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Same vibes

Bright Young Things (2003) -  Miles Maitland Icons

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Hi Neil. Why did Crowley say "You were crying and Nina needed rescuing and--" in episode 6 of Good Omens season 2? Crowley did not see Maggie crying, did he? Did he hear about it from Aziraphel?

He did.

I can’t believe I went through all of Season 2 assuming Nina was the stand-in for Crowley when you actually pay attention it’s so CLEAR that she’s Aziraphale. I was tricked by her spiky, sarcastic, cynical outer shell and lulled into a false sense of security by Maggie’s bubbly optimism and wholesome goodness, because on the surface they reflect the ineffable husbands perfectly, in their personalities, their aesthetics, even many of their actions and morals. but not, and this is the real key, when it comes to their “relationship”. but those first impressions really had me damn fooled. 

I missed the blatantness of Nina’s “we’re just friends. actually we’re not friends. we barely know each other.” the same thing Aziraphale said in season 1.  the way he still struggles to quantify their friendship when Nina asks. Nina’s sarcasm when Crowley asks about rain and awnings because it worked for him (we all know it LMAO). hell, that whole convo the girls have in the rain is so AziraCrow (“I know. I’m not your type” “…You have no idea” hits so much harder the second time, help meeeee.) “Lindsay” maybe being symbolic of Heaven and Aziraphale’s toxic relationship with them and their abuse? (the handwritten text messages in red pen make me think of angry notes on paperwork, anyone else?) because Crowley has never actually cared about what Hell thinks of him, just not getting into trouble (or him or Aziraphale getting hurt). Maggie is always chasing Nina. NINA NEVER GOES IN THE RECORD STORE. Just like Crowley always goes to the bookstore, to Aziraphale, Zira NEVER WENT TO THE FLAT (apart from The Swap but that doesn’t count imo). Crowley has always chased Zira, not the other way around. Always there to rescue him, always going to him for company, always relying on their shared connection, always US. OUR SIDE. All through season one, he comes to Zira every time to work together, never trying to work alongside Hell in any way that isn’t to save their skins or Earth, while Zira hides things from Crowley because he STILL thinks Heaven is ultimately good and will do the right thing if he can just show them. fix it from the inside. 

Maggie working up the courage to finally say something, to put herself out there, while Nina is utterly oblivious and then when she does realise Maggie has feelings, becoming standoffish, putting up that barrier, fighting it, denying it, ITS SO CROWLEY AND AZIRAPHALE IN THAT ORDER. the way I was fooled into thinking Nina’s trust issues are Crowley because he does have trust issues ofc he does BUT Crowley has ALWAYS TRUSTED AZIRAPHALE. has always relied on him. has always been hurt when Aziraphale doesn’t immediately reciprocate the way he expects (the holy water request, the bandstand, the “off in the stars” etc). he’s always the one putting himself forward. Aziraphale has always been the one to second guess everything, to fight their connection, their similarities, their friendship. the girls really made me think it was going to be okay when they sat Crowley down, even as my inner sirens were going haywire about Metatron interfering, they were telling Crowley he just needs to open up and it’ll all work out BUT HE’S ALREADY AT THAT POINT. he may not say it, and by gosh is that part of their damn problem, but he’s always SHOWN IT. he’s not Nina who needs time to heal and recover from her broken trust, he’s always been Maggie believing it doesn’t matter, they’ll end up together in the end anyway AND I WALKED RIGHT INTO THE TRAP THAT THIS MEANT THEY WERE GOING TO BE OKAYYYYYYYYYYY

Hi! My mum and I had a conversation in the car where I mentioned how funny I found this bit, because I had read it as Anathema thinking that she had, in fact, just been run over by a very campy gay couple, and a campy gay couple wouldn't harm her. But my mum read this as Anathema, who she thought could feel that Crowley was a demon, realizing that she was also in the presence of an angel, and an angel wouldn't harm her. And I guess I just wanted to know which was the intended message?

The version that Terry and I had in mind when we wrote it was the former.

Hello Mr Gaiman!!!

I just wanted to say that good omens 2 reached number 1 in Greece too!!!

Thank you very very much for this wonderful second season and I really hope that we will see a third one soon!!! (our favorite angel and demon need a happy ending as much as we do)

I hope we do too. Let's hope the studios see reason and the strikes are settled soon.

Aziraphale’s Choice, the Job Connection, and Michael Sheen’s Morality

I’ve had time to process Aziraphale’s choice at the end of Season 2. And I think only blaming the religious trauma misses something important in Aziraphale’s character. I think what happened was also Aziraphale’s own conscious choice––as a growth from his trauma, in fact. Hear me out.

