Glück ist ein verhexter Ort

Aziraphale looks… bored. I think he even zones out, judging by the extra moment it takes him to process that somebody else is in the room.

Uriel is nowhere near as up close and personal as Crowley. Her hands are fairly far apart and her grip is loose enough that she even adjusts it at one point, while Crowley keeps his hands close to Aziraphale’s neck and is holding his lapels so tightly it looks like he might want to strangle him with them. She’s very dispassionate about the whole thing.

Aziraphale is clearly terrified. He keeps looking around frantically as if for help and he’s struggling to speak he’s so nervous.

And I think the post above is right in that a large part of it is that Uriel is a wildcard.

Not only does Aziraphale know that Crowley is unlikely to ever actually hurt him— while Uriel just had one of her thugs punch him in the stomach— but he also expects this sort of behaviour from him.

I don’t mean that Crowley’s a bad person, or that Aziraphale thinks he is, just that Crowley’s a demon and acting all scary and threatening is demonic behaviour. The reason their friendship works is because they both acknowledge that they’re occasionally going to be forced to behave in certain ways because of their affiliations.

To a certain extent, Crowley is acting here, the same way Aziraphale is acting when he feels obliged to condemn as ‘sinful’ something that he’s secretly in favour of. Crowley knows he just has to come up with some creative logic to explain why something is not actually sinful (like treating raising the antiChrist as thwarting) and Aziraphale knows he just has to sit it out while Crowley pretends to be threatening.

When Uriel pins him against a wall, Aziraphale’s reaction is not just terror but disbelief. “But we’re the good guys!” he protests, “Why would you do this?!”

Again, Crowley isn’t one of the ‘good guys’. He knows why Crowley’s doing it— because he has a reputation to keep up, or he’ll get in trouble with Hell.

@holyquiznak01 reply: There’s this thing in psychology where outward signs of aggression are actually the ones that are less likely to result in a physical alteration and Uriel is definitely ‘coldly calm’ in this.

(Also, the colour scheme is slightly different. The first one employs warm colours, but not like overly contrasty warm. It seems safe somehow. The second one is dramatic and has cold undertones and seems more threatening. The shadows are more dramatic.)

But still, the fourth panel in the first gif is just him lazily lounging against the wall. The second one is more ‘oh heaven help me now.’

Also, some more differences would include:

- Crowley gets up close. He’s technically pinning Aziraphale up, but it’s not a very effective hold and Aziraphale could break out/retaliate (obvs he won’t because he’s not in any real danger, but he could)

- Uriel pulls him up, keeps a slight distance. (In martial arts, this is a very ineffective hold, but to be fair, Uriel is higher ranked and he can’t really do anything about it) 

- Crowley is holding him at the same height. Aziraphale isn’t being kept on his toes. They’re at the same level.

- Uriel is forcing him up. I’m not sure if he’s actually on his toes, but the hold forces him up rather than just back

- Crowley backs away in a casual manner. It’s not a threat and a swagger, it’s just letting go and not mention it again

- Uriel does not do that. They let go, but it’s in a position where they still have power.

- Crowley smooths out his collar. The way he lets go is more of a ‘soft, sliding, I-care-about-you thing

- Uriel pulls off aggressively. They ruffle his collar. They take this step back while still looking at him. His collar is just thoughtlessly pulled back

(But also there’s that ‘oh look my husband is pinning me against a wall’ and ‘oh look, this person shows up out of nowhere and pins me against a wall’ factor to it)

@justlikeeddie reply: This has been said six thousand times already but: in a show in which these actors are making a lot of Choices, it is a Big Choice for Aziraphale’s reaction to Crowley shoving him up against a wall not only to be “not scared” (makes sense, knows Crowley is absolutely no threat to him), but ALSO “not that bothered”? That is the face of something thinking “Ah yes. This again.” That is the face of someone who gets shoved up against a wall once every 10 years or so when Crowley suddenly panics that he hasn’t been performatively demonic enough recently. “Yes, you’re very frightening, I promise, well done.”

