#Neil never tells us the important details

[fuckyeahgoodomens]

The Season 2 Poster Details

From top to bottom :)

This is a Buddy Holly song Everyday which was originally supposed to be the Good Omens theme :)

Neil talks about it in the Introduction to the Script Book: “In the scripts, Buddy Holly’s song ‘Every Day’ runs through the whole like a thread. It was something that Terry had suggested in 1991, and it was there in the edit. Our composer, David Arnold, created several different versions of ‘Every Day’ to run over the end credits. And then he sent us his Good Omens theme, and it was the Good Omens theme. Then Peter Anderson made the most remarkable animated opening credits to the Good Omens theme, and we realised that ‘Every Day’ didn’t really make any sense any longer, and, reluctantly, let it go. It’s here, though. You can hum it.”

And there is also the Buddy Holly Everyday record! :)

Book The Crow Road by Iain Banks. The novel describes Prentice McHoan's preoccupation with death, sex, his relationship with his father, unrequited love, sibling rivalry, a missing uncle, cars, alcohol and other intoxicants, and God, against the background of the Scottish landscape

Book Lord Jim by Joseph Conrad. An early and primary event in the story is the abandonment of a passenger ship in distress by its crew, including a young British seaman named Jim. He is publicly censured for this action and the novel follows his later attempts at coming to terms with himself and his past and seeking redemption and acceptance.

Important themes in Lord Jim include the consequences of a single, poor decision, the indifference of the universe, and the inability to know oneself or others.

There is book The Body Snatcher by Robert Louis Stevenson. Its characters were based on criminals in the employ of real-life surgeon Robert Knox (1791–1862) around the time of the notorious Burke and Hare murders (1828). Neil said: Oddly enough, episode 3 will take us to a little stint of body snatching in the era.

There is Catch-22 book by Joseph Heller that coined the term Catch-22: situation from which an individual cannot escape because of contradictory rules or limitations.

Is there only one hand or are there two? :) EIther 6 ;), or 6:30 :).

Through the window we can see the coffeeshop Give Me Coffe or Give Me Death where Nina works! :)

Azi is wearing his nifty glasses :).

Crowley is wearing his new glasses, they are RIGARDS X UMA WANG - THE STONE ECLIPSE (VINTAGE BLACK/BLACK STONES) - $435

There is the Holy Bible Aziraphale used in Season 1 :)

There seems to be a broken phone :).

The cakes behind Aziraphale are Eccles cakes :).

Azi is reading A Tale of Two Cities by Charles Dickens published in 1859, set in London and Paris before and during the French Revolution. The novel tells the story of the French Doctor Manette, his 18-year-long imprisonment in the Bastille in Paris, and his release to live in London with his daughter Lucie whom he had never met. The story is set against the conditions that led up to the French Revolution and the Reign of Terror. 

Another book there is Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen - Neil said said that we will learn a lot about Jane Austin we didn’t know before.

And finally the Treasure Island book by - again :) - Robert Louis Stevenson, an adventure novel with pirates.

There are three geckos cuties. Who are they? Pets? Is Ligur haunting the bookshop? Who knows :).

A mysterious pamphlet, 'The Resurrectionists’ leaflet. (unofficial spoiler :)).

Also there is an old camera... mmm 🤔 Did Azi made some photos (of what? Him and Crowley, ducks? :)) Will we see them? :)

Their positions is an homage to the book covers! :)(x)

Will update this as fandom discovers new things! :)❤

[andsomemaniacgotridofthewheel]

Dear Good Omens fandom friends,

can we please agree to keep our sand in our sandbox?

We have a great sandbox. It's big and full of people building castles and villages and roads and stuff. Some of that is big and complicated and detail-oriented, some of it is strange and weird and funny, some if it is off-the-rails in any and all senses of the word. All of it is lovely. Some of it tries to rebuild Neil Gaiman's sandcastle as faithful as possible, either to build onto it or to try and find out where the secret rooms might be hidden. Some of it looks a lot like his but has its own little turrets and courtyards and gardens added everywhere. Some of it looks completely different and doesn't try to hide it. Some of it isn't even meant to be taken seriously and just exists to make people laugh. But there is so much of it that everybody can find something for themselves; and if we don't we just find a free space and start shifting sand ourselves.

Neil Gaiman has his own sandbox. He has built something brilliant and beautiful in it, and he is currently busy building another storey onto it. He doesn't want anybody to see the new part before it is finished, and I know that sometimes the excitement of finally wanting to see it is hard to bear.

But that is why we have our sandbox. To make our own stuff until he reveals the rest of that sandcastle we all love so much. To pass the time, to have fun with it, to meet new people and find more brilliant little sandcastles. Never again will there be as much creativity, as much activity, as many people around in this sandbox than there is now, in the time before the last bit of his castle is revealed. I am sure most of us will be delighted and surprised at what he will have created. Some will be disappointed because they were expecting his sandcastle to look different, some will be disappointed because they saw a castle in our sandbox they liked much more, but most will be delighted because after all we came up with he will still have managed to surprise us.

Our sandbox. His sandbox.

The two are separated for a reason.

Because if you keep throwing sand into his box to get his attention, or keep trying to get a good look at what he is doing over there, or keep yelling at him to look over to ours and tell you which one looks like the one he is trying to make, or which one is the best, or how stupid one of the others looks (last one would also make you a dick), you are quite simply risking the new part of his sandcastle to collapse. Or for him to have to remake it in a way he didn't plan to, or simply dislikes, or that we will all dislike.

And just because he is glad we are enjoying ourselves and proud that his work inspired us to create all these things, doesn't mean he wants to see (all of) it. Some things he definitely wouldn't want to see; other things the creators definitely don't want him to see.

I'm proud of our sandbox. It's huge. It's brilliant. It's creative. It's collaborative. And it's ours.

Have fun in it. But keep it apart from his. Keep out of his. And keep him out of ours. Stop trying to drag him over. He has stuff to do. Important stuff. Stuff I, for one, am waiting very impatiently for.

And he will never show us the parts of the castle that aren't finished yet, no matter how often you ask. And just because he is making an effort to be funny about it doesn't mean we aren't annoying him when we keep asking.

[nastasya--filippovna]

WHO IS CROWLEY AFTER THE FALL?

so there is a LOT of debate over who Crowley was before The Fall. I have seen a lot of headcanons going around the place saying he was Raphael or Kokabiel or Baraqiel.

I mean this is the Exhibit A for saying that Crowley is Baraqiel. I think NOT.

Because this is a handbook written by demons for demons. The title is literally (if my memory serves me right) a guide to angelic beings that walk the earth. SO Crowley is not That..

Other than the red hair thing, no other physical characteristic matches. This Baraqiel guy sounds like an absolute gremlin. grisly slug, occasionally damp. NOT CROWLEY. I mean she's the most dashing thing around.

NO. #3 It says CROWLEY one line above the name Baraqiel. If Crowley is Baraqiel then why would his demon name appear right under that?????

And I think somewhere Neil Gaiman refuted this theory (I'm not really sure but I think so plz don't come at me with pitchforks if I got it wrong). So.......

But this is all beside the point. What I'm trying to say is that too much has been said about who Crowley was before he fell. There is very little, if not none, that has been said about who he was After.

