smokeandsight
SmokeAndSight
22 | she/her | Canadian | avid fanfic reader | I write things sometimes | sterek, merthur, drarry, and geraskier enjoyer
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How many times can the same thing break your heart?
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reblog this if your blog is a safe space on april fools and won’t have any jumpers, screamers, or anything scary or anxiety inducing
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2 genres of fanfiction:
1) put that guy into situations
2) take that guy OUT of situations for the love of GOD let them REST
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Awhile ago @ouidamforeman made this post:
This shot through my brain like a chain of firecrackers, so, without derailing the original post, I have some THOUGHTS to add about why this concept is not only hilarious (because it is), but also...
It. It kind of fucks. Severely.
And in a delightfully Pratchett-y way, I'd dare to suggest.
I'll explain:
As inferred above, both Crowley AND Aziraphale have canonical Biblical counterparts. Not by name, no, but by function.
Crowley, of course, is the serpent of Eden.
(note on the serpent of Eden: In Genesis 3:1-15, at least, the serpent is not identified as anything other than a serpent, albeit one that can talk. Later, it will be variously interpreted as a traitorous agent of Hell, as a demon, as a guise of Satan himself, etc. In Good Omens --as a slinky ginger who walks funny)
Lesser known, at least so far as I can tell, is the flaming sword. It, too, appears in Genesis 3, in the very last line:
"So he drove out the man; and placed at the east of the garden of Eden Cherubims, and a flaming sword which turned every way, to keep the way of the tree of life."
--Genesis 3:24, KJV
Thanks to translation ambiguity, there is some debate concerning the nature of the flaming sword --is it a divine weapon given unto one of the Cherubim (if so, why only one)? Or is it an independent entity, which takes the form of a sword (as other angelic beings take the form of wheels and such)? For our purposes, I don't think the distinction matters. The guard at the gate of Eden, whether an angel wielding the sword or an angel who IS the sword, is Aziraphale.
(note on the flaming sword: in some traditions --Eastern Orthodox, for example-- it is held that upon Christ's death and resurrection, the flaming sword gave up it's post and vanished from Eden for good. By these sensibilities, the removal of the sword signifies the redemption and salvation of man.
...Put a pin in that. We're coming back to it.)
So, we have our pair. The Serpent and the Sword, introduced at the beginning and the end (ha) of the very same chapter of Genesis.
But here's the important bit, the bit that's not immediately obvious, the bit that nonetheless encapsulates one of the central themes, if not THE central theme, of Good Omens:
The Sword was never intended to guard Eden while Adam and Eve were still in it.
Do you understand?
The Sword's function was never to protect them. It doesn't even appear until after they've already fallen. No... it was to usher Adam and Eve from the garden, and then keep them out. It was a threat. It was a punishment.
The flaming sword was given to be used against them.
So. Again. We have our pair. The Serpent and the Sword: the inception and the consequence of original sin, personified. They are the one-two punch that launches mankind from paradise, after Hell lures it to destruction and Heaven condemns it for being destroyed. Which is to say that despite being, supposedly, hereditary enemies on two different sides of a celestial cold war, they are actually unified by one purpose, one pivotal role to play in the Divine Plan: completely fucking humanity over.
That's how it's supposed to go. It is written.
...But, in Good Omens, they're not just the Serpent and the Sword.
They're Crowley and Aziraphale.
(author begins to go insane from emotion under the cut)
In Good Omens, humanity is handed it's salvation (pin!) scarcely half an hour after losing it. Instead of looming over God's empty garden, the sword protects a very sad, very scared and very pregnant girl. And no, not because a blameless martyr suffered and died for the privilege, either.
It was just that she'd had such a bad day. And there were vicious animals out there. And Aziraphale worried she would be cold.
...I need to impress upon you how much this is NOT just a matter of being careless with company property. With this one act of kindness, Aziraphale is undermining the whole entire POINT of the expulsion from Eden. God Herself confronts him about it, and he lies. To God.
