FisherDaMuppet

Explore your grief however you need to, but don’t take that out on others. Grieve with them, not against them. There’s no comfort or peace to be found there, only more pain.

He's God, isn't he? Part of the "triune godhead." Then we could have gotten a completely different version of the scene in the bookshop, one where Jesus defends the world he knows and the people he's met and the things he learned (in his short time back on Earth) about love and generosity and helping people become better people. 

Maybe Aziraphale and Crowley ask him to create a world without angels and demons. Maybe he says, but aren't they people too? Can't they learn about love, and generosity, and helping people become better people? Of course they can. Look at the two of you.

And we could have gotten a beautiful mirror to the end of Season 1, where Christ does the same exact thing as the Antichrist, where he doesn't destroy the world but puts it back just the way it was. Even slightly better. 

Obviously Crowley's decision to give up on saving the world and his relationship with Aziraphale is the most egregious moment of character assassination, so I understand why the fandom has been tearing that apart.

But one thing I haven't seen touched on, that happens early on in the finale and left such a bad taste in my mouth I could hardly enjoy the comedic moments?

Aziraphale is TOO much of a bastard in the beginning. Specifically to Crowley.

When he comes back to Whickber Street and Mrs. Sandwich confronts Aziraphale about his absence, she accuses him of being a "taker." Of only coming back to Crowley to get something from him.

Aziraphale naturally is devastated by the implication and protests, "No! I love...Whickber Street" (obviously not what he really wanted to say)

And i thought, okay! This is going to be a moment of growth and realization, something Aziraphale will have to address at some point in the film in order to heal his relationship with Crowley.

Maybe he DOES ask too much of him sometimes, maybe he has to come to grips with the idea that asking Crowley to return to heaven was the wrong move, even if his intentions were good.

But then...instead of any of that happening, Aziraphale just tries to waltz back into Crowley's life, asking for his help, and showing a shocking lack of sensitivity to his broken heart.

When he called the Bentley "our car" again, I actually winced at the audacity. Aziraphale's audacity in S2 is charming and never crosses the line into actual hurtful territory, because he does it in a way to show Crowley how comfortable he is with him. He knows Crowley loves to spoil him and allows it, as a show of affection.

But him acting that way in S3? Right when he finds Crowley in the literal gutter, depressed and not in the fucking mood? That didn't sit right with me AT ALL.

The Aziraphale i know might be a bastard at times. He can be selfish, hedonistic, pampered, all that stuff. But he is also genuinely truly kindhearted, sweet, and loving at the same time.

I refuse to believe that Aziraphale would see his beloved in so much pain and heartache, and not treat him gently.

Did I want or expect him to apologize for going to heaven and trying to change the system? NO. I don't think he was wrong for that, and I'm glad he largely stood his ground about that decision.

I hate that the finale ended up basically saying in the end that he WAS wrong and that he really couldn't make a difference, but that's another matter entirely.

I just. I have a hard time swallowing the idea that Aziraphale would see the harm he (inadvertently, unwillingly) caused to the Being that he loves most in all creation and NOT treat him with some tenderness.

I know we only had 1 episode and whole plotlines were scrapped but I was just left feeling so empty after the finale given how powerful and moving and profound the themes of season 1/the book were. So buckle up for a long ride let's talk about it

Theme 1: Human Incarnate

The book and the show established that humanity is unique because it is neither purely good or purely bad. From the book: "Most of the great triumphs and tragedies of history are caused not by people being fundamentally good or fundamentally evil, but by people being fundamentally people." This Aziraphale describes as "much better" than either Heaven or Hell

This is one of my favorite sequences in the whole show. And the music is soaring and gorgeous. Adam recalls the things in his life he has come to know and love; his parents, his friends, his dog, his home. He makes it have nice weather all year. Aziraphale could feel that love at the Tadfield Manor. Heaven and Hell tried to create an instrument of destruction. But by putting that inside a human boy, they didn't realize the strength of one boy's love would be strong enough to literally burn the hell out of him. He told Satan himself to shove it and rewrote reality to have the dad he truly loved. The power of humanity's love is stronger than any immortal power could ever be.

This is the idea that would have been so cool for the finale but unfortunately never paid off. As the second coming prepares to destroy Earth again, Aziraphale and Crowley could have teamed up with the power of humanity to reshape heaven and hell for good. Adam and Jesus as the antichrist and christ born to end the world and instead used their humanity to save it. Instead we got the book-of-life arc and humans were literally left to dust

Theme 2: Free Will

Next good omens establishes that angels and demons are just puppets but humans are the ones with real free will because they have the ability to be good or bad. Even with heaven and hell, the humans on Earth always have a choice. In season 2, they agree on this, but Crowley's main grievance is the inequity of it all. Humans have free will but it still isn't fair.

God made angels and demons and humans but the humans never had to follow her 'plan.' Free will and the ability to recognize what is truly right outside the propaganda of good vs evil is what saves the world.

Humans always had free will, even if God was around to kill a bunch of them with floods or take their stuff to win bets or something. Creating a new universe without God wouldn't change that. They would still have free will, just less threats from above/below, I guess. What Crowley's established character really should have wanted here was to fix the inequity inherent in human society. That's what is truly holding them back, not a lack of will. Removing God from the universe doesn't actually solve the root problem here

Theme 3: Our Own Side

This is something Crowley learned very early and spends the whole show trying to teach Aziraphale. That good must be separated from heaven and bad must be separated from hell.

