#this is what it is like to be a jewish good omens fan

[nehardeia]

ok so here's the thing. here's the thing. Aziraphale has lots of insanely old books in his shop, and he is a fan of religious works, right? Like prophecy books and Bibles etc. Also we know he can read and speak Hebrew and Aramaic, since he was in the middle east during the time those were colloquially spoken. Conclusion: Aziraphale definitely has some Tanachs* from like the 14-1800s, likely a few from the middle ages, probably a couple as old as the Dead Sea Scrolls, and I'm guessing some of the supposedly burnt pages of the Aleppo Codex.

He also, I'm certain, has at least one full first edition Vilna Shas** (1800s), a Bomberg (first printed edition, 1500s), and probably a few handwritten ones from the Geonic*** period as well.

And might even learn a few pages with you if you asked very nicely and promised not to buy any of his books.

*books containing the full Hebrew scripture, what is called the Old Testament by Christians

** a set of the 37 volumes of the Talmud, the foundational work on which modern Jewish law is based, consisting of compiled legal discourse and a wide range of heated arguments civil discussions about various aspects of Jewish life in Babylon and Judea from around 100-500 CE (with several layers of footnotes dating from 11th-18th century). AKA the world's oldest forum thread.

***~500-900 CE. Texts from this period reference the Talmud a bunch, but the earliest editions of the Talmud we have copies of are from the 12-1300s.

[cobragardens]

The Colors of Crowley

Black is the color Crowley uses to cover himself, red is the color that represents Crowley to himself, and yellow is the color that represents Crowley to Aziraphale. What each color symbolizes and how it's used give us important information about Crowley (and to some degree Aziraphale) and about the ineffable relationship.

I feel kind of dumb writing this post because I'm sure it's glaringly obvious to everyone else, but there's this Metro UK article of all things (the Metro is owned by the hardcore rightwing Daily Mail, btw, so please don't link to it) that mentions the red stitching on Crowley's gloves in 1867, and it made conscious some details I had only subconsciously noted, so fwiw to anybody else, here are my notes on the colors associated with Crowley in Good Omens and their significance in the context of the way each one is used.

I don't think we need to cover black-as-evil in Western color symbology. [And yet here's a long-ass paragraph about it anyway! --Ed.] Light:dark::good:evil has been a thing with Christianity since before Christianity was even Judaism. The Israelites picked it up from the Zoroastrians way back before YHWH had subsumed El as 'God,' which may have been before they were Israelites as well; I mean it was a LONG time ago. Good Omens has been using black and white to represent Hell and Heaven, respectively, long before the show. In the UK, the book was published in paperback with a choice of black or white cover with an illustration of the contrasting character in the contrasting color: Crowley illustrated in black, Aziraphale in white. The current hardcover is grey.

Crowley wears black, and the Bentley is black. At the metanarrative or authorial level this is obviously for the purposes of the black/white demon/angel contrast, but on the intra-narrative level, the Watsonian level, it's interesting to note that Crowley doesn't have to wear black. He's obviously not free to choose from the full color palette, but Furfur's shirt and sash are is dark emerald green, Dagon is in ultramarine (as befits a marine Elder God), and Shax has only been on Earth for four years before she's wearing head-to-toe oxblood. When she shows up later in battle dress she's got a lot of oxblood there, too. And yet Crowley wears black.

Authorial reasons aside, black suits Crowley for a couple intra-narrative reasons. For much of history, black was the most expensive color to dye and maintain in clothing, and as a result it has always been fashionable. And for several centuries in Christendom, wearing black was also a sign that you were in mourning, which was a social and religious obligation when someone close to you died. Whether you could wear other colors with it depended on how long ago that death had occurred.

Again: black is what Crowley chooses to cover himself, and as there is a sharp distinction between how Crowley presents himself to fulfill his obligations and who he thinks of himself as being, there is likewise a distinction between the colors that represent those two quantities as well.

Red is the color the show uses to represent Crowley to Crowley. The most obvious reason is his hair. This is another change from Book Omens, where Crowley is described as having hair that is "dark." A lot of fans in the UK hated the change when S1 came out because fans hate change and the British have a thing against gingers, but Crowley's red hair suits him better than dark imo because the Mother of Demons in Jewish religious literature, Lilith, is traditionally depicted with red hair. Red hair has been associated for more than a millenium in the Middle East and England and Wales with sorcery, witchcraft, demonic influence/possession, and satan-worship.

Crowley wishes his mom was this cool with snakes.

A good case can be made that Crowley genuinely likes the color red in addition to considering it demonically appropriate. I say this for three reasons. Firstly, because when he has a (limited) choice of (again, demonically appropriate) colors, he always chooses red. The marble of the desk in his apartment is not green or grey. He can have any color stitching on his gloves or lining of his jacket collar he wants, but it's always red. Secondly, it's not only red he chooses, it's almost always bright red.

We know Crowley's red isn't supposed to represent blood or violence, because we have another demon character whose use of red represents just that, and it's not the same red:

Compare Shax' oxblood and burgundy to

and

and

and

Crowley's red isn't just red, it's lipstick, cherry, crimson red. And in case we weren't sure that we should read this red as symbolizing passionate, romantic love:

Romantic symbolism aside, bright red is also the color of passion (romantic or otherwise), optimism, heat, vitality, life, (hell)fire, and warning.

Red and black says don't fuck with Jack.

The third reason I think we can safely say that Crowley actually likes the color red is that he hides it. It's always tiny little touches, some of which you have to look for to see. (I still don't know where they snuck in the red on his Elizabethan habit, e.g.) And we know this color is a risk for him, and that he is right to hide it, because Ligur, who doesn't approve of any of Crowley's less-than-fully-demonic embellishments and may share Hastur's opinion that Crowley has gone native, comments on one of Crowley's more noticeably colorful items.

And I think the red tells us one more thing about Crowley, too.

Bright red is the colorest of colors, you know? When we can choose only one color to represent all colors, to represent colorfulness itself, we choose bright red (even in cultures where red symbolizes other meanings than it does in Western art).

Remember how Aziraphale gives Crowley's jacket a tartan collar when he swaps bodies with Crowley and impersonates him in Hell because Aziraphale feels the need to maintain some small secret token of his identity, some tiny unremarked sign of something he loves and thinks is beautiful, when he is down there alone in the gloom among enemies?

Crowley is down there alone among enemies every second of every day and night, whether he's in Hell or on Earth. And he's already had his identity stripped from him once. If you were someone who said

about this

and then you got recruited by the fash downstairs bc the fash upstairs threw you out for not being fashy enough and you had to start wearing nothing but dark colors and more importantly had to hide everything that made you feel warmth or softness or joy, and that was it, that was the deal for eternity, but you could add one (1) little touch to everything you wore to remind yourself that there is some beautiful part of you left, something you loved once, that no one has yet been able to steal or brutalize out of you...what color would the stitching on your gloves be?

Lastly, Yellow represents Crowley to Aziraphale. I'm going to skip the chain of evidence for this bc I think it's obvious, but the way it's used also lends itself to some inferences supported in other areas in the show.

