Anne_Wind

(If hell has that ability all along. If miracles are actually doled out by Head Office instead of just, in innate ability that supernatural entities have. Then WHY THE FUCK didn't hell do that in S2 after Crowley defected the first time?? It makes no sense)

--but i am not done complaining about this. If your plot required Crowley to be without his powers for a period of time, ALL you had to do to explain it was emotional turmoil. Like in Spiderman 2, when his heartbreak and self-doubt makes him temporarily lose his spidey-powers.

It's a familiar story beat, but it WORKS, and most importantly, the characters can solve the problem by overcoming their emotional struggle in some way. The "external" plot is just a mirror image of the "internal" one (e.g., the emotional journey of the characters).

Then Crowley reuniting with Aziraphale, reconciling with him, would solve this plot point AND provide some catharsis. A visible, tangible way of showing what the characters are dealing with internally.

It's like...it would have been such an easy writing hack to make the story a little more satisfying. And it seems so fucking obvious??? Right?

But nah. We don't have to explain, resolve, or think too hard about the implications of the story.

Make it make sense.

@annewind Exactly! That would have been so much better than what we got. I think that if they had actually saved the world with a true kiss of love, which (perhaps accidentally) performed a great miracle similar to the one we saw in Season 2 (by the way, that miracle was pink, and there were little hearts visible in it. It was most likely so powerful because of the strength of their love and their desire to protect), it would have been, at the very least, very good and perfectly fitting for the tone of the show.

Saving the world with a kiss of love? That's absurd! Just as absurd as the fact that, in Season 1, the world was saved by an eleven-year-old boy and his friends through the power of faith, love for life's little earthly joys, and free will! And that is exactly what Good Omens is as a story. A good half of what happens in it is absurd, yet it works perfectly both for the audience and within the logic of the story's world.

Good Omens became beloved by me and many others because it contains very few of the tired clichés and tropes we're used to seeing. Usually, the world is saved through battles, losses, and so on, but not here, here, children saved the world simply through their love for it, their love for the world itself! And there were no losses, because everyone who had died came back to life.

A first kiss in fiction is usually portrayed as something romantic and sweet, but not in Good Omens, the first kiss is full of desperation, bitterness, and pain.

I'd always known that demons are destined to suffer at the time of the Second Coming, but only now did the Metatron's offer to make Crowley an angel again take on a whole new meaning for me.

"If you agree, you can save your friend, your lover, from unimaginable, eternal torment. And if you don't, then you already know the consequences."

Of course, at the time of that conversation Aziraphale didn't yet know that the Second Coming was what Heaven had planned. But I think that was the moment he began to suspect that something was very wrong, and decided to take Crowley with him for his own safety. He didn't know how serious it was yet, but he already understood that they weren't going to get away with things so easily this time.

"I don't think you understand what I'm offering you."

"I don't think you understand that I'm offering this because I'm trying to save you, you stubborn fool."

"I need you!"

"I need you! I don't want to lose you! Come with me, I'm begging you. It's not safe for you here!"

And the moment the Metatron explicitly reveals that the plan is the Second Coming, everything is written across Aziraphale's face: realization, fear, panic, despair, and a desperate need to protect both Crowley and the Earth. No one escapes the Second Coming unchanged, and demons are condemned to eternal suffering. Aziraphale knows that. In that instant, the entire puzzle finally falls into place in his mind.

That's why he glances back.

"I have to leave in order to save you. I can't let this happen. I'm terrified, but I won't let you, or everything we love, be destroyed. I don't know how I'm going to stop it, but I need you to trust me. Please, trust me."

When Crowley wants to protect Aziraphale, Crowley goes to him.

When Aziraphale wants to protect Crowley, Aziraphale leaves.

The results are here, whether you voted or not, it’s too late now (it's always too late).

Let’s analyze these numbers (I’ll try to be as objective as possible). There’s almost 1600 votes for the poll about the film as a whole and more than 1000 for the ending of the film, so there’s a wide sample of people in both polls. As a whole, we can say that these numbers are not good news for amazon & co. 

A staggering 50% of the voters didn’t like or even hated the finale as a whole, with quite a lot more hate (28,1%) than dislike (21,9%) (we are a passionate fandom). 

Almost a quarter (23%) of the fans are not sure yet what to think about it.

And, obviously (this is maths after all), the other quarter (25,9%) has positive reviews. Almost 1 out of 5 people liked it (19,6%) while only a few really loved it as a whole (6,3%).

