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One of the more emotionally charged arguments I keep seeing between pro- and anti-GO3 fans is how to interpret Crowey and Aziraphale's final request to God at the end. Was it a poetic, noble sacrifice on behalf of humanity, or was it giving up on life in despair?

Obviously, discussions of suicide beneath the cut. PLEASE don't read on if you are not in a headspace for this conversation, I want y'all to take care of yourselves first and foremost.

✨After realizing that Crowley was spending his nights in the Bentley, Aziraphale begins inviting him more and more often for late-night drinking sessions. 🥂He hopes one day he’ll accept his invitation to move into the room upstairs. For now, he’s happy with having managed to get him drunk enough to collapse exhausted on his chest.🤭♥️

THAT'S ME who will forever ignore the finale to draw what makes me (and you) feel better ❤️‍🩹

I canNOT believe we're still fighting over a poorly written, poorly directed, OOC piece of mean-spirited, queerphobic tripe that has as much substance and structural integrity as a house of tissue paper cards in a sudden rainstorm. The garbage that is GO3 should have been relegated to the nearest flaming dumpster immediately upon finishing, and we should have collectively wiped our hands clean of it as it and NG deserved.

Instead, it's turned the fandom into this: a hellscape of defenders saying the rest of us need therapy, that this finale is beautiful queer and ace rep, that all we cared about is a kiss/a sex scene, that Good Omens was never a comedy (bet that would be news to Sir Terry!!!), that they can't be doing xyz bad behavior because they don't interpret the ending that way...need I go on?

Grow up, and get some STANDARDS for queer media while you're at it.

AINT NO WAY AZIRAPHALE WOULD’VE LET THE BOOK BURN.

It’s a BOOK and he’s AZIRAPHALE.

Never ever ever.

But I still don't understand them, and here I want to talk about one of the reasons why I never will.

In the finale, Aziraphale is portrayed as a naive, stupid idiot who simply doesn't understand that "everything has already been decided, you can't change anything! There will always be someone above you pulling the strings, so there's no point even trying. You should have just run away to Alpha Centauri and forgotten about everything. But no, you, you foolish, naive sheep, decided to keep fighting, and look where that got you! You should have listened to Crowley! He told you so! Now do the apology dance, because he was right and you were wrong!"

Practically every character in the film drags Aziraphale through the mud, just as the writers do through the story's narrative. Even though I personally interpret the ending of season two differently, for the sake of this post I'll be looking at it from season three's perspective, that Aziraphale really left because he genuinely wanted to change something (and, for some reason, immediately believed the Metatron without recognizing the threat hidden in his words), while the ending presents his hope and faith as something genuinely stupid.

For two entire seasons, Aziraphale did everything he could to protect Crowley. He loved him sincerely and tenderly, but he understood perfectly well the circumstances they were trapped in. He expressed his love subtly and carefully, afraid of taking one step too far and risking them being discovered and destroyed. Aziraphale always tried to keep their relationship balanced on that thin line where they could care for one another without putting either of them in danger. And Crowley always understood that. He knew the rules of the game, and he willingly accepted them just to stay by the angel's side, to spend time with him, to protect him and help him. He loved Aziraphale just as sincerely, even if his way of expressing that love was more obvious to the audience.

He loved Aziraphale precisely because he loves good food, precisely because he's not entirely immune to hedonism, precisely because he sometimes behaves like just enough of a bastard to be worth knowing, precisely because he can be a little selfish at times, precisely because he isn't perfect. He loved both Aziraphale's strengths and his flaws. He fell in love with Aziraphale's courage, his desire to help others, his kind and pure heart. He values and loves the fact that Aziraphale is willing to stand by his principles until the very end, willing to fight and keep going even when there seems to be no hope left (which is exactly what Aziraphale taught Crowley over the centuries, because deep down, I think Crowley remained an optimist largely thanks to Aziraphale), willing to put himself at risk if it meant protecting even just a handful of innocent people like when he gave the flaming sword to Adam and Eve, or when he saved Job's children while believing that lying to Heaven would send him to Hell.Just remember the way he portrayed Aziraphale at the end of the first season, it reflects how he sees his angel. Brave, courageous, compassionate, full of hope, and never losing his composure even in the face of danger or bastards like the archangels, who treated him terribly.

The ending portrays absolutely everything Crowley loved about Aziraphale as something bad, laughable, and utterly worthless. He was wrong for hoping. He was wrong for refusing, over and over again, to run away with Crowley to Alpha Centauri and leave everyone else to fend for themselves.

