South Downs Ineffable Husbands!!
The Garden Zine (@itbeganinagardenzine ) is all about our South Downs fantasies and predictions for Season 3. DO NOT MISS OUT on this zine and the stunning prints, charms, and pins. Pre-orders close May 12!!!
Anonymous asked:
Hello! I've stumbled upon the post of yours about Crowley and Aziraphale being ace, thank you so much for voicing so perfectly what I never could but always felt. The scene at the ball though is wrong - Crowley says "you don't dance" instead of "we don't dance", Neil said that was one of the subtitle mistakes that happened during the strike and I was wondering, does it make any difference for the interpretation? Like, implying Aziraphale has no experience but Crowley does since you pointed out dancing is a euphemism for sex? Or is it a nod to the book that says demons dance (badly) and angels don't? (I felt like in the book and in the series that explanation had no double meaning but was simply about dancing, unlike the ball scene in season 2)?
Thanks for reading my aromantic Ineffable meta and popping in with a very thoughtful and interesting question on Crowley's statement here:
For context, in my original interpretation (with the mis-subtitled “We don’t dance”), I took Crowley’s statement to imply that he believed both of them understood their relationship to be of a certain kind and was questioning Aziraphale’s attempt to change it (by making it more public and physical by dancing).
I do think the core of this idea still holds even knowing that Crowley actually said “You don’t dance.” Crowley’s delivery of that line is deeply serious, and is weighed by much more than just a cheeky nod to the books.
Which (if we look at the book) is interesting, because the “angels don't dance” segment is directly connected to the discreet gentlemen’s club (aka Azi’s gay dance club era doing the “kissing dance”), contrasting Aziraphale’s willingness to “dance” in comparison to other angels. So, I actually would like to speculate that there’s a double entendre to the book’s passage as well (because if it’s one thing that feels particularly Terry Pratchett, it’s making innuendo out of some hollow theological question):
Over the years a huge number of theological man-hours have been spent debating the famous question: How Many Angels Can Dance on the Head of a Pin? In order to arrive at an answer, the following facts must be taken into consideration: Firstly, angels simply don’t dance. It’s one of the distinguishing characteristics that marks an angel. They may listen appreciatively to the Music of the Spheres, but they don’t feel the urge to get down and boogie to it. So, none. At least, nearly none. Aziraphale had learned to gavotte in a discreet gentlemen’s club in Portland Place, in the late 1880s, and while he had initially taken to it like a duck to merchant banking, after a while he had become quite good at it, and was quite put out when, some decades later, the gavotte went out of style for good. So providing the dance was a gavotte, and providing that he had a suitable partner (also able, for the sake of argument, both to gavotte, and to dance it on the head of a pin), the answer is a straightforward one. (x)
Of course, Aziraphale is only willing to “dance” (or, if we take that as its euphemism, “have sex”) under very specific circumstances, with a very particular partner, and that it didn’t come naturally but was learned (and eventually very much enjoyed). Which I think tracks with Neil saying they can be read as asexual.
I think Crowley, knowing the implications of dancing, is commenting on what he believes about Aziraphale, that angels “don’t do that.” It’s probably been battered into him by Hell that demons do in fact dance (“Not what you would call good dancing though” (x) But angels do not. His apparent shock is him shifting his viewpoint on what Aziraphale is capable of and what Aziraphale wants from him.
I think if it’s one thing this season showed us is that Aziraphale definitely feels more experienced than Crowley, and more willing to take their relationship in a physical direction. But both of them are absolutely clueless about romance, relationship labels, and how to fit their transcendent love into tiny human boxes.
So, I guess to sum up, I don’t think the correction in what Crowley said changes my overall interpretation of my analysis (their essentially aromantic selves). Instead of a comment on what Crowley believes about them together, it now becomes more personal––more about what Crowley himself realizes about Aziraphale’s desires. That Aziraphale wants to be more public, more physical, more romantically-coded than he previously imagined Aziraphale was willing (or wanting) to be.
The Ineffable Kiss but make it South Downs 🥹
My frame for the #EVERYFrameMatters collab by the amazing @dotswithbrainrot @tsutsuya Thank you @neil-gaiman and the entire Good Omens cast/crew for creating THE most emotional kiss I've seen.
