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Severance + "Wait For Me II" from Hadestown

Heated Rivalry x The Song of Aquilles

musings on memory

for the very first time, aziraphale fully understands that there is no fundamental difference between angels and demons, that those who fell aren't evil, that they didn't fail at being good.

that there's nothing to fix.

the entire time we've known them, aziraphale has been stuck in his black and white thinking, terrified of being cast out, of no longer being on the "right" side. crowley on the other hand always knew sides were arbitrary, there's no innate quality that makes someone an angel or a demon, it's not even their choices. they're characters in her book, they cannot escape the ink on the pages.

acknowledging that crowley was the best of them means accepting that crowley is perfect the way he is. it means that he loves him for his past and his present, that he understands how he views the world now. he is finally seeing the universe through crowley's eyes without hesitation, he's not turning away like he has quite literally done so many times before.

an artist, a scientist, a cosmic engineer—none of those are contradictory, they're one and the same. saying crowley was the best of the angels doesn't negate him being perfect as a demon or "private individual". he's all of those and more.

for millennia, aziraphale struggled to balance two opposing views of crowley: the starmaker and the demon.

all demons are evil, they have to be for angels to be good, but the crowley he knows isn't evil. so either his perception of crowley is wrong (impossible, it can't be, it can't be) or the celestial dichotomy is meaningless (it can't be, it has to matter, he cannot question god). his behaviour was inconsistent, dependent on circumstances, both beliefs true and false at the same time.

he just wanted to do the right thing but didn't know how. god lays it out for him, though at that point it's just the final tiny nudge, most of the work was already done. listing his sins which an angel should not have, and yet there he is, the second best angel she ever had. aziraphale can hold both beliefs in his mind now without struggling, without fear, without caution.

finally, he knows how to do the right thing, how to love crowley without feeling like it means losing himself.

Yes, because the Washington state government activated like a sleeper-cell and ruthlessly, systematically hunted them down and annihilated them.

“Y2K came to nothing amirite?”

Yes because an army of software engineers working around the clock, losing sleep, and busting ass till the last minute prevented it from happening.

“Remember the hole in the ozone layer?”

You mean the one that was fixed through rigorous world wide government action?

One of the root problems of our society is a refusal or inability by media to articulate that all those “it’s gonna be an apocalypse” disasters were not disasters because we collectively did something about them.

The good news is this is actually quite correctable. I maintain my firm belief that we as humans are capable of solving almost all of our problems, when we decide to do so.

And I still think that’s going to happen. I don’t know when or how, but I do know that abandoning hope won’t help bring it about.

I shall jump straight to the point: people online did NOT seem pleased with Aziraphale and Crowley's last kiss. However, unlike them, i believe this was a deeply meaningful, touching and romantic moment for us to see and i thought I'd give my two cents about it too.

For starters: this was an APOLOGY kiss. That's right people, not a simple "I love you" or "I like you back" kiss but a PROPER apology kiss. Aziraphale reaches for it first, it's the first thing that comes to his mind when he realizes this might actually just be the last time they ever get to see each other. He wants to start over, do it better, and in order to do that he needs Crowley's forgiveness for everything that has happened in the past few years for things to finally be RIGHT.

He also touches his lips the same way he did when he first got kissed by Crowley at the end of season 2, except this time he does it to "give it back". It simbolizes Crowley's feelings being reciprocated, a tender act of apology for not kissing him back the first time but finally doing it right this time. He no longer thinks of that touch to his lips with sorrow or hatred or confusion, but rather as an answer, as something beautiful, as the love he's always felt but could never find the courage to openly reciprocate until now.

As for a possible additional meaning, here in Europe a kiss given by the fingertips can symbolize many things. One of them is "farewell" (and given the context of this scene i might add this kiss was the perfect choice), it's a sign of respect and profound admiration, it's a tender act to say goodbye in a polite and innocent way: it's pure, just like them.

Additionally, in my country, a kiss by the fingertips is most commonly known as a religious act, a sign of devotion and adoration done to the feet of sacred statues and holy sculptures; it symbolizes complete submission to our deepest love for the holy and to surrender to the greatness of the saint we behold, to give them our complete and undoubted faith.

it's loyal, It's devoted and faithful, It's endlessly filled with love and respect, it's playful and innocent but also clever and bold: it represents Aziraphale PERFECTLY. ❤️

i believe we were very lucky to be able to see the different ways these two characters express their love for one another, we get to see how Crowley expresses his love through a kiss and we get to see how Aziraphale does it in his own way. They both come straight from the heart, both dripping with need and affection and love, but each in their own, unique ways.

