Payton

that he blushed when he described crowley as a wily adversary (keeps me on my toes)

that he smiled when he realized the bentley was back without a scratch after having blown up

that he refused crowley a suicide pill

that he kept an eye on crowley for 26 years after 1941, then sought him out and gave him the holy water so that he didn't have to get it himself. but i can't have you risking your life. not even for something dangerous. if we must quote it then at least let's quote it right.

that he went to hell for crowley and made sure they wouldn't bother him anymore

that he only ever cared about crowley not being destroyed

that no way aziraphale didn't check on crowley in three years

5. Crowley "never truly fell"

This is a misconception about Crowley that came from the TV show. The narrative the show tried to push in Go3 was that Crowley was still an angel at heart?

Aziraphale insisting Crowley was the best angel (and implying he still is). This is something that never happened in Season 1. There was no reason for Azi to start thinking this either but it happened.

In a discussion on Discord, someone reminded me that Azi said he knew the angel Crowley was in the Job minisode. This moment was probably more to say Azi knows Crowley has some goodness in him. (At this point, Azi still consider angels to be good). The GO3 writers seem to take this literally. Guess Crowley is "still an angel" lol.

Jesus calling Crowley an angel, Crowley can speak his name: First of all, Joshua not knowing the difference between a demon and an angel? I thought he was supposed to treat Crowley the demon the same as anyone else and would be aware. I guess Crowley never fell so Jesus believed he was an angel?

And why wasn't Crowley affected by Jesus' name? Without the angel Crowley thing, I would have assumed maybe because Crowley became friends with Joshua back in the days and thus granted the privillege of speaking his name as a demon. Guess not. Apparently he's an angel still huh?

Misintepretation of Sauntering Vaguely Downward

I remember seeing someone's theory about the War in Heaven scene. They interpreted it as "Crowley didn't fall because Aziraphale left him at the Eternal Flame and we didn't see him fall. So maybe he went to Hell on his own. They suggested that's what "Saunter vaguely downward" means. That he is still an angel.

I guess he just gained those animal traits from nowhere then? Okay...

If TVCrowley was still an angel physically, he shouldn't have been able to survive the Hellfire execution.

That War in Heaven scene was just another way to take away the beauty of their first meeting in Eden. It tied to nothing in the actual story of the Finale. I would have rather they showed us something about the BoL, or Jesus given a tour around the world by Crowley etc. At least that would tie into the story.

Even if you take him "still being an angel" in a more metaphorical way, as in he is mentally still an angel, it wouldn't work anyway. TVCrowley asked questions, challenged God's plans, did demonic things...

-> This speculation is unlikely to be true.

A few other things that have been affected by the narrative of GO3

The Fall: Season 1 Crowley said something along the lines of "I never meant to fall.", and briefly mentioned following Lucifer's gang just to suggest better food.

This was very funny to me. I loved it. I thought it was to show the hypocrypsy of Heaven (That they would punish anyone who challenged their management despite their good intention but consider themself the good guys, and saying all rebels/demons are evil).

But now with the context S2 and the Finale, apparently Crowley really did feel bad about his fall? That he had always been a perfect angel forced into Hell? That he had always been thinking of humanity? (as said in previous rant)

It seems that all the nice things Crowley did in Season 1 wasn't because there is a little bit of goodness deep down, but because he never stopped being an angel. The point of Season 1 was that: Everyone has a bit of good and bad inside them. Not "Oh look this poor demon never wanted to be a demon. He's been a good boy all along"

The Story of Job: Mentioned in my previous rant. I guess Crowley didn't hurt any animals at all in his life. Still is a good angel, am I right?

The Blitz/Magiic Show: You mean to tell me, the demon who dropped a bomb on a church and later gave some office workers functioning guns, had never used a firearm. Ok, sure, I can see it as a cute characterisation. I loved the whole magic show by the way! To me, this scene is canon because I love Crowley being a disaster and pretend he knows all about things, but turns out it was all a bluff. Like how snakes try to look scary but they are just scared.

But now with the context of him being the best angel, this feels like another way to make him a good boy.

I read a post about how the magic show proved Crowley wouldn't choose death. It's good! Click here!

-> The writers of GO Finale must be confusing the traditional concept of "angels" with how angels have been depicted in the show.

--------

Let's go back to the source material: Book Crowley was a demon and owned it. We don't know what happened that made him a demon, but we do know what being a demon doesn't trouble him. He loves the mischief (which we rarely ever seen TV Crowley do after Season 1, by the way).

