#anyways i was explaining to my friend the three minisodes in order and was like wow. he did actually progress through those

[butchtwelfthdoctor]

the minisodes and Aziraphale's understanding of moral grey areas

ok so i was explaining the entire plot of s2 to a friends yesterday, and realised something about the minisodes that is so obvious in retrospect-

in a companion to owls, Aziraphale spends most of the time wondering about what is actually right or wrong and what god really wants and so on - of course, by the end he sees that you can do something 'bad' (like lying to thwart the will of god) and not be entirely a bad person for it - starting to see that moral greys exist, but Crowley has to really really encourage him to do it

in the resurrectionists, the first half he's on 'this is entirely bad', is presented with a grey situation by Crowley (& Dalrymple), but immediately goes straight to 'this is all good' - by the end, he sees that really it was neither (sort of) - but once again, crowley has to really prompt him into seeing the nuance

but, by the end of the 1941 minisode, he says 'well, maybe there is something to be said for shades of grey' - almost completely umprompted by Crowley. he doesn't need convincing, or Crowley to tell him that he can't do bad things cos he's an angel (which Crowley doesn't believe, surely, but he can convince Aziraphale into doing most things by telling him that), he just. accepts the moral grey of everything that just happened. (and presumably apologises for making Crowley shoot at him. or something. he does the dance at least)

this is showing the progression in Aziraphale's character - he goes from being fully convinced he'll become a demon for lying one (1) time to save the lives of children, to at least trying to see how something as initially 'completely bad' as bodysnatching can be an attempt to, in his words, 'alleviate human suffering' (good, even if he missed the point), to being able to say that he, an angel, can do things that aren't purely good. seemingly without any major anxiety over it either. and largely unprompted.

his character is not fully developed yet, and he's still pinging wildly between viewing everything as good/bad heaven/hell demons/angels, and moral greys, nuance, and 'our side'. but he is getting there. slowly.