Some say that he's an insignificant demon or some loser guy in Hell or whatever the equivalent of an angel principality deputy on Earth is.

I BEG TO DIFFER.

He is Important. Just look at the kind of assignments he's given. Original Sin, Major Historical Temptations and Evil Acts, Delivering the Antichrist and bringing about Armageddidn't.

But who is he exactly??????????

So canonically we're never told what Crowley's rank in Hell is. But there are more that enough hints for us to figure that out for ourselves.

But where does one place him when the hierarchy is so complex and varying across different historical and theological sources.

Such as here:

I have been thinking about this and I have two current theories

Crowley is Astaroth

Crowley is The Leviathan

I'll discuss only one in this post. I'll save the other for the next post.

Now book!Omens clearly tells us that Crowley or Crawley is not his real demonic name. For those who haven't read the book this happens when Hastur Lavista and Ligur come to hand over the antichrist to Crowley in the churchyard and as he's about to sign his name as "Crowley" they tell him to sign his real demonic name.

Are you with me?!!!!!

NANNY ASHTORETH!

Why did she use this particular name for her nanny disguise. What if...... what if this IS her real demon name.

A lot of my real life friends are annoyed beyond measure by my constant ranting about etymologies, origin and construction of discourse and epistemology, especially when it comes to presenting my thesis over how all Abrahamic religions and their symbology and iconography is, how do I put it, inspired from pagan religions that they expunged. I mean the concept of angles, the man shaped being with wings that is actually just a ball of fire or eyes or hale discs or sth is a pagan Persian concept.

Back to the matter at hand.

Ashtoreth, Astaroth, Astarte, Ishtar, are all the same name in different dialects and languages. All of these refer to a certain Babylonian goddess. When the People of God probably cleansed off all the infidels they decided to literally demonize their god and name a demon after her. In Milton's Paradise Lost Astaroth is one of the three princes or Grand Dukes of Hell alongside Beelz and Lucifer. If this theory might be true Crowley is a Prince/Grand Duke of Hell.

Now this gets even more interesting. Ashtoreth, Astarte, whatever you may, is a goddess of fertility and is associated with childcare. I mean at this point I just stopped to marvel at the attention to detail that Mr. Gaiman's work hold, the smallest hidden meanings in the storytelling.

Another thing. The Babylonians built these temples called ziggurats to worship Astarte and they looked something like this

and this

they were also known as sky temples.

Because Astaroth was first and foremost the goddess of stars and the Babylonians were stargazers and the temples were constructed as a stairway to heaven to take them closer to the stars and functioned as an observatory at times.

I'm just imagining Crowley turning up in ancient Babylon and with her other-worldly looks, knowledge of the stars and compassion for children they just..... started to worship her.

Before the Christians came and declared them pagans and the rest is history.

Continued in next post for the second theory......

[kimberleyjean]

It's not 'discontinuity', it's just continued elsewhere...

The physical set of good omens is not just a set. It is also a series of clues. As I detailed in my previous good omens meta, the illustrated bible used in the Job flashback actually contains several more images than just the Job story. However, we can only see these images in the bookshop background - they are never shown close up on screen (and that’s why you may have missed them). If you’re not familiar with each of these illustrations please take a quick look at that post before you continue. A word of caution before you jump in - what I am about to share can have significant consequences for the season 2 plot. If you are averse to analyses that reinterpret the narrative of season 2, it might be better to skip this one. You have been warned.

So, in the last post, remember I mentioned how each illustration can be seen in a separate episode? Well, I omitted to include an important piece of information. The “Brazen Serpent” image can actually be seen in BOTH as you can see here: Actual image:

Episode 2, when Aziraphale put's on the record, reads the newspaper clippings and draws Gabriel:

Episode 3, starting around 1:15:

Oh hey, would you listen to that! Both times we are hearing "Everyday" by Buddy Holly. This is the part where I argue my case that things are not as they seem, just as others have already pointed out in excellent meta posts, such as this one:

There are many indications that what we are shown on screen might not be in the right order! Have you ever thought about all those references in season 2 to rearranging books, Aziraphale visiting the Whickber stores in the 'wrong' order, or (most blatantly) Crowley shouting that the demons are “Out of Order!!”. Well, whether you believe me or not, read on, because this is about to get interesting! (or quit now, if you don’t want to know, that’s legitimate too.

So, how do these scenes relate? Well, in S2 we see Aziraphale sitting down at his desk while Everyday is playing and reading newpaper clippings about the mysterious jukebox. He then starts a (quite good) illustration of Gabriel. End Scene. Episode 2 progresses and we see more of Aziraphale on screen. However, let’s jump over to episode 3. At about the 1:15 minute mark, we see the Brazen Serpent displayed and the song playing on the record player from exactly the same spot it left off! The scene progresses with the knock at the door and Muriel arriving. While Muriel and Aziraphale have tea, we can see the book still on this page. These two sections of the story are meant to be back-to-back but yet they were separated by the latter half of episode 2. Believe me, my mind was blown when I found this! So what do you think? Is there any other conclusion we can arrive at that isn’t the scenes being “out of order”? After all, these two scenes are still in the right order, just separated. But what about all the scenes that have been shown BETWEEN these two...? When did they happen? This is not just a continuity error. In my opinion, this is an explicit editing attempt which cuts a scene into two and then arranges it so the audience thinks that they have seen things in the right order. Could it just be only this scene that was split? I doubt it. If we accept that there are more, then we can start looking for other clues of discontinuous scenes in the show - and, let me tell you, I have found a LOT. I've posted about Gabriel's statue before but there are so many others - including road markings, and extra's clothing. If you want to see yet another (and it is hiding in plain sight!) check out my post below about a set of lights!

Thankyou to those whose work has contributed to me falling down the rabbit hole:

@ineffable-detective-agency, @embracing-the-ineffable, @postsforposting, @noneorother, @indigovigilance, @ineffableigh, @the-oaken-muse and many others.

[actual-changeling]

On unhealthy relationship dynamics

A little while ago, I stumbled across a post discussing Aziraphale's character on a meta level, and without knowing the content, I was completely unprepared when one single sentence pushed me from 'uncomfortable but doable' into 'triggered and panicking'. The post itself was triggering from start to finish, but that phrase stood out to me.

Why am I telling you this?

After calming down and thinking about it for a few hours, I realised what exactly my brain had reacted to—victim blaming rhetoric repackaged to fit Aziraphale and Crowley's situation. Victim blaming is, to provide a short summary, the act of putting blame for mistreatment on the victim instead of the perpetrator. It's a concept often used in r/pe discussions, but it can be applied to any abusive or non-abusive situation as long as a power imbalance is created, meaning you have at least one person harming another in whatever shape or form.

If you broaden the definition, you can apply it to more situations, including—and this is where we reach the actual topic—their relationship and the Final Fifteen (F15).

That is exactly what some people have been doing—putting all the blame on Crowley and absolving Aziraphale of any and all responsibility as if it were his fault that Aziraphale broke his heart

Before anyone runs to the comments, let me clarify what I assume will be the FAQ.

no, I do not think Aziraphale is abusive

I do not think that their relationship is abusive either

no, I do not hate Aziraphale

yes, I know what I am talking about

everything I will talk about is largely based on what we as the audience actually see and know, combined with interpretations of the intentional subtext Neil wrote into the show.