Check out all the art and full animation HERE!!
DO IT AGAIN
Aziraphale is so repressed and traumatized that his face is only agony & guilt (eyes down, fearful) when he thinks he can actually have a physical relationship with Crowley. That he can kiss Crowley and want it.
Aziraphale was too afraid to fully verbalize that kind of relationship in his head. He could exist in the game of it, the little dances, the stolen touches. But making him face that possibility was too much, too shocking, too fast. 💔
OK BUT ROB WILKINS SAYING AZIRAPHALE'S EXPRESSION AFTER THE KISS MEANT––
DO IT AGAIN
I AM UNDONE
Good Omens Season 3: Heaven and Hell dividing humanity; humanity as Leviathan; and Aziraphale locking the doors of Heaven and throwing away the key [A Meta]
(This meta is long, but I swear there's some good stuff in here. It took me 2 months to get it together for these two longsuffering Anons. Thank you so much for asking me these very important questions.)
In preparation for answering two Asks above (and to aid my own predictions of Good Omens 3), I read and reviewed the Book of Revelation, W.B. Yeat’s iconic poem “The Second Coming,” Terry Pratchett’s Small Gods, Neil Gaiman’s deleted scene from American Gods (Shadow meeting Jesus in America), and Doctor Who showrunner Russell T Davies’ 2003 miniseries The Second Coming (starring Christopher Eccleston!). The first two are definitely going to be referenced in season 3, Davies’ show is one of the few stories dealing head-on with the coming of Christ, and Terry and Neil’s bibliographies are probably the biggest resources for how Season 3 will shake out thematically.
🕊 How Aziraphale Will Change Heaven
I think GO s3 is the season we see Aziraphale really come into his own, when we see him implement the moral vision he’s taken this long to coalesce, when all the pieces he and Crowley have put together are finally put on stage in a terrifying, beautiful display (all that righteous anger and conviction, merged with his kindness and empathy is going to be Something Else).
There’s an angel in the Book of Revelation who stands between the Earth and the Sea. This angel wears a rainbow halo and speaks with the voice of seven thunders, and yet John (the writer of Revelation) is told not to write down what this angel speaks. (Sounds like someone has hit on the Ineffable Plan?) If Neil and Terry were going to pick up an image from Revelation for Aziraphale, I really like this one, because it feels like an intermediary role (between two Sides), one that god dare not make public because it speaks an uncomfortable truth. And it’s about speaking and revealing knowledge, instead of fighting or destroying something.
Because even though we know Azi and Crowley will fight to stop the second End Times, fighting itself is not a theme Neil Gaiman or Terry Pratchett really champion. Instead of war, Aziraphale will oppose Heaven in all the little ways he and Crowley opposed it before: By enjoying human comforts (Azi will definitely bring food and trinkets to Heaven and send scrivener angels and seraphim alike to tour earth). By asking questions (Heaven’s new suggestion box). By telling stories about humanity and why it’s important to know who these humans are before anyone kills anybody (Azi was, after all, brought on board because of his human expertise).
Aziraphale will become what Crowley wanted to be before the Fall, but Azi’s got the benefit of thousands of years of knowledge, cunning, and intelligence about how both Heaven and humanity work. He knows Heaven’s weaknesses, he knows humanity’s strengths, he knows his own capabilities, and he knows where Heaven will turn a blind eye. He’s going to be such a bastard the likes of which we’ve never seen. And he’s going to drop truth bombs like there’s no tomorrow.
Season 2 brought back the book banter about “the lower you start, the more opportunities you have.”
Season 3 will bring back Aziraphale’s most badass book moment. This scene takes place after Azi possesses an American televangelist talking about the fire and brimstone of the End Times and the Rapture (the mass teleporting of all worthy believers to Heaven). Says Aziraphale,
Aziraphale is fed up with Heaven’s hypocrisy and he's scathing in his condemnation of both Heaven and Hell. Everyone will die and become collateral damage, no matter which side is doing the killing.
Sound familiar?
