CUTENESS OVERLOAD!!!❤❤❤
[Mabli on Michael Sheen's lap and in front of them dolls of Aziraphale and Crowley]
Mabli: Daddy.
[Michael points at Aziraphale] Daddy. [and then he points at Crowley] Who's that?
Mabli: Mmmmmm. Uncle David.
Okay, I’m going to tell you a thing about Good Omens, but first you have to listen to a thing about physics, but I promise it’s relevant.
In brief and (hopefully) simple terms (and I know it’s WAY more complex than this but we only need the gist of it), there’s this theory that Time is actually a dimension. You’ve got the zero, first, second, and third dimensions that ordinary creatures like humans perceive, and then on top of that we have the fourth dimension which affects us.
The thing about these sorts of dimensions is that a third dimension creature (like a human) lives in the third dimension but is capable of perceiving the dimensions below their own in at least semi-concrete ways. Picture it like this: The zero dimension is a dot on a piece of paper. The first dimension is the same dot, but viewed from the side, where 1D creatures could see it is actually a line. The second dimension is the same line, but viewed from the a second side, where a 2D creature could see it is actually a square. The third dimension is the same square, but viewed from a third side, where a 3D creature like a human could see it’s actually a cube.
Now, say that I am a 3D creature looking at the 2D square on the piece of paper. I am capable of perceiving that second dimension. I am also capable of affecting that dimension; for instance, if I fold the piece of paper in the middle of where the line is drawn. The 2nd dimension can be affected by the 3rd dimension, even if it can’t really perceive the 3rd dimension the way it perceives its own and lower dimensions.
The fourth dimension is reckoned to be Time. Third dimension creatures, like humans, can be affected by time, but we can’t really perceive it the way a 4D creature does. We can’t even really guess how a 4D creature sees the world, because where would you even start? It’s a little bit… ineffable, you might say.
Now, Crowley and Aziraphale, in their true forms, should be at least 4D beings, capable of living in the 4th dimension (time) while being able to experience/perceive the dimensions below their own. Now, I would posit that actually these two exist in more than 4 dimensions, I would say (if we’re following String Theory here) that they could exist in up to 7 dimensions (the 7th being the dimension where one can access multiple dimensions, which explains the existence of heaven/hell), but that’s… complicated.
The point is, the POINT issss…. if they are 4D+ beings, then the third dimension - OUR dimension - is to them what a drawing on a paper is to us. Their corporations are, essentially, a 3D representation of themselves the way we might represent ourselves by drawing pictures on a piece of paper. These projections of themselves would be governed by the rules of the third dimension; including the ability (or maybe necessity) to experience time the way we do while they are here (hence why powerful immortal creatures cannot skip around in time while they have corporations).
Anyway, basically what I’m saying is that god wrote a 3D comic strip and put them in it and is now the frustrated equivalent of a writer whose characters just won’t stop doing things without permission dammit. That or, y’know, she fucked off after creating it and they’ve been writing a slow-burn self-insert fancomic ever since while they wait for her to get back.
This would also explain their ability to a) manipulate time the way Crowley stops it several times (consider the way we can manipulate a 3D object), b) travel between heaven and hell and Earth (even though it appears they must do so with the aid of technology like the portal runes or the globe in heaven), c) not be seen by humans at any given time even though they’re in plain sight to the camera (they may be interacting with extra dimensions somehow so as to not be seen), and d) appear to us to teleport (because we may not be able to see their interactions in a fourth dimension).
Now of course you could explain it as “it’s magic” but at the same time, of course it would seem like magic. A square on a piece of paper looking at a cube might assume the cube is doing magic when in fact the cube is just interacting with the third dimension. For example, perhaps a square would see a cube resting on one side as a square. If you were to roll that cube up onto an edge, it would appear (to the square) to become a line. Were you to lift the cube and set it down somewhere else on the square’s paper, the cube might appear (to the square) to have teleported. It would appear to be magic when in fact none of these things have happened; the cube is merely interacting with a dimension the square cannot perceive, the same way angels and demons may appear to be magic but are, potentially, interacting with additional dimensions we cannot see.
Now, you might say that the way Aziraphale and Crowley act (or the actions they take) don’t make sense if they don’t experience time in a linear fashion but I would argue that those actions do make sense. Just because one can perceive time as a dimension does not mean that they can see all time everywhere. Just because we exist in 3 dimensions does not mean we see all 3D objects at once, or that we can see all angles of every object at once or even that we understand, as individuals, every object we ever see (for example, how many sightings have their been of cryptid creatures? How many phenomena in nature have we seen but been unable to explain for a while?).
