i think i’ve learned a lot when it comes to not applying my own values to the media i consume
for my script analysis class yesterday, we discussed two gentleman from verona, and nearly every classmate of mine was up in arms about how sexist the story is.
and i'm not saying it's not, or that it's not infuriating to read. but i'm also not putting my energy into getting upset about something written 500 or so years ago. and i'm not about to put my own beliefs onto these characters that are not me. i'm going to let their choices speak for themselves, and interpret it in the context of the story.
all that said, this now brings me to the point of alastor in episode 5, and how viscerally people are responding to it. those of you up in arms about the choices he’s making, and the violent threat he gave husk, you’re missing the entire point of his character, of this place they’re in, of the story being told. he’s an overlord, and he became an overlord by killing much bigger overlords and broadcasting their deaths over the radio.
HE IS NOT A GOOD PERSON.
if you started this show with the belief that every character working the hotel is a good person, you’re in the wrong place. watch the good place if you’re looking for a good wholesome story about getting dead sinners into heaven, because that’s not what this show is about.
you’re more than welcome to hate him after seeing the way he exerted power over a being whose soul he owns, but you’re doing the media you’re watching a disservice by writing it off so quickly. if you don’t like to be uncomfortable watching media, watch something else. this is an uncomfortable show, it handles uncomfortable topics, and it’s going to be an uncomfortable ride, and if you’re not up for something like that, then you should take a break from it and pick up something else. you don’t have to get online and defend your own ideals while you watch a show that goes against your ideals.
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|| 🍍• Could you imagine being all geared up to watch, laugh, and love on-screen Huskerdust only to get fucking La La Land-ed with a fucking unexpected plot twist that they’re seemingly made for each other but something changes and we then see them meeting each other years later?
Concept/image/mini-fic in more detail below ⬇️
Angel Dust is free of Val and visiting a bar which just so happens to have a certain cat, still chained to his master, tickling the ivories to a small bar crowd.
The sweet sombre melody of Loser, Baby floats around the bar, an unusual air in a Hell nightclub.
Angel, in his own little world, settles by the bar and orders his drink. A classic Sex on the Beach. A usual of his. Though, upon tasting it, it’s not massively to his tastes, and he opts to twirl it before his eyes wondering how and why they haven’t tasted like the dreamy ones of his memories.
Trapped in the midst of his recollections, Angel begins swaying along to the bar’s live music, feeling a welcoming warmth wash over him after a long day.
And slowly, very slowly, Angel begins to awaken to the warmth of the melody - it’s familiar. It’s personal. The feeling reminds him of coming home. And all at once, the cogs finally find their rhythm, and the reflections illuminated on his glass cast a vista he never thought he’d see again.
There he is. After all this time. After everything. There. He. Is. Tickling the ivories in a dingy dive bar to the notes of their song, and serenading sinners to the ode of them. Of everything they were. Of everything they almost became.
Eventually, Angel brings himself to turn around and behold the cat for himself; lower hands coming together to fidget as they always did as his upper hands endeavour to steady themself around the stem of the forgotten drink.
He should leave, he thinks. He hates how that is his first thought upon seeing Husk after so long. Pay up quietly, discreetly, and walking straight back up the stairs to the street. He knows in that moment at least that he’s changed from who he once was upon arrival to Hell, and, later to the hotel. He doesn’t have to pretend about anything, he tells himself. He’s not about the pretending lifestyle anymore, right?
Half settled on his decision, he downs the sugary beverage as he stands - striving to convince himself the building burn in his throat is just the drink and nothing more - and places the cash plus change to a little too harshly onto the bar.
The coinage rattles, spilling in all directions, and Angel fumbles and curses to catch the bits that clatter to the floor.
It takes him far longer to pick up that which has been spilled. He hates that. He hates how the music stills prematurely to a stop, and he hates how his eyes begin to burn in sync to the discomfort of his throat. He hates how he feels the bar looking even though they likely aren’t, and he hates how of all the eyes he’s convinced are staring, there’s only one that overpowers them all.
Swallowing around the unease, Angel stands, placing the change onto the bar with a silent “sorry,” and moves slowly towards the exit.
