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louiserisa · 5 years

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Crowley’s Truth and Aziraphale’s Lies (A 3-part series) Part 1: Crowley’s Heartbreaking Honesty

So I could do a whole series about why Crowley (in all his piety) is fallen and Aziraphale (in all his temptations) is not. However, I wanted to focus this series strictly on the use of honesty and lies throughout Good Omens. I argue that honesty (and the irony of an honest Demon and a lying Angel) is a tool for establishing their place in-between Heaven and Hell. They serve as hybrids, a liminal space between holy and hellish, allowing for their supposed “flaws” to shine, and enable them to form their own side.

Crowley’s Motivation:

One of Crowley’s defining traits is his imagination. Unlike any other celestial entity, he can create ideas, questions, and fabrications at a moment’s notice. Crowley’s no Saint, he lies to Hastur easily (about calling the demonic counsel), he impersonates Aziraphale stunningly, and (if Aziraphale recalls correctly) he takes credit for all of the horrendous things humanity has done throughout the years (even earning himself some commendations along the way). So he CAN lie, quite well actually, so long as he has the proper motivation.

And, without fail what IS his motivation? Who (or what) inspires him and allows him to focus his thoughts even when he’s panicking (and possibly trying his best to cope with his piles of trauma)? Certainly not humanity alone, and certainly not because he has any sense of self-preservation. The man ran into a burning building head first without a second thought; he drove his beloved car through literal hellfire; he walked across consecrated ground despite being burned simply because he told himself he could. No, he there’s only 1 thing that motivates him.

Aziraphale (of course)

Crowley: Would I Lie To You?

Crowley lies at least 5 notable times throughout the series.

His reports about the ill-deeds he’s responsible for are riddled with lies and half-truths (which is a general fuck you Hell kind of lie)

He fails to tell the higher-ups in Hell about his knowledge about the Anti-Christ, the location of the Anti-Christ and neglected to correct Hell about it (a Fuck you Satan kind of lie)

He hides and ignores the agreement he’s made with Aziraphale from Hell (A Fuck you Heaven and Hell kind of lie)

He deceives Hastur, several times but most notably after Ligur’s death (a fuck you Hastur kind of lie, and he’s murderous so he deserves it sorta)

He Impersonates Aziraphale (An F to the U to Heaven kind of lie)

The notable exemption from this list is Aziraphale.

Unlike the demons who he deceives at any given moment (particularly in defense of Aziraphale), he refuses to lie to Aziraphale.

Are you Satan and have just “blessed” Crowley with the staring role in the Apocalypse? Yeah, great (lies through his teeth about wanting to partake).

Are you a Duke of Hell inquiring about where the Anti-Christ is and trying to confront Crowley about his relationship with Aziraphale? “So Longggg Suckaaas” I’m gonna lie lie lie and possibly kill you for coming towards me.

Are you heaven trying to torture my best friend >lover< with hellfire that will surely kill him? Not today motherfucker, because guess what? Now I’m him and I’ll lie my ass off to protect him.

Are you an Angel who shows free will and loves humanity as much as he does? 404 Error lies not found.

This is not to say he’s always straightforward with Aziraphale. because God, Satan, Someone knows he’s got a flair for the dramatic. But not even does he lie through omission. Whenever Aziraphale asks a question, no matter how light-hearted or series Crowley’s being, he will always give an honest answer, even if it sometimes goes over the angel’s head. >see: Crowley being a blubbering mess because his best friend died and Aziraphale not quite understanding that the best friend is him<

He’s also oddly cryptic when he’s asking for holy water, but never once does Crowley lie. Sure, he’s trying to speak in code “because the trees have ears”, but when he says it’s for insurance, not a suicide pill, it is for insurance.

He can tell that his relationship with Aziraphale has morphed in such a way that it would put him and Aziraphale in danger if Hell ever found out about it. Aziraphale, simply, does not believe him that his only motivation is protection because it is too close to his own fears about Crowley being destroyed.

Which is why I think he’s so upset about the word “fraternize”. First, there is a class element involved with the Victorian use of the word (usually referring to someone of a higher class interacting friendly to a lower class member). Where Aziraphale may have meant comradery (and brotherhood, which also not how Crowley views their relationship) Crowley certainly acts as if he took it to mean Aziraphale was speaking to him like an enemy or an “inferior” species.