I have been actively in this fandom since the second season was released, and I have seen a lot of (hopefully accidental) ableist & generally insensitive takes. These are the ones I see the most and what I personally consider to be important topics of discussion, but the same logic I will be applying to these can be applied to many, many more situations.

Since my meta posts get very long very quickly, I will be posting them in parts and always linking back to the others, plus this one as the masterpost.

Part 1—Nice Is A Four Letter Word

The basic pattern is this:

Aziraphale refers to Crowley with a 'nice' term -> Crowley gets upset and tells him to stop -> Aziraphale hears him but continues anyway.

There are reasons behind Crowley's rejection, and I will go into detail, but I want to make one thing very clear: It does not matter why Crowley asked him to stop. He set a boundary, and Aziraphale repeatedly and intentionally overstepped it; this causes understandable anger and frustration.

Crowley does not owe Aziraphale an explanation, just like you would not owe someone an explanation when you don't want to be called x-term. Mutual respect requires the acceptance of personal boundaries like that, and by breaking them over and over again, Aziraphale tells Crowley that his own wants are more important than Crowley's needs.

In the 1827 Edinburgh flashback, we see the consequences of Crowley doing good/being called good (which are usually connected, meaning if they notice someone is calling Crowley good, he most likely did something to cause that) firsthand, and so does Aziraphale. He gets dragged down to hell and tortured for up to thirty years.

Even before that, Crowley expresses numerous times how hell punishes good deeds, and they are 'always listening' in on him. You would assume that Aziraphale would stop to keep him safe—and yet he doesn't because he cannot accept the reality of Crowley's situation and refuses to listen to him.

On top of that, Aziraphale only ever "praises" Crowley when he does something he personally sees as praiseworthy, aka something good/kind/nice/angelic/etc. but never when it is something that CROWLEY would like to be praised for, or at the very least acknowledged. We see it in season 2 over and over and over again: Aziraphale cares for no one's thoughts or plans except his own and has no interest in even hearing Crowley out.

Aziraphale calling him nice is not a sweet little gesture, it is an intentional overstepping of a boundary Crowley has been trying to enforce for centuries, and it reinforces the dichotomy of good angels/bad demons, with angelic existence being the ultimate goal. At the very least, it's disrespectful towards Crowley, and at worst, it is actively keeping Crowley in a trauma response, tugging on his leash whenever he tries to explain reality to Aziraphale.

To have a healthy relationship, Aziraphale needs to stop.

part 2 - part 3

[lookingatacupoftea]

They’re not talking (or are they?)

Please don’t tag or ask Neil about fan theories!

Thinking about how Crowley and Aziraphale seem to keep a lot from each other in S2, particularly Crowley keeping information from Aziraphale.

It’s perfectly possible that much of this is communicated between them offscreen or just doesn’t matter or is a victim of on-set rewrites. But it happens a lot in S2 and a few of these are pretty important details that appear to be deliberately kept secret. 

Things that Crowley knows that Aziraphale doesn’t (as far as we know):

Crowley is living in the Bentley (Aziraphale doesn’t know per Neil)

Crowley has been replaced as hell’s representative (unclear but some have speculated that Aziraphale doesn’t realize this until Shax tells him)

Beez’s offer (sort of revealed in the final fifteen)

BOL threat

Where Crowley goes in his tactical turtleneck during the Job minisode (speculative, could mean nothing)

Shax sniffing around the bookshop 

The memory snippets Jim shares while Aziraphale is in Edinburgh

That “it’s always too late” (could just be a nod to Crowley’s watch in the book)

Where Crowley goes the morning of the ball (speculative)

Crowley telling Jim that he was the one in heaven

Nina’s troubles with and breakup with Lindsay

What happened in heaven and the memory wipe threat

What N&M said to Crowley

Things that Aziraphale knows that Crowley doesn’t (as far as we know)

Maggie crying over Nina (edited to add: this is a weird one because Crowley does know this later but we don’t see Aziraphale tell him and he doesn’t observe her crying himself)

What Aziraphale wanted to tell Crowley when he came out of the Job memory

The Mason clue

What else Aziraphale did in Edinburgh (speculative)

Shax’s visit to the Bentley (oddly, Crowley seems happy to be lied to about this when Aziraphale returns - “that’s what we want to hear”)

What Aziraphale wanted to suggest to Crowley at the start of the demon attack (possibly irrelevant after the fact)

The full Metatron conversation (speculative)

This is in contrast to S1, where secrets are kept but they make sense to the narrative. Aziraphale keeps Agnes Nutter and his Tadfield research from Crowley because he’s stuck between a rock (heaven wanting Armageddon) and a hard place (Crowley wanting to kill the kid). And while neither tells the other directly about threats from other angels and demons, this again is all part of the tight narrative of S1 where they both know that every other celestial but them wants Armageddon.

I keep coming back to how they’re never alone together in S2. The regular pattern of their lives is disrupted from the start. Jim is always in the bookshop, plus other visitors show up, or they’re in public. And we see them being spied on constantly. 

Secret communication, therefore, is my best potential explanation. S2 gave us added context for S1, as lots of you lovely theorizers like @drconstellation, @vidavalor and @leftduck9986 have noted. What if the choppiness in S2 is from missing scenes we’ll get in S3? Cain’s Jawbone across multiple seasons?

I think changing POV (paging @somehow-a-human) is another option for some of these — that thing where people erroneously expect others to know what they know. But that doesn’t work for what seems to be deliberate omissions like the BOL threat or Shax in the Bentley.

I’m open to other ideas, including that last-minute on-set rewrites are to blame. Thanks for reading! This will be me tomorrow wishing I was paid to think about Good Omens:

[raccoon-in-ankhmorpork]

[MAJOR GO2 SPOILERS]

I decided, of my own accord, to rewatch episode 6, for the purpose of paying attention to every little detail, every expression, every word. What I can tell you from that experience is that watching it a second time around wasn’t better—it was worse. It broke my heart all over again, I don’t know why I inflicted this pain on myself.

While I’m here, I’ll state my thoughts on the ending: I hate to say it, but I don’t believe in the coffee theory. I’ve tried to convince myself, but… no. What Aziraphale did is, in my opinion, completely in-character: it’s a manifestation of his biggest flaw. However, he never seems convinced that he is making the right decision, always wanting to backtrack but ultimately going along with the Metatron. Is that simply because the Metatron has power over Azira, and is using it to manipulate him into it? Most probably. At any rate, the Metatron is immediately painted as the bad guy (when he enters the bookshop, the music is foreboding and dark), which I thought was interesting. Obviously he is one of the main enacters of the Great Plan, so he couldn’t have been good to begin with, but the Metatron is presented as a different kind of evil than, for instance, Michael and Uriel. THEY are slightly ignorant and generally lacking empathy. HE seems more aware, more willing to use underhanded tactics to manipulate the course of things. God, how I hate him (get it? haha).

