#similar thing happening with good omens i fear

[beaft]

relatedly, ofmd is probably the quickest i've ever gone from "this show is fun and i like it" to "dear God i have to get out of here"

[fuckyeahisawthat]

So one of the things that Good Omens, the book in particular, points out again and again, is that Heaven and Hell are functionally the same. “Anyway, why are we talking about this good and evil?” book Crowley says. “They’re just names for sides. We know that.”

The two sides may seem ideologically opposed, but they do suspiciously similar things, and neither of them care about humanity. They’re both willing to destroy all life on Earth to prove whose gang is best. (There’s a bit of a Cold War analogy here that’s very obvious in the book.) That all was made very clear in season one.

But what the Job minisode shows is that Heaven and Hell are really one system, playing a game of good cop/bad cop with humans, angels and demons alike.

We learn that God and Satan not only talk to each other, but are on familiar enough terms to make a bet. (Which involves making some humans suffer to prove a point, very on brand for Good Omens’ God.) These are not some mid-level metaphysical bureaucrats sharing information through back channels that don’t exist but totally do. This is collusion at the highest level! They write up a contract and everything! And then Heaven simply stands back and lets Hell do its dirty work.

(Flash forward 4500 years to Aziraphale telling Crowley he should be the one to kill the Antichrist so Heaven doesn’t have “blood on its hands.”)

Heaven and Hell also work as a unified system to keep their respective angels and demons in line. Heaven needs Hell in order to ensure compliance in its own ranks. The Fall must have had a huge demonstration effect: this is what will happen to anyone else who steps out of line. Heaven mostly uses fear to control its own population, with the threat of falling always there to ensure obedience. And Hell is full of angry demons, isn’t it? Anger is pretty much the only emotion it’s socially acceptable for a demon to have, and Heaven is very useful for keeping that anger focused on an external target.

The Job storyline is the first time in the series we’ve seen Heaven and Hell working together so directly, but I don’t think it’ll be the last. They’re in the same building, after all. One of them just has a better view.

[raven-at-the-writing-desk]

I think malleus mentions, maybe in his dorm vig, that he tried approaching other students when he couldn't find the meeting place but they scream and run away from him in terror. If this is how people have been reacting to him approaching them then it makes sense for him to stop trying at one point. also think the senators never allowed anyone to meet him. Remember melanoir blessing. She blessed him to be feared by humans. Perhaps that is also at play. I would like to hear your thoughts on this.

One thing I take issue with is how inconsistently written the world’s reactions to Malleus are. On one hand, we're constantly told that people fear him and run away at the sight of him (which does happen with various mob students). On the other hand, we get dozens and dozens of instances of Malleus interacting with his classmates, staff, and the locals of Sage’s Island (Magicam Monsters) and other countries without issue. (Granted, the locals of other countries did not recognize him as Malleus due to how he was dressed, but the point still holds that Malleus can have normal interactions with people.) How he is received varies greatly across the main story, vignettes, and the events. You cannot have it both ways because it creates this cognitive dissonance about how we’re supposed to perceive his presence.

As for the senators, it is canon that Malleus was often kept inside the castle. However, that doesn’t mean he was entirely barred from interacting with people and that doesn’t mean Malleus never left. Clearly he still had tutors and servants around (although interacting with them would be different than interacting with peers), and surely he would have met his grandmother or foreign dignitaries as part of his training. He has also visited Silver and Lilia in their cottage which is far away from the capital city. Malleus has realistically had opportunities to engage with people, no matter how much the senators try to leash him.

Finally, on the subject of Meleanor’s blessing: firstly, there is no immediate indication that Melanor cast a spell of any kind. If you compare the scene where she utters the “blessing” (7-77) to when Lilia blesses Silver and changes his hair color (7-81), there is no sparkle effect to indicate magic. Meleanor asks Lilia to take care of her kid, hands her egg off to Lilia, summons thorns to drag him away, then vanishes away to fight, so the sparkle effect that proceeds is most likely to show her teleporting off to combat (which is finally when the sparkle effect comes in). Right before leaving, she says, “May the Night bless you/Night's Blessings (in EN)”, which is where I believe people got the “Meleanor blessed/cursed Malleus to be feared by humans” headcanon comes from. However, the phrase “May the Night bless you/Night's Blessings” is not a magic incantation as far as we know; it seems to be a saying among nocturnal fae to wish one another good luck. We see Lilia and others saying it in other parts of book 7. However, Lilia does utter “May the Night bless you/Night's blessings” prior to Silver’s hair color change, so I imagine this also plays a part in the fandom interpretation/headcanon that Meleanor blessed Malleus in a similar manner.

Even if it was a real blessing, it doesn’t work for me with how they’ve set up Malleus’s interactions with his peers. If the blessing/curse is supposedly making him feared by humans, how come there are several blatant exceptions who don’t fear him at all? This includes the light trio and arguably even characters like Leona or Rollo—because even feelings of hate or rivalry are still not fear. Additionally, Meleanor’s phrasing is that she’s sure that Malleus will be a good omen/“auspicious star” for the fae of Briar Country but a “fearsome, malevolent star” for humans. With the coming of book 7, Malleus is posing a real threat to both fae and humans alike. Furthermore, she directly follows up these lines by saying she entrusts her son to Lilia. She’s emphasizing the importance of Malleus to their country’s future before handing him away; it does not read like she’s blessing her child. This, combined with the very delayed sparkle effect in 7–77, leads me to believe that Meleanor’s words were not actually magically binding or a blessing, but rather a hope or a prayer about the kind of person Malleus would be someday: a leader that their country needs and someone who will strike fear into humans (who were enemies of the fae at the time). Until the canon says otherwise, this is how I interpret Meleanor's "blessing" for her son (ie it’s not a magical one).

