up for interpretation on ao3

Summary:

“What are you doing here?” Aaron asked, eyes narrowed. He was expecting Esther, or Elsbeth, or someone. The blonde one. Neil ignored him.

“Je m'appelle Neil,” he continued.

“Neil’s a translator—“

“—Un interprète.”

Potato-potato.

General // Aaron + Neil (background Andrew/Neil) // 1402 words.

Seeing Death again in Dead Boy Detectives was so... pleasant. Sure, the boys scramble to hide from her for their own reasons, but it's not because she's terrible or evil. Right at the beginning, they helped free a suffering soul, fully knowing that she would come for him.

The Sandman universe's Death is gentle. She usually comes to meet the dead with kind words and patience, even when many of them don't even realize they've died. She leads the dead into passing on, but also enjoys seeing the life of the world and humans. So she focuses on knowing the story of every person she meets. On how to possibly make them feel less alone and scared during their experience of life's end.

It's nice to see the idea of encountering Death isn't something terrifying where it suddenly snatches someone away into the unknowable. Or passive to someone's fear and confusion. It's not about holding onto the pain of what just happened. It's someone there to hold your hand as you find out what happens next.

sometimes I just think about the hesitant shoulder grab during the aziraphale/crowley kiss and my soul dies a little. what does it MEAN. who told michael sheen to do it. did the bastard come up with it himself??? FUCK

[click for better quality]

One of my favourite quotes from the foxhole court.

It is so important to me that Kevin was the first person who made Neil feel wanted, included and believed in.

Those Andreil au fics from Neil’s pov that are like Neil pining for Andrew in the most repressed way possible (because for whatever reason it never occurs to him that Andrew could ever be into him) while Andrew has it down bad for Neil so obviously that literally everyone except Neil knows it (without Andrew having even said anything to anyone about it of course) fill my soul so much for real

Hello, sorry-- is this seat taken?

No?

Thank you.

*sits down and folds his hands mysteriously*

"Oh, I learned that the hard way." Aziraphale replies when Crowley asks him about his shitty french.

You know, the french he learned from a teacher who's name translates to Nightingale.

French, you know. Like the language of love.

He learned it the hard way and still to this day can't seem to find the right words for what he wants to say.

That's all, thank you.

*gets up and mysteriously disappears into the void*

nothing but respect for MY fruity four

i have a soft spot for fics where billy sort of ends up adopting el and will alongside max. like, these are the kids that get dibs for rides in the camaro haha.

also im unfortunately not participating bc prev commitments but #harringrove for turkey is happening right now if yall want to donate to the earthquake relief funds for turkey & syria and get some art/fic back from harringrove fans! :) check out the tag if you're interested!!

I know many people in the fandom hates the EC and for some reason also Nora (when she gave us aftg like what’s wrong with y’all) but how many authors give us as much as Nora did?! Who gave us so so much extra content when she could have just left us with the three books. I love the EC with my entire heart and I understand if you don’t agree with some of it but hating it ?? And hating the author for it?? The EC is so under-appreciated and underrated.

Book!Aziraphale wouldn't have made the same Choice™ that TV!Aziraphale did, but this is primarily because

a) Book!Heaven is an uncaring corporate entity and not a cult (or not nearly as much of a cult). They don't seem to micromanage and hover and press and insult nearly as much, and Aziraphale doesn't have the same attachments or obligations to them by the time Armageddidn't rolls around

and

b) Book!Aziraphale seems inclined to do only the bare minimum when it comes to performing his Heavenly Duties -- enough to Not Get Fired. Not a lot of company loyalty. He cares about humans and he cares about Crowley (whom he bonded with by talking about their respective celestial/occult customer service jobs), but Heaven is a corporate office and not home. Angel-ing is a job. He's got a healthier work-life balance and self-perspective.

