I Believe In Good Omens

(Warning: Talk of N*il G*iman Below)

If we're to take these tweets at face value, that no one altered the bones of the story, neither Peter Atkins, Michael Marshall Smith, or the TP estate, then that confirms that the ending we received was entirely Gaiman's.

FOR THE RECORD! The purpose of this post isn't to guilt or influence the opinion of those who liked S3, but to discourage the very vocal few who like to throw Sir Terry's name around and act like being anything but happy and grateful for the finale is some kind of moral failing.

Having this fact confirmed didn't surprise me, but the way people have been talking about S3's ending being "What Terry would have wanted" you'd think the writers had been working off some secret, hand-written draft for a sequel made in secret by Terry himself.

So the point of this post is just to honestly acknowledge S3's authorship. I'm personally not of the opinion that it has to effect your enjoyment of the ending if you're one of the people who did enjoy it. I'm a lover of S2 myself, and I consider it pretty significantly in my own GO canon, but you would never see me insisting upon it in regards to it being what Terry Pratchett would have wanted for the series.

Because we don't know that.

You can love the show for expanding the story and trying new things, you can compare themes to the sorce material, make connections where others might not, and agree or disagree artistically the choices that were made for his characters. Criticize, analyze or praise it all you like. That's what I do! And what I'll continue to do now that the story is over.

But at the end of the day, when you drop into the comments of posts critiquing S3 and say with your whole chest that this ending is "what Terry Pratchett would have wanted", what you're really saying with your whole chest is that you trust Neil Gaiman to have decided honestly what Terry would have wanted.

Which, I suppose is up to your individual discretion. But even if you're somehow one of the people who still tolerates that man, he's not, and never will be, some all knowing creative executor of Terry's will.

Especially considering they seemed to have butted heads on one of the more under-acknowledged but significant aspects of the book's ending.

(From an interview with Sir Terry)

Something as simple as insisting (gun to his head) that they go out of their way to make sure everyone had a happy ending, and even writing it in such a way that the readers knew for sure that was the case, is a detail I think really separates Gaiman's and Terry's intentions to their readers.

And that is still also NOT me trying to insist either which way what direction Terry would have wanted a potential sequel to go, whether his ending would have been happy or equally as bittersweet. I just feel it's important to acknowledge small differences like that in how they made writing decisions, especially if you're going to consider Gaiman's ability to actually write with Terry in mind.

(I've also heard tell that Gaiman greatly exaggerated his relationship with Terry overall, but I'm personally not very familiar with any part of their connection to eachother outside of Good Omens, so I won't speak on that matter.)

TL;DR: Being on the side of the fandom that liked the finale does not make anyone the moral paragon and defender of Terry Pratchett's work they might think it does.

Cygnus X: The Inner Workings of a Nearby Star Factory

Young Stars in the Rho Ophiuchi Cloud

Like, on the one hand, you could make an argument here in favor of the GO3 ending. That this shows that Crowley and Aziraphale can be heroic and selfless and self-sacrificial towards Humanity, and not just lovable selfish hedonists, that the reason why this Epic Sacrifice Moment fizzled-out casualty-free is because the Actual Joke is that this wasn’t really Crowley and Aziraphale’s story, so if there was a Good Omens sequel that was actually Crowley and Aziraphale’s story, it would make thematic sense to loop back to that sacrifice…

But mostly, comparing this scene to the ending of GO3 just showcases just how much the latter sucks and fails in everything it attempts to achieve. Even if Adam didn’t come in to save the day and remind us that he’s the actual Hero, that Heroic Sacrifice would be a much more satisfying conclusion to these characters than the “”Heroic Sacrifice”” at the end of GO3.

Like, first things of all, the stakes and the reason why the Book sacrifice is even needed are obviously much clearer. GO3 is clearly going for a much more… philosophically ambitious, original and abstract kind of sacrifice than “Big Fuckoff Evil Guy comes to smash all the squishy Humans, we’re not squishy Humans, so we should try to hold him off”. But, still, the fact is that the Big Fuckoff Evil Guy situation was better-established and much more intuitively understood as to why Crowley and Aziraphale feel the need to do a Heroic Sacrifice in the first place. While the necessity of a Total Universe Reset where Crowley and Aziraphale have never even existed is…. not really well-explained within the text of GO3.

