#god good omens

[somewhere-in-wales]

Crowley and Job

I'm sure this has been written before but I haven't read it so here's my thesis:

The Job minisode is a metaphor for Crowley.

The Job minisode shows us that this God is willing to put her favourites through significant pain, to have them lose everything, to carry out the ineffable plan. In fact, God considers their favourites to be the only ones able to endure this and remain "faithful" or "good." Funny that, as we see Crowley - a Demon who has every reason to hate God and do a lot of evil - continually showing himself to have a stronger moral compass than the Archangels.

Job is stripped of absolutely everything he has, one after another. Starting with his livelihood, his possessions, his home and finally his most loved thing - his children (sounding familiar at all?). Crowley loses his status, his identity, his job, his flat and ultimately Aziraphale.

Job is angry but not at God, he's angry at himself. He questions how much he must have done wrong to not even know what it is he did (sound familiar?)

When Job talks to God at the end, the first thing she says to him is "You have questions for me Job?" and then she responds with a series of questions back to him. She isn't angry at him asking questions.

He then returns to Sitis, a broken man, to be saved by an Angel and a Demon who reinstate his children to him, having kept them safe the entire time.

How fortunate for God that a particular Angel and Demon pair have quietly ensured that some of the most disturbing plans of Heaven and Hell have never made it to fruition.

How interesting that we see Crowley going through each of the pains of Job.

At the end of S2, Crowley is metaphorically sitting, head in hands, wondering what he did that was so wrong to deserve this.

What if the answer is nothing? What if the answer is he did everything right?

[oldbookshop]

GOOD OMENS 2.02  ↳ minisode A Companion to Owls

《 a scene that is not talked about enough! 》

[midnights-dragon]

Aziraphale prays to God like a child in a Catholic household, told he must or he is a sinner; told what to say, and what not to say; told what’s right and wrong to ask of God. Aziraphale prays to God because he feels that he will be punished if he doesn’t.

Crowley prays to God like an angry, confused reject of the church. Someone hurt by it and who knows they were hurt by it. Crowley prays to God because he wants to, because he is angry and feels that he deserves it; because he wants to challenge what’s hurt him so badly; because it makes those who have hurt him angry that he can still be someone who prays.

They both pray for the wrong reasons, and there will never be right reasons; not for them. But they both do it, and it hurts. It hurts, and yet, it feels too right to stop, and it feels too wrong to admit.

[applecidersstuff]

We need God to appear in the third season as a mentally unstable gen z kid with lack of sleep dressed like a hippie and knowing to much.

And then at some point they start glitching and appear to be Jemimah, Elsbeth, a nameless nun from the sixteen hundreds, a kid Crowley knew before the flood, a teen he stole bread with during the French Revolution, a child servant that he saw once in the castle during the Arthurian era, the bartender from Rome, a girl that died of tuberculosis in the 1870s and a lovely young person Crowley saw burning at the stake for healing a boy with herbs

[actual-changeling]

aziraphale's part

-

do you think god is on earth, listening to the white noise of humanity and the broken whispers of two of her children?

do you think she watches when crowley falls to his knees, skin scraped open by the concrete of his balcony, and stares at the sky, arms as limp as his wings at his side?

do you think she hears his wine-saturated cries? why me? why always me? why wasn't it enough to make me fall? why bury me in loneliness too?

if she does, she never answers. if she does, she follows his slim, too slim, body as it picks itself off the floor like a chipped glass figurine, dragging itself to bed.

do you think she feels the fragile prayers he mutters alone with only the moon as his witness, wishing for his angel to be safe, asking to take his pain if there ever is any to be taken?

if she does, the slender hand brushing back a lock of fire-red hair is hers, and there are not many things she can do for him, but she is here now, watching, listening, feeling.

god presses a kiss to his temple, and there aren't many things she can do for him, but for tonight she gifts him pleasant dreams and hopes the spark of optimism in his chest will keep burning until the universe shows him kindness again.

[shameless-pug]

do you think that God ships the ineffable husbands?

