I think one (of the many) fundamental problems with GO3 is that, like, the one area where you could confidently say that the New Universe is Objectively Better than the Previous Biblically Literalist one is the matter of the Afterlifeโฆ even though it was barely brought up in the actual conversations leading up to that Decision. I mean, this is technically what Crowleyโs mess of โwhy make people and then punish them for acting like peopleโ Reheated Book Quotes speech was aboutโฆ but then it immediately segways into a discussion about โFree Willโ, which is what ends up as the textual justification for the Universe Reset, even though that doesnโt make sense on several levelsโฆ
โฆBut getting back into something resembling being on-topic. At the very least you can say that yeah, what weโve seen of the way Heaven and Hell operates as an Afterlife in the original GO Universe was pretty Shitty. It was implied that it judged Souls via very harsh and inhuman standards (considering how few โtop-rate musiciansโ managed to get into Heaven), the idea that Crowley was trying to convey in that Frankensteinโs Monster of a speech stitched from his Book Omensโ counterpartโs internal musing and Book!Adamโs arguments is that the complexity and moral grayness of Humanity shouldnโt be judged by a flat Moral Binary that deems them either Good enough to an Eternal Reward or Bad enough to an Eternal Punishment. And you can also certainly say that the whole concept of an Eternal Punishment is too harsh of a fate to condemn anyone too.
But the fundamental problem here is that Good Omens has never really spent any significant amount of time actually exploring its Afterlife and its implications, like, everything Iโve said so far has been extrapolated from what are mostly throwaway jokes + one part of Adamโs debate with the Heaven & Hell bigwigs that was already cut into basically nothingness in the show. The one extra detail the show actually added to make that point is a glimpse of what Hell is like to the Mortal Souls condemned to itโฆ from the perspective of a bunch of Nazis. Which, likeโฆ yeah, Iโm technically morally opposed to any Human being getting tortured by Giant Spiders for Literal Eternityโฆitโs kinda hard to feel bad when it happens to Literal Nazis.
So having the entire justification for the Finale revolve around this feels kinda out-of-nowhere. Which is maybe why the actual text of the episode tries to make it all about โFree Willโ insteadโฆ. (I also suspect there was a fear itโll end up as a โthe Good Place did it better!โ Situation). Which came with its own set of problems instead. And, like, obligatory acknowledgement that GO3 was a heavily condensed version of itself and itโs possible that the full Six-Episode Version of the season wouldโve had more time to explore the Afterlife and why it must be abolishedโฆ but itโs also pretty telling that any of these elements or plot points that mightโve existed ended up being totally cut during the Great Condensing.
โฆI guess outside of one mention of Joshua not being able to meet any of his loved ones in Heaven because theyโre โdeadโ? Is this implying the standards for getting into Heaven are so strict and counterintuitive that Edward Elgar got in but not the Virgin Mary? Do the Human Souls who make it to Heaven just get stuck in some sort of Metaphysical Cryogenic Suspension until the End of Days? Is this basically the same thing as the Non-Afterlife everyone gets in the New Universe? I mean, exploring that might mean the Jesus Subplot would have a Point, so I guess we canโt have that!
And, you know, all of this does make me think more about the other little scattered pieces of information about the GO Afterlife we have. Because, again, the story never really focused on that before, the whole point of โGood Omensโ is that it cared more about the living material world than anything to do with Heaven and Hell, so it was never really important to give to us some coherent view of the Afterlife, it just kinda went โwell, you probably know how this goes, right?โ And that was enough for the story GO1/Book Omens was trying to tell.
All of this to say thatโฆ Roaming spirits exist in the Good Omens universe. Thatโs just a thing in the Cosmology that Aziraphale thinks is normal. Spirits of the dead hovering around Earth is a Thing in the GO Universe.
Is that an alternative third option to Heaven and Hell? Or can Souls pop-in for a visit from whatever Afterlife they got assigned to on occasion? Is this Unfinished Business Rules orโฆ what? Would there be any negative ramifications to allowing more Spirits to hang out around Earth rather than being stuck in Heaven or Hell?
And then also, like, the one time in the original Book we got a description of what itโs like to die, it does seem to beโฆ no Afterlife?
(And no one else resurrected later by Adam seems to have any memories of an Afterlife either)
I guess the implication is maybe that Heaven or Hell wouldโve collected his Soul later? Or maybe that with both Heaven and Hell being preoccupied with the upcoming Armageddon they temporarily stopped collecting Souls? But doesnโt that implies that it would actually be very very easy to stop the Good Omens Afterlife System and replace it with, at the very least the Nothing that the ending wants us to believe is the Objectively Better Option? Or is the part of your Soul that goes to the Afterlife not the same part that has Continuity of Consciousness with your living mind? Do the Good Omens Afterlife play by SOMA Rules?
Another thing that I think is implied by the Book is that the Souls won for Hell and Heaven gets conscripted into fighting in the Great War. Which I suppose help justify why Heaven and Hell are so invested getting more Souls when the only thing they really care about is winning the War (also I guess whenever I call Crowley and Aziraphale in the Book complicit in Cosmic Imperialism, I also need to shame them for being Metaphysical Army Recruiters).
"Dammed" can refer to either Damned Mortal Souls or Demons ("It's not too bad, when you get used to it"), but I think the 'smoking gun' for me is Aziraphale's little TV Speech, ranks of 'them', as a separate group from 'us' (Angels).
But itโs also one of those things that make one wonder whatever resolving the War between Heaven and Hell would also just kinda naturally resolve all the Afterlife Problems for the Humans too. Wouldnโt that would just make them lose all interest in both acquiring new Souls and in whatever happens to the old ones?
โฆI really donโt have a snappy conclusion for this post or anything. The Afterlife in the Good Omens Universe is Obviously Bad, but itโs also presented in a way just not detailed and not focused enough that itโs very very hard to justify why it could only be fixed by a Total Universal Reset. GO3 Bad and previous material doesnโt really build up to it, what else is new?
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