#neil gaiman is so cool

[t0x1c-r3d]

Good Omens

I've recently been really fixated on Good Omens [and just Neil Gaiman's works in general]

And so ofc, I had to go and get the book.

1. IT IS AMAZING. I will forever love how Good Omens manages to have a very interesting plot that keeps you thinking, and has simulanious comedic and serious bits to it.

2. Neil Gaiman is now one of my alltime favorite writers. In re-watching and reading Good Omens [and recently The Sandman], you can always catch new things, small details that you overlooked from the last time.

That's probably one of the things that makes me love Good Omens so much. I can keep watching it, keep reading it, and every time it's a little bit different because I find something I missed, and that will bud into new theories about the work.

Thank you so much Neil Gaiman for creating the things you do, it's all so cool and I can't wait to read more of your work(s)!

[Ofc in the case of the book, much apprecation and thanks to Terry Pratchett too!!]

[saltlickmp3]

i just read Neverwhere and oh my gosh i love it so much i love books with a magical underground world and there was this cool eldritch angel and mushroom people and magic doors and and and

[riddlerosehearts]

i'm so casually/vaguely interested in good omens that i was sad about "season 3" basically just being a movie for about 10 minutes before i moved on. but i can't stop thinking that if people really cared that much about terry pratchett and his legacy, they might wonder if he would've even wanted a good omens seasons 2 or season 3... considering the book did not have a sequel and he literally had his hard drives destroyed with a steamroller as one of his last wishes when he died because he didn't want other people to capitalize on trying to complete and publish his unfinished novels... or they might also be more upset on terry's behalf that neil gaiman spent decades of friendship with him hiding what a rotten person he really was, and that if anyone or anything is damaging terry's legacy it's entirely neil's fault. also, terry's legacy consists of dozens upon dozens of other books that have nothing to do with that guy anyway!

[originallypoki]

In 'demon's guide to angelic beings who walk the earth'(the book Furfur has in S2Ep4), there's a little text about Baraqiel. I'll write it down:

Baraqiel

Dominion, Angel of the Sky

'Appearance: Hair an eye-burning jinnjer. Eyebrows with the appearance of a grisly slug. Often draped in red. Occashonly damp, most likely singed.'

(Spelling errors are not by me btw. It's written like that since demons have an awful grammar, just like me. Also, over the computer Amazon has a way better quality when you zoom in. Can't zoom in over my phone in Amazon lol.)

So here the very obvious conclusion: Crowley is Baraqiel. But even without the description of his hair, I would say the same. Baraqiel's title alone, 'Angel of the Sky', would be too much of a coincidence, when the season starts with Crowley creating the stars. But if that's not enough, let's talk about an other scene. S2Ep6

Why's there such an focus on Dominion? Muriel could've just said Throne or above.

And yet another thing. Baraqiel's description fits perfectly into the small space that would be free.

If you can be sure about one thing, then it's that Good Omens is full of little details. I don't believe in something being a coincidence in the show.

.

.

Another name I want to bring into this is Kokabiel. He's also from the book of Enoch, just like Baraqiel. His name literally means 'angel of the stars'. And unlike Baraqiel, he's officially a fallen angel. But Baraqiel is more hinted at, so I run with it.

[edwardallenpoe]

Hey. Just wanted to put my two cents in, like everyone else on Tumblr dot com is. (It got pretty long so putting it under a cut)

I don't really care about what you think should happen to the fandom. Like. If you are going to continue to engage in the fandom without giving Neil any sort of gain is fine. I'm personally still on the fence on what the fuck to do now. But let's not make that the whole focus, yeah? What Neil allegedly did was fucking terrible. Like. Objectively worse than what JKR did when things first came out about her. Let's forget good omens and sandman and coraline for a minute (don't care if you still engage with those things or burn your copies and remove your tattoos, let's just put it down for a minute.) and try really hard to think. Because we all hated JKR. We burned her reputation to the ground. For good reason. But we can't even decide if we hate Neil Gaiman yet? Guys. Please. We have to believe all women. Plus he's a rich fucking white dude who has admitted to using his power for gain.

