Obsessed with all things Good Omens | I strongly identify with Crowley
I have been over 18 for a very long time. I grew up with she/her pronouns, although any are fine. (I am frequently addressed as "Sir" by store clerks, and then when they look again, they are all apologies to correct themselves. I find this amusing. I am tall, prefer masculine clothing, have a low-pitched voice, and apparently stand/walk in a way that can be perceived as masculine. But have feminine body curves. I look both like my Dad and my Mom.)
I am attracted to other people mostly by their personalities, rather than body type, although I have more commonly been attracted to people with male bodies. I am married, and have one child. (Just in case anyone was curious.)
...wait a minute, where did the last 10 (20, 30...) years go? How did I get here?
As if you fell asleep and when you wake up it's not the next day, but years and years have somehow gone by, but you feel almost the same, inside your head. But everything outside is different. It sometimes feels very surreal, like everything around you isn't really there, just some kind of mask or overlay on top of whatever reality is, like you are inside the Matrix, but have become aware of it, for just a moment.
And then, all of the "normal" things that you have to do just to survive and get through every day kind of drag you back down, into the "pretend" that is the normal everyday reality that everyone else is living in, and that weird sense of hyperawareness goes away, and you're back in "reality" again. Lately it feels more and more like this reality is a "pretend", even though I know that it is supposed to be the REAL reality, and that my imagination is supposed to be the "pretend" reality.
For whatever reason I am having these flashes of "hyperawareness" (not sure what else to call it, really) more and more often. I'm not sure what that means. I have never been "normal" (just ask any relative, teacher, or acquaintance), always read too much, asked too many questions, had too many opinions that weren't agreeable with everyone else's. Not sure if I have some sort of mental illness, physical illness, have become over-aware of and possibly obsessed with my own mortality, or what...
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My two cents on why I didn't like the ending of Good Omens
To be honest I didn't hate all of it, but there was just so much that didn't sit right with me that I can't accept it as canon (and it's not because it's "sad").
Overall it left me feeling so odd, because (aside from the bit about Asa and Anthony, which was fine ig, that sequence made me genuinely cry on first watch) I couldn't be sad about the Decision. Betrayed yes, but not sad.
I felt like it was trying to trick me into crying, into being amazed by this grand, heroic gesture which actually meant very little to me as a viewer. I guess tricking is something that writing can do, but when you can tell you're being tricked so easily that it actually breaks your suspension of disbelief, I'm afraid we've stepped into bad writing territory.
[I want to make it clear that I'm not blaming this on the director or the cast, I think they did their best with what they were given, and the harassment they've been receiving is gross and unacceptable. Despite everything, I'm glad Rachel Talalay took care of this project, and I'm forever grateful that David and Michael brought this to life for us one more time, seeing them both on screen is a joy every time. Even if I didn't like it, I'm glad they tried to bring it to conclusion.
One other thing that I can't ignore while writing this is how (as some people pointed out) this ending might have been heavily based on NG's scripts, even with some changes, and with what we heard from one of the writers I wouldn't be surprised if that was the case, so this is just to say that my complains are more about the crappy writing and the awful messages than about the pacing and all the other stuff that is due to budget and runtime cuts.]
1. For a start, I think this finale places Aziraphale and Crowley on a too high pedestal that they did not need. The original story of Good Omens didn't put all of humanity's sake in their hands, and that's because the original story knew these characters aren't morally superior heroes.
That was the whole point actually.
Crowley and Azi are imperfect in many ways, and it's clear from the start that they don't just want to save humanity because it's "the right thing to do", they mainly wanna preserve their own life and the comfort they found on earth ("no more Mozart", "no more little restaurants where they know you"), and that's what's beautiful about them, what makes them human. They don't love humanity in the selfless, all encompassing way a god would, they love the earth for the same reasons that we do: because of the experiences, of the endless possibilities, the books, the cars, the whales. Yes they love humanity, but they were never meant to make this big of a choice for them.
Of course, I get the existentialism behind that last decision, to have Azi and Crowley choose humanity and offer themselves as a final delcaration of love for them, and I understand why many people found meaning in it. But I also think everything leading up to that scene completely obfuscated the intentions behind it, and the execution of said sacrifice was even more of a mess.
