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[chessyuke]

POV: You’re Albus Dumbledore, and you just told your resident Ex-Death Eater that Harry Potter will be returning to his abusive relatives for his “protection”.

[chessyuke]

Aziraphale’s Choice, the Job Connection, and Michael Sheen’s Morality

I’ve had time to process Aziraphale’s choice at the end of Season 2. And I think only blaming the religious trauma misses something important in Aziraphale’s character. I think what happened was also Aziraphale’s own conscious choice––as a growth from his trauma, in fact. Hear me out.

Since November 2022 I’ve been haunted by something Michael Sheen said at the MCM London Comic Con. At the Q&A, someone asked him about which fantasy creature he enjoyed playing most and Michael (bless him, truly) veered on a tangent about angels and goodness and how, specifically,

We as a society tend to sort of undervalue goodness. It’s sort of seen as sort of somehow weak and a bit nimby and “oh it’s nice.” And I think to be good takes enormous reserves of courage and stamina. I mean, you have to look the dark in the face to be truly good and to be truly of the light…. The idea that goodness is somehow lesser and less interesting and not as kind of muscular and as passionate and as fierce as evil somehow and darkness, I think is nonsense. The idea of being able to portray an angel, a being of love. I love seeing the things people have put online about angels being ferocious creatures, and I love that. I think that’s a really good representation of what goodness can be, what it should be, I suppose.

I was looking forward to BAMF!Aziraphale all season long, and I think that’s what we got in the end. Remember Neil said that the Job minisode was important for Aziraphale’s story. Remember how Aziraphale sat on that rock and reconciled to himself that he MUST go to Hell, because he lied and thwarted the will of God. He believed that––truly, honestly, with the faith of a child, but the bravery of a soldier.

Aziraphale, a being of love with more goodness than all of Heaven combined, believed he needed to walk through the Gates of Hell because it was the Right Thing to do. (Like Job, he didn’t understand his sin but believed he needed to sacrifice his happiness to do the Right Thing.)

That’s why we saw Aziraphale as a soldier this season: the bookshop battle, the halo. But yes, the ending as well.

Because Aziraphale never wanted to go to Heaven, and he never wanted to go there without Crowley.

But it was Crowley who taught him that he could, even SHOULD, act when his moral heart told him something was wrong. While Crowley was willing to run away and let the world burn, it was Aziraphale (in that bandstand at the end of the world) who stood his ground and said No. We can make a difference. We can save everyone.

And Aziraphale knew he could not give up the ace up his sleeve (his position as an angel) to talk to God and make them see the truth in his heart.

I was messed up by Ineffable Bureaucracy (Boxfly) getting their happy ending when our Ineffable Husbands didn’t, but I see now that them running away served to prove something to Aziraphale. (And I am fully convinced that Gabriel and Beelzebub saw the example of the Ineffables at the Not-pocalypse and took inspiration from them for choosing to ditch their respective sides)

But my point is that Aziraphale saw them, and in some ways, they looked like him and Crowley. And he saw how Gabriel, the biggest bully in Heaven, was also like him in a way (a being capable of love) and also just a child when he wasn’t influenced by the poison of Heaven. Muriel, too, wasn’t a bad person. The Metatron also seemed to have grown more flexible with his morality (from Aziraphale's perspective). Like Earth, Heaven was shades of (light?) gray.

Aziraphale is too good an angel not to believe in hope. Or forgiveness (something he’s very good at it).

Aziraphale has been scarred by Heaven all his life. But with the cracks in Heaven’s armor (cracks he and Crowley helped create), Aziraphale is seeing something else. A chance to change them. They did terrible things to him, but he is better than them, and because of Crowley, he feels ready to face them.

(Will it work? Can Heaven change, institutionally? Probably not, but I can't blame Aziraphale for trying.)

At the cafe, the Metatron said something big was coming in the Great Plan. Aziraphale knows how trapped he had felt when he didn’t have God’s ear the first time something huge happened in the Big Plan. He can’t take a chance again to risk the world by not having a foot in the door of Heaven. That’s why we saw individual human deaths (or the threat of death) so much more this season: Elspeth, Wee Morag, Job’s children, the 1940s magician. Aziraphale almost killed a child when he couldn’t get through to God, and he’s not going through that again.

“We could make a difference.” We could save everyone.

Remember what Michael Sheen said about courage and doing good––and having to “look the dark in the face to be truly good.” That’s what happened when Aziraphale was willing to go to Hell for his actions. That’s what happened when he decided he had to go to Heaven, where he had been abused and belittled and made to feel small. He decided to willingly go into the Lion’s Den, to face his abusers and his anxiety, to make them better so that they would not try to destroy the world again.

Him, just one angel. He needed Crowley to be there with him, to help him be brave, to ask the questions that Heaven needed to hear, to tell them God was wrong. Crowley is the inspiration that drives Aziraphale’s change, Crowley is the engine that fuels Aziraphale’s courage.

But then Crowley tells him that going to Heaven is stupid. That they don’t need Heaven. And he’s right. Aziraphale knows he’s right.

Aziraphale doesn’t need Heaven; Heaven needs him. They just don’t know how much they need him, or how much humanity needs him there, too. (If everyone who ran for office was corrupt, how can the system change?)

