#I have the scriptbook and everything

[what-an-unusual-twist]

Actually *I'm* their number one fan

The best thing about being a small fandom is that I can say I’m Stone and Stine’s #1 fan but the worst thing about being in a small fandom is that I have no one to talk to about said characters 😔

[tonydaddingham]

so @theeminentlyimpractical and i were yodelling at each other in the DMs last night talking about general time-fuckery stuff in s2 and trying to riddle it all out, and i mentioned that i had noticed something that only now seems obvious from the s1 scriptbook (and im sure that someone pointed it out in 2019 but im wondering how relevant it still is):

everything is running late.

working backwards chronologically in s1, we have when newt arrives at jasmine cottage:

unfortunately the line isn't in the show, but in the interest of pooling all resources, the scriptbook says the following:

NEWT - I swerved to avoid Tibetans in the road. At least, I think I did. I've probably gone mad.

ANATHEMA - If you have, noone's going to notice. You're twenty minutes late.

we then know that crowley was late for arriving to collect the antichrist:

which the scriptbook doesn't elaborate on/give a timeframe, and may be extraneous to the previous and next example, but the antichrist is reportedly part of the Great Plan, so im including it for the moment.

but the kicker is agnes nutter, right?:

a precise and accurate prophetess who doesn't foresee that pulsifer would arrive late to execute her? how?

so when it came down to it, i started to wonder where something might have happened that has shunted the timeline along, between 10-20 minutes... maybe something in eden? but no - laure cracked it:

GOD - Archbishop James Ussher claimed that the Heaven and the Earth were created on Sunday the 21st of October, 4004 BC, at 9:00 a.m. This too was incorrect. By almost a quarter of an hour. It was created at 9:13 in the morning, which was correct.

now. all of the times don't match up completely, but the general sense is that the world may be running a little behind schedule, compared to what it should be - ie. the timeline that agnes predicted, and ussher/his team calculated.

we know that adam reset everything at the end of s1, but:

given that he's not omniscient, would he know that the world is 15 mins behind schedule (and therefore, when s2 starts, are we still running late)? probably not, so does he revert things back but keeps the world on the original clock, so to speak?

alternatively, did he reset the clock, and is the universe that we see in s2 actually on the correct time?

this might not mean much, if anything at all (see: it's just all for The Bit), in the grand scheme of things... but im now starting to wonder if it does. because what would have happened if everything had run on time? because maybe it's not so much thinking about individual events, and how they would have played out otherwise if the world had been on the 'correct' timeline all along, but maybe just the sheer possibility that there is an 'alternate reality' in which those 10-20 minutes meant things played out very differently?

ive talked about the chair (x), and ive talked about the sideburns (x), and ive talked about how crowley somehow seems to be existing at a different time to everything else around him (alternatively - whickber street itself is running in a different... reality? timeline?), as well as the random moments where time seems to disappear entirely/the clock swaps its hands around in ep6 (x). about crowley's comment about it being "too late", and how he seems to act slightly odd just before aziraphale tells him about the metatron's offer (x)... but is it all somehow interconnected? and connected to the 13-minute delay?

and if it is... what caused it? what might have delayed god by 13 minutes, or what might have gone wrong to cause the delay, that has then had a hypothetical knock-on effect, whether it be because adam did fix it, or didn't fix it?

[thiswomansmind]

Disco Pigs

I wish I'd been of an age to have seen this on stage, alas I never did. I have a digital and physical copy of the scriptbook, though, and I adore it. As well as the film. My absolute favourite thing about reading anything from Ireland that has been written by Irish writers is that they retain, or attempt to retain, accents in the dialogue. Obviously the Cork accent written in Disco Pigs is heavily exaggerated and even overacted, but it is still brilliant. There is nothing more enjoyable to me when reading anything by an Irish writer, than finding that they "write with an Irish accent". Roddy Doyle's books also offer this, and I absolutely love it. (Scottish writer Irvine Welsh also does this!)

Personally, I think it is one of Cillian Murphy's best roles. I'd almost like a revisit of it now he is a more 'seasoned' actor, but obviously that's not going to fit the canon age-wise! One of my favourite ever screen moments of Cillian's comes from Disco Pigs.

- Ask me where she is.

- Where...

- If you go, I can't have you back, Darren.

- Where...where is she, Mam?!

The camera is close to his face and the speedy flicker of emotions on his face - across his eyes - is just phenomenal. You can see everything, and each tiny, nuanced change, and it just gets me every time. It is undoubtedly one of my most favourite things, just this specific scene. He's masterful! Obviously, those scenes were never in the original theatre production, but their addition for the film is one I would praise eternally.

It's definitely a very 'singular' thing, Disco Pigs. Darkly funny, strange, and heartbreaking, too. I've talked to fans of Enda Walsh's who absolutely adore this, and others who found it less enjoyable, and equally there has been a divided review within [the cross-section of] the fandom for Cillian. I think, for some people, you have to be a fan of either the cast or of Enda in order to be starting out with an excitement towards it. Obviously this is not my experience - I fell in love with it instantly, and both the original scriptbook and film have remained firm favourites of mine since I stumbled on them in 2009.

Have you seen/read Disco Pigs? What was your experience?

[the-gayest-show]

bro it's actually so annoying seeing neil gaiman mentions randomly in stuff now where i used to be excited before.

picked up a copy of fahrenheit 451 (good book, currently reading) and it's not supposed to be about him but he's got an intro section in this book man.

like i don't know what to think, feel. good omens was my lifeline for so long that neil gaiman became my favorite author when i explored his work. i loved the dark vibes about it and stuff, but now it's got me reexamining everything like it's been poisoned.

i still believe in the merit of stuff like good omens and i still have an appreciation for the stuff he made already but it's like i've been soured by all the news of him being a rapist. which i suppose is fair.

but now i see him randomly IN STUFF I DONT EVEN EXPECT HIM IN

i vaguely remember reading a short story where ray bradbury was listed as a huge inspo or something for neil and neil visited ray bradbury or something. so that's why neil's in my world classic book, but it's still annoying. doesn't taint fahrenheit 451 (once again, good book) but it's annoying how his intro words feel horribly wonky to me. i didn't even read the intro i just skipped to the ray bradbury story i wanted to read.

-

i still own a few of his books, i still own good omens merch (including neil's scriptbook too)

i get the whole "separate the art from artist" and i believe in it but it's damn different because this man was like. my role model for cool writing. and i liked the stuff he's made. i still love good omens (hence why im still rbing occasional posts) but i dont think i'll view it the same, even if s3 will not have him in it. a lot of his stories are very affecting like they changed my life (i LOVED ocean at the end of the lane) and he got me reading all his short stories when i read trigger warning (which i own a forever copy of in my home). ive read every single one in there and then borrowed other short story collections.

-

on the one hand this sucks but i've gained some life lessons from it. one time i made the curse/blessing (both at the same time) of posting a question on reddit asking whether there was physical evidence because i guess i was in denial? i was trying to rationalize everything in a frankly unrationalizable situation, and half the people shouted at me thinking i was a rape apologist (i was asking if there was more evidence that i havent seen because i used to be on the fence but leaning toward believin the survivors) and the other half actually took me at my word and gave me solid advice on how to understand everything (the latter i thank so much for seeing the confusion in everything and answering the real question i had).

like if i've learned anything is that this sucks. you CANT rationalize it and also that i'm not very good at understanding the big social picture and it took me mentioning being autistic to realize "man, the neurodevelopmental disorder that makes you bad at socializing affects how you interact with others in a greater social context!" (and also for half the redditors to realize that i wasn't trying to be mean) who knew. but hey some nice commenters genuinely woke me up and gave me actual viable advice that's actually useful and ive learned so much from that it's crazy.

that;s probably my only positive though. i still get icky looking at some stuff he wrote and was a part of but i suppose im getting thru this in my own way and i'll figure it out.

[dropthedemiurge]

Hi!

So first off I love your page and seeing all the content on 'Love For Love's Sake' / 'Love Supremacy Zone', becuz your analysis and summaries are always informative and AMAZING.

it's my current hyperfixation and I'm obsessed.

And since you are more knowledgeable and read ALL of the Novel, there is something I'd like to ask that has been confusing me -

I want to read the webnovel but everywhere I see, it says there are a different number of chapters - it says this -

Status in COO:

118 Chapters (Completed) 7 Side Story Chapters (Completed) 5 Side Story Extra Chapters (Completed) 6 Side Story Special Chapters (Completed) 22 Side Story Bonus Chapters (Completed)

What I know:

118 Chapters (main story) 6 chapters (side story with their anniversary/ proposal) 22 chapters (19 Myungha time-travelling to 29)

But what are the last two?

5 Chapters 7 Chapters

Also why is a 'special' story 18+ on Ridibooks?

And if you could tell please, where did you read the whole story? Was it in English or did you read in Korean/use a translator?