And the Serpent--
(Crowley, that is, who wonders what's so bad about knowing the difference between good and evil anyway; who thinks that maybe he did a GOOD thing when he tempted Eve with the apple; who objects that God is over-reacting to a first offense; who knows what it is to fall but not what it is to be comforted after the fact...)
--just goes ahead and falls in love with him about it.
As for Crowley --I barely need to explain him, right? People have been making the 'didn't the serpent actually do us a solid?' argument for centuries. But if I'm going to quote one of them, it may as well be the one Neil Gaiman wrote ficlet about:
"If the account given in Genesis is really true, ought we not, after all, to thank this serpent? He was the first schoolmaster, the first advocate of learning, the first enemy of ignorance, the first to whisper in human ears the sacred word liberty, the creator of ambition, the author of modesty, of inquiry, of doubt, of investigation, of progress and of civilization."
--Robert G. Ingersoll
The first to ask questions.
Even beyond flattering literary interpretation, we know that Crowley is, so often, discreetly running damage control on the machinations of Heaven and Hell. When he can get away with it. Occasionally, when he can't (1827).
And Aziraphale loves him for it, too. Loves him back.
And so this romance plays out over millennia, where they fall in love with each other but also the world, because of each other and because of the world. But it begins in Eden. Where, instead of acting as the first Earthly example of Divine/Diabolical collusion and callousness--
(other examples --the flood; the bet with Satan; the back channels; the exchange of Holy Water and Hellfire; and on and on...)
--they refuse. Without even necessarily knowing they're doing it, they just refuse. Refuse to trivialize human life, and refuse to hate each other.
To write a story about the Serpent and the Sword falling in love is to write a story about transgression.
Not just in the sense that they are a demon and an angel, and it's ~forbidden. That's part of it, yeah, but the greater part of it is that they are THIS demon and angel, in particular. From The Real Bible's Book of Genesis, in the chapter where man falls.
It's the sort of thing you write and laugh. And then you look at it. And you think. And then you frown, and you sit up a little straighter. And you think.
And then you keep writing.
And what emerges hits you like a goddamn truck.
(...A lot of Pratchett reads that way. I believe Gaiman when he says Pratchett would have been happy with the romance, by the way. I really really do).
It's a story about transgression, about love as transgression. They break the rules by loving each other, by loving creation, and by rejecting the hatred and hypocrisy that would have triangulated them as a unified blow against humanity, before humanity had even really got started. And yeah, hell, it's a queer romance too, just to really drive the point home (oh, that!!! THAT!!!)
...I could spend a long time wildly gesturing at this and never be satisfied. Instead of watching me do that (I'll spare you), please look at this gif:
I love this shot so much.
Look at Eve and Crowley moving, at the same time in the same direction, towards their respective wielders of the flaming sword. Adam reaches out and takes her hand; Aziraphale reaches out and covers him with a wing.
You know what a shot like that establishes? Likeness. Commonality. Kinship.
"Our side" was never just Crowley and Aziraphale. Crowley says as much at the end of season 1 ("--all of us against all of them."). From the beginning, "our side" was Crowley, Aziraphale, and every single human being. Lately that's around 8 billion, but once upon a time it was just two other people. Another couple. The primeval mother and father.
But Adam and Eve die, eventually. Humanity grows without them. It's Crowley and Aziraphale who remain, and who protect it. Who...oversee it's upbringing.
Godfathers. Sort of.
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this is absolutely stunning, genuinely I am speechless it’s so so good!
The Fall - (2023)
Inspired by The Lament for Icarus by Herbert James Draper.
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Okay so in my rewatching of Good Omens season 1, I noticed something interesting. In episode 3 when Aziraphale is telling Gabriel and the other archangels that the antichrist isn’t Warlock, Gabriel makes a comment saying “There was war in Heaven long before the Earth was created. Crowley and the rest were cast out…”
And it just struck me as interesting that he mentioned Crowley by name and no other demon, like say Beezelbub? Or Satan? So needless to say, I’m starting to believe the theories out there that Crowley was really high up in Heaven before he Fell. Which we of course get further evidence of in season 2. Idk it just stuck out to me during my rewatch.
