angels are Good intrinsically, except for those absolute monsters who have Fallen, but you’re not like them, are you, sweetheart??? we love you, but only if you do everything we say and keep being everything we want you to be.

Heaven doesn’t even need to threaten Aziraphale much, because it’s not about fear of actual material consequences. it’s more about fear of rejection, of becoming undeserving of love because you’re not a good enough person anymore. this sort of early subtle manipulation that equates obedience with morality is the reason why Aziraphale can never allow himself to admit that something is wrong, that he disagrees with what they say is Right, and this is why he indulges in hypocrisy so much: it’s the only way he can survive. in order to carve a place out for being himself (thankfully, Heaven leaves him alone on Earth for long stretches of time), to be selfish and take pleasure in loving things (books, food) selfishly, and, of course, to ‘fraternize’ with a certain demon.

I should mention that show!Azi is also a selfish bastard at heart, but it’s more mercurial and harder to see than in the book, because he tries much harder to hide it from himself. he’s more anxious about rejection, because for him morality (being Good) is much more tightly linked to Never Being Called Bad, never being unpleasant to people. (which is why he’s totally okay with Crowley 'disposing of’ people on his behalf and never thinks of interfering - but is very resistant to doing it himself.)

he doesn’t have book!Azi’s feeling of self-righteousness at the core (‘I’m on the Right Side so everything I do is Right’) and thus he cannot really afford anyone to call him out on being the least bit unkind. what this comes down to is, Aziraphale is so worried about perception that he forgets that actual kindness is proactive. if no-one calls him out on it, he can keep telling himself he’s okay. he dismisses most of his own moral impulses because he’s so tangled up in external validation of his ethics. which is a profoundly selfish disposition, of course: it’s much more about making himself feel good about his choices than making actually Right choices. in order to internalise the sense of morality, he first needs to trust himself to exist independently, and his story is precisely about that. (’I made Michael conjure me a towel!’ ah, the final separation, what a beauty.)

Crowley is much more central to Aziraphale’s arc in the show, because it’s not just about rejecting the stifling conditional love of Heaven, it’s about admitting, yes, ‘we’re on our side’, there is a side to be on! and it’s the side of Crowley accepting him as he is, regardless of whether he’s Good or Nice or Right. Aziraphale’s journey is inextricably linked with his desire to just let go and admit that yes, he’s the happiest when he’s with Crowley, yes, they’re friends and when they’re together he doesn’t want to think about right or wrong. and that’s why the culmination of his arc, the strongest beats of the story, are in his dialogue with Crowley: ‘if you don’t do something, I’ll... never talk to you again!’ (= ‘I accept you and what we mean to each other’), Crowley telling him ‘you don’t have a side anymore, neither of the two’ (and Azi tacitly agreeing arguing and later doing the whole body swap thing, which is precisely them fighting against Heaven & Hell together), and just... the whole final scene in the garden and at the Ritz, which is about the confirmation: yes, we’re the same, you and me (’a good person’ and ‘just enough of a bastard’) and we have the world, I don’t need more validation than that, I can and will stand up against those who will try to manipulate my sense of right and wrong again, I know now that this is right.

[mycasandstarrs]

SPN 8x23: “Sacrifice”

THE ROAD SO FAR: Kicking ass, taking names. Dean got out of Purgatory. Sam hit a dog. Kevin discovered the way to close the Gates of Hell forever. Abaddon is in the wind. Naomi mind-controlled Cas. The trials are “purifying” Sam. Metatron. Crowley is putting the Winchesters in a difficult place. What will they do now?

(Set to the show’s official/unofficial theme song.)

Aww Jody!

Roderick. Crowley used his human middle name as an alias.

Why must I always be reminded of what Jody went through?

Man, Jody was just trying to get back on the dating scene. She didn’t deserve to almost die.

“You have less than one minute before a very dear, attractive, and slightly tipsy friend of yours snuffs it.”

“Call it off, Crowley.”

“Because?”

“Because it's over, you son of a bitch. We want to deal.”

Did the Winchesters already have their plan?

“First, I need to hear two little words -- I surrender.”

The show never let us hear Dean say “I surrender”. Good.

Nice location.

