#so I watched good omens season 2

[daily-stampy]

Day 93

[mizgnomer]

David Tennant and Michael Sheen on working with each other in Good Omens Season 2 (and talking with their hands)

Source [ MovieWeb ]

[abzania]

I want to point out that Aziraphale tries to stay. His first response to the Metatron's offer is, "I don't want to go back to Heaven."

I feel like people think he's going into this somewhat enthusiastically, but that's just not true. You can see the weight of his actions on his face, especially on the elevator at the end. He's not as ignorant or naive as people think. He's just in too deep.

He tries to say he doesn't want to go. That he's made a mistake (right before they leave, he says, "I think I--"), but he cuts himself off. I think this is because of two reasons.

Aziraphale is too scared to say no to an angel who outranks him (both because of who he's talking to, and his overall behavior when talking with other angels). Speaking to the Metatron is literally tantamount to speaking to God. Aziraphale is fully aware of this. He doesn't want to say no. Both out of fear, and because now, he has to save the world again.

He has it in his head that he has to fix Heaven. Not for the world, the other angels, or even for himself, but for Crowley. Even though Crowley said no and rejected him, Aziraphale doesn't know the real reason. He probably thinks that if things change, Crowley will be willing to join him again. But it isn't Heaven or Crowley that really stops Crowley from joining him. It's what already happened. Coming back to Heaven wouldn't erase God's mistake. It would only cover it up. This is what Aziraphale needs to learn. As well as the story of Crowley's fall and what it truly did to him.

But I don't think he really wanted to go. I think he knows exactly what this means, and I think the implications will be very interesting to see when season 3 comes out.

[the-meme-monarch]

adam: i just want to make up games for my friends to play

gabriel and beezlebub: christ you are extremely fucking selfish. die

adam: i am 11 years old

[raggedy-spaceman]

It’s so funny to me that by the length of David’s sideburns you can pinpoint exactly when a scene was filmed. Especially when it changes during the same episode. And it’s even funnier that it has a perfectly logical explanation in canon and that explanation is that Crowley can do whatever the fuck he wants.

[vivenecii]

One day I accidentally saw the spoiler and people were like "oh, but it was without a context, we have to wait for it!" and it made me truly curious to see what the whole scene was about

And let me tell you it turns out I was perfectly happy not knowing what it was about

(But you know, curiosity killed the cat. And I loved this scene, it was positively heartbreaking, angst in its finest form. Exactly opossite to what I expected to happen knowing this season was supposed to be quiet and gentle and romantic)

[sentientsky]

obsessed with the fact that every David/Michael interview looks like this

[snek-eyes]

Queen instrumentals playing in Give Me Coffee or Give Me Death

(instrumentals arranged by Eos Counsell)

(insp. / template / BoRhap breakdown)

[pommegrantaire]

Tell me, tell me you'll meet me Tell me, tell me you'll keep me

[books-and-omens]

Oh. Oh WAIT. 

The Crow Road. You know, that book where the protagonist is searching for an answer to a conspicuous thing that happened. An answer that finally comes together through notes and omissions and bits of narrative and off-hand remarks.

And we were thinking that the book might be a clue for Muriel, or something to do with Aziraphale’s journals, or setup for the third season, or…

But the thing is. The thing is. 

What we are doing right now. What we are all doing right now.

We are the protagonist of The Crow Road.

The Crow Road was given to us.

[origami-butterfly]

*definition of best is subjective.

No nuance option ;)

Reblog for bigger sample size but you don't have to

[actual-changeling]

No you dont understand listen. listen. the hand. the HAND.

yes for a few moments aziraphale kissed back, held him, steadied him, but have you ever thought about what that did to crowley?

he feels aziraphale's palm press against his shoulder, feels him reciprocate the kiss, all he experiences in that moment is him, entirely and exclusively. his world narrows down even further to aziraphale, to him and just him.

for that heartbeat, that split second of oh, crowley hopes.

he hopes that maybe aziraphale changed his mind, this is it, they will stay on earth together, be together, be an us. everything he has ever wanted (which, let's be real, is aziraphale safe and by his side) is suddenly an option because he is kissing me back.

and then he stops. the hand lifts. he pulls back and that tiny, fragile spark of hope burns hot enough to destroy itself, any evidence erased when aziraphale looks at him and offers forgiveness - to crowley, he is offering forgiveness for loving him, telling him to stop, and that is the final crack that breaks him.

yet the last physical memory crowley will carry with him now is one of love and warmth and life, but all it symbolizes is a loss greater than anything he has every experienced.