That's the arc Aziraphale is heading towards: that blazing conviction of Crowley's, spoken out loud and fearless and in spite of his eons of trauma. And Season 3 will see Aziraphale get to that place, where he gets to tell off Heaven, but not just in the privacy of the bookshop or the bandstand, but to their faces in Heaven's hallowed halls.
The demons and angels in Season 2 were much less icky and ethereal (respectively) from their appearances in Season 1. Because it's working towards a further humanization of both sides in Season 3. Because one of the biggest themes in s3 will be Aziraphale humanizing Heaven in all the little quaint ways he loves humanity. All in preparation for the endgame of Heaven and Hell not existing at all.
(Season 3 deep dive continues under the cut...)
#good omens#good omens 2#good omens 3#ineffable husbands#aziracrow#crowley#aziraphale#good omens meta#good omens speculation#good omens 3 speculation#aziraphale meta#crowley meta#good omens 2 meta#good omens 3 meta#second coming#small gods#american gods#ask#anon#*mine#*mymeta#go meta#neil gaiman#terry pratchett
The fact that Crowley believes so purely in Aziraphale's goodness and forgiveness...
Knowing full well how seething this made him inside, he merely smiled kindly and said nothing, because Crowley knows how divinely unselfish and good Aziraphale is.
Because since the Beginning, Aziraphale accepted him, never thought he was evil or dangerous or Bad just because he was a demon now. Aziraphale put his wing over him, talked to him as an equal, and listened to him, despite what he was, because Aziraphale is that unselfish and that good and that much a well of kindness.
That's why he was so afraid for Aziraphale's life, so protective and desperate this season to save him, why he's always so happy to rescue his angel... because he knows Aziraphale won't do it for himself, because Aziraphale is not about self-preservation.
He's about doing the Right thing, no matter its costs. His angel would walk into Hell because he did a good thing. He would appeal to Heaven and God before running away at the end of the world, because it's the only course of action where everyone could be saved, the right thing to do.
That's why Crowley is terrified this season, because they aren't anymore hiding out from Head Office, they are actively on the run every day of their lives, waiting for the day the shoe dropped and Heaven and Hell decide to team up and wage war on the earth (and them).
That's why he's so destroyed by Aziraphale choosing to go back to Heaven, because he knows all too well how much his angel's kindness and willingness to see the good in something can warp the angel's perspective and his safety. And yet he knows that's exactly what Aziraphale would do, because that's the Aziraphale he fell in love with, the one who would look Gabriel in the face with a kind smile and say, "May we meet on a better occasion." The Aziraphale who, with the same generous unselfish act, break his heart in a million pieces.
Hey, I reaaally love all your meta analysis, especially the one on Aziraphale's morality. You truely have a wonderful writing style! And you expressed the feelings I had about the S2 finale I couldn't put into words and had me in tears again. I never really believed in the coffee theory (although a part of me hoped for it since it would be way less painful). But there is one thing I can't wrap my head around. The coffee theory is partly supported by the final scene of Aziraphale in the elevator and his creepy smile. Even when he looks forward to his new position and is convinced he does the right thing, I can't believe he wouldn't smile like that (and Michael Sheen is to talented for it being am accident). He still lost his soulmate Crowley, he still had to give up the life he loved so dearly and we know how much he struggled with that in the first place talking to Metatron. So why this smile, which aside from that, really did not look like him? I fear, that his memories were wiped out in this elevator. But since you have so a great understanding of Aziraphale's character, I would like to know your theories about that? Thanks a lot!!
(In response to my meta on why Aziraphale had to go to Heaven)
Thank you so much for your kind words, @sabotage-on-mercury (truly means the world to me). Honestly, the creepy smile was one part of the ending I couldn't quite put my finger on either, until someone pointed out on a Twitter response to my meta:
The reason why its scary is bc azi is becoming properly angry at the system and is 101% determined to set things right (Source)
In season 1, Aziraphale was determined not to kill anyone to stop the Apocalypse. He wouldn't even tell Crowley where the Antichrist was, because Crowley's only solution was to kill him.