Here's where I think changing Crowley's hair to red from Book Omens' dark is a good decision in another way. Crowley always has red hair, and if he has any color in his clothes it's going to be red. Red is eye-catching; it always stands out, but it doesn't stand out as demonic. And yet the color Aziraphale associates with Crowley and calls "pretty" isn't red.

I suspect that when Aziraphale says he can make Crowley an angel again, Crowley hears "You're not good enough for me to accept you as you are, let me fix you" because these are words Aziraphale has said to him many times, and has meant some of those times. But

tells the audience differently. The color Aziraphale associates with Crowley, the color he calls "pretty," is the color of Crowley's only overtly demonic feature. Aziraphale doesn't love the angel he knew who isn't Crowley, he loves Crowley, the demon, the person he is now, his yellow demon irises.

Yellow appears in three other places in S2, and they're all symbolically significant, and in fact serve to establish another symbolic significance to the color yellow in addition to that of Yellow Is the Color of My True Love's Eyes.

One of them is a feather duster:

Crowley reacts to a feather duster like a cat confronted by an unfamiliar object

The other three are private conversations between Aziraphale and Crowley:

The walls that surround Crowley and Aziraphale when they speak openly about their situation and how they will handle it are drenched in yellow, and that is super interesting, because in Western color symbolism yellow is the color of fear. The archangel of whom Crowley and Aziraphale are both (rightly) terrified wields a tool the color of fear. The color of fear saturates the backdrop of conversations between Aziraphale and Crowley when they have to discuss their situation and their actions openly.

Remember how Aziraphale's voice shakes here?

Crowley realizes the crows have just handed an angel evidence the angel can take to Hell and use to have Crowley killed

Even the Bentley, that clear sign of Aziraphale's love for Crowley, is also a yellow coffin enclosing him. For Aziraphale, thoughts of Crowley are always entangled with fear, because Crowley is not just Crowley, he is also Crowley's Fall.

And I think fear is what Crowley's eyes themselves represent. For Crowley, fear is now a fundamental part of his perception, his nature, his identity.

The angel Aziraphale once knew is not Crowley, and yet from what we've seen, the chiefest difference in character between this sweetheart and this mischief-maker--

--is that the Starmaker does not know yet that he should be afraid, and the Serpent does. That knowledge and its fear has, shall we say, colored his view of the world.

Aziraphale learns that fear early by observing others rather than Falling himself, and knows enough that by the first time we meet him in the Before, he is already afraid.

Pink was once symbolically equivalent to red; in modern Western color symbology it is a color of innocence, youth, beauty, and first love. Hashtag just sayin'.

The cruellest thing this suggests to me is that, rather than rebellion or his propensity to ask questions, rather than the knowledge of good and evil, the Starmaker's Fall was caused by his innocence. it wasn't the questions that were the problem: it was that he didn't know any better than to speak them out loud.

Y'all, Crowley and Aziraphale do not suffer from communication problems. Despite both being male-coded and British, they don't even seem to lack emotional intelligence. What they do have is a universe of silence and fear they have to communicate within and around. What they lack is the safety to speak and love freely. The true color of Crowley is crimson, but someone gave him those eyes, and Aziraphale either watched that happen or knew about it, and now Crowley covers himself in black--which btw is also the symbolic color for mystery and secrets--and only lets Aziraphale see him as he really is now, because Aziraphale won't judge him for his yellow eyes (or punish and forsake him for his questions). Because Aziraphale carries that fear with him too.

[demon-in-the-details]

Good Omens. It has taken over many of our brains and will slowly drive us all insane before we get answers (hugs to those in the trenches.) I've been reading a lot of theories, gone down lots of rabbit holes, been rewatching and pondering on clues – and I have Things to Say. I'm going to throw them out here one at a time and maybe gather them up eventually into one place somewhere.

So I guess this is a theory or a prediction I've worked out:

Aziraphale is, or will become, the Archangel Raphael.

Many Good Omens fans have picked up on the fact that in Jewish tradition there are 4 main archangels: Gabriel, Michael, Uriel, and Raphael. In the GO universe Raphael is missing. Since we know that Crowley is a fallen angel many fans have specualted that he is Raphael. I think there is stronger evidence that it is Aziraphale:

• It’s literally in his name: drop the “azi” and rearrange a couple of letters and you’ve got Raphael.

• In the Book of Tobit Raphael goes by “Azariah” when he disguises himself as a human. That’s awfully close to “Aziraphale”.

• Raphael’s name means “God has healed” and he is known as a healer. We know that Aziraphale has the power to heal.

• In the Talmud Raphael was tasked with saving Lot when Sodom is destroyed. In season one Gabrial asks Aziraphale if he remembers Sandalphon from Sodom and Gomorrah. Aziraphale replies that he remembers him doing lots of smiting. In the Talmud Gabriel is tasked with destroying Sodom. In the GO universe Sandalphon seems to be Gabriel’s right-hand man.

• Now here’s the kicker: in Islamic tradition Raphael is the one who blows the horn that announces Judgement Day. And what did Metatron say he needed Aziraphale for? The Second Coming. 

I don’t know how to reconcile that he is Raphael when we’ve only ever known Aziraphale by that name, even “before the beginning” – or that we know him as a principality. Could be that his name changes when he becomes an archangel? 

I don’t think we will ever know Crowley’s angel name. I think it will be like a dead name. We should all understand what that means to a person in this day and age. I also think that Crowley is a much more powerful angel than an archangel. He is probably more powerful than any of the angels we have met, including Aziraphale. Does he know how powerful he is? Probably, but he’s not telling!

[johannestevans]

Woe, Boypussy Be Upon Ye: Transing Characters in Fanfic & Fanart

What’s the deal with envisioning your blorbos as transgender?

Originally published in Prism & Pen. Also on my Patreon.

It’s a meme, I made it. Here it is.

It’s been unbelievably positive for me as a trans dude, the change in approach to trans characters in fandom and subsequently in media in general, and I just wanted to write a bit about my experiences with the cultural shift and how positive it’s been for me personally.

What’s weird about people in fandom confidently, nay casually, writing characters as transgender and just having them be a regular dude with a pussy or a regular girl with a dick is that like… I remember when it wasn’t a thing.

Back in 2009, for example, which was a big time for fandom — Superwholock was running rampant, Star Trek (2009) had just gotten a new generation of fans into Trek — or even in 2012, when Les Misérables (2012) had dropped and gotten new people into Les Mis, or when the Hobbit had revamped a lot of interest in Tolkien’s books and the original Lord of the Rings films, not to mention The Hobbit itself, none of this even getting into the Marvel movies, like…

It just. It wasn’t a thing.

Sure, there were transgender characters around, characters that people wrote as trans, but I remember it so strongly as being very niche. It was deep, emotional work where people had to work to “justify” the emotional work they were doing, and even then, they couldn’t just say a character was trans and be chill about it. In order to justify a character being transgender, one had to put in mountains of evidence, or admit the trans perspective was a genderbend of sorts.

