You mean Miranda like in Shakespeare's Tempest Miranda, the sweet and smart girl with who believes that all people are fundamentally good and has a mysterious manipulative and omnipotent parent who doesn't explain anything to her and pretends to separate her from her true love on the account of an old feud, except in the end we discover that it was all planned from the start and he wanted the two of them to be together?
I see...
excuse me hold up beg your pardon whAT
Michael babygirl, I apologize now for the close-up screenshots of your mouth I am going to put on the internet. Call Neil if you have issues with it, it's his fault.
Honey, why are you chewing on a ball bearing? I was going to be lenient and say it's a glint off of some saliva but nah she's suckin on a damn pie weight. I didn't see her take a bite of any dippin dots, did you? Who let her near my stash of Buckyballs that I was hiding from the Consumer Product Safety Commission? Just because you are bbgurl doesn't mean you get to eat bbpellets.
I just rewatched the scene and if you watch really closely it seems like he rolls whatever it is under his tongue. It also seems like he was showing Crowley that he had it before rolls it under.
People have mentioned ball bearings but also there are guns(sometimes called pellet rifles) that take bullets that are essentially ball bearings. Small, round sometimes metallic balls.
So does S2 have 2 bullet catches?
Alright, this post blew my mind so I've spent the past 3 hours researching and I think this could be something?
The idea of 2 bullet catches reminded me of the derringer that Aziraphale has hidden in a book in the bookshop. So my first question was, can derringers shoot balls?
tw: guns, bullets, final fifteen footage, metatron
some gomens that got left on my canvases (husbands & wives)
I have a feeling that beneath the little halo on your noble head There lies a thought or two the devil might be interested to know You're like the finish of a novel that I'll finally have to take to bed You fascinate me so
You Fascinate Me So, Blossom Dearie
Have we talked about this yet?
I'm definitely a "death of the author" girly but when the author is alive and a fellow tumblrina and confirms my interpretations of their work, I'm here for it.
Several other really good metas have hit on it now, but to throw my own thoughts in the ring:
The coffee is a metaphor twice over.
Aziraphale uses it as a stand-in for both everything he values on earth, and Crowley (arguably the same thing but you get what I'm saying). "I don't want to go to Heaven - where would I get my coffee?"
So in Aziraphale's metaphor, coffee is Life, Heaven is Death - give me coffee or give me death. (Interesting too that the phrase "go to Heaven" is also a euphemism for dying. This show.) Give me life (freedom, choice, love), or give me death (Heaven). At that point in the convo, Aziraphale thinks that's his choice, and he rejects Heaven.
But Aziraphale is wrong at this point in his conversation with the Metatron about what the coffee means. He learns something new that makes him change his mind.* The Metatron is also using the coffee as a metaphor, and it doesn't represent earth.
This is where it matters, as I've said in another post, that a choice between something and death is not a real choice. Nina establishes this for us textually when she confirms that no one chooses death.
On the outside it looks like Aziraphale can choose to either go to Heaven or stay on earth.
But importantly, the coffee was forced on Aziraphale - he was told he jolly well better enjoy it. In this metaphor - the Metatron's metaphor - the coffee is heaven. And the death? Is probably literally death. Aziraphale's, Crowley's, maybe both. Or at least, someone's memory erasure. (With the Book of Life hanging like a sword of Damocles, the Metatron could also mean erasure, but I do not at all believe that's what the BoL does. Aziraphale, however, may not be as sure as I am.)
We don't know the details of the apparent "death" threat because Aziraphale didn't relay that part of his convo with Metatron to Crowley, but we can infer this because "give me coffee or give me death". Aziraphale chose the coffee, he chose Heaven. Of course he didn't choose death, and unfortunately Liberty was never actually on the table.
*I know that metatrash makes the angel!Crowley offer & that alone could be what tipped Aziraphale's decision, but if he wasn't compelled in some other way, why not stay with crowley when crowley said nah no thanks? And even if there was no threat perceived by Aziraphale, I still say that "give me coffee or give me death" tells us, the audience, that Aziraphale was in danger if he tried to remain on earth. The Metatron didn't make a huge deal out of this fucking cup of coffee he bought from a place called "give me coffee or death" for us to disregard it.