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honestly you just kinda dive in and hope for the best!
I just experienced an absolute rollercoaster of emotions with that ending. I need season 3 like now or I'm gonna explode!
Neil Gaiman... I DO NOT FORGIVE YOU
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my heart has been slightly healed because there is one absolute legend of a writer whose given us this gem of a fix on that last scene! give it a read and feel a little happier!
Ineffable Everyday by NeskyTheHomosexual
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okay no but seriously, how in the HELL am I supposed to just MOVE ON and be FINE with that ending?!?! how am I supposed to feel ANYTHING but RAGE and SADNESS and NUMB!?!?
I have never read any fanfics in this fandom but by god am I going to have to read every fix it fic out there now!
#good omens#good omens season 2#spoilers kinda#crowley#aziraphale#neil gaiman#my life is over until I get season 3
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I just experienced an absolute rollercoaster of emotions with that ending. I need season 3 like now or I'm gonna explode!
Neil Gaiman... I DO NOT FORGIVE YOU
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“Oh my god you’re a writer? Can I read your stuff?”
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So I’ve finished reading Kingdom of Ash, the final book in the Throne of Glass series again. This is my 3rd full series read through since I first read it back in 2020.
And I just love it so much. I love the world and I love the characters. I love how much the last book KoA makes me feel. All the pain and joy of everything coming to an end.
I can only hope that one day I will be lucky enough to write something that makes people feel what I do for the ToG series.
I can only hope that one day someone will be sitting at their kitchen table, tears streaming down their face as they close the final book knowing it meant something to them and to so many.
I can only hope that one day I will leave behind a piece of work so deep and emotional people will come back again and again to feel it all again.
I can only hope, and hope I will.
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It's been found!! Thanks for the help guys!
And for anyone who would like to check it out the link is below, the fic is What Fresh Twilight BullShit Is This? by @isthatbloodonhisshirt. They are my number 1 favourite sterek fanfic writer so go check it out!
Lost Sterek Fic!
Okay so, once again I've been stuck looking for this sterek fic I read a while ago and desperately need help finding it!
What I remember is that Derek is borderline stalking Stiles, but has been warned off by his family. This features alive Hale family, with some OC Hale kids, I know that Stiles goes to college close to Beacon Hills, and I think the Hales are like werewolf royalty? And Stiles and the youngest OC Hale child get kidnapped by I believe Gerard? And I don't know if this was in a different fic, but because Stiles and Derek were mates Stiles could 'control' other wolves because of the whole werewolf royalty thing?
I will be so so grateful for who can find this!
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Lost Sterek Fic!
Okay so, once again I've been stuck looking for this sterek fic I read a while ago and desperately need help finding it!
What I remember is that Derek is borderline stalking Stiles, but has been warned off by his family. This features alive Hale family, with some OC Hale kids, I know that Stiles goes to college close to Beacon Hills, and I think the Hales are like werewolf royalty? And Stiles and the youngest OC Hale child get kidnapped by I believe Gerard? And I don't know if this was in a different fic, but because Stiles and Derek were mates Stiles could 'control' other wolves because of the whole werewolf royalty thing?
I will be so so grateful for who can find this!
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everyday is filled with the same routine. open Tumblr, see activity. thus I begin the relentless task of hitting report, block, next. report, block, next.
report.
block.
next.
maybe one day a real person will follow me again
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So, the Teen Wolf movie. Have I watched it? No. Will I watch it? Also no. Have I seen almost every spoiler possible? Yes.
And I have decided that I don’t like it. Nope. None of it. So I will simply be ignoring its existence and waiting for the super amazing fanfic writers to rewrite how it should have gone.
I have also come up with my own little fic idea that is sort of branched from the movie. I have basically just picked and chose a few events and stuff that I found moderately okay and will be working around that for a fic. So stay tuned for more!
#teen wolf#stiles stilinski#derek hale#eli hale#eli stilinski hale#sterek#sterek fanfic#i will fix it#honestly anything is better than whatever that was#seriously#why??#teen wolf movie#(it sucks)
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