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joycrispy · 8 months

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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.

#good omens #ineffable husbands #aziracrow #good omens 2 #crowley #aziraphale #good omens meta #I have no idea if I've made a coherent point here but I'm tired of this being in my drafts; RAW FEELINGS IT IS #it's about being sent to destroy and instead staying to love and protect and nurture I'M CRAZY I'M CRAZY RAAAAAAAGGHHHH #gnu terry pratchett

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songthursh · 8 months

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Alright, I will start with this one then - everything starts with the glorious revolution and everything starts with the night watch 🌸

#discworld #terry pratchett #samuel vimes #havelock vetinari #vimes x vetinari #vetvimes #lord vetinari #glorious revolution #lilac #the night watch #night watch #Am I doing it right at all #AAAAA #I love this book I hate it so much #Blame my sweet gf for spoiling me with such amazing literature also #AND FOR MAKING ME GO THROUGH THESE BOOKS IT'S JUST... UGGGH #Also also it's not Carrot I swear he wasn't there also Vimes should've been armorless but I realized it a bit too late BUT THAT'S FINE #my art

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enthusiasteditor · 2 months

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GO unites people of different ages, genders, cultures, countries... There aren't many things that have such a universal language. Terry and Neil wrote a masterpiece, Michael and David made it real. I will never be grateful enough. In the midst of the rubbish of life and the world, it's so nice to find common ground with other people, beyond all barriers. Because this is what GO teaches: there should be no sides, we should simply try to be at peace with ourselves and others. I don't think it's a trivial message, I think it's powerful.

#love everyone #good omens #gomens #michael sheen #david tennant #crowley #aziraphel #neil gaiman #terry pratchett

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phoen1xr0se · 2 months

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Just another day with the fandom trending 💜

#good omens #neil gaiman #terry pratchett #good omens fandom #ineffable husbands #aziraphale #crowley #aziracrow #david tennant #michael sheen #i love tumblr #go fandom

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and-his-hands-were-24-crows · 8 months

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This is my copy of Good Omens. It was like this when I got it, sometime back in the 90s. Probably came from a library sale or something similar.

I take very, very good care of my books, but I sincerely love how absolutely wrecked this copy is. Whenever I read it, little pieces of the cover flake off. It's so part of how the book *is* to me that pristine, new copies weird me out.

Anyway, I'm pretty sure this one did time in the Bentley. This is, in all likelihood, what would actually happen to a book that got left in there.

#good omens #good omens book #neil gaiman #terry pratchett #somebody loved this book an absurd amount #or left it in a car driven by a pair of international book thieves #it's been disintegrating for like three decades

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p4nishers · 5 months

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god. GOD. the underlying anger in everything terry writes really IS apparent in hogfather bc fuck u mean this is how things should be? no the fuck it shouldn't. poor people shouldn't have to be satisfied with what they get, that's just fucking capitalism. i REALLY like that terry decided to use death as projection for what he thinks bc death doesn't know anything and it has to be explained to him and by it being explained to him it shows how fucking stupid those things are. bc ok here's this world where an equivalent of santa ACTUALLY exists and, because it mirrors our world, it's still unjust. santa actually fucking exists in this world and he could give ANYONE ANYTHING bc he's essentially a god and people gave him that power by making him up, BUT because ppl imagined him in a way that poor people don't get shit (like they usually do) and rich people get EVERYTHING they want, he exists like that. whereas death has seen the absolutely WORST of humanity and he STILL thinks that's bullshit and it's not how it should be, it's just how it goes. bc capitalism is always capitalism where there's money and the world will always be fucked up as long as there are oppressor to hold it up. like i just.

#IT IS HOGSWATCH said Death AND PEOPLE DIE ON THE STREETS. PEOPLE FEAST BEHIND LIGHTED WINDOWS AND OTHER PEOPLE HAVE NO HOMES. IS THIS FAIR?#“Well of course that’s the big issue—” Albert began. THE PEASANT HAD A HANDFUL OF BEANS AND THE KING HAD SO MUCH HE WOULD NOT EVEN NOTICE #THAT WHICH HE GAVE AWAY. IS THIS FAIR? “Yeah but if you gave it all to the peasant then in a year or two he’d be just as snooty as the king #NAUGHTY AND NICE? said Death. BUT IT’S EASY TO BE NICE IF YOU’RE RICH. IS THIS FAIR?#“You did say we just had to do this so’s people’d believe—” he began and then stopped and started again.#“When it comes to fair master you yourself—”I AM EVENHANDED TO RICH AND POOR ALIKE snapped Death.#i love him i love him #discworld #gnu terry pratchett #discworld death #hogfather

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the-apology-dance · 6 months

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Aziraphale and The Bentley

One of the many things I love about Season 2 of Good Omens, is we get to see The Bentley interacting with Aziraphale.