“You hid the Demon Tablet underneath the devil? Seriously?”

Sam looking like a real supermodel.

“All right, listen, this is a secret lair. You understand me? No keggers.” Kevin’s our next guest in the Bunker.

Houston, Texas. (Aaayyyy, my hometown!)

“What was he like?”

“Who? Oh. God? Mm, pretty much like you'd expect. Larger-than-life, gruff, bit of a sexist. But fair -- eminently fair.”

Hmm. I’d say that’s a good description.

The second “angel trial”: retrieve Cupid’s bow.

:Cas didn’t want to kill again.

Sioux Falls, South Dakota. 

At Bobby’s old scrapyard. (I bet it was Crowley’s idea to meet up here.)

There’s Bobby’s car. :( (Isn’t there any way they can take it with them and have it at the Bunker?)

“You know why I always defeat you? It's your humanity. It's a built-in handicap.“ Huh, didn’t Soulless Sam say something similar?

Who’s plan was this?

“Sooner or later, you're gonna have to face it -- you're ours. Which means that your demon ass is going to be a mortal ass pretty damn quick.”

“What's he mouthing on about?”

“You're the third trial, Crowley.”

Oohh!!!

“Would you say that you're looking for, uh, a partner in crime... ...or, uh, someone who's into nurse role-play and light domination?”

“Brother, it's 10:00 a.m. on a Tuesday.”

I love Cas.

(Okay, but tell me that doesn’t describe Destiel. Partners in crime, where one is into nurse role-play, Cas, and light domination, Dean.)

NOO, NOT THE BARTENDER.

“Stop. Please, Castiel, don't make this any worse. Please.”

“How you feeling?”

“Honestly, for the first time in a long time, it feels like we're gonna win. I'm good.”

Aww.

“You ever, uh -- you ever done the ‘forgive me, father’ before?”

“Well, once, when we were kids.”

What did Sam say back then?

“I have no clue what to say now.”

“Well, I mean, I could give you suggestions if you want.”

“O-okay. Yeah, sure.”

“All right. Well, I'm just spit-balling here, but if I were you, uh... Ruby, killing Lilith, letting Lucifer out, losing your soul, not looking for me when I went to Purgatory--”

Yeah Sam, you got a list.

“Well, that was you.”

“...Carry on.”

Pfftt. 

We won’t get to see Dean’s confessional until S10, I think.

“Okay, um...if anybody's listening, here goes.” I would’ve liked to have seen Sam’s confession.

Cas has come to Dean for help.

Metatron, meet Naomi.

Who would’ve known that between these two evils, Naomi was the lesser one?

"Of the blessings set before you, make your choice and be content." I do like that.

“Metatron, the guy who was full-on crazy, cat-lady-hoarder angel yesterday -- now he wants to save Heaven?”

“Yes, he wants to. But I'm the only one in who can. I can't fail, Dean, not on this one. I need your help.”

NOOO. What did I say about being the “only one” being shady??

“Now, if anybody needs a chaperone while doing the heavy lifting, it's Sam.” Of course that’s when Sam had to walk in.  

“Start the injections now. If I'm not back in eight hours, finish it, no questions, no hesitation.”

The third trial has officially begun.

“According to your own words this morning...this is not what I do. It's what I did. You told me I was out, Dean.”

“There is no out. Only duty.” Damn, Cas.

“...until the day you cease to exist, and then another Prophet takes your place.”

I love that Cas has to add that technicality.

Owww, Crowley! That hurt me.

He got a good amount of blood too.

Oh, we ‘bout to get it!!

“Your, uh, buddy over there thinks you saved his life.” AWW. Cas probably went over and healed him after the angels had left.

This could’ve been one of the last times Dean and Cas have a conversation...and it’s about whether Cas might die soon.

“So this is it? E.T. goes home.” You know damn well Cas doesn’t understand pop culture.

Gail, our Cupid.

“Damn, that's sweet.” “ Damn, that's sweet.”

There it was.

"Nice to Be with You” by Gallery.

Dean’s just in total awe.

I’m so proud my hometown is canonically the location of that scene.

Crowley would be singing that song. “Changes” by David Bowie.

“Hello, boys.”

Ouch. There went Sam.