2. We couldn't have seen that coming. The finale spends a lot of time on plots that don't lead anywhere, it dances around Aziraphale and Crowley's problem without giving them time to solve it and TALK (you know, just literally the biggest problem that was brought up in s2 and should've been the main focus of our main characters' arc this season), then we reach the ending and our characters have to take a decision the show did not prepare us for, and then it's over.
That's why a lot of us are upset, it's not because the ending is "sad", it's because it comes completely out of the blue, overturning everything we've always known about the characters and without a setup to support said ending. We've known these characters and this universe for years, we had a pretty clear idea of where their character arcs were headed and what to expect from this story as a whole, and literally nothing, from a narrative perspective, was leading to a tragic ending.
Good Omens has always been a comedy, and even though it did touch on some grimy topics, in the end its characters always found a way out by outsmarting the system and finding loopholes (the "But is it also the Ineffable Plan?", the body swap, the trick with Job's children). The ultimate message was always that, no matter what sick rules society imposes on you, you can choose your own path in life.
So, if there was one thing us viewers could count on, it was that our characters would always come through, and for YEARS the showrunners convinced us that's what was going to happen (namely, the South Downs cottage). Then in s3 the narrative does a 180 and tells you that no, actually there is no way out of this and our characters just need to surrender to the system (why? we're left to wander, this possibility was never introduced to us, so why now?).
What left me utterly defeated in that moment is that Crowley and Aziraphale didn't even try to find another solution or one of the usual loopholes (and there were plenty, the writers just decided not to use them– they had the book of life in their hands ffs, don't give your characters an all too powerful tool if you don't want them to use it).
3. Everything that mattered to us was destroyed. Above all else, this is what hurts the most. And I'm not just talking about our main characters (and everyone else) literally dying, I'm talking about that happening before both their character arcs had reached a proper end.
I'm talking about the fact that season 2 had set up the premise for a reconciliation, which needed to happen in order for their relationship arc to be complete, for this ending to be at least somewhat happy, and instead all we got was a mockery of an apology, and our characters acting as if they had learnt nothing from their conflict (which they didn't, the writing there completely forgot they had some character development to do and decided to not bother with fixing their relationship).
How can I be happy to see these two act bitter around each other for one and a half hour and not address their emotions seriously?
The storyline we were following about these two, along with that of every other character we knew, was discarded, cut short. This is the definition of sacrificing the characters for the plot. A plot that was not even thematically coherent with Good Omens in the end!! Who asked for this? It's no wonder people are pissed. Again I could have accepted their unnecessary death if they had at least solved their own conflict before that. If the story that I had been following was brought to conclusion.
This is why I feel betrayed as a viewer. The writer/s knew exactly what the story needed and what the public expected, and they decided not to deliver that.
4. In the end the message this finale leaves us with reads as "you can't overcome oppressive systems" and it's sad to say, but it's an awful message to spread given the times we're living in, and given that the characters delivering said message are a metaphor for queerness and religious guilt.
Picture it like this: we live in a society that ostracizes gay people and has actively prosecuted and killed them for their very existence all throughout history (and still is). If we had the opportunity to change the system once and for all, of course we would want it to not have existed in the first place so that nobody ever got hurt, but reality is that we can't erase the past (and even if we could magically erase everyone and start over, that would not take away the suffering that already happened!!), we can only fix it in the present and make sure things will be better going forward. That's the most human thing you can do: learn and do better.
Erasing the past and starting from zero is a lazy easy-fix from a narrative standpoint, and it's never a solution in real life, on the countrary, it's something we have to learn to accept as not possible. So why would you try to send that message in a story that's always been a metaphor for real issues?
What are we to learn from this? That when your society doesn't even want you alive you should just hope to get luckier in the next life? To abandon everything you've ever fought for because it's not perfect? Where is hope in all of this? Where is the message of hope that was delivered in the book and in s1?
I'm sorry but this couldn't be farthest from the Good Omens I know. And neither the story, nor the characters, deserved this end. Aziraphale and Crowley didn't deserve to end in such a miserable way, the imperfect humanity they've grown to love didn't deserve to vanish either, they deserved to be fought for, just like our imperfect world does.