Now, if we see the results for the ending of the finale, the numbers change a bit (thanks to @fellshish for the addition of this poll, which is quite interesting). 

Almost the same number of people who loved the film as a whole also loved its ending (6.9%). However there’s a big dip in people liking the ending (11,7%), which brings us to 18,6% of people having positive feelings about the ending of the finale. That’s 7,4% less people having positive feelings towards the ending than the film as a whole, and most of that descent comes out of the ones liking it, rather than the ones loving the film (who are almost the same number in both polls). 

About the voters with negative feelings towards the ending, we can see there’s an overwhelming 57,5%, with most of them hating that ending (43,4%) (what’s not to hate? Sorry, objectivity!) and just 14,1% who disliked it. Again, we are passionate people in this fandom. 

Finally there’s almost the same number of people in both polls who haven’t reached a decision over the ending yet (23,9%).

It’s very interesting that more than 7% of voters are positive towards the film as a whole but hate the ending (there is much more hate than dislike in the ending poll). There’s many people too who dislike the film but hate the ending.

Finally, the addition of @thebright1 had a little over 400 votes. Most of the voters (53,2%) found sense in s2e6 final 15 before season 3 aired. About 2 out of 5 voters (43%) haven’t understand the meaning yet, and an astonishing 3,9% have found its meaning after watching go3 (I’m astonished because s3 didn’t deal with any of the issues the F15 brought up, imho)

In conclusion we can say that only a quarter of voters are happy with the finale, and that is even less for the ending, with just 7,4% of voters who liked or loved it. That said, we could argue that the film is disliked in general and its ending in particular is hated by most of the people who voted on this poll. 

All in all, we could say the fandom is divided, yes, but we are not so far away and the edges of the division are a bit blurry.

Thanks for voting, reblogging, and commenting on this poll.

My guess is he wanted the Apocalypse back on track and the biggest threat to that was Aziraphale and Crowley on Earth working together. So he gets Aziraphale into Heaven, sparks a fight between the two of them and distracts Aziraphale with the whole Second Coming thing, letting him believe he is succeeding in preventing an apocalypse by chasing it into universal happiness. In the meantime - the Metatron can execute his real plan presumably with the Book of Life.

Also in season 3 it seemed it would be easy for someone as high ranking as the metatron to use the Book of Life for end of the world purposes, why couldn't the metatron just walk upstairs and destroy the book (maybe I really miss something here). And neither Crowley or Aziraphale would have stood in his way as neither would have known. But your explanation does work if we ignore season 3 and assume destroying the Book of Life would be harder than that.

How did we not notice from the very beginning that Aziraphale does NOT believe he can actually change anything in Heaven? Because if he did, he would’ve agreed the moment the Metatron made the offer. The Metatron would not have needed to keep pressuring him, bringing up the fact that he had “watched” him, that he knew about his collaboration with Crowley — something that could clearly be used as leverage against both of them. Aziraphale doesn’t even consider proposing himself for the position for a single second.

How did the WRITERS not understand this?

Just pause at the moment where the Metatron starts going on about how Aziraphale is such an amazing leader and how he should be in charge of projects of unimaginable scale. There is no joy or excitement in Aziraphale’s eyes at the possibility of changing Heaven. He is TERRIFIED. He is panicking. No one has put a gun to his head yet, but he can already see it being loaded.

He immediately tries to pull away, to step back. He says he doesn’t want to return to Heaven. He starts talking about “where would I even get my coffee?” (And honestly, coffee here may symbolize freedom = Crowley, especially remembering the beginning of season 2, where Crowley is the one ordering it for him.) He literally swallows hard, like there’s a lump in his throat. He glances away for a second.

And when the Metatron mentions that he reviewed Aziraphale’s “past exploits,” thanks to Michael Sheen, the absolute master of micro-expressions, you can actually see the corner of Aziraphale’s mouth twitch downward slightly, his gaze growing even more strained, his eyebrows pulling tighter together. The second the Metatron starts talking about knowing that Aziraphale worked with Crowley, Aziraphale’s eyes start darting around.

He presses his lips together. His jaw shifts forward, exactly like during his argument with Crowley at the beginning of season 2 and in the end of season 2 after the kiss, which signals tension. He completely curls into himself.

Let’s talk about this moment as well. Aziraphale looks with fear in his eyes toward the bookshop where Crowley is, when the Metatron says, “Go and tell your friend the good news.” There is no smile on his face. Then he looks at the Metatron with a smile, but it is clearly a fake one. Then, when Aziraphale is already walking toward the bookshop and looks in our direction, we see that there is still no smile on his face. He is scared; he understands that they are in enormous danger. And it seems, in particular, that Crowley is. We can hear his breathing trembling, I don’t know how else to describe it. He literally sighs. And we can fucking hear it.