[deramin2]

I don't know how to really express this except to come across as a "kids these days" scold, but so much of the criticism of queerness in Good Omens would simply not be a thing if kids these days watched more 20th century queer media. Or more complex indie queer media in general.

People seem to want a show that's like the straight stories they grew up with but gay. Or the gay fanfiction they grew up with. But that's not really the tradition it's coming from. First off the novel was released in 1990. Queer film classics of the time are Dead Poet's Society (1989) and Torch Song Trilogy (1988). The TV miniseries Tales of the City (1993) wasn't made until 3 years later and it was so far out there it never had a huge audience. Philadelphia (1993) is also 3 years out and was basically the first big studio queer film. The first fluffy queer Hallmark-style romcom wasn't until Big Eden in 2000, a full 10 years after publication.

Queer stories from the time it was written were about complex and often fraught relationships between people who the world was trying to force apart. There is an incredibly strong tradition in queer films of relationships with no guarantees they will work out both in the face of their personal baggage and the weight of the world. Take a film like Torch Song Trilogy that's about the two great loves of Arnold Beckoff's life over 9 years and how homophobia shapes them. Both externally (especially Allen) and internally like Ed struggling with his bisexuality and being terrified of being publicly out. Written and starred in by Harvey Fierstein, who identified as a gay man at the time and only came out as nonbinary last year.

The Boys In The Band (1968 play, filmed 1970 and 2020) was a monumental moment in Broadway history where finally there was a play about gay men in their own words where no one died and very strongly showed that homosexuality doesn't make people miserable but homophobia sure does. But that homophobia also throws their personal lives into constant turmoil and none of them are in happy relationships, although Hank and Larry are devoted to each other in their own fucked up way.

"Relationships are complicated and hard to make work and sometimes a struggle against the odds" is an aesthetic of classic queer film making. Partly it was influenced by the Hays Code (although independent films were not bound to it), partly influenced by the rampant queerphobia in society at the time that was inescapable. But it's also an aesthetic choice to resist the banal and unrealistic relationship depictions of straight media. There are actual stakes to the relationship. Queer people were actively resisting a world that said "Romance is seeing someone across the room and instantly falling in love with each other and little conflicts happen along the way but ultimately they're destined to be together and everything is happily ever after." Recall that "stalking as romance" was a completely inescapable trope in 1980s straight romance films, and every goddamn movie was being turned into a romance film.

So queer people in film and television when they can make what they please have a long tradition of saying instead "People don't always realize the feelings they've developed for a queer partner right away. They may have reasons for denying those feelings that are both a reflection of the cruelty in society and of their own insecurities. People struggle with where they belong and their relationships reflect that. Loving someone doesn't mean they don't also drive you crazy and you might fight with them constantly. But that doesn't negate the love or that feeling that even if things aren't okay, they're better with that person around. But maybe that person can't stay around. The world may be against you. And also maybe you don't just want that one person in your life. Soulmates is a very flawed model. Sometimes the strongest love is a struggle with yourself and the world and your person. You have to overcome yourself first. Happily ever after is a lie. You may be happy for a while, and hopefully for a long while, but everything ends. And you have to be ready to love again. Also your platonic bonds are just as important and life-altering as your romantic ones. Sometimes those platonic bonds include fucking if you want them to. Real life isn't a bunch of platitudes and world-altering moments, it's daily work to better yourself and the world around you. Especially when things just fucking suck. But also remember to have fun and fuck the haters. People who don't support you can eat rocks and you should yell at them more to shut the fuck up."