I actually really like Cleopandra's alternative ending idea because that feels more like Good Omens, a story where no matter what, humanity finds a way to thrive, and the protagonists are able to get out of any dire situation with a clever twist.
And that ending opens the door to a theme that's also very important to me: change. That's where I thought Good Omens was gonna end, with the system being dismantled, and with all the angels and demons being given the possibility to change.
How awesome would it have been? How satisfying, to see the "holier than thou" angels and the demons who had to make "suffering" their whole personality discover something new, a world of possibilities, and have the chance to decide what they want to do with their existence as supernatural entities. Heaven and Hell are just labels, once you get rid of the system that punishes humans after death and forces all the angels and demons into maintaining a façade, you have given everyone free will. And maybe there will be angels and demons who won't accept this change, who will still want War because that's what they've dedicated their whole life to and will be left asking "what's the point of me now?", and that's where the magic starts, that's when they'll start to grasp the human experience, when they will have to decide what their life means to them, and what they're gonna do with it.
Instead, we got nothing. All the characters we loved didn't get a chance to heal, they simply got erased, their memories and their trauma with them, as if those things weren't at all important to the story.
In the end I'm just disappointed. I know it's unfair to talk about all the stuff that they couldn't fit in just 90 minutes, and it's not like I was expecting this finale to be perfect, but I still did have some hope, because what was the point of making s3 at all if not to give us closure? Who thought not giving our favorite characters closure was a good idea?? I think we all know who, and that's a big part of why I'm disappointed.
I'm pissed at that one awful man in particular who has likely been playing with us all this time and has managed to ruin this for all of us, I'm sad because the fandom's bad reaction is affecting the actors and all the lovely people who did put passion and care in this project, I'm sad for the community who is being divided by this and for the people who had their comfort show ruined. And I'm sad for what this show could've been.
I know it's hard for a lot of people, but I find that the best thing for me is to ignore this last installment and keep enjoying the original work, and the fanwork obviously. We can't let the bad things ruin the good ones, and to me this fandom has always the best part of Good Omens.❤️🤍
Repression is a coping mechanism, not a personality trait
You have probably seen what Mickey Ralph wrote. And of course, everyone can interpret the story presented in Good Omens differently. But I have to say that I really, really disagree with his comment. There are two reasons for this:
(1) We didn’t need “I love you” to be sure that Aziraphale loves Crowley. We already knew that. The love was clearly there in Season 1, even though there were only a handful of touches.
(2) I find framing “being repressed” as a personality trait alongside “impulsive” really shocking. Repression is a coping mechanism. And that is exactly why I wanted Aziraphale to say “I love you”, to witness him heal, work through his trauma, and finally fully accept (embrace) the fact that he loves Crowley.
But of course, this is only my opinion, so it is just as valid as his :)
That's right, WE don't need an "I love you", but the characters did. After 6000 years of hiding, of repressing one's own feelings and being scared that one's love will destroy the other person, you sure as hell need your characters to acknowledge their love in a healthy way. It's not about what the fans want, it's about character development. It's about finally giving your characters the one thing they fought for since the beginning. "Repression" was precisely what we were waiting for them to overcome. Which doesn't mean they need to make it raw on screen, or even kiss for that matter. But it was just the two of them during the tree scene, their walls were down, you can't convince me that if they were a straight couple they wouldn't have had a heart to heart and a love confession right there.
I'm tired. Why do queer people always have to lose? Why is queerness always treated like a tragedy, even in a comedy?? Enough is enough.
On the matter of Aziraphale and Crowley's "Decision", I feel like making a comparison with Miraculous Ladybug another show that was completely ruined by its own creator. Bear with me even if you haven't watched ML, there won't be spoilers
So, one ethical question that ML originally* posed to its viewers was that of what would happen if the villain Papillon/Hawkmoth won and gained access to a wish he needed to alter reality.
Papillon terrorizes (and sometimes kills) civillians over and over for months, but he doesn't care, because he plans to create a new timeline where his wife had never died, so he wouldn't have become a supervillain and terrorized the city (I'll leave the "one life for another" out of this discourse or I'll never get to the point).
So tecnically, if the villain won, everything would be fine: in the new timeline his son wouldn't be an orphan, he wouldn't even remember being one, the civilians wouldn't remember being terrorized, and his crimes would have never existed, all clean. Except not.