Imagine that you are standing at the top of the Eiffel Tower. You can see a LOT of 3D objects from there, for sure. But not all of them. You cannot see the Sears Tower in the US. You can see the Sydney Opera House in Australia. You also cannot see inside of all of those 3D objects. You can’t even see the far side of them. You cannot see the individual atoms that make up those objects without using some kind of technology. You also cannot manipulate the tower as a whole; you can move through it, and climb it, take pictures of it, etc, but you, as an individual, cannot pick it up and move it the way you can pick up a small cube, and in fact it would take a lot of inventing things in order for it to be picked up and moved by 3D beings. Even though you and 3D objects are both parts of the third dimension, there are limitations to how you can perceive and interact with one another.
So I would have to suppose that a being which sees in 4D would have similar (if unknown to me) limitations, the most obvious of which is that they may only see time in the space they are currently in. Perhaps there are things they can see but not really manipulate (like wind- you can move a little bit of air but not change a windstorm, or complete timelines may be like the Eiffel Tower; too big to move or affect as an individual without assistance). Maybe there are things which are hazardous to do (like how we can see magma and COULD touch it but it would damage us). There’s also the idea of optical illusion- our ability to perceive things we see can be manipulated by certain things like arrangements of color or placements of shapes (think of the person who took pictures of a giant penny beside large objects, in order to make them look small; they were not, but our knowledge of what a penny is informs our relative knowledge of the size of the car it is beside). Simply being able to perceive and manipulate some aspect of time doesn’t necessarily mean omnipotence or complete control of it, and their abilities would be further hindered by them moving part or all of the consciousness into a 3D body.
I don’t really have a point, I just wanted to talk about this more because I’m excited.
This is delightfully fun to contemplate. Crowley especially seems to have a few extra-sensory abilities, which are hinted at but not explained: 1) he can pause time, 2) he can sense where other ethereal/occult beings are or where their attention is (for example, finding an imperiled Aziraphale, and the body swap “Is anyone looking?”), and 3) in the book he references a future invention to Leonardo DaVinci. These all suggest an ability to at least interact with 4D+ dimensions. And it’s the last one about seeing far into the future that really makes me wonder.
I also wonder how much his interactions with short-term future time help him plan his demonic deeds. There’s imagination that allows humans to plan and create models for what we think the future will look like. But if you could actually see probable futures, it would be much more clear what actions to take. For example, knowing that only a rodent infestation would allow Crowley unfettered access to the mobile network controls. Or just how far reaching the effects would be of Londoners losing cell reception for 45 min. Unfortunately, he often forgets to check on himself in the future vision, so that leads to getting caught up in his own schemes.
And maybe it’s less an ability to sense where Aziraphale is that allows Crowley to swoop in and save him. Maybe he’s also peeking into time to find out what his angel is likely to be up to.
I need to know what the fifth and sixth dimensions are?!
I can answer that! Maybe not simply!! But I will try! We’re going off of superstring theory in this, if you want to look into it on your own.
So, bear with me. You have the 4 space-time dimensions as follows:
So these, together, are the components of reality, the way cardboard is a component of a box, if that makes sense. They’re subject to physics forces (like gravity), but those forces aren’t a material of the reality, if that makes sense.
Dimensions 5-10 deal in alternate reality.
Consider our reality to be the zero dimension of this new set of dimensions. We are, from everything that we can see, the only point that exists. We are a reality dot.
The fifth dimension is a reality “line.” If you were to turn and look at the dot from a new side, you would see that it has one extra dimension- the fifth dimension. A fifth dimension being would theoretically be able to see its own reality and one other version of their own reality; when you look at a line you can see a line OR if you look at it head on, a dot. So, you could look at your reality, but be able to one slightly different version of it as well.
The sixth dimension is a reality “square.” In this dimension, you are now able to view your own reality, and instead of just the next version of your reality, you can see all other realities that start from your initial dot of reality. This is important: you can ONLY see the realities that begin from the same starting condition as you.
Now, a 6D being should, theoretically, be able to move between those realities, allowing for an approximation of “time travel” at will or “dimension travel” where you could visit alternate realities instead of just seeing them. You couldn’t do this on the 5th dimension because there’s no where to go on a line except the one line. You would likely gain free movement when you add the X-axis dimension.
And since you’ll probably wonder about the rest…. it gets weirder and I’m not sure I can explain them well because they start to include the concept of infinity in ways that are slightly beyond me, so take this with a grain of salt and understand it’s WAY more complex than what I’ve said in any part of this post.
