A Little Demonic Miracle Of My Own

From the Neil Gaiman: Dream Dangerously :) (you can watch it here in US or with US vpn :) <3)

Terry Pratchett: One day he rang me up and said, "I've started a book and, I think it's good, but I haven't the faintest idea where it goes." So, I said, "All right, well, send me the pages." And I read it and wrote him back and said, "I don't know where it goes either, but I do know what happens next."

Neil Gaiman: I was pretty much nocturnal then, so I would write my chunk of Good Omens before I went to bed, and I'd go to sleep about five o'clock in the morning and I'd get up about one o'clock in the afternoon and my answering machine would be flashing on, and I'd press the button and a voice would say, "Get up, get up you lazy bastard, I've just written a good bit."

look, I remember when I first heard of the Good Omens fandom, and naturally, Aziraphale’s name, I was struck frozen like, “Wait, I know that name. Israfil, that’s a first. Which is what reluctantly pulled me in

(I’m a Muslim)

See, growing up, we have this nursery rhyme for the 10 most important angels that you have to know, and Israfil’s name was right up there (if you want to know, the other nine are Jibril, Mikail, Mungkar, Nakir, Raqib, Atid,Ridhwan, Malik andIzrail)Christians to mention some of them in movies, I mean, you guys have versions of them too, right? So I’ve naturally heard the mentions of Jibril (Gabriel), Mikail (Michael) and Izrail (Azrael), but I was kind of stuck at the mention of Israfil of all angels, so throughout all 6 episodes  I kept trying to remember what his main purpose was, in the nursery rhyme (you know that thing that you can’t think of something purely due to the reason because you’re looking for it?). As the story progressed I began to recall that he was a pretty big deal for starting Doomsday, but it wasn’t until this scene happened;

(I shall update the post as new info emerges)

Source for Season 2:

Terry Pratchett and Neil Gaiman started planning sequel to the book in 1989 - even before it has been published. But because they careers took off and they had an ocean in the  between them, it was never realized it in the 90s. In 2005 they made another plans to write in a year or so but in 2007 Terry was diagnosed with Alzheimer so again the the plans did not come into fruition. 

Neil is taking what he planned with Terry and is co-writing the second season of the show with John Finnemore, a british comedy writer and actor.

How long has it been in the making:

Neil said that they stared planning it three (!!!) years ago. That means in 2018, a year before the first season came out.

Cast and crew:

The casting begun 15 months ago (!) - so in March 2020 but it still seems to be in progress - with Suzanne Smith as the casting director :).

Writing: Neil Gaiman and co-writer John Finnemore.

Showrunners: Neil Gaiman and Douglas Mackinnon (who directed and executive produced the first season) are going to co-showrun.

Executive producers: Neil Gaiman, Douglas Mackinnon, Rob Wilkins, John Finnemore and Josh Cole (BBC Studios Productions’ Head of Comedy).

Music: David G. Arnold, the music composer for S1 is returning.

Actors: The only actors confirmed so far have been David Tennant and Michael Sheen.

Production: BBC Studios Productions, Amazon Studios, Narrativia and The Blank Corporation

When and where does the filming takes place:

The filming will begin later this year. The entire second season will be shot in Scotland.

There will be six episodes.

The plot:

From Neil’s blog: There are so many questions people have asked about what happened next (and also, what happened before) to our favourite Angel and Demon. Here are, perhaps, some of the answers you’ve been hoping for. As Good Omens continues, we will be back in Soho, and all through time and space, solving a mystery which starts with one of the angels wandering through a Soho street market with no memory of who they might be, on their way to Aziraphale’s bookshop. (Although our story actually begins about five minutes before anyone had got around to saying “Let there be Light”.)

From Neil’s instagram: Game on! There are mysteries, histories, secrets revealed and Something Too Terrible To Be Revealed on the way. Also a cardboard box.

From the BBC website: The new season will explore storylines that go beyond the original source material to illuminate the uncanny friendship between Aziraphale, a fussy angel and rare book dealer, and the fast-living demon Crowley. Having been on Earth since The Beginning and with the Apocalypse thwarted, Aziraphale and Crowley are getting back to easy living amongst mortals in London’s Soho when an unexpected messenger presents a surprising mystery.

Not much info yet, but it seems that after the Flop-Apocalypse Crowley and Aziraphale are back to their nice life amongst the mortals when an amnesiac angel appears in Soho. There will be mysteries and we will again visit the past - even before ‘Let there be Light’ (fingers crossed for more Aziraphale and Crowley through history and the angel Crowley :))). There will also be something called ‘Something Too Terrible To Be Revealed’ which sounds very ominous and also a cardboard box is important.

Also, the unwritten sequel was supposed to be called ‘668: The Neighbour of the Beast’ and after the end the boys were supposed to share a cottage in South Downs :).

Promos:

We have a poster:

Like, cool! Possibly new stuff for the Ineffable Duo, but also-

The story was told. It's over. It had a good ending, a kind ending, a hopeful ending that leaves things open to the thoughts of a lovely future we can all imagine separately or together.

I had my decadent lovely slice of cake, but now there's a whole new pastry and I'm still digesting but I'ma.till expected to chow down.

“Dad! I want a Pony” Boom, Pony is at my feet

“Dad! I wanted it black” Boom. Done. Pony now looks like it crawled out of the Black Lagoon.

