At the edge of the universe humming a tune

okay we already know Aziraphale was controlling the humans at the ball and that's how they knew the dance moves.

cool quick question though

WHAT ABOUT HIM

how did HE know what moves to do? are he and Aziraphale THAT connected that he simply just....knows???

Someone's been practicing the Pride and Prejudice dance in front of their mirror since the 90s series with Colin Firth came out, NOT that I'm naming names.

stay with me

Heyyyyyy I’d really like to talk more about the ball, who’s with me.

Because for all its glitter, the ball is dark. No, seriously, it’s dark. It’s eerie, it’s disturbing, and the narrative doesn’t shy away from showing us just how much. 

As in a classic fairytale, mortals are being spirited away into another realm to dance through the night. Here, however, we see exactly who is orchestrating the dance, and why.

And we empathize with him, but watching Aziraphale has never been so painful or so unsettling.

Nina arrives distraught and is immediately hit with the realization that she doesn’t feel distraught, even though she knows she should be feeling it. She confronts Aziraphale and he just tells her: oh yes! :) no long faces tonight! And she is disturbed throughout the ball, thinks she is losing her mind, questions and fights the enchantment… but from time to time, the enchantment still takes hold.

And just—

Aziraphale. Aziraphale, you do know that manipulating people is wrong, don’t you? You… do know that? And yes, of course, neither Crowley’s nor Aziraphale’s approach to morality is human. They are eldritch, they are otherworldly. It was Crowley who changed the paintball guns into real guns in S1, though of course, the humans still had choice in using them.

But the ball is still different.

We’ve never seen Aziraphale do anything quite so disturbing before, or go so obviously deep into his own delusion. There are moments during these scenes when even Crowley, permanently frustrated, is very nearly disturbed. (“Angel! What are you doing?” or “Making it rain is one thing, but a BALL?”)

I fully think that by that point in the story, Aziraphale is not all right. He is in an anxiety spiral, denying reality fiercely, obstinately, disastrously, not listening to any of Crowley’s hissed warnings. Yes, yes, he is giddy, he is in love. It’s so very important for him that everything go RIGHT this night, the night he gets to dance with Crowley. Is he even aware of everything he is conjuring up, of the enchantment he has woven? The humans who step through the doors of the bookshop change: their clothing, their mood, their speech patterns… By this point, is Aziraphale doing this consciously at all? Or is reality conforming to his expectations, forcing everyone into a replica of the nineteenth century while Aziraphale himself, distracted and smitten, works himself up to inviting Crowley to dance?

In the first few episodes, as fear and danger grow, as Aziraphale is faced with the danger specifically to Crowley (I don’t see why he would risk his existence for you, Shax tells him in the car), Aziraphale only denies reality all the more fiercely, only holds on to his plans tighter, only puts more force into them and exerts more control (really, rather like the archangels with their Great Plan).

And the ball, beautiful and otherworldly and eerie as it is, is also a dire warning. 

In the morning, it will be Crowley, not Aziraphale, who will get told off for manipulating Nina and Maggie. Aziraphale won’t reflect on this. He won’t be forced to reflect, and Metatron will manipulate him in turn.

There is a plan to follow. The show must go on.

GOD the ball is so dark.

first shot we get of crowley in s3 is set to queen's somebody to love and as it starts with "each morning i get up and die a little / can barely stand on my feet" we see him literally getting out of bed (been sleeping for months) and bump into countless bottles of wine scattered on the floor. he looks around looking for a half-full bottle and starts drinking again.

doorbell rings. multiple times.

he drags himself to the door and opens it as the song says "somebody to love". it stops abruptly and turns to complete silence as we see aziraphale at the door holding an infant (baby jesus 2.0) looking like he just ran a marathon.

Aziraphale please! He’s been through enough!!!

first shot we get of crowley in s3 is set to queen's somebody to love and as it starts with "each morning i get up and die a little / can barely stand on my feet" we see him literally getting out of bed (been sleeping for months) and bump into countless bottles of wine scattered on the floor. he looks around looking for a half-full bottle and starts drinking again.

doorbell rings. multiple times.

he drags himself to the door and opens it as the song says "somebody to love". it stops abruptly and turns to complete silence as we see aziraphale at the door holding an infant (baby jesus 2.0) looking like he just ran a marathon.

aziraphale + text posts bonus:

orpheus and eurydice. he couldn't help but look back

bonus:

This scene hits so different on the rewatch.

How jolly Aziraphale is about the whole thing. I asked for a rubber duck! I made Michael miracle me a towel!

Whereas Crowley is having trauma flashbacks about Gabriel telling his only friend to Shut His Stupid Mouth And Die. The memory seems to hurt too much to say. It's another thing he hasn't told Aziraphale to protect him.

But also that that it confirmed their existing biases of Heaven and Hell. They both know Hell is wicked, that's the point of it. But only Crowley sees Heaven for what it really is, and Aziraphale wasn't there for the event that might have mad him see it.

Birds of a feather...

:0

So, I feel like I’m losing my mind. I keep seeing metas about how Aziraphale wants Crowley to return to Heaven and be an angel again because he wants them to be on the same side/be good/change/etc., etc., etc. but I don’t see that at all. I actually see it as the very opposite.

Aziraphale loves Crowley just as he is. But there’s something more. Something huge.

After a vacation in Alpha Centauri, Gabriel and Beelzebub come back to earth and move in together. They proceed to be the worst and most baffling neighbors anyone in the neighborhood has ever experienced. 

Is it me, or would it be funniest if they somehow end up in Tadfield and nobody notices except, maybe, Dog. And Agnes Nutter in the 2nd book, but it got burned, and she wrote it cryptically enough that nobody would have understood it was Gabriel and Beelzebub anyway.

REAL AND TRUE. I think Adam would realize too (leftover powers), and I can't decide whether he would like them or not. On one hand, they were jerks to him at the airfield. On the other hand, he knows a lot about redemption and choosing to not play the parts the bible assigned you.

He could be their only friend in Tadfield or a gremlin who lives to make their lives worse, and both options are equally funny.

i can shut the door on us but the room still exists

Give it to me Miyazaki style señor Gaiman I’m waiting

Good Omens 2 + Text Posts

I never posted here before... But why not?

Soo happy Couples 🥰