I've been stressing over this for like months and cant get an answer anywhere

Sorry for the long question - thank you for taking the time to read <3

Thank you so much and you're very welcome, first of all! I saw you in my notifs and I was very happy to meet another LFLS obsessed person :D

I gotta admit, I didn't read the novel and webtoon... I mean, I started it but I haven't finished yet. I've read the fan-translated version of a novel (which is like 1/3 of korean novel?) and I have access to Ridibooks where I decided to start with reading Spinoff story (since I sort of know that's completely new and kdrama closely follow original novel)

I can assume 18+ story might be including chapters with somewhat NC scenes? (I haven't read them yet tbh I'm still wary of buying such things on Korean websites, blame my paranoia) but other than that, the rest seemed like the typical novel (118 chapters) + Special side story (I haven't read it yet) of 6 chapters + bonus stage released in 2024 with 22 chapters . You say 6 chapters about proposal? I gotta read it then! Though the proposal was hinted at in the last spinoff story though...xD

I don't see different separation in Ridibooks. I see 118-6-22 chapters too. Oh, but I see 19+ version with 7 and 5 chapters, maybe that's the one you're talking about? But sorry, I haven't read them yet... I might do it though xD

But I have Kdrama storyboard + scriptbook right now to read! As in actual physical book, so I'm very curious to read and check what differences there are in actual drama (Taevin said they had to give up some scenes because of the weather etc). + I will work on translating spinoff soon while somebody else has been translating the original novel. Not sure about 19+ version one xD

And also they are releasing Bluray and DVD right now with extra commentary and everything... I should not spend more money on LFLS editions... I should not...... please tell me you guys don't need to know all those extra commentaries and behind the scenes....xD

[sleepyhollowtimburton]

These are gifs of a deleted scene. It's a real shame they deleted this scene because it's quite cute, the scene is included in the scriptbook and novelization, so here I'll give you the novelized version of this scene (it reads better than the script). What do you think? Should they have kept this in the film?

As Ichabod picked up his pen once again, he heard a knock on the door. At last, the servant girl with the bible. He'd sent her so long ago he thought she'd forgotten.

"Yes, yes come in!" he shouted over his shoulder. Perhaps that family tree on the bible's inner leaf would reveal something, Something odd had caught his eye during his brief perusal in the parlor, a familiar surname that he couldn't recall now.

Behind him, the door clicked open. Soft footsteps trod the wooden floor. "Thank you." Ichabod called out. "Just leave it on the reading stand. That will be all." No, she's a resource, you can learn from her. "Wait. Tell me about that big brute who seems to be Katrina's.."

As he spoke, he turned around and came face-to-face with Katrina van Tassel. He shot up out from his chair. His hip knocked against the desk, which thudded against the wall, sending papers cascading towards the floor. "Forgive me! I asked Sarah to bring me..."

"So your clever books have failed you," Katrina said with an amused smile. "and you turn to the bible after all."

Ichabod collected himself. "I see I am talked about downstairs."

"In passing only. We have many things to talk about, even in this backwards place."

"I am sorry. Please excuse my manner. I am not used to..." Speechless, she renders me speechless.

"Female company?" Katrina asked.

"Society." Ichabod shot back.

"How can you avoid society in New York? How I should love the opera and theaters, to go dancing! Is it wonderful?"

Ichabod fought the urge to lie, to make himself sound cultured and urbane. She would see through him, she saw everything. "I have never been."

"But there is an art museum? A concert hall?"

"I don't know."

"Then you have nothing to teach me." The words made Ichabod shrink away in disappointment, but an idea was forming. "Perhaps I have." He said. "Do you believe the van Garretts and the widow Winship were murdered by a headless horseman?"

"Not everyone here believes it is the horseman."

At last, a realist. "Good." Ichabod said.

"Some say it's the witch of the western woods who has made a pact with Lucifer."

Ichabod's shoulders sank. Katrina was one of them after all, provincial and irrational. "There are no witches or galloping ghosts either. Is everyone in the village in thrall of superstition?"

"Why are you so afraid of magic? Not all magic is black. There are ancient truths in these woods which have been forgotten in your city parks."

"If they are truth, they are not magic, if magic, they are not truth," Ichabod told her.

"You are foolish, when there is a fever in the house, it is well known that willow herb roots and a crow's foot must be boiled in the milk of a pure white goat with special charms uttered over the fire, and the fever abates."

"Next time, try the herbs without the rest." Ichabod had heard enough. "And now I must ask you to excuse me."

"Gladly, I should not have interrupted our town's saviour. Good night." Katrina turned and walked towards the open door. "And as to your first question, that big brute you were asking about has proposed to me."

That statement caught Ichabod off guard. "I..I..I'm happy that..."

Katrina looked back over her shoulder. "He's proposed to me...several times." She paused and smiled, letting the last two words linger. And as she left, she seemed to take all the air in the room with her.

Ichabod had to sit down.

[archangelween]

Crowley and stopping time?

(I don't think we can trust the s1 scriptbook because there are lines in there that are changed in the show and things are in different order; it was published before everything was finished. It also claims that the Paris scene is "just" a dungeon, it doesn't say Bastille at all, and it does call it a "timestop" despite the fact that we can clearly see background lights/fires moving around. I think the scriptbook either does not match the final show, or is flat out lying about things. Both could be true.)

To sum up: The ticking sound is a countdown to when people who have been summoned will arrive. Crowley isn't stopping time at any point besides the apocalypse. I would assume he needs that crank to do it. Crowley's bubbly miracle sound means he's acting directly on someone, it doesn't mean time has stopped.

The possible time freezes, in no particular order, and their sounds are:

Satan, s1e6: chime; no ticking

Paintball coat blowjob, s1e2; sand

Mary Hodges questioning, s1e2; bubbly; ticking, siren

Paris, s1e3; bubbly; ticking, siren

Face swap, s1e6; chime and two sands

Dalrymple, s2e3; bubbly

all of s2, the kiss s2e6

There is only one unambiguous time stop: Satan's, when Crowley actually says "I'm going to restart time". I do not think Crowley is the only one who can stop time, or at least there are other beings who can see into the "state" of stopped time, because even during Satan's time stop--the one we know is a real, true time stop--they do not stay there to discuss a plan. It's as if they know they can be overheard, which would ruin the plan. Even if they leave so fast because Crowley lacks the power to hold the bubble for longer (which I don't think is the case--he does not seem strained inside the bubble?), that also requires someone else to be breaking in ie to have the same power. Can't break a time bubble if you don't have time powers, which you also need to even know it's there. Satan's time stop also takes a LOT of power from Crowley, which we do not see in any other supposed time stop; this is a point against any of the others being time stops.

Notably, there is no ticking sound during Satan's time stop. We do hear ticking during Paris and Mary's questioning.

The face swap isn't a time stop, it's a slowed down miracle so that we can see what's happening. Had it been full speed, it would have looked like they swapped places on the bench; slowed down, we can see that they're trading looks, not trading places. The people in the background are "frozen" to show that this is taking place in a single instant, not the several seconds it takes of screen time.

I have seen the paintball blowjob be called "reversing time", but that was because people weren't hearing the miracle sound and so thinking this was him doing something different. The sound is there, and it's the normal sand sound. You can also see him flicking his fingers half off the bottom of the screen. We do also see miracles performed with different gestures multiple other times.

The other times we have claimed time stops, we hear the wobbly/bubbly miracle sound, not the standard chime sandy one. The only time this is different is Satan's, which may be because we can't hear it over the other fx, but I am not sure. I think we would have heard the additional fx if we can hear the chime. The bubbly sound does not indicate a time stop, because we can see that lights are still flickering in Paris against the wall, and directly in Dalrymple's the candle flames are still moving. Satan's time stop is a chime, and during that one A+C move and are then moved in real life too, so it can't even be that the frozen people are experiencing frozen time. The bubbly sound from Crowley, I think, indicates his miracles acting upon people directly. His sandy chime sound is for everything else. Crowley also touches Dalrymple to start and stop the hypnosis; this makes no sense if it's Aziraphale and Crowley exempted from time, but it does if it's Dalrymple in the frozen state of hypnosis. Same with the Paris executioner--everything else is moving and sounds stop before Crowley gets there. They do not restart when he unfreezes the executioner, they come in later.

Some nitpicks about a few scenes:

Satan, s1e6

In the script book, it says the time desert is "in one of their minds". But when we return, C/A/A have all moved from where they were previously, so the desert reality does have some connection to actual reality. Since other people and things don't show up in the desert, it appears it's more of a "time out" than the way "stopping time" traditionally works in scifi. Strictly from what we see on screen, Crowley could not have used this to do star creation stuff, because you cannot see anything you're doing unless you take it with you. That defeats the point of stopping time to alter anything because you can't alter anything outside the bubble, and anything inside isn't stopped.

This kind of time stop is like a different plane of reality, where you can't see actual reality but you can "move through it" by changing where you are: like being on a different floor in the same building, and dropping back through the floor to the real one. Moving around on the higher floor lets you also move on the lower one, but you can't interact with stuff on the lower floor unless you brought it with you.

I think the creation tool was sent to him by god, out of the rubble of the car. I don't think he's always had it hidden in the car. I also think that it's more like a crank shaft, a start button--we don't see him stop time with it, but he does start time with it. Just as he started the nebula. It's a tool of beginning.

Dalrymple s2e3

They're talking to Dalrymple, giving him instructions that he clearly hears and remembers while in this state. Same as they do with Mary. Since time stops do not let you interact with anything you haven't brought with you, these are points against those being time stops: they would be on different planes, unable to interact. This is hypnosis.

This is not the oldest hypnosis we have, so why is Crowley suddenly having to touch the person to hypnotize them, when in Paris he could do it with a snap, as he does again later for Mary? The difference isn't the instructions he gives, because Mary is also a snap. Perhaps the difference is that touch is a stronger hypnosis? Or Crowley is the only one who can break the touch version, not Aziraphale? Az releases Mary, but Crowley releases Dalrymple.

