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halemerry · 10 months

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On Crowley, memory, and identity.

So full disclosure first, I am not someone who is particularly interested in having Crowley's angel name on screen - personally I rather like the idea of never having an answer to this question - but I also do think it's interesting and fun to speculate and we got quite a few hints at this throughout this season soooo

Obviously part of this is that we meet him. The angel that would become Crowley is the first person on screen this season. We confirm a lot about him here. He confirm that he is powerful enough to start the engine of the universe. We confirm that he can control gravity and time and space and light. We confirm that he is the being that says let there be light before the beginning. We also confirm that he consulted with the concept designer of the universe and that he's very comfortable with the idea of questioning authority. We are also given Aziraphale's anxiety as a contrast to this and as proof that that is not a universal trait for early angels.

Now, we have always had evidence that Crowley is powerful. He's done some things that seem impossibly big. He stops time very casually and seemingly without effort - even at the end of season 1 it doesn't even seem to give us the same strain on him that holding the Bentley together does. This is a thing that we only ever see Crowley do and notably a thing that you would think other beings would mess with to their advantage if it was possible. Which means they either literally can't or that it never occurred to them that they could. Or as is becoming increasingly clear: perhaps it's a bit of both.

But that's not the only implication of power we get in season 1 either. We get Crowley seemingly in tune with the universe in a way many angels and demons aren't. Which, makes some sense if he helped make it. This manifests in all sorts of ways. He's constantly aware of Aziraphale's presence. He can smell when the world state changes like when Adam names Dog. He holds the Bentley together through utter destruction. He notices that there are different books in the bookshop - something I always assumed was meant to convey he was familiar with the shop's contents but after learning he didn't even know Jane Austen was a writer I wonder if it's actually more to do with him being in tune with reality. He also can apparently quite literally feel when there are eyes on them.

We're given even more of all these things this season in some really interesting ways. Crowley literally tests the air to check if a miracle has happened - another thing that we don't see anyone else do despite Heaven literally assigning someone to Aziraphale to check for a specific miracle. This particular beat is also something we are shown twice this season. Both here and in 1941, when Furfur uses the miracle blocker on Aziraphale. Here Crowley tests his miracles and despite getting nothing of the sort when Aziraphale tries a miracle literally the beat before this, we are given both a visual and an auditory effect. It ripples out with a watery sound effect from Crowley's finger. It's like he's prodding at reality.

There's also several instances involving the recognition or lack thereof of angels and demons. Crowley feels that the demon army is arriving before it does. Neither side seems to be able to track Gabriel - one of the most powerful beings in existence - at all once he leaves Heaven. We also see countless angels fail to notice Crowley himself both as Bildad the Shuhite performing literal miracles right in front of them. And this happens again as he prances about Heaven after Muriel. Aziraphale can't tell Shax is a demon despite Crowley recognizing she's manifested behind him nearly as soon as he answers the phone. Aziraphale can't even recognize that he himself is still an angel at the end of the Job story.

He also. Quite literally. Brings someone back from the dead???? Like waves a hand casually on the street and reconstitutes Mr. Brown like he'd never been dead at all. Mr. Brown returns with no memory of what happened to him holding a newspaper that seems to have literal bite chunks coming out of it. It's not framed as a huge miracle or anything strenuous either - just a casual snap.

And that's not even getting into the parallels with Gabriel. First of all. We get the color purple. It's purple when Aziraphale and angel that would become Crowley start the engine of the quadrants of the universe and it's purple when they miracle to hide Gabriel. This color is associated with power and, historically in the language of this show, with Gabriel himself. Them using it together twice speaks a lot to the power they have together.

But that's not the only symbolism historically tied to Gabriel that has found its way to Crowley this season either. Most flashy of all is the lightning. This is how we see Gabriel arrive on earth at the end of season one and it is something Crowley apparently just Does when he gets too mad to contain himself.

This alone wouldn't catch my attention except. Except the way Crowley reacts to Gabriel's memory problems is... interesting to say the least. He's angry and understandably so. Part of this is him being mad and protective of Aziraphale - he says as much himself to Jim directly. And yet, weirdly, it's the kind of mad that reminded me of something else.

