5 hopeful messages for healing after GO3
Hello, lovely friends. I am so grateful for all the wonderful people in this fandom that are supporting each other after the finale. I've had (quite an excessive number of) inspiring converations in replies on how everyone is grieving and healing 😅 This is a compilation of those thoughts so hopefully people can find something meaningful in it. These are the things that have been helping me heal. I hope it helps you heal a little bit, too ❤️
Message 1: This is just another bad fanfiction
So. We all know exactly who was responsible for this mess. NG wrote a self-insert hero-worship shrine to Crowley/himself. NG acts like the God in GO3: a cold, all-powerful being that doesn't care about anything he's creating or how any of those people will be affected by it. NG claimed it's all a 'tribute to Terry' while twisting what he wrote and profiting off Terry's legacy. This was DESIGNED to hurt us. There's a great post by adevilputaside4me on how GO3 was emotional abuse. NG knew EXACTLY what the fans wanted for years, the south downs promise over and over, yet he chose not to give us any of it. And it's important to recognize we didn't deserve it. It was disrespectful to everyone who has devoted some portion of their life to this story. But we don't have to let an abuser control us. It's time to reject one hateful man's interpretation. Why should we accept such a poorly-written story? Why should we give ANY weight to an ending that was created from nothing but cruelty and personal gain? Why should we let such an unkind person decide what happens to the story and the love WE have carried for years???
The finale also tried to erase the story of S1/the book. Season 1 is a hopeful and fun comedy, enjoyable to watch, over and over. S3 is 100% tragedy and despair, doom and death for every character. The ending tries to tell us there is no meaning in the book/S1 since it was always headed for destruction, but we DON'T have to accept it. Why should the lesson be "destroy yourselves and start over" when it provides zero comfort and no one can even apply that in their real lives? Why accept an ending so devoid of hope? Why accept an ending that lacks all the meaningful, inspiring, and relevant themes of the book/S1???
So, I choose to reinterpret the whole mess as 'bad fanfiction' because only then does it lose its power. Burying things sometimes works, but something that painful doesn't just leave you. So by seeing it as one interpretation, it releases the obligation to forget it completely. I've read lots of fanfictions where I didn't like the characterization, story, etc, then I just go 'eh I didn't like that one' then delete the tab and move on. It can still exist for other people if they want, but we don't have to accept or engage with it. There are thousands of different interpretations out there and they all coexist for us to pick what we want from them. Nothing is canon without your permission. Take whatever you need from it and leave the rest behind. We don't have to accept something we know is cruel and wrong. Canon has always been exactly what we make of it.
I'm not saying it's easy to change your mindset overnight. This was literally designed to hurt us, so pain, grieving, etc are completely valid responses. And the 'canon' has a huge reach and impact. But the more we practice letting something go, the easier it gets. It's a habit, not a switch. Over time, it will have less and less control over us.
Message 2: Nothing can take your favorite parts of this fandom away from you
A huge source of comfort for me has been reimmersing myself in all the things I loved about Good Omens that originally brought me here. This is a lovely list by ineffabildaddy of all those pieces of the canon we haven't lost. The original story, the love we feel, the joy we've had, the meaning we've found, the connections we've made, and the hope it's given us for so many years. That will never go away. Nothing can EVER take away the impact this fandom has had on you. And for the material itself, the good thing about canon is that it isn't like normal time or memory. It sort of always happened and always will. Even if some new interpretation tries to take it away, the original material always exists for us to go back to, whenever we want, over and over again. The 'canon' universe may have disappeared, but the book/S1 will exist for the fans forever, so it can never truly be destroyed. I think it was a post by hellogoodomens where I first saw the line "It starts, as it will end, with season 1." If that is canon to you, then that's what Your Good Omens™ will be, for the rest of your life.
