#i still don't know how to tag anathema stuff

[grimae]

Behemoth's Aftermath

[brsb4hls]

I think one of the main issues with not only s2 but some of s1 as well as that only neil was involved with the creation of both of them because terry unfortunately passed away. It lost something vital in that moment. In s1, they still had the book and I think s1 did a good job as far as adaptations go with some grievances, but now in s2, it's whatever neil is going to do and with how active he is on tumblr and how the fans are and how he's reacting to them, it's losing the spirit of the original even further. Not BECAUSE the ship is canon, but everything else surrounding the ship and how we got there and how the writers and the actors are changing the characters more as they progress from one season to the next. I watched s2 feeling giddy for more good omens and very quickly that giddiness turned sort of confused and disappointed. I didn't want disjointed filler fanfic with a loose plot. It didn't fit. It didn't feel right. Overall, I didn't hate the season, but I didn't quite like it either. The handful of you good omens critical blogs have summed it up very well for me and I'm surprised it's not a more popular opinion. I've just seen a couple people talking about how book fans are complaining which is the most dismissive way to put it. I'm not sure if people are blinded by their theories and canon ship or they just don't care that this season felt almost fanmade, but I'm sad that the book and tv show versions are now miles apart rather than cousins.

That's a long ask, thank you for sharing!

I actually did like season 1, too. The book is very hard to transfer to tv imo and choices had to be made.

Technically, Adam is the main character, but putting more focus on him would either mean a) a kid show with a lot of stuff about the them or b) more Anathema and conspiracy theories discussion.

That probs wouldn't have worked that well, so Gaiman made the two most colourfull characters the protagonists and in order to flesh them out added to their relationship.

Other stuff was added for comedic reasons or drama. Which I get.

So season one was a fair interpretation with necessary (to appeal to a mainstream audience) changes.

And both actors were doing an amazing job, so that helps.

Another plus is that a lot of new fans had so much fun with the material and created a ton of art/fics and revived the fandom.

And then it went off the rails somehow.

The thing is, Good Omens isn't a drama. A lot of dramatic events happen, but they feel understated, it's mainly weird, quirky and funny.

It also isn't a love story. In the romantic sense.

There is a lot of love in the book.

And I truely do not know what exactly happened, that turned such a unique little thing into the most bland, generic romance.

Probably capitalism.

I mean, just watching Crowley and Aziraphale trying to weather everyday life without having their jobs anymore would have been hilarious, but probs to niche.

And I would love to know what made Gaiman change his tune in regards to the nature of their relationship.

He does not really answer stuff, though, he's good at circumventing.

I hope at least it wasn't tumblr that influenced him. In most cases a creative process suffers from too much social media interaction. (Season 3 could get even worse).

The fandom dynamics regarding criticsm are always complicated.

I do speculate that most hyper positive fans are fairly new, just in it for the ship and going with the flow.

Also critcism is kinda a four letter word these days.

Sadly.

I mean it can be fun and relieving to went or pick apart or even ridicule and as long as it's tagged correctly nobody gets hurt by it.

Maybe 'Good Omens' also is a sore subject, because after years of being vague, Crowley/Aziraphale actually got canonized, and no matter what they represent as, they do look like a gay couple to the general audience, and people might be afraid criticsm might reflect badly on the representation they finally got.

Who knows.

In the end, one can always cherry pick. I do like some scenes, I do ship Crowley/Aziraphale, but I'm disappointed that their characters went full on angel/demon cliche contrary to the appealing, nuanced book versions.

And yeah, there is no actual plot so we might as well have gotten smth like Crowley tries to earn money by becoming an uber driver or smth (there's great fanfic about that).

But that's just me, I do get why people enjoy it. Criticsm just helps to deal a bit with the disappointment, because, like you, I was initially thrilled about the second season.