This is the mad he tends to gets at his plants. Do it properly. Think hard. You can do better than that. Grow better. It's the kind of angry that's steeped in projection. It's he kind of angry that is undercut with the occasional weird undercurrent of understanding. And so much of his dialogue with Jim around this is framed like he does actually understand. Jim says it hurts and he says he knows. Jim starts talking about it feeling like being an empty house that still remembers where the furniture is and Crowley immediately latches onto this and understands ah it's looking at where the furniture isn't.

And there's a few other conversations that center around this issue that I find really interesting from a projection perspective. There's the conversation that happens when Crowley goes to have an alcohol fueled chat with Jim. He says "You're Jim now. Got everything just the way you wanted?" This doesn't make a whole lot of sense for him to be addressing Gabriel with. As far as he knows all Gabriel would want was the end of the world.

And then there's the particular way he asks Jim to eliminate himself in this scene. Climb out the window. In other words, have a fall. Something he pretty immediately retracts and clearly feels guilty about no matter how much he hates Gabriel.

And then there's the first conversation he gets to have after learning about Gabriel. Crowley opens this conversation, thinking out loud. He's staring out, not talking to Az yet and the very first thing out of his mouth is, of all things: "He's going to be okay." A weird start for a statement about Gabriel in itself but then Crowley goes and adds what at it's core is his own trauma narrative to the end with, "We can just take him somewhere and leave him there."

Now the real fun bit: Crowley also has memory issues that are out very prominently on display even as far back as season 1.

He has inconsistent memories of his Fall. The answers he gives us to why he Fell change slightly - even when he's alone with himself. He doesn't seem to understand why exactly he Fell even though he clearly has some vague idea of the pieces in play. I always thought to some degree that this was just a trauma response, but season 2 drew even more attention to this and now that we know that memory alteration is how Heaven handles powerful angels I can't help but to wonder if there's more in play here.

Crowley can't remember Furfur - who he apparently literally fought next to during the war in Heaven. Crowley can't remember building a nebula with Saraqael. Crowley doesn't remember why they decided gravity was a good idea.

But he does remember bits and pieces here and there. He remembers doing some of the starmaking. He remembers how to access clearance locked files. He's missing pieces and also seems to have an understanding that Gabriel's memories ARE in there. Almost like he's done this work on himself before.

This narrative itself is also far more concerned with the angel Crowley was this time around. It teases his rank a few different times. Most notably is him having access the files only available to Dominions and above.

Now angel hierarchy is a bit of a messy area depending on what sources you're using but given Good Omens tendencies in the past we can assume that this leaves us five ranks. Dominion, Throne, Cherub, Seraph, and Archangel.

I might break down why I think Dominion, Throne, and Cherub feel kind of odd to me later if there's interest - now available here - in that but given the current length of this meta I just want to focus on that last one for now.

Crowley was an Archangel is far from a new theory and I've honestly historically had some fairly mixed feelings about it. But the parallels between Jim and Crowley lend some interesting connective tissue to a lot of those theories. And. There's also some interesting camera work and script writing tied to Crowley and that term outside of the scenes about Gabriel's memories specifically.

Firstly, during Crowley's chat with Beelzebub he says it's a big universe with plenty of places for an archangel to hide. Like Alpha Centauri perhaps?

Then we get Aziraphale and Crowley both presenting Hell and Heaven respectively the idea that it could have been them that did the archangel class miracle. Aziraphale gets scoffed at and yet. Shax is the one who says the miracle was archangel level and Crowley's response is "how do you know I didn't do it?"

Then later as she's prowling about the shop we get this interesting shot of Crowley in the doorframe and Jim in the background. Crowley grins and offers to let Shax look in and see if she can see any archangels in there while he's framed dead center and Jim himself is blurry in the back of the frame.

And most fascinating in my opinion is this shot that happens when Crowley and Muriel are accessing the classified files. Nearly every shot in this sequence is group shots or shots of Gabriel. The camera is focused in the plot and the way the archangels function as a group and on Gabriel himself. But we get one single shot in this entire sequence of Crowley by himself and it is immediately following Gabriel saying "I am the only first order archangel in the room - or, well, the universe."

And then in the end. We get the Metatron who goes out of his way to avoid using Crowley's name. He calls him demon (and insists correctly that Crowley would recognize him even when Michael doesn't) or refers to him as Aziraphale's friend. He only ever uses that name when trying to use him as a bribe for Aziraphale. That combined with the dark look he gives Crowley implies a familiarity that only the Metatron has with him.

