Neil Gaiman and Douglas Mackinnon on the Good Omens love story

From a Q&A at Ineffable Con 2 on 17th October, 2020.

Neil:

Douglas:

[…]

Neil:

Oh interesting. Neil seems to see book and show Aziraphale as basically the same person (as he’s previously said with Crowley).

I find comparisons etc interesting but I tend to see them the same way.

Same. I find it interesting what people have done, running with the differences and making separate versions, and it’s resulted in some really fun fan works. But Neil’s just like “…they’re the same character guys, I literally wrote them both times.” And I’m inclined to feel the same way. The depictions don’t really feel different to me, just that their relationship is emphasized more and they’ve picked up things like body language and voice tone from their actors. I go back and read the book, and I can easily see their TV selves doing and saying everything in it.

Oh yeah. They are one and the same for me. When I write fic, I draw on both. It is all true.

The comparisons and making them into separate characters is fun and yeah, some great fan works.

But I do find it interesting people who absolutely cannot see them as the same, you know? Some I think read the book first awhile ago and had a clear image in their head so of course Michael or David aren’t going to look the same. But then, that must have been true of Neil himself, huh? Personally I didn’t read the book first, but in situations where I have I adapt easily. I think visuals are more important to some? I don’t think it bothers me much.

Then there’s the difference between a show where you get rich visuals but no inner monologue and a book where you get rough visual and rich inner monologue. Some put the two side by side but don’t take that into account. Personally I can put all of the inner monologue from the book into the show and it makes sense to me.

Then there’s just the extrapolation from what we see. We extrapolate so much about characters from seeing them really for such a small part of their lives. Like, can you imagine someone guessing your personality, values etc from the equivalent chunks of your lifetime? And we mostly see the atypical stuff: the crises. I think it is easy to over-extrapolate. End up with a real specific sense of a character that then can easily get contradicted. But the book and the show aren’t actually in conflict, it’s the idea the reader/viewer got in their head extrapolating too far.

There’s also the fact that a TV show has to be visually interesting. Which is why we do not have several hours of Aziraphale just reading with his shop closed, even if that is what he chooses to do with nearly all of his time. Instead (because TV) we see him at dinner, coming home, having customers, getting bothered by Crowley and by head office – because even if those are the exceptional few minutes of his day, the rest of his day wouldn’t look like much. The one sequence where we do see him sit down at length with a book requires a lot of special effects, voice over, time lapse, and other interest to make it bearable to watch. But the set dressing and the dialogue lead us to understand that TV Aziraphale is very much passing his time the same way Book Aziraphale would. We just aren’t reading it or watching it, so we have to infer it. Much like Crowley’s inner dialogue.

I’m 100% convinced that during the Discorporated!Aziraphale/“I lost my best friend” scene, Azirpahale couldn’t see anything. Or at least, he could only see things in one plane, and only recognized Crowley’s soul, and not his bodily corporation. For two reasons.

1. The way Aziraphale looks around, like his eyes have nothing to focus on. His body language reminds me of someone who is on the phone and can’t see the person they’re talking to.

2. He asked Crowley if he went to Alpha Centauri, which if he could see Crowley sitting in a pub with two empty wine bottles next to him, he would know that right away.

@crowley-asmodeus Does this also mean that he sensed Crowley’s soul went straight to him do you think?

3. It was confirmed by Neil Gaiman.

Although OP isn’t considering the possibility that Alpha Centauri is entirely occupied by bars with a two-bottle minimum. ;)

It is absolutely interesting that he managed to contact Crowley before finding a receptive body. He clearly doesn’t know what he’s doing, yet still managed to zoom right in.

My guess? The whole astral plane thing works by thinking very hard about what you want and bringing you where it is. So afterwards he thinks “I need a receptive body” and the astral plane is like “???? This guy in America?” “No, I need a body close to Tadfield” “???? This non-psychic person?” “No they aren’t receptive at all! Aren’t you paying attention?” “???? Germany?”

But what would he have first thought on returning to Earth? Probably the bookshop, NGL, but either it didn’t exist so he couldn’t get there, or he arrives like “well I can’t see or interact with anything so that’s a bust.”

And the very next thought would be “Crowley.” Much clearer and more exact than “some kind of body I can use.” Probably the clearest damn thought in his head. And it worked.

Cool! I figured it was confirmed somewhere. I just always pictured Aziraphale zooming through a different plane and only seeing souls, like globs of bright auras, and he recognizes Crowley’s in a crowd, instantly, and zooms over to him to give him an update before finding a receptive soul! @theniceandaccurategoodomensblog @aethelflaedladyofmercia

#ineffablehusbandsweek day 7: destiny this scene will be forever my favorite revelation about the series x33

@ineffablehusbandsweek

Excuse me??

Does anyone know where in the show??

I am pretty sure Neil is referring to the body swap bench scene. If he’s not we can all collectively scream..

Since it seems like he’s being kind of ~cryptic~ about this, my bet is it’s when they sit down on the bus together after the “You can stay at my place” conversation on the bench in 1.06! I cannot find a gif of it, but there was a great gifset awhile back that had a zoomed in gif of that moment, and it looked distinctly hand-holdy.

update: I found a gif of it!

(original gifset)

Why is this gif making me feel so many things???

I have been adamant all along that they hold hands in this scene, and I’m just going to go ahead and take this as the excellent Neilman confirming it.

Random Good omens thought. Any of you guys noticed that Pepper and Adam swapped bikes?

Like this is from the first episode

This is Pepper talking about how she wanted some fun bike, but got a girl’s one instead.

And this is when the Them go to the airbase

Dog is sitting in the basket, and Pepper has a cool bike.

So my headcanon? They swapped.

sorry for not crediting earlier but forineffablereasons’ tags are a gift to humanity

Frankly, given technically she’s still riding a girl’s style bike, I think what happened was more:

Pepper: with a BASKET

Adam: I’d like a basket.

Brian: It’s not too bad without the basket, we could paint it something cool

Wensleydale: Actually, my parents have some paint in the garage, red and yellow?

Pepper: Fuck. Yes..

That would have been my explanation too.

Crowley is presenting as female (or at least, not male) at the Crucifixion scene.  Everyone who noticed he was wearing feminine clothes there–it was intentional! (x)

FINALLY A CONFIRMATION OF MY SUSPICIONS!! this is awesome! :D i really really liked how casually it was done.and now i can use the correct pronouns when talking about her in that scene

Oh, I love this! Good grief, I LOVE this.

…Golgotha is also the first time that Crowley asks Aziraphale to use a new name.

That’s right!

“So this [Good Omens] was what brought us together, into the new love story for the twenty-first century!” - Michael Sheen, the #1 shipper over here.

God bless you, Michael Sheen, you unabashed gay rights champion!

YASSSS!!!

Just knowing they were going to do this and that it was coming from Pratchett as well as Gaiman makes me really happy.

“There’s a interesting kind of love story going on. It’s never explicit, but it’s there.” [x]