[hikarry]

I don't believe the God in Good Omens is cruel. At least, not anymore

She is controlling and doesn't really like when her lil toys get out of script (aka Celestial War, The Flood) but with time I believe she became more of a negligent mother than a vindictive one

She is sitting there, somewhere, observing everything that's going on but she is not interfering whatsoever. She is taking a spectator's role to her own creation like when you create a family in The Sims and don't control them for a while to see what happens (not much cause that game is broken and sucks without mods but that's not the point)

So far everything is going according to the script. She knew Adam would stop Armageddon. She knew Aziraphale and Crowley would survive their trials. (After all She gave Agnes the knowledge to pass along). The players are where they are supposed to be.

Even Aziraphale's departure back to Heaven is part of the plan. Yes, sure, she is not talking to anyone and the Metraton is taking advantage of that to play a lil God himself but she already knew that would happen. How could it not? When the President goes missing, the Vice President takes reign of the country and the more power he has the more power he wants, innit? It's only logical

Now, I don't think her point was ever to test the Humans, like Crowley says in season 1. They are just the means to an end. The toys she's using to test the Angels and the Demons

She said "Love all creatures" to the angels and, as we can see, Aziraphale is the only one that followed that rule since ever. The other angels never made an effort to understand what she meant by that. Some because they didn't think they need to (Archangels), others because they are just off the loop honestly (Muriel)

She's testing everyone to see how far they will go to follow a plan that no one is even absolutely sure of what it is. I mean, everyone thought Armageddon was it but then it wasn't and now all of a sudden we have a Second Coming? The son of Satan didn't work, so now they are going to try the other way around with Jesus 2.0 because the only thing Heaven and Hell want is to destroy each other. That's THEIR plan, not Hers

Yet, she's seeing how far everyone involved will go, popcorn on her lap and all

If She was cruel, you bet Aziraphale would have fallen a long long time ago, but he didn't and he never will because he was the only one who understood the assignment (ignoring Crowley, of course). He doesn't want Heaven and Hell to be destroyed like everyone else, he just wants to protect the humans (and Crowley) like God intended since the beginning

[good-soupmens]

Ik the good omens fandom has different takes on God as a character, but I like the idea that she DOES have an ineffable plan, and Heaven is doing their absolute worst job carrying it out.

Most angels never talk to God, and they're usually selfish, they don't do the right thing (only what they're told), and it's even possible they're working under a corrupt power (like the Metatron). I like that theory because Metatron IS the barrier between God and the angels. He could easily lie to them and change plans, and we the audience know that "friendly old man metatron" swindling Aziraphale is not what he seems.

But from the beginning, we see inconsistency. Crowley falls from heaven after asking questions/hanging out with the wrong group while Aziraphale is allowed to lie about the flaming sword and change Heaven's plans. God can see how much he cares about humans and the earth by his actions (Crowley being the same), which makes me think that him getting away with it is intentional, not inconsistent or neglectful. ESPECIALLY if Aziraphale and Crowley run heaven and hell respectively in season 3. They have the power to change things, just like they stopped the world from ending the first time. I think Crowley and Aziraphale ARE the ineffable plan.

Their love could bridge the gap between opposing forces in a way that it couldn't if they were both angels. After all, both heaven and hell think they're doing the better thing while they're both not. Crowley and Aziraphale are the best of both sides.

If bringing them together was God's plan, it'd be a powerful story for queer Christians!! A lot of us have been hurt by the church, but we hold on to God's love, which doesn't fail us. We stay in a religion with a history of fighting queerness not because we're all brainwashed, but because we wholeheartedly believe in a God that loves us. Sometimes I see good omens' heaven as an analogy for toxic churches, and I'd love nothing more than for Aziraphale to realize heaven is working against God. Not to mention God using a gay couple to save the world/save heaven from corruption?? I'd kill for that storyline

Secondly, Aziraphale's devotion wouldn't have been for nothing. If God was awful the whole time, it defeats the times he and Crowley reached out, and the moment in the GOs1 finale where Crowley says, "what if you're going AGAINST God's ineffable plan?" to Gabriel and Beelzebub. (It'd almost defeat the purpose of her being the quirky narrator following their story, too.)

