paige

We start with their first bitter exchange, Aziraphale’s hurt pride leading him to say,

“Look, I know you’re upset with me.” “Yep.” “But I’m willing to overlook that.” (Oh come ON, angel. Come ON.) … “Close the door on your way out.” “But... you don’t have a door.” (Priceless.)

Then, though. Then. Crowley goes after Aziraphale almost immediately. And Aziraphale doesn’t expect it. Doesn’t know, at first, that it was Crowley who’d opened the door to the bookshop. Aziraphale’s “Crowley!” once he realizes it is an exhale—startled, gentle—and it absolutely murders me, the way he says Crowley’s name.

Their confessions start before that, of course—those rough, pained, raw confessions. Confessing their loss to others—sometimes, at the most inopportune times.

“I’ve lost worse things than that.”

“Heartbroken. World broken. What’s the point of anything?”

Muriel asking Aziraphale, “Why don’t you ask your… friend friend to help?” and Aziraphale hurrying to say that no, no, it’s out of the question—with that whole journey his face goes through as Muriel persists, “He might like to see you, anyway. Last time I saw him, he wasn’t in the best way, to be honest.” Then, Aziraphale finally turns to her, focused so completely on what he hears. “He seemed a bit… lost,” she goes on—and in a heartbeat, before she’s even gone out of the room, Aziraphale is miracling himself to Earth.

We go immediately from Aziraphale saying, “I needed Muriel. I needed someone to work with me in Heaven who was… nice.” “Ah.” to Crowley’s “You weren’t here. I wasn’t going to lose this place as well.” (Please, I beg of you. Somebody make a gif of the way Crowley says it, of the way he swallows at the end of it, turns his head.)

why is no one talking about how aziraphale was really good at impersonating a demon!!!

and because s3 is so short it's so easily glossed over in the show but like. guys let's run this back

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

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.