This one will ✨BREAK YOUR HEART✨🩷

The Good Omens x Casablanca crossover NO ONE needed (but I did, because I'm an hopeless romantic)🥹✨ 1941 version!!

Don't be mad at me, I love them. But I also love angst. So here it is✨ They'll always have Paris😭 (what an epic ineffable divorce though✨)

notes: it's my first time drawing them "black and white/noir version", I feel so excited!

Bonus: close-ups! (without lines)

i love this! and the story isn't over yet, so they will see each other again.

oh i never know how to explain this properly but i looooooooooooooooove when a story just absolutely TELLS you something and it’s so obvious it goes right by you. like the equivalent of hiding in plain sight. i’m thinking in the original cut(?) of alien where they showed the full xenomorph, crouched and ready to pounce, but because we’ve never seen it before, we can’t tell what it is and interpret it as part of the spaceship. or it’s a detail that seems so out of place or wildly insane that you automatically ignore it and assume you misinterpreted until that exact detail comes back in a big way? (like when noah the raven boy flat out tells everyone he’s a ghost and they take it as a joke, so the reader does too) is there a tvtropes name for this i’m obsessed with it

I think that this is known as “delayed decoding” in literary analysis. The term was coined by Ian Watt in the ‘70s, don’t remember the exact year, to describe a technique used by Joseph Conrad in Lord Jim and Heart of Darkness, but a lot of writers picked it up. It’s basically what you described: you present a detailed image but don’t make its moral and psychological relevance obvious. You give facts but not their meaning, not until later, and the revelation can come directly from the characters who suddenly realize what they have observed or it can also be left in the text, to be understood by the reader. You can see why Modernists loved it!

Jemimah and The Final 15

In the Job minisode, we have the scene in which Crowley and Aziraphale get inside Job's house and meet his kids. While we know that they mean the kids no harm, this scene, as we'll look at below, is a parallel to the more dangerous arrival of that being who brought a coffee in The Final 15. I think that Jemimah's reaction to Crowley in the past actually solves what's going on in the present story of The Final 15. How so?

Never hears this one before!

Thanks for reading. 💕 I'm always happy to be luring a new person towards the side of It's Satan with The Coffee in The Bookshop. 😊

Is he saying "wait?"

Reblogging because it's super interesting, and the Job minisode, the Nazi Zombie Flesheaters minisode, and the Final Fifteen all have intense parallels -- I think I need to dig into those more myself.

However, in studying the chiastic structure, the exact opposite scene of the Metatron entering the book shop is the discussion at the coffee shop of a "naked man" in the book shop. It is my belief that the Metatron is not Satan, but rather was in fact once human -- as the Bible tells the story. He is a naked man, and not angelic at all. This makes him both far more dangerous than any of the angels, but also more fragile, if one can find the right way to get to him.

@kayleefansposts I think I answered but I can't find the post now & I was tired yesterday so it's possible that I did not lol. I see Satan mouthing "Good. Boy." which... *shudder*

@melbatron5000 Thanks for reading. 💕 Just to clarify-- I am not saying that The Metatron is Satan. I'm saying that Satan is appearing to be The Metatron because he and The Metatron are working together (foreshadowed by the Job minisode) because they need to get Crowley and Aziraphale out of the way to get Armageddon going. The only way to tempt Aziraphale is to offer him what he feels he lacks, which is the power to protect Crowley. The only way he could have that power, in his mind, is if Heaven gave it to him and the only person who could ever do that is The Metatron. That's why Satan needs to appear to be The Metatron in order to show up to tempt Aziraphale.

The protection of Crowley that comes with the (really non-existent) job offer is the temptation. It's not real. It could never be real-- The Metatron would never allow a demon to be restored as angel because it would collapse Heaven and Hell and take away his power. He wouldn't put the angel who stopped Armageddon: Round One in charge of Round Two. It's not The Metatron that we're looking at in The Final 15. The Metatron has told Satan that Aziraphale is fair game and it's Satan that we're really looking at, imo. The plot is Aziraphale's fall and how that will lead to the collapse of Heaven and Hell as it is right now in S3.