Since November 2022 I’ve been haunted by something Michael Sheen said at the MCM London Comic Con. At the Q&A, someone asked him about which fantasy creature he enjoyed playing most and Michael (bless him, truly) veered on a tangent about angels and goodness and how, specifically,

We as a society tend to sort of undervalue goodness. It’s sort of seen as sort of somehow weak and a bit nimby and “oh it’s nice.” And I think to be good takes enormous reserves of courage and stamina. I mean, you have to look the dark in the face to be truly good and to be truly of the light…. The idea that goodness is somehow lesser and less interesting and not as kind of muscular and as passionate and as fierce as evil somehow and darkness, I think is nonsense. The idea of being able to portray an angel, a being of love. I love seeing the things people have put online about angels being ferocious creatures, and I love that. I think that’s a really good representation of what goodness can be, what it should be, I suppose.

I was looking forward to BAMF!Aziraphale all season long, and I think that’s what we got in the end. Remember Neil said that the Job minisode was important for Aziraphale’s story. Remember how Aziraphale sat on that rock and reconciled to himself that he MUST go to Hell, because he lied and thwarted the will of God. He believed that––truly, honestly, with the faith of a child, but the bravery of a soldier.

Aziraphale, a being of love with more goodness than all of Heaven combined, believed he needed to walk through the Gates of Hell because it was the Right Thing to do. (Like Job, he didn’t understand his sin but believed he needed to sacrifice his happiness to do the Right Thing.)

That’s why we saw Aziraphale as a soldier this season: the bookshop battle, the halo. But yes, the ending as well.

Because Aziraphale never wanted to go to Heaven, and he never wanted to go there without Crowley.

But it was Crowley who taught him that he could, even SHOULD, act when his moral heart told him something was wrong. While Crowley was willing to run away and let the world burn, it was Aziraphale (in that bandstand at the end of the world) who stood his ground and said No. We can make a difference. We can save everyone.

And Aziraphale knew he could not give up the ace up his sleeve (his position as an angel) to talk to God and make them see the truth in his heart.

I was messed up by Ineffable Bureaucracy (Boxfly) getting their happy ending when our Ineffable Husbands didn’t, but I see now that them running away served to prove something to Aziraphale. (And I am fully convinced that Gabriel and Beelzebub saw the example of the Ineffables at the Not-pocalypse and took inspiration from them for choosing to ditch their respective sides)

But my point is that Aziraphale saw them, and in some ways, they looked like him and Crowley. And he saw how Gabriel, the biggest bully in Heaven, was also like him in a way (a being capable of love) and also just a child when he wasn’t influenced by the poison of Heaven. Muriel, too, wasn’t a bad person. The Metatron also seemed to have grown more flexible with his morality (from Aziraphale's perspective). Like Earth, Heaven was shades of (light?) gray.

Aziraphale is too good an angel not to believe in hope. Or forgiveness (something he’s very good at it).

Aziraphale has been scarred by Heaven all his life. But with the cracks in Heaven’s armor (cracks he and Crowley helped create), Aziraphale is seeing something else. A chance to change them. They did terrible things to him, but he is better than them, and because of Crowley, he feels ready to face them.

(Will it work? Can Heaven change, institutionally? Probably not, but I can't blame Aziraphale for trying.)

At the cafe, the Metatron said something big was coming in the Great Plan. Aziraphale knows how trapped he had felt when he didn’t have God’s ear the first time something huge happened in the Big Plan. He can’t take a chance again to risk the world by not having a foot in the door of Heaven. That’s why we saw individual human deaths (or the threat of death) so much more this season: Elspeth, Wee Morag, Job’s children, the 1940s magician. Aziraphale almost killed a child when he couldn’t get through to God, and he’s not going through that again.

“We could make a difference.” We could save everyone.

Remember what Michael Sheen said about courage and doing good––and having to “look the dark in the face to be truly good.” That’s what happened when Aziraphale was willing to go to Hell for his actions. That’s what happened when he decided he had to go to Heaven, where he had been abused and belittled and made to feel small. He decided to willingly go into the Lion’s Den, to face his abusers and his anxiety, to make them better so that they would not try to destroy the world again.

Him, just one angel. He needed Crowley to be there with him, to help him be brave, to ask the questions that Heaven needed to hear, to tell them God was wrong. Crowley is the inspiration that drives Aziraphale’s change, Crowley is the engine that fuels Aziraphale’s courage.

But then Crowley tells him that going to Heaven is stupid. That they don’t need Heaven. And he’s right. Aziraphale knows he’s right.

Aziraphale doesn’t need Heaven; Heaven needs him. They just don’t know how much they need him, or how much humanity needs him there, too. (If everyone who ran for office was corrupt, how can the system change?)

Terry Pratchett (in the Discworld book, Small Gods) is scathing of God, organized religion, and the corrupt people religion empowers, but he is sympathetic to the individual who has real, pure faith and a good heart. In fact, the everyman protagonist of Small Gods is a better person than the god he serves, and in the end, he ends up changing the church to be better, more open-minded, and more humanist than god could ever do alone.

