not the coolest but a little interesting

Rosetta’s Comet in Gemini

We know Crowley doesn't embrace being a demon and isn't proud to have fallen. And we know he has abandonment and self-esteem issues, is convinced that he "just couldn't cut it" and "was a terrible angel". I'm starting to think this is the real nature of Aziraphale's sacrifice. To erase Crowley's trauma (and it is Crowley who makes the call!) even at the expense of their love. The thing is, Aziraphale doesn't love Crowley because of his trauma. He loves him despite it, and he loves him both with and without it - that's why Asa falls in love with Anthony. That's also the reason Anthony is starmaker-coded. He is what Crowley would've been if he hadn't lived in a universe sentenced to pointless destruction.

And like, Crowley isn't giving any grace to any angels or demons who could have the same opportunity he has always been fighting so hard to earn. He spent thousands of years carving out a life beyond Heaven and Hell's expectations, yet his decision denies others the chance to do the same.

I always end up circling back to this, but Beelzebub and Gabriel are exactly why this choice doesn't work. Their story proves that angels and demons can change, choose each other, and walk away from the systems they were born into.

And Crowley and Aziraphale aren’t just witnesses to that, they are living proof of it. They are their own example. They know, firsthand, that despite being celestial beings, angels and demons are capable of questioning, changing, and choosing differently.

There's also Muriel, who grows curious and fond of humanity. And if we include those sweet little interactions Muriel seemed to be developing with Eric in the finale, that's yet another example of a demon beginning to form a dynamic outside of Hell's expectations.

A choice like this also deprives Eric of the opportunity to grow beyond the only world he's ever known. Just like Crowley once did, these celestial beings deserve the chance to question the system he was born into, form meaningful relationships, and decide for himself who he wants to be.

So while yes, it was Michael who destroyed the Book of Life, Crowley choice in the end was just as bad. They took away every angel's and every demon's chance to grow beyond the roles they were assigned.

And not just that, but refusing to save the world they loved makes Adam and Jesus role in the story even more futile. Their entire purpose was to prove that the world was worth saving despite its flaws, that humanity, with all its messiness, was worth fighting for.

And what about Maggie and Nina? In Season 2, they quite literally confront Crowley and tell him that his meddling in their lives wasn't appreciated. Their lives and relationships are theirs to figure out, not his. Crowley respects that.

Which is why his choice in GO3 feels so contradictory to me. He chooses a godless and angelless universe without giving anyone else the chance to decide whether that's what they want. Humanity doesn't get a say. The angels don't get a say. The demons don't get a say.

Not even Aziraphale gets a say. Which also bothers me because they are a team. So why does it end up feeling like Crowley’s perspective is the one that defines the outcome? Why is his vision of what the universe should be the one that gets imposed on everyone else, even Aziraphale?

I saw a tweet that said that Aziraphale's lack of agency in that moment and his tendency to go along with Crowley's "righteous" choice even when he's not fully certain, parallels how Aziraphale used to follow Heaven.

That’s what makes it uncomfortable for me. Because if both Heaven and Crowley end up occupying that same space of “the one who decides,” then the story risks repeating the same dynamic it critiques, just with different names attached.

There is something so somber about Crowley’s “no us.” This phrase lands like a final severing of the possibility they’ve spent millennia building together.

Framed through the idea of “free will,” it becomes even more complicated. A decision meant to preserve autonomy ends up erasing the very people who have been fighting for their own future all along.

For a lot of viewers, that’s what makes the ending so sickening. These are characters we’ve watched consistently choose the each other and the world. So the idea of their entire shared existence being removed in the name of freedom feels deeply contradictory to what the story itself has been building toward.

Season 1 and 2 show us that they’re always thinking about each other, and the fragile world they’ve learned to care about together.

Crowley adores Aziraphale—there’s no question about that. And Aziraphale adores Crowley just as deeply. They’ve spent so long building a shared life, forming memories in a world they both came to love and protect.

And in that sense, both of them are smart enough to understand what’s at risk when the Earth is on the line. They’ve spent too long on it, lived too many moments in it, to treat it as something disposable.

