It seems that some people don't seem to understand what's so upsetting about all of this so let me help you out: Aziraphale and Crowley are DEAD.
They died, along with their entire universe and everything they ever fought for. They never got to properly talk through their creation long existence together of an undefined relationship, they never got to talk out their grievances, or religious guilt, and they never got to directly choose each other over anything else.
They never got to be an 'Us.' they never got to experience that raw unfiltered, unafraid of the consequences love we've been teased with because they were too focused on trying to hold the world together and God appearing and just fucking shit up.
This isn't just about a kiss, this is about them not getting to communicate after establishing in the other seasons that they need to be more direct with each other. This is about how after 6,000 years and before the creation of time they have been drawn towards each other and will never get to truly settle down.
This whole alternate reincarnation thing is bullshit. That's not them. They are lookalikes who have lived an entirely different history from inception. No ethical struggles, no fall, no falling in love with humanity, no existential crisis, they will have a mother and a father, possibly even siblings, they presumably have a sex and gender now that's not the same as a non human entity- fundamentally they are different beings raised as different people.
THEN you factor in the fact that their love that transcends time, their long history of trust and learning to choose to protect each other in the face of powers greater than their own, a love that is unfathomable in depth, is just FORGOTTEN.
No Bastille, no War Raid, no Flood, no wall of Eden, no Shakespeare, no Knights, no Bildad the Shoeite and Aziraphale becoming a hedonist, no powering beyond their circumstances- None of what we knew about them is at play. None of what we've grown to love about them is relevant to characters from a DIFFERENT UNIVERSE.
And that's the thing, it's a different universe. They fucking gave up and let the Earth they fought so hard for just be erased. Just like that? That's insanely out of character. What about all the poor mortals doomed to fail that Crowley sympathizes so much with? What about the history and culture written down in Aziraphale's books that they've seen built over the centuries? That's their world. Y'know: "To the world."
How could they be okay with their world, and each other dying, for the sake of people that didn't exist yet? You had the book in your hands, you could've written anything!!!
There were plenty of things they could have asked to be written differently. There were plenty of ways this story could have not put them on that situation to begin with. Sorry not sorry, but I'm not just taking handouts and saying 'yes thank you' just because they gave me content. Call me ungrateful, but I expected the narrative to at least give a singular fuck about the story and characters thus far and give us a decent execution.
I don't believe that just because something is officially released that it has to have merit, because it's still a piece of fiction written by flawed people with their own opinions and constraints on giving a shit. This was a cop out- it was a way to take the story as they were struggling to resolve, and throw it in the trash in front of its fan base for having the audacity to ask they don't leave us on a massive angry kiss cliff hanger.
Also, reading comprehension and analysis isn't just taking the slop that's force fed to you- (like wow, no shit they put some set up for the agenda they're pushing in there, congrats picking up on the obvious---) It's being able to critically think about what's happening, how it fits, whether you like it, the execution, and allowing yourself to question the author and their agenda. Writers, especially teams of writers, do stupid shit all the time
So no, I don't consider this canon; I consider it a slap in the face to the world and character dynamics we fell in love with. I see it as an insult to think I should be complacent with this half assed AU substitute billions of years after the characters I actually grew to love fucking OBLITERATED themselves when all I've been wanting since the start of the series was for them to find a resolution to their challenges- not roll over and decide 'fuck it, just start from scratch.' Canon is a suggestion, and one that I'm stepping on and ignoring fully because it contradicts the core of what's appealing about a series I started for demon/angel shenanigans. I didn't come for a wattpad fic.
Screw Jesus, who knows why he was there. Fuck Mrs.Sandwhich, best of luck in the next life. Sorry for the existential crisis' Crowley and Aziraphale, turns out you're just God's soap opera and she's decided she's bored all of a sudden because Michael threw a hissy fit from being underappreciated.
Sorry I wanted a resolution to the ride or die couple we've been following, and I was hoping they wouldn't pick DIE. Sorry that a five minute meet cute with them sporting the world's worst haircuts isn't doing it for me, especially when they don't remember shit and will only get to be together for maybe 20-30 years before dying with the presumably confirmed absence of an afterlife after watching their angel and demon selves struggle for over SIX THOUSAND YEARS!!!!
I wanted a resolution to the ineffable husbands, not some doppelganger fuckery. Sue me. This ending sucked because it resolved nothing, it accomplished nothing, and it shut down everything PAINFULLY because they are effectively dead, and all the accompanied interesting world building with them. Just switched the whole ass genre on us. You thought this was a Star crossed religious fantasy romance? PSYCH, now itās a dime store novel. Yeah, thatās what I signed up for. Not.