And if it turns out (which this is a 8% chance) that this is all not what it seems to be, or even all of it is fabricated, and Neil is innocent, we still gotta stop worshipping this dude. This has got to be a wakeup call that he's not some Messiah. He's a human dude in power who does the same shitty things human dudes in power do.

And I get it. You want to continue to like your stories that he helped create (key-word 'helped' bc he was a part of a team with a lot of these stories, including Sir Terry Pratchett) but me personally? I would be a massive hypocrite if I metaphorically burned my Harry Potter stories to the ground and put HP fans in my DNI because of JKR but said "separate the art from the artist" with Neil Gaiman.

And this is coming from any other Good Omens fan that became way too attached to the story. Like a lot of people have said that story helped in very. Very fucking trying times. It was my rock, some days the only thing keeping me going. The fandom has been an amazing place of creativity and community and love.

But so was Harry Potter. If you think about it. If any Good Omens fans were previous Harry Potter fans you'll know just how wide spread and open and creative and deep the hp fandom was. And this may just be me misremembering because it was a couple years ago at this point (plus everything with Neil Gaiman is still such news) but because JKR was spouting rhetoric that directly harmed us (us being majority queer and poc people) we drop-kicked hp pretty fast and focused on the artist and her shittiness.

Can we have the same attitude towards Neil? Can we separate the art from the artist long enough to fucking focus on Neil? When I say separate the art from the artist I don't mean "remove artist, continue to enjoy art" I mean "remove the art and focus on the artist, and study that motherfucker". How many video essays are their out about JKR? How many books referencing her terribleness? Without giving so much as a hint to Harry Potter?

Separate the art from the artist and focus on the artist and bringing him to justice. And believe the victims.

And yeah I can see your arguments against the source of the information and who the victims went to tell their stories, I can understand those arguments, but let's look at the data, okay? Let's look at what Scarlett and K actually said with their actual words and their actual messages and separate the source from the material. What Scarlett and K talked about is scary. Terrifying. I couldn't even read more than a little bit before I got triggered. I wasn't caring about how the source podcast was talking about it. What Scarlett and K said with their own words should be enough. Make your own judgements. If you can't look at a story without being influenced by the storyteller's hidden agenda and not have critical thinking skills????? I'm sorry but that's going to be your downfall.

Or better yet, if you can't believe victims because they have political views that differ from your own (which, they probably don't. From what I can tell nobody really fucking knows what Scarlett and K's political views are but it doesn't really matter) you need to really study and look into what you mean when you call yourself a "leftist". Because it's not very progressive or helpful to not believe or help victims because of their political views. Sorry. Is that wild for me to say? Idk

Uh anyways. I don't really care what you do in your free time when it comes to enjoying the fandoms. I don't necessarily think it makes you a terribly shitty person for still engaging in it instead of burning all your Neil Gaiman stories, and also like a lot of people have said (and since I'm on the same boat) treating fans like the scum of the earth when a lot of fans have had good omens as a way to escape and has become super dependent on good omens and are justifiably horrified by everything and trying to ignore it is shitty. But I'm personally going to continue to follow this story because I care about the victims. Not because I want to be guilt-free reading a fanfic about an angel and a demon. Because I care about real life people.

[saphhicwitchbitch]

@neil-gaiman look what i managed to find in a charity shop today. I can't wait to read it!

[lifeonmvrs]

starman this, starman that, WHAT ABOUT THE PRETTIEST STAR!!!

[Image Description: a digital drawing of angel crowley from good omens visible from the bust up. crowley is smiling with a hopeful and excited expression. the background is periwinkle with stars scattered all over the place and text reading “the prettiest star” with a sparkle by its side. /end ID]

[hidingbehindmishacollins]

i saw someone on my college campus yesterday who had such crowley vibes and was on ao3 in the dining hall and i was like omg so cool what a coincidence

and today i walked by them again and they were wearing the crowley glasses PLEASE COME BACK GOOD OMENS STRANGER

[manicpixiedreamcrowley]

if snakes can't see stars, do you think crowley couldn't watch the eclipse?