In the end, however, we get a strange choice that arguably parallels the Biblical Flooding: a sweeping, top-down reset in the name of fixing what’s broken.

Instead of allowing the story’s central theme of free will and change to play out through its characters, the resolution feels like an external intervention that wipes the slate clean rather than letting the world continue to evolve.

This ending frames Crowley as a hypocrite, and it reduces Aziraphale from a co-equal participant in their shared story to someone who is simply carried along by the decision rather than choosing alongside him.

And when talking about underrated GO fics I always have to mention these two (not self-rec) favorites of mine from the same author with such unique concepts that are done so well... the latter is inspired by Michael Sheen's Bright Young Things! https://archiveofourown.org/works/51437755 and https://archiveofourown.org/works/50211907

https://archiveofourown.org/works/62956930

https://archiveofourown.org/works/20238556

I wrote this before S2 came out, so it isn’t canon compliant after S1 if anyone cares.

After Crowley saves the books, his feet are badly burned, and Aziraphale tends to his wounds. Much more ancient scars are discovered in the soft light of the bookshop in the process. Some of them can be healed tonight - others need more time.

Adam's actor who was present on set just to grab a drink from a bar: "Am I a joke to you?"

And when talking about underrated GO fics I always have to mention these two (not self-rec) favorites of mine from the same author with such unique concepts that are done so well... the latter is inspired by Michael Sheen's Bright Young Things! https://archiveofourown.org/works/51437755 and https://archiveofourown.org/works/50211907

Throw away all that bullshit of Nina going bankrupt, get it out of your head it never happened okay? okay cool.

Now the exact same scene where Aziraphale gets a dressing down from Mrs. S and she walks away, and Aziraphale is just left standing there.

The camera pans around a hurt Aziraphale to the sidewalk where a blurry figure approaches.

"Oh my goodness, it is you! Mr. Fell!'

Crowley sleeping in an alley and drinking himself to oblivion night after night can work as comedy when he's a handwave away from a comfortable bed and sobriety. And that's the tone it's presented to us in, as comedy. Which fits because that's the tone of the previous seasons as well. We know he's not human, the usual human rules don't really apply.

But then we learn he can't do miracles. He can't sober up, so he's getting the full blackout drunk experience, including waking up the morning after. He can't miracle his clothes clean. He's sleeping rough, exposed to the elements. Even if we assume his corporation isn't subject to hunger, temperature fluctuations, and the negative effects of that much continued alcohol consumption, waking up soaking wet because it rained again in London, with a hangover, isn't going to be a fun experience. And it's been a few years! So throw winter weather into the mix. The more you consider the implications, the worse it gets.

There are things he could be doing to improve his living situation, but they're more work than a snap of the fingers, and he's depicted as severely depressed. Motivation to make things better, even if the task required isn't particularly difficult, tends to be thin on the ground once that sets in.

If you start ballet at 16, you are too old to ever expect to be able to do it seriously. If you start at 12 you’re too old. If you want to do ballet as a serious thing, as a career, you need to start at like eight years old or even younger, because your bones and joints need to be trained while they’re still flexible in order for you to be able to perform many of the required motions and stances of ballet. In particular, you need to be able to perform turnout of the hips, but all of your joints in your legs and feet will be affected, and this irreversibly changes your body.

And yet! Nobody talks about this as a negative thing! Little girls say they want to be ballet dancers, and if their parents have enough money, that’s what they get to be! Does it cause problems in later life? Yeah, sometimes! Often, even! But nobody talks about that because it’s a thing for cis people to do and so naturally it’s all fine!

By the time I was done dancing at age 18, I had been through physical therapy for 3 separate issues caused by ballet. The worst one was because of how my hips and muscles developed and it cause discomfort in my knees so bad that I couldn’t walk very far without pain, much less climb stairs. One time at a pt session, a neighboring patient, who was elderly, said I was “too young to be here”. I was in middle school so I rolled my eyes. It was/is funny to me.

I am 23 now, and I still get stiff in some places, and I’m sure it is related to dancing as a kid. I snap, crackle, and pop like Rice Krispies.

I have no regrets because ballet and was a big part of my life. I just know that it will have long term effects on my body and there is nothing I can do to change it.