Since I only now finished the second season there is already quite a bit of meta available for the end and while I find a lot of it interesting and I'm not saying it's wrong (because who knows where Mr. Gaiman is hopefully taking us) I also think it's fascinating that at the core of a lot of theories seems to be the assumption that Aziraphale acted out of character in that last scene when I find he acted extremely like himself.
1) The decision to go back to heaven
Aziraphale has - different from Crowley - never been comfortable acting independently from heaven. He did it when he found it necessary (and later more comfortable along with the deal) but there's always been a very clear level of discomfort around it. Crowley was circumspect with his more virtuous actions because he was worried about the possible consequences - Aziraphale has always felt guilty, because what if he was really working against Her?
So him jumping at a chance to work with heaven presumably under his directives, under directives that would understand that you can't just e.g. exchange children, a more compassionate heaven makes total sense to me.
And sure he has to give up the comforts he's grown accustomed to - the food, the books, the variety humanity provides - but he's not selfish. He wasn't going to give them up only to make Armageddon possible, but he certainly is ready to sacrifice them for the greater good. As he tells Crowley: I can make things better.
2) Why does he believe Metatron?
Angels Don't Lie.
This season has hammered this idea home and good - sure they can obfuscate, they can leave out details, they can forget, but they don't lie.
And yes of course he himself is proof that they certainly can and nothing will happen, but I do think that he believes himself to be an abberation in this case and that the only reason he hasn't been punished is because Crowley is the only one that knows. And he's still mostly really bad at lying so I think he truly believes he'd be able to spot it - in a way even Aziraphale's first lie was extremely see-through but since angels don't lie they also don't know how to spot them in themselves.
(Plus i also think that since Aziraphale is one of the lower tier angels he's convinced that also gave him a pass.)
3) Asking Crowley to come back to heaven with him, knowing that would hurt him
Now the second part of that assumption is the crux, the most central part to why his actions are very much in character for Aziraphale, because does he know?
I don't think he does and all his actions during their flashbacks and interactions proves that at the heart of it he fully 100% believes that if he could, Crowley would jump at getting to undo his Fall.
Because to him Crowley is good and Crowley is Kind - and he's only forced to pretend he isn't because as a Demon he can't be. And he just wants Crowley to live happily, to be happy and for Aziraphale that means not being Fallen.
I don't think Aziraphale wants to change Crowley or that he spent 6000 years trying to fix him or anything toxic like that. But we see how he feels about the mere idea of Falling, how he acts when he's sure it's his time to go after Job - he's devastated, he's crying, he's desperate.
And it's not like Crowley is helping - Hell is hell and he never sugar coats that. And while Aziraphale had over the millenia gotten a few stern talking-to's, he's never been punished the way he had to watch Crowley he punished.
And on top of it all, he remembers Crowley pre-Fall, how happy, how joyful, how full of wonder and how he didn't have to hide any of this then. How he could just be this way without having to hide it away.
So i don't think he realises that Crowley's decision to be alone so he doesn't have to play along with Hell's schemes actually applies to the whole system.
And the reason he doesn't realise this is because at the heart of it, he believes in heaven. Despite everything, despite the cruelties he's seen and been done to him, he believes that there is something like the Ultimate Good, the place God's plan is truly realised and he believes that that place is Heaven. It's not the system's fault, it's the angels who made the decisions and even those aren't evil (because Angels Are Good) they are misguided or clueless or uneducated etc. Aziraphale clings to this world view and he always has done so - he's even in s2 adamant that Heaven Is Good and Hell Is Evil.
So of course he would want to be in charge, to change Heaven the way he always felt it should be.
And of course he'd want Crowley there; to an extent Crowley is his standard of who Angels/ Heaven should act/be - kinder than anyone no matter the circumstances.
So I do think his offer was heartfelt, was supposed to be their triumph as a couple, to be able to be part of a whole but also together, where they belong and where they can make things better for the humans they're both so fond of.
Even his reaction to Crowley disagreeing to go fits perfectly in what we know of him - we get pretty much the exact same reaction when Crowley refuses to help with Gabriel: a plea, an earnestly expressed desire to do it with Crowley but just as earnest obstinacy to go at it alone if Crowley doesn't want to join him.
So all in all while that last scene breaks my heart and makes me want to shake him it fits so well into the Aziraphale we've come to know that I can't find myself being mad at it.
12 notes
·
View notes
Hiii, how are you?
I had this little idea in my mind, that i wanted to share with you.
Thenamesh 10 things i hate about you AU.
Dane the new guy at school, wants to go out with his beautiful classmate Sersi, but there's a little problem with that. Sersi can't go out unless her cold and scary older sister Thena does. So Dane does the most sensible thing, and hiers Gilgamesh a mysterious boy with a bad reputation, to date Thena.
- Btw thank you sooo much for your works, they are so cute and perfect, and always make my days better. 🩷🤍
"Hi Dane!"
"Sersi!"
The two bounded over to each other like puppies, or fawns with a little kick in their step. Thena did smile faintly as she watched her sister excitedly greet this equally sweet, equally nerdy boy she had found to her tastes.
It was the only reason Thena had agreed to this charade of a 'date'.
It was the only reason her 'date' had agreed as well, as far as she could gather. Dane had heard that she and Sersi could not go anywhere unless it was together, their father taking advantage of Thena's naturally repellent presence to keep people away from his more sociable daughter.