Nina: What'll you have?
Crowley: Six shots of symbolic liberty in a big cup.
Nina: Ok. And you, Mr. Fell?
Aziraphale: What do you have that calms people down?
Nina: I sell like, I don't know, seventeen different varieties of tea here in my shop that is based in London, including several decaf and herbal varieties, and it's not just implied but is canon later on in the scene where Maggie orders some but instead of saying the most obvious thing possible to you here, which would be that I'd be happy to fetch who I believe to be an older, English gentleman a nice cup of decaf tea, I say...
Nina, cont.: And why do I say this? Well, we're in a show obsessed with food symbolism so naturally my Soho-set shop-- named after the famous rallying cry of an anti-monarchist American revolutionary as he fought to break away from the English empire whilst still being, at that moment, stuck under its thumb-- recommends, for calming purposes, the delicious little round mini-turnover bits of pastry butter and topped with sugar and filled with currants or lemon things... eccles cakes... which were banned in England in 1650 when Oliver Cromwell took over and got all puritanical and claimed they were pagan. You're stressed, Aziraphale, so instead of offering you THE MOST LOGICAL POSSIBLE THING IN THIS SHOP to calm you down-- that is, a cup of tea lol-- I will, instead, offer you the sweet treats that the crazy Nazis of history think are so good they're sweets of the devil.
Aziraphale:
Bonus hilarity related to this:
The Angel got himself locked up for eating Satan's baked goods in 1650 and made Crowley come rescue him, didn't he?
This is what happens when you're raised by TV and trained in literary analysis
Beyond the crushing heartbreak of that finale, one thing in particular has stuck with me when I look at it in the context of S2 as a whole.
He lays out their relationship, "We're a team, a group. A group of the two of us. And we've spent our existence pretending that we aren't."
He then turns his head away and says, "I mean, the last few years, not really."
He pauses here, facing the interior of the bookshop. Really looks it up and down.
Turns back, "And I would like to spend" before choking on his words and looks toward the window. He can't finish saying something like "And I would like to spend eternity with you" because that's too much, too fast, for both of them.
But it's that "last few years" bit that has firmly lodged itself in my very broken brain.
According to Gaiman, it's been "a few years" since the end of Season 1. Armageddon has been averted. Heaven and Hell have reluctantly retreated. Crowley and Aziraphale have been effectively cut loose from their "sides," leaving them to form their own side.
So at the start of Season 2, we get a glimpse of the “fragile existence” they have carved out for themselves. To me, the biggest difference that we see is how they exist together in front of others. Going to the coffee shop, the pub, and the other shops along the street that Aziraphale has lived on for over 200 years. And don’t forget how they act in front of Nina, Maggie, and sweet, dim Muriel.
At the coffee shop, Aziraphale stammers a bit when Nina asks who Crowley is, but he still seems to have affection in his voice when he says, "We go back a long time."
Compared to Shakespearian "He's not my friend! We've never met before. We don't know each other!" panic, this is an incredible difference.
Of course, each time, Crowley is cool and cheeky and does nothing to indicate that they aren't a pair. Though, of course, he does deny it when Nina asks about Aziraphale being his side piece. “He’s not my bit on the side! He’s far too pure of heart to be anyone’s bit on the side.” And refers to him as an “Angel [swallows]I know.”
When they go the pub, Crowley's joy at doing something together in public that they do not normally do is super cute, including his cheeky order for Aziraphale's sherry. Then, when bringing the drinks over to the socially trapped Aziraphale, he greets Mr. Brown with a truly adorable, "Hello" and a signature DT smile. Then upon hearing how “excited” Mr. Fell is to host the meeting, he looks down and says, “Oh? You astonish me.” while Aziraphale sips his sherry and squirms.
We also watch as Crowley follows Aziraphale as he goes to each shop and talks to the owners about the meeting/secret ball. In theory, Crowley has no reason to tag along, and he certainly doesn’t help sway anyone who doesn’t want to/can’t go. He goofs around at the magic shop. He splays out on the bench, chin on hand, looking for all the world a husband waiting for his wife to pick out a dress at the department store. They are so married it’s ridiculous.