This is only further supported by Aziraphale’s accusatory “we may have both started out as Angels, but YOU are fallen”, placing (in my opinion) too much emphasis on Crowley’s fall (a huge trauma trigger for him). But this whole characterization of their relationship is a lie Aziraphale tells himself to repress his fears about Heaven’s traumatic treatment of him. By this point in their partnership (as we’ve seen) both he and Crowley go out of their ways to treat each other as equals. To deny it, to repress their feeling is a slap. in. the. face.

Further, the audience for lying clearly matters to Crowley. In the relative privacy of the park, Aziraphale says “fraternize”, which doesn’t do enough justice for the kind of intimacy the uniquely share. It implies they could be enemies or strangers (which they aren’t, they’re at least friends). Crowley is so intimately aware that even now, in the 1800′s, it’s them (and humanity) against divinity. And, Crowley refuses to lie to Aziraphale, especially about the sort of relationship they share. Sure he won’t tell the other demons, and sure as hell won’t tell the angels how deep their relationship goes, but in this private moment, where he’s approaching as a partner (not an adversary)? It would be the worst kind of lie. It would ignore or erase the new space they’ve created for themselves where they can be equals.

In the above gif, we see Crowley angry and lash out. He says harsh words and insists that he doesn’t need Aziraphale. Since we’re counting, I don’t think this is a lie. Now no, he clearly does need Aziraphale in his life, but he’s just been smacked in the face with the insinuation that they are not equals, they are not friends, they are enemies, and I believe him at this moment, a very hurt Crowley, decides if that’s how Aziraphale is going to treat him, then he will treat him like all his other enemies. At the moment he says I think it he means it because Crowley cannot make time for someone who won’t take his concerns seriously and thinks so little of their relationship. If he can’t be seen as an equal, he’d prefer not to be seen at all.

Although, this is a temporary truth, and one Crowley is willing to correct Aziraphale about in a way he never does for his hellish counterparts. Crowley cares too deeply to wish Aziraphale any real harm, even if Aziraphale can’t call a spade a spade. Crowley sure as Hell would move heaven and earth to demonstrate the extent of his love. He shows as much in his rescue in 1941, and again when Aziraphale once again lies and says “we’re not friends…I don’t even like you” in the bandstand. These lies actively hurt Crowley but not once does he retaliate with. Instead, he meets Aziraphale with blunt honesty. Saying “yes you do” doing everything he can to get Aziraphale on the same page, and share their truth.

Look at the above gif. Not only does Crowley KNOW Aziraphale is lying, but Aziraphale knows it too. While he clearly loves Crowley and has loved Crowley for some time, his inability to work through his anxieties and rely on Crowley as a support system, as a partner, he can’t come to terms with his own trauma.

So, he lies.

He lies and he hurts Crowley. He lies and he dismisses Crowley’s honesty. He lies and he harms himself because they both know this is a facade he can’t keep up much longer. He lies, and Crowley still meets him with honesty and forgiveness.

And honestly, it breaks his heart to be lied to, but he knows the alternative solution would be no best friend at all. Under normal circumstances, Crowley could be patient. He could wait for Aziraphale to come to terms with their relationship almost for forever. But, shit hits the fan, and he needs to show Aziraphale that two of them need to stop dancing, stop being cryptic, and cut through the bullshit for once.

Which brings me to the first Gif of this section. Take a moment, scroll the ridiculous amount up, and just look at the indignation on his face. in the earlier gif “Would I lie to you?”, he clearly consciously makes a point to never lie to Aziraphale, despite it supposedly being “the demon’s way”. Not in anger (like at the bandstand) not even if it’s uncomfortable (like when he’s criticizing Aziraphale for being so clever and so stupid), not even if the angel is (knowingly or unknowingly) hurting him with his lies.

Crowley draws the line at tainting his relationship with the kind of lies Heaven tells, and the kind of disregard Hell tells. Because despite the lies he’s told by Aziraphale, Crowley knows who he can trust, who he needs on his side, who he wants to spend the end of the world with, and it sure as hell isn’t Hastur or Beelzebub.