Except that even if everyone's trauma got erased because in the new timeline it never happened, that wouldn't mean he didn't commit those crimes, and that wouldn't make the suffering that he caused less real. His victims still deserve justice. And it's not fair that one single person gets to decide arbitrarily over other people's existence. That's why some fanfics set post this hypothetical Wish make a point of restoring their reality and bringing him to justice.
So you can see where I'm going with this.
Erasing the universe does not "make up" for the wrong that was done to humanity and to the angels and demons. Erasing Aziraphale and Crowley's trauma does not equate to giving them a happy ending. Erasing trauma (if that were possible) is a cheap way to avoid having to deal with the consequences of what you've done and possibly having to make up for it.
So I'm not happy that Aziraphale and Crowley got erased alongside everyone, because all those characters deserved a chance to heal, not to forget about their trauma entirely.
And I won't call their trauma-less versions "better" because they're smiling and not hiding behind sunglasses, I won't be happy that "now they can love each other" as if their traumatized selves couldn't be happy together. As if traumatized people and imperfect worlds were broken things to get rid of.
*I'm really only taking the first seasons into account, I think it's pretty clear that from a certain point on the story deviated from its tracks and lost its point entirely to become a moneygrab so I'm sticking with the original concept.
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If they had outwardly been a man and a woman, they would have slept together ages ago. And there wouldn't be all this talk about their "transcendent" or "elevated" love. Hell, their entire concept as characters is that they've become deeply grounded, far removed from anything lofty or divine. Are you serious?
The people saying they didn't need a second, proper, tender kiss because it would have been "the same or less" are just fucking homophobes.
Including Prime.
Fuck the kiss, why the hell didn't we even get a HUG?!
They were literally dying in front of each other, and all the writers deemed acceptable was for them to hold hands for the first time in 6,000 years?
What, are hugs too sexual now? Too intimate? Not "transcendent" enough?
Seriously, saying that a second kiss full of love and understanding and consent on both sides would've been "the same or less" as the first one is loads of bullshit. It's a disingenuous and harmful comparison, and it reinforces the idea that queer intimacy is inherently negative.
I'm tired of having to be the bigger person and accept "transcendental" showcases of love from queer media. Queer people are people too, we're not some ethereal beings who live off of thin air, we express our feelings just like everyone else. Be it a hug, a heartfelt conversation, a kiss. Queer love shouldn't have to be "pure" and "chaste" and ultimately invisible to be allowed to exist.
And I'm obviously happy for the people who saw themselves represented by this finale, but I also can't buy the lack of kiss as purposeful ace representation. And this is not me saying that it couldn't have been.
But if they wanted to give us ace rep you can be sure as hell they would've made that clear. Even one line where they both acknowledge that not kissing works better for them would've sufficied and it would not have changed the plot, instead they avoided the subject so much that the closest thing we have to knowing the characters' thoughts about the kiss is Michael Sheen's "do that again" interpretation from 2023.
I do not believe for one single second that Amazon Corporation was oh so concerned with ace rep when they have the same reputation of cancelling queer media as any other company. The same goes for the cishet writers who worked on the script, with how little they've shown to care about the story in general, I doubt queer rep was ever on their minds.
If we're looking for some good ace rep that would actually be S1. The first season did an AMAZING job at exploring their queerplatonic relationship by not showing physical intimacy but being very intentional with the queer subtext, and all of that without disrespecting its audience by promising something (reconciliation/ a second kiss) and not delivering it.
In the end I think us queer fans have all been played for suckers in one way or the other.
just watched a star trek episode about a planet that relied so heavily on it's computer system that they all forgot the basics of their own knowledge. and that allowed them to miss the fact that they were being posioned with radiation and nearly ending their civilization. because they couldn't use their own knowledge to figure things out. i bring this up for no reason in particular
Reblog if you’d rather give yourself papercuts between each of your fingers and then rub hand sanitizer all over your hands than use generative AI to write or draw anything ever
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for the lovely lovely deafies out there who want to get involved in direct action you absolutely 100% cannot ever bring a hearing aid or cochlear implant with bluetooth to any direct action. bluetooth devices all carry a unique signal that can be used to identify you if it's picked up at a direct action. go with a [more] hearing buddy and communicate in sign language. if you don't mutually know a sign language then come up with gestures. do not risk your freedom because you want to have your hearing aid/cochlear implant at the action. it's not worth it.
