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The Ending SUCKS because the WRITING SUCKS.

NO, I don’t find the concept of ‘tHeY FiNd eACh oThEr IN eVerY uNivErSe’ beautiful.

1) Because they don’t. There’s zero evidence that this is a recurring thing, thats 100% fandom copium- and even then they don’t have any of their memories and aren’t the same people. THATS. NOT. THEM. And it never will be because people are the sum of their experiences AND THEIR CHOICES. You don’t take a comedy Christian satire and make the solution some Buddhist-esque reincarnation philosophy that requires an entirely new suspension of disbelief no one signed up for or wanted. That’s shit writing.

2) So not only does the finale spit on every theme it had prior regarding championing human choice as miraculous and the world being worth fighting for in all its flaws as it is- you are going to sit here and tell me that actually they never had any choice at all, so they decided to toss everything down the garbage disposal for the next life. That is, frankly, terrible, and nihilistic, and not at all sensible for this series.

Aziraphale and Crowley are a wonderful love story because they were on opposite sides and they CHOSE each other, and they CHOSE to love humans. They chose to be hedonistic and compassionate and selfish and ‘human’ as they were because they knew how to make choices. Their love has always been THEIR choice.

So how can you tell me that the ending is great because they sacrificed everything for humans to have free choice- which they already had by the way- and then say the ending is beautiful because Aziraphale and Crowley are Predestined to love each other in every reality. How is that not massively hypocritical to the concept they are trying to sell us last minute out of nowhere? Is predestiny not the antithesis of what they asked for by your own definition?!

How is taking their 6000 years of choosing each other over and over again, and summing it down to a deterministic soul bond, more ‘free will’ or beautiful than them literally defying cosmic powers just to stay together and eat dinner at the Ritz on a casual Tuesday?!

People act like their life was just complete suffering, but they were perfectly happy on their own earth. Season 1 left them exactly where they wanted to be!!! Together with the Earth. It was so EASY to circle back to that, all they had to do was write it, and no one would have questioned it because that’s THEM and what they want to be doing. If Adam defied Satan for humanity, why would Jesus Christ- who’d already died once for the salvation of humanity- not tell God to be merciful?! Why not have the humans make the choice, rather than Crowley- which is another hypocritical move because he’s making choices for them just like he’s telling god not to!

How do we have any evidence this new world doesn’t have a god? Trust? In the woman who just destroyed the world after having a casual laugh with Satan? Okay. They didn’t trade their existence for freedom, they traded the apple of knowledge for ignorance.

The fact is, is that the world that championed choice and love was the one they came from, not the one they sacrificed themselves for- because choice and love doesn’t mean there are no complications, it means you take a stand and you do what you want anyways.

This dystopian nightmare of an ending where they let the universe die and don’t know each other was never a thought in anyone’s mind until it came into existence with the most shallow and contrived justifications of all time ten minutes before close, and that’s because it’s out of character nonsense.

And I’m sick of hearing ‘they were always gonna be human’ ‘it was always gonna be this way’ like there was rational grounds for it beforehand. No it wasn’t, and it certainly didn’t need to be. At most it was everyone’s joke of a worst case scenario, and that’s what they decided to give us- probably after a quick google search to find out what would piss everyone off the most.

This was Neil Gaiman and his team of horror writers, who probably didn’t even consider the source material, throwing a temper tantrum and abusing the fandom for liking Terry Pratchett’s divine optimism more than his petty ass. They designed every ridiculous contingency in this horrible script to justify their own mess.

The Ineffable Husbands were fine as they were. Even as a Demon and an Angel they were already ‘human’ enough, THATS what was funny. What the hell is so great about being mortal and not being able to have a free table whenever they want, and having to deal with real world shit like taxes, and homophobia, and Dying?

Enough Dyin’. No Maur DYIN’. It’s it’s-ITS NOT ON!!!

THERE’S MOOOORE

But the most disturbing thing to me at the end is that Aziraphale once again puts on a mask of bravery. This momentous decision isn’t what he wants or truly believes is the right thing to do.

He conceals his disappointment with Crowley’s answer to what he really wants and just goes along with Crowley’s decision - out of guilt (over what exactly l’m not sure, see the first sentence above), disappointment, or because Crowley has been right before? Who knows.

My point is, our canonically intelligent angel who has always found subtle and creative ways to defy the higher powers follows Crowley into oblivion on a moment’s whim and against his own will and beliefs.