Finally, their behavior in front of Muriel while inside their sanctuary. Crowley sits on the arm of Aziraphale’s chair, somehow looking supremely comfortable on the old-fashioned furniture. He folds up those gloriously long limbs and presses himself as close as possible.
He smiles and plays along with Aziraphale’s coaching of Muriel in her disguise. Calls him Angel and asks to speak in private. And at the end, during the awful wait while Aziraphale talks with The Metatron, Crowley cleans up the shop and tells Muriel that he and Aziraphale will need some “us” time after all this. No beating around the bush.
Without oversight, they can be openly together and happy. But Heaven just can’t let that happen.
welcome back to alex's unhinged meta corner, today's topic: the chest touch at the pub. that scene has me in a chokehold for some reason and i still cannot stop thinking about it.
the first thing i wanna talk about is crowley's reaction, since this is the shorter part. he did not expect aziraphale to reach out to him like this and freezes for a second while aziraphale happily chatters away.
they were both walking and the hand on his chest stops him, so he comes to a stop right next to him while he was slightly behind him before that. his gaze also snaps to aziraphale's face, who is very much not looking at him.
they were having a conversation, but the touch essentially shuts crowley up and zira leaves him to get their drinks.
now, my question is why aziraphale does it. sure, it could just be an absent gesture since they're in a crowded place, just that he has never really done so before. i think it was very much planned, like asking crowley to dance and grabbing his hand later on.
a second before he actually reaches out, he also looks back to check whether crowley is where he thinks he is. that is the only time he does that, he was busy looking for a free table and miracles them one when he cannot find one - the look back is deliberate. especially since crowley is practically glued to his side, he has no need for confirmation, he can feel him brushing against him while walking.
the hand motion he does gets me, too. he is busy fidgeting with his hands like normal and has them clasped in front of him. aziraphale lifts them once he gets to "that is precisely the point", yet also already moves it slightly towards crowley, realizes he miscalculated where exactly he/his chest is, looks to check, then looks away again before actually touching him. am i reading too much into it? maybe.
i think it is his version of a little temptation. not only does it make crowley's brain short-circuit for a second, he also gets them their drinks and is now (or so aziraphale hopes) a bit calmer and will take the news aziraphale is about to give him better. the conversation at the cafe did not go entirely as planned, after all.
additionally, something i am not sure if other people have noticed or not is that aziraphale does not just touch crowley, it is a caress. he moves his hand down his chest.
the movement in order:
bar girl unfortunately moves in front of them, but you can clearly see the way his hand takes. to give you a direct comparison of the starting and end point:
a good point of reference is crowley's bolo tie but also the angle of aziraphale's arm while it is still visible.
the best part, in my opinion, is that aziraphale puts his hand right on top of crowley's heart. i think the symbolic importance of that is pretty clear and does not require any more explanation, although it makes me want to throw myself into a river. but that's by the by.
to summarize, aziraphale caresses crowley's heart chest to get him to calm down and not go insane over the news he is about to give him. he is also simply a bastard and knows exactly what he is doing to crowley.
as always, this is me going nuts with analysis, but i'm also curious to hear other people's thoughts on this.
don't tell my therapist about my unhinged meta posts or she will probably be very concerned for my mental wellbeing
Aziraphale and Crowley on their 1827 graveyard date below and no tartan yet to be seen, right? And look which one of them is in a bow tie. :)
Aziraphale is still in his brown and beige tones and Crowley in his signature black and red. In this story, one of the elements of it is that Elspeth is less inclined to listen to Aziraphale than Crowley because Aziraphale is English (to the extent that him and Crowley are anything of Earth), while Crowley here has dropped his traditional English accent and adopted a Scottish persona. The English versus Scottish thing here becomes a parallel to Heaven versus Hell. Aziraphale undergoes huge change in this story and winds up on the side of Crowley and Elspeth and Mr. Dalrymple by the end of it. It's after this that he changes his outfit into what we see today and the most signature piece of it is his tartan bow tie, yes?