I feel like none of these should completely dissuade Malleus from like... I don't know, going out of his way to locate a few open-minded people (again, like the light trio) and trying to make conversation with them? Maybe invite them over for tea? Taking little steps like that. I understand why he would be hesitant to try or adopt a defeatist attitude, but again Lilia is right there to help facilitate or to ask questions to. But he doesn’t really do that or seem to truly take what anyone says to heart; instead he gets moody, pouty, and sulks when he feels rejected because the situation is artificially set up for failure 💦

It sometimes feels like TWST wrote itself into a corner with Malleus’s presentation due to the nature of the original game format. His lore calls for him to be sinister and feared through all the land, but the devs are simultaneously compelled to write him in cute and silly social scenarios to show how likable he can be (so open up your wallet for him/j)… He’s supposedly always forgotten but you’d think that someone with a presence as fearsome as his would be remembered vividly or make a strong impression regardless of the contrived ways they try to keep him out of the picture… and that results in the clashing tones I notice now.

[actual-changeling]

I was once again re-watching good omens, and I once again realized something incredibly painful, so welcome back to

Alex's unhinged meta corner.

I really need to make a masterpost at some point.

You see, the very first episode not only foreshadows their last argument, it also tells us exactly why it will happen and what problem/offer they will have to face.

We don't usually pay much attention to it because it's a) in the very first episode and then doesn't come up again and b) we know that Crowley would never accept it.

My realization is that Beelzebub's offer mirrors the Metatron's. Both Crowley and Aziraphale are given the same kind of opportunity—but one says no and the other says yes.

Let's have a look!

This is not going to be chronological but more of a go with the flow thing because the aspects are the same but they don't appear in the same order.

The most obvious part first: the job offer itself.

Beelzebub offers him a promotion and later on specifies that he can be a Duke of Hell, one of the few people in charge. I believe that if Gabriel and Beez' plan had been to run away together from the very beginning, ze would have offered Crowley zir own job as Prince of Hell. Still, being a Duke would probably put him in a standing similar to Michael or Uriel's.

The Metatron obviously offers him the job of Supreme Archangel, which is the highest possible position for an angel to hold, aka it's the same promotion, just different colours.

Both offers also stem from the exact same problem—Gabriel is gone.

Now, Beelzebub and the Metatron aren't stupid, they know that they need to convince them to take it, they have to embellish it and play with their wants and fears.

Beelzebub presumably makes the correct assumption that Aziraphale is hiding Gabriel or that the two of them are somehow involved (because they always are), and while ze uses it as a threat/warning, the Metatron takes what is now fact and uses it in the opposite way.

Additionally, ze trusts Crowley to not only deliver Gabriel back to zem but to take care of him until he's safe and sound with his partner.

'I trust you with him' -> 'He trusted you with himself'.

I will now do a little jump to the last part of Aziraphale's conversation with the Metatron right in front of the lift. Once again, they appeal to a characteristic Crowley and Aziraphale share.

'You know earth and that is a useful asset.' What has previously been punished and was seen as a weakness—what is he, he has gone native, you've been down here for too long—is now praised.

It's good that you know earth, we see that you are worth something, you are different but that is good now.

Crowley does not care about that at all, he gives exactly zero fucks about what hell thinks of him, but Aziraphale? Who has been trying to impress the Archangels for six thousand years and been humiliated by them during Armageddon? This is what he has been craving all along, respect for his job on earth and to be recognized as a Good Angel.

Well, that was the carrot, time for the stick: threats.

They remind them of their respective status—they're both traitors, personae non gratae, and they could still be punished for that. After the trial, they were largely left alone, but they drew attention to themselves again, they became a problem.

The Metatron is more subtle, as usual. He knows that Aziraphale lied his ass off several times, including directly in front of God. This is not a just compliment, it's a threat—I know who you are and I have the power to make you feel that

'You don't just tell people what they want to hear.' Again, they are sitting at this table and both know that the opposite is true, and the Metatron is both using it to threaten him and to establish the clear expectations he will have for him should he take the job. Also, by saying he thinks Aziraphale is those things, he gives him more praise, more respect.

Both sides know that Aziraphale and Crowley are each other's biggest weakness; they want to be safe and together. I think it is clear what kind of threat/danger Beez is presenting Crowley, but we rarely talk about the fact that the Metatron also threatens him, just not as explicitly.

Aziraphale will be destroyed if they find Gabriel with him, and Crowley cannot let that happen. However, contrary to heaven, hell has more or less known about the two of them for decades, and they never actually cared about the arrangement as long as the job got done. They punished Crowley when he did good deeds aka not his fucking job but the opposite.

'I know you care about him, he's at risk if you don't help me find him.'

The Metatron on the other hand makes it clear that HE specifically knows about him and Crowley, and Aziraphale did not know who exactly was privy to that information and if it reached the Metatron. Not just that, he emphasizes that he has been doing research on them, he can dig up whatever dirt he likes and then kill them both.

No one would be able to stop him.

This next part is going to be interesting because it is a parallel that Aziraphale doesn't and currently wouldn't be able to see, while Crowley does see it very, very clearly.

When the Metatron tells Aziraphale he can take Crowley with him to heaven and make him an angel again, that is good news to him! It is PERFECT! It would solve out of his problems, and who wouldn't want to be an angel, on the side of good?

Everything the Metatron did up to this point, from 'saving' them from punishment at the hand of the Archangels, over getting him coffee, to giving twisted praise, has had one primary objective: Get Aziraphale to trust him.

It worked. Consequently, Aziraphale does not question what he tells him now, and believes that he truly could take Crowley with him and make him an angel again. He has no concept of what falling actually means, and what it meant for Crowley in particular, so he cannot discern the threat within it.