And because Crowley consistently didn't have any ideas ("not one single better idea??"), Aziraphale took it on himself to pursue the only option left––to ask God to intervene and stop both Heaven and Hell from destroying Earth. Therefore, Aziraphale had to keep the integrity of his angel status by distancing himself from Crowley, while the world was still in danger.
Despite this dedication avoid bloodshed, when God didn't have an answer, Aziraphale went against one of his core beliefs to help save the world. He was willing to murder a child.
A Wartime Footing: An Explanation for Aziraphale's Elevator Smile
(Based on an ask from @sabotage-on-mercury in response to my meta on why Aziraphale had to go to Heaven)
The creepy smile was one part of the ending I couldn't quite put my finger on either, until someone pointed out on a Twitter response to my meta:
The reason why its scary is bc azi is becoming properly angry at the system and is 101% determined to set things right (Source)
In season 1, Aziraphale was determined not to kill anyone to stop the Apocalypse. He wouldn't even tell Crowley where the Antichrist was, because Crowley's only solution was to kill him.
And because Crowley consistently didn't have any ideas ("not one single better idea??"), Aziraphale took it on himself to pursue the only option left––to ask God to intervene and stop both Heaven and Hell from destroying Earth. Therefore, Aziraphale had to keep the integrity of his angel status by distancing himself from Crowley, while the world was still in danger.
Despite this dedication avoid bloodshed, when God didn't have an answer, Aziraphale went against one of his core beliefs to help save the world. He was willing to murder a child.
For Aziraphale, that takes guts. And (seeing how he reacted at the end of the Job minisode), I wonder that if he had killed Adam Young, Aziraphale would have checked himself into Hell.
Going to Heaven for Aziraphale is ultimately a conscious choice, one that he is clearly afraid of. We see him constantly steeling himself again the Metatron in the end, covering his fear and hurt from losing Crowley with a placid smile and a flippant attitude. He's wearing so many masks, to Crowley, to himself, to the Metatron...
All season we've seen him playing roles (detective, magician, doctor, landlord). But the final role is warrior. Going up that elevator, we first see Aziraphale's eyes searching, worried, panicking, but unable to show it because he's not in a safe space. He swallows, blinks, he's breathing hard (you can see his entire shoulders rise and fall).
But as he goes up, his expression steels. He's quite literally putting on a mask (to himself): a vengeful, hardened expression of pure anger and rage (to drown out the fear and uncertainty he so clearly still has).
Michael Sheen conveying contained anger in both Good Omens and Masters of Sex.
Cuz this isn't just him scrambling to kill a kid, this is him walking calmly and knowingly into sacrificing everything he loves most (Crowley, the bookshop, his entire life on earth) to create a world that will always be safe for him and Crowley and humanity for the rest of time. Where he would have to go up against the most powerful angels, the Metatron, and God Themself to change things. He can't be the kind, sweet angel he was on Earth. That won't cut it in Heaven if he wants to make a difference in any real way.
He wanted to do it with Crowley, with the love and support and strength of his demon. But without him, Aziraphale has to channel something else to keep his resolve afloat.
Something he had when he was a warrior, fighting on the front lines of a battle between Heaven and Hell, when he very likely led a platoon into divine fields of bloodshed before the earth was born. When he was an avenging angel.
I haven’t done this since the Great War.
It was a time and an identity he had chosen to leave behind, because it wasn't the kind of angel he was anymore ("I'm not fighting in any war!"). In this context, you can read Aziraphale's passionate unwillingness to take a life (his pacifism) directly into his past experience as a warrior. It is often the veterans of terrible wars who are the most earnest advocates for peace. (And especially in Britain and Europe, where the violence of the world wars is still such a powerful and painful national memory.)
As he goes up the elevator, he's breathing so hard we can hear it mirrored in the soundtrack, and he is so hyperfocused on steeling himself that he doesn't even care that the Metatron is watching him. He doesn't rest until he's psyched himself into that warrior mindset necessary to carry out this mission entirely by himself, to be both the moral advocate and the uncompromising leader of angels who had intimidated him his entire life. To demand respect and to talk to the very face of God and tell Them they are Wrong.