(Although I think the foundation of their arguments has always been that they both simply want to be together and left alone, but because of who they are, they pursue that goal differently. Aziraphale might have wanted to run away with Crowley, but he knows that neither of them could ever abandon Earth and the people they've grown attached to. And Aziraphale doesn't want to give up. Crowley, just like Aziraphale, simply wants a peaceful existence away from Heaven and Hell with the angel he loves. But when he panics and believes nothing can be fixed anymore, he's more inclined to give up and focus on saving the most precious thing he has, without really thinking about what comes afterward.)

He's stupid and naive for believing that anything can actually be changed, that they might still find another way. Of course you should have run away with Crowley, you foolish angel! Can't you see you're breaking Crowley's heart? You selfish bastard! Look how poor and miserable Crowley is!

(I want to make one thing clear here: I love and appreciate both Crowley and Aziraphale. What I hate is that the story went from "they're both right and wrong in their own ways, shades of gray" to suddenly trying to tell us that Crowley was the only one who was right, and that only Crowley suffered, because we were never shown Aziraphale's suffering during all those years he spent in Heaven.)

After everything literally disappeared and the two of them were left alone in the bookshop surrounded by nothingness, Aziraphale performs the damn "I Was Wrong" dance. It's as though the writers are trying to tell us that Crowley was right in his speech about everything being predetermined and nothing ever being changeable, which directly contradicts what the book and season 1 based on it were about.

Everyone hates Aziraphale. From the characters to the narrative itself.

And that leads me to one question...

How can you love this film while also loving Aziraphale?

From my perspective, loving this film and loving Aziraphale are complete opposites that simply cannot coexist in the same sentence. The entire film is saturated with absolute hatred toward this character. It portrays him as a stupid, naive bastard who doesn't care about the person he loves, the one he spent 6,000 years beside.

"If it weren't for Jesus, I wouldn't need you," and "Angels aren't killers" - those two lines tell me loud and clear just how "deep" the creators of this "masterpiece" understand Aziraphale as a character.

That's why I feel that the people who enjoyed this film either don't understand Aziraphale as a character, or they hate him, or they're simply not as emotionally attached to him. As someone who identified with him for five damn years, I want to say that the Aziraphale in this film is a pathetic, disgusting, unbelievably stupid parody of that wonderful, brave, courageous angel who was full of hope, full of pain from having to suppress his feelings, who did everything he could to survive, to stay with Crowley, and to do the right thing. The angel who absolutely melts when Crowley calls him a bastard, because that one line contains all of the demon's love for every one of the angel's flaws, flaws he loves just as much as all of his virtues (though honestly, I think Crowley puts them on exactly the same level as his virtues, lol).

The angel who deserved every word of love this world has to offer, deserved to be accepted for who he is, deserved to be loved, deserved peace and warmth.

The finale certainly did its fair share of mistreating Crowley as well, but that's a topic for another post.

It's that Crowley fell out of love with Aziraphale, I don't know how else I'm supposed to read this characterization I saw on my television screen.

It's part of the just complete thrashing Aziraphale receives in the finale for no fucking reason, but Crowley absolutely does not care to give Aziraphale one fucking inch of compassion or understanding. Even when Aziraphale is asking for it, openly. Standing to the side while God tears Aziraphale to shreds, looking on at it smugly like you seriously want me to believe there is a universe in which Crowley would find satisfaction in Aziraphale being hurt. What The Absolute Fuck.

And then the dream that Crowley has been holding onto for the longest time in the narrative, 'Our Side, A Group of the Two of Us, We'll run away together, We Could have been Us.' is just thrown away.

Crowley gave up on that dream, he was the one in the end to give up on them - which is endlessly ironic given how that's what Aziraphale has been accused of in this fandom since the s2 finale - and asks Aziraphale to give up on it too (for nothing)

And then he sees Aziraphale crying, and see's Aziraphale swallow his words and his pain and you're telling me Crowley isn't interested to hear what Aziraphale is really thinking or feeling at all?

You want me to believe there is a world in which Crowley isn't devastated that Aziraphale is too afraid to say something to him? Of all people?

And frankly, I just don't buy it, I refuse it patently, there is simply no way that Crowley falls out of love with Aziraphale after 6000 years because they had an argument and he got his feelings hurt.

Depression can do that, and Crowley is depicted as severely depressed, but what he needs is inpatient treatment, not to be tasked with the fate of the universe.

Besides, he isn’t human. (I know at its base the story is about humanity, because ALL stories told by humans are about humanity, but their eldritch nature throws humanity into sharp relief.) A few years must seem like an eyeblink to him. Maybe it did. Maybe his three-year bender was like one drinking binge to a human (to which we may be entitled after a bad breakup).