Random thing in the middle of this rant, bc there is something so fishy about the Metatron in general: when he describes Aziraphale, stating the qualities for which he wants him to fill Gabriel’s position, he doesn’t truly describe Azira, does he? A leader who is honest and not afraid to say what he thinks, I believe the Metatron said? Those aren’t outwardly wrong things to say, but they also aren’t Azira’s main qualities. They’re more Crowley’s, really, but I don’t know what to do with that inference. Additionally, they aren’t even qualities the Metatron would WANT in the Archangel. He needs someone compliant. I don’t know what to make of any of this, if I’m honest, but it needed to be said.

Anyways. Back to Aziraphale. The moment at which he seems most convinced that Heaven is the right choice is while arguing with Crowley, when he has made it clear he doesn’t want to come with. I think this is an attempt to convince Crowley (and, most of all, himself) that they aren’t breaking up for something unimportant. Azira NEEDS to believe that he’s leaving Crowley for the only thing more important to him: doing good. He NEEDS to believe that going to Heaven can be the way to do an extraordinary quantity of good, because otherwise he broke his own heart and Crowley’s for nothing. And even while trying to convince himself, he still instinctively wants to go back to Crowley; it is the Metatron’s pressure on Azira that causes him not to, I think, more than Azira’s hope that he can fix things.

In short, this is what I see for s3: Azira tries his best to do good, but being the Supreme Archangel doesn’t come with as much agency and power as he thought (which we saw, in part, with Gabriel) I think he could try to lean into his faith in God, but he could just as well constantly try to find ways to go against the Plan. Somehow, I think it’ll lead to a sort of breakdown, because I don’t think Aziraphale CAN fix Heaven. I’m hoping he’ll find his way back to Crowley in a moment of desperation, but I can already see how much that would hurt too. Because Crowley deserves to be angry at Azira. But ultimately love’s gotta win, right? RIGHT, NEIL??? We shall see. (I literally got the prime video free trial just so I could help with the viewer count. We all need to binge our asses off, I am NOT accepting episode 6 as the last episode of Good Omens.)

TL;DR: episode 6 broke my heart (part two: electric boogaloo), no to the coffee theory, the Metatron is fishy AF, and please binge GO2 as much as you can :) I’m confident nobody will read this ever, but oh well.

[aro-attorneys]

God. Second attempt at writing a sort of coherent Good Omens Season 2 rant/review/thoughts. Whatever you want to call it.

First, things I really enjoyed:

Pre-fall Crowley scene. Though this was not liked as much by some other critical Book fans. I understand from canon-conflicting perspective, but TV and Book Omens are separate in my head (sorry Neil Gaiman I can't buy the Same Canon thing)

The flashbacks scene (especially the one with Job and the Resurrectionist, the zombie one was kinda bad though)

Aziraphale getting to use the Bentley

Ok that's all that stood out to me of what I really liked. Time to complain!

God I'll just...start with The Kiss. I saw spoilers for it before I got a chance to watch it and immediately felt disappointment. I do like the Ineffable Husband ship, but I liked it as this...vague thing they kinda had going on in the back. They absolutely did not need an angsty one-sided confession scene with a forced kiss. Everything about it felt so inorganic too. I was trying to be open to the possible (different/romantic) chemistry they might have in s2, but it never happened. Instead there was Nina and telling Crowley he's in love with Aziraphale. Even though nothing really indicated that? To the public they could just be friends?

They did make more "gay jokes" (like they did once in season 1, which I did not like, it was very amatonormative which goes against the vibes those two have). Did not like those. Felt forced.

I have made posts before about the lack of aro and qpr representation in media and Yes that does play into why I did not like this ending of the season. It felt like this possible representation was forcibly taken away from me. I get to be sad about that. It's technically a separate argument but I'm throwing it here anyway.

Aside from That, the vibes of season 2 was...not really Good Omens? I really love the season 1 adaptation on so many levels. It is not perfect and there is valid criticism to be given, but overall it catches the absurdist comedy and relevance of everyone at play Very Well. Both the book and the show have this "ah it's all coming together" thing that's executed so well. I agree Crowley and Aziraphale got more of a main character role in the Show vs. The Book (where the humans and nonhumans are equally important/get similar screentime). And they amplified this in season 2. This post-book "canon" seems to focus a lot on Crowley and Aziraphale, which feels Wrong. They don't work on their own like they did in the Book/s1. It was their interaction with Earth and its Humans that made them shine in the end. Giving them their own problems to deal with was incredibly uninteresting. This is probably why the flashbacks stood out to me more. ...Yeah, I think it boils down to them not being as interesting on their own.

(of course when fans draw Book Omens Ineffable Husbands it's a different thing altogether, but art or comics usually don't have TV-style drama)

I feel I should say something about Gabriel and Beelzebub? It caught me by surprise that I just laughed when I saw it unfold. It was just very weird idk. I will miss Beelzebub though, I loved their trash gender vibes (then again, the new actor did not sell the vibes as well as the previous actor).

This season made me dive a little into the Book Omens fandom again and made me realise how much I missed the Book. I read it back in 2017 and a lot of fine details are lost on me. I want to read it again for sure. I see a lot of mixed reactions from Book fans on this season. Oftentimes criticism of different kinds, sometimes someone who did kind of like the season.

Overall I hate it when a screen adaptation takes a fandom over. I have to see incredibly bad takes on the Ineffable Husbands every day since the show came out.

In short: it was mostly not as interesting/memorable and I am pissed off about the kiss scene that I have to see everywhere.

[happyfeetfuryroad]

You know what's weird?

The last minutes of Good Omens 2 episode 6 should have made me feel sad and frustrated, like the ending of season 1 of OFMD did a year ago. And yet, something is different this time.

Now, I would love to be able to tell that I remember the euphoria of being surprised to see Edward and Stede's kiss, but unfortunately I started watching the show after having all the important plot points spoiled, so while I was still absolutely delighted by it, I wasn't caught off guard like many other people were.

With Good Omens 2, I was only mildly spoiled, and I didn't know any details on what was going to happen in the final episode. The possibility of a kiss was kinda hanging out in the back of my mind, but I wasn't convinced that it would actually happen - and I knew that the ending was going to be angsty, so I was keeping my expectations relatively low.

But. Goddamn. When it actually happened, it was fucking electrifying.

It's weird because, I was never that deep into the ineffable husbands fandom to begin with. I'd read the book and watched season 1 and enjoyed them both, and it was pretty obvious to me that Aziraphale and Crowley were queer (Neil Gaiman never denied this, so it was an unusually drama-free situation too). I never really thought their relationship would escalate any further, because they were already self-evidently together and I didn't think they needed to "prove" it (and I still stand by this btw, I think in a healthy media ecosystem there is a place for subtle queerness that doesn't require any grand romantic gestures to prove its existence). So I kinda left it at that.

Then I started watching season 2, and I started feeling a specific kind of déjà vu. They (and by "they" I mean mostly Crowley) were doing the whole "side character calls them a couple and they adamantly deny it" act that was a signature of 2010s era queerbaiting (Sherlock being a particularly egregious example). However, I knew for a fact that Neil Gaiman wasn't queerbaiting - again, he had never denied the fact that Good Omens is, among other things, a love story, and there hadn't been a single no homo joke that you would expect from a queerbaiting writer - so I just kind of waved it off as a throwaway joke and forgot about it.

And then episode 6 came about. And Crowley began to tear up as he tried to let Aziraphale know how he felt about him.