For me, I’m pretty sure the moment when things started to change was when I was reading and writing a lot of Loki-centred fanfiction, roundabout 2014–2017 — and the more permissive culture was very much borne of Loki being seen as an exception.

Loki, of the Marvel film and comics, is an alien secretly kidnapped and adopted into the Odinson family, and is known to change his body and appearance frequently, including changing his apparent gender or expression.

He was, in the comic canon (not to mention the original Norse mythologies) quite genderfluid, after all, so even if you didn’t refer to him as explicitly transgender, you could explore him as being some variety of genderfluid, nonbinary, or intersex — as an alien, as a Jötnar as opposed to being AEsir like Thor or Odin, as a god.

But then things changed a bit more.

Welcome to Night Vale, a weird narrative horror podcast, started in 2012, and one thing you could rely on from a lot of fanfics is that people might have weird or alien or otherwise not-not cisgender but not entirely cisgender genitals either. The Magnus Archives, also a narrative horror podcast, started in 2016, and when I got into the fandom in roundabout 2019, which is also when the new Good Omens TV show was due to release and there was a resurgence of interest in the book as well, I remember experiencing a sort of newfound thing where like…

I’d had a mental block around writing many trans characters, before — I could create my own characters who were trans, but a big part of me still felt like I wasn’t allowed to just make a canon character trans if they’d never been mentioned as being trans before or made explicitly trans.

What was it that stopped me?

My own dysphoria? Perhaps a little. Maybe some lacking self-confidence.

Most of all, it just felt as though I couldn’t justify it. I couldn’t justify seeing a cis man written by cis people in a cis show and saying, “Hey, no, he’s like me, actually” — even though I could easily do it about the same character being gay or Jewish or even chronically ill or disabled.

It was like there was a mental block inside me I just couldn’t get past.

I still had a lot of the old online cultural expectations stamped onto me, I think, even being an out trans man who knew many many other trans and intersex and nonbinary people of every gender imaginable in fandom.

I think for Welcome to Night Vale and then especially for The Magnus Archives, part of what made it so easy for people to write and envisage different characters as trans, the fact that there was such limited physical description of characters, the fact that you were attached to them by their voices alone, allowed people to envisage them in whatever way they liked.

In The Magnus Archives, most of the main characters are envisaged as trans in one way or another — Daisy Tonner particularly is explored with all flavours of butch dykey complexity, trans in whichever ways or directions are juiciest and most interesting. But for so many of the characters — from Jonathan Sims and Martin Blackwood to Sasha James and Tim Stoker to Elias Bouchard to Peter Lukas to any of the other Entities — there is no end to the characters people will explore or envisage as trans or nonbinary or just straight-up outside of gender or gender-weird.

No one has to justify a period character being trans with no problems. Loads of people write Izzy Hands or Stede Bonnet or Edward Teach, as being trans in Our Flag Means Death alongside the canonic nonbinary character Jim Jimenez. Any and all characters, trans or otherwise, are invited to participate in ye olde top surgery performed by Roach, the ship’s surgeon, or somehow get hold of ye olde hormones in whatever handwavy way necessary, and it’s cool and fine.

And what’s wonderful for me is the way I see the current approach to trans characters gleefully and delightedly applied to fandoms that are years if not decades old.

I see people write House MD fanfic now where they just go, right from the beginning, yeah this or that character is trans, and they’ve always been trans, and it’s chill. What if James Wilson was trans? It’d rock, that’s what. What if Greg House was trans? Yeah, he’d probably do his own T-shots under the table.

People write Spock as trans now, or guys from M*A*S*H, or Jean Valjean.

What if in the X-Files Dana Scully and Fox Mulder were T4T? Makes complete sense, and also, the idea fucks absolutely. They’re already so lesbian vibes for each other, it fits perfectly.

I wrote a silly little Tumblr post a few weeks ago envisioning Morticia and Gomez Addams as T4T, and it blew up immediately — I think about how if I’d made that most a decade ago it would have been met with crickets, if not a bit of scorn, and not just from transphobes, but just people who like me at that time hadn’t been able to relax and have fun with it.

That’s the real crux of the matter, the impact a lot of fandom has made on me and the way that trans characterisation is approached, the hunger I have for trans characterisation now — it’s the idea of being trans as joyful and delightful, as inherently fun and sexy, but also just as being something every day and normal. A detail you can include as casually in your interpretation of a canon character as any other headcanon.

There’s a beautiful freedom in it, and I’m so grateful to have been able to learn from and grow because of other trans people paving the way with their confident headcanons and delving into trans ideas in their fic.

It’s done wonders for me everywhere — not just in my fanfic, but most of all in the original works I pen now, each one of them featuring trans character after trans character.

[spookfished]

media roundup sep 2024

hello! havent done these in a while. im currently "extremely unemployed" lol well see if i go back and do any of the previous months i skipped ㄟ( ▔, ▔ )ㄏ i think its nice to force myself to summarize my thoughts like this

BOOKS: the tyrant baru cormorant by seth dickinson: most recent book in the masquerade series, which is a thriller (?) about the mechanics of empire. dude this book was so great. no notes. there were some incredibly gratifying payoffs in here and some craaazy twists. idk i wish i had something more to say i just thought it was really really good im glad that baru gets to have some good things as well as bad. of course, seth dickinson has amazing prose and the ending was so like, uplifting? and inspiring? i was very surprised lol

when the angels left the old country by sacha lamb: queer jewish immigrant YA, apparently for fans of good omens. an angel and a demon from a small, small town go to america to track down one of the town's mising daughters. despite neither being a gomens fan (although i did read it) nor jewish, i really enjoyed this! it has a dreamy, fairytale, eva ibbotson-like tone to it that made it a pleasure to read, despite the somewhat foreboding topic (let's all have a fun time on ellis island while visibly jewish!) the stories of the humans and the non-humans feel equally important, but i really especially enjoyed the way the angel changed over time as a response to the world it saw. its just a really nice book :3

long live evil by sarah rees brennan: villainess isekai, but western tradpub. a woman dying from cancer at a young age is given the chance to live again--as a two-bit floozy villainess the day before her execution?! how will rae find a way out? and how well, really, does she remember the time of iron? sarah rees brennan is sort of a comfort author to me; in other lands meant a Lot to me as a mentally ill teenager. all the same, i almost dropped this book during the first couple of chapters. in my opinion, this book has a REALLY rough start that evened out into a ride that i enjoyed quite a bit despite many other factors. while some parts of the part are clearly deeply personal (this is the author's first book published after recovering from late stage cancer), it also has a tendency to hammer in its points over and over again and undercuts too many serious moments with quippy dialogue in a way that deflates tension rather than increasing it. also, one b-couple takes clear inspiration from one of her previous works (but this time more #toxic --they kill each other in time of iron) and as a result unfortunately outshines the main couple at times, who also have to share screentime with a huge cast that often feels improperly balanced. but also, i thought the main couple was pretty cute, actually! the ending twist, while not unpredictable (and also very, uh, danmei?) was also very enjoyable and nice to let creep up on you. i feel like i'm being more strict with it than i am with a lot of villainess isekai i read though, haha… i agree with ineedacatchyname's review of it (and a lot of these thoughts just echo theirs. woops!)--a lot of this could be fixed with a bit more editing, but ultimately i spent the second half unable to put it down and i'm still going to read the sequel.

against football by steve almond: fairly short nonfiction. one diehard football fan's searing condemnation of the state of american football today (and what we could do to make it better). this was recommended to me by megafaunatic, and i really enjoyed it :3 i come from a pretty "ugh, sportsball" type of family, and so it was really interesting to see why people love watching football (especially a team as "wretched" as the former oakland raiders) as well as playing it--but also how the continuation of football in its current state is pretty much inexcusable (one bright side is that division i graduation rates have actually gone up quite a bit since this book was published in 2016!) id easily recommend to both football fans and non-fans.