Yet when he presents it to Crowley, who is horrified and rightfully so, we are once again shown that no, Aziraphale does not understand. Crowley does, though. That angel he was no longer exists, he cannot go back to it because they're gone, and he would not want to either. Everything they have built on earth their life, their existence, would mean absolutely nothing and cease to exist.

Do you see the threat yet?

Here is what Beelzebub tells him, and what we are told over and over and over again throughout the season.

Erased from the book of life, gone from existence, everything they were, had, owned, lived—gone.

Erased from the book of life vs. turned back into an angel that doesn't exist anymore, that CAN'T exist again.

Put the threat and the 'offer' next to each other, and Crowley sees the same fate in both: His existence will be destroyed. Aziraphale, like I said above, doesn't. The book of life is a threat, but turning him into an angel is a blessing.

Right now, it doesn't matter whether the book of life really exists or if a demon can be turned back into an angel. What matters is that they both BELIEVE those things are real and possible, because that is what they act on, belief.

Beelzebub sends him away with bad news, the Metatron pushes Aziraphale to tell Crowley good news. Same offer, same possible outcomes (either they get to live together or one of them/both get destroyed), but entirely different responses.

Crowley says no. Aziraphale says yes.

Aziraphale thinks Crowley should have said yes.

Crowley thinks Aziraphale should have said no.

So. We know what happens next and personally, combing through all of this in detail only made it hurt worse!! If it did the same for you—you're welcome, I love my job.

[downbaddetective]

I'm finally coming back to one of my previous posts. (Thank you to @m-eowdy for the reminder to finish the thought. I'm sorry if it's a little disappointing after the wait.)

Specifically these two shots of Edwin being completely covered in our two most important colors, because the symbolism here is significant to me.

I lost the original thoughts that I had (unfortunately migraines make me forget things) and by the time I was feeling kind of okay I knew that there were things I wanted to say but couldn't remember how. So, instead, I sat and rewatched the show, taking notes so that I could make sure that I wasn't making anything up.

So, color symbolism in this show is so stupidly important, and it's called out by characters in universe (thank you, Niko). We obviously see our characters in their colors, Edwin in blue, Charles in red, Crystal in purple, and Niko in pink. But it's also not that cut and dry. Edwin, in all reality, is very grey, Crystal wears a lot of different colors, and so does Niko. Obviously, part of that is because the girls aren't dead and have to change their clothes, but the colors that are worn are still significant to their state of mind and the events happening around them. With Edwin and Charles, it's very similar, though a little different. Charles' red gets darker as he is more and more affected by what happens at the Devlin house. Edwin, though, barely shows his blues most of the time, but when he becomes vulnerable, he sheds his grey layers, and we see it a lot more.

Now, I think that it's worth mentioning that Edwin and Charles swap their afterlife colors, so when they look at each other, they see their afterlife. The red and blue also give us clues as to things that they're hiding. Red being often associated with anger and blue with sadness. That being said, I'm now getting to the symbolism in the fact that Edwin is one of two* characters to be washed in both hell's red and death's (heaven's?) blue like this.

Edwin's entire journey is kind of impeded by the fear of getting caught by the afterlife and being sent back to hell. Red is his constant source of fear, hell being the biggest example, but Charles in his red is also the cause of Edwin's issues. Charles is the reason why both the Cat King and Monty have some type of red associated with them during interactions with Edwin. These colors are omens for Edwin. Charles essentially shared his blue afterlife light with him. They were meant to be detectives together, and that's where it all starts, right there in that attic. The red, on the other hand, is indicative of the bullshitery that is incoming, including the worst-case scenario, aka BEING DRAGGED BACK TO HELL. RIGHT THERE. IN THE APARTMENT THAT THEY GO LOOK AT RIGHT AFTER THIS. (Even though it is definitely at least partially his own darn fault.) The fact that we see these two scenes out of order also indicates that by the end of it all Edwin has overcome the previously stated bullshitery. We see Edwin interact with these two colors as a collective much more in the show, and it's seems it's because this was Edwin's time to learn and grow, and I suspect that if we get a season two at some point, we will see that flip so that Charles can have his turn.

All in all, I am absolutely in love with the colors in this show and I will probably have more to say later but I wanted to finish at least this part of the color analysis so that I could have a resolution to the previous post. I don't think I was able to recover all of my original thoughts about the significance of these two, but I think I got a pretty good chunk of it. I do want to say that I've seen the other color analyses floating around. I will be taking a look at some point, but before doing my own, I will be avoiding them for now because I want to write about my own perception rather than accidentally just stealing other peoples work.

(* Ngl, a little worried about Jenny if we ever see a season two)

[ineffablelunatics]

The Good Place and Crowley

A while ago, someone sent an ask to Gaiman. It went as follows, “In the book, ‘Golden Girls’ was Crowley’s favorite TV show. Is that slo TV Crowley’s favorite or does he have a current TV show that he prefers?” He answered, “I think he’d love the ‘The Good Place.’”

The Good Place is one of my favorite shows. I completely understand why Crowley would like it. It has some of the best debates of the philosophy and ethics of modern day society including the afterlife. It argues that people should not be defined as good and bad. It shows that people can improve. It tells us why and how they improve.

There’s two things about Crowley that really connect him to these thoughts. 1. Crowley does not like to be defined as good(or nice). Though we haven’t really seen that include bad, I would assume that it would be the similar thought. It also might have something to do with Aziraphale saying those things specifically, but that’s another post. 2. That people are not defined by what happened to them, and that means that anyone can improve.

Crowley fell from Heaven. He fell from grace which made him demon which means that for all intents and purposes, he should be evil. But he isn’t. Crowley doesn’t ever really commit truly evil acts. Any truly evil act that Hell thinks Crowley committed, humans committed. Crowley just took the credit. Crowley likes the thought that people can change. In Hell, he sees tons of people who are awful, but he also sees people who just made some mistakes. He sees demons who are like him who don’t find joy in treating people terribly. He’s seen angels causing harm happily, but others giving away joy like lollipops.

