Can't stop thinking about your Crawleigh drawing, its so compelling. I feel sad for him getting rained on all alone...has he been on earth alone all this time? Will you draw him again? Is there a way to learn more about his story?
OOOOOH you have no idea how delighted I am that I received this ask ! You just enabled me to drop all my Crawleigh feelings out in the open. Thank you so much for that.
First of all, for those who might have missed it: here the fanart @yeoldehetalianā is referring to (yes Iām showing it again because I love Crawleigh heās so baby)
If you are not aware: Crawleigh was the proto version of both Crowley and Aziraphale in Gaimanās first draft of what was going to become Good Omens, a little piece of writing called William The Antichrist. After he sent it to Pratchett, the latest made the excellent suggestion to split Crawleigh into the two characters weāve come to know and love.
From memory, here is what we learn about Crawleigh in William The Antichrist:
-is baby
-not very good at being a demon
-waited for the plumber a whole day
-didnāt do any evil deeds because he was waiting for the plumber to arrive
-the plumber never came and Crawleigh was really put out so he said nothing
-saves all the neighbourhood cats from trees they get stuck in
-canāt be mean to humans because well they are nice to him so ???
-has been tortured in Hell after the whole Atlantis debacle (which implies that he was the reason Atlantis sunk I guess)
-drives a Citroƫn 2CV
-doesnāt seem to really have any magical ability ?Ā
Uh maybe thereās something else but I donāt remember. But you get the idea. Heās baby.
In the picture below (yay ! new Crawleigh fanart !) you can see Crawleigh and his entourage of cats. I was conflicted on whether the rescued cats would take a liking to him or if they would be scared of his demonic aura, but I couldnāt bring myself to draw the Bad Cat Ending so, there, new headcanon: all the animals Crawleigh rescues take an immediate liking to him and their presence become an every day life nuisance. Kindness contains the seed of its own destruction lmao)
So, considering how GO works with binomes and mirrors, I decided to back engineer WTA by removing the duos.
Crawleigh is a mix of Crowley and Aziraphale; there are two other characters that are respectively a mix of Anathema and Newt and a mix of Tracy and Shadwell (not entirely sure what that would entail tbh; so far Iām imagining two female characters, and Anewthema is the most fleshed out. Sheād be something like the descendant of both a witch and a witchfinder and would be very conflicted about her heritage, having troubles making sense of magic being a thing when she has raised rationnality to a degree that it has become a dogma. Or something like that. Anyway I think thatās a cool base.)
Now about William himself, the Them and the mirrors. I thought, by removing the duos and therefore the mirrors, Crawleigh would end up trying to stop Armageddon all by himself. This means that one of the core themes of GO, the fact that people have to work together and every contribution, as little as it is, is never unsignificant, isnāt really applicable anymore. Because the theme has to be shared by all the protagonists. In GO, Adam can refuse to destroy the world because not only does he like the world, but also because heās got a whole network of support.
So I think, if Crawleigh ends up having to try stopping Armageddon on his own, that should be the link at the very least between him and William (I would have said between him and all the other main characters but letās be honest: a story where none of the main characters interact together is not very appealing). And thus we get a story that isnāt about relying on support of other people but on doing the right thing and gaining self confidence and loving yourself even when all the odds are stacked against you and you donāt have anyone to really rely on.
I would imagine Crawleigh beginning the story as an obedient (tho ultimately useless) demon with little backbone and regrets and no self confidence, and through the pressure of Armageddon, discovering a very strong and very good part of himself that would end up with him saying fuck to Hell and repairing his plumbery all by himself.Ā
As for William, well, he would go along the same way. I donāt think heād have the Them with him. At least not yet. Maybe heās a little weird, has trouble making friends. Maybe the other kids at school make fun of him. Maybe there is this group of kids that seem cool but heās too shy to approach them.Ā
And I imagine after a pep talk from someone ( Anewthema probably ? After all Anathema is the one talking to Adam in GO so itād be fitting ) William would realize that because his life sucks a little itās not by destroying the world - a world that he actually loves ! heās built up a fort in Hogback woods all by himself! he loves nature and animals! - tht itās gonna get better. He wonāt be able to make any friends if there is no one around to make friends with. (This adds the non neglectable bonus of making the HorsemenĀ āfriendshipā offer all the more tempting to a young boy who has never really had any friends and is aching for it).Ā
So ultimately, Crawleigh and William would be likeĀ āyes, I am weird. Yes, I am alone. Yes, it makes me suffer. No, Iām not gonna be a bastard because of it. Maybe itāll get better, maybe it wonāt, but Iām gonna do my darn best to take care of myself even if nobody else willā.
So, itās less cotton candy than GO, but I think itās a great message to pass along. Self love, self discovery, self confidence, staying true to yourself even in dark times. Also the fact that being alone / single is not necessarily a bad thing, can be a choice and something you can live with very well. Crawleigh and / or another one of the main characters would end up likeĀ āI am actually fine like thisā.
And... thatās pretty much it. There, youāve got all my thoughts and reasonning about, basically, how I would have decided to write the whole William The Antichrist novel lmao. Iām not gonna write it though. But if anyone feels inspired and want to give it a go based on my ideas, by all means. Feel free to borrow or to contact me if you want to brainstorm more ideas / make a collaboration.Ā
Why not. Iāve got too many Crawleigh feels.
