#our lord & saviour Neil Gaiman

[failedinsomniac]

My take on the whole “S3 ending" comment controversy...

We know DT doesn't really do the interwebs, but MS (apparently) does enjoy perusing the fandom's musings. I imagine Michael telling David about all his favorites—the fics, the art, AUs. I can see them laughing over & loving most every take on their beloved characters: the myriad ways in which Aziracrow find each other, lose or keep each other, endings happy & bittersweet. The inclusion/reimagining of cast mates, locales, prized possessions.

I think this is what David was referring to—the Good Omens multiverse that exists in our collective fan consciousness. No ending will satisfy every one, but I have faith in Neil & his love for Sir Terry that everything really will be OK.

Tickety-boo even.

[javastark]

Me hearing season 3 has been confirmed

[captainclickycat]

So while we're on the subject, here are some other thoughts.

I found Neil Gaiman's online presence - and the more overzealous members of his fanbase - annoying. And please stay with me here, I promise this isn't me trying to be smug or claim I "knew all along" or anything. There's a huge gulf between finding someone a bit annoying and thinking that their behaviour online is less than stellar occasionally and suspecting them of being a sexual predator. I don't think there could have been any way of me "knowing all along" without reading everything in the worst possible faith, which I'm not willing to do and which I maintain is not a good or helpful approach in general. And to people who genuinely looked up to him and felt completely blindsided by the news, I'm really sorry. It wasn't your fault and I hope you can do something kind for yourself today.

Anyway, back to the subject at hand. I didn't like the way he handled criticism of his work, a lot of the time. I don't think creators are obligated to personally listen to and address every negative opinion of their work, or explain every individual aspect of it that someone disliked. But I felt like a lot of his responses to feedback tended to lean into and encourage praise, while being a little disingenuous and sometimes belittling towards criticism. (And really, why feel the need to respond to everything when you could just ignore it?)

I didn't like the way he always felt the need to weigh in on fandom debates or throw out "word of god" explanations for this or that thing, including when nobody even asked. (Want to know who inspired the "I don't care what the author said" comment in my bio? Take a guess.) Especially when some of them felt engineered to paint him and his work in the best possible light.

Again, I'm not drawing attention to all this in an attempt to claim any one thing was a blatant red flag or must have been down to some sinister motivation. That's not the point I'm trying to make.

But it is one of the reasons that I was always deeply uncomfortable by the culture of hero-worship and "touch not god's anointed" that always seemed to exist around him. Like regardless of whether or not you thought this or that criticism against him was warranted, the way people would treat him like some kind of messiah who deserved nothing but praise and lose their absolute shit whenever anyone said anything remotely negative about him was absurd. Nobody deserves that, regardless of what they've done.

But at the same time... you know, I liked his work. Not just "I liked the stuff he co-wrote with someone else" or "I liked the films and TV shows he worked on with a whole bunch of other people." I liked the books he wrote by himself. They had some parts worth criticising, sure, what doesn't. But overall I thought they were well-written and funny and thought-provoking and I enjoyed myself when I was reading them. Neverwhere is the first book I had a crack at re-reading in a different language, which should tell you how much I liked it. And I didn't even dislike everything he posted on the internet. I thought some comments were pretty funny and/or insightful. I even reblogged the odd post.

And I wasn't all that vocal about any negative feelings I had towards him, because... well, frankly because a lot of the negative feelings I'd seen expressed by other people about him tended to look like "he's the devil incarnate, his work sucks, he's the worst person alive and he secretly hates every marginalised group and people should feel ashamed for sincerely liking his stuff."

And I didn't agree with that either! I didn't want to be roped in with those people. I didn't feel comfortable around them, any more than I felt comfortable around the Neil Gaiman Defense Squad, Working Tirelessly Day And Night To Aggressively Stamp Out Any Criticism Of Our Lord And Saviour.

And honestly I'm not entirely sure what kind of broader point I'm trying to articulate here, or whether I'm just working through stuff in my head. But I will say that this kind of polarising, zero-sum-game approach to criticism is... bad. It's just bad. It makes it so people are reluctant to put forward any kind of nuanced stance, for fear that they'll end up getting pigeonholed into one oversimplified category or another, or it ends up pushing people towards one extreme stance or another out of sheer frustration or contrariness. And it makes it incredibly difficult to have any kind of actually productive debate when it comes to criticising media, or criticising creators. Inevitably people's hackles are going to be up whichever side they lean towards more, and a lot of people with valuable input will inevitably end up going "yeah, I can see how that's a good point, but also the last person who brought this topic up with me deemed it appropriate to send me a barrage of messages telling me to kill myself about it, so forgive me if I'm not interested in engaging any further."