Mary Hodges, s1e2

In the Mary Hodges (s1 nun Nina) one, we hear the bubbling miracle sound and we hear a ticking clock sound. The ticking clock stops before Crowley does anything to stop it, and he never actually does do a second miracle gesture or anything we see or hear. He snaps at 3846 and the ticking is definitely gone by 3946, long before the scene ends and Az unhypnotizes her.

The outside noises are also gone before Crowley "freezes time", I think the people just went farther away or something. They stop by the time Aziraphale says "nice"; if you look in the background, Mary has shown up at the same time. The outside noise starts up at 4009 before Crowley says "let's go"; you can hear a siren sound. This is BEFORE Aziraphale releases the hypnosis on Mary at 4016.

Mary was hypnotized. Timeline: Outside noise stops; time passes; Crowley snaps; ticking starts; ticking stops; time passes; siren; Az snaps. Ticking lasts for one minute.

If the ticking meant time stop, then it should have shown up during Satan's time stop. So I do not think it means time stop.

We have no outside sounds or motion to indicate whether there was still motion beyond our three people. But it all stopped before the snap and started beyond the end of the ticking. If we strictly interpret "it's all meant", then time was still moving because there would have been evidence otherwise.

What else could the ticking mean? This could imply Crowley can put a timer on his miracles, or that they can simply run out of whatever power he infuses and normal physics can reassert itself without him doing anything. Maybe the ticking means the miracle can't be broken for that time period. I think these could all apply.

However, when did Crowley change the guns back to paintball guns?

Paris, s1e3

TICKING. Right after Aziraphale swaps clothes with the executioner, you can hear ticking. Oddly you also hear a siren, but no background noise. I don't think there were sirens in Bastille Paris, so this isn't an environmental sound, it's either god doing something or it's from whatever Aziraphale just did that started the ticking. I can't tell exactly, but I believe the ticking winds down as the siren runs, it's gone when the siren stops. We know time isn't stopped in Paris, we can see light flickering on the walls behind Crowley.

Which means that in Mary's questioning, time isn't stopped just because of the ticking noise. We do hear a siren both times we hear the ticking.

The ticking may mean "people are coming", or it may mean people have been summoned, since people appear when the ticking stops.

The ticking is then a countdown until the summoned people arrive. Not indicative of stopped time.

This would fit with the siren heard at the end of both Paris and the paintball, indicating people have arrived. That explains why Crowley was in a hurry to leave the paintball place, because he knew it was going to be crawling with more people.

I think Az's Paris clothes swap and summoning the people was one miracle, so this does mean they can do multiple miracles with one snap. In the paintball scene, I think Crowley may have hypnotised Mary, summoned the cops, and changed the guns back to paintballs in one snap.

s2/the kiss/lead balloons

We have no evidence that Crowley can freeze multiple people, and we have no evidence that he an freeze time in a manner required to mess with reality like people are proposing for stuff that happens in s2. He can freeze individual people in a hypnosis type spell, he can't do standard scifi time travel stuff. I don't think he could freeze all of Soho to do something during the kiss, or all of the coffee shop to move a sign around--he would have to stop time for everyone but himself, which again requires having the sign with him to bring into the time stop so he can move it through reality. He did not have that sign hidden up his sleeve, stop time, put it down, etc.

I don't think the "lead balloon" comment indicates time stuff, because Aziraphale understood what he was saying. I think that shows angels are installed with all the words languages will ever have, minus proper nouns like names, for example Twitter. The event that may indicate weird time stuff is him saying hand washing is going to be all the rage soon: that's not knowing what the word means, that's being able to locate it in time. I do think that can be explained if he pays attention to things associated with hand washing, like scientific discoveries. He seems to keep up with gadgets and other stuff, as well as humans who do things like that. Crowley specifically says "all the rage in a few years", but it wasn't until the late 1800s that doctors did it, and after 1900 for the public in the UK, let alone the rest of the world. He was off by several decades, though he was right that it was going to be discovered in about 25 years. He was wrong that everyone would accept that person's discoveries. So on the sum, he can't see through time. I think he was just following science. If he combines his knowledge of all language and tracks current human discoveries, he can figure out where in time they are and roughly what ought to be next, no time stuff required.

[syncogon]

browsing yb2 bloopers

nlg had a stunt double?? when did he have any stunts that needed doubling?? also xy face i love him

also shoutout to this blooper i'm a big fan it's got everything. yan su. quick maths. age facts. the slow pan over to famed youth general mimu qinbei-

(ETA: VIDEO IS DELETED augh if i predicted this would happen why did i not just download the video booo. vid title: 《大宋少年志2》花絮：野利皇后和宁令哥的母子年龄差（翁虹、闫肃）)

for posterity:

ningling ge (ic): if you're going to pull a knife, in the future can you give me a heads up first

queen yeli (ic): this queen has gotten old, i forgot...

ningling ge (break char): 🤨 (looks at director)

(offscreen): maybe we shouldn't mention the age thing? because you really don't look old... (collective offscreen laughter)

queen yeli (break char): i'm playing his mom, how am i not old?

ningling ge, over her: it's because of your beauty... [the sweet-talking prince]

(offscreen): then that would mean probably you were 15-16 when...

queen yeli: so i'm 35-40, (motherly patting nlg) i mean how old is he? 17? 18?

ningling ge, played by fully late 30s actor yan su: ... i think that's a little ... let's say 24-25. (straight-faced -> starts cracking up, hiding face in scriptbook)

queen yeli, ignoring his crisis: 🤔 so if you're 25, and i was 15, so right now i'm 35?

[25+15=?]

ningling ge: hey aren't you supposed to be playing a youth general?

[pan over to s2 mqmb, also played by late-30s actor, bald with facial hair]

s2 miqin mubei: the youth got old, right

queen yeli, pointing: that miqin - even that mimu qinbei has grown to look like this, then i-

ningling ge, character once known as miqin mubei: it's miqin mubei!! mimu qinbei - qinbei~! [prince don't be naughty]

[emdashreed]

Authenticity Peddling

America I love you but you’re bringing me down. These tired eyes are searching for something concrete, something tangible in the muddled mess of meaning that greets them. Days turn to weeks turn to months turn to chances missed and taken and it’s all worked out far in advance, calculated on ledgers stacked neatly in rows in the third level sub-basement of the apartment four blocks down. Music keeps the hearts beating, rhythms and rhymes leading where they will and want, and somehow this will all make sense, it will, we know it. There’s things in the air, emanations, lists and such and so forth, areas of contemplation and capsized creation, faith for the faithless and face-time with the fated. Cynical pondering aside, there’s too many things in our heads: media and message, sex and stalemates, solitude and symbolism, the fate of the dollar in the world market, faith and god and love and death and sex and time and strange bedfellows and simplicity and more sex and more more more everything… It is overwhelming us, it is over us, we are over it. We are underneath the guns now, sites aimed and dropped and all hands lost in the gale. All the time. All the time. All the time in the world. Waving the flags hanging from the broken mast, these hands have seen and held the world, exhaustion preceding explicit material preceding more exhaustion. Oh well such is the life we’ve chosen, and such is the time we’ve spent, and so we will move along into the mild new wonder of autumn. Leave the well enough alone, we’re stocked up here. Go on then, there’s more worlds than this in the offing. And these tired eyes have seen enough for today. So call this a lullaby I suppose.

Consciousness I love you but you’re bringing me down. Needs must and needs demand, and thusly we all end up meeting between want desire and disavowal. Oh well, move on, nothing more to see here, just write the phrases out ad infinitum until it’s noticed and called in to headquarters. Keep calm and carry on lie back and think of England and wait for the perfect moment to try to change things. It’s coming it’s coming it’s coming you’re coming I’m coming no one’s coming ok we’ll get it next time I’m sure of it. Can’t hang your head now, there’s worlds to be won and songs to sing and ends to mean and means to end and this end might be too mean so it means nothing, in the end. A box checked yes no or Green Party but we demand a recount! Protest the villains, destroy the heroes, and raise up the glorious middleman, the blessed mediocrity, the normal national nightmare of numbness. Little things coming and going in and out of style and STOP! Your life depends on THIS! Only you can help, but you must spend spend spend! Defend the viewpoint, have fun storming the castle, and don’t forget: we’ll be watching for your downfall. We have planned and plotted and tasked and renewed and waited and waited and waited and still we have nothing to show but matchbooks in our pockets and a scriptbook for an unreleased film of the novel. (DiCaprio’s attached, it’ll be big in Europe.) This is masked hostility and humility and humanity and attachment passed off as propaganda in order to confuse and fog the mind. True to forms, we writhe and wind, adventure and abstraction meeting somewhere in the middle and leading to phonecalls to strangers and late night confessions and repressing the real meaning behind anything, everything. We laugh at catastrophe, we dance with the dead and we make plans oh we make plans and we get up early and we stay up late and we never get anywhere anywhere anywhere. So count up the actions, create a diagram and make a presentation to the board. It’s happened too fast to make any sense of anything, so let’s forgo sense for now and embrace the randomness of the moment. Go crazy on each other, I say. And of course I can’t sleep. I am weird and vital, full of electricity and neurotic impulses. My hands are moving of their own accord, fashioning arcane symbols from my bones and using my veins and arteries as the twine in a complicated cross-hatched dreamcatcher.