GAMES: pikmin bloom: pikmin bloom is a game about walking around, growing pikmin, and planting virtual flowers. i didnt play this game for a while bc i was like "well, its pokemon go but with pikmin -_-" and like. it is. but niantic has also taken the opportunity to overhaul a lot of its base game mechanics with a focus on actually getting you to GO OUTSIDE and WALK AROUND, which i think is to its benefit! like, yeah it actually did get me to go on some walks when i wouldnt have otherwise. the microtransactions kinda suck but as long as youre willing to kill your darlings (pikmin) its fine i think. < guy with a very high deathcount in pikmin 3 and 4

return of the obra dinn: stylized mystery game about unpacking what happened in a scaaary voyage by seeing the moment surrounding the crewmembers' deaths. dude. this game is so fucking good. it was like everyones goty in 2018 and as soon as i finished it i was like "i wish i could get hit in the head so i could play it again." imo, its a really good game to play as a group (with one person driving) bc so much of the gameplay takes place outside of the game--deducing, speculating, etc and it's really fun to do that as a conversation with someone else! the game does a good job of disincentivizing random guessing--when i played this game with my family, we did guess on a couple but it was almost always a 50-50 "choice A or choice B". and the game can (apparently) be completed without any chance guesswork whatsoever! can be a little gory at times, but its all in this sort of dithery monochrome style so you don't really think about it until you're walking to the bathroom in the halflit moonlight and youre kinda like hey this kinda looks like return of the obra dinn haha. wait. anyways play this game!!

unpacking: cute little game about unpacking/moving in during the various phases of one person's life. probably a masterclass in "environmental storytelling" that invites you into making your own stories for our unseen protagonist while also providing these understated beautiful little moments of understanding. also, it was really theraputic getting everything perfectly placed in order when i currently live in a very messy house ;-_-

umineko chapter 2: ahhh year of umineko 2024 continues. im definitely not finishing the whole game this year (lol) but i might end up finishing the question arcs at least..? anyways ive been lbing this the whole time (#year of the seacat 2024 for blacklist) but man this was pretty harsh compared to the first episode. it even makes battler break down..! i was secretly wondering how it was going to try and turn around my opinion on rosa, but, well, i still really dont like her. has bright points in more beatrice!!! the introduction of the meta, some ???really horny??? parts and the [You are incompetent] scene. also, everyone seems to really hate george for some reason but i feel like i still dont get it.

SHOWS:

the decameron: drama about fucking and dying in black plague-era italy, and a villa meant to be a getaway from it all. in high school i wanted to read the decameron because it was mentioned in theatre of coolty--just so you know, this is nothing like it. its just really fun! and full of light intrigue and twists and reveals and tragedy. a lot of the plague-based humor hit in some pretty uncomfortable places, which the showrunners were definitely going for. neifile and panfilo hands down had my favorite relationship.

witch from mercury: revolutionary girl gundam?? this is how everyone pitched it to me, which honestly put me off a little bit. wfm is clearly aware and respectful of its predecessors but also takes the first episode to go "nah were going to do something a little different though." like, its kind of like instead of tackling rape culture it decided to tackle the military industrial complex instead ? ? i guess?? it seems like a good entry point into gundam for many (including me!) i enjoyed the first season very fun and currently watching the second. looking forward to seeing how sick and twisted things can get

in terms of music ive been listening to a lot of zerobaseone.. every time were in the car together neil is like lets listen to yurayura and im like yessss. yurayuraa oh ive also been listening to counter//weight while driving but im not going to include it bc its been slow going lol. all my thoughts about it so far is like "this is the thing neil really likes"

anyways if you got to the end or skimmed or whatever, thanks for reading! hope u have a good one.

[o-uncle-newt]

On the Job minisode and Good Omens as a work on religion

(Note: This was originally a reblog of someone who then expressed that they were unhappy that I reblogged their post. As a courtesy I have reposted it as its own thing- for context, the person was upset that Neil Gaiman's take on religion was stale and said that of course if you have only a surface view of the Torah and the book of Job you'd come away with these kinds of negative impressions.)

I went to Orthodox Jewish day school for thirteen years. I thought the Job minisode was fine, as an adaptation of the story. Not breaking any ground theologically or whatever, but fine. (Though they did definitely get the number of Job's kids wrong, presumably for narrative simplicity, and the shoemaker joke doesn't work because he's really Bildad the ShuCHite.)

And, I mean, I don't think it should be MEANT to be anything but fine...? Good Omens is a fantasy novel in which heaven and hell are both the bad guys- Good Omens the show has basically kept in that model. The whole thing is about a simplistic look at the Christian Bible and a kind of cynical but light hearted agnosticism that doesn't really lend itself particularly to sophisticated religious analysis or whatever. It's not meant for that.*

The Job minisode was written by John Finnemore rather than Gaiman, a writer of whom I am a massive fan and, however, to whom I don't really look for sophisticated religious takes. He's done a Bible/religion sketch or two on his sketch show- I don't particularly love them, they're pretty surfacey- and he's self aware enough to make it very clear that he approaches everything from an "I don't believe in God but I grew up in a Christian country" perspective. (He's a lot more honest about that than a lot of other atheist/agnostic writers I've seen who do takes on religion, incidentally... so many people think they're being "objective" or whatever.)

The thing is, I actually really love the Job minisode as a Good Omens story, working within this complete fantasy world. I was disappointed in a lot of S2 but this felt like the characters, this felt like an interesting meditation on their roles and their choices... I don't know, it just really worked for me.

And I feel like part of the point is to pick one of those "well obviously on the surface this looks a bit fucked up" stories (rather than for there to be an implication that they're the only ones who noticed)- because they're working in a fictional universe in which it's been established since the nineties that heaven/God is at least a bit fucked up (no matter what I as a Jew may personally believe) and so they can just take it and run with it without having to explain! Gaiman did the same thing in S1 with the Garden of Eden and the Ark. It's just a canvas to put an Aziraphale/Crowley plot on. The original book is a Book of Revelations satire!