I see where you're going with the idea of Good Omens and chiastic storytelling but I think there's a difference between storytelling that just involves symmetry and mirroring plots and one that is structured in a chiastic way and I actually think that Good Omens is secretly a lot more simple in structure than it seems to be. Its whole story structure is built around Aziraphale's overall character arc. All the flashbacks we see exist to inform his and Crowley's motivations in the present story. The story in the present in Good Omens is the whole story and if you look at it that way? It's actually just Three Act Structure with a lot of narrative magic trick smoke and mirrors with flashback scenes and minisodes and the like. There are a lot of parallels and a lot of mirroring and some things that will come full-circle but it's actually a really simple character arc that they're following for the overall story. Thematically and in terms of details? You could analyze this story for decades. In terms of how it's structured though and what the overall story arc is? The whole story is Aziraphale's character arc and that is tracking as Three Act Structure to me so far.

the scene with Nina and Maggie sitting Crowley down and telling him he needs to communicate better with Aziraphale is so funny to me for absolutely no reason.

Like imagine being as old as time itself and two mortals sit you down and tell you to get your shit together with your relationship. I don’t think I’d ever be able to live that down

Especially since they have no idea what they're talking about. They needed him to get them together and still aren't clear on their own relationship while he and the angel have been in love since the literal dawn of man and have been having sex since ancient Rome. Maggie and Nina being like you should tell him you like him! is so fucking funny.

Imagine spending all week helping their hopeless asses and they they have the nerve to come into your house and tell you they know more about love than you do. Crowley's face 😂

Love Maggie and Nina but they were so out of line and off-base here.

I honestly hate how they’re written - if this isn’t retconned to make sense at some point I’ll be mad. What are they basing their judgement on? They didn’t even know who Crowley was at the beginning of the week.

I don't hate how they're written because it's not bad writing to write characters doing things you don't like but I hear what you're saying. Over here, we've been looking at Maggie and Nina's involvement in Satan's temptation during this part of the story and one theory that a few of us share is that Maggie and Nina are being used here simply to distract Crowley during Satan's temptation of Aziraphale--so, it actually didn't matter what was being said and it could be the fact that they don't know the relationship that well that is the whole point... what else did they have to talk about with him, I guess? lol

I'm inclined to think that's the case because, while I think that's the in-universe reason for why Maggie and Nina are there, the story structure purpose of this scene is to make those who haven't seen all the fine details in the story and so think that Crowley and Aziraphale are not together think that Maggie and Nina convinced Crowley to confess that he has feelings for Aziraphale when, in reality, that ain't news to Aziraphale, and there's a lot more going on in that kiss scene than I think people realize.

For the end twist of S2 to work, they have to leave plenty of clues and breadcrumbs towards what's truly going on (and they did) but also bury it a bit so that people are discussing it afterwards the way we are. It's a brilliant cliffhanger, actually, as much as it kills all of us. The answer to what's actually happening at the end of it is in the kiss scene but to keep that answer hidden for some of the audience? They need to distract the audience into thinking that there's nothing more going on than Crowley "confessing" feelings. It's my opinion that the show has intentionally never shown Crowley and Aziraphale kissing until this one, heartbreaking kiss by design for the express purpose of pulling off this cliffhanger. (Good news is that they no longer need to do that in S3. It's also likely why the canopy vavoom is S3 and not S2.)

Maggie and Nina's scene here exists to fool the audience who haven't yet caught onto the fact that Crowley and Aziraphale are very old, very long-time lovers. It's to make them think that Maggie and Nina convinced Crowley to tell Aziraphale how he feels. Those are fun ideas for fanfic but there's plenty of evidence to show that it's not at all what's happening in the actual show. From a structural perspective in the way the scenes play out? Having these two characters say to Crowley that he should talk to Aziraphale and then showing him talking about their relationship with Aziraphale can look-- on the surface-- to be that Crowley was persuaded by Maggie and Nina to say what he's saying but that's not actually what's happening. It's a bit of narrative sleight-of-hand. What is happening becomes more evident when you think about what it is that Crowley thinks the risk to Aziraphale is in The Final 15 and what his plan would be to stop that from happening.

