Hoar

I keep seeing people claim that this ending was the only one possible, that the whole narration up from s1 (or even the book) was building up to this finale, that a hard reset of the universe was the endgame all along. I don't see how. Good Omens's original charm was being a parody of all religions (and a bunch of deterministic movies like The Omen). The problem of free will was discussed often with a light-hearted, parodic approach. I'm reminded of when Ligur said "I made a priest look at pretty girls in the sun today: he could have become a saint, now he's going to hell." Isn't this literally a parody of how simplistic religious moral beliefs are? The whole point of GO was not just to mock them, but to reflect on how humans are more complex than that, in a universe where, even if Hell and Heaven are literal and operative, humans still managed to successfully exercise their free will AND avoid Armageddon, even if it was advertised as inevitable by Heaven/Hell. The point was to prove both wrong. Az and Crow were there just to say that “who's to say it wasn't God's plan all along, maybe there were some small-font clauses hidden somewhere in the Plan?” It was beautiful, hilarious, humanist, comforting, open-ended. God was never this evil final boss, overarching puppeteer: the point was that she almost didn’t seem to exist at all and it was just a bunch of humans doing things while claiming a bigger entity wanted them to do that.

My takeaway from the book and first season has always been: Azira and Crowley thought they could impact humanity with their work, then quickly realized they didn't need to do much work AND that both their bosses would never understand that, so they just relaxed and enjoyed the ride lol. What I liked the most about the GO's message was: humans are both bad and good, beautifully human anyway, even in a world with Heaven/Hell, which doesn't impact their lives that much. Dumb Corporate thinks they're pulling the strings of the world, when in fact the strings have always been so loose they could as well be nonexistent: still, humanity is doing just fine. The point of avoiding Armageddon was to protect that world, created with free will and humanity being its beautiful, "human incarnate" self. That Specific Humanity was worth saving, just like Job wanted His Specific Kids back. The best thing was that humanity saved itself! No need for celestial beings basically Jesusing themselves for the world, except what they're saving is the abstract concept of a “free humanity”. Where did s1’s love for That Humanity go? They only save the ideal of it with their sacrifice: was that really the only option? It’s a fictional world, so every writing choice reveals a specific intention and message.

That's why the ending of s3 feels really disconnected to me: suddenly we're in a world where God is extremely involved, humans can never have actual free will, they're all "puppets in her own book", all the messages of caring for others and trying to improve the existing world instead of throwing the whole thing in the trash (The Them at Adam during his power trip), trying to find your footing in life despite your past and your nature (Crowley being a failed demon, Aziraphale struggling with his wavering faith, etc.), all blown out the window! I don't want to say it feels like a retcon, but it definitely feels like they flattened a lot of the previous messages and themes just to achieve the tearjerker ending. It doesn't feel earned, it doesn't feel organic, it doesn't feel particularly satisfactory as a way of tying up all the loose ends. It's nothing short of an "it was all a dream" ending.

TLTR: on where the 3 seasons differed to me:

S1 was hope and humanity in all its beautiful, messy glory, making Az and Crow basically useless, giving them a relative freedom from their jobs. Humanity is the main protagonist, it saves itself, who's to say that wasn't the Plan all along? Sure, there’s the "this wasn't the big one, the next one will be Us against all of Them" line, but it doesn't have to be literal: a well-written sequel could have kept the original themes while exploring other interesting moral conundrums in a clever way, instead of going the cheap route of "it's all bleak, let's press reset."

S2 was a wrestling match between different, opposite outlooks on life: do we stay and try making the world better, or do we run away and choose each other? Is there any reason left to hope, or is the world bleak? Can we reform an unjust system, or is it rigged from the start? A more intimiste approach, a slice-of-life approach, if you will.

S3 doesn't even try to do anything except say from the start: everything is ending, there's no point in this life, all is lost, humanity is doomed, free will never existed, I'm tired boss let's just restart the universe because as long as God exists we'll never be free (in a show from a book that was basically saying the opposite and also, a friggin' PARODY of religion, it was never supposed to get that serious*).

*Small footnote under the cut: