A Bit Peckish

Again: I don't have an extensive history with this series. I watched S1 years ago, liked it fine, and promptly forgot about it. Fast forward a few years later, and it's February 2026. I get the sudden urge to rewatch the David Tennant era of Doctor Who from my college days, but I am also cognizant of the fact that I am an emotionally delicate little cupcake and don't really want to sob on my couch for multiple hours. So! For some silly reason, I decide that watching Good Omens will provide me with some Tennant enjoyment without the emotional commitment.

...this was a mistake, obviously. Y'all can see that coming, but I did not at the time. So I went ahead and fired up S1, enjoyed it again, and followed it with S2. S2 was... well. That last bit, eh? What do y'all call it... the Final Fifteen? Is that right? Yeah. Yeah, that was upsetting.

But! Fear not, sad little me, for S3 is just around the corner! I managed to get into this right before the conclusion, escaping years of doubt and longing and potential disappointment.

Aaaaaand then I watched it.

I watched it like... a week or two after it came out. After watching the general reception and just kind of steeling myself for it. I'd become attached to Crowley. I enjoyed Aziraphale as well, and their relationship had grown on me significantly in just a few months. I'd read bits and pieces of the original book, and I enjoyed them there, too. So I was trying to prep myself for the emotional disappointment, y'know?

But when I finally watched it, I was less disappointed and more just... weirded out? I think that's the best way of putting it? Like, the whole thing felt so disjointed, so strange, so thematically removed from the S1 and book that I enjoyed, that my normally canon-focused brain just kind of rejected it. I wasn't sad simply because the whole thing just didn't feel like an actual, in-character, thematic conclusion to the story.

The whole conflict surrounding free will: S1 and the book made it pretty clear that free will existed? I think? Like, that was part of the comedy: Heaven and Hell go through all of these motions to influence things, but at the end of the day, humans are just like "meh, we'll do what we want, thanks." Like, that was funny! Crowley doing dumb, annoying things to try to foment evil while simultaneously sabotaging himself and also never coming up with the level of evil humans came up with was funny! Angels kind of being bureaucratic assholes was funny!

It was funny, and it was wholesome. An angel and a demon forging a longterm bond simply because they felt more understood by one another than by their "sides" was wholesome. The Antichrist telling Satan to fuck off so he could go live a normal kid life with his newly-liberated hellhound was wholesome.

And now, as of S3, those things didn't matter? None of it happened? What? Why? What in the world was the point of *gestures* All Of That? Why even bother?

The whole concept of fighting for your current world, of striving to survive and repair things the best you can, of valuing the people and creatures around you for what they are... all of it is just gone. Everyone is gone. None of it ever happened? What. Why would you write it that way. Why would you essentially destroy the entire everything of the actual, canonical book that had established themes and a satisfying conclusion? Why would you rewrite it as "nah, this whole mess is too far gone, so we have to let it die and also destroy ourselves in the process; give the audience a bunch of body doubles living happily afterwards in a world that means nothing to them"?

And S2! Like, S2 on its own seemed less organized and realized than S1, but I figured that that was because it was to be paired with S3 in completing its arcs and developing its themes. Instead, literally everything that happens in S2 is just... pointless?

Like, what the hell was the point of Gabriel and Beelzebub? Why in the world did we spend six episodes chasing Gabriel's memories around and learning of his relationship with the Duke of Hell only for it to not matter in the slightest?

Then there was the Job flashback: a whole plot making it very clear that killing everyone and replacing them with new versions was not the same. Both Azi and Crowley knew this. It was emphasized heavily. And then S3 comes along and we just... ???

God was changed from a creature I actually kind of liked in S1 (passive, kind of eldritch and unknowable, not actually malicious) to the sort of asshole I interpret (and hate) the actual Christian god being. Callous and vaguely entertained by the trials and sufferings of what were essentially her own children whom she was supposed to love. Her detached amusement over Crowley and Aziraphale's entire relationship was actually infuriating to me. Her children were in such distress, and the way she treated them was repulsive to me. The idea that Azi spent his whole life trying to live up to the expectations of this narcissistic twit was... ugh.

The fact that no human characters even knew anything was going on, let alone were able to have agency in their world's fate felt so, so contrary to the vibes of the original work. And that's coming from someone who generally doesn't care for human characters: I was bothered by their omission because it upset the themes the story had so championed.

Gosh, what else... I feel like this is all so disjointed, but I have issues with basically all of it...