This was such a mess.

Who wouldn’t shake to pieces, riding that thigh?

(listen. salt and pepper human aziraphale. are we on board?)

Because Crowley? Crowley wants to be the hero. Crowley wants to be James Bond. He wants it so badly it hurts, bullet-hole windscreen transfers and all. Crowley’s deep, dark fantasy is that he can be good - but also a little bit bad. The rogue agent, the wild card, the one who doesn’t follow the rules, and doesn’t much truck with listening to his superiors. Crowley’s deep, dark fantasy is one in which he gets it right; in which he does the right thing at the right time, and has the right witty comeback in the right situation, and instead of being punished, he saves the day and wins the heart of the genderless celestial being of his choice. Crowley’s deep, dark fantasy is one in which he is never not in control of his situation; one in which he bounces back easily and stylishly from all manner of fights and challenges and adversity; where he faces nothing he cannot overcome with the right combination of wit, ballsiness, and a little Hollywood luck. Crowley’s deep, dark fantasy, the one he can never, ever admit out loud, is one where the world is simple and uncomplicated in the way nothing in real life is simple and uncomplicated; a world in which the good end happily, the bad unhappily, the baddies are dispatched in PG-13 fashion, and none of it needs to be questioned or second-guessed at all.

I know they probably don’t have any stomach acids that would spoil the wine in the first place, but it’s still kinda disgusting.

Nina: "She's not embarrassing herself, she's- she's braver than anyone I know."

She stands up for her. She tries to protect her, refuses to let someone talk about Maggie like that. She doesn't just stand there and watch, she does whatever she can to defend her, even though she's a regular human being and these creatures threatening her, Maggie, and Mr. Fell are very clearly not.

And what does Crowley do when God starts dragging Aziraphale through the mud?

What. The. Hell. Is. That.

He just... shifts his gaze from God to Aziraphale with this cold... expectation and... indifference? This dark, detached look? Aziraphale is obviously hurt by what's being said, and Crowley just... stands there, leaning against that damned bookshop pillar, looking at him as if he deserves to hear it. Like, "Well? What do you have to say to that?"

It just gets under my skin. It's unbearable. It's revolting.

That is NOT Crowley.

Crowley would NOT stand by while someone said things like that about his angel right in front of him.

This is NOT the Crowley who, when he thought Aziraphale had died for good, lost every shred of hope and every desire to save the world, and instead went off to get drunk because, without Aziraphale, he saw no point in enjoying Earth or any of its little pleasures.

Aziraphale is the most important person in his life. The person closest to him. Crowley has risked his own life for him over and over again. He is his first, only, and best friend. His light, his hope, his love.

Just being around Aziraphale always lifts his spirits, even when he's irritated or upset.

Aziraphale means the world to him.

And when Crowley played Aziraphale at the end of Season 1, he portrayed him exactly the way he sees him: brave, courageous, smiling even in the face of danger and death, compassionate, forgiving, and full of faith.

Crowley sees the best parts of Aziraphale: his courage, his resilience, his unwavering commitment to his principles even when it threatens his own existence or well-being; his faith in something better; his ability to find light in the deepest darkness; his ability to smile at people who, for centuries, have treated him terribly.

And the fact that Crowley reacts to God's words about his angel with such coldness and indifference...

It destroys me.

I don't know who you are, or why the hell you look like our Crowley.

And let's not forget that throughout most of Season 2 he relentlessly bullied Gabriel and practically drove him toward a window just because Gabriel once told his only friend to shut up and die.

Aziraphale had been working his socks off to make the second coming a good thing. Universal happiness. From what we saw from Jesus' time on earth, he could have pulled it off. But no, the creator, and we're not talking God, the writer(s) chose to have Michael go rouge and kill everyone.

I call bullshit that when given a room full of books to be used as the book of life that Aziraphale’s and Crowley’s first thought is to summon mommy when they could just write the world back in themselves.

I call bullshit that when given the opportunity to ask for any type of world they want that they lack the imagination to bring back the old one just without heaven, hell, and the apocalypse having power over humanity or celestial beings from that day forward.

I call bullshit that they would ever choose to destroy each other.

I keep wondering who that god was. Because Aziraphale, or both of them? potentially created her from whole cloth.

If she was the “real” god (whom we never met at all in the book, and only heard in action through a flashback, written by Aziraphale) and she was determined to be adversarial, they didn’t stand a chance.