Does that look like the face of someone who sincerely believes this is his chance to change the system? The face of someone who truly believes that Crowley will accept this offer? Who genuinely and blindly believes that Heaven can be changed, and that Crowley will be happy to become an angel? It is obvious that he is trying to pull himself together; he understands that the Metatron is plotting something, and that he does not actually have any choice.

(Also, look at Aziraphale’s face in the first screenshot. I don’t think I’ve ever seen Aziraphale that terrified before.)

Let’s recall that the Metatron told him not to rush his decision, but the moment Crowley left the shop, the Metatron immediately came back in, asked, “How did he take it?”, and then, without even asking what decision Aziraphale had made, says, “Ready to start?”

And both the Metatron and Aziraphale understand that the moment the Metatron mentioned Crowley, the same gun that had only just begun to be loaded when the Metatron first offered Aziraphale the position of Supreme Archangel was now pressed directly to the angel’s temple.

I think he knew the Metatron was watching at that moment, for the following reason:

When Michael essentially announced Aziraphale’s death sentence, namely, being erased from the Book of Life, the Metatron was not physically inside the bookshop. But the moment he walks in, Aziraphale realizes that even without being present in the room, the Metatron is still capable of hearing everything, bebecaus Metatron immediately starts saying that Michael is not authorized to make such decisions. And you can actually see that realization on Aziraphale’s face.

That’s why, in the shot where he walks away from the Metatron back into the bookshop and we see his face, he is no longer smiling. Then, when he returns to Crowley, he forces the smile back on, because he knows the Metatron could be listening or watching at any moment.

Also, when Crowley says “good luck” to him and starts to walk away, Aziraphale says (shouts) in desperation:

“Good luck..? Crowley! Crowley, come back!”

It feels like a complete thought, a complete sentence. But then he adds, as if he suddenly realizes that what he just said could be interpreted by the Metatron in a way that could put them both in danger:

“…to Heaven!...”

How did we not notice from the very beginning that Aziraphale does NOT believe he can actually change anything in Heaven? Because if he did, he would’ve agreed the moment the Metatron made the offer. The Metatron would not have needed to keep pressuring him, bringing up the fact that he had “watched” him, that he knew about his collaboration with Crowley — something that could clearly be used as leverage against both of them. Aziraphale doesn’t even consider proposing himself for the position for a single second.

How did the WRITERS not understand this?

Just pause at the moment where the Metatron starts going on about how Aziraphale is such an amazing leader and how he should be in charge of projects of unimaginable scale. There is no joy or excitement in Aziraphale’s eyes at the possibility of changing Heaven. He is TERRIFIED. He is panicking. No one has put a gun to his head yet, but he can already see it being loaded.

He immediately tries to pull away, to step back. He says he doesn’t want to return to Heaven. He starts talking about “where would I even get my coffee?” (And honestly, coffee here may symbolize freedom = Crowley, especially remembering the beginning of season 2, where Crowley is the one ordering it for him.) He literally swallows hard, like there’s a lump in his throat. He glances away for a second.

And when the Metatron mentions that he reviewed Aziraphale’s “past exploits,” thanks to Michael Sheen, the absolute master of micro-expressions, you can actually see the corner of Aziraphale’s mouth twitch downward slightly, his gaze growing even more strained, his eyebrows pulling tighter together. The second the Metatron starts talking about knowing that Aziraphale worked with Crowley, Aziraphale’s eyes start darting around.

He presses his lips together. His jaw shifts forward, exactly like during his argument with Crowley at the beginning of season 2 and in the end of season 2 after the kiss, which signals tension. He completely curls into himself.

Let’s talk about this moment as well. Aziraphale looks with fear in his eyes toward the bookshop where Crowley is, when the Metatron says, “Go and tell your friend the good news.” There is no smile on his face. Then he looks at the Metatron with a smile, but it is clearly a fake one. Then, when Aziraphale is already walking toward the bookshop and looks in our direction, we see that there is still no smile on his face. He is scared; he understands that they are in enormous danger. And it seems, in particular, that Crowley is. We can hear his breathing trembling, I don’t know how else to describe it. He literally sighs. And we can fucking hear it.

