Lights Out

This is my canon ending. I decided so.

👋 Bye!

Aziraphale and Crowley in Hades style! 😊

“If I have one message to give to the secular American people, it’s that the world is not divided into countries. The world is not divided between East and West. You are American, I am Iranian, we don’t know each other, but we talk together and we understand each other perfectly. The difference between you and your government is much bigger than the difference between you and me. And the difference between me and my government is much bigger than the difference between me and you. And our governments are very much the same.”

Then I thought, ‘Well, this is basically like a Newt and Anathema situation, isn’t it? They’re also a couple from ‘opposite sides’, a Witchfinder and a Witch, who get together but also they are explicitly Predestined thanks to Agnes Nutter’s prophecies….”

But the thing is:

Newt and Anathema’s ‘Hereditary Enemies Turned Lovers’ appeal was always pretty minimal. Newt is barely a Witchfinder, Anathema holds no ill will towards him or his ancestor, there is no real friction in their relationship around that part. The predestination part was by far the main focus.

GO1 and especially Book Omens's Newthema does give us a few nods to how Weird it is to know a relationship you are interested in has also been Determined by Unchangeable Fate.

While all the implications of Aziraphale and Crowley’s ‘Soulmates’ status in GO3 is pretty much always played as unironically straightforwardly Romantic. Even after they supposedly break away from God’s control…. “They will always be together in every lifetime and every universe” is supposed to the bittersweet but triumphant message their story ends on.

At least Newt and Anathema get to burn Agnes’ second book and actively choose to try and live together and freely. You could say Crowley and Aziraphale remaking the world and then reincarnating into Human versions who get married is the equivalent of that, but the fact that they have no conscious memory or awareness of their previous lives remove the aspect of Choice.

Also, GO1 and Book Omens are a bit more… ambivalent about the questions of the Predestination Paradoxes and how Free Will factors with Ineffability. “If God planned for everything and the Ineffable Plan cannot be changed, then this means They actually want Humans to disobey the plan and make their own destiny, so this is still part of the Plan” is the piece of Theological Bullshitting that makes up Aziraphale and Crowley’s main contribution to actually saving the world. It is a positive moment in the context of that storyline.

And in general, the tone of the ending of the Book/GO1 when it explores the idea that disobedience and Free Will are actually part of God’s Ineffable Plan is…. Maybe not in a 100% straightforwardly positive, but is definitely kinda sardonically jovial about the concept. Especially when you consider, like, the moment in the book where Agnes Nutter’s ghost chuckles with both foreknowledge and joy seeing her descendant reject her second book.

And the implication that God’s real plan might be to set the stage for a Humanist revolution against Heaven and Hell…

GO3, meanwhile, is of the opinion that this means that there is no REAL Free Will under these circumstances. This is just a hopeless rigged game that will always end with the destruction of the world one way or another, and this such a dire state and Real Free Will is so important that this is worth it for our two beloved Protagonists to kill themselves over it.

So, yeah, it does feel more discordant that the idea of these characters exploring how their Love might have been one of those things that always felt like disobedience and an expression of their own Free Will was also ‘Predictable’ to God and given by Them just…. never even comes up. Because Someone forbids these two actually get to talk about their relationship in any meaningful way in canon, am I right?

And even more discordant that the idea that their relationship is still controlled by some sort of Cosmic Force of Fate is their Happily Ever After???

David said No with an exclamation mark, he said 'he got evaporated and somebody who kind of looks like him got together with someone who kind of looks like Aziraphale but its not the same thing." he said with a hand wave like he was brushing it off.

It even sounds like a anti go3 textpost.

David said its not them, that they didn't get to be together, in his opinion, and the almost pitying smile he gave that fan at the end like 'yeah we both know its not the same thing.'

Like I'm sure he isn't crushed like we are, he's probably had more time to deal with it and like whatever. But he did not sound happy to me, he sounded like he thought the whole thing was stupid but what can be done now?

100 Years - High As Hope (2018)

like, not even great, not even good, but just okay, just safe, sad that it was over but happy that it happened, a closed book with a happy if mediocre ending.

and then it wasn't, and it knocked me entirely off kilter, and the worst part was it completely blindsided me, it wasn't just mediocre, or rushed, or boring, or disappointing.

It was all of those things and also tragic. It made me sad.

and the thing is...before that, I never could have imagined that Good Omens would make me sad, would have me break down in tears inconsolable days afterwards, it never even occurred to me as a possibility.

It was one of the few things I had that kept me safe inside my own mind, it was a talisman against sadness, it was where I walked when I needed sanctuary, and now it feels like there is a giant pit in the middle of my former haven that I have to worry about falling into and being trapped.

because Good Omens made me a promise, as a viewer and a reader 7 years ago, that the world is saved because it is worth saving, that everybody lives, everybody, even telemarketers.

That Anti-Christ's grow up with their best friends in their Kingdom of Tadfield because that's enough of the world for them, that Witches fall in love with Witchfinders, that Prophetesses make their own destiny, that Death and all his friends will ride motorbikes to the end, but not today, no not today. Due in very small part, really just moral support, of a Demon and an Angel who wanted to stay, just a little bit longer, maybe another 6000 years, go for a picnic, dine at the Ritz. That promise was broken, if this is the legacy that they want to give Sir Terry Pratchett I would say its as bad as spitting on his grave.

If he'd really put his mind to it, he might have even succeeded, even though Aziraphale has such a strong will.

It would have made Crowley's life so much easier! If he and Aziraphale were on the same side, if they didn't have to worry about their respective home offices disapproving of their relationship! It would have made life so much easier for Crowley.

But Crowley DOESN'T try. He tempts his angel in small ways, yes. To try food and drink. To enjoy the little pleasures that God's creation had to offer. To be his friend. To see nuance when his superiors are telling him everything is black or white.

But he doesn't try to turn Aziraphale from angel into demon. And the Job flashback tells us exactly why:

"I'm not bringing you to hell, Angel. I don't think you'd like it."

Crowley knows that Aziraphale wouldn't be happy as one of the Fallen. Just because rebellion was the right choice for HIM doesn't mean it's the right choice for everyone.

And not only does he respect that....he protects his angel's innocence as best he can, while still encouraging him to see the shades of gray. He wants them to find a middle ground together.

Mad respect for that renegade demon, who wants to let Aziraphale be *himself* while still learning and growing. It's one of my favorite things about their dynamic. He doesn't want to change him fundamentally, even though it might make his life easier.