[mrmarielda]

tagged by @clementineskesh! thanks jack !!

last song i listened to: i THOUGHT it was prayer by leith ross but i opened spotify to check and i was, apparently , halfway through a song called "no rehab!" by local news legend, which i tried listening to earlier and then forgot about because i did not find it particularly interesting. not bad but it's in a sort of space that im kind of tired of.

currently reading: shadow of the torturer for book club! really interesting book! talked about it for 3 hours on saturday and probably could have talked about it for another 3 ! i still haven't decided if i actually like it but i Did like when jorge luis borges showed up to tell severian all about his fucked up library, though.

currently watching: lots of stuff !! i think the main ones are that ive been rewatching adventure time and watching the 1999 version of hunter x hunter for the first time ! (have seen the 2011 version many times). both very solid, fun shows don't have tremendously much to say about either.

current obsession: ive been working very slowly on and off on a story tentatively called Anathema for... i guess it's been about a year at this point? have NOT gotten any writing done recently but i've been very fixated on working on world building and drawing my characters lately! drew a world map a couple weeks ago even though i already had basically everything i needed to know about the layout of the region the story is actually concerned with. also! just been really into drawing lately! been trying to figure out how to pull a more impressionistic look out of my art and am having a nice time playing around with that in the piece im currently working on :o) here's some wips! and that map !

i will not be tagging anyone because i do not like to <3 but i am extending an open invitation to anyone who wants to do a tag game to go forth and tell me about how the last song you listened to, etc.

[flowerquib]

Hello! I don't really know if you take asks or stuff like that, but I really liked your ineffable buddies au! (If that was what it was called...) and I thought of a bit of an outline, if you don't mind me sharing...

Tubbo and Ranboo are obviously the husbands, thought I think they warmed up to each other before they left eden to be honest. They talked to each other all the time, to the point that they invented "platonic feelings". They decided to get married when they realized it would get them visas and tax benefits to the different places they were living in.

The SBI family would most likely be the four horsemen. Wilbur could be pollution, like the dirty crime boy he is. Philza would most definitely be Death. I think I would put Tommy as war, cause while Techno can win the battle, Tommy definitely starts them with no problem. Techno could be famine then.... idk how to tie it in, maybe something with potatoes? Anyway, Tommy is Tubbo's best friends, seeing that he would always help in his schemes to cause trouble. Actually, all the horsemen are pretty nice and knows them pretty well. Since the horsemen got summoned and actually don't want the world to end, they sorta half ass their parts to prolong it like riding together really slow, or being "defeated" by the Them.

Plot twist, Michelle is the antichrist, and was meant to live with the President Schlatt and his husband Quackity(who only adopted to boost their popularity, mind you) but was accidently mixed up with Micheal and ended up living with the lovely couple of Puffy and Niki. Ranboo and Tubbo were tasked to raise it as the antichrist, but they became absolutely smittened with him and lovingly cared for him as their own son.

The Them as said by someone else could be Foolish Jr, Michelle, and Micheal(who probs got in contact via pen pal or something). When they face off against the horsemen, Techno pretends to be defeated by Micheal after being in the shin once, screaming monotonously and lying on floor for the rest of the time. Michelle sends Philza somewhere nice, like a beach or something, them distracts Wilbur with guitar. Foolish Jr straight up strikes Tommy with lightning and says his dad taught him how. No one knows how he did it.

Heaven could be Dream, George, Skeppy, Foolish and Karl as archangels, with DreamXD being God. On the flipside, Sapnap, Jack Manifold, Punz, Hannah and BadBoyHalo are the demons. (Also, for some unknown reason, I like to imagine that when Quackity leaves Schlatt, he meets Sapnap and Karl, and they fall in love, a angel, a demon and a human!)

Awesamdude and Ponk could be Anthema and Newt respectively (fun if rather than break computers, Ponk would accidently burn most fruit plants.) That means Antfrost and his boyfriend could be shadwell and pomfrey...

I think I went on too long... sorry! That's some of my ideas, they can be totally changed or something else. Let me know what you think pls!

Ello!

I don't mind asks I think their great and tbh I really didn't think my au would get some attention

I did not think a lot of this though besides the Them, the husbands, and the horsemen but I think the ideas you have are awesome

like during the final showdown between the horsemen and the Them, instead of fighting seriously it's just nice chaos

And the idea of awesamedude and ponk being anathema and newt is just so wholesome to me

And oh my goodness the amount of crossover relationships between demons and Angels (also humans too) is just beautiful

I just imagine the very conservative type angels, where they don't like demons and angels talking or communicating with eachother, just be in a state of shock and disappointment everytime. Same with demons.