“Give us your bow.” Slow your roll, Cas.

“Talk first, stab later.”

“Do you know what I find the most shocking about time-traveling through a closet and landing in the year 2013? Somebody thought it was a good idea to make you the King of Hell.”

“Right now, you and I are gonna talk about regime change.”

Burned Abaddon to a crisp. Good job, Sam.

Cas acquires cupid’s bow.

“...to sit at God's feet, to be asked to write down his word? The ache I felt when he was gone, telling myself, "Father's left, but look what he's left us -- paradise." But you and your Archangels couldn't leave well enough alone. You ran me from my home. Did you really think you could do all of that to me and there'd be no payback?”

Naomi ain’t buying it...but she seems to have figured out what he’s really up to.

Oh, is this the scene with Crowley?

It is!

“We just shared a foxhole, you and I. We beat back the Tet Offensive, outrun the --the Rape of Nanking together! And still you're gonna do me like this?! Aah! Aah! ‘Band of Brothers’? ‘The Pacific’? None of this means anything to you? All those motels, you never once watched HBO, not once? ‘Girls’? You're my Marnie, Moose. A-and Hannah -- she just --she needs to be loved. She deserves it.”

Wow. Fine acting form Mark Sheppard there.

“Would it be possible, Moose...I'd like...to ask you a-a favor, Sam. Earlier, when you were confessing back there...what did you say? I only ask because, given my history...it raises the question... Where do I start...to even look for forgiveness?” Mark Sheppard is truly doing a great job.

Human!Crowley was wonderful.

“Come on, Kev! We're on the one-yard line here.”

“Okay, a-and I should have mentioned this six months ago, but the sports metaphors -- y-you want to motivate me, "Magic" cards, "Skyrim," Aziz Ansari.”

“What? Yeah, I don't know what those words mean.”

Pfft.

“Metatron isn't trying to fix anything. He's trying to break it -- an act of revenge for driving him away.”

“Break it how?”

“Expel all Angels from Heaven, just as God cast out Lucifer.”

“Cast you out? To where? Hell?”

“Here. Thousands of us, walking the Earth.”

Naomi’s telling the truth.

Dean can stop a powerful warrior with one touch.

“If Sam completes those trials, he is going to die.” Oh dear.

“I will listen.”

“Dean, I'm not wrong. I'm going to fix my home.” I’m not sure which I consider more painful: that Cas was wrong, or that Cas still considered heaven his home.

Now knowing that Naomi’s still alive, it’s kinda obvious that a drill to the head wouldn’t have killed her and she was just catatonic here.

“She told you I lied, didn't she? You should've listened to the bitch.” Metatron, you asshole.

“What's going on? Where's Cas?!”

“Metatron lied. You finish this trial, you're dead, Sam.”

“So?”

That one little word shattered my heart.

“These were never trials, Castiel. This is a spell. And what I'm taking from you now -- your essence, your Grace -- is the last piece.”

The moment that changed Cas forever.

“Think about it. Think about what we know, huh? Pulling souls from Hell, curing demons, hell, ganking a Hellhound! We have enough knowledge on our side to turn the tide here.” 2 of these 3 things will come back. They’ll work a case that involves killing a hellhound in S12, and even sooner than that, they’ll cure demon!Dean.

“You want to know what I confessed in there? What my greatest sin was? It was how many times I let you down. I can't do that again. What happens when you've decided I can't be trusted again?”

(So Sam was jealous of Cas?)

“Hold on, hold on! You seriously think that? Because none of it -- none of it -- is true. Listen, man, I know we've had our disagreements, okay? Hell, I know I've said some junk that set you back on your heels. But, Sammy...come on. I killed Benny to save you. I'm willing to let this bastard and all the sons of bitches that killed mom walk because of you. Don't you dare think that there is anything, past or present, that I would put in front of you! It has never been like that, ever! I need you to see that. I'm begging you.”

Dean loves his little kid brother very much, and it is the backbone of this show.

“Hey, listen,we will figure it out, okay, just like we always do. Come on.”

“Castiel?! Where the hell are you?” Cas can’t come to the phone right now.

And where the hell was Kevin gonna go??

What a tragic and beautiful shot.

“Angels. They’re falling.”