flock cameras are also now tracking bluetooth device signatures when you pass them. if you drive past a flock camera with your bluetooth-enabled hearing aid or cochlear implant, the flock camera knows you passed through
I want to preface this by saying that despite everything and even though I didn't like the finale ending personally, I did love everything else about it and I love good omens 3 in general. All these are fics that purely read as a season 3 that I absolutely adore and take comfort in. They're all complete and horrendously long I'd say, and of course a guaranteed happy ending. Story and character focused recommendations.
Factory Settings by Anonymous (103k) - absolutely the fucking holy grail. i mean who hasn't read this masterpiece? amazing story, perfect characterisation of both aziraphale and crowley as well as an angelic version of crowley. it has banter, its well paced and my darling aziraphale. if you haven't read this, GO GO GO! [T rated]
The Ineffability of Gray by kitfornow (100k) - this one doesn't lose Aziraphale's determination and sense of responsibility he feels to do the right thing. Slow burn, angsty but the ending is gorgeous. [Not rated but no smut]
Three Is Not Enough by haleinedelail (93k) - this one is my absolute FAVOURITE. author basically wrote a season 3 complete with splitting the story into 'episodes' and including flashbacks. the characterisation is perfect and dare I say, the story is a lot more compelling than the actual finale (mostly because its 93k and not rushed 90min lmao). it has it all, hurt crowley, amnesiac aziraphale, cute muriel and the climax is very satisfying. [T rated]
Perennial Care and Keeping by cyankelpie (11k) @the-written-wyrm - I see this one more as an epilogue to season 3 exploring how their relationship is affected by years or pushing eachother away now that they finally have forever. [G rated]
The Angel You Were by cyankelpie (47k) @the-written-wyrm - what can I say I really love this author. this is less s3 plot focused and more focused on aziraphale and crowley's dynamic. it has amnesia, angel crowley, angst but its so so satisfying to read because it kind of puts our husbands at the backseat plotwise which is very reminiscent of s1. I just love this author and how they write aziracrow so I honestly recommend you read all their work but since this is s3 focused I'll put this here. [T rated]
Flaws by indigo (indigo_angels) (218k) - angst lovers this is for you. depressed and hurt crowley, aziraphale trying his best (i do think crowley is extremely hurt and it blames aziraphale a bit too much it makes sense purely on the context of the fic and I love angst shutup). BUT it has amazing writing and I've read this about 6 times already. despite the angst the ending is so sweet and sappy and well earned. [E rated]
Good Omens - Corner Office with a View (Broke My Wings so You Could Fly) by Noli_Timere031754 (84k) @nolitimere54 - genuinely the most pathetic wet cat crowley you'll ever read. love the characterisation of both the husbands and their interactions are phenomenal. also great for BAMF aziraphale. [M rated]
Synchronized With You by ayellowbentley (legends_saga) (38k) - part one with a part 2 epilogue with amazing ace aziraphale and crowley, miscommunication and reconciliation. [T rated]
scherzo in f-sharp minor, for orchestra by astrhae (23k) @astrhae - i know I've recommended some beasts but this is a shorter story which I think characterises aziraphale and crowley very well and resolves the conflict perfectly. slow burn but worth it. [M rated]
On the Side of the World by profdanglais (58k) @wistfulcynic - oh i absolutely love this one with aziracrow scheming and trying to save humanity together despite their differences plus I really liked the way they saved everything. [M rated]
I'll follow you down 'til the sound of my voice will haunt you by midnightdragons (66k) - angst lovers this is for you. complete with tortured crowley, bamf aziraphale and focus on the angst followed by softness and ofc we have our happy ending. [T rated]
We Can't Keep Meeting Like This by Ginger_Cat (65k) @gingiekittycat - this is porn with reluctant plot because surprisingly none of the fics here any of that BUT if you like pining while fucking, this is amazing. [E rated]
hurry back, please bring it back home to me by Percyjacksonfan3 (103k) - very angsty and somehow silly. cute jesus and love their mutual pining and slow burn in this one. [T rated]
Now that that's out of the way, just know I have hundreds more I could recommend but this list is already too long. If any of the authors would like to be tagged, do let me know!
