one of the things that dissatisfies me about s3 is the 'war in heaven' scene, because it sort of encourages the viewer to take crowley's fall more seriously than we're potentially encouraged to in the book (and even the first season of the show).
from a shippy perspective it's a really fun scene. and i know that there's a general impression the fandom seems to have formed around crowley's fall, with some amazing fanart and fanfic portraying it as a dramatic and heartbreaking affair... but one of the things i like so much about the original story is that, in it, crowley genuinely doesn't seem incredibly troubled about his fall. i really think, in the book at least, it was, for him, not much more than 'sauntering vaguely downwards', because while hell is definitely portrayed as a scary force that can and does do bad things to its subjects, joining that 'side' was sort of just something he fell into and has had to stick with ever since, even though he doesn't really believe in hell's mission. the fact that he ended up as part of hell's 'staff' is not something book!crowley frequently troubles himself with or tortures himself over - even if the threats he receives from his bosses every now and again do genuinely frighten him.
a lot of folks hc that crowley jokes about his fall to hide how traumatic it was for him, but i actually don't think it was intended to have been particularly traumatic, or even a dramatic spectacle, in the book. the fact that it was sort of just something that vaguely happened to him is deliberate, in my eyes - it points to the arbitrary nature of the 'sides' he and aziraphale are respectively on. the whole point is that the 'sides' themselves don't actually mean much in the end, so to paint crowley as someone who's tortured about the fact that he fell thousands of years after the fact is really interesting in its own right as a piece of fanon, but also feels to me like it isn't entirely true to one of the things the book was trying to say.
the tv show, from the 'before the beginning' scene in s2 onwards, definitely leads us towards this idea that falling was dramatic and difficult for crowley, and further cements it in the 'war in heaven' s3 scene. that's an interesting new angle to bring to the tv version of crowley's character, and we now understand why that impression of crowley's fall is impressed upon us - to lead up to the scene with god and satan in the bookshop and make the dialogue in it more meaningful, for one thing. but the version of crowley i will always favour is the book version/to some extent s1 version (the s2 1827 flashback and how it potentially informs the s1 1862 scene does mean the s1 lore ends up feeling slightly different to the book when it comes to this, as does the scene with crowley's book of planets in his flat), where his relationship with hell is basically a representation of a shitty (government) job, albeit with scary bosses, who intermittently interrupt his regular routine of just 'getting on with it'.