Neil with bruises - but only from Andrew’s mouth and exy racquets ❤️

Andrew Minyard by GarnYarn (not my art)

not responding directly to that post abt Neil’s demisexuality bc i have no ill will toward op or anyone reblogging it but also I have thoughts. it’s a very slippery slope to put rules on what’s ooc or not in fanworks. its nice to be able to see ourselves in characters and it’s totally fair to not enjoy portrayals of said characters that we disagree with. but when we find a connection with the source material, then imo that’s the end of where we get to claim any type of ownership of a character — fanfiction is the wild west and there’s no point in introducing morality to it when so much exists and it all caters to different audiences. to me, “ooc” is not a real thing, because every fic writer is going to portray the characters different than the source author does, because that’s how art works. so if people want to make neil more sexual in fanworks then that’s their right — we have the power to grimace and close the tab when we find fic we don’t like. it just means it’s not for us. but it’s not inherently wrong. esp with neil, his backstory and relationship to sexuality are so complex. he literally avoids thinking abt it at all in the books except for what’s happening right in front of him with andrew. there’s actually so much wiggle room! like, he literally says allison is “hot but off limits” at one point before spiraling into thoughts abt his mom — im not at all saying this proves he’s not ace/demi, or that he’s attracted to allison, but there’s lots of ways to interpret that. and there’s plenty of things about neil that people might connect with beyond sexuality — like, that’s not the only reason to be writing about him. fic writers might be more focused on exploring other aspects his character and that’s their right. and ofc worth mentioning that the aspec experience is soooooo vast like for me, i am aspec but if i vibed w someone even on a platonic level right away and they wanted to, i might smash bc im sex-neutral & it could be fun even if I’ve got a different relationship to attraction/arousal.

ANYWAY fanfiction is a contribution to a community, but individual works are not community-owned… we’re free to dislike anything, but i think it sets us all up for failure to make claims abt what’s a right or wrong way to portray characters in fic

there is an inherent transness to the angels and demons of good omens when they are in human form and blend in among humans. I think it's beautiful and it's also complicated and very much subjective.

but I can argue that aziraphale can be read as transmasculine/a trans man. he is quite happy with his presentation throughout history and he is, essentially, making an effort to present himself as a man. even if he doesn't grasp the human concept of gender and doesn't connect to it, that's the "form" that makes him happy, that's how he wishes to be perceived. (that's also exactly how I feel, so maybe it's a little bit of projection. but still)

for crowley it's a little different, he is very genderfluid and can be read as transfeminine and transmasculine all of that at once, and that's beautiful. he changes his presentation gender-wise and the same thing about understanding the human concept of gender can apply to him. he still makes an effort to be perceived a certain way, whatever that way is at any given time.

what's interesting is that, in the book, it's mentioned that crowley goes back to his favorite shape (which is man-shaped, at the time), and I like to think that angels and demons have the same relationship to their bodies that trans people do. maybe it changes throughout time, maybe it stays consistent. maybe sometimes they have to change it only for their safety or other things, against their desire.

every time something from Neil Gaiman's tumblr crosses my dash I'm so concerned about the people writing and to him like. why have you outsourced your imagination to this man? asking shit like 'what does Morpheus sound like in this scene' or 'what does this dialogue mean' or 'what's the backstory to this moment' like BABES. THIS IS WHAT BARTHES WAS TALKING ABOUT. YOU'RE MEANT TO MAKE THESE DECISIONS YOURSELVES THAT'S WHAT MAKES ALL ART A COLLABORATIVE CREATION OF MEANING. if the author wanted something to be explicit in the text they can make it explicit in the text and if it's not explicit in the text YOU CAN MAKE IT UP.

what really gets me is I 100% prommy these kids regularly use 'death of the author' to mean 'i can enjoy works by problematic creators' which 1) yes I agree you can and should (using some discretion re who it profits and what's replicated in the work) but 2) THAT'S NOT WHAT IT MEANS LITERALLY WHAT IT MEANS IS. NEIL GAIMAN'S POST HOC OPINION ON SANDMAN OR GOOD OMENS IS A NO MORE LEGITIMATE FACT ABOUT THE TEXT THAN ANYONE ELSE'S INTERPRETATION. the text has left his control it belongs to the reader now, you get to decide and debate what it means.

Anyone ask for a needlessly long and emotional dissection of when and how Crowley and Aziraphale fell in love? No? Too bad.

I'm going to start with something controversial.

Aziraphale fell in love first.

To explain this, we gotta get a few things out of the way first.

FALLING in love and KNOWING you're in love are very different things. And the whole concept of LOVING someone and BEING IN LOVE are also different things.

Aziraphale LOVES Crowley from, well from before the Beginning. Because they are both angels and angels love. I would even accept the argument that Aziraphale LOVES Crowley throughout their flashback scenes before the Arrangement (because again, he is an angel).