(Please read this Neil-approved meta for further thoughts on God and Aziraphale.)
That creepy smile is clearly not there because Aziraphale is happy to fall into a toxic parent's false love. There's no comfort or wistful nostalgia in that face. There's no "it'll be so much nicer" in that smile. It's not a happy smile. It's an I'm-gonna-fuck-shit-up smile.
Because it's a warrior's smile before they go into battle, before they put on that armor and, for a while, become something they're not in the name of some greater good. He's fucking furious and it's downright frightening.
Because I have no doubt that the angel Aziraphale we get in Season 3 is the angel Aziraphale who can say this:
He's not quite there yet in the TV show. But this bravery, this anger, this flaming rage is how it starts.
Or as he's described in the book when Aziraphale mysteriously does away with the local mafia:
Just because you’re an angel doesn’t mean you have to be a fool.
#good omens#good omens 2#aziraphale#aziraphale meta#aziraphale defense squad#ineffable husbands#good omens meta#go s2 meta#go meta#go s2#michael sheen#book!aziraphale#*mine#*mymeta#made this a separate post cuz i dunno which version is better for reblogs#the side-by-side gifs kept crashing on me 😑#anyway I love and adore defending our angel#but in no way am I taking sides#I'm just coming to his aid since he's getting so much flack rn
Anonymous asked:
I think it makes sense to say that angels as ethereal beings in heaven are sexless but if one or two spend 6000 years on earth BEING male-sexed human bodies it no longer makes sense. As people keep recognising, eating food, drinking and driving fast among other things are all deeply embodied experiences and these have fundamentally changed them as people. The whole Jesus story is the same deal, being embodied human is transformative. We live in a time when the concept of embodiment is deeply unfashionable and Cartesian dualism is entrenched, where endless body mods and casual drugs and careless manipulation of core human physiology is enacted with barely an afterthought for deep-reaching and irreversible consequences, but it's a deeply sick framework for seeing the world
(In response to this meta about ineffables and romance/asexuality)
First of all, they don’t have “male-sexed human bodies.” They are literally "sexless unless they really want to make an effort” (Good Omens, 1990).
Like all of Neil Gaiman’s angels and demons (see The Sandman), Aziraphale and Crowley have no set genitalia, don’t (by default) engage in sexual activity, and they don’t always present or dress as male through history (although they often do).
critical-gemini-hero (excerpt): "Good Omens is the first big show I’ve seen to basically avoid transphobia all together when the opportunity presented itself, and even say fuck you to the gender binary as a bonus." Neil Gaiman (excerpt): "Thank you! That was definitely what we were going for." (source)
So no, they quite literally do not have “male-sexed human bodies” and they do not ascribe to human gender norms.
In addition, what you are suggesting is that “being in a male human body” equates to “feeling male” and “feeling sexual” because “the body dictates internal experience.”
There are literally millions of people, actual human beings living in physical bodies, who (despite living in culture) still DO NOT feel that the gender assigned to their bodies is reflective of their lived, internal experience. Merely having physical attributes does not mean you have a corresponding internal experience. You can be forced by your parents, teachers, elders, peers and everyone else to FEEL a certain way because of your “sexed human body” but it won’t make it true inside you.
If one's internal experience were so unimportant, then we wouldn't have 82% of transgender individuals consider suicide (source) because of the stigma of trying to get out of the norms assigned to them because of their "sexed human bodies."
Aziraphale and Crowley have lived in history long enough to know how varied and complicated the concepts of gender AND sex have been historically. As spiritual beings, I think seeing how much humanity has varied in its ideas on sex and gender only confirms to them how unlike humans they are (with humanity’s obsession with genitalia, sex, reproduction… food, shelter, warmth, breathing––all things that angels and demons do not need to survive).
They love humanity, they love its pleasures and inventions, but they are still very much detached from it. Looking like humans definitely doesn't help them feel like humans at all. (Look at how they talk about us!)
What are we, sniffer dogs??? They don't know what we feel like on the inside or how our biology works (we sure ain't sniffer dogs) because despite some surface appearances, they don't have the same internal experiences as us. Despite being here since the dawn of time. Despite looking like us in many ways.