Reblogging this list again because all of these fics are great and deserve all the kudos. Factory Settings is still my favorite alternate version of s3. I had the good luck to find it while it was originally being posted to ao3. At the time, many of the readers were speculating about who the anonymous author might be. It was generally agreed that whoever they were, that they must have known how s2 was going to end before it was officially released. Almost all of the loose threads from s1 and s2 are addressed and tied off neatly in Factory Settings.
After the finale was released on May 13 of this year, I decided to reread Factory Settings and I discovered that a number of plot points and turns of phrase were hitting a bit differently with my newly acquired knowledge of Good Omens 3. We still don't know who the anonymous writer is, but just how many people had some idea of how s3 was planned to turn out BEFORE s2 was released? Of course NG knew, since he was writing it and most likely had most of the plot worked out for both s2 and s3, since they were (at least initially) supposed to work together as a complete story. Probably Michael and David knew at least a skeleton outline and possibly the ending, since NG had said multiple times while writing s3 that the ending was already written. Douglas McKinnon, who was the director of s1 and s2 and who was originally supposed to also direct s3 may have known. Possibly John Finnemore, who is credited with writing "A Companion to Owls" but who also may have written other parts of s2 as well. I'm not sure who else would have either needed to know at least some of the plot for s3, or who might have at some point had access to it (overheard conversation or some such).
WARNING!!! Spoilers for Factory Settings below:
Or, why I have begun to suspect that the anonymous writer of Factory Settings not only knew the ending of s2, but may have (probably) known the ending of s3 as well:
Near the end of Factory Settings, the angel Michael becomes a major antagonist. Their actions are a catalyst for what happens afterwards in the story.
In order to "fix" things, the universe is "reset" to before the beginning, which at least initially looks a lot like the universe being destroyed. (big explosion)
The Book of Life plays a very important part in "fixing" the universe.
When you get to Chapter 36, read the first paragraph and then see if you can convince me that the writer (whoever they are) did NOT know how s3 (the canon version released by Amazon) was going to end OR if that particular choice of figure of speech was just amazingly serendipitous. I'm now suspicious, because whoever the writer is, they definitely have a really good understanding of foreshadowing, and are very picky about details and choice of words elsewhere in the story. I don't remember who was quoted as saying "everything is meant" with regards to the the show version of Good Omens, but the quote could equally apply to Factory Settings as well.
======================
I will forever wish that Factory Settings could have been the version of s3 that was filmed and released on 13 May 2026. It is consistent with the original Good Omens themes as presented in the book and s1, and is very much written in the style of the original book (that is, it reads as if it had been written by Terry Pratchett, including his wry sense of humor and turns of phrase). When I was first reading it (right after s2 was released in 2023) the dialogue for all of the characters, but especially Aziraphale and Crowley, was so in-character that I could easily imagine hearing Michael and David (as well as the other actors) reading the lines. It is written by someone who has a great understanding of pacing: when to insert cliffhangers, where to place flashbacks, when a dramatic scene needs a touch of humor to keep it from bogging down. Most of the scenes are very visual. It is incredibly easy to visualize what is happening, where the characters are physically located relative to each other as well as their location in the scene. In other words, it is written by someone who understands how to write a scene for a visual medium (ie. a script or a screenplay).
If Factory Settings was written by one of the people whose names I mentioned earlier, then it is likely that they will never be able to reveal that they are the actual author. Copyright laws and NDAs would probably result in them being sued (by Amazon, and possibly NG or even the Pratchett Estate) if they did reveal themselves. I do wish that they had written it using some pseudonym, rather than as Anonymous, so that we could follow any other fics that they might post. I'm still sad that they decided to take down the fic that they had started writing after they finished Factory Settings. It was a reverse au of Good Omens titled "Our Side" and it was sooooo good! They had only posted 11 chapters before they took it down. 😢
...just in case anyone is interested in reading those 11 chapters of "Our Side" that were posted to AO3, I have a pdf copy that I downloaded and saved. I can email you a copy if you can provide me with a valid email address either in a reply to this post or via dm. Or just send me an email with "Our Side" as the Subject. The email I use for Tumblr and AO3 is [email protected] Just don't subscribe me to any newsletters, please. I'm already getting too much email at that address, but I don't want to change it (yet). ☺
Best wishes to all of the other fans of Good Omens, and our favorite angel and demon. May they live forever on AO3 and in our imaginations. 🐍🍎😇📖
Several years ago, I was emotionally shattered (positive?) by the episode of The Magicians "A Life in the Day." The crux of the episode was two characters solving a mosaic puzzle that took them the entirety of their natural lives. They needed to solve the puzzle to find a key that would help them save the world. You watched their relationship grow and change and evolve every day as they grew older. They fell in and out of love, with each other and with other people, they argued and laughed and got angry and were comforted.