Honestly, I'm happier to have a pretty basic retelling of a story that's obviously fucked up on the surface, rather than them picking some midrash or something that's more subtle and nuanced and super Jewish-y and then turning it into something about how God or the angels or the demons are bad- partly because Jewish angel/demon stuff doesn't map well onto Good Omens's approach, and also because the whole point of the book from the start has been critical of organized Judeo-Christian (yes I know) religion writ large, and that's not going to change. That was weird for me to get used to as an Orthodox Jewish teen in a Bais Yaakov school when I first read it, but getting past it made me realize that all that meant was that they'd created a Biblical fantasy universe with certain tropes in it.

I think the Job minisode works perfectly well within that particular Biblical fantasy universe, and while I think that you can potentially criticize S1 (and in a slightly different way, the book) for that Biblical satire/fantasy not being particularly sophisticated about religion if that's something important to you, I don't think that it being sophisticated about religion would have improved it as a story.

*I did kinda sorta write a fic that tries to cast Aziraphale and Crowley in a more traditionally Jewish lens and... it was actually really hard. As I said above, the way the Good Omens world is set up doesn't really work for the Jewish thing. I had to make it really clear that angels don't have free will and that Heaven and Hell aren't two different sides.

[inbarfink]

Hmmm… So, native-English-speakers-Good-Omens-Fans, what is your read of this line? Why do you guys think Aziraphale so excited?

I’m asking because I always thought that Aziraphale was just generally into the idea of being a Godfather. But I recently read the newer 2020 Hebrew Translation of Good Omens and I saw this exchange was quite different from the translation I originally read as a kid. Roughly translated back into English, it goes:

"And in the long run it's for the child's own good," said Crowley "You could say we'd be his Guardian Angels. We'll oversee his spiritual upbringing, more or less." Aziraphale's face beamed. "I didn't think of it like that. You'll be an Angel again. Let the darkness seize me."

The 2006 Translation uses ‘Sandak’ in place of “Godfather” (This is a Jewish term for the guy who holds the baby during a Brit Milah. Since it’s considered a position of honor, and there are some traditions of the Sandak helping out the kid or giving gifts later in life - it was considered Close Enough to the Christian tradition of Godparents that this is the term used to translate it in almost every case.) and otherwise sticks pretty much exactly to the wording of the scene in the original English.

Meanwhile, the 2020 translation decided to stray away from this term in favor of ‘Guardian Angel’. Which, coupled with Aziraphale’s reaction in the translation, implies to me that the translator’s read of this line is that Aziraphale was mainly just amused by the idea of Crowley taking on a role with ‘God’ right in the title. Which is what the term ‘Sandak’ can’t really preserve (the term is Greek for something like “the Baby’s Friend”) but is obviously carried in something like “Guardian Angel”

I always thought Aziraphale was just excited about ‘Godfathers’ as just… a surrogate parenthood experience that’s just long-distance enough for him to be comfortable with it. But then again, that might be because my Original Good Omens Experience was one that omitted the God-Fathers meaning completely?

(Oh and if you're wondering about the 'let the darkness seize me' bit. It's kinda hard to translate but the 2020 Hebrew Translation version of Aziraphale has a thing of using very old-timey and flowery exclamations. And that one spesifically is supposed to be a reference to the Book of Job:

so that's also an Interesting little tidbit!)

[eliza1911o1]

The Marvelous Ms. Maisel is such an oddly niche series even though it’s so widely promoted — like it’s one of Amazon’s biggest and most widely promoted shows, features many modern as well as historic stars, and is created by Amy Sherman-Palladino (who made Gilmore Girls) but it’s also a story about a divorced Jewish woman whose a comedian (that is are very particular audience). On one hand, I think it’s really cool how such a specific subject is a considerably wide-reaching show and isn’t limited to a specific type of views; on the other, though it seems to be such a big show, there’s very little discourse on it. It’s not inherently a ‘fandom’ show, like Supernatural or Good Omens, but the subtle fan presence and lack of casual commentary (excluding critiques or formal commentary, such as articles) is just kind of funny to see

What I really mean is I was trying to see reactions from the ep 4 ending or anything about this final season and all I’m finding are edits and Amazon promos. Is no one else deeply invested in the Susie lore that was dropped in the last 10 minutes of ep 4??? Sure, many other thoughts on this season and the production, but do you even know how dramatic the random backstory they just dropped on Susie is??

[exclamaquest]

unfortunately a good chunk of ppl think that hating him means you just Gotta be antisemetic. And doubly unfortunately a large proponent of that claim is a semi-popular jewish blogger as well, so ppl just assume their right without any thought :// and then there are the insufferable “he’s gay culture uwu” ppl that think Good Omens is the only gay romance novel there is (when it never was intended to be, and he fought back on fans interpreting them as gay until it benefitted him to pretend he was ‘woke’)

I’ve come to the unfortunate conclusion that gay ppl do not in fact have inherent good taste, and only ppl w a harley ish leathergear style or a 70s accountant style are the ones who have any potential

I know exactly what blogger you're talking about and I hate their guts. Awful awful awful that they have that much reach and influence AND that people just take what they say for granted. & tbh using antisemitism as a shield against any criticism of a Jewish person no matter what it is is ridiculous, they pull it out so often and it makes me want to tear my hair out (disclosure for people who don't know: I'm Jewish)

And yeah exactly like...he is the most lukewarm advocate possible. Yeah he had some queer people in Sandman but that doesn't mean that he didn't push back against gay interpretations of Good Omens until it was profitable lol

[cameoamalthea]

I think the confusion is that Satan is the one who messes with Job, but Crowley is doing it in the show. But I think the implication is that Satan can delicate tasks to other demons acting on his behalf.

The other confusing point might be that Crowley is the serpent instead of Satan. But the Bible never says that the serpent is Satan. John Milton made the serpent Satan for dramatic purposes echoing conflation by layer Christian writers like Augustine.

Good Omens is such a fun game of figuring out what is being parodied. Because it’s a parody of The Omen, which was a horror film based on modern American evangelical ideas about the Book of Revelation, but also parodies and plays with Jewish and Christian beliefs and mythology. And there are so many versions of the Bible even before we get into translation issues and so many different traditions of understanding and so much mingling of what is religion and what is pop culture understanding of religion from Milton and Dante.

So if fans approach Good Omens as fiction about the Bible there can be confusion about what’s different on the Good Omens universe vs The Bible since there are so many versions and understandings of the stories.

hey, I may be stupid, but when Metatron is speaking to the council of Angels about removing Gabriel from status, who is the other high rank Archangel that was removed? I’m pretty sure it’s Lucifer, right?

Right.

[vaspider]

HELLO

Do you like GAY JEWISH THINGS? Are you a BIG LEFTIST who likes WORKER STRUGGLES and also JEWISH THINGS? Do you want the self-revelations of a gender-indifferent angel to make you fucking sob in your kitchen?

If so, you need to read this book like FUCKING IMMEDIATELY.

Spoilers behind the cut, because I literally just sat and transcribed the part from the audiobook that made me sit down at my kitchen table and ugly cry for like five solid minutes. It was like being punched directly in the solar plexus in the best of all ways. FUCK! It's SO FUCKING GOOD.