Even Crowley, never fooled by "heaven is all good" calls for God in his time of need ("God listening? Show me an ineffable plan.") (Possibly when he reaches to the sky in order to stop time) (Calling for God before Satan in the burning bookshop) (Looking up and muttering "God" after realizing Aziraphale is going to leave him in s2)

Lastly, after the trauma that both Crowley and Aziraphale went through, with Crowley falling and Aziraphale coming to terms with heaven's corruption (and both being mistreated by their side) it'd be nice to have been for a reason. They have every right to grieve and be angry for all that they went through, and the centuries that they weren't supposed to love each other, but I believe the series will end on a positive, sweet note, like the rainbow after a storm.

Like Job, they're losing almost everything (their relationship as it was, the bookshop, and the life they carved out), but they have each other. I think they'll lose everything to save EVERYONE, and in the end, the reward will top the pain. No holding back, no forces hunting them down, just them together after a PAINFULLY long time with everything they'd wanted.

We know that God doesn't get around to answering many questions, but her speech to Job was in part to say "trust me"

She laid the foundations of the earth. She made every living thing. Job couldn't see past the destruction of his life, but she has a plan. Job is a valuable human being, but he doesn't have the power and knowledge of God. God will share her plan when he can make a whale. Otherwise, he can trust that "Most things are fine in the end"

*Aziraphale voice* That's ineffable!

[idontwantittobeunrequited]

you're telling me all this is because of gods ineffable plan??? you're telling me the almighty herself is just sitting in heaven writing her 6000 chapter long slow-burn-enemies-to-lovers-grumpy-x-sunshine-hurt-no-comfort????

[everythingsallticketyboo]

Crowley: I think it’s time I get my life in order. God, narrating: But he did not get his life in order. In fact, he got drunk last night and fought a raccoon.

[imacowboy3]

Headcanon that every angel has a demon who's their soulmate (romantic or platonic)

That one being they can trust and be themselves with, someone who can be their safety net and help them break their conditioning from their respective sides (I'll make a post with more on the conditioning later)

Till now we've seen:

Aziraphale has Crowley

Gabriel has Beelzebub

And there's been some speculation and shipping of:

Muriel and Eric

Michael and Dagon

(I only mentioned shipping cause those seem to be popular as romantic pairings but they could also easily be read as platonic!)

Now going to my point: I have this headcanon that metatron is just taking advantage of the systemic problems of heaven and spewing more and more bullshit to the angels to manipulate them into doing "what God wants" and has taken over by this point (mind you he is not necessarily THE problem of heaven, he's more of a representation of what is wrong with the system as a whole while also representing real people who are in positions of power and take advantage of a broken system to meet their own interests).

Now what if God,knowing that would happen, decided to pair the angels and then made half of them fall so that they'd have different points of view? Which yes is cruel and again a representation that God is kinda fucked up and so is her system and you might ask why do that? Why make all of them go through all this suffering to learn a lesson that wouldn't even be necessary in the first place if only she hadn't created the very problem the lesson was about?and my answer to that is: go read any passage of the Bible, that's just how God is,with all of her trials and tribulations...

But anyways, back on track: since they'd be fighting they would need a middle ground that didn't belong to either side (earth) and as they'd compete for human souls they'd end up meeting their soulmates and together they'd hopefully get closer to the humans and would start a process of deprogramming (I'll dive more into it on the conditioning post), cause that's pretty much what's happening with Zira and Crowley, is what happened with Gabe and Bee, they met their soulmate and started learning to enjoy life outside the feud between heaven and hell,they started learning that there's nothing wrong with just being happy and finding out who they want to be outside the limitations of their sides

So yeah

God knew shit would go down because she designed it to happen and decided to pair them all up to have some support on their journeys

[cawareyoudoin]

You know what I love about the GO fandom after season 2? Everyone's just gotten so much less strict with pronouns. Before, there of course had been some "oh I love her" (when not fem-presenting) thrown. But now, I'm seeing people they/them all the angels, I just saw people using 3 sets of pronouns for Crowley interchangeably in the tags, without exaggeration or irony, I'm seeing all this variety, it's great!