Gilgamesh was - according to reputation and rumour - a juvenile delinquent allowed to attend school for a last attempt at graduating before he joined a mob or gang for the rest of his life. He was quiet, certainly looked tall and big enough for it to be believable that he had been in some trouble with authority. He wore only dark t-shirts and jeans with unintentional tears in the knees and heavy boots. And he smoked.
"Ready for this, or what?"
Thena let some bemusement show on her face as Sersi and Dane galloped up to the snack counter, arm in arm. She drifted vaguely in Gilgamesh's direction. "You seem even more displeased by this arrangement than I could have anticipated."
He gave her an equally shrewish look, both of them in a standoff in the theatre lobby. He made the grand effort of pulling his hands out of his pockets and relaxing his posture. He really was big. "Is that how I seem?"
Thena crossed her arms at him, "you need not pretend for my sake, Gilgamesh. What did you get paid?"
He blinked.
"No one does anything with me willingly," Thena said lightly, looking towards her options for food while Dane counted out his pennies to pay for a combo to share with Sersi.
He slid a little closer to her, both of them hovering just outside the bounds of being in line. "Is that what this school is like? Guys bidding for the privilege to go out with your ladyship?"
"They have attempted it before."
"Well, that's disgusting."
Thena blinked at him, this time.
He looked over at her with his arms crossed, "you don't seem like the type who would tolerate that. For you or your sister."
"I don't," she scowled, happy to resume her previous frostiness. "But it is not that original a tactic, is all I'm saying."
"You mean this?" he pulled a few bills out of his pocket, crisp and brand new.
Thena shrank somewhat.
"Dane told me he was trying to ask out Sersi but she wasn't allowed to go anywhere without you. I told him I don't exactly have the spare cash to be taking out anyone," he raised a cool brow at her with that stupid smirk on his face, "her ladyship or otherwise."
Thena's shoulders rose, "so Dane paid you off."
"He lent me the cash to actually buy the tickets and some popcorn, Princess, so put your axe and noose away."
"Prin-"
"So, you wanna see a movie or what?" Gilgamesh stepped in even closer, leaning his head down when the thickness of his arms stopped him from encroaching more.
She eyed him. "Do you?"
He chuckled, "y'know, I really am strapped for cash. I could have just taken this and fucked right off."
Thena continued to regard the cash in his hand with disgust. She must have been feeling generous when she looked at him again, "why didn't you?"
His eyes were very brown, but warm, in a way. "Maybe I wanted the chance to figure out why everyone calls you the shrew."
"Ah," Thena scoffed, finally moving into the snack line for herself, "so you have heard."
"You seem to have heard about me."
"Everyone has heard about you," she both argued and defended, lest he think she had asked about him at any point.
"And what you think?"
It came out soft, hard to hear over the popcorn and the pretzels and the teenagers screaming at each other behind the counter. She looked over at him, but his face didn't match the almost vulnerable tone of the question.
She straightened her posture again and held her chin high, "you are not as frightening as you think you are."
His eyes slid over to her again, a grin on his face, "you're not as mean as you think you are either."
The two stared at each other, digging as deep as they could without exposing too much of themselves, either.
"Uhm, would you like-"
Gilgamesh slapped the cash on the counter and glared at the kid, "whatever the lady wants."
Thena rolled her eyes, but it couldn't be said that she wasn't laughing just a little. She sighed, looking at the LED screen menus again. "Pretzel bites and a medium iced tea, please."
"Iced tea?"
She glared at his loud and amused scoff. "What of it?"
"Even your drinks are uptight," he snickered at her, although he wasn't arguing against the choice as the employee filled up the soda fountain cup in front of them.
Her eyes narrowed, "I like iced tea."
Gilgamesh held up his hands and leaned off the counter, "I did say whatever the lady wants--the old lady, apparently."
Thena met his sardonic chuckling with her own, "if I am an old bitty then perhaps I should not be dating such a young specimen, then."
"Oh, so we are dating!"
She whipped around, ready to glower and snipe and insult him into leaving. But he reached over her shoulder to accept the drink from the kid and take a sip for himself--the first sip! "Hey!"
Gilgamesh made a display of licking and smacking his lips before slipping the cup into her hand from above and behind her, "I guess it's not vile."
Thena huffed, holding the cup protectively, soiled straw and all. "This better not taste of smoke now."
"Relax, I haven't had any today," he assuaged her, also reaching around her - rude - again for the paper cup of pretzel nuggets. He offered her one, "heard you're pretty repelled by the stuff."
"Oh." Thena accepted a pretzel bite (although, really, weren't they hers?). She turned, still somewhat pinned between him and the front counter, "well...yes."
"I do brush my teeth too, y'know," he gave her another devilish look and leaned closer again, "care to test?"
"Hm," she mused, eyeing him again. She let him drift closer until she could jam a pretzel bite between them, "no."
Gil caught the pretzel bite in his hand as she slipped away from him, rejoining her sister as Dane claimed his and Sersi's seats. The sisters traded a few, quiet words, glancing in both directions as they did. Sersi was visibly charmed by Dane.
Thena glanced briefly in Gil's direction, but that was definitely a smile on her face, "perhaps."
He took that as a good thing, walking over with the pretzel bites to her iced tea. "Well?"
Thena merely held her hand out for him to approach the counter himself.
He smirked again, dragging her with him by the wrist and then throwing his arm around her much smaller shoulder when he got up front. "Two for the same movie as them."
The young man eyed them, nothing short of confused at the display Gilgamesh was putting on. He scanned the tickets, "enjoy the movie."
Gil angled Thena to look at her again. She glared at him for man-handling her. He grinned, "I think I will."
13 notes
·
View notes