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I just watched GO3 this morning, and I have been periodically engaging with fan content throughout the rest of the day (mainly on Instagram and here).

Something I've found genuinely surprising is the amount of people who HATE the ending.

I agree that GO3 had issues - some plot lines felt irrelevant (like I understand why Jesus was there and I LOVED Jesus's character, but it didn't really do much but serve as a way to get Crowley and Aziraphale back together), however, that is more of a signal that everything was RUSHED (thanks to Neil Gaiman being a fucking awful creep; I also found out the Jon Hamm has allegations and Micheal Sheen has allegations of domestic abuse [I need to do more research; please do your own research on these topics))! That was my main drawback of the show (in writing terms), was that the plot was rushed and underdeveloped. But I don't really understand the hate for the ending.

I've seen two main points come up, which I will address:

1) It just doesn't make sense - I highly disagree. GO has ALWAYS been about humanity- the good and the bad. Crowley and Aziraphale LOVE humans and Earth, they developed their "own side," rebelling against Heaven and Hell to fight for it.

Thematically, the show has always focused on CHOICES. In Season 1, Adam chose to use his status as the AntiChrist to prevent Armageddon and to maintain a (semi) status quo, living with his parents and friends, and developing his own person. In Season 2, you not only have Gabriel and Beelzebub choosing eachother over Heaven and Hell and running off with each other, but you have Maggie and Nina developing their relationship with the help of Aziraphale and Crowley. Lastly for Season 2, you have Aziraphale choosing Heaven over Crowley, trying to make things better in a corrupt and manipulative system.

Now in Season 3, we see the consequences of these choices - Crowley is homeless and heartbroken, Aziraphale is stressed, and Armageddon is coming once again. The same thing that brought the two closer in Season 1, is helping to repair their relationship in Season 3.

Now for the choice to rebuild the universe without gods, angels, nor demons:

Crowley and Aziraphale love each other, but the thing that brought them together was their love of creation and humanity. As Aziraphale was enamored by Crowley's love for the universe. As angel and demon pre-earth, Crowley was enamored by Aziraphale's kindness in spite of authority. With the garden, Aziraphale and Crowley chatted over their fascination and appreciation for humanity, Crowley impressed with Aziraphale "loosing" his sword to protect Adam and Eve and they lying to God herself about it. I could go on, but you get the point - their love for humanity spurred their love for eachother. So of course they would chose humanity, they would chose the thing that connected them in the first place.

Also, another thing I love about this ending is that they are BOTH doing what they argued about in the ending of S2. Crowley is destroying the rigged system and finally freeing humanity from being cards in a game of Solitaire for a God. Aziraphale is helping humans and saving the universe (albeit, by destroying one), but he does it by playing God's game- by still creativity aligning himself within her system.

Both thematically and in character, this ending fits. It's sad yes, but it fits.

2) 6000+ years were just thrown away - Ok, yes - their relationship died with them (excluding finding each other as humans), but was it really thrown away?

Besides what I discussed in Point 1 above, they had 6000+ years to know and love eachother. Yes, in the past however many years between S2 and S3 their relationship was rough, but that doesn't ignore 6000+ years together. They had their time, with the trauma they had from Heaven (and Hell for Crowley), and it was time to let go. Sometimes, relationships aren't going to last, and that's ok. But in my mind, the human versions of Aziraphale and Crowley show how deep their love was, and that with or without Heaven and Hell, they will always fall in love.

The relationship wasn't thrown away, it literally transcended time, space, and reality.

And even if they put everything back the way it was, would they really be happy?

Ok, now for some smaller points I agree with:

"How could we have been happy, knowing that we were leaving all these people to goodness knows what awfulness?"

1) There was no real apology - Yes, I think Aziraphale should have had more time to apologize and DEMONSTRATE his apology to Crowley. I also think there should have been some discussion about consent with the kiss. BUT, I understand that there just wasn't enough time to do so. That is again, on Gaiman being a FUCKING DISTUGSTING CREEP.

2) There was no "final kiss"- I agree, a "final kiss" would have been nice. But I've been thinking about romance and GO. Gaiman did confirm that the angels/demons were asexual, but I wonder if there is some aromanticism involved as well? I was initially disappointed that "all we got" was Aziraphale kissing his fingers and putting them to Crowley's lips (which was still cute) and then the wedding bands, but, is kissing really needed to show romantic love? Obviously, for the humans, we saw that Asa and Anthony had wedding bands, they did get married, so of course they are in love in some fashion. But with Aziraphale and Crowley, we already KNOW they're in love - why else would they protect eachother, help eachother, and care for eachother for over 6000 years?

On top of that, is reciprocal romantic love even necessary? We know Crowley is in love, but what if on Aziraphale's side, it's more akin to a Queer-Platonic Relationship (QPR), again, with aromanticism added into the mix. That doesn't make their love for eachother or their relationship any less deep or valuable, just different than the norm.

And like I said at the beginning: this was clearly rushed; there wasn't enough time to really develop the subplots nor Ineffable Husbands, so we'll probably never know, we can only speculate.