Good Omens 3 Finale Thoughts
!!!SPOLIERS!!! WARNING: THE FOLLOWING IS ABOUT THE FINALE OF GOOD OMENS--CONTINUE WITH CAUTION:
There has been a lot of debate about whether or not the finale of Good Omens was good or bad. Many of the reviews of Good Omens 3, especially on the side where people are saying "Oh, it's bad," are very black and white in my opinion. So, I wanted to take a moment and express my views on the ending of Good Omens.
*Note: I'm not saying the people who vehemently dislike the Good Omens Finale are wrong or overreacting. They do make solid points; however, the main thing they seem to be mad about is that Aziraphale and Crowley became human. Which is fine, okay, it's a bit sad*
That said, here is my interpretation and opinion(s) about the Good Omens Finale:
PART ONE: THE SECOND COMING AND THE DISAPPEARANCE OF THE BOOK OF LIFE:
The second coming was about Jesus returning to Earth and helping us humans be better people to ourselves and others. Aziraphale was flustered and practically running around like a chicken with its head cut off. Meanwhile, Crowley and the human race were dealing with the fallout from the events in the bookshop, along with Aziraphale's disappearance. I admire the dedication of the creative team behind Good Omens, as they brought to life these vital moments and showed us the utter devastation of the street in Soho, which we've all come to love and adore. The attention to detail and the emotional beats hit perfectly with the brokenheartedness of not just Crowley, but every business owner that ever knew Aziraphal and the single street in Soho where they felt like family.
Their whole world is quite literally shattered when the book of life is stolen, and each page is destroyed. The sense of control is fractured into a million different cracks that slowly yet rapidly disintegrate into a million tiny pieces. Aziraphle has to steel himself as he makes the decision to return to Earth and to Crowley because he honestly doesn't know what to do, and he needs help, but most importantly, he wants to apologise to Crowley. He just doesn't know how. Somehow, being in Crowley's orbit again makes Aziraphale feel whole again. They are working together as if Aziraphale never left, yet there is still a slight sting of resentment in the air mixed with a forgiveness that never has to be spoken. Aziraphale and Crowley working together once more in the throes of utter chaos and the literal end of all life itself is overwhelming, beautiful, and bittersweet. Though there is a change to their dynamic because their entire world is disappearing faster than they can figure out how to stop it.
This is where Archangel Michael comes into play. They stole the book of life because they've always felt underappreciated and doubted their entire existence. They've also been lonely for over six millennia and are unsure if the angels around them really care about them or not. A character that the audience hasn't really appreciated much, however, we did see them in all their stubborn glory. The last draw was being passed over as the new Supreme Archangel because destruction was never really going to happen because God's plan was ineffable. However, it was not God's plan after all. God didn't actually want to destroy the world she created, though every good creator knows that to create, one must first destroy.
Speaking of God, no, she did not win. The ending was not about winning or losing. It was about compromise and the promise of a universe that was not controlled nor created by any God; however, that does not mean that the idea of a God or Gods will never exist. Religion is a tool used to soothe a chunk of the human race by telling them that there is a place they will go after death that is indicative of their actions while alive. (i.e., Christianity and Catholicism) It's also a tool used by depraved minds to control certain parts of the human race by convincing them to believe in a prophet or messiah figure that is there to torment and abuse them into an afterlife of servitude and abuse (i.e., cults). All that said, yes, religion will still exist in every version of our world. It's a crutch that a good chunk of the world can't seem to get rid of. There's nothing wrong with religion, until religion is used to abuse, torment, and discriminate against people who were never the enemy and who were never meant to be abused, tormented, or discriminated against in the first place.
We all have the free will to question, influence, and change the world into our ideal image; not everybody has the same ideal image of our world. That is the beauty of free will. We all have the right to believe in whatever we believe in as long as it doesn't hurt anyone in the process. Yes, we have free will, but that free will does have a limit. That limit is our conscious awareness of right and wrong. Though right and wrong have become grayscale when certain contexts are provided. The world has always been in shades of gray (light and dark).
PART TWO: THE END OF THE WORLD AS WE KNOW IT AND THE CREATION OF ANOTHER WORLD--OUR WORLD:
The entirety of the finale culminates in the bookshop. This is where we see that part of it is a GARDEN. In the first season, God said, "This story starts where it shall end. In a garden." Well, Aziraphale and Crowley end up in a garden with bookshelves, which is symbolic and personal to Aziraphale and Crowley. They both met each other again in a garden (the Garden of Eden) and ended their eternal journey coming back to a garden (the garden in the bookshop). This is where Aziraphale and Crowley have a serious conversation about how to move forward and save a world, not necessarily their own. They know that if they saved their world, Heaven and Hell would both ceaselessly and incessantly try to destroy the world just to prove each other the superior force. Which would cause them to be constantly pitted against each other. So they made a decision, understanding the consequences of their decision. For once, Aziraphale and Crowley were on the SAME SIDE. They were finally becoming an "us."