So who is he then? There's plenty of old meta out there about why certain archangels fit or don't and I won't reiterate them here. They're interesting and definitely worth poking around at and very fun to read! Personally I'm not as interested in naming the someone he used to be as I am in examining the places that ghost of this angel has started to poke through the narrative so I'll end this here. It's spiralled into something far longer than I ever meant it to be anyway.

#good omens #good omens spoilers #good omens season 2 #gos2 spoilers #good omens meta #Crowley #Gabriel

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neil-gaiman · 4 months

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Dear Neil,

Hello from Italy.

I wanted to share this.

It’s by Gustave Doré, the famous illustrator of Dante’s Divina Commedia.

He also illustrated the Bible at some point. And this is his “Job speaks with his friends”.

Anyone familiar among these three? 😆

Thank you for everything, really. Reading and watching Sandman and Good Omens (above all the others) really opened my mind to a different way to approach the theme of universal love and explain it to my 8-year-old daughter. I’ll always be grateful for that 🏳️‍🌈

So, thank you. For what? Everything.

And for Bildad 😀

I love Dore (and his engravers) so much...

#bildad the shuhite

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weirdly-specific-but-ok · 3 months

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the bafta livestream out of context: top 60 cursed quotes.

There is nothing more cursed than the livestream I just witnessed, and I made a summary post but now I'm just going to put in quotes by the worthy maggots in the stream with no context, because BELIEVE ME THE CONTEXT DIDN'T MAKE ANYTHING BETTER. The livestream chat was NOT A PLACE OF THE LORD.

I'm going to make the quotes that were by me a different colour. Please know that I am NOT RESPONSIBLE FOR A SINGLE QUOTE OTHER THAN THOSE. SO HERE'S THE TOP 60 IN NO PARTICULAR ORDER:

Barbenhimer awakened things in me ok

aroace people the most disturbingly sexual talkers on the planet fight me on this

WHO JUST GASPED

MICHAEL SHEENS BABY TALKING BARK BADK IM A DOG BARK WOOF

I feel so sorry for this woman. She's being so heartfelt and we're here thristing over a slinky that possessed a man

IRELAAAND PLEASE ADOPT ME AS YOUR OWN PLEASE TAKE ME TO THE LAND OF UNPRONOUNCABLE WORDS, GREEN FEILD, CATHOLISISM AND HOZIER PLEASE

the urge to go to france and misgender a croissant is real

Devastated the slutty knees have gone away

So many men nowadays are so submissive and breedable like thank you lord for these men thank you

witches and murder slime tutorial

speaking of royals did the bloke who ISN'T lizzy's husband but her son apparently die yet

Turtleneck Crowley is my gender.

WE COULD HAVE LEFT IT AS NOT SAFE FOR WORK WHY THE DRTAOLS ASMI

SAY AN BFUIL CEAD AGAM DUL GO DTÍ AN LEITHREAS AN WE'LL LET YOU THROUGJ

"Oompa loompa doopety dee, I really hated being in this movie" -Hugh grant probably

IF YOU'RE A CHILD AVERT YOUR EYES FROM THAT MESSAGE IM SORRY

i want the kilt back this a betrayal

if someone put me in a room with kilt!david tennant one of us is walking out of that room pregnant and its not gonna be me

a lot of these words are in the bible and none of them should be in that order you need jesus

Can we vote to make david wear that kilt back? Maybe make him do a twirl this time

You mean Bildaddy? 😏

Honey what make you think a dude who roamed around with prostitutes and got himself more holes for mankind won't be calling bildad bildaddy? [this was about jesus btw.]

FREE THE KNEE

Show us the knees!

AND YOU'RE COMING AFTER ME FOR MY BLOWJOB BANANA

He looks like those fancy chocolates. Imma take a bite outta him. Think you'll leak molten goo like them?

My brain isn't working, I read "bratty couch jr"

i'm sorry the what holes

FIND ME ON GOAD AND I WILL MAKE YOU PAY APPROPRIATELY

I genuinely thought it was a road typo and I thought you were threatening asmi with physical violence on the road

OHH FLOWER OF SCOTLAAAAAAND

Combine that with the unfortunate oranges and see what happens.

