#rebellious crowley

[theonevoice]

The First War

Though strange to us it seemed at first that Angel should with Angel war, and in fierce hosting meet who wont to meet so oft in festivals of joy and love...

(Paradise Lost, book VI)

[witete-art]

I’m so excited to finally share with you my piece for the @ineffableeraszine!

[mannequinswithkillappeal]

oh boy youtube's autogenerated captions are really struggling with aziraphale's name right now

we'll start with what could easily pass as a nickname. he is a. fell after all:

next up we have the german variant:

not too bad. an attempt was made. but how about...

flattering I guess? and not entirely accurate because this bitch been failing for millennia (affectionate). may I introduce you to:

alright we're starting to drift into nonsense territory now. let's see wha-

well now you're not even trying

I DON'T KNOW, IS THERE??

and we'll end on what I can only assume is crowley's super-secret private name for aziraphale, reserved only for extremely horny diary entries:

yeah I bet you do

[thedemon-crowley]

ABBA this morning, apparently. And those fucking yellow hubcaps are back.

[intenseperpetualbrainrot]

Crowley, with tears in his eyes: Bentley, continue the song we left off on.

The Bentley: ok :)

The Bentley: THERE RIGHT THERE! LOOK AT THAT TAN WELL TENDED SKIN! LOOK AT THAT SLIGHTLY STUBBLY CHIN!

Muriel: is that the legally blonde soundtrack?

Crowley, blinking: you've been on earth seven days how do you know-

Muriel: I'm not illiterate.

Crowley: when did you get sassy?

Muriel: when you said "look into sass".

Crowley:... gay or European? it's hard to guarantee!

[noughticalcrossings]

Out of Eden

Inktober day 16. Angel

And the Lord spake unto the Angel that guarded the eastern gate, saying 'Where is the flaming sword that was given unto thee?'

[demonir]

aziraphale would like pearl from steven universe because of her style, her elegance, her strong sense of justice and love and her flaws despite it all

crowley would like pearl from su like the "I understand pearl because if my strong tall beautiful bisexual bipedal bipolar pink goddess situationship left me for a soundcloud rapper id be on the news"

[decepti-geek]

Crowley and Aziraphale could have each watched the original stage version of Cats and felt that, respectively, the Rum Tum Tugger and Mr Mistoffelees were aspirational figures.

[ghostn27]

Good Omens season 2 Spoilers!!!!!

"The kiss was forced" well yes of course it was! That was not the way Crowley planned it to go! He wanted to have breakfast with his angel after his great declaration! He wanted a slow morning after a very long night! Maybe have a kiss after they talked! But that's not how things went! He had to rush it! He had to convey 6000 years of love in 1 kiss and what does he get? He gets an "I forgive you". He gets a pained expression from his best friend and a broken heart! Not because he's not loved back! But because Aziraphale has already made his mind about returning to heaven! Telling crowley he loves him would not let him go! And he thinks he can make it better! He's so confident that they should, as angels, be doing good that he can't see that they are good the way they are! And that they do make a difference! Their love makes a difference! Their love is so powerful that their miracle could revive 25 persons! Their freedom makes a difference!

[ithacanradio]

great season man but i cannot get over the fact that some of those in the tag actually prefer aziraphale when out of your two mains one is a cooler version of david tennant in sunglasses while the other one still votes democrat

[anaid-queen]

@theshittysociologist the thoughts you are making me think

1.01 | 2.06

[theonevoice]

Rebellious

I only ever asked questions.

[assiraphales]

love that crowley’s car isn’t all that rebellious at heart it just wants to please whichever parent has custody

[lenaellsi]

“Crowley is still an angel deep down” “Crowley is more of an angel than any of the archangels” “Crowley was only cast out because he needed to play his part in Armageddon, he's not a real demon” “Aziraphale wants to rebuild Heaven to be more like Crowley because he’s what an angel should be” no. Stop it. This is exactly where Aziraphale went wrong.

Crowley is 100% a demon. He's not actually a bit of an angel, and he's not cosmically better than any of the other demons we see in the series. He's much less vicious than most of them, yeah, but he's also much less vicious than most of the angels, because how “nice” a celestial being is has nothing to do with which side they're technically on. Crowley's kindness comes from him doing his best to help people despite the hurt he's suffered himself, not any sort of inherent residual or earned holiness. He was cast out just like the rest of the demons, and that's an important part of his history that shouldn't be minimized, excused, or, critically, 'corrected.'

Being angelic is not a positive or negative trait in the Good Omens universe. It's a species descriptor. Saying that Crowley is still an angel deep down because he helps people is an in-character thing for Aziraphale to think, certainly--Job and the final fifteen showed that in the worst possible way--but it's not something Crowley would ever react well to, and it's the main source of conflict in the entire "appoint you to be an angel" fiasco.

We know that Aziraphale thinks Crowley's fall was an injustice, but why? Well, because Crowley is actually Good, which means his fall was a mistake, or a test, or a regrettable error in judgment, or…something. Ineffable. Etc. The point is, he’s special, much better than those other demons, and if they can fix him and make him an angel again, everything will be fine! (So once Job's trials are over, everything will be restored to him? Praise be!) Aziraphale has to believe that Crowley's better traits come from traces of the angel he used to know and not the demon he's known for 6,000 years, because that’s how he can rationalize his incorrect view of Heaven as The Source Of Truth And Light And Good with his complicated feelings about Crowley's fall.