Because at the end of the day, Crowley knows what the two of them share together. One great way to see this comparison is to checkout @theladyzephyr ‘s meta on Crowley and his glasses. Because while he does let his guard down for Aziraphale (even if only drunk), his autonomy, his consent to wear/not wear his glasses is taken from in by Hastur in the above gif’s scene. Aziraphale, for all his lies, does not cross the same boundaries as Hell does, and genuinely cares for Crowley. He shows remorse for his actions and is clearly just as hurt by his own lies as Crowley is.

A Very Crowley’s Conclusion

But what does this mean in terms of his Honesty? Well, for starters, demonstrates that while he has the power to lie, and could lie to Aziraphale (functionally I mean) he chooses not to.

He might, every now and then poke him and partake in some friendly banter, but never is it mean spirited, not even when they’re both at their breaking points. His ability to lie but restraint from lying; his ability to deceive, but his choice to trust, sets him apart from the rest of the demonic mold.

Quite honestly, He probably could tempt (like really tempt) Aziraphale to his side. He could manipulate and push the Angel into situations they both know he would be uncomfortable with. But, he doesn’t. He doesn’t become the abusive force Heaven and Hell have pushed on the two of them because that’s not how he wants or needs to cope with his loss. No, he needs an equal, not a lackey. He needs an equal, not a boss. He needs love, not control.

It becomes clear that his loyalties have never (at least not in the series) been with Hell. Crowley doesn’t trust or care about his fellow demons. He kills one (permanently) and another (not so permanently) without hesitation. He defies (actively and with little regard for the safety of other celestial creatures) the desires of Hell, working with his bestie to ensure the world breaks even.

Consequently, he’s creating a “third” option with Aziraphale. It is distinctly not a human space (neither of them is human). It’s is not heavenly or hellish, but space for them to be who they are, fight for what they love and feel safe knowing they are a team (romantic or otherwise). And it’s clear based on who he lies to and how he lies, that he’s not cut out for the Demon frenzy or the demon.

Their third space is what Crowley’s been working for since day one because Aziraphale is worth lying to others to protect and worth telling the truth to love.

Thanks for coming to my TedTalk

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louiserisa · 5 years

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I’m so surprised that so many people are reading Aziraphale’s “I’m so sorry to hear it” in response to Crowley’s “I lost my best friend” as him being a totally inept moron with zero ability to read people, when that couldn’t be farther from the truth, as far as I can see???

It was a super British reaction to an unabashed emotional outpouring. It’s an I can’t deal with this right now stiff upper lip keep calm and carry on error message of the brain.

He knows exactly what Crowley means. And when I say exactly, I don’t just mean that Aziraphale knows that Crowley is saying he is his best friend. That much he already knew. That’s par for the course by now. What he realises is that Crowley is essentially saying that because he lost Aziraphale, his life just stopped being worth anything. That he had given up, decided not to save himself by running away, and couldn’t even try to save the world, because without Aziraphale the world didn’t seem worth saving. Without Aziraphale, he didn’t have the strength or capacity or will to save the world, or himself. That because he had lost Aziraphale he was just going to sit in a bar and drink himself into a stupor and wait to die.

Aziraphale knew exactly what Crowley meant, 100%. And he was in no state whatsoever to even begin to deal with that. So he said “So sorry to hear it”, and took a second to put his heart back in his chest, and then kept calm and carried on, because he had a world to save. He had a Crowley to save.

I’m as much of a fan as anyone for affectionately calling Crowley and Aziraphale idiots, but in actuality neither of them are, at all. Aziraphale is very intelligent, including emotionally intelligent. He’s wilfully naive which manifests as idiocy sometimes, but that’s not the same thing. He wasn’t being a dolthead with no understanding of anything, in this scene. He was being his deeply emotionally-intelligent self, and just not having the time or mental space to deal with what he read in Crowley’s words. And Crowley responded to that accordingly, too. They know each other too well, and they are both too clever for any such misunderstanding.

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louiserisa · 5 years

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So, I was researching the hierarchy of angels for the fic I’m writing and I got curious as to where Aziraphale fell into the grand scheme of things.

Okay, so Principalities (or Princes) are the top tier of the lowest order of angels, putting him pretty low on the totem pole. But you know who they rank above?

Archangels.