DEVASTATING NEWS I ATE UP ALL OF THEM SO I'VE BROUGHT A BLOWJOB BANANA INSTEAD

That reminded me of the army video where the guy was deepthroating a 7 inch banana without a hitch.

OMG THEY JUST FLASHED BACK & I GOT A GLIMPSE OF THAT KILT 🥵🥵🥵

thats why apollo had to deliver you at an illegal sushi restaurant

How long do you think it would take to get david naked from his chocolate man suit? Can we set a new speedrun category?

SUPERBOWL FOR TENNANTISTS

Big feelings about pants straps in the chat tonight

Last time i check yoire supposed to thank the lord gor his gifts

HEY GUYS ASMI'S FROM A PARALLEL UNIVERSE CONFIRMED

I just have a deep appreciation for ireland

Can you use suspenders as bondage gear? I mean it looks like it would be fine? I mean if you make the length a bit more they might be more comfortable than ropes. Just sayin

All i can think when i see him in the costume is the one specific ken and oppenhimer slash fic. Lord help me i can't be saved

GIVE MY LOVE TO THE LEPRECHAAAAAAAAAAAUNSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSS

Like a giant orange slice on her one arm.

Stop hitting the lectern geez / what if its into that?

Men who wear suspenders are such losers like why do you need so much cloth to keep your pants up. Why dont you just wear a belt. Where do you live. What is your timezone. What are you office hours

what is this suspender shaming ari chappal for you

Aziraphales office hours are: fuck off

Put me ina room with a suspender wearing man and he shall have the same fate as kilttennant

MARIYADAM E ILLAI

It was titled "snake in my b***" It meant butt lmfao

CROWLEY AND LOKI MY GENDERFLUID ICONS

THE KNEES ARE BACK

THEKNEES GOD SAVE ME FROM THESE SINFUL THOUGHTS

What if slutshaming is my kink?

NOT THE BLOWJOB FACE NO

AT THIS POINT IF NEIL HASN'T UNFOLLOWED ME YET HE'S ASKING TO BE MENTALLY SCARRED IM SORRY

I am failing

Tagging the main culprits whose tumblr handles I know:

@thearoacemess @vitrilol @queermarzipan @good-usernames-were-taken

Cheers, maggots.

#good omens mascot #weirdly specific but ok #asmi #good omens #maggots #good omens fandom #crowley #bafta awards #bafta 2024 #bafta #suspenders #discord livestream #david tennant #michael sheen #barbenheimer #oppenheimer

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noneorother · 8 months

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The grand unified theory of Good Omens S2 hangs on - you guessed it - a double meaning (and art). *Part 1*

Part 1 l Part 2 l Part 3 l Part 4 l Part 5 l The End?

This is major spoilers for season 3 territory. You have been warned. I'm also going to split this into parts because wow, I have so many ✨Clues✨!

As a few people have started saying already, something very fishy is going down in season 2, and it seems to be The Metatron's (boo hiss) doing. And by Job, they seem to be right. Come with me on a long and magical journey through time, and trust that I will bring you back to the double meaning of it all very soon. But because I am an Art Director, some things jump out as being very specifically dumb in S2 in a way that I find impossible for the smart people at Good Omens to have done by accident. I started having my doubts about what we were seeing on screen specifically while watching this scene :

Bildad voice "You think you guys are in a gang, with your cute little buttons, and your neat white power tatto--oooh wait a second... HAHAH WTF" - Me

This dildo literally has a NO REGERTS tattoo on his forehead. What. And two teardrops ABOVE his eyebrow. Dude. No. Any wannabe soundcloud rapper knows the teardrops go UNDER THE EYE. I have not found a single example of a real person putting teardrop tattoos above their eye, and I have googled. Also their pins seem extremely well placed, symmetrical, and just kinda... generic? Like the top one in the close-up is just a Scottish flag pin for both dudes. Do these guys... not know how to gang? Then there's this :

No miracle sound, no show of a stern face from Aziraphale, just a kind but firm ask and these two *GaNgStErs* do exactly what they're told. It's almost as if this was an order from an angel and they understood that, and just did it.

But you know what else is funny about REGERTS? It's a mis-spelling. You want to know who else misspells things in this universe?