Obviously a culture of hero worship inevitably makes it a lot easier for predators to operate, and I have no doubt that being inundated with messages about how wonderful you are and how everyone who's criticising you is in the wrong must make it a lot easier to rationalise your actions. But I feel like this tendency to paint everything in terms of "are they a pure uwu blameless smol bean angel OR the devil incarnate" is incredibly unhelpful regardless of what side you come down on. The "devil incarnate" crowd can be part of the problem too.

[is-the-owl-video-cute]

Saw your Neil Gaiman post and as someone that found comfort in Good Omens (and got hyperfixated on it), I'm finally glad that some people are finally talking about how he isn't that great.

Even as a Fan, GOmens fandom is so...weird. See, in other fandoms people won't give much of a flying f/ck about the authors besides some mild respect or praise, but GOmens praise Neil SO HARD, despite giving off some iffy vibes (that now I understand why, after that big post) Never liked how almost every single POC character in GO has such a minimal role, same with women characters, the fact he's been caught (and that can be easily checked) lying about his ideas surrounding GOmens, the way he went from "Is not a romance, but it can be if you want to" -> "i always wrote it as a love story" also how he went from "There won't be another season because of Terry and because the ideas for the next book were incorporated in the show" -> "It was in 2019 when I finished writing S2 with the ideas I discussed with Terry before he died" and like seriously no one never noticed how much of a clown he his lying and backpedalling all over again again? Then there's how bad rep for fat people Sandman was and instead of accepting criticism he just keeps giving some "vague intelligent answer" and sits and waits for his legion of fans with a parasocial relationship to defend him. But somehow he's treated as a world treasure and a genius with a big brain. And this is less problematic and more petty but I'll be honest. He isn't that much of a good writer anyway? The prose is okay is good, but the worldbuilding and lore and characters is mostly edgy and lacks deepness. His fans seriously want to make a sea out of muddle puddles,,, and that's fair! Is such a big part of fan culture to dig into the smallests of things and make an universe out of a cardbox background character, but please, don't give Neil the credit that he doesn't deserve. And what proves more to me that he isn't that good of a writer, is just...take a look at that mess of a S2 of Good Omens, it was so bad that some people had to THEORIZE that it was bad on purpose. I have such a beef with S2, characters like Muriel, Saraqael and Michael and Maggie and Nina were so heavily promoted and of course everyone was hyped, finally more POC, more disabled characters, and yay, women! And they're lesbians! And and...and hold on, how it is that Muriel didn't do that much at all? How it is that Saraqael after being so hyped BARELY had almost nothing to do, is really that all the disabled rep we got? How is it that Michael and Uriel barely had anything to do and were just background characters again? It just angers me with how with so many fem-presenting characters, and POC and disabled persons cast, they literally add nothing to the series, AND NO ONE EVER TALKS ABOUT IT. Is just this endless praise for Neil and his oh big brain. All praise Neil Gaiman, our lord and saviour of queer people. HOW IT IS, THAT THE TWO LESBIANS HYPED ROMANCE WAS ALL RELATED TO AZIRAPHALE MEDDLING WITH THEM TRYING TO SHIP THEM? And it also was bad, very badly done, is really this the women representation we got, seriously??? Talking about misleading advertising.

S2 was such such a mess, it just shows how much Good Omens needed Terry to be, well, Good Omens. I really suspect Neil stole ideas from the fandom because S2 was just a trainwreck of all the fanfic tropes you could find in GO fandom and is almost disrespectful to Terry's work in Good Omens, and I don't care for how much Neil makes his friendship with Terry as a pity party and as a "it gives me so much joy, Terry would be so happy", because seriously it's almost manipulative. Talking about Manipulative. His meddling with fandom is starting to feel unprofessional, but this ask is already long... Sorry lmao, something on me snapped after getting finally the solid evidence that Neil .Is. Not. Great

Oh he’s always been completely unprofessional but since he types in a mixture of corporate-speak and “cool dad” talk his fanbase doesn’t notice.

Here’s the thing about Neil, he’s both petty and extremely insincere. People criticized lolicon sin his presence and he was so offended on the behalf of weirdos who pleasure themselves to Hentai depicting child molestation that he wrote a several paragraph long response dismissing simulated child pornography as simply being “icky speech” that should be protected by the sacred American constitution despite, you know, the fact he’s not even American so his weird obsession with the first amendment and only ever really bringing it up to defend simulated child porn is and always has been suspicious.