Going down fighting Satan with a Flaming Sword and a Tire Iron is also a much more badass mental image than solemnly wordlessly dissolving into stardust. Even if they truly think that there’s no chance for them to get out of this fight alive, they’re not exactly Going Gently Into That Good Night. There’s still that sense of fighting for your world and hope that the story was all about. Also, while the main goals of fighting Satan were certainly selfless, like, are you telling me Crowley wouldn’t get any sort of personal enjoyment out of giving his shitty boss he’s been afraid of for most of his existence in the Ultimate Fuck You?

To quote Crowley's (internal monologue) from a bit earlier:

Like, GO3 was supposed to be about refusing to play rigged games, defying God’s rules, and winning against the Narrative… but then the Finale wants to also emphasize the sheer selflessness and tragedy of the sacrifice, so there’s really no sense of determination or triumph against God (despite this being what the narrative is supposed to be about). I mean, I said it in a previous post, but it is hard to make your story both about a changing the rules of a rigged game and a tragic selfless sacrifice. It feels like if ‘changing the rules’ was really the theme, they should’ve found some sort of loophole or alternative solution, rather than God’s ultimatum being one game they apparently can’t change…

But, like, not even letting the characters revel in the fact that at least She’s not going to be part of that new universe either. Or, like, saying something cool or hopeful or flipping the bird to Her as they dissolve if they really are supposed to have ‘changed the rules’ of Her game or… something defiant like that. It is staged and directed to emphasize the tragedy, how much Crowley and Aziraphale are going to lose, and so this feels like a surrender, and not like a brave struggle, and not just because this situation doesn’t involve (the potential for) Physical Violence.

And Book!Crowley’s Optimism! Like, I have seen people try and interpret this line…

As being, like, some sort of Foreshadowing or meaningful to the Lore of GO3 and how the ‘Real’ Universe works. But I really think it just means what it seems to mean on the surface. Despite acknowledging there’s no way they’d win this fight in both dialogue and inner monologue, Crowley still cannot let go of the hope that he and Aziraphale will make it out okay, that there will be a ‘next time’ for them, no matter how irrational it seems. And, you know, he was right. But even if he wasn’t, that classic Crowley defiant cynical optimism gives the scene a much more triumphant feel. The kind of feel that’s pretty much entirely absent in GO3.

Also, they are risking themselves for the actual Humans they’ve come to know and appreciate. They are still trying to preserve the Earth and the Humanity that they’ve known for 6000 years, and they are also specifically fighting to protect the specific humans at the Airbase, the other main characters of the story. The specificity here is important, the specificity of love for the Humanity they came to know for as long as they knew each other, the readers being invested because they care about the characters Crowley and Aziraphale are trying to defend. The specificity of Love just feels so much more Human, and thus more on-theme, then this idea of loving a Distant Abstract Idea of People that you don’t actually know and will never actually know.

And then there’s the way that, y’know, this moment is also a culmination of their very specific character arcs in the Book. How these two complicit hedonists trying to stop Armageddon because they benefit from the Status Quo learn to admit their own complicity and do something selfless for these beings they always had an affinity for but have never truly been beneficial for.

How Aziraphale becoming fully disillusioned with Heaven also means he has to admit he’s been kinda causing just as much problems for Humanity as Crowley has. Crowley has to face actual consequences and actual guilt for the mischief he gleefully caused to Humanity. Aziraphale rejecting Heaven’s idea of ‘Good Behavior’ and embracing moral gray areas allowing him to side with the Humans fully and embrace his legacy as the Angel who gave away his Flaming Sword, for good and for bad. Crowley being so afraid of Hell, and then having to watch all of these fears come true, having to do increasingly brazen things to even get to the airfield, and then, when he was finally left with nothing more to lose, feeling like he’s already basically doomed, realizing that he can and he wants to do such a brave and selfless thing.

