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There's a line that really sticks with me, about Crowley being an optimist at heart, underneath it all, and believing that no matter what, the universe will look after them. He doesn't give up when it looks like the Apocalypse really is going to happen after all. He doesn't give up on humanity. And it's that optimism, that he's specifically gotten from all his time spent with humanity, that sets him apart and allows him to exercise free will to go against the Ineffable Plan.

And there's another line by Pratchett that the ending makes me think of: "It may help to understand human affairs to be clear that most of the great triumphs and tragedies of history are caused, not by people being fundamentally good or fundamentally bad, but by people being fundamentally people." Maybe the solution all along would've been to just let all the other demons and angels have that exposure to humanity too, to help them realize they're also people.

Wasn't one of the major thematic points the fact that no one is completely good or bad, we simply make choices, therefore the dichotomy between heaven and hell and angels and demons is an illusion? Both demons and angels suffer and are lonely under the system. Wouldn't it have made more sense to create a world where angels and demons can have the opportunity to learn and grow with humanity the way Aziraphale and Crowley did?

The finale doesn't actually address these points because they remove the problems by just starting everything over, which is in direct contradiction to everything they fought for in season 1 and with the Job minisode.

I agree that the ending should have always involved dismantling the system and creating an entirely new one. But it should have been a new system in the world they knew with the humans they'd come to love, and allowed everyone a chance at redemption. Or at least the autonomy to choose for themselves.

Crowley making one choice for the whole universe and undoing all of their work isn't thematically consistent and doesn't actually address anything that's been introduced this far. Why go through the trouble of establishing all this world building just to erase it?

How is the new human world better? What is the consequence of no heaven and hell other than Crowley and Aziraphale can be openly together (in the time period they occupy. I'm pretty certain homophobia would still exist)? Is the human experience fundamentally altered? Wasn't the whole point that humans actually do what they want regardless of heaven and hell's agenda because they're unpredictable and have imagination?

Isn't one of the themes from season 1 that the four horsemen, war famine pollution death, are actually man made concepts (well except for death)? And that one of the reasons Adam left the world as it was was because he felt humans needed to take responsibility for the earth and have the opportunity to fix their own mistakes? Isn't that why he didn't rebuild the whale population? Doesn't killing off all the humans and not letting them have a choice in making the new world really undermine that?

Isn't one of the themes that humanity is worth saving, and one of the major points demonstrating that theme being there are two nonhuman beings who still love humans despite witnessing them commit the same mistakes over and over? Isn't that nuance kind of lost when they become human themselves? Then their love for humanity is more self preservation and without the benefit of a long term view. DO they even love humanity as much when they're humans? I didn't exactly see a lot of general human love, mostly interpersonal romantic connection between them two.