Allons-y !

I figured it out.

Man, remember the Holy Water subplot in the S01E03 Cold Open? How it was such a compelling interpersonal conflict because you could totally see where both Crowley and Aziraphale were coming from? How Crowley was just so afraid of Hell and so frustrated Aziraphale didn’t trust him while Aziraphale was also very understandably worried about giving his associate (best friend, love of his life) with known trauma and depression issues the Instant Kill You Juice but he was channeling this concern into something that just wounded Crowley more and then Crowley lashed out and it was such a good emotionally complex moment.

Yeah, no, turns out the REAL lesson of this moment is that it’s not complex, and Aziraphale was just 100% in the wrong! The true moral of Good Omens is that if someone you love is showing red flags of suicidal tendencies, you have to show them that you love them by going along with whatever they ask you to, even if it means their death, even if means your own death, because they’re just so much wiser and more reasonable than you and you have to sacrifice sometimes in relationships and sometimes that means your own life! (: (: (:

It's most obvious with the aimless subplots, which… might have felt less pointless (more pointful?) in a full non-condensed version of the story, but also… if the ending was apparently always going to follow the broad-strokes of Michael destroying the entire Book of Life and Aziracrow making that choice in the Bookshop at the End of the World, it's kinda hard for me to imagine what that point would've been….

But it's also the way GO3 is still cribbing elements from previous 'Good Omens' stuff to support it. The constant callbacks to beloved lines from GO1 and GO2, and the way that it's still trying to use any parts of the original book that have not been used up already. Like the entire "oh no the Mafia wants to burn down the Bookshop!" plotline being a clear outgrowth of that one famous passage from the book…

And Aziraphale turning guns into water guns is also a Book Omens gag that was cut from GO1…

And then there's the 'Climax' constantly using lines from various parts of the Book…

Which is extremely to it's detriment, because even when these aren't literally at cross-purpose with what GO3 is trying to say by saying kinda opposite things in their original context (which happens often enough), it just makes it feel like… well, like nobody writing this had anything wiser or more insightful to say than what was already said in 1990. Crowley's big speech to God that supposedly made Her willing to change the rules of Her game and make a Godless universe is built up of many quotes that were at the start of the Book. It just makes it feel like this story had no idea of how to say original… despite it's apparent ambitious to be an anthesis/critique of the themes and message of the original book…

~ the prettiest star 💫~

inspired by this beautiful frame from the good omens s2 opening title sequence