Oh.

And then he and Aziraphale started arguing with each other about their future, and the tension started to build.

Oh.

And then Crowley said "you idiot. We could have been us."

OH-

And then the music swelled into an epic dramatic choir as Crowley angrily stepped closWAY TOO CLOSE AND-

And I... can't describe the rush of pure dopamine and adrenaline that I felt watching this scene unfold. It was unreal. My heart was pounding out of my goddamn chest. It felt fake. It had to be fake. This is the kind of shit that only ever happens in fanfiction. It was too good to be true.

Then the rest of the finale happened and it was awful but that's besides the point

And even though in a way it was the same feeling of "holy shit, they actually made the main characters kiss" I had with Edward and Stede, this was also very different.

See, Edward and Stede kissed in the same season they got introduced in, and there was no original material that the show was based on (I'm not counting the real life pirates because OFMD is a very loose interpretation anyway). You couldn't really know what you were getting into, so the protagonists completely skipped the queercoded part and jumped straight into "literal protagonists of a romcom" territory.

Aziraphale and Crowley, on the other hand, were already existing characters, in a book and a TV show where their relationship was already established as "queer enough for anyone who pays attention, but subtle enough for a casual viewer to be able to ignore it". Their kiss in season 2 wasn't there to confirm that they love each other, but to make it clear that there is passion in their love. There's that raw, visceral attraction that queer people are so often discouraged from displaying in public because it's seen as uniquely dirty or inappropriate (or predatory, when it's two people perceived as male).

And it's happening late enough into the story that a lot viewers who may be like "I'm fine with gays so long as it's not in my face" will be forced to digest it - but also early enough into the story that we have an opportunity to see how Crowley and Aziraphale's love story unfolds now that the chips are truly down. Which is why, personally, I was happy to see season two end on a cliffhanger.

So yeah. I think I'll go watch that scene for the twentieth time today.

[steampoweredstarsketch]

OKAY CAN WE TALK ABOUT RETURN TO OZ FOR A SECOND!?

So I just watched Return To Oz all the way through for the first time, and, as someone who has read almost all of the Wizard of Oz books in the series, can I just say….

What a marvelously accurate representation!?

So Return To Oz is based off the two books in the series following The Wizard of Oz, (The First One). The Marvelous Land of Oz, and Ozma Of Oz. And while it is a far cry from a shot for shot visual recreation of the books, it is a damn respectable representation as far as the parts it did adapt goes. In fact, most of the characters, tasks, and elements are ripped straight from the book, they’re just rearranged in a hodgepodge sort of way that still somehow maintains the sentiment each of them had in the book so authentically I might just give it a medal for most loyal book adaptation were it more linear!!

Pretty much all of the character designs were ripped straight from the original John R Neil illustrations like Jim Henson and Will Vinton brought them to life!! All the main characters, the wheelers, her returning to Oz with Billina by getting lost at sea and showing up on a shore with lunchbox trees and encountering a terrifying princess with an interchangeable head, facing off against the gnome king with her friends getting turned into ornaments one by one, the gnome king coming off as nice at first but then showing his true colors, Ozma, Tik Tok, even down to how jack pumpkin head came to be and the magic words to say that brings the Gump to life with the Alive Powder and getting it from a wizard! So much of it is so on point, even the celebration at the end!!

Of course, there are some striking differences between the two that I think they did either to save the run time, by technical limitations, or to consolidate aspects of the book together for simplicities sake. And you would think that might ruin it for a lover of the book, but I’m telling you this movie was MADE for people who loved the books!!!

Like holyfuck!! Return to Oz was made with so much love and time and effort and attention to detail I could cry!!! Even right down to jack Pumpkinheads outfit!!! They mixed up or left out some important aspects and context, and I have no fucking clue what the whole insane asylum thing at the beginning was supposed to be about, that is probably the most made up and out of place thing in the whole movie to be frank. …… L. Frank…. That is….. 😏 Okay I’ll shut up.

Also can we talk about the whole insane asylum electroshock therapy thing??? Like wtf guys??? I’d chalk up everybody’s childhood fears to the 80’s effects if it wasn’t for that weirdness at the beginning! Also, why does the doctor die in the fire and why is the nurse being carted off to jail?? I feel like I missed something there. Like, I got the feeling we weren’t supposed to like them because Dorothy was afraid of them, and we have hindsight bias about the effects of electroshock therapy, but like, they didn’t do anything wrong or evil or even particularly mean!! Like we know electroshock therapy can scramble your eggs now, (although a modified version has been proven safe and effective and is still used today for some specific circumstances) back then electroshock therapy was just another treatment, they genuinely were under the belief that they were helping their patients! The doctor tried to be friendly and make the experience less scary for Dorothy, and the nurse just came off as a little cold and not good with kids, and sort of firmly told her to lie down on the gurney, but she was never in anyway cruel to anybody, and even risks her life to save the two girls from the river in the thunderstorm in the beginning!!

And in the end they say the asylum burned down, and everyone was rescued except the doctor who went back in for his machines, and they just don’t explain why the nurse is being carted away!! I think it’s implied that it was for having people locked up there and we can hear their screams in the beginning, but once again, that was standard practice by then! And since everyone made it out okay, that specifically implies that both nurse and doctor did their jobs and ensured the safety of all the patients in their care! And once that had been done, the doctor went back in to try to safe this equipment he thought he was using to help so many people, and he fucking dies in there!! WTF!?!?

That aside, I can’t gush enough about the effects, Will Vinton is a god of his craft, and just how unbelievably smooth and creative and expressive the stone gnomes are is just eye candy, and same to Jim Henson with how he brought all the other characters to life so accurately!!!

Also, fun fact, “Princess Mombi”, from Return to Oz, is actually a mashup of two different characters from the books, The Old Witch Mombi, a recurring antagonist who debuted in book 2, The Marvelous Land of Oz, who for years imprisoned Princess Ozma as her indentured ward, except Mombi turned her into a boy named Tippertarius, Or Tipp, for short. And in the fucking end of that book?? THERES A GODDAMN TRANSGENDER MAGICAL GIRL TRANSFORMATION!!! This book was published in 1904 mind you!! No wonder why this series was claimed by the gays so fast. (Unrelated note, The Scarecrow X Tin Woodsman OTP forever, they’re so wholesome,) And by the way, this was the bit where Jack Pumpkinhead comes from. Ever wonder why he keeps calling Dorothy “Mom”?? Well Ozma created Jack Pumpkinhead while she was Tipp to scare Mombi, and then Mombi used the magic alive powder on Jack to use him as a handyman so she could turn TIpp to stone for all the trouble. Tipp turns into Ozma at the end of the book, and I believe Jack refers to Tipp as his father, and so when Tipp turns into Ozma I suppose she then became his Mother. And Ozma and Dorothy are tighter than a pickle jar and Ozma dubs her an honorary Princess of Oz, and are supper affectionate toward one another, giving off some major lesbian vibes, so in that case, as two in love co-rulers, I think they’re trying to say Jack Pumpkinhead has two moms and I’m super here for it.