The World I love you but you’re bringing me down. Words float by in front of me, like I was in a comic book, but this is the uninteresting part before the hero/villain conflict emerges and the archetypes manifest. Oddly enough though, I am joyous. Nothing is static, everything moves and shifts, and this pleases me in ways both large and small, so that the weirdness is dealable and I move in sync with the rhythms in my head; I am everywhere you see I am nowhere I am everywhere I am nowhere I am wondering whether I will sleep I am wondering when it will all go down in flames I am wondering when lift-off occurs I am wondering how much my lunch will be tomorrow I am wondering whether this weird existential sickness infests people in Ethiopia I am wondering which bill to pay first I am wondering if it’s imaginary these things I want and think and see and feel and the blood, oh the blood. There’s things I’ve done/seen/been that no one knows, that no one will ever know. Don’t blink don’t breathe don’t move, muscles twitch and sounds emerge from the other room but it’s all static to me but nothing is static. It will continue to change and in 2 days I will be a different person and this will all seem like it was written by someone with a different brain chemistry and I am wondering whether I want another. Scholars and soldiers know but little else appeals to me other than change, so mutatis mutandis and onward into the glorious unknown. Single coils and double backs and triple plays and quartered torsoes and steel toed boots to the gut and axe wounds and typed out lists and wires and veins and wires and veins and wires and veins and conductance through them all over again and again and never again we all die but never again and somehow this made a difference before before before oh no whatever never mind over mattered very little sometimes when I think it’s all overrated over aided over it over it over nothing it’s nothing I feel nothing I want nothing I am nothing more than this isn’t overhead down and I’m just a shade more than awake and aware of more than what is normal here. My heart is my head is my heart is empty and full of everything and everyone and it beats in doubletime and then I doubleback and I am still here still right here in this chair in this room in this house in this state in this body in this chair. My eyes adjust of their own accord and the prickling in my skin has subsided and the nervous energy has dissipated and now I just want to feel alive again and I’m wondering if I really need to wait for 5 days until I do again and I am inside the impulses in my brain and I see that everything is available at all times and everyone is everyone and everywhen is now and then and somehow it all makes sense to me for once and always.

The Universe I love you but you’re bringing me down. Atoms coming and going and coming and smashing together and leaving trails and pieces of themselves behind, and it’s ok. It really is. Missing pieces are what proves that things exist; nothing is whole nothing is pure nothing is unbroken. The only thing unbroken IS nothing. The absence. The lack. The hole. The whole. It’s what is at the center of everything everywhere everytime everyspace just nothing nothing nothing nothing. So we fill it. With stuff. With people. With ourselves. And it’s still there, the nothing. So we ignore it. For minutes. For hours. For years. And it’s still there, the nothing. So we face it. With god. With sex. With everything. And it’s still there, the nothing. So what? If everything is nothing and nothing is everything what is the ultimate point of anynothingnothingnothingnothing NO THING. OK. This has gone on long enough.

[meltingpenguins]

A long Good Omens ramble, to just get this out of my system:

I will never understand some of the outright insulting and asinine decisions the show made when it came to what to focus on, the pacing, the editing, everything. S1 had the advantage of having the book's plot push back against it, but even there...

I think the best example is how Aziraphale is introduced in modern times in s1:

In the scriptbook we'd get our first glimpse of him in his bookshop, on the phone with a customer, while doing some helpful miracles.

This would have established Aziraphale as helpful (for whatever reason) and more importantly as someone interested in books, especially books on prophecies. So, credit where it's due, kudos to Mr Gaiman here. That was a good decision, focusing on bits that are important and relevant to the story.

But alas, this did not survive the cutting room. While the scene's still there later, ultimately it was decided that it's more important to show Aziraphale eating. Paired with how dim he's already in s1 it's a mircale they didn't put Michael Sheen in a fatsuit just to hammer home what a fat, food-obsessed idiot this character is.

And to add insult to injury, the scenes makes it look as if Aziraphale is genuinely creaming his pants at the prospect of Crowley having teleported in (compared to him -simply- enjoying the food in the script. Granted, there is some small squicky orientalism-tone in the scriptbook which... why?)

What then follows is simply manipulative. Gabriel is not a character, he's a display telling the audience what to think. This is just bad writing.

In general, literally all character besides Crowley are just mean to Aziraphale for... no reason that'd has any foundation in the showverse (more on that in a moment). This tricks the audience into thinking Showley is actually nice to Az, when, really, objectively, he isn't.

The dialogue ensuing is painful. Why would Aziraphale, who has no interest in clothes note the clothes, when he should have no reason to believe Gabriel is wearing them for any other reason than to blend in (probably cause he's been told to)? Why would Gabriel only NOW nag Aziraphale eating? Why even tell Aziraphale about the Antichrist? Yes, the show and script try to make it seem that Heaven thinks only Aziraphale can hold a candle to Crowley, but not a single of these instances makes any sense, mainly cause they ALL require the Antagonists to be purposefully incompetent.

So, it's a scene that is very much just there to paint crowley as oh so amazing and important, one way or the other, while establishing Aziraphale as a food obsessed dimwit, latter trait he shares with the rest of Heaven.

This is just. bad.

And worse, this could have been a great scene, if only the characters would have been allowed to be fundamentally people, as the characters were in the book.

It could have gone... maybe like this:

---

Aziraphale has gotten his meal and began eating, when the doorbell chimes, announcing another customer. We see someone walk by behind Aziraphale and sit down.

It takes Aziraphale a moment to realise who just sat down.

He swallows his food, very deliberately puts the chopsticks down, daps his mouth, equally deliberately put the napkin down. Deep breath, slow exhale, with an air of FML. He smiles strained.

Az: Good Evening... Gabriel.

Gabe: Aziraphale.

Az: What brings you to Earth?

Gabe: You. Coincidentally. I wanted to have a word with you, and found your shop closed.

Az: Gabriel, please, it's in the middle of the night.

Gabe: *a little amused* What? You adapting reasonable opening hours? The End of Days might be neigh... (the smile falters) *thoughtful and a little worried* Huh... They actually might be.

Az: *alarmed* Pardon?

Gabe: Why I wanted to talk to you. You have a very extensive collection of bo-

Az: *frowns* Gabriel, please, we talked about this. And I believe we agreed that there's nothing gluttonous or greedy. I am merely preserving humanities knowledge.

Gabe: By hoarding books of prophecy... and misprinted bibles... and Wilde first editions and-

Az: *frowns again and raises a hand* Gabriel, please, you didn't come here to nag me about my little harmless hobbies. So, please, what was this about Armageddon?

Gabe: *curt nod* My apologies. Though it is your collection of prophetic texts I wanted to talk about. We've gotten word Hell is up to something Big. Capital 'B' Big.

Az: *whinces* And you think it is Armageddon?

Gabe: It's been more than 6000 years now *the bright facade cracks a little, and for a moment he does look genuinely uncomfortable* It is quite overdue.

Az: ...It is... Isn't it.

They sit in silence for a moment, digesting the prospect.

Gabe: So, yes, I'd like to know if the various soothsayers and clairvoyants throughout human history have anything on the next five, ten, fifteen years. And you are one of the best sources.

Az: *smiles a little, awkward smile* I mean, I can see what I can find.

Gabe: *gets up* Splendid. Thank you. Let us know if you find anything. Whatever it is that Hell's up to, it won't do if we run into it unprepared. *pauses and looks at the sushi, then out the window, looking a little awkward* I admit, if it is Armageddon... it would be a bit of a shame. Humans are doing decently well these days and, between you and I, that does look divine.

Az: *blinks and relaxes* Oh. Oh, if you'd like you could *gestures as if to invite Gabriel to sit down and order something*

Gabe: *shakes head* No, but thank you. I'm scheduled to head to Canada.

Az: Oh.

Gabe *claps his shoulder* Stay safe. *leaves*

Az: you too. *rolls his shoulders, a little worried, and goes back to eating, much more thoughtful*

---

sure, ymmv, but I'd say like that the scene would have done the following:

Establish Az not as food- and crowley-obsessed, but as someone who enjoys life and collects books (especially on prophecy)

He and Gabriel would have a clear *strained-family* relation with one another, that still has some underlying respect, no matter what the mutual beef is

Gabriel knows much better of what's going on in Az' life (meaning that Az and Crowley will really have to play things smart to fly under the radar), and on Earth in general

Gabriel would be shown to have developed some sympathies for Earth and Humanity, but the job comes first, and this is God's plan, right? it has to be the good thing.

This way, I dare say, the scene and the characters would be much more alive, and not just means to tell the audience what to think. Also it would make Gabriel out to be an actual threat.

In the show however, not only does the scene as it is (as mentioned) not serve any in universe purpose and is only manipulative, but it ALSO doesn't make a lot of sense.

Not just does Gabriel not really have an actual reason to contact Aziraphale like that, but that Heaven even has that info is... off. It really feels like just another means to paint crowley as oh-so-amazing.

The show in general has a problem with plotholes galore where the book's story had none (Schrödinger's Plothole not withstanding)

We could have had something great, and I hope one day we can find out for certain who is responsible for it all being like... that.

Thank you for reading.

[breitweisergallery]

Okay I'm too lazy to go and get screenshots for everything I'm gonna mention but here's why I generally hc Yohan as being on the autistic spectrum

Please note, not all autistics are the same, and everything mentioned here is based purely on my experiences as an autistic person.