Does that look like the face of someone who sincerely believes this is his chance to change the system? The face of someone who truly believes that Crowley will accept this offer? Who genuinely and blindly believes that Heaven can be changed, and that Crowley will be happy to become an angel? It is obvious that he is trying to pull himself together; he understands that the Metatron is plotting something, and that he does not actually have any choice.

(Also, look at Aziraphale’s face in the first screenshot. I don’t think I’ve ever seen Aziraphale that terrified before.)

Let’s recall that the Metatron told him not to rush his decision, but the moment Crowley left the shop, the Metatron immediately came back in, asked, “How did he take it?”, and then, without even asking what decision Aziraphale had made, says, “Ready to start?”

And both the Metatron and Aziraphale understand that the moment the Metatron mentioned Crowley, the same gun that had only just begun to be loaded when the Metatron first offered Aziraphale the position of Supreme Archangel was now pressed directly to the angel’s temple.

I distanced myself from the Good Omens fandom lately, and i’m sure this is not a surprise to many of you reading this post. i want to be very clear: neil gaiman had a lot to do with it. I didn’t want to show my support for a show made by an abuser. And yes, i see and hear people claiming Good Omens belonged to the people and the fans, but realistically the rights and royalties belong to ng, and participating in the promotion of it all just felt wrong to me. So, my choice was to love my favorite characters of all time from afar, and for free: reading and writing and engaging with fanworks.

That being said: I really fucking hated the fuckass movie. I wish i didn’t see it, i wish the show stopped at season 1, and if you liked it, good for you. I did not, and I want to tell you why. Feel free to ignore me.

Is that a hole in your plot?

The writing was bad. Content aside, what I wanted for this characters aside, my feelings on ng and the other writers begrudgingly aside, it was a badly written piece of television. I counted too many plot holes in the first thirty minutes aside, but i will point out what felt the biggest to me.

The opening flashback: it was hot, and that was it. Where does it fit in the timeline we already know about? It doesn’t fit with their first meeting as angels, nor with their first meeting on the wall. Why keep rewriting the first time they met? We already know how they met, twice, and besides the sexual tension, what did this new flashback bring to the story? Arguably, nothing; another case of bad wigs, maybe, nothing more. Perhaps, another instance of contradicting the book and the first ever episode: “it starts, as it will end, with a garden.” Well, apparently not.

Skipping all that nonsense in the middle (Aziraphale leaving crowley in the alley? Jesus having two lines after being promoted as the main focus of the season? The book of life burning not immediately snapping aziraphale and crowley away? Crowley having no reaction to Aziraphale confessing undying devotion to him?) let’s get to the very end. The decision the main characters come to is to erase themselves and all traces of their universe to create a new, fresh universe where angels and demons do not exist, and free will reigns above all. Two minutes after, the movie presents us two human versions of said characters meeting again, 13 something billion of years later, falling in love and all that good stuff. What we are supposed to take away from this is: they were destined to meet and fall in love in every universe, no matter the circumstances. Where is the free will in a soulmate trope? Where is the free will in this condoning of predeterminism? If they were meant to be, then free will isn’t ruling this universe. Fate is. Was it all for nothing then?

Who are these characters?

The characters fell flat. The side characters were useless at best, annoying at worst. Michael going rogue was predictable, Jesus was a nothingburger, the entire Whickber Street ensemble was just… not relevant. And the main characters were subjected to the worst character assasination my eyes have ever seen. The worst of it? That entire scene with God and Satan: Crowley never once looking at Aziraphale, not even at the most heartwrenching confession; Aziraphale talking about Crowley being amazing in the past tense; Crowley choosing something that’s not Aziraphale, after his whole entire monologue and character arc in season 2; Aziraphale accepting complete erasure after fighting 3 years in heaven against it, just because lobotomized Crowley wanted it. What the fuck?

Also, Asa and Anthony. They were cute. Adorable, really. Two cute old men (with bad hair, but i’m willing to move past this) falling in love and getting married. Cute cute cute. Who the fuck were they? They were not Aziraphale and Crowley: they were an English librarian and a Scottish professor, not the angel and demon I loved and yearned and was obsessed with for years. And again, if it were them, why weren’t they recognizable at all? In all the human AUs i enjoyed the characters were perfectly recognizable: Crowley was still moody and a bit rough around the edges, yet soft and almost overwhelming in his loveliness; Aziraphale was still witty and smart and a bit (or a lot) of a snob, yet kind and warm and loving to a fault. These two human beings were cute, but they weren’t them. Who are these characters?