Y’know. Michael, Uriel, and the Archangel Fucking Gabriel.

Further curiosity had me looking into the other ranks and I discovered this about Cherubim:

That’s right. Our Aziraphale, Angel of the Eastern Gate and Technically On Apple Tree Duty, was actually a cherubim when we first meet him. He was the second highest order of all of God’s angels. But by the time he speaks to The Metatron, he clearly designates himself as a Principality.

So, according to this, at some point after he spoke with Crowley on the wall outside Eden, Aziraphale got one hell of a demotion, going from Cherubim to Principality. He dropped five rankings. Yet he still ranks above Gabriel.

tl;dr Aziraphale could kick Gabriel’s ass. He’s just too nice to do so.

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louiserisa · 5 years

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i don’t think i’ve seen any kind of tumblr analysis that so far does justice to the face journey crowley goes through when he first meets aziraphale and finds out about the sword.

for context’s sake, this is how he reacts when he finds out aziraphale’s got rid of his own sword:

see that? that’s surprise, that’s unexpectedly-impressed, that’s holy-shit-this-is-an-angel-fucking-up-this-delights me. this is is this a rebellion? can angels rebel? i love it, five minutes on this strange green-and-blue rock and i’ve already found a playmate.

then compare with this, which is crowley hearing aziraphale explain why he ‘rebelled’ by giving away said sword: to whit, freezing cold, dangerous animals, pregnant woman:

that’s…dare i say it, tender? soft? certainly no less surprised but unexplicably, unexpectedly, touched. you can almost see the little flinch he experiences from that not-so-subtle heartflip that has just occurred. oh. oh. he didn’t lose his sword because he’s a brainless angel, or because he wanted to cause some trouble or stick it to the almighty he was just…being nice.

like, whatever reason the forces of hell had for rebelling, they sure as hell didn’t do it for nice reasons. i’m pretty certain, judging by the hell we see onscreen, that compassion features pretty heavily Down There. (nor, judging by the likes of gabriel or sandalphon, can i imagine angels are exactly known for their compassion amongst their demonic counterparts). crowley has come to earth expecting exactly 0% heartstrings-pulling, and then within the first half hour he meets this fluffy soft boi who smiles rather shyly even when he’s not supposed to and is painfully loyal to his boss even when he doesn’t understand Her ways and then does something daft like that, like giving away a heavenly flaming sword to a human for no other reason other than it’s a kind thing to do

and he’s an angel, they’re not supposed to do the wrong thing for the right reason, they’re sticklers, and yet look at what he’s just done…

and the next thing you know, crowley’s falling harder and faster than the day lucifer and the guys rocked up and asked ‘hey crawley, you up to anything today?’. and that is glorious.

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louiserisa · 5 years

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Aziraphale isn’t nice.

He isn’t.

He would have killed Adam if he could, makes mafia men vanish without caring where they go and makes traffic wardens notebooks explode.

He is not a nice person.

But he wants to be.

Heaven doesn’t need or want him to be nice. He’s supposed to just do as he’s told and maintain the party line and strike down vengence when needed.

He is meant to be a tool, a sword.

But he wants to be nice.

He wants to be nice and soft and not hurt people and eat sushi and protect books that represent humanity in all their wonderful imagination and thirst for knowledge.

He gives them the sword to keep Adam and Eve safe because while he’s supposed to be a threat to them he wants to do the right thing even if that isn’t what he’s been told to do.

He tries to stop the end of the world because he thinks that’s the right thing to do.

Because he worries and he doubts about what is and isn’t the right thing to do and he wants to do good things.

Empathy comes much more naturally to Crowley, possibly because he has suffered in a way that Aziraphale hasn’t.

But empathy does not come naturally to Aziraphale and he doesn’t know how to be a good person especially when being a good person is in direct contradiction to being a good angel.

But he want to be good SO MUCH.

And as someone who is maybe not a naturally “nice” person I really feel for Aziraphale on that. Because he fucks up. He hurts the person who he loves and who has shown him the most love in his life and he tries to kill Adam and generally messes up but he still tries to be good. Tries to be nice.

And in the end.

At the very end that’s the choice he makes.

He knows he should be nothing but a sword but instead he chooses to the Right Thing because he wants to be a good person

And that is a very very human way to be

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louiserisa · 5 years

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It makes so much more sense why Crowley is somewhat obsessed with space when you realise he helped to build it.

Demons have no place in Creation. When he says “I helped build that one,” he’s remembering his life Before. It meant so much to him. Being an angel meant so much to him, and he’s still absolutely devastated that he isn’t one anymore. He’s so Loud about it.

He’s the one puts forward the Arrangement that will allow him to perform holy miracles and blessings again.

He’s the one who decorates his apartment so that it looks as little like the crowded, messy, dirty Hell as possible.

He’s the one who recreates his own little Eden within that apartment, where he can play God and relive his trauma over and over again with himself in the position of power, rejecting any and all of his subjects deemed not to be worthy, without mercy. Because that’s how he sees the Almighty.

He’s the one who is so utterly convinced that God is not listening, because why would he believe they would? He’s been wrestling with his Fall and regret for 6 millenia and God has never come to help him. He brings up that he didn’t mean to Fall over and over and over again. If God believes in True Repentance why hasn’t he been Forgiven? Because he doesn’t believe that God really does forgive those who repent. Why would he when he’s seen no evidence to the contrary. When he questions why God must test them “to destruction” he is talking about humanity but he is also talking about himself. He is asking “why did you test me to destruction?”

He’s the one who insists on the idea that Adam can be reformed from the Darkness through the power of Influence (read nurture over nature) because that means we always have the power to change and evolve, something he needs to believe in desperately. (and something he turns out to be right about btw).

And his obsession with space, this is the big one. The one aspect of Creation we know he had a part in. When he wants to escape it’s the first and only place he thinks of. Not Heaven, with it’s corporate and distant charity, not Hell, where he never meant to go in the first place. Space. Among the stars. Where he once walked as he does now in his apartment surrounded by floating pages created by humans, depicting something they’ve never truly Seen, a dull imitation of the real thing. He wants to be among the stars he helped to Create - somewhere he could forget, somewhere he could pretend he was an angel once more, surrounded by light.

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louiserisa · 5 years

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Angelic Forgiveness vs Aziraphale’s forgiveness

I keep going back to the parallel’s of these two scene because it kills me every time I think about it. But I adore this subtle difference here. This isn’t Aziraphale forgiving Crowley for sinning, or blaspheming, or insulting the Great Plan. This is Aziraphale forgiving Crowley for walking away and for leaving him, both back at the gazebo and now, because Aziraphale is saying that he can’t run away with him.

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louiserisa · 5 years

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Okay, but, do you know what we’re not talking about enough? The body swap scene.

So, in my opinion, the mark of a good plot twist is that you shouldn’t see it coming the first time around, but the second time through, you should wonder how you possibly missed it. The body swap scene is that 100%.

David Tennant plays Aziraphale-as-Crowley almost identically to how he plays Crowley. The exceptions are marvelous to watch – seeing the Bentley is my favorite, when Aziraphale-as-Crowley smiles more broadly and easily than Crowley ever lets himself until the end dinner at the Ritz be still my heart.

But in Hell? No discernible difference. The swagger is there. The casual seeming disregard for the danger he’s in. Seriously, the energy of his entrance when he’s brought into the courtroom is identical to his “Hi, guys” in the graveyard at the beginning.

I love this. Because it’s how Aziraphale would play it. Hell doesn’t frighten Aziraphale the way Heaven does. Demons are, in his book, straightforward. He just has to out-intimidate them, and Crowley already does that. So be Crowley, and that’ll do the deed. And he knows Crowley well enough to pull it off without a single hesitation. The only time it felt even slightly not-quite-right (in terms of not questioning that it was Crowley) was the utterly amazing little nose wrinkle. And I’ll forgive Aziraphale that – he knows he’s won; he can gloat a little.

But MICHAEL SHEEN, FRIENDS.

Crowley-as-Aziraphale is a completely different story because Crowley is not as good at the facade as Aziraphale is.

He almost is. When Crowley-as-Aziraphale is getting dragged away by the angels? That reads as Aziraphale 100%. But in the park with Aziraphale-as-Crowley? In the bookshop? And especially in Heaven opposite the angels? That is so obviously Not-Aziraphale that I DO NOT KNOW how I missed it the first time through. And that is a testament to Michael Sheen’s talent.