Once you see that, consider that he has to say it in coded speech because they're being watched and then go look at exactly what he says to Aziraphale again and see if you can see what's really going on there. Crowley's plan doesn't work but it is possible to see clearly already what he was trying to do. When you do? You'll know there's a bigger reason why Crowley kissed Aziraphale in that moment than you might first think.

You'll also see that what Maggie and Nina says to him has exactly fuck all to do with what actually happens, making their chat with him even funnier already. I wager after S3 drops a scene of ancient times vavoom that it'll be even funnier.

"what's bombadil even doing in lotr" he's a transition between the hobbit and lotr! as the hobbits leave the shire they're still having hobbit-like adventures, and the stakes get higher very gradually! bombadil is as ancient as the wide world they're about to face and as full of joy and cheer as the home they're heading out of! he's a big part of the bridge between the two books! fuck!

Useful if this is how you think, though often I don’t see the outline until after the draft is written, because after awhile one just internalize this kind of stuff from all the media one ingests. Point is, use if helpful, ignore if not.

This is EXACTLY how many shows on television plot their episodes, though it’s usually through a five act timeline:

1) Introduction to the characters and the mission/adventure.

2) Mission begins. Protagonist establishes cursory allies and foes. Some sort of complication to the plot at the end of Act II.

3) Protagonist and friends deal with complication of the plot. Gears up for another go at the goal, but falls short in some way, usually related to protagonist’s personal journey.

4) Critical information needed for climax is discovered. Protagonist angsts, then rallies.

5) The lead up to and the final resolution. 

Because studios sometimes require a 6 act break for extra advertising, the last coda is usually related to season arc/character development. But generally speaking, this is the structure a lot of screenwriters use.

Three things that are true:

One of my biggest revelations was that writing is both the act of constructing beautiful sentences AS WELL AS the act of being imaginative, of thinking up characters and story and knitting them together in a clever way. We are so blinded by the romance of the act of sentence construction that we forget that the imaginative part should get our time and attention too. You can call it “planning” or “outlining” or whatever. I call it dreaming. 

Make time for your imagination to produce the best story it can.

Oh, what an absolute delight! I think you are spot on. A body swap of sorts has been brewing in my mind since I first saw 2.06, but I knew it wouldn’t be the same story told twice. Aziraphale and Crowley already swapped bodies, and Gabriel had his memories in the fly. Doing the same thing again is too flat for a show that is this layered and meaningful, but doing these things again with an added twist? Now we’re talking.

Thank you, as always, for drawing connections and articulating storylines that I couldn’t see or put into words, but that feel exactly right when I’m reading them laid out like this. Frankly, I cannot wait!

Thanks for reading. 💕 Glad you liked it. I find the idea of The Metatron and Satan being a version of the body swap (even if it's really more like Satan just taking on the appearance of The Metatron) to be funny because involving The Metatron in a mirror of a body swap plot when he, ya know, rather famously doesn't have a body...😂 I laughed pretty hard at that when I realized that's what I thought was happening.

As others have pointed out as well, "The Metatron" is wearing a dark coat and a tie with dark colors in it, which many take as one of the clues that this being is really someone who is affiliated with Hell, right? (Even if The Metatron and Satan are both evil and everyone else is basically shades of grey?) It occurred to me not long ago that the decision to make this character's coat the big clue there is also something of a parallel to the body swap. It's a variant on Aziraphale having hid a bit of tartan within Crowley's jacket when he was in Hell.

i like this! story structure is my jam! also the more i delve into really good writing, the clearer it is, that structure is an important element. i know some of my teachers tried to get at this back when i was in school, but i think i only absorbed a fraction of what they were trying to get across. something about getting really invested in a fandom, makes it stick. that and hanging out here with way smarter fans, for years and years!

needs a third to complete the structure. mer... maid? or mer man, not picky, or both? is that close enough to mer-median?

