#fandom has written off Gabriel as dumb but like #you don’t show up unannounced with a violent enforcer your employee is clearly uncomfortable around and trap him in a room by accident #this is deliberate mob level intimidation #“politely” reminding him exactly what theyre capable of if he steps out of line #and its terrifying #he cant even look at them

@ileolai hitting the nail on the head as usual!

In addition, Sandalphon is blocking the exit. And he and Gabriel are standing at complete 180 degree points with Aziraphale in the centre. This is a thing I have known sadistic interviewers to do: to deliberately sit (or stand) at such angles to the victim/interviewee that they can never have both interviewers in their eyeline at the same time. To make eye contact with one, you have to lose sight of the other. Normally I’ve seen it done with the two interviewers at 90 degrees, so the interviewee has to keep turning their head. This is even more cruel: Aziraphale has to turn his back on whomever is not speaking. It’s a deliberate tactic to make a victim more awkward and wrong-footed, and in this case, even physically vulnerable.

Yep. You’ve articulated what I was trying to get at with ‘’trap’’. You don’t block off the exits like that to have a polite conversation. You do it to threaten somebody.

It’s like they took the mob intimidation bit from the original book and turned it into something far more horrifying and with more weight for his character arc, because this is what gangsters do to scare people. imo Gabriel is fairly well aware of whats going on long before the surveillance photos come into it and he just likes watching Aziraphale squirm with anxiety over how much he knows, because he’s not stupid, he’s a sadistic bully. 

And Aziraphale is playing the game so well. He tells himself he trusts them but he absolutely doesn’t. He smiles, he nods, he tells them nothing. He has a quick answer for the jibe about the evil smell. He shows zero reaction to their loud comments about pornography (react, and prove you’re more used to humans than to angels? That you find angels embarrassing now? That you know more about earth than the guy who stationed you there?). He’s covering his ass expertly—he knows how to defend himself. He’s watched angels fall.

@kedreeva oh NO you’re right.

Like don’t get me wrong, I like a good clueless boss as much as the next person. But that’s not Gabriel. Michael asks if Gabriel minds Michael following up through back channels and Gabriel plainly says “there are no back channels, Michael” and it’s not because Gabriel thinks there are no back channels, of course there fucking are, he’s been using them too. But how dare Michael bring them up so baldly. How dare Michael betray the ruse, and to his face like that. They’re the good guys, you know.

I’ve been convinced that Gabriel smarter and even more malicious than he pretends since the watch-through when I realized Gabriel knows Adam is the Antichrist BEFORE he gets to the airfield. Even Crowley doesn’t know Adam’s name (”You, boy, Antichrist–what’s your name?”) and Beelz has no idea which of the kids he is until Crowley wordlessly points him out. But Gabe says, “That one. Adam Young.” The only way he can know is if he’s somehow keeping extremely close watch on Az.

Gabriel’s bland “I’m sure there must be some explanation” to those pics of Az and Crowley is not the shock of a being who finds out he’s been betrayed by a trusted employee for at least 400 years. It’s not even the vindication of finding out that an UNtrustworthy employee has in fact been guilty for 400 years. He’s entirely unsurprised and his denial that back channels exist is a tacit approval for Michael to finally bring this out in the open. “Go ahead and do what you want but I didn’t tell you to because I’m the good guy.”

Yeah, Gabriel has been waiting for Az to slip up for six thousand years. So why doesn’t he just use his knowledge of the Arrangement against him? Because LOTS of angels and demons have arrangements. Michael has Ligur; Gabe himself has some unnamed downstairs source. If Gabriel punishes Az and/or Crowley and one of them knows about this, the whole system could come crumbling down. (It’s fine to be a hypocrite as long as nobody knows about it.)

So he’ll just wait for Az to take that one step too far and to Fall, get chucked out of heaven. But that never happens. And it pisses Gabriel off.

Oh I absolutely agree. I didn’t even catch that.

Some other moments that make me suspicious:

All this leads me to believe Heaven knows WAY more than it lets on. I also kind of wonder - if Hell has the same level of knowledge as Heaven, was Crowley chosen as the Antichrist’s deliverer as a punishment, some kind of bizarre torture meant to “test” his “loyalty”? Was Aziraphale’s station on Earth meant to be a punishment that the angels are now unhappy about because he enjoys it?