The nice instances of Book Crowley were when he resurrected a dove, and when he allowed the paintballing humans to use guns but have miraculious escapes, for example. But keep in mind, this was not at all tied to his angel self. This was all him. As his current identity. He loves being a demon, but he also doesn't cross the line. He has his own moral codes. I love him for this.

"Sauntering vaguely downward" doesn't mean he never became a demon. It's more to say he is a demon but also not acting like a typical demon would. He has some compassion and kindness in him. It's not because he's an angel inside. It's because that's who he is.

Personally, whenever I write Crowley talk about his time in Heaven or write him remembering it, I usually have him refer to angel Crowley in third person. "They/them", "My/His angel self"... etc. Because to me and probably to Crowley, that is a completely different identity.

I believe GO3!Aziraphale saying he was and still is the best angel after 6000 years of "friendship" would be such an insult to Crowley (especially Book!Crowley) for the following reasons:

Like the point I made in my comic, It feels to him like Azi didn't love him for who he is, but loves him for the angel he was.

Aziraphale, of all supernatural beings, must have known the true nature of Heaven by now. Aziraphale, in-character, would never use "good" and "nice" to describe an angel after all the things they have been through together. Aziraphale calling him an angel would mean that he is acting like how the angels we saw have been acting. (See below)

It makes him feel like he would never be good enough for Azi. He knows he enjoy being chaotic and making everyone's life harder. I will always be questioning everything and disobey authorities. If he sticks to his personality then he wouldn't be the angel Azi expects him to be.

I don't blame Crowley for not defending Aziraphale anymore or falling out of love with him after that.

Gotta talk a bit more about Aziraphale: TV Aziraphale in the Final 15 of Good Omens still referred to Heaven as the good guys, and wants Crowley to be an angel again. I was very critical of this because the writers undid everything he learned from Season 1 just for this. Did he forget that Heaven tried to kill him? Did he forget that the angels PUNCHED him? Did he forget all the things Heaven did to Job and many other humans in the name of God? He should have known by now! That's his whole story in Season 1. To learn that Heaven is shitty and he shouldn't rely on them! I forgave the narrative after a while, thinking maybe he was lying, and scared. Maybe in Season 3 we would understand everything. ... Apparently TV Aziraphale really believed that and doubled down on it before the two of them x-x.

Extra- My belief: Book!Crowley wasn't kicked out of Heaven dramatically by force. He was so disappointed by the system, and when the war broke out, he just "left". Denounced God or something. Hell was the only other option he had at the time, so he became a demon.

After a while, he realizes that aside from more freedom of speech, Hell is no better. He felt out of place again. That's why he was seeking comfort in knowing Aziraphale, an angel, was also going through the same issue.

The two of them bonded over feeling alienated by their own people and that's the beauty of their relationship. Crowley needed to be an angel again just as much as Aziraphale wanted to be a demon. As in, they wouldn't like it.

Thanks for coming to my Ted talk. Anything else I have forgotten to write about will be posted here and there in the future!

-Vivi-

Yeah, since I did Aziraphale, it's only fair and natural to give Crowley his own rant too. I love them both equally and hated how both of them were mischaracterised through out. Here goes...

1. Crowley is soft on animals and people.

Book canon: Crowley did the following: Drowning ducks (it is implied that he had done this before and he admits he does it when he "forget himself"), tried to run over some animals on the road, yell at people while he was speeding on the street, don't forget "it's knows the risk it's taking!", scared some humans with his a demonic/maggotty form. giving people real guns in the paintball game. That's the ones I remember at the top of my head.

(Honorable mention: Radio Crowley killed 2 cops, paved the road to Hell with door-to-door salesmen lmao)

The Job Minisode: If it was Book Crowley, sure he would save the children and helped Job. But the animals? BookCrowley would have gladly catapulted those goats off a cliff lmao. Maybe he would make a game out of it. He probably was happy to have permission to do all this to Job's livestocks. Aziraphale can't stop him muahaha.

He used saving-the-humans as a chance to coax his angel to forming an alliance and foil the plans of both Heaven/Hell. I love the Job Minisode for this. The final scene of Crowley and Aziraphale talking about being lonely together was top notch. The only GO2 scene that made me cry. I wish the rest of the story did more of this.

My belief: Does he have a soft spot for humans? Yeah, but not as soft as the fandom made him out to be. He's still pretty much a pain to be around if you are a human. One thing for sure, he doesn't feel bad killing animals.