I joined the fandom proper before even the first season came out, and everything was just so much more... Idk, rigid? The cultural landscape obviously shifted, but I also just think that the fandom as a whole got a lot more queer. No wonder! Thanks, Neil.

(The only exception is God. I'm seeing people use almost exclusively She/Her, and I'm like, huh? Hello? Maybe it's also people's personal preferences, I wouldn't know, I'm an atheist).

[anotherblondcompanion]

[aphroditusiscorroded]

Y’know, I’ve been thinking…how DO you take someone’s name out of the Book of Life? Cause like, presumably it’s written in ink right? So how do they get rid of something? Does God use the Holy Wite-Out?

[applecidersstuff]

How about we talk about the whole “Metatron, the voice of the god” thing?

 Because it’s a bit weird to me. Like no one in Heaven ever questions the fact that only Metatron can talk to the Almighty. To be honest for me it looks like he doesn’t even talk to them anymore; I mean, maybe he did it before, but now it seems like he just pretends to do it.

For example - the first scene of the second season - Crowley creating the universe. 

You know, when you’re making a prototype, you’re usually informed about it; I mean, it’s not like you finish a phone, and then someone goes, “Hey, it was actually a prototype, so now I need you to smash it.” 

When Azira comes to Crowley and tells him that the universe will be destroyed in 6000 years, he seems surprised, and it feels like he was told something different. He also mentions that he worked very closely with the original creator, who’s supposed to be God. And Crowley is absolutely sure that he can ask a couple questions and maybe even suggest something. 

I highly believe that the Almighty themselves ordered Crowley to create the universe, but then Metatron told Azira about Armageddon. But it wasn’t an order from God but something Metatron wanted. He just masked it to sound like Her order. And when Crowley started doubting what Azira told him, he became a threat to Metatron. In the last ep, Metatron says that Crowley asked too many questions, so what if it wasn’t God who threw Crowley out of Heaven, but Metatron?

And if you’re saying, “God wanted Armageddon, they didn’t do anything to stop it!” you’re wrong. If they really wanted Earth to end, they wouldn’t allow Adam to go to the wrong family. And they would punish Crowley and Aziraphale. Which they didn’t do; Heaven and Hell did, but not God. In fact, they sounded way happier that Armageddon didn’t happen at all.

In the book, there is Metatron in the scene with Adam and the horsemen instead of Gabriel. And when Crowley and Angel start to argue with him and Beelzebub, there is a line that says, “said Metatron, but in a worried tone of voice.” While Beelzebub was angry in the book, and both them and Gabriel were annoyed in the show, Metatron was worried. And it wasn’t the type of worry that ineffable bureaucracy had; they were concerned about sending their sides back to work. But Metatron sounded more like he wanted everyone to forget what Crowley and Azira said.

Crowley’s reaction to God talking to Job is also weird. 

When Job talks to God, Crowley seems surprised. He says ‘’but just to be able to ask a question’’. Which is weird considering that it was God, as we’re told, that threw him down for questions. 

Crowley was downcasted from Heaven, basically, for annoying God, not for plotting something or joining Satan’s friend group, but for asking too many questions. And now we know that those questions were about a project he and Saraqael were working on alongside God, not with Metatron, not Gabriel, but the Almighty Herself. Also, what Crowley suggests, putting Earth in the middle is reasonable. But that’s not the point now.

 So according to that our ‘thin dark duke’ wasn’t supposed to be surprised by God talking, it could’ve been Aziraphale, but not Crowley. 

That flashback in fact is really important for the storyline and especially for Crowley’s backstory, she has many suspicious lines, like “the same god that wants me to kill children?” which kinda implies that the actual God doesn’t want to kill them but someone who’s pretending to be god is, or, again, the whole dialogue with Aziraphale while god talks. He also stops Sitith from cursing God, while he as a demon shouldn’t have any problems with that, so maybe he didn’t want her to curse not Almighty but Metatron.