That is a fundamentally different outlook on what a "good relationship depiction" looks like. Personally, I thought I hated romance movies and then I started watching queer romance movies and discovered I love them and watch them all the time. Because it turns out what I hated was relationships being shown that had nothing at all to do with reality and privileged incredibly toxic ideals. Finally there was complexity, there were stakes, and there were people who had to truly want to be together enough to fight the world for it and not because they happened to be there. There were people actually talking out their problems and looking for resolutions. (And sometimes that resolutions was "I can't fucking deal with this bullshit anymore and I'm out.") For the first time it felt real.

I'm an aroace trans gay man. Nothing about relationships or being in relationships has come easy to me, and the whole paradigm of straight patriarchal romance depictions makes absolutely no sense to me. It's completely alien. Queer romance stories actually feel human.

And that's the tradition Good Omens is coming from, even as it's being retold in 2019-2023 and hopefully beyond. Gaiman's work has always been based in that queer media paradigm. (I've been remiss and daunted and haven't read Pratchett but from what I do know his work also seems to sit more in that world view.) It's a beautiful cinematic tradition and it's baffling to me that people would resist it instead of embracing it for being honest.

And that's when I turn into a crotchety old man complaining about the youth not connecting with the history of their beautiful culture and instead begging for assimilation into a shithole allocishet media landscape that doesn't actually want them except for their money and has nothing at all interesting or valuable to say. But it's very funny (annoying) to me when people claim Good Omens is someone against queer culture when it's so thoroughly bathed in the best of queer media's storytelling traditions and what people are asking for is straight media with the serial numbers filed off. Like, stop being boring please and know literally anything about the culture the adults in the room lived through and were influenced by. The world didn't begin in 2015.

EDIT: I also want to add that in straight media arcs are linear. Traditionally in queer media arcs are cyclical. Queer media very often depicts people going around in circles relearning the same lesson over and over as they inch towards it sinking in. But every time they go through the cycle they gain just a little bit more enlightenment and slowly move towards a better place. From the comments this is an immensely important distinction. People don't actually have cathartic moments where suddenly all their past bad programming is shed and they saunter forward a new person with none of their old baggage. In reality people fall into the same patterns over and over even though they have had every opportunity to learn better. "People magically get better" is a trope of straight media that's an outright and frankly dangerous lie. Again, Good Omens follows the queer tradition not the straight one and it's depicted 6,000 years of that cycle. The world didn't end, and the wheel keeps turning, as it always has and always will. That's so fundamental to queer storytelling traditions I forgot to even mention it.

[procrastiel]

All I’m saying is this:

Neil created s2 to set up everything that needs to happen in s3.

He literally orchestrated an event for us (much like the ball) to see in the next season. So yes, I do believe there are Clues hidden in s2.

[breeberrypies]

Crowley did Aziraphale’s eyeliner in the 40s bc i said so🗣️🗣️

full pic under the cut

[brokendoor16]

Guys guys guys I am literally BEGGING y’all to watch dead boy detectives like. This show has EVERYTHING!! Without spoilers, we’ve got:

A terrifically repressed Edwardian ghost (he’s my fave he’s worryingly relatable I want to kill him affectionately)

His best friend- who happens to be yet ANOTHER emotionally repressed ghost with a near-permanent smile and no impulse control

An adorably bitchy psychic who shows up in episode one and is IMMEDIATELY there to stay

A very good-omens-y plot point about the afterlife being some kinda bureaucracy

An incredibly sexy and RIDICULOUSLY pissed-off witch

The most INCREDIBLE relationships between characters- ESPECIALLY the developing platonic relationships

FAR too many emotions for me to be okay with

A RIDICULOUSLY addictive plot tbh. Like. Watched this last week and I’m still thinking about it 24/7

So erm. In conclusion, YOU WILL NOT REGRET WATCHING. (Also the more ppl who watch it the more likely we are to get a season 2 so. PLEASE.)