It’d be a real feather in your wing.

I’ve seen some speculating that he’s Raphael, purely based on Crowley’s flippant remark about creating a nebula and the fact that Raphael was one of the archangels that help construct the cosmos. Another alternative theory I’ve seen proposed is that he’s Ramiel/Jeremiel which follows insofar as what the “J” stands for in Anthony J. Crowley, but my take?

He’s Samael.

In Talmudic/Post-Talmudic (Jewish) tradition, Archangel Samael is the serpent in the Garden of Eden who tempts eve, and also the angel who planted the Tree of Life (Knowledge) in order to trick Adam, too. 

This would be enough for me, except there’s more! Samael is supposed to be a demon AND an angel, in one, and represents a middle ground between good and evil. And how is Crowley presented in Good Omens? Morally grey: neither good nor evil. 

Ask yourself why Crowley is the only demon shown with wings in the show? He never really fell, he was just playing his part in the ineffable plan: “get up there and make some trouble”. He’s following orders. God intended for him to fulfil this role. 

He is also identified as a Watcher angel, meaning an earthbound angel, who doesn’t reside in Heaven like his counterparts.

Samael is also associated with fire, which is a recurring motif in the show: from Aziraphale’s bookshop to him standing in hellfire (whilst assuming Aziraphale’s appearance), and furthermore he is in possession of flame-red hair.

An observational info dump I did on twitter that I figure I might as well bring over here, concerning Aziraphale and ‘true forms’

Bonus:

“…enough of a bastard to be worth liking”  indeed

my interpretation of crowley and aziraphales relationship is that everyone on earth just sort of assumes they got married like seven centuries ago and neither of them know enough about “What Is An Romance” to tell whether or not thats true so they in turn just sort of assume “well i guess humans are the experts on things they made up so we must have gotten married accidentally somehow.”

[this comic is originally about many humans not understanding the concept of QPRs and angels/demons not understanding the concept of romantic relationships. if you want to see it as more of a romcom type comic that’s okay too!] 

[aphobes are absolutely not allowed to interact with this post or me in any way, yes this does include all exclusionists]

transcription below cut!