it's been over a month since the film came out, and I still can't shake the feeling that aziraphale got reduced to an empty extension of crowley. he became his burden, his manipulator, the villain responsible for every problem in crowley’s life
crowley ended up at the center of the entire story. the film constantly frames him as a tragic, miserable figure, but a lot of his actions barely make sense. after losing his miracles and bentley, why didn’t he stay in the bookshop? the idea that "it hurt too much" doesn’t really work for me considering how much that place meant to him and how much he cared for it. and after winning at the casino, why refuse the money? it felt less like character writing and more like the story trying to force sympathy: "look how much aziraphale ruined his life." which makes even less sense when they reconcile almost immediately afterward
and then there’s aziraphale. he basically becomes the scapegoat. heaven dislikes him, people on earth blame him for leaving whickber street and crowley, and suddenly he’s treated like some selfish careerist who never truly loved crowley and only cared about his angelic side. the line "you were the best angel" ... fuck. seriously?
what bothers me most is seeing people say things like "crowley suffered because aziraphale kept rejecting him." at that point I genuinely wonder if we watched the same story. how do you watch season 2 and come away thinking aziraphale’s motivations and character weren’t get rewritten?