Aziraphale is a being who shows emotion with his entire self. He is never still, not his hands, not his body, not his face. Everything he is feeling plays out across every inch of him. He is effusive and genuine and has no idea how to push away any emotion even a little bit.

Think of all the other times we see him in Heaven! He’s nervous, he’s anxious, he’s flustered, he’s doing that thing with his voice and his face when confronted with these beings who genuinely terrify him. He can’t hide it.

But Crowley is all too familiar with pushing down emotion. Crowley is guarded, he is caution personified, he reserve and preservation, and with his angel’s life in his hands, on Heaven’s home turf? He can’t shake that.

Crowley-as-Aziraphale is so still. His face, his body language, his posture, it’s all this perfectly calm facade hiding a smoldering fury that Aziraphale might be incapable of achieving. But when Crowley-as-Aziraphale is confronted with the angels and see how they treat his soulmate best friend, he cannot hide that fury. It’s in his eyes, his face, his voice. But Michael Sheen-as-Crowley-as-Aziraphale plays it so well because it comes across as Crowley-as-Aziraphale saying to the angels, You broke him. You pushed him too far and you broke him and this is what it looks like, and you should be terrified.

And it’s all so perfect, and they’re both so talented, and I don’t think we talk about it enough.

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louiserisa · 5 years

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One of my favourite scenes in Good Omens is the nunnery scene— and no, not the part you're thinking— when they go in and Crowley turns all the paintball guns into real ones, because he's just having so much fun with it.

And, what's more, it's very clear that he's not having fun because he's scared the humans. He couldn't care less about that, beyond making sure that nobody's actually hurt. He's having fun because of Aziraphale's reaction.

This is especially clear in the book, where he lets Aziraphale go on thinking that he's actually started a massacre in a nunnery for significantly longer, and is "wretched" when he has to admit the truth. Y'know, because he was clearly having so much fun being a Proper Demon™ doing Actual Evil, but now Aziraphale's getting upset and so he has to confess that it's all basically just one big practical joke.

I dunno, it just makes me think that, while Crowley does secretly value Aziraphale's belief in that "spark of goodness" inside him, he also appreciates having someone in his life who truly sees him as capable of proper demonic behaviour.

Because Hell doesn't really show much appreciation for him. Sure, the higher ups think he's doing good work and send him commendations— but it's very obvious that they're not really keeping track of what he's actually doing, to the extent that her regularly recieves commendations for things he hasn't even done. Meanwhile his coworkers, Hastur and Ligur, accuse him of having 'gone native' and bemoan his lack of 'craftsmanship', and I really don't think he's getting much positive feedback from Lord Beelzebub.

Aziraphale, on the other hand? He's definitely giving feedback to Crowley. Sure, most of it's negative, but he's a demon. That's what he wants.

Aziraphale believes that Crowley is a good person, deep down, but also sees him as demonic enough that he automatically blames him whenever anything evil happens. He's shocked when Crowley painlessly hypnotises a woman so as to spare her the stress of being confronted with two supernatural beings— how evil!

Crowley has found the one being on Earth who probably would find letting down car tires and sticking coins to the pavement to be genuinely demonic behaviour. Hell doesn't know what a mobile network is, but Aziraphale does and he was probably suitably horrified when he found out what Crowley had done.

Honestly, I just really like the idea of Crowley deliberately making sure that Aziraphale is aware of all his 'demonic activity', partly because of the Arrangement, but mainly because it's just so gratifying to have somebody actually respond appropriately to your acts of evil.

Crowley: "Sorry I couldn't make dinner last night. I had a meeting with the lords of Hell. I... er, interfered with the planning of the M25 so it forms a demonic sigil. Now everyone who drives upon it will increase its power."

Aziraphale (horrified): "Crowley! So that's what you've been working on all this time! How could you? I know it's in your demonic nature, but think of the poor humans driving along it not even knowing that they're giving praise to Hell. Not to mention the traffic jams it will cause! Thousands of souls tarnished by roadrage every day, and then there'll be the knock on effect from people being made late to appointments and— honestly, I can't believe you've done this behind my back..."