Oh don't you worry you're getting a whole other post out of me on Maggie.

So now we have two threads to follow : 1) There are *fake gangsters* hanging around Aziraphael in the cemetery. Why? Who put them there? 2) These *fake* people seem like they have traits in common with with Maggie - and demons (because they can't spell and do what they're told, mostly.) Are any of those others *fake* too?

Would you like to see more clues, and the prestige reveal of what the double meaning is? Part 2 is right here

#go season 2 #good omens prime #go3 #good omens s3 #good omens season 2 #aziraphale #go meta #good omens meta #good omens spoilers #art director talks good omens #good omens 2 #good omens season two #good omen

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yeahthatswhatimtolkienabout · 9 months

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Okay so, I'm getting increasingly confused over the timeline of when Aziraphale and Crowley have met over the ages.

Since I'm writing a S3 fic with lots of flashbacks, I figured that I needed to have a concrete and canon timeline so I don't end up accidentally writing a meeting when there shouldn't be one (ie when Crowley was asleep in the 14th century), and I cannot for the life of me find one that has S2 in it so I present to you:

The Nice and Accurate (hopefully) Timeline of Aziraphale & Crowley and their many meetings throughout the ages.

By Yeahthatswhatimtolkienabout.

Pls let me know if I've missed anything.

Before time was invented - God created the universe.

Before the Beginning - Our dynamic duo meet for the first time, as Crowley creates a Nebula with Aziraphale's help.

After The Beginning (the bible never gave dates for this kinda thing) - Crowley saunters vaguely downwards towards hell with the others who are cast out.

4004 B.C. - Eve is tempted by the Demon Crowley (in snake form) to eat the forbidden fruit. This is the first time we see Crowley in his demon form and the first time he (as a demon) meets Aziraphale, well - that we know of anyway.

3004 B.C, Mesopotamia - OI SHEM! Aziraphale and Crowley meet and watch as Noah gathers the animals two by two onto the ark.

2500 B.C, Uz - Aziraphale and Crowley work together to save Job's children from being killed. Aziraphale lies to heaven and fears he will be taken to hell. Bildad the Shuite is a babe.

33 A.D., Golgotha - Aziraphale and Crowley witness the crucifixion of Jesus. Crowley remarks that he 'showed Jesus the kingdoms of Earth'.

41 A.D., Rome - Aziraphale tempts Crowley to Oysters.

537 A.D., the Kingdom of West Essex - Knight of the table round, Sir Aziraphale encounters Crowley as the Black Knight. This is where the 'deal' is first raised.

1301 A.D - 1400 A.D - Crowley sleeps through the 14th century.

1601 A.D The Globe Theatre, London - Aziraphale and Crowley meet at a production of Hamlet. They have been participating in the 'deal' for some time now.

1650 A.D - Aziraphale does the apology dance for the first time.

1793 A.D, Paris, France - Aziraphale is about to be beheaded, but Crowley intervenes and saves him.

1800 A.D Soho, London - Aziraphale opens his bookshop and Crowley successfully prevents him from returning to heaven at Gabriel's orders, by fooling him with some mannequins.

1827 A.D Edinburgh - Crowley and Aziraphale meet Elspeth, a body snatcher, and are caught up in her endeavours.

Aziraphale then does not see Crowley until...

1862 A.D London's St. James Park - Crowley asks Aziraphale for Holy Water, as a 'just in case'. Appalled, Aziraphale leaves.

1941 A.D London - Aziraphale is caught up in a bait and switch with some Nazis. He is rescued by Crowley. One thing leads to another and Aziraphale is a magician in a show, the Nazi's become Zombies and to cut a long story short, it ends with the pair dining together.

1967 A.D Soho, London - Crowley meets Lance Corporal Shadwell and plans to steal Holy Water from a church. Hearing of this, Aziraphale appears to him in his Bentley and delivers a flask of it to him.

2008 A.D Soho, London - Crowley and Aziraphale meet to discuss the Antichrist and plan to become his godparents to raise him as a 'normal' child, neither influenced by heaven or hell.

2008 A.D - 2019 A.D - Crowley disguises himself as Nanny Ashtoreth and Aziraphale, as the Gardener Brother Francis, and the two try to influence Warlock.

2019 A.D - The events of the first season of Good Omens happens, our pair prevent Armageddon and live happily ever... wait what, a second season?

