Also I forgot about it, but the drunk scene after Aziraphale’s discorporation is also a real shifting element between the portrayal of book and tv Crowley.
Now I love this scene, and I’m glad we got it, but it definitely is a defining moment that takes tv Crowley in another direction compared to book Crowley.
Book Crowley has more motivations and ties to Earth and humanity in the story than his TV counterpart, who seems mostly defined through his relationship with Aziraphale (and while I’m glad we got so many moments between them, and would really not have wanted for them to be less present in the show, it’s thematically disturbing. Once again, not complaining, just observing.)
When Aziraphale gets discorporated in the book, Crowley is upset, but he barely grieves, and goes straight away to trying to save the world. On his own. With only a few hours left. He knows everything is lost, but for the slight chance that might work, he has to try it. Because he’s an optimist and believes he can / has to do it.
TV Crowley is not able to do anything but get drunk and wait for the world to end when Aziraphale is gone. And it’s heartwrenching, and an emotionnal rollercoaster for us viewers, but you can see how this is a complete departure from his optimistic personnality ? TV Crowley gives up.
This is fertile soil for angst.
Now with all that being said, I used to feel weird about how Book Crowley didn’t mourn Aziraphale at all. It felt odd, to me, that this loss wouldn’t affect him. BUt then I saw someone comment something along the lines of “when you’re in a desperate traumatic situation sometimes your response is to shift into action and push the emotions on the side and just having to convince yourself yourself that it’s gonna work out” so I guess this take reconciled me with what was going on in the book. Therefore, it felt to me at first that drunk TV Crowley was kind of fixing the issue I had with the original book scene, but the more I think about it… The more I think that the book scene is more thematically fitting.
I’ve said it before and I’ll probably keep saying it, but there’s something very neat and complementary about the book and the tv show. The characters and plot are just slightly different, slightly explored from a different point of view, the themes changed just so that we are offered two medias that can be understood and enjoyed in wildly different ways. The core of the book is more about its themes (which is why there’s a huge part without Crowley and Aziraphale, and though it makes perfect narrative sense I find it rather frustrating), but the TV show focuses way more on the relationship between Crowley and Aziraphale and their character arc, and everything is built around them instead of them being part of the plot as the rest of the characters and events. And I find it neat that we can have one media exploring the themes so thoroughly while another one is more narratively focused on the characters.
It makes sense too that the book, with its written narration, can dedicate more time to exploring abstract concepts, while the show, being a visual media, needed to show stuff happening, and following characters around is one of the best ways to do that.
