#they can't all be good omens

[idiots-assembled]

I'm seeing a lot of posts worrying about the lack of news, so I just want to say that nothing about this situation is abnormal. The BBC generally doesn't announce airdates until a couple of weeks beforehand (outside of the big shows that is).

If I remember correctly, for series 3 they didn't even get a trailer ready before it aired.

Maybe they want it on around Halloween so it won't air until the very end of September or even after, who knows.

It's coming. Especially with the screening this week, I'm sure there'll be something very soon.

[hansoeii]

I probably won't finish this piece any time soon, but I wanted to share the unfinished version with you anyways!

[jameszmaguire]

I think it would be better for everyone if I were to be left alone in the future. Don't you?

[crowlixcx]

I'll always be there As frightened as you To help us survive Being alive Being alive Being alive!

[joycrispy]

I'm seeing some confusion out and about over the title A Companion to Owls (generally along the lines of 'what have owls got to do with it???'), so I'd like to offer my interpretation (with a general disclaimer that the Bible and particularly the Old Testament are damn complicated and I'm not able to address every nuance in a fandom tumblr post, okay? Okay):

It's a phrase taken from the Book of Job. Here's the quote in full (King James version):

When I looked for good, then evil came unto me: and when I waited for light, there came darkness. My bowels boiled, and rested not: the days of affliction prevented me. I went mourning without the sun: I stood up, and I cried in the congregation. I am a brother to dragons, and a companion to owls. --(Job 30:29)

Job is describing the depths of his grief, but also, with that last line, his position in the web of providence.

Throughout the Old Testament, owls are a recurring symbol of spiritual devastation. Deuteronomy 4:17 - Isaiah 34:11 - Psalm 102: 3 - Jeremiah 50: 39...just to name a few (there's more). The general shape of the metaphor is this: owls are solitary, night-stalking creatures, that let out either mournful cries or terrible shrieks, that inhabit the desolate places of the world...and (this is important) they are unclean.

They represent a despair that is to be shunned, not pitied, because their condition is self-inflicted. You defied God (so the owl signifies), and your punishment is...separation. From God, from others, from the world itself. To call and call and never, ever receive an answer.

Your punishment is terrible, tormenting loneliness.

(and that exact phrase, "tormenting loneliness," doesn't come from me...I'm pulling it from actual debate/academia on this exact topic. The owls, and what they are an omen for. Oof.)

To call yourself a 'companion to owls,' then, is to count yourself alongside perhaps the most tragic of the damned --not the ones who defy God out of wickedness or ignorance, and in exile take up diabolical ends readily enough...but the ones who know enough to mourn what they have lost.

So, that's how the title relates to Job: directly. Of course, all that is just context. The titular "companion to owls," in this case, isn't Job at all.

Because this story is about Aziraphale.

The thing is that Job never actually defied God at all, but Aziraphale does, and he does so fully believing that he will fall.

He does so fully believing that he's giving in to a temptation.

He's wrong about that, but still...he's realized something terrifying. Which is that doing God's will and doing what's right are sometimes mutually exclusive. Even more terrifying: it turns out that, given the choice between the two...he chooses what's right.

And he's seemingly the only angel who does. He's seemingly the only angel who can even see what's wrong.

Fallen or not, that's the kind of knowledge that...separates you.

(Whoooo-eeeeee, tormenting loneliness!!!)

Aziraphale is the companion.

...I don't think I need to wax poetic about Aziraphale's loneliness and grappling with devotion --I think we all, like, get it, and other people have likely said it better anyway. So, one last thing before I stop rambling:

Check out Crowley's glasses.

(screenshots from @seedsofwinter)

Crowley is the owl.

Crowley is the goddamn owl.

[fearandhatred]

anyone wanna host a lil get together and watch good omens except we pause every 2 seconds and analyse the entirety of every scene and its environment? might take about 26 years to finish both seasons but hey if we work together

[bluberryfields]

This is what happens when you're raised by TV and trained in literary analysis

Beyond the crushing heartbreak of that finale, one thing in particular has stuck with me when I look at it in the context of S2 as a whole.

He lays out their relationship, "We're a team, a group. A group of the two of us. And we've spent our existence pretending that we aren't."

He then turns his head away and says, "I mean, the last few years, not really."

He pauses here, facing the interior of the bookshop. Really looks it up and down.

Turns back, "And I would like to spend" before choking on his words and looks toward the window. He can't finish saying something like "And I would like to spend eternity with you" because that's too much, too fast, for both of them.

But it's that "last few years" bit that has firmly lodged itself in my very broken brain.

According to Gaiman, it's been "a few years" since the end of Season 1. Armageddon has been averted. Heaven and Hell have reluctantly retreated. Crowley and Aziraphale have been effectively cut loose from their "sides," leaving them to form their own side.