Those two things are fundamental in the show, The Good Place. I would argue Good Omens as well. If Adam had always been treated like he was evil, he probably would have never had friends who he genuinely cared about so much so that their fear pulled him out of his power drunken state. If Aziraphale had assumed the snake was evil(if he even saw him lol), then smited him, where would Crowley and humanity be? The demon with the imagination burned to ash and humanity living with almost decision-less whilst tucked neatly within Eden’s walls. If people couldn’t improve then Shadwell would have never been able to put aside his fears and foolishness so that he could love Madame Tracy and show it. Gabriel and Beelzebub would still be planning Armageddon 2.0 if they hadn’t moved on and fell in love instead.

The Good Place reminds us of the things time and time again. Each of the four main characters get reset, and every time, in the right circumstances, they always become better people. They are also never really defined as good and bad either. At times, others try to define Eleanor as a bad person, but every time, she reminds them that, yes, maybe, she shouldn’t be in the Good Place, but at the very least, she should be in her very own Middle Place. Every time, Chidi teaches her how to become a better person(which only works, because she wants to be one) and in the process, he becomes one too. Just like Gabriel and Beelzebub.

This was way longer than I expected it to be, but here are some quotes from The Good Place and where I think they would fit into Good Omens whether that be place and time or people and relationships.

“Sometimes, when you’re feeling helpless, the secret is to help someone else. Get out of your own head. Trust me. The next time someone asks for help, say yes.” This feels like the whole of S2, specially Aziraphale with Jim and then Maggie

“If you have bills to pay and shit to deal with you don;t have time or energy to become a better person.”  The Resurrectionists in 1827 with Elspeth and Wee Morag

“If there were an answer I could give you to how the universe works, it wouldn’t;t be special. It would just be machinery fulfilling its cosmic design. It would just be a big, dumb food processor. But since nothing seems to make sense, when find something or someone that does, it’s euphoria.” All the couples in GO, but that quote right there seems to be how Crowley and Aziraphale has been holding on for so long

“I guess all I can do is embrace the pandemonium find happiness in the unique insanity of being here, now.” Nina specially during The Ball

“People improve when they get external love and support. How can we hold it against them when they don’t?” Beelzebub and Gabriel

“We have no plan. No one’s coming to save us. So... I’m going to do it.” Aziraphale(specifically him at the end of S2 in my opinion)but also just everybody in S1 with Anathema, Agnus, the Them, Aziraphale and Crowley, just all trying their best

“If soulmates do exist, they’re not found. They’re made. People meet. They get a good feeling, and they get to work building a relationship.” All the couples, but especially Aziraphale and Crowley with the Agreement, they were working on their relationship before they knew they were even working on their relationship

“What matters isn’t if people are good or bad. What matters is if people are trying to be better today than they were yesterday. You asked me where my hope comes from? That’s my answer.” Crowley, because deep down, at the end of the line, we know that he’s an optimist

*reminder that all of this is my opinion, if there’s anymore quotes you would like to add, please do, some of the information might be incorrect

[sunderwight]

a thought:

so you know how in Good Omens, Aziraphale mentions that after the Flood there will be a rainbow and that God will put it up as a symbol and promise not to drown everyone again?

so we know that sometimes God, for whatever reason, exacts seemingly disproportionate and cruel punishments on innocent beings. like the Noah scene really hammers this home, despite the conceit of the Noah story often being that everyone except Noah's family was corrupt, there are still innocent children and animals who could not possibly be guilty of anything so even if it IS true for all the adults, there is still collateral damage.

a similar thing happens with Jesus and dying for mankind's sins, though the Good Omens scene with him is less explicit that this is what's happening. but at least theoretically, we're having another moment where everyone gets forgiven for transgressions that others have been punished for.

so my thinking is, what if the Fall was that kind of situation? just for angels instead of humans.

what if it's something God was only ever gonna do one time?

except, rather than putting up a rainbow (a direct signal from God that had a clearly stated meaning), God just passed along the message that it was a one-time thing through the usual channels. which would be the Metatron.

or what I mean is, God told Metatron that the Fall was a one time event, and Metatron just... kept that information to himself?

because he had already figured out that a fear of Falling helps keep the other angels in line.

so Aziraphale's spent thousands of years wondering why he hasn't Fallen like Crowley despite sharing most of his opinions and committing nearly all of the same "crimes", trying to come up with reasons to reconcile the difference, to understand where God might or must be drawing distinctions, when the truth is he just happened to commit his first rebellions after there was a rainbow.

[fallenrocket]

#PirateOmens watch party - Season 1, Episode 1

(crossposted from my twitter)

Within the first few minutes of episode 1, we get Crowley reassuring Aziraphale, "You're an angel, I don't think you *can* do the wrong thing."

Rings well with, "You know, most of the pirates I know, they're dead. So you're doing a hell of a lot better than them."

***

Side note: I imagine the actors didn't know about this when they shot it, but the scene at the Eastern Gate feels so different now knowing about Aziraphale and Crowley's "before the Beginning" flashback. The layers to this show! Like a cake with a 40-orange glaze.

***

Gabriel: "I like the clothes! Pity they won't be around much longer." Hee!

***

Do you fancy a fine sushi, angel?

***

Watching the 3-card monte with the Antichrist child makes me wonder what Stede was like when Mary was in labor. I can't decide between squeamish at the blood, barely noticing at all, or trying to be way *too* helpful.

***

"Get thee behind me, foul fiend! ...After you," is absolutely a Stede Bonnet move.

***

Aziraphale: "Well, I'll be damned."