God had told them that making this decision would cause them to no longer exist as they are, an angel and a demon. Thus leaving an opening for Aziraphale and Crowley to exist as humans, having the ultimate free will to just exist and be an "us." Though this was not a guarantee. Aziraphale and Crowley were prepared to sacrifice their ENTIRE existence for the sake of HUMAN KIND and TRUE FREE WILL, even if it meant Aziraphale and Crowley never existing. This sacrifice was a heartbreaking and symbolic moment in their lives. It meant giving up everything they had fought for up until the fallout of the second coming. It's important to understand that Jesus, in his short time on Earth the second time around, did help people come together and helped them to make peace before they all disappeared, leaving Aziraphale, Crowley, Satan, and God in a bookshop to discuss the next phase of the second coming.
A discussion that ended in a sacrifice that the new world--OUR WORLD--will never understand nor appreciate. Though all wasn't actually lost. Aziraphale and Crowley did end up existing as humans and did find each other again. They finally became an "us." They retired to a cottage in the South Downs.
The world that Aza and Anthony Crowley exist in is OUR WORLD, or at least a version of it. A world where the notion that God created the universe and the notion that no God created the universe both exist in tandem with each other. The thing is, a chunk of the human would rather believe in an invisible force of power being responsible for the creation of the Earth, while more rational, science-backed minds would rather believe and explain that no, the universe was created by a big bang of a star supernovating, creating new life, and our solar system. Are both notions wrong? No, not necessarily. People have the FREE WILL to believe in whatever they want to believe in, as long as that belief doesn't cause physical or psychological harm to another individual or group of individuals.
All that said, yes, Aziraphale and Crowley reincarnated as Aza Fell and Anthony Crowley in a version of OUR WORLD. (i.e., the REAL WORLD)
PART THREE: A BITTERSWEET ENDING THAT MANY FANS DISAGREE WITH:
Was the ending sad? Yes. Was it heartwarming and sweet? Also, yes. Does this make it a bad ending? No, it does not. Just because you don't like the ending does not mean that the ending is bad. How else do you guys think we would have gotten Aziraphale and Crowley spending the rest of their lives together in the South Downs? Do you guys really think that Aziraphale and Crowley enjoyed being eternal beings unable to be an "us" and forced to watch the atrocities of the human race over and over and over for over 6,000 years? Our own history around the world is nothing but bloody violence and death. Over what? religion, land, and women. The Holy Crusades weren't strictly about religion. It was actually a war to gain land and servants so that the King could rule the whole world (well, what is the modern-day United Kingdom [UK]).
You guys really think that Airaphale and Crowley wouldn't want to have a blank slate and to start all over without the burden of higher or lower power constantly threatening their very lives and existence if they even thought of being on the same side? Aziraphale mentioned repeatedly throughout Season One that Heaven wouldn't like it or tolerate it if Aziraphale were seen fraternizing with a demon. I'm pretty sure there's a similar sentiment in Hell about demons fraternizing with angels. It's not directly stated. It's the subtext to every line that Aziraphale and Crowley have said throughout season one and at times season two.
The show itself subtextually and visually explains that angels and demons cannot be on the same side. For Heaven and Hell would not allow it. So, the only option left for Aziraphale and Crowley to be together without the fear of persecution for being together is to be human. Besides, if you go back through the show and watch Aziraphale's and Crowley's moments, you subtextually sense that they would love to be human and not bound by the rules of Heaven and Hell. For being HUMAN is the ultimate freedom. Aziraphale and Crowley can now live out the remainder of their lives TOGETHER as HUMANS named Aza Fell and Anthony J. Crowley; unburdened from the responsibilities and requirements they were forced to take on in their past lives.
In my opinion, the ending is beautiful and bittersweet. Even if we got six full episodes, Aziraphale and Crowley would still become humans in the real world, which is OUR WORLD. With this context, a single thought crosses my mind, and has been crossing my mind since the first season of Good Omens; and it's this:
PART FOUR: WHAT IF THE SECOND COMING ALREADY HAPPENED? WE JUST DON'T KNOW THAT IT HAPPENED:
The ending of Good Omens is very meta. The world in which Aza Fell and Anthony J. Crowley is the real world, which one can say is a version of OUR WORLD. If the second coming already happened, then that would mean that Michael Sheen and David Tennant are possibly the human forms of Aziraphale and Crowley. Michael once said in an interview that working with David Tennant on Good Omens felt kismet, and he and David just clicked as if they were friends their entire lives. It's true that they were fans of each other and still are to this day.
