Rogue

The conclusion does contradict earlier 'morals of the story' from earlier seasons, crowley and aziraphale should not have been the 'important' ones because they never have been, the jesus plot was botched as hell as much as I loved the callback to the cards he should have been more influential, and the only soul/emotion I got from it looking back really was just from the actors and not the writing.

Tired of people complaining that the show should've had more lore focus on certain things or characters. It's a one season show, we KNEW it would be a once season show. Name me a single 1 season show of the same runtime with the level of depth you're demanding of TADC.

You never wanted a show, you wanted a lore dump and character sheets so you could play with them like dolls instead of actually engaging with the themes of the show.

Plot hole in the fact that they can rewrite the book of life and then choose not to??? Valid and honestly they shouldn't have introduced that as a thing they could do if they weren't going to follow through on it. Then again, Azi and Crowley are not all knowing. They could not reasonably have rewritten the book of life from memory, especially when it is a confirmed mechanic of the book that if something is removed from it people will forget it ever existed with enough time. They would still have needed God's help and while technically for one of their questions they could've asked God about all the knowledge that was in the book the questions they DID ask were very in character.

Next point, for better or for worse, God giving them the choice is basically screaming 'write an au where they choose something different'. If you don't like the ending, you know what to do. If you DO like the ending, it's still an interesting point.

Personal opinion, but I think everyone saying that Crowley giving everything up to give the humans free will is out of character has painted him as more selfish than he actually is. His 'let's run away together' thing was a last resort whe he had no hope left. Given the power to make things right he would never choose himself over humanity. He litterally did not do his job for hell properly because of the fact that he CARES. That care for humans doesn't just come from following Aziraphale around it started IN THE GARDEN.

But yes, the ending is bittersweet. Is it perfect? No. Pacing of the whole finale is kinda wack, the Metatron fiddling with the book of life suggests the 'great plan' may not have actually been the plan, the Michael thing was obvious the whole time, and I honestly don't want to comment on God's actual lines till I've sat with it and rewatched it. She felt very blank to me, but then again as a characterisation of God, blank isn't necessarily a bad thing? I'm unsure where I stand atm especially in her answer to Aziraphales question where she essentially said their relationship was fun to watch. God being that eh about nothing existing but also somewhat invested in what happens between those two seems a little conflicting? Idk I'll rewatch it in July when my exams are done.

But! Tennant and Sheen were as good as ever, I thought the use of a load of characters as humans in the ending was wonderful (jesus and Adam!!!!!) because it shows that while much was lost, much was gained. There are characters in that second to last scene before the south downs when they're at dinner that were NEVER happy, not as angels or demons. And while I know it's not the same characters at all, it kind of proves that Crowley was right to choose to start over no supernatural than to put things back the way they were. The characters we know and care about may not have existed but their counterparts are probably happier than they ever were.

My main issue with it is that it's presented almost as a choice between two options, back the way things were, or free will. If it actually were like this, I would say 100% Crowley would choose what he did and Azi would go along with it it's NOT mischaracterisation. But they're CREATIVE. There could be many ways of doing it and it's not like they were on a time crunch. Honestly it seems like a very forced way of making sure that what Michael did actually had consequences, because basically nothing else of consequence happened in the entire 90 minutes, if they just undid it or found a way around it without any negatives it wouldn't have felt as important. Then again, something so important happening across 90 minutes also makes it feel empty in a way.

Also it basically takes away Gabriel and beelzebubs happy ending =/. I don't think I even saw their actors in the ending? The gutting of the street people wise also kindaaaaa felt like a way to not bring back actors. Not sure what the budget was or if it was more of a scheduling conflict thing but it did feel empty at points.

But yeah, in conclusion, I don't hate it, I think there's quite a few holes, but that was always going to happen given the format. If you DO hate it and you want to ignore it, also fine! Please don't just fill the main tag with hate though that's rude and I'm already kind of tired of it. Love talking about and analysing stuff but complaining without really getting into the meat as to why is just hating for the sake of it. I have missed stuff off of this obviously both positive and negative, one last thing before I forget is can we PLEASE appreciate Aziraphales outfit (and HAIR!!!!) in the opening.