I'm just gonna write out what I think cos if someone sends me this again for the 113th time, I'm gonna snap. Look. Interviews (months!) before a premiere of something are tricky. You gotta be careful and VAGUE with what you say and what you want people to expect. Mostly creators focus on the themes in the first, maybe second episodes or so too trying not to give away much. Just the bare bones, what is already expected anyway. After all, they want you to watch it and go: "Ahhhh...." It was the same in S2 as well. (David describing in interviews how unmoored Crowley was in S2, how kind of disappointed etc and Michael how Az is also a bit disconcerted by not having a job, something big to belong to). But that's a description of - how we find the Ineffables in ep1, rather than describing the whole of Season 2. And there was a book first before the series and you must admit Aziraphale and Crowley are a bit different in the series than they are in the book. So caution was needed. PLUS their story has evolved again. It doesn't now end in the Ritz (I know it never really did for Neil and Terry who clearly wanted them to deal with the whole system somehow). The husbands have more trouble ahead. More details were added. We got more of their story, their journeys. Crowley doesn't change and is just waiting for Aziraphale to catch up with him is not much of a story, don't you think? Aziraphale is a naïve goody two shoes angel who has to realise Heaven is bad - is just so simple I'd be angry if I was Neil and read that. Well, okay, I AM angry.

And I'm sorry but Aziraphale has not lived a guarded life. He has lived a life of fear and anxiety with bosses who underestimate, belittle and laugh at him and think he's soft and rather pointless. Does anyone know what the question was Neil answers?

Yeah, Aziraphale changes a lot in S1 (esp first 2 eps, he's kind of forced to think about the stuff that was always kinda there but swept under a rug a bit in is mind). Crowley throws out - we should do something. This whole Armageddon thing, I don't like it. He is so much a questioner of everything, isn't he. Why does it have to be tis way. Makes no sense, what if... And generally, he doesn't have much to lose. If Hell wins, well, he knows what it's like. If Heaven wins, well, it'd be marginally better? Just about? If he survives to see it? Still sucks balls tho. So yes, David is right that Crowley NEEDS Aziraphale to see things his way and quickly. Cos EARTH.

Aziraphale knows the Earth came with a manual and an expiry date. He even told this to Angel!Crowley aeons ago.

So Aziraphale's journey (is not stopping believing Heaven is good and truth and light) is believing that he has choices. That the Plan might be Ineffable but it doesn't have to follow what he was told it must follow.

Crowley says, look, let's try, what do we have to lose. You like Earth as much as I do. And he gets Aziraphale to agree, they hatch a plan.

We watch Crowley come to love and trust Aziraphale through the ages after all he has been through. We watch Aziraphale to guard their little existence and carefully push at boundaries of what he thinks he can get away with. He wonders at what things are really like. What do they mean.

Their journey, is towards each other.

I don't know how they will smash the System before they fall into a tight embrace and never let go, but I know they will. Even if they have no idea yet that that is even possible. How could they.

And if I see one more post about how Aziraphale was backsliding and choosing his ‘faith’ over Crowley in the Final 15, I will set the internet on fire.

I can never decide if Heaven and Hell are more like mafia or like a dictatorship. Maybe a mix of both. Just cos they couldn't be killed, they were left alone for a bit. Didn't last long though, did it. They needed to be separated so they don't stop another go at destroying the little Universe project God started. I guess the Archangels are quite fed up with it.

Remember. Aziraphale and Crowley have nowhere to go. They never had. The best they could do was keep their little places on Earth. For themselves. For each other. Until they couldn't.

If you thought Aziraphale won't take the chance to have a tiny glimmer of an opportunity to destroy the fucking system in whatever way he can come up with (instead of what, being downmoted, having his memory erased too?), than you don't get him at all. Did he want to stay? You heard him say it. Was he allowed to? (No, really Metatron, nice chat but do fuck off for real now, I have a date with my demon). If you think Metatron wouldn't be back with a punishment for helping Gabriel than I don't know what to tell you.

Remember this?

And then they threatened the demon he loves.