So it's said directly by his former classmate that Yohan didn't make eye contact, had a dark expression, and didn't talk much. Yohan doesn't make eye contact with anybody in any of the flashbacks and seems to switch between too much eye contact or no eye contact as an adult.

In most of the flashbacks in general, we also don't see Yohan talk much BUT that's generally because there's a vo happening at the same time.

He's got good posture as a child despite having no real reason to have good posture.

Yohan also doesn't care about the bird when it flies into the room. He's more concerned with the fact that things have changed in the classroom and he doesn't like it, so he hits the bird to try to get it to leave. This is not the general response most people would have. It's shown he just sits there and when it becomes clear that he can't focus, only then does he turn his attention to what's going on.

He doesn't have friends and seems to really only get along with Isaac, someone who is older than him. When presented with someone who is his age (Sunah), he doesn't get along with her because he doesn't understand her.

Yohan has a habit of echoing things back at people, esp when he's trying to find his footing in a conversation. He seems to see conversations as a game, and speaks when it's clear it's his turn to speak.

He's brutally honest to a point of ridiculousness, but he also speaks like he learned how to talk from a book. The scriptbook confirms he's a genius so he likely started reading at a young age, esp since Isaac gifts him books regularly.

He's devoted to his special person (Isaac) to a fault and will do pretty much anything for his special person. He doesn't seem to understand how relationships work and sees them as an exchange.

He struggles with identifying and feeling his emotions. Some of that could be a trauma response, and some of it could be from neglect as well, but it could be autistic behaviors as well.

Yohan plans extensively and when overwhelmed, particularly emotionally, shuts down. He wears things that are familiar (the suits, the robes, the necklace).

He understands that Elijah needs her comfort things as a child. When he carries her out of the church, he's holding her stuffed animal that she was carrying everywhere in the same scene.

His understanding of humans is clinical. It's why he doesn't expect Kyunghee to commit suicide, it never occurred to him that there would be an emotional response rather than a logical response.

Yohan retreats to what is familiar when he's nervous/anxious/scared/overwhelmed. Yohan obviously spent time in his basement room after the fire, and every time Gaon is upset with him, retreats back into himself and his 'norm' for safety.

Yohan has absolutely no idea how to comfort somebody. I'd take a swing and say Yohan's empathy is low; he understands and chooses compassion sometimes, but he has no idea how to comfort somebody when they're upset and he has no idea what do when someone is mad at him.

He provokes people who are upset at him more because that's how he does it—get all of the emotions out in one go and then it's not an issue anymore, even if you've lashed out in a way that has cut people off

[fuckyeahgoodomens]

I didn't really come to ask anything, but I just wanted to say that I absolutely adore your blog and everything you put in it. Of course, Good Omens is just divine (or wickedly good?), but having so much content of it in one place, in your very well organised, prompt and witty hands adds a perfect touch! I'll certainly keep coming here and laughing at your Crowley snek comparisons for times to come. (And, also, a thank you - your scriptbook guide helped me find the 7-deleted scene edition!)

Awwww, thank you so much! You've just made my day! 🥰🥰🥰❤❤❤❤

[rotblut]

Idk if you've seen some of the translations of the yom scriptbook on twt buut a lot of myungheetae scenes were adlibs, like the little details (like myunghee blushing + hitting heetae or heetae caressing myunghee's hair etc) no wonder it felt so real esp eps 9-12. Man i really wish they could work tg again but argh the kdrama industry 😭 anyways they better get their flowers end of the year. Props to dohyun and minsi non stop praises since yom, outsold big promoted dramas damn they did that!

-

i saw everything and i was and am reading everything. my twitter is a mess i tell you. i even bought the dvd i am that crazy. ahhhhhhh yes they did that. there was even supposed to be another kiss before her marriage proposal to him but they changed it to a hug........   i want her to work with him at least 5 times like if other actors can work with each other 3-6 times in romance movies/dramas so can they. ngl the way kbs wasn’t even pushing a lot of episodic stills out when the drama was airing and when they did it was a lot in LQ. yom was the constant ratings winner, it gave kbs the views and the praise and it was constantly delivering on the ratings. didn’t tank like other kbs, tvn or jtbc dramas. also how they had to delete a lot of scenes because of the 30 min ep format................ they should have given yom the 16 eps format. production companies loved it and them together so they better cast them in something next year again or even in 2023 (but this time make it a fantasy romcom) 

minshi better get all the freaking awards like was pissed she wasn’t nominated for an award when everyone else was like the way she constantly delivers she better get them or i will cut someone. 

ngl i wanted minshi in hounds with dohyun and dongyeon but they said they will cast a rookie actress but would have been hot... the 3 of them in that. 

[kittyknowsthings]

A Nice and Accurate Timeline of the Apocalypse (and its Aftermath)

As shown on the Good Omens TV show

Happy birthday to me, a gift for myself and the entire Good Omens fandom.

MONDAY

Hastur and Ligur check on the Hellhound

Warlock and his mother argue about his birthday party while Aziraphale and Crowley watch.

Crowley suggests Aziraphale could kill Warlock. Aziraphale suggests they go to the birthday party instead.

WEDNESDAY

Warlock's (and Adam's) 11th birthday

3 pm - Hastur and Ligur let out the Hellhound

Sufficient time later for a thorough cake fight:

Aziraphale and Crowley have to admit they've got the wrong boy since the Hellhound, who should be there by now, is not showing up.

(The Hellhound had to get to Tadfield instead of London, it's a bit of a trip, I suppose, since it must be some time later when:) The Hellhound arrives in Hogback Wood between 3pm and 5:00pm, assuming Agnes Nutter and Deirdre Young define teatime the same, but with definitely enough time for

Crowley (back in his usual outfit) and Aziraphale (who had time to get changed and wash the cake off) to have decided to have a drink over their failure at Aziraphale's bookshop (where they have returned, presumably by car, though to be fair, the Ambassador's residence to Soho, which is about 3 miles, at Crowley's typical speed is a matter of a couple of minutes, really) when Crowley announces the Hellhound has been named

Newton is fired, meets Shadwell, is told to show up at his place at 11 o'clock the day after

Anathema is implied to arrive in the UK either Wednesday or Thursday, but a bit difficult to nail down - did they show it chronologically, in which case Anathema arrived before Newton meets Shadwell, or did they alternate the scenes to juxtapose Anathema and Newton more clearly, but Anathema's outfit, make-up and hairstyle are still the same when we see her move into the cottage on Thursday

THURSDAY

Gabriel and Sandalphon show up on Aziraphale's shop to corner him

(The scriptbook implies Crowley stayed at the shop through the night and is only now sneaking out, nearly caught by the Archangels, but it wasn't shown, so follow your bliss.)

Hastur and Ligur check in with Crowley and say their "operatives in the State Department" have arranged for the boy to be flown to the Middle East

The Postman delivers the Sword

Anathema moves into Jasmine Cottage in Tadfield and gets to work

Crowley threatens his plants

Aziraphale is on the phone with someone who wants to buy the Nice and Accurate Prophecies of Agnes Nutter

Newton comes to Shadwell's and is initiated so we can assume it is now 11 o'clock

Aziraphale calls Crowley with the idea to check the convent, they take the Bentley together 

(If we're assuming 90 mph is Crowley's standard speed, and Tadfield is in about the middle of Oxfordshire, we can assume it took them about 40 minutes. So, either they left later, or Crowley actually bothered to slow down on occassion.)

Anathema meets the Them while scrying for the Antichrist

Aziraphale and Crowley meet Mary Hodges, interrogate her, and ignore the police blockade to leave the former convent at sunset

Shortly after, Anathema is scrying by yet a third method (poor girl)

Anathema's bike and Crowley's Bentley collide, they give her a ride

by the time they arrive at Jasmine cottage, it is fully dark

Anathema has a video chat with her mom

Aziraphale and crowley discuss the possibility of asking a human for help with locating the antichrist over cake

Adam is starting to be reached out to when asleep by infernal forces

Back in front of the bookshop, Aziraphale finds the book and blows off Crowley to read it

FRIDAY Crowley calls Aziraphale to check in

If we are assuming Aziraphale's office clock is correct, it is about 6:45 am when he calls the Young's home phone, the Young parents are having breakfast, and Adam is training Dog

Aziraphale attempts to script an explanation to Gabriel

Anathema invites Adam in

Crowley meets with Shadwell

Aziraphale meets with the Archangels and realizes they have no intention of averting the war, Michael states "The other side are currently transporting [Warlock] to the plains of Megiddo"

Aziraphale claims, to the Archangels, not to be sure about the Antichrist's location even though we saw his notes on the matter include his address

Aziraphale calls in Shadwell, who ignores Newton's quite accurate recognition of the oddness of Oxfordshire's weather

The scales are delivered to Famine

At about 7pm, Crowley calls Aziraphale and suggests the meeting at the Bandstand in "15 minutes"

(When they are actually meeting, it's sunset, but given filming schedules and stuff, I will leave it to you if you decide Aziraphale is really late or the sunset is just early)

During the night, Adam starts actively affecting reality

SATURDAY

Aziraphale intercepts Gabriel jogging at Battersea Park

Michael presents pictures and gets Gabriel's tacit permission to check in downstairs about Aziraphale and Crowley and calls Ligur

Crowley goes over possible escape locations 

Lesley delivers the crown to Pollution (the sun is still rising) and the message that it's time to Death

Newton gets sworn in by Shadwell and sent off to Tadfield, he has the accident Ligur talks to Hastur who is supposed to be leaving for Megiddo about his suspicions of Crowley, they decide to find proof