As for his backpedalling, the man sees $$$$ and just goes for anything he can find to make more. People love to say “oh but he donates tens of thousands to charity!” yeah, usually to HIS charity for bailing out pedophiles. With funds typically out of the wallets of his fans due to fundraising it rather than coming out of his own checkbook so it’s not exactly a charitable action as much as it’s an empty gesture. And frankly he almost certainly just does it for tax benefits if we’re going to be honest here. He continued good omens because it would make money and generate more attention towards him and he’d be the brave hero who brought back show that did well. That’s it.

He’s just discount, off-brand Elon. Rich white man who thinks he’s gods gift to man despite bumbling through even the most basic concepts because his fans would walk into traffic blindfolded to defend him from even the mildest of criticism.

People on here just like him because they’re starstruck that a creator of a popular IP is active on this site and because he produces media that’s adapted with white middle aged twinks who are dubiously romantically affiliated.

[shipposttt]

The Ship of the Day: The Ineffable Husbands

SPOILER WARNING for the Good Omens series, including season 2 :D

Names: Crowley and Aziraphale 

Ship name(s): The Ineffable husbands/ Aziraphale

Original Content: Good Omens book (1990) and the Good Omens series (2019 S1, 2023 S2)) and all subsequent world building done by our lord and saviour Neil Gaiman through Tumblr <3

Ship info: Firstly, while the book will be mentioned within this post, it is important to note that i myself have only ever watched the series- as such, if there is information from the books that is failed to be mentioned that you believe should’ve been, this is why; please feel free to add anything you would like in the notes! Secondly, I will be using multiple pronouns for both Aziraphale and Crowley within this post because, as stated by Neil himself in a Tumblr ask, we might as well see them as genderfluid because he does. Similarly, angels (and thus, demons) are defined as sexless beings within the book, who’s “size, and shape, and composition, are simply options”.

So, you may be wondering, “what’s with this bible fanfiction?”, well don’t you worry I will clear that right up!

Good Omens is a novel/book originally written as a collaboration between Terry Pratchett and Neil Gaiman in 1990, exploring the roles of angels, demons and mortals during the apocalypse – Armageddon. This has in recent years been adapted into a series for Amazon Prime Video with the help of Neil our beloved to ensure it stayed true to their vision for this story, especially since the series goes beyond the canon timeline of the book.

In particular, it follows demon Crowley and angel Aziraphale, who, as the only non-mortals residing within the mortal world long term, formed an alliance over the centuries, though this alliance slowly but surely turned into a friendship and then progressed into even more. Now, this might sound like an enemies-to-lovers 400k slow-burn but it’s NOT. You see, Crowley was once an angel prior to his fall, with the fandom theorising that they were a rather high-ranking angel due to his actions and clearance levels depicted within scenes of season 2, so technically they didn’t start off as enemies, nor would I argue that they ever truly became enemies following Crowley becoming a demon. Anyway, the first series follows these two immortal beings as they attempt to prevent the coming of the Antichrist, Adam Young, together. The majority of season one focusses on how Armageddon is coming to fruition and how mortals and immortals alike were attempting to stop it. Despite this, there is still a large focus on Crowley and Aziraphale’s personal relationship throughout time.

Within season 1 episode 3, we take a short break from the ‘current’ canon of stopping Armageddon to explore Crowley and Aziraphale’s relationship and how it grew throughout the centuries using flashbacks for the first portion of the episode, this past history between them before the canon of Armageddon is also explored further in season 2 through multiple extended flashbacks. In the canonical timeline of events, these flashbacks begin from before the beginning of the universe as we know it, with then-angel Crowley creating the universe (“let there be light” and all that) as Aziraphale watched him do so; then jumping to the Garden of Eden, where now-demon Crowley tempts Eve. These flashbacks are sporadic throughout time, gaining in frequency the closer to ‘now’ they get, showing the pairings meetings at: Noah’s Ark, during the testing of Job’s faith (where Crowley first tempts Aziraphale with food), at Jesus’ crucifixion, in a Roman tavern, in Arthurian Britain, and then much more frequently between 1793 in a Paris dungeon and 2019 at Armageddon. All of these flashbacks portray their relationship going from working against each other (in the garden 4004 BC) to working together (the Globe Theatre 1601 AD), though we don’t know the exact date “the arrangement” between the two beings began, it is alluded to within this scene in the Globe Theatre as they discuss the possibility of one of them doing both “the blessing and the tempting” (their respective jobs given to them by heaven and hell) in Edinburgh, as they had done so elsewhere previously, with Aziraphale showing fear for Crowley’s safety within this arrangement, saying “but if hell finds out, they wont just be angry, they’ll destroy you”, but eventually acquiescing, calling heads on the coin toss to decide who goes. These more frequent visits shown leading up to Armageddon show the change from just working together for ease to working together because they enjoyed their time together.