“Dad! The Pony glared at me!” I get a bottle of glue the next day. I was living the Rickie Rich lifestyle. I can have anything I want.

But the best part of growing up rich, the absolute best part, was that we were able to afford our own nanny.

I love her so much but am goddamn terrified of her to this day. I am a 28 year old man and I live in my own bodyweight of fear towards her.

When I was 1 to when I was 11, we had a nanny in our house. Her name is Nanny. If you call her anything else you will die. Somedays I think that my parents made a Rumpelstiltskin Deal with her before I was born, where instead of taking baby me she just moved in to our house to raid our fridge and judge the world from lofty windows. This is just the first part of the mystery of my nanny.  

She dresses like she is preparing to go to a funeral. And the difference between preparing to go and actually going is that they hadn’t found the body yet. You know when friends say that they would kill someone for you? Nanny would gut a cat if I wanted to play the violin that’s how hardcore she was. She wore red sunglasses because her glare alone could turn anyone to stone. If you squint hard enough you can actually see lasers coming out of her eyes.

Now you need to remember, I lived with this woman for Ten Years. Since I was a baby. This shit was normalized to me. While my parents were in West Wing I was living in the Addams Family. Nanny loved me and raised me and so what if she told me that I was going to lead Satan’s Army someday. That’s just Nanny. But throughout all of this, I never truly understand how terrifying she could be until I was 8 years old.

Picture this: a little 8 year old me, plump and trimmed with baby fat, standing next to Mary Poppin’s evil twin. One day we were going out for brunch so I can, and I’m quoting here “practice giving out orders when the army of hell arrives”

I’m still waiting for them, just to let you know.

So we get inside Nanny’s car, an old Black 1933 Bently which plays nothing but Queen music on cassettes.

I know this sounds fake, but she is a real person and not some Baba Yaga who decided not to eat me.

As we were about to leave, Brother Francis ran out to us. Francis was out gardener. He worked for us for as long as Nanny has, wears suspenders and a sun hat, and I’m pretty sure he ran away from a monastery. He walks up to Nanny and asks for a ride to the local gardening store for supplies. So he gets in the front seat, I’m in the back, and all three of us get on our way.

At 1000 miles per hour in a 55 zone.

Now I’m 8 years old. And no matter how cool your Nanny is, you just don’t pay attention to boring adult stuff like meetings, or finances, or traffic safety laws. So I’m lost in my own thoughts on how to direct my hell army to build myself a waterpark.

I don’t know how long I zoned out because when I snapped back in Nanny and Francis were arguing. Not in the pleasant passive aggressive way that makes you rethink your life choices, but full on yelling. So we are speeding down the road like death is chasing us. Bohemian Rhapsody is playing on blast. Nanny and Francis screaming at each other. Sulfur filled the air, radiant light pulsed menacing around us. Exactly how I imagined what parents fighting would be like. Things came to a head right as Freddy was about to hit his last “For Me!” because that was when this meek looking gardener snapped. Francis turns to Nanny and screams “YOU’RE DRIVING TOO FAST!” yanks the cassette out and pitches it out the window.

And then time stood still.

Have you ever been on a rollercoaster where at the top of the first hill staring down you regret every decision you’ve ever made that led you to this point? That was where we were all at.

Because there were three rules to Nanny’s Bently. Nanny always drives. Nanny always drives fast. And Nanny always drives fast with Freddy Mercury blaring down like her own personal angel.

This is all new uncharted territory for me. I’ve never seen anyone even dare disrespect her angel and plan to live to tell the tale. I was just watching in fascinated horror as this moment just searing into my mind.

Nanny’s looking directly at Francis, you can feel her eye’s heat laser’s charging up. I was trying to think of reasons to tell my parents why we don’t have a gardener anymore. Because even at 8 years old I know a death marker when I’ve seen one and by the end of the trip I was expecting Francis to be nothing but a smoldering piled of ash and a $15 hat.

She looks at him, and takes one hand off the wheel. Still barreling down the road like a madman mind you. But it alright because time’s frozen so we don’t hit anything. And with one hand, she reaches in front of him to the glove compartment, gently pulls out another cassette tape, and places it in the deck.

[pauses]

[sings] “FOR ME!!!!!”

We pull into the parking lot by the time Bohemian Rhapsody ends and I have never looked at Nanny the same way ever again. Because anyone who can play the exact same song on two different cassettes without missing a beat is their own god and needs to be feared.”

What he’s saying isn’t “your headcanon is wrong.” He’s saying “I didn’t write that part, but feel free!” And that is the healthiest attitude toward fandom I’ve seen in years.

If it’s not in the finished product, there is no canon about it. There are no interviews about things that happened off-screen that weren’t even alluded to. What happens on the screen (and maybe in the script book) are the grand total of the show canon. And everything else considered, even his ideas, are just headcanons. 

And that’s amazing. 

But, here’s a good chunk of the fandom backlash against him headcanoning instead of delivering the Word of God:

Without being able to seek the approval of Fandom God, there is no Word of God with which to smack down the infidels who have the Wrong Headcanon. Because surely they can be proven wrong… except they actually can’t, and that ambiguity can be 1. too much to handle or 2. not satisfying enough when you only want it as a tool in an argument. Thus, it becomes time to lash out against Fandom God for abandoning us or withholding from us in our Crusade To Be Right.

New Inktober drawing.

Good Omens Dog the Hellhound 💕