Crowley: "It's not so bad when you get used to it."

Stede: "Look, I've been a failure my whole life. It's not so bad once you get used to it."

It's a match made in heaven, @PrimeVideo! Won't you #AdoptOurCrew?

***

Stede and Ed would be so down for dressing up in costumes to influence the Antichrist child, except Ed would have to be Nanny Jeff.

***

Aziraphale's magic tricks? Also Stede Bonnet coded, from head to toe. Crowley's reaction is basically Ed with the treasure hunt in "This is Happening."

***

Obviously, we know what a great pair Good Omens and OFMD make, but I like the differences in the characters and their relationships too.

Crowley and Ed are the "dark/prickly" ones with hidden vulnerabilities, but Crowley puts on a transparent act for Hell and then does what he pleases. Ed knows he doesn't want to be Blackbeard but feels trapped in the role, fearing he *can't* be someone different.

After a life of struggling to follow the rules, Stede has broken free from those expectations and is embracing the life he wants. Aziraphale is still caught in the expectations, still obsessed with who he's "supposed" to be.

Even though Good Omens and Our Flag Means Death vibrate at a similar frequency, the differences between them make both shows even more delicious! That's why they'll pair so well together, @PrimeVideo--like crepes with marmalade!

[secretlyafiveheadeddragon]

hehe i saw your tags! what’s dead boy detectives about?? the description of the characters sold me completely lol

it’s in the sandman universe, but you don’t need to know anything about that to get into it!

it’s about two dead boys named Charles and Edwin. Edwin is from Edwardian England and due to a complicated mistake, he spent 70 years in hell. He managed to escape, because he is very smart, but that has an effect on you that the show deals with. He’s also gay, but very repressed, and I won’t say how he died but that’s certainly not helping things.

Charles is from the 80s, he’s the so-called brawn of the two, he is very kind and he hits every problem with a magical cricket bat. He’s great. He dresses kinda alt, he wears earrings and is gorgeous, but I think he is also very emotionally repressed considering he is obviously bi but is convinced he is straight.

they run a detective agency where they solve the deaths of ghosts so that they can pass on. However, they are constantly running from death, because if death catches them, they will be separated from one another in heaven. On top of that, there is a very good chance that Edwin will be sent back to hell if death ever catches them. They want to stay on earth together and continue their investigations without fear of being separated.

the characters are very very well written and interesting, they just kind of capture you. I picked it up because I thought the aesthetics and premise were cool and similar to good omens (which I am obsessed with). It surprised me by being so unique and refreshing for a modern streaming show. The colors on the show are so good, as well as the cinematography and symbolism. The characters are all really compelling, and they are all given the right amount of screen time. Theres a Cat King who is a wet cat of a man. And the witch villain is hot. I don’t make the rules.

it’s a sort of monster-of-the-week style, it feels like it was made for a 20 episode season but unfortunately that didn’t happen. They still make it work very well though! You know that post that like “guy who knows he’s gay but doesn’t know he’s in love with his best friend and guy who knows he’s in love with his best friend but doesn’t know he’s gay”? It’s like that.

anyway, Dead Boy Detectives on Netflix, highly recommended!!!

[utilitycaster]

So while I’m an imodna enjoyer, I absolutely agree to the agree-est of agrees that the most interesting thing they could do is break up right now. I don’t think they will, but I would love to see it. My concern mostly comes down to how fandom would react to Marisha or Laura if they did. I enjoy them [the ship] for their codependency and inability to do anything without consistently ignoring their own emotions or comfort to do so. They should absolutely break up. It would be so good. So interesting, I think. I, again, just know fandom would not be normal about it especially when Marisha got so much shit just for saying that Beauregard wasn’t quite serious about Yasha yet, and that was before the ship even had a canon kiss. This? Would be hellfire and as much as id love it, I would literally never open the critical role tag ever again out of fear lol.

Hey anon,

I just deleted a somewhat similar ask and I do respect any choice people made to back away from fandom for their own personal well-being but ultimately...I don't care how the broader fandom responds. This shit pre-dates my entry into the fandom (people freaked out, apparently, when Gilmore's status was unknown in C1 when Hotis attacked Whitestone) and it's not exclusive to CR by any means (see: everything happening with the Good Omens fandom because the two main couples did engage with the various problems and communication issues and different desires they had). It's unavoidable, and honestly, it's kind of exhilarating to me. I am, as I say, a STEM bitch, and meta feels like a sort of logic problem, and a good way to piece together that logic is to find the holes in what others say. You need the bad opinions to be out there in order to best formulate the good ones.

Anyway: I'd rather have a good story than a docile fandom, and I'm posting that one block evader's alts mostly so that people who are more hurt by their statements can take precautions but they are ultimately on par with a disease-free mosquito to me: extremely annoying but not any kind of threat.

In the end, what I need to get on board with the ship is some kind of canon engagement with the core of it: that Imogen told Laudna repeatedly to her face "hey what if your murderer was right." I don't mind if that exploration comes in the form of a breakup, or a fight, or an honest and open mature conversation, or discussions with other party members, or leaning into the codependency; I just need there to be some stakes. Conflict would interest me, but it doesn't need to be a blow-up (though I really do think a breakup would be a new and incredibly good direction - there's a reason why Laerryn and Loquatius manage to have a trillion times the chemistry in a fraction of the time and it's the path from their introduction to their conclusion) - just the introduction of the idea that there is some line that would be crossed under some circumstances, or an exploration of the toxicity of having no such line. I think a lot of people feel the same! I don't think there's many people other than outright homophobes who think of Imodna as an absolute NOTP - it's just that a lot of us find it lacking, and it's a lack that can be addressed.