So at the start of Season 2, we get a glimpse of the “fragile existence” they have carved out for themselves. To me, the biggest difference that we see is how they exist together in front of others. Going to the coffee shop, the pub, and the other shops along the street that Aziraphale has lived on for over 200 years. And don’t forget how they act in front of Nina, Maggie, and sweet, dim Muriel.

At the coffee shop, Aziraphale stammers a bit when Nina asks who Crowley is, but he still seems to have affection in his voice when he says, "We go back a long time."

Compared to Shakespearian "He's not my friend! We've never met before. We don't know each other!" panic, this is an incredible difference.

Of course, each time, Crowley is cool and cheeky and does nothing to indicate that they aren't a pair. Though, of course, he does deny it when Nina asks about Aziraphale being his side piece. “He’s not my bit on the side! He’s far too pure of heart to be anyone’s bit on the side.�� And refers to him as an “Angel [swallows]I know.”

When they go the pub, Crowley's joy at doing something together in public that they do not normally do is super cute, including his cheeky order for Aziraphale's sherry. Then, when bringing the drinks over to the socially trapped Aziraphale, he greets Mr. Brown with a truly adorable, "Hello" and a signature DT smile. Then upon hearing how “excited” Mr. Fell is to host the meeting, he looks down and says, “Oh? You astonish me.” while Aziraphale sips his sherry and squirms.

We also watch as Crowley follows Aziraphale as he goes to each shop and talks to the owners about the meeting/secret ball. In theory, Crowley has no reason to tag along, and he certainly doesn’t help sway anyone who doesn’t want to/can’t go. He goofs around at the magic shop. He splays out on the bench, chin on hand, looking for all the world a husband waiting for his wife to pick out a dress at the department store. They are so married it’s ridiculous.

Finally, their behavior in front of Muriel while inside their sanctuary. Crowley sits on the arm of Aziraphale’s chair, somehow looking supremely comfortable on the old-fashioned furniture. He folds up those gloriously long limbs and presses himself as close as possible.

He smiles and plays along with Aziraphale’s coaching of Muriel in her disguise. Calls him Angel and asks to speak in private. And at the end, during the awful wait while Aziraphale talks with The Metatron, Crowley cleans up the shop and tells Muriel that he and Aziraphale will need some “us” time after all this. No beating around the bush. 

Without oversight, they can be openly together and happy. But Heaven just can’t let that happen. 

[mizgnomer]

Crowley and Aziraphale in a graveyard in 1827 Edinburgh - Good Omens Season 2, episode 3

for Tennant Tuesday (or whatever day this post finds you)

[only-finch]

I AM FIGHTING FOR MY LIFE HERE

[trashmammal-7]

It makes me actually sick how Aziraphale and Crowley love each other SO much but they just don't talk to each other about literally anything important. Season 3 better just be six hours of them finally, properly talking to each other istg.

[runawaymarbles]

That ending was perfect because you know what Aziraphale is going to have to do in season 3?

The Grovel.

Crowley has been chasing him for thousands of years. "If I introduce you to food will you hang out with me" "I'm here to rescue you, let's have lunch." "I'll hold your hand through a morality crisis, let's get a drink." "Raise a child with me so we can keep hanging out together on earth."

"Run away with me."

"Run away with me."

"Run away with me."

Now Crowley has given up just when Aziraphale realized what was on offer. And so Aziraphale is going to have to be the one doing the "I was wrong" dance and trying to win him back over. He's going to have to actually decide what he wants of his own volition instead of following Crowley's lead and then he's going to have to work for it.

You might say he's going to have to Make An Effort

[fru1typunch]

Good Omens season two is coming out a week before Heartstopper season two.

In honor of that I just wanted to remind everyone that canonically, Good Omens was one of Nick Nelson's bisexual realizations™ in Heartstopper lmao. And I of course have to mention Nick and Charlie dressing up as Aziracrow for Halloween afterwards, they are so precious. Two beloved silly little gay British book-to-screen series dropping their second seasons one week apart is gonna ruin me.

And as always, like Nick said;

[paperclipninja]

*furtively glances side to side*

*cracks open the window*

*whispers into the wind*

Aziraphale didn't choose Heaven over Crowley

Aziraphale chose Heaven for Crowley

[kitmarlowe]

See? This is why I don't go to the pub.

[mx-anthony-janthony-crowley]

here's my GO2 bingo card!! :D -p&p: pride and prejudice -i got rather carried away doodling the teeny husbands from the opening credits if you couldn't tell -officially @thirteens-pocket-watch approved (plus it helped me with ideas hehe) <3

[mobius-m-mobius]

#letting time pass

Loki S2 (2023) // Good Omens S2 (2023)