The first version of this is the one he has on in the 1860s scene, which is bigger and longer but the same colors. The rest (minus the hat) is what he's been wearing ever since. So we're saying that the tartan cravat look was born of 1827 and its colors (beige, blue, red) represent him and Crowley. *His damn tartan collar is fashion saying "our own side" and Aziraphale's been wearing it since after the 1827 scene*... So then they break up in the above scene in the 1860s and Aziraphale still has the tartan cravat on in the 1880s, *while he's making friends at a discreet gentleman's club*...
But by the time we see him in 1941 (and likely for awhile before that), he's settled into the look he still has into 2023 and the only difference is that he's changed the cravat to a bow tie. Like what Crowley had on during their date in 1827. Aziraphale has been out here with an "our own side" married accessory since the 1800s and these two idiots still can't get it together lol.
I don't know when the first time was that Crowley saw Aziraphale in the bow tie. I think they might have seen one another between the breakup scene and 1941, though there's some evidence that that might not be the case, but either way, the first time he saw that?! And if it was 1941 and he shows up to rescue Aziraphale, who is pretending to be all pissy about it while wearing a bowtie he designed out of love for and yearning for Crowley?! Quit teasing the poor demon, Aziraphale-- you're gonna discorporate him...
Aziraphale hasn't changed his look since the late 1800s because the tartan bow tie is a reference to his and Crowley's date in 1827 and so the look is a way of saying he loves him and not taking off the tartan bow tie is an equivalent of not taking off a wedding ring.
Hey! I just saw your post about some meta doing good but then misunderstanding the characters at some point. If you do not mind sharing, what are certain misconceptions that you usually see and don’t agree with?
Hi! I don't mind sharing but before I answer this I wanna say that I do love that this fandom has so many interpretations of Aziraphale and Crowley's actions and thoughts and motivations. I think some of those interpretations don't always line up with everything we see of them in the show and I feel that both of them have areas where they can be misunderstood. But if anyone reading this finds themselves disagreeing with me, that you do see some of what I'm about to say in their characters, I'm not trying to take your version of Crowley and Aziraphale away from you and like, ruin that fun by saying people are wrong, or something. Fandom becomes really stiff when the culture only has one idea of who the characters are.
That said, I'll start with Crowley because I've always found him most relatable, and so I think about his character more than Aziraphale's.
The first thing is Crowley's temper. I've read quite a few metas talking about how Crowley needs to better manage his anger because it shuts Aziraphale down and makes it harder for him to talk. I don't see this. I mean, yes, Crowley has a temper. Crowley has been shown to be angry. But I've not seen it shut Aziraphale down. When Aziraphale gets nervous around an angered Crowley, it's always because Crowley has said something blasphemous. Such as at the bandstand when Crowley is cursing the Great Plan. Aziraphale becomes scared FOR Crowley and Crowley is never angry AT Aziraphale. I can't think of a scene off the top of my head where anything Crowley does makes Aziraphale feel like he can't say something he clearly wants to say.
But also, I feel that this take of Crowley's character, that he struggles with his temper around Aziraphale, somehow erases how gentle he really is with Aziraphale. He's always so patient with him, even when it would make sense for him to be off the rails angry. And also also, the two main times we see Crowley lose his temper around Aziraphale (the bandstand and then the fight in episode 1 of this season) are both times of great desperation. The world was ENDING. He was SCARED (He's really good at hiding how scared he is). And then Gabriel shows up and Crowley doesn't know how but he feels this will disrupt every single good thing in his life. And so he explodes in the street, something we don't have reason to think Aziraphale saw. Crowley literally left to go cool down. I think he did his best.
I also see a lot of metas speak to Crowley's apparent lack of self-worth. I've spoken about this before, I think Crowley is very confident in who he is. I think he knows himself better than Aziraphale knows himself. Crowley has ALWAYS known who he is, his arc is not one of self-discovery. It's actually Crowley's dedication to being himself despite what Hell would have him be that causes him conflict and intrigues Aziraphale so much.