Hastur gets to Megiddo

Anathema is well-prepared for Newton's arrival

5 hours and 48 minutes to the end of the World

Newton wakes up

The Them separate for lunch, agreeing to meet up again after

Warlock is at Megiddo Hastur confronts Crowley, who was having  a pity party at a cinema

Anathema catches Newt up, it's about 13:15, and "about 4 hours and 15 minutes" to the apocalypse

Crowley tries again to convince Aziraphale to come with him, fails 

Sets up the holy water booby trap

Crowley melts Ligur

Aziraphale appears to have taken a short walk to clear his head, as he is on his way back to the bookshop when he is accosted by the Archangels and the horn is sounded

Adam is starting to really scare his friends

13:30

Anathema and Newton are about to leave, but are stopped by a storm

They start making out under the bed

When the pin in the map starts sizzling, Shadwell realizes he may have sent Newton into danger, and Tracey convinces him to go after him, but Shadwell refuses her money and instead resolves to ask Aziraphale for an Advance

Newton has scruples and asks if he shouldn't buy anathema dinner first, but she quickly dissuades him

Aziraphale contacts Heaven in a last-ditch attempt to ask Her for help, the Metatron quashes his last hopes of Heaven's assistance

Shadwell goes to Aziraphale's shop, sees the late end of the Metatron bit through the letter flap,

Aziraphale calls Crowley but Crowley hangs up on him to deal with Hastur.

Shadwell picks the lock

and Aziraphale, trying to keep Shadwell safe, accidentally steps into the circle, discorporating himself.

Shadwell slams the door on his hasty way out, shaking the ground hard enough to kick over one of the candles in the communication circle setting the shop on fire.

Parallel to this, Crowley finished dealing with Hastur and makes his way to Aziraphale

14:30

Crowley, on his way to Aziraphale's shop, tries to call Aziraphale,

the store is already very on fire

Crowley goes in and tries to find Aziraphale, rescues the book

Adam announces his "new" friends - the horsemen - will be together soon and are on their way

Shadwell arrives back home and is put to bed by Madam Tracey

Aziraphale argues with the Quartermaster and decides to go back to Earth without a body if he has to

4 pm -

Anathema is getting dressed again

Crowley has gotten really quite drunk, having downed an entire bottle of Talisker and asking the bartender for a second by this point

Aziraphale finds him at the bar

The Seance starts

The Horsemen meet up at the café

Aziraphale crashes the Séance and quickly wraps it up so he can get Tracey up to speed

1 hour and 43 minutes to the apocalypse

Crowley is stuck in the traffic jam due to the M25

Shadwell wakes up, Madame Tracey and Aziraphale make him tea

The M25 lights up with Crowley still inside

Lisa from the call center accidentally frees Hastur, who thanks her by eating her and her colleagues

Aziraphale recruits Shadwell, who packs the Thunder Gun

Hastur appears in the car, prompting him to brave the fire out of sheer spite

Adam chases away Dog and the Them, whose rejection makes him snap back to himself. They resolve to stop what Adam started, and to "meet back in 5 minutes"

Anathema and Newt figure out they have to go to the airbase

Aziraphale makes the scooter fly

The Horsemen arrive through the official entrance, pretending to be a surprise inspection

Anathema and Newt sneak in through a hole in the fence a fallen tree has made

Adam and the Them meet up again

31 minutes to the end of the world

RP Tyler delays the Them 

The Horsemen take over the base, starting ... everything, basically

17 minutes to the Apocalypse

after asking RP Tyler for directions, Crowley hurries

The Scooter reaches the airbase

Aziraphale argues with the airbase

Crowley arrives making his heroic entrance

(of course Adam and his friends do the real work)

The Bentley explodes

Aziraphale sends off the guard off while Crowley is having a moment

Crowley takes care of the next load of soldiers

When the Sergeant chickens out, Aziraphale attempts to use the gun on Adam, but Tracey stops him

Pepper, Brian and Wensleydale take out War, Pollution and Famine

Newt breaks the system by trying to fix it 

Adam confronts Death

Anathema and Newt walk on

Crowley returns the book

Aziraphale receives the prophecy

Gabriel and Beelzebub arrive

Aziraphale and Crowley rules-lawyer them into cancelling the war

Satan shows up

Aziraphale threatens Crowley to never talk to him again, so Crowley stops time, giving Adam enough time to think

Adam rejects Satan, declaring that that is not his father, so Arthur Young appears

After Nightfall, Aziraphale and Crowley wait for the bus, sharing a bottle of wine

Lesley picks up the horsemen's items

Aziraphale and Crowley take each other's hand as they sit down in the bus

SUNDAY

Crowley, already in Aziraphale's body, investigates the restored bookshop

Aziraphale, in Crowley's appearance, is happy to find the Bentley restored

Anathema and Newton wake up together

Crowley and Aziraphale meet at the park and are abducted for each other's trials.

Madame Tracey and Sergeant Shadwell agree to retire together

Agnes has the next book delivered

Anathema decides to burn it

The Them check in on Adam, who is sure he'll be grounded for "years and years", but his parents will have forgotten by tomorrow - his powers to affect reality do not seem entirely gone.

Summer is ending.

Crowley and Aziraphale are sitting on a park bank, they swap back and agree to go to Lunch

They dine at the Ritz to romantic music and toast To the World.

[stargazing-serpent]

I agree on everything said about Crowley here, and mostly with what you said about Aziraphale, but I feel it's a little more complicated when it comes to him.

Aziraphale does hand Eve the flaming sword in Eden, the gift to protect herself out there solely because she was "having a bad day/ expecting already and there are vicious animals out there" - which in itself was an act of selflessness (knowing he could get into trouble for it, and it's bothering him that he could) and caring. BUT. Aziraphale's actions are - even if protective - not really thought through. They're impulses.

He hands the sword to Adam and Eve and about two seconds later, they kill the first animal with it (in self-defence, but still).

He strives to save Elspeth's soul (in the script snippet Neil postet he says it in the graveyard, "This can't be good for her soul. [...] I'm going to help her." without ever thinking through why Elspeth is opening graves to steal rotting corpses, even after having seen the conditions she's living in with her pal. Not just regarding the piss-drenched alley but the DANGERS living there will entail for everyone and especially for two young women. And proceeding to tell Morag, with a smile, that yes, Elspeth will go to Hell (he's so happy about Morag's perceived Good moral compass that the prospect of her pal going to Hell somehow doesn't even bother him).

He decides to protect Gabriel which in itself is selfless - but the cost is not only endangering himself but Crowley, too, crossing his boundaries and putting him in a very real danger without even a second thought then demanding an apology from Crowley for setting said very relatable, sensible boundary.

Aziraphale doesn't think things through - and it's Crowley who swoops in to save everyone from the mess Aziraphale created. The ball, the bodysnatchers (it's not just Crowley saving Elspeth's life AND soul in the end, still having to convince Aziraphale after everything to give her the money, but trying to save the first situation when Aziraphale turns the corpse to soup and Crowley proposes to Mr Dalrymple to fish out the teeth and sell then because people actually did pay good money for a nice set of gnashers etc).

And Aziraphale's carelessness weaves through the rest of the story like a red string, too: (the following isn't on screen but in the scriptbook) at Adam's birthday party, Aziraphale accidentally creates chaos in which the gun of one of the security guys falls into the hands of the kids and a shooting starts, which Aziraphale solves by turning all the guns into water guns - but when they're back in the car, they hear an actual gunshot which Aziraphale comments with "Oh, sugar. I forgot one." A very oopsie-daisy moment for a person probably having been shot because of his carelessness, and he proceeds with his day as if it didn't even happen. Which is a nice mirror to Crowley's paintball prank in which he actually not only pokes fun of human nature in a very clever way, of the Ineffable Plan and God in a very clever way, and of Aziraphale's pro-gun stance proving that upon given a gun humans will start shooting each other which ALSO pretty nicely ties in with Aziraphale handing the flaming sword to humans and thus helping to create War (I mean, it's his sword they're wielding). And while Crowley gives these people a scare, probably even teaching them a valuable lesson in the process to reflect upon one's own readiness to pull a trigger against a colleague who probably never did much more than stealing your joghurt from the fridge (this one point is purely speculation, obviously), he makes absolutely sure that nobody is going to get hurt. That everyone will have miraculous escapes. That's the nature of Crowley's pranks - they're harmless. They create chaos and minor inconveniences and how humans react to them is on them, but Crowley makes sure no harm is done.

We see it in the scenes with the dove and the duck, as well. Aziraphale kills that dove by accident, because he was careless (and it couldn't have been a peaceful death either, smothered in the angel's sleeve) and upon realizing it...still doesn't care. In the scriptbook (and the book) it's Crowley who resurrects the dove (Neil said it would have been that way on screen too but they needed to switch it for practical reasons regarding the position of the two), and since it's obvious Aziraphale doesn't even care he killed the dove ("It's late." - "Comes from putting it up your sleeve." - "No. The Hellhound. It's late." - Crowley resurrects the dove) it's evident he does it because he cares, not for Aziraphale. Sure, Crowley does kill that duck in St James Park, but it's confirmed that it happened absentmindedly and that he's grown to genuinely care about duck health in season 2, so that one's even, but he also risks his neck, going against a direct order, and saves the goats. Pointing out that they were innocent, too, to Sitis while Aziraphale in Heaven upon hearing all the geese and sheep and goats of Job will be killed only grows alarmed when he hears the kids, too, are on that list. No reaction about the animals, whatsoever.

