Imagine how hurtful it must have been for Crowley to see Gabriel, the person who literally took an active part in the process of traumatising the man he loves into the mindset that he cannot be happy and free, get a happy ending. To see the man, who was one of the reasons Aziraphale haven't even acknowledged their relationship for such a long time, because they were on "opposite sides". The man who was one of the reasons they couldn't be together, even as friends, for 6000 years. The man who wanted to execute Aziraphale with a smile on his face and "shut your stupid mouth and die already" as his "goodbye". Seeing this man getting what Crowley has always dreamt of: being able to run away with the person he loves, leave Heaven and Hell behind and just be together with his beloved - in Soho or on Alpha Centauri, literally wherever, because "Heaven is wherever Beelzebub is". Crowley seeing Gabriel get it so... so effortlessly, while he has worked for it so long, nearly died because of it and still haven't been able to get that, to get the happy ending and sever all the connections with Heaven and Hell. It must have hurt like hell (most literally).
[ID: A Trigun comic done in grayscale with red accents. First, an anatomical heart gushes blood, forming a puddle which shifts into Vash's coat. Vash's gloved hands can be seen sewing up a tear at the hem.
Vash raises his hands, which are now bare and covered in blood. He looks sweaty and distressed, and he raises his coat to his face and cries into it. His clenched hands rip the sewed portion apart, and the red thread leads to a heart whose own stitches are tearing apart. The background gets darker and darker, and the red looks brighter and starker against it.
Then the background returns to white, and brown-skinned hands using embroidery scissors snip a red thread. Wolfwood holds up Vash's repaired coat, grinning proudly, and does a happy thumbs-up in Vash's direction. Vash lifts his head, seeming distant.
Wolfwood holds out the coat. As Vash puts out his hand to take it, the cloth is replaced so Wolfwood is dropping a sewed-up heart in Vash's hand. Vash rubs the coat against his face with a teary smile. End ID] ID CREDITS
Figure 1 – Samaritan poster
As I write this, it’s Thursday, Sept. 8, 2022, and Queen Elizabeth II has just died within the hour, after 70 years on the throne. My family lived in England at the time of her accession to the throne, and I still have my Coronation Mug (a souvenir all three of us got) somewhere. Her son, Charles Arthur George (etc.) is now King of England, and Camilla (Parker-Bowles)…