Heaven can do some truly appalling horrors and demons, at least Crowley (and somewhat Beelzebub I guess) have the potential to be kind. 'Their own side' is one where they have the freedom of humanity, to do what is truly right. Aziraphale and Crowley sort of found their way there in the finale, but it was all rushed and Aziraphale never really turned his back on heaven, it sort of just became irrelevant when everything started disappearing. What a beautifully flawed and nice world they could have created together

Theme 4: Love Conquers all

What was it all for? Love. God made Aziraphale and Crowley for each other because she liked to smile at the silliness of their love. The literal only constant in the entire universe. Their love for the world and each other saved it. I think the decision to turn Aziraphale and Crowley's queer love story into a tragedy was the biggest mistake of seasons 2/3. Forcing the soft and romantic comedy of good omens into a queer tragedy was the instant it all crashed and burned. Now everything is tainted leading up to the pain and destruction of it all and the whimsy and lightness is gone. There were moments of it, but it was all leading toward the end. And queer love deserves to not be a tragedy. We have far too much tragic queer love in our society. Yes we got the south downs, but Aziraphale and Crowley never got to experience that freedom. They finally came together just to instantly be destroyed. We deserve happy and fulfilling queer love that is sweet without the bitter parts. Good omens was intended to be a comedy, not a tragedy

And then this was SUCH A COOL IDEA they introduced. Perhaps the first time ever an angel and a demon performed a miracle together. The power of their love could create magic stronger than anything heaven or hell had ever seen. I was so excited to see the wonders they were going to create, they ways in which they could have rebuilt the world better using that love. If they had this kind of power doing a tiny miracle, what could they have accomplished if they really put their minds to it? God herself couldn't have stopped them. And instead, the finale literally revoked Crowley's magic for the entire episode. They sacrifice themselves for a new earth and people that didn’t even exist yet instead of using any of their power to change it. The god awful execution of this theme is probably the biggest letdown of the entire finale imo

Theme 5: Fix It, Don't Replace It

This is so obviously established in seasons 1/2 I cannot believe how badly they missed the mark with this one

Literally shows us the horror of replacing the Earth with all new people. Even children can recognize that just because something is broken, it doesn't mean you throw it away and start all over. They loved the world enough to want to save it. The world is inherently worth saving, flaws and all. If you love something, you don't abandon it. The ENTIRE PLOT of season 1 explores the horrors of humanity and yet humans, Aziraphale and Crowley do everything in their power to save it.

It absolutely blows my mind how directly this scene contradicts the entire message of the finale. Job didn't want new children, he quite liked the old ones. Aziraphale and Crowley didn't want the antichrist's new Earth, they quite liked the old one. We didn't want new human versions of Aziraphale and Crowley, we QUITE LIKED THE OLD ONES. Where the hell did that mentality go when they told God to create an entirely new universe????????????? Season 1 said the world is flawed but it deserves saving exactly as it is. Season 1 said an angel and a demon go off to the ritz together, exactly as they are. The finale said the world is too broken, we have to make it disappear and start over. The finale said Aziraphale and Crowley have too many issues/traumas to be happy, we have to destroy them and start over. That's why as cute as Asa and Anthony's love is, we quite liked them exactly as they were, angel/demon trauma + history and all. They deserved saving too.

After Aziraphale does the hand kiss to Crowley they look at each other. Aziraphale sees that it is ok, sees that Crowley accepts this forgiveness and then launches at him and kisses him on the mouth. We get the resolution of the kiss chevoks gun we get the queer joy. The friends i watched it with who are both gay were devastated by no kiss (it feels like for a show that is so precious to a queer audience if that is the case, something has gone wrong in the audience/script relationship) and they had so many chances!

Aziraphale and Crowley both MUTUALLY decide that they keep this messy imperfect world they love going, saving the humans they know and love. There is no ineffable plan, and heaven and hell change, maybe ceasing to exist altogether (but still keeping the angels and demon characters alive for the love of god! (And hopefully working towards understanding themselves and the universe better. Heck make a comedic beat out of that)). We dont fall into the awful Job/ Great Flood catch 22 morality set up.

Jesus fulfills his purpose in being introduced. Maybe hes the one who reminds Azi and Crow what they need to do. Maybe hes the one who saves them in the book of life. Maybe he talks to his mum. Idk. But he isnt a loose plot thread.

Crowleys question to god is more in line with the Edinburgh why start people off on different footings question rather than the free will question. Feels more true to him and his character concerns.

Also we have a compilation at the end and we see Beez and Gab drinking cocktails on Alpha Centari and Muriel studying criminology and Adam becoming a climate scientist and a tribute to Jesus and we cut to Azi and Crow in south downs watching its a wondeful life and theyve started so many charities and maybe they are human or maybe they arent or hopefully theyre something in the middle but either way they keep their memories and then we see them at the Ritz having an extremely alchoholic breakfast and we see Crowley has the most beautiful huge house plant greenhouse and Aziraphale takes him dancing and is so giddy about it and just this once rose everyone lives!!!

I wanted to like the ending of Good Omens 3. I really did. It ends — as it began — in a garden, there was a nightingale, there was a cottage in the South Downs, and before the universe got rebooted, Aziraphale praised Crowley as “the best of us” to God’s face. I could go into issues of pacing, seeing the seeds of storylines that could have flourished given a whole season, and other factors at play.

But at the end of the day, the fact remains that Crowley and Aziraphale *died*. Without having time to fully reconcile, heal, and have joy together afterward. We are meant to take Asa Fell and Professor Anthony Crowley as the two characters we’ve loved — with all their shared history, memories, arguments, romance, sacrifice, silliness, and yearning — as these two humans who found each other later in life and got a happy ending. And don’t get me wrong, I’m happy for Asa and Anthony, but that’s not Aziraphale and Crowley. You know why?

Because it feels the same as this conversation about Job’s children:

Michael: Those ones will be dead.

Aziraphale: We’re not… bringing the old ones back?