Maybe he needed a century-long nap and would have waked up feeling more himself. I would think beings designed for immortality would be resistant to crippling depression.

And here I go, trying to rationalize all the terrible choices of the finale. But it’s the main reason I can’t rewatch GO3–to see Crowley not even react to Aziraphale with a tiny reflex start of recognition, and to watch everyone take a crack at Aziraphale without acknowledging that he tried, he really tried; that he loved Crowley and was loved in return.

What’s the good of eternal love that isn’t eternal, or of “finding each other in every life, in every universe” if they’re just going to end up broken?*

I'd really take issue with the idea that the "atheist" universe without heaven or hell is inherently better than the one I'd existed in before.

We are shown in the finale that, in the new world Crowley asked for, where free will is "real" now, everything is EXACTLY THE WAY IT WAS BEFORE.

All the negative things about the world as we know it, wars and pandemics and injustices, they all still exist in exactly the same way. Because, as it turns out, humans never needed the influence of angels or demons to make good or bad choices.

(Which was well established as a fact in S1, but the finale chooses to forget that. Remember in both the book and show, the narration tells us most of world history's ups and downs happen because of people being "fundamentally people" rather than inherently good or bad. That was a major theme up until S3 decided to ignore it.)

So presumably, the only thing about my life that would be different in this new universe is that there is no afterlife. No cosmic justice. No chance to see my loved ones again, just oblivion.

Everything else about my life, good and bad, would be fundamentally unaltered, because everyone still ended up making the same choices they did in the first universe, if it all turned out exactly the same this time.

Also all the angels and demons got genocided, even if i was blissfully unaware of that in my own little bubble.

So.....am I supposed to be grateful for that? Can I say "no thank you, actually"?

Now I know what you might be saying! Heaven in the GO universe isn't that great, it sounds pretty boring. GO is actually quite vague about what eternity looks like for humans, but it sounds pretty dull for angels and pretty awful for demons.

True, I'd say. But S1 and S2 of Good Omens are also all about characters making the best of a difficult situation by connecting with one another.

Eternity for Aziraphale in heaven would be empty and lonely because he would be deprived of the person he loves most and the earthly pleasures he's grown so fond of--not because of eternity itself being inherently a horrible concept.

That's why he asks Crowley to come back to heaven with him in the Final 15 of S2. Not because Crowley isn't good enough as a demon, but because Aziraphale doesn't want to be without him for eternity. As long as they have each other, they can muddle through anything, in Aziraphale's view.

My point being, I always felt the idea in GO was that you can make the best of a difficult situation by making connections with others and holding onto each other. That THAT is how you can find some freedom in a repressive environment, how you can make meaning in a lonely existence. By loving one another.

That's how all of the humans in S1 overcome their seemingly predetermined roles. The two human couples (Newt & Anathema, Tracy & Shadwell) are supposed to be diametrically opposed. The witch and the witch finder. The puritan and the sex worker. They shouldn't find freedom and companionship in each other, but love is stronger than all those obstacles.

Adam is able to ultimately escape his role as Antichrist because of love: for his adoptive family that raised him, for Tadfield his home, for his friends, the Them. Without that love, yes, he would have been trapped in this predetermined role, but love is what gave him a needed escape from it.

And that's just as true for our Angel and Demon, who have so much more in common than they are different. In S2 E2 when Aziraphale realizes he no longer fits neatly into the angel or demon category, the comfort he finds in his loneliness is Crowley. The two of them walk alone, together. And it gives them both the strength to carry on.

To try and bring it back to my original point... if the finale implies I'll be living under some kind of oppressive system regardless (whether entirely human-made or with some divine/infernal intervention), i think I'd rather live in the version where I might at least have a CHANCE of seeing my loved ones after death.

It might not be perfect, but we might still be able to seize some happiness together because love is what gives us our freedom under tyranny. If the ills of the world seem to be inevitable anyways, because the world turned out just exactly as flawed the second time around??

And then maybe we wouldn't have to nuke all the angels and demons and let them live in peace too??

My point is. I think the finale is basically implying that death and oblivion are true "freedom," whereas S1 and S2 instead argued that LOVE and CONNECTION are what bring us freedom and meaning.

Here’s that Book Crowley about to beat TV Crowley’s ass!

He ain’t havin it!!! NOT ONE BIT!

apeculiarsoul said: 

draw some ducks

Here’s that Book Crowley about to beat TV Crowley’s ass!

He ain’t havin it!!! NOT ONE BIT!

Here’s that Book Crowley about to beat TV Crowley’s ass!

He ain’t havin it!!! NOT ONE BIT!