What does this mean with GO3 in the picture? Ah, guess TVCrowley had always been such an angel. He's so soft and caring, ya'll. Aww.... This brings me to my next point!

2. Crowley cared for humanity/was the only one who cares.

The narrative really tried to push this in Go3. Many people after watching the Finale talked about how Crowley's always had humanity in mind and how beauiful his sacrifice for humanity is.

Firsly, this is one of the things they took from Aziraphale and gave to Crowley. If anyone who really cared about human lives, it had been mostly Aziraphale. Like when in the book, Aziraphale was freaking out over the paintball guns becoming real guns and tried to tell Crowley to stop it. Or when Aziraphale told Crowley to watch out for pedestrians etc. That was Season 1/Book.

Secondly, Crowley wanted to save the world in the book/S1 because the two of them wanted to do fun things instead of an eternity with either Heaven/Hell. Crowley never said "Let's save humanity." He said something like "If we don't stop Armageddon, there would be no fun". In addition, "If this all turns to goo, we could run off together."

At the Tadfield Airbase, Book Crowley was going to run off when he heard Satan was on his way. He was so ready to leave all those humans to die to save himself. Aziraphale had to persuade him to stay!

-> He loved humans but wouldn't sacrifice himself and Aziraphale over humanity.

Since Season 2, there weren't much hint of Crowley being pro-humanity either. Even when you take the Before the Beginning scene as canon, Angel Crowley never expressed that he cared at all about the humans. He was actually upset because his beautiful stars were just fancy wallpapers for humans to look at. He was upset about the End Times because his stars would be gone too soon (by angel standards).

Suddenly, come GO3. Crowley apparantly cared so much about humanity all along. Like some sort of troubled heroic figure. Aziraphale said "you were the only one who cared." (Since when??? I don't think Crowley was the only one to ever cared. Because you cared too, Aziraphale! You gave your sword away because you cared for the first humans' safety!)

And then, Crowley asked the love of his life, his angel, to be erased forever from existence with him. This was not Crowley. The fact that he mentioned a real world implies the love he and Aziraphale had for each other wasn't real. All God's plan? What?

The Crowley we know and loved would have said fuck this and tried to find other options!

3. Optimism and Imagination

Speaking of other options.

I know this had been repeated over and over by other people who shared my distaste for the Finale but it's always worth bringing up again. Louder for people in the back!

Book Crowley: After Aziraphale was nowhere to be found, and a terrible threatening message from Hell, thinks "The universe would look after him" that he "would come out on top."

TV Crowley: After Aziraphale was nowhere to be found, gets drunk and larment about his Fall. Only until Aziraphale showed back up did he gets back on his feet.

Mind you, Book Crowley did think of "getting completely and utterly pissed out of his mind while he waited for the word to end."

BUT HE DIDN'T.

The seed of mischaracterisation was already there in Season 1. But since NG said it was because he now understand what losing his best friend was like, we all gave it a pass. (His GO3 script killed the character that represent his best friend, btw.)

Season Two comes around.

TV Crowley talking to Shax. "Do you ever think 'what's the point'?" "it's all pointless." Cool. Cool. We have the first sign of his depression arc. I can totally see Book Crowley going through this, but he would be able to find himself a better way to deal with this. That being: talking to Aziraphale. Ranting about his thoughts. He always feel better after talking to his angel. So why not?

[The problem with TVOmens is that they DON'T TALK in the way BookOmens do. Even after "To the World", the two of them don't share more feelings with each other? I find that hard to believe. It felt to me that the writer wanted them to have drama and reverted their character developments from S1 for it.]

Anywho, Season 2 goes by. Season 3 comes hitting us all like a bullet train.

Crowley moping in an alley like a sad, wet cat. Ok, cute. I was fine with that because it's funny and dramatic. Crowley would do that. Then I find out that it had been 4 years or something. 4 FUCKEN YEARS!? That is too long a time for Crowley to be acting like this. (We will talk about codependent issue later.)

Crowley having depression? I can see that. He's been forcing himself to be optimistic for so long and is now crashing. It's ok. The problem is that he gave up at the end! The talk in the bookshop-garden went by so fast. Neither AziCrow suggested another option. Crowley gave up and made Aziraphale lose hope as well. This is not how they are.

Some people says the Finale makes sense because there was no other way. The universe was already gone. But get this...

Remember the whole Crowley's most powerful weapon is his imagination? He is supposed to be creative in how he solves problems. I do not believe for a second that an in-character Crowley would offer one single option (let's die) and then nothing else. That's not the Crowley who went through a ring of fire, fueled by just his imagination.