They grew old. One of them died. The puzzle was solved, and the surviving man gave away the key to somebody else who needed it. The key that it had taken an entire human life to acquire.
I think about this episode sometimes. Today, I am thinking about it because I think the last scene in the bookshop could have been like this. Aziraphale and Crowley with their shelves and shelves of empty books. Sitting together and rewriting the universe. As they write, they argue. They share jokes. They finally have those confusing, messy conversations that they desperately need to have. They write and they find their way towards reconciliation. They touch hands while reaching for a new blank book. One of them needs some space, and they write on opposite ends of the bookshop. They drift back together. They make tea. They sit shoulder to shoulder. The write the world together every single day.
And maybe when they finish, they hand the world off to the humans they made it for.
I want to ask what they were thinking using a team of allocishet white men who specialize in dark fantasy and horror to write a queer comedy in 2026, but I suspect the reason is no one respectable would touch Neil Gaiman's work after we found out about his rapist history.
And it'd be nice if they gave a fuck, but they don't even care enough to watch it.
And now we know what was wrong with Good Omens 3, and I am so sorry for all of us it let down. Both the fans and creative team who loved it and did their best.
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I've seen it cited that this was the ending Terry Pratchett had planned, the one that they had brainstormed when considering a sequel to the original book. And whether that meant Crowley and Aziraphale specifically being the ones to sacrifice themselves, I don't know, but I would believe that the end was indeed intended to be a complete reboot of the universe, to be without God, angels, or demons "messing it about," as Adam would say.
Because the thing is, while Crowley and Aziraphale may be why we love Good Omens, their romance was never supposed to be the point, and free will in the Good Omens universe is not as free as you think.
Adam, you may say, already saved the world, thereby preserving free will. A reboot was unnecessary.
But did he? Wasn't it?
The thing about Adam, is that crucially, it's not that he saved the world, it's that he didn't destroy it. Now, he talked about how Heaven and Hell should stop messing with people, but he didn't actually do anything about it. He refused the call. Refused to destroy the world, and refused to make any rules about it either. All the problems with the world were still there.
So, free will:
For the most part, sure, humans in Good Omens have free will. They are free to make whatever choices in their life they wish, for good or bad.
But... only while they're alive. Once a human dies, they're shipped off to Heaven or Hell, then subject to the whims of whatever occult being is assigned to determine their fate. We mostly don't know what that looks like, but we do know they could for instance get turned into a fly, being eaten and digested by a spider, over and over again for the rest of eternity.
Does that really sound like free will to you?
And before you think about saying yes: no actually, they don't always have free will while alive. There are all these angels and demons messing around with them!
Remember Hastur and Ligur bragging about the impure thoughts they put into people's heads? Even Crowley and Aziraphale, retired from official duties and who should really know better, mess with people and the world around them all the time. And I'm not even talking about Maggie and Nina.
They do it casually ('have a change of heart Misty, go see your dad'), without thinking ('move, I want to sit there'), and sometimes without even meaning to.
Look at Whickber Street. When Aziraphale is the primary occult being in residence, the atmosphere of the entire block is absurdly cheery and quaint, a bubble out of time. Then when the area is left to the unconscious influence of a depressed demon sleeping in the alley, everything falls into cartoonish ruin. Every human around them is subject to their moods, whether they realize it or not.
These may be fairly small or subtle things, but it's still a violation.
So yeah, hard disagree on the free will front. True free will could not exist for humans while gods, angels, and demons were still around. To be honest, a reboot of the universe removing these powers was the only real solution.