Aziraphale is willing to go to the darkest places to do the Right Thing, and Heaven is no exception. When Crowley says that Heaven is toxic, that’s exactly why Aziraphale knows he needs to go there. “You’re exactly is different from my exactly.”

____

In the aftermath of Trump's election in the US, Brexit happened in 2018. Michael Sheen felt compelled to figure out what was going on in his country after this shock. But he was living in Los Angeles with Sarah Silverman at the time, and she also wanted to become more politically active in the US.

Sheen: “I felt a responsibility to do something, but it [meant] coming back [to Britain] – which was difficult for us, because we were very important to each other. But we both acknowledge that each of us had to do what we needed to do.” In the end, they split up and Michael moved back to the UK.

Sometimes doing the Right Thing means sacrificing your own happiness. Sometimes it means going to Hell. Sometimes it means going to Heaven. Sometimes it means losing a relationship.

And that’s why what happened in the end was so difficult for Aziraphale. Because he loves Crowley desperately. He wants to be together. He wanted that kiss for thousands of years. He knows that taking command of Heaven means they would never again have to bow to the demands of a God they couldn’t understand, or run from a Hell who still came after them. They could change the rules of the game.

And he’s still going to do that. But it hurts him that he has to do that alone.

"crowley's suffered more than jesus" "aziraphale has unhealed trauma" MICHAEL SHEEN HAD TO KISS DAVID TENNANT AND PRETEND HE DIDN'T ENJOY IT IMMENSELY WHOS THE REAL VICTIM HERE

"Why I couldn't be enough?"

The worst part is that now Crowley would believe that he just wasn't enough to make him stay or that he only would want him as an Angel QnQ

#i live there

hello neil! i was curious about one particular line in s2. when crowley’s talking to that woman and he’s leading her outside and she says something along the lines of “you’re a nice lad” and crowley responds “i’m not either” was that intended to be about his gender identity? thanks!

He's not nice. He's a demon/fallen angel not a male human. He's not a young male human. He's not (young) or (male) or (human) or (nice).

Hi Neil! I was wondering, how much did David and Michael help with creating season 2? I know they’re very passionate about their characters and it made me curious if any of their suggestions/personalities influenced the show. Amazing work as always, loved season 2 and can’t wait for more!!

Their performances in Season 1 definitely influenced how we wrote Season 2. But they don't make suggestions beyond that, although I would love it if they did.

Hi Mr. Gaiman, how does it feel becoming public enemy nunber one in the good omens fandom ?

I didn't know I was. Most of the people I've heard from have been very happy about Season 2, and didn't mind feeling emotions. But if it's upset people badly enough to make me public enemy number one I suppose I could stop doing Good Omens and do something else instead.

hello neil! i was curious about one particular line in s2. when crowley’s talking to that woman and he’s leading her outside and she says something along the lines of “you’re a nice lad” and crowley responds “i’m not either” was that intended to be about his gender identity? thanks!

He's not nice. He's a demon/fallen angel not a male human. He's not a young male human. He's not (young) or (male) or (human) or (nice).

he's so pretty!! damn

That nightingale line is ingrained in my brain atm

⚠️ Spoilers for the finale ⚠️

°•°•°•°

"That's the point. No nightingales."

DO YOU UNDERSTAND WHAT THIS MEANS???

Both Crowley and Aziraphale were fully aware that "A Nightingale Sang in Berkley Square" was playing while they were at the Ritz

That song holds enough significance for them that Crowley will bring it up in this conversation knowing that Aziraphale will understand what he's saying

They were aware that there was a nightingale singing when they were at the Ritz

They understand the significance of the nightingale in the song and therefore the significance of the actual nightingale and what that represents in their relationship

What Crowley is effectively saying here is "Remember when we were dining at the Ritz? And the song playing in the back was a song about a nightingale singing in Berkley Square while two angels fall in love while dining at the Ritz? And remember that there was an actual nightingale singing in the square when we were there? Well, there aren't any nightingales here."

I'm going to cry

It's their song and they both know that it's their song!

Extra point: A Nightingale Sang in Berkley Square played as soon as Crowley got in the car, and he was hoping he and Aziraphale would spend some alone time at the Ritz, so did Crowley have it set up to play on the way there???

This finale broke me

You organise an elaborate jane austen pride and prejudice dance party just to touch his hand. Normal behaviour

The fact that Good Omens S2 was SO QUEER.

Not Just Maggie and Nina (and Lindsey)

Not just Aziraphale and Crowley

Not even just Gabriel and Beelzebub (who is NB)

But the magician shopkeeper and his trans/NB spouse who wore a fancy early 19th century dress to the ball.