GO3 is obviously a different narrative with very different versions of Aziraphale and Crowley, and even GO1 didn’t quite follow all the beats of their original character arcs. But the arcs that GO3 did need to build up to its sacrifice… aren’t great on their own. First things first, the shift from the Cold War Metaphor where Crowley and Aziraphale are complicit in Cosmic Imperialism to a Capitalism Metaphor where they are victimized corporate cogs means that it just… doesn’t feel as necessary for them to give some sort of Big Display of Selflessness to culminate their story anymore. There’s a reason why GO1 felt like a satisfying self-contained story even with the original Almost-Sacrifice being cut. Maybe if Show Omens spent any meaningful amount of time exploring the idea that Crowley and Aziraphale are complicit in the System and are benefiting from it, that whole ending would feel a lot more earned…. But even taking into consideration the time constraints of GO3, it really didn’t. The 'Miracle Account', the one concept that really builds to that idea, is barely dwelled on and feels more like a conflict contrivance than anything thematically important.

Plus, despite still being hedonists whose original motivation for saving the world was at least kinda selfish, both TV!Crowley and TV!Aziraphale have had struggles related to selflessness, or at least needing to embrace certain selfish desires. Aziraphale being self-conscious about his hedonism when Heaven criticizes it, struggling between Heaven’s idea (and sometimes his own idea) of the Greater Good and being with Crowley even when it’s ’selfish’ of him, and Crowley being unhealthily self-sacrificial and self-destructively selfless when it come to his relationship to Aziraphale (and especially in GO3)…

All of this feels discordant with an ending that celebrates selfless self-sacrifice as a culmination of both of their character arcs and the ultimate act of goodness and love they can do. These bits of characterization seem to lend themselves much better to a story about the balance between selfishness and selflessness, rather than one that just glorifies the latter in such an uncomplicated way. And GO3 goes to great lengths to emphasize how undiluted and pure and lacking in any sort of self-interest or personal benefit Crowley and Aziraphale’s sacrifice is. To kinda absurd degree, really.

And as for the ‘arcs’ that are supposed to build up to it in GO3, Crowley jumped from still insisting that he and Aziraphale need to abandon Earth and all of humanity and escape to Alpha Centauri to suddenly being willing to sacrifice both of their existences for the Greater Good has no real build-up in the story. Even when Aziraphale tells him he’s being selfish, the scene still ends with Crowley having the last word and no indication in the direction, acting or dialogue that the words did have an effect on him.

Combined with Aziraphale being constantly given dialogue glazing Crowley as ‘brave’ and ‘caring’ and the ‘Best Angel’, plus the romanticization of Crowley’s own self-destructive, self-sacrificial behavior regarding Aziraphale, it kinda feels like the Narrative wants us to believe that, despite all evidence to the contrary, Crowley was always this amazing loving selfless martyr for all mankind rather than this actually being some sort of ‘arc’. Which makes the whole thing even less compelling.

And Aziraphale’s entire arc has been made to revolve around Crowley in some way, he needs to learn to be less selfish in his relationship with Crowley, he needs to listen to Crowley more, even his relationship with Heaven is about its affects his relationship with Crowley - how he views Crowley in light of Heaven’s indoctrination and how he needs to trust Crowley’s judgment and worldview. Everything about the Finale tries to make it very clear that agreeing to the sacrifice is supposed to be a culmination of his arc because it’s something he’s doing ‘for Crowley’. He doesn’t actually want it, but now he’s sacrificing things for Crowley! He’s listening to him! He’s trusting him! How romantic, right?

And there’s just… so much Wrong there as a character arc. This story of small subtle mundane imbalances being supposedly resolved with a Big Dramatic Fantastical Gesture. The idea of concluding an arc about communication issues and an uneven amount of self-sacrifice in a relationship with the character agreeing to a suicide pact without ever speaking of how he truly feels about it, and the narrative kinda acting like the self-destructive self-sacrifice that Crowley was doing before somehow means he ‘deserves’ this kind of extreme sacrifice in exchange is just… so fucked up on so many levels. And it’s just bad from a basic character standpoint that Aziraphale’s self-sacrifice is all about his relationship, when in the original Almost-Sacrifice, while Aziraphale was the one who asks Crowley to stay and fight alongside him, it’s not like Crowley was just doing it ‘for Aziraphale’, its a culmination of both of their personal arcs and their relationships with Humanity.