One of the main characters is an angel who leaves, in the company of its partner, a demon called Little Ash, the shtetl in which it has been sitting in a room, studying Talmud so intently with its companion, a demon, that the two of them literally did not notice when a synagogue was built around where they sat and studied. It ends up becoming more and more human over the course of the book due to Events, and at one point finds himself in a union meeting to decide on whether the garment workers should protest over their working conditions. The angel is being called Uriel at this point because this is what is on its falsified immigration papers. A young woman is reading a list of people who have been injured, gotten sick, or been killed because of the working conditions. And then this:

The girl's voice rose and fell like a cantor's, and Uriel listened as to a voice from heaven, drinking in every word of the Yiddish that was starting to feel as familiar to it as a mother tongue. The words filled it up, and soaked into its heart, and it thought to itself, all of this time, I had been missing something, and I had no idea. Its heart was heavier with the weight of the young worker's words, but should a heart not be heavy in a world full of injustice? It looked down at its lap, twisting its tzitzis in its fingers. This was the world Essie lived in, and her family, and all of the people back in Shtetl, and it had never noticed. How many times had it said "Listen, Israel!" and not been listening? Oh, it thought, I have been terrible. Terrible. Uriel Fetterman needs to be someone who sees what is happening in the world around it. I must stay this way, this person, so that I won't forget. This is why Torah was not for angels. Angels forget what humans can remember. Angels skip lightly over ground that needs plowing with rough hands and sharp blades. Uriel had thought that it could not be doing wrong because it had no inclination for evil. But what had it been doing for hundreds of years? Studying, and forgetting that studying should lead to action. It would never have left Shtetl without Little Ash, would never have known it was missing anything. But it had missed the most important purpose it could ever have, something bigger than an angel could ever be.

[anonymousdandelion]

Crowley and Aziraphale meet Hershel of Ostropol

As usual this time each year, I reread the wonderful work of classic Jewish children’s literature that is Eric Kimmel’s Hershel and the Hanukkah Goblins. And then afterwards (also as usual these days), my brain drifted to thinking about Good Omens.

I'd probably try to turn the resulting thoughts into a niche crossover fic, except I’m still very much out of creative writing mode, so that probably won’t happen. So instead: Tumblr rambles that will probably mean nothing to anyone but me!

Because, see, I can’t help thinking that Crowley would have very much admired Hershel of Ostropol, in all his trickster glory. I mean, really. Just look at Hershel’s shenanigans, his sense of humor, his sheer audacity. The man’s wiles! Crowley is definitely a fan.

(Aziraphale might pretend to be disapproving of some of Hershel’s methods. But something tells me he in fact has his own sense of appreciation for a clever, incorrigible prankster.)

As for the goblins, haunting the old synagogue and ruining Chanukah? It’s no great stretch of the imagination to say these are demons. Mostly lower-ranking ones, presumably (with the obvious exception of the king who shows up on the final night); looking at Trina Schart Hyman’s vivid illustrations, Hell’s Usher from GO would fit right in with the crowd.

(Side note: I imagine they don’t have pickles in Hell, so I can’t help but feel some sympathy for Eric’s big, green, overdramatic, pickle-deprived waddling cousin. Despite everything, I do hope Crowley will bring down a jar for the poor fellow sometime.)

Now, back to the fic that I probably won’t write... well, first I was trying to figure out what role Crowley and/or Aziraphale might play in Hershel’s showdowns against the goblins. Does Crowley help Hershel out? Give tips on how to defeat his own goblin/demon coworkers? Does Aziraphale join in the attempt to protect the holiday? Do both of them work on it together? Does Crowley have to be a reluctant collaborator with the goblins? Does the Arrangement come into play?

...But then I realized it would feel truer to both canon source materials if in fact Hershel still pulls off his victory single-handed, just as he does in today’s telling of the story, while Aziraphale and Crowley bicker in the background while waiting around with the rest of the villagers and making no difference at all.

(They’d both have liked to do something to help, really, they would, it’s just that Aziraphale did a few too many anticipatory small-scale oil-extending, dreidel-charming, and latke-multiplying miracles elsewhere recently, and so he’s at the end of his budget for the time being.)

(And Crowley, of course, can’t exactly go sticking his neck out to publicly challenge his own coworkers. There’s always the possibility that he is a, perhaps reluctant, collaborator in the haunting himself.)

(Though at this point he is seriously considering sticking his neck out anyway, consequences be blessed, if Aziraphale complains one more time about the lack of latkes...)

Fortunately, Hershel comes through to save the day on his own — unaided by any forces save his trademark brand of craftiness, Chanukah candles, a few eggs and pickles and a dreidel, and of course an extra-sized serving of raw chutzpah.

And when Hershel finally returns to the village on the last night of Chanukah, he doesn’t even know he isn’t the only non-local there tonight. He doesn’t know that among the throngs of people waiting to welcome him back with latke-laden platters, hanging around on the outskirts and exchanging smiles, are an angel and a demon. He doesn’t need to know that.

But it’s possible, just possible, that a little demonic miracle or two might have helped make sure that Hershel of Ostropol and and his escapades would not be forgotten. It’s possible, just possible, that an off-the-record angelic blessing helped safeguard his legacy, to be preserved in jokes and tales.

And so, today, Hershel’s adventures are remembered, retold, and passed on for future generations to read and hear and laugh over together, as the villagers’ descendants gather once again around the menorah to celebrate another triumph of tradition and the spirit of Chanukah.

(I suppose this post can count as my accidental contribution to @5ftjewishcactus‘s Chanukah Omens 2021 event, since it ended up incorporating several of the prompts.)

[snek-of-eden]

aaaaAAAAAAAAA AAAAAH AAAAH OH MY GOD OH MY GOD OKAY I HAVE SO MUCH TO SAY BUT YPUVE ALREADY GOT THE MAIN IDEA SO IM GOING GO TELL YOU EXTRA THINGS

like holy shit, yeah I got so deep into good omens, my instagram has like a whole section of good omens fan art and I’ve posted a bunch of fics and I OWN SO MANY NEIL BOOKS AND THE GOOD OMENS AMAZON COPY AND GOOD OMENS PLAYLISTS AND AGHHHH

the demon in the show is called Crowley and he’s canonically genderfluid and uses she/her pronouns sometimes, as well as dressing in women’s clothes and having the coolest hairstyles ever. you will fucking love seeing all the cosplays of her. he’s supposed to be evil because That’s What Demons Do but he’s… kind of really bad at it? he’s pathetic and goth and sarcastic and it’s amazing.

its ASTOUNDINGLY queer and homophobia just? doesn’t exist? which is amazing.

Crowley has a sentient car that is basically a pet dog and blares Queen music 24/7 forever.

its Christian, but in a “let’s make fun of religion” way and also the author put in a lot of Jewish ideology which is great.

an Angel Of The Lord says fuck.

Crowley has an outfit where he literally looks like a Beatle.

THE POWER OF FRIENDSHIP.