This is not the first time a show I'm into has ended badly (I'm sure many can relate). But I try not to let the bad endings drive me away from what drew me there in the first place. It is my love for the source material that got me to stay and that love for the source material prevents me from ever leaving. The reason this upset so many of us is BECAUSE of how much we loved the original story. The ending disrespected us all, but it's so important to find ways to reclaim the joy we originally found here. Nothing can FORCE you to enjoy something less. I loved the book/S1 before, and I still do now. Just encouraging you not to let one person's terrible opinion take something away from you that brings you meaning and love and joy. If you have been in any way moved by that love and that story, who is anyone else to say it isn't real? Who is ANYONE else to say that story is over, or that the love you felt no longer exists????
Message 3: Fanworks can be even more valid than canon
I think endings like these are designed to push a fandom down, to make us feel defeated and depressed and powerless. So that the writers (NG) feel like they have some kind of 'authority' or 'story ownership' over us that we don't. But the thing that is pushing me forward, is remembering how much power we actually have as fans. Because in any form, writers create reality and there will ALWAYS be more of us (fan creators) than there are of them (canon writers). The depth and possibilities of fan content will always rival that of canon. Compared to the finale, I've read literally hundreds of AziraCrow fanfictions that were more in-character, more respectful, and so clearly written by someone who LOVES them both and how they love each other. If the fans can write the story with more talent and justice than the actual creator, then the fans' stories are what I'm going to believe in. NG wrote from his ego and greed; we write from our hope and love. Therefore, I believe our versions are MORE valid and impactful, BECAUSE we created them from love instead of spite and cruelty.
In terms of quantity, the fans have always imagined SO MUCH MORE of the story than the 'official' writers or 'official' canon ever could. If you look at the time and effort spent (79,000 AziraCrow fanfictions on AO3!!!), the fans have more ownership and power over the material than canon ever did. This is as much OUR story as it is the creators.' Who are they to tell us how OUR story ends?? Who can tell us they don't live happily ever after when tens of thousands of fanfictions disagree??? And if fan content has moved us this strongly (sometimes even MORE than canon has), and if the volume of content is virtually endless, if it celebrates the story and the characters more lovingly than canon does, who can tell us the fan content isn't real? Who could DARE to tell us that it isn't just as valid, and perhaps even more so, than canon is ?????
At its core, there is literally no objective truth here. Good Omens is a made-up story and all of these characters are made-up and canon is just as made-up as fanfiction is. I've said it before and I'll say it 6000 more times: The only difference between canon and fanfiction is the budget. This fandom has existed for decades and created so many wonderful things and relationships—all because of our love for these characters. Tens of thousands of versions of them being happy are NOT worth less than one canon version of them being destroyed. We, as fans, have so much more POWER than we think. Every single one of us has helped to create their story, and every single one of us are such a beautiful and necessary part of this fandom. The strongest power in the universe isn’t God. It is us. The fans. The story can never be destroyed as long as we continue to create it for ourselves.
Message 4: Love cannot be destroyed
I think for many of us, the ending of this particular story has struck so much deeper and been so much more painful than we were expecting. I don't think I've ever been this devastated from the ending of a tv show. And I think I realized that the reason this hurts so much is because we love so deeply. We love them and we love this story. We all represent the love Aziraphale and Crowley have felt and wanted to express to each other for 6000 years. We carry them in all of us. NG tried to tell us that the happiness we wanted for them is impossible. The entire universe tried to tell us that our dreams will never be realized. But does anything that happened in the finale change how much we care about these characters?? Can anyone tell us that they don't love each other, and that love isn't enough to keep them together?? Can anyone say the love we poured into thousands of fanfictions is lost forever??? I think not. NO ONE can take that love away from us. Their love will always exist no matter what did or didn’t happen on screen. You cannot destroy an idea. You cannot destroy love. Beyond any other versions of them, Aziraphale and Crowley‘s love—their happily ever after—will live on for eternity in all of us.
