I have this thing where I get older

So, tags. Tags have become a thorny issue in the Good Omens fandom. I suspect this issue is so pertinent now, two months after the finale aired, because most of us have dropped “GO3 spoilers” tags, which people would have been filtering out if they did not wish to see anything from the finale. The finale is no longer a fresh commodity, so we are all trying to determine for ourselves what the next phase of our engagement with fandom will look like.

In fandom spaces, tags are a courtesy. No one can force anyone to use tags, of course. But tagging is a long-running standard of fandom etiquette across multiple online platforms. Tags are tools that help us find or filter out specific content. But what happens when we disagree on what tags should even be used in the first place? When tags themselves are a battleground?

I have seen assumptions that finale dislikers are demanding that all content with Asa Fell and Professor Anthony Crowley be tagged with “suicide.” It's possible that I’ve missed some significant conversations, but as someone on the disliker side, I have not seen anyone demand that Asanthony shippers use a "suicide" tag on all their posts featuring Asanthony. If anyone has asked that, I agree that it would be unreasonable! But I strongly suspect this perception comes from a game of fandom telephone in which different conversations are being conflated.

What IS being asked:

All content featuring Asa and Anthony should be tagged with their names or their ship name, Asanthony.

The "ineffable husbands" ship name should not be used for Asanthony.

Content warnings are strongly encouraged when sharing visuals of the scene where God grants Crowley and Aziraphale’s request to be removed from existence, specifically the moments as they disintegrate, as this decision is interpreted by many fans as a suicide.

Let’s address that first point now.

Tagging Asanthony as "Asanthony" makes sense. I think most people are already doing this. If you’re not doing this, well… I strongly advise you to reconsider. Tags aren’t just for those filtering out content, but for those seeking it. Someone who doesn’t want to see Asanthony can use this tool to avoid them, and someone who is specifically seeking out Asanthony content can use the tag to find them and share some appreciation.

Where we have some disagreement is the second point listed above: whether Asanthony deserve to be tagged with the general “ineffable husbands” ship name as well. I don’t think we’re ever going to agree on this one. Some people do see them as the same ship, and others do not. Personally I’m someone who does not see Asanthony as "ineffable," but I am okay to concede on someone using the general ship tag for them, as it really does boil down to one's own interpretation. In my view, so long as "Asanthony" is also used, tag them as you see fit.

Now for the third point. This is where I'll be talking about suicide.

Suicide is obviously an incredibly sensitive and distressing subject, one that is highly likely to carry a personal resonance for many fans on all sides of the GO3 debate. I understand why people are upset to have to bring this subject up in their tags when they do not see the final scene that way.

But if you do find it upsetting to even consider using that tag... that means you agree that this topic is distressing, yes? The ineffables' decision was genuinely genuinely distressing for people who interpreted their choice as a suicide. I am pleading with you to understand this: there are members of our community who struggle with suicide ideation, and that scene genuinely triggered some of these people.

You don’t like to see this tag imposed. Well, others don’t like to suddenly come across visuals that in their view shows a suicide. Not seeing Crowley and Aziraphale's decision as a suicide is just as much an interpretation as seeing it as a suicide is.

We will never agree on our interpretations of Crowley and Aziraphale's final request to God and how it played out. The fact remains that the scene where they make this choice and it is granted is triggering to a significant portion of the fandom. This is not a niche opinion.

We won't be able to reconcile our views on this. But we do have to share fandom spaces together. Blocking others who have a different approach to discussing this scene is always an option. But maybe we can also attempt to reach a middle ground in the form of a tag.

I have chatted with others about this, and an idea I have seen discussed is for the fandom to come up with a neutral term for the scene where God grants Crowley and Aziraphale's request, akin to how we settled on “the Final Fifteen” for the last fifteen minutes of season 2. This term should not favour one interpretation over another.

Some suggestions:

The Final Half Hour (or… the Final Twenty? How long is this scene? Anyone clocked it?)

The Decision

We’ve Come to a Decision (WCTOAD? Well, I do like toads)

Please chime in if you have other suggestions!

Like I said at the top, no one can force anyone to use tags. This is ultimately down to one's own discretion.

But I think it's fair to say that our fandom is currently in crisis. The community has fractured — or perhaps it is simply going through some very nasty growing pains. Maybe we can grow with it.

We will never be in a place where we all agree on GO3’s choices. Right now, we are all figuring out how we want to navigate this story and fandom we have all come to love. However we feel about the finale, we are all trying to find new ways forward.

We can argue about who’s right. We can block as we see fit. We can tag or not tag according to our own interpretation to make a point.

We can also decide to make productive choices that will help us all navigate our fandom spaces moving forward. Above all else, we can choose to be kind.

After he had replanted it and hung it up in one of the many empty corner in his flat, Crowley noticed that the room felt warmer. He took care of the plant and the others with mostly miracles until the neighbor had gotten back. When she saw what happened to the Pothos, she asked if he’d accept it as a gift. He didn’t want to admit it, but he had grown attached. He took the plant. That was just the start.

Soon enough, the demon had dedicated an entire room to his plants. His arrangements were extraordinary. The diversity of his plants was astonishing even some that had been considered extinct. There were plants that were meant to be kept in frigid temperatures and boiling ones flourishing in the same room. The room didn’t even have windows. Miracles fixed small details such as those, but the rest of the care was with Crowley’s own hands even if he had to scrub for an hour to get the dirt out from under his nails. 

It may have started as a way to warm up his living quarters, but it soon became an outlet for his darker thoughts. He was the one who was in control now. He was the one who told the plants how to grow and where. But ever since Crowley had begun this new regime, there was always something wrong. A bad leaf or a spot. Something flowered that shouldn’t have. The soil drying up faster than it should. No matter how much he tried to keep his plants in tip top shape, they could never be good enough. Crowley just wanted them to be good enough. Even if he wasn’t sure what that meant. When he heard their leaves shake, he knew he needed to change. He may have not meant to hurt them, but he had. 

Crowley gave most of the plants to the lady downstairs when he moved out after the switching places incident. He took the rest with him in the backseat of the Bentley. He didn’t like using the miracles on them, but there was no way that they could stay healthy in the car. Something about living in the Bentley with the plants gave him a different sense of comfort. The Bentley wasn’t Hell’s. It was his. He had a realization. If the plants were his children, then he wasn’t a great parent. He did the exact same thing that his maker had. Forced them into roles that they were designed for, but refused to let them flourish beyond them. Trying to keep them inside of their pretty ‘boxes’ even when they were made with the ability to go beyond them. He needed to find a better home for them.

When Crowley told Aziraphale this, he offered the extra bookshop bedroom, but neither of them wanted the moisture in the bookshop. That’s when the angel had another idea: the roof. He couldn’t believe that he hadn’t thought of it before. It was perfectly made to hold a gathering. Why not a greenhouse?