The winner takes it all, the loser has to fall

The loser, in this case, being queer people everywhere. Put your daggers down and let me tell you this: it is not acephobic to think a kiss was needed in this finale.

You’re right when you say that physicality is not needed to show love and connection; in this case, however, physicality between them was already a given – they already kissed. Out of desperation, out of despair, out of sadness, but they kissed. They crossed that bridge and their relationship jumped to the other side of strictly platonic and now, for a simple rule of balance and equity in pieces of media, the ‘ugly kiss’ desperately (pardon the repetition) needed a ‘good kiss’. The finger thing could have been cute, but it lacked the depth and emotional weight to carry the conclusion of a third act.

If that was all the goobye we are going to get, it is simply not enough: they wrapped up 6000 years of history (a history they previously spend two seasons fighting tooth and nail to not erase, mind you) with a finger kiss and an awkward smile. Am i supposed to say it was good?

Also, implying that people wanted some physical intimacy between two queer characters (after it was already established) just to satisfy some sort of fetish is too disrespectful to even comment about.

A straight couple would have gotten a teary goodbye, an explicit I love you and a kiss before turning to dust. The gays get buried — or erased from existence, in this case.

Human incarnate, or the lack of it

All in all, the finale felt cheap, flat, soulless. A comedy desperately grasping onto the physycality of it but not really committing to the bit, a love story relying on the chemistry between the mains without letting them have a single meaningful conversation, a show about humanity reducing human beings to comedic reliefs, over-the-top antagonists and afterthoughts easy to erase with a snap of two fingers.

And no, no one got a second chance: Adam rewrote the universe for nothing, Aziraphale tried to fix Heaven for nothing, Crowley asked questions for nothing. It was all erased anyway, and the ones who get to live simply aren’t them. Some version of them that was paradoxically destined to meet, going against the free will they gave up everything for.

Good Omens was always about knowing your fate, and choosing your own anyway. Loving despite, loving because of, loving even if. The love between to immortal beings being what kept everything together. The characters I knew and loved would have kept choosing each other and their world, not another new one, despite everything, because of history, and even if it was the hardest thing.

They loved their world, their Earth, and deserved to live in it. On their own side. Just the two of them.

So I really didn’t like the movie, and the message it sent. I did not find it bittersweet, just bleak. And this is why.

Going forward, I’ll finish every fic I started. After, I don’t know. It may take me a while.

(The rewritten, more honest and straightforward version)

*About how a philosophical comedy-drama was Bait-And-Switched as if it was a fated tragedy all along*

I suppose we could argue that there were Clues there for a tragedy. With hindsight, we can find a few -- especially squashed in-between the adorable comic clips in the GO3 trailer. But that's where it all goes pear-shaped.

This new Good Omens concept of fated tragedy and final self-sacrifice was silently lurking behind a HUGE 7-year pile of sweet, encouraging, and comedic moments (topped off by a Muppetmobile Ice Cream Bentley!). There was drama and heartache and danger, sure, but an overall sense of playfulness -- and most of all, HOPE.

We were told it was the planned conclusion of the beloved book, where Crowley is an optimist. and they are ALREADY a couple signaling their devotion under the radar. Where summers never end for a reformed Antichrist, and Crowley's vehicle finally plays what he wants to listen to, and a Professional Descendent can choose not to be one, and Warlock will get 39 flavors of ice cream. And even Greasy Johnson, that forgotten 3rd baby from the convent, will get his happy ending.

Because there never was an apple that wasn't worth the trouble you got into for eating it. (Everybody Lives!)

That's where the story began. And ended, once upon time. That's where the continuation seemed to be going. We were justified in expecting it. Were they giving us smoke and mirrors all along? Was the 3 Card Monte meant for us?

No one goes to see Shakespeare's Hamlet or Richard II (or Romeo & Juliet) expecting a joyful Happy Ending. If we sit down to watch Dystopian Sci-Fi, we know the protagonist will be sacrificing something, maybe even their own survival. We bought the ticket. We're braced for whatever comes.

We watch movies and shows and theatre because, well -- LIFE. It's hard enough already. Sometimes we're simply there for the laughter and love and beautiful storytelling and a much-needed escape.

All good stories reflect Life in some way. If it's a really good one, we see ourselves in it. Stories help us laugh when we need Joy, or cry when our own tears are silently locked inside.

We invest in the characters, who to hate and who to love. The ones that deeply relate to us can help us know more about who we are and who we're trying to be.

We choose the story we need in our lives. We chose Our Ineffables.

(more about Apples and that lovely thing called Free Will, under the cut)