[mt10lt20]

Finally, an Ace Combat Fanfic (or two)

Finally got my AO3 account approved, so I posted my first (two? Do 2 Chapters count) fanfics, and its of Ace Combat Zero & 6 (Ciphixy & TaliSham) - Featuring... some plot with subtle horror AND smut. Also, I realized that I cannot write pure vanilla T_T

AO3 link here - F*ck like you fly

Additional notes that were not mentioned on AO3 as they were linked to HCs: under the cut.

The protags are technically male. But because I sometimes also draw them as females + because they are faceless, they are written to also have some feminine qualities in their appearance. Or, they may not be human at all, considering the way they fly; and their wingmen will do well not to forget that they are predators, no matter how alluring or nice they seem to be.

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AC6’s Shamrock/Talisman are my rare pair. Their story started out when I was thinking about how they’d ever get together, considering how much baggage Shamrock has. And I just happened to write it down, and by that time it was already a full-length fic. Might as well dump it on AO3.

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ACZ and AC6 go together for me. I find them like mirror images of each other and hence, easier to write or draw as a “set”. Besides a weakness for the Angel and Demon trope (I blame Neil Gaiman and Terry Pratchett for writing Good Omens), I think ACZ and AC6 were purposeful corporate “mirror projects”: ACZ and 6 were developed around the same time (release date 2006/2007 - the only 2 main platform games in the AC series developed so close to each other), and both teams prob practically, in a very corporate fashion, were given tasks to focus on building FACELESS protagonists that were opposite just to ensure no overlaps when the biz was running 2 similar projects. As a testimony to some of the development similarities, the Garuda team even had a 3rd wingman (but dropped), very similar to the Galm Team.

Note: This a hypothesis based on understanding & practical experience of messy, large corporate cultures. Unproven in the Namco (pre-merger) context, but I guess similar patterns prevail across industries?

So, I think the Demon of Ustio was conceived first and management just went like ok, corporate has a demon now, this faceless thing is gonna be a challenge if we’re running 2 concurrent games cos we just can’t make them LOOK different, let’s do an angel/ angels for the other one so there will absolutely be no way we can clash the characterizations. The Angel and Demon trope was just too convenient and I think that resulted in Cipher and Talisman being developed to achieve the same outcome (ace pilots who are a cut above the rest, instrumental to winning the wars they were in etc), while being the exact opposite of each other.

A feared mercenary bound to no rules | An admired leader in the air force. Lone contributor | Strategist. Fear inspiring | Awe inspiring. Faces off against a wingman who breaks orders | Stays together with a wingman who breaks orders. Both their wingmen are also highly effective but one turned out to want to kill them | the other will die for them.

At the end of the day, Ciph & Tali would both be annoyed at how similar they really are despite trying to be so different (affectionate) - hence the basis of their beef in the chaotic ACZ/6/7 AU that sometimes features here. But they do have a grudging respect for each other and might bond over their shared love for capable-idiot wingmen (again affectionate), and TROUNT lol.

And after all, both are still to be feared, bringing salvation and destruction in their own way. Cipher - all shall fear me and despair | Talisman - all shall love me and despair. Pun intended cos they fly Eagles, but not to Mordor.

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Would like to try writing Trount sometime, perhaps as a 3rd chapter. But due to their lighter hearted nature, they are a little more challenging to write with the subtle-horror undertone vs the ACZ and AC6 pairs. I will get there!

[dekusleftsock]

Like good omens? Bc the current climate of bkdk is exactly like what happens with Crowley and Aziraphale. EVERYONE, and i mean, EVERYONE around them realizes they love/want each other in the shortest amount of time possible but not the two guys that have known each other for thousands of years, until like, now and they STILL fucked it up.

DUDE YOURE SO FUCKING TRUE FOR THIS

Good Omens is always a show I knew I would love, but never got around to watching. My friend basically made me binge the entirety of season one a week ago and then I binged all of season two when I got home, and MY GOD. MY GOD. THEY ARE SO MUCH LIKE BKDK AND IT SUCKS.

I feel like this is obvious but Good Omens season 2 spoilers lol.

Aziraphale kinda likes to romanticize the time when Crowley was an Angel WITH HIM. The first scene in season 2 where Crowley and Aziraphale first meet and Aziraphale watches him with puppy dog eyes, all of it reminded me of bkdk’s childhood. And from Izuku’s perspective, it was AMAZING! He got Kacchan all to himself, they were friends, even if he was a bit mean and teased him. But to Bakugou? It felt like Izuku was bullying him, looking down on him. It feels a lot like Crowley’s perspective on heaven. He doesn’t like hell either, but at least they don’t care how things get done, just that it’s done.

AND LIKE, AZIRAPHALE AND CROWLEY HAVE SIMILAR PROBLEMS I KIND OF SEE IZUKU AND KATSUKI HAVING. Losing your sense of identity in the obsession of the one you love, it fucking happens! There’s this post about Crowley and Aziraphale’s relationship that puts this into words so well, and it feels very them, yk? Bkdk feel so so much like the type of people who could get so attached to each other that they lose what makes them, them.

AND MAYBE THATS A STRETCH, BUT YEVAISBISHSISHSHJSB

When togachako’s relationship is built off of your individual senses of identity (who therefore feel a lot like Maggie and Nina in this equation tbh), and bkdk’s is built off of the fact that you’ve never had a point in your life where this person HADNT existed, then you can see how that can turn into a problem—especially for their relationship.

Bkdk is a slowburn built off of a fear of rejection, much like Crowley and Aziraphale. Because if this person ISNT in your life, then who are you really? What makes you, “you”? What makes us, “us”?

Is there really space for “you”, in a sense of self built on “us”?

ALSO AZIRAPHALE SAYING “I FORGIVE YOU” AFTER THAT KISS BROKE MY FUCKING HEART RVEINSUSVSISBUS

Their miscommunication in both bkdk and in Aziraphale/Crowley is so so bad and yet so so relatable why is it like that good lord.