REPRESSED GAY LOVE THROUGH THE AGES.

you will cry. sorry. but you’ll enjoy it.

the second season has the cutest little non binary bean you ever did see.

LESBIAN COFFEE SHOP ROMANCE.

the Angel Of The Lord is a petty bitch and we love him for it.

PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE WATCH IT IM BEGGING ON MY KNEES

Okay Good Omens moots, info dump to me. I wanna know all about it. I may get into it and wanna know what I'm getting into. I know nothing so.

[wolfstar-in-color]

Creator’s spotlight: alifeincoffeespoons

It’s September and our fourth Creator’s Spotlight is here! We are so happy to share with you today the thoughts of a wonderful creator: @alifeincoffeespoons. We’ve rec’ed her fic Sirius and Harry go to Whitecastle here and we did the description for one of her artworks here (which includes the rec of some mitski songs!!).

As usual, here you have one of our favorite quotes of the interview, and under the cut you can read the full interview!

“Remus and Sirius understand each other on a level that few other characters in the series do. They have so many shared experiences and so much history, and there’s so many different ways to write them as a result. They are also foils, but somehow also a matched pair — they move in sync so easily.”

alifeincoffeespoons prompt: “It’s a rare sunny day when Remus sees Sirius, for the first time in three years, and he has to resist the urge to call emergency services immediately and announce that he needs to be hospitalized on account of a broken heart.”

Q: Tell us a bit about yourself

A: My Tumblr username is alifeincoffeespoons (inspired by Eliot’s “The Lovesong of J. Alfred Prufrock”) and I go by spellingmynamewrong on AO3. I’d probably be considered part of Gen Z, and I’m Asian-American, which inspires a lot of my work. I usually create works of writing, though I also dabble in fanart occasionally. I’m a fan of both modern and canon divergent AUs; I’ll write canon compliant content occasionally but not very often, given how tragic canon is. 

Q:How did you start creating in the fandom? What did you wish to bring into the fandom?

A: I started writing back in middle school, and I’ve been reading and writing fanworks on-and-off since then. My first work of fanfiction was for Harry Potter too, although I didn’t start writing for Wolfstar until later on. I want to write works that make people think more deeply about — and even critique — the existing world of Harry Potter. There are a lot of deeply problematic aspects of the original work, as we all know, and I think we have an obligation as creators to call them out and demonstrate why they are so problematic.

Q: What things about Sirius/Remus as characters or in their relationship inspire you to create around them?

A: Remus and Sirius understand each other on a level that few other characters in the series do. They have so many shared experiences and so much history, and there’s so many different ways to write them as a result. They are also foils, but somehow also a matched pair — they move in sync so easily.

Q: What things would you like to highlight about the Wolfstar fandom and your experience in it?

A: It’s such an expansive fandom! That’s one thing that’s dawned on me over time — it has so, so much history, and so many individuals are or have been involved in it. 

Q: What type of content do you wish you saw more in the fandom?

A: I’d love to see more content that deals with the historical circumstances of the wider world around them — I’m a big sucker for historical fiction and real-world context. If we’re going for a particular sort of story, I’d love to see more superhero AUs. Also, a Good Omens AU. I saw fanart for it once and it’s never left my mind. There are so, so many possibilities there. 

Q: What is your favourite wolfstar fan content (fic/fanart/gifset/etc) and how does it inspire you?

A: This is so hard to choose! Let’s go with some tropes instead — I love fix-it fics, and I also find canon divergent AUs very interesting, particularly ones that involve giving Harry a better life. I’m also a big fan of Modern AUs, though. I also love humor — whether that be a full-on humor fic or just one with humor interspersed lovingly throughout.

Q: Which of your own identities inform your creative processes? How has that process been for you?

A: My Asian-American identity likely informs my creative process the most. There are so few Asian characters represented in media still, particularly fan-created content, and I’d like to see that changed. What I usually do is incorporate small details that can feel universal but also give readers an insight into a particular culture — usually through food or similarly common experiences. It comes fairly naturally, actually, since I often write about Asian or Asian-American characters in my original fiction as well.

Q: What advice do you have for other content creators with diverse backgrounds in the fandom? What would you say to people that might feel they don’t have the “right” experience to participate in the creation of content related to Wolfstar?

A: If you’re comfortable, definitely share your experiences — we always need more diverse voices in fandom. I don’t think there’s any particular history or characteristic you need to be an active participant in Wolfstar fandom. 

Q: How could we build a more diverse fandom?

A: Firstly, by seeking out and supporting content that features characters with diverse backgrounds. Secondly, by calling out rhetoric that marginalizes diverse creators. Thirdly, by doing our best to do better ourselves.

Q: What’s your favorite thing to modify in Sirius’s or Remus’s characterizations to bring new perspectives to them?

A: I’ve often written Sirius as Asian, mostly because I think it truly does add another layer to his characterization. I’ve explained some of my reasoning behind that in this Tumblr post I wrote eons ago. I often also write Remus as Jewish — I saw this headcanon a long time ago and it’s stuck with me since. My characterizations of them are always shifting, though, and I’m sure they will continue to over time.

Q: What does diversity mean to you? What does that encompass in fannish spaces?

A: Diversity doesn’t just mean including a POC in your work or an LGBTQ character; it means giving them meaningful, non-stereotypical narratives and characterization. In fan spaces, that means supporting creators from diverse backgrounds and works featuring well-written, diverse characters. It also means, as a creator, doing research on the cultural backgrounds of characters you are writing about, particularly if you do not belong to that culture yourself.

Q: Is there a resource you would recommend for fans to read when it comes to learning about diversity?

A: If you’re interested in learning more about Asian-American culture and diversity in particular through literature, two memoirs I read recently and enjoyed were Cathy Park Hong’s Minor Feelings and Michelle Zauner’s Crying in H-Mart. I think they give insight into the Asian-American experience and are also incredibly moving. There are lots of resources for writing out there, on Tumblr, Reddit, and elsewhere. Also, sensitivity readers, if you are a writer, are critical. 

Q: Is there a project/organization that you want to hype?

A: Given what’s been happening in Texas and in countless other states across the U.S. — horrific attacks on bodily autonomy and the right to choose — please donate to Planned Parenthood.

Q: Any cause that you want fans to know about so that they can support it?

A: Rental assistance — the Supreme Court recently struck down Biden’s eviction moratorium. If anyone you know is at risk of being evicted, please direct them to local and state rental assistance programs (a tool to search for them: https://www.consumerfinance.gov/coronavirus/mortgage-and-housing-assistance/renter-protections/find-help-with-rent-and-utilities/).

Q: Leave us with a quote or work of art that always inspires you.

A: Whenever I need to write, I’ll put on a Phoebe Bridgers song if it’s a sad section I’m writing, and if it’s a relatively happier section, I’ll put on a NIKI song. Other artists that inspire me: Mitski, Lorde, Lucy Dacus, Taylor Swift, Lily Allen, and Lizzo.

[lesenbyan]

3. what were your top five books of the year? (or of whenever.)