So if Mombi is a witch, then what’s with the princess shtick with all the heads about?? Well that’s where the book “Ozma of Oz” comes in, which ironically is more Dorothy centric. So Dorothy gets lost at sea while sailing on a ship to Australia for a vacation with Uncle Henry, when she’s looking in the ship chicken coop on the deck, she finds a chicken named bill, they get swept out to sea in a storm, and wash up on the shore of, Not Oz! But the Country of Ev!! They dust themselves off, Bill the chicken corrects Dorothy’s pronouns and renames herself Billina, and they see big letters written in the sand saying “BEWARE THE WHEELERS” And lemme tell you, the movie was spot on with them fuckers. The designs, and the fact they talk big but are generally benign and try to scare people away from the lunchbox trees so they can have them all to themselves. BTW the lunchbox trees are also in the book and I wanna eat them so friggin bad!!!

Princess Mombi/ Princess Langwidere /

Witch Mombi

Anyway! The Country of Ev has a Princess, Princess Lanwidere, who has over 50 interchangeable heads she came across much like Princess Mombi from the movie! Also kept in glass cases, and she also expresses the desire to lock Dorothy away so she can take her head when she’s older. (Side note, Langwidere is the Niece of the Late tragic Kine Evoldo who has a really tragic story and demise of walking into the sea to drown himself!) Princess Langwidere is also narcissistic and not a very good ruler, but aside from her one run in with Dorothy she’s generally a one off antagonist in the story. But her whole deal is so interesting and memorable I see why they chose to combine both the characters together to make a really memorable knock your socks off villainess!

And lastly the Nome King, while still being made of stone with pebbles for the beard, he’s described as looking like a very jovial short Santa Claus, (L Frank Baum REALLY loved Santa Claus, and references him often in the Oz series, and even writes the life and adventures of Santa Claus) And he has a magical emerald belt. There were no ruby slippers in the books, only silver shoes, which magically disappeared when she wished herself home in the last book, but they were lost forever and never recovered.

They also got Ozma’s magical mirror correct, and she looks into it at a certain time every single day to see if Dorothy ever wants to return to oz and she will make it so.

This was such a tender an loving adaptation I demand it be given more love and more credit for all time!!

I! HAVE! SPOKEN!!!

[sortasirius]

Yeah. It destroyed me.

Spoilers for TLOU ep 7

Him telling her to leave him is devastating

THE WALKMAN

"You're so smart you're stupid" NOW THAT IS THE ELLIE WILLIAMS THESIS

I love them humanizing FEDRA, we've never gotten to see it before and it makes them so much more dimensional

They showed like every single little thing that we know Ellie carries around and I'm just...emo I love her so much

"I should fuckin stab you" MY GIRL

Storm and Bella are just...perfect. They match that energy from the DLC perfectly. But I also like that this Ellie is a little less willing to forgive Riley than game Ellie. She's fucking pissed, and I'm glad we get to see it.

THE MOMENT WHERE WE JUST RANDOMLY FIND OUT ABOUT ELLIE'S EYEBROW!!!! HELLO!!

THE WHISKEY!!!!

Really love the little detail of them just...being fine with finding a body. It speaks to the world. True showing not telling lmao.

The rooftop jumping RIGHT out of the DLC!!!!

The conversation between Ellie and Riley about who's on the right side and who's on the wrong side...Part II is coming...

The mall is just perfect, it's PERFECT

"Oh wow electric stairs!" I would die for her

DAWN OF THE WOLF!

The awkward flirting and Ellie fixing her hair...

God the carousel. Oh my god.

Storm and Bella did such an amazing job. Looking at each other and then looking away, I love them so much.

The photo booth, and the fact that it actually printed makes it even worse lmao

The arcade actually works...no. No I can't. I can't.

So glad the infected reveal was so fucking scary thanks so much.

The inclusion of Riley's instructions to Ellie...it's such a small thing but so important to the storyline of the DLC, I'm so so glad they kept it

This show is so fucking good, it's such an good adaptation but adds so much to something so many of us already know so well

Neil should pay for his crimes!!!! He got me AGAIN with Left Behind!

The Halloween store...that's it, I'm in shambles

"You mattered to me first." Goodbye.

The masks, and the way Ellie caught it the exact way she did in the game. Okay.

Another thing that I'm just so happy they kept the same: Ellie and Riley's moment was perfect as is, it didn't need to change. It's one of my favorite moments in all of the games. Ellie telling her to go and then asking her to stay. Their kiss. "I'm sorry," "for what?" It just...it's like Sam and Henry for me, and the "You have no idea what loss is," those are the touchstones that make these games what they are, and they knew that and kept what they knew they couldn't improve on.

I mean, I knew. I knew it was happening. Of course I did, but they just seem to find a new way to wreck me every time.

The cut from Ellie and Riley finding out they're infected to Ellie deciding to stay with Joel, and then cutting back to her destroying the place.

Ellie and Riley holding hands and then Joel holding Ellie's hand. Neil Druckmann I am in your walls PLEASE stop putting me through this!!!!

I'm really glad they didn't show us what happened to Riley, I'm glad they kept that the same. But from an earlier episode, we know that she's already killed someone. So we know what happened. Which honestly? Makes it worse.

Riley is so important to the games, even though she only appears in Left Behind. She is the reason Ellie is who she is, in a lot of ways. That loss, that first loss, shook Ellie to the core, made her want to be the cure, made her want to save the world. Riley is the beginning touchstone of her journey, and I just think Bella and Storm were as perfectly cast in these roles as anyone could be.

David next week. I feel sick already.

[readitreviewit]

If you're looking for a book that will help you see the world in a new light, look no further than Starry Messenger by Neil deGrasse Tyson. As a world-renowned astrophysicist, Tyson brings a unique perspective to the topics of war, politics, religion, truth, beauty, gender, and race. And in a time when the world seems more divided than ever, his insights are a much-needed reminder of our shared humanity. But what sets Starry Messenger apart from other books on science and philosophy is Tyson's ability to make complex ideas accessible and engaging. Whether he's talking about the mysteries of the universe or the inner workings of the human brain, Tyson has a way of explaining things that is both informative and entertaining. You can tell he's passionate about his subject matter, and that enthusiasm is infectious. One of the key themes of Starry Messenger is the importance of a cosmic perspective. Tyson argues that by viewing ourselves as part of a larger whole, we can gain a better understanding of our place in the universe and our responsibilities to each other. He also emphasizes the role of science in this process, pointing out that rational thinking and logical analysis are essential tools for navigating the complexities of the modern world. Of course, no discussion of science and philosophy would be complete without a nod to the great thinkers who came before us. In Starry Messenger, Tyson pays tribute to some of the greatest minds in human history, from Galileo to Einstein. Through their work, we can see how our understanding of the universe has evolved over time, and how each new discovery has brought us closer to a more complete picture of reality. But even as he delves into some of the deepest questions of existence, Tyson never loses sight of the beauty and wonder of the world around us. He reminds us that despite all our differences, we are all part of the same cosmic story, and that our lives are just one small part of a much larger tapestry. Overall, Starry Messenger is a book that will challenge you, inspire you, and perhaps even change the way you view the world. With its mix of scientific insight, philosophical musings, and engaging storytelling, it's a book that will appeal to anyone who is curious about the universe and their place in it. So if you're looking for a book that will help you see the world in a new light, this is one that's definitely worth checking out. Don't wait any longer to dive into this incredible story. Get your copy of the book today or try the 30-day trial of Audible to experience it for yourself! Don't miss out on this captivating tale that will keep you on the edge of your seat. Order now! Price: [price_with_discount] (as of [price_update_date] - Details)

[esthermitchell-author]

Because, apparently, I am a masochist who enjoys torturing myself, and Good Omens isn't tearing my guts out enough (it is, but still... I'm writing HEA fanfic for AziCrow because... well, until Neil tells us otherwise, I CAN)...