Like we as the audience are lead to believe from the start that Crowley is this jaded, cynical little fucker who’s fond of one person and one person only. The typical “nothing in this world matters except you” grumpy who doesn’t give a shit about a universe that rejected him. Aziraphale, likewise, is pretty easily seen as the bigger picture guy, it’s obvious he loves Crowley deeply but it’s the mission of the larger world, the good of the people, that draws his time and energy- he chooses that responsibility more than Crowley. These are the roles we’ve seen them play and the archetypes we’ve kinda locked them in to. It matches with their grumpy vs sunshine attitudes, their aesthetics etc

Then in s2 we started noticing some cracks in it. We’ve met Angel Crowley who is a beautiful sunshiny dreamer who cares so deeply about the gorgeous world around him. Aziraphale starts to get a bit wrapped up in his own self interest from time to time, caring more about his bookshop or Crowley or even Jim than his larger mission. These little moments added depth to their characters, but ultimately didn’t shake our ideas of them. But THEN-

When they were asked by God what they would save, everything in the world has been stripped from them. The universe is lost- all that remains is each other and the final question of “what in the whole of existence matters to you most?” And we think we know what they’ll say, we think the way we’ve been taught all this time- Crowley is the selfish lover and Aziraphale is the heartbroken rejector.

But instead we meet their cores. We meet the truest stripped down versions of themselves and we learn the truth. Aziraphale picks Crowley. His lover, his life, the being that completes him. He makes the selfish, or loving, choice, no matter what it means to the world. And Crowley- Crowley is crying for the world. He is so utterly helplessly desperate for humanity to have their chance that he’s willing to throw away everything out of his sheer love for them. We’ve met the old part of him again, the artist and the lover, the selfless one he’s had within him all along. And for Aziraphale we’ve finally met the lover in him too, the one who’s finally willing to put his love for Crowley above all else.

Michael crying in the behind the scenes of Good Omens 3.

because THAT is who he is. he loves his stars and creations, he loves humanity, he loves the messiness, the good and the bad, the ugly and the beautiful, he loves watching them. he showed jesus all the kingdoms of the world to share that love with someone who he knows already felt it.

in the end, they made that choice together. it's a choice they have made before, over and over, saving humanity over themselves. no god, no angels, no demons, no thousands of years of suffering for all the millions of eternal beings.

personally, i choose to believe that god's last gift to them was integrating them into the fabric of the new universe, so they will find each other in every lifetime. but without anyone watching, without any plan behind it, without senseless suffering, without creating stars just to destroy them.

Life is short, though I keep this from my children.

[Qifrey lifting up Coco]

Life is short, and I’ve shortened mine

in a thousand delicious, ill-advised ways,

[Qifrey and Olruggio as children]

a thousand deliciously ill-advised ways

I’ll keep from my children.

[Qifrey alone in his tower, and getting hit with lightning as he experiments with the ink bottle]

The world is at least

fifty percent terrible, and that’s a conservative

estimate, though I keep this from my children.

[A young Luluci running away from abstract, shadowy grabbing hands]

For every bird there is a stone thrown at a bird.

[Qifrey in the waterlogged coffin]

For every loved child, a child broken, bagged,

sunk in a lake. Life is short and the world

[Engendale with his slimy brimmed hat]

is at least half terrible, and for every kind

stranger, there is one who would break you,

though I keep this from my children.

[Qifrey with a peaceful expression, a herd of cattle, flying birds, and a shot of a traveling cart from behind with Qifrey and his apprentices inside]

I am trying

to sell them the world.

[The atelier and the field around it]

Any decent realtor,

walking you through a real shithole, chirps on

about good bones: This place could be beautiful,

right?

[Qifrey showing Coco the windowway in a shower of flower petals.]

You could make this place beautiful.

Rocky holding a xenonite model of Grace // Grace holding a xenonite model of Rocky

Project Hail Mary (2026) dir. Phil Lord and Christopher Miller