ALSO Why do people keep bringing this back to justify their vague (or not so vague) dislike of Az (but but Neil said "I think Aziraphale needs to learn") cos they think Az betrayed Crowley by leaving or something. The angel is just so stubborn. And he just won't listen to Crowley... right? /s And they ignore all the other wonderful things Neil says about Aziraphale. Especially pointing out again and again and again how smart Aziraphale is. And you can see this. In canon. On screen. In the words and scenes of what Neil wrote. You can see Aziraphale's struggles - he is a part of something he disagrees with and has no way out (Hell is not a way out btw) and tries to live in his existence in the little bubble with Crowley while being extremely careful not to have it burst. Until it inevitably does. Just as he always knew it would. But okay, if you want to have Good Omens be about a demon who figured everything out and is now waiting for his fluffy little angel to catch up and apologise to him (a million times) for being stupid so they can finally ride into the sunset, have at it. TL;DR - Heaven is good and Heaven should/could be good are two different things - Aziraphale is not an idiot; whether he still believes God is good/neutral/whatever and just the management bad or not is up in the air, we can't know unless we ask him, but it's definitely not so simple as he needs to see it's bad, like Crowley did, end of story - The Ineffables HAVE NOWHERE TO GO. There isn't a secret third option where they can leave for and be happy if only Aziraphale opened his eyes - it's what the story is about - Crowley left Heaven for an even worse place. It would make zero sense for Aziraphale to follow his journey. Crowley is not free and doesn't have all the answers - I bet it has never occurred to either of them the whole System can be ever changed (we don't even know if it can be. The System is bigger than the UNIVERSE) - But I think that's what they'll do in S3

👀.

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

sometimes the intertextuality basically writes itself

Shakespeare's whole portfolio is just his Mr Fell/Mr Crowley RPF

As it happens, I saw a performance of Much Ado About Nothing the other day as a birthday treat. (I always go to this theater for my birthday. It's a Thing.)

So we've got two incredibly lonely protags where Everyone Can See they're a couple, but they only know how to relate to each other via sniping and zingers, so they constantly protest that they're Not A Couple, and how could they be a couple anyway because the other side is so icky-gross really.

Their friends, who fall neatly into two groups, also have the middle-school-recess thing down pat. So they corner our protags via dirty tricks, and in so doing a couple of them get the hots for each other.

But when those two finally arrange to hook up, Shit Goes Down. Bad shit. Shit that's so bad that even when our protags finally manage to admit they love each other, one insists that the shit has to get sorted out before any hookup can happen.

Yeah. It's all Good Omens if you look.

"If that plane leaves the ground and you're not with him, you'll regret it."

"No."

"Maybe not today, maybe not tomorrow, but soon, and for the rest of your life."

"But what about us?"

"We'll always have Paris."

Casablanca. Because it's kind of fitting.

I wrote a fic about these parallels if anyone is interested:

of course, this is at the End of casablanca, but only 2/3 of the way through good omens.

i remember a similar discussion comparing the casablanca tarmac scene with the bbc sherlock tarmac scene, pointing out that key difference.

that was one of the things i loved about war horse, when i saw it via national theater live at my local independent cinema. the only "villain" in the story was the war itself.

The Devil's Elevator & The Three Travelers

Maybe I'm the last to learn this but did you guys know there's a card trick in magic wherein decks of cards are made into metaphorical elevators and chosen red cards (representing "good") are progressively put into positions within a pile of black cards (representing "evil") as if falling to Hell... but the trick is that all of the chosen cards always return to the top of the pile?

And did you know that this trick is called The Devil's Elevator?

And that it has a sister trick called The Three Travelers that actually involves four cards getting into metaphorical elevators-- three red cards and one black one...like Gabriel, Aziraphale, Muriel, & Crowley...

...as God would say in S1:

Watch carefully... Round and round they go...

Nineteen Eighty-Four: Quotations of interest and Good Omens philosophy

Nineteen Eighty-Four Main Post

There were a few passages in the novel that stood out, that I wanted to bring to your attention, because they were interesting - but also because they articulated certain things that were hard for me to articulate myself. And, of course, there are ways they connect to how I interpret Good Omens, especially the behavior of Heaven and Hell.

Because of the last couple of paragraphs in the Good Omens novel, I really believe the core themes of Nineteen Eighty-Four are somewhere in its DNA.