The Arrangement is born out of a symbiotic want of Crowley and Aziraphale to fuck around and not do their jobs enjoy humanity.

It is my personal belief that Aziraphale FELL in love with Crowley in 1941 when he saves the books (not a hot take, I know).

He REALIZES he is in love with Crowley when he gets the Holy Water for him and the closest we get to that is this scene.

Aziraphale thinks that Crowley wants to use the Holy Water as some kind of last-ditch attempt to get out of trouble. He knows it will kill him, and is incredibly dangerous in general. But he does it anyway. Why? Because he knows Crowley would find a way to get it regardless (most likely some dangerous plan that will result in death or grave injury). At least this way Aziraphale can feel somewhat at peace with the knowledge that Crowley no longer needs to do something reckless to get what he wants. He overtly goes against Heaven in this act, and this is one of only a few times we see him do this to such a degree (see Job).

It is my personal belief, and I'm sorry to be this person, but I don't think that Crowley was IN LOVE with Aziraphale in this scene or in any before it (def well on his way, but we'll get there).

I think that Crowley was still hopelessly intrigued by this angel who did fantastical things, like drink and eat and immerse himself in the aspects of humanity he adored.

And another controversial take I have is that the "you go too fast for me" is not Aziraphale saying he recognizes Crowley's feelings and his own and that Crowley is too fast for him in that respect. Because again, I don't think Crowley is IN LOVE with Aziraphale here.

I think Aziraphale is saying you go too fast for me, you treat life like a speedrun to get to the good parts. Hell, Crowley slept through the 19th century because he wanted time to move forward. Aziraphale recognizes this. He's in love with this demon who won't slow down and appreciate the mundane, human things that Aziraphale treasures. He goes too fast. He never settles down.

(I could do a whole analysis on this scene, but we'd be here till GO Season 3 came out)

I also could accept the argument that Azi realizes he is in love in this scene here when he hesitates before saying friends (Michael Sheen I'm in your walls what the hell was this shit).

Because it does make sense that this is the first time we really see Aziraphale say what they are. But he hesitates so much. Keep in mind this happens AFTER the whole book saving incident. Does he hesitate because holy shit the person I like just did something really sweet and I see them in a new light? Possibly. I still think that Aziraphale deciding to give Crowley the Holy Water was his declaration. But I could be swayed.

Crowley is different in this respect. Contrary to popular belief, I think Crowley falls in love with Aziraphale slowly. So slowly that he doesn't even recognize it as being IN LOVE until it's pointed out by Nina.

Because he falls in love slowly, it's hard to pinpoint an exact scene where he is FALLING IN LOVE. I think throughout the first season (and before when the two are meeting up semi-regularly), when he and Aziraphale are trying to co-parent Warlock and the subsequent hunt for the real antichrist is the clearest I can get to him being IN LOVE.

(Putting this gif in because holy shit, I mean, fuck, bro)

Let me explain.

Until this point (the handful of years prior to and during S1), he and Aziraphale were ships passing in the night. Crowley liked the mystery, the excitement of seeing the angel every so often. Got joy out of teasing him. But this is when Aziraphale becomes more than that. He becomes more of a constant in Crowley's life. And ever since his Fall Crowley has craved stability. A safe place to land. He changes his hair, his clothes, his accent. But Aziraphale doesn't. He just... is. He is constant, mostly unchanging, and still endlessly intriguing.

Crowley is IN LOVE with Aziraphale when he realizes that Aziraphale isn't going anywhere (yet). Crowley can rely on him. And for Crowley, that's something he's never had before.

Crowley LOVES Aziraphale. And he is IN LOVE with Aziraphale, but I genuinely don't think he recognizes it until he could lose him. (He's always been a bit dramatic; it would follow that his realizations only occur under dire circumstances).

Here, when he feels he is losing Aziraphale, Crowley does the one thing he never has before: says what he's feeling. Granted, it's sandwiched by a sassy one-liner and being shit at communication. But it's there.

And I think that he thinks, it's a fluke. One moment of weakness.

But then it happens again. When he's losing Aziraphale. And he can't say anymore. He's done his speech, he's thrown out the nightingales. There's nothing for it.

He KNOWS he is IN LOVE with Aziraphale when he's losing him.