But Crowley's fall was not an injustice because he's actually a Good Person who didn't deserve it. Crowley's fall was an injustice because the entire system of dividing people into Good (obedient) and Bad (rebellious) is bullshit. Crowley is not an unfortunate exception to God's benevolence, he is a particularly sympathetic example of God's cruelty.

And really, Crowley doesn't behave at all like an angel, especially when he's at his best. All of the things that he's done that we as the audience consider Good are things that Heaven has directly opposed. (See: saving the goats and children in defiance of God in S2E2, convincing Aziraphale to give money to Elspeth despite Heaven's views on the "virtues of poverty" in S2E3, speaking out against the flood and the crucifixion in S1E3, tempting Aziraphale to enjoy earthly pleasures because he thinks they'll make him happy, stopping Armageddon.)

Heaven as an institution has never been about helping humanity. And that's not an issue of leadership, as Aziraphale seems to think--it's by design. Aziraphale's first official act as an angel toward humanity was to literally throw them to the lions. Giving them the sword wasn't him acting like an angel, it was just him being himself. Heaven doesn't care about humans. It's not supposed to. It's supposed to win the war against Hell, with humans as chess pieces at best and collateral damage at worst.

Yes, it's easier to think that there are forces that are supposed to be fundamentally good. It's easier to think that Aziraphale is going to show those mean archangels and the Metatron what’s coming to them and reform Heaven into what it "should" be, and that God is actually super chill and watching all of this while shipping ineffable husbands and cheering for them the whole way. And of course it's easier to take Crowley, who Aziraphale (and the audience) adores, and say that he deserves to be on the Good team much more than all those angels and demons that we don’t like. But that's not how it works. People are more complicated than that, even celestial beings.

Crowley is a demon, and the tragedy of his character is not that he's secretly a good guy who is being forced to be evil; the tragedy is that he's lived his whole life stuck between two institutional forces that are both equally hostile to the love he feels for the universe and the beings in it. There are no good and bad guys. There are no "right people." Every angel, demon, and human is capable of hurting or helping others based on their choices. That is, in fact, the entire fucking point.

[catsconflictscopicsandchamomile]

unironically the first post is how I feel about Aziraphale

the only reason this does not apply to the second post/rb is bc yall are ATTACHED to him for some reason

more modern viewers rly needs to learn the thousands years old tradition of “hes a cunt and a menace but i want to see what he does next”

[neonvqmpire]

we need to talk about how close aziraphale actually was to saying no to the metatron after the kiss and why:

he's extremely conflicted and keeps looking out of the window to crowley in the car.

he previously said "nothing last forever" when crowley told him that he cant leave the bookshop (crowley also meant "you cant leave me"; the bookshop is a metaphor for their lives on earth for him) and he states exactly this as the first objection here. obviously the metatron shuts it down by appointing muriel as the next owner of the shop.

now he's stuck between wanting to be with the being he loves & who he now knows loves him back and his deep inner need/duty to do good. crowley's confession and kiss clearly made him question his decision and change his mind because here is when he actually decides for both.

you can see how he does not want to join heaven alone. he keeps looking out the window when asked if he needs anything to take with him.

he desperately needs crowley there but he can not have him so he lies and says no.

i this moment he tries to say no to heaven one last time. he starts saying "i think i-" and then looks out to crowley one last time. he's really considering crowleys offer here. i think the decision that he makes instead is actually FOR crowley as well.

he decides to join heaven not as he was previously convinced by the metatron to do good and rule together with crowley (which he did not want to do) but instead to go and keep a close eye on heaven FOR crowley.

aziraphale isnt stupid, he remembers what crowley said about heaven being toxic.

i think the confession and kiss makes him question heaven. crowley, who fell for asking questions made aziraphale question heaven too. something that he was always too scared to do. he has started to rebel in his head. he realised that something has to be up with heaven/the metatron bc they offered him the position. he decided to go but with a completely different purpose than before. 

he puts on a smile and it seems fake because it is. he wants to appear like he hasn't just fundamentally changed his position and decided to go against the one force who he was always afraid of yet dependent on. 

this is sth extremely relatable to someone who is queer and autistic and was raised by very conservative family members. even the thought of supporting queer people felt rebellious, terrifying but also extremely exiting and powerful because i knew it was the right thing to believe. 

aziraphale was being so brave here. he saw a glimpse of the life he wants and can have and choose to join heaven anyway to fight for this life. he is convinced it will not be possible for them to be together if heaven is still kicking about and making him feel powerless and scared. he wants to secure their future by changing or possibly even destroying the system from the inside out. 

unfortunately he didn't have time to tell crowley about his change of intention and i think it really breaks his heart. crowley would probably not understand it anyway. they still have a lot to work through and learn but ultimately they will find each other again. they always do.

i am so so interested to see where and how they meet again in s3, if we get it. after everything i just really want them to be happy and to spend their eternity together. they deserve it after all they went through.