I don’t remember where I read it, but I really liked the theory that being on Earth is a punishment for Aziraphale, but a reward for Crowley.

Aziraphale failed in Eden, so being on Earth, basically cut off from most of Heaven, would be a punishment (except he actually loves it, which must frustrate Gabriel to no end).

On the other hand Crowley’s stunt in Eden was a major success, and it would make sense that staying on Earth would be a reward. Hell is clearly miserable. Threatening to take that reward away would give Hell yet another tool to blackmail and control Crowley. I don’t think they would have given him the Antichrist if they didn’t trust his abilities, it was too important of a job to use it as a test or a punishment, anyway.

Also, from what we saw in the show, I wouldn’t be surprised if Heaven knew a lot more than Hell does. Unlike the book, Heaven is very present, and organized in a cult-like manner. Gabriel really reminds me of a cult-leader, friendly and apparently innocuous on the outside while being actually ruthless. Such a group would have the means and the motive to create a very efficient surveillance system, under the guise to protect the sanctity of Heaven.

On the other side, Hell is much more chaotic, ruled through threats and violence. Collaboration is actively discouraged. Fear is encouraged, and I got the impression that powerful demons prefer to terrorize minor demons into obeying instead of actually checking if orders are being carried out (“Do this or I’ll skin you alive” instead of “Do this and I’ll come down later to check you actually did it”). Such an environment isn’t optimal for a good surveillance system, because information will be lost in the chaos, or hidden in fear.

You can also see this difference in the way Heaven and Hell contact Aziraphale and Crowley. Hell constantly talks to Crowley through the radio or the telly, basically a constant reminder of “you are never safe, we are always watching and we will hurt you if you make a mistake”. Except that’s really inefficient, and it allows Crowley to hid things under their nose despite being very scared of his superiors. Correct me if I am wrong, but Hell representatives only interact with Crowley in the flesh when he is called to pick Adam up, and when Hastur and Ligur go to murder him. The demons usually keep their distance, which means the information they get may be distorted.

Heaven on the other hand? The Archangel Fucking Gabriel goes personally, multiple times, to talk with Aziraphale. In the sushi restaurant, at the park, in the bookshop. He gets into Aziraphale’s personal space all the time, and he usually plays it as friendly interactions. In a lot of instances, he isn’t even trying to scare Aziraphale into compliance, he is emotionally abusing him. It’s not “we are always watching so you should be terrified”, it’s more of a “hey buddy, you see how I really care? I am here and you are really disappointing me, why can’t you do this one thing right?”.

Only when he brings Sandalphon the emotional abuse takes a step further into a more threatening territory. Gabriel has a more hands-on approach than his counterpart, and if he asks the same of his underlings he probably gets very precise information.

In short, I think Gabriel knows a lot more than Hell on what Crowley and Aziraphale are up to, and would absolutely love to punish Aziraphale, except he can’t because then he would put his own back-channels into jeopardy. So he turns to petty bullying and cruelty under the facade of the Friendly Boss/Family Member.

Sorry everyone for reblogging the same post three times in a row but this addition is so????? GOOD?????

Also, the notion that Heaven knows more than Hell does a great job of fitting in how all this is really just Heaven’s game.

The contrast is fascinating, honestly. “I was reprimanded for performing too many frivolous miracles, got a strongly worded letter from Gabriel” vs. “My lot do not send rude notes” / “Is it my fault they never check up?”

Hell is inefficient. That’s clear from their offices, it’s one of the major traits separating Heaven and Hell. So they might not check up on you often, beyond lazily sending reminders over electronic media. If you are caught not doing your job, the consequences are dreadful - ‘reprimand’ is a mild word for it - but it doesn’t happen often. Your odds of getting busted for any one thing are very low, so if you’re a renegade demon, you might as well live on the edge and take that chance.

Heaven is exactly the opposite. They’re ruthlessly efficient and organized, and you bet they monitor miracles. Aziraphale can’t so much as miracle up a handkerchief to sneeze in without them getting on him about it. That’s why he’s so much more cautious, so hesitant, always so wary of pushing boundaries. His consequences may be, at least on the surface, milder, but he is MUCH more likely to have to face them. And they add up. Beyond the notes, there are warnings, and beyond the warnings there are threats, and beyond the threats… well, Hell got their ideas from somewhere, didn’t they?

When you decide to use your post-non-apocalypse sabbatical to figure out what kind of idiots you’re going to have to work with.

Yup.

Pretty sure that Beelzebub is next to him, reading the Dante’s Paradiso :)

This scene goes unappreciated and it doesn’t deserve to!

I just gotta point out Gabriel’s reaction here. It would’ve been so easy to make him a selfish coward who hides behind others to keep himself safe.

But, no. Hellfire is being blown at them and Gabriel’s first instinct is to throw out his arms for Sandalphon and Uriel, shielding them. They even look to him for protection as they hold onto him. (Makes me wonder about some other times he’s protected them)

what do you mean this was never happened

Gaiman wrote to Hamm.

“I sent him an email, saying, ‘Dear Jon Hamm, some years ago you told me that ‘Good Omens’ was your favorite book when you were in college and that it was unfilmable, and I have made the mistake of turning it into television, and would you mind playing Gabriel? He isn’t in the book.‘”

Gaiman received a simple response. The actor wrote back, “Yes,” and signed the email “HAMM” in capital letters — “which is how Jon Hamm signs everything,” Gaiman said.

tl;dr:

Neil: Want to be a character you’ve never heard of in a film you thought should never be made?

Jon:

I don’t see this image posted enough.

Wait, what? Where is this from?!

#fandom has written off Gabriel as dumb but like #you don’t show up unannounced with a violent enforcer your employee is clearly uncomfortable around and trap him in a room by accident #this is deliberate mob level intimidation #“politely” reminding him exactly what theyre capable of if he steps out of line #and its terrifying #he cant even look at them

@ileolai hitting the nail on the head as usual!

In addition, Sandalphon is blocking the exit. And he and Gabriel are standing at complete 180 degree points with Aziraphale in the centre. This is a thing I have known sadistic interviewers to do: to deliberately sit (or stand) at such angles to the victim/interviewee that they can never have both interviewers in their eyeline at the same time. To make eye contact with one, you have to lose sight of the other. Normally I’ve seen it done with the two interviewers at 90 degrees, so the interviewee has to keep turning their head. This is even more cruel: Aziraphale has to turn his back on whomever is not speaking. It’s a deliberate tactic to make a victim more awkward and wrong-footed, and in this case, even physically vulnerable.

Yep. You’ve articulated what I was trying to get at with ‘’trap’’. You don’t block off the exits like that to have a polite conversation. You do it to threaten somebody.

It’s like they took the mob intimidation bit from the original book and turned it into something far more horrifying and with more weight for his character arc, because this is what gangsters do to scare people. imo Gabriel is fairly well aware of whats going on long before the surveillance photos come into it and he just likes watching Aziraphale squirm with anxiety over how much he knows, because he’s not stupid, he’s a sadistic bully. 

And Aziraphale is playing the game so well. He tells himself he trusts them but he absolutely doesn’t. He smiles, he nods, he tells them nothing. He has a quick answer for the jibe about the evil smell. He shows zero reaction to their loud comments about pornography (react, and prove you’re more used to humans than to angels? That you find angels embarrassing now? That you know more about earth than the guy who stationed you there?). He’s covering his ass expertly—he knows how to defend himself. He’s watched angels fall.

Gabriel is sincere...

...and still a dick.

A lot of people assume that Gabriel hated Aziraphale all along. That he was always talking shit behind his back. That he was intentionally bullying Aziraphale.

I don’t think so—a lot of the evidence points to him wanting Azirpahale to “succeed” (be in line with their idea of an angel). They think he’s overall goood at his job—the deleted bookshop grand opening scene has him giving Aziraphale a medal and “promotion” for good work. His pep talks to Aziraphale are cruel, but don’t seem mean spirited. He thinks Aziraphale is a little weird, but still a good soldier. (Literally.)

If I had to make a real world comparison, I’d say he’s like a homophobic father dealing with a closeted son. He wants to be loving and supportive, but not of the person Aziraphale really is, just the one he’s been told to be. “You’re doing great in school, you’re such a nice guy, just man up a little and I’m sure you’ll get a girlfriend soon. Let’s go play football!”

But just like that father, his love is conditional and based on the person he thinks Aziraphale is, and not the one he actually is.