Not to mention he's quite the hypocrite, lying to everyone all teh time then telling Crowley "You're a demon, of course you'd lie!".

I think with Aziraphale, apart from the utter carelessness he displays towards everyone, even Crowley a lot of times, there are two more factors coming into play.

The first one is that his perception of self, the entirety of his identity, hinges on the very black-and-white way he views the world: I'm an angel=I'm good because angels=good, Crowley is a demon=he's evil, because demons=evil. That concept of self and his entire belief system is about as sturdy as a house of cards in a hurricane but also for him creates the mindset of "I don't need to reflect on myself and my actions because I'm an angel so I'm good so everything I do is good too". He parrots everything Heaven says. It starts in Eden ("Well, what you did with the apple must have been bad because you're a demon so you can't do good") and it doesn't stop.

And secondly, the reason for his want to help. Because he does like doing good. There are two kinds of altruism we talk about in psychology: the actual altruism, and the one that makes people help others for the selfish reason of feeling good about themselves. Crowley falls into the first category: he does the right thing, he helps and protects the goats, the kids, Sitis, Elspeth, the world etc risking punishment over and over again because it's the right thing to do and he wants to do it. He hates being praised for it. Yes, a lot of that is rooted in the fact that being praised for a good deed might have him end up in a torture chamber in Hell - as is canonically stated in the book as well as the show - but the fact that he does all this stuff anyways despite the risk shows there's no selfish reason for it.

Aziraphale...falls into the latter category. The best proof of that is that he always wants to tell someone when he did a Good Deed. Heaven, Crowley. It's sweet, but it confirms that a lot of the smaller deeds Aziraphale does are things he does to feel good about himself and to confirm that he's GoodTM. There are exceptions of true altruism, of course - Adam and Eve, Gabriel, saving the world after all, which does show that he cares, even if, like I pointed out, the fallout of some of these good deeds for others can are harmful.

And all the time, when something needs to be done that threatens Aziraphale's view of "I'm Good!", he wants Crowley to do it. Here are only a few of the myriad of examples:

The bandstand: "You need to kill the Antichrist, Crowley, so Heaven doesn't have blood on its hands and either way, I'm a great deal holier-than-thou because that's the point."

Tadfield Airbase: "You need to take care of that armed guard because I'm the good one, I can't do the dirty work" (this one is an even more direct quote).

"Use the hypno-thingy on Mr Dalrymple so I can convince him to stop buying bodies" then proceeding to Jedi-Mind-Control people into dancing and censoring themselves in the things Aziraphale deems inadequate and chiding Crowley for using the hypno-thingy to gain information to stop the end of the world (yes, using the hypno-thingy is not okay either way, but there are shades of grey and I feel Crowley moves in the lighter shades of grey and Aziraphale in the VERY dark ones and being a hypocrite about it)

You already phrased it perfectly:

Aziraphale was guarding Eden and that is where he sees himself still. Above and separated from humanity, only interacting with them to do God's bidding or what he sees as part of his "role" as an angel.

We see that in the smallest things. In Edinburgh, for example, when Aziraphale stands and stays a few feet away from the piss-drenched patch that's Elspeth and Wee Morag's home, Crowley actually sits down with them.

What's at stake for Aziraphale when he hopefully, finally tears down this black-and-white way he sees the world - which he has to in order to grow and become what Crowley needs him to be for this relationship to work - is his own sense of self and identity because if angels aren't inherently good, there will be a lot of reflection on his own character and actions neccessary. There won't be that protective shield of "whatever I do is good because I'm an angel".

Aziraphale is careless, and selfish, but he is also brave and he has the capability to grow, and learn, and do better - and for that to happen, he needs to put the "Angel=Good=I can do no wrong" attitude to rest because then he'll be able to actually recognize his mistakes and do better, because the capacity to be better is there. Him wanting to protect Gabriel, the enemy, and giving away the sword to give a pregnant, scared woman the chance to protect herself, and agreeing to save the world after all, show that he can grow and be better. That's why I still love Aziraphale despite all his flaws.

Crowley has been trying to do exactly that for six thousand years, gently poking and prodding that bubble Aziraphale is keeping himself in, but I don't think gentleness is the way to go. The separation, Aziraphale's time in Heaven, will do the trick.

we really do not talk enough about the fact that a) aziraphale really did not care about stopping the apocalypse and b) crowley is right on the verge of a mental breakdown all day every day

a few examples from the script book (my beloved <333)

[rigelmejo]

December Goals Update

Time to round up the stuff I got done! This one is a big update, despite both accomplishments and this january’s goals being quite straightforward this time. ^-^)/

I already know - I ended up focusing on one very specific goal, and made significant progress JUST in that. And... if I do what I am PLANNING for January... then hopefully I’ll make more progress. But lol, we’ll see. We know how much I suck at sticking to my plans >o>

Things accomplished:

Chinese novel chapters read in December: 20 (Tian Ya Ke - 19, aka read about 24% of the novel this past month! This was the big goal I ended up focusing on - I want to finish reading through my first full novel this year! I did a majority of those chapters in the last 2 weeks, so if I get motivated again, I might really reach this goal. We’ll see. I REALLY do want to break the milestone of getting through one complete novel soon, and it being a priest one would be icing on the cake. Reading method - intensively, using Pleco Reader, looking up all unknown words. I picked up a significant amount of words so far, but it’s still a big challenge lol).

Chapters I studied with Listening-Reading Method: 8 (Most of these were Tian Ya Ke, and dmbj 2. I ended up getting really into reading though, and skipping this step later on as it slowed down my reading time. This January, I would like to do l-r method MORE, because I’ve finally got Guardian all prepped to do that novel with it. I’d love to do l-r method all the way through the novel guardian... I hope I manage it... avenuex did a beautiful audiobook for it, and I’d love to work through it. The only demotivating factor? l-r method takes a big time dedication - 5-10 minutes to read a chapter in english, 20 minutes to listen to the chapter while looking at the english text, 20 minutes to listen to the chapter while looking at the chinese text... so around 50 minutes to do a single chapter. And guardian has 106+ chapters ToT. That said, imagine how improved my listening skills would be after roughly 88* hours of listening to chinese I can mostly comprehend? Considering just a handful hours of l-r method has already bumped my listening skills up noticeably to me. In addition to Guardian, I would very much like to do l-r method with Silent Reading as an excuse to re-read the novel and listen to the audiobook - which is around 66 free chapters available at least. I figure l-r method with priest novels, in combo with reading priest novels like Tian Ya Ke, will help with picking up vocabulary in reading and listening a bit. Plus, I plan to do l-r method in the order: listen to english, then listen to chinese, which tends to help me pick up more reading comprehension better than the reverse order.)

Chinese audio listened to: 14 (a surprisingly large number? I don’t remember doing this much lol? I think some of this is me listening to dmbj audios, and some was other chinese things, and a tiny bit was restarting the spoonful chinese audio. Again, I think listening more has been helping out a lot)

shows watched in only chinese: roughly 2 (I watched a bit of a few eps of border town prodigal, some tlt3 raws, some short vids, half of anti fraud league ep 1, half of some spy show, basically i was not in a focused mood lol)

Personal goals met:

finally got my stomach to stop hurting! i guess it wanted less carbs. also debloated 10 lbs so i guess its happier lol. still not sure what else it wants from me.

started writing a personal story, period piece with pirates and bisexual messes and i’m quite excited tbh. So now this story, and Nanase, are active original wips

handled doctor stuff wooh! 

read more of my cpstd book and made more comprehensive plans on what to do when i get emotional flashbacks - and i think the prep work has been really helpful so far, i’m hopeful my lowered stress now is a part of that lol

formatted 2 books! WOOH! in process of formatting 2 more, and learning how the fuck to do a parallel text - anyone know how??? I’m having a nightmare, I’d love to do left page english right page chinese, but all I’m finding are how to use columns to do dual texts beside each other on the same page. Which is much more cramped to read... but I suppose I can live with it if it’s the only option I have.

Goals for January will be pretty straightforward to be honest. I am in a very reading-focused mood. (I mean we’ll see how long that lasts, ToT since my attention jumps randomly, but I’ve got everything Prepped to lean heavy into reading for my studying for the foreseeable future). I plan to focus on reading as my main study method, to cover listening and reading and picking up vocabulary/hanzi. Optionally, I might listen to chinese audio in the background to further help with listening/vocabulary (like Chinese Spoonfed Audio, or audiobooks), or I might watch a show in chinese (whether I do this completely depends on if I feel like it). 

Later on in the year, if reading is getting easier - then long term, I think I’ll want to go back to Alan Hoenig’s Chinese Characters book and read through it for a solid foundation to fill in gaps, read my chinese grammar books for same reason, use my pronunciation app... and then dive into both language exchange apps and tutors more firmly for actual writing and speaking and interacting with others. Basically, long term, I’d like to work on filling in my gaps and correcting any mistakes I haven’t figured out, then work on production more which will be significantly weaker skills by then. But in the immediate, I want to just focus on what I enjoy - reading - and use it to pick up as many words as possible. 