So now we are up to date with their relationship prior to Armageddon, from working together to working against one another all the way up to forming an alliance together and coming to care for one another. So, spoiler alert (I say as if the previous paragraph wasn’t full of spoilers); they stop Armageddon together (yay). Following them preventing Armageddon, hell and heaven attempted to fully discorporate the pair, using hellfire for Aziraphale and a holy water bath (sans rubber duck) for Crowley, the two predicted this move however and temporarily swapped bodies so as to ensure neither came to harm. They then nicely finished off the season with the pair dining in the Ritz, making a toast “to the world” as a nightingale sang in Berkeley Square (in reference to the popular love song published in 1940).  

So, all is well and good for the start of season 2, right? WRONG. Archangel Gabriel shows up at Aziraphale’s bookstore having lost all his memories, Crowley and Aziraphale perform a miracle together to hide Gabriel (now going by Jim) that is so strong heaven believes it could only be the will of an archangel, leading to them believing that Gabriel is hiding in Aziraphale’s bookshop. Now, this season evolves around hiding Gabriel and somehow restoring his memories but Aziraphale instead takes it upon himself to focus on trying to set up the owners of two nearby stores, drawing similarities between the two and himself and Crowley. So Aziraphale is trying to set these two up, Crowley is trying to keep Aziraphale safe and heaven and hell alike are both convinced they are hiding Gabriel. This all comes to a head as Gabriel’s memories get restored and it is revealed that he was demoted after refusing to support an attempt at a second Armageddon, conversations are had and offers are made and the elusive Metatron offers Aziraphale Gabriel’s old position, promising to restore Crowley’s status as an angel.

Now for the divorce. Yeah, you read that right, the ineffable divorce. The day I cried, the fandom cried, I think even the official Amazon Prime Twitter *ahem*, sorry, ‘X’ account admin cried. Aziraphale accepts the Metatron’s offer because they believe he and Crowley working together can make a difference, “we can be together, angels, doing good. I need you”. Crowley confesses to Aziraphale, saying how they can do the same as Gabriel and Beelzebub and leave heaven and hell behind to just be them, they disagree on working for heaven and Crowley points out that they can’t hear any nightingales (in reference to the end of season one), “you idiot, we could’ve been us”, before kissing Aziraphale once, finishing off this glorious season with “I forgive you” (A), “Don’t bother”.

Now, this is where we are left off with their relationship, and while there are a lot more scenes I’ve missed out here which allude to their building romance and many, many posts by Neil Gaiman which explore it further, this has already gotten way too long to include them all.

Type of Ship: Queer

Now, even outside of their relationship, these two are unequivocally queer.  As previously stated, they both do not conform to societal stereotypes surrounding gender, with them being angelic beings who simply choose to take on the traditionally more masculine forms we most associate with them, whilst other times choosing more traditionally feminine forms- like Crowley did in scenes of the crucifixion of Jesus, or when they were a nanny. While this isn’t explicitly spoken about within the series (because their gender presentation simply is there, an unquestioned part of them, it’s not a focal point of the plot), co-author and series writer Neil Gaiman has clarified that angels and demons alike do not have gender or sex and do not perceive gender in the same way as humans do.

How, as such, within the ship they are also queer, with the pair not bending to societal norms surrounding gender, sex and relations. And though they do kiss in the final episode of season two, Neil Gaiman has confirmed that their kiss was “about a lot of things but   its not to show they’re in love” alluding to the love being shown in other ways as their relationship isn’t inherently sexual- neither is it inherently asexual as he explained “they are an angel and a demon, not as male humans”. This portrays romance and love in away that is inherently queer and different to that of heteronormative ideals as they are not strictly male or female and don’t explore sexuality in the same way as is the norm.

Thank you for reading this! Admin 🦇 out!

[dontyoulistentome]

Finally started watch season two and just finished episode 2

Aziraphael: But you said it wasn't lonely?

Crowley, unrepentantly : I lied.

um :D (tweet)

[adam-n-dog]

OOC Post-

Been thinkin about making a Warlock account.....

I already run both Adam here and Beelzebub over at @former-prince-of-hell, so I'm not sure if I should also make a Warlock, but he's also one of my favorite Silly Little Guys. He's got such potential. (Aka this is me praying to our Lord and Saviour Neil Gaiman to bring him back for season three)

So I'm going to make a poll. (Fair warning, I may jump the gun on the poll if the answers are proving heavy in one direction or the other. I'm impatient.)