And there’s also a lot of other little character moments in the Book, Aziraphale becoming fully disillusioned with Heaven also means he has given up on having any sense of moral superiority towards Crowley. Which was not as a... dramatic problem as it was in GO1, but still Present, so it was nice to feel that thread got some closure

Crowley finally finding a good retort to whether Aziraphale brings up his inner goodness rather than just going “Yeah, yeah, but shut up, okay?!”

While also admitting that he likes him, which is a leap from his internal narration from the start of the book trying to present the relationship as purely one of convenience.

(Compare and contrast, Aziraphale’s internal narration about Crowley)

GO3 had… more of an uphill battle, with so much more C&A content to resolve and so much more time spent exploring Crowley and Aziraphale’s various issues and struggles, it would be hard for any ending to bring all them into a satisfying conclusion before they Fucking Die. But… all the time spent emphasizing how this Sacrifice is the Biggest Most Selfless Sacrificial Sacrifice ever takes time that could have spent giving a sense of resolution to some of these points. And at the end of the day, Crowley and Aziraphale agreeing to fight Satan side-by-side feels like a culmination of their relationship as well, while GO3 focuses on how much between of them was left unresolved and unfulfilled, emphasizing the ‘tragedy’ of if it all. Their love was worthwhile as a Poetic Sacrifice on the alter of the Greater Good, but not as a plot point that ever gets resolved. They die never have been exactly on the same page, ever.

And the Dramatic Hand-Holding is, in the context of the book, the peak of Crowley and Aziraphale’s open affection towards each other. It feels like a proper dramatic escalation to their relationship in this critical dramatic moment because it’s a step ‘beyond’ nudging elbows and grabbing arms. That same gesture feels… underwhelming in the context of GO3, when even adding the little finger-kiss, because this is far from the Most Affectionate they have ever been with each other.

Like, I don’t generally touch the question of “how physically affectionate/intimate. Crowley and Aziraphale should be with each other?” much, but narratively speaking it is bonkers (or ‘lunacy’ as TV Crowley likes to say) that for their Final Dramatic Death Scene to not have some new ‘peak’ in their affection towards each other. Something that feels as novel to GO3 Aziracrow as handholding was to Book Omens Aziracrow. Like, maybe they don’t actually want to express their love via making out (despite everything about the S2 Kiss clearly indicating that they do), but how about a long sweet hug? A verbal confirmation of their affection rather than talking around each other and at third parties? A very very last moment marriage proposal? Like, I dunno, something that feels novel and important and new for them in some way….

And then there’s the most important part, the human involvement! First and foremost, Crowley and Aziraphale’s decision, while thematically built up through all their scenes in the Book, was obviously most directly incentivized from Adam calling them out.

It’s humans that have led them to this personal transformation once again, they are doing this because the words of the Human Incarnate affected them. And it’s yet another example of Adam’s power, not just as the Antichrist, but as a Smartass Kid Calling Out Hypocrites and Asking Questions.

I… suppose Crowley’s little conversation with Maggie and Nina was meant to play a similar role here, but without Aziraphale also being present because Someone forbid Aziraphale’s own relationship with humanity would also be narratively important….

But it just doesn’t work as well as the Adam bit for several reasons. Like, Adam was calling Crowley and Aziraphale out for the jobs they were doing as Agents of Cosmic Imperialism, the jobs they were still doing and were actively proud out at the start of the story. Meanwhile, the Nina and Maggie situation was a result of a bunch of one-time wacky hijinks that happened after Crowley and Aziraphale were already trying to retire. While they still needed to knock it off and mind their own business, the ‘guilt’ from this moment doesn’t really feel like it extend past these specific circumstances.