Crowley: "I don't suppose you could throw a 'wahoo!' in there while you're at it?"

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louiserisa · 5 years

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I’m sure someone’s already noticed this but-

Look at how they framed the shots of Adam’s confrontation with Satan.

He’s got, quite literally, a demon and an angel over each shoulder.

AND THAT’S NOT EVEN THE BEST PART.

Because in those classic depictions of the angel and the devil each perched on a shoulder, the two are always portrayed as fighting with one another, each trying to influence a person for Good or Evil, but HERE they’re not fighting. At least, not with each other.

Though they’ve employed different methods to reach this end, they are united in a common goal. Save Adam. Save the world.

Crowley and Aziraphale are a visual representation of what Adam has within himself - what all humans have within themselves, the potential for good and evil / light and dark / whatever you want to call it.

And I think what this scene is visually implying is that it’s okay to have a bit of both - in fact, it’s probably for the best, given the cruelty we see dished out by those who are purely angel and demon.

Adam has both good and evil within him. All humans do. And THAT is what allows him to choose to rebel against his father. And it’s that very choice which makes the rebellion possible because it proves beyond all doubt that he is something the antichrist could not possibly be - human.

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louiserisa · 5 years

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So I just noticed something in the final episode of ‘Good Omens’...

People who have watched the TV show know that Aziraphale makes all these micro expressions no matter what mood he’s in.

For example...

See what I mean?

Like, he’s constantly moving his eyes, lips, eyebrows, etc. Plus, he constantly turns his head in all sorts of directions. This makes him really expressive, so we can always read his expressions, and therefore usually his thoughts, like a book.

Even when he’s acting as Crowley, you can spot it...

Now here’s the interesting bit.

Crowley’s impression of Aziraphale is, of course, pretty much spot on. It would have to be if your lives were at stake and you’d known each other for 6,000 years.

But when Gabriel sentences him to death by hellfire, this is probably the second hint we get that Aziraphale isn’t Aziraphale (the first being ‘Crowley’ saying “tickety-boo”).

Remember this moment that officially cemented the fandom’s hatred of this bastard?

JUST LOOK AT CROWLEY!AZIRAPHALE’S REACTION

If that had been the real Aziraphale, we would’ve been able to read every thought that crossed his mind: the hurt, the fear, the anger, the worry for Crowley, everything.

Instead we see Crowley!Aziraphale give Gabriel quite possibly the blankest, yet also the most chilling death stare I have ever seen. Coming from Aziraphale’s face, which is usually so open and kind and shows his feelings for the entire world to see, this is downright terrifying.

Now, Crowley probably remembers what it was really like in Heaven and he clearly doesn’t miss it at all. If Gabriel had said that to Crowley himself, it probably would’ve slid off him like water off a duck’s back. After all, he’s heard far worse in Hell from the other demons. Plus, he’s probably listened to Aziraphale on the (most likely) rare occasions he’s bitched about Heaven, so that explains why he doesn’t seem shocked at the angels’ treatment of Aziraphale.

But he’s finally seeing it for himself. These angels, who are supposed to be all about kindness and forgiveness, are completely happy with not only sentencing his husband best friend to death, without so much as a trial, but clearly expecting him to just step into the hellfire willingly, like it’s Aziraphale’s sacred duty as an angel, even after insulting and demeaning him.

I imagine this is the only way Crowley can snarl at Gabriel, “If I had the chance, I would tear you limb from limb,” without exposing him and Aziraphale both.

Sadly, since Crowley has to be as convincing as possible, he obviously can’t do anything that Aziraphale wouldn’t do, and that includes doing or saying anything back to Gabriel. So he has no choice but to stick with giving him this look of barely concealed, utter loathing. Because how dare they treat his angel - his kind, forgiving, beautiful angel, with his ridiculous tartan bow ties and shitty ‘magic tricks’, who only ever wanted the best for humanity and somehow still had stubborn, admirable faith in God, despite seeing firsthand how unnecessarily cruel Her plans could be - like that.

Tl;dr: if the other angels had been paying any attention to Crowley he would’ve given the game away because he was so angry at Heaven’s treatment of his angel that he forgot to do Aziraphale’s micro expressions in that moment, and instead gave Gabriel a murderous, barely concealed death glare and now I’m crying

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