But if it was their personal god, a god made up from their traumas and frustrations and all the struggles they had and witnessed, it would have been so amazing if instead of letting her get the upper hand they had written her out of existence themselves. In the end they did let depression and hopelessness win instead.

Where was the Wizard of Oz callback some of us expected? The man or McDormand behind the curtain whose power was never really as great as it seemed? Maybe they needed a human or two (or 8 billion) there to point out that people can take power away from the powerful, especially if they didn’t deserve it to begin with.

Happy Friday everyone!!! With Good Omens Season 3 Coming out on Wednesday, I thought I would dedicate a special bonus list to some of the recent Good Omens MFLs I recently discovered!! Enjoy, and OMG GO S3 ON WEDNESDAY!!!!!!! I've a lot more fics recently MFL'd so I might do another MFL list of Sunday <3

RECENT MFLs

We can be us by Ridiculoushero (G, 1,074 w., 1 Ch. || S2 Fix It, Hurt/Comfort, Kissing, True Love, Hurt Aziraphale, Soulmates, Crying) – Maybe the kiss did change Aziraphales mind.

We Kissed and Said Goodnight by PrincessOfHouseNightstar (G, 2,357 w., 1 Ch. || Post S2/S3 Speculation, Supreme Archangel Aziraphale, Hurt Crowley, Idiots in Love, Hurt/Comfort, Fix It, Angst with Happy Ending, Kissing, Making Up, Fluff) – After Aziraphale asks Muriel to check up on Crowley, he's horrified to learn the demon is not doing well. However, when he takes it upon himself to go and see, he finds Crowley isn't the only one missing him. An angsty and fluffy oneshot inspired by the Season 3 trailer! Part 8 of Good Omens Oneshots

He Fell into the Garden by stets (T, 6,022 w., 8 Ch. || Aziracrow, Garden of Eden, Crowley's Fall, Angst) – Fall into the depths of an angsty imagining of what The Fall was like for the Serpent. Some revision of cannon as we know it, with explanations of "well, what we say isn't always so straight-forward to what it actually means". Also known as "it doesn't always have to make sense. alright?"

a taste of honey by carrythesky (E, 8,418 w., 1 Ch. || Post-S2, Mutual Pining, Idiots in Love, Light Angst, Romance, Getting Together, Furst Time, Love Confessions, Top Aziraphale, Bottom Crowley) – Aziraphale and Crowley have rekindled their old friendship, which is all they want from each other now that the world hasn't ended. Absolutely nothing more. Nothing at all.

for the record! I’m absolutely certain this is not the crew’s intended reading of the finale- the director even suggested that the executor of Pratchett’s literary estate could eventually speak on STP’s philosophy related to the ending, and I think that perspective (one I have no doubt would involve a more uplifting take on the persistence of memory) will be essential for interpreting what the finale was actually trying to say. This is simply an exercise in analysis of how the screenplay might be shaped by NG’s upbringing/background in Scientology, in response to a comment section considering what that connection might look like.

Is literally about bringing everyone back and judging them for a final decision on where they will end up right? A LOT OF LAZARII miracles required? Plus the demons end up powerless in a lake of fire for eternity I believe. Because - unforgivable, amirite?

So everyone was dead at the end of S3...

And S3 went for the - ok so let's do Second Coming new Earth but WITH all the suffering. (There was supposed to be new Earth and new Heaven with no suffering after Second Coming, forever I believe.)

Why?

Why not bring everyone back the same as Adam did? Let people and the universe live out its time. And angels, demons, souls could have been brought back too: Look er, you are free. Here's a whole Universe, it's pretty large, find something to do. Don't start any wars. (In the credits, Star Wars theme starts, or something.)

Jesus was meant to orchestrate all that Second Coming business. So why didn't he? Why didn't they get Aziraphale and Crowley to talk to him? Why didn't Crowley go for the usual - there doesn't have to be any wa- sides. What was even the purpose of 'waking Jesus up'? Why wasn't he aware of what happened after his sacrifice? Why didn't he get to face Mother?

It's just so extremely unsatisfying.

Every day I find new ways to hate the Finale.

Anyway, read my fix it here if you like. Or my before GO3 S2 fix-it - which DID have everyone coming together to tell God off.

Also, if they wanted a sacrifice, I did once write a tiny story about that.