But what about angels and demons?
Aren't they beings with free will? Why don't they deserve to exist in the new universe?
And here's where it gets really messy.
Because the Good Omens we see in the television show is really quite different from the original book in some subtle, but significant ways.
In the book, Crowley and Aziraphale have a bit less free will than we tend to assume. They each have ingrained impulses to good or evil that they have to consciously resist acting upon.
It's less obvious in Aziraphale's case:
"Aziraphale couldn't resist an opportunity to do good." As a turn of phrase it's easy to gloss by, but it's meant literally.
See a few pages later:
When Crowley starts drowning a duck toward the beginning of the book, he says he was forgetting himself. That is, he was forgetting to resist his demonic impulses.
Angels and demons are not human. That was kind of the book's whole point.
And the book is what the envisioned sequel was based on.
The problem:
Before we got a sequel to the book, Sir Terry Pratchett passed away, and then we got the television series in 2019.
And it was great! It adapted the story faithfully while bringing new depth, development, and brilliant performances to enrich fan favorite characters Crowley and Aziraphale.
And that, of course, is the problem.
(Now, this isn't to say that they weren't great characters with a great dynamic before then. People have seen and shipped the Ineffable Husbands for decades. But you can't deny how the fandom exploded with the TV show, and how much more emotional investment was instilled into them.)
The show humanized them, and shifted the focus of the story away from pure religious satire in order to highlight their relationship.
And this is why it sucks.
What we ended up with was an ending conceived for a setting where the humor and philosophy of it was more important than the characters, where angels and demons were mere game pieces, and freedom for humans from God's meddling was what really mattered.
But that's not the setting the TV series gave us.
And why it especially sucks for fans.
We are here because we love Crowley and Aziraphale. They were the ultimate comfort characters. Immortal beings who had always, and would always love each other. It was accepted as canon that they would get their happily ever after.
So to see their future dissolve into dust... it was devastating.
I don't believe in soulmates (or souls for that matter). The very concept is counter to the premise of a universe free of divine meddling. Asa and Anthony... it's just not the same.
(I have more to say about Crowley and Aziraphale in human AUs, but this is so long already. I will leave that for another post.)
How to look at it now:
As an adaptation created after the death of one its writers, the Good Omens TV show was always a step removed from the work's original intent, and season 2 took even more steps away.
Doubtless, it would have been better if season 3 had been given more time and budget to work with, but it would ultimately have been just as removed from the source. Just as much of a mess, as it attempted to tie a half-formed conclusion onto a work it wasn't meant for.
The sequel to Good Omens was never written.
Anything in the TV show is only as canon as you want it to be.
I was going back to the book for something else, and happened to land on a page talking about free will.
So, to add, more about how angels and demons in the book do not have free will like humans do:
Aziraphale says "the whole point was that when a human was good or bad it was because they wanted to be. Whereas people like Crowley and, of course, himself, were set in their ways right from the start."
ETA: Also found the bit where Crowley says Aziraphale will not only be watching The Sound of Music for eternity, but he'll enjoy it, because he won't have a choice.
They really did a number on us, making these characters more human in the TV show.
All this bullshit surrounding the Book of Life is so terrible and ruins all discussions of character motivation and development simply because we see so many inconsistencies.
In s2, while it's a theoretical threat, everything is fine. One simple rule: you're erased—your entire existence disappears from reality, along with all memory of you. In s3, after Metatron and Sandalphon are erased, everyone talks about them as if nothing happened, as if they were killed or disappeared, and they still remember them. But then at the Eternal Flame (what the fuck is that anyway), we meet Michael who claims to be the only one who remembers the erased ones and any possible timelines. After azicrow's return to the bookshop, they remember the existence of humans (how did they even survive, simply being in a location with an intact page?), but the humans themselves are gone, just as the books they wrote are gone, while all the handicrafts that were also created by humans exist. Why do Azikrow remember humans and want everything for them if humanity has been erased? If they remember the Book of Life, why didn't they at least start by deactivating it? Who is Satan in it, and why wasn't he deleted along with Heaven and Hell? This all makes absolutely NO sense, just a bunch of contradictory plot twists, and that's one of the reasons I can't accept the ending as plausible.