Believe it or not, Good Omens, Sandman, and Bones (this last of which is, sadly, finished, but I still own and watch the hell out of -- don't snark on it. I WILL fight you, and I will NOT be nice about it) are my happy place, where I got to play and get out of the really fucked up shit that lives in my head... a lot of it drawn in painful, glass-shard-sharp pieces across my soul.

So, tonight, I was working on the worst of these -- edits for a SF series that memorializes not only the love of my own life, and moments of our life together, but also the very soul-shredding way it ended. I changed details, to fit a fictional world (to help me maintain distance, according to my therapist at the time), but the important stuff came from my memories... and it's not a pretty place in there.

Anyway, this is what my masochistic brain has me working on edits for, this AM... 😢💔 It's from the 4th book in the series, called Hero's Hope...

Housing Sector, Underground Command Post, Manhattan

17 February 2119 -- 1415 Hours

A hell she didn't even believe in just came to Earth.

The silence of her and Rick's quarters closed in on her, until all she could hear was her own labored breathing, and the crack of her splintering heart. Moisture burned her cheeks and filmed her eyes until the world blurred into the darkness around her.

Shoving up from a bed that felt too big and empty, she padded across the bedroom and into the bathroom, squinting against the glare as the bathroom light flickered on automatically as the door slid open. Moving to the sink, she ran her hands under the cold water, cupping her palms to collect enough water to splash on her face in an attempt to drive away the images still clinging to the inside of her eyelids.

Blotting her face with the towel, she stared into her own dark-ringed eyes, aware sleep would be her enemy for a while. The flash of silver caught her attention, and her hand lifted to the two pendants on a single, thin chain around her neck. The small, laser-cut rose charm Rick gave her the day they met, and the hololocket he gave her back at Christmas.

Hands trembling, she dropped the towel beside the sink and reached for the 'locket, prying the small compartment open with shaking fingers. Instantly, a ghostly image rose before her, reflected in the mirror, of an angel, its wings folded protectively around a female soldier carrying a small child in her arms.

"I got your six, sweet rose."

A gasp jolted through Tamia as the words murmured from the 'locket in a voice she knew better than her own soul. She'd never left the 'locket open long enough to trigger the audio, before.

Clutching her hand around the 'locket, closing off the device, she stared into the mirror, fighting for a calm she knew was forever in her past. Without Rick here to steady her, she would swear she was in free-fall, and there was no bottom.

Her gaze caught on the splash of blue across her chest, and her hand moved to the outline of the cobalt-blue Ace of Clubs tattooed on the left side of her chest. Her wedding rings flashed under the light as she laid her hand against the patch of skin forever marking where her heart and soul belonged.

Throat closing, tears blurred her vision, and she flung herself back toward the bedroom, unable to look at the symbols of a love the universe refused to let her have.

Sinking back onto the bed, she hung her head and sobbed, torn apart from the soul out. Walter was right -- she got her wish. The terror of being all alone was nothing compared to the chest-tightening pain of reaching for Rick in the night, only to come away empty, or staring at the evidence of everything they had together and knowing her life would never be the same.

More tears spilled down her cheeks as she hugged Rick's pillow and sobbed until she couldn't breathe, falling back into the bed and curling up as far as her pregnant belly would allow as she sought to make herself as small as possible against the pain eating her alive. She wanted to die, too. Anything to escape the gnawing pit of missing Rick steadily carving its way through her soul.

With a hoarse scream of pain and fury, she pounded the bed with her fists until she collapsed, exhausted and heartbroken.

"Why?" she cried, her entire body shivering with agonized fatigue. She curled tighter, sheltering herself and her son from a world where even love lied. She closed her eyes, and Rick's face materialized in her mind's eye. She couldn't stand this; couldn't handle the emptiness, or the silence, for even a nanosecond more. With another hoarse scream of frustration, she levered herself back up from the bed, dressed, and stumbled for the front door. Outside the door to these quarters represented safety from her nightmares. At the door, she paused, her gaze turning back into the darkness as the sense of unseen eyes haunted her.

"You promised," she whispered to the darkness, just before the door closed between her and the love and pain she already knew she could never move past. Nobody was that strong. "You promised."

[tess-media-and-society]

Blog Post #3: LGBTQI & BIPOC Representation In Media

Interview with Neil McCormick from Mysterious Skin (2004).

There is a somewhat common idea/misconception that queer people become gay as a result of living through traumatic experiences similar to yours. Do you think that the abuse you faced as a child had any effect on the development of your sexual identity?

From the first day I met my coach, I was attracted to him. Obviously I was only eight years old, and the attraction that I had for him was something a lot more innocent than what he would eventually end up turning it into. Still, I was always more interested in boys than girls, even prior to the abuse. Being abused affected me in the sense that it introduced me to sexual behavior when I was WAYYYY too young to know about it. Now I’m a lot older and I can see that I didn’t really understand what was happening whatsoever. My coach did his best to make me think that everything that he was doing was some act of love, and I continued to perceive the abuse as being that for a good while. I genuinely believed for a long time that we had some kind of special connection that made it okay. So I think generally, the abuse made me more aware of sexual topics from an early age. But I’m sure I would’ve turned out gay regardless. I’m happy that in the present queerness is more accepted and isn’t seen as a negative side effect of abuse. I think being abused had a very profound impact in shaping who I am, but I’ve never wanted my sexuality to be seen as some kind of sexual disturbance.

It’s definitely true that LGBTQ people were less welcomed and accepted in the past. Where did you find support dealing with your trauma and your sexuality in a time and place where LGBTQ people were less accepted?

I grew up in a small town in Kansas where people were less welcoming to the idea of LGBTQ people, so what would have already been a small community in a sea of straight people was even more miniscule. Unfortunately the majority of the other LGBTQ people I had interacted with in Hutchinson were the people who I slept with while I was working as a prostitute, and obviously they weren’t really people I would go to for ‘support’. I did have a few friends. Wendy was a childhood friend of mine, and the only person I had ever trusted enough to tell about my history being abused. I could talk to her about the abuse, about my experiences prostituting, about my sexuality- anything.  Even though she obviously wasn’t really able to relate to the queer issues I faced, it was important for me to have someone to go to about different issues I struggled with without being judged. She did her best to help me in whatever ways she could, I ended up moving to New York City with her, and she even found me a job. Wendy is proof that ONE supportive person can be the difference between someone like me learning to cope in healthier ways or falling deeper into their destructive tendencies. Eric was another friend of mine, another queer person, who I spent a lot of time with once Wendy left. I was able to confide in him more than a lot of other people, since he could relate to being queer. He eventually reintroduced me to a kid, Brian, who I used to play baseball with and who was also sexually abused by our coach. He sought me out because he had no clear memory of the abuse and was trying to sort of piece it back together. When I told him the details about what happened, he completely broke down, he was devastated. Up until that point I was still seeing the abuse as an act of love, and I still sort of looked back upon it fondly. Once I saw how badly Brian was hurting from finally finding out the truth my perspective finally shifted, and I just wished we could undo everything that happened. Brian sort of served as a wake up call for me. Seeing him that destroyed by what happened forced me to see the abuse for what it was.