@universal-gay reply: oh FUCK im seeing a lot of people in the notes talking about Aziraphales reactions but I dont think anyone has mentioned the contrasting color schemes!!!! Theres a post going around (i know ive reblogged it) talking about the Crowley/Aziraphale scene and how Crowley is framed by the dark archway in the background while Aziraphale is pushed into the white background/wall, but seeing it paralleled with the scene of the archangels/Aziraphale just galaxy brained me. Notice how in the scene where Uriel confronts and threatens Aziraphale, where they are ultimately questioning his faith and which side he’s actually on, Aziraphale is now the one being framed by the dark background of the brick wall while the other angels are seen being framed by the lighter background of the buildings (it could be the way op edited the gif colors, but it doesn’t seem like the difference is all that big from the original ones)!!! I cant believe I didnt see this until now and I think I need to go sit down for a bit or smthn

@martivist reply: I love Aziraphale’s expression when Crowley’s in his face, because aside from his eyeline sauntering vaguely lips-ward, he’s mostly keeping an unusually blank face. There are all sorts of emotions that Aziraphale could be showing right now, prim disapproval being one of his favorites, but he’s just… not.

Which calls to mind Michael Sheen saying (x), “My objective in this scene is to not show you how much I love you and just gaze longingly at you all the time.” 

Pretty sure this is one of the scenes he was talking about.

I personally hate any kind morality thought policing. I'm not Catholic or religious and I do not feel guilty over my thoughts. You are not an inherently evil person because you saw two athletes in an interview and went "Hmmm...... what if...." The Feds are not going to come banging down your door because you wrote about one band member dicking down the other and sent it to your friend.

Wondering about other people's lives is very human. Being nosy about their personal lives is very normal. People have been writing fiction about other people's lives since the dawn of time. Some people even manage to write New York Times Bestselling Books that are "historical fiction" or "alternate reality." It does not make you inherently bad to be curious about the details of someone's personal life. That's being human. Being nosy is kind of fun.

The problem, however, comes with the ways in which people engage with it, and involve the real people in this. Harassing an musician's real girlfriend because it doesn't fit into the RPF ship. Showing up at real sporting events holding signs about how certain teammates should kiss. Trying to get actors to sign art of them fucking their coworker. Flooding social media with comments using the celebrity's full name and speculation. There's a line, there's a fourth wall, and there's fandom etiquette.

I hate the question of "Is RPF ethical" because it feels like morality thought policing. Post your fics on locked accounts, censor someone's name when you tweet about it, blow up your groupchat with hundreds of "DID YOU SEE THE WAY THEY LOOKED AT EACH OTHER??" texts. It's not inherently evil to wonder what other people are doing when they're out of the spotlight. Kill the cop in your mind.

Crowley’s hairstyles/looks - down through the ages

See also: The 2019 [ Season One ] version The 2023 [ Season Two ] version

Bonus: Professor Anthony J. Crowley, Physicist

(this came out of a conversation in the comments on a previous post about an author threatening to stop updating a fic because of lack of engagement)

So there’s this idea that fic writers should write for themselves and not care too much about stats or engagement,

and i totally get the sentiment behind that. if writing becomes entirely about stats and external validation, something important does get lost - creative freedom and joy, conviction in your own writing

but i also think:

“i write for myself, but i post for others.”

because posting fic is not only self-expression. it’s social. ao3 is called an archive, but emotionally it often functions as a community space.

people post for connection, for participation, for others to bear witness to their pain and trauma and grief,

and i don’t think most people are asking to be admired so much as acknowledged. there’s something deeply human about wanting another person to encounter something that mattered to you and go:

“ok, yeah, I see what you were trying to say. I see you.”

especially because fanfic is often people processing very real feelings through fictional characters at a safe distance, one step removed,

and then uploading that deeply personal thing into a shared archive and hoping somebody else might connect with it.

And i think that’s why it hurts so much when you summon up the courage and post a fic into the void and you get nothing back,

and then it’s like,

❤️❤️

do you ever think about how much of the original trilogy artoo spent silently watching the drama go down with popcorn