#the ending was perfect for the versions of aziraphale and Crowley they’ve written for tv

[buildoblivionthenwewilltalk]

see, the thing about GO s2 is that I genuinely believe it needed another go over in the script editing/ final cut stages because watching it as a whole makes the story feel so bloated and meandering - the tone is massively off from the very tightly written first season, lacking focus and not quite capturing the same wit or wisdom that the OG series and the book achieved

but then I see a little moment on a beloved mutual’s gif set and my whole heart goes 🥺😭💕🥰

[banrionceallach]

More Crowley thoughts

So I have thoughts about the fan interpretation of Crowley.

Rambling ahead.

I think some of the issue is people who are book fans vs people who are TV fans not quite remembering that TV and Book Crowley are not the same person. They have many similarities but a few glaring differences as well. So fanfic featuring TV Crowley is going to seem OOC to people expecting Book Crowley’s personality and vice-versa. (Same w. Book and TV Aziraphale)

Book fans need to remember that the only Crowley some TV fans will have knowledge of is TV Crowley. Thus they may write him with complete disregard to book crowley’s characteristics. 

Here’s the key point: This is not Wrong. 

I can see why it may irritate book first fans. They’ve had a certain version of Crowley in their heads (for nearly 30 years) and people are writing fanfic of TV Crowley who is Different. They’re basing characterisation off the six episodes rather than paragraphs in the book.  But this isn’t intrinsically incorrect. Just different.

Here’s another thing. I do think fandom is currently exaggerating Crowley’s good characteristics. That’s natural. We all do that with our faves all the time, and TV Crowley who is a well written entertaining character, combined with David Tennant’s great acting and natural charisma (and for me at least some tenth doctor nostalgia) is definitely a fan fave at the the moment.

However, Crowley is a demon. He does demonic stuff. Eden for starters. The M25 etc. He says he’s not nice, he’s not kind or soft. 

And he’s right, he isn’t.

Except when you happen to be an angel who gave away a flaming sword. 

Crowley is soft and kind and nice for Aziraphale and No One Else.

To TV Crowley at least, no one else matters. (Well, maybe the Bentley). He was willing to run off and let the earth and all six-billion people on it burn if Aziraphale came with him.

Here’s another thing: Not being nice and being pointlessly cruel/Evil are two different things. That bit at Noah’s Ark where we all squee over nice Crowley? He’s not being nice there. He is merely showing bare minimum decency, which is all the more noteworthy right then because the literal side of the angels is about to start drowning kids. He is appalled, not because he’s secretly still a sweet perfect angel who shouldn’t have fallen but because he knows evil when he sees it and he has lines even he won’t cross.

Basically I think TV Crowley is the kind of demon who comes to the park with an ice-cream van on a sunny day and gives away unlimited free whipped ice-creams absolutely slathered in strawberry syrup to kids because the amount of chaos and frustration all those sugar-ed up, sticky syrup covered kids are going to cause their parents for the next several hours will nudge innumerable souls slightly closer to hell.

I think Crowley is not Evil with a capital E, but he’s not a soft kind sweetheart unless he thinks you’re worth the effort. And the only person he starts the show thinking worth the effort is Aziraphale. (I think Adam gains his respect by the end of it. And the Them. 11 year olds managing to stand up to the four horsemen is frankly pretty badass and I think Crowley would appreciate that.)

Full disclaimer: Even thinking all this, I still like secretly-a-kind-sweetheart Crowley in fics and have headcanons based on that premise. It’s the old Ten nostalgia again I think.