If they showed AziCrow going through a million options and decided there was no better one, then maaaaybe I will believe there was no other choice. That's not what we got.

And you can't tell me there was no way to revive everyone exactly who they were. The problem with having God being on the room and offering a choice is that you can ask for ANYTHING if you are specific enough.

Don't tell me Crowley had no other option.

4. Crowley is Codependent on Aziraphale.

OOooh boy. Since we were talking about how Crowley was so depressed in GO3, let's take a look at how the show changed Crowley from Book to TV in terms of his autonomy.

In the book, Aziraphale and Crowley's relationship is based on trust and neither of them are heavily dependent on the other to function. They were fine separated for years, because they believe the other would always be there when the time is right. The fact that Crowley owed Aziraphale lunch since the Reign of Terror might indicate that they don't see one another that often until recently.

In the show, Aziraphale and Crowley's relationship is tailored for drama. Oh they can't be separated or they are going to be so miserable. Which, fair, book Omens would be upset too. But the way they did Crowley get progresssively out of character.

Book vs Season 1

After Aziraphale disappeared, Book Crowley came out of the burning bookshop with the book of Prophecy. He let the Bentley drive herself while he look at the book (probably thinking of his angel ): ) and he found Aziraphale's notes. Then, on his own, decided to continue his angel's legacy. While waiting in traffic at the M25, he recollected his thoughts and accepted that Aziraphale was out of the equation. It didn't stop him from trying.

TV Crowley would have continued drinking and moping until the world ended if Aziraphale hadn't shown up to talk to him. That's what it looked like to me. He probably wouldn't have read the book he grabbed from the fire.

That's the difference. Book Crowley didn't need to be told by Aziraphale what to do next. He figured it out, and moved forward. This was a minor complaint book fans had (When I joined the fandom, I got to interact with them and asked about the show. I wasn't a book fan in the 90s. I read the book after watching the show). It was a small change and we didn't take it too seriously at the time. But now after GO3, I do!!!

The Finale

TVCrowley couldn't function without Aziraphale for 4 years. This is bollocks because they had been separated for even longer in their history. He was drunk, homeless, gambling himself away. I do see Book Crowley do this for a while, since I heard that's what James Bond do. But like, 4 year is an awfully long time for Crowley to be acting like this.

It removes all of his established autonomy in the book, where he was devastated by the loss of Aziraphale but kept pushing forward.

I had expected Crowley to have a plan of his own or at least looked like he moved on when Aziraphale came back. So he can be all pouty and sarcastic to Archangel Aziraphale, but end up falling back in love immediately once Aziraphale explain to him why he left for Heaven.

Other thoughts

I feel like a part of the fandom treat both AziCrow (mainly the TV version) as woobified version of themselves. This is not their fault as characters, because the book version is right there. It is the fault of the writers of the show to potray them this way. Season 2 was like a fanfiction, I always said.

They are too nervous, too emotional, too dramatic. And they care too much about what Heaven/Hell think. Compared to Book Omens, they feel like a pair of teenage angel/demon who just started exploring their relationship. This does not make sense when you remember that these two have lived for 6000 years and had seen a lot of things throughout history.

BookOmens felt more mature. They had many problems figured out throughout their history already. They never put a label or confirmed their relationship, but the foundation was all there already. I imagine that post the ending of the book, if one of them suggested moving in together, then they wouldn't have a second thought about it.

To be continued...

(There is a second part that was supposed to be a part of this but it got way too long so I will work on that another time.)

Edit: I think I remembered wrong about the amount of times that passed from S2 to S3. I have memory of it being mentioned somewhere that it was 3 or 4 years. I remember reacting to it with my friends. But apparently it wasn't mentioned in the Finale itself.

Edit 2: I HAVE FIGURED THE MYSTERY OUT. OMG So, I was watching with my friend and Aziraphale said "I have been gone for years." But I heard "four years" instead of "for years". Oh my god. My ESL brain failed me.

Poor baby.

I had Hozier’s “Take me to Church” stuck in my head all day, so i had to let it out somehow. And i haven‘t drawn our beloved ineffable husbands kissing for some time now. 😭🥺

I‘m mourning the kiss we didn’t get. So i‘m making my own. Nobody can stop meeeee 😭

It made me all emotional to think about the line “Only then I am human, only then I am free.”

did anyone ever tell this man taking care of your baby brother does not include selling your soul to a demon? like I don't think anyone did