2020 A.D - 2022 A.D - Lockdown happens. This is where the 'Lockdown' video takes place.

2023 A.D - Pain, otherwise known as Season 2, happens.

I really hope this helps some of you with fic planning and stuff. I was getting really confused over when they met and when certain things started happening, that I needed a record for myself - then thought I should share it!

Edited to add: Thank you for the comments, pointing out some things I've missed! I've added lots of them in now. I've only really included events where the two have met (either in show or in book), and have not added in the bits that Neil Gaiman has added (such as the Wild West scenes etc). If there is a script book for S2 and they are in there - I will come back and add them in.

For a timeline that goes over other significant events in their history, please check out the amended version by @graviitron - they've added some cool bits in there, so thank you! 🥰

#good omens #good omens 2 #aziraphale #good omens season 2 #crowley #aziracrow #good omens season 2 spoilers #good omens season 1 #good omens timeline #GO #GO S1 #GO S2

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beerok23 · 27 days

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My sister is watching GO for the first time.

Yesterday she met Bildad:

She’s one of us now 😆😆😆

No, seriously, I’m sorry for what I’m doing to her. She’s so into the ineffables, finally starting to realize what a lovely perfect gentle soft couple they are, universally recognizable as in love with each other.

And she asked, “Their relationship is only inferred or is it something Neil Gaiman affirmed existed?”

SHE COULDN’T POSSIBLY KNOW.

I don’t have the heart to tell her about the final 15. I’m going to hurt her and she’s going to hate me for it 😬

Also, when she saw Angel!Crowley she was all, “Wow are we going to see how he fell?”

Errrrrrrr - How can I tell her about speculations in the fandom? It’s hard 😆😆😆😆😆

Oh. Also, she’s now in love with David Tennant 😂

#good omens #good omens 2 #good omens first watch #good omens meta #good omens thoughts #ineffable husbands #bildad the shuhite

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greenthena · 6 months

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Oh me? Just cataloging snakey stuff

I'm currently diving down lots of costume rabbit holes (snake holes? sounds wrong...) in the GO universe. My thoughts for today are about Crowley and how he expresses his snakey-ness through the ages. Might I tempt you down this rabbit hole?

Starting off in Eden. It's a very small detail and barely even visible in this screencap, but you can see deep red embroidery "V" shapes on the shoulder of Crowley's tunic here. They're very scale-like and quite subtle. This "V" scale shape is a patterned motif we'll see throughout the early years (really during the B.C. years) of Crowley clothes. Also, Crowley's hair is almost Gorgon-like, the curls resembling the bodies of serpents.

For the Flood sequence, I had a little trouble finding anything snakey. Crowley's hair is less defined (though glorious! love the plait!) so I'm not as tempted to describe the style as Gorgon-esque. But if you zoom into the robe to get a good view of the texture...

...you can see the herringbone pattern in the weave of the fabric. Herringbone is basically a series of upright and inverted chevrons, that continue the "V" shape motif of snake scales that we first saw on the Eden robe's embroidery. Elusive little reference, but pretty clear once you see it. Also note the unfinished hem at the neckline of Crowley's robe, compared to the smoothly stitched and tied neckline on Aziraphale. Undone versus all bound up.

Bildad is just my favorite and I will gladly ramble indefinitely about everything from the Job minisode. *exhale* Bildad's tone-on-tone black robe has both diamond and stripe-dash designs, which are common patterns for snakes in nature. We've also got the belted sash at the waist, with an unusual use of teal (not a color we associate with Crowley). The unexpected color choice draws attention to the chevron motif, which we've now come to associate with Crowley's snakey-ness in the B.C. flashbacks.

And here's an additional Bildad. I make no apologies.

For the Golgatha sequence, Crowley presents as female, wearing a head covering. The robe looks to be the same as what she wore in the Flood sequence, with the subtle herringbone pattern. It's a heavy scene and the costumes are appropriately subdued.

Sidenote: I want to point out here that through the B.C. flashbacks, Crowley's costumes are consistently very textured compared to Aziraphale's. All the fabrics used are earthy and nubby and just very tactile, even when Crowley is playing the part of a wealthy Shuhite. Aziraphale's fabric choices, in contrast, are polished and almost shining. His accessories are metallic and golden and very much of Heaven. But if we look closer at the texture of his garments, even Aziraphale may be minutely subverting Heaven's uniform. Compare the slub texture (and even the unfinished neck hem in Eden) of Aziraphale's robes in the following images...