Job's son who was flirting with Aziraphale (hilariously played by Ty Tennant giving Michael Sheen heart eyes in front of his dad lmao)

Even the tough macho man in Scotland that Aziraphale borrows the phone from - using it for "Grindr".

Plus of course Michael, Uriel, Muriel, and Dagon also all being non binary/gender queer characters.

With all this, there was no homophobia, no one batted an eyelid at any characters sexualities, sexuality wasn't even brought up, characters just are who they are and like who they like. Its a non issue in the GO universe.

AKA my favourite type of queer representation. The same type found in The Sandman (show not comic).

And whilst there was plenty of drama and not everyone gets a happy queer ending (YET) there was no queer trauma to be seen. No hate crimes, no "bury your gays", no stupid discussions about how HARD it is to be out of the closet in a bigoted world, because the GO world isn't bigoted.

Its SUCH a BREATH OF FRESH AIR.

I know we have similar experiences in The Sandman, In OFMD, and even in WWDITS, but each time a new show takes this very new approach towards queer representation I feel like I'm once again sinking into a comforting hug from someone I love, who loves me back.

Its just really fucking wonderful to see. I hope we keep seeing it more and more often.

if i had a nickel for every time a gay show gave me a gay kiss before ruining my gay life…

id have two nickels. which isn’t alot but its FUCKING DEVASTATING THAT ITS HAPPENED TWICE

Look at you, you're gorgeous!

Oh Michael chose violence I see

Good Omens 2 was like reading a 100k fanfic in the middle of the night that you realize was left unfinished and last updated 5 years ago, and you are left alone with this earth-shattering cliffhanger

Maggie, who owns the record shop, is in love. It’s what humans do. 

But then again, other people’s love lives always seem much more straightforward than our own.

So here’s what I’m thinking.

Good Omens was about Crowley being charged with delivering the Antichrist to earth and overseeing his upbringing.

The sequel, then, would’ve been about Aziraphale being charged with bringing about the Second Coming. A nice parallel to the first book.

But in order to get there, we would need a reason as to why it was Aziraphale, not Gabriel, who was charged with that. Traditionally it would’ve been Gabriel, right?

So Gabriel had to go away somehow, and Aziraphale had to become Supreme Archangel after rejecting and being rejected by Heaven. Hence, season 2, connecting the two stories.

And I love how Season 2 did this.

(and I have a lot of thoughts, so putting the rest of this long post beneath the cut)

Keep reading

Gabriel a few minutes after meeting Nathan:

(in his head: "If he doesn't talk he won't annoy me like his friend here.")

Gabriel after a few days with Nathan: *Lets him rant about something he knows nothing about*

(in his head: "never stop talking, please and thank you.")

"Are you a couple?"

Matthias: We are not a couple

Jesper: Matty-poo! are you embarassed of me? I thought we were over this

Matthias: He is joking

Jesper: Now you are gasligthing? Whats wrong with you? You said you loved me. Well, if you are so sure on denying our love, you won't mind if i go and make out with the hot ginger over there waving at us

Matthias: Jesper-

Jesper: Oh! and now i am "Jesper" , yesterday i was "sugar bunny" but things change, apparently

"How insensitive"

Matthias: oh boy

---

"Are you dating?"

Matthias: no-

Inej: What?! NO! nononono! ew-

Matthias: ew?

Inej: no way! no, no no no no no no...

Matthias: alright, maybe mrs Kaz Brekker shouldn't be so judgy

---

"Are you boyfriend?"

Matthias & Kaz: no

"Because we have couples discount"

Kaz: We are married

Matthias: what-

Kaz: Neither of us have a ring because we used the money to build our house, we don't need a ring when you have such an intense and passionate love like ours

Matthias: for the love of-

Kaz: us

Matthias: no!

---

"Aww, what a cute couple are you"

Matthias: we are not a couple! what this is always happening to me?

Wylan: Maybe we should stop holding hands so they won't get the wrong idea

Matthias: not yet , they are still cold

---

"Are you a couple?"

Matthias: NO!

Nina: huh?

Matthias: sorry, it´s the habit

Shadow and Bone s2 bts redraw #1

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Nina: make a ghost touchable? Jesper, the corpsewitch powers is not a toy, its a huge responsibility and must be handled carefully

Jesper:

Nina:

both: AHAHAHA! HAAHAHAHA!

Nina: you should have look your face!

Jesper: i really thought i lost you there

Nina: sure, where do you need it?

....

"Jesper slaps Van eck´s ghost"

Jan: ouch! what the-i did feel that

Jesper: good! slapping your body at the funeral wasn't enought

"slaps grandpa Van eck"

"ouch! why?"

Jesper: for raising him like that!

"slaps Mr Hendriks"

"Ouch! why me?"

Jesper: for marring your daugther to THAT!