And also, and that relates to one of my earliest points, which is that the need for a self-sacrifice in Book Omens was considerably more self-evident than the whole Universal Reset stuff, the logical connection of “oh, we were complicit in Cosmic Imperialism by two corrupt Superpowers who are equally shitty to Humanity, maybe we should make it up to them by saving these specific Humans from being killed from one of the biggest, baddest Cosmic Imperialists out there” is much much more solid when compared to, like… “Oh, Nina and Maggie taught me that it’s kinda Shitty when supernatural entities manipulate the lives of Humans and treat them like they’re not real people…. I should create a Real World where no supernatural entities who can manipulate the lives of Humans can exist, but fuck all the Humans who existed so far, including Nina and Maggie. Their world wasn’t ‘real’, so it’s okay if it’s totally replaced without even discussing the possibility of bringing it back and fixing it! Also, have I mentioned I’m the only one making this decision and there are no Humans here to give their input or perspective?”

And the human agency and perspective is the other important point! Even before Adam came around to override the need for a sacrifice in the first place, the other humans around Crowley and Aziraphale never stopped having their own agency. Shadwell, Newt and Anathema were all actively running to get involved in the fight with various degrees of enthusiasm and confidence. Because even when Crowley and Aziraphale are trying to be honestly selfless and pro-humanity, they can’t stop Humans from doing whatever the hell they want, from making that heroic sacrifice all on their own.

And, you know, at the end of the sequence, they can’t stop Adam from rewriting his own story and rendering their Big Moment of Selflessness moot.

And that’s also okay, it’s the thought that counts, I guess.

Trying to compare that to the GO3 Ending isn't even funny. Like, not only there are no Humans with agency in these scenes, they were NO humans in general, like, not anywhere in the universe, they have all been Literally Wiped From Existence. None of them have a chance to join in on something cool or heroic, or even to just voice their opinion of Crowley's decision...

We love Aziraphale. He's cultured. He's refined. He has standards. Per book canon, his vibes are: English, intelligent, and gay. And he's just so charming.

So I thought, let's celebrate that!

And then I thought, what if we picked the most inappropriate, unsuitable, incongruous soundtrack possible? Something that clashes horribly with the angel's prim and proper Southern Pansy energy? Would it be FUNNY? Or would it be CRINGE? You decide!

More after the cut, but first: yes Crowley will be making his appearance here- he's just waiting for the perfect moment, lyrics-wise.

Please have a moment of silence for the people who were killed instead of freed when news of emancipation finally reached the furthest corners of the american south.

have another moment for the ledgers, catalogs, and records that were burned and the homes that were destroyed to hide the presence of very much alive and still enslaved people on dozens of plantations and homesteads across the south for decades after emancipation.

and have a third moment for those who were hunted and killed while fleeing the south to find safety across the border, overseas, in the north and to the west.

black people. light a candle, write a note to those who have passed telling them what you have achieved in spite of the racist and intolerant conditions of this world, feel the warmth of the flame under your hand, say a prayer of rememberance if you are religious, place the note under the candle, and then blow it out.

if you have children, sit them down and tell them anything you know about the life of oldest black person you've ever met. it doesn't have to be your own family. tell them what you know about what life was like for us in the days, years, decades after emancipation. if you don't know much, look it up and learn about it together.

This is Juneteenth.

Slavery was not "200 years ago," the last living former enslaved african american passed away in 2014 at 70 years old.

Chattell slavery in America did not go away, it adapted. It became peonage, sharecropping, vagrancy laws, "chain gangs" or convict leasing, and continues into the modern day prison system and the systematic incarceration of black and brown people and expanded to forced detention of immigrants in modern day America.

Do not believe the common narrative that the emancipation proclamation freed every slave. There are many more who were unable to tell their stories out of shame or fear of harm.

I reccomend that people read Slavery by Another Name by Douglas A. Blackmon or watch the 90 minute documentary / film adaptation

On the one hand, some of it is lovely. It looks thoughtful and aware of GO's queer audience and our enthusiasm. They're also donating all profits to queer charities. That's nice.