At first I thought of schlatt being satan because of the obvious stuff (the horns and being pretty evil) and I wanted dadschlatt drama, but his being president works surprising well

Also puffy and niki being cottagecore wives with the antichrist as their child is just 👌

Again I never thought people would like my au cause I kinda just made it to make pog good omens AU fanart

I'll probably make more fanart cause I can't write-

I'm still gonna use the tag ineffable buddies au even though ranboo and tubbo are now actually canonically married because ineffable husbands is already used by the good omens fandom

[inconveniently-discorporated]

I can't seem to tag the other person who brought up death of the author but thank you!! I heard about it awhile back and completely forgot about it, so that was an interesting research topic for my morning.

I really like this perspective layered on top of the original post. Life is so complicated and beautiful and chaotic. I especially appreciate that certain parts of our life can live in different perspectives. I just used this analogy last night in a different context, but it's like light through a prism: all the colors are pieces that make up a whole, they all exist in that one beam of light.

That's sort of how I feel about my childhood. My mom was very emotionally abusive, and I moved into adulthood with so much anger about it. I mean, I knew she had mental health issues, so there was SOME kind of peace there. Now that I've grown and learned more, I've gained the depth of insight into how hard those were to face, ESPECIALLY given her other challenges, and especially when she grew up in a time where those things were not typically diagnosed in women.

It's this weird duality where my pain as a helpless child is valid and real, but so was my mom's, and I can empathize while also understanding it was wrong. Sometimes people don't see past what happened and aggressively try to talk me down from my understanding of her situation, but I don't need to do that. It has been far more healing for me to understand why things happened the way they did, because it helps me understand myself and empowers me to make the changes she could not, even though we face some of the same challenges.

Anyway, back to the perspectives and interpretations in reading, it reminds me of the post I saw within the last few weeks encouraging people to write and rewrite the same things if they feel like it. Write different interpretations of stuff. Write things in the same fandom that contradict each other. I've been doing a lot of that lately, and it's so much fun. Kids process a lot about the world around them through pretend play, and this sort of thing really brings out the fact that we don't have to stop doing that. Art is a sandbox everyone can play in.

That's why I write so much -- it's how I learn about the world around me. It's a way to "practice" things I learn, in a no-risk environment. Lately I'm trying to challenge myself to let it go wrong -- the character can't get every big win. More than that, make it go wrong. Obviously, that's good for plot purposes, but it also allows me to navigate risks without having to actually risk them. It has helped me out a lot.

Final quasi-related thought of the night... This whole topic brings to mind the Nice and Accurate Prophecies of Agnes Nutter. We're all out here like all of her descendents, writing their little interpretations and encouragement in the margins. Some of them were wildly off base, some of them were exceptionally on point, but the thing is that it took all of them giving their unique perspective to get to a point where Anathema Device could study that book and know what it was she was meant to do.

In that specific case, I guess there was a "right" answer, because she only wrote true prophecies. But, to be fair, sometimes even she had no idea what she was looking at as she was transcribing it. It still took everyone's perspectives to create the full picture. To boot, that was actually a situation where no one would ever know if they had gotten it "right", because the author was literally dead.

Everything is meant... Or is it?

First I would like to preface this by saying that I'm splitting this off because I've been kicking it around as its own thing, but was inspired to actually post it based on the meta @ineffablebookgirl did and the thoughts from @skeetlebeetle on the paintball scene.

So, is everything meant?

This is a question I've thought about a lot with all the meta I've consumed and posted. There are a lot of analyses that go on based on tiny details, micro expressions, so on and so forth. There are different interpretations one could make about different scenes and different characters. Throughout this I've asked myself: does it really count if the author/creator didn't intend for it to be this way?

It doesn't help that Neil Gaiman is a lot like the God he and Terry Pratchett wrote:

“Are you saying,” said Crowley, “that He planned it this way all along? From the very beginning?”

Aziraphale conscientiously wiped the top of the bottle and passed it back.

“Could have,” he said. “Could have. One could always ask Him, I suppose.”