That also leads into this idea that Crowley can't see himself clearly and therefore can't accept Aziraphale's love. As if he can't comprehend why Aziraphale might love him. But, we literally watch as Crowley graciously accepts every advance that Aziraphale makes. Crowley is the one who "goes too fast" and he probably has a lot of joy every time Aziraphale makes another step forward. It's Aziraphale who said, "Let's go out for lunch" the first time. It's Aziraphale who invited a demon into the bookshop meant to be an embassy for Heaven. It's Aziraphale who said "our car", and then Crowley gave him the keys. Crowley even blatantly says, "We've spent our entire existence pretending that we're not." This implies that he KNOWS. He knows Aziraphale has been pretending too, for 6,000 years, and before that too. Crowley knows he's loved, the problem was that he wasn't allowed to be loved by an angel, and neither of them ever got to say it out loud.
And then there are other, smaller things I see in metas that I don't generally agree with (though I completely understand how people got there). Which is this idea that Crowley feels rejected by Aziraphale. I mean, yes, but also no. I don't think Crowley got in the car at the end and drove away thinking that Aziraphale loves Heaven more than him. I think he's more angry that every single time Aziraphale falls to Earth, Heaven tugs on this rope around his waist and pulls him back up. I think Crowley understands Aziraphale's dilemma a lot better than we think he does.
And also, more recently I've seen some speculation about how Crowley wanting to run away is somehow a character flaw? Like, I agree with the point that both of them were wrong. Fixing Heaven won't work, so Crowley was right. But also, running away isn't a long term solution for them because they both love Earth too much. But I don't exactly see this as a character flaw? In season 1 when he mentions running away, let me remind you that THE WORLD WAS ENDING. He was desperate and he was scared. And in season 2, it wasn't so much a plea to literally run away into the stars and escape as it was an immortal being saying, "Look, Gabriel and Beelzelbub did it. Wherever they are, they're together, and they're dedicated to being happy together. Can we do that? Can we do that forever? In this bookshop or in the stars (in a cottage in the south downs?) Because I love you and I don't wanna think about belonging to anyone else anymore. WE don't need to belong to anyone else anymore. What do you say?"
And as for Aziraphale, I've said before that I don't think he wants Crowley to be an angel so that he can love him more. Aziraphale loves him as he is. And I think there are more articulate posts out there outlining why. The ask for Crowley to be an angel again has nothing to do with Crowley himself except that Aziraphale thinks Crowley would be safer that way. Aziraphale can fix Heaven FOR Crowley. Crowley's fall was wrong and he can now right that wrong. This happened, tragically, because Aziraphale loves him exactly as he is. And as much as Crowley's heart is broken right now, I don't think he doesn't know that. He knows the love he's had from Aziraphale these millennia was real. He knows it.
This became an essay, maybe one day I'll figure out how to get my points across quickly lol. But yeah, these are just my thoughts about who I understand these characters to be in canon. And I know that even though it's been nearly a month since the season dropped, people are still working through all the details that led up to our favorite angel stepping into an elevator and the demon who loves him more than life driving away alone in silence. I'm honestly still working through it too, there's still so much to think about.
The more I sit with Good Omens, and I have to watch it again from the beginning of series one, the more the ending makes sense
Yes I believe that Aziraphale is being manipulated and being deliberately separated from Crowley because they are too powerful together
Yes I think what he said and how he said it was cruel
BUT
Of course Aziraphale is going to take this chance
Aziraphale is always going to do what he thinks is right even if he has to do it alone
1. He gives away his sword in the garden before he even meets Crowley again
2. He was fully ready and willing to save Job's children himself and then walk straight into hell with his head held high
3. When the original plan to stop the apocalypse went tits up and Crowley said "let's run away together" he said no. Not because he was just going to go along with the war but because he was going to keep trying
This is what he does
That's what made Crowley fall for him in the first place!
Aziraphale stays and he tries to do what he personally believes is right and if he fails he's willing to accept the consequences no matter how dire
And I think even if he had known what Gabriel said at "his" execution he still would have helped him
Because that's the right thing to do
And I hate how he went about it and I hate how he hurt Crowley
But of course he made the choices he did
If he made any other choice he wouldn't be the Angel Crowley fell in love with
God fucking damnit
This
THIS
drew this michael sheen while sleep deprived last night
im so normal about michael sheen's nose
David Tennant and Michael Sheen - BTS of Good Omens season 2
I know they’re both such brilliant actors, that’s not a surprise - but I still love the effect of seeing how, when they aren’t acting, they look like themselves in costume and not the characters.