(Plus, I think it’s more compelling and more relatable oops if Heaven gives Aziraphale genuine encouragement and praise when he does what they want—it’s much easier to blame yourself and become hooked on the praise that way.)

Yes, absolutely. Gabriel and the other angels also show us what Aziraphale’s loyalty to Heaven *could* look like.

Good Omens…

Crowley, Aziraphael…… Gabriel…

There are so many things in Good Omens that can be analyzed and picked apart and put into meta, but I keep fixating on Aziraphale’s return to Heaven after he passes through the transportation circle (i.e. gets discorporated). I mean, for one, we get to see his “heavenly” attire (all white/cream colored tux, very pristine compared to his well-worn, earthly clothing). But more importantly, he’s injured.

The first step he takes after the Master-at-Arms calls to him is halted by him rather suddenly grabbing at his right leg, as if there was a wound he’d forgotten about

It’s not just a one-off thing, too; he spends the entire walk up to the podium limping heavily, and only removing his hand from his thigh after four or five steps. You could argue that the injury happened to his body during discorporation, but seeing has he’s no longer attached to it there’s no reason he’d still be able to feel its pain. It could also be something got twisted on landing, since he stumbled pretty heavily when he was first entering Heaven, but honestly the thought of a noncorporeal form pulling a muscle (or something else that would cause that much discomfort) doesn’t really make much sense - and we see later that even though Zira looks like he has some sort of physical manifestation, he flickers when the Master-at-Arms asks him about his body, so I’m not really sure there ARE any muscles to pull.

Which leaves me with what I think is the most likely scenario: that the injury is an old war wound - as in, one from the First War. And, that War being before anyone had a body, the injury would have been to his celestial/noncorporeal form, and possibly only felt outside of a body.

A lot of people have speculated on Aziraphale’s role in the war in Heaven; he doesn’t seem like the type interested in fighting, but he IS a Principality, and he was given a flaming sword (by God, no less) and a post as the guardian of the East Gate of Eden. I think he not only fought in the First War, but got pretty badly injured in it too. Judging by the way he’s holding his leg, it wasn’t just a flesh wound, but something that cut deep, close to the bone (or the angelic equivalent?) - something that could have cost him his life if it had landed just slightly shy of where it did, or if it had been a smidgen deeper than it was.

You could also take it a step further; if we are to believe Aziraphale when he says he’s never killed anything (miracling his unfortunate dead doves back to life aside), then that means he didn’t kill whoever injured him, even in self-defense. In fact (and this is pure character speculation, at this point), he might have even looked at his opponent and decided not to fight at all; that even if they made the move to kill him, he wouldn’t try to take their life. And whoever faced him took advantage of that, and struck a near-deadly blow that likely only missed something vital because Aziraphale tried to dodge or parry it.

(And maybe God looked at the angel who refused to kill even when Heaven commanded it, and thought of the demon that didn’t mean to fall, and knew who She wanted to be there when Adam and Eve would leave the Garden).

I’d just like to point out that if Aziraphale really was injured in the First War - injured as an angel in a celestial war at the beginning of time - the other angels surely know about it. In this context, THIS:

Gabriel arranging to meet Aziraphale while JOGGING, is not just sort of dickish anymore, it’s a direct insult to a wounded veteran. Gabriel refusing to stop jogging when Aziraphale is clearly struggling is an intentional slap in the face intended to humiliate him.

“Wrap up whatever you need to wrap up down here, report back to active service,” Gabriel says, “and lose the gut.” As if the only reason for Aziraphale’s reluctance to join the war is laziness.

I’m having a lot of Thoughts and Feelings about this but let’s just agree that Gabriel really is The Worst.

Good Omens is even funnier when you realize Gabriel is the angel who told Mary she was pregnant with Jesus

Imagine this guy

showing up to your house like, “hey guess what?”

Mary: but how can this be since I am a virgin?

Gabriel:

He doesn’t tell her, he just walks up to her in all his glowing angelness and goes:

Levels of Jogging Ability.

Gabriel: Enthusiastic

Aziraphael: Soft.

Crowley: Barely under control saunter is not suited to this activity.

crowley has never exhibited greater self control  

If you think about it, we hate Gabriel because we all identify with Aziraphale, but in reality, objectively he’s just that annoying, but normal and “just-doing-his-job” boss. Aziraphale, on the other hand, is objectively a terrible employee