Goals for January:

Continue reading Tian Ya Ke. Work on reading through my first complete novel in chinese. Continue counting chapters read, as I might look at a few novels - but sincerely, I WANT to focus on one book so Tian Ya Ke is the GOAL. I will be quite happy if I can get the book to 50% read by the end of this month, but we’ll see... and quite honestly I’ll be floored if I get to 100% within the month - but if it gets easier as I pick up more words, anything’s possible. Ideally, I would like to l-r method a few chapters. I do think it speeds up my reading speed because it makes me keep up with the narration, and it also helps me cement new words into my memory better. I remember words better when I hear them. However like - chapters tend to take me 40 minutes to read, and l-r method takes usually 15-20 minutes because of how dense priest’s chapters are. So... l-r method chapters take 1 hour a piece... if I get into a reading mood, I’ll ultimately probably just primarily focus on the reading.

Secondary goal, not as important, I will start this if desired but it might wait until February+. Listen-Read Method Guardian, until I’ve gotten through the entire novel. I finally have all the translations gathered up, I’ve got my chinese copy of the novel, and avenuex’s audiobook. I have everything ready to simply start. However, as mentioned, this is a time heavy activity. I do think it will be very helpful for improving my listening skills, and to a degree also - helping retain my reading skills, push my reading speed up a little, and maybe help me pick up some new words. I think it will be a very compatible activity with goal 1, or a nice follow up activity to goal 1. Also it is the DREAM, as that novel is what pushed me to start learning chinese initially... so I am very excited to read through it. Ideally, I start this activity AFTER Tian Ya Ke, and I do a full readthrough of the chapters like: read in english, audio with english, audio with chinese, read intensively in chinese. Basically, I would love to include a full intensive read through of Zhen Hun at the same time I’m l-r method’ing it. However that will be Even more time sapping, so that’s not necessarily gonna happen unless my reading speed for priest novels is a little better after Tian Ya Ke. I need to get through the chapters read in chinese in closer to 20 minutes instead of the current 40 minutes it takes me. 

Optional. Listen to chinese when I can - in the background like Chinese Spoonfed, audio books, audio dramas, and by watching shows in only chinese. If I have time, and I feel like doing these, I will. It’s easy to add doing this to my day, so when I remember to do them, they’re helpful. 

Main Goal for January - continue reading Tian Ya Ke. <3

Once that’s completed, next main goal - Listen-Read Method with Guardian. 

See? Really extremely straightforward goal for January. Simply keep reading! I think the more I read, the easier it will get, the faster it will get, and the quicker I’ll be able to get through a LOT of the novels I want to check out. So... I have to start doing it, if I intend to get better.

Unrelated notes:

I’ve gotten really into Drakengard 3 lately. Which by extension, means really into Nier Automata again, Nier (Nier Replicant remaster is releasing and I am getting the version with the scriptbooks and am intensely excited), and Drakengard. Yoko Taro’s wild concepts and fascinating characterizations and way of telling stories has sucked me in again. And I am reminded how very much eventually learning to read Japanese IS still a long term goal of mine. I’m back to playing like 3 games right now I could so easily be practicing my japanese with... if I remembered any japanese ToT. It’s like at the edges of my brain... I remember the hiragana and katakana after a minute or two... the kanji I’ve completely forgotten, but since I know a lot of the meanings from chinese now, I can often parse out the meaning of sentences in manga I’ve got... I can’t remember the particles off the top of my head or when I listen, but when I read their meaning clicks again fast... I know that when I go back, its just a matter of a crash course and then diving in again. And wow am I eager. But I know myself, and japanese is gonna take a WHILE. And chinese is currently taking a LOT of dedication, I don’t even really have time to work on my french reading lol. So I would really prefer to get at least another year in chinese before even trying to start studying japanese again. (And realistically 2-3 more years of chinese, because I genuinely think a solid basis in speaking skills/basic listening skills, and generally Competent webnovel reading skills I want before I stop actively studying chinese... because by that time I’ll want to keep reading/listening to chinese for pleasure, chatting when needed, and if I stop studying before that point I know I personally will just end up needing to relearn some big chunks. I also think if I try to go back to japanese before that point, I will have major issues confusing the two when reading. My japanese was upper-beginner when I quit, and when I started chinese I sped past that point in chinese to the point pretty quickly chinese blocked out what japanese i knew and it made japanese reading easier but only to a point. My chinese I’d put at ‘beginner’ still?? But compared to my japanese its significantly farther - in chinese I can currently read manhua without a dictionary and get enough to translate most of it myself, and read simpler novels and get most of it, and read more complex novels and get the gist main idea even if its a slog. 

With japanese? Ahahahahahah! I was able to read the very simplest of manga and only get the very bare main idea gist, could NOT even comprehend any novel, and could play a video game on MEMORY of what i knew the context was, only picking out quite basic words. However, even though my chinese has gotten a fair bit further... I want it even further before I stop actively studying it so much. I want it to the point its where my french reading level was at about 2.5 years into french (or honestly, a bit Better than my french was tbh). I want my chinese to be to the point, where I recognize enough hanzi that I can guess the meaning of some new words, that I can look up most new words with with pinyin because i at Least know the pinyin for most hanzi i see, and where in most not-too-difficult webnovels i read, I know enough of the words, that i can comfortably follow the gist of the main plot without too much strain even if i miss details. so at that point, I’ll still likely want to build up my vocabulary more - so that i can learn to translate, and so that i can pick up details easier, and read faster. But I’ll at least be at a point where i can easily maintain the skills i have and improve them a bit naturally by just continuing to read. I mean... realistically even, I should try to keep studying chinese a lot at that point... I really, really want to be able to read chinese novels. But that’s probably the minimum at which I’d feel quite comfortable focusing on another language intensively.

With japanese, I already have a study plan too! A study plan I know works for me! It’ll be so simple! Parts 1-4 would be structured study, parts marked + would be options to move onto, and parts marked * would be activities that could be done concurrently. 

The japanese study plan, whatever year I finally can get to it:

Listen to Japanese Audio Lessons (japaneseaudiolessons.com). I did this before, and it helped my listening comprehension/vocabulary pick up so much.

Read Learn to Read in Japanese Vol I, II, III (by the same people). I loved these books back when I started them, the best mnemonics that I’d found for myself to pick up the kanji - easiest way for me to pick them up without brute forcing it.

(concurrently with above) go through Nukemarines LLJ memrise decks. Literally, just CRAM through those. I did that at the 2+ year mark for japanese, and that was REALLY when I was finally able to start reading and trying video games, so it clearly was what worked for me.

Read my book Read Japanese. Haven’t tried this yet, but it looks like a good place to progress, This would be done after step 1+2, either concurrently with Nukemarine or after Nukemarine depending on how much is done. Just cram Through this book since it’s got a lot of basics in the beginning. Its in the same structure as my DeFrancis Chinese Readers and very well suited to my learning style.

Read my Tuttle Read Japanese book. More difficult, goes into like 2000 kanji, a ton of vocab, and most people who read this said afterward reading regular japanese material was quite doable.

+If my Nukemarine deck is completed - move onto one of my japanese decks with more words, or Clozemaster Japanese sentences.

+If my japanese audio lessons are completed - move onto one of my other japanese audio collections like the japanese pimsleur that was condensed, or that website with a ton of condensed audio of episodes (https://www.paliss.com/). Or youtube channels like Game Gengo (https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLT12i1gB38HG1olutL08nID8gaGWHZS4v). 

+at the point Nukemarine’s deck is done, Listening-Reading method with japanese novels is an option. 

+at the point I’m done with all Read Japanese books, may read through some other japanese textbooks I have, starting with: Japanese Particles and Common Sentence Structures, Kodansha Kanji Learner’s Guide. 

*Find a japanese reader equivalent to Pleco (check subreddit r/learnjapanese, r/refold, r/massimmersionapproach). Start reading whatever japanese novels I want. Which knowing me, will probably be light novels, maybe some visual novels, and video game related materials. *Ideally this step would be done last, but knowing me, it’ll be done whenever i feel like starting - could be attempted as early as midway through the Nukemarine decks.

*Listen to japanese - so many options here, realistically it would be me playing video games in japanese, watching jdramas, watching/listening to spinoff material of stories I like like the YorHa stage plays etc. Can be attempted as early as midway through Nukemarine decks.

*reading manga could be anywhere in this list, although I don’t do it much anymore. But I was just getting to being able to try this last time I was studying japanese, so I could start up again whenever. Only negative, I would say, is I think my improvement suffered back then because I was too scared to try reading actual novels. So novels are prioritized as reading material. It would be nice to help translate some mangas though - so there’s an option.

*maybe try translating some japanese things i have interest in, at a late point.

I think maybe, the biggest thing studying chinese has taught me about how i learn languages, is that I improve faster when challenged. I learn better when challenged. I tried to read Chinese novels from the first few months (not well, but i tried lol), I watched chinese dramas from day one, and I tried to watch chinese shows only in chinese from month 5 onward. From month 5 onward I started trying to talk/write with people (knowing maybe 400 words at first, quickly bumping up to 1000 words in a month cause of just needing it, so it definitely helped me). And when I started listening to audio more, my listening skill noticeably improved within a few months. As a result, my chinese in a little over a year is taking much less time to improve then I projected it was going to (I figured the progress I’ve made so far, was going to take 3-4 years). Whereas with japanese, I didn’t try to start reading or playing video games or listening a lot until 2 years into studying... and I also didn’t make any noticeable improvement until then. So going into any language study moving forward, I’ll do more to challenge myself earlier. Since clearly its helpful to me.