We all know that The Bentley is an extension of Crowley.

It is hilarious to see how it mirrors him. The Bentley is an actual puppy. Crowley loves Aziraphale, which The Bentley is aware of. It is why he listens to him and does things to make him happy.

The travel sweets - Aziraphale loves food.

The type of music - It is aware of his love of classical music.

The color of the car changing - Aziraphale’s favorite color.

We can see it drives itself. Yet it refused to go faster. I WONDER WHY. It knows Aziraphale hates when Crowley drives extremely fast.

Some MORE WAYS it behaves like Crowley:

This car is following him, because it loves Aziraphale. Just like Crowley follows Aziraphale around. What makes it even better? The Bentley is following Aziraphale as he is walking back towards the bookshop. Crowley’s favorite place to be. The same demon who SAYS THIS:

Funny enough, The Bentley is Crowley’s colors. It is just a “second Crowley”. When Crowley isn't there, The Bentley protects Aziraphale just like Crowley does. It has his protective nature. What makes it go back? Aziraphale telling it to.

Maybe because Crowley can't say “no” to Aziraphale….

Can we also talk about the little pats he constantly does on The Bentley to show affection? UHM. If that doesn’t symbolize that Crowley LIKES to be praised I don’t know what does honestly.

THE BENTLEY LITERALLY ACTS AS A GUARDIAN. Azi wasn’t technically lying about the changes to the Bentley either. The Bentley accommodated to Aziraphale’s preferences, instead of Crowley’s. Essentially it wanted him to be happy by taking care of him. It even went so far as to disobey Crowley.

It only changes back when his Demon Dad finds out about the changes, and presses the pedal down more when Crowley threatens to start selling Azi’s books as it doesn’t want to cause Aziraphale trouble.

Also, proof that The Bentley sees Azi as his “other owner” and his “Angel Dad”

WHY IS THE BENTLEY SO CUTE😫🖤

(If any of you choose to use this as a headcanon for a fanfic/fanart, please credit me and let me know so that I can see it!🫶🏼✨)

#good omens #good omens 2 #crowley #aziraphale #ineffable husbands #good omens spoilers #neil gaiman #david tennant #the bentley #micheal sheen #terry pratchett #i love this #good omens thoughts #good omens gifs #good omens 2 spoilers #this show is so good #the bentley is a child of divorce #crowley’s bentley #bentley good omens

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lightningmoonshine · 4 months

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I hope we all realise just how special this time between Good Omens season 2 and season 3 is. We are all here together, creating fanfics, suggesting theories both big and small, spotting “Clues”, and supporting each other through it all. I am looking forward to season 3 immensely, but am enjoying this gap in the story - watching all the creative minds produce stunning artwork and stories, and the detectives brilliantly breaking down every morsel of what we have already seen. It is a wonderful time to be in this fandom. It is such an unique story, written and created by very talented authors, and performed by some of the best actors of our time, who are perfect for the roles. It will probably never come again, so enjoy it whilst it lasts!

#good omens #good omens 2 #neil gaiman #terry pratchett #michael sheen #david tennant #i love this fandom

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robertfrobisherslover · 18 days

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The Star Trek: DS9 Wrap Party, April 1999

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flamingsemi · 9 days

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Do you ever think about how good omens the book is about two best friends, was a project made between two best friends, and then the tv show brought together two actors, David and Michael, who became best friends?

Cause I do and it’s an endlessly lovely thought.

#and I’ve bonded with my best friends over the show too #love begets love begets love begets love #neil gaiman #terry pratchett #good omens #michael sheen #david tennant #crowley #aziraphale

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nikki-rook · 7 months

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Michael Sheen as Aziraphale Appreciation Post - Good Omens [S2]

#yes that is 60 gifs and I am tired #I really hope you guys enjoy. I love this man so much. character and actor. they both deserve the world #good omens #goodomensedit #aziraphale #michael sheen #aziraphale and crowley #aziraphel #azirafell #micheal sheen #good omens 2 #goodomens #terry pratchett #neil gaiman

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yuviur · 6 months

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All these things I've tried, boy, be cute be dumb be wise be young So don't tell me what to fear in the darkness of this atmosphere Dirty Imbecile | The happy Fits

#I love them so much your honor #for the record: Scary's hair is brown to me - she box-dyes it. Roots may show next time #my art #dndads #dungeons and daddies #dndaddies #dnddads #taylor swift dungeons and daddies #taylor swift dndads #scary marlowe #terry marlowe #lincon li wilson #hermie the unworthy #normal oak #normally oak swallows garcia

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tampire · 4 months

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