They can magic up clothing and sideburns and eldritch heads to scare trigger-happy corporate men, and yet somehow gender and sex (as specifically Western-binary concepts) are something they'd totally get down with?
Also, your line of reasoning imagines people having no internal motivation or desire and suddenly get a tattoo and start to become a “bad person” or something. Yes, of course changing our bodies can affect our psychology, but our internal identity much more often influences our bodily choices than the other way around. I'm taking the drugs because I'm already depressed. I'm getting the tat because I want something cool on my body. I'm taking testosterone because I want my inner identity reflected in some ways on my physical body.
When you realize that when Crowley asked Aziraphale to help him start that nebula, he made Aziraphale a starmaker too 💫 That when Crowley pines for the stars, he’s pining to run away to the place they both created together
I think it was you that wrote a meta about something Michael Sheen said about how his favorite creature to play was an angel and he said something really interesting about goodness and how brave it is to be good. What was that quote? I've lost the meta but I've been thinking about that quote a lot and I realize I'd like to write it down somewhere for myself
Of course! Michael's philosophy really spoke to me so deeply too. It's worth putting on a frame. Here are the links!
not crowley at some point next season telling some random stranger oh my friend? he went to heaven and getting the "he's in a better place" speech and crowley absolutely going LIVID
What if Nina and Maggie are actually us, the fandom? The ultimate fanfic, a queer coffeeshop AU, and the folks who ship Ineffables so hard that we tell them to their faces, It's your husband, you lovestruck fool, tell him what you think.
That's why they can be a little corny, a little cliche, and really cute (who hasn't written a first fic that wasn't a little cringe). And why Nina ship troped them by calling Crowley the emo goth and Aziraphale the soft sunshine.
I like to think that's how Neil Gaiman gave us a cameo in Good Omens and our contribution to the ineffable love through the years, from 30 years ago until today.
Defining Ineffable Love (or, Aziracrow Learn the Rules of Romance)
(In response to this ask about ineffables and asexuality)
One of the major threads this season was Aziraphale and Crowley asking themselves what exactly is their relationship. Not what it is in terms of how much they love each other. (That's a given.) But what it is in terms of the human implications of their love.
Crowley and Aziraphale definitely come at the relationship with different perspectives, in terms of what they’re willing to admit to the relationship being. I don’t think we can entirely interpret it in human terms. –David Tennant (source)
For 6000 years, they’ve never put a name on their relationship. They didn’t, because they’re inhuman, genderless, sexless beings and they didn’t grow up (as it were) with labels. And even when they did learn them, they couldn’t say it was love, because admitting that was a death sentence.
All of Aziraphale’s heart eyes and pining could live comfortably in his mind if he never admitted what that said about him as an angel (trauma compartmentalization). Crowley tries desperately to be cruel and nasty to add white noise around the blatant reality of his constant loyalty to Aziraphale. If you don’t put a word to it, it’s not real and they can’t punish you.
After the Not-pocalypse, for all rights and purposes, Aziraphale and Crowley chose humanity as their identity. We see Aziraphale “playing house” in various human roles (as a landlord, a private eye, a magician).
We even see Crowley intentionally taking on human behavior to handle emotional issues: “Just breathe, that’s what humans do.” They’re slowly and intentionally enculturating themselves into the world they want to belong––earth.
Yet it’s setting up Maggie and Nina that makes Aziraphale and Crowley start thinking about their relationship as a human construct.
I saw your tags about azi being like Tony in civil war and that take was so hot 👌👌
Unfortunately it destroyed me
Yeahhh, me too. (I'm a huge Tony Stark stan so pain is my bread and butter T.T) I think thinking about it in terms of CA: Civil War helps with giving both Crowley and Aziraphale agency and choice in that ending, and acknowledging that BOTH of them have a point and neither are completely in the wrong. (the post in question)
I just want to say thank you to all the people who liked my Aziraphale Defense post. I haven't even read all of the comments and replies yet, but I'm so immensely grateful it could help people see Aziraphale's POV on that ending decision. I just want to defend that complicated, incredible, selfless angel. Thank you for reading.