But this is all now tied to a show that killed its queer-coded protagonists, that never let them so much as hug even as human shadows of themselves. A show that gave us no answers about Maggie and Nina except that they lost the businesses they loved. A show that killed a queer man between seasons and left his spouse thinking he'd committed suicide. A show that took a fan-favorite nonbinary character and had them die while cheerfully insisting that they had always been an idiot.

Does the store have the right to sell pride merch after that finale?

The store is run by Terry Pratchett's estate and has no financial or business affiliation with Neil Gaiman. Can I take it enough on faith that they didn't endorse how the queer characters were treated in the end?

I did buy these pins, despite my qualms. They're the most overt acknowledgement we've ever gotten of Crowley and Aziraphale connecting with human queer identities. I found that, for all my heartbreak, I couldn't say no to that.

The package also came with a note.

What does it mean that a package that sold me a pin of Aziraphale with rainbow wings also includes a note that says he has no idea what those colors mean? What Pride is? "Aziraphale" thanks me for being me and tells me to love bravely, but can't say the word gay (let alone any of the other words).

Is this the intersection of good intentions and fear of corporate punishment? Or just an empty attempt to maintain ally points?

With a show that concluded with the death of every single character and an attempt to say that our real, nonmagical world was the real happy ending, why include this note that takes place in some whimsical non-time during season two? Maybe Rob Wilkins and the rest of the Terry Pratchett estate are sending little cues that we should ignore the finale. Maybe it isn't that deep and they just thought it would be cute.

My package also included a free bookmark.

And I think this is the best symbol of how Good Omens failed its fans. Saying "Love is Love" with romantic leads who aren't even touching.

he was probably sat at his writing desk giggling about the devastated asks he’d get

he was probably sat at his writing desk giggling about the devastated asks he’d get

I find this oddly... comforting?

If the ending as we saw it was always planned, then that's a huge misstep for me in terms of the narrative arc, the genre expectations, and the faithfulness to the story as presented on screen in season 1.

In the end, S2 and GO3 were not a tribute to Terry Pratchett. That was just a line so that NG could get Amazon and Terry Pratchett's estate on board. S2 and GO3 only exist because NG was greedy and prideful. He saw an opportunity to make possibly quite a lot of money based on the reception of the initial production, and was too proud to admit that he wasn't a good enough writer to pull it off.

We now know that approximately 70%-75% of the book was written by Terry. The original story idea that NG came up with and then got stuck on, so he shopped it around to several writers that he was acquainted with (Terry was the only one he contacted who responded) had a demon as the main character. Terry was the one who had the idea to turn NG's demon into two characters which is how we got Aziraphale and Crowley. Crowley as written in the book and as seen in S1 is NOT NG's original demon character. Terry took the personality characteristics of that original character and split them between Aziraphale and Crowley. I don't know if NG's original character was named Crowley, but they were NOT the same character that ended up in the book that was published in 1990.

I would like to re-emphasize:

The Crowley and Aziraphale that we know from the original book and from S1 are NOT Neil Gaiman's characters. They were created by Terry Pratchett, and without Terry both of those characters and the original story would not exist!

I think that this is really important for us to know, especially those creators of fanfic and fanart who might now be reluctant to have anything to do with the Good Omens story or characters. Yes, both Neil and Terry are listed as co-authors on the book cover. However, in reality, Neil essentially provided a story prompt to Terry, who then took the original idea, expanded and elaborated upon that idea, and wrote most of the actual book. Apparently Neil wrote the scene where Hastur escapes from the ansaphone and proceeds to turn into a giant pile of maggots and eat a room full of telemarketers. I suspect that he might also have written the bit where the hapless deliveryman gets killed in order to give a message to Death. Near the end of the book, when Adam declares that Satan is not his father and never was, and then subsequently restores the world to the state that it was before Armageddon started happening (which brings back everyone who died because of that, including the telemarketers and the deliveryman), that bit, those words, were written by Terry Pratchett. The importance of free will, and that everyone had it all along, they just had to choose it, that was all from the mind of Terry Pratchett.

Part 1