“From what I remember,” replied Crowley, thoughtfully, “—and we were never actually on what you might call speaking terms—He wasn’t exactly one for a straight answer. In fact, in fact, He’d never answer at all. He’d just smile, as if He knew something that you didn’t.”

“And of course that’s true,” said the angel. “Otherwise, what’d be the point?”

There are times where Neil will clarify something, or confirm or deny something, but mostly I've seen him take the stance of, "Isn't that the beauty of art? Everyone can interpret things in different ways."

He doesn't clamor to correct people on their interpretation of his work, and that's something I've found very admirable and will certainly be taking with me as I put my work out in the world. It allows us, the fans of this media, to enjoy it to the fullest extent. It lets us take from it what we need, and that's truly a beautiful thing.

"Yes, but, how could it mean anything if that's not what was meant when it was written? How do we know we've gotten it right?" -- does that sound familiar? Because that reminds me of a certain angel who has spent the better part of six thousand years collecting Bibles and books of prophecy and everything else, seemingly in search of The Answer. In search of what it all means, in spite of its ineffability.

And as we can see throughout the story, the common thread seems to be: it doesn't matter what it means, it doesn't matter what it's meant to be. We can take from it what we wish, and our choices are our own, and our own choices are the ones that really matter. That's part of the beauty of being human.

Really, the conclusion I've come to, is that I suppose I don't mind if things were meant, or if they were beautiful moments of accidental serendipity.

It's truly admirable when an author can tie together all of these amazing details, on purpose. However, as I've discovered through my OWN writing, it's sometimes even more amazing when these details fall perfectly into place, all on their own. Those are the moments I sit back, look at what I've written, and go, "Holy shit, that is AWESOME!"

It's just like life, and it's just like Good Omens -- maybe it's written, maybe it's not. You don't need to see the story for it to happen, you don't need to be told what decision to make in order to be happy with it. That's why Anathema burned the second book at the end. To hell with the answers or what is meant, she can create her own answers and find her own meaning.

I feel like it can seem less impressive if something happens by accident rather than the author intending for it to happen. I would actually propose that it is MORE impressive.

What is the difference between intelligence and artificial intelligence? Sentient and non-sentient? The non-sentient AI does what we tell it to do. Sentience is when it takes on a life of its own. In that way, by facilitating these accidental moments of poetic meaning, I feel like the creator has imparted into their work a little bit of the magic that makes us who we are. They've harnessed the spirit of life well enough that it got away from them through their work, and created something utterly lifelike.

I've thought about this particularly when it comes to people speculating about neurodivergency. People recognize a lot of ADHD traits in Crowley, and a lot of autistic traits in Aziraphale. I'm actually not sure if Neil and Terry intended that (Neil has responded to the question in a similar way as sexuality, in that he acknowledged they behave like neurodivergent humans in some ways, but they're not human, so he wouldn't call them that -- but I haven't seen a yes/no on whether it was intended).

Regardless, even if it's not, I find that incredibly impressive. It means the creator has done a good enough job of creating a whole character that they can consistently embody this aspect of human psychology, without it being seen as pandering or like the author took a neurodivergent checklist and tried to cram it all in there. It's quite an impressive feat, considering the human brain is, well --

I suppose the point of all this is, life is utterly beautiful and so is art, especially when art mimicks life, and especially when it does so by accident. I love seeing all the meta going around, and I love when creators are able to let this sort of stuff just be. It's my favorite part of this fandom in particular, because I've been scared out of a lot of other ones because I enjoyed it the "wrong way", according to the fandom's interpretation or the creator's own rigidity.

I think the other point is that we all have the power of this kind of creation, especially if we take a page from Crowley's book. We can wall our characters and plotlines in the Garden of Eden where everything is meticulously perfect, but if we let them eat the apple and grant these things the freedom to take on a life of their own, even if it seems disastrous at first, our creations could go on to create things we never saw coming. If we let ourselves explore our stories freely, and we let our audience explore freely, we can see our own creations transform into wonderful things we never imagined.

And then, maybe, one day, you can reflect on this when someone asks you, "Did you mean for this to happen?"

Then, once you're done autographing their treasured copy of your book that they've dropped in the tub at least once and taped together with yellow tape, you can just sort of look at them and smile, as if you know something they don't.