#married

From me and you to the world and back again

This is a follow-up to this post about Aziraphale as collectivist and Crowley as individualist.

You know, incidentally, I still struggle with those terms, because they usually refer to real-world politics, and that's...not exactly where I'm trying to go with this. I mean yes all art is political and so are all interpretations, but I'm not trying to imply that Aziraphale and Crowley necessarily embody any specific real-world movement. I think they embody things everyone has to deal with: Who am I and where do I belong?

The first post was all about how each character represents collectivism or individualism as a concept. But something much more interesting happens when you consider their relationship, and how it encourages them to grow out of their original mindsets. It makes collectivistic Aziraphale think about individual perspectives, and it gets individualistic Crowley invested in the bigger picture. They make each other more well-rounded. This strength of their relationship persists even through the Final Fifteen Minutes of Season 2.

Aziraphale, my supposed collectivist, has character growth that relates a lot to his inner self, his certainty about who he is and how he is different. The freedom to explore himself as a unique person, separate from the rest of Heaven - individuality, in a single word - is what his relationship with Crowley has given him.

Aziraphale doesn't just "need" individuality because it's the moral of the story; he needs it because he loves it and it opens up a whole world of other things he loves. Aziraphale loves being himself, with all his charming quirks, and he loves collecting unique things, and he loves Crowley.

But preserving those things, even before enjoying them, will require thinking and acting for himself, and you can't master the skill of thinking and acting for yourself by leaning on someone else. So Aziraphale needs to secure his ability to stand on his own two feet, outside of Crowley's presence.

Crowley's character growth relates to his relationship with the world, how he can belong, and what roles he can play outside of the two he's already rejected (angel and demon). As an outsider to the only two "sides" he's ever believed he could be part of, he needs to find where he truly belongs. Aziraphale's gift to him is a way to belong on Earth.

And again, Crowley doesn't just "need" to belong somewhere because we said so. He wants to belong somewhere he can choose. He hates the constrictive Heaven and Hell system, and he's fascinated by the repeated acts of engineering and creation that humans are capable of. He likes participating in it in his own ways, too! Having a life on Earth fulfills Crowley in a way that being even the best angel or demon in the universe never could, because deep down, Crowley wants a choice, and having a predetermined role inherently takes that away from him.

But Crowley can't discover his place in a huge, wide, diverse world of choice after choice by focusing on just ONE priority and ONE relationship. So he, too, needs to practice his growth away from Aziraphale.

The irony here is that to best receive each other's gifts, they need to part for a while. And yet, once they accomplish this, they might be better at meeting in each other's original comfort zones.

Having thinky thoughts about OFMD and the tarot as a storytelling structure

Thinking about Stede’s big Fool energy and how his innocent, big-eyed optimism and childishness are key features of the start of his journey at the start of Season 1.

Thinking about how intense The World shows up on his last individual scene as he pulls the boat into the ocean with his whole bodyin S1E10x The sense of fulfillment and realization: he’s done it! He’s leveled up! Time for a new adventure!

And then

The Tower