I think what I liked most about season 2 was when Nina made the comment that “everyone else’s love life always seems so much more straight forward than your own”, AND IF THAT ISNT BKDK/TGCK THEN I DONT KNOW WHAT IS LMAO

Oh yeah and the coffee theory is dumb. It very much makes sense for Aziraphale to take the offer that he did. He has said time and time again that heaven has the good guys and hell has the bad guys, there’s just individually good and bad people in both. He has always wanted Crowley to be a part of heaven again, he literally always mentions how Crowley “was an Angel once”.

Aziraphale represents the cult-ish mentality that Christianity can be. He wants to believe that there is a higher power that doesn’t agree with the things angels do and don’t do, because if that isn’t the case, then every belief he has ever been told was built on a lie.

Heaven negates it’s flaws by simply believing that there are individually flawed angels and not that the larger system itself is a problem. This is why metatron says this in his meeting with Gabriel and the other high ranking angels. Gabriel cannot fall or there is a systematic problem, and so long as there isn’t a systematic problem, he will simply be dealt with in the cleanest way possible.

It’s all a capitalism metaphor. If Aziraphale is good enough, if he believes in god and her plan, if he believes in the good Crowley has in his heart, if he believes that a fundamentally flawed system can be changed for the better, if you can somehow work hard enough for your company, you will be rewarded. You will be praised. You will be seen as a person who deserves recognition because you worked hard enough.

But you never work hard enough. There is no plan. There is no infinite peak. It’s just you, in an infinite universe, trying to guess some plan that will never be comprehensible.

LOOK IM OF THE BELIEF THAT GOD HAS HAD NO HAND IN ANY OF THIS SINCE THE BEGINNING, EVERYONES JUST MAKING IT THE FUCK UP. 

This got so far off track bc I have good omens brainrot dear god.

[everybody-loves-purdy]

I’m patiently waiting for a cat with the Cardinal- prefix (names like Cardinalflight, Cardinalsong, Cardinalwing, Cardinalfeather, etc.)

And this could be a really fun concept because originally, I was thinking of a ginger tom or a brown she-cat since North America, the Northern Cardinal is the main species of cardinal.

Although there are similar species of cardinal in the UK who are red in color, one that struck me was the Indigo Bunting Cardinal.

It is a common sight in North America, but extremely rare to come across in the UK. I’d be interesting if we ever had a blue-gray character named after such a rare sighting!

Yeah that would be so cool, maybe the cats could perceive it as a sign from StarClan seeing this rare bird, it could be the kind of thing an elder saw once and immediately after something really bad or good happened.

Maybe this bird could lead them to find a kit and because they think the bird itself is a sign they take the kit in and name in after the bird? Even if it’s a bad omen they could take the kit in after debate out of fear of punishment if they don’t.

[v-e-l-v-e-t-g-o-l-d-m-i-n-e]

Another post about the second season of Good Omens, spoilers everywhere...

So! Crowley and Aziraphale are canon now. It feels weird to even type it, and I saw the EVERY leak when it happened. There was still this fear of ‘what if its not real tho’ but huh. It really was. I’m so pleasantly surprised about it, hard to describe even.

Until I think, two or three weeks ago, I was not aware that the plan was to have three seasons. I’m glad I learned it before watching, because I was so sure that season two would be IT, the unwritten sequel and then it would be Over. I would be scratching my head if I watched without knowing it lmao

And that finale, as sad as it was to watch them break apart, I think it makes a lot of sense and it was where the season was heading all along. The season hinted and showed several times that Aziraphale has such a hard time conciliating his idea of what Heaven is and what he thinks it is/should be, and how it clashes with Crowley all the time.

The proposal that Metraton does to him has to be his dreams coming true and really, he’s So happy about it, beaming, smiling sooo wide. He and Crowley together in Heaven doing Good, how better could it get?

I think Aziraphale always had in his mind that Crowley’s fall was maybe an error because Crowley is just too good to be a demon and now he has a chance to fix it himself, but man, what a sucker punch it has to be for Crowley.

It was as a demon that their relationship was built, it was with him being a demon that Crowley showed nothing but companionship, care and love for Aziraphale their whole existence on Earth, and suddenly when he thinks Aziraphale is finally seeing Heaven for what it is, he has to hear stuff like this:

When really, the Armageddon should have made it clear for Aziraphale that Heaven and Hell are really not that different, that they want the same things and even do things in similar ways.

I really liked the love confession. Crowley was soo sad all over it, knowing it was over but hoping against hope that it wasn’t. We can hear the tears in his voice all over it. And man, him asking again for Aziraphale to run away with him, like he did twice before...

And the answer may change a bit from time to time, but it’s still Aziraphale choosing Heaven over Crowley.

Deny me three times, Peter...

No wonder Crowley gives up, and the kiss is about it - a last attempt before he goes away. I didn’t hate the kiss, I like how desperate and sad and rough Crowley was, but I think it would have been nicer if Aziraphale had allowed himself to melt into it a bit, to truly feel it before pushing Crowley away.

Tho I have to admit I like how distraught he looks after the kiss is over. I think he realized then than Crowley was not going to budge this time. That that was It. He certainly looks like it.

Anyway, all in all, I’m looking forward to the next season and how they’ll fix their mess after all of this. They’ll both be miserable I think; I wonder how long it will take for Aziraphale to understand that Metatron is clearly using him and that going to Heaven to try and change things really wasn’t the answer he hoped it would be.

