#ilarual

He starts holding his own little mini-rebellions, gluttony being a big one, as well as just in general being an incorrigible hedonist. He starts talking to Crowley more and more, going from occasional chance meetings, to starting a tentative friendship, and eventually to the Arrangement.

Note: I hear you saying Crowley was the one that started their relationship but are we pretending that the grouchy lil demon wanted anything to do with him in Rome? Oh no no no, the first step was always Aziraphale. He was the one to shelter Crowley, he was the one to hold up conversations [see: “Fancy seeing you here! ... well allow me to tempt you(to some oysters)!” and of course the “dear fellow” in King Arthur’s court] Personally I don’t think Crowley saw Zira as much more than a means to an end until much later. I’ll write another post on my thoughts on Crowley at some point but for now it’s meme time.

Now, I’d like to make two points. 

One: After the sword, he takes a massive step back with his rebellions, but when they all go unpunished he gets bolder and bolder again as the years go on. Going from simply blending in, to enjoying human life, to being a glutton, to the arrangement, to befriending a demon, to lying to Head Office and so on.

Of course his final rebellion is definitely the biggest, there’s this absolutely brilliant post from @ilarual l that goes into more detail about just how amazing it is, but the TLDR is “Basically, Aziraphale backflips out of Heaven with both middle fingers in the air, and frankly I think it’s amazing.“

Two: He’s only ever concerned about what will happen to Crowley. How many times do we hear him say “it would destroy you”? [Talking about hell finding out about their Arrangement, the holy water, etc.] He’s so worried something will happen to Crowley but not to himself. Yeah sure you can read that as Crowley’s a demon and Zira thinks he’d be more concerned with his own self interest than he would be with what happens to an angel, you can read it as Zira’s so in love with him that the idea of a world where Crowley doesn’t exist is worse than one in which he dies himself, or you can read it as Aziraphale doesn’t think anything will happen to him. 

Basically what I’m saying is Aziraphale doesn’t fall for the same reason his phone continues to work. For the same reason Crowley’s watch keeps time even though the batteries are long dead. Now this post right here (thank you @theniceandaccurategoodomensblog​ for your absolutely amazing analysis) goes into much more detail about how miracles work in the Good Omens universe, including covering how one must wholeheartedly believe something for it to work in an unconscious miracle without a shadow of a doubt in your mind.

Well, Aziraphale lied to Gods face, he’s been consorting with a demon for ~6000 years, he rebels against heaven, and lies to his superiors, and he still hasn’t fallen, so why should he think he would fall? He’s already done so many rebellious acts, why should it cross his mind that actively trying to stop the apocalypse and in the end being the one to do so, would be any worse than any of the other lines he’s crossed over the millennia?

TLDR; Aziraphale is Archer and he doesn’t think he can fall so unequivocally that he miracles it into existence, thank you for coming to my TEDtalk.

(Image source)

No, I don’t actually think this is at all the case, I don’t think this is how Zira thinks at all, and I don’t think this is why he doesn’t fall, but I do think it’s funny as hell to think about. I would like to draw your attention to this amazing explanation on Crowley’s fall by @anotherhappydinosaur​ because this is the explanation I truly believe, I think it’s beautifully written and very in line with the show and themes and characters, but this thought popped into my head and I’ve been laughing at it since so I wanted to share.