...to the perfectly smooth fabrics on the robes of other angels...

Gabriel and Muriel wear Heavenly robes of flawless weave. They're smooth, they're perfect...they're exactly what you'd expect. But not Aziraphale. He is, even back in Eden, drawn to the subtle variances and imperfections of Earth. His garments have texture and substance in a way that we just don't see with the rest of the Heavenly Host.

We now resume your regularly scheduled programming in the years of our lord. We're in the A.D.'s bay-bee!

Crowley's Rome ensemble is so confused and blundered. I read a meta that argued, and I agree, that we're to interpret this as, "This is Crowley's first visit to Rome since the crucifiction and he's just mish-mashed all the styles into one, regardless of gender or whatever." I'm good with the interpretation. In terms of seeking out the snakes, though, we've got a few candidates. First, the dark red linework embroidery at the hem of the toga(?). It's got an undulating pattern that we can read as a literal snake, or simply as a variation on the chevron theme. Either way, it reads as snakey. We've also got the snake brooch--on the nose, but why not? Finally, and this one took me a while, and I'm not certain I'm fully on board, but I'm kind of thinking of Crowley's silver laurels as snake scales. I mean, yes, they're Roman-ish, but very out of place in the context of having a quick drink. You don't wander around the streets of Rome proper wearing silver laurels. Maybe snake scales? This isn't a hill I'm willing to die on.

The big take away from the Rome costume is that this marks a change in Crowley's expression. Prior to this period, he's hidden his snake scales in the weave and texture of his garments. Going forward, we're not going to see any more distinct "V" embroidery or snakey textural patterns. Crowley's style is shifting and becoming more luxurious. But first, Wessex.

GO costume designer Claire Anderson said that for the 537 A.D. Wessex sequence, she was not going all in for historical accuracy. She was compiling armor pieces that looked snake-like. Cheers to her, because poor Crowley just looks like a very uncomfortable and damp serpent. Really like the individual plates on the pauldron and the gauntlet. Very scale-like. The chain mail, itself, can also read snake scales, though I'm hesitant to make that comparison since Aziraphale's armor also includes quite extraordinary amount of chain mail.

A moment of appreciation for Aziraphale's cape, if you will.

Once we reach the Elizabethan era, Crowley really hits his stride in terms of fashion. The lines of his doublet are angular and pointed. The collar is lifted up toward the sky, like a snake periscoping in the grass. But the thing I really see in this costume is the excessive use of velvet. It's the perfect fabric to evoke snake scales. If you've ever been fortunate enough to pet a snake, you'll know that running your hand from the head toward the tail is smooth, but in the opposite direction it's rather rough. (Also, don't, because snakes really don't like it--unless they're shedding...) Similarly, if you run your fingers in one direction of velvet, it causes the fibers to lay flat and smooth, but brushed the other way, the fibers stand up and become rough. Just like the scales. It's also just a very luxurious fabric that begs to be touched. Almost like a temptation, you might say.

In Crowley's Edinburgh costume, the most obvious expression of snake scales can be found on his interior waistcoat. The texture of the fabric, however, does not mimic the "V" pattern we've seen in the B.C. era, instead expressing the scales in the black and red checkered motif. Not super subtle, but nothing about this costume is. I love it so much. Not Bildad-level, but still.

The Holy Water Incident has one glaring snake reference, though not really in the costume itself. Crowley's carrying a walking stick (probably recovering from that post-laudanum punishment) and it's got a little snake head. Not much needs to be said here, as it's pretty obvious. It's a snake. You're welcome.

I'm actually going to end this post here, with our final snake reference being the elongated "S" on Crowley's tie. He's very up to date with the fashions of the era, but still manages to incorporate a clear symbol of his serpenty-ness.

So, yah. Snakey scales though the millennia. I want to do an in-depth look at both Crowley and Aziraphale's costumes in the modern era and really pull them apart piece by piece (not like that...) to find all the angelic and serpentine easter eggs Anderson included. Until then.