However, I just can't shake the feeling that Michael Sheen and David Tennant are human variants of Aziraphale nd Crowley who just wrapped the fictionalized story of their past lives. This could be wishful thinking and some projection of Michael's and David's characters in Good Omens onto them because they aren't really their characters. However, that doesn't mean they weren't ever their characters at one point in time. Michael Sheen is an activist, a not-for-profit actor, and at times seemingly a literal angel. He paid off people's debts, donates to charity, brings awareness to certain situations that are happening around the world, and is genuinely a kind, loving, caring person with everyone's best interests at heart.
David Tennant himself is a kind, caring, and loving individual. He cares about the world and the human race as well as caring for the ones he loves the most. He wants to live in a world where everyone is equal and is caring, open-minded, and willing to be decent human beings. Like Crowley, David just wants to be able to exist in a world that won't prosecute or judge him and his family for just existing and loving who they love. He, too, clicked with Michal when they worked on Good Omens together. He and Michael became close friends and confidants. It's almost as if they were soulmates or something else entirely. Two souls who find each other in EVERY universe.
PART FIVE: BOOKS OF LIFE:
Speaking of universes, I've also come to realize that EVERY book, Play, and screenplay ever written is a book of life in itself. Every biography, autobiography, fantasy novel, crime thriller, psychological thriller, romance, religious text, etc are ALL BOOKS OF LIFE. For all the characters, real and/or fictional, don't realize that they're in a book that contains a story that somebody wrote. Even the person who wrote the book doesn't know that they, too, are in a book.
Which means that we are all Gods in our own right. What I mean is that God has the power to create a life and a universe where the created life lives and dwells. What do you think Authors, playwrights, and screenwriters do when they write a book, a play script, and TV and/or film scripts? They are creating life and a universe for said life to dwell in. Thus, we, the human race, are the gods of our existence. Think about it. We created Gods and Goddesses to explain and rationalize our very existence and our purpose in life. We created life to explain our lives. Thus, we are the God and Goddesses that created OUR book of life. For the Gods and Goddesses could not and do not exist without us, the HUMAN RACE, creating them in the first place. This is actually what LOKI, the god of mischief, stories, fire, and lies (which are actually truths that we just can't handle or believe could be truths, so we call them lies instead), questions at the end of the "Loki: Agent of Asgard" comic series when he's in the white space where the "gods" and "goddessess" dwell. He asks a simple question, "Did we create them or did they create us?"
This is also echoed throughout Good Omens, especially in the final moments of the finale. A big bang created OUR universe, thus allowing evolution to take place, which eventually led to the human race. A chunk of this race just cannot accept that their universe was created by a star supernovating into what is the Milky Way galaxy. A similar process that most likely created the other billions of galaxies that exist in the seemingly never-ending expanse we call space. This chunk of the human race doesn't want to admit to themselves that we most likely don't really have a true purpose or reason for existing other than evolution and the drive to live despite our situations. We just are. We exist in the animal kingdom and are part of the circle of life. We're born, we live, and then we die. It's that simple. However, somewhere along the way, we wanted to find a purpose to existence, so we created stories about a Baleveont God, who created the Earth, the universe, and humans to live together and do God's will, whatever that is.
This eventually led to the creation of fictional worlds, people, and entities that don't realize that they're fictional. As time went on, two authors met, collaborated, and published their only co-written novel that brought to life a whole world, full of people and entities living alongside each other with something bigger looming in the future. The central figures of the store were the most loved. Eventually, this novel became a TV Series that brought to life the angel and demon struggling to find THEIR meaning in THEIR world. Then something magical and meta happened. THEIR world became OUR world. Two worlds overlapping with each other in seamless harmony. However, one of the worlds had to disappear for the other to exist. Like an author ending one book series to create a new book series. Thus allowing for the creation of multiple books of life.
Don't you see? We've been Gods and Goddesses this whole time. We created so many books of life that encompassed so many different and unique worlds and people. We are Gods and Goddesses who created the universe in which we live. Without our imaginations and our creation magic, none of these worlds would exist. We ARE the architects of our world and our futures. THIS is the meaning of the final moments of the Good Omens Finale. This also means that yes, fan fictions are books of life too. So go ahead and keep your worlds alive. Those universes deserve to thrive.