My understanding of 7 and 8 is that they deal in more kinds of alternate realities. Seven I think deals in all alternate realities that belong to YOUR reality, regardless of how they begin. Eight I think deals in alternate realities that are not necessarily your own, but are governed by the same rules as yours (the same kind of physical forces etc, like gravity).
My understanding of 9 and 10 is that 9 deals with infinite alternate realities that may or may not have the same rules of physics as your own, and 10 is basically “everything else, anything goes.”
So when I said earlier that Crowley and Aziraphale may be up to 7D beings in their true forms, I meant that you could choose to think that they, in pure angelic (and possibly full demonic) form, could at least view (if not travel to) any reality that is a version of THEIR reality. Which does beg the question; is this particular reality, with Earth, the only version of their reality in which Earth was created, thus making it important for them to preserve it?
Okay sorry one more quick thing; this theory would ALSO explain the anachronisms in their speech (if they’re able to see forward, backward, and across in time), but more importantly it would explain two other things.
It would explain the anachronisms in the world (like them wearing armor in King Arthur’s time, and the Bastille being around still), because you could easily believe that they’re one dimension over from our actual world. Same starting point, but slightly different branches of reality taken.
AND it would explain the differences between the book and the TV series. You could believe that they are the same beings, from the same starting point, who are currently living one dimension over from one another; the book pair live in a world where things went a LITTLE faster and the apocalypse failed a couple decades ago, while the TV pair live in a reality where it got delayed a bit. Same goes for any other iteration- radio drama? same two, same starting point, slightly different decisions. Musical? Same deal.
You could even, if you really wanted, believe that they’re all facets of the exact same beings that are aware of all the facets of themselves through the various dimensions. It would explain the Crowley we don’t talk about, if he put all the bad things in one place so everywhere else he could be Better.
Anyway. Something to think about.
I don’t know why I never thought of this before, but I did now.
In the Hebrew translation of Good Omens, Aziraphale is spelled as אזירפאל, and Crowley as קראולי. Someone who didn’t know about Good Omens or how to pronounce Crowley’s name would probably pronounce it as קראו לי, (Kar-ooh-lee). I know I instinctively did as a native Hebrew speaker, and I know how it’s supposed to be pronounced! But that’s not important. What’s important is what it means.
The phrase קראו לי means “they called me.” This is often used when referring to what one’s name was, for example, when introducing oneself, one uses the present tense קוראים לי. But קראו לי is past tense. In context, it can also mean “they called for me,” as in being summoned. Both of these meanings apply to Crowley. One of Crowley’s main characteristic is his shifting of names. He was called by many names, Crawly, Anthony, whatever name he had before the fall…. Crowley was also called for. Crowley was always being given orders, always being summoned.
What’s even more interesting is the way Crawly is spelled in Hebrew. It’s spelled קראלי, and, such as before, can be pronounced as קרא לי (Kra-Lee). This change in spelling and pronunciation transforms the phrase into a command: “Call (male) me.” Who could Crowley be asking to call him? After his Fall, he would be bitter, begging for anyone to call his name, perhaps his angelic name. Time passed, and he gave up, changing his name to past tense.
Another interesting point is that in changing his name in Hebrew, Crowley is only adding on letter, a ‘ו’ (Vav). Adding a letter to one’s name is significant in Biblical sense, but especially adding a letter that is a part of God’s Holy Name, י-ה-ו-ה (Yud, Hey, Vav, Hey). This is symbolic of a person’s intrinsic connection to God. The best example is Abraham and Sarah, whose names were changed from Abram and Sarai.
Now we’re going to get even more spiritual.
It is said that each letter in the Holy Name of God represents a different approaches to God. The 'י’ in it’s shape is not grounded. It is consumed entirely by the the Heavenly world, without any connection to Earth. The 'ה’ in its shape shrouds a grounded marking. The grounded being is unable to reach up, and its purpose is entrenched solely on Earth. What’s special about the 'ו’ is that it is a connector. It is a literal line connecting the top and the bottom. It channels the spirituality of the Heavens to the Earth, and the ingenuity of the Earth to the Heavens.
Crowley is a 'ו.’ In being a Fallen Angel, he brought a piece of Heaven down to Earth. This was his purpose. He would ultimately channel the two worlds, which he and Aziraphale did in adverting the Apocalypse.
Whether he knew it or not, in adding the one tiny 'ו’ to his name, Crowley was accepting his role as the connector, the bridge. He never knew what they called him, or what they called him for, but he was destined to connect two realms. That’s how Crowley is special. He’s not quite an Angel, not quite a Demon, and has the imagination of a human.