So, I had read this post critical of Orwell and his work, and I'm feeling a bit embarrassed. Not because I think this post is now inaccurate, per se, but because I think I left out something important.

When I wrote, "Crowley and Aziraphale have something Winston and Julia never got: a real friend with the actual power to reject the system," I forgot to mention that friend was a human. Functionally the same as if Mr. Charrington was really a prole who somehow had the ability to hide the protagonists from Big Brother.

That does bring up a big question in my mind that I think may inform Season 3.

Adam was functionally a human, and actively chose to be one. But what he was able to do for the world, saying "No" to Armageddon and essentially handing Crowley and Aziraphale their tool for survival, came from his Antichrist powers.

Adam's decision is special because it demonstrates that even though it has the trappings of mortality and all that entails, the human way of life is a much better way to exist than any other. And it was choice that mattered; Adam not only made the right choice for himself, but also gave everyone else the gift of choice as well. However, it was still his power - a power that is not inherent in human beings - that allowed him to do it.

My question is, how do you square the notion that humanity is...stronger, I guess, than Heaven and Hell, when so far, the main instance of humanity's triumph came from a character who had inherent supernatural powers? This isn't a rhetorical question, I'm actually wondering it.

Maybe the point is that the concept of strength is a red herring. Maybe the whole entire point is that Heaven and Hell could just wipe humanity out immediately if they wanted, but whenever someone actually has a choice between the human life and the occult or ethereal one, they choose the human one. I don't know.

I didn't want to say this earlier because it seemed overconfident, but...I think Good Omens is a repudiation of Nineteen Eighty-Four. Everything is laid out exactly the same way, but the two works have completely opposing endings.

I guess I'm just trying to figure out precisely where the repudiation is, if I'm right. Could it really be as simple as Nineteen Eighty-Four containing more cynicism overall than Good Omens? Because that's what I'm coming up with.

In Nineteen Eighty-Four, Winston and Julia never bond in any way with any of the proles; they have no friends among the people whose lifestyle they're so enamored with. They never reach out to anyone and no one reaches out to them; the one prole ally they thought they had was actually a member of the Thought Police who helped coordinate their arrest.

Meanwhile, in Good Omens, Aziraphale and Crowley do feel actual affection for human people, not just for human things. Oh, don't get me wrong - they manipulate people and all around aren't perfect - but there's quite a clear fondness there that just isn't present for the proles in Nineteen Eighty-Four. And humans, for their part, tend to sort of adopt Aziraphale and Crowley in an amused way when the supernatural dust clears. Look at how gracious Madame Tracy was with Aziraphale, and how Maggie and Nina obviously care about their local supernatural weirdos even though they frankly have enough on their plates already, and of course Adam Young, a boy who knew "all about" Crowley and Aziraphale and still chose to "arrange" for them to be okay. The opposite of Mr. Charrington.

Much to think about. As always.

i like this. i think it feels consistent with what i know so far about the kind of stories terry and neil write, in my so far quite limited experience of them. one, that protagonists you are intended to feel sympathy for, AREN'T paragons of virtue, but they make choices based on what feels right, even if their understanding is limited and may be revised later. because at no point can one know EVERYTHING about a situation, there is always more to learn. choice is important. communication and mutual understanding is important. the "worst point" we are at here between s2 and s3, the "all seems to be lost" point is summed up in "they aren't talking to each other."

which leads me to APPLICABILITY. the characters in both stories are relatable, what we bring to the story from our lives helps us sympathize with the characters. in the other direction, what do we get from the story/stories, that we want to bring into our own lives? if "not talking to each other" is the nadir, how do we get from there back to communication and understanding?

First post! I made a tumblr account because of S2 of Good Omens. Literally no other reason. What a time to join the fandom!

Well, truthfully, I’ve been lurking around for a while, trying to get a feel for things. Now after processing some of the things i’ve seen, commenting, asking, etc, I thought why not make a post. It’s what you do, right? I won’t be offended if you take my outsider’s perspective with a grain of interloper salt.

So, I wrote this. A brief introduction: I’m a grown person with too many responsibilities and I’m spending my precious, infinitesimally small amount of free time typing my intrusive thoughts about a fictional angel and demon on my phone. Am I doing it right?

