I know I’m kinda reiterating on points that I made in previous posts, but, like… as far as critique of traditional Black-and-White views of Morality in ‘Good Omens’, go I always thought the way the narrative treated the concept of ‘Selfishness’ was a very important theme. How, while it seemed like such an obvious ‘bad’ and ‘Hellish’ trait, it fueled so much of the characters’ sympathetic and even heroic actions. Especially how the Them’s arguments to Adam against destroying the world, and Adam’s arguments against Heaven and Hell, were fundamentally self-interested. They wanted to save the world because the world is neat and they wanted to grow up in it.
From the Metatron’s (in the TV Continuity, Gabriel’s) perspective, Adam was being selfish, stopping God’s will and the Greater Good for the things he wanted to do and the responsibilities he wanted to avoid.
And then of course, Crowley and Aziraphale being the only Demon and Angel willing to (try to) stop Armageddon, purely because they’re so Selfish and Hedonistic. And then their Show-Exclusive relationship arc seems to emphasize that point, as Aziraphale titters between the ‘selflessness’ of sacrificing his happiness for Heaven’s idea of Morality and his ‘selfish’ desire to love and adore and be with Crowley.
Of course that selflessness is also important, shades of gray and all that, and the most obvious example of that in the original text is Crowley and Aziraphale’s first attempt at a Heroic Sacrifice, to save the Humans from Satan’s wrath. Like, it was important for both of their character arcs in the original book on several different levels that they reached that point.
But that moment fizzled out with zero casualties specifically because the joke is that this is not what that story was about, in the sense that this Epic Sacrificial Fight Against Satan is far too Dramatic for this silly little comedy, in the sense that this isn’t actually Crowley and Aziraphale’s story and in the sense that this isn’t a story about grand selfless gestures of heroism. It’s about a kid fighting for himself, for his right to be a kid and do whatever he feels like.
For the show, that basically rearranged that whole sequence to remove the whole Dramatic Self sacrifice thing, it felt like it was going to engage with that nuance of ‘hey, being selfless is important even if this isn’t really what this story is about’ with Crowley and Aziraphale’s relationship arc in GO2. How Aziraphale is sometimes kinda Passively Obliviously Selfish and doesn’t sacrifice enough in the relationship, even as he still has that same problem of selflessly sacrificing his happiness with Crowley for what he perceives as the Greater Good of the entire world.
So I really thought this would conclude with something about, y’know, balance, shades of gray. Aziraphale learns to sacrifice more in the relationship, but also that his and Crowley’s happiness together is worth selfishly fighting for, and Crowley also maybe learns to not be so unhealthily selflessly self-sacrificing in when it comes to Aziraphale as well, that he’s also allowed to be ‘selfish’ in this relationship sometimes.
But instead GO3 seems to pivot to a total unironic glorification of selflessness and self-sacrifice. Crowley’s unhealthy levels of self-sacrifice, even giving up the Bentley, as much of a prized possession and his current house as it was an extension of his own body, was just romanticized as just an uncomplicated unironic example of his love and dedication. And not, like, kind of a red flag for his mental health regardless of his partner being a ‘Taker’ or not. Because Aziraphale didn't make him sleep in that alleyway, but it's something the character never learns to overcome or heal from, it just changes focus on who is the target of his self-sacrifice.
And while the Finale again and again (…and again…) criticizes Aziraphale’s decision to take on the Supreme Archangel role, it doesn’t really address the matter of Aziraphale genuinely seeing it as a selfless sacrifice on his part, giving up on a selfish escape with Crowley and all of his beloved Earthly Delights to try to save the world. Instead of just focusing on the idea that it was just foolish and naive of him to even try to reform Heaven and the Second Coming, and painting him as Selfish for leaving behind the people/places he was close to. Even as he left them behind so he could work as hard as he can to save them.
And “oh, you were trying to selflessly sacrifice your happiness to help us as part of your plan to help everyone, but by losing focus on the ‘selfish’ small picture, you also lost focus on what we really wanted or needed, so it still hurt us and still felt selfish to us” would have been a great nuance to add in… if not for the way this fucking Finale ends, with a grand gesture of selfless sacrifice for a very abstract Greater Good ideal done with zero affection or consideration of the opinion of the ‘small picture’ individuals they supposedly cared about.
A sacrifice that the narrative goes to great lengths to show as Pure Undiluted Selflessness, Crowley is giving up everything for humanity, Aziraphale is giving up everything for Crowley, the whole point of building up their relationship up to that point was to emphasize all the possibilities they just sacrificed, they are supposed to get absolutely no benefit from it, not even the satisfaction of knowing and seeing the positive effects of their sacrifice. A sacrifice that’s supposed to be oh-so-inspiring and touching, like that selfless love is the greatest thing in the world.
There’s nothing inherently wrong with ending the Ineffable Husbands’ arc showing they can be selfless. Again, there is a reason why the had that Moment at the climax of the book, and I do see the value of the message that dismantling oppressive systems will take some sort of sacrifice… but it feels so weird and thematically discordant for ‘Good Omens’ of all stories to end on such an uncomplicated, straightforward glorification of pure and selfless self-sacrifice. Does an act of selflessness has to be 100% certified with zero self-interest to have value? Does a Sacrifice have to be both absolute and completely with nothing for you to gain to be worthwhile? Wasn't there something to be said about shades of gray?