And in the end, this was so painful because of how much we cared. We wanted to see the love inside our hearts reflected in the love of our characters on screen. There is certainly a lot we were all hoping for that we never got to experience. But at the same time, I think the pain from the finale doesn't have to lessen the love we feel. We can remember all the good things we have in Good Omens AND feel the pain of what we deserved in the finale, and neither of them have to invalidate the other. It gives me a lot of peace and comfort to know that as long as we love these characters, that love will never die. We will always have that feeling, the meaning and relationships and richness and everything else they brought into our lives. We get to carry that with us forever. And we get to share that with each other to help us all heal.
Message 5: We know the real themes of good omens (better than the finale/NG ever did)
Given everything I've said, I think these messages can bring moments of great peace and comfort, but only because we experience moments of great anger and loss. Sometimes switching back and forth, or at the same time. Which is all completely valid and why I'm so grateful for everyone else sharing their own grief and dissatisfaction. Because the anger and loss reminds us how much we cherish the original story. All the unique ways in which we love it are what is giving us all these unique and detailed frustrations with it. I see it as a million different unique and powerful acts of love toward the story of Good Omens. And everyone who is still creating and sharing that sentiment is keeping alive the true spirit of the story. The Real Themes of Good Omens™, if you will. Because we understand that better than the finale/NG ever did. I have always taken comfort in the true humanism and hope of Good Omens, and remember that however hard the finale tried to break us—to tell us that love is impossible and hope has no reward—WE KNOW BETTER.
Therefore, please enjoy a summary of The Real Themes of Good Omens™ as a representation of the best and most hopeful take-aways from this story. It's sort of based on this analysis post I made except more general on the themes themselves.
Human incarnate: Humanity is messy and flawed and wonderful and the true beauty of it comes from all of that existing together. A little boy saved the world using only his humanity and his love. Not because he was perfect. But because he was human.
Everyone has free will: Meaning, everyone has the power of self-determination and humans get to decide for themselves exactly who they want to be. Free will is described as the defining characeristic of humanity, that our uniqueness and freedom of self is what makes us who we are.
There are no sides, only choices: No one is truly good or truly evil. Everyone has the power to be kind or cruel. We all make choices every day that make us the people that we are. There is nuance and depth in every choice and every person. We have the power to make the world better and choose what kind of person we become.
Love conquers all: The love and hope you feel toward people, the world, and the future is so powerful. Our love for others can randically change and heal. Our love for the world ensures it lasts long enough to have a future in it. The only way anything ever gets better is because people have enough love and hope to make it so. The love you give is never wasted, the love you feel will never die.
Anything of value can be fixed: Everything that's worth anything can be fixed without destroying it. Everything deserves to be saved because it all has intrinsic value. Every person deserves to exist exactly as they are, and no one needs to remove any trauma or any other part of themselves for things to get better. No one needs to change who they are to experience freedom and love.
In the true Good Omens story, Aziraphale and Crowley loved the world, and us—as humanity—enough to save it. Terry Pratchett is confirmed to have written most of the original book and is the one who INSISTED that everyone be revived at the end. That no one should die so Adam could live. The story, as we know it, is largely a Terry Pratchett creation, and anything NG did on his own could never hope to capture the same spirit and respect and care that Terry put into it. And so we cherish the hope and love from Terry in this story. No matter what the finale tries to tell us, we know what Good Omens and Terry Pratchett were always saying. The world is loved and we are the world. So we are all loved too.
I know a lot of people are suffering after the finale, and we as a fandom have been suffering for years now. We have been in the absolute trenches of AziraCrow hopes and dreams and endless waiting and failed promises but what has always kept me going is the love in this story and the love in the fans. In honor of these characters, in honor of our fanatical ancestors, in honor of each other, we will continue the story and the love.
I hope this helps you remember the best things about Good Omens and all the meaning it will continue to bring to our lives. The story is never over as long as we keep it in our hearts. And all the nightingales therein.