Right now I feel so, so sorry for Crowley, for someone like him to allow himself to be that vulnerable with the one he loves only to end like this... dude is having a Not Great Time

[thinkingmystic]

Pricey truth

I was so happy to see that Good Omens has been renewed for a third (and final) season. I’d prefer three good seasons to four seasons where you wish the last two hadn’t happened (cough Sherlock cough), and I’m curious to see how dear Crowley and Aziraphale end up. 

How I envy the young, who get to see their version of SuperWhoLock actually get some action, whereas all the actual SuperWhoLocks got was a lot of flack for daring to interpret obviously queer storylines as queer. After all these years (it was the tenth anniversary of some Sherlock season recently), I still hold a special little grudge that we had to settle for subtext. But, with difficulty, I digress! 

I have such a soft spot for Aziraphale, because 1) Michael Sheen is adorable and 2) Aziraphale reminds me of myself. His decision at the end of the second season? I understood it perfectly. Like him, I tried (and failed) to change the system (institutional religion) from within. For my trouble I received a prodigious amount of trauma. I haven’t been able to set foot in a church in years, and Lord if I didn’t try to love the institution as best I could.

In retrospect, I wasn’t just trying to change the institution from the inside - wasn’t just trying to take the love of God and remove the ts and cs happily slapped on by the church for, I fear, the most banal reasons - money and power. I was also trying to change myself. My queer, neurodivergent self. I feel so silly now for having as much faith as I had that the organisation built on the premise of loving people and loving God would also love and accept myself and others like myself. So I see in Aziraphale’s decision my own, taken many years ago: that I would make it work; that surely the grace of God would carry me through.

Reader, it did not. At least, not in the way I was hoping it would. 

How I wish I’d had a Crowley to try to dissuade me. Now I am the Crowley, my own inability to enter a church (the building or the concept) so similar to his actual aversion to holy ground (remember those little jumping steps he did when he went to save Azi in the church?) Asking a few questions - questioning things in general - having an opinion that someone higher up than you doesn’t like? Anathema to the institutional church. 

These two remind me so much of The Hierophant and The Devil cards. Aziraphale embodies the faith and tradition (and faith in tradition) that is The Hierophant. There is a way to do things and there must be a good reason for doing them! says The Hierophant. Yes, there’s wisdom there, but that wisdom is a gateway - not the final destination*. Crowley gets The Devil, not least because this card is a perfect inversion of The Hierophant - notice the similarities in structure (the central figure, the apprentices, the oppressiveness). Crowley is still shackled in his own way to heaven - a kind of bereavement, a resentment - which he deals with by being debonair and pretending not to care. Which makes the ending of the second season all the more poignant - he risks caring, in a very obvious, if doomed, way - and his answer is rejection. 

I understand that perfectly, too. I was never going to get what I was looking for in church - but I wouldn’t have rested until I’d tried. 

The card I’d pick for them as a couple is The Lovers. A rather obvious choice, but: The Lovers echoes The Hierophant and anticipates The Devil: two apprentices, a central figure presiding**. Not just a card about love (although it is that, too) - it’s a card about choice. About choosing to follow your truth beyond what is “accepted”, even if by extension that forces you to reckon with what choices were beyond your control. That’s a path we have to be willing to walk if the truth is at all important to us.

Our truth is (and I’m sure Aziraphale and Crowley’s will be, too). 

As we enter a new year (I’ll write more about that next time), I pose this question to you, dear Reader: What is your truth? Phrased another way, what can’t you bear to lie about any longer? 

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*I suppose God is the final destination - “The World”, and then as a mirror.

**Our conscience? 

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This was originally posted on my Substack.

[hjertetssunnegalskap1]

Here are just some of my fragmented thoughts and wild ideas about Good Omens, including some spoilers:

When Shax asked Crowley about the 25 lazari miracle, and Crowley responded: "what makes you think it wasn't me?" or what it was, it was like Shax couldn't hear him. Just like nobody really could see or hear Gabriel. Could Crowley have been under a similar protection? He wasn't hidden, of course, angels and demons did remember him, and notice him, but maybe they forgot what he could do, or something?

Another thing - when Adam Young in s1 made it so that Satan wasn't his father and never had been - did he also unmake Lucifer/Satan? It looked like it, although that would be strange, I suppose. It could explain some things, though. No wonder there was a lack of workers in Hell in s2, if Satan had left the building (God seems to have left the building, too, at least as a narrator).

It makes me wonder, that's all. And Metatron mentioned one fallen prince being a good story, so did he talk about Lucifer? Or was Crowley the fallen prince? Maybe it doesn't matter. We know that Crowley was dominion or principal or higher, and that he was cast out. So how did Heaven manage to cover up that another high rank angel like Crowley fell? It seems likely that they messed with his memories, of course. But I have a feeling it didn't fully work as they wanted it to. Idk.

I have thought about another thing, too: After Satan vanished, how did Aziraphale and Crowley still remember everything that had happened anyway? I always thought it was because they were in the middle of it all, but. Could it be that they were special, somehow? I mean, if they could remember stuff that had been erased, stuff that others couldn't remember, that's huge. Also, I fear for Beelzebub and Gabriel. What if they were erased from the book of life, and Crowley and Aziraphale were the only ones who could remember them?

Idk. Just some random thoughts.

I also wonder about the sort of "Wanda-vision-vibe" in the whole Wickber Street, it felt almost unreal at times, and not only at the meeting/ ball. It could be my imagination, because I can't quite put my finger on why it felt like that to me. But when I saw the dystopian concept art images of Aziraphale's shop, surrounded by ruins, it made my head spin. What if the world ended a long time ago, and Aziraphale and Crowley are just clinging to their little corner of the world, wanting to keep everything as it is?

I know. It doesn't quite make sense if you look at it closely. But the idea tickles my imagination. That's all. And I do think Crowley and Aziraphale are stuck in their old ways, even if they're not stuck in a magical timeless Wickber-street-bubble.