Jesus was pointless. Could have been removed from the plot, and nothing would have changed.

My sweet baby Muriel never had a chance to leave their sheltered existence.

Nina and Maggie are just gone? Anathema and Newt and The Them are gone? None of these people, who witnessed and were involved in supernatural affairs, had any sort of involvement with an attempted second apocalypse? Really?

The relationship between Azi and Crowley was just so sad in the end? Like they realized that there was no point in fighting for their own lives and their own relationship and just... gave up. After spending the whole S3 plot angry and upset and afraid and so unhappy with one another. None of it resolved before they both decide to die.

But CF, you may say, what did you expect to happen?

Jeez, I don't know. I'm not a writer. I'm not even a legit GO fan. I don't even go here. But from the way S1 was written, and the was S2 happened, I had some vague ideas of what would make sense.

I thought that Jesus would be a sort of parallel to Adam. In S1, Hell tried to initiate the End Times by sending their child to Earth. Said child took his free will and said "fuck off." Now in S3, it would have made sense to me if Jesus played a similar role: Heaven's child sent to end the world, only to take charge of his own destiny and tell his mother to fuck off. Would have been poetic for the two of them to come together somehow, y'know? Hell's child and Heaven's child coming together to say no and to save their world. A parallel to one of Hell's demons and Heaven's angels doing the same thing.

I thought that Gabriel and Beelzebub would have some bearing on things. Their love and their own, personal choice to leave and pursue their own freedom would act as proof that Crowley and Aziraphale aren't just weird outliers; all angels and demons have the capacity for free will. All have the capacity for love. All can decide to reject The Establishment and pursue their own happiness.

Oh, and the 25 Lazarii miracle! Dang, I thought it would mean something, that an angel and demon working together could achieve such a feat. I thought... I dunno... if the writers wanted to turn God antagonistic, perhaps it would involve some sort of reveal that the sides of Heaven and Hell were purposely being kept apart so that the angels and demons didn't realize the sort of power they had if they worked together. Power that could defeat their creator.

It may just be years of JRPGs and the enjoyment of His Dark Materials in my youth, but I was expecting them to kill God. Or something similar. Christ and Antichrist, aware humans, angels and demons coming together to wrest control of their freedom and their lives from the capricious asshole who created them. All of the people - mortal and immortal - who were oppressed and controlled and contained by this deity and their supposed plan waking up and realizing that they have the ability to free themselves from it.

I guess that's what I ultimately wanted: for all of these people to just be able to live their own lives. Peacefully. Without the fear of their masters hanging over their heads. The humans. Animals. The angels and the demons. Michael and Muriel and Beelzebub and the Erics. And especially Aziraphale and Crowley. Gosh but I wanted Azi and Crowley to just be able to live as themselves, share their lives with one another, without constantly worrying and fearing that they'd be found out and destroyed. I wanted them to have their cottage and their garden and their peace after millenia of doubt and fear. I wanted Azi to be able to enjoy food without guilt. I wanted Crowley to be able to do something kind without getting all defensive about it. I wanted peace for them, the poor dears.

And that's just after thinking about these characters for a few months. I can't even imagine the pain visited upon people who are Bound to this story and these characters. I am so, so sad for people who waited years and had their hearts broken.

There's more I could say. More plot details that are weird, character details that don't work for me. A lot more, but I think I've reached the limit of my coherence for now. Maybe I'll post more later, if I can organize my thoughts again.

Now, I don't doubt that Aziraphale does have self loathing associated with eating food and not being what Heaven deems a 'good' angel. But he has struggled with 6000 years of that, and he ultimately hasn't let it stop him from enjoying the world.

This is the same Aziraphale that tempts a despondent Crowley to oysters in Rome, and the same Aziraphale that gets himself captured in Paris just so Crowley can buy him crepes. The same Aziraphale that in 1967 uses the future prospect of picnics and dining at the Ritz to signal to Crowley what he really wants.

Crowley buying Aziraphale food was one of the unspoken ways they showed each other that they cared.

So why in s3 would Aziraphale initially reject Crowley's offer of a meal and say that it would be a good, upstanding choice to abstain? A better written season would use his reluctance to show how deeply traumatic it was for Aziraphale to be back in Heaven. To show how undeserving he feels of Crowley's affection and forgiveness.

Instead, it just feels like another instance where s3!Aziraphale has been reduced to a caricature of himself and it's no surprise it is only used as a lead in for Crowley to then attack him ("Does that include choosing Heaven over me?").