#good omens #aziracrow #aziraphale #crowley #go costumes #fashion #it's sunday and i need to eat dinner

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snakefell · 9 months

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can’t believe bildad the shuhite was a real guy from the bible i thought they just made him up for the gocu (good omens cinematic universe)

#if my posts happened to find their way onto a non-good omens watcher i promise i am not a fan account for the og bildad the shuhite #crowley #bildad the shuhite #good omens #good omens 2

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thealogie · 3 days

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have to report that they did NOT go with a bildad the shuite clip. missed opportunity

(it was pre-fall crowley "what's the point to creating a universe.." line)

What a weird choice. They clearly didn’t watch the show and just pulled something because that was not his top acting moment. How could you see “with your curly little…and your neat white..” and not be moved on a profound level

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vidavalor · 11 days

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Hey! Sorry if I'm missing something, but I've had the phrase "unexpected quarter" rolling around in my head for a while and I was thinking about "quarter" as a term for "shelter" or "mercy," and how Aziraphale wasn't at all expecting to be out here giving Gabriel shelter and mercy, but he is, and wondering whether that could be foreshadowing - maybe Gabriel will wind up returning the favor somehow. Do you think there's anything to that, or do you think I'm looking at the wrong definition of the word?

Hi @chaoticlivi! Hot chocolate for your Gabriel-themed Ask. *adds marshmallows* 💕 You and me are on the same page with this one and I'll add to your thoughts. (*does happy dance over other people looking at the words* lol)

Quarter is actually the word that The Voice of God uses as an example in Her opening monologue to teach us to do exactly what you're doing-- to look for multiple definitions of words being used. You're doing exactly what the show is suggesting we do, imo.

When The Voice of God opens up the series, She first discusses theories on when the universe was created, which is both for language benefit and also just to help establish that the Earth is only a little over 6,000 years old in the GO universe. When She gets to the bit about the almost-correct theory, She says that it was off by "almost a quarter of an hour," right? Within the same monologue, She then later reads from the horoscope about help coming from "an unexpected quarter." We now have, in a monologue full of language instruction, the same word used twice, in two different ways, and there are a lot of other examples of things like this. It foreshadows that we will see this a lot and tells us to be on the lookout for it.

I wrote a thing about other ways quarter has been used and about how it's pointing towards Gabriel that I'll link down below if you want to check it out but I want to add this into your thoughts because I totally think that Gabriel will be lending shelter and understanding in S3 to Aziraphale.

If Crowley can walk into Heaven and still open up highly classified files and if, as we've seen in the story, he and Aziraphale discovered long ago that angels can do what the demons can and that that the fallen angels still have their old powers and Heaven is lying to them, then they are now, as of the end of S2, in a position to tell other angels and demons this. Crowley already basically told Muriel when he opened the file in front of them. This would then mean that Ol' Purple Eyes is still, in terms of power, The Supreme Archangel of Heaven. Overthrow The Metatron and the being with the most individual power is Gabriel (who also, honestly, seems like a being about ready to democratize the fuck out of that situation lol.)

In 1.01, The Voice of God re-introduces us to Crowley & Aziraphale together with a four-sentence intro to the park scene that is full of language details, some of which have actually gotten more meaning since S2. Just like how Crowley's joke in the scene of "not delivered-delivered-- just handed it over" about delivering Adam got even funnier after S2 gave us Bildad the Shuite, there are a couple of things in God's monologue in the same scene that make more sense after S2 and much of it has multiple meanings that worked before S2 and still work after it. The first sentence has a line that is very relevant to S1 and overall but has another, new layer after S2, and which goes with our ideas for S3:

"Everyone knows that the best place for a clandestine meeting in London is-- and always has been-- St. James' Park."

One of the many meanings of clandestine in the sentence is what you get when you break the word up: clan destined. A clan isn't just an extended family-- though, it can be-- but it can also just describe a group of people with specific things in common. One definition of park is also just an area devoted to a specific purpose (like an industrial park.) With that in mind, a line that sets up understanding of plot in S1 is also then prophetic for the end of the series as well because the best place for a clan destined meeting in London is-- and always has been-- St. James Park and, well...

#ineffable husbands #aziracrow #good omens #good omens meta #crowley #aziraphale #good omens 2 #good omens theory #jimbriel #the archangel fucking gabriel #ineffable husbands speak #etymology

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