[nicokingalmightlyofallnerds]

ngl I think I’m the type of person to, not only develop Stockholm syndrome but also for it be be my initial reaction like I’d been being drugged and bundled into the back of a windowless white rented van and be like omg new friends alert and then proceed to talk to them about our lord and saviour neil gaiman until my inevitable death where my body gets thrown into a ditch or, perhaps, the ocean :D

[undertheinktree]

Good Omens is finally giving a meaning to 8 years of catechism, 20 years of catholicism, 3 years of studies of Dante's Divine Comedy. Look at me leafing through Gospels and canticls and tell me you're not proud, Grandma.

[bubbues]

good omens trailer.... his dark materials teaser.... the watch is being developed.... my childhood dream tv shows are finally coming to life and im all here for it

[xamstown]

I'm so damn happy for this fandom, this community, Our Lord and Saviour, Neil Gaiman...

This s h i p

This S H O W

These two dolts...

Bonus:

[lineffability]

Yes, you've converted somebody to watching Good Omens. You're truly doing the Lord, our Saviour, Neil Gaiman's work.

More than one, now B)

(Neilman , where’s my money?)

[captainclickycat]

General reminder not to go around putting explicitly sexual asks in people’s inboxes in an attempt to provoke them. Not because “omg it’s Neil Gaiman our precious lord and saviour!!” but because it’s an extremely inappropriate thing to do to anyone.

at what point in the story do you think aziraphale and crowley most likely fucked nasty im personally partial to while they were both watching warlock. for funsies

I mean, these asks are really not on Anon. Perhaps there are things better kept inside your head and not said to the whole room.

[hekate1308]

queenofdramaakakingofhell hat auf deinen Eintrag geantwortet: So… “But Crowley liked sleep, it was one of the...

Just want to let you know that after all your posts about this show I am going to watch Good Omens cause you got me curious and interested and it looks like really good show

Yeeeeeeees it’s working *knocks on your window at 3am* have you heard about our lords and saviours Neil Gaiman and Terry Pratchett and their show

[hangoverhater]

I was tagged by @ropsus, thank you very kindly!

rule 1: Always post the rules. rule 2: Answer questions that are given to you and then write 10 new ones. rule 3: Tag 10 people. rule 4: Let them know you tagged them 

Aight, so I was asked:

1. What are you looking forward to at the moment?

- Getting rid of this cough. Seriously. It’s killing my vibe, man.

2. Podcasts or books?

- Books. I like the feel of them (in my hands).

3. Where’s your favourite place to be in?

- Sitting in front of a fireplace, reading or watching a movie. The best thing ever.

4. Cats or dogs?

- Cats. 100%.The fact that I have 2 says something.

5. What’s your favourite memory from the past year?

- From the past year?? Umm. It’s either actively dying for the first time during a D&D session or DMing for the first time, D&D related in any case :D

6. Are you procrastinating?

- How dare you suggest such a thing, I’d never – yes, yes I am.

7. Would you rather go to an amusement park or see a musical/play?

- See a musical/play. Amusement parks are fun, but I’m more of a fan of sitting than running around at this point.

8. If you could move to wherever for free, where would you go?

- Either Ireland, the UK, or New Zealand. I’m having trouble deciding.

9. What is an achievable dream you have at the moment?

- To get a job or a paid internship sometime next year.

10. What three things would you take with you if you were to be launched into space?

- Ummmm I’d probably go for a camera (to document aliens), a collection of Neil Gaiman’s books (to read when I’d inevitably get bored), and a huge bottle of booze (to drink myself silly to deal with the silence).

Alrighty, as for my 10 questions:

1. What are the three things you’d want to wipe off the face of the Earth?

2. Favourite quote from your favourite movie?

3. Do you think ghosts are real?

4. What’s your pet peeve?

5. Coffee, tea, or something else entirely?

6. How do you feel about being an adult?

7. If you had to steal something from someone’s house, what would it be and why?

8. Cold toast or plain mayo?

9. Book or movie?

10. Fill in the blank: “Would you like to talk about our lord and saviour, _______?”

I’m gonna go ahead and tag some people I see in my notes, so @fandang1, @pepsirina, @doggytail-duck, and @zipsiii, and whoever else wants to answer these :D

[neil-gaiman]

Hi Mr Gaiman,

How does it feel that you will never write a story as good as our Lord and saviour J.R.R. Tolkien?To live in his shadow for the rest of your life. Like the rest of the writers doomed to mediocrity.

I’ll never write a Tolkien story as good as Tolkien’s good ones, no. But then, I don’t think he could ever have written a Neil Gaiman story. So overall it works out.

I’m definitely not in competition with all other writers. I’m sorry you think all writers except Tolkien are mediocre, and suspect that you are missing out on some wonderful writers and excellent books.