What drove you to start working as a prostitute when you were a teenager? 

I think there were a lot of factors that brought me to that line of work, and I don’t know that I entirely understand all of them. Obviously, a source of income was one of them, albeit probably one of the more minor ones. I think the fact that I was abused kind of made me more desensitized to unhealthy sex- and I guess because of that, I was less hesitant to work in that field than most people would be. I suppose since I got used to predatory sexual behavior when I was a child, and especially since I was made to believe that it was an act of love, in a way I was sort of chasing the same feeling I got when I was being abused. Even once I moved to the city and I had a more traditional/stable job, I continued to turn to prostitution to search for that feeling. I was generally a pretty self-destructive person at that point, so I didn’t even really care about the risks that came along with it- whether they were risks of STIs/STDs or risks of violence from clients. This is something that is really hard to explain. I don’t think I was completely aware of everything that led me down that path when I was presently going down it. 

Attitudes towards a lot of the struggles you faced in your youth have shifted dramatically over time. LGBTQ people are more accepted by society, the issue of sexual abuse is more talked about, and sex work is also generally more accepted. How different do you think your life would have been if you were a teenager in 2023?

I would like to think it wouldn’t have taken me so long to speak about being abused if I was born later and grew up in a time period closer to now. For a long time Wendy was the only person who I was ever willing to talk to about it, and even when I did talk about it my perception about what happened was kind of off. I think in the present day people are more willing to address issues surrounding sexual abuse and exploitation in all forms. If I had been properly educated on what's an ‘okay VS not okay’ touch, maybe I wouldn’t have perceived the abuse as a good thing for so long, or I would have come to terms with it a lot sooner. Maybe I would’ve sought out help from someone while it was happening. It’s hard to say. 

If I had been working as a prostitute in a time period like 2023 I probably would have been a lot better off. I think sex education has GREATLY improved over the years, so those seeking out services like that would likely be a lot more careful. There was a blatant disregard for preventing the spread of diseases when I was working in Hutchinson, and even once I got to the city some people were still not concerned with it. Who knows- maybe I wouldn’t have caught crabs if I was a prostitute in 2023 rather than back then. On top of that I think sex workers are more respected than they were back when I was working as one. Recently there has been some efforts to sort of de-stigmatize sex work. I think it's definitely a good thing that sex workers are finally starting to be seen as humans, some people even try to find empowerment in it. Still I think it’s important to consider the risks that come along with this profession. I had things transmitted to me and was physically/sexually assaulted while working, and even though things have gotten slightly better for sex workers, they are still more prone to horrible things like these in that specific line of work.

In terms of my sexuality I’m not sure all that much would have been different for me personally. Don’t get me wrong, things are a lot better for gay people than they were 20 years ago, but at the same time, I was never really very closeted or ashamed of who I was. Maybe there would have been a larger LGBTQ community in Hutchinson and I would have had a bigger support group, I’m not sure. 

Do you feel optimistic about the future of LGBTQ people, their rights, and the way they are viewed by the general public?

I think so. It goes without saying that the lives of LGBTQ people have greatly improved over the last few decades. The fact that interviews like this, talking openly about these issues, don’t seem so inconceivable anymore goes to show how much has been accomplished. I know obviously not everything is perfect now, and that no matter what there will still probably be bigoted people in the world. But I think if everyone was taught to be more open to different kinds of people and to be more accepting of certain things within themselves, the bigoted people and small issues would be sort of drowned out. 

[thedaddycomplex]

I've been trying to figure out how to write this, but I can't get a handle on it, so I'm just going to write and hope I get this across…

My mother-in-law Joie Collins passed away earlier this month. Believe me when I say she was quite simply one of the loveliest human beings I've ever known.

To meet her, you'd immediately find her kind, humorous, determined—a supportive friend right away. You'd never know unless you asked just how extraordinary her life was.

Her sister, Sharon Sheeley, was a songwriter and penned "Poor Little Fool" for Ricky Nelson, which, for a time, made her the youngest woman to ever have a No. 1 Billboard hit. Because of their close relationship, Mary Jo (as Joie was called then) was thrust into the world of teen idols at a very young age.

Her second kiss ever was from Elvis Presley. In fact, in the film Jailhouse Rock, when the D.J. Teddy Talbot lists off the song dedications, one of the names he mentions is Mary Jo. That detail was requested by Elvis himself.

She befriended other legends such as Eddie Cochran, Buddy Holly, Ritchie Valens, and The Everly Brothers. Later in her life, those relationships and others led to a career in the music business, where she worked with artists like The Kinks, Randy Newman, Ry Cooder, Rickie Lee Jones, Neil Sadaka, and even discovered Jim Croce after hearing a demo he recorded in his bathroom. (Yes, you know "Big, Bad Leroy Brown" because of Joie.)

She was also married to rockabilly pioneer Larry Collins and they had a daughter named Larissa. Joie instilled in her an unwavering sense of kindness, justice, and commitment. And it is no stretch to say Larissa and Joie were not just mother and daughter, but best friends.

Some years after retiring from the entertainment business, Joie created The Salux Shop, a boutique company that sells imported Salux cloths, simply because she liked the product. She grew it from a small online shop into a globally recognized company used by clients like Cameron Diaz and Emma Stone.

Of course, those are all professional achievements. For me, those stories were fun, but what I enjoyed most about Joie was her boundless love and joy. If you had a funny story, she wanted to hear it and she would fill the room with her laughter as you told it. And when prodded, she would tell stories that were bafflingly entertaining—maybe about how she methodically stole an entire flatware set from a fancy English hotel or about how she accidentally wrecked her ex's brand new Jaguar.

And, my god, she loved her grandkids. No matter what was happening in her life, if the boys were visiting their "Mimi," everything else took a backseat. The boys once asked her if she could make stuffed animals for them. I thought it was a bit too much to ask, but she showed up 30 minutes later with her sewing machine, fabric, stuffing, and everything else you'd need to create a plushie of any size or design.

When our boys started playing music, she marveled at their performances and gushed more than I ever heard her talk about any of the literal rock stars she knew and worked with. Of course, that's what wonderful grandmas do.

I loved her endlessly and the reason it's taken me this long to write anything about it is because it all happened so fast, we're all having a hard time processing the loss. Last June, she came to visit us, then mere weeks after that she was diagnosed with inoperable cancer. A little more than 6 months later, with her longtime partner David and daughter Larissa by her side, she passed.

She was gone. And the massive, joyful, magnificent place she held in our lives was suddenly empty.

Nothing can fill that void or take her place. But, I do love that I can see the bemused twinkle in her eye when I look at our boys or my wife. And I can hear her big untethered laugh when they find something funny. They have her kindness, her humor, her determination.

And because I had the privilege to know and love her, I do too.