17. did any books surprise you with how good they were?

this year I'm not sure I even read five books. the only ones I can remember are The Calling and The Toll and neither my "jay reads x" tags or my ereaders are suggesting otherwise. BUT of all time? I'mma include series as Just One and in no particular order:

Good Omens. Listen, if you follow my blog you know this. the hyperfixation serotonin cured a month long bad depressive episode when the TV show came out. It was the first book I ever managed to reread and I own at least 4 copies. I've always been a slut for angel/demon friendships or romances and I really liked a lot of concepts in it and I already knew I was a PTerry fan when I picked it up so it got me into Neil Gaiman too

the Terre d'Ange trilogies by Jaqueline Carey. Listen. these are beautifully written books. They are also incredibly racist. The first trilogy is entirely white savior. There's a race of romani inspired people and their in universe name is literally Ts*ngani. There's a Jewish inspired people and the white protag finds their name of god to undo a curse. BUT they're also done in ways that like. You can kind of feel like she's trying to pay respects to the cultures while choking on her own foot. If you can think critically about these things and other casual fantasy racism (and that you can see from later trilogies she's trying to not be as insensitive) and they don't turn you off the writing is beautiful and all the romances feel real and there's such beauty in her world and even with the racism and the hell she goes through, Phedra never stops seeing the beauty in the world around her and I think that's beautiful (ditto Moirin and Imri kinda has to learn to see it but he absolutely gets there) oh! but a heads up- there's lots of sex. It's very sex heavy tho you can skip the scenes there's not generally any plot in them and never anything you can't context out from things happening before or after

Dragon Age: Masked Empire. I'm not going to call this book good. I'm not even going to say I like it. Almost everything about it pisses me off (esp in context of the canon of the video games.) Like in my head there's outlines and plans for a rewrite of the whole book based around a scene changing and Celene not being fucking racist when she's dating a god damned elf. (Briala!! deserves!! better!!) But the book is still a special interest and I love it dearly.

the Kingmaker Kingbreaker series by Karen Miller. I am a slut for characters who Know they're the Family Disappointment and try to wear it with irony. Gar checks that box. And Asher checks the "favorite son and thus hated by siblings" box and mash them together? Wonderful. Even more wonderful when the prince looks at this ragged fisherman and goes "hm. he doesn't respect me in the slightest. Lets give him a job I love this" and friendship blooms. Admittedly I've not finished this series bc I get deep enough in the second book and it hurts bc I kin Gar and everything goes wrong for him and my gf won't promise me he dies (as is the only way to make him stop hurting at this point) but it'd Good Shit

aaaand we'll be weeb for a mo and go with Tsubasa: Reservoir Chronicles bc CLAMP fucking slaps and I've not disliked anything they've done but Tsubasa (and xxxHolic) are their most ambitious projects I've seen and Tsubasa ties together really well despite pulling twists and turns most people wouldn't be able to pull off. Plus like. Fai's my boy. My wonderful baby boy. my traumatized baby boy. My "I'm happy and optimistic and oh so charming I'm not traumatized at all!~" baby boy

runner up: the Scythe trilogy by Neal Shusterman! Let me tell you, if you ever want to hate getting attached to characters you can't say the name of without giving context, this is the trilogy for you! In a future earth where humanity has achieved immortality (and things are mostly run by a sentient AI) Scythes are chosen to be trained and then given quotas on how many people to "glean" to keep the population at a level that can be supported but most people still live at least the equivalent of a few 80-100 year life span.But, when Scythes finish their training they shed their old name and life and pick a new name and that name has to be someone who was influential in the mortal days. You ever see my posts saying "how dare this series make me like a character named Ayn Rand"? yeah. There's a Rand. And a Marie Curie and Michael Farraday and a fucking Nietzsche (tho he's very minor). This trilogy follows a couple of kids as they're trained to be Scythes and have to fight the power and corruption in the system they're now a part of whether they wanna be or not and oh yeah, while it doesn't come up often Citra is emphatically cannonically not white.

as for being surprised at how good something was I'm not.....sure. I tend to literally only ever consume media at the suggestion of others (which is part of why I can stagnate) so I tend to expect things to at least be decent, the only exceptions being like. books I read for school. I suppose A Separate Peace by John Knowles counts here. I think it was the first time I really resonated with a character for negative actions in a not really negative way and was one of the first things me and my toxic best friend used to kinda describe our friendship (that we knew was toxic.) I've never reread it to see if it holds up to who I am now as a person, I expect it doesn't, or at least not completely, but it's still got a special spot in my heart. Helps that I got really good marks on my in class discussion on it due to being willing to admit levels of resentment that can sometimes come from being a teenage introvert friends with an extrovert.

[thenightling]

Why I don’t think 4/20 is a good “headcanon” Birthday for Aziraphale or Crowley

Recently I saw Neil Gaiman was asked if Aziraphale and Crowley from Good Omens have birthdays.  Neil said that since they were created before time was measured that they do not.   They existed before day and night were a thing, or even the planets rotating so there was no way to measure time yet.  Some fans didn’t “understand” this while a few others insisted that one or the other HAD to have 4/20 as a Birthday because it’s “Funny.” 

I know everyone has a right to their own headcanon but there are a few things that I find iffy with this “Funny.” headcanon.  

Bear with me...

1. 4/20 is an American invention. 

2.  The British don’t measure dates like that.   They do Day, Month, year. (Shortest span of time to longest, which is better than how we American do it.)  So the 4/20 gag doesn’t work.  Especially since the date was chosen to “celebrate” pot based on an old police code to mean a pot-related arrest.  Since they don’t call the date 4/20, nor would they know the police code, the joke is mostly lost.    

3.   I know this joke might work with Lucifer.   But they’re not Fox’s version of Lucifer in season 3. (I felt that season went a bit overboard with the pot jokes including the “Funny” scene of Trixie’s school calling because she handed the elderly teacher pot brownies and now she can’t feel her legs.  Even in places where pot is legal, Trixie’s detective parents would have been in serious trouble for that...)   Fox’s version of Lucifer is very different from both Aziraphale and Crowley even if they were co-created by the same man. 

4.   Pot jokes / pot celebrating is mostly done in countries where people are used to it being taboo.  That’s why a date matching the police code was chosen.  The number will gradually lose meaning over time and in a few centuries the joke is lost entirely and needs to be explained.   You might as well pick International “Wine Day” (May 25th) during the Prohibition era and be stuck with it now.  It’s really not that funny.

5.  The smoke from pot is actually really bad for house plants and has four times the tar of a normal cigarette, so it’s particularly bad for book paper too,  It slowly yellows and ages the paper, besides drying it out and making it become brittle over time.  it’s very harmful to books if smoked in enclosed spaces.  For that reason alone, Aziraphale would probably not approve.  Assuming he ever learned what the date meant...  Remember, this is the guy who thought Velvet Underground was “Beebop.” 

6.  It’s the anniversary of The Columbine massacre... 

7. Also April 20th is Hitler’s Birthday so it’s not as funny as you think to give the character, created by a Jewish man, that Birthdate for the lulz…