The eyes follow him. Their warmth blessedly familiar. A small part of Angel wishes they hadn’t. A much larger part relaxes against their power, mesmerising and strong, but not forceful. They never had been. Not so long ago, yet long enough potentially forget, those eyes had skilfully unravelled him with a care that help ignite a sense of urgency within him to change. The final straw on the camel’s back some would say. The catalyst.
His catalyst.
Angel stifled a sob as he paused at the stair’s handrail, or was it a laugh? He told himself it was a laugh and smiled around the spikiness of the unusual happy sadness.
After all this time. After everything. Angel was happy to say goodbye again. Because it wasn’t really a goodbye. It was also a hello.
And reassured, he turns, and he smiles, hoping it’s convincing even though he knows his cheeks are damp.
So many words.
So many memories.
So many what-could-have-been scenarios swirling amongst the thick air.
Husk merely blinks at him, finally acknowledged. And then, like heaven in hell, Husk smiles. His ‘Angel’ smile. That soft, gentle lidded sort of smile that enlarged the heart details above his brows and etched the motions of his crusty old heart for all to see. Ever the respectful Husker, man of honour and integrity that warmed Angel in ways no hands or bodies ever could, and likely never would.
How lucky he’d been. How happy he’d been.
They hold the look for longer than they should have, this they both know…
…And then Angel Dust leaves, smiling as their song picks up again to serenade wayward sinner couples, who were none the wiser that two passing ships reunited for one last time…
How beautiful life could be…even in death.
(Should I like actually write this in more detail and post it? Would anyone even read something like this??)
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we aren’t speaking.
a good omens poem, through aziraphales pov.
my heart cries out for yesteryear, when you first tempted me at the gates of eden.
the aching melancholy and the absence of you both beg the same question. where did all the memories go?
caught in the forefront of my mind, enveloping me with wings of nostalgia, the same wings that sheltered me during that starstorm when i looked into your eyes, overflowing with joy the same way a glass overflows with water.
your eyes, your hips, your way of speaking, all the same yet so unique in the way you presented yourself to me. the very personification of sin itself, yet your body and words were more holy than god herself.
we traveled through the years, always pulled together in an ineffable sort of fashion. the way we followed each other was more faithful than the priest to the temple, each of us both the worshipper and the worshiped. our companionship ran deeper than the eyes you cast to me, as yellow and golden as the love we had.
the extreme of the blacks and whites of our mortality blend into a gray ocean of blurred lines, all good and evil mixed together to create the flaws and strengths of humanity incarnate. light and dark hues exist inside said ocean, but mellow and dulled. through your eyes, true evil and good do not exist, context the only value judging the grayscale, as impossible as it seemed to me at the time.
i see, now, the world is truly a menagerie of color and hue only to be compared to the fruits and fauna of the garden of eden, tragically and forevermore judged by colorblind eyes, our minds so inclined to point out the extremes instead of the subtle.
we never spoke about it, the simple truth of the fact we loved each other was a spirit, invisible and never quite enough proof to others that it existed, but nevertheless still hanging thick in the air.
the vastness of your affection and availability to me, and i to you, was more meaningful than any words alone. our avoidance of our true feelings was both the highest blessing, and the most torturous curse.
i wish i could tell you. i wish i could go back in time to tell you how much i need you, truly and deeply, the other half of me. my light cannot exist without your shadow, my sin cannot exist without your salvation. how i want to kiss you, not in an act of desperation and destruction, hoping it will bring you back to me, but in an act of kindness and mercy, knowing you are already there, willing to spend your last second by my side.
you are my best friend, my lover, a stranger and my enemy all at once. the words our relationship required to be described and understood, are hidden away from me, locked in a book in the tightest safe in my mind.
i’ve already forgiven you. i’ve forgiven most everyone i know. the only person that remains to be forgiven is myself. i can only hope that someday, you may forgive me.
but we aren’t speaking.
inspired by dreams i’ve had with these word in them, and the poems (mostly “do you remember”) of @ineffabildaddy. it’s been a while since i’ve written poetry so i hope you guys like it!
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