 

Then we have - Saraqael. They are the only character confirmed to have known pre-fall Crowley and known to work with them. (Aziraphale doesn’t count due to him meeting Crowley shortly before his fall and Crowley not even introducing herself.)

 But Saraqael is interesting to me also because they’re the only archangel that we see with a disability(I don’t have any problems with the character or actress being disabled; I love that we have representation.); demons have plenty; angels, on the other hand, mostly appear as perfect creatures. But not Saraqael, and them being disabled looks much more interesting once we learn that they’re an archangel who worked with Crowley.

We know that angels didn’t want to send Gabriel to hell because that may have created wrong thoughts among angels. Considering that Saraqael worked on the universe just like Crowley, they would most likely have the same questions as him, but they’re still an angel and haven’t changed their status.

Also, their name is mentioned two or three times and they aren’t treated like an archangel, the way Michael and Uriel talk, or rather they don’t talk, about them really reminds me of the way they talk about Jim. And Gabriel can’t remember their name, although he didn’t have that problem with Sandalfon or Aziraphale, but he has one with his actual colleague? Both Sandalfon and Aziraphale are not archangels, yes they have a high rank but it still doesn’t make them archangels. 

 Then again, not only do they not tell Michael or Uriel about Crowley, but they tell Muriel to show him the trial.  Why would an angel, especially a high-ranking angel, cover for a demon who’s looking through very important files? 

And while Metatron and Crowley have one interaction, things Metabitch says after Crowley leaves are also suspicious in a weird way; while Angel is crushed he tells him that he never really needed Crowley, and then he says “he was always asking damn fool questions” Like, how would you know?? he was talking to God not you. 

So my idea is - Metatron isn’t talking to God anymore. I also think that Metatron tried to get rid of God(don’t ask me how I don’t know) and God, knowing damn well about it, ordered Crowley and Saraqael to create the universe, then they created humans so she could hide among them (“And God created man in their own image, in the image of God created they him; male and female created she them.” Genesis 1:27) and ran to earth. They are hiding on earth and waiting for the right moment to come out. 

[goatbeard-goatbeard]

This probably seems like a minor detail, but I really appreciate that they had Frances McDormand, NOT Derek Jacobi, deliver the monologue to Job. Making it totally unambiguous that God is doing this, that it’s not some underling gone rogue.

As An Ex-Evangelical™️, one of the most common, most annoying ideas I run into re: Christianity is “oh Christianity is such a good philosophy! 😊 People are just interpreting it wrong! 😊 They’re corrupting Jesus’ true teachings! 😊”

To borrow a concept from UI design, if a lot of your users are “doing it wrong”, it’s actually the design that’s wrong (see also: the Purpose Of a System Is What It Does).

Yes, you’ve written the word “push” on the door, but you gave it a vertical handle — something that’s more naturally shaped for a pulling hand than a pushing hip. Of course people will grab the handle and pull. Yes, you’ve carefully marked safe crosswalks, but they’re so far apart that they’d double the walking distance. Of course people will take their chances with jaywalking, and sometimes get hit.

Yes, you’ve told people to be generous, but you’ve also told them “the poor you will always have”. Of course they’ll assume that anti-poverty legislation will fail, and vote against it. Yes, you’ve told people to be stewards of the earth, but you’ve also told them that God will end the world. Of course they’ll be skeptical of human-caused climate change. Yes, you’ve told people to love their neighbors, but you’ve also told them that anyone who doesn’t repent gets tortured forever. Of course they’re going to try to turn as many people away from hell as possible, even if that requires “tough love” in the here and now.

So for Good Omens to say, no, God is 100% involved in the story of Job, this has nothing to do with the Metatron. I love it. This isn’t a case of “things would be so much better if only people didn’t corrupt God’s true intentions! 😊”

Nah. She’s just Like That.

(also the biblically accurate/“wrestling with God” reading is just… way more fun than the boring, sanded-off Christian version where Everything Happens For A Reason. Let God be weird and petty and chaotic! Let God rant about the whales!)