I think so. I’ve read some amazingly complex metas, character analyses, and wondrously intricate posts analyzing the significance of pretty much any and every detail you could want to read about on this site. Truly awesome investigations, intriguing connections and insightful inquisitions.

I’ve also read some character analyses that left me very, very concerned.

I know this is a t e n s e topic right now, but stick with me.

There is a fact walking around out there that I want to set the spotlight on:

Good Omens is a comedy.

Now, this isn’t important in a ‘y’all need to lighten up’ sort of way. This is important because of how comedies develop their sympathetic characters versus how tragedies develop their sympathetic characters.

Now, in my opinion, some of the best comedic fiction rides the tragedy line just right up to the edge without pushing it over. (See the movie Stranger Than Fiction for a fun example of this). But ultimately, while a tragedy primarily pulls your sympathy with the realism of the suffering of the characters, a comedy elicits your sympathy with the absurdism of their suffering. Now these two things are, importantly, not mutually exclusive - the dial between real and absurd has to be spun round and around to bring life to most stories, but eventually it will land on one or the other.

Very important note: suffering in absurdism is not a lower form of suffering than suffering in realism. Suffering is suffering, it’s just that sometimes the combinations of forces that inflict suffering have no business trying to act like they make any sense, and sometimes they are exactly what you’d expect them to be.

Also important fact! Crowley and Aziraphale are both, equally, the sympathetic characters in Good Omens. One is not subjected to tragic suffering whilst the other is dealt comedic suffering. They are both intended to be read as characters equally deserving of our sympathy.

Which in turn means, in GO, if you feel more sympathetic towards one of the Ineffables than the other, then that is the story showing you exactly where you have room to grow in your understanding of and capacity for sympathy.

Which brings us back to character analytics in fandoms.

While we are, without a doubt, discussing fiction, any publicly expressed opinions made while analyzing that fiction can have real world consequences.

When fans post biased, cruel, vengeful, hateful takes about a character in a story whose narrative is intended to shine a spotlight the absurd complexities of suffering and to challenge our ability to embrace and cultivate sympathy for someone we don’t understand, that has the potential to bring harm to the real world. If people aren’t willing to challenge themselves to recognize the value of sympathizing with the fictional characters whose actions are outside their understanding, then what do they take out into the real world? And if those fans find an echo chamber in a fandom because harmful language is treated the same as opinion language, then that can have additional damaging real world ramifications.

The last of the important notes, and a very important one: it sounds like there have been reports of harassment by users related to this topic. Harassment is never ever okay.

But it is crucial to speak up to say, no, some takes are not just opinion. It’s not just a simple scroll past or block. There are folks out there that have written posts detailing the harm and suffering that they want for a character because of how they perceive his actions - a character that is, without question, by the very nature of the story, one that is intended to be a recipient of their sympathy. These harmful takes need to be challenged.

It’s not about whether you agree or disagree with actions, it’s about whether or not you are capable of having compassion for a suffering character that is not contingent on your understanding of their motivations or perspective.

If you don’t have sympathy for one of the two sympathetic characters, then I think you’re missing a very important lesson that NG is trying to tell you.

To end on a light note, there are about 10,000 other things I’ve seen in this fandom that make me forget all of this. The ART, the fanfics, the absolutely bonkers metas, l love it. I have a couple crazy meta ideas myself but I think i’ve written enough for now. Be well everyone!

One of the reasons I will never be at ease with the overall "weirdness", the underwhelming pay-offs and the unfired Chekhov's guns during the plot(s) of season 2 - until season 3 arrives and we either learn that it's because of a brilliant trick they pulled on us OR because Neil & John actually did drop the ball and couldn't get the story structure right (yeah, sure 😏) - one of those reasons is that they got Aziraphale's character arc during that season so very, very right.

It is beautiful. It is subtle. It is organic. It is like a red thread running through all the episodes.

It has all been layed out for us from the beginning. Which is why it baffles me so much that so many people did not seem to see it - or want to see it.

Now, Crowley's character arc!

Pattern through both seasons: