#supreme archangel speaks

[supremearchangelaziraphale]

O Great Supreme Archangel,I have bestowed upon thee a great gift:The Savior of Uz, Bildad The Shuite!(Do with them as you please your rightful holiness😉)

Oh my. Thank you for this most generous gift.

(I certainly will do with them as I please.)

[supremearchangelaziraphale]

What a lovely portrait of me. I don't believe I've ever looked quite so regal before.

⭐️ Supreme Archangel Aziraphale ⚡️

Regal and unmoving, steady as a rock — Supreme Archangel Aziraphale, the unhappiest angel in Heaven. The other angels don't question it that there always seems to be some sort of sheen to his eyes these days.

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[supremearchangelaziraphale]

Do u need a secreteree?

_@murrmielmur

Do you mean secretary, perhaps? Thank you for the offer, but I am not in any need of a secretary at the moment. I have @archangelcrowliel for that.

[the-archangel-squad]

Your graces,I have evidence that The Demon Crowley has stolen the heart of Aziraphale,feast your eyes on this!:

@uriel-on-ice: I knew it. Disgusting.

@sandalphonsgoldteeth: *bursts into tears*

@michaelwiththegoodhair: isn't that Bildad the Shuhite?

@saraqael-the-sarcastic: isn't that Archangel 'I Meet A Lot of People' Crowliel?

@archangelcrowliel: *playing dumb* who?

@supremearchangelaziraphale: *blushing, wringing hands* The Demon Crowley? Whoever could that be? I've certainly never met such a person--or even heard of him! And if I did, I'd never let him steal my heart. Stealing is a sin! I'd give it to him freely.

[lower-management]

Word on the street is they lost another Supreme Archangel (@theangel-aziraphale ) Is that a chance for Hell?

-An interested party

It is not. We cannot start the war without an antichrist and for obvious reasons we cannot send a demon to try out for supreme archangel. There's no chancd, unless you are looking to do something else that is.

[supremearchangelaziraphale]

Quiet, darling. We mustn't let @the-metatron catch us fraternising during work hours.

DO IT AGAIN ​​​

[theclaravoyant]

heaven probably approves of like . water torture right . because it’s holy water , it’s not like it’s actually going to hurt the angels . but somehow they always come back from it Re Educated and a lot better at biting their tongues

[supremearchangelaziraphale]

hey angel,

sssssory about my last ask. while i underssssstand that you cannot take time off to come sssssee us here on planet earth, i wassss wondering if you possibly had any instructions for muriel on how to sssssell books. you always had a certain routine and i don’t want them to messss it up. you do love your booksss

sssssincerely,

a certain ssssserpent

Hello Crowley,

There is no need for you to apologize--though I, of course, forgive you, as always.

My instructions for Muriel about how to sell the books in my shop are as follows:

Don't

Hope that helps!

But if there is any more confusion, please do reach out. I am always happy to help.

[kneedecker]

Not sure how well TikTok links translate to Tumblr but—BUT—!! Jensen McRae’s new song “Childproof” is so Supreme Archangel Aziraphale-coded that I’m choking back tears.

[supremearchangelaziraphale]

I will do no such thing.

I just have one thing to say to Aziraphale in regards to him accepting the Metatron’s offer: get up there and make some trouble.

[the-archangel-squad]

so…can i come back?

@michaelwiththegoodhair: no. Once a traitor, always a traitor.

@uriel-on-ice: no. Do you know how annoying it would be to have two Aziraphales up here? One is already too many.

@sandalphonsgoldteeth: I WANT GABRIEL BACK *sobs*

@saraqael-the-sarcastic: let's ask @the-metatron what he thinks

@supremearchangelaziraphale: yes, of course, we'd be delighted to have you back *already packing his bags, getting ready to escape as soon as @books4azi takes his place*

@archangelcrowliel: yup, sure, welcome back, you're in charge now, have fun! *shakes hand, shoves a clipboard and paperwork into @books4azi's arms*

*grabs @supremearchangelaziraphale and hurries them both out the door before anyone can stop them*

[onceuponapuffin]

Ineffable Bureaucracy and Ineffable Husbands

So, especially in the early days after the release of S2, I saw and heard a lot of people comparing these two as if they were the same. There were fan comics and fanart and fanfiction that included dialogue that was something along the lines of "why are they so healthy after only a few years and we aren't?" or "why do THEY get a happy ending and we don't?" And I mean, I haven't seen any of that in a while so maybe people have come to this conclusion on their own, but just in case, I wanted to point out

That they are fundamentally different. They are not the same.

And the reason why comes down to this conversation from 2x3:

So, hold this conversation in your brain while we go through this.

First of all, we have our Ineffable Bureaucracy, Gabriel and Beelzebub.

So these are the ones who, figuratively speaking, were born in a castle.

Gabriel was the Supreme Archangel for however many millenia, and Beelzebub was the Grand Duke of Hell for the same, roughly speaking. They are equals in positions of power.

So, when they fall in love, you have two supernatural authorities who have lived their existences believing that they can reasonably expect to have and keep whatever they want. After all, that's exactly what their lives have been (with the one exception being Beelzebub's Fall) - they want something, they get it, they keep it, and no one tells them no.

The biggest risk is to Gabriel. If Heaven were to find out, he would Fall. I can imagine Beelzebub being a bit concerned, but "Oh no," Gabriel probably figured "I Fall to Hell, and straight into your arms!" And I could see Beelzebub with a little smirk saying "I'd look after you, babe," in response.

The only time Gabriel actually worries is when he finds out that there's another punishment that he didn't realize was a possibility.

Falling to Hell is one thing, but having his memories erased is an actual threat, and possibly the first time he's ever been told no. This is when we see him panic, and leave Heaven in a mess, storing his memories away to keep them safe from the Metatron. We find out later that he was on his way to Hell anyway and just forgot halfway there and got lost.

And so, we have two beings who were always told they were Good Enough, who approached each other knowing they were able to have whatever they wanted, and were therefore able to communicate and fall in love in a healthy way. They didn't need to tip toe or hide, because they had no reason to believe anyone would ever tell them no until someone did. Their risk, because of their positions of authority, wasn't nearly as great as Aziraphale and Crowley's risk.

So now we come to our Precious Ineffable Husbands

Crowley and Aziraphale start off in much lower positions on the Celestial Food Chain. We know that they have to be very careful about their relationship to avoid the repercussions. They can't mention The Arrangement out loud, they can't put their feelings for each other into words. It has been made clear to them that they are always being watched, and anything they have can be taken away from them on a whim.

So how can they communicate safely when they've spent millenia living on eggshells and tightropes? Of course they won't, and of course it's going to be much harder for them to believe they can once they finally are safe. I definitely believe that they will get there (for my own wellbeing I have to believe that their love is stronger than anything), but they will need to fight tooth and nail in a way that Gabriel and Beelzebub didn't. All because they aren't figures of authority.

It might honestly be another good argument for Crowley taking the Grand Duke of Hell job (even though I reeeeaaaally don't want him to). It would put them in the same position as Gabriel and Beelzebub, and might give them the footing to actually escape the system (even though I think it's more likely that they're going to dismantle and/or repair the system in s3, but that's my own opinion).

These two pairs aren't mirrors of each other. Rather, they illustrate the problems with inequity that Crowley was pointing out in Edinburgh. And if S2 showed us that, I'm hoping S3 will show us possible solutions for it.

[dalliancekay]

AFTER

After Crowley slowly drives off, looking heartbroken and lost deep in thought.

After Aziraphale walks into the lift, contemplative and sombre.

I don't think Crowley goes off on a binge drinking session or a hundred. I don't think he goes looking for someone new. I don't think he sleeps until whatever happens next, happens.

I don't think Metatron will succeed in keeping Aziraphale under his thumb as he envisioned. Unless he does something drastic and awful to him (locks him away, erases his memory that kind of thing), Aziraphale will find a way around rules. As he's always done.

And Crowley back on Earth is thinking about what he's learned in Heaven, that he had no time to tell his beloved. He will think about the way Gabriel, who he still hates with his whole being, said no to another Armageddon and was going to be punished for it. He will think about how Aziraphale was willing to try everything to save the world the first time, up to killing a child in the end. And the danger he's in now. Because he will try the same thing again for sure.

Aziraphale wasn't in Heaven for 6000 years, but it didn't change much in the meantime. He still can't stand it, but he also knows it holds prisoners; millions of lonely, overworked angels who never had the chance to learn how to question anything.

Crowley will do things. He's good at doing things after the first shock of a crisis. Just jumping in and trying something. He might go speak to the only other nice angel he knows. He might have questions. He hasn't been in Heaven in a long time. Where is God he asks. When was the last time anyone seen Her. Did anyone get any messages directly from Her since Jesus died on Earth? Aziraphale will find ways to speak to angels no one spoke to for hundreds, maybe thousands of years. He will be kind, gentle and curious and he will answer questions about Earth with a farewell look in his eyes and the angels will beg him to show it to them sometime and the Supreme Archangel will promise to try. Crowley will think back to the tentative talks they had in the last few years about what is most likely to happen. To them. To the Earth. To Heaven. To Hell. When.

Aziraphale will touch his lips and miss his home intensely, vowing to himself to find a way to save it. Again and again. To save his beloved, even if he'd never take him back (but he has hope) to save what matters. And what matters is to be free. To have a choice.

Crowley will think about Aziraphale, hugging the soft grey cardigan to himself, hoping his angel will find a way to break from Heaven. To snap the chains that hold them in the unforgiving system they exist in. And he knows Aziraphale will. Because he has faith. He is mad, but not at his angel. His angel is the only one he can trust. He will wait.

Aziraphale, Guardian of the Eastern Gate and Crowley, The Serpent of Eden, who lead humanity to question rules and choose the option to know; understand that nothing is perfect. It never was and never can be. And they want to keep it that way.

After pt. 2

[supremearchangelaziraphale]

Of course. *continues holding snake behind back*

Also, why I remember this pic :D

[knightofthesevenfandoms]

Bee fell first, Gabe fell harder

I've seen it described the other way around, but I really believe this is how it happened.

Okay, so.

Bee fell first.

That first meeting, at the bar in Russia (?)

Gabe seems annoyed to be there. He's disinterested, doesn't know why he's there.

I don't think either is particularly interested in the other at this point. But it DOES start here. Well, it builds on something that happened at the airbase. Gabe realizes he has an equal who understands the frustration of being held accountable for all of Heaven, and so does Bee, with Hell. It's a strange feeling of camaraderie neither of them has felt before. Which is why Gabe gets flustered by the "Arma-bloody-gedon" and starts to joke about it. And Bee NOTICEABLY perks up when he's being a goofball about it.

Gabe then quickly shuts it down, with the "pity we'll never speak again." I think he's genuinely saying that. It's a shame he won't feel that camaraderie again, since obviously the war is still going to happen. Or so they both believe.

The next meeting. This was a HUGE jump. They went from "we're ready for Armageddon 2.0" to "how about no" in one meeting. Obviously we're given to assume that more meetings than we've seen have taken place. Gabe shows up at the bar and launches into his plan of no Armageddon. I think at this point he's intrigued by the way he feels when he's with them and if the war happens, he doesn't get to explore that more. Bee, on the other hand, is GONE for him at this point. The way they EAT UP his no-Armageddon plan immediately, and the way they're smiling at him?!

AND. The most important bit. When they explain the music to him. They do it SO GENTLY. Bee, the demon who's usually yelling, usually insulting everyone around them. They explain the music to help him understand. And he's receptive to it, maybe not necessarily enjoying the song itself, but enjoying it because Bee likes it. Bee's enjoyment makes him happy.

And the way they look at him when he says that. Head over heels.

I would still argue that at this point, Gabriel is still merely interested in exploring all these new feelings he gets when he's with Bee. He's taking this much slower than Bee. But then he invites them to go look at his statue. Does he understand how vain that is? Probably not, but the fact that he invited them to see something that makes him happy? He took a big step here. Maybe bigger than Bee realizes. This meeting has no pretense, no motive like the previous ones did. Those were "we need to talk about the war" meetings. This one is PURELY for the purpose of meeting up with each other.

And how sad Bee looks when Gabe is talking about how much he enjoys looking at the statue? They want so badly for him to look at them like that, but I don't think they realize that he's almost there.

How could they? They probably have feelings of doubt, of low self worth, because this is the Supreme Archangel Gabriel, they're a demon. He couldn't possibly reciprocate what they're feeling.

Could he?

But then they get their answer, at the pub, with the miracle. This is the angel who frowns upon frivolous miracles, thinks it's a waste of holy energy. He miracles the song to play for them. For no reason other than Bee. To make them happy, to see them smile. And smile they do.

Gabe fell harder

Beelzebub jumped in to their feelings with both feet, but Gabe was more hesitant. He did have a lot more to lose, I'd argue. Bee has already fallen, Gabe probably assumes he could fall for being involved with a demon. Especially since Heaven is probably intensely watching for that after, you know, that other angel and demon. Which is a terrifying prospect, I'd assume, for the angel in charge of everything. And he's vain, he loves himself, loves being righteous, loves the authority of Heaven. So of course he's more hesitant. But he leaves all that behind when he admits to himself that there's something worth more than choosing Heaven.

Y'all. Not only was he ready to fall, he welcomed it. He didn't want to spend another minute in Heaven without Bee. Look at his face when Metatron says he's going to remain an angel. He's SO DONE.

We're lead to believe that falling is the worst thing that can happen to an angel, and Gabriel is willing, no, insistent that he fall.

He wouldn't be falling because of Bee, he'd be falling for Bee.

[indigovigilance]

Jimbriel, Satan, the Book of Life, and what it means for Crowley

Acknowledging that what we know so far about the Book of Life from various characters is highly suspect, I'm going to posit to you that Beelzebub is actually the true authority on the Book of Life, and that they bookend Season 2 with very important (and hopefully accurate) information about the Book of Life. With that in mind, let's take Beezlebub's S2E1 description and see how it fits with other canon evidence:

But what does it mean to have never existed in the Good Omens universe? For that, let us look to Satan.

From in-show canon, we know that Adam was able to retroactively change Satan's status as his father to not his father:

Adam altered reality, although Crowley, Aziraphale, the other celestials, and even Adam himself remember those events from a timeline that supposedly has been erased:

But Crowley nonetheless confirms that this is reality now. Satan was never Adam's father.

Additionally, though not technically in-show canon, we know from Notorious NRG that once Satan became Lucifer, this erased Lucifer from existence in the GO universe:

And Crowley's monologue in the bar drives it home; even though Lucifer no longer exists, Crowley still remembers him, and some key events that they were involved in together.

But a more dramatic portrayal of erasure is found in our favorite Good Omens himbo, Jimbo. In the trial of Gabriel, the Metatron makes direct allusion to the fact that Gabriel will no longer be Gabriel after his demotion:

Not "your memory of your time as the supreme archangel will be erased," no, it's:

Your memory of your time as Gabriel will be erased.

Whether he means to or not, Aziraphale reinforces this characterization of memory-loss-as-new-identity:

This can be taken simply as a safety measure, but Jimbo doesn't understand it that way and we see throughout the remainder of the season that Aziraphale is very consistent about calling his unexpected guest "Jim," even correcting Crowley when they're speaking privately and it wouldn't blow his cover to call him Gabriel:

But the final word on memory and identity, especially as they pertain to Jimbriel, again comes from our Lord of the Flies, Beelzebub:

All your you is your memories.

Altogether we see that there is significant in-show canon to support a theory that memory is inextricably linked with identity, and that when memory is removed, identity is so drastically changed that the name of the entity must also change... and the person who existed before, with that former name, exists no longer; it is as if they never had.

(But, as we see in the case of Gabriel, they can be restored.)

I told you in the title that this post was about the Book of Life: it is. Everything discussed here about memory and identity must necessarily characterize how the Book of Life operates, at least with respect to erasure. When someone is erased, they don't vanish, but they are so changed it is as if a new person has taken the place of the old, the way Jim took the place of Gabriel, until he got his memories back. But we can surmise that when someone is erased from the Book of Life, their memories aren't conveniently stored in a TARDIS/Ru Paul fly for later recovery. The memories may not be gone, but I'm going to guess that they would be extremely difficult (or impossible) to retrieve.

What this means for Crowley:

I think we need to give this scene a lot more credit for telling us how this universe works. Surface level, it reads as "you don't understand my trauma, and how I've been changed by it." Which is a very valid interpretation. But we can dig deeper and see that, given everything else we know about celestial beings losing their memories, names, and identities, Crowley is alluding to something far more horrific than just the scars left by flaming swords and halo-grenades.

These are the scars of a lobotomy. Something was taken from him, and he is aware of it.

He knows that his memory has been tampered with. Various people (Furfur, Saraqael) tell him that they recognize him, and of things they've done together. He has no recollection of them, but instead of getting agitated, he brushes it off and ignores it. This lack of questions from the guy who questions everything tells us that he already has the answers; not the memories, but the knowledge of why he doesn't have them.

Furthermore, when he's trying to get Jim to remember the something bad and Jim says it hurts, Crowley says:

I know. Do it anyway.

How does Crowley know that it hurts, to try to recall memories that have been taken out of your head?

Because he's been through it.

He has tried to remember, and some memories, like working on the Horsehead Nebula with Saraqael or monkeying around with Furfur, weren't worth the pain. Or perhaps it was pain on top of pain to remember what he had lost.

It is an especial testament to the cruelty of Heaven that he remembers going into battle, but not the bonds he formed with his friends. He remembers a million lightyear freestyle dive into a boiling pool of sulfur, but not the work he did on the Horsehead Nebula, a thing that brought him joy.

And now, the person he loves most in the world, his only refuge from the terror of his empty nightmares, from his malignant and creeping sense of unease that something is missing, has gone back to that place where his identity was so horribly violated that he lost his name.

How will our hero cope?

If you liked this meta, you will almost certainly like my meta on Continuity Errors.

For my thoughts on who Crowley may have been before the fall, go here.

For my thoughts on how this pertains to Metatron, go here.

As I continue to produce metas related to this theory, you'll be able to find them all here.