[rainesartblog]

[mononijikayu]

i think the funniest thing is how when crowley tells aziraphale he changed his name, aziraphale suggests names he thinks crowley would use and he says 'is it asmodeus???',,,,,,who is the prince of hell associated with lust. HIS FIRST THOUGHT WAS ASMODEUS!!!

I KNOW WHAT YOU ARE ANCIENT MESAPOTAMIA AZIRAPHALE

[hollowaluminumvessel]

AAAAAA JIM PICKED UP GOOD OMENS

THE GOOD OMENS BOOK EXISTS IN THE GOOD OMENS SHOW UNIVERSE AAAAAAAAAAA

NEIL GAIMAN EXISTS IN GOOD OMENS SHOW UNIVERSE

he was in GO1 too GUYS COME ONNNNNNNN

[clockwork-windmills]

something I've noticed from theory posts going around is that people seem to think that Aziraphale's actions at the end of the season are very out of character. I, to put it lightly, entirely disagree. Aziraphale's character arc in season 2 was beautifully and subtly written and the season HAD to end the way it did to let both Aziraphale and Crowley develop.

The flashbacks this season served narrative purpose beyond "haha let's see what AC got up to all that time ago". The way I interpreted the show was that these were specific memories Aziraphale was recalling throughout the season as a result of all the shit going on with heaven and hell and gabrie- i mean Jim and vinylatte and everything. Aziraphale went through a character arc known as a Fall Arc (coincidence? who knows):

Character believes lie

Character clings to lie

Character rejects truth

Character clings to worse lie (in this case, a more extreme version of the original)

This is shown not only through Aziraphale's present-day actions, but through the flashbacks.

All through the series we see how Aziraphale wants to do good. He likes doing the right thing and he - though he has moments of doubt - ultimately believes in the goodness of heaven and the evilness of hell. He hasn't had that same rejection of it as Crowley has had. That isn't a sign his mind has been tampered with or anything. That's just how he is as a result of all of heaven's manipulation and his genuine desire to do the right thing.

The apparently stark change in attitude after his conversation with the metatron isn't really as stark as people think. Aziraphale loves the idea of what heaven could be. His initial image of heaven has been shattered through millenia of being failed by them (especially recently with Armageddn't), but I think that he genuinely believes that with himself in charge, he could make that image real again. What he thinks he wants is what we saw at the beginning: him and Crowley side by side doing good. His arc in season 3 is going to be him joining Crowley in the recognition that the whole system is fucked up, and finally choosing Humanity (and Crowley of course) over heaven.

ALSO REMEMBER THAT HE ACCEPTED THE OFFER WITH THE IDEA THAT CROWLEY WOULD COME WITH HIM. Heaven are SO manipulative.

The fact that his actions are so in character for him at this point in the story is what makes "fix-it" fics so hard. It doesn't need fixing. This is literally how it has to go before they can converge their paths again and be happy. It's sad, and I love happy endings, but we need this sad ending first to give both Aziraphale and Crowley the opportunity to grow.

I may add to this some other time because this is a rambly mess but I just had to say this. thank you neil gaiman for writing such a well thought out transition season that stands on its own wonderfully. fingers are crossed for season 3 :)

[lily-lover]

"We can find patterns and stories in anything. One of the things you learn as a writer is all you need is a really good idea and then you can set out, and the world will demonstrate that it is true for you."

- Neil Gaiman, in the Podcast "David Tennant does a podcast with... Neil Gaiman"

[stardustedknuckles]

I watched Crowley be forced to do an apology dance before Aziraphale would work with him again and some of you weren't happy until there was a kiss or something to prove they were together? The fuck have you been watching. This is so much gayer.

[buzzingbeepboop]

GUYS PLEASE TELL ME WE'RE ALL HEARING THE ORCHESTRAL BOHEMIAN RHAPSODY IN EPISODE ONE AND ORCHESTRAL RADIO GA GA IN EPISODE THREE IN THE COFFEE SHOP