Terry Pratchett (in the Discworld book, Small Gods) is scathing of God, organized religion, and the corrupt people religion empowers, but he is sympathetic to the individual who has real, pure faith and a good heart. In fact, the everyman protagonist of Small Gods is a better person than the god he serves, and in the end, he ends up changing the church to be better, more open-minded, and more humanist than god could ever do alone.

Aziraphale is willing to go to the darkest places to do the Right Thing, and Heaven is no exception. When Crowley says that Heaven is toxic, that’s exactly why Aziraphale knows he needs to go there. “You’re exactly is different from my exactly.”

____

In the aftermath of Trump's election in the US, Brexit happened in 2018. Michael Sheen felt compelled to figure out what was going on in his country after this shock. But he was living in Los Angeles with Sarah Silverman at the time, and she also wanted to become more politically active in the US.

Sheen: “I felt a responsibility to do something, but it [meant] coming back [to Britain] – which was difficult for us, because we were very important to each other. But we both acknowledge that each of us had to do what we needed to do.” In the end, they split up and Michael moved back to the UK.

Sometimes doing the Right Thing means sacrificing your own happiness. Sometimes it means going to Hell. Sometimes it means going to Heaven. Sometimes it means losing a relationship.

And that’s why what happened in the end was so difficult for Aziraphale. Because he loves Crowley desperately. He wants to be together. He wanted that kiss for thousands of years. He knows that taking command of Heaven means they would never again have to bow to the demands of a God they couldn’t understand, or run from a Hell who still came after them. They could change the rules of the game.

And he’s still going to do that. But it hurts him that he has to do that alone.

[chessyuke]

Ok but- Harry somehow got lost in the castle one day, maybe in the beginning when he didn’t know his way around yet. And Severus is at first annoyed but later he’s  just freakin worried out of his mind like, he knows the castle is relatively safe BuT WhAt If And lil Harry is just so stressed and scared like that time he got lost at the supermarket and the Dursleys almost left him there intentionally???

Idk

[chessyuke]

If you ever get around to drawing more young Harry severitus, I'd love to see a sick Harry and Severus taking care of him. Bonus points if he was moody and out of sorts. No pressure! Happy holidays!

First of all, I love you.Second of all, I have so many sketches for this now.Expect more.

[chessyuke]

@lifeofapottedplant More Snape comin’ right up~ I had to emphasize the fact that the plush is pink. Because of course it is.

[chessyuke]

… I’ve been wondering if one person is asking the same question, or literally 3 people thought of the same thing.

[chessyuke]

I remembered the other day that I had Sirius live with Snape and Harry in animagus form after he escaped from Azkaban.

And it got me thinking… Knowing Sirius and the absolute shithole he can be… It is absolutely not below him. You can’t change my mind.

Squishy dogfather as a bonus.

[chessyuke]

The Underrated Disney movie squad:

[chessyuke]

Y'all ever ship a unpopular ship and when you find someone that post a bunch of fanfics on that ship or when you find a website with a lot of fanarts of that ship and you just:

[chessyuke]

Why are we not talking about them?

Ron: How's the most handsome man in the world doing?

Harry: *without looking up from the table* I don't know, how are you?

Ron: *voice cracking* i'm fine

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Harry: You’re my best friend, I would do anything for you. Ron: I want you to eat 3 meals a day and have a decent sleep schedule. Harry: Absolutely not.

[chessyuke]

Based on that quote:

“Harry: Why are we lying in the middle of the hallway?

Luna: You had another one of your visions of Voldemort and passed out

Ron: So we lied down next to you so people would think we’re all just chilling”

By @queerqueenoftears

[chessyuke]

Ron: Don't flirt with my sister

Harry: okay

Harry: *flirts with Ron*

[chessyuke]

If I ever stop supporting this ship, assume I’m dead

I wonder how many hair ties Ron has taken from Ginny….

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Harry: yeah so I have no parents, no siblings, it’s quite lonely

Ron: wow I can’t even imagine. I have six, do you want one of them?

Harry: what

Ron: no really, you want Fred and George? Two for one special

Harry: I’m sure your mum wouldn’t

Ron: she wouldn’t notice trust me.. go on take your pick any Weasley

Harry:.... any?

Ron: yeah

Harry: *looks shyly* maybe you then

Ron: *blushes*

[chessyuke]

I don’t like this drawing that much, but…. Have it anyway, I’ve been spoiling you enough with my quick Rarry drawings like almost daily now. Already know it won’t get many notes, lol

[chessyuke]

Professor McGonagall,: alright get into pairs

*Ron looks at Harry*

*Harry looks at Ron*

Professor McGonagall,: Make sure it's with someone you're not friends with...

Ron: :O

Harry: :O

Ron: *walks over to Harry*

Ron: Hello my names Ron and who the hell are you

Harry: I'm Harry... nice to meet you ...Ron's a stupid name

McGonagall: Potter and Weasley I said no friends

Ron: I have no idea who this spectacled person is Professor

Harry: Yeah I have no idea who this scrawny guy is...who even makes friends with gingers

McGonagall: *sigh*